*Bang* – Escaping from the enraged magma wyvern, Alan rushes down with a floating five-petal jade lotus right on his left hand. He knows why those Sages don't even care about this mystical flame already. The first thing is it's the new-born one, not that strong. The second thing is about its imperfection. That's why everybody right here is hunting for each part of a lotus to craft it then. And as you can see, there are five of them on his side, which means Alan has beaten at least five guys for that.
Accompanying him, Leo also holds two petals on another battlefield. It's not that hard to sneak and jump people suddenly then steal the thing. And to mention jumping, nothing's better than Pyan's ability. Thanks to whoever came up with the idea of lowering the temperature of the entire thousand miles of volcanic zones by casting a huge rain storm spell floating above. Pyan doesn't know how much celsius that process has done lowering so far, but he's aware that the golden time for his sneaky work has come.
"Just got one more." – He talks to Leo.
"Good, if Alan had four petals right now, we should have eight in total."
*Boom* – Attacked from behind, Pyan dodged aside by one step. He drove a flying slash in a perfect curve trajectory bypassing the defense of the closest opponent after that. Assaulting from the right side, a random dude unleashes the strongest strike by his hands. As a tiger, that silhouette shines brightly with the crazily strong power.
*Clash* – Within the hair's breadth thin gap, a thin blade appeared right between his back and that fist all of a sudden. Pyan skillfully parried that strike while rotating mid-air. And when that leg is accelerated fast enough, it hits the target right immediately – letting the entire nearby zone crumble into various blocks when that dude's crashed straight into the ground.
*Splash* – Using a back leap to open up a following chance forward, Pyan swiftly dances with his blade to carve on those two more dudes some fresh cuts in flesh. Along with the floating blood and the falling rain drops, that blade silently shines up.
*Splash* – Rushing forth and splitting them apart, Pyan clutched the fight with only seven moves in total. And again, he thanks to whoever casted this rain field, just for his blade is enhanced by unlimited chances as unlimited raindrops.
"That's clean." – Leo slightly controls the raindrops to suddenly change all around him into ice spikes. That surprising move froze out two sneaky guys mid-air. He kicks them all away just to free the space around, all's done nice and neat.
"Alan should be chasing for the rest. Should we follow him?" – Pyan offers.
"Not yet, I remember two more guys. They are at least holding three petals in total, handle them first." – Leo rushes forward. He crashes straight into the target.
*Clash* – Following him, Pyan assaults the fighter right next to the targeted mage. Throughout the entire field, Pyan evaluates the fighter in front of him as having the highest aesthetic value. A simple black shirt with simple black long pants. Coated over by a white long sleeve shirt, it perfectly hides away the secret weapon of his.
*Swish* – Dodging the sudden shockwave strike released by that palm strike, Pyan steps right behind the fighter as a phantom.
*Bang* – He swiftly turns back from the left while driving the right palm toward Pyan. It's fast enough to blow our swordsman away by a strong shockwave. This weapon is a couple of two gauntlets attached with two extra items for each. And those two extra items on each hand are the explanation for his shockwave power. With these things, he can even compare to a true rank-9 hunter in–
*Splash* – His head has been cut down. As I said, it's only strong in rank-9 hunters. Pyan is a national hunter already, they are not even close to that match. Removing the weapons from the corpse, he saved them for money later.
"Are you that poor?" – Attacking from behind, another fighter pierces through his chest with a hit. That's clean for an obvious bloody hole on Pyan's body.
*Splash* – Raindrops and Phantoms, Pyan is right behind that guy after "he" was killed. Penetrating that blade into the beating heart of the opponent, he bursts a mini Aura bomb to eliminate the guy with not that much effort.
Observing that scene, seven guys instantly change their plans from sneaking to running away. They don't know exactly what Pyan's ability can do. But to witness an instant counter like that, they know that none of them could survive through the fight if it happened. Leo doesn't catch any trace of jade petal on them, so he also lets them escape. About the mage that he targeted, she's frozen both arms already – now she's on the ground and being stunned.
"Should be one more dude right?" – Pyan didn't find any petals on the killed two fighters.
"Kind o–"
*Boom* – Both of them dodged aside, just fast enough to get rid of that thunder bolt spell.
No, it's an Ability. Leo ignores that first thought, he can see the thin trace of Aura floating away from the strike. He drives his eyes swiftly around with Sight technique – instantly realizing three clones.
*Zrrt* – He casts three thunder spears then shoots them away and on the contrary, that hidden opponent also does the same thing. They both explode in the air, Leo manifests a field of ice stakes all around. It spreads for miles and locks everything inside the blocks of ice. That action also forces a girl to jump high above.
She launches herself toward Pyan by a wind spell. In the mid-air, she splits into three selves all of a sudden. That move confuses Leo for a bit, the ice bullet is held back a bit with hesitation. And that short moment is too long for a fight at this level to finish. The fourth clone has already approached from behind.
*Fsh* – It's just a bait, poor girl. Moving his feet, Leo left behind a massive ice stake piercing through that clone. He shot down the second one while handling the one more clone with close hand combat. Pyan has disappeared after killing the last clone a moment ago. And that action didn't even notice the mage for a bit. This is the passive of Raindrops and Phantoms – can't be tracked by Sight and Zone normally – which caused Har in troubles before.
"This ability is quite annoying." – Leo sighs, then he moves his right hand. This is one of the unchainable spells made by Sages years ago. Clones still share a specific connection with the casters no matter how flawless they are. Based on that theory, Leo just needs to reverse that connection to find out the location of the true opponent. However, it's not all the functions of the spell. Indirectly damaging the true opponent via the clones is the strongest power of this unchainable spell.
*Thud* – Falling from the high tree, a girl forcelessly lies in a small blood pool. Alan's power can help him recall the missing parts of the flame with two specific requirements: in a specific range and he must hold a part of the flame. Bind is the technique allowing the users to transfer the Aura into the objects. Nevertheless, have you ever wondered how Har can carve his Ability on the corpses? The answer is the same thing but on a different level – Bind can transfer one's ability on objects or people temporarily if the users are advanced enough.
Leo just wants to make sure that he won't risk anything. Catching the petal afar, he even locked that pitiful girl inside another ice block. One hundred percent of making sure that he won't risk anything about the five jade petals on his hands.
"Alright, let's find Alan." – At the moment he just turns back, Pyan also rushes through his vision as fast as a bullet.
*Clash* – Leo blocks one slash from the new opponent, while Alan just gets back to his team after dodging three fireballs.
"Well, it seems like you two don't need to find me anymore." – Alan comes back with seven petals on his right hand. Combining together, he finally has enough twelve petals as predicted. Which means they can all withdraw from this battlefield.
"You have enough?"
"Probably." – Answering Leo, Alan absorbs all those petals into the sigil on his right hand.
*Clash* – And that action is obvious enough to reveal their intentions, which isn't accepted by these three strangers.
"Would you like to yield those petals out?" – The middle-aged swordsman offers.
"How about you all get out of our way?" – Both Alan and that man move at the same time. They started the fight by a sword clash without any hesitation. Yet, it seems like Alan is quite at a disadvantage compared to his opponent, one of the strongest students of Sword Saint Albeca Ruvenia. Who has a heavy and unshakable swordstyle.
