[MA] 277. Demerit (Patreon)

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[A/N: This is one of the delayed chapters I owe you.

Remaining delayed chapters: 0 (FREEDOM!)

Next release: Saturday]

Uya had said, "No external applications of your Laws." Auras weren't considered an application of Law by the military rules, which were very thorough. Even a C-rank's aura, which was connected to a Path's Laws instead of its Concepts, was the "heightening of the surrounding Laws in a Path's likeliness." It was considered to be caused by Reality, the user being only a conduit. It wasn't an application of one's Laws or Path.

That definition was in place so that just having an aura wouldn't be an attack on your fellow warriors. The rulebook even included situations like Shen's, who had developed a domain and could withdraw or deploy his aura. Nothing changed, including for combat.

Of course, that only held true for an aura's passive deployment. If Shen willed his aura to do something, he would be going beyond the boundaries set by the Staff Lieutenant. Part of him wanted to do it, but he wasn't ruled by his True Boundlessness.

As soon as the countdown reached zero, Uya rushed at Shen again.

Shen had C- stats. Uya had C+—probably. C agility was two to five times as fast as C-. C+ doubled or multiplied that by five times again. Liya said the drow couldn't precisely measure it because Laws made everything challengingly complex. When Laws were involved, speed often came to perception rather than hard cold data.

Either way, the Staff Lieutenant was potentially four to twenty-five times as fast as Shen. Even if she were terrible at using her agility's potential, merely improving one's stats already pushed them forward to a certain extent. That was likely even truer for cultivators, who had to improve their stats by themselves at C-rank; no system-given stats for them. Add some footwork and qi, and Shen might not even properly detect her if she moved at peak speed.

Yet, despite the clear advantages and wielding two weapons—which supposedly made her stronger—Uya still moved at Shen at the same speed she had moved against Aqur in their second bout.

This wouldn't be proper training or test if she didn't limit herself. Shen's belief that Uya was in a constant state of conflict with herself that grew stronger by the second. She wanted to break free from all restrictions on her and do whatever she felt like. However, she was constrained by rules and her sense of responsibility.

He wondered if that was why he had a sixth sense about people; if they acted accordingly to his Laws, he felt them in a unique way.

Uya's initial speed was enough for a C-rank with C- stats and good training to see her move without struggle and barely react in time. Shen doubted the lieutenant had set that pace at random.

He used all his qi and best techniques to get in a horse stance again, this time holding his spear horizontally before himself. Uya was a few feet away from him when he finished. Once again, she went for a sidestep—before she got into his spear's reach—and attempted to circumvent Shen, who struggled but managed to follow her. She stopped where had once been his back and swung both swords horizontally at him, one at his head, the other at his body.

Shen went for the obvious defense, rotating his spear like a fan to parry both blades. The one aiming at his head was moved up and the other down. He also turned his body sideways, stepped back to gain some reach advantage, and jumped to dodge the lower blade.

Uya didn't change her attack. Her strike was fast enough to shave a piece of his helmet and cut off half of Shen's feet despite him slightly redirecting the weapons. He had been wrong; his armor wouldn't be enough to protect him from even a single hit. The sword cut through his helmet and sabatons like empty air.

Uya was going easy on Shen, but he was already crippled. The gap between them was just that big.

The swords were no longer an immediate danger to Shen, and Uya had a slight reaction delay compared to his. So, Shen, still midair, turned his parry into a swing at her neck. It wouldn't be enough, of course. She was too fast, even with a worse reaction time.

So he unleashed his aura.

D-ranks had never been too affected by his Concept-fueled aura. Likewise, Shen didn't expect a C-rank to feel afraid of his Law-fueled aura. That said, he hoped the sudden heightening of seven Laws in Uya's surroundings while she was trying to make a decision about her next move would make her delay just a little more.

It worked—to a point. The Staff Lieutenant took just long enough to react that Shen's spearhead drew blood—but from her left cheek, not the neck he had been aiming for. She pulled back at the last second, and that tiny cut was everything he could accomplish by slightly changing his weapon's trajectory.

That minor correction was enough to make him badly positioned for whatever Uya planned next, but he sacrificed himself anyway. He guessed there was no defending against whatever was coming.

He was right and wrong.

Shen had not expected her to misinterpret his aura that badly, or that she would react so firmly.

Just as the very tip of his spearhead barely pierced her skin, her face was already warping into ire. She didn't even display surprise or shock at first. The moment something went utterly against her expectations, at the very instant when her understanding of the world was challenged, as soon as Reality refused to work the exact way she wanted it to, she grew furious and took it upon herself to fix things. Reality all around her was bent to her will.

Staff Lieutenant Uya's Law, Shen learned, was indeed from the Laws of the Sword. She didn't release a domain, but she flooded everything around her with mana and something that vaguely resembled his Spear's Concept of Sharpness. Even his body and soul were filled with her mana, and he couldn't expunge it.

It was said that B-ranks could ignore a soul's defenses. That was technically true but not all there was to it. What ignored a soul's defense was mastering a Law, then starting to also master the rest of that set. For instance, if Shen mastered Shaft, he would have an archway to start mastering all Laws of the Spear. Reaching that point gave someone such mastery of the underlying rules that bound all Reality together that they could ignore some of it when inconvenient. One such rule that they could bypass was a soul's innate defense.

