Chapter 21 - The Mission Machine (7)
"Your main body is the tree here!"
"Wanna make another guess?" The girl seemed to enjoy this game.
"Your main body is hidden in the mall somewhere, and that's your weak spot!" Barry looked like he was starting to lose confidence.
"Maybe there's a core inside you, and if we crush that core, it'll be game over for you!"
The girl just looked down with a smile.
"Maybe you have a limited number of revivals? Per day? Maybe? Per... Hour? Minute? No?"
"Hmm... No darling. Let me tell you a little secret." The girl smiled.
"I do have restrictions with my revivals. Which is I can't revive outside this mall."
"But inside this mall, I can always revive to my prime conditions, indefinitely."
"It's my domain here..." The girl lazily stretched.
"But you do remind me... How long can you keep that dome up for?" The girl tilted her head.
She then turned to Jeff. "And how long can you stay in that... lightbulb mode for?"
Jeff's cheek twitched a little. 'Lightbulb... Mode.'
Nevertheless, this girl did have a point.
The answer was 5 minutes, then Jeff would start to feel hungry.
Staying in this mode for 10 minutes, Jeff would faint out of starvation.
"So thank you for pointing that out honey..." The girl leaned onto the q-railing again. "I have all the patience in the world."
"I can't stop your glowing buddy from leaving. Unless you all can escape here within 3 seconds, your buddy is not bringing you out either."
"Either..."
"er..."
Those words echoed in this atrium. This space fell silent.
Liam was still fanatically thinking. However, Jeff could see some despair on the faces of the trio now.
"Hey Jeff." Barry looked up at Jeff with a forced smile. "Can't you like, hug her and stop her from moving around?"
"She'd self-detonate into a mist."
"Also, she's just messing with you. She can respawn anywhere again in a second."
"So the escort mission?" Liam bitterly chuckled.
"Sorry. I don't do escort missions."
"Well." Liam sighed. "This is a SS-rank monster after all. And the intel that lead us to this lethal condition is on me. Can you at least-"
"Or it could be on me." The girl giggled.
Understanding what this girl was saying, the trio in that dome all looked up. Widening their eyes in the realization, they looked at this girl as if she's demon.
This was a trap all along...
"No. You misunderstood me." Jeff casually leaned onto the q-railing with one arm.
Grabbing onto a glint-tier feather... Using his body, Jeff obstructed the girl's view on this projectile.
Jeff felt a little torn in his mind. After all, this was the only glint-tier projectile he's got. And it's a consumable. Also... Will it work? Jeff couldn't be certain. 50-50 based on his observations. It's a gamble alright.
"A glow-tier dagger is enough pay for S-rank elimination."
"But it ain't enough for a SS-rank. Got to up the price for this one."
"How much." Liam's expression eased.
"A glow-tier double-handed weapon. 3 glint-tier projectiles. 1 large red pot. And I'll eliminate this SS-rank for you. Which will certainly buy you 15 minutes of time."
"Deal." Liam nodded without thought.
Jeff turned his gaze to the girl.
The vampire girl opened up her arms. "You can be as rough as you want. By the way, a friendly heads up, I can see it. It's glowing."
"I know." Jeff squatted down a little. In the next instant, Jeff shot through the court like a cannon ball.
Totally missing the girl, Jeff crashed into a wall with his shoulders. Getting back to his feet, Jeff darted towards his target.
The vampire just stood there, ready to take the hit.
Fixating his gaze on the girl, holding the feather in his hand, Jeff threw a punch.
Knocking up a torrent of air, Jeff's hand stopped right in front of the girl's head. The torrent blasted this girl's hair into the air.
Mana energy and Psychic energy flooded into Jeff's feather. In an instance, the feather bursted with blinding rainbow colored light.
Jeff could feel a strong pull on that feather. It's trying its best to break free from Jeff's hand. Starting to shake violently now.
However, Jeff just refused to let go.
"Yo-!" The girl widened her eyes. She wasn't expecting this to happen!
Without hesitation, she exploded into a mist!
Too late!
BOOOoom!
The ground rumbled. The entire building seemed to shake for a moment.
A wild torrent blasted out the atrium. One after another, all the glasses in sight shuttered into fragments.
In a blink, a large cement debris bounced off the ground, and hurled towards Barry's dome.
BAM!
That concrete block broke into smaller pieces upon impact.
With a rumbling pounding sound, a section of the second floor had collapsed onto the first floor, knocking up a storm of dust.
Glass shards rained down, breaking into bits and pieces upon impact with the floor.
Falling in air, a shriek suddenly exploded into Jeff's mind. It's painful to hear like nails scratching a chalkboard.
Jeff's vision blacked out for a moment.
Thump!
Jeff hit the ground floor. After bouncing up and rolling down the floor, sliding a few meters, Jeff finally came to a halt.
Feeling a little disorientated, Jeff shook his head a little. A cloud of dust fell of his hair.
Stumbling to get up, Jeff took a look at his arm. His feather-holding arm was covered in a digital-red now. Nevertheless, thanks to [Regenerative Genes], it's quickly returning to normal at a visible pace.
A screen popped into Jeff's view.
[ Unique Quest: Energy Collection (Incomplete) ]
[ Quest Description: A new energy signature has been detected. Stay within (150) meters of the source of energy signature for (480) Seconds... ]
[ Quest Reward: In accordance with the recording energy signature ]
[ Now recording energy signature... ]
"Hmm... Well. That's was easy." Jeff patted the dirt off himself.
"Goood. All according to plan."
"Alright. That's enough." Jeff turned off his abilities.
Like turning off a light, Jeff stopped glowing.