Chapter 182: 172. The USA War (II)

Frank was having breakfast with his sister, his niece, and Senior Agent Cabana when YoAnna paid the Stronghold residence a visit earlier today. She’d informed Frank of the situation involving Jay finding some ‘lost’ USA troops.

Maybe, just maybe, Frank could talk some sense into the would-be assassins and avoid the killing. Maybe the Protectorates could return the troops to the USA and establish some goodwill again.

Before he’d left his villa, Senior Agent Cabana made a smart remark about how things would blow up in their faces as usual. For once, Frank had hoped things would actually go a little more mundane.

He had hoped.

A few hours later, Frank found himself thrown off his feet after narrowly dodging a ball of explosive holy fire that self-corrected to strike closer to him. This was thanks to homing magic, psychic powers, or the System inserting its heavy-handed narrative crap to ruin Frank’s day.

Frank was pretty sure it was the latter, the narrative. YoAnna had given him subtle warnings that his fate was laden with pain and difficulties. She was sorry for that. But she needed someone like him to play his part. The Champions needed a dragon even if it meant he’d suffer for it.

Frank shrugged each time YoAnna said sorry. It was whatever at this point. He was no stranger to pain. It was his M.O., and he’d accepted it like it was a duty.

But as he got to his feet, grunting in annoyance at how difficult angelic sock puppets turned out as enemies, he had to wonder how much more of himself he would lose. Would he end up like Senior Agent Cabana, using magitek prosthetics to replace his legs? Would he become all magic metal, never able to die because the narrative wanted him to suffer, making him more magitek than man?

It wasn’t even noon yet, and Frank’s darkened mood was getting more grim as the battle continued. The mood was a little hard to shake off, too. Was this him? Or was this Chance burdening him while trying to fight beside a monster like Jay?

The commander could take on twenty Cherub Foot Soldiers by himself despite having Chance weighed against him. Frank could barely keep up as they retreated, stopped, fought, and retreated again. They led the foot soldiers into Hailey’s traps while trying not to get blasted and hacked to pieces by the combined might of the heavens and the narrative.

“I’m having a hard time getting my head in the game,” Frank muttered, stepping aside a spear thrust.

“That’s Chance making you moodier than usual!” Jay shouted as he flipped, dipped, and skipped around holy bolts and explosions.

“Sounds about right,” Frank replied as he tried to avoid more spear thrusts.

To his annoyance, the spear readjusted despite Frank throwing off the attacker’s aim again. It slashed his side instead of missing as it should’ve.

The foot soldier’s distorted face and big doll-like eyes brightened with uncanny glee until Frank grunted, “Rocket.”

A blast of super hot dragon fire released from his magitek elbow. At the same time, his magitek fist changed with a heavy CLACK-CLUNK and became an oversized knuckle duster.

Frank crumpled the soldier’s face with a rocket-punch. He sent the creature careening through half a dozen trees before it smashed into a group of its brethren.

That was a satisfying hit.

“Heal!” chanted one cherub, erasing most if not all the damage Frank, Jay, and Hailey afflicted.

“Please tell me we’ve killed at least ten of them,” Frank said.

“Only three so far,” Jay answered, bouncing to a stop next to Frank.

“Is this what it’s like to fight a force with Brit on their side?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Jay said sadly.

Surrounding them was ruined woodland, knocked over trees, bushes on fire, and big blackened craters. The damage was heavy. It would’ve smashed to ruins most if not all of a small town.

Frank, Jay, and Hailey were retreating toward the everglades, but Jay had them course correct to avoid friendly monster territory. It was like threading a needle to avoid hurting friendly monsters and the people of Annexed Florida.

“Get out of here!” Jay yelled suddenly, the air warping around him, which gave Frank the quivers that he’d taught himself to endure. Even with his high Poise, Frank was no stranger to the fluctuating madness surrounding his commander.

He pushed past the gravity ripples and looked up to see a couple of curious Mothmen flying above the scene. Before they paid heed to Jay’s warning, the cherubs sent lances of light and fire. They turned the Mothmen into smoldering corpses in no time.

“Those were friendly,” Jay said. “Why are they messing with our people and monsters?”

