Heroes [VI]

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" I exclaimed, slowly walking back as Michael copied a random Origin Card from a Cadet nearby. "That's not fair!"

He shot me an amused glare. "You and your friends used to gang up on me. Everyday you all made my life hell. That was not fair."

"Oh, my god!" I cried out. "Just let it go, dude! You were bullied? Oh, boo-hoo! Everyone's got a tough life! Move on!"

I saw an eyebrow twitching on his face.

"So, you're not even going to take accountability for your actions?!"

"What accountability?!" I screamed. "I never bothered you until you kissed my girlfriend! In all honesty, I'm the victim here!"

Michael's jaw dropped. He looked like he was too stunned to speak. "First, your girlfriend kissed me! And second, as I said, you guys didn't even like each other!"

"What does that matter?!" I argued. "What's mine is still mine! You were in the wrong for taking something that didn't belong to you!"

"Listen to you! Using words like belong, taking, yours… Do you see people as nothing but objects?!"

I was about to make a joke. But before I could, he aimed an open palm at me, and a fiery explosion erupted from his hand.

I reacted just in time, stepping back as the explosion sent dust swirling all around me. With my sword raised, I was ready to act.

Just then, Michael shot out from the cloud of smoke in front of me, his blade moving too fast for me to block. I quickly used «Flash Step» to retreat again.

But the protagonist had already anticipated it. 

He extended his arm behind him and unleashed another fiery explosion from his palm, using the force of the detonation to propel himself toward me like a rocket.

My eyes went wide but I managed to roll out of the way in time. Springing back to my feet, I cast a fire arrow and threw it at him.

Michael once again deflected the arrow with the flat of his blade and closed in before pointing an open palm at me.

Wait a second, I thought inwardly. I know this power.

I did indeed.

If I wasn't mistaken, the Origin Card Michael had copied was «Explosion». It belonged to one of the characters in the main cast of the game – Ray Warner.

A smile appeared on my lips.

Michael's innate power was problematic to deal with.

Not only could he steal anyone's Origin Card he liked, but he also possessed far more Spirit Essence than most Awakened at his Soul Rank.

So, if he copied your power, he could use it longer and more recklessly than you since he didn't need to worry about depleting his Essence pool.

However, his ability also had a downside.

When he copied a power, he also inherited its flaws. And what he couldn't steal was the owner's understanding of their ability and their skill to use it.

After all, the moment someone awakens their Origin Card, they spend their entire lives honing and understanding every nuance and flaw of their power.

So, while being able to copy someone's Origin Card might seem like a cheat, it wasn't. You only get a general grasp of the ability, but you miss the finer details.

Like how Michael didn't know that he could only use three explosions in quick succession before there comes a fifteen-second cooldown.

I knew that because... Well, I know everything that was told in the game.

So when Michael unleashed another explosion, I wasn't deterred. Instead of backing down, I charged head-first, moving around his arm.

The explosion went off right beside my face, the deafening noise from the blast ringing in my ears, but I pressed on.

Michael reacted with startling agility, turning to face me, palm raised, ready for another blast.

But this time... nothing happened.

He frowned, confused for a moment before realizing it must have been a drawback. That brief second of hesitation was all the time in the world I needed to jump up and bash my knee into his face.

Thakk—!!

The impact resounded with a sickening thud. 

And before he could recover, I was already preparing my next move. I raised my leg and was about to deliver a low front kick.

Michael, though disoriented and bleeding a bit from his nose, instinctively reached to grab my foot.

But I twisted my leg mid-attack, striking the side of his head by executing a flawless question mark kick.

His head snapped to the side as he tumbled and folded in pain. Anyone else would've dislocated their jaw, but this bastard of course wasn't that easy to break.

I used the chance while he was still bent over to bring my blade down on him, but he straightened up to deflect the blow at the very last second.

Our blades clashed a few more times, sending flying sparks in the air, but none of us could deal a decisive blow.

Since I was using a miao dao, I had a longer reach than Michael's longsword. I was able to keep him at bay and not let him get too close.

Michael, however, was able to block and parry all my attacks with inhuman precision.

As he deflected another one of my slashes and pushed me back on my feet, I gritted my teeth and grunted:

"How did you even get this better at fighting? Just a few days ago, you couldn't even throw a punch!"

Well, I knew how he got better.

The Demon Prince living in his head, Xaldreth, gave him the method to create a new kind of Mindscape Drug.

Mindscape Drug is a type of alchemical pill or potion that alters your consciousness and places you in a lucid dream-like state where you can access a personal mental plane that belongs to you alone.

