Chapter 23：Soul Grapple (3)

SOMEWHERE AWAY FROM THE BATTLE...

"Why do we need to go and check if something happens? What the hell is police for, if we're forced to do their job?" Gabriel pouted.

Dan shook his head. "As far as I can remember, that mage guy, Arnold lives in the same locality. We should ask him for help!"

"I already tried that, he isn't picking up his phone." Nina complained, unlike everyone else, she wasn't wearing her armour and only carried her sword with her.

"Madam director told us to check the surroundings and immediately call for help if needed." Martha, who was driving the car, replied.

Suddenly a giant creature blocked their way, Martha hastily hit the brakes to prevent an accident.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!" Martha shouted and everyone got out of the car.

"Aren't they...?" Gabriel looked at his teammates.

"Arnold's summons!" Nina exclaimed. These were definitely one of summons that Arnold used to fend off the centaur back in the dungeon.

"Look! This one's carrying a girl. Didn't he said he has a sister? Maybe it's her!" Martha exclaimed and took a step towards her but the other golem blocked her way. He wasn't going to let anyone harm his master's sister.

"Relax! Relax! We're here to help." Nina said and raised both of her hands in air. The others followed her lead.

"Help?" a voice came out of one of the golems.

Everyone was confused. "They can speak?"

"No they can't, but I can!" Nicole's head popped out from behind the golem's back. "Please help my brother, he's fighting the bad breath person all by himself!"

"Bad breath person? Now isn't the time to focus on weird nicknames." Nina looked an the golem in front of her, "Can you take us there?"

The golem looked at Nicole who nodded at him, he shrugged his shoulder and gestured the others to follow him.

*****

MEANWHILE...

"Regretting your decision yet?" Bob smirked as he broke another wall created by Arnold.

Arnold remained silent and kept using his elemental abilities to defend himself. To Bob, it looked as if he was desperately trying to hold on to his life, but actually he was trying to make enchanted bullets using his ice affinity. Every time he tried to make a bullet he lost around 60 mana, thus every failure meant he had to use more mana.

"Damn it! why won't it work!" Arnold murmured.

He tried once again but this time something unusual happened and his guns made a humming noise.

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Congratulations!

You've created a new blueprint.

• magazine.

Grade : Red

Damage : 150-189 (magical)

Range : 37 meters

Ammo Type : Enchanted bullets

Magazine Capacity : 44 (22 each)

Cost : 10 mana/magazine

Additional skill : [ICE BURST] - Deals additional 45% damage when the target is closer than 10 meter, and temporarily numbs the target's body upon successful contact.

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"Got you!" Bob exclaimed as he broke through the last barrier.

"No. I got you." Arnold pointed his pistols at Bob and bombarded him with bullets. Now as long as he had mana, he had an endless supply of bullets. Right now he had over 800 mana left, and he intended to use every last bit of it.

Bob couldn't handle the sudden barrage of bullets, stumbled and fell over but Arnold didn't stop. He got on top of him and kept shooting at Bob's face until the message of his victory popped up.

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QUESTS : The Mad Brawler

• [ INTRODUCTION ] : The bruised and battered brawler has sworn to kill you and has unleashed his full power. You can no longer stall him. You have to kill Bob

[ TASK ] : Kill Bob "The mad brawler" Marcel

[ PROGRESS ] : Kills 1/1

[ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] :

• 5000 EXP

• one random ability

• one random blueprint

• one special attribute

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"Finally... I did it." Arnold heaved a sigh of relief and got up from Bob's corpse. "Now let's get back to Nicole she'd be worrying about me."

"Would she now?" Bob's voice echoed behind him.

He turned around and raised his guns to fire it again, the next moment Arnold got slammed into the road, which cracked. His head started bleeding. He had yet to recover from the attack when he suddenly felt a weight on his body. Bob pressed his hands against his back and locking it with Arnold's knees, while his other hand pressed his face on the road and instantly subdued. Arnold tried with all his might but was unable to move.

"Care to repeat what you said again?" Bob laughed hysterically.

"But you... died... how are you... alive." Arnold mumbled.

"Haha... what do you think?" Bob replied.

A realisation dawned upon Arnold. "Two... lives... "

"Ding Ding Ding. Congratulations you've guessed it correctly before you die. You killed me once, it's only fair that I kill you once too, don't you think?" Bob smirked as he charged up his fist to deliver a killing blow.

"You think only you have a trump card, do you?" Arnold said and activated [SOUL GRAPPLE].

The world before his eyes changed. Everything became foggy like he was looking at the world from a different dimension. Arnold wasn't bonded to his body anymore, he was floating above everything. When he moved, the world below him was still, he saw Bob and rushed towards him. The next moment he was inside Bob's body, Arnold knew he didn't have much time so he controlled Bob's arm and slammed it on Bob's chest, who flew backwards slumped next to Nikki's corpse.

After the duration of [SOUL GRAPPLE] ended, Arnold was pulled out of Bob's body and soon returned back to his own body.

"Hisss... He broke my arm..." Arnold slowly got up and caressed his right arm.

"WHY DON'T YOU DIE ALREADY!" Bob snapped.

Arnold thought the same thing. His arm was broken and he had no mana remaining. Even if he used the which were in his inventory, he was in no condition to continue the fight.

Bob started channeling his energy once again, but then Nina appeared out of nowhere and cleaved her blade at Bob's head. However, Bob easily managed to avoided it. This attack landed on the ground, and a small crater was created. The cracks on the ground then extended out a few meters. At that moment, around 12 or so warriors also appeared and surrounded Arnold to protect him, his golems and Nicole were right behind him.

Bob pointed his finger at Arnold, who actually managed to 'kill' him once and make him suffer a loss, and shouted, "I'll remember you Arnold Ling! We'll dance again some other time. Till then Adios!"