Chap 11.7-Journey Pt.7: Evolving Treat:

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{Location: Village of Joa, Square; Time: 09:29 p.m; P.O.V: 3st Zero}:

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  After helping Spar stand on his feet, they see the monster that sent their friend flying, she starts waking towards them, slowly, with each step she looks at her surroundings.

 

  Headless bodies, guts in various corners, Imps cut in half with terror written all over their faces, the terror of seeing their death coming and being unable to do anything at all.

 

  Zero walks, and now looks at the group that did this, the group that made this Hell happen.

 

  A group of four, using some strange knight armor.

 

  One of them, a very tall man, who carries a great sword in both hands.

 

The other one she sent flying, after getting himself fixed, spins a spear in his hand, he is shorter than the great sword user,  but not much.

 

  The other one being a girl? Her blond hair falls down her shoulders, a bow in her right hand, aimed at Zero.

 

  The last one being, a man with long black hair, that escapes a little from the helmet, he seems to be a wizard, he is conjuring something, so for sure it has something to do with mana.

 

  Zero senses the presence of others, but they are not around at the moment.

 

Her attention comes back to the ones in front of her.

 

  Her mind is not at the right place, so she decides to do something she did before against Yuley, she wields her body to her instincts, it as if she pushes her off switch, right now she didn't even have a say, her subconscious do it for her, as a way to 'help'.

 

It's not the best decision, but if she's to fight right now by herself, she doesn't think she could use her techniques while her head is full of thoughts.

 

*STOMP*

 

  She rushes towards them, Jassie fires multiple arrows and Luck (the mage), cast some fireballs and prepares other enchantments after.

 

  Zero punches away the fireballs with a backhand fist, and sidestep some arrows, one hits her shoulder, but she just continues while flinching a little,  but her smile hides it well.

 

  Getting closer she's confronted with a combination of spear and sword, she explodes her aura and block them for an instant, and using the {Instant} she starts to dodge back while trying to find a lethal point to strike, when they both trust forward their respective blades, Zero jumps to the right and kicks both, the spear and sword on their side, making both stumble with each other.

 

(A/N: ●Increase Variations: Instant} shortening is ●{Instant})

 

Zero don't have time to think, she dodges again a lightning and more arrows, this time, these arrows are coated in mana.

 

  Jon rushes at her again, but this time without his sword.

 

  He punches towards Zero, with a right jab, she ducks and goes to the right and executes a left uppercut, sending Jon off the ground a little.

 

  He gets his balance back and punches Zero in the stomach, but she tanks it with a little air loss in her lungs, and returns the favor kneeing him in the stomach.

 

  The mage and archer can't fire, or they will hit Jon in the process.

 

  But the one that was missing appears, Spar, making a slicing motion at Zero's lower back.

 

  She twitches a little, and spins with a high kick, hitting his right shoulder and sending him flying to the side, but is left vulnerable, so Jon sees his opportunity and hits her in the face with a straight right punch, *CLASH* she hits a wall of wood with her back, just going through it, looking around after getting back up, the place is burning down.

 

  She coughs a little and jumps out the same hole she got trashed through.

 

  When she gets out, three more arrows are fired in front of her face, she uses {Instant}, and appears in front of the archer, Jon and Spar not far behind her.

 

  She is going to give an Overhand Punch to Jessie, but when she hits, Jessie just breaks like broken glass? -' An illusion!'- Zero turns around, just to receive an ice shard to her right leg, making her lose balance.

 

Followed by an arrow to the other, further making balancing herself even worse, and a double one-two punch to the chest from Jon, who seems to be better at fists than swords, and to cup it all, Spar laughs and throws his spear while activating his Skill. - "{Spear King!: SERPENTINE FLIER!}"

 

  The spear turn into a snake made of green and blue mana, with lightning around it of sorts.

 

  It roars with a hissing sound towards Zero, going at high speeds,  destroying everything in its way.

 

  Zero is out of breath, but still throws her arms up while activating her aura with everything she has, to somehow at least defend herself.

 

  But. *Glass breaking*. It's not enough.

 

"GUUHHHHHHH-!!"- She grunts on the impact

 

  The spear now hitting directly into Zero's arms, drags her through the Village, leveling it even more, there's a huge crater in a line going from where Spar threw his spear, and goes all the way to the other end of the village.

 

  "Yoshaa!! Now the Boss is done! I think we should get a ton of 'XP'!! But where's the 'XP'?"- Spar asks confusedly, looking at his arms,  expecting something big.

 

  "She's not dead yet, she's a tough cookie.*points*"-  Jon points to where the crater ends.

 

  Zero with her arms covered in Manas appears as the dust sets down, difference from her mana aura? This is [Manas: Armament].

 

 A step further than a simple aura, this is one of the high Rank Manas, from the [Manas Skill Tree].

 

  Said to give the one who unlocks it, way denser mana, and making normal Skills even stronger.

 

  The denser the mana in the user, the stronger it will be, and so Zero's too now, is even stronger than before.

 

  She pants, chest going up and down, her yellow eye glowing with fire in it.

 

  Forced to awaken something you aren't ready for is not the best feeling,  she didn't have a Manas teacher, since Mariie said that she couldn't teach her, after all their races being completely different, and their mana systems too are different, and to top it all, Zero's power being unique didn't help one bit.

