76 Ch.75.Storm - Part 3.

After I completed my transformation, I darted towards Derolo as fast as I could before quickly jumping into one of the shadows I had linked my shadow space to. I exit from a shadow behind Derolo, build up some tension, increase the size of my arm and slam it down towards him.

Derolo wasn't idling as I rushed in towards him, he had already created a Magic Circle that wrapped around his torso. The Magic Circle was shining in a dark brown color as it created a slightly visible vacuum that was gathering bits of dirt from beneath his feet, this caused the ground to slightly crack and crumble in the area surrounding him.

As soon as the sand and dirt entered His Magic Circle, it rapidly started expanding as it encircled around him before changing shape and attaching itself to Derolos body as a layer of armor, the rock continued to attach and enlarge the armor until he had fully transformed into an over 4 meter high Rock Armor 'thing'.

By the time I had arrived at his back, he had already transformed, I rushed forward and punched the back of the armor and released all the tension I had built up upon impact, causing a large crater to appear in the armor. Almost as soon as the crater appealed more layers of rock started to form, healing all the damage I had done to the armor instantly.

Derolo then started laughing hysterically and said, "I have long heard about your fighting style! Your weakness is very much evident! You have no means to get passed magical defenses, therefore, you stand no chance against me!! Defense is exactly my specialty hahahahahah!"

He then spun around, formed a Magical circle in each of his hands that each created boulders of varying sizes and launching them towards me as Derolo continued to laugh like a mad man.

I stayed silent while keeping to the shadows, jumping and swerving around him before dashing in every time I found an opening, I would proceed to land as many blows against him as I could, each time I managed to penetrate his defenses, it would immediately recover and then Derolo would blast me with another barrage of boulders.

This went on for a while, I kept trying different methods in order to get passed his armor, aiming for any possible weak spots, I tried focusing only on one area, using my most damaging Toxic breath and everything else I could think of, but unfortunately I just couldn't do any real damage to him.

On the up side, he wasn't able to do anything to me either, his boulders were far too slow to actually hit me and even when they did, they did almost no actual damage to me.

The fight continued like this for what seemed like ages, even with my stamina being constantly regenerated, I was becoming increasingly more exhausted, my Magical Energy was running disastrously low and I was panting for breath like a mad man. It had gotten so bad that I had long canceled my panther transformation since I could no longer maintain the extra strain.

Derolo wasn't doing much better, he had shrunk from over 4 Meters tall to just over 2.5M, his rock armor had multiple breakages that were no longer healing, and I could see him visibly straining as he no longer tried to move from his spot.

I could see that this wasn't going anywhere, it seems like we are a bad matchup and we both countered each other in different ways. I sighed, took a step back and said, "Fuck you Derolo! I will retreat this time, but just fucking wait! I will find a way to get passed that fucking tortoise shell of yours!"

I proceeded to ignored him as he started hurling insults back at me and I just signaled for my clan members to follow me back home, I had long known about his Magic style but I honestly thought that I was strong enough to crush my way through that Armor of his... I guess I have yet again overestimated my own strength, time to up my gym game and try to increase my base physical strength as much as possible while I start looking for other ways to beat Derolo.

Unfortunately, I really can't rely on just creating a new Rune that will drastically improve my power, allowing me to 'miraculously' defeat Derolo. I will need to create some more Runes quite soon, but things need to proceed in an orderly manner and I don't think rushing my Rune choices just because I need that Rune right now is a very good idea. I would much rather take my time and plan for the future, things will eventually fall into place, no need to rush.

At least, for now, I think that things between Derolo and I will enter a stalemate, since neither of us has a way to conclusively deal with the other, we will most likely start resorting to other methods and attempt to defeat the other in a different manner. This is just the signal to mark the official start or our!

I already have a few ideas that I can use to fuck with Derolo! I can't wait to try some of them out, but first I need to sleep, holy fuck I am tired!!

I slowly make my way back to my house while making sure to have my clan members stay on guard throughout the whole trip, as soon as we arrive, I brush everyone off, rapidly rush to my bedroom and jump into bed, passing out almost instantly. Today just had too many unexpected situations pop up…

In the morning, I made my way to my office where I found Birdhead waiting for me, I entered my office as he followed in behind me. After sitting down I looked up and spoke, "Please tell me that you have some good news..."

Birdhead had a complicated look on his face and sighed before speaking, "Well I suppose it could be considered good news in a way… The shadow guards have not discovered the traitor, but due to some… complications ... we know who it is..."

I remained silent, gesturing for him to continue, Birdhead then coughed into his hand before saying, "Well it turns out that the traitor is… well Grindo, he had contacted Derolo right after yesterday's fight and has now officially joined his gang. It looks like he has been put in charge of Derolos new nightclub, now that Grindo has gained the information on when the drug lord will appear, it appears that he has decided to no longer sit around and straight up leave our clan … What should we do?"

I was completely stunned at what I just heard…Grindo is someone that I really did have high hopes for, I have been grooming him to become a leading figure in my nightclub. I honestly didn't expect for the traitor to be him… what makes matters worse is that all of those plans that I made to figure out who the traitor is, are now useless, this fucker just straight admitted his treachery by simple switching to the enemies side! now the big question is, what should I do.

Birdhead was looking at me nervously, I have been behaving unexpectedly passive, not flying into a rage and breaking everything around me…

I sighed, looked down onto my desk, took out a pen and paper and started writing something on it. After writing for a while, I signed the bottom of the document and handed it to Birdhead, saying, "Get the clan members to try and capture Grindo and bring him to me alive… If he doesn't leave Derolos territory within the next two weeks and you have been unable to capture him, give this note to Derolo."

Birdhead looked down at the paper before raising his voice in shock, "WHAT!? You are going to buy Grindo from Derolo!!!? For this much gold as well as detailed information on how to get in contact with the Drug Lord! Are you insane!?, He will never agree to this, you two are not exactly on the best of terms!"

I look back up to Birdhead and smile, "He will agree simply because I am not going to let him successfully contact the drug lord until he has agreed.. When he does agree, please do give Grindo some 'special' attention before he arrives in front of me, I will take it from there."

Birdhead smiled while nodding knowingly, before walking out of the office and closing the door behind him.

I sat back in my chair as I looked up at the roof, thinking to myself, 'I truly do need to finalize 'that plan', this loyalty thing is really an annoying thing, how come this can't just be a simple, I pay you and you fight to the death for me?…. That would be ideal, even though I usually don't need people to fight to the death, at least not when they have joined my clan..'

After sitting on my chair and staring into space for a while, I jump up from my chair and head out for yet another busy day...