Too Stubborn to Die

Book 4: Chapter 53

When Aaron had first crashed down into the valley, he hadn’t truly realized the scope of the battle he was charging into.

He had seen his cluster companions in a jam, and he did what he thought was right; he had moved to intersect the battle. But now, he was stuck in the middle of a maelstrom, being attacked from all around. And if he tried to leave, that would put Elmira and her party at risk.

“There are way more people than I thought there were,” he muttered to himself between phasing through attacks, and shooting spectral fists, and [ Bombardier Fist ] back at them.

The battlefield was breathtaking, in a terrifying way. There were all manner of Skills going off every second. His senses were completely out of whack, and fate reading was mindblowing to look at. Even with improved intellect, there was just so much information bombarding him when he glanced into fate.

Still, he didn’t really need it. Phasing and dodging worked perfectly fine, and even taking the occasional hit wasn’t such a big deal for Aaron.

And he found himself gawking at all the different Skills. They were quite cool, and he was enjoying the spectacle of it all. There were barriers, trap Skills, and cancellation Skills detonating with every passing second. There were Skill types he had never seen before. He fired a [ Bombardier Fist ] at an enemy position, and a whip-like stream of energy shot out from somewhere beyond cover, and hit his attack. A flash of energy sparked out, and the explosive fist was gone.

“Wow. Not bad.”

[ Bombardier Fist ] wasn’t the most powerful attack ever, or anything. But it did pack a decent explosion. And to see it snuffed out just like that was rather impressive. It reminded him of Yendal’s divine Skill, [ Equal and Opposite ]. But unlike the powerful divine Skill, he didn’t feel a stupid rush of energy, and it was no doubt a Skill actually suited for a D-grade, unlike his, which was well and truly beyond him, and the reason it didn’t quite work as advertised.

Not long after his arrival, Erdek had touched down with Elmira’s people. She had stayed back with them and was now hurling fireballs from their position. It was the perfect option for the damage-dealing spellcaster. She could take advantage of Elmira's protective runes and the rather large ogre lady who was bouncing, using her belly to absorb incoming attacks.

Then, through the corner of his eye, Aaron spotted Ikran. The thal’kesh appeared in the thick of battle, as his ink exploded into his deadly form. It all happened so quickly. Ikran’s deadly attacks shot out, and within a second, several rankers from some other cluster were cut down, and Ikran was gone.

This seemed to enrage some out-of-sight rankers, and several highly powered Skills came shooting at Aaron, blasting him with several damage types.

Aaron phased through the first few, but one strange gaseous attack landed differently, and he was choking up and coughing blood.

“Why the fuck did I get targeted?” Aaron spat blood and fired several quick succession [ Bombardier Fists ] back at them.

Drawing fire away from Elmira’s position and to himself was one thing. But it was a little irritating to watch Ikran teleporting around with his ink, stirring up honest nests just to have them attack Aaron, as Ikran was nowhere to be seen.

Some kind of dark matter attack slammed into his head and sent him spinning. He was now dizzy and sick, and started shouting a particularly obscene series of curses at his attackers as he blasted back with his own attacks.

“Fucking being a tank sucks!”

Although as much as Aaron cursed, and as annoying as it was to remain where he was, painting a big target on his back instead of chasing his enemies down, knowing that his companions were safe because of it, filled him with joy.

There had to be a dozen, maybe dozens of cluster groups fighting over the valley, and each of them likely had a few dozen people within their group. And at the heart of it all, drawing attacks from what seemed like everyone, was Aaron.

“Not you too!” Aaron shouted and wagged a fist.

He couldn’t see his attackers. They appeared to be shooting their Skills from behind a craggy ledge. But he had seen their Skills firing in a different direction not long ago, and it seemed they had turned their attacks on him, like most within the valley.

He had only remained in one spot because he wanted to draw attacks away from Elmira and the others. And now it seemed everyone was getting in on the action.

Aaron started to eat furiously, essentially shoving food down his throat at any moment he wasn’t phasing. And soon, the attacks blowing up all around him were digging a deep trench into the ground, with him at the center.

Luckily, this provided the first reprieve he got. Soon, a hole of destruction had been dug deep enough that many attacks had lost line of sight on him, but the moment that happened, they started attacking Elmira and the others, and as explosions rippled across her barrier, Aaron knew he had little choice.

