If they had used the skill on Jill, the situation would have been much worse. This wasn’t great, but he trusted that the others would be able to handle a small group of adventurers. The bigger issue was that he would need to defend himself without skills. Thankfully his draconic domain remained, and that would help him a lot in staying alive.

She sent me a confirmation and nothing more. Even she understood that this situation would get worse the longer this went on. Others would probably be drawn by the light show, and they couldn’t deal with so many threats quickly. Maybe Jill should have just teleported them away, but she was a little hasty and teleported towards where the arrow had come from. Mash, Red, and Luke ran towards her.

Mash wasn’t exactly surprised when he saw who it was, but he was a little disappointed. Gerard was the first to peak over the dune they had hidden behind. He was followed by two others. Mash assumed the final two were probably distracted by Jill. Hopefully, she would be able to end her fight soon. Mash would probably need to deal with one of the people on his own. Having roughly judged their strength, he thought that he would have the best chance against Gerard.

“I think I can stall Gerard!”

He yelled the words loud enough so that even Gerard could hear. Hopefully, the man could get riled up and do something stupid. The man’s expression didn’t change though, and Mash got the feeling that this would be difficult. Red and Luke nodded moving more quickly to engage their own targets. Before leaving Luke managed to buff him, and Mash appreciated the boost. His stats were pretty high for his level, and he was a few levels above Gerard. With the boost, he would hopefully be able to make up for the lack of other skills.

As Mash approached Gerard, he noticed the fight happening behind the man. Jill was clashing with Chloe. Or maybe that was Zoe. While they didn’t look alike the names were similar enough that he was a little confused. He saw Safa kneeling on the ground obviously focusing on maintaining something. Assuming it was what was restricting his skills he wondered why Jill didn’t beat her first. A second later he saw the reason as Jill did attempt to strike her. A barrier rippled appeared around her, stopping Jill’s javelin from doing any damage. That was annoying, but he should’ve known that other people who managed to get this far would have some powerful skills.

Mash’s train of thought cut, like a blade sung for his head. Mash easily side-stepped the blow and tried to strike back with the palm of his hand. He didn’t fancy the idea of punching through Gerard’s armor. Just pushing him back would be enough for now. At least that was what he thought would happen. Instead, the armor flashed black where Mash impacted, and Gerard didn’t retreat in the slightest. He swung again, this time in a wide swing. Mash ducked the initial swing, only to have it followed by a ghostly version. Thanks to his domain revealing the attack, he was able to react to the attack, and he stumbled back as the blade passed just in front of his stomach.

The second that Mash stepped back Gerard followed with an overhead swing. Since Mash was looking for it, he saw the ghostly visage of a blade following his current swing. Dodging the first swing, Mash tried to strike the phantom blade with his palm. He wanted to test how it would react and see if it was something he could defend against. As he moved to do so the blade turned, the swing changing. It cut right through his hand. He had reacted a little though and managed to prevent the strike from completely bisecting his arm. Instead, he only managed to cut halfway into Mash’s palm and remove a finger in the process.

It hurt and mash stepped back, as another swing came. This time Mash watched as the phantom blade didn’t mimic his strike but went for another. As his real blade swung downwards, the ghostly blade came for a long horizontal swing. Mash rolled back pushing himself onto his feet. Mash winced as sand entered his palm when he pushed off of it, but he quickly refocused on the man before him. How could he win? The first thing he needed was time to think, so Mash tried to come up with something.

“Why? What do you want from attacking us?”

Hopefully, Gerard would feel the need to answer. That would hopefully give him some time to think. Mash hid his grin as heard the response start, but he still needed to dodge when Gerard slashed diagonally.

“You guys are dangerous. Plus, we want your storage space and you nicely weakened yourselves.”

Obviously, he could attack and talk at the same time. Honestly, why did he even think that it would work? This time the phantom blade mirrored his motion. Mash stepped to the left using his good hand to push the real blade out of the way. The whole blade flashed orange, and Mash felt his palm burn. He pushed through the pain and shoved the blade aside.

Stumbling back a step, Mash felt stupid for thinking that talking would change anything. Instead, now he got Gerard monologuing while trying to kill him. This honestly felt worse than the silent fight they were having.

“It’s nothing personal, but we had to take the chance. You’re not a real adventurer unless you’re willing to take some risks.”

Mash was growing increasingly annoyed as he dodged swings. Hearing the man speak was becoming more annoying, and it only got worse as Mash took another injury. This time he had revealed another skill, the blade projecting a wave out with his swing. The fact that he hadn’t done it before meant that there was probably some limit to the skill. Still, it surprised him, and even with his domain, he couldn’t dodge it completely. He had needed to jump to avoid the attack but wasn’t able to do anything about the phantom blade afterward. It cut into his thigh, but the wave the phantom blade produced was weak compared to the original. It was a cut, but nothing worse than that.

