Before I can blink, Luna’s dagger is flying towards me. I block it with a simple barrier of inae. Man, it feels good to be able to properly wield inae again.
“You are going to need to do better than that!” I taunt. I form a pure inae spear in my hand, and add a layer of pure inae over my armor. I focus all my intent upon defense, surviving this battle is my primary objective. I can always deal damage in other ways.
In the instant it takes me to form the inae, Luna is moving right for me, having formed armor and weapons of her own. To an outside observer, she practically appears right next to me and I raise the haft of my spear to block her first strike.
I block her follow-up strike with my arm. The blade digs deeply into the pure inae, but cannot break it. I smile at Luna and slam the butt of my spear right into her abdomen. She gasps audibly and retreats a bit.
I push forward and manage to land a hit on her shoulder, but she is no wimp. My inae field detects something behind me and I dodge just as several very pointy bits of inae soar past at the speed of sound.
In my distraction she throws a knife and it sinks deeply into my calf. I yank it out and drop down to the ground just as she tries to relieve my neck of my head.
For Kek’s sake, she really isn’t messing around, is she?
Luna drops to the ground a dozen meters away from me. “That was a nice warmup, shall we get started now?” She smiles and twirls a dagger in her fingers with immense skill.
“Gladly.” I wrap a thick layer of inae around myself and expand my aura. Then, I summon dozens of katanas and throw them right at Luna from every direction.
She dodges them, but she is too slow to avoid the point of my spear as it digs into her armor. I push some shifter inae through it and it makes a sickening crack as it hits the bone and the force propagates through.
Luna’s face remains perfectly calm despite the absurd amount of pain she must be in. I barely manage to catch her next dagger strike as it goes right for my eye. But then she grabs my arm and locks it in place just long enough that she can create a spike and stab it into my side.
I recoil and retreat a bit, launching myself high into the sky. But she follows me up into the air as I leak blood absolutely everywhere. I grit my teeth and remove the spike and seal the wound with a bit of pure inae – which should keep the blood in while my augmentation kit seals the wound.
I take a moment to assess the situation. I think Luna’s inae skill is only in gesir, as I haven't really felt any aura or seen her use shifter inae. But she sure is klacking good with what she has. Plus she is very well trained in normal melee combat as well.
Though, I don’t think she is as experienced in Ray and I’s patented art of style. After all, the way of style is not for the faint of heart.
Various projectiles fly past me, but I ignore them. Instead, I push a truly absurd amount of shifter inae into my spear. The tip is glowing brighter than even the sun is as I abruptly stop my ascent.
Luna’s momentum carries her a bit higher, which is perfect as I launch myself right at her.
I cut through the air as though it is designed to help me move wherever I wish and my spear makes contact. I hit a very solid barrier of inae, and I can see Luna’s face contort in concentration.
I push harder and the barrier starts to crack. Just before it fully breaks, I release the gathered shifter inae with a thrust.
The air itself seems to break as the resultant shockwave creates a vacuum. I get thrown back towards the ground at the speed of sound. But, Luna fares much worse as the full impact hits her, I watch her armor crack and shatter. She activates one of the system skills and is encased in a chrysalis of ice, but it does absolutely nothing.
A thunderclap echoes around the battlefield, and directly below us I see many soldiers on both sides get flattened into pancakes. Perhaps I over did it, just a bit.
I waste no time and launch myself towards Luna, who is still very much in the fight. Though her armor was broken, she quickly reforms it and launches herself right towards me, her purple and gray eyes blazing with an intense rage that match the orangeish glow of the setting sun.
I brace myself for Luna’s attack, but I am entirely unprepared.
She throws a dagger and it glides through the air at what must be several times the speed of sound. It collides with my barrier and I feel it tear through it like nothing more than paper.
It hits me hilt first in the chest and I feel my ribs shatter and internal organs rupture. I get tossed towards the ground like I was just hit face first by a meteorite. If it wasn't for the augmentation kit replacing the functions of my organs, I would certainly have died.
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I crash into the ground and a sizable crater forms around me. I hear some crumbling sounds from my body and I cough up quite a lot of blood. I am no doctor, but I do not think that is something my body should be doing.
Luna hovers over me and points her dagger right at my throat. “Do you wish to forfeit yet?”
I sit up and spit some blood. “Never. After all, I am the victor, how can I possibly forfeit?” I jump onto my feet and with a big smile, I pull out my pistol and shoot her.
