Ezra ran into one of the buildings and ducked behind a stall. A moment later, the tail of a Giant Lizard ripped through the top of the building, just above Ezra’s head. The sun shone down on Ezra.
He jumped back into a run and scaled up the top of a building. One of the serpents made a sharp turn, crashing into the bottom of the building Ezra was on.
Mutated Serpent - Lv. 44
Ezra ran forward and jumped onto the next house.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Communications guy!”
[Yes?] the voice said. [What is it?]
“Were you going to tell me that the Giant Lizards and the Serpents were planning to do a little meet-up!? Not only that, but there’s a third serpent!?” Ezra said.
A Giant Lizard stampeded to Ezra and opened up its jaw. Ezra jumped to yet another building, barely avoiding the attack.
The man on the other end cursed loudly. The sounds of shuffling paper echoed in Ezra’s ear. Yelling and conversation exploded.
[Hold out for five minutes!] the man said. [If you can hold out for five minutes, we can redirect Dumrivil and two other B-rankers your way!]
The second serpent rushed toward Ezra, somehow getting enough momentum to leap into the air without any legs. Ezra used [Air Attack] and just managed to avoid getting chewed up.
Mutated Serpent - Lv. 46
“That might be a little bit challenging!” Ezra said.
[I’m sorry, but that’s all I can do!] the voice said. [Just hold on for a little bit longer!]
Ezra ducked out of the way of another Giant Lizard attack and leaped onto another roof.
He gritted his teeth. Fine. Fine! He’d start by picking away at the Giant Lizards. Just… you know, he just had to avoid getting killed by the 3 Mutated Serpents.
He jumped to the side, barely dodging the third and final Mutated Serpent.
Mutated Serpent - Lv. 47
God. DAMN. IT.
Ezra looked down toward the buckle on his belt. It was dense, right? Probably denser than rock. Maybe he could do the trick with the air again, but make it even more effective with metal instead of stone.
He activated [Bind] and passed his needle through his metal buckle, then through the air in front of him. He focused on the density of the metal and he applied it to air.
One of the snakes was going for him. Ezra dived down, covered his ears, pumped [Bind] with as much mana as he could, and activated the spell.
A huge suction lifted Ezra from the ground. The snake about to get Ezra hissed and slowed down.
Ezra dispelled the connection.
A shockwave slammed into Ezra, throwing him into the air and sending him rolling. A huge boom echoed a moment later. All of the monsters let out a screech of pain.
Ezra jumped back to his feet and rushed toward one of the Giant Lizards. It was swaying back and forth like a drunk person. A second Giant Lizard snapped out at Ezra but missed.
Ezra leaped into the air, needle pointed at the creature’s brain. The needle sank deep into its skull. Ezra carried forward, propelled by momentum from his jump, and ripped the bone and brain to shreds.
The Giant Lizard shook, then went limp and started turning to ash.
Ezra landed softly and sucked in a deep breath. A moment later, one of the Giant Lizard’s tails whipped toward Ezra, slamming into him and sending him flying.
703/1020
Behind him, Ezra saw that one of the Serpents was racing to intercept him in midair.
“[Air Attack],” Ezra said.
He flew forward and slammed into the snake, needle pointed forward. The needle pierced into a nonvital spot, only staggering it briefly and sending it flying back.
Ezra fell toward the ground. He was too high up for [Cat’s Grace] to save him. He needed an alternative—but then again, he’d done this before, right?
[Restrain] activated and threads pulled Ezra toward the roof of one of the buildings and converted his downward momentum into sideways momentum. [Cat’s Grace] kicked into overdrive, allowing him to smoothly dodge anything that might’ve caused any harm and making him roll to a slow stop.
He breathed rapidly and looked at his remaining opponents. It was taking everything he had to keep up with them—he’d lose concentration at some point, and then he’d be toast.
Five minutes had never seemed so long. If he’d just walked away, he would’ve never had to deal with any of this madness. But despite that, he couldn’t find it in himself to muster any sort of complaint or resentment. He’d made the decisions that he did, after all, and those were what led him to this point. Besides, he’d already decided to save this town, so what was the point in regretting it?
He stood straight, wiped the blood off his mouth, and pointed Filamenta at the opponents.
“Should you perish,” Filamenta whispered. “I want you to know that it’s been a pleasure.”
“Liar.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to ruin the moment.”
Ezra pulled Filamenta back and one of the serpents dived for him.
A crackle and a blast of mana echoed through the ruins and the Mutated Serpent’s head was covered by a giant sphere of ice. It fell to the ground and a moment later a sword crashed into it and lit up with light, splitting the head from the rest of the body.
“Finally have enough Strength to pull that off,” a voice said.
