Chapter 029

"So, you coward! Is this the place you decided to die?" asked Heldium looking boisterously at the supposed coward he had followed from the show.

Alvin stood opposite to him quietly. He had many plans to lure this idiot over, but he didn't expect it to be so easy. He swaggered out of the show in plain sight, fully expecting him Heldium to get someone to tail him, and come for him at a later time. But this smart guy decided to tail by himself. And a person who exceeded 2 meters was not subtle in any way. He was as obvious as a lamp in the dark. Alvin had eyes on him for literally every moment as he was tailed, all while watching his pathetic attempts to hide and blend in.

"Haha! You coward! You can't speak now is it?" laughed the brute opposite to him.

Alvin just stared back at him silently. As a pre-digestion towards the Provoker potion, Alvin had already been taking psychology courses in provoking. For such a boisterous person who lived to run his mouth, the silence was the ultimate provocation.

"You bastard! I will rip off your tongue" yelled Heldium as he drew his weapon and charged.

Alvin also unsheathed the Sword of Culling. He had relative mastery of the sword after using the Sword of Dominance for the past few months. Coupled with the extra mastery provided by the sword, and the boost to his constitution compounded with Hunter's increase in fitness, Alvin was able to match each of the strikes by Heldium.

"Yaaargh" he yelled as he swung he cleaved his sword.

Alvin was still heavily disadvantaged in pure strength, so he couldn't take the attack head on. But the Hunter potion was biased towards a boost in agility, hence he was able the dodge the cleave. Alvin then swung his fist towards his face.

Heldium lowered his head, allowing the fist to connect with the leather cap on his head. He managed to shrug off the attack due to it being dampened by his leather cap, but as soon as the first connected, a jolt of confusion travelled through Alvin's body. This was due to a mystical item that elicited rouge emotions in the wearer and those who touched it. The negative effects could be ignored by a Weapons Master, but was quite harsh on Alvin. Heldium connected his shoulder with the chest of Alvin, who barely managed to get his arms crossed just in time. He managed to defend himself, but got flung back. When Alvin was still reeling from the negative effect, Heldium charged forward to get some blows in.

But Alvin deftly dodged this hack and kicked him between the legs. He had already known about the mystical item during his preparation, and wore the headband that reduces the influence on the mind beforehand. He pretended to be affected so he could get this strong blow in for an upcoming combo!

As Heldium wailed in agony at the intimate contact between Alvin's foot and his balls. As he was reeling clutching his balls, Alvin rammed his shoulder into his chest, and kicked his shins several times.

Heldium quickly recovered from pain though, and continued to strike heavy blows towards Alvin. Alvin maintained his dodging, blocking, and occasionally fighting back. While it seemed as if Alvin had the upper hand, his stamina was much lesser than the brute which was Heldium, and he was visibly slowing.

Alvin looked around for something, and upon confirming it, he abruptly disengaged and ran east.

Heldium behind him roared, as the sword in his hand glowed red, and a beam was shot out from the sword towards where Alvin was going. Alvin managed to detect in time, and jumped away. But his foot caught on some rocks, and he stumbled into a ditch through a small slope.

Heldium roared and leapt into the ditch after him. Alvin quickly found himself, and started running away from Heldium.

He was chased for 2 minutes, after which Heldium launched another beam was launched towards Alvin's path from his sword

Alvin again dodged pathetically, and ran off in another random direction.

Now gaining on him due to the direction change, Heldium ran after him. Heldium used the sword 3 more times after 2 minute intervals to force a direction change and to gain on Alvin.

Alvin now looked to be running low on steam, while Heldium looked none worse for the wear.

Up ahead in the distance, there were a few abandoned tents and canvas. Alvin spotted them, and raced towards them. Heldium followed closely behind. Alvin ducked under a half open tent and ran inside. Heldium barreled straight through, but he hit some wooden crates and stone blocks, and was thus slowed down.

Alvin kept running in between different tents, agilely dodging the obstacles, and Heldium continued to brute force his way through them. Alvin also resorted to tossing stuff at Heldim, and forcing him to wade through a dirty ditch, but Heldim stayed in his tail.

Eventually, Alvin ran up to a relatively open space in between all the tents and stopped on a spot, panting.

"Finally stopping and accepting your fate you coward?" asked Heldium, also panting, but looking much better than Alvin.

"Not really. I have confirmed that both my prey face stepped into my trap. So there is no need for this chase to continue" said Alvin looking over his shoulder at the vague figure in the tent behind Heldium.

"What?" questioned Heldium confused.

Alvin pulled out his revolver and aimed it at a barrel nearby. He then fired a shot.

With a loud bang, the bullet pierced the barrel. The barrel immediately exploded. The flames from the exploded barrel set fire to a nearby tent and the oil-soaked ground. Slowly, the fire started spreading, completely covering the location of Alvin, Heldium, and the distant figure.

"Why you coward!" yelled Heldium as he charged through the flames towards Alvin.

Alvin smiled, and ran through a narrow gap which was not on fire, as he had wet it thoroughly and put sand all around it previously.

Heldium too charged through, but Alvin shot at the ground as he was passing through, which triggered the explosion of the gunpowder under, right under Heldium.

"This is going to be fun!" said Alvin as he pointed his revolver at Heldium who was moderately burned and trying to put out the flames from his clothes.