“Solomon! Take the wheel and park it right there next to the statue on the hill,” Julius ordered, popping his door open.
“I don’t know how to drive, though.”
Ah, shit. Julius looked at him as if he felt dead inside. “You saw me briefly doing the work right? Well down here are two-foot pedals. The one on the left is your brake to stop, and the one on the right makes this truck move. Got it?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Julius then pointed to the gear stick. “And here is what will settle the other part. You see this letter ‘P’; That’s for parking the truck to not keep it moving. ‘R’ is for reverse while ‘D’ is obviously driving. And that’s it. You catch it all?”
“I think so…it’s simpler than I anticipated,” Solomon muttered. He lifted over to the driver’s seat as Julius glided off from his truck up into the air. He roundhouse kicked the driver’s door for it to close and flew away. A brief glare at his truck and saw Ritter and Lu Yi constantly shooting bullets out of their guns. He stopped and hovered midair, staring back at them. Gesturing his index finger up, two human-sized beams of blue light came up, engulfed halfway from behind, and towered over them by a margin. Julius subsequently lifted his middle finger right up to level with his index finger before giving another upward gesture with his entire hand. The blue light generated a huge burst of air, blowing Ritter and Lu Yi’s hair straight up.
“You two are doing great! I gave y’all more of my qi. You two learn how to use it so it can be directed at your gun. I promise; it will save you a bunch of time!” Julius praised from up high in the sky with a speaker voice but smooth as a flowing river.
“Thank you!” Lu Yi replied while maintaining eye contact with the stampede.
Julius turned around to find a building-sized barrier generating from underneath the wide hollow cracks. It’s not enough time or fast enough. He noted that the barrier was slow to expand to contain them as many were already going through the unreinforced side of it. Which was what Lu Yi and Ritter were shooting at.
--
New mission Added (1):
Demolition Derby against the Nocturnal Tigers until there’s nothing left remaining.
Rewards:
General Class Meter ↑
Swordsman Class Meter ↑
Stamina ↑
Endurance ↑
--
Ah, great now I’m part of this. Julius reflected with a slight annoyance down his throat. It was only a matter of time before it gave him something to do despite no reporting from Skoltor earlier. This brings a question of whether individuals could have varied missions and goals to the point where the system could interact and interpret them. He went down landing on the sandy terrain, catching Celeste’s attention from behind.
He walked up to view the stampede. “I didn’t think there were this many of these nocturnal tigers. It almost sounded like an exaggeration at first,” Julius muttered
Bang! Bang!
“Would you mind helping?” Celeste asked, dodging his remarks.
Julius half-turned to view the hill and saw the flashes of light coming from the guns. “I’m gonna cover the opening.”
“What?”
“Your barrier is great, but the generation is remarkably slow for them to be contained for this grand size. So, I’m taking that side,” Julius commented, summoning Licht in his grip. “Just keep doing the shield, it might buy me some time.”
Celeste stood from her knees. “How much time and what for?”
“You’ll see. It might make it quicker.”
Julius leaped up into the air, leaving Celeste to her shield duty.
<< I’m pretty sure we are dealing with more than four hundred. >> Julius analyzed further of the stampede. Licht awakens with a spewing barrage of qi across the area below like a meteor storm.
< Excuse me from the slumber… that’s a huge number. Have you gathered how capable they are in terms of strength? > Licht groaned like a sleeping pig.
Julius flew right to the edges of the furthermost the stampede had spread out. A couple of large trees resided in this part of the terrain, separating most of the deserted area they had driven by. The trees closest to Julius blocked most of the conflict down on the ground, leaving the moment anticipated. << No need, I already spotted dead bodies from Celeste and the two clerks’ gunshots struck a few. I already got the premise of this situation as I flew here. Hence, I’m just gonna do some damage control. >>
< As you wish. >
He swirled his hilt to trigger enough qi to flow and overload his entire blade. Afterward, Julius triggered its weight to rise up until the limit Licht could hold peaked.
