Chapter 12 : Raid At Night

Sho was jogging around the training room, holding a large 45 pound weight above his head. Sweat ran down his head, and there was rock/hip hop music playing in the background.

'Arms hurt..don't care. Too far behind from everyone else. Technically the weakest between me, Bebop, and Gideon. And Kell and that Kaiju bastard are stronger than me. Even May is stronger than me. I've faced strong enemies here so far, barely getting out alive. I've taken down a monster that looked like my dad, and I've leveled up a little bit. Can sense a little progress.'

Sho would run three laps with the weight above his head, and every fourth lap, he would add another 45 pound weight on top of the first one. Sho began to sweat even more, his veins popping out intensely, but he kept going.

Another four laps he jogged, he added another 45 pound weight on top of the other two he was already carrying.

Sho started to jog faster, and then he began to jump at random times as he jogged.

Minutes later, Sho was standing in front of a punching bag, and he was punching it really fast, thuds from the punches sounded off, making Sho think, 'Left right right left..right right left left..left right left right left right left right dodge..jab twice..dodge..have to remember my patterns, but I have to mix them up..I can't be too predictable..'

Another couple of minutes passed, Sho was punching the hard wall. His knuckles bled, but he kept punching.

'This is the same feeling I got when punching the walls in the warehouse. I don't feel like I'm getting stronger though…I have to raise the intensity!'

Sho was standing in the middle of the room, and there were holes opened up in the walls. Sho was holding his knife, and he was ready.

'Working on offense along with defense in a single sitting is required. I'm pretty sure some of the Fighters in the tower have better fighting skills than me..I have an objective to reach the top of the tower, and I'll do what it takes to get rid of anyone who stands in my fucking way.'

Immediately, small green daggers began to shoot out of the holes in the wall, and those daggers dashed towards Sho.

Sho ran forward, and slid on the floor, thinking, 'They're fast…can I outmaneuver them?'

Sho put his hand on the floor, and spun upwards, twisting in the air, with two daggers flying under him.

He hit the floor, and he saw a dagger coming straight for his head.

Sho leaned back and dodged it, but then, a hole opened up under him, and three daggers stuck into his back.

"Shit!"

Sho fell to the floor, and the activity was over. The daggers went away, and no damage was done to Sho because the daggers were harmless.

Sho sat in the middle of the floor, saying, "Fuck. How stupid! The holes can open up from anywhere? The holes they began to open with in the beginning were just to throw me off guard? Tch..whatever. One more!"

Sho started the session again, and he was dodging the daggers while moving his head and body around, keeping his dagger aimed towards where he heard the daggers shoot out from.

'As I thought, there's no pattern these daggers are following. It's all at random.'

Sho saw some holes open up below him, and he gasped, rolling out of the way easily.

'Too damn close…I see now. The hole opens up on the floor when I'm lower to the floor. I have to avoid getting low.'

Sho started to use his knife to slash away the daggers, dodging some in the process, and strafing left and right to stay quick on his feet. His eyes switched all over the place, wary of everything.

'Keeping my eyes peeled is necessary, I can't let them stray away, especially in a fight. I have to expect anything. So far, I think I'm getting the hang of it.'

Sho stopped, as two daggers were going from his left, his right, above him, in front of him, and behind him.

'Shit. From all directions? Amazing. I could duck down low, but the daggers below will target me. And they shoot out pretty fast. Maybe if I duck down low and then barrel roll diagonally, then stand back up, I'll be able to-.'

The daggers exploded in front of Sho, and Sho gasped, "What?!"

Suddenly from the smoke, all of the daggers stuck out and stuck inside of Sho.

Sho fell down, saying, "Fuck!"

The smoke cleared up, and Sho was laying on his back.

'The activity became tougher. Dagger Rush, the name of this activity. Only available in the freestyle training option. It has an unlimited amount of levels, as it increases in difficulty each round. And the crazy thing is, you don't know when the next round starts. They don't fucking tell you. And the worst part about this training room, is that you feel the pain you take, but it goes away after the training activity is over. Fantastic.'

