32 31. Stormreach

The imposing aura of Blair melted the surrounding snow, standing in her presence was the same as looking up at Mount Everest, an unbeatable challenge. Yet Harvey persisted, looking her in the eye.

She tossed back her hair with a sigh, then proceeded to circle around Harvey as if assessing him. "Before we begin, I'll need you to take off that mask."

"I didn't model this face after my real one. You seeing my face won't change anything."

"It will," Blair turned back to face him, halting in front of him. "Now, are you going to remove your mask, or should I continue with the rest of my day, leaving you uninstructed?"

"What exactly can you even teach me," Harvey muttered under his breath.

"You were beaten by Hiakam, if I didn't stop him. You would've died, that would've been the end of you. Right now? You would've been with your girlfriend."

Harvey calmly stowed away his mask, revealing his white hair and blue eyes without uttering a word. He maintained his gaze, locking eyes with Blair as she returned the stare. "Good," Blair remarked, wondering if she had touched too deeply on a sensitive topic.

"Hiakam mentioned you had already used your manifest before the encounter. That tells me a few things. You're not well-versed in the significance of a manifest, you're relatively new to it, and you lack knowledge on how to end it."

Blair continued, producing a lance from her inventory and twirling it around as she faced Harvey. "Let's keep it practical. Neither of us will use our innate techniques or manifests."

"Three,"

"Two,"

"One,"

Before the word "Go" could escape her lips, Harvey materialized in front of her, his eyes devoid of any emotion. His dagger, already poised at her neck, emitted an overwhelming wave of bloodlust that penetrated her soul, rendering her powerless.

Frozen in place, she couldn't activate her innate technique or wield her weapon, witnessing Harvey ready to strike the fatal blow. "Don't mention her again," Harvey muttered as his blade connected with her neck. In the final moment, he had eradicated his own effect, not willingly.

"Go..." Blair gingerly touched her neck, finding no trace of blood. She stared at Harvey, who remained in his original position, without a blade in hand. Had it all been a figment of her imagination?

"I've removed my mask," Harvey said, looking at her as she pondered what had happened.

"Umm... Yeah..." Blair quickly regained her composure, stabbing her unique lance into the ground. "I wanted to see your name… There's a skull next to it. That means you understand this is more than just a game." She said as she pointed at her own name, a skull next to it as well

Now she mentioned it, he realized that everyone in the guild, whether from Scorpion Talon or New Order, had a skull next to their name... everyone except Loki. Was he so strong that he'd never had to kill anyone or was it the opposite? "I abandoned the notion that this was just a game a while back."

"Doesn't matter, hiding your name is pointless. Thinking the faction doesn't know your every move is naive." She gestured as she leaned on her lance.

"Do you guys think you can take them down?" Harvey asked, the snow taking a chill turn, blowing at them rapidly.

"We can't."

.

.

.

The wind persisted as Harvey inhaled deeply, exhaling a mist that enveloped his face. Of course, they didn't stand a chance. "Why?"

"The Faction possibly have Beastmen, a greater number of Unknown cores than us, potentially more weapons, and given their consistent player-killing activities, they've likely achieved a higher level than us."

"The members of the guild seem to think differently— Chaos Bird thought every member of Scorpion Talon was a God, you trampled on them like one too."

"That's just a facade. The same way a country pretends they'll launch a nuclear attack, that's what we are." Blair looked into the horizon, her eyes blank. "Empty threats."

"Hm."

"I'd like to thank you." She turned back to him, her eyes warm.

"I didn't think you liked me." Harvey retorted, still meeting her gaze.

"Maybe... but if you didn't kill the Unknown before they got there, all three of them would've died."

"Why were they sent there then?" Harvey pondered. "Wasn't it a suicide mission?"

"A panic resort... Loki probably thought doing nothing would seem counterproductive. While he should've talked to Zen before making such a dumb decision, I can understand his burden." Blair sighed, pushing herself off her lance.

"Baggage?"

"Nothing significant. Just a party I led— Used to lead." Blair covered her mouth, exhaling warm air into her hands. "I led them to their deaths, after all. It was a bug's nest. An Unknown."

"Sorry." He apologized.

"It doesn't matter now... not anymore." Blair gazed at Harvey. "Let's return to our original topic."

"Doesn't seem like you stand a chance, against the Faction that is."

"We do."

"Oh—" Harvey muttered, wanting to hear her reason.

"If we get the upper hand on them... catching at least one of them off guard. We can take him and if we can do that a few more times—"

"And if that fails?" Harvey inquired, her proposed plan far from perfect.

"That's why we saved you," Blair grinned, her brown eyes and green hair shimmering in the fleeting sunlight, she was beautiful. "Oh-so World's greatest gamer."

"Hiakam has that title, he almost beat me," Harvey remarked, throwing up a gesture.

"He did."

"I had no mana, stamina and I was suffering from mana poisoning. Also, my weapons were destroyed in my last battle."

"Doesn't change the fact that he won." She raised her shoulders, making a gesture as she slowly walked away.

"My joints were locked and my heart raced faster than a Formula One car."

"And the sky is blue."

"Touché" He admitted.

"There's a technique I'm gonna teach you." Blair continued walking away from him, giving a considerable space between them. "Manifests are extremely powerful, but at their core. They're nothing more than a veil of mana. Using the infinite mana granted by your manifest to destroy it ends your manifest early, allowing you to have your mana and stamina after."

"What are the cons?"

"Takes longer to use your manifest after. The waiting period is six hours, using this bumps it to twelve."

"Not as bad as it could be." He admitted.

"Perhaps," Blair clenched her fist, channeling mana into it. "Start by focusing your mana, gathering it until it's at its peak, when it feels like no more mana can be gathered. Don't halt."

"And then?"

"Within your manifest, it becomes infinite," She illustrated further. "Once you reach that threshold, you'll sense it faster than anyone. At that moment, release it."

"Alright."

"Now get to business!"

"You don't have to yell." He commented, his ears ringing.

"We might have an understanding but I'm not your friend, hop to it!"

"Sure, Sure."

Harvey began practicing, using the first method she taught him. Converging his mana until he felt like he couldn't anymore, then eventually letting go. He did it multiple times, halving his mana supply at some point. "I think I'm ready for the real thing."

"Go ahead. Then. Remember, don't kill me." Blair said going further away from him, trying to make sure she was out of the blast range. "Go."

"Here goes nothing." Harvey began concentrating his mana, about to open his manifest. Yet right before he did, a message interrupted him. "Hm?"

Harvey accessed his system, checking his inbox to find a message from Fiera: "We've located the Azure, and it turns out two members of the faction are currently in Hunter Valley alongside them. The town is on the outskirts of StormReach. Both teams are expected to be there by noon. While we're unsure of their objectives in StormReach, eliminating them first and asking questions later would be beneficial to all of us. Fiera, signing out."

Harvey glanced at Blair before sighing, the routine of sitting on a mountain and enduring the chill, warming up, only to face the cold again had become a familiar cycle. "Both the Azure and the faction," Harvey pondered, Fiera's words echoing in his mind. "Hm."

"It appears your next opportunity to test this would be in an actual battle," Blair declared, shouldering her lance and stowing it away. "Let's go, it's about time I fought something."