Looking around, Lucas spotted his savior with relief. Flavya stood with her bow aimed toward the battlefield, but despite her stoic pose, Lucas noticed blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, evidence of the strain her last effort had taken.

It had only been about an hour since Lucas and Axis started fighting, so there was still an hour left in her recovery before she would be back at full strength, and since all her arrows were empowered by mana, it clearly was taking a toll on her body.

She must’ve followed our battle with the field glasses, Lucas thought, a little embarrassed by how things had turned out. He had promised her he would take care of things but ended up needing saving in the end.

It couldn’t be helped, though. He had used every trick in the book and still ended up missing a limb and nearly dying. Axis was simply too powerful when he wasn’t being a pretentious asshole.

Despite clearly having rushed her recovery, Flavya kept shooting at the disheveled figure now gazing at his missing limb with pain and disbelief. Seeing this, Lucas could easily believe the prince had never been hurt like that before. That gave him the motivation he needed to keep fighting.

So what if Axis is stronger and faster? Can he grow a limb without health potions? Okay, the damned thing looked pretty weird growing from a baby’s arm and slowly evolving to a grown man’s, but at least he managed to pull it off—unlike the sorry figure with a stump for a hand.

Under the rain of arrows, Axis had no time to mourn his lost hand and had to keep his substitute saber busy deflecting every projectile coming his way. He had tried this before with the exploding arrow, which is why he ended up losing his hand—and his original saber, which flew who knows where in that desolate city.

Unfortunately, now that he was aware of the lurking archer, the possibility of blowing off his other hand with another explosive arrow was ruined. He knew better than to deflect an explosive arrow with his saber, given the telltale signs of how mana moved around them. This made anyone experienced enough basically immune to them—unless they were caught off guard.

Before Lucas’s arm could fully regenerate, Axis grew tired of deflecting the endless rain of arrows. With a wide slash of his saber, a fiery arc shot out, aimed directly at the building where Flavya had been shooting from.

Lucas saw her eyes widen at the sight of that skill. She immediately stopped firing at Axis and pulled something from her ring, which she then tossed on the floor where she stood. A yellowish force field enveloped her just as the enormous fire slash reached her.

Lucas couldn’t believe his eyes as the building was cleaved in half by the attack. Instinctively, he took a few steps back and frantically downed almost all the elixirs he had left—he would definitely need them.

Admiring the destruction from where he stood, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder, Could Flavya have survived that? He wanted to rush to her, maybe try using his life aura to heal her if she was injured, but the man who had just sliced a building in half was now glaring straight at him with a furious expression.

“Do you know her?” Axis asked, clearly referring to Flavya.

Lucas only nodded in response. There was no point in stalling anymore. Sure, it would be great if Axis’s boost ran out, but the prince didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Whatever that boost consumed, he clearly had plenty of it, and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With Flavya forced to reveal herself before she could fully heal, her fate uncertain even if she managed to protect herself, whatever was about to happen would happen regardless of what Lucas did or said.

“I actually respected you as an opponent before,” Axis said, his voice tinged with disappointment. “But I see you’re just a scheming weakling like everybody else.”

“Cut the crap! This was never a fair fight in the first place. Your rich daddy gave you all the advantages you could possibly want on a silver platter, while I had to fight for everything I have. You can’t judge me.”

The prince frowned. “Aren’t you also a royal?”

Oh, shoot. I forgot.

“…Can an unknown noble really be compared to the heir prince of the Khorint Empire?”

Axis slowly nodded. “You’re right; our positions are vastly different. But still, even if I didn’t have all the advantages you mentioned, I would never resort to such cheap schemes.”

Lucas shrugged, unbothered by the prince’s moral posturing.

“Then you’d be dead, just like the rest of them.”

Axis had no reply to that, his lips pressed tightly together. But his eyes soon landed on Lucas’s newly regrown arm, still in the process of developing.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“H-how?” he asked, surprised, pointing at Lucas’s regenerating arm with his saber. Not even the best health potions could grow an arm so quickly, so he had no idea how Lucas had managed it.

“What do you mean?” Lucas asked, this time with no intention stall, only to mess with him.

The prince looked annoyed by the question, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from Lucas’s adolescent-looking arm. “How did your arm grow back? I just chopped it off!”

“Did you?” Lucas said, feigning surprise as he looked at his frail arm. “Oh, yes, you did. That was rather rude of you, by the way. But don’t worry, I’m a very forgiving soul. I’ll let you off the hook this time. You can go back to your mommy and daddy now. I bet if you ask nicely enough, they’ll get you a hand made of gold or a hook or something. Now, shoo, shoo!”

