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CHAPTER 40

This ruthless man had killed his vice-captain to wound him. He knew he was a mean bastard but had never seen such a vile move. All Gin could say, blood pouring from his mouth,

"Why?"

"You were useful enough, and you should be honored. If not for you, I might have lost the fight Hahahah!"

Instead of retreating, Kreegan lunged forward and grabbed Krieg by the throat with his left hand. The hidden blade was protruding from his right shoulder, and the lifeless body of Gin was hanging between them. Kreegan tried to squeeze Krieg's throat, but the armor protected his neck too. Don Krieg arrogantly sneered at Kreegan and said,

"Do you really think you can squeeze my Wootz steel armor?"

Kreegan said with hate-filled eyes,

"I don't have to; touching you is enough, Shocking Grasp."

Don Krieg started to scream in pain and rolled backward with smoke coming out of his mouth, but he did not pass out. Because of the sword sticking in his shoulder Kreegan was shocked a little bit, that is why his right shoulder was numb, but most of the electricity had gone to Krieg, and Gin's body had protected Kreegan.

He summoned Ichinami into his hand. He wasn't able to support his left hand with his right hand, so the attack wouldn't be as effective, but he still charged. Don Krieg said in a weak tone,

"Wait, I have many hidden tre..."

"Hiryu Kaen (Flying Fire Dragon)"

He rushed right past Don Krieg and fell on one knee. Kreegan smiled smugly and said,

"You should have gone for the head."

He tried to laugh, but his chest was hurting. He was breathing heavily and was exhausted. After a few more seconds, Lex had finished his fight too and had come to support Kreegan, but suddenly his body filled with power, and the wound on his right shoulder started to close up. He was as good as new and full of energy in a few seconds.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He heard the "ding!" sound, and it sounded like the best music to his ears. He had leveled up. It was a surprise to Kreegan, too, because he never was this hurt before a level-up. He knew leveling up filled him with energy, but he didn't know it would fix his wounds too.

This level-up gave him one attribute point, and he used it to boost his dexterity. He was able to train his strength, but training his speed was harder. Now he had 12 dexterity, and his strength was 9. He put points to his Persuasion, Perception, Mobility, and Athletics skills. He felt more in control of his body and felt like he could use 3 or 4 72-pound Phoenix techniques one after another. Now he had four level-1 and one level-2 spell slot.

He was able to choose Vanish and Ray of Enfeeblement spells. Vanish was something close to an invisibility spell that lasted for 30 seconds and would break when he attacked. But this spell didn't make the user fully invisible, it made him hard to see, but they could still realize something was there if they looked carefully enough.

On the other hand, Ray of Enfeeblement reduced the afflicted's strength by a third of the Kreegan's. Considering that the average adult male has a strength of 5, a human hit by this spell would lose 3.3 strength. Like any other debuff, this debuff affects people of the same level 100%. If there is a 1-level difference, there is a 50% chance of an effect; if there is a 2-level difference, it only has a 10% chance.

For his level-2 spells, first, he chooses Invisibility. This one was a real invisibility spell, and it made the user truly invisible, like the Suke Suke no Mi. Kreegan was going to use this spell until people started to use observation haki; until then, this spell will be really powerful. Of course, like the Suke Suke no Mi, people could hear him move too. Nonetheless, this was a powerful spell, and it lasted for 2 minutes or until he attacked.

As for his second level-2 spell, he chose a buff spell called Cat's Grace that provided a +4-dexterity buff for 5 min.

Since Kreegan had leveled up, the lock on the spell slots had been lifted. He didn't have to wait for 6 hours and could change his spells now. He had two ideas and wanted to see if it would work, so he put 1•Expeditious Retreat and 3 •Ray of Enfeeblement for level 1 slots. For the level 2 slot, he put • Cat's Grace.

Meanwhile, Lex, who was trying to hold the stairs, was starting to get tired because nearly 100 pirates were trying to get on the ship. It was a little easier to hold them on the narrow ramp, but tiring nonetheless. Kreegan jumped from the ship and landed at the end of the wharf.

All the pirates here were level 1. Kreegan wanted to use Ray of Enfeeblement. As the name states, this was a ray spell. It moved in a straight line and hit the first person it encountered. Kreegan had the ability to add his spells to his swords, but it only worked for touch spells because he needed to touch them with the sword to activate the spell.

After seeing this spell, he wondered if it would work for flying sword attacks. He cast Ray of Enfeeblement as he used Nanajuni Pound Ho (72 Pound Phoenix). The spell and the sword technique started to meld together and launch. The Nanajuni Pound Ho (72 Pound Phoenix) color was a vibrant blue, but this time it was in a sickly green color. It ripped through the pirates for 20 meters from 100 pirates.

Close to 80 of them died, but the other 20 didn't have anything other than a few scratches, but they had a really hard time even lifting their swords. It had worked. Even the tiniest scratches were enough to get affected, and because it was imbued to the flying sword attack, single target debuff turned into an aoe debuff. After killing every other pirate that was there, he got back on the ship.

"How the hell did you get that powerful? If you were that powerful, why didn't you kill Don Krieg faster."

"My magic got stronger after defeating Don Krieg, that is why."

He wanted to try one more thing, but first, he had to search the ship to see if Don Krieg had hidden something of worth. While he cut his head off, he was trying to say he had treasures.