Adventure of SSS Rank Idiot

Partial Threads

Chapter 6

They moved higher into the foothills for two full days. The trail of residual light energy grew thinner with every kilometer, sometimes vanishing for hours before reappearing as a faint pressure against the skin. The cold sharpened. Thin snow began to collect in the shaded cracks of the rocks.

On the morning of the third day Miko stopped them on a narrow ridge overlooking a frozen stream.

"We practice here," he said.

The others spread out without question. They had discussed the change the night before. Full continuous bonding had made them strong, but it had also made the connection visible to the Reseter. Now they needed control.

Raizu drew his sword and let it settle into a single clean edge. "How partial?"

"Start at twenty percent," Miko answered. "Shared awareness only. No power transfer unless I call for it. If something hits one of us, the rest feel the direction and intensity, nothing more."

Killy flexed her fingers, small sparks dying in the cold air. "Feels wrong already. Like putting a chain on something that wants to run."

"That is the point," Jusmiyo said. He closed his eyes for a moment, adjusting the flow of holy energy that usually ran freely between them. "We have relied on the full link for years. Breaking the habit will take time."

Kordil rolled his shoulders and grinned. "I give it three days before one of us cheats."

They began.

The first hour was clumsy. Old instincts kept trying to open the bond wider whenever someone moved too quickly or released even a small amount of power. Raizu's sword multiplied by accident twice. Killy's flames jumped higher than intended. Kordil vanished and reappeared closer than the limited awareness should have allowed. Each time Miko forced the threads back down to the agreed level.

By midday the mistakes grew fewer. They moved through the rocks in loose formation, maintaining only the thin shared sense of position and general condition. When Raizu deliberately cut a deep gash into his own forearm, the others felt the sharp spike of pain and the direction it came from, but no automatic healing energy crossed the distance. Jusmiyo had to close the wound manually.

"Better," Miko said. "Again."

They repeated the drills until the light began to fade. Partial linking left them more vulnerable in pure numbers, yet it also made their individual movements harder to predict. The dense signature that had drawn the Reseter's attention was now broken into five weaker signals.

As dusk settled they found a shallow cave cut into the side of a cliff. No fire again. Killy maintained a small contained heat source while the others checked gear and ate dried rations.

Raizu sat near the entrance, watching the darkening valley. "The trail is almost gone. Either it is moving faster than we are, or it learned to hide the residue."

"Both are possible," Jusmiyo replied. "The one we fought adapted during the exchange. Others will adapt faster."

Kordil leaned back against the stone wall. "Still want to ask the dummy when we go back?"

Miko nodded once. "We will. But not yet. First we need a clearer picture of how many are active and what they are targeting."

Killy crushed the remains of a cigarette she had been saving. "The logging camp and the outpost were both small. No high-rank defenders. They are choosing soft targets first, measuring response times."

"Or clearing a path," Raizu said.

Silence followed for a while. The wind outside moved through the pines with a thin, dry sound.

Then Kordil spoke again, quieter. "You felt it too, right? When that thing looked at the bond. Like it was disappointed."

No one answered immediately.

Miko finally said, "It called us a flaw. In its view we are an error that should not have survived. That kind of certainty is dangerous. It will not stop at a few outposts."

They set the watch and rested in shifts. The partial bond made the night feel larger and colder. Each of them was more alone inside their own skin than they had been in years. The discomfort was useful. It kept them sharp.

Near midnight Jusmiyo woke Miko with a light touch on the shoulder.

"Movement," he whispered. "South ridge. Multiple signatures. Human."

Miko rose without sound. The others were already alert. Through the thin shared awareness they felt the approaching group: seven people, mixed ranks, mostly B and A, one clear S-rank leading. They carried the disciplined mana flow of an official party.

Raizu's voice was barely audible. "Ice Dynasty colors. Response team."

"Let them pass," Miko said. "We do not need the conversation."

They remained still inside the cave while the patrol moved along the lower trail, lanterns casting pale circles across the snow. Voices carried faintly in the cold air. The S-rank leader was speaking in clipped tones about scorched sites and missing patrols. None of them looked up toward the cliff.

After the lights disappeared into the trees, Killy exhaled. "They are late. The Reseter is already ahead of them."

"Good," Kordil said. "Fewer people in the way."

They left the cave before dawn and continued east, staying above the main trails. The residual light energy remained almost gone, yet every few hours a faint pressure brushed against their senses, as if something distant was checking the area and then withdrawing.

Near midday the terrain changed. The pines thinned. A wide plateau opened ahead, covered in shallow snow and broken by low stone formations. In the center of the open ground stood a single figure.

