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Chapter 236: A Battle on a Roadside
Burapha summoned his lance and stopped in his tracks. His gaze fell onto a certain red-haired man sitting under an ice tree with his eyes closed. The man in red magician clothing embroidered with the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s emblem opened his eyes to look at Burapha, but closed them once more when he realised that Burapha wasn’t the one he had been waiting for.
“Revin…!” exclaimed Burapha.
He had taken a route outside the city by walking through a snowfield. Unexpectedly, he found Revin sitting under a tree.
Burapha turned left and right before asking, “Could it be that you’re waiting to ambush me?”
Revin replied without opening his eyes, “Ambush you? Don’t think too highly of yourself. I’m waiting for someone else.”
Thinking about why Revin was here, Burapha came up with the same answer as Sila. It seemed the Heavenly Dragon Guild was also interested in recruiting people in Belacia City.
Nevertheless, Burapha didn’t understand why Revin didn’t remove his guild’s emblem.
“Don’t you know that people in this place don’t like those who belong to a guild?” Burapha stared at the symbol on Revin’s clothing. It was the symbol of a Chinese dragon curling into a shape of the number eight in Arabic.
“Hm? Montra said I could do whatever I want. And about this, this is the Sky Dragon, our dojo’s symbol, not the guild’s.”
Naturally, Burapha was aware of the Sky Dragon Dojo. In fact, it would be strange if he wasn’t. Montra was extremely famous in the real world, and the same could be said about his father’s martial arts dojo—the Sky Dragon Dojo. If one were to have a letter of recommendation from that place, they would have a brighter future in various professions such as military, law enforcement, professional sports, or even entertainment. For example, the most famous action star in Thailand had once trained his martial arts at the dojo.
In a sense, Montra was exploiting the dojo’s reputation by using it in the game. In fact, the Wulin Masters Association had a rule preventing such an act. However, Montra used a loophole. He changed the symbol from a green dragon to a white one and changed the name from the Sky Dragon to the Heavenly Dragon. With these two changes, the Elders couldn’t claim he was breaking the rules.
Even though the symbol wasn’t exactly the same as the original, the influence it carried was no less. There were always those who wanted to join the Sky Dragon Dojo but couldn’t do it because of restrictions such as physique, distance, or time; they could join the Heavenly Dragon Guild instead. Although it wasn’t exactly the same place, they would feel like they had successfully become a part of the dojo. Ultimately, they became the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s assets.
Although Revin acted like he wasn’t interested in Burapha, he was secretly probing him. Reading an opponent was an important skill in a battle. The fact that Burapha was here meant he was traveling from the western side of the city to the north using the most efficient route for people who were on foot. He must be either extremely confident in his ability or unaware of the existence of the White Giant, the Lord Rank monster who wandered around outside the city. It was an impregnable monster that even the citizens of Belacia City had no choice but to avoid, abandoning the route outside the city in the process.
“Coming alone, huh? No one can help you this time, then. Hmm~ I think I will reduce your levels while waiting as a warm-up.” Revin stood up as he swept the snow off his clothing.
Burapha had witnessed Revin’s speed before. Revin’s movements were as violent as a meteor. Burapha knew he couldn’t keep up with Revin’s top speed. Thus, running away would be a bad choice. His only path to surviving this crisis was to subdue Revin using his own strength.
Burapha knew his strength was still far from competing against Revin, but he didn’t give up. He slowed down his breathing and calmly emitted several small ripples of psychic power to secretly sink into Revin’s veins. His lance on his hand was firm, pointing forward.
“Oh, your battle stance is more praiseworthy than last time, it seems. Well, is it just the surface that’s good?” Revin asked, before chanting, “Flaming Blades of the Underworld.”
A cluster of flame materialized into a heavy sword. Revin gently held it with both hands and swung it twice before pointing the tip at Burapha. His Dragon Scale and Dragon Domain were activated, causing the nearby snow to melt and become a puddle of water.
Revin bravely strode forward and brandished a heavy sword with no trick, only pure speed. His attack was as fierce as a rising flame.
“Water Spirit,” Burapha activated one of his racial skills. All the water in the area was sucked into the center and turned into a dome filled with water, submerging both Revin and himself.
The water sphere could reduce temperature by some degree, yet it couldn’t reduce the fierceness of Revin’s heavy sword at all.
The cold water become warm, then eventually became boiling. Yet, Burapha calmly looked at the incoming attack. His expression didn’t change even though he felt he had already taken half a step through death’s door.
When Sila mentioned he should become more calm as the battle heats up, Burapha didn’t think the battle would literally become hot like this.
