9: Reverse Extraction.

Once again another wave of heavy beasts crashed through the trees, making the ground shake beneath their feet.

The man’s glowing white eyes tracked them flawlessly. Because he could see seconds into the future, he did not even need to aim or move quickly.

He simply tossed energy traps onto the empty grid lines, stepping back and waiting for the beasts to run directly into them.

Lynx watched the man claim two more white tokens with zero effort.

"Even if I trick his mind reading, his future sight makes his defense perfect. He knows exactly where the beasts will step." Lynx muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing.

Lynx noticed as the man's confident smile slowly faded.

"Lucia, speed blitz to his side. He relies on traps. Trigger them early and take the kills before the beasts reach them." Lynx jerked his chin forward.

Lucia did not waste a second. She pushed her leg muscles to the absolute limit, her daggers drawn.

She became a light blur, dashing straight across the glowing blue board into the man's territory.

Even though the man could see her coming seconds ahead, his physical body was simply not fast enough to stop her. Lucia moved like lightning, throwing rocks to prematurely detonate his energy traps, then instantly slicing the beasts' throats before the man could cast new ones.

Black tokens began to rapidly materialize across the board, swallowing up the white territory.

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance, forced to back up as Lucia ruthlessly stole his targets.

For a few intense minutes, the strategy worked perfectly. They gained token after token.

But her mana still has limits. The constant, high speed movement began to take a heavy backlash on her body.

The man noticed her exhaustion instantly. A wicked smile spread across his face.

"I don't think I can keep it up any longer." Lucia skidded to a halt near the edge of the grid, completely out of breath.

She leaned against a tree, gasping for air. {I don't think I can move for the rest of the game,} Her legs were shaking too much to launch another sprint.

"She is out of breath. It is over. Your speed means nothing now." The man bared his teeth, his eyes flashing white as he prepared to lock down the rest of the board.

Lynx looked at the exhausted Lucia, then back at the man. He sighed quietly, his face entirely expressionless.

{I was planning on saving this to win against a godly ability from a higher up,} Lynx reached slowly into his inner jacket pocket. {But I have no choice but to use it now.}

The man put his guard up instantly. "Are you stupid? I can hear your thoughts."

Lynx pulled out a small, bound scroll. It looked completely ordinary, but it pulsed with a strange aura.

He had created it the night before while sitting alone in the moonlight. Using half of his supreme worldly knowledge combined with his willpower, he had forged a trap directly into the paper. But it required an equivalent exchange.

To make the scroll work, Lynx had sacrificed luck or a piece of his fate. He never had any good luck to begin being honest, so to him, it felt like a free trade. Or perhaps the heavens had taken something else entirely, something unknown to balance the scale. He did not know, and he did not care.

Lynx gripped the scroll and intentionally dropped all his mental defenses. He let his mind flare with the chaotic energy of his true potential, projecting the image of an impossibly powerful skill.

The man's glowing eyes locked onto Lynx. He sensed the massive spike in power immediately.

"What is that? Whatever skill you are hiding, my System will take it!" The man leaned forward, greed taking over his face.

The man raised his hand, activating his Skill Steal directly onto Lynx's mind.

The moment the man's System connected to him, the scroll in Lynx's hand instantly burned into black ash.

The conditional rule executed perfectly.

Lynx felt a violent surge of energy rush up his arm. The scroll was not meant to block the man's ability, it reversed the connection entirely. The reverse extraction allowed Lynx to successfully steal his skill.

Thick wisps of dark aura coiled out from the ground, wrapping tightly around Lynx's skin as a searing wave of agony shot through his nerves. He clenched his jaw against the pain, violently ripping both hands up into the air and staring at his blackened palms with a wide, twisted grin, while the man across from him writhed on the dirt, feeling the exact same tearing pressure shredding his chest open.

{I did it,} Lynx gripped his head, barely standing up. He felt the new skill integrate into his own mind.

The dark aura swirled violently before diving straight into Lynx's chest, flooding his entire frame as he choked on the sheer pressure of the overwhelming power.

Another scroll materialized directly in the air before Lynx as he fell to his knees. The text read:

˹The caster has used the S-conditional scroll. The stolen ability has been modified, forming a new version of it with a double buff and a double drawback. This version of the skill is conditional: to use it, one must understand how the power of others works before they can copy it for a one time use. To permanently copy or steal, one needs to defeat the person they wish to steal from. The power of the copied skill will depend on how well the new owner understands it and the strength of their source of energy.˺

"So I can't just observe the skill to steal it instantly. I need to go through a whole mess, and after that, its power is gonna depend on my Will." Lynx dragged a hand down his face, rubbing his hair.

The man's System crashed entirely. {My skills... all of them are gone...}

Every single white token on the glowing grid instantly flickered and turned pitch black.

The game was over.

The man and Lynx both collapsed to the ground, completely broken.

"Told you. We will hunt now..." Lynx forced the words past cracked lips right before his eyes rolled back.

Lucia stared in absolute shock, her breathing still heavy. She saw both of them lying unconscious on the dirt.

{What did he do...?}

Lucia stood over the man's unconscious body. She reached down and took fourteen badges from his pouch, leaving only the man's original badge behind.

"You are a strange man." Lucia adjusted the straps on her shoulders, hoisting Lynx onto her back.

...

Lynx snapped his eyes open wide with a violent jolt, gasping for air as he bolted upright on the cave floor.

He looked around, finding himself inside the cave with no one nearby.

"Lucia...?"

"Lucia!"

{Was I betrayed again? No... there's no way. Not by her. I know her.}

Lynx forced himself to stand up, his body aching as he stumbled toward the sunlight at the cave entrance.

And he saw...