Seconds later, Sho kept doing the Dagger Rush training, and he would lose from time to time, getting frustrated because he kept falling, and failing, with the daggers sticking into him in sneaky and tricky ways, ways that Sho didn't expect.

(11 minutes later)

(Toughness training - "Steel Skin")

Sho was chained up in the middle of the training room, with blood all over the floor in front of him.

There was a holographic boxer standing in front of Sho, punching him in the face over and over, hitting him in his body as well, and also targeting the back.

Sho thought, 'I can bleed here. And I feel it all…I can't die in here so If I pass out or give up, then I'll lose. The goal is to outlast the punishment without giving up or crying or anything like that. And I have to endure this torment for 10 minutes…if this holographic man was real, I'd be trying to kill him right now.'

Sho kept getting battered by the punches, and then the kicks came, jerking his face and body side to side, making it twitch.

(1 hour later)

Sho was fighting holographic clones of himself. He was doing this training session on easy mode. The clones rushed at him with their hands and feet, jumping, punching, and kicking.

Sho avoided the attacks, and he easily dashed past them, slicing all of their heads off with his knife.

"Dumbasses. Next round."

Sho was fighting a few holographic clones on medium difficulty, and he was swinging his knife around while spinning it behind his back.

Sho jumped in the air, twisting, and slicing more heads off.

Sho landed on the floor, and the holographic clones rushed at him.

Sho turned while on the floor, and swept his leg under all of the clones legs, making them all trip.

Sho began to make his knife grow about 20 feet long, and he spun around once, cutting the clones in half.

Sho said, "Next."

Sho was fighting a group of holographic clones on hard mode, and Sho was getting smacked around the training room like a rag doll.

His face was smashed everywhere, he was punching and kicked over and over, and he was being dragged. The holographic clones were moving pretty fast, faster than the daggers were.

Sho thinks, 'I see why hard mode is called hard. It's like they're predicting my every move-!'

Sho was punched by all of the clones, and his back slammed against a wall, and he fell.

Sho said, "End session!"

The training session ended, leaving Sho sitting in the middle of the room.

Sho was breathing heavily, looking up at the empty ceiling.

'Done for now..done for now. I can see I've made some progress..but for some reason, I feel weak for getting pushed around by some holographic clones. I still feel like I'm falling behind everyone else..but it's no good moping about the shit.'

Sho sat up, and said, "How many points did I get?"

Sho went on his watch, and saw that he had gained 700 Fighter points from his 1 hour training session.

*You have received 700 Fighter points due to training regimens.*

"700 points for one hour? Guess it's alright."

Sho also noticed his other stats had changed.

Strength: 120/300

Speed: 140/300

Agility: 110/300

Toughness: 210/300

'DAMN. Is this normal? One training session and I'm already halfway to the limit. Is there really a limit? Is it possible to go over 300? I'll have to ask Gideon or Bebop. Those brats seem to know every fucking thing.'

Sho went to his stats section, and he thought, '700 points. I'll use those points to upgrade the power in my knife, including the attack, and I'll use the rest to upgrade the defense.'

Sho's weapons sats:

Attack: 6,100/100,000

Defense: 1,100/100,000

Power: 1,000/100,000

Power Level: 700 (Class D.)

*No new weapon abilities unlocked, weapon destruction and ability power increased.*

*You spent 700 Fighter points. 200 Fighter points remaining.*

Sho thought, '700 power level? I'm only 300 points away from class C…how is this possible? This watch thing is kind of like a system of some sort, is there a bug or glitch? Do other Fighters rank up this fast too? They probably fucking do. No wonder a shit ton of people are class A already in just a week. I'm guessing the ranking will get slower and longer the stronger I get. But in my case, it just seems like my rank climbs faster the stronger I get. And I also noticed the points system, I spent 700 Fighter points, and each single point cost 1 Fighter point. It changed. It's probably like this for everyone else as well. Bastards. I'm gonna talk to Gideon about this.'

Sho stood up, saying, "Training off."

Sho was back standing on the roof, and he looked at his watch, making the holographic screen show up.

'I need to see where the closest raids are, raids that are around my class.'

He went to the section where they showed the raids, and it showed a list of them, including pictures along with it. It had the name of the raid, and the class level of it, along with the points reward for completing it.

