He was right. He was very easily crushing me under his heel.
Ten magic circles floated around him, each one firing crimson magic in my direction. The forms varied: blades, spears, bullets, and arrows, all of them emerging from the circles with enough power to kill me.
“Ngh… Time Zero!”
With Time Zero activated, I could avoid each attack by the skin of my teeth. Any ground my feet touched was obliterated by his magic a millisecond later. I raced through a storm of booming sounds and debris, just to get away from his bloody weapons.
Cain roared with laughter. “What’s the matter? Can’t handle my bloodsucking magic? No shame in that, no shame at all! I’m in a different league from mere insects!”
I couldn’t object. I wasn’t moving too fast to speak—I straight up didn’t have the mental bandwidth to spare on retorts. His magic struck closer with every attack, and distressingly, he’d started to anticipate where I’d teleport. I couldn’t afford to be at more of a disadvantage than I already was. I had to attack while I had the strength!
“My turn!” I shouted, and took the shot, Nameless gripped tight in my hands.
I used teleportation to circumvent his magic circles and charge in for the kill. I channeled all my momentum into Nameless and swung.
“Attacking at last, are we?” Cain said. “I’m afraid you’re not quite up to par, worm!”
Clang!
My pulse rocketed at the sound, while my body slammed to a total halt. Cain’s Blood Wall had interrupted my attack at the last possible second. My blade was half submerged into the bloody mass and wouldn’t budge no matter how hard I pushed.
I’d dodged those attacks for a single strike, and this was where it got me. All right. Time to try something else!
“Greed!” I shouted, summoning the short sword into my left hand. I pulled Nameless out and readied my grip for a stab attack with Greed.
It didn’t matter how strong this Blood Wall was. So long as it was made of magic, I could steal it.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your fight with the ifrit exposed that trick!” Cain said.
“What?!”
The Blood Wall vanished faster than Greed could pierce it. I struck air. The lack of resistance sent my body tipping forward, leaving me wide open to his kick. Teleportation wouldn’t bail me out; I twisted Nameless to intercept instead. The sharp impact of his boot slamming into Nameless ricocheted through my body, tearing a grunt from me. I’d successfully softened the blow but was pushed onto the backfoot as a result.
“More where that came from,” he promised.
Having forced me into the most vulnerable stance of my adventuring career, Cain pursued me like a shark who smelled blood. He summoned a fresh set of magic circles, massive ones that stretched across the room. They covered the space so thoroughly that I had nowhere left to teleport.
I clenched my teeth. Should I use Greed? No, Greed had a storage capacity of seven spells, and those circles spit out more than it could handle. Besides, considering my MP limitations, I couldn’t absorb them all. Dodging was the only choice I had. I evaluated the scope and power of each incoming spell.
“Argh!”
I ducked the fatal spells, but the weaker ones slammed into Battle Barrier. Phew. Miraculously, I managed to get out of that round blissfully unscathed.
“Well, this is a surprise!” Cain said. He sounded genuine. “You survived, but what impresses me is that you minimized the damage. A pushover like you must have struggled against a fair few overpowered opponents to manage that. How long will those survival skills keep you afloat, I wonder?”
Cain’s ego wasn’t affected in the least by his miscalculation. Instead, he summoned his next round of magic circles. Tsk. I’d have to escape another barrage.
How did he use magic so fluidly anyway? His bloodsucking magic was flexible—he could attack and defend with it at will. The mana cost must’ve been extreme. Was he pulling mana from a supply source? If so, where?
One possibility hit me.
“Don’t tell me…”
I turned to the ifrit. The hundreds of threads Cain cast to bind it kept it pinned flat on the ground. Cain could be drawing upon its blood and the mana stored within. The puzzle pieces fit together too well.
Cain claimed he didn’t want the ifrit to interrupt our battle, but that didn’t add up. He knew the ifrit would spawn during the fight, but he had plenty of methods to protect himself, so why not let it rampage? I would be at a much steeper disadvantage in that scenario, obviously. Then, he was suppressing the ifrit for a reason. My guess that he was using it as a mana source looked increasingly likely.
