Defiance of the Fall

Instead, the beast seemed to have had enough of the situation and started to slowly back away from the two, careful not to make any hasty movements. Zac knew it was stuck inside the town for now and didn’t mind its actions. The youth warily stepped back a bit as well due to the killing intent, some hesitation finally appearing on his face.

“Are you an unorthodox cultivator? There shouldn’t be any of you in this sector,” he said.

“Unorthodox Cultivator? I don’t even know what that means,” Zac said with a shrug, which seemed to calm down the youth a bit. “Winner gets the beast.”

“…Good!” the pugilist said, and immediately disappeared after.

This time Zac was ready, and after sensing the changes in the surroundings quickly swirled around and swung his axe straight down in a tremendous swing. A grating sound could be heard when the edge of the axe was deflected with the help of one of the bracers on Averageʼs forearm, and immediately after a knee came flying toward Zacʼs gut.

Zac angled his body to avoid the blow, immediately trying to ram his shoulder into the chest of his youth afterward. However, a lightning-quick jab in his jaw stopped him in his tracks, forcing him to back away. With a grunt Zac shook his head, immediately getting back in the thick of it.

Both of them wordlessly agreed to not use any of their skills, as whoever won had to fight the beast afterward. Unfortunately, Zac quickly realized that the situation wasn’t really in his favor. Clearly his enemy had great combat experience, likely having trained in hand-to-hand battles since young.

With an angry glare Zac refused to give up and stubbornly kept going, trying every trick he had learned from his Axe Mastery skill and his countless battles. After having fought a while Zac felt that the two were quite close in at least Dexterity and Strength, though Zac guessed that Average had a closer balance of the two attributes compared to Zac’s 2:1 ratio.

At least Zac had a feeling his Endurance and Vitality were a notch above the teenager’s, as the youth didn’t dare use his body to block Zac’s punches and swings. He wasn’t like the Corpse Lord whose body had turned into a defensive treasure in other words.

Instead, the teenager mostly used deft movements or his magical bracers to avoid taking any direct damage by Zac’s various attacks. Zac himself was continuously hit with powerful punches and kicks, and he knew he’d be black and blue come tomorrow.

Initially, Zac’s goal was to break those bracers so that the kid would be forced to give up, but he soon realized his folly in that plan. The bronze hoops around his forearms were clearly high-grade treasures, likely far better than anything Zac possessed. Even after having intercepted tens of swings from [Verun’s Bite] there wasn’t a single mark on them, though Averageʼs arms were shaking a bit.

Zac’s body was getting beaten like a slab of meat, and he had a feeling he would pass out before Average ran out of steam. The pugilist was like a machine, continuously launching forceful attacks that made Zac wince. The fight had actually lasted less than a minute, but Zac was already starting to feel woozy.

Though the two only used their bodies to fight they caused widespread destruction in the town, pushing through the buildings like two intertwined tornadoes. He knew he needed to do something to change the situation quickly.

Besides, he didn’t want to let the beast roam freely too long. Perhaps it would actually manage to break through the array given enough time. Then he and the brat would truly look like fools.

Zac even started contemplating using [Hatchetman’s Rage] to subdue the kid, but he was afraid that would escalate the situation into a true life and death battle. Normally he wouldn’t shrink away from that, but he felt the situation wasn’t as simple as two people fighting for some treasure.

Average, in spite of his name, seemed to come from a truly powerful faction from the small pieces of information that could be gleaned from what he had said earlier. And they weren’t on earth anymore where tools and other items were a bit limited. Since he could throw out a billion Nexus Coins like nothing he likely had some supreme defensive treasures, so an-all out fight would probably backfire on Zac instead.