Novel Bin Chapter 58: Naomi vs Bianca
Chapter 58: Naomi vs Bianca
It sucked that the battle psion had to train more than the others. She couldn’t give herself much time to relax. Every day was an uphill battle to keep up with the epic classes.
Worse yet, Zarian chose her to figure out Aura Ignition.
That damn power was something he wanted to figure out for himself. Ironically, his high-Mysticism and aura-efficient build was anti-ignition. Naomi had the best shot of pulling it off.
Yeah, that was a lot of pressure.
He’s not choosing me out of pity. Naomi wanted to believe he was choosing her because she was capable.
Besides, every time Naomi felt insecure, she buckled down on what she did best.
Embrace the suck and grind!
She looked at the upcoming fight as another opportunity to work her ass off and push past her limits.She glanced over to the glamorous and taller young woman who shone like the sun next to her. Naomi used her Psionic Affinity to get a general read of Bianca’s surface mood and thoughts.
Bianca was laser focused.
Since Naomi was neutral, she wasn’t sensitive to the alignments like Zarian and Bianca. Still, she could feel it when it was overtly palpable.
Bianca was barely holding back her alignment. It radiated from under her skin and elven dress.
I can’t believe Bianca scares me a little.
Naomi wanted to laugh as the two ladies sauntered across the park. Autumn-colored leaves crinkled under their feet. It was a cool and beautiful day, too. Perfect for an open walk in a flora vista filled with gardens and fountains.
They weren’t going to hide themselves. They moved straight ahead confidently. Because of the information Zarian passed on through the Spectral Spider Network, they had a good idea of what they were facing.
“Can I say something?” Bianca asked, her brain activity changing to nervousness.
That nearly took Naomi off guard. She glanced at the storefront as an evil human creeped through the doorway to take a peek at the two women.
That one was an Urban Defiler, best alpha skill: Defilement Strike.
There were six of those types. They all had a disgusting nature to them. The defiler peeping through the door giggled like a loon, licking his lips in Naomi and Bianca’s direction.
Naomi held back the urge to run over and punch the disgusting man. She glanced at Bianca from the side of her eye.
“What is it?”
“You wouldn’t hate me if I tried to match you, would you? I just don’t want you to be mad if I hog your space or anything.”
Again, Naomi wanted to laugh. In the hierarchy of power, Naomi should be asking Bianca to spare her some kills.
Why was it going the other way around if Bianca was the second most powerful in the party?
“If you want to take over, I won’t stop you. You’re the second best.” Naomi tried to ignore the ache in her chest as she said that.
“I don’t think I am. Not compared to how much work you put in.”
“Does it matter? I only have a rare class.”
Bianca stopped and grabbed Naomi’s hand. What the heck was she doing?
Naomi was surprised as they stopped in the street. Now they were making a scene, and the Urban Defilers were slowly swaggering out the side door.
“Grab them. Bring them here. We’ll have our fun indoors and leave an example to that guy,” said a gruff voice from inside the store.
Bianca ignored them. For some reason, Naomi did the same, looking up into the radiant sun-yellow eyes of the taller, younger, and more glamorous woman.
“Let’s do this side-by-side. You’ll see how amazing you are. I thought having all the power I have would mean I’m really second best. But that’s not true. I’ve seen how you train, Naomi. You’re … so awesome I need all my powers to keep up.”
Naomi couldn’t take this. Not right now. She had switches in her brain for a reason.
This type of conversation was best reserved behind closed doors and out of sight. Then Naomi would let herself be a little girly, a little vulnerable.
Right now, she was trying to hone her killer mindset. If it wasn’t for Tranquil Mind +1, she would’ve gotten thrown completely for a loop. It was no secret to Naomi that the Star System chose her first skill as Tranquil Mind because of her own problems with handling her wild emotions.
Bianca had no switches or changes. She was herself almost all the time. And she was doing this because she had enormous power.
“Ugh, you piss me off!” Naomi gently removed Bianca’s hands off of her. “Fine then, side-by-side. Let’s see who’s really the second best, huh?”
“Don’t compete ladies! You’re equally worthy of being … defiled!” The defiler at the front jumped up and down like a giddy freak.
