(29) A Proper Fight

*Vhoom..*

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Your intimidation has successfully inflicted the status effect [Fear-2] on [Gurmed Amval - Level 34]

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'Seriously?' Owen saw the panel on his left side appear and found it incredulous. His mouth opened in a weird manner as he processed this information.

He already regarded Gurmed as a more fearsome opponent than Yuhmbir. The only person so far to almost kill him.

Owen was sure that someone of Gurmed's caliber would have several spells, superior combat techniques and experience.

Owen was even thinking of running away because of it. But when the panel appeared, showing this supposed strong enemy in front of him was afraid, it didn't align with what he expected.

However, Owen managed to 'ascertain' Gurmed's source of fear.

Because he used the inventory, he probably assumed that it was high level magic. So that clearly indicates that Owen is a high ranking fighter as well.

Owen didn't know that the fear was attributed to Caophre's performance and was only amplified by his showcase of undetectable soul energy.

Even so, Owen knew that he must use all the advantages that he had.

He kicked the wagon heavily, startling the two awake.

"Hey, what gives?" Riang yelled out angrily. She was in the middle of a good dream until being woken up in such an abrupt manner.

Oslan held his head, still drowsy.

"You can be mad at me later, there's an enemy." Owen wasn't going to waste time talking.

Riang and Oslan turned around and saw Gurmed. Riang immediately pulled Oslan back with her and shouted,

"Where's Caophre? And what is this guy doing in front of us?"

"I'll explain later, just keep yourselves safe because I don't know if there's more of them." Owen flicked his hand to and opened his inventory, dropping a hatchet and a knife towards Riang and Oslan.

Riang caught the hatchet and Oslan took the knife with no other choice.

"What about you? Can't we stay back and help?" Riang wasn't willing to let Owen die just like this.

Owen angrily snapped back. "Didn't you say you wanted to go back to Silmoun?! Run away from here! Don't turn back!"

Riang was speechless. She seemed hesitant.. but seeing the strange knife on Owen's hand, Riang surmised that it must be his trump card. For him to protect her like this, she didn't regret having someone like this escort her back home.

"Don't let your guard down.." Riang muttered before running towards the opposite side.

"We're not going to help?" Oslan asked with a conflicted tone. He also didn't want to leave Owen by himself.

"Owen told us to run, so we'll run…" Riang's emotions were complicated. She didn't know why someone like Owen would care so much about her.

"I trust him." Riang added.

Owen didn't stay back because he was concerned about their safety. No! If he had zero confidence in beating Gurmed, he would have fled as well.

So why did he stay?

It's because his opponent is afraid! He was showing flaws everywhere!

A deep seated feeling of vulnerability exuded from Gurmed when it came to Owen's eyes.

It was time to test out some of his tricks in order to win.

Riang and Oslan were only going to be a distraction, so it was better to make sure that there would be no unstable factors during this fight so that he could focus on his opponent without any worries.

Gurmed didn't stop Owen at all because he was uncertain of his abilities. He didn't know if the blood arc from earlier would be there to stop him if he charged in blindly.

He bit his lip and stopped hesitating. He can't run back now, can't he? Gurmed thought that he might as well fight Owen.

Gurmed held his sword tightly and slowly inched closer to Owen.

He swung his sword at Owen's head diagonally so that the Bloodwhetcher wouldn't be able to block it easily. Owen dodged by weaving to the side, only to be followed up by continuous slashes by Gurmed.

Owen's footwork wasn't masterful at all. In fact, it was quite messy. The only good thing about it was that it had purpose. The slashes were missing their intended strikes. Owen blocked and redirected the blade away using the hatchet or by using the Bloodwhetcher. He would also bend his knees, twist his hips and backstep whenever it was necessary.

Gurmed stepped forward and tried to trip Owen up by using his legs to knock him off his balance. But having learned from Yuhmbir, Owen guarded against it and delivered a pushing kick against Gurmed's knee to retreat backwards.

Gurmed stepped back as well and noticed Owen's eyes that were fixated on his sword. This astonished him and added to his fear. He felt like an open book being read in front of Owen.

