Chapter 190: 180. The USA War (III)

Jay was hundreds of feet in the sky north of Tallahassee when he twisted his body and veered to his left. A crack of thunder shook the surrounding air. A super fast and powerful crossbow bolt passed a foot away from Jay’s body. It disappeared as soon as it appeared, leaving the scent of burning ozone in its wake.

He had to push his brain to the max to keep reading the fourth dimension and predict the hypersonic lightning-enchanted shots. The angelic interference tormented him every time he peeked ahead of potential direct hits attacking from afar. His [Eye of Venerated Madness] was weakened here. His Chance was low while up against a bunch of angelically buffed soldiers, so the Talent was of little help.

Each attempt to catch those lightning crossbolts failed. They tore through his magic fields and disappeared after they missed. The sniper was fifteen miles away, too, just far enough to defend against his magic field attempts to grab her. Her shots felt extra buffed against his gravity powers as well. And he recognized there was a bit of irony to her existence since they’d met briefly under different circumstances. Her narrative held weight against him.

He couldn’t fully focus on the female sniper right now, either. He had to keep working on his own objectives while avoiding getting sniped or he’d waste his precious stock of Lightning Paralysis Antidotes.

The risk of getting hit didn’t stop Jay from hovering directly over his target before he dropped. He spun out of the way of anti-air projectiles like an agile dogfighter in the middle of a dive.

Jay plummeted fast, faster than the enemy below could react as he became akin to a neon purple bomb. Right before impact, he flipped around until his feet pointed down, then he grew to fifteen feet in height. Boom. He flattened a magic tank and its tankers with his landing.

The heavyweight stomp ended with a whopping gravity explosion, heralding Jay’s entrance on an advancing regiment of troops. That knocked aside the invading soldiers marching through the rurals of North Florida. Jay struck so hard the blast flipped over nearby humvees and armored personnel carriers and another tank. He cratered the street, spreading lots of fissures like a growing spiderweb. The earthly damage turned the road and fields into broken chunks for over a hundred feet in all directions. The nearest soldiers and vehicles ended up buried under the rubble.

Jay shrank back to his regular height instantly. He used the trillions of swirling purple gravity particles as cover and slipped past magic gunfire flying in his direction. In his hand was his tomahawk. In his chest was his familiar. That was all he had as Jay ran around solo like a fiendish maniac.

Nobody could stop him as long as he avoided being an easy target for the crossbow sniper and any would-be devil hunter. His tail whipped behind him eagerly as the thrill of combat filled his body with battle lust. This was the sweet ambrosia of an Eldritch Monkey Scion with the potential to become the 13th Freak of Freaks and more. Much more!

“My leg! He chopped off my leg!” screamed a soldier.

“I’m on my way!” another soldier yelled before he broke out into screams of pain and horror. “Medic! He took my leg! He chopped it off and ran away with my leg!”

“Fuck! Where did he go? Where is he?” a different soldier panicked, searching through rising dust and smoke, searching for an [Exceptional Freak] in the fog of war. Then the soldier joined others in their cries for aid as Jay took another leg.

“Why is he taking legs?” shouted a sergeant. “They briefed us on him being into heads! Why else am I wearing this stupid collar around my neck?”

The invading soldiers were low Rank 3s at best or high Rank 2s. Their gear was the best Good Quality stuff the USA could mass-produce and spread among their military. They had loads of magic small arms fire, giving the Modern Warfare Backlash Principle a kick to the curb. But those things might as well be pea-shooters when they struck Jay. Complex weaponry made more from science rather than magic had nerfs in certain areas unless they were powerful enough explosives or weaponry that could beat back magic.

The soldiers traveling down the road and through the fields were an example of quantity of firepower rather than quality. That would not work against Jay. But their leaders had done their homework and provided enough info on key targets.

All the soldiers had enchanted collars fashioned into the top of their body-armor as a pitiful attempt to keep their necks saved. Granted, hacking through a bunch of those collars might slow Jay down a teensy bit. That was the type of weakness the enemies of the Protectorates were looking for– chinks in their armor, especially with their commander.

