Too Stubborn to Die

“Haha, keep up, slowpoke!” Voidrin taunted as he and his clones rushed through a group of spike-backed venomous tortoises.

They didn’t have a chain linking them like the previous trial; instead, they were forced to fight through a series of rooms. At the end of each room were doors leading to the next room. However, the trick to it was that the doors would only open when both trial participants were within about a meter of it.

Currently, Aaron was fending off a small squad of the tortoises as Voidrin jumped around the room, hunting the endless hordes that continuously charged out from adjoining side doors to face them.

“Alright, alright. You made your point. You’re good, you happy? Can we move on now?”

“Not yet!” Voidrin shouted back. “I’m having fun. Besides, I need to make this as clear as day!”

What a show off.

He rolled his eyes for effect, but to be honest, Aaron didn’t actually mind. Voidrin’s casual if not boastful attitude was kind of refreshing in a not taking things too seriously kind of way. He was able to have a kind of friendly banter that he had been missing, which Mo’han didn’t quite seem to understand.

Swinging around, Aaron blasted a group of monsters closing in on him away with powerful punches.

The battle itself wasn’t anything spectacularly exciting, not compared to his other achievements. However, he was getting some decent practice with his spirit.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t actually trying to use his spirit in combat. Instead, he just tried to keep a metaphorical leash on it whilst focusing on the battle. If his attention was broken, the link between him and his spirit would be too. This would cause him to lose control over the spirit and his link to the spirit plane itself.

It was no easy task. His control over his spirit was still amateurish, and using Skills and reading fate simultaneously was a sure-fire way to break his focus on it. But with every moment he practiced it, the task became easier, and he could go longer without losing control.

Because of this, he wasn’t too bothered by Voidrin’s antics, just shook his head as they dragged on for a while.

Eventually, the cyclops seemed to be bored with his flashy display. Or maybe it was the fact that he remembered that Aaron could essentially just keep eating to recover energy as long as the fight didn’t get too heated, and if he kept this up, he risked embarrassing himself further in the trial, especially since these first room enemies weren’t strong enough to push Aaron too hard.

“Pathetic, these guys don’t have nothing for me,” Voidrin landed beside Aaron, brushing his hands against one another as he joined him by the door.

“About time.”

“Ohoh, you miss me, did you?”

The giant metal doors ground open, and they walked into the next room.

It was a huge oval room, and pig-nosed hoglites stepped through doors that lined the circular walls. Each one of their enemies carries a round shield and a long spear.

“What happened to us talking? Remember the deal?”

“Since when did I stop you from yapping, my boy?” Voidrin threw his hands up.

“Okay. Well, I’ll just say it then. How would you go about beating Mo’han? You saw him during our duel, didn’t you? Notice anything?”

“Sure did,” Voidrin said as he star jumped to limber up for the fight. “Lotta power that guy has. I’d say it’s probably best not to take him head-on. But you kinda ruined my whole mist clone stunt, so maybe I’d have to rethink my approach. Thanks, by the way.”

“You’re the one who was challenging everybody,” Aaron shrugged.

“Meh, it’s whatever. I need more than the one trick anyway. Trust me, Aaron boy, it’ll take a lot more to beat me next time.”

As they talked, the hoglites lined up into a formidable formation. Spears were everywhere, like a giant humanoid pig porcupine fused with metal armor.

“Oh?” Aaron probed.

“Aha, like I’m going to reveal my secrets to you,” Voidrin wagged his index. “I plan on getting that win back before I leave this place. Don’t you worry about that.”

Huh, what do you know? It seems we have a bit in common.

“Okay, fine. Looking forward to it. But what about Mo’han, don’t you have anything?”

“Besides not meeting him face-to-face?” Voidrin said, bursting into a cloud of mist and charging forward with dozens of clones.

“Yeah, but I need a little more than that,” Aaron said, rushing after him.

“I dunno, make him miss?”

Aaron rolled his eyes as he deftly slid by several spears and into the fray, his fists pummeling a path through the hoglites and bruising snouts and armored, furry frames with spouts of blood trailing behind his lightning-fast strikes.

“Seriously? I thought a guy who went around challenging everyone would have better insights!”

Voidrin was beating down several dozen hoglites at the same time, surrounding them with clones and attacking from all angles.

“What more do you want? I thought you’d be funnier, y’know? So serious.”

“Serious? I’m just looking for an edge. Besides, we’re all in here to get stronger, aren’t we?” Aaron replied, bouncing over a line of shields and landing behind the formation. The hoglites squealed, and he released a bombardment of deadly, precise strikes.

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“Well, hit him with something different. Ever think of that?”

Hit him with something different?

Aaron’s brow furrowed as he chased down several fleeing hoglites. “What do you mean by that?”

“What do I mean? Are you really that stupid? Like a different kind of attack. Clearly, that powered punch of yours doesn’t do jack to the big guy. But that doesn’t mean he can take a hit from everything. You do know about resistances, don’t cha?”

“I-ah,” Aaron swallowed. He really had missed out on a lot by not getting the Tutorial.

“Wait, seriously?” Voidrin froze in the middle of the fight. “BAHAH! Bro, you know like nothing. How in beholder balls did you get so far? Don’t you even ask questions?”

“I missed the Tutorial, remember?”

“I don’t, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t tell me that. But I suppose it does make a little more sense,” Voidrin mused, his clones taking on the fight around him as he stood in the middle of the carnage. “Though, I must say, if I missed out on the entire Tutorial, I’d put a little more effort into figuring out what I’d missed out on.”

Aaron probably deserved that. He really hadn’t put that much effort into figuring out what the missing pieces were. He had just focused on fighting. Then again, it was who he was. He had never read a manual in his life, and if there was a means of skipping instructions and getting straight to the grit and dirt, he’d take that option ten out of ten times.

