Chapter 2

I quickly brushed these thoughts to the back of my head as the gate fully opened with a clack sending an echo across the empty city.

As I walked onto the field where one of us would die, I gazed at the person I would be fighting. She was covered in a seamless black armour with a cape made of shadows flapping in the wind. Her helmet fully covered her face and joined the armour at the neck leaving no gap for me to exploit.

We stood there, staring at each other for a few moments. The stalemate was broken all of a sudden as an arrow pinged against Rhea's helm.

I looked in the direction the arrow came from and I saw a lone archer trying to get back inside the gate. Rhea opened her hand and a black dagger materialised, floating over her palm. She looked for a second then threw, the dagger going straight through the archer's chest then disintegrating into a black mist.

She looked back at me then charged. She swung her mace at my head and I brought my sword up to block it. Her mace smashed into my sword and I was thrown backwards from the impact.

I crashed onto the ground and rolled a few times before getting back to my feet. I didn't know how Rhea had managed to push me back, we should both be at the maximum level for strength.

I looked at her closely, noticing that the mist from her cloak was wrapped around her arm. It was very faint which was probably why I didn't notice it at first. I guessed that it somehow boosted her strength, making it go above the stat limiter.

She looked at me then tilted her head to the side. From what I could see she looked to be surprised but I couldn't tell for certain because her face was fully covered.

I felt danger and stepped to the side just in time for a black dagger to fly through the air where my head was a second ago. Rhea opened her hand and caught the dagger only to throw it back at me.

I deflected it and it burst into a black mist slightly obscuring my vision. I raised my sword just in time to parry her attack. I couldn't compete against her in terms of raw strength but maybe I could wear her down.

I quickly spun sending her off balance and struck towards her chest. My sword bounced straight of her armour and I heard a crack sound. My sword had cracked from the impact.

She turned around and hit me with her arm, sending me flying once more. It was then I realised I might not be able to win this fight.

I sighed. It seemed I had no choice. I had to use my trump card already. I reached into one of my back pockets and pulled out a ball that resembled a marble.

It was one of the two I had found when I was on Dead Kings Rest. It released a gas that covered an area with a circumference of about 200 metres.

The gas that it release had a very special property that only I could withstand thanks to my unique body. It sucked all the mana out of the area it covered including from people bodies.

I was immune to the effect because all the mana in my body was completely still. From the tests I carried out when I accidentally made the first one explode, I figured out that all the mana in the world is constantly moving. The gas detected all the mana and sucked it into the ball, then released an explosion of pure mana instantly killing you.

Again, I was immune to the explosion, my body just absorbed all the mana and it disappeared.

I trapped in in my hand, ready to throw it. She rushed at and I threw the marble at her helmet. I braced, waiting for the explosion

"Plink"

I looked up and saw the marble bouncing off her armour then rolling across the ground. She looked at it then stamped, crushing it.

"…"

I was well and truly dead. My only trump card crushed to bits under the foot of my enemy. I felt a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I hadn't felt for a long time, despair.

I saw she was distracted and swiftly ran at her. I swung my sword towards her head but she ducked under it and threw a punch at my ribs. My vitality was high enough and my armour was strong enough so that I didn't feel any impact from the hit.

I quickly jumped backwards avoiding a follow-up swing from her mace. Her mace smashed into the ground and I used that opportunity to try to injure her so I could run away. I swung for her knees, hoping the armour would be weaker there. She managed to get her mace back up in time and parried my blow at the last second.

Her parry had left me off balance so she swung the mace towards my head, attempting to finish the fight early. I shuffled backwards as best I could but her mace still clipped my head and sent me tumbling to the ground.

I stared up as she swung her mace down ready to finish it once and for all. Against all the odds I managed to find the strength to roll to the side and back onto my feet.

I quickly brought up my sword in a block just on time for Rhea's mace to smash into it, smashing my sword to bits.

I discarded my sword and went for a punch to her stomach. She blocked it with her arm then jabbed her mace at me. I twisted to the side, the mace missing me by a millimetre. She didn't expect me to dodge and overcommitted herself leaving her slightly off balance. I kicked the outside of her knee and her leg crumpled and she dropped the mace.

I went to finish her but I couldn't move. I desperately tried to move as I saw her slowly get back to her feet. She picked up the mace and whispered something in a language I didn't know. The head of the mace started glowing with a faint red light and she heaved it over her head.

I tried to move in one last-ditch effort to get out of the collision course with her mace. I saw Rhea swing the mace towards my head then everything went black.