*Crumble* – Competing in raw power, Alan surely has no chance to win. So he must do something else, especially when that dude is non-stop rushing toward himself. Taking out two mystical flames, one cyan, one light blue mixed with white. This combination between frost and water is reasonable working well based on their nature of elements.
The claim that it will lower his power instead of boosting it is also making sense. As you can see, Alan is strong for his blazing flame and now he's using cold elements instead – opposing his main power. But this is actually a genius move if we include his Ability: The Lionheart of Flames into the attacks. Instead of letting hot and cold things destroy each other, Alan can easily enhance the burning effect by adding flames no matter their natures while still keeping the attributes. Just imagine it allows him to cheat and to have a flame that can burn and freeze the targets at the same time.
Katros realizes the thing, he also swings his greatsword around to blow away the flame field and the frosts. Within a steady step, he dashes forth with a heavy slash upside down onto Alan's head.
*Crumble* – As predicted, that slash left a massive devastation enough to smash down a couple of city blocks into fragments. That's why Alan chose to dodge aside instead of parrying or blocking it. One step beyond, Katros continues his swing to the right side despite the blade being pushed by the remaining inertia. It proves that his physical stats are insanely unbelievable. Two steps ahead, Alan jumps up just high enough to dodge the attack. His second step is put right on that moving blade, pushing him even higher above.
Taking that advantage, he throws the water-frost flame onto the opponent – trying to freeze him out. But he doesn't know that, Katros can even speed up himself way faster than what he thought. Within two steps, he performed a full rotation with maximum force of his hips, legs and arms. That sudden acceleration is enough to outspeed Alan totally. Especially when he's still in the air, even air dashing isn't fast enough in this case.
Dead end, Alan has no choice left but uses his Guard at the maximum output; at least it will reduce some impact. Unfortunately, his sword was broken previously, that's why he had to use his bare hands to oppose that unshakable force. About the sword clash that started this fight, Alan had to manifest it by Aura via Mold. That's strong, his elbows are crackled already.
Leaving no space for his opponent to breathe, Katros approaches with a dash slam. His intention is obvious, eliminating Alan as fast as possible. At this moment, the air dash doesn't work for Alan since he's mid-air and Katros is on the ground. Jumping power, dashing power and swinging power, those three things of Katros are just enough to overwhelm Alan at this point.
Pale Gleam Flame – He flicks his fingers to shoot a barrage of light particles toward Katros. Accumulated by time, those particles swiftly raise from ten to a hundred just right before that greatsword could slam on him.
Flicking his fingers again while moving his right hand to the left, those light particles are exchanged to multiple sparks of pale flames. All of them instantly shot straight toward that blade – just enough to shift it out of the planned trajectory two point one centimeters.
Actually that gap doesn't help him in dodging away, but it stuns Katros by surprise not to dash upward to catch him. Alan also takes him time to weave White Flame into the combination of a water sapphire and a snowflake. The reason that he can tame more than one mystical flame is because of his Ability and it's also the reason that he currently can't combine flames with different attributes. It hasn't fully grown yet, he still has space to develop himself much.
However, this new combination doesn't upscale the fused flame that much. An unnatural flame isn't that strong, also not enough to maintain the combination for too long. If you wonder why, when Alan fuses flames, they are burnt in the essence. And because the unnatural flame is quite weak compared to the other two mystical ones. That's why it will be gone out first – ending the three in one combination. But whatever, this is the strongest thing he can perform right now.
*Crack* – Blocked one heavy strike from Katros, the forearm of Alan was crackled, meanwhile his elbow was damaged too badly. Sacrificing it for a chance, he drives the fused flame toward the opponent with the maximum speed of the high hypersonic tier. That flame is strong enough to knock away the heavy blade of Katros, but it also means that the strike missed its goal.
Dropping the greatsword behind, Katros dashes forward with his two fists full of Aura, ready for a close combat. Alan also calls out the pale flame and covers it around his right fist.
*Smack* – Clashing directly, they're both knocked back three steps until getting back the balance. This is the second power of this mystical flame – Charge: which allows him to save up to 100% his maximum output inside the flame automatically. And vice versa, he can also put Aura to fill the bar up. Nonetheless, it indeed has another version – Overcharge: which is equal to 120% of his maximum output.
By using it with his strongest strike, Alan can compete with Katros right now. And via that clash, he also realized that Katros had something to unleash more than 120% of his maximum output.
It seems more like a technique than an Ability itself. He evaluates.
This brat, those flames are too annoying. On the contrary, Katros doesn't feel anything good. He's wondering if he should give up hunting this new-born flame, because it's also not that important to him.
"Who taught you that technique?" – "Which relationship of yours with Sage Andrew?"
They both ask at the same time, it seems like each of them has their own prediction about the opponent. Katros picks up his greatsword, transferring into it a lot of Aura himself.
Alan replies, "Nothing."
"I see, my master is Sword Saint Albeca Ruvenia." – Katros also reveals his background and that's the worst answer Alan can get at this point.
This is terrible. He curses.
*Clash* – Leaving the ground, Alan blocked that sword slash by his hands, then sent flying away via the force. Using it to draw a distance, he shoots thousands of pale light particles into the air around. Katros doesn't care that much, his belief is really clear and simple: fast, strong and accurate – those three things will lead him to victory if he uses them well.
Alan detonates those particles into flame sparks, but it doesn't actually help anything. Crossing through the smoke and flame walls, Katros slams his blade down to the ground with the strongest swing he can throw. Theoretically, Katros would be able to end Alan's life right here. But he doesn't think about another scenario, when he would miss that strike.
Flame Essence! Alan has turned himself into the blazing flame as the way he performed in the hunt of Har. His issue is about the Aura capacity and time right now, yet, he can get rid of being hit by the normal attacks without opposite elements or Etheron. Within a spark, he disappears in Katros' sight. No matter how fast he tries to track Alan, Katros all gets speed blitzed.
*Crackle* – He sounds it and he realizes it. He knows why Alan threw a bunch of flame particles before. But it's too late to do anything but use Guard to reduce all the damage. Through the zone full of flame, Alan can move everywhere he wants just in the range. Moreover, due to his body being the flame itself, he can burst the Aura outside even faster – which means each strike he lands right now is each time 120% of his output is launched.
*Bang - Bang* – Multiple angles, multiple strikes, Alan temporarily reaches the entrance of the massively hypersonic tier – Mach 100 per movement. He drives all the attacks toward Katros with the attack speed thrice faster than his own temporary travel speed. Surrounding him by flame, strikes and devastation – Alan detonates everything into dust in the entire crater of twenty kilometers and half a kilometer deep down below the ground.
Among the sounds of smoke, magma and melted vestige, Alan is coercively back to his human flesh after draining all the three rings on his right hand – two remains. Two thousands and two hundred strikes, each one can destroy the mountain generally; in short, he just launched the power that's enough to destroy a large island into one point. And Katros, no one sees him there, totally disappears.
That guy!? Lecta glances straight at that side, he can't believe a golden hunter like Alan can do that thing. He wonders if he's being pranked or not. He can't even believe that Katros can be killed just like that.
