The red bolt of energy hurled itself back to Chizuru, extremely fast. Once again, the flicker of red light signaled the activation of the same skill.
[Chizuru activated Counter.]
[Your magic has been reflected.]
“Enough of this!” Dark snapped, invoking the magic of the consenting pact. The reflecting power absorbed into him.
[Your HP has been fully restored.]
Dark stood then stomped the ground with a single foot.
[Dark activated Ground shockwave beta.]
“Stop this,” Chizuru yelled, triggering her counter. “Why are you attacking? We’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t want to harm you over some misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” Dark said as he reabsorbed his magic, taking no damage. The only downside to this was that the absorption ability rapidly drained Myriad’s magic. If she ran out of MP or was knocked out, he’d lose the protection. “No, I’ve worked with your kind. And they…they killed so many innocent people.” His eyes glowed even redder. “I will kill all crusaders.”
The charging for his answer to the countering had finally finished.
“Wait, what are you talking about? Surely we can—”
He aimed a hand at the girl who once again preferred to remain on the defensive. The other crusaders shook their heads.
“Chizuru, we’re taking him down, sorry.”
“Wait, don’t!”
But the group did not listen. Dark snarled, annoyed with the cocky bastards. The crusaders, killer of humanity, experimenters of the innocent. A poison to the world. He’d be the one to do something about them.
[Dark activated Silver tier skill: Soul Ender Cascade.]
He allowed himself a brief thought about how the tiers worked. The numbers were the weakest, not counting tier zero, which in his opinion made no sense. There wasn’t a single soul on the goddamn planet that could learn tier zero skills anyway. An impossibility. A mythic tier, made up by power-craving losers.
Three, while powerful and could pull wondrous feats, was the weakest. Tier one took the top. Then climbing in strength: Bronze, Silver, Gold. Goddess and God were the most powerful tiers, divided among genders, but equally powerful and impossibly difficult to obtain. Goddess for women, God for men.
Why the asshats didn’t just put them in one category was beyond Dark.
Then tiers that could not be easily classified due to the inconsistency in spells or just hidden from the public in general: Special or Void skills. Void continued to house the darkest, sometimes the most evil of spells in existence. Forbidden spells were just special skills under a different name, abilities that could attract the attention of serious higher powers.
The only tier that eluded his knowledge was the unknown tier. Another myth—and not a single thing about them could be found.
The crusaders thought they were going to land an easy kill on Dark, but the released magic told them a different story. Their defenses kept them alive, but as they were blasted backward, finishing off the rest of the tables, many of their HPs dropped below twenty percent.
“Damn meat shields,” Dark said. “I’ll deal with them later.”
He pulled his black sword from the inventory. He and Chizuru took stances, eyes focused. Now the fight was about to be taken seriously.
Episode 43 (Part 2)
Rooftop of Sato Academy…
Amaterasu grinned as the chaos unfolded. A pity she didn’t have anything to do with it. Her own daughter didn’t want to spend time with her dear mother. But that was the right mindset, Amaterasu raised for her since birth. Never trust tricksters, period. She couldn’t risk someone pretending to be her, before Melody learned the natural ability to sense presences.
Still, she left her mother to sit alone. That kind of hurt, but was how the cookie crumbled. Amaterasu also didn’t trust her own mother nor would sit anywhere near her. So much boredom...
She observed the chaos again. The Leaf, who shouldn’t be in this town where the Stone resided, attempted to kill some girl. A pretty thing. What’d she do, shoot the man down?
Students were running about from the troublesome area, begging security to check it out. The police were about to be called, the event canceled. That would’ve happened had Amaterasu not created an illusion that prevented any further normal human from going near the scrabble. She also disabled their cellphones.
In truth, she just wanted to watch her daughter and son-in-law, but the Leaf had to ruin everything. If it weren’t for the entity present, Amaterasu would deliver that idiot boy one thousand years of pain. But it’d be just as fun if Selkie dished out the divine pain.
The trickster folded her arms, pouting. Bored! So bored! The events weren’t active, so her entertainment was gone.
That’s when the fun idea hit the woman. She’d test her son-in-law, the Stone. And hey, while she secretly supported the Stone, killing him for failing would be rather interesting too. She aimed a hand at the ground below.
“In a few minutes…maybe after his friends catch up to him, change to a dungeon,” she said. “The school building itself and the grounds around it shall be the vessel. Disable access to this rooftop except by using the elevator. Place a spellbound barrier on the elevator. Have monsters capture and lock away students and the guests… to be rescued. Set the boss to…who will it be…what will be entertaining to watch…or just in general…Ah…maybe…”
She smiled and released the super magic. It wouldn’t be detected and the delay made it convenient to find an ideal location to watch her grand scheme unfold. She wasn’t too fond of the idea of actually harming the Stone though. Otherwise, who else could ever prove to be worthy enough to capture the heart of her daughter? Amaterasu wanted grandkids! Adorable and loving and asking a million questions. She could tell them stories.
