Myra could only watch from a distance as Owen fought against the high level enemy in the distance. She had felt like her knees were going to buckle when she saw their level. Level 54, almost twenty full levels above her. She had originally not thought herself a slouch, but watching Owen, she felt disgusted with herself. She had thought she was strong, but despite being several levels below her, Owen had managed to keep up regardless.
He was truly powerful, but it made her angry cause the strength he was showing off now to fight against someone with such a high level only added to her being confident that he had been going easy after he had lost several of his skills, more cautious, but still just as dangerous if not more so. Clenching her fist, she stared down at her missing arm that had now grown past the middle of her forearm, she only needed to wait another 5 minutes and she would be able to help out, though she wasn't even sure what she could do.
An explosion brought her attention back to the fight and she saw one of the glass walls shatter. She glanced around looking for either of the fighters, she saw the enemy slowly standing up and turning to where Owen had landed. With a burst of speed, they launched themself at Owen's position. She watched with baited breath as he managed to dodge the surprise attack, it had looked like he fainted, but as soon as he had fallen under the scythe, he rolled and ran.
She felt like something changed, like a pressure had entered the world, before it lifted like nothing happened. As the pressure left, Owen stopped mid run, turning to his opponents. With skill she had never seen him show before he managed to fight the person to a standstill, before forcing and opening and stabbing forward. Myra felt relief wash through her until she felt the pressure increase again and an aura envelop the figure fighting Owen. They hadn't been using a boosting skill at all during the fight. She couldn't make out the words that were being said, but she could see what was about to happen.
She was already running, Peggy running next to her. Both of them knew that if Owen died, they would all die. She activated all of her boosting skills at once, feeling the soothing energy of Peggy's buff as well as Myra threw herself at the enemy. He saw them before Owen did, but he must've sensed something in the enemy's expression. A ball of unfamiliar condensed energy formed out of nowhere, launching the opponent back again, as a crack formed along the blade of the blue edged scythe.
Myra made it to Owen right as he collapsed. She heard him barely manage to pant out a warning before he fell unconscious. "The fire is poisoned." He whispered as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Peggy immediately began healing him and Myra cursed as she saw Thomas and his team busy fighting soldiers with Briar in the distance. She did see Lucas running towards her though, his own spear brandished.
"Anything I need to know?" Lucas shouted as he made it next to Myra. "Stay the fuck out of my way and be careful around his scythe, apparently the fire on it has poison." Lucas nodded pulled out a large tower shield out of a storage item. "I'll try to draw aggro from this guy. I know they are a human, but the same tricks should work if he is distracted." Myra shook her head. "No, you look for an opening, I'll keep them busy." The two raced off, Lucas skirted around the edges of where the battle had been taking place so far. Myra rushed straight at them, hoping she could keep them busy for long enough.
Her left arm still wasn't fully formed yet, so she had to rely on just one axe for this fight, it didn't matter, she would find a way to win. She began charging up a fated blow, waiting for an opening. The person just stared at her, looking slightly amused before launching themselves forward faster than Myra's eye could track.
Only once the scythe was less than a meter from her neck did she spot it, but instead of trying to dodge, she used her quickstep boots to appear behind them. Fated blow activated a second later, she had planned to take off their neck, but as soon as her attack was sent out, the enemy's body flashed a bright light. "That was a neat trick, if I hadn't fought many people with similar abilities, I might even be dead. Now dodge this," They swung there scythe in a wide arc, Myra immediately stepped past the scythe's range, but just like her, at the last second the person teleported back just far enough for the scythe to slice straight through her breastplate, leaving a deep gouge in her chest.
She fell back as everything burned, flames seemed to pour into her from every angle. Her HP points that were already low were no nosediving. She had to deactivate both of her boosting skill just to last through the HP drain the fire was causing, but there was still no relief. She barely managed to clash her bracers together, but the pain never stopped. She barely heard in the background someone yell, "Fuck off!"
----------------------------------------
Lucas's spear flashed two times in quick succession as his spear pierced through the enemy's chest. A quick keen eye let him know the name. "Your name is Quinn, are you a guy or a girl?" Lucas wasn't able to stop himself from asking the question. The person both Owen and Myra had lost against in the fight turned to stare at him. "Level 24? How is it even possible you are a part of this group. You're so weak."
