"Stop running and give up the futile fight!" Mike said, his eyes filled with anger. Striding forward, he raised the heavy hammer in his right hand and leaped in Eric's direction. The hammer seemed light in his hand as he moved with ease. It whistled as it sliced through the air, closing in on Eric, and just as it seemed the hammer was about to hit him, he jumped to the side. It flew past him and slammed into the ground, shattering it.

Clenching his fist, Eric threw a left hook, but Mike caught it in his palm.

"Got ya!" Mike tightened his grip on Eric's hand, making sure he couldn't get away.

Fully aware of his inferior strength, Eric didn't try to wrestle the burly man and instead lifted his leg and kicked him. Mike immediately raised the hammer, making the long handle meet Eric's leg.

There was a dull thud as the kick struck the steel hilt. Eric gritted his teeth as he felt his bones crack. Without dwelling on the pain, he delivered an uppercut to Mike's chin.

With both hands occupied, Mike had no way to block the attack. But he had a lot of experience. With a shocked look on his face, he jerked his head back and threw his head away from the blow. Still, he was hit.

Before the man could even get angry, Eric grabbed the back of his head and brought it down, burying his knee in Mike's face.

"Agh," Mike groaned, closing his eyes.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Eric broke free of the hold and pulled away. He gasped and kept his eyes on Mike. Heat coursed through his leg, healing it.

Mike put a hand to his face and wiped the blood from his nose, then looked at the blood on his palm. His face contorted, and veins crept across his face. He looked at Eric, his eyes blazing with fury. He started to run toward him.

"You bastard!" he shouted. "I'm gonna kill ya!"

Even though I have the strength of four men, my attack only made his nose bleed. An ordinary person's skull would have been crushed.

The injury seemed to infuriate the man, as he attacked him in a frenzy. His attacks became more ferocious, cracking the ground with each blow, and all Eric could do was dodge.

If I get hit, I'm screwed.

If he continued to receive strong attacks, the damage would continue to accumulate, and even though he had the orb that could heal his injuries, he currently had no magic power, which meant that if he was injured by these attacks, the orb would use up his life force to repair his injuries, and he couldn't afford to let that happen. If he didn't want to let that happen, he would have to minimize the damage he took as much as possible.

He jumped back as he dodged another attack, but this time he didn't take the opportunity to attack the burly man and backed away. He didn't dare to corner an angry man with unknown tricks up his sleeve. This burly man wasn't easy and probably had some skills he hadn't used yet. Besides, he still had to worry about the other hunters. They would interfere as soon as they saw that the fight was in his favor. He had to end the fight and capture Mike before they had a chance to react and use him as a hostage.

Even if I can dodge his attacks with my perception and predictions, the power gap cannot be closed in a short time! I'm unarmed, and my stats are still weak compared to his!

Eric knew it was only a matter of time before he would get hit if he just kept dodging because he couldn't dodge these fast attacks forever.

Mike was stronger and faster than him, and his constitution must be high as well because he only gave him a slight nosebleed after hitting him with his knee with all the force he could muster.

In that case, it will take more effort for me to break through his steel body.

Eric might have trouble fighting monsters due to his inexperience, but fighting humans was a different matter. He knew how to deal with them.

Humans had countless spots that could be called weak points. For example, the solar plexus was an area that couldn't be trained.

Of course, I shouldn't assume that hitting him in that spot would have the same effect as hitting an ordinary person since his body was at least five times stronger than an ordinary person's. But at least it would force him to pause for a moment.

After evading the hammer that was about to crush his head, Eric stepped forward instead of retreating. He clenched his fists and aimed for Mike's solar plexus.

Mike himself seemed to sense his intentions and twisted his burly body to avoid it.

Eric smirked as he saw Mike moved as he had predicted and changed the direction of his attack. He aimed two fingers at Mike's eye. There was no hesitation as he shoved his fingers.

Just as his fingers were inches away from gouging out his eye, Mike's pupils dilated, and immediately a blue light materialized in front of him, blocking Eric's attack.

Startled by the sudden light, Eric jumped back without wasting a second, not waiting for Mike's counter. He looked at the light that surrounded him, protecting Mike from all sides like a shield.

This..!

***

"Oh, he used Mana shield," Hawk said in surprise, lowering his bow. "I was wondering when these two brutes would start the real fight, but I didn't expect Mike to be the first to crack."

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"Well, he was backed into a corner and had no choice. If he hadn't used the mana shield to block the attack, he would have lost his eye." Marco said.

