Chapter 87 17.4 Duel?

Adloqium? What the hell kind of name was that? Also, I'm pretty sure I've wasted enough time talking with Guidance right now. My [Blood Screen] buff only lasted around fifteen seconds, and I've already wasted around five of them.

Training my pistols at her, I pulled the trigger and rained hell on her with my reduced bullet cost.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

[HP: 82/260]

My eyes widened as my health dropped below a hundred. That was pretty much almost the same as what I'd usually lose with my normal shots! Did I somehow lose the buff?

[STATUS: BLOOD SCREEN: 4 SECONDS]

Well, I'm still covered in blood, and the status effect was still on my HUD... So that wasn't the problem then. Did it bug out?

Ugh.. Who cares. I should check if I actually did some damage.

Focusing back on the duel, I eyed Guidance as my bullets made contact. To my lack of surprise, the green shield actually did its job as it absorbed every shot that I fired at her.

"It works!" Guidance cheered once more, even losing her stance as she giggled at her defensive handiwork. "The barrier works!"

"Good for you then," I sarcastically quipped. "Did I even do any damage?"

Looking back up at her health bars, I quickly spied on the two buffs she currently had up and running for her safety.

[STATUS: REGEN: 3 SECONDS]

[STATUS: BARRIER: 26 SECONDS]

Huh... At least the regen was finally ticking out. Not that it mattered seeing as she was already back at full health. Meanwhile, that barrier had an uptime of around... thirty seconds?!

"Impressed?" Guidance gloated from behind her shield, even twirling a stray strand of her hair as she chuckled. "This thing pretty much just allows me to tank. And that's on top of letting others tank for a decent amount of time as well. Assuming they actually play the game, of course."

"Huh..."

Letting out a sigh, I felt my [Blood Screen] disappear as the blood covering my body seemingly evaporated. Once more, I was back to using the full amount of blood I needed per shot, and with my dwindling health, that would just be great...

"And with that, let me just hit you with a-"

[*BANG!*]

I didn't even look at her anymore as I fired off a shot at her barrier again. If this thing was providing a full thirty seconds of invulnerability, then I pretty much already lost. I'll just let her gloat for a bit. It wasn't like there's-

[*BREAK!*]

"Khh!" What?

Looking up, I was surprised to see that the barrier protecting Guidance had utterly shattered against my bullet, my attack going straight through her stomach as she flew towards the floor.

"Guidance!"

[COMBAT COMPLETED]

[DUEL OVER: MORIYA WIN]

Ignoring the fanfare and the prompts, I rushed towards the fallen dev's side, my attention aimed solely at the wound I caused as I pressed on the bleeding hole.

"W-What happened..." Guidance weakly coughed out. "That... That hurt..."

"Your barrier broke," I hastily explained, my hands starting to become covered with blood as kept her from bleeding out. "But we can talk about that later. You have to heal yourself right now!"

"I-I suppose..."

Weakly raising her hand up to her keyboard, I watched in apprehension as she finally cast her healing spell.

"[M-Medica]..."

I bit my tongue as my eyes followed her slowly rising health bar. Sure enough, her wound slowly repaired itself, a bit of color returning to her face as she finally let out a relieved sigh.

"That shouldn't have happened..." she whispered out, her brows furrowed in both frustration and anxiety as she gathered her strength. "A [Duel] shouldn't have let me taken that fatal blow..."

Letting her sit back up, I gave her some time to ponder as I looked her over. Sure enough, she looked completely healed. Even her clothes didn't look stained by our blood as they mended themselves right before my eyes.

"Moriya..."

My ears immediately perked up, "You okay?"

"More than enough, I think," she frowned, her right hand placed on her chin as she thought aloud. "Still, the fact that my barrier got punched that easily only means that you pack more punch than you think you do."

"I do?" I raised an eyebrow before I shook my head. "W-well, that's something we can think about later. Right now, I'm more worried about you."

"And I'm fine," Guidance insisted, a faint blush forming on her face as she finally stood up. "I've healed enough, and I'm not gonna die any time soon."

"That's a relief..."

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I ignored the look that Guidance was giving me in favor of reorienting myself. Looking back, I kind of acted pretty badly in the face of death. Even when I knew that she could always heal herself, I was still too worried to even think straight.

That was disconcerting.

"...Thanks, I suppose," she hesitantly intoned. "A-Anyway, did our spar at least help you get a feel for your new [Moves]?"

"It was good enough," I replied. "Either way, I'm still too low-leveled to have enough [Moves] to cycle through anyway."

"Then all's well then," Guidance shrugged, placing a hand on her [Keystroke] as she turned her back to me. "Barring the [Duel] almost killing me, I guess I still have a bit of tweaking to do on my own [Manifest]. Best get to work, seeing as you already woke me up."

...

...

Without even saying goodbye or letting me get a word in, Guidance quickly disappeared back into the inn. For some reason, a part of me felt like I should've pressed her again just to ask her if she was okay. Then again, doing so also felt like I'd be going over my boundaries and actually get myself into the dev's bad side.

"Oh well..."

Letting out a sigh, I shrugged as I made my way back to the inn myself. I could only hope that she was fine. She did just get into a near-death experience, and I sure as hell know how badly that could affect someone's psyche.

"I guess I'm immune to psychological damage?"

I shook my head at my own words. I'm sure it was only a matter of time before it all caught up to me...

....Wait... Did I not get anything out of winning?

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