Tsk. So that’s the lead pair’s halo, huh?
She dropped a few enemies with lazy kicks, like sweeping leaves off a step. Leaning against a power pole, Nana Toki eyed Jiang Xinli and Bei Yuan in the distance, a curse burning on her tongue like a stray spark that wouldn’t quite jump.
These two weren’t just stronger than a month ago—they were a whole storm level up.
Jiang Xinli’s spatial ability was a thorn bush, all invisible needles.
Nana ran her fingers over the transparent cube boxing her team in. Her face tightened like a sky before rain.
Damn. This feels like trying to crack tempered glass.
System: “...”
Host, you said that out loud.
Shut it.
She glanced at Bei Yuan. Heat rose in her chest like steam; then she shoved off the pole and rolled up her sleeves.
I’m not sitting here waiting to die.
Host, what are you planning?
Watch me teach them a lesson.
She stooped, picked up a red brick by the pole, and ghosted toward Bei Yuan with street-cat patience.
System: “...” Wait, that brick wasn’t here a second ago, Host.
The System had more to say, but Nana was already marching toward the main fight, brick in hand, momentum like a breaking wave.
“So? Ready to surrender already?”
Lightning coiled around Bei Yuan like silver snakes. A spear of pure thunder glowed in his grip. He watched Nana walk toward him, a sneer cutting across his rain-dark face.
“Heh.”
No words. Nana stepped in close. She swung the red brick at his handsome face, all the pent-up weather in her bones crashing down.
You dare taunt me? Die!
“Hmph.”
He didn’t even try to dodge. The thunder-spear tipped, lazily touched her brick.
Then—
Boom! The sound hit like a grenade underfoot, shockwave kicking up a ring of dust like a gray halo.
Everyone inside Jiang Xinli’s space looked over, eyes pulled by the blast like moths to flame.
“Eh~ shame.”
Nana sighed at the dust cloud, lips quirking.
What’s wrong, Host?
You know every novel runs on a few eternal rules.
Like what?
The Smoke-Without-Injury Rule. If there’s smoke, nobody dies.
System: “...”
“Yu—Xi—!!”
Dust settled in a slow fall like ash from a brazier. Bei Yuan still stood at the center, a statue under stormlight.
His face, though, twisted ugly. The blast had barely touched him, but his clothes were scorched rag-edges, and his hair and cheeks were grimed like charcoal. It would’ve been funny if the thunder hadn’t been humming.
“Stop yelling. I’m not deaf.”
Nana dug a fingertip in her ear, her grin bright as a paper lantern.
“So? How’d the grenade taste?”
“You ambushed me!” Bei Yuan’s face went black like a squall line.
“You chose not to dodge. That’s on you.”
She shrugged, easy as a windblown branch.
H-Host, why did your red brick explode?
The System sounded baffled enough to short-circuit.
What, random bricks on the roadside explode now?
Nah. I made it the other day, messing around. Thought it’d come in handy, so I made a few. You just bury a hand grenade inside concrete, cast it as a red brick, done.
System: “...”
Host, are you planning to let yourself go?
I’ve been letting myself go this whole time.
System: “...”
“Shall we continue?”
Nana opened both hands, a flower’s worth of smile blooming, two fresh red bricks resting there like ripe fruit.
System: “...”
Wait—where did those two bricks come from?
Host, do you have a storage space?
Nope! Don’t start rumors!
She didn’t give the System time to pry. She lunged and swung the brick again, aiming straight for Bei Yuan’s face, vicious as a winter gust.
Her intent was ice-cold and lethal. People nearby felt a chill up their spines; this girl was swinging to end stories, not write mercy.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Explosions rolled one after another, drums in a thunder parade. Bei Yuan tanked the damage with his ability, but the feeling was filthy, like someone spitting on you and sprinting away.
“Zzzzz... zzzzz...” Lightning crackled, blue-white as river ice.
He dodged Nana’s next double-swing, messy and angry, teeth grinding like stones.
“What, not convinced? Then come slap me!”
Nana waved a brick at him, pure provocation, like dangling raw meat at a tiger.
“Tsk.”
Bei Yuan’s gaze sharpened. He hurled the thunder-spear straight at her chest, lightning a hungry arrow streaking across the cube.
“Shit! He’s serious!”