They didn't even try to phrase it like a question, as disdain leaked through every word. Lucas watched closely as Quinn's whole body seemed to twitch for a moment. Both stab wounds instantly healed, leaving Lucas a mixture of confused and disappointed. "I'm not sure if you want to have done that, but I guess that's up to you." He said shrugging. Quinn stared at him confused, but in the next second both stab wounds exploded open, causing Quinn to stagger.
"The triumphant hero and future member of the Zodiac, slays the evil warrior using tricks and clever gadgets." Lucas narrated as his hands flashed and he made another several stabs in quick succession. Only one managed to penetrate Quinn's flesh, but in the next second another explosion forced them to take another step back. "You see, bombs make it very easy to kill things. Placing a bomb on the end of my spear with a skill, to then have it explode destroying their internal organs, makes it even easier."
As if waiting for those words, Quinn stood up taller and cracked their neck. "So, that was the trick, I'll keep it in mind for the future." Lucas grinned, no matter how fast they would be, he was confident he would be faster. Energy seemed to pour out in rivulets from Quinn's body and the air began to shimmer. Lucas stood ready and prepared a counter. He saw all of the muscles in Quinn's legs flex as they prepared to dash forward.
Everything went black.
----------------------------------------
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Owen wasn't feeling good, but he quickly scanned his 2 notifications.
*You have been inflicted with Firerot
You have been cured of Firerot*
He shook his head, everything still felt like he was running it under too hot water in a shower. He forced himself to stand despite Peggy's protests. He had a good understanding of how this fight was supposed to go, but as soon as he looked over, Lucas had begun stabbing Quinn several times, they managed to dodge several, but the ones they missed led to small explosions inside of their body. After several seconds both of their stances seemed to shift and without even being able to see the movement, Lucas was launched into one of the glass walls they had used to protect the guild.
He did not get up after landing, Peggy who looked worse for wear immediately rushed over to try and begin healing him, with Myra began a flurry of blows. Owen had already begun rushing in at this point, but he was surprised as Quinn was pushed further away from where Lucas landed. As Owen rushed in, he and Quinn made eye contact and no longer playing around swung a fist towards Myra who managed to dodge most of the damage, but it still sent her tumbling.
Owen didn't have any boosting skills, he didn't trust the special ability of keen eye would make up the difference, and his spear was broken. He knew the enemy had every advantage and despite himself he felt more alive in that moment that he ever remembered feeling as anger and rage coursed through him. This was his chance at a new life and actually be someone and he had felt like he had done it, he had friends, goals, and even a girlfriend now, but they were trying to take it away from him.
Even with advantages he was sure that they was little chance of him winning, but as Quinn sized up Owen's bodily condition. Owen opened the upgraded tutorial shop and flipped through the options. He had wanted to save it for something else, but without any better options he chose what he had picked as his first option. A plain looking spear dropped out of nowhere. One glance also told him that there wasn't anything special about the spear other than its durability.
Grabbing it with both hands, its end looked like it ignited as chaos and mana coated its edges. Staring at Quinn who had generously waited for Owen to be ready, Owen crouched down staring daggers at his opponent. "Round three," Quinn said, as they prepared to lunge forward and attack. Owen felt the mana surge as his opponent lunged forwards, while he couldn't see the movement very well, he could feel the mana move using his manipulation skill. Sending a burst of mana to his leg as jumped to the side caused Quinn to just barely miss his swing, but Owen hadn't. Letting his spear trail behind his jump had made it leave a small slash on Quinn's cheek and Owen realized something.
His perception was higher than Quinn's which meant that if Owen could barely see the movement, then Quinn must have been relying on the insane speed rather than actually seeing where they were going. He allowed himself to get into clash after clash, losing out in every encounter, but he had managed to prove his point. Every time he had moved faster than Quinn was expecting, they seemed surprised to have missed. Owen channeled even more energy into his mana manipulation as Quinn activated another boosting skill.