'Dead! I'm certainly dead! He's not even taking me seriously! This man in front of me… despite having only one hand, being at a natural disadvantage, his footwork is just too much for me! He's playing with his food!' Gurmed's thoughts rang in his mind repeatedly.

Just seeing how Owen easily dodged his probing attacks was enough for him to confirm his doubts. His hands even started to grow cold.

Owen on the other hand, was slightly better. 'His slashes are a bit faster than Yuhmbir… Ever since I roughly estimated the blade's length, dodging it was a bit more manageable than before… But still, I have to be observant and prepared for any sudden moves.'

The debuffs on him were stronger than before. This meant that his dodging speed increased a lot and it made the first clash a little bit easier.

Gurmed didn't have a soul skeleton yet. It was only unlockable at level 50. But that isn't all there is to it… One must make sure that their soul is strong enough to handle its toll which is called the 'Soul Rot Effect.'

Like magic circles that damage their physical medium quite a bit, the soul skeleton 'rots' the soul whenever it is activated. That's why no sane person is stupid enough to keep it activated all the time.

Owen could see how threatening Gurmed was to him just by looking at his level. Level 34 meant that he doesn't have any kind of usable soul skeletons, his skill points are probably around 6-10 depending on how much he trained.

Skill points are acquired through missions, leveling up in increments of 5, getting enough mastery and leveling up spells and techniques in increments of 20, or by learning a technique or some kind of spell, skills like cooking, forging and brewing also gives skill points.

When Owen learned [Firestrike], it didn't give him a skill point because of how basic it was, equivalent to a toddler learning how to walk. If he learned how to run, it would give him a skill point.

That's why Owen yearned for complicated spells and hidden knowledge. The skill points gained from them will be able to increase his strength by leaps and bounds.

The 6-10 skill points that Gurmed might have allowed Owen to guess that his speed isn't enough to surpass normal human limits.

Once someone learns the tier 17 skills in the skill tree, that's when they start to become more than just a human.

From what Owen felt, Gurmed's soul energy wasn't enough to be that dominant in a direct battle. He has at least one defensive spell that Owen recognized as having high soul energy consumption, Gurmed's physical strength and speed seemed to be the most threatening.

From a short preview of his attacks, Gurmed unknowingly allowed Owen to grasp his strength with an 80% accuracy!

Owen's combat strength can still do some work, but his intellect is nothing to scoff at.

This is the man who memorized the attack patterns of over 5,000+ bosses to heart. Not only that, Owen can beat plenty of them with his eyes closed, of course he's a genius.

Gurmed initiated another attack. He lunged forward to slice Owen with his sword. He was expecting for Owen to dodge or stay away, but Owen did the exact opposite.

Owen fearlessly ran forward as well. After understanding Gurmed's limits, he was even more fearless to execute crazier moves. He wasn't going to stab the sword into his body and attack him like what he did with Yuhmbir.

Was Owen afraid? Of course!

Did he trust his judgement? Naturally!

When Owen was close enough, his movement became faster and closed the distance between them by lowering his body, avoiding the horizontal sword slash and by redirecting it away using the Bloodwhetcher. Owen then used [Weak Agile Dash] to reach Gurmed's face.

'When did he-?' Gurmed was taken aback by Owen's sudden burst of speed. Even though it had a short travel distance, it was particularly effective in fights like these.

*Crack!* Gurmed used the blue shield once again to halt the Bloodwhetcher from turning his face into a mess.

"Tch." Owen wasn't surprised that his strike was blocked. He swiftly maneuvered by moving his legs to duck down and prevent Gurmed's sword strike from hitting him.

After that successful weave, he stood up, wrapped his arm around Gurmed's arm to prevent him from using the sword. His hand stuffed the Bloodwhetcher back to the inventory so that he could get a good grip on Gurmed's bicep.

Owen then swung his left forearm towards Gurmed's face because a good fighter knows to strike the weak point.

Left with no choice, Gurmed had to use the blue magic circle once again to shield his face from the hatchet.

*Creeeaaakk–*

The blue translucent shield almost broke from the hatchet. Gurmed sent his left fist towards Owen to knock him away from him.