Frank looked across the battlefield where the angel sock puppets marched or flew militantly. They stayed on line, two rows of them, with [Fighter-types] to the front while the others supported from behind. They reminded Frank of a cleanup crew as they took shots at the Protectorates or any monsters that got caught in the crossfire.

Then Frank had a better measure of the cherubs when a local man appeared, drawn by foolish curiosity placing him in danger. One of the cherub’s aimed a holy rifle at the man.

Jay snatched the guy with gravity and pulled him out of the way. Jay almost succeeded, but the cherubs had the narrative on their side. He pulled in a corpse with a big hole that ran straight through its torso.

“Yeah, that answers that,” Frank said, rolling his shoulders. “They’re a holy kill squad. Anyone and anything that lives in Annexed Florida are targets, especially us. Is that enough to sway the narrative to our side?”

“No,” Jay muttered. “Annexed Florida is like a dark nation to them. Only evil can exist here under that context.”

“They must have gold medals in the moral gymnastics to make that work,” Hailey’s voice sounded next to them.

Frank studied his commander. Jay was acting darker than usual. More tense. More nervous. Jay refused to draw The Sword of Comedy for some reason.

Frank wasn’t the most narrative savvy person, but he could only assume it was because the cherubs would neutralize the sword somehow. Or its power needed to be saved for later.

“Come on.” Frank smacked Jay on the arm with his metal fist. “Where’s that dorky kid that annoyed the hell out of me?”

Jay lowered his head. “I can’t be that kid anymore. We gotta grow up.”

“Nah,” Frank said, resting his greatsword on his shoulder. “We’re fighting a bunch of insane sock puppets. They literally gave up their bodies to aliens posing as angels that would purge us, our neighbors, the neighbors’ cute puppy, or whatever they set their sights on. Sounds like a hell of a funny joke to me.”

“How is this funny?” Jay asked, wide-eyed. All three eyes were paying Frank full attention.

“Dunno. I get to kill angel creepers and not feel bad about it,” Frank said. “And it won’t be a laughing matter for long. Not for me. Because they’re gonna eventually piss me off and–”

A bolt of holy energy smacked Frank in the face. His feet left the ground as he flipped backwards and slammed through a few trees. He barely passed the Conviction check or he would’ve suffered way more damage. His high Poise suppressed most of the magic damage, but these attacks ran more on the purity of Conviction and hit like a truck. Besides the damage, it pissed Frank off because of the interruption.

This whole day felt like one big interruption.

He hadn’t even finished breakfast with his family.

“Okay, I’m pissed,” Frank growled with two voices. As he rose to one knee, a big thump struck the ground beside him like a giant foot. A huge entity occupied the air above him, disrupting the daylight without shadowing Frank completely. Flames spilled onto the forest floor in front of Frank as a scaled neck and lower maw hung over him.

When Brit unlocked the Affinity Spirit option for Champions without familiars, Frank took the plunge on being the next to unlock his when the option became available, doubling up on his dragon motif. The whole spirit beast thing was still a major subject of study, and YoAnna didn’t like giving too much away. It damn sure seemed like she’d planned for something like this to happen when she gave her Champions the beast boons.

From what Frank could tell, his Dragon Dragon was second in power in the rankings of Affinity Spirits, sitting behind Brit’s Holy Elephant. But the Dragon Dragon didn’t want to come out until Frank was truly irritated.

“About time! About time! About time!” A crow spirit squawked above Frank and his dragon spirit’s head.

“Shut up!” Frank belched fire.

His big, bulky, ground quaking dragon spirit let out more than a belch. Its throat stretched and constricted before firing off a round like an artillery cannon. A ball of dragon fire the size of three beach balls combined struck the formation of advancing cherubs and blew it wide open with a furious and hot blast.

“If you really want to lay the hurting on them, hit me with another,” Jay said.

Frank’s dragon spirit listened and fired another dragon fire ball at Jay. The Gravity [Freak] snatched and slung the ball around with more speed and power and a dash of gravity. The attack smashed and burned the cherubs some more before they reformed themselves.

Frustrated, half of the cherubs entered the air and flew high above to rain down attacks. Frank barely caught sight of a wavering substance in the air before it inflicted the cherubs with the worst blistering and skin ripping rashes he’d ever seen. The cherubs screamed in pain, their attacks becoming erratic as they suffered a curse Hailey had placed in the air in preparation of this scenario.

