Chereads / An Intoxicating Reality / Chapter 2 - Styles

Chapter 2 - Styles

The sun darkens as the two stick together within a patch of beautiful and bewitching Iris flowers.

A lady laying next to a man tugging his face to her protruding chest, curves reflecting that of a pair of half moons. The sleeping beauty's eyes were closed, her face expressing tiredness, peace and slight anxiety.

A young man who was well aware the entire time kept his mind at peace, he felt conflicted. The apple he thought was either poisoned or had harmful drugs. But in the end, it had turned out to be used to keep her company during the clement evening. He sensed that the woman had feelings of sadness just from her expressions all the way down to her breathing which had an irregular tempo. The sadness he had also experienced during the hellish year...

he could sympathise…

'Sigh.'

---

Time had passed quite swiftly…

It has become morning…

Flores was still peacefully sleeping without a care in the world.

Roan had gone through the uneasy and unfamiliar forest in search of food and water. The trees were thick and its roots penetrated across the dirt like an interweaving outfit knitted together and were also attached to other trees. Foreign plants shaped like spirals, birds in the vicinity flocking away, horned red rabbits fleeing and a breath of fresh air which cannot be compared to the industrial and modern smell of Earth.

As he walks further and further along the unusual plane of existence. He comes across a small footpath trailing back to what looks like a wooden hut built oddly and without much thought into its appearance.

However, as he kept observing around the area, he eyed a water way system using hollowed small red trees wrapped around with strong and durable purple and green spiral plants to connect one to the other. It was an extremely long waterway system taking up to about 400m worth of distance.

Roan then walks into the hut exploring the place. It had open rectangular windows, an old fashioned looking piece of furniture made of persimmon coloured wood that looks like a cabinet near the front of the hut and on top. On top, It had a picture of a small girl with red bobbed hair, pale skin, ruby-like eyes, a red school dress with a logo on the top right revealing an image of a tiger, a pair of black leathered school shoes and an extraordinarily happy grin with her arms overhanging the people next to her which seemed to be her schoolmates or academy mates.

But what made the photo more striking was that the heads of the fellow classmates were cracked and removed with a tint of red blood stains.

He then looked at other furniture around the hut, there was a bed kept in the back right corner with neatly and cleaned white bedsheets, kitchen counters placed in the back left corner with dish racks, knife racks and small chunks of firewood, and lastly, an ordinary wooden table in the middle with two wooden chairs sitting on either ends of the table.

It looked like a place made for couples.

But before he could look for anything else within the hut, Flores walks in stealthily.

"You are quite rude to blatantly barge into someone else's humble abode?" She asked with a grin and with slight mockery.

"It looks, absolutely phenomenal-" He said with a positive tone.

'It looks a little shabby and obsolete though.' He thought.

"That's great!" Flores started to dance around in front of Roan like a ballerina. She twirled and swirled against the air current of the hut and ended on her kitchen counter. She asks.

"Would you like to have breakfast with me?"

Roan looked around to see where she put her ingredients, it was nowhere to be found except for a small glass container which looked to have salt.

"What are you making?" He said casually.

"Red Rabbit Chops." She said with a low voice.

"But where are the ingredients?"

"I don't... have them yet-" She looked slightly embarrassed as she forgot that her ingredients were taken each day in small increments just to get her by.

"Oh... so... are you going to be hunting?" Questioned Roan.

"Yes... would you care to join me?" Flores said with excitement.

"I would like to see how you hunt." Curiously stated by Roan.

Both Roan and Flores started to walk along a different footpath leading to what looked to be an infestation of horned red rabbits. But even when they moved closer and closer to the horned red rabbits, they didn't seem to find anything out of the ordinary and still kept eating spiral plants. It's as if they didn't even sense their presence

And then suddenly... Flores' body started to light a faint, dark and ominous aura…

[Curse Mode]

At the moment, a faint purple coloured smoke arose from the tip of her fingers which is now pointing to an adult horned red rabbit.

[Curse Style: An Unending Nightmare]

The smoke began to fly at an unnaturally fast speed seeping into the fur of the rabbit and then suddenly... It fell down with ears dropped, eyes rolled and mouth foaming.

Roan looked at this spectacle with an amazed expression. He then whispered to Flores and asked what she did just now.

"What did you just do?" Roan said while amazed with the spectacle.

"Oh this is what you call a Style" She spoke as she casually pinched the neck of the horned red rabbit with her right index and middle finger and carried it over towards Roan.

"So I assume this world is filled with different types of magical powers?"

Roan asked a bit nervously and with a cold sweat running across the back of his neck.

"You are indeed correct Roan." She puffs her chest up as she said that.

Flores begins to look at Roan with expectancy and excitement to see if he would reveal what style he has.

"Um... Flores... why are you looking at me so weirdly?"

"It's because I also want to know what Style you have obtained." She said whilst tippy toing towards Roan's face.

"What makes you so sure that I have the power of a Style?" As he backs off a little bit.

"Its because everyone that lived till the age of 16 will naturally awaken their power with the help of the Info."

"The Info?"

Suddenly, a bright blue neon coloured holographic panel appeared in front of

him out of nowhere.

"Hah?!"

[Roan Williams][HP: 140/140][MP: 40/40]

[Age: 22]

[Level: 1]

[Strength: 5][Speed: 7][Endurance: 8][Intelligence: 10][Willpower: 7]

[Style: Music, Poison]

<[Music Style]>

[Instrument Creation]--[Rank: EX]--[MP: 2]

[Description: User summons a desired instrument they know how to play. The higher the proficiency, the faster the summoning of the instrument, +0% speed]

[String of Nightmares]--[Rank: E+]--[MP: 5]

[Description: User must play a sorrowful or creepy musical piece causing nearby enemies' all stats to reduce by 1%]

[String of Dreams]--[Rank: E+]--[MP: 5]

[Description: User must play a happy or extreme musical piece causing nearby allies' all stats to increase by 5%]

[Passive: Rhythmic Echo]-- [Rank: F-]--[MP: 0]

[Description: User automatically buff themselves 10% all stats if they move with a consistent tempo]

<[Poison Style]>

[Toxic field]-- [Rank: D-]--[MP: 1 | 10 second]

[Description: User creates a mist of toxins causing nearby enemies to receive 0.5% damage per 10 seconds and reducing their speed by 10% across a 10m radius.]

[Toxic Arrow]--[Rank: E+]--[MP: 5]

[Description: User forms a green arrow that deals 20 damage with their hands and can point towards a desired direction]

[Passive: Poison Immunity]--[Rank: F-]--[Immunity: 10%]

<[UNKNOWN]>