Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 174: Ch172. The one who fights against all odds

Chapter 174: Ch172. The one who fights against all odds

The forest crackled with tension. Threads of magic shimmered faintly in the air above the clearing, forming a translucent dome over the combatants. The words of the system still echoed in Miles’ mind.

[Battle for the Fragment – Stage 1]

[Miles Thorn vs. Rolf Hesse]

Rolf stood tall, blood glistening on his lip, his chest heaving not from exertion but exhilaration. The runes around the dungeon entrance pulsed in resonance with the dome, as though the [Chamber of Whispers] itself watched with interest.

Miles circled him slowly, scythe at the ready, every breath measured.

"You cleared this place, didn’t you?" He asked.

"Took me three days. Thought it was going to kill me halfway through." Rolf grinned, licking the blood from his teeth.

"No wonder you’re camped outside it."

"It changed me." Rolf said. "Same as your Dungeon did to you, unless you’re just a thief."

His chest began to glow with a faint amber light, and Miles’ eyes glowed faintly, allowing him to discern the details of the story within Rolf.

[Story Active: Bear Warrior]

The transformation was sudden, yet slow enough to be witnessed in full.

Rolf’s muscles expanded, his skin toughening, his veins darkened with power. The air around him grew hot and heavy, with faint echoes of growls filling the space.

His hands curled into massive paws, coated in spectral fur and claw-like constructs.

It was more a spectral, giant bear, than a human.

He dropped into a stance low and wide, more beast than man.

"So that’s the trick." Miles didn’t flinch.

Rolf charged, his eyes white, and a deep growl escaping his throat, becoming a massive roar.

The first punch came like a cannonball, and Miles barely had time to twist. He let it graze the edge of his ribs, but even that sent shockwaves through his frame.

’Damn, the bastard is even tougher now...’ He exhaled under the [Ender’s Mask], retaliating, the [Harbinger’s Scythe] swinging wide. But Rolf caught it with a single hand.

"Too slow."

Miles let go of the weapon mid-swing and dropped low, kicking Rolf’s legs out from under him. Rolf stumbled, and Miles reclaimed the scythe with a summon blink. The next exchange was brutal.

Rolf’s fists came down like hammers, each strike shaking the ground, breaking small trees and cracking stones. Miles danced around him, his blade carving lines into the beast-man’s flanks, but they healed almost instantly, the threads of his story mending his spectral hide like stitches, until there was no cut at all.

"No point in slicing what doesn’t stay cut." Miles clicked his tongue.

He backed off, creating some distance between them, his heart pounding as the dome seemed to narrow down above them.

The forest outside looked like it was a thousand miles away from them.

"Fine. Let’s see if mine holds up." He smirked under his mask, his own chest flaring with dark-blue light.

[Story Active: The One Who Fights Against All Odds]

A surge of energy exploded from within him, his body felt lighter, faster, and stronger. The pain from the wounds he had taken dulled until he could barely feel them. And around him, the air warped slightly, as if forming something around him, that coiled around his arms, legs, and torso.

"About time." Rolf noticed immediately, his bear-like noose widening in a savage grin.

He lunged, and Miles met him halfway.

The sound of the impact echoed like thunder trapped in glass. Scythe met fist, claw met steel. They tore through the clearing, neither willing to give. Each time Rolf struck, Miles deflected or dodged by inches, and each time Miles countered, Rolf responded with sheer brute force and unwavering killing intent.

Something, however, was not right with Rolf’s opponent, and he knew it.

"One thing is being strong, but why won’t you just give in?" Rolf grunted, spitting a mouthful of blood as soon as Miles’ fist crashed against his jaw.

"Because this is my story." Miles responded, ducking under Rolf’s massive paw.

He dove under a wild haymaker and slammed the blunt end of the scythe into Rolf’s jaw one more time, making him reel back, but Rolf didn’t fall.

Rolf caught Miles with a shoulder charge, sending him tumbling into a tree. The bark exploded, and Miles sprang back up.

It was no longer a duel.

It was a ravage.

Each of them was bleeding, and each of them was laughing.

Every strike now drew more and more blood. Miles’ scythe caught Rolf across the ribs, causing a deep gash that refused to close. Rolf drove a knee into Miles’ gut, spitting blood from his lips in return.

From that moment on, they were not players anymore. Only avatars of their stories, embodiments of endurance and defiance.

"You can’t win." Rolf grabbed Miles by the throat and lifted him.

"I know." Miles coughed, then grinned. "But I can end it."

His free hand surged with a dark and silvery light glowing around it, almost like his hand was covered in a ghostly armor made of dark light, and he activated another fragment of his story.

One he had not managed to control to its fullest yet, but was enough to deal with other [Fragment Bearers].

[Story Fragment Activated: The End]

His fist ignited, glowing with the pure force of one of his aspects, and Rolf’s eyes widened as he saw it.

Miles struck, and the punch landed square in Rolf’s chest, a blast of pressure exploding outward in a perfect circle. The dome above fractured, and Rolf’s story peeled away like smoke caught in a wind tunnel.

Rolf’s body launched backward, crashing into a stone pillar near the dungeon entrance, scattering dust and light around him as his spectral beastly transformation came undone.

Miles collapsed to one knee, panting.

Across from him, Rolf lay on his back, arms spread wide, chest smoking where the blow had landed. For a moment, everything was still.

Then, with a grunt, Rolf raised a hand and gave a single thumbs-up, and Miles dropped to sit beside a tree, laughing breathlessly.

They didn’t speak for a while.

A glitched system window appeared before Miles, and by the gasp he heard coming from Rolf’s side, the big man had received the message too.

[Stage 1...]

[Stage 1...]

[Stage 1...]

Miles smirked, dismissing [Ender’s Mask].

"You broke the rules..." Rolf muttered.

"Guess so." Miles retorted, chuckling breathlessly.

"How?"

"I told you." Miles got up, summoning his [Ether Teapot] and drinking from it, his wounds disappearing as soon as the tea slid down his throat. "We don’t have to fight."

The dome dissolved above them.

Leaves fell, the dungeon entrance pulsed.

"You’re one peculiar player..." Rolf laughed.

"I’m not a player." Miles rebuked quietly. "Do you want to see what the Chamber is really whispering about?"