THE CURSED GAMER

Chapter 155: Opportunity? (4)

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""[Mana Eruption]""

A spinning vortex of blue and gold left Neji’s palm, going forward to land at Mirio’s abdomen. However, the beam simply passed through Mirio, hitting the wall behind him and shattering it into dust, creating a hole.

Neji narrowed his eyes at that, Mirio’s punch coming towards his face as he ducked down and swiped his leg under Mirio's feet, but there was no feeling of touch as Mirio simply slipped down under the ground, pulled by gravity.

""Huh,"" Neji shrugged. ""So even Mana passes through him, interesting.""

A part of him expected otherwise, but that part was wrong.

“…Young master?” Kimi asked from behind him, making him turn.

““Ah, Kimi. You must be confused, don’t worry it’s still me. I will explain the details later.”” Neji reached out his hand and pinched her chin.

Kimi didn’t know what Neji did with Nine’s body. She might have been able to guess what’s happening if she knew about Nine’s All for One, but she didn’t so she was lost just like the other girls.

““Now, stand back. I will finish Mirio as soon as possible and get back to you.”” Neji said, turning around and floating in the air softly, spiralling golden shockwaves coming out of his feet.

“Neji! What do you mean by that?” Nejire cried, horrified. “W-what are you trying to do?”

Certainly, she didn't think good of the term ‘finish Mirio’.

Neji didn’t reply to her and whispered in Kimi's ears. ““Knock Nejire out if she tries to intervene… same for Momo, though I doubt she’ll try to do that.” Neji finished, seeing Kimi nod.

Neji didn’t blame his older sister. It's justified to be so confused and loud when her younger brother and her close friend are fighting. Just that, she was being a bit louder since her younger brother, who she loved more, seemed to be in the wrong here.

Just then, through the floor Neji was standing on, black whips sprung out and wrapped around his neck. Before he could even respond, his head was pulled down, his face falling hard on the floor.

‘So his quirks can also permeate….’ Neji thought, chuckling to himself as he grabbed the whip and yanked back, hearing something crashing on the ceiling under this floor, as this was the 2nd floor.

The black whips disappeared and an enraged Mirio, now wearing his Hero costume, jumped out of the ground next, his fist raised in the air again.

Neji tried to block the attack, but it simply went through his raised palm and hit him in the jaws. Or it would have, if a soft golden plate hadn’t appeared just a centimetre ahead of his jaws. 

The quirk – Air Wall.

Though the plate did shatter upon impact, that was enough time for Neji to smirk and jump back a few steps.

This would be easy. He was feeling stronger, stronger than ever, even stronger than when he became "Neko". Because now, one of his perks is at work.

[Perk; Main Character Slayer:

—The Will of a World would have its negative effects lessened against you, and therefore wouldn't be able to make your life deliberately harder unless it uses its Main Character against you!

—All Stats gain a 30% boost when fighting a world's chosen one!]

This was going to be smooth…

–

Mirio glared at the doppelgänger as the blue aura disappeared from around the doppelgänger’s body. 

Mirio was feeling both rage and sadness. 

None of this would have happened if he didn’t let the real Neji die… This villain wouldn’t have gotten the chance to act like Neji if Mirio somehow saved the boy.

““You sure you wanna fight here?”” the doppelganger asked, pointing at the shattered wall. ““There are people, injured and sick under this building.””

Mirio frowned, but he understood the villain’s offer. So as the villain jumped out of the exact hole he created in the wall, Mirio did the same, not before glancing back at Nejire.

‘She’s most certainly a fake too…’ 

Sighing, blaming it all on himself, Mirio followed the doppelgänger to a spot a bit far from the building, an open racecourse field.

The moment they reached the spot, Mirio took a deep breath in and released it, immediately smoke came out from all over his body and spread around the whole field, obscuring both his and the villain’s vision… or he hoped it did.

This was the 6th user's quirk, Smokescreen.

Not even a second later, the 4th user's quirk, Danger Sense flared up, causing Mirio to turn Permeation on, making the villain's punch pass through him.

