As he saw the clock reach a big red zero, Aki couldn’t help but smile below his helmet. He didn’t even want to use the thing, but he didn’t have any other face protection, so that was that.

The clouds above condensed, dropping down in one direct discharge that scorched the earth it hit, the blast bending several trees all around. More importantly though, that had not been lightning or anything, but a person with green, shimmering scales and rainbow eyes that constantly changed colors.

His face was like that of a reptile, but he had no apparent tail, though he was clearly well built as his casual shorts and open shirt left little to the imagination. Tongue tasting the air, he looked at his prey.

“Another human. Great. Any speeches you want to get out before we begin?” Sighed the man with a deep voice as he got up from his knees. They had half an hour, but with the heretic standing right in front of him and doing nothing, the timer had not yet started.

“Well, I do want to question how strong you’d consider your current self. I just heard about tribulations being done through people employed by the system, better warriors with several restrictions put on them.” Aki shrugged.

“One of those then, I see. Well, then there’s indeed a chance we will be seeing each other again later on. By the way, I'm at around a third of my total stats, though my skill levels haven’t gone below half, so congratulations on getting this far.” His opponent snorted, getting into a battle stance, despite his relaxed expression and tone.

Aki just nodded, a very ugly smile on his face.

“I will take that as about twelve to thirty times weaker than normal.” He commented. This was a one in a billion chance, and even if he failed, he’d enjoy the experience. Taking out his helbard, Aki approached his tribulation, all his desire leaking through the seams.

Going down on him with a downward swing, Aki was not surprised at all that his fully buffed strike was simply defended against, a jab coming for his neck. Really, he’d been counting on it since his weapon was a disposable explosive. The force was only just enough to make his opponent miss and cloud his vision however, but the molten metal from the weapon flew into his joints, linking his wrist and arm in the defensive position he’d used.

The lizardmen’s muscles became taut, almost breaking the restraints before a burst attack from a punch could have his shoulder twist a bit more than ninety degrees to the right. Wincing, it kicked the badly positioned young man with plenty of strength, only to find him already flying away from him. More specifically, from the metal that still clung to his wrist and forearm.

‘This is going to be a bit more difficult than i thought.’ He noted, the mostly physical damage going straight through his scales and almost no mana coming to him.

“Mana leaching from spell exposure? Nice!” Aki grinned before throwing several knives, all of which were dodged despite the help of magnetic aim towards his enemy. Not that it mattered as all of them exploded soon after coming close enough, coating him in metallic fragments seemingly gluing themselves to him, soon joining his arms together and making it harder to approach his head and left leg from his linked arms.

Not that that was a problem for long though, as soon enough Aki landed feet first on his face, stomach to fetters and upper body latching onto his left leg before starting to twist himself around, keeping his opponent's mandible away from him as he started to twist his foot, knee and then hip away despite the resisting force screasing again and again, a rainbow light shining bellow their scales until a blast of light and force sent him flying away.

Carrying most of the scales in that foot, which was now rather bloody and completely twisted.

"Even if you're not a full mage, this is ridiculous." Grumbled the lizardmen as he stood on his unbroken knee and activated his version of Second wind, his leg twisting back into place and forcing him to let out a scream of pain before he stood up again. Seeing the Heretic was still getting up, he breathed in and shot an iridescent beam at him.

He didn't dodge, simply lifting a hand and taking in the beam despite his armour obviously heating up and even shining as his attack partially cascaded through him and hit the ground and trees around, setting plenty of the surrounding vegetation ablaze and shocking the tribulation.

"Wow, I honestly didn't expect that to work. Guess what fuck face, you're not the only one who's resistant to magic." The young man laughed, his irritating voice prompting him to increase the beam's power, sending his opponent staggering and rolling back to the ground as the armour started to become scarlet.

He had been overconfident, but so had the brat. Enhancing his body, Varamar leaped forward and stomped the closed helmet into the…

As his body made contact with the metal, it turned liquid entrapping him despite his attempts at running away and firing at it. Several explosions happened at his back however, halting his aerial momentum and sending more metal against his body.

