Devon brought his large metal staff up over his shoulders and rotated his trunk side to side. The casual stretches enraged Barry as his opponent looked far too relaxed for someone about to enter a life-or-death battle. Conversely, Barry looked stiff, rigid and extremely nervous. His mind was running a hundred miles an hour trying to think of ways of overcoming what was likely a significant difference in strength and total stats. He just hoped that his many boosts to vitality would be enough to sustain him during the battle. Before he could come up with any real plan Devon stepped and swung his long staff wildly at Barry’s head. Expecting the attack Barry managed to duck and avoid the strike but he felt the gust of wind from the near miss flowing through his hair as he did so.
“He’s fast, and he outranges me,” thought Barry as he shuffled back to give himself some distance.
“Not too bad,” sniggered Devon, “You must have at least put one or two points into dexterity, but you don’t seem overly nimble, I’m guessing your strengths lie elsewhere.”
He’s trying to work out where I’ve allocated my stat points to see where he has the advantage,” thought Barry as he listened to Devon’s ramblings whilst readying himself for another strike, “He knows vitality is my greatest stat from inspecting me, but he has no idea just how high it is, I doubt he’s expecting me to have a stat of twenty-six. I also have a pretty good idea that his affinity is something to do with fire, but he has no idea what mine is.”
Suddenly the staff came flying forward once more, but this time much faster. Barry was still able to mostly dodge the attack but part of the metal staff did scrape the top of his head. Barry rubbed his head with his hand feigning injury as he rolled to the side to distance himself from his attacker.
“Just as I thought, not too nimble at all if you can’t even fully dodge that one,” said Devon, his words oozing confidence as he grinned devilishly at Barry.
“So, if not dexterity then where else have you got your stats? Maybe strength? Maybe stamina? Mana? Surely not manipulation or willpower, that would be unfortunate for you. And it doesn’t seem like your perception is too good either with how poorly you read my strikes,” Devon chuckled as he taunted Barry.
In response Barry just gritted his teeth and stood his ground, which only irritated Devon further. The big man continued to barrage Barry with swings of his staff as Barry continued to back away, moving himself towards one of the large boulders. He sustained a few small cuts and grazes to his head and arms, but no real damage. Finally, he managed to get himself to the boulder as he turned and sprinted around the other side of the large rock. A befuddled Devon stood still for a moment before his face reddened with anger.
“Are you kidding me! Show some backbone you worthless fool. At least the others showed some fight before they died. Get back here and face me like a man,” Devon shouted from the other side of the boulder.
With that, Devon flew forward with greater speed than he had previously shown and turned the corner of the boulder. As he did so he was faced with a flying chain floating through the air towards him.
“Pathetic,” Devon yelled as he swung his staff powerfully to knock away the chain and leave his opponent unarmed.
Or so he thought. The second his staff connected with the pitiful man’s chain it was as if the weapon vanished into thin air. Unable to stop the momentum of his swing Devon’s staff continued its trajectory and landed with a loud clang into the side of the boulder, pushing the large stone forwards a small distance. Devon’s wrists hurt and his arms were rattling from the vibrations. His ears were ringing from the loud sound of metal colliding with stone and he felt a strange wave of fatigue rush over him, distracting him for a moment. Before he could gather his thoughts, he was struck in the side of the head with something hard but flexible, like a whip.
“No, not a whip. A chain,” Devon thought as he turned in the direction of his assailant and saw Barry preparing to strike again.
Devon was able to roll forward to avoid the second strike, but the first swing had undoubtedly done some damage. He felt blood running down the side of his head, across the front of his ear and down his cheek before it dripped down onto the ground, mixing with the water at his feet. He glared at Barry and wiped at his head wound before looking down at his blood covered hand.
“Pretty clever you little bastard, are you able to teleport your item or something? Is that your affinity? Or maybe an ability?” Devon snarled.
Barry refused to answer, he knew anything he said would likely only hurt his chances of victory. He had to be silent and focus on the battle.
“Not many have managed to land a strike on me like that, and no one has landed a second. I hope you are pleased with yourself because that was your one lucky shot, I can guarantee you that,” Devon declared.
With that the big man shot forward at Barry, his staff now pointing forward like a spear, held in both hands, aiming not for Barry’s head, but for his chest. Barry could see the round, flat metal end of the staff was glowing red, and he could feel the heat from it as it approached. Barry knew he wouldn’t be quick enough to avoid this strike, he was going to have to take a gamble that his vitality was high enough to tank the hit. A moment later the metal slammed into his chest and a burning pain shot out from where it hit. It felt as if his skin was melting, but the damage itself wasn’t too severe. Barry instantly activated rapid recovery and swung his chain forward aiming for the big man’s ankle. Devon had clearly not expected a reaction like that during his own attack and he didn’t even try to avoid the strike, Barry doubted anyone had been able to take the hit as well as he just had, let alone counter whilst being struck. The chain wrapped around the big man’s shin and Barry heaved to pull the chain back towards himself as a look of surprise spread across Devons face as he began to fall backwards, landing flat on his back.
