Jacob has already proved that Baal’s Cage works. Lazerketh’s movements drag as if someone packed his bones with lead.

  That’s done, Jacob thinks. Baal’s Cage is more impressive than I thought. As long as he stays in range, he’s going to have a very hard time dealing with this.

  Lazerketh now focuses his own aura and, as he gets closer, Jacob can feel a distinctive resistance from the Infernal.

  It still affects him, but when it doesn’t take him by surprise, he’s able to partially deal with it.

  Still, Jacob wants to know what each curse does in practice.

  And no better target than this one at the moment.

  He watches the Infernal’s stance. He sees how Lazerketh favors certain angles when he shifts.

  Jacob uses First Step of Mephistus, with the ground flying under his feet. The world blurs once. He goes from mid-range to right in front of Lazerketh before most of the crowd can realize it.

  “He’s so fast!”

  “The Fake Champion moves like lightning!”

  But, seeing Lazerketh’s eyes tracking him during his movements, Jacob knows that this is not the case. He’s not exactly a titan of pure strength and speed.

  But that’s not the point.

  Jacob slashes once with Diavolo Hypercut. He can choose how much strength to pour in the Skill and he knows Lazerketh can feel it too. He barely focuses on power, instead relying only on the speed part of the Skill, which means a small cut, barely a scratch that draws the thinnest line of blood, appears on Lazerketh.

  The sword flickers in a short arc. The blade barely kisses Lazerketh’s side. It is enough. The physical cut carries Curse of Fire with it.

  A small will o’wisp appears to the right of Lazerketh. The Infernal cracks his whip at it but it goes through the flame like a ghost.

  Jacob nods satisfied.

  Good. I could use Tribulation of the Damned, but it might kill this idiot unless I destroy the Afflictions now, but that would mean…

  Jacob suddenly feels a heavy thump in his chest, like a fire crackling, rising from the kindling to the larger logs, illuminating the darkest and coldest night. He feels a powerful warmth spreading through his body and he can’t help but show a smile on his face.

  That’s so much power for so few Afflictions. I guess it makes sense that they had to nerf this. I would have exploded from all the power if this was a True Diamond Skill instead of its Diamond nerfed version.

  Jacob puts more space between them, narrowly avoiding Lazerketh’s whip several times. He’s purposefully hiding the fact that he’s just faster and stronger in order to get more Afflictions in and test the limits of The Devil’s Engine.

  Once again, from afar, Jacob releases a Diavolo Hypercut that barely manages to land on Lazerketh.

  Despite The Devil’s Engine, Jacob’s not technically faster nor stronger than Lazerketh when it comes to raw power. His Skills are bringing him over the hurdle, but the hurdle still feels pretty big.

  And this is a fight where I don’t really need to strategize at all. With all due respect to Lazerketh… I’d have to level up all my Skills and test them against someone like Nimirea to know where I’m truly standing right now.

  “You think you’re anything? You’re just wasting time, bastard. Come and die!” Lazerketh says.

  “It’s true! The Fake Champion is barely grazing him!”

  “He probably is already at his limit!”

  “That Infernal is too strong, clearly! He’s a member of the Three Great Races, what else did you expect?!”

  Then, the last hit on Lazerketh activates Cinder Rot.

  [Cinder Rot]

  [Description: every time the target uses mana, their body overheats from within and takes fire damage proportional to mana spent. If they stop using mana, the damage slows, but the rot persists longer.]

  Jacob hears Lazerketh’s grunts as the Infernal swings his whip.

  “You… you bastard,” Lazerketh roars. “Afflictions?! Then the rumors about you being an Hellraiser Sword user are true! You scourge!”

  Right, who warned about that again? Jacob frows. Professor Veythra, I believe. Affliction Specialists can spiral into doomsday-like Classes that can create huge problems on a city level. From my understanding, they don’t let just anyone get one and train it.

  Jacob lights up King Baalrek’s slender, silvery sword with Hellraiser Sword. He doesn’t need to summon a new sword anymore, King Baalrek’s Sword simply starts releasing sparks and is surrounded by an ominous, hellish fire.

