Who the hell is this and how the fuck did he know I was behind him?
Zane stopped moments before he would have leapt at the stranger's back for his surprise attack. His thoughts whirled at the sudden rush of unexpected information.
[Jason - Level 37]
The man before him was someone he'd never seen before. He'd expected an unfamiliar face, but the one who was supposed to be here was Devon, not whoever the hell this was. The man was extremely portly for someone who was supposed to be level 37. Zane couldn't believe someone so unfit had managed to climb their way so high.
But even more confusing than that was how the man had not only detected Zane's completely concealed presence, but had also identified him before even turning to look.
I was told to confirm Devon's presence and eliminate him if possible, but what am I supposed to do now? If I report back that there's just some random dude here then I run the risk of looking like a fool and losing Val Kazar's trust entirely.
Before Zane could properly work out his thoughts the man named Jason pulled out a pair of ivory bone blades, one significantly longer than the other, and leapt into action. Zane desperately brought out his own weapon and defended.
Shit! I'll just have to take him down myself and wring some answers out of him!
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Devon's plan necessitated him keeping Zane off-kilter. The more information he overloaded the man with the less rational his actions would become. Devon needed Zane to be completely unable to make informed decisions, forcing him to focus solely on the opponent in front of him.
From the looks of the man, his ploy of calling out his name before turning to face him had been a success. The man barely managed to block Devon's initial attack, despite being the one who should have had the advantage of surprise.
Zane's weapon of choice was a crudely forged curved longsword made from a hazy blue metal. Its shape was reminiscent of the katanas the ancient earth samurai had used, but lacked almost all of the elegance of those weapons. Even so, the sight of it bothered Devon.
What the heck is that thing made of? By now I've seen just about every material available to the initiates, scavenged or system-bought, and that hazy blue metal is like nothing I've seen before. By the shoddy craftsmanship I can only assume it was made here in the tutorial, everything the system spits out is more or less perfectly crafted.
Devon stuck out with the shorter of the two bone blades while the longer was locked in place with Zane's sword. Zane quickly reacted and stepped out of range, trying to put space between them.
He'd been using the bone architect's blades in the presence of other people as a measure of caution. His spear was extremely flashy with its gold tint, and he wanted to minimize the amount of people who could identify it. Besides, the bone blades were just as sharp as the curved blade of the cursed king, and they had an E-grade arcane affinity to boot.
It was a little annoying that the blades had an arcane affinity instead of strength or dexterity, but it made sense when he considered how the bone architect had been more of a mage-fighter hybrid. Even without the affinity they were still some of the best weapons he'd seen within the confines of the tutorial when it came to cutting power.
However, Devon couldn't shake the feeling that using them the way the bone architect had done felt wrong. He wasn't accustomed to the style of fighting that came with dual blades, so he switched up his stance before he once again threw himself into combat.
He led hard and heavy with the bone longsword, pressing the offensive. He didn't bother capitalizing on any openings he saw in Zane's stance with the shorter blade as they clashed, not trusting his own unrefined technique. Instead, when Zane attempted to punish Devon when he overextended he used the quick movements of the bone shortsword to parry the blow.
They both stepped back, adjusting their footwork to regain their balance. Devon was about to step forward to once again attack when he saw a change in Zane.
The man's eyes hardened, and Devon intrinsically felt that he'd activated some sort of skill. The rugged katana swished through the air as Zane adjusted his footing and gripped the blade with both hands. The blade left afterimages in the space behind it as it moved, like frames of an animation suspended in place. They only lagged behind the blade for a moment, but it was enough to give the sight an ethereal feeling.
What the heck kind of skill is that? Why is he showing it off to me like this?
Every cell in Devon's body screamed caution. Even if he couldn't be compared to Eve, Zane was still the second highest leveled initiate in the tutorial. And though Devon in full form almost certainly outclassed Zane in stats from the immense gains he received through titles and plots, he was still only at about 70% output from his still-healing spirit. Even so, he didn't feel as though Zane was too superior when it came to physical stats, and he didn't have the air of a mage about him.
