Chương 46: Poison (6)
The woman took out a glinting black dagger from her belt.
Her eyes glinted with anticipation.
She felt a bit sorry for the young Throskart, but that was it.
This was a top secret operation.
Nothing could be leaked.
There were no exceptions.
Even a person with her status would be severely punished should word of their experiments get out.
Her dagger shimmered in the air as it ruthlessly stabbed down towards Otto's head.
But Otto was long prepared.
He silently dual cast two spells with his back facing the enemy.
<Basic Target: Unlimited>
Space Element
Level 10
Lock the space surrounding an enemy to ensure the next attack will definitely hit.
Mana Cost: 35
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
<Winding Restrictions>
Wind Element
Level 10
Encircle enemies with forceful wind to restrict their movement and limit their speed in all directions by 55%.
Mana Cost: 125
Duration: 3 minutes
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
In the split second as the dagger approached his head, Otto shot off his <Basic Target> an instant before casting the clincher, <Winding Restrictions>.
Invisible tendrils of wind encircled the woman's limbs, reducing her speed by more than half.
The dagger paused for a second in midair as the woman's arm shook, feeling a sudden resistance to her swing.
Otto immediately took this chance to <Blink> behind her.
The woman was so stunned by the sudden reversal that she subconsciously froze for a scant split second.
But even a split second could be a deadly poison in the midst of a high speed battle.
It was at this moment that Otto's <Dark Bind> hit her full in the chest.
<Dark Bind: Unlimited>
Dark Element
Level 10
Bind a target with shadow and immobilize their limbs. Requires (200 + 19% magic power/5) Strength to escape.
Mana Cost: 114
Duration: 10 seconds
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
Chains of shadow materialized in front of her, then rapidly curled around all four of her limbs and her chest.
By the time she finally reacted, her body was already bound by Otto's spell.
Her face contorted into a ghastly grimace when she realized she had trouble moving.
Her eyes hardened.
She felt that this boy was no simple opponent.
But she was no pushover, either.
Her muscles bulged and the shadow tendrils emitted cracking sounds one by one before they shattered in under a second under her might.
Of course, Otto wouldn't let her escape his control so easily.
Two spells shot toward her at the same time.
<Weakening Ray: Unlimited>
Dark Element
Level 10
Conjures a dark element ray that weakens the enemy. Adds up to two minor negative status debuffs.
Mana Cost: 50
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
<Dark Curse: Unlimited>
Dark Element
Level 10
Curse the enemy, causing their maximum health, stamina, mana, and energy to decrease by (100 + 10% magic power).
Mana Cost: 125
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
Otto poured mana into the latter spell then shot them at the woman with lightning speed while she was still restrained.
Both spells hit her dead on.
The woman's face paled slightly, but her struggles intensified.
She let out a wild scream as the chains began to snap from her efforts.
Otto calmly prepared to dual cast two of his most powerful attack spells.
To take her out in a single shot.
He didn't take his eyes off of the woman for even a single second.
So he didn't miss the sliver of joy and schadenfreude that appeared in her eyes.
Right before Otto completed his cast, his instincts suddenly screamed in alarm.
A huge threat was approaching from behind!
Otto didn't hesitate to cancel the attack spells he was preparing to cast.
He was about to blink away on instinct when his mind turned.
There was a better option.
A shield made of orange fire surrounded Otto's body before a black streak slammed down on his back.
The black streak was rebounded by the shield of fire.
Otto heard a cry of pain from behind him as the damage reflection connected.
It was <Fiery Reflection>.
<Fiery Reflection: Unlimited>
Fire Element
Level 15
Fire encircles the caster to block and return two attacks up to 15,000 damage in their entirety.
Mana Cost: 375
Duration: 10 seconds
Cast Time: Instant
No Cooldown
Otto first blinked away to create some distance from his attacker.
His first thought was that he might have two attackers.
He cast a glance at the woman still bound by his shadow tendrils.
And quickly realized that he had underestimated her.
The figure caught inside the black tendrils was gone.
