Limit Breaker

An arrow hissed past his head. Aurelion ducked, twisted, and parried a knife thrust aimed for his gut with the shaft of his spear, immediately using the momentum to pivot and move in the opposite direction.

This became a deadly dance.

As Aurelion tried to break away from the closing circle, using his movement technique to change direction swiftly, Skulk was always there, a predatory shadow matching his every move, relentlessly attacking.

Aurelion blocked another dagger strike. "How is he keeping up with me?" he thought, his frustration mounting. "I can change direction without losing my momentum with the Kinetic-Flow Steps, but this goblin is matching me with sheer speed. And he's herding me, preventing me from breaking away from the others."

"What is this goblin's Core level?" The thought had barely formed when Skulk's foot shot out, tripping him.

Aurelion stumbled. In that split second of lost balance, Skulk was on him.

With no time to recover, Aurelion threw himself to the ground, rolling through the mud and immediately springing back to his feet to regain his stance.

But he felt a sharp, burning pain across his back. He glanced at the dagger in Skulk's hand and saw a red blood glistening on the blade.

He snarled in rage and lunged, his hand reaching out to grab the goblin, but Skulk was already gone, melting back a few steps, out of reach.

"Don't stop shooting!" Skulk barked over his shoulder.

Aurelion retreated, dodging another arrow. "If I miss an attack using my energy, I'm finished," he growled internally. "But if this keeps up, I'm finished anyway."

 He spared a desperate glance to his left and saw it through the dense trees. a small, murky pond.

"The most dangerous places in a swamp are the wetlands. You never know what fish will bite you," he recalled one of Roric's lessons. "But I have no other choice."

He changed direction with his technique, sprinting towards the pond.

Sensing his intent, Skulk intensified his attacks. As Aurelion weaved and dodged, he saw another goblin blocking his path to the water.

He snarled and kept running.

As the distance closed, his body erupted in a sheath of crackling sparks.

Then he accelerated suddenly and slammed his shoulder into the goblin.

The creature staggered from the impact but managed to grab onto Aurelion's leather armor.

Aurelion quickly turned, only to see Skulk's twin daggers slashing towards his face.

He barely managed to wrench his head to the right.

He felt a searing pain as one of the blades sliced across his face.

He slammed his left palm against Skulk's chest. This time, an uncontrolled bolt of lightning exploded from his hand.

BOOM!

The force of the close range blast sent both Skulk and Aurelion flying backward in opposite directions.

Aurelion was free from the goblin's grip, but blood was streaming down the left side of his face. His vision was a blurry mess, seeing only with his right eye. He forced himself to his feet and ran, stumbling towards the pond.

His feet finally hit the cool water of the pond's edge. He stopped, gasping for breath, and looked back.

He saw the other goblins, and Skulk, clutching his scorched chest, staring back at him, bloodied but very much alive.

Skulk gestured with his head. Two goblins broke away from the main group, moving to flank the pond from the sides while Skulk himself advanced down the center. Behind them, the archers kept their bows drawn, ready.

Aurelion met Skulk's gaze, his own golden eye burning with a cold fury.

He began to backpedal into the pond. The water wasn't deep, maybe up to his waist, but the thick, sucking mud at the bottom made every movement a laborious effort.

His goal was to put distance between himself and the archers. At the same time, he kept his left hand submerged in the murky water, a low thrum of energy building within it, ready to unleash his lightning manipulation against any creature that might attack from below.

When they reached the shoreline, Skulk and the goblins stopped. They didn't step into the water after him. They just waited, their eyes fixed on him.

Aurelion also stopped once he felt the distance was sufficient, his body tense and on high alert.

An agonizingly tense silence stretched on for what felt like ten minutes.

"They're waiting for something in the water to attack me," Aurelion analyzed. "They won't risk themselves." He glanced at the placid, brown surface of the water. "But this is strange. If there was a any creature in this pond, it should have already attacked me by now." His gaze flickered back to the goblins. "If this place is safe, then they'll have no choice but to come in. And then I'll fry them all."

He considered the bleeding from his face. The blood could be a problem. Deciding to both treat his wound and provoke his opponents, he reached into his pack, pulling out a small medical kit. He probed the gash over his eye with his fingers, then began to apply a salve.

Skulk's brows furrowed at the sight, but he remained still.

As Aurelion's fingers traced the edges of the cut, he suddenly froze. "Could it be… because of this?" A realization hit him. His nose twitched in a spasm of pure, wrath. His eyes, filled with a sudden, hateful understanding, locked onto Skulk.

He quickly began to bandage the left side of his face. "I can't deal with the wound on my back now," he thought grimly. "If I'm lucky, it's not too deep. There's nothing I can do about it." He finished his work and resumed his wait.

Another ten minutes passed. Finally, with a signal from Skulk, the goblins at the edge of the pond began to step into the water.

As the goblins waded into the water, Aurelion gripped his spear tighter, waiting for them to close the distance.

