Eik’s eyes flitted to the vials in the grass. At a closer look, there weren’t just two lying there in the grass. There were four. Two whose color matched the Potion of Mighty Strength class 2 perfectly, and two others whose effects he couldn’t even begin to guess at.

  At that moment a loud bang reverberated through the blue bell, followed by another and then another, at which a spider web crack spread out from an internal impact point. Eik was too preoccupied with the lightning user to do anymore than hope the bell would hold for just a little longer. She was fast. Incredibly so. Definitely faster than him.

  Another attack from the imprisoned tank rocked the thick dome and sent fragments of blue to the ground where they melted into liquid. There was no time to hesitate.

  Eik dodge a bolt of lightning only by reading the movement of the woman’s hand as she threw it. This was made more difficult by the war paint covering her body and armor in intricate patterns which blurred her movements like a dynamic camouflage.

  Diving in, he erupted into toxic mist. She jumped back, having caught onto the dangers of his ability, but Eik, still concealed somewhat inside the cloud, balled up a Living Manifestation like a snowball and pitched it like a fastball into her face, strengthening the throw with a localized application of Movement Boost.

  It enveloped her face like a water balloon and immediately rushed in through her mouth and nose. Reacting with speed befitting her D-rank, she bit down hard and bisected half of the body. Eik felt the part that managed to get inside enter her system from her stomach, but the severed part that she had flung to the ground became inert and lost its form.

  “You fuckin—…” she cursed, tears in her eyes from the discomfort of swallowing half of the snake.

  Eik shrugged. The throes of combat beginning to sink its claws into his mind. Under the effects of Movement Boost, he flowed forth like a ghost, leading with Viper Fang. She met him with her own blade, a whip of screaming electricity flying ahead and forcing Eik to bash it away with a shell of toxin, but the tail cracked him across the back and sent a shock through his lower body that momentarily paralyzed him. It was brief and relatively weak but the surprise sent him stumbling nonetheless and he took a nasty cut ot his upper arm from her blade that sliced right through his protective leathers.

  If only magically enhanced armor was a bit more affordable. The electric woman, not to mention the beefy tank, were armed to the teeth with expensive looking gear. As representatives of their civilization they would undoubtedly have been spoiled in head and ass with the best of the best to a degree Earth simply could never afford.

  Eik wanted their stuff.

  Atla had fixed up the Earth challengers with sets of healing potions similar to those of which Eik’s team had been given three for their escape from Menka Tokanami’s assassin squad, but adjusted to fit the power rank of each recipient.

  The cracks in the bell exploded outward, the corner of the tank’s shield preceding his own exit. He looked angry.

  Blue mist gushed out like a cloud as a Eik retreated, throwing another two Living Manifestation at each of the enemies. The woman vaporized hers with a bolt of lightning while the the shield bash from the tank splattered the toxic beast like a rotten apple.

  Some of the toxin still hit the man’s skin but despite having taken both a mouthful of mist as well as a small version of the Living Manifestation early on, he wasn’t showing much sign of taking damage yet.

  “Don’t let him get away again! She shouted and dashed after Eik, the tank following her lead. She down two more potions, one of them a Mighty Strength class 2, the other still unknown but definitely the same as what they both had taken once before. The tank had already taken a second dose of his own.

  The effects of Eik’s own Mighty Strength was beginning to wane so he pulled another from his belt. But before he could drink it, the woman disappeared in a flash of light in almost the same moment that her hand appeared and batted the vial out of Eik’s hand, spilling the contents on the ground. A tail of electricity trailed her almost instantaneous path in an arch around him.

  Using his own movement skill, the tank slammed his shield into Eik’s back before he could summon Profound Toxin for a counterattack and sent him rolling through the damn soil, ripping up weeds as he went. The man transitioned smoothly into a chase, his axe raised high to strike.

  In the nick of time, Viper Fang came up and blocked the blow, but it didn’t end there. In the brief moment the blade of the axe rested against Viper Fang’s edge, a high pitched sound like a hammer striking an anvil reverberated through the metal, vibrating it at high speeds.

  One of the tank’s other abilities!

  Frantically, Eik ripped Viper Fang away but the vibration continued even as he kicked the tank in the stomach and sent him stumbling back, the last effects of his potion disappearing.

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  Then Viper Fang shattered. From hilt to tip it turned into countless tiny fragments, like a pane of glass dropped onto the solid stones of a paved street.

  Uncomprehending, Eik stared for a moment, one of his dearest possessions gone in the blink of an eye.

  “Wha—” The tank was back with a vengeance, his axe coming down in a high arch, poised to cleave the Earthling’s skull in twain. And the lightning user was preparing a ranged attack from the flank.

  Stuck on his back, Eik did the only thing he could think of.

  The blue shell formed around him faster than he had ever managed before, the descending axe immediately hacking into the slick surface, the bolt of lightning not doing much.

