Hessien, Vacinay, and Ghomas were taken aback by the size of the fireball.
“You weren’t kidding about being level 21?!” Vacinay exclaimed in panic.
Ignoring her, I unleashed the fireball, depleting almost all of my energy points.
The guards, who had been spouting off, were left dumbstruck as they saw their impending doom in the form of a massive fireball.
“Wha—,” was the last thing I heard before the fireball exploded, engulfing them all. Many ran amidst the flames, screaming in pain and terror, but I was indifferent. Hessien nudged my shoulder, and I turned to him, visibly drained.
He asked, “So… fire…”
“Yeah,” I replied, “I was fighting some spider woman and threw a fire stone or an explosion at her. So, I just took a skill to weaponize the already existing flames.”
He nodded slowly, “How did you get so strong and so fast?”
“I accidentally burned part of the forest, which had other half-men.”
"Semi-genocide, nice."
Vacinay sighed, “How much of a level-up did you get this time?”
“Surprisingly, none.”
Ghomas’s eyes widened, “They were around level 12-14. To think killing over 40 of them wasn’t enough.”
“Welp!” Vacinay shrugged as she walked forth, which confused me.
I asked, “You got fire immunity?”
“Nope!” She went from running to dashing at full speed.
What the… Upon reaching the flames, she transformed into a red monkey, made an impressive leap, and landed in the middle of the fire. What’s wrong with her?!
I turned to Hessien in a panic, “Why did she do that?!”
“She is okay.”
“How are you sure?”
“Because… I am sure. But can you remove the flames?”
“Yeah,” I sat down, “Once I recover enough energy points…”
Perhaps not taking the fire suppression skill was a mistake.
I asked again, “You are sure she is okay?”
He nodded, “She is most likely relying on her self-repair skill.”
Ghomas muttered, “That’s a bit insane. But Hessien, can’t you just put out the flames with a new skill card?”
Oh? Did he get water?
Hessien nodded, his hand glowing as he approached the flame, sweat trickling down his face.
He touched the fire, grunted, and then touched the ground. Suddenly, I felt heat under my feet.
He pulled back his burnt hand and grunted, “Done, let’s go!”
Ghomas, who was hugging a tree that was catching on fire, exclaimed, “You couldn’t think of anything else?!”
I was puzzled by Hessien’s actions. He held his hand tight and walked into the flames.
Did he exchange the temperature? That makes no sense.
I had an idea, but I was too stunned to articulate it.
Ghomas hopped off the tree and sprinted towards the flame. I looked around, seeing all the trees catching on fire. It was pretty amazing.
I also liked the fact we weren’t overlapping in skills. I like feeling unique, despite the fact fire control was far from unique.
I joined them. When I approached the flame, I felt no heat from it; instead, it felt like I was walking through soil.
After some walking, I met the other three who were in the hole in the mountain. Vacinay was on the ground, limbs spread wide open. Half of her body was burnt, which made me question her.
Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling. “I have a skill that lets me turn into a big rat which can dig and travel underground,” she said.
I asked, “So… why didn’t you do that out of the flames?”
She replied, “Well… My original plan was to rely on self-repair, but once I got in the flames, it hurt way too much.”
I called her an idiot.
She retorted, “Shut up…” and forced herself up.
Then she said, “By the way… I got my second skill card too.”
“Oh? What’s it? Sword combat?”
She replied, “Oh. You know, well that’s my third one.”
“You got another one that quickly.”
“Yessss.”
As I was about to ask her what it was, weird sounds came from inside the tunnel, like those of beasts.
Vacinay drew her sword but not before making a circle in the air, from which a small firefly…? Floated out.
The room was illuminated by a blue light that buzzed and glowed. My senses were upgraded, so I didn’t really need it.
Vacinay asked, “So… we are doing a rescue mission?”
Ghomas nodded. “Like actual Defenders?”
Hessien grinned. “This is some heroing shit.”
I stepped forth. “I will function as the tank.”
As I made my way through them, the three exchanged glances.
Then Ghomas asked, “Um… You can make a fire barrier?”
I smiled smugly, “No. I can do this.”
Instantly, I ignited my forearms and my legs. “Fire skin. I can of course focus which parts of my skin is affected.”
“Wow…” Hessien muttered in amazement.
“By the way, Hessien, what does your skill card do?”
“Oh, it’s called effect exchange. It allows me to make exchanges of kinds of states. I can make fire wet and water burning.”
“How did you even think about—”
Immediately, Vacinay dashed in front of me. Blood spilled in the air as a spear pierced through her chest like a bullet.
“Shit…” Vacinay dropped to her knees. “It doesn’t hurt that much…”
Huh… what?
Hessien immediately released mist covering the entire area. But I was still baffled.
He sent a message using the chat through the system. “Your flames! Turn them off.”
Oh… Right. I did as he said.
From deep inside the mountains, loud footsteps made their way to us. “One down. Three more too—”
“One down?! Which one?!” Vacinay, who regenerated her wound, shot forth, following after the voice.
Hessien, able to see in his mist, aimed and shot constant beams.
But, I couldn’t see anything!
I dashed out of the mist and what I saw made me consider turning back. It was a massive green man. His arms were the size of literal tree trunks.