One horizontal motion like swiping the credit card, shooting shards of qi across the length of a football field from the ground up. He saw the pack of nocturnal tigers flying high in the air. They took a huge laceration leaving a downpour of blood rain across the terrain.
< Hey! Watch out! > Licht alarmed.
“Woah!” Julius spun away, finding two nocturnal tigers attempting to go for a bite. They have stripes as anyone would find back on Earth. The nocturnal tigers are like the opposite of Earth tigers where their stripes are more silverish with a black body to blend much more efficiently in the dark. However, these two specifically were separated from the rest of the stampede in terms of appearance and tactic alone.
Julius, with one eye to his peripherals, fired from the tip of Licht’s blade as he let the greatsword rest on his right shoulder. It felt like having shoved down rice bags, pressuring his right traps. He jerked the hilt upward causing the beam to widen, striking the entire side of the stampede. His ears heard the crying howls and screams broke far enough to be considered really high in the sky.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
His other eye still remained focused on the two nocturnal tigers. Julius returned fully to view. Those two are intimidated by the blast, evident by their one jolting step back.
Are they gonna fight me right now? Julius studied the two who were about to get out of the intimidating phase. Their groaning noise went abruptly quiet, switching to revealing their sharp and furious jaw.
Yes, they are. He brought his sword back down, bringing remnants of the qi with it. The tip of the blade touched the ground slightly causing the ground between him and the two nocturnal tigers to crack apart. What boring rubbish!
Julius pressured the sword to enter through the cracks followed up by one upward slash, sending a wave of qi that lifted them into the air and shoved them into the distance.
That went well but was a waste of time as traces of them were gone into dust. It just makes him even more annoyed at the fact the entire stampede could have been annihilated then. Nothing to lose anymore, Julius flew up directly above the highest Celeste’s shield could reach. He put one foot on the edge while the other foot on the back and used his qi to manipulate as if he was standing and brought up another load into the blade.
With one grunt through the stiff arms and tightened thighs, Julius released a beam that transformed into a square shape for unknown reasons he could not explain. Next, it expanded rapidly to where it clashed with Celeste’s shield. It’s moving. He noticed the effect caused the entire surroundings to be manipulated, forcing parts of the shield to begin curving along the sides of the squarish beam.
Unfortunately, he could not stay and watch for long as his foot felt loose on the platform. Julius jumped away, and the shield shattered like glass, collapsing from the top down. At first, it seemed like it was but while gliding away from the event, the shards were altered and turned into fierce projectiles that were contaminated by his qi. Celeste! He began diving down like a falcon on a hunt.
< Are you doing what I’m thinking? >
<< Yes, and I think the time is up from here. We are leaving as your qi is going to bomb off the entire area here! >>
Julius brought out his left hand with his palm wide open. He howled her name. “Grab it!”
Celeste turned with a nearly growling face, expressing a near mood of not wanting to leave yet. Too late to react when he grabbed her by the collar of her coat, pulling her away from the site.
Boom!
A shockwave acted as a thrust and pushed Julius closer to the hill ahead where Solomon and the two clerks were already having their own problem dealing with the remaining nocturnal tigers. He then safely dropped Celeste off a few feet above the ground and detoured back into the air.
Viewing the beam that has turned into a mushroom cloud. To add up, the speed he was going in flight was at his highest to get back. This blast was bigger than all he had ever inflicted. Adding the shards of the shield somehow getting manipulated by the qi which might have caused a rise in the blast yield.
< All of that was from me and you?> Licht asked as if he didn't believe it. Julius could picture his face would be in horror just from the sight.
<< Yeah, I can't deny it. It happened and for some reason, my qi reacted to her shield. It was a strange phenomenon. That was never anticipated in my mind. The fact that’s now possible is a huge benefit and concern. >>
< I might need some help at one point. Somebody who can figure out what kind of shit I can do. Skoltor is not a fully dependent system. We need people and masters. >
<< I think we all do. Come on, we have to finish the job and get out of here. >>
Right. Julius flew right back at the crowd, taking the last blood with a forceful swipe of the blade through the nocturnal tiger that was about to sprint right at Ritter.
