[https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/patreon-media/p/post/23711419/8ef209d8cd1c48cda62a14d4bcfde334/1.png?token-time=1578960000&token-hash=gEbYq6GT4Wx-z62mDlqzKZMr9ywduSUthwIZf2OPMA4%3D]
Chapter 98: Center
Savage Killer couldn’t understand how he ended up in this situation. Prior to this, he was an influential figure. Everywhere he walked under the flag of Heavenly Dragon Guild, people would always make way for him.
However, in this moment, when one particular man had appeared out of nowhere to block his infamous lance using a single hand, time seemed to stop.
The center of everyone's attention. No matter what emotions were contained within their eyes, be it terror or hope, all of them were fixated on this man alone.
The black wuxia clothing fluttering in the wind. The man grabbed Savage Killer’s lance tightly with his right hand. His remaining hand was put behind his back and his eyes were looking at Savage Killer.
The man who was on the blacklist of the Heavenly Dragon Guild: Player Sila, the Weapon Subduing Fist.
“Little Brother, are you okay?” Sila asked the young man behind him.
“I... I... I... I’m fine.” The young man’s voice stuttered again.
Savage Killer pointed his finger at Sila. “Who are you?!”
It was an absurd question. The young man had already shouted that this man was Weapon Subduing Fist Sila. Savage Killer lost himself because of the situation that changed way too fast. He realized immediately that his question was stupid and hurriedly changed it.
“This is a matter of the Heavenly Dragon Guild; do you dare to interfere?”
“I’m the Sila that you were just talking about. That deceased guy just now told everyone that if anyone interferes, they will be an enemy of Montra and the people from Heavenly Dragon Guild. Nevertheless, I’ve been Montra’s enemy from the start so the result will be the same no matter if I interfere in this or not, right?”
Before, Savage Killer still wasn’t one-hundred-percent certain when the young man declared that this man was Weapon Subduing Fist. However, this time, the man said so himself. There would be no way for Savage Killer to back off now.
Regrettably, his favorite weapon was stuck in the grasp of his opponent.
Sila smiled at the corner of his mouth. He pulled the lance to him and rotated it in mid-air. All of the seven hundred members in the army of the Heavenly Dragon Guild readied their weapons, waiting for their leader’s command.
“You want your weapon back, don’t you? Please take it.”
Sila infused the hot power of Tortured Soul into Savage Killer’s lance. The black lance glowed a fiery orange as if it was being melted by an intense flame. He charged at its owner, Savage Killer, at a high speed.
Savage Killer panicked, though he managed to lift his steel shield and clad it with psychic reinforcement in order to block the attack.
“Arghhhh!! Hot!!” Savage Killer’s lance penetrated through the shield. However, the direction of the tip of the lance was deflected by the shield and inflicted a wound on Savage Killer’s left abdomen. Still, the hot power in the lance caused the color of his armor to change to orange. Even the shield was starting to turn orange.
“Argh, you fools! What are you waiting for? Kill him!” Savage Killer quickly removed his armor and put down his shield. He ordered his subordinates to attack Sila while he himself hid within the army.
Regretfully, Sila had expected the attack to take his opponent’s life. He had attempted to infuse Worlds Crossing Bridge, which he rarely got the chance to use, into the lance in order to make the heat spread out to other objects that it touched. Well, Savage Killer seemed skillful to some degree. It was to be expected as he was a leader of the army.
However, this army wasn’t as strong as Sila had guessed. Conquering Colossia City that didn’t have the Royal Armament Guild to fortify it and wasn’t protected by any group of players was supposed to be an easy job. The march of this army was just a show since no one should be daring enough to oppose the Heavenly Dragon Guild for the time being.
A clamor resounded. Even though their leader made an order in a hurry, the army wasn’t thrown into disarray. Players in the frontline lifted their shields up while the players in the next row put their lances in the gaps between the shields. There were also an enormous number of arrows being fired into the sky, covering the sunlight.
“This is bad,” Sila panicked. He himself could dodge these arrows with Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps. However, the Heavenly Dragon Guild attacked without giving regard to the bystanders. The area around here was a rocky mountain without any areas that could provide cover. If these arrows rained down, more than a hundred bystanders would die.