She had melted into the air and disappeared.
Otto looked at the woman who had snuck up behind him at some point.
It was the same woman he'd been fighting.
Her face was contorted in a horrifying grimace that reflected the pain and damage he'd done with his <Fiery Reflection>.
He also breathed a small sigh of relief when he realized that she had indeed been hit by his initial <Winding Restriction>.
It seemed she had instantly cast some sort of substitution or clone spell right after being hit by his restriction.
Perhaps even her 'freezing' for that split second was also an act.
Hmph. Fine.
He could admit that she had some moves.
Otto knew that Throskarts didn't have the magic network required to cast elemental spells.
As far as he knew, unless they entered the <Tower>, this rule was absolute.
So she hadn't cast a shadow spell or anything of the sort.
Otto had subconsciously believed that the only spells Throskarts were able to cast were spells like <Mana Bolt> which sent transparent projectiles at an enemy.
Since they didn't have the <Tower> helping them learn magic, they had to do it all on their own.
He figured that was perhaps the best they'd come up with.
But Otto had forgotten.
How would they have made such extensive magic tools if their knowledge of magic was limited to this?
The Throskarts that were participating in the game show, other than a select few like that old Lucretia woman Otto had killed, were from the dregs of society.
They participated in this survival game show for many reasons.
Some wanted to commute their sentence and gain freedom on the show, others were forced to become contestants after committing some horrible crime, while still others were deeply in debt or needed huge amounts of money.
For these people, this 'game' show provided a path to life.
But it didn't mean they had extensive resources at their disposal.
So Otto only saw this one type of spell from the vast majority of Throskarts he'd fought.
Even the stronger ones he'd faced could basically only use spells like <Mana Shield> or <Lesser Body Enhancement>.
But this woman was different.
She had access to all the resources she wanted.
This obviously included spell models and tomes.
He had initially treated her as a threat with a powerful body he'd have to stay away from.
Quite frankly, using gaming terms, he had been planning to kite her to death.
But now that she knew magic, he might have to get a little more creative…
His lips unconsciously drew up into a smile.
Perhaps she would be a worthy opponent.
Agatha rested her eyes on the boy in front of her with malice.
Different than the expression he'd showed to her a minute ago, his demeanor now was obviously his true self.
Smirk pulling at his lips, standing lazily, but without weakness, calm gaze scrutinizing, probing for flaws he could use.
Agatha was pissed at being taken for a ride.
But she was even more angry that this boy was strong enough to fight her at all.
She couldn't remember the last time she had been defeated in combat.
It didn't feel good.
Her voice was cold,
"You knew of my intention."
Otto's smirk deepened,
"Well, when you greet someone with such a strong intention to kill, it's a bit difficult not to figure it out, if you know what I mean."
Otto raised his brow, and bowed mockingly at her,
"I'm just here for the bead, dear lady. If you give me the bead, I'll go away, and we can all live happily ever after."
But then, as if Otto was afraid she would choose not to fight him, he cut his finger with a small conjured mana knife.
Bright red blood dripped out.
Agatha's eyes widened.
"You're…a human?!"
"Hehe. Indeed."
Otto casually spouted some bullshit,
"We humans really need this bead, you see. I'll have to report back once I grab it."
Agatha's face paled slightly.
Though her expression didn't depart from her impassive mask, her thoughts were chaotic.
The humans already knew about their experiment?
But how?
One had to know, this was a tightly kept secret, a project even she had to pull some strings to get assigned to.
Could the humans have a spy in the government?
Did Otto purposely come to this game show just to steal the bead?
Her mind reeled and her face paled further.
It…was possible!
This location was tightly guarded, unreachable by all except for during the game show.
The only reason the game show was even here was because they needed to test the poison on live subjects.
What better way to do that than in a cruel survival environment?
Yet, if the humans really knew about this project....
But Agatha was still a powerful elite. She was skilled in hiding her emotions.
It only took her a second to compose herself, face returning to impassivity in the blink of an eye.
She absolutely couldn't reveal any information.
