Suktuk-amorak had to acknowledge that F-rank magic was just too limited to be useful in battle. His downgraded mind simply couldn't deal with casting spells strong enough or quick enough to matter. Even his micro-freezing, simple as it was, had been countered by pathetic bursts of what he guessed to be stamina since he couldn't feel any mana.
In the end, that forced him to do the thing he hated the most: to fight using his body.
He had been born a slave in all but name, ordered to fight daily to keep living. By failing the battle tutorial too soon, he had lost the only easy way to free himself in his first century of life. It was only after he reached the E rank he had had a second chance, this time in the Trials, and became a Guardian at last. With that, he had gotten access to the Guardian Store and bought a Mana Root.
Mana was generated by the Alliance and distributed by the Guardian System, and to use it, you either needed nanobots or a root, no way around it. The former was cheaper and easier to use but had limited potential, thus he had chosen the latter. After that, he had swiftly reached the peak of the E rank as a mage.
Mages in minotaur society were the cream of the crop, and they considered physical fighters pathetic creatures. Suktuk-amorak had been convinced of that truth himself after using mana for only a couple of years. He had buried his past and the traumas that came with it, and lived as a mage through and through.
To avoid physical battle, he had even risked getting killed for abusing a loophole, but now he was out of choices. Dying in the hands of a weak youngling would be much more humiliating than resorting to physical violence. His physical stats had been left at the E- tier as his magic progressed, and now they were limited to the F+ tier, but they would be enough against the "human."
Admittedly, he had never fought unarmed before. Still, even without a weapon, it was simply impossible for him to lose with superior strength and experience.
He closed his fists and burned his stamina for the first time in a hundred years. His gloves resisted the mere F-rank flames with ease. His hands didn't hurt, but his heart did. To use such means again...
He redirected his anger toward the disguised human.
It was time to stomp a bug.
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Shen stepped back to think of a strategy to deal with the three enemies, but the boss surprised him. Suktuk-amorak, still looking at Shen, extended his arms sideways and grabbed the Shadows' horns. Then he pulled them quickly in front of him, crushing their heads against each other at high speed.
Brain and blood splattered on him an instant before turning into light together with the corpses.
The boss let out a terrifying smile, then he moved toward Shen.
Uk'Gaar had had a special movement that let him cover a large space in a single step. Suktuk-amorak didn't use the same technique, but he moved way too fast instead. He reached Shen in instants, his arm pulled back beside his head, and punched.
Shen stepped back and raised his spear to deflect the attack, but the fist easily broke the shaft. He still dodged sideways thanks to his Gale Footwork, but Suktuk-amorak wouldn't let him get far from him and followed the first punch with another.
Shen sidestepped again, just barely, and the heat of the flames burned his clothes.
He realized he had no choice but to use his trump card. He had crushed the minotaurs without using qi, but now was time to go all out.
With F- stats, he had been able to keep qi running through his body for five minutes. At the F tier, the time had doubled. Ten minutes was more than enough to win this fight.
He pulled qi from the environment into his meridians and instantly used it in his body. The energy made him faster and strong, and he bought a new G spear, still unwilling to spend twenty-five hundred into a new F- one. The shaft was fragile, yes, but he only had to make sure only the spearhead would touch the minotaur's fists.
> Purchased: Any Weapon (G) | -100 AP
> Remaining AP: 8,864
The spear appeared in his hands, and he hacked it against Suktuk-amorak's head. His speed, even with his clan's techniques, was still a step below the minotaur's, but the attack forced the boss to defend since he had only one health point.
Suktuk-amorak backslapped the spearhead with a hand while his other fist punched Shen in the face. As the latter had predicted, the spearhead didn't break in contact with the enemy. The boy dodged—
The very air around him stopped him from moving for an instant. He would get hit. He expelled qi from his body and freed himself almost instantly, then continued with his dodge, but it was still too late.
The fist hit the side of his face.
