Stalemate

Using every last bit of strength he had, he lifted his sword and had it charging down on Dan while trying to move backwards. The two objects rushed at each other so fast, using the help of mana, that the winds they created clashed and created waves of pulsating wind all around them. But they could both see that Dan's hand was going to reach Zeeth first. If the trajectory followed through, the his would tear away his neck and their vital veins before the sword could cut off his arm and even turning his body to water wouldn't work, the water would still be torn away and only that water could replace his lost parts. Once his concentration ran out, which was usually in seconds, he would die.

Time slowed down. He wasn't able to move any faster or change much, everything was already in motion and inertia was carrying him now. But he was able to think as he watched his death come for him, thinking, 'why are you showing me all this? I'm going to be in so much pain.'

The two teachers were rushing at them, worried and yelling, but they were the only non-attack mages the school had. They were the only two to notice because they were the only two to also sleep on his side of the school.

'The only way I could possibly imagine winning now is if I turn his fist into water.'

But such an act was impossible. Never had he ever even heard of it, not even from Pishku.

Far away, Pishku crouched cautiously around Heavy, waiting for him to attack. Dozens of broken sticks and rocks scattered around them, flames raging everywhere. Everyone else in the room ran off to break the energy source while Heavy kept him occupied.

"Don't run," Heavy grunted.

"I don't need to. Oaf."

The comment triggered Heavy, angrily charging at Pish with his red hot fists. Pish hopped up, avoiding two fists only for two more to chase him. But it was exactly as he predicted, Heavy was a simple fighter. He snapped a staff in half, planted the broken ends onto the fists and pushed him further against the wall, forcing all four fists to sink into the wall, melting it like butter. Pish then sent torrents of icy water at the melted walls, trapping Heavy's fists inside while he kept trying to melt it off, stuck in a stalemate.

Pishku's clothes were singed and Heavy was sweating profusely but both of them relaxed now.

Zeeth tried to create a ball of water to freeze around his hand but it was still too slow. Instead, the water simply surrounded their feet and forced him to slip. He shut his eyes and bracing for impact, imagining his hand was going to miss.

He thought about God's Number but he knew once he came back, nothing would change. Everything was already in motion, nothing he thought of could help. The only things he had left were the only things he couldn't really control. His luck and his shoulder angel and demon. At the same moment before he fell, both of them appeared, and without any arguing, emotions or communication, the angel whispered "Survive." and the demon whispered, "Kill."

They said different words, but they meant the same thing. They held hands and swirled together, creating a blazing, orange ball like embers from a hot flame. The ball swirled around his hand and the text said, [The combined powers of Holy and Demonic powers that came directly from you mixes, granting you a temporary boost.

Strength +150%

Speed +150%

Dexterity +150%

Permanently earn small amount of {Holy Aura} and {Demonic Body}]

Although it thoroughly surprised him, he spent no time furiously opening his eyes and perfectly watching where he was attacking. He used the extra strength and robotic hand to pushed down at the end of the sword to speed up the blade, swinging it in a full circle. The sword entered Dan's arm, digging into his skin and slicing halfway into his arm before Dan swung upwards and down again, ignoring the pain through his adrenaline. It was useless, the black hand was still coming down at him, about to rip his head off. He shut his eyes again,

Even after he fell, he felt nothing. Hesitantly opening his eyes, he noticed shimmering ice covering them, holding Dan's arm back and holding him down. Dande slid down to them from an ice slide coming from the roof.

"Good fight, you two."

"He's kidnapping a student," said Dan.

"That was clearly a Memory Mosaic. Don't jump to conclusions, ask him first."

"God's Number."

He appeared once again in front of God, a small orb. "What are my shoulder characters doing?"

"You know, this is fun. You take these gifts that my world offers and give them a completely new twist from Earth. The people over here are stronger, but I wouldn't say they are as creative as the weak ones. Humans here have gotten lazy after thinking they conquered everything."

"I'll figure it out on my own."

