Lightshow

Now, my plan did actually have some semblance of sense to it.

Games had things like critical attacks, super moves, and health bars. Each of the components of a battle system worked together to create a―normally―difficult yet fair challenge. In some games, you could attack an opponent's weakness then hit them with a devastating ultimate, while in other games you'd have to attack once and desperately roll to safety immediately after.

However, a lot of games lacked something that I couldn't ignore.

Science and basic physics.

Now, I'm no genius, but I couldn't imagine swinging around a sword that was six times my body weight when I couldn't even hold it in one hand, yet somehow could in two.

But I didn't charge towards an enemy I could barely avoid attacks from because of something like that.

You see, I've fought against many regenerating bosses in my time of playing video games.

Even bosses who had "infinite" regeneration were killed in one of four ways.

One, by inflicting more damage than the boss could handle.

Two, by somehow stopping their regen and whittling them down.

Three, by attacking a specific weak point and killing them in a few well-placed blows.

Four, by taking them down to a low enough HP and causing a cutscene to happen.

I couldn't imagine a situation where one of those four didn't hold true in one way or another. In reality, I think those methods still held true.

This situation was no different.

Right now, Dabi and I were planning on using the third method to defeat the boss. I'd bait the boss and he'd hopefully annihilate the weak point of the boss. If he didn't destroy the weak point, I should be able to.

My biggest problem lied in being able to keep the boss's attention as he charged his attack. My solution lied in the first method.

If I were to attack from a distance, the boss's attention may wonder elsewhere, and could put Dabi in danger, but if I were to get up close and personal, giving my all to tear the boss to shreds, the boss wouldn't dare to look away from me.

So, I'd either kill the boss far faster than expected, or I'd keep its attention for long enough for Dabi to unleash his attack.

And hell, if I tore the weak point out of the boss all together, I wouldn't have to worry about Dabi's attack in the slightest.

I Dashed towards the water beast faster than I'd ever had before, leaving streaks of purple lightning in my wake. I was before the massive monster before it could even respond, becoming a body of pure technique as I utilized Seiryu's ancient techniques.

Each of my blows was actively buffed by Talons, Mana Empowerment, Power Strike, Electricity Manipulation, Slam, Crush, and Tear, while being passively buffed by Blunt Weapon Mastery, Martial Arts Mastery, and Seiryu's Azure Dragon Technique, and the result of all those buffs stacked on top of one another was impressive blows, even against a being of pure water.

I flickered from in front of the monster to behind it with Flight, then I was above it with Electricity Manipulation. My hands Stole chunks of the water from the monster, before I flickered again, underneath the boss again.

I must've thrown hundreds of blows in a few seconds, because my MP was running dangerously low.

One of the best parts about fighting with mana crystals in my Inventory was that I didn't need to worry about that.

I crushed six mana crystals and moved, using the power that Manami granted me to stay several steps ahead of my opponent. I unleashed a dangerous volley of attacks towards my enemy's liquid ankles before Leaping towards its chest and Slamming my hand into it.

I reached for the shining crystal within it, but just as it was getting close to my fingertips, it moved just out of reach. I electromagnetically blew myself back and then was back into the fray with a Flight, dodging a volley of water bullets as I did.

[You have received the title, "The Dragon."]

I gave the notification one glance and instantly regretted it, five water bullets slamming through my Scales and through my body, sending me sprawling across the roof. My HP dropped dramatically as I barely reoriented myself.

I fell into a roll as I saw an onslaught of bullets still coming my way. I was quick to rise, healing myself back up to full and glancing at the boss's health bar.

Even with the dozens upon dozens of attacks, only a sliver―about 5%―of the beast's health was gone. Still, I didn't stop. My body became a blur as I Leapt high into the air, using Ishikori to shield myself from a few of the bullets.

I came down on the monster's head, Tearing away more and more of it as I felt my stamina begin to fall. Unfortunately, my body didn't have infinite stamina, even when using something like Mortal Restoration.

I pulled myself to the floor, Slamming into it harder than I would've before, sending cracks through the roof. As soon as I fell into a crouch, I dodged another rain of bullets, which only threatened the stability of the roof more.

I Slammed everything I had into the water golem, feeling my MP drain more and more until I thought I'd have to refill again. As I shoved my hands into my Inventory―

"Move," Dabi's voice wasn't particularly loud, but it held a force that I hadn't ever heard from him. I could feel the intense bloodlust, but it certainly wasn't directed towards me.