Pain flooded his being as the flaming fist burned through skin and flesh. His cheek melted almost instantly, while a few teeth exploded into splinters, further damaging his mouth. The fist missed both his jaw and brain by a hair's breadth, and that was the only reason he didn't fall unconscious.
> Health: 44 / 100 | -22
Shen forced himself to focus and took control of his spear to swing against the boss. Once again, the minotaur used one hand to deflect it and punched with the other. The cultivator's attack had been a feint though, and it pulled the spear while stepping back, then thrust the spear against the enemy's body.
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The moment Shen had been hurt, he had realized three things.
First, he couldn't win fairly; the minotaur was too fast and strong. Second, the minotaur's hands were immune to his spear attack, maybe because of the gloves. Third, and most important, Suktuk-amorak was vulnerable; he had killed the spellcasters because a stray fireball might damage him, and he had only 1 health point. That was probably also the reason he didn't give Shen any space, or he might buy ranged weapons to win.
Shen didn't need a flawless victory. He didn't even need to fight well. He only had to cause a single point of damage to his enemy.
So as Suktuk-amorak's punch kept coming, he ignored it to have a stable stance and thrust with all his might, releasing qi to not get frozen again.
Spear and fist moved side by side. The maniac smile on the minotaur's face widened, but Shen didn't care, for it might be a feint to make him lose confidence. His spearhead was about to hit the minotaur's black leather jerkin when it just stopped.
The boss couldn't freeze Shen in time because of the qi, but it could freeze his spear instead.
Shen immediately let go of the weapon and did his absolute best to get out of the way. Once again, he was just half a step too late. The fist burned and melted a small part of the side of his body while he moved sideways.
> Health: 26 / 100 | -18
Once again, Suktuk-amorak didn't give him a breather and followed with new punches.
The boy found himself suppressed. Using a spear or other long weapons against the minotaur wouldn't do. However, using his naked fists against the enemy's burning hands would be stupid. His only option was using weapons so short his qi bursts, which reached only a few inches away from him, could protect it from getting frozen.
"Buy spiked metal glove that would fit my closed right fist!" he yelled while changing his fighting style for a brawl.
He had exactly zero experience with fistfights, but he did have a plan.
> Purchased: Any Weapon (G) | -100 AP
> Remaining AP: 8,764
The metal gloves appeared around his fists as they moved to meet Suktuk-amorak's. They reminded him of plated gloves, but they had hundreds of small plates instead, sacrificing neither their structural integrity nor flexibility. The spikes rested on top of his knuckles.
Fist met fist head-on.
As Shen had expected, the metal didn't break or melt upon hitting the fiery hands, but he hadn't expected the sheer power of his foe's strike. When using a spear, the impact was always partly absorbed or deflected by the weapon, but that wasn't the case with the gloves.
The shock traveled through his entire arm, and he both felt and heard some bones in his hand crack. The boss was already following with another punch, so Shen started with his plan.
He moved his body sideways and ahead while entering the minotaur's personal space and raising his gloved hand for a hook. Meanwhile, his ungloved hand moved to his waist.
Suktuk-amorak's incoming strike reached Shen while the boss's other hand moved too fast and would intercept the boy's attack a little below the minotaur's neck. The burning hand pierced through Shen's left shoulder.
At the exact same time, a finger in Shen's left hand pushed against the very fragile minor healing crystal he had stored in his belt.
Shen's flesh regrew instantly, even pushing Suktuk-amorak's arm away to fill the hole the fists had opened. His hand's bones healed, and his health points went up to 100. The boss hadn't been expecting it if his widened eyes were any sign.
The boy held his attack for a moment before it reached Suktuk-amorak's defense and yelled as fast as he could, "Buy the strongest portable G-rank contact explosive that can fit my glove's surface and wouldn't kill me!"
