BXBX NOVEL Chapter 53: You’re Next
The Vyker moved out of the way and Devon\'s blow hit the mansion\'s wall instead, cracking the bones of his knuckles.
"Ngh!" Devon groaned in pain.
The Vyker\'s fist lit up with a fiery blow that he struck against the side of Devon\'s face the very next second but as his head was smacked to the side and blood spilled from his mouth, Devon kept his fist clenched and threw a punch of his own.
The Vyker didn\'t bother moving and just remained in place so Devon\'s blow could strike the flame field he had protecting his body.
"Ahh!" Devon yelled but even as the flames licked at his flesh and burned him, he managed to resist as he locked in his knees and pushed as hard as he possibly could while punching his other fist against the flame field repeatedly.
*Bam!*
*Bam!*
*Bam!*
The Vyker smirked at Devon\'s attempts. He eyed the Half-orc\'s fists as they burned from his flames and eventually decided he might as well put an end to his opponent\'s misery.
He threw out his arm to strike Devon\'s face with a backhanded blow that packed more force than he had used thus far.
Devon took his fist off the flame field and raised his arm just in time to catch the blow, wincing as his skin burned with the fire of the Flame field. He dug in his legs and managed to keep his stance as his eyes began to burn a bright red glow and his body let out a frenzied aura.
"Hmm?" The Vyker said with his head cocked to the side.
Devon let out a growl that seemed to come from very deep in his chest and kept rolling out like a beast coiled and ready to pounce. His muscles bulged and he appeared to get ever so slightly bigger while veins popped out all over his skin as his physical stats all received a 30% increase.
<Berserk!>
An ability exclusive to Berserkers and sacrificed whatever little rationality Devon still had for a boost in all of his physical abilities.
"Interesting," the Vyker said, "A Half-orc Berserker. Who would have thought?"
Devon wasn\'t in any capacity able to carry on a conversation —not that he was interested in doing any of that in the first place—, so he drew back his fist and struck toward the Vyker\'s midsection.
Just like before, the fist met the flame field but unlike before, a red aura flared from that fist, giving off a faint whiff of blood as it spread all over the flame field and corroded it. Creating an opening for Devon to sink his fist into the Vyker\'s stomach.
"Ack!" The Vyker let out as he doubled over mostly in surprise at how his defense had been broken through only to be struck in the jaw the next second by an uppercut.
The blow, just like the one that had struck the Vyker\'s midsection, also gave off the red aura and tore through the defense of the flame field to ascertain it hit the target\'s body in a blow that fractured his jaw with an audible crack as it sent him flying off to strike the ground with a powerful thud.
The Flame Vyker\'s strength stood at an impressive 30 and that had given him the upper hand over Devon\'s lesser 26 but with Devon\'s <Berserk> increasing all his physical stat by 30% and taking his strength from 26 to 34, the tables had turned.
Of course, the two had no idea of this numerical factor to their contest of strength but even then, they could feel a shift in the tides.
The Vyker rose off the ground. He could taste not only the metallic taste of blood in his mouth but also a stark distaste. The increased strength of his opponent was bad enough but the red aura that rendered his flame field useless upon touch made it even worse.
Meanwhile, Devon stomped over and delivered two quick-fire blows to the Vyker\'s face.
The first one hit and knocked the Vyker\'s head back but he regained his bearings and dodged the second.
\'Damn it, pull yourself together,\' the Vyker told himself mentally as he psyched himself up and took a fighting stance.
He could no longer manhandle his opponent but he could certainly still meet it like the fight that it was.
Devon threw out more punches and even mixed in kicks. The Vyker dodged them all while always retaliating with punches of his own into Devon\'s side. Chipping away at him.
Devon\'s agility had been increased by 30% as well thanks to <Berserk> which took the normal 15 to 18 but that was nothing compared to the Vyker\'s superior 45.
Every attack Devon made was slow to the Vyker\'s eyes and thus, avoidable.
This went on for more than a minute,
"Rarrrrr!!!" Devon yelled as his red eyes glowed brighter with malice.
With every one of his blows hitting air and his opponent hitting his side with hit after hit, chipping away at him, his rage rose and his ferocity hiked up but it was all for naught.
And soon, two minutes of activation was up.
<Berserk> was done.
Devon\'s glowing red eyes returned to their normal brown and his swelled body returned to normal.
He became weak like he had overexerted himself and all the hits the Vyker had landed and he had been able to endure thanks to <Berserk> seemed to hit him all at once. Sapping what little stamina he had left.
"It\'s over, isn\'t it?" The Vyker asked before grinning widely, "Of course, it is."
A flurry of blows followed with Devon not even capable of raising his arms to defend himself. And even if he did manage to defend himself, the fire of the flame field would burn his skin all the same and his bones would get fractured.
The Vyker\'s fiery fist was in the midst of landing even more series of blows when two shots were fired. All striking the newly erected flame field and melting away against the defense.
The Vyker stopped punching Devon and kicked him aside. The Half-orc was not a threat to him anymore anyway.
There was a reason they had come to this backward part of the world in the first place and the Flame Vyker was willing to bet the thief with his Master\'s item was the one who dared shoot at him.
Sure enough, when the Vyker turned around, he found himself face to face with a smug Angus Dionisio who had his revolver pointed with the stolen item\'s purple gem pulsing against his chest.
"You—" the Vyker started to say before looking from where Angus stood to find a body close to the Mansion\'s wall. A body with a bullet in its forehead and a face the Flame Vyker recognized,
"You killed him?"
It was more a statement of shock than anger.
"I did," Angus said as he walked forward, "And you\'re next."
The Vyker\'s fists flared with his flames as he dashed toward Angus to strike him. Angus didn\'t fire his gun. It was pointless against the flame field anyway. As for Spellbinding, he suspected the Vyker had taken measures to protect himself so it wasn\'t needed.
Angus let the Flame Vyker get close to him, dodged the punches he threw out easily, and smacked the side of his face.
The smack hit the flame field, however, it struck with such force that it sent a powerful sonic boom directly into the Vyker\'s ear.
"Argh!" The Vyker let out in pain. It felt like his eardrums had completely ruptured.
Angus didn\'t stop and struck again and again until blood began to drop from the Vyker\'s ears.
When his victim started falling backward, weak and defeated, Angus grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to shove his gun into his mouth.
With the pain in his ears to worry about, the Vyker didn\'t have the presence of mind to keep his flame field up so when Angus clenched the trigger, the bullet tore right out of the back of his neck. Killing him.
Angus released the shirt and let the body fall to the ground before cleaning the bloody barrel of his gun as he glanced over at Devon,
"Still alive?" He asked with a smile.
"Yeah—" Devon said, breathless, "And here I thought I was coming to save you. Very embarrassing to need saving instead."
Angus chuckled,
"You certainly helped."
"Good to know," Devon said with a chuckle of his own as he held up a charred thumbs-up before his arm flopped to the ground.