B.F.HUUPS
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Chapter 46
🕑 Added 2025-07-30 20:54:10 +0000 UTC“Well, that was to be expected,” Aaron grunted as the familiar question marks filled his inspection notification. He really needed to find out if there was a way of fixing that, if possible. But at this point in time, he had bigger problems to worry about.
The fat-lipped toad turned to face him, dressed in shamanic rags and mana swirling around its suction-grip fingers as it prepared a spell. He hadn’t really had much of a chance to gauge the toad’s combat abilities last time, not with everything else going on.
“Sorry mate, but I’m kinda good at taking out casters.”
Aaron’s subtle grin wasn’t just to show off. He was already reading the toad’s threads of fate and devising a plan.
The toad was going to cast a spell, which wasn’t particularly insightful on its own, but Aaron had a pretty good idea how and where it would travel. There were multiple threads, but they were all relatively similar, and in less than a second, he prepared his evasive maneuvers.
He could have no doubt dodged the spell without Fate Weaver, but the Trait allowed him to confidently do so with the least amount of movement, and therefore the least energy waste. Aaron was constantly improving and combining his techniques to complement one another, and this was just an extension of that.
Activating [ Relentless Scourge ], he shot forward, easily dodging the toxic green acid spell that shot from the toad’s hand.
But the toad had more than a single spell up its sleeve, and the acid spell was followed by a mist of toxic fumes that began to pour out of the toad’s robes.
Unfortunately for the toad, Aaron had seen this too, and he had a plan for it. Unfortunately, he had only seen a few seconds into the future, and had kind of forgotten that he consumed the ‘Tainted Chili Con… Everything' when he used [ Oozagh’s Breath ]. His flammable breath exploded into flames as it blew against the toxic fumes.
The flames themselves were not overly powerful, at least not at this level. They would likely be fatal to normal humans, but nobody here was normal. Still, the toad had covered up against their licking heat. In a final desperate act of survival, the toad began casting another spell.
Unfortunately for it, Aaron had closed the distance as the purple motes of magic gradually turned its form invisible. His sharp gaze managed to follow the toad as it moved a little, not that it mattered. The toad wasn’t fast enough to escape. However, it did remind him of an interesting problem. As the toad disappeared, so did its threads of fate. The only reason that didn't matter was that Aaron already knew more or less where it was.
Flooding mana into his anchors and cycling stamina through his veins, and through them, he activated [ Overclocked Haymaker ]. He watched the toad’s already oversized and bulging eyes widen further, and in that moment, he knew his opponent lacked the speed or defensive Skills capable of blocking his punch. The fumes were its defense, and they had failed entirely.
Mana pulsed around his fist, and stamina cycled through it as he threw toward the toad, and the air surrounding it shimmered and crackled. But what happened when it landed surprised him even more. A torrent of power burst free, as if the flood gates of his inner mana and stamina pools were released at once, and the toad exploded into ribbons of burnt flesh before him.
“Huh?” It took him a moment to take it all in. He knew his attack was powerful, but not quite blow a boss into tiny pieces powerful. “Just one hit, seriously?”
Aaron glanced down at his smoking fist. Okay, he had at least gotten stronger. That was nice.
To be fair, the toad was a caster and likely had garbage Vitality. He doubted the mage from the first Trial of the Challenger would take the strike either. No, scrap that. He doubted that he could survive his own powered-up fists. But still, this was the fourth stage, and the toad looked like the boss..
“Oh well, I suppose it’s time to deal with the others,” he shrugged and turned back toward the door.
There were two other bosses he remembered from the first time he took the trial. He was almost disappointed that he wasn’t fighting them all at once. That was the only true way to test his growth and the power of his buff-giving food. But he wasn’t really following the path of the meat-brained brute, and so he continued. It was probably for the best that he kept some wit to him.
Walking outside, he could already feel the mana dissipating. It seemed that the toad had been responsible for the energy he had felt around the pyramid, and with it gone, so would the mana leave.
“Well, that’s comforting.”
But his job was far from done. Outside, the denizens of the ancient-looking town had gathered, with the largest, meanest warrior-looking, armored lizardmen at the forefront.
Redscale Axolotl Jungle Warrior [ ??? ]
Redscale Axolotl Jungle Warrior [ ??? ]
Redscale Axolotl Jungle Zealot [ ??? ]
Redscale Axolotl Jungle Warrior [ ??? ]
Redscale Axolotl Jungle Zealot [ ??? ]
Redscale Axolotl Ceremony Master [ ??? ]
“Oh, cool. Another boss!” Aaron grinned as he limbered up. “I was worried I might have to go looking for you!”
The lizardmen did not look impressed.
