SHING!

When Elder Jeb slashed downward with his sword, the sound of it cutting through the air resounded throughout their surroundings. Elder Jeb’s sword was covered in a silver energy, and it extended from his sword to form a silver stream. The silver stream flowed forward and cut Elijah in half.

Or at least the silver stream cut what looked like Elijah. After the silver energy dispersed, what remained was destruction. A perfect straight fissure appeared in the ground following the path of Elder Jeb’s sword strike. The fissure started at a meter away from Elder Jeb’s feet and extended pass the position Elijah was standing at.

As for Elijah himself, he was no longer there. The Elijah that was cut had dispersed with the silver stream. There wasn’t even a strand of hair or a drop of blood to indicate he once stood at that position.

When Elder Jeb saw this, his eyes widened alarmed. He sensed danger coming from behind him and immediately tried to dodge to his left. Sadly, he was too late.

The moment before Elijah was cut by Elder Jeb’s attack, he used his Mirage Step skill. The after image created by his skill was cut in half while Elijah appeared behind Elder Jeb. Once he was behind Elder Jeb, Elijah raised his sword to attack Elder Jeb’s defenseless back with his Supreme Power skill. However, when his sword was above his head, Elijah felt a change in his skill.

Closing his eyes Elijah sensed the changes in his skill. The amount of energy that the skill helped him gather increased and when the energy condensed around his sword it felt different from before. The quality seemed greater and now the energy had a unique feeling to it. If Elijah opened his eyes, he would notice that his sword now had a dim golden light surrounding it.

In addition to the changes in energy, Elijah noticed the changes in his physical body. The increase in his bodies physical strength was greater than before. Unfortunately, Elijah didn’t have the skill, or the experience needed to understand the changes to his physical strength.

Opening his eyes Elijah saw that Elder Jeb hadn’t moved. Although a few seconds passed, the energy in the air was still chaotic from Elder Jeb’s attack, so Elder Jeb wasn’t able to sense Elijah preparing his attack. By the time Elijah started swinging his sword down, it was already too late for him to react.

SLASH

You have dealt 246 (270) critical damage.

Blood gushed out of Elder Jeb’s back after Elijah’s sword cut deeply into it. Elder Jeb stumbled forward with a low groan and fell to one knee. Elijah didn’t continue to attack. He didn’t feel the need to. He simply remained where he was and watched Elder Jeb struggle to rise.

For the most part, Elijah’s gaze was indifferent as he looked at Elder Jeb struggling to stand. However, if someone looked closely, they would be able to catch a glance of the endless amount of pride and arrogance hidden within his gaze. Elder Jeb’s defeated form was the best proof of Elijah’s supremacy.

Within himself, Elijah could feel a unique energy being born. The energy perfectly aligned with his goal of becoming a Supreme Ruler. When that energy was born Elijah knew it would be an important moment on his path.

As Elijah’s mind was about to be engrossed with the energy surging inside him, he saw Elder Jeb rise to his feet and turn to face him. Sharpness radiated from his entire body disturbing the energy around him. But Elijah wasn’t disturbed. Instead, Elijah and the energy within him became excited.

Currently Elder Jeb was the embodiment of a sword. He stood tall and straight, ready to cut down everything in front of him. In this moment, it was clear to see that Elder Jeb practiced what he preached. Although he had suffered a defeat, he still stood back up. tightly gripping the sword in his hand, trusting it to cut open a path to victory.

“Do you still think you have the ability to challenge this supreme?” Elijah thought to himself. “If one beating wasn’t enough then this Supreme will beat you a second time. If two beatings aren’t enough, then this Supreme will beat you a third time. If three beatings aren’t enough … then I’ll beat you to death!’”

The energy within and around Elijah began to surge as he prepared to fight. As Elijah thought about beating down Elder Jeb, he could feel the unique energy within him reach a critical state. It was clear to Elijah that the unique energy was about to form. All that remained was for it to step through the final barrier.

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“What do you two think you’re doing?! Are you trying to kill each other?!”

Right as the energy within Elijah was halfway through the final barrier, someone shouted and disturbed his mind. With his mind disturbed so was his energy. The energy within him failed to take form and began to scatter.

Anger flared up in Elijah’s mind when he realized he failed. The anger he felt increased the rate at which the energy scattered. This cause Elijah’s anger to intensify and led to a vicious cycle that resulted in the unique energy disappearing from his body.

