Chapter 174: Frozen

"YOU! Cheap! Lucky! Son of a bitch! While I was playing nice, you were just playing dirty! Well, fuck that shit! Now you're dead!" Jason's voice rang throughout the entire forest, nothing but rage filling his eyes. 

"Heh, tough talk for a fella with a small cock. You're just making up excuses for your failure! Just face it! You're weaker than me and you're a disgrace to your gang!" Moby replied with clear mockery in his voice, not even suppressing his laughter that made Jason's blood boil even more. 

"Shut the fuck up! Before I kill you, I'll have fun ripping off your tongue and feeding it to you for uttering those words!" Jason screamed in outrage, as he prepared to snap his fingers when he suddenly noticed that in between his monologue, Moby's figure had disappeared and ran off into the forest. 

"Get back here you fucking cowwward!" Jason roared once more, his anger only growing more, and more as he snapped his fingers, disappearing from his spot to run after him.

Throughout the entire fight, Nags had been silently analyzing it all from the sideline and he was very impressed to say the least. Moby was toying around with Jason like he was nothing by somehow making him slower with every attack he delivered. The more he looked at him the more he understood why the boss wanted him so badly, making his respect towards him grow each time.

He wanted to scream out to Jason that if it came to it, he should not kill Moby but that would have just interrupted his raging state. Plus, he did promise to torture him first before killing him so he just decided to calm him down if he won the fight. 

Nags was still interested in spectating so he decided to follow both Moby and Jason, leaving his injured fellow gang members who were still in his defensive barrier behind as he began to hop from tree to tree right behind the action.

Moby was meticulously using his air steps alongside his combat knowledge to jump from tree to tree like he was a ninja while Jason who was tailing him was nowhere near as graceful as he broke through every tree in his path in his pursuit to catch up to Moby. 

That confirmed one of Moby's theories, the theory that Jason was only able to travel linearly using his ability since if that was not the case, he would have travelled around the trees instead of breaking and going through them which no doubt greatly slowed him down as he had to stop at every tree his sound waves hit. 

However, despite all of that, he was still slowly but surely catching up to him which was less than ideal. 

He was still fairly far away from the waterfall which was his destination so he began to speed himself up using his demon flash with every step that he took which used up a great amount of demon energy, but it was demon energy he was more than willing to spend.

Yet, in spite of all his efforts, Jason was still able to reach him in the end. 

"Now I got you, you little bug!" Jason screamed with a crazy look on his face, snapping his fingers as he reached Moby's location, immediately throwing a punch with his metallic gloves. 

Moby had already predicted his attack due to him having to snap, making him turn around using his freezing time skill to slow down Jason's movements, allowing him to just barely dodge his speeding attack, giving him the opportunity to counter. 

He unequipped his novice demon katana and threw it back in his inventory, giving him free use of his fists, as it would do little to no damage if it was not used in a combo. Plus, not to mention the fact that Katana's, in general, were not very effective against heavily armoured targets. 

He infused his fists with nearly every last drop of his remaining demon energy and used the opportunity to strike Jason's lungs with all of his might in order to knock the wind out of him and slow him down, cracking his armour even more, making him slightly stagger, clenching the area of impact in pain as he landed on a nearby tree branch. 

Normally, that blow would have not done nearly as much damage. However, due to Jason's already heavily injured, fatigued state, it was much more effective.

*Cough* 

"You… You'll pay for this!" Jason's voice resounded through the air once more as he immediately snapped his fingers to follow Moby who had already fled even farther away, not even taking the time to properly catch his breath.

Since Moby was now all out of demon energy, he had to deactivate his eyes of sin as he was not able to sustain it any longer which heavily slowed him down. And, now, using his freezing time skill would also be futile. This meant that it would be virtually impossible for him to dodge another one of Jason's attacks. 

With his current stats, he was only able to sustain his eyes of sin for around 6 minutes, and along with the use of his other skills like air steps, freezing time, and pure demon energy, it managed to drain his demon energy reserves faster than he had expected. 

The useless feeling of being out of demon energy was something he didn't want to experience and put him at an even greater disadvantage than anything else. This wake-up call made him realize now more than ever that he should prioritize his intelligence stat over everything else inorder to use his extremely powerful skills that came at a high energy cost.