Owen acted quickly and stabbed Gurmed's right armpit by letting go of his grip and by quickly taking the Bloodwhetcher from the inventory to achieve this.

"AHHH!" Gurmed's face turned ugly from the pain.

Although Owen was successful in his attack, he was still punched by Gurmed in the face.

[-2 HP]

Owen was knocked back, some of his lips popped from the punch and started to bleed out. This was a negligible injury compared to what happened to Gurmed.

"Pweh-" Owen spat out some blood. He tossed the Bloodwhetcher back to his inventory and took out his sword.

This was to reach Gurmed much quicker because of the sword's range.

Many major blood vessels and nerves were damaged in Gurmed's arm that didn't allow him to lift the sword properly.

His arm was practically paralyzed. For a normal human like him, this was to be expected.

The wound bled profusely and his only available weapon at the moment was held by the busted arm.

Owen stepped forward and used [Weak Agile Dash], completely taking advantage of Gurmed's surprise to slash his neck.

'Sh*t!!!' Gurmed activated his defensive magic circle to appear on his neck, protecting him.

The magic circle came out of thin air and lit up with a low light, ready to shield him from the slash.

But in the middle of the activation, the lack of soul energy dimmed down the magic circle's blue light before it faded into nothingness.

'I HAVE NO MORE SOUL ENERGY-!?'

Gurmed, without even thinking, raised his right arm to clash against the sword.

*Bang!*

Light sparks flew out as Owen's sword struck his metal bracers. Owen followed up with more slashes, but Gurmed timed his movements right, kicking Owen away from him.

"Gah-!" Owen received the kick with his stomach, keeling him over from the pain as he fell on the ground.

Gurmed and Owen simultaneously looked at Gurmed's sword that fell down from his bleeding arm.

The two of them rushed to grab it.

"No you don't!" Gurmed stomped on the hilt of the sword so that Owen wouldn't be able to take it away.

Owen didn't stop his movements and touched the blade's tip with his fingers.

Gurmed felt the object under his foot disappear. He was shocked when he found out that his sword was snapped out of thin air like that.

"What did you do!?!" Gurmed no longer felt fear. He was feeling so angry that his killing intent rose sharply.

He recalled his hesitation and the mistakes he made just because of his poor judgement.

If he wasn't so scared, he could've put on a good fight, but now's too late for that.

He hated himself. He hated himself for being so weak, for being so afraid!

Moving several steps away from Owen, Gurmed used this time to fix himself up.

With his left hand, he grabbed loose clothing from his shirt under the armor plates on his chest. He ripped it off and used it to wrap the wound on his right armpit.

He took a deep breath and stared Owen down.

Gurmed took on a fighting stance with his left leg stretched forward. Right now, his right arm couldn't be of any use. He also knew that he could die at this very moment.

"I don't care anymore.. I don't care if I die! I'll wreck you before going down, I'll make sure of it!" Gurmed yelled out with a vigorous tone.

Owen stood up and flicked his hand, switching from the Plunderer's Iron Sword to the Bloodwhetcher.

"Then I'm pleased that you have no regrets before you die." Owen wiped the blood off his lips with his tongue

"Come! Let's find out who dies right now!" Owen dashed forward with a bloody smile.

"I was thinking the same!" Gurmed revealed a wide grin. He ran forward with his full strength and clashed against Owen once more.

Owen slashed the air diagonally, sending a sharp bloody arc towards Gurmed.

Gurmed slid down and used his bracers to scrape against the ground to slide a bit smoother. After avoiding the blood arc, he stood up and jumped, delivering a flying kick to Owen's chest.

Owen took a few steps back to stabilize his feet on the ground, but Gurmed was just too quick with the follow-up.

He kicked away Owen's hand, preventing him from using the Bloodwhetcher's slash ability. Gurmed then switched his balance to his left foot and delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of Owen's head.

Owen's upper body bent sideways, almost falling over.

Gurmed's fist shot forward to strike him squarely on the face. Owen responded quickly and blocked with his arms crossed.

But this was a feint. Gurmed pulled his fist back and kicked Owen's abdomen, breaking some of his lower ribs.