Jay changed it up rather than let the enemy think they had him figured out. He now had another name to add to his infamy: Jay Legtaker.

He didn’t stop at just that, of course. Just as the enemy was searching for chinks in Jay’s armor, he found plenty of openings in their armor. And one couldn’t have the [Devil of Gravity] Title without exploiting others just a tad, even if Jay was playing things conservative right now.

“Where’s the medic?” shouted a soldier missing a leg.

“The damn Gravity Devil took the medic!” another soldier answered.

“Why wasn’t the medic protected?!”

“The guys protecting the medic can’t just chase him down! They’re all missing a leg!”

“What the fuck?! I wasn’t briefed on this shit!”

Jay snatched up healers, silencing them quickly before the soldiers who were supposed to protect the healers became aware of his ambushes. He hid the healers’ bodies, making it seem like they disappeared without a trace. It wasn’t a hard thing to do. He gave the healers to Kleo who would poke her little face out of his chest and open wide for a new meal.

He also targeted as many vehicles in his path as he could, striking them with full-on melee hits aimed at their fuel tanks. With a quick gravity burst from the end of his tomahawk, he exploded vehicle after vehicle as he raced down the military line like a speed demon. He made sure to strike ahead of him, using the explosions and plumes of smoke as cover. Sometimes he had to throw his tomahawk forward to achieve that. Packing that thing with gravity powers was like launching a huge and heavy missile that he could boomerang back into his hand.

He kept the soldiers confused as he dashed low to the ground and out of their direct line of sight and hacked off more and more legs. He didn’t leave the legs behind intact, either. Each lopped off leg was either tossed far away, tossed at the next enemy, or crushed in his grasp and left as bloody ruins.

None of this took much effort from Jay.

He felt like a video game character with all the cheats activated. He had power from a combination of Gravity Skills he and Kleo raised to the max or close to it for a Rank 4.

These soldiers were mere playthings for Jay even if he wasn’t fighting at full power. No matter how much the invaders cried and begged, Jay gave them little to no mercy. How could he?

They tried to fucking nuke his home.

They all took pauses in the fighting when the nukes landed. YoAnna’s divine power barred the impacts from affecting Florida with a golden statewide barrier. Jay took a small break to let his Stamina recover as he watched the mushrooms rise high into the sky, rolling out nuclear flames blessed by angel magic across the surface of the barrier, reaching as far as Gainesville and beyond. He stopped looking into the fourth dimension since it was a mess.

The impacts of those nukes carried huge amounts of Earthling magic. These were the most dreadful and feared powers of all Earth. Nukes were the almighty deciders of a nation’s fate, and every person feared what damage they wrought, especially the modern day nukes that had magic injected into them and the blessings of angels. So all the soldiers here couldn’t help but stop and stare in awe, and in fear, of what their nation tried to do while they were mobilizing against Florida.

“Did they just try to fucking bomb us while we’re here?” asked an officer, dumbfounded.

“Yeah, they did,” Jay said, crouched in the flames and smoke about ten feet away.

The officer, Lieutenant Dickens, shivered. The soldiers near him turned slowly to the source of the voice. They hesitated to pull the trigger. Some soldiers shrieked in fear as Jay’s three eyes emitted a menacing glow, each one filled with anger.

No exchange of blows came to be when another huge event appeared for the record books, which soothed away Jay’s anger. They turned to see a golden orb fly off the west coast of Central Florida and hit the gulf, destroying an entire fleet parked right out there. YoAnna’s golden mushroom was way bigger than the mushrooms of the most fierce powers Earth had to offer.

Jay purred deeply. The madness. The blood. The chaos. The hundreds of men screaming for their missing legs. All of that became background noise as he gazed into the divine golden consequence of a pissed off [Godling] of YoAnna’s caliber. That was one of Jay’s wives, and seeing her lash out with so much might was a turn on for him.

Jay could recognize that was highly weird, especially when he had a small part of him who wanted to surpass YoAnna’s great power. And this was her at Stage 1. How could he ever catch up once she climbed further Stages with greater ranges of divine power at High Divinity?

