"What's this now?"
It seems System carriers always pull out weird moves. At first, I thought it was some kind of magic, but I quickly realized that explosion sound was probably just a sonic boom from the force of his punch.
Since coming to this world, I'd never seen anyone create such powerful wind force just from their body strength. Even Mike, the First Seat of Star Glory Knights who focused on physical enhancement with Battle Qi, wasn't anywhere near this level.
With such crazy power targeting me, I definitely didn't dare to block it head-on. I quickly dodged to the side, barely avoiding his attack. The wind force from his punch went past my shoulder and smashed the wall behind me to pieces. The whole room was filled with flying rocks and dust, making it impossible to see what was happening around us.
I started to panic a bit - having two strong enemies nearby while not being able to see was definitely dangerous. In the chaos, I heard several more explosion sounds nearby, which made things even worse.
"Quick, let's get out of here!"
Suddenly a hand grabbed my arm - it was Adrian's voice. I immediately spread my wings and flew out based on memory, landing in the plaza at the entrance of the inner fortress.
Looking back at that room on the second floor now, thick dust and smoke were still pouring out. We couldn't see what was happening inside, but nobody else had escaped, which made me worried.
"Did those two escape through the tunnel?"
"Don't worry, I already destroyed the tunnel entrance with explosive arrows!"
Adrian answered confidently, but kept staring at the doorway.
He was right. Just seconds later, a bright light flashed from inside the door, followed by a huge beam of light shooting towards our feet at incredible speed.
Why does this move look so familiar?
The light beam blasted a huge crater on the ground. Luckily, Adrian and I had already jumped aside when we noticed something wrong. We just had to dodge some flying rocks, but weren't really affected.
"Feliciana, watch out!"
But we celebrated too early. The first explosion hadn't even settled when Adrian shouted another warning.
While we were catching our breath, another bright light was already coming at us!
It must be Reider and his bald captain! They probably escaped from the collapsing room while we were distracted.
Surprisingly, when I turned to look, I found Reider floating in the air, shooting the light beam from his cupped hands.
Though I was mentally prepared that System carriers could travel between different worlds, Reider's signature pose looked very similar to a move from a manga I'd read on Earth. Based on what I knew about the System, could this mean it could take its users into manga worlds too?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"If that's really the famous 'shock wave', it shouldn't work on me!"
Seeing this, I raised my arm toward the second light beam. As expected, I managed to block it with just my palm.
"How is that possible? Is this some kind of magic or pure energy attack?"
A move that could crush solid rock barely made my palm tingle. Adrian was shocked by my cool-looking move, but quickly guessed the reason behind it.
To be honest, I was taking a bit of a risk. Though I was pretty sure it wasn't summoning magic involving real creatures, it was still just a guess. Plus, Reider clearly hadn't mastered the technique.
"So this is the legendary angel defense ability?"
Unfortunately, while Reider was easy to handle, his captain was still there. The muscular man with sunglasses snorted, then his whole body started swelling up like a balloon, instantly bursting through his clothes to reveal ridiculous muscles.
"No way? Is he really human?"
Even the strongest humans couldn't build muscles like that, and he even grew several centimeters taller! Adrian couldn't hide his shock.
"I guess he... is?"
I found it pretty unbelievable too. In Eldoria Continent, you'd only see this kind of thing with magical monsters. But after seeing Reider's moves, I suddenly remembered an old manga I'd read long ago.
Could this be another ability learned from some manga world?
Too late to ask him though - the bald captain attacked right after his "transformation." He targeted me, moving at an unbelievably fast speed with his fist raised.
"Whew-"
I couldn't help gasping. In just one exchange, I could tell his strength and speed clearly surpassed me, a ten-winged angel. Especially his strength - I'd never seen anyone this strong except Michelle. All I could do was use my wings to keep flying up and dodging.
Though the bald man with sunglasses couldn't fly like Reider, his jumping power was insane! Despite all those heavy muscles, even when I quickly flew up over ten meters, he could easily jump above my head and throw those simple but powerful punches down at me.
I really hadn't expected the captain to be this strong. If I was alone, I might have already fled. But Adrian was still on the ground below, and he wasn't just watching - he was fighting Reider.
They were both good at ranged attacks. Reider could even summon flying saw discs that he could control to attack from multiple angles. But Adrian's Battle Qi arrows were just as good. They seemed evenly matched for now.
My situation was much worse. Absolute strength advantage is really hard to deal with. In just a few rounds of the bald captain's fist pounding, he'd smashed many meter-deep holes in the walls around us. His power was no less than Reider's charged-up 'shock wave', but this was pure physical attack - I didn't dare even counter it once.
After my body and face got scratched several times by near misses from his punches, I finally decided to change tactics and switched my wings to blue state.
Switching to blue wings meant losing light element protection, like what happened to Nicola earlier. Reider was especially good in this area, and I was worried he might sneak attack me.
But the bald captain's pressure was just too strong - if I didn't find a way to fight back, I'd probably lose soon. In blue wing state, I quickly summoned my Water Abyss Sword. This time I didn't back down, but slashed straight at his incoming fist!
"Ugh..."
Though his punch slammed me deep into the wall where I got stuck, I managed to pierce his arm with Water Abyss Sword.
The sword didn't cause any physical damage, but the dehydration effect quickly kicked in. The previously unstoppable bald captain fell to the ground clutching his right arm. His right arm started rapidly shriveling and turning black, spreading toward his shoulder.
If left alone, the dehydration effect would spread through his whole body and kill him. But I had to admit the bald captain was tough - he used tremendous strength to tear off his whole right arm at the shoulder, without making a single sound.
"Captain! Are you okay?"
Reider, still fighting Adrian, somehow had time to show concern. But the next second, he got hit in the head by an explosive arrow because he was distracted. He just got a bloody head wound though - guess his skull was pretty hard too.