Metal man and new family

(Lex POV)

"*Sigh* this never gets any easier!"

The entirety of my time has been completely stacked for the last 2 weeks, it's been draining for sure but seeing visible progression my abilities will never not be refreshing.

Today I had to go at it alone, no Esel or Lily, the other knights that come her occasionally just me and Tanya but she comes and goes as per the schedule.

Aura is a beautiful thing, everytime I look at it even if it's only a miniscule difference I feel like I'm watching myself bear the fruits of my effort. Clenching my fist a black hue of energy covered my hand. It helped me with my workouts and considerably increased how much my punches pack.

Something weird I've discovered is when I'm multitasking in using both aura and creatine it begins to clash with eachother and I don't know why. But I've got my trusty ol' system that's willing to answer my questions this time without struggle.

[[ As excessive use of the force "creatine" can influence the host with the will of creation. Aura and mana also carry their own wills. Aura carries the will of progress and mana carries the will of the world.

[[ The world desires progress and hence aura and mana are willing to work together. However the will of creation also creates stagnation and hence Creatine users are typically unable to use the other form of energy. ]]

"Why would you leave out such important information? Also then how am I able to use all three of them?"

[[ The system is able to surpress those wills of course! ]]

"Umm okay don't need to kiss your own feet so much..."

'Oooowee! God the 8th grade syndrome within me is struggling to contain itself when these things exist. Like I want the power to make these "wills" submit to me of their own will that would be so cool~' (A/N pun originally not intended)

***

Angeline and I walked and talked together as we headed back from the library. The night seemed normal... too normal?

Nope! Just normal Amber talked to me about the books I had borrowed today, and the talks I had with Amber today.

"Oooh~ I miss tea, I can't eat or drink anything mmm~"

Angeline complained about her issues sometimes like this, he poltergeist ability let her moved decently sized objects but it was pretty low levelled.

"If I ever find a way to give you tea I'll tell you okay?"

Angeline's eyes sparkled in childish delight and I smiled warmly if I had the freedom or opportunity to do so I would do my best to hell her out.

"Really? Do you promise?!"

"Of course in fact..."

I kneel down and show her pinky.

"Hm? What are you doing Lex?"

"Oh! Right I guess you wouldn't know, tell you what this is called a pinky promise, if I can ever help you to interact with the real world again I promise I'll do my absolute best to help."

"Oh! A pinky promise! Me and my friend used to do those when we were kids he would aaalways~ keep them heehee."

She seemed delighted in the memories of her friend one of the few times I've seen her reminisce happily.

But what caught my attention is that they made pinky promises my memories don't recall it being a thing in this world. Just something to speculate on.

"Well you're friend seemed like a nice person, so how about it? Pinky promise?"

"Yes!"

She twirled her small finger around mine and under the light of the full moon a promise was made.

***

I was going to stay up the night, the garden as usual was empty.

'I think that apart from me no one comes here at least not recently, it's a bit worrisome it such a good place to relax. Yet neither by night or by day is there another person unless I bring them here.

'The meeting with the terrorists is an exception speaking of which, I haven't heard any news of what was done to the woman I beat. I really got lucky with that one. I feel either I won because she underestimated me or maybe there's another reason...

'I'll ask Esel if he can investigate again, thank god I have such a talented assassin with me free if charge.'

While on the bench I saw a single silver grey rose rise from beneath the cracks of the flooring. Every step from its stem till it's full bloom. I was on guard for multiple reasons at this sight. One because it's obviously unnatural for a flower to grow at such a high speed and second because this whole time I haven't seen a flower like this.

"Angeline! Come back here quickly! Get behind me."

From the stem a fog began to puff, the wind made the singular flower sway side to side chaotically. Angeline scurried behind me I didn't see her expression but I felt her tremble as she caught sight of the low spreading fog.

The grey petals began to pluck themselves and swirled in the air like a tornado. It spread high across the garden and from behind it a large figure appeared. In a distorted and retched voice the figure spoke,

"Hide~ and~ seek~ is over.... little girl."

'Shit this is probably the metal man that Angeline spoke about.'

[Character observation]!

{Name: Heinrich

Race: Spirit hunter | Half giant | Half dwarf

Titles: Final hunter of Gracia | The seeker | Subordinate of an otherworlder | Advocate of the moon goddess | Metal man | ...

Current feelings: Dutiful, tired, frustrated, Confused

STR: 437

AGI: 224

DEX: 44

CON: 716

INT: 100

WIS: 100

CHR: 169

DIV: 0

[Abilities]

1. Respawn lv. 3

2. Aura Control lv. 4

3. Poltergeist lv. 4

4. Intermediate swordsmanship lv. 8

5. Spirit interaction lv. Max

[Hobbies]

[Heinrich relationships]

Phil Torrent: Loyal

Angeline Von Gracia: Responsible

...

'Too much! That's too much to take in! Shit... alright what am I going to do here...'

I can't interact with her, but she was stable enough to see my gesture telling her to run. She complies and runs off in fear.

I was going to run away but my statas are no where near high enough. So I'll attempt a distraction luckily I've prepared a few more truck up my sleeve in case I required it. I'm also betting on being able to touch him...

