Chapter 861: A Broken Pillar
Kilper didn’t care about what had happened, nor did he care about understanding why the Hybrid was able to survive his attack. His thinking was quite simple.
“If you were able to take one hit and survive, then I’ll just have to hit you again and again.” Kilper placed both of his swords, stabbing them into the ground.
Knowing fully what to expect, the three on the ground split up, heading in different directions. When looking behind them, that’s when they could see the wave of Qi in the places just where they had stood in the air.
It was the purest form of Qi they had seen, shooting up like a tunnel.
“Did he really think that we would be such idiots, that we would fall for the same thing twice?” Mada suggested.
The large vortex of Qi didn’t stop there; it was now on the move like a tornado, following their movements.
“Well, if we’re going to waste our energy running, then we might as well run to you, right?” Ricktor said, as he sped up, starting to jump side to side, and he was the first of the three to reach Kilper.
He swung his sword from above, and his visual Qi made it look like a volcano had erupted as he swung it down. Staying in his position, Kilper swung his own sword upward, meeting Ricktor’s, but there was a clear difference in power.
Ricktor’s sword, with almost the rest of his body, was flung upward. His body was moving towards the vortex of Qi until Mantis came and flew behind him, grabbing him once again.
“Nice save,” Ricktor said. “But sorry, I’m just going to have to borrow you as a foothold for a second.”
Ricktor lifted his legs and kicked off Mantis’s body, propelling himself toward Kilper again. At the same time, Mada had managed to reach the other side of Kilper.
Kilper wasn’t expecting Ricktor to recover so quickly, and he needed to deal with the two of them at once.
Grabbing onto both swords, he was ready to swing them when he felt an intense heat toward the left side of his face.
Ricktor’s glove had turned white and was now red hot. While in the air, Ricktor was making a circular motion with his hand, and large flames were circling out from it.
‘This glove was an artifact left in the Erupting Fist Clan. It had been passed down in the clan for an incredibly long time, but it seems like my father never bothered to even use it. Perhaps it would have interfered with his beast form or techniques anyway.’
With the artifact, Ricktor had learned how it worked. The more Qi placed into the glove, the stronger the flames one was able to produce, even allowing for the temperature to rise.
Still, it wasn’t an unlimited energy source since it would use one’s Qi. However, what Ricktor liked about it was that the stronger he got along with his Qi, the stronger the flames would be that he could produce.
As he twirled them in a circular fashion, he then placed his hand over his sword, turning it iron-hot red. The flames even lingered on top of the sword for a while.
“Let’s make this attack feel like a real Lava Shot!” Ricktor shouted as he thrust his sword forward. His Qi gathered all of the spiraling flames that had lingered in the air, as well as those around the sword, and all of it pushed at the same time, as it hit Kilper’s sword used to defend the strike.
The flames carried up Kilper’s arm, and it looked like the entire thing had caught fire as it burned right in front of them. The attack caused Kilper to move his feet slightly as he couldn’t bear the fire on him.
“What are these flames? They aren’t ordinary!” Kilper winced in pain.
Just using his Qi to protect him or with a wave of his arm, ordinary flames would have disappeared, but these hadn’t. That was because they ran on Qi; until the Qi’s energy diminished, the flames wouldn’t either.
From the attack, Ricktor had clearly used a lot of energy, and he noticed something else.
As Kilper moved his feet, the Qi tunnels that were chasing the three of them disappeared as well.
‘Was he supplying Qi constantly to those tunnels through his feet? Is that why he hadn’t moved from his position as well?’ Ricktor thought.
Regardless, his practice with the artifact and his skills had shown results, but he had no doubt that it wouldn’t be enough to kill one of the pillars.
‘I leave the rest up to you guys,’ Ricktor said, as he landed on the ground and dropped to one knee.
Kilper was so distracted by the flames, he didn’t even have time to look at what had happened on the other side. With a quick glance, he threw his sword down, hoping to get rid of at least one of these annoying flies.
Looking at his sword, though, there was nothing there, and instead, there was just a large pool of water.
Continuing to look at the water, nothing happened until, right by his foot, another pool of water had been created, and bursting out drenched in his clothes was Mada with his dark blue-colored boots with a sharp tip on the end.
