Rage unlikely anything he had ever known started rising within Blaze. The image of Helen being pierced through and almost dying appeared in his mind, before being replaced by the figure of the young man carrying a mocking smile.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOUUU!!” Blaze screamed as he charged at Theo with his ginormous sword.

Theo laughed and blocked Blaze’s attack with his sword. “I’d love to see you try!” he mocked.

The two exchanged dozens of blows within a few seconds.

“Fire blade!” Blaze yelled, shooting out a blade of fire. Theo jumped into the air and flipped back, making the blade pass right underneath his nose, before landing elegantly on his feet again.

“Water assault!” came another voice.

Just as Theo landed, Cyrus activated his rank two artifact, shaped like a seashell. A large number of water balls appeared in the air and shot towards Theo.

“Snake walk!” Theo moved extremely fast and started easily dodging the barrage of water balls. While dodging, Theo started making his way towards the rank two artifacts as well.

“Oh no you don’t! Firestorm!” Blaze screamed. A whirlwind of fire shot out of his blade towards Theo who was already running from the barrage of water balls.

“Tst,” Theo cursed and stopped running. He closed his eyes and mana started flowing out of his inner realm and gathered into his palm.

“Rock python!”

A huge amount of mana burst from his body as a fifteen-foot-long python suddenly appeared. It was made completely from rock and earth and coiled around Theo, radiating a powerful, rank two aura.

The python glared at the oncoming attacks. Just before they were about to hit, the snake hissed loudly. Large and thick walls of earth appeared around Theo, before bending and forming into a dome. The powerful fire whirlwind and barrage of water balls attacked the earth dome from either side, but they were unable to break through.

“Fire blade!”

“Water assault”

The duo didn’t give up and began attacking the earth dome relentlessly. Soon, cracks started forming.

“This is it!” Blaze yelled. “Dragon step!”

Blaze’s body became a fiery mist and he disappeared, before quickly arriving just above the earth dome.

“Dragon kick!” Blaze activated his rank two martial technique and his leg became covered in flames as he shot down towards the dome ferociously.

However, just before he was about to make contact, the earth dome retracted on its own and the rock python shot out to meet his charge.

Boom!

The force of the collision sent vibrations through the air. However, the spirit’s strong defence allowed it to face Blaze’s attack head-on.

Theo used this split-second opportunity to shoot towards the inheritance.

“No!” Blaze and Cyrus yelled simulatenously, but it was too late.

Theo reached the rank two artifacts and took them into his storage pouch. With a smirk, he turned around to see a panting Cyrus, and Blaze who was quickly getting the upper hand with the rank two rock python.

Suddenly, the entire village started shaking and the buildings began breaking down piece by piece.

“See ya losers!” Theo laughed as he started running away.

“Stop him!” Blaze yelled at Cyrus. He just needed a little more time to finish off the rock python.

“Don’t you dare!” Cyrus yelled as he lunged at Theo with his sword.

Theo laughed and easily blocked him. Being just an early-stage steel body martial artist, Cyrus was no match for Theo with his late-stage steel body and warrior mage cultivation, and powerful artifacts and martial techniques. Theo quickly gained the upper hand and pushed Cyrus away before starting to leave again.

“Take this!” yelled Blaze. He managed to briefly stun the rock python with a powerful attack, giving him the opportunity to sprint towards Theo. However, the building next to him suddenly collapsed and Blaze was forced to change direction to avoid getting crushed.

“Haha! Seems luck is on my side!” laughed Theo as he joyfully ran towards the exit.

However, just as he passed the village gates, his smile faded and he came to a stop.

Standing in front was a young boy, just over twelve years old. He was wearing a blue robe decorated with white designs with a sword strapped to his side, an expensive-looking amulet, and leather gloves and boots.

Theo’s keen insight told him that almost every piece of clothing the boy was wearing was a powerful artifact. Beyond that, he had seen the boy fight before. He couldn’t underestimate him, even if he was at the same cultivation realm as Cyrus.

The boy was startled to see Theo. Then, his eyes narrowed and the boy became visibly enraged as if he was facing his mortal enemy.

