1% Lifesteal

The stage was set.

As the clock ticked to midnight, the doors on the van opened, and the vanguard left one by one, with Freddy standing at the very front.

"You got this, big guy," the red-armored woman, Lara, said as she tapped him on his shoulder. "Remember the protocol."

Freddy nodded.

The voice of a scout sounded through the comms, and all the groups got into position.

The vanguard was composed of most of the melee fighters there. There was another, smaller unit headed by an assassin. They would break through the top floor and make their way down.

Last but not least, Thor, who was accompanied by Travis and Jeffrey, would move in through the back while the guards were distracted to secure the prisoners and prevent the guards from trying to hold them hostage.

As for the vanguard—they were going in through the front.

They all stood around 250 meters away from the entrance. There was only an empty road between them and their target.

"On my mark," one of the ranged casters said through the comms. Then, he started counting down from ten.

Freddy got into position to start running. His leg muscles flexed, and his back straightened. He leaned forward, pressing his feet firmly into the ground and locking his eyes on the target.

"Go!" the ranger signaled.

The asphalt beneath Freddy's feet fractured as he instantly activated Hydraulic Flex and charged forward.

At first, he was immediately overtaken by the rest of the vanguard, who slowed down slightly to let him catch up, but as he kept running, he kept accelerating.

The distance between them and the building rapidly vanished.

200 meters.

150 meters.

100 meters.

80. 50—

With a flash of piercing light, a fiery projectile flew from one of the nearby buildings and impacted the entrance doors. The explosion rattled the whole building, but the metal doors remained standing despite the detonation. However, their hinges had loosened, and they had slightly caved in.

40 meters. 30, 20, 10—

Freddy activated Flowing Strike, timing it to offload all of his momentum into the metal door. With an intense sound of screeching metal, fractures spreading through the nearby walls, and a large cloud of kicked-up dust, the entrance burst apart, opening the path into the hallway.

"Intruders!" a guard shouted, and the voices of numerous men came cursing from deeper within the building. An alarm sounded through the whole building.

Without pause, Freddy ran inside.

"Stop! What do you think you're—" the guard shouted as he raised a sword to strike Freddy, but his words were cut off as Freddy literally ran through him, using nothing but the momentum of his body to throw the man aside like a broken ragdoll.

Doors opened deeper in the hallway, and guards rushed out, filling the entire space before him. Freddy spread his arms apart and conjured Gore Knuckles.

He struck the first guard—the man's stone-like skin shattered beneath the impact as the spikes tore into his chest. Freddy threw him aside, slamming him into the wall hard enough to spread cracks around the man's body, and kept running forward.

There was no mercy in his strikes. With every swing, he aimed for where it would hurt the most—and with 1% Lifesteal's feedback, he knew exactly where that was. He didn't pause to take care of every guard—there was a mob of angry warriors marching right behind him to take care of stragglers. Freddy's job was to keep pushing deeper.

The sounds of shouting and blades tearing through armor, flesh, and bone echoed behind him as he broke through, moved past the weaker henchmen, and turned into a hallway with fewer people present. He could tell their two-star gathering apart immediately.

Before he could react or dodge, an arrow impacted Freddy's helmet, leaving deep cracks through it. "Ugh!" Freddy groaned as he felt a sharp piece of metal cut the surface of his skin.

He saw one of the men put his hands against the floor, and in the next moment, the walls and floor shifted, blocking Freddy's path forward.

Without hesitation, Freddy cast a Flowing Strike and punched the wall. The force of the impact immediately shattered the barricade, creating a space for him to move through. The man who made the barrier looked momentarily surprised, but he immediately regained his composure and cast another ability, this time making the nearby walls form a thick growth of sharp spikes.

Freddy raised his leg. Both stars ignited in his soul. Flowing Strike slurped up almost 23% essence. His foot came down.

With a deafening shockwave that shook the entire building, the floor was split apart, and the spikes were blown away like sand in the wind.

Freddy ran forward immediately, activating Hydraulic Flex with both stars to accelerate toward the men before they could regain their bearing.

Suddenly, from behind the cloud of dust, he spotted a bright yellow light.

Before he could identify what it was, a small, compressed ball of fire struck him right in the chest.

The shock absorption enchantment was instantly drained, protecting most of the trenchcoat from severe damage, but it wasn't enough to stop all the force, and it did nothing against the heat.

Freddy bit down on his tongue as his organs twisted and heat conducted through the trenchcoat and into his armor. Like searing hot brands, any pieces of metal he was wearing burned straight through his protective undergarments, melting into his skin and cooking his flesh.

