151: A Battle of Wills, Part One

A Battle of Wills, Part One

Neve wasn't given much time to prepare for the fight she was about to have. 

However, as the orc calmly walked forward, warhammer in one hand and a staff in the other, she understood the basics. 

1. She could use any item, armor, or weapon that she wanted. 

2. She could use any spells she wanted, though, naturally, she never bothered learning any from outside her class so her repertoire there would still be limited to the Priestess category. 

And, finally: 

3. Level scalings were removed for the purposes of this battle. That meant that, for example, a weapon that scaled with the Blade skill would do the same damage when wielded by someone with 100 Blade as it would if it were wielded by someone with 1 Blade. 

Knowing this, Neve did her best to come up with a plan quickly. 

The first step felt obvious. 

Neve summoned Erin. 

The lamia appeared in front of Neve. She seemed confused, likely wondering how Neve had managed to get through the Silence effect to summon her. 

"Erin, give me the dragon claws!" Neve yelled out. 

The lamia quickly followed that order, throwing the items at Neve and then pulling out Lia's daggers to use instead. 

[Okay, I have a weapon. Now, we can fight this guy,] Neve thought. [It should be simple enough, even with these new rules. There are two of us and one of him, so we should be able to overwhelm him if we-] 

Erin moved forward instinctively. By now, she and Neve had fought together so many times that she likely understood the plan without needing to be told what it was. 

However, something happened that made Neve's jaw hit the floor. 

The orc moved toward Erin. 

In Neve's eyes, he did so slowly enough to where Erin should have reacted. To Erin, however, it must have happened far more quickly, since she didn't react at all. 

One second, the lamia was moving up. The next, she was having her head exploded by a hammer. 

Neve's heart went cold as she realized: 

[Oh. The status effect doesn't apply to Erin. Shit.]

In other words, Neve was well and truly on her own still. 

[At least I got those claws from her, though. I can fight back.] 

As the orc was just about to reach her, Neve thought about how she was going to approach this. 

[It's my first time using these claws myself, but I've seen Erin use them enough to have a decent idea of how I should fight with them. Plus, I have all the Techniques for this thing memorized too. I should be okay in that regard.] 

She couldn't say she wasn't nervous, but it was strange. 

A part of her almost felt like those earlier fights on this floor had prepared her for this moment. 

[Target his weak points, space correctly, and fight from range when I can. Because these claws are two-handed weapons, if I'm going to use any magic, my Inventory management is going to have to be clean,] she noted. [Okay. Let's do this.] 

Finally, the two spirits clashed in the middle of that void. 

As Neve ran up, feeling strength and speed from her own body that she'd never experienced before, the orc raised his hammer up to bring it down on her head in the same way he had against Erin just now. 

Neve, however, caught that blow with her hands. 

The contact between her claws and his hammer caused the area around them to light up, as though their spirits had just exploded with energy. 

Neve put her palms together, using Dragon's Divine Breath to pour flames out onto the orc, but her opponent simply stepped back and used the staff in his other hand to cast {Barrier}. 

Neve's brows narrowed, watching her flames get stopped completely. 

[... I see.]

Taking advantage of the range he'd just created, an arc of magical spears appeared over his head. 

Neve quickly put her claws away as they shot out at her and brought out her own staff, casting {Barrier} as well.

Like what had happened with her flames, the spears could not make it through. 

[Ah, so it does work like that. The {Barrier} spell's effectiveness is based on your Utility Magic skill, but because level scaling is removed, it's just 100% effective every time, for both of us.] 

"Hm?" The orc tilted his head, perhaps not having expected her to be able to cast such a spell. "Fine. After everything your people have done to me, crushing every bone in your body is the best way to end this anyway." 

Thus, the orc tossed the staff away and another warhammer materialized in its place. 

Neve did not do the same just yet. 

Sensing an opportunity here, she ran forward while casting {Iceball}. 

The speed the other orc possessed made it easy for him to dodge, though Neve did notice that just as she'd cast the spells, her hands adjusted at the last second to account for his movement on their own.

[I guess that's what having 100 Precision is like.] 

Now, having tried and failed to use magic as well, Neve swapped back to her claws just before they clashed again. 

Erin's lessons rang in her skull as she watched the man raise both hammers over his head. Reading the attack, Neve slashed at his legs with her claws, dragging them along his thighs before stepping to the right. 

Her claws barely managed to pierce his skin, though. 

The hammers crashed on the ethereal floor. The ground rippled like it was made of water at the same time as the space flashed once again. 

[The passive effect on these claws, the stacking damage from Techniques, should still work in this space. So, if I can just get four of these off, even without hitting them, I'll have a 100% damage buff.] 

The orc closed the distance again as though he hadn't been scratched at all just now. 

This time, Neve's footing did not allow for movements as agile as the one she'd just done. So, instead, she ducked under a horizontal swing and then leaned back away from a follow-up like Muhammed Ali in his prime. 

The fight, in general, proved to be an experience Neve never had before. She could feel the strength in each of these hammer swings, as her instincts told her that even taking a single hit could prove fatal, but she had the Speed to manage it, and the Endurance to hope that she'd live through one of those hits. 

Now, though, she needed to put her Strength to use. 

The healer moved forward. With the ten-second cooldown on her skills having passed, she wanted to continue stacking that damage buff. 

Her plan was to use Dragon's Divine Bite on one of his legs, continuing to target them in hopes of impairing her opponent, and then back off just in case he retaliated. 

Instead, however, as she ran up, he did something she hadn't seen coming. 

He took one of those hammers and threw it at her. 

Neve found out then and there just how effective 100 Endurance was, as the top of the hammer crashed into her face. 

Neve was in the air for a while, launched back by the hit. 

The ripples in the water-like floor followed Neve all the way up until she stopped, her face pressed against that soft, gel-like ground. 

The orc began speaking from far away, though, to Neve's ears, it sounded like he was right next to her.  2

"A battle of wills... You never stood a chance," he said, as Neve pulled her staff out of her Inventory and healed herself. "Do you know what it is like to experience death? No, of course not. How could you? It is something the average person will only go through once. Me, I've been through it enough times to turn my heart to stone." 

Neve slowly got to her feet. Though the wound on her head had been healed away, the blood it had produced slid down her forehead and fell from her jaw. 

"No... You do not know what it is like to be trapped within the confines of your lost society. You do not know what it is like to have your children taken from you multiple times, powerless to stop it from happening. You do not know what it is like to form a plan to set things right, only for someone from another world to travel all the way to yours just so they can put a stop to those plans. You know nothing about life's cruelty." 

"Nothing?" Neve asked in turn, raising her eyes and meeting his.

The anger she felt when she heard that seared her soul, making her skin feel like it had just been set on fire. 

She gritted her teeth and bit down on the insides of her cheeks. 

She was so furious her hands trembled. 

"I'll show you..." She muttered. "I'll show everything I know about cruelty." 

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