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Xoria: The Mage Who Plays With Swords
Chapter 11: Imperfect Sixth Sense

Chapter 11: Imperfect Sixth Sense

Certainly almost any beginner or even advanced Xor Users would perish under this perfectly timed elimination attempt. The axe swung even before Efy had opened the door, granting him limited time to react. The axeman was certain he would decapitate his target and plunder wonderful items.

As Efy stepped out the door, everything in his body was telling him to lean backwards, and so he did. Efy was able to successfully but barely dodge the attack, leaving a shallow graze on his neck.

Yikes, if I had not trained with Mr. Choppo, I’d be beheaded right now. I only managed to dodge the attack narrowly, if I had been 1/100th of a second too late, I’d be a goner.

Efy stabilised and grabbed the arm of the axeman, but the axeman was much stronger than him and pulled it away immediately. He jumped backwards to create distance and twisted his face, seemingly in awe of Efy being alive right now. Efy, who was holding the sword he took out previously, launched it into the air. He glimpsed at the axeman, who had a nice brown set of hair on his head, looking thoroughly confused. He pondered the day everyone would know his techniques, and stop letting their guards down when they saw something so unexpected. In any case, Efy let out a sigh and quickly jerked his hand forward. The sword did not suspend into the air, but rather immediately soared towards the axeman, stabbing him in his right arm, which was holding his axe. The axeman let out a grunt.

If it was me from before, that sword would have flown 7x slower. I think it flew as fast as a fully launched arrow from the average bow, I can bet no one has seen a sword fly with such speed. Still though, it’s much slower than conjuring wind, let alone lightning.

“Uurrurhhgghhh!” the axeman kept screeching, holding his right arm in pain and agony. As Efy was having his internal monologue, he kept twisting the sword, drilling it around the hole it created in the arm. As soon as the man let go of the axe, it floated with Efy’s command. Although Efy was less confident moving an axe, he still had a great grasp on its movement. Efy then returned both weapons, suspended by his shoulders staring menacingly into the axe-less man’s eyes.

“What equipment have you gotten so far?” Efy spoke to the man. He was not loud, in fact, he was speaking at a normal volume. Yet, the man could hear him clearly despite being around 50 metres away. The village was devoid of populace.

“I-I have–one measly arrow…” the man replied with much difficulty. Admittedly, he was probably in a lot of pain as of now with a hole inside his arm. Efy found that it made sense, it was only about 10 minutes since everyone got on the sky island so resources were still being sought out. But any weapon was an addition to his arsenal, so he would not let this opportunity waste.

“Give it to me and I will spare your life.” Efy looked into the axeman’s eyes as he threatened the man with clear intentions. The man’s face looked as if he had seen a phanxor, he looked so frightened he made it seem as if Efy was not human. He flung the arrow within an instant and ran away as fast as he could have. Efy had his eyebrow raised and felt a bit good about himself. He was a particularly short guy, around 150 centimetres, so it was the first time someone had been scared of him.

He chucked the axe and arrow into his decently made Xor orb and kept the sword on hand for quick draw. There were many more houses to loot from, so Efy decided to spend his time scavenging for chests.

After half an hour, he amassed a total of 10 arrows, 5 short swords, 4 different pieces of armour, 1 bandage and 1 extra long sword excluding the one on hand. He had not encountered any other person while plundering, but that did not strike odd to Efy. People were probably heading towards the middle, naturally it would have the best resources. However, Efy did not think this was the best idea, it would make you a target very quickly. Instead, he hung around the edge and got decent items in abundance.

When Efy considered himself finished with his looting, he slowly made his way towards the middle. He had no plans to rush in and actually engage inside the heart of the island, but to remain relatively on the outer edge, but still a little closer to the centre. There was a large forest that encircled beyond the village and Efy thought it would be a great idea to look for more resources there. Furthermore, he had realised that the chests do not give food and you’d need to hunt for such necessities yourself, and his stomach was gradually growing restless. After all, it was currently about 8:30 in the morning and Efy had not eaten breakfast.

