Chapter 27- To Fight a Monster...

~Mira~

Mira lay awake on her bed, unable to get to sleep. The conversation she’d had earlier today kept flowing through her head like a video on repeat that she just couldn't stop.

“Are you sure we’ll be able to kill something like that at level 200,” Arthur had voiced his concerns when she showed him the monster she had chosen to use the elixir on. After a lot of planning and forethought, Mira was certain she’d picked an appropriate, if slightly ambitious target.

“Yes, it's probably the easiest fight we’ll be able to get with your insane investments into constitution. Just how is that stat of yours, anyway? The lizard specialises in strength, but lacks in basically everything else. Almost an antithesis to your even distribution in physical attributes. With your agility, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid its attacks. Plus it won't be anywhere near as strong as it would have been if it reached that level naturally.”

Mira had tried to reassure him, addressing all of his uncertainties. And her own. Even with Arthur on her side, she wasn't sure that they could take down a monster over a hundred levels above them. At level 72, the lizard's strength would explode up to a level 216 monster after the elixir took effect.

Albeit an unstable, weak and dying monster but a level 216 beast nonetheless. ‘Could they even hurt something like that?’ The day her questions would be answered was rapidly approaching and dawn was only a few hours away. They had decided to finish the foolish endeavour they had planned as soon as possible, and neither of them needed much preparation.

Mira was surprised to realise that she felt a little guilty about the fact that she had dragged Arthur into her mess. It was a feeling that she rarely felt, if ever and it was unsettling that a man she had only met recently could evoke such a strong emotion from her.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that he reminded her of her younger brother, or maybe it was because he seemed so naive at times. And yet sometimes, he’d appear so different; like a part of himself he was trying to suppress made its presence known, a cold calculating adult who had seen far too much in life.

Mira didn't know which was the real Arthur and frankly she didn't really care. In any case, it would be better for her if he wasn't such a child. It would make their chances of success so much greater and Mira would much rather befriend the much more imposing persona of Arthur Ward then the childish young man he often appeared to be.

‘I need to get something done. I’ll go crazy if I just continue lying down here,’ she thought to herself.

‘In any case, I don't really even need to sleep with how high my endurance currently is.’

It was more a leisurely vice she still allowed herself, and since she couldn't get any rest anyway, Mira decided to get out of bed and do something productive to raise their chances of success tomorrow. It was time to do some alchemy.

As her skill revolved around poison, she couldn't really create anything that wouldn't cause debilitating side effects if ingested, even if she tried to make something with only beneficial properties.

But she could make some pretty powerful stimulants.

The only problem was that they would probably leave you sitting on the toilet for a week after drinking it. She didn't think Arthur would mind the adverse side effects too much. Well, she hoped not.

She wouldn't tell him just in case.

~Arthur Ward~

Arthur woke up feeling refreshed. He’d managed to get an excellent sleep last night after almost exhausting his ether to power level Frank and Rachel. Using magic drained him in a unique way that physical exertion never could, though he very much preferred the burning sensation of a good workout.

He was almost surprised he didn't feel worse after spending 2500 ether; instead, it felt like he’d  just exercised a forgotten muscle and gotten it warmed up properly. Like a new limb, he felt that he was now better adapted to using the strange energy, as if the strength he'd absorbed from the rodent king was now truly his.

It seemed that expending the vast majority of one's ether reserves had great results in increasing one’s familiarity with the ethereal energy and so Arthur promised himself to do it regularly from now on.

He looked at the time. It was only half-seven and he still had forty-five minutes to get to the agreed upon destination to meet with Mira. Still, it was always better to be early in almost every case, and so Arthur quickly showered and got dressed.

When he left the house, he still had twenty-five minutes to go. With his 118 stat points in agility, that was plenty of time. Arthur began to run. There was nothing quite as liberating as the ancient form of movement and Arthur marvelled at the speed he was travelling at, feeling the wind whip into his face as he passed cars that seemed to be moving at a crawl.

The resistance would have been incredibly annoying, but Arthur's constitution made sure that he was spared from the debilitating effects of wind in his eyes.They would have long dried out by now if that wasn’t the case.

When Arthur arrived at the cafe that he had most recently visited with his team, he saw that Mira was already waiting for him at a table, sipping from a cup of cappuccino, judging by the smell of burnt toast it was giving off.