"Alan, behind!" – Pyan parries one strike from his opponent, he yells toward his companion.
*Swish* – Katros swings his sword toward Alan, he has used three legendary items just to survive through that rain of flames. Even that's not enough, his skin is all burnt, while the left arm is black as coal already.
"That's not a good move." – Alan flicks his fingers, unleashing a massive freezing bomb right behind him. Within that action, Katros is locked inside a massive ice block, nice and neat. And that's also the last spark of the three-in-one fused flame already – White Flame has gone out.
"Don't try to move, Undying Totems only guarantee your life. You're also a near-death man right now." – Alan warns him.
"Did you just use them all, Katros?" – Lecta feels like they should withdraw, the loss is already exceeding the possible rewards.
"Unfortunately, yes." – Confirming, Katros tries to move yet nothing works out.
Domain Expansion – On Leo's side, he's quite in trouble right now, so domain is the last move he can throw. His hand sign has already been cast, throughout the entire field of glacial creations, a dense mist has raised.
"Alright, we're out." – Lecta tries to deal with the opponents.
*Splash* – Assaulting from aside, Pyan pierced his thin blade through that left arm, "Too late. Do you still think we're going to be kind after you all forced us this far?"
*Clash* – Their blades cut through the wind then draw an invisible but obvious line between them, a border that none of them can step through. Lecta still tries to make a deal, but Pyan doesn't let him–
Not only Pyan, but all of them stop their deeds immediately. They feel it, the rumble, something's moving. Leo spreads his ice wider, Lecta tries to set up some traps around and Katros has already been unfrozen by Alan. They didn't say anything, but all came up with an unwritten compromise – they have to team up no matter what.
So right now, the issue is "what is going to happen?"
*Boom* – Emerging from the crater full of magma and dust that Alan made previously, something instantly wiped out half of the preparation of Leo. Lecta instantly pops up his traps right there: damage, stun, burn, freeze and repulse – those traps all jump the drake at once. Nonetheless, it only took that monster a swing to remove all of them.
*Roar!* – Blowing everything away by a roar, the drake unleashes the fire waves around.
Elemental field! All six people here realize the thing. They know that it might be a nightmare to deal with this kind of power.
Unleashing his ice field, Leo tries to balance the environmental enhancement yet only in vain. That flame is too hot, he can only maintain one hundred meters of ice away from him, not even one tenth compared to that flame field.
Katros slightly heals himself with seven high-energy regeneration potions, coercively enough for one half his Aura capacity. Alan still has two more rings, which are equal to 2000% of his Aura capacity, it might be enough to survive.
"Wait, is it a drake? Why am I…" – Alan frowns his eyes, he doubts it. He feels something is really wrong, but he can't explain it. He's attracted by something inside that burning chest.
"Guys, stay aware. It's not a pure drake." – He finally warns everyone here.
Trista, the last member of this temporary line up, speaks up, "What do you mean not pure?"
"I don't know. I can sense more than two strange energy traces inside that drake beside its own one." – Alan has an idea, but he still has to check first.
"If this one burns." – He intertwines the water sapphire and frost together.
*Crackle* – "Shit, it's a chimera! One of them is the wyvern that I damaged before."
*Crumble* – It only stands there, a dragon-like head stares straight at Alan without a blink. It doesn't move, it only stands still, glances at the only target and slowly breathes.
"Can anyone here report this thing to some two-star national hunters?" – Lecta asks.
"I sent already, fifteen minutes." – Alan says it, not happily.
"My master will come, but she's in Larrast right now." – Katros doesn't think his effort might help anything.
"Well, how about we slowly withdraw? It just doesn't move." – Trista offers.
"So can you guarantee it won't jump into us when we leave this position?" – Leo's still doing a tug-of-war in the elemental field. He thinks that offer is too dumb, since the safest place is where they're at already.
Alan flicks his fingers, spreading the water-frost fused flame around and above the glacial field of Leo. He has no idea what to do but surely not letting the fire field of the drake spread bigger. Elemental field is counted as a zone-buff move, a crazy enhancement for the used element. To be fair, if that drake shot a normal fireball inside a full fire field, it would become stronger over time whenever it's still flying inside the range. That's nothing but surely a nightmare to face.
"I'll grant this flame to you Leo, I have no experience in manifestation." – Alan passes the fused flame onto Leo's hands. Taking that flame, his companion also nods his head; he knows what to do.
"Lecta, should we use that move? Just in case." – Trista asks.
"Probably yes, it seems like we're the only ones here who can counter it." – He replies.
He also looks at Pyan, "We can perform a maximum of three times of our fusion move. We can try using small tsunamis to counter its magma's heat. What do you guys have?"
"My ability is about sneaky work and assaults. I can be the bait for any combo starter that we'll use." – Pyan says.
"I can nuke it, not guarantee the win chance." – Alan holds his pale flame, charging it to one hundred and twenty percent of his maximum output as saving currency.
"I can counter it directly inside my domain, but I can't control it. You all must run out of the range before the barrier is built up." – Leo expands his field to one fifth compared to the drake's at this point.
"I wish that we just could synchronize our strongest moves for this one." – Lecta slightly sighs a bit.
"So I'll be a tanker myself?" – Aside, Katros asks.
"Don't try to directly block any strike from that. We don't know how strong it is yet." – Alan warns.
"I'll test it myself. There's a reason for everyone to call me the Large Rock of Gal-harang." – Confidently, he says.
*Bang* – Something just flew away through Alan. It leaves a massive devastation on the ground, just right behind them all. Among the dense smoke blocks, Katros heavily pushes himself sitting up with the broken giant blade – he has failed.
"Are you good, man?" – Alan mocks.
He awkwardly laughs, "I guess we should team up systemically."
It's been five minutes since the moment Katros tried to test the chimera for the first time, and it hasn't moved a foot away from its place. Everyone here all realizes its intention – it's waiting for Alan to fuse all those petals into a flawless jade lotus.
Yet, that head finally moves, it seems like it can't wait anymore. Consequently, that action triggers all the neurons inside those six brains right here – they are ready.
*Crumble* – "Go!"
Those wings strongly blow away everything nearby, the chimera rushes forth with the brutal fangs. Trista and Lecta dodged to the left, they have their work to do. Katros also stops playing dumb, he doesn't block that strike – yet dodging aside for a maximum swing attack.
*Clang* – Even though it doesn't do that much, still enough to attract the chimera for a moment. Yet, it doesn't attack him as the first priority, Alan's attacked instead.
Burning the pale flame on his right hand, he directly hits into those claws of magma. Letting the burning sounds aside, he keeps going until the middle claw is crackled badly. As a trade off, four of his right fingers are all coal right now, the last one– oh, there's no fifth finger, it just evaporated.
*Fsh* – Bursting Ignite to heal himself, Alan dashes back while concentrating more power into the pale flame. Following that step, Pyan stabs his blade into the left eye of the chimera. However, it doesn't scream or stay mad at all; that glance of the right eye, it's so terrifying.
*Crumble* – Combining ices and the fused flame together, Leo saved Pyan one life just in a hair's breadth thin gap. He moves his hands and those ice blocks are reformed into many stakes – those are for the next attacks.