“Oh, right. They can understand me now, can’t they?”
“Warriors! Slay this invader!” Cried the axolotl ceremony master as it raised its spiked club to the air.
A deluge of attacks assaulted Aaron on the steps of the pyramid. Arrows flew toward him way faster than arrows had any business flying, challenging even his advanced dodging skills. When the arrows he dodged hit the pyramid, they boomed with the power of their momentum and then sizzled into the stone, melting the very steps themselves away.
“Oh, acid. Not bad,” Aaron nodded in appreciation as he danced around the powered arrows.
“Charge!” The ceremony master roared, and the axolotls armed with melee weapons rushed forward, charging up the stairs and launching into a series of attacks with spears and spiked clubs that blew holes into the stone. From a distance, the spearmen used some kind of lunging Skill that shot them toward Aaron in a near-instant.
But Aaron had seen the attacks coming and was fast and agile, allowing him to avoid the series of attacks and return his own. However, he quickly noticed a problem when his fists met their hard, scaled hides.
He didn’t do much. It was a painful reminder that he was still woefully underleveled. That said, he had [ Overclocked Haymaker ] in his back pocket.
Powering up a strike, he slammed one into the closet spearman, sending the lizard reeling backward and spattering blood. But to his amazement, it didn’t die.
Right, the toad was a squishy caster!
Immediately, he realized he couldn’t rely on single strikes to take his enemy out. Sure, his haymaker hadn’t been as charged as it could have, and he had killed other lizards with single hits before. He could no doubt do so again if he poured enough energy into his attacks. But he also didn’t have enough mana to go splurging on minions. He needed to be smarter about it.
Meanwhile, the boss wasn’t just standing around waiting for Aaron. As he fought the spearmen, it prepared a strike. The ceremony master slammed down with its huge spiked club, and the spikes shot off, flying toward Aaron. The shrapnel blasting Skill came right as Aaron was engaged in combat, and he was unable to dodge. Gravely wounded, he could do little as the spear-wielding lizards surrounded him and finished him off.
That kind of pissed Aaron off. What a cheat. He rushed straight back through the trial, quickly obliterating the shaman and continuing back down the pyramid.
This time, he kept lighter on his feet as he fought the spearmen, but he still had the same problem. His attacks were too weak when faced against such overwhelming numbers, and the boss picked its shots and finished him when the opportunity arose.
On the next attempt, Aaron thought back on his fight with Yendal in search of ideas. He had been fighting her for months, and while taking on a group was a different challenge than going up against one supreme elite, he had learned a lot.
Against Yendal, he couldn’t just make obvious attacks. Everything had to be thought through. Feints rolled into strikes, fate bent, and traps were set. But it was more than that. It was unconventional. It was about finding opportunities.
That’s it!
After blowing the toad apart in a single strike, he had underestimated the lizards. He was going for the obvious, but he didn’t have to. That wasn’t his path. It was about precision. About finding weaknesses to exploit.
And that’s exactly what he did.
Weaving through battle, he aimed at joints and flickering, moist reptilian eyes. His enemies still had far more Fortitude and Vitality than he did, but aiming for weak spots meant that even his normal punches did damage, and he didn’t have to use his haymaker to hurt them.
The benefit of this strategy was twofold. Charging up his haymaker slowed him down, and by not doing so, he was able to move through the battle faster and react more easily to the ceremony master when he slammed down with his spiked club to blast shrapnel his way.
But that wasn’t to say Aaron didn’t use his haymaker. He just used it more carefully, picking targets he had already picked apart with his normal strikes, and using it to finish them off.
With his improved techniques, Aaron killed half of the lizardmen troops before the arrows came and the ceremony master entered the melee.
On his next attempt, he killed all but two, quicker and more precise.
The following attempt saw him dancing between the spearmen and the archers, never slowing for more than a fraction of a second. His attacks weren’t particularly strong, but they didn’t need to be. Every strike hit a weak spot, and by the time they finally managed to kill him, only two archers and a single spearman had remained standing.
He used [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ] to assist with the battle. Slowing the melee down when needed, landing perfectly on his opponents' weakest spots, and then releasing the Skill when it was no longer needed to conserve mana.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” he said, slamming a fist into a lizard’s soft, spongy eye and sending blood splattering everywhere.
Within moments, his deathly dance had brought death upon a dozen lizardmen, bringing on an amused grin to his face. The distance he had come since arriving in the trial was farther than he could have ever imagined, from struggling against a couple of orc workers to slaughtering an entire group of these lizardmen warriors and most of the archers. He could barely compare his old self to what he was now. It was a completely different level, and he hadn’t even reached E grade yet.
Oh, this multiverse is going to be a blast. Aaron cracked his knuckles, but a roar quickly brought him back from his musings.
