One of the worst things about fighting the Vodyanoy was that it gave Lucas no time to think and strategize. It wasn’t like those other beasts that would charge savagely headlong; no, this creature could think. It feinted, dodged, and waited for the right time. Its claws, however, were those of a beast, as sharp as his new axe, or maybe even more.
Lucas found himself in a pretty terrible spot against this enemy because he didn’t have too much experience fighting smart beings. The only ones he’d faced were the old man’s group, and he only managed to escape because they underestimated him. However, this creature he was facing never seemed to lose focus on him. Five minutes later, and he hadn’t managed to land a single blow but had accumulated many bloody cuts on his body.
It annoyed him a little that he didn’t attack this creature straight away previously because of respect for a fellow sapient being and was instead attacked without mercy the very next second, but he wasn’t sure if voicing his complaints would do him any good.
The creature showed some resistance to his aura; despite being slightly slowed down by it, it still wasn’t enough for Lucas to gain the upper hand in the speed department. He knew he couldn’t rely on that. There was also the fact that every time he used his aura, his Vitality would drop a little, and in a battle like this, he couldn’t afford to be losing Vitality passively all the time. So, he was limited to activating it whenever the beast got close.
The Vodyanoy came again, and this time Lucas decided to try something new. He pretended to leave an opening, and when the claw came, he parried it with his axe. The beast didn’t seem as surprised as he would have expected, however; as it clawed at him, with its other hand aiming for his head, Lucas ducked, and the claw passed above his head.
Lucas disengaged the axe and tried to take the upper hand by slicing at the neck of the creature. It was its turn to parry, but this time it tried to kick him in the stomach. He had only managed to protect himself in the last second using his axe and was sent flying back. He twisted his body and used the axe again to slow down his fall, making a gash in the grass below.
Not getting hit while fighting a faster creature was an almost impossible task. Lucas could only try to take the upper hand. If the monster was busy dodging or defending his attacks, it couldn’t attack him.
He only wished he had a more suitable weapon. He liked the axe, but it wasn’t the best weapon for a fight like this, where he needed his agility to be at full capacity. The swing between one attack and the other took some time, which he didn’t have. He was new to this game, so he wasn’t sure, but he would gladly take a dagger or something of the sort.
It was funny; all this time had passed, and he still hadn’t decided what kind of fighter he wanted to be. Part of that was due to his lack of knowledge and tools. He couldn’t experiment at will; he simply didn’t have the means. He hoped he could change that once he found that city he heard about. But first, he would need to survive his toughest opponent.
Lucas decided that if he wanted to win, he would have to think outside the box; the tactics that he had learned from his weeks living in the forest weren’t paying off. He could, to some extent, predict the moves of his enemy by certain changes in its position and such, but the problem was the speed. How could he overcome a faster opponent? As he saw the frog man coming at him again, he had an idea.
The claw reached for him from the extended arm of the creature. Lucas pretended he was going to parry but instead drew closer to the body of the beast and lashed out his axe, aiming towards the shoulder. The axe pierced tough scales, but not by much, as the beast, for the first time, retreated after having lost out on a clash.
Despite being on the winning side of this exchange, Lucas didn’t feel the slightest bit happy, and that was because the extent of the damage wasn’t even close to what he was expecting. It barely reached the meat below the scales, and he had used almost all his strength in that attack.
The beast didn’t know that, however, and had retreated, but this misjudgment wouldn’t last and he knew. Once the creature realized he couldn’t inflict more damage than this, it would become even more reckless, coming at him without regard for its own safety, knowing he couldn’t do anything to it even if he tried; that would be his end.
His idea had been good, but he lacked sufficient power to make his efforts mean anything. He was still five levels below the creature, after all, and that made him wonder; had his new power made him overconfident?
He remembered the days in which he would walk carefully through the forest, cautious of any beast that might appear. And prior to this, he had been running around training his aura and in search of a challenge; now he had found a challenge, and he didn’t know if he could beat it.
But even though he had been a little careless lately, he didn’t believe his confidence in his new-found power was ill-founded. He had good reason to believe in it. It became so much easier to fight a beast above his level with it that it was almost too easy.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
However, the effects of the aura on the Vodyanoy were greatly reduced, rendering his greatest trump card almost useless. Without it, he had only his fighting skills gained in the last few weeks to keep him alive, but he didn’t back down.
There was no point in backing down now; he had already made his decision when he came to this planet that he would decide his fate. This was just another obstacle. With some breathing room after the last clash, Lucas rapidly began to think of ways he could improve his odds of victory, and a welcome idea soon came to mind.
He was looking for a challenge to improve his aura technique, wasn’t he? That was the perfect opportunity. So far, he had only used his aura to suppress his opponents; there was no skill really, he was just extending the aura from inside to outside of his body. But what if he used the aura to cover his axe?
