Chapter 30: Timed Battle

Chapter 30: Timed Battle

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Timed Battle

The basic premise of my plan was simple and time-honoredI was going to heal myself liberally at the vaguest hint of danger to try and stay alive in a situation where I otherwise shouldn't. Countless fierce opponents had been slain through such clever and careful use of items and abilities to restore the brave warriors who fought them.

In games, that is. I'd done it myself a fair number of times, tackling much stronger enemies with a load out of potions and other restorative items to keep myself going while I whittled them down. It really was a time-honored strategy in that regard and I'd beat a fair number of, in my opinion, amazing things that way.

Granted, I usually died a few times before I did it right which was the type of thing that did little to reassure me when I couldn't push a button and go back like nothing happened. Whatever I did, the fact remained that Penny had kicked my ass with what amounted to a casual backhandif I managed to survive more than two of her attacks in a row, I'd be absurdly lucky. Especially considering the way she'd kicked my ass, knocking me down and tossing me halfway across the town. Once this battle really began and she realized that one hit wouldn't be enough to stop me on its own or if she put in more of an effort, if I went down again

The margin for error here was very, very slight. Too slight. Basic probability and simple observation made it pretty obvious that the odds were not in my favor here; I'd barely noticed that first attack, much less reacted to it. Now that I was on guard and had some grasp of the attack's nature, I might be able to take advantage of the brief warning Sense Danger gave me, but never get hit? That seemed unlikely. The skill would strip away the advantage of a surprise attack if I kept my wits about me, but that wouldn't matter if she could still hit me anyway.

So I turned to my power, bullshit as it was.

Beyond healing, Soulforge Restoration had a few other powers when used with a Dust crystala restoration of MP among them. Because I'd leveled up the skill a fair bit, I could restore enough to make that very usefuland to get me out of a sudden predicament, in the eventuality that I found myself in yet another bind.

Arguably just as useful were thevariable effects it could produce. A mere side note in the profile I had seen a month ago, I hadn't been able to test it until I'd begun training with Adam and Blakebut when I did, I'd understood.

Soulforge Restoration was, in the end, all about the transfer of Aura. It was more complicated than thatit took a great deal of precision, precise control, and careful direction to achieve the desired result, and many other things, but the base concept was that a person's Aura would attempt to protect and heal them. Or, arguably, to keep them in their normal state or return them to it. A person's Aura is an expression of their soul and a person's soul is an expression, or maybe reflection or embodiment or a number of other theories, of that person. If a person was wounded, their Aura would try to heal them back to normal, whatever 'normal' happened to be.

It was for this reason that healing was a relatively rare ability. You can't simply pour your Aura into another person to top them off and assist them at healing, because the answer to the question 'Who is Jaune Arc?' was different than 'Who is Adam Taurus?' or 'Who is Blake Belladonna?' In a fashion very similar to different blood types, a transfer from one person to another rarely took. The odds of it ending badly were far lower because people usually just shed Aura they wouldn't use, but there were rare cases thatwell, hadn't ended well.

For a transfer to occur, one of two things had to be true. The target and recipient had to possess the same Aurathat is, be the same personin which case there was no problem. When I healed myself, it was simply a matter of directing my Aura to its purpose; especially easy in my case because I didn't actually receive physical damage, I just lost HP. I just cast the spell and didn't even need to direct it to important areas like someone else might need to if they hurt themselves.

If you aren't capable of healing yourself effectively or lacked the Aura to do so, however, you're probably out of luck barring tremendously strange and unique circumstances. People were unique which meant you weren't going to stumble across a person capable of giving you a magic blood transfer easily. I was Type Jaune and I was the only person who was Type Jaune.

Healing, however, remained possible. If you thought of different Auras as different blood types, you could think of healing as producing Type O blood, stripping away all the things that would cause another person to reject it and rendering it into a pure state that could be consumed and processed by anyone. Reducing it to a blank slate, effectively.

And using it with Dust was like shining light through a crystal, drawing up all the power within to color that energy, but not in a way that would cause areaction. Tricky to do, but Aura seemed to react with Dust in a number of unique ways and it would accept things from it that it wouldn't take from another person. And because Aura was all about trying to protect and maintain, if you added the power of yellow Dustof lightningto your soulwell, suddenly the answer to the question 'Who am I?' became, in small part, 'lightning.'

