MM - Chapter 102 - BIRTH OF A NIGHTMARE

Arya Tafell

- Moments ago -

Arya’s focus snapped to the mysterious Alaric when he flowed toward FierceFire. The martial movement was nearly pristine, a display of prowess impossible to replicate without intensive understanding of the underlying technique, and an empowered human physique.

He's a peak class five under thirty?! That's not possible. No way someone that age has harnessed enough internal force to-wait… ZionLine's attributes allow for advanced movements that we haven't begun to scratch the surface of. So, in a sense, it can shortcut the need to slowly gather internal force, giving lower class martials a glimpse into the higher classes!

Alaric looked up at her, a smug smirk showcasing that he’d known exactly what he was doing when he revealed the movement to her. As much as she wanted to jump to a simple conclusion to protect her ego, Arya was a professional to the core. Narrowing her eyes, she dove further into the facts of what she’d witnessed.

Even with a million in each attribute, he couldn't move like that without understanding the technique. And that’s only possible after accumulating the internal force, or attributes, required to practice; practice which takes years to reach that level of mastery. ZionLine hasn’t been out long enough. What he displayed cannot possibly be replicated in mere days.

Assuming I’m even right about attributes replacing accumulated force, then all he lacks is the time needed to gather said force. Since he’s clearly been practicing for years already, he must be close. The youngest grandmaster in history was seventy eight, yet this boy’s not even thirty.

Needing to know more, Arya did the only sensible thing and contacted her patriarch. The VRVod she sent him was only a short clip of a single movement, but it was already enough to change everything.

Raine KongRu

Raine pulled his attention from the battle below to sneak a glance at Arya. She was focusing so intently on whoever she was communicating with that she missed his look.

She took the bait. I'm already so deep in the Phoenix Clan radar, there's no escape. The best I can do is make them more interested in me than fearful. Better to have investigators snooping than assassins stalking.

In the arena, Samson’s expression was hard after being revealed early. He immediately charged at Celeste, holding two curved kukris in reverse grips. He leaned forward, increasing his speed to triple that of Hammer’s.

Damian laughed again, pointing at the sands, “Samson passed the Finesse and Acuity thresholds. It doesn’t matter if she can see him; she’ll never land a hit! And even if she does, she can’t hurt him! Save yourself from the embarrassment and pain, give up now!”

Talerra and FierceFire looked between Celeste and Raine, unsure how neither could be affected by Damian’s words. In the arena, Samson continued his mad dash. It was clear he planned to take the fight seriously despite his speed and the advantage conferred by the Marvelous Gold necklace. As with most accessory slot items, it undoubtedly inferred a significant boost to Connection, which in turn raised Resistance. It was possible the item also gave a flat bonus to Resistance, which really would put a caster at a severe disadvantage.

In response to his charge, Celeste spun her staff and body, whipping her weapon around in a blazing dance. Each time an end of her weapon lashed toward Samson, it released a tiny ball of concentrated fire that tore through the air with a whistling hiss. The little balls came faster than he was expecting, but not fast enough. 

He slowed his charge, utilizing multiple martial sidesteps to avoid them.

Talerra gasped, turning to Raine with a sorrowful expression, “Shameless! To use your own technique in front of you, and against one of your disciples. What a deplorable man.”

FierceFire, having recovered from her earlier fear, was quick to test Raine’s boundaries, “This is why techniques shouldn’t be used without a care. You’ve given away your biggest advantages to everyone who gets a hold of one of your VRVods.”

Raine rolled his eyes, “Advantages? He merely copied a low level technique.”

Neither girl knew how to respond. What Raine said went against everything they had been raised to believe, and what everyone knew to be true. The mass murders and atrocities committed by the most powerful martial families made it abundantly clear how seriously they took hiding their techniques. Earning the right to receive even one required a lifetime of unwavering loyalty and dedication. Yet it was all a lie.

As the challenges and rewards within ZionLine grew, the supposed need for secrecy behind martial techniques waned. That was when they were revealed to be just another fabrication of the great families; a pretty, surface-level excuse to deepen their power and control over the masses, and a red herring to draw attention away from what truly mattered.

Ultimately, overwhelming internal force would always trump techniques. How to achieve such force was the true secret the martial families greedily held to their bosom. The ‘smoke-and-mirrors’ of techniques gave the general populace something else to focus on, further obscuring the path to heightened internal force, to becoming a grandmaster.

Since there was no point arguing with a madman, FierceFire pivoted, “Still, for him to master a new technique in so few days is beyond impressive. I didn’t know the core disciples had someone with such impressive natural talent. Your girlfriend is really in trouble.”

Raine wasn’t sure which of her assumptions was more annoying. He certainly wasn’t going to address the falsities of the second one with a random outsider, “Talent? Copying someone else doesn’t require talent.”

She scoffed, her voice derisive, “Really? Then what does?” Raine’s only response was to point at the arena floor.

During their quick chat, Celeste’s barrage of blasts increased in tempo to two per second as she rapidly gained proficiency with the new skill. Charged Blast was notoriously difficult to control, requiring multiple mental inputs for each use.

