Chapter 41

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‘That brown earth armor that Yassen created is incredible…’ Storan looked on with wide eyes. He waited a few moments to make sure the governor was still, and then began to gape. ‘He was struck directly so many times, yet the armor didn’t completely break.’

He glanced at the governor’s still figure. ‘However, even through the armor, his body still took a huge beating. Although he put up an unexpectedly good fight, it looks like he’s done…’

“Ugh…” The governor suddenly made a movement and groaned on the ground, blood flowing from his mouth. His entire body hurting, he shifted himself so he was facing forward. ‘Fuck… those blows were so powerful…’

‘What?!’ Storan, Gonar, and the hammer-wielding all widened their eyes in shock. They stared at the governor like they were looking at a monster. How was the governor still conscious? They had all used their most powerful attacks against him and had directly hit, but it had only created cracks in the armor. What was that brown armor ability? How could it be so strong?!

Not only them - Alivia, Finn, Grandpa Dinran, and the rest of the masked fighters were all stunned speechless as well.

At that moment, the governor saw that everyone had paused their assault and his eyes suddenly lit up. Even though he was hurting, he realized that now, he finally had an opening. ‘Now’s my chance!’

After a moment of intense dizziness, he quickly struggled to stand up and regained his bearings. ‘I have to strike now, while they think I’m done for, or else I won’t be able to again!’

Ignoring the screaming pain coming from all over his body, he haphazardly channeled some spirit energy into his legs and then suddenly leaped toward the closest person, Gonar. He was like a charging bull, fist cocked and glowing with murky brown-tinted spirit energy!

“Wha…!?” Gonar was shocked at the governor’s sudden attack. The governor had charged forward much too quickly after he had been injured! Wasn’t he still disoriented from their combo? By the time he realized that the governor had actually been charging up energy to charge at him, it was already too late. He immediately held up his arms in an x-shape to block the fist.

BOOM!!! The fist struck out like thunder, striking Gonar directly in the center of his arm guards. Gonar went flying backwards and slammed into a tree.

Without checking up on Gonar, the governor next immediately turned toward Storan and began to channel spirit energy into his legs again. A moment later, he leaped forward once again, fist cocked, directly toward Storan!

“Wha…?!” Storan and the hammer-wielding woman were both completely flabbergasted at this series of events. How could the governor still be so strong?!

“No…!” Storan couldn’t help but shriek out as the governor approached like a battering ram. He had been too stunned by the governor’s resilience, and almost disbelievingly had watched him blow away Gonar. By the time he had come to his senses, the governor was already charging toward him!

In his heart, he felt dread. He had already been injured by a charging blast once, if he was hit again, he would be completely done for!

Just as the governor was about to reach Storan -

CHIK! Suddenly, a spirit-energy empowered knife appeared out of nowhere and stabbed ruthlessly into the governor’s side where the hammer had previously struck, piercing through the remnants of the armor, cracking it open.

Quickly, it then stabbed into the governor’s flesh! Shhhhh… blood began to spurt out.

“Gah!!!” The governor screamed out, spitting out yet another mouthful of blood. He instantly turned to change his target to this new person who had stabbed him, but the person was much too quick and instantly dodged out of the way.

‘Phew… that was close!’ Taking advantage of the governor getting distracted, at that moment, Storan took the opportunity to back up and dodge out of the way as well.

‘Fuck…! Who stabbed me?’ Holding onto his bleeding side, the governor dizzily turned his head to identify this new fighter who had suddenly emerged to stab him. Who was this person? They were even able to stab through his weakened armor!

A short distance away he spotted a shorter silver-masked, black cloaked fighter. His mask was cracked in three places, and in his hand he held a small yet sharp knife, glowing with dark grey spirit energy.

‘What the hell… another one?’ The governor cursed in his mind. It was already enough to go one on three, but now there was another skilled fighter he had to fight? Where had this fourth person come from, anyway? He had a silver mask, but his actual skill level seemed to surpass an average silver mask fighter by more than a level. He was able to coordinate with them well, perfectly timing his powerful strike to stop the governor’s momentum in its tracks.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Naire!” Storan saw who had emerged to help him and exclaimed in pleasant surprise. “You’ve arrived? You were able to stab through his armor? I wasn’t aware your strength had reached this level.”

“Let’s talk about it later…” Naire’s voice turned dark. “We should hurry up and crush this governor… He imprisoned my brother, so he has to pay.”

“Yes, let’s end this once and for all,” a voice suddenly rang out.

Everyone turned to see that it was Gonar. At this point, he had already recovered from the governor’s surprise attack and had stood back up. Although slightly limping, he walked back in line with Storan, the hammer-wielding woman, and Naire.

