Whether it was because he couldn’t be bothered to entertain Ackster’s provocation or because he fell for it, Hansel thrust his spear again and stayed on the offensive with repeated jabs aimed at Ackster’s torso, head, and legs.
Ackster just barely managed to stay away from the sharp, mana-amplified speartip by using Keen Senses, Strong Body, and Battlesight.
Willow, Tenrick, and the other adventurers cleared out of their path and began their own fights against the rest of the Crimson Edge and the adventurers on their side. But as long as no one bothered Ackster and Hansel, they couldn’t care about what anyone else was doing.
Well, Hansel could if he wanted to. He just wanted to focus on piercing Ackster and turning him into Swiss cheese while relying on the other members of his group to have his back in case anyone decided to interfere. Unlike Ackster, Hansel was confident Tenrick and Willow wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.
Ackster, on the other hand, didn’t have much of a choice when it came to ignoring their surroundings. It took his all just to keep Hansel from skewering him. And anything his senses picked up on the outskirts of the tunnel that was his vision were more important things like Hansel’s attack patterns and if there were any roots or stones that could trip him if he wasn’t careful.
Hansel’s thrusts, as simple as they looked, were growing increasingly difficult to dodge and avoid.
Since Hansel had reinforced the spear with mana, Ackster didn’t consider blocking it, even with his gauntlets. Instead, his best bet to win the fight would be to drag Hansel into a space where his spear was too unwieldy or try and circumvent it somehow.
It was just that Hansel, considering he had enough leeway to see what Ackster was doing, controlled the fight and where Ackster could move. He couldn’t pin down Ackster, which frustrated him immensely, but he could limit the directions he could dodge and eventually lead him to a dead end.
Ackster, although focused on the increasing opacity of the layer of mana around the spear, noticed that Hansel concentrated most of his thrusts to one side. And when he followed his jabs up with another attack, it was usually a vertical or diagonal slash on the same side. If Ackster wanted to dodge those, he only had one option.
Since it was his first real fight against a person with some kind of combat intelligence, it took Ackster several intense moments of narrowly avoiding the spear before he noticed the pattern.
However, even after noticing Hansel’s intentions, there wasn’t much Ackster could do since he was still doing his all to avoid getting chopped to pieces. Even then, he was still getting his face and training equipment nicked. And the spear cutting through his shirt and pants like butter was all the encouragement Ackster needed not to let it touch him, at least not any more than absolutely necessary.
Ackster and Hansel entered a repetitive exchange of Ackster narrowly dodging and Hansel narrowly missing. But with Hansel gradually pushing Ackster to a corner only he could see, the simple fight was drawing to an eventual end if Ackster didn’t do something about it.
‘If he can see where I’m going, but I can’t, I just need to look at where he is looking.’
Ackster was already mostly occupied with watching Hansel’s and his spear’s movements. So, extending his vision and adding Hansel’s eyes to what he was keeping track of would be challenging.
But Ackster could do it.
Even if he was pushing himself not to get pinned down by Hansel, he was getting more and more used to Hansel’s movements. And he was doing it at a faster rate than Hansel’s mana was deepening in color. And while he was using Strong Body, Keen Senses, and Battlesight as much as he needed to, he wasn’t going all out.
At their current ranks, Keen Senses and Battlesight couldn’t do much more. But Strong Body had yet to hit a clear wall in usability. Ackster also had a trump card up his sleeve that he could pull out if his situation turned dire.
Hansel also wasn’t going all out just yet. If Ackster had to guess, it would have something to do with the gradually thickening color of his mana. Hansel probably had a skill that required build-up to unleash its full strength.
Though, if Hansel deserved his reputation, he probably had more than one skill in his repertoire. So, if Ackster weren’t careful, he could be overwhelmed and killed by a sudden torrent of skills from Hansel. And if he were unlucky, Limit Breaker wouldn’t be enough to resist.
But before that, Ackster would do his best to interfere in Hansel’s plan while playing along.
He couldn’t rush and press the attack against Hansel the same way he had done when killing monsters and beasts. Hansel was too good and strong, at least for the current Ackster, for that to succeed. The best outcome Ackster could hope for was mutual destruction.
That was unless he could turn the situation around somehow.
And, based on Hansel’s poorly hidden smug expression and growing confidence shining in his eyes, the opportunity Ackster needed was coming up soon. He just had to prepare, be patient, and be ready.
He leaned, ducked, bobbed, and weaved to dodge Hansel’s thrusts, jabs, slashes, and strikes. He occasionally let the spear graze him and his clothes to control the situation as much as possible. Since he got a bad feeling whenever Hansel’s spear drew blood, he tried to keep the cuts as shallow as possible. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to keep them to only cutting his clothes.
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But Ackster was still confident he would survive in the end. He didn’t have a choice. He had already wasted a lot of time getting used to Hansel’s movements. And since he knew it wouldn’t be over, even if he beat Hansel, Ackster also knew he would have to succeed. If he didn’t, he would lose out on one of the cards that could flip the endgame in his favor.
Ackster removed the option of losing here from his mind.
When Hansel’s moves increased grew more intense, and Hansel furrowed his brow slightly, Ackster worried that he had caught on to Ackster catching on to his plan to drive him into a corner. But Ackster realized Hansel wasn’t glaring at him as if he had disrupted his plans. He was still looking past him and focusing intently on what was behind him.
