Cain vs Hunter (1).

"I'm trying to ruin your plans here, so cut the shit and let's fight." Cain raised his blade and pointed the tip straight at Hunter.

Back in the forest the other day, Hunter had tried to ruin his plans by outing him to the entire group. What he was trying to do was a bit different from that.

"With pleasure!" Hunter said as he took a fighting stance.

"I'll give you a few minutes to recover from your last battle," Cain said. He also used this opportunity to give himself time to recover, as his stamina hadn't been fully regenerated from his fight with the {Devil-eyed White Primate}.

"No problem," Hunter said.

"Summon sacrifice: Recovery!"

Hunter activated yet another skill. A few smaller wolves that he had summoned began to break apart, turning into motes of light that entered his body like a stream, allowing him to recover his lost stamina.

'He seemed surprised by my speed earlier, but I can't be too certain. I should be wary of his speed as well. He's surely faster than he's let on. He also has a wide variety of skills that I should be wary of.'

'I will need to end this fight as quickly as possible. Although my skills are powerful, their side effects make it so that there is a certain range of time I can use them. If I'm not swift, yet careful, I lose.'

'Also, I need to increase the number of skills I have.'

He had been thinking about it for a while now, but he realized that his skills were too few, and they didn't allow him to engage in battle for a long period.

He could only fight his best for a short period before his steam ran out. Hunter was the exact opposite. With his repertoire of skills, he was able to prolong a battle as he wished, and steer it in whichever direction he chose.

Since Cain had stored up some mutant beast blood in a few empty containers he had kept in his inventory, he used them to recover the stamina he had lost from the runback. Since he had recovered a lot by drinking the blood of a bunch of mutant animals he had killed, he didn't need much of it.

***

30 minutes later...

By now, everyone already realized what was going on. And just as Hunter had predicted, no one said anything to disagree with what was happening. They just stood to the side, watching...

"Mr. David, you know this is stupid, right?!" Susan said as she walked up to David, anger evident in her voice.

"You don't understand," David said as he watched the two of them get ready.

"Of course I do! These boys are too arrogant. They are putting our safety in jeopardy just because they want to prove they are the only one strong enough to lead the group." Susan blurted out in-between angry puffs.

"Ha... If you understand that, then you must know how necessary this is even though it all seems stupid." David said with a sigh.

"Necessary?" Susan said looking a bit bewildered. Never in her life would she think that putting her life in danger just to prove something so vain would be necessary.

David explained; "These boys are all intelligent, so they understand the risks that come with all this. But they also understand the gain as well. If we do survive and make it to the main campus, it's only going to be a matter of time before we encounter those who have survived like us. As long as they prove they are the strongest, there will be less internal friction, and the group will be much stronger than before. In case you haven't noticed yet, the foundation of this group is extremely rocky. What these boys are doing is both smart and stupid at the same time."

"So you are saying?"

"Whoever wins this fight will be regarded as the leader of the group in their eyes. They are establishing a hierarchy amongst themselves, which I'm done with. My only issue with all this is that they could have picked another time. It's way too dangerous to be doing all this now!" David said through clenched teeth.

"I see... But still, there has to be a better way to do this. What if something bad happens." Susan said, worry written all over her face.

"You worried about him?" David said with a slight smile as he shifted his gaze to Cain.

"W-well, I am his c-class monitor after all! Isn't it right that I'm worried for his safety?! He just went ahead to do something like this without asking for permission, huh?!" Susan blurted out while blushing furiously.

"Relax. I trust his abilities... He definitely won't lose. You should trust him too" David said, trying to reassure her with a smile, even though he was just as worried as she was.

'Cain...' Susan gazed at Cain with mixed feelings in her eyes...

***

Before the fight began, Cain took a minute to go through his stats and skills. He had subconsciously made this a practice before every fight he had...

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 18.

Strength: 92.

Agility: 151.

Stamina: 45/76.

Vitality: 39.

Defense: 29.

Control: 3.7.

Perception: 2.7.

HP: 1,520/3,200.

MP: 300/2,100.

Magic: 130.

Resistance: Poison- 7%.

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Ingestion Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked).

Free attribute points: 21.

System points: 4,000.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

{Golden blood level.1}: Upon activation, multiply all physical stats by 2. Consumes 100 MP, and costs 1 point of stamina per second to maintain. Puts the body of the user under great strain. (1000/10000 SP). This is an internal skill, hence, it can be upgraded.

{Mana Blade}: Coat the surface of your blade with destructive mana to deal an extra 200% damage when attacking. It Consumes 5MP per second to sustain. Note:This is an external active skill, and cannot be upgraded.

{Lightening Edge: Increase attack speed by 100%. Critical rate increases by 5% when the skill is used. Cost 100MP to activate.

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

{Blade Mastery lvl. 2.} (passive): Increases attack power and speed with bladed weapons by 30%. Increases critical chance and rate by 5%. (3,000/9,000SP).

{Burst Step}: Expell mana from beneath the feet, creating propulsion that allows the host to change trajectory abruptly when in motion. Increases movement speed by 30%.

Costs 5MP per activation. No cooldown.}

{Metal Creation Lvl 2.}: Gather the Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. The effects of the skill are influenced by the host's magic and control stats, as well as imagination. (0/10,000SP).

{Golden Severance}: Condense an immense amount of metal attribute elemental mana into a concentrated beam of world light, capable of splitting anything it comes in contact with only for a single attack, and increases attack power by 500%. The attack consumes 500MP upon usage.

Cooldown: 2.5 minutes.

{Metal Manipulation}: Grants the ability to freely control metal of weight that does not exceed 1 ton. Skill is leveled up simultaneously with the {Metal Creation} skill.

{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 5%.

{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack speed and attack power increase by 1%.

{Blood Ingestion Regeneration} (passive): Grants the ability to safely ingest the blood of mutant beasts without any adverse effects. Consuming the blood and flesh of mutant beasts grants passive Stamina, Vitality, and Mana regeneration. For every 0.1 liters of blood, or 100 grams of flesh consumed, 100HP, 50MP, and 1 stamina point are regenerated.

{Azure Burst}: Rapidly burn out internal mana in a single burst to produce enough heat and energy to burn the surrounding mana. These flames greatly increase the attack and movement speed of the host by 300%. Attack damage increases by 50%. Critical rate and damage increased by 10%.

Costs 500MP to activate, and only lasts for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

{Mana Heart (passive): Mana pool increases by 2×. Mana is regenerated at 5MP per second. The Cooldown of all skills was reduced by 50%. For every level, +1 extra point to Magic stat. Grants host the ability to absorb and transform pure forms of mana}.

NOTE: This is a physique skill, and as such will have various physical effects on the host.

***

He had a decent number of skills, but from what he had seen so far, everyone had to have equal to that or more. His skills were a mixture of high power, and short duration, as opposed to his opponent. But that didn't mean his opponent's attack power was low.

Not only was Hunter's attack speed insane, but Cain also suspected his physical attack power to be good as well from what he had seen. The reason he didn't cause as many explosions as Blaze, was because he knew how to efficiently control his power.

Cain and Blaze had similar sales of fighting. Their skills were explosive and dealt huge burst damage over a short period. They would become weaker once they ran out of stamina and or mana.

'I've become more powerful since my last fight. But is it enough?' Cain thought to himself whilst gazing at Hunter, who returned a vicious stare.

'Guess now's the time to test it out!'

They stared at each other for a while, the tension building in between them, until finally, it snapped...