Reborn in hell with a skill creation system

Chapter 12: A Pebble Vs A Mountain

BOOM!

Mael quickly moved out of the way just before Drak could crush him with its fists.

Fortunately for him, this body was agile enough to maneuver in time. Besides, due to the amount of stats absorbed from the demons earlier, he was a lot stronger now.

Though stronger was relative.

Drak was still bigger, still hit harder, and still had the kind of natural durability that came from being a peak Low Demon rather than a hatchling who’d had one very productive afternoon.

But Mael had something Drak didn’t.

He’d spent his entire previous life and his new life solving problems that were way bigger than him.

He circled wide, watching Drak reset after the missed strike, noting the way it planted its feet before committing to anything heavy.

It was a habit, born from the fact of never needing to worry about a smaller opponent being fast enough to punish it for telegraphing.

It had never fought anything like him before.

That was the advantage.

Drak came forward again, feinting high before dropping into another low sweep, smarter this time, trying to mix it up.

Mael jumped the sweep, came down just inside Drak’s guard and drove his elbow hard into the left knee before pushing back out.

Drak let out a grunt as it’s movements faltered, but it quickly recovered and looked at the pebble of an opponent.

Mael let out an annoyed sigh, before crouching and launching himself towards his opponent.

A very bad decision.

Drak seemed to be waiting exactly for this, because just before Mael could reach it, its large hand suddenly grabbed him by the neck and slammed him straight into the arena floor.

BOOM!

The impact knocked the breath out of Mael and for a second, the world was just white.

All he felt was the sensation of the stone against his back and the crowd noise coming from somewhere very far away.

But Drak was far from done.

Its fist came down forcing Mael to roll to safety, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The fist hit the arena floor hard enough to crack it, right where his head had been, and Mael kept rolling until he had enough space to get his feet under him and push himself upright.

Drak looked at him from across the short distance between them, and the amusement was back.

Just a little and the crowd was loving it.

He could hear the grey skinned master from all the way up in the viewing area, the satisfaction in it loud enough.

Unfortunately for Drak, that attack hadn’t only just almost broke his spine.... It had also managed to slam into the slave collar hard enough to damage it,

And the next second,

[Ding!]

[System has been reactivated.]

[The host has 1,605.6 souls.]

His system was back.

He didn’t get the chance to properly appreciate that fact as, Drak’s fist swung towards his head with the aim to rip it off in one go.

He ducked under it on pure reflex, bought himself two seconds of space, and pulled up his status screen without breaking stride.

[HOST STATUS]

[Name: Mael]

[Tier: Lesser Demon — Stage 1]

[Souls: 1,605.6]

[STATS]

[STR: 95]

[AGI: 110]

[VIT: 100]

[END: 25]

[INT: 14]

[Skills Active: 3]

[DEVOUR — Stage 1]

[ACCELERATED RECOVERY — Stage 1]

[VOID SKIN — Stage 1]

[Skill Creation: AVAILABLE]

Drak came again, committing to a heavy downward strike that would have been a problem thirty seconds ago.

"Give me a second," Mael muttered, to nobody in particular, and sidestepped the cleanly.

He then pulled up the skill creation tab mid battle and started on the exact skill he needed.

"I want a skill," he said under his breath, moving around another swing from Drak, "that lets me read the flow of a fight. Predict movements based on body language, weight distribution, habits. Passive."

[Skill concept received: Passive combat prediction.]

[Calculating viability...]

[Viability: Confirmed.]

[Full version soul cost: 220 souls.]

[Current souls: 1,605.6]

[Full version available.]

[COMBAT INTUITION]

[Type: Passive]

[Effect: Host passively reads and processes physical cues from opponents during combat. Provides fractional advance awareness of incoming attacks. Efficiency scales with Host INT stat and combat experience accumulated.]

[Soul cost: 220 souls.]

[Accept?]

Drak’s fist was already coming at him again.

"Accept," Mael said.

The souls left his count and something chnged immediately, like a new lens sliding into place over everything he was already seeing.

It was almost as if he was seeing every move a moment before Drak could make it, unlike earlier when he relied on pure instincts.

There were lots of skills that would let him quickly end this fight, but he was certain that his opponent wouldn’t give him enough time to create them,

So this would work for now.

He watched as the future Drak go in for a grab in hopes to completely restrain his movements and crush him, but before it could actually execute the move, Mael already dodged it.

The first few time, the crowd of demons were certain that the pebble was just getting lucky, but after a few more times, they quickly realized that something was wrong.

Zara’s eyes lit up as the moments passed.

Even she was uncertain of Mael’s chances against the much larger opponent, and to her surprise, he was completely holding his own.

Drak quickly got annoyed and its movements suddenly became even more predictable and Mael used that to his advantage.

Its patience ran out all at once.

It stopped trying to be clever and just came, both arms swinging in wide alternating arcs, the kind of assault that was designed to overwhelm through sheer volume rather than precision, trusting its durability to absorb whatever came back in return.

Mael calmly dodged all the attacks and the moment an opening presented itself, he immediately took it.

The smaller demon dug his clawed fingers into the much larger demon’s side, pushing it as deeply as he could before being forced to withdraw and jump to safety.

Drak let out a roar of pain as its blood fell to the arena floor.

It looked at Mael with renewed anger and without hesitation, it charged, exactly as his opponent had planned.

Using his smaller frame to his advantage, Mael managed to dodge the attack, cling to the larger demon’s back and buried his teeth deep within its neck.

A habit he seemed to have developed.

Drak thrashed violently and its good arm raked backward trying to find him, its massive body twisting and slamming sideways in an attempt to crush him against anything solid, but Mael had learned his lesson about letting go.

He sank his teeth deeper.

Dark blood flooded his mouth, thick and hot, and he felt Devour activate instinctively at the taste of it but ignored it for now, focusing entirely on keeping his grip as Drak’s movements grew more frantic.

The larger demon tried a different approach, throwing itself backward and slamming them both into the arena floor.

BOOM..

The impact rattled everything in Mael’s skull but his teeth stayed locked and his claws stayed buried in his opponent’s neck, simply refusing to let go.

Drak tried it again but the result was the same.

Its movements were getting heavier between attempts, the energy behind them hollowing out gradually, each recovery taking a fraction longer than the last as the blood continued to pour from the wound at its neck, dark and steady, pooling beneath them on the cracked arena stone.

The crowd had gone completely quiet

Drak made one more attempt to reach him, the arm moving slower than it had at any point in the fight, and then it stopped.

Its massive body swayed before falling forward,

Dead.