Breezes were already soft, but the one that started blowing around Shen as he connected to the Concept of Zephyr reached the extreme of gentleness. It barely touched skin, yet there was no denying it was pleasant. It enveloped and caressed him and his enemies alike.
It improved his movements, just slightly, which was enough for him to reach new heights of power.
Shen's feet barely touched the ground. Ranking up had made him lighter, yet he hadn't thought of using it to his advantage. He had been limiting his body too. How ironic; feel special, he had ignored all that made him truly so.
He was an E-rank, and that was singular enough for now. He would seek more distinctiveness not by pursuing illusions of what could be, but by investing in what he was. By cultivating toward the peak of the universe.
Sometimes, his toes contacted the ground for only a split second; sometimes, his moves required him to stomp.
Being brutish at times was alright too.
The Concept of War told him there was a time and place for everything—even though he wasn't filling his mind with War Qi anymore.
He was his Path; there was no need to use Qi to draw that which he was.
As Zephyr whispered its secrets to him, Shen used Boundless Qi in his body and Sharpness in his spearhead. The former was used to move faster while countering attempts to lock him in place; the latter to slice all obstructions. That was the proper use of qi: to physically manifest Concepts. He was always affected by the Concepts; qi or not.
Shen danced.
He was one with the Wind. Even when his movements were both aggressive and precise, subtlety was not excluded. It was almost imperceptible, nothing but micro changes to a few muscles that were too tense or too relaxed. Shen didn't even change what he knew of the movements, only improved them in ways that weren't taught or considered in the technique's manuals.
One could find subtlety even in rigidness, if they searched deep enough; and Zephyr did.
A sword tried to cut his side, and a mace tried to pummel his flank. A fireball came for his head, and lightning to his feet. Behind him stood a an enemy platted in armor, while in front of him, a tower shield braced against his assault. Nothing was unguarded.
He was trapped, yet not.
Where there was a single opening, tiny as it might be, Zephyr found a way through.
Reversal of the Gallant Star.
A complex technique of the Gale Footwork meant for the skies. Shen couldn't fly, but he felt light as a feather. He jumped and almost glided toward the diagonal opening behind him. War gave him perfect awareness of his situation. Combat better told him where the enemies' attacks were weakest. Boundlessness refused to be restrained and assisted the other Concepts.
Sharpness cut, bisecting the armored man from head to waist as he brought his spear down in his escape.
| Skill Level Up — Gale Footwork (D) — Level 4
As information rushed into his mind, Shen kept killing. Someone hit his back for a few points of damage. He had expected it, planned for it, wished for it. Unexpected success froze his attacker for a split second. He turned, and with a single blow, beheaded them.
War had made him do that, but it felt wrong to sacrifice himself needlessly, or so Zephyr told him.
As some of the things he knew about the Gale Footwork were corrected and he gained information on others, Shen flowed in between his enemies, going deep into their lines. He swung his spear quickly, from left to right, as he advanced. Death and despair remained in his wake.
| Skill Sync Complete — Gale Footwork (D) — Level 4
Shen's footsteps became even lighter. He understood Zephyr and the Gale Footwork even better. He improved his fighting style.
| Skill Tier Up — Gale Footwork — D → D+
New information flushed his mind as he did something he hadn't known was possible, upgrading a Skill. Misconceptions were corrected, movements were improved, and new knowledge was given to him. Shen understood the basics better, but that wasn't as impressive as the new things he learned. The difference between D and D+ Skills showed; boundless insight had been granted to make up for the gap.
With both rank up and tier up, he realized his foes usually looked elsewhere when he killed them. He realized they couldn't always follow his movements. He was too fast or too elusive—or both—for them to follow.
The system concurred.
| Skill Name Change — Gale Footwork → Elusive Gale Footwork
Lightning came, one of the two elements used by humans that Shen hadn't always been able to avoid—gravity being the other. He let go of the Sharp Qi in his spearhead for now, then pushed qi into his skin... and beyond.
Zephyr was Wind itself. It gave him a slight headache to push the qi only so far as an inch away from him, but that was enough. Zephyr Qi met lightning, and his qi gently redirected the bolt; it shocked the ground harmlessly.
| Skill Sync Complete — Elusive Gale Footwork (D+) — Level 4
His Whispering Transformation technique peaked, informed him of micro corrections to dodge unexpected attacks. The Concept of Zephyr turned it into something beyond Shen's wildest imaginations. It pushed his revisions to new heights and beyond.
