by L. M. Kerr
However, a small frown appeared on Shin’s face as he scanned the rest of the room, still hiding in the rafters. In his hands, a large, red sniper rifle appeared, the Heaton Sniper Rifle Micheal had gifted him a while back.
‘Where is the Nest Core?’ The thought fluttered into Shin’s mind as he readied the gun and made sure it was good to fire. A hint of unease burrowed its way into his heart.
The Nest Core was supposed to be located on this floor. He even trailed his eyes over to the center of the gymnasium, where a large circle was painted into the ground. This was the exact spot it should’ve been.
In that circle, only Number 10 was present, holding the remnants of what appeared to be some type of spear.
Before he could reach any other conclusion, however… Admiral Cardell and his team arrived.
“Avast, ye landlubbers!” The Admiral burst into the room from one of the two southern stairwells, his powerful force of presence overtaking the room. A huge anchor appeared in his hands as he withdrew it from his Spatial Ring, holding it out in front of him.
The Nightrunners, including Number 6 and Number 10, all looked to be understandably shocked. The torrent of powerful warriors that poured out after the Admiral quickly filled up half the south side of the room, creating a throng of allies.
Just a moment after, the three teams that Executive Riana sent down all arrived from one of the northern stairwells. Shin quickly spotted Sophia, Asim, and Vlad, pinpointing their location with a slightly worried look.
For… despite the shock that swept over the Nightrunners, especially the two Numbers who stiffened up in surprise…
Neither of them made a move to retreat or flee. Instead, they seemed to quickly overcome their shock, relaxing as they turned to face the enemies.
Number 10 even began to laugh.
“Ahahaha… AHAHAHA! No… it can’t be!” A delighted, girly voice sounded off from Number 10 as her head twisted to look at the teams emerging from one of the northern stairwells,
“How good to see you again!” Shin could see that the familiar foe had turned her attention completely onto Sophia.
“Focus, 10.” Number 6’s voice was calm and collected as he studied both teams, waving his hand casually as he turned his attention onto Admiral Cardell,
“I think-“
Admiral Cardell didn’t let him finish speaking.
In what appeared to be a single second, the Admiral’s body transformed into a blur as he sprinted across the gymnasium and arrived right in front of Number 6, and then immediately attacked.
The Admiral possessed a very unique Limited Type Ability, the Light-Heavy Type. Even the name sounded weird, which rather suited the Admiral’s odd character.
This power allowed the Admiral to manipulate the weight of any non-living objects he came into contact with, as well as himself.
For his attack, not only did he lower his weight to maximize his speed, but he also manipulated the weight of his anchor. Normally when he carried it, it weighed a few grams at most and was easily wielded. Whenever he went in to attack with it, however, it’s weight would change drastically.
The Admiral’s abrupt arrival was accompanied by that huge anchor smashing down towards Number 6’s face.
Number 6 was forced to abandon what he was going to say as he flicked his spear out, the corpse of Number 2 falling from it. Number 6’s spear glowed with wavering, red energy as he brought it up to slam against Cardell’s anchor.
In that moment, Shin struck as well.
A quiet boom rang out as he fired a condensed ‘heat bullet’ from his Heaton Sniper Rifle. At the same time, he activated his Expand Ability, causing the blur of red energy to grow slightly. He held his Melding Plate Arm out to cover himself, Expanding it to form a small shield to hide behind in case anyone returned fire.
Unlike regular ‘Expanding’ objects, when Shin tried to ‘Expand’ energy, he found that it was much more difficult than expanding physical things. He could still do it, but only slightly. The heat bullet grew by around 30%, becoming more potent and powerful, but not transforming into a cannonball.
Shin had experimented with this once he got the sniper rifle from Micheal, eventually managing to get the results he had here. He still found it worthwhile, after talking to Micheal about it, because he’d come to a certain realization.
It was much easier to block or slice a bullet or cannonball than it was to block a blob of molten fire. His Soul Pistol would allow him to accurately fire precise, moving bullets that he could manipulate, but his heat bullet would melt into and slip past many things that might block his Soul Pistol’s shots.