*Vhoom…*

[Bone Fracture (Ribs)-1]

The tempo was clearly on Gurmed's side.

Owen fell to the ground on his side. He felt as if his chest was going to break apart. He looked over and saw that Gurmed was going to kick his head again and treat it like a ball.

Owen swung the Bloodwhetcher and sent a blood slash towards Gurmed. The Bloodwhetcher slowly lost its red color and was gaining back its pinkish tint.

"Woah!" Gurmed hurriedly moved out of the way, leaving Owen with some time to get back on his feet.

He then tossed the Bloodwhetcher back to his inventory, emptying his hand to use [Firestrike] on Gurmed.

*Fwoosh!*

As Gurmed was still unbalanced, he couldn't avoid the flames this time. With no other choice, he turned his back to receive it instead of trying to dodge since it would leave his front side a bit vulnerable.

His hood lit up on fire. Gurmed rolled against the ground, extinguishing the flames. The spell packed a punch if received from a short range, but when the flame scattered from the concentrated burst, it didn't really do anything except burn anything flammable.

Once the flames were put out, Gurmed ran towards Owen to continue attacking him.

Gurmed's left foot was aimed for Owen's leg, so Owen lifted it to defend. Unfortunately for Owen, it was another feint. Gurmed twisted his hips, changing the kick's trajectory to Owen's neck.

*Bam!*

Owen kneeled down from the blow, his face clearly showing his anguish. Gurmed rushed to get Owen's hatchet from his left forearm, but it was a good thing that Owen merely put it to his inventory.

Disappointed, Gurmed grappled around Owen and got his arm in a lock with his two legs working together with his right arm to break Owen's elbow.

Despite this, Owen merely smiled as his arm was about to be broken.

"Gotcha!"

The Bloodwhetcher reappeared in Owen's hand and stabbed Gurmed deep in his neck, the knife reached his collarbone and many major blood vessels. The Bloodwhetcher greedily sucked his blood, enlarging and sharpening its blade all while speeding up Gurmed's blood loss.

Gurmed was shocked. He bent his left leg and kicked Owen off him.

Gurmed held his bleeding neck with a deep red gash. When he looked at his hand, he could see it was fully painted by his blood.

As he knelt down, he felt his body's warmth slowly leaving him. His adrenaline rush also ran out.

His lips curled up into a smile.

"I tried…." Gurmed's pupils dilated. The fighting spirit in his heart was extinguished shortly after.

Owen slowly stood up, he was breathing heavily. Gurmed was really just a whole different level than what he expected.

Gurmed lifted his head up.

He sneered.

Gurmed gathered all his strength to stand up.

Alarmed, Owen stabbed his heart almost instinctively.

*Pwah!*

Blood splattered from Gurmed's chest, prompting him to cough up more blood welling up from his throat.

He looked Owen in the eyes and muttered, "I don't like kneeling in front of someone."

He didn't have any last thoughts. Strangely enough, he felt happy.

Happy that he gave it his all.

[+ 1,274 EXP - Gurmed Amval: Level 34]

*Bam!*

Gurmed's body fell on its back.

Owen wasn't in the mood or condition to look at the kill notification.

He coughed out trickles of blood several times. Although his condition wasn't too good, it wasn't bad enough to put him out of commission.

Owen grabbed his stomach out of pain. With his class ability, he knew that his body was tenacious enough to live through this.

"I keep forgetting that even though the starter area is loaded with weak bandits, not all of them are…" Owen was keeling over, his entire weight was supported by his knees.

He lifted his head to look at the direction where Riang and Oslan ran off.

"I wonder how far those brats went…"

— Meanwhile at Riang and Oslan's location…

Riang was running until her foot was snagged by a branch, tripping her over.

Fortunately, Oslan caught her and her face landed on his chest.

"Are you alright?" Oslan helped her regain her footing.

"Yeah, I'm fine.." Riang lifted her foot and tossed away the branch.

Oslan appeared troubled. "So what should we do now? Owen didn't tell us anything after he killed that man. How would we know if he's done fighting him now?"

Riang shook her head. "I don't believe Owen can win that fight."