  Inside, Eik was desperately pulling out the stopper of another vial before his sanctuary was destroyed. A third impact rung through the small space by the time Eik swallowed the potion along with some home brewed poison.

  Before the man could smash all the way through the shell, Eik released it into mist that quickly flowed up and around the victim, rolling backward in the same moment. He used the connection to trigger Accelerant.

  He was halfway to a tree when he heard the pulse of Accelerant wreaking havoc on the tank’s body. A flash of light that only missed him by mere inches deterred him from turning around as he ran. Again, the duo didn’t give chase although Eik had to dodge lightning bolts for a few tense moments before properly leaving her line of sight.

  The tank was definitely hurt at this point and they seemed loathe to separate. Certainly a good decision even if it did potentially allow Eik to get the drop on them again.

  His jaw worked in circles as he considered the option to simply run away to hope for Profound Toxin to finish the job but found the thought of leaving alone the two powerful Awakened who knew of him and his abilities worse than engaging again now. Not to mention his parasitic little friend sitting in the back of his mind and demanding more and more carnage.

  Well… Eik couldn’t honestly say he hated the idea of getting back in there for another round but… token resistance to the idea was better than nothing, right?

  The sounds of combat that Eik had originally been trying to avoid had died down at this point, leaving only the cawing of wild animals as Eik watched his two opponents from his perch on a high tree branch.

  With slow movements they were advancing toward the location where they had lost sight of him. Although clearly not well, the tank seemed to be in much better condition than Eik had expected. In fact, as they continued to shuffle forward, the man seemed to get visibly healthier.

  A self healing ability perhaps?

  Eik checked his wooden plaque for an edge.

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 6]

  [Acquired Living Manifestation — Lv. 7]

  Sweet! That brought his total summoning capacity up from five to seven. Answering his call, six little Profound Toxic beasts slithered out of his skin and gathered dutifully on his palm.

  That meant only the one inside the Gohkamorian was still considered a Living Manifestation and the one the woman had bit in two had died and become “regular” toxin inside her.

  He sent those six down and around the slow-moving duo. Each of the snakes were about a meter long — enough to be noticed. Eik found that he could not adjust or assign new orders to the Living Manifestations with his mind alone once they were no longer physically touching.

  As he descended directly into a dense bush, hiding his aura, he replenished his potions and waited for the moment to strike.

  Acting according to his standing orders, the snakes attacked from six different directions simultaneously. Both Awakened whirled about to face the threat, the large shield protecting the lightning user as she immediately vaporized two Living Manifestations.

  In that same moment Eik activated Movement Boost and burst forth from his hiding spot. The loss of Viper Fang suddenly became very real when he reached for its handle only to find the beautiful sheath empty. He felt naked without the trusty knife at his side.

  Before they even noticed him, he had two barriers of blue ready and covering his body. Sailing through the air, Eik went for the lightning user whose attention was mainly on the approaching summons.

  She shot another snake as the tank’s axe came up for a mid air cleave of Eik’s entire hip. Layering both disks just to be safe, Eik took the attack and used the momentum of the impact to spin up and over the man’s head.

  Letting go of the axe, a strap securing it to his wrist, his fingers grabbed for Eik’s ankle but the Dane used another burst of Movement Boost to barely escape the grasping hand.

  Forced to conjure it in a hurry, the spike Eik created was short and narrow, but he still managed to get it a good few centimeters into the woman’s lower back between sections of her armor. She screamed and a Living Manifestation took the opportunity to envelop her head.

  Eik triggered Accelerant just as the tank’s axe thunked into his shoulder. A small plate of solid toxin covered in an instant to protect his scalp broke the momentum of the swing and deflected it away from his head. Blood gushed out from the shoulder wound as the close quarter shock wave of Accelerant launched him into the man behind him.

  Another Living Manifestation invaded the woman while the last one went for the still weakened tank. The man caught it by the head and hurled it to the ground, but that simply opened him up to an attack from Eik who rammed another of the solid spikes of solid toxin up through a gap in his armor between the thigh plate and the links in the knee section.

  For the third time, Eik exploded into mist and legged it a little ways away to replenish his potions and take one of the ten healing potions Atla had given him, his shoulder in bad shape.

  “Kinak’An! Can you hear me?” the large man yelled as he coughed his way out of the blue cloud, Eik feeling the toxin take hold. “The guy’s already taken a bunch of potions and other stuff! He must be reaching his limit! Just a little more!”

  Eik looked up, clumps of poison practically spilling from his mouth as he stuffed them in with abandon. Final dose? What the hell was the big dude on about?

  Ah, the adverse toxic effects of taking too many potions within a short period. Eik would have to disappoint them there. Resistance: Toxin, baby!

  Also, one needed to be alive to capitalize on such an opportunity. Eik eyed the collapsed woman whose hip bone was exposed in a bloody mess as a result of the Acceleration of the spike in her back.

  Time to finish this.

  YOU!

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