Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 63: A Matter Of Time: Part Three

They attack, all at once. Seemingly planning to not even give me any room to breath.

One General throws her spear while the Countess flies up.

I dodge the spear only for it to be thrown back at me from behind. It’s the other General. She had flew behind me to catch it and throw it again, leaving her comrade with hers.

"What a team up." I praise internally.

Now to my front and back, two spears are coming at me. I do a side flip, calculated to dodge both of them at the same time as they fly pass each other towards the Generals themselves. They each catch them and throw them at me once more as I land back down.

I cast my flight Spell in response to avoid them for a second time and am met with another foe in the air immediately after. The Countess.

Her claws spread out, coming straight to my money maker. My face.

I use First Dawn to counter them. Sparks emerge as the blade and claws clashed.

She then attacks me with her wings, spreading them outward then sending them straight for my neck. I wave my blade out, parrying her claws away then use the blade to block her wings.

She attacks again, and again, and again, launching consecutive slashes with her wings, I parry them continually as we battle in mid-air.

She then adds her claws to her assault, growing more aggressive, ultimately pushing me back.

"It’s impressive she can fight like that in mid-air."

As I’m lost in thought, spears start flying at me from below. It’s the Generals.

"Don’t they care about possibly hitting their master by mistake? Whatever. I’ll use this to my advantage."

The Countess attacks me with her clawed left foot, I dodge it and grab it then spin myself, turning her over to use her as a shield for the spears that are coming at me.

"Welp, that’s it then."

~Clank!~

"What?" To my surprise, both the spears bounce off of her. It’s a barrier.

"Like the one covering the whole fortress? That’s cheating. Seems the Generals threw the spears knowing the Countess wouldn’t get hurt."

I let go of the Countess and fly back to create some distance. The Generals then fly up to catch their spears and one of them throws theirs at me again. This time I decide to catch it.

"They’re a hell of a team, both Generals are as strong as Hayzar was when I fought him. And the Countess, being a C-Rank monster is obviously stronger. But I’m honestly not really worried about them."

I catch the spear with my left hand.

"After all, as I am now, I can easily beat Hayzar as he was in his prime."

I spin it in order to hold it properly, clench my fist tight and wave my left arm all the way back.

"And Hayzar in his prime would obviously make playthings out these three."

Then I throw it. It doesn’t move at a speed any of them can follow. The spear instantly takes the life of the other General, the one who still holds a spear, I chose to kill her first because I wanted to disarm both Generals simultaneously.

As the Countess and other General are still distracted by what just happened, I attack. Instantly appearing in front of the General that’s still alive, I decapitate her before she can even react.

I then turn my head over to look at the Countess. She’s flabbergasted.

Wasting no time in letting her organize herself, I speed towards her to launch a downward slash, she dodges sideways and spins to launch her own slash with her wings, coming from my right. I block it with my blade and our fight progresses as we continue to lock heads.

She then flies down and picks up the two spears that were being used by her Generals and starts fighting me with them.

"She’s planning on using two spears that long in a fight?" I fly down and attack, launching consecutive slashes, each heavier than the last. She parries all of them, using her spears accordingly.

"Impressive. Her spearmanship is nowhere near Hayzar’s level but she’d definitely give him a hard time. Not in his prime of course but still."

Our fight only keeps going. It moves from the ground to an aerial-battle and from an aerial-battle to the ground. Sounds of metal clashing against metal can only echo across the whole room, and with how spacious it is, they’re incredibly loud. The blood and dead bodies of countless Harpies dress a considerable portion of the surface and the walls.

I’m holding back a whole lot, but I can easily tell that the Countess would have been a tough opponent to deal with had she been fighting me from when I first started out as a Warrior. She’s definitely stronger than Zeke for one.

"Heck, she could probably one short that weak sauce. It’s true that monsters start to be overwhelmingly stronger than Warriors of the same Rank when they’re S-Rank but I have no confidence at all in Zeke. But I should stop now. Thou shan’t speak of the dead in vain they say."