The six of them drew closer with knives and spiked clubs out. They all wore ragged clothing that smelled horrible. Their faces were covered in dark streaks. When they smiled, most of their teeth were stained brown and rotten.
The one at the front kept on yakking like an excitable troll. “Evil Goddess Sinfeast will be pleased after we’re done with you. Very, very pleased!”
Naomi tightened the straps on both of her gauntlets. She rolled her neck around. Then she said, “Let’s begin.”
Bianca hit the six defilers with a near-instant searing flash.
She barely had to charge and prepare. She merely pulled in streams of bright sunlight quickly, then released it in bursts of magic photons directed into the defilers’ eyes.
All six men screamed, caught off guard, reacting predictably. They swung at anything near them, triggering their alpha skills.
Naomi noted how their Defilement Strike coated their weapons in a disgusting brown and yellow magic energy. Getting hit by that could lead to some serious poisoning or worse.
She also noticed the air around them becoming uncomfortable, gross, and distracting. That might’ve been an area-of-effect skill or direct mental skill.
The defilers probably had traits that strengthened them by being freaks of defilement. Naomi made note of it all while tracking their surface brain waves through her Psionic Affinity trait.
By the time Naomi finished her initial observations, Bianca gathered six shining orbs of concentrated light around her. Bianca smiled serenely as she directed more light as intense high beams into the faces of the defilers, keeping them blinded and disorientated, as she charged her deadly lasers.
If Naomi didn’t act fast enough, then Bianca would hit them all with ease and score the first kills. One laser per head. Then that would be six dead. All without having to lift a pretty finger.
Oh, hell no.
Naomi gave herself a Level 0 shot of Adrenaline Jolt for a physical boost, regardless of how small, and bolted ahead with an explosive lunge. Her bare feet smashed craters into the street as she sprinted.
She tensed her punching arm, cocked her fist back, and focused Mind Spike +1 into the tips of her knuckles. Her Tranquil Mind +1 pushed aside their area-of-effect skill, letting her focus to her fullest as she charged forward unburdened.
“We will make you more beautiful!” The lead defiler lunged forward, uncaring of his lack of vision.
He swung his defilement-coated knife in many wild arcs. He grinned lasciviously, licking his brown teeth, before opening his mouth to utter more nonsense.
He missed widely on Naomi, and she hit him with a big haymaker punch to the face.
Boom. His head exploded.
Brown teeth, skull bits, and brain matter sprayed everywhere after the one hit kill. Some of it splattered on Naomi’s side as she rushed past the headless corpse.
She swerved toward her second target, a defiler with a crooked spiked club.
She heard the sizzling, air-popping zing of a laser searing through the air and running through a defiler’s skull. She heard the brain turn into boiling popcorn.
Naomi grunted as she slammed her foot down with a street-shuddering quake. She stopped her momentum to avoid a defiled club swing. She heard another laser go off.
Bianca took her second kill right after the first.
Naomi watched the club get out of her way. She lunged into a flying knee up the jaw and transferred Mind Spike’s power into the strike.
The skull didn’t explode. Naomi’s heart nearly seized until she saw the notification of defeating her second target.
He had a solid base of vitality that prevented the head explosion effect. However, her Mind Spike was still too much for his brain and limited life energy.
Bianca put another laser through someone’s skull.
She was up three kills.
Naomi was at two kills.
No, no!
Naomi used the defiler she struck with a knee-strike as a platform. She flipped herself over for an overhead axe heel kick.
The last defiler was hunkered down, shouting insults, swiping a rusted sword covered in defilement energy from a low angle. Because of Bianca’s intense light and refined control, Naomi was practically invisible as she brought her heel down on top of his vulnerable head.
The skull burst under her foot, but her heel didn’t stop there. She had so much momentum, speed, and force coming down she crushed the corpse into the ground and formed a crater.
By the time the street stopped shaking, Naomi had to shake her foot free from the crumbled ribcage of the man she flattened under her. She was disgusted, happy, and amazed.
She could literally crush men under her.
“Nice.” Bianca dimmed her light show.
She fired off her last three lasers at the door. The evil humans ducked back into the store just in time before Bianca’s lasers cut through the stone around the door and left serious scorch marks.
