Chapter 3

‘It’s a risky plan but it’s better than the current predicament I’ve just landed myself in.’

Originally, the plan of Kusan when confronting the snake, was to see how effective and smart he is against not only a magical beast but even a speed type at the same time. However, that was crushed the moment he unexpectedly made him and the snake enter an endurance match against one and another.

With the snake’s bite, coupled with landing on the water with its massive body, helped the snake to match against Kusan. Who was borrowing the force of the water to hold against the snake.

With the new plan in mind, he directed, under strenuous condition considering he still had to concentrate on keeping his strength up against the snake, the unused magic to slowly gather towards his feet.

He changed the element of his magic into water, which is what he needs in order to enact the plan he has in mind.

Cool sensation pooled throughout his body which was the indirect result of his water travelling through the channels. This calmed his somewhat strained body from the endurance battle; it only elevated his body pain by 2%. It may seem small, but everything that can help elevate the pain by a small margin is still a big help for Kusan since it could bring give him a few more precious seconds for the endurance.

This is the side effect of channelling water; however this wasn’t the goal that Kusan had in mind when he gathered them towards his feet as the cooling sensation was merely a side benefit for him.

4 seconds passed, however from Kusan’s point of view, it felt like 4 nerve raking hours had passed. With perspiration appearing from his head, showing just how strained Kusan was and how hard it was for him to endure it. Not only that his thinly made clothes, was also slowly being soaked in sweat.  

Even so, there was good news. The amount of water that gathered at his feet was enough for him to enact his plans now.

‘It’s now or never.’

With a determined mind, coupled with unwavering will and his lack of fear, he has steeled himself strong enough to enact a crazy plan that could potentially kill him or make him.

With but just a thought, Kusan released the watertight glue that he made with his feet firmly plastered on the water to loosen. This resulted in Kusan losing his equal footing against the snake, since the momentum was lost with Kusan’s resistant instantaneously disappeared in the face of the snake’s power.

Since there was nothing to stop the snake, the snake inadvertently blast straight to the water with Kusan still blocking against his fang. The snake couldn’t help but stare blankly at Kusan while they shot through the water like a pair of torpedos, coupled with the unexpectedness of the disappearing resistance, the snake could do nothing but be dumbfounded.

Before Kusan released the water glue like skill, he did a chantless spell for the water magic ‘Torpedo’. Normally this magic is used to shoot a set amount of water, dependent on how much magic is used, from the hands to fly through the air and blasting upon the target like a cannon shot.

Nevertheless, that is not what Kusan was aiming for. With the addition of Kusan being able to do a chantless magic, this is considered very rare in the Zhan continent, much less the other 4 continents. Because only 1 in a million mages can do this, even then it isn’t guaranteed that there will be one in an army of a million mages.

Kusan was able to drastically cut down valuable seconds and mind power needed to use magic to a bare minimum, which is enough at his current state. Instead of shooting water from his hands, he made the magic shoot from his feet.

It is common knowledge to use magic from hands as it is the safest part of the body to shoot magic out of. Every part of the body can use magic; however, the strain is much higher everywhere other than the hands because the magical channel to the hands is the largest compared to every other body parts that is 40 times smaller in width compared to the hands.

Even so, if one wanted to shoot magic from the feet, they must train their legs to by slowly expanding the small magic channel to a sufficient length like the hands. If not, they will suffer a drastic decrease in strength of magic owing to how small the channel is and if forced, it could destroy the channel. Thereby affecting the body and having the mage experience immense pain considering the pain is internal.

Most mage can do healing magic; nevertheless, most cannot do a self-heal internal injury as the pain will break their concentration. Be that as it may, not many can afford healing potion that specialise in healing the magic channel as it works in a different way than the bodily function unless they wish to forever never use magic through the legs.

Hence the reason why it is rare to find people to shoot magic out of any part of the body besides the hand, with only very few can do it because they trained their body. Since the common notion of mage is the desire to grow stronger faster rather than slowly if they trained their body to shoot magic from a different body part.

However, unlike everyone else, Kusan has trained 2 years on his legs to be able to cast magic through them. So Kusan never suffered any backlash or any side-effects when he channelled magic through the legs.