Barry dove forward after Devon as he fell, ignoring the stinging pain in his chest. He had already started retracting the chain into his left hand as his right hand formed a clenched fist that slammed into Devon’s head, forcing it back down into the dirt. Before Devon could muster a response, he was hit again with Barry’s left fist that was wrapped in the end of the metal chain, forming a makeshift brass knuckle. The collision of metal on skull caused a large gash to form over the right cheek of Devon and Barry could instantly see the area starting to swell. Not wanting to push his luck and seeing that Devon was beginning to react Barry jumped off and stood to the side, his fists were numb, his chest still burning and his breath was heavy, but he was still in this fight.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
A second later a furious blood-soaked Devon stood facing him once more.
“You bastard. I am going to enjoy burning you to a crisp. You have no idea what I’m capable of,” Devon spluttered as he spat out the blood that had run down into his mouth.
Barry gulped as his opponent’s rage was almost palpable. But so far things were going well, his tricks had paid off, and he’d clearly managed to inflict some decent damage whilst conserving his energy the best he could. Additionally, although this man in front of him was extremely strong, his magic hadn’t caused too much damage and with his rapid recovery skill activated he felt near enough back to full health. Barry’s main concern was running out of stamina before his opponent, and the unfortunate reality was that in order to ensure this, he was going to have to take some hits.
Devon screamed in rage as he flew forward once more with the tip of his staff pointed at Barry. Barry formed his aura chain and held it between both hands. He tried his best to block the repeated stabs of Devon’s staff by angling his chain, but he just couldn’t match the big man in speed. More than half of the strikes landed, leaving his chest and stomach covered in red, round wounds. His body ached and the smell of searing flesh was unbearable, but Barry maintained his focus. Eventually, Barry was once again able to put some distance between himself and his opponent as the two men locked eyes. Barry’s tattered gown somehow still clung to his body as bits of burnt fabric covered the ground. His bare skin looked like he had been inflicted with some sort of tropical disease from the numerous red, round marks covering his body. Devon, meanwhile, continued to bleed heavily from his head, and his chest was rising up and down drastically as he breathed, showing clear signs of fatigue. But worryingly for Barry, the big man’s devious smile was beginning to return to his face.
“You sure are tanky you little brat. Just how high is your vitality? Fifteen? Maybe a bit more?” Devon asked rhetorically. “All it is doing is prolonging your pain, there’s no way you will beat me, you are far too weak,” he sniggered, “About time I put you out of your misery.”
With that comment Devon’s staff began to glow orange as Barry’s eyes widened in concern, by now he only had about ten seconds left of his rapid recovery skill and his health was nowhere near full. He instinctively took a few steps back, put his hand into the hessian bag still attached to his waist, grabbed the health potion and berries and swiftly gulped the lot down to maximise his recovery. He instantly felt the healing properties entering his body, but unfortunately it seemed the effects of the berries and potion did not combine, and he could tell he should’ve just stuck with the potion instead of wasting the berries. Regardless, once done, he threw the empty bottle down to the ground and grasped his chain between both hands in a defensive stance. The metal staff Devon held continued to glow brighter and brighter and Barry could feel its magical aura rapidly building. After a few seconds the orange rod changed colour again, this time to a deep, pulsing red before Devon swung it down powerfully in a diagonal strike in Barry’s direction.
For a split-second Barry was confused, as the distance he had between himself and Devon was around ten metres, far out of the range of the metal staff. But as soon as the thought entered his head it was immediately replaced with a new horrifying realisation as a line of fire flew towards him from the staff. The oblique wall of flame cut deeply through the ground and grass in its path and burned any other grass to cinders within a five-metre radius. Barry didn’t have time to react, didn’t have time to think before the flame was upon him. It slammed into his body and cut a deep gash from his right shoulder to just above his left hip. His skin and flesh that was hit by the flame opened like filleted meat and a couple of Barry’s ribs were now visible through the open wound. Blood sprayed outwards from the site, but ceased as quickly as it appeared as his flesh was seared from the heat. Barry’s health was instantly drained by more than half, leaving less than twenty percent remaining. The pain was unimaginable, and he stumbled down to his knees, scraping at his chest aimlessly in a helpless attempt to ease the pain. After a moment of struggle Barry looked up and saw the figure of Devon walking towards him.