Jumping onto a rock nearby the mining shaft they were hiding within, Aaron waved his hands, and new attacks came flying his way. But the battle wasn’t one-sided in the least. Erdek, Ikran, Cairon, and Voidrin—who was somewhere out of sight—were culling their attacks by the second.

“Me’s out!” Erdek shouted.

Aaron looked back just in time to see the goblin get swallowed up by System energy and disappear. A second later, Talia was standing where Erdek had been, and shadows started to appear around them.

“Miss me?” Talia asked as she sent a powerful, cleaving strike of shadowy power at their enemies.

“You’re back already. That didn’t take long.”

“Not everybody has your ridiculous energy regeneration,” she said, sending out another cleaving strike.

Aaron didn’t even see or hear Ikran tap out. But seconds later, bubbles began floating across the battlefield.

“Looks like we’ve got another substitute,” Aaron said as he swallowed food.

And as he had surmised, Emmy was more useful in a battle than first appearances might have suggested. Covering the battlefield in bubbles was an annoying obstacle for their enemies to deal with. And on multiple occasions, when they chose to ignore them and instead focused on the rest of the battle, they ended up trapped inside one of the bubbles, and sent floating about.

“Ha. Would you look at that?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Once people were trapped inside bubbles and floating above the battlefield, they became perfect targets, and it wasn’t just their team that was taking the opportunity to shoot them down.

As enemy numbers thinned due to losses, and some groups decided to retreat or flee entirely, the firepower blasting down upon Aaron started to wane. And it was at that moment that he noticed the flashes of System light across the valley.

“Looks like we got more substitutes.”

Swapping out for their substitutes could give the teams some breathing space. But he doubted it would help too greatly. Not unless the top talents of the sector appeared.

Because Aaron, thanks to his cooking episode on the other floor, had plenty of food to keep him going, and his energy cycling was as powerful as it had ever been.

“Keep them coming. I can do this all day!” He shouted out, and a second later, sensed several energy signals fleeing from the valley.

For some, this was a major moment. They realized how far behind the top talents of their sector they were, and they knew they couldn’t win. But not all shared those feelings. And out of nowhere came a powerful aura, shooting toward Aaron faster than he could think.

And just before it reached him, it started to shimmer and split, creating several copies of itself that all attacked at once.

But his attacker didn’t just clone itself. It was damn fast. Perhaps faster than any opponent Aaron had faced up until that moment.

Of course, Aaron was no slowpoke, and he dodged and phased as the myriad of attacks struck out at him from all angles.

The attacker was so fast, seemingly blinking all over the place, that Aaron could barely get a read on them. His fate reading was already difficult to use with all the surrounding noise, and it was only harder since he could barely catch sight of his attacker, and there were more threads of fate than he could count.

He was forced to hold [ Wraith Phase ] for longer than it was designed to avoid getting hit. And after only a second or two of the incredible melee, he let several attacks land, as it was more energy efficient to do so.

And they… didn’t hurt that much.

Pummeling blows flew at him from all directions, and while he still did his best to avoid as many as he could, he found that he could take quite a few hits without taking too much damage.

A blur of action surrounded him as the cloned attackers never stayed still, throwing out thousands of attacks every second.

It would have been bad enough with one of them, but with a dozen super speed attackers all coming at once, it was simply too much to fathom.

But after several seconds, and eating more punches than he could count, Aaron managed to get a good enough read with [ Pinpoint Accuracy ] to see who his attack was.

And to his surprise, it was a bunny dude.

As the fight went on, Aaron allowed more and more of the strikes to land, instead focusing on a counter. His opponent was a pure speed build and not very strong. But that didn’t help if he couldn’t land an attack.

He focused with all his attention. Fate was too distracting, and so he had to work with the basics, reading his opponent as Yendal taught.

His body was being peppered all over, and he was draining reserves to deal with it, but it wasn’t without purpose, and the moment he spotted his opportunity, he struck.

It was a cascading series of attacks, a deadly combination. It used haymakers, spectral punches, bombardier fists, and soul-shattering strikes. All the attacks were lined up perfectly.

He wasn’t using a trap Skill, but he was taking a page out of Lord Draxas’ book to ensnare his enemy in his ambush, and when he released his attacks, they set off a chain reaction of destruction, taking out several bunny clones in an instant, and sending a haymaker that whizzed close enough to the real bunny to send them flying backward from the shockwave.