He spun his body, and the water from below rose. “Flowing Force Rampage!” Mada’s heel dug right into Kilper’s leg, causing his foot to be completely swept up. The impact hit one point, and flowing water pushed his leg even further.
Until Kilper had seemingly slipped. On one side, his arm was covered in fire; on the other, his leg was drenched in water.
“I hope you didn’t forget about me!” Mantis said, as he gathered his strength into his fist again. In the middle of Kilper falling, Mantis dashed forward, placing all his strength into his fist. Once again, the star grew white substance covering his hand until it formed into a giant spear. It was his entire hand.
Flowing with all of his Qi, Mantis flew right through the soft flesh of Kilper’s head, getting rid of it completely from his shoulders, causing one of the pillars to fall straight to the ground. Mantis soon landed, and the Behemoth Clan members nearby looked in disbelief. A bunch of students, a bunch of people they had never seen before, the three of them had managed to take out one of the pillars of the Behemoth Clan.
“I told you all, the Black Tiger is going to be the one to take down the Behemoth Clan today!” Mantis shouted in the air.
“Let him have his moment,” Ricktor smiled as he walked over to Mada, because they were right in the middle of the land of warriors, and having used up all their strength, it wasn’t going to be easy to get out of the situation they were in.
“Win or lose, we have to accept with a fight on this scale, that there will be losses.” Ricktor whispered to himself.
Chapter 862: Fighting Until The End
The Pillars were given their name because that was exactly what they were to the Behemoth Clan. They were the members that allowed the whole clan to be declared one of the three major clans in the Demonic Faction for a reason.
The sheer size as the biggest clan, maybe having more members than the other two major clans combined, was just an added threat to the clan’s power. The real threat of the clan and the reason why it was able to be considered a major clan was because of the Pillars and Sha Mo himself.
Two had been taken out in the last attack against Flendon. Knowing failure wasn’t an option this time, not only did Sha Mo not send two more of his Pillars, but he had also come himself. The main targets: the Crimson Crane and the Dark Magus.
In reality, Sha Mo even expected that he would have to face some of the Dark Faction if Raze had managed to get them truly under his thumb. He was ready for an all-out war. It was just him, and neither he nor the Behemoth Clan members themselves were ready for several strong unknown warriors that could reach the same feats as them.
It was because three of the top students in all of Pagna had worked together that they were able to take out Kilper.
Mada looked at Kilper’s body without its head lying there on the ground, still in disbelief at what they had managed to achieve. They had been through a lot. He then looked down at his dark blue shoes that were pointed with a hard tip on the end.
‘It was thanks to these that I was able to be somewhat useful in this fight. Who would have thought that such an artifact would have been at the Flowing Force Clan’s base?’
Mada started to think back to when the Bonum Society had given the order to attack and take over the clans. Mada had gone to his own clan. With no leader or even someone to replace him, they were at a loss of what to do.
Going against his clan, forcing them to agree to making the Dark Magus leader through the power of his own strength. It would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous about it. Although his clan might have lost prominent people, unlike Mada, he hadn’t reached the middle stage, and there were still middle stage warriors in the clan itself.
In the end, it was his brother Gunther who had helped him out in the situation. With his brother’s blessing, the clan had agreed to Mada’s demands, and in the end, he had even been handed down the clan’s artifact.
Mada wasn’t expecting much. If the items were so strong and great, then why wouldn’t the past leaders have used them? Unless it was just because they wished to save face and not rely on items. He could certainly see many of the elders in his clan being that way.
That was when he had come across a pair of peculiar boots, the boots that he was wearing now, and the power they held was certainly interesting.
Using its power was quite difficult, though, and he had been practicing its use for the next time he had to fight. The boots themselves, just like the glove Ricktor used, activated with Qi. However, rather than creating an element, in Mada’s item’s case, it changed what it touched.
The ground beneath his feet would change to water. When Kilper had attacked, Mada had activated the boots, creating a large enough puddle of water for him to avoid the attack. On top of that, he continued to use the effects of the boots to create a tunnel until he was right by Kilper’s feet.
Continuing to use its power, a pool of water was created on the surface, and he exploded from the water, delivering a devastating kick. An added bonus was the boots were made of a special metal that was used to craft the best of weapons, so it could take a heavy hit and wouldn’t lose in a battle against a sword.
On top of that, Mada realized when using his visual Qi to create the flow of water, it would drag the water he created, giving him more power than he used to have before.
