Second Genesis

Grey’s feet slid back against the ground, his toes grinding into his shoes and their soles in turn on the cobblestone. However, he only managed to stop due to his dagger digging against the earth as well.

He coughed, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. His gaze shifted slightly to the side.

That attack hadn’t come from Silva, it came from Brad who had taken advantage of the situation to attack him from the side. But that much was fine, Grey was already expecting that this would end up being a 1v4 battle. There was only one way that this could have gone.

The carriage lay in ruins, and the screams of passersby filled the air as they scattered toward a safe viewing distance.

Within the carnage, though, Grey picked up on several things. For one, Silva was on a knee, clutching at his stump of a hand. That much was good, it meant that Grey had managed to deal a blow to the most powerful of them immediately.

The second thing he noticed was that Brad was looking at him with an incredulous expression. He looked from Grey to the gauntlets on his arms in shock. That attack could have collapsed a building if he aimed it just right. He was sure that he had hit Grey flush. How was it that Grey was still alive and only coughing out a bit of blood? Something wasn’t adding up at all.

Regardless of Brad’s surprise, though, Stella was already pulling her bow. She pulled out what looked like a small pen and it clicked something at the middle of its body. All of a sudden it expanded into a bow.

’Just great.’ Grey muttered to himself. ’At least she doesn’t have arrows?’

If Stella started pulling arrows out of thin air after he got his shit kicked in by a Holy Knight for daring to borrow a spatial item, Grey was going to make sure someone had hell to pay.

Unfortunately for him, she didn’t do that. Instead, it was Mauve who drew a finger across thin air, controlling a pulse of energy until it formed itself into a solid arrow. Then she directly handed it to Stella who pulled her bowstring taut.

’Fantastic. The whole party’s here.’ Grey raised a hand to his face. Pixels of crimson, violet, and silver began to pulse into being. He used the interface of the Cyber Space to hide him pulling it out of his inventory. ’Let’s let the Skrill Mask do its thing, then.’

Grey’s figure blurred and for the first time in a while, he left a complex series of after images in his wake. A wild grin spread across his face as the silvery black worms that had become his hair danced to his back.

Blades of blood extended from his daggers and he rapidly closed the distance.

Brad roared and stomped a foot. The earth beneath Grey’s feet formed a wave and he was nearly knocked entirely off of his feet.

But Grey was hardly fazed. Level 6 Goblin Warlord Spirit felt like the entire world was moving in slow motion. Or, maybe that was his +50 PER and DEX.

He flipped through the air, using the momentum of the pulsing wave to complete a side flip and land to the side. He stomped a foot and instantly accelerated toward Mauve.

He didn’t have his chainsaw anymore so he couldn’t instantly accelerate with its ability, but he might as well have given the gap between his DEX and SPD.

Mauve’s eyes opened wide. She was in the middle of drawing a second arrow for Stella who was still looking for an opportunity to loose the first. She panicked slightly and it wavered. There was just something about Grey’s eyes that filled the air with a scent of bloody murder. It triggered a fight or flight response in her that nearly ripped her concentration to pieces.

Luckily for her, that was also the perfect chance for Stella to loose that very arrow.

It whistled through the air, moving faster than any arrow Grey had seen from her before. It felt like it appeared before him in a single instant of time, so fast the flashing lights barely had time to reflect in his irises before it was already upon him.

The distance was too close, the arrow too fast. Grey should have been finished.

Yet the arrow whizzed through one of his afterimages like she had never aimed at the right one to begin with.

Mauve’s eyes opened wide. She thought she was safe for a moment, but it was only that—just a brief instant. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The power of the blade was already pulling on her blood as it descended. Her life flashed before her eyes, and it became clear at that moment that it truly didn’t matter how pretty Grey thought she was. It didn’t add the slightest bit of hesitation to his heart.

That was when a growl echoed.

Silva suddenly appeared in a whirlwind of white energy, moving so fast that even Grey’s PER couldn’t track him.

The fox human stood in front of Mauve, facing the strong descent of the weapon without the slightest change to his expression other than the very same fury he had been burying before. His fur stood on end, almost making it seem as though his head had doubled in size. But given the bulging of the suit he wore, there was far more than just the fur he showed to the outside world.

He slashed a claw out toward Grey’s blade, the momentum of an Established Class Warrior pulsing in waves.

Sparks flew as Grey’s attack came to a complete standstill. The fox man picked out the right Grey afterimage without the slightest issue. A Proving Class treasure, especially an Uncommon one, would never be all that effective on him.

Mauve’s eyes glowed. The arrow she had been trying to form shattered under her distraction, so she didn’t try to form another. Instead, she poured her intention toward her illusion technique, a deluge of energy raging into a tempest that descended toward Grey’s head like an anvil.

Sensing the mental attack that was coming, Silva reacted in kind.

He stepped back, allowing Grey’s attack to pass through unharmed. Then in a sudden change, he readied himself to attack, timing it to the instant Mauve’s mental assault landed.

Grey was finished.