He released the wrist and staggered one step.
Scale Armor had reduced the impact, but Kunther’s physical enhancent put enough force behind the elbow that it reduced and eliminated different things, and the difference was currently making Jake’s vision strobe.
Kunther was already repositioning, sword arm recovered, reading the montary vulnerability with the predatory accuracy of soone who had spent years identifying and exploiting the gaps between a hit landing and a person recovering from it.
He crossed the distance.
Jake dropped.
Not a fall—a deliberate drop to one knee, ducking under the follow-up slash that passed through the air where his neck had been. From the lower position, he drove his fist upward into Kunther’s midsection with everything his bloodline-enhanced strength could produce in a short-range upward strike.
The impact sounded like sothing structural giving way.
Kunther’s forward montum converted entirely to backward montum, his body lifting slightly from the force before physics reclaid him and deposited him three ters away on his back. He hit the courtyard stones with an impact that would have ended a lesser fighter’s participation in the conversation, rolled, and ca up on one knee with his sword still in hand and his face wearing the first genuinely surprised expression Jake had seen on it.
His free hand went to his midsection.
Jake had his system help him and he knew that he wouldn’t stand a chance if he didn’t utilize his full strength. After all, Kunther was a level above him and much more experienced too.
"Enhanced strength," Kunther said. Sothing in his voice had shifted—not fear, but the specific recalibration of soone encountering data that required updating of previous assessnts. "More than Class II baseline."
Kunther held the advantage in level and experience, but bloodlines were not asured solely by quantity. Jake’s power was purer. Denser. The difference was like comparing spring water to molten gold. One possessed greater volu, the other greater worth.
"I have just a stronger inheritance than you," Jake said, staying low and keeping his blood sense extended.
"Your mother was also a strong woman, and we don’t need to talk about Father," Kunther agreed, and there was sothing almost like satisfaction in it.
Kunther’s mother was just a simple noble woman, unlike Jake’s. She wasn’t a warrior or mage of sorts.
"He was monstrously strong, too. Even baseline."
He stood fully, testing his body’s report on the damage.
He said as he looked down at himself, "You managed to injure and break a few ribs."
He nodded his head, as though he were appreciating him.
"You certainly had gained more genes from our father. You hit harder for soone of your build."
"I hear that a lot," Jake said.
Kunther’s next approach was different. He had underestimated his brother and paid the price for it. He thought Jake was just a novice warrior, but it seed like he knew what he was doing.
He ca low, the sword held in a shortened grip that reduced its range but increased its speed in close quarters, and Jake understood imdiately that his older brother had identified the problem with his own longer reach and adapted.
Class I didn’t just an more power—it ant years of accumulated adaptation, the ability to mid-fight restructure an approach based on what the opponent had demonstrated.
Jake stopped backing up.
He reached for the shadows.
The courtyard had plenty of them—morning sun coming from the east ant every wall and structure threw shadows westward, connected pools of darkness that ran along the ground in patterns Jake’s Serpent King ability could feel like an extension of his own nervous system.
He pulled.
[Shadow Serpents Active]
Shadow Serpent Manifestation responded with the eager readiness it always had, darkness gathering and thickening and rising in multiple locations simultaneously.
Six constructs ford around the courtyard’s periter, their black forms coiling upward, green-lit eyes fixing on Kunther with the autonomous hunting attention of creatures that existed to pursue a designated target.
Kunther stopped his approach and turned in a slow circle, reading the new battlefield.
Kunther was startled, seeing the shadow serpents, and so was everybody.
"Oh! What do we have here?"
"You actually have the sa ability as Father. This is new to ," said Kunther as he started laughing.
"Everybody would be thrilled to hear about this."
He was talking about his other brothers. He watched the serpents move.
Six shadow serpents at varied positions around the courtyard, Jake in the center, the walls and gates behind the constructs cutting off movent options. He was surrounded without a weapon having been raised.
One of the shadow serpents answered by striking at Kunther’s sword arm from his left, moving with the speed that shadow matter moved when it had direction and intent. Kunther got his blade up in ti to deflect the fangs, but the deflection was only partial—the venom transferred on contact with his skin, not from a clean bite but from the construct’s head dragging across his forearm as the deflection redirected it.
Kunther looked at the dark lines spreading from his forearm with sothing between irritation and respect.
"Venomous," he noted.
Jake said, "Not venomous, but it would paralyze you. You have maybe four minutes before that arm stops cooperating."
Kunther assessed the tiline against his remaining combat options with visible calculation. Four minutes against six shadow serpents that could apparently transfer venom on contact, an opponent who could hit hard enough to crack ribs with a single strike, and the paralysis already beginning its slow climb from his forearm toward his shoulder.
He attacked.
Not at Jake—at the serpents.
His sword moved through three of them in rapid sequence, the blade cutting through shadow-matter with enough force and speed that the constructs couldn’t fully avoid it. Shadow-matter dispersed when sufficient force was applied, and Kunther’s Class I swordsmanship applied sufficient force with precise efficiency, clearing a path through the constructs toward the wall.
Jake manifested four more imdiately, burning energy he didn’t have in excess, driving himself forward at the sa mont to close the distance Kunther was trying to create.
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