*Fsshhh~* – Clicking his tongue, Leo didn't think that the heat of the flame field could melt the thin ice creations that fast. Switching strategy, he concentrates all the ice field into one big line locating himself and the chimera.
Catching that movement, it tries to throw a massive fireball instantly. The throat is expanded weirdly twice as normal, that attack is launched crazily powerful. And that's how Katros can shine up.
*Bang* – With the steady slash, he cut through the fireball with the broken blade. The well-known technique of the Unshakable Sword Style has carried him through the death line. Even further, he drives that slash faster into the drake's head with the maximum output. Not enough! With one hundred and twenty percent of the maximum output. Limit breaker! Twice stronger!
*Clash* – all the four claws of the right front leg have been destroyed, the chimera instantly enters the rage form. In the shortest way to explain, this form is used whenever a high-rank beast wants more power, actively or passively. And it's also the signal for them to start the combo.
Fusion Ability: Aquarium – manifesting a massively giant water orb around the targets with an anti-piercing sphere barrier.
That move just straight up sealed the chimera and half of its flame field inside the water orb – isolating the heat. Taking that chance, Leo spreads his ice field further and into the water orb. As predicted, the insane heat inside swiftly boils everything up, that's how Leo is here to help cooling it down. Their goal is buying time, not winning this fight, so basically it's already the best option.
Lecta still has some traps to activate, he leaves the pressure of maintaining that water orb to Trista while walking around to set more traps. His Ability is all about manifesting traps and setting them whenever there's an anchor to hang on. Even better, there is no delay for the activation, so he's the second protection here.
About Pyan, Katros and Alan, they have no specifically useful power at this point to counter the chimera, so they simply stand aside. However, Alan has started fusing the petals; he's seeking for a better power.
After only a minute, Lecta and Trista had to do it again just to seal the chimera for one more time. The pressure on their bodies is quite troublesome right now, only half Aura capacity left in Trista. The advantage of this fusion ability move is the share of the cost. They can either share it fairly or transfer all the pressure to a part of the group. For Lecta, he's still setting more and more traps – over two thousands already.
Boiling sound, the Aquarium move is again boiled inside out. Unfortunately, this time it only takes half a minute. Which means the chimera is currently desiring an actual hunt for its claws. And when those four claws broke through the barrier of the sphere, they knew they had to use the last sphere for this turn.
"Estimate, around twenty seconds." – Trista is directly holding the sphere, she can estimate the time it will start exploding. And that's exactly when Leo will have to jump in with his domain expansion. Currently, two miles around the sphere is all covered by glacial creations. This is the same trick he used before to build up the domain step by step against Har.
One.
Two.
Domain Expansion! Through the ice lotuses and the cold mist, those glacial creations are even thriving higher and higher until there's a garden of the unnatural beauty of ice. After the insanely fast expansion of the barrier, the sky was locked outside – only the transmission between light and dark inside. That's the signal of space capturing, the previous step of painting the entire space inside with his Aura.
In the Winter, Blooming Flowers!
*Fsh* – Isolating themselves, Leo kicks everyone outside of the range regardless of the risk.
Lecta asks, "Is he going to be fine?"
"Doesn't matter, he can't die that easily. You just need to time your traps perfectly when that barrier collapses." – Pyan replies.
Then he looks at Alan, "Still not enough?"
"Ye, these twelve petals, they can't be fused just like this. There's still something missing that's important."
"I heard that the amount of the petals matters a lot." – Katros says.
"Of course it does. But I can't find more petals nearby, which means this new-born mystical flame is already at its peak." – Alan slightly sighs, he knows that he's holding the weakest form of this mystical flame compared to the rest. It's such bad news.
"Alright whatever, Lecta, you'll detonate the traps as much as you can." – After a minute, Alan slightly drops a sweat, he can't believe that even a full ice domain can't seal that chimera even close to two minutes.
Only nodding his head, Lecta saves energy for the next big move instead saying useless words. He takes out a black metal with a golden pattern bell, which is attached with a shabby ribbon, and some black talisman.
*Crack* – After twelve more seconds, the barrier is damaged so badly, yet it certainly does not collapse. Two more seconds, the entire barrier is now covered fully by crackles and overflowing particles. Lecta knows that he's going to do his job a second after.
*Crack!* – Same sound but this time the barrier can no longer hold itself strong – it finally collapses! Leo also withdraws backward with his two burnt arms, following his lead, the fused flame is also returning to Alan at the meantime.
*Crack* – After his mobilization, two hundred and fifteen ice traps instantly activate just to be all broken by that chimera five seconds after. Lecta doesn't give up, he activates others at the same time:
Wind – Five tornados burst that monster upward to the height of thirty meters above the ground.
Thunder – Countless strikes drop from the stormy clouds above. They non-stop strike into the floating chimera mid-air, opening up a chance for the other traps to jump it.
The final element is Earth – Hundreds of rock spikes massively pierce through the ground, just right under the chimera.
Non-stop, Katros jumps straight above the monster, he lands that strike down with all his power. Maximum output, limit breaker technique and his insane strong stats, that strike is upscaled straight to large mountain level. Enhanced by the gravity traps set right at the highest layer of the entire formation – Katros slams that broken blade down as a wrath of gods.
*Clang* – The first sound is for the metal blade.
*Crack* – The second sound is for the broken scales of the chimera.
*Splash* – The last one is how it sounds when the blood spurts out through the heavy cut wound right at its neck.
Among the hitting sounds of the rock spikes and the bloody wounds, the chimera tries to unleash shockwaves, flame waves and thunder waves around. All in vain, it's just too late for it to destroy all the traps.
"Let me join too." – Holding a jade lotus full of flames on his right hand, Alan shoots it toward the chimera as fast as possible. This is the temporary fusion of those twelve jade petals with the supports of other three mystical flames and an unnatural one. Via that gamble, he also knows why he can't fuse those petals alone. The imperfection in their flame essence, in short, the flame core isn't perfect yet. He guessed that's why instead of a lotus, he had petals separately instead.
However, it doesn't matter right now. Because to survive, he has to use this trump card no matter what. There's no time to hesitate! His Ability: The Lionheart of Flames can merge flames into a fusion form, yet with a requirement of "sharing attribute" as the first priority. But, if he uses the strongest flame that he has as an intermediate to connect all the flames together – he can use all those flames to increase the total output for the lotus. If you wonder what the difference is, one is fusing them all, the other is "watering" only the strongest flame by the rest.
"Well, I'd like to call it The Great Lotus at this point." – Alan feels quite proud of himself, this is the second unique technique that he's invented as a young national hunter already. This is his achievement! Through calculations, I can confidently tell you that strike is about island level in general.
*Vrmm* – Yet, as soon as that domain was broken, that chimera had started accumulating a massive beam inside its lungs. Which means if that lotus can't eliminate that beam, they have nothing left to damage the chimera lethally.
Clashing in the air, a lotus and a beam have a tug-of-war there. Even Alan has to hold the great lotus to keep that balance. If you wonder why, they are having the element field. That's why Alan just can't run away, unless he wants all of them to be burnt to death by the blazing flames.
