Fire and Water

Magnus honestly wasn't too confident he could defeat Scoville in a fair and prolonged fight. Fortunately, the poor man's body had a very short expiry date now that it was occupied by the god's soul. His body would maybe hold out for no more than five minutes, ten if his will to live could somehow stretch it out. And it was in order to withstand only about a tenth of Scoville's soul.

Once Magnus saw the god had finished Descending, he kept his distance while equipping [Frontier].

Seeing his prey was right in front of him, Scoville didn't wait. "I don't know what you are or how you have that much power, but your life ends today!" he shouted, producing a pair of short swords made of flaming fire. He got into a stance and with inhuman speed raised the twin swords before slashing them down diagonally, creating two fire streaks shaped in an X that shot forward.

Magnus raised his shield while letting mana flow through his feet and the ground before activating [Unbreakable]. The transparent blue barrier rose up in the blink of an eye, protecting Magnus' front side. [Unbreakable] was a versatile skill. It didn't have to always form a dome; it could be placed anywhere in any form, from a small flat barrier to a bubble that wrapped someone's body to a full dome.

The X fire strikes from Scoville instantly clashed with the blue barrier, which was reinforced by Magnus' shield. [Frontier] was an S-rank weapon; undoubtedly durable and provided a lot of stat boosts as well as strengthening all four of his element affinities. Its downside was that it didn't have a skill of its own. However, [Unbreakable] already created an excellent synergy with the shield, so Magnus couldn't complain.

His shield and barrier managed to prevent any damage to his armor and body. He did get pushed back for about a meter, though, with his sneakers creating long skid marks on the gravel. That was one heck of a forceful assault. He could feel the heat brushing past his face despite the still-standing barrier. Once the fire streaks dissipated, Magnus immediately cancelled [Unbreakable] and equipped [Wayward].

As soon as Scoville noticed the magic inscriptions on the axe's blade, his eyes widened in surprise. "I suspected it before, but you do smell like the sea. That axe and shield in particular, they're giving off Atlantis' Divine Essence. What's you connection with him?"

"Not telling you," Magnus said indifferently.

At that answer, Scoville scoffed. "Fine. Not like it matters when you're about to die, anyway." The god then brought the butts of the twin swords together, altering the shape of the fire weapon into a double-bladed glaive.

Meanwhile, Magnus casted [Heart of The Sea], his overpowered buff skill.

[Heart of The Sea]

[+8 Agility, +16 Strength, +20 Stamina, enhances water affinity and mana recovery to the caster and their allies within max radius of 700 meters.]

[-6 Agility, -8 Strength to all enemies.]

The skill might not help much in a long distance one-on-one fight, but Magnus was aiming for the faster mana recovery effect. He didn't have limitless mana, after all.

Scoville then brought one of the glaive's blades forward with the tip facing the ground, before he swung it upward. This time, the strike came in the form of a vertical flaming pillar that shot at a barely perceptible speed toward Magnus.

Magnus immediately raised his axe and hacked downward while casting [Riptide]. The water crescent this time took a much bigger form, almost as tall as Magnus himself.

The two attacks of fire and water then crashed in the air, creating a huge show of fire sparks and water splashes from the impact. For a moment, it looked like Magnus' [Riptide] could barely hold out against the fire which for some reason was getting bigger.

'Shit!'

Immediately, Magnus casted another [Riptide] to buy himself a little time. After sending another water crescent, he instantly prepared to cast [Tidal Wave], intending to hit the fire pillar as well as its caster at once. However, the skill needed a few seconds of casting time.

When the water crescent and the fire pillar crashed again, the latter easily won—it had become almost double the original size. Shielding his body with [Frontier], Magnus already had his axe raised up high, drawing the water affinity enhancement effect from its magic inscriptions. Casting [Tidal Wave], he turned the air before him into water droplets that rapidly multiplied and expanded, finally forming a wall of water that stood twice his height. It then extended both its side ends while curving forward to surround the fire pillar. It kept expanding until it reached as far as where Scoville was standing, trapping the god within the confinement of water walls.

He made the water as dense as possible, which upon impact from that height could easily crush bones. When he deemed the skill was sufficient enough, Magnus hacked his axe down and commanded the water to give in to gravity. The walls then collapsed, caving in upon the fire pillar as well as Scoville.

For a moment, Magnus couldn't see what happened to the god after being swallowed by the tidal wave. But deep down, Magnus knew his attack definitely wouldn't kill the god. At most, it would dowse his fire pillar and glaive.

