Battle on the Dance Floor

Where am I? Fueki asked as she woke up to a void, before sitting up, the void turned into what seemed like a nightclub. She walked around and saw the glowing neon tiles that changed colors, a table where a DJ was supposed to be, and walked up to it, inquisitively, before hearing a voice.

"It's not nice to touch what ain't yours sweetie~" a girl's voice sounded out, from the shadows before Fueki drew her sword a figure in a skirt walked out from the shadows, drink in hand leaning on a table. "After all. It was no fun being trapped here...if you were going to keep me down here at least make it a paradise!" the girl said, her calm voice soon having a resentful tone.

"W-who are you?" Fueki said as she kept her guard up and the girl completely steps out of the shadows.

"Y-You're..." Fueki had a look of fear in her eyes and kept the sword trained the fear soon turning to anger

Music started to play

"Oh, honey...I'm you. I'm your true self~ The one you caged beneath that prim and proper facade!" The girl rushed to Fueki, shoulder bumping her into the middle of the dance floor and picking up a wooden baseball bat and spinning it in one hand.

Fueki rushed at the girl who claimed to be her true self with her wooden bokken only to get blocked and shoulder bumped back again before being rushed again. "Hn!" she endured the hit and kept her blade trained and blocked the hit. "A baseball bat...but you're using the same sword style I know...?"

"Fufufu...I told you...I'm your true self. All the emotions, resentment, fear, freedom, and desire. That's what created me." The other Fueki said that Fueki got a good look at her"true self".

She wore dark clothing, a black shirt with the name of a rock and roll band printed on it, a modified school skirt that had a chain attached, her face had a star tattoo under her right eye, slightly darker eyes and hair but all in all, she was what Fueki could have been.

"If you feel like it, you can call me DF." the girl said

"Alright DF...why do you resent me so much?" Fueki slips her sword under DF's guard and suddenly the nightclub turns into a kendo dojo DF smirks, her bat changing into a kendo sword, and suddenly hears a male voice

"START!" A referee said as DF rushed at Fueki who puts up her guard but fails to block the attack as the middle of the stadium becomes a dance floor with DF's kendo sword becoming a bat again.

"Face the music girl! Live a little!" DF said and Fueki rushed and took the initiative to strike.

"...I can hear it now..." Fueki starts to tap her foot rhythmically. "I want to escape...face the music DJ...like the way I do it..." she mumbled as she tapped her foot to the beat and DF frantically swings at Fueki a hard "CRACK" sounded as both of their weapons collided.

"Now let's rock on the dance floor! Do you know what you started?" DF had suddenly started to say the lyrics as well as their weapons collided as if forming a song. "Just came to the party...blade in hand chest to chest and now we fight here face to face..."

"CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!" the weapons continued to hit, neither one of them was willing to give an inch as the music seemed to only be heard by Fueki and DF as their footwork led to a series of strikes, the two Fueki's backed away from one another, breathing heavily.

-Outside-

Hayashi has started to absorb all the cores at once brazenly. He fell on his side getting a notification from the system.

"PING!" Your Elemental map has shrunken!

His body contorted in pain his veins were becoming visible through his skin as he clawed the floor and struggled to breathe from the painful experience of absorbing a massive amount of energy.

"[Elemental Attunment][7 Element Channeling]!"

Hayashi managed to call out as his body started to shine different colors and the indicator on his chest was also changing elements at a rapid pace, with nothing else to fall back on Hayashi uses the same method as last time he absorbed an amount of energy he couldn't handle before.

"[Eye of the Hunter]![Hunter's Footsteps]![Chain Rush]! [Fighting Spirit]!"

"PING!" Warning: Elemental Map has shrunken! Remove Bodily Impurities? The system asked

All four skills activated and the energies in his body started to calm down but were still rampant and put him in pain. Hesitantly, Hayashi picked the yes option on the system notification as now he would start to sweat excessively and crawl to a corner as he was bombarded with system messages.

"PING" "PING" "PING" your Elemental Map has shrunken! Your Elemental Map has shrunken! Removing Impurities...

By then Hayashi was nearly passing out as the energies swirled around his heart after connecting before the feeling of intense pain left his body before he completely blacked out, one final message was left by the system.

"PING" Energy Assimilation Complete!

-Inside Fueki's mind-

Fueki and DF had started to duel again each and every time hitting each other with their weapons at the same time, first the neck, then the shoulders, and then the chest, each time they were hitting each other following the flow of music in their heads.

"I can't beat you, can I?" Fueki asked

"Oh no...It's possible...we've been dancing in the palm of someone's hand...don't know who, however..." DF said readying her bat again.

"Last time...winner takes all..." Fueki said. "{After all, that reckless idiot is counting on me...}" Fueki readies her kendo sword but switched her form. She had a serious expression, her eyes glowed with determination, as if finding the reason she was fighting in the first place, she smiled as if finally free of her burdens.

