The Insider System

Chapter 234: Hard Battle

Lake could tell from just this one interaction he was in a battle he might not be able to win and it made him think he might have failed at making them underestimate him. That or they just sent whoever they had and it wouldn't have mattered what he had done. Either way one thing was obvious, he needed to deal with this main guy first.

As soon as he took this guy down Lake would be able to kill someone and have them stay dead. Preparing his sword, Lake rushed forward only to be met with a giant wall of stone forming in between them. He then heard them start talking from the other side. "I think I remember you. You attacked the prephouse I was in charge of didn't you. It's good they sent me and not any of the others."

Lake was about to jump over the wall when he heard something from beside him. Looking he saw the person that had punched him earlier had appeared out of thin air beside him. Lake understood how this had happened, this was most likely another one of the smoke doubles he had killed earlier.

Using Fast Hands Lake swiped his sword through them again and was proved right when they dissipated into smoke. He assumed this was one of the other strong people he had yet to actually see. Hopefully this was all she could do and he didn't have to worry about any other attacks that could just pop out of nowhere.

He was about to go back to jumping over the wall to get to the main guy when Lake had to dodge to the side. When he turned his head he had found the wall gone and a massive wall of spells were flying towards him. His identity had already been discovered so he went ahead and made a few barriers to help him with getting through the barrage of spells.

Once it had passed Lake realized that he was also dealing with people with good teamwork. In the small amount of time he had focused on the brawler that had appeared they had all shot spells and the wall he had thought was separating them had moved out of the way to allow attacks from a direction he wouldn't be expecting.

"There they are. Were you trying to pretend it wasn't you by holding back these shields?" This was exactly what he had been doing but he had no plans on confirming it. Looking at the main guy Lake wondered how many steps he would be able to take before another combo like that one happened.

It was funny that they were the only person he could see with normal vision but also the hardest to get to. He guessed they were confident in their ability to keep him safe. He didn't really have any other option than to try to run at them though so he just tried again. Unsurprisingly after a few steps he was stopped again by the stone around him changing.

Lake couldn't help but wonder how they were controlling the stone without Earth mana around but he was seeing it so it must be possible. Hopefully they were putting a strain on their mana by doing this and they would run out eventually.

Jumping to the top of the stone wall Lake was about to land on the top when the wall disappeared. Lake realized he was now in an uncontrolled fall that would open him up to attacks. He had a way to control himself in the air though. Casting Fly Lake knew their plan was probably to get rid of his built up wind mana before opening a hole for him to fall into but he didn't really have a choice but to go with it.

He had made a mistake by jumping into the air and he knew he had been played again. He had been so worried about the same combo they had used on him the first time that he had jumped before even thinking about what could happen to him if he was in the air. Not being able to think through your actions was one of the problems about relying on your speed to fight he guessed.

Finished blocking the most recent barrage of spells Lake landed on the ground since flying was a bad idea during a fight if you didn't know what you were doing and waited for the hole to open. He had been gathering more wind mana the whole time he had been dodging the attacks so he had enough to fly again if he needed to.

Looking around Lake saw during the most recent exchange the people that were hiding in the surrounding buildings had moved a bit to encircle him more. This meant the next barrage of spells would come from all sides and would be harder to deal with. "Can I surrender?" Lake didn't think he was skilled enough to deal with this.

His speed was his only trump card at the moment and he had already gone as fast as he could and it hadn't done anything. If he continued to fight he would just get killed and he felt he had a better chance of surviving as a prisoner. "Sure, but you would have to drink this before we'll stop the fight."

The man held up a dark bottle as he said this and Lake could tell by the way it looked he wouldn't be able to rely on Poison Taster if he actually drank it. "What is it?" The man smiled when Lake asked this and Lake thought it was because they found it funny that he was actually considering this.

"I'm sure you've heard of the Loyalty curse right?" Lake stopped considering this as a real option and got back into a fighting stance. He would rather this life end than live the rest of it as someone's slave. He saw his second life as a way to get the enjoyment he had missed in his first one and wasn't willing to suffer through it.

Of course he was dealing with people that could revive dead people so he might end up a slave even if he died so his only real option was to win or get away. He was sure they would see him as a prize even if they beat him because they would know he was strong and he was sure there wasn't a person in this world that wouldn't want a strong person they could completely control.

With this thought Lake decided to see what would happen if he just went as fast as he could without worrying about what he hit or controlling himself. Well not as fast as he could, there was a combo of skills he could use that would probably cause him to die if he was to hit something because his Endurance wasn't high enough.

He was just going to use Burst and none of the other skills he had that made his agility higher because with Overpower Burst was already too much for him.

Burst (U) Lv.1

Doubles the effect of the Agility and Strength stat.

Consumes Stamina (1 per hour)

Overpower (U) Lv.1

Skills that take stamina to activate have their effects tripled.

The nice thing was whenever his agility increased so did his endurance because of Increased Synergy.

Increased Synergy (U) Lv.1

If your Dexterity is higher than your Agility or Endurance they become equal to your Dexterity.

If your Agility or Endurance is higher than your Dexterity, gain a bonus to your Dexterity equal to the difference.

He was pretty sure this skill made his three stats the same because when Burst effected his Agility it made it higher than his Dexterity which gave him a bonus to his Dexterity that made it higher than his Endurance so his Endurance rose to meet it. This meant whatever his top speed was he should be able to survive it but he wasn't sure if he was right about how Increased Synergy worked so he was going to hold back.

Putting his barriers in front of him because they scaled off of his Dexterity and would help him break through anything he hit, Lake was about to start his run when he remembered he had another skill that worked off of his Dexterity, Wave.

Wave (G) Lv.1

Send out a wave of mana that scales off of your Dexterity.

Cost: 10 mana

This was an attack he had used in the past to collapse underground areas but since then he had gained Overpower so with Burst active his Dexterity was at least six times higher than it was normally. Wave had already been deadly enough to mist anyone it hit in the past and with it being a ranged attack he should be able to end this fight in one move.

Putting his sword on his back, Lake moved his barriers out of the way and Punched forward while using Wave.

...

Feeling a vibration travel through the wall Donny wondered if the Fortress had just been breached but when no one came running into the room screaming for them to get ready to fight he guessed it had been something happening somewhere else that was big enough for him to feel the vibration in the metal of the fortress.