“Master… Are you sure that's a good idea?”

“Well I haven't gotten to test Gear yet in a duel. Can someone add their mana too him? I know I'll need all my mana to fight against Gobber.”

Pokodo fills Gear up with mana. My automatons can be completely filled up by normal mages but Pokodo probably had to hold back some. Gear springs to life, I put him through some routine commands to see if he's working properly. Everything is in order. We go over the rules. Neither of us can use our pets. Sock is unconscious and I wouldn't want to rely on him anyways. Pokodo, Blue and Morpheus could help. It wouldn't matter if Gobber wasn't challenged by a single person. Well two people including Gear… Three… No four people including Greed and Aegis…

Gobber questions again.

“Are you sure you want to do this master? It could end badly if I can get a clean hit on you, you might even die.”

“It should be fine Gobber, just use your judgment where you think it's necessary.”

We stand across from each other. Around twenty feet is separating. I start going through my pre fight routine. Injecting a tier three stat potion. Activating my three harmonicas. Casting haste on myself and feral roar. Casting gift of the wild on myself and placing my two totem swords into the ground. Enlarging them with control nature to get the full buffs. I'm ready now.

“We can start whenever your ready Gobber.”

“You go first master, I want to see what you have planned.”

I pull out two explosive arrows. Gobber hasn't seen me use these arrow yet. I fire both near his feet. Thinking it's just plain arrows, he makes little effort to avoid them. Boom! Both explode causing slight damage to him. If the totem sword he was using was made out of plain wood it wouldn't have made it through the fire. That surprised Gobber. I rush at him while I still have the buffs. I waited to the last second to finally activate a twenty stack Aegis stat boost and ogre's strength. I pull out my heirloom sword with my spare hand. Still holding the bow in my left and swing at Gobber.

I can shrink my heirloom sword down to it being small enough for me to use both hands. I can fire arrows this way with my sword still available if needed. Gobber must not have realized how strong I would get with Aegis stat boost. He's only ever seen me struggle in fights. Fighting Gobber I have to be completely serious though. I yell at Aegis in my head to fire a bolt. When I attacked with my right hand I positioned my arm perfectly to fire a bolt at him.

I gave Gobber two of the mini wrist crossbows as well and he had the same idea. Firing at me while blocking the arrow. I didn't have to avoid because Gear had blocked for me. He also made four attempts to attack Gobber at once. Gobber jumping backwards to avoid the attacks just in time. I didn't want to have to rely on Gear until my stat boosts wore off. I guess it's to be expected from my strongest general. I would have to use all my trump cards at the perfect time to fight evenly with him. I continue to push the attack yelling.

“Gear! DRILL FORMATION!”

Gear's arms started to spin fast enough for the shields to resemble drills when he did. This attack was not only strong, but armor piercing as well. I could use it to dig straight through the face of the mountain back at the fortress. Gobber hadn't seen anything like this yet. His eyes widened at the sight of the attacking sharp tipped shields. It didn't deter him though. Managing to rush to my right side just in time so he would only have to worry about dodging the three drills on the right side he attacked towards me between the drills.

He picked the wrong side. I easily blocked with Aegis. He jumped back again right before the drills could damage him. He's being far more cautious then when he fought Sock. Gobber prepared his sword again. His stance changed… I'm not sure what that meant. He lunges towards me, shield hand behind his back. Holding the sword in front of him.

Attacking with the tip of his sword. Gear barely managed to get a spinning shield in front to intercept the attack. Sparks are flying from both the drill and the totem sword. Both are the highest quality material I could make them from. Every shield is a strengthened steel shield with a mithril tip attached to it. Gobber was surprised by this again. Jumping back enough to talk.

“Ah, I thought the shields would break if I attacked at full strength. I didn't want to if it wasn't necessary. It's good to see I can continue to go all out.”

That wasn't even a threat but it is still scary how he was worried about going all out at the beginning. I shouldn't be worrying about that right now. What is he planning? Is he going to keep using that thrusting attack? I don't want to worry about either my totem sword or shield to break. He approaches again and I yell out.

“FLOWER FORMATION!”

Gear stops spinning his shields and places them all in front of me to intercept the attack. It easily works, with just enough space for me to see. Gobber was confused by the giant shield that was now formed in front of me. Covering a giant portion in front of me, it would be very difficult to attack me head on. Gobber must have realized that because he started try to run around me. Falling into my other trap.

“DRILL FORMATION!”

Spinning his shields again I also spin to help move the shields with me. Both me shifting and Gear shifting increased the speed of his attacks. One hits Gobber on the side, he was too close trying to get into my blind spot while I guarded. Another portion of his health is knocked off. He jumps back again. I call for a new formation.

