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To Darjud\'s surprise, instead of trying to free himself, Ashton wrapped himself around him. The following moment, black-blue flames erupted out of Ashton\'s body, covering him up entirely.

The little spectacle of fire would not have had any effect on someone like Darjud. He wasn\'t a B-grade being for nothing. Having high resistance to fire was something that was expected from someone of his calibre.

However, even his high fire resistance was no match for Hellfire. Within moments of getting a hold of Ashton, Darjud was forced to let go as his hands got torched.

Ashton, on the other hand, did not let go of him willfully. But Darjud had to pull him off his body before jumping back. Despite all that, his expression remained unchanged, something that Ashton was stunned to see.

\'He is strong... Taking him down even with my abilities would be tough.\'

[That my friend, would be a severe understatement.]

Darjud wasn\'t any B-grader. He was quite the strong one, just looking at his stats made Ashton rethink his choices. Making hasty choices around the man wasn\'t gonna fly around. He will have to come up with a proper plan if he wanted to make it out of there.

"As I thought, your little tricks are good. I can\'t believe I got a scar on my body, from someone like you. You have impressed me." Darjud let out a hysterical laugh, but the next moment got eerily silent, "I would have invited you to join me... if you had not soured my plans. Now you three will lose your lives here, all because of your stupid decisions."

Darjud nodded and suddenly Leon and Jacklin threw something in front of Ashton. Before he could react to the sudden attack, the grenades exploded, releasing white smoke.

\'Smokescreen? How cheap, even for someone like them.\' Ashton shook his head and used wind manipulation to push the smoke away, \'What happened?\'

Ashton tried again and again, but he could not do anything. It was the first time he had encountered such a problem. He immediately checked his stats to check whether he was out of mana or something.

But he wasn\'t. There was plenty of mana for him to use, but for some reason, he wasn\'t able to use his ability. He tried another ability, but the result remained unchanged. Just like that, he had been robbed of his abilities.

\'That smoke!\'

What Ashton thought to be smoke, was actually a condensed form of the reagent that was used on him in his hotel room. Back then, he hadn\'t realised it since the effects weren\'t so profound. But this time, he could feel the after effect of the smoke.

"Ashton... I don\'t feel so good..." Anna mumbled before collapsing to the ground.

Otiga was already out cold, so he didn\'t know whether the smoke affected her or not. But he guessed everyone who breathed the smoke in, had lost their abilities. Whether it was temporary or permanent, remained to be seen.

The smoke slowly cleared out, and when it did, Ashton noticed no one was wearing a mask, except Leon. It wasn\'t surprising, considering both Darjud and Jacklin did not have to depend on mana to win a fight. Only Leon did, hence he had used the mask to protect him.

"Desperate, are you?" Darjud mocked him, "Being robbed of your abilities, damn, that must have hurt. Don\'t worry, they\'ll be back sooner or later, unlike your soul when I rip it out of you."

This time, Ashton did not retort. He was too busy thinking about an escape plan to do anything. As long as he had his abilities, he might have managed to fight both Darjud and Jacklin, but without them, he wasn\'t all that confident about his victory.

If victory wasn\'t ensured, there was no point in fighting a battle. That was the only thought in his mind. However, escaping with two injured people wasn\'t an easy task. Especially when he could easily get overpowered by two brawlers.

"Forget about it kid. There is nowhere for you to escape." Darjud snapped his fingers and dozens of elite guards surrounded the four of them, "This is the place you\'ll take your last breath."

Ashton took a look around and sure enough, the guards surrounding him weren\'t as weak as the ones from earlier. Nor did they look similar.

They were dressed in black clothes, that covered their entire body, not living a single opening for the smoke to affect them. All of them were about to break through their levels at any moment.

[Ashton... this ain\'t looking good.]

\'I know.\' Ashton gritted his teeth in frustration over his weakness.

The problem wasn\'t that he didn\'t have experience in fighting without mana. After all, he had spent the better part of the last year fighting without depending on his mana. But this was the first time he was being forced to fight without a single ability under his sleeve.

He really wanted to know how the hell did they manage to do so. Since something that powerful would be of quite some use to him. But right now, he had to focus on getting out of there safely.

\'Thankfully I wore the armour before engaging them... since I can\'t even access the inventory now.\'

He still had the Hydra\'s armour around him, so he was sure it would take them a while to make any progress in \'killing\' him. But he was worried about Anna and Otiga. He couldn\'t fight recklessly while protecting them, especially against so many enemies.

Despite all the odds stacked against him, he still had a way to fight back... for now. There were quite a few... living beings around him. Beings that could be used as fuel for him to level up. Hypothetically speaking... he could get to level 60 and then, evolve. Once that was done, it was unlikely Darjud or Jacklin would be able to finish him off.

"Looks like I\'ll have to do this the old-fashioned way..." Ashton sighed.

[There are risks-]

\'You know of a better way? If you do, then please, tell me. I\'ll be more than happy to try your method.\'

[Stop yelling at me, you shit! Just... be careful.]

\'Yes, mom.\'

"I didn\'t expect you to go silent as soon as the party started. Don\'t tell me you already gave up?" Darjud shrugged, "Come on, it\'s a fair fight. Between the two of us, no one has any abilities."

Ashton smiled after hearing him. It\'s true none of them had any abilities they could you. But Darjud\'s stats, coupled with his proficiency in fighting gave him a favourable position.

"Even hyenas bark when they surround a lone wolf." Ashton sighed, "What\'s it gonna be then? Are you all gonna jump me at the same time, proving how \'strong\' you are? Or are the two of us going to duke it out like men?"

Seeing that Ashton had \'given up\', Darjud decided to spice things up. Initially, he wanted to end the fight as soon as possible and then have some fun with the succubus, but things took an interesting turn.

He wasn\'t planning on ending Ashton so easily, either way, so he did what he thought would be perfect to make Ashton sense what true desperation felt like.  Having made up his mind, he nodded and the guards jumped in front of them, forming an even closer circle around Ashton.

"Let\'s make it even fairer to you, shall we?" Darjud smiled like the sadist he was, "We won\'t attack you together. Instead, you\'ll have to defeat the guards in a gauntlet duel."

"Gauntlet duel?"

"The rules are pretty simple. An opponent will attack you, and the fight will begin." Darjud explained, "You kill them, then another challenger will challenge you, then another and another... till you defeat all of them. If you managed to deal with all of them, then you\'ll fight me. Kill me, and you\'re free to leave. Sounds fair enough, right?"

Ashton might have a grave expression on his face, but on the inside, he was barely able to contain his happiness. Darjud might have been stronger when it came to physique, but he was nowhere close to him when it came to intelligence.

The fucker was thinking it was his plan, but it had been Ashton\'s plan all along. He wanted to fight them one on one so that he could kill them in whatever way suited to him and level up.

"Fine by me," Ashton replied as his body began to change.

He might not have his abilities, but he still had a secret weapon under his sleeve... Transformation.