Chapter 40 - There You Are

<p>"Hold off those three for a second!"<br/><br/> "Right, right. Hup!"<br/><br/> With my new levels of speed, the three lines tracing a jagged lightning mark across one of the Bulls' faces becomes much more refined, cutting deep enough to instantly kill it. The Mana pours from my eye, tracing a concentrated line through the air as my head whips around to face the closest two of four surviving Bulls.<br/><br/>[Critical Sight Skill was activated.]<br/>[Please select target areas.]<br/>['Head' was selected.]<br/>['Torso' was selected.]<br/><br/> Slamming my foot into the ground, I kick up a large piece of dirt behind me as I dash forward. Flying at high speed, I pull my blade back to charge up a wide swing. <br/><br/> One of the Bulls roared and faced me; however, the other one began charging towards Eniyala. 'Shit.'<br/><br/> I leap to the side of the Bull attacking me, swinging up to shallowly cut into the newly upgraded X mark on its stomach.<br/><br/>[Critical Mark has been hit. Dmg was adjusted to 500%.]<br/><br/> SHH-wick!<br/><br/> The Bull can barely process the lack of feeling from its back legs as they fall to the ground separately before I'm chasing down the Bull heading for Eniyala. She's already avoiding one, and two would be impossible as she combines parts of a sigil to create a new spell, a Skill unique to her family's Class.<br/><br/> The targeted woman has finally finished crafting her new spell, and her rod glows brightly as she holds out her fingers towards the closest beast. "Chains of Ignios," she chants, and fiery rings form above the base of each middle knuckle, a chain with a sharp blade on the end attached to them. With a slight twitch of her fingers, the chains extend, flying towards the Bull she is currently fighting and putting five new scorching holes through its head. It falls limply to the ground as I leap up on the back of the one storming towards her. Feeling a new presence on its back, the Bull does what a bull does best — begins bucking. Saliva flies from my mouth as I yell, holding on with both hands as my blade goes flying. My body bounces like a ragdoll against its back; I'm literally being thrown around.<br/><br/> "Eni…! This is… my first… rodeo, you know!" I cry out, and she watches for a second more before swinging two of the chains around. They fly elegantly, low through the air before cutting the inside of the knee joint on all four of the crazy ass cow's legs. The body slams into the ground like a falling tree as I get tossed aside, unable to keep my grip. <br/><br/> I groan, rolling onto my back as Eniyala finishes off the Bull with another chain, and they disperse silently as Eniyala makes her way over to crouch down and gloatingly stare at my exhausted expression. "Nice job at the end there. You really held out on your 'rodeo' or whatever. And you follow my orders soo well." She ruffles my hair playfully before standing back up. About a quarter of the Bull's bodies have already decomposed, and she stores three of the bodies in a cube before lugging her overencumbered body to the useless buff Bard, who sits inside a flame circle to protect him. As Eniyala crosses the line, the circle breaks, deforming the small flames licking through the grass of the gentle plains. <br/><br/> Lynsel takes the cube, pulling out another and going to pick up the loot scattered throughout the area where the mostly decayed bodies lay. "Should I carry you back as well, sir?" He yells to me as he picks up the horns and Manacores.<br/><br/> "Not helpful," I shout back. "Just give me a minute."<br/><br/> I lay for another two minutes or so before I sit up. I mindlessly mentally swipe away the messages that have popped up around the edges of my vision, pulling two of them into view.<br/><br/>[User Leveled Up!]<br/>[User Leveled Up!]<br/>[The user fought off 10 or more enemies at once with a party member.<br/> This achievement forcefully rose one or more stats.<br/> +1 INT, +1 DEX]<br/><br/> "Damn, been awhile since I've seen one of those," I say quietly, before calling out to Lynsel, making my way to my feet. "Hey useless Bard! How many did we fight just now?"<br/><br/> He looks up with a goofy smile on his face as he responds. "Almost 20! You took them out pretty quickly, I have to say."