Chapter 167: The Dreaded Seeker
———Lerim———
<3: 35 pm>
*Block* *Parry* *Clash*
Our weapons clashed and repelled each other at every turn. Neither are overpowering the other and we keep being pushed back by the constant clash of weapons.
Each attack causes my arms to shake, the power behind each strike feels like it wouldn’t be halted even by a thick wall.
“Tch.” I clicked my tongue in frustration. There isn’t any obvious opening like last time, and this dungeon doesn’t have enough room to work with for a good sneak attack or two. “Evari, get the hell outta here already!”
“What? Why! I can hel-
“That’s like saying you could stop a hurricane! Now take that guy with you and scram!” I yelled at her before focusing back on the fight.
*Swing* *Block*
“Ugh!” I almost got hit by that! Even just taking a moment to yell at her gives just enough time for this mouse girl to close the gap between us.
*Block* *Parry* *Evade* *Block* *Clash*
It’s annoying that there is very little I can do outside of playing it slow. Ideally I want to get this over with quickly and go back home for a long nice sleep, but this woman certainly won’t make it easy. Even with that giant impractical weapon, her speed and reach are still comparable to mine, if perhaps even having a range advantage with my current sword being shorter than the one I used last time I faced her.
*Block* *Block* *Block*
The amount of attacks she threw at me is relentless. Quick and brutal, and yet not leaving much breathing room.
At this point and time, it doesn’t look like fighting using only our physical prowess would yield any result and would just lead to us dragging this out until one of us gets tired. Who knows how long that’ll actually take.
*Block* *Parry* *Clash*
I don’t really know how much mana she got left in the tank, and I don’t think she would like this to get drawn out either. After a certain amount of time, she would probably quickly start throwing out powerful spells and other exotic techniques.
*Swing* *Parry* *Leap*
‘I doubt she wants to kill you, but if you don’t take her seriously, she might actually try to aim for the head.’ Those words rang out in my mind once I got some distance between us.
*Swing* *Blast*
I shoot out a blast of energy from my sword, just to gauge how she’ll react.
*Evade* *Crack*
She avoided the attack effortlessly and let the beam of energy hit the dungeon’s wall and cause a small crack in it. Thankfully I didn’t put that much mana into it, otherwise that would’ve been a pointless loss of energy.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Leap*
She ran over and started an upward swing with her scythe which is quite telegraphed, but it doesn’t give me the right amount of time to counter, she simply jumped away the moment the attack didn't connect. This fight is gonna be way longer than I wanted…
**Dash** *Clash*
“Gh!” I groaned as I felt my arms tensing up from our weapons clashing. The pressure from the other party is comparable to my own, and I can’t afford to play this game of attrition.
I feel like I am being pushed back as we keep this up, trying to overpower the other. She seems very focused on trying to actually overpower me. It’s a bit of tunnel vision, isn’t it?
*Trip* *Kick* *Crash*
I kicked her feet and caused her to trip and fall down, which I followed up with a kick to the stomach that sent her flying and crashing into the dungeon wall.
*Swing* *Blast* *Evade*
Before the dust even cleared, a large beam of energy emerged out and made its way towards me. I dodged it easily enough, but that was still quite intimidating. She recovered from that attack very quickly.
*Dash* *Duck* *Swing* *Leap*
She ran at me with a horizontal swing that I managed to duck under and try to counter with another tripping attempt, but she wisened up and jumped out of the way in time.
“Hmph.” She let out a sound with an amused smile as she raised her scythe.
*Throw* *Spin* *Evade*
“Ah!” She threw her scythe at me like a boomerang. It traveled fast and looked like it would tear me to shreds if it did connect.
*Dash* *Parry* *Thrust* *Evade*
She ran at me and I parried the incoming attack then followed it with a thrust of my sword which she managed to side-stepped even after being briefly staggered.
*Swing* *Evade*
I swung the sword towards her immediately, but she leaned back at a ridiculous angle to avoid the incoming slash.
*Swing* *Jump*
She also swung her scythe at me while still leaning back like that, looking like she’s about to chop off my feet if I didn’t jump up a bit higher than needed.
*Swing* *Blast* *Leap*
I created another sword beam aiming right at her, and she simply jumped out of the way.
*Throw* *Spin* *Block*
During her time still in the air, she threw her scythe at me again while I was still airborne. I managed to block it but it caused my trajectory to change suddenly and almost launched me straight into the wall.
I landed back down a bit clumsily, but it could’ve been worse.
*Dash* *Clash* *Parry* *Block* *Parry* *Block* *Clash*
She really doesn’t let up, running it back with more weapons clashing…
*Crack*
Huh? What was that just now?
*Punch* *Leap*
I quickly retreated and did a cheap shot with my fist before jumping away and inspecting my sword. There is a crack in it already. Damn it.
*Throw* *Swat*
I threw the sword at her and she simply swatted it away with her scythe. It’s better to use my fists than continuing to use a defective weapon.
Can’t say I like my odds against someone with such a big advantage when it comes to range, but I need to make due with what I got!
