The only path forward was the crudest. He lunged with menace and carried not the slightest hint of hesitation with him.
His C-Class claws seemed to swipe at the wind lances curling through the air until his arm suddenly came to a strong stop. As though a loaded spring, his arm erupted, Lurker's Godsfall coating him as he swapped from a sweeping momentum to a strong thrust.
His sabers and the lances met.
BOOM!
Zarek felt as though his entire arm turned to ash. It was flung back, the elasticity of his Lurker's Godsfall and the fact it too was C-Class being the only things that kept his tendons from ripping apart.
He crossed the shield over his chest as the lance shattered into sparks of wind blades. The air around became a vortex of whirling violence, and Zarek felt like his skin was being shredded apart.
This time, it wasn't just some illusion—it was reality. He had already controlled his Godsfall to be directed to too many places. He didn't also have the time or bandwidth or talent needed to coat his body in Lurker's Godsfall as well.
The shield was only from an E-Class weapon. The only reason it was still standing now was because Zarek was still pouring Godsfall into it—one of the benefits of his Anato Scribe talent.
The damage was being quickly replenished by him, but every time he did so, the tattoo he had drawn was also burning through its durability and quickly fading as well.
Zarek coughed up a mouthful of blood as he was raised into the skies and then slammed down by the whirlwind. The world spun around him, and twisting vines of green wind lashed out like tormenting whips.
The pain was excruciating, but entirely unlike what he had experienced at the hands of the lizard-man's toxins—especially not when Crux's flames were considered as well. His mind was too acutely sharp to lose its focus—not right now.
The moment he hit the ground, he took advantage of it to roll into the tall grass, slipping out at the faintest opportunity.
Using Harmonic Recall, he touched a heavy stone buried into the ground beneath him. Then, with Temp Duplicate, he formed a heavy stone that spiraled into the distance in the other direction, landing in a heap. However, not before he touched it just one more time, activating Atom Link.
As expected, the boy-man's attention was immediately grasped by the large, empty stone, and his next volley of spears was aimed toward that direction.
'Son of a bitch, he can actually spam that…'
The boy-man was practically like a deity. Zarek had almost died just taking two of those spiraling wind lances, but he had already casually formed two more—and then two more after that. He didn't even seem like he was struggling; he was even reserving himself just in case something else attacked.
Zarek took note of his aching body for a moment, still hiding in the tall grass while the boy-man unleashed his torrent of attacks on a stone. With how poor the durability of Zarek's Temp Duplicate clones was, it was already destroyed after the first volley. But the boy-man seemed to be particularly cautious, unleashing another three volleys before he finally slowed.
The entire area had become a wasteland of torn-up grass and devastated soil. Everything had simply been shredded to absolute pieces.
It was only after the boy finally calmed down that Zarek cleared his throat. However, due to the fact he had used Atom Link on the now-destroyed stone, his voice actually came from that region. He wasn't going to take the chance of being bombarded like that again.
"So, um… can we actually talk now? You've proven yourself to be the big, strong man."
The boy-man, who had just whipped his head back in the direction of the voice, geared up another attack, but Zarek quickly spoke again.
"Hey, hey. Do you have another gear? I think you've seen that I'm not very strong already. What are you so up in arms for?"
The boy-man's eyes narrowed. No one would freely admit that he wasn't strong, and Zarek didn't seem like he was very nervous at all. Was this the sort of thing you'd expect from someone who was weak?
"I have nothing to gain from you. Even if you aren't a threat to me and mean no harm, what reason do I have to help you at all?"
"I have a Profession that would be pretty useful to an Intelligence Type like you. In fact, I'd say it'd probably make you about 50% stronger."
The boy-man paused for a moment. "Are you a support?"
"You could say that."
"Prove it. What use do you have?"
"You saw my shield. That's my Profession at work. I can draw Matrices onto your body. So long as you follow the pattern I teach you, you can use tattoos as extensions of your treasures. Easy for quick casting, catching opponents off guard, or avoiding durability losses when unnecessary."
The boy-man fell into silence. This really would be of good use to him. He had noticed the shield, and with his Intelligence Growth Potential, he had felt how Zarek continuously repaired it by flooding more Godsfall into it.
If Zarek's main strength was his Profession, it would make sense why his combat strength was lacking. But the fact he could survive despite his poor combat strength also went to show just how good his Profession was too.
It definitely wasn't simple.
"Then I have a test for you. If you can accomplish it, then I agree to let you follow me and I'll give you some of the information you want in exchange for your help. If you can't, I'll kill you."
The boy-man took out a pendant. Even without an appraisal skill, Zarek had a good guess as to what it was.
Staffs that mages tended to use didn't have to come in staff form. In fact, the stronger ones almost tended not to.
This was a talisman to enhance his Wind Godsfall. And if Zarek was correct, its purpose was to improve his Intent by a small tier higher than usual.
Zarek's eyes narrowed. This was a C-Class Treasure related to Intelligence on top of that. His Profession definitely couldn't cover for something like that right now.
This was troublesome.