Samson’s progress in closing the distance slowed, then halted completely. Frustrated, he sheathed one of his kukris. While continuing to sidestep, his arm blurred, releasing a flurry of throwing knives that reflected the sun in dazzling pinpricks of light. Celeste smoothly bent and twisted her torso, maintaining her spinning dance while easily dodging the blades.

Furious at the pace of the battle, Damian roared, his hands tightly gripping the railing, “Samson! She can’t hurt you. Why are you messing around? Kill her this instant!”

Samson scowled but followed the command. He charged again, ignoring the bolts being flung with impressive accuracy. Within five steps, four connected with his chest, arms, and head. [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] Celeste attempted to add retreating steps to her dance as he closed the distance. Her efforts were futile. Within seconds, he would be on her.

The moment he crossed the ten meter mark, both ends of her staff flared brighter than ever before. With a fast swing, she released a Charged Blast directly toward Samson’s center of mass. Sensing the danger, he sidestepped again. Her staff came around as she spun, the other end whipping in his direction and unleashing the second bolt. It traveled several times faster than the first along the exact same trajectory. The two blasts collided only a meter behind Samson and exploded in a spherical wave of flames that quickly swallowed him whole. [-57]

“What?!” Damian roared, his eyes wide as the moon. Samson was bodily thrown from the expanding detonation of fire. Midair and upside down, he punched the sand and shot higher, narrowly avoiding two follow-up blasts that were back to the same size and intensity of Celeste’s previous machine-gun fire.

Damian shook his head, mumbling to himself, “That damage should be impossible! No. She must have some cheat to use more EP at once…” He raised his voice, drowning out the crackling bursts of flame far below, “Press the attack Samson! Don’t give her a chance to recover her resources!”

Landing with gritted teeth, Samson followed his master's commands. This time, Celeste was ready and before he turned on her, the Charged Blasts took on a deep, ruby hue. One after another, they crashed into him with such force that he was thrown back. [-71] [-65] [-69]

Panicking, Samson withdrew a round, black object from his inventory and threw it at his feet. An expanding cloud of dark smoke billowed out, blocking him from sight. Celeste whipped her staff around three more times in less than two seconds, releasing more zinging bolts from the ends.

These ones lacked the bright, heavy glare of the last few but shot forward at double the speed. They vanished into the smoke and two sizzling pops were heard. Only one of her Charged Blasts exited the back end of the cloud and Celeste grinned victoriously.

She calmly removed a potion from her inventory and drank it in one gulp. Then took four steps back to stand at the edge of the cloud of smoke. In a surprising move, she planted the butt of her staff in the sand, bent her knees slightly in preparation, and waited.

“I’m not going to pretend I understand what's happening down there, but it's over now that he’s Stealthed again,” DoberMan grumped. “Should have put me in against that scrawny punk. I’d wring his neck,” he coughed innocently, then whispered in a low voice, “Just out of curiosity… how did she hit so hard even though he has that necklace? That thing is raising his resistance, isn’t it?”

Raine had no intention of answering such an obvious question. Talerra glanced nervously at him, her gaze quickly returning to the motionless Celeste, “Shouldn’t she be trying to get as far away as possible? What’s she thinking just standing there next to the smoke?”

“Taking her enemy seriously,” Raine’s cryptic response wasn’t what she wanted to hear. 

The smoke cleared and there was no sign of Samson. Talerra examined the soft arena floor, unsuccessful in spotting the hidden player, “Would you give me a real answer if I offered you credits?”

“No,” Raine drawled dryly.

“What about the secret behind her firing so quickly? Regular Blast has a one second cooldown and the upgraded versions I’ve seen are even slower.”

Raine’s deadpan look caused her to pout. While cute, it lacked the freckles required to tug at his heartstrings. He was much more entertained by the apocalyptic wrath gathering in Damian’s expression. 

The noble scion ground his teeth loud enough to be heard across the deadly silent arena, “Samson! Why are you giving her a chance to recover? How are all of you so fucking worthless?! It doesn't matter if she's cheating, she's just a worthless little whore! Kill her already!” When no response came from Samson, and he failed to materialize, Damian paced back and forth with hunched shoulders and a murderous glare. 

Long seconds turned to minutes without any sign of Samson. During that time, Celeste began to tremble slightly as she maintained a level of focus that only Raine could truly appreciate.

Talerra was incapable of bearing the lingering silence, “What a cruel man to leave her in suspense for so long. The pressure must be intense. You’ve truly found an amazing disciple, Master Alaric. She’s impressive to the point I’m not sure I could beat her. But it’s also true that Samson is stealthed. His next attack will stun her and she’ll be dead before she recovers.”

Raine clicked his tongue, relaxing back in his seat, “Have you ever heard the expression: Ignorance is a sin? You have no knowledge of the many differences between the basic and hidden classes, yet you announce the victor so soon.”

For once, FierceFire held herself back long enough for Talerra to respond, “I… You’re right. ZionLine is still in its infancy. Thank you for your wisdom.”

