Suddenly in his own body again, Arthur’s breath caught. He knew that despite the time he spent in the void, practically no time had passed in reality. Despite the life or death battle he was in, he brought up the screen showing his True Heart of Devotion and it’s effects.
[True Heart of Devotion]: You have died for someone you do not know. This has happened countless times over the history of the Macrocosm, but only a relative handful did so selflessly, without knowledge that they would return. You have a true heart of devotion.
[True Heart of Devotion] is a passive effect and a rare condition that will evolve as you grow. Added conditions will acclimate to your class and preferences.
1 - It’s the nature of your [True Heart of Devotion] to safeguard others. +80% DEF. +80% VIT. Cooldown reduction for abilities tailored for support.
2 - Your [True Heart of Devotion] galvanizes the souls of those around you. All party members gain a 50% boost to STR, DEX and INT. All party members gain enhanced base mana and stamina. Enhanced base damage granted to allies within your party.
3 - Neither you nor your [True Heart of Devotion] will falter when between an enemy and an ally. +40% natural HP regeneration when in a party. +45% natural HP regeneration to allies within your party. Enhanced damage reduction when in a party.
- [Audacity Tempering]: Expend 10 stacks of [Audacity] to grant a burst of healing over time to yourself and all allies in your party. Expend 20 stacks of [Audacity] to grant yourself or your allies significantly enhanced damage reduction and base damage. 15 minute uptime, expend additional [Audacity] with mounting cost for longer uptime.
Without even checking his current amount of Audacity stacks, he knew that he’d spent a huge chunk of them simply to unlock this ability. He had already been using them liberally during the fight with the Bull, but now they’d taken a noticeable hit.
[Audacity] Stacks: 72
When the battle had begun, he’d possessed around 130 stacks. During that battle, he’d spent stacks sporadically, but usually for retaliatory damage through You and Me. Desperate to gain any amount of damage he could, it’d been the best option at the time. He’d spent some stacks through Not Today as well, but nothing he did should’ve left it this low.
50 stacks. He’d spent at least 50 stacks simply to unlock this ability. He’d never encountered such an extreme expenditure before, and the ability itself was asking him to spend more to activate it.
Lost in awe at the situation, he failed to notice the Bull’s approach. Ducking in the last moment, the Bull threw a punch over Arthur’s head to splinter the tree above him. The massive hole left by the Bull’s swing had traces of embers left on it, which quickly grew as the human scrambled to his feet. The fire that’d come from the Bull’s previous attacks had caught on the grove fully by now, patches of shrubbery alight with flame that spread quickly through the green covering the forest floor.
The Bull pursued Arthur as he struggled to get his bearings. His out of body experience had disoriented him more than he’d thought, and he fought against the dizziness while raising his sword. He and the Bull clashed again, sloppy sword swings meeting steady and practiced jabs from fists the size of his armored helm. Never before had Arthur felt the difference between himself and a trained opponent more than now, not even during his battle with the Threshen Warrior. During that fight, his stats had overwhelmed his enemy, compensating for the difference between their levels of skill. Now, the roles of that battle seemed to have been reversed, with Arthur facing someone vastly stronger and more skilled, and therefore forced to compensate with his greater speed.
Skill
[Ceaseless Wrath]
Activated
Stats:
STR: (757 ? 808)
VIT: (400 ? 427)
DEF: (127 ? 136)
DEX: (127 ? 136)
Outspeeding an opponent who was simply better than you could only do so much for so long. Even the most skilled speedsters would need measures for when they were inevitably cornered, and Arthur had none. A smooth feint from the Bull tricked Arthur into defending high when he was struck with a Crushing Slam enhanced uppercut to his chest. The armor, already crumpled in from the previous attack, caved in further as he was lifted from his feet, the breath knocked out of him. The Bull grabbed his leg midair, slamming him on the ground before throwing him like a frisbee.