He exploded with energy again, sending most of the metal away, but some of it stuck and even more shards hit him from the side as the almost liquid metal he'd removed floated up to him and warped his body like a constrictor snake.

Uncaring about the cost, the veteran tribulation soon found himself in a forest filled with molten metal, everything burning as he had to repeatedly destroy weaponry being thrown at him while digging away the metal persistently trying to cling to his body.

He'd lost a bit of health and stamina, but his attacks were all fed by his opponent's mana, the materials he'd used on the attack high quality, but unable to be further saturated with mana and unmoldable.

Perhaps he'd set up a few more traps, but… *Thunk*

Seeing that the lizardmen had fallen unconscious, Aki took mana from a puddle of metal and quickly sent it to strangle and twist the tribulation's neck out of their body.

As the silvery coils reached him, the man didn't even flinch, but as his head started to turn the wrong way due to his new collar, panicked eyes shot open only for him to cough blood as he tried to blast the metal away. Then it finally dawned on him. He was getting far too little mana from these spells and his own pool was practically empty save a few points. His resources were much lower than he'd thought.

Without mana, he could only scratch the collar as it slowly lifted him in the air and choked the life out of him, more metal soon restraining his arms for long enough that he could not tear the thing out.

*Crack*

He wouldn't die so easily, but he sure could feel that he’d die soon, already the darkness clouded his senses. Even as his neck broke, he tried to think of a way to kill the Heretic, a way to escape, to suck more mana, to survive just one more moment…

*Crunch*

[You have killed Varamar, the arcane rainbow tribulation {Lv 49 (Lv 99)}. Due to special circumstances, you will not receive any experience for this kill.

You have successfully overcome your tribulation.

You have several new paths available]

“Lea, I’m done here, but I'm about to pass out so I might need a lift.” Aki grinned as he talked through his connection. His face was currently very bloody as he had used a lot of mental power to try and reduce the amount of mana in his manipulation to minimum all the while changing his opponent's perception, but he was pretty close to full in all resources right now, only exhaustion keeping him from being perfectly fine.

……….

Ocissus Aki

Class: N/A

Lv: 0 (100%)

HP (R per hour): 590/590 (56,7)

MP (R per hour): 1716/1716 (240,1)

SP (R per min): 430/430 (56,7)

Vitality: 59

Endurance: 43

Strength: 25

Agility: 26

Perception: 15

Intelligence: 130

Willpower: 125

Focus: 53

Control: 125

Wisdom: 85

Free points: 0

Physical skills:

Champion {Humanity} (G) Lv 76

Running Lv 22

Brawling Lv 78

Kicking Lv 21

Screaming (O) Lv 42

Rage (O) Lv 70

Dodge Lv 67

Fitness Lv 67

Parry Lv 39

Athletics Lv 67

Sneak Lv 67

Arcane power blow (Y) Lv 83

Powerful arcane body (Y) Lv 126

Swimming Lv 6

Equip Lv 99

Climbing Lv 14

Halberd sweep Lv 14

Halberd thrust Lv 9

Halberd deflect Lv 7

Haste Lv 61

Choke Lv 38

Rolling Lv 35

Spells:

Mana orb (O) Lv 129

Detoxify Lv 18

Arcane grimoire (G) Lv 131

Regeneration (O) Lv 122

Degeneration (O) Lv 46

Embered strike Lv 54

Lance of the four elements (Y) Lv 98

Fragments of Regret (Y) Lv 42

Boom juice (O) Lv 21

Disinfecting field (O) Lv 13

Infernal blisters (O) Lv 24

Screaming tundra (Y) Lv 81

Crying tempest (Y) Lv 22

Bleeding core (Y) Lv 22

Specter’s breath (Y) Lv 31

Dark blood (O) Lv 51

Unending falls (O) Lv 41

Blood carriers (O) Lv 32

Carriers of suffering (Y) Lv 67

Embers of creation (G) Lv 32

Spring of eternity (G) Lv 25

Breeze of fall (G) Lv 44

Sediments of endurance (G) Lv 52

Beacon of light (G) Lv 1

Maw of darkness (G) Lv 22

Painful moments (Y) Lv 34

Hydrogen-mana connection (Y) Lv 31

Redirection (G) Lv 47

Wind tunnel (Y) Lv 34

Silphyan blessing Lv 41

Masteries:

