Lisa's Determination
*Swish!*
A metal chain whipped across the air. On its end, an almost 10 kg-heavy spiked iron ball the size of a small bowling ball got swept by the momentum and swung toward its target—the poor skull of a poor middle-aged man.
*Wham!*
One blow to the temple! One head exploded! Blood sprays colored the view and brain matter splattered the asphalt.
The now-bald and, more importantly, free Greg Woods was having the best time of his life. His left hand was gripping the tail of the chain, while his right hand kept swinging it around. [Bloodbath Star] was the name of the weapon, generously gifted by his dear Author, Euphor after reaching an Arc Tower near Menard Correctional Center. He had to make a detour from his destination in order to do that, but he had time.
Chicago wasn't too far, after all.
After becoming a free man again, Euphor had sent him away on a mission. 'Reach Grant Park in Chicago', she said on his Objectives screen. And so, there he was heading, driving a stolen prisoner transport truck.
The god had also been kind enough to bestow upon him great powers. But of course, every power had its price. For him to become the most powerful human, he had to undergo a long period of unending pain. His blood boiling, his muscles ripping, and his bones being reconstructed over and over. All so he could be born anew. As a result, he saw a constant increase in those Strength and Agility points and whatnot. He still couldn't fully comprehend what that was all about. All he knew was that their numbers kept growing rapidly. And that meant more power.
Even now, as he basked in the joy of killing, the pain never stopped. He bore with it as his weapon's spiked ball was being bathed in more blood. His mouth opened to a wide grin akin to a feral carnivore, and his eyes bloodshot with an insatiable thirst for carnage.
The Alias 'Killjoy' suited him perfectly.
With loud screams from a variety of vocal tones as the background choir, he sang in delight as his hand swung the chain. "I see trees of green~ Red roses too~"
A woman had the audacity to run away from him, so her head had to explode.
"I see them bloom, for me and you~"
The spiked ball flew across the street and smashed into the fragile parietal bone of a cowering boy.
"And I think to myself…"
The chain clinked and clanked before the spiked ball crushed the crying face of a grandma.
"What a wonderful world~"
---
*Bang!*
A lead bullet with magic inscriptions that glowed violet struck the left eye of a seemingly angry young man. The bullet pierced the skull and brain and left through the back.
In the blink of an eye, the young man lost his life. His body plopped lifelessly to the ground.
"Damn, Mika! You gave him no mercy at all!" exclaimed a well-built, bronze-skinned guy who stood with an amused look on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry you had to see that, Clarice," he said, looking to the side at a tanned woman in her early twenties.
With her back hunched and one hand covering her mouth, Clarice was struggling not to gag. "Shut up, Mateo." Her brown eyes glanced through the drapes of her blond hair at a half-Japanese woman with short black hair, all-black leather attire, and sunglasses. Clarice used to be perpetually annoyed at the woman, but lately, she was able to rein in her bitchy attitude for the sake of survival. And that meant becoming a Supporting Character for Mika.
Mika put her gun back into the holster strapped on her right thigh. She turned and was about to walk away before that movement caused her body to scream. "Ugh," she groaned while squeezing her eyes shut and winced. The annoying pain constantly ravaging her body truly wasn't a nice way for an Author to empower their own Protagonist.
'Fuck, couldn't you have found a gentler way to raise my stats, Bob?' she mentally protested.
Her Author, Bob, had instructed her to head a bit north toward an Arc Tower. Upon arrival, she received a new Objective to put her guns, once called The Bullseye Janes, into the Reward Room. After waiting for a bit, she got her guns back, now with violet magic inscriptions embellishing their dark surface. Not only that, they had also been renamed.
[Ivy Jane] which Mika held on her right hand, and [Lily Jane] which she held on her left.
Now that the guns had a different name, she could finally call them without feeling like calling herself. Yes, the name of the guns had been the lazy god's inspiration for her Alias, 'Bullseye Jane'. She still didn't know why the god had chosen her to be his Protagonist, and frankly, she would've rather not become a Protagonist at all. But this was her situation now, and all she could do was roll with it.
