Now that Upton had discarded his crossbow, the fight would be easier, I thought. Except that no it wouldn’t. I was facing off against a person who specialized in melee combat. Things were going to be even more difficult for me. I pulled out two sturdy needles and held them in my hands like daggers.
“What a strange choice of weapon,” said Keswick. “How does he plan to do any damage with something so small? Are the needles poisoned?” Keswick was speaking to his gang of fighters, but Eppy and her crew were also close enough to hear.
“Maybe they’re tiny magical wands?” Eppy proposed, half in jest.
Upton raised his magical staff and began running at me. From the heft of the man’s movements, I could tell that the staff was heavier than a sledgehammer. If I got hit, it was lights out for me.
My only option was to avoid his blows, and what better way to avoid them than by running? I screamed at the top of my lungs, “AAAAH!!” My legs ran around the perimeter of the dome while Upton chased me and told me to stop. Somehow, despite the weight of his weapon, Upton was gaining on me. It was to be expected though; his Body was a much higher level. He was taller, stronger, and faster than me.
The announcer mocked me and said, “It looks like Yarm is employing ‘hit and run’ tactics. However, it seems he’s only got the ‘run’ part down.” The audience laughed at his remark. How humiliating. Plus, it wasn’t even a funny joke. Well, not that funny anyway.
I continued screaming, but Upton had already reached me. He was right behind me. I kept my eye on him as he motioned to attack with his weapon. He swung the magical staff horizontally. From the moment his shoulders turned, I had already predicted the arc of his strike. My body was in position to duck and escape the blow. My legs crouched and the staff whizzed by overhead.
I had dodged a fighter’s attack. Of all the people here, it was me who was most surprised by that. With only one point into Body, I had momentarily outmanoeuvred a combat veteran.
Basking in the bliss of my accomplishment, my mind was brought back to reality when Upton heaved his weapon around for another swing. From the way his waist turned, the twisting of his shoulders, and angling of his body, I was able to predict his next attack too. It seemed so obvious to me. My mind was able to piece together all these little bits of evidence to deduce the path of Upton’s strikes.
I dodged again. The crowd gasped as I was centimetres away from having my head crushed by a giant crystal attached to the end of a stick.
I had completely ceased my running once I understood my ability to predict attack paths. I focused all my energy on dodging swing after swing.
“Incredible! Absolutely incredible!!” The announcer’s amplified voice took over the ring. “The otherworlder is avoiding attacks off of pure reflexes! His nimble body is ducking and weaving like a duck or a beaver. What an incredible display of fighting instincts and skill.”
Keswick scoffed. He muttered to his comrades, “That’s not what’s happening at all. The boy clearly has a weak and slow body. If he tried to dodge off of reflexes alone, he’d be hit. He’s moving his body before the attack even starts. Even though he’s slower than Upton, he knows where to move and so he can dodge. Impressive.”
“AAAH! SAVE ME!” I screamed in Upton’s face as he swung at me again. I narrowly dodged once more.
Eppy groaned. “Ugh. If he wasn’t shrieking like a harpy, he’d actually be quite cool.”
“Why doesn’t he drop the staff?” Penrin asked. “The weight of the magical staff is clearly slowing him down considerably. If he resorted to hand-to-hand fighting, he’d be quick enough to win. Yarm wouldn’t be able to dodge a fast punch even if he knew it was coming.”
Keswick answered, “Upton is far too obsessed with being fashionable to do that. He wears stylish clothes and only uses weapons he considers flashy. He believes fist fighting is lame. I’m sure he’d rather lose than drop his staff.”
After he finished answering the question, he realised he had no idea who had asked it. Keswick and Eppy both looked down and between them was a little girl. “Who the hell are you?” the two of them said.
“Penrin.”
Keswick appraised her with his scanning eyes. “What an ugly scar on your face.”
Penrin retreated into her shell a little. She took a step back almost as if the comment had shoved her away.
“It looks awesome. You’re a fighter, right? Gnarly scars like that are a source of great pride for people like us.” Keswick raised his palm towards Penrin, and she cheerfully gave it a high-five. The fighters welcomed her into their circle and watched the match with her.
“I DON’T WANT TO GET HURT!” My throat was getting hoarse from all the screaming. Upton’s attacks were becoming slower as he drained his stamina. Lugging a hefty weapon like that staff around was tiring, even for the half-giraffe fighter.
I sensed that I was nearing victory. If I could exhaust my opponent’s stamina some more, I could win. I would also have to find a way to strike at the pressure point that was too high for me to reach.
Upton’s breathing became extremely heavy. The time between his swings had considerably increased. “You’re a tricky one,” he said between breaths. Despite his exhaustion, Upton was not worried about losing. “I rarely have to use this, but you’ve forced my hand.” The man’s body started seeping clear liquid. It dampened his fur and dripped onto the floor.
“Is that sweat?” I asked, slightly disgusted.
Upton had ceased his heavy breathing. He somehow seemed as if he wasn’t fatigued at all from the battle. “This skill is called Mana Pore Pour. When activated, mana pours out from my pores. I sacrifice all my mana to gain the Tireless buff for a time equivalent to my lost MP converted to seconds. That’s 115 seconds. Plenty of time to beat you. With this status effect, I can’t lose.”
The announcer said to the crowd, “Upton has used a diabolical skill to gain the upper hand. What will Yarm do now that he’s faced with a buffed-up fighter?”
