In the vast, open plains to the southwest of Dragonsteel city, two figures were clashing against one another, sparks flying with every collision, following the sounds of metal clashing. Every few seconds or so, a speeding projectile will accurately land on the shorter, and more muscular figure and explode, like some kind of homing missile. The explosions seemed to barely affect the figure, however.

Ryan, who had explicitly told Brandon that he was not going to participate in the battle, was now biting his teeth out of nervousness. He had thought the fight would be simple, with Brandon simply bulldozing through the measly obstacles, but he was very wrong.

The two C-ranked adventurers had put up a good fight and even seemed to be winning against him. It goes to show that a disciple of an A-ranked adventurer was not to be looked down upon, even if he himself was only C rank. They had even managed to force Brandon to activate his ‘last stand’ ability, which was a first since a very long time ago.

The last time Brandon activated the ability was when they were both still adventurers of their home city, Forner, which happened to be the capital of the Adelastor Kingdom. Back then, Brandon had been so badly wounded, to the point where the ability made him strong enough to slice apart buildings. Considering the fact that he only grew stronger the more hurt he got, the injuries he had sustained were not minor by any means. Unfortunately, the boost in power didn’t help much, the opponent he was facing was too strong and he had been put down rather quickly.

Ryan feared that history was about to repeat itself, and seriously considered lending a helping hand. However, being on the hit list for someone who could teleport anywhere in an instant was incredibly frightening, and thus, Ryan only stood hesitantly rooted to the spot.

Ezekiel on the other hand stayed true to his word and was keeping a keen eye on the lackey. Whenever he judged that it was inconvenient for Ryan to step in and help at the moment, he would take a shot at the barbarian, providing some support for Kayden. His arrows always hit with staggering precision, but he noticed a sharp decline in their effectiveness after a certain point. The barbarian was getting stronger.

‘Hmm… At this rate, even the traps I set from before would barely even scratch him. The test has been completely thrown out the window. I wonder how you would deal with this situation, rogue?’

He was currently quite a distance away from the fight, but with his clairvoyance ability, he could perfectly see the situation that Kayden was in. So far, Kayden hadn’t even been hit once, which really impressed him.

“It’s a shame that I cannot help more than this. I have no tier 2 spells in my arsenal…”

Other than clairvoyance, which allows him to see things from very far away from multiple perspectives or angles, and a spell that turns anything he touched into an explosive, he had no other abilities. It made him the perfect artilleryman but when his only way of attack was rendered useless, it makes him no more than a sitting duck.

“Illusion magic is very powerful, but just like me, when your attacks lose their effectiveness, the only thing you can do is run. Let’s see what other tricks you have up your sleeve.” Saying this, he once more drew an arrow from his quiver, aimed at the enemy, and fired.

***

[-4!]

“Tch! Just how thick is your skin?” Kayden yelled out, before ducking from the heavy swing of the axe.

He had successfully dodged every attack made at him, thanks to his honed instincts. There was actually a story behind this ability that allowed him to dodge hits like a slippery eel.

[Honed Instincts C]

Like how the System had described this ability, it was honed and not a talent. He didn’t like to recall exactly how he got it. All he could say was that dodging projectiles from a rapidly teleporting maniac made him pretty wicked at avoiding blows.

The axe was being swung at high speeds thanks to Brandon’s added agility and strength, however, they were still incomparable to those speeding projectiles.

Every swing of the axe seemed to be increasing his momentum though, and it steadily got faster and faster. By increasing the speed, frequency, and distance of his jumps, Kayden was still able to sidestep the attacks, albeit at the cost of not making any attacks himself.

‘I can’t keep passively dodging like this. One lucky hit and it’s over. Guess I’ll have to forcefully stop this momentum.’

The axe slashed vertically downwards onto him, which he gracefully spun away from, causing it to carve a chunk out of the ground. Rather than leap away to maintain the distance between them like he always did, this time he plunged his feet into the ground. Brandon naturally did not miss this opportunity and made a break for it.

‘One should be coming about… Now!’

An arrow whistled by his head, nearly grazing his ear, and sped towards Brandon. Out of pure instinct, he redirected the attack to intercept the arrow, which gave just the right opportunity Kayden was hoping for.

The arrow, just like the others before it, burst into a bright explosion upon colliding with his axe. This momentarily blinded the barbarian, and Kayden took this opportunity to boldly step forward.

“Take this!”

[Critical hit!]

[-21!]

Kayden drew his knife across Brandon’s eyes, which shut tight immediately to prevent the knife from digging any deeper. A thin red line formed on both his eyelids, blood slowly trickling out and dyeing his eyes red.

‘I see. Attacks made at areas where his muscles cannot protect are more effective. I suppose that’s what makes it a critical hit.’

Brandon was not fully blinded by the attack due to his quick reaction, but his vision was still stained with red, and it made things harder to see. In a frenzy, he started swinging his axe recklessly, making his attacks much faster but more inaccurate.

‘If he keeps this up, he will eventually run out of stamina, but it is far more likely for me to run out of luck instead. And if the numbers can be trusted, my mana’s running out too—’

 

Kayden spared a momentary glance at his stat page and estimated that he couldn’t keep his [Flickering form] spell up much longer. He snapped his finger and vanished from the spot again, taking the brief time he got to appraise Brandon.

 

‘His mana is increasing? That’s not good.”

