Telos Karma Meta Gacha

A/N: So apparently, I'm just really dumb. So double chapter today. My dumbass brain skipped over two chapters, so yeah.

-----

[Hajime POV]

Ugh! My stomach hurts so much.

She punched me once, and I'm already like this.

I forgot the most important thing about fighting: being able to take a hit. Luckily, I can rectify that, but that means standing up now.

Pushing myself up, I was in a crouched position before I felt a pain erupt from my side.

I'm immediately tumbling once again.

Looking back at where I was, I see Yasaka standing there with her leg where I previously was. I know it's a test, but come on!

As I kept trying to stand up, Yasaka kept following me. Just when I was about to stand up, she blurred forward, sending me back down a few meters away.

After over a dozen more attacks, I was panting heavily. Yasaka had moved farther away this time before stopping.

"Is this all Hajime? You asked to be a bounty hunter, did you not? This is what the job entails—fighting with your life on the line against an opponent with little to lose. Oftentimes, they'll be stronger than you or be able to do things you aren't aware of. Why are you still here if you can't take a couple of hits?"

Damn it. I know she was taunting me, but it does hurt that she's right. I don't consider myself invincible; that much is evident from this test. What hurts most is that I barely lasted a single attack.

Had this been an actual fight to the death against an enemy as strong as her, I wouldn't even know what happened. She's toying with me, but there isn't anything I can do about it.

Pushing myself up again, I'm surprised she doesn't immediately knock me down again.

It seems like she's giving me a chance to show what I can do.

-----

[Yasaka POV]

I wasn't sure what to do when Hajime asked to become a bounty hunter. I promised his parents that I'd keep him safe, but letting him risk his life is the antithesis of that.

Despite the risks, I felt like if I didn't let him go, he'd do something crazier.

Seeing his current abilities proved that I was right to think that.

In less than a week, he, someone with no supernatural strength, is already about to reach mid-class.

While there are some outliers, such as the gods and angels who were born with most of their strength or individuals like the current Lucifer and Beelzebub, few can say they have become this strong in such a short time.

Those with Longinus might be comparable, they usually awaken it during stressful moments, causing them to reach high-class temporarily. Even afterward, they typically rely on their Longinus for their strength. Though they might have other abilities, they will always default to using their Longinus, like how Kitsune will default to foxfire for their attacks.

While Hajime mentioned he was sure this was due to sacred gear, how he talked about it makes me believe it wasn't specifically about his lightning magic. If it were, he'd likely have mentioned it.

The way he discusses it makes me believe it might be a Longinus, but what I know makes that impossible. My information network already told me the church found the wielder of Zenith Tempest, and none of the others are related to lightning.

Maybe Annihilation Maker or Innovate Clear, but one creates monsters and the other a pocket dimension. I can't sense any other living beings or spatial fluctuations.

It doesn't matter what it is, but his confidence in his words about helping Yokai didn't sound like bluster.

Kids are known for exaggerating, but I couldn't see what he said as anything other than the truth, at least in his eyes, it was.

While I might have been harsh, using advanced-stage mid-class strength on him, his recovery from magical exhaustion was faster than any case I'd seen before.

Usually, humans with magical exhaustion take up to a week to fully recover. Most supernatural races might take a day or two. Given his parentage, Hajime likely should've taken about three, but instead, he took a few hours at most and immediately started exercising.

I'm confident that whatever sacred gear he received changed his physiology. However, I've never heard of anything that did that.

The closest thing would be something like Boosted Gear or Divine Dividing. Past users could talk to Ddraig or Albion and exchange parts of themselves for a dragon. But I'm not sensing that here.

I can sense a dragon, so I believe that is likely what it is, but it isn't very clear.

Most dragons have a larger aura than what Hajime is putting out. I've also never heard of a sacred gear with a lightning dragon. There's always the chance this is the first time someone has awakened this sacred gear, but I doubt that.

Every possible sacred gear has appeared, though some more than others. It's practically impossible for one to remain unknown for so long. Maybe if a half-breed supernatural were to get one centuries ago, before hiding all this time, but even then, that's a big if.

Whatever the case, I'm sure he is right about being able to help yokai for the better.

-----

[Hajime POV]

I need to get up.

I'm pretty sure the only reason I haven't fallen unconscious is my durability went up without me realizing it. I don't know how. I was exhausted after exercising, so why am I conscious now?

She may be holding back to avoid permanent damage, but she's still hitting with at least intermediate-stage mid-class strength. No other abilities, just raw strength. I should not be okay. I haven't even taken damage from low-class attacks, and she's using mid-class!