Swinging end over end like a boomerang, he once again crashed into a tree. Before he could so much as fall to the ground, the Bull capitalized by slamming into him with his Headlong Charge skill. A fireball streaked with darkness blasted through the tree with Arthur impaled at the end, leaving a trail of flame behind that added to the already building forest fire. At the end of their travel, the Bull bucked Arthur into the air… and cocked a fist back.
Skill
[Crushing Slam]
Activated
Skill
[Retaliation]
Activated
Skill
[Wrath Strike]
Activated
His fist began to glow and shimmer with the activation of his attacking skills. His strength was higher than ever, reaching over 800. The force application of his strength stat was multiplied by several skills, and his skills had greater potency each time his Ceaseless Wrath skill activated. This would be the most powerful strike he’d delivered during this entire confrontation.
Falling into range of the Bull’s strike after being thrown into the air, Arthur grit his teeth. Foul, dark blood flowed freely from his impaled gut, splashing onto the flaming ground and the Bull both. His armor was more damaged than he’d ever seen.
He knew he no longer had any choice. He was extremely low on Audacity stacks, but now was not the time to be stingy, lest it cost his life. He activated the Tempered version of his True Heart of Devotion… and felt the stacks drain away.
[Audacity] stacks: 72 ? 42
Instantly, he felt a flood of healing consume him. He felt stronger, as though his bones hardened and muscles expanded in a matter of milliseconds. The Bull finally swung a fist shimmering and burning with the activation of all his skills… which Arthur met with a downward swing using both arms.
Another explosion rang out, though much less powerful than the previous. Fire burst all around, catching once again on the quickly burning vista. Arthur and the Bull were both forced back, with Arthur falling into a bubbling stream that’d been nearby. His gauntlets now had a huge crack from the force of the Bull’s attack, but the Aged Blade once again showed no signs of damage that wasn’t already there.
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Arthur struggled out of the water, the many holes and cracks in his armor allowing water to drench his body. He heaved for breath, as his breathing had become easier after activating his new Temper. The hole in his body was now healing much faster than before, and his body still felt stronger than before. He got back onto his feet, his body and armor wet, cracked and damaged. He faced the Bull, blade held forward.
What was this human?
The Bull had gotten up after their clash of blade and fist. He’d thought he was relatively undamaged, but then looked down to see what was left of his arm. It’d been split down the middle, almost totally in half by a sword that looked half rusted. Fresh blood flowed freely from the wound… but why was the human’s blood so foul? He wasn’t an undead as far as the Bull could tell. Yet his blood smelled old and rancid, like it’d gone bad. Looking down at his fur, he could tell it also looked old. A mystery, but the least of his concerns.
The human was, as his details said, an Audacity Knight. That should mean that he was a basic Knight class of the Audacity variant, a powerful and feared type that always grow to become monsters. How they became so strong, no one particularly knew, but it was a known fact that if one were to face an Audacity class user, there were only two options; either kill them quickly to prevent their growth, or run if they were already matured. As the one in front of him was only in his 30s of levels, then the Bull had opted for the former, understanding that leaving him alive would likely lead to his own death down the line. The Bull may not have been smart, but such things were elementary to the war-torn.
The issue was that Knights were not supposed to have healing skills. The branch of Templar Knights occasionally had some variant of healing, but never the basic Knight. Had the Audacity variant allowed him to appropriate healing skills from the Templar Knight variants? It was the only possibility he saw.
And what was that light coming out of him? The Bull had previously thought it to be some kind of stat equalizing skill, as a normal stat boosting skill shouldn’t have given the human enough stats to rival the Bull’s. But it’d gotten stronger somehow earlier, with the light becoming more intense. It was a possibility that it’d adapted to his own Ceaseless Wrath enhancing him, but it was unlikely as stat equalizers didn’t usually work that way. Stat equalizing skills would make one’s own stats an at least near equal to whatever opponent they were facing, with the caveat that it would only take their base stats into account. It was a serious weakness, as many of the mid tier and higher of the Macrocosm had stat enhancing factors of some kind, making their normally middling stats into very high ones.
