Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 505: Three ways to clear this floor

We stop for a short break after a few more clashes. At this point, we’ve all killed plenty of lurkers, so we’re attracting a lot of attention. As always, the lurkers are going to be the most attracted to the people who’ve killed the most of them. Even so, the floor itself is huge, so we always have a few minutes before we make contact with another group.

Could we move without killing so many? Quite possibly, but even if we were to run into another lurker like Whitey, I don't think it would cause us much trouble.

Surrounded by a circle of trees, we stand there, taking a moment to eat and drink under the cover of multiple defensive arrays and sensory webs. That's when Luna decides to move in closer and take a sniff of my hand, her nose lightly brushing its back.

She opens her mouth, and the sound comes from it. "That mark, that scent has grown stronger, human."

"It's possible."

"Why didn't you bring the one who marked you as well?"

"He’s currently pretending to be asleep. And I'm not sure if he could come to the Beyond."

"Why would he..." Luna shakes her head and growls as Leticia pulls her tail and joins us.

"Don't be rude, Luna."

Luna, apparently deciding it's not worth the argument, simply closes her mouth and sits down.

"Why doesn't Biscuit talk?" Lily asks curiously. "I mean, he does, but not as much as Luna."

I shrug. "You can ask him if you want. I won't be telling it without him agreeing."

"So you know?!"

"Obviously."

It's fun to see Lily's expression. I wonder what she could be thinking.

"If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a conversation with Soph. She made some really fancy modifications to her web, and it made me curious!" Leticia says, excusing herself, and Luna follows, her movements taking on a very protective manner—something she does every time Leticia decides to approach Sophie.

Taking her place, Tess comes closer after a quick conversation with Jean. "Half a day at this pace and we should reach the safe zone."

"Did you learn anything else in the meantime?" I ask her.

"A little. The first floor is shaped like a massive circle—emphasis on ‘massive’. Thousands of tutorials, if not more, run simultaneously, and it's believed that there are tens of thousands of Beyond attendees at any given time—maybe even hundreds of thousands. If anyone knows the exact numbers, they’re not sharing."

"Isn't that... too much?" Lily asks, glancing between Tess and me in surprise.

"Well, if we consider that every tutorial is connected to this single instance of Beyond, I wouldn't say so. Isn't that amazing?" Tess smiles. "Thousands and thousands of beyonders. You get 100 people at most from each world’s tutorial, and that means thousands of tutorials running all at once. Each tutorial only takes 5 years and then there is many more included that already ended."

"That probably means... there are a lot of planets already in the system," I reply.

Tess nods and asks with a smile, "The system is enormous and very old. Doesn't that humble you, Nat?"

"Why would it?"

"The fact that there are so many people so much stronger than you."

"Why would I care about that? Just give it some time."

"Boring," Tess complains and turns to Lily. "And what do you think?"

Lily glances at me and then back to Tess. "With my skills, I will probably outlive most of them, so I just need to learn how to help others to do the same." ŔaNőʙĚʂ

"You can be so cute sometimes, Lily." Tess swoons, pulling her into a hug before asking quietly, "Remind me, how old are you?"

Lily once again glances at me and then back to Tess. "Eighteen, almost nineteen!"

That almost makes me roll my eyes and Tess notices, I'm sure.

"And I'm just a bit over twenty," she notes.

"It's still hard to believe that Sophie is older than you by two years no matter how often I hear it."

"That's rude, Lily. Look at Nat, for example. He’s older than me too, but going by our behavior, who would you say is older?"

And at that, our healer, rightly, decides to stay quiet, much to Tess's amusement.

Mana and kinetic energy do the same inside my body, my eyes activating, in a clear challenge to her.

A challenge I hope she will accept.

(╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻

Tacita disappears.

My body moves, and the Resonance Flow field surrounds me, slowing anything that moves within it by absorbing its kinetic energy.

Within it, Tacita's movements slow down, but with wild animal instinct rather than skill or knowledge, her field adapts and her movement returns to that same incredible speed.

I boost my movement more, and rather than relying on my eyes, I focus on tracking the disturbances in the air around me.

The dagger playfully moves toward my neck as I absorb my inertia, shifting in place, absorbing it again, and moving once more. I repeat this multiple times in half a second—something that would tear a normal body apart. After all, humans aren't meant to move like this.

As the dagger passes by me, my hand shoots toward her, kinetic energy flowing through my body and my feet sending a burst into the ground to move me to the side.

I miss, and so does her strike at my neck.

She pulls back, and I boost myself ahead in a surge of quick movement to follow her.

I duck under the swing and then use Wraith Dance to bring me back as the dagger passes through the space I once occupied three times in succession.

Tacita appears in front of me in a movement reminiscent of Wraith Dance. Her eyes shine under her messy brown hair, and her mouth curls into a smile. Her dagger crashes against one of my own woven out of mana, and I change its shape, causing it to coil around and grab her dagger. I boost my body back, and I drag her with me, trying to pull her off balance.

But she lets go of her dagger before I can do so. Her figure blurs and disappears, but I follow her movement and...

I release a burst of kinetic energy pushing myself back, then again to the side, and then Wraith Step to move even further away.

Another spike of danger raises the hair on the back of my neck, I duck and kick behind myself, weaving mana around my forearm in an attempt to deflect a dagger that seemingly comes from nowhere, managing to slice through my protections, drawing blood and poisoning me.

Thermal energy concentrates around the wound, and I let it burn the flesh, the golden flames surrounding my forearm and scorching away the poison in the process.

Tacita appears again, the way she was confusing my kinetic movement senses dropping as well. She smiles even more and happily waves the dagger with my blood on the blade.

Wow.

So that's how it is?

I let my heart beat without trying to calm it down. Armor covers my left forearm once more, and a dagger forms in my right hand again.

Part of my Burden Enhancement Inscriptions dissolves, and the kinetic energy immediately starts moving so much easier through my body.

This time I allow much more of it to flood me, nearly emptying my Vortex Core, and I take a stance, deactivating my Mana Wavelength Iris and solely relying on my kinetic and thermal senses —not to track her, but to watch for the slightest change in the air around us.

ʕ •̀ o •́ ʔ

Tacita pulls daggers into each of her hands. One of them has a transparent blade made of crystal and the other one is made from a black metal with blue veins running through it. She lowers her body, taking on a stance more reminiscent of a wild beast than anything a human would take.

I know she's getting more serious too.

Before either of us can attack though, a powerful shockwave washes through the area, followed by three more in quick succession.

Then I get a hurried message from Sophie. (Nat, we might need help here.)

(Oh, come on.)

Tacita notices my hesitation, and her daggers disappear back into her clothes.

She rolls up her sleeve and flexes her biceps, showing off the small peak of muscle victoriously.

"That's not it," I correct, trying to defend myself, but she’s already gone.

For a few seconds, I stand there, motionless.

With no other options, I move toward the source of the explosions.