“You could’ve slipped in a fourth shot on the last one.” Naomi wiped her foot across the cobblestone street.
“That would’ve been dangerous. You were already moving to get him.”
“Hm. Okay. How’s your aura?”
“Okay. Want to see Corpse Bloom?”
“Sure.” Naomi monitored the door while Bianca used an enchantment from her epic dress.
In half a minute, Naomi heard flesh tearing and bones snapping. Then six shambling forms stepped past her and toward the door.
They looked like a humanoid assembly of plants fused with bloody skeletons and strings of muscle. They had flowers for heads blooming out of eye sockets, mouths, and ears. Their roots were entangled with the remaining organs.
The ones missing skulls had the biggest flowers blooming from their necks.
“Aren’t they pretty? And they’re good aligned. They hunt for evil directly to spread their seed,” Bianca explained.
“Doesn’t that include Zarian?” Naomi asked.
“Well, yeah, but I’ll take care of them before that becomes a problem. So, yay, good zombies!”
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Again, Naomi found some of this evil and good alignment stuff downright strange and crazy. Granted, she had to admit she was a little jealous that Bianca had an elven princess dress that could raise a walking corpse garden out of her defeated enemies.
And they call that the greater good?
Naomi wanted to snort when she suddenly realized an issue.
Hey, wait a minute.
Weren’t they competing?
“You little sneaky witch!” Naomi hissed.
“Sorry!” Bianca smiled innocently. It had a hint of goodness to it.
Naomi would’ve felt inclined to accept the apology if it wasn’t for Tranquil Mind +1. She growled and turned to run while Bianca frolicked from behind.
Naomi kicked off the opposite wall, blasting a hole through it, and hurled herself into the store. She entered a melee between eight Urban Murderers and Bianca’s six flower zombies.
Thankfully, the murderers were winning. Their best alpha skills were Blood Gush Strike, Murderous Gaze, or Murdersome Frenzy.
The frenzy skill was the most popular. Four murderers attacked like rabid animals with knives, a short sword, or their hands.
Coming down from her dynamic entrance, Naomi tucked and rolled. She landed on her feet and used a ranged Mind Spike on a murderer next to her.
She stopped him before he wrapped her neck with a steel garrote. Blood gushed down his nostrils as he flinched away, his brain ravaged by her skill.
In the split second it took him to refocus, Naomi rose out of her crouch. She knocked his teeth free with an uppercut, driving a second Mind Spike into his head.
That did the trick. His brains squirted through every hole in his head.
She whirled around fast with a roundhouse kick. She knocked away a thrusting knife with the shin pad on her leg.
Hannah had doubled up on the amazing Reinforcement and Amplify Force enchantment combination for Naomi’s leather kickboxing gear. Kicking a knife out of a man’s hand and breaking the hand simultaneously was a perfectly capable tactic.
The thwarted knifer lost his footing and staggered to the side. That left him exposed to another straight back kick, her heel to his cheek. Boom, headshot.
Naomi was ahead. She had five kills now.
Bianca entered the room as a flurry of lights using her Light Step +1. Touching any of the lights could hurt an enemy, while keeping Bianca practically untouchable.
It was a costly skill, but when she swept around the entire room, affecting the remaining six murderers, she swayed the advantage of the fight for her flower zombies. They were too weak to kill the evil humans. But they had them entangled and distracted.
Naomi was rushing for her sixth kill when Bianca reformed into her less ethereal form, her glimmering, flowery, colorful dress fluttering in the wake of her graceful movements. Bianca swung the Lighthouse Falchion like it was an extension of her soul while she pirouetted through the room.
The altered blade hummed with intense light as it sliced off one man’s head, leaving scorch marks where the flesh had been parted. Then Bianca lopped off the top of another murderer’s skull a split second later as her zombies dragged at the murderers, pulling them toward Bianca’s dance of illuminated death.
Naomi nabbed her sixth kill.
Bianca took her sixth as well.
Naomi kicked off the wall for the seventh.
Too late. Bianca hacked through the man’s face with a bright swing. The top of his skull fell off, trailing with smoke.
One more murderer remained, and he’d just freed himself from the flower zombie by destroying it. He raised two hooked swords and roared with a frenzied force.
