Chapter 22

“What do you think?” Astrid asked, utterly calm at the grotesque sight before her. The Stone Giant warrior had been torn apart, his chest ripped wide open and blood spurting from his neck. Ulfar had thrown his heart to the side, his body drenched in the warrior’s blood.

Meanwhile, Astrid’s eyes shimmered, a trace of blood touching her mesmerizing eyes.

“About what?” Hakon responded.

She turned to him with furrowed brows, “You cannot fool me, Hakon. I know you studied him.”

A faint smile tugged at his lips.

“He’s slow.”s

“Slow?” Astrid asked.

“Maybe slow is wrong. But Ulfar is tougher than he is strong and stronger than he is fast.” Hakon corrected with a shrug, “His perception is somewhere between his strength and speed, and his fighting style is nothing like it used to be. Wild, impossible to predict – or so it appears at first glance.”

He wanted to leave it at that but those mesmerizing eyes never left his side. Astrid didn’t beg for more information, but she was interested. Curiosity got the better of her when Hakon remained silent, and she leaned close enough to feel each other’s breath on another. The air was tense and the world around them lost its importance. All that remained were Astrid and Hakon, their eyes meeting, the wordless exchange saying more than a thousand words could.

Then she pinched him into the side.

“Sneaky.” Hakon snickered, holding Astrid’s gaze for another moment before turning back to Ulfar. Even his friends eyed him with vigilance after what happened on stage. The respect they carried for the man had been replaced with fear, and they were not the only ones. Even some of the older warriors turned their attention to Ulfar, his demonstration of power rippling through Tribe Taskur, affecting old and young.

“There is a pattern to his ‘unpredictable’ attacks. It is hard to grasp, but I know it is there.” He explained, “All combined means he is a powerful foe. And that he is easier to control than those in tune with their power. Enrage him and his pattern will be much easier to detect. His strength should increase when he loses himself to rage, but being able to predict him in exchange should be more than worth it.”

That was even more important since Ulfar gave up on his weapons. Unarmed combat was powerful. Especially for someone like Ulfar, whose whole body was a weapon of mass destruction. His bones were likely tough enough to shatter regular weapons.

That was probably why his old fighting style no longer worked. Regular weapons were weaker than his body and would likely break before Ulfar could go all out.

Astrid stared at him for a moment, digesting what he’d just said, and so did Björn, eyebrows scrunched in obvious confusion.

“You have changed.” Astrid murmured, voice sultry, eyes longing.

Björn only grunted, but he too looked at his friend anew.

Hakon just smiled in response, his attention pulled aside by a series of messages he’d ignored earlier.

[Proficiency gained. [Split Focus Lv.3] improved to [Split Focus Lv.4]]

…

[Proficiency gained. [Split Focus Lv.6] improved to [Split Focus Lv.7]]

The first batch of messages was expected, but it was the next he didn’t anticipate for.

[Skill [Sensory Expansion] has been learned.]

It wasn’t even a Skill he wanted to acquire, yet Hakon acquired it anyway as he watched the battle. The first from searching his mind. As for the second, he acquired and improved it as he scrutinized every little detail of Ulfar’s battle.

[Skill [Flow Observation] has been learned.]

[Proficiency gained. [Flow Observation Lv.1] improved to [Flow Observation Lv.2]]

Both Skills cost mana, which he had to pay more attention to now that his reserves were quickly dwindling. He triggered [Sensory Expansion] and used it alongside [Mana Sense] in an attempt to sense the ambient mana around him. That turned out to be more difficult than it should have been.

The Monolith’s raw mana was everywhere and overshadowed everything. It consumed all the ambient mana and transferred it into the stage, which resembled the mana mass in his stomach quite a bit. Except that the stage was filled with pure mana and much larger.

Hakon perceived a lot more but it was hard to dismantle all the information. His head throbbed after a few seconds and he stopped his Skills even before he could use bursts of [Circulation].

Recovering mana is going to be difficult. But…it should work. He tilted his head, trying to come up with a solution even though his head felt like splitting apart. Alas, what did not kill him only made him stronger. The headache would only make his head stronger, all the same.

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Ulfar stomped on the Stone Giant warrior’s heart, squashing it before finally stepping off the stage. What an unfortunate soul – the Stone Giant warrior. He had been strong and would have achieved greatness if not for his untimely meeting with Ulfar. Alas, the Ancestors had chosen his fate. It had been their decision, and nobody dared to question it.

The stage rumbled as soon as Ulfar left. A blinding light filled to the brim with mana burst into the air, dispelling the darkness of the night, before retracting after a few moments, the corpse of the Stone Giant warrior nowhere to be seen. The stage was clean once more, the cracks repaired.