Free Web NovelChapter 17: Upperclassman Threat
Holden looked at the gauntlets first.
The gauntlets were serious.
Rank 2 equipment has a solid, expensive look to it. You don’t have to look closely to see it’s high quality. The energy pulsing through it wasn’t there for decoration. Its raw power could easily kill a person.
The person holding them was also serious.
Seven-Star. From what his system analyzed.
"Never walk again," Holden said. "That’s a specific goal."
"Draven likes specifics," the bruiser said.
"Is that what he paid for. Specifically."
"He paid for a message." The gauntlet charge pulsed once, bzzt. "You picking where the message goes is a courtesy."
Holden rolled his neck once.
Crck.
"Alright," he said.
The bruiser closed the gap fast.
He wasn’t as fast as someone using Gale-Step, but he was still very quick. His speed came from his strength and his way of moving. He punched toward the chest, but it wasn’t a wild swing. He aimed carefully so that both the punch and the gauntlet would do the most damage possible.
Holden went left.
Whoosh.
The gauntlet missed by a margin, but he could feel the sparks fly past his collarbone. A small bolt of electricity jumped the gap and shocked his shoulder. It didn’t hit him directly, but his left arm went numb for a moment. He shook the feeling back into his arm and didn’t stop moving.
The bruiser was already moving again. Instead of losing his balance after the miss, he went right back into his fighting stance.
Boom. Boom.
He stepped in and threw a low punch with his left gauntlet, hoping to hit Holden as he dodged. Holden countered by jumping over the attack instead of dodging around it. Using a quick burst of speed, he stayed in the air just long enough for the attack to miss completely.
He didn’t waste the opportunity. While he was still in the air, he brought his palm down hard against the man’s shoulder. He was aiming for the same nerve cluster he’d used earlier on Draven’s men.
The bruiser’s arm dropped slightly, but he recovered in an instant.
That’s the gap, Holden thought.
There was a limit to what a 4-Star nerve strike could achieve. While the man’s nerves still reacted to the hit, his 7-Star body was so dense that it absorbed most of the force.
The bruiser looked at his shoulder briefly, realizing what Holden had tried to do. He looked back at Holden, and his expression changed. He was starting to look curious about Holden’s skills.
"Good placement," he said. "Most people go for the obvious spots."
"Most people haven’t thought about it as much," Holden said.
The charge in the right gauntlet surged, bzzzzt, glowing brighter just before the man attacked.
Holden didn’t wait for the strike to land. He reacted and moved before the power could even reach its peak. freewebnøvel.com
Whoosh.
He entered the most dangerous range, where a "miss" still felt like a hit. Where even a near-miss could be devastating. The gauntlet’s knuckles caught his jacket at the left side, and the electrical charge jumped through the fabric to shock his skin.
The shock went through his ribs, and his left side stopped working for a few seconds. His muscles kept twitching uncontrollably.
He backed off until there were four steps between them. He waited for his side to stop twitching. Luckily, his Gale-Step didn’t fail. His legs kept up the footwork while his upper body dealt with the pain.
The bruiser didn’t rush. He watched Holden recover.
"You’re more durable than you look." he said.
"I’ve had a good week," Holden said.
The twitching in his ribs stopped, and his left side felt normal once more. After a deep breath, he took a moment to assess his condition. He ran through a mental checklist of his injuries and prepared for the next move.
He was faster. His Gale-Step was better than anything the bruiser had at that tier. His processing, with the 100x multiplier running, meant he was reading the gauntlet charge surge about a half-second before it peaked every time.
But the gap was real.
Every time Holden landed a blow, the impact was cut in half. Meanwhile, every time the bruiser landed even a partial hit, the effect was doubled. It was a losing battle.
He needed the Star-Forged Blade with Asura’s Ignition running through it.
A voice came from above him.
"You’re favoring your left side."
Both of them looked up.
Lyra crouched at the edge of the wall with her spear on her back. She was studying the man’s gauntlets to see how they worked. Her hand was already on her spear, prepared to fight at any second.
"I can come down," she said, to Holden.
The bruiser looked between them, recalculating his chances.
"I owe you," Lyra said simply. "This is me paying it back."
Holden looked at the bruiser and his shock-gauntlets. His system had been studying the gear the whole time. He saw small cracks near the knuckles. He also noticed that the electricity didn’t flow right near the right wrist. Whether it was a factory error or a result of a past hit, the glove was flawed, and now Holden knew exactly where the weakness was.
He looked at Lyra on the wall.
He raised one hand, a gesture for her to wait.
She stopped.
Holden looked back at the bruiser steadily.
He didn’t need to run. He didn’t need Lyra’s help. ƒrēewebnovel.com
He just needed his weapon.
A translucent blue screen flickered in his vision.
[System Inventory Accessed: Star-Forged Sword.]
Holden held out his empty right hand. A swirl of dense, digitized blue light gathered in his palm. In the blink of an eye, the light solidified into the heavy, dark metal of a Rank 2 sword.
The bruiser took a half-step back, his eyes widening. Spatial storage rings were incredibly rare, and making a weapon materialize out of pure air was something only high-ranking nobles or elite instructors could afford to do.
Up on the wall, Lyra’s eyes narrowed in shock.
Holden didn’t give either of them time to process it.
He settled his feet into the Iron-Cleaver’s base stance.
"You wanted to deliver a message to my legs," Holden said, leveling the Star-Forged Blade at the bruiser’s chest.
"Let’s see how your gauntlets hold up to my reply."
