"Kill that man!!"
"Unforgivable!"
The enraged members of Rainbow Roses aimed their weapons at him all together in an act of vengeance, but the man before them wanted to advise them that their actions were very rash, knowing their rage had clouded their judgment.
Meanwhile, the auction guards and his henchmen were facing the battle with clear heads despite the death of their comrades. Their discipline and coordination pushed the intruders back so hard that they even forced the furious Dark Elf, Alamak, to momentarily lose sight of her target.
"Blockade the exit!"
"Provide cover for Sir Lance!"
"Hurry with assisting the flank!"
As the guards and henchmen pressed their attack, the women of Rainbow Roses, blinded by their grief over their fallen comrades, exposed too many vulnerabilities.
One by one, they began to fall and crumbled like dominoes.
"No…!"
Slicing another guard into two, Alamak witnessed the miserable end of her sisters who fell down like dry straw.
"Sisters!!"
Her members were lessening at every passing moment, and her state of mind worsened the more it went on. She went on a wild rampage alongside the Elementals like a crazy bitch souped up on chemicals.
But even in her frenzy, she was strong.
Were it not for the wall of men standing in her way, she would have cut down the man with the hat and magic colt, avenging her fallen comrades, whom she considered her family.
"JD LAAAAAAAAAANCE!!"
The Dark Elf's scream of pure rage shook the entire building, and an overwhelming bloodlust erupted from her, which caused everyone to freeze in place as the air around them grew unnaturally cold.
Shing! Spurt!
With a single devastating swing of her saber, dozens of auction guards and Lance's henchmen were cleaved in half, and a horrendous amount of their blood splattered across the room like a grotesque rain.
But amid the carnage, one man stood untouched, and was the one she most desired to kill.
"Forget fame and representation…" she growled. "I AM GOING TO WIPE YOU OUT FROM THE FACE OF THE WORLD!"
Lance smirked, unbothered by the intense bloodlust directing against him. "Finally decided to get serious, huh? After I finish killing these bitches and fags like dogs right in front of your eyes?"
An orange aura, streaked with black threads, expanded around his body. In response, a pink hue radiated from Alamak, crackling with raw power.
As the mana on both of them soared, the atmosphere inside of the room became tense, filling the space with an oppressive energy.
Intense bloodlust enveloped the room and murderous intent thickened the air as the two glared at each other.
"Any last words before I erase your miserable existence?" Alamak hissed in a cold and lethal voice.
Lance chuckled. "Yeah, sure."
After saying this, he closed his eyes briefly and exhaled a long breath. When they snapped open, the orange aura surrounding him flared with terrifying intensity.
"Let's dance."
Alamak's sharp gaze locked onto Lance's hand, anticipating his next move. Just as he began to raise his Magic Colt, she had already made her move.
Her feet barely grazed the ground as her body shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
Bang!
The magic bullet burst out of the barrel. But this time, instead of hitting its mark, the sharp clang of metal echoed through the room as Alamak had sliced the bullet clean in two.
"Don't you dare kill me with such a coward's weapon!"
With a wave of her hands, the saber in Alamak's hands carried a ferocious force as it slashed vertically towards Lance's front. The sheer pressure coming from the attack sent ripples through the air, causing their clothes to flutter in its wake.
Sensing the incoming attack, Lance's brows twitched slightly. His eyes, now cold and indifferent, gazed at the incoming blade with unprecedented calmness.
Then, to Alamak's surprise, Lance tossed his Magic Artifact into the air, ignoring the weapon entirely, and raised his hands to meet her blade.
With his eyes tracing the movements of the weapon that was nearing him, his hands began to glow faintly.
With fluid precision, he stepped back, while his right hand touched the blade.
In a graceful 'S' motion, his fingers danced along the saber's edge, diverting the attack as if it were a mere formality.
"What!?"
To Alamak's shock, she watched in disbelief as her saber was guided effortlessly by Lance's hand movement, redirecting her powerful strike toward the ground.
Bang!
"Not so cowardly now, is it?" Lance remarked with a calm smile, catching his weapon as it dropped back into his hand with perfect timing.
Bang!
Taking advantage of the opening he created, Lance raised his gun in the air and a sound of gunfire rang out.
