After catching his breath and regaining his composure, Hansel reinforced his spear with a sturdy layer of mana again. It wasn't as vibrant as when he had unleashed the crescent slash, but it glowed and reflected in Ackster's eyes as he stared Hansel down after his comment.
"At least I'm not a grown man playing with sticks."
Ackster could see Hansel was going to retort, so he dashed forward again. Although he didn't have the training equipment to protect him from the mana-reinforced spear, those clothes hadn't done much to protect him. He bet on himself being capable of avoiding any lethal strikes while engaging in close-quarters combat.
Hansel thrust his spear to meet Ackster's advance. Ackster subconsciously formed a grin.
Hansel shoving his spear forward and trying to poke Ackster with it was the kind of attack he had used the most. And by now, it was becoming useless in front of Ackster.
Ackster had learned what kind of steps Hansel took, how he flexed his arms and shoulders, how he twisted his torso, and how he looked at where he was aiming each time he prepared for a thrust. Even if Ackster hadn't figured out Hansel always led his attacks with some kind of charge or thrust, he could still see what he was going to do by looking at what his body did.
So, Ackster dodged Hansel's thrust before the spear even moved forward, and he did it without Battlesight. Keen Senses still played a major role in helping him see what he needed to see, but he could have done the same with a little more training, even without Keen Senses working overtime.
Ackster sidestepped to the side, and Hansel's spear breezed past him. Then, to dodge the horizontal slash he knew was coming, Ackster continued to the side while closing the distance using his newfound level of speed.
When Hansel realized it would be impossible to attack Ackster due to how quickly the latter was approaching, he gave up on the attack and retracted his spear and held it diagonally to block Ackster's fist.
Hansel's quick reaction didn't bother Ackster.
Even if he managed to put his spear between them and block his fist, Ackster just needed to either go around the spear or punch so hard that the spear's presence didn't matter.
And, considering Hansel could block another attack if he tried to readjust the path of his fist, Ackster decided to go with the brute force method. He had discarded his gauntlets when he got rid of the rest of his training equipment since he didn't want anything to weigh him down. And since he had used them to avert several of Hansel's spear strikes, they weren't in a very usable state.
But even with bare hands, Ackster had nothing holding him back. Broken bones would heal and regrow stronger. And his hands weren't the only thing he could use to attack. So, he would willingly sacrifice a fist or two to get rid of Hansel's spear.
Ackster stopped right in front of Hansel, his feet latching on the ground and his toes burrowing into it to get a vice-grip that he could use as leverage while amassing torque and momentum to unleash a haymaker powerful enough to break the red wooden shaft of Hansel's spear.
Time slowed down for Ackster as he felt all of his senses concentrate on the movement of his muscles, tendons, joints, and bones to maximize the destructive power he could unleash. All the way from his toes, calves, knees, thighs, hips, abdomen, torso, and shoulders up to his neck and head. His body united and used every single muscle fiber and cell to gather force and power before sending it straight down his arm into his clenched fist.
Ackster's mind was blank as the sensation of the punch was all he saw and felt. Even the world around him faded. The only things in his cognition were himself, his fist, the power behind it, and his target, which wasn't the spear.
He was punching Hansel with the intention of breaking the spear, but he wasn't aiming for the spear itself. He was going to break through the spear and reach Hansel. After all, what good would it do if he simply broke a spear without injuring or hitting Hansel?
Ackster's knuckles hit the spear shaft and, without stopping or even slowing down, began bending it. It was only when the spear shaft began looking like the crescent slash Hansel had unleashed that the resistance of the wooden handle caught up with Ackster's fist.
Like a bowstring, the spear shaft threatened to snap back in place and send Ackster's fist flying like an arrow.
Ackster could feel his hand slowing down and losing its momentum. The spear pushed back. Ackster gritted his teeth.
His shoulder bulged, the individual muscle fibers showing through the skin and the veins on his upper body and arm popping.
Ackster's muscles and strength began losing out to the spear's tensility and flexibility. Despite Ackster's perfect punch gathering all of the strength he could unleash at the moment, it wasn't enough.
He had reached his limits.
Ackster's eyes lit up, and his stubbornly gritted teeth transformed into a vicious grin as he could feel the chains wrapping around his body and muscle—the chains that only appeared when he wanted to do something his body was incapable of—loosen up. They weren't completely gone. But they faded a little and gave Ackster's body enough room to exert even more strength.
Limit Breaker, true to its name, broke through Ackster's limits.
With the power freed by Limit Breaker, Ackster's fist powered forward again like a bull and ignored the spear's futile resistance.
The spear cracked and, less than a moment later, splintered and shattered due to the sudden release of the built-up tension.
Like a dam had burst, Ackster's fist blasted forward and straight into Hansel's ribs.
Ackster heard several satisfying crunches as his fist broke into Hansel's left ribcage.