“Yeah, well, I’m doing alright. I beat you, didn’t I?”

“Oh, what a zinger. Anyway, you’re the one asking me for help, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aaron said, bashing his way through a couple more hoglites as he approached the next door. “So, you going to explain?”

“What’s there to explain? Go find out what he’s good at resisting, and what he’s not. And hit him where it hurts. Surely you can figure out the rest.”

“How do I figure out what his resistances are, though?”

Not only had Aaron never seen or heard of resistances, but there was no tab for them within his Status page. So how on earth was he meant to figure out what they were?

“Not everything is in the Status page. That’d be too easy. Although, apparently, there are Skills out there that can figure this kind of thing out. Anyway, you’re going to have to stick to good old trial and error, buddy. I normally do it with my clones if I suspect someone is particularly hardy.”

“What did you discover about me?”

“You? You’re fleshy and weak. The real problem is that habit of yours to not stay dead.”

“And how are you planning to overcome that?”

“Ohoh, like I’d say! Remember, I’m going to beat that smirk off your face!” Voidrin yelled, cutting down several dozen hoglites all at once as he multiplied his cutlass across the room, and then walked up to the door.

So, I have to find out what Mo’han is weak to, somehow?

“Finished yapping now?”

“Not quite,” Aaron said, stepping into the next room.

Dozens of winged, bird-woman hybrids perched along stone walls that surrounded the next room. And save for a few delicately placed feathers, they were entirely naked.

“You’re not my type, ladies,” Voidrin said as he followed. “But nice try.”

“So how do you suggest that I figure out what Mo’han’s weaknesses are anyway?”

“Aaron, my boy, you’re thinking about this all wrong,” Voidrin shook his head as he summoned dozens of additional clones.

The harpies screeched and swooped down, and the battle exploded into action.

“It’s not just what he’s weak at. Like, this isn’t water beats fire bullshit. This is the real world. Things are more dynamic in reality. Think about his style, how he fights. Your style, how you fight. All of it. What attacks of yours can bypass his? What kinds of attacks can his defensive spells and Skills counter against? What does he have no counter for? You need to answer all these questions. You’re not just gonna find some special damage type that wipes the floor with him.”

“Okay, but what about your spiel about resistances?” Aaron said, climbing into the sky with [ Gust Step ] as he engaged several harpies at once, sending feathers flying everywhere as his fists made contact.

“What about it?” Voidrin replied, his clones grappling several harpies as they swooped down, and then finishing them off with his flying cutlass. “Resistances come in multiple forms. Sometimes they’re natural. A sword is going to have a harder time breaking down a man made of rock than the bashing attack of a hammer. Both can be effective with additional Skills and power, but one obviously has an advantage, right?”

“Right,” Aaron nodded as he flew through the sky.

“Then there are Skills and spells. Maybe I can form a barrier that is particularly strong against mana attacks. Firing spells against me would be nearly useless if I’m as strong or stronger than you, in that scenario. But maybe I suck at defending against a good old punch in the face. You get me?”

Aaron slowly nodded.

“Oh my,” Voidrin groaned and face-palmed. Aaron’s expression did not give him confidence. “My point is, you figure out what damage you can land that he can’t defend against. That’s it. No magic voodoo. No grand strategy. Just some basic old rock, paper, scissors bullshit.”

The two of them landed by the third door, a scene of gory feathers and crippled bodies left in their wake.

“Hmm.”

“You still thinking?”

“I–um,” Aaron grimaced.

“Oh, boy.”

“It’s not like that. I get it. I’m not that stupid,” Aaron said, stepping into the next room. “I’m just thinking what kind of attack would be able to bypass Mo’han’s defenses. It’s not like he even puts up a shield. He just straight up tanks my punches.”

“That part’s for you to figure out. Unless you wanna tell me all your secrets?”

“I’ll pass.”

Before them stood an army of laughing hyenas decked in spiked armor and wielding crude, rusty weapons.

Launching into battle, Aaron’s thoughts were distracted. So much so that he took a rusty cleaver to the head, not that it stopped him for long.

Voidrin was obviously a little agitated, since his taunts were falling short. Aaron just didn’t care that much if the cyclops outcompeted him in the trial. Of course, he had no intention of losing, and he would give his all when Voidrin challenged him again, but he just had another target and couldn’t afford to get distracted by Voidrin’s challenge. He needed to figure out how he’d best Mo’han, and he was going over everything they had discussed.

As he swirled through the battle, he pulled on his spirit, controlling it and keeping it directly overlaid on himself.

What could he do that Mo’han couldn’t? Surviving death was the obvious answer, but that was entirely defensive. There was also his spirit control, but pulling Mo’han’s hair was hardly going to win a fight.

He continued fighting as he went over his thoughts. No one besides himself could see the spirit, but to Aaron, it was mimicking his strikes. Save for a thin, misty white film that overlapped his body and the concentration required to keep it in place, he wouldn’t have even known it was there.

The control he had over his spirit had improved remarkably, but it still didn’t really do anything.

C’mon, there has to be something I can do that the big fella can’t!

Subconsciously, as he fought, he pushed more and more aether into his spirit, and with every strike that crushed an opponent, it began to feel more and more natural.

And then, something unexpected happened. He punched straight through one of the hyenas. But he didn’t blow a hole through its chest. No, it wasn’t that he hadn’t blown a hole through the monster’s chest; he hadn’t actually punched through it at all.

His spirit fist had extended past his, which had slammed against its chest, and continued to punch through the hyena. It was a strange feeling, and he noticed a wild fluctuation in the monster’s energy as his spectral fist hit.

“Huh?” Aaron looked down the ghostly hand that trailed his own with a split second of delay, simultaneously finishing the monster off with a left cross.

What did I just do?