The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 642 – First opponent (2)

‘That’s why he’s rushing towards us!’ Percy realized. ‘Don’t let him get too close to our armour or it’ll hinder us more than it helps.’

Dodging the Denyte’s spells was already difficult without a layer of steel bogging them down. If they lost the lightness runes, they would be better off discarding their armour entirely and fighting naked.

Sending a mental nod back, Micky stopped adding thickness to the metal and instead focused on creating an enchanted greatsword to fly on. It would not only help them keep their distance, but it would also be easier to get rid of in case the Denyte managed to disable its enchantments.

For the next two minutes, Percy and his companions evaded the steam user by the skin of their fangs, focusing mostly on their speed and defences than fighting back. Explosions of superheated vapour chased them around the aerial battlefield, bursts of white obscuring their vision and causing the range of the Sage’s Pond to shrink slightly.

Unfortunately, their opponent had started the battle with thrice their mana capacity, and still had twice as much as them, despite having burned through it like nobody’s business.

Thankfully, their enchanted constructs utilized their limited resources far more efficiently than their opponent’s spells, barely allowing them to stay outside his range. However, their core was drying up at an alarming rate. Each evasive manoeuvre felt slightly heavier than the last, the once-fluid flow of mana turning sluggish and thin.

‘He’s going to exhaust us!’ Kassorith pointed out. ‘Any ideas?’

‘My predictions have grown more accurate,’ Percy said, offering some hope to relieve his host’s tension. ‘Prepare a heating formation while I evade. And make sure he doesn’t spot it before it’s ready.’

‘But he’s able to deactivate our enchantments,’ Micky protested.

‘Only if he gets close enough,’ Percy corrected. ‘It should be fine if we shoot from afar.’

The Huehuan said nothing else, working with Kassorith to prepare their secret weapon. The intricate enchantment was placed on a metallic disk glued to the Thess’kalan’s chest, hidden beneath his breastplate and a layer of concealment runes.

It took longer than usual to arrange the formation since Percy was too preoccupied with other matters to assist them, but they thankfully managed to complete it while still having enough mana to fuel it with.

‘It’s done, but we’ll only get one shot,’ Kassorith warned.

Hitting such an agile opponent from hundreds of metres away was a tall order, even with the element of surprise. Should they miss the first time, the Denyte would never give them a second chance whether or not they could muster up enough mana to charge the formation again.

‘Leave that up to me,’ Percy said, fully aware of how much depended on his success.

While his companions had been busy forging the disk, he’d fired a few enchanted longswords to gauge the range of their opponent’s bloodline. Each time the blades dimmed and faltered, he’d marked the invisible boundary in his mind like a cartographer sketching a coastline. It was possible that the Denyte had intentionally limited the reach of his ability to trick them, so Percy mentally added an overhead of about thirty percent just to be safe.

Once he felt that he had a good grasp on his opponent’s territory, Percy slowed down and allowed the steam mage to shrink the distance separating them slightly. Not enough to disable their only weapon – hopefully – but enough so that Percy could aim better. The roar of rushing steam grew louder as projectiles whizzed by Kassorith’s body, the sheer force behind them causing his enhanced bones to vibrate.

Kassorith and Micky obviously trusted Percy enough to not question his plan. Pouring what little mana they could spare into the enchantments, they caused the runes to thrum with barely contained power against the Thess’kalan’s chest as one layer after another came to life.

First, the runes engraved into the metal itself pulsed with enough heat to seep through the gaps between Kassorith’s reinforced scales. Then, the interlocking shards of steel amplified their power enough to scorch and sear his flesh. Finally, the overarching heating enchantment came this close to cooking the scaled man’s organs.

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Percy and his companions did everything they could to avoid showing their anguish on their expression, not willing to clue the Denyte in. Kassorith’s bloodline and spiritual blood should help them recover rather easily after the fight, so they just had to endure the pain for now.

Focusing intently on the steam mage, Percy studied every flicker of his soul, every twitch of his muscles, and every flare of his mana core, causing the projections of the man’s next moves to deepen. Future after future layered over one another in his mind, a tangled web of possible dodges and counters.

Turning around sharply, Percy fired a crimson beam of scorching air and concentrated lightning at the Denyte. The steam mage dodged it fairly easily, the powerful attack failing to so much as scratch the enchanted floor as Percy’s final attack was rendered obsolete.

