Chương 47: R&R Ch. 47 — Prelude

Nicholas stood on the flying sword, surveying the approaching wave. At least for the first hour it would be just him and Jasmine so they could test out their new toys, but he could still acknowledge how risky it is with them deciding to do it on their own. But they could probably have done it for an hour even without the upgrades, and Nicholas wanted to see what he could do even if his own power-up was going to be showing dividends in the long term.

Both of its specific abilities he really didn't have the space to use; one required a resource he didn't have enough of right now and the other required time he didn't have even if he had picked what he'll work on, eventually. There was a pop as the golden book left his soul and manifested in reality, flying beside him. Even if he couldn't use those aspects, the general power boost it gave was more than enough for him to be content.

"Ready?" Nicholas called, tilting his head to look over at Jasmine. She was clad in her force armor, oversized hammer slung against her shoulder as a river of quicksilver flowed around her.

"Yup, just give me a second." Jasmine said, holding the hammer out." Maximize" The quicksilver flowed around the hammer, assimilating with it, turning the weapon emerald and silver.

"Damn, that looks awesome," Nicholas commented.

"I know, right? Now let's do this."

"Race you." Jasmine rocketed down with the force of a meteor, her hammer hitting with force she never would have been able to manage even two days ago, and it didn't even slow her down as she wove through the battlefield warping gravity and force at her leisure. Nicholas's book snapped open and pages fluttered as he reached for the word that would do best in this situation." Barrage" Shards of force exploded, soaring down and skewering monsters without problem.

No additional buff, no taking the time to aim, just raw power punching through them. They were fighting like E-ranks. An hour of fighting enemies on par? Child's play.

"Remember, they'll have people watching us to check and see how we're doing after everything that happened so let's make sure they get a good show," Nicholas commented as he prepared his next word. Barrage was great, but it was one attack and he didn't want to constantly be recasting something when he could test a channel. He could use old reliable, but part of him wanted to also test his ability to freehand workings now supported as he was.

"Let's give them something to watch, kick it up a notch or still regular?" Jasmine asked her smile infectious. Growing stronger was intoxicating, and finally being able to fight all of these monsters at tier was everything they could have asked for. They didn't have to fear not being able to protect everyone now, and they could just fight freely without having to worry if they could manage it. Retort and Retribution danced through the battlefield.

Rend's eyes bugged out, and she spat his coffee out of his mouth as he watched the video in horror and fascination. The leaders of the rookies were his students, so it had been his mess to figure out what went wrong and see if they could handle the bounce back. Rend had taken it as a chance to go on a mini vacation, a traitor followed by an absolute shit storm and the kiddos had done the best they could. If they hadn't been able to bounce back, he would have taken care of it.

It wasn't a black mark if they couldn't bounce back in a day; it just wasn't a bonus to their file. They had bounced back. And they were fighting like they were proper E-ranks now, except he knew they weren't. You could tell they just had a way to punch up better than what anyone would be able to give them. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was causing the upgrade. The golden book. And the silver goo, whatever that was, currently adorning Retribution's hammer.

He wasn't sure what they had done, but if he had to guess, it was something stupid. The driven, when faced with a challenge they couldn't overcome, often defaulted to just going for something that would let them win anyway, no matter the consequences. Following that line of logic, it was probably something to do with Jasmine's power. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Though minute cuts in space Rend extended his senses using his own domain to get an idea of what they had done. Both of them had soul damage, though after what they'd been through that wasn't surprising even if the damage was surprisingly clean. Jasmine likely had methods for healing the soul faster and had shown it to Nicholas so he cast that out. Several soul-forged items on each of them, though that was hardly surprising. Nicholas always had three on him, and Jasmine always had four minimum. That was odd…

The book and the goop neither had the signature of the other soul items. Jasmine had to forge them from something new; it was not Beyonder, and the two items pulsed in perfect synchronization. His charges were also working better together. They had always worked well, and he had initially thought it was training for them to work together without speaking, but the telepathy headbands had answered that. But it was even more. A bird was flying for Nicholas from both of their blind spots besides the playroom.

The Beyonder entered the playroom range. The new items pulsed. A stone propelled by Jasmine's hammer exploded the monster. They were working together faster than the speed of thought. Nicholas wouldn't have been able to process the information and ask Jasmine in time, and she would have needed to turn around and aim. Yet the girl just kept rampaging across the battlefield without a care in the world as if she hadn't just pulled off something impossible. Silver and gold.