According to his brother, the boots were actually a tool for leaders to use in order to help them make their visual Qi more powerful. Thinking about it, he remembered his father’s visual Qi power, how effective it was covering a large distance of the floor with his Qi.
Allowing him to use it to block attacks and attack his opponents within a certain area. Perhaps there were other uses of the weapon that he still hadn’t gotten used to.
“Hey!” Mantis called out. “Can you stop daydreaming and help us out? It’s kinda a rough situation here!”
Mantis clawed at the attacker in front of him, sending him in the air, and quickly returned his hands by his side as he blocked two swords from striking him with his arms. Right after, a spiked ball mace smashed into his stomach.
It wasn’t the strongest of attacks, but the points did pierce his skin, and blood was drawn. The mace was thrown again, but it was sliced in half by Ricktor, and equally, the man who had thrown the mace was sliced in half after.
The three were fighting right in the center of their situation, and even though they had gotten rid of one of the Pillars, it didn’t seem the fighting had stopped, and just then, Mantis’s hybrid form was starting to wither away.
The skull that covered his face and arms had turned into nothing but soft dust, and the wings on his back were starting to disappear. Everyone was exhausted from their fight.
“Didn’t you say you were going to take out the whole of the Behemoth Clan? What are you doing losing your powers now!” Mada said, kicking one in the face and quickly avoiding another strike to his face and kicking the man on the chin. “When will this end?”
“It will end when Sha Mo himself is taken out,” Ricktor claimed. “I’m starting to wonder, where is Raze? If he hasn’t arrived by now, something must have happened, which means we might be on our own with this one.”
Chapter 863 A Special Headband
The intense fight with the people of Flendon was still continuing on, and it was inevitable that there were some losses among those fighting for the town of Flendon.
Once in a while, a skilled warrior would get through their formations and be able to attack and flank from the side while members of the Crimson Crane were busy fighting.
Still, even though this was the case, although the fight had been going on for a short while now, the losses on the town of Flendon’s side might have been around fifty or so at most.
Seeing how many were still present and still fighting was giving them the will to keep going.
Alba had retreated back with her group of swordsmen and was constantly running around to parts of the front line and attacking. She then could see a large group of warriors that were piled up fighting against Tilon and the Shield Bearers.
‘While the momentum is in our favor and things are going well, we can keep fighting!’ Alba thought.
She came rushing in with the group not too far behind her. The Behemoth Clan members had noticed and changed their target, but as Alba was spotted, she increased her speed and then swiped her two swords in a large X position, taking out a large majority of them in a single attack.
After that, she jumped, spinning her body to the side, her sword slicing right through one of the members, and then slamming it onto the ground, she used the power to propel herself into the air.
She spun, knocking and slicing those that had jumped above, trying to get to the members in the back, and upon landing, she crashed, emitting her Qi out and making the others unstable.
The guards followed, getting rid of those that Alba had managed to bypass and hurt, or those that were now unstable on their footing.
‘Still, I have to remember they’re not Pagna warriors. Although the losses are small now, at some point they will get tired, and that’s when large losses will start to come from our side.’
She looked up at the wall, and the archers were already beyond fatigued, having pulled their bows nonstop. Their arms were incredibly heavy, and parts of the skin had already torn from their fingers.
“Everyone, remember the pills; they will recover your energy. Those with slightly blue-colored pills, take them now. Those with dark-colored blue pills, take them only when you can no longer open your eyes!” Fixteen shouted.
The pills in question he was talking about were the Dark Magus pills that he had handed out.
Alba, seeing this, knew those fighting on the ground had some pills as well. It would give them a second wind, but would it be enough to intimidate the Behemoth Clan?
No, that wouldn’t happen unless the key members were taken out.
“Rayna, I hope you can get the job done quickly, because right now, there seems to be no sight of Raze at all. What happened? He wouldn’t have just abandoned us… would he?” Alba thought, as slight doubts were entering her mind.
After all, it wasn’t as if she had known Raze for years like some of the other members in the Crimson Crane. Either way, they were in the middle of it now, and she wouldn’t abandon the people that were fighting by her side.
—
Out on the field, due to Anna’s keen eye, both she and Rayna had gone out and intercepted a strong foe. Right in front of them was another one of the Behemoth Clan Pillars, Umonke.
