The Over-Break System

“Sorry, but it isn’t that easy to kill me, old man. How about we just hang out for a minute, I have quite a few things to ask, and you have more than enough of the answers I require.” Not bothering to hide the heavy strain in his voice, Cynrik forced all of the tendrils to lock into place, establishing the (Bind) status effect on the man.

Fear visibly entered the Brawler’s eyes as he strained against the over two dozen shadow tendrils pierced into his entire body, keeping him attached to the ground and frozen in place.

“It’s no use, you may be stronger than me, but you aren’t in your peak form. You won’t be able to break free of my skill. The way I see it, your HP is around 28-35%, and you are dangerously low on MP. The amount of force you’d need to generate to break a single tendril may not be much, but I can easily replace it the moment you do.” Watching the man’s body spasm multiple times as he attempted to break free, Cynrik calmly informed his opponent.

“You were right with your first attack; if you had simply followed through instead of falling for the bait, I would have been forced to dodge and run back my strategy. Unfortunately, you chose wrong by attacking my clone when it zeroed in on your vitals. Brawler, this was a pleasurable fight, but it’s over now; this is checkmate.” Cynrik stated as his eyes flicked between his HUD and the restrained man.

“Heh, to be caught in such a position, I must be getting old. I won’t discount your victory by stating how wrong it is for me to fall for a trick such as this; I am, after all, a full Tier and a half higher than you. Go, ask your questions.” Either resigning to his fate or giving up entirely, the Brawler stopped struggling and locked his eyes on Cynrik, whose breaths were becoming more ragged the longer he kept [Shadow Sewing] active.

“Un, I am glad you didn’t choose to be stubborn; I quite enjoyed our battle, so I don’t want to ruin it by being forced to torture the answers from you. Once I am finished, I promise to give you a swift death befitting a warrior.” Nodding in appreciation, Cynrik began with his first question.

“Who set this up?” He asked as he reduced the thickness of 1/4th of the shadow tendrils to save on Mana costs.

“First, allow me to explain where I come from before going into what I understand the situation to be.” Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of being unable to move anything other than his head, the Brawler began speaking.

“The underground factions all use a proxy to hire people like me, known as Lost Reavers. We are all former members of official Reaver associations from around the world who have, for one reason or another, fallen out of favor of these so-called “CLEAN” Factions under the banner of the Reavers Association. In my case, revenge led me to destroy my entire Faction. The result was my being blacklisted by the joint governments under the guise of the RA. No matter which country in the world I step into, so long as I am identified, I will be targeted and hunted like a dog.” The Brawler continued to sigh ruefully as he remembered back to slaughtering everyone responsible for killing his little sister.

“The only way I could gain access to Egresses to make a living was to join up with one of the Illegal Underground factions. Much like their regular counterparts, there are specified missions ranging from Egress Dives to resource acquiring. Still, the line is drawn there, as bounty missions, assassinations, and espionage are also listed on the mission boards.”

“And that is how you came to track my group and I?” Digesting the information he received, Cynrik replied.

“Indeed, about two weeks ago, a notice was posted in a private forum online that us beings in the Supernatural Stage use….” The Brawler began but was stopped by Cynrik, who interjected.

“The Supernatural Stage? What’s that?” Hearing a new term, Cynrik interjected and questioned the man further.

“Oh, I figured the Academy would have already explained it to you, but I guess not. The Tier of a being is broken down into specific categories, determining how strong that being is and how close they are to breaking free from its race’s restraints.”

SHOOOOOOOM!

When the man was about to continue, a figure appeared beside him with an arrow nocked and drawn while pointing directly at his temple.

“That’s enough; say another word, and I will drop you right here and now, EH?” Instructor Alistar appeared seemingly out of nowhere and growled, but when he finished speaking, he noticed he could no longer move of his free will. His eyes darted from his bow, slowly releasing its tension to the inky black tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs.

“Let the man speak, Instructor; I don’t give a single fuck about your bullshit rules, don’t make me view you as an enemy. I have won this fight, and the rewards, be them physical or informative, BELONG TO ME!” Using his most authoritative and annoyed tone, Cynrik spat as he shot a glare at the man.

“Student Ivar, what he was about to explain isn’t something covered until the Fourth Year of classes and is information you are not privileged enough to know.”

“It’s fine; I will allow it. Ivar, release the Instructor.” The voice of Headmaster Rivia reached everyone’s ears as if it was almost telepathic.