Both of them didn't seem worried, even after seeing the exchange between Mike and Eric, as if their strength wasn't enough for them to consider him a threat.

"But it's strange," Marco muttered.

Hawk must have heard his muttering because he turned his head to the side. "What is strange?"

"That guy." He motioned to Eric. "He hadn't used any mana yet. Even though he had the chance to end the fight right there, he chose to retreat instead."

"Hmm, you're right; that is indeed strange." Hawk nodded in agreement. "If he had augmented his fingers with mana, he would have pierced that weak shield and gouged out Mike's eye."

"But he didn't, which is odd." Marco looked puzzled, not understanding what was going on in Eric's head. Obviously, it was his chance to win the fight, but he wasted it just like that.

"Who knows what this guy is up to?" Hawk shrugged. "He could just be an ordinary person without Mana," he joked.

"Impossible," Marco didn't take Hawk's words as a joke, and he answered seriously. "You should know better that it's difficult for an ordinary person to fight a rank 1 warrior because the gap between their prowess is too big."

"Difficult, yes." Hawk nodded and continued, "But not impossible."

Marco remained silent for a few moments. "You mean he's one of those guys?"

"Right," Marco didn't finish his words, but Hawk seemed to know exactly what he was talking about when he answered. "You've heard of them, right? There's a category of crazy people who couldn't accept the fact that they were ordinary and couldn't use mana, so they used Essence Stones to strengthen their bodies."

"And you think he is one of them?" Marco asked.

"Who knows?" Hawk shrugged. "It's too early to tell. He could just be running low on mana, and he tried to conserve it until it was necessary."

"Hmm, you're right. Everything will be revealed eventually," Marco said while looking at the battle ahead of him. "Because he has absolutely no chance of escaping us," he said calmly, but the confidence in his voice couldn't be hidden, which made Hawk smile beside him, not finding anything wrong with Marco's words.

***

Eric narrowed his eyes as he looked at the light surrounding Mike. This was the first skill he saw in action, and he was surprised. Sure, he had skills as well, but they were currently useless because his mana reserve was empty. The only thing that worked was the magical purple orb that healed him every time he got hurt. And that's what allowed him to fight for so long without much of a disadvantage. But each time it healed him, he became weaker as it drained his vitality.

"What do you think? Playtime should be over." Mike cracked his neck and held the hammer over his shoulder. "The real fight is about to begin." As soon as he finished his words, he kicked the ground and charged at him at double speed.

Startled, Eric barely had time to react before Mike's hulking form was upon him. Already familiar with his attack patterns, Eric jumped aside as the hammer struck the spot where he was standing. The ground cracked and cobwebs spread from the impact, leaving a crater that dwarfed the previous one.

Before Eric could back away, Mike grinned, lifted his leg, and kicked him. Unable to dodge, Eric crossed his arms.

A dull sound reverberated.

A powerful force went through his elbow to the tip of his shoulder, shattering his bones.

Hiss! As expected, it hurts.

Eric was sent sliding through the ground into the distance before coming to a stop. Both of his hands trembled before falling limply to his sides. A gentle heat coursed through them, reattaching the bones. Gritting his teeth as he endured the pain, Eric kept his eyes on his opponent.

After a few seconds, the heat faded, and the feeling returned to his arms. He flexed them and found that they moved without a problem as if they hadn't been broken a second ago, but that didn't make him happy. His face darkened as he looked at Mike. Killing intent flashed through his eyes.

With each injury, his vitality would decrease, and his lifespan would shorten. Luckily, when he fused with the orb at the beginning, it boosted his stats; otherwise, he would have been sucked dry and reduced to ashes just like that skeleton. He shuddered at the thought. He would have to increase his stats as much as possible to prevent that from happening, and of course, he would have to avoid getting hurt.

Such thoughts made him think about something. Would he level up by killing humans as well? Since killing monsters made him stronger, killing humans should be included as well. Theoretically, it should work because it worked on the same principle. Basically, he would steal the life force, or whatever energy the system extracted from the dead creature, to increase his level.

He looked at Mike and thought. I'm not sure what level he is compared to, but I'm sure that killing him would give me a few levels.

But when he looked at the shimmering blue light surrounding Mike, those thoughts quickly disappeared. Even if he managed to break through the shield and kill him, he would probably pay a heavy price, and besides, the others wouldn't just forgive him. They might change their intentions from simply capturing him to killing him.