Jack and his very existence momentarily became dark and fell into the ground. Kazi blinked and said out loud, “What…?”
His ears twitched and he swung his sword behind him while uttering, “Super Spark Strike!” Kazi missed by a hair’s breadth and in return received a poke to the stomach. A touch of golden metal. An attack that by any other weapon would be insignificant.
But the rapier turned the tiny poke into a stab that launched him into the city walls. He heard an audible crunch as his spine made contact. In an instant, Jack the Ripper had reversed his disadvantage. Kazi heard maniacal laughter and looked up to see Jack aiming for his head.
‘Magic Barrier!’
Upon brief contact, his spherical barrier shattered. It had slowed the rapier down by a fraction of a second, enough time for Kazi to swerve underneath his blade, point a finger at his stomach, and mutter, “Fire Dart!”
A guaranteed hit at point-blank range. Kazi anticipated smoke to erupt in his face and for Jack to be sent back. Instead, the Fire Dart whirred into the air and exploded meaninglessly. Jack had disappeared and promptly reappeared next to a piece of standing wood, emerging from the ground as if it had been inside it.
Kazi touched the bleeding wound and healed it with a quick application of Divine Miracle Water. He barely registered the pain, thinking of the battle ahead. ‘Jack is experienced enough to break out of any long-term clash. Then there’s the black lightning. I wasn’t able to get a full glimpse but judging by Jules’ condition it doesn’t stop with simple electrocution. There’s something else to it and I’m not keen on finding out what.’
Jack, if he wanted to, could fight with no flaws. He had the capacity to murder every single player without blinking. What held him back was his obsession with strong opponents; of fighting worthy opponents. If he went straight for the kill rather than wasting mana to make a show, Kazi would have arrived to see everyone dead.
‘He’s probably going at about eighty percent. His mana is low but I suspect he has more than one trump card up his sleeve.’ Kazi narrowed his eyes, his mana returning to full capacity. ‘I can’t let him use it.’
He tossed Stormedge to his left hand and summoned a Fire Ball in his left. He threw the ball of fire like a baseball, winding up his arm with finesse and the body scale of his weight. Jack chose to avoid it this time, seeing through his strategy to create smoke. The Fire Ball hit the piece of wood, burning it to cinders.
“Get ready, Kazi Hossain. I am going to fight with the full might of this rapier.” Jack’s left hand which had been missing returned in the form of a black claw and expanded into a round shield. Strangely, other than the flow of mana going through the fake hand, Kazi didn’t pick a lot of mana inside him.
The guard of the rapier rotated.
He didn’t grow lax though. Kazi waited, putting both hands on the hilt of Stormedge. He eyed the swordsman, noticing his footwork. There was no doubt about it, he was trained in the art of sword fighting. Before, Jack had been lazy about it. Dismissing it as unnecessary in front of such weak opponents.
But not against Kazi.
His right foot led forward.
Kazi half-expected him to disappear. He didn’t. He crossed the distance between them with raw speed, a near blur despite being directly in his life line of sight. Kazi managed to parry the thrust aiming for his throat, funneling an equal amount of mana into his blade as he did his feet.
Stormedge suffered for it, a large chip breaking from where the rapier hit. His rapier retreated and returned in a lightning-fast thrust. He jerked his head to the side, his cheek drawing blood.
‘So it’s not just attack power! The rapier gives agility too! Must be a mode switch! Different stats for different modes! Here, he's exchanged strength for speed!’ He wasn’t too surprised. Rapiers were supposed to be fast-paced weapons and given the weapon’s sheen and design he assumed there was another trick behind it beyond the black lightning and absurd attack power. ‘And now I’m at a disadvantage!’
Every thrust was combined with a masterful burst of Mastered Flow of Mana. Coupled with the additional speed bestowed to Jack by the weapon itself, Kazi was relying on his own Mastered Flow of Mana and the increased reaction speed that came with it to dodge. Calculating, thinking, analyzing—and doubling on it.
A single thought was almost too merciful.
“Gah!” The side of his throat was cut badly and crimson liquid poured out. Jack laughed, the tip of his rapier constantly propelling towards the most critical points above his shoulders.
He wasn’t going to stop till he was dead. There was no time.
Squelch—!
Blood gushed out as the rapier penetrated his shoulder. Not a millisecond was wasted as Jack tried to pull out and end him.
If only he could.
Kazi had timed his slower hand and the strike perfectly, grabbing onto the rapier and keeping it in place. The trap would last less than three seconds, with the predicted black lightning beginning to erupt. But Kazi was one step ahead and swung Stormedge down the X-mark Sun-young had made.
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Whizz—!
His lightning sword missed and sliced through the air, the opponent having turned into an ashy mist and merging with the ground. Jack reappeared beside a broken stone wall with not a scratch on him. His trap was unsuccessful.
At least that was what Jack thought before he heard a huge volume of magic surging towards. On instinct, he summoned several dark tendrils from the palm of his artificial hand. “Black Despair—!”
Kazi didn’t bother dodging. The belt on his waist faintly glowed and the dark tendrils thinned out into little yards of strings.
“What—”
Jack wouldn’t realize that Kazi had seen through everything. He slipped into the shadows to escape, just like Kazi wanted. He travelled to the only remaining shadow in their immediate surroundings, just like Kazi wanted. He used a purely darkness-based attack in a panic, just like Kazi wanted.
