Magni was a fearsome warrior, with each of his blows carrying devastating power, and his fists were just as fast as they were strong.
But Eden was like a slippery eel, dodging his blows. His own Agility stood at 38 with his equipment, and was further boosted by his Cursed Energy Reinforcement. Umbra Aegis made it even harder to lock onto him, always turning his figure shadowy, and Umbra Velum not only strengthened that effect, but also made him faster.
That did not mean he was dominating the fight, however. Despite landing a dozen hits on Magni, opening several gashes across his body, Magni was relentless, not weakening, but improving instead, becoming slightly faster and stronger with every injury.
Maybe Eden would be able to kill him first, or Magni would become fast enough to hit him, and by then, he would be strong enough to take him down.
Even in his base state, Magni was stronger than Eden, even with Maximum Output to Body Reinforcement, and with the injuries adding up, a punch to an unprotected area could cripple or kill Eden.
But Magni was not his true target, in the end.
While the two of them danced, plowing holes into the ground with some of Magni's attacks, Eden always observed the three other Players, who were kept busy by Halsin and Gale. They had tried to cast debuffs on him while he fought with Magni, but they were blocked by Soul Overlord.
Seeing they were all close together, and far enough away from the rest, Eden suddenly broke the tempo with Magni, leaping at him instead of retreating.
Though certainly surprised, Magni showed experience as he blocked his vital points with one arm, and swung a fist right above where Eden's head would be, time slowing down. Eden's plan had been to make a double jump, but Magni had likely recognized his team member's boots, and had guessed his intentions.
With the help of his slowed down perception of time, Eden also saw his arm starting to bend, his elbow moving up. His danger sense confirmed that if he did not double jump, that elbow was going to crush his throat.
Eden had to give it to him, Magni was a mighty warrior, which only made things better for him.
The Shattered Flail disappeared into his Inventory, Eden grabbed Magni's arm with both hands, on at the wrist, the other right above the elbow, and made his double jump.
Eden did not attempt to stop Magni before he could build momentum, but instead strengthened it, throwing Magni's punch off its course as Eden was sent flying up. He let go of Magni's arm, though not before activating Cleave, and as he reached in mid-air, he twisted his body, the Cobra appearing in his hand as he rapidly shot the three.
Despite being in the middle of a twirl in mid-air, and his three targets being a good ten meters away, as well as partially covered, Eden fired all twelve of his bullets with uncanny accuracy, each of the three targets getting shot in the forehead by four bullets.
They died before they could hear the high-pitched sounds made by the Pack-a-Punch gun.
Under him, Magni roared, and as Eden descended from his soaring attack, aimed a punch at his falling figure. Retrieving his Cobra, Eden crossed his arms before him, coating them with as much Cursed Energy as he could possibly muster, and took the blow.
He felt like a train had hit him straight on, and the force of the punch was such that it not only passed through his arms, carrying on into his chest, but also sent him flying back, crashing into one of the walls with such force that the entire room shook.
Eden's arms felt numb, the wind had been knocked out of him, and the train analogy might have been closer than he thought. And just like a train, Magni was unstoppable, already upon Eden the moment he hit the wall.
A second fist arrived, which Eden barely dodged by silently casting Misty Step, appearing on the other side of the room, while Magni punched a hole into the stone wall.
Magni had no eyes for anyone else than Eden, but as he rushed at him, Eden cast Mists of the Underworld on himself. Magni completely ignored it, and hardly looked like he was slowed down by the spell.
Mists of the Underworld was good, but it was only a 3rd Circle Spell, so someone like Magni, who had physical attributes at the very peak of Tier I, and likely Perks just as powerful, easily resisted the debuff of the spell.
However, the shadows were not so easily countered with a special spell. Moreover, Eden's equipment allowed him to fade into the shadows, making him nearly impossible to see, even for someone with Dark Vision.
Moving to the side, Eden saw Magni punch into the wall, the room once more shaking, and while he wanted to cast spells to damage him, he knew very little that actually could. His best attacking spell was Superior Fireball, which was not very suited here. That was why he had chosen Disintegrate as his third spell with Raphael, for a powerful single-target attack.
He had not gotten it yet though, lest learned it, so he took out the Shattered Flail instead, casting with a whisper, "I cast Magic Weapon."
