I crouched in the entrance cave of Master’s refuge. There were a lot of thoughts on my mind. The primary among them being the recent fight. My reactions weren’t usual, the outcome wasn’t typical. A denied loss, a bizarre tie.

  Smack.

  A screaming chain from one of the three monsters crashed near me. I side stepped it and let it smash into the rocks.

  I moved through all of the actions. As I analyzed, I realized that Master was fighting in a way much similar to Senior Brother: perfectly honed strikes and kicks mixed with ferocious gales. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. I learned these moves with extreme dedication while under Grendel’s care and locked in Control’s lair.

  Yet, I felt like there was an intangible “more-ness” to Master’s attacks that was not present anywhere else. Was it because the moves belonged to him? Was there something additional he could pull from out of those maneuvers to make them perfect?

  Crash.

  An attack from above, a coordination between two of the beasts. I twisted and danced between the falling chains. I jumped as the third tried to sweep my legs.

  And what did I do? None of the calculating combat of my bout with Senior Brother. It was all grit, all power. I abandoned the finesse and the strategy in favor of blindly pursuing what I wanted most.

  Enjoyment.

  Screech.

  “Yeah, yeah, keep yelling,” I chastised the creatures. “I’m trying to work through some shit right now.”

  It had been a slow decline from Senior Brother to Charles to Master. As my raw power rose exponentially, I felt less of a need to be reliant on strategy. I wanted a fist fight to the death. I got it in exchange for being a letdown to Master.

  I wasn’t exactly upset by that. People expressing disappointment in me was nothing that pulled on the heartstrings. If I felt regret, it was only in the fact that I had not done my part in the contract of a fight that I forced others to uphold. I had failed to take the proper lesson to heart from Master’s tale against Wrath.

  Instead of focusing on the fact that him hiding his cards to win a more perfect victory ended in him getting soundly defeated, I focused on the story of Wrath’s strength. I wanted to see it.

  Crumble.

  A flurry of whip strikes caused rocks to cascade down like stony rain. I maximized my strength and defenses to allow the rocks to shatter against my body.

  A tourist of power. That’s what I acted like. Did I allow myself to become thoughtless to the possibility of defeat? Was Master just to be another stepping stone for me on my way to the top; some satisfying resistance that ultimately went my way in the end? I should be more grateful that this was my humbling moment. There would have been no mercy from others. I needed to be better. I needed to hone in on my most reliable strategy to win.

  Therein lied the issue. My best strategy was one that I would, in the most generous way, consider as cowardly. I inflict [The Great Decay] and then preserve my strength. Perhaps I could use [Iron Fist] to stun my enemy or [Torchlight] to blind them and interrupt their attacks. As their stats dwindled to the point that [Aura of Fear] would cripple their minds, I could use the difference in stats to enforce even more damaging punches. Then, they would likely be hit with a killing blow and die.

  Then I would win, without having my fight to the death. Is that the satisfaction that Master truly wanted; an ability that would drain his vitality until he was too weak to resist me? Would he feel honored to be killed in such a fight?

  Smash.

  I stomped the ground. The shockwave sent the monstrous guardians flying in all different directions. Their bodies bounced off the cave walls and they quickly reorganized themselves.

  Was it a guarantee that I’d win?

  I frowned. Master’s attacks had range. More than range, they manipulated how I had to interact with the air. His stats were high; high enough to not be brought anywhere near death by my attacks. [The Great Decay] wasn’t a particularly fast killer. As my magic rose, so too did the speed of the decay. But, then I would need to balance my speed and strength and body to avoid the inevitable counter attack. Could I sustain that ability while holding of Master’s onslaught?

  No, I was fairly confident I would have lost. Master knew it too. That is why I was denied the rematch. Wrath must have known in his fight with Master that, even without a handicap, he wasn’t going to lose.

  I had to make a decision. Did I value the victory more or did I value the thrill of fighting more? Did I want to be the best or just fight the best while being myself?

  Choosing victory would allow me to meet the highest echelon of fighters. However, I would need to fight methodically. I would need to prioritize a winning strategy at the cost of my immediate satisfaction. Choosing satisfaction would guarantee all my fights bring me joy, but I may never have a chance against the top.

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  Even if I reached Level 100, would I be powerful enough to reach Wrath?

  Jangle.

  I chewed on my newly regrown claw. The answer in my mind was obvious. I wanted to do it all my way. But my way just got my head stomped. My way had me second guessing whether or not my strategy was as perfect and as boring as I really believed. I treated that strategy as a gun in a fistfight. What if it only shot pellets?

  “Ah, this fucking sucks,” I groaned.

  A cascade of attacks jangled down on me. I stepped out of the way of the first few, moving my way closer and closer to one of the enemies. With a burst of speed, I rushed forward and clocked that beast as hard as I could. It tumbled across the cave floor and bounced off the wall before it regained its footing.