“Forward?” Frank grunted.

“Before they heal again,” Jay said.

“Throw me.”

Moments later, Frank flew like a ball out of a canon and smashed messily against the [Medium-type] cherub of their group. The damn narrative fouled his flying sword thrust, and he only scored a superficial wound on a sock puppet’s shoulder.

Frank hit the ground, rolled, scrambled to his feet, and took a point-blank holy magic blast to the face. He roared with fury. It was time to unload some if not all of Nidhogg II’s tricks.

“Triple Jet.”

Three torrents of compressed dragon fire streamed from his magitek hand. He breathed out another torrent of dragon fire from his mouth. His sword lit up with his [Weapon Conflagration] Skill before Frank used his [Hand of Draconic Malevolence] Talent and fired a fifth torrent of dragon fire from his blade. And if that wasn’t enough, his dragon spirit reappeared as a giant and ferocious monster above his head and breathed down a sixth breath of fire– but this one was way bigger and more destructive.

Like a six-headed monster dragon, Frank and his dragon spirit burned everything around him. The narrative barely defended the angel sock puppets he’d stood amid from turning to ash. That was fine. Their screams and the crackling roar of dragon fire sounded like music to his ears.

Unfortunately, Frank couldn’t do crap with the narrative. He was not someone who finessed things to his advantage. And he didn’t have enough Mana to keep up such an output of overt destruction.

He tapped into his [Great Status Overflow: Mana] Talent and resorted to dirty melee regardless of his high levels in his [Weapons Master of Dominance and Mysticism] Skill.

None of his strikes hit clean. The narrative took a big fat dump on his years of training and made Frank feel like a drunken buffoon. He staggered through the ash-caked battlefield as he swung his burning bludgeon stick and barely landed a dangerous blow, if any. This had to be one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Even if he got a kill, it took too much effort. And that cherub healer was scrambling out of his reach while chanting for another disruptive incantation.

“No, no, NO!” Frank [Cavalry Charged] at the chanting cherub. A ball of holy light struck the ground at his feet and threw him head over heels.

“No!” Frank growled, flames licking around his mouth as he extended his [Dragon Wings] and flapped for everything he was worth. He beat his wings hard, streaking through the smoky air and above the crackling flames. Then he raised his flaming sword in the face of the chanting cherub. “No more miracles for you!”

Something gathered in front of Frank. A force unlike anything Frank had ever felt before. He figured it was more of that stupid narrative mess. It was going to thwart Frank at the last second and screw up everything.

Frank clenched his jaw, barely containing the dragon flames and the rage inside as the narrative diverted him once again. It hurled him to the side of the cherub like an idiot.

The creature relaxed, as if it would achieve another personal victory over Frank, an utterly ridiculous notion.

Damn the angel sock puppet.

Damn the narrative! 

Damn everything that got in his way!

He would burn them all!

HE WOULD BURN THEM ALL!

“Greater Rocket,” Frank growled, using his wings to readjust his body midair. His magitek elbow popped open and extended a thruster. Like a jet engine firing off, Frank’s magitek fist shrieked with compressed power and hurled him around like a fiery whirlwind back toward the chanting cherub.

Frank’s spiraling punch missed wide, of course, even though he was concentrating and torquing his body with all his willpower to rocket-punch the bastard in the head. But that was okay. The follow through mattered more, Frank’s burning sword trailing behind him.

It slashed through the damn narrative’s manipulation. It burned through the annoying tapestry of fate that was set against him. And it hacked the cherub’s head off, turning its blood to vapors in the flaming wake of his sword.

Frank skidded, bounced, and crashed into a boulder, smashing it apart. He lay on his back for a few seconds before striking the ground with his fist and rising into a seat. The air wavered around him from the scorching heat his body gave off. His dragon spirit growled, shifting in and out of physical manifestation as it eyed the next target of their ire.

There didn’t seem like much compared to before. Still over thirty cherubs lived, abusing the Hell Circles out of Chance to not die right away, but Frank noted how the healers had fallen.

Then the situation improved even further, when a [Flying Asteroid] the shape of a running ox slammed down amid half a dozen [Fighter-type] sock puppets. The impact threw sock puppets off their feet while they barely survived with their lives.

