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Volume 5
Chapter 221: Duel and Provocation
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The fires of the battlefield earlier had soiled the atmosphere with tar and smog so the dust clouds they were leaving in the background of the eternal darkness is very eye-catching.
As such the trails of dirt they were leaving were eye-catchingly beautiful to behold in a distance.
Until finally…
Just before the two of them met, time seems to go slow as a raindrop fell from the heavens. This single drop of water passed through the point of where their eyes were locked and not even long after that that the rest of the pouring rain also started to follow.
Still, just before they could even pass through the line where the two were clashing, these raindrops seemed to form a dodging sphere when the Godhammer’s shaft clashed with Kladis’ blade.
A very fast exchange ending in a very abrupt manner!
“Hm?”
Siva felt something on that rippled exchange stir up his mind as he borrowed the force of the clash to twist his body and dodge the barrel of Kladis’ gun pointed at his left eye.
“What happened to me? I’m sensing it… again…”
BANG!
VOOSH!
With a quick shift of his head, the bullet fired off from the barrel passed through his right temple, narrowly missing to injure him by taking his right ear.
A big shock was on Sivas heart.
“This feeling…!!”
BANG!
A second bullet was released and it was headed straight for Sivas stomach.
SWOOSH!
The bullet, again, was miraculously dodged as Siva shifted his weight and twisted his body left. His pose could even be said to be somewhat preparing for a counter strike at the opponent’s gunslinging accuracy.
“Ho? You’re really a god if you can’t dodge this simple attack of mine…”
Yet although Kladis was somewhat surprised, he was still trying to measure the opponent’s strength as he probed his dodging skills.
“But you move like an old man. Are you sure you’re an Elder God? Hehe…”
Following Kladis’s mockery, he shifted his hand a bit.
BANG!
A third bullet was fired and it was pointed at his right flank. Because Siva forced his body to follow his mind’s orders, he had long lost the ability to balance himself in that moment and so this bullet was going to hit him no matter what he does.
“Damn it.”
Siva clicked his tongue and braced himself for impact.
CLANG!
The bullet hit him in the chest and the bullet itself exploded with a fiery power akin to receiving a flame thrower’s fire spit thrown by a big league’s pitcher that hit him square right at his chest!
Not only that, as soon as the bullet hit, Kladis’s lips beamed out a smile that became laughter as loud and as deriding as a stage clown.
“Ahahaha…! Weak… Weak!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG…!!
Kladis didn’t let up and used that little opening, firing a multitude of volleying burning red colored bullets that flew in the air and his Siva square at his chest.
He saw the Elder God used his left hand to block the bullets but this action only made him deride on him more and more.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG…!!
It’s like the sound of stone hitting a tank’s shield but it was muffled and was so soft a sound that it was covered by Kladis’s seemingly deranged laughter.
“AHAHAHA! WEEEEEEEEEEAAAAKKKKK!!!”
Kladis was screaming in ecstasy. He laughed and fired his gun as he moved in on a lateral dive to deliver a decisive slash.
This laughter was rooted from the anger he felt from having lost more than half of his Armada.
Yes, he was the Supreme Commander of The Legion but only the core members knew who the real founder of The Legion was.
All support and logistics, planning, and in fact even the information gathering and contingency executions are all done by their ‘Chief Leader’ so of course, losing over half of the Armada in this quest in Alexandria are all going to be blamed on him… the Commander.
Kladis had every reason to vent all his frustration and anger into his opponent, thus the reason why for his unrestraint aggressiveness and desire to kill the NPC right off the bat.
SHUUUU… SHUUUUUUUU…!!
With flames as red and as bright as the sun, the fire exploded on Siva’s chest and arms that he was pushed back a few leaping steps’ distance with every impact of the fire bullets’ small muffled explosions.
A smile of victory beamed off of Kladis’ face as he knew that the fight was finished.
“Die!” Kladis roared and the left hand that held the blue-edged flawless-bladed sword arched to slash from Siva’s right side. “You aren’t good aft—!!”
Kladis’s words were cut short as he saw the still intact image of his opponent. From this short clash, it only lasted for five seconds and his mind registered too late the sound he heard on that impact just before the spread of fire.
The left arm of Donar that covered his face lowered for a bit and the glaring eyes that hid from it unleashed an incredible amount of enmity and murder.
Within the fiery image of Siva, his eyes could be seen locked on with Kladis and the left hand that held no Godhammer gestured in the air as if pulling a handful wind towards his side.