But perhaps most importantly for the curious Aaron, he got a chance to inspect the lightspeed bunny.

Raggots Duffy [ Level 142 ]

Titles: [ Leviathan Slayer ] [ Traveler ]

“Duffy? I’ve heard that name! Wait, you’re a bunny, too. That—”

Raggots—the bunny—didn’t stop attacking just because Aaron started speaking, but with half his clones destroyed, and Aaron starting to piece his reads together, the following exchange lasted only a second or two before Aaron managed to land a kick into the bunny’s belly, sending him flying backward.

“What I was trying to sa—”

“I don’t care! You’re nothing but a prized trophy to me!” Raggots said, and in less than a blink, the bunny flew straight back into battle against Aaron.

Aaron had seen it coming, though. And was more than happy to exchange blows, destroying three more clones, and knocking the bunny off balance.

“No, I mean I know you!” Aaron said, phasing in and out of battle as he sent another powerful strike at Raggots. “Or at least I think I do.”

The bunny didn’t reply; instead, it seemed to burst with additional power, creating three more clones and charging straight back toward him.

Raggots continued his super speed assault. But the bunny had never fought somebody like Aaron. It wasn’t just Aaron’s durability, either. He was fast, and unlike anybody Raggots had fought before, he had managed to read his movements. Also, his gauntlets were rather annoying to deal with. They applied their energy-sapping effect even when Aaron’s strikes barely landed, and for someone who didn’t focus on energy, it quickly sapped away at his strength.

“Wait, do you know Clementine? She’s a bunny, too. We’re pretty good friends, and I’m pretty sure her name was Duffy, too.”

“Do not think that mentioning my sister will bring you any mercy,” the bunny snorted, stopping for only a second or two to catch his breath. “I have over three hundred siblings.”

“Fuck. That’s gotta do something to your psyche. Talk about middle child syndrome.”

Raggots didn’t acknowledge the comment, but he did the fist that followed. The bunny had tried to engage Aaron again with his speed, but had walked straight into a fist that slammed into his stomach, and sent him reeling.

“Me and Clementine were friends in the trials. She helped me barter. Got me some good deals.”

“Shut up and fight!”

Raggots charged again and were once more struck immediately.

“Hey, do you know if Clementine is here? It’d be cool to catch up.”

“No!” Raggots coughed and spat. Falling to his knees, he stared down at his knees. “How?”

“She didn’t enter the dungeon? Why not? Surely she got a pass, didn’t she?”

“She gave up her spot. damn spot! Forget my sister, I am your opponent,” Raggots said, climbing back to his feet.

“Really? Gave up on all of this? That’s a bummer.”

“My sister runs the mercantile clan for our bunny kingdom. She has no need to be doing dungeon dives! Now shut up and fight me!”

Unfortunately for Raggots, he had taken too many hits and slowed down far too much. Not that it really mattered. Aaron had made his reads now, and when the bunny tried to attack again, it was as if Aaron knew exactly where the punch would fly and countered appropriately.

It was only a weak punch, though. But it was still enough to topple Raggots over, who was all in on speed.

Aaron had long ago decided that killing in self-defense was acceptable. But Clementine was a friend. And even if she did have over three hundred siblings, he wasn’t so quick to kill her brother.

Maybe that will finally knock some sense into this stubborn bunny.

“Can we talk n–”

BOOM! An explosion rippled out, blasting the ground between them and interrupting Aaron.

“Fucking hell. Give me a minute,” Aaron huffed and shot off toward their attackers.

Too many had died, and too many had fled, and so his tanking abilities were no longer needed, and he could leave Elmira and her group for a bit.

It only took Aaron a second to deal with the advantageous attacker, but when he turned back, Raggots was gone.

“Oh, bummer. Why’d he leave?”

He was a little annoyed. He wanted to ask how things on their world had gone. But it seemed Raggots really never gave up.

“Aaron!” Elmira called out, dragging him away from his musings, and the moment he did, he felt the rush of incalculable energy charging toward them.

“What the…”

Aaron’s face twisted. This aura. This energy. It was like nothing else. It was in a world of its own, and then, a smile formed.

“Took you bloody long enough.”