Quickly recovering from the shock, Alamak wrenched her saber off the ground as her feet pressed onto the floor. Her body quickly shot back and raised her weapon just in time before a metallic clash rang out as she narrowly deflected the magic bullet, dodging its destructive power.
"Haaa... haaaa…" she muttered with heavy breaths as her eyes narrowed at Lance with unprecedented seriousness.
'Damn it!'
From the short exchange she just had with this man, she knew that in terms of speed, Lance was faster. His raw power aside, he also possessed powerful Magic Artifacts and extraordinary Martial Art skills, like the one he had just demonstrated.
But Alamak wasn't one to give up. She had survived countless battles before, many against seemingly unbeatable foes.
In any fight, all it took was a single moment, one moment to decide the end of the battle. And that was what she was waiting for. That one moment.
Glaring at Lance from across the room, she steeled herself.
It was time to go all out.
'Let's see what happens when I increase my speed.'
Slashing down, she once again shot explosively forward. This time around, the speed appeared to have instantly become many times higher than what it was earlier as her figure became a blur.
In a second, she had already arrived before Lance.
Glaring into his eyes, she brought her saber down with lethal intent.
In an instant, Lance pulled something from his Spatial Ring, which was a massive Mithril shield, and he thrust it in front of him.
Boom!
Upon making contact with the mithril shield, the saber broke them into pieces, sending shockwaves through the auction room.
Despite its destruction, the shield had served its purpose as it absorbed the brunt of her strike. By intercepting the saber mid-swing rather than at full force, Lance was able to reduce the amount of force the shield was subjected to upon making contact with the attack.
With a quick tap of his foot, Lance leapt backward and created a distance between himself and the enraged Dark Elf.
"No, you don't!"
With the saber in one hand, she chased after Lance. Fully knowing just how dangerous and powerful her opponent is, Sirrah Alamak knew that she couldn't give him even a second to breathe.
If she gave him time to breathe, she was as good as done for.
WHEEIN! WHEEIN! WHEEIN!
[GIF]
With each passing second, her attacks became more and more vicious. The pink aura that resonated from her weapon thickened and enveloped her whole body.
"Haaa!" Alamak roared out loud. The pink energy that was revolving around her body disappeared and suddenly agglomerated at the tip of her saber. In a flash, it shot forward faster than the bullet itself as it went straight toward Lance.
Unable to react to Alamak's sudden burst in power, the attack smashed solidly on Lance. The only thing he could do was block it with another mithril shield in front of him and braced himself for the impact.
Bang!
"Damn!"
Even with the shield cushioning some of the force, the force of the impact caused Lance to fly across the room and firmly smash against the wall. His breath left him in a painful gasp, and for a few agonizing seconds, he couldn't breathe.
"Huuu..." Alamak exhaled slowly as her eyes were fixed on Lance as he struggled to recover. But, she didn't move to continue the attack.
It wasn't that she didn't want to, it was because she couldn't.
There was one major flaw with Alamak's current strategy. It was that it heavily consumed her stamina. That last attack, in particular, had drained her reserves significantly.
Even though she was trying her best to mask it, she was slowly running out of stamina. If she continued to attack now, the chances of her opponent exploiting her exhaustion increased. She preferred to play it safe, and she couldn't afford that. Thus, she preferred to play it safe, held her ground, and watched for any sign of weakness from her opponent.
Gulp!
Taking out a couple of potions and downed them in quick succession. Slowly, she felt her stamina and mana beginning to recover.
'I should be in a better state than him.' she thought as she wiped the side of her lips.
Her opponent had already expended a considerable amount of energy, using major techniques to beat all of her companions. Not to mention, he had killed her Magic Beast as well.
Alamak estimated that Lance was nearing exhaustion, and his mana reserves were dangerously low. If she could keep replenishing her strength with potions while denying him the chance to recover, victory was within her grasp.
"Ugh…"
She watched as Lance stood up across the room, brushing off the dust. Apart from his torn clothes, he appeared largely unscathed.
Alamak frowned, as her sharp eyes caught the same calm smile playing on his lips.
"You have really surprised me," she said. "No wonder you're the infamous Jason David Lance, the man who steals from the powerful and slips away untouched. Not even Transcendent Tier-2 beings could lay a hand on you. No adventurer, no mercenary, no man has ever caught you."
