Chapter 37 – The Full Monte

Monte was diving through the shadows moving around one of the main structures. He had already left a mysterious pack at one of the corners of the greenhouse building. I dashed close enough to the building that I was able to store away the package before any explosion took place. I followed Monte at full speed.

Skill Acquired: Sprinting Lv. 1

Skill Level Increase: Agility Lv. 6

Well, that's interesting. I guess I haven't been sprinting much in this world until now. I pursued Monte's trail, picking up the mysterious packages as I followed him. Even with my Presence Concealment, it wasn't long before Monte realized that he was being followed. He turned to look at me and smirked.

"I was hoping to have a rematch against you again, you useless piece of trash. What made you think that you could ever hope to compete with me? Especially alone! Oh, but there's your little flower buddy. Nice scare you gave me with those vines. I'll make sure to pull every petal off your precious head before finishing you off!"

What a monster. He was even able to get angry at Bliss! I couldn't imagine ever being angry at the cute little flowkra. It just wasn't possible. It was at that moment that I decided that Monte would not be living through this encounter. He was too dangerous and too vengeful. I needed to protect those that I held dear. That included my little flower companion.

"You have done nothing but destroy and hard peoples' lives. How can you live with a conscience when you're doing such evil things to others?"

Since my mana was far from caught up, I was trying to get Monte talking. Perhaps he would even monologue for a while?

"What are you delaying for? Are you waiting for your friends? Let's get this over with."

Shoot. I guess he saw through my tactic. Time for action then. I downed a small mana recovery potion. This would help my mana recover a bit faster. Monte's dagger shot out much faster than I had ever seen it. Thankfully, my time in the dungeon prison had allowed me to activate and deactivate the Agility skill for days at a time. This helped me to level it up from level 2 to 5. Now it just jumped up to level 6. Whatever used to be too fast for me was now a comfortable speed. Jumping to the left to avoid his first dagger, I used my borrowed bandits' sword to deflect a second dagger. Time to analyze Monte's skills!

Name: Monte

Age: 47

Race: Lizardman

Occupation: Shadow Thief and Trader

Level: 32

Skills:

Agility Lv. 6

Archery Lv. 2

Cooking Lv. 4

Dagger Fighting Lv. 8

Sword Fighting Lv. 4

Hiking Lv. 8

Mental Resistance Lv. 3

Overclock (Mastered)

Pain Resistance Lv. 5

Presence Concealment Lv. 4

Presence Detection Lv. 2

Trade Negotiation Lv. 6

Shadow Daggers Lv. 5

Shadow Element Lv. 6

Shadow Teleport Lv. 4

Titles:

World Villain

Shadow Master

Escape Artist

As I dodged and weaved the lizardman's attacks, Bliss struck out with a multitude of vines. Last time we did this, Monte literally ran away with his tail between his legs. This time, he just scoffed at the vines as he sliced them to pieces. Not only had his daggers become more precise than before. His shadows themselves now seemed to have a cutting edge to them. Now I realized the difference between all our battles. In prior battles, Monte was still trying to kidnap a princess and thus had to hold back from killing her. In this battle, he could completely let loose and attack with the full Monte. And that's exactly what he did. Sharp blades of shadow struck from all around us while I tried to dodge and block the best I could. A few times, I dropped a large boulder in front of me and hid behind the boulder. That didn't last long as the shadows would dash the rock to pieces. Monte still had the incredible ability of shadow teleport and he would instantly appear behind me. As he swung his dagger at my back, I was forced to use a barrier to deflect Monte's strike. That was enough time for me to jump the side and for Bliss to throw up more vines. We kept the pattern going for several minutes. I knew that I had more skills I could use but my low level of mana would not let me keep it up for long. Monte would still have over double my mana level and a faster regeneration rate. By taking my time to recollect my mana now, I would be able to later surprise the lizardman with my skill control. This fight depended on whether I could hold off Monte long enough to unleash my skills.