CHAPTER 44: IS THAT SPOODERMAHN?

"Now, you know, you have touched the sore part of my life," I said, looking him in the eye. "You’re dead now."

I wasn’t trying to sound cool. I was just being honest.

Yeah—I was jealous. Stupidly, painfully jealous.

Without wasting another second, I summoned Enkidu.

Golden chains shot out from my grimoire and wrapped around both my arms, smooth and firm, settling into place like they belonged there. One looped over my wrist, the other across my forearm, and just like that, I was ready.

Just then, two brown rings lit up behind William’s palm. One was a dark, earthy brown and the other a much lighter shade, almost beige.

In contrast, two golden rings glowed behind mine. The inner one was a rich, deep gold, while the outer shimmered with a lighter tint.

The change in the colour of the rings of my grimoire hadn’t gone unnoticed by me.

My rings had changed colour from silver to gold the moment I acquired my vow Card. And with that, my weapon grimoire had changed affinities too.

What once held shadow and psychic elements now radiated divine light.

I still didn’t fully understand how the new element worked or what it truly meant. But I had some ideas that I needed to test later.

As for my old elements? They were no longer part of my weapon grimoire, but they weren’t gone.

My summoning grimoire still operated with both shadow and psychic, which meant I hadn’t lost anything.

In fact, I had gained more.

Three elements now. Light, shadow, and psychic.

William, of course, didn’t care about any of that. He just wanted to smash.

He gripped his giant diamond hammer and charged at me like a rhinoceros with something to prove.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Each step he took shook the ground beneath him. He raised the hammer overhead like a man preparing to demolish a building and swung.

But before it came at me, I was already in motion.

"Nope—" I muttered, while flicking my wrist.

A chain shot out like a whip and latched onto one of the upper beams of the banquet hall.

I let my legs lift off the ground and swung around just in time to watch William’s hammer obliterate the space where I had just been standing.

Marble cracked under the force of William’s hammer as dust flew.

"—too slow, big guy." I mocked him while hanging in the air.

Then, I released the chain, flipped in mid-air, and landed behind him, crouched like a cat. The crowd gasped at my performance.

A few nobles at the railings leaned forward, blinking like they hadn’t expected someone like me to dodge that.

One whispered, "Chains could be used that way? I would have never thought about it."

It was comic book science.

Back on Earth, I had once read a series called Spoodermahn—a chaotic, story of a certain wall-crawling superhero.

It was ridiculous. It was brilliant. And apparently, it was educational.

I flicked my wrist again. The chain shot upward and wrapped around a torch holder on the second level. I pulled myself up, arcing through the air like a pendulum.

This was my third time doing it in a fight since I got these chains.

The first two times, I had crashed into things.

But this time? I nailed it.

I soared over William’s next charge, which blasted a crater into the far wall. The staff scrambled to get out of the way as debris rained down.

He was powerful, no doubt about that. Every swing of his could break bones and collapse walls.

But I didn’t need power. Ok, maybe I did.

But for now, I had mobility.

I landed on a column’s side, with knees bent and gravity flipped. Another chain whipped out, locking onto the railing above me.

Then I jumped using the recoil to spin through the air like a gymnast possessed.

The chain reeled me in, and I swung down like an axe, both legs forward.

William turned around too late in response.

My boots collided with his back, and he stumbled forward, nearly eating the floor. The hall had gone completely silent now.

Nyx’s voice echoed from the judge’s table. "Commentary update: William is currently playing ’Smash Everything,’ while Loki seems to be reenacting a comic book from another realm."

William growled and spun after balancing himself. His hammer swung wildly.

I dodged by flinging myself upward with another chain, flipping onto a nearby chandelier. The chains wrapped around its arms, holding me steady as I crouched, looking down at my opponent.

"You know," I called, "for a guy with that much muscle, you really don’t turn very well."

He roared, stomped his foot, and jumped—yes, jumped—trying to smash the chandelier.

I sprang off it just before he hit.

BOOM.

The glass exploded downward as the chandelier shattered, and nobles.

I soared across the hall, chains swinging like golden arcs of light. Wind rushed past my ears. The speed, the timing, the freedom—it was fun.

Ever since I started using these chains, I felt my shortcomings in close-ranged combat. That’s when the idea of spoodermahn came to my mind.

I thought of copying his skills. And it turns out it was a great idea.

That’s when William roared and came barreling toward me like a one-man stampede.

His hammer was glowing with some kind of dense stone magic, and each step cracked the ground beneath him.

Dust flew. The ground trembled. It looked like a boulder was charging at me with the rage of a thousand unpaid taxes.

But I wasn’t going to stand there like a target dummy.

"Let’s dance, Bulldozer."

I kicked off the ground, launching myself backward. One of Enkidu’s chains shot from my wrist with a sharp snap, latching onto the pillar behind me. I swung up and over William’s head just as his fist slammed into the ground where I’d been.

The impact cracked the marble, sending a shockwave that knocked a few spectators back. Gasps rippled through the crowd.

"Is he flying!?"

"He’s swinging! Like a damn spider!"

I zipped past a balcony, another chain latching onto it like a grappling hook. With a twist of my wrist, I pivoted mid-air and dropped right behind him.

"Learned this from a legend," I muttered. "Back on Earth, they called him... Spoodermahn."

William spun around, too slowly.

I kicked off the ground and let both chains fly—one wrapped around his left leg, the other around his right arm. With a yank, I pulled myself toward him, flipped mid-air, and planted both feet straight into his chest.

Boom.

He staggered back, wheezing, arms flailing to keep balance.

But I didn’t stop there.

Another web-swing—this time higher, using the arena’s arch as a launching point. I came down from above like a falling star.

Enkidu shimmered with golden light as I wrapped the chain around my forearm, hardened and—

CRACK!

Gave him an uppercut.

He flew.

Not metaphorically. The boy actually lifted off the ground, a good few feet, before crashing onto his back with a heavy thud that echoed across the entire hall as he passed out.

Silence reigned everywhere as they saw the end of the fight.

And just like that, I made my way to my dorm house.