All his life, Rushvatte has never seen a meteor directly. Especially not this close, not made from a pure light, and definitely not one being thrown by a maniacal human tempest paladin with short golden brown hair named DeusVult.

“Gyahahaha. Dance, dance both of you!”

DeusVult roared with laughter as he enjoyed the sight of Flick and Rushvatte jumping all over the place to avoid the light meteors he sent at them.

Rushvatte could still avoid a few, but his eyes were blinded every now and then and the loud laughter from their adversary was clearly driving him to his edge. However, the most annoying part was that Flick seemed to easily avoid most of it.

Among the chaos, he suddenly felt something was coming closer.

“Bjornur!”

Rushvatte roared as his body turned into a big cave bear. However, he suddenly felt a blunt strike to his shoulders, definitely coming from DeusVult’s mace. He felt lucky he had the chance to brace for impact and his bear form has better resistance to such shock attacks.

When he was about to counter the attack, there was a whisper that came to his mind.

Incoming whisper from Flick.

[Ain’t here, mate. Gotta bait him to the NPC guards. We should only counter after they start attacking him.]

“Tch! Phantera!”

Rushvatte turned to his tiger form then rolled to avoid another sweep from DeusVult’s mace. Then he used [Lightning Grip] to dash rapidly towards a deer in the direction of the post. At the same time, Flick used [Sleek Strike] on thin air just to teleport.

Now, Rushvatte fully realised why Flick’s axe often bounced off after being thrown and blocked. It seems that the rogue purposely threw his axes in such a way that caused it to bounce off. And since [Sleek Strike] appears to be a move to play catch with himself, a bouncing axe gave Flick an advantage to strike instead.

To be honest, Rushvatte didn’t know if such complicated ability was actually showing Flick’s sharpness or madness.

“Where’re ya going? [Swordfall].”

DeusVult slammed the ground with his mace. The air shook when several light blades appeared far above them. The swords then fall down towards Rushvatte.

The mystic knew from their formation that they would create a circular trap when they reach the ground. Thus he increases his speed with [Dash], hoping it would be enough to avoid the incoming cage.

“Pardon me, mate, [Backpace].”

Flick suddenly appeared and used Rushvatte as a stepping stone. In that instant, Rushvatte grumbled all sorts of curses because he felt that Flick was definitely sacrificing him to get away to safety.

Yet, his prejudice was quickly proven to be wrong right after.

“[Mirage Shift].”

Flick’s somersault was a bit different this time. There was a weird grayscale afterimage that followed his movement. And he was definitely jumping to meet one of the incoming light swords. Rushvatte couldn’t believe that Flick was trying to sacrifice himself instead.

“[Counterbreak]!”

Just as he was about to clash with one of the big light swords, Flick slashes his axes defensively and causes the light sword to be repelled into the air.

“Now, that’s what I call ‘giga nice’!”

Rushvatte exclaimed while dashing towards the open space among the swords made by Flick.

“And that’s what I call a flamboyant trick,” Flick giggled as he landed perfectly on the ground like an acrobat performer. Complete with the salutary bow.

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For this once, Rushvatte let it slide. At least the overconfident rogue had saved them.

However, the chase was not over yet. DeusVult was no pushover, unlike Arkengrad. This tempest paladin actually has some annoying long range attacks that really caused some headache for Rushvatte. For example, there was this weird motion where he slammed the ground and caused some light spikes to appear from the ground.

Rushvatte was glad that he played basketball. At least he’s a bit more used to avoiding stuff while zigzagging his way. On the other hand, Flick seemed excited by the spikes. The longer the chase goes, Rushvatte could see Flick's expression growing more maniacal.

Another thing that Rushvatte and Flick had done during the chase, which also increased its complexity, was the distance between them and DeusVult. They can’t run too far away lest it would put their adversary out from in-combat status. Being out of combat would give DeusVult an advantage as he could use mounts to chase them or to run away.

Thus, they only used their movement speed increasing ability when DeusVult did the same. Flick even pretended to be hit or tumble once in a while.

“Command on: reply. Is that really necessary?” Rushvatte asked furiously after he rolled down to avoid a lightblade while Flick faked a hit after using [Mirage Shift]. Now he started to think that mirage thingy seems capable of neglecting magical damage or effect directed at the user.

