Quick but devastating. That was the single phrase on everyone's mind. Jayo the tycoon was easily dismantled before given the chance to react. Then everyone realized who got the first hit.
"Wtf??? How is he so fast?"
"From what I saw, all he did was tap the opponent yet this much damage was caused"
The crowd continued to mutter until Jayo regained his bearings.
"How dare you!"
Being helpless against an opponent was fine if only one or two people were watching. Right now he had a whole crowd staring at him. This was damaging to his pride and he wanted revenge badly but was too scared. This kid overwhelmed him very badly and no matter how much he thought about it, could think of no counter-offense. Jayo simply stared at Leo for the longest time.
"Boy. If you continue to humiliate me, you'll regret it!"
Leo only shook his head in response. If a big corporation decided to move on a random civilian, the government would not stand by. Especially not when such a move put its prestige into question.
Jayo recognized this as well as he turned embarrassed and immediately got up.
"Let's settle this right here and now!"
The kid did not say anything else as he rushed at him. How cool would it be if he could actually slow down time at will? He instead began to run circles around Jayo. That produced a similar effect but he ran slow enough not to rewind time by accident.
The punches were assertive and explosive but shaky and full of doubt. He weaved through them and landed a few taps. He couldn't join different modes together in pieces. They had to be used fully in combination with one another. He was too close for sharpshooter to be effective which meant that he couldn't engage as a Brawler. As such, he was stuck as a Sprinter with limited combat options.
To already possess an overwhelming advantage over regular WMRs but still think you were limited.. Perspectives were truly relative.
He dodged a tanky uppercut as warning bells went off in his head.
A tanky uppercut could only come from a tanky individual. He looked up and saw a behemoth of a man. Bigger then that dude who held Cat by the breast. He could keenly guess that this individual was a Double-Archetype Magician-Warrior. A blue energy covered the massive arms, stopping just at the beginning of the forearm. Weird canisters that looked like fuel capsules covered the waist, were outfitted on the shoulders, back of the hands, and at the ankles. They fed into the suit and powered up the brute's attacks.
A Magician with the brute strength of a Warrior. What were its long range capabilities?
A giant laser bounced off his suit but there was no dent. The laser ricocheted into the distance but arced back towards him. An enormous amount of blue liquid was being drained as the monster struggled with something.
He had used his Warrior traits several times now, but because he rewound time as a Sprinter, no one remembered it. But every time he did that, he was unsure of what type of attention it would attract. He did not want to attract an expert that he could not defeat, therefore he had to counter spell with spell.
He had always just thrown the bulk of his weight into his attacks, therefore he had no experience with manipulating his traits. As the laser was about to hit him, he threw both hands out, palm facing forward, and erected a type of spatial confinement zone. He layered layers of space upon itself to attempt to slow it down as much as he could.
The distinct feeling of two forces reaching out to each other. One supplying and the other receiving, was very nuanced. There was a remote connection from the supplier that was attempt to reach the receiver. By really focusing on it, he could manipulate that connection even if the influence itself was quite small.
The laser swerved along with his hands and slammed down upon the gigantic tower. It pierced the broad shoulders easily similar to a knife cutting through butter. It continued straight towards the buildings to the south because it had lost its connection.
An invisible force promptly prevented it from going further. It disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared.
"Spatial Manipulator!"
The giant was shocked to the core.
"Brother?? You're here! You can't beat him"
The truth of the matter dawned upon Jayo as he turned pale. The biggest backer he had, his older brother, failed to land an attack on the kid and even got beaten instead.
"You!!! You're trespassing on Rookie territory"
Both instructors subdued the monster with ease and one of them brought him somewhere else.
Leo had also disappeared at that point. So did Cat. Both of them were venturing deeper into the Academy. He was sprinting and she was running. That incident had given him a few ideas and he wanted to test it out. Spatial confinement zone could theoretically speed things up the more influence he exerted over the matter.
If he focused on the layers of Space as a Rogue, he might be able to layer more of them in the same amount of space. This could increase his ease of ability. If he focused as a Magician, he could more easily manipulate the flow of information within the space. If he focused as a Warrior, he could more easily force things to his will.
SCZ. Magician-Archetype!
His speed didn't change but his form had become more fluid to take advantage of the stacking layers compounding inward on himself. He continued to sprint, oblivious to the actual effect of the change until a dagger penetrated the zone. He could feel the remote connection attempting to reach out to the dagger but he immediately separated both and examined the dagger.
Rogue Archetype. Long distance method. A sniper shot but was it meant at him? He was moving too fast for anyone to get a lock on his position. Maybe he just happened to intercept it on its way out?
He could faintly see the trail of disturbed space and threw it back in the exact same direction. A few moment later, two more daggers appeared out of nowhere. They were fast but he was slower! He threw them both back when ten more appeared. There was a slim girl on a brick wall in the distance.
He rushed towards her as she retreated. Cat was angry for some reason but still followed. The speed at which the girl threw the daggers was insane, but all things ground to a halt inside the SCZ.
That's when he wondered about the fuel consumption of the SCZ. He examined himself physically and mentally and didn't find anything strange. Hold on! His body was fine but his Nano-Suit was self-generating something.
Upon deeper inspection, he noticed that his Nano-Suit was infinitely self-generating essence. This was the highest, purest, densest, most intricately linked version of the supernatural phenomenon that allowed an Operator to physically apply their traits on the real world.
With a devilish smile and a face hidden through shadows, he kicked up the SCZ to a tremendous degree and through the Warrior-Archetype, closed the distance in a few seconds. Breaking out of the Magician-Archetype did not suddenly revert the SCZ back to its original stacking form, but kept the inwardly compounding nature.
The abrupt change to the Warrior-Archetype changed the properties of the SCZ. Cutting through the air without resistance, he picked up the Rogue even while ignoring all the counter-movements.
She was employing clones, deceptions, sleight of dash, and pseudo-teleportations, but his hand homed in on her as though these were parlor tricks that merely delayed the inevitable.
He suddenly realized that this could be considered an uncommon trait for Warriors. Lack of doubt/Fearlessness. Deceiving the senses relied on preying upon the opponents weakness and exploiting their mental instability. By not having any, the Rogue looked more like she was zig zagging.
Although difficult to catch, it wasn't exactly impossible.
"Who are you??"
The Rogue was scared and horrified. She was considered an extreme genius among her peers. She didn't rely on speed, precision, or lethality. Her illusions basically meant she was untouchable. Yet someone acted as though they ignored all of it and successfully intercepted what was her best ability.
He didn't look at her but glanced at Cat who was deep in though.
"The first trait is always random. It's called the 'Foundation' trait. There are 9 that are so common that the majority of the world have them. Additional traits may follow after that but will always be similar to the Foundation. They make up what we know as Archetypes. There is a chance that a more powerful 'Advanced' trait will appear after the Foundation trait. If there was a possibility of it showing and it doesn't, there is an astronomical chance of additional Foundation traits appearing. If there's no possibility of an Advanced trait showing, there is a super low chance of additional Foundation traits showing up"
"Are you a Rogue? You sure know a lot!!!!!"