Devon still needed to play the role of aggressor, so he stepped in and led with a simple overhead chop. Zane parried the blow to the side, afterimages following his blade's every move, before slashing out along the length of the bone blade towards Devon.
Activate skill; Bone Breaker.
Devon moved the shortsword to intercept, aiming to smack the hazy blue sword down into the longer bone sword to lock it in place as Devon kicked forward with a Bone Breaker empowered foot. But where his shorter blade should have intersected the hazy blue sword, it met only air as the image of Zane's blade passed right through his bone weapon.
Desperately, Devon pushed his shorter blade back up as much as he could to block the trail of afterimages and felt the tip of the shortsword connect with solid metal as it met the last afterimage in the trail. The illusion of afterimages seemed to break into pieces as the trajectory of the true blade was intercepted.
But Devon's hasty movements hadn't truly blocked the oncoming slash, only deflected it slightly upwards. So instead of a slash that would have maimed his arm or chest, he now had to deal with a slash aimed straight at his face.
With both of his weapons out of position to block the incoming attack he let his legs give out from under him and twisted his core. Zane's blade just barely cut above his head as he fell. Devon kicked out one of his legs upwards, feeling the strength of bone breaker fill his kick.
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His foot connected with one of Zane's wrists, and Devon felt it bend unnaturally even with the minimal force he was able to put behind the kick from his position.
Devon's back hit the ground and he quickly rolled to the side, getting back to his feet as fast as possible. When he saw Zane had chosen to pop a healing pill instead of pursue with a fractured wrist Devon took the moment to analyze the skill the man had used on his sword.
An illusion-type skill. How annoying.
Most likely the skill let Zane freely change whether his true sword was the one that appeared physical or one of the afterimages left in its wake. The first block against Devon's sword had been a ploy to reassure him the main sword was still as it should be, leading to a deceptive slash that Devon hadn't anticipated.
Zane wielded his sword in a one handed grip while his wrist was healing and Devon saw the afterimages once again appear.
Even if it's an illusion, it still needs to be plausible or it shatters. The blade hides in the afterimages of an attack, the skill doesn't create something new. Which means he can't send out an illusion of an entirely fake attack, he has to commit to it at least a little to give the illusion substantial momentum.
He already used a healing pill as well, which means he values being able to fight at full performance rather than being able to stave off a debilitating injury.
From everything Devon had seen so far he surmised that Zane's fighting style was one of unrelenting offense backed by tricks and illusions meant to keep an opponent off-balance. Which meant Devon needed to continue to interrupt that rhythm with his own.
Devon rushed back in as Zane's wrist was still healing, not willing to give the man any breathing room.
Zane swung his sword in an arc, evidently trying to keep Devon at bay. Devon halted his momentum for an instant to let the blade swish harmlessly through the open space in front of him. Then, right before the last afterimage passed him by, the illusion shattered and Zane's sword thrust forward out of the afterimage toward his face.
He was ready for the trick, and leaned to the side while bringing the shortsword up to try and impale the man's arm. Zane quickly retracted his thrust, evading the shorter blade's reach.
Devon once again stepped forward and raised the longsword to bring it down on Zane. As he did he recited an activation phrase in his head.
Activate magic, Lightning Imbuement II.
He'd done testing since the battle with the apes to understand how the upgraded magic worked and he was quite satisfied with the results, though it still peeved him that such a simple condition had nearly screwed him in the fight against the bone architect.
Lightning arced out of the clear sky and connected itself to the bone longsword with a deafening boom. This was what he'd been missing before. In the ape's cave the ceiling had blocked the lightning's path, making the spell fizzle out uselessly.
Devon felt the abundant electrical charge in the air make his hair stand on end. The potency difference between the unupgraded and upgraded Lightning Imbuement was absurd. The mana cost was equally absurd, at 100 mana per cast. Even so, Devon was excited to finally have an opponent to test the spell against.
