Ardenidi stood still, bringing her hands to the holes in her abdomen.

  “What?”

  {Ardenidi : -2.6m Hp}

  She watched the ribbon of cherry red blood run down to her feet, staining ash and dry rubble.

  “How…”

  Her hands twitched.

  “How am I still alive?”

  My hands trembled, straining to keep their hold on the glassy red screen.

  Ardenidi poked her stomach.

  Normally, an attack like that would’ve broken all her bones, not to mention damaging her internal organs beyond any hope of recovery, probably flattening what was left of the library.

  Instead, there were just a few inch-deep cuts, as if the blade had been stopped short.

  The monster was equally confused, checking his blade, because he was quite certain that he’d stabbed her. After a moment of consideration, he discarded his blades in favor of a summoned axe larger than his entire body.

  C’mon.

  Think.

  What could I do? What did I have?

  I let out a sigh. “This is gonna hurt.”

  Crapshoveler appeared in my hand, breaking bones in a surge of extreme pain.

  Ardenidi was still looking at her stomach in shock.

  “Am I dead?”

  “Not yet you’re not!” I shouted. “Snap out of it!”

  Blue abnormalities detonated, cracking my shovel against the axe, deflecting the swing.

  Even so, the sheer force behind that attack blew down the roof and pillars, tossing me and Ardenidi into a wall, across the room. That wall then broke, in addition to the several remaining walls behind it.

  Massive plumes of dust rose up, pushed out by the continuous shockwave of his attack.

  In the end, a mile size field of rubble had been pushed out, forming a mountainous ring of scraps.

  Oh yeah.

  After fighting a billion health nightmare with multi-million damage blasts, I’d kinda forgotten that a million was still a lot.

  The monster slipped, impaling himself on Crapshoveler.

  Me and Ardenidi waited for a moment.

  I blinked. “Man.”

  {ArcScholar}

  [(-45k) 5k Hp]

  I staggered out, dragging Ardenidi along.

  The Arc scholar scrambled back to his feet, rearing up for another swing.

  By that point, we’d already hidden in the rubble.

  He scratched his head.

  After a moment of silence, I slowly peek out from behind the mangled remains of metal tubing.

  The ArcScholar was picking at the shovel lodged into his ribcage. He didn’t really seem to mind it.

  “I think we’re safe,” I whispered.

  Ardenidi grabbed me by the front of my shirt, gritting her teeth.

  “How am I still alive!?” She whisper-hissed.

  “Magic,” I shrugged.

  “That doesn't explain anything.”

  I handed her the frozen screen from my inventory. “I can stop a piece of code from executing. As long as this is frozen, the damage from that shouldn’t be processed.”

  I blinked. “Actually, since some part of an attack’s physical force is tied to the damage it actually deals, freezing a screen fast enough looks like it also stops the physical and environmental damage. I…don’t know if that’ll unfreeze too. I really hope not.”

  Ardenidi just blinked.

  “What’s the catch?”

  “I have to use mental energy to keep it frozen,” I stated. “And it only works on screens.”

  “And your limit?”

  “I can only freeze one screen permanently, but last time I checked, I’m able to keep as many as two hundred screens stalled. For a minute, anyway. Now that I have suppression bands on…”

  Blood trickled out of my nose.

  I sniffed.

  “I think I’m about three screens over my limit. Actually, when I start talking my face goes numb.”

  Ardenidi was taking deep breaths. “So when you stop holding that—”

  “Oh I can drop it fine,” I said, tossing it into the dirt, then picking it up again, before cramming it into my inventory. “See? It’s just a little easier when it’s closer.”

  She stared at me.

  “How have you never used this?”

  “It’s really hard. And fairly impractical.”

  “It’s the most potent, game breaking status ability I’ve ever seen.”

  I shrugged.

  The ArcScholar traced out a pattern in the ash, dabbing a portion of ardenidi’s blood.

  “Well that’s not good,” she grunted. “Hey, got any ideas how to stop that thing? Couldn’t you grab its screen?”

  “That doesn’t seem to do anything,” I stated. “Actually he might not be able to die.”

  “So now that you have my screen frozen, am I immortal or something?”

  “Not even a little. Only this damage notification is frozen. If you take more damage, you’ll get another notification, and your body will realize you’re actually supposed to be dead.”

  “Hang on, you have one notification, but I was stabbed a whole bunch.”

  “If they happen fast enough, sometimes the screens compress into a summary.”