Barry willed himself to move despite the pain. He forced himself to his feet and summoned his illusion chain in his free left hand. Devon looked a little surprised, but not overly worried, clearly having taken the advantage in the battle.
“Full of tricks aren’t you runt. Go ahead, make a million chains, it won’t make any difference. I’m impressed you’re still alive after that attack, you must have put basically all your points into vitality, a futile decision,” Devon growled.
Barry looked and saw that the staff was now back to its original colour.
“It must be a one-time use ability like mine,” he thought, now realising that he still had his new skill heavy fortification available to use and mentally slapping himself for not having the foresight to use it for that last attack.
Barry waited until Devon stepped forward and for nearly the first time in the fight he attacked first, swinging wildly with his left chain. Devon casually raised his staff to block the strike but was surprised to see that the chain continued through his weapon and towards his head. Not expecting this outcome Devon flinched and ducked as the illusionary chain continued its trajectory harmlessly overhead. But this gave time for Barry to strike with his aura chain, landing another heavy blow, this time to Devon’s side. Devon winced in pain as his breath was knocked out of him. During this time Barry had reached down into his hessian bag once more, grasping at something with his left hand. Spinning back towards Devon, Barry swung powerfully with his aura chain which Devon promptly blocked with his staff before Barry stabbed forward with his illusionary chain.
“Fool me once!” shouted Devon as he raised a palm to meet Barry’s approaching hand.
It seemed he had learned of Barry’s illusion trick as he ignored the chain, aiming to grasp a hold of Barry’s fist. Barry saw a smile beginning to form on the Devon’s face as their hands were about to meet. Barry followed up with a smile of his own as he dispelled the illusionary chain that was hiding the small knife he held in his hand and drove it forward straight into Devons open palm. Devon’s smile instantly vanished and he screamed whilst retracting his hand that had been impaled by the knife as Barry struck him again with his aura chain, connecting with the mans chin.
This time it was Devon who retreated as he hurled himself backwards and pulled the knife out, tossing it to the ground as blood poured from the wound.
“You bastard! You fucking bastard! I’ll kill you!” Devon roared as he grasped his staff in both hands, ignoring his wound.
The man looked completely drained, like he was running on fumes, furious fumes. Suddenly he fired forward at a speed Barry was not expecting, possibly with some of the last of his remaining stamina. Faster than Barry could blink he was faced with the end of the staff barrelling towards his skull. Barry raised his chain to try and block the blow, but he knew he was too slow. However, the expected blow never arrived, Devon had feigned the strike, instead slipping behind Barry. In an instant Devon moved one hand to either end of the staff and brought it up and over Barry’s head before pulling it towards him and pressing it firmly into Barry’s throat in an attempt to choke him to death.
Barry briefly tried to pull the bar away from his neck but his strength was no match for Devon’s. With no other options left Barry activated heavy fortification and he felt the pressure around his neck lessen. But Devon did not let up, he continued to press the bar into Barry with all of his strength. Now able to breathe a little, Barry flung his chain up and over his own shoulder hoping to hook it around the neck of Devon. He felt the chain loop and tighten and with all his might he pulled down, feeling the bigger man’s head and neck being pulled down into a hyper flexed position towards the ground. The two men remained standing, both trying to choke each other out, one with a metal rod and the other with a metal chain. It was a battle of attrition. Barry knew he was on a timer, the moment his heavy fortification skill ran out he would lose. He had fifteen seconds left. He pulled down harder and harder, letting gravity and the weight of his body aid him in his efforts. Ten seconds. He grunted and pulled, feeling his health points slowly dropping closer towards zero as he fought. Behind him Devon groaned in pain as the stalemate continued. Five seconds. Blood from his opponent and sweat from Barry’s efforts mixed as it fell down his face, causing his vision to go hazy. One second. Barry willed himself into one final tug of his chain with all the strength he could muster, ignoring the pain and lack of oxygen.
Snap! The sound echoed through Barry’s ears at the same time as the metal rod vanished and the pressure around his throat disappeared. Barry gasped for breath as his heavy fortification skill expired. Thump! Barry turned and saw the lifeless body of Devon lying on the ground in a pool of blood, his head bent forward to the point that his chin sat on his chest. On the back of his neck Barry saw an unnatural prominence sticking out which caused his neck to bend at right angles halfway between his skull and shoulders. Barry collapsed to the floor, exhausted, his health under five percent and his stamina below ten. He coughed and spluttered as he rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky as drips of water washed over his face and a huge rush of energy entered his body.