"Running is prohibited within five meters around me!"
As soon as Naegi's strange order was issued, the demon was forced to press a brake for a bizarre reason, making a loud screeching sound in the process. Many tiles were crushed because of his abrupt motion.
Naegi also seems surprised as her mouth looks widely agape. She clearly didn't anticipate her spell would work that well.
"W-what did you do to me?" The demon said in fright. He was in the middle of way rushing when an invisible pressure enveloped him, compelling him to heed the girl's command.
Just then, from the corner of his eyes, he caught the sight of a bright white sigil mark on his bloody naked right shoulder. As if detecting the demon's ill intent, the sigil mark significantly brightened and let out a buzzing sound.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME??!" The demon roared. However, it was clear the sigil mark wasn't a pushover either. It quickly pulsed brighter, driving the demon's kneel onto the ground.
Naegi's face was contracted in joy upon watching the display of the sigil's might. However, she soon replaced it with a cold look with no intention to speak up. She then moved beside Kyle and whispered, "I don't think I could hold him more than a minute."
Truthfully, she still had energy left to execute some tricks. However, she knew she couldn't trust Kyle yet and had to save some energy for emergency cases. Moreover, in this exchange battle, the one who spent the most energy was her. Henceforth, she planned to test Kyle's sincerity by feigning to be feeble.
Kyle glanced at her condition and nodded his head lightly. "It's enough."
'It's enough?' Naegi was surprised upon hearing Kyle's confident tone.
'That Thomas guy doesn't look any weaker than the demon I brawled against. Just, what's this guy's ability to possess such confidence?' Naegi mused as she gazed at Kyle intensely.
Kyle could feel a searing stare from his back, almost like wanting to strip him naked.
He coughed, trying to hide his awkwardness. He then pretended to notice it and calmly took a stride forward.
As Kyle's jet-black eyes encountered serene-blue Thomas, a particular memory flashes across his mind.
...
[You've successfully consumed Shadow Aspirer Potion Intermediate Tier, Grade B]
[All your stats attributes have been increased by ten]
"Phew... It feels like my whole body's capacity is enhanced twice." Kyle nodded his head satisfyingly. He could sense his blood pumping more vigorously than usual, as though a dragon had just awakened from its slumber.
However, Kyle knew that his enhanced stats wasn't the most important thing he needed to consider right now. It was the announcement of his successful consumption of a Shadow Aspirer potion that he should take a note of.
Therefore, he quickly checked his status information.
[Name: Kyle Crestfallen] [Race: Human] [Class: None]
[Title: None]
[Level: 7] [Attribute Points: 6]
[Strength: 19] [Agility: 18] [Endurance: 17] [Force: 16]
[Ability]
[Shadow Control: An ability that allows the user to manipulate shadow to a certain extent. The higher the user's force attributes, the more promising the shadow effect will be brought.]
[Enhanced Effect 1: The user's movement speed will be enhanced during walking in the area overcast by a shadow]
[Enhanced Effect 2: The user's shadow had corruption characteristics implanted inside.]
'Ah! So, Force Attributes contribute to one's magical aptitude. It's also possible that the word of force stands for another word of mana.' Kyle finally learned something new, as though a door of a new world finally laid to his mind.
"How do I activate the ability, though?" Kyle was confused. It's not like there was a button to trigger the skill like the game usually presented.
He contemplated for a full minute when something dark flashed across his eyes. At the same time, countless pieces of information began infiltrating his mind in a domineering way.
When Kyle recovered from the daze, he hastily shut his eyes and gathered his thought. He concentrated, and soon, random thoughts that usually appeared inside his mind rapidly vanished, replaced by an image of nothingness.
Dived in such a strange state, Kyle could now hazily sense foreign energy flowing within his body. He then attempted to control that energy by guiding them like a shepherd, and it worked. Kyle felt something was sucked out of his body, and when he opened his eyes, he saw his shadow, which was considerably darker than others' shadows had extended from its original size.
"I didn't expect controlling it would be as easy as breathing," Kyle mumbled in slight disbelief. By only sheer thought, Kyle was able to manipulate his shadow into various forms.
However, the form he could create was clearly limited to a certain degree. With his present force attributes, Kyle estimated the shapes he could imitate ought to be under the size of an average small room.
...
Present
When Thomas was distracted by the noises made by the demon, Kyle swiftly transformed his shadow into several sharp spikes that travelled at high speed.
Although Thomas had speed beyond human's comprehensible, the number of spikes Kyle spent to capture him was a lot. Hence, despite being successful in dodging some of them, the rest of the spikes manages to pierce through Thomas' skin and restrain his movement like planted nails.
Unlike his first attack, Kyle now also added the corruption effect inside his shadow.
Instantly, Thomas felt like his head was being pricked by numerous needles, and various noises of disruption began to ring continuously inside his ears.
Using this chance, Kyle slid over the tiles and directly punched Thomas over the bruise he had made earlier. Kyle didn't stop there and rapidly catapulted his fists in the same place, accumulating the damage repeatedly.
Undeniably, Kyle makes advantage of both his enhanced effect skills to launch an all-out attack.
It was only after a minute did he finally takes a break. When he lifted his eyes to take a look at the result, he was surprised to find the bruise only showed signs of worsening, but no skin scraped off.
'Is his skins made of steel?' Kyle wondered in marvel.
Realizing his attacks inflicted just a little damage, Kyle thought of something before conjuring a dagger from his shadow.
'I don't believe your head could withstand a sharp weapon like a dagger!'
His dagger was just an inch away from puncturing Thomas's head when their gazes interchanged. In that fraction of a second, Kyle sensed his body turn rigid as a feeling of fear prowling his heart.
Following that, an unexpected blur of moonlight landed on the gymnasium's inside through the windows.
"A moonlight? How's this possible?" Naegi muttered in utter incredulity. Due to the dome's opaque trait, it was impossible for any lights to manage to enter. Unless the dome had returned to its original state, or worse, the dome has disappeared!
As she thought of this, she saw the demon smirking in triumph, "I win, little girl."