I look behind me since the thing in front of me wasn't making any moves. Plot armour is on, I've programmed the [Binary shield] skill and have some creatine items on me. I should be able to handle him.

My hope that Angeline had escaped was for naught as just a step outside this boundary of fog she layed collapsed.

"Dammit... Angeline!"

I ran towards her and using [Pathway Maker] to constantly simulate me running forward incase I get attacked from behind. Sure enough just as I was about to reach her I saw my golden silhouette get pierced from behind. I rolled forward awkwardly before what I foresaw came to be.

Nearly out of the circle of fog, I forgot that this was a real fight and soon after I touched the floor a blade pierced my soldier.

"Gah!"

I screamed in agony, but I've experienced worse. The feeling of losing blood was familiar, but there was no room in my mind to pay attention to something trivial like that.

"Angeline ! *Kekh!*"

I cough a bit of blood onto my sleeve.

"Huh~ Lex?... Wait Lex are you okay ughhhh!"

She woke up and got a headache, I wanted to explain the situation but I needed her to do something or else we'd both die here. I take out a piece of metal shaped like a chain from my inventory and sling it around the sword pierced through me.

I transmitted a bit of chaos through the sword using the [Controlled chaos] skill and for a split second he let go of the sword enough time for me to transfer it into my inventory.

"Angeline you need to take us to the spirit world now!"

She crawled back into the fog area and her headache was now gone.

"W-w-what? What's that spirit world? And your hurt! Y-you need to see a doctor!"

I got up and [Death glare]'d that son of a bitch that was behind me. He took a step back but there wasn't a level up, I guess he doesn't count as two race grades above me. I quickly ran up before there was time for him to recover from his stupor.

I covered my foot with aura and kicked him in the chest, level 2 of [Aura control] only made it faster to cast aura onto different parts. It didn't even create a dent in his armour but it was enough to move him back.

"Cheh! Angeline there's no time for me to see a doctor look at the situation we're in."

I was slimly managing to avoid the punches and kicks being thrown at me by the metal man. I heard the sad voice of Angeline from behind me.

"B-but I can't! I don't know how to do that! I didn't even know I can..."

She doesn't know how to?

'Shit, fuck, shit, shit, fuck'

I swore inwardly feeling a bit irritable, I was doing fine until a punch I didn't predict came aimed towards my chest. I put two hand forward in time, bit the overwhelming strength of his aura cracked bones all the way to my ribs, a shockwave from the back of my body die to the force.

The man marched towards me slowly and I picked up a few parchments of paper with different abilities in my pocket. I landed and hit my back on the bench, potentially pulling a few ligaments.

I was experiencing difficulty breathing, but I did my best attempt at maintaining a calm attitude. Observing and thinking of things to do if there was any.

'What to do, what to do...'

I was beginning to lampoon inwardly as I could hardly think over the excruciating pain in my entire torso. Angeline seemed horrified I felt bad having to show me losing so badly to protect her...

'Wait, protect her? Why was I even doing that? ... ah! it's probably that isn't it? I began to care for her. I guess I couldn't stick with the me not being a hero bit from way back.'

[[ There's a solid to your predicament host ]]

"There is?!"

I was crawling away leaving a blood trail behind me. I already set the effects on the ground to make it difficult for him to cross but he continued to approach me steadily.

[[ Yes you must choose the right type of existence you want the childish spirit "Angeline" to be to you. You'll receive a skill for it. ]]

'Oookay. But how am I supposed to do that when the big guy iver there is between the two of us?'

[[ That's for you to figure out ]]

'Man~ seriously screw you.

'Alright think Lex how do I get over there and what is the right choice here?'

I somehow manage to push myself up for one last attempt here. My weaker left arm dangled to my side and I could hardly feel the ability to move in my right arm.

Thinking about everything I had in my possession I tried to come up with the right distraction.

***

(Angeline POV)

Lex h-he was bleeding all over, his shoulder was spurting more blood every few seconds, but his expression looked cold, unfeeling even.

'I want to help him, I want to help him, I want to help him, I want to help him, I want to help him.'

Repeatedly over and over in my head I told myself to get up and help him.

He was standing, wobbling, and swaying. From thin air he pulled a green circular object and a colourful energy surrounded it from his hand. Then from his back pocket he pulled out a piece of paper. When it touched the metal it lot ablaze.

I was scared, so so very scared. Yet Lex said I could help by going to the spirit world or something.

Lex threw the firey object at the metal man, who I used to have fun with. He would walk and follow me around and if he found me hiding I could never go back there. It wasn't until recently that He started attacking me...

The circle thing, surprisingly hit the metal man and he fell to his knees, but there was no agonizing scream. Couldn't even see his face under that helmet.

I kept on thinking how can I help bit there was no answer. Lex limped over to me and patted me on the head. The man stayed still in the ground the fire slowly dimming.

'Why is he giving me a headpat now?'

Then soon I heard a new robotic voice echo in my head,

[[ Congratulations! You are now the daughter of the protagonist, your fate is closely tied to his. Be careful. ]]

******

(MC/N Author sure did make me swear a lot this chapter.)

(A/N Not on purpose, you just went through a lot!)