“It’s gonna start raining down from the sky any minute now!” shouted Ashley. “I’m using my lightning magic to activate Infinite Flame! Eat this!” Ashley’s lightning magic flew at considerable speed, and no gorillala could dream of dodging her attack—but that wasn’t the end of it.
“Ook?!”
The other gorillalas around her target shouted in surprise. After the gorillala was hit by Ashley’s lightning magic, its body ignited and turned into a huge fireball. I’d seen this when we fought before. Ashley’s ability, Infinite Flame, allowed her to add a fire aspect to all other types of magic as an additional effect. It was a pretty interesting ability, allowing her to automatically deal an additional damage with fire, no matter what kind of magic she used first.
“He he!” Ashley grinned smugly.
“I’m not gonna lose either!” I turned from Ashley and observed the gorillalas. In almost no time, their numbers had dwindled down to seven. They charged us, half from desperation, but I couldn’t say that was necessarily a bad choice. If their huge bodies collided with Filia or Ashley, they probably wouldn’t be able to withstand it—if the monsters actually hit them.
“Let’s go!” I focused my power in my brain. They say that normally, human beings only use 20 or 30 percent of their brains. So what happened if we used 100 percent? After removing the limiter from my own brain, I focused on my heart. The heart muscle is, by nature, an involuntary muscle. You can’t move it through willpower. Most people can’t, anyway.
I used my willpower to make my heart pump how I wanted. It pounded at an absurd rate, carrying blood through my body at an order of magnitude faster than usual. Generally, for living things, the faster its heart rate, the more agile it is. By making my heart beat faster through force of will, I managed to rapidly increase my agility. It took me three seconds to get into this mode. Against a real tough opponent, that would have been far too much time. I needed to train more.
I looked over at the gorillalas charging at us. Right now, it almost looked like they were standing still.
“Hooah!” I got in close and punched. In ten seconds, the remaining seven gorillalas had lost their lives. I put the limiter back on my brain.
The technique was something of a double-edged sword. I could only keep it up for about a minute before it drained all my stamina. It definitely needed work. I had to improve my cardio even more!
“Wh-what was that just now?” Filia yelped.
“Hm? Oh, that.” Good question. I still hadn’t come up with a name for the technique. Maybe I could pick someone else’s brain about it. “It’s a technique where I remove my brain’s limiter and make myself stronger. It doesn’t have a name yet.”
“What does that even mean…?” Ashley looked confused for some reason. Come on, I’d already explained it!
“The wisest course of action,” said Filia, “is simply not to question anything about Yuri’s physical abilities.”
Filia understood that quite well. Anyway, it was time to report that we’d completed the request.
“Thank you so much. I don’t know how we can repay you,” said the village chief.
“We’ve been paid through the guild. That’s enough. Very fair.”
The village chief bowed to us repeatedly, servilely. You’d think the representative of a village would have a little more dignity. Well, I supposed I could understand why he’d want to pay respects to these wonderful muscles of mine.
“If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be going.”
“Really, thank you so much!”
After we reported that we’d completed the request, we immediately left the village. Our time was limited, and we didn’t want to waste it.
On our way back, I asked my two companions a question. “I’d still like to think of a name for that technique I used before. Got any ideas?”
All right, now was the time for them to show off their flair for cool names! I wanted to hear some good ideas.
Ashley opened her mouth to speak first. She seemed surprisingly enthusiastic. “A name for your technique? How about…Zero Burst?”
“Are…are you serious?” I asked. Wow. She didn’t even have the slightest hint of good taste in names. Honestly, I felt embarrassed just hearing it. I turned to Filia. “What about you? Got any ideas?”
“Oh, I don’t know anything about technique names. Maybe something like…hmm. Super Yuri Mode? I think that sounds super cool.”
“Filia, you’re…a genius!”
“Uh. I’m a what?”
“I’m using it!” The moment I heard that name, an electric shock coursed through my body! She had a stupendous knack for totally sweet names!
Filia suddenly started panicking. “No, wait a minute. I was just jok—”
Well, since she’d come up with an even better name than I’d expected, she was probably going to take out the part with my name in it and replace it with her own or something, all so she could lay claim to it! But a totally sweet technique name like this, I just couldn’t let it be compromised by Filia’s shenanigans!
“Nope, I’ve already taken the name Super Yuri Mode. It’s mine now. I’m not givin’ it to anyone!”
“It’s no use,” Filia groaned. “He’s seriously going to use it.”
“Yuri, you’ve got absolutely no sense for naming things,” Ashley sighed.
“I don’t want to hear a word from you, Ms. Zero Burst.”
“What the heck?! Come on, that one was cool!” Filia wailed.
Wait, was Filia serious? Yikes. I felt sorry for her. In the end, my new skill was dubbed Super Yuri Mode. It was a wonderful name, perfectly fitting for the new technique.