The only reason that burst didn't instantly cook him alive was because his peak two-star physique resisted the fire essence's intrusion into his body.

"Freddy is injured, over!" Lana's voice sounded from both the comms and right behind Freddy.

"I'm all right. Over and out," he said into the comms as he gritted his teeth and cast Hydraulic Flex again.

Through the flames and dust, he appeared like a god of destruction.

Both stars activated, conjuring a javelin in one hand each. He threw one straight at the fire caster's head, killing him before he could regain his composure, and the other right at the earth caster's chest, but the second projectile wasn't powerful enough to fully pierce the man's armor and stone skin.

But it staggered him long enough for Freddy to kick the man forward with a double-star Flowing Strike.

The man's body flew into the small crowd of archhumans behind him, knocking several people over, and a notable burst of healing moved through Freddy's body, helping him recover a bit. However, his armor was still red hot, and he was actively burning alive.

He cast Create Water over himself, felt the heat recede until he was only just suffering through excruciating agony, and kept going.

Most of the people standing before him were two-stars. As such, none of them were pushovers. Anyone who had been knocked over had just as quickly rushed back to their feet, and a man from the back was in the middle of throwing a javelin of stone at Freddy.

This time, Freddy redirected the projectile with his vambraces and kept going.

His Gore Knuckles were a truly brutal weapon to use against humans. One of the men he threw a punch at tried dodging, only for several of the spikes to get caught on his face and peel a good chunk of his facial skin off. Another of his opponents was a death-affinity arch, and Freddy's strike, despite slamming directly into the man's chest, failed to kill him.

His screams echoed through the hallways as Freddy repeatedly struck the man's torso, leaving countless small punctures and mangling him beyond recognition. He did try to end the man's suffering by aiming for his head, but whatever the man's talent was, it made his head incredibly hard to break, even for Freddy.

This man must have felt invincible. With undeath to keep his body safe and a near-unbreakable noggin, he was a truly tough son of a bitch. Yet now, he stood before Freddy, who mangled his body. The man still pushed through the pain and conjured a mass of miasma around his palm, pushing it towards Freddy, who just barely averted the strike before it could slam into his chest.

With an angry shout, Freddy grabbed the top of the man's head with one hand and pushed his shoulders down with another. Both stars activated with Hydraulix Flex, and with a visceral sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking like twigs, the man's head was directly torn off his body.

The other guards stared blankly for a long moment, their faces turning pale at the sight.

"Run!" one of them shouted, and the others immediately turned around to escape.

Freddy calmly conjured Blood Javelins and threw them at the men, killing a few before they could reach a turn in the hallway.

Behind him, Lana finally caught up. She hesitated for a moment at the sight of Freddy throwing the man's head aside before shouting at him, "Jesus, are you out of your mind!? You should have pulled back immediately to get treated!"

"Thanks for your concern," Freddy said. "But I'm going to be fine."

With that, he rushed forward and chased after the men.

"This crazy…!" Lana shouted in disbelief as she followed him, repeatedly trying to convince him to pull back to get treated.

Once she saw him catch up with the men, she quickly found herself at a loss for words.

In a panic, the guards locked themselves into a room, sealing the protective metal doors with a layer of thick stone on the other side.

A double-star Flowing Strike broke through the makeshift barrier effortlessly, shaking the whole building again and launching the metal door forward. The doors flew like a projectile, turning and hitting one of the men in the spine with a sharp corner, killing him instantly.

The remaining guards broke through the back window and started jumping out.

Freddy threw Blood Javelins after them as he ran to catch up, killing three before he even arrived. In the end, only two people managed to get out in time before Freddy reached the other three and effortlessly tore them apart.

One of the men activated a double-star Tectonic Strike and slammed Freddy's side with a gauntleted fist.

The recharged shock absorption enchantment sucked up most of the force, but the rest wasn't even enough to make Freddy budge. The next moment, the man's head had a large dent in it, and his body limply slumped to the ground.

As for the two guards that managed to escape, the snipers took them out before they could get far.

"Jesus Christ almighty…" Lara muttered behind him. "What the hell are you made of?"

"That's enough chit-chat. There's more guards to kill," he said dismissively, turning around and running back into the hallway.

The rest of Valhalla had already spread through the building, hunting the scattered guards down like animals. There was no mercy for any of them.

It didn't take long to clear the rest of the enemy forces.

"We've captured the doctor, over and out," the assassin squad said.

"Keep him where you found him; we'll be there soon. Over and out," Thor responded.