I Flew high into the air, electromagnetically pushing myself away from the ground as some insurance. I soared through the air, and I could see the world become blue underneath me. I couldn't deny the relief I felt at the power within his words, especially to have someone like that as my ally.

Flames with heat like I'd never experienced dared to burn at my feet, but those flames were directed directly at our enemy.

Just as quickly as the world lit up, it grew dark again. The sudden shift in lighting meant nothing to my mask, so my gaze was firmly placed on the boss's health bar.

In a single attack, Dabi took out most of the boss's HP.

But not all of it.

The feeling of relief withered and left a pit of indescribable despair in my chest. I'd layered hundreds upon hundreds of blows upon one another, and I only did about 5% of the boss's entire HP bar, while Dabi's attack took about another 70%.

What was left was a solid 20% left, and while the water golem was much smaller than before, that may've increased its ability to move and attack us. Which meant, my plan of attacking it without stopping was probably not gonna work again.

I pulled myself back to the ground, Slamming against the roof as I glanced back at Dabi. The golem hadn't moved yet, but I assumed it was going to be moving pretty soon.

"Do you have another one of those in you? Not even like a full blast, just like a… a mini blast," I asked, turning back to him even though many of my eyes were locked onto the boss.

"Even assuming I could, would the boss fall for the same trick again?" Dabi asked, taking deep breaths as… steam rose from his skin. A quick use of Observe taught me that Cremation had a horrible draw-back of raising Dabi's body temperature, and too much would effectively turn him to ash.

"Nah, it wouldn't. And besides, we don't want to lose our heaviest hitter before the infiltration even begins. I don't want to scatter your ashes too early," I shook my head, noticing Dabi's eyes widening, even if it was a slight reaction.

"You think running away is an option?" Dabi mused, keeping his gaze firmly on the boss.

"And risking the boss following us? Nope. One of the biggest mistakes you can do to a water monster is allowing it to access more water. The streets are a big no-no," I shook my head, glancing around at the roof.

It was riddled with holes and cracks, and it'd certainly break soon enough. If that was the case….

"Even if heroes will be able to handle it?" Dabi questioned.

I shrugged, "Not a bad idea, especially since they would come even faster than expected if multiple civilians report the boss. Still, too risky. If the boss gets all its HP back, we'll have to rely on heavy hitters to handle it. We'll lose our drops and probably a fair chunk of exp too."

I crouched down, preparing to leap.

"Since we ran through plan A, I'll call that plan C, as a last resort."

"You have a plan B?" Dabi asked, and I nodded, a smile coming onto my face.

I couldn't tell if I enjoyed the danger or if I was just nervous. Probably a bit of both.

"One that doesn't result in me shoving this mask onto you and hoping you become a final boss? Yes," I laughed.

"Is it a good plan?" Dabi questioned seriously, but the grin on his face told me that he enjoyed my reference to Yakuza Hero.

"Hmm… how well do you think you could run away from a toppling building?" My question caused his eyes to widen, but I was running before he could ask me what I meant. I'm assuming he put the pieces together because he was jumping off the building before I made a lap around the boss, destroying every crystal in the surrounding area.

I ran around the water golem, using Flight, Dash, and Leap with every one of my steps, enhancing each of their speed with Electricity Manipulation and their destructive force with Mana Empowerment, Slam, and Talons. When my Mana threatened to drop below the threshold, I just used the many, many mana crystals in my Inventory to fill myself back up to full.

The boss tried to hit me with some more water bullets, but they were either too slow after losing such a large portion of its body, or I was moving too fast for them to hit me. It didn't matter either way.

I crushed five mana crystals as I felt myself hit the minimum speed requirement for it. I activated my trump card, and I could feel my body change. And when it changed, it changed states of matter in its entirety.

Electricity raced through my veins before erupting from my skin and enveloping my very being. I became a creature of pure energy, but I didn't try and enjoy the most unique and difficult ability I'd unlocked with Electricity Manipulation.

I crushed a handful of mana crystals as I felt my MP dropping at ridiculously intense rates and blinked, appearing before the water monster before it could move. Everything was so slow all the sudden, but I wouldn't wait, I couldn't.

I slammed both of my hands into the monster, pulling the energy from its very molecules. I pulled away the kinetic energy from the water beast, slowing it down and turning it into a creature of ice.

As time seemed to tick on endlessly, I remembered how odd this plan was.

