Undaunted, the armored warrior took his charge head on. She met him with a wide swing of her greatsword, forcing Dharen to drop to his knees. He slid in the slick mud, warhammer held across his chest defensively. Unable to gain enough time to readjust, he still managed to bring one foot back under himself as he skated across the muck. He pushed off sharply, sending himself hurtling up inside of the woman’s guard.

With a jarring impact, his shoulder rammed into the woman’s armored stomach from below. Dharen could only thank his increased Vitality for his shoulder’s survival of the maneuver; regardless, the force of the blow dented the heavy armor, sending the woman staggering back on unsteady feet and causing her some breathing difficulty.

Seeing that the shock of his assault had loosened her footing, Dharen let out a sharp kick. He shoved against her, sending her flying with the force. Unfortunately, the blow had a dual effect: in addition to making his opponent lose her footing, Dharen lost his footing as well as he shifted across the slick mud.

Though his pride stung slightly, he recovered quickly from the mishap. With his enhanced agility and low reliance on heavy armor, he was fleet-footed enough to reclaim his bearings in an instant. His opponent, meanwhile, was not so fortunate. She clambered against the slick mud, gauntlets sliding against the shifting surface.

He brought Restraint high in the air, before sending it down in a crushing blow. At the last moment, the woman’s armor glowed a brilliant golden color, providing some manner of defensive capability that allowed the metal to turn his downward swing aside. His hands went momentarily numb as a result of the foiled swing, slowing him enough to allow the warrior to regain her feet.

She picked up her greatsword once more as she did so, wielding it defensively as she warily eyed the space between them. The golden glow that radiated from her armor slowly disappeared.

Dharen was beginning to gain a greater understanding of the enemy’s abilities.

She could display both great strength and defensive capabilities, but the apex of such demonstrations was remarkably short; like a spark, it was aflame one moment and gone the next. For if she were always at peak strength, she could have thrown the Ilcrest aside continually like ragdolls. If she were always at her greatest defense, Dharen would have been unable to dent her armor.

He knew not the limits of her capabilities. Even so, he felt certain that he was the one who held the winning hand. With her sudden defensive boost dissipated, Dharen began to pressure her once more.

As he stepped closer, she stepped in as well, choosing to forgo defense for the moment in favor of greater offense. Regrettably for her, that was a mistake. Her greatsword slashed across Dharen’s body, meeting only air as he twisted his frame accordingly. She attempted to recover by turning the swing’s momentum into the impetus for a new blow, but Dharen had already begun to punish her mistake.

He swung Restraint, landing a heavy blow to her leading shoulder and halting her momentum. Without the defensive strength of her previous ability, the pauldron crumpled inwards. Having lost the use of her right arm, her offense began to crumple in turn.

She became increasingly desperate as her blade slumped with only one hand to steady it. Her armor began to take on a crimson hue, and her previous difficulty wielding the blade one-handed disappeared. Deducing that the ability likely also had a relatively short duration similar to the defensive boost, Dharen opted to bide his time rather than to press in foolishly.

The woman cut and slashed with a growing urgency, but Dharen simply evaded with the aid of his Agility. He dipped and ducked, he dodged and weaved. Soon, just as he suspected, the woman’s ability subsided, her armor returning to its previous gray metallic hue.

With the disappearance of her ability, the woman slowed considerably. Her attacks became unwieldy and predictable, as she began to have great difficulty in balancing the hefty blade with her remaining hand. As a particularly off-balance slash soared past him, Dharen pressed forward to end the fight.

He raised Restraint high. This time, the warhammer’s innate ability activated. It glowed with an arcane light as he swung sharply. As he did so, he activated his new ability: To The Victor, The Spoils. The blunt weapon impacted the woman’s helm, creating a deafening noise that echoed through the jungle, eliciting roars and shrieks from the surrounding wildlife. The warrior’s once-sturdy armored skull caved in, the metal crumpling harshly under the force of the blow.

⥫⥬⥫⥬⥫⥬

To The Victor, The Spoils.

You have claimed your rightful reward.

Boon:

Fleeting Passion

Passion burns brightly, flaring like the Sun before it dissipates, spent.

Provides increased Strength for a short duration, after which the user will suffer increased exhaustion.

⥫⥬⥫⥬⥫⥬

Though he would have preferred to have received the woman’s armor-providing ability for use in an emergency, Dharen was willing to settle for what he had received. Unfortunately, he quickly realised that he would be unable to hold onto the ability for long; activating both Warcry and Challenge had already reduced his available Spirit pool, and his low Wisdom was only providing a comparative trickle of Spirit to refill it. He decided to hold onto the Boon for the moment, but was ready to dismiss it should the drain prove too inconvenient.

Unwilling to let his defeated enemy’s items go to waste, Dharen knelt down and began attempting to remove her armor and check her belongings. He quickly found a small drawstring pouch, tucking it inside of his Spatial Ring for safekeeping.

Anand wrinkled his nose at the sight. “Scrounging for scraps, I see. Just what I would expect from an uncivilized commoner.”

Dharen, without looking up, replied calmly: “And leaving wealth to go to waste is exactly what I would expect from a blindsighted wastrel. ” He paused for a moment before continuing, dismissing the man. “It is a shame that we cannot collect any of her accumulated Contribution Points, however.” Dharen didn’t say it, but he also felt a pang of regret that human soulseeds were not absorbable; for some reason unknown to him, only monster soulseeds sufficed. The number of Awakened corpses in the clearing would have been useful in advancing his Fear Seed.

Riell, standing over her own defeated enemy, agreed. She knelt down to loot the man’s quarterstaff, causing the weapon to disappear with a flick of her fingers. Dharen, having looked in her direction in response to her voice, startled for a moment at the sight. He noticed the Spatial Ring adorning one of her fingers, feeling a pang of envy at the superiority of her enchanted ring. While useful, his own Spatial Ring was relatively limited in capacity; he would not have been able to store such a large weapon within it.

After shrugging lightly, the remaining members of the party - with Anand being the sole exception - retrieved the transportable loot from the respective corpses. They ignored the bodies of the Ilcrest; each of the participating monsters had been Unawakened and thus would provide no soulseeds. Despite that, the beasts had been strong enough to defeat one of the opposing warriors before they were held off. Of course, that was under the aid of an ambush, but Dharen supposed he wasn’t one to judge. They had ambushed their enemy, as well. Simply in a more effective manner.

It was certainly a wake-up call in regards to the strength of the monsters that called the jungle home. Once more, he was reminded of the overwhelming strength that some monsters were able to exhibit in comparison to humans. Dharen had faith that such an ambush might be less dangerous to Ethan and himself; the others, however, might well perish before being given the chance to react. Even Riell, if her absurd luck failed her. After all, she did not constantly keep her Field activated while trekking through the jungle brush, leaving her significantly more vulnerable than in a straight-out fight.

Having completed plundering the bodies and storing away the requisite spoils, they prepared to head out into the jungle once more.

They had run slightly off course, but they were still relatively near their original destination. They only had t - In the distance, a second flash of arcane light erupted. Fortuitously, the source of the flash was in the same direction that they had suspected the Nulzan to be. The assembled warriors looked at one another, before turning towards the light and slinking through the jungle once more.