Shen flowed, and no one hit him again.
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Alicia became a machine gun of fireballs. She quickly realized the most significant issue in this fight would be her willpower. Although the system showed no willpower attribute, it was a consumable resource of sorts.
So she didn't even try to match her will against others. As soon as her fireballs hit anything that could fight back, like other spells or souls, she willed her own spells to explode and disconnected her will from them. Let good old fiery explosion do the damage while she cast more fireballs.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Back in her room, Alicia had had a breakthrough in her training, allowing her to summon seven fireballs at once. She could simultaneously send five against an enemy, and of those, three could be made homing. Here, it made her the strongest mage around.
She was recognized for it.
People grouped around her, both physical fighters and mages alike, guarding her as she killed. Alone, she indeed couldn't kill an elite, not while saving willpower. She noticed it was restored more quickly in this fight, despite the system not mentioning it; yet her regeneration barely let her break even. With others, however, they could overwhelm their foes.
Her allies were in the hundreds, all positioned around her. All regulars had organized themselves in groups around the elites who now tested themselves against whichever group they wanted.
Most elites hunted in packs too. Those were the most dangerous. Sometimes though, arrogant individuals delivered themselves to the masses.
Like now.
A tank wearing thick-looking plate armor, holding an equally thick-looking shield and a sword, walked slowly towards them.
Alicia summoned her seven fireballs. "Hold!" she yelled. It made many people tense up as they realized a fight was upon them. She had to tell them to hold, or they might waste willpower trying to attack the knight that was beyond their range.
Not everyone listened to her. Fire and arrows, ice and bolts, chunks of stone, and even corrosive poison hit the armor to no effect. It shone white every time it was hit. Magic, obviously.
When he was a hundred yards away, she yelled once more, "Hold!"
Fewer people listened to her, but the majority still did. They knew better than to try to get the AP by luck. Elites were no joke.
Finally, the man was fifty yards away, and she yelled, "Attack!"
The rain of projectiles going toward the man was impressive. Even more impressive was how they didn't hit each other in the air. They went through each other without any battle of will, allowing about fifty attacks a second to hit the elite.
The enemy raised his shield for the first time, in defiance of all aggression. "Redirect!" Alicia yelled.
About ten other mages could redirect their spells midair. It was theoretically just a matter of willpower, but she had found out her preconceptions fought against her. She had expected the fireballs' momentum to keep them moving forward. In truth, it was just her will pushing them, but what she believed deep down also affected her will. A simple exercise with a candle had helped her get rid the notion that gravity had any hold over her magic.
She still could only control three fireballs to move at will out of the five flying at her enemy. That was from lack of willpower, not skill. Even that gave her a headache, but not enough to make the nanobots snuff the spells out.
Fifteen projectiles, about three every second, went around the elite to hit him in the back. While spells were in the air, mages still had to control them consciously or they ceased to exist. That unfortunately limited magic a lot. Fortunately, they had enough mages to rain many times that number of spells on his shield.
He stopped.
He turned.
Then all hell broke loose. The fighters on the front lines rushed at the man. They ignored allied projectiles and attacked; the system had made friendly fire impossible for regulars in this stage. The arrogant elite swung his sword and caused damage, but he could barely even see what he was swinging at. He hit a few people but dealt only minor damage that was quickly healed.
Like a pack of hyenas, they struck him until he died.
Cheering, they returned to their starting position. Most mages returned to the little exercise Alicia had taught them, so dozens of flames started floating around.
Alicia sighed in relief. That had been easy, but the arrogant ones always were. It was the groups they had to worry about.
"What is that?" a guy next to her asked, and she looked where he was pointing at.
A big group of regulars got in front of a smaller one. They talked. Soon, the groups merged and traveled toward other regulars nearby.
It was too distant to recognize anyone.
A team of five elites decided to go try their luck against the merged group. Alicia watched, interested—
"Sweet Jesus!" a girl yelled.
Alicia turned in her direction, then followed her eyes.
She saw a blur rushing against the group closest to theirs. They shot projectiles at it, but they were too slow. The blur was already halfway to them when the first spells hit where it had been instants ago. New spells came, but the blur moved too fast and smoothly. It dodged all offense while crushing the front line like a cannonball.
The blur stopped in the very middle of the group for a split second before his spear slaughtered with terrifying efficiency.
Alicia recognized Shen, and her heart accelerated.
What followed was absolute carnage. Shen was even faster than she remembered. He moved in a continuous flow, faster than she could make sense of. His spear killed everyone, and no attack could ever reach him.