"Alan!" – Leo increases his refinement, he has to lower the field boost to that beam. Pyan, Katros, Lecta and Trista, they all rush toward the chimera just to distract it a bit. They don't have something useful to help Alan at this point. This is all they can do already.
On the contrary, that monster doesn't even frown for a second. It accepts the potential wounds just to make sure that it can get back the full element field advantages. Moreover, killing Alan is obviously a good move right now. Holding such a power, it's confident of that guy's death.
Back to Alan, thanks to this level-tier attack potency of the great lotus, he can coercively maintain this balance mid-air. Both of them are trying to exhaust each other first. The beam strike is of course a long-term devastation, that chimera can steadily and non-stop pushing more power into the beam to overwhelm Alan. On the other hand, that great lotus is able to be refilled by Alan's Aura too, via the two last rings. This is the fight of Aura capacity and body endurance beneath the overflowing Aura pressure over time.
*Fshhh* – Slowly evaporating, the great lotus is finally being overwhelmed by that beam after half a minute in the air. It's slowly but surely being pushed back toward Alan. No matter how much he tried, that lotus had reached its peak already, and that peak wasn't enough to win this tug-of-war.
*Splash* – On his two hands, the blood veins are bleeding currently. They show him the evidence of his forcelessness beneath the true disaster.
"Hah… it seems like I have to train more after this." – Stretching everything, Alan bursts the Aura more and more outside just to get back the balance state among two strikes. Unfortunately, that lotus is only five meters away from him right now. If he moved that only usable right hand, everything would end up with his death. Even Leo wants to give up and rescue his companion at this point, it means nothing if Alan dies here.
"Don't leave the position!" – He shouts out to everyone, yet especially to Leo. Despite whether they want or not, Alan still demands they stay away from the local place around him.
He senses that, he laughs, "What took you that much time?"
When everyone here was still being confused by that, Alan had already split the great lotus into twelve separated petals – letting that beam shoot through the final protection of his.
"Alan!" – Pyan reacted faster than ever, he dashed toward that direction. Yet, how ironic, no matter how fast he was, that blade was never fast enough to deflect the beam away. Even the feet that were non-stop pushing him forward felt hopeless to catch that deadly strike.
*Boom* – Those petals exploded right at the head of the chimera, leaving a massive loss of flesh on its entire right side of the face. And as I said, it would only make sense if Alan's still alive after all.
"One point three seconds!" – That mysterious under the black veil slightly bends the space as distorting a thin food wrap. He slightly lets it finish almost one rotation to shoot the beam back toward the chimera.
*Boom* – Not even recovering fully yet from the lotus, the monster again got an explosion at the same position. That hurt so much that it couldn't maintain the balance itself.
"Who do we have here?" – Laughing aside, Alan feels free after getting rid of that beam. He also gets The Flame of Winds by Soka.
"The Strongest Shipper of this era." – He slightly strokes his new-dyed dark-violet hair.
"Alright, now get us out of here. We're almost dead." – Alan orders, of course he'll have to pay for this "taxi."
"No need, I'll kill that chimera." – Soka steps forth with two chained-together dual blades.
"Or you will help me, for this." – He takes out a red spark of the mystical flame. He knows that Alan will realize this thing as soon as it's shown.
"What the f*?" – Instantly, he rushes straight toward Soka to catch that spark. It's hot, blazing and intense – a spark of a true gen-one mystical flame.
"Where did you get this? What is the cost?" – Even his hands are shaking right now.
"The superior sent me this gift to you. He offers you to make a deal: to help him one thing when you're strong enough." – Soka answers.
"Deal!" – Absorbing that spark, he now can fuse those petals into the entire mystical flame already.
"Good, my job is done. You just helped me double my annual bonuses this year." – Soka starts his move already. Within two steps, he's accelerated himself to the maximum speed of a massively hypersonic tier.
*Splash* – Cutting down that right front leg, Soka has shown a part of his power without a word. He looks back at Alan – telling him to take his time.
Magma is the best environment to create many various flames related to the fire and earth elements. Some of them are split straight to fire or earth as the core power, but some are combined together. That's why they call them with the same category "The Magma Flame."
There are three of them, respectively: Jade Lotus, Silver Pearl and Golden Rings. Yet, above them, there's one more flame in the first generation, which is far stronger than those three powers. It's called The Volcanic-Heart Flame – the strongest burning mystical flame below the Origin Tier.
When Alan mentioned the essence, he tried to say that the core power of those twelve petals weren't enough for him to merge them all together. This problem might be caused due to the period of formation and the damage while harvesting before. And now, the only barrier preventing him from laying his hand on the first second generation mystical flame has been removed.
Yet, soon he realizes the new issue.
"Shipper, do you have fresh energy stones? Any kind, any element, fire is the best!" – Alan asks. He has been accumulating the fire element of the entire volcanic zones around him, but just to realize that it's not even half the requirement.
"I can help you shift things but only if there are things to shift, get me?"
"So find the sources! Anything." – Alan started the work already, he can't let this end interruptedly, or the petals will be damaged even more.
"No use, you can't do it when you just can't do it. Don't expect anything, even you have the k–"
*Fwoosh* – A sudden burst from the red spark swiftly devours Alan into another dimension. Leaving everyone here with a big question mark on their head. No one knows what just happened, even Soka, who brought the spark here. The strongest shipper knew that there was something hidden inside the red spark. At first, he thought it's there as a key for Alan to merge the petals. Yet, it seems like there's another goal besides that.
"Don't worry, it should be the operation of the superior." – Soka says while splitting the second head of that chimera into two pieces. He swings those blades clearly lethal enough to do the work, which can be described as a show of raw dissection with blood.
"Did you all see someone suspicious related to this monster?" – He asks all around.
Leo shakes his head, "Alan said that it's merged with the wyvern that he had fought before, he might know better than us."
Lecta also represents his team, he neither knows a thing.
"Can we leave?" – Katros aside, drop a question.
"Feel free for it." – The shipper waves his right hand to tell them to flee.
*Fsh* – "Yo? Guess who's here." – Mocking from behind, that middle-age woman slightly catches the left shoulder of the shipper.
"I won't take that deal." – He throws a preemptive strike first.
"Oh come on, my daughter has good portfolio, potential, economy networks and–"
"Nah I'm good. I'm just a freelancer, not that valuable for you to invent your daughter into." – He denies again.
Flicking her fingers many times, she for one more time entices him about the deal, that her daughter is really beautiful, that he'll fall in love at first sight.
*Fsh* – He controls the spatial veil to wrap around the devastative beam, slightly shooting it back toward the chimera. It seems like the panic on his face back to the moment Yone performed his first ultimate move was just a small trick to charge more money. That beam of a high SS tier monster couldn't even bother him once. It's just too obvious to show the power gap between them.
"Spatial hax isn't that extremely rare nowadays, but to master them like you at this age is just too impossible. How about marrying my daughter?" – Another charm, then another deny.
*Boo* – "You have bad eyes, take them out and clean." – She turns around. She's too done with this wood-head single man.
"Master." – Katros clasps his hands together, then bows his head down slightly along with the back.
