Erie trailed Stacy, waiting for the perfect time to strike. It was dark outside; the only light was the new moon, and LED lighting trailed down the pathway.
Erie constantly checked over his shoulder while trailing him close by, ensuring no one else was following him. "I need to stay covered so no one sees me. I don't need anyone spotting me and coming for revenge."
Erie's heart thumped harder as he finally positioned himself to attack his target. "Just a few more steps, and we will be in a blind spot."
Stacy was too busy looking at his watch and flipping through his settings to notice he was being followed. The glowing watch, showing different fonts and characters, had his full attention.
"This is great! I didn't know I could buy extra settings here, and it didn't even cost me a full coin!" he said out loud, throbbing another fruit snack in his mouth. I can pay off Jason, and I'll have two extra coins."
Stacy continued walking and flipping through the settings on his watch, and the next moment, his head jolted back. He felt a substantial impact on his chin, stumbled, and fell.
As soon as Stacy hit the ground, he rolled a few times and bounced back on his feet as fast as he could; when he looked to see who had attacked him, he saw a black mask with orange streaks diagonally across the face of the mask.
"What the? Why did you attack me!" Stacy shouted in an irrational tone.
Erie didn't answer. He didn't want to say anything for fear of being recognized for who he was, so the best thing to do was finish the fight as fast as possible.
Erie finally took his stance and ran up to Stacy, and through a punch, Stacy smiled. "wrong choice, loser!"
A glowing object blocked Erie's punch. Erie looked over, and a glowing rod about two feet long manifested from Stacy's hand. After the block, Stacy swung the glowing rod, countering Erie's punch, striking Erie in the head. The hit felt like someone hit him with a baseball bat. The object was solid and felt blunt.
"damn, that hurt!" Erie cursed; he recovered from the force he held, trying to shake the slight daze; he quickly stepped back, trying to regain his composure; he felt his head and noticed blood trickling down his hand.
"What?" Stacy was confused as he watched the attacker stepping back instead of following up with a counter. The boy spotted the bronze ribbon that was displayed on his arm.
Stacy laughed, now knowing that he was stronger. "You must be one of the low levels from which we took currency." Now you want revenge?"
Erie stood quietly and refocused his stance, and Stacy continued talking. "Nice try, but you're dying tonight!"
The Erie system's new feature has finally kicked in.
"Name: Stacy Harris"
"Ability: Projectile Energy"
"HP: 79 of 100"
"Energy Level: unable to identify."
"What is projective energy? No wonder why that object showed up. That was his ability!" Although Erie was surprised, he knew he could still win the fight.
Erie charged in one again; this time, he formed an overhead kick aimed at his head. Erie moved much faster than STacy anticipated; he didn't have enough time to create another weapon for a counter.
Stacy's head jolted; he held his head in pain. "Is this guy a bronze? Does he have speed ability?"
Erie followed up with another kick, twisting his body to follow his previous momentum. Stacy saw the kick coming and formed a white shield on his arm to protect him from the hit. When Erie landed the kick, he felt like he had kicked the pavement.
"You have been injured."
"70 of 100 HP"
Erie screamed in pain and stepped back; he stumbled a little, trying to regain his position.
"Damn it! This guy keeps creating energy weapons." Eriew was getting desperate; however, he realized a few things about Stacy's ability.
Every time an energy weapon forms, it disappears in a short amount of time after it is used. If he could maintain the energy weapons, he would have used an entire armor or fired weapons at him.
Either his ability took up too much energy, or he didn't know how to hold his ability for more than a few seconds, hence why he was a level DD fighter. Erie was willing to bet he couldn't keep his ability and create energy projectiles.
Erie wanted to use the skill that his system had given him since the most he could do was block with his ability. He then ran forward, trying to gather momentum, and when he was close enough in range, he used his skill.
"Concentration!" Once activated, he saw Stacy activate his skill. Another blunt object formed in his hand, and the attack was aimed at Erie's chest. Erie moved out of the way and punched Stacy's chin again. Stacy's head jolted back, but while concentration was still active, Erie changed his momentum and landed a front kick on Stacy's head, knocking him to the ground.
"Concentration has ended"
Erie didn't waste time. As soon as Stacy hit the ground after landing, he ran and kicked him in the head, knocking him out cold. The system still didn't give Erie victory, so he jumped on and punched him in the head a few times until he received a victory chime from his system.
"You have completed your Second fight."
"50 Experience points have been granted."
"For your first spar against a higher ranking, you have received an additional 30 Experience points."
'185 of 200, additional points have been given "205 of 200."
"you may now proceed to level 3."
"User needs to accept level 3 to level up."
"I need to accept to level up? Of course, I want to level up you dammed system! Why would you even ask me that?"
"Additional information: After leveling up, the change will remain permanent."
Erie couldn't process the information. He believed the system was trying to make him stronger. "Let go! Make me stronger, system!."
"congrulatioans! You are now level 3."
"Evolution process has started!"
"Evolution? What the hell is this!"
Erie's excitement was gone; he instantly fell to the ground. A large thump hit his chest as his heart beat at a fast paste; the blood rushed through his veins, causing pain throughout his whole body; his throat had swollen from the process, so his screams sounded more like a squeal.
The pain flashed through his body, and he felt as if he was on fire. Erie was too focused on the pain to realize his healing, and his head began to heal; the burning sensation in his heart, lungs, and body was unbearable.
For Erie, it felt like hours, yet the experience lasted only three minutes. After he was finished, a message appeared before him.
"Congratulations, You have successfully evolved."
"You are now a sunlet."
"A sunlet?" Erie stared at his system's words; he could not make sense of them. He had never heard of a sunlet, but whatever it was, it was irreversible. Before he could spend more time on it, more messages appeared.
"Your stats have increased."
"New skill unlocked: Level 1 sunslash."
"Sun Slash: the skill ranges from 2 feet. The user can use their hand or a weapon to slash diagonally; 1 line of orange energy would disperse from the user's attack. To use this skill, Life energy and sun energy must be used cause - 5 percent of overall energy"
"The System has been updated to 1.1. User can now analyze humans or objects. Additionally, Skills will now be more descriptive."
He had no time to process the information that came at him. However, another message stood out to him.
He read it before in a book.
"Energy is low."
"Your need for life energy can no longer be suppressed."
"Your body will now feed on its life energy until you have taken life energy from another individual."