Mini-Boss

"Watch ou-"Skud had started to attempt to warn the man whose heart I had just plucked out. Though his warning to his comrade did not arrive in time, his reaction speed was still fantastic, as he vertically slashed with speed expected of a master of the blade. The iron ball I had thrown at him, now severed in half, passed by either side of him before pinging off the walls. Though I had thrown the ball with much less force than the one I used against the undead, it was still impressive he could strike it out of the air like that. Unfortunately, I could not throw at my full devastating speed, as the shockwave was likely to finish off the already injured Cecelia, who was only a metre or so from the feet of Skud.

I followed up by throwing four more consecutive iron balls at the swordsman. Scoffing at the repetitious attack, he moved to strike down all 4 in a series of superhumanly dextrous slashes. Unfortunately, the second last one was not an iron orb but rather a metal bulb containing a month's supply of chili powder. I had previously practiced Fabrication on the iron balls to see if I could make hollow containers, and after succeeding, I placed several types of spice into the containers. The powder exploded into the air, and some grains made their way into the man's eyes and sinuses.

I did not use this opportunity to get a cheap shot in on the man and even the playing field. He had seven men still with him. And though they were of little consequence, they could potentially finish off Cecelia, whether by accident or on purpose, while I fought Skud.

The men, realizing they had to fight for their lives, all adopted battle stances. I decided to take them out in reverse order of level. Focusing on the level 7, I dashed at lightning speed to him. He raised his shield to cover his chest, so I delivered a swift kick to his unguarded nether region. As he unwillingly bent at the waist to protect the family jewels, I slid behind him, wrapped my arm around his waist and tilted us both backwards.

Imagining the crowd going wild at a professional wrestling match, I put all my strength into the suplex. As my victim made contact with the hard stone floor of the cave, his neck snapped like a dry stick, signalling the end of his criminal ventures. The other bandits had a look of shock as my basically unarmed self had just executed one of their most vital members with a never-before-seen martial art.

I Shadow Walked to behind the other level 7, this time sweeping his legs with my own right foot. My strike delivered such force that the man did not fall to the ground. Instead, he was spun 180 degrees on the spot, his daggers launching from his hands as I grabbed around his waist. Then, with a jump, I delivered a beautiful tombstone piledriver crushing the man's skull into the ground. Again, my clothes were getting covered in the viscera of back-to-back fights.

As I reflected on the laundry situation, I heard a scream as the bandit closest to the slope turned to run. Launching myself from the spot, I shoulder tackled the guy from behind. As we plummeted to the ground, I grabbed his ankles with my arm, forcing him to perform a face slide along the rough ground. Then, doing a kick-up from my position on the ground, I delivered a stomp to the back of his head. The stomp ended the gurgling noises that had started to emanate from the ruin of his face.

Four men left. One passed out when he heard the crunch from my stomp. One dropped to his knees, hands clapped in prayer as he begged for mercy. Ignoring these two, I watched as the remaining two men, both level 6, looked at each other and nodded.

The first of the two had a large kite shield held in front of him and a cudgel held in the other hand. He slowly inched towards me, using the shield to guard and help him provide a tank role while his compatriot assembled a short spear to strike at me from behind the cover.

As they got within 2 metres of me, I struck. I kicked the bottom-right edge of the shield with such force that the wielder was unable to resist as he acted as the pivot point for his shield. The shield, and the man it was attached to, completed a half rotation stopping only as the shield's momentum was broken by the spear wielder's throat. The seemingly protected backline defender instantly collapsed to the ground, clutching at his destroyed airway as his face turned purple. I ended the guilt that must have been running through the shieldbearer's mind by running the spear, which I grabbed from his friend, also through his mind.

Skud was rinsing his eyes with his canteen as I stepped to end the last two men. I summoned a wind blade around the leading edge of my hand as I went to remove the head of the mistaken individual who believed a murderer and rapist such as himself deserved mercy. Just as I was about to end his pathetic life, I rolled to the side, narrowly dodging Skud's blade as it severed his underling from shoulder to hip.