His throat was slashed with no resistance, the blossomed source of life staining the curved Turkish blade. Jack stopped the gushing blood with his own hands and staggered as Kazi chopped off his left arm in its entirety.
"Gssshhk!" The serial killer didn’t even get to fall to his knees when the final slash was coming to him.
Luck and a dash of foresight was why Jack didn’t get to experience it either.
[ RAID OVER! ]
[ Congratulations! Main Objective complete! ]
[ Rewards to be distributed! ]
Clang!
“Huh—?” His sword was deflected by a blue barrier, hexagonal in composition and belonging to neither Jack nor any nearby player. Kazi tried again, only to be rejected.
[ Grace period in session! ]
[ Rewards to be distributed! ]
[ No violence to be conducted for two minutes! ]
Jack dropped to his knees, desperately holding onto the wound across his throat. Kazi loomed over him, heterochromic eyes a stormy rage.
‘I…I can’t kill Jack? Are you fucking with me!?’
Clang! Clang! Clang!
‘For Nash! Jules! Matty!’
Clang! CLANG! CLANG!
‘For Ms. Sun-young!’
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
‘For Marta!’
He tried again and again but his attacks simply didn’t work. The blue barrier that constantly protected Jack was stronger than anything he had encountered so far. His hands were bleeding as they gripped the leather grip of Stormedge.
[ Gate 10 : Raid of Clontarf
Main Objective: Participate in the great battle and stay alive for 20:00 hours!
Prize Pool: Calculating… ]
[ Receive:
1,556,998 XP
34,999 PP ]
As Kazi uselessly hacked and slashed, Jack opened up his inventory and pulled out a dark potion. He didn’t drink it and instead poured it all over his open throat. Smoke sizzled from the slit throat as it began to stitch together.
“Ahh…” Jack let out a long sigh. “It seems experience has edged out talent this time.”
‘This fucker…that’s why he’s been playing around! He knew that at the end that no one would be able to jump him! He’d be safe regardless of who he murdered!’
Jack’s level increased by four, officially putting him at Level 37. “Cheer up. We can finish this another time—”
Kazi didn’t care to listen to his rambling. He sensed a small spike in mana and ran over. His newfound speed still took a bit getting used to. It was like the world was in slow-motion or if he was walking on the moon. Everything was so simple and light and fragile. But that didn’t matter. Not right now.
“Ms. Sun-young.”
The swordswoman wiped away something on her face before slowly turning towards him. She sat beside the pool of blood that was Marta and went wide-eyed as her gaze met his. “Kazi…?” she said his name with a tinge of uncertainty, as if she didn’t know if it was really him. She was Level 28 and equipped with a class he did not recognize: Anti-Magic Swordsman. “What…what happened to you?”
Ah, his expression. It must have been pretty scary. He wanted to muster the strength to reply to her with a smile but…couldn’t. He avoided her gaze and avoided her question. He kneeled down and put a hand on Marta. “Divine Healing Water.”
Bzzzt!
He received another reminder of the Grace Period and he swore in his head. Marta was on the brink of death, alive due to the blessing of the System and the prior Divine Healing Rain. The severity of her injuries were leagues above Sun-young, Jules, or Matty, the latter two who he sensed would make it through. Sun-young kept staring at him, bewildered, as he tried and tried to heal her.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t get here on time,” Kazi muttered.
Eyes closed, there was almost an innocence to Marta's scarlet-stained face. Her arms and legs weren’t just missing, the blood side was full of a tainted darkness that he had failed to heal. Over and over again, he attempted to reattach her limbs and get through the Grace Period barrier but he failed. Nothing in his inventory could help either. Sun-young remained quiet.
“Have you been getting these messages?” Sun-young eventually asked.
“Messages?”
“Amaterasu, Agni, Jowangsin…”
Kazi side-eyed her, then looked back at Marta. One half of his brain was focused on healing her and the other was on Sun-young. ‘The gods are trying to talk to us? Why?’
That was when the gray message windows appeared for him.
[ Many of the Nordic gods fear you. ]
[ Half of the Greek gods wish to kill you before it is too late. The other half are uncertain. ]
[ Drona is happy that you have become a Rathi. However, he says your skill with the sword is lacking and suggests taking his blessing. ]
[ Accept Drona Style: Khadgavidya? Yes or no? ]
[ You have 24 hours to accept Drona's Gifted Skill. ]
[ Gifted Skill: The third classification of skills. It is distinct from Class Skills and General Skills due to its place of origin. Where Class Skills are given from the System and General Skills are learned by the player, Gifted Skills are handed by a third party, often of divine nature. Conditions are often set in order for the gifter to reap the social and/or magical benefits of the skill. ]
[ Kukulcán is frustrated yet satisfied. He thanks you for trying to avenge his followers. ]
He couldn’t believe it. A new type of skill other than Class Skills and General Skills? It wasn't illogical but why now of all times? What the hell did they want? He looked up at the sky, his left eye aching and questions swirling in his head.
Several more System windows popped up, a tiny raindrop within the storm that were his thoughts. His voice slowly faded as the world went white and took him and everyone else back.
[ GATE 10 OFFICIALLY CROSSED! ]
[ CLASS 4 CLASSIFICATION AT VALHALLA’S COLOSSEUM CONFIRMED! ]
[ ACCESS TO FLOORS 31-40 OPENED! VISIT VALHALLA’S COLOSSEUM FOR CLASSIFICATION CARD! ]
[ Returning to White Abyss! ]