The plan began with the boss's inadvertent destruction of the roof, which caused me to think of the option of bringing the entire building down. It wasn't the clearest idea, because like I'd told Dabi, letting the boss get to the ground was a poor decision at best and fatal decision at worst.

After the idea came to mind though, my 50 Intelligence and Wisdom worked hard and fast to craft a plan, specifically using the abilities I'd been hiding.

The first was simply changing my entire body into electricity, or more specifically, plasma. "Simply" was lowballing how difficult such a thing was, but for my body, I didn't think it was that crazy. After all, my body "acts as a body within a game would," according to Gamer's Body.

Momentarily changing states of matter would be a cinch.

…If I could not blow all my MP away in a fraction of a second.

You see, changing my entire body into a different state of matter was probably going to take far, far more energy than firing some Lightning, just because of the amount of matter within my body that was being suddenly shifted.

But I knew it was possible. While training, I accidentally turned my finger into plasma after reaching the minimum speed requirements for the ability, which was a shockingly low speed to be honest. However, after accidentally using the ability, my MP dropped from over 1,500 to zero before I even knew what was happening.

Using the ability in a fight wasn't even worth it because of that massive cost. However, with so many mana crystals around… it was worth a shot.

So, I transformed into plasma, but only because of the second part of the plan.

Kinetic energy was simply "energy that objects had because they were moving," and water had a lot of it. If you were to heavily increase how much kinetic energy water has, it'd turn into a gas. Decrease it, and it'd turn into a solid.

Taking kinetic energy wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it should've been, but I think that was only because Tokotachi wrote about it a lot within his book, and I could absorb the entire book and all the information within it in an instant.

Without my Quirk, it'd probably take a lifetime to do such a thing.

The problem with taking kinetic energy though was that it wasn't the same as mana, and it wasn't added to my MP either. Any kinetic energy I took into my body―my normal body, not the plasma one―would be quickly turned into excess potential energy, and it'd be released in my very next move. I'm pretty sure I could maintain the energy after some more mastery, but that was there, and this is now.

By turning my body into plasma and absorbing the boss's kinetic energy, I'd effectively turn it into a smashable solid―ice and ignore any moves that I couldn't control.

The plasma part was useful because I could then use the kinetic energy as MP to fuel the impossibly expensive technique. The reason why I could change the kinetic energy into MP as a body of plasma and not a solid was just a subeffect of being a body of pure energy, so I took the ability and used it.

I checked the electricity within the building just for that ability. If I needed to, I could use it as a source of power, as electricity was similar, but different than kinetic energy.

Blegh, a lot of it was science knowledge I wasn't expecting to ever use, but still, it helped me out in the end.

Now, all I needed to do was finish the job.

I refocused as the boss slowed to a total stop.

I didn't even bother to jump up, just electromagnetically pulling myself and the boss through the nearly shattered roof.

We fell through every single floor, and as we approached the ground, I angled the ice boss in front of myself and it shattered across the ground. Before I hit the ground though, I used the last bit of my MP to electromagnetically push myself out of the crumbling building.

I smashed through the wall and rolled across the street as the building came down and―

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

―I received my notifications. I couldn't even dismiss them as I quickly stumbled to my feet and attempted to run away from the cloud of dust and smoke that would be coming in seconds. Gladly, I didn't have to move any more than three steps before I was pulled into an alleyway, which allowed for the powerful dust and smoke to fly past us.

I took a few deep breaths before I felt an odd restriction return to my body, which was certainly just a sign that I was no longer―in any capacity of the word―a being of pure plasma.

I looked up to see Dabi's―once again, rightfully―confused expression. I spent a few seconds catching my breath before peeking out to the wreckage, happy to see that the singular building didn't affect the other ones in the slightest. I was also looking for my drops, which I desperately hoped weren't buried underneath the wreckage.

As if my Quirk was responding to my will, there was a flash of purple energy and then a few items appeared before me. A mask, a skill book, and some Yen.

I stuffed the Yen into my Inventory with a giggle, then I absorbed the skill book―

[Water Manipulation (Active) Lv. 1 | MP: 100]

Supposedly, the first being with a water Quirk was a normal being for their entire life. However, upon facing a situation where they needed to protect someone and yet defeat another, they awakened to this Quirk. Their movements became something with the flexibility of a calm stream but the overwhelming power of a raging river. What they did with this newfound power has been lost to history.

The depths of these abilities lie entirely on the knowledge of the user.

Various uses may cost more MP to use.

For an additional 200 MP per minute, specific skills can be used without an additional cost.

