Chapter 523 Extraction

With the sudden eruption of light, Shiro essentially made herself a giant target as Aekari's attention was drawn towards her. Sensing an ominous feeling in his heart, he dashed towards her while disregarding the War God.

Since there was now a literal source of light for him to use, he was able to activate a few of his passives and teleport next to her.

However, Nan Tian had the same idea.

Flickering next to Shiro, Nan Tian twisted his body and slammed his heel against Aekari's ribs.

"Sorry, I can't let you harm my dearest now can I?" Nan Tian chuckled while making sure that Aekari didn't have the chance to harm Shiro.

Despite hearing Nan Tian called her 'dearest' Shiro didn't pay him any attention since she was more focused on making sure she didn't waste the skill stone.

As Nan Tian was keeping Aekari busy, Keiko finally found the slight gap that she needed and flickered behind him.

Activating her plethora of skills that enhanced her first strike after exiting stealth, a red glow seemed to radiate from her eyes.

Touch of Malice!

*PUSHI!!!!

Slashing across his back, a black mist seeped into Aekari's body as tattooed curses slowly spread across his skin.

Feeling a restriction on his movements, Aekari glared back as blood started to drip out of the corner of his lips.

"Ts ts, no looking away from your enemy now." Nan Tian smiled and punched towards Aekari's jaw.

*CRUNCH!

Hearing the sound of bones breaking, Nan Tian quickly used his spare hand to punch towards his chest.

*BANG!

With a quick one two combo, he was able to force Aekari to retreat for a moment.

Gritting his teeth, Aekari tried to heal himself but Keiko's attack seemed to weaken his healing's effectiveness.

As he tried to look around her once more, he noticed that she had already disappeared.

Clicking his tongue, he was about to activate another skill when a knee cracked against his spine.

��ARG!" Crying out in pain, Aekari felt his rage reach a new peak as the War God was still around.

"Just f*cking die!" He cursed out and swiped his hand across the air. Suddenly, a pair of angel wings wrapped around him as his wounds started to heal up. Even the curses that Keiko inflicted on him were wiped clean.

Taking this moment to follow it up with a second tier 6 spell, Aekari aimed it towards the War God.

*BOOM!!!!!

Before anyone could realise what was going on, a giant sword of light cleaved down from the heavens, killing hundreds of adventurers in the attack force in an instant.

Shocked at the sudden spike in the casualties, Nan Tian dashed towards Aekari once more.

However, Aekari was prepared. After cleansing himself of all debuffs along with healing himself for a portion of his HP, he was almost back to peak fighting form.

Crouching down slightly, he diverted Nan Tian's attack before activating a tier 6 magic circle just inches away from his stomach.

"Begone you worm." Aekari frowned and activated the spell.

*TSSSSS!!!!!

Suddenly, a beam of light erupted through Nan Tian's body as he could feel his insides being cooked by the blade.

"KAH!" Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he stumbled back a little as his flight was cancelled.

"Lil' Tian!" Shiro shouted out in worry as she instantly activated another charge of her grace spell.

As the wound healed up, Nan Tian quickly jumped back and took off his mask.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, he glared at Aekari in wariness.

"Be careful out there. Don't be overconfident and make sure you aren't hasty." Shiro reminded quickly before focusing back on the skill stone.

"I've made a fool out of myself in front of you huh?" He chuckled before placing a palm over his heart.

Activating a few skills, enchantments could be seen spreading across his body as he made sure he was quick enough to keep up with Aekari even without Keiko's curses restricting his movements.

Making eye contact with the War God, Nan Tian gestured for the two of them to attack him at the same time.

With both Nan Tian and the War God pressuring him with Keiko slipping in a few stabs when a gap appeared, Aekari found it hard for him to attack Shiro. Even if he teleported beside her, Nan Tian would do the same and force him away.

Not only that, but since Shiro had used her Grace skill again, most of the attack force were back to full health and could engage in the fight without worrying too much. In addition to this, all of the elders and the martial hero jumped into the heart of battle and kept Aekari busy.

