Chapter 86: Hoonter x Hoonter

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< Side-Quest/Challenge: Father Gascoigne >

Description: You have stumbled upon a wild and feral British priest chopping up a corpse and it seems like he has decided that you do not deserve the privilege to live anymore. Time to prove him wrong.

Requirements: Defeat Father Gascoigne.

Reward: +2 to all physical stats, +2 insight, 1x Random Low-rank skill recovery.

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I didn't pay attention to the quest that just popped up in my rearview, instead, my eyes were solely trained on Gascoigne. He gave off a dangerous vibe. While I had confidence in myself, this was different.

On a fundamental level, it is impossible for Gascoigne to defeat me. I am immortal and he isn't. But I didn't care about that. I was here to improve myself, not to have a dick-measuring contest. Regardless, if Gascoigne couldn't defeat me then why was he dangerous?

He could kill me.

One might wonder, how could someone like Gascoigne could murder someone like me who has slain gods. And there was a simple reason for that. It was skill issue.

I may have killed gods, demons, and anything in between but the reason I could do that couldn't be purely attributed to skill though that was a big factor. Most of the time I brute forced my way through my enemies. As in reality my fighting style is completely unrefined and falls short in front of someone with actual skill and experience.

And Gascoigne. I'm sure is someone with skill and experience. There is a saying, "Beware of the old in a profession where most die young". And Gascoigne definitely fit that category and more. But knowing the danger I couldn't help but be excited.

This was an opportunity to challenge myself and improve. Before I could contemplate for long however the old hunter raised a modified pistol in my direction and pulled the trigger, sending multiple pellets of quicksilver at me more like a blunderbuss.

The moment I heard the bang I rolled to the side as the veteran hunter charged at me with his axe raised. The moment my roll stopped and I got back on my feet Gascoigne had reached me and swung his axe down with impeccable dexterity.

But if there was something I was good at, that would be dodging.

I shifted my body to the side as the axe passed by me on trajectory to hit the ground. As it passed I pulled my own gun and aimed toward Gascoigne's face. But before I could pull the trigger I felt a dull pain in my chest as the air was forced out of my lungs and I was thrown back.

Gascoigne withdrew his extended leg before shooting toward me again, relentlessly he swung his axe horizontally, and seeing as there wasn't enough room to dodge I brought my cane up with both hands and braced.

Mid-swing his weapon transformed as his full might met against my own meager one with my baseline stats. Under the weight of his swing, I was batted toward a pile of gravestones, crash-landing in the middle. I felt blood gather into a pool in my lungs.

It seems I lost the first round of clashing huh? So /this/ is what a real hunter is supposed to be. Efficient, ruthless, skilled, and effective. How fun.

I pushed myself up as Gascoigne kept a distance. Retrieving my cane I withdrew its blade from the sheath as it got clad in blue lightning. Now, it was my turn to go on the offensive.

My leg muscles tensed like springs before the power in them was released as I dashed toward Gascoigne whilst he raised his axe to intercept me. But before he could I arrived before him and thrusted with my lightning-clad blade toward his head.

He dodged the stab by tilting his head before swinging his axe from the bottom up like an uppercut. I leaned back to narrowly dodge before thrusting at his midsection which he sidestepped.

'Time to step it up.'

My muscles strained as I started tapping into my body's true potential. I released several thrusts far faster than before toward Gascoigne as he dodged and blocked my blows. Suddenly, as I stabbed once more, the blade actually connected with his shoulder, and his face grimaced in pain.

But his grimace only lasted a brief moment as I heard a loud bang ring in my ears before I felt the air get knocked out of me before Gascoigne grabbed my face and threw me like a rag doll. But before I hit anything I regained balance and skidded across the floor.

The moment my momentum ground to a halt I transformed my blade into its whip form and lashed out against Gascoigne, the whip nearly breaking the sound barrier.