I felt myself grow faster as the effect took hold, my heart beat feeling steady even though it pounded thunderously in my chest. The world around me seemed to actually slow as I moved, sharpening into sudden clarity as I quickened. I wasn't the only person would could do something like this by any means but using it directly on oneself was a rather archaic method of enhancement. Most people capable of it, like Weiss, channeled it through a weapon or some other item instead, but this was the only way I knew how to do it.

I drew out three other crystalsred, blue, and green for all three basic types of Dust. They were by far the most common types of Dust as well, at least in terms of what formed naturally, which is why they were all I found at a glance. Odds were that there were a few natural examples of other types somewhere in here, but I was in a rush.

The Status Effect, "Firepower", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Regeneration", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Feather Fall", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

With each casting of the spell I felt more of my power returning and new power growing in leaving me feeling mighty and strong. Of them all, Firepower was probably the least useful as a general offensive boost. Haste's effect was obvious, as was Regeneration's; quickening me and improving my healing ability respectively. Feather Fall mainly just meant I wouldn't take damage from falls, but it worked on being thrown into stuff, too, which I thought would be depressingly handy soon. All told, though, they were tremendous boosts to my power and left me feeling almost giddy.

Beyond the quick tests I'd done, this was my first time really using this technique. This wasn't a tactic I made use of regularlyI couldn't afford to. There was no deeper meaning or moral explanation to that; I just literally couldn't afford to. Dust crystals were expensive, selling for anywhere from over a thousand to five or ten thousand lien a pop, depending on size, weight, and type. The dust form was cheaper, but my power needed crystals and I didn't want to draw attention by dropping a huge amount of money to empty out a shop, much less rob it. And for a twenty second boost for a single useI wasn't made out of money. The White Fang had gotten me a set of crystals on short notice that I'd been saving for a particularly awful day.

Given that all this Dust had been mined with Faunus labor and slavery, though, I figured it was fine to steal some of it to help save them. I lifted the box with a sudden heave and poured it straight into my Inventory and considered going for secondsbut time was running short and I had another thing to do. I'd come back for more later, if I could.

I turned to my status screen and, with a series of rapid button pushes, raised both Vitality and Dexterity above fifty.

The skill 'Iron Body' has been created through VIT rising above 50.

Iron Body (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those rare few born with surpassing vitality. The user possesses a body with great resistance to harm and unending strength to endure.

50% Increase to Stamina recovery rate.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

20% Decrease in Damage from physical attacks.

10% Increase to total HP amount.

10% Increase to total Stamina amount.

30% Increase to VIT related skill effects.

The skill 'Amazing Grace' has been created through DEX rising above 50.

Amazing Grace (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those with tremendous mastery of their own bodies. The user possesses refined control and coordination, displaying elegance in everything they do.

50% Increase to Movement Speed.

30% Increase to Attack Speed.

For much the same reason I hadn't gotten to train much with my buffs, I didn't have much experience with using Dust. I couldn't very well train the ability up when it would take thousands of castings to do so and Dust crystals were so expensive. There was a surprising amount of difficulty finding training manuals for the more archaic methods, toothere were plenty of books about Dust, about how it was first used in its raw form, and so on, but ones that actually taught the art were uncommon. Possibly because it was so dangerous and easy to lose control, possibly because of the relatively quick shift to using rounds, I wasn't sureall I knew was that of the three books Tukson had possessed on the subject, two had been about the theory, one had been a historical account, and none had qualified as skill books. Given the odds of blowing myself up, the noticeable nature of such a skill, and the severe expense, I'd laid off the skill.

But hey, I was already living dangerouslywhy not play with fire?

So that's exactly what I did. Fist clenched around it, I focused my will into the crystal. If I was honest, I'd wanted to try this for a long, long time; my Mana, Nature, and Elemental Affinities, my Elemental Mastery, and even my title all seemed built to help me with this, to make it stronger. I'd held back on using the crystals for anything but healing here since if I ran out before I got a chance to get more it'd be the death of me, butwell, if I didn't do something I'd die regardless. Firepower was my least useful buffthough, actually, it might help with thisso I pulled out a red crystal, gathered my power, and called for help.

Suryasta, I said. Please don't let this kill me. Thanks in advanced; you're awesome.

