The oily girl foiled his every attempt to grab and pin her in place. She darted over the rocky ground, sliding on a stream of gel-like oil at a speed that made no sense.
She produced so much of that thick oil as she went along, it was enough to create and solidify wax slides and ramps ahead of herself. Combined with a nimble balance on her feet akin to a figure skater, she was completely unpredictable.
There were many things that didn’t make any sense about her, but the volume of oil was the greatest mystery of all. Within seconds she had spurt her body weight in oil, and there seemed to be no apparent limit to it.
It defied everything that Arcen knew about the physical world, and it was too fresh a concept for King to process.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t match her speed no matter how hard he tried.
She used her size to her advantage, weaving through small gaps between crushed tents and containers, and hopping through holes that only she could fit through.
He slipped and tumbled on the slippery trail that she left behind every time he tried to cut across her path.
He kept chasing her regardless of his many failures. His eyes were glued to her like a heat-seeking missile. He didn’t care about damage to himself.
Gold was worth all this trouble. Gold and flames to fill the hole left by the utter absence of love.
He adapted to this self destructive chase faster than he thought, his mind ignored all the damage and pain caused by rubble, rocks and fires. At some point, his wounds started healing faster than the oily girl could inflict them.
“My gold!”
MY GOLD!
He howled each time he had a moment to catch his breath, gold was more important than anything else at the moment, he wanted it above all else.
He was only feet away from her on their third lap around the destroyed research station. He caught up as his feet got used to the terrain, and she was quickly running out of routes to escape.
Bit by bit, he learned to slide along her oil trail by paying attention to his balance, copying her poses.
She was nothing but trouble, but he could adapt to handle all troubles. He just had to learn her tricks, and hit her back with them.
At the beginning of the fourth lap, he launched himself off a small dent on the rocky floor, shoulder slamming her as he grazed past. The girl flew off-course, crashed into crushed container with a wet slosh and drooped to the ground in a wet heap.
He landed on a boulder to break momentum, crouched and launched himself in her direction.
Standing above her, he pinned her to the ground with his palms even as she tried to wiggle away.
Realizing that trying to grab her was a mistake, Arcen opened his mouth to yell a command at her.
“My gold! give me my gold!”
MY GOLD! GIVE ME MY GOLD!
The red void spread from him in a split second.
She flipped around like a rodent, her orange eyes widened, all eight of her pupils dancing on her egg-yolk irises. The red void flickered, light collapsing before it touched her.
She hosed him with oil again, setting both of them alight with several sparks. She broke free and somersaulted away as his flesh melted, struggling to regenerate while on fire.
He dashed away, shaking layers of hot oil off his skin.
A second barrage followed as the girl used something new, something that hit like a bullet.
It splattered like paint upon impact, and it burned like acid. He saw one of these oil projectiles a second too late. His left eye went dark. He managed to protect the right side with his forearm.
His face melted, and he lost half of his head before he scooped out the burning flesh with his hand. He was adapting to deal with it, but the sheer amount of attacks she could follow up with overwhelmed him. He couldn’t dodge all of them.
In less than ten seconds, he found himself standing in the middle of a growing puddle of liquid fire. It was eating his flesh faster than he could recover. Staying in place only worsened his situation. He had to shake all the oil off him before he himself melted into a puddle.
He leapt off and slammed repeatedly on different spots of the ground each time, shedding oil and burning flesh off him.
Moving erratically made it hard for the girl to shoot projectiles at him. His body mended itself as he hopped across the camp in her direction again.
He found her eating more of her gold off her skin. She had eaten almost a quarter off the top—all the gold that she had over her chest was gone. Instinctively, he tried to command her not to, but his entire world flickered before his red void even started.
She was more trouble than he thought she would be.
He couldn’t get close to her without her oil burning him half to death, and he couldn’t command her when her dangerous eyes made the world glitch around him.
So far, he’d been careful about fighting her because he needed to preserve her gold without crushing her to a pulp.
That seemed like a mistake.
I need to break her limbs.
I NEED TO BREAK HER LIMBS
He wouldn’t need to command her if she had no oil. She was pouring most of her oil from her hands and feet. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but her fingernails had something to do with it. If he broke her limbs, she wouldn’t be able to hose him with oil.
