Chapter 13: The Ranker Tanker vs. The Madder Badger Part 2

  With every fiber of my focus leveled on maintaining the bubble of mana around me that allows me to slip through the air unimpeded, I use every point of my 140 million agility to move through the air faster than any human in history. If Usain Bolt was here, he’d probably ask whose house this was and how he got there. I rocket out of the room, down the hallway, and back into the elevator. I pop through the vent on the elevator’s top and shoot up the shaft, making it from the arena to the top floor within the time it takes a hummingbird to flap their wings. I blast out through the floor, locating the kitchen with extreme efficiency. Remembering Lucy’s instructions, I head to the third cabinet on the right, carefully use telekinesis to open it as fast as possible without wrenching it from it’s hinges, and pull out my prize. Popcorn kernels. I whip over to the fridge, nab a stick of butter, grab the salt from the table, and rocket back to the arena. After that, it’s a simple matter of applying an even amount of heated mana around each kernel until it pops into puffy white perfection, coating carefully with melted butter, sprinkling with salt, and splitting into two floating piles because I forgot to get bowls. Placing one floating pile of popcorn in front of Lucy, I slow down significantly, coming back to something close to a normal speed just in time to hear Lucy finish talking.

  “-but the fight will be over by the time you… holy shit. You undersold yourself, that takes way more than a million speed.”

  I wink at her and focus back on the fight, though not before congratulating myself on the best popcorn I’ve ever had.

  Little Shit, seemingly wisened from her first charge, burrows ferociously into the ground, disappearing beneath the dirt. Once again, the ground begins to rumble as she tunnels through. Across the field, Genevieve stands perfectly still, as if waiting. Then, just as the rumbling grows stronger, she bursts into vibrant color. Light of undulating blue and pink streams from beneath every armor plate, and beams of soft light, one blue and one pink, shoot from her now glowing eyes. Beside me, Lucy gasps.

  “[Embody the Arcane]! If she’s using that than she really must be taking this seriously. That’s her strongest skill.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s it do?” I say, picking a stray shard of kernel from my teeth.

  “It’s a limit break ability. Common type of transcendent skill, basically gives a big boost to all stats for a short period of time. Before you ask, when you get to level 1000, you get a one time class upgrade, called a transcendence, and it usually comes with a special skill.”

  “Huh. Neat. Wait, level 1000? What level is Genevieve? I thought it would be rude to try and inspect her.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to see her level even if you had, the difference is too high. I honestly don’t know her current level, but the last time she mentioned it was a couple weeks ago, when she was level 2,748.”

  “God damn! Should you be telling me this? You aren’t spilling secrets you shouldn’t be?”

  “Actually, the level of all the strongest initiates is public knowledge. The IO says it’s to inspire growth, but it actually just serves as a threat. Y’know, look how big our numbers are, fear us! That kinda thing.”

  “16 years have passed, and humanity still likes waving its dick around and claiming it’s big. Sounds about right.”

  Lucy snorts. In the fight, several seconds have passed, and everything has changed. When LS shot from the ground, intent on landing another sneak attack, she was met by equal force. For the first time in the fight, Genevieve was able to match the pure strength output of the badger. Well, no that’s not entirely true. Genevieve was still being pushed back, but where she would have been entirely bowled over at the beginning of the fight, she now struggles to maintain her footing and succeeds. As the two opposing forces struggle for dominance however, it is clear that one side has the advantage, and though she is being pushed back, that side is Genevieve’s. Each second that passes as they push at each other, runes are appearing all around LS, shooting into her fur and skin, burning, freezing, cutting, and melting in equal measure. It is clear that if this collision continues, LS will be on the losing end, and realizing this, the badger dissengages, jumping backwards. As the battle rages on, there is a glaring weakness of Little Shit that is exposed. She is kinda stupid. Well, maybe stupid isn’t the right word, but she clearly does not have the tactical acumen to make good decisions in combat. If she did, she would stall out the limit break, or just disengage long enough to heal. Perhaps she could throw dirt in the air to obscure field vision, or create huge furrows in the ground and turn the terrain to her advantage. She does none of these things. Instead, she rushes back in, seemingly looking to use speed if strength is no longer her overwhelming advantage. However, in Genevieve’s limit break form, it is clear the difference in speed isn’t enough, and slowly but surely, the health of LS is whittled down. Suddenly, LS bursts with yellow light. The white in her fur changes to become golden, and her eyes briefly flash. Where her eyes were beady and black moments ago, they are now flecked with gold. Her speed skyrockets, and she slams into the surprised Genevieve with epic force, blasting her across the field once more. Quickly, I open LS’s character sheet.

