Arc 1 - Chapter 17 - Catharsis

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------------------- Start of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) -------------------
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Hello everyone, LunaWolve here!

Welcome to the release of Chapter 17 for y'all.

This is a chapter a lot of people have been wanting and also one of the ones I've personally been very excited about for multiple reasons, that will hopefully become apparent during your time reading it!

For the Wolf Lords among you, there has been some minor adjustments in the latter half of the chapter, but nothing to write home about. Just fixing up the parts that your feedbacks pointed out to be a bit weird.

I'm looking forward to hearing your first impressions and opinions on this exciting chapter. \o/

I hope you will enjoy it!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- End of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) ------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Thea waited for the arena to reset her and resurrect Astra, she quickly prompted the System to show the levelled-up version of her Sensory Overdrive with excited anticipation. 'Show me what level-ups do in this strange System...!'

[Active (Silver) - Sensory Overdrive - Level 1]
Description: Allows the participant to use up a certain amount of focus to drastically heighten their own Perception and mental capabilities for a short time.
Cost: 50 Focus - Factor: 550% - Effect Duration: 0.55 seconds

Taking in the changes in her Ability, Thea couldn't help but smile to herself, as further excitement rushed through her body.

'50% more on the Perception increase?! That's a 10% increase compared to the baseline, with every level going forward...! Same for the Effect Duration, too...! That's kind of crazy... Professor Pierce said that Abilities cap out at Level 20, so that would land me at a Factor of 1500% and an Effect Duration of 1.5 seconds! Assuming the Level-Ups are linear, of course. No wonder this is a Silver-ranked Ability... That is an absolutely absurd prospect to be working towards...

'I wonder if there's a way to grind out Levels... But based on what the Major said, I doubt there would be such a convenient option in the System. Still worth looking around for, though, I'd say. This Ability has definitely saved my ass a couple of times already and will likely do so again in the future, so pumping it up in numbers will definitely be worthwhile.'

With a sudden tug at her mind, Thea found herself standing next to a newly resurrected Astra, a couple metres away from the equipment racks inside the arena. The girl quickly acclimatised herself to her new body and location as her eyes landed on Thea. Eyes wide, she bowed deeply before her.

"Ahh…! I apologise for my poor showing…! I was really trying hard, but…"

She stopped mid-explanation, clearly unable to find the proper words to express her feelings.

Thea still felt strange being regarded in such a way by another person, but she couldn't help but feel sympathetic to the girl before her. Raising her hands in a calming manner, Thea replied, "Hey, don't worry about it too much. I actually thought you did amazingly well in that second round. You should've gone with the sword from the get-go; you're a real magician with that thing. Stick with it in the future, build your own style around it, and you'll be an absolute menace in future Practicals, trust me!"

Finishing, Thea realised that she felt oddly at ease talking to Astra. Her strange, subservient behaviour seemed to make Thea feel less anxious than usual, similar to when Thea herself talked to higher-ranked members of the UHF. It was like an obvious hierarchy had been established, making it easy for Thea to understand her role in the social encounter, putting her anxious mind at ease.

Astra smiled at Thea's reply, but it was immediately apparent that she did not feel the same way, as the smile bore a hint of pain and regret.

"I was really hoping I'd be able to get a good hit in, using my Ability… but I guess I completely miscalculated what it might be able to do in a close-quarters fight… I'm probably not cut out for this at all… You see, I was trying to get you to charge at me, then use my Ability to disorient you while you were moving at a fast speed, giving you no time to get used to it! But that clearly didn't work…"

Astra’s explanation confirmed what Thea had assumed during the fight. She couldn’t help but feel bad about the shattered confidence of the girl, especially as it wasn’t a fair assessment in Thea’s eyes.

“Actually… Your plan was perfectly valid and worked.”

With a glint of confusion, Astra’s eyes, which had gradually turned towards the ground in front of her as she had explained her thoughts previously, shot back up to Thea’s, who immediately averted her own, still unwilling to make eye contact with anyone outside of combat.