“It’s you!” yelled Drake.

Behind Theo, Drake also noticed Blaze and another steel body martial artist. Given their flustered and anxious expressions, plus the collapsing village ruins, Drake easily guessed what must have happened.

Drake reacted immediately.

“Water bullets! Chain lightning!” Drake activated runes on both his gloves and started shooting out various spells. He knew he couldn’t beat Theo on his own, but he just had to stall him for a little while till Blaze and the other martial artist joined him.

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Even Theo wouldn’t be able to take on all three of them.

Theo became serious and dodged all of his attacks before charging towards Drake.

“Light barrier!”

Drake poured mana into his robe to activate one of its runes and summoned a barrier of light which blocked Theo’s attack.

“Damn it!” Theo cursed and jumped back before attacking again.

Drake slammed his left hand on the ground.

“Water pillars!”

Theo sensed danger and dodged to the side just as a powerful pillar of water shot out of the ground where he was standing a moment ago. The next instant, Theo started charging at Drake again, but another pillar of water appeared in front of him, forcing him to change direction. Anytime Theo tried to get close to Drake or escape, a water pillar would appear and block his path. He also couldn’t stay in the same spot as a water pillar would attack him from underneath.

Blaze sensed Theo fighting someone but he wasn’t sure who. In the time Drake was engaging Theo, he managed to defeat the rock python spirit, escape the collapsing buildings, and rush towards their battle. Blaze was elated to see Drake holding back Theo and grinned.

“Not so lucky after all are you?” Blaze laughed loudly as he approached Theo with tremendous speed.

Theo’s eyes narrowed. He dodged another water pillar, just as Blaze struck down on him with his huge sword, forcing Theo to block. Facing the full force of Blaze’s strength and momentum, Theo was barely able to hold on. Just then, he sensed another water pillar about to erupt underneath him and cursed.

He tilted his sword sideways, deflecting Blaze’s attack, and jumped back. A water pillar erupted at the last moment and grazed his leg, leaving a scratch, but Theo was mostly unhurt.

Midair, Theo reached into his storage pouch and summoned a round artifact. Drake and Blaze recognised it but didn’t panic, knowing that a smokescreen wouldn’t be enough to help him escape this time.

Theo poured his mana into the artifact and crushed it. Immediately, it released a large plume of smoke that covered the area several metres around him. Drake had his acute sense ready and was noticing every movement within the smoke, along with Blaze.

The moment Theo came out, they would pounce.

At this moment, Cyrus had also escaped and arrived at the battlefield, and the three surrounded Theo, or rather, his smokescreen.

A few seconds passed, but Theo didn’t come out. However, everyone soon started feeling a large amount of mana gathering inside the smoke.

‘What’s going on?’ thought Drake warily.

Another few seconds later, the smoke screen dissipated, revealing Theo. His palms were glowing with mana and he looked at the three surrounding him with a mocking smile.

“Since you guys want to use numbers against me, how about we make it even?” he laughed.

“Black python!”

“Rock python!”

“Lightning python!”

The mana in his palms condensed into three balls of black, white, and purple light which rose into the air and transformed into the figures of three large pythons. Each was almost twenty feet long and hissed menacingly at the group.

“Go!” Theo ordered.

The pythons immediately sprang into action. The lightning and earth python charged towards Blaze, while the black python jumped at Drake.

Drake immediately summoned a light barrier to hold the python at bay, while retaliating with a crescent slash which the python easily dodged.

On the other hand, Blaze met the charge of both pythons with his huge sword. The offensive and defensive skills of the lightning and rock python complemented each other well, making it difficult for Blaze to find an opening.

With the pythons engaging the two of them, Theo turned towards Cyrus with a menacing grin. Helpless, Cyrus readied his sword and faced Theo with a grim expression.

However, something unexpected happened.

“Dragon roar!”

Blaze activated another one of his rank two martial techniques and the booming roar of a majestic dragon echoed out across the surroundings. The roar sent vibrations through the surroundings, shaking the very ground they were standing on. The two pythons who were closest to him became stunned, giving Blaze an opening.