Zane desperately brought his blue blade up to block, and the two swords clashed in an explosion of arcing electricity. The electric charge traveled through the hazy blue metal into Zane's body, causing him to scream in pain as he violently convulsed.
Then something happened that Devon had not expected. The bone blade that had acted as the conduit for the immense electrical force exploded into a thousand pieces against Zane's sword.
The explosion blew Zane's stunned body back several feet until he slammed into a tree. As quickly as he could, Devon pulled the cursed king's spear out of his inventory and threw it like a javelin. If he could pin Zane to that tree then the matter would be settled right here and now.
Zane looked up, and Devon could see the flash of recognition in his eyes at the sight of the golden spear flying through the air. Then, in the space of less than a breath, the man was gone as though he'd never existed to begin with.
The golden spear impacted the tree with a heavy thud, but Devon didn't pay it any mind as he whipped out the golden curved sword that had been hidden under his leggings. He dashed forward, searching for any glimpse of the man.
After a minute of searching in futility Devon was forced to admit that the man had likely used some system-given means to escape. He retrieved his spear with a scowl and shoved it back into his inventory before he bent to pick up the discarded handle of the ruined bone sword.
The testing he'd done with Lightning Imbuement II had been done with his unbreakable weapons. He pondered on why the bone blade had broken as it had and was only able to come up with vague hypotheses.
It was possible Lightning Imbuement II stressed a weapon far harder than any imbuement magic he'd heard of, and he hadn't fully been able to grasp that when he'd tested it on unbreakable weapons. While this seemed extremely likely he wondered if that was all there was to it. The magic had seemed much more potent on the bone blade, as he'd expected it would due to the arcane affinity. However, he wondered if that meant it had forced the blade to bear an even larger burden.
To top it all off, the bone blades had never been made with durability in mind. They'd been fashioned from the bone architect's ability to freely mold them and, for all their sharpness, were less durable than most weapons of their own caliber.
He tossed the broken handle aside. The blade was broken and not worth spending any more time on. He felt glad he at least had a second bone blade to rely upon, even if it wasn't as long. Clearly, he needed to perform more extensive testing of all future skills and magics so he didn't keep making uninformed mistakes.
Devon still had a job to do. If his hunch was right then Phil should be somewhere close by. He needed to find the old man before Eve finished her fight. Turning in the direction of the thread Zane had snapped, he made his way into the underbrush of the forest, hoping to discover where Zane had come from.
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Zane landed in a heap in the center of Arkania next to the terminal.
He looked at his arm, still holding his sword, and scowled at the sight. The skin around his hand and forearm was extensively cracked and burned, but the damage lessened up his arm. His body was still wracked with spasms as he cursed internally.
Fuck! How could I have been pushed so hard by a mere level 37!? I can't believe I was forced to use the escape token I worked so hard for!
It made no sense. He had a rare class and some of the rarest titles in the tutorial. And yet that nobody had managed to beat him. He'd solo cleared a small dungeon and worked his ass off for a C rating to get the system to drop that token, and now he'd already used it.
No, not a nobody. I'm sure of it now, I've seen that golden spear before.
It was a weapon that was almost impossible to miss with how gaudy it was. He vividly remembered wondering where it had come from when he'd seen the man called Gregor, one of Trey's closest confidants, emerge from the murderous Ray's burrow.
The thought that it could have simply been lent out crossed his mind and was instantly discarded. Nobody would part with such a valuable tool, and it didn't make sense why he wouldn't have led with it as his primary weapon if that was the case.
No, all of that man's actions had been planned and coordinated, meant to keep Zane guessing as to his identity. But now Zane knew.
That was Devon, the most elusive man in the tutorial. He must have a skill that lets him disguise himself, and that spear is his weapon of choice. The bone blades were just to throw me off, that's evident from how easily they were used as sacrificial pieces to use that skill to its fullest extent.
It was the only thing that made sense.
If I let him get away now he'll slip into the crowd and I may never get a chance at him again.
Waiting… Connection established.
[Zane]
He's there. Send them.
[Val Kazar]
Good.