"Yo, it's been two months already, right?" – Albeca pats her student's shoulders strongly, just enough to make his entire body shaken twice.
"Yes, it's actually been a while. I got the things, but three totems were used already." – He feels quite a shame to report the total damage. Especially since he was sent to death by only a golden hunter.
"I see, you used it against this chimera?" – She points backward with a thumb.
"No I didn't, I used it against a rain of strikes of a golden hunter. His ability with the support of mystical flames was strong." – He admitted the defeat.
"Hmm, I see." – She also spreads her Zone around, and that action just shows her where the guy mentioned by her student is currently.
"Your superior is this strong, isn't he?" – Elbow dumping, she looks at the Shipper.
"I'm a freelancer, currently working under no one. That should be his superior instead." – Pointing to Soka, who just split the chimera into four pieces, he says.
*Roar!* – It roars again, with the overflowing golden flame, the air is melted to plasma nearby. Nevertheless, it really didn't affect that much since Guard at a specific level can reduce that heat almost to nothing. However, if he directly touched that golden flame right now, he might be burnt for a little bit.
*Clash* – He kicks straight at that head, "Only a little."
*Whirr* – The familiar sound of a blazing flame, at that time, Soka knows that he's been right. He bet that Alan would get some information about the deal with his superior, and he bet that a contract would be made. Besides that thing, he also catches a spark of a mystical flame inside the golden fire cover outside of that chimera.
Magma, golden flame, light. Did you really set up these things even before?
"How high did you evaluate this guy?" – He whispers. Two mystical flames for the first gift, it's just too crazy for Soka to believe.
A great lotus that has a color of jade and the crystalized petals slightly sway among the fires. Pale yellow light, white color, thin snowflakes and the light blue water flows, all of them are massively fast rotating around the jade lotus in the middle. And above all of them, there is a red spark silently but obviously suppressing the flames below. That's the enhanced version of The Great Lotus technique achieved by Alan after taming his first gen-one mystical flame.
Don't forget what you said. The voice fades away in his mind, it seems like they just had a small talk and a secret deal together.
"Of course." – He raises his left hand with the great lotus above, until it's as high as his eye level. Alan swiftly concentrates a bunch of Aura into his right fist as fire, he's aiming to use Dawnbreaker again.
*Snap - Clang!* – Those chained blades are split by Soka, that second sound is for the broken chain that's swinging in the air. He throws it straight toward Alan for a small support, while parrying three fireballs in front.
*Clack* – At the same time, it's also held by Alan when he's in the air after a front leap.
*Splash* – Swapping hands, Soka catches the sword left by the right hand. Adjusting his position, he swiftly slashes that chest scales broken into fragments. Under those broken protections, tons of bloody flesh and some cracked bones have been revealed.
"Straight ahead." – He dashes aside to open a space for the accelerating lotus.
Dawnbreaker is the technique that allows Alan to coercively burst and concentrate as much Aura as possible into one thing. Different from a pure fist, a sword that Soka gave him can contain more Aura indeed. One thousand, eight hundred and fifty percent is the total Aura capacity inside his two rings right now. The total Aura capacity can afford one hundred strikes at the user's maximum output continuously. So let's do some calculations right here.
Because each flame that he has stands for each small enhancement for the final output based on his maximum output. In short, the great lotus can contain up to seven hundred percent of his maximum output in total. With the Overcharge ability of The Pale Gleam Flame, he can charge one hundred and twenty percent more. Which means nine hundred and forty percent of his maximum output is the final number, the one-hundred-twenty maximum output technique included.
Directly, he has one thousand, eight hundred and forty percent in Aura capacity left to use. Whenever Dawnbreaker is activated, the Aura loss is insanely huge to raise the density and quantity. To fight Savan, he used this technique exactly at two thousand percent of the maximum output to wipe the entire large forest, yet got countered. And this time, instead of twenty times stronger, it's already thirty-two in the multiplier already.
It isn't the Aura capacity issue, it's just Alan that he can't keep concentrating on it more. If he kept trying, the entire bomb would explode right next to him. That's surely not a wise choice in general.
"I guess so." – Alan realizes the issue, he can't help but accept the multiplier of thirty-two at this point. Swinging the blade full of flame into the floating great lotus mid-air, Alan unleashes everything via one and only one slash upward.
*Whirr* – Following the movement, flames start dancing and intertwining into one small tornado with eight different colors. That tornado twists then covers the entire great lotus as a closing hand – bringing everything together.
Because it literally is a rough combination between two strikes, not the entire new technique, so he won't give it a name this time. The great lotus can reach the island level easily, while the Dawnbreaker directly upscales his final strike to the small country level. In short, without any protection and terrain enhancement, these combined strikes can wipe a dynasty into dust. To be general, these two strikes must be able to kill this SSS- tier chimera due to its fully wounded body.
*Bang* – For the very first moment of the collision, the entire space around was dyed by the dazzling white light. Following it was a massive hollow beam of colorful flames, they're united perfectly for a reason. Right inside that blazing beam, a great lotus with twelve full-opened petals was rushing straight toward that chimera with insane speed.
It was damaged so badly that the chimera couldn't even move a bit. All it could do was stand there to struggle for the very last time with the very final beam with its two wounded heads. But instead of clashing straight toward that big move of Alan, it chose to delay one pace to make sure that the beam was strong enough to launch, then aimed straight at his place. It's surely trying to perish themselves together!
Yet, it seemed to underestimate that guy's teammates already. Building a massive wall of ice right in front of Alan, Leo strengthens and spreads it to the very unshakable fortress almost instantly. Seems like his power has evolved just right at this moment.
*Fsh* – Rushing from aside, Pyan can't help much but trying to swing his blades as much as possible to release many projectiles toward the beam. At least they will stop it for a bit, enough for Leo to even make the fortress stronger.
On the contrary, the others don't even move an inch, they don't want to prevent these two guys from thriving on their own paths. And Alan, he's just here, sitting there also without an inch moved away from the last position. He leaves all the rest for the two companions, he knows that they won't fail.
*Crack* – Yet, the ice blocks have been cracked badly; was he wrong?
*Crack* – Again, that fortress can't hold it anymore.
*Crack* – As predicted, at the third time, that fortress was totally destroyed. Leaving many massive blocks of ice flying away with the same direction of the beam.
And again, as predicted, Leo instantly reveals his true plan. By using the ice blocks here, he can reshape them mid-air into a structure of hollow honeycomb channels. In the shortest way to explain, each edge and plan right here will absorb the heat. Doing it on purpose, Leo can generate more ice instead of trying to hold the structure. Consequently, the heat will melt the ices, evaporate them into steam – causing a high pressure atmosphere inside the structure.
And by repeating that cycle over and over again, the beam has been destroyed in many ways at the moment it shoots through the honeycomb channels. Now remind me, which Ability does Leo have?
He wasn't able to run it at the maximum capacity, yet, it's still enough for seven teen ticks passed. Which is equal to five hundred and thirty percent of his maximum output strike – the strike that can level the entire mountain in a hit. Compared to the weakened beam from that chimera, it's just strong enough for Leo to deflect.
