Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 11: Fierce Fight

Edge watched as a layer of mana spread across the charging beast’s chest, causing the bands of living wood to thicken along that surface. That skill seems similar to Harden, but it’s specialized for the nymph’s unique biology.

That was all the time for analysis Edge was given before the heavy creature ran straight into his weapon. It was the outcome he’d been hoping for, with one significant twist. Instead of impaling itself on the naginata, the nymph’s skill-bolstered bark held firm, causing the polearm to scrape across its chest instead of sinking in.

To Ander’s credit, the shaft held firm, resisting the pressure of the beast’s mass pressing against it. On a less promising note, the heavy hit hadn’t caused any damage at all. He was worried that even Double Slash would be repelled by the beast’s resilient Barkskin.

My iceblade will have trouble penetrating too, especially with its Disruption added to the mix. Edge had no choice other than to let go of his polearm and scamper out of the way. The nymph’s claws were reaching for his throat, and he didn’t have time to work his weapon free.

His objective was to open some room, then circle back to retrieve his naginata. Hopefully, an insight into how he could win the fight would come to him along the way. However, the beast had no intention of letting the battle progress according to his plans. It reached down to touch the ground, as more mana went streaming out of its core.

When Edge felt the soil vibrate beneath his boots, he suspected that the nymph was casting Entangle, which it was. He was prepared for a version like his own, with dense, blade-resistant vines. Or perhaps one of the variants he’d been offered earlier—agile tendrils, or ones covered in razored thorns. Which left him unprepared for what came bursting out of the soil a bare second later.

A half dozen vines emerged from the dirt, stretching up to over ten feet in height. He thought it was strange that they hadn’t come reaching for him… until he saw that one side of each vine was covered in a bladed growth—segmented in a manner that allowed the creepers to flex.

No sooner had he made that observation than the vines came lashing forward, using their length to create a whiplike motion with the tip of their blades leading the way. Fortunately, Edge had already gathered his concentration and ignited his core. He Shadow Stepped to avoid taking damage, since he was impervious to physical attacks while in shadow form.

The world turned into smoke and mist… and shifted back to normal half a heartbeat later. The instant that Edge Stepped, the nymph had let loose a surge of Disruption. It wasn’t a skill, just a technique that any cored creature could learn. The move burned through a ton of mana, but it was good enough to cancel Shadow Step, leaving him at the mercy of the sword-vines streaking for his body.

He had faced opponents that could use a Disruption surge several times before. But he hadn’t realized that beasts could use it too and wasn’t prepared to deal with a strategic counter to his transformation.

It was a nasty surprise, but thanks to his incredible Reflex, Edge didn’t freeze up. He darted to one side and twisted out of the way, but it wasn’t good enough. Three of the razor-sharp growths pierced his body. Two were just minor wounds that only sliced the surface of his skin, but the third plunged deep into the meat of his thigh.

Blood rained to the ground as the sword-vine sliced through his femoral artery before emerging from his skin, severing some nerves for good measure. It was a powerful move. An attack that would have killed most people within minutes as blood loss took its toll, severely hampering their mobility in the process. Not that the nymph would wait that long before closing in for the kill.

Luckily for Edge, he wasn’t most people. In addition to having experienced enough pain that it didn’t overwhelm him in that moment, even a severe injury like this was only an inconvenience. All it meant was that it was time for Regeneration to earn its keep.

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He Leapt out of the way of the nymph’s next attack, screaming as the maneuver magnified the agony in his leg. As he flew back, he activated his healing skill. Thanks to all the Amplification he’d picked up over the last few weeks, Regeneration worked fast. Blessed relief flooded through him as his sundered tissue began sewing itself back together—savaged flesh sealing shut within a matter of seconds. There was still considerable internal damage, but he wasn’t in danger of bleeding out and could support his own weight once more.

Although it cost him a decent chunk of mana, he was back in the fight by the time that his boots hit the ground. The big wooden bastard clearly expected its attack to be fatal, or at least cripple its prey and trivialize the rest of the battle.

Sensing a chance to regain the initiative, Edge played into its expectations. He kept on screaming while holding his leg—like he was trying to stop himself from bleeding out. The carnivorous brute came sauntering over, not bothering to use any more skills now that it thought the fight was over.

It stopped in front of him, then raised both bladed hands high—ready to bring them down with the full Power of its body behind it and reduce him to gory ribbons of flesh.

He lifted his left forearm above his head, in what looked like a futile attempt to protect his vital points, while reaching for the knife sheathed at his belt with his right. The nymph let loose with everything it had, sending both limbs down in an avalanche of living wood. Just before its natural weapons struck true, he Hardened his forearm, and a coating of diamond scales formed over his tender flesh.

The beast sensed the mana from the skill, but there wasn’t time to counter. Besides, it couldn’t spot any danger to itself and expected the blow to be fatal regardless of what skill he was using.

With an incredible impact, Edge caught both sets of claws on his extended forearm. Even with the diamond scales, the impact cracked his bones, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had blocked the dual blow cold, preventing his arm from being severed at the elbow.

Before the brute could recover from its surprise, he stepped inside its guard. By now, he had drawn the knife that Trapper had given him, which was forged from a high-grade material that could hold an edge far sharper than steel. He swung high, Double Slashing along the way for good measure.

As he had been expecting, the nymph let loose another Disruption surge to counter his attack—an instinctive defense intended to cancel the skill coming toward its face. While the move dispelled the doubled knife blade, it did nothing to stop the original. Not to mention the extra momentum that Slash added along the way.

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The knife sliced across the beast’s bark-covered face, biting an inch into its dense wooden flesh. It wouldn’t have been enough to seriously wound the creature if Edge had been trying to cut into its skull. But since his target was only skin deep, the attack was more than sufficient for his needs.

In between the drawing of one breath and the next, the preternaturally sharp blade sliced through one big brown eye, carved a gouge across the nymph’s forehead, then cut straight through its other eye too. He let out a cry of triumph as he ducked out of reach. Unless it had some manner of healing skill, he had just blinded the stage-two beast.

He darted over to retrieve his naginata, watching his opponent all the while. It was clear by this point that the nymph couldn’t repair the damage to its eyes. It wasn’t trying to fight anymore; it was trying to get away. But Edge wasn’t about to let his prey escape.

He Leapt over the beast’s head to cut off its retreat, unleashing a wicked Double Slash that caught the nymph in the leg the moment that he landed. It thickened its natural armor with Barkskin, but like Harden, the skill couldn’t cover its whole body at once. It deflected the first blow, but the next two got through, nearly severing the limb in the process.

He attacked in a flurry, dodging a ponderous attack for every two of his own. More sword-vines emerged from the ground. But since the nymph couldn’t give them a target, it was easy to avoid the lashing tendrils.

He kept hacking and slashing until one of its legs gave way, then dropped his naginata and conjured Elemental Blade. Edge couldn’t afford to kill the nymph until he stole its skills. But he needed to muddle its mind before activating Extraction, or there was a chance that it would resist the invasion of his chains.

He had learned that freezing a creature’s brain was an effective means of disabling it, which wouldn’t kill it if he was careful with how much cold he applied.

Over the next three minutes, Edge lashed out with his iceblade time and time again, overwhelming the beast’s Disruption enough to chill its fibrous tissue. At last, it was so weak that it couldn’t move, and it was time to finish the fight.