NOVEL NEXT Chapter 228 – The second strongest member of Group 4
I spend the rest of the day and a big part of another helping Tess to get used to her skill.
[Stormcrown], while activated, improves her control over lightning by a lot. It also allows her to let lightning flow through her body and create something like [Lightning Armor] from before. In some ways, it's a bit similar to my [Regalia].
While watching Tess use it and feeling the force behind her attacks, I can’t help but feel admiration for her. She is extremely hardworking, in both dealing with people from our group, all the planning, and even with her training.
I don’t think I ever saw her skip a day of training and similarly to Izzy, she also always walks around the house, having some of her skills activated. All of that transformed into her being the second person from our group about to enter Beyond. Other than her, only Lily and Min-Jae show interest in it.
Lily should be fine with her skills and after gaining some levels, but Min-Jae… it’s something to deal with. He is strong and has improved a lot, he also works hard, yet he is missing something that is hard to describe.
“It’s easier than I thought, the new skill feels like a combination of my old ones, keeping them intact, but adding to them while strengthening them as well,” Tess says.
She then gestures with her hand, a dozen lightning arrows shooting at me, only to be met by a shield made of [Regalia]. I didn’t infuse it with any other skills, but it’s vastly stronger than before.
“My sub-class also seems to be working nicely with it.” As she says so, [Stormcrown] activates again and the crown that floats over her head shines brighter, and white and red lightning create it.
Tess, without any gesture, moves her dozen javelins towards her, each of them rare graded and made of endurium. Lightning cracks around her body, filling the weapons with it and all at once fly at me.
This time the shield I make is much thicker and I infuse it with [Resonance].
The javelins stab into it, but the moment they do so, I feel a pull on my mana and my skill disrupts the lightning.
Tess uses her skill and the javelins that she declared to be hers fly back and float behind her back.
The look in her eyes changes and she opens her mouth, “I declare this to be my domain,” the tone of her voice is different as if she is forcing the world to listen to her will.
That’s her [Declaration].
It takes a toll on her and I can feel the amount of mana it uses, even making her [Stormcrown] flicker. Yet it works and her mana fills a spherical area around her in a similar way my [Mana Domain] does. Within that domain, lightning continues to flicker in the air, ready to bend to her will, and the stones on the ground start to float upwards.
Tess pushes more and the crown over her hair shines brighter, and her blonde hair floats, lightning passing through them.
Following the blast of lightning comes out of nowhere, without giving me a chance to feel it, and crashes against my body I strengthened. Pushed by it, I absorb my inertia and [Resonance] activates, weakening her domain and pushing against her.
Each of Tess's skills activates faster within her declared domain, and the javelins that fly at me move as if they have their own mind, each with a different speed and trajectory, but all of them are trailed by lightning.
Sliding into [Focus], I calmly observe them and, strengthening my body, I deflect all of them.
The lightning that fails to damage me floats in the air and gets pulled to Tess, spinning around her body. The moment the ground explodes under her, she shoots at me a sharp blast of concentrated Primordial energy. It's fast, very fast, and it pierces the barrier I create and fails to push further, crashing against a glove made of [Regalia] that I infused with [Resonance].
My [Mana Domain] activates as well and starts clashing against Tess's. I feed it more mana until I win over her skill and cancel it.
I create an anchor behind Tess's back and send kinetic energy to it. I do it much faster than before and Tess barely reacts by creating a lightning armor around her before my attack throws her to the side.
Then she is nearly out of mana and I stop my attacks. The time we spent testing and her [Declaration] spent the last big remaining chunks of her mana.
“I liked your last attack,” I say as I grab a bottle from a bench nearby and throw it to her, “With a bit of practice, it could become really deadly.”
Tess grabs the bottle and takes a sip while moving a strand of hair off her forehead. She also seems to be thinking and replaying our fight, “I prefer quicker and weaker attacks. This one uses too much mana and takes a bit longer than I would like to use.”
“There is a simple solution to that.”
“More mana?”
“More mana,” I confirm to her amusement.
“Looking at my skill, I guess I will have to,” she sits down while letting out a loud sigh. “I will also go for Potency and upgrade my mana attribute. I think it combines the best with my skills and sub-class.”
“Come on, don’t be shy, just say out loud that your sub-class is Chastity,” I plop next to her.
My teasing gets me a poke with her finger into my ribs and a small smile, “Any other advice for Beyond?”
“Just don’t die.”
“Obviously, that's a priority.”
“No, Tess, I really mean it.” I say.
Something in my voice makes her expression change, and the look she gives me is hard to describe.
I continue, “You keep spewing all this bullshit about camaraderie and about you taking care of everything.” I lower the effect of [Focus] which most of the time weakens my anxiety, fear, and other useless emotions.
As I do so, I can feel something that I can describe only as worry, “Do not dare to die,” I repeat.
Early the next day, Lily, Tess, and I sit down in the basement. Tess is in top condition, wearing armor that used to be Edwal's and that was changed to fit her. She has multiple mana batteries with her, and a dozen endurium rare javelins float behind her back.
