Words carried meaning beyond mere sentences, some brought emotions of fear, awe, or delight. For Lars Strider meant not just class but a history beyond understanding. The term would cause anyone from the convent to panic.
In the grinding mill known as the dagger classes striders were akin to legends. To graduate from a single basic class, Lars needed to complete an inhuman dagger course and kill his entire class for the right to graduate. Strider class was notorious for being beyond savage even among convent assassins.
Strider classes only had two requirements. One is to be a graduate of all five basic classes. Dagger, Poison, Sabotuer, Sniper, and Brawler. And to have killed a professor before reaching 14. Throughout five millennia Strider only produced 50 graduates. That's how elite and dangerous these people were.
That means to become a graduate Vanessa needed to kill over 150 from her classes on top of a master-ranked assassin before reaching 14. Being well-versed in sniping, knife techniques, hand-to-hand combat, intelligence gathering, and poison alchemy a strider would be able to kill any target under any situation; Or so the convent advertised them.
With a success rate of 100% everyone in the underworld knew never to mess with one. What the hell did this woman go through to want to join such a class?! Unlike basic classes where children were bought and forced to graduate.
Strider was on a volunteer basis. The bloody climb to graduate needed five different sets of classes, this killed even the most talented of assassins. Even if the person somehow managed to succeed most just die fighting adult teachers.
To graduate as a strider, the word hardcore is considered extremely lacking. And Lars was now fighting against a strider with stats on par with him. The San-Baka who managed to survive even monster invasions started to fear for his life.
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Geo currently was in a unique predicament. He had two many objectives he stretched himself thin. First, he fought an angry empress of heavenly sword. Jade launched spell after spell none stop with no break or incantation.
In Valorious, Magic spells differed from Skills in only one manner. Complexity. Skills that were given by the system were autonomous sets of moves that fulfilled a task. This meant it is possible for a person to learn a skill, not understand how it works but still performs amazing feats.
Mages were exceptionally rare because they did not use skills but spells. To create a spell one needed to understand the principles of mana and nature first and foremost, then create the application of it, and finally manifest the phenomena.
An example would be [Freeze], to use it a mage would need to first understand water and ice to some degree. Next, he or she would need to be able to manipulate their mana to drop the temperate of water using mana to turn it to ice. Lastly, they would need to either create the water or find it then use their mana to execute the task.
Thus the complexity of each step and each situation was leagues above what Aura and Spirit users needed to handle. However, this also created the biggest advantage for Mages. In being able to create spells on their own, they are not limited by their skills only by their imagination. so long as they could manage their imagination and chanting time they were near unstoppable.
This flexibility allowed Mages to be the most versatile of mana users. They were not limited by level, rating, or class. A person with a wide imagination with limited mana could create miracles just by being able to create spells.
Jei was lauded in valor city not for her pitiful mana but for her ability to craft intricate and specialized spells no one ever thought of. And the same person now maliciously tried to murder everyone around her. Geo used his own mana to interrupt or block the spells but he saw real-time the woman's growth.
As if experimenting, she applied spell after spell onto the school bus-sized icicle by her. Geo lost count after the thing received over 50 invocations, this thing would kill anything but a dragon in his opinion. Yet Jade was not yet done.
"[Frozen Air]…[Air Dart]…[Sonic Dart]…[Sonic Stiletto]…[Spin Dart]…[Super Sonic]…[Rocket Dart]…[Speed Bullet]…"
Geo, has numerous injuries around his body, from trying to prevent the attacks from landing to intercepting them. Currently Jade was testing how to make her projectiles go faster. The San-Baka who came from earth noticed her thought process.
The woman before her started to understand the physics of air pressure and resistance. From simply throwing shit, she started molding her weapons. Then the woman applied boosts, reduced drag, and all kinds of logic to make the darts go faster. Geo felt chills when he saw the darts start to spin.
'WHAT THE FUCK! HOW CAN SHE KNOW ALL THIS?! SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HERE ARE STILL IN AT THE MEDIEVAL LEVEL! SHE LEARNED HOW TO ADD TORQUE FOR FUCK SAKE!'
Earlier, Jade sent ice balls that broke on contact, then she slowly shaped the ball by making it heavier, lighter, and denser. Changing them from water, earth, sand, iron, copper then steel. Each time she got what she wanted the ice bus would then get the buff. Geo felt how dangerous the weapon would be moved to attack her.
'I need to stop her, focusing on defending the citizens is only hindering my movements. What the hell is wrong with her?'
Geo then exploded mana on his heels which allowed him to shoot forward like a rocket. 'Chastise me later Aniki your woman has gone off the rails.' As Geo flew jade spun her staff like a spear and chanted spells with a second voice.
"[Earth Wall]… [Reactive Plaster]… [Ignition Charge]…[Shaped Vector]…[light Distort]…[Haste]…"
A wall suddenly sprouted from the ground and when Geo struck it, the wall exploded. Blinded by the explosion, the San-Baka pushed forward despite the pain of his injuries.
"[Increase AGI]…[Increase STR]…[Fighters Finesse]…[Critical Strike]…" Within the explosion Jade suddenly charged for him with her staff behind her like an axe. She had wind currents around her showing just how fast the woman moved.
'What? She is charging by herself? Against a swordsman? What the hell is wrong with you, you are a mage!?'
"[Increase Drag]…[Air Resistance Max]…[Gravity Heel]…[Friction Max]…[Increased Weight]…[Duplicity]…"
The son of Renacida felt his body slow down to a crawl. No matter how hard he forced his body to move forward he couldn't. Geo felt like the very earth and air shackled him in chains.
"[Invert Spell]…[Triplicate]…[Increase Damage]…[Brittle]…[Weaken]…"
After Jade's set of spells, there were now two more individuals speaking aside from the mage.
"[Decrease Drag]…[Air Resistance Min]…" "[Gravity Throw]…[Zero Friction]…" "[Decrease Weight]…"
Then a chorus of melodic voices all spoke at the same time.
"[Increase Damage]" x 3
"[Brittle]" x 3
"[Weaken]"x 3
Geo felt his body suffer from just the buffs and looked at the mage in horror. But the finale had yet to arrive. Jade then spun her staff around her body like a club then smashed the blunt end into Geo's stomach.
"[Seismic Force]" x 3
*Boom*
Unable to even defend against the blow, the succeeding strike sent Fulgeo flying in the air. The man immediately lost consciousness and flew through the air with his body heavily injured. Tsugumi who kept tabs on her hubbies grew worried and raced to go to his side. "GEO!"
When Tsugumi charged towards him, Jei then sent the powerful Ice bus her way. "[Spiral Lance EX]…[TARGET LOCK]…[FIRE]!" Unable to focus on anything else. Tsugumi ignored the weapon and raced to catch her hubby.
