While Austin fought Kratch, Drugos and Gnash were in an intense melee. Both warriors were incredibly skilled and did not give the other any ground. Despite its bestial appearance, Gnash fully understood how to make the best use of its glaive. Each swing of its glaive gave it control of the distance between itself and Drugos. Drugos was able to dodge most of the attacks, but he struggled to close the distance between the two of them. Every time that Drugos managed to get close, Gnash’s glaive forced him to create distance once more.

  Not only was Gnash able to control the distance of the fight, but it was relentless in its attacks. Each attack was quickly followed by another. Drugos did not even have the chance to use his abilities from his treasure. He felt that if he could use it, he would be able to turn the battle in his favor. He just needed to find the chance to do so.

  “Don’t think you’ll beat me so easily!” Gnash smiled gleefully. “I am a skilled fighter even without the power of Malis!”

  Drugos made a quick step backward as Gnash’s glaive swung at him. The glaive passed in front of his face as he dodged out of the way. “I can see that. I’m actually pretty impressed. It’s a shame that you’re my enemy.”

  “I agree! I don’t get to fight anyone worthy that often!” Gnash laughed as it swung its glaive wildly.

  Drugos weaved through the swift attacks that came one after another. Gnash followed a blade swing with the other end of the glaive. Despite the fact that the attacks seemed wild, Gnash did not waste a movement. The blade and butt moved together like a rhythmic dance. Drugos could not help but be impressed by the skill of the gnoll. Austin had grown his skills at tremendous speed, but there was nothing like fighting a true warrior who spent their whole life training.

  Eventually, as the butt came down on Drugos, he decided to make a risky move. He raised his arm upward to block the strike with his bone armor. The attack bounced off the hard surface and gave Drugos the moment to attack. He quickly moved in and swung his flame-covered axe at Gnash. Gnash was forced to step backward as it tried to regain its stance.

  Drugos continued to push the offensive. In his free hand, clouds of smoke started to form. He released the cloud of smoke at Gnash’s head to block its vision. The gnoll started to swing its haphazardly to try to stop Drugos from closing the gap. Drugos easily saw through the attempt and backed off from the gnoll. Instead, he raised his hand in the air, and small spikes of earth ripped from the ground and floated by Drugos’s head. He then threw his hand forward to send them towards Gnash.

  As the spikes reached Gnash, the smoke cleared from its head. Gnash managed to twist out of the way of the spikes before they could reach, but Drugos anticipated Gnash’s dodge. Drugos waited in position and swung his axe at the gnoll. This time, the gnoll could not dodge the attack and took the full force of Drugos’s axe. The axe dug deep into Gnash as flames charred its fur. While the axe dug into the gnoll, a hard red substance started to form at the spot of contact. The substance covered Gnash’s chest and closed the wound.

  “Not bad, not bad,” Gnash smiled as Drugos backed away. “I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t need to use any of my spells.”

  Drugos ignored the comment as smoke billowed around his arm. He shot his arm forward towards Gnash, and the smoke shot forward in a bar. Gnash was not caught off guard by the smoke this time. It quickly dodged out of the way and brought its glaive down on Drugos’s head. The sudden assault forced Drugos to block the attack with his arm. Drugos struggled to stop the glaive from going further down on his head. With a burst of Essence, he shot upward in a jump. The sudden jump was able to push the glaive into the air and break Gnash’s stance.

  Drugos then used the jump to bring his axe down on Gnash. The axe made contact with Gnash’s head, but did not dig into the creature. Instead, the red armor formed around Gnash’s head and caused the axe to bounce off. The armor started to crawl across the rest of Gnash’s body and perfectly encased itself around the gnoll.

  Drugos reeled backward from the redirected force of his axe. As he fell away from Gnash, Gnash quickly spun its glaive into a slash. Drugos could not catch himself, and the slash cut across his chest. Luckily, the slash was unable to dig too deep thanks to Drugos’s armor, but the attack threw him further off balance. The force of the attack made Drugos land on his back.

  “I congratulate you for making me use all of my armor, but this will be the end,” Gnash taunted. “No one has ever broken my armor. You should give up now.”

  Drugos pushed himself off the ground and smiled broadly. His own armor started to grow around his face to create a smooth white helmet. “I guess we just need to see whose armor is tougher. I look forward to being the first to break yours.”

  ***

  Austin took in several deep breaths after dodging a blast of purple flame. The area around Austin and his opponent became scarred with burn marks. With each fire attack from Kratch, Austin struck back with his lightning. Neither had given way to the other, though. Austin was able to dodge most of Kratch’s attacks, while Kratch was able to create walls of powerful roots to block Austin’s lightning.

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  “You aren’t used to fighting like this, are you? That’s why you have to rely on that tool of yours.” Kratch cackled. “Long-range attacks are my speciality. Eventually, you’ll get caught by them.”

  “I still have some tricks up my sleeve. Don’t worry,” Austin forced a smile between labored breaths.