The two of them were cautious, and others had stepped away from Umonke, allowing him to fight freely as they continued to charge.
They knew too well how sharp his sword was, and if they got hit by a stray swing, their bodies would be sliced apart.
“I saw this one fighting with Cronker before. We have to be careful; he’s quite the strong one!” Rayna claimed as both her boots started to light up, and right by the heel, a solid glowing ring could be seen.
Rayna charged forward and jumped in the air while thrusting her spear out. At the same time, Umonke swung his sword, and the two clashed.
When they hit, Umonke felt something off occurring. The spear was swung slightly to the side, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Right after, Rayna landed on the ground and started to thrust her spear forward. Seeing her in place, Umonke again went to strike several times, and Rayna was hitting them back.
Out of the two of them, it was clear that Umonke had more strength, and Rayna looked like she could barely block the attacks.
It was then that Umonke jumped back, and Rayna stayed focused, keeping her eyes on him.
“Does the Neverfall Clan have some new tricks I’m not aware of? You were a fool to step on this battlefield. Maybe you thought the name of your father would put me off, but we knew the consequences fully before making this decision!”
Umonke jumped from his position and spun his entire body. Right when he reached Rayna, he swung his blade again, crashing into the side of Rayna’s spear.
She had blocked the attack, and the immense amount of Qi had hit her. She even screamed in pain, but she was still standing there, still in the same spot.
“What… is going on?” Umonke asked.
The answer lay in the special artifact that Rayna managed to get her hands on. One of the clans had a pair of metallic boots that others didn’t think much of, and when she had heard its effect, truthfully, she didn’t think much of them either.
They allowed anyone who was wearing them the ability to not be knocked back. Whoever was wearing them would firmly stay planted in place.
During a fight, Rayna was learning how much she could use that to her advantage. Even when struck with stronger blows, her body wouldn’t get flung back. When fighting in the air, she couldn’t get struck out of it.
Sure, she could still get cut, but this made it so she now had more of an even playing field when fighting someone who was stronger than her.
One just had to be brave enough to stay in the heat, and she was certainly more than brave.
“It seems you are doing well. I guess it’s time for me to get involved as well.” Anna said as she pulled out a golden headband. It went right around, and then at the front, the two ends didn’t touch and instead had the image of feathers on them.
“I’ve worked out what we need to do to win this match!” Anna claimed.
Chapter 864 A Legendary Artifact
With the use of the new artifacts, all of those that were fighting had seen a big improvement from before. Even the Crimson Crane members were wearing items that helped in one way or another.
Some had pendants that allowed them to restore part of their stamina. Others had items that gave them some sort of sixth sense when an attack appeared from behind, and so on.
In the hands of the smaller clans in the Dark Faction, they seemed quite useless. What did it matter if a high-ranking initial stage warrior was to use such items?
If they were attacked by something too fast for them to react to, what did it matter if they could sense it was coming? But in the hands of these warriors, they were using it to the fullest, and it was the same for Rayna.
Since Rayna’s special boots were in effect, she was constantly swinging her spear to block attacks from hitting her. However, it was clear that Umonke was a superior opponent, making it so that all she could do was block.
Her arms were starting to feel numb, her body getting hurt by the constant power of Qi passing through her.
‘I can bear it though, I can bear this, can’t I!’ Rayna thought to herself as she continued to hear the constant bangs in her head. ‘The Neverfall Clan’s training is all about putting yourself through conditions that are unbearable.’
She started to think about the intense heat in the Neverfall Clan base. How hard it was on her body as she went deeper into the lower levels.
How much pain she was in back then, but she didn’t die from it, and she came out from it stronger. It was the same here.
‘I have to be able to hold him off, I have to be able to at least do something. I need to be able to do something for him!’ Rayna thought as she picked up the pace and was matching her spear to the constant sword hits.
Still, while there was a large struggle on her face, Umonke looked to be at ease.
‘If I can’t do something, then how the heck am I allowed to say… that I… that I… that I love him!’ Rayna then went and, for the first time, thrust her spear in an attack.
Umonke skimmed the spear away and, in turn, went to attack. Quickly, he took advantage of the mistake, and his sword was swinging down, ready to hit her right on her neck.
“I win,” Umonke said with a smile, until his sword had swung through nothing but the air. A loud bang was heard, and his entire position had shifted a foot away.