This wasn’t as easy as he thought it was going to be.
She started chasing after him, setting the ground on fire to deny him landing spots to hop around from.
As he retreated, he remembered something. Norm Lorraine would know how to win this fight. Norm Lorraine could move fast with his powerful muscles and rip things to shreds with his gauntlets. Norm Lorraine knew how to talk with the tower. He was very good at it.
Hello?
HELLO?
He tried talking to the tower. It didn’t reply.
Tower, can you hear me?
TOWER, CAN YOU HEAR ME?
The tower remained silent. This wasn’t the way to talk to it. It had to happen naturally, exactly like every other time that it responded to his thoughts.
He found it almost by accident. He had to sing the thought to talk with the tower, exactly like Norm Lorraine did.
Gold veins grew from corners of his eyes bringing up what he wanted to see.
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ GOLD ─╮?
╰ 111,981 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 23,157,282 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
He wasn’t sure if he was reading it right, but the tower was telling him that he actually had some gold, the one thing that he’d been chasing the girl around for.
Huh? Where? Gold?
HUH? WHERE GOLD?
As far as he’d seen, gold was a thin, shiny liquid that layered over the skin. He didn’t have a patch of gold anywhere on his body that he could see.
He had no idea what a hundred thousand of gold was supposed to look like.
He touched all around him, trying to see if he had gold where he couldn’t see. He tried between his , his arms and even his crotch.
He found it on his lower back.
There it is!
THERE IT IS!
His hand came back with two fingertips covered with gold. He could scoop more from back there. He had no idea how he got it at all.
It was a bizarre substance, a liquid metal that clung to his skin no matter what. He’d shaken off hot oil and fire during the heat of combat, but this gold layer has somehow remained on his skin all this time. It was one more thing that didn’t make any sense.
He rubbed his gold covered fingertips together. Gold smeared across them as he did, but the smear gathered back into itself, like a self-collecting blob of mercury. Everything ended up combining into the largest patch.
As fascinating as it was, he didn’t have a lot of it. This amount of gold wasn’t big enough to cover his torso like the oily girl had.
He wanted to taste this gold. The girl seemed to be addicted to eating it. It had to be delicious.
He shoved his fingers into his mouth.
The taste thundered through his body the moment his fingers touched his tongue. His eyelids flung wide open, and his tentacles curled.
Eating gold made him feel alive.
He had actually been wrong about it. The girl had the right idea. It did look very beautiful on skin, but this electric taste was far better than looks.
Why didn’t I feel it when I swallowed her?
WHY DIDN’T I FEEL IT WHEN I SWALLOWED HER?
He looked at her.
She was still trying to target his landing spots. Half the camp was on fire. Maybe her thick oil layer kept her gold safe. She had a thick gel-like layer when he saw her at the top of the pile of corpses. It was covering her like a cocoon.
Once again, her oil seemed to be the main problem. Oil was her whole deal. It was her source of power.
Fair enough, Oily girl.
FAIR ENOUGH, OILY GIRL
He needed to see what his own power was. He had to have one like her. The red world was one of those.
The oily girl had more than one power to fight him with. Her oil would’ve been useless without the ability to set fire to it.
That meant she had something to spark a fire. He wondered what that was. Norm Lorraine had a vague guess about it when he first saw it being used.
A contract?
A CONTRACT?
As he thought about the word, the tower immediately showed him his contracts. Gold veins obscured everything before him. He couldn’t parse it as fast as Norm could.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ MAIN CONTRACTS ╰︶
????
GREATER DAYLIGHT [1]
??
SCORCHING SUN [4]
??
STORM OF SCYTHE [2]
??
BALL LIGHTNING [2]
??
MIRAGE BLADE [1]
??
…
??
…
??
…
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SUBCONTRACTS ╰︶
????
DECEPTIVE ECHO [1]
??
BUILDER WARD [2]
??
GLOOM BINDING [2]
??
SOUL HARVEST [3]
??
WRATH SYMMETRY [3]
??
…
??
…
??
…
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Both lists expanded beyond his field of vision.
There’s too many of them!
THERE’S TOO MANY OF THEM!
He tried to remember what Norm Lorraine used. He had something that turned darkness to light, one that sliced everything in the direction he pointed, and a small sun.
