Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The Regressor decided to be my sparing partner, much to the displeasure of Noel, and I was now standing face to face with the man in the centre of the training area. Vadeem had moved the dummies away and was acting as the referee.

“Are you sure you two shouldn’t be using training weapons?” Yoona asked.

“We’re fine,” her brother answered with way more confidence than I would have, “I’ve seen Walter’s skill before, we’re both able to stop before any of us are harmed. Plus, where would he even get a training version of his weapon?”

“Still…”

“Don’t worry too much, Yoona, we’ll both be fine.”

The high schooler eventually agreed but insisted we have a stockpile of healing salves on standby. None of us saw any point in arguing with that fact.

I held my new weapon in hand and stared into the eyes of my opponent. The Regressor was intense, it was like some kind of sick determination drove him to give his absolute all regardless of what was going on around the man. I shuddered at the thought of legitimately facing him in combat and hoped that such an event would never come to be.

Still, a smaller part of me was glad for the chance to finally test out my abilities. I know that I’m still relying on Noe to do 90% of the heavy lifting, but the few bouts that I did have using the Absolute Luck skill taught me a number of things.

First of all, my luck charges went down relatively slowly if it only had to make minor adjustments to my actions, so the more skilled I was at combat, the longer the skill could be activated for. Additionally, thanks to my first run-in with Noel, I learned that my luck charges go down fast if it had to compensate for situations where I was woefully overwhelmed.

But the one thing I knew from my albeit limited exposure to Noe’s skill was that I needed more control over it, and fighting the Regressor was the perfect opportunity to do so without much consequence. I’ve never run out of luck charges before, but I was under no illusions that it’ll remain that way in the future. The Trials would only get harder, and I needed to ensure that I had the capabilities to not just survive them, but to thrive.

Steading myself, finger on the trigger, I waited for Vadeem’s countdown.

“Alright contestants, you know the rules!” He shouted, “We’re using only raw skill here, so no Class actives or abilities. We’ll begin on the count of three. Are both sides ready?”

I activated my skill despite being told not to, like hell I wouldn’t cheat here, and saw that my charges had recharged to an adequate amount. Not full, since my date with Xalla had all but emptied my reserves, but enough for the task ahead of me. Sadly, the regeneration rate of 1 charge per minute which seemed so quick before was quickly showing its flaws now that my total charges were in the hundreds. I had invested the rest of my Free Attribute Points into Dexterity, so I should fare slightly better than before.

Overall, my stats looked like this:

 

Class: Level 17 Master of None

Free points: 0

Attributes:

HP:254/254

MP: 0/0

Strength: 49 (+10.5)

Dexterity: 44 (+0)

Endurance: 42 (+10)

Intelligence: 48 (+10)

Charisma: 60 (+10)

 

Luck Charges: 344/405

 

I cursed at the fact that I actually lost dexterity even though I invested 8 more points into it. What a goddamn useless Class the Trash Matrix forced me into!

“I’m ready,” the Regressor said, expression still grim with determination. I mean, come on, it’s just a spar, please go easy on me!

“I’ll be as ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered and dismissed my stat page.

Vadeem smiled, “Alright contestants!"

"Three."

"Two."

"One…”

“Begin!”

Although I had no experience with using any weapon, much less this crazy fantasy whip thing, the overall concepts were straightforward. I had the distinct reach advantage over the Regressor’s spear, and I had to make sure that I kept him at a distance. I knew enough about combat to know that fighting a spear with a normal sword was a losing battle no matter the situation.

Immediately as Vadeem’s countdown finished, I depressed the trigger and slashed out with the unlinked blade segments. The weapon fully protracted was at least 4 meters long, and I could almost reach the Regressor even from our starting points.

As I slashed, I felt a slight jitter in my hands, my digits shaking like I had just drank 5 expresso shots in a row. These jitters caused the blade segments to dance wildly in the air, and the Regressor frowned as he had to dodge and deflect a cascade of sharp blades coming at him from every angle. Yet despite the ludicrous amount of angles that he had to account for, and the sheer speed and unpredictability of the attacks, none of the blades managed any impact on his person. What a monster.

 

Luck Charges: 342/405

 

As I thought, the amount of luck charges that I consumed was minimal when I used this weapon. I continued to swing the whip-blade at a wild rate, keeping my opponent on guard and forcing all his attention on avoiding the seemingly random movements of the attacks. However, although the Regressor was definitely on the back foot, I quickly realized the big problem with how I was fighting. Sure each individual strike didn’t consume a lot of Luck Charges, but I was swinging a lot. The tiny amount of charges used was adding up fast. In the span of just moments, my charges plummeted, yet the Regressor was still completely unharmed.

 

Luck Charges: 273/405

 

This couldn’t go on, but I was at an impasse. If I left my continuous swings up, even a little, then Jae-Hyun can slip through my barrage of blades and I’ll lose my only advantage. If he got close to me, I doubt the amount of Luck Charges I had could even last a single minute.

Noe I thought, is there anything you can do here?

“Affirmative,” it answered, “Unit Noe can switch from Luck Algorithm 1 Alpha to Luck Algorithm 3 Alpha to calculate the best outcome for the Absolute Luck Skill.”

What’s the difference? I thought, still swinging wildly, Sparks note version, Noe!

