Chapter 18:
Ben rushed towards the Splitter Equinus, his axe still stuck in its neck as it tried to back away. His main Release crystal was empty, but he wasn’t out of options yet. He also couldn’t let the monster get too far away and just scream at him or he’d end up like Voltic.
So he accelerated himself forward at double his maximum energy for a second before applying the energy upward again and leaving him feeling incredibly light. At the same time, he pulled another fourth full quartz from his inventory and began focusing on using his release Skill while keeping the gem palmed.
With a quick sidestep, he dodged the front hooves of the monster as it tried to ward him off while rearing back and he went to its side.
He was ready for it to lash out with its head again, but it chose not to this time. It had learned its lesson and instead, it just kept trying to circle around and lash out with its front legs. When that failed and just as Ben was about to try to strike at its side, it pivoted and quickly brought its back end towards Ben.
Having seen videos of the consequences of standing behind horses, Ben backpedaled the moment he noticed and avoided getting his skull crushed by the much stronger back legs. Then he quickly circled behind and out of reach of the monster before rushing to its other side while it was still off-balance.
Before the monster could react, he slapped the gem onto the side of the monster and released everything the gem had into it. A full quarter of what the gem could hold and the maximum he could control the release of.
There was the sound of squelching flesh and crunching bone as the large bulky Equinus was knocked over violently. So violently that when it landed on its side and its body scraped against the reinforced pavement of the street, the axe that had been stuck in the right side of its neck was finally released.
Not willing to miss his chance, Ben rushed for it, accelerating his whole body forward. He scooped the axe up with both hands, grunting as it took a moment to make it weightless again before he continued to the monster that was now flailing on its side and roaring in agony.
He went straight towards the front of the monster. With his axe in both hands, he hefted it high as the thing noticed him, stopping just within the range it could extend its neck. He was counting on it being too angry and disoriented to be smart. And it obliged.
It lunged its head at him, intending to tear him apart.
With a straight vertical chop down, increasing the axe’s weight with all the kinetic energy he could muster, he brought the absurdly heavy weapon down on the thing's head just as it was within arm's reach.
His axe cleaved right into the gap between two of its split-apart jaws. Flesh parted, then bone, and finally brain. Even then his axe barely slowed down and came out the other side, parting the entire head in two.
Ben pulled back the axe before it hit the pavement then leapt back as the monster’s body spasmed. Its split-apart head spasmed as its elastic neck flailed it around and its legs continued to kick. Then, after a long moment of this grotesque display that sent blood everywhere, the thing finally went limp.
Shoulders heaving as he took big deep breaths, Ben was filled with all sorts of emotions as he took in the finally defeated D-Rank. Relief. Pride. Elation. Disgust. All of it swelled within as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart.
He settled on pride and grinned. Ignoring the disgusting display and the viscera around him and some of it that had gotten on him, he took pride in the fact that he’d taken out a D-Rank. He took pride that he did it as a Level 2 and he took pride that his accomplishment was recognized in a way by the flashing icon in his interface.
And yet, he still wasn’t done. Not yet. There was one more thing he wanted to do. As a test and maybe to let out some steam at how close parts of that fight had been on another one of these damned monsters.
“One more!” Ben called out, too tired to look back at everyone else. Instead, he just started slowly backing away from the forcefield holding the rest of the D-Ranks.
“What?” Katie shouted back. “Are you sure? You look like you might fall over! Don’t try to showboat just cause you took down one D-Rank!”
“It’s fine!” Ben called back over his shoulder, still feeling slightly euphoric at not just surviving his encounter but winning it. He pulled out another one of his new quartz. This one was completely full. “I just want to try out using a full release. If it doesn’t finish it off then you can smash it.”
“Ugh fine,” Katie said before he heard the sound of her boots against the pavement. In a quick moment, she was by his side and putting a hand on his shoulder as she looked him over. She also glanced at the gem he took out. After a moment she called over her shoulder, “Alright, Shield. Just let one more out and then destroy the rest. Keep this one farther away! At least 16 meters from us!”
