"Why the long face?"
The boy asks with a smirk. Kumi's outfit had been mostly torn apart, her face and hair were clearly visible. As was her usual expressionless face.
"Well, you seem unbothered by the explosion I threw your way. I guess I'll have to try something else..."
The boy wondered to himself out loud. He was completely ignoring the corpses of the scouts around him. He didn't even seem to pay any mind to the ones that died during his fireworks show.
"Pure magical attacks don't seem to do much to you, so physical it is."
The boy clapped his hands together before walking off towards his tent.
Kumi looked at him for a moment, conflicting emotions regarding the boy were swirling in her head.
Two thoughts were the most prominent. First, Kumi noted his lack of urgency. Second, Kumi noted how she disliked him.
As the boy was walking away, Kumi, who was keeping her eyes on him, walked over to the charred and burning corpse that still had her electric dagger stuck in it's neck.
Glancing down, she kicked the neck slightly.
'It's still holding together.'
The boy entered his tent and returned just a second later. In his hands, there were two scarlet gauntlets.
He put them on as he spoke to her.
"You really are causing me some trouble, you know? I just got this promotion. I was even hitting it off with the guys in my squad."
Kumi thought that he wanted to sound sarcastic, but looking at his expression, she couldn't properly tell.
The boy stretched his hands and cracked his fingers.
"Don't take it personally, kid." he spoke up again as he took a fighting stance, ready to dash towards her at any second, "but I will need to discipline you before questioning you. I don't discriminate, you see."
Kumi ignored his comments, leaning down and grabbing the corpse by its foot, she threw it at the boy.
He didn't hesitate or even flinch, instead he punched straight through the corpse, tearing it in two.
"Did you really think-"
It was then that he noticed the head of the corpse, with a crackling knife stuck in it.
His eyes focused back on Kumi, who was pointing a finger at him, lightning gathering.
Kumi shot out a concentrated bolt of lightning. It made contact with the electric knife and a reaction formed.
An explosion of electricity right in front of the cocky boy.
Kumi wasn't sure if this would do much.
'He's come back to life from all my physical attacks. So, using the same logic he did, he may be weak to elemental or magic damage.'
The smoke cleared and the boy stood there, scarred and injured, missing an arm.
Kumi didn't remove her focus from him.
As she took a step forward, ready to run to him and dice him apart, she noticed a glow near his chest.
It was a blooming white rose.
Kumi hesitated. It was something unknown.
She sharpened her senses on the boy.
From the ground, blood that was splattered around slowly flowed up his body and tainted the rose red.
'A revival ability?'
Kumi took a step forward before pausing.
It was slow.
She took another step. Another. Another. She was dashing at the boy, axe in hand.
Yet, her hesitation, which cost her a second, resulted in her closing the distance too late.
The boy near-instantly regenerated.
With a smirk, he raised his hand and caught Kumi's axe with his gauntlet. He had lost his other gauntlet from when her electric blast blew his arm off, but he didn't seem to care.
"Got you."
Kumi kicked him in the face before making distance away from him.
'Damn Berserker.'
The boy, although he took visible damage, didn't stop his advance.
He took a heavy step forward and delivered a powerful blow to Kumi's side, knocking her away a short distance.
"Your lightning is really strong."
He wiped the blood that started running down his nose from Kumi's kick.
Licking the blood away from his thumb, he raised his hand as the remaining blood, still freshly covering the surrounding sand, started levitating.
"Here."
As if a thousand bullets from all directions, the blood coagulated and launched in Kumi's general direction.
Kumi covered herself in a thin film of Coating Reinforcement with the lightning element.
It drained a good amount of mana, but she couldn't let her physical health drop much lower.
'How much longer until reinforcements?'
The thought left her head as fast as it came.
The blood managed to pierce her Coating but it's damage was minimal.
It seemed more like...
'... a distraction.'
Kumi ducked her head, dodging the punch as she sliced at his exposed stomach with her axe.
The damage she did was minimal.
'Damn revival whore.' Kumi swore at the boy.
Little to no blood remained, the barrage was a one time trick.
Kumi clashed her axe against the incoming gauntlet, dodging the subsequent kick.
'The weapon match-up is poor.'
Kumi realised, a fighter using both their fists and with no fear of taking damage is extraordinarily dangerous in close quarters combat. A simple axe or a pair of knives would be easily outmaneuvered in this situation.
Kumi dismissed the Coating that covered her body, throwing the axe at the boy to create a moment.
The boy expected an immediate follow up. As such, he didn't even hit the axe away and just let it hit his shoulder.
But then his eyes landed on Kumi's stance.
Almost a perfect one to one, Kumi was copying his stance.
Her Coating Reinforcement was focused solely on her hands, infused with the Curse element.
Kumi was obviously less experienced in direct hand to hand combat but she had little choice in this battle. Even if she wanted to retreat, she couldn't safely do so without the worry of the boy following or catching up to her.