The sword touched the ground, and Rayna was still standing by the side, but she hadn’t done anything. Looking to his side, he could see another odd woman, the palm of her hand glowing red.
“Was it you?” Umonke asked.
“Congratulations, you figured out the obvious.” Anna said with a smile.
Seeing Rayna in trouble, she had come in and attacked using a large amount of her energy. A strong palm blast was used and had pushed Umonke to the side.
Anna was a little disappointed with the result, though, as she was hoping that the man in question would at least be somewhat hurt. Yet he seemed incredibly fine.
“Where were you this whole time?” Rayna said. “I said we should work as a team so we could take this guy out faster.”
14:31
“Right, but I work best when I have information. When I have information, I can come up with a way to beat this guy using the quickest means possible.”
Rayna wasn’t so sure if Anna was telling the truth or not, but based on their last fight, which was also against a Pillar, she wasn’t the type to back down.
“Please, continue.” Anna said as she jumped back again, going on the outside of the fight.
“Continue…” Before she knew it, Rayna was back again, fighting against Umonke. After blocking the first hit, the pain was traveling through her entire body once more.
She gritted her teeth, trying to continue with blocking the hits, and noticed something: Umonke’s hits weren’t as sharp as they were before.
‘What is going on? Did he get hurt by Anna from before? It doesn’t look like it, so why do his attacks just not quite have the edge!’
It was a risky move, but it was then that Rayna decided to thrust her spear again. Her attack was blocked and swept away, but this time, no counterattack came forward.
Instead, Anna was right there by his side; she mimicked a punch, but nothing came out.
Instead, stepping back and allowing Rayna to take over.
“The psychology of one’s mind is an interesting thing,” Anna said. “After being hit once, and a fairly strong strike at that, he’s cautious that there might be an attack at any time. I don’t even have to actually hit him, and he’s already feeling the pressure of fighting two skilled warriors at once.”
This way of fighting, this way of thinking was something Rayna had never heard of before, but she could tell Anna was right. Umonke’s mind almost seemed distracted.
Not only that, but Anna knew the perfect time when to come in, either delivering feint attacks, and then, that’s when she would mix a real one in there and punched Umonke right across the face, but quickly scurried away.
Umonke readjusted his mouth and jumped back, no longer putting pressure on Rayna.
“This is quite annoying… and you seem to know quite a bit about fighting.” Umonke commented.
This was because of Anna’s perfect timing, but that was all due to the system she was using.
“Right, the perfect timing like now?” Anna said.
A large striking pain could be felt right through Umonke’s side. Turning around, he could see a warrior with a bloody sword, not just any warrior but one from the Behemoth Clan.
“What… have you just done?” Umonke said as he placed his hand on the wound.
Rayna, looking at the Behemoth Clan warrior, noticed on his head was a strange golden headband, one that Anna had brought with her.
‘Just… what is that golden headband?’ Rayna thought.
Chapter 865: A Monkey Legend
The warrior who had just stabbed Umonke was clearly from the Behemoth Clan. Rayna could tell he was quite an established warrior, one that was at least at the middle stage level of Qi, although on the lower side.
There was no one other than those that Rayna was already aware of among their allies, so why would a member suddenly betray one of their own, and one of the Pillars at that?
The man’s hands were shaking, part of his sword covered in blood while his lips were quivering.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he continued to mumble to himself. “I had to do it… I had to.” With one hand, the man reached up to the golden headband on his head.
‘That’s the artifact, the one that Anna brought with her… is that the reason he did that?’
Nearly everyone in the group had managed to receive some type of artifact, but many of Raze’s allies were brought together under him. They didn’t all have a close connection with each other, and this was true of Rayna and Anna as well, so they didn’t have any idea of what the artifacts the others had could do.
“It looks like my plan was quite the success!” Anna said with a smile on her face. “Although it’s quite unfortunate the wound isn’t so deep. With his attention focused on the two of us, I thought a deeper wound would have at least been made.”
In many ways, it just went to show how strong Umonke’s Qi was; even in an unexpected situation, the Qi flowing through his body was able to stop the sword from a middle stage warrior from going right through him.
“Hey, let’s try and protect that one a bit,” Anna said as she charged forward again.
Umonke was ready to strike down the man for the betrayal but was unable to due to the worry of the two on his back.