<br/><br/> I wave off his praise as I look over to Eniyala. "What about you?" I ask, gesturing to my Level Up screens. She flips her book around to show me her Level. <br/><br/>(Lv: 15)<br/><br/> "Just one… Not bad," I note, nodding. She had leveled up once on the way to the city, and should be fine for the tournament for now at 15. She flips her book around as she begins distributing her points. I have 8 Free Stats now, but as I ponder, I find the only thing I should really need now is a point in Dexterity for my personal wants. "Maybe a point in Vitality, just in case?"<br/><br/> "Your stats are useless if you don't use them," Eniyala reminds me, and I shoot her a look.<br/><br/> "Stats distributed in the wrong places are useless," I shoot back, dropping one point into the two Stats I thought needed them. Closing my Statscreen, I let out a large yawn. "Well, we have about three hours before the match… So I'm going to take a nap."<br/><br/> Eniyala nods in agreement, and we gesture at Lynsel to come on before we head back to the city.<br/><br/><br/>- - -<br/><br/> The cold sweat beads around my eye and mixes with a single tear as I open them, looking at the plain ceiling.<br/><br/> "Fuck, almost thought I was over these," I mutter as I sigh, sitting up. The nightmare was consistently the same now; the only difference was that I could feel the black void consuming me a little more each time.<br/><br/> Shaking the negative feelings from my brain, I check the time. I still had 30 minutes left on my alarm, which meant I had an hour and a half before my match began, and an hour before I had to be there to prepare.<br/><br/> "First things first, I should wash this armor." <br/><br/> I took a tentative sniff of the fabric, wincing from the smell. "Yep. Definitely." <br/><br/> I take the armor downstairs, to the washing area, to clean it up. As I'm scrubbing the blood off the pieces of plating, a pair of feet appear in my vision. <br/><br/> "There you are."<br/><br/> "…Huh?"<br/><br/> I look up to see a large pair of glasses with an even larger pair of navy blue eyes glaring at me. He holds out his middle finger with a sneer. "Prepare to lose, fucker."<br/><br/> With that, he turns and walks out of the washroom as if nothing had happened.<br/><br/> "…The fuck?"<br/><br/> It took me about thirty seconds to finally realize who it was that had just walked in. <br/><br/> "What the fuck?!<br/><br/> I dash out the door, dripping water on the floor as I look left and right frantically. But, he's already gone. <br/><br/> "Wonder what the hell I did to piss him off before we've even fought," I sigh, returning to finish scrubbing my armor. <br/><br/> Trying to shake the oddity of what happened off, I dry my armor off using one of the Air Magic stones and then slip it on, making sure the fabric hadn't shrunk. Confirming it still fit well, I resort to wandering around the city for half an hour. I didn't want to deal with Lynsel right now, or disturb Eniyala as she was getting ready for her own match, so I was alone as I strolled through the busy street. I flow seamlessly through the crowd of people, something I had only just learned I had any aptitude for. After all, when you live life at one Dexterity, you often hit a lot of walls.<br/><br/> Pulling me back to reality, my arm smacks one of the supports for the stalls lining the street, and I twist to try to catch myself, to no avail. In my normally clumsy manner, my back slams into the ground with a gruff "oof" escaping my mouth unwillingly. I stare at the violet and blue mixed sky, the colorful tall buildings reaching towards it between the older, almost medieval style clothing of the people who walked past — th buildings aren't as tall as Earth's skyscrapers, but they still have a much more modern look to them comparatively.<br/><br/> Figures.<br/><br/> 'It's an entirely new world,' I have to remind myself as I sit up. A few people are looking and whispering at me. "Guess being clumsy isn't all that common, either," I chuckle quietly, checking the time on my phone. "Shit, better get going." I turn, jogging towards the stadium where my first match of the tournament waited patiently for me to arrive.<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/>[Critical Sight (Ultra Rare Active Skill): When engaged in battle, attacking enemy or target(s) will be marked with an X in target area. Upon striking the 'Critical Mark,' damage will deal 500% of attack. Note: Second target will be placed randomly if activated on same target. First target can be placed randomly within selected area. (Max targets: 2 — Max 'Critical Mark' per target: 2) Cost: None — Cooldown: 2 seconds]<br/>[Fury Slash (Rare Active Skill): The user gains 200% atk power with blade-type weapons only. <br/>Duration: 1 minute — Cost: 10 Mana, 2 Stamina per landed hit — Cooldown: 20 seconds]</p>