“Huh, it’s been a while since the original Team FAAHI got together,” Mike said, hovering down on a runic board. With a flick of his hand, Mike gathered Mana in front of Frank and stopped a holy bolt from striking him. The barrier shattered from the impact.

Mike raised an eyebrow.

“They have a high Chance on their side,” Frank said. “That’s really annoying to fight against.”

“Not impossible, thankfully,” Mike said, walking off his hoverboard. He straightened his runic lab coat and readjusted his square glasses. “But it’s definitely a conundrum worth studying after we win this. Shall we?”

“Sure,” Frank said, getting to his feet. He could feel his Mana Status rising a little faster. He couldn’t confirm it like Jay, but they all had practiced feeling for it. Having Mike around helped a lot with Mana. The Magic Chair could direct ambient Mana toward his allies. Pretty useful.

Frank paused for a second as a giant ball of rock, dirt, trees, debris, and everything Jay could gather into one payload slammed down with an earth-thumping smash on top of a group of sock puppets. It was loaded with graviton particles, too, so it slammed harder, sending a shockwave in all directions.

Jay stood on top of his work, his eyes of gravity, divinity, and calamity shone with a malicious anger while a sickle of a smile slashed across his face. Without further words, Jay jumped down and linked up Frank and Mike. Dennis came around after punching the narrative free out of a sock puppet along with its brain. With the original members of Team FAAHI together, Frank felt a little lighter than usual.

“Hah,” Jay said. “The narrative turned chicken. The System’s losing its hold on the Chance Status disparity. But it’s pumping up the remaining cherubs for a last ditch effort.”

“Sore loser,” Dennis grumbled, a golden and orange aura waving around him, which Frank figured was the fabled Ultimate Affinity he’d heard about.

“You know Lilith is going to want a live subject,” Mike added.

“Oh, cool, let me capture one. Kill the rest.” Jay made that sound as easy as breathing.

“And loot them,” Frank added between sipping a Health Potion. “Don’t forget the loot.”

Twenty-five Cherub Foot Soldiers remained. They hesitated as Team FAAHI nonchalantly talked and stood barely half a football field away.

The cherubs didn’t have any healers anymore. But Frank could see desperation in their big doll-like eyes and misshapen faces. They didn’t look like people who wanted to run. They looked more like monsters that didn’t want to fail their mission.

“You… must… be… purged,” one cherub said with a weirdly perfect voice with no gender and no age. If the color gray could have a voice, that would be the voice. “You must be purged!”

“Bring your ass over here and try to purge me now,” Frank said. “I got breakfast to finish at home.”

“Francesca’s cooking is a delight that shouldn’t be missed, either,” Mike said. “That’s a travesty, Frank.”

“What about brunch at Francesca’s tomorrow?” Jay offered, finding his humor again.

Good.

Frank would rather see Luckrun with a smile than get burdened and stuck in a dark mood. There should only be one smoldering grim dark guy on this roster, and that was Frank.

***

Jay owed Frank a heartfelt thanks.

The former teenage agent had taken the burden of being the System’s punching bag off of Jay for a bit. They were both punching bags at this point, but in different ways. It was Jay’s job to be the funny punching bag while Frank remained the irritable and serious one.

That weird moment where Frank tried to make light of the holy kill squad situation before getting shot in the face had snapped Jay awake. It reminded Jay of why he wanted to be a hero of comedy in the first place.

To thwart fate.

You are reading story The Gravity Freak of Dungeons and Monsters: System Portal Fantasy at novel35.com

Having the original members of Team FAAHI here beside him felt righteous. And not because of the System either. It was still manipulating Chance against them. Jay felt righteous on the inside where his soul– his affinity– his everything lived. This was all the stuff that made Jay himself while reveling in his identity as an Eldritch Monkey Scion.

“There’s one bright side to all of this,” Jay said as he swaggered forward, slipping his tomahawk back in its loop. His hand grasped the handle of The Sword of Comedy. “At least we’re not facing Jehova Witnesses.”

“Wretched fiends, be purged!” shouted a cherub. All twenty-five vessels committed to the offensive.

Some cherubs stood back and fired holy magic bolts, lances, balls, rockets, and bullets. Others charged forward with spears, swords, batons, shotguns, and more. They were a representative of medieval and modern meeting together while having heavenly crusader energy and the narrative high ground.