  Holy shit, my badger is adapting at biologically impossible speeds. Now then, what is this [Featherstep] business?

  Oh, sick, so it’s like what I do to go at super high speeds without creating fusion reactions. Except this also gives a pretty substantial speed boost. If I wasn’t significantly faster than Little Shit anyway, I might be a little jealous. As is, I’m just proud. With this change in LS, the landscape of the fight has once again changed drastically. The difference in the speed of the two combatants is now massive, with LS attacking from multiple angles and directions faster than Genevieve can block. To compensate, Genevieve has started to predict where LS will attack from before she does, placing runic shields and traps on different parts of her armor. Unfortunately for my adorable little fuzzball, she is pretty damn predictable. LS blasts through a runic barrier, shards flying everywhere, and careens into Genevieve’s hip. The armor cracks, but holds, and Genevieve’s sword swings around futilely as LS effortlessly dodges out of the way. I narrow my eyes. The aura around Genevieve is growing weaker quickly. I doubt her [Embody the Arcane] skill will last much longer. Suddenly, she falls to the ground, as if wounded, and a suspiciously clean cut hole appears in the center of her armor. Well, that’s the least spirited bait I’ve ever seen. Surely nobody would fall for… oh. Like a moth to a flame, Little Shit, without a moments thought or hesitation, shoots straight for the hole in Genevieve’s chest. The obvious bait turns out to be a trap. Go figure. What seems like 30 different layers of runic barrier all pop up directly in front of LS, and going too fast to stop, LS runs straight through them, each ripping her into slightly finer shreds. By the time her front claw reaches Genevieve’s chest, Little Shit is nothing more than angry meat. The battlefield fades, and the two daises darken. Before Little Shit can attack Genevieve, I quickly grab her and hold her close to my chest. Looking down, I watch as she goes through the same transformation she went through on the screen, turning gold and black, and I send thoughts of consolment and that the next time she fights Genevieve she will mop the floor with her. Clearly annoyed and upset, LS curls up on my head to sulk, though she leans into my hand as I reach up to scratch her head. I give a polite round of applause to Genevieve as she stretches, looking very pleased with herself.

  “Well done. Impressive stuff. I can honestly say that is not how I expected that to go.”

  Genevieve shakes her head wryly.

  “Yeah, me neither. When you told me to fight your pet, I was honestly a little offended, but she really gave me a run for my money in there. That is one very strong badger.”

  I continue scratching LS’s head and smile.

  “She sure is. Alright, I suppose I owe you a match. Do you want to take a break first or are you ready to get stomped?”

  Genevieve snorts.

  “Haven’t you learned by now not to underestimate me? Well, I suppose it will be all the sweeter when I prove you wrong. And no, I don’t need a break. Let’s fucking go.”

  I nod and walk over to the dais where LS had been. Carefully I take my badger off my head and set her on the ground, before stepping up. Genevieve steps on the other and presses the start button. The world fades to black, and the same field that I saw on the screen blurs into view around me. A take a deep breath, marvelling at the freshness of the air and the scent of grass. Across from me, Genevieve appears, her armor fully repaired, shield and sword in hand. She settles into a stance of readiness, goading me to make the first move. That is just fine with me. This dreamscape gives me an opportunity to test something I haven’t dared to in the real world. If this fails, it is going to absolutely suck and I am going to lose horribly, but if it works… I focus inward, using mana sight to view all the streams of mana cycling in and out of my body. Carefully I block each stream, isolating my mana pool from the world around me, making the rest of my body a vacuum devoid of all mana. Immediately, I feel as though I am holding my breath, as if the mana locked inside me is desperate to get out, and it is only through willpower that it remains isolated. Clearly, I won’t be able to hold this for long, but I don’t need to. Stretching out my hand, I summon a small purple flame, taking only a little bit of mana from my pool, just enough to ignite it. As it dances faintly in the air I wince in anticipation and place my hand in the flame. The flame goes out. No excruciating pain. No ignited mana pool. I breath a sigh of relief. Releasing my mana, I take a deep breath. I look up at Genevieve. She raises an eyebrow at me.

  “What was that? I thought we were here to fight?”

  “Yeah yeah, just testing something. Don’t worry, hear I come.”

