『Felix Karl Grimm』
Let's consider my current loadout.
Seraph Tracers and Superhuman.
With this combination I was pretty strong and fast. But I was very limited in the ways I could fight, no projectiles or esoteric nonsense. I couldn't slot in precognition, if I did, my mobility would be too low to use it properly. I'd see it coming, but I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
"Gyaaah!!!"
BOOOM!!!
I jumped up just in time to avoid the curse lunging at where I once was, stomping its foot down and creating a small crater with it. This bastard was a bit too strong for my tastes. I flipped midair and lashed at it's back with a wing, making it stagger before it slapped my wing away.
But instead of blasting me like I anticipated, it flew and grabbed my leg with unnatural movements. The Finger Bearer's grip felt like a truck parking on my ankle. Just as I was about to swing my wing to sever the hand, I was thrown towards the wall and broke through it to the other side.
"GRIMM!!!"
"I'm... fine...!"
Disregarding Yuji's concerned shout, I shook my head and spread my wings as the cursed spirit charged at me again, gathering cursed energy in its hand. I needed a more refined way to fight. I needed to figure out something new.
Come to think of it, I rarely had to step out of my comfort zone in Night City, whether it was due to Giffany or precognition. I was never really faced with a real threat to my life, was I? Things were almost always under control. But now I had to fight for my life. So fight.
Innovate.
Get creative. Run your imagination wild to make it run the world.
Taking flight with my wings I reach high before spreading my wings to max. According to the Jujutsu textbooks, the Cursed Techniques are an extension of oneself, and how they manifest changes depending on how the user interpreted it.
Just like how the Precognition manifested like red pre-images for me but may have looked like something else to someone else. So the same thing vaguely applied to abilities. That meant I just had to expand my horizons and stop sticking to the rulebook so closely.
The feathers on my wings trembled, I dodged the blast of cursed energy and beat with my wings.
Taktakakak!!!
"Guah!!!"
A hail of razor sharp translucent white feathers flew and tore through the air like an automatic shotgun and ripped into the cursed spirit's body. But it quickly created a barrier on the spot to deflect the barriers. Despite that, I couldn't help but feel slightly excited.
Let's see how far I can take this.
I pushed off the ground and charged at the Cursed Womb who glared at me like a frustrated child whose toy was taken away. I ducked under its punch and slashed its waist, but it tanked the attack and opened its mouth before exhaling the cursed energy like a dragon, forcing me to cross my wings to defend.
"Urk...!"
Why did magic wings have to have pain receptors of all things? It felt like a really poor design choice at the moment. I pushed myself off the cursed spirit and beat my wings again to send a volley of feathers, but it learned its lesson and jumped above the volley before sending another blast of cursed energy towards me.
Seraph Tracers are losing their effectiveness. I've been using them to tank too many hits so far. And while they have all the mobility, their damage is not exceptional. Not to mention this bastard was a fast learner. I needed to keep one upping it, not letting it get used to my tricks. So swapped out Seraph Tracers.
Infernal Chains.
While rearing back, pretending I was about to use the wings again, I made several barbed and spiked chains burst out the ground around the Finger Bearer, taken completely off guard, the Finger Bearer was not able to react as the hooks on the ends of the chains gouged its flesh.
"Gigyaaaah!!!"
Roaring in pain it wrestled away from the chains and flew towards me. With my wings gone, I was at a severe speed disadvantage. Or, at least, I would be at a speed disadvantage.
Chains from the ceiling shot down and wrapped around my arms before hoisting me up, and then throwing me to the side when another ball of cursed energy was sent my way. Rolling to the side, I whacked the Finger Bearer with several barbed chains. But then instead of intercepting the chains, it charged towards me.
As I pulled chains to guard me, it sent cursed energy in waves towards the chains, shattering them before they could reach me. And once it was in front of my eyes, it reared its arm back with a wicked grin. My body moved on its own accord, out of pure survival instinct, I turned on Removal and put my hands up, turning superhuman up to the max.
CRASH!!!