Even worse, she couldn't accurately ascertain or perceive the limit of his mana. Obviously, there was a gap in strength and a gap in experience and even a gap in cheat-like abilities.
Hell, Kumi's pressure skill had been active since the moment she began her slaughter in the second tent yet it barely had any effect on many of the scouts here. Yet she was still able to kill them.
Kumi was sure that she could think her way out of this. She didn't need to win. She needed to survive just a few more minutes.
It was a bad situation, however... there was just One thing in her favour. She hadn't used her Curse Element once this entire mission.
The boy made the first move. Sending a light jab her way to test the waters.
This simple test was all that Kumi needed. She blocked the jab with her hand, pushing it to the side.
Almost immediately after that, the boy began falling over. The Curse she had implanted into the Coating Reinforcement was just one word.
'Weight.'
Using this moment, she immediately grappled him to the ground and clutched at his neck, cursing his coat along with his gauntlet.
The boy was surprised at first, then grinning when he saw Kumi make her move to attack.
Now, he had a different expression as Kumi was strangling him.
Kumi's face, whatever the situation, would remain Implausably Inscrutable.
Life once again left the boy's eyes as he couldn't muster the strength to move under the Cursed Weight his clothing had been infected with. All he could do was thrash his legs around.
Kumi was still bleeding from her own wounds, after killing him, she would need to move him away from any and all sources of blood. That was her current working theory.
In a matter of moments, the boy stopped moving and breathing as Kumi broke his neck.
Exhausted, bleeding, dizzy. Kumi was in a terrible state.
She stood up and leaned forward, going to grab the boy from his foot and throw him outside the camp. Yet just as she did so, she saw a red rose blooming on his chest.
Then, there was a sharp pain from her ankle.
'Fuck!'
Kumi instinctively kicked and took a step back.
The boy had already revived.
'There's a difference in time between revival depending on how severe the damage is?'
Thankfully, the curse on his clothing was still there.
Sadly, Kumi was now wounded as her heel had a chunk missing from it. If the boy managed to move and fight again, she would most certainly die.
But Kumi didn't even entertain such a thought. Immediately, she covered her hands in rot and pierced her hands through both the boy's legs and then arms, tearing them off his body one by one.
The boy didn't scream in pain, he could barely even make a sound with his mouth full.
What Kumi knew about Rot, was it's lethal effect on nearly all biological matter. As such, it must also hinder regeneration.
That was her hope at least.
But the boy didn't die.
Kumi let out a breath as the boy struggled to move but could barely manage the energy to do so.
Kumi could now see the end of his mana reserves.
'So your weak point is stamina, then?'
Kumi thought to herself before talking out loud.
"You are so annoying."
The boy stopped his thrashing for a moment.
Now, all Kumi had to do, was wait out the few short remaining minutes before reinforcements arrive.
The barrier that covered the camp had been shattered the moment that the boy caused the explosion of fire.
She looked towards the distant horizon. In a short hour or so, dawn would break and colour the sky pink and orange.
'Ughh. I really just want to get healed up and leave. Raymond's cooking is great and Deadlock is a nice enough person but I don't exactly enjoy being a kidnapped child soldier...'
The mission was over, in total there were two survivors.
A single thought appeared in Kumi's mind. A dangerous thought. Something she tossed away as a fleeting dream the very moment it reared its head.
Or... well.. she was about to do so.
Kumi glanced at the boy on the ground, missing all their limbs. When the Rot wore off or when he gained a sufficient Resistance to it, he would again regenerate fully.
The time until that happened? Unknown.
'I hate this,' Kumi let out a mental sigh as she looked at the sky above, '...Screw it.'
Kumi activated {Residue Reduction}.
She then grabbed the boy by his hair, dragging him along.
Leaving behind everything she had at Death's Doorstep. The people, the preparations she meticulously crafted for her eventual escape and even some of her memories.
And just like that, she walked off into the distance. Gifting herself her very first taste of Unchained Freedom.
Turning her head towards the dismembered boy that she was dragging along, Kumi asked a simple question.
"Well, what's your name?"
The boy spit and coughed out the bits of Kumi's ankle that were still stuck in his mouth.
Taking a deep breath, he asked with a shocked expression.
"You come here, kidnap me and don't even know my name?"
"I didn't plan on kidnapping you but killing you is impossible and if I left you there you might figure out which way I escaped."
"What a convoluted thought process."
"Maybe."
It was silent for a moment.
"Ali. Dante Ali."
"Okay. I don't like you, Dante Ali."
"Then why are you dragging me along?"
"Insurance."
"You're so weird... whatever. At least you're cute."
At the comment, Kumi, for a moment, wanted to throw up.
"I liked it more when you were dead."
...
[Major Act I: End]
To be Continued in Major Act II: Realm Rover