"I see. Then I'm afraid we'll have to fight."
Halfway through her words, her body flew at Otto.
Of course, as someone who also tended to use dirty tricks, Otto was prepared.
Agatha's speed was no joke.
She was even slightly faster than Otto himself, even though she was still affected by <Winding Restrictions>.
Well, that was Otto's speed before he cast <Greater Body Enhance>.
Otto stepped back and dodged her charge manually, then jumped up to escape the follow up thrust of her dagger.
Agatha knew she couldn't give him any time to cast a spell.
She stuck to Otto closely, forcing him into fighting her in close combat without letting him blink away.
Otto was unperturbed.
He escaped and dodged her every thrust, occasionally using a conjured mana weapon to block rather than evade.
It was a pity that the space inside this underground cave was already rather small, and this was not even taking into account the presence of a large pool of poison.
The poison which neither he nor Agatha dared to approach.
It further limited Otto's room to maneuver.
Their fight soon turned surreal amidst the darkness of the underground cave.
Deep blue and purple streaks collided, separated, and collided again, their figures a blur to the naked eye.
In a flash, the two exchanged over 100 moves.
Otto found that Agatha had an exceptional combat sense that was only slightly inferior to his own.
He wasn't able to bring his full might to bear on her.
There were two reasons for this.
The first was that Agatha was a master of spell interruption.
Spell interruption was a tremendously difficult technique to use.
Casting a spell primarily involved a mage's own body; external actions such as chanting or gesturing merely provided a focus to a spell and were strictly secondary to the movement of a mage's mana.
Thus, it wasn't so simple as stopping Otto from gesturing or chanting before the spell was successfully fired.
Especially since Otto tended to need neither of those things to complete his cast.
It required Agatha to physically interrupt Otto's thought process by introducing a grave threat to his wellbeing each time he wanted to cast a spell.
Otto's brain would then immediately sound the alarm, the goal being to force him to instinctively stop what he was doing in order to fight or flee from the new danger.
Perhaps a typical mage would be easily blocked like this.
But because of Otto's superior senses, this method didn't work if used alone.
So Agatha combined it with a second interruption technique.
Here, she spread out her own mana in a thin connected layer surrounding Otto.
When Otto prepared to complete his casts, a mana fluctuation would be emitted from his body.
This would send a ripple in Agatha's mana web, where she would be able to determine the approximate location of the spell.
Then, she interfered at said location by flooding the burgeoning spell with her own mana.
Now, this technique didn't 'block' Otto from casting a spell.
But it did add additional time to the process, time which Agatha could use to attack or escape.
This, combined with falsely (and occasionally correctly) triggering Otto's warning signals by presenting him with a physical danger allowed her to achieve splendid results.
A technique like this required both exquisite timing and ample experience to properly pull off.
Of course, the downside of using this was just as significant: while both Otto's mental power and mana were nearly full even after a few minutes, she was rapidly beginning to run out.
The second reason Otto had trouble showing his might had to do with their physical attributes.
Agatha's attributes were significantly higher than Otto's own, even including his body enhancement.
It was for this reason Otto had felt such a powerful threat when she released her killing intent.
Plus, Otto hadn't been able to recast his <Winding Restrictions> after its duration ran out because of Agatha's incredibly precise interruptions.
The two continued to fight.
As time went on, Agatha's face grew darker, while Otto's smirk only widened.
He knew he would win this fight.
Otto secretly prodded two points on the mana net Agatha surrounded him with after spending a few minutes figuring out how she was continuously interrupting him.
As expected, Agatha immediately moved to intercept the 'spell.'
Only, her timing was now off- Otto successfully shot off a cast of <Blink> and chose to move the full fifty meters to the opposite end of the poison pool.
Agatha was stunned at his sudden escape before her eyes turned bloodshot.
No! She could still catch up! She just needed a few seconds!
Agatha sprinted as fast as she could towards Otto's location.
It was a pity...as soon as she let him escape, the battle was already lost.
Otto wasn't idle.