*Dash* *Swing* *Block* *Dash* *Kick* *Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Block* *Leap*
Aside from a weak kick to her side I didn’t get any hits in. She might technically be slowed down by the giant weapon she has while I tossed away the one I have, but the range means that I got very few opportunities to actually close the gap and even get a hit in.
*Spark* *Zap* *Block*
I threw out a burst of electricity that she blocked with her scythe alone. Guess a half-hearted attack like that wouldn’t work…
*Dash* *Swing* *Duck* *Kick* *Punch*
She ran at me with a wide swing that I ducked under and counter with a quick kick that disrupted her movement and gave me enough time to punch her back.
*Swing* *Spin* *Roll*
“Not this again!” I complained as another boomerang scythe came out, this time even faster than the other two times and necessitating me rolling onto the ground to quickly get out of its way.
*Dash* *Punch*
This time around I’m not just gonna wait around. I simply ran over and punched her in the face before the scythe could fly back to her.
*Grab* *Swing* *Evade*
The scythe still homed in and came back into her hand just in time to retaliate, swinging back at me but not quite fast enough to connect.
“You are not above fighting dirty, just like last time.” She remarked, being the first thing she said since we started this fight.
“And what? You expect me to stop now?” I said with a small grin. “I need all the advantages I get. I know full well you’re not someone I can just overpower and beat in a few seconds.”
“The same could be said for me. It’s rare for me to find someone who is just right.” She said with a more maniac grin. What a crazy bitch. She wasn’t kidding at all that this friend of hers is anything but normal.
Well, if she wants to be challenged that badly, then let’s see how she’ll do against this!
*Shine* *BLAST*
A quick blast of energy straight towards her. This would be the first attack with a good amount of effort into it.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Blast*
She ran towards me after blocking that blast of energy. I dodged the incoming attack and blasted her in the face with another energy attack.
*Spark* *Grab* *Zap* *Throw* *Crash*
I then lunged forward and grabbed her throat with my hand covered in electricity, shocking her and my hand together before throwing her up into the ceiling.
*Swing* *Slash*
Before I could make out what she’s going to do next, a swing from her scythe caused a shockwave that acted as an invisible blade of energy, hitting me in the right shoulder and giving me a small bleeding wound.
*Leap*
“Tch.” I clicked my tongue before jumping out of the way of any possible attacks and covered my right shoulder. Slowly mending the tiny wound before it could possibly become a problem later.
That gives her just enough time to land back down safely.
*Shine*
I projected a sword that looks like it was made of pure light, making it grow to the size of my preferred type of swords.
*Dash* *Clash* *Parry* *Block*
I ran in and started going on the aggressive this time around, the sword is extremely bright and causes everything to be hard to make out.
*Flash* *Punch* *Kick*
I dispelled the sword and let the light leak out in a massive flashbang, closing my eyes and throwing out punches and kicks where I know for a fact this woman is at, getting a few hits to connect.
*Smack* *Strike*
“Argh!” Unfortunately those don’t seem to stagger her enough and she hits me with the back of the scythe and an elbow to the face.
*Grab* *Crash* *Slash* *CRASH*
“Ugh…” She then grabbed and swung me around on the ground before dropping me and hitting me with the scythe which sent me flying and almost completely buried me into the dungeon wall.
“Surely you can do a little better than that. Visions aren’t a big issue for either of us, after all.” She confidently said while I clumsily got myself out of the crack in the wall.
“What a pain in the ass.” I muttered to myself while raising up my arms in anticipation for her next move.
*Throw* *Spin* *Dash*
She threw her scythe and also ran at me at the same time.
*Swing* *Block* *Swing* *Block* *Spin* *Leap*
She threw out a few punches and kicks that I blocked rather easily, but I know those are just mere distractions for the scythe still homing in on me, so I jumped away to avoid it.
*Leap* *Swing* *Leap* *Crack*
She grabbed onto the scythe the moment it missed the mark and jumped towards me with a massive swing that I jumped out of the way, causing the scythe to hit the ground and cause a large crack in the floor.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*
She ran at me with more swings coming along for the ride.
*Swing* *Punch* *Kick* *Crash*
Another swing of the scythe, but this time I punched the side of the scythe to disorient her before kicking her in the stomach and sent her flying.
*Spark* *Zap*
I zapped her with a thunder spell for good measure to keep her from quickly recovering from the previous attack.
*Dash* *Knee* *Punch* *Crash*
A knee to the chin and a punch to the cheek, sending her flying in the other direction and crashing into another wall.
She quickly gets back up and looks ready to go for more.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Leap* *Zap*
She tried to attack me again and I simply jumped out of the way and blasted her with electricity again.
*Dim* *Slash*
“Ah!” She then engulfed her scythe in darkness and swung in my direction, that attack seems to have some sort of gravity effect as it dragged me towards her.
*Swing* *Grab*
She swung her scythe at me while my feet hadn’t touched the ground yet, so I chose to grab onto the scythe instead and ride the momentum of the swing to propel me away from her.
“Quite a bold move, I would say.” She remarked while still looking confident and not even a bit winded. Admittedly I am still in good shape as well, the lack of a weapon aside.
Just how long is this going to go on for, for crying out loud…