Reiss skipped through the meadow.
If he were forced to find a reason, his main one would be to feel the wind blow in his hair. It felt oddly majestic. His now outrageously long, magical, white hair was picked up easily by the summer breeze.
Then that same summer breeze shifted into a rough gust, smacking Reiss in the face with his own hair. He tumbled and landed face-first in the dirt.
"I am beginning to sense a pattern here..."
Reiss was not omnipotent or omniscient.
Oh, Reiss was powerful, there was no doubt. Could he have stopped himself from falling? Sure. Could he have avoided the gust entirely? Most definitely. Did he need to prevent himself from falling? Not Necessarily.
After living hundreds of lives, he was able to prevent most bodily harm to himself by accident or otherwise. Yet in his last dozen iterations or so, he grew bored of never making small mistakes. So, a secluded part of Reiss' faculties was dedicated to allowing minor accidents that would give life a bit of spice.
Like tripping.
Picking himself up, he was delighted to notice not so much as a speck of dirt touched his luscious locks. Now, that is magic! Still pristine and shining.
Childish laughter tickled his ears.
"You precocious snowflake brats."
Reiss cursed toward the sky, shaking a dirty fist, more playful than anything.
A snowball hit the back of his head.
Turning around, he was alarmed to notice a second snowball incoming. Dodging gracefully, Reiss posed dramatically.
"Ha-Hah!"
Reiss was about to boast but paused when he saw a flurry of projectiles coming his way.
Dancing amidst a snowball barrage, Reiss weaved as the onslaught whizzed past him. Dozens, then hundreds of tightly packed snowballs came at him. Like pitching machines appearing from the ether, they threatened to sully his reputation.
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"Aw... are you upset I turned your friend into glitter?"
Reiss taunted the Sprites. He could practically hear indignant foot stomps from small children hollering to hit him. The stream of attacks came faster and faster to the point the snowballs started to create sonic booms.
"A dance, it is."
This was a good opportunity to play with his skills a bit.
Twirling and cartwheeling out of the way, Reiss activated a rare skill with a one-day cooldown.
[Reverse Motion]
What sounded like a cassette tape rewinding cued each and every snowball within a mile to reverse direction.
The oncoming barrage halted as Reiss retraced his elegant dance. With a graceful leap, Reiss floated back down to his original position. A shit-eating grin was plastered across his face.
No more childish giggling.
"Calling it quits already? That was barely a warm-up."
For the longest time, he thought they would actually raise the white flag. But that wasn't their nature.
A shadow suddenly eclipsed Reiss. He looked up, his smug grin faltering just a bit.
"Suffering from a bruised ego much?"
An enormous tailed comet of snow, rock, and ice was hurdling towards him from the heavens. Were they planning on destroying the entire countryside?
Or are they planning on me stopping it?
Reiss looked around at all the flora spread along the rolling grassland. It made him click his tongue.
"I'm not someone you can bully any longer."
[Clockwork]
An ornate clock hand appeared in Reiss' grip. The unique sword was birthed from condensed white mithril. Polished and clean, the point was sharp enough to cut space in twain.
Taking a steady stance, one foot back he raised his blade over his shoulder.
The comet started burning up, not enough to make any difference...
Reiss spared a glance for the flowers in the clearing. They swayed in a gentle breeze, waving their support. He turned to face the threat and spoke a single word.
"[Accelerate]."
=
Through the eyes of a terrified hawk hatchling, three miles away, it watched with primal fear as the icy meteor plummeted. It cried out as its parents flew for safety, abandoning their child. The baby hawk was trying to flutter its inoperable wings. No matter how hard it tried, it was too young to fly.
As it waddled and hopped toward the edge of the nest, it witnessed the cataclysmic projectile pause in the sky like a divine being was choking on it. The poor bird was too shaken and ended up passing out before it saw the globe of death turn into sparkling lights.
=
Reiss dismissed his weapon.
Then all at once the comet burst into twinkling starlight.
Of all the skills in his possession, [Accelerate] was the simplest. In the beginning, all it did was make him cover a few feet in shorter strides. Now... at his level?
He was as strong as he needed to be.
As stardust sprinkled the landscape. Reiss adopted his signature smirk.
"That's right. I'm OP as fuck."