Vacinay, who also saw it, took a break in her pace. “Uhh… You don’t perhaps like negotiations?”
He grinned at her. “You wouldn’t like it. It's a lot of blood.”
Vacinay grunted.
With a crackle of light, a lightning bolt hit the man directly on his face, and got a scream from him as he grabbed his face.
Vacinay and I immediately took advantage of the situation and dashed forward. Of course, I was faster than her. Utilizing future sight, my eyes felt like they were staring down a path that shouldn’t have been available.
A blue version of the half-man screamed and planted his right foot deep, cracking the ground before swinging his 2-meter long axe at my head.
“Eh?” I exclaimed.
The half-man, the actual one, followed that movement, planting his right foot deep!
Oh, the blue represents the future versions!
I shouted, “His axe has a range of around 2 meters!”
As soon as I shouted that, I dived onto the ground, dodging it. I got up quickly, following him with my future sight which gave me two seconds in the future.
However, I could tweak it to give me more! But I had to be wary of the EP drain!
The half-man moved so fast that if it wasn’t for my future sight, I definitely would have gotten hit.
While distracted by me, an explosive mist pellet hit him directly in his face. But it was concentrated on his face. In that same notion, Ghomas made two clones, however, they weren’t lean. They looked jacked on steroids.
They dashed forth and both grabbed his legs.
“Let go of me!” the half-man screamed.
Vacinay leaped and stabbed him in his back with her sword, but it didn’t go deep.
“Damn it!” she exclaimed.
With future sight, I saw the future version of him launching back and breaking her body.
“Get off him, quickly!” I shouted.
He heard me and must have figured I could tell what his moves were going to be. So, he used a skill, needles started to generate from his skin.
Time freeze!
Everything in the world became still.
I moved quickly and leaped on his back, grabbed Vacinay, and landed down.
Time freeze broke.
I was out of energy points…
Like something out of a video game, his skin needles pierced the air a meter long in range. At least they didn’t shoot forward.
“Thanks,” Vacinay told me as she repaired her wounds—or tried to
. “Oh… I am out of energy points.” Her little firefly disappeared too.
The half-man laughed as his skin needles retreated into his skin and he made his way to us.
“I am still here, you know,” Hessien shouted.
It seemed Ghomas was almost empty.
The half-man turned back to him and asked, “What can you possibly do?”
Hessien dropped the spear-gun.
“Not sure, let’s find out.” From his fingers lingered a dense mist.
Was he trying to get himself killed?
I got up, but as soon as I did that, the half-man kicked me, sending me into the wall with a cracking sound.
A wild scream escaped my lips as I dropped to the ground.
The half-man dragged his axe on the ground as he walked towards Hessien. “You know, I killed a lot of bold kids like you. You and the blond girl smell similar, siblings or cousins?”
Ghomas was breaking in an anxious sweat as Hessien answered, “Cousins. But, I am basically taking on the role of her big brother.”
“Oh. Don’t worry. When we use them in the next ritual batch, I will make sure to tell her you fought hard.”
Hessien smiled. “Damn, how considerate of you.”
They stood a meter away from each other.
“I did have siblings too. Well before, I desired power to protect them of course, and then turned into this.”
“That’s tough, but I don’t care,” Hessien replied as he generated a mist around him.
“I see…”
The half-man cleared the distance between the two so fast that he moved as a blur. But… the axe didn’t make its full arc. Instead it was stuck in the middle as it was caught.
The half-man was puzzled and tried to free his axe, but his actions were in vain. When did Hessien get the po—
“Well, I didn’t expect to see an ex-knight here.” From the mist, I heard a very familiar voice.
Vacinay shouted, “Miss Yamanda?!”
Out of nowhere, Yamanda appeared mid-air near his face and kicked him so hard that his face visibly deformed as it was sent flying for meters before rolling on the ground.
She stood in the air as if she was literally flying.
Insane...
I turned back to the half-man which had blood pouring from his face.
Hessien ran out of the mist towards me and Vacinay with a grin. “You all okay?”
I tried to smile. “On the most part, yeah.”
Vacinay nodded. “Kinda.”
He offered me a hand. “You can stand?”
“Of course,” I replied as I attempted to move my legs. But why couldn’t I feel them? I stared at them. “Move.” But they did not move.
Please don’t tell me this guy crippled me.
“You can’t move?” Hessien asked.
“I-I I am sure it’s just exhaustion,” I looked around, unable to maintain steady eye contact.
Vacinay poked me. “My self-repair should be able to be applied to others. Once I recover enough EP, I will repair it for you.”
Oh right, she did have that skill.
I nodded, “Thanks.”
Then the half-man was teleported in front of Yamanda. When he got a proper look at her, she allowed him to drop to the ground.
He shook his head as he tried to form words. “Why… are you here?”
Yamanda appeared behind him. “Why not? We were close, right? You tried to kill me many times after all.”
“No… no!” He expanded his skin needles to insane lengths.
But Yamanda didn’t move. She didn’t even need to. The needles didn’t penetrate her armor.
She then grabbed a needle. “Well, to tell the truth, I am here because I am these kids’ teacher.”
His eyes widened as he suddenly… became hundreds of meat chunks and rained on the ground in a bloody puddle.