Before he could try that, the creature started attacking again. This time he applied the same tactics as before. Instead of parrying or dodging, he attacked recklessly, making the Vodyanoy lose ground. He put all his strength behind each attack, all while trying to look as relaxed as he could.
The frog man retreated again, observing. Lucas even thought about throwing some provocation to show how nonchalant he was, but decided against it. If the thing saw he was full of it, it would ruin his plans.
Without a second of hesitation, Lucas began his experiments. His axe was resting on his shoulder as he smiled at the Vodyanoy. Inside, however, he was doing everything he could to control the aura enough to envelop the axe properly. But every time he thought he had made progress, the aura would dissipate around it, not truly enveloping the weapon but just moving around it.
That was as far as he had gotten when another round of attacks began. Lucas didn’t let this stop his experiments this time; he was feeling closer and closer to his goal. When he finally felt a ping in his consciousness tie himself to the axe, he heard the notification, and a smile grew wide on his face.
Looking like a madman, he attacked furiously, looking forward to seeing the effects of his endeavor. However, by this point, the creature had already figured out the pattern of his attacks, and it was becoming increasingly hard to hit it. Every time he got close, it would either dodge or stop him with its claws.
Lucas also couldn’t ignore the fact that he had been fighting intensely for the last ten minutes, and it was starting to take a toll on him. The Vodyanoy didn’t seem troubled by tiredness, and he knew that dragging out this fight would only benefit his opponent, but he was out of ideas.
He looked around, trying to see if he could find something he could use to create an opening in his opponent’s defense, and then he saw. Behind the Vodyanoy, there were two smaller versions of the creature, looking anxious with only their heads coming out of the lake.
Now Lucas realized why the creature never moved its back from the lake; it was protecting it. That’s probably why it attacked me as soon as I arrived, Lucas thought, now starting to feel bad about the whole thing, but how could he have known?
“Hey, I’m sorry about…”
The frog man didn’t let him speak; it saw him looking at its children. It attacked again, now even more fiercely than before, but that created an opening, and Lucas struck the creature’s right arm. It wasn’t enough to chop it off, but it was enough to surpass the barriers of the scales.
This time it retreated faster than before. It looked down at its right arm, and Lucas was watching closely too. He could see the effects of his new skill developing on the creature’s arm—it was some sort of corrosive poison that was eating away at the Vodyanoy flesh. He could barely believe his eyes. What was that?
It didn’t last long, however, but it was enough to give Lucas the upper hand. However, he didn’t capitalize on it. He tried diplomacy once again.
“Look, it was a mistake coming here. I’ll go now.”
The frog man clearly didn’t understand, or it didn’t care, because his multilingual knowledge should be working. It came again, and this time Lucas decided that he would need to be more effusive.
Sorry about this, kids, your mom or dad is an idiot, but this isn’t your fault.
The growth in his confidence given by his new power increased his speed and reflexes. He was feeling great after having all his work pay off, and he was ready to show all this to the opponent in front of him. Minute after minute, clash after clash, Lucas began to gain ground.
The Vodyanoy was now full of cuts on its body, and all of them had that necrotic effect afterward. Is that what this is? Necrotic poison or something? It made sense; after all it was a result of the active use of his death aura. After one more grievous wound on its chest, the Vodyanoy retreated again. This time it didn’t come back, it just stood there looking at Lucas.
Lucas sighed. Despite now being a great opportunity to kill a level 15, who surely deserved to be killed after being so rude to a guest, he knew he couldn’t do it. It would take way more than just three weeks in this world for him to kill a parent in front of their children. Even if he didn’t suspect he was capped out for levels, there were just some things he wouldn’t do.
He didn’t want to completely lose himself amidst excuses explaining why he had every right to do something completely abominable. He still had to face his mother when he went to sleep, and he wanted to maintain the clearest conscience he possibly could in a world where murder was incentivized.
Lucas also knew that if he was really pushed, he would kill his enemy, but seeing it standing there, just watching him, he turned his back and left. There would be other opportunities to kill strong opponents when morals weren’t so complex. He was still happy, however, as he had gained plenty from this fight—probably the most he had ever gained since coming into Ponos. He looked at his new skill, brimming with joy.
New skill acquired!
Skill: Death Aura Manipulation (Inferior)
You have uncovered the mysteries of the death aura, a path seldom explored, and now have some control over your own aura, being able to extend it up to 7 feet from your body and imbue weapons in your possession with a necrotic effect.
Warning: The damage level of the necrotic effect is contingent on the user’s level and proficiency in aura control.
Warning: This skill might have a high consumption rate, depending on the user’s level.
Finally!