It was the ceremony master. Aaron had been dodging his ranged blasts throughout the fight, but now it was time to finish the boss off.
“What’s your problem? You wanna taste of these fists too?”
“You’ll pay for this, scum!”
“Eh, we’ll see,” Aaron shrugged as he prepared his attack.
He felt confident, but the battle wasn’t over. Throwing food into his mouth, he recovered what energy he could. He had used some against the troops, but he still had energy reserves in his fat.
“Ceremony master, the invader!” Shouted the last surviving archer who stood cowered behind its boss.
“Raggh!” The lizardman boss roared, realizing what Aaron was doing, and rushed forward.
Aaron did a quick and very crude calculation in his head and then paced backward. Luckily, he could rely on his fate reading to give him a hand when doing manoeuvres like this. He could already see which threads of fate led him to the surviving archer, and it made deciding when and where to jump easy.
He then ran and leaped with all of his strength, blasting off a [Gust Step] midair, shooting himself over the ceremony master and into a roll that brought him right before the archer as it was preparing an attack.
The ceremony master was probably pissed, but it wasn’t particularly fast. Aaron exploded into a flurry of action, striking furiously at the archer’s weak spots.
The opponent was not a master at melee range, and within a second or two, he had landed countless strikes, breaking his enemy down and finishing it without even needing to rely on additional Skills.
By the time the ceremony master arrived, the archer had been beaten to a bloody pulp.
“Sorry. It looks like it’s just you and me.”
The ceremony master looked outraged at that comment, its scaled brow bending angrily as it lunged into combat.
Swinging a heavy strike of his spiked club against the ground, the ceremony master send a shockwave of energy bursting outward. This was the same Skill it had used earlier, and what made the attack really dangerous was the shrapnel that the shockwave was filled with.
Once upon a time, Aaron would have absolutely died to this attack, but he had activated [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ] just as the ceremony master attacked as a precautionary measure. With time slowed and fate on his side, Aaron swirled into the air, barrel rolling as he dodged several chunks of shrapnel and engaging Fate Weaver to slightly redirect one chunk that he couldn’t dodge.
However, he had been grazed by a few attacks and was bleeding in several spots. Absorbing the remaining energy stored in his adipose tissue, Aaron recovered health, stamina, and mana. It wasn’t enough to fully heal him, but the wounds did close up a little to stop the bleeding.
My defense is getting pretty good, isn’t it?
Still, his mana and stamina were already ebbing a little on the low side. He had fought conservatively against the troops, but he had still used a bunch of Skills taking them out, and needed a proper meal to fully recover.
Probably for the best I don’t let him use that attack again.
Aaron was by far the faster of the two, and when he shot forward, the monster’s eyes widened. Speed was not the lizardman’s forte.
The lizard brought its large, spiked club up to strike again, but Aaron beat it to the point, swinging a highly charged [ Overclocked Haymaker ] straight into its large, flickering eye and bursting it open with a torrent of blood.
However, Aaron’s brow perked a second later when, instead of falling dead, the lizardman’s wound began to heal.
“Not bad.”
But he had trained for this. Now that its troops were dead, it was one vs one, and Aaron had trained against the best in the multiverse.
It was too easy to avoid the strikes of the slower enemy. To Aaron, who had spent months fighting Yendal, it was as if the ceremony master was in slow motion, and he easily picked it apart.
However, it was hardy; he had to give it that. Hitting anywhere but a weak spot did nothing. Even his haymakers did little unless they were aimed at a wound or weak spot. Furthermore, the ceremony master’s wounds were actually healing in real time.
Amazing!
Of course, Aaron still had more than enough gas left in the tank to continue striking, again, and again, and again. It was a race, Aaron’s relentless barrage of fists and kicks against the lizardman’s healing, and as impressive as it was, he was literally beating the Vitality out of the lizardman boss.
Beaten and bloody, the ceremony master staggered backward, falling to one knee momentarily as it steadied itself. But Aaron didn’t waste a second; he had poured every ounce of mana and stamina he had left into an [ Overclocked Haymaker ] that was absolutely bubbling with energy. It was going to land, and it was going to hurt.
But as he stepped forward to take his strike, Aaron coughed blood. It took him a second to feel the stinging pain in his back, and then his muscles tensed up.
“Poison?”
Falling to the ground, he looked up as his life drained to catch the shadowy gaze of a hooded axolotl.
“Ooh, I remember you,” he coughed before his vision drifted away.
Redscale Axolotl Backstabber [ ??? ]
Comments
Ekko
Or finally Upgrade is Intelligence or Perception
Ekko
I wonder if Aaron will learn now, how to use Health effectively
