"... I really can"t help you, sorry," said Kasumi."Wait! Can"t you at least cast a [Bubble s.h.i.+eld] on me?" Jaime asked as she grabbed Kasumi"s wrist.
Kasumi freed her hand and cast [Bubble s.h.i.+eld] on Jaime. A thin layer of blue prana surrounded Jaime. Actually, now that she took a closer look, it was actually water.
"How strong is this?" Jaime asked.
"Pretty weak, but it should at least protect you from the fire around him. Still, try not to get hit," said Kasumi as she ran to the shelter.
Jaime clenched her fist: now she could get close to Leon. She finally had a chance to fight him. Granted, she had to make sure she didn"t get hit, but it was better than nothing.
She looked towards the ceiling as she could hear Mr. Keiji and Leon clas.h.i.+ng. She was sure that he would not be able to defeat him on his own. Sigh, why did the students attending this school had to be such cowards? Maybe it had something to do with this being real life and not some game!
*Crash*
Judging by the sounds, the fight was getting intense and she needed to hurry. Jaime dashed up the stairs and arrived on the second floor. She quickly found her cla.s.sroom and was about to open the door when she stopped. The doork.n.o.b was hot.
She knew that was not a good sign. The problem was she could not remember why that was a bad thing. Think, Jaime, think! The doork.n.o.b being hot meant something... Yes!
It was something she had learnt in middle school! She was not sure if it was referring to this, but she remembered her teacher saying something about this. In the case of fire, check the temperature of the doork.n.o.bs. If they are hot, it meant the room you are about to enter is already burning. And if you carelessly open the door it might result in an explosion!
Still, didn"t that sound farfetched? Why would there be an explosion if you opened the door? Oh, right! The fire needs oxygen to burn and, if the room you are about to enter is already on fire and there isn"t any oxygen left inside, the fresh oxygen that goes into to the room when you are about to enter causes an explosion.
So... should she not open this door, then? Of course she should! When Leon entered he came through the window, so there shouldn"t be any oxygen deprivation inside the room. Jaime took a deep breath and opened the door. There was no explosion, so far so good.
When she looked inside she was greeted by the sight of flames. Everything inside the cla.s.s was burning. It was almost like she just walked into a sea of fire... where is Leon?
There was no sign of either him or Mr. Keiji inside the cla.s.s. She could see the signs of fighting, but that was it. They must have gone outside! Leon"s power was more effective the more open s.p.a.ce there was!
Jaime dashed down the stairs and got outside. She could see other students evacuating, but there was also a little portion of them going towards the schoolyard. She was right! They had really carried the fight outside!
"Woah there!" Jaime was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. When she turned around, she saw that it was Kris.
"What?" Jaime asked with an irritated expression.
"Why are you going there? Didn"t we make a deal? You were responsible for the [Water Lord] form. This one is disadvantageous for you, so why don"t you leave this to me?" Kris said with a bright expression. He couldn"t stop himself from getting excited. It seemed like he was born to do something like this.
"I want to fight, what are you going to do about it?" Jaime said with a cold voice.
"Stop you, of course. We don"t want you to get yourself hurt, right?" said Kris as he frowned.
"If you stand in my way, I will cut you," Jaime said in a threatening voice. She wasn"t interested in dealing with him, so this was the quickest way to make her intentions clear. However, she could not help but notice one thing: for some reason, Kris looked overly confident.
"Not gonna happen. Before you do anything stupid, take a look at my stats" said Kris with a smile on his face.
Stats!
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Name: [Kris McKinnon]
Health: 200 / 200
Prana: 200 / 200
Stamina: 400 / 400
Age: [15]
Race: [Artificial Human]
Attributes: [1.5 x Above-average Strength]
[1.5 x Above-average Speed]
[1.5 x Above-average Agility]
[2 x Exceptional Spirit]
[2 x Exceptional Endurance]
[2 x Exceptional Physical Recovery]
[1.5 x Above-average Spirit Recovery]
Primary Ability: [Ava"s Last Son]
Skills:
Ethereal s.h.i.+eld:
Pa.s.sive Mode: a thin barrier of prana protects Kris from external harm from any foreign objects. The pa.s.sive mode doesn"t cost him any prana and only provides him with a defence of [1x Average Endurance], so, unless the object possesses higher Strength than his defence, it"s impossible to penetrate it. The external objects include dust, rain, wind, cold air etc. Kris can change his s.h.i.+eld to the active mode to gain an even stronger defence.
