Blacksmith vs. the System-Chapter 213

Needing a second, I slammed my foot on the ground, using Avalanche Hammer’s quake effect on the ground, shattering it. My enemy pulled back, expecting a bigger attack, and it gave me a chance to put some distance.

I immediately followed up with a chain of full-strength ranged attacks, alternating between pure decay and Radiant Flame. He countered with his blade … but at the cost of its edge growing a line of rust.

“Coward,” he growled as he closed the distance once again, faster and stronger, but his wariness was getting more intense as well. Soon, I noticed some particular signs of exhaustion, one that I only experienced when I was playing with Meditation.

“So, how did you reinforce your soul for ascension? Because it doesn’t look like you can hold on for long,” I said, his reaction enough to confirm my guess.

Ascension had something to do with ‘soul’, and activating it somewhat. The fight was turning out to be surprisingly informative.

Too bad it didn’t go on for much longer. The mounted army, who had been attacking the town with perfect coherency, suddenly stopped, like a drunk man pausing in confusion. “Lieutenant Marcus,” several soldiers shouted.

“Lieutenant George — Mark,” the other shouts mixed in.

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“What’s going on!” my opponent gasped, only to look back and see all three of his commanders off their mount, turned into porcupines with arrows. And, while they panicked, a second wave landed among them, ending the lives of their mages.

I smirked at Rosie’s success. She had leveraged the chaos created by our artillery perfectly.

“That’s how this battle works. You fight, and you die,” I said, trying to attack, but he pulled back to rejoin the army. A smart move, considering his army was panicking after losing their supernatural command and their mages at the same time.

“Do you think it’s that easy,” I said as I followed him. He was faster than me, but not enough to ditch me immediately. I chased him, using alternating attacks of decay and Radiant Flame to harass him, damaging his armor.

It was far slower than I would have liked, but any damage his armor took was something that couldn’t be fixed easily, especially with their mages already slain.

“Gather, to me,” he shouted as the rest of the mounted force gathered around him, and they started retreating, decaying shells covering their path. The Radiant Flame shrapnels had long run out, but with the rot already taking hold, decay worked wonders to expand the damage.

I chased them with constant ranged attacks to shatter the magical shield that they had built, holding the attention on me while Rosie and the rest continued to snipe stragglers with their arrows. Their losses were light, but considering we took down their entire command structure, excluding their leader, it was quite effective.

“Really, you’re running away from a mere Blacksmith, coward!” I shouted at them, hoping that it would make him angry enough to push him into mistakes when he next arrived.

To my surprise, he turned back to rush toward me, while the rest of his army continued to retreat. I didn’t need Wisdom to see the intensity of his anger, his purple face was indicator enough.

That surprised me … but maybe it shouldn’t have. Observing him earlier, I had ascertained that ascension had something to do with soul strength, and actively used it. The same strength was used to resist the System’s cultural influence, and in his exhausted state, he must have been particularly affected.

Even as I ended up dueling with him once again, I couldn’t help but be amused at the irony. The social structure enforced by the System had been the source of one of my biggest failures, in the rebellion of the guards, but it also turned into an advantage here.

Facing an elite ascended warrior was not easy, but I grit my teeth, pushing more and more mana to my weapon as I attacked him, decay slowly ruining his armor. Soon, he started bleeding.

Once the armor was suitably damaged, I switched to my next advantage. From my idle hand, I started pushing decay mana almost endlessly, turning the area into a cloud that consistently ate through his armor and sword simultaneously.

He might be better than me in a fair duel, but the unfair one was strictly to my advantage. I continued to attack his armor, confident that I would be the victor.

Unfortunately, it was obvious for him as well. “You’ll pay for today’s disrespect, blacksmith,” he growled, the last word carrying the tone of an insult as he retreated.

At this point, it was obvious that I couldn’t take him down any time soon. Rosie wasn’t with me, which I didn’t blame her for. Despite all her advantages, collaborating in a fight was not a challenge we were ready to take on. Without the assistance from Charisma, we would just get in each other’s way.

I went back to the town, the cheers of celebration not making me as happy. I stayed at the walls while Harold and Liam reorganized the town.

I stayed there for fifteen minutes, until Rosie arrived. “What’s the situation?” I asked.

“They retreated completely,” she said.

“Really? After that little loss?”

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“It’s the equipment damage that forced them to retreat,” Rosie replied. “They are smart enough to realize they can’t repeat the same without a solution for your newest cannon trick.”

“And, how much time do you think we earned?”

“Three days? A week?” she guessed. “Certainly no longer than ten days, but it’ll depend on whether their legion wants to push, or if they’ll ask assistance from Vessalia. Anything from your end?”

“More than I expected,” I said.

“Yeah. I have watched your fight. I knew you were good, but I didn’t expect you to fight in even terms with an ascended warrior,” she added, then frowned. “That’s troubling.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It means my judgment in assessing your skills is faulty, and that can force us into a truly deadly situation. We can’t afford it.”

If the situation was any less serious, it would have been an excellent prank. “No, your judgment is not faulty,” I admitted. “It’s just that I'm stronger than I was two days ago. Considerably stronger.”

“You once again manage to surprise me, professor,” she said with a teasing smile. “I’m not used to it.”

“Well, then you’ll be positively swimming in joy when I tell you the secrets I weaseled out of my opponent,” I replied.

“Really? Like what?”

“Not now,” I replied. “I much rather discuss this in the dungeon, where curious ears cannot listen” I replied. “Let’s make sure there’s no immediate second attack before leaving.”

“Ten minutes?” she asked.

“That should be enough to keep everything ready,” I said and moved to meet with Harold once again.

Things needed to be ready for a follow-up attack.