<h4>Chapter 97: A Matter Of Skill Pt.1</h4>


    Lake felt the shield wobble a little so without thinking he started running back the way he came from. Lake guessed there would only be one reason it would wobble like that so it seemed he had been a little generous with thatst drop of potion he had given Donny.


    He calmed down when the shield started to act like an actual shield again. It seemed keeping the shield away from Donny would keep him from controlling it. When it had first moved Lake hadn''t been sure if it meant he was close or just awake. If it had been that he could control it no matter where he was as long as he was awake, Lake would have had to go back to the shack for round three.


    Lake didn''t ever bother to mark Donny because he had thought it was over, so he didn''t know which direction he wasing from, so every time he felt the shield move he would switch directions. It didn''t seem to be working though because the amount of time between it moving was decreasing which meant Donny was slowly chasing him down.


    Lake was surprised that Donny was able to keep up with him so well, and guessed he needed to use Burst to get out of town. Donny must be able to sense where the shield was, so his only hope to get away was to make him see he could never catch him. Lake nned to do that by going faster than any normal person could.


    With his Agility being as high as it was as soon as he activated Burst he would leave Donny behind; the only problem with this n was he was sure Donny knew where he had been going so he would just wait for him there. Lake thought it was too bad that his satchel wasn''t big enough for him to try and store the shield in the space created by Booster Bag.


    He had noticed the daggers considerable aura disappeared when he had ced it inside the space and it made him think it might be a way to cut items off from this world or something. Whatever it was doing would probably make Donny unable to find or use the shield if it was in there.


    Speeding to the edge of town, Lake was about to head to his cart but stopped himself when he thought about the possibility of Donny knowing where the shield was at all times. If he was to head home Donny might show up and do what Lake had done to his shack.


    While still moving, Lake used Decrypt on the shield to see what all it could do. Lake figured if he was to know how this thing worked he would be able to make a n that would allow him to get it to the Thieves guild.


    After a few seconds Lake realized this thing was packed full of formations and different magic effects and he quickly came to realize even with the mana stored in his ward ring he wouldn''t have enough to fully Decrypt the shield.


    Stopping the process so he would not waste all his mana, Lake tried to think of another way he could get past Donny. If he knew where he was, Lake could just leave the shield and intercept Donny before he could reim it, but since he hadn''t bothered to do so, Lake would just have to deal with being chased.


    While Lake had beaten Donny technically he knew it had only been because Donny hadn''t killed him in the many chances he had to do so. Like when Donny had cut his shoulder he could have easily sliced his head off or when he had been punched in the face if Donny had been holding any form of weapon that would have been it.


    The next time they fought Lake doubted Donny would go easy on him anymore. Lake was sure Donny would go for the kill if it meant he got his shield back and that was why he was running away instead of fighting him.


    With some more thinking Lake realized he could probably just give the shield back, he already had the guild badge so all he needed it for now was the reward which he didn''t even care about enough to look at what it was when he had been picking a mission.


    With this thought Lake just threw the shield into some bushes and started back towards town, Lake thought this was the safest way to hand the shield back to Donny without there being a fight to the death.


    Once he made it to the street the Thieves guild was apparently on Lake looked for the entrance for a while until he heard. "Found you." Lake spun around to see Donny charging towards him with a spear. Donny seemed to have high Agility because there wasn''t much time for Lake to react let alone say something.


    Using his sword to deflect the spear thrust away from his body, but Lake was actually just pushed back out of the way. He guessed this meant he had lost in a battle of Strength and that Donny had the advantage if Lake didn''t use Burst. It was actually still possible that Donny had more than when Lake used Burst if he had over 86.


    Donny seemed to realize Lake didn''t have the shield anymore as he said. "Where is it?" This made Lake realize he had probably been wrong about Donny being able to feel where the shield was at all times and was happy he had marked the shield during the second fight with Donny because now he could go get it after he knocked Donny out again.


    After he didn''t answer, Donny came at him again with the spear. Lake got ready to slide backwards after he was struck but was caught off guard when Donny switched up the attack at the Last second and swung it at him like a bat. Moving his guard to the side, Lake felt himself get sent flying towards a building.


    Lake was surprised again at how strong Donny was because at first he had seemed to focus on Agility with how fast he was able to move, but Lake guessed he had high numbers in both, and that made this fight much more dangerous to both of them because it meant Lake couldn''t really hold back too much.


    He just hoped Donny had bothered to put any points into Endurance, so Donny wouldn''t die when he hit back. Once Lake stopped himself from mming into the wall He braced for the next one. He nned to let Donny whale on him until he calmed down or slipped up on an attack.


    Donny was clearly very mad that Lake had done something to his shield, so Lake was expecting this to take a while. Receiving the next attack Lake slid back totally fine until he felt his foot hit an elevated part of the street which made him lose his footing. Lake did his best to keep his eyes on Donny even as he tumbled in the air and was able to block the attack that Donny hadunched towards his stomach.


    Lake was sent tumbling backwards along the ground, and was unable to keep his eyes on Donny during it. Lake wanted till he felt his fingers make some form of contact on something and used what he grasped to stop himself and scrambled to his feet to see Donny hadn''t been able to get close enough to take advantage of him rolling backwards.


    Now that he was back on his feet, Lake saw the foolishness of his original n and decided to be more proactive in the fight; there was no reason he couldn''t be the aggressive one so when Donny moved towards him again Lake moved in as well. Lake was pretty sure Donny was going to go for another straight thrust so instead of blocking it Lake dodged to the side and sent his sword down towards Donny''s hands grasping the spear.


    Donny was able to block the attack with no problem, but Lake had mainly done it so he wouldn''t be sent flying again. Activating Burst Lake did the same attack but twice as fast, hoping to catch Donny off guard. With it being blocked again Lake didn''t use Fast Hands just yet he wanted Donny to think this was the fastest he could swing his sword for now.


    Lake continued to attack Donny at this speed for a while till he knew it was safe to use Crunch. Lake wanted to make sure Donny blocked in a way that he wouldn''t kill him after he sliced through the spear. Silently activating Crunch Lake''s sword passed through Donny''s spear like it was nothing.


    Lake could tell Donny was confused by what just happened because he moved back away from Lake. Lake smiled towards him, and said. "You want to be done now?" Donny shook his head no, and said. "It''s the first time I''ve seen something other than my shield cut something like that."


    Lake knew what Donny meant the way his shield passed through things with no resistance was very simr to what Crunch did. "Are you sure you don''t want to end the fight here? You don''t have much of your spear left." Lake had cut it down to about two and a half feet, so Donny wasn''t going to be able to do most of the attacks he had shown anymore.


    After Lake was done talking he saw Donny put the two sides back together and say. "Repair Weapon." And after he was done he swung it, and said. "We can continue." What Lake didn''t know was Donny had an affinity with metal and had maxed out the Metal Mage job long ago before his father had even passed on the shield meaning he could use quite a few Metal spells like the one he had just used.