The world turned upside down as I felt my arm become crushed by an immense force beyond any I have encountered so far. Like the power of a missile condensed into one focus point. My body sailed through the air before hitting the wall hard and cratering it.
"Koff!"
As my feet touched down on the ground I coughed blood into my fist, my vision spun like a merry-go-round. But my consciousness stood firm, even if I was lurching. I could see the cursed spirit gloating and cackling to itself instead of finishing the job it started.
Fucking bastard.
I need to heal, but I need a moment of concentration to do that, and the concussion really was not helping my case at the moment. But as the Finger Bearer approached me, I saw something behind it.
Schwing!
"?"
The Finger Bearer turned its head strangely to look behind it when it felt a blade get lodged shallowly in its neck, by one Yuji Itadori who managed to sneak up on it. His hands were trembling, but he still tried to chop off the Finger Bearer's neck with that little knife.
Despite feeling annoyed by him trying to throw his life away, I forced myself through the haze of confusion to invoke heal and bathe my body in healing light. Whether I liked it or not, his borderline suicidal charge saved me just now.
"Grimm! Gah!"
Yuji was not able to react in time as the bastard sliced him arm off in one motion and broke apart the blade. He staggered back and clutched the limb with his expression twisted in pain while my mind spun.
Think, what do I have on me that I can use against the Finger Bearer? I have to keep superhuman on so I have nothi-
Do I really have to keep Superhuman on?
Technically speaking, Superhuman was just a basic application of my energy. If Sorcerers could reinforce their bodies with cursed energy, why couldn't I do it with Energy? Isn't Superhuman just a shortcut to that enhancement?
It was a risky maneuver. But it was the only thing I could do, so...
I'd gamble on it.
I turned off Superhuman, but I did not forget the feeling, I internalized it. I moved my energy, from my core to throughout my body. It was shitty, it was a hack job, but it was working. It was nowhere near as good as Superhuman, but it was working.
And most importantly.
It felt like time itself slowed as a golden ticket floated through the air towards me. I grabbed it, barely reading the words:
Feat Achieved! Figure out Enhancement without any help
+1x Gold Ability Gacha ticket
With a triumphant grin, I tore the ticket in half.
Rolling Gold Ability Gacha...
An Elite Ability!
[Barrier]
|Elite Ability|
Unordinary - You can form an incredibly durable circular or dome-shaped barrier that you can adjust the size of, whoever damages the barrier takes reflective damage forming lacerations and breaks around their body but if the barrier cracks the user will take internal damage and cough blood, if the barrier completely breaks they will take even more backlash. With training, you can even change the shape, size, and amount of barriers you can manifest at once.
You have acquired 10 unique abilities.
+1 Ability Slot
Jackpot.
Without even blinking I slotted in Barrier and replaced Superhuman with Ember.
"HEY YOU UGLY FUCK! EYES ON THE PRIZE!"
Forcing even more of my energy out, I made several chains break out of the ground and wrap around the Finger Bearer while another one shot towards and wrapped around Itadori before throwing him out of the way of danger.
"Grrrh!"
But just as it was about to break out of the chains, the chains all burst into flames at the same times thanks to Ember, the shrieks of pain were music to my ears before it wrestled out of the chains and flipped out of them, looking at me with the eyes of a frightened and cornered animal.
Ptui!
I spat blood to the side and gave a 'come on' gesture to the pasty fuck who trembled with rage again before sending a volley of cursed energy towards me. But before it reached me, a circular lavender translucent dome covered my body and the volley that crashed into it failed to shatter the barrier utterly as if they were water droplets against glass. The Finger Bearer flinched back as light cuts appeared on it's skin.
Cough!
With my already infirm state, the little damage that my barrier took felt like a punch straight to the guts. Just how much cursed energy did this motherfucker have? It is only 1/20th of Sukuna, yet it was spamming moves like a button masher.
How long could I continue on for? There was also the matter of Yuji's life and death, that chopped off arm was not exactly a survivable type of injury. He'd bleed out in minutes.
My energy reserves were dreadfully low. How many times could I land a blow on this bastard?
I needed to gamble it all on one blow. Put everything I had left into one move to finish this.