A thin layer of Burapha’s psychic power could only manage to fend off a hundredth of Revin’s offensive might. However, there were several layers. As he let his power go freely, his psychic power automatically generated multiple ripples at high speed. On the other hand, if he tried too hard when controlling it, the creation speed would be slower.
Psychic power was easier to utilize compared to qi. More importantly, it could develop even easier in a moment of crisis. That was because people naturally and instinctually strived for survival.
Several small ripples of Burapha’s psychic power negated most of Revin’s attack. The Eastern Sea Sailing Lance Art was indeed a profound defensive art. Once the tip of his lance connected with Revin’s heavy sword, upon defending, Burapha’s waves of power naturally ran through the lance and reached Revin.
Sensing that Revin had only a faint amount of power clad around his own body, Burapha was confused as to why that was the case.
“Blub, blub, blub,” Revin was saying something underwater. Based on the movements of his lips, he seemed to be saying, “That wasn’t half bad.”
Then, Revin’s seemingly dormant power exploded in an instant, from the size of a candle’s flame to that of a volcano. Triple Sky Energy helped Revin achieve the feat of igniting his power in the blink of an eye.
The impact sent Burapha flying. If not for the defense options attached to his lance made by Zeref, Burapha would have already burnt to a crisp. Thanks to it, Burapha got off alive with only a few burns.
Burapha finally understood Revin’s fighting style. Many told him that Revin was like a flame. However, he could give a deeper explanation for it. Revin’s flame was different from Lone Wolf’s which was hot and warm like the sun. Revin’s flame wasn’t an ordinary flame but a volcano that could erupt any time. The eruption might be temporary, but an instant was more than enough if the timing was right.
Even though Burapha’s brain understood it, his body couldn’t keep up with the damage dealt. He remembered Mamon once told him that his recovery speed would be higher when he was near a source of water. Therefore, he muttered a skill activation to submerge himself in the dome made of water, reducing his pain from the burn wounds.
“Uwah, you didn’t die again,” Revin complained.
Even though Revin seemed playful, unlike Kawin who always gave his opponent a chance to attack as he waited for the right time to counter, Revin rarely played with his opponent as he always dealt a powerful blow. Although he loved fighting, if his opponent died too fast, that was their own fault for being too weak.
In any case, it wasn’t like Revin deliberately held back against Burapha. It was more like he miscalculated Burapha’s strength. As a result, he exerted insufficient power to take down his opponent.
His first chance to kill Burapha had come and gone. Revin stopped his feet. He didn’t continue his attack against his opponent since he spotted one more person behind Burapha.
That person was Bluebird.
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“I planned on finding you so I could warn you not to use a route outside the city, as you may encounter the White Giant. As it turns out, you encountered a dragon instead. You are a jinx similar to Sila, I’d say,” Bluebird said to Burapha, his gaze locked onto Revin.
Burapha knew that he could rely on Bluebird in a time of crisis, so he felt less tense as he took his time opening a health potion. He poured it into the water dome so it could be diluted, healing his external wounds. Meanwhile, he healed his internal wounds using psychic power.
“Bluebird... the Blue-Colored Catastrophe. Even though I have been here for only a couple of days, I still know how much the people in the city loath you. Is it a good idea for you to come out of hiding?”
“Actually, my title is the Bluebird of Happiness, or you can call me the Sky Emperor. I won’t mind either way.”
“You must not be aware of how the word ‘Sky’ is important to us. It’s a part of our dojo’s name, not something you should take lightly. I know you aren’t our direct enemy, but I won’t let you off.”
Revin took out a sword from his system window. It was a short sword with a futuristic design. Anyone would recognize at first glance that it was made in Lost Grea City. In fact, it was likely that Orpheus himself had created the sword.
“Let’s have some fun, Mister Bluebird of Happiness.”
Revin waved his sword, and its length extended, becoming a three-meter-long sword. The circuit embedded in the black blade let off an orange glow.
Bluebird showed no hesitation when he announced, “Lust!”
Blue vapor came out of Bluebird’s body and formed into the shape of a half-naked, slender woman. She was hugging him from behind like a lecher. Though, she was a lecher who could help her host by bringing out the most of their potential.
—Mmm... Solaria’s magic spells are powerfully offensive with no regard for defense. Based on what I see, your opponent’s fighting style is the type who can boost his power in an instant. His weapon is the Explosia Sword which can generate grenades through the user’s magic power. If you can use water-elemental magic spells, the fight will be completely in your favor. Still, there are many other ways to win, so don’t worry.