Naomi roared back, pushing her High Intimidation trait along with a ranged Mind Spike. The murderer hesitated. Naomi reached down and snatched up a knife before throwing it across the room. The knife sunk into the murderer’s skull before Bianca’s sword beheaded him.
“Oh, you got him before I did.” Bianca pouted a little.
Naomi savored that look. Not for long, though. A burst of nefarious energy erupted from behind her, coming from down a hallway leading to the back rooms.
“Watch out, Naomi!” Bianca warned.
Naomi felt horrific and insane brain activity sparking up from behind her as she turned to see what was coming. A man oozing strange and otherworldly energy down his body like streams of mist rushed out of the back rooms.
The energy was hateful red and sickly yellow. It blazed out from his eyes as he howled like a lunatic.
Naomi hit him with a strong Mind Spike from a distance. Blood poured from the man’s nostrils, but he kept blitzing forward. The juiced up Urban Torturer didn’t care.
If Naomi was the same woman before coming to Central Bramblevale, then she would’ve been caught outright. However, Zarian’s foresight in grabbing three adventure-essential skills made a deadly confrontation like this more manageable.
Better yet, nobody but Naomi truly understood how powerful Willful Might, Wondrous Speed, and Mystic Toughness worked as a combination. Each skill covered three major facets that athletes and warriors from the old world sought in their livelihoods. Even though the skills were in the beta section and Level 0, Naomi knew how to combine all three with her Physical Phenom trait for the best effect.
She ducked under the torturer’s weapon, which were three claws extending from a handle. They snipped the air above her head with a scant room to spare, but now there was an easy opening for a counter.
Naomi slammed her fist into his chest, felt the bones in his ribcage break, and drove her arm forward with all of her power, her feet planted heavily. The man folded like a sheet of paper over her arm, blood vomiting out of his mouth in a great torrent.
Naomi threw him back whence he came.
He landed down the hallway with a rag doll flop and roll. There was a moment of stillness. Then the torturer pushed himself back up, his head lolling around with a crimson grin aimed back at Naomi.
“They’ve got the demon’s vitality infused with them now,” said a man at the back of the hall. He stood with four more Urban Torturers in front of him.
The torturers oozed more red and yellow energy that felt chaotic and wrong to even Naomi. The man hiding behind them wore ragged robes and jewelry made of human bones, and he had more of that evil red and yellow energy glowing around him, infused with his aura no doubt.
Obviously, he was the Infernal Demonologist.
“You, girl in black, you aren’t evil. It’s a shame. You would’ve been welcomed in our most free and enterprising alignment. Perhaps we can make an arrangement with my god if you kill the wench behind you.”
The demonologist spoke with a vile charm. He was trying to invade her head with an ability.
No shot.
Naomi’s Tranquil Mind +1 thwarted the attempt. She didn’t bother even pretending. She was more concerned by the palpable force of goodness behind her.
“Bianca, wait,” Naomi said without looking back. “Let me clear the hall. I like my chances, and it’ll make for a good workout. After I take out the torturers, the demon guy is yours.”
“Bueno. Okay.” Bianca’s voice slammed against Naomi’s back and sent shivers down her spine.
The torturers froze despite having been turned into demonic puppets. Clearly, they felt like little fish compared to a big fish like Bianca.
It sucks how much you’ve grown compared to me, Naomi thought. But it’s nice seeing you making people scared, Bianca.
The demonologist looked the most worried. “What level is her good alignment?”
“Higher than the king’s.” Naomi gave her best cocky smile to the evil men.
The competition ended now. All she cared for was maximizing the training opportunity that was apparent to her. That and she wanted to see what Bianca would do when she got her hands on the demon guy.
“Kill them!” the demonologist shouted.
The torturers roared with inhuman voices. The one Naomi had punched down flopped to his feet and ran with a wobble, vomiting blood with each step.
The torturers had two prominent alpha skills: Sadistic Strike or Masochist Drain. Their strikes hurt a lot, and they gained power through causing pain. Naomi imagined they would even get high off their own pain, especially with them turned into demon sock puppets.
Naomi stepped further into the hallway as it filled with evil red and yellow mist. She balled her hands into tight fists and tensed the muscles in her legs. She readied herself as the first torturer dove at her mindlessly.
