The women hurried out of the Chapel.

“[Lady] Rose, I’ll go check out the problem,” Scarlet states and whistles loudly. Her steed, a muscular mare quickly runs to her side.

“No, something isn’t right. I’ll go. You keep an eye on the [Abbess].” Rose says. She turns towards the smoke and begins to run. Jessica watches, wide-eyed, as the large woman begins sprinting as fast as a horse’s gallop.

“Dammit, why is she…” Scarlet exclaims, looks towards Rose loping away and then at her horse.

After the pause, “Errr, Jessica. Can you just wait here? I’ll be right back,” she says and mounts her horse.

Wide-eyed, Jessica jumps forward and holds out her hand. “Take me with you. I think my [Gentleman] is causing problems.”

Scarlet stares at the [Abbess], clearly confused by Jessica’s rather nonsensical statement.

“Are you sure? I don’t think a [Gentleman] can do that kind of damage, even if he wants to.”

Jessica ignores her words and instead grabs onto Scarlet's armored leg. She then pulls, hops and lands side-saddle, right behind the [City Defender].

“What?” Scarlet asks, surprised by the smaller woman’s strength.

“Just go. I’ll explain on the way.”

____________________________________________________

The [General] jumps to the right, avoiding another projectile that crushes the ground he was standing on. The projectile disappears into a cloud of purple smoke a moment after, but Rathos is still on the move as more and more projectiles are created above the [Mage].

He dodges again, the ground collapses after moving. This time, another projectile is flying towards where he dodged. He could use the enchantment of his ring to teleport a short distance and dodge the projectile, but he still has plenty of stamina and he may need the enchantment to gain an opening.

With a quick movement, Rathos flourishes his sword, “[Deflect Missile].”

His blade and body move as the skill activates. He leans forward and slashes at the projectile, striking and damaging the construct of mana. With the mana in his sword from the common skill [Infused Armaments], he redirects the attack to the left while shifting his body to the right. With a quick spin, he regains his footing as the projectile passes him by.

“Nice skill. It only works because of your decent strength though.”

Rathos listens but does not deign to reply to the bleeding [Mage]. Yes, bleeding, because he had attacked and fully surprised the man in the cell. He had teleported through the bars and then tried to slice the man in half. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, his sword could not penetrate the naked man’s bones.

Still, he had severed the flesh of the man’s arm, which now dangles and bleeds at his side. If he can hold out long enough, then the [Mage] will pass out from blood loss or he will get reinforcements… or the [Mage] will run out of mana.

“Fine, stay silent. Let’s increase the difficulty.”

Rathos grinds his teeth as he watches the two floating projectiles in the air double to four.

With little warning, the projectiles seem to become more solid, as though they’ve gained density, and then accelerate towards his position. He dodges the first metallic structure by jumping to the side, and immediately ducks under the second. At a glint from his eye, the third is almost on him. So he leaps into the air.

Unfortunately, his movement was predicted. The fourth glowing metallic structure is heading directly towards the apogee of his jump...

“[Steel Skin], [Disperse Impact].”

He feels his body harden, awaiting the impact that is about to happen.

“[Burst Sprint], [Palm Thrust]!”

Before the projectile can make contact, a figure roars as her arm thrusts forward, striking the projectile out of the way. It crashes into the ground with a dicordinant twang before dispersing into smoke.

Rathos lands and then takes a quick look at his savior.

“It seems I arrived just in time,” [Lady] Rose states as she turns towards the [Mage] who already has four more projectiles ready.

“Holy shit are you fat. How the hell do you even move like that? That was kinda impressive, like seeing a whale slap water.”

Rose quickly takes a stance, her fat jiggling as she does.

“What happened, Rathos?” Rose asks, ignoring the naked man’s words.

Rathos’ holds up his blade and keeps it pointed towards the [Mage].

“I’m not sure, but he was trying to cast a spell while in the prison. I tried to stop him, but I was only able to damage his arm. He’s dangerous, so don’t hold back.”

“Oyyyy! Fat [Lady]? How is it you are a level 106 [Master Martial Artist] but you look like a whale? Shouldn’t you be a bit more toned? Or is this the fighting style where you bury people in your fat rolls?” he calls out to her with a smile on his face.

“He also loves to hear himself speak,” Rathos adds.

The [Mage] responds with his middle finger.

Rose grunts. Her legs are spread with one arm folded back and the other extended.

“[Martial Art: Body Revision].”

Rose’s body begins to morph. Her fat is slowly suctioned into her body, disappearing into her loose clothes. Not a moment after, the ground cracks as her density increases, muscles replacing fat. Her body grows taller, the loose clothing ripping at the now gigantic size of the woman.

Rose smiles as she takes a naked step forward.

“Ohhhhh, shit,” the mage exclaims in surprise.

“Your breasts are massive.”

____________________________________________________________

Scarlet kicks her horse into a gallop, moving at impressively reckless speeds while Jessica holds onto the red-head’s waist. They move through the city as quickly as they can, but are still forced to slow down or risk trampling pedestrians. In the distance, they can see Rose jumping between rooftops before she disappears into the distance.

“How can she move like that?” Jessica asks.

Scarlet ignores the question.

“Jessica, who is this [Gentleman] you mentioned earlier? Are you sure he’s the cause of that explosion?”

Jessica tightens her hold around Scarlet’s waist as they do a sharp turn.

“Yes. An explosion like the one we’ve seen is child’s play for him. I’ve seen him create far worse.”

Scarlet raises an eyebrow.

“How worse?”

“Umm,” Jessica starts, unsure if she should say exactly how strong Quasi actually is.

“Look, Jessica, if you want me to trust you, you have to give me something.”

“The city,” Jessica blurts out.