Besides, she kind of liked the rush from feeling her power gradually rising behind all that pain. Not to mention, the unexplainable satisfaction she got after completing each Objective, which mostly involved slaughtering people. She had thought her heart would've been weighted by the endless killing, but for some reason, she just felt excited. It was as if her remorse had been muted.
Mika took a deep breath and ignored the pain. She turned toward her two Supporting Characters and said, "Let's go. I just got a new Main Objective to head to the Near North Side of Chicago. I don't know what we'll find there, but we're moving out in a few hours."
---
"Ah!" Lisa screamed as a sword made of earth pierced her abdomen. The training sword had a blunt tip, but TJ's inhuman strength was able to launch it up in the air and knock the little girl down from the sky where she had been flying around.
Lisa crash landed on her back and skidded against the asphalt before reaching the edge of the parking lot where Magnus' [Unbreakable] dome stood unfaltering. Her spine bumped against the white barrier, the earth sword still planted in her stomach. She grimaced and wasn't able to find the strength to remove it.
The next second, Magnus already arrived before her, immediately grabbing the sword's hilt to yank the weapon out of her. He didn't wait to apply [Big Spark] on the open wound. It was fatal, so Summer let her boyfriend deal with it, since her [Lesser Heal] was too slow and ineffective to get the girl out of death's door fast enough.
Safe to say, Lisa's [Pain Resistance] had successfully jumped all the way to level five after getting beaten the crap out of by TJ. At this rate, the fight was no longer just a spar; it had become straight up bullying. Yet, it wasn't entirely TJ's fault. He had officially ended the spar in less than twenty seconds. However, after being healed by Summer, Lisa got up and requested for Magnus to allow her a rematch.
Magnus had seen this coming. He could feel that unless he wanted her pent-up emotions to eat away at her heart, he needed to say yes to the rematch. It was a good thing that the fight had started after an hour-long break.
Katja vs Mrs. Wang's spar had been followed by a couple hours of break. After that, it was Fiona's and Garrett's turn to put their skills to the test. Their fight ended up becoming a battle of attrition. Water and fire clashed in the air, with Garrett on the offense most of the time and Magnus' mother putting up defense after defense.
[Tidal Wave] had proven to be Fiona's most reliable skill, easily fending off against Garrett's staff's [Rapid Fire]. The result? Water won against fire.
Garrett's reckless attacks consumed too much of his mana, while Fiona's careful approach led her to conserve mana by focusing on evading attacks and defending. She could've tried to attack, but unless her [Riptide] reached a higher level, it would've dealt little damage to her opponent.
So she patiently waited for Garrett to exhaust his mana, and in the end, it paid off.
After the fight ended, Magnus announced that the next spar was going to be held after another break. Everyone was confused as to why at first, but now they knew. Magnus had predicted that Lisa would refuse to accept her loss.
After her stomach was fully healed and her mana recovered using Summer's [Mana Bank] ring, she got up, zipping up her jacket to cover her now torn and bloody shirt. The storm in her eyes hadn't let up, yet.
Magnus sighed. It was already the fifth time. "Again?" he asked.
Lisa nodded resolutely. "Again," she said as she ran while casting [Squally Slash], followed by a couple of [Wind Bullet]s. After her four losses, she had learned to diversify her attacks within short intervals. This would force TJ to focus on evading, since the speedy wind bullets came consecutively after the slow but bigger wind blade. In the meantime, she used [Gale] to launch herself in a random—thus unpredictable—direction, and then abruptly flew up to rain down more wind bullets from above.
Meanwhile, TJ was able to clearly see the incoming wind projectiles, and managed to evade them with ease. He could also tell that soon after, Lisa was already flying again, ready to send him aerial assaults. He scoffed. 'This is getting boring,' he thought. However, a part of him felt compelled to keep testing her willpower, as well as help her level up her skills. He wanted to see how long she was able to keep this up.