The heat bullet also moved faster than the bullet his Soul Pistol fired, as a result of the bullet being made purely from energy. The only real negative was that he had to charge up each shot, meaning he couldn’t fire from the weapon in quick succession.
The bullet melted through the air, piercing towards Number 6’s right shoulder. Shin had timed the attack perfectly, as just as Cardell’s anchor was about to collide with Number 6’s spear.
‘Even if you’re a martial genius like Micheal, I doubt you can handle both at once.’ His thought process was relatively simple. Even if Number 6 had a Defensive Artifact for blocking long-range attacks, the impact should at least startle him and throw off his defense, without giving the man time to adjust.
And, indeed, Shin’s abrupt ambush was launched too quickly for Number 6 to dodge or redirect. The warrior’s full attention was on Admiral Cardell in front of them. At the exact moment that his spear and Cardell’s anchor collided, Shin’s bullet slammed into Number 6.
Or, rather, it should have.
Instead, just as the heat bullet was about to detonate on the man’s shoulder, a small, glass door opened up and swallowed the bullet whole. The door opened up as soon as the bullet came within one meter of Number 6, activating in an almost automatic fashion.
A second portal opened up a moment later, one that shot the bullet right back at Shin.
A small explosion of heat swarmed over Shin a split second after he fired his gun as the heat bullet exploded onto the shield his Melding Plate Arm had formed
‘Wow. Micheal was right.’ Micheal had somehow known that Number 6 was able to do this, to create an automatically reflecting defense using his portals. This was one of Number 6’s trump cards, something that was unknown to anyone living. Supposedly. Even the Godfather Organization hadn’t been aware of this, as far as Shin knew.
While they might be rival organizations, there had never been any overt, large-scale battle between the groups, and the Nightrunners were fairly secretive about the operation of their Numbers.
His bullet hadn’t caused even a hint of distraction for Number 6. However, when the fire and heat dispersed and Shin could see the result of Cardell and Number 6’s clash, he realized why he felt so uneasy.
Instead of witnessing Number 6 be blown backwards as he had expected…
Number 6 and Admiral Cardell stood locked in place, evenly matched.
The sight was ludicrous.
Shin was well aware that Cardell’s anchor, right now, should weigh around 8,000 pounds (3600 kg), much heavier than its normal 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg). Cardell made no attempts to hide his powers as the Rank 1 Supreme A Ranker. He had talked about how it was much easier for him to make things lighter, but that making them heavier was limited to around a 2-3 times limit, largely due to his Soul stat.
Not long ago, Number 6 had proven to be pretty powerful, able to toy with Sophia and Shin. Strong, yes, but he had failed to kill Shin when he tried. If Admiral Cardell had been in his place, the Admiral most likely could’ve easily killed both Shin and Sophia without failure or any mishaps.
Now, however… after just a brief period, Number 6 was fighting evenly with the strongest A Ranker in the Main Cluster. It should’ve been impossible.
The two fighters began to exchange a flurry of blows, Number 6 concentrating intently on Admiral Cardell. Attack a
fter attack, Number 6 artfully maneuvered his spear to perfectly block Cardell’s enormous anchor strikes. Turn for turn, however, Cardell successfully blocked Number 6’s own attacks, showing off the legendary skill he held that earned him the title of Rank 1.
As Shin watched this, it was extremely apparent the Number 6’s power, his speed and his strength, had been boosted by a very large margin. And if that was the case…
What about the other Number down here, Number 10?
Shin’s head jerked to the side as he zeroed in on the other side of the room.
.. .. .. .. .. ..
“He said I might run into you again.” Sophia’s voice was cold as she spoke, her eyes emitting light as she slowly stalked forward. Next to her, the other teams brandished melee weapons, everyone tensing up as they glared at the other.
Standing calmly before her was Number 10, alone. The various Cell Captains had all retreated to focus on the warriors Cardell had brought, a grand melee just inches from taking place behind them.
