That was one hell of a fight, manslayer. You better have some good skills after everything you put me through. A fraction of a heartbeat later, Edge’s consciousness followed the black chains, and he was drawn inside Warren’s core.

He found himself standing in front of a small, well-maintained farm. There was an orchard of pear trees growing along one side of the property, and tall rows of corn arranged along the other. He could see a big barn and a farmhouse in the distance, with a river running behind them.

Warren’s core was peaceful, rustic, and surprisingly pleasant. It wasn’t anything like what Edge had been expecting, and he honestly wasn’t sure what to make of what he was seeing. He shrugged, then turned his attention to the task at hand.

He wasn’t here to learn about the mortally wounded man, let alone admire the view. He was here to take what he could, while he still had the chance.

He was hoping to steal three good skills before the bounty hunter died, unless [Extraction] killed him first. Either way, Edge needed to work fast. He could see a half dozen skills from where he stood, and more were ranging further out. All of them were high-rank, and several seemed to be uncommon or rare.

He didn’t have time to inspect Warren’s skills at his leisure. It wouldn’t be long until the man breathed his last, even in this mysterious space where time trickled past. He needed to make his first pick fast and then come back for another.

That being said, he couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity either. Before he did anything else, he swept his gaze across the core, trying to see if any of Warren’s skills stood out above the rest.

The moment that he took a closer look, Edge knew that something was wrong. The sky along the horizon was burning, and the flames were headed his way fast. A crackling conflagration was spreading across the interior of the core in a flash, tinged with an aura of gold-grade aether. The pear trees were already burning, and the farmstead was next.

He had never seen anything like it before and wasn’t sure what he should do. That was when he realized that his chains were afraid. Skill-Eater conveyed an impression to him—warning him to leave this place while he still could. He knew in that moment that something terrible was happening. Something that would kill him if he didn’t get away.

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When he remembered the manslayer’s last words and the fact that time moved so slowly in this place, Edge thought that he understood what was going on. “Shit.” It seemed that the battle for his life wasn’t over yet after all.

Warren just activated another magtech implant. Judging by how fast his core is being consumed, it must be some manner of bomb. The sadistic bastard must have installed it so that he could end his own life if he was dying anyway. Even if the other person survived the blast, they’d lose all his loot, Mortium, and the experience from winning the fight.

It meant that Edge’s existence was in imminent danger. Within a fraction of a second once he left the core, or another minute or so if he stayed, the explosion was going to blow him to bits. Not to mention destroy everything that he stood to gain. He fought down the urge to panic, knowing that a single mistake would lead to his death, but unwilling to surrender his claim.

In the time it took him to reach this conclusion, the golden destruction had spread. Half the sky was burning bright, as the bounty hunter’s core was eaten away by a coruscating wave of aether. The farm was ablaze, and the corn was burning, along with several skills that were slow to get out of the way.

Edge had to escape if he wanted to live. But there was no way that he was leaving emptyhanded.

Since he didn’t have time for a lengthy hunt, he ordered his chains to grab the closest skill—a fat globe of water that was floating in the air. He was lucky that the living links could catch non-solid states of matter, or he would have had to flee with no skills at all.

Sensing his urgency, the black chains struck, wrapping around the ball of fluid and dragging it out of the core. While they were busy, Edge finished planning out his next move.

The instant that he snapped back into his skin, he activated shadow step and then leapt as high as he could, just as the last vestige of [Overdrive] flickered and faded away, leaving him running on fumes.

The ultimate-boosted skill combo sent him rocketing through the air at an incredible rate, half a heartbeat before Warren’s body exploded with the force of an artillery shell. Edge’s chains tossed the skill into his mouth as a plume of golden flame reached out to engulf him.

His world disappeared into searing aether, eating away at his skin. Since he had nothing better to do while he waited to see if he would live or die, Edge began to chew.

When he tried to bite down, some strange force kept his jaws from closing. He didn’t have the strength to fight it, but since the skill was made of water, he just swallowed it whole along with the air in his mouth. As a result, he didn’t get much of the taste, just the impression of standing dry in the middle of the rain, before the full force of the blast caught him and drove every thought from his head.

The shockwave carried Edge up and out, streaking through the sky like a comet’s shadow before his mana ran out and he rematerialized. When the skill finished digesting, a prompt from the System appeared.

Before he had time to read it, something hard hit him from behind, and oblivion rose to embrace him.