“What’s the matter, brat? Did you think you were the only one who could ramp up your power?”

The man sneered as he spoke, each word punctuated by further strikes with his whip. With IGNITION active, however, Kyle found that he was in a better position than before. While the boosting skill his opponent used was undoubtedly high quality, it still fell short against Kyle’s own. That was something he could use.

Actively trying to keep up the façade of being pressured, Kyle used IDENTIFY to track the movement of the man’s mana. As with the birds, this skill seemed to focus the boosts in the areas that could handle it the best. Kyle could see rivers of power flowing through the arms, legs, and back as he dodged. Perception doesn’t seem to have a meaningful benefit. Kyle ducked under another strike that cracked the air. Doesn’t feel like Willpower or Intelligence get a boost either.

That wasn’t much of a surprise, as from what Kyle had been reading, boosting skills for non-physical attributes were incredibly rare. The fact that IGNITION boosted Intelligence, while Unbreakable Will boosted Willpower with damage made his skill one of the absolute highest quality in that regard. Still, Kyle didn’t want to get too cocky. He knew the birds also had regenerative properties alongside their skill, and he expected that would be the case here as well.

Kyle sidestepped another strike with the whip, then he made his move. Accelerating forward with a burst of speed, he closed the gap between them once again. C.H.A.D.D. followed up by projecting bright orange light in the man’s eyes, causing his next strike to go wide. It was all Kyle needed as PARASITIC RESONANCE connected.

Like with the birds before, he was met with increased resistance due to the nature of their boosting skill, which was only magnified against the man standing before him. Still, Kyle was unrelenting. He met the opposition with the full force of his Willpower, and saw the bravado in the man’s face get replaced with a look that could only be described as disbelief. Kyle gritted his teeth as he continued to push, slowly gaining ground against the protection of his opponent’s skill. Frantic attacks were launched at him as the man tried to get back out of range, belatedly realizing his mistake. Now Kyle made no show of weakness. He was too close for the long whip to be at its most effective range, and Kyle’s speed prevented escape.

The man swore as he dropped the whip, and then did something unexpected. He charged directly at Kyle, drawing his daggers. C.H.A.D.D. flashed a warning, and Kyle hopped backwards, narrowly dodging three quick strikes. At the same time, PARASITIC RESONANCE was hard at work, and the runes covering the man’s body began to fade one-by-one. Kyle took the moment to look at the weapons with IDENTIFY.

Each dagger looked metallic, though his skill showed they were actually crafted from organic material. Each of the thin blades was coated in a deadly neurotoxin, likely potent enough to kill some early D Grades outright. His opponent tensed as he leapt for Kyle again, and the secret of the daggers was revealed. Mana flowed into them, and more of the toxin was released. He sidestepped three more attacks, and a flash of his baton made the man jump back, only to reengage.

At this point, the boosting skill was almost entirely spent, and Kyle frowned. The outcome was clear, at least to him. When the protection of the skill was fully dismantled, PARASITIC RESONANCE would be free to overwhelm the man’s mana pathways. His opponent was clearly aware of this danger, even at the outset of their fight. Why isn’t he trying to disengage?

C.H.A.D.D. offered a flash of warning, and Kyle glanced at the projected map. Dots began to appear, one after another, cutting a path directly towards him. Kyle felt a snarl bubbling in his chest as his frustration rose. Of course this bastard brought the damn birds. Refocusing, he pushed even harder with PARASITIC RESONANCE, and the final runes covering his opponent’s body faded.

Coming to a quick decision, Kyle drained as much of the man’s energy as he could before once again taking off toward the city. For a moment, he was tempted to try and kill his opponent, but with the support of the birds on the way, it was just too risky. If the D Grades were able to support his assailant the way they had their flock, Kyle would be in for a bad time.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

With IGNITION active and his opponent’s skill broken, however, Kyle had a window to escape. Ultimately, his job was to deliver this blasted egg, and he couldn’t lose sight of that. In moments, he was out of range, the other man needing precious time to reactivate his skill. Kyle thought he’d made it, when Auric Perception felt a surge of energy from behind him.

