Chapter 133: Great Battle

He pressed the purchase button immediately after confirming it. His ME dropped by 5,000 in one fell swoop, and his arsenal grew.

However, at that very moment, he felt fear.

Standing before him, attacking him with a look of hatred, Garrick held his sword, ready to strike.

In the heat of the moment, he had completely forgotten that this guy was standing right in front of him.

Zaid tried to bring his hands to his chest. It was an instinctive movement. However, he didn’t get there in time.

He felt his hands, his legs, and part of his neck being struck with terrifying precision.

His movement caused one of the blows to strike the bone in his arm, sending him reeling backward. Blood gushed from his wounds, staining everything as he rolled across the floor.

Garrick charged at him again, his sword aimed at his neck. A single, astonishingly powerful strike, filled with rage and hatred.

Zaid raised his head just before it struck.

’Good thing I moved in time...’

Although he felt a burning sensation on his neck and one of his hands was rendered useless, he had an advantage.

[The Rank D talent "Hands of the Giant" was replaced by the Rank C talent "Tendon Breaker."]

[Dagger Mastery has been activated.]

[Tendon Breaker has been activated.]

Zaid gritted his teeth...

[Scavenger has been activated: Stealing Time.]

A flash of reddish light suddenly shook Garrick’s body. He didn’t understand what had happened, but when he struck the man he hated in front of him, his figure vanished.

Garrick’s attack struck the ground...

Confused, he looked behind him.

Zaid was standing there... Still reeling from what he had just done.

[You have added the stolen time to an action: Attack.]

[Enhanced Damage.]

Activating multiple talents at the same time took an overwhelming mental toll that Zaid hadn’t considered when he did it.

His Dagger Mastery blended perfectly with his Tendon Breaker, creating an attack as powerful as it was fast and precise, which struck Garrick.

That attack was amplified by his Time Rob... and the result was disastrous.

Garrick immediately lost his hands, feet, legs, and part of his neck.

He remained upright thanks to momentum, but a few seconds later he staggered as he lost his balance and fell to the ground, face up.

Zaid vomited blood and fell to the ground as well.

Garrick looked at him, bewildered...

"W-what did you do?"

Zaid smiled. "The only problem with this is that you’ll soon come back to life..." he murmured.

Garrick trembled. "Damn you... damn bastard... You dared to kill my brother..."

"Don’t worry... you’ll see him very soon."

Garrick trembled hysterically and tried to raise his hand... but he didn’t have one. His body was rapidly losing strength, so he couldn’t even try.

"You have a real talent..." Zaid smiled. "I’ll put it to good use from now on."

Garrick stared at him... He couldn’t speak because his mouth was filled with blood. But deep down in his mind, something was in chaos.

A thought crossed his mind: Did he steal my talent?

But he quickly dismissed that possibility, because he still had it. The system was telling him he was about to die; he hadn’t lost anything...

Garrick trembled again, and blood spurted from his mouth. "Gg... Co... pia grhg..." Although he tried to speak, it was difficult to say anything before death engulfed him.

Zaid frowned. He thought he heard something, but ignored it when he realized the battle wasn’t over.

On the other side of the battlefield, Selene stared at him, completely stunned.

Bloody Spear, the talent of the young Zachary master. An incredible talent that even the church leaders held in high esteem.

That way of wielding daggers wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. "Robinson Shawn... Zaid Zachary’s teacher..." she murmured the information she recalled.

The men beside her finally realized it. "It’s true... It’s Mr. Robinson’s talent."

"How is it possible that he has it? And Bloody Spear, too?"

However, Selene could understand the existence of those two in Zaid... A coincidence—perhaps that was what it meant. One in a billion.

But "Tendon Breaker"...

One is a coincidence; two are cause for fear... But three is impossible.

Her body suddenly shuddered at the thought of a strange possibility.

"Talent Copy..." she murmured.

Where had she heard that before?

She felt a strange headache that intensified terribly, to the point that she had to clasp her head in her hands.

