A Battle of Wits Against Myself
Eagle's Eye
The opponent is slightly stronger than you.
A red aura rose in wisps above the fake's head.
It was the ability gained after changing classes to Predator: Genius.
Thanks to the Genius correction, the fake had every single stat twenty percent higher than mine.
Identical skill set.
But with higher stats than me, huh.
"This is a blatantly unfair fight."
I smirked.
"Here. I. Come."
The fake kindly spat out the warning, then slid its right foot far back.
It was preparing to use Fierce Charge, the skill obtained from the essence of an owl beast.
Sixth Sense detects danger.
The moment I registered the warning, the fake's body had already reached point-blank range.
But here's the thing.
If our skill compositions were identical…
'That means I can see every move coming a mile away.'
I used Back Step on the spot and retreated ten meters.
"I. Will. Not. Miss."
The fake chased me with stubborn persistence.
The range of Fierce Charge was forty meters. Back Step alone wouldn't shake it off.
Fortunately, I had more than one card to play.
Cloud Flow Steps
I preserved the momentum from Back Step and stepped exactly on the footprints of Cloud Flow Steps.
A mysterious footwork technique that maintained speed no matter the situation or angle.
The internal energy in my dantian flowed down into both legs.
Without killing the forward surge from Back Step, I dashed to the right.
"You. Cannot. Escape."
The fake copied my movements and unfolded Cloud Flow Steps as well.
Cloud Flow Steps and Fierce Charge did not conflict with each other.
One was based on internal energy, the other on mana. Their consumption values and operating principles were different, so it was possible.
"Lucky me."
I smirked.
"Moving exactly as I expected."
Before I even finished speaking, the fake's legs—still sprinting at full power—became tangled.
Crash—!
Unable to overcome its own momentum, the fake tumbled across the ground.
Its high Endurance stat probably kept it from taking serious impact damage.
But.
"You still have to take the penalty."
The fake lay there with its face planted in the dirt, shivering violently.
Fierce Charge carried a skill penalty: if it failed to hit anything, the user fell into a five-second Confusion state.
Once it collapsed like that, the skill activation was obviously a failure. Its senses were so twisted that even twitching a single finger would be difficult.
The Evil of the Heavens sends exclamations of admiration at your exquisite skill in weaving mana and internal energy together.
The Evil of the Heavens.
Now there's someone who knows how to watch a fight.
Operating mana and internal energy at the same time was an extremely high-level technique.
The skills obtained from the Tower of Babel weren't like game abilities that activated the moment you spoke a command or pressed a button.
They required understanding of the skill itself.
And precise mana control.
Using a skill built into an item was one thing, but the user's own body had to execute any skill they had learned and manifested.
'Did you really think unfolding a movement technique while in the middle of a charge would be easy?'
I clenched my fist and leaped onto the confused fake's body.
Herculean Strength
BOOM!
The armor covering the fake's body shattered into pieces.
The spikes protruding from the armor left me with some wounds as well, but the damage was minor compared to what the fake suffered after taking a direct hit from a fist boosted by three hundred and thirty percent pure strength.
"Kuh… ugh."
The fake let out a groan and swung its right arm.
Thanks to Fighting Spirit, Cold Blood, and the shock it received from me, it seemed to have shaken off the Confusion slightly faster.
My right arm was still trembling from having just used Herculean Strength. Instead of countering, I retreated.
"Huff… huff…"
The fake tried to steady its ragged breathing.
"Who said you could take a break?"
A sphere of flame formed at my fingertips.
I fired the Fireball straight at it.
"Mana. Absorb."
A pitch-black mana surged from the copied Gluttonous Maw and swallowed the fireball whole.
A twisted smile darkened the corners of the fake's mouth.
Tsk.
The thing had no learning ability whatsoever.
"Earth Spike."
The ground split in two and several sharp rocks shot upward.
In terms of raw power, it was stronger than Fireball.
Mana Absorb couldn't be used in rapid succession.
"Coward."
The fake activated Cloud Flow Steps and escaped the area.
Good.
Perfect distance.
Fierce Charge
The distance covered by Back Step was ten meters—the exact minimum range for Fierce Charge.
If the fake's skill composition was one hundred percent identical to mine, it was entirely possible to exploit that fact against it.
Shhhhhk!
Jet-black darkness rose between us.
So it could handle Polar Night as well?
I responded by activating Darkness Dominion.
I hurled a blade of darkness straight forward.
The widely spread power of Polar Night was torn into several pieces.
"How?"
"Because I dispersed the power, obviously."
A stat of 5.5.
That was the maximum amount of Polar Night I could manifest.
Whether its stats were twenty percent higher or not, the total amount of Polar Night both of us could produce was the same.
When the power was equal, the side that dispersed it was naturally at a disadvantage.
The wall of darkness, now ripped into several strands.
I charged through it and slammed into the fake's body.
"Gah… aaah!"
"Your body can barely move, yet you scream just fine."
Blood Claw Technique
My nails, upgraded by the Blessing of Greed, shattered the gray armor.
Internal energy flowing through my arms and nails added to the force, pulverizing even the armor protecting its chest.
Slash!
Blood sprayed from the gaping wound.
The amount of bleeding was far greater than the size of the injury.
I took one step back.
The instant the droplets hit the ground, they sizzled—accompanied by rising smoke.
"Just as I suspected."
Acidic blood.
It was an ability gained from devouring the essence of a deep slime.
I had wondered if it would actually use the skill; to think it would deliberately cause a larger hemorrhage to trigger it.