"However…" She continued as her tone shifted with a hint of pride in her voice. "They say no 'man' can capture or kill you, JD Lance. That's because you don't send a man to do a WOMAN'S job!"
As she spoke those words, the medical effects of the potions were starting to kick in. The pink aura around her body stabilized and even thickened, growing more intense by the second.
"..."
Listening to Alamak Sirrah's declaration, Lance did not reply. He merely rolled his eyes and glanced at her. As he sensed the slowly rising pink-colored energy within the dark elf's body, he quickly got into a stance, sensing that the real fight was about to begin.
"That's enough speaking from me. It's about time to end this."
Slowly raising her hand, the pink glow enveloping her saber became increasingly dense and swirling violently around her, while her eyes never left him.
"Killing you will set me free from the binds of revenge that have chained me up at this moment. Your death will be the start of my rebirth."
Listening to her words, Lance's face twisted in slight annoyance. Almost as though he was cringing.
"I killed your little friends not long ago, and now you're 'this' dramatic about revenge?" He sneered. "This isn't one of those cheesy revenge against men stories you women love to read and cry over."
Unbothered by this, Alamak raised her saber, and the energy crackled around her weapon with deadly intensity.
"Let's finally settle this!"
As her voice slowly fell, the clothes on her body alongside her long brown hair on her head suddenly fluttered wildly despite the lack of wind.
A dark oppressive pressure gradually rose from within her body, growing stronger by the second. The extent of the strength increase presented by her caused Lance, who had maintained a calm expression, now frowned with unprecedented seriousness clouded his face.
Suddenly, the saber in Sirrah Alamak trembled and a high-pitched ring echoed through the room. Following the ringing, the pink aura revolving around the blade flared violently and intensified to a nearly blinding degree.
Alamak lifted her head with determination etched across her face. With a gentle press of her feet against the ground, her body became a streak of light as she launched herself toward Lance and took the initiative once more.
Her strategy was the same as before, strike first before Lance could have enough time to do any big move.
The distance between the two of them was only ten meters. For someone like a Transcendent Tier-1, this distance was meaningless for someone of her caliber. It was something she could cover in one swoop, even a hundred meters could be covered in the blink of an eye.
Its tip, glowing with condensed pink energy, moved like a venomous snake in an almost erratic and unpredictable pattern. The sharp glow surrounding the blade condensed slightly as it drove straight for Lance's chest in a vicious manner.
"Haaa!"
But as the saber neared him, Lance's expression relaxed. His eyes followed the weapon's path with unsettling calm, as the tip of the blade grew larger in his vision.
Raising his head, a smirk appeared on his lips.
"Naive."
Right when the attack was about to land on him, Alamak felt a cold chill wash over her body. Her instincts flared, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, as she whipped her head around sharply.
Raising his left foot, Lance stomped heavily on the ground and an explosive sound was created, echoing through the room with a thunderous boom. His body blurred into a dark shadow, and like a ghost, he disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared behind the dark elf.
"Haaa!"
With a fierce roar, Lance punched out.
Borrowing the force from his half-rotated body, his fist viciously smashed towards Alamak's back with a terrifying force.
Even his fists were like small pieces of rocks, however, what carried it was a force that even surpasses mountains, as an splitting explosion of energy rang way louder than an gigantic war drum reverberated through the room, as a brilliant orange light flashed, brighter than the flames of war, casting eerie shadows across the auction hall.
This terrifying attack alone had left Alamak breathless.
Staring at the incoming fist that was slowly enlarging in her vision, Alamak could only open her mouth absentmindedly. It was already too late. She knew it.
BAM!!!
"Haaaak!"
The fist directly smashed into Alamak's stomach with a brutal force. Like a broken kite, her body flew all the way towards the other side of the room like a ragdoll, crashing into furniture and smashing against the far wall.
Similar to her, Lance did not chase. But unlike her, it wasn't because he was too tired, it was because he was preparing to finish it.
A majestic orange aura enveloped the whole room, and alongside it was a terrifying pressure. The pressure was suffocating as Lance's clothes fluttered wildly in the force. Coldly looking at Alamak opposite him, he shifted his stance, and his left foot dug into the floor.
"It's time to end this woman's whole career."