“You coward!” Zero stared daggers at me while sparing cautious glances at the golems surrounding him.

“Hah! I never said that I would fight alone.” Indeed, I never said that I would play fair in this duel… not that he was in the first place.

A duel or not, this was a battle to the death. In this life-and-death battle, winning was the key. Ganging up on Zero was the right choice.

Normally, he should have fallen into despair by now, but he simply laughed. “Good. Very good. You played me well… Such a worthy adversary. But so what?!” With bloodshot eyes, Zero swallowed something in his mouth.

Bad premonition washed my back. Whatever he swallowed, it wasn’t something good!

“Golems, attack!”

The golems rained him with bullets and even flamethrowers nonstop, I even joined in by shooting my gun at him. Nevertheless, a sudden feeling of cold expanded in my core upon finding out that even after expending all the bullets in the magazine, it wasn’t enough to kill him. I should have aimed at his head!

At that exact moment… His body, which was already large, doubled in size — his complexion darkened, his muscles bulged, and his eyes glowed sharp blue. Just what had he swallowed?

I kept pulling the trigger of the gun, but nothing would come out. Shit!

Instead, his body, which had been riddled with holes and burns, was recovering at the speed visible to the naked eye, and all the bullets lodged inside his body were expelled. He didn't look like he had even received any sort of attack now.

“Aaaaghhh!!” His top bare, Zero roared in a beastly fashion before vanishing into thin air only to appear almost instantaneously near a golem and sent it flying with a punch.

With a sinister smile on his face that made him look like a freak, he stated, “You’ve said it. It’s round two.”

He then roared again, stabbing his sword at the ground. Suddenly, numerous ice pillars surfaced from the surrounding ground and stopped the golems that were raining him with bullets and flames. Shit! He’s becoming faster and stronger!

“Too slow! Too flimsy! Too frail!” Like an ice battle god, Zero released ice spikes everywhere his greatsword was swung, puncturing the golems on their stomachs.

Calm down. I needed to calm down. Through [Developer Interface] I must find what was wrong with him.

Condition: On drug (strengthened), In a mild frenzy

On a drug (strengthened)

This individual has taken a drug that temporarily enhanced his strength and agility as well as his regeneration ability.

Ah, I see. I think this is similar to that thorn boar… the “red pill,” was it? I remembered that the assassination party led by Rowan was using something similar, and since he was part of the Axiom Order, the connection was pretty obvious.

While his other stats should have increased as well because of the drug he took, the status screen didn’t show any changes at all except for this. It seemed that [Developer Interface] didn’t have the capability to show a temporary increase in stats… I assumed that there would be a way to improve this Vocation, but I didn’t have the leeway to think about it right now.

In any case, the difference between those with a D evaluation and those with a B evaluation was greater than between F and D. It would be like an ordinary, unarmed human trying to destroy a tough iron golem with just punching and kicking. Absolutely ridiculous!

Blizzard, standing beside me, growled and released several light arrows from her body at Zero who was relentlessly massacring the golems. This was the new ability she gained only recently, and the light arrows were so fast that they hit Zero's back.

Still, it was useless. The light arrows did injure him, yes, but the wounds would just patch up in a matter of seconds. He didn’t even flinch as if the wounds didn’t even pain him in the slightest.

This was no solution. By this time, more than twenty of my golems had been decapitated by him, and it would be a matter of time before the rest followed. I quickly changed the cartridge of the gun with a new one while trying to think of a plan.

Although the power given by the drug was temporary, I didn’t know how long before it expired. But I didn’t have enough time to worry about that as Zero rushed at me, ignoring the rest of the golems.

Blizzard didn’t remain still, used her ability to turn into a ray of light, and bit at Zero’s hand that was holding the sword.

“Blizzard, don’t!” I tried to stop her, but it was all too late.

“A mere dog dares? Die!” He clobbered Blizzard’s side with his other hand before I could do anything, knocking her off the cliff.

“NO!!” I looked below and saw her crash against a small protruding cliff before falling to the forest below. Her vital status was unknown.

I turned around and saw a fist come flying at my face. The clothes set moved my body evasively by utilizing a sudden thrust to the side. But he didn’t stop with just that and proceeded to kick me in the stomach.

“Aargh! Cough, cough. I… can’t move…” My body felt like it was breaking; my internal organs were ruptured slightly, and sweet liquid formed in my mouth. It was all despite the defensive capabilities of the clothes set. What the heck hit me just now, a bullet train?

Zero proceeded to grab my collar, forcibly pulled me up, and shouted at me, “You! You don’t even know what you’re dealing with! Stickin’ your nose to the place ya shouldn’t!” He then brandished his greatsword and was about to cut me but—

With a faint popping sound, a large hole appeared on Zero’s chest, followed by many more all over his body.

“Hgh?!” Zero whined in pain, releasing his grip on me.

I didn’t stop with one shot and kept shooting him until kingdom come, emptying the bullets inside my gun.

I’d figured out a trick, instead of increasing the velocity of the bullet, I could just make them “eat” his flesh. What I meant was the bullet would disintegrate the matter with a radius of twenty centimeters around it into pure energy, but I had to sacrifice speed to achieve this. As a result, I got to be close to him.

