“Take this! Martial Arts – Air Strike!”

  Woosh!

  This one is easier to describe as I simply punch the air and with it, a shock wave follows, one that has as much strength as the punch itself but it’s much, much bigger than said punch. I aimed at the Shadow to my right, as it was the one the closest to me. As anyone can expect, I blasted a hole in his body, destroying the core with it but thanks to the dust cloud, he was not able to see it coming. Although, I doubt that even if he saw me do it, he wouldn’t still be able to dodge it or even block it to be honest as it would be far too fast for him and strong.

  “I’m not done yet! Martial Arts Combo! Air Strike!”

  Fwoosh!

  There is no need for me to shout the word “combo” but oh well, I’m getting a little too excited it seems. Exactly as the word means, what I will be doing is a combo, a two-hit combo to be extremely precise. The first Air Strike was by my right hand however thanks to that movement, I’ve positioned myself in a way that I can easily and comfortably follow it up with my left hand and that’s exactly what I did, sending towards an unfortunate Shadow another Air Strike. Of course, the same results happen, another one that got a hole blasted on his upper body and with it, a core pulverized into dust and just like the previous one, he had no clue what hit him let alone he seeing it coming. Though, a few moments ago I did say that the goddess of luck is on my side and it seems she decided to sparkle my Air Strike with some luck as another Shadow was hit by it as he happens to get behind the Shadow that I was aiming just as I unleashed the martial arts skill. While the skill did lose most of its strength after the first impact, it still holds enough force behind it to defeat the other Shadow, making another hole with it but of course, much smaller than the previous one but still enough to shatter the core. Huh, I’m not going to complain at all in fact, once this is over, I will give my thanks to her. Well, three are down and “only” four are still alive and ready to commit some sort of atrocity towards yours truly and it seems the one that used the previous Shadow Ball is mere moments from doing it again… If the first time didn’t work, try it again, I guess.

  Dark Magic noises!

  As expected, less than a few seconds later the Shadow shoots the Shadow Ball towards me and while the power of it is much less than previously, it still ranks at very low realm of B-, more than enough to do decent amount of damage in fact, only those whose strength is above average would be able to protect against it making it a deadly spell for well above 50% of the population. But that’s not the case for me of course as I am mere moments from kicking it back to him, something that your average adventurer wouldn’t be able to do as the Shadow Ball would tear through his leg with ease. For example, if Alice would try to do this, she would suffer that fate but, getting hit dead on would only lead to a gruesome scene as her upper body would be blown to bits. Ah man, moving on from this, why am I even imagining such horrifying scenarios?

  “Hey, I don’t want this! Here, have it back!”

  Bam!

  I didn’t shout or say the name of the skill that I have just used but, it’s nothing more than the Martial Arts skill, Iron Kick. Another skill that uses the same principle as the skill Iron Tail, the skill that the Elder Black Wolf used when fighting Alice. Basically, my foot, the right one in this case, gains a bright white colour to it and with it, the weight of my foot is drastically increased by several times, making it quite heavy if I do say so myself but, I don’t feel a single difference. Quite neat, no? Right after that, I spin around as I wait for the Shadow Ball to cover the distance between us, as the Shadow is roughly close to 20 meters away from me. Once my spin was done the Shadow Ball was right in the same direction as the heel of my boot and because of it, I hit it with quite the force behind it, not only because of the skill but also thanks to the added momentum from my spin, increasing the force by several times easily. It would be correct and accurate to think that, once the heel of my foot hit the Shadow Ball dead on, an explosion would follow. In a sense, that’s exactly what would happen 99% of the time; however, with enough control of your strength, you can go a little bit below the “breaking point” of a magical spell and hit it without it exploding, allowing you to change directions for example. You just need to have enough strength to overcome the force at which said spell is coming at you as other wise, while it won’t explode, you won’t be able to send it off towards another direction and let me tell you, if you are unable to do that the spell will destabilize after a few short moments, exploding afterwards. So, if you want to do this you need to make sure you can do it as otherwise, just dodge it as it’s not worth it. The stronger the spells are, the sturdier they have to be as otherwise they won’t withstand the added pressure from the sheer quantity of magic they have but also the tremendous density they gain with the added power. Normally this sturdiness is higher than the force behind the speed at which they travel, allowing for such phenomenon to happen. And that is exactly what I did, even though I have more than enough strength to do it without a skill…

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  And now that I’m thinking about it, why the hell did I used a skill for this?

