Chương 145: Chapter 150: One Strike

I stared at the grey fuck in front of me.

"I can't," I told him simply.

"This is the maximum I can retract it." He looked at me as if to judge if I was bullshitting him or not, but after a couple of seconds he nodded, like he believed me. Did those bastards have truth-sensing skills?

"How your species can be inept enough not to be able to contain your own aura is beyond me, human, but you are forbidden from entry. Now return back from where you came."

"I am not in violation of any rule regarding my conduct in the safe zone, I can release my aura as much as I want, these are the rules you are under as well," I told him, I had to read a fuckton about the rules and regulations of the tutorial and there was nothing of the sort.

"These are the rules of my people, not of the safe zone, now scram." He took his hand away from the halberd he carried for a second just to wave me away, then put it back on the weapon, which in the meantime stood by itself. What the fuck was that? Is this little shit trying to create trouble just for the sake of taking a beating? I could tell he was strong, stronger than any of the guards I met until now, that was for sure, but I surpassed him in stats, and not by a little.

I could make his life hell if I started slinging curses around. I took another breath, trying to calm the rage that was mounting inside me, my heart was starting to beat faster, I felt a spike of adrenaline in preparation for conflict. But I tried to talk my way around this one, because again, it wouldn't be smart to create trouble, and I didn't want to fall for this stupid provocation.

Clearly every guard that met me had been instructed to make my life difficult after what happened yesterday, this guy avoiding saying my name was telling already, usually these people called me "human Elias" and I didn't believe for a second that he didn't know who I was.

"I care nothing for your customs, or your people, or you," I told him.

"I'm not infringing on any law, and I'm not going to get stopped by you, so go back to your patrolling, guard. And do your job properly next time." He bristled at my words, his grip grew taut, his rocky face went from dismissive to disbelieving to angry real quick.

"If you trespass, I'll end you," he said in a dangerous tone. That surprised me for real. There would be real consequences if he did so, not only for him, but for his superior as well, and his organization. In this case the Lugan Company, they already failed greatly with this safe zone, if he went on and attacked me unprovoked, they would lose much.

"You know the consequences for attacking a Tutorialist guard. You don't want this. Your chief won't be pleased."

"My chief would be displeased if I attacked anyone else, but you, well, you're a different case," he said with a smirk. So that was it, they decided to remove me from the equation, and sent a goon to do the dirty job.

"What are they willing to give you? Surely it can't beat having your class sundered and your skills removed," I told him, because that was the punishment for this infraction, the System was serious about not fucking with the Tutorialists, at least directly.

"It can't be that much, otherwise Bikrmorr would do it himself." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"My freedom," he said. I paused at that, I could understand him, I was looking to be free too, and if I had to scrap my class and skills for that, I would take that deal too. But that didn't mean that it was my problem, I would slay a thousand of these bastards if needed.

"Your freedom would begin with your death if you try to attack me." He looked at me intensely, probably gauging my words, he nodded again, then took a step forward, holding his halberd with both hands and entering a stance.

"So be it, at last I will have freedom, in one way, or the other." Fuck, this guy was for real. Was he really willing to take this risk? I entered a high state of awareness, my body was primed for fighting, my perception was accelerated greatly and I let my aura expand, flooding my eyes as I looked at the alien in front of me. There was a big problem though, I would have to take the first strike.

The laws were clear, the first to strike would determine who was in the wrong or in the right in this conflict, and I couldn't afford to strike first, that would give Bikrmorr carte blanche with me, and I didn't want to imagine what would happen in that case, death would be the best outcome probably.

I saw him moving slowly, his aura flared up, then a slew of mana of different colors flitted about his body, entering his weapon, flooding his feet and the ground, focusing on his eyes, and generally enhancing his whole being, those were a lot of skills used in a moment, and the mana I could perceive from their activation was immense.

But I wouldn't leave myself defenseless against his strike, nothing prevented me from defending myself, I took stock of my abilities and what I could do to mitigate the damage, my greatest defensive tool was out of commission, my Aural Manifestation wasn't going to save me, I couldn't control it and even if I activated it it wouldn't focus and harden enough to block the strike, it would help probably but not that much, and if I activated it I would destroy the eggs still on my back.

Not that I wouldn't sacrifice those to save my life, but I was confident in defending myself against a single strike. When he moved, he did it with a speed that was ludicrous, he seemed to be able to move nearly normally to my senses, while I was nearly a turtle by comparison. I realized soon that I wouldn't be able to dodge at all, hell, I wouldn't be able to even block properly in time.

I started to raise my hands as he approached, a look of deep focus on his stony face, I managed only to raise my hands over my head as the unnamed guard's halberd lit up with a yellow light and descended toward my head.

I was accelerating my perception as much as I could, burning mana at a prodigious rate, using Reinforced Infusion on the skill to squeeze out a bit more, then I shaped all the aura I could manage and focused it into the approximate shape of a lance, took a great chunk of life-force from the ring and as much mana as I could, funneling it all into the strongest Entropic Lance I had ever made to date, reinforcing that too before it exploded in my face.

The lance appeared in my hands just a moment before the halberd cleaved my head in half. I braced, activating the boots and angling the lance to parry the guard's weapon away from me.

When the impact arrived my grip faltered, the weapon impacted my lance, sliding on it, but still too fast and strong for me to avoid the blow, I just managed to deflect it slightly to my left, I tilted my head as much as I could, tearing my muscles from the effort, the halberd avoided striking me in the head, but now I could see it clearly as it went for my clavicle. I stopped trying to reinforce the lance and instead pushed all my energy into reinforcing the particular spot that the blade was going to strike.

I looked in morbid fascination as the weapon cut through my skin, then my bone, only to get stopped by my flesh after cutting four inches down. I could feel everything, the skill that accelerated my thoughts seemed to do the same to the stimuli too, I felt the blade cut into my skin, cleave the bone, and damage my lung too. I felt it all, the adrenaline helped, but I still wanted to scream. Instead I grinned at the surprised face of the ugly bastard in front of me. My turn.