“It’s just… I used my own Ability beforehand, and it just so happens to counter yours perfectly. It allowed me to mostly ignore your Ability as a whole and go for the kill-shot. If it wasn’t for that, I definitely think you would have been able to land quite the nasty hit, Astra. I don’t think someone like Lan, for example, whose fight you’ve probably seen earlier, would have been able to avoid it like I did.”

With sparkling eyes at her idol's words, Astra excitedly bubbled, “Really?! You mean, I just got unlucky with the Ability matchup?! That… That helps a lot, thank you, Thea! I really want to know what your Ability is, but I definitely agree with what Lan said earlier after your fight…”

Her voice trailed off, unsure of where to take the conversation from there.

Thea felt somewhat sympathetic to the girl, understanding the tribulations of social encounters very well. Simultaneously, however, she also did not want to engage further in the conversation, as her anxiety was beginning to rise when the conversation found itself in a bit of an awkward place.

“We can always talk outside of this Practical and share our Abilities at a later date, then? We should get the arena ready for the next contestant before Lt Eifang comes by and sees us chatting instead of fighting. I doubt he’d be too happy about that…”

With big eyes and hands clasped before her mouth in silent amazement, Astra nodded enthusiastically at Thea’s proposal.

Conversely, Thea immediately regretted her decision to offer such a nondescript solution. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about the fangirl in front of her, whether she wanted to interact with her at all or simply avoid her entirely going forward.

Forcing a smile, Thea waved to the stunned Astra, in an attempt to break the girl out of her frozen state and get her to leave. “Good luck on your next fights then, Astra.

“Don’t get discouraged with this one; I’m sure you’ll be able to do well against other people who don't have the perfect counter to your Ability!”

Nodding to herself, as if to shake free from her stunned state, Astra gave Thea a bright smile before she bowed once again. "Thank you, Thea. For everything. Keep being our idol going forward, okay? Do your best in the upcoming fights; I'm sure you'll do well!"

With those words that made Thea cringe internally at being called an 'idol' once again, Astra quickly ran off towards the spot of the arena that she had entered from.

Staring at the retreating form of Astra with a mixture of emotions, Thea thought to herself, 'I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this kind of treatment… I don’t exactly hate it, but I can’t say that I enjoy it either… Neither do I want this kind of responsibility… Being a sort of icon for mid-worlders…? I’m just a random cyan girl from the undercity of Lumiosia, not some kind of princess or whatever…’

Just as she was about to head towards the center of the arena once again, to prepare and wait for the next opponent, the barrier in front of Astra opened, and a loud conversation wafted into Thea’s enhanced sense of hearing.

"... just a mid-worlder, after all! Who even let her go in?! It was obvious she’d just get clapped like some street dog, considering she’s mid-world trash."

Thea’s head snapped over to the open barrier, to see a sturdy-looking man gesturing wildly at Astra, who was just about to leave the arena. She recognized the man’s voice easily, not to mention the intonations and obvious disgust at mid-worlders in his voice.

Like a wildfire, Thea’s stored up anger from the past couple of years bubbled up into her chest, immediately evaporating any negative feelings towards Astra as she watched the girl get berated by Alex for no reason.

Just as it seemed like he was about to go on another tirade at the meek-looking Astra, who had somewhat shrunk in front of Alex’s directed hatred, Thea couldn't stop herself any longer.

With vitriol in her voice, she raised her voice just loud enough to be easily heard, but not loud enough to be considered yelling. "Hey, asshole! How about you step in here and show everyone just how big of a man you really are? Ever since we got into this class, you’ve been spouting complete nonsense about your backward ideas that inner-worlders are somehow superior to us mid-worlders. Put your money where your dirty fucking mouth is, instead of hiding behind the barrier. Get your ass in here, and prove it for once, Alex."

At once, the spectators around the arena fell silent, as they waited to see what would happen. Even Astra had spun around to Thea, a complicated mix of emotions visible on her face.

