"You may be stronger than me, Yoimiya, but you're nowhere near as good of a fighter as me! I'll put you in your place!" Vera, don't! It's not me! I can't control my body. I'm fighting with all my might not to hurt you, but it's a losing battle. Please, run! UUUGHH!
"Run" Is all I can manage to say as a tear goes down my left eye, slowly trying to take over, but I just can't. My head is spinning, and my sense of self is left in a perpetual state of nothingness. All I can do is watch just how close my hand is to one shooting my best friend.
"Ugh! Good lord, have mercy. You're so damn fast! UGHH! DUUGH! AHH!!!" The fated fight between friends and allies soon ensued. Veronica was against me, judging by how much she was struggling just to evade me. I could assume she had no way of hurting me, or so I thought.
Vera jumps from one side to the other as she walks backward every single time in a very particular dodge pattern. Did Vera have a plan to take me down? I didn't believe it was possible, but her gaze was fixated on me. The remaining toads were all left by this point, so the field was empty for the two of us.
I kept on running toward Vera, who jumped out of the way every single time I pounced, leading me to crash against empty ground. "Tricky enemy that dodges all physical attacks. Recalibrating attack pattern. Solution found." That was me speaking with the divine voice's tone, so it really was the system mistaking my friend for an enemy! How do I turn it off?!
"Yoimiya! Did you activate sage protection mode? You moron! You're too inexperienced to use that yet! UUGHH!" Vera seems to know what's up just with that simple phrase that came out of me, but this only seems to make her even more worried. Perhaps she knew of a way to turn it off?
"Yoimiya! Try to deacti- UUUUUGGHH!!!" Vera's voice is cut mid-sentence, just as she is about to give me an answer on how to fix it. My body finally catches her off guard mid-air. Vera couldn't dodge or run, so she was forced to take my punch straight in the gut, causing her to cough up blood with a single strike.
{Loud crash sound}
Vera's body soon goes flying across the field until it finally gets caught between the tree line. A massive dust cloud forms as she crashes into the ground. Unable to move or flee, she just gasps for air in deep shock. Something snapped inside me when I saw her like that, but I was still unable to wake up.
My body slowly makes its way toward Vera, picking up my sword from earlier on the way there. I can see the fear in Veronica's eyes as she desperately tries to stand up and run, but she is in too much pain to do so, or so I thought.
{Kyrie for orchestra - Yoshihisa Hirano}
As soon as my body walks over to the supposed hurt Veronica, her body suddenly puffs into a cloud that reveals a wooden log about the same size as hers. Not only did she manage to fool the system's default fighting style, but it tricked it into walking right into a trap.
The ground lights up all of a sudden as a massive star-like pattern makes itself visible. It was the pattern in which she was evading all the attacks as if it were all a setup! But still, what did she intend to do with such a move? I'm so out of bounds that I can easily break free from whatever. Uh?
My body is immobilized, unable to move even a little bit, and a smiling Vera makes herself visible, holding a magical circle in her hand. "You're too strong to control Yoimiya, but I know you're there! Wake up already, you fool!" Veronica's hand twitches and shakes as a little bit of blood comes out of her nostrils.
"UGHH!! DAGGGH! This spell multiplies my sealing power by several multiples, yet I can barely hold it. Ugh! Your strenght is unbelievable." Veronica's run spell soon begins to slowly crack while the blood coming out of her nose increases now, including her ears as well.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"AAAHHHHHGG! Yoimiya! You have to deactivate sage mode! You have to deactivate it! I can't hold you like this much longer! Hurry up!" Veronica soon struggles just to stand still as she screams in apparent pain, yet her words, what did she want me to do? I activated the mode with a prompt, and I don't see one to turn it off now!