"The two are physical personifications of your emotions and thoughts. They want exactly what you want, the more you want to live, the more they want to live. Sometimes, those emotions are so strong, they could be pushed into a corner where they basically want the same things. In this case, they mix together and grant you all their abilities."

"So this skill depends on emotions?"

"Normally, no. It's supposed to help you when you need to choose, but since you almost never chose just one, they became their own things. Now, they can have their own emotions, something they should never have, and you are the first ever to do this. You see what I mean? Creativity."

"What do I do now?"

"That's up to you. Do you want to escape, keep going with the mission, kill everyone there, die, what do you want?"

"You know what I want."

"Yes. You want to be the best. Your strength has made you more arrogant, you won't go lying down, you want to conquer everything." God leaned in, "which is goddamn PERFECT! IT MAKES A GREAT SHOW TO HAVE AN ARROGANT CHARACTER! Either you succeed or you die, it will always be fun."

"Arrogant? I'm not-"

"No, you confuse arrogance with douchebag. They are different, you could be arrogant and nice, but it's usually because you feel you have nothing to lose by being nice, only to gain. Douchebags are just fun to punish."

"Yeah, I want to find Dirt. I took on the job, I will find him. But when I do, he will either join me or die."

"You're not going to take the rewards?"

"He will be the reward. We can steal everything else."

"Good." God created a head that stared him in the eyes, "I like your determination. Do you want to know who Dirt is?"

"No. I already know who he is."

"Oh? I'm sure God's Eye level 2 doesn't go that far."

"It doesn't. But I've just figured it out. Someone stole my memories, but it just came back. I've gotta go back."

"Early? For once? Awesome!"

Zeeth went back to reality and said, "I knew he wasn't a human and I wanted to find out what he was. Linda is a friend I hired to help keep the damage to a minimum. As you saw, her ability traps things."

He stood up, prying the ruined suit off, "I'm-"

"Zeeth?!" Dan exclaimed, looking him up and down, seemingly unable to comprehend what just happened.

"Yes. I'm here to take care of a threat. Unfortunately, it's likely he already left."

Dande put the ring back on and said, "You need to explain everything."

"No, I don't."

"Is this about Dirt?"

"How do you know about him?" Linda shouted, still on the floor. Dan shrugged the melting ice off and took the chains off her.

"We all know about him. Our last transfer student suddenly attacked me one day and I froze the suit off him. He revealed who he was and told us he just wanted all the Deities chosen ones to be killed and left with the suit. That's it. None of the students know, its just the teachers. We sent out numerous search teams but they found nothing."

"That's 'cause he never left." Zeeth pointed at the library windows, directly at Hetio and Deger, "he's Hetio's assistant."

'Why are you telling them?'

'They are all powerful mages. I'm sure they can help, after we trap Dirt, I'm leaving.'

'Fine. Don't mention me.'

'I know.'

"I tracked him with my spiders and saw everything he did. He found my spider and saw me watching its recordings and had Sieda wipe my memory of it as I slept so I continued suspecting Krem. But I can't find him anymore, I'm sure Sieda told him that my memories would return so he left."

"Do you know where he is now?" Linda asked.

"No, but we know what he wants, the death of Dande, so we can bait him in."

"Absolutely not. You want to dangle her from the end of a stick?" Doctress said, "what if we fail? Worst case, she dies and he escapes again."

"No, it's okay. I want him dead. If this is our best method, let's do it."

"You've gotta be kidding me," said Dan.

"I'm not. I can submit myself into the tournament, it would tell him exactly where I am and give him an opening."

"We're not allowed to kill in those. He'll see right through it and even if he doesn't, he won't come."

"Come to my office and we'll talk it out there."

On their way back, Dande picked up the memory shards, the skin, and Grem. Linda awkwardly hung around until Dande said, "you're part of this now. Come to my office as well."

Dan tugged at his shirt, activating a circle and releasing fabrics that wrapped around his hands, just avoiding touching it. Zeeth looked at his bloody arm and blurted, "hey, sorry about the wound."