Whatever this human had, however, not only gave him stats equaling his own, but even surpassing them in some areas. His dexterity was clearly higher by orders of magnitude, and had been since the beginning of the fight. A difference that had only gotten bigger when he’d gotten stronger earlier, which only put further paid to his theory of it being a stat equalizer.
It wasn’t like there weren’t other possibilities; it was just that they were all less plausible. It could be the Heart of Devotion title, but he’d never heard of it giving people visible auras for its buff. Not only that, but it’s boost for a normal person would be fairly weak, on average only giving about a 1.2 times multiplication to one’s stats. Sure it’d be stronger dependent on the user’s synchronization level with the title, but it was extremely unlikely that a single human would not only gain that ability in its full power and an Audacity class when the System had only just arrived in this reality. He also knew that the highest possible boost had been recorded at 1.5 times, which would not be enough for a level 34 to match him, even as an Audacity class.
The Bull decided that none of these musings mattered; he could examine the situation once the human was dead. For now, his health had dropped considerably. The vitality boost from Ceaseless Wrath would only go so far and keep him alive against superficial hits. Ever since the human regained his blade, however, that boundary was being breached, especially with his last strike. He needed to kill the human now, before he could deal lasting damage to him.
Arthur and the Bull assessed each other anew. The Bull had taken a savage laceration from the Aged Blade during their last clash, leaving his arm a mangled mess. Arthur, while getting out of it easier thanks to his new Temper, also didn’t escape unscathed. His arms were sore, and the gauntlets covering them had severe cracks. He didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if he didn’t have his armor.
His helm had been damaged, too. He hadn’t realized it earlier due to all the stimuli he was currently experiencing, but an entire piece of the side had broken off, with even parts of the visor falling away. Muck colored brown hair spilled out, wet and sticking to his face and what was left of his helm.
Most of the area they were in was on fire by now; flames licking Arthur’s greaves and the Tuskborne’s fur. Neither felt hot, as one owned equipment essentially granting immunity and the other had armor protecting them from environmental effects, as banged up as it was. Bits of flame fell from above as leaves caught the fire that climbed up the tree trunks. Fiery branches falling onto the brook Arthur had climbed from, staying lit for longer than natural flames should’ve.
Arthur was the first to make a move this time. He ran forwards, intent on using his new Temper to take the advantage. The Bull let him come, keeping his intact arm up and between the two. Using his superior speed to his advantage, he darted to the Bull’s bad side and swung a horizontal slash with everything he had. The Bull saw this coming and was ready to rotate his entire body to block the incoming attack-
The blade met the Tuskborne’s fur… then arm, then bone as it bit deeper than ever before. The blade made a sound like a metallic explosion as the Bull roared in pain, attempting to retreat. Arthur pursued relentlessly, not letting up now that he finally had the advantage. He swung again, an upward slash as the Bull scrambled back, surprised at the sudden danger. It cut into his leg, once again hitting the bone as he fell back. He attempted to retaliate, shooting forward on his heavily favored undamaged leg. He slammed a mutilated, fiery fist into the human’s gut, striking the already damaged spot and doubling him over. He swung a cross with his good arm, only to be shocked when the knight headbutted the attack with the side of his helm that was still holding strong.
[Audacity] stacks: 42 ? 41
[Not Today]: Expend a stack of [Audacity] to conjure a shield around an ally. Allies under the effects of [Not Today] have increased stamina regeneration and mana regeneration. Upon taking damage, the damage is absorbed, and the buff expires.
[True Heart of Devotion] Applicable.
[Ironclad Will]: You are much harder to move, topple or stagger against your will. Physics still applies to the terrain. Can be broken by an enemy higher level than you. If [Champion’s Mantle] is active, grants a diluted version of this skill to allies within area of influence.
