Chapter 476: Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice (Unless You’re Me)

The electricity from Reyna’s marionettes tasted like pennies and fury.

I stood there absorbing her opening assault while the crowd went completely batshit. Thousands of students, instructors, and scouts erupting into noise that crashed over the arena like a physical wave.

Did you see that?

He just ate her lightning!

What the hell kind of Aspect is that?

Reyna’s perfect combat stance flickered. Just for a second. But I caught it.

Confusion.

Anger.

Calculation.

Her emerald eyes narrowed as she processed what just happened, her brain already working through the implications. Smart girl. She knew immediately that I’d countered her primary offense with something she hadn’t seen in the briefings.

"Cute trick, Stray Dog." Her voice carried across the arena, dripping with contempt that didn’t quite mask the underlying wariness. "Let’s see if you have any others."

She snapped her fingers.

Four more marionettes materialized from thin air, crackling into existence with arcs of blue-white electricity connecting their limbs. Six total now. All of them locked onto me with those empty, glowing eyes.

Then she moved.

Actually moved, not just commanded her puppets. Reyna blurred across the sand, closing the distance between us while her marionettes attacked from different angles. She was testing me. Seeing how I’d respond to combined assault.

My Protection from Arrows screamed a warning half a second before impact.

I dropped into a roll, felt the displaced air from three simultaneous strikes pass over my head. Came up swinging. My bat connected with the nearest marionette’s torso, and Spatial Cleave activated on contact.

The invisible blade sliced through electrical construct like reality itself was parting for me.

The marionette shattered. Exploded into sparks that rained across the volcanic sand.

Reyna’s eyes widened.

"Interesting."

She created another marionette instantly, replacing the one I’d destroyed. Then she created two more, bringing her total back to six. They moved with her, forming a living barrier of crackling death between us.

I couldn’t reach her. Not without going through her puppets first.

And she knew it.

"That’s your strategy? Hide behind your dolls?"

"Strategy is for people who can’t win through overwhelming force." She smiled. Cold. Beautiful. Terrifying. "But I don’t need to overwhelm you. I just need to wear you down."

The marionettes attacked as one unit.

Coordinated.

Professional.

Six different angles converging on my position simultaneously while Reyna hung back at range, controlling them with casual gestures like a conductor leading an orchestra.

I activated Steel Body.

The world shifted. My skin hardened, muscles locked into place, every inch of me becoming impervious to damage for exactly ten seconds. The first marionette hit me square in the chest with a haymaker that should’ve caved in my sternum.

Nothing.

No pain. No impact. Just the sensation of force meeting immovable object.

I grabbed its wrist mid-swing and yanked, using its own momentum to fling the construct into two of its brothers. They collided in a shower of sparks and fell apart.

Three down.

Seven seconds of invulnerability left.

Reyna’s composure cracked. "How—"

I sprinted at her. Direct line. No fancy footwork. Just raw speed backed by 7,750 Agility and the absolute certainty that she couldn’t hurt me for the next five seconds.

Her remaining marionettes moved to intercept. Too slow. I was already past them, Steel Body still active, my boots kicking up volcanic sand as I closed the gap.

Four seconds.

Reyna stepped back, her hands coming up to summon more puppets. She managed to create one before I reached her, but it was rushed. Sloppy. The construct formed incomplete, missing its left arm entirely.

Two seconds.

I swung for her head.

Reyna ducked. Actually ducked, dropping into a perfect combat roll that would’ve made Braxton proud. She came up five meters away, breathing hard, her crimson hair whipping around her face.

"You’re faster than you look."

"You’re slower than I expected."

Not true. She was exactly as fast as the briefings suggested. But lying is free, and watching her jaw tighten was worth it.

Steel Body expired.

Vulnerability crashed back into my body like cold water. My ribs ached where Raphael had punched me earlier, my shoulder throbbed from the Hydra encounter, and my arms still bore the tight, angry skin from the Arborist’s burns.

Reyna saw it. The way my breathing changed. The slight hitch in my stance.

"There it is." She smiled. "You’re hurt. And whatever that invincibility was, it’s gone now."

She was right.

And she knew it.

Her marionettes reformed around her, seven of them now, their bodies crackling with renewed intensity. The constructs moved with eerie synchronization, surrounding me in a loose circle.

"Last chance to yield, Nakano. Save yourself the embarrassment."

"Pass."

"Your funeral."

The marionettes attacked.

All seven.

Simultaneously.

I activated Kinetic Absorption and let the first hit land. A marionette’s fist slammed into my shoulder, and the force converted instantly into raw power. My Strength stat jumped five percent. My Agility followed.

The second hit connected with my ribs. Another conversion. Another boost.

The third caught me across the jaw, snapping my head to the side and filling my mouth with the copper taste of blood.

But each hit made me stronger.

Faster.

Better.

Rockstar Made kicked in too, adding its own bonuses on top of everything else. Five percent across all attributes just for surviving life-threatening damage. Which this definitely qualified as, given that Reyna’s constructs hit like freight trains made of angry electricity.

I stopped trying to dodge.

Started walking forward instead, taking the hits deliberately, letting my abilities stack their buffs while the crowd lost their collective minds at the sight of me advancing through a beatdown that should’ve dropped me.

Reyna’s smile faltered.

"Stop walking."

I didn’t.

Another hit. Chest. Kinetic Absorption hummed.

Another. Stomach. My Endurance climbed.

Another. Thigh. My whole body sang with accumulated power.

"I said stop!" Lightning exploded from Reyna’s hands, not marionettes this time but raw electrical discharge aimed directly at my face.

Lightning Rod activated automatically.

The bolt curved mid-flight, drawn to me like a magnet. It struck my chest and dissolved harmlessly into my mana pool, adding to the reservoir I’d been building. The crowd went absolutely silent.

No one could process what they’d just seen.

"You can’t hurt me with lightning," I said, my voice carrying across the arena. "Anything else?"