“Rip his head off!” someone from the audience shouted.
“Crush him to a pulp!”
“Tell him you want to resolve things civilly, then kick him in the balls!”
I ignored anything spoken beyond what Upton had said. The word ‘status effect’ lit up a certain neuron in my brain. A juicy status effect was right in front of me, just waiting to be cleansed. It was calling for me, begging for my touch. I reached out and made contact with the wet warrior. I cast Cleanse and he immediately started to gasp for breath again.
[Mana: 30/60]
Upton’s long tongue drooped out of his mouth as he tried to catch his breath. “What did you do to me?” he asked while his chest expanded and contracted.
“What in the world did he do to him?” asked the announcer.
“What the heck did he do to him?” asked Eppy.
The whole crowd was wondering the exact same thing. Only Newmill and Penrin, who I had spoken to about my abilities, knew what happened. They chuckled amongst each other while everyone else stood in confusion.
I wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip past by allowing Upton time to recover. I raised both needles into the air and struck them into the pressure points on Upton’s wrists. The needle in his left wrist caused his left hand to open, and the needle in his right wrist caused his right hand to open. The heavy staff dropped to the ground with a thud. The large crystal crushed Upton’s toes. He lifted his foot and grabbed it while hopping in place. “Ouch, owie, ow!” I left the needles in his wrists and drew two more from my bag.
Since he was only balanced on one leg, I struck at the pressure point on his supporting leg’s thigh which caused his knee to forcefully contract. This toppled the warrior to his knees. I let the needle remain inside his thigh too. One of his legs was in pain from the staff and the other was manipulated by my acupuncture.
During his fall, I looped around him and struck at a pressure point on his lumbar. The meridian I hit ran all the way up his body to the tip of his head. His neck instantly shot upwards and stiffened skyward like a lightning rod.
The now stiff and inflexible neck was perfect for my next course of action. Four of my needles were still stuck inside Upton so I pulled out two more to wield. I stabbed one into the man’s back and used it as leverage to climb him. Using the needles, I scrambled up Upton’s body like a climber using ice picks to scale a glacier.
My legs kicked me up while my arms pierced the half-giraffe’s neck for support. Eventually, I got to my destination: the Life Pond, the pressure point on a person’s neck that rendered them unconscious. With one last strike of my needle, I penetrated the pressure point, causing Upton’s whole body to collapse to the ground.
The warrior splashed into a puddle of mana sweat as he fell. I had defeated, Upton.
I stood over his body, looking at the needles poking out of him. At one time, I had used my acupuncture skills to relieve patients of pain, now I was causing it. I collected my needles and sterilised them before putting them back in my bag.
The crowd erupted into cheers. The announcer choked on his words before finally spitting out, “What just happened? What was that?” He coughed up some saliva that got caught in his throat. “I didn’t blink and I still don’t understand what happened. Yarm the otherworlder beat Upton without inflicting a single point of HP damage. He did it all with tiny needles!”
Keswick and Eppy’s mouths were agape. Penrin and Newmill smiled smugly knowing that I, their friend, had defeated the fighter. They took pride in my victory.
The announcer went on. “Yarm the otherworlder has won! The Mages Society wins their contest!”
I stepped out of the ring, and the injury on my thigh vanished. I was immediately swarmed by both the Mages Society and the Fighters Club. They bombarded me with all sorts of questions.
“How did you do that?”
“Was that a skill? A title?”
“Do those needles have magical properties?”
Keswick’s booming voice drowned out all the other questions. “That was a fighting style, correct? You must join the Fighters Club,” he commanded. “You have great potential but many shortcomings. I want to refine you into a true warrior.”
Eppy brushed him aside. “No, that obviously wasn’t a combat technique. He’s not a fighter. He was using magical attacks to create certain effects within his opponent’s body. You’re joining the Mages Society, little brother.”
Didn’t she tell me that she hated being called my sister? She changed her tune pretty fast.
“He’s joining us!”
“No, he’s ours!”
The two butted heads while fighting over me. Truth be told, I didn’t want to join either of them. Being part of an organisation that participated in prohibited duelling sounded like hell. I wanted no part in it.
“Which is it, Yarm? Did you use magic or might?” the two said in unison.
“Well, acupuncture is a practice that uses needles to affect the flow of qi within a person’s body, so I would call it spiritual.” That seemed like an evasive enough answer to get me out of this situation.
“Then is it magically spiritual or physically spiritual?” Keswick asked.
What did that question even mean? It was no good. I wasn’t leaving so easily. “Look you two, I don’t really want to join either of your groups. I have somewhere to be. I’m just going to leave.”
Both of them grabbed me. “You’re not leaving until you join one of us,” said Eppy.
“Pick one, now!” Keswick demanded.
I let out a long sigh. “Ok, fine. I’ll join both of your little cliques, alright? Just let me go.” I had said that to placate them. I’d join sure, but I planned to never show up at their clubrooms ever. I was going to avoid them to the best of my ability.
“I guess that’s fine.”
I was released and allowed to return to Penrin and Newmill. They both excitedly patted me on the back and praised me for doing well. Students filed out of the alley and returned to their schedules. Only a few still remained near the arena. I asked for directions to the belltower from my new club presidents. They gave me a path to follow, and I left along with Newmill and Penrin. While I did so, I noticed that the two unconscious students in the centre of the dome still had not been moved.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter