He stood at the mountain's edge, looking down at the celebration below. Then he pushed himself to his feet… and let out a groan that was definitely not dignified.
'Oh yeah, that feels great.'
He stretched his arms overhead, working out the kinks. His shoulders popped. His back cracked.
And without any hesitation, he leaned forward and dove headfirst off the mountain peak.
Just for a moment, he closed his eyes. The wind screamed in his ears as he plummeted. His heart hammered against his ribs, loud enough that he could hear it over the rushing air.
'Time to begin.'
Mid-fall, his daggers materialized in his hands, the weight settling perfectly in his grip.
Right when he was about to hit the ground and become a very sad pancake, his body struck the shadow pooling at the mountain's base—and instead of breaking every bone in his body, he sank straight through it.
It was like diving into an ice-cold lake, if the lake was made of pure darkness. The shadow wrapped around him like liquid night, pulling him under until there was nothing but black.
The shadows wrapping around him, and for the first time, he felt what comfort was. Like they were hugging him. Guiding him. He let them push him forward toward the knight, following the pull like a thread only he could feel.
"Rest for now," he muttered to the Black Knight.
The moment the words left his lips, the knight's shadow rippled beneath it. Its massive armored body began sinking into the darkness—and in the exact same heartbeat, Shiro burst out from the same spot, shooting through the smoke like he'd been launched from a cannon.
He passed the man with the massive sword before the guy even registered the movement. His dagger found the throat in one smooth motion, and he was already gone, the man's confused eyes still trying to process what happened as Shiro's boots hit the ground.
'One captain down.'
He didn't break stride. The momentum carried him forward into a leap, launching him straight toward the archer above, who'd been raining arrows like it was target practice.
The archer was already moving. Mana flooded into his bow, building and building until it condensed into one massive glowing arrow that lit up the entire battlefield like someone had just turned on stadium lights.
Shiro squinted, his vision going spotty.
'Damn it.'
By the time his eyes adjusted, the archer with a smug look pulled the bowstring to his cheek and released it.
'Oh, that's not good.'
The arrow shot forward like a bolt of lightning with a personal vendetta.
Shiro twisted midair, his body bending at an impossible angle. The arrow screamed past his ribs—close enough that the heat singed his robes, close enough that he felt it burn.
And just as he was trying to regain his balance, a shadow fell over him like a curtain.
The brute came crashing down, garnet-studded gauntlets catching the light. His eyes burned with raw fury—the kind that came from watching a friend die.
"You finally came out of that armor!"
His fist slammed down like a meteor.
Shiro's eyes went wide as the fist came down and connected with his stomach like a battering ram—no, worse, like a train made of pure rage and garnets.
The air didn't just leave his lungs. It exploded out in one brutal whoosh that probably could've been heard back on the mountain. His body folded around the blow. And the weird part was, everything slowed down for a brief moment.
He was just… hung there, suspended in the air.
'Huh.' His eyes wandered at a normal pace, like he had all the time in the world. 'What is this?'
Then gravity remembered it had a job to do.
He dropped—fast, way faster than he'd gone up—like the ground was a magnet and he was made of metal. His back slammed into the earth with a brutal thud, and dust exploded upward, coating the entire courtyard in a thick gray cloud.
Through the haze, the lancer made his move. He charged his spear with crackling energy and hurled it straight at Shiro. Lightning wrapped around the shaft, the weapon glowing with a violent yellow aura of mana as it screamed through the air.
Shiro tilted his head to the side—casual, like he was dodging a particularly slow fly—and caught the spear mid-flight.
Electricity shot through his arm the second he grabbed it—white-hot, vicious, trying to cook him from the inside out. His muscles screamed. His nerves lit up like they were on fire.
He didn't let go.
Instead, he tightened his grip and flooded the spear with his own mana, forcing it to submit to him.
Without hesitation, he thrust it forward.
The spear shot back toward the archer like a bolt of lightning returning home.
The man's eyes went wide.
It tore through his chest with a wet, final crack—disintegrating his heart and the entire upper right side of his body in one strike.
He didn't even have time to scream.
The force of it blew the dust cloud apart, revealing Shiro standing in the center of the crater.
His right sleeve was toast—literally. Burned clean off. His hand underneath was a mess of blisters and charred skin, angry red and black where the lightning had decided to cook him.
Smoke curled up from his body in lazy spirals.
He looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers.
'Huh. Not bad.' He wiggled them a bit. 'Two out of ten on the pain scale. Barely even stings.'
His body started radiating smoke—not from the burns, but something else, the similar feeling as when he fought the knight, but this time it felt real.
He scanned his body. His once-shrunk, frail body—the same skeletal frame that had climbed out of that well—began to change. Muscle slowly built back up, filling out the hollow spaces beneath his skin like water pouring into an empty mold. The smoke poured out of him in thick, rolling waves, and with each breath, his body rejuvenated itself.
[Passive Skill: Limitless - Activated]
[You have sustained damage.]
[your body grew stronger]
The familiar sound chimed softly in his mind, crisp and clear.
He smirked, smoke still rolling off his shoulders. "So that's how it works. Interesting."
They stared at him, confusion filling their eyes as they watched the sudden transformation—the stranger who'd just crashed their party now standing completely different.
"Who are you, and how did you get in here?" the tall man with the spear demanded, another spear already materializing in his hand, still crackling with lightning.
Shiro patted himself down, almost impressed. Not a single bruise. The burns had healed completely. Instead of pain, he felt… energized.
'Wait.' His eyes widened slightly. 'If I let them beat me up, does that mean I keep getting stronger?' He blinked. 'Is this like… a cheat code to unlimited power?'