'Damn it!' Mirio cursed in his mind. 'He can see in the smoke…!'

This doppelganger was much stronger than him, Mirio realised that. He easily blocked his One-For-All-100% punch, along with that maid's own punch, after all. At the same time, this villain was very fast, too. Though Mirio might be able to surpass both that speed and power using Fa Jin–the third user’s quirk.

Though truthfully, the only reason Mirio hadn't lost yet was because of his Permeation.

You can't be defeated if you can't be hit.

After the initial punch, the 'fake' Neji started to throw barrages of punches all over Mirio’s body but was unable to hit him even once. At last, Mirio watched as the doppelganger frowned before swiping a leg under his feet again.

This time, Mirio didn't fall under the ground. The attack simply phrased through his feet, without Mirio even stumbling.

The gravity was pulling him, true, but he wasn't going down anymore. Because even if he lost his foothold, he wasn’t standing anymore.

He was floating.

The 7th user's quirk, Float.

""Annoying bastard, tsk.""

The villain said, drawing his fist back as Mirio finally took the initiative. 

A punch to the gut, a punch to the face, one to the ribs–and many more.

But all were dodged.

““I may not have that annoying Permeation, but I am faster.””

Hearing the villain, Mirio narrowed his eyes before he smirked. Even though Neji was dodging all the attacks, Mirio’s intention wasn’t to hit him, no, he was simply stacking kinetic energy in Fa Jin.

The Quirk, Fa Jin allows the user to build up and store kinetic energy as they move, this energy can then be released as an explosive burst of speed and power. There is certainly a limit to how much energy can be stored, but… that limit has long been heightened many times because of One for All.

Guessing that somewhat enough energy has been stored, Mirio used the quirk, along with One for All. Black and red energy sprung out of Mirio’s body as he launched his fist at Neji’s face, this time the speed was enormously faster than before, and the strength almost caused his costume to tear apart. 

Before the fist could hit, and possibly shatter the villain’s skull though, the blue aura from before resurfaced around the villain and he moved like a bullet.

Stepping to the right, he grabbed Mirio’s strongest punch with swift movement, grinning as Mirio felt his fist getting eroded by a black deathly aura.

Mirio barely managed to turn his Permeation on again, causing the villain’s grip to slip.

‘What was that…?!’

It was shocking to Mirio. Such corroding power. Looking down at his hand, he saw the result, a very deep wound, the imprint of the grip he was feeling on his fist. It was as if it melted by some kind of poison, even though the touch lasted barely a second.

A second later, Mirio simply smiled as a soft green energy surrounded his hand and dispersed immediately, along with the wound.

‘The 2nd user’s quirk sure is useful.’ Mirio couldn’t help but smile. ‘But this is bad. I can’t hurt him like this, he’s too fast even with Fa Jin… unless I store as much kinetic energy as possible. Meaning, I have to drag this battle.’

Certainly, prolonging this battle would be in Mirio’s favour if he manages to store enough energy to surpass the villain’s speed. Because the villain wasn’t that much stronger than Mirio, since Mirio could see the attacks coming, and also stimulate his mind on how to block them. He just couldn’t move his body to be fast enough to do so.

““Haah, I believe that’s enough for a warm-up.”” Suddenly, the villain rolled his shoulders with an easy smile that said ‘checkmate’. ““Mirio Togata, or should I say Lemellion? I heard gravity still affects you in that invisible form of your?””

Mirio was confused at first before his eyes widened at Neji’s incoming punch, this time glowing with a translucent aura. He was shocked when he felt his face getting pulled towards the aura, and the attack, instead of phrasing through like usual, slammed down on his nose and threw him far from his initial spot.

Neji’s punch hadn’t connected, no, the aura around Neji’s fist had connected with his face instead.

‘A gravity quirk?’

Mirio frowned, growling as he felt his face start to heal itself immediately.

He slowly stood up, breathing somewhat heavily as the smoke around started to clear by a gust of huge but clearly unnatural wind.

Before he knew it, on the clear field, Neji was rushing at him again, his blue eyes carrying a red octagram and his fist glowing a soft white.

‘This is bad!’

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