Chapter 29 – Pugilism? (2)

Chapter 29 – Pugilism? (2)

Rowan looked down at the corpse beneath him, a grin on his face. He couldn’t get what he’d done with the punch out of his head. It just felt amazing. The sheer strength of his body. He wanted to do it again.

But he stopped and forced himself to think. As much as it felt amazing to be able to rely on his body like that, he knew it just wasn’t that effective. It was like a strike from his mace, but with less force behind it.

If he were being honest, he thought he could achieve the same thing with the spiked weapon. The only thing that prevented his blows from sending his opponents flying back was that he usually hit down towards the ground rather than striking them head-on.

The only advantage his body had was that it was quicker and more versatile, but in the end, it just wouldn’t do enough damage, especially not against the bloodspawn; they were already resistant enough to blunt force that his mace wasn’t that effective.

But what if he didn’t need it to do damage?

Rowan smiled as thoughts ran through his head. He didn’t need his body to be the real damage dealer. And, if he was being honest, even if he had the stats to do so, he didn’t think that it would be all that effective, especially since he didn’t have any training or martial arts experience. But he could incorporate it into his fighting style as something else, couldn’t he?

Currently, he used mana projectiles and blades to fight, as well as his chains. It was enough for him to be able to attack from both close and afar, while usually having something to fall back on in case things went wrong.

But against enemies like the bloodspawn, who adapted to him, Rowan thought it would probably be good to add more to his arsenal. The more variety he had, the better.

But, just then, he remembered something else: the necrotic poison that came from the fungal creatures. If he was going to be punching and kicking them, he would be striking the creatures with his bare skin.

What if they blocked with their claws?

Then, he would end up punching the sharpened bones head-on. Rowan shook his head. There had to be a better way. Then, he looked at his chains.

Infusing a touch of mana into them, he watched as they solidified. Then, he extended them slightly, just enough to wrap his hand. The links ran down his wrist and then looped around his palm and knuckles several times

After a few seconds, it was like he was wearing a gauntlet of chains. After a moment of thought, Rowan realized a better analogy was a hand wrap of chains. Like what a boxer might wear on their hands before a fight.

He flexed his hand a few times, testing out the new grip of steel. It was surprisingly flexible and easy to maneuver in.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to hurt if he hit something. He thought his toughness might be able to allow his body to endure and avoid any cuts or serious damage from his own strikes, but he knew that it would still hurt terribly.

That was a price he was willing to pay.

After all, he’d experienced and endured more pain since he’d been sent to the tutorial than ever before in his life. How bad could the pain of a few punches be compared to that?

Even now, his left arm was fractured and mostly useless. But he could still endure. Still fight and kill the bloodspawn.

And that brought him to his next problem: his arm. With the limb out of commission, fighting with his fists would be hard. It was already hard enough when he was using a mana construct.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But after a moment, Rowan realized that it wasn’t really too big a deal. It would truly hold him back if he decided to fully commit to pugilism, but that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

He’d entertained the idea for a few moments, but now that the adrenaline of the fight was beginning to wear off, he realized that it wasn’t what he wanted to do. It had just been the feeling of victory and power of the single punch that had made him just want to do it again and again forever.

Now, he knew that he just wanted it as an addition to what he already had. He could throw in a punch between mana constructs and chains.