  Blast!

  Argh, whatever. The Shadow Ball travels with immense speed, easily double the speed from before, covering the distance between us in half the time, preventing the Shadow from reacting to it. Hell, he couldn’t even see it coming let alone do anything about it and consequently, he got hit right on his face but, thanks to the added speed and force behind it, the initial impact is enough to destroy his head by whole while simultaneously trigger the explosion, blowing the rest of his body into nothing. Another down and only three are now missing although, the gorilla like Shadow sure is eager to have a boxing fight with me as it seems he’s more than ready to throw hands at me.

  Woosh! Foosh! Swoosh!

  Swing after swing, he tries to smash me into jelly; however, I easily dodge every single one of his attempts at such awful action. After all, I don’t want to be jelly. Ah, who am I kidding? I’m playing around as I wait for the other two to get near us, even if he hits me directly, I would literally feel nothing as he does not have enough power to damage me. I’m actually thinking about ending this with a single spell so that I can end this show. I’m getting rather bored but, once again, the goddess of luck sure is favouring me as in less than 5 seconds the other two join us in our boxing match, quickly throwing “hands” at me once they got close enough.

  It should be illegal. Maybe. I don’t know the rules of boxing.

  Groar! Ground noises!

  With a final and frustrated attempt, with every ounce of strength he has on his Shadow like body, the gorilla with both of his hands embracing each other, he takes a swing to where I’m supposed to be, hoping to slam be with it but since he focused more on strength than speed, it made his attempt easy to follow. I was more than able to see it coming, easily dodging it by jumping backwards, something that I did rather exaggeratedly, gaining just a tiny itty bit of altitude because of it. Not much though but enough to give a good opportunity to end things once and for all, stopping this charade with it. I’ve grown tired of this, it’s what I’m saying. I want to talk to Miranda and get my questions out of my head. Exactly, it’s not that I just want to talk to her or anything like that. Nope! How these Shadows are behaving is bothering me quite a bit but from this battle, I’ve only gained more questions therefore the need to talk to her. Indeed although, I hope that she will answer me properly, as you know, she kind of likes to give random answers to me… Sigh, what am I supposed to do with her? I mean, mere moments ago she seemed mad for some reason, one that I have no clue-Wait a second!

  Is my lack of understanding of why she’s mad that has made me this annoyed? Wha-No, that’s impossible! It’s because the Shadows are behaving differently!

  “Why am I even thinking about this!? Take this! Multiple – Fireball!”

  Fire noises!

  While still mid-air I quickly prepare three magic circles, one on each of my sides and one right above me. All of them have the same characteristics as I will be using the same Pyro spell multiple times in a row. A second or so later, said Fireballs are formed on each magic circle, Fireballs that have a meter of diameter or in other words, far too powerful for me to use in this case. Yep, it’s a B+ rank spell, multiple of them in fact. Hum, it seems my emotions are a little for the “hot” side. Not only that, I might also be a little frustrated. I mean, why am I still thinking about her? She acts in that manner, one that has no logic behind whatsoever as I did nothing wrong and yet, somehow, I’m the one that is now getting annoyed at such. I’ve dealt with tens of hundreds and even thousands of all kinds of humans and yet, only one of them was able to get the same reaction from me that I’m having now… Although that one is more than an exception to the rule, even compared to Miranda and her shenanigans.

  That person simply is in a place that none can replace. But unfortunately, the world and its cruelty took her away from me in such an unfair way that... Huh, now that I’m saying this, I’ve noticed that I’m this close to trauma dump into whoever might be listening to me (I hope it’s no one), all while I’m right in the middle of a fight.

  Why in tarnation do I yap so much!? What’s wrong with me?