《A Will to Recognize》24. You're a Piece of Shit, Ya Know?
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‘This is impossible.’
I had no recollection of when it happened, but there was no point in dwelling over it. A sword would serve no purpose other than restricting my movements. Besides, she had already cut it in half somehow with her blocky wooden sword. The only physics I needed to know was that it was dangerous. It didn’t matter if it were a stick, slipper, or an oonga boonga club, I was running the fuck away.
“Haah!”
I said run away, but that wasn’t nearly as realistic as having a stick shoved up my ass. This girl was way faster than me if it were solely running. In fact, if she gave up swinging that damned lightsaber, she could catch me just like she did before and grope—well, I shouldn’t need to explain what comes next.
But thanks to her unperfected swordsmanship, I was able to exploit her attacks with my foresight. And while I say “exploit,” there was nothing to exploit other than evading. If I tried blocking with my elbow or forearm, it would be chopped off clean. And who the hell in their right minds would go on their offense against this monster? The best defense is offense?—Go fuck yourself.
On that note, if my memories are correct, she has improved a lot.
I was an amateur myself so I couldn’t quite say how I knew, but from my general knowledge, she no longer telegraphed her movement, meaning it was harder to read where she would go next. Still, it was her eyes that gave it away.
Let’s ignore the uncanny buttery pupil—she was making a mistake a lot of rookies did. Just watching where her eyes went told me all I needed to know to avoid the next strike.
‘Sideways.’
I slipped to the left, and rolled my shoulders to a ducking position, just barely avoiding the diagonal slice.
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In all honesty, I did not know how I was keeping up with her demonic speed. There were only so many evasions in my arsenal; I was certain she would see through one of them eventually and prepare a pre-move to follow up.
‘Shit.’
There was also this other disadvantage. I couldn’t quite lay my mind on it as it triggered like an excruciating itch. My body would lock itself a couple times in a row as if a chiseled ice statue.
I had been lucky so far that it only happened when I avoided an attack or after a flurry of attacks. When I concentrated enough, I could break out of it so that was good.
But this issue presented a bigger question as well as an answer to my previous thoughts.
That is, my body freezing up had nothing to do with my mindset or my brain. I was sure of that.
I wasn’t in denial or anything, I just knew. I was too much of a genius to succumb to such shenanigans. If anything, my subconscious was starving for a decent fight, not afraid of it.
In a literal sense, I had always been addicted. I guess it can be called “combat addiction.” The name rolled off the tongue well.
This order of logic was nothing short of my rebuttal to accept my own incompetence. I had enough excuses to write a whole thesis on why it was impossible for me to freeze in a high-stress situation.
Needless to say, it was also an indicator that I wasn’t pushing myself enough. I had to train even harder from now on. I must.
‘Bitch.’
While I was frozen in a ducking position, she came down with a recurring combo.
‘Roll, you fat fuck.”
I could roll.
‘Shoot, you piece of shit body.’
Instead, I darted straight for her juicy calf. If I was in any position to strike, that exposed meat was asking to be kicked—though it wouldn’t do much since she was somehow immune to physical attacks. Was it some sort of iron-fist, iron-abs, and iron-skin kind of thing like described in those Kyokushin Karate manuals? I didn’t know.
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‘Focus.’
I grabbed her lead leg, firming my grip on it. With all the explosive strength I could muster, I thrust upward from my feet to my pelvis, trying my best to disrupt her balance.
Rather than blasting upward like a rocket, I ran my hands all the way up from the calves to the thighs—somewhere in between the two.
With my arms wrapped around her knee joint, I manipulated the momentum and tossed it sideways, essentially throwing her on the ground.
‘You’re a motherfucking genius.’
I cheered myself on, having realized that great strength did not necessarily mean great weight. She was still in the same threshold as I, weighing the same as a tee—no, that’s giving her too much credit. She’s a baby.
“Iviconenco…” The only noise I could hear was garbled. Whether it was from Sam or my classmates, it didn’t matter.
I lunged at the opportunity, going straight for a front naked choke.
Everyone has heard of the rear naked choke, but the front version was a luxury to be pulled off correctly. To a layman, such complex jargon meant shit from a pot, so sit back and relax as I demonstrate the greatest submission of all time. That’s right, the greatest!
I got on top of her chest and put my hands around her neck, and squeezed. That’s right, strangle the chicken!
‘Let go of your sword idiot.’
She still held onto her sword when she was about to be choked unconscious.
I could only nod my head in disappointment seeing her flail—
*Pffft
—Samantha—
‘Eh, what happened?’
My vision was hazy as to what went on, but in the next moment, a weight came off my body and my vision fazed back to clarity.
I could see again.
“Huh?”
Beside me, was some—Daniel? Why is he coughing out blood?
‘Eh? Why do my knuckles hurt?’
Before I could think of anything, a black aura ate Daniel and the white-beardy guy dragged me away.