So the effect that ‘Torpedo’ spell had the moment he released the water glue like magic, he was blasted backwards to nullify the sudden force of the snake down as much as possible. Since the snake was in front of him, with full strength that the snake could muster pressuring down on Kusan like a gigantic mountain. Therefore, instead of flying upwards like the magic normally should, Kusan was sent backwards, allowing him to disperse the force out if he rides along the snake’s momentum and the fact that he dispersed the energy concentrated in his arms throughout his body that acted as a resistance force against the snake.

However, he was injured greatly from the force of the snake that was equivalent to getting hit by a 5 ton hammer. He was injured to the point of involuntarily spurting small amounts of blood from his mouth. He endured the painful rush, coupled with his abundant experience in pain, he could withstand this injury to a certain degree.

As a result, both were shot into the water. Unlike the snake who didn’t expect this turn of event, Kusan was and since he was already prepared for it, he still had another step in his plan in mind.

After Kusan completely sank into the water, he bent the sword upwards in front of his face. This smoothly forced the still dumbfounded snake with his tyrannical power rushing, to slide upwards off Kusan’s katana. Thereby avoiding himself sinking further into the water before the snake regained its state of mind.

In addition, if the snake returned its mind before Kusan could escape, it could force Kusan deeper into the water widening the gap of strength between them. Considering that the ‘Nature Snake’ speed will increase twofold while Kusan would be affected by the water resistance, even if he coats himself in water to negate the effect.

That is why Kusan needed to slip away from the snake before he does.

The scales of a snake, when wet becomes slippery like an eel. That is what Kusan was after, along with his katana coated in water so it could slip off the fangs. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to find that the snake slipped away in such a speed that it left a mini whirlpool in its wake.

Nevertheless, Kusan didn’t stop and immediately swung his Katana in an arc towards the rapidly gliding away body of the snake. A small ripple followed in the wake of the katana, showing that the water resistance was low but it still affected the speed of the katana.

“HIISSSSSS”

A loud cry echoed in the water, laced with anger, pain and fear all mixed together to form the harmonious cry of the snake.

The lake, in response to the cry of the snake, shuddered before it created a small explosion. With it exploding outwards away from the source of the cry, the snake. The snake, in its pain, unintentionally released a large amount of water magic. Hence, the scene of a water explosion happening.  

The snake cried before it stopped, looked at Kusan with a menacing gaze that gave off the feeling of ‘I will never forgive you’ before he slithered away with unmatched speed in the water as it left a trail of blood behind. The blood came from the snake’s missing three metres tail.

Kusan hovered in the water, staring at the rapidly disappearing figure of the snake while the cut off trail of the snake slowly sunk into the water 4 metres away from him. He couldn’t help but mumble at how the snake upon receiving an injury, immediately decided to retreat.

‘Sigh….

This is why I hate intelligent magical beasts or monsters. Upon knowing that they are no match, they will immediately flee given the chance.

And here I thought it would be enraged at the fact that I cut off its tail. This would make the snake furious and go all out against me.

Alas, the snake is different.’

Having the opponent that had given him a hard time, albeit different from what he was expecting, run away with speed that he cannot match. Kusan had no choice but to swim out of the lake before he faints from lack of oxygen.

Upon standing up on the water, with his soaked appeared, gave him the appearance of a beggar. Before, he took one step forward atop the water; instinctively his body bent backwards before Kusan could register why his body did so.

However, given how his instinct has saved his life many times, he knew that an enemy has launched a surprise attack against him.

After dodging the unknown attack, Kusan jumped sideways until he was 30 metres away from his previous spot.

Before he could get his bearings, he saw cold menacing steel closing on his face with astonishing speed.

‘Shit.’

Without hesitation, he blocked the steel with his katana. Although he was fast in terms of speed, that doesn’t apply to when he is caught off-guard, even so he could only figure it were steel made into an unknown weapon and not a sword in a split second, considering that sword makes a swish sound upon gliding through the air. However the weapon of the unknown assailant didn’t make such a sound, therefore he was 100% sure that it wasn’t a sword and must be of a blunt force type weapon considering it was making whoosh sounds through the air.

