Hearing that Ran wanted to try something else next, everyone perked their ears and their interest grew once again. They didn't get to see anything except a ball turning into partially different colors; would this time be any different?
However, as we know, practically the only prerequisite for the skill, soul avatar, was simply to fill yourself completely in your own juice… wait.
Ran did exactly this, however there are many outward signs of someone using a skill except for the sudden uptick in their aura.
But, contrary to this, when Ran fulfilled the requirement for the soul avatar, everyone was immediately made aware since the stench of cherry blossoms stuck onto the very air they breathe.
Not only this, through everyone's eyes, the world they experience seemed to enliven a little—the colors they see seemed to warm up and even the sound of life itself tickled their ears more prevalently.
"Alright, I'm ready," Ran exclaimed towards Ann. He seemed excited by the potential outcome he's visualizing.
"Hmm? For what?"
"Attack me."
"What?"
Ann cupped one of her ears, as if she couldn't clearly hear what had been said. Didn't awhile ago, Ran said that fighting her would make him "suicidal"? What changed? Well, hopefully it wasn't that weird eye thing, she thought. That thing did indeed leave quite an impression on her it seemed.
"I don't know, why don't you just use your little-finger-pew-pew-thingy."
"My… 'little-finger-pew-pew-thingy'? You mean my finger laser?"
Ann was… how should I put this?
Well, anyways, considering she didn't want to chop him into mincemeat with her threaded-expanding-ballsofdoom, she decided using her, ahem, little-finger-pew-pew-thingy was a better option.
It was a simple matter really. When Ann prepared to use her laser beam, Ran activated the soul avatar, making him flicker in and out of existence.
When the laser beam was shot and hit Ran's location, unsurprisingly enough, it did indeed seem to pass right through him. However, what everyone didn't know would happen was that when it pierced through Ran, it ended up hitting the barrier protecting them from the outside world.
They all craned their necks to the direction the laser went in, only to see it absolutely rip through the barrier and continue to hit an innocent little tree. The group was silent, though their facial expressions were all the same; it was one of pure shock.
Afterwards, the ruptured barrier exploded, releasing all of its energy into the ground. Everyone couldn't help but gulp at the moment. However, it wasn't because the laser broke the barrier, but rather that it went through Ran and he was still standing in one piece.
Even the man himself was surprised; he felt around but felt completely fine. Only, when he deactivated the skill, he could immediately feel a sizable chasm within his soul. Clearly, while the skill successfully protected him from the laser, that came at a price. A fairly big one at that—he would only be able to take another two of them.
In reality, while that may sound like a meager amount to protect himself from, this was actually insane.
Normally, every upgrade in rank, beginning from ten to five, gives a multiplicative effect about two. But, starting from rank-5 all the way to one, that is multiplied again to about four… with few exceptions of course. All of this applies to quantity as well, not just quality.
Because of this, normally speaking, Ran would only be able to take one-fourth of Ann's laser. But, not only did he take it entirely, he could even withstand another two.
This was what shocked everyone.
And yet, just when their palpitating hearts had begun to calm down, a dark figure suddenly appeared and lunged towards Ran!
"Wah," he exclaimed, though it was eerily similar to a certain plummer we all know.
The figure, now on top of him, began licking his face.
"Aah! Fluffy, what are you doing?"
Everyone watched in silence as an almost strange ritual-like scene occurred.
"Ugh, what do you want from me?"
The figure, who was clearly Fluffy, was currently doing some… devious things. And by that I mean licking and kneading his face, massaging his shoulders, as well as trying to feed him raw fish from her pendant. However, upon hearing what he said, she stopped and looked deep into his eyes.
"You… you want to learn the skill that I used just now?"
Upon realizing that he finally understood her, she released a few really loud chirps as she dragged his body. She lifted him up and even patted the snow off his clothes, before sitting in front of him like a student would to a teacher.
And… you all know where this is going—yes he is going to teach Fluffy the soul avatar skill.
Well, he could say no, but he's too much of a pussy to do so.