Active mode: a purple transparent energy s.h.i.+eld manifest in a place of Kris" choosing. The moment he activates it, he loses the benefits of Pa.s.sive Mode. It possesses [3x Superior Endurance] and costs Kris 10 prana each time he casts it. The s.h.i.+eld doesn"t have a time limit and doesn"t disappear until it"s broken or Kris deactivates it. He doesn"t have a limit on how many s.h.i.+elds he can create at once.
Ethereal Soul: Kris is immune to illusions and curses that targets his mind or soul. His soul is invisible to people who can see souls.
Ethereal Husk: Kris creates a layer of purple prana protecting his body. When he activates it, he becomes invincible for 5 seconds. He can only use it once every 24 hours. This doesn"t cost him any prana.
Ethereal Scream: A wave of purple prana spreads around Kris in a range of 5 meters. It only attacks the soul and disorients the ones. .h.i.t by it. If the person hit by the Ethereal Scream has [4x Extreme Spirit] or above, they are not disoriented. This move doesn"t differentiate between ally or enemy. It costs 15 prana to cast.
Ethereal Beam: Kris shoots beams from his fingers. The beams travel at [3x Superior Speed] and they deal [2x Exceptional Strength] of damage. This move only targets soul and it phases through material things. It costs 5 prana to cast. He can only cast 10 at once.
Ethereal Lazer: Kris shoots beams from his fingers. The beams travel at [2x Exceptional Speed] and they deal [3x Superior Strength] of damage. It costs 10 prana to cast. He can only cast 10 at once.
Secondary Ability: [Quantum Brain]
Kris" brain is as fast as that of a quantum computer. He is always aware of everything around him thanks to the changes in the air. He can perfectly calculate the moves of his enemies and he has a perfect memory.
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"You evolved?" Jaime asked doubtfully. She could not believe what she was seeing. How did this happen? When did this happen?
"Obviously. I am not the only one either" said Kris meaningfully, but he didn"t delve deeper into it.
Jaime clenched the hilt of her sword. She had a bad taste in her mouth. She didn"t like this feeling. They were all leaving her behind. What did she have to do to get stronger? Make a deal with the devil?
"How?" she asked with a cold voice. Even if she was bitter about it, she could not let Kris know about it.
"Training," said Kris as he shrugged. It would have been better if he did not say anything at all!
With the way he said it, she felt like he was mocking her. She was training harder than anyone else. She was fighting harder than anyone else! But they still left her behind! This was not fair!
"So are you going to stop now?" Kris asked Jaime.
"Yes, I will just watch from behind," said Jaime as she slowly let go of the hilt of her sword.
"Good girl! Now watch this uncle as he pummels the s.h.i.+t out of Leon," said Kris as he ruffled Jaime"s hair. Then he made his way to the schoolyard.
Jaime watched his receding back and she slowly made her way to the schoolyard too. As she was walking, she was having unpleasant thoughts. She hated being weak. She hated not knowing how to get stronger. She hated watching from the sidelines.
*Boom*
As Jaime got closer to the schoolyard, the sounds of the fight got more and more audible as she could see a myriad of colours shooting in the air. All the brave students were fighting against [Fire Lord] Leon with everything they had.
*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*
The rain started to fall from the sky, perfectly representing how Jaime was feeling right now. As she arrived at the schoolyard, she saw a certain someone among the students: it was Kasumi. The rain was her [Ex-Burst] and it was healing everyone on the battlefield, including her.
So even she had decided to fight, but just not together with her. Of course, who would want to team up with someone useless like her? She didn"t have an ability. She only had her sword. In the past, she could boast that her attributes were enough to destroy most people in the school, but now? Even Kris had similar attributes to her now.
She looked towards Leon as he was punched in the face by Ms. Snow. There was an energy barrier around her and she was wearing mechanical gloves. Leon spat blood to the ground. He was getting pushed back, but he still had that smug look on his face.
Jaime leaned on the wall with her sword in her embrace. She was biting her lip so hard that blood started to drip from the corner of her mouth before she put on her headphones to distract herself from her own thoughts. Cla.s.sic music always helped her to calm down.
She pressed on the play b.u.t.ton on her music player. It started to play "Cold - Jorge Mendez".