Ackster wasn’t where Hansel had last seen him.

“Where’d he go–”

Hansel caught a blur at the bottom layer of his vision.

“Right here, motherfucker.”

Ackster’s fist accompanied his voice as he appeared from beneath Hansel’s chin.

Ackster had thrown his clothes into the air as a diversion and dropped to the ground before dashing forward like shot out of a cannon. Liberated from his weighted training equipment, unfettered, Ackster was like a horse given wings as he flew across the ground. The short distance between him and Hansel vanished in the blink of an eye.

If it weren’t for his already warmed-up Keen Senses and the blood-red crescent light cleaving the air and triggering his Battlesight, Ackster’s speed would have overwhelmed him and taken away the golden opportunity it had bestowed upon him.

If the speed Ackster could unleash now that he had removed the training equipment surprised even him, it would definitely surprise Hansel as well, who, despite—or maybe because of—Ackster’s boastful attitude, thought lowly of him. And, as he had expected, as soon as he realized how free and powerful his body felt without the clothes weighing him down, Ackster landed an uppercut straight to Hansel’s chin with enough force to lift his entire body and disrupt his stance.

Ackster’s punch clamped Hansel’s jaw shut with enough force to chip off the tip of his tongue. It fell to the ground in a depressing arc, accompanied by a few drops of blood.

Hansel nearly lost his balance as his feet returned to the ground, disoriented as he was from Ackster’s mind-rumbling punch. But he stayed standing and instinctively gripped his spear. He would surrender one of his advantages as soon as he let go of it.

Ackster didn’t wait for Hansel to regain his bearings and landed another blow to his midsection. Hansel was just a hair too slow in guarding, and Ackster’s quick and heavy fist knocked the air out of him.

But Hansel wasn’t a reputed veteran adventurer for nothing. He didn’t crumple, and his posture remained mostly intact, despite not being able to breathe. And before Ackster could try to land a third strike, Hansle spun the spear in his one hand, pointing it at Ackster while guarding his body and solidifying his balance with the other.

Hansel forced himself to stay calm and not panic from the oxygen loss as he tried to force Ackster back using his spear. He could barely concentrate enough to apply a weak layer of mana to the spear. And it was almost disrupted by the alarmingly loud impact of Ackster’s clothes crashing to the ground.

Ackster clicked his tongue. He hadn’t expected Hansel to recover so quickly or take that uppercut so easily. He had wanted to press the attack further and drive Hansel into the ground while he had the chance. It was unfortunate that Limit Breaker hadn’t activated.

But it also made sense. Without the training equipment, Ackster’s body was no longer as heavy. He could move freely and much quicker than before. He didn’t know how much stronger and faster he was now that he had discarded the training equipment. He didn’t know what his limits were.

And unless he inadvertently stumbled upon them—his limits— while trying to exert all of his strength, Limit Breaker wouldn’t even meet the bare minimum requirements for activation.

Ackster didn’t think he could guarantee a quick win against Hansel, even without the training equipment, unless he could get Limit Breaker to push his body further and unleash even more of the dormant strength it was capable of displaying for a befitting price.

Fortunately, there was a simple and straightforward way to reach his limits and get Limit Breaker to activate properly. Ackster just had to go all out.

So, he ignored Hansel’s still feeble attempt at swinging his spear to chase Ackster back until he could catch his breath. His speed without the training equipment and boosted by Sprint had taken both Ackster and Hansel by surprise.

Ackster was looking forward to what it could do if he broke past his body’s limit. He darted from side to side, taunting Hansel a little and warming up his legs and ankles so they were ready for the impact when he began running full speed in circles around Hansel. He wasn’t fast enough to leave afterimages, unfortunately. If anything, he was only making himself dizzy. So, even if Hansel was getting just as dizzy by swiveling his head like a weather vane in a storm, it wasn’t worth it.

Instead, Ackster began running in straight lines back and forth across the corpse-ridden area of the forest just out of sight of the dome. He tried to dash around without a pattern, and when he saw an opening, he would flit in like a butterfly and land a quick jab wherever he could.

The more he moved, the better grasp he got of his body’s capabilities and its movements. Keen Senses and the sensory amplification provided by Strong Body also got used to the new world of speed Ackster had entered. Fortunately, it was slight enough of a jump from his previous slowness under the training equipment that he could adapt in the middle of a fight.

Unfortunately, it still took enough time for Hansel to regain his breath, and he gripped his spear with both hands and braced for Ackster.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So all you can do is run.”

Ackster discarding his clothes and unleashing a new level of speed was surprising, but Hansel could still see Ackster and his movements with his naked eyes, so he wasn’t afraid and didn’t lose his composure. Hansel would have never gotten as far as he had, with or without the shortcuts he used, if he was startled and revealed openings for something as simple as an opponent revealing a trump card.

And if Ackster’s bare chest and legs were any indication, he didn’t have any more clothes to discard so that he could reveal and unleash even more of his strength. He also didn’t have any visible items adorning his neck, wrists, ankles, or ears. Of course, there was still a place hidden by his underwear where Ackster could have attached magic items and artifacts as a final trump card.