The Beyond's first trial will take one hour, so she takes no food, and in case something changes, she can use the system shop to buy some.
Her mana is filled to the brim and [Stormcrown] is already activated, collecting and storing lightning energy in a similar way I do with my orbs. It's already been plenty of hours since she started with it and at this point, the amount of lightning energy it holds is quite scary.
I would like her to collect more, no matter how much she complains about not wanting to blow off half of the street. Unfortunately, Tess currently can’t contain and hold more.
She also refuses to wait longer, saying that she needs to experience the danger of Beyond and can't just get there when getting much stronger. That's something that is easier to understand.
I watch as she stretches, fixes her armor, and then takes in a deep breath.
The entrance to the first trial appears in front of her, and she looks at us, “See you in one hour,” she says and takes a step without hesitation, and the entrance disappears behind her.
Ten minutes pass in silence when Lily asks me, “Are you worried about her?”
I give it a bit of thought and then nod, seeing no reason to lie. It's silly, I know, Tess is scary strong, and stubborn. She will be fine. Yet, like a normal human, I got used to people around me, to my schedule, to seeing them around. Right now, taking some of it away from me would annoy me.
“Would you be worried about me as well? When I also go there?” Lily asks, her voice quiet.
At first, I just want to pinch her nose or ignore it the way I always do, but when I look at her, I can see how serious she is. This is not just some sort of jealousy she sometimes shows. No, what I can see is some deep trauma that she seems to have and tries to hide.
It also makes me realize that I know almost nothing about her, other than things I have learned in the tutorial.
“I would,” I tell her. I won't know for sure until it happens, but I can say with almost certainty that I would.
Unlike her usual self, I see relief on her face. As if she was really worried that I would say no. In the same way as most of us here, Lily also didn't have a nice life.
In the silence that ensues, we continue to wait.
Forty minutes remaining.
Thirty.
Five minutes.
A minute.
Ten seconds.
A portal appears, and Tess steps through it, immediately falling to her knees. The lightning wildly cracks around her body, her eyes wild and unfocused. She falls to the ground, a big chunk of her leg missing, and a hole in her side, the wound burned and closed by her lightning.
Then her eyes meet mine, and they clear for a moment. She looks proud and slowly closes her eyes to let herself doze off. The moment she does so, I feel her heartbeat slow down, and as I take a step towards her. White and red lightning that still remains around her body bursts against me, hurting me like a whip, burning wounds into my flesh. The same lightning hits her own heart and restarts it, making her regain a normal heartbeat.
Lily passes by me and her mana activates too. The lightning also shoots against her, but the black-haired healer annoyed, furrows her brow, and thin wisps of gray mana shoot from her, clashing against the lightning and disintegrating it.
For a moment, the two skills continue to clash, yet the gray smoke-like mana wins, getting rid of all the lightning.
Without any hesitation, Lily puts her hand on Tess and pushes her mana into the blonde woman's body. Lily doesn’t use [Sacrifice], she just heals with her improved skill and with the entirety of her mana, and the wounds close, even new flesh creating at places where it is missing. She pushes until she is out of mana.
Tess's breathing calms down and her face looks peaceful, the pain disappearing from it.
That's when two of Lily’s fingers disappear, and new skin creates over the wounds. Unlike the pale arm she made for me, this skin is the same tan as Tess's original skin. After observing the blonde a bit longer, another of Lily’s fingers disappears and she heals something I think are internal wounds.
When she is done, Tess looks almost like new.
Once again, I'm reminded why on each floor there are organizations willing to kill to have capable healers in their ranks.
"She would have been fine without me, but now she doesn't need days to heal,” Lily says while turning to me, seemingly not bothered at all by her missing fingers. “She did have a few smaller internal wounds, but I took care of it.”
Lily then pretends to want to tie her hair into a ponytail but is unable to do so because of missing fingers, and the look she gives me is a bit cheeky, and I immediately know what she wants.
After I get behind her and start slowly tying her hair into a ponytail, “You did well,” I tell her.
“I did, didn't I? Tess better be thankful,” Lily smiles, tilting her head a bit, a big smile on her face. “Oh, and I got a few ideas of how I could combine [Rejuvenation] and [Reshaping], so soon I will go there too!”
“Yes, yes, just level up a bit more. The amount of mana you hold is pathetic, to be honest. You can't keep sacrificing your fingers because of it.”
“I won't be. Soon, I will learn how to [Sacrifice] items instead of them. And since we are rich, I will be able to get myself plenty of small, expensive items to do so.”
As Tess seems safe, I feel some tension leave my body and my mood improves as well. Obviously, I won't show it to this pesky black-haired healer of ours. Lately, she has been too shameless and I wonder, would having an annoying younger sibling be like this?
“I am rich. You are just a leech,” I tell her.
“I am, am I not?” she giggles a bit. “Then, are you technically my sugar da...”
Before she finishes, I tap the top of her head and poke her side. But that makes her only laugh more.