Jay shook his head with a deep and dark chuckle aimed at himself. That reminded the frightened Lieutenant Dickens and his soldiers that the much feared Gravity Devil was right there in eye spitting distance.

“You know what’s the crazy part about all of this?” Jay asked, using his eldritch voice. It came out with a deep rumbling purr that vibrated the air. YoAnna enjoyed hearing it even though it made her nervous since the eldritch were the predators of the divine. There was a part of YoAnna who enjoyed being at Jay’s mercy. These men didn’t seem to share her quirky interests.

“I’ll bite,” said one soldier. “What’s the crazy part?”

“My [Godling] will still want to give your leaders a Chance at accepting an olive branch and finding peace,” Jay said, striding forward into view. His dark cloak of purple trims and gold embroidery fluttered behind him from the all rising hot air stirred by the fires Jay had raised in his war path. “She’s mad as all the Hell Circles combined right now. But knowing her, she’s gonna want to do things properly and give you guys more opportunities to mend things and come to terms. And you’re gonna spit in my [Godling’s] face yet again.”

Lieutenant Dickens lost his nerve and screamed in defiance. He blasted his magic rifle into Jay’s body.

Jay tanked each shot. The magic bullets burst into shards and blue sparks while he used a pinch of gravitons to toughen his body and come out barely scratched. Little trails of gravity particles followed behind him.

With a mere thought, he snatched a soldier next to the officer with gravity and swung the captive around to thwart a lightning crossbolt that had Jay’s name on it. The body shield burst into viscera and lightning. The crossbolt disappeared before it could reach its true target.

Jay chuckled, finding it a little amusing he figured out a weakness of the sniper. She didn’t want to leave ammunition lying around for Jay to use against the military. But would she care to add more penetrating power to her crossbolts and blast through her own people just to reach Jay?

Sometimes, it was a little too easy for Jay to be a devil. And the remaining soldiers saw that and ran for it, leaving behind the courageously dumb officer.

“You brought the apocalypse to our homes!” shouted Lieutenant Dickens, drawing his rapier. It had a magic sheen to it that spoke well of its Great Quality level. It could actually harm Jay a little if the officer put all his might into the swings. “You started all of this with the apocalypse blood. You spread it through the devil flakes. You took advantage of YoAnna’s Apocalypse and split our nation apart! Everything’s your fault, and we’re here to settle the score, villain!”

“I am not a villain,” Jay said. “I am a hero of comedy.”

Jay had no more apologies to give. Right now, Cutie and Team Redemption were on the most important quest the Protectorates had faced yet. There was no room to understand this man’s pain and where it all came from. And Jay refused to believe himself a villain, especially now, especially when he could feel his deific wife’s urgency regarding the project with Ms Kowalski.

Even Jay didn’t know what was going on there, but YoAnna was going all out for it. As the chosen commander of the Pantheon Matriarch, and as the husband of YoAnna Sainte-Luckrun, Jay pushed aside feelings for the pain of others and placed his flag down in defiance of the narrative.

“You are a villain!” shouted Lieutenant Dickens, raising his sword for a mighty chop enhanced by a Skill.

“I won’t accept that.” Jay barely put any effort into knocking the sword swing aside with his gravity-coated hand. “I won’t accept what you label me as. I am a hero of comedy, and that won’t get shaken by you.”

Jay prepared to take the officer’s leg with a tomahawk swing. He stopped himself when a previously concealed attacker dashed forward and made himself known to Jay’s senses.

The attacker’s shining sword of angelic power missed Jay’s head, but the weapon came a little closer to striking true than Jay would’ve preferred. The Pantheon Commander darted backward and kicked off the ground and into an aerial flip. He narrowly avoided a torrent of lightning that smashed aside some burnt up vehicles in its passing.

Before Jay could land, he swung his tomahawk hard and knocked aside a javelin made of anima. Deflecting that projectile diverted Jay from his course. Another lightning crossbolt nearly took Jay’s head, stopping him from rising upward. Then someone chanting the end of an incantation nearly dropped a holy lightning bolt right on top of Jay. It caught him on the fringes of the area blast, batting him into oily flames of a tank fire.