  Once again, he steps closer, delivers two more hits while dodging Lazerketh’s attack and then retreats.

  He just stacked Bleed and Shadow Plague on Lazerketh.

  [Hellraiser Sword, Effect #1: Bleed: deliver a debuff that cannot be removed from anyone below True Diamond Rank by any normal means beside letting it expire. Bleed makes each wound drain blood from the target at an exponential rate.]

  [Hellraiser Sword, Effect #3: Shadow Plague: deliver a debuff that cannot be removed from anyone below True Diamond Rank by any normal means beside letting it expire. Shadow Plague slows the Mana circulation of the target.]

  Lazerketh covers the terrain in thorns and starts summoning more walls to block Jacob’s path, but what the Infernal doesn’t know is that Jacob is not exactly playing fair since with a few slashes he manages to dispel the Skill whenever he needs an opening.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I will never get tired of the Grimoire, Jacob smiles to himself.

  “Baal’s Cage,” Jacob whispers, and pours more Mana into the Skill, with Lazerketh starting to struggle to breathe while his own Mana circulation starts to gum up.

  “Sanguine Lattice!” Lazerketh shouts, enraged.

  The air in front of the Infernal turns into a thin-blood mass of filaments that shoot at Jacob. This time, Jacob doesn’t manage to dodge in time because of another Skill.

  “Barbroot Snare!”

  Jacob stops in his way as a root digs into his ankle before he can cut the thorny vine off, which allows Lazerketh to momentarily trap Jacob.

  Or at least that’s what he thought.

  While Lazerketh was busy casting, Jacob simply swung his sword as fast as he could, generating a dozen Diavolo Hypercut, effectively trading hits.

  Many small wounds open on Lazerketh’s arms and legs, making him flinch.

  Jacob, suddenly feeling a titanic strength coursing through his body, cuts up the vine and dashes toward his enemy. Lazerketh, beyond furious and humiliated, activates a Skill right when Jacob was about to hit him with a true slash.

  “Crimson Reversal.”

  Lazerketh’s limbs, which had been dripped in rivulets of blood, start smoking. A red vapor rises from them—his blood is turning into a fine mist that coalesces and forms a large grey-red rose.

  Jacob’s hit, somehow, doesn’t leave any damage on Lazerketh, instead makes the giant rose bloom and turn red.

  “House of Thorns,” Lazerketh grabs the rose, which immediately turns ashen, but covers him in an armor that amplifies his aura.

  “Red Hook,” Lazerketh cracks his whip so fast Jacob, this time, doesn’t plan a counterattack for it. He simply gets one of his arms, the sword-wielding arm, ensared in it.

  “Judgment of the Rose,” Lazerketh whispers.

  Grimoire, analysis, Jacob thinks urgently as he sees a giant rose about to envelope him.

  [Analysis Completed.]

  [Jugment of the Rose - Lv. 18 (True Diamond)]

  [Description: Judgment of the Rose sucks one’s enemies dry of vitality and then dies.]

  Is he trying to kil me? Jacob frowns and shakes his head. You have one too many Afflictions, Lazerketh. Plus, I can activate one new Skill for just a moment. You don’t deserve to see my master’s heritage, Lazerketh. Just feel its power.

  * * *

  The Infernal, watching from the other side, as Judgment of the Rose is about to turn Jacob into lifeless paste, sighs in relief. He was forced to use his strongest Skill, something that he could have killed any Diamond Ranked expert with, to deal with this little scourge.

  He’s not sure whether Jacob will die, especially after he’s seen how terrifying his fighting style is, but he’ll settle with crippling him. He’ll receive a punishment from the Academy—but he’ll be hailed as a hero back home.

  Those are his thoughts until a slashing sound comes from inside the rose

  An aura of absolute death comes from inside the giant rose and, suddenly, it gets torn into a thousand pieces.

  Before Lazerketh can even realize what happened, Jacob, empowered by The Devil’s Engine, appears by his side.

  “This has gone on for long enough.”