TANG

Kusan arms shuddered violently since he wasn’t fast enough to fully fill his arms with energy. An irresistibly huge force swept pass through the katana, Kusan felt as if a thunder has stricken the very bones of his arms. Unexpectedly he was unable to hold his stance and was forced to fly away from the after-effect of the collision force.

Just a brief encounter and Kusan already judged his surprise attacker to be stronger than him in terms of strength. He could tell that behind that unknown weapon is an overbearing strength.

The enemy who was attired with black assassin clothes, who made a surprise attack on Kusan didn’t stop waiting for Kusan to land. Instead, he dashed after the flying body of Kusan, turning into a black blur surging towards him like a tidal wave.

Kusan, looked down and saw the black figure closing in on him. Considering that flying away had a limited speed before it slows down compared to someone who is running at full speed and constantly maintaining the speed. Naturally the assassin swiftly closed in on Kusan.

Kusan wasn’t about to let this assassin kill him easily nor will he just bend over and give his head on a platter. He somersaulted backwards and once he stood perfectly, the assassin was only 5 metres away.

He stared at the assassin with cold stare while his sleeves fluttered along with sending the tip of his katana straight at the assassin’s heart and sharply striking through the air. Whistling through the air, the katana met resistance from the enemy’s weapon. In that moment of clash, he finally saw what type of weapon the assassin had used; it was two 15 centimetres square iron rods.

‘That explains how I met a powerful resistance against my weapon and the weird clashing sounds.’

Suddenly, Kusan felt two presences on both sides and without hesitation, leaped backwards along with the assassin in front of him not letting him go. He saw two assassins attired exactly the same as the current assassin after his life.

‘Ho, looks like someone has a very big grudge against me.’

Kusan looked at the three closing in assassins with not fear like people would normally display but amusement, he found the situation eerily funny.

Since the first assassin was closer, Kusan simultaneously attacked the first assassin and used two water magic spell called ‘Water Spike’. With the chantless ability, he managed to catch the two assassins that were targeted, off-guard considering they didn’t hear any chant of any kind and so they didn’t expect a magical attack.

However, they weren’t a bunch of third-rate assassins and so their reflexes were top notch as they gracefully flipped backwards, avoiding the spikes that suddenly protruded out from the lake. Even so, Kusan knew he wouldn’t be able to kill them that easily considering the first assassin’s skill to just slightly pressure him nor was that his aim.

He needed time to deal with the first one before the other two come barging into the fight, making it a three on one fight which is not good. If one assassin is hard enough, then with three, there isn’t any need to say that Kusan wouldn’t survive long enough under such pressure.

He needed those three precious seconds that the water spike gave him before the other two arrived. Instantly a plan formed inside Kusan’s mind and without hesitation. He enacted the plan to take out the superior assassin within three seconds.

Kusan’s sent magical essence into the kunais hidden throughout his body; he only went after the four in his sandals and two on his thighs. The kunais are hidden for a reason as they are used for situation such as against assassination attempts or large groups of enemies aiming for his head and last but not least, against a very powerful opponent that is beyond his abilities as the only way to take that person or beast down is by surprise.

This time, Kusan deemed the situation fit for him to use the kunais and by sending his magical essence through the thin wire that connects the kunais to his body, he could easily control the kunai like an extra pair of arms so long as the thin wire doesn’t get cut off or he stops sending magic through it.

The two kunais positioned on both side of his feet, thereby having four kunais, swiftly flew from his sandals as it made holes in his sandals in its wake. The four kunais were covered in a faint blue sheen as it streaked through the air, gleaming with deadliness as it aimed at the various vital body parts.

Two kunais aimed at the arms to disarm the assassin to make it easier for Kusan to kill him, the other two closing in on the thighs in case the first kunais fails.

Immediately, as if sensing danger the assassin broke off from the clash. He managed to block four kunais that were shot out from Kusan’s body and the ones that raised his danger senses. But he didn’t escape unscathed as two kunais were suddenly shot out at the assassin’s moment of weakness from Kusan’s thighs. The two kunais managed to hit on target, the abdomen, just a hair’s length away from stabbing his stomach located behind the skin since the energy protection that warriors normally erect was present inside the assassin’s body.

