Zarek tilted to the side, the lance ripping through the flesh of his shoulder just as his hips pivoted. The tearing pain of skin and then muscle being torn into rippled through his body with a heat almost as fiery as the one building in his heart.
Almost.
His pivot was just enough, the lance's tip slicing out of his skin and into the air, a streak of crimson blood following it.
Zarek's palm slapped out against the side of the lance, Harmonic Recall activating as he poured his intention into the weapon itself.
There was a sudden change in the air, and Zarek's Talent took precedent, cancelling the Skill.
'Excellent.'
Zarek's eyes flashed and his body began to move instinctually. He couldn't think. He didn't have to. His mind had already downloaded a Rolodex of memories, a top-tier understanding of the system ingrained into his very bones.
When a treasure like these was used, the craftsman's caution could be the undoing of the party. Because so much of the Matrix was unknown or difficult to grasp and understand by the user, the only way to make true use of the weapon was to rely on the system to activate much of it.
That much was fine and worked in most cases. However, it could be disrupted—if the system had reason to do so.
This time, Zarek didn't use his understanding of Harmonic Recall or his personal time comprehension and affinity to activate the Talent. He leaned on the system entirely.
In the hierarchy, a Talent took precedent over a Skill, and a Skill took precedent over the Matrices of a treasure. When Zarek activated Harmonic Recall, the system clashed with itself, causing the warping Godsfall that surged around the lance to be cut off just as it was about to rip his arm to shreds.
The instant the Skill was cancelled, Zarek reacted as though he hadn't just gambled with his entire arm. There was no way in that moment that his kevlar gloves would have stood a chance against the swirling Godsfall, but he had a sharpness to his gaze all the while that made it seem as though he had already known the outcome—even though this was the very first time he had ever done such a thing.
The thrill of battle. Of living life on the edge. Of bending and twisting rules both parties had access to—and yet only one of them was smart enough to take advantage of.
That was what he lived for.
And maybe it was precisely because of this that the system hated Zarek so much.
Harmonic Recall.
Zarek's palm slapped against the lance's side, both throwing it off course and activating his Talent once more. This time, he wasn't relying on the system, but nothing more than himself.
Flashes of understanding filled his mind, and he grasped something through the lance, but that didn't stop him from taking another step forward and driving an elbow right into the chest of the Hero across from him.
One seamless motion after another, his Godsfall circulating within his body so fast that it didn't seem as though he was someone with such a poor Intelligence Growth Stat at all.
Pain rippled through Zarek's body as the knight's armor threatened to shatter his arm, but Gladius was forced several steps back nonetheless, the latter's body almost being launched into the air.
That was when Zarek realized that it wasn't the knight's armor he had hit, but the knight's shield instead. It swallowed up his strength without pause, dispersing the impact and dulling the pain the Hero suffered considerably.
But Zarek didn't seem put off by this. He had already unfurled his whip for the first time in a long while. It cut through the air with a howling wind, the snapping of the sound barrier filling the space with an echo that grated against the ears.
At that moment, Gladius tried to activate his Skills again, only to realize he didn't have enough time. He had just used one to absorb Zarek's blow, and his lance had just been interrupted. There was no time to circulate his Godsfall again.
But just as Zarek's whip was about to collide, there was a trickle of energy that leaked out of the Hero's legs, and a Matrix of the domain arena they stood in activated once again.
Chi.
Gladius disappeared and flashed behind Zarek, his shield glowing with power as he activated [Shield Smash] and Valiant Shield at the same time.
It might be impossible to activate two Skills at once for this projection of the system. But a Talent and a Skill that synergized together… well, that was a completely different matter entirely.
The two layered on top of one another, aiming for Zarek's back while he seemed to be caught completely unaware.
There was a shift in the air, and the scent of death took form in plumes of darkness and a heavy weight.
Right in that instant of time, Zarek's eyes flashed. His body seemed to have already been moving, the whip that was cutting through the air changing direction and slapping down on the ground.
There was a pulse of Godsfall that ran through Zarek's whip, and the Matrix activated once again.
At that instant, the sixth Gladius, who had just been behind Zarek, found himself teleported again. But this time, he was in front of Zarek—his back facing him.
Zarek's whip latched against the ground, its stickiness becoming akin to a spider's web as Zarek ripped himself forward.
Gladius didn't even have time to turn around. He had poured so much of his strength into his shield, only for it to blast out and hit nothing but air.
All of a sudden, the Hero found himself in a situation where his strength was depleted and his body didn't have time to trigger another Skill.
All the while, an enemy was accelerating toward him from behind.
He couldn't even turn around before his vision went black.