Charlemagne dodged out of the way as a strange, snake-like appendage whipped out from the enormous human. But the attack had not been aimed at him. The invisible lion that had been stalking him from behind let out a strangled yelp as it was grabbed and pulled toward the man. The rooster watched in fascination as the giant cat slammed into the giant’s chest. A strange energy enveloped the lion’s body, and it began to melt into a strange black substance, which was absorbed by the man’s armor.
As the last parts of the cat were absorbed, the human’s body began to transform. Bones groaned and tendons creaked as the man grew from merely improbably tall for a human to positively gigantic. His greenish silver armor expanded to cover both shoulders, and a pair of round metal fans sprouted from the man’s chest before migrating around to the outside of the shoulders. A high-pitched whine came from the fans for a brief moment as they settled in place. After the fans had completed their test, large chunks of armor detached from the back of the man’s legs, giving the metal-coated calves and ankles additional definition. As the heavy pieces slammed into the dust, Charlemagne tried to use his Identify skill on his opponent a second time, and this time it returned something worth looking at.
The human yelled as a burst of mana erupted from him, creating a high-pressure zone that generated strong winds that blew into Charlemagne’s face. The devolved rooster’s nictitating membrane blinked away a few stray specks of dust as the transformation entered its second phase. The lion’s face made a reappearance, perching atop the human’s own head like a hat, while the mane and pelt formed a cloak that fluttered in the strong wind. At the same time, the human’s right arm began to shift, elongating as the forearm and hand turned into five hollow tubes that fit around a central shaft. A serrated blade extruded from the human’s armor on the left side, its hilt resting comfortably in the man’s enormous hand. It vibrated at such an incredible speed that it appeared to be out of focus compared to the rest of the world.
A human observer would probably have been instantly offended by the strange combination of ancient attire and post-modern weaponry on display. Fortunately for all involved, Brett had successfully managed to block the fight from displaying on any of GOD’s feeds, which meant that the only creature available to critique the human’s style choices was Charlemagne. And the only thing the rooster cared about was how delicious the transformed human smelled. With the wind blowing in his face, it was as if he was standing in front of a kitchen exhaust vent of a fast-food restaurant. If anything, the human had become even more appetizing after his transformation finished, so Charlemagne used his Identify skill one more time.
Before he had a chance to process the information provided by the squiggles, the human spoke again.
“The preparations are now completed, unclean one. Know that my name is Raul Sanchez, first of the Anakim, symbol of peace and justice to all who acknowledge Brett as their one true deity.”
Then, far faster than a person his size should be, the human moved. Charlemagne’s Dodge skill screamed at him to get out of the way of the blade that slashed down towards the spot where the neck joined the shoulder. He leapt backwards, taking only a nick to the chest from the blade, but then the human was on him again, spinning in place and lashing out with lightning-fast kick. The man’s foot cracked two of the rooster’s ribs as he was flung away, his claws desperately carving deep furrows in the earth as he fought to maintain his balance.
“Your animal reflexes are good, but they will not save you forever. Behold, the power of the human race!”
Raul launched himself forward again, the fans on his shoulders spinning up to add lift. Charlemagne sidestepped the next slashing attack and managed to briefly get behind the man. He attempted to use his Strike ability to peck out the back of his foe’s knee, but failed to connect as Raul simply lifted the leg. The rooster took a kick directly in the face for his troubles, sending him tumbling backwards once again.
When the human turned around to face Charlemagne, the tubes that formed his right forearm were already spinning rapidly, letting out a high-pitched electric whirr. Then Raul pointed at the rooster, and bullets began to fly.
BRRRRRRRT
The minigun’s roar sounded like a chainsaw on steroids, Charlemagne didn’t have a chance to appreciate just how terrifying it was. He was too busy trying to survive. Thankfully, the rooster had a straight-forward counter to such an attack. After activating Meditation, he created a mana shield directly in front of him, using it as cover until he was able to escape the line of fire. There was only one problem: Raul continued to track him with the gun, forcing him to create new shields as he ran. He couldn’t linger behind any one shield, either, because the hail of bullets broke down the rooster’s defenses almost as fast as he could throw them up. Despite being at a disadvantage, Charlemagne gamely made shield after shield as he circled the human, who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of projectiles at his disposal.
As the seconds dragged on, the rooster’s shields started to last a bit longer thanks to his Zen Barbarian class ability, which gave him a temporary boost to all his mana-based skills the longer he remained in combat. Charlemagne also grew more confident in constructing the barriers, wasting less energy and getting them in place faster. As the endless barrage continued, he noticed that the human’s metallic right arm was beginning to glow a dim red. Taking that for a bad sign, Charlemagne began to look for something that could tip the scales in his favor.
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It took the devolved rooster far too long to realize that he didn’t have to run around in circles, creating barriers. Instead, Charlemagne started slowly advancing into the onslaught, forming a barrier in front of him as he made headway and then hastily making a new one further in as soon as he could. He then deconstructed the closest shield, recovering the majority the mana spent to create it. There were a few small accidents that gave his Ironskin skill a good workout, but he made it to within striking distance of the enormous man mostly intact. It was then that Charlemagne realized something very important.
He had no idea how he was going to switch to offense.