“Lotus formation.”

Gear took the flower formation again. Well almost, a hole is left between the shields. Allowing me to fire arrows that I already had prepared. Firing another two explosive arrows at Gobber. This time he ran fast enough to avoid the explosion. He approached me from the side again. I didn't change my formation this time. Pointing both my hands at him, I had prepared my double barrel knife cannons to shoot rocks for this fight. Jumping into the air as Gobber gotten close to me. He still rushed towards me, he didn't see me use these dual cannons either. Boom! The explosion goes out.

He managed to avoid one with his shield but the other one still caught his other shoulder. Right above his indestructible gauntlet. His sword hand should have been weakened from that. Another chunk of health gone from him. No damage done to me yet. Even though he was just injured, he continued to move towards where I would land from my jump. I began to channel an aqua jet towards him. Just before I was in range it launched. Knocking him back and propelling me into the air a tiny amount. Enough for me to land without him underneath me. He's starting too look worn down from this fight. He did participate in a different fight, plus the first raid boss. He could have been tired from that… Or is he doing something different?

“Master. I didn't expect you to be this strong.”

Gobber breathed heavily trying to catch his breath. He shouldn't be this worn out yet, he might have taken forty percent damage but that is nothing for him… Whats wrong.

“Whats wrong Gobber. You seem out of breath. We can conclude this match if you want to.”

“No it's fine… It doesn't have to do with the match… I just haven't gotten much sleep lately… We can continue if you'd like. I've caught my breath.”

With that I fire another two arrows. Just plain arrows this time. Gobber must have been expecting an explosion because he ran again and was confused when there wasn't one. I should try to finish this quickly then, for his sake. I rush to where he was running. I need to be close range for this too work properly. Once in close range I yell.

“Shotgun formation!”

Gear starts to move all his hands to point towards Gobber. Gobber must have realized a big attack was coming because he started to run away before Gear could fire. I had to stop him.

“Lotus formation.”

The second Gobber heard the formation change again he turned around. Charging towards me again. I'm starting to run out of time on my Aegis stat buff. Once it wears off I'll be back to my extremely low stats.

“Shotgun formation.”

Saying this again Gobber went to turn and run but I had also been silent chanting nature magic. Forcing a control nature uppercut opportune strike to knock him back towards me. He barely managed to turn around so his back wasn't facing me just in time to have twenty four arrows shot at him.

Some missed, some were blocked by his shield and gauntlet. Finally six connected, three barely scraping him, the other three sinking into him. Wounding him even further. His health is now below fifty percent health. He was knocked back towards me though! He's going to be close enough to attack!

I jumped back just before he lands his hit. Aegis stat boost wears off at that exact moment.

Shit! What do I do? I have no more trumps left. I doubt I can beat him while I don't have boosted stats. Aegis chimes in.

“Ten percent chi wouldn't kill him.”

Still, am I willing to waste ten percent of my chi on a practice match? That's a few days worth of time meditating to get that high… It is such an expensive move to use. I guess I haven't lost a single time since I've used it. We've been making eye contact this entire time… I almost forgot about one of my moves. Evil eye! It works just enough for him to trip while he is running. He continues to role towards where I am going to land from this jump. Do I not have any other moves I can use? I have nothing less expensive… Fine! I'll use ten percent. I don't want to kill my general though, so I can only use that amount.

He continues to roll towards me, he hasn't gotten his balance yet… Is he alright? Did he run out of fatigue points? If he did this attack might kill him… No he still has the totem sword in his hand. I pull out my sword just in case.

I start channeling chi. Ten percent! I hold the chi wave as he gets closer and rush towards him. He rolls with his face upwards finally. The entire time he was rolling like that was to throw me off! The momentum from rolling would increase his swing strength too! Shit I have to avoid his sword attack. I raise Aegis up to block it if he does, then I'll use the chi wave once he's closer. He swings the sword. I fire the chi wave. He launched a mana blast from his gaunlet! They canceled each other out. I just wasted ten percent of my chi on an attack that didn't connect!

The blast canceled out all of his momentum, he kicked off the ground again to get it back. Without a weapon in his hand, he landed a kick in my chest launching me backwards. Gear had gotten his six shields around me so launching me backwards with the kick had moved Gear enough to cut Gobber six times from the shield tips. A single kick knocked me down eighty percent health! I look up at Gobber. He's almost dead, only fifteen percent health… We're both on the verge of dying… I speak up.

“Let's call it quits for now Gobber…”

“Yea master… Thank you for the amazing fight.”

We both collapse from exhaustion while the rest rush over to help us.