Like I promised, the next few seconds were filled with a fierce exchange of blows. I threw two quick punches, mixed with an ashen arrow aimed at his foot, but this guy blocked my fists with his sword and slipped his foot back.
("Damn, he's good.") [Solace]
I went low, spinning around for a leg sweep. However, this guy jumped with his sword raised for a vertical slash.
"|Earthen Shield|." [Solace]
I raised the ground below him, making it so that he would land on it and keep myself out of reach.
"|Fireball|." [Balyagha]
Seeing that using the sword would be useless here, he opened up a hand and fired a ball of fire at me. Needless to say, I ignored it.
"|Thunderbolt Lance|." [Solace]
I created my lightning spear, stabbing through the |Fireball| thinking that I'd hit. To my surprise, Balyagha was no longer there.
"|Wind Edge|." [Balyagha]
I heard a voice from behind my wall right before it split open. I then felt something cut across my chest, leaving quite a mark on my clothes. Good thing it didn't actually hurt me though.
"|Air Wall|." [Balyagha]
My |Earthen Shield| was pushed towards me as Balyagha slipped around it with his sword ready.
"|Explosion Arts|!" [Solace]
I used my left hand to destroy the wall before turning and kicking the handle of Balyagha's sword. It kept him from swinging, but not from grabbing my ankle.
"It ain't gonna be that easy." [Solace]
With my one free leg, I jumped, twisted, and kicked his neck. Thus, forcing him to unhand me while stumbling backwards.
"...Impressive." [Balyagha]
He straightened himself out, tilting his head side to side to crack his neck.
"Your fighting style is very unorthodox. Not even a martial artist acts like that. What |Class| are you?" [Balyagha]
From what I recall, my status had my |Class| listed as |NA|. I didn't give him an honest answer though.
"I don't think we're familiar enough to exchange words." [Solace]
I smirked knowing I gave him a taste of his own medicine.
"You must be the type to hold a grudge." [Balyagha]
"What makes you say that?" [Solace]
It was nice that we were chatting like this. It gave me a moment to use |Analyze|.
("Let's take a look.") [Solace]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Name: Balyagha Multan The Fourth
Race: Demon
Class: |Feerae|
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Level: 161
Health: 2599/26400
Mana: 14722/15100
Demonic Energy: 7400/7400
Strength: 6003
Agility: 5580
Intelligence: 4011
Willpower: 4999
Status: Stable
Skills: |Fireball Lv. 8| |Wind Edge Lv. 9| |Flame Arc Lv. 18| |Air Wall Lv. 5| |All Boost Lv. 19| |Execution Lv. 4| |Slowness Lv. 6| |Self Purge Lv. 4| |Swordsmanship Lv. 15| |Fire Resistance Lv. 8| |Demonic Enchantment Lv. 9|
Unique Skill: |Royal Order Lv. 9| |Flame Breath Lv. 2|
Titles: |Demonlord's Shadow| |Lost Ruler| |
True Titles: |Blessing of Vyre|
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
First of all, this guy has an extra stat. What exactly is |Demonic Energy|? Is that a race buff or something? Besides that, he was quite overleveled.
("I think I can out-skill him.") [Solace]
I can't say I was very prepared for fights, so I put on my blue coat that Nakros made for me and my Vermillion Eclipse.
"...Finally taking this seriously are you? It is only right that I return the favor." [Balyagha]
He sheathed his sword and opened up a palm.
"|Invoke Exto|." [Balyagha]
"I never thought you'd ask." [???]
I heard the echo of a spirit's voice as a large feminine figure appeared. Balyagha had summoned a bright red female spirit whose hair turned out to be flame and her outfit was that of a ballroom dress. Without a moment's notice, the spirit shrunk down, shaping itself into a sword with a wavy blade before placing itself into Balyagha's hand.
"...A flamberge?" [Solace]
I think I saw one of those in history class once. It was a mix of red and orange where the edge of the blade looked like it came from a thousand degree knife challenge video. The handle… I couldn't see it very well under his hand, but the sword guard and pommel were shaped like spikes.
("Man, we barely fought and he's whipping out the big guns.") [Solace]
That wasn't all. Balyagha then traced a hand over his sword before reciting:
"|Demonic Enchantment|." [Balyagha]
The glowing edge turned a shade darker, making it a deep crimson. Kind of like my gauntlets.
"Bro, you don't need to do all that for me." [Solace]
"I do not know what this "Bro" means. However, I will assume it is an insult." [Balyagha]
"It means brother." [Solace]
Balyagha then glared at me.
"I am not your brother." [Balyagha]
"I know." [Solace]
"Then don't say it." [Balyagha]
"That's not how it works." [Solace]
Balyagha immediately closed the distance between us.
"Then I will show you something that does work." [Balyagha]
I raised my spear to block a thrust. Unfortunately, I didn't know that his sword would slip through my guard and into my heart.