He swung his clawing weapon in a wide arc for her face.
She grabbed his wrist, whipped him around her, and punched his elbow. It snapped backward, hanging uselessly when she let go and punched his head into the wall.
The stone blocks caved.
The head remained somewhat put together even with blood leaking from everywhere. Naomi bent backwards and stomped her foot into his head for a final crunch.
She copied a move Ekri the Tailor had taught her as the second torturer swiped at her with his claws.
Naomi bent backward even further and avoided the attack. She clenched the edge of the crater with the toes of her raised leg and yanked herself up, core muscles engaged. She caught the second torturer with an unexpected hook thrown from an awkward angle.
He slammed into the wall next to the headless corpse of the first.
Naomi kicked back and avoided a downward swipe from the third torturer. She bounced off the wall behind her and punched the third torturer flat on his face. He crashed into the second, flattening both against the wall.
The fourth and fifth tried to jump at her together, one over the other. Naomi bobbed, weaved, and hit the lower one with an uppercut. She dug her fist into the fourth’s gut and threw both men into the ceiling off one arm.
When a torturer she punched into the wall tried to get at her, she triple-jabbed him to a halt. She stepped back and watched as the torturers she sent into the ceiling crashed down on their fellow.
From there, Naomi coordinated a hallway beat down like no other. She switched from one man to the next, fists pummeling flesh, feet stomping on limbs. The walls crumbled as she hammered both sides with new craters and holes with such vicious force the entire building and its neighbors shook.
Naomi didn’t pay the structural damages much mind. She was in the zone. She was loving the heart-thumping, skull-breaking, intense action.
The torturers soaked the beatings because of the demonic energy juicing up their vitality. They kept trying to fight her, desperate to make her body sing with pain.
They could try. She refused to let them. They were her living dummies. All she wanted to do was push herself past her limits and give them more than they could handle.
Finally, the last one fell like a broken sack of meat and bones while Naomi stood victorious. All of their heads were smashed to smithereens, their bodies crumpled, their limbs snapped. Blood, brain chunks, and skull fragments coated from most surfaces in the demolished hallway.
The building groaned like it was about to collapse. Naomi had worked so hard she struck the area like a miniature earthquake.
“My gods,” the demonologist said in astonishment. “How incredible. I have seen no person, let alone a woman, able to fight against such odds before. Your talent is wasted as a neutral. Become one with evil! I can push you to further heights! My research will strengthen you. You’ll be stronger than that tyrant behind you!”
Naomi shook her head. “I’ve already got a man who’ll make me stronger. You aren’t him.”
She backed out of the hallway and moved to the side. It was then she noticed a painful sting on her shoulder now that she was falling from the combat high. A torturer had landed a blow and left his mark. She’d failed her part in this mission of remaining untouched and dominant.
Naomi put aside her disappointment in herself and stood at attention.
Bianca stepped forward with a serene and focused gaze. Dozens of tiny but intense motes of light swirled around her.
There was less of a radiance shining through her body. But she looked like a powerful force of nature anyway. So much so, the blood and carnage had left no mark on her.
“You think I’m weak because I can use others to do my bidding?” The demonologist spat. “You have no idea what it takes to outsmart the fools of this kingdom and exist as evil! I’ve worked for my power. You are far too young and stupid for me to be cowed by you.”
The demonologist prepared an infernal ability, an attack no doubt. Red and yellow magic swirled in ghastly streams between his palms while raised before his chest. The streams condensed into a pulsating ball of demonic energy before he pushed it out as a deadly beam.
Bianca combined a dozen motes into one bright orb and shot forth a brilliant laser against the demonic beam. She didn’t bat any of her long eyelashes as her radiant attack destroyed the demonic attack.
With a shout of surprise, the man shifted to the side and saved his life at the last second, but not without sacrifice. His right arm fell in smoking cinders, Bianca’s radiant beam burning a hole in the wall behind him.
The demonologist lost his nerve. He glanced at the exit near him. He dove toward it, but he was too slow.
Bianca’s highest stats were Wonder and Agility. When she used Light Step +1 with Wondrous Speed, she became a flurry of streaking lights that closed the distance and reassembled so fast even Naomi found that unnerving.