“Right…” I murmured. “Hence the bloodsucking.”
Talk about a tricky power. With its secret out in the open, it would be easier to deal with. I turned my sights to the ifrit. I should defeat it first.
When Claire bisected the last one, she revealed where its magic stone hid. I had a chance!
I took off at a run.
“Oh? Caught that, did you?” Cain called. “Well, I’d reconsider my battle plan if I were you. If you defeat that beast, you’ll be whisked straight to the Return Zone as well.”
I hit the brakes and skidded to a stop. He was right. If I trusted what he said about the boss room’s rule, whoever defeated the monster would return to the surface alone. In Claire’s case, she only had about a minute before the teleportation spell kicked in. That left one minute to defeat Cain, and if I failed, Hana and everyone else would be stuck with him. Nope, that method was off the table. The risk was too high.
I can’t live with myself if I screw this up!
“Good boy,” Cain said. “Stay still where you are, so I can stomp you into the ground.”
The onslaught started anew. I bobbed and weaved away from the magic circle attacks as I pondered my next move, my MP chipping away bit by bit with every swerve. I didn’t have time for this. This was do or die.
Think. Think! THINK!
There had to be something in my bag of tricks that could defeat him. Any idea would do. There was some way to overcome him.
Come on. Remember.
I recalled the misplaced feeling that struck me when I first saw Cain. Overwhelming fear tempered with the strange realization that his power was lower than the ifrit’s. His aura only felt stronger than the ifrit’s after he released the crimson mana. There was something else—the impact when he tried to kick me and hit Nameless instead. Sure, I’d blocked it, but I expected more damage. That didn’t match up with an S-rank attack. This left me with a theory.
Are Cain’s stats fundamentally weaker than S-rank?
Nameless’s effects kicked in around him, so he definitely was stronger than me, but that didn’t guarantee he was S-rank! His bloodsucking magic was a powerful unique skill, not wizardry. If the scale of his mana source was what boosted his abilities, there was a good chance I could defeat him.
If I could get one solid hit in—just one—I could end this!
“There’s only one way I can pull this off,” I muttered.
Riding high on the hope of escape, I put the rest of the plan together in my head. I had one shot at fooling Cain. I needed to pour everything into this attack, in a way he’d never see coming!
Gripping Nameless in both hands, I stared Cain down. He clearly noticed some shift in me. He flashed a bold grin in return.
“Whatever idea just entered your head won’t work. Your blade can’t reach me.”
“I won’t know that unless I try.”
“Oh? Then go right ahead. I’ll obliterate every last shred of your hope, human!” Another sickly red flood of magic circles raised around him.
Here goes nothing,
I ran straight for Cain. I wove around his spells as I sped forward, accelerating with every passing second.
“Ha!” he snorted. “That’s the same plan you had last time! It won’t reach me!”
A dense and presumably impenetrable Blood Wall manifested between us. Time to use Time Zero to get him from behind? No, he was definitely anticipating that…but that was the key to my plan. I ducked low and pulled Nameless back as if it were a javelin—tightening my back, shoulder, elbow. The movement forced all my momentum into my arm. The second that Nameless’s point touched the Blood Wall, I said, “Switch.”
Nameless instantly swapped places with Greed in my hand. This was my final turnaround attack: Switch Penetrate. He’d take it for granted that his Blood Wall would block my attack. He was too cocky to prepare for a sword to break through! It was over!
“Ahhhhhh!!!” I screamed as I threw myself into the attack. The Blood Wall bent inward as Greed devoured it. I pushed forward—until Cain captured me by the wrist.
“Wh-what?”
I paled. This was unexpected. How did he guess? Did he actually prepare himself?
“I knew you would do that,” he chuckled.
“Relea—”
“Nice try, fool!”
Frantically, I attempted to release the ifrit’s fire that I’d stored inside Greed, but Cain kicked me square in the stomach and sent me flying so fast my vision spun.
“Gah!”
As I rolled, I could see the fire spell burst from Greed…in the wrong direction.
“Now die,” Cain said.
Before I could utter a word, a wave of fresh blood crashed into me.