She chuckled. “Give me a great show, Stone. Or you may just die. I am She Who Dawns Time after all. You can’t leave a lady like me by her lonesome.”
That part was true. The other parents scattered, giving her the opportunity to vanish. Why would she ever want to sit around an angel, sober?
She took the time to observe Sato Academy. It was like they took a high school and dipped it into a planet’s worth of money to form this college. The students attending were probably sons and daughters of the most privileged humans around. She felt a little sorry for those who worked hard to get in without strings being pulled or massive donations poured.
A lovely city though, and the humans had no clue that the Stone claimed it.
**
Cultural festival main grounds…
The moment Clyde started toward the isolated grounds to speak with the Wind, a prompt flashed in his mind’s eye.
[Warning, your territory has a serious supernatural conflict! The Leaf attacks Chizuru, the crusader champion. Your Mental Navigation System has been updated.]
“Shit,” Clyde said. He had no time to waste—the festival’s guests could be in danger of getting caught up in the crossfire. What was that fucking idiot thinking, starting a fight of magic and death here of all places? Did he not have the common sense to at least wait or even take it somewhere else? And to ruin everything…His challenge—shit, it could possibly fail and all of the work put in for naught.
Clyde was pissed.
“To think they’d fight in my fucking territory,” he said, his voice tinged with his god chant. Tessa’s eyes widened, seemingly uncomfortable with the change, but she probably sensed the combat situation as well.
Clyde sprinted toward the area, followed by the girl. He wanted to beat any others to the location, including Selkie. And not because Lot City was under the protection of Team Stone, but simply for the fact that people with magic arrogantly believed they had to right to interrupt the lives of the civilians. To just fight without taking that into consideration. Someone was going to answer to this.
Tessa trembled a little as she followed…the Stone. The air bent around him, reality warping. The sky dar
kened as if waiting to answer to his wrath. The wrath of a literal god. The young woman did not want to be here, but she couldn’t leave now. She was obligated to introduce herself.
Tessa…had to disobey an order from Venus. If she left her goddess’s mark in this man’s territory, he’d probably kill her. Why provoke him anyway? Of course she didn’t have to do it herself, sitting safety in whatever dimension deities lived.
She looked at the back of the Stone again. Just who was he? Could someone like this really be from Earth? The aura…so menacing. So scary. It reminded her of…the Viper. But there was a clear difference. This one felt restrained, as if one release could destroy everything. Scary. She analyzed him, against her better judgment.
Name- Clyde, the Stone.
Level: 92* (Drastically compressed) (Sealed)
Type: God of Life and Eternity. True Hero.
Relationship: Supreme neutrality.
Advice: He is not someone to make an enemy of…
Tessa almost squeaked. Such intense and frightening advice. Perhaps the only thing that prevented the young woman from summoning her spirit beast and getting the hell out of there was the True Hero type. The stone-viper games allowed five interlopers: The Stone, Leaf, Wind, Falcon and Viper. While everyone was free to live in Satovia, whether being heroes and saving the people or just cleansing the pallet of a bad life, the True Hero label was sort of there as a backup to prevent anyone from impersonating the Stone to any higher being. Not everyone could see it, but Tessa’s goddess sort of bent the rules and enabled it in her.
She was glad to not be among the troublemakers he was after… So, so glad.
**
Cultural Festival…
Destroyed Eating Area…
Chizuru just wanted to scream, maybe even cry. Today was supposed to be fun and eventful. She’d eat delicious unhealthy foods, watch fantastic competitions, maybe even make her first noncombatant friends. And for the most part the day started that way. She even saw something very interesting at the track and wanted to watch more of that particular runner’s competitions. She almost got sucked into a swimsuit contest, but…embarrassingly fainted…She didn’t want to expose herself to crowds like that. The idea of being vulnerable didn’t appeal to the crusader champion. Still, everything was in good fun, that is, until the raving lunatic before her attacked. Somehow he found out that she and her group were crusaders. She could only guess that the grudge that consumed him was due to a group that was more than likely directly led by a researcher.
Chizuru’s group ran things differently. While a researcher, who somehow obtained even more power from the Order, dictated the locations to visit, constantly brought up regulations as a means to try to gain authority, she didn’t control them. None of them would rush on the front lines to die at her orders. They protected the champion.
Yet, she wouldn’t get the chance to explain anything to the lunatic. If she went on the offensive, the young woman would surely hurt him, leading the public to be afraid of her once again. She’ll end up back into…
She shook away the thoughts and focused. The lunatic rushed her with speed an ordinary human could never have. She still wasn’t sure if he was some kind of sorcerer or perhaps a wizard trained in swordplay.
Chizuru easily blocked his strike, predicted where he’d go and spun-kick him away. His frustration seemed to increase as he came at her again, persistent.
Chizuru blocked, parried, and remained untouched by the lunatic’s weapon.
“Great power, Slicing dark bolt!” he cried, hand aimed at the young woman.
Chizuru blocked the magic with her sword. Sensing the magic’s rebound point, she applied a tiny bit of holy magic, and then activated her counter skill.
[Chizuru activated counter!]
