Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 491: We don’t talk about sparring with her

Back in my room, I take a look at myself in the mirror. My body is nearly restored. The right side, which was damaged by Fracture down in the tunnels, still heals a bit slower, the skin struggling to regrow as bits of bone peek through.

[Bone Knitting - lvl 22 > Bone Knitting - lvl 23]

For the first halfway proper test I’d say things went really well. Thanks to the number of healing marks Lily gave me, I could even let them hit me properly, and even though my flesh didn’t endure due to my generally weak constitution, my bones did and sometime in the future, I’ll even find a way to stop relying on them all together.

I got [Bone Knitting] when I was trying to create a healing skill. However, I went so long without results that I eventually just decided to go in a different direction entirely.

My thought line is very simple. As long as I don’t die instantly, I can just wait for my thermal energy and any future healing passives to heal me over time. Flesh and tendons can be regrown, but bones take longer to restore, so the only reasonable course of action is to work on making them stronger.

Thanks to all of my experimentation during the tournament, the body modification data we got from Savant, and the samples I collected, bones of powerful monsters, and such, I’m getting pretty good at understanding them. I got the inspiration for weaving threads into my bones after acquiring [Ley Line] and developing Mana Weaving.

There are two vital points that I need to protect above all others: my brain and heart. If something happens to my brain, that’s it. In theory, I could sacrifice my heart, but seeing how much trouble Lady Lissandra’s been having with restoring hers and how much the system emphasizes the importance of Mana Hearts, it’s probably not a good idea.

[Bone Knitting] strengthens my skull and ribcage the most, making it all the more difficult for attacks to breach them.

I consider it a very reasonable series of actions considering my apparent inability to acquire active healing skills.

Finally, the last wound closes, and I stretch my body, twisting, bending, and stretching. Everything feels like it’s in the right place, so I step into the shower and run the water in the coldest setting. Only then do I feel like I can truly calm down. My wildly beating heart quiets, and the anger I felt begins to dissipate.

Then I reminisce about feelings Izzy shared with me. The fear she felt for her sister. The horror as she watched Sophie slowly change, refusing to acknowledge the ways she might be being influenced, even forgetting their conversations. The two weeks she spent watching her older sister, pretending that everything was fine, slowly and carefully building herself up to ask Sophie to call us in, hoping that it wouldn’t be too late and that Sophie wouldn’t refuse.

That moment of realization when Izzy knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything alone. Knowing that she wouldn’t be capable of killing the man on her own and the despair of being locked in by her beloved sister, who didn’t even fully realize why she had done so.

Shutting off the water, I step out of the shower and look at my reflection in the mirror until my expression returns to its normal state: the one that makes people want to punch me for some reason.

As I dry and clothe myself, I think about how easy it would’ve been for Sophie to end up totally enthralled, fully caught in the grasp of that man. Possibly dying, and taking her sister with her. All from the slightest misstep on her part, driven by her own overconfidence.

I believe it will be a great lesson for her, and I’ll take it as a reminder for myself as well.

Sometimes, I might catch myself thinking I'm getting too strong for Hell difficulty, that only Beyond truly holds any challenge for me. It's a thought I need to ensure never takes hold too strongly.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Only when I’m fully dressed and check my expression again do I open the door.

Izzy stands there, where she’s been waiting for me ever since I returned.

“I was so scared.” Even though she’s trying to control herself, and I notice her shaking, her body sending waves of kinetic energy through the air and floor as she does so, though she doesn’t seem to notice herself.

“I know. It’s okay now.” I reply.

She shakes her head and looks down, staring at her feet, her black hair covering her face, preventing me from seeing the look on her face. “You said he didn’t have any connection to her, but I’m still worried. How much did he manage to influence her?”

“Honestly? And you can connect to my feelings to confirm, I don’t think he managed to do all that much. I killed him because I decided we wouldn't need him to undo whatever he did. He was the kind of guy who goes slow and steady, he was too weak to go against Sophie in a direct fight. Sophie might still want to keep you locked away for a while. She might decide she wants to control more mind mages or continue avoiding Beatrice and follow whatever other impulses he planted in her mind. But it won’t grow any further because the man who did it is already dead.”

As I’m saying that, I know I mean these words.

Stepping closer, I poke her forehead hidden under her hair. “I think the rest will be up to Sophie, to realize what he did as his influence wanes. There is nothing else you or I can do.”

“Yes... Nat, please leave me and Sophie alone for a while. Now that he’s gone, I want to do more to help her.”

“Will do,” I confirm, then squat in front of her, finally peering into her green eyes. “Don’t worry, if anyone tries anything like that again, I will blow up this whole city, Framework or not.”

“I don’t even have to connect to your emotions to know you’re serious.” She quickly rubs her sleeve against her eyes before lowering her arm and returning my gaze. “Thank you, Nat.”

“You are welcome.”

Min-Jae dodges my attack, his body moving almost as strangely as mine does under the influence of kinetic energy. Though in his case, he uses [Telekinesis] and [Gravity Well] to emulate me. His movements are sharp, clearly meant to deal as much damage as possible. And to top it all off, the gravity field he’s created around us slows me down, forcing me to use more and more kinetic energy while he continues to move unrestrained.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Eventually, he fails to predict one of my movements in Pulser Stance, and I reduce the power of my strike, the punch connecting with his side and sending him staggering.

Gravity around me increases further, and he moves his body swiftly through the air.

He dodges my second blow; moving his body with [Telekinesis] rather than relying on his own muscles and reflexes, almost like he’s puppeting his own body on a set of strings. It looks eerie and unnatural, but he’s clearly grown accustomed to it.

