Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 382

Chapter 382: Chapter 382 Urs Vs Rook
Rook felt his body seize up for merely an instant. Yet in that short amount of time, his opponent had lined up a shot on him.

He was just barely able to move again right before Urs pulled down on the trigger of his laser cannon.

Hastily he moved his club that was composed of high-density metal in front of him to absorb the pull.

However, while his maneuver was successful, the blast from a laser cannon was not something that could fully be blocked so easily.

The intense burst of light still engulfed him, and his shield generator took a heavy hit protecting him.

What turned out the worst for him though was the force behind the blow.

Rook was pushed back a few centimeters and directly into a couple more of the floating spheres that Urs had scattered throughout the area.

In reaction to coming into contact with physical matter, the metal balls burst apart and released bursts of shrapnel and an electrical charge.

The small pieces of metal flying at him were no consequence for Rook, since they lacked the force to pierce his dense skin, but the small shocks he was getting hit with were another matter.

Try as he might to brace himself, his body would freeze up for a moment as the electricity surged through his body.

Though the openings that this created were only for a short window, and a less skilled fighter would not have been able to capitalize on them, Urs was a veteran of many battles and was already anticipating how the fight would flow.

He shot another powerful beam of light from his laser cannon, forcing Rook to defend himself with hardly any time to do so.

This same series of events continued for nearly the next twenty seconds.

Urs would attack and Rook would only barely be able to block it.

Then he would be pushed back and get zapped by the spheres that Urs had set up.

After that the cycle would reset itself.

Unfortunately, Urs was unable able to keep this going until the fight’s end.

While he had left just enough room for him to mauver around the field of electrified spheres, it required extreme focus for him to move through them without getting hit himself.

During one of his attacks, Urs was perhaps just a tenth of a second slower. Normally that would be an acceptable margin of error, but against someone as capable as Rook, it was enough to change the dynamic of the loop he had found himself in.

Having just that slight increase in time before the next shot came gave him the opportunity to lift up his right leg just a few centimeters and slam it into the ground.

For most people this would not have accomplished anything, but with the strength Rook possessed, it was enough for him to send chucks of rubble flying into the air behind him.

This caused the spheres that were behind him to discharge early. And when he was pushed back by Urs’ laser cannon blast, he avoided getting momentarily stunned.

Filled with rage, Rook capitalized on his freedom from Urs trap and swung his club down with all of his might.

A sound more akin to a powerful explosion rather than a person’s swinging a blunt weapon followed.

Large fissures spread through the concrete tunnel of the sewer and giant chucks of rubble went flying.

Naturally, the metallic balls that had been floating in the air did not escape this devastation.

A majority of them were activated by pieces of debris impacting them, while others were blown away by the sheer force of the impact.

For Urs, it was honestly shocking to witness a single individual unleash an attack that powerful with a physical blow.

Rook had caused what felt like a localized earthquake and the damage his swing had done was in line with an explosive device.

‘I can understand now why this man was so feared. Even for a bahnen, that level of strength is ridiculous. I won’t be surprised if he was the strongest person in the entire Dramid Alliance.’ Urs thought, astounded by the display of sheer force.

Still, even though he was surprised and his initial plan had been ruined, Urs did not stop and moved on to the next step immediately.

He had hoped to keep Rook trapped until he was able to bring the giant of a man down, but the best-case scenario rarely occurred during a battle. Especially when it involved two people at the level that Urs and Rook were at.

From the shoulder mounted missile launcher on Urs’ shoulder, he fired off three micro missiles in rapid succession and aimed them into the dust cloud that had covered Rook.

With his enemy’s position obscured, Urs knew that a widespread attack would have the best chance of landing a hit.

‘It should be around there.’

Rapidly Urs switched over to his plasma launcher and fired into what was currently empty space.

Except, as he had predicted, Rook came running out of the dust cloud from that direction to avoid the explosions from the micro missiles.

Urs had perfectly set up this situation, and with a blazing ball of plasma only a couple meters away from him as soon as he moved out of the cloud of dust, Rook hardly had any time to respond.

With a feat of agility surprising for a man of his size, Rook twisted his body out of the way at the last second so that the attack would not hit him square in the stomach.

At that point though, it had been impossible for him to fully evade the shot of flying plasma.

What little capacity his personal shield generator had left was burned through instantly, and the white-hot plasma grazed his side as it passed by.

Even only being a glancing blow, the plasma had burned through Rook’s combat armor and melted a portion of his skin.

The pain was no doubt excruciating, yet Rook did not make a single sound of discomfort. The only noticeable reaction he had was a slight wince of pain.

Of course, Urs was not going to stop now that he had landed a decent strike and had fully broken through his adversary’s best defense.

With his left hand, he grabbed ahold of his laser rifle and began firing a rapid spray of beams towards Rook.

In what could only be considered a desperate maneuver, the man flung his gatling gun forward to block some of the blast and send a heavy projectile hurtling towards Urs.

This was not a particularly difficult attack to dodge fortunately, and Urs simply dashed to the side and repositioned himself as the large weapon flew past him.

He then trained his laser rifle at Rook again and started shooting.

However, in the brief moment that he was occupied, Rook had thrown down a smoke bomb that was releasing a substance into the air that dispersed lasers.

“I guess that’s why he tossed his gun at me. He figured that it wouldn’t be useful anymore.” Urs muttered as he shouldered his laser rifle.

He would not be able to efficiently attack with it other than at pointblank range now, so he once again shifted his strategy as the battle evolved.

“You’re just as fun as I thought that you’d be. I’ve never met anyone that uses tricks like yours and can so seamlessly transition between different weapons. It’s been a while since I’ve had a fight this exhilarating. Those two girls I fought on the cpatial planet weren’t bad, but I never felt like they could really threaten me. You on the other hand might just be able to kill me.”

Despite having been on the back foot through most of the battle, Rook still looked ecstatic.

He was the type of person that thirsted for battle, but he had been holding himself back while working with Clarien. He knew that the ultimate goal they were working towards would no doubt lead to a war like any other, so he had been patient.

But with an opponent like Urs before him, he could not help feeling the urge as strongly as he used to during the wars on the bahnen home world.

People that he could fight that did not go down instantly were rare, so he wanted to fully enjoy this clash against Urs.

And while he did not mind fighting tricky opponents, what he really strived for were close up battles using melee weapons.

He had already seen Urs use his hard light shield and had been eyeing the weapon attached to his belt.

The opening act had been fun, but he was ready to move onto what he considered the main event.

Pushing off against the fractured ground, Rook launched himself forward. Already mid-swing with his club as he closed in on his opponent.

Urs, for his part, had no interest in indulging Rook. Instead, stepping back to keep his distance and continue firing his plasma launcher to keep Rook at bay.