[Aye, gotta keep the beast’s interest in us, mate.]

“Tch, did you get that from Pras or something.”

[You mean [Misdirection]? No, no, it’s about baiting then reeling in.]

“Whatever.”

Not long after, they finally saw the post at Arika Hill. It was almost at the same time where DeusVult attempted another [Swordfall]. This time, Flick prepared a similar manoeuvre, but he only used [Mirage Shift]. With a sly smile he somersaulted and spread his hands as if accepting a divine punishment. A very soft divine punishment nonetheless. Because even if the light sword pierced through him, there was barely any damage that he would receive.

“For justice and peace in the kingdom!”

Two human NPC guards of the Arika Hill post shouted as they saw the attack done on Flick. “We bear no ill will to those who do not seek strife, regardless of their race,” they said as they ran towards the rescue of Rushvatte and Flick. “But, those who sow discord shall pay!”

At the same time, one of the guards from the watchtower shot at DeusVult.

“Now, mate, we ain’t gonna let him go. [Sleek Strike]!”

As quickly as he saw DeusVult preparing to run away, Flick threw his axe to stop the paladin. He even kicked and staggered DeusVult with a kick from his [Backpace].

Rushvatte didn’t want to miss the chance for revenge anyway. He rapidly dashed towards DeusVult with the help of [Lightning Grip], then he jumped over the paladin, and twisted in the air.

His standard manoeuvre would bring him to claw at his target’s shoulder or head and drag them down. But, his current adversary was a tempest paladin. Rushvatte unleashed a rather unorthodox movement.

“Bjornur, [Hammer Dunk]!”

Rushvatte turned into a cave bear. His massive right paw condensed a ball of wind then he smacked it at DeusVult as he landed hard on the ground. The paladin fell headfirst in an instant. And that was not all.

“[Wild Drive].”

Rushvatte clawed into the gaps of DeusVult’s armor. He dragged the paladin for a few metres before throwing the body at the incoming guards.

Unlike what the guards wanted in their speech, chaos ensued. There was no trickery, art, nor tactics being used now. There was only ferocity of the two melee damage dealers unleashed at the clearly superior paladin. The damage dealt by the guards was annoying and significant enough to whittle down DeusVult’s HP.

Right when DeusVult was about to reach his end, Flick used [Extreme Collision]. But the paladin didn’t die. Then Rushvatte finally saw what Renma had been telling the gang about Flick’s secret weapon.

“I beg your pardon!” Flick threw his massive axe in a high arc. With the help of gravity, it quickly whirled towards DeusVult.

“[Divine Bubble].”

Right at the last moment, DeusVult managed to protect himself with some sort of bubble-like light shield. With such a calm demeanour he just stood there while all of the remaining attacks did nothing to his HP. Also, his body was glowing with a strange white light similar to wizards that were about to teleport.

At that moment, Rushvatte remembered that tempest paladin has the ability to harness pure energy. DeusVult was about to get away.

DeusVult yawned. “Seriously? You really think you can defeat me with this kind of trick? To beat me, you need a thousand yea….”

“Phantera! [Blitz]!”

DeusVult was unable to finish his sentence. Rushvatte had turned to his tiger form and dashed past the paladin like lightning. The Javan tiger’s claw ripped through all the defences of DeusVult, cutting down the remainder of the tempest paladin’s HP.

Rushvatte sighed as DeusVult's lifeless body fell to the ground. This ability was the answer Rushvatte was looking for after the frustration he felt against more robust opponents like Grok and especially Arkengrad.

The mystic knew his weakness was not just on defence but also offence. Therefore, like Flick, he sacrificed one custom ability slot for a finishing move. But he was not aiming for flashy or big damage ones like Flick.

His aim was something that can shred through any defences and guarantee him a kill. And that was a flash of deadly slash named [Blitz].

“Extreme nice, mate!” Flick exclaimed excitedly at Rushvatte after he realised what had just happened.

Rushvatte chuckled. Still in his tiger form, he gave Flick a thumbs down. “My man, my finishing move is better than yours.”