It's like a private dream space that's entirely under your control.

There, you can recall almost anything from the depths of your subconscious.

It could be something as trivial as a random online article you skimmed over this morning, or a fleeting moment in your childhood that you couldn't remember quite well.

What makes this drug extraordinary, though, is its ability to greatly distort your perception of time.

In the mental plane, time moves at a much slower pace than in reality. While only one hour passes in the real world, you could spend up to three hours in that dream state.

This means that every time you take the drug, you effectively gain two extra hours for every real hour. 

It may not seem like much, until you consider that you'll get an extra twelve hours every single week.

Over a month, all that extra time adds up to sixty additional hours.

In theory, if used for only one hour daily for a year, you'd gain the equivalent of forty-five extra days.

Forty-five extra days in a year that no one else in the world experiences but you.

Forty-five extra days to practice new skills, learn new knowledge, explore your creativity, or even hone your combat skills.

Sure, you won't improve your muscle memory and reflexes, but you could refine your battle arts and techniques.

Because of all these implications, the Mindscape Drug became an instant hit as soon as its formula was perfected and it was launched into the public market.

Obviously, there were a few downsides to it.

For example, you could get addicted to it – hence the word drug in the name.

Secondly, people weren't happy with so little time distortion. They wanted more. Of course, they did. People are greedy.

And lastly, they complained about being all alone in their Mindscapes.

While you could conjure anything using your imagination as long as you subconsciously know about it – items, books, and even people – none of it was real.

Even the people were just a figment of your imagination.

But the drug was still new, and there were already multi-billion companies trying to create a united consciousness space so that people could dream together. Like a very realistic VRMMO game.

Some pharmaceutical and alchemical companies were also trying to perfect the drug even more — trying to enhance and alter its effects.

But they didn't know someone had already done that.

And that person was right before me.

Michael, with the help and guidance of the Sixth Demon Prince, Xaldreth, had already enhanced the Mindscape Drug's formula — boosting the measly 300% time distortion to 3000%.

That meant, for every one hour in the real world, he could spend thirty hours in his Mindscape. For one full real day, he would be living thirty days in the dream.

So, on his way here to the academy, Michael not only enhanced the Mindscape Drug, he also spent many dream months being trained by the great Demon Prince, Xaldreth himself.

Oh, yes.

Since the ancient Demon practically lives in his head, Xaldreth also shares Michael's dream space.

But of course, a drug that distorts the user's perception that much takes a toll on their psyche, so Michael couldn't train as much as he wanted to, but Xaldreth still made him a skilled fighter.

Skilled enough to hold his own against me – A Theosbane. A noble who had trained all his life.

And if that wasn't all, Xaldreth was also helping Michael in battles by telling him what to do and how to counter attacks, enhancing his battle IQ far more than what should've been possible for a boy his age to possess.

So, in reality, I wasn't just dealing with the main character here, but also an ancient Demon much older and terrible than myself.

Was this fight unwinnable, then?

No.

No it wasn't.

Sure, a great Demon was helping him.

Sure, Michael was much stronger than a normal [C-Ranked] Awakened, possessing more Essence than most.

And sure, his innate power was troublesome.

But at this point in the story, Michael was not undefeatable. I could still pull it off.

Clang—!!

Another clash of our swords forced me back, and I realized I had nowhere left to retreat.

Behind me, two groups of Cadets were locked in their own battle, blocking off both my right and left flanks.

If I stepped back, I'd be caught right in the middle of their skirmish and get trampled by both sides.

Michael noticed my brief hesitation and didn't waste the opportunity, driving his boot into my chest and shoving me with a kick.

Before I could fully regain my footing, his palm was already raised, ready to unleash another blast. 

He must've figured out that the cooldown on his copied ability was over and with all my escape routes cut off, I had nowhere left to run.

He stood just out of reach — two arm lengths away — far enough that I couldn't close the distance without risking a blast to the face.

I was effectively trapped.

And for a moment, it looked like Michael had won.

All he had to do was fire.

As expected, a scorching explosion erupted from his palm. But at the last possible second, I stepped forward and kicked his raised hand skyward.

The explosion shot into the air, and the recoil from the change in the blast's direction knocked Michael off balance just a little.

That was all I needed as I darted around him and brought my sword down toward his neck.

The blade hit his form-fitting barrier with a crack and shattered it like glass. His orb shattered a split second later, and Michael collapsed to the side.

I moved to finish him, but he rolled and jumped back to his feet in a single fluid motion. Then, his gaze dropped. His eyes widened in disbelief.