The damage didn’t stop there as Kusan didn’t let up after his surprise kunai attack, he knew the assassin would immediately detach from him and deflect the kunais that were shot out from his feet. The 4 kunais mysteriously shot in an angle, heading straight for the assassin. Two aimed at the assassin’s arms, two aimed for his legs and the last two that managed to get on target, is the abdomen.

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Kusan pulled back his katana, with the tip primed on the assassin’s head and stabbed forward with swift speed and power likened to that of a powerful panther.

The assassin experienced in fighting, only flinched for a moment at the unexpected surprise attack before he saw what Kusan was doing. This event was ironic, considering that the assassin’s forte is surprise attacks and he got surprised himself.

He crisscrossed his metal rods in front of his face. Kusan’s katana didn’t meet the centre of the rods as the assassin was fast enough to catch it between the upper parts of his crisscrossed rods when he swiftly raised it upwards.

Kusan seeing that his katana was blocked didn’t stop. He instead used the katana that was caught inside the defences of the rods to his advantage by lifting the handle part of the katana, making the katana once again primed on the assassin’s face. He thrust forward like thunder, with unmatched speed and overbearing power.

The assassin, seeing Kusan lifting his katana was about to slide down the katana and smash upon Kusan when the next moment, the assassin felt large gaping wounds suddenly sprout from his body. Along with that, sudden drops in strength like a dam unleashing all the water that has been contained.

The assassin couldn’t help but stare blankly at Kusan as to what has happened before he saw the scenery spin in front of him before he met cold black darkness.

What happened is that, the surprise kunai attack wasn’t only the special kunais themselves that made the technique deadly but the near invisible wire. The wire served as a conductor for Kusan’s magic and so when he sent more magic through it. It would instantly travel through the wire and into the specially made kunais that diverts the magic power into multiple directions from inside the kunais to outside, which in effect gives the kunais the appearance of a spiked kunai.

This is what caused the downfall of the assassin since the water spikes pierced through nearly every vital organs located in the upper torso area and the gaping holes all over his body.

Kusan didn’t stop as his surprise attack has taken full effect on the assassin, as he instantly slashed through the head before he dashed backwards. Because of the fact that he still has two more assassins to take care of before he can relax.

The two assassins didn’t flinch or break their concentration on Kusan when he killed their comrade while they pursued him.

Kusan knew that once he made surprise attack, he will never be able to catch the other two off-guards like he did on the first assassin as they will be extremely cautious of any kunais aimed at them.

One assassin crouched downwards without losing his momentum while the other jumped over, hovering along with the crouched assassin as if though he was flying.

The bottom assassin withdrew his weapon that he hid behind his back; likewise the hovering assassin also did the same.

Kusan saw the crouching assassin wielding an extremely thin yet undeniably sharp butterfly knifes with a width of 30 centimetres and 90 centimetres in length. The flying assassin was wielding two metres long judge pens with a thickness of 1.5 centimetres in diameter.

Seeing that he could not outrun the two assassins, he stopped and thrust his katana forward towards the bottom assassin while sending the six kunais that was still connected to him to the flying assassin.

However, what happened next shocked him. The assassin could unexpectedly use wind magic to avoid the kunais easily.

‘No wonder he looked like he was flying, he really was flying and not diving forward through the air.’

The assassin sprang forward and the bottom assassin blocked the katana. He didn’t stop as he trapped the katana between his knives just for a moment, however, that moment was enough for the other assassin to pierce through and smash the judge pen onto Kusan.

The force of the assassin’s judge pen sent a massive power that shook the very core of Kusan’s body down to the very bones, vibrating in response. Kusan was sent pacing back three steps, with a barely noticeable cave in on his chest area.

Every breath that Kusan took, it sent searing pain through his lungs since the judge pen smashed violently on his chest.

Kusan at this moment came to a conclusion.

‘I cannot hope to match both since one is on my level while that wind assassin is a rank higher. If I be conservative, no doubt I will die without inflicting injuries on them.

No choice but to attack when they attack me, no blocking in this battle.’

Even so, Kusan didn’t give up and counterattacked amidst the piling damage against him with the bottom assassin managing to pierce both his thighs while the flying assassin didn’t stop as he swung his judge pen again as it smashed Kusan’s left arm. Kusan’s last second counterattack, led him to swiftly slice off the flying assassin’s left arm like butter.