  I scratched under my chin.

  “That doesn’t make much sense, does it? It’s too relative.” My eyes snapped open. “Hey, what if it’s related to my reaction speed? If the attacks happen so fast to appear as one, then they’ll be easier to stop! I just need less reaction speed, and I could stop all the attacks in an entire fight.”

  “Or you could just get stronger so you don’t have to take hits.”

  “I guess so.”

  There was a crackle of mana, extending in a beam from the monster’s spell, snapping along the ground as it wove in our direction.

  “Oh well,” She sighed. “I was getting sick of hiding anyway.”

  I dove down, pulling her behind me.

  Our cover separated from the ground, blown sky high in the shockwave. In the center of the bare ground, the Arcscholar stood, motioning us forward.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He twirled the axe in one hand.

  “Hey! Ardenidi,” I whispered. “How do you feel about flying?”

  She blinked. “Eh? Uh…sure.”

  Just because I couldn’t use Crapshoveler didn’t mean Ardenidi couldn’t. If she carried me then I wouldn’t have to touch the blade, but should still be able to use his abilities without issue. Besides, Ardenidi had far better reaction speed.

  I pulled Crapshoveler out from—

  The ArcScholar vanished.

  I jumped out of the way.

  There was a hiss of air pressure as the monster returned, blasting through where I’d been a moment before, moving in and out of my sight in an instant.

  Ardenidi glanced around. She hopped up and down a couple times. “Hey. Grind. I’m not flying.”

  “I’m working on it!” I snapped. “Give me a moment!”

  The ArcScholar flickered beside me, cleaving through a tangled streetlamp, his blade skimming over my hairline.

  The shockwave blew me no less than a hundred yards with my face ground against exposed dirt, dealing minor but distracting portions of damage.

  Another flicker, and the ArcScholar was ontop of me, cleaving downward.

  I gritted my teeth, ducking beneath his legs, using the force of his attack to launch myself in the air, crashing into one of the taller rubble heaps.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “He’s slowing down!”

  The ArcScholar basically teleported in front of me.

  I ducked down, sprinting and dodging from the absolutely stupid force behind each of his attacks, riding the shockwaves to move myself out of immediate danger.

  I fired another series of Abstract projectiles, hopelessly missing the monster. He was just too fast, flicking into the distance almost instantaneously.

  Though. Something felt obviously weird about that.

  If his strength had increased by a factor of ten, not to mention the change in his ratio of speed, he shouldn’t struggle to hit me. And why did he keep retreating after every attack?

  Fungus pushed me back. I landed inches beneath the howling metal axe that passed over my face.

  And there was his target. This monster just attacked me. He completely ignored Ardenidi. Was that an effect of the screen manipulation, or something to do with my power?

  I took a deep breath.

  There were a million questions in the back of my mind. That usually meant I was close to something important.

  But try as I might, nothing came to mind.

  This fight was perfectly normal.

  Well, normal in the relative sense.

  Metal pressed against my neck.

  I jolted, watching the ArcScholar. The monster had his teeth exploded and his jaw clenched. He was shaking with exertion.

  But he couldn’t finish the swing. Actually, he was getting pushed back, cracking the ground beneath his feet.

  The ArcScholar made a half-hearted swipe, blowing apart the ground beneath me, flinging me into the air.

  There was a flicker, and he was gone.

  If he could retreat that fast, why couldn’t he reach me?

  A spell?

  A limitation?

  Fear?

  It couldn’t seriously be fear, could it?

  No.

  What was different?

  But nothing was different!

  Nothing was different.

  I glanced at my clenched hand. Without even realizing it, I was still trying to summon Crapshoveler to myself. Every fight in the past month had made ample use of my shovel. It felt weird not to build up his acceleration.

  But Crapshoveler hadn’t returned to my hand.

  Why not?

  A howl shook the air, and the ArcScholar appeared as I fell, no weapon in hand, using raw mana to rocket himself forward.

  He was breathing hard.

  I pulled on Crapshoveler with a little more force, and he swayed.

  But he swayed backwards.

  The ArcScholar growled, disappearing again, and I hit the dirt with a dull thud.

  Ardenidi ran over to me, checking the skyline for any sign of the monster. “Hey. Where’s my flying?”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible right now.”

  I smiled like an idiot.

  “If you tried, you’d be flung into the earth.”

