"Mary Veera…" The voice muttered, making the surroundings silent. A strange force coagulated in the region, mending the region and further reinforcing the barrier.
Wild Zone 1, the air crackled as a figure impacted on the ground, killing numerous Frenzy Beasts that had gathered in the region. The ground trembled as a figure leapt out, transforming into a Bone Giant, 8 metres tall. It had a humanoid body, wrapped around by layers and layers of bones, forming into an exoskeleton armour. Spikes protruded across its back, numbering in the hundreds while a huge curved horn grew at the front, emerging from the forehead, spiralled towards the tip.
The humanoid eyes that were as big as saucers gazed at the tiny human figure floating in the air, accumulating power as the surrounding air turned viscous. Madam Mary closed her eyes, making use of her extraordinary senses, unleashed in full capacity to inspect the surroundings. She noticed the carcasses of the dead monsters squirming, raising up as the bones within their bodies melted, devouring the flesh and blood. They morphed into humanoid dolls, their sizes varying between 2 to 6 metres.
Wings sprouted across their backs, looking similar to a dragonfly, like a transparent filament. They flapped as each humanoid doll took off to the skies, circling Madam Mary. Old man Bone, transformed into the 8 metre tall bone giant raised his legs, stomping on the ground, creating a 50 metre wide crater. The carcasses of Tier 4 Ring Worms appeared beneath, squished to death by his stomp.
Their bodies wriggled as they morphed into humanoid dolls, each almost 16 metres tall, exuding a powerful aura. The bone giant smirked, commanding the humanoid dolls to form a distance of 100 metres from Madam Mary, forming an encirclement. Their hands melted, condensing into a long cylindrical barrel that was half their height. With a start, they shot out pellets of bone fragments, each shaped into bullets—the materials composing them coming from their bodies, shrinking their mass after each shot accordingly—aimed at Madam Mary.
Madam Mary created a spherical barrier that shielded her from the hail of bullets, unflinching at the attacks. Her brows scrunched up in surprise as the bullets that impacted her barrier melted into liquid, spreading along its surface.
The Bone Giant laughed, "My Unranked Skill also mimics the traits of Espers, capable of influencing the bones in my surroundings without touch."
Madam Mary calmly listened to his words, falling along the lines of boasting as thoughts flashed through her head. Thousands of thoughts were processed, analysed, and refined in her head within a second, finalising her next course of action. Madam Mary flew towards the skies, disappearing from her previous position, keeping an eye on the liquid that spread across the barrier around her.
The moment she approached the altitude of 670 metres from the ground, the liquid spreading on her barrier paused, removed by the resultant force from her movement. Madam Mary smirked, "A Sync Rate of 67%. The range of your influence is equivalent to a Tier 4 Esper, the radius of a kilometre. Affected by your Sync Rate, it has dropped to 670 metres; how careless of you, showing your cards so soon."
Madam Mary grunted, creating an arm by condensing her psychic energy, using it to crush the humanoid dolls, the fragments of which fell on the ground, burning up in the process due to friction. "Your Tricks are good, but, before an Esper, they are naught but child's play."
"What makes you assume that it wasn't something deliberately revealed by me?" Old man Bone smiled, pushing strength in his legs, springing towards Madam Mary. He clenched his gigantic hands, curling them into a fist as all the scattered bone fragments converged towards him, forming a huge bone sword 100 metres long.
Accompanied by shockwaves, the bone sword flew towards Madam Mary, resisting her psychic energy that sought to stop its movements. Seeing it approach her, Madam Mary sent the psychic arm, smashing it into the bone sword, and wrestling control with old man Bone.
"Have you forgotten the speciality of Tier 5 Warriors? We are addressed as Transformers for a reason." The bone sword shattered, turning into liquid, forming into a huge sphere that wrapped around Madam Mary. Spikes formed within them, rushing towards her at speeds faster than the speed of sound.
A faint light flickered across the spikes, trying to penetrate the psychic barrier around her body, attempting to influence her bones. Madam Mary flew up, planning to create a distance greater than 670 metres between them. Seeing her retreat, an yellow light flashed across the spikes, traversing towards the bottom.
A spike extended towards old man Bone, making contact with him as the yellow light rushed into his body. Old man Bone raised his head, a blissful expression plastered across his face. Madam Mary had just created a distance of 700 metres between them, feeling surprised as the liquid still pursued her.
"How?" She muttered, further increasing the distance, heaving a sigh of relief when the liquid stopped at 730 metres.
"Surprise!" The liquid converged into a humanoid entity, looking similar to old man Bone, 8 metres tall and holding a 100 metre long sword. The sword flashed, puncturing a cut in her barrier, the impact sending her reeling kilometres into the Wilds.
"Fine," Madam Mary shouted, veins popping across her forehead. "I'll show you the powers of a Sky Controller."
