Chapter 545 (1/2)

Annie actually thought that this ambassador from Zone 1 was rather cute, if misguided. There was a very… aggressive pleasure in slowly shooting the arrows until his clothes revealed the body underneath, for all that the man was probably 10 years her senior.

Besides, there was something very pleasurable in how he refused to concede even when it had become increasingly obvious that there was a vast disparity of power between them. Of course, this meant that he had probably gained two dozen Skill Levels over the course of their confrontation, but that didn’t mean that most people could see the benefits in remaining in the fight and being humiliated. Men especially found it a hard pill to swallow.

There was a spark in this one’s eye; he was desperate for the wildness and thrill of testing himself.

Crossing her fingers, Annie hoped that Dozer wouldn’t be too rough with him.

Dozer moved with surprising quickness for his bulk and closed the distance between himself and the cowboy. The cowboy, for his part, said nothing to imply he rejected the challenge. In fact, he raised his fists and adopted a boxing posture.

Dozer was not a particularly emotional man, although he truly was more insightful than Annie gave him credit for early on in their relationship. But when the cowboy adopted a stance, he smiled, pure and wide. It was the look of a child who had found the toy he had been waiting for.

At an unspoken signal, both rushed towards each other, the cowboy moving much more quickly than Annie would have given him credit for. She had been aware that part of her advantage lay in her use of her stealth Skills to keep him from being able to read her shots, but it was still impressive to see his stride eat up the distance. His movement style also revealed that he was a competent boxer as well.

Dozer had no grace, just momentum. Then he threw his first punch. There was an audible crack as Dozer tightened his hand into a fist and raised it. The blow seemed deceptively slow.

To his credit, Cowboy rolled backward instantly. But as the cowboy looked up at Dozer, his eyes narrowed, and she sensed he could intuit that he had just made a mistake.

Building on his momentum Dozer rumbled forward, two more blows smashing outward. From anyone else, these would be casual jabs. From Dozer, it could kill a regular human, and even those with Classes would blanch at the thought of being hit with the fist directly.

Instead of dodging, Cowboy stepped forward and under the blows. After he had narrowly missed getting his head knocked off, he threw a left of his own, one that smashed into Dozer’s midsection. Dozer had a good 7 inches on the man, and the closest target to him was Dozer’s huge torso.

Without bothering to dodge, Dozer brought his left arm around in a hook.

The cowboy expertly stepped to the side and then threw two more lefts. But before they even landed, his eyes widened as he sensed the danger. After throwing the hook, Dozer twisted his left arm and clawed outward at the cowboy, using a lot more force this time. It was fast and too late to dodge. The cowboy’s eyes narrowed.

He adjusted his stance and twisted to throw a right at Dozer’s jaw.

It hit, and Dozer’s head tilted incrementally to the side. At the same time, Dozer’s hand landed on the cowboy’s shoulder. There was a moment of pause as the cowboy was knocked off balance and stumbled while Dozer gathered his strength.

With a roar, Dozer burst into motion, his body twisting almost 90 degrees to the left. His attack was now more of a grab than a claw, and the cowboy yelped as the rapid rotation caught him and brought him around, flinging him into a nearby tree.

He tumbled head over heels and crashed into the tree, which cracked. Wood and man collapsed in a broken heap to the ground. Silence reigned for several seconds.

Annie rolled her eyes. “I know he’s tough, but jeez. That barely took any time at all. You need to learn to savor your meals.”

Shrugging, Dozer cracked his neck while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. All the while, that wide grin stayed on his face. “It was a good punch.”

*****

Randidly stared intently at the remains of the bonfire he had made the previous night.

There was a weight to burning, he was slowly realizing, and that was key. There had to be a certain amount of constant heat in a large area around it, and then like a seed, an even deeper and more dangerous seed would slowly bloom. That bloom would slowly spread outward until it filled the entire space that the prior heat had occupied. If there was enough fertile ground now, an even more powerful heat would be born there. But that required area.