Frost erupted from my form chasing him into a cautious retreat as he no doubt noticed that this wasn't normal ice. Using the distance this gave me I rapidly switched to my normal cursed energy and began to shift my bodies shape. Shorter, dense torso, thicker arms and thick trunk like legs. I ended up looking like some bastardized dwarf but this form solidified my body in a way that would let me take blows best. Something that quickly came in handy as Ottar blurred into motion with a savage haymaker straight into my chest.-
"THUNK!"
The sound like a hollowed tree getting hit filled the air as I slid back a foot or so but didn't get sent flying. Ottar seemed to pause slightly at this as he was clearly sent off guard by it. I used this time to launch my own series of punches that he crossed his arms to take even as his forearms bruised under the abuse. He retaliated with a spartan kick to my face that I allowed to roll through as I shifted my vertebrae to relieve the impact.-
Even as I did this I didn't stop throwing hands but this wasn't as effective as it was at first. Ottar was not some newbie adventurer who didn't know how to adapt to his enemies and while it took him a moment he was getting used to the strange way I fought. I just grinned at this and chose to throw out a surprise in the form of my entire right arm transforming into a serpent that lunged for him with gleaming bone fangs like a sharks teeth. He quickly leaned back even as those jaws loudly snapped shut in front of his face.-
A split second later that serpent was gone and five long barbed tentacles were reaching out for his face like whips. He swung his hand to avoid them which caused deep weeping wounds to open up on his arm as the tentacles were dragged across it. I retracted my arm and returned it to normal with a grin as he looked at me with a stern wariness. Clearly he was starting to fully grasp the danger that my unpredictability posed.
"Scatter and overwhelm!" I called out as flames surged around my body before peeling off into a flame clone.
One flame clone after another peeled off of me until there were seven humanoid flames waiting to be unleashed on Ottar. By now the faster adventurers in Orario had already gathered to watch this spectacle and were currently wearing serious expressions. Not that they could be blamed as not only was I able to go toe to toe with Ottar but between the two of us he was the only one with visible injuries. Even more shocking was the strange ease by which I shifted my form that all of these adventurers could understand made me hard to fight at close range.-
Saying I counter Ottar was not entirely accurate but definitely not far off the mark. For all his high level and stats Ottar was a brute that relied on sheer force and overwhelming durability to win his fights. My cursed techniques made me a poor opponent for someone like that and everyone could see it. The reason I say I didn't fully counter Ottar was because if we were using weapons which he did I would have had at least seven close calls with death by now. Weapons if used by those weaker than me I could hard counter them.-
But Ottar was for all intents and purposes stronger than I am and that meant getting hit by his not so small swords would burn through my cursed energy at an alarming rate. Right now it was just blunt force trauma which was minor injuries as I merely needed to repair my flesh and blood the moment the impact hit me, a minor expense really. Getting cut in fucking half though? That would take considerably more energy to mitigate. Anyway I grinned as I unleashed my flame clones on Ottar. He clearly wasn't ready to deal with how ridiculously fast they were as they easily got close to him and began hitting him with explosive punches.-
Naturally I kept the flames from trying to consume him and limited them to just burning him and hitting him with the explosive impacts. He tried to punch and kick my clones but only got more burns for his efforts as his limbs went right through the constructs. While my clones harassed him I steepled my fingers together and focused on doing something incredibly tricky to pull off, using both positive and negative cursed energies simultaneously. He noticed this and wisely chose to ignore my clones to try and interrupt me.-
I grinned savagely as he was too late and I unleashed my fused technique for the first time in an actual fight.
"Pressure damage!" I called as the formless clear force exploded between my fingers outward.
The wind howled angrily as a massive pillar of white energy expanded from my location and even reached high into the sky to obliterate clouds in the area. Just as fast as the destruction came it vanished leaving a deep hole in the ground and a hole in the sky itself. At the far edge of the hole Ottar kneeled with torn skin and deep gouges of flesh missing all over his body including his entire nose.-
Blood poured from him as he wheezed in pain but refused to fully fall. My situation was not much better really. Worse if anything. Both my hands were missing up to the elbow and my body looked like someone had tossed me in a blender for a second or two.
"Ugh, not used to seeing this much of my own blood anymore. Fuck this is a deep pain." I complained faintly as I burned through the last of my cursed energy to literally pull myself together.
Ottar saw me recovering and looked like he wanted to go for round two but I just held up my newly regenerated hand to stop him.
"You win, I'm spent mate. Got no juice left and without that you'll beat my ass like a drum." I said honestly.