MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

It had been close to a minute since their battle began, and to this point, Alex was just exchanging simple blows and landing attacks that did little damage, and he was doing so to learn if Caden had set up skills in advance.

Alex had learned that the law of greed manifested as a fox each time it was invoked, and the appearance of the fox best represented its nature, which was the only way to tell the effects of the spell other than directly sensing it through the worldly law, which was currently not possible for him.

However, the Law Fox did not remain manifested for conditional skills, only appearing when specific conditions were met, yet there would be a subtle disturbance of mana around Caden if he had any of such skills active.

This was the reason Alex was being cautious and not delivering any real attacks, fully aware that he was up against an opponent who had abilities that pushed the boundaries of logic.

But after a few seconds of observation, he was certain no traps were awaiting him, so he could finally begin to stretch his libs and deal some real damage.

"You are not using any skills, nor are you entertaining a conversation, making this fight quite boring," Caden said as he exchanged blows with Alex, using the void walk skill that he copied to match him at every step.

'It's about time I get serious,' Alex thought, as wings of chaos took form on his back while the six knives floated to his side, the life knives on his back, the destruction on his right, and the space ones on his left.

"So let's make things a bit interesting," Caden said as the green ethereal fox manifested behind him.

"Fortune's Favor" "Acquisitive Symphony"

The fox behind Caden grew in size, its sleek fur thickening into an elegant coat, and its eyes glowed with a captivating allure as it raised its head toward the sky before it began to emit a soothing melody that filled the air with an intoxicating symphony, whispering false promises into the minds of anyone who heard it.

At the same time, two small green foxes manifested out of thin air, one above Caden's shoulder and the other on Alex.

'A dual mental attack? No, the sound is certainly trying to affect my mind, but these foxes serve some other purposes,' Alex thought, feeling no mental threat from the fox that manifested atop his shoulder.

Caden was quick to move, appearing before him swinging his dual long swords at him, which Alex avoided by taking a step back before raising his free hand to deliver an abyssal blast, followed by swinging his blade.

The blade was blocked as Caden delivered a cross slash, the verdant green energy ate through the darkness before it met with Alex's blade, while the four knives that came at Caden were either avoided or knocked away with ease.

The duo exchanged multiple quick attacks before one of Caden's blades suddenly developed cracks, with the cracks pulsing with unnatural energy, and the moment the two opposite blades made contact, the cracked blade exploded into a violent outburst.

Both of them were sent sliding back from the shockwave, but none received any damage because they were both prepared for it, yet it seemed Caden came out as the victor.

'The fox above his shoulder just became slightly happy, while mine became a bit duller, yet I feel no difference,' Alex thought as he quickly noticed the changes in the two foxes.

Alex understood that the likely reason for the change in the foxes was because he lost the exchange by receiving slightly more damage, and as for what purposes they serve, he would find out soon enough, now that he knew it was not a reverse trap.

"You want to know what these foxes do or any of my other skills? I can tell you if you just ask me nicely," Caden said as another fox manifested behind, its neck swelling like a bullfrog before its jaw opened unnaturally wide and released a torrent of verdant green smoke.

The green smoke began to condense and take the form of various weapons, ranging from swords, spears, bows, and arrows to nunchucks and shields, all under the influence of the skill named Treasure Trove.

'Chaos Bullet Bombardment'

Alex stayed silent as he stretched his wings open before unleashing a relentless barrage of chaos bullets, with each one erupting into frenzied flames.

Caden snapped his fingers, and the weapons at the forefront began exploding into a burst of verdant energy that pulsated with a covetous brilliance, radiating an aura of insatiable hunger, devouring the chaotic flames at the expanse of it, burning itself out.

Alex zoomed through the chaotic wall of two energies and followed it with a sword slash, sending a wave of darkness tearing through the cluster of exploding greed weapons.

Alex followed by using the two space knives one after the other, opening a connected portal, with one opening right before him and the other a few meters behind Caden.

Alex delivered a chain of death points in a small window, sending forth multiple dark beams through the portal that instantly appeared behind Caden.

"Cheap tricks won't work on me," Caden said as he raised the shield to defend against the dark beams while exploding the head of his hammer upon contact to disperse the majority of darkness slash energy.

"I know you are prideful because you are supposedly the Ruler of a Domain, a dying domain, to be precise, but I never thought you would be this stupid not to get free information on your enemy," Caden said as he casually walked through the dispersing energies.

Alex was not using skills like teleport or impact release because using them before Caden meant giving him more weapons to use, and even though each copied skill would take a tool of him, he would rather not deal with them when he needed to stretch this battle for quite some time.

In the next few minutes, Alex discovered that there was a brief window after which the two foxes changed their appearance, their mood shifting either to upliftment or decline based on the outcome of the most recent clash.

However, Alex also observed that with each victory he achieved, the mood of the fox seated atop his shoulder improved slightly, while the mood of Caden's fox worsened by a small degree.

Yet, whenever Caden emerged victorious, the effects were at least three times better, making it clear Alex was in a losing battle and needed to do a lot more damage to stay on the even ground.

"You must be wondering what purposes these foxes serve, so let me show you," Caden said, a creepy smile stretching across his face as the two foxes above their shoulder, one bright green in color, carrying a broad smile and an aura of liveliness, while the other exuded a dull aura with droopy eyes and an expression of dejection.

The two foxes began to disperse into energy that washed over Alex and Caden, and while Alex felt no change, he knew he was in trouble, and hearing the words 'Greed's Gambit' aloud just confirmed it.

"The fox's melody grants me a threefold increase in spiritual gain while reducing my spiritual losses to a third of their usual magnitude, while these two small ones drain the loser's luck every twenty seconds, and channel it to the victor,"

"You better use the skill that you used against the Corpse dragon because only then do you have a chance of even giving me a good challenge," Caden stated as he snapped his finger, making the singing fox disperse into nothingness.

'Four more minutes,' Alex thought as he checked the time, and once he felt the gloomy aura wash away, he utilized 'Reaper's Contract' skill.

"This battle would be more fun if you could speak a bit. Maybe share with me how frustrated and helpless you are feeling," Caden said, picking two spears from the array of floating greed weapons.

'We will talk, we will talk a lot, you piece of shit,' Alex thought, as internally smiled, seeing the 260-second timer till the grim reaper struck.

Alex utilized the Tenebrous shard enclave to build a dome of darkness and then followed it by using 'Darkness Expance Dark Blade,' a refined version of the technique he created against the fallen Seraphian.