I pursued, vaulting the piles of rubble and landing near my opponent just as he staggered back to his feet.

  “How can you hit so hard?” he wheezed. The side of his armor was dented and split.

  Any hit I landed would deal enormous extra damage. My Court Assassin title doubled damage, then added another 100% extra damage since I’d already defeated 2 other lords from his world, while my Swordsman ability added 100% slashing damage and 125% extra penetration.

  On top of that, my Dual Wield ability boosted my damage by another 240%. I hadn’t even added anything else besides some convergence mana to the hits. I’d wanted to see what those base values stacked together would do. The results were better than I’d hoped for.

  “You haven’t seen anything yet,” I said, lunging in again. He once more phased, but I was ready to hit him as soon as he reappeared.

  Except he didn’t. With a flicker, he disappeared. I swept my blades through the space he’d been in case it was invisibility, but a nudge from Energy Ward warned me he appeared to my side.

  I dove the other way, twisting just under the thrusting tip of his harpoon. As I rolled to my feet to face him again, he came on hard, attacking with a flurry of blows. Even with Energy Ward’s help, I struggled to deflect them all.

  He must have triggered some kind of movement and attack bonus because he moved a lot faster than before and Energy Ward’s double rebound damage didn’t slow him in the least.

  “Now you will see why I always win,” he snarled. “I can always counter my prey’s best moves.”

  “Counter this,” I said and triggered the synergized spell Nullwake from my Tome of Callback.

  The blast caught him in the face and tumbled him across the mostly-shattered mansion, all the way to the edge of the canal. He landed in a gasping heap, face bloody and several scales missing from his fancy armor. Black lines of rot were already tracing across his cheeks and down his neck as the necrotic poison ate away at his flesh.

  Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Overclock Rampager. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds.

  Perfect. I instantly cast the new spell.

  Overclock Rampager. Legendary. Double your speed for 30 seconds while absorbing most incoming damage to restore health and mana.

  That’s how he ignored Energy Ward’s rebound damage. It was just making him stronger. Good thing my spell trumped his, or I would have just given him even more advantage.

  Nextharos coughed and climbed back to his feet more slowly this time. I raced toward him blades raised to finish the dangerous lord once and for all.

  “Nice move, but not good enough,” Nextharos chuckled, and his entire body glowed with a bright, green light.

  It was my turn to exclaim, “How?”

  His wounds visibly healed as he shook off the ongoing damage effects of my spell. “You’re not the only one with lifesaving talismans.”

  Crap. My spell blocked his use of mana, but apparently he could activate some protective talismans with just a thought. That was fine. I’d just have to cut him apart the long way.

  I cast Potential Hammer on the space around him and rushed in, my speed boosted by his own Overclock spell, blades blurring as I struck.

  Nextharos blinked away, appearing behind me again, lunging with his harpoon. I was ready for the trick that time and was already spinning before Energy Ward alerted me of the danger.

  We fought across the length of the shattered mansion, weapons clashing with fountains of sparks and ringing of metal on metal. I pushed him hard, drawing deep from my boosted speed and slipping through his guard time and again. Within seconds, his fancy scale armor was scarred with melting gashes from Dawnfire and missing entire sections from Echo’s magical blasts.

  I even unleashed my entire enormous KEG charge with one big hit from Echo in a blast that should have ripped him in half. Instead, another protective talisman flared, absorbing the damage. It would have blinded me too, if not for the protection of my goggles.

  Somehow Nextharos lasted the 30 seconds until the effects of Nullwake wore off and he could use his mana and spells again. Then the pace of the battle only intensified as he started phasing and blinking around me in a maddeningly impressive display of absolute mastery of his abilities.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  I growled with frustration as we fought. He didn’t seem to have a limit to how many times he could use his blink-teleport or phase abilities. Finally he made a mistake, stumbling slightly as we spun around each other.

  With a shout of triumph, I connected with Echo and channeled Divergent Strike through the blade. This time, Nextharos didn’t phase quickly enough and the blade smashed into his armor with an explosion of black scales, then echoed the strike again and doubled the damage again, driving the blade deep into his side.

  The impact hurled Nextharos off his feet. He tumbled away with a scream of pain, rolling end over end before somehow landing on his feet and sliding away in a superhero pose. He should be on my side, not Marisara’s. He was very skilled, with a showman’s flair, and his arrogance was turning out to be actual confidence gained from real-world fights. In other circumstances, I could really respect this guy.

  I hated to admit it, but I was honestly loving the duel. He pushed me to the limits in a way no one had since Sixel. Despite his tricks and talismans and defense, I still felt confident I had the upper hand. I’d enjoy the fight, but in the end, I’d have to kill him.

  Nextharos slid across the final patio all the way to the canal. There he teetered on the edge, bloody and battered, armor ruined, harpoon gone. Our eyes met across the distance and I read his fear before he toppled slowly backward and plunged into the canal.

