Jack had thought he was finally getting accustomed to dueling. But he was wrong. Here he was standing in the middle of the arena for his second solo duel. He was absolutely terrified. His opponent this time was a boy. The boy had a long spear as his main weapon. Looking at his weapon, he noticed a scope on it. He realized it probably had a gun mechanism inside the spear. Honestly, that’s kind of cool. Jack started thinking about how he could take his opponent down. His foe was wearing nice metal armor, with a thin helm. Jack had his sword on his hip and his rifle in his hands. His gun was set-up in semi-automatic mode. The bullets were 5 millimeters 50-grain delta point. It was a new style he was trying. These bullets were special. He had found them in the city, and he wanted to give them a shot. They were a combination of armor piercing and hollow point.
Being in the Academy, Jack was forced to learn a lot about bullets. And he had learned that there are two main types of bullets. Bullets for penetration and bullets for killing. The bullet that kills is generally a hollow point. Its purpose is to smash into a blob and create a big hole. The armor piercing is designed to stay small and break through thick metal. These new bullets: were somehow able to break through thick metal but once they run into a softer material, they will mushroom. Jack had tested it and they did seem to work pretty well. He was hoping the bullets would help penetrate his opponent’s armor. Looking into his foe before the match; this boy was known for absorbing the Earth element. Speaking to Sable before the duel he explained that the most important thing for Earth users is their defense. “If you can find a way to break through their defense, they are useless.”
His opponent was wearing a moderately thick suit of armor, but Jack knew that once the duel started, he would quickly cover himself in layers of thick stone. Hopefully, these bullets help, but I got a few other tricks up my sleeve just in case. A horn blared signaling the start of the duel. His opponent quickly built up his armor while he began to point his lance toward Jack. Jack started dashing sideways while he began firing bursts from his rifle. The bullets did seem to do a decent amount of damage. But his opponent was skilled and appeared to quickly replace the damaged earth. Now it was his opponent’s turn to fire. Jack quickly reached for the magnetic metal amulet Salem had given him. Pushing the mana into it he felt the field appear around him. Whew, I’ll be fine now.
BAM
A bullet hit him directly in the chest. What!? Looking down he could see that his armor had barely saved him. The shell seemed to have ricocheted. Shit, he has special bullets. There were multiple ways to get around a magnetic aura. The most commonly used was to utilize ammunition that wasn’t magnetic. It could be anything. Luckily for Jack, the ammunition his opponent was using seemed to be reasonably weak. If his bullets were anything like Jack’s, they would have knocked him out of the arena. He looked up just in time to see his opponent prepare for a second round. He reloaded the chamber by pumping the spear like a typical shotgun. Then he lifted it to his shoulder and aimed down his scope at Jack.
“Shiiit.”
He dropped to the ground trying to make himself a small target. The ground a few inches to the right of his face puffed as a shell struck that spot. Jack started quickly rolling to the left. While rolling he returned fire. His gun was in full auto mode, and he took advantage. Jack quickly acquired fire superiority and didn’t plan on letting it go. He was pelting his opponent with bullets. His opponent had stopped returning fire and was doing everything he could to not be overwhelmed by shells. Jack had spent a long time modifying the rifle to reach max fire rate. While firing, he slowly approached. The cyber pad on his wrist buzzed signaling he was about to run out of ammunition. He had programmed the cyber pad to count down the final rounds with a loud beep so he knew exactly when to reload. Practicing his reload in his room for hours he had gotten the motion down to an art. With one quick smooth motion, he released the empty mag with his right finger while pulling the second mag out of a pocket on his chest. Quickly slapping the magazine into the rifle, pulling the firing pin then continuing to fire. His opponent didn’t have a chance. With slow steps, Jack continued to approach his foe. Generally, it was not smart to fight an earth user in close range. But with his opponent’s special bullets, it seemed like long-range was more dangerous. He reloaded again. 1 more clip to go. His opponent was down on one knee. His one hand was on the ground and he was focusing intently on blocking Jack’s bullets.
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He was close now. They were roughly 30 feet apart when the ground beneath him turned soft. Fortunately, his best friend was Sable. Sable was an earth element user, so Jack had a lot of experience against the earth element. He had easily predicted this and didn’t stumble in the slightest. He only sank slightly but continued to fire. It was much harder to walk forward now. He was slogging his feet through very thick mud. His cyber pad beeped signaling it was empty and he reloaded. This is my last mag. He was still 25 feet away, he wasn’t gonna reach him before he ran out of ammo. Plan B.
While continuing to fire with his right hand, he took his left hand off the gun. This made his accuracy drop considerably, but he was close enough it didn’t matter much. With his left hand, he reached down to his waist and pulled out a small dagger. This dagger was especially enchanted for this situation. He threw the dagger. Not at his opponent, but at the ground. The dagger sank into the ground. After a moment its purpose was obvious. The ground quickly hardened. The knife had been created to neutralize mana. It was another item he had equipped just for this duel. It was able to neutralize another person’s mana that was controlling an element. It wouldn’t last for long and could easily be overpowered. But now he was right in front of his opponent. He dropped his rifle and pulled out his blade. His opponent stood up. He still had a layer of stone covering his body, but he had thinned it in preparation for close combat. His opponent took a stance with his spear. Jack mirrored his dueling stance and they began to circle. They began testing each other’s defenses. A quick strike here, a feint there. They slowly flowed around the arena. This is incredible. It didn’t feel much like a fight, more like a dance. They were two equally skilled opponents and neither could get the upper hand.
He looked up at his opponent and he too was smiling. They both seemed to be truly enjoying the moment as they laid It all on the line. Jack had been analyzing his foe as they fought and found an opening. When I swing high he ducks and lifts his spear into a guard that blocks his sight for a moment. Perfect. He planned it all out in his head how he wanted to do it. But to his surprise, it didn’t matter. Suddenly his opponent slipped on the knife Jack had thrown earlier. Just the hilt was sticking out and he hadn’t noticed. His opponent stumbled forward directly onto Jack’s blade. He barely struck the blade before disappearing.
“Uh, wait what? No. No. Please no. Don’t let it end like this” Jack was not talking to anyone in particular. He was very disappointed by the uneventful ending to the most fun he had ever had. He just stood there stunned.