Aurum knew that he was no longer the sniveling coward who got both his honor and body thoroughly trampled by the giant before him. Even while knowing this fact, he could not stop his fists from trembling.
Geo told him once before, that trauma especially those unresolved turns into heart demons. This meant Aurum needed either to find some way to forgive himself for what happened or gain enough strength to stop being afraid of the high leveled Tino.
Not bothering to reply immediately, the San-Baka all placed their masks back on. The son of Standar courteously replied to the insults. "My mother and sister are working honest jobs in the capital thank you for asking, as for the pathetic state I ended our trashing match let me make up for it now. "
Tino cracked his knuckles while smirking. "You are free to try bastard. I haven't had a decent warm-up in a long time. Come at me all three of you, I don't mind." The Redhead exaggeratedly bowed to show his false gratitude. "Our thanks to you of mighty Tino Malosi, may you live forever."
The three masked warriors all drew out bone swords of different shapes and started to channel calibers into them. Tino similarly channeled his Aura into his armor. The man fought with his martial arts while using spiked knuckles and boots. His heavy armor was also meant to create a massive increase in defense, weight, power, and mass all at once.
Lars being the most agile of the three vanished in a blur and attacked with a speed beyond sight. Tino who also had over 1000 AGI naturally could use "mind's eye" to counter blows from the spirit realm. Even though no one could be seen attacking him, Tino blocked slashes, stabs, and even kicks with his spiked gauntlets.
As Aurum only gained above 1000 AGI due to the buffs from Hiro, he couldn't acclimate to entering the Spirit realm like Larua a natural AGI-based fighter. His highest stat was STR, thus his manner of fighting is basically getting up to an opponent's face and smashing his sword into it.
The fallen noble charged in a stabbing stance, intending to impale Tino on his bone greatsword. Unfortunately having over 1000 AGI also meant their senses already left the bounds of human limits. Even as he blocked or punched the invisible Lars, Tino still was able to block Aurum's charge with one hand.
'My total STR is already at 2300, are you telling me it is still not enough? I'm basically already level 65 in stats alone. Is the gap that huge between me and him?'
The bodyguard suddenly pulled the greatsword in his hand messing up Aurum's stance, knowing what came next, the blond San-Baka crossed his arms to protect his vitals. A simple punch from Tino slammed into his arms shattering them, the son of Standar then flew away from the impact.
Lars suddenly appeared and stabbed his bone swords into Tino's shoulder, but due to being covered in Aura, the blow couldn't even scratch the armor and stopped his efforts entirely. Entering the Spirit realm required a huge cost in Spirit, and staying there also required the same caliber. Thus very few could remain fighting in the Spirit realm for long durations.
Most only used it to launch sudden attacks or prepare big moves. Tino who waited for Lars to eventually come out of the realm by himself grabbed one of Lars' hands and smashed him into the ground. He then stomped on the downed assassin with his entire weight.
Luckily, Geo attacked with his sword, in a horizontal slash, otherwise, Larua would have probably ended up getting trampled to death. "[Flare blade]!" Tino raised his arms to guard his face against a sword covered in Mana. A sonic boom resounded as sword and armor met. The heavy power from the strike couldn't damage Tino and thus went back to Geo as recoil and sound energy.
With his blow stopped, the bodyguard moved to tackle the magic swordsman, only for the San-Baka to start another skill. "[Aura Circle]!" Geo turned his sword and body in a horizontal circular motion, this move attacked Tino and defended the redhead at the same time.
As a Magic swordsman, Geo's greatest advantage lay not in his ability to fight close and use magic. It was being able to use both Mana and Aura. This allowed him to use two skills one after another invalidating the stupor window by switching calibers.
Unfortunately, as a veteran of many battles, Tino Malosi knew his fair share of combat principles and strategies. STR-based warriors, due to their hard bodies and high health mostly just tank damage till their opponents run out of steam. Tino used the same strategy, except he built a combination of skills all specifically to counterattack and return damage.
While Geo turned and made a circular slash, the bodyguard punched the center of the sword, causing it to move out of the swing. What he did essentially canceled the skill, thus like Hiro's application of it Fulgeo felt the recoil damage from stopping a skill midway.
The magic swordsman felt his muscles rip apart as his insides got hammered by an unknown force. This is one of Tino's core strategies, use the penalty from forcefully canceling skills to damage his opponents. Geo weak from the backlash failed to stop the coming fist and got punched in the stomach.
Before the gigantic man could capitalize on the situation Aurum came back with a massive swing, Tino tried to stop it like before but his punch met fierce resistance from an Aura-powered blow.
Unable to overwhelm the strike the man got pushed back a couple of meters. He was about to charge again before a body suddenly got on him from behind and stabbed his face.
Even with all his attack power, the blow still couldn't penetrate Tino's defenses. The bodyguard then grabbed the one behind him and tried to smash him onto the ground.
Only for a red-haired swordsman to smack the back of his head with a powerful blow. While the giant didn't get damaged. It did manage to push him off balance.
'Aren't these bastards healing a bit too quickly? There is no healer around. How can they get back into the fight despite the injuries I give them?'
He then saw the three eating small morsels of meat or drinking what looked like wine from small vials. The San-Baka continued to attack him non-stop and even though he demolished them in one second before a moment ended they would be back up. This cycle repeated for more than five minutes with each man getting injured more than ten times.
'What the hell is going on?! Why aren't they dying?!' at that point while being pestered by Lars and Geo, Aurum suddenly rushed forward using a skill. "[Straight Pierce]! [Annihilate]!" Tino who threw off the ones beside him once again tried to counter the skill with his fist only for the skill's momentum to smash his hand into a bloody pulp.
"What?"
Due to the power of the charge, Tino couldn't avoid the attack and Aurum's sword sliced his hand all the way to his shoulder in a straight line. Flabbergasted at the result of the simple skill Tino looked in disbelief at Aurum.
"About fucking time Aurum." Sarcastically quipped Geo. Inside their heads, the same alerts echoed.
- Alert: Average [Familiarity Index] 50% Bonus base damage increase 845 ATK -
- Alert: [Skill Prediction] via [Integrity of the Faithful] Prediction rate increased to 20% due to [Familiarity Index] -
"We have all the time in the world Tino, show us what you got."
