Chapter 197

The fight started again, and this time, Natalie was ready.

The Hellhound shot forward, but Natalie responded instantly. She hefted her hammer upward, then brought it down in a crushing arc. The Hellhound dodged to the side, but Natalie anticipated the movement. She curved her weapon’s momentum to the side, pivoting from her waist, predicting the direction the wolf-girl would dodge—and her prediction held true. The block of stone caught the woman right in the shoulder.

The Hellhound grunted as she was flung to the side. Natalie might have difficulty landing blows considering her cumbersome weapon, but when she did, they held power. Far more than the Hellhound’s, even. The wolfgirl nearly flew through the air, in a trajectory that would have taken her careening off the relatively small elevated arena. But something odd happened—she slammed into the empty air, a ripple of pink light coursing around the impact area. Like she’d hit a force field of some kind. Enclosing them in, preventing Natalie, or her opponent, from leaving.

As the arrow had said, this was a one-on-one. An enforced one. There was no way off the platform until one of them won.

The Hellhound rolled across the ground and quickly regained her footing, dodging Natalie’s follow-up swing. She retreated back, her orange eyes flashing with excitement. She grinned at Natalie, then charged her again.

Natalie swung her weapon to meet her. This time, Natalie failed to make contact. The Hellhound ducked beneath the attack, then swept out Natalie’s legs with her own, sending Natalie tumbling to the ground. She grunted, rolling to avoid the Hellhound’s stomp, and recovered by leaping back up to her feet and re-grabbing her hammer.

Natalie didn’t have time to raise her weapon in defense before a flurry of punches slammed into her—the blows coming faster than she could track. Little bursts of orange flame accompanied each punch, licking across her bare skin. Natalie grunted with each hit as she tried to escape from the onslaught. It was strange, the experience of being punched in this type of duel—not painful, the magic governing the combat muting all real damage, but she felt the power behind the attacks nonetheless. The blows kept coming, relentless, forcing her further back with each strike. The barrage culminated with a final hit that sent Natalie staggering, almost losing grip on her hammer. She kept her footing, but only barely.

“Still standing?” the Hellhound asked, panting as she retreated—the barrage having clearly been a skill that had winded her. “You really are strong. Not nearly as strong as me, but you won’t be embarrassing to make into my mate, I suppose.”

Natalie’s eyes flicked up to the two symbols floating above the wolfgirl’s head. The heart was two-thirds full of pink light, and the shield nearly halfway.

That meant she was losing. Not by much, but still losing. Her slip-up from earlier, her surprise and slow reactions to begin the fight, had cost her. She needed to perform at her best if she wanted to win.

What did a loss even entail? Seeing how fast the heart was filling up, she doubted it was outright defeat, then and there. Maybe this encounter was broken up into rounds? Or phases?

A roundhouse kick was rocketing toward her before Natalie could finish processing the thoughts. Natalie brought her hammer’s shaft up in time to block it. The force of the blow still sent her staggering away. The Hellhound followed up with an elbow strike, which Natalie negated with [Hunker Down]. She quickly canceled the skill, and the opening created gave her the opportunity to deliver her own harsh kick forward, which hit the woman’s stomach and sent her stumbling back. She didn’t lose her footing, though, and immediately rushed forward to meet her again. They exchanged a series of blows, and when they separated, Natalie’s eyes flicked up to the symbols. The heart barely had a sliver of pink left. The shield, a full twenty-five percent left.

It seemed Natalie would be finding out what a ‘guard break’ meant, and not in her favor. The margins of this fight were too close against the level two boss.

Even trying to misdirect the Hellhound with a few clever illusions couldn’t help Natalie close the gap. Her earlier missteps had been too crucial. The next exchange resulted in a vicious jab from the Hellhound that hit Natalie square in the stomach—and sent her tumbling across the stone floor, into the arena’s wall, the blow stronger than it should have been.

The heart filled up with pink light, then pulsed once in a bright flash.

Natalie felt the fight go out of her.

She collapsed onto the ground, her muscles going suddenly limp. Her hammer clattered uselessly to her side. She stared at it in shock. Despite trying to urge her limbs to move again, for her to scramble for her hammer and resume the fight, she couldn’t.

So. That was what a guard-break did. Rendered her unable to continue. And apparently, using some intuition, vulnerable to her opponent’s whims.