Maids VS Apocalypse

For a second, Mark considered using all the AP he had to raise his level as many times as possible, but he dropped the idea right away. Raising his level again before getting the proper training first was tantamount to suicide. Moreover, he didn’t want to experience that pain so soon after recovering from it.

In the end, he had to look somewhere else for a solution, and as he did, he just so happened to remember the insane plan he came up with the other day.

’Would it even work?’

The hooded woman wasn’t a crazed beast looking for blood; she would sense it the moment he tried to do anything, and with her having seen him use the potions, she was now aware that he had items to consume.

In order for it to work, he would have to distract her first, make her forget all about the items he took out before as well as the chances of him doing the same again. The idea of using his Force Field occurred to him just then.

"Didn’t the PK bastard teach you anything? Using your Force Field like this is pointless unless you time it right. If you don’t, it’ll just get blocked."

The disappointment in her voice couldn’t be clearer, which was a sign that the winds were blowing in his sail. As she went on with her explanation, Mark opened the Shop window and bought what might just be his favorite item so far, a stun grenade.

Costing him only 70G, it was dirt cheap compared to the other items, making him wonder how the pricing even works in the System version of his Shop. Instead of materializing the stun grenade, Mark chose to move it to his Inventory instead. Now all he had to do was wait for the right moment.

"Your lover? Nah, no way! She’s way out of your league!"

When she moved him around, supposedly to stop Lara from attacking her, Mark knew the time was drawing near. Her attention was divided, showing that she didn’t consider him much of a threat, but he needed a final push to ensure she got caught completely off guard.

Mark had to find something that could halt her thoughts for just a fraction of a second, and the brilliant idea his mind conjured played right into his plan, perfecting it beyond the initial concept.

"Ha... Harder..." As he muttered the word, he took the stun grenade out of his Inventory. Since his right hand was holding onto the hooded woman’s wrist, the item appeared in his left. He carefully removed the pin, and once it was ready, he said something that was guaranteed to make the woman look down. "I’m... I’m going to..."

"You frea-"

"Got you, bitch!"

The cylindrical shape of the grenade tricked the woman into thinking it was something else, and it wouldn’t be until the light burned her eyes that she realized what it really was.

The fire raging inside Mark refused to let him end things there. Seeing an opening, it forced him to go on the offense. Only when he landed a blow to the woman’s head did the flames recede and allow him to escape.

~[ ]~

As his chest rose and fell from his labored breaths, Mark couldn’t help but grin.

It was almost exactly the same plan he and Lara had used against Malarak. He wasn’t expecting it to work as well as the first time, but to his utter shock, it went far better than expected.

He had dealt a massive blow to an enemy leagues above himself, one that almost ended his life with a single punch. Her still being alive meant that she was able to block the blow to her head in time, but Mark decided to take it as a win anyway.

The thrill such experience brought wasn’t easy to control, but he was smart enough to understand that his battle was far from over.

"Fucking... BASTARD!!!"

A suffocating pressure fell on the nearby blocks and replaced Mark’s excitement with pure dread. Thanks to his high Mind state he was able to withstand it well, but that didn’t mean he was immune to the terror it caused.

’That’s... Soul Pressure...’ He thought. ’How strong... how strong is she?’

The hooded woman was still writhing in pain so he went on the move again, thinking he had time to put more distance between them.

He pushed the horror to the back of his mind and ran in the direction opposite from where he came. At the same time, he opened the System Shop, purchased another stun grenade, and materialized it in his hand.

It was doubtful if the same tactic would work a second time, but he wanted to have it at the ready just in case.

"I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!!!!"

Mark reflexively braced himself for an upcoming attack, but what followed wasn’t what he expected. As he turned to enter another side alley, a beam of light exploded out of the building on his right.

Its source was obvious, but before he could wonder how she could’ve known his location the beam moved horizontally and was about to sever him in half.

Watching the magenta-colored beam of death chase after him, Mark recognized that his chances of outrunning it were null, but that wasn’t his only problem.

Spending most of his life in front of a screen didn’t help with his running skills so the moment he turned to look behind him a small pebble took the chance to trip him.

Though he fell on his face like the pathetic loser, that ended up saving his life, seeing that the beam sliced right through the entire block like a hot knife through butter.

A fully powered Force Field might’ve been able to block it, but Mark was unsure that he would’ve been able to raise its output under such stress.

The attacks didn’t just stop after that. No sooner had he stood up than another beam came for him, this one going down in a diagonal trajectory. Mark had to jump forward to avoid getting sliced only for it to change direction and force him to jump up next.

The continuous attacks left him with no openings to focus on the next step in his plan. The beams kept coming, and as if dodging them wasn’t difficult enough, he was then forced to evade the falling debris from the sliced buildings.

In less than a minute, Mark saw the angel of death more times than he could count. The beams stopped for a second, tricking him into believing he was getting a break, but then a violent explosion shook the ground and the building next to him came crumbling down.

Mark understood that he wouldn’t be able to escape so in that moment he increased the output of his Force Field and allowed the rubble to fall on him.

He felt no pain, but withstanding the weight pressing down on him would constantly burn through his MP, eventually leading to him passing out and getting crushed in his sleep.

Even under such dire circumstances, Mark did his absolute best to stop himself from panicking. Instead, he focused on the next steps of his plan hoping the hooded woman would be tricked into overlooking him now that he was buried under a pile of rubble.

’I will leave the rest to you, Lara!’