The Occupation Pt7

Since he was slowed down for the next couple of minutes, Orion went from being an overwhelming force to being a perfect sparring partner.

His four weapons still whipped through the air at blind speeds which I doubted any other players except for the speed elites of upper clans could follow. However, for my currently Agility of three hundred and eighty-five and my overall movement speed of two hundred and six percent it was actually only a little faster than myself.

Considering the average person could run at around ten miles per hour and my own top running speed was several minutes faster per mile in reality, my in-game movement speed was upwards of twenty miles per hour in combat. If Orion had the same body type and size as I did, he could probably run over thirty miles per hours. Now, though, his speed was probably around twenty-five or so MPH.

However, running speed and attack speed were entirely different concepts. The weapon used or lack thereof could dramatically affect a player's attack speed despite the advantages of high movement speeds. I, however, was using a staff that was light as a feather when compared to my Strength stat. I could strike out a five-hit combo in around two seconds.

Landing such a combo, though, as once again an entirely different matter. Fighting against a pair of heavy swords supported by a pair of defensive style weapons was like fighting against three or four of myself. Worse, still, was that these weapons were weightless manipulations of magic.

Orion's attack speed was still on par with my own, allowing his to dish out a series of actual combo techniques and flourishes from his weapons that kept me on the defensive.

Until, of course, he actually ran out of weapon skills to combo together. After that the field suddenly became level again and I could whip and whirl my way about while thrusting and smashing with my staff. His weapons would still find a way to intercept my attacks, though, perpetuating the fight.

Hopping up over a low sweep of a scimitar at my legs, I lash out at the hand wielding the giant sword only for the lower tonfa of that side to rise up and parry my polearm smash aside. His other tonfa suddenly thrust out from the other side, forcing me into spinning aside from the attack. When I came out of the spin, his second scimitar was already chopping down at my head.

However, I had just been spinning and immediately lashed out with a Blunt Whirlwind. Striking the flat of his giant weapon so that it smashed down to the side of me, I step forward into into another palm thrust that finally manages to connect with the demon's arm and turn its body partially to the side from the blow.

Whipping back around the other way, I switch to another polearm grip near the bottom of my staff to perform another Blunt Whirlwind which strike's the demon between its left side arms for more than fifteen percent of its health bar. After receiving my First-Aid that could refill another person's health by twenty-five person, I nearly negated my own heal.

Thrown aside once again, Orion barely manages to catch himself with a tonfa and kick out in my direction to buy time. "Look at you," I taunt with a faint smile in my voice as I use an Air Cannon to not only attack his foot but also push myself back out of reach. "The mighty giant struggling to withstand an ant. If I had not healed you, you'd be dead!"

Pushing himself up with a deep and dark guttural noise like a thunderous growl that came from deep within the demon, Orion says, "I'll admit that I underestimated you, but that ends now. Witness my fury!" With that final cry, the demon's already dark body turned pitch black and his eyes shone white while dark flames began burning all about his body.

Did this guy just enter a berserk mode?

"Alright, then, let's take this up a notch!" I agree happily, immediately unleashing my hulk form while compiling a thousand MP of lightning Self-Enchantment on top of my previous self buff. Gripping my staff like a cane in one hand, I relish the feel of my bladed fingers enacting an immense Spirit Slash that separates into five different slashes.

Five slashes crested over Orion like a rushing river breaking around a boulder. However, instead of a near-death drop in health like I expected the demon only lost ten percent before his HP started climbing with his berserk state. In just a few seconds, he was back at sixty percent and still rising.

"Cut a kid some slack, dammit!" I exclaim as I rush in toward the demon, considering activating my own berserk mode while using a troll's healing skill to augment my passive regens. In the short moment it took me to reach Orion, his health was already at eighty percent.

I quickly learned that not only did his berserk state increase his MDEF but also his PDEF as he laughed in my face while taking a solid slam of my staff across his chest that did not even take away ten percent of his HP. Then he retaliated, proving that the slow debuff he was suffering form no longer mattered as his arms and weapons whirled about.

My defenses flashed with fractures and sparks as I fought against his attacks, lashing out with my staff to block one scimitar and then slashing my clawed hand at his tonfa to ward off a thrust only for the second scimitar to slash across my giant armored body. Just the one hit dropped my health below eighty percent from full.

A quick use of First-Aid replenished most of my health as I stabbed my claws wreathed in their own Shadowmancy at the next slashing scimitar. The scimitar was blocked with the converged spearhead of claw points but the following tonfa was merely a feint to draw my staff away before the second scimitar thrust into my chest.

The blade of darkness buried itself several inches in my body and stripped me down to seventy percent, but from this position I had the perfect opportunity to thrust my staff inward from the side with a combination of Force Strike and St. Elmo's Fire. The thrust connected high up with the demon's throat, jarring his upper body backward with the strength of the blow that took away twelve percent of his HP.

Transmuting myself along the flow of electricity as the demon is forced back a step, I appear up by his head more at around ten feet in the air and throw my splayed claws out at his face. Of course the demon was fast enough to lean back away from my claws, but the ensuing Splash and Frostbite that gushed out from my outstretched hand covered his face in a thick sheet of frosted and blinding ice.

The screen of ice I used was already cracking as I landed from the attack but Orion was still blinded, lashing out with a backhand sweep of one tonfa that I easily dodge with a quick step and duck before turning around behind the four-armed demon with a Blunt Whirlwind smashing into the back of their leading knee.