A gust of wind formed, concentrated around a low-pressure region, surrounded by high-pressure winds, infused by her psychic energy, further increasing in rotational velocity. She created two psychic arms, rubbing them against each other thousands of times within a second, igniting the air, mixing it into the tornado.
The tornado descended to the ground, like a cataclysmic deity, lifting up dust, debris, and large chunks of soil. Carrying them to the top, they formed into a dust cloud. Madam Mary infused her psychic energy into it, creating friction counterparts, and raising the static energy.
Gazing at the bone giant that was flying in her direction—having created a pair of wings on its back—Madam Mary directed her energy, creating a potential difference in his direction. A thick bolt of lightning flashed across space, impacting the bone giant, scorching it. Lightning bolts followed after it, striking the bone giant one after the other.
The bone giant focused its attention, defending against the lightning strikes that posed a deadly might, giving Madam Mary enough leeway to further build up the charge. The bone giant suffered another lightning bolt when a huge spiral of wind descended above it, filled with flames, smashing into it.
Madam Mary travelled through the funnel of the tornado, controlling its power to prevent the bone giant from escaping. Every time the bone giant tried to counterattack, she sent bolts of lightning its way, damaging it.
"Where did your strength go? As I said, you are useless when it matters the most." Madam Mary commented, amplifying her voice, allowing it to reach old man Bone's ears.
"I think it is for the best if you stopped this farce right this instant." A voice interrupted, carrying with it a dense fluctuation of psychic energy, dispersing the two tornadoes and the dust cloud that was flashing with giant electric currents.
"Marble…" Madam Mary muttered with a displeased tone, having her attacks negated. She clenched her fists, having a momentary spike in her energy fluctuations, hitting both the bone giant and the newcomer. The bone giant impacted the ground, the force behind her attack creating a massive hundred metre wide crater.
The newcomer, on the other hand, was just sent flying for a dozen metres. He looked at the two, feeling a sight sense of anger. "Even after my warning, you still ripped a hole in my barrier."
The bone giant cracked, its exterior dissolving into a pool of white liquid as old man Bone emerged from within, hurriedly bowing towards the newcomer. "Ancestor Marble, I am willing to face the appropriate punishment for my actions."
"What about you, Mary? Will you stop this fight?" The newcomer, Psychic Ancestor Marble gazed at Madam Mary, gently releasing a tinge of his aura. The surrounding air, in a radius of 10 kilometres turned still, motionless under the force. A vast suffocating aura, like the flooding of the ocean, emerged, directly hitting Madam Mary, shattering all the defences she had erected.
Madam Mary grunted, the spike in her energy abated. Thin streams of blue water appeared, healing her nerves that had burst due to a spike in her energy. She looked a bit tired, having used up a significant amount of her energy reserves.
Faint yellow light coagulated atop the white liquid, seeping into a bone spike that had appeared on the right hand of old man Bone, absorbed into his body. The bone spike turned black, getting corroded, melting in a matter of seconds while emitting a putrid stench. Through this, old man Bone had completely recovered the energy he had expended.
Psychic Ancestor Marble looked at old man Bone, a smile etched on his face, "A Trait that recovers the Sync Rate by expending massive amounts of energy. I must say, Jyovic Bone, you have given me one surprise after other."
Madam Mary flew, standing next to him; her previous expression of fury disappeared, replaced with one of placid calm. "See, like I told you, this guy never stops his efforts to increase his strength."
'Dammit, before I knew it, I was hooked by her play, acting like an enraged teenager. I didn't want to reveal my cards so soon.' Old man Bone thought, realising his complacency. After creating an Unranked Skill, he had subconsciously lowered his mental guard. Moreover, the unexpected encounter with Madam Mary made him recall unpleasant memories, bringing forth a reckless charge from his behalf.
"Please submit the full details of this Trait to Central Command by tomorrow. Since you are scheduled to meet Ancestor Light, present it directly to him. Of course, you will be handsomely rewarded, since this Trait is unprecedented in the history of our city." Saying his piece, Psychic Ancestor Marble disappeared from view, at speeds even the two Tier 5 powerhouses couldn't sense.
Madam Mary snorted in disdain, making a note of old man Bone's appearance, and flying towards the city. They had proceeded deep into the Wilds, almost 30 kilometres from the city walls during their fight. So, she hurried to return, lest she encountered a powerful Frenzy Beast.
"Dammit," Old man Bone stomped on the ground, sending heaps of soil to the sky, creating tremors that spread through the ground. "Just you wait, Mary Veera. I'll get you back for this in the future."
A pair of transparent wings sprouted on his back, made from morphing his flesh and blood. Old man Bone took off to the skies, hurrying back to the city. Even he didn't dare stay outside for long.