Zaid noticed that. He even heard those words. An alarm went off in his heart.

And suddenly, his system went haywire.

Many system notifications popped up in front of him. Some were blue, others red.

Danger signals—and warnings, too.

In the end, a single message stood out above them all.

[Kill her or die.]

[Restart the loop or get rid of her. If you don’t, you’ll die eternally.]

[Time remaining until eternal death: 10 minutes.]

The system message didn’t come alone—it was accompanied by a strangely familiar voice...

"The Scavenger Serpent?" he thought.

In fact, it was.

But he didn’t have time to think about how strange that was.

He saw the timer go from 10 minutes to 9 minutes and 50 seconds, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

"Valia!" His instinctive reaction was to charge at Selene with Valia’s help.

She didn’t understand what was happening. But when she saw him running inexorably toward his death, she followed close behind... making sure to stay far away from death, because she didn’t know if she would return if she died.

Erick and John were alarmed. "ZAID!"

"Are you crazy?! You’re going to die—they’re Rank Bs!"

The two tried to help, but were stopped by their nearest enemies.

"If that bastard is looking for death, why are you guys looking for it too?" One of them gritted his teeth in fury and charged at them to kill. The bitterness of losing several of his men on a seemingly simple mission got the better of him.

However, the focus of the battle was on the other side.

Valia’s body, engulfed in flames, plunged from above at full speed toward Selene.

Zaid, from below, immediately pulled out all the stops.

It was kill or be killed.

Either one would do.

Corpse Illusionist: activated... His body took on the form of one of the corpses near Selene. A strange teleportation...

He felt his body being wrapped in a strange blanket—warm, but also damp. The smell of death filled his nostrils before he could see again.

He was lying near Selene... and he leaped toward her... from a corpse.

Zaid, who was approaching from the front, was still visible. One of the B-Ranks leaped toward him and struck.

"Die," he muttered.

But in the face of his brutally powerful fists, only the wind came to a halt, and a corpse fell a few steps ahead of him.

"What?" He trembled and looked behind him... a possibility crossed his mind.

He saw Zaid emerge from a hiding spot...

"Impossible..." he muttered.

The other Rank B didn’t notice him; he had jumped to prevent Valia from reaching Selene.

Zaid didn’t worry about anything else. He continued his attack from a blind spot.

Dagger Mastery: activated.

Tendon Breaker: activated... reluctantly, his body tore apart as he did so.

He bit his tongue and tried to activate his Scavenger...

[Unable to activate: lack of energy.]

[Unable to activate: lack of energy.]

The message, repeated several times, left him biting the dust. All his power was focused on his only two activatable abilities. He hoped they would be enough...

And he struck.

His repeated blows were precise. Brutally precise. Yet they missed.

Right before his eyes, the entire attack was nullified... No. He struck. The attacks came. But they had no effect whatsoever.

"A Rank D, at best—are you trying to hurt a Rank B without using a Concept?" Selene scoffed and looked at him. "Talent Copying... I think I heard of that once."

Her right hand rose and grabbed Zaid’s head. Her left hand drew a golden scepter, which she pointed at his heart.

Zaid couldn’t move.

’W-what terrifying strength...’ He realized that the gap in stats was simply impossible to bridge.

"You know what? I reached Rank B with a Rank D Talent... Do you think you’re stronger than me?" He laughed mockingly. "But you scare me... Why do I feel like I’ve heard something about you before... long before I came to this place?"

His eyes turned deadly cold.

"And since you scare me, I’ll have to kill you."

His golden scepter tapped lightly against Zaid’s chest. And his heart exploded.

His body faded away at a speed he hadn’t even thought possible, amid a strange, nonexistent pain... yet one that was deadly nonetheless.

Then Selene let him fall to the ground.

"ZAID!" Erick and John roared and tried to leap forward to save him...

Valia simply collapsed to the ground immediately, unable to complete that final attack. Her fire went out.

And she succumbed to an unexpected and premature death.

[Loop Reset has been activated.]