Sho scrolled down the list, thinking, 'At first I was thinking about taking a class A raid, but I'm getting cocky. I got lucky when I beat Acna, I really did just have good positioning, and I wouldn't have won without Bebop or Gideon. Damn stooges. It's not like I'm their ally or friend or anything.'

Sho kept scrolling, seeing all types of different raid classes and points.

'Tch. A bunch of S through SSSS class raids, and it seems that the higher the class level, the bigger the reward Fighter points. Yeah that's exactly it. I'll look for a class C raid. I feel like I'm good enough. I'm pretty close.'

Sho tapped on a class C raid, and it was a castle out in the middle of nowhere, with grass and vines all over it. The castle looked abandoned, and it had tall grass around it, with dead trees around. It was a few miles away.

Sho thought, '11 miles away. Adorable. At least it's giving me directions as soon as I tap it. It's too dangerous to run there, considering that lunatic Kaiju is out there, and he's fucking strong. And there's other stronger Fighters out there. With 200 Fighter points left, could I afford transportation? I have to check the Merchant shop. Where is the fucking merchant shop anyway?'

Sho stormed back in his room, and he went towards Gideon, and he started shaking him.

"Oi. Wake the hell up."

'I know I said I didn't want to wake him up, but I need to know now.'

Gideon woke up, with his eyes squinting, "Hm? Sho?"

Sho replied, "How do I find the merchant shop?"

"The keyyy..to finding the merchant shop…is within your hearttt…"

"Huh?"

"Haha…kiddingggg. In every cityyyy…it's tallest building in the middle of each city. From here..it's around the corner."

"And you didn't bother to show me on the way here?"

"I did, but you were busy mumbling to yourself about whyyyy May kept staring at you, and why Kell has a broken power."

"That's none of your business. Why were you listening to me so hard?"

"Sleepy now..nighttt nighttt.."

Gideon fell back asleep, and Sho sighed.

Sho looked at Bebop sleep, and Bebop was smiling as she slept peacefully.

Sho walked out of the room, and then he eventually left the entire inn.

Sho was walking down the street with his hood on, and cars drove by him, and Fighters were hanging around, most of them standing on rooftops.

Sho felt uneasy, thinking, 'Shit..the tension I'm feeling…feel like I'm being watched..or hunted. I hear fighting..fighting out in the distance..this cold breeze of the wind..it's giving me goosebumps, or is it because of the intense atmosphere?'

Sho kept walking down the sidewalk, and he noticed from a car window that someone was walking behind him.

Sho thought, 'I hate this. But I've been through it a lot. Usually when this happens, there's a huge percentage that the person behind you is actually following you. In which you should take the initiative. Either walk faster, or turn around and ask an out of the blue question, or just fight. I know which one I'm going with. Since here, you can't trust anyone.'

Sho started to make his knife from, gripping it in his hand.

Sho immediately turned around and dashed towards the person, and once he got close, he put the knife to his throat, but then stopped.

The man was already wounded, with his hip bleeding, and blood dripping from his mouth. He had on some type of grey and white knights armor, and he was choking and coughing.

"Please…..help me…my guild betrayed me..claims I was secretly killing off our guild members…but I wasn't.."

Sho didn't say anything, instead, he moved his knife away, and he started walking away.

The man exclaimed, "Please…! H-Help!"

Sho kept walking, thinking, 'Fuck that. Fuck him too. He's probably setting me up, could be a trap. Tch..dammit!'

Sho was walking back to the man in the knight's armor, and he said, "Look, idiot, you-."

The Fighter man sat up and threw a punch at Sho with black glowing brass knuckles with spikes on them.

Sho leaned back to dodge it, and he said, "Idiot!"

The knight started to punch faster, and Sho was dodging it still.

Sho said, "You're a dumbass."

Sho grabbed the man's wrist, stabbed him in the stomach right through his armor, then rammed his knife through his throat, and then ripped it out, killing him.

Sho looked at the body, saying, "First time I ever tried to assist strangers…never again. Fuck everyone."