He began processing the best possible action he could take to defeat his opponent. If things were to continue going the way they are, Kayden would inevitably end up the loser, which could spell death for him. Scoring consistent critical hits was also not an option, for if his hypothesis of hitting weak points is correct, the chance of him getting another one is minimal.

From what he knew of the human body, the only realistic body part he could aim for critical hits would be the eyes, any other body part would be extremely inconvenient to get to or wouldn’t be very effective. For example, an ear was soft and could be easily cut through, but losing an ear was unlikely to stop the rampaging barbarian.

Now that Kayden had already gone for the eyes, he was sure that Brandon would keep his guard up for that particular area, no matter how crazed he looked right now. This meant that Kayden had no plausible way to bring down Brandon fast enough.

‘Is there really no other way? Do I once again have to run with my tail between my legs? I just need something… Ah!’

“System! I have an idea! Can you help me check whether or not his abilities have a duration? I refuse to believe it would last forever!”

[Appraising abilities…]

[System scan successful!]

“His ‘Final Struggle' ability has a ten-minute duration, while the one with a long name is constantly active. You have about five minutes before his power starts to dwindle!”

“I can’t last that long! Guess I’ll just have to figure something out!”

From Brandon’s point of view, he was simply swinging as hard as he could at whatever started moving. The loud noises that he made whenever he lunges forward or struck the ground made it impossible for him to hear what Kayden was saying. In his mind, he was focused on only one thing, to end the match as soon as possible

Contrary to how he looked, he was still very much capable of rational thought. His ability grants him physical power, without any sacrifices to his mental state. It was simply in his nature to get very angry at someone who had stomped on his pride. Coupled with the panic that was starting to set in as the remaining duration of his ability grew shorter and shorter, he started to spend less time thinking and more time swinging, making it look like he had entered a berserk state.

After a devastating blow that embedded his axe into the ground, he exerted his strength to pull it out. If left a blackened gash on the ground, the widespread cracks intertwined with the other cracks on the ground that was formed from his previous attacks. When he looked up, he discovered that his target had disappeared once more.

Already used to this, he spun around to see where Kayden would appear next. What he saw dumbfounded him. In the distance, getting further and further away, was his target, running away between pained gasps and breaths. The way he ran looked as if his legs were made of both lead and spaghetti at the same time. Overall, he looked very pitiful.

“This is… a joke, right?”

Even Brandon wasn’t this stupid. He knew that Kayden possessed the ability to create illusions from the time he tricked him into thinking that rocks were gold and was very suspicious of the figure running off towards the tall hills in the distance. It was in the complete opposite direction of the city, which further proved his suspicions.

‘This must be his plan! He’s providing me a distraction so that he can get away!’

Realizing that he had already wasted precious seconds, he roared at the top of his voice. “I know that that’s an illusion! Don’t think your petty tricks can fool me!”

The figure came to stop before turning around to face him.

“I’m not an illusion! Come chase me!”

Who in their right mind would say that?

“I’m not stupid! I know that you’re just buying yourself time to run away!”

“F@#$! You really are stupid! I’m not running away, I’m trying to lure you into a trap!”

“What…? Why would you tell me—No! This is a ruse! You were suddenly acting all tired all of a sudden! It’s a trap!”

“That’s right! What you said. Acting! Do you not have eyes? Oh, wait, I just cut them, my bad.”

“What did you say?!”

“Are your ears cut too?” Kayden now stood rooted to his spot, determined to get his way. “And are your brains pure muscle? Why would I need to run when I was so clearly winning? I mean, look at you! I beat you up so bad when I’m only a C-ranked adventurer. What does that make you?”

Brandon clenched his teeth in anger as murderous intent rose within him. This weakling had trampled on his pride two times too many, and with eyes blazing with fury, he charged, uncaring for whatever potential trap awaiting him.

“Hahahahah! Good! Catch me if you can!” After taunting the bull one more time, Kayden turned and ran.

***

Ezekiel had just seen what went down during the fight and had to resist the urge to bury his face in his hands. It felt like watching two monkeys trying to communicate with each other.

He drew another arrow from his quiver, which had noticeably fewer arrows than before, and aimed it. Before he could release the arrow, however, a voice called out to him from behind.

“Yo, Shoarwdz!” It was followed by a loud clap to his back.

Ezekiel spun around to deal with the assailant, pulling his short sword out of its sheath and slashing backward. The recently-arrived figure hopped backward to dodge the blow, before putting his arms up in surrender.

“Woah woah woah! Calm down. It’s me.”

“What? Weren’t you there fighting him? …Am I currently talking to an illusion?”

“Nope, I’m the real body. His ability won’t last very long, so I’ll distract him until the duration of his ability comes to an end. Meanwhile, I’ll be here taking a break. My mana is running out.” Kayden squatted down in exhaustion.

“That’s… wise, I suppose. Don’t you want to take this opportunity to leave? Even if you defeated them, they might still come after you. Intentionally killing or crippling an adventurer is a one-way ticket to getting a bounty on your head from the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Hah! I’m no stranger to bounties.” Kayden has had multiple bounties set on him by the city Wardens for his multiple crimes. However, he knew that a bounty from the Adventurer’s Guild is not something to be trifled with. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill. I’m just trying to send a message, so no running away for me.”

“…Alright then, in that case—Hold on! He’s charging right towards us now!”

“Haha, don’t joke around like that. Right now, he should be too busy trying to chase my—“Kayden slowly turned to look in the direction where Ezekiel was pointing.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”