Bronze Killing Aura boosted by 1200 points in Martial characteristics has FAILED TO SUPPRESS your own!

Radiated Aura reveals your opponent’s build!

Minose Trueblood. Rank 10 Bronze (Cultivator/Classer hybrid) - 350 Strength / 350 Vitality / 200 Quickness / 200 Finesse / 100 Perception / 200 Spiritual Energy

You have dodged Meteor Fist!

You have shin-checked roundhouse kick! - Blow-through damage causes one Light Wound.

You have shin-checked roundhouse kick! - Blow-through damage causes one additional Light Wound.

You have (barely) dodged: Crescent Kick!

Find Weakness skillcheck made.

You have successfully struck opponent’s Solar Plexus!

Fire Fist!

Fire Fist!

Your foe is temporarily stunned!

Eric’s roar was equal part fury, terror, and glorious release.

Never had he felt closer to oblivion than when dodging under a Bronze-tier cultivator’s fist somehow radiating the essence of a boulder hurtling from the heavens, just knowing it could instantly obliterate him, no matter what their stats implied.

Eric's legs were already throbbing horribly. For the first time in forever, he was forced to pay the price for having focused almost entirely on punching, with zero focus paid on kicks, save for Pavel doing his best to at least teach him how to shin check angle kicks and roll with the blows. Lessons that had already saved him from at least a few broken ribs and crippled thighs. But he was already in pain, both of them embracing Battle-time as best they could, and it was only Eric’s absolute emphasis on speed above all else that had him surviving his foe’s monstrous blows.

Both natural Quickness and his Speed Racer enhancement proved absolutely crucial to his continued survival, having earned a surprised glare when he first pivoted past what would have been a skull-cracking kick before twisting around to slam a Fire Fist against the minotaur’s flank.

But it was clear that Ascension to Bronze went far beyond stats, because Eric’s own pounding blows caused bruises, but no bones shattered. No flesh exploded under super-heated flame.

Eric, on the other hand, had to duck and weave and dodge endlessly, knowing that a single Qi-enhanced punch from a Bronze-tier opponent could and would utterly obliterate him. Blows that came so close to tearing his head right off his neck on more than one occasion.

Minose’s attacks were, in fact, radiating such potent killing energy that Eric couldn’t help but sense to an exquisite degree the complex weave of potencies comprising each deadly strike.

If nothing else, it was painfully obvious that Eric dare not take his attention off those impossibly deadly fists for even a second.

Which of course set him up perfectly for his opponent’s savage kicks. And it was that deadly alternating combination, and what were no doubt years, perhaps decades of martial training, that had Minose forcing him so badly on the backfoot, no matter Eric’s advantage in Quickness.

Side-kick sends you flying! Vitality check successful. You have avoided Critical Injury!

Then Eric found himself flying as System messages blinked across his interface, having embraced Pavel’s lessons on how to flow in battle and roll with his opponent’s blows, his old mentor’s sage advice all that was saving his life now.

Though he knew, as alarm bells shrieked warning inside his head, that what he needed to do was pick his dazed self off the ground and MOVE!

Because his opponent was about to pile-drive him into the stone floor.

You have successfully dodged crushing blow!

The air rang with the minotaur’s amused laughter.

“A most entertaining fight, Eric! Or perhaps I will call you Mouse? You scurry quite well, Mouse! Darting in and out, honing my ability to hit annoying gnats, if nothing else!”

Eric grinned, spitting out a loose tooth. “True! Because those meteor roundhouses of yours are not something I want to get hit with!”

The minotaur chuckled coldly, cracking his knuckles. “Indeed you don’t. Shall we continue?”

Eric smirked, dipping his head even as he cautiously approached. “Why not? Though I can’t help but wondering...”

“Yes?” Smirked the minotaur, clearly feeling the master of the engagement, for all that he too was breathing like a bellows. It was obvious that he was enjoying himself as well.

“Seeing as they hit a hell of a lot harder than my puny Fire Fist...”