He had put a fair amount of distance between them but it was only a matter of time before he caught up to him again, especially in his now slower, weakened state.

'Just a little big longer…' Moby inwardly thought as he had nearly reached his destination, using every ounce of energy in his body to force himself to go even faster as he could now pick up on the sound of the water fall's distinct crashes.

"You're not getting away this time bitch!" Jason bellowed with a mad look on his face, snapping his fingers as he was once again in range for an attack, and this time, he had no plans of missing. 

Moby inwardly cursed his bad luck, he was so close… 

But he had no plans of losing or giving up as he used his quick thinking to find a way out and make it work out in his favour. 

With a subtle smirk on his face, he turned around with his hands blocking his visage, keeping his momentum, no intentions of dodging as it would have been futile. 

"DIE!" Jason screamed as he appeared right in front of Moby, punching him straight in his arms that had suddenly sprung up to guard his face. 

Cracks were heard from both Moby's arms before he was sent flying in the direction behind him at incredible speed. 

The impact from his punch was several times harder than that of the first punch that he delivered to him. He was either holding back or he had gotten much stronger due to his inner spirit, the second option being the more likely. 

Just like before, Moby crashed through several trees, breaking through them like they were twigs. 

Then, after what he felt like endless crashing and air time, he felt a cold, soothing sensation as he suddenly lost his ability to breathe. 

He was now fully submerged in water, most likely the river in front of the waterfall he was aiming for. It all worked out exactly as he planned... He angled himself perfectly in order to boost himself using Jason's punch to his destination. It was extremely risky as it was not guaranteed that he would have landed in the river. Plus, he had to sustain an insane amount of damage to boost himself. But in the end, it was all worth it, it all seemed to have worked out perfectly. 

Now all he needed to do was lure Jason straight into his trap...

Moby forced his injured body to stand up, the water reaching around the middle of his thighs as he began to limp away towards the waterfall in what could only be described as fear and desperation. 

However, he only managed to reach about halfway to the waterfall before a great slashing sound came from behind him. 

"HAHAHA! Where did that confident attitude of yours disappear to? Now you look so pathetic! What kind of stupid idea are you thinking? That the waterfall could maybe block or drown out the sound of my snaps? Tough luck! Such a plan would never work!" Jason screamed, his arrogance starting to come back as his anger began to slightly subside. 

Nags, who had been spectating the entire exchange from a tree above the river was looking down at Moby with clear disappointment in his eyes, paying close attention to his sorry, pathetic state. He thought much more from him… He thought that he might have even been able to give him an exciting fight but it seemed like he was sorely mistaken and thought of him in too high of a regard, he just got his hopes up for nothing. His previous antics must have all just been from the result of luck.

*Sigh…* 

"You disappointed me… The boss must have made the same mistake I did by overestimating your abilities… What a sha-" Nags said in a bored yet casual tone before biting his tongue as he looked down at what was happening beneath him. 

"Now die!" Jason yelled with a creepy look on his face, his legs fully submerged in the river's water as he stared at Moby's behind limping away from his direction.

*Snap* 

"What the fuck!?"

*Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap*

"Why isn't this working!" 

*Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap*

"You bitch! What did you do to me!? I can't move!" Jason roared in outrage, his anger boiling up once more, making Moby reply with a less than innocent smirk on his face.

"Look under you…" 

When he did, he noticed thick, purple ice growing out of the water beneath him, as it quickly began to grow and spread around his entire body. 

"WHATTT! How is this possible!? Is there an ice ability user somewhere near here!? Did you set me up with one of your friends!? You fucking dirty coward!" Jason roared in outrage, smashing the ice underneath him as it began to grow, only for him to be too slow as he was unable to stop the ice's advances on his body as it had already spread to the top of his chest.

"No, that was all me, why don't you look at this?" Moby said with a confident, mocking tone as he pointed out the trail of purple ice spreading from his body towards Jason.

"AHHHH!! You'll fucking pay for this! I am not sure how you did this but you have embarrassed and mocked me for the last fucking time! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Jason roared before he was able to scream no more as a thick layer of purple ice engulfed his entire body, making Moby laugh at loud in victory, relief, and hilarity as he stared at Jason who was frozen with a less than pleasant expression on his face.