Ascending Endlessly: I Copy Skills

The cool night air sunk deep into my skin as I stood roughly twenty feet across from the member of The Order. I could surmise what the problem he had with me was. It was one of the reasons I'd fled to Oasis, somewhere nobody would know me. 

After the Project David incident, I was labeled as a traitor to mankind. There were those who didn't understand the full breadth of the situation and hated me anyway. Maybe they thought I was the cause of someone's death. Maybe they were just particularly loyal. Who knows.

Either way, quite a few people from the early days of The Order absolutely despised me. And it seems like once such individual found his way to me. Honestly, it didn't seem like I could talk my way out of this one. Should I just let him rough me up a little so he'll leave me the hell alone?

Hold on. No. I wasn't the same person I was before. I had the power to fight back now. With this resolve in my mind, I discreetly pulled a mana battery from my deck, slipping it into my jacket pocket, and circling mana from it. 

Trying my best to stall for time and sober up as much as I could, I shouted at him.

"What do you want, man? I don't want any trouble,"

My voice echoed through the dark, empty street as I called out.

He spit on the ground.

"People died because of you, you know that? People I cared about. For whatever fucking reason, you were untouchable back in whatever hole you were hiding in. Here, though, I'm free to do as I please, you son of a bitch."

He started walking towards me, cracking his knuckles. Damn, a fight was unavoidable here. I entered a loose fighting stance, ready to defend myself. I wasn't sure how strong this guy was; before, he'd just hit me without using any mana. I would have to wait for a stronger attack or skill to gauge his actual power. 

I wouldn't have to wait for long. His slow walk quickly turned into a charge forward. He didn't activate any skills; of course, he must have still been under the impression that I was an F-Rank, powerless hunter. That would be to my advantage. 

I powered up my body with mana and prepared for his attack. As his ordinary punch flew towards my face, I blocked it, grabbing and twisting his arm. Then, as his body was turned towards the ground, I swung my fist across his jaw with a fair amount of mana; enough to significantly damage a D-Rank monster.

Then, I hit him again, before letting him go as he fell to the ground, moaning in pain. 

"You... fucker..."

He spit blood and a tooth out onto the ground. It seems like he hurriedly protected himself with mana. 

Before I took any other actions, he activated a skill. A volley of glowing, golden spears appeared behind him. Uh oh, this didn't look good. I couldn't tell exactly how strong the skill was just by looking at it, but it was probably at least C-Rank. Well, if this was a C-Rank hunter, I wouldn't have any real problems.

I summoned a few skill cards as I prepared to defend myself, skipping backwards a couple of steps to gain some distance. I didn't want to go too far, though; just enough to react to his spears, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to use the majority of my C-Rank skills which excelled in close combat.

First, I activated super speed. With the enhanced mental processing and movement speed I could react to his attacks much better. Then, I activated hardened skin for some added defense. Finally I prepared the barrier to be cast as soon as he started firing off those spears. However, I was surprised by his next move. 

Instead of taking advantage of the range I'd granted him, he got in closer. Then, the spears started stabbing towards me quickly. I managed to dodge the first few, but I had to activate the barrier to block one that came to my flank. This crazy son of a bitch was seriously trying to kill me. 

I cast teleport and cut and appeared directly in front of him while some of his spears were still extended forward. Quickly, I aimed a slash across his stomach. I didn't want to kill him, but I'd have to do significant damage; enough to get out of here safely.

However, I hadn't noticed his shadow underneath me. It quickly wrapped up my legs and towards my arm, holding me back from my attack just before it hit. Once again, I teleported just as several spears pierced where I'd just been standing. He turned to me.

"You... what the hell? I thought you were an F-Rank."

He looked confused. I took that moment to send out a couple more C-Rank skills, dashing between spears to lunge at him with my own.

'Pierce.'

The skill materialized in perfect timing with my attack, appearing in my hand and jabbing directly into his flank.

"Ack!"

He called out as the skill dissipated, clutching his side.

"You mother fucker..."

His spears returned behind him before lurching towards me again. I got his attack pattern now; his spears weren't a ranged attack. They were close range, but could be maintained and reused unlike similar skills which had greater range. It also seemed to be a B-Rank skill. 

The shadow was another problem. If it caught me, it would restrict my movement. I could teleport out, but it was quite the defense mechanism. It also meant my focus would be diverted from the fight to a certain extent, since I would have to think about it at all times. This wasn't a fight with a monster, either; it was with a human. This guy could think up much more complex strategies than any goblin or ghoul.

I stayed on my feet. This was going to be a tough fight. I was on the level of a B-Rank hunter now, but I didn't have much experience fighting with people. At least, not nearly as much as monsters.

However, he didn't activate any other skills. Were these two his only ones? If so, he was pretty weak in B-Rank. I stood a chance here. I had already drawn first blood; I would just have to whittle him down further, dodging his spears as best as I could. 

And so I did just that. The guy attacked me more and more fervently as the seconds passed; he seemed frustrated that I was managing to dodge his attacks. However, it didn't work out well for him. I had the upper hand in speed and versatility, and not only that, but my ability to manipulate mana meant I could enhance my body, as well. I was simply too fast for him.

I managed to get him with another shallow attack after only a minute had passed. I'd stabbed him in the back lightly before retreating as a spear shot towards me. Did these things have fucking aim assist? It seemed like it. What a great skill.

It didn't hinder his ability to attack me, but I still was making progress. After another minute, I landed another significant blow. I slammed his head hard with a punch to the head full of mana; it shook him up pretty well. That allowed me to stop worrying as much about the shadow. Even if the spears had auto-attack, the shadow seemed to be controlled directly by him.

With my mobility freed up, I finally managed to knock him out cold with a final strike to the chin with the base of my knife. The blood loss from the other attacks had definitely helped, but ultimately, he was just defensively weak. 

Of course, as soon as he was knocked out, his skills were cancelled. I nabbed both of their signatures and turned to walk away, panting heavily. Even though I hadn't really gotten hurt aside from some small cuts, it was mentally and physically exhausting. Ugh, hold on a second.

I turned back towards him. He'd been stabbed twice and knocked out cold. Should I really just leave him here? Well, he was the one who'd attacked me... yeah. I'll just leave him behind.

Ten minutes later I was standing in front of the embassy with his sleeping body slumped over my shoulder. Fuck, in the end, I had to at least do this much. I dropped him in front of the door and finally turned to go home, completely wiped. It was a long night, and besides, it had been a while since someone had shown such hostility to me.

It wasn't a good feeling. At the very least, I gained a little bit of confidence for my upcoming attack in a B-Rank dungeon. Of course, he was particularly weak for his rank, and B-Rank monsters tended to be stronger than B-Rank hunters. But regardless, it was good. I'd managed to take down something of B-Rank before I'd even entered the dungeon. As soon as I got back to my hotel, I collapsed into my bed and fell asleep instantly.