"Huh?" Oslan couldn't see how Owen would lose. "From what I saw, Owen's stamina is greater than mine… Maybe he can beat him in a hard earned victory?"

"It's not that simple. You can say that because you don't know that whoever Owen is fighting can use soul energy… When I used my ability to sense his soul, I noticed that fact. Although Owen can also use soul energy, his soul is weaker."

Riang raised her finger as she added, "But you are right in one point. His stamina is amazing, I can say that surely. But his combat ability isn't as great as you might think…"

She recalled that time when Owen received a punch from her. The disappointment she felt still lingered whenever she recalled it.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of dried leaves being stepped on.

"Who's there!?" Riang gathered soul energy on her palm while holding the hatchet.

Oslan positioned himself to the front. Now that he knew that he had a beast's bloodline, he placed more trust on his defense more than ever.

"It's just me…" Owen answered as he approached the duo.

"Owen?" Riang and Oslan were both surprised.

"How did you catch up? We ran so far away from that place." Oslan was relieved that Owen was alive. Turns out Riang was wrong about him after all.

Owen shrugged. He couldn't possibly just say that he spammed the [Weak Agile Dash] constantly to close the distance between them. Seeing the increased mastery levels of the ability is worth the chase in his eyes.

"I ran."

"Of course you'd say that…" Riang anticipated the perfunctory answer. She sighed in relief and said, "Well, at least you didn't die back there."

"Is that supposed to be comforting me?" Owen raised an eyebrow.

Oslan immediately shoved himself between them and said, "Okay okay, that's enough… We should just get back and be glad that this is over. Of course, Owen should explain to us what exactly happened."

Owen opened his mouth to speak until someone's voice called out next to him.

"Owen?"

Owen immediately turned around and threw a punch.

*Pak!*

Caophre caught his fist and brought it down.

He heaved a sigh and said, "I'm glad that you're all safe… Let's go back." Caophre gestured with a quick tilt of his head towards the carriage.

Owen followed Caophre with a displeased expression on his face. "And where have you been this entire time?"

"I have been killing bandits. Where else?"

Riang and Oslan listened to their conversation and confirmed some of their suspicions.

"Great, so you must've known that one bandit managed to sneak back to us and almost kill me, correct?" Owen sounded like he was reprimanding Caophre.

Caophre could see that Owen was expressing his displeasure towards her. "Yes, but I rushed back the moment I noticed it. I didn't mean for you to get attacked in the first place."

"But because of your negligence, I still suffered. Don't you think I need some compensation for this?"

Caophre gritted her teeth. Money was her weakpoint.

"Aha… can I pay you some other way?"

"Nope, just money." Owen was going to take a step back.

Caophre didn't relent just yet. "Are you sure? I can pay you with things like magic spells.."

"F*ck no, don't be cheap with me.. I can learn magic that is tailored for my skills. I don't need whatever you have since I can get it in the future anyway."

"Not even utility magic will suffice?"

"The only utility magic I need is healing. I can get that from Mysteriea. C'mon now, a man like you should be able to cough up a few coins.."

Caophre shrugged. "You should be open to many opportunities in life Owen.. You don't know if something is bad if you haven't experienced or seen it personally.. And who told you that I'm a man?"

"So you're a woman?"

"Guess."

Owen rolled his eyes. "I'm still taking money."

Caophre groaned and said dispiritedly, "How much?"

"One gold coin."

"F*ck off! There's no way I'm paying you something above 10 silver." It was Caophre's turn to curse out.

"Alright then, 10 silver." Owen sneered.

He wasn't really expecting to receive compensation. But if Caophre was offering, then he would gladly accept it.

As the two of them were bickering with each other, Oslan and Riang enjoyed the entertainment from the side.

"You know, Owen and Caophre resembled us sometimes whenever we talk like this." Oslan commented.

"I guess so.. But wait, who's Caophre between us?" Riang posed the question.

Oslan gave her a cheeky smile and answered, "I would say that you're Caophre because of how similarly unreasonable the two of you are."

Oslan received a slap to the back of his head.

Caophre heard what Oslan said and thought to himself,

'Wait, I'm the unreasonable one?'