*Boom* – At the same time, the great lotus and the hollow flame beam exploded. The impact was too insane to let it spread freely. Even the Shipper had to step in and cover them into a temporary closed spatial room – isolating everything from outside.
"Nice one." – Sitting on the ground, Alan claps his hands twice for that performance.
"It seems like I have to learn some area of effect moves. All my kit is about single target combats." – Pyan sheaths his rapier.
"Well, if we can somehow do a synchronized move like them, we can trap the targets with the patched domain." – Alan points to Lecta's team.
"Cut that thought, you can't do that without a specific manual. And that's only considerable when you all have the same attribute in power." – Lecta doesn't think flame, water and ice can actually combine together.
"We'll see then." – Leo holds the right hand of Alan to pull him to stand up.
Alan also takes out the two mystical flames of water sapphire and frost snowflake, "Guess what, even ice and water can be bound with flame."
Shaking his head, Lecta says no more. He with his team slightly thanked the Sword Saint then left. Katros was asked to stay by his master, she had something to say. Technically, no one will stay when the party ends, so they all come back to wherever they belong.
"Jackpot huh?" – Shaking Alan's right shoulder with his right hand, Leo asks for a free drink section.
"Alright, I'll pay for the bills today."
"Let's go. Para's House restaurant." – Pyan instantly locates where they'd go, the best restaurant in the middle of the Cala Empire.
"Is it crowded today?" – Alan asks.
"Nah, I booked the table already, VIP room for us." – Pyan knows that no matter if they win or lose today, they'll want a good lunch right after.
"Alright, ahead to that place." – Taking out the traveling ship, Alan activates it to shift them straight to the place of food.
After a while, Leo wonders, "So you have seven flames at this point, do you?"
"Technically eight if I count the spark." – Alan takes out the eighth flame in his kit, a golden halo slightly dances around his hands.
"This is the second Magma Flame, called the Golden Rings." – He says.
Leo knows it, "From that chimera?"
"Yes, I had a deal with 'him' inside that dimension. And this is the second gift."
"Hold on, does it mean you can do that mission already?" – Pyan mentions the mission that's hung on the board for years ago at the center Hunter Council.
Slightly shaking his head, Alan denies, "I don't want to do it right now, my output is still too low for that level."
"I see."
"Hey, do you know where the Terania Empire is?" – Suddenly, a strange voice speaks up from behind all of them. It instantly triggers the instinct of all the three national hunters.
That killing intent! Alan personally can feel that fear and despair of his toward the unreal black as darkness flows around that suspicious uninvited guess.
*Fshh* – Leo moves first, he freezes the entire boat with glacial and ice blocks without hesitation. Following that movement, he carves some runes into the ice seal around that guy – opening up a chance for Pyan to pierce that sword through that heart.
*Clash* – He parried the piercing strike after breaking the entire ice seal. Within two steps, the rapier of Pyan was disarmed while Alan was pushing down to the boat floor by a touch.
He slightly apologizes, "Sorry for that, it's been a while that I kept slaughtering."
Recalling all the killing intent, he approaches Leo for a question, "Do you know where the Terania Empire is?"
"I do, but who even are you?"
Scratching his head a bit, "Just a nonchalant dude on that empire's bounty list."
"Dude, are you sure that you want to enter the empire that wants your head down?" – This is the first time that Alan sees a criminal that has that kind of bravery or stupidity, whatever.
"Don't worry, I just want to get there because the nostalgia remains in that empire." – He slightly steps on the boat's nose, catching the fresh wind flowing by his own body.
"Basically, we're on our way to the Cala Empire. You can rush to the west to find it then." – Alan says.
"Thanks then."
But there's still a curiosity inside Alan, "Who even are you? And what did you do to be on the bounty list of that empire?"
He slightly smirks, "No idea, have you ever heard about the collection of Eight Gem Blades?"
"Yes, they all belong to Terania." – Leo follows up.
"That's right, one of them chose me as the master. And the high council of that empire tried to bind me with many contracts of loyalty toward Terania." – The way he tells the story, so sarcastic.
"If so, you must be one of the two most wanted criminals of that empire. You bring a katana, you should be Yahra, Satsura Yahra, right?" – Leo guesses.
"Nice take, you're correct." – Revealing his identity, he takes out the black cloak hoodie to let that silver hair slightly sway with the wind.
"Damn it, your legend has been so viral through the entire league of three empires, do you know that?" – Alan's day is too crazy at this point, from meeting a Sword Saint to an honored criminal, that's so unreal.
"A legend? Why did my story become a legend in those days?" – Yahra doesn't get it.
"Ah yes, the Chief of Army in the Terania Empire was later accused of many crimes. The evidence was so obvious, so he was captured and executed already. His dirty deeds related to your case were also revealed to the empire." – Alan tells.
"Oh, if so, no wonder. That guy was the first one to declare the bounty hunt on me. Do you know that he was trying to save this blade for his son?" – Yahra leaks the hidden side of the story.
"Really? So that's why you're on the bounty list? Guess that dude would do everything to force you to drop that gem blade if you were caught." – Alan can tell the rest of the story.
"That's true." – The edges of his smile haven't fallen down yet.
"But I wonder, what kind of nostalgia do you have there?" – Straight to the main issue, Leo asks directly.
"Ah, it's been a while since that day." – The untold story, he immerses in the memory back then. He still remembers why he holds that blade, in front of the grave of the unknown. As these winds never stop flowing, his feet have never paused for a second. Despite the winds always flowing forward, one day they will come back to where they begin. And this time is just a break for Yahra to come back to the starting point of his path.
"I… I want to see how it was the first time I started my journey back then." – He slightly smiles. No matter how many years he would dye himself in killing and slaughtering, he is just a human. And for a human, he has the emotions that whenever they haven't been lost, he is still Yahra – himself two years ago.
"I sensed the sparks of mystical flames inside your body, is that related to your Ability?" – He looks at Alan, who he hasn't asked for the name.
"You can even sense them when I hide all away?" – Alan is shocked; he didn't see Yahra use Sight for any second.
"Don't worry, I'm somehow sensitive to special energy like mystical flames, arcane force, anomalous traces and others. I have no intention to steal them from you. Just want to say that Bakodan should be the place for your next journey." – Yahra is still looking forward, letting that wind flow through himself for the fresh breaths.
"Bakodan? Can I ask why?" – Alan doesn't think the land of jewels really has mystical flames. It's nothing else but its own topographic structure is impossible to actually grow up any mystical flame. The specific explanation hasn't been made, yet it doesn't change the fact that not a single mystical flame can grow from that place of jewels.
"I know one gambling maniac there. He runs a massive business of casinos, gambling machines of various types… just about gambling like that. You can win a prize by playing one-on-one poker with him." – Yahra thinks he doesn't remember it wrong. He indeed saw at least one mystical flame on the prize board a year ago.
"You mean I can get a mystical flame there?" – Catching the main ideas, Alan's two eyes are straight up as bright as stars in the sky.
"Technically yes, if they haven't been taken up to now. But don't worry, I saw one mystical flame there just a year ago. You might still have a chance."
Yet, letting Alan no chance to be happy, he continues right after, "If I'm not wrong, to play that game you will have to bet a part of your body as the lowest price. Your life is indeed the maximum one."
