CHAPTER 49: SEAN VS STAGE-2 OUT-WORLDER

Sean jumped to his right, feeling the wind kiss against his body, as a huge hammer made of flesh impacted the ground, causing lines of fissures to race across the caked ground.

His expression was completely tensed, his pupils dilated to their limits, and the rings of ruby irises in his eyes, glowing faintly.

Lightning coursed through his body, electrifying his nerves and improving his reaction speed. At the same time, adrenaline roared through his blood, his heart pounding furiously in his chest.

He advanced towards the humanoid creature, lightning crackling loudly on his fist, and unleashed a punch on its red, carapace covered head.

*BOOOM!!*

The shockwave pushed them both back, his fist trembling slightly from the pain of the blow, while the out-worlder only staggered for a bit, before shaking off the impact.

Sean’s expression darkened.

’Fighting a Stage-2 is no joke.’ He thought to himself.

He had had several simulations battles with Stage-2s back in the inner sector, with only a win rate of twenty percent. Meaning out of ten battles with him at peak strength in each, he would only win two, and this was when he fought slightly recklessly.

However, he didn’t have the option of fighting recklessly now, as this was not a simulation. Every decision he made, was life or death.

It was already impressive enough that he could hold his own against a Stage-2 long enough, but killing one, or surviving long enough, was a tough nut to crack.

But this was Sean’s own way of measuring himself. It had to be remembered that this metric was also applied to those who already dwelled in Elysium.

Elysium was a city of the Elite. It was part of Aegis, but with how its system operated, it might as well have been a different world altogether. A world that was predominantly dominated by mana.

One either had to be a mana enhanced human, an exceptional genius in a very beneficial field as an adult, or something else that was not public knowledge, to live in it.

This meant that every participant from Elysium, had already awakened their mana cells at twelve, and had been receiving formal training.

Before the military academy, that every child had to attend at fifteen, there were other schools too in Elysium, of which martial arts, survival courses, training on how to use mana and affinities, were major subjects.

Yet, these advantaged youths still wouldn’t beat a Stage-2 out-worlder, talk more of a Stage-2 beast, or even worse, a Stage-2 evolver.

Out-worlders were like zombies.... Completely mindless, while beasts had well... beastial intelligence, far above that of ordinary animals, with some even capable of human level intelligence, like the alpha wolf Sean had faced in the pit weeks ago.

Evolvers whether human or vampire were on a class of their own, as evolvers were not as predictable as beasts, even though the latter were usually stronger.

It was why Sean had pushed himself to breaking these past two weeks, learning everything he could, training until completely sore, and abusing his vampire level regeneration to train again and again.

He had already known all these and thought about them all before hand, but wasn’t deterred.

How else could someone like him who prior to now, was just an academic elite, and happened to be fond of this world that was written in a book, measure up to its characters without being left in the dust?

There was also the fact that he didn’t just plan on measuring up to them. His pride and his goal wouldn’t allow that.

Being a background character, or just average, was never his thing. And even though this attitude had cost him alot, like his mother, it was still what had brought him this far. Being in a class of his own... A league of his own was more suited for him.

Dominance!

He swiveled out of another smashing blow, his leg striking like a whip, against the knee joint of the out-worlder.

The creature was a humanoid, covered red, fleshy skin that was as hard as a hippo’s hide, and it’s head covered by a thick shock absorbent carapace, with large arms that it used to attack, like a war hammer.

It was like the perfect counter to his unarmed fighting style, that relied on explosive footwork and hydraulic kicks... Like a spider.

But it was dumb.

If he could kill wear down its mobility before he too was spent, then it was his win.

He refrained from using lightning in his attacks, only letting it course through his body in a limited frame, to boost his reaction and sensory information to inhuman levels.

Recovering from tiredness and muscle soreness, was quite easy for him, so far as he had enough nutritional energy, due to his vampire traits. Recovering mana on the other hand, especially in a gate, was a different matter.

BOOM!

Another hammer strike. Another dodge, another kick.

DING!

He felt the watch on his wrist vibrate, but he didn’t have the time to pay mind to it, his whole focus on the beast, and the spider webbing cracks on the ground, that only kept widening, with each attack he evaded.

While the creature’s anatomy was a counter to his fighting style, his intelligence and resourcefulness, were counters to its mindless swings and dumb use of its massive arms.

He moved out of the way of another smash, careful not to mistakenly step into a crack in the ground, and delivered a powerful stomp to the back of its knees, causing its legs to buckle.

The creature draged its large fists and swung them to his direction, but he had already move away, delivering another heel stomp to the second knee.

The out-worlder fell to a knee, and Sean’s leg snapped like a whip, smacking the back of its pits to weaken its arms which was the greatest danger to his life at the moment.

The out-worlder staggered to its feet again, swinging its large hands back at the same time.

Sean jumped back, barely evading at a hair’s breath, the force of the wind blowing his hair back.