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"Ngh!" Blimpo reacted, raising his arms.

Though he was no physical fighter; the elf received a harsh slam of knuckles straight into his gut, causing him to be flung back and slammed straight into a solid tree trunk.

Such an impact wasn\'t fleeting for the tinkerer who hardly put much stock into athleticism; he was stuck sitting there against the tree, coughing and trying to breathe air back into his lungs that didn\'t listen to him. It felt like flames coursed through his chest; every failed breath only made it harder to control his panicked lungs.

\'I\'ve always been nothing much physically. When it comes to my homeland, physical training is looked down on–it\'s magic or nothing. Even despite that, I wanted to become strong. Problem was…I was dirt poor. If I could barely get a sliver of bread a day, how would I bulk up? This is what I\'ve been left with,\' he thought.

By some miracle, the elf managed to breathe in again, gasping out as he picked himself up just in time as the fish brute slammed its knuckles towards his head, missing by an inch as its fist slammed into the tree behind him.

Just as he slid underneath the missed punch, he flicked a gadget from his pouch, rolling over just as he activated the trap mechanism.

"Go!"

Blimpo caused a steel-fiber net to shoot out from the small contraption, entangling the clammy-skinned brute.

"Raaaagh!" The amphibious musclehead struggled, tangled up.

While it was stuck within the trap net, Blimpo kept his distance while staying on a knee, quickly unscrewing the side of his busted rune cannon as he checked the damage within it.

\'Come on…! I\'ll fix ya up, baby!\' Blimpo thought.

There were perhaps only moments afforded to him to figure out what was wrong internally with his main weapon. It was completely broken in one important area; one of the fire runes used to empower it was used up and crumbled, and the bolts were fried from the exhaust of the rune.

"Not good!" He whispered harshly.

It was undoubtedly the only tool at his disposal with the firepower capable of taking down the sturdy amphibian, forcing him to get creative.

He could hear the fish beast fighting against the net that held it, seeming to begin to overpower through it as the elf rapidly rushed through his pouch before retrieving a couple gadgets.

\'Sorry, but I need to use your parts…!\' He thought.

Splitting open the spherical gadgets he kept on him, he retrieved the bolts from one and the crimson rune from another, having to work quickly with his dexterous fingers in order to move the parts from one gadget to another.

A testament to his skills as a tinkerer; it wasn\'t just accuracy, creativity, or knowledge for that matter that placed one on a pedestal among the greats–what also mattered was one\'s efficiency while faced with a nail-biting situation. This was something Blimpo believed in earnestly; unmatched skill in every field or circumstance.

\'That\'s why I\'m not losing to a fish,\' he thought.

Just then, the amphibious brute broke through the steel net, ripping it off its body with its mindless strength freeing it. Blimpo didn\'t even look up, staying completely focused on assembling the scattered pieces into the rune cannon as he kept a breath of oxygen trapped in his lungs. Utter focus was needed in those precious few seconds as he perfectly spun the bolts into their proper places and slammed the rune in, closing the compartment of the rune cannon just in time as the goliath charged him. Every step it took crushed the soil beneath its feet, rushing with a charge of continuous waves of vibrations through the ground; it possessed no perception for what was in its way, simply crushing the roots in its path and pulverizing the logs in its path.

There wasn\'t a moment to spare as he hoisted his repaired rune cannon up while staying on a knee, having to possess complete faith in his own knowledge and the capabilities of his tool as he pulled the trigger.

\'Let\'s do this!\' Blimpo thought.

It was already set to its maximum output, even a bit beyond that, in fact; the worst case scenario and best case scenario were only a sliver away from one another, and existed as the only two options.

The worst case? The rune cannon malfunctioned and blew up directly in his face, obliterating the elf himself on the spot.

The best case? The fish brute was annihilated by the resulting blast, along with likely a good portion of the forest around him.

BOOOM

He didn\'t so much as flinch as he held complete faith in the outcome that revealed itself: sparks were shot out from the rune cannon, fluttering by the brute before releasing into a massive volley of fiery explosions.