Ackster wondered what Hansel was driving him toward, especially now that he was concentrating so hard. But maybe it was because Hansel simply subconsciously wanted to guarantee success, or his skills sustaining the blood-red spear took more concentration than Ackster thought.
The glade was simple, with trees a few meters tall. Most of the leaf-covered branches were at the top, in the canopies, but, now and then, there were a few Ackster and Hansel had to power through or duck under.
The ground was also mostly grass and small soft bushes up to their ankles, with the occasional root or stone poking up and tickling their feet. So, there shouldn’t be many things that Hansel could be targeting and wanting to use to overwhelm Ackster.
Unfortunately, Ackster was a little too preoccupied with fighting Hansel and couldn’t think of all the possibilities of what it could be. He could only wait and see and hope it was something he could deal with using Limit Breaker and Strong Body.
At least, based on Hansel’s growing concentration, he wouldn’t have to wait long before he could see what awaited him.
It came even quicker than Ackster had expected.
Out of nowhere, he stepped on something that broke with a dry cracking sound. He had stepped on enough branches to know it wasn’t one. The sensation on his foot also told him it wasn’t a branch. But before he could even try to guess what it was, Hansel drove him another step back with a grin and vivid red spear.
That step brought Ackster’s other foot down on another thing that cracked beneath his weight. But unlike the first object, which could have been mistaken for something like a branch this time, he stepped on something larger. He could guess what it was, but Ackster still glanced down and dared a peek to confirm.
It was risky, considering Hansel’s relentless and intensifying assault. But he had to confirm, even if only to know what awaited him further down this path.
What he saw didn’t surprise Ackster that much, at least not the thing itself. What was surprising, however, was the state of the corpse and its arm and ribcage he had stepped on.
‘No wonder it felt strange.’
The corpse was nothing but a dry husk of bone and weathered, paper-like skin. Ackster was pretty sure mummies would look like this without their bandages.
He instinctively continued retreating to avoid Hansel’s charge.
“Is that all you know how to do?! Dodge like a fucking coward?!”
Seemingly having driven Ackster to the place he wanted, Hansel saw no reason to continue engaging in their game of cat and mouse. He taunted Ackster for whatever reason.
Ackster was wary of Hansel’s decision to cease his series of attacks now instead of using Ackster’s surprise at the corpses to launch an even greater one. But he appreciated the brief respite. Any time Hansel got to prepare, Ackster got just the same.
He looked around and confirmed the almost dozen corpses spread out in various poses and states of destruction around a dense lump of tens of trees. Or what had been a dense lump of trees. Someone had cut down several of them. And if the devastating signs of damage were any indication, they had done so with incredible force.
Ackster combined the bad feeling he got every time Hansel’s spear drew blood, the red color of the Crimson Edge, the dried husks, Hansel knowing about this place, and the state of their surroundings.
He still didn’t know what Hansel was playing at, but he knew it wasn’t good, and he should finish up as quickly as possible before the sounds of battle from the other adventurers died down. He also figured out that Hansel was strong and probably grew stronger by consuming the blood of his foes.
Ackster still wondered why Hansel had bothered chasing him all the way here, but he was about to find out.
“No.”
Ackster gripped his own shirt collar.
“I know how to do a lot of things, such as not exposing all my habits to my enemy before the fight has even begun, you fucking idiot. Did some schmuck with water for brains teach you to tell your opponent what your plan is with your entire face? Or are you just that overconfident that you didn’t think I knew what you were up to?”
Ackster glared at Hansel as he berated him. He tightened the grip on his shirt and yanked on it, ripping it apart.
“Are you telling me you willingly followed me here? Despite knowing what I was scheming? I don’t know if you’re foolish or if you’re the overconfident one. But I guess I will find out now.”
Hansel gripped his spear tightly and brought the tip to the side opposite his main hand, preparing for a half-circle horizontal slash. He glared at Ackster while controlling his emotions and letting them fuel the blazing mana on his spear.
“I guess we both will find out what we want, then. You’ll get the answer to your question. And I’ll know how to counter and kill your companions.”
Ackster held the pieces of his shirt in one hand while giving his pants the same treatment with his other. He ripped them off his legs using the structural weaknesses Hansel’s cuts had given them.
Several tears of the pants fell to the ground with suspiciously heavy thumps, enough to make Hansel narrow his eyes as he looked at the pile of weirdly thick and padded clothing in Ackster’s hands. But he had no reason to fear. What danger could an exhibitionist pose, especially one that had been powerless in front of his cattle driving and had been posturing around like a rooster since the beginning?
The bristling and blazing blood-red mana on Hansel’s spear flickered like a light in the wind and gathered on the spear blade’s edge. Without hesitating, Hansel swung out with his weapon and sent the concentrated bright scarlet crescent mana toward Ackster.
Ackster tossed his bundle of clothes high in the air. Hansel subconsciously followed the movement with his eyes since he had identified the clothes as something of interest.
He quickly realized his mistake and looked at Ackster since he wanted to see the cocky bastard get split in half by his Blood Moon Manual’s Crescent Slash.