This time, both Anna and Rayna charged in together.
Rayna swung her spear above, which was blocked, and at the same time, Anna delivered another powerful palm strike filled with energy to Umonke’s center, pushing him back.
As he slid backward, a slash was made across his back by the same man with the headband. The wound was shallow, though, only causing a large scratch.
“You have to try harder than that, otherwise!” Under her breath, Anna started to chant some words.
Rayna didn’t recognize the language that was being used, and when spoken, it was in a monotone, deep voice.
Once more, the headband on the man’s head started to glow. As it did, the man felt extreme pain and pressure; the band was tightening, and he felt like it was going to pop at any second.
“Alright!” the man shouted, charging in to strike again, this time with more commitment and more Qi.
Rayna and Anna moved in at the same time as well, even with Anna pulling the man out of the way from a slash that would have sliced him in half.
The coordination from Anna, as well as being attacked from three angles, was extremely frustrating for Umonke.
It was a strange feeling for him. He knew he was stronger than the others, but due to him not being able to knock Rayna away, she was lasting longer than she would ordinarily have.
On top of that, instructions from the strange woman with red palm strikes were perfectly timed, almost as if his mind was being read.
Anna was smiling at the situation unfolding.
“I can’t believe they had no idea what these items could do, and they were using it to decorate a statue of all things.”
In one of the clans Anna was sent to, she had found the artifact-the headband-along with a scroll that was hung behind it.
Her system allowed her to know that these items weren’t from the world of Pagna, but came from another dimension.
She tried to get information from the said dimension, but there wasn’t much from the clan itself. Still, the clan had control of the portal where the items were found. Venturing inside, she was able to come across information about how the headband had once been used on a fierce being to restrict its power.
Learning this, she knew she had something special on her hands. The main problem was getting the headband on its target, which was why she had selected a middle stage warrior distracted and focused on the fight with the town of Flendon.
If it was another clan, this would have been a risky move. Many were so loyal to their clans that they would willingly give up their lives rather than attack a prominent figure in their own clan.
However, Anna could see that since the clan was so large, there was next to no loyalty. Many had joined it just for the prestige that came with being part of one of the major clans. And they were fighting right now because of fear of what would happen to them. The warriors in the Behemoth Clan cared more about their own lives.
“We need to finish this!” Anna said. “Now that our assistant is fighting at full force, we can pin him down, but I don’t have the strength to beat him.”
Rayna was huffing and panting; her muscles were aching, and at any second, she felt like she would drop the spear on the floor.
“The one that needs to finish him off is you. Come on, do it for the sake of love,” Anna said.
In an instant, Rayna’s face went red.
“What do you mean?”
“Can’t you tell? Raze isn’t here, which means something happened to him. If that’s the case, look at the battlefield.”
Rayna quickly observed what was happening, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary; things were somewhat in a stalemate, the same as before.
That’s when she realized that was part of the issue.
“Who’s fighting Sha Mo?” she asked.
In the center of the battlefield, three people stood there looking at the giant mass known as
Sha Mo.
They stood side by side, quaking inside.
“Is it just me, or can’t you help but think we kinda got the short straw?” Liam commented, with Simyon and Safa by his side.
Chapter 866 Trust Zon?
In the Dark Faction Academy, panic had taken over the outer area. Those who lived near the academy walls had decided to move back, some even leaving their homes. They moved further toward the outer areas of the city, and some who lived on the edge, hearing rumors of what was happening, were already leaving, rushing along the great bridge.
However, there was one individual running through the city, heading toward the academy, entering any place he could. Turning right, Skyler rushed into a local tailor shop. He could see several people sitting at the back, some hiding behind the machinery in the room.
In one corner of the room, a person dressed like a student lay covered in blood. Cloth was draped over his eyes, his body unmoving, and Skyler couldn’t sense an ounce of Qi coming from him.
“Is there anyone here who is a physician or has at least been an assistant before?” Skyler asked.
A woman slowly raised her hand, and an older man standing by the child on the ground also stood up.
“I am a physician. Unfortunately, I couldn’t save this young one’s life. Is there someone else in the city who needs help?” the old man asked.
Skyler clenched his fist at this moment. “Not the city itself, the academy,” Skyler answered. “The injured students have all come from the academy, but there are bound to be those still inside who are still breathing and need help!”