Of course, it harmlessly bounces off her armor. But her momentary confusion gives me the chance to get back into the air. Our weapons meet with a clash. Both of us are smiling and I am about to start laughing. It is fun to fight Luna.
Though I still have to win of course.
I break away and drop to the ground. I grab the wreck of a tank and casually toss it at Luna at high speed. She dodges it of course, but she doesn't see the tree I threw and it shatters against her armor.
I move behind her and add a heavy gauntlet to my fist and then punch her right in the back as she tries to find where I am. I bet she is going to do some skier training after this, being able to perceive things in combat is very important after all.
Her entire body goes limp for a moment when I break her spine. I do a stylish spin and kick her hard, sending her flying into the ground, creating a crater to match mine. Though not quite as large unfortunately.
I hover above her as she tries to sit up, only for her body to refuse over and over again. We may have gotten fancy augmentation kits and be able to rewrite reality on a whim, but in the end we are still bags of flesh. Beholden to things like physics.
I point my spear down at Luna. “It seems you still need a bit more training, sister. Perhaps do some backpacking on a volcano planet or two. It is a really great experience.”
“Die…” She croaks out.
I draw back my spear and prepare to throw it. But then the respawn barrier appears and whisks Luna away.
I take a look around the battlefield. Or at least, what used to be the battlefield.
The place is covered in craters, tanks, mechs and entire squadrons of soldiers lie broken. Shards of pure inae lie scattered everywhere, the devastation total.
I think we might have caused a bit of environmental damage.
Whoops.
Guess it was a good thing they restricted our use of inae… the entire balance of the trial would’ve been completely ruined if we could even use just a tiny bit. I am honestly surprised they allowed us to use it for movement at all. But I am not a game master in charge of putting on a show worthy of the entire universe. So who am I to complain?
I get lost in thought and don't notice as a warm pair of arms wrap around me and squeeze tightly. “Ow. Ribs, sore.” In response, she tightens her grip. I sink back into her warm embrace.
“Darling, you were so awesome.” Ray whispers in my ear, the only sound amidst a silent battlefield. A stark contrast to the chaos of just two hours ago.
“You were super cool too. As I would expect from my super cute girlfriend.”
“Oh stahp, all I did was use a few fancy gadgets to take down an enemy that can wipe hundreds of our troops out with minimal effort.”
I shift so that I can look Ray in the eyes. “As I said, my super cute girlfriend is awesome. She also really needs an absolute ton of headrubs.”
She gazes into my eyes and I wonder what she sees in them. “Jerk.” She leans in and claims my lips in a deep kiss.
I think it is safe to say that we have won this battle. As was expected, after all, we are the Moonlight Duo.
Excerpt from The Diary of A Soldier
It is the final day of the ruler’s conquest. A truly horrifying game that I somehow got sucked into. I was never meant to fight, I am just a baker. Yet here I am, standing on this battlefield. I stand beside my comrades who all scream for blood and glory like they have gone completely klacking mad.
Above us floats our leaders. A pair of lunatics. The other members of leadership aren’t any better either. They order us to march into certain death. But by the twisted rules of this ‘game’, death is not the end. It still feels the same. Yet we are then reborn into new vessels and sent right back into war.
Some of the veterans as they are called have tallied hundreds of deaths and thousands of enemies killed. All they ever talk about is ‘glory’, ‘honor’ and ‘serving our mighty lords.’
Something is seriously wrong.
I should be on Earth. I do not know why I even volunteered for the colonization program. I just felt like I should.
That was the worst decision of my life.
Now I stand here, huddled beneath the wreck of a tank as death rains from the skies.
Our mighty lord is high up in the sky, battling the leader of our enemy. Some restriction or other was lifted on their power.
The more they attack each other, the more destruction they leave in their wake. Projectiles traveling at hypersonic speeds impact the ground with masses equivalent to trucks.
They devastate everything nearby.
Entire scores of soldiers are smashed without any resistance. Both friend and foe fall.
I just hope it ends soon. I do not know how much more of this hell I can endure.
Please, just make the horror stop.
- Julian Larem, 17:26 AT, Day 50.
End of Chapter 144
Next: Chapter 145 | Expected Result
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by BooksByMandiMay ● Sci-Fi / LitRPG
Maura ran a game store. Now she's trapped in a deadly multiverse tutorial and assigned a class extinct for fifteen eras: Technomancer. Half magic, half machine, zero instructions. She has to figure out powers nobody remembers and keep a group of strangers alive long enough for any of it to matter.
// two systems. two protagonists. same universe-breaking energy.