That was when he turned off his brain, and allowed his animal instincts to take over, triggering Zenrage earlier than he thought possible. Raul had used the moment’s hesitation to create some distance, so Charlemagne was forced to sprint headlong at the glowing weapon, creating slanted mana shields that merely deflected the bullets a few degrees rather than attempting to stop them. It was much more efficient than his previous design. As he entered melee range once again, he dug deep into his mana reserves and created several additional shields with steeper angles. The bullets struck the mana constructs and were redirected further each time, eventually getting turned around entirely. Raul grunted in surprise as the minigun bullets pinged off his armor before finding unshielded flesh. Blood flew from ruined flesh as the projectiles chewed deep into the man’s upper arms, neck, and face. The gun ceased firing almost immediately.
Charlemagne sought to capitalize on his opponent’s vulnerability and launched a devastating peck at the human’s armored kneecap. But, even while distracted, Raul’s reflexes were impeccable. The rooster’s beak struck only a glancing blow as the knee moved just in time. The attack carved deeply into the metal covering the man’s leg, but that was all.
The rooster pulled his head back and was lining up another Strike when the strangely vibrating blade swept down from out of nowhere and sliced his right wing clean off. Charlemagne let out a scream as exquisite pain flooded his body and backed away, focusing on repairing the damage as quickly as possible. The wound took more effort to close than he had expected, but after a few moments he managed to stem the loss of blood. In fact, the loss of his wing had made him considerably stronger due to his Zen Barbarian class, which increased his attributes the more he was damaged.
After taking a moment to steady himself, Charlemagne charged back in, weaving a bit as he adjusted to the loss of his wing. Since he couldn’t fly at the moment, he used mana shields as makeshift steps, leaping from side to side to confuse his opponent and even bounding off a vertically constructed shield to completely change direction several times. Raul’s strange eye rotated wildly as it tracked the bird’s erratic movement, but the man’s posture remained relaxed. The human’s calm stance infuriated Charlemagne as he completed his approach and shot forward, using a final shield constructed behind him to push forward with a surprising burst of speed. His eyes and beak shone blue as he reinforced his natural weapon, aiming to Strike one of his favorite targets: the groin.
A silver blur flashed up and toward Charlemagne from the left, but he had already committed everything to the attack and couldn’t dodge. A hastily formed mana shield appeared between him and the incoming gun arm, but the heavy appendage broke right through the shield before slamming into the rooster’s left side with bone-crunching force and sending Charlemagne far off course. His momentum carried him past Raul’s left side. It was a small mercy that the human had hit Charlemagne as hard as he did; otherwise, the rooster would have slammed straight into the man’s vibrating blade.
The rooster hit the ground hard, his Ironskin skill saving him from the indignity of road rash as he impacted the cobblestone of the road and rolled over several times before coming to a stop in a dirt pile by the roadside. Blood oozed from his face and left ear as he rose unsteadily to his feet. His left wing had taken the brunt of the impact and hung uselessly; the blow having completely shattered its relatively fragile bones. But that was better than the alternative. If it hadn’t been for the mana shield blunting the speed and force of the attack, Charlemagne’s head would have been the useless appendage.
The rooster’s Zenrage skill was working overtime to balance Charlemagne’s anger with clarity, as discovering that the human was better than he was at close combat was not a fun fact to learn. Charlemagne felt that had the advantage in speed and raw striking power, but the human more than made up for this through his superior defenses, weaponry, reach, and technique. Realizing that he couldn’t keep trying the same thing and expecting different results, the rooster began charging his only remaining option: his mana ball.
The human was content to allow Charlemagne all the time that he needed to prepare his attack. In fact, he raised the hand that held his blade and made a motion with his fingers to indicate that he was ready whenever. With Meditation and Zenrage active on top of the bonuses he was receiving from his class, mana freely poured out from the rooster’s core, forming a massive ball of barely constrained energy. Streams of ambient mana flowed into the glowing blue sphere, forced into submission by Charlemagne’s incredible willpower and focus, as the attack continued to gain strength. And still, the rooster continued to strengthen the attack. Charlemagne’s healing rate plummeted as he pulled as much power as he could out of his body and into the mana ball. A blue aura surrounded the rooster as more and more power flowed toward him from the surrounding area.
“Bring out your full power, arrogant bird. I will destroy your best attack!” Raul shouted suddenly, sliding his blade into a sheath built into his armor and using the free hand to crack his thick neck.
Charlemagne obliged.
“Buck-kawk!!!” he shouted.
The mana ball, which had left the rooster’s mouth highly compressed, expanded until it was almost the size of Charlemagne himself. Raul surged forward to meet the attack head on, his powerful legs cracking the ground beneath him. He used the momentum to his advantage as he slammed into the magical projectile with his arms out, shouting as he made contact. Tendons strained and veins bulged as the human fought to bring the glowing sphere to a halt. Then the fans mounted on the man’s shoulders activated, their high-pitched whine barely audible over Raul’s roar of defiance. Slowly, Raul fought the sphere to a standstill.
But the mana attack was giving as good as it got. Powerful beams of energy shot out of the sphere at random, piercing through Raul’s body as the man wrapped his powerful arms around the sphere and squeezed with inhuman might. Charlemagne watched in disbelief as Raul Sanchez literally hugged the attack to death. As the last of the magic fizzled out, the rooster felt an emotion rising within him that was entirely unfamiliar - despair.
