Gunshots rang out as Jay dashed forward, feeling the bullets bounce off his armor. His ears began ringing, and he was reminded how lucky he was that his revolver muffled the sound it made. He threw the water gun at the shooter with as much power as his Spirit Empowerment could give him. A quick burst of energy came from the man, deflecting the improvised projectile.
Jay’s eyes widened at the use of Spirit Shield, confirming the man was a candidate, but it didn’t slow him down. He finished closing the distance and twisted, throwing a right hook as the energy dissipated.
The man let out a laugh as he easily blocked the Spirit-empowered strike, flipped his gun so he was holding it by the barrel, and delivered a powerful strike to Jay’s head, causing him to stumble back. A warm sensation ran down his lip and chin as he composed himself. His armor had absorbed a good portion of the blow, but it seemed like it was unable to fully get rid of kinetic energy, causing the attack to still hurt like Hell. He wiped the blood from his lips as the other two men joined their compatriot, causing him to curse internally.
“Warning: Spirit Level Low.”
Spirit: 99/900
And it only got better. Internally wincing, he confidently raised his fists with a smile on his face.
The lead man laughed at the display. “So, this is how you want to die?”
Jay answered by charging forward. The odds not being in his favor had never stopped him before. Never caused him to reconsider once his mind was set on something. Even in his lowest moments when everything had failed. When he was cold, hungry, and alone. He still refused to give up. It had taken years for him to finally lose some of that stubbornness. Even then, he couldn’t admit that he had made the wrong decision, whether or not he was almost certain to lose this fight. He certainly wouldn’t go back now, especially when he had just gotten that side of him back. Something deep within him hummed as he resolved himself and slammed into the man's chest.
A grunt of pain escaped from the armed man as Jay knocked the air out of him. He tried to take him to the ground, but the man was able to sprawl out before Jay could get a grip on either of his legs. Three more quick shots echoed out, hitting Jay’s armor but failing to penetrate it. Cursing, the man switched his tactics, wrapping one arm around Jay’s armpit to keep him from backing away while repeatedly slamming the weapon into his back.
Jumping at the opportunity, the other two men attempted to plunge knives into Jay’s back, but the blades harmlessly slid along the invisible plating. They switched their grip and struck down with the backs of the weapons, joining the first man in driving blow after blow into his back. A cry of pain escaped Jay’s mouth. He fell to his knees, but still stubbornly held the man's waist even as the searing sensation erupted from his back. Ignoring it, he started infusing his entire body with Spirit.
“Warning: Spirit Level Low.”
Spirit: 46/900
Jay ignored the warning, infusing more energy before. With one swift motion, he sprang to his feet, lifted the man, and slammed him headfirst into the floor. Not letting the shift in momentum pass him up. He slammed a fist into the groin of one of the men who was assaulting him and elbowed the other's stomach, causing them both to stumble back. With a manic smile, showing off his teeth, mixed with streams of red as blood continued to pour from his nose. He fell upon the downed man like a ferocious tornado. He slammed the man’s head into the ground with strike after strike. Until it turned to nothing more but a pulp of bloody gray matter and fragments of skull He stood and turned towards the next man, who was currently stumbling away after slightly recovering from taking an empowered hit to the balls.
“Warning: Spirit Level Critical. You will fall unconscious in 2 minutes.”
Spirit: 4/900
Jay ignored the notification and continued moving forward. This wasn’t over yet. He wasn’t finished.
“Warning: Spirit Level Critical. You will fall unconscious in 2 minutes.”
Spirit: 5/900
These bastards had started this. They had cornered him on his way back home on his way to rest.
“Warning: Spirit Level Critical. You will fall unconscious in 3 minutes.”
Spirit: 7/900
Jay stumbled as the world threatened to black out, but he was dead set on making them pay. A job that had yet to be finished, and he would be damned if something as simple as a lack of spirit kept him from accomplishing that. As far as he was concerned, his spirit was unshakable, so why should this strange energy source be any different?
“Warning: Spirit Level Low.”
Spirit: 10/900
“It shouldn’t be!” he cried out, declaring it for all the world to hear.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
**Innate class awakened: Unyielding Drive.**
Jay didn’t care about anything else but his current mission. He moved slowly, at first, before picking up speed and lunging at the man. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but the next thing he knew, two more broken bodies lay within the lobby. He limped to the elevator, pulling a knife from his left leg where one of them had somehow managed to actually penetrate armor. His entire body stung, and a pounding headache fought his every movement. Not willing to stop, he kept going step after agonizing step until he was finally back in his apartment. With the force of sheer will, he toppled the dresser blocking the doorway before falling unconscious in the center of the room.
