Julian lunged forward once more, accelerating into a blur.
Even with Charles’s foresight giving him an edge, the sheer speed of Julian’s approach forced the mangaka into a desperate, razor-thin dodge.
Charles slipped past the incoming claw, but as he pivoted to counter, a sudden, sharp prickle of static rippled across his arms.
He stumbled back, his eyes widening as the air around him turned dense and ozone-heavy.
Faint, blue electrical arcs danced across the open space between them, humming like an activated fence.
Julian stopped in his tracks, staring at his own palms in mild surprise.
The passive field had triggered.
Under the rules of Immortal Mad Thunder, sustained exertion created an active electrical field around his position, causing ambient lightning to branch out and strike nearby targets automatically.
Julian had assumed the field required a direct physical connection to form, but simply sweeping his hands through the air with continuous output had generated enough charge to ionize the local atmosphere.
Julian flicked his wrist, testing the air.
A blue arc snapped from his fingertips, jumping a full meter through the open space to sting Charles’s shoulder.
Charles winced, rubbing his numb arm as he took three fast steps backward.
“Alright, that’s enough.
I yield.
I can’t beat that.”
“Wait, yielding already?” Julian protested, looking disappointed.
“I haven’t even used the active skills yet!”
“You’re slinging lightning through the air without making contact,” Charles said flatly, lowering his G-Pen staff.
“I’m an artist, not an aerial target.”
He let out a tired sigh, thoroughly irritated by the sheer gap in physical capability.
Julian, noticing Charles’s genuine reluctance, reined in his energy.
“Look, I’m not here to bully anyone.
You didn’t want to fight in the first place, so I’m not going to force it.”
“Let me find someone else to test these moves on.”
“Much appreciated,” Charles muttered, leaning heavily on his staff as the lingering numbness left his shoulder.
Before Julian could turn to leave the plaza, his ears twitched.
A faint rustle of leaves echoed from a dense cluster of trees near the park entrance.
A dark, compact projectile cut through the shadows, whistling straight toward the back of Charles’s head.
Julian didn’t hesitate.
He stepped into the projectile’s path, raising his right forearm.
Clang!
A dense sheet of electrical energy flared across his skin, deflecting the heavy stone projectile and shattering it into powder.
Charles spun around, catching the trail of dust.
“An ambush?”
Julian gestured for Charles to stay back, his eyes locking onto the tree line.
“Step out.
I know you’re standing there.”
A broad-shouldered man in heavy working clothes stepped out from behind a thick oak tree, cracking his knuckles with a sour expression.
“Tch.
Mind your own business, kid.
I was just trying to collect an easy five points.”
In the Culling Game, killing a sorcerer awarded 5 points, while killing a non-sorcerer granted 1 point.
Julian’s eyes lit up.
He had been looking for a willing opponent, and a hostile player had just walked straight into his lap.
The man misread the grin on Julian’s face, his tone darkening.
“You think this is funny, brat?”
“Sneaking up on a guy while his back is turned?” Julian scoffed, taking a step forward.
“Arrogant punk,” the man growled, raising his right hand.
A small granite stone floated into his palm, spinning rapidly under a layer of dense cursed energy.
“You think a little electrical aura makes you untouchable?”
He backed up two paces, keeping a generous fifteen meters of distance between them.
“I saw your little field earlier.
It has a limited radius.
As long as I keep my distance and chip away at you from range, your electricity can’t touch me.”
The man laughed, confident in his strategic assessment as a long-range fighter.
Julian raised his right hand toward the dark sky.
“Is that so?”
Before the man could react, the air above his head went deathly cold.
Julian had been channeling his energy the second the man stepped out from the trees, compressing a massive volume of positive and negative charge into the low-hanging cloud cover above the park.
A brilliant, wide-area glyph lit up on the pavement directly beneath the man’s boots.
The man’s eyes widened in sudden, absolute terror.
He tried to lunge sideways, but the charge locked his boots to the pavement.
CRACK!
A blinding, pillar-sized lightning bolt slammed down from the night sky, striking the man squarely on the head.
The roar of thunder echoed across the entire amusement park, shattering the nearby glass light fixtures.
The blinding white light vanished a second later, leaving behind a scorched, smoking crater in the concrete.
Pop.
A small winged creature materialized beside Julian’s ear, hovering in place.
“Points +5.
Player’s current total: 5 points.”
Julian lowered his hand, brushing a speck of ash from his collar as the smoke cleared.
“Range was never the issue.”