The knee buckled under the weight of my strike, forcing the demon into a kneel as I use the recoil from the strike to jump up and flip forward into an overhead smash of my staff across Orion's back. The shock of this attack was enough to shatter the ice loose from the demon's face, freeing up its sight. However, it was also enough to lay them out on the ground.

Perching on the demon's burning back even as the dark flames seem to sizzle at my outer layer of chaos soul crystal scales like my own acidic darkness, I ignore the weakening of my outer defenses to mercilessly slash and pummel about the demon's back. Each attack took away less than ten percent of the demon's HP, but the sheer force involved with the climbing combo number in the corner of my eye was enough to keep it pinned in place.

Their passive regen was incredible, rising at almost ten percent per second to equal my own damage output no matter how hard or how fast I lashed out. Finally, though, Orion gives a bone-shaking roar that causes the world around me to vibrate and swim as I lose all sense of balance from the sonic attack. I even lost eight percent of my HP to the roar.

Feeling a brief sense of weightlessness, I find myself thrown wide from the demon's back as it leaps up to its feet before charging wildly in my directions. Back on his feet, Orion took control of the fight once again with a whirlwind of flourishes that I can barely put up any resistance to as something warm trickled down my cheeks and neck from my ears.

A tonfa smashed the outer defenses of my left arm, sapping away eighteen percent of my health. A scimitar swept across my gut, shattering crystalline scales and bits of underlying layers. A foot stomped out and caused all the scales covering my chest to simply shatter as I found myself flipping backward.

Just those three strikes alone were enough to whittle me down to forty percent of my health and I barely had enough time for a First-Aid cast before Orion was standing over me and stabbing his scimitars down toward me. Even as one scimitar started stabbing down into my gut, I stomp a foot down on the ground and use a ring Flash Step to appear in a forming pool of blood almost fifty yards away. Getting out from under the sword had ripped me open my navel to groin, filling my body with a mixture of traumatic physical and psychological agony.

I was actually shaking as I used Telekinesis to prop myself up, unable to properly stand in my currently wounded condition while struggling to compensate for the damage. Then, Orion simply appears right before me with all weapons out and ready to strike. The only thing I could think of before tapping my foot for another Flash Step was, "Fuck my life."

Narrowly avoiding a massive pincer of four different attacks aimed all around my body, I immediately set to work pouring mana into repairing my defenses as soon as I reappear. Orion was not far behind, appearing at my side from his own flash movement skill with his weapons once again out and at the ready. This time, though, I was also prepared.

The rubbled ground around me churned with the application of Telekinesis, causing large rocks to fly up and smash about Orion's arms and body to slowly but steadily begin pushing him back and out of reach. When I finally cast First-Aid again I could finally stand on my own, switching my Telekinesis from the rocks to my staff so that it begins spinning freely about the air.

Throwing the last of my mana into the ground through Transmutation, I expend over a thousand mana forming a dozen giant stalagmites that erupt up from the ground all around the demon. The stalagmites punched deeply into its legs and body, trapping them in place for a moment as my staff spins wildly around them and smashes about their shoulders and elbows.

A quick biscuit pulled from my belt was all I needed to keep fighting, restoring roughly a thousand mana in a single bite as I lashed out with an assortment of cutters, Spirit Slashes, and overcharged basic spells from my hands. The stalagmites had already eaten up twenty percent of the demon's health and slowed its healing with permanently open wounds while every strike of the staff chipped away around five percent.

Combined with the flurry of magical attacks that the demon was weaker to than physical strikes, Orion's health was swiftly dragged down below half in a matter of seconds. However, the stalagmites were merely granite rock and could not withstand the demon's struggled for long. After five seconds of entrapment, the demon seems to flex his body while his flames soared toward the sky and the sharp granite pillars shattered.

Freed from my skill, Orion blindly rushed forward while pushing through my slash attacks. Unaware of the staff spearing down toward the back of its knee. As soon as the demon stepped down in front of me and swung, my staff hammered down into its leg and forced Orion into another kneel while his swiping scimitar struck the ground wide away from me.

Stepping and turning forward into a side stance, I lower my weight forward with a slight bend of my leading knee while leaning forward into a twisting palm thrust worth over eight hundred pounds of force in reality. With my game character's Strength, the weight of a moving car smashed into Orion's chest with the cried word, "Weakness!"

Instead of darkening similar to how the curse usually showed its successful effect, Orion actually pales a little until his black body started to appear green again and the flames wreathing his form diminished ever so slightly. Thrown backward and back onto their feet, Orion staggers from the heavy blow while my staff continued spinning and pummeling his arms.

Without the stalagmites keeping open wounds on his body, the demon was quick to regenerate above half health despite my continuous efforts. However, my multiple curses were showing their effects as I rushed in with yet another palm thrust coupled with my refreshed Force Strike. The force of this Open Handed blow was enough to knock the demon off its feet and backward into the air while his health fell back below health.

Despite being a demon with an obvious affinity for darkness, my curses were fully effective even though the slow debuff was already ending. At least his berserker state was weakened, allowing me to press my small advantage by flapping forward into a double thrust of either hand that shove my arms deeper than my wrists through the demon's gut.

Gripping tightly at Orion's insides, I raise my knee to my chest and snap my foot up before stomping out to kick the demon backward while ripping its body open and trailing long intestines still clasped in my fingers.

*