“Very well,” Shield called out, sounding far less enthusiastic than she normally was. Then a moment later another one of the Splitter Equinus was isolated from its brethren and pulled out just outside the main forcefield. “Tell me when you're ready!
Ben grinned at the sight and rolled the crystal in his hand for a moment. Then he called out, “Ready!”
“In three! Two! One! Dropping!”
The forcefield went down just like before. This time though, Ben didn’t charge. Instead, he just whipped the crystal from his hand at the monster, applying force to it to speed it up. The palm-sized crystal crossed the distance in a moment and slapped the monster in the face.
Then just two seconds after Ben had thrown it, it went off.
Boom!
A loud explosion rang out in the street, echoing for a long moment. The monster was sent rearing backward, its back legs kicking before it fell over. And just like that, with its entire head and a large portion of its upper body destroyed, it was dead.
Ben stared at the second D-Rank monster he’d taken out for a long moment. It was one thing to know that one of his crystals held about the same amount of energy as half a stick of dynamite. It was another thing to see it in person. And a whole other thing to see what that kind of power could do to another living being.
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If it had been anything but a monster, Ben might have been horrified. But since it was, he couldn't help but grin a bit. While it was extremely destructive and dangerous to use, it was still a way for him to take out a D-Rank monster with barely any effort. It was probably enough for C-Ranks as well. At least the weaker ones without any special abilities.
And he could use it at any time since he could store so many crystals like that. He also still hadn’t even used a fraction of the stored energy of a single one of his inherited crystals, meaning he wasn’t going to run out of energy to fill his quartzes anytime soon either. All of that combined, and he really was starting to be a powerful Super.
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After Ben’s final fight with the D-Rank, Shield Maiden finished off the remaining ten D-Ranks with casual ease. She just clapped her hands and the sides of the forcefield holding the monsters in compressed. They slammed the creatures together and then with a sudden contraction, killed them all in one quick motion.
Another reminder of the disparity in rank. Though it was also probably a sign of just how strong Shield Maiden and her tech were. Ben doubted any random A-Rank would be able to handle things so effortlessly. Even if it was only D-Rank monsters.
Regardless, it was impressive. Which… after giving it more thought, made it very interesting that Katie and she were so competitive. Just what could his friend do when she went all out? He’d have to ask her sometime.
“That was impressive.”
Ben was taken out of his thoughts by a familiar voice. He sat up from the bench he was resting on to see Voltic had come by. The two of them were mostly alone in the plaza, Shield Maiden, Radiant Edge, and Katie having volunteered to help give the sector one final sweep before the clean-up crews arrived.
Ben had decided to rest up where it was already cleared as he was quite tired from everything.
“You’re fight with the D-Rank, I mean,” The younger Super said, rubbing their arm and looking to the side. He looked a lot less upbeat than he’d been before the mishap with the D-Rank. “And in general. Didn’t expect you to be able to fight so well. Kinda thought I’d win between the two of us…”
“You might have won,” Ben offered, trying to cheer Voltic up. It didn’t seem right for the kid to start doubting themself just cause they got a bit spooked. And it really was still anyone's game near the end. “If I had been the one standing too close to the D-Rank when it came out, I would have been two behind and needed to be saved. And you were really impressive beforehand. Hard to believe you’ve only been a Super for just 2 months.”
“Yeah maybe…” Voltic said with a sigh before taking a seat on the bench. He stared at the ground forlornly. “But… You don’t happen to be related to a bunch of strong Supers, would you? Or have been trained to be a Hero since you were young?”
“Well no to the first,” Ben said, starting to get why Voltic was feeling down. He’s probably had a lot of expectations for himself and he just lost to some random person. “But I did spend the last year and a half learning to fight monsters with an axe. Though admittedly not anything professional. Just fighting against monster replicas at the Arcade.”
Voltic looked and gave Ben and quirked an eyebrow. “But… You’re not fifteen are you?”
Ben laughed and shook his head. “Nope… I guess I just never gave up on the idea that I might be a Super. And as it turned out… I was right. But ignoring that, I’m not a complete newbie or anything. So you shouldn’t feel bad that you lost in the end. Might not have gotten the same training you have, but I’m older and it really was just luck that let me win in the end.”