Jay’s body crushed the tank’s burning frame and sent the vehicle skidding across a smoldering field. It smashed over some saplings and slid into a little pond with a splash and a hiss.

Jay growled, recognizing the spasm of lightning paralysis before he paid attention to the notification. Kleo stirred inside his chest, but she wasn’t inclined to come out just yet. While she was there, she shared some of her powers with him. He didn’t need to dive deep into the fourth dimension to hear the pages flipping and the narrative trying to throw a new plot into Jay’s path. It wasn’t much of a surprise for Jay as he downed an antidote and rid himself of the paralysis. He’d been expecting something like this to show up.

A team of proper USA Rankers.

“Oh, do you guys look at me as Doctor Doom now? As tempting as that is to find charming, I must resist that label.” Jay chuckled lightly with his regular voice, walking out of the pond while completely soaked. He probably looked like a nice target for more lightning magic of all kinds. “Lemme get a look at you guys. Nice, nice. You even have the uniform down. I should feel honored.”

Jay stopped a hundred feet away from a team of four true Rankers. They had enchantments blocking his divine eye from looking deeply at their information, but he could get their levels and feel the gist of their power.

A Level 92 Valiant Fighter led at the front. Behind him was a Level 90 Bulkhead Fighter with a huge and thick tower shield. Behind the two Fighters was a Level 93 Lightning Mage and a Level 93 Sainted Medium.

They were dressed like Captain America knockoffs. Subtle lines of red and white garnished their mostly blue superior combat utilities.

The Valiant Fighter had a sword and shield setup that reminded Jay of younger Casey. The Lightning Mage held a white and black staff that crackled with affinity magic and spellcraft runes that enhanced his power even further. And the Sainted Medium had multiple talismans shaped as symbols of a dominant Earthling religion despite the USA’s knowledge of talismans’ getting passed down from alien angels.

Each talisman shone with powerful holy magic that made Jay feel uncomfortable and a little sick. With another glance, Jay noticed they all had talismans, but some were more cloaked than others. Temporal defenses, most likely. They truly had done their research. It made Jay a little sad that [Horizondancer] was becoming obsolete.

“Oh my god, oh my god, thank you!” praised Lieutenant Dickens. “Fuck yeah, the real heroes are here!”

The officer ran off to link up with what remained of his dismantled unit. Before Jay stopped paying attention to the officer completely, Jay caught word of the man receiving radio comms to continue pressing forward. Despite the travesty Jay had wrought on this regiment, despite the nuclear bombs, and despite YoAnna’s great showing of divine wrath, other military units were going to keep rolling forward to invade Protectorate lands.

This was highly insane by even Jay’s standards, which meant that Ms Kowalski’s work was so freaking important, the USA must’ve gotten tipped off by the angels to stop them at all cost. Right now, Mike was holding the defense over Jacksonville. It was Jay’s duty to hold the defense around Tallahassee. All the other Champions were south of Protectorate City to slow down the rush of hatching enemies. Brit was free to do what she saw fit since she was Jay’s equal now.

Anything else that got past Jay and Mike would meet the line of hardened auxiliaries led by Derek and other Captains of Challenge. These guys and gals were the people Jay and Frank had interviewed and trained personally from time to time before they could be trusted to lead their army of young Protectorates who were ready to defend their homeland.

Before things got serious for Jay, he used a wormhole whisper on a subordinate ten miles south to give a signal to Macy. This was a coded message for Macy to use all home defense measures she saw fit. The valkyries might ride out today.

“Does everyone have their reads on him?” the Bulkhead Fighter asked.

He was a big guy with a big shield. He looked like the leader, too, which was pretty smart. Having a defensive tank like him near the Mage and Medium gave him a duty to keep them protected and direct them where he saw fit. That must mean the Valiant Fighter was the guy they tossed into the meat grinder and expected to survive with or without orders.

“He really is a short little guy,” the Valiant Fighter said, drawing closer steadily.

