“MARTA!”
Sun-young’s scream was barely recognizable, even to herself. Watching the golden rapier leave Marta’s body and then slash her arm off—
“MARTA!”
The agony etched across Marta's face was a harrowing sight. Her features contorted with pain, eyes wide in disbelief, and mouth agape in a silent plea for respite. She stumbled back, clutching the bleeding stump where her arm had once been. Her staff cluttering beside her, Jack peered down at her, the black dots in his mask glowing. He raised the rapier and prepared to shove it into her throat.
Sun-young's grip tightened on her anti-magic katana, rage coursing through her veins. She lunged at Jack, the blade slicing through the air with deadly precision. The anti-magic properties of her katana posed a threat to Jack if their previous encounter taught her something.
All that rage, all her emotion, she swung her sword at his head.
“Whoop.”
…and missed. Because this time, Jack was aware too. He understood the dangers her anti-magic katana posed. Even so, he was arrogant. He thought she had nothing left.
Wrong.
Upon the second slash, Sun-young uttered, “Distortion Slash.”
“Ugh!” He raised his left hand—the hand that he had replaced with darkness—and resisted, catching and fighting against the distorted projectile slash. It wasn’t enough and the distorted slash went through and nicked his mask. Sun-young continued pressing him.
‘Every time we clashed, his left hand would waver.’ Clang! Clang! Clang! ‘Now it’s gone! This is my best chance. Distortion Slash!’
He back-stepped and side-stepped, refusing to meet her blade with his own. The instant a metre of distance was between them, Sun-young threw another Distortion Slash. Quite casually, he raised his golden rapier and blocked it without moving an inch. In fact, the slash almost bounced, as if what it had touched was beyond it.
Sun-young stopped to catch her breath. Observing the gleam of the blade, she swallowed. ‘Why?’
“Is something wrong?” Jack asked cockily.
Sun-young didn’t respond, her thoughts overrun by a single observation. ‘Why does Jack have the same blade as Marshal Margaret?’
It was the exact same rapier. Design-wise and magic-wise, it was a carbon copy. She did sense a difference in magic but she assumed that was due to the difference in wielders. Otherwise, Jack’s rapier and Margaret’s rapier were the same—
Clang!
Jack dissolved in front of her and reappeared to her left. If it weren’t for the anti-magic properties in her katana, he would have lobbed off her arm.
“You should ask her yourself.”
Sun-young stiffened, her grip failing her as he put in more strength. ‘How did he—’
“Read your mind?” Jack pushed and pushed till she was nearly down on one knee. With one hand, he overpowered her like a child. “Such cool rage. I like that.”
In the background, she heard the wailing cries of her friend. Her heart sank till it was filled with bitter rage. From her heart to her arm, she was fueled with agony. Here and now, distance be damned, she was going to use it .‘Distortion Slash—!’
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
[ New skill learned : Nullifying Slash ]
“Huh—”
The marks on the katana glowed black and she slowly began to push him back. For the one-handed Jack, it was like a cockroach fighting to the bitter end. A mere insect at the bottom of his boot. His muscles prepared to mount a proper attack that would slice her in half. Sun-young's darted left and right, reading his body for all it was worth, and finding zero weaknesses. That was until he was suddenly pulled back.
Dark tendrils had latched onto Jack's limbs, helping Sun-young who didn't think twice about the opportunity. Leaping back, she raised her katana mightily. ‘Empty your mind…collect the energy within your katana…’
She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them to throw her katana down. “Distortion Slash!” Against Marshal, she had come to understand how anti-magic worked. The emptier her mind, the stronger the anti-magic.
Behind Jack was Marta, panting and bleeding, her one arm outstretched with her staff. Her hold on Jack remained strong and the Distortion Slash struck him in the chest.
“Haa…haa…”
[ Warning! Powerful surge of magic! ]
[ Warning! Powerful surge of magic! ]
Sun-young staggered back, her expression twisting and the end of her katana hitting the ground. ‘He…he blocked it?’
No rapier was necessary, Jack simply tanked the block as if…as if it didn’t happen. Sun-young recognized this. This was—
‘Advanced Flow of Mana!’
Marta saw the bewilderment on Sun-young’s face and in that brief moment of confusion Jack broke through the snares. He walked up to Sun-young, who was unable to muster the strength to attack or defend. “Anti magic, the supernatural phenomena born from human blood. It is the bane of the gods. In some ways, it is the most human power.” His tone was calm and cool. “You don’t even realize what you’re doing to yourself. Every time you use it, you burn through your mana and by association your stamina too.”
Her hands held onto her katana tightly, her dark brown eyes fiercely glaring up at him. She stepped back, gasping for air, and went wide eyed at the sight of blood. Jack, almost lazily, slashed her.
‘Ah.’ Her mind recognized it before her body did. ‘It’s over.’
Vaguely, she heard Marta’s screaming her name, but her senses went blurry as she staggered back, holding her wound. She touched her chest with her hand and all she saw was red.
“Gale Burst!”
Jack threw a hand back and stopped it flat. Everything was so easy for him that…that Sun-young felt like it was hopeless. There was no way they were beating Jack. His experience trumped every skill in their handbook and—
“Gale Burst!”
Rendered meaningless by his rapier. A lazy swing was enough to counter Marta’s wind spell. Sun-young thought that would be that, but no. Marta ran at him and tried to bash her staff against his skull.
Sun-young stood there with hazy eyes, watching her comrade fail miserably. ‘It’s over,’ she thought. ‘It’s over. We’re going to die. It’soverit’soverit’sover—!’
Marta grit her teeth. “I worked so hard! I can't lose! I WON'T!” With her one arm, she swung a second time. Jack quietly blocked it. “Super Spectral Snare!” In seconds, Jack was enveloped in thin tendrils. “Super Spectral Snare! Super Spectral Snare!”
More and more and more tendrils wrapped around Jack till he was buried in it. Marta stumbled back, huffing and panting, eyes bleeding. She was out of mana and her HP was dropping due to her missing arm.
‘I don’t…get it…’ Sun-young thought. ‘It’s over, we can’t win—’
Yet Marta aimed her staff and yelled, “Gale Burst!”
If a player ran out of MP yet continued to want to use it, then naturally, there was only one source they could squeeze from.
Their own soul.
Marta drained out every ounce of energy within her to blast Jack away. The repeated usage of wind magic thickened the red fog in the area. One thing remained: the tendrils, choking the life out of Jack. The dust settled and the high of battle went down and Marta collapsed to her knees.
Her nose and ears were leaking with blood. Sun-young, at long last, twitched. She wanted to help her. She wanted to open her inventory and feed her a healing potion.
“Tenacious is all I can say.”
Such efforts were mere hopes in this nightmare as Jack casually ripped through his confinement.
“You rely too much on your staff, on the System. Listen here, little wizard. We exist not with weapons, but with our souls.”
Jack dropped into the Earth and reappeared in front of Marta. Marta who remained down on her knees, blood pooling onto her lap. Silent. Weak.
Shaking.
“The conditions for receiving the Wizard Class are simple: either gain one thousand MP or learn a skill from the Wizard class.” His rapier touched her neck. “You're no genius. You’re just annoyingly tenacious. Dirty. A woman unable to recognize that she has no talent. A speck that I deem…unworthy.”