“Look what we’ve got here, Eliot,” the man carrying the saber said in a mocking tone as he slowly descended the stairs.

“It seems it’s one of the king’s dogs, Adam,” the mage replied coldly. “And he has a curious skill too,” he added, referring to Lucas’ blades that were still out.

This time, Lucas didn’t make any rash movements. Both his opponents walked with extreme confidence, and he assumed those were the people the prince called the arms of Sultan.

“He is keeping me captive, I’ve got nothing to do with him!” the prince yelled out from behind Lucas. Both men were surprised by the scream and looked at the shrunken figure behind Lucas as if they were seeing him for the first time.

“If you have the prince, why didn’t you leave?” the mage asked, a puzzled expression crossing his face.

“The king entrusted me with another task,” Lucas replied, speaking to them for the first time.

“And what is that?”

“Kill Sultan.”

The silence that filled the room was almost palpable. They didn’t laugh like the other man had when Lucas told him his objective.

“You dare…” the man with the saber began to say, but the mage stopped him with a raised hand.

“If he killed all of the men from this base, he’s worth our attention,” the mage said calmly, fixing his eyes on Lucas. “But if you want to reach Sultan, you’ll have to go through us first.”

“That’s the plan,” Lucas replied simply. That seemed to further piss off Adam, the man holding the saber, who jumped the last steps.

“Arrogant brat! I’ll kill you myself,” he yelled with a powerful voice and then turned to the mage. “Stay out of this, Eliot!”

The mage didn’t reply, but the man named Adam held his saber with both hands and started to move towards Lucas. The man was bulky like the one he had faced before, and tattoos covered his entire naked torso.

When he was nearing on Lucas, his saber raised high towards the roof, leaving a huge opening in his body. Lucas was about to take advantage of this when something in the back of his mind told him not to. He didn’t know if it was something about the movement Adam made to lift the sword or the speed, but he sensed he wouldn’t be able to escape if he went to punch him this time.

Following his instincts, Lucas quickly jumped to the side and created some distance just a second before the big saber landed on the ground, creating cracks on the cement floor. Lucas’ eyes widened at the sight.

Adam was level 14, but he wasn’t just any level 14. Like Lucas, he probably had an achievement that gave him an edge over other people, or he wouldn’t be able to land that strike with such speed. Lucas realized he would need to be serious if he wanted to have any chance of coming out on top. He quickly glanced towards the mage, but he hadn’t moved an inch. If the mage also joined in, would he be able to fight against both at the same time?

Lucas now understood why there were two objectives for this floor. Killing Sultan was too hard of a challenge to be only on the second floor, so it had to be optional, or most wouldn’t be able to reach the third. His guess was that most people only rescued the prince and left.

Contrary to Rodrik, Adam didn’t have a shield, but that was because he didn’t need one; he had both power and speed. His saber soon came back towards Lucas for another round of attacks; his movements fast and unpredictable, making it hard to dodge. Lucas was only able to keep himself alive in this fight because he wasn’t carrying any heavy equipment, having only his body and his light blades to maneuver through the barrage of attacks.

After a few attacks, something unexpected happen. Adam stepped heavily on the ground, the same way Rodrik had done, and the ground trembled, but not before Lucas had jumped.

Thankfully, he had been paying attention, and in the next instant, he was kicking towards the man’s face. It was almost a replay of what had happened when he fought Rodrick. Adam seemed surprised by the sudden turn of events, but he instantly raised his left arm to protect himself, and Lucas blade pierced it, stopping before it reached his head.

This time, however, Lucas blade didn’t break immediately, and he was caught in a weird position, suspended by Adam’s single arm. That was the extent of his strength.

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Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Lucas went for a second kick with his left leg, but before he could reach the head, Adam swung him away, breaking the glass in the process and making Lucas drop to the ground a couple of yards away. Lucas eyes never left his opponent, and he saw the painful expression Adam had as he pulled the glass out of his arm.

“It seems I underestimated you, but don’t go thinking this is all I have,” he said, his previous rage now gone and replaced by solemnity. “I wouldn’t be Sultan’s arm if I didn’t have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

After saying that, he began to move, but his movements were strange. It was like he was going towards Lucas and, at the same time wasn’t, making it hard to keep track of where he actually was. His first attack came out of nowhere, and Lucas barely dodged before the saber reached him.

Blood leaked from his arm where the saber had scraped it, and he began to create some more distance between them, but Adam wasn’t willing to let him go and kept chasing him through the cafeteria.