“Hey! That was mine!” Ritter yelled, sounding unpleased.
“Well, I’m sorry, you were about to get yourself chopped if it wasn’t for that intervention,” Julius refuted, landing on the edges of the hill perpendicular to his parked truck. “I commended you both for doing what you could. You two survived. That’s an achievement more important than just killing.”
Ritter wanted to argue but couldn’t when it was true. Lu Yi scolded him for an attempt. She then walked right up to Julius, wondering about the pistol.
They used up all the supplemental qi. Julius noted. “Keep it. I gave it to you two for a reason. Use it as you see fit in battle.”
--
Mission completed (1):
Demolition Derby against the Nocturnal Tigers until there’s nothing left remaining.
Rewards:
General Class (LV.2) Meter: [5%] → [10%]
Swordsman Class (LV.1) Meter: [5%] → [45%]
Stamina ↑
Endurance ↑
--
Pinpoint → 35 feet
--
Julius walked around the truck, following the pinpoint on Skoltor’s map. It was a statue. To be specific, it was mysterious. There was no face. Just a headless, masculine figure fitted in an overcoat, a mask covering only the jawline and the temples, and inner robes with a partially muscular chest exposed.
While disregarding it, a coloring change came from the statue’s chest. A black thick line perpendicular to the body came straight down as if it got cut in one slash. It appeared like the statue was cut in half beneath its head until it went past the waist and free-fell to the podium. Afterward, the thick line opened like a curtain, revealing a huge opening. It’s sparking white with strands of electricity zapping out of the opening. Nothing to reveal what is behind it.
Julius nodded, ready to go. “Everyone, head back to the truck. We are going in.” He went right to the tailgate of the truck as Ritter and Lu Yi climbed back to the truck bed.
He lifted up the truck similar to the atlas stone lift and braced it right to his chest which is insane to a normal human. Eyeing at the new portal, Julius began airlifting it to fifteen feet and gave enough distance away from the statue before letting his aura substitute the weight and fly right under the chassis. “Time for a new journey,” Julius muttered.
A roaring noise generated from his feet and Julius’s speed started picking up. By the next two seconds, he was already going beyond his prior top speed with weight on his shoulders. Like an airplane going through the tropospheric clouds to reach the stratosphere, Julius and the truck went through the portal with ease. The portal would close.
26.2
“Mam!” A howling yell came from behind the grand door.
“Let him in,” The soothing voice ordered, gesturing to her two butler-like guards by the door.
A man, wearing a black jacket with buttons down the front, entered the room and bowed while panting excessively.
“What is it?”
“We got an unexpected visitor in the sky, descending down to the capital!”
My senses were true seconds ago. Someone that I don’t recognize at all. Who does this massive qi belong to? The lady felt a little concerned while maintaining such curiosity. “Have you got the look of what this visitor looks like?”
“I don’t know. The man doesn’t look like he belongs to any of the countries.”
The lady grabbed her white gloves, lying on her desk before standing from her chair. “Be more specific. Spit out the details!”
The man was startled by her raising voice but continued. “Sorry…he appeared to be at least six shichi[6 '6.7”]. Huge arms, a neatly cut hair, and I don’t know what he was lifting, but it had four wheels with black wraps around it. And no, it’s not a carriage,” he muttered. “The clothes, I am out of this—”
The lady sighed. “Enough, thank you. I think I got the idea of what we could be dealing with. If he appears to be a friendly visitor, invite him here. And make it as smooth as possible. I don’t want any further reckless incidents recorded in my journal and documents!”
She sat back down in her chair, dismissing him. Once the man left and the doors were closed, she spun her chair towards the window. An entire view of downtown, illuminated by the beautiful sunlight. Gods of Yinhai, please give us luck. The lady breathed once more, praying for positivity to come in the capital’s footsteps.