As Siva borrowed the force of impact of the muffled explosions of the fire bullets, Kladis could also be seen quickly closing the already small 3m gap in between the two of them.
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Virtually soundless and ethereal, two tiny masses of black matter, without any warning, formed behind Kladis’s head.
One aimed for his neck, the other was aimed for a strike as a backup.
The only sound they made was a whisper as soft as a gentle breeze of the wind. But the intent they carried was as deadly as a mantis stalking a sleeping cicada.
A pair scythes materialized just behind Kladis’s nape, the first one’s large hooked blade quickly forming in front of his neck. And the other was like a hoe that’s about to hack into an unsuspecting land.
Seconds suddenly and noticeably slowed down for a shocked Kladis! He… was like a hooked fish.
A feeling of dread sprouted on his heart and warned him like a mother!
SHAH!
A sharp sound of something fast ripped through his ears as Kladis felt his hair stand up and reflexively used all his might to flip vertically backward as fat as he could!
His magnificent swordplay exploded as he parried two nearly invisible black-colored slashes.
Sparks flew.
Two resounding clashes were heard.
One man was surprised while the other gritted his teeth and took a step forward.
“Tsk.”
“You won’t sneak up on me!”
Right after Kladis was caught off guard, he didn’t give Siva a chance to dive a sneak follow up on him as he pointed his gun and fired five shots that covered all approaches that Siva made to smash him from the sky.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Five blunt cries of the bullets hitting tough metal slate rung on his ears and Kladis clicked his tongue, as his face made a grim expression while his loud laughter is choked from his throat.
The soft breezy sound generated by this almost soundless materialization and its hair-racing execution caused Kladis to palpitate.
It was something that he really didn’t expect.
He was controlled by hate and dropped his caution to the wind, nearly causing him to lose in that moment.
Through the darkness of the sky, he couldn’t see it clearly but with the help of the pillars he had scattered during the attack of Akhenaton earlier, he was slightly able to make out the shape of what that thing he had just parried just now.
But as fast as it formed, it also vanished without as much as ingle trace. Not even a Mana fluctuation could be sensed from when it came and disappeared.
“What is that?!” apparently, Kladis was unable to guess that an Elder God would use Black Technology.
All he could see were two something black things that flew away in the dark skies and vanished when he swung his sword to repel them.
“…”
Siva was utterly surprised as well.
As far as he knew, the force and power behind the Black Tech’s physical damage is equal to the wielder’s own personal strength swung or thrown with his full might. And so, if Kladis was able to parry his Black Tech so easily like that means his strength and speed is much greater than his.
This is something that caused him to be alarmed.
Siva’s clothes burned but there was no damage as under those pontifical clothes he wore was the basic form of his Black Tech Weaponry: a hooded cloak which original [feature] was its defense and smooth-like-cloth texture and weight. In fact, it doesn’t even have a Weapon Function equivalent to the Legendary Weapons’ ‘Weapon Abilities’.
With but a thought command, the Black Tech cloak he wore writhed as if torrential rapids that grinded the fire with omni-directional movements of its surface.
ZHAAA… ZHAAAAA…!!
If the fire was a snake, then these hissing sounds were like its pleading as it was grounded into nothingness.
After seeing it, Kladis was also utterly surprised. He still couldn’t connect Black Tech with an Elder God but he already had doubts as to what that black cloak that covered the head and body of this detestable God.
His mind was veered away from that notion and instead focused on the idea of having witnessed the ability of Donar that aligned with something black and ‘Lightning Fast’.
Testing the waters had officially ended and they now knew the dangers that lay within. It’s either time for tactical maneuvers and a test of wit or a battle of men filled with pure and undeniable contest of strength.
The two hovered there in midair, 15m away at each other, and Siva looked at that blue-bladed sword with an interested eye.
“Good sword.” He hissed.
Kladis looked at the hovering God like an abominated existence, his eyes especially looking at that cloak that writhed as if it was alive.
“Your abilities ain’t bad…” Kladis hissed with disdain as he locked gazes with Siva. “I wonder though, after I am finished with you, will you be giving me some things that might cause me to become interested?”
Kladis was still a player and he treated Siva like a real NPC Boss that gives rewards after defeat.
Right now, Donar had gone from a holy-looking saint into a completely black clothed individual.
