Mortan was rapidly recovering from the skill he had used, which meant that Jonathan only had a few seconds to make this count. With a bellow of rage, made far quieter by the state of his lungs, he burst forwards, ignoring the pain that shot through his body. He reached Mortan a moment later, and drove a desperate uppercut into the man’s chin, weaving it through the shoddy defense that the worn out Uthraki provided. Mortan was lifted off his feet, and Jonathan wound up for another strike. However, his body almost gave out, and he simply stumbled into the man instead of dodging.

Jonathan saw the world start to dim around himself, and he knew that if he fell here, it would all be over. Instead, he gathered his will, and drove his shaking fist into Mortan’s stomach. The man flew away a few dozen feet, giving Jonathan room to breathe. Without hesitation, he dumped half of his free stat points into Resilience. He had been meaning to save them for Dexterity, but in this situation, he needed the durability.

As the stat points took effect, he could feel his body tightening up, and healing some of the damage from before. With a sigh of relief, he faced off against the Uthraki leader, more confident than before. He weaved across the ground, gathering up speed as he moved. With a roar of rage, he propelled himself across the last few feet, meeting Mortan’s unstable sword strike with a punch of his own. Mortan stumbled backwards, and Jonathan moved in, barraging the man with a storm of Void enhanced punches. Mortan shuddered as the energy rushed into his body, tearing it apart from the inside. Jonathan’s own body was tearing itself apart, but he forced himself to keep moving, using the little bit of durability that he had gained to keep himself moving.

As he punched, he thought of everything that was riding on him, from the freedom of the Hells to the survival of his city. Even the life of Edgar, who would likely die if Mortan was left alive. His punches seemed to grow stronger, and although Jonathan knew that the strength he was drawing on was the ultimate cliche, it still worked. Perhaps the power of friendship did have some merit after all.

Mortan tried to muster a return strike, but the man was on his last legs, from the combination of the finisher move he had used, to the effects of the rest of the fight. Eventually, Jonathan broke through his last, paltry defense, and cracked his head open with a devastating punch, filled with as much of his remaining power that he could muster. As essence entered him, propelling him up an entire two levels, Jonathan smiled. As he did so, a shadowy form could be seen falling from the sky, landing in the midst of the warring Uthraki. The Guildmaster had finally shown himself.

As Jonathan faded into unconsciousness, Edgar was fighting for his life. His attacks were not enough to take out any of the highly durable Uthraki that he was fighting within a reasonable amount of time, and the allies that he had were too weak to achieve the same with their weapons. At least now that Jonathan had killed the city lord, they had a chance.

As Jonathan collapsed next to the body of his latest conquest, Edgar spotted a figure leaping over the heads of the fighters, blazing with energy. It was the Guildmaster. He landed with a sharp crack, burying his blades in the heads of two of the enemy Uthraki. They slumped over, dead upon impact. With a cry of triumph at the sight of the dead Mortan, the Guildmaster threw himself into the fray, helping his allies push back the elite Uthraki fighters.

To their credit, none of them seemed willing to retreat, and they stood their ground until the bloody end. As they died, Edgar rushed over to Jonathan’s side, watching as the man’s body slowly started to regenerate the damage taken. He was in rough shape, but given a few hours, he would be back on his feet. Jonathan had lived through worse.

Jonathan rose from the blackness some time later, feeling like his body had been put through a meat grinder. He was battered and bruised all over, and his stomach ached like he had just gotten the worst case of food poisoning possible. However, it was a far cry from earlier and for that, he was thankful. He was lying on the floor of the guild hall, with Edgar sitting beside him, playing with a ball of wind. As Jonathan rose, Edgar gave him a smile.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“How are you feeling? You took a lot of damage from that fight,” Edgar asked, the smile fading.

“I’ve felt better, but I can’t really complain. I’ll be back in fighting shape soon enough.”

Edgar simply nodded at this, and let Jonathan rest in silence. The first thing he did was open his stat sheet.

Jonathan Harlowe

Tier 2

Void Human(Advanced)

Divinity Aspect:Void Hegemon Elemental Mastery:10%

Elemental Juggernaut:Tier 2 Legendary Level 154

(44 free points)

Strength

1245

Dexterity

928

Constitution

636

Resilience

712

Intelligence

672

Wisdom

665

Divinity

10

Health:9540/9540 Stamina:28013/28013 Mana:10080/10080

Titles

True Unbound Spirit: Unique Nascent God: Transcendent Forceful Initiate: Mythical Lesser Xenocide: Legendary Iron Will: Epic

Leader of Men: Epic Refined Form: Epic Giantslayer: Epic

Avenger: Epic

Lineage Hunter: Rare Righteous Killer: Rare

Skills

Hungering Decay: Mythical

Greater Smite: Mythical

Rune Savant: Legendary

Void Drill: Legendary

Void Cannon: Legendary

Stamina Redirection: Legendary Channeled Basic Truesight: Legendary

Sense the Weave: Legendary Warrior’s Trance: Epic

Fists of the Hurricane: Epic Battle Focus: Rare

Impact: Rare

Focused Scry: Rare

Runes of Power: Rare

Redirect: Uncommon

Pathway Skills

Mana Manipulation: Journeyman 2 Runecrafting: Journeyman 1 Martial Arts: Journeyman 1 Truesight: Journeyman 1

Martial Path

Flowing Hurricane: Journeyman 1 Quests

The Strongest: ???

Hellbreaker: Impossible

Complete Vengeance: SSS

Wolf among the Lambs: A