The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1949 Push Back

For a moment, Karl was forced onto the defensive, as the Clan Leader of the Divine Fist Devils started to use short ranged skills to avoid blade on blade contact that would cause him to lose more conjured weapons.

But only for a moment.

Once he missed a parry, and realized that the strikes were not dealing enough damage to get past his basic damage ignore effects, Karl saw no reason to go all out protecting himself. With his gear, he had nearly as much health as a low Supreme Ranked dungeon boss, and lacking the Blessing of the Supreme didn't increase the damage he took, it only reduced the amount he dealt.

So, while Karl parried most of the attacks, he also began to fight back using [Spatial Quake] to prevent his opponent from simply dodging, and the battle turned into a brutal slugfest.

Then Karl remembered that there was a new skill from Skadi that he hadn't tried yet.

[Greater Regrowth] was an Epic Grade heal over time effect that had a bonus to healing for plant based lifeforms. But it should still be an Epic Grade healing ability for everything else.

He wasn't taking any actual damage, though he was replacing his barriers regularly.

So, it would look better to the onlookers if he was using a healing ability. That way, they wouldn't ask too many questions about why he seemed invincible. A tank that could self heal was invincible enough in the minds of most people.

The area glowed with green light, and small plants grew up through the stones of the floor as Karl activated the skill.

In panic, the enemy Guild Leader started to fly, then realized that it wasn't an area attack, but an area healing ability. One that he couldn't break with the skills that he had.

This was bad, very bad.

He had thought that he would wear Karl out and win when the Darklight Host leader ran out of mana. But if he cast a long duration heal and let that cover for his barriers while his mana recovered, what would be the point?

He had to do more damage to overcome the healing.

A storm of blades formed behind him, hammering into Karl's defences in a blinding array of elemental light. Each blade detonated on contact, using a dozen different elements to overcome even the most stubborn of opponents.

Only, Karl didn't appear injured at all.

If his health had dropped, it had recovered just as fast with that healing spell in effect, and now even Karl was beginning to wonder how long it would last.

[Until you turn it off? Forests take time to heal, you know, you can't just cast a spell to repair it for a few minutes at a time.] Skadi informed him.

Oh, this was going to be hilarious to use in combat.

"If that's what you've got, you really shouldn't be challenging people to duels." Karl joked as he launched a flurry of attacks and another [Spatial Quake] at the Supreme.

The detonation hit him in the face, and the last strike nearly took the man's right arm off, forcing him to switch hands with his blade while Karl continued to press the attack. He knew that he was in trouble, and unlikely to turn this battle around.

But what could he do?

He had issued the challenge, and they would lose everything if they lost the battle. Even the main branch of their Guild had declined to send them help, and had disowned them instead.

It was insane, everything was working against him.

The Valalan League had set him up.

The Alliances up there pretended to be a monster hunting wilderness preserve, but really they were simply too ruthless to ensure the safety of anyone outside their own walls, so they let the monsters run rampant.

But this mission from them should have been easy.

Find the runaway criminal, lure her out, and let them take care of it. The Alliance had been so sure that the target was in this region, and the Seers had foretold that his people would find her if they came here.

But what did they find? Death.

No, that wasn't right. Karl had said that they were being interrogated. Perhaps the criminal had been caught by the Darklight Host, and this whole thing was simply his Elders misunderstanding of what the prophecy meant?

Dammit.

Karl's blade caught him across the chest as he was distracted, and threw him against the barrier with the force of the spells imbued into the attack.

Dizziness overtook him, and the Supreme stumbled.

Something was seriously wrong. Not the power of Karl, though that wasn't right either. But something was sapping his strength and it wasn't an active skill.

Then he saw it.

The gauntlet on Karl's hand wasn't a gauntlet at all. He was using a Haint Claw to steal the soul of his opponent.

The League had sent him to his death against a man of pure evil.

Unable to stand anymore with the blood loss and Soul Damage, the Clan Leader dropped to his knees and tossed his blade aside.

"I surrender. The Divine Fist Demons have lost."

A hush fell over the crowd as Karl's tabard began to change. The blood stripe around the outside extended, and red tassels formed at the bottom, streaked with gold. Then, an inner gold trim was added to the inner edge of the blood red border, and the crowd began to cheer.

An over rank victory against a Supreme Ranked opponent.

An impossible thing had happened here today.

With the duel ended, Karl let the healing spell save the other Clan Leader, much to his companions' annoyance.

[What are you even thinking? Letting a defeated opponent live like that.] Rue demanded.

[I don't want his territory, I want his loot. We are going to bleed them dry before the main branch of their Guild comes to discipline them for causing trouble. Did you see at the start, how they were disowned by the Guild?

What else could that mean except that somewhere, their main branch is an ally of the Darklight Host, or fears them too much to risk the battle?]

[So, you're letting the badger cloud your judgment, and going after the loot?]

[We can kill them all if they don't agree.]