  Austin did not realize how much using his tower treasure would drain him in a real fight. Controlling the power of it was completely different than using his own Essence. If he was going to win, he needed to use his own techniques to do so. He took a quick survey of his remaining Essence, and he was definitely in a bad position. There was no way he could continue his lightning attacks. With a deep breath, armor encased his legs once more. His plan might be a little reckless, but it was the only way he thought he could see a path to victory.

  “Are you going to try to get close to me?” Kratch sneered. “Good luck with that. My attacks will stop you before you can.”

  “I guess, we will just have to see about that,” Austin retorted.

  Purple orbs began to float above Kratch. Unlike his previous fire attacks, these were much more condensed. The orbs then darted through the air quicker than any of Kratch’s previous attacks. As they did, Austin quickly sent a burst of Essence into his leg armor. Austin was sent flying to the side of the attacks and his feet landed on a tree. As he landed, a new volley of attacks shot towards him. He sent another burst through his legs and flew towards Kratch. The force of his kick from the tree cracked its trunk, then the volley of purple orbs sent it crashing to the ground.

  As Austin raced towards Kratch, the gnoll did not have time to create new orbs to attack. Instead, Kratch created a wall of thick roots to block the attack. An explosion erupted from the roots as Austin smashed into it with his Essence-imbued fist. Shards of wood scattered in all directions, and the force sent Kratch flying backward.

  As Kratch tried to regain its balance, Austin solidly landed on the ground. Now that the roots were out of the way, it was time for Austin’s true plan. A silver orb formed in his hand, and he threw it towards Kratch with all his might. The attack landed right before Kratch fell to the ground on its back.

  “All of that and your attack barely damaged me,” Kratch cackled as it stood up and dusted itself off.

  “Honestly, it is almost frustrating that everyone responds that way when I use that technique,” Austin sighed as he casually placed his arms behind his head. As he did, his armor broke into tiny pieces and floated into the air in the form of tiny silver lights. “Why would I go through all that effort if the technique did nothing?”

  Before Kratch could make some sort of retort, Austin formed Essence into his hand. The silver light formed into the shape of an oversized needle. The needle was around the same size as a dagger. Austin casually threw the needle forward with minimal effort. As the needle flew through the air, Austin started to form another one in his hand.

  “I’ve been wanting to try new shapes to see how effective they are. Ever since I used knives, it got me interested,” Austin casually explained to Kratch. “So, thank you for being my test subject.”

  “That’s not even going fast! Are you trying to insult me?” Kratch spat in anger as it lifted its hand in the air.

  Kratch’s wall of roots twisted and formed to block the needle. Kratch could not see that the needle grew speed as it grew closer to the gnoll. Even with the increased speed, the needle was stopped by the wall. It dug itself deep into the wall, but could not penetrate it. Austin was not deterred by this. Instead, he threw two more needles towards Kratch. The two needles did the same and just dug deep into the wall without piercing through.

  “At least try to throw them from a different angle! All of this fanfare, and this is all you can do?” Kratch said angrily. “I expected at least something great!”

  “Don’t worry,” Austin said flatly as another pair of needles left his hands. As the needles flew towards the wall, a wide grin came across Austin’s face. “Here it comes!”

  The needles stuck into the wall like the previous ones, but the truth was that the needles never stopped trying to reach Kratch. The force of the last needles added enough pressure to weaken the foundation of the wall. In less than a second after they hit, the other needles were able to break through. All of the needles created gaping holes in the wooden wall before they darted through the air into Kratch.

  Austin could hear a coughing sound from the gnoll as the attacks landed. Now, he just needed to finish the job. He quickly ran towards Kratch as a sword took shape in his hand. Austin quickly darted around the remains of the wall to confront Kratch. Kratch knelt on one knee as it tried to recover from the damage of the oversized needles.

  In desperation, Kratch raised its hand towards Austin and started to form purple energy in it. Before an attack could be released, Austin quickly brought his sword down on Kratch’s arm. The arm flew into the air before it scattered into purple dust.

  Kratch outstretched its other hand as if it were trying to get Austin to stop. “Please, have mercy. I swear we won’t cause any more trouble.”

  “There is only one way to be sure of that,” Austin said coldly as he raised his sword in the air.

  As Austin brought his sword down, a bright purple light expanded from Kratch’s body. Austin reeled back as the light blinded him. Once the light cleared, Austin blinked his eyes several times to try to get his vision back to normal. He readied his sword, but then saw that Kratch had vanished.

  Austin looked back and forth for Kratch. He could not believe that he let Kratch get away. Then a sudden pain ran up his arm. He dropped his sword and clutched his arm. His right arm was covered in pulsing purple veins.

  “If I was gonna die anyway, I might as well give you a death curse,” Kratch’s voice cackled inside of Austin’s head.

  In a world where cultivators can split mountains with a single sword strike, Xue Tianming can only grope through the snow with frozen fingers.

  Genre: Xianxia, Dark Fantasy, Tragedy, Revenge, God Sealing

  Tags: Cultivation, Unique System, Moral Ambiguity, Complex Characters, Emotional, Slow Burn, Weak to Strong