Ghomas tapped my chin as I mocked him, and a surge of electricity shot through my body.

  I screeched in agony and crumpled to the ground. I needed to put him down. FOR GOOD.

  "That's crossing a line," Hessien interjected, stepping forward as I struggled to regain my composure.

  Ghomas glanced at me before remarking, "She left me to fight a monster that nearly snapped my spine."

  Hessien turned to me.

  I shrugged. "It's not like I led it to him. But let's move on."

  I reached for my knife, preparing to activate time freeze. But Ghomas was faster, creating a clone with a speed I didn’t remember him having.

  Right. Leveling up enhanced skills. Should’ve been obvious.

  Just as I was about to complete the time freeze, a bolt of lightning struck me in the chest, launching me into a tree with a resounding thud.

  "That was self-defense, Hessien," Ghomas justified.

  "I guess...?" Hessien conceded.

  Vacinay stood with her arms crossed, silently watching.

  This was humiliation on another level.

  How the hell does he know when I’m about to use time freeze? Did he get mind-reading too?

  Or do I make some kind of dumb face whenever I activate it?

  "Lumine, how many more times can you use your time stop?" Yamanda asked.

  I pushed myself off the tree, wincing. "I thought I was supposed to keep that confidential."

  "Yes, but I want to use this as a training opportunity. Give me something to work with."

  "I can use it one more time, for about two seconds."

  "Interesting... Instead of letting the skill run automatically, take manual control."

  Everyone, including me, stared at her in confusion.

  She elaborated, "A skill’s duration and range are limited by energy points. Instead of letting the skill drain them all at once, ration them. Split the time freeze into two. Freeze time for one second, save the other, and use it when you want."

  I blinked. What if I used all my energy points for a four-second freeze? Could I split those, too? How else could I manipulate it?

  "Any other tips?" I asked, my eyes locked on Ghomas.

  "Test the skill’s limits. Try breaking them."

  That’s probably why her smart/custom skill—the one she put on Ghomas—failed. It wasn’t a natural function of her ability but an experiment.

  What other ways could I use time freeze? Its description was simple: freezing time.

  My eyes widened. Wait... wouldn’t that make another skill redundant?

  I tightened my grip on my knife as Ghomas stared me down. "When you’re ready, I am—"

  I kicked a stone up, grabbed it, and hurled it at his head. He dodged easily.

  I moved fast, but his clone moved faster—more than twice my speed. In a blink, it was right in front of me, fist cocked back.

  I blocked and got shoved backward. It lunged again. With my knife still in hand, I dropped it and leaped back, baiting it forward.

  It closed on me, then suddenly stopped. A baffled expression crossed its face as it looked down at the object embedded in its chest.

  Ha! It worked!

  I could freeze specific objects in time. Actually… that was insanely overpowered.

  Since the knife was locked in time, it didn’t budge when the clone pushed against it—effectively tearing into the clone.

  "What the hell...?" Vacinay muttered, horrified.

  I rushed forward, ripped the knife from the clone, and discarded the bleeding copy of Ghomas.

  With a mischievous grin, I declared, "You’re dead!"

  He was not dead. Since I only had a single second of time freeze left, I had to use it to dodge his lightning bolt.

  I had considered locking the knife in time to block the attack, but that felt wasteful compared to a standard time freeze.

  Ghomas extended a hand to me. "Uhh... sorry about the electric touch."

  I eyed his hand and took it. "No biggie."

  "Oh, so we're cool?"

  I nodded. "Absolutely."

  "You sure...?"

  My smile stayed bright. "Yes."

  He still looked unsure, but nodded. "Good to know. Well, I'm heading off with Vacinay and Hessien to hunt the half-man that nearly killed her. You coming?"

  I shook my head and dusted off my armor. "I'm gonna rest a bit."

  "Got it. Well... Yamanda should know where we will be!" He ran off.

