Chapter 18: Smooth Operation
A/N: Just a heads up, the class section of the abilities may seem a little different with classifications since I have been overhauling the gacha script and list to make them better and easier to use and not an absolute mess. I have actual consistent classes for abilities now rather than just listing them off the top of my head with zero consistency.
~Yuta Yukimura~
2 down. 3 to go. Freed Selzen, Dohnaseek, and Raynare.
The first two went down easily but the other two I suspect won't be. Dohnaseek, from what was told to me was way more cautious and hard-strung than Mittlet which was why I went for her first just in case.
Dohnaseek is on the other side of the church, maybe I could snipe him with Desert Weaponry? But I would like to dispatch him quietly to not alert Freed who is on the upper portion of the church, I can't defeat him if he has backup.
Hmm, let's see if I can get any tools I can use to solve this situation.
My eyes drifted to the minimized notifications window and brought them up.
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Feat Achieved! Defeat Kalawarner +1x Silver Ability Gacha Ticket
Feat Achieved! Defeat Mittelt +1x Silver Item Gacha Ticket
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Yeah, it's best to roll them now and see if I can use the rewards right now.
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Rolling Silver Ability Gacha Ticket...
An Uncommon Ability!
[Uncommon - Set Trap]
|Rarity: Uncommon| |Class: Alteration|
Allows you to set traps that can be activated remotely or under certain conditions. Traps can only produce effects that you yourself are able to produce. Only 5 traps are able to be armed at once.
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Hmm, can I use this right now? No, I was the one ambushing them, not the other way around. But it's a very good ability for defence, if only I had other offensive abilities it would be spectacular but as it is, it's only mildly useful.
Now then, what item can I get?
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Rolling Silver Item Gacha Ticket...
A Rare Item!
[Rare - Wind God's Ring]
|Rarity: Rare|
An ornate silver ring blessed by an unnamed god of wind, wearing it boosts the agility and reflexes of the wearer to superhuman levels.
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That's what I was looking for. I took out the ornate silver ring with white engravings and slipped it on, immediately I felt my agility get boosted, my body felt lighter and more responsive, this will definitely help.
Now then, to find the other one. I have an idea that should make it relatively easy to dispatch him.
I switched to Ghost Form by discarding Disguise. After activating it I sunk into the floor, until only above my eyes were out of the ground, allowing me to drift across the floor super fast while being able to see and at the same time making me nigh impossible to see.
I quickly traversed the forest in seconds to find my second target, a man wearing a black trenchcoat and fedora, leaning against a tree with a serious expression. I quickly circled around by phasing through the floor until I was behind him.
He was completely unaware I was here, after all, I made no noise, nor did I displace any wind, unless you had a very honed mana sense you wouldn't even be able to tell I was anywhere without directly seeing me.
I floated closer and poised myself ready to strike, my hand still sharpened. I was fast, very fast, faster than him.
Without hesitation I swung as fast and as accurately as I could toward his neck, and then the moment the attack was about to connect I turned off Ghost Form just in time for my clawed hand to sink into the side of his neck, ripping through the artery and most of his spine before I flipped Ghost Form and flew into the ground through his body to avoid any retaliation.
"Cough! W- guekh!"
I resurfaced 10 meters away to see the man clutching at his throat, trying to speak but only able to vomit blood while trying to. He opened his wings to try and fly but couldn't even manage that as he fell to his knees, clutching his mangled neck. I watched for a solid minute before I turned off Ghost Form and cautiously approached his limp form before parting his neck off of his shoulders with my claws just in case.
I quirked an eyebrow at the lack of notification and plunged my hand into his chest and ripped out his heart just in case he was alive but nothing. For some reason this guy doesn't give a ticket, annoying, doubly so considering my hand was now covered in gore.
No matter, because now it was time for the main course. I rested in place for a bit first to wait out my ability slot cooldown and to recover some stamina before swapping out Ghost Form for Sand Veil. After all of that was done I circled around back to the large doors of the church.
Time for revenge.
But before I went in, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a scrap iron candy and swallowed it for the added extra defence just in case. Fully ready, I reared my leg before kicking the giant church doors open.
Bang!
"Oh? I didn't think anyone would actually come! Come on, hope you make my evening! ...Oh wait, it's the scum-rat again. May as well squish you for real this time. You made me replace my fucking gun!" I saw Freed casually lounging around on a church pew, his arms splayed out and a smug cunt expression on his face, although that fell when he saw me.
Of course, I did not dignify him with a response as sand swirled around my arm before I swung with Desert Weaponry.
'Desert La Spada!'
"Whoa man! That was close!" Freed jumped up from the pew and avoided the 3 giant desert fan blades that tore through where he was moments prior. He did a flip in the air and aimed his gun at me but I broke the combination and used Sand Veil, enveloping the entire area in a sandstorm before the trigger was pulled, throwing his arm off and the blessed rounds whizzed past me with a wide margin.
"Peh! My eyes and mouth again! You little fucking bitch! Are you nothing but tricks!?" In a large room like this, I had a major advantage over Freed, that being, I could see through my veil and he couldn't.
___/Abilities\_____________
-Active(2/2)-
[Uncommon - Natural Weapons]
[Uncommon - Sand Veil] -> [Rare - Iron Manipulation]
'Finish this decisively.'
I summoned the Cloud Elemental again, the moment she formed I aimed her lightning for her, she formed a spear of lightning in her arms before throwing it toward Freed, hitting him in the gun arm.
Boom!
"Argh fuck!" Freed cursed loudly as the gun was ripped out of his hand and his arm looked burnt with lacerations across it from the lightning, it went limp almost instantly and Freed took a knee from the paralysis. Not that he would be getting up ever again.