Lucas’ first thought when he saw that weird movement was that something was wrong with his eyes, but remembering Adam’s last words, it became obvious it was some sort of skill, one that made his life ten times worse. How would he dodge if he didn’t know until the last second that the saber was coming for him?

I should have invested more in perception, Lucas thought while running. If he had a high enough perception, he believed not even a skill would be able to trick his eyes, but there was no time to regret it now.

While running, Lucas pointed his finger towards his back and fired. That seemed to have an effect and the chasing stopped for a while, giving Lucas enough time to turn and see that, miraculously, his shot had hit the target. Unfortunately, it hadn’t hit anywhere vital, and Adam was still standing with a dark expression.

“What? Have you lost your courage? I thought you were going to kill Sultan, but you can’t even get through me.”

Lucas knew he was being enticed to be reckless and attack, but Adam had a point. He needed to find a better way to fight him or he would be forced to run every single time. His saber is long; he won’t be able to hit me properly if I close the gap between us, Lucas thought after a few moments.

Having decided on a course of action, Lucas began to move closer to his opponent again, and that weird movement of his promptly started. As a countermeasure, Lucas began to release the good old fireball wherever he thought Adam might be, and like that, he was able to reach him just after dodging the saber that passed right by his head.

Putting his pugilist skills to good use, Lucas began to test the waters with a few jabs and saw Adam moving at an incredible speed to dodge his punches or parry his blade. Part of his skill seemed to be effective, even with the little movement he was able to make with Lucas on the offensive.

However, as expected, the big man couldn’t keep this up forever, and on one attempt to dodge, Lucas' fist hit the flesh on the side of his torso when his saber was elsewhere. Seeing a chance to increase the damage, Lucas threw a punch with his other arm, but before he could reach him, Adam kicked him in the chest as he was falling backward. Even with him out of balance, the power of that kick was immense, and Lucas flew a couple of yards back, landing on one of the tables.

Struggling to breathe after the kick, Lucas stood up and saw the bloody cut he had made on Adam’s torso. He also saw his face; Adam looked almost scared, but that expression soon vanished, replaced by the regular arrogance he had seen before.

“All right, you’re the first opponent in ages that forced me to use this skill, but you asked for it,” Adam said with a laugh, and in the next second, his skin began to glow purple.

Lucas didn’t feel any changes besides the weird color that seemed to be pulsating from him. In the next second, Adam charged. The first thing Lucas noticed was that his speed seemed to double, and he arrived in front of Lucas in no time. Not wanting to be on the defensive again, Lucas launched his knee forward, using his knee blade for the first time in an actual battle.

Just as the blade was about to hit him, with incredible agility for a large man, Adam twisted his body to the side, and the blade only cut his skin superficially, drawing little blood.

Adam was clearly surprised by Lucas’ new blade, but his follow-up didn’t delay. His saber made a wide movement, and Lucas ducked just in time. The saber passed above his head, and it was Lucas’ turn to counterattack. His elbow moved at an impressive speed, and his blade hit flesh, a loud grunt was heard.

After hitting him, Lucas didn’t just stand still. With a couple of steps, he was behind Adam’s back, and his left fist was already swigging. Adam’s body twisted again, and after a little back and forth of that weird movement, a kick Lucas hadn’t seen coming sent him flying again. This times he flew almost four yards into a table, breaking it in half.

Making an effort to raise, Lucas spat blood. He knew the man was strong, but that kick had been much stronger than he expected. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt that he had broken a rib, the familiar sensation making him frown.

It wasn’t all bad news, however, because apparently Lucas last attack had penetrated deeply into Adam’s side, and the glass had broken inside him. Adam looked even more battered than Lucas and didn’t come to attack him immediately.

“You can’t even do this simple thing?” the mage said, breaking the huffed silence between the two.

Adam was angered by his companion’s statement, but he was still too injured to speak much and was only able to utter a few words. “He’s… not… simple.”

“Oh, no, he’s not. You are,” the mage replied with a mocking tone. “Here, take this.”

The mage threw a potion at the injured man, and he caught it before Lucas could try anything. With dread, Lucas saw the man’s injuries heal in real-time after he drank it.

“Ahh, I feel much better,” Adam said with a smile. “Let’s go for the second round!” he said, turning toward Lucas.

“No. You had your fun. Now let’s finish him off together, or the boss will be dissatisfied if we take too long.”

“Hmph, fine.”

Just like that, Lucas already difficult fight became ten times worse.