Still, Percy didn’t panic. This hadn’t been a real blast, but merely the shadow of a now-discarded future. Percy aborted the move before his opponent even registered what had just happened – or rather, what could have happened.

Trying again, he tested various permutations of the attack. He tried launching a few longswords as a distraction first, flying even closer to the Denyte before unleashing the formation, or waiting for a more opportune moment. Each failed prediction collapsed like brittle glass, replaced by another possibility.

After several fake attempts, he managed to fine-tune the move into something that the steam mage was barely fast enough to avoid, though Percy couldn’t quite grasp a successful configuration.

‘Something is wrong,’ he told the others. ‘His reaction speed is unnaturally high even when I throw every trick in the book at him. It’s almost like we’re dealing with a machine rather than a person…’

His thoughts trailed off as he suddenly realized what the problem was. The bastard probably had a mindset helping him. If he’d passed the preliminaries before, there was a good chance he’d claimed Emah-Nuub’s Decree from a previous tournament. Even if he hadn’t, it was entirely possible that a talented mortal from a peak faction could commission a specialist to give them whatever mindset they wanted.

Percy would have loved to get one too, but he didn’t exactly regret not asking Metatron for it. Letting Phoebe into his head had already been quite a risk, but at least she had Remior’s best interests at heart. The greedy pentapus was a different story entirely.

‘Whatever you’re going to do, hurry the fuck up!’ Micky spat. ‘We can’t hold the formation charged for much longer!’

The disk was trembling now, the intense heat already burning the Thess’kalan’s left lung. Gritting his gums, Percy considered his options. They needed to get closer to shrink the Denyte’s reaction speed further, but they couldn’t do so without letting his bloodline touch the formation.

Experimenting with a few more potential futures, Percy eventually settled on one that might work. The final part was somewhat blurry, making it a bit of a coin toss, but he understood that this was the best he was going to get.

Whether or not Percy was ready, his opponent took the decision out of his hands by beginning to recite a long chant. The words rolled across the stadium like distant thunder, nonsensical syllables thick with authority.

‘He’s using Jolthoria’s Decree too! Shit, I can’t let him complete it!’

Whether the steam mage was trying to augment his flying speed or the power of his attacks, the result would be the same.

Committing to his plan, Percy willed his armour to shatter into a dozen pieces, reshaping most of them into blades before launching them at his opponent and flying right behind the barrage.

The constructs grew dull and slow as soon as they entered the Denyte’s range, allowing him to calmly slap them aside with a wave of willpower before firing countless steam blasts of his own at the approaching Thess’kalan.

‘At least I interrupted his chanting,’ Percy consoled himself as he dove into the lion’s den.

Relying on his Violet-grade domain and now-runeless greatsword, Percy evaded the incoming projectiles, though many nicked his host’s body, shaving off scales and chunks of flesh every time they so much as touched him.

The pain made him wince, but he didn’t falter, closing the distance to the opposing Blue while using his body to shield the final metallic fragment from view: the one containing the charged formation. Percy had left it floating behind him, just outside the bloodline’s range. He could feel it there – a silent sun waiting to be unleashed.

The steam user’s lips parted into a victorious grin as most of Percy’s projections revealed his host’s demise. It was only when Percy couldn’t get any closer that he and his companions finally let go of the accumulated mana.

Leaping aside at the last second, they allowed a thick, crimson beam to pass right by them, reaching the shocked Denyte in an instant. The steam mage tried to avoid the blast, though over half of his body was caught into the pressurized stream of energy, slamming him onto the floor of the arena with crushing force.

‘I hope that’s enough to keep him down,’ Percy prayed with a grimace.

If his opponent had Jolthoria and Emah-Nuub’s Decree, there was a good chance he possessed the Penitent’s Decree as well. Crossing the threshold of fatal damage for the arena’s enchantments to protect and disqualify the Denyte might be harder if his veins were full of spiritual blood.

Alas, there was nothing more that Percy could do. A wave of weakness permeated his host’s body as their grip on the greatsword loosened, sending them plummeting. Kassorith crashed right next to a plume of rising smoke and steam just as it thinned enough to reveal his opponent’s limp frame. The stench of ozone, iron, and burnt meat filled the arena as the spectating crowd grew quiet.

Several seconds passed, making it clear that neither combatant had enough strength to move. Still, the steam mage had suffered the most damage and had clearly been the first to collapse. Sure enough, a cold, automated voice suddenly boomed from everywhere at once, announcing the result of the battle:

“Fatal damage prevented. Victory goes to Kassorith.”