Time moved like honey.
Alex watched the Tunnel Worm's massive body coiling for its final strike, its circular maw already positioning to engulf Marcus's unconscious form. Sarah's ice barrier was cracking under the creature's weight. Tom was shouting something, but the words felt distant and unimportant.
In his mind, Marcus's Lightning Slash played on repeat.
Not like a memory – memories were fuzzy, incomplete, filtered through emotion and adrenaline. This was different. This was perfect. Every micro-movement preserved in crystalline detail. The way Marcus's left foot shifted to anchor his stance. How his shoulders rotated to generate torque. The precise angle of the blade as it cut through the air.
Combat Data Playback - Lightning SlashEstimated Success Rate: 34.7%Warning: User Lacks Required Physical ConditioningProceed? Y/N
Alex's body was already moving before his conscious mind caught up.
There was a piece of rebar on the tunnel floor – probably part of the original subway construction, rusted and bent but still solid. His hand closed around it without thought, muscle memory that wasn't his own guiding the movement.
The Tunnel Worm's sensory clusters swiveled toward him as he stepped into its peripheral vision. For a split second, the creature seemed almost confused. What could this fragile F-rank human possibly hope to accomplish?
Alex's grip shifted on the makeshift weapon, fingers finding the balance point with impossible precision. His stance widened exactly as the data instructed. Left foot anchored, shoulders squared, weight distribution optimal for maximum power transfer.
The technique unfolded in his mind like a blueprint.
Step 1: Initial positioning - foot placement at 45-degree angle for maximum leverage
Alex's body moved without conscious input, every movement flowing from the archived data playing in his head.
Step 2: Power generation - rotation begins in the core, transfers through shoulders and arms
The Tunnel Worm's attention was fully on him now. Its massive head swiveled away from Marcus's prone form, sensing a new threat. Or what it thought was a threat.
Step 3: Strike initiation - blade acceleration must begin 0.73 seconds before optimal contact point
The rusted rebar felt different in Alex's hands. Not like a piece of scrap metal, but like an extension of his will. The weight, the balance, the way it cut through the air – everything felt right in a way that made no sense.
Step 4: Contact - maintain blade trajectory through target, do not slow until full extension
Lightning Slash.
Alex's body exploded into motion with speed that shouldn't have been possible for an F-rank Awakened. The rebar became a silver blur, cutting through the phosphorescent air with surgical precision.
But it wasn't just fast. It was perfect.
The improvised blade found the exact spot Marcus had been targeting – a gap in the creature's chitinous armor where two segments met. The point that the Combat Data Archive had identified as structurally weak.
The impact sent shockwaves up Alex's arms, but he rode them out exactly as the technique demanded. Full extension, follow-through complete, power transfer maximized.
The Tunnel Worm's screech turned into something else. Something shocked and pained and very, very surprised.
Black ichor fountained from the wound, spraying across the tunnel walls in a pattern that Alex's enhanced perception catalogued automatically. The creature's massive body convulsed, its segmented form writhing as it tried to process what had just happened.
How had the weak one hurt it? How had the prey become predator?
"Holy shit," Tom breathed from somewhere behind Alex. "Did he just...?"
"That's impossible," Sarah whispered, her ice barrier forgotten as she stared at Alex's still-extended stance.
The Tunnel Worm was dying. Alex could see it in the way its movements were becoming erratic, less coordinated. The strike had severed something vital – not immediately fatal, but the creature was bleeding out fast.
Combat Data Archive - New Entry RecordedLightning Slash (Improvised Weapon) - Proficiency: 38%Note: Technique adapted successfully to available materials
Alex stared at the AR text floating in his peripheral vision, the rebar still clutched in his hands. The technique had worked. Somehow, impossibly, it had actually worked.
But the success rate had been less than thirty-five percent. And he'd been using a piece of rusted metal against a creature that could shrug off military-grade explosives.
So why was he still alive?
"Alex." Marcus's voice was strained but conscious. "What the hell did you just do?"
Alex turned toward his friend, seeing the confusion and something like fear in Marcus's eyes. Around them, the tunnel had gone quiet except for the Tunnel Worm's dying gasps and the steady drip of phosphorescent water.
"I..." Alex started, then stopped. How could he explain something he didn't understand himself? How could he tell them about the Combat Data Archive, about techniques playing in his head like instructional videos, about knowing things he'd never learned?
System Initialization CompleteWelcome to Combat Data ArchiveCurrent Archive: 1 technique storedAvailable Storage: 2 slots remaining
The text appeared in his AR display with a soft chime that only he could hear. Like a computer booting up for the first time, presenting its user interface to someone who'd never imagined it existed.
"Alex," Sarah said carefully, like she was talking to a spooked animal. "F-rank Awakened don't move like that. They don't hit like that. And they definitely don't take down D-rank monsters with improvised weapons."
Alex looked down at the rebar in his hands. It was just a piece of rusted metal again, the weight feeling wrong and awkward. Whatever had happened, whatever had made him capable of Marcus's technique, it was already fading.
But the knowledge remained. The perfect memory of every movement, every angle, every micro-adjustment that had made Lightning Slash possible.
"I don't know," Alex said quietly, and it was the truth. "I really don't know."
Marcus pushed himself up from the tunnel floor, wincing but functional. His eyes never left Alex's face.
"That was my technique," he said. "Lightning Slash. I've been working on it for two years, and I still can't get it right every time. But you just... you did it perfectly."
"Maybe I've watched you practice it enough times that—"
"No." Marcus's voice was firm. "Watching and doing are completely different things. What you just did... that's not something you learn by observation."
The tunnel fell silent except for the Tunnel Worm's final death rattles. Four pairs of eyes stared at Alex, waiting for an explanation he couldn't give.
Because the truth was impossible. F-rank Awakened didn't develop new abilities. The classification system had been tested and verified millions of times over five years. Once F-rank, always F-rank.
Except Alex had just violated that fundamental law of the awakened world.
And deep in his mind, the Combat Data Archive was already scanning for new techniques to record.
To be continued...