I Reject Quests

Asen's expression turned grave. Wiping off the blood from his forehead, he stared at the red-haired young man.

"You aren't leaving?"

"Why would I leave? At first, I thought that you were some hot stuff. Turns out you only amount to this much." Rewen provocatively said. 

Hearing that, Asen didn't show any expression of anger. He bent down and took out a knife that was attached to his socks. 

"Pretty weird place to keep weapons but hey, it's cool." Rewen couldn't help but say a few words. 

"Do you know what this is?" Asen asked in a strange tone.

"Kitchen knife?" It was very obviously a kitchen knife. Rewen couldn't understand why he would ask such an obvious question.

"No. It's a chicken knife!" Asen started laughing crazily for a while, then dashed towards Rewen.

'I don't get the joke. Is this supposed to be some kind of TV show reference?' It was his first thought after he saw his opponent rushing towards him. 'It should be easy. A kitchen knife can't do shit to me but… but I shouldn't underestimate.' He decisively took a stance with the dagger in his hand and moved a few steps back until his back reached a tree.

By the time he was there, Asen caught up to Rewen and slashed his knife towards the latter's face.

Rewen calmly watched as the knife approached him and was about to dodge when the knife suddenly stretched itself and grazed through his skin. 'What the hell…' Immediately kicking the other party in the guts, he again put some distance.

Asen laughed again. The kitchen knife in his hand now had a long sickle attached to it. 

Rewen observed the weapon calmly and started running. He had to get to the spot where he previously fought with Banci. Normally, one would expect him to have an advantage because of the packed location. 'I am at a disadvantage. That weird weapon is the most efficient in an open place rather than a packed one. It's much easier to strike in places where there is little room to move. While the weapon is tough to handle at packed places but once you become an expert, it becomes a nightmare for the opponents.'

"Interesting." Seeing him fleeing, Asen let out a smile and chased after him once again.

Few seconds later.

Rewen sat by the fallen tree and calmly analyzed his opponent who was leisurely standing opposite to him.

"You might want to start the fight while you still have the time. My other two squad mates would be arriving shortly." Asen swung the knife attached to a sickle in a clockwise direction.

Rewen didn't say anything. 'How am I supposed to defeat him? I can gradually direct him to a tree and… no, that won't work. He fought more than me. He has more experience with fights than me. If it were to be that simple to trick him, he would have died by now. What else can I do? Well, nothing.' He bitterly smiled at the end of the thoughts.

'I'm almost out of options.'

Rewen got up from the fallen tree and made a reckless decision. 'I have to move forward.' 

He then rushed towards Asen with a dagger in his hand, not wasting any time. 'The sickle is a little more than a metre long. Adding on the knife, the entire weapon around 1.2 metres. If I rush forward, he'll swing his knife at me. If I jump towards him, he'll swing his knife at me. If I throw my dagger, he'll block it using his weapon and I'll also lose my only weapon at the moment. Then… there is only one thing I could do.'

Asen saw his opponent approaching him and prepared to strike directly at his neck. 'Not yet… not yet… not yet… Now!' 

When Rewen entered his range, he swung the sickle aiming at his neck the fastest he could. 

*Swoosh*

Blood dripped on the soil. 

Rewen barely managed to avoid his death. He touched his neck which had a small cut and he felt… 

Fear!

He now understood how it feels like to be really on the edge of death. 'I'm brave? What a load of bullshit. I'm shaking right now. I'm ruthless towards myself? I wished. It was narcissistic of me to assume that I'm a brave warrior who is ruthless when it needs to be. Right now, I'm nothing more than a man who's scared of death.'

"Impressive." Asen was honestly impressed with the dodge. He then went on to notice his opponent's shaking legs. "Is it the first time facing a life-and-death battle aside from fighting Banci? I'm not going to look down on you but you should have come here with the preparation to give up your life if you are going to take one."

His last line resonated with Rewen. 'That's why I rejected the quest. I know that one day, I have to kill but that day is not today. I'm not prepared to gamble with my life. If I think about it, my words and actions are very hypocritical. I did gamble with my life and I have no excuses for that. By telling that I was being 'ruthless to oneself' is just another way of saying 'I care little about myself'. 

'But I obviously do care about myself. The fear I felt was very real. So why is it that I had the audacity to gamble with my own life? The answer is simpler than you would expect. It's only because I was confident in myself. Maybe even overconfident.'

Self-realization dawned upon Rewen. 

He stared at the smiling Asen, his legs still shaking. 'I could use this.' 

"What's wrong? Are you ready to give up your life? Do you want to wait for my squad mates to arrive?" Asen asked, his voice brimming with confidence.

Rewen took a few steps back and coldly looked at his opponent. "You are going to die."

Hearing that, Asen couldn't help but laugh out loud. "First, calm yourself down. Your legs are still shaking."

Pretending to not have heard him, Rewen ran towards Asen. His speed this time was much slower than the previous due to his seemingly never ending shaking legs.

When he reached Asen's range, the latter swung his knife towards the former's neck but it missed by a hair's breadth. 

Shocked by this, Rewen fell on his butt. His legs started shaking at a faster rate.

"Get up. Try again. Maybe you can succeed." Asen said, swinging his weapon.

Rewen got up with a grim face. "You will regret this." He again went back a few steps and rushed towards his opponent. This time, even slower than last time.

When he approached his opponent's range, Asen smiled coldly. 'Time to end this.' He swung his sickle towards Rewen's neck. 

However, an unusual thing happened. Just as Rewen was about to enter his opponent's range, he suddenly backed off. Then, all of a sudden, entered the zone after the weapon went past him.

'Oh shit. This guy was playing me.' It didn't take more than a second for him to figure out his scheme. Snorting, he swung it reversed. 

*Swoosh*

Seemingly knowing that this would happen, Rewen ducked but didn't stop approaching his opponent with the dagger in his hand.

Asen's expression turned serious. Within a fraction of seconds, he shortened his sickle and was about to swing his weapon again when he felt a sharp pain on his palm. "Ahhhh!" The dagger had pierced his palm once again. 

Rewen took the dagger out from the palm and struck his abdomen. 

He didn't stop there.

*Swish*

*Swish*

*Swish*

Asen fell down flat on the ground with a painful expression. His shirt was torn. His face was unrecognisable, his palm was bleeding as if it would never end and his belly had a deep wound. Despite all this, he was still alive. His vitals weren't damaged but he was in a pretty serious condition.

Rewen looked at the face that was full of confidence a while ago and laughed. "I'm having the last laugh! Hahahaha!"

"Cough." Asen spewed out blood from his mouth when he tried to speak something. 

Rewen didn't care about him. He went and sat back on the fallen tree again. 'Hm… I'm strangely attracted to sitting on fallen trees. Nevermind that, looks like I still won. Too bad, I didn't get to see his skills but man, I'm beat. I couldn't take another step without my legs aching. I also have my back wound… 

'Speaking of wounds, how did he heal his palm? I'm pretty sure my dagger went real deep but if that's the case, how could he still move his weapon so effortlessly?' Rewen went towards the bloodied Asen and searched his body.

Asen wanted to retaliate a bit but unfortunately for him, he couldn't move a muscle.

"Oh? What's this?" Rewen found a glass bottle. The clear sky blue color of the liquid was something he was extremely familiar with.