The Bull’s fist crunched and folded against the knight’s helm, causing him to roar even more. Refusing to give up, the Bull swung his own head much like Arthur had, hoping to strike him with a horn. Being too fast for him to catch, Arthur quickly moved to the side and swung his sword again. Desperate, the Bull caught the knight’s blade with his already destroyed arm, practically having it cut off entirely. Blood flowed everywhere, but the blade was stuck in his bone. Taking advantage of the situation, the Bull swung his head again, this time connecting with the human who refused to let go of his sword.
He swung his head over and over, an awkward battery taking place as the human had no choice but to take the attacks or lose his blade again. He was hit by Crushing Slam, Retaliation and Wrath Strike as the Bull tried everything to get him to let go, but he simply wouldn’t. After a while of taking a beating from his enemy’s head, he finally pulled the blade free and stumbled back, barely staying on his feet.
The Bull was too angry and in too much pain to think clearly, but if he was, he would’ve wondered why the human seemed to have taken so much less damage than he would’ve before. As it was, he simply trudged towards the human as fast as he could, though it was painfully slow. Something felt… off. He needed to kill the human. Now.
Arthur looked up at the Bull… and activated his Temper.
[Audacity] Stacks: 41 ? 31
[Audacity Tempering]: Expend 10 stacks of [Audacity] to grant a burst of healing over time to yourself and all allies in your party.
The burst of healing over time was short, and not particularly powerful. It did stack with the normal regeneration of the True Heart of Devotion, however, making it a strong healing effect.
The Bull stopped as he watched all of his efforts disappear like a morning fog. He watched the knight’s healing skill activate, much faster than the Bull thought he could, as the wounds the Tuskborne had painstakingly inflicted on the human patch up like nothing happened. All this… but his wounds would go nowhere. He had no healing skills, and the healers he’d brought were back fighting the survivors. He realized that no matter what he did, the human could keep healing himself until the he himself succumbed. The Bull’s will finally broke.
The Bull turned and began to run. Arthur, unsure of how to stop him, used a skill that hadn’t worked yet.
[Audacity] Stacks: 31 ? 30
[Challenging Moxie]: Expend a stack of [Audacity] to inflict [Enraged] on all enemies within 10 meters of you. Gain a stack of [Audacity] for every enemy inflicted with [Enraged].
[Audacity] Stacks: 30 ? 31
The Bull stopped in his tracks, like a speeding train screeching to a halt. He slowly turned, his eyes glowing with the vicious red of hatred. He roared with a moo-ing lilt as he ran straight back towards Arthur.
Arthur ran forward for one final clash. He pointed his sword at his side, ready to stab forward when it was time. He spent another bundle of Audacity.
[Audacity] Stacks: 31 ? 27
Skill
[Coordination]
Activated
Skill
[Intricacies of Engagement]
Activated
Arthur and the Bull collided, and the Aged Blade burst out from the Bull’s back. He and the Bull crashed into a tree, pinning the Bull to its inflamed trunk. Before the Bull could continue struggling, Arthur reached up and grabbed the Bull’s horns with both arms, and twisted.
After a long time wrestling against each other, Arthur finally won out. The Bull was severely weakened, pinned to a tree by a sword, and the Enraged combination was finally in effect. The result of their struggle after he’d been run through was a foregone conclusion; the Bull’s head twisting so far that it was practically facing backward.
Arthur fell onto his backside after gaining the notification. He swallowed, breathing heavily, then raggedly, as he looked over the Bull’s body. It was a mangled mess, and as it was no longer living, its fur as well began to catch on fire.
Arthur knew that he’d practically had no choice. He knew that he’d saved many lives, and had done the right thing by stopping the person in front of him the only way he could. He knew that he would’ve done the same in a heartbeat if given the chance, and with no regrets. He’d won; he killed the invader and everyone the Bull would’ve threatened was safe.
Arthur put his face in his hands as he wept softly, the forest continuing to burn all around him.