The Insider System

Chapter 95: A Fight With No Real Risk

Once Lake was around the corner he looked at how much health he had left while getting a potion out. Seeing he still had 67 he guessed his wounds just looked bad, and weren't life threatening. Ripping the top off of the potion Lake poured some on his shoulder then once the bleeding stopped he inspected his nose.

The guy had punched him in the face so hard that even with the helmet his nose had been flattened, and Lake knew this because he hadn't been able to breath through it since. Getting his helmet off to inspect the damage, Lake thought that when he fought that guy again he should really use someone else's face.

Doing his best to straighten his mushed nose, Lake drank some of the potion and felt it return to normal. He could also feel his collarbone return to being one thing. Looking at his health and seeing it was maxed, Lake put his helmet back on and changed his identity to Jon.

Now that he was all better, and ready for round two, Lake headed back to the shack, and punched another hole in the wall. "You stupid bastard! Why do you keep doing that?" Lake was about to laugh, when he realized the guy had already attacked because The Sight kicked in.

Jumping out of the way the shield flew through the wall leaving only a thin hole like it had sliced through butter. Lake hadn't realized earlier when he had grabbed it but it seemed the shield had razor sharp edges. Lake guessed a flying shield didn't have to be limited to defense, and this point had been proven earlier when it had cut through his armor like it was nothing.

Keeping his eye on the shield, Lake waited for it to try and hit him on the way back to the guy, and dodged out of the way again. With the shield inside, Lake couldn't really see it any more so he turned on Detector again because it was still set to the shield.

Seeing it was inside and wasn't moving, Lake opened the door to the shack, and saw the guy was laying on his bed like he wasn't even involved in the fight. "You know I'm trying to sleep right now, why don't you just come back tomorrow instead?"

Without saying anything Lake crouched down, and grabbed one of the pieces of wood that used to be part of the wall, and threw it at the guy. Lake saw as the shield flew and intercepted the attack while the guy still had his eyes closed.

This made Lake wonder if this guy was even controlling this thing. "So, did you see my brother when you took this mission?" Lake didn't see a reason not to answer, so he said. "No, just a piece of paper."

"Too bad, I wanted to know if he still looked stupid." Lake could tell there was a lot of story behind this guy and his brother, but he really hadn't picked a side, he was really just here to finish a mission that he had originally thought would be easy.

Lake looked around a little with the fight seeming to come to a halt he felt it was safe enough. He had to say this guy's place was a dump, the floors were literally dirt and there was no furniture other than the bed the guy was on. Lake didn't understand why this guy would live this way when he was obviously extremely strong.

even if all that strength came from his shield, so what, he was capable enough to make some money. Lake guessed there was no point in thinking about what a clearly stupid person was thinking. His whole Life was probably nonsense, and Lake didn't want to know any more than necessary.

Walking over to the shield that was floating in the air around the guy, Lake tried to get close to it only for it to move away from him. Seeing this, Lake tried to get close to the guy for the shield to try to cut his arm off.

Lake could not tell if the guy was controlling it or not but it didn't really matter. Using Burst, and Fast Hands, Lake smacked the bed frame, shattering it. The guy started to fall off the now uneven bed onto the floor, and Lake was about to kick him when the Shield came flying to block the strike.

Knowing there was no way to hit the guy before the shield got in the way, Lake jumped and smacked the shabby barley functional roof, collapsing it onto where the guy was laying on the floor.

Lake had been trying to use this as a distraction for the shield so he could land a hit on the guy but the shield didn't move and just let all the wood fall into a pile on top of the guy. "You're really going to make me mad with all the shit you're breaking."

The guy exploded out of the pile, and threw a punch at Lake, and at the same time the shield went low for his legs. Lake knew the only time he could possibly land an attack on this guy was when he set the shield out as an attack, so Lake just jumped and accepted that the guy's punch was going to land somewhere on his chest.

Throwing his own attack at the guy's throat, Lake watched as the shield raced up towards his attack, but Lake was pretty sure he was faster with the Burst and Fast hands combo. Stabbing his finger into the guy's throat, Lake knew he had just gotten revenge for his nose, now all he needed to do was stab the guy in the stomach for the shoulder wound.

Pulling his finger before the shield could cut his arm off, Lake made some distance between them to see the wound on the guy's neck was gushing blood Like a fountain. Lake didn't know what the artery was called, but he guessed he had hit it with his attack.

Lake saw the confusion on the guy's face as he tried to get the bleeding under control. With him unable to, he said. "What the fu..." Before passing out in a pool of blood. Realizing this was from the skill he had gotten yesterday Blood Loss Lake rushed over and pulled out what was left of his health potion.

Pouring it onto the wound Lake saw it slowly start to close and once it was done, he checked the guy's pulse to see he was still alive. Lake looked around for the shield that both of them seemed to forget about after the blood started shooting from the guy's neck to find it partially in the floor.

Lake guessed when the guy passed out it had lost power and retired to the state it was in when he had first tried to steal it. Kicking as much of the broken wood under the part of the bed frame he had broken earlier to keep it up, Lake threw the guy onto his bed and dropped a drop of potion into his mouth to help with the blood loss.

Once he was done making sure the guy was fine Lake grabbed the shield, and headed towards the Alley. Lake stopped to get some food at the bar right next to the Alley before he went inside and after eating the crap they were selling he knocked on the door.

"It seems you weren't able to pull it off without him catching you." Lake could tell the guy was talking about the hole in the shoulder of his armor, and said. "Here's the shield." putting it on the table to let the guy look at it, Lake went to leave when he heard.

"That mission had been open for over 6 years, and the guy you took it from is named Donny and it's pretty much his whole life fighting off the thugs his brother sends to take the shield from him." Lake could see why his brother would want it so much it was really strong, but it was a little much harassing your brother full time like that. "I wanted to tell you to pick again when you chose that mission, but Donny never kills any of the people we send, so I just thought you would need to regrow your hands, which you can afford."

The guy pointed at a potion that was labeled 2500 gold. "Why are you telling me this?" Lake understood the mission must have been hard but surely this guy had another point. "Well you didn't ask for your reward for completing the mission."

"Oh yeah you're right, what is it? Lake had completely forgotten why he had even done any of that. "Well first you need to be a member here you go." The guy handed Lake what seemed to be a gold coin but when Lake looked at it he could tell the design was different. "That's your ID for the guild, and here's where you need to go for the rest. Take the shield with you. I don't have enough for the reward so turn it in when you get there."

Lake still didn't know what the reward was but he guessed he would know soon. Looking at where the card told him to go, Lake headed towards the Alchemy guild. It seemed he was about to go to where he had seen Lucas go when he tried to set up the job to steal the journal in the palace.