Wait.

{ Assimilation Progress : 26% }

Just by taking hits, I've gone up six percent? I guess it makes sense. A dragon wouldn't go down in one hit. Except for any vehicle, Natsu always got back up despite the pain. I doubt Laxus would be much different.

This changes quite a bit.

Pushing myself to stand up, I try not to collapse. My legs are shaking like crazy.

Time to get a little crazy.

-----

[Yasaka POV]

What is that boy up to now?

-----

[Hajime POV]

Let's try some enhancement first.

Lightning Rush

Sending my magic throughout my body, I enhance everything, like I tried when I first got my magic. The only difference was I couldn't use it since I wasn't used to magic.

Now though?

Trial by fire, or lightning in this case.

Charging forward, I move towards Yasaka's position, only for her to move out of the way.

I turn to her new position and see her eyes slightly wide.

Trying again, I rush forward, only for her to dodge again. It makes sense. She doesn't need to take damage, so she won't. That doesn't mean I'll stop trying, though.

I keep charging at Yasaka, causing her to move, but I can certainly feel a difference from the first attempt. It's time to change things up.

Rushing towards her again, I aim slightly off to the side, like I'm rushing past her.

Unlike the other times, she moves only a few meters away from where I'm going past, but it's still closer than before.

As I pass where she stood, I use another spell.

Discharge

Draining my magic like crazy, I send lightning magic in all directions. She wasn't expecting that. While she did move away, the surprise on her face was apparent.

While using a move like that drained my energy, that energy was surprisingly restored relatively quickly.

Rechecking the assimilation, I saw a similar sight to before.

{ Assimilation Progress : 28% }

It wasn't as much as before, but that's probably because I wasn't using the Dragon Slayer aspect. I was holding out on that for now. Yasaka wasn't a dragon, so I didn't need to use it for now.

After deactivating Lightning Rush, I ran toward her, raising my fists to try to brawl with her.

Since this was a test, she would hopefully let me attempt it.

I'm quickly proven right when she doesn't immediately move away, but unfortunately, she's just as brutal as her first attacks.

Whenever I throw a fist at her, she blocks it before delivering a blow, knocking me back.

Closing in again, she repeats this, but I get an idea as it continues. Instead of channeling magic throughout my body, I focus only on my fists.

Lightning Fist

Unlike previous times I used magic, she stayed but coated her body in a white film. Touki, I think.

I kept swinging at her, landing a few hits, though her reaction told me they did nothing. She kept landing her own, now touki-enhanced hits on me, but I guess somewhat unsurprisingly now, I was still standing.

My progression accelerated because of this fight, and I could feel myself getting stronger the longer it went on. While I was exhausted with each hit, I didn't feel like falling over, and though each use of magic drained my energy, I felt it quickly replaced as the assimilation progressed.

-----

[Yasaka POV]

The test is already over, and Hajime has surprised me multiple times.

He took multiple intermediate mid-class physical attacks, used more mana than I thought he had with all his attacks, and even took touki-enhanced attacks without any prior combat experience. Most individuals would need to take a breather since touki can disrupt the body's healing process, but he ignored it and kept fighting.

Even now, he hasn't realized that he won. He's too focused on the fight to think about anything else.

Well, I might as well let him continue. I'm curious if he has anything else he hasn't shown.

He certainly has what seems like a fighting style. His punches aren't random at all. They're all targeted towards joints and vitals, not that I'd let him hit me. He almost hit me with that release attack earlier, and I can't have any of that.

I have an image to keep in front of my daughter.

He seems to be reaching his last legs. I think it's about time I ended this.

-----

[Hajime POV]

Yasaka suddenly moves away from me. Seconds later, a large ball of foxfire is gathered in front of her.

It seems the test is almost over.

I should try that attack, then.

I start gathering magic energy in the back of my throat. As Yasaka threw her attack forward,

I opened my mouth, and a glowing ball of lightning appeared inside.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar"

Like that, I release one of Fairy Tail's most famous attacks. The Dragon Roar.

Lightning surges forward from my mouth, aimed directly at the ball of fire before me. As the two energies collide, I see Yasaka blur away from behind the attacks.

Before I realized what happened, she appeared behind me, grabbed me, and dragged me towards Kunou before creating a mana shield.

As the two attacks explode, I quickly black out, exhausted.

__________

Author's Note:

I really enjoyed writing the fight. Please let me know if there's anything you think I should work on. I plan on writing more fights in the future, and if this one is bad, I prefer to know now so I can do something about it.

Thanks for reading; I'll see you soon!