“I’m ready for whatever tricks he has for us,” said the Lightning Mage.

“Our almighty god will see us through this!” the Sainted Medium shouted boldly. He was older than a soldier should be. His hair was graying, in fact.

Jay imagined the USA added the Sainted Medium to their top tier team roster because he was the exact zealot they needed for the job– killing Pantheon Commander Jay Luckrun. Yet, something felt off about that mission.

“Before we start,” Jay said as the ‘assassination’ group readied their magic and arms, “I don’t think you guys are my real threat from the USA. I think you guys are the probing team. They’re sacrificing you to see what more I have in my bag of tricks. And to study the power in my sword here.” Jay pointed his tomahawk at his left hip where The Sword of Comedy waited in its scabbard. “In my opinion, the USA threw you at your death just for research.”

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

“Not if we end your evil here and now, Gravity Devil.” The Valiant Fighter entered the fifty-foot range.

Jay smiled, soaking in the moment. Surrounding them were men still screaming for their missing legs. Roaring fire, torn-apart hunks of metal, and stacking smoke littered the area. Some flames were green or blue or a different color than normal based on the magic ammunition cooking off. The air was thick with USA alchemy, some poisonous, some acidic, but all weak compared to Lilith’s brew. The skies above were still heavy with enchanted nuclear radiation getting blocked by YoAnna’s divine will. Behind Jay was the radiant light from the golden mushroom standing erect in the gulf.

Everywhere was chaos and death. All across Florida.

“All she wants to do is work with you guys,” Jay murmured. “And all I want to do is support her and go on fun adventures with my friends and family. Why can’t we play nice?”

“This could’ve been avoided if you gave yourself in, Gravity Devil,” the Valiant Fighter said. “Or maybe you’re too evil for even that. The world would’ve been better off if you were never born.”

“Steady, steady,” the Bulkhead Fighter said to the Lightning Mage and Sainted Medium. “Remember our training. He’s deadly if you underestimate him. Don’t let him try to sucker you in with that bullshit insanity of his. He’s no hero of comedy.”

“But I am,” Jay said as the newest fight erupted at full force.

It started off with the fifth member of the USA Rankers sniping in with another lightning crossbolt right over the shoulder of the Valiant Fighter. But this time, the Level 95 Sniper Mage ricocheted her shot off of pure air and nearly took out Jay’s side. It did damage on Jay’s cloak and stung his backside with lightning fingers that reached out from the main bolt before it disappeared.

In the meantime, the Valiant Fighter rushed forward with a “[Mighty Shield Bash]” that shone with runes and blessings on his silvery round shield. Chance hyped him up, which made Jay want to stand and stare at the shiny shield rushing at his face. 

Jay barely managed to block with his arms while toughening himself. But that cost him in the mobility department as the Valiant Fighter stepped to Jay’s side and pivoted out of the way of a yellow javelin made from physical energy that was juiced up with lightning magic and a saint’s blessing.

The javelin took a chunk off Jay’s side as he stepped away from the Valiant Fighter and right into the path of another lightning crossbolt. Jay predicted this based more on a gut feeling than anything and finished casting Grav Barrier in the crossbolt’s path. It ripped his gravity spellcraft apart, but it lost the energy to threaten Jay.

That didn’t stop the Valiant Fighter from sweeping his shiny long sword at Jay’s fleeing form with a burst of extreme speed and a dangerous boldness. The moves of the Valiant Fighter spoke well of his confidence and his expertise.

Jay and the Valiant Fighter clashed! A hundred magic sparks flew everywhere from Jay’s gravity tomahawk meeting his enemy’s enchanted sword.

When Jay tried to snatch the Valiant Fighter with a magic field, the Lightning Mage cried out, “[Field Disruptor]!” A burst of crackling electricity ripped apart Jay’s magic field from around the Valiant Fighter.

It didn’t stop Jay from slipping in a tail strike that cut deep into the Valiant Fighter’s thigh. A quick Heal incantation from the Sainted Medium fixed that up before the Valiant Fighter even felt it, letting him tag Jay in return with a sword strike to the [Freak’s] left shoulder. It burned Jay with angelic blessings and a minor dosage of lightning magic enchanted into the blade. Not enough to deliver a lightning paralysis debuff, but more than enough to snatch away some of Jay’s Health.