Efy, with his sword in hand, dashed into the dim forest.

As he entered, it was almost as dark as the night time. The trees welded together and looked like fortresses. They were as tall as the giants Efy had seen in the past, who were almost as big as the four-story school. As he was navigating through the forest, a claw struck from his left and almost pierced his eye. Fortunately, Efy felt that tingling sensation at the last moment and dodged it splendidly.

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This sixth sense is extremely helpful, I might be able to beat Audrin! Although it is not as strong as Mr. Choppo’s, which can detect danger 1 second before it occurs. Compared to my 250 milliseconds, it gives a lot of room for reaction. Still, I’m thankful to have learnt this technique, as my reaction time is roughly 230 milliseconds, as long as I am fast enough I can dodge or defend anything.

Efy looked at the oncoming attacker and was surprised to see this kind of combatant. It was a beast tamer!

Beast tamers were not as common as swordsmen or mages, as it took a large amount of courage to tame a powerful beast. Just like the building blocks, you would need to start off by taming small animals such as insects, eventually working your way past mammals and towards bigger, more mythical beasts.

The beast followed Efy’s tail and kept attacking relentlessly, with its tamer riding it like a cowboy. Efy saw that the beast looked something akin to a gorilla’s upper body and a lion’s lower.

“Go get him! Gertrude!” the tamer commanded in ecstasy.

Efy churned his face into disappointment. Who would name their pet such a crude name? He wondered to himself.

Gertrude began swinging its claws at Efy, who dodged the attacks effortlessly. Fortunately, it seems as though it is not an elemental beast, sensei taught me those are seriously strong. As Efy dodged the 11th swing, the beast swung its tail to where Efy would dodge towards.

Efy, who was already in motion, could not move out of the way in time, and was devastatingly smacked into the trunk of a nearby tree. The trunk was crushed, bits of wood stabbing the ground.

“You move too predictably for my Gertrude, seems like you’re a low rank.” the beast tamer stated. He sat on his beast that was slowly creeping towards Efy with his arms folded and with the dumbest grin imaginable.

Efy stood onto his feet and threw the sword towards the fowl beast. Since he was so weak, the sword was going towards Gertrude with an unthreatening pace. However, at the same time, he lifted the various wood particles on the ground and aimed them towards the animal’s eyes. They arrived faster than the sword did, but the beast slapped the particles away as if they were mosquitoes. But afterwards, the sword heeded Efy’s command and accelerated to a faster pace, slicing the beast’s nose off.

“Gertrude!” the tamer exclaimed with care in his eyes. “We’ll make you pay!”

Suddenly, rushed towards Efy, who was still in immense pain from hitting the trunk at such a high velocity.

It seems as though this battle would drag on for quite a while, this beast is strong, I’m not really sure I can escape with minor injuries, let alone defeat them.

Efy searched for a better way to attack, currently, his sword would need to stab the animal hundreds of times to kill it from injuries. The axe might take more swings but he found himself slower wielding it. He wondered if he should just take out as many weapons as he could and attack relentlessly, was that his only option? Efy had his back against the tree, escape would not be easy as Gertrude was naturally faster than a human. Efy had approximately one second before he encountered the brutal onslaught that awaited him.

Oh, wait!

Efy quickly equipped the axe and swung at the damaged tree swiftly. He could not take his time to get it into the air, so he had to swing. But his physicality and strength were unmatched, being the record lowest on the punching machine. Luckily, all the work was done for him, the impact he suffered also crippled the tree of its torso, and Efy would finish it off by cutting away at the exposed heart.

Thwack!

Efy had rendered the tree dead, but gravity took far too long. As a result, Efy sped up the process as he dodged out of the way and the tree that was almost the height of a 4 story building landed onto Gertrude with spectacular force. The beast could not handle the weight and succumbed to its wound instantaneously.

The only thing that filled Efy’s mind was the meat of such an odd creature, wondering what it would taste like.

“I can’t wait to cook you up!”