[EXTREME PERCEPTION] (1)

"Shit shit shit!" Loran frantically swung his sickle at a lunging Drone while dodging an attack from a nearby Warrior. He could hear the screams of the other players behind him, but he didn't have the time to be worried about them.

Having been as close to the wall as he was when the Guardians made their entrance, the area around him had been flooded with Drones. The living ones were new enemies, but even the dead ones made fighting more difficult as they covered the ground and made it almost impossible for him to maintain his footing.

Worse still, the Guardians were still digging through the wall, every time they got closer they sent a new wave of Drones flying over the battlefield. The players may have had the ranged advantage before, but now they had given the Iron Ants ammunition and were suffering for it.

"Gah!" Loran cried out as a dead Drone fell from above, striking him on the head. He needed to prioritize the attacks of the living Drones because of how easily they could cripple him, but being hit by the falling bodies was still dangerous, and the Warriors' blades could still carve chunks out of him.

'Focus...I need to focus!' Loran was panicking. Things escalated too quickly. Too much deafening noise, too much information to process, and too much going so very wrong. He was panicking worse than ever before and could feel his mind starting to spiral in on itself.

'Focus!'

But he couldn't stop. Every time he tried to collect himself he slowed down and another attack grazed him. They were just glancing blows, but then he took a big slash along his leg and lost nearly a quarter of his HP, making him panic more.

'Faster, faster!'

He stopped trying to calm down. His senses blurred together. It was impossible to distinguish one enemy from another. He was no longer thinking, his body was just reacting. His years of gaming and virtual combat experience turned what should be random, mindless flailing into an unstable defense against the Iron Ants surrounding him.

Loran's eyes became unfocused as he kept fighting, barely aware of what was happening around him.

...

He wasn't sure where he was anymore. Was he still fighting? It was hard to tell, it was like his mind had been completely detached from his body. Every time he tried to regain his senses the feeling of being overwhelmed came crashing right back into him.

'I...Just breathe Loran...Just breathe...'

He forced his hyperventilating lungs to steady.

'Just take it one step at a time. I can smell...'

...The guts of a dead Iron Ant.

'I can taste...'

...Blood and dirt in his mouth.

'I can hear...'

... The stomping of the Mountain Goats. The cries of the Iron Ant Warriors. The collision of iron against chitin.

'I can feel...'

...The gravel crunch under his feet. His armor against his skin. The grip of his sickle in his right hand. The sharp edge of Warrior blades cutting through his armor.

He opened his eyes, unsure of when he had closed them.

'Focus.'

He had taken a lot of damage and was down to 25 HP. Numerous cuts covered his body, especially along his Bladed Glove. He was nearly out of SP after using [SPRINT] uninterrupted for as long as he wasn't conscious. His hand was sore from gripping his sickle so hard. Loran wanted to heal himself, but he couldn't afford to divide his attention when surrounded by this many enemies.

He knocked aside a jumping Drone with his Bladed Glove. A Warrior swung at his neck and he managed to avoid it by an inch. He turned and gutted the insect with his sickle. Tilting his head he avoided another falling Drone, crouching down and stabbing it through the neck once he noticed it was alive. Another Warrior came up behind him, blades raised. He waved his hand and knocked it back with a burst of unfocused mana.

'Focusfocusfocus-'

It felt like his mind was being sharpened to a razor's edge. He took in the overwhelming amount of information and barely gave it a conscious thought. It's like he was skimming through his own senses, disregarding anything that wasn't important and only acknowledging something long enough to decide if it was an attack, an opening, or an ally.

It was a familiar feeling.

In other games he would look out over huge battlefields, taking in every scrap of information and reading the flow of battle. It all moved together, and he could see the points where the pressure was at its peak, where he could cast a spell and decimate the enemy forces. This is what he was best at, watching from the rear and using attack magic like artillery strikes to support his allies, or even just fight on his own as long as he could keep his distance. One time he nearly managed to defeat a small army on his own just by holding the high ground.

Here in the thick of the battle he couldn't see enough to make any grand predictions, but his ability to read the Iron Ants was getting faster and faster, getting easier once he started thinking of their attacks like troop movements. He was seeing one step ahead, then two, then three, and soon his ability to read his opponent's movement was second only to the unnaturally talented Alexx.

'Focusfocusfoc-ugh!'

Unfortunately, the pace of the battle was putting tremendous strain on his mind, much like how he felt when trying to create earth magic. He needed to fall back before his concentration broke, but he couldn't find an opening. He didn't have time to think of another option, so he kept fighting, pushing his mind to its limit and beyond, until...

*DING!*

'...What?'

The notification sound chimed, piercing through the roar of the battle, and a few seconds later everything was calm. The battle was still raging, and he was still moving like before, still reacting at his peak, but it felt...easier. As if he didn't need to concentrate anymore, as if the predictions were being made for him.

'This feels...isn't this like what happened to Soze?'

Feeling like he suddenly had more breathing room, Loran opened his notification menu.

[AN ABNORMAL PATTERN IN YOUR BEHAVIOR HAS BEEN NOTICED BY THE PIONEER SYSTEM]

[PERFORMING SCENARIO ANALYSIS]

[...]

