Soul Spark

7 - Cheatcode

“No matter how many times I fail, get hurt, mess up, or even die...as long as I want to, I can always try again.”

“I’m the only one with the privilege to keep retrying and retrying until I get it right.”

“It lets me live without fearing failure or even death. I’m not immortal, but I’m not scared of death. Because if I die, I can just try again.”

Klaus dashed at Zawadski, slicing his chest and stomach open.

“A forward dash.”

Klaus dashed at Zawadski, but the latter dodged just in time, and went for a counterattack. He tried to pierce him with his dagger, but Danny managed to shoot him with an explosive round, ripping his leg out.

“A forward dash with no opportunity to counter. I need to fall back.”

Klaus dashed at Zawadski and the latter dodged and fell back. Danny was prepared to take the shot, but Zawadski’s strange decision making threw him off course, forcing him to miss the explosive round.

“Did he know I was gonna shoot?” Danny said.

“He can reset states and positions. It’s likely his ability.” Victoria said. “You need to pour your soul prowess into strengthening your senses. You’ll still be subject to the reset, but at least you’ll somewhat retain your memories.”

“Got it.” Danny smirked. “That gives me an idea.”

“Hm?”

“He won’t be able to reset if I kill him in one instant.” Danny said, pointing his gun at Klaus. He shot him, and the regeneration round quickly healed the old man’s wounds. “Madam, will you match my synergy?”

“Who do you take me for?” Victoria said, a bit annoyed at the tease.

Klaus continued his advance. He chopped off Zawadski’s arm, and pierced his chest with another attack.

“Right arm. Centre strike.”

Zawadski retreated more. The sideways slash that was supposed to cut off his arm acted as an opportunity for Zawadski to counter. He struck the old man with an uppercut and sent him flying back with a kick.

Danny fired the smokescreen round next to Zawadski, and followed it up with the instant transmission round. He hit Zawadski with the butt of his gun and punched him with a strong right hook.

“Travel round. Melee attacks.”

Once the positions were reset, this time, instead of firing the round, Danny waited. Victoria conjured the gray smoke into a series of concrete spikes that attacked Zawadski from his right side. The loud sounds of the spikes assured Danny's transmission round that he fired at his feet and his blank couldn’t be heard.

Aware of this, Zawadski could now properly dodge them. He dodged to the right.

“Now!” Danny said. Victoria quickly conjured another spike, this one a bit longer, making sure to piece Zawadski’s stomach.

“I’ll need to dodge a bit further.”

The sequence played out again. Klaus watched it from a distance, with a smile unfolding on his face. He figured out his allies’ plan and was satisfied with it. Once the spike elongated and Zawadski jumped back, Danny took aim.

The last round remaining in his revolver was the piercing round.

“BANG!”

With Danny’s loud scream, the bullet pierced Zawadski’s head. His body quickly crumbled down and fell on the ground. Klaus quickly approached it, and glanced at it with a smile.

“Good shit, Victoria!” Danny said, raising his hand. “Come on, give me five!”

“Focus on the task at hand, jeez.” Victoria sighed. She broke a small smile and gave his comrade the high five.

But the clapping sound...wasn’t there? Wait, not even the high five itself happened?

“Come on, quit it! Just-” Danny’s small talk was followed by a shocked silence. The longer spike had pierced Zawadski’s stomach, but he was...alive?

“What the hell?!” Victoria yelled.

“I know the geezer’s gonna rush at me.”

Klaus himself, who had stopped enhancing his perception, couldn’t remember what happened. He rushed at Danny, but was met with a swift dagger attack that pierced his chest.

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“Shit! Captain!” Danny said.

“Reload.”

He panicked and reloaded his weapon. He quickly aimed it at Klaus and shot him with a regeneration round. Zawadski, however, reset that event. He jumped in front of the bullet and took the healing for himself.

“You scumbag!” Danny said. He unloaded the piercing and explosive rounds back to back, hitting Zawadski with both. The explosive round was first, knocking him away with the impact. The second one hit him in the head.

Zawadski dodged the second bullet just in time. Klause was furious, he released a massive slash of soul prowess at him, but it was still to no avail. The slash was dodged. But at least the explosive round managed to hit him well.

He leaned back against the destroyed wall, with blood on his torso. He bore a confident smirk.

“Living...”

“While always having a chance to go back.”

“The first time I used this power, I thought I’d become one of those characters. Those protagonists that gain some reality-defying skill and use it to...I don’t know, get girls, or defeat demon kings to get girls...why do they do everything just to get girls?!”

