Chapter 330 – Tier 3 Duel.

‘He took it?’

Roland’s hammer had just connected with Emmerson’s large oval shield. The force that was generated caused a little shockwave to spread in all directions. The sound his weapon made during the collision was a bit off. He intended to blow away the man’s shield and then follow it up with a blast to his face with one of his shoulder cannons. Instead, he just slid back a bit while lowering his center of gravity.

‘Those defensive skills are troublesome.’

He could feel the force from his attack getting dispersed and lowered the moment it collided with his enemy. Some of the tiles on the ground started crumbling from this transfer. The initial analysis of the skill implied that Emmerson was somehow able to force the magical and kinetical energy down into the ground. Then the rest was absorbed by the armament’s enchantment and his vitality producing almost no damage.

“He pushed the Commander back… who is that person, I’ve never heard of a Knight named Wayland.”

“Yeah, someone this strong should have been discovered sooner…”

While Roland was disappointed by his initial hit not connecting right, the Valerian Knights on the sides were stunned. In their eyes, their Commander was a monster that they could never beat. They even saw him dueling some other knights without even once dropping down to his knees. Here on the other hand he was already buckling under the pressure of the first hit which didn’t bode well for their side.

“I’ll admit it, you have some strength but with strength alone, you will not defeat me.”

Emmerson didn’t seem like a very talkable person so when hearing him talk in a relaxed tone didn’t bode well. It was true that with his current multiplier, the stat differential favored him. Yet Emmerson was able to take a full blow that was even further enhanced by some buffing spells. Roland wanted to end it fast but his plan backfired a bit and just as the man was talking some type of skill was activated.

The other knight’s armor started being surrounded by a strange phenomenon. It was as if small blocks made out of rocks assembled themselves around his entire frame. They were somewhat transparent and looked to not be made from mana. Instead, Roland was sure that this was the man’s spirit resource by which his class was enhanced. Right before the orange light faded, Emmerson’s body started looking like it belonged to a golem made of rocks and cinder blocks in particular.

‘It must be some type of defensive skill that protects his whole body from damage…’

Regretfully, unlike with mages that used long chants that allowed people to predict attacks it was not the same with these skills. The only way to figure out what was happening was to have information about the skill used, and what skills the person had prepared or identify them by the visual cues. It was clear that it was a defensive skill but he didn’t know how it worked.

Of course, he wouldn’t just stand there and allow his opponent to continue using skills. Instead, one of his shoulder cannons aimed and produced a more concentrated blast of energy. To Roland’s surprise Emmerson chose not to dodge this attack nor did he put up his shield to defend.

The beam of light that had the diameter of a middle-sized coin drilled into his chest but was unable to pierce through the strange orange energy. Instead, an image of the blocks that formed this strange skill was seen. It was as if he was hitting a holographic image that was imposed over Emmerson’s body. Some of the orange blocks were damaged but after the attack was over they started to assemble themselves back into place.

This was quite a hard pill to swallow for Roland who expected to at least be able to get through this defensive skill and graze the metal on Emmerson’s armor. Instead, the only thing that was damaged was his shoulder cannon which was ill-equipped to handle his increased mana capacity. His armor was made for a person that possessed tier 2 power but he went well above it. Each time he cast a spell he could hear the sizzling of the runic components.

During this fight, he could see the limitations of his fighting style. Even when he was now stronger his old armor was working against him. He would need to take care of that issue later as concentrating on this confrontation was more important. The knight on the other end charged forward with his large sword in his right hand. His speed wasn’t anything special which allowed Roland to fire off a couple more blasts from his shoulder cannons as well as his hammer.

The weapon of choice that he brought along was his runic hammer. It had a retractable handle which allowed him to wield it as a one or two-handed weapon. When elongated it also became a proper mage’s staff and could discharge various runic spells. While holding it in Emmerson’s direction he discharged a massive blast of magical energy almost instantly. The whole place became quite bright as the magical energy flew towards the charging knight yet right before it connected another skill was used by his opponent.

His large body blurred and appeared a bit to the right. The beam of mana energy that was focused on the middle was now directly targeting the large oval shield. Even though this blast was strong enough to take out any of the skeletal beings down in the dungeon it wasn’t capable of getting through this charging knight. Roland found himself retreating while his shoulder cannons blasted at the right side. Though just as before the man ignored the lesser beams as they could not pierce through that defensive skill of his.

To make things worse he was also capable of his own ranged attacks. That huge sword that would be hard to hold in two hands was utilized. Emmerson performed a strange quick thrusting motion that produced a strange roar. A lion’s head was visible as it formed on the tip of the blade. Soon after this lion head charged forward along with a beam of light. It was some sort of energy skill that had an added sound wave added. The growling caused his muscles to contract for a fraction of a second right before the hit.

‘Shit’

To his surprise, he was unable to dodge instead a thick slab of mana appeared before his body. The lion’s head connected with this defensive shield that he produced almost instantly. Sounds of something cracking filled his ears as his mana shield was having trouble containing this strange attacking skill. Then to make things worse the enemy was actually able to bridge the gap between them.

With his multiple minds, he was able to keep watch over Emmerson’s every movement and even produce multiple spell effects at once. While the skill was flying his way he made sure to produce some rock pillars along with spikes to block his approach. This didn’t affect the man that much as he just bulldozed through everything. Roland’s tactic of outranging his opponent wasn’t working as he intended and now he had to contend with those close-range sword strikes.

Normally a person with superior stats should have also been at an advantage in close-range combat. Roland had examined his opponent and realized that he was somewhat of an all-rounder with a bit more of a focus on strength and vitality. In theory, he should have been able to overpower the other knight with pure stats but there was a reason that he couldn’t.

The sword moved at a strange angle while he retreated, for a moment he could follow the trajectory but then it was suddenly gone. His armor which came equipped with an automatic barrier was quickly activated as the sharpened blade connected with his body. Instantly he produced multiple magical effects to push the man away. Yet before he could, another blade strike grazed his side and even cut into the metal it was made from.

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Roland pushed himself back and quickly made some space. The shoulder cannons automatically started shooting multiple blasts of magical energy at the opponent that continued the chase. Now that Emmerson had managed to shorten the distance he was unwilling to let him escape.

They continued to dance around the large courtyard while their skills and magical spells rained down everywhere. The knights on the sides even had to pull out their shields to defend themselves and the people around them. The area that was chosen for the duel was quite large but with all this running around it was getting riddled with holes.

“The commander is winning!”

“I knew he could do it!”