Close-Quarter Combat

<You have adapted to poison! Due to low level <Adapt> and high level <Poison> Unable to completely filter out poison. More time required for further adaptation>

<Warning! Health below 10!%>

<Blood levels rapidly decreasing!>

<Adapting to wound!>

<Skill Adapt has levelled up!>

<New feature unlocked!>

Distracted by all the pain, Asper paid no attention to the sudden notification.

'It hurts…' Asper thought to himself as he ran. 'It hurts so fucking much…'

The pain was unbelievable, he wouldn't have believed that pain-resistance was active unless he'd seen it with his eyes. That's how bad it hurt. But he couldn't stop, especially not now that he was already out of the fog heading right towards the man.

————————-

*Step!* *Step!* *Step!*

The sound of heavy footsteps resounded as Asper could be seen dashing out of the fog, running straight at purple scorpion's boss.

The man was surprised to see Asper attempting such a suicidal move. Only one emotion could came to his mind when he saw this.

Excitement. He genuinely felt thrilled.

"Come." He muttered with a wide smile as he got into a stance while waiting for asper.

He ended up dropping his gun, from the recent blast but that wasn't a problem for him.

His left leg positioned in the front while his right was placed firmly at the back. His left arm stretched out towards Asper, curled into a fist while his right was open wide with it's palm facing the wall on the sides.

Asper who saw this didn't falter and ended up leaping straight at him, inches away from contact, swinging his knife with his single arm in the process.

The purple haired man, easily avoided the slash as he swayed to the sides before he countered Asper with a knee while he was mid-air.

*BAM!*

The knee landed cleanly right on Asper's ribcage causing him to spit out even more blood. But before the man could retract his knee, heaps of electricity surged into it, causing him to step back.

[Electricity]

Asper dropped to the ground and with little to no pause, despite having just suffered another blow, he resumed his attack, leaping again, right at the purple haired man who was only inches away.

Sway.

Asper missed again, as the purple haired man leaned all the way back and watched from beneath as Asper passed right above him.

Again, mid-air, before Asper could even land. He countered. Only this time…

[Wind blade]

Asper's eyes widened as in nearly an instant, a blade of wind was formed and propelled right at him. He was directly above the boss, at his distance, there was no dodging it.

So instead-

*CLANG!*

A loud clang resounded as Asper parried the wind blade with the blade of his energy knife. Following that, he was further into the air from the wind pressure caused by canceling out the wind blade.

Although getting sent up into the air would have put Asper at a disadvantage, they were in a hallway. Asper quickly rotated his body mid-air, positioning it so that his feet would land first onto the ceiling before using it as footing and leaping off of it heading straight down towards the boss who was still leaned back.

The Boss's eyes and grin widened when he saw this.

[Razor Wind Sphere]

Once again, in nearly an instant. A sphere of razor sharp wind was formed around purple scorpion's boss. Asper who was heading head first into it, quickly thrust his blade down onto the sphere causing him to end up getting blown sideways from the wind pressure.

*CRASH!*

Asper slammed his back against the wall and watched as the figure of purple scorpion's boss appeared out of the sphere, charging right at Asper.

Asper's eyes widened and he tilted his head barely avoiding the strike of the man who had thrust his knife at him. The man leapt back with the knife in his hand, allowing him to avoid Asper's horizontal slash which had been aimed at the man's stomach, in the process.

The two paused for a moment, panting and staring at each other, before they both charged at one another.

*Swing* *Swing* *Thrust!*

Asper swung and swung his knife, precisely aiming at every vital spot he could see. However the man easily avoided it by swaying from side to side. Following that, he leaned in forward, barely avoiding Asper's thrust before sending two high-speed jabs straight at Asper's face.

*Jab!* *Jab!*

Asper avoided the first one as he tilted his head, however the second one caught him by surprise and it landed cleanly.

Knowing that he couldn't take another barrage of hits, before scorpion's boss could get into his groove, Asper tried to fall back and recompose himself. Only to notice that his feet was stuck.

He glanced down and noticed that the man had stepped on his feet, preventing him from getting away. In that instant, Asper felt a chill go down his spine and leaned back only to see a clean hook go right past his jaw from the side.

If that hit, it would have been a KO. Even though the guy didn't have a weapon, he was extremely good at using his ands. Asper knew right then and there that he to get away.

Before he could even see it coming however-

*Swoosh!*

A rising kick came from beneath aimed right at his Jaw. Asper reflexively avoided it as he tilted his Head backwards, but in that very same instant, just as Asper was about to initiate a counter, the man dropped his leg with insane speed causing it to slam right into Asper's face in the process. An Axe kick.

*Thud!*

The sound of a thud resounded throughout the hall. It wasn't the crunch sound he expected from breaking Asper's face. Once he noticed what happened, his eyes widened.

Asper had caught his kick.

<Adapted to attack pattern.>

<New feature: Adapted to fighting style. Fighting Style identified: Zalpha's Close Quarter Combat>

A notification screen appeared in front of Asper, the text written brought out his excitement.

"Fucking finally…" Muttered Asper with a grin. "Confirm." He added.

<5 Points into SEN, Confirmed.>

<5 Points into VIT, Confirmed.>

[Electricity]

Not even a second after having caught the kick, while tightening his grip as much as he could, he unleashed surges of electricity onto the boss's legs.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of strength on Asper's side. The boss was easily able to free his legs and pull back a before the electricity could reach him.

As he leapt back and distanced himself from Asper, he failed to conceal the confusion on his face. Seeing this, the grin on Asper's face grew wider as he pulled out a middle-finger.

"Oi… Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now? I have one arm for fuck sakes." Said Asper

"Ha… Hahahaha… Oh man… I can't get enough of you." Said the boss as he let out a laugh.

The smile on his face disappeared as he slowly began walking towards Asper. "It's a shame I'll have to kill you." He added with a cold glare.

"Oo… Scary. That's coming from someone who's having to rely on spells against a one-armed orphan." Mocked Asper as he got into a stance.

His left leg positioned in front of his right leg as they were kept apart. his left hand curled into a fist, stretched out pointing towards the purple haired man. It was a complete one handed imitation of the purple scorpion boss's style.

<Adaptation effect: Temporary fighting style imitation: Zalpha's Close Quarter Combat.>

Scorpion boss's eyes widened when he saw this.