The resulting onslaught tore through a plethora of trees, charring the soil in a conal path as spoke intertwined with the mist. Left there, covered in holes and burnt to a fine crisp, the amphibious brute swayed side-to-side before collapsing onto the ground.

"Magical tools are the greatest in the world!" Blimpo shouted with a laugh.

–

Vandread woke up, blinking a few times as he found that he must\'ve been knocked out by the harsh landing, feeling as much from the warm leakage from the back of his head. It was a new feeling to him–being so susceptible to mortal wounds.

"Hrm…"

What was perplexing was that he awoke to find himself upside down, hanging from a rope suspended to the ceiling of what appeared to be a shallow, but repugnant cave.

Though his first instinct was to free himself from his bindings, just as he leaned up with his well-trained core, he immediately went limp again, pretending to be unconscious as he heard something else occupying the cave.

"--" He remained silent.

Staying still with his arms hanging down, he listened to the heavy breathing that came along with even heavier footsteps.

It was hard to get a good look at just what occupied the cave, and more importantly what had captured him, due to the lack of light in the area besides a small torch and the fact he was left hanging upside down. Even worse, he could feel the blood rushing down to his head, making focusing a more troublesome act than normal.

\'What a bother,\' Vandread thought.

Through his blurry gaze–fogged by the blow taken to the back of his head–he could see that the other figure occupying the cave was some sort of demi-human; a mountain lion man with golden, blood-stained fur and a bestial head, seeming to lack any traits of human rationality.

This wasn\'t the first time he found himself in such a situation. In fact, the accumulation of many similar, high-stress scenarios are what molded him into the calm, level-headed adventurer he was.

Hanging there, he found himself being poked abrasively by the heavily-breathing beast man, who had started up a campfire, holding a large stick that seemed to bear the purpose of cooking the captured man over the fire.

He allowed himself to be poked while he deduced how many enemies there were, listening closely as he could hear more footsteps around the area, of which seemed to have a similar weight to the figure before him.

\'Alright…Time to get to work,\' he thought.

In a swift moment, Vandread leaned up and allowed a blade to slip out from beneath his sleeve, using it to cut the bindings on his ankles before flipping over onto his feet.

"Gragh?!" The beast man reacted.

There was no hesitation that laid a burden on the movements of the silver-eyed man as he ducked beneath the wild swipe from the lion man, immediately flowing into an execution of his own as he unleashed a single strike against the wild demi-human\'s throat.

A spray of blood left the cleanly opened neck wound, leaving the golden-furred beast man gargling on his own crimson fluid before dropping down to the ground–dead.

Though the fight wasn\'t over; the dark-skinned veteran already knew this as he could hear frantic footsteps from the brethren of the slain beast man, leaving him moving into the shadows of the dank, repugnant cave.

It was in those shadows he honed his bloodlust, refining it like a masterful slab of steel crafted by a blacksmith, waiting in the darkness as the beast men ran in from a stone-carved ramp of a higher level within the cavern.

"--" Vandread stayed crouched in the darkest corner, not allowing a single breath to escape his lips.

He allowed the two beast men of a similar bloodline to the one he killed to enter the lower section of the cave, staying put as he waited to see if more were coming.

"Gragh! Rara!" One of the beast men, holding a shoddy spear, spoke in an unintelligible tongue.

"Muga!" The other spoke.

Their voices were rough, sounding more like gargles, though panicked by the sight of their slain kin and the unseen escapee.

\'Two it is,\' Vandread decided.

Readying a dagger in each hand, he dashed from the shadows without a single sound emitting from his movement, flashing by both of the bestial figures as he aimed for instant-kills once again. Execution-style finishers were utilized as he blitzed by, swiftly stabbing one dagger into the skull of one target and piercing the neck of the other.

The very moment he withdrew his daggers from the flesh of his targets, they were already dead, dropping to the ground with a squelch.