"AH, COME ON!!!"
My body immediately tenses as I look around.
"Tiche."
Tiche materializes as I call for her. "My lord, you called?"
"There's about to be an attack. Be prepared."
As she becomes combat-aware, she disappears, causing me to click my tongue. What I thought was magic earlier is just the result of pure skill, which still leaves me amazed.
After several minutes, nothing seems to change. Did the system get it wrong?
*SWISH*
The moment I let my guard falter, a spear of light whizzes past my head.
"Damn it!" I yell as I dive for cover.
A spear of light? Holy energy? Why are they attacking me?
As I was questioning the intent of my ambushers, I heard a woman's voice call out. "Little church boy, come on out and let big sister take care of you."
Ok, they think I'm part of the church? It wouldn't be the first time.
With the system warning, I'm sure that I'll have to fight or at least run away.
But considering the last two missions seemed to have gained additional bonuses when I did the optional objectives? I can't say I'm not tempted, plus it seems it's just one enemy.
"Tiche!" I yelled as I rolled out of cover, several spears barely missing my body.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see my attacker. It seems anyone who's anyone seems to be beautiful in this world.
Regardless of her attractiveness, she's got to be taken down!
Tiche appears behind my attacker and goes for a classic backstab, but before it lands, two sudden attacks by previously unseen enemies threaten to impale her, so she's forced to abandon her attack and retreat.
On my end, a sudden attack from behind nearly killed me, but due to my hours of training with Tiche, my battlefield awareness had extended beyond the human limit.
As I twisted my body to dodge the sudden spear of light, it still found a mark as it sliced into my side.
"Gah!" I turned to look at the new attacker, determined to get payback for myself. What awaited me was a middle-aged man with a fedora.
I charged at him to close the distance, but in a blur of movement, he ascended into the air with his now unfurled black wings.
Thinking on my feet, I channeled about 25% of my holy energy into my legs, and even while the total amount of my holy energy was pitiful, I've been told time and time again that it seems more potent than standard holy energy.
As for manipulating the energy? Taking notes from devil power and weeks of trial and error have allowed a very basic manipulation of it.
With 25% of my holy energy amping up my legs, I launch myself into the air, completely surprising the man.
As he hurried to summon more spears of light, I was already close enough to attack.
All I did was throw a punch, which caused a smirk to appear on my enemy's face. I know what he's thinking; even if my arm was amped up with holy energy, it wouldn't be a lethal attack.
But unfortunately for him, with his defense lowered, when my attack was about to land, lightning burst from my hand, cutting through his left wing, crippling it.
In a frenzy due to pain and anger, he thrust his blue spear of light at me.
Being unable to properly move in midair, my instincts kicked in as I pumped holy energy into my hand, allowing me to grasp the spear of light with minimal damage.
In the next few seconds, there was a grapple in midair as the middle-aged man and I tumbled to the ground.
Without my holy energy empowering me, I was being overwhelmed in terms of strength. Once the grapple went to the ground, I was being suppressed.
Putting another 10% of my holy into my legs, I kicked the middle-aged man off of me. I know that he is a better fighter than me and has the strength to suppress me; the only reason why I did any damage to him previously is because I was being underestimated.
A quick check of my energy: I quickly realized that in that brief exchange until now I have already used half of my total energy. With a quick mental command, I switch out Lightning Claws with Energy Regeneration.
Not activating it immediately, I throw myself at my enemy, pumping holy energy into my legs once more, implementing Tiche's unique movements to confuse the enemy. While I'm no master at the movement, it does its job to confuse the enemy.
In only a few seconds my energy reserves halved again, causing me to curse my small amount of energy.
I activate my Energy Regeneration ability to try and offset the difference. The good news? I'm regenerating energy even while focusing energy on my legs. The bad news? Due to my wound from the initial sneak attack and the first clash, I actively feel the strain on my stamina.
After about 20 seconds pass, the middle-aged man seems to eventually figure out I was trying to stall for time and then attack.
Seeing I wouldn't attack first, he opted to summon multiple spears of blue light and send them at me. It took most of my attention and a large chunk of my regenerated holy energy to dodge, and even with that, I was only able to stop them from directly piercing my body.
My clothes were ruined with all the cuts and blood now on them, but I couldn't care at the moment.
Falling on my knees to catch my breath, the middle-aged man smirked as he stepped closer to my body.
"You did pretty well for being a rookie, but it ends here." He says as he summons another blue spear of light, aiming it at my chest.
As he thrust the spear at my chest, I turned slightly so that it pierced my shoulder as I activated the ability switch to summon my lightning claws to pierce both hands upwards toward his chest.
As we looked at each other, the middle-aged man let out a laugh that spit out some blood on my face. "I'll be damned... Beaten by a brat that doesn't even know how to use his energy."
As he finished speaking, the light of life left his eyes as I deactivated my Lightning Claws, letting his body slump to the ground.
As I look down at my enemy, I quickly realize that Tiche is still fighting. Quickly turning towards where I had last seen them, I was surprised to see Tiche struggling, but it did make sense; she was fighting three opponents.
As I go to help, I'm immediately assaulted by a wave of pain from my shoulder.
'Ah, right. I was stabbed.'
Before I can think any further, a screen pops up in front of me.
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Ding! Host has vanquished a fallen angel, a tremendous achievement at your current strength.
You have received 1x Gold Trait Ticket!
Would you like to roll now?
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'Yes,' I urgently request from the system, 'I need something to help Tiche.'
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Rolling 1x Gold Trait Ticket...
You have an uncommon trait!
[Uncommon - Enhanced Stamina]
Increases base stamina and stamina recovery (also applies to bedroom activities).
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I don't know whether to laugh or cry right now; this is not what I need!
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Detected synergy between the trait:
- Gym Nut
And the trait:
- Enhanced Stamina
Additional effect: increases muscle recovery by 10%.
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Great! This is totally useful in the current scenario! I know I'm currently bleeding out, but holy shit, this Gacha has it out for me.
Oh... I think I'm losing consciousness? The world is going dark.
The last thing I see is white hair as I collapse forward.