The demon roared in pain before sending her crashing into a wall with the back of its hand.
"Liana!" Her father called out.
Luckily, her attack made an opening and someone manage hit it with a sledgehammer on the leg, snapping the bone, before delivering a skull crushing hit to the head.
The village chief rushed to his daughter who was now standing up, dusting herself like she wasn’t just sent to make a crater in the wall a few seconds ago.
"I’m fine, father," she assured him with a smile. "Are you okay?"
The chief nodded vigorously, his eyes glistening with tears as he cupped her cheeks . "I am more than okay, thanks to you."
She smiled and then turned her head to where screams from other villagers could be heard as demons attacked them.
"I’ll be back, father," Liana took down her father’s hands and carried a pickaxe from the ground.
"Liana," the chief grasped her hand. "What do you think you are doing?"
Liana managed to pry open his fingers, releasing herself from his grasp. "What I have to do, father."
With that, she bolted to help more people.
Nolan who had been watching this spectacle, decided to follow her. Being a new variable he had never come across, he needed to watch her closely.
He walked past the chief with his hands still in his pockets, and the man turned to him with a confused look. Well, how do you explain someone being so composed in such a situation.
A demon had broken free from the others and spotted Nolan coming towards it. It let out a deep growl, its red eyes glistening.
Without warning, it lunged at him. Its claws were stretched out, reaching for his face.
At the last moment, Nolan tilted his head and sidestepped, the demon’s hands flying harmlessly past his side.
He didn’t stop though, his eyes still fixated on Liana who was now holding back a demon with the pickaxe, after killing one. He didn’t want to miss anything good.
The demon, angered, charged from behind but Nolan read it and sidestepped again.
As its clawed hands flew past and the momentum took its body forward, Nolan brought out a hand and whacked its head into the ground, forming a really small crater.
"Ah, I’m slow. But that didn’t change anything, right?" Nolan asked no one in particular. He was afraid the small action would affect the change he had started to notice and everything would just fall back to the usual cycle.
He raised his head to see Liana dealing even more damage, then he let out a sharp exhale.
Just then, the system screen appeared.
[Path found!]
[ Liana Damon (Fate changed)
• Potential: The Unexpected Hero
• Ability: ???
• Fate: ???]
"Huh? The unexpected hero..." Nolan read the words out loud.
The one person who always died, had their fate changed and are now about to become an unexpected hero? That was a twist he hadn’t seen coming.
But was this how the Pathfinder occupation worked? Could he use it on someone else.
He turned to someone else and decided to check out, if he could use the skill on someone else.
He looked at one of the men fighting off the demons and will to scan him, but nothing happened.
He tried again with someone else this time around, but the result was no different from the first.
"Well, I guess it also has preconditions to be met before it can scan a person. Just that I’m not the one meeting them... I think."
Nolan so deep in thought, hadn’t realized that the demon he hit down had recovered, until it surged up to him and slammed a fist to his side, sending him crashing into a nearby wall.
Every regression was easier to weave through because he had knowledge from the previous life, so all he did was to explore more possibilities, hoping to stumble across someone that would break the loop.
Now, that was a good thing and he had to admit, but the bad side of it was the fact that he never came back with the strength, agility or stamina from the previous life.
He could respond quickly, thanks to his refined senses, but it would eventually be useless against a faster acting opponent if he didn’t have enough agility to back it up.
Nolan groaned, slowly getting up as the dust cloud started to clear. The pain was sharp. Annoying, but nothing he hadn’t taken before. "Hey," he muttered as his clenched fists became engulfed in flames, walking out of the dust.
The demon hesitated a little before charging at him once again. Getting close enough, it raised its clawed arm up, about to swing down.
As it came down, Nolan ducked and skidding to the side, cocking his hand back,
"Don’t—"
A sickening punch connected with the demon’s jaw, sending it to the far side. The flames in his hands adding a more explosive edge to it. "—interrupt my experiment."
The demon shook its head and stood up, coming at him again.
"Eh?" Nolan blinked . "Hey, that was supposed to be my cool moment,"
"Curse these F-Tier flames. I thought copying took it to the max. It’s just a simple cloning."
The demon was getting closer when something slammed into it, sending it stumbling. "Are you okay?" asked a dark skinned hulking man with yellow eyes and black hair tied in a short ponytail.
Nolan raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t payed much attention to this guy during his past lives, though he had seen him a couple of times.
He just believed the man was another background character in his prison loop, but to his surprise, the guy seemed to even have powers here.
"Uh, yes. I’m fine," Nolan replied, extending a hand. "Name’s Nolan."
"Cedric," the man answered, shaking Nolan’s hand firmly.
[Skill: Iron Tank (D-Tier)]
[ Copy?]
"Copy"
"Sorry?" Cedric raised a brow.
"Oh, nothing," Nolan faked a smile, pulling his hand away.
[Add to library? Y/N]
"Yes"
[Added to library!]
After getting what he wanted, Nolan walked off, leaving a confused Cedric to deal with the demon. For someone who’s lived a thousand plus lives, of course, he lost interest in making friends.
[¹MESSAGE!
- QueenAura_32: Nolan stop!]