‘No one must die because of me. Since I have acted to protect someone, I will stick with it to the very end.’ This was Sila’s thought.
“Lookhin, try to decrease the number of enemies as much as you can.”
Since Sila usually hadn’t ordered it to fight and Lookhin had powered up from eating the Solaria Card, it was very energetic. Lookhin unleashed a power even greater than Sila and flew into the sky, above the group of arrows.
As for Sila, he increased the size of Galaxy Eclipse’s radius to its maximum and activated Universe Momentum to pull every arrow to him alone.
It was a spectacular sight to behold. Thousands of arrows into the sky changed their courses and flew at Sila. Their combined form was like a vicious dragon made of arrows charging at him.
‘With this many, Moon Reflecting Mirror won’t work. In that case...’
Sila focally handled the dragon made of arrows with Universe Momentum and used his right foot as a rotating point. He dragged the dragon to fly around him with Worlds Crossing Bridge.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
If the number of the arrows was lower than this, Sila wouldn’t have to undergo this much trouble. Now, Sila’s concentration reached its peak to control the arrows to not stray off their path.
The arrows flew back into the sky and beautifully rained down. However, for the Heavenly Dragon Guild’s members, this was a hellish moment. The rain of arrows dropped from above. Despite the speed of the arrows being slow since Sila didn’t have time to infuse his power into them, based on how high they were in the sky, with the help of gravity, their destructive power wouldn’t be much different than before.
The system alert went off in Sila’s head, but he didn’t have time to focus on it.
[You have mastered Universe Momentum and Worlds Crossing Bridge, and successfully circulated them together. The two of them are now fused together and have become Universe Reversal.]
Many players in the army immediately raised their shields up to block the arrows, while many others tried to flee from the area.
Thousands of rocky spears emerged from the ground in the middle of the army. Lookhin didn’t take long to summon Earth Spears and attack the enemies. The army instantly fell into a chaotic state. They had to block against both the arrows from above and the Earth Spears from below.
It seemed like Lookhin had yet to feel satisfied. It summoned another gigantic sword made of flames in the sky. The size of the sword easily surpassed a five-storey building.
Sorrowful cries resonated non-stop. The flash of light when a player died occurred continuously, illuminating the army like shiny stars in the night sky.
The giant flame sword followed the rain of arrows and finally pierced through the ground, burning the area. The army of more than seven hundred players already had over two hundred casualties within a mere minute.
“Don’t fire the arrows!! Use a close-ranged weapon to kill him. As for that bird, use your spells to shoot it down!!” The sound of Savage Killer came from the middle of the army.
As the players in the army were aware that their leader was still alive and sound, their morale returned to some degree. Sila only had a short moment of rest after controlling an enormous number of arrows. He was surrounded by many weapons.
Lookhin summoned hundreds of smaller flame swords in the air and rotated them to both attack and defend at the same time. Since Lookhin possessed a psychic-type ability like Mind Connection, it could control these swords to some extent. It was very suitable to handle against many attacks that came from several directions.
Sila didn’t know since when, but Sangdao was now standing next to him. Sila was positive that Sangdao’s Hidden Weapon Mastery, Qi Concealment, and Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps were superior to his.
Sangdao’s version of Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps was the polar opposite of Sila’s. Sila’s footwork was quick and sharp. If the people watching him didn’t focus enough, they would only see his afterimages.
As for Sangdao’s, her footwork was slow and delicate. Each of her steps was gentle like a dragonfly landing on water. Every time she used Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps, the time around her seemed to slow down.
Her body swayed from the weapons coming at her. It was at that moment that her pale white Chinese sword on her left waist was unsheathed.
That was the last time Sila could have a clear look at her Chinese sword. Unlike her footwork, her swordsmanship was too quick for the naked eyes to follow. Waves of blades stabbed multiple times within a second as if she was an artist trying to paint the stars on a canvas. Every one of her attacks always struck a vital spot or forced the opponent to reveal one.
Slow footwork and quick swordsmanship. Two extremely different techniques in one person.
Even Sila himself wasn’t confident that he could cope with Sangdao’s series of attacks. However, this wasn’t the right time to think about that.
Sila was still more proficient in offense than defense. He clad his qi onto both of his hands and activated Formless Soldier, strengthening his hands like they were metal. He used them as shields and weapons, blocking enemies’ attack while hitting them.