Hansel accepted it as a definite possibility, both because of Ackster’s attitude that didn’t care about anything or anyone around him and because he couldn’t accept the reality where the bulge was all-natural.

After catching his breath and regaining his composure, Hansel reinforced his spear with a sturdy layer of mana again. It wasn’t as vibrant as when he had unleashed the crescent slash, but it glowed and reflected in Ackster’s eyes as he stared Hansel down after his comment.

“At least I’m not a grown man playing with sticks.”

Ackster could see Hansel was going to retort, so he dashed forward again. Although he didn’t have the training equipment to protect him from the mana-reinforced spear, those clothes hadn’t done much to protect him. He bet on himself being capable of avoiding any lethal strikes while engaging in close-quarters combat.

Hansel thrust his spear to meet Ackster’s advance. Ackster subconsciously formed a grin.

Hansel shoving his spear forward and trying to poke Ackster with it was the kind of attack he had used the most. And by now, it was becoming useless in front of Ackster.

Ackster had learned what kind of steps Hansel took, how he flexed his arms and shoulders, how he twisted his torso, and how he looked at where he was aiming each time he prepared for a thrust. Even if Ackster hadn’t figured out Hansel always led his attacks with some kind of charge or thrust, he could still see what he was going to do by looking at what his body did.

So, Ackster dodged Hansel’s thrust before the spear even moved forward, and he did it without Battlesight. Keen Senses still played a major role in helping him see what he needed to see, but he could have done the same with a little more training, even without Keen Senses working overtime.

Ackster sidestepped to the side, and Hansel’s spear breezed past him. Then, to dodge the horizontal slash he knew was coming, Ackster continued to the side while closing the distance using his newfound level of speed.

When Hansel realized it would be impossible to attack Ackster due to how quickly the latter was approaching, he gave up on the attack and retracted his spear and held it diagonally to block Ackster’s fist.

Hansel’s quick reaction didn’t bother Ackster.

Even if he managed to put his spear between them and block his fist, Ackster just needed to either go around the spear or punch so hard that the spear’s presence didn’t matter.

And, considering Hansel could block another attack if he tried to readjust the path of his fist, Ackster decided to go with the brute force method. He had discarded his gauntlets when he got rid of the rest of his training equipment since he didn’t want anything to weigh him down. And since he had used them to avert several of Hansel’s spear strikes, they weren’t in a very usable state.

But even with bare hands, Ackster had nothing holding him back. Broken bones would heal and regrow stronger. And his hands weren’t the only thing he could use to attack. So, he would willingly sacrifice a fist or two to get rid of Hansel’s spear.

Ackster stopped right in front of Hansel, his feet latching on the ground and his toes burrowing into it to get a vice-grip that he could use as leverage while amassing torque and momentum to unleash a haymaker powerful enough to break the red wooden shaft of Hansel’s spear.

Time slowed down for Ackster as he felt all of his senses concentrate on the movement of his muscles, tendons, joints, and bones to maximize the destructive power he could unleash. All the way from his toes, calves, knees, thighs, hips, abdomen, torso, and shoulders up to his neck and head. His body united and used every single muscle fiber and cell to gather force and power before sending it straight down his arm into his clenched fist.

Ackster’s mind was blank as the sensation of the punch was all he saw and felt. Even the world around him faded. The only things in his cognition were himself, his fist, the power behind it, and his target, which wasn’t the spear.

He was punching Hansel with the intention of breaking the spear, but he wasn’t aiming for the spear itself. He was going to break through the spear and reach Hansel. After all, what good would it do if he simply broke a spear without injuring or hitting Hansel?

Ackster’s knuckles hit the spear shaft and, without stopping or even slowing down, began bending it. It was only when the spear shaft began looking like the crescent slash Hansel had unleashed that the resistance of the wooden handle caught up with Ackster’s fist.

Like a bowstring, the spear shaft threatened to snap back in place and send Ackster’s fist flying like an arrow.

Ackster could feel his hand slowing down and losing its momentum. The spear pushed back. Ackster gritted his teeth.

His shoulder bulged, the individual muscle fibers showing through the skin and the veins on his upper body and arm popping.

Ackster’s muscles and strength began losing out to the spear’s tensility and flexibility. Despite Ackster’s perfect punch gathering all of the strength he could unleash at the moment, it wasn’t enough.

He had reached his limits.

Ackster’s eyes lit up, and his stubbornly gritted teeth transformed into a vicious grin as he could feel the chains wrapping around his body and muscle—the chains that only appeared when he wanted to do something his body was incapable of—loosen up. They weren’t completely gone. But they faded a little and gave Ackster’s body enough room to exert even more strength.

Limit Breaker, true to its name, broke through Ackster’s limits.

With the power freed by Limit Breaker, Ackster’s fist powered forward again like a bull and ignored the spear’s futile resistance.

The spear cracked and, less than a moment later, splintered and shattered due to the sudden release of the built-up tension.

Like a dam had burst, Ackster’s fist blasted forward and straight into Hansel’s ribs.

Ackster heard several satisfying crunches as his fist broke into Hansel’s left ribcage.