  I waved goodbye with a smile. As soon as he was out of sight, I screamed to the heavens at the top of my lungs.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Why the hell am I the weakest one now?!

  Okay, calm down, Lumine… So what if Ghomas whooped you? Even though you have the most OP ability?

  Tch. I needed a simpler power…

  I glanced at the lightning burned tree, and the blood splattered on the ground.

  Yeah… With a less OP ability, my energy consumption rate would drop significantly.

  I grinned at the ideas swirling in my head.

  Yamanda sat nearby, munching on a sandwich—probably stolen via teleportation.

  I couldn't help but wonder how that power worked. How could she be so certain of what she was teleporting?

  She noticed my grin and asked, "Found a new way to use your time freeze? By the way, isolating time freeze into objects is ridiculously smart."

  "Yeah… I'm brainstorming new applications, but I need some spammable powers."

  "Oh, right. You guys can have multiple skills. That’s so ridiculous, but not too ridiculous. Avoid collecting a bunch. "

  "Hmm," I mused. "Is it because skill points are limited? And focus is also limited? Like that saying, 'I do not fear the man who has practiced a thousand different kicks, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times.'"

  "First time hearing that, but it fits perfectly," she admitted. "I’d suggest not going above three skill cards. Not until you’ve mastered them."

  "I expected you to say to master one before moving on."

  "I would prefer that. But... versatility is— Okay, I’m just gonna be honest. I think it’s incredibly cool! I want to see it so badly."

  She barely contained her excitement.

  I started bouncing on my feet. "Got it chief. But right now, I need to level up. Let’s go hunting."

  She nodded and sat up. Suddenly, we were perched on a massive tree branch. She pointed at a hut below.

  "There are about four of them down there."

  I wondered if her 'sensing' ability was just an extension of her teleportation skill, bending its limits.

  Or... maybe she had a passive ability that let her always know where she was teleporting, using it to sense the presence of others.

  I took a deep breath. "They're all evil, right?"

  She shrugged. "Only if the world were black and white. You said it yourself—you kill to level up. They kill to level up. Levels determine strength. Without strength, you could die tomorrow to someone stronger. You’re just another animal risking its life to survive."

  In an instant, I was inside the hut, standing on rough dirt, in the middle of… a half-man humping a half-woman?

  Oh, hell nah.

  I awkwardly stepped back. "Uh… sorry for intruding."

  The woman beneath the man stared at me with her eight unblinking eyes. But what about the guy? Was it so good that he couldn’t hear someone barging in?

  "Die," she said suddenly.

  Eh…?

  The man's body convulsed violently.

  Oh gross! He’s c—

  His reptilian skin turned an unnatural pallor, as if life itself was being drained from him. Vibrant scales dulled, fading to a ghostly white. His flesh cracked like parched earth yearning for rain, splitting open to reveal raw tissue beneath. Then, his skin crumbled into dust, carried away by an unseen breeze.

  His skeleton, now fully exposed, followed suit. Bones, stripped bare, collapsed piece by piece, echoing a hollow, eerie sound through the room.

  Oh…

  "Wait, weren't there supposed to be four of them?" I muttered to myself.

  The woman slowly crawled off the bed, her movements unnaturally deliberate. As she rose to her full height, her naked form was bathed in the dim, flickering light. She had a pretty nice shape. I couldn’t see much, but she had black long hair, thin sickly lips and a gym bro's shoulders.

  I tried to get a better look at the size of her sagging pale breasts. Wanted to see if I could get a slight ego boost... And Nope, I couldn't. Fuck!

  "Uh… I’ll be going now. By the way, I’m a minor. So… yeah, don’t make me call the police on you!"

  Even when I am twenty-three, I’d still claim to be a minor if it got me out of trouble.

  I flung the door open and bolted, fear driving me forward.

  She turned that guy to dust. And he was completely under her control—or just desperate for—

  A sudden explosion of noise cut off my thoughts. The hut shook as the woman began to change, her body stretching to over four meters tall. Eight spider-like legs burst from her sides.