He raised his hand and cast a spell.
Darkness settled into the cave like a cloak, impervious to light.
Agatha's body abruptly weakened once again when she was hit by a second spell, <Dark Curse>.
Moreover, the darkness began to pull at her will- it whispered sweet nothings into her ears- 'Just give him the bead and this will all be over,' and 'since when have those government imbeciles ever cared about you, anyway?'
Unprepared for the attack on her will, Agatha was momentarily dazed.
A transparent claw silently appeared from the void and ripped down towards her position.
Agatha broke free from the influence of the darkness at the last instant, but realized it was too late to dodge the claw that could shred her to pieces.
She made a snap decision to employ her doppelganger once again to take the blow.
But even still, she couldn't avoid it completely.
The claw tore through her right arm.
<Void Claw> was Otto's strongest single target spell.
And he had added quite a bit of additional mana to this one, supercharging it to its most powerful state.
Agatha screamed in pain, eyes bloodshot.
Her left hand desperately clutched the stump where her arm used to be in a futile attempt to curb the bleeding.
Otto didn't let up, either.
A giant vortex of air surrounded Agatha and spun around.
It began to tear at her body.
Her expression warped even further.
No! She would really lose at this rate! Her race might even be doomed if they went to the war with the humans now!
But...she had nothing left.
Contrary to Otto's initial belief, there were no magic tools in this cave at all.
Not because she didn't want to carry them, but because they interfered with the bead's energy.
Bringing magic tools here was strictly forbidden.
She couldn't even use any of her spells at the moment because her mana had practically been sucked dry in interrupting Otto's casts.
Otto paid no heed to Agatha's dreary mood. He conjured a blade made of mana.
And ruthlessly cut through her neck.
Her head rolled to the floor, still carrying the twisted despairing expression she wore before she died.
Otto ignored it.
He swung his gaze over to the bead Agatha was so worried about.
The <Evolution Bead>, huh?
Otto cast a <Gale Push> to push it outside the poison pool, then blinked over to pick it up.
What exactly were the Throskarts doing down here?
Why was this bead so important?
He wiped the bead of poison with a quick water ball before checking the <Tower's> screen.
Otto tried hard to maintain his expression after reading the details.
<Evolution Bead>
Three-Digit #779
Consumable Auxiliary (2 uses)
Supports one racial evolution. Only usable in the <Neutral Zone>.
*********************************************************************
PLZ READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.
If you don't feel like it,
here's the TLDR:
I'm taking a break from posting starting tomorrow to prepare for the contract and to start stockpiling. Break will last 5-7 days, but I'm NOT dropping the novel. My sincere apologies for all my lovely addic...cough...readers. No seriously, though, and thanks for reading this book :D
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
NightWind
NightWind I was going to end this chapter on a cliffhanger, but that would be really too cruel for today.
I have bad news for everyone (that likes to read this book).
I am taking some time off to get myself organized (I have 14 different documents for this book at the moment *sob*), plan the outlines in more detail for this series, and most importantly, to build up a stockpile!!!
Thus, I will NOT be posting any chapters of <The Challenger's Return> for 5-7 days starting tomorrow.
I intend to have a minimum stockpile of 8 chapters going forward, which gives me somewhat more of a cushion, relieves me of some anxiety, and allows me to do a better job of planning the story and polishing the chapters in the future.
Most importantly, I was planning on doing this a little later on, but I decided it was better to do it now while I'm not under contract then to mess with WebNovel when the contract gets signed.
I am NOT dropping this series! XD
But feel free to flame me on discord I won't get offended :D
Discord: NightWind#8629
But I AM sorry for those of you who may feel some symptoms of withdrawal. I promise to provide you with higher quality dru...ahem...chapters in the future.
As for the exact length of time, ideally I will get everything done in five days.
Again, the goal is to have at least eight chapters stockpiled, which might take me as much as seven days. 5-7 days. I promise I will post no matter what after seven days :D
And...thank you for reading, everyone! I apologize for this *bows* *bows deeply*
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