The world was on fire and the system was trash talking them. Faust had the urge to say something back but he knew it would fall on deaf ears.

Chaos swirled around the Novice village as people ran in all directions. The main threat was the steel ball of death in the sky shooting supercharged metal down at them.

The house Faust had been jumping off exploded into dust, wood and stones on shot passed through faster than the eye could see.

A massive column of wind followed the railgun shot a second later. Stuck mid-air, Faust was dragged along with it. This wind was abnormal. It was concentrated in a metro-tunnel sized path. Literally nothing outside the area was affected by the wind.

Nirvana groaned in his arms. Both their ears popped. Faust used Dash mid-air but it failed.

The stupid Patch notes!

They tumbled through the roaring wind. Faust barely landed on his feet, tearing a row through stone to stop himself, then used Dash and pushed out of the roaring column of wind.

"Damn it," he said, glancing up at the steel ball. His ears had been damaged and rehealed repeatedly. How many people had that thing killed in just the last thirty seconds. Even if the system gave them second lives....

On the other hand, the tentacle-limbed woman swam carelessly through the air. Her hair was white and silvery like her dress which hugged the curves of her smooth body. Her skin and the tentacles resembled human skin, but they were redder. It was like there was fire tapped under her skin.

The Robo spider man was saying something. He stood above the Town square, black cloak billowing in the wind. Someone flew up to meet him.

Jason can fly?

Gamebreaker crashed into the Robotic man with a boom. But the system’s Patron swatted him out of the air like a fly. Spells rose to meet the man but he flashed through space to a new position.

He’s beyond fast. I can’t follow his movements.

Usually you don’t need to be as fast as something to dodge or follow its path. The brain would guess things like trajectory. Boxers and most baseballers relied on this. This thing was so fast it left no trail in reality.

There has to be a trick to it.

"What are we going to do?!" Nirvana screamed. "We’re completely out of position right now! Wait... Diego! He needs to—"

"Calm down," Faust said.

They had already planned for a city invasion. In case they weren’t able to defend the walls in the third wave, Faust proposed a way to keep people safe, give them time to regroup, and go on the offensive.

Before Nirvana could say another word, five pillars of golden light rose into the air, along with a familiar voice.

"GET TO THE LIGHTS!" Diego roared with his Schema. His voice covered the expansive Novice Village easily. "GET TO THE SAFE ZONES AND AWAIT ORDERS!"

Something exploded over at the Town Hall and Diego’s voice stopped. A notification flashed over Faust’s screen.

[Replication of Pet Owner Schema has ended due to the death of its holder.]

[Replication of Scorched Earth Schema has ended due to the death of its holder.]

The half of the Town Hall was completely destroyed despite its shield. There was no fire or brimstone. It was like space pulled itself apart. The explosion was strange with dust and force rushing over the ground like a riptide.

The Robo-spider man was laughing again, dodging multiple attacks at once from different people. He walked on air, jumping aside as a fireball barrelled past then suddenly changing directions downwards. It was an awkward, ultra-fast movement. Like a puppet being jerked on its strings.

"The Town Hall!" Nirvana screamed, fighting out of his hands. "Spider! Thalia!"

"Calm down, they’re alive." She stopped at his words, but still looked on hesitantly. "You’re in a Party with them, try the chat."

Nirvana’s eyes glowed with realisation and she focused on mental commands. Greg’s Schema was still with Faust so he knew the others were alive. What he was more interested in was these three patrons.

"They’re alive, th3y were outside the building," Nirvana sighed. "Fighting that... thing. What should we do?"

"Let’s run some tests first," Faust decided. "Turn into a bat and give me some distance. I’m going to attack two of those patrons."

"Are you sure that’s a good idea?"

"We have to fight either way and I have an escape plan."

Nirvana turned into dark mist and a black bat with blood red eyes shot off into the sky. Once she was out of range of those strange wind columns that followed the railgun shots he attacked.

Instance Replication!

Appraise!

He replicated two of the railgun attacks that the Iron sphere used. One went back at its creator while the other went to the Tentacle woman.

He appraised the individual shots to get a handle on what skill the Iron Sphere was using. Interfaces popped up. His jaw dropped.

Skills... not skill.

[Replicated Lightning Bullet Lv3]

[Grade: Silver]

[Details: Projectiles gain greater strength. High chance of casting a Lightning shot.]

This seems like an evolved skill. Kind of like how Stealth became Mirage. I guessing it was like a gun or archer skill before.

Whatever it was, the Iron Sphere was using it to decimate them. Each shot was unforgivingly fast. Each attack created a column of destruction and dust through streets, leaving burnt rubble in its wake.

[Replicated Castlebuster Lv3]

[Grade: Silver]

[Details: Projectiles break through fortifications easier. Small chance of enemies gaining the Stun effect when in the area of effect.]

This just seemed unnecessary. Did the Sphere stack this skill on for funsies? It fired every fifteen seconds so it was waiting for these cooldowns to elapse.

[Replicated Concentrated Fireball Lv3]

[Grade: Silver]

[Details: The fireballs can be compressed for better single damage.]

As if the freaking Railgun didn’t come with enough heat already. These seemed like the opposite of his Heavy Fireball. This skill evolved for more accurate single strikes.

[Replicated Fix’s Earbuster Lv3]

[Grade: Silver]

[Details: Due to his prodigious control of his wind spell and Slipstream Skill, this skill fusion was granted to Fix. Anything caught within the path of his shots is trapped by the wind.]

Skills fusions are named after their maker? Good to know, I guess.

The details the system gave were random in a way. It wouldn’t tell you exactly how the skill worked or any limits. But it was good to know why those columns of wind trapped people.

If you dodged Fix’s first attack, the second would hit.

The stupid iron sphere, or rather Fix, was too focused on stacking skills. He could have killed Faust when he was briefly caught by his ’earbuster’.

The final skill was nothing special, but it was another skill fusion with Fix’s name mentioned in the details.

[Replicated Steel Reinforcement Lv3]

[Grade: Silver]

[Details: Another skill fusion. Any metal handle by Fix is refined to deal more damage and handle his attacks.]

Now I want my own skill fusion.... Hopefully when I kill that big, spherical bastard I get one.

Oh, what happened to the replicated railgun shots?

They did nothing.

The tentacle lady didn’t even move, the attack just zoomed through her like she wasn’t even there.

Fix, on the other hand, took the attack head on. The metal slowed down within metres of him and then bounced off his smooth metal chasis like it was nothing.

Then the Death sphere turned to Faust.