  But, by then, I had already reached it. I saw a crack in its head, a perfect target for me to unleash my fury.

  My fist turned it to dust. A screaming vibration rattled off my knuckles as the XP entered my [Hoard]. Its two compatriots screeched at me and sprinted in my direction, eager to avenge their fallen comrade.

  Three strikes, then two strikes. Seven total attacks to kill the three monsters. I needed to be able to do it in one if I wanted to be given the right to challenge Master again.

  Theoretically, I could fight and collect XP and stats off of these monsters until I earned enough power to kill them in one strike. But, that would still be three total strikes.

  Then what?

  Do I line them all up and hit them in one attack? They always stay spread out and it didn’t seem practical to wait for the perfect opportunity. If I forced them on top of each other by stacking them and then hitting them all at once, it also didn’t feel like the spirit of the request. I would need to grapple them to do that. A grapple would count as an attack. At least, it I would count it as an attack.

  Grab them all at the same time and squeeze them to death with my muscles like I’m an anaconda with arms? It could work, but, again, they spread out. I’d likely need to grab them all individually.

  “I need to take a step back,” I said to myself.

  What’s the purpose of this challenge? My assumption is to develop my own style.

  What is that style? It is the art of stat shifting. I allocate my stats in certain ways in reaction to what I’m seeing or to optimize an attack. No matter if I am using my fists or [The Great Decay] the style is always based around how my stats are allocated.

  It made for ideal hand-to-hand combat. I could maximize my damage, my evasion, and my defense whenever I wanted. I used it against Master in that exact way and came up short.

  Was there room to optimize it further? I conceded that I was sloppy in how I used it in the last fight, but I don’t think it being perfectly calibrated would have changed the outcome. In essence, the style was perfect.

  Then, the intent was what I assumed from the beginning. I wasn’t applying the proper strategy to my style. Even applying [The Great Decay] to all three creatures would involve me striking them three different times. It was still three attacks with my most potent ability.

  I reread the ability. Physical touch was the activation method for [The Great Decay] I couldn’t combine it with [Burning Rain] to apply the effect with each droplet.

  I snapped my finger and a flame ignited against my scales. My upgraded body infused my punches with greater fire. I threw a punch with low strength and high magic. A torrent of flames shot out of my hand in a cone shape and spread out across the cave.

  “Would this kill all three of them?”

  I wasn’t certain. Maybe I should approach it from a different direction. How would a fully conceptualized style like Master’s accomplish this? He would pull his arm back, creating a vortex that pulled all the creature into him, then he would release the punch to kill all three of them at once.

  It was all about space control. Do you have an enemy too close? Blast them away with wind. Do you have an enemy keeping their distance? Pull them in with a vortex.

  It was simple, but it had great amount of versatility. It had close and it had far range. It had space control.

  My short range was well conceptualized, but how do I deal with long range? Typically, chase them down until it becomes short range. That didn’t work out well against Master. He can control the winds and use them to inhibit my flight and my speed. However, I didn’t have a ranged attack. I had [Burning Rain]; an imprecise area of effect attack. Same with [Draconic Breath].

  But, those to spells had different activation methods. [Draconic Breath] was immediate. It always hit the same place each time. [Burning Rain] had several activation types. It could spawn out of the sky. It could spew out of a wall or the ground if I thought about it. It could also form as an orb.

  What would happen if I punched the magical orb with a fiery punch?

  “Oh, now there’s an idea.”

  It wasn’t long before three new guardians arrived to take the place of their fallen comrades. They screech obliviously, completely unaware that I had a new idea and that they were the unwitting test subjects.

  I formed the orb of tar-colored mana and then struck it with maximum amounts of magic.

  I turned the cave into a Vietnam War movie. The entire enclosure erupted in a deafening explosion. Shockwaves and molten tar like a spray of napalm went flying into the three guardians.

  The liquid clung to their bodies and burned incessantly. They screeched and screamed, trying to remove it, but their hands sizzled and their fingers fused together. They used their hands like shovels to remove it.

  I only stood and watched. As far as I was concerned, it was a single attack. Anything more from me would be a failure.

  My eyes glowed with the reflections of the living bonfire. Their bodies squirmed and wailed until all three fell silent.

  I grinned wickedly. This is what Master meant. I had tools I wasn’t using properly. I would have beaten the me of yesterday to death for not understanding this.

  But, it was still not enough. A move like this would not instantly turn the table. It’ll make Master readjust his strategy for certain. But I’ll need many more tricks than this to win. And I knew that there were more tricks to be found.

  Congratulations!

  You have combined abilities to make a brand new one! Now, you can invoke the ability automatically.

  Please name your Ability.

  Ah, so this is the validation of creating your own ability? This was something that could be passed down. This was something that someone else would use. I was no longer borrowing, I was inventing. And I had the perfect name in mind.

  “Bomber.”