“What about the city?” Scarlet asks.

Jessica sighs, “He could make an explosion the size of this entire city.”

Scarlet turns her head and gazes at the [Abbess] questioningly.

“How exactly is a [Gentleman] supposed to be able to pull something like that off?”

Jessica frowns and looks down, “Well, his main class is over level three hundred.”

Scarlet goes silent.

“Um, Scarlet?” Jessica asks after a moment.

“Damn, I believe you… Fuck. I didn’t want to use this skill so soon. [Herald of the City].”

The [City Defender]’s body begins to glow a vibrant gold as her most recent skill activates, increasing every single physical stat of her body based on the population and size of Sanavil. The power spreads to her mount and its fur shines gold.

The mount accelerates; its speed triples almost instantaneously. Jessica is forced to cling tightly to Scarlet’s waist or risk being thrown off.

__________________________________________________________

Those physical stats are goddamn insane. I can’t even sense any skill being used. Her body is just really, really strong… and hot.

I shake my head quickly, doing my best to keep my libido down.

It’s annoying not having my usual items on me to keep my testosterone under control. It also doesn’t help that we’re both buck naked.

“If you want, I can wait here and let you put some clothes on.”

The goliath of a woman snorts, “I don’t want to dirty them with your blood.”

Shots fired!

I shrug. “Have it your way.”

With a mental command, I again double the carriage sized projectiles above my head. Both the [Lady]’s and [General]’s expressions grow more serious.

I then take a look at my mana reserves and find my mana still above ninety-five percent full. In the next few seconds, it will be full again thanks to my prodigious, preposterous mana regeneration.

“Just so you know, you’re free to surrender at any time.”

Neither of the two speak, nor do they move. They just stare at me and the projectiles over my head. I frown, attempting to understand exactly why they are playing the waiting game. Do they think my mana will run out, or are they expecting me to feel mana strain from constant usage of mana? Or is it my bleeding arm?

I look at my left arm and wiggle the mangled thing. I could easily fix it, but that poses problems as well. Primarily, I don’t want to use my main class. A handful of undead elites could easily take them out, but, unfortunately, that would make my other classes not level.

Ughhh, leveling experience is such complicated bullshit.

“Fine. Just stand there.”

With a mental command, I begin finishing my spells while giving it an innate acceleration upon creation. The construct hardens and then explodes forward. The [General] stays behind the woman, while the [Lady] punches and blocks with efficiency. She moves to limit stamina expenditure while also utilizing her entire body for each action. Every block, punch, and riposte has the entire weight of her body melded into it. What this means is that she is able to utilize almost all of her recorded strength stat.

Such a thing is extremely rare as most people only use between fifty to seventy-five percent of their stats at any given time. It’s why skills are so powerful. For example, a [Fast Cleave] skill is just a swipe of a weapon really quickly. But, in actuality, the skill uses 120% of your dexterity and 120% of your strength to do the movement as perfectly as possible. It’s the main reason why even common ranked skills are used effectively by very high-level individuals.

Unfortunately for [Lady] Rose, having such training creates a significant problem.

If you move so perfectly, so efficiently…

Well, perfect is predictable.

With another mental command, I create eight projectiles and throw them out one after another. I position them in such a way to favor specific movements. Block the first one with a left-handed upward palm thrust. Right knee upward kick for the second. Kneel down against the third. Right-hand redirects the fourth to the left. The fifth will be an elbow thrust with the right hand…

The fifth projectile, at my control, disperses before impact. Her eyes widen as the sixth directly behind the fifth is about to hit her in the shoulder.

“[Perfect Footing].”

I frown as I hear the [General] use a skill on the [Lady]; a surprisingly useful skill that causes the individual to have perfect footing, even in air.

I say individual because the skill is self-targeted, but [Generals] are unique in their ability to send any skill they have to their [Soldiers].

Thanks to the skill, the [Lady] is able to move her body, using the air as footing to strike and ignore the rest of my attacks.

“Thank you Rathos.”

The [General] grunts as he continues to carefully watch me.

I sigh as I look around. [Guards] are stationed in the distance. They have crossbows loaded, drawn, and aimed at me.

“Nice little army you have here,” I say as I use my one good arm to point towards the [Guards]. “Are they just for show or are they going to do anything?”

I watch the [General] frown as he stares directly at me and then at the [Guards].

“Oh, I see. You don’t want to use them because you think you can take care of me with your [Lady] friend. It makes sense. No need to risk your [Guards] if you can handle it yourself, but keep them ready to intervene if they prove to be necessary. Smart, but…”

With my hand raised, I put my middle finger to my thumb.

“[Loud Voice], [Extend Sound], [Stunning Roar].”

SNAP!

An explosion of sound is blown from my fingers as my [Stunning Roar] spell activates and travels the distance like a tsunami. Those [Guards] nearest to me pass out as their heads are wracked with pain. Those further away fall to the ground in pain.

As expected, both the [General] and [Lady] are barely affected. Their higher stats give them a natural resistance to my attack.

“Now, let’s try this again.” I begin as I double the number of projectiles floating above me, “Surrender or die.”

_______________________________________________________________

“Is that him? What? What happened? What are those?”

Jessica blinks as Scarlet rides closer, past the incapacitated and insensate [Guards]. The ones still conscious are moaning and bleeding from their ears, but, thankfully, no one seems to be dead. Quasi held back, for now at least.

Her eyes roam past the [Guards] and take in the battlefield. Three people stand in the ruins, staring at each other. Two of them are naked and only one of them is smiling.

Jessica’s eyes focus on Quasi before glancing up.

The [Abbess] sighs.

Sometimes she wishes Quasi would be normal.

She shakes her head at the sight of sixteen Concert Grand Pianos floating above his head.