*You have slain a Fighter, you have earned 200 Fighter points.*

[Merchant shop]

Sho walked straight inside, and the store was filled with Fighters, looking on the brown shelves for things. The items were in holographic form, but if a Fighter taps the item they want with their first finger, it goes in their virtual shopping cart.

The shop was pretty big, with shelves all over the place, wooden floors and walls, and large TV screens all over the place with items on sale.

The Fighter shoppers held their own conversations:

"I'm glad the herbal pills are on sale. I've been getting dragged in raids."

"I'm here for adrenaline pods. Since there's no stats for stamina, this is a scam."

"I'm guessing it's to make it more challenging."

"Sure bud."

…

"I need some temporary armor. Oh I like this one!"

"That looks hideous."

Temporary armor is armor that Fighters can buy, in which it can only last for one raid. There are different levels to the armor, a total of three, but each range from 10,000 to 15,000 Fighter points.

Sho walked around the shop, bumping into Fighters without caring.

'I need only a few herbal pills. I see the temporary armor, but I'll feel like a fucking bot if I wear it. Was never interested in things too flashy anyway.'

Sho walked to a nearby shelf, and saw herbal pills.

There were 4 bottles of herbal pills, the first bottle had 10 pills in it, which heals 25% of your body, worth 9,000 Fighter points. The second bottle had 20 pills in it, which heals 50% of your body, worth 10,000 Fighter points. The third bottle had 30 pills in it, which heals 75% of your body, worth 11,000 Fighter points. And the last bottle had 40 pills in it, which heals 100% of your body, and is worth 12,000 points.

Sho said, "Too expensive. Cringe ass prices. Guess I'll forget about getting herbal pills for now."

Sho started walking further through the store, and he even looked at the adrenaline pods, which increase a Fighters adrenaline.

Sho looked at that, and the adrenaline pods were small white canisters that you could eat, with the letter A carved into the front.

They cost 1,000 Fighter points. Sho skipped that.

Sho eventually went to the back of the store, and he saw holographic horses standing in lines, all different colors and patterns, and he saw cars beside them, which were worth 50,000 Fighter points.

Sho didn't even look at the cars, instead, he looked at the horses.

Sho said, "200 Fighter points for a horse. It's not safe walking at night, I'm not scared of shit, but I don't wanna get merked by these dumbasses. I'll get the horse."

Sho tapped on the horse, and a notification popped up in front of him in a grey holographic screen form, saying, "You have enough Fighter points. Would you like to buy this horse now, or continue shopping?"

And then it had a "Buy now" and a "Keep shopping" option.

Sho tapped "Buy now", and a horse was in his inventory.

*You spent 200 points on a horse. 200 points remaining.*

Outside, Sho had made his brown and white horse appear in front of him, standing there.

Sho kept saying, "Stay still!"

The horse kept walking in circles, and Sho kept saying, "Stay still! I'll kill you!"

The horse stopped, and Sho said, "THAT worked?"

Sho climbed on top of the horse, and said, "The directions to the abandoned grassy castle was embedded in my head, kinda cringe to be honest. But fuck it. Get going, dumb horse!"

The horse didn't budge, and Sho exclaimed, "Huh?! Move! I'll cook you when I get hungry!"

The horse took off running, and Sho thought, 'The horse is going in the same direction..the same directions that were given to me to head to the raid. So the horse is linked with raid directions too. Not cringe.'

[Miles away]

[Abandoned grassy castle]

[11 o'clock at night]

Sho and his horse were parked outside of the large abandoned castle, and it looked like it said on the watch; tall grass on the outside, dead trees around, large castle with vines and grass on it, and a dirty foundation.

Sho hopped off his horse, and he looked up at the top of the castle, saying, "This class C raid is worth 2,000 Fighter points. I have to go through the castle and defeat the weaker enemies, and then the big bad enemy is at the end, which is my true target. I can ignore the goons and still pass as long as I kill the main target, but I don't wanna. Let's go."

Inside of the castle, at the very top, sitting on a throne in a dirty throne room, was a 20 foot tall beast with his body made out of grass and vines, and he had green horns, glowing white eyes, and he had glowing green and white spirals all over his body, and sharp teeth.

This beast was called a Dogun.