The woman who had raised her hand quickly pulled it down, and the man looked away, sweat running down the side of his face.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you just say you were willing to help? Let’s go!” Skyler said, turning to the door, but he noticed there were no footsteps following him. He turned back around.
“I am sorry, but to tell us to go to the academy… From what we’ve heard from the students and even the teachers, other powerful Pagna warriors have been dealt with. If we head inside, our lives might be taken as well.”
“That’s even more reason why we have to go!” Skyler shouted. Zon had given him this task before he left, and Skyler knew how important it was.
Zon relied on him, likely because he was in an intense fight and wouldn’t be able to help the people. This was an important task.
“Look, I’m a skilled warrior. If we head in there, I promise to protect you. And besides, I know it—someone is dealing with the intruder right now! Someone strong enough to get rid of him!”
“Really?” One of the women asked with bright eyes. “Who is it?”
Skyler took a step back. What was he meant to answer? The head chef of the perfect noodle shop? People would think he had gone mad.
So he could only come up with one answer.
“The Dark Magus. The Dark Magus is dealing with them. I was asked to gather as many of those that can help, so we need to head to the academy as quickly as possible and gather as many that can assist.”
The others didn’t know the Dark Magus well, as Raze had stayed somewhat hidden since he had taken over. But the simple fact that he was now the leader of the Dark Faction gave them hope.
“All right… let’s go,” the woman said.
Skyler, with a smile on his face, left with the two. On the way to the academy, they visited several places, trying to gather as many people as possible.
‘Using the Dark Magus’s name like I just did might get me in serious trouble, but I don’t care! I have no loyalty to the Dark Magus; all my loyalty is to Zon! I will do as he says so he can kick whoever this sick f*ck is!’ Skyler thought as he continued to run.
——
In the large courtyard that connected all of the academy buildings, the students were hidden behind pieces of flooring that had been lifted and wedged into the ground. Amir was present, hiding with a large number of the students, around twenty or so of them.
Meanwhile, out in the courtyard itself, stood Raze, the Dark Magus, and a mysterious person who had just appeared in white garments filled with cooking stains on the front.
“What the… isn’t that a chef’s uniform? What is a chef doing on the battlefield?”
“It’s quite obvious that’s not an ordinary chef; he just came out of a portal!” another student commented.
Lifting his hand out, red energy condensed from the palm of Zon’s hand until a thin red sword, appearing to be made from the same strange red substance, was formed in his grip.
“So you decide to make this a two against one?” Scar said. “You have no shame, do you?”
Scar started to fire bullets from his handguns. He didn’t stop firing, one after the other, until both magazines were empty.
As the bullets came at Zon, he moved his arm, which appeared as nothing more than a blur. It was a supernatural speed, knocking all of the bullets away.
Raze looked at the bullets and could see they had been carefully deflected to the ground. Some of them were partially melted, and all fell to the side.
“What are you still doing here?” Zon asked. “You called me for help, to deal with this one, right? Isn’t there somewhere you need to be? Somewhere you’re needed a lot more than right here?”
“This person, they’re strong,” Raze said. He had still yet to use the full extent of his abilities and had also figured out a way that he might be able to catch Scar.
He had summoned Zon so they could deal with the Deleter quickly, allowing him to head to the Demonic Faction.
“Do you not trust me? I thought the fact that you called me here meant that you trusted me to deal with something like this. If you don’t trust me, then there is no need to call me again,” Zon exclaimed.
Hearing Zon’s confident words and seeing his actions from before, Raze felt like he had no choice in the matter.
“Very well, then I will leave this to you!” Raze said as he rushed off, heading back into the main academy building.
Chapter 867: In Zon We Trust
Raze rushed from the courtyard and headed to the main building, thinking of the words spoken by Zon. He had asked him to put his trust in him. Raze started to remember the last time someone had said those words to him in Alterian-one of the few people he could call his friend—and believing in those words had ultimately led to his friend’s demise.
There were many times Raze thought back, wondering what if his friend had never gotten involved in his mess, what if he hadn’t believed in him and stayed away; maybe there would still be one person left in his life.
This was why it was so hard for Raze to leave Zon. Yet he had ultimately decided to trust those words again.
