CRASH!
Debris came down through an impact that was supposed to knock me out. I rolled over to the side, trying to stifle whatever charging breath was leaving my lungs as I ran around the block. Fuck, I just need to awaken my ability. Playing hide and seek with tournament challengers was starting to become annoying.
You're probably wondering how I got here. Well, that flashes back to three minutes ago when I was peacefully napping during math class. Not my favourite subject, apparently. And the teacher didn't care enough to track the students who were listening to him anyway.
I didn't know how many hours had passed, but when I opened my eyes, I met myself on the floor of a small dojo. A taekwondo classroom, I guessed. There was no warning, no beacon from the system. And definitely no request for my permission before it brought me to another tournament challenge.
This time, I was to fight a taekwondo master named Kyon. When I saw him, he didn't exactly look like a master of anything martial. He was lean-figured, had rugged hair and wore a dirty black belt that looked more like a conviction rather than a prize.
[Stage 7]
[Player VS Kyon]
[Difficulty: Hard]
For a difficulty that read as hard, I first assumed it was the normal grind. Strict calculation, precise hit, critical damage.
Well, I was still working on that. Kyon was predictable, that was certain. As expected of a taekwondo master, he mostly used his legs to perform certain moves that looked like a traditional dance. His hands were always up and guarding his face. And his torso was always rock-hardened. It was pretty much useless to hit him there.
And that was exactly the problem. He was too defensive. Head, shoulders, torso. Even his legs were weapons themselves. And to make things all the worse, he had a stupid mighty punch ability. If I weren't close to him, he could simply punch the air in my direction, and two wild midair punches would blast towards me.
Every time I dodged that attack, I would put my hands on my head, trying to confirm it was still there. And now, sitting behind a stack of debris—breathing charged like a running prey— my brain was pretty much void of ideas.
"Amelia?" At this point, I was getting used to calling on her whenever things weren't going as planned. "You don't happen to have an idea on how to approach this guy, do you?"
"Kyon is a built war machine. Technically. From his movements and everything I've seen, he knows more combat skills than you do. And his ability acts as an advantage. Which means you're cooked." Amelia explained. "But not completely."
"I'm listening." Partly at least. With the loud thumping of a heart in my constricted chest.
"If you're going to beat him, you need exactly what he has too. An advantage. From what I've seen, he relies more on defence than speed." Amelia folded one arm and placed the other on her chin. "You just need something that can break his defence."
Something to break his defence? Certainly, she wasn't talking about my fists, right? They couldn't even break a little brat's defence. And if I needed something that could work against Kyon, it needed to be more durable. Something that you go through him no matter how tough his skin was.
My eyes searched around for anything. Debris? That was too heavy. There was a pair of boxing gloves hanging a few feet away from me, but the impact wouldn't make much difference from using my fists.
Then.. a short knife? There was one on the ground a few metres from me like it'd been clattered away by fate. I didn't hesitate to grab the blade, simultaneously ducking another of Kyon's enhanced punch attacks.
Returning to the debris cover, I held the knife up, staring at my reflection in the blade. A pathetic, sweaty boy looked back at me, fear in his eyes. I closed my eyes, threw my head down. Then muttered a prayer.
Now!
I rolled to the side, regaining my balance just in time to dodge Kyon's attack. Five seconds. That was all the time I had to reach him before he spawned another energy punch. I lunged at him, grabbing him so tightly that we both came down in a free fall.
And while I was still busy trying to find my arms, he didn't waste a second. His legs came up on my waist and he kicked me off like I was supposed to be a giant.
BAM! My head hit the cold floor first, but thankfully, the impact was not severe. My brain just filled with a long synchronizing beep that lasted for seconds. After that, I stood, groaning through every pain I felt in my bones.
Weakly, I swiped the blade at him, but he dodged. Then another, and another, while still holding my head. None of my attacks met him. And I realised he was only pulling off a coaching session when he rapidly grabbed my hand and took the knife out of it.
"Give me that!" I tried to punch him, but he caught my arm and threw me off with an aggressive front kick.
I felt it in my guts a few seconds after the impact. An internal bleeding in my spleen, maybe even worse. Trying to stand was a no-go. I could only maintain a crawling posture at this point.
[Recovery Rate Up— Level 3]
While the system was doing whatever it was convinced it was, Kyon was busy preparing his final big attack. He drew his arms back, giving me a final angry look before taking a shot at me.
WHACK! The punch echoed through the air, and I closed my eyes. Waiting for the impact to land. However, it never did.
I opened my eyes again, trying to confirm that I'd been regressed to my start point. But I was still crouched there on the ground, one arm around my stomach, the other on the floor.
Kyon had a surprised look on his face, as he'd just seen a Tasmanian devil do a five-minute tango, and honestly, I couldn't blame him. Not after the system message that came up afterwards.
[Error: Anomaly Detected]
[Section: Ability]
[Rank: Error__Scanning]
Anomaly? What is happening?
[Rank Decided: A+]
A plus? Was it just me, or did the system messages seem more complicated than they were supposed to be?
Amelia was the smart one. I was going to ask her for a summary of what was happening. But I'd almost forgotten that Kyon was still right there, determinedly on his verge to end me. He shot another punch at me. This time, I tried to dodge but was too slow. The punch didn't meet anyway.
It just... didn't happen. Like there was a force of nonexistence between Kyon and me. He didn't stop. He just kept throwing his abilities at me in hundreds, probably hoping that one would make a landing.
And honestly, I was waiting for that too. At the same time, while trying to decode whatever was happening to me too.
"I'm getting heavy signals," Amelia said as soon as her hologram appeared. "Your ability tremored again."
"Again?" I looked down at her. "What do you mean, again?"
Amelia didn't answer. Her silence explained that she was trying to hide something from me. And whatever it was, I needed to know it. I slid myself towards Kyon, through his legs. And then, SPLAT! My right fist went up his balls.
"AARGH!" He groaned so loudly, holding on to his stuff as he went down to the ground on his knees.
The fallen hero. It was funny how this was the same move I'd planned against Stone. And I just pulled it off now like it was an instinctive response to an overpowered threat.
It worked anyway. Kyon was pretty much unable to move, he looked like his pause button had just been hit. I watched him groan for over two minutes, chuckling despite the pain in my guts.
And until the humour died, I walked up to him and grabbed the knife which had fallen from his hand. At that point, I studied the blade intentionally, like I'd seen villains do in movies before they ended their victims.
"Please,...don't kill me." He begged through a groan.
"Okay. I won't." I smiled, my eyes stopping on his face. "But this is gonna hurt."
SLICE!
"AARGHHHHHH!" Blood streamed down his cheek as he cried, collapsing helplessly on the ground.
[Player Wins]
[Reward: Force: +7 Agility: +4 Stamina: +9]
At that moment, something in me reacted so much that a shiver ran down my spine. The knife clattered to the ground, and I held my stomach again, my breathing suddenly charged.
Calm down, Ren.
This isn't real.
This is all just an illusion.
"Now, Amelia," I said, after a moment of cloud clearing. "What have you been hiding from me?"