Chương 109: Battling Bane

The initiate's eyes lit up bright blood red when he launched himself right at me and his foot left a massive spiderweb of cracks in the floor. You could tell by the way he moved, how tense his muscles were, and the terrified look in his eyes, that he honestly thought he was fighting for his life right now. I waited until the last possible moment, when his fist was less than an inch from my face, that's when I activated Blink Step.

Everything became blurry for a second when I vanished and I appeared right next to his side. His punch just kept flying through the empty air and smashed right into the wall where I was standing a second ago, and all the defensive formations lit up to absorb the impact. I could actually feel how much raw power he packed into that punch even through the barrier.

I didn't even give him a second to get his balance back and just pushed my energy straight into the Titan's Crest on my left hand and I slammed my fist right into his wide-open left side. The hit landed clean and I felt that really satisfying crunch of my enhanced strength smashing into his flesh and bones. The sheer amount of force sent him rolling all the way across the floor even though he managed to kind of turn it into a controlled roll before he stopped moving.

"Master," Azure pointed out in my head while the disciple dragged himself back to his feet, "the way he controls his runic energy means he has mid-rank 1 Skybound capabilities." I gave a tiny nod while keeping my eyes locked right on the disciple.

"If he has some kind of trump card hidden away, his power will probably spike up to Late Rank 1." I took a quick look over at Elder Molric who was staring at us with that crazy gleam in his eyes.

"And that is when I can turn around and ask the elder for some plants so he gives me the vine." Before I even finished thinking about my plan the Skybound just totally vanished. My eyes narrowed since that meant he obviously had the Blink Step rune too or at least something similar to it. The way the air moved felt a little bit different though which meant he probably had some weird variation of the–"Left!" Azure yelled in my head just in time.

I didn't even stop to think and just spun right into a back kick that smashed into his incoming punch right in the middle of the air. The collision sent vibrations shooting up my leg; he obviously used some kind of strength rune to boost his hit. We bounced off each other, and he slid backwards a few steps, but otherwise, he looked completely fine. He vanished again but this time Azure's warning came from an expected direction.

"Above!" I activated Blink Step immediately and popped out of existence right when his heel smashed into the exact spot I was standing in a second ago. The actual floor caved in from the hit and the defensive formations lit up like festival lanterns trying to hold all that force together. I frowned while trying to figure out what to do.

My Fundamental Rune had barely absorbed any of the red sun's energy so far since I was basically speed-running the whole timeline compared to my last loop, which meant this combat practice was happening way too early. My energy reserves were pathetic, and they couldn't even compare to a real mid-to-late rank Skybound. The initiate wasn't going to give me any time to make a plan. He charged right at me again and this time he turned on what looked like an acceleration rune right on his legs.

I barely dodged the first couple hits of his combo. His fists turned into a blur while he pushed his advantage and forced me to just keep backing up. Whenever I tried to hit him back with my own enhanced punch, he just flowed right around my arm like he was made of water.

"Impact Rune," Azure said right when another one of the Skybound's hits blew a crater into the wall right next to my head.

"It is common for rank 1 practitioners and it turns momentum into an explosive force whenever they hit something." That explained why he was doing so much damage. I really needed to be careful because taking a direct hit from that would cause serious harm to this mortal body. He rushed me again, and this time he fired up some sensory enhancement rune right around his eyes.

If I was remembering that manual right, the pattern was meant to help track high-speed movements, which was bad for me since it meant my Blink Step wouldn't work as well. I pushed energy into the Aegis Mark on my back and the hexagon shield pattern burned to life right in time to eat a vicious combo from him. The barrier didn't break, but I felt my energy drop down to a dangerous level since trading hits like this was costing too much power. Did you know this story is from Royal Road?

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"Your left leg is wide open!" Azure warned me when the kick slid right past my block. I managed to deflect part of it with my arm, but the hit still made me stumble backwards. Before I even had a chance to get my feet under me, the Skybound was already right on top of me with a rune lighting up on his right arm. I didn't recognize this one; the pattern looked like interlinked chains wrapping around his whole forearm.

"Chain Impact Rune," Azure told me.

"It compounds the force of consecutive strikes." That was just absolutely wonderful. An opponent who could hit me even harder was exactly what I needed right now. The fight escalated as the initiate pushed his advantage as far as he could. He Blink Stepped right behind me and I barely turned my head in time to see his Chain-enhanced fist flying right at my face. I jerked my head to the side to dodge it, but he predicted my movement.

By the way his eyes were tracking me his sensory enhancement rune was probably letting him read all my micro-expressions. His knuckles barely even grazed my cheek, but the Impact Rune turned that tiny hit into a massive explosion of kinetic force that violently snapped my head to the side. I immediately tasted blood and my vision went blurry for a second as I stumbled backwards.

