Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 49 - 1v1 Me IRL

The Mental Manipulation took hold of Gael. She took a step back, her eyes widened, and her mouth hung open. Despite her eyes being pitch black, Mason could see the fear in them. The effect lasted only a second before Gael’s Willpower stat started to repress it. Luckily the second was all Mason needed to start his onslaught of attacks.

First, he withdrew his stone disk from his inventory and shot it at her head using his Ballistic Touch ability. It closed the gap between them almost instantly, but at the last possible moment, she completely overcame the Terror effect and her hand shot up, intercepting the path of the disk, the force behind it pushed her back several paces and caused her HP bar to appear above her head, the attack draining it almost imperceptibly.

While she was distracted, Mason pulled out dozens of daggers, swords and arrows that he had managed to collect during his time on this world and sent them all shooting at Gael. Adding in as many Magic Missiles as his rapidly diminishing Mana pool would allow.

The woman was fast, but not even she could dodge the entire barrage, though she did make an impressive attempt. She managed to avoid all of the Magic Missiles, and two of the daggers impacted her barrier, bouncing off harmlessly but fortunately, her barrier ability had its limits as two of the arrows penetrated her lower stomach and one short sword made a deep gash on her upper thigh.

Currently very low on Mana he brought out a potion from his inventory and brought it to his lips. Before the miraculous liquid could enter his mouth the bottle exploded in his hand. He looked up and saw Gael standing there hand outstretched.

“I don’t think so.” The normally overconfident Gael looked pissed. “You’ve had your fun. Now it’s my turn.” The anger in her voice sent shivers up Mason’s spine.

Her fists glowed, and tiny arcs of electricity spiked around them. She launched herself at him at full speed, Mason was ready to counter-attack but didn’t need to. As Gael approached, a wall of stone was erected. Her fist slammed into it, destroying it in a single blow, before the detritus even hit the ground another wall appeared. Again this one was torn down by the crazed woman. Again and again walls appeared, each time Gael grew more enraged until finally, she stopped.

She looked around and saw Mayry. In an instant, Gael was next to her, hand hands wrapped tightly around her throat. Looking back at Mason she spat, “If the little girl interrupts again I’ll gut her.” She dropped Mayry who fell to the ground gasping for breath.

It was Mason’s turn to be enraged. Through gritted teeth, he called out to Mayry, “It’s okay. I can deal with her. Just stay back with the other Hunters for now.”

Gael reappeared in front of him. He glared daggers at her. “Enough tricks. How about we settle this hand-to-hand?” Mason smirked, trying to goad the woman. “Unless you don’t think you can beat me?”

The last time they had fought Mason was lucky to scratch her but he had come a long way in the pitiful amount of time she had allowed him to train. He would still be unsure as to whether or not he could beat her but his new Gather Intel Hunter skill was now taking into account his current rage and the buffs it was giving. The skill was now giving him a 50/50 chance of winning if they stuck to martial arts, but that dropped significantly if they started throwing around their respective abilities, from what the ability was telling him, Gael was marginally faster than he was, but he had the strength advantage.

She sighed, “Fine, we can play you’re game but keep it interesting, or I’ll pull your heart out like I did the doggy over there.” She waggled her eyebrows at him, her demeanour returning to a more playful one. “I kinda want to see how you taste, so I’ll probably do that anyway.”

Mason only growled in response, he didn’t know if she was trying to bait him or if the woman was genuinely insane, but he suspected a bit of both was the most likely scenario.

They circled each other, looking for an opening. They both moved at the same moment dashing towards each other at high speeds. They both threw punches that collided in mid-air, causing a loud boom, and a shockwave that knocked them both backwards.

Mason, recovering quickly followed up with a kick, but Gael dodged it easily and countered with a roundhouse to his side. Mason winced internally but didn't let it show on his face. He went on the offensive with a flurry of punches, but Gael evaded them all with ease, moving like a dancer.

He felt the now familiar feeling of something in the back of his mind, pushing him to move faster and hit harder, it fuelled the fire in him that was his rage, which with Emotional Outburst made him faster and stronger still.

He charged at Gael, who was waiting for him. They grappled, their muscles straining against each other. Gael tried to sweep his leg, but Mason anticipated the move and flipped, landing behind her. He used the opportunity to land a few quick blows to the back of her head trying to stun her.

Gael spun around swinging her fist, but Mason was ready for it. He blocked her punches and landed a few of his own. They were both panting now, their faces bruised and bloodied. Gael spat out a mouth full of blood.

“Let’s make this more interesting.” A dagger appeared in each of her hands. She gestured to him to do the same, but after the dozens of blades he had shot at her earlier, he only had his favoured Drake tooth dagger remaining.

Mason eyed Gael warily, knowing that the odds were now stacked against him. But he couldn't back down now, not after everything they had been through, not after she had killed Lyvan and threatened Mayry. He pulled out his Drake tooth dagger.

Gael narrowed her eyes at the blade. “Feeling a little overconfident are?”

Mason said nothing, not wanting to admit that the blade in his hand was his last.

Gael was the first to attack, lunging forward with both daggers. Mason dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the sharp blades. He countered with a swift strike, but Gael parried it easily with one of her daggers. Mason had hoped that his Magical blade would slice right through Gael’s daggers but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The two fighters circled each other warily, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Suddenly, Gael darted forward, her daggers flashing in the air. Mason blocked her initial strikes, but she was relentless, attacking him with a flurry of quick jabs and slashes. Mason was forced to backpedal, his movements growing slower as his stamina was slowly depleted.