"You should've taken the first spell," he fumed. "I was gonna ask you questions while you were trapped. I wouldn't've fought if you didn't dodge."

"I didn't know it was a trap spell. If I did that everytime, I'd be dead. By the way, how come your hand doesn't destroy the glove?"

"If I keep the white hand properly sealed, the air will keep anything from touching my black hand."

"Oh, that's smart."

After a short pause, Dan said, "I'm honestly shocked you could hurt me. This entire time, you've been pretending to be my student, yet you're already beyond a normal A rank hunter. Any other teacher would've been seriously hurt."

"I'm surprised you got me down. I almost died."

"I spent everyday for years trying to disarm or stop students. I know how to get around in a fight. I'm shocked you could hurt me 'cause all your fights are with big monsters. You only need strength for those, humans need careful tactics."

"The demons are pretty smart too."

Their conversation died there just in time for Wistiga to swoop in and say to Zeeth, "come with me."

They broke away from the group and walked a bit behind as Wistiga showed Zeeth three papers. "This one is the windmill, this is the satellite and this is our newest tech, the Sun Catcher."

Each paper was covered in neat lines and descriptions, two different handwritings and an assortment of ideas.

"Whose handwriting is that?"

"The librarian Hetio helped me out. He knows a surprising amount of stuff and he's super friendly. Although he's weird about the library, he never steps out of it."

"Huh. are these all done?"

"Oh, no, not by a long shot," he chuckled. "These are prototypes, I don't know if they'll actually work and how to even make it. But the ideas seem solid, don't you think? A few more nights and we might have it."

"You don't seem all that weirded out that I'm Zeeth."

"Of course not, you're still the person that gave these ideas, right? You're no different than before just because you have a past now."

Dande opened her door, leading everyone in.

Page held his finger up in the air, allowing a white butterfly to land on it. The group watched it unfold into a letter sent by Zeeth. In it read, "hey, guys. I called Linda over and marked the path her bead travelled. Now would be the best time. Also, recreate this circle on the ground, it has to be 105 meters wide."

"Let's go, guys," Page sighed.

"To where?"

"We're gonna rob Serkle."

"All of us?" Cina asked.

"No, just me, Nadaho, Skwill, and Elton. The rest, follow the instructions on creating this circle. Cina, you're in charge of these kids."

"Eddie go too?"

"Not yet, Eddie. You're too big, but just stay in this circle, okay? When we need you, we'll teleport you over."

Page pulled out a piece of paper with complex characters on it. The dozen hunters starred in awe, unable to close their jaws or avert their eyes. 'They just had teleportation circles drawn and readily usable? What the hell? Those city portals are the only ones they had ever seen, who the hell could make a usable one on paper?'

One of the twelve hunters tried to get a better look at the paper and said to the others, "that's a fake."

"What?"

"They want to show off. They just splattered some stuff onto the paper to make it look real and get us to think they're so great."

"Huh. that does make sense."

"Of course it does. No one can draw teleportation circles on paper."

Page heard him but said nothing. When they activated it, he would eat his own words, ruining his own reputation. He wanted the hunter to talk himself up and then prove him wrong in front of everyone. Page simply said to Cina, "Draw this circle just beside the town. It seems like he's bringing a building over, every last line must be right or you will likely- no, you will all be removed. Everyone must check each other's work, make sure it's right."

"Got it."

In Darkone Dungeon, all of the hunters kept moving about. People were regularly resting, hunting and walking, trying to find the boss of the dungeon and kill it, releasing the dungeon for good. One of them stepped on a slippery rock, kicking his foot into the air and nearly slipping down a chasm. Three hunters grabbed him just in time, pulling him back. They breathed a sigh of relief and kneeled to rest and feel around. The rocks became hands that grabbed them and pulled them down. Everyone was screaming but no one heard a thing. They continually casted spells and pulled on their surroundings but no light shone through so they couldn't see anything that was going on.