Gascoigne, knowing he couldn't dodge it in time, raised his arm, intercepting the whip before it reached its full speed, yet the whip still mangled his arm, wrapping around it and shocking him as it did so.

But with a mighty yell, Gascoigne pulled on the electrified whip, sending me toward himself as he readied his axe. But there was just one problem with his plan.

Just as he pulled me in I used all of the energy in my blood to send even more electricity toward the whip, paralyzing Gascoigne for a second. A deadly amount of time in a battle like this.

Then I unsummoned the whip using concentration before I resummoned it in my hands and untransformed it. As my body slammed against Gascoigne's I stabbed the blade through his stomach before pulling it out and going for another stab. But before blade met skin, my instincts warned me to dodge.

I knelt down but too late did I realize that his aim wasn't for my head, the realization came too late as the spread of bullets ripped my right hand off and sent my weapon flying. But at the same time, I retaliated by blowing off his weapon with my own gun on my left before doing a backflip to gain distance.

"RAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!" Just as I regained my balance I heard a guttural roar come from Gascoigne before his body nearly exploded with blood and black goo, revealing a werewolf-like beast with light gray fur nearly twice his previous size beneath.

The moment I saw the beast come charging at me with reckless abandon I knew I had won the battle yet it left a bitter taste in my mouth that I hadn't been able to best Gascoigne in a test of skill. And now that he was nothing more than a mindless beast he stood no chance at beating me.

I ducked under the swing and put the muzzle of my pistol up to its chin and firing, the bullets seemed to have hurt yet not dealt any lethal damage. While it was staggered by the quicksilver bullet rattling its brain I slammed my leg into its midriff before pulling back and striking its chest with another kick.

The beast shrugged it off and tried tackling me as it leaned forward and started sprinting at me with its arms spread to the sides. Just before he grabbed me I kneed it on the chin before following it up with an elbow and a left hook.

Hitting him felt like hitting a giant bag of frozen meat. As it staggered from my combo I pulled out my pistol and reloaded using inventory before hitting its kneecaps, chaining a knee to its jaw just after it staggered.

Beasts that are slaves to their instincts and impulses are some of the easiest enemies to fight. For me at least they are.

Because they simply fall flat against a beast that's more monstrous than them. My instincts are far more refined than Gascoigne's beast form and I was far, far more experienced in fighting AS a beast AGAINST a beast.

Chasing after the dazed beast I didn't even give it a single moment to rest before jamming my thumb into its eye socket.

Fire is weaker against a bigger flame. Brutality is weaker against even more vicious brutality. A beast that can't keep a calm mind is an easy-to-fight opponent for me.

I have spent years fighting madmen, hollows, beasts who run on instinct. And I have slain hundreds of thousands of them, maybe even millions. I have died hundreds of times to them, I am well acquainted with hunting mindless beings.

I slammed my forehead into the beast's snout. I transformed my bleeding stub of a wrist into a pointed weapon and stabbed it into Gascoigne's shoulder. His claw hit my left arm, ripping it off its socked but I was barely even shaken as I reeled my spike arm back.

A familiar motion, one I had repeated thousands of times over. A move that pushes the human body to its absolute limit. I didn't need the assistance of the system and skill levels to perform MY move.

All my muscles were forcefully pushed to perform at their absolute limits for a brief second. My spike arm moved so fast that it looked like a blur.

'{Deadman Style: Pierce}'

My arm pierced straight through Gascoigne's ribcage. As a result of the recoil my arm was completely shattered and my legs were broken but Invictus kept me standing. Taking out a blood vial I quickly chugged it down. Now that my hand was restored I set Gascoigne's corpse down.

I could tell he wasn't a bad person. There was no need to disrespect his corpse by just throwing it away like a used rag. After I put the corpse down the notification I saw brightened my mood.

{ PREY SLAUGHTERED }

A/N: What did you think about the chapter? I like reading comments and suggestions they help motivate me. And so do powerstones.

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