 

Luck Charges: 252/405

 

“Luck Algorithm 3 Alpha is suited for combat, but will consume more Luck Charges.”

 

Luck Charges: 245/405

 

Switch, Noe!

“Affirmative.”

My next swing was… strange. I felt like I had almost no control over my own body; my arm did go where I wanted to, but the whole left side of my body seemed to be making random gestures on the way to that location. It was highly disconcerting, seeing my body behave completely outside my control because even though I was relying on Noe previously, all the system did was cause minute muscle spasms and contractions.

 

Luck Charges: 183/405

 

But regardless, the results of that random motion were immediately noticeable. So was the huge drop in my Luck Charges. My motions caused the whip to seem like it had a mind of its own, and every single blade fragment seemingly homed into the Regressor’s vitals. The segments were colliding into themselves, again and again, making the overall path of each blade almost unpredictable, and Noe was somehow using the momentum from Jae-Hyun’s deflections to mix up the whip’s movements further.

After two swings, the Regressor had to take three steps back, and after the third, I (well, I guess it was mostly Noe doing the work if I had the time to contemplate these things) managed to find a fault in the Regressor’s defense and strike first blood. He was briefly overwhelmed, and a narrow gash formed on his cheek.

 

Luck Charges: 87/405

 

However, that was pretty much the extent of my victory, because the Regressor’s entire atmosphere changed when I managed to land that blow. I felt a stifling aura permeate from his unnerving gaze, and his movements sped up to an insane level. Now, instead of trying to dodge or deflect my weapon, he ignored defense and focused all of his strength on hitting one of its segments. In doing so, he was cut up, but he ignored the wounds, and with a great swing he forced the blade segments away from him.

He took that tiny moment of respite to bridge the distance. Within milliseconds, he was within striking distance of me, and I felt a horrible pain in the pit of my stomach that made me bend over in agony. It wasn’t from the Regressor, because his swing missed taking off my head. It seems that Noe’s new idea of defending its host was a lot more unpleasant than before.

 

Luck Charges: 44/405

 

It was over pretty quickly after that point. I was able to dodge two more strikes before the last of my luck charges pattered out into nothing, and I saw the point of a spear hover just inches away from my face. I fell back in exhaustion, and quickly put my hands up in defeat.

 

Luck Charges: 0/405

 

I knew that I probably wouldn’t win in a straight-up fight versus the Regressor, but I don’t think I managed to last even 5 minutes in that fight. I gritted my teeth in bitterness; it seemed like I couldn’t blindly rely on Noe’s Luck skill and had to improve on my own terms as well. If this had been a real fight…

But it wasn't, so no point being bitter about the learning experience. It just means that I had to improve my control over the skill and hone my own abilities.

I sighed, “Alright, you win Jae-Hyun. I stood no chance.”

The Regressor composed himself, and let a panicking Yoona apply some of her hoarded salves on his cuts. His sister did not look happy about what just transpired.

"No," he said, "You were much better than I thought. And that technique of yours... I've never seen anything like it."

"Yeah!" Noel added, "I told you that he fought weird!"

Vadeem nodded, "It's very strange, it's like Walter's not thinking about his attacks at all, and just moving randomly. There's no intent behind his actions. Must be very hard to fight against when you can't read your opponent at all."

"It's even worse than that," The Regressor added, "It's not just the lack of intent, but even the way his body moves is completely contradictory to every style of fighting I've ever seen. He's using none of the correct muscles, so I can't even predict his actions based on his body. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh, it's from my Master." I said with confidence and began to quote Raffiel verbatim, "Can't really tell you who it is, but he said that a person shouldn't be too focused on form, on technique, because that would be limiting yourself. So to become a true master is to forgo the constraints of technique and revert to the state of a true beginner."

Sorry Raffiel, but I'll put your wisdom to use now!

"Fascinating..." the Regressor said, "I didn't think someone of that level still existed in the outside world. You have a good Master, Walter."

An idea started to form in my head... I think I know a way to explain why I couldn't fight well in the future.

I laughed in embarrassment, "Thanks, but I'm still in the beginning stages, so I can't really use it for long. The only way for me to train this style is to act like I have no idea how to fight at all, otherwise, my muscle memory will take over and I'll ruin my Master's teachings."

"What a strange way to improve," Noel said, "but hey if it works for you!"

"So you guys won't mind if I train my technique when we're fighting weaker foes in the future?" I asked tentatively, "I'll fight properly when we need to of course."

The Regressor thought for a moment but saw that there wasn't any issue with my request, "I don't see why not. It's important to always strive to improve, especially in our current situation."

"Awesome! Alright gang, we got Walter his weapon, so mission complete!" Noel said, "Let's clean up now and hit the pool! You won't believe the facilities they've got here!"

"I second that!" Vadeem exclaimed.

Yoona looked at her brother, now content that his small wounds were fully healed, "Brother, do you mind?"

The Regressor smiled, "Alright, I think we're due for a break. Let's go."

The rest of that week passed by faster than I had thought possible. Most of it was spent with the four members of my party, some of it was stocking up on supplies for the next Trial, but honestly, most of the time was just relaxing fun. Even the regular sparring sessions the Regressor devised were entertaining in their own way, and seeing myself improve my control over the Luck Skill was always motivating.

Before I knew it, only a few hours remained before the start of the next Trial, and I can only hope that it goes as well as the first one.