Starbound Awakening

In another part of the horde, the siblings were fighting for their lives. Dare was more of a support-type fighter and had little to no fighting ability, so the bulk of the battle fell on Amara's shoulders.

But that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Amara was more of an assassin; all her skills were going towards killing an enemy as fast and as efficiently as possible. But with nobody to take the attention of the null away from her, her skills could not be showcased well.

Not to mention the fact that this particular null was easily countering all her attacks.

The null they were facing was the normal-looking null that still had its uniform on. It turned out that the null wasn't normal at all; it was just because it hadn't activated its ability yet.

It was a beast morpher. In the sense that it could morph into any beast that it could touch.

Well, as luck would have it, a cat appeared during their battle. The null suddenly rushed towards the cat, leaving Amara and Dare confused. That was until its hand made contact with the mutant cat, and the null started to morph.

Its whole body didn't morph, but the useful traits of the cat were given to it. It got the ears of the cat, increasing its sense of hearing, it got emerald green eyes, increasing its sight, cat arms and legs increasing its speed and agility, and finally, the feline tail of the cat, increasing its balance.

With this, the once hard-to-kill null became a whole lot stronger, and the stalemate that had been held since changed. The null was no on the front foot.

Now, one would think, Hades was the god of the underworld, and he had control over souls, and being contracted to Hades, why wasn't Amara able to use souls?

As explained in previous chapters, nulls were soulless beings; their souls exploded due to their inability to assimilate cosmic energy. And without souls, there was nothing for Amara to manipulate.

The only being that she could manipulate was her brother, and there was no way she was going to kill her brother to defeat a null.

As for Dare, with no fighting skills, he was useless.

"Dare, start killing nulls, and don't just stand there doing nothing!!" Amara suddenly shouted while fending off a strike from the null.

"Okay," Dare answered in a daze.

[Neuro-Sync Pulse]

The nano-spider on his shoulder broke into millions of nanobots that swarmed towards the nulls in the surrounding area.

They formed what looked like bed bugs that latched onto the necks of the nulls in the vicinity.

The nulls suddenly became still, unable to move any part of their body.

Neuro-sync pulse was basically a skill that sends a pulse of electricity through the body of the nulls that renders the neurons of the nulls useless.

Right now, the nulls were nothing more than live targets.

The two pistols formed from nanobots appeared in his hands. With a smile on his face, Dare started shooting out energy beams. The energy beams hit the head of the nulls, making them explode into rains of blood.

Normally, the nulls were supposed to break down into golden particles, but this time, the nulls shriveled up, turning into black smoke that floated into the body of Amara.

Amara's eyes glowed a slight green color as she felt the surge of death energy entering her body.

[Necrotic hands]

Her hands suddenly started glowing a greenish black color, which extended into the daggers that she was holding, giving them a sharper edge.

[Wraithstep]

Right in front of everyone, it was as if Amara turned into a mass of black smoke that suddenly disappeared.

The null was confused for a second before its eyes landed on Dare. It lunged at him, its cat-like claws already slashing at Dare.

That was until Amara appeared above the null, her dagger glowing with a darkish green hue.

The null was mid-air and was unable to change direction or even react in time. Her dagger slashed the back of the null.

The null crashed into the ground, forming a small crater where it landed. The slash wound on its back had black veins going towards the rest of its body.

Being agile enough, the null quickly stood up, but Amara was gone once again. It suddenly sensed danger from Dare's direction and quickly jumped away.

Almost immediately, an energy beam flew past where it had stood before.

It creased its brow in frustration, but suddenly, it could feel a sense of danger behind it, thanks to the cat's instinct.

Once again, it had no chance to dodge the attack as Amara swung her dagger at the neck of the null.

Instinctively, the null raised its hand in a bid to block the attack, which it did, but it was sent crashing into the wall, the black veins spreading from the dagger wound to the rest of its body.

From the smoke and debris, the null jumped, lunging at Dare without care for its life once again. Since Amara was nowhere to be found.

But there was no change in the expression on Dare's face as he pointed his pistol at the null, releasing a beam of energy.

It managed to dodge the attack, but just as it had feared, Amara appeared in its blind spot, thrusting her dagger into the neck of the null.

Black veins started spreading out from the wound to the rest of the body. But before the null had any chance to retaliate, Amara had already disappeared.

Things continued like this for a long time, with Dare distracting the null and Amara dealing the damage to the null.

By now, the body of the null was filled with sword slashes and hundreds of writhing black veins that seemed to have lives of their own. The already ugly null became uglier, with sunken cheeks and the outline of its bones showing on its skin.

It was at this point that the null suddenly stopped lunging at Dare. It stood in the middle of the battlefield, the aura on its body becoming stronger and stronger. The once clear aura started turning red, until it was blood red.

The sunken body of the null kept bulking up, the nails on its fingers becoming as sharp as swords, and the muscles on its leg becoming more defined.

It was undergoing what was called a forced bloodline evolution. This was basically when an animal forcefully evolves into their higher form. This results in a massive increase in their strength, but at the same time, it takes a massive amount of life force.

So the already low life force of the null was now a whole lot lower. At most, if it doesn't get any more life force, it would be alive for about five minutes.

It was obvious that the null was ready to fight to the death.

Before long, the null was standing at seven feet tall, black fur all over its body, a blood red aura around it, and its sclera black, leaving its irises blood red.

It took just one blink, in the blink of an eye, the null appeared in front of Dare and gave him a punch to the gut, sending him crashing into one of the many buildings in the surroundings.

Dare slowly stood up, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Without being given any chance to gain his bearings, the null appeared in front of him again.

This time, though, the null didn't punch him away; rather, he punched a hole through the stomach of Dare, his fingers coming out on the other side. Dare coughed up a mouthful of blood, surprise on his face.

Visible to the human eye, Dare started aging while the null collected his life force.

It was at this point that Amara appeared.

"Get away from my brother!!!!!" she screamed, slashing her blade at the head of the null.

As usual, the null was unable to dodge the attack and was sent flying.

Amara caught Dare's body before he landed on the ground, tears already falling from her eyes. But Dare was surprisingly calm.

"No need to worry, all you need to do is kill that null before I die, I'm pretty sure the EXP will be enough for me to level up, and once I level up, I'll be healed," Dare said

A look of conviction appeared in the eyes of Amara as she slowly put Dare on the ground. Her attention was now on the null charging towards her.

They looked at the system screen in front of her and then back at the null coming towards her.

[Death's Dividend]

[Stack: 5/5]

Death's Dividend was a skill that allowed her to gain death energy anytime a being dies within a hundred-meter radius of her. This stack is later added to any skill of her choice, increasing the strength of the skill by many times.

This was why she told Dare to kill many nulls previously, so she could max out the stacks of the skill.

[Pale Gate]

Amara used all her stacks on the pale gate, increasing its strength by many levels before activating it.

Amara's shadow stretched out from her, forming some kind of portal. From the portal, what looked like a gate, made entirely out of white pale bones, and a skull on the top of the gate appeared.

It was about three meters tall, and everyone fighting the horde could see it.

Shrieks could be heard coming from the other side of the gate, sending shivers down the spine of anyone who heard them.

The gate opened slowly, and from the black mist on the other side came a creature that could only be found in nightmares.