“Pathetic,” Jay said. “Mike, do your thing.”

Mike conjured magic barriers rapidly. As soon as one shattered from a Chance-heavy enemy projectile, another one took its place.

Jay smiled at the pretty lights of blue magic bursting like fireworks amid white lights and embers. But this was only the appetizer, and Mike was a wizard in the kitchen when serving their enemies a full course Champion meal.

Mike’s runic lab coat hummed with stored power stitched into the threads. He didn’t even move his hands as a combination of his [Hyper Mana Supremacy], [Magic Array Proficiency], and [Analytical Magic Authority] Skills combined for an extraordinary effect. Dozens of balls of lightning, ice, and concussive magic gathered in the air around Team FAAHI before Mike unleashed a barrage that even Chance struggled against.

Ice lances speared through cherubs. Lightning bolts paralyzed their bodies. Concussive blasts knocked back the ones that got too close for Mike’s comfort.

A few slipped through the heavy battlefield churning magic barrage with pure Chance. That could only take them so far when Jay drew his sword and coated it in gravity magic.

The closest cherubs fell bisected. One barely blocked Jay’s drawing crescent slash. It couldn’t avoid the gravitons burdening its body, making it easier to reel in with a magic field of gravity.

Frank stepped forward with his flaming sword and hacked the cherub nearly in half. Frank grimaced as he cocked back his magitek fist and smashed the cherub’s face until its head crumpled. 

Meanwhile, Dennis knelt and started chanting an incantation to himself. In his excitement to get here and help, he’d forgotten his weapon, so whatever he was chanting had Jay curious– Dennis had never used an incantation before.

“Go ahead, I’ll stay here with Dennis until he finishes,” Mike said.

“Thanks, bud!” Jay skipped forward.

Frank jogged after him, his flaming sword wavering like a flag in the wake of the War Chair. The shadow of his dragon spirit hung in the air above Frank, warming up to show its dominance once again.

The Gravity Dragon duo crashed into the paralyzed or iced cherubs first. Jay and Frank were like a pair of swords, one was a laughing green blade while the other was a burning red edge.

They hacked and slashed their way through the cherubs. They set each other up for combos. Jay tossed cherubs into the burning maw of the dragon spirit. Frank uppercut cherubs off their feet for Jay to grapple midair and flip into a flying suplex.

Frank blocked a war hammer strike aimed for Jay’s head with his sword, splashing flames. He growled in anger. His dragon spirit growled even louder as it materialized over Frank’s shoulder and hurled a gout of fire in the attacker’s face. Jay swept in with a low cut to the legs and Frank finished it with a burning thrust.

A cherub with a spear tried to run Frank through from behind. Jay cartwheeled in the way and used both his tail and his sword to smack the spear cherub around with gravity bursts. Jay softened up the cherub before locking a magic field on it.

Instead of snatching the vessel off its feet, Jay used it as an object to orbit around. He revolved out of the way of a rocketing Frank putting all his weight behind a flying magitek punch. One crumpled head later, the Gravity Dragon duo reunited to tag-team against more cherubs before they received a word of warning.

“Move,” Mike simply said.

Jay fell into the sky. Frank flapped his [Dragon Wings] to join him.

Dennis stood up. His eyes shone a bright blue. The System couldn’t mess with Dennis’s Chance Status. He had the true heart of a hero– the purity of a white knight. And his Ultimate Affinity would deny such heavy-handed narrative manipulations.

Better yet, Dennis had used his Mana to intensify his Ultimate Affinity with [Great Status Overflow: Mana] activated. Mike concentrated on pushing more ambient Mana into Dennis, feeding the Ultimate Affinity more and more power. The ox spirit bellowed so loudly it made the air quiver. It rose like a giant above Dennis and Mike, stomping its hooves around them. The power from [Aura of Brawn and Honor] hung on the ox spirit like a cape, but less cosmic and more grounded. That felt like an invitation for Jay to toss in his own influence with his [Situational Gravity] Skill, hyping Dennis up even more.

“Stampede of the Strong,” Dennis said, thrusting a hand forward.

His ox spirit split apart into dozens of smaller oxen that were each the size of a pickup truck. And they all wore an aura cape. They rammed their way forward, finding their targets easier than the cherubs expected. Dennis’s unwillingness to let the narrative manipulate his Chance Status neutralized the Chances of the cherubs.