White robes. Six wings. Empty face.

It was not the same Reseter they had fought. This one was taller, the light around it denser and more stable. It stood perfectly still, facing their direction as if it had been waiting.

The five of them stopped at the edge of the plateau.

Raizu's hand settled on his sword. "Different one."

Killy's eyes narrowed. "Stronger."

The Reseter spoke without raising its voice. The words carried clearly across the open snow.

"Linked anomaly. You continue to deviate. The previous unit reported incomplete data. I am here to correct the record."

Miko stepped forward alone, the others spreading into a loose arc behind him. The partial bond stayed at the practiced level, thin and controlled.

"You talk more than the last one," he said.

"Communication improves efficiency," the Reseter answered. "You will be catalogued and removed. Resistance is expected but irrelevant."

Kordil laughed, the sound sharp in the cold air. "I like this one less already."

The Reseter raised one hand. Light gathered above its palm, forming a complex geometric shape that hurt to look at directly. The snow around its feet vaporized in a perfect circle.

Miko's voice remained calm. "Partial link. On my signal only."

The others answered with small movements of readiness. No full power yet. No dense signature for the enemy to read.

The geometric light collapsed inward and then expanded in a silent wave. The plateau shook. Stone formations cracked. The air itself tried to fold.

Miko moved first.

He crossed the distance in a straight line, body low, timing his steps to the gaps in the expanding wave. His open hand met the Reseter's wrist the same way it had met the first one. This time the impact was heavier. The angel's arm held. Light flared and pushed back.

Raizu arrived from the left, sword already splitting into controlled afterimages. He kept the technique limited, feeding only enough power through the thin bond to maintain speed. Three cuts landed across the Reseter's side. Black lines opened in the white robes.

Killy released a narrow spear of fire aimed at the damaged wing joint. The flame struck and clung, burning with unusual intensity against the clean light. Jusmiyo reinforced their positions with layered barriers that stayed close to the body, avoiding large visible constructs. Kordil circled wide, waiting for an opening near the wings.

The Reseter adjusted faster than the first. It released a second pulse that forced all five of them back several meters. The snow in a twenty-meter radius turned to glass.

"You have reduced the density of your connection," it observed. "Adaptive. Unexpected."

Miko wiped a thin line of blood from his lip. The partial link had left him without the usual automatic recovery. He felt the bruise forming across his ribs where the pulse had caught him.

"We learn," he said.

The Reseter tilted its head. "Then learn this."

It vanished and reappeared behind Killy, one luminous hand already descending toward her neck. The partial awareness gave her only a fraction of a second. She twisted, taking the blow across the shoulder instead of the spine. The impact threw her across the glassed ground. Pain spiked through the thin bond, sharp and clear.

Miko's voice cut through the air.

"Full link. Now."

The threads opened completely.

Power surged between the five of them in a single violent rush. Killy's wound began closing before she stopped sliding. Raizu's sword multiplied beyond the earlier limit. Kordil's speed jumped. Jusmiyo's barriers thickened and layered. Miko felt every ability of the others settle into his own body as usable weight.

The next exchange was different.

They hit the Reseter from five directions at once, movements timed through the full bond. Cuts, fire, disruption, and pure physical force landed in overlapping waves. The angel's perfect posture finally broke. One wing tore halfway off. Light spilled across the plateau like liquid.

The Reseter staggered, then stabilized. Its empty face showed no pain, only recalculation.

"Data sufficient," it said.

Light gathered around its body in a rising spiral far denser than before.

Miko already knew what came next.

"Do not let it leave."

They closed in, but the spiral collapsed faster than they could reach the center. The Reseter vanished, leaving only a wide circle of glassed earth and the fading echo of clean pressure.

Silence returned to the plateau.

Killy pushed herself up, shoulder still knitting together under the full bond. "It ran again."

Raizu's sword settled back to one blade. "It got what it came for. Information."

Kordil stared at the empty space, knives still in hand. "Third time we meet one of these things, third time it decides we are interesting enough to report."

Jusmiyo released the full link slowly, returning them to the thinner connection. The sudden quiet inside their own bodies felt heavier than the cold.

Miko looked at the glassed ground for a long moment.

"They are studying us the same way we study them," he said. "Next time they will not come alone."

He turned toward the higher peaks still visible in the east.

"We keep moving. And when we return to the continent, the dummy talks. Whether it wants to or not."

The others fell in behind him. The partial bond settled into place once more, five separate signals moving together across the snow, harder to read, still unbroken.