  "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I screamed as I ran away.

  "Yamanda, I hate you!"

  A shadow fell over me. I looked up just in time to see a massive leg plummeting toward me.

  "Don't kill me! I have twenty kids to feed!" I yelled.

  The leg speared downward, aiming straight for me.

  Well, I had to try something.

  I froze time for a single second.

  In that brief moment, I twisted my head to the side, barely dodging the strike.

  I didn’t waste any time. I swung my knife at her leg, but it barely left a scratch.

  "What the hell is her level?!" I muttered, frustration mounting.

  I scanned her, and the result nearly made me slit my throat.

  She was level 30.

  "A child? A child?! How revolting! Didn’t your parents teach you to stay away from people like me?" the spider-woman roared, her legs stabbing at me with terrifying speed.

  I dodged and rolled, taking cover behind trees and rocks—each one obliterated the moment she struck it.

  "I’m not sure!" I shouted back. "They told me to avoid pedos, groomers, and people in black jeeps, but they never mentioned anything about a fucking woman with a SPIDER body!"

  A sudden realization struck me. "Wait, in that hut… are you a prostitute or something? No judgment! It’s a respectable profession, right? I support your rights, go get that bag! So… could you maybe not kill me?"

  She glared at me, her face suddenly inches from mine. "Are you… an idiot?"

  I nodded. "My mom used to ask me the same thing, so maybe?"

  She growled, about to strike again, but I slapped her across the face. "Did that work?"

  She froze, motionless.

  So it did work.

  Then her mouth opened in a furious roar—but I was quicker.

  I stabbed her with my knife, activating a one-second isolated time freeze.

  As the second elapsed, she stirred again, so I stabbed her once more. Then, suddenly, I noticed a massive red stone in my other hand.

  Yamanda?!

  I only had one more use of that move.

  She broke free, her movements sluggish, but still dangerous.

  Seizing my chance, I grabbed her upper lip, froze her in place, and shoved the stone into her mouth. But as soon as I did, she regained control and headbutted me with the force of a cannon.

  I soared through the air, crashed to the ground, and pain exploded through my shoulders and back.

  Bitch… that hurt…

  She raised her head and locked eyes with me.

  In her stomach, two faces began to form—those other two people. Instead of attacking, she held up a strand of my hair. She swallowed it, and a sudden, unnatural chill swept over me.

  She uttered a single word: "Die."

  It felt like everything and nothing was invading me at once.

  My skin began to crack—

  Boom!

  The woman shrieked as flames erupted from her stomach.

  So that’s what the stone was for!

  She thrashed wildly, toppling trees in her agony.

  A surge of incredible strength coursed through my body.

  "I am still not dead!" the woman bellowed.

  So, those two in her died.

  Without hesitation, I summoned another card.

  A healing card?

  Absolutely not.

  New card appointed: Flame Manipulation.

  A smirk crept across my face as fire ignited in my palms.

  "My first skill… flame ball generation. But let's be more creative!"

  The woman charged at me in a blind fury, but I simply raised my hands. Instead of forming a ball of fire, I commanded the flames within her own body to surge upward, scorching her from the inside out. In seconds, her upper body became a living candle.

  Her movements halted as she shrieked in agony. The fire spread rapidly, and soon, a massive ball of flames—at least four meters across—hovered above her.

  I pointed a finger at her. "Burn."

  Desperate, she screamed back, "Die!"

  Leveling up had expanded my EP capacity.

  I switched to my time card. Since the fireball was already plummeting toward her, I didn't need to control it.

  Just as my skin threatened to crack, I activated the isolated time freeze… on myself. In that instant, my thoughts screeched to a halt.

  I blinked.

  Fire. Fire everywhere. Including me.

  The woman was gone, reduced to nothing. And yet… I wasn’t burning.