Yup, they had it all. They knew Jay’s main weaknesses. They had a lot of practice and coordination drilled into them. The benefit of the System boosting their Experience gains for being outside of the Protectorates while farming from Rank 4 lairs around the USA helped them catch up to Jay somewhat. They were no doubt some of the best of the best of USA Rankers right now.

Even if Jay couldn’t peep into their profiles, Jay knew they each had the [Ranker 120] Talent plus some other powers in their Talents and Titles section. They felt hardcore enough to get some solid buffs from their profiles. Good, they were worthy challengers.

“Don’t let him slip out of sight!” warned the Bulkhead Fighter, hurling another energy javelin at the military scrap metal Jay was moving toward.

The javelin burst against the potential cover and hurled it away, knocking aside some other burning vehicles. It cleared the space and kept Jay in their sights. But Jay kept moving toward the next potential patch of cover as he clanged and banged and fended off the persistent Valiant Fighter.

They had Chance on their side, and leveraged every bit to make their aim as true as they could. The narrative made Jay work double or triple to dodge or block every strike that tried to course-correct into a guaranteed hit. And a good chunk of them landed, too. Painful cuts from the Valiant Fighter made Jay burn and bleed, shredding his Superior Quality roguish outfit, testing his Eldritch Monkey Scion toughness in the face of System-heavy prominence. And no matter what success Jay eked out of the exchanges, the Valiant Fighter’s response remained the same.

Attack, attack, attack.

It was workman-like. Beautiful in its simplicity. And deadly in its consistency. It was wearing Jay down.

When Jay tried to fly, the Valiant Fighter soared up with his own flying ability like he was a DC comic book hero. And things were way worse while up in the air because the Sniper Mage and Lightning Mage turned up the heat even more, forcing Jay back down before he could move far. He repeated the attempts anyway, and the results remained the same, leaving Jay a little more scorched and damaged while he barely evaded the Chance of getting paralyzed again.

It looked like they were winning.

They were beating the Gravity Devil!

Things seemed to stay the course with no change in sight for quite a while. Jay’s Health and Stamina steadily dropped.

The Valiant Fighter received buffs in all statuses from his teammates as he kept going like a workhorse. The Bulkhead Fighter cracked a proud smile, as if he wanted to congratulate his teammate for putting the sword and shield on the Gravity Devil consistently.

Then Jay dropped an unseelie bomb when everyone least expected it.

“Get back!” the Bulkhead Fighter roared.

“No, keep going forward!” the Sainted Medium shouted zealously before using [Rid of Evil]. The Skill stopped the bomb from going off, but that didn’t matter, really.

The most important matter was the Valiant Fighter hesitating for a tiny, tiny moment to decide on a course of action. His hesitance opened a small window where doubt existed, which weakened the System’s hardcore cheats against Jay.

That was all Jay needed to start his comeback as his third eye opened. The slitted dark purple void in the middle of his forehead glared with a vengeance, the surface humming with eldritch power. From it, Jay shot an abyssal graviton laser right below the Valiant Fighter’s shield.

And hit the taller man in the dick.

No matter the attack, whether it be javelin, lightning blasts, or lightning crossbow bolts, Jay tanked each shot. He stole the Valiant Fighter’s Chance Modifiers while burrowing the man into the ground with an onslaught of eldritch power that was so abysmally terrifying the Valiant Fighter couldn’t do much but endure. He would survive the attack since Jay had to stop to avoid getting shot to death by magic projectiles.

Jay fell between the folds of space-time and took a plunge through the eldritch void. He came out on the other side a blackened, torn up, and barely alive wretch of a person. But he was behind the cover of destroyed military vehicles fuming smoke and flame.

He engaged [Champion Cloaking] fully, but it probably wouldn’t do him much good if the Sainted Medium or the Sniper Mage had powers that thwarted cloaking. A lightning crossbolt striking the wreckage he was behind proved that the Sniper Mage was still locked in on him. 

