Luminous arcs of azure light flickered through the burning corridor, distorting the very air itself as they melted concrete into molten sludge.
Tia flew through the corridor with multiple radiant bolts zipping toward her like shooting stars, yet she remained calm. She shifted her balance as she ducked down, sliding down the destroyed floor.
The scorching projectiles soared just above her head, their heat eliciting beads of sweat on her brow and causing her hair to dance.
She pushed with her entire mind, the air propelled by her mind thrusting upward like an invisible force-field umbrella or a shield against the scorching heat, subtly altering the bolts' trajectories.
At that exact moment, the massive orb of plasma she fired crashed into the four soldiers and exploded in an enormous ball of super-heated plasma, empowered by the gun's enchantments.
The corridor responded as if shaken by an earthbound storm. The walls quivered, bolts detonated, and dust cascaded from the disintegrating ceiling, only for a shockwave to disperse the flames.
Rising to her feet, Tia patted down her disheveled clothes, her heart pounding to the rhythm of an invisible drumline as adrenaline and the intoxicating thrill of battle surged through her veins.
All four soldiers were lying on the ground, their armor partially melted and a portion of the protective plates missing. A couple of them twitched involuntarily, like wounded insects making their last bid for life.
'They were good—to think mundane humans without any power could make me sweat...' She couldn't help but feel respect and even awe for the dead soldiers.
Something clanged on the ground.
'Shit!' Her eyes widened in horrified recognition as she saw dark metallic spheres, their halo of luminous indicators ominous in the dim light, roll out from the weakening grasp of one of the fallen soldiers.
The balls jangled across the fractured floor with audible clatters.
"GRENADE!" Acting on pure reflex, Tia propelled herself in the opposite direction with one thread of her mind. Time seemed to slow, the corridor's red warning lights blending into a smeared canvas of urgent color. With the second thread, she mustered her energy and telekinetically thrust the grenades away.
At the same time, the third thread of her mind moved on its own and released a shockwave, cascading down the hallway toward the explosive device.
The grenades blinked one last time, unleashing an explosion of blue plasma that reverberated through the structure, a deluge of pure energy obliterating all in its path.
Tia's kinetic shockwave collided with the explosion, her will working overtime to dissolve the heat and deflect its kinetic force. The blast decelerated but maintained a velocity greater than Tia's capacity to evade.
She didn't give up, pushing her entire will into action, her eyes shining like a pair of stars.
'That maniac!' The expanding plasma cooled and slowed, its pace and temperature reduced by the sheer force of Tia's esper powers. Still, it quickly approached like an unstoppable tide.
The residual force crashed into her body, and her power moved to compensate for the shock. Pain exploded through her entire body momentarily before the needle pierced through her skin, releasing the cooling and soothing cocktail of mana and healing potions into her veins.
With grace, Tia landed on the floor, her burnt skin slowly regenerating, her ruptured muscles stitching together, and her cracked bones mending.
'Good that I have prepared myself.'
The world around her was a realm of devastation: dust swirled in the air, ceilings had given way, and walls lay shattered, exposing additional rooms like wounds.
With her limbs trembling, Tia looked around, clenching her fists as she waited for her body to heal enough to move safely.
'What was he thinking? What if the entire building collapsed on our heads? No, the support walls must be very tough. No one would build a military structure so vulnerable.'
Grimacing slightly from her lingering aches, Tia limped forward, her eyes captivated by the rays of sunlight pouring through the gaping hole in the ceiling.
'How big is the damage?'
She levitated upward, rising through the hole before silently landing on the hole's edge.
Rows of desks lay deserted, bathed in an unsettling red glow emitted by emergency neon lights. Over a dozen bodies in blue military uniforms were lying on the floor, their heads missing—blood splattered everywhere.
The windows were shattered, the light reflecting in the myriad of glass fragments scattered over the floor.
'So this is what she was doing...' Still slightly pissed off, Tia walked forward, crisscrossing around the dead bodies, as she slowly healed—each step she took crushed shards of glass underfoot.
Ding!
//
New quest: The Hunt
Obtain some rare materials usable for crafting!
Location limit: This building
Rewards: 2 x WP; 2 X +1 to a random stat
//
Beep!
<<<<<<>>>>>>
New mission:
Basic Objective --> Reach the Rooftop
Bonus Objective 1 --> Kill a Lieutenant Colonel -> 2 X Esper Point
Bonus Objective 2 --> Kill a Maior -> 1 X Esper Point
Special multiplier: For every minute below 5 minutes you take to reach the rooftop, the rewards will multiply by 1.25
Basic Reward --> 2 x esper point
<<<<<<>>>>>>
'Systems, come on! One of you is saying I should explore, while the other is rushing me to move fast! At least there shouldn't be that much resistance left. Their response team is dead, and Number Nine turned this place into her firing range.'
Tia glanced one last time at the carnage and took a step forward. Even with the dissipating pain surging through her body, she knew she needed to be on the move as the time was quickly running down, leaving only a few minutes to reach her evacuation spot on the roof.