Chapter 47 – Fire Punch
The fading daylight cast long shadows, sinking the room in darkness that was interrupted by her opponent’s flaming gauntlets.
Uruvi tightened her grip on the axe to hide the nervousness she felt underneath. Her heart thumped against her chest as sweat poured down the sides of her forehead. ‘Too much doubt. Need to focus…’ She shut her eyes and let the world go dark once again. His blazing gauntlets filled her vision as he lunged at her with a tightened fist. Her eyes snapped open, and she said, “Mark them!”
A mark appeared over his head, and his speed dipped slightly. But it was just enough for her to parry his punches without resorting to Adrenaline Rush. ‘It won’t last long, but I have to make do with it.’
The clash of metal sent sparks flying, and with every clash, the flames from his gauntlets licked her skin. She felt the intense heat almost burn her skin, but she fought through the pain. The weight of his punches bore down on her, pushing her back with each hit.
She ducked underneath the arc of his punch and rolled forward. He followed her and spun around.
“Barricade!” she said, knocking his punch back.
He let out a furious roar and smashed the shield. Uruvi, who was still on her knees, used the window of opportunity to strike his leg with her axe. The blade sliced through the skin of his right knee. She spun in a circle and brought her blade back at him, only to be parried by his gauntlet.
A swift kick struck her in her abdomen, knocking her back. He chased after and brought his fist onto her. She quickly rolled away and cast thunderclap. The shockwave threw him across the room and through the metal fencing.
She let out a sigh as she pushed herself up. An audible growl filled the dead air. She saw her opponent get back up on his feet with a very furious expression on his face. He pushed aside the layers of metal debris in his way.
“You and your damned spells!” He growled. “Fight like a warrior.”
Her lips broke into a wide grin. “What? Don’t know any spells?”
He threw a broken piece of metal fence at her, but she dodged it with ease. “I am not a coward like you!”
“No. You are just a one-trick pony,” she replied.
He looked back at her, dumbstruck.
“You solely rely on your physical strength and fire. You don’t have any skills or spells. I want to think you might be holding back, but you ain’t that smart.”
She watched his face turn red. ‘Good. The taunt spell actually works!’
“I will pound you to a pulp…,” he declared.
She scoffed and said, “You won’t get the chance to.” ‘This is good. I put all my might into that swing, and it didn’t slice right through. I can go all out.’
Her opponent lunged at her, his gauntlets blazing like his anger.
“Mark them…” she whispered.
The two engaged in a dance of death, attacking and parrying each other’s attacks. With each swing, his moment became sluggish, while her movement only became faster and faster. ‘My spell should have worn out by now, but his movement is only getting slower. It looks like the heat is doing more damage to him than to me. Let’s do this!’
Red aura enveloped her, increasing her speed sharply. She could see the terror in his eyes as she lunged at him. “Come on now, buddy! Is that all you got!”
She sent a flurry of slashes his way. He managed to parry a few, but the rest struck him, chipping away at his health bar. The fire on his gauntlets began to fade as his moves became more and more defensive.
‘This is getting too easy!’ There was a nasty smile on her face as she attacked him relentlessly. He tried his best to parry her attacks, but his health bar hit red soon.
Panic set in as he pushed her off him and made a run for the exit. “Not so fast!” She grabbed him by his collar and dragged him back into the arena, before slamming the flat of the blade into his stomach. “Thunderclap!”
He was thrown across the room and into the pile of stacked boxes in a corner. His health drew closer to the end.
She stopped and watched him closely as she gathered her breath.
He leaned back against the stack of boxes and stared back at her with fear-struck eyes.
She lunged at him with the axe over her head.
“Barricade!” he shouted, putting his hand up.
She let a grin escape as she shattered his shield with a light tap from her axe. “Thunderclap!” A ball of energy erupted from her, throwing him into the wall. She switched the axe to her left hand and lunged at him, before driving her closed fist into his stomach.
His jaw dropped, and his eyes rolled back. When she pulled away, he fell back onto the stack, unconscious.
“Hmph! Not a bad punch…” She told herself as she watched his health bar slowly move to zero. The smile on her face vanished as she watched him with bated breath. “Arya. Is he dead…?”
“Negative. Opponent is unconscious.”
She fell silent.
“New Level attained. 5 Attribute points, 1 skill points, and 1 spell points gained,” said Arya.
“Wait. What?” She looked back at the screen and saw that her level was now 16, with the bar almost at the end. “How? He is still alive.”
“XP can be obtained by defeating opponents. Killing is not mandatory.”
For a moment, she felt elated. “You should have told me that before!” However, that happiness quickly dissipated. “But then again. I won’t get his points.” She paused and thought about it for a moment. “But it doesn’t matter, right? There was no way we were going to surpass rank 1.”
Her eyes drifted to the shiny gauntlets on his hands. She quickly hopped over and snatched them from his hands. She put on the Gauntlets and marveled at their majestic golden glint.
“New weapon obtained. Surya Vajra, gauntlets.”
Base stat: +120 Attack
Sub stat: +15% Bonus Damage
Special ability: Solarflame. Obtain fire damage equal to the level of Navel chakra. +40% for every level.
‘I see. This is how he was able to obtain the fire attacks… another weapon that scales of Navel Chakra. I guess I am just that lucky.’
She put her hands down and quickly examined the area. She spotted the hole she had fallen through and quickly hopped back through it and onto the street. “Arya. How much time has passed since the battle?”
“17 minutes and 22 seconds have passed.”
‘Not a lot.’ There was still plenty of light, though the sun was slowly reaching the horizon. She dashed through the streets, following the yellow path on her screen.
Just as she reached the street that led to the bar, her path was cut off by a human flying through the air. She came to a sudden stop and watched in surprise as Ashwin flew through the wall and past her. Soon after, another young man, wearing a nasty smile on his face, flew after him.
“Come on, man!” He shouted. “Don’t tell me that is all you have got!”
Ashwin landed in a hen’s coup, scaring the few chicks that occupied it. Just as he recovered, his opponent jumped over him with a massive axe in his hand. He relentlessly attacked Ashwin, giving him no time to breathe.
Uruvi jutted in their direction, chasing after the battling duo. ‘Who is he? Is he Sashwat?’
“Affirmative. The opponent is Sashwat. Warning. He is a high-level enemy.”
‘How high are we talking about?’
“His level is 25.”
She saw them crash through the wall of a small hut. ‘Small space. That is not good!’ She rushed towards them and peeked inside.
Sashwat brought his blade up and, in a flash, slashed Ashwin’s chest.
She watched in horror as blood sprayed out of his chest, while he let out a loud grunt.
“Ashwin!” she cried out.