"Hey bro… how can you say it that carefreely?" – Alan doesn't know if he just misheard or not. Gambling with such a price like that isn't a wise choice.
"That's terribly risky." – Leo has already tried to prevent Alan from that casino at this point.
"High risk high rewards. If you beat him in a fight, you can order one thing from him." – At the moment he drops that line, Alan has decided what to do.
"Do you know how strong he is?" – Hearing that, both Pyan and Leo know what Alan's trying to plan.
"Oh~my~god~bro." – Leo feels so hopeless, his friend is going to a dead end at this point.
"Chill, If I can win against him, then I'm fine." – It seems like Alan wants a fight rather than a gambling game. Honestly, it's not a wise choice if he isn't strong enough, but it also eliminates the risk of gambling at the same time. So I'll claim it as a safe move instead.
"Maximum High SS tier at base form. He can upscale to a high SSS tier via some conditions, be careful." – Yahra doesn't think Alan can do this right now.
"Alright buddy, not this time." – Also Alan, he knows well how he would lose if he dared to challenge just by now. He needs more flames, a decisive trump card before entering that stage.
*Whirr* – A massive blow has been thrown then stopped, the uninvited guests have arrived. Yahra sent back to him a fast elbow knock right at the middle of the chest, shooting him far away from the boat.
*Fsh – Clash* – Two chains of light were also deflected away within a swift slash. That movement was too fast, even Pyan couldn't catch a trace of the blade that had been swung. However, his job right now is dealing with another swordsman right here. Rapier clashes to a long sword, what a match!
"I can handle them myself, you all can head on Cala." – Yahra announces, obviously he doesn't put these creeps into the opponent list.
Laughing aside, Alan shakes his head, "You are the guest of this team. If anyone dares to assault our guest, where should our reputation go later?"
"Don't worry, it doesn't matter. This is just a legitimate self-defense after all." – Pyan continues with two more slashes.
*Splash* – Then he takes the battle pace by overwhelming the opponent with a much faster strike. That move revealed a medal hidden under the coat of that guy – a large golden coin with seven gems and light patterns.
"Am I right? The Royal Hounds of Terania?" – No hesitation, no regard, just pure rage baiting, Pyan provokes.
"I can litigate you for disrespecting the royalty of Terania."
"So I can litigate you for attacking members of The Hunters Council, idiot." – Within two more slashes, the second wound has been done by Pyan. Never mind his toxicity, this is just an old story of conflicts and hatred toward that empire of Pyan. Honestly, he'd like to run if these Hounds are all Head Captains. Yet, it's a totally different story for these dudes who are only at Captain rank.
"Oh wow, that's such a nice art of hospitality. Alright, do what you want, but–"
*Splash* – The striker that dared to challenge Yahra first has been split into two pieces. Even though the blood is still dripping down normally, not a single drop was impacted by the swing through the entire corpse.
He warns, "Don't kill them like me, you guys must be in trouble later."
"Of course, even if I want, I can't kill a guy right here. At least for the next twenty-three hours." – Alan looks so carefree; he doesn't even panic or run for a moment.
"So you are just weak right now?" – Looking down from above, a royal hound contempts.
Alan takes out a cup of tea, so nonchalant, "Technically that's true."
*Fsh* – All of a sudden, the ice blocks form out of nowhere just via swing. Leo instantly causes some troubles for the royal hounds by the disadvantage of movement. And that's just enough for Yhara to split two more creeps into pieces, three corpses already.
"Don't you want to help them?" – Alan asks the opposite sitting guy right in front of him.
"Not really, remember that striker attacked first? He's the leader and he's dumb as f* I swear to god, oh my life." – This guy sounds like he's the only normal dude of that team.
"I told them not to be cocky, now almost all of them are dead. I'm here just because of that ass leader's orders, too tired right now." – He really takes out a drink to chill with Alan no matter how hard his alive teammates are trying to call for help.
"Like bro, are we serious? You call me to help by fighting that dude who can slam all of us by a strike nonchalantly, don't you? Why don't you just suicide real quick then?" – He indeed throws that cup toward one royal hound, smashing her head into a mess.
"How can you not be a leader? You're obviously stronger than all these creeps." – Alan asks.
"Have you ever heard about a 'nepo baby'? It's the third time my promotion application has been canceled." – Sighing, no girlfriend, five years of working without a raise in wage or promotion. His life can't be worse than this.
*Splash* – When the moonlight was drawn from the sword sheath for the fourth time, the final enemy was cut into half. Our mysterious swordsman gets back to his place, for the winds may come.
"But how are you going to explain to your superior later?" – Alan wonders.
"Good question… Do you have others?" – More than ever, he knows that the fourth promotion chance is going to fly out of his hands as usual.
Oh my life! He curses inside.
"That's unexpected." – Another strange voice clangs up. It starts from behind them all, at the end of the boat.
"I thought the first squad might obey the orders absolutely not to do anything else but locate the mentioned guy." – He strokes his light golden billowy hair carefreely, as if these three golden hunters and a wanted-level-five criminal aren't that dangerous. On his waist, to the left, there's a longsword hidden in a sheath. And that's how Yahra can determine the identity of this ninth uninvited guest. Of course he has to exclude himself first.
"It must have been the winds, for leading you to this place. It's quite surprising." – Yahra doesn't look back, but he knows the guest already.
"I didn't know that the master of Rokugatsu had changed. Your Aura and bloodline, Terania Royalty – main lineage. I wonder which member you are." – He slightly turns back. He has no hatred for the royals of Terania, they are different from the chiefs after all.
*Haha* – A slight giggle, "How honored I am, to see the legend right here. I heard that no one knows your last name nor true title."
He doesn't finish that line, but Yahra still understands what that guy wants at this point. Yet, the title of a swordsman is only revealed in a fight of honor. And to enter a fight of honor, the opponents must be worthy.
"If you deserve it." – He slowly unleashes the moonlit blade. Letting it reflect the power of the lost moon among the dim sunlight in between – even the sun is separated from this place since the blade's unsealed.
On the contrary, that swordsman of another moonlit blade has also moved. With the straight longsword swinging directly toward Yahra, he approaches with the maximum power just by a step. So, let the blades talk by themselves.
*Clash* – Even though they both performed the movements at massively hypersonic+ in the first move, the destructive capacity wasn't even at wall level. This is not an inconsistent phenomenon, it's just the entry level of two sword masters' fights. Where the Aura is controlled fluently enough to reduce all the negative impact on the environment by concentrating everything into the blades only.
Of course, the rest of the individuals here were overwhelmed by that speed blitz movement. Unfortunately for Alan, since his Aura has been locked, he can't do much but watch others using Sight at maximum output just to catch the silhouette of three moments behind their current movements in the reluctance.
"Sub… Sub-relativistic already!" – Shocked not only by that speed, but also the fact that both Pyan and Leo can catch up with those movements with some delays. Right next to them, the last royal hound has already been rejected at this level. He can barely catch a trace, let alone to mention a clear silhouette left behind.
At that moment, the fight was only foreplay. For their swords haven't been unleashed totally.