Saying that much took a few instants, and that was way longer than he had expected when he formed the plan in his head. Suktuk-amorak recovered from the surprise and stepped back at the same moment Shen's fist resumed, and the minotaur's superior speed let it dodge with ease the small red crystal that had just materialized on Shen's glove between the spikes.
> Purchased: Any Equipment (G) | -100 AP
> Remaining AP: 8,664
"Buy another minor healing crystal," he said immediately and got a thousand AP poorer. The crystal's value was undeniable though, and he didn't regret buying it for even a moment.
Shen took the chance to take a deep breath and look at his enemy. His plan had depended on a surprise factor to deal 1 point of damage through whatever armor, magic, and innate resistances the minotaur had. Now he needed another plan.
Or did he?
Suktuk-amorak could use magic without giving out any cues, but he had retreated instead of raising a magic shield or using another spell. He had also not used another black bubble or the thunder, only resorting to stopping Shen or his weapon in place. Shen himself had a limit of how much qi his body could withstand, and his stamina was an expendable resource.
Maybe mana also had limitations?
That changed things. He ran to his fallen spear, grabbed it, then rushed at Suktuk-amorak.
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'He has illegally achieved the F tier, and he's even artificially inflating his stats somehow!' the minotaur yelled desperately through the connection magic. 'He's a disguised older Alliance member! I demand you investigate it!'
The stat-up technique the disguised human was using wasn't enough to put him at the F+ tier, but he was definitely at the top of the F tier. Still, that wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't for the healing crystal.
The boss had been waiting for the trainees to arrive for so long that he had even forgotten about the cheat item. Because of his lack of experience in fighting with his fists, he couldn't land a decisive blow, so with enough AP, the fight could go on forever. Meanwhile, he would be spending his stamina and focus. Indeed, even now, he already had a splitting headache for freezing the youngling, then his weapon. His focus was completely spent and he might even faint if he insisted on using magic a few extra times.
His defeat was a matter of time.
'You cannot demand anything from me,' the Stage Overseer replied. 'But I did investigate it already. The boy's one of five ancient cultivators who were sleeping in his world. The weakest one too. Everything checks up.'
'What in Mydra's tits is a cultivator?' Suktuk-amorak demanded.
The hydra chuckled. 'You really came from a tiny inland world, didn't you?'
'Answer me!' he yelled in rage.
The issuing silence made him think the overseer wouldn't reply, but eventually, they did—though the contents of their message were no answer to his question.
'I shouldn't tell you this,' they said, 'but I pity you enough. The slavers who raised you were eradicated. Everyone who blocked your reports was slaughtered. They'll meet you in the thirteen hells.'
Suktuk-amorak's mind almost couldn't understand the words. He had tried to get revenge after reaching the E rank, of course, but the Gladiator Arena where he had been born had had a B-rank mage and three C-rank warriors protecting it. His complaints using the system had also been blocked by Guardians more influential than him who were in the Arena's payroll.
'How?' he asked, dumbfounded.
'An A-rank cultivator did it. Goodbye, prisoner.'
The overseer cut the connection, and Suktuk-amorak, absolutely dazed, didn't even react as the tip of the spear pierced his eye.
As the pain took him from his almost catatonic state, he realized he had been kept as a slave for a big chunk of his life just because the Alliance had been too lazy to investigate the Arena earlier, not because it was anything special. The Guardian assholes had waited until after he had already freed himself to kill his former owners, rather than saving him while he still needed them!
It was personal! The Alliance hated him!
He had been right all along!
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Shen approached the minotaur with erratic movements, releasing qi from his body all the while, then thrust his spear with all his might. He was suspicious when the boss just froze in place and was expecting the worst when Suktuk-amorak didn't react to his attack.
But nothing terrible happened. There was no trap, no scheme, no ploy. His spear moved true, and the spearhead pierced Suktuk-amorak's eyeball unhindered.
The surprised expression on the minotaur's face turned into one of absolute outrage just before it turned into motes of light and disappeared from the fortress.
Shen had won.