"Fuuuu!" Lucas let out another deep breath and pointed his spear at Quinn, narrowing his eyes and tunnel-visioning his opponent.
Fwooosh—!
"....?!!!"
But suddenly, Quinn's figure disappeared into thin air.
'Behind me!' Lucas told himself and quickly spun around to spot the black-haired boy present there.
"Arghh!" gritting his teeth, Lucas jabbed his spear at the necromancer but…
Fwoosh—!
Quinn vanished again!
'Behind me again?'
As Lucas was on the cusp of turning around, a powerful force struck his back. Despite his armor reducing the strength of the impact to a mere tenth of its original force, he still experienced some discomfort as his body was flung at the wall.
Thwack—!
"Khuaaa!"
After crashing into the wall, Lucas landed on his feet and regained his balance before quickly turning around to face his enemy.
"...!!!!"
But when he turned around, he found Quinn already right in front of him, and before he could react, a powerful force blurred into his chin, knocking him to the ground.
It was Quinn. He had punched him. And the speed of his punch was so fast that Lucas couldn't even react!
"The fuck?"
Surprised, before Lucas could even try to get up, Quinn mounted himself on top of him and pinned his hands down on the floor using his knees.
"Arghh!"
"Your armor may shield you from external physical and magical assaults, but what if I were to shoot an attack into your mouth? Would it still protect you? And what if one of my shadow minions gets in your body and contorts your insides until your body ruptures? Oh, I know! I'll just cast an illusion spell on you and break your mind! Tell me, will your armor still protect you from such a threat?!"
Pinning Lucas down, Quinn barked at his face with a glint of rageful insanity visible in his eyes.
As Lucas struggled to shake Quinn off of him, he realized he was too weak.
"Haaa," letting out a defeated sigh, Lucas calmed down and stopped struggling.
"Oh, if only you had done this before," Quinn spoke with a mocking smug. "But it's too late. I will–"
"I told you, you never stood a chance." Lucas said, cutting the necromancer off.
"...What?" a frown appeared on Quinn's face as he asked in confusion.
"Fine," Lucas chuckled hysterically. "Let's take the long way."
Quinn had no intention of waiting around to see what this madman was talking about, so he decided to cast an illusion spell on him and break his mind, but before he could even start his chant, Lucas yelled
"Mana Burst!"
In the novel, Lucas only used his Gift twice.
Once when he was fighting against Nero, and again when he was, well, fighting against Nero after making a contract with the vampires and becoming their slave.
After making the contract of submission for power with the vampires, Lucas' stats were improved so much that using his gift caused an explosion almost akin to a huge nuclear blast.
Yes, the man became a living nuke in the novel after contracting with the vampires. He was capable of spawning a fucking sun in the middle of a battlefield.
Of course, that still wasn't enough to defeat the heroes, so he was caught in the end.
But Lucas igniting a nuclear explosion was one of the few scenes that impressed Noah Lambert while reading the novel [Chronicles Of The Legendary Heroes].
So needless to say, after coming to this world and transmigrating as Lucas himself, he was excited to try out his Gift.
Although, he never got the chance to do so.
But right now, when he finally got that chance, he poured everything he had— every tiny drop of mana that was in his body— to activate his gift
Mana Burst.
And although the explosion that followed wasn't as strong as a nuclear blast, it was comparable to a truckload of TNT exploding.
KABOOOOM—!!!
The sheer force of the azure explosion of mana shook the entire building to its core, causing the floor beneath them to crumble and sending them tumbling down to the level below.
"Arghhhh!"
"Aaaaaah!"
Buried beneath a pile of debris, both Quinn and Lucas pushed aside the rubble and rose to their feet, both groaning and grunting.
Blood streamed down Quinn's face, indicating that he had sustained an injury.
In contrast, Lucas appeared unharmed, though he was experiencing intense exhaustion from the complete depletion of his mana core. He had pushed himself to his absolute limit.
Upon locating his opponent's position, Lucas realized that Quinn had landed only a few feet away from him.
However, to his dismay, Quinn was still standing and appeared to be rubbing his head.
"Tsk!"
Just what would it take to put this guy down?!
Believing this to be the perfect opportunity to end this duel, Lucas decided to attack him while he was still dazed.
He tightened his grip on his spear– wait!
His spear?!
Where was his spear?!
It wasn't in his hand!
A quick scan of the area revealed that his spear had landed a few steps ahead of him, embedded in the debris between him and Quinn.
"Huh?" at that moment, Quinn shook out of his daze and realized Lucas didn't have his weapon on him after looking at him.
"...."
"...."
Fwoosh, Fwoosh—!!!
Not a word was spoken between them as they both quickly made a run for the spear.
Lucas intended to grab it, while Quinn wanted to destroy it and render his opponent weaponless.
Ting—!
But as soon as Quinn took a step forward, from under the rubble, five orbs of light shone brightly in a circle below his feet.
'What now?!' Quinn thought but before he could react…
"Activate!" Lucas yelled and rushed at Quinn instead of picking up his spear.
Thun—!
A bright light flashed in his vision and momentarily fogged his mind.
Item: Stun Marble
Info: A relic marble that will activate on the user's command and deploy a flash and stun combo on one target for 0.089 seconds.
It was a trap Lucas had set here beforehand!
But when? When did he set it?
Before this battle even began?
But then, how did he know they would end up in this building, on this very floor, before it even began?
A myriad of questions bombarded Quinn's mind, but before he could come to any conclusion, the marbles buried beneath the pile of debris stunned Quinn for a split second.
As a result of this, all the effects of the sedatives that he was forcefully suppressing by circulating mana in his body surfaced, leaving him unable to move and completely vulnerable to any attack.
Cling—!
Using the split second when Quinn was flashed and stunned, Lucas flicked his wrist twice and a hidden blade sprung out from the brace under his right wrist.
Thud—!
Splurt—!!
Without wasting a second, he stabbed Quinn in the throat, causing his blood to spurt out like a fountain.
Lucas retracted his arm and jumped back. Quinn clutched his throat, trying to stop the blood from gushing out but to no avail.
"Khaaa! Kh-Kuhk!"
Voices that didn't make any sense escaped his mouth as he vomited blood and fell to his knees.
Meanwhile, Lucas grabbed his spear and slowly approached the kneeling necromancer with a grin on his face.
"I told you, you never stood a chance."
Thack—!