She waved him over, and he quickly made his way to the table. Arthur observed that Mira had the same bow with her that she’d been using yesterday and Arthur knew now that whilst she was no master, she could use it adequately.

Besides the dangerous weapon on her person, Mira was dressed like a normal civilian would have before the system. The absence of armour would have been deemed foolish by anyone with even a little experience in hunting monsters except in their case, they had one very good reason for their oversight.

In the upcoming fight, it wouldn't matter if they had the best protection Earth currently had to offer. If they got hit even once, they’d be dead. Burst like a rotten watermelon that fell to the ground, protein paste for any monster that found their remains.

It would be game over.

The realisation that he would be dancing on the edge of disaster got Arthur’s blood pumping, but he quickly clamped down on those crazy instincts of his. They would get him killed, and he needed to be calm and collected, not a battle-junky running on adrenaline.

Smiling at Mira, Arthur took a seat at the table.

“So are you ready, or do you need to prepare something with that alchemy of yours?”

Mira slowly shook her head no and Arthur saw that beneath her carefully applied makeup, she had bags under her eyes. She’d done an all-nighter, and Arthur hoped her lack of sleep wouldn't affect her performance today. Their survival depended on it.

Mira reached into the backpack beside her and carefully pulled out three glass vials. Placing them on the table in front of her she began to speak, her voice a little husky.

“These are for you. They should help close the gap in power between you and the monster, at least a little.”

She pushed them towards him. When Arthur identified them, he whistled appreciatively. This was some good stuff.

Stimulant of Speed (Common) - Raises agility by 25% when ingested for the next 6 hours. Can only be used whilst below level 95. May cause stomach cramps if the host has a low vitality.

25% was a huge bonus and Arthur was shocked at the power contained within the liquid  before him. He was a little leery of the side effect mentioned, which he noted that Mira had decided to not tell him about. Perhaps she didn't think it was important enough to mention, or thought that it wouldn't affect him with his inflated stats.

That was just one of the goodies the poison alchemist had brought though, and Arthur greedily identified the other two. One was exactly the same as the first, except that it was green instead of red and instead raised his vitality, at the cost of loose bowels. The last one however, was far more potent than the other two.

It had an uncommon rating.

Stimulant of Constitution (Uncommon) - Raises constitution by 60% when ingested for 8 hours. Can only be used whilst below level 130. Will cause extreme tiredness after its effects wear off.

These potions would make him much, much stronger and Arthur doubted Mira really knew exactly by how much. After all, he hadn't told her just how insane his stats were, she had just guesstimated from his tanking capabilities yesterday.

Without the aid of these, Arthur suspected he had the attributes of someone who had reached level 140 with common class. He wasn’t too sure, as he was aware that the number of stats gained per level changed when someone unlocked a class depending on its rarity, just not the exact figures.

With the potions however, Arthur was certain his strength shot up to a level 180 individual at the least, who had specced mainly into his physical attributes. Heck, maybe he could actually tank a hit or two from the lizard with the uncommon stimulant.

‘Nope, that's not something I want to find out,’ he strictly warned himself before he got any stupid ideas.

“Stop ogling and just drink them,” Mira snapped.

It seemed her lack of sleep had done no favours for her shitty attitude.

“Wait, you want me to drink them now. Why not wait for when the fight starts?” Arthur asked, surprised at her impatience. ‘What's the rush?’

Mira rolled her eyes like she always seemed to do when being asked a stupid question. Arthur had realised that she did that a lot around him.

“Because, Arthur. Do you think you’ll be able to get used to the massive changes the potions cause just before the fight? It’ll feel like you're doubling your level and we’ve not got the luxury of giving you time to consolidate your gains,” she explained, adopting a lecturing tone. It reminded him of his first grade teacher, Mrs Todd, not a pleasant memory to say the least.

“Are you sure I should do that here?”

Arthur nervously looked around at all the customers gathered in the small cafe.

“What happiness if that - what did you call it, that aura thing I have. What happens if it goes out of control? Won't it affect everyone here?”

Mira nodded her head, with an amused smile on her face, finding the young man’s question quite funny. It revealed Arthur’s ignorance about auras and how they worked, but she decided to cut him some slack. He hadn’t been to the tutorial after all.

“Okay, we’ll head outside to my car,” she said, trying to ease some of his concerns. Not that it even mattered. Unless his stats were drastically higher than she suspected,then his aura wouldn't undergo any significant changes after ingesting the potions.