Understanding that it was going to be hard to avoid friendly fire with so many people in close ranged combat, most of the adventurers focused on control skills while those who could give out buffs helped enhance their abilities.

Since most of the level 500's was keeping Aekari busy, Shiro could focus on the skill without any distractions.

During the process, she could feel the system warning glowing in her peripherals but she decided to ignore it after a brief glance. After all, it was the similar warning back when she had first acquired this element.

[Warning! Entity – Shiro – is forcefully bypassing her authority. Requesting Moderator's Interference…. Failed.]

[Warning!]

[Moderator Evaluation: Prerequisites have been met. Use of an item is not breaking rules. Bug was resolved but her knowledge about Error 403 was retained. Focus was not broken entirely; sufficient information was provided to the skill stone. Entity – Shiro – will now be granted access to Error 403. Upgrade of authority level is withheld for further inspection.]

[Moderator Evaluation received. Distributing rewards.]

As the last notice was displayed, Shiro suddenly felt something foreign within her mana realm. A wave of information gushed into her mind as she held her head in pain.

Gritting her teeth, she finally understood what she had stumbled upon during the fight against the Gorgon.

"Goodness, it's truly a blessing that I hadn't killed myself back then." Shiro muttered as she had a pretty good description of this element.

Virus.

It was a virus within the system that allowed her to extract another entity's code and attach it to her own. However, doing so was highly dangerous and the virus could have taken her code and assimilated it to itself. The moment that happened, she would have ceased to exist.

[??? Attunement Obtained. Tier ?]

[Unknown Ranked Title Gained.]

[Title: Error Code.]

You are an anomaly within the system. Whether it is due to luck or other variables, you were able to briefly control the Error 403 to defeat your enemy and in the process, extract their code and obtain the Eyes of the Gorgon. With this title, you now have a degree of control over Error Code 403.

[Skill Gained]

[Skill: Extraction]

At the start of each month, you gain an extraction charge. With this, you are able to attempt to rip out an enemy's code and gain a skill from them. Depending on the difference in strength at the time of casting this skill, there may be a chance of failure.

Current Extraction Charge: 1

Reading the description of her skill, Shiro couldn't help but grin at the possibilities behind this skill.

Understanding that it was her ticket to victory in this fight, Shiro quickly hid herself amongst the snow and eyed the battle carefully. She needed to make sure that she timed it at the precise moment where Aekari was at his weakest. The moment when he is forced to activate one of his life saving skills.

Watching the battle like a hawk, Shiro waited patiently for the time where Aekari was at his weakest. There were a few moments where it looked like the case but Shiro knew it was a bait and kept her watch.

As the fight continued, the War God's figure started to grow faint. Understanding that his time was almost up, his attacks intensified but Aekari made sure to fight defensively for now. As long as he kept up his guard, Keiko wouldn't be able to sneak in another cursed strike like before.

Plus, he was able to pick out a few gaps and deal heavy damage to the attack force, reducing their numbers to less than 4,000 adventurers. Naturally, Shiro used her Grace skill to keep as many of them alive as she could but more than 2,000 adventurers still died. Of course, she kept the final use of her Grace skill for the moment Nan Tian or Keiko were fatally injured.

Things continued to grow dire but Shiro was patient. At this point, Aekari's men had long arrived at the battlefield but the attack force were able to hold them off. Since Aekari was more focused against the combined might of several level 500's that had received hundreds of buffs, the attack force had a rather easy time with holding off the enemies.

As a few elders risked their lives to deal a heavy blow to Aekari, Keiko finally got her second chance. This time, she held nothing back as a murderous aura could be seen around her body as she broke out of stealth.

Touch of Malice!

Striking at Aekari once more, the curses were even more potent as he immediately kneeled from the pain.

'NOW!' Activating her Rift Strider skill, Shiro flickered into the heat of battle and activated her newly acquired skill, Extraction.