Indeed, in the background, the momentous battle between Number 6 and Cardell had already begun. Sophia even saw a flash of light shoot down from the rafters up above but fail to hit Number 6, her eyes flicking upward as she spotted Shin.
“Ohhhhh, girl, I am SO happy to see you here.” Number 10’s voice was full of excitement, as if she was relishing this moment. Green vines had already sprouted and covered her arms, legs, and chest, giving her an odd, almost monstrous appearance.
As she spoke, Sophia realized something. There was an almost visible Aura that she could make out surrounding Number 10, one that practically frothed with energy. This Aura was especially noticeable when Number 10 talked, flickering and wavering around her.
This was only visible to her thanks to her Fairy Eyes Ability enhancing her eyesight, granting her the power to see things others couldn’t.
Before their battle even began, Micheal had gone over so many plans it made her head ache. In that time, he had described each of the Numbers to the best of his impressive knowledge, noting down their powers. Number 10 didn’t have a Type Ability, but instead relied upon a motley collection of unique powers.
And none of those powers matched this.
“I was almost afraid we wouldn’t get to meet!” Number 10 laughed out loud as she held her hand out to the side.
Immediately, dozens of vine tentacles burst free and shout out into the air, spreading out to slowly surround Sophia and the other teams. Each vine had tinges of green light simmering around them, making them look rather dangerous.
Sophia ignored that as she glanced beyond Number 10, staring at the battle between Cardell and Number 6.
After a split second, she noted that she could make out the same, flickering Aura around Number 6 as well.
That could only mean one thing.
It looked like one of Micheal’s worst-case-scenarios was taking place. The Nightrunners got to the Nest Core before her team did, and not only got there first, but had already broken the Nest Core.
That meant there was only one thing left to do, according to Micheal’s plan…
Sophia reached down and tapped on her Spatial Ring, her Fairy Eyes gleaming with power as she glared at Number 10.
…Shamelessly cheat.
.
Chapter 79
After Prime finished speaking, Micheal had roughly 3 seconds of time to recover before Prime moved again. The man’s nature was to be extremely cautious, something Micheal took full advantage of as he steadied himself.
Prime, of course, noticed Micheal’s actions, and moved because of them. A long, white sword appeared in Prime’s hand, one that glowed with bright red Advanced Tier Sword Energy as he took a single step forward. He raised his long sword up in one hand, pointing it at Micheal.
‘He’s probably going for my Spatial Ring.’ Prime didn’t show any indication of where he was attacking, but that alone helped Micheal predict what Prime was gunning for.
The biggest uncertainty in this fight was Micheal’s actions using his Spatial Ring, and the tools he had inside. Uncontrollable variables were things Prime hated, and the first thing he would seek to get rid of, something Micheal knew for a fact. The historical records of the First Layer had detailed, to a rather extreme level, some of Prime’s fanatic exploits.
With that thought in mind, Micheal’s actions were brutally direct as he raised his Ashari Blade…
And stabbed it through his own heart, killing himself.
‘One down, two left.’ The thought fluttered through Micheal’s consciousness as life left his body. The world around him became rather hazy as his spirit rose free from his collapsing corpse, leaving the lifeless body to flop down toward the floor. His Ashari Blade flew free from his grasp, flung across the theatre till it landed with a loud clang on the main stage.
Prime, to his credit, didn’t hesitate or break step at all in his attack. The man’s blade reached Micheal just a scant moment after, faster than Micheal had anticipated.
In a smooth, almost mechanical motion, Prime severed both of Micheal’s arms, cutting through Micheal’s leather armor easily. In the same movement, his free hand struck forward and pulled off the Spatial Ring Micheal used, securing it.
Spatial Rings were extremely durable. There was a time in the Second Layer where, before they grew scarce, someone created a set of extremely tough armor by linking together several hundred unbound and empty Spatial Rings. That armor never really panned out due to its many openings, but it was a well-known fact that Spatial Rings were extremely hard to destroy.
