Chapter 1113 (2/2)

The woman, for her part, reacted surprisingly well. Her eyes quickly widened as she noticed Ace’s rushing form, but Ezekiel also saw her take in the sudden shift of the stream. She kicked backward, creating about five meters of further distance that would give her time to react to these strange new developments. Although they had received word that she was a healer, she obviously possessed a decent amount of physical Stats to respond so decisively.

Likely she had been required to fight on the frontlines in the past.

Ezekiel’s eyes flashed. Honestly, your experience is more of a hindrance than a help when we are trying to save your life. Blink.

In a flash, Ezekiel appeared behind the woman and activated Stunning Grasp. Electricity crackled around his claw-like hand as he sharply smashed his palm into her back. Immediately, the woman gasped and staggered forward. Narrowing his eyes, Ezekiel raised his palm to prepare for another strike; her Endurance and Resistance was enough to stay conscious after the first one.

But before he could move, the foe lurking in the stream made its move. As Ace landed on the far bank, the same side on which both the woman and Ezekiel now stood, a crimson blur cut out of the water and toward Ace’s back.

Without a care in the world, Ace raised his arms and slipped his helmet over his head. Then, just as it seemed like he was going to be punctured by the blur, Ace’s body contorted and he twisted out of the way. Then his hands shot out and grabbed the blur.

“Sudden Recovery, Status Inoculation,” The woman in front of Ezekiel muttered. Ezekiel’s eyes jumped back to her and his mouth twisted in annoyance. If she would have just gone down easily we could have begun their escape plan immediately-

“My, my, my,” Ace drawled as he heaved on the limb he had seized and dragged a huge monster out of the stream. It was a huge crimson scorpion, about the size of a motorcycle. Floating above its head was the name Bloodbeast Scorpion Level 50.

But again, Ezekiel’s wavering focus allowed the woman to spin away and dodge his second Stunning Grasp. And when Ezekiel stepped forward and followed up with a third, the woman’s arms twined forward in a judo-esque move to avoid his attack and throw him. This time, however, Ezekiel was ready. Maybe against someone else this would work, but against me…

Bristling Ferocity.

Ezekiel’s body rapidly increased in size, to the point that he was about 1.5 times larger than he had been originally. As the woman’s hands sought out leverage against him, Ezekiel simply smashed into her and sent her stumbling backward. The Skill would only last for a few seconds, but in that few seconds, Ezekiel was rather unmatched in physical contests. The opponent would need to be quite a bit stronger-

Eh? Ezekiel blinked as the woman leaned back as he smashed into her, rolling onto her back and kicking him up over her body. For a few seconds, he was sailing in the air, looking back at the woman in shock. This his mouth twisted in determination. Blink.

As the woman rolled back to her feet, Ezekiel was standing there waiting, his body shrinking back to his normal size. “Noxious Fumes.”

Stretching his hand forward, he blasted the woman directly in the face with something akin to mustard gas. Most would be reduced to a coughing, sneezing fit from the direct hit with the Skill, but this woman gritted her teeth and used her momentum to continue into another backward roll to open up space between them.

Damnit, if that Status Inoculation Skill is this powerful… I knew I should have spent more time Leveling up my Skills, Ezekiel thought bitterly. But he had never found it easy to force himself to train, not like everyone else. Because the Skills he obtained came at high-Levels anyway, finding the motivation to grind them was a bit…

But with the bit of space, Ezekiel’s eyes blazed as he activated Eyes of Avarice. For a split second he could feel the Skill sinking into the woman, and then there was a strange sense of wrongness. A notification popped up in front of Ezekiel.

Warning! Your Skill has failed!

What…?

“Oy, not that I want to stop your fight,” Ace’s voice cut across and dragged Ezekiel’s eyes back to the stream. “But I think I we were a bit wrong about the reason that this fuck is taking all of the blood from his victims…”

Ezekiel’s eyes widened as he looked over toward the stream. The water had turned maroon by now, and crimson forms dragged them out of the water one after another. Three especially large bodies already surrounded Ace.

Bloodbeast Grizzly Bear Level 53

Bloodbeast Vulture Level 57

Bloodbeast Cannibal Iguana Level 55

But as Ace quickly dodged out of the way of a slash by the Vulture’s talons, more room was made for additional Bloodbeasts to crawl up onto the shore. At this point, there were almost thirty of them, lumbering out through the surrounding trees to try and box the people into the area.

As Ezekiel was torn with indecision, the woman eyed him and then the Bloodbeasts warily.

Finally, Ezekiel shook his head. “We need to fall back. At least then-”

“Retreat? Ha.” When Ace’s barked out his laughter, it was like his voice drummed against the air in a way that sent reverberations throughout the area. “No. We won’t retreat. It’s time to drag this fuck out for his reckoning. This is proof that he values this woman just as much as we do. And he is a fool for taking me so lightly that he doesn’t come out himself to fight.”

As the Bloodbeasts’ focus narrowed to Ace, Ace raised his arms and transformed.

“Come you fodder, let me show you why they call me Dauntless,” The masked man said with such violence that the air shivered in response.