Kyle turned to see the scarred man had stopped pursuing, and instead was leveling the strange weapon at him. Instinctively, STORM SHELTER sprang to life around him just as the weapon fired. A blast unlike anything Kyle had experienced slammed into his barrier, immediately causing spiderweb cracks to appear all over it. His eyes widened at the damage, which felt far too high for an attack like this.

Before he could fully appreciate what had happened, a second wave struck the shield. It dampened the blow before breaking, and in the last instant before it did, Kyle tapped into his stonebloom armor. The material was specialized to resist mana-based attacks, though that was hardly all there was to it. Between the impressions offered by the world tree seed and IDENTIFY, Kyle and C.H.A.D.D. had learned that the stonebloom’s true value came not from simply resisting mana, but through outright rejecting it.

By awakening the dormant cells of the wood with PARASITIC RESONANCE in conjunction with the drone’s unique control, Kyle and C.H.A.D.D. dramatically expanded the passive protection offered by the armor. It was far weaker than STORM SHELTER, but it managed to rebuff the remnant energies that had broken through.

There was an eerie silence as the dust settled, and Kyle looked around the area. Everything surrounding where his shields had been was pulverized, a deep crater all around him. Whatever that gun fired, it was incredibly powerful. With STORM SHELTER still needing time to recharge, Kyle was wracking his brain for what to do next. As he got a better look at the man who had fired the weapon, however, he felt a bit of relief.

The arm holding the strange silvery firearm was twitching, covered in burns and bruises. Even without using IDENTIFY, Kyle could tell that several of the man’s bones had been completely splintered by the recoil. What’s more, glowing blue veins pulsed up his ruined arm from the weapon, extending as far as his jawline. He looked to barely be able to stand, and Kyle put the pieces together when he saw that two of the bullets of strange liquid were gone.

They weren’t bullets, they were batteries. To launch kinetic attacks of that level was far beyond what his opponent should have been able to do – frankly, Kyle wasn’t sure if any D Grades should have been able to launch attacks like that without major drawbacks. In this case, the man had used whatever was in the “bullets” as a fuel source for the weapon to function, and the backlash from doing so was immense.

All power came with a cost, and in this case the man had clearly borrowed too much. Mana-based technology was complex, and the more power that was drawn out, the more runic inscriptions and materials would be necessary to stabilize it. In that sense, starships were easier to make than weapons like the one his adversary had used.

Using IDENTIFY, Kyle could see now that the weapon was designed with power output and durability in mind. It needed the external power source to charge enough to fire, and at the same time there were no discernable impressions indicating protections for its user. Kyle was honestly surprised that his opponent was able to fire it twice, which said a lot about just how powerful his enemy was.

Still, Kyle felt confident he wouldn’t be able to fire any more rounds with accuracy. That is, until he saw runes reappear on the man’s body. Kyle’s heart fell as he saw the damage to his opponent’s arm visibly lessen. Loud croaks broke the silence, and soon three D-Grade presences stood alongside the scarred man, gazing across the crater at Kyle. The weapon was leveled at him once more, and Kyle wrapped his arms around the egg as he turned away, hoping beyond hope he and C.H.A.D.D. would somehow survive the blast.

Auric Perception went wild as Kyle felt an immense surge of power, followed by… nothing? As quickly as it came, the mana had disappeared, leaving in its wake nothing but bone-chilling cold. Kyle opened his eyes to see the entire field before the city covered in a heavy layer of frost. He turned to see his assailant and the birds, each encased in a tomb of glacier-thick ice. Kyle saw the strange bullet, the glow slowly being leeched out of it by the entrapping ice.

The man’s orange eyes burned with hatred, and Kyle could make out movement. It was clear he was searching for a means of escape, but had none available to him. He was well and truly stuck. Ordinarily, that would have been a relief to Kyle, except he had no idea who or what had created this frozen snowscape. The only thing he knew for certain was that if it wanted him dead, he’d be dead.

As if in answer to his thoughts, an impossibly loud roar echoed out from the city, shattering the frozen strands of grass. Frigid wind blew hard against Kyle, and he found himself holding tighter to the egg, which had somehow survived the encounter. “C.H.A.D.D., what was that?”

[A DRAGON, DR. MAYHEW.]