"A sword to the heart will always kill." [Balyagha]
"Alt!" [Wilharrow]
I spat out blood. I think this bastard punctured a lung while he was at it.
"Alert: |Blooming Undying| activation confirmed. All debuffs have been dispelled. Health and mana have been restored. All stats increased by fifty percent. Sanity has dropped by ten percent." [Spirit Guide]
"Keh… Heheh…" [Solace]
I felt the corners of my mouth raise as I slowly grabbed Balyagha's arm.
"You're… smiling?" [Balyagha]
"You see. Normally, this would kill someone. For me though, that's not how it works either." [Solace]
I then slammed my fist into Balyagha's gut.
"Guh?!" [Balyagha]
He bent over in pain, almost causing him to let go of his sword.
"Feeling winded unc?" [Solace]
Still holding on to his arm, I pulled Balyagha up into a headbutt.
"Urgh!" [Balyagha]
He tried to pull the sword out of my chest, but I squeezed my chest tight to hold onto it.
"Don't think I'll let you out that easily." [Solace]
"Then so be it." [Balyagha]
He then twisted his sword.
"Argh!" [Solace]
My face contorted with pain. For a second, I thought it wouldn't be hard to get used to it until I started to feel it heat up.
("Oh shit.") [Solace]
The heat kept going up, causing it to burn the inside of my torso.
"Turn to ash!" [Balyagha]
"You have gained |Experience|. |Experience| limit reached. |Pain Resistance| has gained a level. You have gained |Experience|. |Experience| limit reached. |Fire Resistance| has gained a level." [Spirit Guide]
"This…! This is bearable!" [Solace]
"Alert: You have been exposed to |Demonic Energy|. Allocating new stat. You have acquired |Demonic Energy|." [Spirit Guide]
At some point it got so bad that I blacked out.
"Alert: |Blooming Undying| activation confirmed. All debuffs have been dispelled. Health and mana have been restored. All stats increased by fifty percent. Sanity has dropped by ten percent." [Spirit Guide]
I woke to find that Balyagha had just pulled out his sword. I didn't think that he realized I had awoken, and I still had my spear in hand, so I immediately attacked.
"|Grygand|!" [Solace]
Thrusting with absolute speed and power I nailed him in the shoulder. I would have liked to hit closer to home, but he was able to deflect the tip of my spear.
"H-How?! How are you still alive?!" [Balyagha]
He cried out in disbelief as my spear blew off his arm, leading to a severe amount of blood to pour out his shoulder.
"I told you. You can't kill me with a sword to the heart. Try something less normal." [Solace]
Matter of fact, I don't think you could kill me period.
"...Something less normal, is it?" [Balyagha]
Once he said that, Balyagha closed his eyes and inhaled sharply.
("What is he…?") [Solace]
My "second phase" detector started to tingle as I felt the atmosphere shift. The flower field began to ripple from the wind, and some kind of dark particles started to converge on Balyagha's bleeding shoulder.
"Oh. He's healing." [Solace]
I could see the makings of an arm form, but not yet completely. It appeared that it would take some time, so I chucked my spear at him.
"Have you no restraint?!" [Balyagha]
He opened his eyes and knocked the spear aside with his sword, just before his new arm finished.
"It was worth a try." [Solace]
"Worth a try? An interesting saying. Do you want to know what's worth a try?" [Balyagha]
"By all means, what is worth a try?" [Solace]
Balyagha put on a smug expression.
"Kill yourself permanently." [Balyagha]
I raised a brow.
"How do you know if I'm not just immortal?" [Solace]
"That may be true. However, I'm willing to bet that you know a way to keep yourself down." [Balyagha]
Well he's dead wrong.
"...Is that it? Killing myself? Is it not an ultimatum?" [Solace]
He then waved a finger side to side.
"You can kill yourself permanently, or… let your friend die." [Balyagha]
"Let my friend die?" [Solace]
I turned, only to realize that Wilharrow was on the ground squirming in agony. There were black marks on his skin making its way up, like a bunch of tattoos that could move.
("No wonder he was so quiet.") [Solace]
"...Did you poison him?" [Solace]
"It's |Demonic Energy|. I'm not sure how you're fine, but my |Spirit Field| contains flowers that constantly emit |Demonic Energy|." [Balyagha]
Now I know why the flower petals were black. Unless that's just me assuming wrongly.
"So it's poisonous?" [Solace]
"To most living things. The only outliers are those who possess |Demonic Energy|, and inorganic beings." [Balyagha]
If I'm not wrong, I could've sworn that I just acquired |Demonic Energy|. Am I tripping?
"What if I kill you first?" [Solace]
"You can try that. However, the longer we're here, the stronger I become. Even if I can't completely kill you, I'm confident I can outlast your friend over there." [Balyagha]
Now that was a dilemma.
"Hm… I guess I have no choice." [Solace]
I'll give him what he wants.