How To Survive A Calamity

Ceres, that bitch hadn't held back at all. A hot, swelling anger rose from under my chest as I managed to stumble up, leaning against the door behind me for support. "You're batshit crazy, you know that?"

My right arm and fingers still trembled a little from the remaining recoil of using [Impulse]. Fortunately, since the half-assed technique I created over a year ago became a skill, the backlash wasn't nearly half as bad as when I used it against the Sand Dragon, since the output was also minimal.

Ceres wasn't going to remain down for long either. She was already stirring awake from the shock of impact. Residue sparks of violent Ether danced across her body as they vanished.

The sleeves around her left shoulder were burnt off, revealing a red-hot, swelling bruise marring the spotless white of her flawless jade skin.

Damn, I thought, I had really managed to injure Ceres Walker. Despite the gravity of the moment, I let that incredulous thought linger in my head a bit.

But not for too long.

Ceres slowly raised her head, a stream of long silver hair spilling over her face. Her blood-red eyes glazed over with a cold, chilling calm as she gazed at me.

They seemed to say... now you've done it.

I gulped.

The next moment, Ceres reached for the bedside shelf nearby and threw it straight at me like a projectile. It tore through the air with the force of a missile and I barely reacted in time.

I cursed—wanted to—but dived to the side. The shelf smashed brutally against the door where my head had just been, exploding into a rain of splinters and wooden shrapnel that shot everywhere.

"Fuck—"

To my greatest horror, Ceres moved in time. She was already upon me like she had anticipated my exact move, and the shelf she tossed like a projectile was merely a distraction.

In an instant—it took me to blink—she stood over me. The heel of her foot descended toward my head in a devastating axe kick, like the blade of a guillotine during an execution.

I was crouched low against the floor. The only thing I saw was the deep shadow cast by Ceres' silhouette, and the cold, unfeeling, murderous red eyes.

Time seemed to stop, but it didn't. I rolled forward, diving again as the sound of Ceres' foot devastating my room floorboards thundered in my ears from behind.

"Hey!" I cried.

"Answer me," Ceres icily said as she turned. She moved with all the time in the world, like she currently wasn't causing carnage inside my room, gazing down at me from her standing position. "You're from Garden, aren't you?"

[DING! WARNING: EXTERNAL MENTAL SKILL INFLUENCE HAS BEEN DETECTED. DO YOU WISH TO BLOCK?] The same notification from earlier flashed through my eyes, but I ignored it out of frustration.

My irritation was peaking.

"Fuck off!" I charged into Ceres, still crouching low from below, and invaded her space with a spring in my step.

My fingers arched by my side as I got ready to unleash another dose of [Impulse] one more time against her solar plexus.

Ceres brought down her elbow against my back from below just in time to cripple my advance. The impact hurt—badly. It shook through my very spine, and I could even feel a few of my ribs groan under tension.

I gagged as I slowed down in place, crumbling to one knee just before Ceres. It felt like my whole world was about to snap in two from pain. It was torturous—a single blow from Ceres to my spine.

As expected, in a fair fight of brawls and physicality, even with my recent Rank-Up, I still wasn't nearly good enough.

But this never was a fair fight.

I grit my teeth through the disorienting pain and sprung back up sharply. Ceres reacted even faster, leaning away quickly. I felt my ribs wince with pain from my side but managed to graze the tips of my fingers against her arm and brush over her left shoulder.

"[Impulse]...!"

Another burst of Ether blasted from my palm, hitting Ceres in the shoulder—the exact same bruised spot from last time. This time, there was a sharp hissing grunt as her body was flung backwards from the impact. The recoil from the skill also caused me to stumble backwards unsteadily on my feet.

I groaned, feeling a mild spasm vibrate through my right arm. It seemed my body still couldn't fully handle the full force of [Impulse], even with the shorter, more controlled bursts.

The weight of Ceres' earlier blow to my back came crashing all at once as my knee buckled back to the ground. Fortunately, Ceres was also taking a bit longer this time to recover.

She lay sprawled against a pile of splintered wood from my desk that had been crushed under her weight.

"Dammit... Why the hell are we even doing this?" I managed to spit out in between wheezes. Goddamn, I was exhausted! Ceres and I had locked heads for only a few seconds, but the whole thing was shockingly draining.

For a few seconds, only the sounds of our rough and raspy breathing filled the silence. Until finally, Ceres moved her head slightly to speak.

Her voice was low and empty.

"Just answer me this... Do you know anything about Eden or The Garden?"

What—I thought... that same strange question again.

But what was even stranger was...

[DING! WARNING: EXTERNAL MENTAL SKILL INFLUENCE HAS BEEN DETECTED. DO YOU WISH TO BLOCK?]

The same surreal system warning notification blared before my eyes. Then I heard Meta's synthetic voice speak into my mind.

[It's a Lie Detector Skill. Do you wish to block it?] she simply said.

A lie detector skill? So that was what that strange method was about...

If so... 'No.'

"I don't," I said calmly, barely restraining the irritation in my voice.

Ceres didn't move or appear any different, but I noticed the intensity in her eyes died down a little after hearing my reply.

"So... You're really not from 'that place'? You're... not here to bring me back?" She gazed at me strangely.