"You dare…? That’s it! I’ve had enough of you! You asked for it, so don’t come crying to me afterward that I hurt your feelings, cyan," came the incredulous yet spiteful answer from Alex after he overcame his initially stunned state at Thea’s sudden outburst. He then pushed Astra forcefully to the side and entered the arena, the barrier closing behind him.

Thea could've sworn she briefly saw Lan sigh in exasperation just before the barrier closed, but she paid it no further attention, as her anger had set her entire body ablaze. She felt elated at the opportunity to let loose for once after the past two years of Basic had been marred with constant dirty looks, people actively avoiding her, and worse.

Coupled with her frustrations at Desmond and Isabella as well, Thea wasn't quite sure when she had last felt this level of anger towards anything. Alex's constant bigotry had definitely sent her over the edge, but at this stage, she didn't care about appearances any longer.

With determination and a burning fury inside her heart, she headed towards the equipment rack behind her and equipped two additional daggers, putting them into the holsters at the side of her armour before briskly walking towards the centre of the arena to await her opponent.

With an equally brisk step, Alex lumbered over towards the equipment rack, rapidly donning a suit of medium armour and pulling out two chainswords for his weapons.

Revving the swords as he walked towards the centre, he gave Thea a dirty look before spitting onto the ground. "The UHF should've never allowed your kind to be part of the Corps. I don't know what the hell they were thinking, but I'll make sure that at least our recruitment drive won't be marred by the likes of you. Don't think that just because you got lucky against Lan, ‘cause he got a thing for pretty girls, and beat up some mid-world trash, you'll have any chance, cyan."

Meanwhile, Thea had completely blocked out any thoughts towards Alex, her mind single-mindedly focused on only one goal: to humiliate and utterly demolish him in front of everyone.

Unlike the previous rounds, Thea did not take her usual low stance but instead opted for a medium one. Lowering her centre of gravity slightly while gripping one of her knives backwards, she mentally commanded the arena to start the battle.

As she waited for the timer to appear and the fight to start, she briefly examined Alex one last time to make sure her game plan was as foolproof as could be.

Alex was a tall, sturdy-looking man with a strong build, similar to Lan’s, that spoke of his dedication to physical training. Thea noted that he’d likely be around a 4 in Strength, based on his physical appearance alone.

His broad shoulders and well-defined muscles conveyed power and overwhelming confidence. He had a well-defined, chiselled jawline that he kept slightly elevated, giving the impression that he was perpetually looking down on people around him.

If not for his insufferable attitude and demeanour, most might have even called him handsome, speaking strictly from a physical perspective.

For Thea, however, the only interesting point of her examination was the reveal that her game-plan was likely going to work without a hitch.

The only unknown factor was his Ability, but based on the small bit of information she had gleaned from overhearing his and Lan’s conversation after her battle with Lan, she figured it couldn’t be worse than Lan’s. She also planned to end the fight quickly anyway, so she figured that Alex’s Ability was not going to come into play either way.

Finally, the holographic countdown appeared in front of Thea.

She focused her attention fully on Alex, her body filling with adrenaline in anticipation of finally releasing her stored-up anger. Coiled like a spring, Thea awaited the inevitable start of the fight.

As the buzzer rang, Thea immediately activated her System Ability.

'Sensory Overdrive.'

With time slowing down around her, she rapidly analysed Alex's initial movement.

As she had expected, he was the hyper-aggressive type. Alex was already primed to rush towards her at full speed, his right leg pushing him hard off the ground in her direction.

Thea's senses sharpened by her activated Ability, she effortlessly kept track of Alex's every movement as he barrelled towards her. She knew that she needed to end the fight quickly and efficiently, leaving no room for doubt about her victory.

As Alex charged towards her, chainswords revving menacingly, Thea carefully timed her next actions. She had decided to revert back to her undercity style of fighting for this match, rather than use her copied version of Lt. Frost’s style, for this exact purpose. It was not a style that promoted grand spectacle, nor a style that cared about appearances or safety. It was simply a style to kill or severely maim your opponent, in any way possible, as fast as possible.

