Visible Mana started swirling around Myer’s body as he lowered his head and, with reddish-yellow eyes, glared angrily at the child who had just caused him harm.
“You little FUCKING BASTARD, ILL KILL YOU!”
Grey Mana particles swirled violently around Myer, causing Brance to take a cautious step back.
“YOU THINK THAT YOU, A TIER-0 BEING, COULD STAND AGAINST SOMEONE WHO HAS EVOLVED TWICE!”
As Myer spoke, his arms spread out, causing all of the dustlike Grey particles to rotate even faster around his body, forming a tornado-like mirage.
“DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE OF THE SECOND TIER? DO YOU EVEN REALIZE THE SHEER POWER GAP THAT EXISTS BETWEEN YOU AND I?”
Uncertainty and dread started welling up in Brance’s chest as he witnessed a being of the second tier for the first time.
“LET ME SHOW YOU THAT THERE’S SOMETHING BEYOND SIMPLE KILLING INTENT.” Thrusting his left hand forward, the Mana particles followed and another tornado formed around the stunned Brance. Instantly a force even more significant than the three times gravity he had been pressured under fell on him.
-WARNING, THE BEING MYER AVIO HAS TARGETED THE HOST WITH HIS AURA, FORMING A COMPOUND FORCE EQUIVALENT TO FIVE TIMES VINESTRAS GRAVITY! LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!-
Brance couldn’t respond to Tobs’s warning, as his body was assaulted on all sides by a force of 5gs, nearly forcing him to his knees. Fortunately, he had an abnormally high STR Stat for a Tier-0, so he was able to slowly right himself with a tremendous amount of effort instead of being pushed to the ground.
Letting out ragged, sharp breaths, Brance’s face contorted in anger and effort as he stood defiantly against the pressure of the combined Aura and Killing Intent.
“Only 5gs, (huff), this is nothing, (huff), I’ve been submitted (huff), to 10gs, so what if you’ve got some new tricks, (huff).” Feeling every bone in his body creak under strain, Brance firmly lifted his shield and rested his blade on its crown.
Brance kicked off the ground with an angry roar while activating, Bless, Haste, and Earth Skin simultaneously. The sudden boosts minutely reduced the pressure on his body as his STR temporarily broke through the 100 point cap.
The sudden forward burst ruptured the muscles in both his calves, but he didn’t feel it due to the effects of adrenaline. This was an actual life-or-death battle. He had to stall Myer as long as possible, unlike the previous fights, where Cynrik handled all of the DPS.
Myer jaw dropped open slightly as he saw the small boy again charging him with his shield raised, but he wasn’t frozen in place; instead, he waved both his hands, drawing all the swirling Grey particles to his arms, creating mirage-like armor to appear over his sleeves. These Mana-Arms were nearly three times as large as his normal ones.
“Plague Construct – First Stage.” Myer’s voice echoed in the cellway as the Mana-Arms seemed to solidify into a ghastly skinlike form, resembling gorilla arms, and he dashed forward to meet the young boy head-to-head.
Myer swiftly reacted to the boy’s head-on charge and punched out with a tornado of Grey Mana particles.
Brance’s eyes followed the fist, and he quickly planted his right foot and pushed out his shield while turning his upper body, deflecting the first punch into the wall.
BOOM!!
When the fist came in contact with the wall, it created a small explosion, sending dust and debris in every direction, but this didn’t stop Myer’s assault, as he angrily ripped his arm, which was embedded to his elbow, out of the wall, and whipped around delivering a back fist at the small child.
With Haste still active, Brance leaned back, narrowly avoiding this attack, but when he did, Myer responded by twisting and lashing out with another attack of his own.
Knowing he was at a disadvantage in his current placement, Brance threw himself backward and somersaulted to avoid the second attack.
Panting heavily, Brance jumped back to his feet and put a few feet distance between Myer and himself, but it was no use. Myer kicked off the wall, pulled his arm back, and executed a superman punch, to which Brance threw himself to the left and watched as the man’s Mana-clad fist collided with the ground and, like when he hit the wall previously, cracked the floor, shooting up chunks of concrete and dust everywhere.
“STAY FUCKING STILL!”
“YEAH, RIGHT!” Brance and Myer traded blow after blow, with Myer barely missing every attack as Brance accurately calculated the trajectory of each oncoming attack and got out of the way or deflected it with his shield.
