Max drew his sword BloodSucker out from the inventory when the pressure from Nimli's attacks became unbearable.
Nimli was a tier4 warrior and stronger than Max in every stat aspect, whether it be physical strength, speed, constitution or dexterity.
In theory he should mop the floor with Max, a warrior that was two tiers weaker than him.
He should be able to easily land every blow that he swung towards Max, with his every attack being slightly faster than what Max should be able to counter, however, to his sheer surprise Max was able to counter every attack that he made.
Despite being a vastly weaker individual, through pure technique alone, Max was able to hold his own against Nimli.
" How the fuck are you anticipating my attacks? You are moving to counter me before I even make my move!
It's like you can read my mind " Nimli said, sounding horrified as he analysed Max's defending pattern, in Nimli's eyes Max was behaving like a freak who could read his mind, however, Nimli could not understand how?
Max just grinned in response as he silently thanked Kremeths teachings in his heart.
What Nimli felt about Max being a freak was correct, but his assumption that Max could read his mind was wrong.
Max had become a freak partly because his inherent agility was extremely high, and after his dragonification so was his defence and strength, but it was not the whole reason.
The main reason behind him becoming a freak was his insistence on walking the path of the perfected warrior as despite having reached the peak of tier 2 eight months ago, Max continued to grind his stats individually to reach stat maximisation for tier2 .
His current speed and strength were comparable to a mid-stage tier3 warrior but they were still inferior to Nimli's.
What really made him a freak was Kremeth's signature skill [ Way Of The Wind ]
Using the skill, Max could pick up minute disturbances in wind patterns generated from a constricted muscle movement, which helped him read his opponents attack way before the enemy ever made it.
The extra time that was not wasted in analysing the direction of attack allowed Max to react in-time to block the incoming strike, whereby Kremeths taught block and counter skills helped him hold his ground.
The combination of all these factors allowed Max to hold his own against Nimli who could now only rely on his big moves and superior stamina bar to suppress Max.
However, he was still too late to save his friend at this stage now as while he was fighting Max, the Netherbeasts finally managed to chip Vari's HP down to 0, as the human swordsman succumbed to his injuries.
[ System Notification ] - You have killed tier3 human warrior ' Vari ' from the light faction inside a ' Battle-Zone '
Since the warrior belonged to the light faction EXP reward is reduced.
+50,000 exp
—> You need to increase your tier before you can consume more EXP!
+400 gold coins
+1 broken sword ( Gold )
" Oops, looks like your human friend just died ". Max said as his words made Nimli glance to the side for a split second to confirm the news, however, it was just the opening Max was hoping for as he immediately used the strongest spell from the Agni-Astra [ Inferno ] to attack Nimli.
Max had improved on the mastery of Inferno and brought down the casting time to just 0.8 seconds from the initial 3 seconds he needed, however, it was still not fast enough as Nimli struck before he could launch his attack.
-3200
Max was sliced straight at the chest with the tip of Nimli's spear as it made sparks against Max's armour, however, immediately afterwards Max blasted Nimli with an inferno attack and returned the damage sevenfold
-24,000
Nimli was blasted back by a powerful fire attack as he lost a significant chunk of his HP bar bringing his HP down to a yellow level.
* Cough* * Cough* Nimli coughed as he felt winded by the attack, when he saw the most freakish scene he had ever seen in his life.
Initially his enemy was bleeding blood from the scar he had given him, however, then the blood he bled and the blood that was littered on the battlefield everywhere began trickling back up towards the enemy's wounds as it began rapidly healing and the kid's HP bar began increasing.
Nimli had never seen or heard of this skill ever as he watched completely stunned as his enemy recovered back to full health 10 seconds later.
" Who the fuck are you? " Nimli asked, his voice quivering with fear as he realised that the mission that was supposed to be easy, did not seem easy at all at the moment, his opponent was a freak with many tricks up his sleeve and had no fear in his eyes while facing him.
If the other party had not come under a system contract, Nimli would doubt if he was really a tier2 warrior or an old man pretending to be a weakling, as there was no logical way that a tier2 was supposed to be this powerful, but here he was.
A burning tree fell down between Nimli and Max at this moment and the heat of the flames made Nimli flinch for a second as he took two steps back.
The forest fire of the trees had now burnt off all the top branches and was now coming down to the main tree structure, and the area they were fighting in was increasingly becoming more and more dangerous.
However, while Nimli was flinching away from the fire, Max just walked over the flaming tree, between the flames like they could not scratch him at all staring straight into Nimli with his blood red eyes as he stood amidst the flames, sending chills down his spine.
" Why are you not burning from the flames? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? " Nimli asked again, this time sounding paranoid as he grabbed his spear with trembling hands and pointed it at Max with fear evident in his cowering posture.
**************
( Meanwhile Sigfried )
Sigfried watched the escaping Asiva from a small capsule sized battleship and sighed deeply.
" It's just like the prince Marcus feared, the incompetent bastards of the Kingsman clan cannot be trusted to bring the woman back safely.
Guess I'll have to do it myself " He said as he ejected himself from the battleship and landed in the woods ahead of the escaping path of the group.
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/// Bonus chapter for hitting the PS target, good job everyone! ///