Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Messi———

“Damn it! Where the hell is James!?” I yelled out upon seeing the waves of people entering the town. Why is this happening right now!?

“We don’t have time to search for him now.” Alsam pointed out. I know that, but his presence would’ve made this so darn easy for us, that guy could probably handle most of this horde by himself while we only need to deal with a few. How many are there anyway? It’s seriously looking to be over fifty.

These guys don’t even pretend to act like they’re here to negotiate, it’s clearly an invasion for more territory. I know that by this point a lot of smaller areas are governed by meatheads but at this point they’re acting like a bunch of warlords!

*Leap* *Crash*

“...Huh?” Before either side could even start attacking, someone that I don’t recognize suddenly enters the fray, leaping in front of us and facing the invaders.

“Tch. That’s actually quite a lot.” The monkey boy that came out of nowhere remarked, not looking intimidated by the small army still marching forward.

“What is happening?” I asked, completely taken aback by a third party. Someone I have never seen before. Looks kinda ordinary aside from the ears and tail. I can tell from his behavior about what he’s trying to do, but this scene looks so ridiculous and it feels like we’re obligated to join in and stop him from doing something so foolish.

“What the hell? There’s only three people out here?” Someone from the other side spoke up loudly. “Why do we even need all these guys? Why am I even here?”

“Shut it!” Someone else in the invading ground shouted at him. “And you guys! Just surrender and make it easy for us! Our leader will be in charge of this town as well?”

“Oh please, don’t even say any of that nonsense. You guys are just a bunch of weak little ants anyway, and I have somewhere else to be, so you guys make it easy for me and leave.” The monkey boy retorted. What even gives him the gall to say that to so many people. Even if one of them probably aren’t as strong as one of us, they still outnumbered us by a lot.

There’s a bit of murmur among the group as they’re clearly bewildered and amused by such a bold claim from one person. No, seriously, who is this guy?

*Dash* *Grab* *Slam*

Suddenly, before anything else could be said, he ran towards the front of the crowd and grabbed one of them by the collar before slamming them into the cold hard ground. Everyone else stepped back in reflex after seeing such a quick and decisive attack that they can’t even react to.

*Slide* *Strike* *Punch* *Smash*

He then began moving into the crowd and began beating down everyone right in front of him, moving smoothly while he swung his fists right into the opponents’ faces. It all happened so quickly that it’s hard for me to follow.

The other invaders began to actually act and try to fight off this mysterious guy that we still can’t really parse his origin or motive. He doesn’t seem interested in actually clarifying anything either, really a huge headscratcher.

*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*

Despite being surrounded by a massive group of people all of them armed or at least seem to be combatants, he easily navigates around their attacks, dodging and weaving with the level of smoothness that I think only someone like James or Kara have ever pulled off.

*Strike* *Punch* *Bash* *Kick*

All the while, he retaliates each attempt on his life with quick and precise attacks that cause them to recoil in pain and effectively neutralize them, quickly culling out the herd with nothing more than simple punches and kicks.

***Swing*** *Leap*

He quickly jumped out of the way as he started to get surrounded by the other attackers trying to close him off and giving him no room to dodge.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Many of them that have guns then began shooting wildly into the air in the general direction of where the guy is, but most bullets seem to either miss him or don’t even do any actual damage.

*Sizz*

“Coming in hot!” He yelled out as his right hand suddenly burst into flames and started to begin falling into the crowd, the flame around his arm glowing bright and growing in size.

*Swing* *Boom*

While many opt to get out of the ball of the living fireball landing on them, some were caught by the flaming fist swinging down onto the ground and enveloping them in flame or pushing them away by the force of the explosion.

*Dash* *Punch* *Crash*

Out of the flaming crater he resumed his assault and started it off by punching someone straight in the gut and sending him flying right into the loving arms of his companions, and by that I mean hitting them like he’s a bowling ball coming for the pins.

*Grab* *Swing* *Smack* *Strike*

He then saw a worn-down pole that fell to the ground from the earlier shockwave, picking it up and using it to hasten the subjugation of this small army that really should’ve been our problem, but I ain’t gonna complain.

“...Messi, do you know who he is?” Alsam asked, clearly quite terrified of the massacre before the two of us. I think everyone else watching from within buildings probably have their eyes glued to this scene as well. It’s a dominant performance that I think only James would’ve been capable of, wherever he is.

“Of course not.” I can only muster that out in a hoarse tone. I think if I knew someone this strong I probably would’ve brought him up in a conversation at some point.

*Strike* *Smack* *Punch* *Kick* *Bash*

It’s looking like more than half of these guys are sleeping on the ground and the numbers of active combatants go down quickly as this monkey boy easily plows through them, having nothing but the fragile street pole going against a large group of armed men with sharp swords and loaded guns. Each second seems to add a few bodies to eat the road. It’s like we’re watching one of those games where you mow down an army as a superpowered human. I think they were some sort of tactical game? I think? Maybe an RPG?

Either way, we’re quite lucky that suddenly someone just barged in and helped out. I don’t even think we should join in and help out, it’s looking like we would’ve just got in the way and be a liability. I don’t think we can even rely on him not accidentally hitting us.