“It’s not like they’re content with getting one girl either! A lot of times they get all types of women at the same time! They get an elf, a goblin, a half-goblin half-elf, a...a human, a mage, a dragon girl, a demon girl...they’re banging the whole encyclopedia by the end of the story.”

“But I was stuck in the boring real world where there’s only just...girls. There’s nothing wrong with girls. It’s just, when you see so many different iterations of a girl, you start to get greedy! A peaceful loving wife becomes boring!”

Klaus released another slash, and at the same time, Victoria threw a red pen at Zawadski, both of them completely destroying the teen’s body. But everything was set back into place, and Zawadski still rested by the broken wall.

“Hey, at least I started having fun.”

“I’d save, eat delicious food, and load so I can eat it again and again.”

“I’d save, ask a girl out, and load if I got rejected. Which was what happened most of the time...”

“I’d save, call someone a boring dumbass, and load so I didn’t get into trouble.”

“Enjoyment is enchained by consequences.”

”With no consequences to fear, life became pointless...and truly enjoyable.”

Klaus rushed at Zawadski, decapitating his head in one go. He was set back to his place, and Zawadski was just fine. Well, as fine as he could be.

“I messed up, I think they’ll figure out that backups can be exploited to their favor. And Captain’s out of the fight too, he might even be dead. I might get exhausted too. I didn’t include him in the saves because I thought I’d mess up his flow...”

“But there’s a way out of every situation. It just needs to be found.”

“So I’ll just keep trying.”

“Ah, looks like I just need a bit more time.”

“She’s almost here.”

“Hey, does Otto know that you’re a bunch of dumbasses?” Zawadski asked, finally raising his head. Klaus felt extremely offended by that statement. He sent a slash at his chest, but all the damage was reset regardless.

“I don’t know how we’re supposed to kill him.” Victoria said, enraged. “He’s the luckiest creature to ever roam this earth. I...genuinely don’t know.”

“He keeps resetting even when he’s dead?” Danny asked himself in denial. “It’s a soul expression. If we kill him enough times, maybe we can break his willpower?”

“You think he hasn’t died a shitton already?” Victoria asked. “Look at him. He’s smiling. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Since you idiots can’t figure it out, I’ll spell it out for you.” Zawadski said with a smirk. “It’s not like you can do anything about it regardless.”

“The name of my soul expression is ‘Savestate’.”

Victoria interrupted Zawadski’s speech by chucking a golden coin in his direction. It transformed into a powerful arrow that ripped through Zawadski’s throat. Much like most of their previous efforts, it was rendered useless.

“It allows me to save and load, just like in a video game.” Zawadski explained. “Of course, it only applies to whatever I acknowledge as targets or entities, and there’s a ton of other limitations like its range, and there’s only so much time until a save point is no longer active...but that’s all just technical rambling.”

“The best part is...”

“Even if I die, a backup save done a few moments ago is automatically loaded.” Zawadski said.

“So there really is no way to kill this guy.” Danny said, both shocked and scared. “Even if we know what he does.”

“There is a way.” Klaus said. “But it requires a lot of time and persistence.”

“And we can’t spare that time.” Victoria said. “We took out one target, we need to leave this guy behind and hunt everyone else.”

Danny used his transmission round and fired it out of the windows, but his position was set back. He seemed surprised.

“What? You thought I’d let you?” Zawadski asked, slowly getting up. His body was all bloodied, but at least he was alive...somehow. “Or are you that desperate to get away? Be honest. Have you ever fought a soulful like me? Did you even familiarize yourselves with the mere fucking concept of fighting someone like me?!”

“A bit more.”

“We’ll keep our tabs on him.” Victoria said. “Eventually, he’ll give up. We’re gonna lure his squadmates here and kill them.”

“Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to do that?!” Danny said. “We can’t kill him alone, imagine him with the rest of those monsters!”

“In that case, we just wait.” Klaus interrupted their argument. “He can’t kill us, and we can only exhaust him. It’s a stalemate that can eventually result in our victory.”

“I guess we just wait, then.” Danny sighed. “Hey, you don’t feel like giving up yet?”

“What do you think?” Zawadski asked back.

“I think you don’t.” Danny said, sounding a bit sad. He crouched on the ground. A silence befell, as the gentle wind outside howled in the area. It was interrupted by a somewhat sinister laugh.

“You guys really are a bunch of dumbasses...” Zawadski said. And a few moments later, everyone felt a new presence enter the battlefield.

“Captain’s asleep...” Yuuka said, entering the parking lot. “Kouhai, they’re ganging up on you!”

“What I wanted to do all this time was to stall...until she arrived.” Zawadski smiled. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel⁂fire.net

“Send them to the deepest ring of hell, Yuuka.”