The Second Card

Paul's rational mind kicked in immediately upon receiving that punch.

Mazinga was faster than him, stronger than him, and could even heal his wounds almost instantly. How was Paul supposed to beat him?

He couldn't think of a way!

So the moment he was sent crashing into a house far away, he immediately took the opportunity to escape through the other side of the house, running away at top speed! The collapse of the house created the perfect cover for him as well, throwing up dust into the air that acted like a smokescreen, almost perfectly covering his trails.

This bought him at least a few minutes of time, which allowed him to completely leave the bounds of the village fences before anyone realised. But Mazinga was not about to let him escape just like that. He immediately gave chase, running in the exact direction that Paul escaped in, as though Paul's scent in the air had paved out an obvious path for him to follow.

Paul was fast, but just as he thought, Mazinga was still slightly faster than him. Bit by bit Mazinga gained on him, following him right into the depths of the forest.

Paul had no way of knowing that Mazinga was following his scent, but as careful as he was, he did not slow down one bit even as he entered the forest. He was determined to get far away from the village, and his tireless body obeyed.

As though sensing a predator rampaging through the forest, the wild animals all scattered, unwilling to cross his path as Paul ran at top speed, crashing through the thickets of trees.

After a full day of running, however, a familiar aura could be felt at the peripheral of his senses behind him. There was a figure that was actually still chasing after him even a day after he left the village! As expected, he made the right choice not to slow down his pace before.

However, it still looked like just a matter of time before Mazinga caught up to him. If he didn't want to lose the game right here, he needed to find a way out of this situation. But what could he do about this guy chasing after him?

By now, they had already covered hundreds of kilometres within the forest. If Mazinga was still hot on his tail, that probably meant that Mazinga wouldn't be giving up on the chase anytime soon either.

Shit!

Sensing the terrain changes in front of him, Paul cursed in indignation. The thicket of trees and bushes obstructed his view ahead, so even before he could see it with his own eyes, Paul had already sensed that the treeline ended abruptly in front.

But that was not a piece of good news by any means, since that was only because the land itself cut off into a steep drop. It was a rocky cliff that led straight down into a desolate valley that seemed to be deprived of any sorts of life.

Did he have time to run along the edges of the cliff, looking for a way across the valley? The guy behind him didn't seem like he would allow him that luxury.

Paul could only stop as he reached the edge of the cliff, turning around to await the second confrontation with Mazinga.

He didn't have to wait long either. Mazinga appeared from the trees quickly, surprise clearly showing on his face when he saw Paul simply waiting there for him. But his sharp eyes quickly noticed the steep drop right behind Paul, and a grin spread across his face.

"Looks like you ran out of luck. Or maybe the Beast Spirit Wrox had guided you in this direction, making it destined for you to come to an end at my hands!"

Mazinga was actually panting a little, apparently slightly tired from running for this long. Unlike Paul, his body was mortal. Despite being enhanced by the descent of his spirit in possession of the body, he still could not overcome the limits of a living flesh and blood body. However, he forgot all of his exhaustion the moment he realised that his prey had finally landed in his hands.

Paul did not bother asking Mazinga how or why he managed to chase him all the way here, his eyes working overtime as they desperately scanned Mazinga for any hints of weakness that he could possibly abuse.

"You are wondering what you could do to win me," the arrogant tone returned to Mazinga's voice.

How could he not notice Paul's eyes running all over him? He must have an IQ of less than 10 if he weren't able to guess what was going through Paul's mind right now.

"Don't bother wasting your time; there is no way for you to win here."

Mazinga slowly approached. He might be confident, but he was wary as well. A moment of carelessness from before actually forced him into a pursuit that lasted for a full day. He did not want such a mistake to happen again!

Mazinga's confidence was not unfounded. Paul was truly unable to think of any ways for him to triumph over his opponent.

Taking a quick peek at the drop behind him, he could only consider how far his status as a player would protect him. Would he survive a fall down that cliff? If so, he could actually escape that way. In fact, that was the only way he could think of to get out of this situation.

"This is the end for you!" Mazinga channelled the mana within him for the first time since he descended.

Paul could feel streams of energy converging at Mazinga's right hand, turning it brighter and brighter as if a mini version of the blazing sun was being formed. The light that it gave out was blinding, but Paul dared not look away, instead he narrowed his eyes in even greater concentration.

"Do you think that your body is invincible just because you are an undead? Unfortunately for you, only the opposite is true. The moment your body comes into contact with magic of the Light class, it would completely disintegrate. So what if you do not feel pain? With this strike, even your consciousness will be wiped from the surface of the earth!"

Upon hearing that, Paul couldn't be bothered anymore. All these people were convinced that he was an undead, but he had never even died before, so how could he possibly be one? As for the Light class magic, he could just ignore it altogether then.

Mazinga was ignorant to Paul's thoughts as he charged at Paul once again, this time ready to deal the finishing blow, ending it once and for all.

As Mazinga's right hand pushed towards Paul's chest, he was astonished to find that Paul simply let the palm strike connect. Perhaps this undead gave up upon seeing the ball of light, thus just staying still and letting him end it?

Just as the tension left his body, he felt Paul's right arm grab onto his wrist, and with a strong tug, both of them actually flew off the cliff, tumbling straight down!

"What did you do? How do you still have so much strength left in you? You should have died instantly from that!" Mazinga was completely shocked by the sudden turn of events, now finding himself free falling along with this undead who should have been completely purged by his previous attack.

"You will be the one to die!" Paul shouted as he gave Mazinga a strong kick, sending him further away as Paul himself stuck close to the rocky cliff wall.

This prevented Mazinga from breaking his fall by hanging onto any rocks on the cliff! Now he was completely free falling in the air, destined to hit the ground far below.

While he seemed to be in control of the situation, Paul was actually extremely confused right now. When Mazinga's attack struck his chest before, he had originally thought that all the damage he would receive would be the physical portion of the palm strike.

Unexpectedly, the ball of light actually started burning through his flesh like a hot knife through butter!

But in the very next instant, he felt a stream of energy burst out from within him. This energy had an attribute that gave off a feeling unique to anything he had felt since he first entered the game, a feeling that emanated warmth and pureness.

Back when he was in the shop before he was sent into the game, he had drawn two cards under the instructions of the staff. One depicted a Grim Reaper, while the other showed bright light shining down from the heavens.

And the source of this new energy was in the form of that second card.

With a large amount of mana coursing through his body, he could clearly trace the movement of the energy as it erupted from near his heart, rapidly flowing through his body until it completely encompassed every cell. This energy was not absorbed into his cells like how death energy was, but instead covered every single cell on the outside as though protecting them.

With the protection of that strange energy, his body no longer disintegrated upon contact with the ball of light. Instead, the ball of light seemed to have completely lost its effectiveness, allowing Paul to quickly muster the strength to grab Mazinga and leap off the cliff.

Paul had no explanation for the entire process, but now was not the time to think about such things.

"I don't know what you did, but don't think that you will be rid of me just like this!" Mazinga roared in anger as veins visibly protruded under his skin.

He was clenching all the muscles on his body, bracing for the impact upon hitting the ground. The ground was covered with lots of large protruding rocks. If he was lucky, he would be able to avoid those, but even if he were to hit one of them, he could still recover as long as he didn't smash his head against one of the rocks, resulting in an instant death.

To hasten the recovery process though, he intended to use his superhuman muscle strength to mitigate any damage taken.

Paul could obviously see what Mazinga was intending to do, but he was too busy taking care of himself to care! He had already lost an arm, and his injuries from before didn't seem to be healing either. So if he were to lose one or two legs with this fall, would he be left crawling around after this?

There's no way he was willing to accept that!

This was also why he decided to stick close to the cliff wall. He punched his arm towards the rocky cliff, trying to hold on to the wall to slow down his fall. It worked, not as much as he would like, but it did slow down his descent a little.

With two loud bangs, one after the other, the two figures announced their arrivals at the bottom of the valley. A huge cloud of dust was sent into the air, masking the two from each other for a few moments.

The first thing Paul did was check his limbs. There were torn up, filled with scratches and cuts, but still attached to his body at least.

He got lucky, and had landed at a rare open area free of large rocks.

With that, he quickly got up and searched for Mazinga. This Mazinga had an unnaturally high ability to regenerate any wounds. If he didn't die from the fall, Paul would have to make the most of every single second to prevent him from recovering!

While getting up immediately after such a crazy fall was usually impossible, Paul felt no pain. So as long as his bones and muscles were still attached, he was able to get up with a single thought.

The bottom of the valley was a desolate land littered with rocks and sand. Skeletons and carcasses also lay half exposed in the ground, obviously having been left here to face the elements for ages. There were no trees of any kind, and the few cacti were the only semblance of life.

The lack of vegetation also meant the lack of cover, and Paul was able to spot Mazinga quickly after the dust cloud settled.

Mazinga was not as lucky as Paul, and had actually been impaled at the top of a huge rock. On top of that, he had fallen at a much higher velocity, resulting in him taking a lot longer to recover from the concussion received. He was still helplessly groaning in pain when Paul walked up to just beside his head.

He never saw what was coming.

Paul smashed down on Mazinga's face with a sharp edge of a rock, piercing through his tough skin and causing him to cough blood.

The second smash!

More blood was coughed out as Mazinga's eyes were crushed along with their sockets.

The third smash!

Mazinga's nose completely sunk in, revealing a huge hole spurting blood above his mouth.

The fourth smash! The fifth smash!

Mazinga's bottom jaw completely dislocated, only still hanging onto his face by a thin thread of skin.

The sixth! The seventh! The eighth!

By now, Mazinga had stopped responding to each smash. He had already completely lost consciousness. But Paul was not taking any chances.

Just like how he had tirelessly ran through the forest just before, Paul's arm kept swinging down, smashing the face of Mazinga until it was completely unrecognisable. Even a veteran biologist would have had problems guessing the original shape of that head just by looking at the parts that remained.

He finally stopped when he felt the familiar feeling of death energy escaping Mazinga's body, and he was completely stunned by the sheer amount of death energy that was emitted!

It was worth it! It was all worth it!

The death energy surged straight into Paul, completely filling his cells with strength. This surge of death energy contained even more mana than that of Hither and Hather combined, and by multiple times at that! This brought his mana reserve to a frightening level!

He could feel every cell strengthening further yet again, providing him with yet another huge power spike! Now if he had to face Mazinga in a proper fight, Paul could probably easily steamroll over him!