Bubbles began rising one by one from the fake's wound.
It was Regeneration, from the essence of a swamp lizard.
"I. Will. Kill. You."
The fake, now free of its stiffness, radiated killing intent.
"Speak properly. And stop fumbling around with my face."
I beckoned with my hand.
Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew in the air.
They were traces left by our reinforced claws colliding.
A battle against a fake that possessed every single one of my skills.
In a head-on fight, the Genius correction put me at a disadvantage.
"So you've been devouring an enormous number of essences."
Tch.
I clicked my tongue.
Seeing the fake utilize my own abilities made the fight incredibly annoying.
It was like facing a hideous hybrid that had stolen the strengths of countless creatures.
Even so.
It wasn't an opponent I couldn't defeat.
"Please. Die."
The fake's body spun round and round.
Blood Tiger Storm Claw.
Among the four forms of the Blood Claw Technique, it was the one with the greatest power.
A form that used the right leg as an axis to rotate three hundred and sixty degrees while striking the opponent.
Which meant—
All I had to do was interrupt it before the rotation finished.
I unfolded the fourth form of the Blood Claw Technique: Snake Fang Claw.
Just like the form that moved the tail as agilely as a snake, the tip of my left hand stabbed the fake's leg with nimble precision.
The fake staggered.
This time, I used Blood Tiger Storm Claw.
The newly grown gray armor was torn apart by my nails once again.
"I. Can. Do. This. All. Day."
"I already know that, so shut up."
Even while stumbling, the fake somehow kept its balance.
The gray armor was cracked everywhere and blood from its wounds soaked the ground, yet the reason it could endure this long was thanks to the Blessing of the Earth Mother Goddess.
Fifty percent increased stamina and life force recovery.
When I used it, I simply thought it was quite useful. But now that I was facing an opponent with the same blessing, it was incredibly troublesome.
'Just how much stamina does this thing have?'
Jeong Sinho, the contractor of Bathory, had emitted an aura roughly twice as thick and red as this fake.
Yet in terms of pure endurance, this thing was performing better.
"Let's see how long you can last."
The fake went into a frenzy, activating every skill it had.
With the Blessing of the Earth Mother Goddess combined with Regeneration, its wounds slowly closed. Even when its armor shattered, the same area was covered again within a minute.
Thanks to Dragon's Heart, its mana recovered almost instantly after being consumed.
Its stamina and mana showed no signs of dropping.
"I. Will. Not. Fall."
"You think something like that would make me give up?"
Fake, you've picked the wrong person.
Grabbing onto someone's pants and refusing to let go is my specialty.
We could even bet on who would get exhausted first.
The fierce clash—or rather, the one-sided beating—continued for thirty minutes.
Even though the fake's stats were twenty percent higher, since I could read all of its movements, it couldn't touch me.
Not only that.
While the Blessing of the Earth Mother Goddess reduced its fatigue, it had still been beaten relentlessly, so its stamina was slowly being worn down.
"Huff… ugh."
Its breathing gradually grew labored.
The speed and reaction time of its arms and legs had slowed compared to the beginning.
Thirty minutes after the battle started.
The fake fell to its knees.
"I. Lost."
"You were using polite speech at first, but now you're talking down to me?"
"Disgusting. You."
"Those words don't have much weight coming from a copy of that disgusting human."
I sliced the neck of the exhausted fake.
Splurt!
Red blood sprayed in all directions.
I had kept my distance just in case, but this time it wasn't acidic blood.
Main Mission — First Promotion Test Cleared
Player will now promote to the chosen class: Predator.
Crack. Crunch.
Thanks to the Genius effect, my bones, muscles, and even individual cells were reinforced.
It was a side effect of having my stats shoot up all at once.
It felt like my entire body was being reassembled.
I experimentally thrust my right hand forward.
'My reaction speed has improved too.'
My physical reactions had become faster than the simple increase in Agility would suggest.
It was thanks to the added Genius ability.
The only disappointing part was…
'Predator doesn't have any special techniques.'
Although it came with a ten percent penalty, unlike Almighty it had no exclusive skills.
The exclusive skill of the Almighty class, Fusion Qigong.
As a technique symbolizing Rene who had risen to the position of Monarch, it was incredibly powerful.
It fused two or more of the user's possessed skills.
A balance-breaking skill that could create techniques stronger than the user's own abilities or even change their very nature.
'Everything has its pros and cons.'
I shook my head once, brushing away the lingering regret.
Devour was my foundation.
Even in my previous life, I had become one of the six Monarchs with only the single ability Devour.
The synergy gained from devoured essences was in no way inferior to Almighty's Fusion Qigong.
-Contractor!!! Are you unharmed?!
Nyx flew to my side, shouting.
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
-To think there was an enemy with the exact same appearance as Geudae. This one was truly startled.
"A fight isn't decided by comparing stats alone."
Distribution of power, timing of skill usage, the battle of wits to see several moves ahead.
There were many other factors that determined the outcome of a battle.
-Hehe, as expected of this one's contractor.
Despite saying that, she had never once hidden her worry every time the fight grew difficult.
I swallowed my laughter.
It didn't feel bad to have someone worrying about me.
At that moment, the Pocket of Desire opened on its own and one of the stored items floated into the air.
The Stone of Focus reacts to the energy of the First Promotion Test area.
The test area awakens the power hidden within the Stone of Focus.
The Demonic Power skill has been created.
Ah, that's right. I still had this.
It was one of the Tower's hidden elements that the Destruction Monarch, Sergei, had told me about.
I checked the information for Demonic Power.