“That was mine!” Chet yelled furiously while his eyes bulged in anger. “I’ll kill you!”

  “We’ve already established that’s how you feel. Try to get a new line,” Austin said as he winced through the pain. He tried to send Essence to heal his wound, but there was still a large gash in his shoulder. To fully heal it, he would have to use up his Essence and not fight. Luckily, he did have a healing scroll from Artas in his pack. The problem was reaching it in the middle of the battle.

  “Don’t try to get smart with me!” Chet yelled as he charged Austin.

  As Chet approached Austin, he threw his fist at him. Austin quickly stepped to the side of the attack and did not counter. Instead, Austin knew that he would have to look for an opening to use his healing scroll. Chet realized quickly that Austin did not counter and threw his outstretched arm to the side to try to catch Austin with it. The wide arc of Chet’s swing forced Austin to duck underneath it. Before Austin could do anything else, Chet sent a powerful knee towards him. The knee slammed straight into Austin’s chest and sent him flying backward.

  Austin was thrown to the ground and could only use one of his arms to help stop his fall. As he pushed off the ground, Chet was already back on him. Chet’s shoulder slammed into Austin and sent him straight back to the ground.

  Austin did not even have the chance to recover from Chet’s tackle. Chet threw his foot downward at Austin’s face for a strong stomp. Austin quickly rolled to the side of the stomp and heard a large thud as Chet’s foot slammed into the ground. As Austin rolled, he whipped his pack off his back.

  Austin stood up and opened his pack. As he opened his back, Chet threw another punch towards Austin. Austin stopped searching through his back and stepped to the side of the punch. As he did, his pack swung side-to-side. Austin tried to control his swinging pack so as not let any of the scrolls fall out.

  Chet continued to swing punches at Austin as he tried to search the pack. Austin soon realized that his attempt to search would be unsuccessful as long as Chet was pursuing him. He also realized that he had been acting sloppily. There was a way for him to get a moment of peace to find the scroll.

  As Chet swung another fist towards Austin, Austin took a giant leap backward. He had been dodging to the side when he should have been making a greater distance between the two. Before he even landed, Austin channeled Essence, and strands of silver light started to grow from the ground. The stands soon made a web as they joined together. The webs joined together until Austin was no longer in sight. Then the light of the Essence broke away to create a metal dome around Austin. For a moment, Austin felt foolish for forgetting his Total Defense technique in the middle of the fight.

  Austin knew that it was only a matter of time before Chet broke through the dome. So, he immediately started searching for the scroll. As he did, he heard repeated slams echo throughout the dome. Austin could only assume it was Chet punching at the dome.

  Austin did not pack many scrolls, but the hecticness of the situation made him feel like the scroll was hard to find. As he frantically searched, cracks started to form throughout the dome. Austin knew it was only a matter of time before Chet broke through. Once he found the scroll, Austin quickly snapped it open and placed his hand on the script that made up its enchantment.

  The dome shattered into falling pieces of metal. As the pieces hit the ground, they scattered into motes of silver light. Chet smiled broadly as the dome shattered and dashed towards Austin. As Chet moved in to attack, a green light in the shape of branches grew from the scroll and wrapped around Austin. Austin could feel his wound close as the branches wrapped around him, and he could even feel the pain of Chet’s other attacks go away. The branches unwrapped around Austin before they lifted into motes of green light. Austin even felt newly refreshed by the healing technique.

  Newly refreshed, Austin stepped to the side of Chet’s punch. Then Austin quickly drove himself forward. As he did, he shot his shield hand into Chet’s chest. Essence poured out in a burst of light as Austin made contact. This time, Austin expected it. He realized that it would just take more attacks to take Chet down, and he could not allow himself to be shocked.

  Chet quickly retaliated with a slash of his arm. Austin tried to back away, but Chet’s claws were able to slash against Austin’s chest. They tore through Austin’s clothes and scratched against his skin. Chet let out a roar as he moved to close the gap and swung his arms in wild slashes. As Chet grew more frustrated, he moved more like a beast than a man.

  Chet was fast and strong; that was an undeniable fact. Even being fast and strong, his movements became predictable as he grew frustrated. His attacks became over exaggerated, and Austin was able to easily understand and move out of the way of the attacks. Chet’s successive attacks made it hard to counter, but Austin was easily able to weave between the attacks. Claws flowed past Austin as he ducked and stepped out of the way of the attacks.

  Chet’s attacks started to slow, and Austin managed to counter. Even then, Chet’s durability made Austin’s attack seem ineffective. Austin knew that he would have to make a change if he was going to change the tide of battle. He had to make his attacks more effective, or the battle would go on forever. As Chet made another attack, Austin made a leap backward. As he soared backward, he threw his shield at Chet. Chet swatted the shield to the side, but Austin did not pull it back.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “I think it’s time to change things up,” Austin sighed as strands of silver light wrapped around his arms and legs. As the light lifted, silver armor surrounded Austin’s lower arms and legs. The armor was thin and formed to fit around his arms and legs perfectly. Tiny spikes protruded from the knuckles of the armor on his hands. “This is a new one, but I think it might work better.”

