Ghostblade Asura
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"Huh!" My eyes go wide and I quickly blink them and pretend like she didn't just say that. Suddenly, Tatsuya breaks in. The white-robed man leans in close and puts a hand on our shoulders, steering us away from the others.
"Okay guys! Let's give our heroes some space! Lin's hurt, let him get some air!" He says loudly. As the others move away, he begins to whisper, "Alright you two. Nice job out there. Lin, that was some brilliant shot-calling. And as for you, girl? Those moves…flawless, like watching the warrior goddess herself. You guys earned the reward, but I don't like some of the looks those newcomers are giving you. I think you guy should skedaddle! Go on, get out of here!"
"W-What? But Mr. Tatsuya, we can help you level! It's not fair that we're the only ones to enjoy the reward after we all suffered…" Yin protests but the priest simply splays his hands out and pushes us into the alleyway while looking over his shoulder. Several other people wave and wink, blocking the view of any onlookers.
"It's fine. Listen, you should temporarily leave our party. That way, when the others come, we can invite one of them in and prove to them that you're no longer with us. Otherwise…I think they might give you a hard time. Just get out of here for now. If we meet up later on in the dungeon, I'll be counting on you to help us!" Tatsuya replies while giving us one last shove. For some reason my eyes are a bit wet, but I hold out my hand. The man shakes it.
"Thanks, Tatsuya. Tell everyone else as well. You guys didn't fight too bad." I say. Yin gives me a look.
"Hey it was their first time!" She says indignantly, "You should praise them a little more!"
"Hahaha, I'm sure from Lin, that's high praise! Alright, get a move on, you two. Or else it'll be hard to explain if they see!" Tatsuya turns around, whistling as his hands behind his back shoo us off. Exchanging glances, Yin and I have no choice but to accept his offer and disappear into the alleyway. Running off, my mind is a bit distraught.
Damn, I feel kind of bad that I used them as bait now. But…in the end, we got the System Skill! Now the question is, just how powerful is it?
#
"You don't have to pretend to be okay, you know?" Yin says to me with a sniff as we hustle down the side alley. Behind us, the noises of the crowd get further away. "I saw him, he really laid into you, with full plate armor on! Where did he even get stuff like that?"
"Trust me…I've had worse." I smile ruefully. The beautiful girl at my side doesn't believe me. It's true, I haven't got smashed quite like that in a while, but compared to being torn apart, or boiled alive this is nothing. "Alright, I think we've gotten far enough away. Hopefully those newcomers don't give Tatsuya and Andie too much trouble for letting us go."
"Aish…so many problems for this thing!" Yin's hand comes up and she reads off a description. ���System Skill-"
"Shhh!" I hastily reach forwards and cover her mouth. "Not so loud! System Skills are usually locked to a specific Hunter, but people will still get angry if they now you have something they don't!"
"O-Okay, okay!" Yin squeaks as she yanks my hand off her lips. "Sheesh, you're so careful, Lin! Though to be honest…you're right sometimes." She smiles coyly, acknowledging that her viewpoint has changed. Nodding at her, I lean in close.
"So what is it? This System Skill of yours?" I rub my hands together nervously. Why am I sweating? I've seen hundreds of System Skills from way higher level places than this. But even still…this is insanely early to get one. If it's useful, we hit the jackpot!
"System Skill: Ghostblade Asura!" She tells me the name and my breathing grows heavy. My mouth goes dry and I try to swallow. It comes out as a gulp. That sounds strong! Yin looks at me strangely, as if questioning whether I should really be so excited. "Concentrate to mark an enemy with each strike on the same target and then activate this ability to summon the power of an Asura to slay your foes! Additionally, gain bonus experience towards your skill with all sword class weapons!" She squints, before moving her eyes away from the invisible screen in the air. "Is this good?"
"Holy…" I'm at a loss for words. Grabbing her shoulders, I shake her roughly, losing my cool, "Is this good? Are you kidding me! What deity fell in love and blessed your luck to be like this! Go on, tell me so I can pray to them too! The power of an Asura? And it has a built-in passive which helps you learn sword mastery!" My breath runs out and I heavily gulp in air as Yin's head bobs back and forth in my hands, "Thou who art in heaven, this lowly mortal has sinned and worshipped a false god all this time! Please allow this sinner to humbly convert and bless me with the same goddamn luck!"
