Point-of-View: Zoraiz Rafayet
———————————————————————————
I...I could only save three of them. But there were so many more of them down there...all of whom I had no choice but to leave them to die, because I just wasn’t strong enough to save them all. Who knows how long they’d been suffering...and now, just like that, they’re dead, without ever getting the chance to get back to the lives they once knew.
"Hey, chin up, kid...you did good, alright?" Mike placed a hand on my shoulder, as he walked over to , "There was nothing more you could do once a Monster that big showed up, don’t be too hard on yourself."
That’s right, the Monster...
"About that...hey, tell , was it my fault that it showed up in the first place?" I inquired, as I t his gaze.
"Uh, n-no, of course not-!" He began to deny, after looking a bit taken aback initially.
"Cut the crap...be honest, was it my fault?" I interrupted, as I t his gaze with a grimace.
"Well, it is likely that your malice added onto all the accumulated malice and negative energy in the area is what attracted it, plus your strong emotions caused your Aura pressure to spike, despite being suppressed, and it’s possible that that was the catalyst the Monster needed to breach through, but...on its own, your malice and Aura wouldn’t have been enough to attract it, it was only because the Monster already happened to be lurking nearby, thanks to the negative energy that had accumulated over what’s probably been several months," Mike inford , before grabbing my shoulders and eting my gaze firmly, "It’s...not...your...fault. It honestly isn’t. True, that situation could have been handled better, but you did the best you could, especially considering your inexperience."
"Damn it...," I muttered in frustration, slamming my fist onto the ground, "I’m still too weak! I...I need to get stronger, or I’ll-..."
I trailed off as the sound of rubble shifting echoed out, and as I turned my gaze to the what remained of the church, to see the pile of rubble rising...
"That’s not good...looks like the Monster survived the collapse," Frowned Cyrillus, as several chunks of concrete then burst out, and the Monster’s head erged with a vicious roar.
"It could have retreated back to the Mirror Dinsion to avoid the cave in, but I guess it decided that it might not be able to breach through again if it did," Added Mike, as he took a step forward, "But seriously, what is that thing? It looks like a Chupacabra but...it’s way too big!"
"We can discuss that later!" Responded Cyrillus, before grimacing as the Monster’s nose twitched and it’s eyes shifted towards where we were, "Here it cos!"
"On your feet, kid! Circle around and attack its back legs, we’ll attack from the front!" Exclaid Mike, snapping out of it as the Monster bared its fangs at us.
If that thing runs wild, more people might get hurt...I really ssed up in the underground chamber, and I can’t make up for that, but...I can at least try and prevent that thing from causing any further damage!
I raced across to the side and around the Monster as Mike and Cyrillus attacked from the front, firing Elental Skill attacks at it, but they only seed to be angering it.
"Damn, this thing’s got so pretty tough hide!" Yelled Cyrillus, as they managed to inflict a few scratches and cuts, but nothing deep enough to seriously hurt it.
I shot towards its left hind leg and leapt forward as I closed in, slamming my knee onto it as hard as I could, upsetting its balance a bit...but that was all, it stayed standing, before glancing back at with a blood curdling snarl.
"Hey, don’t look away from , ugly! Take this, Aqua Skill: Water Arrow!" Snapped Mike, as he fired out a narrow, rapid streak of water at the Monster...and pierced its right eye, eliciting a deafening shriek from the creature as it stumbled back in pain, blood pouring out of its blinded eye.
As I slamd another kick against its back leg, it roared before swinging its foot out at rapidly, which I narrowly evaded by springing back just in ti, right as it swiped its claws at Mike and Cyrillus.
Its claws sliced through the air as they jumped out of the way, but it would have barely reached them even if they hadn’t dodged...I see, with one eye blinded, it’s depth perception must be off.
Still, it’s totally lashing out now, swinging its claws wildly while kicking out with its hind legs to keep away...crap, even if I use my Physical Skill to strengthen my body, the amount of force behind its kicks is seriously imnse, I’d rather not get hit by one of those.
Besides Accelerate and Perception, the two techniques I’m most adept with, my mastery over the other Physical Skill techniques that I’ve been working on still have a lot of room for improvent.
I can briefly activate them at high levels of output, but I can’t maintain them at those levels for more than a handful of sec-...wait a minute, maybe I don’t need to. This is a bit of a gamble, but it might be worth trying out...
"This is really annoying, I could probably finish it with one strike if I had ti to charge up an attack of my own, but the way it’s lashing out, that’s gonna be tough, not to ntion that it won’t stay still!" Yelled Mike, sounding a bit frustrated.
"Leave to , I’ll give you an opening!" I called out, before zipping towards the Monster at top speed.
"Hey, wait, what’re you-...!?" He began to exclaim.
The Monster saw coming, and snarled as it kicked out its back leg at again, rapidly swinging towards as I closed in on it.
Now, Physical Skill: Fortify, at maximum output!
The Monsters foot struck my midsection with imnse force, I let out a sharp gasp as it knocked the wind of out , before gritting my teeth and grabbing its ankle with a tight grip...the technique I just used increases the durability of the user’s body, and at my max output, that’s a thirty-fold increase.
