Chapter 861: Staff and Fist
The tension drained from Elaine’s body at Arthur’s words, and she heaved a deep breath, hands slipping from the controls as she leaned back against Arthur’s chest, her fingers trembling slightly.
"Arthur..."
Arthur removed his hands from the controls after setting the mech to hover, rubbing her head as he asked,
"What’s up?"
"You know the only experience I’ve had with these things was in the simulators that one time months ago, so basically, can we NOT do that again?"
"Pfft...haha!"
Arthur burst out laughing at her request, and Elaine turned to face him, lips pouting as she complained,
"I’m serious! Do you have any idea how scared I was!? Didn’t you see me miss our first five shots because I couldn’t remember how to properly aim with the thing?!"
"Yeah, I definitely remember your incredible aim," Arthur said, earning a flick to the forehead while he just chuckled.
"You did a good job anyway."
"That doesn’t change m—"
"But it’s not over," Arthur said, cutting Elaine off.
As she looked at him questioningly, he pointed toward the display screens showing the situation outside while explaining.
"We took down the mechs, but since we didn’t kill any, some can eject and escape. I’d like us to secure the ones that ejected for the security teams to question after they finish handling the others still fighting, but besides those pilots, there are people causing trouble on the ground."
Elaine’s gaze followed his finger to the live feeds, and just as he said, even with the mechs defeated, chaos and confusion still filled the area.
People were rushing through the crowd at the stalls, shops, and stores, breaking things, vandalising property, and kidnapping people, even children, in broad daylight.
It was complete disorder, and to Elaine, the culprits behind it all couldn’t have been clearer.
Hijacker pilots were rushing to climb into and weaponise the display mechs, others were hunting the engineers and technical staff to capture or interrogate, and opportunistic looters were exploiting the panic, smashing displays to grab tech and valuables.
"I’ll neutralise anyone above the Inferior Stage of the Grandmaster Realm within those few blocks. Anyone on that level and below is for you to neutralise," Arthur said, opening the mech’s hatch as he gestured toward the ground and added, "You have ten minutes. Your time starts now."
Elaine’s brows furrowed when he spoke, but she didn’t immediately get up, instead scanning the ground from above in silence while analysing the general directions she’d take and the most efficient path to handle all her targets.
She had to work out how she’d thread between civilians running in every direction and others who were fighting back at their assailants, especially those stronger than she was and who were attacking without regard for collateral damage.
It took her a minute to finish that aerial analysis, and once she was satisfied, she stood and unhesitatingly dove out of the cockpit, plunging headfirst toward the ground.
◇ ◇ ◇
As Elaine descended to the ground, several thoughts crossed her mind.
Over the past year, she’d discovered that, even when compared to Arthur, the person she felt closest to in the universe, there were subtle differences between them.
Not the obvious things like gender, age, power level, or affinities, but in something as basic as the construction of their physical bodies.
For one, Elaine’s body was built a little differently from the average humanoid.
She’d been born with multiple energy cores, not the single one most people had either in or near the heart, or in the lower stomach, but an extra core reserved solely for Life Energy.
Her ability to absorb life force, which Arthur had ironically dubbed Death’s Touch, allowed her to drain life force from others through physical contact and store it in the specialised core right behind her heart—her Life Well.
The energy collected there could be used to heal herself, restore stamina, or be converted via her heart into Death Energy.
That converted Death Energy could then be mixed with her magic power or anti-divinity and channelled into her attacks.
Imbuing life energy into an attack produced one effect, while infusing it with death energy produced another.
Elaine spun as she dropped, landing on her feet and creating a crater that spiderwebbed cracks across the floor.
"Vital Enhancement," she muttered, commanding the energy stored in her life well to flow into her limbs, boosting her speed, strength and durability.
She sprang back up and dashed towards the first target she’d marked from above, the small ring on her right middle finger glowing as she infused a bit of magic power into it.
A long, plain metal staff materialised in her hand, and she gripped it, leaping into the air and slamming it down onto the target’s shoulder with such force that they collapsed to their knees while the staff rebounded.
She instantly let go and, without looking, caught the returning staff and then thrust it behind her, striking the back of their head and knocking them out instantly before landing and dashing off toward her next target.
In Elaine’s mind, ’Violence to Incapacitate’ and ’Violence to Kill’ existed as two entirely separate concepts, and while she was mentally incapable of the latter, she never hesitated when it came to the former.
Elaine dashed through the chaotic streets, weaving between fleeing non-combatants and scattered debris as she swung her metal staff at the pressure points or visible weak points of her targets to neutralise them.