When I looked at the seats, no one was there.
‘Did everyone leave?’
‘Did that girl leave too?”
“Samantha, right?”
“Eh? Uuuuh, that’s my name.”
The white-beardy man stroked his beard. “Would you like to join the blah blah blah blah…”
I looked at him strangely, not quite sure what he was talking about.
“Blah blah, Daniel is also a member blah blah…”
“Okay!” I said when I heard him say Daniel was a part of the… Uh, whatever it was called.
“Oh, are you sure you don’t want to read the blah blah blah first blah blah…”
I nodded, “Yeah!”
“Mmm. Good spirit. All you need to do is sign here.” He handed me a pen and paper.
I could read some of it, but a lot of the sentences had big words I didn’t really know. But I still had a general idea of what it was with the added context of some membership or something.
I took the pen and signed.
“Mhm. Alright, now with this… Blah blah.”
“Where did Daniel go?” I interrupted him.
“Him? Oh he should be fine. No need to worry about him.”
‘Fine? What happened? Did he die? Did Daniel die?’
The white-beardy guy nodded in some sort of approval as light started coming from somewhere.
‘He was coughing blood, right? So he’s dead? He’s dead!? Who killed him!?’
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The Silver Mana - Book 1: Initiate
I used to be a healthy, young guy with a normal life - I had a career planned in professional soccer, a girlfriend, lots of hobbies, and loads of fun. Until the accident. Which changed my life. A few years later I had adjusted to my new reality, adjusted to being in a wheelchair, adjusted to having someone take care of me 24/7. And then the world changed. Old people and kids did not make it. And neither was I supposed to make it. But never count me out. If anything, I am tenacious. This new world was different. People could do magic. And there were monsters. And what about me? I had mana as well, silver mana. Which no one else seemed to have. The only problem was, I did not know what to do with it. Until I really needed to. Author's note: This is the rewrite of Silver Mana. The first bunch of chapters (until I will have caught up to level 2 of the dungeon) should be quite familiar to people that have read the original. There are some changes in content, but the story follows the original fairly closely for at least the first 150-200 pages. Most of the changes are in the writing, and some of the details of how things work. A few of the side characters get a bit more attention too. Some general comments to avoid disappointment: 1. The MC likes to swear. If you object to reading the word "fuck" at least once and usually multiple times each chapter don't read the book. "Fuck" is such a great, allencompassing word... fuck that; what the fuck?; fuck me! Fuck! one word, expressing so many nuances. And, frankly, the people I know that use fuck as a swear word.. they often use it a lot. 2. If you are looking for immediate progression, rapid advancement of the story, etc.... read another book. This one takes a bit. 3. I am NOT Pirateaba (who is writing The Wandering Inn) or anyone close to that level of productivity. If you expect to read 10k words every 3 days, or even just once a week... sorry. I've got a busy life. This is for fun, I have no patreon, paypal, anything, so I write when it is fun and however much is fun. Not more. And sometimes that turns out to be a decent amount, sometimes nothing. I have another book (Marrow) so that complicated things - basically I switch between the two whenever the muse strikes me.
8 237Rise (A superhero serial)
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8 172God-Ish
Arata Okubo was renowned for his abnormal play style with Divination magic—earning him the moniker of “The Diviner” in the MMORPG, Myleflora Online (MO). Yet, on one fateful day, his life suddenly came to an end. He then finds himself being allowed into that same world, with the same appearance as his character, Albel. A world referred to as Aerith, one akin to a still budded, and yet, already blighted flower. Of charred roots and left to dry, Albel will soon come to understand what exactly that means and why.
8 120Reincarnated as a Warlock with zero skill
My previous life was just as boring as yours. I was a marketing manager for a flooring company. The biggest challenge? Would the latest colour be called "Grey Oak" or "Oak Grey". Then, tragedy. I was struck down in the prime of my life by a negligent delivery driver and a pallet of laminate flooring - which is significantly heavier than you think. So there I was, smeared on the floor, absorbed in my own self pity. Where would I go? Heaven? Hell. Did I care? Apparently that was not what fate had in store for me. Reborn in a world of dragons and fantasy, I became a Warlock. A pretty darn important one too. The problem, I had little to no affinity to magic and I spent most of my time doing my best to avoid danger. Danger however, would not avoid me. So, with my new life as an amazing Warlock you'd think it would be easy street right? Wrong. Forces gather to move against the Kingdom I am sworn to protect and, whilst my inward allegiance is to whomever is the victor, outwardly I must lead the resistance against the invaders. With my skilled companions Asha - a mage that can actually do magic and Torg - a swordsman sworn to protect me, I can only hope that they distract the enemy long enough for me to run away.
8 117BORING | YOONSEOK
❝why does everyone leave me.❞
8 131You are the reason
Date Started: 12/13/21
8 168