Nana dove right, belly to the floor like a lizard under a cart.
Kaboom!
The spear hit the wall behind her. The sound slammed down like sky-thunder spearing a tree, deafening and thick.
Nana twisted to look. The wall was blackened, smoking with thin white threads like incense.
That’s some obscene damage.
System: “...” Host, didn’t you tank heavenly thunder before? This is nothing, right?
That was with the ghoul-slayer backing me. I’m barehanded now. Not the same game.
“...” I don’t buy your ghost stories. Ghoul-slayer, my circuits.
Crack, crack.
Pain snapped at her wrists. Nana looked down. Her hands were twisted out of true, yet numb, as if invisible shackles had closed around her bones.
“I’ve got you.”
Far off, Jiang Xinli bounced on her toes, delight sparking in her eyes. Her voice rang like a bell in mist.
Spatial ability?
Nana glanced from her warped wrists to Jiang Xinli. Thought flickered across her face like cloud-shadow.
The Protagonist Lady’s power is a puzzle-box. Annoying.
I need a way to take her off the board.
But first, we run.
Bei Yuan was almost on her. Nana spun and sprinted toward Luo Shanshan, feet skimming like swallows over water.
She snagged Misty Tide on the way, hands and feet bound, hauling the kid along like a sleepy cat.
This brat fell asleep?!
Nana gripped Misty Tide by her small ankles. She almost laughed and swore at once. What kind of boss takes a nap mid-battle?
In the near distance, Luo Shanshan was hemmed in by several ability-users. They hammered her with powers like hail on a tin roof, but her eerie twin hands kept them at bay.
Nana didn’t bother with niceties. She slid behind the group, dropped low, and swept her leg. Bodies hit the ground like felled stalks.
For good measure, she booted them away, sending them skidding like kicked buckets.
“Don’t dodge. Quick—tear this open.”
Nana thrust her bound wrists at Luo Shanshan.
“Eh? Xixi? What happened to your hands?”
Luo Shanshan’s face pinched with worry, her eyes wet as dew as she stared at Nana’s twisted wrists.
“Not broken. Relax.”
Nana kicked another would-be attacker, then ran again, toting Misty Tide by her little feet while dragging Luo Shanshan along, all of them sprinting through Jiang Xinli’s glassy cube like fish in a bowl.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Behind them, Bei Yuan kept pitching thunder-spears. Each thunderclap chased them like hunting dogs. Nana dodged by inches, breath a staccato drum. Two or three more throws, and she knew one would bite.
Does this guy ever stop?
Then her wrists loosened. The twist faded like fog in sun.
Nana blinked, then grinned.
The Protagonist Lady’s ability drops off past a set distance?
Misty Tide, still dangling, started to stir, eyes fluttering like slow moths.
Nana halted. A new thunder-spear came snaking in, a predator’s tongue lancing for her back.
Whoosh—
Misty Tide snapped awake, eyes widening like lanterns. She twisted in midair, slipped free of Nana’s grasp with a cat’s boneless flip, and lunged at the spear.
Zzzzz... zzzzzz... zzzzz...
In less than a heartbeat, her hands clamped around the electric spear. Lightning skittered over her fingers like fish through reeds.
“Mm—mm—”
Teeth grit. Misty Tide planted her feet. Crack—
She crushed the thunder-spear. It shattered into thin forks of light, flickered like fireflies, then died.
“...”
What the—!
Another one who plays with lightning?
Nana stood behind Misty Tide, eyebrows climbing like startled birds.
Not as wild as Luo Shanshan’s hand-on-heaven thunder, sure. But the visual hit like a comet.
System: “Host, please don’t underestimate the boss.”
Nana: “...” With that sorry face, it’s hard not to.
“Tsk.”
Near Jiang Xinli, Bei Yuan watched Misty Tide grind his lightning to dust. His expression darkened like a storm front.
“Let’s see you catch this.”
He clapped, hands snapping together like thunder, then slowly pulled them apart.
Zzzzz... zzzzz... zzzzz...
A volatile bolt bloomed between his palms, bucking like a wild beast, snarling and pawing at the air.
It looked ready to break his grip and pounce on anyone nearby, teeth bared.
That feral light drew Nana’s eyes like a magnet.
Holy— the Protagonist Lord’s about to cut loose.