[AFTER ANALYSING YOUR SITUATION, EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS, AND MEMORIES, THE PIONEER SYSTEM HAS RECOGNIZED YOUR ACTIONS AS WORTHY OF A UNIQUE SKILL]

[...]

[THE UNIQUE SKILL {Extreme Focus} HAS BEEN GENERATED]

A Unique Skill.

Just like how the Pioneer System decided that Soze's blood-curdling rage was worthy of being made into a Skill, it had done the same for Loran and his mind-numbing level of concentration. Just like how [MANA SENSE] and [DANGER SENSE] took the difficult processes of sensing energy and one's environment and became passive Skills, this new Skill was able to take away the burden of his intense concentration to let him focus on other things.

But most shocking of all, was that the notifications didn't end there.

[THE UNIQUE SKILL {Extreme Focus} HAS EFFECTS AND ABILITIES THAT OVERLAP WITH FIVE(5) OTHER SKILLS]

[OVERLAPPING SKILLS WILL BE MERGED WITH THE UNIQUE SKILL FOR A CHANCE TO IMPROVE THE SKILL'S EFFECTS]

[...]

[THE SKILLS {Analyse} {Danger Sense} {Goat Whisperer} {Mana Sense} AND {Sixth Sense} HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY MERGED WITH THE UNIQUE SKILL {Extreme Focus}]

[{Extreme Focus} HAS BECOME THE UNIQUE SKILL {Extreme Perception}]

'Merging Skills?' he thought with a small sense of wonder. 'What does that even mea-SHIT!?'

Loran jerked to the right as a Warrior seemed to come at him from nowhere. Whatever the Skill was doing for him, it didn't stop him from getting distracted. He was currently surrounded by three Warriors and at least a dozen Drones. Even with [EXTREME FOCUS] and [SPRINT] he was just barely fast enough to keep up with their attacks.

'I can look at this thing later, I need to get back to the ledge.'

He was in a better position now than he was before, but he doubted that a single Skill, no matter how powerful, was going to keep him alive while completely surrounded like this. He needed to retreat, figure out what was happening, and then he could get back into the fight.

Loran dashed forward, gutting a Warrior with his sickle while blasting another with fire magic to create an opening. He leapt into the air, letting the blades of the remaining Warrior cut into him as he aimed for the back of a Mountain Goat. Once there he quickly jumped to the back of another goat, carefully avoiding the battle below as he made his way to the canyon wall. He started healing his wounds as he ran.

'It's affecting my magic too?'

Casting fire magic was easier, but he already knew that [EXTREME PERCEPTION] was improving his ability to concentrate. What was more surprising was how quickly he was healing himself. He was currently using 30 MP despite the fact that 20 should be the limit of his Intelligence.

'It said Mana Sense got merged into this new Skill, I guess it's boosting my magic through that?' It didn't entirely make sense to him, but it was the only explanation he could think of for how he could suddenly get this huge boost. He wasn't going to argue, but this just made him more desperate to find out more about his new Skill.

Leaping across the backs of the Mountain Goats and dodging attacks from a few Warrior ants, Loran quickly reaches the canyon wall.

There were no footholds or actual path up to the ledge. The high Strength players could make the jump in a single bound, while those with high Dexterity and Agility could use momentum and the smaller cracks in the rock to effectively run up the wall.

For some reason, Loran was the only one who struggled to get up the wall despite having the stats to do so. Some aspect of kicking off the natural footholds in the stone was just too difficult for him. He had wanted to use earth magic to make a few actual foot and hand holds, but there was no time to do so while still being able to rest. He had needed several tries to get up there before the siege started, but if he screwed up this time he might not survive the fall.

'Okay, I just need to get back up there without falling and getting trampled to death below.' He took a deep breath. 'No pressure.'

With as much speed as he can muster, Loran hits a flat portion of the wall and kicks himself upward. His momentum has him moving parallel with the flat surface as he rises higher.

With his mind exceptionally clear thanks to [EXTREME PERCEPTION] Loran notices a small crack just in time to use it as a foothold and launches himself higher. He is still moving upward, but his body was starting to pull away from the rock face.

The last step was the hardest part. He was about 10 feet away from the ledge. One more jump is all that he would need, but his forward momentum was almost gone. If he angled this kick wrong he would just push himself away from the wall, flying out and over the battle before crashing down.

He sees a small ledge, just barely enough space for him to kick off of.

He lands on the last foothold...and slips as [EXTREME PERCEPTION] abruptly cuts out. His concentration breaks at the last possible moment as his head starts to throb from exertion. He's headed for the ledge, but he doesn't have enough momentum. He reaches out, but his hand is still a foot away from anything he can grab.

"HOW ARE YOU SO BAD AT THIS!?"

Soze quickly reaches out and grabs his hand just as he was about to fall. With a hard tug, Loran's sore and bloody body is pulled up onto the ledge.

Loran is breathing heavily. "TH-THANK YOU!" he shouts. He's not sure if Soze heard him, as the older player gets up and moves to a different position on the ledge to continue fighting. Loran pulled himself away from the ledge, sat against the wall, and opened his menu.

'Okay, well I'm not dead yet. Let's see what this damn Skill is.'