Owen couldn't help but prepare for his death as the energy coming off of Quinn was able to compete with the waves of energy released from the clashing chaos and mana energies dancing on the tip of his spear. Mana began to collect on the edge of Quinn's scythe extending it's reach, before Quinn disappeared from sight. Owen felt the fluctuations and pouring over a thousand mana into one of his legs, he kicked off the ground.
The power behind his kick off was too much and Owen was sure he broke his ankle, but turning he saw Quinn appear for less than a second before disappearing. He felt the mana begin to shift unusually behind him, with nothing to kick off of to dodge. Owen began pouring as much mana and chaos into the tip of his spear as possible. The energy was dangerously close to fully merging and without hesitation Owen turned his head and smiled towards his friends, uncertain if they would even see it.
A huge explosion rocked through the street, both buildings that had neighbored the clinic building having had enough damage dealt to them over time that they had both fully collapsed. A large shockwave crashed past several city blocks before the energy dissipated. The only one that had been mostly unaffected was Briar was quickly defended itself from the blast before rushing towards where a majority of the fighting had taken place.
It took several hours for Briar to located everyone, except Owen and his opponent, carefully dragging them out from under debris and placing them in a neat row. Briar nodded in satisfaction when they finally found the person Owen had been fighting. Several sections of their body were scattered across a span of a couple meters, with most of their chest being completely missing.
There was still no sign of Owen however. Several more tons of rubble would need to be cleared before they could say for certain that he was missing, but Briar was worried. The connection it felt to Owen was barely present anymore, which was not nearly enough to be able to find him with.
When Myra woke up from the blast she glanced around somewhat panicked, but saw that everyone that she had known from the fight was present including, the remains of the person that had almost killed all of them. The only person missing was Owen. The one surprising thing was that the recovery pill she had taken was still doing good work and her left arm was entirely healed. Still she had Briar searched for Owen, tearing through rubble to try and find him.
It ended up taking several hours of digging before they managed to find him, or at least what was left of him. His body was barely in a better state than his opponent's was. Several of his limbs weren't even in sight. The red bladed scythe had torn through his shoulder but hadn't made it much further, before the blast must've thrown them away from each other. When Myra moved close, she saw Owen's body shift slightly as a small smile grew on his face. "You're okay." He said in a whisper. Flames licked his wounds as Myra stared in shock.
She wasn't even sure how to react, before a notification joined a different one she hadn't even noticed.
*You have successfully slain Quinn - Level 54
25,000 experience gained.
You have gained 3000 credits*
*More than 100 people have reached level 50. Sponsors will now recall you to their realm if you have done a suitable job during this middle phase.*
"PEGGY GET THE FUCK OVER HERE, I FOUND OWEN" Myra felt panicked as she heard Peggy rushing closer. Owen had completely stopped moving other than small shallow breathe that let her know he was at least partially still alive.
"No you can't go," she sobbed as Peggy began trying to heal him, but the best she was able to do was begin closing several of his wounds. Thunder rocked in the distance as she clutched him. Peggy had to make her move several times, so that she could make sure Owen was getting healed.
Small sparkles of light began gathering around Myra's body and she watched in horror as her hand began passing through Owen's body. "No, fuck fuck fuck, not yet!" She screamed as she felt the aura of Ivar pulling her to his realm. She saw Peggy and Lucas begin to get pulled as well, but no lights gathered around Owen's body.
Before she could do anything else, the world shifted around her and she appeared in the middle of the wilderness sitting on the ground tears soaking her face. A man stood next to her with a large grin on his face. "You've made me proud, the last couple fights were rough, but you're a big fighter now." She stared up at Ivar, her sponsor and glared daggers. "You should've waited longer, now I won't have any idea whether he'll be safe or not."
The joviality in Ivar's face disappeared as he stared at her. "He was smiling right? I watched the whole thing, his path was destined for death to begin with. That's what happen when you play with chaos energy, but if he died with a smile, at least know it was how he wanted to go." Myra began trying to cut him down as he spoke, while he casually dodge d out of the way of each of her blows. "Besides, it looks like someone is pulling him to their realm." Myra stopped and Ivar allowed her to peer through the veil as tiny pin pricks of light collected around Owen.