Lucas had no idea what possessed him to further provoke the man who had so easily severed his arm not long ago, but there was something about the sheer hopelessness of the situation that drove him to crack jokes. There must’ve been some instinctual madness lurking deep within him, triggered by these dire circumstances. Of course, the fact that his regeneration ability had worked so well up to this point played a huge role, giving him the courage to indulge in this temporary insanity.

Needless to say, the prince wasn’t amused. Based on Lucas’s brief interaction with him, Axis didn’t seem like someone who got annoyed easily, but everyone had their limits. Apparently, Axis drew the line at having a building collapsed on him and being mocked about his stump, because as soon as Lucas finished speaking, Axis rushed at him, furious.

Fortunately, Lucas’s boosts to Perception, Agility, and Strength came just in time. He quickly grabbed an iron pole he had noticed lying nearby earlier and swung it with all his might, striking his target right as he was about to reach him.

Axis, who had slightly lost his composure due to his anger, wasn’t prepared for such an unorthodox attack. He didn’t even manage to raise his saber before the pole struck him hard in the chest, sending him flying back.

Lucas actually felt his shoulder dislocate from the force of the swing. That was the extent of the power behind that strike. Of course, he quickly popped it back into place the old-fashioned way—painful but effective—as he waited for the enraged prince to return.

And return he did. The pole stunt had more of a demoralizing effect than anything else. To take down someone like Axis, you had to strike him in the heart or take his head off. Otherwise, he would keep coming back like a hound from the depths of hell.

This time around, Lucas had no time for jokes. Axis started making wide, sweeping motions with his saber the moment he got back up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Soon, Lucas realized what was happening. Massive arches of fire shot toward him, similar to the one that had cleaved Flavya’s building in two. These terrifying things crossed the distance between them faster than Lucas liked, forcing him to focus entirely on dodging the damned things.

There was no need to tell him to stay away from that stuff. Having seen firsthand what those fire slashes could do, Lucas had no delusions about putting out those flames by any normal means. But the prince kept producing them at an alarming rate, and pretty soon, Lucas was running out of places to dodge.

…

Come on, Flavya, come on, Lucas prayed silently, as sweat started dripping from his body—both from the heat of those attacks and the sheer effort of dodging them.

At this point, he was pretty sure the prince was just toying with him. It had been nearly five minutes since Axis started this relentless assault. Surely, he had better ways to end Lucas’s life, right? Not so long ago, he had cut off Lucas’s arm, and although Lucas had taken his elixirs since—boosting his overall battle prowess—he still doubted he could keep up with Axis for long if the prince fought seriously. The man was simply on another level.

However, the worst part of all this was not being able to strike back, even if it was a hopeless endeavor. He still had his regeneration ability, but what good was it if he couldn’t get anywhere near Axis? If he acted recklessly, he might get burned to a crisp, forced to keep regenerating until either Axis got bored or his own stamina ran out. So that was out of the question.

Despite his troubles, there was no time to feel sorry for himself. He needed to keep moving to stay alive, and his only hope to turn things around was if Flavya was still breathing and managed to catch the beast off guard.

But five minutes was a long time in a situation like this, and he was beginning to lose hope with every nasty burn he received from close calls. Then suddenly, a sound different from the usual fire slash broke through his focus.

Flavya?

Lucas glanced around between one of his jumps and saw that Axis had stopped swinging his saber. The prince was now staring intently at three projectiles flying toward him from different directions.

With one knee on the ground, Lucas took a deep breath as he watched the scene unfold a few feet away. It was his first moment of rest in what felt like forever. Those endless minutes of jumping around like a trained monkey, barely avoiding those deadly slashes, had drained all the humor out of him.

During that period of constant torment, his stamina reserves had been cut in half, which explained the weariness. Stamina dropping that quickly was bound to have such effects. But the truth was, his exhaustion was more psychological than physical. Now, all he wanted was to see that bastard suffer. He needed to make him pay; it was the only way to make things right. And as he looked at where his hateful opponent had been standing, he witnessed a very satisfying sight.

Surprisingly, Axis wasn’t deflecting the arrows with his saber like before. Realizing there was something different about them, he was running away at top speed, zigzagging while the arrows pursued him through the air like crazed birds.

As much as Lucas enjoyed watching Axis in a predicament similar to his own from a few minutes ago, he was soon prompted to action. He couldn’t leave it all to Flavya, or they’d end up right back where they started. He needed to make the most of her surprise attack. This time, he wouldn’t settle for just a hand—he wanted that prick completely dead.

Before he charged toward the spot where Axis was being chased, Lucas quickly pulled a stamina potion from his ring. He hesitated, gazing at the flask in his hand for only a second, then chugged the whole content down.

He still had half his stamina left—more than enough to grow another limb if needed—but for some reason, he had a feeling he’d need all the help he could get for this final push. For better or worse, the fourth floor was about to be over.