 

  Zero take a deep breath. Her arms Mana flames made of pure heat raging even further.

 

  "{Increase Variations Mana: Multiple Instants}"- She mutters in Drakonik.

 

  Spar was about to joke how she can't even talk right anymore. But. *CRASH* An upper cut sends him flying up, *BOOM* a straight punch to the ribs aimed down sends him flying to the ground.

 

  *CLASH!!* And to put the candy on top of it all, a  dropkick directly to his rib cage. *CRACKLY*

 

  "AAAAUGHHHHHH!?!!?!"-  Spar screams, without even knowing what happened.

 

  Two seconds, that's what took Zero to do all that.

 

  Now with her foot on top of Spar ribs she has the same smile as before, looks like she got back the control,  giving her body to Instincts seemed to don't work very well, it just didn't use any of her knowledge on how to fight in the right way, and using her Skills effectively wasn't the priority,  and it tried more to do damage without thinking further, truly in the end, instincts without a mind, turn said person or animal in just a beast.

 

She had time to think about various things, and got to one conclusion, these people don't deserve the life they breathe.

 

She kicks him up, and spin around giving him a tail slap, and sending him towards Jessie, but she is just stands there, and don't even move a muscle when Spar is sent flying past her.

 

She then realizes, that what they've encountered is not a simple monster,  this thing, it evolves!

 

  "A..A high L-Level Aptly monster! A-And to top one with M-Manas and Skills, WE'RE FUCKED!!!!"- She shouts, but Jon isn't having any of that, he rushes towards Zero with a left jab followed by a right one.

 

  She parries the first by just slapping it away, and the second she punches back, to test where her strength is right now, colliding Manas together with the man.

 

  They struggle a little, a Manas of aura like fire and one like wind.

 

*CRACKS* *TREMBLING*

 

  Zero gets an idea where she stands now, and the difference on just having mana, and having a [Manas Skills].

 

  *CRACKS*

 

  Their surroundings getting destroyed, Jon is using everything he has, locking his teeth together with enough force to snap iron, when he takes a second back to get his breath back, he's kicked on the right side of his ribs, followed by a knee to the mouth and a backflip with a kick.

 

  He's sent to the ground, blood out of his mouth and nose, the former probably broken.

 

The attacker, just finishes the backflip and lands with almost no sound, at all.

 

Zero turns her head to the long ranged ones.

 

  They try to fire something, but Luck is trembling too much to even cast something, and Jessie can't even mutter the strength to pull the damn string of her bow.

 

  Zero disappears, and that makes them go *TENSE*.

 

  They look around anxiously, to find nothing.

 

  After some seconds of silence.

 

They feel something grabbing the back o their head, and a hot breath on their shoulders.

 

  They sweat cold,  almost whelping.

 

  "Why....."- Was the only thing Zero wanted to know, the crazy Spar guy who's now with rib cage broken on the ground didn't give her a good answer, and he looks like a lunatic, so she didn't take what he said seriously.

 

  The one to speak is Jessie, as Luck is almost fainting.-" W-We were told too!! They said we would be back home after we slay some monster!!! Saying we would get  a lot s-stronger if we kill you guys!!! I promise that's all they told me!!!"- Jessie speaks loud, not yelling,  but still loud.

 

  But that just serves to irritate the one holding their heads.- 'They killed who knows how many, just because they were told to? Not even think if it was right or wrong for a second?'-.

 

  'Killing beings who didn't even raise their hands against them....'- Zero breath stops a little,  making both heroes sigh mentally

 

They shouldn't.

 

*BOOM* *DOUBLE CRACK*

 

  With an explosion Zero put both of their head together with helmet and everything to the ground with great force, probably breaking their skull and killing both in the process, or they died from the shock of hitting the ground with such an extreme force.

 

*Noises and rough breathing* Spar and Jon get up, Spar spitting blood and Jon can't even balance correctly, both look like they've seen way better days.

 

  They both angrily yell, giving a warrior's shout, and rushing towards Zero with the maximum strength they can mutter at the moment.

 

  She just looks at them for a second, and looks at her hand, since for her, they're as slow as a slug right now.

 

Her body, is in a condition where the second she stops using her [Armament Manas], it's 100% going to collapse.

 

  Her Manas is enduring the damage she received before, it absorbed the damage like a sponge,  but when she gets back to normal,  is going to release everything together.

 

  When they get close enough, she extends an arm and opens her hand.

 

  "{Inferno}"- She uses her new [Armament Manas] to reinforce {Increase}'s heat.

 

  And it works like a glove.

 

  Both turn into fried red chicken, and their armor basically fried them like a microwave, they screamed in pain, until they're both dead.

 

  Zero just stands there.

 

  'There's another six, what are they doing?' - She needs to end this before her manas runs out completely.

 

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(◇A little explaining:

  Someone who controls mana and a [Manas Skill], are totally different,  Zero's as an example, she could use mana, yes, but the [Manas Skills]? No. Until now.

  She Can use her Skills with mana, and now with [Armament Manas], but would still lose to someone like Mariie, since she has a very advanced [Manas Sense], Zero wouldn't be able to do much without her own version of it, to predict where the other would go.