  I step towards her, engaging my agility, but not enough that I need the mana enveloping me. I once more isolate my mana pool, and taking a much larger chunk of mana, I create a hovering purple flame in front of me. Crossing the field at lightning speed, a mana barrier covered in runes appears in front of me. When the purple flame comes into contact with the barrier, the barrier ignites with a guttural whoosh, like igniting the flames of a massive stove. I fly towards Genevieve, completely unimpeded as barrier after barrier and trap after trap burn away. In Genevieve’s eyes, I see shock, and though it is well masked, a hint of fear. She tries to jump away from me, but isn’t fast enough. The flame touches her shield, and the runes on it flair and ignite. The flame spreads from her shield to her armor, and with my mana sight active, I watch as it spreads to her mana pool. Just as she begins to scream, I swing out with my fist. A simple jab, but with 140 million strength behind it, it is more than enough to reduce the flaming Genevieve into a bloody mist that drifts into the wind. The field fades, and I step off the dais.

  “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!”

  Genevieve screams at me, this time in shock rather than pain. I shrug and wink.

  “That’s what’s called a skill difference. Basically, it means that I’m simply the greatest and that you’re a lame-o and a loser.”

  Genevieve growls in annoyance, actually growls, and stalks over to me, pointing a finger at my face.

  “No no no, you need to explain what the fuck that purple flame was, cause if you can do it, others might be able to as well, which means this is life or death for me.”

  Ok. That’s actually fair.

  “I don’t know if it has an official name in the system, but I just call it mana flame. Basically it is a flame the feeds off of mana as its only fuel source. Since everything you do seems to run off mana, it had a lot of fuel. Even ignited your mana pool at the end there. As for if others can do it, I honestly don’t know. It is a pretty simple concept but incredibly dangerous to practice. First time I cast it I would have died if it wasn’t for a one use item ability. So if there are creatures or people out there that can use it, they probably aren’t very common, but that’s just conjecture on my part.”

  Genevieve furrows her brow.

  “Does it have any weaknesses?”

  “I mean, kind of? It is pretty situational, since it requires mana in order to function. So anyone without mana would render it useless. Beyond that, try to limit its fuel and create distance I suppose. From what I saw when I looked at your mana pool, you seem to have a lot more capacity than regen, so getting your pool ignited is pretty much game over for you. For more regen focused casters, they can empty their mana pool entirely to starve the flame, and then regen quickly after, but I doubt that’s an option for you.”

  “What do you mean when you looked at my mana pool?”

  “...is seeing mana… not a common ability?”

  “No, [Mana Sight] is pretty common amongst mana classes, but it doesn’t let you see inside living creatures. It just lets you see the mana in the air and in runes and spells and stuff.”

  “Oh, well I don’t know how the [Mana Sight] skill works within the system, but my version of it isn’t a skill and doesn’t seem to be limited like that. I can see inside creatures just fine.”

  “That seems… incredibly powerful. I know some researchers who would chop their nuts off and eat them to get you as a lab assistant.”

  “Hell no. My brain is smooth as a cue ball and not built for lab work. No. Thank. You.”

  Genevieve shrugs.

  “Fine with me. Let me know if you change your mind though. I wouldn’t go around telling people about that particular ability, or you’ll start getting marriage proposals and recruitment offers through literally every waking moment. Trust me, I’d know, that’s pretty much the entire experience of Hell Mode graduates once they get out of the academy.”

  “Good to know. I will most certainly avoid talking about my spooky mana vision. By the way, how do you compare to other people who beat Hell Mode? Can I expect to get my ass handed to me if I fight someone else who beat Hell Mode and assume their are around your level of power?”

  “No, actually I’m on the stronger end. The last time the official IO rankings got updated, I was rank 28 in the world. For reference, there are a little under a thousand people who have beaten Hell Mode. Though, I didn’t really get to see how strong you were since your mana flame bullshit flattened me so quickly, so I couldn’t tell you how you’d match up against those stronger than me. If you are stronger than the badger though, you’d probably do pretty well.”

  I nod at that, picking up LS and walking back over to Lucy.

  “So, is there a place me and my badger can curl up for the night? I’m pretty beat and I want to wake up early tomorrow to find dad.”

  Lucy smiles and nods, leading me back to the elevator. As we walk, Genevieve and Lucy tell me more about the academy. Honestly, it sounds fun. I always did enjoy a good school arc. First though, I have a father to find, an ID to acquire, and a bed to put a Calvin shaped dent in.