“Continue Brawler, these stages, explain them.” Clicking his tongue, Cynrik withdrew the ten tendrils used to restrain Alistar and placed them back onto the Brawler.

Even though he was terrified by both Alistar and now Tier-5 Geralt Rivia, the Brawler exhaled shakily before continuing to speak.

“Tier-0 through Tier-2 are known as the Mortal Stage. This is the foundation of all things; even most creatures are born within the Mortal Stage at Tier-1. Tier-0 is the starting point, and throughout a Being’s time in the Mortal Stage, they learn how to grow stronger by adapting to Mana, integrating it into their attacks and daily lives. By the time they reach the end of the Mortal Stage, the being will start integrating Mana into their body, allowing them to evolve further.”

“Once a being steps into the third Tier, everything changes for them as they break to push through the initial limits of their bodies and step into what is known as the Supernatural or Evolution Stage. Which name is used depends on the being’s race, but we humans call it the Supernatural Stage. Unfortunately, that is all I am privileged to know, and I can’t say for sure what stages come after.” Casting a strained glance at Alistar, who snorted loudly, the Brawler moved on to why he was here.

“As I was saying, two weeks ago, a mission was posted on the private underground forum for us Supernatural Stage beings. It stated that a squad of five beings was being formed to infiltrate VSFA and monitor a preselected group of students with a high potential of stepping into our Stage before age 18, which is generally unheard of. For example, I was already in my late 30’s by the time I advanced to Tier-3.”

“Since the rewards were lucrative and the mission was only intelligence gathering, something that didn’t cross my bottom line of killing women or children, I accepted it and met the other four members of the ragtag team. We don’t know who posted the mission, and our contact to the being who placed it was done through the Underground factions.” When the man finished speaking, Cynrik narrowed his eyes in thought.

Aside from the new information about Stages, the rest of what he said pretty much lined up with the previous groups he had interrogated. A casual glance at the Brawler’s body language was enough for Cynrik to surmise that he wasn’t lying. None of the telltale signs of deception were present regarding the restrained man, so Cynrik pressed for more information.

“How did you get into the Academy? With so many checkpoints on top of high-level security measures, you, a Tier-3 being, shouldn’t have been able to make it past the front gates, let alone into the Core Area of the Cavern of Dorms.”

“That is a bit complicated, yet simplistic at the same time. We arrived 20 kilometers from the Academy under cover of the night roughly a week ago. Our contact informed us that someone would be coming at around 2 am to pick us up and sneak us into the Academy unnoticed. As promised, when we arrived at the meeting point, two men dressed all in black approached us with the callsign and password that had been provided to us, assuring us that they were the ones who were leading us into the Academy ground safely and anonymously.”

“All five of us were given staff uniforms, proper credentials, the location of our target, you and your friends, and the keys to a safe house. After that, it was just a matter of walking into the front gate unsuspiciously the following day. For the last week, we have been taking turns in shifts sneaking into the Cavern of Dorms, either by posing as the change of guard for the security stations or acting as grounds keepers.”

“What made you guys cluster up and decide to move as a group instead of in singles as you have for the last week?” Realizing a slight flaw in the story, Cynrik asked while transferring the control over [Shadow Sewing] to his left foot, freeing up his hand so he could drink down a healing and Mana potion.

“Two factors played into what has transpired today; the first was your abruptly leaving early in the morning. You and your brother have been listed as the group’s most dangerous members; since one of you left, it opened up the opportunity to sneak in unnoticed. The second was the mishap with that summoner girl, which opened up a massive breach in your overbearing security measures. Finding it the perfect opportunity, with one of you two brothers gone and the rest tired from battle, we made our move, using our squad’s tamed creature to infiltrate your Dorm.” The Brawler closed his eyes and tried resting a bit once he finished speaking and didn’t get asked another immediate question.

The three sat in silence for another five minutes until, eventually, Instructor Garrison arrived holding the unconscious and crippled body of the Peak Tier-3 spy.

“Damn kid, hell of a show you put on out there; how’s the arm.” Tossing the unresponsive and heavily damaged man beside the restrained Brawler, Garrison waved with his hand telling Cynrik to hold down the Squad Leader as well.

“Hurt’s like a mother fucker, but it’s nothing I haven’t had before. Once my brother gets here, he can patch it up after a few heals.” As Cynrik finished up another Mana Potion, he tapped his foot twice with his left hand, returning control over the shadow tendrils to his hand, and diverted ten of them to the unconscious man, locking him in position.

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