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The second she turned away from him, Ike charged. He lifted his sword high, sending his last pulse of mana into the churning storm clouds. The clouds crackled, and then bright light flashed forth.

BOOM!

In the same moment, light and sound struck, landing squarely on Ike\'s blade. The force of the blow propelled the sword forward. Letting the lightning\'s strength course through him, Ike swept the sword in a horizontal slash.

Strands of hair flew on the air. A sharp crack! rang out.

Rosamund stumbled. She reached up, up toward her neck, and found nothing.

From the floor, her head stared at him. Lightning zapped from his body, grounding on the earth all around. His blackened blade pointed at the floor, the edge a charred mess.

She trembled. Her eyes blinked desperately, her mouth moving soundlessly. At last, she found words. "What did you do? What did you do?"

"Tricked you." With an exhausted, pained grin, Ike lifted his shirt, showing her his unbroken skin, save the blood from her own strike earlier. The entrails he\'d tossed had been the wolf\'s, not his.

Rosamund screamed. Her body thrashed uncoordinatedly. Despite her detached head, it still moved.

Ike clicked his tongue. Not good. I spent everything on that attack. I cut her head off, but who could\'ve foreseen that it wouldn\'t kill her? I can\'t fight anymore, and my mana\'s almost run out. I\'m not even sure I can count on my healing skill.

His flesh burned. Thin, arcing marks bit through his skin, themselves shaped like lightning bolts. His hand clenched the sword. He didn\'t look at it. Burning, searing pain throbbed from his arm, but he couldn\'t feel his hand itself. It was nothing. A numb ball of pins and needles.

He eyed Rosamund\'s headless body warily. The way it thrashed as she screamed, she obviously still had some measure of control over it. Not perfect control, not yet. But that was the key word: yet. As soon as she figured out how to control it, he\'d be dead. I have to deal with this situation. Now.

Ike stilled. Time seemed to slow. He looked from the head to the body and back again, calculating. One last strand of mana circulated in his core. His skills stuttered, going cold one at a time as he cut them down to the bare minimum. Ike knelt, bracing his hands against the ground. His ankles lifted off the ground.

"Die!" Rosamund screamed. The body thrashed. It staggered toward him, limbs flailing.

Ike burst off. Lightning flickered around his ankles. He sprinted toward the body.

The body jumped in front of him. Its limbs still uncoordinated, it reached for him as he closed in.

Purple light flashed. Ike dodged to the side, veering around the body. He reached the head in a heartbeat and planted his left foot beside it.

For a split second, the old Rosamund shone through. She gave him an aghast look, taken aback. "Don\'t you dare—"

Crack! Ike punted the head off the boulder with all his might, sending it flying across the Abyss.

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Rosamund screamed, her voice fading as she flew away.

Without the head to provide eyesight, the body froze. It moved slowly, groping around. The torn pink skirt flapped around, stained black from the body\'s black fluids. Ike watched it, arms crossed.

I bought time, but I still need to deal with this. What do I do? Bury it? Crush it to dust? Melt it?

The wolf pelt caught his attention. Ike gazed at it, pressing his lips together. When it came to the wolf, he\'d harvested everything, even the entrails. Resources were limited in the Abyss. Throwing away such a vast quantity of resources would be beyond stupid. The armored skin, if he could process it, would give him weapons and potentially armor. The black liquid had sticky qualities, and could potentially be used as a glue or binder. Together, he had a near-infinite supply of sharp tools, as long as he could figure out how to process it.

He walked up behind it. Dodging a blind swing, he placed his free hand\'s fingertips on the body\'s back. Ike sent a pulse of mana into the body.

Mana answered his call. Startled, Ike leaped back. He looked at his hand. Not just some mana, but a sea of it. Enough to fill his core, and then some. Sloshing around inside the body. The black liquid? He backed up, getting a better angle on the cracks in the body to see it more clearly.

The body whipped around and slashed at the air where he\'d been. It staggered forward blindly, swiping viciously at the air. Ike walked away, letting it thrash. The black liquid splashed against its insides, filled to the exact level he\'d sensed when he\'d touched it.

That confirms it. The black liquid is full of mana.

Rosamund let out a frustrated scream from the distance. "Let me hit you!"

Ike clenched his hand, still feeling the warmth of the mana. Forget tools. If I get that mana, I get magic again!

He watched the body flail back and forth. His hand ached, breaking his concentration. He rubbed his forehead, forcing himself to concentrate.

The body had mana, but how did he extract it? Usually, he absorbed it by breathing, but… He eyed the neck of the porcelain body. I could put my mouth on that, but somehow, I feel like that\'s a bad idea. Plus, the mana wasn\'t dispersed in the air, but clumped up in the thick, black liquid inside the body. I can\'t breathe that in.

If I could get the black liquid out of the body and boil it… Ike put his hand on his chin. He eyed the body flailing around. The problem is how to remove the liquid from the body.

Do any of my skills help? I don\'t think so, but let\'s check.

[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Abyss Dweller]]

Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | … | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 5

Common: All-Around Runner Lvl 5 | Razor Handling Lvl 9 | Spear Handling Lvl 3 | Axe Handling Lvl 4 | Sword Handling Lvl 4 | Primitive Crafting Lvl 5

Bronze: Sensory Enhancement Lvl 4 | Mana Manipulation Lvl 2

Rare: Salamander Healing Lvl 8 | River-Splitting Sword Lvl 3

Unique: Lightning Dash Lvl 8 | Lightning Grasp Lvl 5 | Lightning Clad (Forearm) Lvl 3 | Lightning Clad (Calf) Lvl 2 | Lightning Caller Lvl 1

A new skill? Interesting. Lightning Caller? What does that do?

Lightning Caller

Call lightning from the sky to strike yourself. Prerequisite: Stormy weather. Backlash attack.

Oh. It gave me a skill for striking myself with lightning? I guess that\'s fair. Backlash attack… He glimpsed at his hand. Blackened flesh, flaking off to reveal red muscle beneath. He unfeelingly clenched the sooty remnants of his sword, unable to release it even if he wanted to. The blade was a network of cracks and gaps. Bits of it broke off entirely, dangling like a hangnail. Rather than shattering, it clung together even in such bad shape, its organic nature shining through.

His eyes drifted back down to his hand, the ball of burns and tight flesh. He tensed. For a moment, the pain intensified, growing so strong that it overwhelmed all thought.

Ike dragged his eyes away and forced himself to put it to the back of his mind again. If I don\'t think about it, it doesn\'t hurt. Don\'t think about it. It won\'t hurt. Don\'t think, don\'t think…

The pain slowly faded. At last, he took a deep breath, able to think on again. Pain still throbbed from his hand, but it didn\'t hurt so badly as to overwhelm everything.

He looked over the list again. Primitive Crafting went up, too, and All-Around Runner. The running one I understand. Primitive Crafting…does breaking down the monsters count as \'crafting\' for the System? I guess it kind of makes sense, kind of.

His eyes lifted to the top of the list, where Abyss Dweller had replaced Salamander Slayer. He frowned. Still no idea what that does. That title, or whatever it is. Maybe it\'s just a descriptive.

Sighing, he wiped his brow with his good hand. None of those skills did much for extracting fluid from an animate doll-like body. So what do I do now?