I let his punch connect, and my unique passive transfers the kinetic energy of the attack into mana in my reservoir. Fairly surprised by the output, I let him punch me again, craving a more noticeable addition of mana to my reservoir.

“I know your movements are weird, but this is too much, Nat!” he shouts, attacking again, smiling, as his lean muscles stretch, propelling his body, as his wide brown and yellow eyes track my movements.

Once again, he dodges my attack, performing a maneuver that any acrobat would envy. And the whole time, he maintains the enhanced field of gravity around me, his Primordial gravitational energy serving to make the already strong skill even stronger, even in melee, and the boost to his mid-range attack is incredible in its own right. And I’m sure that with a bit more preparation he should be able to dominate long range as well.

We continue for another thirty minutes before finally coming to a stop.

As Min-Jae cancels out the gravitational field around me, I find myself feeling insanely light and wind up having to move carefully for a while, just to get used to the feeling.

“You didn’t hit him as much as you hit us,” Aaron notes, undistracted by the evil orb floating next to him.

“He comes to it more naturally than you, so there was no need,” I reply.

“Tess had Maya beat me up though,” Min-Jae acknowledges.

“Oh.”

Min-Jae smiles. “It helped in the end, so I don’t mind, but most of my training went into [Telekinesis], and even though my output isn’t quite as high as Tess’s, my fine control is better. Plus, she rarely moves anything very big, she mostly just uses it to make her javelins more deadly.”

“What’s the biggest thing you can move?” Dennis asks, without pausing his training.

“Huh...hmmm, we once got attacked by a big monster next to some ruins, and I just threw a bunch of car-sized stones at it. So while it does take some effort, I can move multiple tons without issue. This one time, just for fun, I used [Gravity Well] and [Telekinesis] to lift a huge stone high into the air, then brought it down while increasing the pull of gravity. I swear it looked like a meteor.”

He turns to me. “Some time ago, you mentioned a thought experiment regarding a bunch of tungsten rods orbiting the earth and the idea that dropping one of them would cause about as much damage as a nuke, I think I should be able to pull it off sometime far in the future. I just need to find some way to keep myself connected to them, hold them in a semi-stable orbit, and do some calculations regarding the zone of impact, pull them out of the orbit, and boom.”

“And we can sneak around, make decent projections, and sometimes use your own skills against you,” Aaron mentions.

At that, Dennis shakes his head. “If you compare that to nuking the city, we seem to be lagging behind. Hey, Nat, why didn’t you teach us something like that? I want to nuke cities too.”

“Then get some skills that’ll allow you to do so. But I can tell you right now that even as you are now, either one of you could take Min-Jae in a fight.”

“Huh, really?”

“If I had your skills, I wouldn’t have any problem, and as for you two… I would say you would probably win 7 out of 10 fights. And if you had the initiative that number rises to anywhere from 8 to 9 out of 10.”

“Suck it, Kim.”

“Yeah, suck it, Mr. I-can-nuke-the-city-maybe-in-the-future.”

Knowing better than to encourage them, Min-Jae curiously asks, “What are my chances against Lily?”

I don’t even have to answer, and Dennis, already standing, comes closer and throws his arm around the Korean boy. “Kim, buddy, my sweet delusional friend.”

Aaron looks around, confirming Lily’s absence, and joins from the other side. “We don’t even talk about sparring with Lily.”

Enthusiastically nodding, Dennis confirms, “Lily’s picked up some terrible habits.”

Aaron points at me. “We blame that man.”

“I’m sorry,” I agree.

Confused, Min-Jae keeps looking between us. “What happened?”

“That guy. ” Aaron’s voice becomes louder as he keeps pointing at me. “He taught us, but he also taught Lily. They spent most of their time doing some kind of crazy experiments, but they also spent a lot of time sparring.”

“A ridiculous amount! Even though Nat likes to go kaboom, as that cute half-demon of his likes to say, he also likes to get in close and punch stuff.”

“We have a theory he does it to vent.”

“Plus, he’s kind of a battle maniac. But what’s important is that Lily really likes his style, and Kim, my buddy, that girl is even more talented than we thought.”

Once again, Min-Jae looks at me, and I repeat, “I’m sorry.”

Dennis shakes his friend. “You know how Nat fights, right? Losing limbs all over the place, taking ten blows just for the opportunity to get in one hit that will splat you against a wall? Tearing muscles, and breaking bones as his body strains to endure the strength and speed?”

“That really does sound like Nat.”

“Because that’s how Nat fights. Well, Aaron and I got to watch as Lily started picking up on that same style of combat, building on it more and more, mimicking those weird movements of his. Nat uses kinetic energy though, so you'd think it would be impossible with just your body, right? Well, Lily disagreed. Apparently, you can still pull it off—if you're willing to accept that your body will get fucked up in the process.”

“And you might try to say that she fought that way before, and you’d almost be right. But there was always a bit of hesitation there, and she was still learning martial arts from mana stones she got who knows where, but once she started sparring with Nat, she gave up.”

“That’s true,” Dennis confirms. “She strengthened her bones, she improved her constitution and did some nasty things with [Sacrifice]. Throw in her healing, and she wins 7 in 10 fights with Nat when it comes to melee combat.”

This is where I step in. “That’s not true, it’s 5-6 at best.”

"Even if she ditches the ax and uses the mantle?"

"Mantle doesn't count. If I try to tire her out, I win 7 out of 10. If I try to face her directly, she would win 7 out of 10 times."

They dive deeper into their theorizing, but I’m only half-listening. Even Whitey can’t help but acknowledge Lily’s close combat capabilities, so it’s clear I’d have trouble if I faced her using only kinetic energy. But seeing how well I hold up, and considering that it’s not my primary means of combat and that I can still win half the time, I don’t mind all that much.

Really, I don’t.

It’s fine.