“Jay, wake up and push as much Spirit into your left leg as possible, or you're going to die!”
A voice shoved its way into Jay’s mind, but he ignored it. Between the exhaustion, the pain threatening to tear his skull open,, and the cold sensation spreading through his body, he couldn't care less who was trying to talk to him.
“Jay! You're rapidly bleeding out! Wake the fuck up and push anything you can muster to your leg now!”
The voice pushed again, but Jay just wanted it to go away and let him sleep. He was so tired and so very cold. He paused for a moment as clarity broke through the pain. He shouldn’t have been cold. His apartment didn’t have the best heating, but it was still far from winter, and it should have been mildly hot in the small room.
“Wake up and do as I say, or you’re going to die!”
The words finally registered in his mind, and he followed Lan’s directions, sending as much Spirit as he had to his leg. She directed him in guiding the energy around a section of his lower thigh. He moved the Spirit in a specific pattern for a few minutes until she finally told him he could go back to resting. Another notification joined the pile he had, but he ignored them, instead falling back into a deep sleep.
He awoke hours later, finding himself in a completely dark room. His headache had calmed immensely, but it still pounded at the back of his skull. Pushing himself up to his feet, he weakly felt around for the light switch and flipped it on. Raising an arm to protect his eyes from the harsh light that threatened to reignite his headache. He made his way to the fridge and pulled out anything even slightly edible while uncooked, and devoured it all. When he was halfway through drinking the leftover brine from a jar of pickles, he had already inhaled. He finally stopped coughing as he set the jar on the counter and flipped his sink on, sticking his head under the water and gulping it down by the mouthful.
Once he was finally satisfied, he turned the water off and wiped his mouth before sighing and looking toward the door. He was lucky no one had come looking for him with how shittily he’d placed the dresser in front of the entryway. He had only moved it halfway in his exhaustion-fueled panic, leaving the door more hampered than blocked. Either way, he wasn’t going to chance another night in this apartment. Even if he had been lucky, there wasn’t a chance in Hell the horrible scene he had left in the lobby wouldn’t be looked into by someone. If not the Enforcers, it’d be one of the new factions that had popped up. While he already planned to ruffle a few feathers in the coming days, this wasn’t something he wanted following him around. Pushing the dresser the rest of the way to properly cover the door, he let out a heavy sigh and sat on the ground before finally turning to the stack of notifications that he had been ignoring.
**Enemy Candidate Killed Experience Multiplied - 2x**
**Skill level increased: Defiance 0 - 2**
**Skill level increased: Pain Tolerance 5 - 7**
**Skill level increased: Regeneration Boost 0 - 1**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Empowerment 8 - 10**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Armor 6 - 9**
**Skill level increased: Unarmed Combat 3 - 7**
**Experience threshold reached: Level 9 - 10**
**
Innate class awakened: Unyielding Drive
Effects:
While you have your mind set on a goal, your Spirit cannot drop below 1% of your maximum for an amount of time based on will.
While active, your will will be drained at a rate based on Spirit expenditure per second divided by your willpower.
Drain rate cannot be less than 1
DR = (SEPS/WP) > 1 else 1
Packaging effect into skill…
Successful!
Skill Name: Defiance: (Level - 1) - Rare
**
Jay squinted at the last message, displaying the effects of his innate class. He tried to make sense of what the calculations meant and what an innate class even was before giving up. Luckily, he had his handy encyclopedia for these things.
Hey, Lan--
“SHHHH!”
Jay blinked for a moment, surprised. I--
“Quiet. I'll tell you in a moment, but for now, I just need silence.”
He shrugged, but let it be, beginning to play with his Energy Control and Obscuration as he waited. Almost thirty minutes had passed before Lan finally broke him from his experimentation.
“Alright, so you want to know about innate classes?”
Yeah, but first, what was that about earlier?
“Oh, I had to get some special permissions. We aren’t supposed to tell you about innate classes or anything related to them until almost a month into the first wave of invaders. Seeing as you already obtained yours, though, I was able to get some extra permissions. There will still be some things I can’t tell you so that you can’t help others get their class, but I can answer most of the questions I can feel burning in your mind.”
So why did you shush me?
“Oh, that was for my own enjoyment--and a bit of petty revenge for not listening to me right away earlier.”
I was suffering from blood loss!
“Hmm, and I'm still suffering from ‘don’t give a shit.’ Train your mind to respond to what I say automatically, because I'm likely trying to save your life.”
I’ll...try? he thought with a shrug, unsure of how to even begin accomplishing that.
“Good,” Lan responded, completely ignoring his questioning tone. “So, about innate classes.”