Lord of death (B) Lv 172

*Deal with the devil* Kakegurui (B) Lv 94

Inspire {Humanity} (G) Lv 64

Mana sight Lv 172

Advanced mana weaving (Y) Lv 173

Mana compression (O) Lv 107

Multicasting (O) Lv 91

Extract mana (Y) Lv 77

Prolonged casting (O) Lv 69

Delayed casting (O) Lv 39

Underground survival (O) Lv 22

Improved earth affinity (O) Lv 94

Improved wind affinity (O)Lv 81

Improved fire affinity (O) Lv 67

Improved water affinity (O) Lv 63

Improved shadow affinity (O) Lv 32

Improved light affinity (O) Lv 46

Improved arcane affinity (G) Lv 174

Wield hammer Lv 42

Wield shield Lv 32

Wear armour Lv 77

Wield sword Lv 6

Wield halberd Lv 35

Battle proficiency Lv 96

Forced skill overcharge (G) Lv 43

Flying mount riding (O) Lv 80

Rider’s link (Y) Lv 51

Undead knight (Y) Lv 37

Soft fall (O) Lv 27

{System:

Base system manipulation (Unique) Lv 21.

Aether manipulation (C) Lv 6.}

{Craft:

Massage Lv 41

Cleaning Lv 22

Intensive care (O) Lv 98

Armour crafting Lv 66

Weapon crafting Lv 21

Dismantling Lv 51

Teaching Lv 19

Guided transmutation (G) Lv 147

One man construction crew (Y) Lv 21

Metallurgy Lv 54

Alchemical binding Lv 26

Macgyver Lv 31

First aid Lv 76

Negotiate Lv 29

Material refinement (O) Lv 22

Swift ride (O) Lv 12

Steady rush Lv 10}

Resistances:

Fear resistance Lv 81

Pain resistance Lv 132

Fire resistance Lv 52

Poison resistance Lv 63

Arcane resistance Lv 62

Sleep resistance Lv 42

Ice resistance Lv 13

Acid resistance Lv 59

Resilient soul (Y) Lv 34

Mental:

Psychopath (Y) Lv 177

Arcanum (C) Lv 156

Cold calculation (O) Lv 89

Biology Lv 66

Geographical survey Lv 31

Deep intricate analysis (Y) Lv 85

Inner peace (Y) Lv 168

Engineering Lv 12

Social:

Idol {Humanity} (G) Lv 39

Regality (O) Lv 56

Taunt Lv 79

Intimidate Lv 106

Humiliate Lv 72

Persuade Lv 53

Charm Lv 57

Diplomacy (O) Lv 55

Nobility (O) Lv 41

Kissing Lv 25

Dominate Lv 21

Sexual stamina (O) Lv 43

Fingering Lv 23

Licking Lv 22

Pleasure (O) Lv 63

Skill points: 1210

Paths:

Explorer I (0/10)

Fearless I (0/20)

Trapper (0/40)

Pursuer (0/50)

Heavy defender I (0/50)

Cold blooded (0/100)

Elementalist (0/100)

Elemental Lance (0/100)

Transmuter (0/200)

Magical sight I (0/50)

Meditation III (0/250)

Blood warlock (0/250)

Greatest genius (0/????)

Pain immunity II (0/50)

Weather warlock (0/250)

Enterprising dungeoneer (0/100)

Solo dungeoneer (0/100)

Dungeon master (0/1000)

Intimidating I (0/50)

Hammer warrior I (0/50)

Halberdier I (0/50)

Tireless (0/100)

Charming I (0/50)

Lover I (0/20)

Masagist I (0/20)

Sadist I (0/50)

Kisser I (0/20)

Heretic XXVI (0/676)

Magus (0/500)

Metalsmith (0/250)

Magical smith (0/500)

Death knight (0/500)

Knight (0/250)

Charger (0/100)

System technician (0/???)

Lord of carnage (0/1000)

Defier (0/???)

Mind mage (0/250)

Goliath hunter (0/2500)