"Focus, Master," Azure warned me while I got my footing back with my boots scraping loud against the floor to force myself to stand steady. I spat a giant mouthful of blood right onto the ground and watched it sizzle on the defensive formations.

"I'm just getting warmed up." The Skybound vanished again but this time I was ready for it. Right when he Blink Stepped to my left side, I fired off my own Blink Step and popped into the air right over his head. The Titan's Crest flared up while I slammed my heel down as hard as I could right at his shoulder. He got his arm up just in time to partially block my hit. The impact was so powerful it made a visible shockwave ripple through the open air. Even though he blocked it, he was sent flying across the floor.

My little victory didn't last very long at all. Before my feet even touched the ground, he already recovered and Blink Stepped right underneath me. His Chain-enhanced uppercut smashed me perfectly square right in my ribs. Even though the Aegis Mark ate most of the impact, I definitely felt something crack in my chest, and the ridiculous force launched me straight up toward the ceiling.

I gritted my teeth through all the pain and twisted my body around in the middle of the air so I could kick right off the ceiling, the defensive formations rippled like disturbed water when my foot smashed into them. I borrowed all that force to launch myself straight back down like an arrow slicing right through the air. The initiate's eyes grew wide; he obviously didn't expect me to recover that fast. My Titan's Crest punch caught him right on his jaw and sent him sprawling out on the floor.

We both scrambled back to our feet at the exact same time breathing super heavy. Blood was trickling down from his split lip while my ribs were screaming in pain every single time I took a breath. My Aegis Mark started flickering in a worrying way while it tried to keep the shield up since my energy reserves were dropping to a terrifyingly low level. It was looking like I wasn't going to be able to rely on my Fundamental Rune for much longer.

The Skybound's Chain Rune started pulsing erratically while he prepared to attack me. The linked chain patterns covered his entire arm now which meant he was definitely about to unleash something way more powerful.

"Show Tomas why they call you Bane!" Elder Molric yelled, his voice had too much enthusiasm in it. My eyes widened at that. Bane? That didn't sound good.

"Master, the elder definitely seems to know the initiates he picks to fight you," Azure pointed out.

"These matchups are not as random as they look." Before I could even process how concerning that was, Bane did something that honestly made me think this world was way more dramatic than the cultivation realm, he ripped his robe off and threw it right on the ground while smirking at me.

"That seems a little bit extreme," I mumbled to myself, but then I saw why he did it. There was this enormous rune carved right into his chest, and it was way more complex than all those basic enhancement patterns we were using. Elder Molric's manic smile got even wider.

"Ah yes, the Rune of Arkos!" The grand name matched the design; it was nothing like the ones in the manual. It was full of all these sharp angles and jagged lines that hurt my eyes to look at directly. But as beautiful as it was, the question running through my mind was: what did it do?

"We'll find out soon enough," Azure replied. Right on cue, Bane started screaming. The sound was just pure agony, but he didn't try to stop it while the rune on his chest started pulsing with this gross bloody light. His muscles bulged grotesquely, his bones cracked and reformed, and in a few seconds, he nearly doubled in size, turning into this hulking monster full of rippling muscles and popping veins.

I had plenty of chances to attack him while he was transforming since it wasn't quick or subtle at all, but this was perfect. If I played my cards right, I could get what I needed from the elder right now. I made a big show of looking all around the empty room like I was desperately searching for something.

"Boy, you really should come prepared," the elder laughed while pulling a vine right out of his robes and throwing it to me. I caught it with a smile because I immediately recognized my old friend from the last timeline. The vine curled right around my arm doing that exact same affectionate motion I remembered. I dropped into my ready stance feeling grateful that at least one piece of my crazy plan actually worked out, and now I just had to survive whatever was about to happen next.

"Let us show Bane what we can do," I whispered down to it and felt it tighten up a little bit. The transformed Skybound towered over me now and his giant muscles were glowing with crimson energy while that Rune of Arkos pulsed like a second heart. The transformation changed way more than just his size because his eyes were burning like miniature red suns now, and his skin took on this weird metallic sheen that probably meant his durability was enhanced at a level I hadn't encountered before.

Bane took one massive earth-shaking step forward that cracked the ground right under his feet, and his voice dropped all the way down into an inhuman growl. But it was the aura coming off of him that made me tense, it was Late Rank 1. Elder Molric's delighted cackling echoed all the way through the chamber while he settled down to watch the show.

"This," I mumbled to Azure, "might be what the elder meant when he was talking about accidents."

"Ready?" I whispered down to the vine. The vine answered me by weaving itself right into a familiar combat formation, the tip of it hovered like a serpent getting ready to strike. The real fight was about to begin.