"Growth? To such a degree? That’s impossible!"
Madeline couldn’t believe it was such a simple reason.
They were talking about an A-Ranker, someone who had already broken through the limits of normal skills and obtained a law technique. Someone who had reached such a level had already mastered plenty of skills, and making further progress was incredibly difficult. As an A-Ranker herself, with two law techniques, she knew exactly how hard it was to improve a law technique or learn new skills.
It was a fundamental truth that applied to all A-Rankers.
And that was where she made a grave mistake.
Thorwyn wasn’t like most A-Rankers.
Because Thorwyn had been alive for less than a week.
While he had been born with a law technique [Descent of White Lightning], that was only thanks to it being passed down through his bloodline. In reality, aside from his law technique, he had only three other abilities, all of which were innate passive skills. He had no active skills. Until now, he had been fighting with just his law technique alone.
That was why Sol had been able to neutralize him so easily before. Even if a law technique was incredibly powerful, it was impossible to win solely relying on it. A-Rankers would normally combine their law technique with their other skills to further increase its power and ways it could be used. Thorwyn had no battle experience or skills to support his law technique like most A-Rankers, but all that changed when he fused with Varek.
Varek, controlling Thorwyn’s body, had used [Descent of White Lightning] in ways beyond simple body enhancement, opening Thorwyn’s eyes to possibilities he had never been aware of. And now, he was putting them into practice.
[Learned [Discharge] Lv 1!]
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[[Discharge] leveled up! (2 -> 3)]
[[Discharge] leveled up…]
The more Thorwyn unleashed spheres of concentrated white lightning, the more proficient he became and at a frightening rate.
Bob continued to block his attacks, but each strike carried terrifying power, slowly wearing down its shields. Bob wasn’t idle either, the magical carriage retaliated with a relentless barrage of elemental attacks of its own.
Torrents of water, blades of wind, entangling vines, and countless other item skills were activated and raced toward Thorwyn.
But before they could reach him Thorwyn burst forward in a flash of white lightning. His body transformed into a streak of pure energy, effortlessly weaving through the oncoming attacks.
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[Learned [Lightning Sprint] Lv 1!]
The system message flashed before his eyes, but Thorwyn was too focused on his next move to pay attention to it. He reappeared directly behind Bob, claws raised high, crackling with an even more intense power than before.
White lightning coalesced around his claws, surging with destructive force.
[Learned [Lightning Claw] Lv 1!]
In an instant, the two damaged shields moved to intercept his attack, but they shattered under the sheer force of his strike, breaking apart like fragile glass.
Thorwyn’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
"AWOOOO! (I DID IT!)"
Without wasting a moment, he lifted his other claw, ready to follow up with another devastating blow.
But just as his claws were about to make contact, two brand new shields had appeared in his way.
Identical to the ones he had just destroyed, they blocked his strike completely with the items’ skills.
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His triumphant roar turned into a frustrated growl as a yellow shield’s repulsion effect blasted him backward once again. He skidded across the battlefield, digging his claws into the ground to slow himself down.
From the sidelines, Sol raised an eyebrow and turned toward Madeline.
"You have more of those shields?"
Madeline shrugged like it was obvious. "Of course. What kind of shop only has one in stock of each item? Even if he breaks through a shield, there are multiple backups."
Then, she gave Sol a pointed look. "Are you sure you don’t want to admit defeat?"
Sol narrowed his eyes slightly at something in her response. Rather than comment on it, he turned back to watch the fight.
Thorwyn glared at Bob.
He had finally managed to break through its defenses—only to be sent right back to square one.
"Grrr… (If I can break it once, I can break it again!)"
His determination reignited, Thorwyn lunged back into the fray.
He repeated the cycle, dodging the relentless attacks while bombarding Bob with his own lightning blasts. This time, he destroyed the second set of shields even faster. Now that he knew the trick to breaking them, he could do it more efficiently. But just as before, when the shields shattered, new ones immediately took their place.
Even so, Thorwyn refused to give up. He continued his onslaught.
Sol kept his eyes on the battle, but his gaze occasionally flickered toward Madeline.
She still looked composed drinking from her tea every so often, but there was something subtle in her expression that he felt was off.
Her fingers were lightly tapping against her teacup.
She hid it well, but Sol could see it.
’Why is she anxious?’
He was about to find out.
Because as the battle raged on, something unexpected happened.
CRACK!
One of the enchanted rings floating around Bob, the one responsible for firing off consecutive fireballs, suddenly let out a sharp noise.
It glowed faintly as it fired another barrage, but this time, a long crack appeared across its surface before it shattered into countless pieces.
Thorwyn hadn’t even attacked it.
It broke on its own.
Sol’s smirk widened as he let out a chuckle.
"I see…"
He turned to Madeline, amusement gleaming in his eyes.
"So there’s a cost to all of this."
He hadn’t noticed it when he peeked into Madeline’s law technique [Untapped Potential], but he should have expected it. There had to be a price for greatly powering up items.
Just like his own [Lesser Channel Control], where he could push a skill beyond its limit to the level of a law technique, pushing an item past its limits would cause it to slowly break down. It would break down until all its durability had been used up, which was exactly what they were seeing happening now.
Madeline huffed, crossing her arms.
"It doesn’t matter," she said. "Like I said before, what kind of shop only has one of each item?"
As if to prove her point, another identical ring appeared, continuing its barrage of fireballs at Thorwyn.
But Sol only nodded, his smirk deepening.
"You’re right." He admitted.
Then, he turned to look at her directly and stated, "But it doesn’t matter. Even if you have countless backups, you have already lost."