They seemed to be at the top of the list.
The oily girl interrupted him with a high-pressure stream of oil. She had changed her attack pattern while he was distracted with speaking to the tower.
She had changed her hand pose, gathering the tips of fingers to a fine point like a nozzle. She was shooting a continuous stream from it, unlike her bullet-like oil projectile attack. Just like the volume output, he had no clue where she built such pressure from.
In his panic to avoid it, his eyes brushed over the first contract on the list.
╭ ╰︶?? APOLLYON ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
GREATER DAYLIGHT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DUALITY ╰︶
????
LIGHT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TYPE ╰︶
????
MAIN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ RANK ╰︶
????
FIRST
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
FLIP THE DARKNESS OF
A GIVEN SPACE FROM
THE DESIGNATED POINT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶
????
ACTIVATED SPACE MUST
BE DARK
??
ACTIVATED SPACE MUST
BE CONTAINED
??
EFFECT LASTS FOR [7]
MINUTES
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ COST ╰︶
????
51,432 AURA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE︶╯
He didn’t stop to read anything. There was no time. He was halfway soaked, and the girl came up with something even more diabolical.
While shooting a thin stream of high pressure oil, she snapped with left hand, sparking it alight.
In a split second, the continuous stream looked like a yellow laser beam.
Activate! Activate!
ACTIVATE! ACTIVATE!
The gold veins vanished, and the entire chamber lit up. He wasn’t ready for the effects of his own contract.
He was blinded, crash landing into a crevice where the girl had already set a large puddle of oil alight earlier in the fight.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
LIGHT + 2
[7]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
“You figured out how to use them, huh? for a baby, you learn so fast!” he heard her voice nearby as the flames crawled up his skin, melting his flesh again. He was completely disoriented, world smearing to white patches around him.
“Ger away—”
GET AWAY!
He was more than sick of this oily girl.
She was doing entirely too many things to keep her gold.
His red void flickered the brightly lit tower chamber when he yelled, and it withered off instantly. She wasn’t going to give him a split second to use the safety of that red void.
Her high pressure beam of fire cut through him like a paper cutter through a sponge.
His arm fell off, and then his torso toppled over, hanging to his waist by a thin strip of flesh.
She couldn’t maintain the pressure for long. The veins on her neck were bulging as she used the beam on him. She stumbled a step, lightheaded after the beam fizzled out of her fingers. Recovering, she clenched her fists, puffed out her chest, and inhaled hard to build pressure again.
Within seconds, she was halfway ready to fire the next beam, which he still had no counter for. She had better visibility now in this tower chamber, lit up like a pre-Mayday sunny beach with his contract.
As he watched her, tendrils of his flesh grew towards the arm that fell off and pulled it back. His torso mended itself back together at the same time.
He launched himself off the crevice only milliseconds before she pointed her fist at him, quickly changing her fingers to the shape of a nozzle while using her left hand to ignite the oil with a spark.
I need a different contract!
I NEED A DIFFERENT CONTRACT!
The tower weaved gold veins in his eyes to show all his contracts again. His eyes quickly went through the previous list.
He knew something that could work. The girl was playing with fire, and he had the worst form of it in a contract.
Scorching sun!
SCORCHING SUN!
╭╰︶?? APOLLYON ??︶╯╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯CONTRACT╰︶
????
SCORCHING SUN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯DUALITY╰︶
????
LIGHT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯TYPE╰︶
????
MAIN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯RANK╰︶
????
FOURTH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯DESCRIPTION╰︶
????
CREATE A MINIATURE
STAR
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯CONDITIONS╰︶
????
ACTIVATION SPACE MUST
BE SPACIOUS ENOUGH TO
ACCOMMODATE THE SPHERE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯COST╰︶
????
752,498 AURA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
Her beam sliced his lower leg clean off as his vision darkened, focusing on a small ball forming mid-air.
The star was going to manifest only inches away from his face. He’d used the contract without bothering to target it.
Shit!
SHIT!
The ball expanded in a split second erupting in flares. All the surroundings burst into flames, including the oily girl.
She slid off, retreating far away as the miniature star scorched half of his face.
Combined with Greater Daylight that he activated earlier, the whole chamber turned into an unbearably bright white void.