The Countess moves at an incredible speed. Over twenty times that of sound. In that regard, she’s definitely faster than Hayzar was when I fought him. I launch slashes at her continually and she either dodges or parries them accordingly. Even sometimes, using her barrier Skill to block them.

And to top it all off, she isn’t just defending, she’s also attacking. Launching slashes with her wings and attempting to maul me with her claws.

Still, none of it works on me.

"Welp. I’ve had my fun, seen all I can see. Time to finish this."

I gather Mana to the blade, concentrate and whisper.

"Sunset Slash."

The Countess’s head goes flying off before she can even launch her next attack. Her barrier, broken, sliced in half like it’s nothing.

I transfer First Dawn to the Item Space and a message pops up.

[Report. Immediate Quest: Bring Down the Fortress has been completed. Now calculating rewards...]

[Subject has gained two new Skills usurped from the Dungeon Boss, The Harpy Countess since only two have been found to be compatible with the Subject. Now processing list of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss...]

List of Skills gained from Dungeon Boss

• Spatial Guard B-Rank

• Expansion B-Rank

[Report. Spatial Guard Skill and Expansion Skill have both been found to be strikingly compatible with Item Space Skill. Item Space has thus devoured Spatial Guard and Expansion. Spatial Guard and Expansion are now Sub-Skills of Item Space.]

[Report. Now processing list of Skills unattainable due to incompatibility...] 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

List of Skills unattainable due to incompatibility

• One With The Wind B-Rank: Allows one to merge themselves and anything they touch with the wind and completely erase their presence.

[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 300 000. Strength has increased by 130 000. Speed has increased by 150 000. Health has increased by 60000 and Intelligence has increased by 60000.]

[Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]

Name: Raid

Surname: ???

Affiliation: Awakened Warrior

Class: Blacksmith

Skills:

......

•• Spatial Guard B-Rank: A nigh impenetrable spatial barrier that can be formed into any desired shape.

•• Expansion B-Rank: Allows one to expand any desired space in any way up to 100 000 times its original size. It will look the same on the outside if it’s an enclosed space.

......

Rank: F

Level: Locked

Mana Capacity: 6 275 240

Strength: 616 250

Speed: 697 182

Health: 513 974

Intelligence: 681 740

[Final rewards are being allocated. Subject has received 8602 D-Rank monster cores and one C-Rank monster core along with the Harpy Countess’s wings and claws.]

"So I can’t get the third Skill because we’re not compatible? I guess it makes sense. It’s a Covert-Type Skill from what I’m reading..."

And my Class, the Blacksmith Class, is at its core, a Support-Type Class, which will consist of mostly Aid-Type Skills. So there’s no way I could get a Skill meant for a Stealth-Type Class with my Support-Type Class unless I already had a Covert-Type Skill which would’ve acted as a link of sorts to increase the compatibility rate.

"That or, if I had a weapon comparative to the Stealth-Type Class, similar to how the only way I was able to get the Battle-Type Skill Bladework and others that followed was because of First Dawn. So the only way for me to get a Covert-Type Skill is if I created a weapon used by Assassins, Spies and the like, like a dagger. But it’s too late now."

If I had a weapon like that before entering the Dungeon then I probably would’ve gotten the Skill.

"However, there’s no turning back now so I’m fine with losing this Skill. Perfectly fine."

I transfer all my monster cores in the Item Space.

"Yeah. Totally fine. I’m not really a big fan of Covert-Type Skills to begin with so I’m okay with not getting one. So okay with it... Besides...even if I did want the Skill, which I don’t, I’d have to go create a weapon and as soon as I do, I’ll lose the Skill, since the Dungeon will close as soon as I leave it..."

.......

"The Dungeon will close as soon as I leave it."

"The Dungeon will close as soon as I leave it."

A crazy idea immediately comes to mind.

"Hold on... As long as I don’t leave, it won’t close, and if it doesn’t close then... Activate Craft Skill."