Magnus was able to feel that part of TJ, causing him to internally nod in approval.
Lisa began shooting down wind bullet after wind bullet before landing on the other side of the parking lot.
TJ rolled his eyes. 'She hasn't learned anything,' he thought as he casted his second defense skill after [Line of Fire].
[Solar Flare]!
It was inspired by Dazhbog's explosion of white flames that had given Magnus much trouble. TJ hadn't been there to witness it firsthand, but Magnus had explained to him how it looked. The skill had successfully been learned earlier that morning, granting Magnus 250 DP.
TJ's body was suddenly enveloped by a bubble of red Aura, before flames burst out of it, instantly devouring Lisa's wind bullets. His clothes were fine, though, as the fire originated from the bubble, which was formed some centimeters away from his body.
Lisa wasn't surprised by this development, as the same exact thing had happened before her third and fourth losses. This time, though, she finally felt like she was ready to unleash her new skill. After her initial defeat, she had spent most of the next four rounds trying to comprehend a skill inspired by [Ice Wall]. Luna may not be there with her anymore to help out with the skill, but that didn't mean she couldn't use water element mana to execute any ice-related spell. It would just cost her a little extra mana.
She used [Gale] to launch herself backward, avoiding the heat radiating off TJ's [Solar Flare]. The flames didn't last long on the account of the skill's low level, so TJ was instantly left exposed again.
Soon after, Lisa canceled [Gale] and focused on the image of the frozen ground she usually saw just before [Ice Wall] formed. Touching her palm on the asphalt, she channeled water element mana from her body, followed closely by a stream of wind element mana. Immediately, a visible layer of ice formed on the ground, quickly heading toward TJ's feet.
Seeing that, TJ's eyes widened in surprise. He didn't know she had another trick up her sleeve, and so he was caught off guard.
Magnus, too, was genuinely shocked the girl had learned the skill all on her own.
The ice traveled fast and arrived beneath TJ's shoes before it climbed up his feet. At the same time, Lisa was already on the move. She skated on the icy ground while shooting out several wind bullets. Hopefully, at this close distance, the bullets were fast enough to reach TJ before he could cast another [Solar Flare].
Between his frozen feet and the incoming wind bullets, TJ chose to ignore the former and tank the latter. He didn't try to defend himself. Instead, he fired the now-Level 7 [Flamethrower] at the defenseless Lisa. The fireball now had grown as big as 50 cm in diameter.
A couple of the wind bullets managed to pierce TJ's chest and arm as the huge fireball zoomed in toward the wide-eyed Lisa. With that, the girl soon clenched her jaw; she finally, albeit reluctantly, accepted her defeat.
Magnus instantly caught the look in her eyes, and took that as his cue.
Before the fireball managed to burn the hairs on Lisa's skin, an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her away. Half a second later, a giant ice wall rose up and took on the fireball head on. Against the freezing cold, thick, and sturdy wall, the fireball roared, as if struggling to keep itself alight. However, it soon lost its heat and was extinguished after a few more seconds.
"Fight's over!" Magnus finally announced.
Summer quickly moved to heal TJ's wounds while the guy himself was busy heating up his frozen feet.
A distance away, Lisa was trying to catch her breath. This time, the fight ended while she remained unscathed. However, she knew that didn't mean much.
She still lost. If Magnus hadn't pulled her to safety, the fireball would've instantly scorched her entire body.
Nevertheless, at least she finally managed to land a hit on TJ. And she gained something new out of her half an hour-long suffering.
[Congratulations! You have learned a skill!
Skill Name: Frozen Land
Description: Combines water and wind element mana to create ice layer on the ground.
Mana Cost: 8 points/second
Cooldown: None.]
[Frozen Land], a.k.a [Siberian Might] as seen on Magnus' list of skills, since Atlantis had taken the liberty to rebrand it.