Both girls ran at each other head-on. The bat comes from below and a wooden sword comes from above. A sharp swipe from both of them before a loud "CRACK". A large gust of air blew through the stadium and at that moment, Fueki had her sword up to DF's neck. Fueki had won as DF smiled at her.

"Well done. You take all, my skills, my style, and even my appearance and memories. Congrats."

"Th-Thank you!"

"Fair warning. The world out there is cruel...it's vicious and will swallow you whole if you don't fight. Be careful out there and stay grooving." DF started to disappear and hugged Fueki as her mental space was now clearing away, it was all dissolving in front of her face and three green orbs floated into her head, hand and leg as she woke up in the real world, rubbing her head seeing Hayashi in the corner of her room passed out and covered in sweat and some sort of black, incredibly fowl smelling substance and she poked Hayashi with her sword.

"Wake up."

"Mmm...?"

"You smell like hell just took a shit and left it in the toilet..." she said covering her nose

"You're awake...so that must mean you succeeded then"

"Yeah, talk to me after you get clean..." She said as he did her best to push Hayashi out of her room.

Hayashi eventually comes out of her room and goes to his own room, picking up a change of clothes and going into the locker room showers and wash off. "Ugh...now I see what she meant...I smell like crap...maybe it's useful for me..." Hayashi said before washing the soap off of his body. "System."

"PING!" The system chimed again giving him notifications

"Figures... let's see what happened to my physique..." Hayashi looked through his notification to see that he could now smoothly absorb energy from cores and had a chance to gain special skills, abilities, or even a portion of the stats a zombie had before becoming undead added to his own stats. Many of his skills were also augmented by absorbing the energies of the cores "Next...System! Stats!"

"PING!" The stats showed up

LVL:20

STR:66

DEF:54

INT:38

DEX:62

AGI:52

VIT:45

"My Vitality must also include willpower as well...it made a huge leap in points... System! Skills!"

<<Hunter skills>>

[Hunter's Physique]-The [Hunter] is faster, stronger, and more durable than the average person |LVL: MAX|

[Strong Shot]-Increase the range and power of a ranged weapon

[Eye of the Hunter]-The user receives a boost in visual power and offers farsight, thermal sight, appraisal sight, and a lock on to targets within 60m away

[Harvest]-Take resources from a monster's body depending on the proficiency of the skill monsters weaker than the user will be harvested faster while stronger and bigger monsters than the user will take longer to break down. This skill also comes with a subspace and the ability to break down materials, may absorb energy

[Chain Rush]-Attack multiple targets with blinding speed, or attack a larger target multiple times

[Arcane: Snipe]-Pierce through many targets in one shot (LVL4) from a long distance away

[Area: Morale]- Increase the morale of yourself and anyone within the area those affected will gain +4 AGI +6 STR and +3 DEX (LVL4)

[Hunter's Footsteps]-This ability switches between speed and stealth. The user can switch to stealth at the cost of movement speed. The user can also use this skill to gain a boost to their own speed (LVL 3)

[BLOODLUST]-Make your presence more threatening and direct your murderous intent at one person or a group. You may also use this on your weapons to give them your murderous presence

<<Munitionist skills>>

[Create Arms]- Create and enhance weapons (LVL 10)

[Create Munitions]-Create and enhance ammunition for ranged weapons (LVL10)

[Area-Enhance Arms]- Enhance the effect of weapons in the area for a limited time(LVL4)

[Area: Enhance Munitions]-Enhance ammunition in the area for a limited time(LVL4)

[Area: Enhance Armor]-Enhance the defensive effect of armor in the area for a limited time(LVL4)

[Refine]- Armor, weapons, and some vehicles can be refined to fit the user's need (LVL1)

[Lesser Repair]-Repair armor weapons and vehicles to an extent (LVL1)

<<EX Skills>>

[7 Element Channeling]-channel the power of the 7 elements through your body, No longer powered by emotions but rather your own spirit. Elemental attacks become stronger, and normal skills may be augmented with an element. (LVL9)

[Elemental Attunement]- Regulate the power of the elements coursing through your body,

Elemental resistance is increased. (LVL 10)

[Blade Aura]-imbue your weapon in a thin, sharp layer of energy from your soul (LVL1)

[Fighting Spirit]-During the battle, the user becomes stronger and more concentrated as time goes on, all skills can be activated and used in any way the user wishes, and skills may augment during the time [Fighting Spirit] is activated (LVL 3)

"Holy crap...My skills all went up by a ton... are these the abilities of mutant cores? I feel stronger somehow but other than that, it's been harder to move my body..." Hayashi got his clothes and realized that his clothing was getting a little tight. "My sweats don't fit as much as they did...before?" Hayashi looked at a locker and realized he had a sudden growth spurt. "Oh no...this can't be happening...just like in all those books..." before Hayashi could say anything else he took a pair of backup clothing of just underwear and shorts and wore those and used [Hunter's Footsteps] to quickly get to his room to find slightly larger clothing. "This can't get any worse now, right?" Hayashi quickly went through the drawers and found some old but good clothing that could fit him. "This will do...I guess I should raid the mall now..."

TO BE CONTINUED...