Having struck the solid, unyielding body, Liam knew exactly what he was up against. His system confird his thoughts instantly with a flickering notification, but the reality of it was far more jarring than the data. It was undeniably strange; of all the mages they had fought against in the past, none possessed a tallic body like this. It didn’t feel like a temporary spell or a localized enhancent. It wasn’t just a layer of armor; it felt as if the man’s very atoms had been rearranged into sothing cold and industrial.
"Just what is going on?" Liam muttered, his voice tight with frustration.
He took a cautious step back to recalibrate, but the mont his heel touched the floor, the ground betrayed him. Without warning, a pillar of earth erupted from the stone flooring directly beneath his foot. The sudden shift threw him off balance, his arms flailing as gravity montarily took hold. Sensing the opening, the mage didn’t hesitate. A giant fist, wreathed in roaring orange flas, surged forward to strike him dead center.
Mid-air, Liam forced his body to twist. He channeled his Qi, feeling the familiar heat of energy coursing through his ridians. He perford a technique filled with raw power, rotating his fra to break right through the center of the flas. It was a Dark Faction technique he hadn’t used in a while, a spiraling movent that allowed him to drill through resistance like a whirlwind.
The mont he finished the maneuver and landed, however, the mage was already there. The speed was unnatural for soone so heavy. A large, tallic hand swung in a wide arc, colliding with Liam’s face once again. The impact sounded like a hamr hitting an anvil.
Liam felt his body flying, the world a blur of grey stone and magical light, until he crashed violently into a wall that had risen from the floor specifically to catch him. Before he could even slide to the ground, a flurry of fla fists began raining down on him.
He scrambled upward, swinging his sword in a desperate arc to block most of the strikes. Sparks flew as his blade t the magical fire, but every successful parry only fueled his internal rage.
These mages... Liam thought, grit in his teeth. In terms of raw power, they are hardly stronger than the ones we have fought before. But they are utilizing their skills so much better. The way they cycle through the different elents is seamless. It’s almost like they’re on an entirely different level of mastery.
Liam was struggling for two specific reasons. First, the mage was tactical. Most of the attacks intended to stop his movent were placed behind him or in his blind spots, making it so his system had a difficult ti predicting the incoming trajectory.
The second reason was internal. Liam was trying his best not to over-rely on the system or his all-cutting sword. It was a constant temptation. He knew his sword could have sliced through that iron body in a single stroke if he tapped into its full potential. But he rembered his encounters with Harvey and the mber of the Cerberus Guild. In those monts, the all-cutting sword had seed useless.
If the sword fails, what am I? he asked himself. Am I practically useless without the gear? That thought terrified him, which was why he was determined to win this fight without leaning on his crutches.
"I’m just a massive cheat at the mont with everything that has been given to !" Liam shouted, his voice echoing off the chamber walls as he hacked through the flurry of flas. His muscles burned, and his lungs felt like they were filled with ash.
"Simyon worked harder than anyone else to get to where he was! And as for Safa, she was so skilled she beca the youngest ever to reach the Divine realm! Where does that leave ? I’m just stuck here!"
The mage triggered another trap, lifting the earth right under Liam’s foot. This ti, Liam didn’t wait for a system prompt. The second he felt the vibration against his skin, he slamd his foot down with a burst of Qi, shattering the rising stone before it could tip him. Using the montum of the stomp, he charged forward.
He closed the distance in a heartbeat. As he swung his sword toward the mage’s torso, a shimring barrier appeared. Liam didn’t pull back. He flooded his blade with Qi, the energy vibrating so intensely that the air humd. The blade bit into the barrier, cracking it like glass, and sliced through.
With his free hand, Liam lunged out and grabbed the mage’s shoulder, his fingers digging into the cold, tallic surface. He pulled the enemy forward, closing the gap so they were chest-to-chest, and thrust his sword deep into the mage’s stomach.
For a heartbeat, the tip of the blade groaned as it clashed against the hardened skin of tal. It refused to penetrate. Liam didn’t panic; he twisted the sword with a guttural roar, creating a small, jagged indent in the tallic hide. He let go of the hilt for a split second, then slamd his open palm against the poml with the force of a battering ram.
The sword broke through.
Blood splattered out from the hardened body, a stark contrast against the dull grey of the tal. With every ounce of strength left in his arms, Liam heaved the sword upward. The blade groaned as it ripped through the tallic chest, through the neck, until it finally exited through the top of the mage’s head.
The body slumped, the tallic sheen fading as the life left it. Liam stood over the corpse, huffing and panting, his sweat dripping onto the floor.
I know I used so of the strength from the Nano bots in my body, Liam thought, looking at his trembling hands. But that has beco a part of now. This isn’t cheating... this is improving myself for the future so I can actually help the others.
Liam looked over to the side to see how B was doing, hoping he might be able to offer assistance. Instead, he saw B standing calmly over a body that lay at the bottom of a fresh crater. Blood was splattered across the floor in a wide, violent radius.
"Qi can cause internal strikes more effectively with a blunt object," B said, his voice as steady as if he were discussing the weather. "So I just powered through all of his attacks and hit him with my fist. His internals don’t seem to be made out of tal, only the outside."
Liam felt a sting of sha, but it was quickly replaced by a renewed sense of purpose. He had a goal now: to at least beco as strong as B.
Across the room, the air was heavy with unspoken tension. Raze stood opposite the final opponent, his posture relaxed but his eyes lethal.
"Your two allies have been dealt with, and you are facing ," Raze said, his voice cold and echoing. "Don’t you think it’s best you just gave up, Natty?"
The two hadn’t begun their dance of death yet. They were observing one another, two predators waiting for the slightest flicker of hesitation. Raze didn’t seem in a hurry; he was dissecting the man with his gaze.
"You will live," Raze added, a small, dark promise in his tone. "In return for as much information on the Noble Guild as possible. Don’t make ask twice."
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