This was a 2nd Circle Spell that turned a non-magical weapon into a magical one for an hour, while slightly improving its damage. It was generally useless to Eden, but not only would he take every buff he could get for his damage, but this also allowed him to stop reinforcing his weapon with Cursed Energy, and start slapping Magni across his body to inflict several Maximum Output Cleaves.
As the minutes passed, Eden felt his injuries recover with the numerous hits with the Shattered Flail, while the injuries on Magni's body stacked. His entire bare torso was covered in blood, his trousers not much better, and yet, somehow, his attacks did not lose any intensity.
He did not even bother to get out of the Mists of the Underworld, and as his attacks strengthened, so did his ability to navigate into the darkness, allowing him to get a few grazes on Eden. They were enough to make his muscles sore.
But then, something unexpected happened. Eden had started using a faint amount of Cursed Energy with his attacks, and the longer the fight became, the more Cursed Energy Eden poured into reinforcing his body as Magni managed to get more and more hits in.
None of them were direct hits, but even those grazes were enough to injures Eden, meaning he had to put more power into his attacks with the Shattered Flail to heal them. Also, his Cursed Technique was starting to be quite worn, and he was losing a lot of Cursed Energy. Bhaal's soul shards allowed him to recover his Cursed Energy rapidly, but if he continued on that pace, he would run out of the stuff.
By the time the Mists of the Underworld ran out, Magni's every strike felt like they were well into Tier II, and Eden had switched to Maximum Output for Body Reinforcement.
The rest of the party had already defeated Minthara and Dror Ragzlin, and were now managing the two doors, where the army of goblins was trying to invade. Seeing a few of them turn toward them as the Mists disappeared, Eden shouted, "Focus on the goblins."
He ducked under a punch that seemingly made the air explode with a thunderous sound, and swung his fist into Magni's solar plexus, sending all the Cursed Energy he could muster into that fist. Only by doing so could he actually hurt Magni.
This was not his first punch against Magni, but this time, he suddenly felt something strange. Against Magni, his perception of time was pretty much always slowed down, which allowed him to clearly feel it as his Cursed Energy and fist's kinetic energy seamlessly merged into one, making for an unprecedented strike.
In that moment, Eden felt closer to his Cursed Energy than he had ever been, and even without coating his eyes in it, he saw his Cursed Energy flash black as space itself was distorted, amplifying his power as his fist smashed into Magni.
Magni, who had remained unfazed to all of his attacks so far, suddenly found the wind getting knocked out of him, and he was forced a step back.
As for Eden, his Cursed Energy, which had always felt unruly, suddenly became his closest confident, following his orders as he dropped the Shattered Flail by instinct, and smashed his second fist into Magni's liver.
His Cursed Energy flashed black once more.
He felt invincible, like nothing in the world could stop him, and as Magni hunched over from the second punch, he slammed his knee right under his sternum.
Unfortunately, Eden felt his state end, the knee strike ending up being a normal one. Still, Eden could feel he had become closer to his Cursed Energy than before, and his output had improved, resulting in a stronger blow.
It was not enough to stagger him as his Black Flashes had though, allowing him to take a breather. Taking a step back to dodge an elbow, Eden prepared to attack, only to see Magni retreat. He thought he was going to attack the members of the party for a moment, but he completely ignored them and their attacks, fleeing through the goblins.
Eden did not even consider chasing, picking up his flail as he joined the rest of the party in annihilating the goblins.
His companions were running on their last fumes, the fight against the 'bosses' having already taken quite a bit out of them, but Eden felt better than ever. His Innate Technique was worn out, and the injuries Magni had inflicted on him had not completely healed, but that was what the goblins were there for.
They did not stand a chance as Eden put all of his Cursed Energy into Body Reinforcement, ignoring the expenditure as he relied on the many souls surrounding him to regenerate whatever was lost, all in the hope of landing another Black Flash.
The state he had been thrown after his Black Flash was easily the most euphoric he had ever been in, better than any drugs could possibly hope to match, and he wanted it back.
Unfortunately, the goblins were far from being foes capable of challenging him. At some point, he stopped dodging their attacks, merely relying on his danger sense, time perception and precise Cursed Energy reinforcement to block their attacks.
Things got even easier as Eden unconsciously activated his Omen of Death aura, and slaughtered every goblin in his path, putting an end to the goblin threat in the region.