A book that was giving Retort a touch of authority. A formless weapon that could be shaped and imbued with power as Retribution pleased. Rend swore. He took his eyes off the kids for one day and they had linked their souls! He had tried to warn them they needed to be separate, that they couldn't rely on just each other and needed to stand on their own. And their solution when pushed to the brink was to entwine their fates even deeper together so that they couldn't be separated?

Sure, he could break the soul items, but if he was right, those two in particular would reforge and if they got a soul specialist to unmake them, it would be liable to kill both of them. The pupils he had selected because he had thought they would make it to the end with him and change things had decided to link themselves hand in hand. It would never be the three of them each able to handle problems separately. It would be him and the two of them. Because apart they would be weaker.

So what if they had now made themselves greater than the sum of their parts when working together? They wanted to be heroes, and that meant they had to work separately more often than not. Equilibrium and Strike Force were the exceptions, not the rule. Rend took a moment to think about it. These two were just his most recent attempt to carry on his mentor's own legacy. He didn't actually care about them succeeding, just that he made sure someone did.

If they wouldn't be the ones that pushed his plans to new heights, then he would just use them as the example. Till they failed, he could use them to inspire the others to try harder. And when they did, they would make an example of what not to do. That would work. Rend would succeed; it was a pity that Retort and Retribution wouldn't be able to do it with him, but that was okay, their failings would serve him well.

Their hour of playtime was up, and the rest of their shift joined in. Many of them beaming from the extra hour of sleep they had gotten out of the deal. And while Nicholas and Jasmine had discussed keeping their upgrades secret, they had decided not to bother. Hiding them would have been too much work. That didn't mean they revealed all the aspects of what their items could do, but hiding it wasn't in the cards for either of them.

"Back to our regularly scheduled program," Jasmine said as everyone formed up on the wall.

"Precognitives think that in two days the wave will finally begin ending everyone, so let's finish strong." Nicholas said his voice confident. Their forces cheered. Three days, it would be three days till Nicholas would finally be able to deal with Lupine. Jasmine sent a wave of concern through their linked items, and he sighed. Their new toys were both more and less invasive than the headbands.

Less information went through the connection, but unless he took the time to wall it off, there was always going to be a little bit of bleed-through from their emotions and state of being. So the vitriol he was feeling, she could get a sense for, just like how he knew she was feeling irritated as well. The same reason he was struggling with. They both wanted to deal with the traitor. But there wasn't going to be a chance to do that anytime soon."

Maximize" The working flowed across the battlefield as all of their forces started performing just that little bit better. With the book handling a portion of the payload, Nicholas could push his abilities even farther. He couldn't wait to really play with the actual parts of his book that he could use.

"We'll take care of him soon, but we have to focus." Jasmine said, interrupting his musings.

"Yeah, I was mostly just complaining internally that we can't use our new toys," Nicholas admitted as he picked out his next working." Barrage" The shards tore through the battlefield.

"I know just using this portion feels lame, especially when some people just think it's an add-on I made to the hammer and nothing more," Jasmine said in agreement. Nicholas was still shocked that he had managed to impart at least a partial form of his ability with her able to use some of his commands. She couldn't use the big ones, and most were locked to self-effecting or augmenting what they were supposed to do, but still.

"So are you sure you're okay?"

"You could literally tell if I wasn't feeling okay."

"Right, I forgot about that." Nicholas still wasn't sure how he felt entirely having his soul hitched to Jasmine, but he did trust her with his life now at this point. They had been friends and living together for months now and fought side by side more days than not. In comparison to that, what was having his soul hitched to hers.

"We're going to finish strong, right?" Jasmine asked as her hammer flattened a whole group of rank three monsters.

"Of course." For the first time in what felt like ages, Nicholas cut loose. They had gotten the time to rest and now he was functioning at damn near his maximum in most aspects and was outright outperforming his previous best because of all the excess power flowing through him. He felt unstoppable. Which was when fog began rolling across the battlefield, a very familiar fog that he remembered.

"Jasmine?" Nicholas said, his book fluttering behind him as he mentally combed through his options. Functions one and two of his book were both available; function three wasn't, but he could manage.

"I saw."

"Together?"

"Together." Retort and Retribution charged at their opponent, the one who had tricked them just days ago.