“I guess…” Voltic said, looking back down. His hands were on either side of him and grasping the bench. But there was still a bit of shake to them. “But still… At the end, you were eager to fight the D-Ranks and I… wasn’t. I probably should have tried, right? It’s not like we were really in any danger. My sister was there the whole time…”
Ben’s eyes widened a bit at that last part. Voltic could have meant Radiant Edge, but something told him that wasn’t the case. He decided not to bring it up though as Voltic didn’t seem to notice his slip.
“Well there’s always next time,” Ben said, patting the younger Super on the shoulder. “That might just sound like a platitude but it’s true. We’re Supers, right? As long as you come out of a fight in one piece, even if you made a mistake or got spooked, then you can try again. And next time you’ll be even stronger than before.”
Voltic didn’t react for a moment, just looking at the ground. Then he nodded and looked at Ben. “You’re right. I guess I’m just being a little silly… That… When the D-Rank lunged for a second… I guess it was my first real brush with death, even if I wasn’t really in danger. It caught me off guard and… Yeah I guess it got to me a bit. But I can try again… And I will be stronger next time… In fact.”
Voltic looked at Ben and grinned a bit. It was a bit weak but the kid was trying. “You better watch out next time. I’ll beat you by a landslide.”
Ben grinned at that and patted Voltic on the shoulder. At least he still had his competitive spirit. Though perhaps Ben wasn’t the best target for that. Better to head that off or else the kid might end up pretty disappointed. Because with Ben’s advantages, and his determination, he didn’t intend to stay anywhere near this level of strength for long.
Time to try the excuse he came up with Katie. Good to just get the idea out there so there are fewer questions about it later when he started ranking up far faster than normal.
“Maybe, man. Though maybe I’m not the best person to compete against. My class is a Unique. So I don’t think I’ll be in E-rank for long.”
Voltic perked up at that. “Really? How’s your leveling rate? Any idea where you're gonna top out?”
“Not sure about the rate yet,” Ben said. “Or where I’m gonna top out. But I think my growth is gonna be on the more extreme end. At least I hope so.”
“Well, I just leveled so I’m level 8 now,” Voltic said as he nodded before he gave Ben a determined look. “Shouldn’t be long before I reach level 10 and Rank up, and around the two-month mark too. That’s pretty high end so don’t think you’ll leave me in the dust too quickly.”
Ben nodded at that, having to admit the younger Super was even more impressive than he thought. Sure, the kid must’ve had a ridiculous amount of resources if his sister was Shield Maiden and his parents were A-Ranks too, but it still took skill and dedication to level like that. That was pretty close to the leveling record from E-Rank set by Indomitable.0
Also, the kid was looking better now as his competitive spirit was stoked, which was good. Ben would have hated to see a potential Hero lose their motivation just because of a damned monster. And maybe the kid could keep up. After all, Ben still wasn’t really all that sure just how fast his Accelerated Leveling would make him advance. It felt really fast now, but he was literally at the start of the lowest Rank.
It might not always be so fast, especially if he didn’t push himself. And even if Voltic couldn’t keep up in the end, at least until then it would be good motivation for him and help him get over what happened with the D-Rank.
“Well then, let’s see if you can keep up,” Ben said, holding out a fist. “Though let’s keep things friendly between us. Not like Shield and Swarm.”
Voltic chuckled at that and bumped his fist into Ben’s. “You’re on. And yeah, no need to bicker like children like them.” Voltic laughed again. “They can be so goofy at times.”
“Yeah it’s kinda hilarious how much those go at it,” Ben said, laughing. “Like two posturing cats hissing at each other.”
Voltic covered his mouth to hide his growing laughter. “Yeah, or dogs. Cause you know. T-their acting bitc—”
“Acting what?” A familiar voice called out, causing both boys to freeze.
For a second, neither of them moved.
“Yeah, what exactly were we acting like Gem?” Another voice asked, even more familiar for Ben than the last. “You’re laughing so much you must know what he was going to end with.”
Another moment passed, and the two young men looked at each other slowly. Then, coming to the same conclusion, they nodded.
And then they ran.