Freddy finally slumped against a wall, feeling unfathomably exhausted. His body had recovered quite a bit due to all the damage he did, but it was far from perfectly healed. His hands shook profusely from the still-festering burn wounds, and aching exhaustion permeated his bones.

Even with his Thousand Wet Hells-tempered body, using a double-star Flowing Strike so many times in a row really took a toll on his body. His joints hurt like a bitch. His fingers felt like all the tissue in them had been turned to mush. His right shoulder, right elbow, and right knee all felt like there were loose pieces of something stuck in there, be it bone or shattered cartilage.

The more powerful it became, the more his Flowing Strike was turning into an ability that he simply couldn't use willy-nilly. The only way he could think to keep up with it was by using another ridiculously dangerous upgrade for Thousand Wet Hells, but even then, it would be a continuous race between the tempering and the escalating backlash.

As Lara watched him slump and breathe heavily, she groaned and slowly took her helmet off. "Send the medics to the northwestern corner of the first floor. Over and out," she said into the comms.

"Disregard. Over and out," Freddy interjected.

"Wha…!? What the hell do you think you're doing?" the woman shouted. "First of all, when you got injured, you should have followed protocol and—"

"Will you please shut the fuck up?" he spat angrily. "I know what I'm doing. I have a regeneration talent."

She snorted in disbelief. "That's not the point. With injuries like that, you were not in shape to continue fighting, especially like that. You're not immortal."

"You'd be surprised," he said as he slowly got up to his feet. "Anyway, don't worry about me. I'm going to be fine."

"Thor will hear of this," she said. "If you're going to fight this way, you won't have a place with us for long. We don't need suicidal maniacs."

Freddy froze and slowly turned to face her. "With all due respect, this suicidal maniac has managed to survive to the peak of the second star with all his limbs still attached. If you want to continue believing I'm a naive moron while being at the same level of power as I, I see no reason not to return the favor," he spat sharply. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go find Thor and see if I can help out with anything else."

He didn't wait for her to respond before pushing past her and making his way to the steps leading down into the basement.

While nobody was looking, he took out the spark of undeath and slammed it a few times, healing himself back up to a minimum of natural-quality healing. With that, he could function just fine, even if his joints still felt a bit cranky and the feeling in his fingers was a bit dull.

As he walked down into the basement, his steps momentarily paused. He heard the sound of weeping and sobbing. His heart clenched as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to witness.

The room was something straight out of a nightmare.

The medic squad silently walked from person to person, providing treatment to anyone who needed it the most.

Men. Women. The elderly and the children.

All half-naked. All missing right about any part of their bodies that could be taken without outright killing them.

From their eyes to massive patches of skin to entire limbs.

Numerous scars denoted parts of their bodies where organs had been removed, and the pattern of scars was nearly identical from patient to patient.

It was a gruesome, petrifying sight. Whoever had planned this out couldn't even be called a human being.

An intense feeling of sickness flared up in Freddy's gut, and he subconsciously clenched his fists.

"Oh, it's you," Thor said dryly as he spotted him. The man eyed Freddy's body.

The trenchcoat was mostly fine. The material was very resistant to burning, even if it wasn't a great insulator towards fire essence. The minor self-repair rune had kept most of the damage away, but there was a small patch where the fabric had been frayed, right where the fireball hit him.

Freddy could feel the man's perception licking across his body and observing the wounds beneath. Thor briefly scowled at what he saw but didn't say anything about it. "Follow me." He walked past Freddy and up the stairs that took him back to the ground floor.

They were followed by Travis and a few other fighters as they slowly made their way up the stairs and to where the doctor was being kept.

The man was tied up right in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by the assassins. His face was severely bruised, and he looked like he was missing a few teeth.

"Please…" the doctor muttered. "Don't kill me! I didn't have a choice! They threatened my family! I can work for you! I have fifty years of experience! Just spare my life, please!"

Something about the man's voice tickled the back of Freddy's mind. He didn't recognize the man's bruised and mangled face, but as he heard the voice, he slowly put the pieces together.

This was the lead doctor who had taken Freddy's commission to heal Sophia.

As he realized that, all blood drained from Freddy's face.

If the lead doctor died, it was likely that Freddy would lose his appointment and would have to find another group to handle his request.

But the time was running out. The longer he waited, the greater the risk that Sophia wouldn't fully recover.

Thor walked up to the doctor and raised his axe. "We don't need healers like you."

Freddy's legs moved before he could think, and he leaped right in front of the descending weapon.