After blocking Renard's punch, Alex forcibly took a step back.
But that single exchange taught him an important detail.
'As expected, he had just become a Ranker,' Alex thought. 'I can do this!'
After his blow got blocked, Renard felt a prickle of pain on his punching fist, but he attributed it to the shield's toughness.
Little did he know that Alex could reflect 15% of the physical damage he received back to the attacker as long as he successfully blocked it.
So, Renard didn't overthink the pain and proceeded to unleash a flurry of punches and kicks at his opponent, who was expertly moving his shield to block all of his attacks.
"Dim!" Dim Dim, with a brittle vial already in its hand, asked Alex if it could join the battle.
"No, Dim Dim," Alex replied. "He's not an enemy. For now, keep an eye on other people who might ambush us while we're trading blows."
Dim Dim nodded before crawling up a tree to keep watch for the two young men currently fighting each other.