“Help!” One of the lackeys yelled out as the remaining ones standing began to lose their fighting spirit as they realized that nothing they’re doing can even do so much as slow him down. I don’t think the cry for help will actually do anything, buddy.

“Stop it! Do you not know who our boss is!?” Another person yelled out. I don’t even think this monkey guy even actually knows what’s going on, he’s just here for the fight.

“Weren’t all of you so cocky earlier? Boring.” The monkey boy remarked before he continued attacking. Pummeling anyone within his field of vision.

*Dash* *Strike*

Someone tried to ambush him from behind, but he nonchalantly swung his fist backward without even looking and hit him right in the face.

*Swing* *Grab*

A fairly large guy then stepped up and swung his giant sword down on him, only for the blade to be intercepted by being grabbed, completely barehanded. The big guy is clearly bewildered by the ridiculous sight before him, and no doubt feeling helpless that his attack is completely ineffective.

*Swing* *Shatter* *Slide* *Punch*

“Urguh!?” The monkey boy then straight up punches the sword and shatters it before using that smooth movement he demonstrated earlier to quickly close the gap and punch the guy right in the stomach, causing him to quickly collapse to the ground. It doesn’t even look like he lifted his feet off the ground.

With the big guy down it’s looking like everyone else is extremely discouraged to continue the fight with how outgunned they were, but they’re still hesitant about abandoning the mission. Whoever their leader is must’ve been one hell of a tyrant to make them so terrified.

“J-Just you wait! Once he gets here you’ll say sorry!” Someone from the invader group said, clearly having nothing else he can say to even slightly intimidate the person I’m quite sure just doesn’t care anyway.

“By ‘him’, do you mean this thing?” Suddenly a familiar voice rang out from a nearby rooftop. All of us looked up to see the source of the voice and it’s James.

He holds up a decapitated head by the hair, holding it up for everyone to see and soul seems to leave the body of the rest of the invaders.

He unceremoniously threw the head down onto the street and it rolled, letting everyone see it much more closely.

At this point it’s clear that those guys lose all motivation to continue. As if being beaten down by one person wasn’t bad enough already, their leader was killed while they weren’t looking. The invasion, their plan to steal more territory like the status quo has already collapsed. It was all dismantled without their knowledge.

“So. Is anyone going to give me an update on what happened?” James said as he got down from the rooftop and asked the two of us before turning around to see the monkey boy. “And who is that?”

“If you don’t know, how the hell are we supposed to know?” I said in response. This absurd situation is way too much for me to process. “Came out of nowhere and stomp those guys with no damage to himself, crazy strong.”

“We didn’t even get to… Where did he go?” Alsam was about to collaborate on what I said but he noticed that the monkey boy had already disappeared. Where the hell did he go? I swore he was there only a second ago, what the heck?

“...How did he sneak past us?” James asked before shifting his attention to the mooks. Many on the ground and only a few still standing, but completely losing all hope. “Whatever. I need to deal with these guys somehow. You two need to come along and help me with us.”

“Huh!?” I exclaimed in surprise. What are we supposed to do here!?

———Munsz———

I stared at the screen, feeling a bit nervous looking at the log on the screen.

“He cleared that in less than ten minutes? Crazy to think he was one of the earlier casualties in that game.” Scien remarked as she also looked at Homari’s tablet. I hope she doesn’t mind us taking a look at it for too long. “He’s not even registered to be that strong, right?”

“In the bottom half in terms of raw power.” Homari said before taking the tablet back and changing to a different page. “Here.”

“...I mean. He is teetering on top sixty percent?” Scien said, trying to be a bit more generous as she scrolled up and saw the number on display for the top students in terms of raw strength. “Not even a fifth of the thirtieth place, but you know how it goes, we got some crazy tryhards out there.”

“Indeed. Even the weakest ones can still do a lot to people outside the town.” Homari remarked. “...Just to be clear, I can’t really discuss how the rest of you can get access to this information, so as is, you can only ask me and the obvious suspects for the stats.”

“Yeah yeah…” Scien replied while I personally don’t feel the need to actually get higher level access. I’m not exactly a battle junkie or at least have strong interest in the topic. I’m just a normal math teacher at the end of the day. “...By the way, how accurate are these numbers after only one day?”

“The people in that class probably improved a bit by now, just because of how they are. People who are doing missions have been tracked, but it only recorded the max power output they use in the fight. Even in the mission I had you two look at, that kid hasn’t even used his full strength.” She explained.

“As if they can do that, I’m pretty sure they get penalized for collateral damage, so they need to be conservative with their attacks.” Scien remarked.

It’s hella crazy to say that about people who are still students. It’s kinda terrifying, even. Like I know anything that poses a risk is technically optional, but aren’t we looking at this a bit too casually?

“That’s fair. Unless the area was already destroyed there’s no reason to go all out, and I doubt they need to do so to end the mission quickly anyway.” Homari pointed out.

I really do not have anything to add to this. Kinda awkward that I ran into these two just trying to get lunch.