Several roars could be heard from behind. Sila had no time to care but he still rotated his body to look at what had happened. He didn’t forget to kick one of his opponents while doing so.
The bystanders started to join the battle, helping Sila.
In this current situation, Savage Killer was at a loss for words. He had marched his army so far, reaching the gates of Colossia City. However, his quest to conquer it had failed even though it was supposed to be an easy task.
Savage Killer took out the Returning Scroll. Although he had to go back to where he had started, it was better than him being killed here.
“Arghh!” His left hand that was holding the Returning Scroll was suddenly severed without any sign. He even stood in the middle of the army.
The Returning Scroll fell on the ground. As he bent his back to pick it up using his remaining right hand, the same thing happened.
His right arm was severed. Savage Killer gnashed his teeth in pain while fearing the ruthlessness of the one who had ambushed him. With this level of ability, the one who ambushed him could easily end his life at any time, but he or she instead decided to bring fear to him by cutting off his arms.
Now, less than a hundred Heavenly Dragon Guild’s members remained. Many of them already focused on fleeing. However, the stone pillars emerged from the ground and blocked their paths. It was a hopeless situation for them.
Sila flicked both his wrists, firing off over twenty shurikens and kunais. For the demoralized enemies, these attacks were enough to take their life. Tens of Heavenly Dragon Guild members fell down and revealed the current state of Savage Killer. He lay on the ground with his arms missing.
Sila frowned at such a sight. Although it was true that he planned to kill Savage Killer, he didn’t like to torture his enemy. He thought Sangdao’s method of dealing with Savage Killer was excessive so he looked at her.
Sangdao looked into Sila’s eyes then shifted her gaze to Savage Killer’s state. She sheathed her Chinese sword and shook her head at Sila, informing him that it wasn’t her who had done that.
The rest of the army easily turned into light pillars at the hands of the bystanders. The only member left was Savage Killer who now lacked the ability to fight back.
Sila couldn’t bring himself to kill a person who couldn’t fight back. However, if he left this guy alone, this guy would be tortured by the remaining players.
As he was hesitating, the problem was solved in a single attack.
A hole appeared in the middle of Savage Killer’s forehead. It happened very fast with no trace of any weapon used on him. His body fell to the ground and turned into a light pillar.
Sila was still using Galaxy Eclipse so he could pinpoint the direction of the attack. He looked at the seven o’clock direction. Similarly, Sangdao did the same.
She said to Sila, “He or she used qi or psychic power as the arrow and fired it from a three-kilometer distance away. In Monster Soul, there are only two players who are capable of accomplishing such a feat. Dao guesses she must be the Soul Splitting Arrow Nednapha, the vice-leader of the Mountain Thieves League. The other is unlikely as he is Sun Extinguishing Warlord Shuran, a member of the Heavenly Dragon Guild.”
Sila took his eyes off the direction of the arrow. Lookhin flew and landed on Sila’s shoulder and dissolved the stone pillars made of its magic power. The pathway was in a mess but it was still possible for players to travel.
“Thank you for helping me, Big Brother.” The previous young man came and expressed his gratitude. Thanks to Sila and Sangdao who were staying at the frontline, no one in their side had died. At most, they were injured.
Sila smiled. “No problem. By the way, you’re quite good to be able to win in that one on one fight.”
“I think it was a coincidence though. Even I am not confident that my victory was real.”
Sila thought of his teacher Mora. There was a sentence that his teacher always told him when he was feeling down.
“If you’re not confident in yourself, then practice. Although this time might be a coincidence, the next time would not be. If we try hard enough, there is nothing that us humans can’t do.”
Sila said that while thinking that it was rather funny. He just said the exact same sentence that his teacher used to say to him without changing half a word. Recalling his teacher’s presence, Sila couldn’t help but miss him. He was dying to know his teacher’s wellbeing.
Hearing the encouragement from the person he admired, the young man’s eyes sparkled with hope. “I’ll try my best, Big Brother.”
Sila nodded. “We should go, Sangdao, otherwise we will be late.”
Sangdao nodded. Afterward, the two of them soared away with Lookhin flying behind closely. They entered the valley, through the shortcut that Sangdao had suggested.