As of right now, Sam was heading toward his little human 'distraction' to check the situation. Though he still hadn't opened his notification window, every time the system rang in his mind, he made a mental note of how many times the notification sound popped up. He had received five notifications so far, indicating that the man who fell into the pitfall trap somehow survived the blood loss.
It took no second thought for Sam to know that one of the man's teammates had come to his rescue and probably healed him using a health potion. Sam had intentionally lured the man into the pitfall trap to create a distraction, but he had hoped the man would simply die from blood loss. Well, it wasn't really a problem; it just meant he would need to finish the job himself this time.
It didn't take long for him to arrive at the scene. Behind a tree not far from the pitfall trap, Sam observed the wounded rogue lying on the ground, accompanied by two of his teammates. One of them seemed to be the leader, wearing a jet black cloak and a smiling white mask covering his face.
Sam watched them with eyes that resembled the gaze of a beast, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike. Time passed. A while later, the leader left and went in the opposite direction from Sam's position, while the other rogue seemed to be trying to cover his wounded teammate with a bunch of grass and a big bush. It was a pretty good camouflage strategy; even Sam might not have noticed it if he had arrived a bit later. Unfortunately for them, he had already watched every single thing that happened without missing any details.
'Now, will you leave or stay I wonder.' Sam thought, still looking at them.
When the rogue finished covering his wounded friend, he looked around for a few seconds before leaving the place, following the rogue leader's direction.Seeing the chance to strike, Sam silently walked toward the camouflaged rogue. His initial plan to finish him off was to throw his wooden spear at him like the others he had killed, but with many trees blocking his shot, he decided to kill him at close range. In no time, Sam was one step away from the unsuspecting man.Sam took out one of his wooden spears from his back and gripped it firmly. As he thrust his spear into the 'bush', the empty space on his left began to ripple out of nowhere and became unstable. Not having enough time to process what was happening, a man wearing a smiling mask emerged from the unstable space and quickly struck his side. A wave of pain snapped Sam out of his dazed state. Clenching his teeth, he immediately leaped backward and slammed his back into a tree.
Staggered, he gasped for air from the force of slamming into the tree. Without missing a heartbeat, he began to take out the daggers from his left thigh and shoulder. Since he had already been caught red-handed by the enemy, he didn't care about leaving a blood trace anymore. It was going to be an all-out battle now, and any weapon besides his broken wooden spear would definitely help.
Whoever this rogue leader was, he was far from an amateur. He had intentionally left his wounded teammate and immediately gone away, making Sam believe he was out of danger. The moment Sam got overconfident, he became careless and was perfectly caught in a trap laid by the smiling masked man.
~~~
The moment before Sam arrived, Yu was cooking up many plans in his mind. Not knowing when or where his group would be attacked, he decided to lure the attacker using his wounded teammate as bait. He didn't feel remorseful for using him this way; if the plan worked as intended, it would be a small price to pay. Yu would start by making it look like he simply went deep into the forest. In reality, when he was 10 meters away from his bait, he took cover in some bushes and activated his camouflage skill. Not long after three minutes had passed, one of his skills alerted him to an intruder around the 'mark' he had left behind. Wickedly grinning from side to side, he immediately activated his teleportation mark and teleported.
The enemy rogue appeared just as his wounded teammate had described. He had two daggers in his body, one in his shoulder and the other in his left thigh. His focus on endurance and agility seemed accurate since he took a strike to his side unfazed and quickly leaped backward, his leaping speed akin to that of a rogue. With only a bunch of wooden spears strapped to his back, it ultimately didn't matter much anymore. What mattered was that he was perfectly caught in Yu's trap, and Yu was going to enjoy torturing the man for a long time.
Firstly, Yu checked on his camouflaged teammate to see whether he was still alive. Once sure, he turned his attention to the man now gripping a dagger in each hand.
Smiling, Yu charged toward the man like an arrow flying through the air. In no time, he was in front of the man and quickly slashed at him, aiming to cut off his left arm. To his surprise, the man managed to avoid the strike by stepping back and turning his body to the left. The slash completely missed the initial target, only slightly grazing the man's chest. Despite his surprise, Yu didn't miss a beat and continued to attack ferociously. He aimed to incapacitate the man by severing his arm and restricting his movement with increasing wounds over time.
Unfortunately for Yu, it wasn't easy to take the man's arm off, and his strategy of restricting movement also failed. The man seemed completely unfazed by the increasing number of wounds all over his body, blocking and dodging Yu's barrage of attacks.
The entire fight was frustrating and only worsened as the man started to fight back. As Yu clashed with the man's counterattacks, neither of them sustained any serious injuries. At one point, both stepped back a few meters from each other, entering a standstill.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
~~~
During the start of the fight, Sam had gone completely defensive, analyzing his opponent's attack pattern. Once he memorized the pattern, he immediately switched to offense and start counterattacking.
For some reason, the masked man didn't target his vital points, instead trying to take off his hands or arms with ferocious strikes. Although Sam managed to dodge most of the fatal strikes, he was still covered in wounds.
While the wounds didn't threaten his life or hinder his movement much, they stung like hell.
As he switched to offense, both struck at each other like there was no tomorrow, using any means necessary such as attacking, dodging, blocking, countering, feinting. Neither managed to land a fatal or incapacitating blow.
