UNLOCK: I CAN SEE MY STATS

chapter 18 : Lightning

“Tina! Don’t betray my trust,” Marcus said with a faint smile.

“Just do what you need to do. Leave the rest to me…” she added, placing her hand over her chest.

“You can trust me.”

“I hope so. I really… don’t want to die,” he whispered to himself. Then, with a single thought, he activated All for One. That was one of the advantages of this technique, it needed no hand seals or other gestures to trigger.

CRAAACK!!

The air around him suddenly shook. The silence of the moment burst apart in a flashing violet light, as if lightning had erupted from within his own body.

BOOM!!

His muscles contracted violently. Bright green veins appeared, snaking beneath his scorched skin, twisting from his neck all the way to his palms, as if his entire body were boiling from within.

Zzzzt!!

BOOOM!!

A brilliant violet aura exploded from his body, wrapping around him like a living cyclone, giving off a low hum that sounded like air under crushing pressure.

This aura was no illusion, it was the physical manifestation of Eternal Energy, so dense it overwhelmed everything around it.

CRACK!!

The ground beneath his feet split from the immense weight of the energy.

Marcus slowly opened his eyes… they glowed with a deep, ruthless purple.

Tina stared in shock, unable to find words for what she was witnessing.

Without saying a word, Marcus leaped down without hesitation, rapidly formed several hand seals, and poured an immense amount of Eternal Energy into his next move.

∆ lightning Style: HeavenlyThunder Dragon ~ ∆

Zzzzt!!

RUMBLE~

Massive lightning gathered in the sky, quickly taking the form of an enormous dragon. It roared as it plunged toward the earth.

Tina’s eyes widened in horror.

“I–Impossible…”

---

Elsewhere in the forest, everyone, whether Ironland soldiers or Lorana’s, stared with wide, stunned eyes at the blue dragon made entirely of lightning descending from the heavens.

“What the hell is that?!”

“That’s at least an S-rank technique…”

“If it is S-rank, then with that scale...”

“…the caster must be stronger than me,” muttered one of the Ironland soldiers thoughtfully. He was Rames, one of their Scorch Warden generals. Even he couldn’t create something like that lightning dragon, not even by pouring in his entire energy reserve.

But no matter how shocked those scattered through the forest were, it didn’t compare to the terror of those targeted by this colossal, terrifying attack.

RUMBLE~

RUMBLE~

“Tsk! Where did this come from now?!” muttered the scarred man darkly, glancing at his panicked soldiers as they began fleeing in every direction.

“Tch! Useless…” he growled in disgust. Then he slowly sank into the earth, the ground seeming to swallow him whole.

As a member of the Stone Clan, staying there was suicide. Lightning dealt multiplied damage to his kind, remaining meant certain death.

BOOOOM!!!

The thunder dragon struck the ground in a deafening blast. For a moment, everything vanished in a blinding blue and violet light, followed by a massive shockwave that swept through the forest.

CRAAACK!!!

Trees splintered. Small hills were flattened. Dirt and stone flew into the sky as if a violent earthquake had torn the land apart.

The heat of the lightning was enough to melt rocks. The air itself filled with the scent of ozone and ash.

In the midst of this hellscape, Marcus was on his knees, breathing heavily. The violet aura around him gradually began to fade, the green veins on his skin slowly retracting.

“Haah… haah…” he panted in ragged breaths, his entire body trembling from the strain and brutal backlash of the technique.

Tina approached him hesitantly, face pale. She knelt beside him and whispered anxiously,

“Marcus… are you alright?”

He lifted his head slowly. His face was ghostly white, sweat dripping from his chin, but he managed a weak smile.

“I… may have overdone it… a little.”

“A little !? …” Tina whispered, clutching his outstretched hand, her face torn between worry and relief.

But before that fragile moment of calm could settle, a rapid cracking sound reached them.

Crack crack crack…

They both turned toward the noise and saw columns of black smoke rising from several points in the forest, each occasionally flashing with faint light.

“Damn it!! There are more of them.”

“This isn’t the time to rest. Let’s go…” Marcus muttered tiredly, trying to stand but stumbling.

“Damn it! This body isn’t strong enough to handle repeated uses of All for One…”

Tina rushed to his side, supporting him by the shoulder until he fully stood. Then she met his eyes with determination.

“I’ll lead you through a safe path. But after this debt… you’ll owe me a lot.”

He laughed despite his pain, as if the exhaustion suddenly felt lighter.

“As long as you don’t betray my trust… I already owe you everything anyway.”

They turned together and quickly moved away from the blast zone, leaving behind scorched earth and the charred remains of soldiers who hadn’t survived the thunder dragon’s roar.

---

In a darker corner of the forest, the scarred man emerged again from underground, blood trickling from his nose as he exhaled heavily. He looked in the direction of the devastation and smirked bitterly.

“Lightning… curse those who have that wretched affinity.”

---

“Damn it, the other side has a sensor among them…” Marcus muttered darkly as he felt several auras drawing closer, even though he and Tina were already running far from the explosion site.

He still kept All for One active, but because this body wasn’t accustomed to the technique, it was placing an enormous strain on him and could collapse at any moment.

His thoughts were suddenly cut short as every hair on his body stood on end from a surge of instinctual danger.

“Damn it!! Tina, stop!” he shouted suddenly, yanking her backward.

BOOM!!

The ground in front of them exploded, hurling them backward. Luckily, Marcus had stopped them in time, otherwise, they would have been right in the blast center, and no matter how powerful they were, they were still just humans with fragile bodies.

Marcus scowled deeply and waved his hand to deflect flying debris from hitting them.

“Are you alright?”

Tina nodded, casting him a grateful look before turning her gaze to the burning crater ahead.

“It seems we won’t be able to escape… or at least not as easily as we thought…” Marcus muttered bitterly, eyes narrowing on the familiar figure emerging from the ground like a worm.

“ houh !! , look at what we have here !! ...."

" We meet again… Lightning.”