Lust Exchange System - Chapter 76

Aster eventually could not wait his time away and have the patience for their next course of action. He eventually remembered the shooting attack that assaulted him earlier and wanted to test out his shooting accuracy.

This was a realization he made from having seen his spear attack somewhat fail. Since Rat was the only one screaming, it meant that he was still alive. If his subordinates or the vice leaders were the ones screaming right now, that would have meant that Rat died from the attack.

Since the former option is relatively unacceptable, this led him to try and master his attacks and accuracy from a long distance so that the latter possibility is the one to surface in future scenarios.

‘If I am to completely improve such complications of trajectory and always hit the bullseye, the chances of another person like Rat surviving from accuracy dependent attacks would be infinitely close to zero.’ Aster also remembered his earlier lack of control and manipulation on the Dren household which led to the escape of Rat trio’s escape from eventual blinding. ‘If I learn complexity and better manipulation, the impact of the Blood Bend skill and any other mana skill in that matter would be fundamentally greater.’

He first started his learning by creating one bullet size of blood and shot it towards the earth wall. It was a blunt attack and not meant for piercing, so the opposing group failed to notice it.

Next, Aster repeated his one bullet escapade of shots but variety was given to every shot. Bending the motion with every angle of curvature he could think of and slowly grinding away the cemented wall. He even played with the blood bullets by making it wobble weirdly in its movements.

A spiraling shot that was unnecessarily slow but flashy. There was also a zigzag that did not fall out to the spiraling shot in flashiness. They could be considered unpractical shots for others because of its high requirement for control but the effect of shooting a person to death was still the same. They would just waste mana and strain their controlling spirit and mind.

Aster had no drawbacks of that as he has a technically unbridled and inexhaustible reserve of mana. The strain of mana would just be rejuvenated again and again that it essentially becomes greater and more apparent than before. If spirits were graded in quality other than quantitative grading based on cultivation, his spirit grade would be getting higher and higher in quality.

From one blood bullet to two blood bullets, Aster kept progressing and progressing in numbers of shots sent that the thick wall made of earth is slowly being crumbled. Its integrity was somewhat collapsing as cracks could be seen by the thugs of the other side.

“Guys, we better think of something fast or we will be riddled with holes if the brat keeps up with his unbridled shooting!” Pretty Face reminded in worry as he saw the state of the wall. Tank kept the integrity of his Earth Wall in shape but it would only be a matter of time before the blood bullets would render it useless.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

Bullet sounds became more and more apparent as the previously liquid-like bullet became hardened to the same level of hardness as Aster’s cultivation base. This meant that the hardened blood bullets would only be broken if an accumulative force is equal or greater than the maximum force of an Initiate 6 ranker.

“For the genius of the world! Just abandon that wall, will you.” Batter grew irritated by their overgrown attention to one silly wall and said. “You could just form another wall behind it. Make it bigger and thicker!”

“Easier said than done!” Tank complained because another destructive mana use would literally break him. The muscular man eventually found the resolve as he was more centered towards duty and service to his belief. An act akin to the heroism of soldiers was happening to the thugs as the poor Tank issued another ground punch.

“Chytefsimo edafos: Giino teichos.” Behind the wall under the siege of bloody bullets, another wall appeared and fit the description that Batter told them. Its rise broke the unusually long spear of blood and nicotine that had previously wounded Rat.

With a final push, the new wall stood in place while the old one crumbled completely under the uncountable rounds of crystallized blood bullets that assaulted it.

Tank was about to faint but his resolve made him sit on a place with his consciousness blurring. The presence of the wall just made them realize that their space of movement became limited and made them feel surrounded.

‘Oh, nice strategy!’ Aster commented while his creation and deployment became powerfully organized that it made him look like a person akin to a gatling gun. He floated in the air while bullets concentrically appeared around him like a circle. They shot and he summoned in succession. If he was shooting against an army of living men, the number of people he would have killed would earn him the title of a Destructive Demon. His gunning method was even more fearful than the fabled war machines such as the helicopter and battle chariots.

BANG! PEW! PEW! PEW! BANG! PEW! PEW!

Aster even changed it up a notch as most of his bullets became similar to cannonballs that demolished the integral wall that was supposed to be even sturdier than the last one. He even played around and simulated his thoughts to form a gun from his magically created blood. Having a minimal idea of the internal mechanism of guns, he just played with the fact that a bullet would shoot out every time he pulled the trigger.