Still, it caused him to crash to the ground. He landed awkwardly on his side, more sand getting into his palm. The pain only grew worse as he rolled down the small dune to avoid another swing. As he sprang to his feet, Mash spared a glance for his friends. Luke seemed to be doing fine against his opponent. He was fighting with Brock. Luke had already been buffed, but it seemed like his opponent had something similar. Brock was covered in flames, and he swung a flaming sword at Luke. Luke managed to block it with his ax, and Mash noticed golden flames crawling over his own body in mimicry of Brock. Luke would win eventually as Brock didn’t seem like he was capable of healing his own wounds.

Red was doing a bit worse actually. The twin who was a swordsman was quite skilled. Mash couldn’t really see any skills, on her but her strikes were fast and ruthless. That would have been a bad match-up with him in his current state. Red was struggling though, and even within the small glimpse of the fight, Mash saw her suffer three normally fatal blows. For her, it didn’t do anything. She was the natural bane of any purely physical fighter, and it seemed like her opponent fell into that category.

He was too low on the dune to see Jill’s fight but imagined that she would be the first to win. The real problem was that not much time had actually passed. It felt like a while for him, but that was mainly because of how much he was struggling without his skills. In reality, he bet only a minute or two had passed. Mash jumped back as another swing came directed at him. Something was different though, and it took Mash a second to realize what. The phantom sword exploded when it was in front of him, and chains sprung forward wrapping him. Then it felt like he was being pushed towards the ground. It was like he was carrying an immense weight, and Mash struggle to step away as his body was sinking into the sand. He had to keep moving though. He was heavy enough to push some of the sand aside with his movement.

“Everyone always assumes I’m a swordsman or a knight. I’m a mage, just one smart enough to use defensive items and not rely entirely on my skills.”

Was he bragging? Did he actually think that beating someone after handicapping them was impressive? A blade swung down on his head and Mash was too heavy to move quickly. Instead, he raised his hand, trying to bat the blade away with his forearm. An orange flash was accompanied by the smell of burning skin, but he ignored it as he tried to block the phantom blade. He couldn’t do much and attempted to catch the blade with his hands. Before he could do it, the phantom blade sped up, moving faster than the man’s normal swings. Reflexively Mash tried stepping back and ended up falling further down the dune.

The slip managed to save his life, but he took a nasty cut down his body. It started at his shoulder and cut across his body. This one was deep, and blood started staining his clothes. Mash decided that he hated talking while fighting. Mash needed to do something, being on the defensive wouldn’t help him as much when his body was so heavy. He needed to take advantage of the situation somehow. He could try grapples or throws, either should be easier with his additional weight. Plus, it would let him take the initiative. Looking at the joints of the man’s armor, another idea hit Mash.

Mash was getting low on energy, and if Priscilla helped him burn through his energy, then he could hopefully last until hunt kicked in. The added strength would let him deal with the weight, and it would let him surprise Gerard. Hopefully, going on the offensive would be enough for that. As Mash felt the earrings and necklace effects increase, he pushed himself to his feet and toward Gerard. The healing effect helped dull the pain, and the earrings helped him maintain his focus. Gerard was right, Mash should’ve been relying on his items more.

His body burned as he made the motion, the wounds getting stretched as he approached the armored man. As Mash hoped, Gerard was momentarily stunned by the motion. Though he was too experienced to do nothing, and he swung his blade in an upward swing to block Mash. From watching the knights back home, Mash had expected this reaction. It was exactly what he was hoping for, and Mash stepped in and fell with all his weight on the man’s elbow. There was a horrible crunching sound, as the man screamed in pain. The added weight on Mash’s body made his attack even stronger, and the force managed to break the man’s elbow.

Expecting the phantom blades swing, he had an idea of how to deal with it. He took advantage of his storage space in order to block the phantom blade. It destroyed some things within the space, but he didn’t care. It was large enough to swallow the blade. Normally, it took too long to use a storage space defensively. Ultimately, he had guessed where the phantom blade would come from and opened the space preemptively. If the man wasn’t so distracted by his broken arm, then he could have easily landed the strike.

The man was clearly unable to resist the pain, and he was too distracted to react properly. Mash didn’t stop, stepping in while pulling on the broken arm. The pain was obviously affecting Gerard and his reaction was delayed, letting Mash throw him to the ground. The man crushed roughly, sand getting pushed into his helmet in the process. Without hesitating in the slightest, Mash stomped with all his strength on the back of the man’s head. Mash heard a crunch and felt the rush of a level up. Blood pooled around the broken helmet and the man didn’t so much as flinch. Even still, Mash stomped again, spitting some blood on the man.

“Should’ve learned not to rely on items.”