“Indeed they do!”

“I’m guessing they also take a lot out of you too.”

The minotaur’s condescending smirk froze into a cold snarl. “All it takes is one hit, half-blood.”

Eric’s grin widened, even if he could sense Emily’s panicked thoughts, thanks to both Party interface and the deeper connection they had once shared. “Yeah, that’s another thing. I couldn’t help but note that those sweet, sweet, ridiculously deadly meteor punches are radiating a fuck-ton of Spiritual energy.”

“Ha! Indeed they are, Half-blood! The difference between Basic and Bronze is like comparing heaven and earth, Mouse!”

“Sure,” Eric said with a mocking smile. “OR Spiritual Qi and a good strong dash of Arcane Potency as well. Am I right?”

The minotaur’s eyes glared with sudden heat, his indulgent smirk turning hard and cold. “You set the terms, half-blood. Any attack channeling Spiritual energy is permitted, as all of mine do! For mine is a hybrid art. The best of both worlds!”

Eric solemnly dipped his head. “Understood. I accept this interpretation.”

“As if you had a choice, fool!” The minotaur roared, and Eric’s heart pounded as terror filled his veins.

Essence of Dominion enhances Will Check! You have successfully saved against Aura Shout!

Quickness check: Success!

Emily’s scream lingered in the air as the minotaur seemed to blur through the air, just as Eric was struck by the roar.

Yet the triumphant bellow the minotaur gave was short lived when a spear-hand strike radiating all the power of a charging herd hit nothing at all.

It was just an instant of confusion in a veteran of scores of battles, but more than long enough for the air to flash with fire, as Eric demonstrated the perils of overcommitting.

Burst of Strength in Effect!

Your Strength has (temporarily) Doubled!

Fire Fist!

Fire Fist!

You have critically struck your opponent’s kidney!

The minotaur roared with pain, stumbling as Eric’s fist hit far harder than it ever had before.

And still he held back from his ultimate attack, determined to ascend upon baseline skills alone.

Even when the minotaur’s spinning backhand strike somehow managed to catch Eric completely off-guard, sending him flying.

And this time the minotaur was already charging and roaring, horns lowered to gore as Eric tumbled to the ground, inertia assuring a long tumbling slide his opponent would have no problem predicting and intercepting, silver-tipped horns ripping through the air.

Yet they encountered no trace of Eric’s flesh… for he had already darted away despite his violent tumble, as if inertia had no hold on him at all.

Vitality check made. You have avoided utter disorientation!

Speed Racer Boon in effect.

You have dodged your opponent’s goring attack!

You have weaved past haymaker.

You have critically struck kidney!

Quickness check made!

The minotaur’s powerful fists tore through the air in a violent weave of hooks, jabs, and overhand crosses. Enough to shatter Eric’s nose and clip his cheek, even as he weaved and darted back.

Only now there was a fierce smile on his face, despite the blood and missing teeth. Because yes, his foe’s blows were definitely harder to predict, and far more free-form than the rigid, potency-infused attacks before.

Which meant that Eric was now getting clocked by a 350 Strength minotaur with years of training. But it was equally clear that Minose’s meteor showers was finally at an end.

And Eric’s had just begun.

Fire Fist!

Fire Fist!

You have critically struck your foe!

The air became a blistering blur of furious heat as Eric weaved and struck with all his pent up force and fury, no longer having to hold back for fear that his opponent’s fists would instantly spell his doom.

Break his nose, smash his teeth, partially deafen him? Sure.

But for every punch Eric allowed Minose to land, his opponent received multiple blows to the kidney, solar plexus, or right under his floating ribs, until his opponent was wheezing, eyes bloodshot, with blood bubbling out of his nose as he lurched and stumbled.

Eric dared the tiniest of smiles. The slightest of grins.

Because his foe’s deadly barrage had petered out, and his had just begun.

Then he froze when the minotaur chuckled coldly, realizing things would never be quite that simple when competing against Bronze-tier monsters.