Skud, his eyes reddened from the irritant, now stared at me with unbridled hatred as he used his peripheral vision to take in the bloody remains of his crew. I had turned the roll into a flip and was now on my feet five metres from Skud. I disinterestedly pretended to pick at my fingernails on my right hand with my thumb, even though I still had my massive gauntlets equipped. "Are the veteran members of your group nearby? Only fighting the recruits gets kind of monotonous." I blew on my fingers before looking up to make eye contact with the man who was now a leader of none.

"You will die for your insolence, pup." He growled back, spitting on the ground.

Returning his threat with a smile, I launched a bolt of lightning from my left hand and a gout of fire from my right. Rolling under the fire, Skud deflected the bolt of electricity with an upward swing before reversing his swing into a downward chop for my shoulder. My gauntlets were strong enough to deflect glancing blows from a sword as strong as his, but I would have to avoid direct impacts, as those could tear through the gloves.

I met his downward slash with my gauntlet at the exact angle to deflect the blow. While this was happening, I saw his health had returned to full. I focused my vision and was able to see a small amount of magic flowing to his body from his blade. Then, remembering his blade was vampiric, I focused again on Cecelia in the distance and saw her health was depleting even faster than I had estimated. Her lifeforce was being sucked away. The blade as it had gotten a taste of her when she was run through with it.

I needed to destroy that blade as soon as possible. Skud and I continued exchanging blows and deflections, he was fast, but I was faster. As I watched him use his Blade Wall skill to block my attack for the third consecutive time, I left a tiny opening, small enough to not appear to be a feint. Living up to my expectations, he used Disable to target a weak spot and performed a flawless cut that should sever my forearm ligaments. "Huh?" Skud let out. Confusion gripped him, as rather than being buried in my forearm, the sword's blade was locked in my grip. I rapidly superheated the blade with electricity and fire magic before using water and wind to supercool it. The blade shattered under the immense stress of the rapidly changing conditions.

Skud did not miss a beat as he had already started to let go of the sword, and from a hidden sheath, he pulled a hand-and-a-half dagger in a reverse grip in his off-hand. His main hand gripped onto the pommel as he activated Quickstep to appear behind me, Disable to target the weak points in my back and Phantom Slash to strike even faster than I could. One. Two. Three. Ten strikes were delivered so fast that they seemed to happen in parallel, as Skud tore open my armour with his precise strikes, his blade running across major muscles, veins and tissues.

He smiled as he finished his ultimate move that could finish off even the most formidable warriors he had faced. The back of my armour he was starting at was shredded. It looked like a complete mess. The hardened metal and leather jerkin let go and slipped off my front, leaving me bare-chested.

Now, laid bare before Skud was the result of all his years of training, all the damage he had done to me.

"M-m-m-monster!!!" He screamed, dropping the dagger as his hands grabbed at his hair, and despair filled his eyes. Before him, rather than the ruined back of a soon-to-be corpse, was my chiselled, well-toned back, spotless, cut-free, gently glistening with sweat in the torchlight. Watching his mind break from over my shoulder was good in all, but I needed to end him before he put up another fight.

Summoning earth, I armoured my right elbow before cocking my shoulder out 90 degrees from my body, with my elbow fully bent. My right hand was open, with my palm facing fully opposite the back of my elbow. Wind magic collected and separated raw oxygen and pure hydrogen in the palm of my hand, with fire magic providing a spark to detonate it. My armoured gauntlet caught the propulsion of the blast and added the power to my own strength. My elbow flew back at incredible speeds as I let my body spin on the spot.

The earthen elbow pad collided with Skud's right cheekbone. Upon impact, both shattered, and my elbow followed through, bursting Skud's skull like an overripe cantaloupe. My own elbow did not take much damage from the improvised Rocket Elbow, thanks to the Hardened Skin that had saved me from Skud's trump card before.

His headless form collapsed as a fountain of blow erupted from his mangled neck. I was now covered in blood completely.

I used my toe to flick up the dagger of Skud's that had fallen to the floor. It had broken when it landed, and the enchantment had dissipated. With a flick of the wrist, I launched it, impaling the last bandit who had just woken up from fainting earlier through the back of the head.

Now that all our enemies had been terminated, I turned to the dwarf to see if she could still be saved.