Although each shot wasn’t enough to pulverize him into a puddle of blood, he was nonetheless turned into a Swiss cheese after all fifteen bullets were shot.

***

Zero’s Perspective

Zero watched as his body turned into a beehive, being shot at his chest, shoulders, abdomen, and almost every part of his body, standing on the verge of death. The pain was unbearable at first, but now he couldn’t feel any as though all that was an illusion.

He had never thought that he would be injured to this degree by a small magic gun in the young man’s hand. Humiliation, rage, and hatred surged in his heart. This was supposed to be easy since he was just a mage… and a weak one to boot. Yet, here he was, being overpowered by some random cap and his army of golems. So annoying!

Zero tried to regenerate the holes in his body, but nothing was salvageable. He had lost too much body mass and energy that no matter how hard he tried, his insane regeneration didn’t kick in.

He should have been invincible after he had swallowed the red pill (the one that had given him temporary Herculean strength and regeneration ability in exchange for nasty side effects later on).

Is this the end of me? Zero thought to himself. His life had been full of regret… He had tried to succeed but returned empty-handed, while this random cap in white mask… Just what was he hiding behind that mask?

Time was fleeting. Only a minute left before he lost his strength completely. Would he accept the result of dying with regrets?

No! Even if he had to sacrifice himself, he had to take this brat down with him! Deep into the fire of hell!

“Aaaaghh!” Zero took a blue pill out of a hidden pocket in his pants.

The lad seemed to have noticed the pill in his hand and launched a series of desperate attacks along with his remaining golems to stop him from consuming it. However, Zero prevailed and used the last bit of strength to force himself to swallow the pill down his throat.

With the pill consumed came an endless surge of magical power that he had never felt before. His veins ruptured and burst with blood, his muscles torn, his bones shattered — he was frantically absorbing the mana in the air. He defied the physical limitations of a human form and hosted an immeasurable amount of magical energy inside his body.

Through this last bit of strength that he’d gotten from the pill, Zero stabbed his greatsword into the ground and channeled every last bit of mana in his body there. The sword, with the elemental stone as the center, shined icy blue all over and cold air permeated the air. What he was going to do next would, without a doubt, kill him and the lad, but it was well worth it!

“…[Magic Burst: {Frost Nova}]…” He didn’t even need to chant the whole spell; his Vocation didn’t require him to, and the sword would do the rest for him.

Normally, a Top-tier spell like “{Frost Nova}” would be enough to encase a hundred men inside a huge chunk of ice… but being amplified by his Vocation, along with the blue pill, even he wasn’t sure how big the final result would be. At the very least, everything on the protruding cliff would be frozen solid into a gigantic block of ice.

The lad was desperate, trying all he could to make a run for it. But no matter what, he wouldn’t let him and grabbed him by the mask. No matter how hard the lad trashed around, he wouldn’t let his grip loosen.

Zero had expected the lad to struggle under the imminent death, and despair would color his eyes, yet instead, he was met with a fire of determination and a red flash. It was then that his upper body toppled and hit the ground. There was a beat before his other half crashed to the floor.

At the same time, the sword exploded, freezing everything within a hundred meters in radius into a chunk of ice.

“…I guess… this is it…” Frozen inside the ice, Zero stared at the fleeting figure of the lad that was now without a mask — despite being encased inside the giant block of ice along with him, he wasn’t truly frozen. Maybe he would be able to accomplish what he couldn’t.

“Ceci… lia…” Zero groaned, reaching for the locket and closing his eyes.

As consciousness slipped away from him, he saw the smiling faces of his beloved daughter and wife who passed long ago.

***

Vincent’s Perspective

“Brrr… It’s… d-darn… cold!” I wrapped my arms holding Jackie’s Pyro magic sword that kept channeling fire. My skin chilled from the unforgiving cold. The teeth in my mouth chattered together relentlessly and uncontrollably, snot filled my nose, and my body couldn’t stop itself from shaking.

Zero was a Cryo elemental warrior, an expert in using Cryo Elemental Magic. Moreover, through my limited knowledge regarding magic, it felt like the surrounding mana was being insanely absorbed by Zero. Whatever crazy magic he was going to cast, it must be one heck of a spell.

And it did.

Luckily, I was able to take the sword out of my backpack in time and immediately imbued the sword with a condition to amplify the output of elemental power, thus escaping from Zero’s clutch. Still, despite doing all that and having clothes set that was resistant to heat and cold, the freezing coldness all around me made me shiver to no end. This was while I had made some distance away with an instant thrust given by the clothes set…

I must get out of here now… or else.

With that thought in mind, I mustered my magical power into the sword, directing all the mana within my body to cast fire on the sword and carve a path out. After what had been a long time for me, I carved out a long tunnel to the outside.

I plummeted horribly to the ground once I managed to get out of the huge chunk of ice and curled myself into a ball. Stamina-wise, I had none and had been forcing myself to get out from the gigantic ice chunk — the thought of imminent death brought me immense strength.

“Not again will I do this… I swear!” I uttered, shuddering over the thought of escaping by the skin of my teeth. It had just been recently that I had a similar experience… How ironic.

I was so tired I wanted to fall asleep right then and there. With my eyes getting heavier by the second, I let myself get some moment of rest.