Normally, I can only maintain this technique stably at a five-fold increase, and even with my best techniques, Accelerate and Perception, I can only stably maintain a tenfold increase...but if it’s just for a second, maybe two, then I can just about maintain my maximum output with any technique.
That also ans that my timing has to be absolutely perfect, or I’m dead. Fortunately, I nailed the timing this ti, I didn’t sustain any damage at all, my body absorbed the impact, and besides knocking the wind out of , I’m perfectly fine.
Now, then...ti for Physical Skill: Reinforce! The Monster let out a deafening howl of pain as I tightened my grip around its ankle further...and broke it, a loud crunch echoing out as I did.
This technique increases my raw strength, and my mastery over it is only slightly better than my mastery over Fortify...but like I said, I don’t need to be able to maintain it for long, just a second will do!
Alright...ti to do it again. As I activated Reinforce again, I bent my knees and then leapt up as high as I could while maintaining my grip around the Monster’s broken leg, pulling it up into the air with .
"Slam it down over here!" Yelled Mike, as he placed his hand on the ground and several long, sharp spikes rose up in the patch of land in front of him, "Terra Skill: Earth Spikes!"
Okay, one more ti...I let out a roar of determination as I activated Reinforce for the third ti at maximum output, before swinging the Monster down with all my strength, slamming it onto the ground with a devastating impact.
Severe cracks spread out from the point of impact, as so of trees around collapsed, a dust cloud starting to rise up as the cracks spread all the way to the path leading down the hill.
The Monster screeched in agony as several of the spikes had pierced through its body and drilled into its flesh, writhing in pain as I desperately clawed and scrambled to try and get back up...Mike must have made the spikes highly dense in addition to being sharp.
Also, unleashing multiple techniques at such high levels in quick succession had kinda wiped out, I’ve still got plenty of Aura, Physical Skill techniques really don’t consu much Aura to begin with, but my stamina has taken a hit, all that might have been a bit much for my body to handle in my current state...as I began to plumt down, Mike leapt up into the air with water swirling around his hands, reaching the peak of his jump above the Monster’s neck.
The spikes were keeping it from getting away, and as I landed back down and collapsed onto my knees, struggling to catch my breath, the air around the Monster started to get distorted and hazy...
"I don’t think so, you’re not getting away!" Declared Mike, before unleashing his charged up attack, "Now, take this, Aqua Skill: Water Slash!"
He fired out a wide, highly concentrated slash of water as he swung his palm across in a swift arc...and sliced through the Monster’s throat, narrowly failing to decapitate it.
But it didn’t matter, the wound inflicted was more than deep enough to kill it instantly. As he landed on the Monster’s chest with a thud, he hopped off of it as the air got distorted and the Monster’s corpse got sucked into the distortion, along with the blood that had spilt out of its body.
"Hey, that was nicely done, kid. Seriously, pulling that off on the fly was aweso, though maybe a bit too reckless for my liking," Grinned Mike wryly, as he walked over towards .
"Yeah, well...I couldn’t...think of anything else...I could do," I panted, as I wiped sweat off my forehead.
"At least it’s over now...it’s not often you see a Monster that powerful in an area like this," Chid in Cyrillus, strolling over with a sigh.
"It was definitely stronger than the tree Monsters I first encountered...hey, what rank would that Monster be classified as?" I asked Mike.
"Well, I can’t say for sure since it’s sort of a new Monster, as far as I know anyway, but based on how strong it was, probably Interdiary Tier, which is one level above Common Tier. I doubt it’s strong enough to warrant a Pri Tier or higher rank than that," He surmised, after mulling it over.
Seriously? That thing would only make it to the second lowest rank? Well, I do suppose that it wasn’t a particularly major threat if you take away its size...
"It sure it convenient that Monster corpses disappear back to the Mirror Dinsion after dying, huh?" I mused wryly.
"Heh, yeah, you got that right. Now, then...I’d like to say ’mission accomplished’, but, uh...looking at the aftermath, this was kind of a ss. I really don’t want to report exactly what happened here to the higher ups," Groaned Mike, his eyebrows furrowing.
"If you ask , you absolutely shouldn’t. Just tell them that we snuck into the church to observe the followers, and the Monster just happened to show up in the middle of things. I’ll corroborate your story," Proposed Cyrillus with a thumbs up.
"Aw, for real? Great, that’s a lot less stressful! Hey, Zoraiz, don’t tell anyone about exactly what happened here, not even the other Outliers. We’ll discuss our cover story in detail and stick to it, reporting your little outburst might be a bit problematic, you see," Said Mike sheepishly.
I feel a little bit guilty that they’re covering for , but I’m not gonna turn down their offer...
"Okay, I got it."
"Alright, then, we caused quite a commotion here," Remarked Mike, as the shine of flashlights dimly appeared further down along the path leading up here, "I think it’s ti we took our leave from this place..."
_____________________________________________
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this Chapter! Don’t forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comnt, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!
Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.
Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming Chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:
sdiscord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP
Reviews
All reviews (0)