His foes realized the futility of resisting and scattered. Shen killed about a third of those going in the opposite direction before turning back to the ones escaping toward Alicia's group.
She watched the ones he had allowed to escape and understood why: the nearest group in that direction was too far away. He had come from there and crushed the regulars there already. Here, he would have more people to kill.
She considered accepting death rather than fighting her friend, instead, she laughed at the hysterics. She couldn't oppose Shen even with her allies. Instead, she gave them their best chance at survival.
"Run!" she yelled. "Run for your lives! Run and don't stop!"
"Hold!" A male voice boomed, filling the entire place. Shen had stopped his pursuit and yelled at them. "Enjoy it while you can, Alicia."
It was worded in a way that seemed a threat, but she could hear the smile in his voice. He was enjoying it and wanted her to enjoy it too.
She smiled back. "I will," she yelled and waved.
He nodded and rushed at them, yet not really. He made an arc and skipped them to get to the group on the other side.
Everyone turned to look at her, and she found her smile dying at once.
The way they were looking at her was definitely uncomfortable.
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Bob ended up joining a group of three that deeply impressed him.
Evelyn was a mage that controlled gravity. Sandra was a damn war tank that couldn't be stopped. Elam seemed to disappear in plain sight and always found a way to people's backs.
His arrows, by comparison, felt hollow. He focused on striking enemy spells rather than dealing damage.
Bob wouldn't deny he felt good about the praises he received though.
"Impressive," Evelyn said beside him. "How are your arrows so precise? Magic?"
Bob nodded. "I put a sliver of mana into each arrow so I can control where they go. It's tricky. If I try to control it too much, I interfere with the thing's speed. Small nudges only."
They kept quiet for a while as Elam and Sandra mowed through the regulars. Evelyn only used her spells to make the enemies slower, but it made a big difference.
There were no more spells coming their way, so he switched to attacking the regulars. When his arrows weren't intercepted or deflected, they always hit. Yet, they couldn't kill in a single strike, so they didn't matter in this battle. His opponents healed too fast. He was only distracting them.
"We're creating a group of true elites, those with standards," Evelyn said. "Hollywood warned us too much about what would happen to Earth if everyone gained superpowers for me to do nothing about it."
Bob stopped shooting a little to look at her. Her blue eyes were striking, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't lost in them for a moment.
But in the end, he shook his head. "I'm no superhero, lady. I just want to help my people survive this place, then I can hopefully get a well-paying job and live comfortably."
"What if I offered it to you then? A job?"
He hadn't expected that. Then again, he wasn't a master of diplomacy, as he had repeatedly told his people. "What job?"
She pointed to the opposite side of the "circle" where they stood. An elite was killing regulars there. "That guy is Feng Shen. I want you to check if he's one of the good guys."
"Good guys?" Bob snorted.
She looked a little annoyed by that. "Ethical, up to standard, morally acceptable, honorable."
"I know a Feng Shen," Bob revealed. "Martial arts robe and spear?" She nodded. "He saved my ass in the first floor's final boss, then ignored my warning about the Void when we met in a revive cabin. No idea what happened after, but there were a lot of Void Spawn in the area."
She frowned. "Revive cabin? He died in the second stage?"
He shrugged. "I wasn't there, but I guess?"
"That's impossible," she said, and Bob noticed she was talking more to herself than him. "He couldn't be so strong without the reward for passing the stage without dying."
"You mean the stats?" He had been networking as the system suggested, and he knew whoever hadn't died in the second stage got all their stats set at F+ for free. "As I told ya, I saw him fight the first stage's final boss. He could totally get the points to buy the stats himself."
Evelyn's frown deepened as she listened to him. He thought that was the most she could frown, but somehow she surpassed herself when Feng Shen ignored a group after decimating another.
"We're done!" Sandra said happily as she approached. Elam, the always taciturn dude, came silently.
"Let's go," Evelyn said, turning in the direction of the group Feng Shen had ignored. "I need to know what happened."
"Not even asking for opinions?" Sandra said. Her face was hidden by the closed helmet, but there was an unmistakable smile in her voice. "Tyranny it is then."
"All hail the Former Queen of the Hill," Elam poked as he followed them.
Maybe not always taciturn, Bob corrected himself.
He considered his options. He hadn't found any other of his people with the elites and was doing well enough with those three. Also, that talk about ethical elites was silly, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious to see where it would go.
Shrugging, he followed.