Even the aura of holiness from earlier is now gradually becoming a cold and sinister feeling of oppression and twisting rage. It’s like an ever burning fire that’s being compacted into a glass container.
In any given time, that glass container would explode and the rage within would burn anything within reach!
The longer Kladis was standing before him, the more painful this fury in his heart slowly eats away his rationality and control.
In fact, the signs of this hidden savageness of his personality were slowly surfacing.
This was represented by how the writhing black cloak seems like the boiling surface of the sun.
It was emitting either a tendril of an escaping arc or a visible ripple of a violent wave that wants to escape the control of the boiling surface.
Siva was aware; this familiar yet unfamiliar sensation was becoming progressively noticeable the more he bathes on its feeling of… being released from a bind.
It’s like a warm jacuzzi in the middle of a blizzard or a cool shower after a day’s work in the Sahara.
“If I let myself explode here, then the [Killing Zone]’s effects would undoubtedly reveal my identity.”
Siva was aware of the importance of his control over his own emotions.
He noticed… that ever since this whole farce began, he had felt that there was something inside his chest that wanted to go out as if it was trapped.
Siva remembers. He had once bathed in this feeling, back in the Forest of Anazon, and it gave him a trauma that he has yet to overcome even to this day.
So at least as of the moment, until he rescues Baron in Alexandria and get Scion back, he had to protect being exposed as Siva.
“You bastard! You touched Amanda and you threatened my brother’s safety… I really want to rip that smile on your face at this very moment! As soon as I get the threat of teleporting away out of the line, I wouldn’t think twice slaughtering you!”
Siva’s ultimate tactic was to use the 10m radius all-area summoning ability of the Black Tech in addition to the [less 70% defense] effect of the Killing Zone.
With these two, he can be sure that he could even give a decent fight against a matured Lapis Lazuli alone.
But his ultimate skill was also his biggest shackles.
Not until he was sure that he can explode and vent all his anger without constraints that he’s got no choice but to be as careful as he can and buy time with Kladis.
“……”
Siva was really surprised to the strength that the latter had revealed.
Seeing him right now, all black and his face now hidden in the hood of darkness, a mocking smirk appeared on Kladis’ face.
“So is this the ultimate form of Donar? Now I see your true nature. You aren’t some holy God of War… you’re a demon of war and that black cloak wholly represents you perfectly!”
If he was an NPC, Siva would be enraged with his entire divinity being mocked like a normal person.
But he was Siva and these words had no effect on him.
What has an effect on him, however, was the fact that he had to worry so many things while fighting Kladis.
Although stowing the seconds was important, it was also gnawing at his mind every moment. He really had a feeling of being choked right now.
“I really want to murder you.” Siva cursed in his heart.
Just thinking of the things Kladis did with Scion was making his mind blank out with rage and fury.
Especially when he thinks that this very same person is the one responsible for endangering Baron who was still trapped somewhere in Alexandria.
Although he wasn’t provoked, his patience and control was actually running out and it was the reason why he was squirming to unleash this burning hatred at him.
Their distance was only 15 meters and it was a distance that can be traversed with a single step if the two of them decided to clash.
FLASH!
Siva’s hands summoned two guns and without any kind of warning, started firing at Kladis.
BANG! BANG! BANG…! BANG…!!
“Heh… you can’t use your divinity so you rely on mortal weapons to fight? You’re so pa––thetic!”
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG…!!
As if a movie, Kladis’s swordplay was something to be wary and scared of.
He would only sway his body and lazily swing his sword and the rain of bullets fired off from Siva’s guns would either be redirected into another direction, or dodged entirely and missed to hit its mark, or be cut, or be flattened when parried by the flat side of the sword.
And yet, when his bullets hit that blue sword of Kladis, they’d turn into bluish specks of sparks that scatters into the darkness.
It’s like the blade was made of the coldest material that somehow freezes anything that touches it.
Sparks would fly out every time a bullet hit the sword and each time that Kladis successfully evaded being hit, a disdainful scoff would be heard as he takes a few steps to close in the distance each and every time.
BANG! B-B-B-B-BANG! B-B-B-BANG...!!
CLANG! C-CL-C-C-CLANG…!!
Sometimes, Kladis would fire from his own gun and it would clash with Siva’s bullets, creating a display of sparkling collision in the dark canvas.
“Ahahaha! Is that all you’ve got, God of Weaklings?”
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Next chapter: Trump cards and abilities explode.