Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Generous Sacrifice
Weitz had indeed fled to Gray Cloud Fortress to avoid debts.
He wasn’t yet an adult then. A drunkard randomly pushed him on the street, so he pulled out a small knife and spilled that drunkard’s intestines.
Kids like him who grew up in the slums had more or less blood on their hands. Beneath their dirty hair hid pairs of hungry wolf eyes that would swarm and attack the moment you showed fear and retreat, tearing and devouring bloodily.
When desperados felt threatened, the first thing they valued least was their own lives.
They had to be vicious enough to survive.
The countdown ended.
Funis pulled the trigger without hesitation. The hammer fell with a thunderous roar, the recoil making both slender arms numb. Under focused attention, the bullet shot forth with the flash of fire.
Her calculated seconds wouldn’t be wrong.
At this instant, Weitz’s localized hardening had just been released and couldn’t be immediately activated again. Even a Guardian’s skull couldn’t withstand the tearing kinetic energy brought by gunpowder explosion.
With his limbs bound by steel wire, Weitz was no different from a stationary target on a training ground. At this distance, Funis couldn’t possibly miss.
He was certain to die.
Unless…
In the sound of massive pressure release, intense steam gushed from the pipe opening at the desperate man’s rear shoulder. The stage was instantly shrouded in mist containing blazing temperature, and a wave of heat blew against Funis, making her light snow-white sleeves and skirt hem flutter.
The shadow in the mist was gradually expanding, muscles swelling and bulging. A pair of vicious eyes flowing with pale golden arcs glared through the water vapor.
“The power belonging to Michael, the great angel of God’s sword—the true reason for the Generosity pathway’s eternal invincibility.” Funis wasn’t surprised by the astonishing changes happening to Weitz. She stood calmly in the air current, gathering her silver hair to prevent it from flying wildly. “With this kind of trump card, you couldn’t possibly not use it. Pushed to a desperate situation with no options, anyone would fight with everything they had.”
“Burst”—or more academically, “Generous Sacrifice.”
Trading subsequent exhaustion, paralysis, or even more serious and tragic consequences for explosive growth in speed and strength in the current short time. An eighth-sequence Guardian in this state could theoretically achieve eight times their original physical indicators.
As if receiving the favor and gaze of the great angel Michael, any Generosity pathway Extraordinary would transform from this moment into the legendary divine soldiers who feared neither pain nor death.
But after brief heroism, the price that followed could very likely last a lifetime.
Aging, disability, memory loss, blindness…
The body’s overdrive operation would inevitably suffer backlash. Even the generous Michael wouldn’t give power to mortals without reason—these were all taxes that believers had to pay on their long road of redemption.
Funis knew that scoundrels like Weitz naturally wouldn’t care about such consequences.
He was ruthless enough to himself.
Facing someone who would bet his own right arm in a casino, you had to be constantly vigilant, because he could use anything as stakes at any time and place.
Nothing mattered. To win, everything could be put on the gambling table.
First forcing out Weitz’s localized hardening, then exposing hardening’s weaknesses and flaws—Funis had done all this for now, for this moment when the vicious gambler pushed out his trump card.
The victory or defeat of this gladiatorial match depended on this.
Like tearing open a curtain, the giant shadow in the mist tore through the water vapor before him, and the floor groaned pitifully under heavy footsteps.
With subcutaneous veins bulging and twisting his features hideously, wildly expanding muscles squeezed his facial features to positions they shouldn’t occupy. Excessive blood congestion made him red and burning like the cinnabar-painted demon masks of the small Eastern archipelago nations.
Rushing out of the steam cloud at incredible speed, Weitz’s face was now so hideous that even the always calm and composed Funis couldn’t help but shudder.
She also saw the folding blades that had popped out from both sides of the golden metal prosthetic bones on his right arm.
For this type of small prosthetic’s bone load, such modification was obviously against regulations and quite dangerous. The hollowed interior meant it was more fragile and prone to breaking.
Funis guessed that in the instant before bursting, Weitz had also adjusted the prosthetic’s steam pump power to maximum, using this to pop out the blades to cut the steel wire binding his whole body. The excessive pressure in the cylinder would push the transmission shaft to operate at higher frequency, greatly improving both gripping force and operating speed. The mist filling the venue was caused by the boiler needing to vent pressure for air exchange.
At the junction of metal and flesh on his shoulder, highly active granulation was wildly writhing, even growing blood vessels and nerves that climbed onto the mechanical bones, only to be melted and vaporized into red mist by the scorching high temperature—healing ability was also within the enhancement range of the “Burst” state. Given enough space, even complete limb regeneration wasn’t impossible.
Physical functions far exceeding normal humans, visibly healing and recovery speed, steam mechanical prosthetics running at full power, plus localized hardening that would activate instinctively even if consciousness was lost.
Clearly, Weitz in “Burst” state was an existence that Funis couldn’t possibly defeat.
But she knew this overloaded state couldn’t be maintained for long.
So Funis considered this a gamble.
When she decided to fight Weitz, this situation had become inevitable. Weitz bet he could tear Funis to pieces before time ran out, Funis bet she could survive and escape from Weitz before time ran out. Both sides wagered their lives, giving everything they had.
But this wasn’t truly a gamble.
Because it wasn’t fair.
The exaggerated figure approached at high speed. The originally spacious stage now seemed narrow and crowded. In Funis’s nimble steps, she flipped down to the stage floor, avoiding Weitz’s violent impact like a railway train.
The decaying wall deeply caved in. After the collision, the entire theater swayed precariously.
If her reaction had been just a beat slower, Funis felt she would definitely have been crushed into a meat patty stuck to the wall that couldn’t be scraped off.
She used to often joke with colleagues from the Temperance Academy that the generous knights of the Generosity Academy were all human tanks who just liked to ram around. Now, witnessing the actual power firsthand, she really couldn’t laugh.
The terraced seating below the stage was more spacious, with more remaining room suitable for maneuvering.
The big guy Weitz was still deeply stuck in the wall crater from his charge.
Funis took this opportunity to walk slowly toward the very center of the grand theater. Lights lit up one by one following her high-heeled footsteps. Those chandeliers that should have had their candles removed somehow ignited with flames at this moment, and the night gradually disappeared behind the girl’s skirt hem.
She stopped.
Funis lifted her skirt and turned around.
She calmly watched that bloody, fierce beast panting hot breath as it walked down to the stage floor. Every step seemed to make the earth tremble, and the chandelier lights swayed accordingly.
The bricks and steel materials suspended overhead also swayed.
Under the illumination, the heavy objects previously hidden in the dark heights were densely distributed like a forest. Those rocks and steel that could easily crush flesh and blood were supported by spider web-like threads near the ceiling.
Prepared for this.
Prepared for Weitz in his current monstrous state.
Weitz had initially thought Funis was holding back and not using her full strength. She could have made all those things fall from above together.
He was half right.
Funis had indeed held back, but she hadn’t done so out of naivety or mercy.
Now that her fangs were fully revealed, Funis no longer needed to hide. This hunting ground finally showed its true face, specifically waiting for a certain greedy alpha wolf to fall into anger and frenzy.
Everything had long been arranged in the script Funis prescribed, allowing no accidents, no unstable factors. Thanks to Cesya’s teachings, she had developed an almost obsessive pursuit of patterns and plans.
The girl drew that ornate silver short rapier from beneath her skirt, dancing a brilliant flower under the candlelight, also as in the script.
That’s why this wasn’t truly a gamble.
It wasn’t fair.