Even if Prime wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to destroy Micheal’s Spatial Ring. Thus, Prime’s best course of action was to steal it and prevent Micheal from being able to use it.
In his spirit-like form, Micheal could see all of this and think clearly, forcefully pushing past the brutal shock of dying. He could also sense three small, glowing orbs, floating within his consciousness, his Life Orbs.
One of those Orbs was covered in cracks and just moments away from shattering. Micheal ignored this as he forcefully moved his consciousness, putting all his attention on coming back to life as far away from Prime as possible.
In the meantime, Prime jumped backwards and looped a chain around Micheal’s Spatial Ring, locking it into place on his waist. Micheal noticed this out of the corner of his mind, a small, internal smile forming.
‘He really isn’t all-knowing, huh?’ Prime’s actions, for the first time, made Micheal feel a sliver of relief.
Fighting against Prime was stressful mostly because it felt like the man simply knew everything. The man’s reactions to Micheal’s actions were perfect, he was able to recover from things near-instantly, hitting Micheal in the worst possible way while giving Micheal practically no time to respond.
By killing himself, Micheal could buy himself a little leeway as Prime's cautious nature forced the man to retreat. After all, in Prime's eyes, no one would kill themselves without a plan, even Micheal. The time Micheal could then spend in his spirit form, unseen by Prime, was also a huge relief, giving him time to observe and plan.
And, as with before… Prime couldn’t know what he couldn’t know.
Micheal’s Life Orb finished shattering, leaving only two gleaming Life Orbs behind.
An instant later, Micheal’s body blurred into existence, still wearing the damaged remnants of his white leather armor. His eyes were clear, though that clearness quickly faded as he was poisoned, for the second time, by the Mire Wicker Poison that had covered the theatre.
At the same time that he reappeared…
Micheal’s old body dissipated into dust… and the Spatial Ring in Prime’s hand blurred and then vanished as it reappeared on Micheal’s left hand.
Prime froze when he noticed this, his eyes widening slightly.
The powers of a Life Orb Master were incredibly mysterious.
It allowed a person to reform their body after death, free from all injuries, but still sustaining the s
ame exhausted state as before. It wasn’t a simple resurrection or anything of that nature, but something more abstruse and complex.
Micheal had a few theories on how exactly it worked. One of them hypothesized that the Ability rewound time, in a manner. It might be better to describe it as rewinding ‘Fate’ to bring one’s body back to a condition of being ‘healthy.’
And with that in mind, he had devised a rather complex plan that revolved around his Spatial Ring.
For… Spatial Rings were not like regular Artifacts.
A Spatial Ring was bound to a person’s Soul, making it extremely difficult for someone else to open. One could bind multiple rings, but if they carried more than a single Spatial Ring on their person, the rings might react negatively and explode.
It was almost as if to say… the natural state of a being’s body is where they wield a single Spatial Ring. When they carried that ring, it would be viewed as part of them. If that ring was brought away, just like if one lost a limb, one would slowly adapt to that, but that adaption would take more than just a few seconds.
And thus, if a Spatial Ring is viewed as part of one’s body…
And if Micheal’s Life Orbs bring his body back through ‘Fate’ or ‘Time’ to its ‘healthy’ condition…
Then shouldn’t his Spatial Ring be brought back to him when he respawned?
And so it did.
Micheal grinned viciously as he broke out into a mad sprint, rushing for the Monster Class Nest, and the central stage where it floated. He strained his body to the maximum as he jumped over more than a dozen seats, depending on his memory to help him pierce through the dark haze around him.
Unfortunately, his Wavelength Crystal Bracelet had fallen to the ground where his body had lain. It was a regular Artifact, and a rather crude one at that, adept at picking up and transmitting energy signals, but not too much else. Lacking that, he could no longer directly sense Prime’s presence.
His Cloud Stepping Shoes and Ivory Skin Leather Armor both returned to him, however, as both were Artifacts that could be bound to one’s Soul.