Turning off my barrier I focused on Removal, pushing it as far it could go. I gritted my teeth, my muscles strained, flames focused into an intense glow on my fist, I readied [Wrath of the Gods]. This was all or nothing.
The cursed spirit likewise gathered cursed energy in its hand with a grimace, its animalistic intelligence twisted to pure rage with how many times I wounded and hurt it. It wanted me dead almost as much as I wanted it dead.
We both moved forward.
"And that's enough of you two."
We both froze.
Our bodies were unmoving as if someone pressed a pause button as Yuji suddenly appeared between us. But it was not Yuji, an aura of pure malice just oozed off of him that made us both freeze up like deers before headlights. He looked somewhat older with black markings all over his body and his hair slicked back. But the biggest difference was the crimson red eyes and that regarded us both.
Ryomen Sukuna had come out.
For some fucking reason.
Yuji what the fuck are you doing!?!?!?
"You, just stay there, I need you as assurance. Sit there in the corner or something. My business is with him."
He dismissed the Finger Bearer as casually as one would dismiss a puppy, making the Finger Bearer tremble in rage as I stood there with wide eyes, looking between both of them.
"Kieeaaahhh!!"
Boom!
Without sparing a glance, he regrew the arm Yuji lost and smacked the bolt of cursed energy the Finger Bearer released, away with contemptuous ease.
"What a waste, you are just slinging cursed energy everywhere without any finesse. Oh well, I'll just make my own insurance."
Flick
I stared in stunned silence as the Finger Bearer was sliced to bits with a single trivial flick of the finger from Sukuna. As the pieces fell to the floor, Sukuna reached down and plucked a finger from the hole in the Bearer's chest and threw it down his gullet like it was a snack.
Squelch!
And while the finger went down, he suddenly plunged his hand into his own chest before pulling out his heart, Yuji's heart and threw it away as the innate domain of the Finger Bearer around us crumbled around to reveal the prison block it was originally supposed to be.
"That's better, now that Brat can't take control back without dying. He was too naive to give control without a Binding Vow. Laughable really." He muttered to himself and stretched his shoulders before giving me a malicious smile. "Now then... Grimm, was it?"
I couldn't help but feel a nervous chuckle bubble up in my gut. I'd never been so scared in my life. Even Adam Smasher was a measurable figure for me, there was a way to take him down. We were on the same playing field even if he was way ahead.
But the monster in front of me? He had taken down the Finger Bearer that was killing me as easily as swatting a fly. We were not even on the same world, let alone on the same playing field.
"The King of Curses bothered to learn my name? I'm honored."
Hearing my sarcastic words, Sukuna laughed loudly and clapped his hands.
"That's right, you should be. I'm in a great mood right now since I regained my freedom, so I'll play with you a little. I got really curious about your cursed technique, and I wanted to see more of it. So..."
"Entertain me."
"!!!"
I couldn't even track it with my eyes as Sukuna appeared before me and slammed his fist into my guts, I barely managed to reinforce my stomach in time, but I still felt like I was hit by a tank shell as my body went flying and crashed through the wall of the detention center and into the open area behind it. My body bounced off the hard ground before I landed on my feet, barely standing up like a newborn fawn with my legs shaking.
The rain continued to drizzle from the sky as Sukuna stepped out of the broken wall with a lazy gait and a dangerous smirk aimed towards.
I can't believe I'm saying this.
I think Night City really wasn't that bad.
A/N: Felix is uhh, not having a great time, as one might imagine when up against a Special Grade Curse of all things, he was beyond woefully unprepared. But good thing is, Felix is great at thinking on his feet and making do with what he's got. And it helps that he is decently talented which allows him to not quite hold his ground but survive against the Finger Bearer.
...Which does not matter at all when big daddy Sukuna enters the scene. Unfortunately, Yuji was too worried about his and Grimm's safety and made an oopsie of trusting Sukuna to save them, thinking Sukuna actually valued his vessel. So we have just gone from a hard place to a very imposing and malicious rock. What did you guys think about the Finger Bearer Fight? I'd love to know.