[The system notes that this currency has been available since the beginning of this stream]

[The system does not judge]

Kai dodged another shadow.

"Why didn’t you tell me this before?"

[The user never asked]

[The system also didn’t mention it because the user seemed to prefer learning things through combat]

[The system respected that preference]

[The system considers this situation warrants an exception]

---

[GarcíaFTW: THERE’S A SKILL SHOP]

[NocheEterna99: SINCE THE STREAM STARTED.]

[StreamerHunter: "the user never asked" — THE SYSTEM HAD IT AND DIDN’T SAY BECAUSE KAI NEVER ASKED]

[xSorinx: Kai has the face of someone who just found out he’s been walking for months when he had a bike]

[Pedro_Sierra: HAHAHAHA THE SYSTEM RESPECTED HIS PREFERENCE TO LEARN BY GETTING HIT]

[Deral_Bleattler: KAI HAS ALMOST FIVE THOUSAND COINS UNSPENT ON SKILLS]

[User_7741: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ SHOP ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ]

---

Kai opened the shop while dodging.

It wasn’t the ideal time to browse a menu. But there was no ideal time.

The interface was simple — a list of available techniques sorted by cost.

Unlocked ones appeared grayed out.

Available ones in white.

Level-locked ones in red.

Individual techniques: between 50 and 300 coins.

Enhancement of existing techniques: between 100 and 500.

Level unlock: 2,000 coins.

One level only.

Access to techniques that didn’t exist on the visible list.

Kai checked his balance.

4,847 coins.

He looked at the level unlock option.

2,000 coins.

Eris launched another shadow.

Kai threw himself to the ground, opened the shop with his partially functioning left arm, and selected: Level Unlock — Level 2.

---

[Processing...]

[Cost: 2,000 Interdimensional Gold Coins]

[Remaining balance: 2,847]

[Level 2 unlocked]

[New techniques available: 7]

[The system recommends reviewing the list]

[The system also notes that this would have been useful several days ago]

[The system does not judge. But it notes.]

Kai reviewed the seven new techniques from the ground as he stood up.

Six were variations of things he already did — formalized versions of movements he’d developed in combat, now with names and structure.

The seventh was different.

Resonant Impact — 800 coins

Concentrates the force of a strike into the target’s vibration frequency. Damage propagates internally instead of externally. Effective against targets with high surface density or passive physical barriers.

Kai looked at his suspended right arm.

Looked at Eris.

Propagates damage internally. Not on the surface.

Vampires’ physical barrier stops external damage. Internally is different.

The heart method works because it’s sustained pressure. This would work as a single strike.

He stood up.

"Give me a second," he said to Eris.

Eris looked at him.

"What?"

Kai bought the technique.

---

[Resonant Impact — acquired]

[Remaining balance: 2,047]

[System integrating technique]

[The system notes that Kai has sufficient technical foundation to execute it immediately]

[The system also notes that this makes him feel a little silly]

"Yeah," Kai said quietly, looking at his own hands. "Me too."

---

[GarcíaFTW: "ME TOO" — KAI ADMITTED HE FEELS SILLY]

[NocheEterna99: for buying a technique instead of learning it in combat]

[StreamerHunter: Kai has an honor code about learning things by fighting and just broke it out of necessity. THAT’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.]

[xSorinx: the system said "this makes him feel a little silly" AND KAI AGREED]

[Pedro_Sierra: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) but he’ll use it anyway ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

[Deral_Bleattler: "give me a second" in the middle of a fight to buy a skill. KAI.]

---

Eris had been watching him the whole time.

"Who are you talking to?"

"The system."

"What system?"

"The broadcast one." Kai closed the shop. "It also has a skill shop. I didn’t know until now." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Did you just buy something?"

"Yes."

Eris processed this.

"In the middle of a fight."

"Yes."

A pause.

"That’s," Eris said, "either very stupid or very confident."

"Probably both." Kai adjusted his stance — his right arm still unresponsive, his left compensating. "Shall we continue?"

---

Eris lunged.

This time with magic and physical from the start — the suspension shadow shooting from her left hand while her body charged from the right.

Kai didn’t dodge the shadow.

He dodged the physical.

The shadow hit his left shoulder — the one already damaged.

His left arm went numb.

Now both arms unresponsive.

Eris reached contact range.

And Kai used Eris’s momentum to turn his body with it instead of against it — a hip movement that didn’t require arms, just his torso and legs, placing himself behind Eris at the moment of her maximum speed.

No arms.

No retreat distance.

Kai used his shoulder.

His right shoulder — the one he’d relocated against the wall earlier, the one that still protested but worked — straight to the center of Eris’s back at the point where the spine and ribs created the closest space to the heart from that angle.

With his full body weight behind it.

And the new technique active.

---

The sound was different from all the previous ones.

Not the sharp crack of physical impact.

It was something more internal — a vibration Kai felt in his own shoulder propagate forward through Eris’s body like a wave through water.

Eris stopped.

Completely.

She didn’t stagger back.

She didn’t fall.

She stopped — the kind of total pause a system makes when it receives an input it has no response for.

Three seconds.

The rank markings on her hands stopped glowing.

Kai’s arms came back — the suspension effect cut off when Eris’s magic was interrupted.

Eris fell to her knees.

Kai stepped back and waited.

---

[NocheEterna99: SHE FELL TO HER KNEES]

[GarcíaFTW: RESONANT IMPACT. IT WORKED.]

[StreamerHunter: he used his shoulder because his arms weren’t responding. IMPROVISED WITH WHAT HE HAD.]

[xSorinx: the suspension effect cut off when Eris’s magic was interrupted. Kai got his arms back right after he didn’t need them.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ RESONANT IMPACT ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Deral_Bleattler: no arms. With his shoulder. HE WON WITH HIS SHOULDER.]

[User_7741: ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ]

---

Eris took her time getting up.

Longer than the S-ranks.

Shorter than a human would have taken.

When she did, she had the posture of someone assessing whether her body was responding as it should or if there was something to process first.

"Internal impact," she said.

"Yes."

"I hadn’t seen it before."

"Neither had I." Kai looked at his own hands — his arms responding again, his shoulder protesting, his side the same as before.

"Technically I just learned it."

Eris looked at him.

"You just learned that technique?"

"Bought it, rather." Kai lowered his hands. "It’s not the same. I know how it feels to use it, but I don’t understand it yet."

Eris processed this.

"You’re strange," she said.

"I get that a lot."

Eris looked down the hallway toward the main chamber where the sound of Serah and Lira’s fight kept coming — less frequent now, heavier, the rhythm of two things that have been going a long time and are starting to seek the endpoint.

"Go," Eris said.

Kai looked at her.

"I’ll recover," she said, answering the question he hadn’t asked.

"I’m a vampire. I always recover." A pause. "But Serah doesn’t have that advantage."

Kai nodded.

He started walking toward the main chamber.

"Kai."

He turned.

Eris was looking at him with eyes that had changed twice during the fight and now held something that hadn’t been there at the start.

"The technique," she said. "When you truly understand it, it will be different."

Kai looked at her for a second.

"I know."

He kept walking.

---

[System — notification]

[Current viewers: 2,100,000]

[The system notes that Kai defeated an S+ vampire with his shoulder]