Assimilate All Talents

Noticing Sol’s gaze at Red Sands, Weaver chuckled, “Don’t bother. They turned her into a mindless tool; that's all she will ever be. Even I thought Cane went a bit too far with her modifications, but you can’t argue with the results.”

Sol knew what he meant from the diary, but even so, he believed he could get through to her, as naive as that sounded.

“Just because they forced her to believe that, it doesn't make it true. Red Sands, you can choose to do whatever you want with your life! You aren’t a tool to be used!”

Weaver walked over to Red Sands, who was awaiting orders, and knocked on her head. He hit rather hard, not enough to do any real damage but enough to make a low sound.

“See? Nobody's home. I should know I was there when they did it. Ah… You should have seen her face at the time. She was kicking, screaming, crying. So many emotions and less than five minutes later they were all gone, now she doesn't even bat an eye at losing her limbs. I even get to use her as a punching bag sometimes to relieve stress if I perform well enough.”

“You’re a psycho!”

“What if I am? At least I'm having fun with it.”

Sol’s mana was nearing half. He couldn’t afford to keep talking and wasting his mana, so he backed up to where he had hidden the spatial ring under the floor and swiped it with [Burrow].

This didn’t escape Weaver's sight, “You had a spatial ring?!”

Although Weaver said he could wait out the mana drain of the spell, he had other ways to circumvent fire mages. Multiple daggers appeared from his spatial ring, and his countless strings started grabbing them midair. With a wave of Weaver's hand, these daggers were launched towards Sol.

Although the amount of daggers flying at Sol felt overwhelming, he didn’t despair. He took out his sword, Blue Ripple, and used [Counter] on those that targeted vitals and ignored the rest. Relying on his extremely high defense against physical attacks, Sol used [Charge] towards Weaver.

Weaver took out an iron shield and used his strings to block Sol’s [Charge]; he then turned to yell at Red Sands.

“What are you standing around for!? Help me, you idiot!”

Red Sands heard his plight but didn’t move.

“He killed Gus; your orders were to protect him, right?! Then at least avenge him!”

Sol noticed the advantage he had over Weaver, as not only did the fire make him immune to Weaver's highly flammable strings, but Weaver was also starting to lose his composure. Red Sands at this moment also unsheathed her hidden daggers.

Still holding on to hope, Sol kept trying to convince Red Sands, “You don’t have to listen to him! Is this truly what you want to do?”

Red Sands paused, making Sol believe he was getting through to her. Weaver also noticed this and was astounded; he had never seen Red Sands defy an order before. More daggers flew at Sol as Weaver faced Red Sands with a contemptuous glare.

“The fuck you gonna do then? Even if you leave here, you have nowhere to go. You don't even know who you used to be, just follow orders like a good doggy. You also don’t want to be punished by Cane; you know what he will do to you.”

The stoic Red Sands shivered at the mention of punishment from Cane. Whatever their Boss did to them when they didn’t perform must truly frighten them. Sol didn’t know what kind of punishment it was, as even in the diary, whenever they were punished, Cane didn’t elaborate further. Even so, there was one point in Weaver's argument Sol could refute, and although it wasn’t a guarantee, he hoped it was good enough for her.

As Sol performed a [Cross Slash] on Weaver, he spoke, “It may be possible to regain your memories! I know someone who can do it!”

Weaver laughed, as he didn’t believe him, “Haha! Sure, man. You know someone with an extremely unique talent that specifically deals with memories. What is he also a [Mind Shaper]?”

As he spoke, Weaver subtly used his strings to pick up the daggers that had fallen past Sol and launched them back at him. This didn’t escape Sol's sight as he used [Harden] to further increase his defense value. The daggers were launched towards him incredibly fast, but they bounced off his body, leaving only a slight red mark.

“Goddamn, what is your body made out of, Adamantium?”

Sol ignored Weaver's comment and continued trying to convince Red Sands, “You heard from that bald man how there was a barrier placed on my mind; that should be proof enough! There is a way to help you!”

At this point, Weaver stopped arguing with Sol over Red Sands. He was fully convinced that even if she could form independent thoughts, she knew what awaited her if she disobeyed. Instead, he focused on the fight at hand against the kid who had been perfectly countering his attacks so far.

“If those puny daggers aren’t enough to beat you, then how about this!”

Strings from all directions gathered and formed around his right arm in a beautiful and intricate pattern. From Weaver’s spatial ring, he then took out a verdigris-colored longsword. Gripping the sword with his string-enhanced arm, he slammed down towards Sol.

Sol used [Counter] to negate the blow, but he felt the incredible strength that blow contained. He refused to believe that Weaver was innately that strong, and the strings covering his arm enhanced his strength somehow. Even so, Sol didn’t despair and stood his ground; he used what he learned against Weaver, but he quickly realized it was a mistake.

“Fucking idiot. Using half baked skills against the one who taught them to you.”

Although Weaver taunted him, it wasn’t that bad of a choice. While Weaver could easily predict what each type of attack was aiming for and counter them perfectly, it still is better than only using his strong attacks and leaving himself open to attacks. The worst of Sol’s attacks were his feints, as Weaver could easily predict when they were coming and used a few strings or a random weapon held by strings to knock it away.

Locked in a stalemate, Weaver was regaining his cocky composure, ‘Heh. Keep fighting, your mana will soon run out, and then I can fight for real. I didn’t even need Sandy for this, but I can’t wait to report it to the Boss so she can get punished.’

Another obvious feint from Sol swung targeting his left shoulder, and Weaver controlled one of his daggers to intercept it. Just as the sword was about to make contact with the dagger, it suddenly sped up and gained much more weight to it. Sol used [Heavy Blow] at the very last second before it made contact.

The dagger, not meant to be used like a shield, shattered as the swing continued, barely losing any momentum. It cleaved into Weaver's shoulder and smashed him into the ground.

“GUHACK!”

Weaver didn’t have a lot of points put into strength or vitality, at best, he compared to a body-focused C-Ranker. This one blow took more than half of his health.

‘He faked a feint?!’