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1090 Words
The resulting explosion sent the man flying, gravely injured, but he wasn’t dead. To make matters worse, the healer had already repaired most of the obvious damage for the first woman who Aster nearly killed.
The same woman punched out at Matt and broke one of his ribs with the strike despite the protection from [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his physical armor.
Caught by surprise, Matt dodged the next attack, and was about to bring his longsword around at the woman when he caught an arrow in his arm that interrupted his swing.
Cursing, he pulled back and tossed a half-dozen [Fireball] talismans out of his spatial ring and activated them with a thought.
The streams of fire went in nearly every direction, and seemed like a chaotic and uncoordinated attack that would miss each of the attackers. But Matt used [Fire Manipulation] and, at the last second, caused all the spells to turn and slam into them.
That earned him a second of reprieve and gave Aster a second to cast [Ice Spear] at the healer, who recoiled from the ball of fire that had just hit her in the chest.
The shard of ice exploded inside her from Aster’s [Shatter], and Matt ensured that the woman was dead with a swipe of his blade. Unfortunately, he had had to take a [Shield Bash] to the arm in order to secure the kill.
The woman who Aster nearly killed with her giant snowflake tried to punch Matt in the side again, but he kicked out and tried to break her overextended knee, only to find her body was made out of what felt like concrete.
With his failed attack, he caught a punch to the face and felt his jaw pop out of place, spitting out a tooth a moment later.
Despite that, he didn’t allow the pain to overwhelm him and quickly brought his longsword up and around, cutting the woman’s arm off at the elbow.
The precisely aimed strike ignored the woman’s stronger than usual bones and earned him some breathing room, which he used to twist and swing his sword around at the man who rushed his rear.
His [Mana s***h] was cast at the last second, and he used its resulting explosion to tackle his remaining assailant with a burst of [Mage’s Retreat]. With the extra boost, he was able to overpower the woman. He had to send more mana into the spell than he expected, as the woman was far stronger than he had initially thought.
She felt like a Tier 14, despite only being a Tier 12, and when Matt felt her strength increase as she activated her own spell, he sent mana into his gravity gauntlets while morphing the first layer of [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s gauntlets into spikes.
His fist landed on her like a falling star, brutalizing her face and shoving her nose into her brain, hopefully bypassing her abnormally tough bones. Quickly turning his gauntlets off, he repelled her head with his Concept, then reversed the polarity of the force to land a second blow that should have liquefied her brain. The finishing strike left him absolutely covered in blood and gore.
Before he could revel in his victory, he had to deflect a glowing shield that sought to decapitate him, diverting it with his sword to land on the neck of the woman he had just killed.
He had been taught well to never let a good blow go to waste.
At the same time, he felt a burst of happiness from Aster and an accompanying burst of Genesis Energy, which told him that she had finally succeeded in taking out the archer who had been peppering them.
Regaining his footing and sliding back, Matt took a s***h on his leg in order to lash out with a heavy chop that carved a furrow through the opposing man’s breastplate.
With a moment’s reprieve, Matt cast [Cracked Mana Trap] without any additional mana in order to delay the man for a few seconds while his latest assailant’s ally closed in on him.
Even with that, he was forced to drop his blade as the remaining woman tried to impale him with a short sword. Using both his Concept’s repulsion effect and his forearm, he deflected the blade upward and punched with everything he had.
Matt felt a bone in his own fist break with the impact, but followed through with the attack properly, and felt the woman’s ribs give under his blow.
Fighting defensively, he exchanged a few more attacks, buying Aster enough time to come back and change the fight from a two on one to a two on two. With her assistance, it only took them a few seconds to overwhelm their attackers and finish them off.
Picking up his sword, Matt and Aster rushed over to help Liz and Susanne finish off their two remaining opponents.
After a few bloody minutes, the final attackers fell, but they didn’t go down without leaving a few injuries on the four of them.
Aster had an arrow through her left rear leg, Liz had a set of needles that peppered her front like she had a run-in with a pin cushion, and Susanne held her intestines in with her hand. She had nearly been gutted in the initial exchange when a woman she cut didn’t go down as expected.
Matt had to gesture at his jaw to get Liz’s assistance in setting the bone back in place with a pop.
He was just about to thank her when a group of five rushed out of the forest at them. They had likely been waiting for the fighting to finish so that they could finish off the weakened survivors.
“Nope, f**k this, and f**k you.” Matt accompanied his words with a short burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] that cut through the five charging people. They threw up their defensive abilities commendably quickly, but Matt was out of patience for half-measures and narrow wins.
An [Earth Wall] cracked like it was made of flint, a [Water Bubble] popped almost as soon as it formed, and the last man’s tower shield managed to hold Matt off for nearly a quarter second before it buckled.
Liz clearly agreed as their blood crawled out of their bodies and started stabbing them. A few bursts of Genesis Energy told them the group had finally died.
Despite their injuries, they took a few seconds to loot the slowly fading bodies of their gear and items.
- Writer
