*
It was far too strange, the goblin king could only describe her magic as something alien. Skills in this world have a set effect, a fireball creates a fireball, a sword slash brings motion to one's sword, stats might change the intensity of the effect but it would change the shape or effect.
Lastia's magic that could take any shape, adjust opacity, and explode at will with varying levels of magical energy... Something like that would be far too dangerous for this world.
When the goblin king crashed into the dome, she was already out and closing the distance between her and the general. The general was knocked hard by that previous attack, it stood back up and it didn't bother to run. Rather, it was following its own will, its pride had been provoked.
Its strength adjusted to 650, and its defence to 520. A 30% boost in each. The last skill heightened its senses. This difference in stats is nothing compared to the gap between Lastia and The Primordial One. If she was intimidated by something like this, she should have quit a long time ago. Giselle was born as a tool to augment her own magic, yet she carried on in her place, she came to know love and to give it. Her willingness to face off against The Primordial One was more than enough proof of her love for humanity.
To return back even a sliver of that, she'll plunge her own life deep into danger. A magical girls needs to be courageous, she needs to brave the unknown and reach out where no one has. She has little time before the goblin king catches up, throwing a wave of black light as a smoke screen, she blinds the general and hammers spikes of magic into his body. The spikes shatter like icicle cones, the nature of her magic is physical, it's affected by the physical defence stat more than most magic.
The curtain of black expands roughly to the size of a house, spawning numerous threads of black within. Before long, they constrict every limb. With every pull, the general rips some of the threads off, but the curtain keeps tying more threads ceaselessly. In the next moment, the goblin king crashes through the curtain, its immense strength was transferred into the thread's tension, constricting the general. If the king killed the general, there would have been no point for all this set up, so the threads were limited to keeping it immobile instead of suffocating it.
She thrusts her great sword into its back, in front of the king. The outer layer breaks, but she made her sword multi layered, pushing all of her strength into it while the threads held it spread eagled in the air. The tip pierces through the armour then digs into skin, since the surface area was large a large laceration formed even if she couldn't penetrate its flesh instantly. The sword fragments at edges, then sheds those edges, transitioning into perpetual intervals of shedding and digging. She transfers the fragments to the side, running momentum into it, eventually it turn into a chainsaw as the depth of the sword exploded exponentially. In a couple seconds, the sword pierces straight to the other side.
*Pinpon!*
User:???
Level: 31
Class: hero
Hp: 3100/3100
Mp 3100/3100
Attack: 310
Defence: 310
Magic strength: 310
Magic defence: 310
Mana: 310
Constitution: 310
Agility: 310
The king swings his sword, this time a barrier withstands it without exploding into shards. Numerous large cracks filled its surface, it would easily give in to a second strike, but this qualitative change still served to surprise it. All the broken shards converged towards the barrier, holding up her left palm, the barrier folds upon itself and condenses into a great sword.
Black chains fly off the ground, rising into the sky. They number in the tens, twenties, soon it even reached a hundred. Individually they're fragile like those barriers of hers, but all of them could survive a swing or two. Now they physically impede the field, they're weak to the goblin king's strength but they would fare plenty well against the mage's attacks. This time it's the king's turn to be isolated. She recovered her magical energy from that level up, she was freshly topped off.
Sparks fly as two silhouettes turn into a blur in the forest of chains. Occasionally she'd see flame tornadoes or wind blades crash against some of the chains near the outside. Chains fly loosely, losing all of their tension as they split off. The goblin king must have applied some buffs, it kept up with her and it dutifully thwarted any attack she threw out. Every swing, every thrust, she couldn't even get her great sword to graze his skin.
However, the momentum doesn't stop. With every thrust, every swing, her body adjusts to the 'reality' of this world. Magical girls don't exist here, there's no transforming, nor are there any unique skills. That's why...
No, we can't just stop there. If it's merely stat enhancing skills, then the hero class should grant them at a low level right?
Briefly, she sees other places, other people. Their lives flash past her eyes like film roll, conveying the height of their ambitions in a manner as densely as possible. They couldn't be said to be fruitful, but in finding their own meaning they managed to put one foot forward. She doesn't see the beginning nor the end of their lives, nor can she definitively say the climax was as exciting as a hero's life should be. Some foretell an early demise, others lived to be a cautionary tale.
She hadn't used appraisal to check her own skills, but they must have come from her leveling up. These skills tell of a story of other heroes, of failure and of success. As representative of humankind, they stand at the forefront only because they've been chosen. But being chosen is another way to say that they've been pushed to the very front, standing on the shoulders of the greats. Each successive hero is tacked on with higher expectations, higher hopes and strength. Just as each past hero brings a new skill to the hero class.
For the first time, she doesn't deflect nor dodge around the enemy's swing, she meets it head on in a parry. The goblin king has a somewhat indiscernible emotion well up on its face. Could it be, regret?