Kusan spurted blood; likewise the flying assassin did the same the moment he landed. The bottom assassin straighten his posture back up and swung his knives in an ‘X’ shape as it rapidly descended upon Kusan’s head.

Kusan didn’t flinch as he instantly made a water spike appear behind the assassin. The assassin dodged the water spike, even so, that wasn’t the only surprise the assassin found when Kusan also sent six kunais from the water at different directions. The assassin, remembering what happened to his comrades, jumped slightly and swiftly flicked the kunais all back into the water.

But, the third surprise was certainly outside of the assassin’s expectation when instantly large and small spikes protruded out from the water as it shot towards him as if though they were alive and dying to taste his very blood.

The assassin was already in mid-air and he knew he couldn’t survive the ordeal, although he could use fire magic to destroy the water spikes, he wasn’t a chantless type and so he wasn’t able to instantly countercast him. Despite the dire situation, in a moment, he sent both his butterfly knives at Kusan who managed to block the attack of his comrade.

With the assassin’s only job is dishing out death sentence to their targets, regardless of whether the assassin will live or not.

The first knife narrowly missed, with it only cutting a single strand of hair that was poking out from Kusan’s nose. While the second knife lodged itself into the left palm after Kusan saw that it was aimed as his right arm and so he caught it with his palm. Since his left arm was barely functioning since it was cracked in half, despite that he moved his arm using the energy inside his body to move it.

The assassin cursed inwardly that he failed, before he was pierced by hundreds of thin spikes. For a moment, the assassin looked like a hedgehog before the water spikes dissipated.

In this world of instantaneous movements and blurs with indiscernible sounds of bones cracking, the judge pen assassin suddenly changed his mode of attacks and it turned into an imbued wind attacks like a whirlwind. Kusan responded with equal torrential amounts of attack imbued with water, albeit weaker due to the injuries he has accumulated so far.

Wind and water clashes against each other before the weapon met, Kusan realised his enemy is also a magical warrior with his magic not any weaker than himself while the assassin’s warrior rank is higher. Judging from the strength the assassin has displayed so far, he could deduce the assassin is at least of the 8th rank. Considering how he is losing in a frontal attack against the assassin in terms of strength slightly. But he is thankful that he is evenly matched in terms of magic with the assassin.

However, although evened matched in magic, when the assassin used it in conjunction with his powerful strength, it made his magic seem even more deadly than it actually was.

A magical warrior, as the names implies are those who use magic in line with their warrior skills and techniques. However, not many uses this route as opposed to a pure warrior path since the warrior must not only have to build up their energy and train in the warrior way, they must also equally do so for the magic path. Building up magical essence, learning spells and most of all have the ability to use attack imbued with magic.

Magical infused attacks are more lethal compared to normal attacks made by warriors but most don’t like to train in it with least than 20% of the total numbers of people who train in the warriors’ path to train in the magical warriors’ path. With the biggest turn off factor being time, it takes three times as fast than a normal warrior to reach the same rank.

So for that reason, not many likes it and another good reason is the level of magical aptitude a warrior has. Poor aptitude is considered useless to train in magical warrior path unless one wish to spend a considerable amount of time to even raise just one rank in mage, so only those with good aptitude will train in it.

The assassin’s attack starts to strike too closely for comfort. The assassin’s control is perfect, and none of the attacks penetrate more than a fraction of an inch.

Kusan was slowly but surely widening the wounds, thereby worsening his condition, likewise the assassin wasn’t much better off. Even though there were many grievous wounds displayed on both attackers, none flinched for they dared not take their concentration away from each other. Because the moment one loses his calm or divert even a little bit of concentration, knowing both of them, none would dare not let that small window of opening go and that could spell the end of that person who showed that opening.

However, Kusan smiled amidst the clashing battles between him and the assassin. He could finally let his frustration that had built up after his expectation of the snake were smashed, out onto the assassin that was proving very hard for him to keep up.

Taking into account that the assassin is an elite magical warrior who strikes where necessary, smooth movements with no trace of wasted movements in it and with speed matching Kusan. This all made a very powerful opponent of Kusan and he is grateful for that since fighting strong opponent is something akin to gaining valuable experience to advance themselves.