Although he looked calm, in reality, he was intensely shaken up. He hadn’t expected the governor to counterattack so quickly and ruthlessly! Thankfully, he had been able to block with his armguards, so he had been damaged minimally, but he was still lightly injured from the collision against the tree.

‘Fuck…’ the governor looked around at all the masked fighters surrounding him, and then inspected his own state. He grimaced. ‘This isn’t good… the earth armor was my ultimate defense - I can’t use it again for at least a few months. Even with it, I’m heavily injured. Furthermore, I’ve run basically completely dry of spirit energy. I can probably only afford to do one more charge attack, if that…’

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“Let’s go again,” Gonar remarked. He lifted up his gauntlet and channeled it with spirit energy once more, causing it to grow a dark grey color. He didn’t dare to underestimate the governor again.

In tacit response, Storan, the hammer-wielding woman, and Naire all got in battle-ready positions as well. They were all eerily serious, incredibly careful of what the governor could do. They were still stunned by the governor’s sudden counter-attack - he had almost managed to make a comeback!

This time, they wouldn’t let down their guard.

With a fourth skilled person, they would further coordinate their attack and make sure the governor didn’t have any space to breathe.

As they did this, the governor stood in his spot warily, grimacing. He felt an impending sense of doom. ‘Fuck… they’re coming again! This time, they’re incredibly wary of me. In my current condition, how am I supposed to fight them off? I’ve basically completely ran out of spirit energy!’ Raising his fists, he got ready to make a last stand.

At the very least, he would go out swinging!

“Dad…” Finn bit his lip, immensely worried. His dad had already been heavily injured. Would he be alright against another assault?

He clenched his fists, cursing his own uselessness. ‘If only I was strong like master, I could beat these people away!’

‘Go!’ Without warning, Gonar once again took a step and jumped forward, his fist cocked. Fuoosh! In only a few moments, he had already reached the governor, moving in a manner reminiscent of a pouncing tiger.

“Fu…” Knowing he couldn’t afford to block the blow, the governor once again used his quickly shuffling legs to dodge to the side, out of the way of the gauntlet.

Once again, as he did, he saw that there was another spirit bullet from Storan soaring toward him. Spotting both the hammer-wielding woman and Naire closing in on him from the sides as well, the governor made a quick decision and used the last of his spirit energy to jump upward and dodge the spirit bullet. ‘Fuck… they’re cornering me! It’s just like last time, but now, they have one more skilled person to fill in the gaps!’

Fuoosh! The spirit bullet soared past underneath him. However, at that moment, the hammer-wielding woman had once again reached his side and proceeded to swing her hammer full force toward him.

Just as the governor was about to dodge, a lightning-quick knife stab shot toward his unprotected waist from his other side.

‘Fuck!’ The governor grimaced. ‘If I don’t dodge away from this knife strike, it’ll enter through my unprotected waist and probably heavily injure me!’

He quickly jumped backward and twisted to the side to dodge the knife, but saw in dismay that the woman had predicted that. She immediately followed him, and once again swung the hammer toward him.

‘Fast…!’ The governor was stunned. ‘So many people - I can’t dodge…!’ He quickly raised his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself.

BOOM! The hammer slammed straight into his arms, cracking his already-weakened armor all over and sending him flying.

“Gah!!!” The governor screamed out, his body blasting backwards.

Chik! Even as the governor was airborne, Naire once again advanced forward and stabbed out toward him in his front side, cracking through the now-weak earth armor once more. It seemed that the armor was on the verge of completely collapsing.

“Hah!” At that moment, Gonar had also caught up to the governor and punched down onto the governor’s body with his gauntlet once again, slamming him into the ground.

Bam! The governor crashed violently down onto the ground. As he did - Kssshah! Unable to take any more hits,the earth armor cracked into multiple pieces and crumbled off the governor’s body.

“Finally!” The hammer-wielding woman exclaimed. She hurriedly rushed forward toward the governor’s vulnerable eagle-spread body and without hesitation, raised her hammer high. Fuoosh!

The last time they had hesitated when they had thought the governor was done for, they had almost gotten the tables turned on them.

“No armor to protect you now, huh?” She scoffed. “Take… this!”

In one motion, she slammed down the hammer with all her might, directly toward the governor’s head! Fuoosh!

“Wait…!” Storan shouted, seeing what was happening. “Don’t kill him!”

But it was too late. The hammer was already halfway through its trajectory.

“Heh,” Naire, seeing the governor’s inevitable demise, chuckled. “See ya...”

“NOOO!!!” Finn screamed panickedly from the distance as he saw what seemed to be his father’s end. “DAD!!!”

‘...guh…’ The governor could only watch helplessly and fuzzy-headedly as this destructive hammer strike dived down toward him. ‘...is this the end…?’

At the last moment, he grimaced and closed his eyes.

The hammer slammed down!

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