16 Assassin's Nettles (2)
"System0, use Scan Stats... "
[ STATS SHEET ]
[ - Name : Sora ISOSHI ]
[ - Age : 17 ]
[ - Sex : Male ]
[ - Status : 65% (65 PV) ]
[ - Level : LV.0 ]
[ - EXP : 7/100 ]
[ CAPABILITIES ]
[ - Strength : 0.4 ]
[ - Intelligence : 0.61 ]
[ - Agility : 0.5 ]
[ - Speed : 0.45 ]
[ - Vitality : 0.22 ]
[ - Magic : _ ]
[ - Magic Resistance : 0.1 ]
[SKILLS ]
[ - The Collection ]
[ - Piercing Teeth ]
[TITLE ]
[ - The Climber ]
"Ah... I lost more than I thought.
As much as not to take useless risk, I use 3 seeds of Alfa Of Oblivion. "
[Affirmative]
[The climber has just healed himself to 30% of his maximum health.]
[Remaining HP: 95]
‘Wow, it almost completely healed my hand, as if nothing had happened.
Although, I did lose my sword. I'll have to hurry up and get it back, but for the moment it's impossible - if I leave the building, that plant will attack me straight away.
In that case, I'll have to rely on my new skill.’
While taking care not to be in the Assassin's Nettle's field of vision, Sora continued to test his new power, and the more he threw, the more the projectile took the form of a real spike, harder, sharper, and above all, it took less and less time to throw a new one, and the speed also increased after each attempt. And all this in less than 5 minutes.
He decided to stop his training when one of his spikes pierced the wall in front of him, giving him a glimpse of the plant.
Without question, he placed the palm of his hand in the gap in the wall and almost immediately a spike shot out, heading in the direction of the Nettle Assassin.
Unfortunately, the projectile, lacking speed, could only bounce off the surface of the plant, which immediately revealed Sora's position, allowing the plant to launch one of its stalks again in the direction of the house where Sora was hiding.
But this time, having seen the plant's attack, Sora managed to dodge it by hiding in another house, which unfortunately put him even further away from his weapon.
‘Shit, my sword!
Now I have to go through two houses to get it back, but if I go now, I'll just end up being cut in half.
I'd better use my new skill and improve it as much as possible.’
Continuing his express training, Sora threw more and more spikes into the wall.
However, he noticed that the more he threw, the slower his progress, which seemed logical given that the difficulty of making his projectile harder, faster and more precise required a considerable effort that he wasn't currently able to produce.
But not one to give up, he decided to get within range of the Assassin's Nettle and fire twice in quick succession in the direction of its toothy mouth, just before it had time to attack.
Although Sora managed to hit the plant twice in its mouth, it apparently didn't feel the slightest damage, as a few moments later it also launched two spikes, which were three or four times longer, thicker and faster than those it had just received.
And even though Sora had time to hide before the Assassin's Nettle launched her attack, he was still surprised by the power of the projectiles, which had just knocked away part of the wall where he was hidden, forcing him once again to move a little further away from his sword.
‘Fuck, I'm never going to kill her.
I can't even wound her by aiming in her face.
If I had my sword, maybe I'd be able to skin her, but right now, with only my new skill, I can't do a thing.’
Taking advantage of this pause, Sora sat down to think calmly about the situation, which was looking desperate.
"Well... System0, isn't there anything you can do or say to help me?"
[ Negative ]
"Thanks for your help...
Seriously, there's nothing I can do.
She's got 4 vitality and 3 strength, it's like telling an infant to fight me, it might touch me, but it'd never be able to beat me.
I really don't see what I can do to beat it, apart from trying to improve the power of my skill, there's nothing else I can do.
And given the speed at which I'm evolving now, it would take me several days before I could hope to do her any real damage."
Not knowing what to do, he decided to take a break for several dozen seconds, resting his head on his knees.
Suddenly, as if by reflex, he stood up, looking confident, and spoke.
"Oh, fuck it.
All I have to do is stick it in the same place over and over again and it's bound to hurt sooner or later."
Peering furtively through the gaping hole the plant had created, he noticed that the Assassin's Nettle was not facing in his direction.
Having noticed that he could move without the plant being aware of his presence, he ran as discreetly as possible towards the first collapsed house, where he was now much closer to his sword, and hid discreetly behind its debris.
At the same time, however, he unfortunately leaned against a crumbling stone, allowing the Assassin's Nettle to spot him and strike the spot where Sora was supposed to be.
However, the enormous carnivorous plant, lacking exceptional vision and over-developed hearing, failed to notice that Sora had changed position and, for around thirty seconds, the plant struck with all its might and several of its vines at the house in which Sora was hiding, just before he decided to move.
With nowhere left or right to take cover, Sora began to bitterly regret his stupid move, as he was now hidden by mere rubble that couldn't stop a full-powered strike from the Assassin's Nettle.
Which meant that if he took even the slightest false step, he'd be crushed by the force and weight of the plant.
"So now I'm in trouble.
Apart from trying to distract her for a few moments so I can go and get my sword back, I don't know what else I'm going to be able to do."
As the Assassin's Nettles continued to hit the now ruined house, Sora concentrated and threw two spikes in a row in the opposite direction to where he wanted to go, hoping that the plant would react and look for him on this side.
As luck would have it, it did exactly what Sora wanted. So he was able to hurry off and retrieve his sword and hide behind the walls of a new house that still seemed to be standing.
"Well, first step done. Now I just need to be able to use my skill in all circumstances, and with a bit of luck, I'll be able to beat her."
To do this, he tried to remember the sensations he had felt when he had used it the day before.
But unfortunately, apart from a sharp pain, he couldn't remember much.
Except perhaps a sort of immense heat radiating down his arm, but a rather pleasant heat all the same.
Remembering this detail, he tried to recreate the sensation, but nothing comparable to what he had felt was recreated.
He tried several more times, and gradually the same pleasant warmth returned, stronger and stronger, and for longer and longer.
...
After many more attempts, he felt exactly the same heat as the day before and decided to stand up, hold his sword out towards the plant and, when the heat was at its peak, release it from his sword in the direction of the Assassin's Nettles.
A white blade now moved towards the plant and hit it square in the face.
"Bingo!
Right in the face, you giant plant!"
When the plant recovered from the impact, Sora could see that the use of his skill had left a slight gash in the Assassin's Nettles, but nothing powerful enough to kill the plant.
"So now I'm in trouble. If even my most powerful skill has no effect, then it's certain death."
As he continued to whine and complain about the ineffectiveness of his skill, Sora didn't notice that Assassin's Nettles had managed to find where he was hiding.
Nor did he see the huge rod that was getting closer and closer to him, and would soon be lashing out at him.
The closer it got to him, the more Sora continued to complain.
It was only when he heard a huge gust of wind that he turned round and, at that moment, he didn't immediately understand what had just happened.
On the one hand, he had seen one of the Assassin's Nettle's vines only a few centimetres away from him and, after a blink, he was pulled back by a great unknown force and a huge blue veil blocked the giant plant.
"Sora, are you all right?"
"The receptionist? What the hell are you doing here?"