Chapter 462 - Far Future – And now for the Good Eats (1/2)

That guy there was a Fifteen. I advanced on the corsair with a smile as he harried his mercenary lord opponent, that experienced fellow looking fatalistic at his lack of luck on getting this fellow on the draw. Krazn Oyqifix, as my purloined memories and a quick glance at the displays above confirmed.

As it turns out, we probably weren't going to get to the Madam, but that was fine.

The raider eventually fell to a twisting lunge up under his ribs, hanging for a second on the extended edge of the darkly glowing blade, and then crumpling. Another trip to the Vats for him.

That elegantly clad fellow turned around, and saw me approaching him. I noted he'd been marked twice, which meant his Soak was probably gone, although he wasn't bleeding. Vampiric Weapon, probably, but it didn't matter. Trying to suck out my life energy was going to be an exercise in frustration for any Weapon.

”You are very confident to be facing me,” he said, sword snapping around on guard, his dirk in hand to parry. ”Will you not equip your shield?” he offered mockingly, supremely confident of himself.

”If you can force me to do so, I will be impressed,” I replied, and then our blades were meeting.

I was watching his every move, as this was an extremely rare opportunity to fight someone with a higher Melee Attack Bonus than I had, all from Class Levels.

My Melee Level was still Ten, because I'd sucked up so much Karma into my Racial Levels. I had full BAB for both ranged and melee combat from my Rantha Levels, making me a hideously gifted instinctive fighter. Weapon Mastery from being a Melee and tons of profound stuff had tempered all of that, of course, but I was still enjoying looking at a Fifteen strut his stuff.

That being said, he didn't have an advantage on me, and he swiftly realized it.

He was boosted all the way to the nines, maxed out with everything racial he could, Dex near to mine if not equal... but he was still much, much weaker, even after the muscle-weaving and sinew-strengthening bioboosts. I had a fighting style he literally had never seen before, with Seven Dragons swordplay on full display with all its intricacies and ways of overcoming a foe, and it was clearly throwing him on how I was using a sword so effectively.

His force-enhanced mesh armor was barely there as far as I was concerned, even if it was +V, and his Charisma-enhanced swashbuckling style meant nothing to Way of the Wind. Way of Fire was chasing him down, Way of Shadow was matching every feint, Way of Sun every riposte, and my Way of Moon defense was punishing his off-hand tremendously.

He couldn't match my speed or my footwork, and given how he was prancing around, I could see how badly that alarmed him. I definitely hadn't seen anyone but the Madam so light on their feet, but it wasn't doing him any good as I slid around him, back and forth, barely moving my feet, always messing with angles and forcing him to adjust to my attacks, turning his attacks into more openings.

I landed my first hit within ten seconds, just a flicker through the cloth on his arm, but it drew blood. His darkly-glowing saber was skirling with Chalice, who was taking it with a sniff, easily forcing it off, while elaborate and precise parries tried to shift her here and there and weren't working anything like they should.

If he tried a hard parry, he was going to lose his weapons and likely his hands, and he realized that the first time our blades met. That meant he was instantly on the defensive, and trying madly to keep my sword away as he retreated across the sands. I saw the flash of his eyes when he couldn't grav-bounce, I saw that belt he was wearing, and just grinned as I pursued, forcing him to use every technique he could think of to stay alive from Chalice's black and gold length.

All the girls had thoughtstreams watching this fight, commenting and analyzing, thirsting for the sight of that level of BAB, and the attack speed that came with it.

His face hardened as he realized that I was using him as a practice dummy. I left myself open once, he took it for a stab at my side that barely went in a half-inch... and in the opening Chalice reached out and touched his kidney via his belly button, or nearest facsimile thereof. The cold power of banefire shot through him, and he hissed as I twisted and he barely curled away from it.

I felt the negative energy pawing at me, but it couldn't steal my life, Nulls don't like that, thank you, and his face suddenly got a wee bit more fatalistic about what was coming.

Looked like he didn't know what shadowfire could do to him, either.

And there it was, a half-inch opening in his style, thrown off by his lack of grav-jumping and the wound in his side and on his arm. Chalice flicked in, light as a foil in my hands, slid over his parry, and went right into his left eye a full six inches as my feet slid forward without my legs moving a whit.

Gotta love that Waveskating Step.

His blades were still attempting to parry it away as he gawked at me with his other eye, trying to bounce back, and I just moved faster, pushing it in, and shoved the point out the back of his pale violet-haired head. His feet danced, and kicked, as shadowfire and banefire did interesting things to his brain and mind and soul, and maybe he realized what was going to happen to him, maybe not.

He was over a thousand years old, and now he was dead, and he wasn't coming back at all.

Them not knowing profound martial arts really hurt them. Pity them.

---

And then there were ten.

I glanced at the girls flipping blood off their blades, and the drow masters had expressions suddenly lacking in the absolute confidence and arrogance of being the superior breed and us being trash and all that.

And just like that, we flourished our blades, conceded, and walked away.

They blinked in shock, especially Madame Liloth, who was looking forwards to a good series of fights. If her eyes flashed at me having nine insignias in my hair, and she only had five, that, in the end, only meant I could deal out the damage, not avoid it.