Sure enough, the god could be seen still standing after all the water turned to puddles. Scoville apparently had casted a fire armor that surrounded his body, instantly evaporating the water before it had any chance to do him any harm. Though, he was now completely naked.

And the skin on his mortal vessel was scorched, which was a win in Magnus' book. That meant the god had just shortened the man's lifespan even more.

A grim thought flashed across Magnus' mind: he just celebrated the fact that someone's life was going to end sooner.

He shook his head and focused on the situation at hand.

Suddenly, TJ's Protagonist screen got maximized in his peripheral vision. It was his copy's doing.

'Oh, our buddy just got into a bit of a scuffle! But he seems to be handling it well,' Magnus 2.0 said before minimizing the screen, not wanting to distract his original for too long.

Clicking his tongue after seeing the damage on his vessel's skin, Scoville stomped one of his feet. That action appeared to create a red circle that heated up the gravel to hundreds of degrees Celsius. The circle then rapidly expanded, turning the floor into lava. At the same time, the god casted another spell, which took the form of a chain made of fire that shot out toward Magnus, intending to wrap around him.

Of course, Magnus didn't just stand still. He casted the skill [Siberian Might] that combined water and wind element to create ice that crawled out from his feet, countering the lava floor. He then raised his shield while reinforcing it with [Unbreakable] to deflect the fire chain. Not wanting to give the god another chance to swing his chain, Magnus immediately casted [Drunken Sailor], a wind element-based skill that served as both an audio illusion and a brain melter. The air that carried the traveling sound would either distort it or intensify its waves.

In this case, Magnus intensified the sound waves around Scoville, making him lose his sense of balance and direction, basically messing with his brain. Experiencing this extreme disorientation, Scoville was pissed. He started swinging his chain wildly in a direction roughly where Magnus was standing, forcing the shield bearer to retreat a few steps.

Magnus wasn't too worried, though, as he still had his reinforced shield. However, he realized his mana was approaching the lower numbers despite the slightly faster mana recovery. After all, he had already used a lot of it to maintain [Unbreakable] back at TJ's house.

He needed Scoville's vessel to die soon. Which was, again, a thought that gave a bitter taste in his mouth.

Magnus then casted [Earth Manipulation] from beneath Scoville's feet. The half-frozen, half-heated gravel then burst up to form an entrapment around the god's legs, preventing him from taking another step. Growing more pissed, the god then literally breathed out a stream of fire like a dragon, aiming it at Magnus. The aim was a bit off, though, as Scoville was still disoriented. Besides, Magnus was able to protect himself from the fire using his shield and the now bigger [Unbreakable].

Not wanting to remain on the receiving end of the god's attacks, Magnus finally got an idea to paralyze the god even further while waiting for his vessel's body to give in. He flipped his axe so the back spike was facing inward. He then casted a spell that was basically the water version of Scoville's fire chain. It was called [Hook, Line, and Sinker.] Beginning from the axe's spike, a rope made of water was formed and rapidly grew longer. As Magnus whipped it toward Scoville, a hook was formed at the end of the rope, which then planted itself into the god's mouth, all the way into his throat.

Suppressing the loath he had toward this method, Magnus poured a heavy stream of water through the rope and the hook, filling the god's head with water that even reached his brain. Water then flowed down from his orifices as he was drowning. At the same time, Magnus was still defending himself against the blind swinging of the fire chain.

Both of them remained like that for almost a minute before the fire chain dissipated. Finally, the burly man's body began to shut down, which prompted Magnus to cancel his skills. At that moment, Magnus could feel Scoville's soul trying to escape from his vessel. But both of them knew that Ascending back into his real body would take as much time as it had Descending here. Regardless, the god was stubborn. He still wanted to salvage this tiny fragment of his soul.

As the god's soul was busy trying to reach the heavens, the man's consciousness was back. Magnus could see his eyes turning back to normal; they were brown and emanating an extreme anguish.

The moment Magnus met those eyes, he could feel that agonizing emotion. A person's painful dying moment. It was as if he was the man himself, experiencing the same slow seconds as the light of consciousness grew dimmer and dimmer, until it was no more.

It hurt. It hurt so much. As tears streamed down his cheeks, Magnus tried to pull himself back from the depth of that void. He gasped hard as if he'd just broken through the surface of the depth, and then began to steady his ragged breathing.

It wasn't his first time experiencing such connection to a dying person. He had even stared into the eyes of people as he was taking their lives. And it never got easier.

The man's naked and scorched body plopped to the ground lifelessly.