“THAT’S IT!!!” having enough of this game of cat and mouse, Myer once again unleashed his Killing Intent and Aura, momentarily paralyzing Brance, but this was all he needed. Seeing the boy stop in place for less than a second gave him the opening he had been waiting for.
Gripping his left fist with his right hand, Myer unleased a powerful hammer strike directly onto Brance’s shield, causing sparks to fly in every direction and making the ground under Brance’s feet shatter, creating a small crater underneath him.
BOOOOM!!!!!!!!
-You have received 400 Damage.-
-Current HP 232/960-
-Warning you have sustained multiple internal injuries-
-Warning the bones in your left leg are close to completely fragmenting. –
-Warning the bones in your right leg have all shattered and sustained severe injury.-
-Warning both your arms have broken in multiple places-
Brance stood rooted in place, with his shield above his head and his head looking at the ground. His vision was too blurry to read the never-ending chain of notifications appearing in front of his face, and if it weren’t for Tobs, audibly reading them aloud, he wouldn’t even know where he was hurt. With his head drooping, blood began leaking from his mouth and nose and started to pool in the newly formed crater he was standing in.
A smile crept onto Myer’s mouth as he spotted the blood flowing onto the shattered floor, and he swiftly followed up with a vicious kick to Brances chest, causing a loud crack to sound in the cellway.
Brance didn’t have the strength left to defend this attack fully and was barely able to drop his shield enough to cover his torso before contact was made, and he was sent flying across the hall in the direction of his brother.
-You have received 100 damage-
-Current HP 132/960-
-WARNING YOUR HP HAS FALLEN BELOW 15%-
“HAHAHA, SEE, I TOLD YOU, YOU ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME. JUST A FUCKING CHILD TRYING TO PLAY ADULT!” Myer cackled uncontrollably as he watched the child soar through the air dozens of feet before bouncing off the ground and sliding to a stop.
Further down the hall, Cynrik watched in horror as his little brother was mercilessly beaten to a pulp by the Tier-2 Demi-human. He hadn’t said a word to him since the battle began because he didn’t want to cause any unnecessary distractions. So instead, Cynrik split his focus between charging his swords and watching the fight progressing down the hall.
Initially, he had believed it would only take 30 seconds to charge his ISS and SunFlare fully, but to his dismay, it was taking much longer, and all he could do was watch helplessly as his brother was juking left and right, narrowly avoiding the Mana filled punches being thrown at him.
His world came to a screeching halt when Brance received the hammer strike on his shield and was then kicked not far away from where he was standing. Cyrnik eyes flickered from where Brance had dropped his shield and sword to the bleeding motionless body less than 10 feet away from him.
Unconsciously his teeth began to chatter rapidly as his rage spilled over. Brance had done what he asked, and now he was unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears; both of his legs were mangled at strange angles, and if it weren’t for Cynriks sharp vision catching the slow rise and fall of his chest signifying Brance was still breathing, he would have thought his little brother was dead.
“Tobs….Play Swordland” through gritted teeth and with a demonic voice, Cynrik spoke softly to his system.
-Now playing “Swordland” By Yuki Kajirua-
Smiling sadistically, Cynrik exhaled slowly as the familiar song rang out in the mind link. The synthetic orchestra’s emotional music slowly started playing in his head, causing the hair on the back of his neck and arms to rise.
His vision tinted red from the pure rage welling within his body as Cynrik took a step forward, then another, and after the third, he was full-on sprinting at Myer. Then, gritting his teeth so hard that he tasted blood, Cynriks arms drifted to his sides, and he pointed the two glowing blades backward.
He accelerated to his top speed with narrowed eyes full of hatred and rage and forcefully finished his Mana Charge on ISS and SunFlare.
Sensing a large congregation of Mana rapidly approaching, Myer’s pupils constricted, and he instantly jumped back several steps.
But Cynrik was having none of that, dropping his Shadow Veil and seemingly appearing out of thin air; he flung both his swords up and against each other, forming a + sign on the right side of his body, before kicking off the ground and flinging himself into the air.
“YEAH, RIGHT, MOTHER FUCKER, YOU CAN GO THE FUCK RIGHT TO HELL FOR HURTING MY LITTLE BROTHER!”
“BLóðRAUðR BANAMAðR: FYRSTR FORM – SUN CYCLONE!”