Asmodeus whispered words next to Bluebird’s ears.
Eight blue tailorbirds flew out from Bluebird’s ring and dispersed as bird feathers, leaving behind eight lightning balls floating around him.
“Hmm? What is this?” Revin looked at what Bluebird did with interest. He loved fighting in the game more than in real life mainly because each opponent he met in the game always had an exciting fighting style.
“Prepare yourself!” Bluebird said as one of the lightning balls vanished. Surprisingly, he also disappeared from Revin’s line of sight.
Revin spun his body and swung his sword back, hitting Bluebird. However, the blue vapor cloaking Bluebird was too hard for his sword to penetrate.
At the same time, Bluebird clapped his hands in front of Revin, and blinding light covered Revin’s vision.
“Blinding Blue Flash.”
Bluebird’s magic spell caused Revin to temporarily become blind. Revin had to rely on his hearing instead. All he could catch was the sound of pieces of clothing rubbing together.
It appeared that Bluebird swiftly circled around Revin as he released two spells that he had delayed beforehand.
“Double Thunderclap!”
It was a combo Bluebird came up with on his own. He impaired the opponent’s sense of sight first. Then, most people would immediately and automatically rely on their ears, which he would exploit by creating thunderous sound next to their ears.
The exploding sound rang twice near Revin’s ears before everything went deathly silent. His vision was blurry, only seeing several small, glowing balls flashing around in the darkness, and his hearing was impaired, with ringing filling his ears.
He had no other choice but to completely rely on his profound sense. Strangely, he sensed tiny masses of bird-shaped magic power near him while Bluebird was standing quite far away.
If his hearing was still fine, Revin would have heard Bluebird’s constant casting of a spell named “Mark of Lightning.”
For the record, Mark of Lightning was a kind of ridiculous spell that caused the user’s body to illuminate and be incapable of using magic power until the user physically hit the target, and that would leave a mark on the target’s body. Once the target with the Mark of Lightning on their body was hit by any lightning-element spell, the effects of the spell would be doubled.
The reason why this skill was obsolete was that it forced the user, a magic-type player, to engage in close combat with no access to magic.
Cleverly, Bluebird exerted this spell through his flock of tailorbirds. A hundred of them repeatedly pecked Revin, and the skill, Mark of Lighting, was completed. Although the effectiveness of the spell used through his birds was only a thousandth of the usual, Bluebird relied on quantity over quality.
On the other hand, Revin could neither see nor hear what was happening to him. He only felt that he was being pecked continuously, and it was annoying. Unbeknownst to him, his body was covered in so many Marks that it would be easier to pick out the few areas that were untouched.
“Damnit! Quit playing around!”
Revin exploded flames through his Dragon Scale. The tailorbirds were burnt to death and fell to the ground. By this point, Revin’s vision had started returning to normal. Unfortunately, the time he spent on dealing with the birds was enough for Bluebird to finish the incantation of one of his high-tier magic spells.
“O, Great Lightning Eagle, Thunderixth, who stays above the peak of the Sky-Breaking Canyon, please let me, thy lowly servant, borrow thy wings to soar high above my foes, thy eyes to look down on them, and thy lightning to punish them. As thine marvelous light shines and thine blazing thunderbolts rain down, my foes shall be turned to ash with no traces left of their existence. Wings of the Sky-Blue Lightning Eagle.”
The sky twisted as two holes appeared above Revin’s head. Two blue thunderbolts struck him from different angles, making them seem like a pair of wings belonging to a giant creature.
Furthermore, the lightning remained there as it continued to electrocute Revin thanks to the Marks of Lightning on his body. Revin had to put his all into cladding his body with magic power reinforcement and strengthening his Dragon Scale to resist the continuous waves of attacks. His deep red eyes glared at Bluebird.
Wings of the Sky-Blue Lightning Eagle also possessed the ability to stiffen the target. As it was repeated, this attribute would continue to lock Revin down until he died or all of the Marks were consumed. The sight of the pair of blue wings locking Revin in place was similar to two massive chains sealing him from another dimension.
Bluebird approached Burapha. “Oi! Enough healing. Let’s get outta here.”
Opening his eyes and seeing the state Revin was in, Burapha was shocked. “W-What is that?”
“I’m sealing him with bolts of lightning through my godly technique. Well, it won’t last long, so let’s run. I will bring you to the Medical Saint. He will cure you faster than you doing it yourself.”
Burapha looked at Revin who was unleashing his full power in order to break free from the chains of lightning. He gulped his saliva at such a sight.