Ezra breathed out a sigh of relief. For once, he was happy to see the figure in question.
“Dumrivil,” Ezra said. “Took you long enough.”
----------------------------------------
“Hm, the bounty made him look better. I almost forgot how ragged he looked in person.” a voice said.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, sister. He seems quite handsome, in my opinion.”
Ezra turned around to see two women. Both of them were dressed in white robes, and, oddly enough, had perfectly identical faces, heights, and physical features. Both their hair was auburn, but the tips differed. The one on the left had vibrant red tips and amber eyes, while the one to the right had cyan tips and blue eyes.
Cala - Wintraclast - Half of a Whole - Lv. 52
Blaze - Pyroclast - Half of a Whole - Lv. 52
“Ezra!” Dumrivil ran over. “Meet Blaze and Cala! The fire and ice mage wonders of our guild.”
“Oh,” Ezra said. “I never noticed them before.”
Dumrivil winced at the statement. The one with red-tipped hair—Blaze?—scoffed and crossed her arms.
“Honestly, our eyes have crossed, like, at least twice,” Blaze said.
“Come, sister, let’s not lose our tempers. There’s no need for such anger,” Cala said.
Ezra’s eyebrows raised. “In case you all haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a battlefield. Might be time to focus?”
Behind him, Ezra heard the sound of a Giant Lizard racing toward him. He jumped to the side.
Blaze stepped forward and pointed her staff at the Giant Lizard.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
A thin line of molten liquid shaped over Blaze’s head. It shot out like a bullet and cut right through the Giant Lizard. It let out a startled cry and reared back.
Dumrivil rushed forward to finish the job on the Giant Lizard, but a Mutated Serpent was slithering toward him.
“Sister!” Blaze said.
“I have it.”
Cala pointed her staff out at the Mutated Serpent and a blast of blue mana shot out and hit the serpent in the center of its being. The Serpent instantly froze in place.
Ezra rushed forward while it was frozen. It twitched. He jumped into the air, Filamenta pointed at its head. Ezra slammed into it right as the enchantment broke, and the needle sank about three inches deep. Ezra gripped it tightly, bleeding his momentum away while holding onto the snake. The serpent shook from side to side in an attempt to throw Ezra off. Ezra held on and gripped one of its scales with his other hand.
Blaze pointed her staff at the serpent and shot another fire bolt. The bolt flew through the air and cut a hole directly in the middle. The serpent let out a pained hiss.
Ezra let go of his needle and wrapped his hands around the snake’s neck. He squeezed as tight as he could in an attempt to cut off the creature’s blood circulation. The serpent swung itself backward and smashed Ezra into a pile of rubble.
604/1020
Ezra held on. His muscles flexed as he felt the creature’s blood pulse beneath his arms. It leaned forward and smashed him into the rubble again.
454/1020
Pain spikes up Ezra’s back. He continued to hold on. It reared back one more time—then slumped over and crashed into the ground.
Ezra pushed himself up.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have reached Lv. 50! Congratulations, you are now eligible to change your class!]
Class change? Dumrivil would be able to take care of the Giant Lizards. Blaze and Cala weren’t worried, so that meant it was probably fine.
The first thing to do was to look at his stats.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸ - Eligible for class change
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 1021/1500
Mana Points: 595/595
Level: 51
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 50
Constitution: 50
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 56
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 40
[Stealth] - Lv. 26
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 23
[Precision Prick] - Lv. 15
[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX
[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX
[Mana Perception] - Lv. 15
[Telekinesis] - Lv. 15
[Cat’s Grace] - Lv. MAX
[Hunt] - Lv. 8
[Basic Grappling] - Lv. 13
[Exotic Weaponry] - Lv. 10
[Regenerative Blood] - Lv. MAX
[Poison Resistance] - Lv. 1
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 25
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 20
[Web Trap] - Lv. 7
[Entangle] - Lv. 19
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 20
[Lockpicking] - Lv. 25
[Poisonous Prick] - Lv. 1
[Stitch Wounds] - Lv. 10
Skill points: 69
Stat points: 28
Ability points: 47
Titles:
[Otherworlder]
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Monster Slayer II]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
[Bane of the Mind]
[Improvised Weaponsmith]
[Titan’s Grasp I] - Equipped
There wasn’t a lot of time to do anything fancy like messing around with new skills and abilities. The only new skill he’d be getting would be his 50 Strength skill. He put the stat points into it, and a new box popped up with a single lootbox. After a few seconds of shaking, out popped four skills. An A-rank, a B-rank, another A-rank, and a C-rank.
Ezra had gotten a lucky roll—though he was a tad disappointed he hadn’t gotten an S-rank like with Wisdom.