The minotaur's cold chuckle turned to a furious, bloodthirsty roar.

Eric cursed vehemently under his breath, realizing that their fight was just getting started.

“I will tear you limb from limb, half-blood, and ascend upon your shredded corpse!” Minose roared as his muscles began to ripple and bulge before Eric’s very eyes, skin turning a deep ocher hue.

“Eric!” Emily’s voice brought home just how perilous the situation truly was.

Eric’s euphoric high snapped back into ice-cold focus.

A single mistake now as his foe’s body infused with a berserker’s Strength and Quickness would mean both his death, and his companions.

It was time to stop holding back, and make use of a power tied to Spiritual energy and so much more that he had fought so hard to make his own. Even if it cost him the Cultivation Level he sure as fuck had earned, and then some, what mattered was keeping his friends alive.

And, of course, clearing the dungeon.

“Hey Minose! About those hybrid abilities of yours. There’s something you should know!”

But Minose was too lost in the throws of battle-rage to pay any heed to Eric’s words. Though his lips did curl in a satisfied smile when Eric raced right to him.

Minose chuckled coldly. “You seek to supplicate yourself before me? Too late, half-blood! We will revel in this fight to the bitter end, you and—“

“Fragor!” Eric roared, embracing every iota of his being into pushing his singular psionic attack so good at rupturing barriers and enemy skulls to the ultimate test. Because it too was a hybrid attack, even if it used three, not two, sources of energy.

Minose had opened the floodgates to interpretation, and damn if Eric wouldn’t be swimming in red by the end of it.

It was an attack sufficient to make his fearsome foe flinch, but little more, breaking off eye-contact for the precious moments needed to orient to an attack unlike anything the creature had ever encountered before. A Psionic strike that could effect even the physical realm. An attack mastered by a race whose arts had been utterly alien, even to the local System. An unorthodox skill Eric had altered further still, before making it his own. And Eric could tell he had actually managed to surprise the experienced killer before him. Even if he had done little more than the metaphoric equivalent of kick sand in Minose’s eyes, and he had absolutely no doubt that his roaring foe was now determined to make him pay for both the pain and the insult.

Of course, Eric wasn’t stupid. He had no doubt that even when embracing a Psionic paradigm, his foe’s id, ego, and superego would enjoy near complete immunity to pretty much everything, thanks to the System having blessed the minotaur tribe with near unbreakable skulls. A strength that must only grow as their race ascended.

But Eric’s testing probe had told him exactly what he needed to know.

His most unorthodox attack could pierce even a Bronze titan’s wards, even if it did little against their strongest defenses.

Yet Psionic resonance or no, Eric’s goal wasn’t to rupture his opponent’s skull. His real target was Minose’s most precious prize that he was arrogant enough to leave on display. Perhaps it was a way of culturally showing off, proving to fellow males that he could guard it so well that he need not even hide it. And once it became clear that Eric couldn’t kick for shit, Minose hadn’t bothered guarding it at all.

So when Eric charged forward during the split-second that Minose reflexively covered his eyes, it was knowing damn well what awaited him if he dared close with a monster who had just doubled his strength, however temporarily.

Fortunately, he knew exactly what he had to do.

“Fragor!”

Furious cries and bellows were replaced by the sound of a tire exploding, the patter of rain, and an agonized bleat as Minose crashed to the ground, ball sack ruptured by a Psionic attack that could rupture the skull of a fiftieth level creature effortlessly, or shatter a steel door.

And a furious Eric knew better than to stop screaming that word even as he pounced upon the curled up minotaur and began pounding the absolute fuck out of his opponent’s spine and back with a whirlwind of blows.

Burst of Strength is in effect once more!

You have chained Fire Fist 47 Times!

You have ruptured multiple internal organs and depleted your Psionic Reserves & Soul Reserves.

You have incapacitated your opponent!

YOUR OPPONENT HAS SURRENDERED!