He was too absorbed in the activity that he failed to realize the lack of response from the other side.

The lack of response was of course due to having no chance at retaliation to give. They were also too occupied with fixing Rat’s affliction from the poisonous and cancerous liquid from the Nicotine Rain.

Cinder used his latent immunity to try and force it out while Ganda was applied methods to stop the bleeding of the amputated left arm. Rat was quiet all the while of the painful process as he looked towards the wall that was near to crumbling. All the others imagined how they would die from taking in a monstrous version of Vice Gunner’s attack.

“Aaahhh!!! Fuck this!!” Batter yelled in frustration as he readied himself to attack with the two remaining metal balls he has in hand.

“Don’t be stupid, senior Batter!” Pretty Face stopped him from attacking. His usual cool returned to him as he took this chance to give back a piece of advice to the person who gave him advice earlier. “If I remember correctly, your bending baseball strike works when you see its movements. With this wall, the chances of your Baseball Implosion closing on its target is too low.”

“What do you want me to do, then? Wait here and die because of you people accepting a task you thought was simple.” Batter showed them the harsh truth as he fought back. “The boss is injured and Tank is basically garbage from using too much of that self-destructive Rat’s Desperation skill. At least, I will give out a fight to some monstrous brat that is just out to kill.”

“So that is what you guys call that skill! Impressive.” The debating Batter shut himself from shock as he heard that calm voice. The sounds of bullet harshly trashing the wall stopped as they did not notice him appear on their side with his Space Skip. ‘I thought that they were running away from the back wall but I guess their minds were too panicked to take that chance. Pity because they would have really gotten away.’

“What the heck!” Batter collected himself from shock as he batted his mysticized metal balls towards Aster. Aster, who was just afloat the above their heads, displaced and teleported from his spot on the air while the predictable attacked missed him again.

Rat and his gang backed away as they saw him reappear on the right side of the wall. The poor Tank was pulled along by Ganda as they eyed the powerful brat that pressured them with his every countering move.

“What do you want?” Rat scowled as he felt the pain on his dismembered limb. Aster felt bored as he replied. “Do you really have to ask that to someone who had just killed most of your men? The answer is pretty obvious. That is to kill you guys and that is that.”

“Can’t we just talk this out?” Rat was pushing himself with the fake pleading. This was a supposedly powerful person in Aster’s eyes but his time that was spent on cunning and manipulation seemed to dull his sense in battle. Just because Aster’s prowess and abilities were inexplicable, he did not have the will to play by his strengths and could only battle his way with worded agreements that he became used to doing.

Aster just kept quiet because the ratman was just another Garth after all. The gang took his silence as a no to their boss’ request and decided to battle it out again but in a limited environment.

Ganda looked towards his boss and said. “This might just be the end boss but you could at least be the one to survive for all of us.”

Batter knit his brows as he disagreed with the selfless sacrifice. He was different from the rest because all the others left had a true connection and owe their lives to Rat. He was just a powerful delinquent that was assimilated into their group due to following the will of the masses.

Plans filled the head of the ponytailed man as he thought. ‘When these fools are going to sacrifice their lives for Rat, there is no rule that says I can’t follow him out while they die.’

“Let’s go and show this brat what we are made of. He may have thwarted our long-distance and mass killing attacks but he does not know the fearsomeness of our close-range combat abilities.” Ganda and his speech of motivation brought courage to the other vices as they readied themselves for a fast-paced fight of their lives, even the weakened Tank and his out of place belief made him stand up and fight.

Rat and Batter were thinking differently as they wanted to use their sacrifice for their advantage.

Aster eyed their reactions and formulated comments from all that he saw. He had his countenance turn serious as the consequences would become dire if he messes up. ‘I hope that the thing they called as Rat’s Desperation would not dramatically elevate their close combat powers to Expert level or things would really be ugly. Ugly but thrilling at the same time.’

Cinder was the one to make the first move as a cigarette packet appeared in his hand. Unlit cigar sticks flew straight towards Aster with a flick as a distraction as the true close combat grappling took place with Ganda suddenly reaching in front of him within a blink of an eye.

A forceful kick came into his face’s general area and direction. Aster disappeared on the spot before it could reach him and it was a fortunate decision because Ganda’s kicked actually placed a destructive shake to a relatively strengthened wall of the factory. Even Aster’s body cultivation could not handle much from a powered kick of a peak Initiate warrior.

Aster breathed in relief but the battle was just starting as a succession of attacks came to where he stood at.