Just as he entered striking range, she smoothly sidestepped to the right, baiting Alex to forcibly alter the direction of his strike towards her, before twisting her body in the opposite direction, narrowly avoiding his aggressive swing with seeming ease.

She knew that Alex's strength and momentum would momentarily leave him off-balance, providing her the perfect opening.

Exploiting that brief window, Thea executed a swift roundhouse kick to the back of Alex's knee, causing him to stumble backwards, in a fruitless attempt to steady himself once again, and drop to the ground with a grunt of surprise. Before he could even begin to recover, she had already closed the distance between them, knives at the ready.

As she felt the effects of her Ability wane, Thea activated it once again, to extend the duration.

'Sensory Overdrive.'

Turning mid-fall, to intercept Thea’s follow-up, Alex swung his chainswords towards her to keep her at bay, but she had long anticipated and seen the attack coming, thanks to her Sensory Overdrive. Suddenly throwing herself to the ground, Thea slid across the arena floor towards the now grounded Alex, her momentum from the brief sprint carrying her forwards.

Wide-eyed, Alex realised the threat she posed too late, as both of her knives plunged deeply into his exposed armpits, an area that she knew had weaker armour than the rest of his torso, as his arms were still wide open from the attempted swings at the approaching Thea.

He cried out in pain as the knives penetrated through his shoulders and out the other side, effectively disabling both of his arms in an instant.

Simultaneously, Thea let go of her knives, pulling out the additional pair she had prepared before the fight, while using the last bit of her forward momentum to headbutt the reeling Alex with her forehead, further disorienting him.

While her Vitality and Strength were doubtlessly below Alex’s, the sudden action, coupled with his already injured state and Thea’s continued forward momentum from the slide making the attack even quicker, gave him no chance to react.

Thea felt the bridge of his nose and parts of his orbits shatter underneath her brutal hit, her own pain at the impact quickly forgotten.

Just as her Sensory Overdrive ran out, she plunged her two additional knives deep into the stomach of the now lying Alex, targeting his kidney and liver, eliciting a scream of agony from her defeated opponent.

Slightly disoriented by the backlash of her Ability, Thea got back up on her feet with a fluid motion, quickly backstepping from the reeling Alex. From the outside, the entire sequence of events had looked like a single, fluid attack, rather than multiple individual actions, carried by Thea’s supreme control over her own body.

She had decided not to go for the instant-kill, as she had done in all the other fights so far, to let out some of her frustrations. Thea simply watched, while nursing her slightly bleeding forehead, as Alex screamed in pain on the ground before her.

He briefly tried getting up and attacking Thea, but his attempts quickly proved futile, as he was unable to use his arms and the pain from his injured liver and kidney kept him nearly entirely delirious.

“Fu…ckin… bitch… I’ll kill you!” He managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth, between bursts of pain.

With an amused, mocking voice, Thea replied, “Oh? My bad! I thought that was the entire point of our fight here? I was under the impression that we were already trying to kill each other. I apologise profusely for my mid-worlder brain not understanding the instructions completely. For you see, it seems that I’ve already killed you.”

Adding a fake, surprised face to the mix, to further mock the dying Alex before her, she was certain that even Lt. Frost would have been proud of her banter.

Walking up to the profusely bleeding Alex, Thea loomed above him, looking down on his writhing form.

“Say, what happened to all that bravado from before? I thought you were here to teach me how worthless I am. What happened to that? Did you decide that I had too much of a pretty face and ended up unable to pull through? Is this really all that inner-worlders pride themselves on? A fleeting feeling of false superiority, immediately shattered upon being tested?”

As she continued, her voice became more and more frantic, her anger overtaking her initial intentions of simple mockery.

“You’re utterly pathetic, Alex. Lan even warned you. I heard all of it. He even told you straight up. You're not even close to his level, yet you thought you could beat me? Why? Just because you’re an inner-worlder, who has never had to fight a real life-or-death battle?