A-Rank Skill: [Giant’s Power] - Lv. MAX
Greatly increases your physical prowess. While active, your body expands and hardens like stone, and every strike causes tremors that disrupt the battlefield.
Increases Strength and constitution by 60% for 60 seconds. During this time every attack creates tremors that reduce the movement speed of all enemies within a 30-foot radius by 30%. Additionally, enemies struck by your attacks are briefly staggered, disrupting their combat actions.
Cooldown: 1 hour
That sounded all sorts of interesting. In the long run, Ezra wasn’t totally sure how useful it would be, simply because of the cooldown and because he wasn’t able to level it up. But on the other hand
B-Rank Skill: [Oversized Grip] - Lv. MAX
Description: Grants the ability to wield massive weapons or dual-wield two-handed weapons without penalties. Your grip becomes unbreakable, and your weapon strikes can even alter the landscape.
Allows you to handle any weapon up to 2x your weight, regardless of size, without reduced speed or accuracy. Additionally, attacks leave shockwaves that cause terrain damage in a 10-foot radius.
That definitely wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t suit Ezra’s fighting style. Ezra didn’t use oversized weapons, and he didn’t really imagine a future where that would happen.
A-Rank Skill: [Titan’s Fists] - Lv. 1
Channel the offensive force of the Titans! Every strike you land increases in weight and power, multiplying the force of your attacks with each successful blow.
Each consecutive hit in combat adds a stacking buff that increases attack power by 2%, maxing out at 20 stacks (40%). Missing an attack or leaving combat resets the stack.
At first glance, Ezra was tempted to dismiss it out of hand. After all, Filamenta relied on precise strikes to defeat enemies, not combo potential. But he’d been shown multiple times that there were enemies that could deal with such a style of fighting. They didn’t go down quickly enough due to high defenses, for example, and could only be taken out with blunt weaponry.
C-Rank Skill: [Power Surge] (Lv. 1)
Temporarily increases strength by 20% when your health drops below 30%.
When health is low, you gain a burst of raw power for 15 seconds. The boost fades when health rises above the threshold.
That one was just crap. He ignored it.
He thought about his options for several seconds. Eventually, Filamenta piped up.
“You’ll want to select [Titan’s Fists] or [Giant’s Power]” Filamenta said. “I hate to admit it, but I won’t always be enough, and those two skills will help you compensate for my deficiencies.”
Well, then the question was which one? Ezra thought about it for a few seconds before he decided on [Titan’s Fists]. [Giant’s Power] had a hard cap, while [Titan’s Fists] would presumably get better and better—and it was already pretty damn good. 40% was nothing to sneeze at, especially since he would be able to [Restrain] enemies to keep up his combo attacks.
A cold breeze ran across his body. He looked at his jacket. It was ripped to shreds and almost destroyed, while his leather armor wasn’t much better.
Blaze stared at his bare arms rather conspicuously. Cala bumped her sister with her elbow and Blaze straightened.
“Good work out there, One-Eye,” Blaze said. “You live up to the legends… also, did your arms just get bigger—”
Cala hit her sister over the head with her staff. Blaze rubbed her head and pouted.
Ezra ignored them and clicked on the class change button.
ERROR!
[[[DARK]]] se4l REQUIRED!!!
And then the screen closed.
Ezra blinked.
Okay…? Did Filamenta see that?
“I did,” Filamenta said. “I know what it is, but it’ll take time to explain. We’ll talk about it later.”
Ezra looked over where Dumrivil had almost mopped up with the last of the Giant Lizards. He sighed.
“Hard work’s never done,” he muttered.
----------------------------------------
They wrapped up with the rest of the Giant Lizards and made their way back to the guild. A healer quickly looked them over and got Ezra back up to full fighting force. He warned Ezra that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about Ezra’s stamina—Ezra needed to rest, and soon. Blaze and Cana elected to head to the back to relax, while Dumrivil stuck by Ezra’s side.
Ezra approached Nobinar and gave him a nod.
“It’s done.”
Nobinar grunted. “I heard. You four did a good job. With any luck, that should be enough to turn the tables. You can turn in for now. I’ll call you up if I need you.”
Dumrivil let out a sigh and stretched.
“I’m exhausted,” he said. “I think I could do with a break.”
Then the ground shook from side to side. Dumrivil jumped out of his seat. “What the hell was that!?” he said.
Ezra raced outside. He looked up. A black figure soared overhead. Every few seconds, a ball of flame would appear from it and then drop toward the ground.
“What the hell is that thing?!” Dumrivil said.
Ezra’s eyes narrowed. “Villscha. He’s decided to intervene personally.”
Nobinar turned around and gasped.
“Get down!”
Ezra dropped to the floor as fire consumed them.