Despite the wounds and difficulty that the one armed assassin posed against him, Kusan grimly smiled while he blocked the judge pen that arced onto his position.

Noticing the blood occasionally spurting out from the assassin’s left arm, Kusan immediately had an epiphany. He immediately got into action, he sent energy into his arms and instead of controlling his broken arm and he instead made the energy blast outwards towards the assassin face and away from him.

His arm didn’t explode, however the scene of blood spurting all out from Kusan arm would make a normal person faint as it gave the appearance of his arm acting like an octopus with the blood flowing out like tentacles.

The assassin was caught off-guard when blood, mixed with energy suddenly splashed all over his face. He was momentarily blinded for a moment and instinctively blocked his face and heart, but for Kusan this was enough time to finish the last assassin off.  

He slashed horizontally across the stomach of the assassin, which immediately separated the body into two before the assassin could register what happened.

Kusan watched as the assassin’s upper body leaned backwards with blood spurting out from the cut part while the lower body knelt down and fell forward.

Kusan breathed harshly since his chest was badly damaged. He sat down atop the water in a lotus position while he ate the ‘Relieve Pill. A pill that dampens pain by 40% for 6 hours, with the percentage varying depending on the degree of pain, 30% is the max for Kusan’s current condition but that is enough for him to endure.

Considering he has two large holes in his thighs, smashed chest with what he could tell has broken 6 ribs, shattered and bloodless left arm. This was the only way he could think properly before the adrenaline from the battle earlier fades away, as the adrenaline served as a natural pain dampener for only a certain amount of time.

Once he calmed down, he stared long and hard at the assassin’s separated body that was gradually sinking into the water while retracting his kunais, the kunais shuddered before they flew back into his patchy sandals like a pair of moths drawn to fire. Before that, he grabbed the assassin’s two bodies and swiftly made his way onto land.

He threw the body onto dry land like a piece of garbage as it made a soft thud. He then ripped the clothes of the assassin; he was busy searching for clues that could help him identify from whence the assassin came from and from that, deduce the number of suspects from the large pool of enemies he has, who has enough money to hire assassins.

He saw three lines on an angle under his chest. Kusan instantly recognised who this was from as there was only one assassin guild that he could think of that had that mark.

‘So it’s the ‘Ghost’ guild huh?

Their service isn’t cheap and to hire three assassins with one at the 8th rank while two are at the 7th rank to deal with me, certainly only the nobles with a large wealth can only afford them.

I can think of about a hundred people in the Dojo who is capable of being able to buy their service. Looks like someone is going to be disappointed tomorrow, wonder how much money they had to spend.’

He smirked before he looted whatever the assassins had on them; it wasn’t surprising to find that all three had nothing besides the basic necessities like food to survive a few days. He didn’t forget to take the weapons with him, seeing that he couldn’t carry all of them in one arm since he could only use one arm.

He stripped all three assassins’ naked and turned their clothes into a makeshift rope that he used to bind all the weapons together. He then used majority of the clothes that weren’t used as ropes to be used as bandages as he wrapped them around his thighs.

Kusan’s countenance turned deathly pale but he endured, he took out an ‘Energy Pill’ to flush his body with much needed energy before he faints. However, the energy pill didn’t do much but fill 10% of Kusan’s total capacity but this was better than nothing since it had benefits.

Along with the new energy added into his low energy storage, since most of his energy was used up to move and help dampen his body’s pain while fighting, also elevate the feeling of sleeping that his body almost lured him into.

From the start to the finish of Kusan fighting against the assassins, it only took 15 seconds. However, that was enough to change Kusan from a drenched beggar to a badly and unrecognisable Kusan. Even with the black bandages and his half-burnt face, it doesn’t help his appearance much as he looks something akin to a zombie with his left arm hanging lifelessly.

Without a word, he shot into the air as he quickly made his way back to the Dojo before the pill effect expires. Nevertheless, it was evident that his speed had slowed down very much compared to his peak state speed. His speed now was like comparing a turtle with his peak state, which is the rabbit to a race.

Despite the large wounds on his thighs, he could still do this action as he poured all the energy he had left, into his thighs, thereby being able to move his legs. If he didn’t have any energy, there was no way he could have walked, much less jump from tree to tree because that is how much damage his thighs has sustained.