Gael saw her opportunity and struck out with her left dagger, aiming for Mason's unprotected side. He managed to deflect the blow with his own dagger parrying and followed up with a quick jab of his own aimed at her chest, Gael was too quick, dodging to the side and countering with a swift kick to his midsection.

Mason stumbled back and fell to the floor gasping for breath. Gael advanced on him, her daggers held at the ready.

The presence in the back of his mind was screaming at him to rip her to shreds. For once, Instead of fighting it, he embraced it. His eyes filled with rage. He sprang to his feet and landed a punch so strong to Gael’s stomach that she doubled over, the wind knocked out of her Blood dripping from her mouth.

Mason knew he had to act fast in order to end it, otherwise, she would just heal or pull out some other trick. He lunged forward, feinting with his dagger to draw Gael's attention, then struck out with a powerful punch to her face.

She stumbled back, her daggers dropping from her hands. Mason wasted no time, seizing the opportunity to strike. He lunged forward, his dagger flashing in the air, aiming for Gael's throat. He landed on top of her. Her hands shot up and wrapped around his in an attempt to stop him from slitting her throat.

Mason pushed his dagger towards her throat, using all the strength he had. Slowly he was winning their reverse tug-of-war game. A small trickle of blood appeared as the blade pierced her skin and sank a few millimetres into her throat. She sneered at him and whispered, “Don’t get cocky. This is the deepest you’ll ever be in a woman.” Until now, pure rage had been what was pushing him forward. Her ridiculous taunt suddenly threw him off, bringing him back to his senses. He kept a firm grip on his dagger and pressed as hard as he could but no matter what he did he couldn’t reawaken the rage.

Gael’s whole body started to vibrate. Fearing that she was going to blow herself up in a last-ditch kamikaze attempt at killing him, he released his hold on her and jumped back.

She vibrated more violently, creating distortions in her voice as she spoke, “I had thought you’d be dead by the time this cooldown was over, but lucky you, you get to experience my favourite ability.” Her hand was suddenly torn in two. Then her other hand did the same. A second Gael seemed to step out of the original.

Within moments of the second Gael appearing, both Gaels launched themselves at him. Mason noticed that they were moving significantly slower than the original had.

Gael A attacked him from the left and Gael B from the right. They both went for punches, but A went high, aiming at his face, while B went low, aiming for his stomach. He let the blow to his stomach land in favour of protecting his face. The hit landed and made Mason wince, but it was only about half as hard as the original Gael had hit.

The two of them were slower and hit a lot less hard, but with there being two of them, it made it far more difficult to keep track of where they were about to strike and plan how to block.

If he tried focussing on one Gael at a time, the other would immediately become more brazen, attacking more ferociously and recklessly. They were slowly wearing down an already exhausted Mason.

Gael had broken the rules by using her clone ability, so Mason decided it was his turn.

He focussed on Gael A, and as he expected, Gael B flanked him and tried to attack him from behind, This time, instead of allowing it, he used his Mental Manipulation Skill and filled Gael B’s mind with loyalty to him. So when he dove out of the way, Gael B tackled Gael A to the ground and started pummeling her with punches.

By the time Mason Picked himself up, the effect was starting to wear off, Gael B still sat on top of A but had stopped punching her. While they were figuring out what had happened, Mason managed to chug down a Stamina potion. He had been running low on both Mana and Stamina, but his Mana had been slowly ticking up while his Stamina had barely had the chance.

He felt the euphoria of energy fill him, as the potion worked its magic. The process took a few seconds, in this time, his mind wavered he let down his guard.

While his focus had been disrupted, the two clones had gotten themselves up, retrieved a dagger each and closed the distance to him. Gael B had raised her dagger and was about to stab it into his neck when a stream of black fire slammed into her chest, the flames seemed to devour the clone within an instant.

Mason regained his wits and saw a shocked Mayry standing there, staring at her outstretched hands.

The remaining Gael roared in fury, “I FUCKING WARNED YOU BITCH”

The ‘Other’ threw out her own hands and shot out a fast-moving torrent of blood-red energy toward Mayry. Mason could sense the power within the attack and knew if it hit Mayry, it would kill her instantly.

Mason tried to intercept the attack but found he was unable to move. Gael B must have inflicted him with some sort of Paralysis affliction while she had been behind him.

All Mason could do was watch as the powerful Magic attack rushed towards Mayry.

She was going to die. There was nothing he could do about it. Mayry was going to-

Suddenly, out of nowhere. The Mayor of Sparksford, Mayry’s father, appeared standing in front of his daughter. The red rush of Magic enveloped him.

A useless gesture. Now they were both dead. No, the mayor seemed to be okay. He was actually tanking the hit without any effort at all.

Mason heard Gael roar in fury, pouring more and more Mana into her attack.

The Mayor remained steadfast in the midst of a red haze surrounding him. The energy seemed to be absorbed into his body, nourishing him and causing him to grow until he towered 15 feet tall and was as broad as a transit van.

As Mason stared on in astonishment, he noticed a notification waiting for his attention in the corner of his consciousness. He was planning on reading later but some of the words managed to catch his eye.

Hidden ability - Divine Detection unlocked

A sliver of the Lesser God Chaos has been revealed.

Identify Skill Upgraded.