Chapter 77 - Skypeak Nest

The white lands passed beneath me as I flew at high speeds towards the Skypeak Nest. It remained magnificently in the air, and I flew around it to land on the opposite direction that the extermination task force cleared out last time

The beasts in that area had already begun propagating again, but I went around to an area where I could see even more beasts congregated. I could feel the auras of a few rank S leaders as I neared, and I started by casting [Summon Virulent Abomination]

The lovable but disgusting beast made its appearance again, this time in another world. It roared out while it sensed the thicker essence surrounding us, seemingly filled with energy and ready to begin. I smiled at this figure as we smashed down onto the periphery of the nest, alerting the nearby rank A and lower beasts

I gave the summon the command to focus on the left side while I focused on the right. I wanted to see my destructiveness with all of the rank S skills I held currently. The summon moved as soon as it received the command, its figure plunging into the group of rushing beasts as I focused on the ones coming for me and casted [Rage of the Thunder Monarch]

BOOM!

The area of 15 meters ahead of me was filled with thick electrical snakes and purple lightning that struck and decimated anything it touched. The loud impact brought to attention even more beasts as droves came out of the insanely tall trees covered in snow

Haha, let's go!

I felt the excitement of using immensely powerful skills to take down beasts again as two transparent mountains appeared in front of me and spat out molten lava and flames. The quick destruction prompting an S rank Leader to finally rush towards me

It evaded the extreme heat of the [Volcanic Eruption] I casted and went around, coming at me from behind. The moment the beast neared, I used the rank A+ skill [Arctic Zone] for the first time

The entire area of 10 meters that the beast was in quickly froze over, stopping it in its tracks as its white fur trembled. It was heavily slowed down while the affected area continued to be destabilized by the chaotic cold elements.

It wasn't heavily injured as it's attribute was also cold, but it gave me confirmation that rank A+ skills were not too far off of rank S in power. While the rank S beast was slowed down, heavy purple lightning rained down at its location

The white furred beast with a disproportionate body used its long limbs to defend from the killer attacks, each roiling strike of lightning destroying chucks of its flesh. I spammed another [Arctic Zone], further slowing down its movements and then casted another [Rage of the Thunder Monarch] to finally overwhelm its tight defense

The repeated casts of the rank A+ and S skill finally brought down the beast. I went towards its nearly destroyed body and placed my hand on it, feeling the movement of essence as an item and some cores appeared in one of my storage rings

The item was an extremely long blue sword called [Blue Terror], disappointing me a bit as I wanted more defensive or support skills right now. But the day was only beginning. There were many more beasts to take down.

The Virulent Abomination was putting in work, now clashing against another rank S Leader as its body continuously released noxious blasts of air. The white furred beast it was fighting against became increasingly overwhelmed as the fight continued, with the abomination fighting and taking damage but not reacting one bit

I neared the area and gave a command, the Abomination exploding in a storm of poisoned flesh and bones that cemented themselves into the body of the beast, bringing it to its knees as it wheezed for dear life

A large malachite runic circle appeared near me as the Virulent Abomination came out as good as new, rejoining the fight and finishing it with another release of a noxious blast.

This beast dropped a skill book this time around, it was [All Element Resistance] that I quickly learnt. It was an active skill that increased your defenses against elemental attacks once activated, but as always I would have it active all the time

The fight was gradually drawing to a close as we took down most of the beasts in this area. I could see my cold breath coming out as I collected the cores from the other beasts on the ground and looked towards the thickets of large trees in front of us

The trees taller than me by multiple times stood as strong as ever, their cover giving a menacing feeling for those that dared to enter its depth. I recalled how far in we came last time with the lead of Captain Ryner and carefully made my way in

Curious beasts that had heard the vibrations of the fight that just occurred were already nearing the area, with us meeting more just a few minutes after the Abomination and I walked into the mass of trees

The combination of [Arctic Zone] to slow down powerful Leaders and also deal killer blows to normal beasts as their bodies were frozen and shattered, as well as the use of [Rage of the Thunder Monarch] right after became my new favorite spammed skills with their efficiency.

I also brought myself to repeatedly use the offensive rank A skills that weren't as efficient against the higher ranked beast, but I wanted to increase their proficiency for [Skill Combination]. I was now leaning towards more support and defensive skills that I could keep active all the time without worry as they would quickly rise in proficiency and be perfect for combination

If we met a collection of larger groups of beasts, [Volcanic Eruption] was perfect for it, but it caused such intense damage to the surroundings that the thick white trees caught fire for a few minutes and called in even more droves of beasts towards us. The naturally cold elements that congregated in the air reduced the fire and distinguished it in the next few minutes and no beast higher than rank S had come out so far, so it wasn't too much of a problem

We were able to take down a few rank A Leaders and two more rank S. The rank S loot worthy of mentioning was the rank S item [Storage Pouch], that held a much larger space than the lower ranked storage rings I had been using, and attached itself to my waist when equipped. The other one was a skill called [Protection of the Wounded: Injuries cause you no fear as your defense is increased by 200% while the skill is active]

A smile bloomed on my face as I finally got a high ranked support skill, and a defensive one at that.