The Insider System

Chapter 135: Fair Fight

Watching the mark he had placed on the person he was fighting zoom around Lake guessed whoever he was fighting was used to moving like this until people lost sight of him and that would be when he would attack but that wasn't going to work on him and it seemed the person figured it out pretty quickly.

Seeing they had stopped and were looking directly at him, Lake said. "How important is this to you?" Lake thought this would make the other person actually think about the battle that was about to happen and hopefully realize they didn't have time for it. Sadly the other person didn't say anything back so Lake got his poison flask out again.

He just uncorked it though and waited for them to make a move because after he used this move he was sure not only would they wish they would have left when he had implied they should but they would be on the ground with only a few seconds left to live.

His confidence using Poison Control was really high because of all the time he had spent using it when he was helping Nancom brew so even though this would be the first time he had done this he knew he would be able to. As soon as Lake saw the person make a move he instantly shot the poison out of the battle into a thin wall in front of him.

This would block both of their abilities to see each other if Lake didn't have a way to always know where they were and just like he expected the other person tried to move around to his side while they couldn't see each other. He had known this would happen because this was what he would do as a fighter who focused on speed.

The small windows of time where your opponent lost sight of you were the most valuable but Lake actually knew exactly where they were and where they were going so he just shot out a small amount of poison towards their target, his side, in the hopes it would land on their hand/any exposed skin but even if it didn't the moment any stuck to them Lake won.

It would be extremely easy for him to seep it through their clothing and any small gaps in their armor and it was to sticky for them to get it all off of them fast enough for it not to happen. After his attack Lake saw the mark start to move backwards, and because he could feel the poison he was controlling like it was something he was holding in his hand, Lake could tell they were retreating because some had gotten on them.

Smiling, Lake got the poison that was blocking his view back into the bottle and put his focus on the stuff that was on them and it became much easier to do so when he saw they were trying to strip off the armor the poison was on. He had expected this, but seeing how close their hands were to the poison made him shake his head as he started to spread the poison out from its original position, but it was a lot harder to move than he had expected.

It was still enough to make them realize they had lost if they didn't stop this from happening so instead of trying to undo their armor straps Lake saw them just tear through them and pry the piece of plating off of their armor. It seemed he had been too modest in the amount of poison he had shot towards them, and it had made it hard for him to move around once it was actually stuck to something.

This stuff was extremely sticky and it seemed once it made contact with something he would have to fight against its stickiness if he wanted to move it across a surface. It was fine he was learning as he went so mistakes like these were bound to happen, he would just make bigger and more frequent attacks from now on.

This attack wasn't for nothing either because now there was a huge hole in their armor that would increase his chance of making contact with their skin. It also gave him a bigger target than their hands to aim for so getting the poison back out Lake split it into three. He could probably control more than this but not well and he was pretty sure it would affect the rest of his actions if he put too much focus into attacking.

Sending the first of the globs at them Lake waited for them to dodge before sending the second and reversing the first to attack from both sides and when they were able to dodge both of those he sent the third in. Once all three were in a constant in and out pattern Lake Started to get fancy with the shapes of the globs periodically stretching them towards the person as they dodged.

Seeing they were being overwhelmed, Lake put out long arms of poison out of the tree globs in every direction to make a cage at least in the way it looked and slammed it in on them. It worked and he got a sizable amount onto the armor on their arm that had been a little slow as they dodged through one of the many but small gaps in his attack.

It was enough though because the stuff that was on their arm wasn't separate from the giant glob that had formed from who he had slammed everything in on them. It was still attached by a thin string that was forming as they got further from the attack. This was being caused by the texture of his poison that was almost like a thick glue.

He saw it as someone pulling back a rubber band and he used this visual to slam all the poison towards them like a slingshot. It hit them like a cannonball and launched them towards the closest wall where it stuck them to it like a giant booger he had just flicked at them. That wasn't the worst part for them though he could see they were covered and that included their skin.

The melting had already started and he could see where it was touching them the skin had already become something that looked more like vomit than flesh. It was gross but surprisingly he didn't hear any screaming coming from them and it wasn't because they were dead he hadn't felt any Exp yet so they were dealing with the pain of what he guessed would be considered being digested by the spider venom in his poison.

Right when he expected them to be finished off by the poison because it had already been a few seconds which would be long enough for the poison to start damaging them, Lake went to switch his job to something he hadn't ever leveled up before to get some new skills when he saw a blue flash.

Looking up Lake saw his poison was gone and there was now a blue sphere of water swirling around the person as they charged at him. He hadn't expected this attack which was probably exactly why the person had waited so long to get rid of his poison if they could so he didn't really have time to make a solid defense.

He wasn't even holding his knife at the moment so He just used his bare hands to defend himself. The person he was fighting seemed to like unarmed attacks as well so this new phase of the fight was hand to hand. It was only a few exchanges when Lake realized he was outmatched by them when it came to skill.

Not being able to keep up with their hand movements, Lake took a hit to his chest. Not a punch either they were using their hand like it was a knife and it might as well be one because he could tell it went through his armor and into what he guessed would be his lung. He thought this because he felt an uncontrollable urge to cough and when he did he saw blood spew out of the holes in his helmet.

Not having the luxury of even trying to get his potion out to heal Lake activated two skills Fast Hands and after he knew his opponent was caught off guard he used Crunch and cut the arm that the hand in his chest belonged to. This was a huge blow to someone like them that used an unarmed fighting style so even though one of his internal organs had just been pierced he was happy with the exchange.

Not retreating back like his opponent clearly wanted, Lake pushed forward while using a skill he hadn't used yet, Summon Hands. Feeling Mana start to leave his body in a really controlled manner he had nothing to do with, Lake found he had two new hands and used them to reach back into his bag to grab his potion while he did the same combo attack he had just used to cut off their arm but towards their neck.

Once he had his potion to his mouth Lake lifted his helmet with the other arm that wasn't holding the potion so he could feed it to himself. "Jogahh." They had been moving back from him, but at the current speed his hands were moving his slash had still made a pretty good gash into their neck even if it didn't decapitate them and while he knew this was his chance to finish the fight Lake stopped.

The person had clearly just said his name even if it had been interrupted by his attack, when they saw his face as he lifted his helmet. Of course his current face was Jon's, an assassin he had killed in the past, but the fact that they knew that name at all made him think finishing them off wasn't worth the trouble. There was a good chance this person was in the Assassins guild and he would have to pay a bounty if he killed them.

So instead of finishing them off Lake did the opposite and spilled some potion on them. He didn't watch them to see if they got better, but instead went towards Tiffany on the ground and picked her up. As soon as he had her he left so he could use the small amount of time it would take for the person he had almost just killed to heal to get away.

He hoped the confusion it would cause them to see Jon alive after being told he was dead would make them just give up and there would be no chase because he needed to get Tiffany to somewhere she would consider safe even though he didn't know her very well, and get back to the guild.

It was hard to describe but he felt like he was out of time and needed to get inside the guild as soon as possible. As he ran Lake looked down at Tiffany, he wondered if the Insider was going to say anything to him now that he had her because it was the one who had wanted him to save her in the first place.