His retinas burned before he could close his eyes.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
LIGHT + 3
[10]
????
DESTRUCTION +2
[9]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ACCQUIRED ╰︶
????
ATTRIBUTE [LIGHT] REACHED
THE FIRST THRESHOLD OF [10]
??
RADIATE [1]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
The impact of the star expansion sent him flying off into the tower wall beyond the research station. He slid along the rock surface and fell into a heap, smoking from every wound like an overcooked piece of meat.
His burned eyes regenerated first, restoring vision.
Hell, this is hard!
HELL, THIS IS HARD!
As he sat there waiting for his flesh to mend the burns, he reconsidered his greed for gold.
He still wanted to peel it off her and have it all to himself, but he could no longer justify going through all this trouble for it. He was already tired and hungry again.
He tried to get some gold off his back to eat.
his hand came up with a single tiny drop.
What happened to my gold?!
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY GOLD?!
The tower showed him that immediately.
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ GOLD ─╮?
╰ 11 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 22,913,202 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
It made no sense. He used to have a bigger number there. It was all gone now. He stared at the drop of gold on his palm in disbelief. He poked it with his wounded hand, and that solved the mystery immediately.
The gold darted towards open flesh on his forefinger. It mixed itself with blood, and his finger trembled.
He already knew when all his gold must have disappeared. He’d been wounded badly enough for all his gold to mix into his wounds. He just never felt the effects in the rush of the fight.
None of it had gone to waste—the gold that vanished had turned into flames, exactly like when the oily girl ate her gold before.
Life seemed more troublesome than he anticipated.
He hadn’t found any love. He had run out of people to take flames from. He hadn’t been able to take all the gold from the oily girl. The first contract he used disoriented him, and the second one he used burned him half to death.
Everything was going wrong in ways he couldn’t predict. The world was too new, weird and unknown.
The thought of love, flames and gold still tickled his throat, urging him to swallow the world whole. He sat defeated, unable to deal with an oily girl a quarter his size.
He needed to use his contracts better.
The sun was too much in retrospect. He didn’t know if gold could even survive those flares if he scored a direct hit. It could’ve burned the girl with her gold.
That contract was only useful to trap and corner her. He needed something else to break her troublesome oil spurting limbs.
He went through the list again, and this time, he kept focusing on the ones that he assumed were what he needed. The slicing one Norm Lorraine used would definitely be useful.
Two others stood out to him as self explanatory.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ MAIN CONTRACTS ╰︶
????
STORM OF SCYTHE
??
BALL LIGHTNING
??
MIRAGE BLADE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
A ball of lightning and a blade of some kind. He wanted to read what they were, but several oil bullets splashed around him before he could focus on anything.
A glowing line of fire burst from a distant gap between the trees, puncturing his chest like a water jet.
She’s here!
SHE’S HERE!
He panicked as the oil beam splashed all over him again, nearly decapitating him this time.
Storm!
STORM!
╭ ╰︶?? BRAHMARA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
STORM OF SCYTHE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DUALITY ╰︶
????
DESTRUCTION
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TYPE ╰︶
????
MAIN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ RANK ╰︶
????
SECOND
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
SLICES EVERYTHING
TOWARDS THE TARGET IN
A CYLINDRICAL SHAPE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶
????
POINT TARGETING
REQUIRES HAND GESTURE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ COST ╰︶
????
112,300 AURA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He mimicked what Norm did when he used it. He pointed his hand towards the trees where the oily girl was shooting fire beams at him from.
Storm of Scythe cut through the forest like a hot knife through butter, decimating the vegetation into thin ribbons.
He dashed behind the wave of destruction, ready to do it again and again until the oily girl was no longer a problem.
He spotted her hopping out of the way and threw another one in her direction. It grazed her left side, but she used something new to protect herself from it.
Again!
AGAIN!
He unleashed another one before the second one even ended.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
DESTRUCTION +1
[10]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ACCQUIRED ╰︶
????
ATTRIBUTE [DESTRUCTION] REACHED
THE FIRST THRESHOLD OF [10]
??
DETONATE [1]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Activate! Activate! Again! Again!
ACTIVATE! ACTIVATE! AGAIN! AGAIN!