“You don’t even know what it means to truly fight for your life. You never had to run for your life until your lungs were burning, your legs gave out, and you were puking your guts out from exhaustion, simply to survive another day in a shithole undercity. You never had to scrounge up dregs of food from trash cans or the streets, just to have something to subsist on for the next couple of hours until you found more.

“You’ve never had to hide underneath the dead bodies of your peers from roaming gangs that were out to rape and kill you, just for fun! You. Are. Nothing. Alex.

“Your inner-world pride will amount to nothing, because you simply are nothing. You have no future here, no chances to climb the Corps, no potential. You are the worst of all the Marines in our drive, for you don’t even understand where you’re going wrong, when your friend forcefully rubs your stupid fucking face into it.”

She kneeled down next to Alex’s face, who was glaring at her with utter contempt in his eyes, a quiver of rage and pain escaping his mouth.

“One last thing: How dare you? How dare you question my sacrifices in getting here?”

Thea forcefully slapped him across the face with her gauntleted hand, eliciting a renewed scream of pain and a spray of blood from his mouth.

“How dare you question the sacrifices all of us mid-worlders have made to get here? The sacrifices our planets have made over centuries, to finally be recognized by the UHF?”

Once again, she slapped him across the face, her anger fully taking over at this point.

“And lastly, how fucking dare you question the UHF leadership? Major Quinn? The initial assessment as a whole? 2 years of Basic, including the entirety of the Allbright System? Just who exactly do you think you are, to judge all of this with your narrow mindset of being a stuck-up, stupid cunt, to claim they’re all conspiring to get mid-worlders into the Corps, simply to spite you?”

One last time she forcefully slapped him across the face, fully putting her all into the hit, breaking parts of his teeth and cheek bones in the strike.

Upon slowly recentering his vision on her, his eyes filled to the brim with contempt and hatred, Alex gritted his, partially broken, teeth and muttered, “Fuc—”

Before he could finish however, Thea rammed her gauntleted fist deep into his mouth, shattering nearly every tooth in his mouth and cracking parts of his jaw, as she continued to bore her fist deeper and deeper.

“No. Fuck you.”

With a last, violent push, accompanied by a sickening crunch, Thea put all of her weight behind her fist, shattering the back of Alex’s neck.

A few moments later, as Alex’s hate-filled eyes finally glazed over, the buzzer sounded, ending the first round of the fight. Slowly, Thea regained her senses, as the unbridled rage inside her body subsided.

It was instead replaced by a feeling of utter regret, ‘I definitely went way too far on this one…’

Where before, she had somewhat hoped that the blue barrier was translucent from the inside, so she could see the reactions of the spectators, she now wished the opposite. She wanted the barrier to be fully opaque and not let anyone from the outside see her behaviour, one entirely unfit for the Marine Corps.

Stunned by her own actions, Thea thought to herself, ‘I should have stopped when I was ahead. That was incredibly stupid of me…’

Suddenly, the entire arena turned crimson, as the lighting abruptly changed. Simultaneously, Thea heard the revving of chainswords mere metres behind her, before an ear-splitting screech robbed her of her senses entirely.

The next moment, when she managed to spin around and open her eyes again after the intense bout of pain brought on by the sudden noise, she saw a recently respawned Alex, suspended in a cone of light, mere metres away from her, brandishing his dual chainswords in a clear attempt on her life.

Eyes wide, Thea rapidly backed away from the cone of light. Sure, Alex was a bigot and a piece of trash, but she never expected him to go this far. To actively try and kill her, outside of the official arena fights, was utterly insane. It had been a completely impossible scenario in her mind, to the point she hadn’t even considered it.

Just as abruptly, a deep, threatening voice echoed through the arena from Thea’s left, “Just what in the Emperor’s name do you think you’re doing?”

Startled by the voice, Thea quickly spun around, while backing off from the origin with a jump.