  Lazerketh gets kicked in the ribs and flies down the street, parting the crowd. Jacob follows closely and, before the Infernal can get up, grabs his arm and slams him into the ground, taking a page from Lancelot’s book.

  Jacob now kicks Lazerketh, who flies away, since he can’t kill him.

  “Give up,” Jacob says, seeing the Infernal trying to stand.

  “Never…” Lazerketh coughs up blood, with the Afflictions now making it almost impossible for him to stay conscious.

  “The Fake Champion…” someone mutters. “He’s not…”

  “He’s strong,” another member of the crowd says. “I thought about challenging him myself but… did you see that Skill the Infernal guy used? I have never felt something that strong from any first-year student. That would have killed me.”

  “Me too. Fake? Fake my ass. This guy… if he’s a Fake Champion, I’m going to eat my hat!”

  “Didn’t you already say that?”

  Jacob blows Lazerketh away again, and this time the Infernal skids across the stone with no control left in his limbs. He crashes into the far edge of the street and leaves a smear of blood behind him.

  The crowd recoils.

  “Give up,” Jacob says amidst the silence. “You’re done.”

  Lazerketh tries to rise and fails, then forces himself up anyway because of his pride.

  Jacob steps forward and narrows his eyes, because there is no reason to let this drag on any longer. He reaches inward and lines up Tribulation of the Damned, and he knows with complete certainty that if he lets it fire, Lazerketh will never walk again.

  I’ll focus it on his lower limbs. He wanted to do that to Lancelot? Let him experience his own medicine. As far as I know, he tried to kill me. He broke the rules first. Let him pay for it.

  Then the air shifts.

  There’s a moment of tightness that Jacob can’t even process and a strong pressure settles on him.

  Something breaks.

  The Devil’s Engine collapses inside him.

  The sensation is violent and immediate, and the inner furnace that was feeding him power goes cold in the same instant. Jacob staggers in place. All the momentum that had carried him until now is gone all at once. All that scaling completely disappeared, leaving him feeling cold and weak.

  Lazerketh wheezes on the ground, and then his eyes snap wide.

  Silence spreads through the street as a light, soft pair of steps moves forward.

  Lazerketh pushes himself upright, and this time his movements are steady, even though blood still runs down his armor. He turns, and then he drops to one knee.

  A man has stepped out of the crowd.

  He looks human, perfectly so, but there is something unreal about him. He’s incredibly beautiful, in an ethereal way. In a way that, if Jacob had to use an adjective for it, it would most definitely be ‘dangerous.’

  His armor is red and shiny, and it reminds Jacob of Infernal design he’s seen on Iskara and her Squires.

  Then, Jacob notices something off.

  Lazerketh’s jaw is serrated, tight, and, most importantly, there’s a profound disgust written on his face.

  The man walks past Jacob without a glance and stops in front of the Infernal.

  “Sir,” Lazerketh says, and his voice shakes even though his posture does not. “What can I do for you?”

  Is he Royalty?

  “I’ve heard of him,” Jacob hears a man with a terrified voice. “He’s the Blood of the Devils. One of The Sacrifices.”

  “The Sacrifices?” Another chimes in. “They really exist?”

  “They’re Infernal superwarriors.”

  “Whet is he doing here?”

  “I have no idea. I didn’t even know they existed. But… that armor… it’s one of them.”

  “Maybe the Infernals wanted one of those to become a Champion?”

  Jacob watches the man place two fingers on Lazerketh’s shoulder and Jacob feels a similar pressure as before.

  Lazerketh almost falls forward before exhaling and regaining some color.

  The Afflictions… they’re all gone.

  “Rise, Lazerketh,” the man says softly. “I’ll see that your wounds are taken off.”

  “Thanks,” Lazerketh says but moves away from the fingers in disgust.

  Jacob is about to check with the Grimoire when he sees The Sacrifice turn toward him and stare at him peacefully.

  “I’m sorry,” the man says, and his tone is calm as he points at his own neck. “I was sloppy. You have some blood here.”

  Jacob freezes and then brings a hand to his own neck.

  When he takes a look at it, there’s blood on it.