"READY, SET!" Cruige's voice echoed through the room. "GO!"
His arm swung down instantly.
Stephen dashed forward, a wooden sword in his hand. On the opposite side, Silas. Cruige's apprentice mirrored his movements, and just as their blades clashed.
Stephen twisted, keeping his hand on the sword as he spun around, his elbow whipping out and smacking Silas across the face.
But Silas wasn't a pushover. He ducked back, blocking Stephen's arm with the hilt of his blade.
Stephen dropped his sword in an instant, lunging in for another strike. Silas caught it again, rerouting the blow with his hilt, but just as it stopped Stephen's arm a second time, Stephen's leg came up.
He hooked his sword against his foot, spiking it upward into Silas's chin. The impact snapped his head back, and Silas collapsed, unconscious.
Stephen didn't hesitate. He dashed forward, catching Silas before he hit the ground, and raised him up high to really play to the audience.
Cruige strode forward, gripping Stephen's wrist and holding it aloft.
Around the edges of the training room, nobles clapped, his parents among them, along with faces Stephen couldn't have cared less for. The applause rolled over him as his victory was declared.
Stephen bowed and returned to his room, this was around the time he'd realized he wouldn't get stronger by training repeatedly, so instead, he turned to honing his actual technique to the best he could.
And he did just that, he'd won twenty seven bouts, against foes of his same age and apprentices of any royal guards eager to test his might, his only two defeats came by the hands of two royal guards he'd fought.
But not due to technique or skill, but strength. His attacks dealt no damage regardless of how much he struck them.
That was no longer the case.
Now, his strength was enough to shatter stone with a single blow.
And with technique as sharp as his, there was likely no one in the kingdom who could best him in a sword fight, but only in a sword fight.
What Vivi had in her hands was the furthest thing from a sword.
Stephen burst through the hallway with his shoulder, landing on the floor with a thud as shotgun shots wheezed past his ears. His eardrums ringing like he'd heard the gates of hell open.
"Why are you running, father!" Vivi's voice came from the hallway, coming closer and closer. "I thought you liked hitting me!"
"I'm pretty sure you have me mistaken for someone else—"
Another shot rang out, a shell slamming against the concrete right next to his head. Quickly he rolled to his side and another shot hit that spot he'd just left.
"I don't think she's trying to restrain you anymore." The system said.
"You think?" Stephen snapped, bursting up from the rubble, hands raised in a boxer's stance as he scanned for her.
"And what's with this garble about you being her father? What happened while I was gone?"
"Not enough for me to have had a kid, I'd tell you that much." Stephen muttered. "I think hitting her might've triggered some kind of traumatic experience... but in any ways."
Vivi walked through the hole in the wall.
"Its not good."
She dashed forward, and just as she got close enough. Her shotgun whipped through the air, but Stephen reeled his head back, the tip almost skimming his face, however instead of letting the gun swing completely past, she stopped the barrel right in front of him.
Another trigger squeeze.
Another dodge.
"Don't you freaking reload?"
Stephen ducked under the spray of buckshot and charged, slamming into her and dragging her to the ground. He clawed at her hand, trying to wrench the shotgun away.
But even though she was smaller, she was far stronger and quickly enough, she tore free, swung once, and her fist sent Stephen flying.
Stephen rolled across the floor, but Vivi was already standing, her hand smoothly rolling the shotgun up and squeezing the trigger.
He couldn't dodge, not from this angle and as the blast rang out, all he could do was close his eyes and brace for impact.
[LUCKED OUT]
But impact never came. Instead, when Stephen opened his eyes, Vivi wasn't standing. She was buried under a pile of rubble from the ceiling. Beside his head, the wall was pocked with fresh bullet holes.
"Twice in a row now..." Stephen muttered, struggling to rise. "This might just work."
"Wait... the five percent you're relying on is this skill? You're hoping it keeps saving you from instant death?"
"It's beneficial to me, no?" Stephen grinned, forcing himself upright, his left arm hanging limp at his side.
"This is insane," the system snapped. "LEAVE NOW!"
"Gila should be around here somewhere." Stephen squinted into the dark. Even with moonlight bleeding through the cracks in the walls, he couldn't see her. "System, can you find her?"
The system hesitated, like it wanted to lie, so Stephen would be forced to run. But then it sighed, eyes sweeping the room, landing on a bloodied white dress clung to the floor, barely covering a broken, gasping Gila.
"I see her," the system whispered. "She's by the rubble in front of you."
"Alright." Stephen trudged forward, careful not to trip into a crater as he crossed the ruined room.
"Where did you go!?" Vivi's voice rang from the hallway behind him.