“Dragon step!” he whispered and disappeared, before appearing in the air behind Theo. “I’m not letting you get away again – fire blade!”

Blaze released a blade of fire extremely close to a surprised Theo.

“Water assault!” yelled Cyrus as he attacked Theo from the other side with his artifact.

Theo smirked. He ducked and rolled to the side and the water assault met the fire blade, completely cancelling each other out.

“NOOOOO! You idiot!” yelled Blaze, but the pythons had recovered by this time and charged at Blaze, forcing him to focus on them.

The scene split into three battlefields - Drake engaging the black python, Blaze the lightning and rock python, and Cyrus confronting Theo himself.

With a smirk, Theo charged at Cyrus with incredible speed. Cyrus didn’t even have time to think, but luckily, his body reacted out of instinct and he raised his arm just in time to block Theo.

As Theo attacked at superhuman speeds, Cyrus’s instincts barely managed to help him keep up. But, Cyrus was getting pushed back with each strike ferociously.

However, Cyrus wasn’t completely helpless. Coming from the Blackthorne family, he had been given several artifacts as well.

Cyrus reached into his storage pouch and brought out a bronze goblet. He poured mana into the goblet and a stone wall suddenly erupted before him, blocking Theo.

However, Theo didn’t retreat. Instead, he smirked and activated one of his martial techniques.

“Skewer!” he shouted as he struck the wall with the tip of his sword.

This martial technique increased the piercing strength of his sword and soon caused numerous cracks to appear on the wall. Theo raised his sword and attacked the wall again with all his might. The wall couldn’t take it anymore and, within moments of appearing, crumbled away.

“Snake walk!”

Theo disappeared and appeared behind Cyrus before he could process the instant collapse of his wall. Theo clawed his left palm back to his hip, coiling his muscles into a tight spring. Then, unleashing the pent-up energy in a single burst, he lashed out viciously with his palm aimed at Cyrus' back.

“Immobilise!” Theo activated another martial technique which not only launched a powerful attack but made the opponent temporarily freeze, similar to Drake’s freeze palm.

Cyrus gasped and spat out blood as his back felt like it had been hit by a truck. All the muscles in his body froze and he fell face first into the ground.

“It’s over!” Theo yelled, bringing his sword down on Cyrus’s neck.

However, a shadow appeared over both of them and Theo suddenly felt a huge threat appear behind him. Alarm bells began ringing in his mind unlike ever before, but he couldn’t react in time.

A cold voice spoke out.

“Chain. Lightning.”

A huge bolt of lightning appeared behind him and shot forward ferociously. Theo only managed to creak his neck back in time to see the lightning bolt inches away from his face.

BOOM!

The collision sent echoes across the battlefield. Lightning struck Theo at point-blank range and sent him flying. The lightning bolt branched into smaller streaks of lightning which twisted around to continue battering his body as well as the surroundings.

Seeing this, the black python which Drake had momentarily managed to get away from, charged at Drake again. However, Drake faced the charge calmly and poured mana into his sword, activating both of its runes. The sword became covered in fire with lightning coiling around it.

Drake met the python’s charge with his sword, but the python hissed in pain as the fire and lightning started burning its body. Taking this opportunity, Drake slashed sideways at its neck, severing its head, and turning it back into mana.

Theo was in incredible pain. Being hit by a rank two artifact’s attack at such a close range was devastating. However, Theo knew that if he gave up now, it’d be over. So, he bit his lip and reached into his storage pouch. While Drake was finishing off the python, Theo took out several rank three healing pills he was given for emergencies and consumed them. His wounds closed rapidly and he managed to recover somewhat. However, by the time he managed to catch his breath and turn around, a flaming sword was pointed at his neck.

‘Is this it for me?’ he closed his eyes and wondered.

However, the finishing strike never came.

“What are you doing Drake!?! Finish him!” Blaze yelled, finally stabbing and killing off the lightning python before being attacked by the rock python again.

But Drake hesitated. He had never killed someone before and now, despite his hatred for Theo, he still struggled to find it in him to kill someone else.

Surprised, Theo opened his eyes and saw the hesitation in Drake.

He smirked.