  ***

  Gavin and the red demon fought against each other savagely. Gavin’s technique gave him a full-body buff that increased his speed, strength, and durability. Because of this, he took full advantage of the durability and tanked the red demon’s attacks. The two exchanged punches back and forth. Despite the strength behind their punches, neither of them faltered for even a moment.

  Gavin joined in on Clive’s training, but truthfully, he was not the type to dodge attacks and make openings. He would brute force his way to victory. It was even part of the creation of his technique. A technique that allowed him to fight to his heart’s content.

  Gavin smiled as he swung his fist and struck the demon in the side. The demon retaliated with a punch to Gavin’s face. Which he took without hesitation. He then threw his fist forward into the demon’s chest. The demon grew increasingly frustrated as he punched Gavin once more. The two were like two immovable objects slamming against each other.

  “Die!” The demon yelled out with a strained voice. The voice sounded like something between animal and human.

  “Too stubborn for that,” Gavin said as he smashed his head into the demon’s face. The blow actually broke the demon’s stance and forced him backward.

  At the demon’s broken stance, Gavin continued his assault. He threw punch after punch at the demon. Somehow, he had worn the demon down, and cracks could be heard as Gavin punched him over and over again. After his volley of punches, he followed up with a slam of his head into the demon’s.

  The blow sent the demon into a daze. Gavin took that moment to move in and sweep his arm around the demon. As he did, he threw the demon on his shoulders. He then channeled as much Essence as he could through his body, making his body glow brightly. Then he released all the Essence at once to lift the demon off his shoulders and slam it into the ground. As he did, the bright light exploded and caused the earth to crack.

  Gavin stumbled backward and fell to his knees. The demon was still alive but could not move. The demon was completely exhausted. Gavin’s silver skin broke off like metal shards to reveal his regular skin. Gavin was also exhausted, and he could not finish the fight. He felt a weird mix of satisfaction and frustration at that fact.

  Suddenly, a black blade stabbed into the demon’s chest. At the attack, the demon disintegrated into red dust that swirled around the blade before it was sucked into it like a powerful vacuum. Gavin looked through blurred and tired eyes to see that James finished off the demon. As Gavin opened his mouth to speak, his eyes shut completely, and he fell to the ground.

  “Sorry about the kill steal, but I need it more than you do,” James smirked before he turned to his men. “Watch over him. I’ll go deal with that other monster.”

  “Yes, sir,” James’s men said in unison like trained soldiers.

  James raced to Josh and the purple demon he was fighting. Their fight was not as simple as Gavin’s. The two moved around and dodged each other with quick precision. James could see Josh send blades of wind at the demon. While the demon dodged and countered with its tendrils. It was a back-and-forth of long-range attacks and dodging.

  James formed an orb of white light in his hand as he approached the pair. With a quick motion, he threw it with all his might. The blast exploded in the demon’s face, creating an even brighter light as it did. James’s attack was not incredibly powerful, but it did have a powerful blinding effect. He used that moment of shock to come from behind and cut the demon’s tendrils to pieces with his sword.

  “What are you doing? And why do you have that?” Josh asked as the light cleared.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” James said urgently. “Let’s finish this guy off first.”

  Josh did not question James and immediately started to focus Essence into his own sword. Wind took form around his sword like a powerful tornado before he swung it in the demon’s direction. Tiny blades of wind flew wildly and filled the area in front of Josh. James was barely able to dodge out of the way of the attack. While the demon was completely unable to dodge the attack because it relied on its tendrils for quick movement.

  “Hey, watch it!” James yelled in annoyance. “You almost hit me.”

  “Oh, sorry. I’m not used to fighting with someone else,” Josh said.

  “It’s fine,” James grumbled as he moved back in to attack the demon.

  Tiny cuts covered the demon’s body. While the red demon was tougher and stronger, the purple demon relied on speed. Which made it much easier to damage. As the demon tried to recover from Josh’s attack, James was already swinging his sword at it. As the sword approached, the demon’s arms shifted as they had transformed into a liquid state. Then his arms snapped back into shape, curved blades. The demon used the blades to block James’s attack. The two pushed against each other as their blades clashed.

  As the demon and James clashed, James let Essence flow from his sword into himself. Red and purple light crawled across his skin and burrowed itself within. As James felt the Essence flow inside of him, he felt massively stronger and pushed even harder against the demon’s blades. With a powerful push, he forced the demon’s stance to break and quickly followed up with successive attacks. James’s blade flew upward and sliced through the demon’s arm. Then he quickly came downward with the blade and sliced through its other arm. Finally, he pulled his sword blade back before lunging it through the chest of the demon. As James lunged forward, he absorbed the demon’s Essence into his sword.

  “Get some rest. I think Maya needs help with that woman,” James ordered Josh before he flicked his blade to the side. Before Josh could protest, James already kicked forward into a dash towards Maya.