I extended my arm and channelled Iron Manipulation, I wasn't using any precision, instead, I put it all into a single action, a pull for all iron toward a single direction.
Slam!
"W-what the fuck-!" Freed yelped in pain and shock as a church pew was forcefully slammed into his body, dragged by its iron screws and hinges. Freed ducked over another pew thrown at him, but quickly enough another two from two directions hit him, and another and another.
Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam!
"Guak! Fuck! Fuck! Stop! What the fuck!?!?" Freed tried to struggle as pew after pew slammed into him thanks to Iron Manipulation. He looked almost buried under wood and metal. Time to put an end to that struggle.
My veins bulged a little as I strained a little to tear off the large and reinforced 5-meter-tall church doors. Both doors drifted to either side of Freed before I clapped my hands.
SLAM! Crush!
"Kuekh!"
Both doors slammed into Freed at the same time in one motion, pancaking him in between and making a disgusting crunching noise. I squeezed a little more before loosening my control and letting the doors fall, seeing Freed's broken body fall to the floor limply with both his sword and gun broken I approached him with brisk steps before picking him up by the scruff.
"U-urghh... s-spawe me..." He pathetically whimpered out.
He looked terrible, most of his teeth missing from the impact and blood trailed from his mouth when he spoke, even if I let him down now he wouldn't make it an hour.
"You know Freed, I wanted to torture you, but I realized that you simply aren't even worth my time to torture. But I make true to my promises, you can say hi to your co-workers in whatever underworld you go to. The last one will join shortly."
Slice!
I took his head off of his shoulder with a quick swipe of my sharpened hands and dropped his body unceremoniously. My body felt a bit lighter knowing this fucker was off the mortal plane for good.
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Feat Achieved! Defeat Freed Selzen without outside interference +1x Golden Ability Gacha Ticket
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I can hear noises from downstairs, they must have heard the noise, I should find a way to collapse the basement down on their heads to pick out the mooks quickly, even if some remain alive it won't matter, they won't escape with Rias and the other keeping a perimeter around the church at my request.
Let's see if this gacha can give me something useful to help me, if not I still have plan A.
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Rolling Golden Ability Gacha Ticket...
A Rare Ability!
[Rare - Shadow Hands]
|Rarity: Rare| |Class: Master|
Allows you to conjure floating spectral hands made out of shadows under your control. These hands can grip, crush, cut, smash etc and otherwise function as additional hands the user can control.
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Hmm, these seem useful, can I use them right now? No, let's not risk it and go with my original plan. Someone will come up here and check on the commotion in short order, I need to do this fast.
"Cloud, lift me with a platform."
Obeying my orders the elemental conjured a platform of solid clouds that I stepped on it, the platform quickly floated over 9 meters above the floor of the church almost all the way to the top of the tall ceiling. Then I took a deep breath and aimed my hands down again, this would be difficult to do, and I didn't exactly have infinite energy to spare for this.
Crack Rumble
A vein bulged on my forehead and sweat pooled up on my face. The floor of the church cracked as I focused all of my power on what was inside the floor.
Pipes, cast iron or steel, doesn't matter, both are iron-based.
And I was exerting all the pressure I could with iron manipulation down on said pipes that were in the floor of the church, and by proxy the ceiling of the basement.
"Break already...!"
Crack! Crash!
And then the last straw broke the camel's back, the cracks spread violently and the pipes made horrendous noises of screeching metal before the floor lost all structural integrity and collapsed, bringing the hundreds of tons of earth down on the basement as it all plummeted over ten meters. The entire church and surroundings shook from the impact.
"Huff... huff... fuck..."
I put my hands on my knees and breathed heavily. That shit was hard, it was like trying to benchpress 300 kilograms as a human. I am sure I wouldn't have been able to do this without Esper.
'Now then, I just wait for the mole to peek her head out before whacking her.'
I reached out telekinetically and gathered several masses of scrap poking out, I had an idea for a synergy that just came to my mind now after flinging those doors and stop signs like weapons.
Mentally, I nudged both abilities together and they fit together like pieces of a puzzle under my intent.
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[Combination - Iron Armory]
|Rarity: Rare| |Combination: Iron Manipulation & Natural Weapons|
Allows you to transform iron-based constructs into a variety of weapons at will, created weapons act as extensions of your body and can the controlled telekinetically.
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With a single thought the metal scraps melded together into a set of 4 uniform iron swords that floated menacingly in the air, moving them felt as natural as moving my arms or fingers. I poised all 4 swords, ready to use them to strike anyone who popped their head out, all of them hidden just out of sight.
Rumble!
"Grrh! How the fuck did the ceili-!"
Squelch!
The fallen angel with raven hair who had dug her way out of the ruins did not get to say much before one of the swords lodged itself into the back of her head, and that was it. She fell limp the moment I stabbed into her skull with all of my remaining demonic power. The leader died the most unceremonious death.
"Fitting that a rat should die like a rat. With nothing more than a whimper."
With my mandatory cool anime one-liner out of the way I let myself collapse onto the cloud platform. Even getting ambushed by Freed did not feel this exhausting, I really outdid myself this time.
Though I was exhausted...
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Quest Complete!
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Victory felt all the sweeter thanks to it.
A/N: If it wasn't obvious enough, Yuta is a straight-up sociopath willing to plunge arms into people just to double-check. He completed his mission, quickly, efficiently, ruthlessly and silently. A truly butter-smooth operation.
And Yuta finally got a very fair power spike, not even to mention the 3rd slot he will be getting next chapter since he is at 9 right now. What did you guys think about the operation? Did you like how the abilities were used and the new abilities he got out of it? If you guys have any ideas about any new synergies he could make or just ideas in general I would love to hear them.
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