Chapter 876 - Round Two

Ryan's continuous attacks with Absolute Death Crossbow made Odin's left hand bleeding. Still, while the weapon was causing a lot of damage, the output of a single weapon wasn't enough. In a minute or two, Ryan was confident that he will render that hand useless and put a hole in it, but it seemed that Odin had other plans.

Instead of moving his spear to the side and prepare the swing, Odin pulled his arm backward… he was preparing a thrust, not a swing. It was only obvious that spears would be more effective like that, and thanks to it, Ryan began to sweat cold, imagining where Odin would hit him. In the end, Ryan felt a sharp pain in his chest… Odin was really aiming for Ryan's heart in a deadly way.

Ryan created an Ice Meteor to buy some time, but Odin stopped the projectile even without looking at it. In fact, he didn't even point his hands towards it. Regardless, soon after, Ryan used made a lightning bolt fell on the ice meteor. Eventually, the meteor was shattered, and Odin was hit by some of its water and the lightning bolt. However, the attack flew and was absorbed by Gungnir. Once again, Odin stabbed the air, and Ryan felt the same sharp pain approaching his heart.

"Son of a…" Ryan bit his lips in annoyance.

Ryan stopped wasting time and then fired several Amber Arrows toward Odin. He noticed that he could use his elemental magic to stop those, so he attacked those by hitting them with lightning bolts. Half of the moon had already shown up on the horizon, but Ryan still couldn't use Lunar Arrow. That being said, a good part of the region was already covered in darkness, so Ryan created several arrows made of them and made those surround Odin. Damaging something made out of the darkness was impossible. Still, in the end, Odin didn't fall for Ryan's trick… his Darkness Manipulation was at such a low level the damage caused would be minimal. Despite that, Ryan kept attacking since the opponent was stupidly powerful, and the skill would level up at incredible speeds.

Congratulations! The skill Darkness Manipulation has leveled up.

Congratulations! The skill Darkness Manipulation has leveled up.

Congratulations! The skill Darkness Manipulation has leveled up.

… 

At some point, Ryan even covered the area around him in darkness to make himself unable to be found, but Odin still managed to hit him in the same place. The path to his heart was being opened in a very violent way…

It seemed that Ryan will be forced to rely on Dark Ice Breath again. It should be fine if he tries harder this time since the level of corruption in his body decreased. However, there was a problem… Dark Ice Breath could cause a lot of damage… as long as the enemy is within a certain range. Without that, it comes to a very predictable attack that any idiot can dodge, even more so, someone at the level of Odin. Amidst his panic, Ryan suddenly had two ideas… what if he used the corruption to enhance his Frost Armor? Ryan quickly decided to throw away that idea since Odin had the skills to make his Frost Armor to dissipate. However, he didn't give up on the second one…

Ryan opened his mouth and then used Dark Ice Breath, and that made Odin frown since he was so far away that he could easily disperse the attack before it could free even the air on its path. However, Odin felt danger for his life suddenly, and he prepared to retreat. Still, before he could do it, he was suddenly hit by a massive arrow of the crystalized arrow of dark ice. The attack had been so fast that not even his eye granted Odin the chance to dodge it… Ryan had combined Dark Ice Breath and Draconic Bow.

The arrow froze Odin instantly. Thanks to it, he was unable to resist the attack in any way and began to be pushed by the arrow until it eventually leaves the planet. The speed of that wasn't something that Ryan could even see, so capturing Odin was out of the question.

"What now?" Ryan frowned.

"That was an impressive combination of attacks, Ryan," Merlin said. "I will register that skill on my database and name it as Draconic Corrupted Arrow of the Absolute Zero."

"… That name is too long," Ryan said after a long sigh. "Anyway, considering that you are supposed to help me, you didn't help all that much, actually."

"I am not a battle-support item that you can use. I can only give you information irrelevant to the destiny of the planet and enhance your classes and skills," Merlin said. "Regardless, you should work on freeing yourself. Based on my calculations, that attack won't kill Odin."

"I suspected as much," Ryan furrowed his eyebrows and watched the dark night of the sky. "Maybe I should defeat Baldr and obtain a power-up before Odin returns. He certainly will return if I defeat Baldr."

That being said, Ryan would rather drink boiling water than help Daniel. Not to mention, while he was fighting for his life, they had moved to somewhere else, and Ryan didn't want to waste mana and time looking for them.

"I forgot to ask, Merlin," Ryan said. "But what you do with mana, can you even store it? Aren't you some kind of machine?"

"I am a semi-organic life-form," Merlin replied. "I can use, store and spend mana much more efficiently than you."

"It seems someone touched a troublesome subject here…" Ryan said and then used Search on Odin. "It seems he still is moving further away from Earth. I have some time to prepare for round two, but what should I do?"

The same trick won't work twice, even though Odin could use the same tricks on Ryan over and over again. Ryan had to think fast because a wizard of the level of Odin probably could Teleport between the planets of that solar system in a single instant…