Raine’s abs tightened, releasing an amused puff of air. Ten minutes passed in relative silence, the agony of the viewers nothing compared to the stress Celeste bore. He’d found Samson long ago, the man cleverly hiding against a wall at the edge of the arena. As they entered the final minute before his Stealth would fade, he inched toward the visibly shaking caster.

There was no denying Samson was skilled. Naturally, a sandy surface would be challenging to sneak across due to the footprints left behind with each step. He overcame this hurdle with an impressive use of Connection, firming the sand beneath his feet into a hard surface with nary a displaced grain of sand.

Raine unconsciously leaned forward, gaze sweeping across Celeste without missing the smallest detail. Satisfied with what he saw, he relaxed again, an easy grin on his lips.

Attagirl. The only one in this coliseum allowed to defeat you is me.

Celeste heard his thoughts loud in her ears. Despite the trembling betrayals of her body, her clarity of thought had never faded. Still, his calm confidence brought her a measure of peace. [For now. I’ll surpass you soon. Then, I’ll become the goddess you mentioned and crush you beneath my heel.]

Celeste choked off the delicious thought, focusing like never before. She was juggling so many different things at once that she was honestly shocked with herself. Even more unbelievable was how Raine knew she could do it before she did, and instructed her on what to do. Otherwise, she really would have died exactly as Talerra predicted.

Samson’s knife plunged toward Celeste’s lower back, and exactly as Raine said she would, she felt it coming in advance. Her heart released a lone, powerful beat, slamming adrenaline through her blood and bringing the flow of time to a crawl.

Both she and Samson utilized the same strategy; the only difference was that his Connection firmed the sand, while hers focused on maintaining pressure in the air around her. Per Raine’s advice, every free attribute since level ten had gone into Connection. 

When she first passed the fifty point threshold the night before, she’d thought him mad. The ground had turned to liquid and tried to swallow her. Then, the air thinned to the point she began floating away. Only after intense practice, and constant verbal abuse, did she manage to stand and walk regularly.

Now, with over two hundred Connection—combined nascent, baseline, and equipment—the extreme focus required to walk around normally was mind boggling. Every flick of her finger could upset the delicate balance in the forces around her, sending her hurtling away. She’d gotten much better at it while the others trained through the night, but her other attributes were less than a quarter as high and the disparity was nauseating; the insane talent that required was only the tip of the iceberg.

The challenge of repeatedly flinging Charged Bolts while maintaining that balance would give even future players a heart attack. There was yet one more layer to the ridiculousness that was the Crimson Nebula. It was this last facet that dubbed her as a true genius in the past, and it was the reason she remained in Raine’s memory years after she left the Tri-Glades. Now, before the eyes of everyone in the arena, that incomprehensible nightmare had once more been unleashed upon ZionLine.

Celeste’s high Concentration allowed her to manipulate the air a full fifty centimeters outside her body. But it did more than that. While everyone else could only dumbly push outward, Celeste could feel what she was pushing against as though it were contacting her skin—a feat that would not be widely understood for years to come.

When the tip of Samson’s kukri entered the range of her Connection, she instantly sensed it and focused her efforts directly atop the weapon. it slowed, unable to instantly overcome her control, giving her just enough time to put her plan into action. Her bent legs allowed her to Lunge straight up without delay. The air above her thinned and she soared ten meters in a moment.

The tip of her staff that had been buried in the sand hid a fully empowered Charged Blast. The moment she jumped, the skill was released. The resulting explosion cost her sixteen Elemental Power due to its maxed out area, intensity, and force. The blast wave followed her up, simultaneously engulfing Samson. Before he had a chance to scream, he was once more surrounded in flames, these burning much hotter than her previous blasts.

When the fight started, Celeste was only testing Charged Blast without any boosts. Raine had warned her about the execution difficulty ramping with each point of Elemental Power spent, and he wasn't wrong. The skill required insane focus, nearly disrupting her delicate Connection. When she later added just one point of Elemental Power into each bolt’s intensity and area, she actually lost control and the space inside her body began to warp agonizingly. The three follow-up attacks nearly killed her, forcing her to drink a healing potion. Thankfully, Samson's Smoke Bomb and hiding gave her plenty of time to practice with the fully empowered Charged Blast hidden beneath the sands. 

She had the feel of it now. There was no longer a need to hold back.

Flames empowered with a full five points of Elemental Power wrapped around Samson and the hair across his body vanished. Exposed skin blackened and blistered. Sizzling flesh caused a scream to form on what was left of his lips, but it was never meant to be. The raging fire plunged into his open mouth, devouring the oxygen in his lungs. The force from the explosion picked him up and threw him a dozen meters. He crashed into the sand at high speed, flipping and rolling uncontrollably. [-372]

Celeste wasn’t done. Nimbly controlling the air around her, she stabilized her fall into a slow glide while unleashing three more fully-empowered Charged Blasts. Since she had two copies of the same skill, she easily overcame the one second cooldown. Not that it mattered. Samson died on the second blast. His body vanished in a puff of light particles. Two pieces of gear thunked into the sands. One glowed beautifully in her greedy gaze; a necklace of glimmering, golden luster.