Divine Celebrity 71 (Patreon)

However, as much as teasing Megan had been fun, my words about needing a walk to gather my thoughts were not an excuse. 

Walking helped me to gather my thoughts, and I had a lot of things to think about, the premier topic being the next steps of action now that Coach Bill was gone. 

Completely abandoning the football team was certainly tempting, as dealing with all those rich, entitled kids, and an even richer and more entitled coach to rule the team. Without Coach Bill to shelter the team, I had no doubt that it would turn into an unbearable hell. 

Yet, the incredible flood of Intent I received as the people cheered boundlessly, was not something that I could easily sacrifice. To finally awaken my Guide even if I couldn’t find a way to push my traits over five. 

I needed her awake, because I needed the information she could provide. Her memory might be spotty, and her personality might be inconsistent, but that didn’t change the fact that, unless I managed to stumble up to some kind of wondrous ancient tome that conveniently explained the mystery I found myself facing, she was my only source of information. 

To a lesser degree, I needed to stop her constant absorption. Without that, I could easily develop different traits. As the chess tournament showed, the attention of several dozens of people was more than enough to give me some Traits

And while they only provided relatively small, incremental benefits, I wasn’t at a point of turning my back on any kind of incremental benefits, even the weakest ones. 

Making her recovery a priority, meaning I wasn’t in a position to miss all football season. 

Even missing a match hurt, but at this point, it seemed to be inevitable. 

I continued to walk toward my dorm, the roads were mostly empty this hour. My thoughts and emotions were as tumultuous as a thunderstorm as I thought about the challenge that was foisted upon me, pushing a scowl on my face.

Then, that sensation disappeared, replaced by much more intense and immediate emotion, one that was marked by a rapid thumping of my heart and a crawling sensation on the back of my head. 

Mortal danger. 

It wasn’t the first time I had felt such a sensation. Growing up in the streets, I faced many situations that would have likely ended up sending me to my final destination, or, at a minimum, a grievous injury. 

Yet, it was the first time I felt so without the slightest appearance of danger. 

If it wasn’t for the System and my Guide, I might have ignored that as a figment of my imagination, as walking in the middle of the night was hardly an issue. 

Instead, I ducked and rolled forward — which I did with a shocking ease thanks to my Agility. 

A smart decision, as it turned out, as I felt something passing over my head, something that cuts through the air with a suspicious whistling sound suggesting a cutting edge. 

Just low enough to hit my neck if I hadn’t rolled forward, with likely very deadly consequences.  

Before I could even finish the roll, I started analyzing the situation. First, who was trying to kill me — as there was no doubt what would have been my end if I hadn’t rolled forward — and how the hell they sneaked close enough without me noticing in such an empty road. 

Also, who the fuck used a blade to kill someone. It wasn’t like guns were a hard commodity to reach. 

Yet, as I completed my roll and came face to face with my attacker, I received my answer. 

Mostly because face-to-face was a misnomer. My attacker didn’t have a face, or any other features. 

It was just a shadow, pitch black and flickering, roughly in the shape of a man. The only thing that didn’t flicker aggressively was the blade it was holding in its hand. A pure block of darkness, still radiating a cold feeling of sharpness. 

It didn’t take a genius to realize that touching that blade was a bad idea, so, when the shadow attacked me, I rolled back, doing my best to avoid the attack, far quicker than its attack seemed to require. 

It turned out to be a good idea, because it managed to stop halfway before swinging it toward my belly, seemingly unaffected by pesky concerns like momentum and other rules of physics. 

The creepy way it moved was enough to send a crawling sensation through my heart — even more than the fact that it was clearly trying to murder me. 

It was simply unnatural. 

I wanted to just turn and dash away, but unfortunately, I had no idea about the speed it could display, so instead, I chose to dodge, its attacks. 

I dodged as wide as possible, but not without committing the moves fully, watching his attack patterns. And, even as I did so, I couldn’t help but feel glad for the fight I had started earlier. 

Without the boost from the unarmed trait I received, I had little hope of resisting that confusing pattern of assault. Yet, with its assistance, I managed to get a sense of its movement, giving me to understand of its capabilities. 

Capabilities like its speed in a straight line, which was markedly faster than I could achieve even with the assistance of my traits. 

“Stop, please, we can talk,” I said. Not because I actually expected it to be open to a deal, but because I wanted to see whether it would react to my words. 

It didn’t, nor did it change its attack pattern, just slashing toward the direction that it could score a hit easiest. Combined, it didn’t give me an impression of sentience. 

“Time to test,” I murmured even as I baited it to attack upward, while I lashed out with a kick, only for it to pass through its body without any effect. 

Then, I pulled my phone, and turned its flash to the maximum, hoping that bright light might have an effect on it. 

It didn’t. 

The third strategy was to delay it as long as possible, hoping that it had a duration, but a minute later, I changed my mind. I didn’t see any noticeable slowing down.

Even with the Endurance and Recovery, my body had its limits, especially for something as intense as mortal combat. It was more intense than boxing, and without convenient breaks to fill the distance. 

And, when I tried to block the knife, first with a branch, then with a rock, neither of them worked, not even slowing down as the knife cut through them like butter. 

“Time to take some risks,” I thought even as I tried to reach the system while I baited it with another kick, hoping that the feeling of being connected to the System would somehow give me the ability to resist it. 

It didn’t. 

“To my next trick,” I thought as I frown, hoping that it would work. If it didn’t, my best hope was to escape and steal a car, hoping that it couldn’t move just as fast — or appear from thin air again just like it did earlier. 

I tapped into the intent flow, one that I was receiving continuously thanks to the earlier fight, and channeled it. However, this time, my target was not the system itself, but somehow channeling the flow to my body. 

The first few attempts were just failures, putting me dangerously close to the probability of being skewered as I got distracted by the process. 

Luckily, mortal danger had a way of allowing people to achieve the impossible, and I felt a flicker around my hand. It was a simple, ethereal feeling, one that could be easily mistaken for the cold wind dancing on a sweaty palm, but I wasn’t at a point to mistake that feeling for something so mundane. 

Recognizing the opportunity for what it was, I pushed that hand into the chest of the creature, sliding through its chest, and this time, I felt the slightest resistance. 

And just like that, the shadow dissipated. 

Yet, the blade stayed, hitting the floor, still radiating ominous darkness, enough to make me worried to touch it. So, I poked it with a branch and dragged it to a ditch before covering it with some dirt. 

It was safer than throwing it into the garbage, or worse, carrying it with me. 

With that gone, I looked around, wondering whether there would be a follow attack, but luckily, that seemed not to be the case. 

Yet, as I dashed toward my dorm, I couldn’t help but feel tense. 

Being assassinated by shadow creatures, sent by a mysterious enemy that might or might not be the mysterious darkness an absentminded angel mentioned in passing did that to someone…