‘Then again, it won't be the first time he’s completely exceeded my expectations.’

Walking towards Mira’s car, Arthur was surprised when he noticed that he no longer felt so awkward around the woman. They were very far from becoming friends, but maybe one day they wouldn't annoy each other so much that they actually managed to enjoy each other's company.

Entering the passenger seat of her Mercedes- Arthur was pretty certain that’s what the car was despite his lack of knowledge on cars, he waited for Mira to get in before uncorking one of the vials.

He’d decided to start with the vitality one, hoping the increase it would give him in the stat would help him deal with the side effects the others would cause.

Contrary to what he had expected, it didn't taste disgusting. In fact, It was actually quite nice, an apple flavoured sour drink. The surprise must have shown on his face and Mira smirked in amusement.

“Of course I use artificial flavourings. Do you think I’m a savage or something? It'd taste like literal shit otherwise and I don't hate you that much.”

Arthur was once again surprised that Mira was being so accommodating; considering something so trivial just for his comfort, unless it actually tasted so bad that the extra ingredients were a necessary addition.

Wasting no time, he quickly downed the other two potions and waited to see if anything would happen, when nothing did, he turned around and looked inquisitively at Mira, an eyebrow raised in question.

“Don't worry, It’ll take some time,” she said in exasperation.

Nothing seemed to be happening though, and even Mira was starting to worry that her creations were defective when all of a sudden, the temperature in the car shot downwards. The small shadows present within the vehicle appeared to be growing longer and she was unable to draw breath.

“What the fuck is going on!” She managed to groan, her voice sounding strange in her own ears.

Just as soon as the aura had arrived; it left, but Mira turned around wearily to look at the source of the earlier disturbance.

‘Oh shit. He really isn’t human, is he?’

Arthur seemed to be exerting a sort of quiet pressure on his surroundings now, as if his existence itself was more real and defined than anything around him.

‘What a monster.’

Arthur meanwhile, placed a hand on his chest feeling the powerful beat of his heart. It felt like a drum in his chest, an engine pumping energy through his body like he was running on high octane fuel instead of coffee.

He felt strong, like he could take on everything in the world, an illusion he knew was generated due to his sudden spike in power but still couldn’t ignore.

He felt ready.

“Let's go. I don't think the effects will last anywhere near as long as the description stated.''

Mira just nodded her head dumbly, unsure of what to say.

She began to drive.

~Long-claw-sharp-tooth~

The lizard approached the meat resting outside its cave and sniffed it. It smelt strange, but Long-claw-sharp-tooth, as he had been aptly named by his prey, was not one to turn away a free meal.

Weeks of going hungry in his past had taught him that his pride was nothing in the face of starvation.

Still, looking at the tiny morsel, he thought that the free meal could have been a little bigger. Maybe that's how free-meals always were. He wouldn't know any better. This was the first time he had received one after all.

In one quick bite, he gobbled it all up.

~Arthur Ward~

Arthur watched the lizard, his eyes wide open in revulsion as it started writhing around on the ground, its leathery skin cracking in places, leaking streams of foul smelling blood and pus all over the place. Its skin rapidly dried and flaked off, its claws pushed out of their rightful place, as they were replaced by sharper daggers that seemed to radiate almost radiate a sense of danger.

The monster roared in agony, as it's bones began to rapidly grow. It was a sickening sight and Arthur couldn't keep watching anymore. He turned to look at Mira, who looked almost bloodless with how pale her skin had become at the grotesque scene that played out before her.

She’d already vomited the contents of her stomach onto the grass beside her, but it looked like her body wasn’t done with regurgitating food.

Only when three eternally long minutes had finally passed and the sounds of rapid evolution were silent, did Arthur look back at the lizard.

He didn't recognise the monster in front of him.

It had completely changed, now standing on two feet instead of its previous four. The monster clenched and unclenched its new hands and looked at the intruders that had encroached on its territory with its now enhanced visual prowess. Arthur felt something inside him wake up, and despite his internal screaming, he began to walk forwards.

The former lizard bared its teeth and growled,  preparing to crush the prey that had come before it. But something was wrong. The strange two legged creature wasn't trembling in fear as it had expected.

No, the creature was walking towards him, each stride confident and calm.

When it stepped into range, the lizard could feel the aura the beast released, weaker than its own but no less potent. It seemed like a challenger had come for its territory, as many had before.

As the prey, no monster approached, the lizard prepared itself to fight.