“Why don’t you just defeat him once and for all?”
“This is already my strongest spell. Since he didn’t die from the first hit, just run. The only reason he isn’t coming after us is thanks to the attribute of my spell. He can still exert his strength as usual though. I don’t think I can take him down.”
“You’re the same as always, Bluebird...” A hoarse voice came from a different direction, which prompted the three people to look at a new visitor.
Bluebird’s face went pale at first, but he regained his cool once he saw the person. He released a sigh of relief. “Phew... You scared me there, Kraizer.”
A large man with a broad chest slowly walked closer. His only defensive equipment was a shoulder guard and pants. Hanging on his waist was an abnormally large katana which was at least twice the size of a normal sword.
“For you to dare to return to this place, you have my praise. Do you know how much the people here hate you?”
“Luckily, that excludes you. Anyway, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you head to where the bell rang instead?” Bluebird asked as his gaze was still locked onto Revin.
“This man challenged me to a sword duel. Unfortunately, my challenger was snatched, and it was even done by Bluebird, the number one escaper, at that. Who will believe me if I tell them? Hahaha!” Kraizer pointed at Revin.
“Oh, in that case, he is yours now. I will leave. Come, Burapha, let’s go.”
Kraizer shook his head. “This man is injured. It will be no fun even if I fight him. Let’s have a match in three days, then, Revin.”
Finally, Revin was released from Bluebird’s spell. His Dragon Scale had protected him from lightning. Although his health points had dropped, there were no visible big wounds on his body.
“No need to postpone the match. My injuries are only external.”
“I don’t mean Bluebird’s childish thunderbolts. He is a crowd control type. Even his strongest attack is not life-threatening. The reason I’m postponing the match is because of this kid’s power.” Kraizer pointed at Burapha.
Bluebird frowned. Although what Kraizer said was true, it was irritating to be told so directly. Indeed, he specialized in speed so he focused on learning spells with relatively short incantations with no regard for the destructiveness of the spells. The damage that his high-tier spells could deal was, at most, equal to mid-tier spells that focused on strength.
“Eastern Sea Sailing Lance Art... Kid, how are you related to Kirishima Kai, the One-Eyed Evil God?” asked Kraizer.
“Do you know my dad?” Burapha was confused because there was a person who knew his father.
“I lost to him once in a fight. Be careful if you want to live in this city. There are many people here who dislike the One-Eyed Evil God.”
“Aren’t you Bluebird’s enemy? You’re a citizen of Belacia City, aren’t you?” Revin was confused. As far as he knew, everyone in this city hated Bluebird. However, that didn’t seem to be the case with Kraizer. In fact, they were on good terms.
“Mmm. That depends on each person, I’d say. Actually, Ryou also doesn’t hate him because of that event. He just wants to hunt him since he heard even Zero couldn’t catch Bluebird alive. It’s a whole other story.”
Bluebird nodded. “We’ll take our leave, then. See you again.”
Bluebird and Burapha intended to re-enter the city. Nevertheless, Revin refused to let them go. “You asked for permission from the wrong person. If you want to leave, you must consult me first. How about one-versus-three? I won’t mind it.”
Burapha tensed. However, there was no fear in Bluebird’s expression. He didn’t even look back since he knew how reliable Kraizer was.
“The current you is no match for me. At the very least, you have to get healed first,” Kraizer said as he pulled his katana, Heaven’s Sword of Punishment, out. His qi ran through his veins.
Qi, magic, and psychic power flew and united together in the katana. White aura enveloped the blade, materializing a giant blade pointing at the vast sky. Kraizer struck it down powerfully. His strike was mighty as if he was delivering a punishment from heaven, cleaving the sky into two.
Revin raised his Explosia Sword to block the attack. He ignited the power in the sword instantly before the moment of impact.
BOOM—!!
The crashing sound reverberated. Kraizer stood still as he sheathed his katana while Revin coughed up blood. For the record, he wasn’t affected by the previous exchange against Kraizer as both strikes perfectly negated each other. Rather, he was injured from Burapha’s psychic power that erupted when he unleashed his full strength.
“As I said, three days later,” Kraizer repeated as he left. This time Revin didn’t hold him off since he was finally aware that he had an internal injury. Even though it wasn’t major, it would become a decisive factor when fighting against an opponent of Kraizer’s caliber.
Revin sighed as he returned to lean against the previous tree. It seemed he had to let Kraizer keep the title Master of Swords for three more days.
“This city sure is fun.” Revin smiled at himself before closing his eyes and starting the healing process.