The standstill was a good moment for Sam to catch his breath and recover. Luckily for him, even without healing potions, he could slowly regenerate all his wounds due to his warrior spirit's passive effect. The masked man, on the other hand, had already chugged down two healing potions.
Once they felt recovered enough, they charged at each other again. This time, the fight was even more intense, with neither backing down. Sam felt the frustration in the masked man grow throughout the fight until finally, the masked man unleashed a series of fatal strikes aimed at his vital points.
The forest around them was filled with the sounds of metal clashing and slashing through the air. Sparks flew every once in a while from the colliding dagger strikes. The chilling night wind blew through the dense forest leaves, causing them to rustle and sway as if they were alive, watching their fierce battle with interest.
"Hey! Let's stop fighting for a moment yeah?" Sam shouted.
*SWOOSH!*
The sounds of daggers cut through the air flying toward Sam and missed hitting the target for the umpteenth time.
"Oi! Relax! Can you just talk like a normal person?!" Sam shouted with an annoyed voice.
"What's there to talk about with a soon to be dead filthy rat?" The smiling masked man yelled back.
"There's so many things to talk about!! Such as why the fuck are you so hellbent on killing me you asshole!?" Sam replied.
"Why? Why?? Asking that question alone is one of the reasons why I will kill you in the most painful way!" The smiling masked man shouted at Sam in anger.
"You're fucking crazy! Of course I ask why, I didn't know what's the problem!! Did I fucked your wife or something for you to be that mad??"
"YOU BASTARD!!" The smiling masked man roared in anger.
Sam immediately saw the man charge straight at him. Not surprised, Sam continue on doing what he did throughout the fight before by simply reacting to his opponent attack pattern. The reason why he asked the question was because he genuinely didn't know what caused the man so hellbent on trying to take him down. He really wanted to know why all of the hostile group he met really hellbent wanted him dead, well hostile group wanting to kill the others is not that surprising but if it's to this point it's not normal.
Since the conversation with the smiling masked man lead to nowhere, Sam decided to just end the fight and take his life.
During the fight, at one point Sam finally left his body wide open purposely. Like a moth to a flame the masked man wasted no chances and stab his right dagger deep in Sam stomach. Happy that he finally got one of his fatal strikes deep inside his opponent stomach, he tried to do a follow up strike with his left dagger aiming to ripped his enemy head apart from his body by severing his neck.
Unknown to Yu, the purpose of why Sam let him stab him had only been to occupy his right hand and gives him the sense of victory that soon will be taken away from him.
Before Yu can even get into a striking motion with his left hand, Sam quickly grab the man head with both hand and proceed to knocked the wind out of him by launching a knee strike to his opponent solar plexus.
Gasping for air, Yu didn't know what just happened. But before Yu can even think, another strike came again straight to his solar plexus making his attempt to breath even more difficult.
As Sam repeatedly strike his opponent solar plexus, the man finally fell down to the ground gasping desperately for and and letting both of his weapon go.
With his opponent lying on the ground defenseless, he decided to end his life by stabbing a dagger into his head. The moment he's about thrust his dagger he got "interrupted" once again with a knife lodge deep in his neck and another on his back.The two rogues that missing for awhile, suddenly came out of nowhere and struck a fatal blow to Sam, at least that's what they believed.
They looked at the man they struck, besides of flinching a little bit from their sudden attack, the man didn't show any other reaction other than the cold looking eyes that gazing between the two of them with an eerie smile. The rogue who's stabbed the man deep inside his neck originally intended to end the man's life by stabbing the dagger into his head but at the last moment the man moved slightly making the strike went into the neck instead of the head
Feeling something went horribly wrong, the two rogues decided to immediately get back but unfortunately they're one step too late. The man's body suddenly get covered with a bluish aura, he quickly grab each of their arm tightly and proceed to slam both of them hard into the ground repeatedly.
*BOOM!*
*BOOM!*
*BOOM!*
The ground cracked and shattered from the strong force caused by Sam slamming the two rogues into the ground like a sledge hammer.
Sam had already expected their sudden attack long before he defeated the mask man. During his fierce clashed, he thought about how weird that he didn't see any other rogues beside the mask man, there should be 2 more rogues that capable to engage in a fight but they seemed to be missing like they're not even here in the first place. So, he thought that maybe they'll launch a sudden sneak attack when he completely let his guard down and goddamn he's right about it. When he's about to end the masked man life, his brain suddenly went full alert and he slightly moved his body instinctively.
Taking out the knife from his neck and back, Sam take a looked at the disfigured rogues lying on the ground filled with splatter of blood.
"Holy shit, it's a good thing i put all of my free points into my endurance stats. If not, im probably dead right now." Sam muttered to himself in relief.
As Sam tried to relax for a bit, the masked man suddenly open his mouth.
"You.. fucking.. rat! How could.. you be.. still alive!?" The masked man said with heavy breathing.
"Endurance stats, man. It kept me alive from physical trauma, you can't hurt me, foolish rogue."
"You're.. fucking.. disgusting!" The masked man howl.
Sam ignored the insult thrown at him. He thought about what to do for awhile and he got an idea. The current situation seemed pretty good to have a proper conversation with the weird man. Sam looked at the man dead in the eyes and cracked a smile.
"Say whatever you want. Now, let's have a proper conversation shall we?"