Seeing Lt. Eifang lumber menacingly around ten metres away from her put Thea’s mind into a state of panic. His face and general body language spoke of a severely upset demeanour, no matter how one tried to look at it.

“Recruit Alex Cladion, due to the attempted assault on the life of one of your fellow Marines, you are hereby immediately stripped of your rank and will be transported to the brig for further processing.

“I truly wish I had the authority to take care of you myself, but rest assured that Major Quinn will receive a full report on the incident, with very precise recommendations on what to do with you. Consider yourself lucky that you’re getting off that easy…

“Sovereign, take him to the isolation brig. Inform Major Quinn of what occurred and include a full recording of the entire Practical class. His prior comments before the class started will likely play a big part in her decision-making.”

Upon the Lieutenant’s words, Alex suddenly disappeared from the arena, alongside the cone of light and all of his equipment. Before Thea could process what even happened, Lt. Eifang turned towards her, his gaze freezing the blood in her veins to the core.

“And you, Recruit Thea McKay… Consider yourself equally lucky that his bad behaviour outshines yours several fold. While you did not, technically, break any rules or regulations, as everything that occurred was part of a fight-to-the-death, I trust that you understand your actions were way out of line with what the UHF Marine Corps stands for?

“Trying to prove that mid-worlders aren’t savages by displaying the most savage, borderline torturous treatment of a fellow Marine is not exactly what I’d call fruitful. Make no mistake, the beginning of the fight was beautifully executed, but you should have ended it there. Especially as a member of Alpha Squad, you are supposed to be an example of how to behave, not an example of how to get kicked out of the Corps in record time.

“If I ever see you needlessly prolong the suffering of a fellow Marine like that again, I promise you here and now that I will be sure to return it in kind, before throwing you into the brig and handing you over to Major Quinn. This is your first, last, and only warning you will ever receive about this matter. Are we clear, Recruit?”

Utterly terrified at the thought of being on the receiving end of Lt. Eifang’s fury, Thea quickly saluted before him and pressed out a “Yes, Sir! Crystal clear, Sir!” between laboured breaths.

“Good. Now, get your shit together and prepare for the next opponent. The class has not been dismissed yet, so you’ll continue to fight until you drop. Don’t ever do stupid shit like this again. You’re in the Marine Corps now, not whatever backwater undercity you hail from. You might be fighting to the death, but only a simulation and exclusively for training. Keep your disciplinary actions to a limit going forward, Recruit.”

With those words, Lt. Eifang briskly walked towards the exit of the arena, which opened before him. As the barrier opened, Thea heard a flurry of discussion waft in. After listening to it for a few seconds, her mind was slightly put at ease.

“What just happened?! Where did Alex go?”

“Why did the barrier block out the rest of the fight? Did she win?”

“Of course she won, there’s no way he got back up!”

“What was Lt. Eifang doing in there…? Why did the barrier turn solid?! This is ridiculous; I wanted to see the end! It was just getting good!”

Still shaken by the encounter, Thea slowly started collecting her knives that she had used during the fight, before a tug at her mind abruptly jolted her awake. Once again, she found herself standing in front of the equipment racks.

‘Ah… Right. The fight is over, so of course I’d be reset…’

Feeling slightly disoriented, she sat down on one of the benches near the equipment racks. They were placed for contestants to be able to sit down and equip their armour, but they also proved effective at providing the necessary breather Thea required at that moment.

‘I got really lucky there. I wouldn't have been surprised if Lt. Eifang had thrown me out of the Corps immediately… I can’t believe I was this stupid… I can’t ever let this happen again. I cannot lose this chance, after finally getting here…’

While letting the emotions of the past minute wash over her, Thea heard the chatter from outside the arena abruptly cut off. Being used to the barrier opening and closing by now, she knew that it meant her next opponent had entered.

With a renewed focus, one aimed at providing exemplary performance with no further mistakes, Thea got up from the bench, holstered her additional knives, and walked towards the centre of the arena once again to ready herself for the next fight…