No matter.

Jay fought through the body spasms and chugged down an antidote and some recovery potions. His Health, Stamina, and Mana bounced up. And his Chance looked pretty decent and unwavering. The System couldn’t budge it when he stole the CM from others.

“You did well, invaders,” Jay said with gravitas as he settled on his feet and rolled his shoulders. “You really pushed me. I’m glad. Let me return the favor by raising an audience.”

“Don’t let him raise the dead!” shouted the Bulkhead Fighter.

“I won’t let the devil succeed!” responded the Sainted Medium, raising his arms as all his talismans hummed with angelic power. “Deliver us from evil and see the end of this devil, [Sacred Grounds of the Sainted Knights]!”

That had the ring of a Super Skill, which meant it was the Sainted Medium’s most powerful move. Jay could see it buffing the team while debuffing their enemies or anything perceived as evil in a grandly wide area planted on this battlefield. Worse yet, the Sainted Medium planted it right on Jay’s location, which was a pretty good counter to Jay’s area control and immense Titles.

So when the Bulkhead Fighter used a javelin to smash aside the wreckage covering Jay, the USA heroes were probably expecting a desperate Jay frustrated by their area of effect Super Skill. That was not the case.

What they saw was much more disturbing: Jay’s raggedy form standing upright with a vicious smile baring his fangs. All three eyes shone with gravity, divinity, and calamity. Abyssal gravity waves warped and bent the air around him as he held out his hand and called out a Skill like he was a Systemic rookie again– but with an added twist and some gravitas.

“[Relativity Sovereignty]: Your power falls under my gravity. And my gravity works best by buffing me and debuffing you.”

“NO!” roared the Valiant Fighter rushing forward out of rage and desperation. He moved against the careful orders of the Bulkhead Fighter. 

The Valiant Fighter was healed up fully now, at least on the outside. Inside, the fear of the abyss was set deep into the Valiant Fighter’s spirit. He raised his sword in desperation to hack down the devil of his nightmares. Too bad Jay’s Chance was good enough to ignore the System’s cheats. Before anyone could stop him, Jay twisted the Sainted Medium’s Super Skill into a domain where Jay reigned supreme. The [Sacred Grounds of the Sainted Knights] became the Gravity of the Dancing Dead.

Jay smacked aside the Valiant Fighter’s sword strike with his tail. He stopped a follow up shield bash with the palm of his hand. Multiple powers went to work inside of Jay as his dominance and laughter deepened the fear inside of the Valiant Fighter. The man started to suffer visions of his death, his spirit falling into the horrid gravity of the devil in front of him.

The Valiant Fighter went ballistic, completely ignoring the others. His team couldn’t send projectiles to aid him while he attacked with such a wild frenzy he was putting himself in harm’s way.

Without his workman consistency, he became unpredictable to his teammates. And because he became unpredictable to his teammates, he fought a fight he shouldn’t have by himself.

Right before the Bulkhead Fighter risked a direct charge to intervene, Jay found the opening he was waiting for. He didn’t even need to use [Eye of Venerated Madness] to execute a flawless counter.

“I am the hero of comedy who slays lowly invaders,” Jay narrated as he swung his tomahawk into a gap in the Valiant Fighter’s defense.

The tomahawk swept past the Fighter’s shield. It struck with a meaty and bloody thunk into the side unprotected by body armor. The ribs cracked. The lungs tore open. The tomahawk dug deep into the side, stunning the man.

As that hit landed, Jay used [Graviton Monster] to add weight to the blow and [Martial Gravity Superiority] to sharpen the axe with intensified gravity. He also used [Situational Gravity] to leverage the moment as something huge for Jay and [Cosmic Showrunner] to narrate himself as a powerful story lead.

Meanwhile, a dead audience raised up to cheer for Jay. Some of the dead danced a jig in his honor while Jay and Kleo’s Talents and Titles powered up. This all supported his best finisher to date, which was the utterance of a single spellcraft that fully represented the [Exceptional Freak] and his [Laevateinn Faerie]. 