They stopped about ten meters away from him, a calculated range. The archers behind them drew their bowstrings taut once more.

Aurelion held his spear with both hands, his eyes darting between the archers and the warriors in the water. "I can't dodge the arrows in the water," he thought, his mind racing against time. "I have to block them somehow. And they're not close enough for my lightning manipulation. I can't do enough damage from this distance. I have no choice but to parry."

He braced himself.

The first arrow was loosed. Aurelion ducked, the shaft whistling past his ear. Immediately after, the second archer fired. He deflected it with his spear. Another came, and he twisted his body to avoid it. Then another, which he barely dodged with a last second turn.

The goblins kept firing until their quivers were empty.

By the end of the volley, Aurelion was still standing, but an arrow was lodged deep in his left calf, and another pierced his left arm.

As his blood began to stain the murky water crimson, he stood waiting, his right hand holding his spear firm.

Seeing Aurelion slowing, the goblins finally decided to approach. Skulk sent the others forward while he himself hung back, observing.

When the four approaching goblins were within his desired range, Aurelion plunged his wounded left arm into the water.

He lifted his head, a savage grin spreading across his face as he looked at them.

"BURN YOU GREEN FUCKS! BURN!" he roared, and unleashed a maelstrom of wild lightning sparks from his submerged hand.

The area around him exploded with crackling energy.

The goblins screamed in agony as the electrified water convulsed their bodies. Even Skulk, despite the distance, was visibly jolted by the powerful surge.

After this final, desperate act, Aurelion felt his remaining strength drain away. His grip on his spear began to slacken.

Skulk clutched his own scorched torso with one hand, but with the other, he raised his dagger, aiming it at the exhausted Aurelion from afar.

"Now, your end has com—"

Before he could finish, the water behind him erupted. A two and a half meter long brown toad burst from the depths with an enraged roar.

Its long, sticky tongue lashing out at Skulk.

With his dagger still aimed, Skulk froze, his head snapping to the right in stunned surprise.

The toad's tongue shot out like a fleshy catapult, wrapping around his torso before he could even react. There was a wet, sickening thwump as Skulk was yanked off his feet and swallowed whole.

Aurelion's own shock lasted only a fraction of a second before his survival instincts took over.

He glanced first at the convulsing goblins in front of him, then at the massive toad that had just devoured Skulk.

"So the pond wasn't empty after all," he thought, his mind piecing it together. "My lightning must have provoked it."

He immediately began to move, pushing himself sideways through the water.

He tried to move quickly, but his injured legs and the thick mud of the pond floor turned his sprint into a desperate, limping struggle.

A fresh scream from behind made him look back. He saw the toad swallow another of the goblins, its massive gullet working.

He tried to quicken his pace.

As he struggled forward, he noticed another goblin, trying to flee from the toad, getting closer to him. Aurelion plunged his left hand back into the water. A much weaker bolt of lightning, a mere flicker compared to his last attack, shot out. But it was more than enough for the already injured and terrified goblin.

It seized up and fell.

The second jolt of electricity, however, drew the toad's full attention. It let out a deafening roar and turned towards Aurelion and the fallen goblin.

"How?" Aurelion thought. "That shouldn't have affected it."

The toad's tongue lashed out.

Aurelion threw himself sideways, diving under the water's murky surface.

SPLASH!

He felt the powerful impact of the tongue hitting the water above him, the shockwave rattling his bones. When he surfaced, sputtering, the goblin that had been behind him was gone.

Aurelion saw the toad's massive, unblinking eyes lock onto him again.

"I have to do this," he thought, his mind a whirlwind of cold, hard calculation. "There's no luxury of thinking about what comes after. If I'm going to die, it will be fighting until the very last moment!"

He let go of his spear. It sank into the murky water and vanished.

"The last time I used this technique," his mind flashed back, "the muscle aches lasted for weeks."

His face was a mask of savage determination, he reached up with his good hand and, without flinching, ripped the arrow from his bicep. Then he reached down and pulled the other one from his calf.

"The brain limits the body's strength to a third of its potential as a safety mechanism. If you remove that limitation, you will unknowingly harm yourself. But that doesn't matter right now." He brought his good hand to his forehead, pressing his fingers against his temple, and for a moment, he stood perfectly still.

"All you need to know is how the human body works. If your will and your energy align, your wish will be granted!"

A sudden, agonizing fire shot through Aurelion's muscles. His eyes snapped wide open, a feral light burning within them.

Suddenly he felt a gust of wind from behind him. The toad's tongue lashing out again.

He poured his energy into his legs and, with a burst of speed that defied his injuries, used his Kinetic-Flow Steps to slide sideways, sending up a spray of water.

The massive tongue slammed into the spot where he had been standing a moment before.

He spared a glance at the enraged toad, a grim, confident smile touching his lips despite the pain wracking his body.

"I named this Limit Breaker and... this should be enough."