Side Character Who Became the Pseudo-Protagonist

Chapter 39: Beyond Human Reason

Why exactly Ethos had appeared so early in the story as well as how Tina possessed it was beyond me.

But before I could properly process half of that nightmare, my eyes caught onto the fact that a huge barrage of icicles were flying toward our direction.

[Ice Rain]

I tried raising Huginn, about to cast [Firebolt] to stop the icicles like I had done back when I initially confronted her.

From what I saw from her status panel, I knew that we had the same Processing Rank. But from personal experience, I was confident to have an edge on her in speed.

Yet when I had to throw my body aside on instinct from an icicle coming toward my face before I could even finish my sequence—

It was safe to say that whatever Ethos was doing...was putting her in a league above me in terms of pure ability as an Operator.

BOOM—!

The spear of frost crashed into the spot I was just standing at a few seconds ago, freezing the ground completely solid.

’That...would’ve been real bad.’

But just as my eyes rose up to meet hers, another icicle was coming my way...one that I couldn’t fully dodge.

’Shit!’

I braced my hands together and closed my eyes, expecting to eat the worst of the impact. But...nothing of the sort happened.

Because when I opened my eyes, Colette was standing beside me with her barrier, breathing heavily as the remains of the icicle broke in front of her.

"Nolan! You alright?!" she asked through gritted teeth, clearly exhausted.

I pushed myself to my feet, tightening my grip on Huginn before staring at Tina at the opposite side of the room, who was breathing heavily as well.

"Yeah. But we have to end it fast. There’s no telling what kind of side effects Tina is enduring right now thanks to that drug."

"Besides," I looked back at Ruby, who now looked a bit better after using [Heal] on herself. But the act alone seemed to have made her unconscious. "We’re kind of strapped for time."

"What plan do you have in mind?" Colette nodded softly, still with her hand outstretched.

I flexed my fingers, realizing that my own ECS was getting a bit better, and soon I’d be able to recover enough for exactly one more [Overload].

I wasn’t sure if it’d work, and had no idea what kind of drug Ethos actually was. As in the game, it was just the "plot-device that made the enemy stronger".

But a part of me also knew that if I could bait her into thinking that she had won, her guard would be down enough for me to take her out.

And within that small opportunity, Colette could easily capture her with her tri-point anchors.

So the best course of action was...

"Let’s alternate."

"What?"

"You block when I attack, and I dodge when you attack. With enough distraction, we could make her lose focus of your anchors."

Colette seemed to understand what I was getting at immediately. "And when she loses track of my anchors..."

"Then we’ll be able to capture her."

...

After a moment of thinking, a resolute expression formed on Colette’s face as she nodded with fervor.

’Open Character Data’

[Character Data Storage Opened.]

[Please select a Character Data.]

’Tina Vanaris’ Eidolon Structure’

[Warning: Eidolon Structure is being distorted by external substance.]

[Displaying Altered Data]

‣ Control: A

‣ Processing: A

‣ Output: B+

‣ Projection: B

‣ Storage: B

’So I was correct...it was pretty much like stat-doping...’

I turned my attention back to Colette. "She’s clearly faster and stronger than us in that form. But you’re just barely faster than her in terms of Processing Speed still."

"We’ll pincer her," I continued. "If she has to focus on attacks coming from both ways, she’ll have to split her attention even more. Increasing our odds of success."

But at this point, it was just me throwing flavor text into the wind. The plan was already clear as day.

And without any more hesitation...

[Spell Sequence Initializing: Tier 1 Physical Enhancement Type—]

[Boost]

I burst forward, curving toward Tina’s flank and intending to meet her head-on. At the same time, Colette moved her shield out the way.

[Magic Bullet] x3

BANG—! BANG—! BANG—!

Three streams of white Logos launched from her hand toward Tina, who instantly countered it the same way she did before.

[Flashfreeze]

KRRRKK—!

A wall of ice formed from vapors emerged in front of her once more, blocking the bullets, but by that time, I had already reached her flank.

Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get any spells off, I went for the fastest alternative I could think of—

A kick to the base of her legs.

If I could send her off-balance, even for a second, it would give Colette enough time to hide her anchors.

But instead of feeling flesh, my foot landed on a hard surface. If I hadn’t seen it and pulled back on my force just in time, it could’ve easily broken.

Why?

Because Tina had just cast [Flashfreeze]...right on the area of her leg that was about to receive the impact.

"Tch..." I clicked my tongue, moving backwards to create some distance as to not get hit by a counterattack.

’Is she insane?! Casting [Flashfreeze] on her own skin would instantly freeze it over and give her frostbite, would it not?’

But upon closer inspection, instead of the purple skin that I had expected to be frostbitten on her leg...there was nothing there. Her skin was just as clean as before.

’...She formed a thin layer of ice above her skin and vaporized it just as quickly, creating a gap that kept the frost from ever touching her skin.’

’Something similar to the Leidenfrost effect.’

Though I couldn’t linger on the thought much longer, as Colette had already continued the assault.

Several [Magic Bullets] went off in unison, a barrage of them striking against the wall of ice that Tina had conjured. While the others forced her to dodge entirely.

I tried closing the distance again, this time completely committed to using hand-to-hand combat.

A kick to the knee, an elbow to the stomach, and a hook to the shoulder. Yet all of my attacks were met with the same response.

Each time, a shield made of flash-frozen vapors would appear, forcing me to stop my attack in fear of getting my own skin frostbitten.

But just as I was prepared to launch my next attack, [Material Sight] caught a sudden spike in Logos accumulation—

Right behind my back.

When I turned...a large glacial lance had already been formed.

And it was just inches away from my chest.

"NOLAN!"