{Yeah Buddy - Zarcob}
"AHHHHH!!! UGH! UGGGH! AHHHHH!!" Vera's arm contracts all over the place, and under her skin, I can see why she's in so much pain. My power is fighting her inside with incredible strenght. Veronica's body was being damaged directly by my dark power without the help of the system; of course, it would! It's meant to protect me, but! Not now! You're going to kill her! STOP!
In a moment of desperation, I begin to try anything I can inside my body until I manage to take over my vocals for once. "Vera! I don't know how to turn it off! How do I do that!?" Veronica doesn't even manage to hear me as she passes out from the magical burnout once and for all.
My body slowly walks toward the sleeping Vera with the intent to kill her; their only saving grace is an arrow that flies by me right between Vera's fainted body and mine. "Cut it out, Yoimiya!" That voice! My body turns around to face the new enemies on the plate, and it's none other than Bartholomew, Lord Auri, and Dustin.
"Yoimiya! You're not in trouble! But you better cut off your antics now, or we will have to hurt you!" NO! Don't say stuff like that! It only gives sage mode another reason to hurt you! Provoking me isn't helping anyone right now! UGHH!! DON'T!
"Death threats received, now neutralizing hostile party," I can't do anything to stop myself from soon launching against my adoptive father, who is caught up by surprise due to my insane movement speed in this state of mind. Bartholomew can't even dodge in time as my left hook connects against his shield, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
Since he was riding a horse, he was only knocked off his horse a few meters away, causing Dustin and Lord Auri stress as they realized just how suicidal the fight would be. 'I couldn't even see it,' Dustin thinks to himself while holding his sword in deep shock.
"Dustin, you've got to get out of here. A rookie like you stands no chance against an S-class enemy like her; you'd only be on my way." Lord Auri confidently gets down from his horse, and he sends it away along with Dustin. Just how crazy was Lord Auri!? Did he really think he could beat me?
"I guess it's up to me to teach a magical kid all about physical combat! COME AT ME GIRL!" Lord Auri taunts me, causing an immediate reaction against him, but surprisingly enough, he easily dodges my attack. Was I hallucinating or something?!
"Wesson style! Phoenix stance!" All of a sudden, Lord Auri's muscles cramped up and became bigger, as if he had just put up double his weight in muscle. He was clearly powerful enough to take punch after punch from me with minimal difficulty.
My body tries to attack him from different angles at different speeds and all manner of attack patterns, but it's ineffective against him since he just dodges or outright stops me from hitting him with his hands. Unbelievable! Does someone like him exist? So I wasn't already at the top? There were still people like Lord Auri who could! UUUGHH!!
Suddenly, a direct punch to the jaw from Auri sends me flying into the sky, making me bleed for the first time in a while. "Unexpected subject! Unknow power level! Magical reading is zero! ANALYZING!"
[Appraisal]
Adult human
[Human]
Name: Auri
Age: 35
Level: 0
HP: 0/0
MP: 0/0
SP: 0/+
Stamina: 25,000
{Appraisal complete}
Strength: 0
Damage Output: Legendary
Defense: 5,000 {Armor}
Speed: 0
Skills: Appraisal blocked.
Titles: Phoenix, Kin Eater, Taboo
Information: The lord of House Wesson and the descendant of a very peculiar line of fighters. It is said that all the ones that use the Wesson fighting style have rejected the help of the system to gain their strength; therefore, their true levels are unrecorded.
It doesn't make sense! My Appraisal has not even picked up Auri's stats! How is it possible that he can fight this well against me at my best?! It doesn't take long for Lord Auri to send me back to the ground with a single kick mid-air, finally causing me to take a small break.
"Heavy damage sustained, deploying heal magic." "Oh no, you don't." Soon, Lord Auri appeared before me and began to hit me over and over again in repeated succession, causing me severe injuries, yet the sage mode didn't want to surrender just yet.
"Damn! I'll tell you what, kid, you're as tough as I hoped you'd be. GOODNIGHT!" Auri soon knocks me out with one last punch to the face, finally turning off my sage mode.