Our battle had only just begun, and yet the boss was already looking exhausted. It seemed whatever he did to block my first attack took a lot out of him. Despite that, he didn’t show any sign of giving up.

  In fact…

  “Nice first attack, Mordred!” He praised, a mix of pride, excitement, and fear in his words.

  I decided to join in the banter. “Picked up a few tricks watching you fight, boss. Now give me your best shot!!”

  He took my proclamation by squatting. I can already see where he was going with this and readied my Axe to endure his attack.

  Sure enough, he did his signature launch with the ground below him following his command, sending him flying right at me. Though I’m sure there’s more to it.

  Interestingly enough, he managed to spin himself in the air. That’s when I noticed that he had his free hand out, several balls of air being shot from it. I see, so he’s trying to add a bit more power by making himself gain more momentum. He even had his sword pointed forward.

  VERY WELL! GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU GOT!!

  I placed both my feet and my Axe firmly in the ground and put all my weight into it as the boss came at me like a thrown spear. The moment our weapons clashed, I could see sparks fly out as a grating sound roared out in an echo. It was unpleasant enough to want to make you cover your ears. I could even see some of the crowds do exactly that! But I held on, no way something like this would get to me!

  The moment he slowed down, I planned on grabbing him, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I was surprised to find several strands of something starting to surround us. They looked like rope, except they were made of a different material I couldn’t quite figure out.

  Following the source, I saw that they originated from the boss’s sword. I see, so the spinning was for something else, huh? He wanted to bind me up with metal ropes made from his weapon.

  “HAHAHA, quite impressive boss! But it’ll take more than that to beat me!”

  I grabbed one of my Tomahawks and made a curved side swing, catching the sword threads like spider webs, and tossed it to the side, sending the boss by as well. But that didn’t stop him. Just as he was flung away, he gripped the handle of his weapon and put all his might into redirecting the tossed Tomahawk back at me while retracting his threaded blade back into its base form.

  I grabbed my flying Tomahawk with my bare hand, not daring to show a speck of concern. At the same time, it seemed putting his effort into sending my weapon back had caused the boss to crash to the ground, scuffing his scales. He flinched from the painful landing, but still he pushed himself up.

  He looked even more exhausted than before. Usually, this would be the time he would pull out that plant to recover his Mana, yet he refused to do so.

  I see, glad to see you’re fighting me fair and square. That’s right, let’s go push ourselves past our limits, boss!

  I dropped my Tomahawk and gripped my Axe with both my hands. I lowered my body, preparing to activate my skill once I had a direct view of my target. Then, using my Bull Stampede, I charged straight at him. The horns on my head aimed directly at him, ready to deliver the full stampede of a Minotaur!

  His eyes widened when he saw what I was doing. He instinctively was readying his free hand, more than likely to try to use that invisible wall once more, but lowered it. Whether it was because he didn’t have enough Mana to use it, or didn’t think it would stop me.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Instead, he opted to charge head-on. Not with his usual mode of movement, but instead with his own two feet. Not exactly the brightest idea, even I could figure that much, but if he insists on doing it like that, then so be it!

  Head-to-head and with no protection. It should be obvious between us which of us would win this clash, yet I had a feeling the boss had something else up his sleeve. No matter, I’ll take whatever he dishes out, you hear me!

  Sure enough at the very last second, he suddenly dived! Sliding on the ground right as my horns were reaching my target and below the slice of my Axe. He outstretched his free hand as his backup sword appeared in his grasp; it must have come from the storage ability the boss told me about.

  Before I could question what he was about to do, I suddenly felt a stinging pain in my legs!

  “I see, using that old low sweep attack, aren’t you boss?! That takes me back! ~”

  I ignored the jolt of pain coming from my gashed legs and made a turn back to the boss, but he was quicker. I felt several jabs at part of my back and instinctively used my arm to cover my vitals as I felt the same thrusts at my arms. Iron needles too, huh?

  “Come on boss, surely you should know better than to think that little needles are going to hurt me?”

  I swung my pin cushion of an arm back, sending the little needles back at the boss, who could do nothing more but create a rocky shield from the ground before him. Of course, I wasn’t going to give him a moment to recover, already charging back at him and making sure not to let him repeat the same maneuver by changing the way I swung my Axe, going for an upward diagonal curve.

  I broke through that rocky shield, only to find that there was nothing else behind it but an empty hole.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Now now boss, that may have worked on anyone else, but not on me! ~”

  Not even questioning where the boss was, I raised my Axe high up in the air. I tensed up my muscles and swung down with all my might right at the ground below me. Several parts of the land broke apart into pieces and flung up like a broken structure. I eyed my surroundings, and sure enough, among the debris, the boss was among them, spinning helplessly from the sudden momentum in pure shock.

  I twisted my axe, my eyes fully on the boss. “Now you’re defenseless! ARRRGGGHHH!!!”

  Without hesitation, I used whatever strength I had left to swing at full force with enough power that no normal person could hope to survive. Despite that, I still had full confidence that the boss would.

  And if he couldn’t well….

  The bladed end of my weapon reached the scale end of the boss’s stomach, the force of my swing being enough to generate enough wind to cause more of the debris to obscure my vision. At the end of it all, my Axe had crashed at the ground to my side.

  In my view, even if I didn’t see it connect, he was in such a position that he wouldn’t have been able to dodge that attack. To further prove it, I felt a splash of Kobold blood hit my chest with my Axe dripping in it.

  It seemed the fight had concluded in my favor. Normally I would have been excited for my victory. Yet, I could feel nothing but disappointment…..

  I could hear the crowd before me comment on our battle.

  “Did…did he win?”

  “No way, I thought he was supposed to be stronger?”

  “…What does that mean for us?”

  Not wanting to hear anymore, I closed my eyes as I thought about what I should do now. My Axe hung limply on my arm, as I’m reminded of my old duties.

  The dust starts to settle, and soon it will be clear of the results of the battle are. Seeing no point, I gripped my weapon tightly in my hand, ready to leave.

  That was until one of them called out.

  “Hey look! He’s still standing!”

  …. What did he say?

  I opened my eyes and quickly turned around to where the boss should be lying. What I saw instead was the boss standing, wincing in pain as he clutched his stomach tightly, as blood dripped to the ground. But how?

  As if reading my mind, the boss answered, despite the pain it clearly takes to do even that. “You’re thinking, how right? It wasn’t easy…. had to use quite a bit of my Mana…. to create a ball of Air… and redirect my fall… still took quite a hit though… You definitely are not holding back!”

  Despite the pain he was in, he still managed to give off a smile; his eyes in fact, were brimming with confidence even when the situation should be hopeless. Heh…. then I have nothing to worry about…. I’m glad to follow you and your unrivaled confidence, boss!!

  He held out his sword in front of me and made his declaration. “Bring it on!!”

  Very well, then it’s time to show you something I’ve secretly been working on. It wasn’t quite ready yet, but I have a gut feeling it should work now!

  “Show everyone your true strength, boss and go all in!! Here comes my BLOODY RAGE!!”