―keeping some interesting combinations in mind, before I Observed the mask and stuffed it into my Inventory.

[You have obtained the item "Bismarck."]

"Let's get out of here before any heroes show up, because they'll probably be here way too soon," I told Dabi, who spent a few long moments before blinking and sighing. He nodded and we were gone.

Before we left though, he grabbed my shoulder.

"I'm gonna hold you to an explanation about the lightshow. More specifically, why you couldn't just do it from the beginning."

I shrugged, "That's fair."

-----

The run back into the forest felt like one of the most intense parts of the night. We all―Manami was extremely worried, so she ended up meeting up with us―had to move quick and stealthily, even more so because the heroes were quick to arrive. And when I say quick, I meant quick.

A place with so much mystery surrounding it suddenly being seen with blue flames and a purple lightshow certainly raised some eyebrows, but the building suddenly crumbling received a much more forceful reaction.

I wasn't good enough with Electricity Manipulation to tap anyone's phone with a flick of my wrist, but I really didn't need to do that to get information. Even in the darkness of the night, people piled onto the streets, murmurs of confusion leaving some lips just to soon leave the lips of another.

People were understandably confused, but most of them were more worried about their safety than anything else. Gladly, no one had seen me or Dabi while we were fighting or fleeing from the situation.

Our trio didn't trade any words on the way back, too busy avoiding detection to presumably think of any conversation topics.

After about five minutes of consistent running filled with breaks, we finally arrived at our base of operations deep within the forest.

Dabi and Manami were quiet, and I expected their responses to be lagged. I healed them both twice before speaking up first.

"Well, tonight was fun. Let's hope tomorrow is eventful," I shrugged, grinning with an entirely honest grin.

Dabi looked up to me first, his face contorting into one of disbelief, then softening into one of resignment. He looked to Manami, who laughed softly in what I assumed was disbelief.

"He's insane. You chose an insane person to work with us," Dabi growled, his words probably holding more malice than he truly felt.

Manami shook her head with a smile. "Well, regardless of his insanity, he's certainly one of the best people to have on this mission. If we can―"

She was cut off by a yawn.

"―get him a skill book to erase exhaustion, we can probably get so much stuff done," She took a moment to stretch before yawning again. "Yeah, I'm tired. I'm probably gonna head home to sleep."

Dabi nodded, although I wasn't sure what part of her comment he was agreeing with. I'm pretty sure he stayed out in the forest all the time anyways.

"Mm, I agree. Today's been way too long to stay up for much longer. Ah, but Minoru…." Dabi called my name specifically, and I caught onto what he was saying.

"The purple lightshow?" I made sure I was on the right point, continuing once I received a nod from Dabi. "Ah well…."

I explained some of the science to them, leaving out the parts that would probably prompt questions that I didn't have any answers to. I included the point that I couldn't do it at first because of the boss's size, which seemed to stave off most of Dabi's irritation.

"So, we can't rely on you going all 'lightshow' to Dues Ex Machina our enemies?" Dabi spoke after a moment of silence.

"Was that really all you picked up from that?" I asked, causing Dabi to shake his head tiredly.

"No, but that's the most important part. If you can just take the Ultraphone and zip out of there, it would be best to shift the plan accordingly. We all know it doesn't take you very long to recover your MP anyways. Around an hour, right?"

"About three minutes now, but yeah," I shrugged, trying to ignore the look of disbelief that grew on the duo's faces. I continued with a sigh, "Unfortunately, I don't think that's a possibility. I don't have enough MP to maintain it, and even if I did, a person of pure plasma tends to gain a lot of attention, even if I was like that for a few seconds. We don't want them calling in anybody big because they're worried."

Dabi sighed, nodding with annoyed expression.

"Either way, it's not like we can think about it too much now. I'm exhausted anyways. Minoru, text me any more skill books you may need. I can't even care to think about any right now. Dabi, you do the same," Manami yawned again, uncaring of just who she was talking to.

She turned and began walking away with a wave. Soon enough, she was gone.

"Well, since you guys have to go to sleep, I'm gonna be training. Jeez, what am I gonna do with two slackers who decide to sleep instead of train?" I sighed, shaking my head dramatically.

Dabi looked at and took a deep breath, probably debating if my words were even worth a response.

"Y'know, I don't even care to respond to that one. You're lucky this time," Dabi sighed, leaning up against a tree and closing his eyes.

"I'll be back in eight hours, so you better enjoy your rest," I hummed, smiling at Dabi's annoyed grunt.