"I really wish that bump had reset her, honestly," Stephen muttered.
Vivi stepped closer, smoke still hissing from the barrel of her gun.
"What now?" The system asked.
"I'll need to make a break for it. Get to Darla," Stephen said, trying to steady his breath. "That's my only option."
"And how many more times do you plan to rely on that five percent chance?"
"Six more times, give or take."
"Are you serious!?"
"I've dodged death twice already, what's a couple more times." Stephen said, a nervous smile on his face. "It'll work... hopefully."
"Not it won't... well, I guess we had a nice run, Stephen." The system began. "I'll be sure to remember you even after going to another host."
"You think I don't remember don't you." Came Vivi's voice, piercing through the darkness. "You hit Vivi just as much as you did me, you're the reason her eye got damaged."
Then with more rage, "you're the reason I died that day!"
She dashed forward again, mana swirling and collapsing inward, sucked into the shotgun like a vacuum.
[Flightless Osprey, Type II: Precision]
[Expand?]
Stephen paused for a second, words flashing across his vision. Then he snapped out of it, leaping aside as a barrage of shells tore through the air. But even after he'd dodged, the shots bent unnaturally... tracking him.
"What the—?"
Stephen rolled frantically across the floor, each blast slamming into the ground a heartbeat after he'd left it.
"Where the hell did that come from?" he wheezed, coughing up dust as his eyes darted back to her.
"Her shotgun's enchanted," the system muttered. "Check for the specifics."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Stephen rasped, jamming his one good arm against the ground for balance.
"Look at her weapon! Your new passive will activate!"
Stephen forced his head up, his eyes barely prying open. He fixed his gaze on the shotgun. And there, swimming across his vision like ink spilling into water, letters began to form.
[Expand?]
Stephen barely nodded at the prompt.
[Information Analysis Complete]
[Weapon name: Flightless Osprey]
[Weapon type: Shotgun]
[Enchantment type: Armament]
[Special Abilities/Deviations]
– Uses mana instead of standard ammunition, converting it into earth-forged buckshot directly within the chamber. Meaning its ammunition scales with the wielder's mana, allowing effectively infinite shots limited only by their reserves.
[Special Forms: Six assumed, one known]
[Type I: ?????]
[Type II: Precision, bullets track a designated target until impact, unless acted upon by an external force.]
[Type III: ?????]
[Type IV: ?????]
[Type V: ?????]
[Type VI: ?????]
[Weakness: Not yet discovered]
"That explains why she wasn't reloading at least..." Stephen muttered.
"Since it's an Armament type, taking the gun away from her would strip her of using its special abilities," the system explained.
"You don't say." Stephen finally forced himself upright. "What's next, you gonna tell me she takes damage when I hit her? Or maybe that the sky's blue?"
"I didn't see anything else that stood out as a weakness, okay!" The system replied.
Vivi walked even closer, her mana retracting just as it had a moment ago. Her gun pulled up to his forehead.
"You remember that day don't you." Vivi said to him, "you hit me over and over again until I couldn't breathe... until I choked on my own blood."
Stephen didn't say anything, her mana pushed him down and he had to use his all just to keep his barrier up.
"I'll see you in hell, bastard!"
Another shot.
[LUCKED OUT]
Another activation.
Lyna dropped down in front of Stephen, blade in hand, cutting through the shells mid-air and letting them crumble to the floor.
"Wasn't your goal to bring him in?" she asked.
"Get out of the way," Vivi said, raising her shotgun, only for Lyna to extend her arms to cover him.
"Your services are no longer required," she said coolly. "I and my mistress will take it from here, if you need help explaining that the prince died in an accident, we would be happy to do so."
"So you're siding with my father too?" Vivi laughed bitterly.
"What?"
"You can rot in hell with him then!" Vivi snarled, dashing forward, shotgun aimed. Lyna darted aside, both of them slamming into the Infinity rooms.
[MP: 0/99999]
Stephen let out a heavy breath, chest pounding like he'd just carried the Titanic over the iceberg. He glanced around, Vivi's mana was still present, but far enough not to bother him.
"They left?" he muttered, just as Lyna was hurled through one of the doors. "...Even better. I managed to turn their aggro against each other."
"This is our chance, let's get out of here!" the system urged.
Stephen limped forward, dragging himself to Gila's side. He hooked her arm over his shoulder, and while body was cold, her pulse was still there. If he could get her to a doctor quick enough, she would survive.
But before he could take a step, mana burst through the room. Not Vivi's, but equally as annoying.
Verre.
Standing upright beside him, a wide smile spread across her thin lips.
"Going somewhere?"