Uya hadn't been lying. She was at peak C-rank. When someone mastered a Law, they could take the next step in their Path, going for the rest of the set. They needed the willpower and expanded mind for that, though. Liya had been such a case. Uya clearly also was.

When Shen was covered with mana, he felt a sword piercing his entire body, mind, and soul. Even his Path trembled under that impossibly sharp blade's might. Uya wasn't even attacking him yet, but it became clear that Liya had been very cautious when using her Path against him during their spars. He had never felt something this... visceral before.

His entire existence was being cut. He felt that—he knew that—yet such knowledge contrasted with the very same senses that told him he was whole and healthy—lack of half his feet notwithstanding. It was like standing in an enemy's fake aura or fake domain. He could barely tell she wasn't genuinely attacking him but unsheathing her Path just like she had unsheathed her second sword before.

Shen's C-rank mind and learning ability weren't enough to deal with that. He froze as the flood of conflicting information and the pain jumbled his thoughts. His mind couldn't overcome the sensory overload.

It was poetic justice that she was probably unintentionally doing to him the same thing he had tried to do to her—but she was better at it.

The last thing Shen thought before his mind simply shut down was that she probably didn't have a domain—and he was glad for it because he didn't want to also be overwhelmed by her emotions on top of her Law.

* - * - *

Shen woke up already healed right where he had fainted. From where everyone had been standing, he hadn't been out of it for more than a few minutes, if that long. Uya had sheathed her swords and stood a hundred yards away with her hands behind her back.

"I apologize," she said with a neutral voice, not sounding remorseful. "I mistook your aura for a breach of the rules I set. I despise traitors, and they all start their path of treachery by disregarding the rules. I have already reported myself. You all should receive an event report notification soon."

She hadn't even finished talking when Shen got his.

=

Unlawful Event Notification

Someone claimed you were a victim of abuse of power during combat training.

The perpetrator was stated to be Staff Lieutenant Uya of the 77th Mixed Brigade.

The Guardian System has recorded the event. The Investigation Department has verified it and passed a ruling.

Event Importance: Minor

Lethality Potential: Very Low

Punishment: -10,000,000 AP; -10,000 Contribution Points, +1 Demerit

Compensation: +1,000 Contribution Points

=

Shen didn't know if he agreed with the potential lethality assessment. She had directly attacked him. His life had been threatened!

Then again, he had to admit his sense had been so flooded that he couldn't correctly judge what had happened. Maybe he thought Uya had been enraged beyond control and on the verge of slicing him into atoms, but instead, she had just hurt him beyond what she should. At the very least, she had shown more restraint than his memories of utter terror told him—or the Investigation Department was full of shit, and he shouldn't trust it. He would ask the other Recruits about their opinion later.

The punishment should be hurting Uya. She had been saving to rank-up to B, which cost 100 million AP. Now, she had just lost 10 million. The Demerit should also prevent her from becoming a First Lieutenant as she wanted.

Contribution Points—or CP for short—were the exclusive official in the front lines. It was heavily regulated, and moving it around could only be done through official business. It let people fighting the Void acquire many things for a better price than Alliance Points or Standard Coins, though.

Everyone would be paid CP on top of SC while on the front lines, and most missions rewarded CP. The military freely took AP away as punishment, but only a few missions awarded AP. They were often reserved for B-ranks—though considering the Calamity, it might spill down the chain of command.

As a Recruit, Shen would be paid 100 CP every Standard week. If the "unlawful event" had really not been potentially lethal—and there was a big if here—receiving ten times his weekly salary for abuse of power that merely made him faint was fair. It was more of a matter of slightly apologizing for his shitty superior officer than anything. The actual compensation was the heavy punishment Uya had received.

Interestingly, the Staff Lieutenant had reported herself without leaving. If she could do that, so could First Lieutenant Zyn. The rules Shen had read said nothing about long-distance communication in the front lines, but Zyn probably could send a system message at the very least. Delivering the tale-harvester's items also shouldn't be that urgent. Whatever the First Lieutenant had gone out to do, it wasn't just reporting on having killed a subordinate.

Yet, the greatest lesson Shen took from this episode—on top of not overestimating his analytical skills—was to always wait for the worst when dealing with veteran warriors.

Uya killed Void Spawn for a living. The moment something went wrong, she reacted the way she had learned to react so she could survive: with extreme prejudice. He didn't buy her forced words about traitors. Unlike her relatively slow decision-making in a spar, she immediately assessed Shen as a threat and reacted to nullify it. Those instincts were above and beyond any poor training she might have received compared to his.

Her mastering a Law wasn't a trick. Her survival until now wasn't a fluke. She was worthy of the power she wielded.

"You won the second exchange," Uya continued with a deadpan voice. "I broke the rules by externally using my Laws. I commend you for your trick."

It definitely hadn't felt like a victory.

"The Investigation Department already punished me, but First Lieutenant Zyn went beyond. I was ordered to fight you weaponless and without using Laws externally in our third round. Don't think it means you have a chance. I even appreciate the new limits because crushing you like this will earn me back some of the pride you took from me. Use everything you have from the get-go, or you won't have any chance."

The final countdown restarted, and Shen prepared himself to obey the lieutenant's orders.

From the look in her eyes, even his entire toolset might not be enough.

His blood boiled with excitement as he might be about to discover his power's limits—hopefully, with a bang.

[A/N: A slightly denser snack.]

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