His incantation struck cherubs down from the air. It ran over their bodies with the many hooves of his stampeding oxen, crushing the cherubs with a power that involved Dennis’s Strength while buoyed by Conviction. It cost him a lot of Mana, and Stamina, too. So the stampede didn’t last long. But the devastation it left in its wake had stomped out the flames, flattened the earth, and pulped most of the cherubs except for a few.

Jay hit the ground first.

The Commander of Challenge and Change stalked forward. A surviving foot soldier picked its raggedy self up and tried to knife him.

Jay sliced its arm off, eviscerated its belly, and grabbed it by the throat when it fell into his reach. With a sharp smile on his face, Jay skipped forward and choke slammed the cherub so hard he broke its neck.

His tail flicked out and chopped off the head of another survivor. A third survivor struggled to its feet before Jay dashed forward and swung an upward vertical cut. He split the cherub from crotch to crown– two perfect halves of flesh, muscle, bone, and gear slopped onto the ground.

Jay hopped over the gory pile and fell slowly like a spaceman on the moon. He landed in front of the last survivor.

“You will be purged,” the cherub said.

“She will devour parts of you. Alive,” Jay said with a smile. “Then she’ll push her experiments until she has no further use for you being alive. It’ll be painful. But that’s okay. It’ll be for the sake of Miraculous Magic Science, and letting Lilith have her fun.”

Jay laughed, sounding primal and eldritch as the air wrinkled fiendishly around him. All three eyes glowed with a paradoxical intensity that would break the minds of most in their attempt to understand. You had to have a certain level of emptiness to understand. Or heaven-damned craziness.

“No!” The cherub tried to knife itself in the head. Jay’s tail grasped the wrist and stopped it short of merciful suicide. He yanked it close. One knee strike to the face later, Jay stood over their newest captive.

Jay remembered this one as one of the Mothmen killers. He would let Lilith know. Mothmen hairs had good alchemical properties.

“Thanks for letting us have this, ladies,” Jay said, turning to look at Fuzzy, Cutie, Hailey’s projection, and the flying mecha dolphins of Macy hanging out on the sidelines.

“We were cheering for you the whole time!” Fuzzy waved. She was taller and less childish now. She looked like a teenage girl on the verge of becoming a woman, but with some bug-like features.

And Cutie was pushing close to seven feet tall now. “I feel like you’ve wasted my time. So you’re not welcome.”

Hailey laughed. The dolphins shoved their magitek snouts into Mike playfully.

Jay shook his head. He surveyed the destruction. There were miles of damage and flames now. He mapped out all the affected areas, peoples, and monsters with his senses quickly.

“Hailey,” he said with a touch of seriousness.

“Yes, Commander.”

“Call in Protectorates. Make calls to local adventurers, too. Inform all the town reps what had happened. Make it brief for now until we’re more firm on the message we should tell our Floridians. Get people to help all affected areas pronto.”

“Give me a hint,” Hailey said. “What are you thinking, Commander Luckrun?”

Jay looked at his original team, which was missing Kleo. He could feel her through [Faerie Master]. He had been tempted to bring her here for this fight. But Company Booty Pirates wouldn’t be back for another week. They might need her still.

Frank’s battered form caught Jay’s attention next. The guy threw himself against the narrative full-tilt while heavily disadvantaged. Jay had killed most of the foot soldiers and used all of his powers to keep them engaged on him and not the others. He had the overt power for it. Jay was impressed with Frank’s willingness to hack, slash, and burn his way through the narrative.

“I’m thinking a war with the USA is inevitable. All that’s stopping it from going full force is the Summer Solstice Ball.” Jay looked at everyone in the face. “And what we’ve faced here is just a taste of what they could throw at us.”

“They’ll have worse,” Frank said.

“Agreed,” Mike said.

Dennis shook his head sorrily.

“I’ll have my aides draft a quick press report then,” Hailey said. “Our fastest couriers can circulate it around and let everyone know.”

Jay nodded. He figured this would raise panic. More people might leave Florida. Maybe that would add to the manpower of the USA. All the training, aid, and tips the Protectorates had given to the people here would fall into the hands of the enemy.