"L-Lin! Stop, you're going to shake the experience out of me!" Yin breaks out of my grip with a glare. Smoothing a strand of hair back, she works on retying her ponytail which has come loose in the epic battle. "So it's good? It was worth it?"
"Uh...how do I put this?" I mutter to myself. "Let's just say, that in a little bit, when System Skills become more common, this is the kind of ability you wouldn't expect to appear for a long time. We'll have to test it, but an Asura is a terrifying monster. Far stronger than anything we've encountered so far. If you truly can summon even a tiny portion of its power, then this System Skill will become a godlike talisman against evil! Like seriously, I thought you'd get the ability to summon a little water-ball or something, not a demonic ability!"
"Ohoho so in other words…this is when I finally become more powerful than you!" Yin's face grows happy and while she says something that sounds kind of stupid, I'm so goddamn ecstatic as well that I don't even say anything. Just hug her tightly. She gives a soft gasp and then sinks into me. Even after a strenuous battle, as a Hunter, she has a pleasant smell. Or maybe that's just Yin. "Hahaha I told you I was going to be protecting you soon!"
"Uhuh yup! I never doubted it!" Smoothing my expression, I pull away and take her hand. "Let's go try it out!" I'm genuinely delighted that she received something so amazing. It's almost too good to be true. For a second, all the pressure of knowing the truth, that we're all probably going to die, it fades away. I shouldn't expect this to save us. In my past life someone probably got this System Skill too and it didn't save them as far as I know. But I want to believe in something.
I want to believe in her.
"Alright! Time for the dead to taste my Ghostblade!" Yin and I run off to find some zombies.
#
*Shing!*
*Shing!*
*Shing!*
Yin's slashes cut into the Daemonic Hellspawn with a vengeance.
Is it me or is her swordsmanship already starting to look better?
Three lines open up in the toad-like creature's stomach. I'm not sure if it's a beast brought over by the System, like the Daemonic Minotaur, or if it's simply the result of the virus corrupting some sort of tadpole in the sewers of Tiendas City.
"Activate it! Let's see what you can do!" I say, watching eagerly as the man-sized red toad-beast, which Yin told me was Lvl. 14, angrily shoots out its tongue at her. Dodging backwards, Yin snaps her fingers. A crimson glow appears in her eyes and a wisp of dark smoke leaks out from the back of her neck as there's a strange noise.
*Shing!*
An invisible blade slash appears from nowhere, like an Asura's blade ripping through the void! Each of the three cuts on the Hellspawn's belly split open deeply! Guts start falling out as it croaks one last time.
"Ribbit!"
Then Yin leaps over and plunges her sword into its soft head.
"Ri-"
The creature flops over, dead. Yin withdraws her blade and turns to me with a huge grin on her face.
"I learned Basic Swordsmanship already. Is that like your Basic Combat Skill?" She asks while flourishing the blade to get the slime off. The impressive strength of a Lvl. 15 Hunter is enough to instantly flick the toad's guts off.
"Pretty much, though it only applies to swords. Your System Skill must have given you enough bonus experience to trigger the System to give you the passive. Do you feel…different?" I explain. Yin slants her head as she moves about strangely, testing her fingers.
"Yea…YEA! I think I know how to…!" She whirls suddenly, disappearing and then reappearing next to me with her sword on my neck. A perfect swordsman's lunge. "Oh my god! I actually did that!"
Tch
I gingerly put up two fingers to pinch the blade and remove it from under my chin.
"Nice. This will make things a lot easier. Don't get overconfident though. The passive System Skills only assist your movements, you're still in control in the end. Also, how much mana did you use? That little blue bar under your level?"
"Currently I'm at 70%. That sound right?" Yin asks. I put a finger to my lips while thinking.
"Hmm…well, mana is just a representation of your body's spiritual willpower. Once it runs out, you'll be in danger of passing out or even dying if you continue to use System Skills. That being said, the bar isn't absolute. I've seen people use skills even when the System no longer is capable of measuring the amount of mana you have left. If you have a strong enough willpower it's possible." Musing to myself, I don't notice Yin's eyes gaze suspiciously at me when I mention I've seen other people using System Skills before. "Anyways, my guess is that your limit for activating Ghostblade Asura right now is about ten hits. Make sure you don't try to apply more marks than that or else you could kill yourself by mana exhaustion."
"Hehe…I wonder what it looks like if I hit something ten times first?"