  {ERROR.{Grind} + {Crapshoveler} : Shovel Affinity.Error.SignType -5100%}

  All of my shovel’s movements, effects and abilities relating to shovel affinity will be reversed, and at fifty one times the power they ought to be.

  I patted the screen. “Now we’re talking.”

  Ardenidi stared at the effect’s display.

  “You have some of the downright stupidest abilities I’ve ever seen.” She adjusted her scarf. “Well, you’ve got a plan, don’t you?”

  “Yep,” I said. “When I give the signal, I need you to throw me into the sky”

  She grabbed me by the shoulder and chucked me several thousand feet into the air.

  “I WASN’T READY YET!” I screamed.

  The ground erupted beneath me as the ArcScholar jumped. Hundreds of summoned wands appeared, scratching out spells as we moved higher into the air. Whatever spell he was forming, it hadn’t been finished thanks to Ardenidi’s movement. It was clear both he and I knew what would happen if he didn’t kill me.

  The monster was getting closer.

  A rainbow of sparkling elemental beams tore through my skin, unable to deal damage.

  [You have been inflicted with [Burns V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00]

  [You have been inflicted with [Freezing V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  [You have been inflicted with [Induction V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  [You have been inflicted with [Poison V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  I held the affliction screens in my mouth. If it was just a few, and they were related to me, the screen would always appear in front of my face, easy to read.

  The ArcScholar flinched.

  After a moment of hesitation, he started casting again. Instead, his hands exploded, covered in purple mushrooms.

  {Ardenidi : Overtake I}

  [Creates blooms of mushroom spores which trigger on contact with [Dense] [Enemy-Type] mana.]

  The two of us slowed to a stop, floating in the air.

  I grabbed the monster by the shoulder, placing my fist inches from Crapshoveler.

  Under normal circumstances, when Crapshoveler was being summoned, he would drastically decrease his speed as he drew extremely close to my hand, preventing the impact from destroying all my bones.

  But if this was reversed.

  The monster flailed.

  Crapshoveler roared with light and heat, nailing the ArcScholar into the ground far below, pinned by the tremendous force on his chest.

  I spun in the air, holding a yellow orb bigger than my head.

  “Dodge this.”

  The sky ignited with transcendent energy.

  Once the dust settled, scrap metal melted into a sludge, pooling over the impact crater, enveloping the monster’s decaying ashes.

  {ArcScholar}

  [(-500k) -445k Hp]

  It was about then I realized two things.

  A: I was falling.

  B: I was falling into a vat of molten steel.

  I started screaming.

  “Calm down,” Ardenidi hissed, growing an impact absorbing mushroom in the dirt, knocking me into a comfortable piece of broken concrete blocks.

  She wiped the soot from her face.

  “Good work.”

  “Thanks…” I groaned. “Nothing to it.”

  Ardenidi flushed, looking away to the whirling clouds. It was foggy, dirty, and dusty. Even the block over was shrouded in mystery.

  “The city sure didn’t last long,” she whispered. Ardenidi She looked up and screamed, “MOTHER OF—”

  An arm larger than most industrial complexes came crashing down, so dense as to push solid rock and packed dirt out in a shockwave, as if it were liquid metal, splashing out over the region. The whole desert shuddered as the arm continued sinking, crushing layer after layer of progressively denser rock until it finally stopped

  I smacked flying chunks of rock from hitting me in the face. Our portion of the city had been swallowed up in loose earth and rubble, like several feet of gray snow.

  Ardenidi lay next to me, breathing hard and shaking.

  “What. Was. That?”

  I glanced up at the now one-armed Nightmare and Sharon, who was glowing red and on fire.

  “Do you mean Sharon or the Nightmare?” I blinked. “Cause you don’t have to worry about Sharon. He’s one of the good guys.”

  Ardenidi passed out.

  I took a deep breath, letting go of the affliction screens.

  [You have been inflicted with [Burns V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00]

  [You have been inflicted with [Freezing V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  [You have been inflicted with [Induction V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  [You have been inflicted with [Poison V] from {ArcScholar} for : 5:00 ]

  My muscles immediately froze up, blackening at the tips of my fingers while my whole body burned with shocking pain.

  The adrenaline was wearing off and I was still holding onto too many screens.

  My stomach churned. I felt weak. Weary. Tired.

  But I was strong.

  I could do this.

  I could do anything—

  I clutched my chest and heaved, puking over the street.

  // {Notice} //

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