The staff cracked against the side of one attacker’s head with just enough force to give them a concussion and knock them out. She immediately pivoted, the staff whipping out a gain to break another’s forearm before spinning low to sweep their legs from under them.
Without wasting a second, she moved on to the next, blocking their strike with her staff and redirecting it to the ground, then driving her knee into their gut before sending them flying back with a reverse swing.
Another lunged from her flank, but her left hand unhesitatingly let go of her staff, swinging it into their stomach hard enough to make them double over in shock.
She tossed her staff up into the air, and with her now-free right hand, reached out to grab their face, using Death’s Touch to absorb a portion of their life force, which she then redirected into her left arm to further enhance her strength and deliver another punch to their ribs.
The burly target stumbled backwards, clutching their ribs as pain overtook them, and Elaine looked up just in time to spot her staff falling back. She caught it with her right hand and swung it down on her target’s head, sending the crumpling to the floor unconscious.
Just as she did that, her skin tingled as she felt a gaze lock onto her, and she immediately bent her upper body backwards to avoid a spear of red light that cut through the air right above her nose.
She immediately straightened the second after, turning her body and swinging her staff in the direction the blade had come from and deflecting two more streaks of red energy that followed.
The ground beneath her shuddered as she stomped down with enough force to crack it open, the shockwave knocking her opponent off balance.
As they staggered, Elaine dashed toward them and, though they thrust out their hand, gathering magic power to attack, she closed the distance faster than that energy could fully condense.
Swinging her staff, she struck the back of their outstretched arm’s elbow, eliciting an agonised scream from her opponent as she followed up with a punch to the side of their face with her left hand.
They managed to dodge, however, and even countered with a sweeping kick to her legs, forcing her to plant her staff against the ground and vault upward to evade it.
Mid-air, she pushed off the staff, flipping backwards and recalling it into her grip as she landed, her gaze narrowing warily.
Before her eyes, their crimson irises lit up with a dull glow, and the broken elbow she had shattered moments ago snapped back into place.
"!"
’Regeneration... Very well, then.’
Elaine adjusted her stance, channelling energy from her life well into her arm and through her staff, coating it with a faint grey luminescence.
"Life Ripple," she muttered under her breath, then lunged forward.
Her opponent met her charge, forming a blade of crimson energy, and swung downward to meet her rising strike. Their weapons clashed with a resounding impact that cracked the ground beneath them, rebounded and then collided again in quick succession.
They lifted a knee to kick at her side, but she released one hand from her staff to parry the strike, then immediately ducked as their fingernails elongated into claws that slashed toward her face.
Her other fist shot up, striking the inner wrist with such force that the impact cracked the bone, but the broken bone seemed to instantly snap back into place as her opponent lunged once more.
They pressed their blade against her staff to force her back in a contest of strength, but Elaine unhesitatingly leapt back to gain distance and then thrust her staff forward to deflect their next attack.
Not wanting to give her distance, her opponent dashed forward, but Elaine moved back to maintain her range advantage, sparks and dust flying as they clashed.
Elaine swung her staff upward, striking beneath their left hand as they tried to fire magic projectiles, shattering their wrist in the process. She increased the flow of life energy through her body, boosting her speed as she swung the staff again to deflect her opponent’s blade.
She then closed the distance herself, reaching out with her left hand and catching the blade with magic-coated fingers, then brought her right hand down in a heavy strike on their left shoulder.
The impact of the blow fractured the joint completely, and energy coursed through her staff and into the wound before she followed up with a kick to their stomach that sent them staggering backwards.
Their blade scraped against her palm as they fell back, slicing it open, but the wound healed in seconds due to the life energy coursing through her body.
Her opponent, on the other hand, wasn’t as fortunate.
They tried to flood their arm with magic power to regenerate the damage they’d suffered, but the energy refused to flow into the targeted area.
Turning to their shoulder in shock, they noticed the grey light covering it, and in that time, Elaine closed the distance, swinging her staff, aiming for their head.
They ducked under the strike and swept a kick toward her legs like before, and just like the last time, she vaulted over it and landed smoothly. This time, however, she raised her leg immediately and stomped down on their ankle, cracking the bone as her left fist slammed into the side of their head, knocking them flat against the ground.
Her fist had hit hard enough to fracture their skull and spill blood, but the regenerative ability they’d used to heal their elbow and wrist earlier was rendered inert due to the life energy from Elaine’s fist lingering in the wound.
This was the power of Life Ripple, what she called special attacks infused with energy from her life well. They impeded a target’s regeneration when damage was dealt, but caused no further harm.
Her Death Ripple, however, was different.