Each time she countered his magic, the barrier that protected the lunatic seemed to dwindle just a bit. The boy had to know, so what was his game?
Chizuru stepped off the defenses for a bit, dashing toward him with unmatched speed, but at the last second, teleported behind him. She spun-kicked the man forward, but he didn’t stay down for more than half a second.
Unfortunately, she realized while trying not to swing a sword that would surely kill him, she made a tiny mistake. Even with that error, her counter still bounded back his magic. The barrier shrunk again.
“We shouldn’t fight anymore,” Chizuru said. “We’re destroying the festival, ruining everything. Whatever grudge you have, let’s talk—”
The young woman just barely dodged his black sword, which almost felt as if it stabbed out of the air. First, he pulled it from nothing and now this…
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Chizuru felt something terrifying approach them—a being that radiated enough danger to make her risk a glance. The lunatic didn’t give her the chance, but whatever that was—it rapidly approached with enough vigor to darkened the skies and chill the air around them.
It happened quickly. Someone appeared in between their swords, his aura like a galaxy. The night sky raged around him. He was maybe six feet tall, with short hair and frightening glowing eyes. Just from his ambient aura, Chizuru’s confidence at being able to dismantle any opponent shattered. He stopped both of the swords with a single finger…
**
Cultural Festival…
Destroyed Eating Area…
Clyde turned to Dark and slugged him to the ground hard enough to completely disrupt his current state. The aura and power that channeled to him snapped off like a broken line.
“That’s for attacking first and disrupting my school’s festival,” he said, the god chant still his voice. “You will apologize to all of them who worked hard to set this up. And you.” He turned his gaze to the crusader girl and she looked as if she tried to hide her feelings beneath a stoic expression. “You better have a good reason why you’re here or there will be a bloodbath. You are probably aware how everyone feels about crusaders. And if you’re here on Hideo’s behalf, he’s dead.”
Chizuru’s eyes widened just a bit, but…for some reason didn’t seem to care. Neither did her companions. Interesting. The young man kept that mental note tucked away for later dissection.
“We’re only here to attend the festival,” Chizuru said, “but, we did have orders to check things out in this area. Our next set, would’ve been directed by a researcher, unfortunately.”
“That’s bullshit,” Dark slowly stood up, shaking off the daze and wiping the blood from the side of his lips. “They’re all murderers! And while the researchers are the absolute scummiest of scum, that doesn’t excuse these assholes for following their orders like puppets. They kill all.”
“That is untrue,” Chizuru said, fists trembling. Clyde could tell she was forcing herself to hold it together, as if being accused of being a murderous crusader struck a nerve. “The crusaders are divided because of internal conflict—factions, bribes, and of course the researchers’ ploy for power. I’m not even sure how the Order’s so blind to this. But my group stays out of the politics and actually help people. We put our lives on the line to defend or rescue those who can’t fend for themselves from backwater towns and villages to cities who abandoned their governments to demon lords. I will not stand here and listen to some lunatic who attacks first without questioning his own actions or the consequences of them. You are no better than the researchers.”
Dark snarled and was about to launch himself at her, but halted at Clyde’s glowing-eye glare.
“You can’t seriously believe that, Normie,” Dark snapped. “Even the great lord of the dark can see through that—you yourself know about the crusaders and the researchers. Have you once come across anything good from them? This sounds like bullshit—”
“Shut the hell up,” Clyde said calmly, his god chant tinging just the edges of his words. “I haven’t seen enough crusaders to make a broad judgment call like that. This girl sounds sincere.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Dark said. “Dude, seriously,
come on. She’s going to launch that blade into you the first chance she gets. That’s how all crusaders work. They’re—”
“If I say I do not detect ill intent from her, mortal , YOU BETTER FUCKING LISTEN TO ME .”
Hurricane winds furiously blasted the area, threatening to sweep all but the speaker of the powerful words, from their feet. Lightning snaked around Clyde, highlighting his fury. He took a breath and let it out, calming the wind and the electricity.
Dark’s eyes widened, seeing Clyde as if for the first time.
“Holy steroids,” he said softly.
Tessa, standing a large gap from the group, looked as if she was about to run, but Clyde’s gaze on her deleted that idea instantly.
“What a difference…from the last time we met.”
Clyde turned to see Selkie, followed by his friends. Alice and Melody anime-dove into him. Dark seemed taken aback to see a trickster demon with eyes full of love. That didn’t stop the chuuni from moving as far away from her as possible.
“It’s been a while, Selkie,” Clyde said. “Don’t mind this, just stopping some children from playing with explosives. Sometimes one can lose a temper.”
He took in the embrace of his two fiancées, hugging them back.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Melody said.
“You looked like you were about to obliterate them,” Alice said.
“It’s a long story,” Clyde said, “but I think we all need to first, undo this clusterfuck and sit down at a table with food and catch up. Even discuss things with our crusader champion here. Crusaders divided, politics and what not. But the biggest issue will probably be manners.” He glared at Dark.
The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #8 a LitRPG (ATS) Page 11