But Jay tried not to think about it too much. He looked at the pulsating green light of his sword and knew he’d drawn it for the right reasons today.

The war against the USA was just one big challenge among many others that wanted to test his stance as a hero of comedy. Would he pass the test? Or would he allow himself to get turned into a villain by the USA War, the narrative, the heavens, and everything that wanted him separated from YoAnna and dead?

That was some hard stuff to consider.

But look. The levels!

Apparently, fighting against heavy-handed narratives and the soldiers of the main heavenly dungeon gave bonus Experience. Maybe they should fight against fate more often.

***

Graviton Monster leveled up to 96!

Martial Gravity Superiority leveled up from 89 to 92!

Situational Gravity leveled up from 85 to 89!

Harness-G leveled up from 90 to 92!

…

Exceptional Freak leveled up from 88 to 90! +2 Perception, +20 Free AP.

…

Hailey leveled up from 75 to 79!

Frank leveled up from 73 to 78!

Mike leveled up from 76 to 79!

Dennis leveled up from 70 to 75!

…

3 - Mike, Fuzzy, Cutie

Name: Michael Zhou, Rank 4

Class: [Mage, Level 79]

Race: Human

Allegiance: Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon.

Affinity: Genius

Familiars: Fuzzy and Cutie

Types: Hell Zombie II and Bug Cherub II

Statuses: [Health 3030/3030 HP], [Stamina 2012/2100 SP], [Mana 3986/5930 MP], [Chance x7/x25 CM]. 

Attributes: [1,358 Applied AP]; 100 Resilience, 203 Poise, 100 Strength, 110 Agility, 160 Perception, 433 Intellect, 152 Conviction, 100 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

Skills: [Duplicate Spell]; [Deconstruct and Reconstruct (S)]; [Hyper Mana Supremacy]; [Magic Array Proficiency]; [Analytical Magic Authority].

Talents: [Analyze], [Questing Starlight], [Champion Cloaking], [Owl Boon II], [Great Status Overflow], [Boss Killing Solution], [Push Beyond Limits], [Cherub Master], [Hell Zombie Master], [Incredible Intellectual II], [Ranker 120],

Mike’s Titles: [YoAnna’s Champion of Challenge and Change], [Scholar of Magic], [Prodigy of Monster Slaying], [Young Virtuoso of Violent Ballads], [Magic Chair of the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon], [Young Magus of Magical Epiphanies], [Slayer of Assassins], [Hunter of Immortals], [Mightiest of Earth: #6].

&

Familiar: Fuzzy Zhou, Rank 4 (Mike’s)

Type: [Bug Cherub II, Level 73]

Affinity: Assistant

Statuses: [Health 3400/3400 HP], [Stamina 3650/3650 SP], [Mana 5610/5610 MP], [Chance x43/x43 CM].

Attributes: [1,700 Applied AP]; 170 Resilience, 170 Poise, 115 Strength, 250 Agility, 382 Perception, 179 Intellect, 151 Conviction, 283 Discovery; [0 Free AP].

Skills: [Magic Warehouse Domain]; [Blessing of Sorcery and Endurance]; [Supreme Seelie Assistant].

Talents: [Super Helper], [Right Place Right Time], [Attribute Monster], [Familiar 30].

Titles: [Bloodchild of Challenge and Change], [Finder of Great Chances], [Mightiest of Earth: #25].

&

Familiar: Cutie Brown, Rank 4 (Mike’s)

Type: [Hell Zombie II, Level 71]

Affinity: Hellbent

Statuses: [Health 6110/6110 HP], [Stamina 4890/4890 SP], [Mana 2900/2900 MP], [Chance x5/x31 CM].

Attributes: [1,699 Applied AP]; 396 Resilience, 215 Poise, 365 Strength, 124 Agility, 165 Perception, 125 Intellect, 165 Conviction, 144 Discovery, [0 Free].

Skills: [Hellbent Strike]; [Punitive Glare]; [Necrosis Durability and Repair]; [Gates of the Unrelenting Monstress (S)]; [Captain of the Wandering Undead].

Talents: [Fist Fighter], [Familiar Leader], [Punisher], [Attribute Monster], [Familiar 30].

Titles: [Avenger of the Assaulted], [Undead Revenger of Soldierly Challenge], [Mightiest of Earth: #18].