“Tiniest Black Hole.”

Jay ripped his tomahawk out of the bloody hole he’d dug into the Valiant Fighter’s side and left the man a gift. The Valiant Fighter screamed and screamed, dropping his weapons as he clawed at his body. His desperation forced him to try digging into the wound in his side only for his hand to get stuck.

There might’ve been a window where his teammates could help, but Jay kept them occupied. From the emergency supply stored in her home inside his chest, Kleo passed into her master’s hand a Superior Gravity Blunderbuss.

The blunderbuss fired Triple Bolting-gs with significant cooldowns, which Jay covered with rapid-fire Bolting-gs from his tomahawk in between each blunderbuss blast. The gravity magic projectiles exploded on impact, forcing the Bulkhead Fighter and Lightning Mage to play defensive against Jay’s sudden purple artillery-style attacks. Every attempt by the Sniper Mage to intervene had Jay slinging wreckage around to block her attacks. This led to the USA Rankers facing a monstrous nightmare of perfect offense and defense.

Jay had the perfect support, too, because of his Gravity of the Dancing Dead domain effect. The dancing dead were crowding around the Sainted Medium. They distracted and interrupted the Sainted Medium’s attempts to use incantations. The dancing dead didn’t cause any harm, but they effectively neutralized the healer while the Valiant Fighter cried and cried until his Health fell to 0 HP.

Valiant’s body drained into the Tiniest Black Hole. He was gone within a wink, completely consumed.

Jay stored his surprise blunderbuss back into Kleo’s home and swaggered around the spot where a man suffered one of the worst deaths imaginable. Seeing such a thing stunned his remaining teammates, lowering their Chance, boosting Jay’s Chance. This deepened the power of Jay’s domain as the dead laughed and cheered and danced on one leg. The horrid aura spreading out from Jay’s multiple Titles while inside Gravity of the Dancing Dead weighed on the three sacrificial lambs of the USA.

“Ah, yes, I love the shocked looks on your faces,” Jay said with more air warping gravitas, hammering his supremacy into their souls with an eldritch touch. “You really thought your carefully structured training would be enough to defeat me, the Commander of Challenge and Change? Well, I suppose you are blessed. But that doesn’t mean much against me. I’ve yet to use my full power.”

He’d divested a chunk of his power into Cutie with The Weight of the Story Lead. That had ensured Team Redemption got the added help they needed to succeed on the most important escort mission ever. It was a sacrifice Jay was willing to make so YoAnna would get what she needed from Ms Kowalski.

That was why Kleo stayed inside of Jay’s chest, giving him portions of her powers while avoiding being an easy target during their weakened state. But having Kleo inside was not as good as having Kleo outside– she was an awesome and powerful [Mage-type] to Jay’s blitzing [Fighter-type]. They weren’t as efficient while she was inside.

So the probing USA team, despite having a lot of advantages, was losing to a Jay that was weak. Yet, he still flipped the control of the battlefield on them and killed one of their own.

“You ungodly monster!” the Sainted Medium roared.

“H-he really is the devil,” the Lightning Mage stuttered.

“We have to kill him. We have to! The fate of our nation depends on it!” the Bulkhead Fighter shouted, enraged by the death of his fellow [Fighter]. They must’ve been good friends.

Jay imagined it was terrible to see a friend get eaten inside out by the tiniest of black holes. Apparently, the littlest thing could have the biggest bite.

As the Bulkhead Fighter led the charge, the Sniper Mage got up and ran away, exiting Florida quickly. Smart girl. She got out right before Cutie accomplished her mission.

Jay regained his full power plus extra. His Chance Status shot up close to full.

Kleo crawled out of Jay’s chest. She smiled, showing her little shark-like teeth. She was hungry. But she also wanted to play with her food.

After all, they’d hurt her master a lot. And Kleo was frustrated, which Jay could easily feel. His [Laevateinn Faerie] needed to destress, and the remaining USA Rankers and nearby invaders served well enough for that.

They screamed in horror as Kleo had her fun.