Bust Ghosts!

Mana gathered at his hand. It was like a calming flow spread from his brain to the extended right arm and then gathered at the palm, where it then seeped outwards. The gathered energy was a volatile, formless bubble, hovering in the air as more power gathered. Then the bubble of mana was finished and flung forwards, into the Ghosts incorporeal body. The Ghost struck vanished upon impact.

“Hey, you only needed three, that’s one less than before!” Rave applauded. She was sitting on top of a toppled tree that was lying over a small gap in the ground, dangling her legs. “I can also use them way more liberally now with the higher mana regeneration.” John said with a thumbs up. “I can actually be useful now.” “Can ya?” Rave asked and made a sudden jump, squashing another Ghost next to John under her illuminated foot when she landed.

“I always wondered how that worked though.” Rave said, “What?” “Hurting Ghosts with mana. I mean, they are made mostly from mana why does it hurt them?” “If I slap you with a steak will it hurt you?” John asked. Rave looked at him with a confused expression, like he was a book about rabbits that suddenly changed about how the authors kid acquired a liberal arts degree, “What does that have to do with this?” “Well, you are made from meat so you shouldn’t be hurt by it, right?” Rave understood, “Oh, right, that makes sense I guess? Did you have that conversation before or what?” “Reddit discussion about why elementals take elemental damage. Most upvotes I ever got.”

They continued their path of undead extermination for a long time. Very, very long indeed. Usually they had time to farm for about four hours if they wanted to have enough time to get over to Rave’s home and have some fun times afterwards. Which John of course very much wanted to do every day and Rave had complied in, a.k.a. initiated, most of their post training activities. Today however they had started at noon, hurray for no school on Saturdays, and were still at it when the sun started closing in to the horizon. All of which resulted in John gaining another level and be well on his way to the next one. The experience he got from Ghosts started to diminish, he would need some new monster grinder in the future.

John pointed his palm at another Ghost and conjured a Mana Power Attack. The blue ball flew from his hand at the monster, whose translucent body was glowing slightly in the fading light of the lost sunrays between the trees. “You should really try to get a better skill in the future.” Rave said and pointed at another one of the attackers. “I mean that ‘Mana Power Attack’ sucks. Both in name and everything.” A beam of light seared a hole into the Ghost and it started burning from the inside out until it evaporated completely.

“Yeah, I know.” John sighed. Mana Power Attack was one of the worst skills in the history of skills. Sure, it did the job for the time and he could kill Ghosts with it but it had so many drawbacks. First of all, it needed about two seconds to form. Second the projectile was bright blue and therefore pretty flash and obvious. Third it wasn’t very fast, if the Ghosts had half a brain they could dodge it most of the time. Luckily they had no brain at all. “Then have you tried making it, I don’t know, not suck?” Rave asked, a streak of light twirling around her fingers. “I can control light pretty easily ya know? It’s like breathing.” “Well, our powers do differ strongly though.” John defended himself. “And yes, I did try but it didn’t accomplish anything, just like I can’t use Possession on living things. The description says a ‘crude’ attack so all I can do with it is crude attacks. The I.D. Skills don’t give that kind of limitation in their description.” He sighed. “Gaia also only gives me new skills whenever it feels like it, it seems. Seems like gaining Possession was some kind of freebie first skill.”

Rave nodded repeatedly during his explanation. “Okay, okay. Gained any achievements lately?” “Haven’t tried. They are more like Gaia making fun of me though. Just like some Observe descriptions. I looked at a pebble recently, and it had like the lengthiest description ever that amounted to actually nothing.” “Really? What was it.” Rave was curious and she sat down on the tree again. “the mithril pebble of pig-smiting. For you see, long ago that pebble was forged in the fiery pits of Tartarus by the grand blacksmith of Lucifer himself in a time before the world began…” John rambled on for ten minutes or so. It was one of those moments where his high Intellect came in handy, with it he had been able to memorize the whole description with realitive ease. After all it did make a good joke. “And thus, the Guardian of the pebble passed from this world leaving behind the pebble for the Gamer to find. +1 to making pigs angry when thrown at them.”

Rave, unexpectedly, didn’t laugh. Instead she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Did you just rip-off SAO Abridged?” John tilted his head. “What now?” “SAO Abridged, Something Witty Entertainment?” he still didn’t understand. “The anime parodies?” Rave asked differently. “Sorry, I don’t watch anime, so I have no idea what you are talking about.” He answered. He had almost said Chinese cartoons for the troll factor but with Rave being half-Asian he didn’t want to step into a minefield. He didn’t think that Rave was the type to get upset about such things but it was 2017 after all. “Well, then I know what I have to show you back in the tent.” “Again, that is not a te- wait are you saying there is a TV in there?” “With Netflix and Crunchyroll.” Rave grinned. “Okay, hold up.” John put his foot down. “How is there internet on a TV inside a magical container, inside a pocket dimension inside the woods inside a county not that well equipped with Wireless in the first place?”

“We also have Internet inside the Arcade, dunno why you are making such a fuss now.” “That is slightly different though, the Arcade is stationary. The tent, is not.” John really wanted to comprehend this but with Rave he had the wrong partner for this conversation. “Ask Jimmie about that kind of tech-nerd stuff.” She dismissed him and they started moving again.

“I much rather you showed me something else though.” John picked up the conversation again between firing two Mana Power Attacks. “What, my tits? You already saw those and we can agree that they are not that impressive.” “Okay, first off: all breasts are beautiful and to be marvelled at as often as possible.” “Typical pervert sentence, but continue.” “Also, you have like the greatest arse in school.” Rave twisted her head to peek at her own backside. “I do?” She asked, it wasn’t a serious question. John nodded eagerly anyway, “Certainly, it’s very firm, nicely rounded and just the right size to be very enticing to look at in tight clothing without becoming obscene for your body shape.” Sadly, she wasn’t wearing tight clothing, instead she wore a skirt again today, that however revealed her longs legs so that was not the worst of deals. As he spoke he remembered all the stuff they had already done together, inevitably hardening his cock.

“Are you trying to get cute with me, tiger?” Rave asked with a smile and walked over to him. She let one hand rest on his shoulder, the other grabbing for his pants. Wrist pushing against where she felt the head of his cock she gently pressured the sensitive area. “Just being an honest.” John said, his eyes resting on the soft curvaton of her smiling lips. They were so glossy, full and the light pink harmonized so naturally with the colour of her hair that framed her face in the red of the day’s close. She looked up to him, the pink hue in her blue eyes dancing with a dare, a dare to him. He leaned forwards, ready to kiss her.

A cold grip closed around his shoulder and he saw the nightmarish grimace of a Ghost between them. Instant Bonerkill. Then he saw a fist engulfed in a blue aura crush that Ghosts face. “Ya just ruined a nice moment.” She complained and eradicated the Ghost with a beam of light. John was left there standing unsure what to do. “So, want to-“ He didn’t get to ask the question. As the Ghost faded from existence and the sun between the trees sunk behind the horizon a new window opened.