  “No way you escape that easy,” I growled, racing across the patio and diving into the canal just as my Overclock boost ran out.

  Even before the bubbles from my dive cleared so I could look around for my enemy, I took a brutal hit in the side that blasted the air from my lungs right through my armor. Water boiled around me as the impact knocked me heavily into the sheer stone side of the canal.

  I caught a glimpse of the harpoon before it disappeared. This time, it hadn’t punctured the metal, despite the hit coming so hard. The adaptive feature of my armor was paying off.

  Even as I tried to orient myself, another hit came from below, the harpoon piercing up between my legs and driving into my groin with enough force to catapult me right out of the canal.

  That crafty devil. I tumbled into the air, cursing him and that masterful move. My armored torso was far harder to hurt, and while my cuisses protected my thighs, they didn’t totally cover the groin. That was one of the least defended areas of my body, or at least it appeared to be.

  Thankfully my Comfort Boxers reinforced my eel-hide skin suit and my Phantomstep Breeches. It felt like the harpoon pierced my Breeches, and although my eel-hide skin suit wasn’t cut, it did nothing to stop the brutal impact. My boxers’ immunity to blunt force trauma down below saved me from an injury that definitely would have distracted me for critical seconds.

  I nearly caught myself in mid-air with Water Flight, but Nextharos didn’t know my boxers had protected me. He’d assume I was momentarily out of commission and come in for the killing blow. I needed him overconfident, so I allowed myself to tumbled back into the water in an out-of-control face-plant.

  Nextharos swept in, moving insanely fast. I was such an idiot. I’d gotten overconfident and forgotten he was a hunter who excelled in killing dangerous prey underwater. He’d faked that fall into the canal to trick me into pursuing.

  He lunged, moving underwater like a hummingbird, his harpoon lashing out again, catching me in the chest and blasting me through the water. I tried moving that time, but he appeared behind me, stabbing me in the back, then hit me again in the side before I could recover. This time, the deadly harpoon broke through my armor and plunged several inches between 2 of my ribs.

  That hurt and I sucked in a sharp breath, more annoyed than anything. Underwater, I was totally outclassed. I couldn’t move my blades around fast enough, and even with Water Flight, I felt like a clumsy toddler trying to keep up with an Olympic gymnast. Energy Ward helped a little, but couldn’t stop the pinpoint strikes entirely.

  In seconds, Nextharos struck me a dozen times from all angles, his harpoon relentlessly seeking gaps in my armor and slamming home so hard it punched through again and again, driving into my flesh, piercing muscles and organs. Clouds of blood blossomed all around me

  I tossed my blades back into my inventory, instead trying to use my armored arms, reinforced with the invisible protection from my Embersteel Battle Helm to deflect blows. I also took every chance to fire blades from Stiletto Quiver, but all my efforts just made him laugh as he slipped in one strike after another.

  He’d carve my armor off of me before long if I let him keep this up. Then he’d drive that harpoon through my heart. Energy Ward plus my fast regeneration and the power stored in my Tesla Coil bracelet were restoring me pretty quick, but if I let him pile on too much damage, I’d fall fatally behind.

  As if to prove the point, Nextharos appeared to my left and drove his spear up under my arm, punching through the thinner armor there and driving deep, all the way through my lung.

  “That lung was new!” I shouted through a scream of pain. That one hurt a lot.

  He ripped the harpoon out in a geyser of blood and more than a little meat from my chest. My entire body stiffened for a second under the overwhelming pain, just long enough for him to hit me from the other side in an identical move. His harpoon punched deep, piercing my right lung and clipping my heart.

  I spat blood as rage erupted through me, eclipsing the agonizing pain. Nextharos leaned close as he twisted the harpoon, triggering another wave of total agony, the confident swagger back in his voice.

  “You made the hunt fun, human, but when you entered my domain, you sealed your fate. Know that far mightier foes have fallen to me, so there is no dishonor in this defeat.”

  I couldn’t move well with that stupid harpoon bisecting my chest, so I met his gaze, spit another mouthful of blood, and smiled.

  His confident expression faltered just as I cast Abyssal Requiem.

  The beam of dense, necrotic mana struck Nextharos in the face, tumbling him away. He did not lose his grip on his harpoon, though, and ripped it out of my chest in another huge geyser of blood and meat. I screamed from the intense pain that felt like my heart and lungs were getting ripped out through my armored chest, and triggered a full regeneration potion.

  “Ow,” I growled, willing my battered Colossus Mantle back into my inventory, swapping it for my Overlord Chitin armor. I needed a few seconds to finish healing.

  I didn’t get that much time.

  Nextharos, still spinning away from me, disappeared. I tried to spin, but my body was too battered to move fast enough. A harpoon slammed into my back hard enough to smash right through my pristine armor. It skipped just past my spine and drove most of the way through my torso. Again.

  The Last Ascendant yet?