‘I underestimated the Deleter, and I let my anger take over me,’ Raze thought. ‘Seeing Himmy’s head, I wanted to get some payback for him. But the Deleter was slimier than I expected and caused more trouble than I thought… still, I need to head to the Demonic Faction.
‘If I’m honest with myself, even if Zon and the whole academy were to disappear, if it was for the sake of saving them, then I would at least be content with my decision. But if I stayed back to help Zon, and they were to perish, I would hate myself even more than I do now.’
This was why, ultimately, Raze was able to make the decision to leave Zon. And besides that, from what little Raze saw, even if Zon couldn’t beat him, he would put up one hell of a fight.
“Do you really think you can rush off in front of me?” Scar said. “Did you forget everything I can do?”
Scar had teleported from his position, now appearing right in front of Raze, in front of the academy.
However, now being in front of Raze, Scar saw that Raze held two swords in his hands, both covered in a type of lightning.
“You should get out of my way!” Raze shouted as he swung both swords horizontally, around a meter apart.
A large current of lightning surged across, one nearly touching the floor, the other around head height. Since Raze was one step ahead of Scar, he wasn’t even able to get a shot off before he teleported again, this time appearing behind Raze.
“You’re an idiot!” Scar said, lifting his handguns.
“Is he?” A voice said from his right.
Scar quickly turned to his right and activated his teleporter again, moving away.
When he reappeared at a safe distance, his gun had fallen into two halves. He had been struck by the strange red sword, and if he had been slower in teleporting, his body would have split in half.
‘How did he do that?’ Scar thought, looking at Zon.
He had seen the distance between Raze and him, and even when teleporting twice, he had made sure he was in the center. Yet somehow, Zon had either gotten to him fast enough or had predicted where he was going.
Ultimately, Scar had no choice but to watch Raze run back into the main academy and put his full attention on Zon.
“There goes my target. Why can’t things be easy?” Scar shouted. “Oh well, I guess he will just have to learn his lesson for running away, because I still have my second target-this entire city and academy!” Scar started to laugh hysterically.
“The entire city?” Zon asked, looking at him. “Does that include non-Pagna warriors as well?”
“Do you not understand Pagnian?” Scar said. “Every single life in this city. The Dark Magus will learn the mistake he made.”
Zon firmly gripped the energy blade in his hand.
“Including those at the Perfect Noodle Shop?” Zon asked.
“What the… a Noodle Shop? Do you have a screw loose or something? You must be messing with me. Because of that, especially those from the damned noodle shops-all the noodle shops!” Scar shouted as he switched from his handguns back to the two Uzis.
Pulling the trigger, bullets came flying out one after another.
Zon, in response, held his sword in front of him, moving it in place each time, clanging against the bullets. He took a step forward, and as he did, he continued to move his sword, stopping every single bullet aimed at him.
‘This guy… he’s not even using a force field like the last one. It’s almost like he can actually see every single one of these bullets. What’s with this person?’
Slowly, Zon was getting closer and closer to Scar, and Scar could feel something thumping in his chest slightly harder-a panic was setting in.
Scar teleported to a different angle, and the weapon changed in his hand. Holding it with both hands, he now had the RPG ready.
“Try and block this!” The RPG was launched and aimed right at Zon.
Putting his sword away, Zon reached out his hand, and on impact, a large explosion occurred, but only for a moment.
All of the smoke and all of the fumes from the RPG looked as if they were being sucked in. It shrank in size, all flowing into the palm of Zon’s hand until it had completely disappeared.
Scar’s eyebrow started to twitch.
‘He blocked the bullets rather than absorb them, so this will deal with him!’
Scar began to teleport himself into the air. He was at a high distance of around 5 meters, but he teleported himself again, moving another five meters up.
Scar continued this, moving further and further into the sky until the weapon in his hands changed again. He stared down the scope of the weapon, looking at the long barrel reaching out. What he held was one of the most powerful bolt-action rifles from his world, and he was an exceptionally good shot.
Getting everything lined up perfectly, he held his breath for a moment and pulled the trigger.
A loud bang echoed across the entire city, as if lightning had struck, but no one could see any
lightning.
When Scar looked at Zon through his scope, he expected to see a fallen man. Instead, what he saw caused his heart to thump louder.
Zon, with two of his fingers, held the long bullet between his index finger and thumb. He had perfectly caught it.
“You should have left the noodle shop out of it,” Zon said.
