'Dammit. Without knowing the future, I fell just as helpless as last time. I will not go back to that! Not to that bloody hell!' shouting with determination within the realm of his mind, his eyes grew deadly sharp, looking at the titan like an oversized slab of meat.
"I will kill you" in his deep voice of death, coerced by his demonic countenance and flaming red eyes of destruction which set his pupil ablaze, his words left quiet yet not a single awakened missed his plea. With that, he took action. Jumping into the air like a crazed demon devoid of sanity, his iron fist clenched with the force of a thousand men. He was not going to just kill that titan; he was going to obliterate it, no matter the cost.
'System! Give me coins! Take whatever you like' he inwardly screamed as his outer self's fist approached the titan.
[Skill available: Time Speed (Down Variant)
Cost of Skill: 1000 Coins
Counter Contract Cost: Left Arm]
'I'll do it!' as soon as those words entered his mind, a glowing light engulfed his arm. It was a blazing purple flame which faded in mere seconds, taking his left arm. Even with his arm vanishing, only leaving a closed wound at his left shoulder, Liam was unfazed. After all, he had lost his arm in the previous time loop. In the end, he was just reverting the present to what it should have been and regaining the link to the future.
After the purple flames disappeared, the familiar box appeared again yet this time, it was different.
[Level Up Complete! System has recognised new statistics and updated present data.
Rewards: Skill: Purple Flames + 1000 Cores
System Alert: Coin value has upgraded to Cores
Cores are available to be converted to Real Term Currency
Additional Bonus for Hidden Quest: Skill: ???]
At this, Liam's eyes slightly widened, though he was still focused on the titan before him. Strangely, the familiar box had turned into the same blazing purple as the flames that stole his arm, perhaps they were related to the system level up.
With a single thought, Liam activated the new skill. There was no time for caring about consequence, in this moment it was just Liam and the titan. If the titan beat him in size, Liam had to beat him in power. That was the only way he could survive the current deadly predicament.
When the skill activated, everything stopped at once. The entirety of the room fell into a slow motion sync, except for Liam. Looking at the state of the room, it was like he was underwater. Everything moved slowly, some seeming like they weren't moving at all. One thing that he did notice was that the air seemed the same, his respiration was unaffected by the plummet in motion speed which most likely meant it was unaffected too. Even with all these thoughts and wonders, Liam's eyes maintained their razor sharp gaze when looking at the titan.
"I'll kill you for what you did. Plus, your a monster" Liam said calmly, his voice monotone.
When the awakened finished blinking, there was blood scattered everywhere across the mighty walls. On the imposing throne was a terrifying head, the head of the titan. Slowly tilting their heads to the ground, they saw the lifeless, headless body of the titan. Across it's neck was a clean, meticulous cut that could only be done by a worthy blade.
"Where's my sword" one of the warriors shouted. Though he too was wondering about what happened, that sword cost his father a dreadful price and if he lost it, he would pay the price.
"Sorry about that" a figure with a familiar voice apologised. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with joy and relief when the beautiful sword his parents had spent a fortune on appeared before his shocked eyes.
Turning to thank the figure, he saw Liam standing there with a cold expression. Although he was standing right in front of him, the warrior couldn't help but feel like Liam was somewhere else. In fact, he was technically right, Liam was paying no attention to the warrior and scrolling through the new menu.
"I can't believe we survived that" Luna let out a sigh of relief.
'She didn't' Liam looked at the dead healer whom he had tried to save but utterly failed, 'I need to get stronger'. Liam's actions made proof of a phrase once said by an awakened: Once one finds power, one will start to crave more. It is that which makes humans strong that also makes us weak.
"hmm. How did you kill that thing?" Kira suddenly appeared next to Liam, whispering to him so the others couldn't here.
'How do I deter this guy? I need to get him to leave without admitting a thing. I can't have an awakened like him knowing about my power'
"Then I just sliced it's head off with the warrior's swo...What the hell! Why am I-" After breaking from his stupor, he realised he had unconsciously told almost everything to Kira.
"Shhh. If your too loud, the others might hear. You don't want them knowing about your little secret, right?" Kira interrupted with a sly smirk.
"How did you do that? What do you plan to do, do you expect me to let you live now that you know?" Liam was firm after he had calmed down but still had no idea how to fix this problem.
"My ability is basically charisma. But I can just get anyone to do as I wish. Now that I've spilled by little secret, I say we are even. However, if you would like to work together, I wouldn't mind?" Kira broke out the same sly smile after confessing to his ability. Liam had never heard of the ability called charisma, that was expected however as Kira was the only person with the ability as well as the only person who knew about it, Liam now too. Till now, the military have believed his ability is just useless, which is why he never uses it. If it weren't for Liam's time loop, Kira would have took his secret to the grave. Yet, knowing that, Liam was confused. Why would Kira tell him about his secret when they barely knew one another?