Bianca reappeared in the flesh in front of the demonologist, lording her taller height, and caught him by the throat. She lacked in the Willpower and Strength stats, but Naomi imagined the demonologist had little Strength anyway, nor would he have Willful Might.
Bianca took full advantage of the Level 0 skill. She slammed the demonologist into the wall. The man choked and struggled, unable to break free from her hand.
“I’m angry,” Bianca said. “You made Naomi sad.”
Naomi was shocked to hear that. Was Bianca referring to the scratch on her shoulder?
Yeah, it was a shame she’d gotten caught and made herself look less dominant. But Bianca didn’t have to be angry for her.
Before Naomi could say anything, Bianca pushed her remaining motes of light against the demonologist’s body. She planted them on his face, chest, arms, and legs.
Then she released them from their condensed forms.
The motes erupted into balls of miniature suns, each the size of a beach ball. The demonic man’s screaming died out fast.
After the bright lights faded, Naomi saw a scorched skeleton remain where the demonologist had once stood. Behind that was a hole where Bianca had vaporized the wall.
The burnt skeleton crumbled.
Bianca walked back out of the demolished hall with a satisfied smile. “Hm, I wasted more aura than I should’ve. You think if I ask Zarian, he would help me replenish?”
Naomi took a second to calm down with the help of her Tranquil Mind. Then, with a sigh, she said, “He can answer for himself, can’t he?”
“I’ll replenish you, Bianca. I’m going to need you for the last part, anyway.” Zarian’s voice transmitted from around them like an intercom system. “Outstanding fight, by the way. Those guys were tougher than the soldiers and in the Level 40s. I imagine choosing the evil alignment in a kingdom that’s supposed to be good aligned means they’re better than normal.”
“Sorry, sir, I took an injury,” Naomi said, still feeling crummy.
“Well, that isn’t ideal. But I enjoyed watching how you fought and held your ground. That was badass, Naomi. You get my full appreciation for the show.”
Naomi would like to think she was above praise. Still, she couldn’t help from feeling happy when it came from Zarian.
“Also, Bianca, you wasted more aura than necessary. You could’ve used less for your last kills.”
“I know, papi, but I wanted to see if I can keep up with Naomi.” Bianca swiped her hand across her brow. “She’s really strong and fast. I’ll need more practice.”
“Hm. Yeah. Well. Good job, anyway. Now come out. I’m bored after beating up a bunch of grandpas.”
“Zarian, no! Not the abuelos!” Bianca went running out.
Then she ran back in and shot rays of light at her remaining flower zombies, obliterating them. She ran back out again.
Naomi shook her head. Sometimes, the members of her party could be a lot to handle.
At the very least, her skill levels went up, and she was now Level 33. Fighting those torturers while they had demonic juice running through their veins had given her extra experience.
Still not enough. I need to push further. Go harder. If I want to keep up.
Naomi couldn’t stop the grind-style mindset from running through her head. It was worse now knowing she had to perform Aura Ignition in the next couple of days or risk disappointing Zarian.
Why can’t I function without pressure?
Naomi wasn’t sure. It was a good thing she had Tranquil Mind + 1. It was also a good thing Zarian was such a goofball, too.
He caught her off guard when they reunited with him on the central road.
“So, what do you think?” Zarian smiled with a monocle over his right eye and a strange top hat on his head.
Behind him was a pile of elderly men covered in bruises. They were still alive, if barely. The nearby street had suffered magical damages, but not as much as it would’ve if Zarian hadn’t dominated.
“I don’t like it,” Bianca said. “You’re trying to be old and wrinkly. Don’t. Be your truly handsome self.” Then she added in a small voice, “With bikini armor.”
Zarian ignored that last part and turned to Naomi.
The battle psion stared at the monocle for a long while. As she searched for the right words, Para used her threads to clean the blood and gore off Naomi’s body.
“Thanks, Para.” Naomi nodded at the Parasite Cloak. Then she looked back at the monocle for a little while longer. Finally, she said, “I can get used to it.”
In the end, Zarian ditched the weird hat. He kept the monocle over his right eye. He looked better without the hat.
Such a silly idiot, Naomi thought, while trying not to smile.