Focusing on the outside, Elijah could see that Elder Jeb was experiencing the same thing. The sharp energy around him started to decrease, but it eventually stopped and left a faint silver glow around his body. Seeing that Elder Jeb was able to retain some of his energy only served to increase the anger Elijah felt.

“Look at the wounds on your body. It looks like both of you are at deaths door.”

Frowning, Elijah began to examine his own body. He saw that his clothing and skin were covered in cuts and stained with blood. Although Elijah could see and feel that his body was damaged, he didn’t think it was bad as the busy body that interrupted them made it seem. However, Elijah had a feeling that he should look at his status page to confirm the current state of his physical body.

Health: 18/880 Stamina: 5/880 Mental: 12/880

“Shit.” Elijah said.

Less than a second after Elijah looked at his stats, he felt his knees buckle, his mind weaken, and his vision darken. All of a sudden, Elijah was all too aware of how injured and exhausted he was. Right now, there was nothing he wanted to do more than fall down and sleep. But he knew he couldn’t do that.

Falling down would lead to the death of Elijah’s game character. With that death he would lose all the progress he made in the village, and he would fail the Wilderness Survival quest. Elijah’s only option was to clench his jaw and endure the pain and exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm him.

“We’re fine Karen,” Elder Jeb said. “We only got a little carried away in our spar.

“Speak for yourself,” Elijah thought. He opened his eyes to glare at Elder Jeb, but those action only harmed him. He weakened his focus and will, endangering his fragile conscious state. Learning from his mistake, Elijah decided to focus on himself and ignore everything else. He was certain that if he did so he would be okay.

You have received bleeding damage. -2 HP every five seconds.

Dread. Elijah could stop himself from feeling some dread when he saw the damage notification appear in front of him. He was bleeding? When did he start bleeding?

Perhaps he had been bleeding for a long time, but his mind never thought that it was something worth focusing on. After all, a great deal of his attention was focus on avoiding, blocking, and counterattacking the fierce attacks Elder Jeb sent his way. Figuring out the traps that Elder Jeb was using probably took all the attention of his conscious and subconscious.

You have received bleeding damage. -2 HP every five seconds.

Once again, the bleeding notification appeared in front of him. Elijah was now down to fourteen health points and if he didn’t focus, he would lose all of them. Elijah decided to shake his head to clear his thoughts and focus, but that decision was clearly a mistake. The sudden movement pushed him closer to unconsciousness and he lost a few more precious seconds.

You have received bleeding damage. -2 HP every five seconds.

Gritting his teeth, Elijah applied one hundred and ten percent of his focus to his next task. He needed to use his skill Heal Minor Wounds to recover some of his lost health and close his wounds to stop or at least reduce the bleeding. Elijah did his best to find the source of his bleeding, but he could never be absolutely sure due to the various wounds he received and his weakened mental state. In the end Elijah hoped for the best and used his skill on a wound on the left side of his waist.

You have recovered 5 HP

You have received bleeding damage. -1 HP every five seconds.

Euphoria swept through Elijah when he felt the soothing energy from his healing and when he realized that he successfully reduced the amount of health he lost when he bled. Sadly, the euphoria was brief and what followed was pain.

In an instant, it felt like Elijah’s mind was on the brink of shattering. Elijah used the small amount of mental energy that he had left and was now paying the price. In other words, he was dying from poison and to cure himself he used more poison.

“Calm down,” Elijah thought to himself. “As long as I endure the pain, I can make it through this. Just take a few deep breaths.”

Sadly, Elijah wasn’t able to take any deep breaths. As a matter of fact, Elijah wasn’t even able to feel his body. The only thing he felt was waves of pain and darkness trying to bury the last remaining pieces of his consciousness,

“Don’t give up,” Elijah thought. “Don’t…give…up,” Elijah begged.

Elijah felt an unstoppable force dragging his consciousness down. It didn’t matter how much Elijah struggled. Somethings were unavoidable.

Despair. Despair and several other emotions surged through Elijah. So, what if he endured? Even if he endured, did he have the mental energy needed to use healing skill again? Even if he had the mental energy, did he have the ability to move his body? Even if he could move his body, did he have the ability to sense where he should heal to stop the bleeding?

Maybe Elijah could ask Elder Jeb for help. However, in his current state, Elijah didn’t even have the ability to speak. He was completely alone and could only rely on himself. Elijah never felt so helpless.

Elijah didn’t want to die. He was unwilling to die.

“This Supreme will not die!”