And then I unleashed the power, up at an angle to strike at Penny. I'd hoped for something like a stream of fire and I'd gotten thatsort ofbut the powerit didn't go out of control, per se, but mostly because I never had it in control to begin with. It lashed out in a jagged burst towards the android, sprayed back at me through the gaps of my fingers, and quickly began to deteriorate from there. I felt Suryasta step in, calmly placing his fingers over my own, and helping to guide the power, keeping it from burning me too badly. What got through before he got involved did little through my resistance and I took the opportunity to leap away before Penny crashed into the ground.

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the applied use of energy propellant, the skill 'Dust Mastery' has been created!

I ignored the window, focusing on the smoke and making sure I was ready for whatever she tried next.

"Was that your first time using Dust in its raw form, by any chance?" Penny asked before the smoke even cleared, surprising me. "It was a bit"

"Sloppy?" I suggested, trying to smile. Being less than competent didn't really fit with the all-knowing villain persona, but I tried to mask it as best I could. "Forgive meno, I don't have much experience with Dust. But though I'm rather late to the trend, I like to consider myself a quick learner."

Drawing out another red crystal, I tried againand this time it was far more streamlined and controlled, a result of both my new skill and Suryasta's skill. The flame flashed into the cloud, towards where I felt Penny and I heard something akin to an impact

And then I saw Penny running straight through the blast. I aborted my attack, throwing myself to the side as she came, but her swords merged together, blade folding in half to form a gun. I saw a flash green hit the ground below me before an explosion sent me flying into another building. Feather Fall let my bounce off and I immediately started running, but she was already behind me. I felt her reaching out towards me and tried to duck, but she grabbed ahold of Dreary Midnight and with me pulling one way and her the other, it came free.

I nearly hesitated at that, but the Gamer's Mind kept me going, drawing a new crystal and throwing it at my feet, tossing myself boldly away with the resulting explosion. I came careening back to earth a building over and scrambled to keep moving, for whatever it was worth.

Penny's voice carried through the smoke.

"That was an amazing second try," She praised, sounding honestly happy as she congratulated me. I could feel her approaching through Crocea Mors and though it was probably pointless, I ducked behind a building. "You are very skilled at fighting, as well, and very tough, too. However, I have been pushing you back since this fight began. You should surrender nowno one can question your skill or loyalty for going this far for what you believe in, but please give up. I don't want to hurt you anymore."

I hummed thoughtfully, more to buy time then for anything else, but shit. My Air Affinity had dropped a fair bit when she removed Dreary Midnight and with it my speed. I'd meant to buy a little more time by fighting back, but all I'd done was make her go that tiny bit further to finally crush me. If we started fighting again, with my speed loweredit would not end well. In fact, I felt pretty doomed.

And then my miracle came through.

Your level has increased by one!

Vulturnus, lingering at the edge of town, had been crushing every machine that that managed to get near the townall the surviving AK's. I figured that there had probably been something on the order of a hundred remaining, if the ship I'd seen was anything to go by and I'd known I'd been close to leveling up. Really, really close. I'd fought Grimm back in Vale, gotten experience from quests, encountered a few more Grimm to and from Atlas, and had shot down a bunch of robot filled ships. I'd been pissed off that I still hadn't gotten that one last level I needed.

Hoping Vulturnus would be able to get me that last little bit I needed wasn't the greatest plan I'd ever had though I preferred to think of it as having faith, it had been nothing but a desperate hope, really. In fact, it still was, because all that one level gave me were the points I needed to place my hopes on something else. But I figured and hoped and prayed that Luck would finally come through for me, given all the shit it put me through.

And really, it was the penultimate technique of the forgotten martial arts style of an ancient warrior king. It had to help somehow. And given the huge pre-requisites, there had to be something great about it.

First things first, I opened my status screen and raised my Strength to fifty-one.

The skill 'Heroic Strength' has been created through STR rising above 50.

Heroic Strength (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those blessed with tremendous power. The user possesses great physical strength, casually reaching beyond the limits of most men.

50% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.

50% Increase to STR related skill effects.

And then I look out my book.

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Five Hundred Years.'

White Tiger's Five Hundred Years (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% HP: 500 MP: 500

Legend tells that from five hundred years of war, a tiger rose to rule as king of all beasts. The penultimate technique the legendary Bai Hu, Lord of the West.

500% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.

500% Increase to Attack Speed.

500% Increase to Movement Speed.

Additional 500 HP used per minute.

Additional 500 MP used per minute.

I actually managed a real smile at that before raising my voice.

"Shall I take this a bit more seriously, then?" I bluffed, feeling just a little cocky.