ATAPOW Chapter 100
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Chapter 100: Monster
With her two fingers firmly holding onto the blade that had been rushing towards her, Lin casually pushed it outwards.
This caused Gordon to stagger back a few steps.
“You’re not my opponent, leave.” Her calm eyes were overflowing with killing intent; This was her final warning towards her aggressor.
【Ingredient: Fire Lizard’s Tongue, Sulfur Stone】
“RALIETUMvestumcanis………Peccetorastsenguisfloruairescintilles……”
“Boom…” The air was set aflame.
Heated air rose up as the small, dark alley was filled up with a bright fire, causing temperatures to rise abruptly.
A crowd of fiery-red sprites was joyfully dancing back and forth on Gordon’s palms. Under the scorching heat, Lin’s field-of-view was gradually beginning to distort.
As the incantation syllables chanted through Gordon’s lips started to overlap with one another, his palm-sized fireball had seemingly found a new source of fuel. It began to burn more intensely and rotated faster while growing larger and larger in size.
A human —A feeble species of the lower stratum — had used language to receive the protection of the raging flames.
This inconceivable fact was laid out before her eyes, causing her to gasp in astonishment. That said, no matter how incredible it was, Lin was already prepared; Whether be it to evade or intercept them.
At this moment that seemingly unending chant came to a halt. Like a deflating balloon, the rapidly-expanding flame quickly extinguished and cooled down. It was as if it had just been a flash of fireworks.
Gordon had sidestepped and avoided the blade that had come stabbing towards him. The expensive ceremonial robes on his body, however, were not that lucky. A small piece of cloth had been cut off.
Despite receiving a surprise attack, Gordon didn’t falter nor hesitate in the slightest. He performed a backroll and moved out of the two-handed longsword’s attack range.
“You’ve arrived pretty quickly. It seems your nose is quite effective for a lapdog. I’ll give you a little applause for your eagerness to protect your owner.” Gordon casually tossed the sulfur stone and the Fire Lizard’s tongue into his pocket.
“I am actually here to save you.” Replied Ji Bai as he carried his two-handed sword. He then shot a glance at Lin, whose hands were wrapped in blood threads.
“The young are fearless. Even if you haven’t seen a demon before, you must have definitely heard of them? I cannot guarantee to be able to stop her once she gets angry…”
“Are you sure you want to get in my way?” Gordon looked at Ji Bai coldly.
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Ji Bai frowned.
“…It makes no difference if I switch up the sequence and kill you first.” With his hand, Gordon touched the sword in his hand and diverted his strength to the soles of his feet.
The somewhat-indistinct artwork on his blade was the outline of a pitch-black silhouette: A sinister-looking monitor lizard.
The sword tip drew a flowing river of fire in the air.
“Crack!” The sound of fabric being burnt at high temperatures.
‘…His sword has also been enchanted by a sorcerer?’
Although his timely evasion had helped him avoid the full-on assault dealt by the sharp blade edge, the line of fire had set Ji Bai’s collar aflame.
‘A fight is a fight. Destroying someone else’s personal assets is going too far!’
Nobody would allow such a golden opportunity, where their enemy was distracted, to slip past like that.
Gordon didn’t give Ji Bai any chance to take a breather. Making use of the fact that Ji Bai’s attention was concentrated on his clothes, his longsword shot down backward, still emitting sparks of fire. It resembled a venomous snake plunging towards its target.
“Clank!” The loud sound of metal colliding reverberated and echoed through the air.
The fire sword was firmly stuck onto the handguard of the two-handed sword.
“I got you now.” Said Ji Bai in a chilly tone.
【Common Class Magic— Capric Counter Handguard】: A counter sword technique. It would capture the instant the opponent makes a move and use one’s handguard to intercept and block the attack. Requiring a strong neural reflex, it would create an opportunity for the defender after the attack was successfully intercepted.
A trace of astonishment flashed past Gordon’s eyes.
The next moment, he was sent stumbling backward.
Capitalizing on that chance, Ji Bai gave Gordon a kick and sent him flying towards a wall.
“Don’t try to show off your swordsmanship when you’re not good at it. You’ll lose your life instead.” Ji Bai shot a glance at the handguard that had now been charred black, and inwardly gritted his teeth.
He would be lying if he claimed that it didn’t pain him in the least. This impure, two-handed longsword suffused only with a speck of Molybdenum metal was actually the only object in Ji Bai’s possession.
In contrast, the lone sword Gordon held in his hands was shiny as snow, to the extent that one was able to see the engraving on it. Precious stone ornaments decorated the crossguard of the blade while its body had also been enchanted.
It was simply the difference between a burning fire rod and a purple-rarity sword that had been upgraded 8 times.
“Masterfully applying sword techniques and combining kicks and attacks to perfection. You’re a knight.” Gordon patted the dust away from his clothes and stood up as if nothing happened.
A thin halo resembling a layer of iron skin fluttered up and down on his body. Some of the ‘iron skin’ that was protecting his back had broken down from the impact earlier and fallen.
“The armor protection spell of a sorcerer… You’re a shaman.” Ji Bai narrowed his eyes.
“No, I am just a human.”
“…”Ji Bai didn’t respond in any way to Gordon’s explanation.
“Your understanding of witchcraft is too shallow. As a matter of fact, even though the difficulty to learn it is extremely high and the number of spells is limited, there is still knowledge humans can understand and learn from.” Gordon picked up his sword and shot a glance at Ji Bai and Lin.
“So the relationship between knights and demons has already become so close that they’re like one family, huh? No wonder the common people are steadily being pushed to a dead-end… The previous incident, the one where demons besiege the city walls, was actually orchestrated by your kind, am I right?”
Ji Bai didn’t pay attention to Gordon’s words. Stretching his waist, he held his sword with his hands and swung it downwards like a shaking warhammer.
【Watcher’s Fury】
“Hmph.” Gordon laughed grimly. When faced with the sword edge that was surging towards him head-on, he had chosen to advance instead of retreating. With a stretch of his waist, he lifted his own sword up high.
His move was identical to Ji Bai’s action.
‘Could this move possibly be…?’
【Watcher’s Fury】
“Clank!…”
Both blades were swung with a great force and openly clashed against each other, causing an ear-splitting metallic clashing sound to violently reverberate inside the small alley.
The sparks of fire on Gordon’s blade exploded outwards, violently stirring up the surrounding air. At the same time, shockwaves from the aftermath reverberated outwards, causing a series of fissures to appear on the nearby cement walls.
The two of them quickly retreated.
Ji Bai had gotten down to his knee, heavily panting while leaning on his sword.
Seemingly unaffected by the attack, Gordon stood up once again, looking just the way he was before. The only exception to that was the number of tiny ‘iron flakes’ on his body — they had lessened somewhat once again.
【Watcher’s Fury】. A rare human sword technique whose destructive capability was capable of reaching【Crushing】class. While it required less than 5 years for one to achieve minor success with it, there was no time limit as to how long it would take for one to master it. From that alone, it was clear how difficult it was to master such a sword technique with unparalleled destructive capabilities.
Ji Bai slowly got to his feet and stared at Gordon for a moment.
“A swordsmanship genius. If you’re a human, that is.”
“That’s too much of a compliment, but thanks.” Replied Gordon after being silent for a moment.
Ji Bai suddenly narrowed his eyes on something and ferociously threw the molybdenum sword in his hand towards Gordon.
Gordon didn’t dodge nor react; Rather, he kept a calm expression as he looked at the two-handed sword that was thrown in his direction.
“Clank!” The two-handed sword brushed past Gordon’s shoulder and continued on its trajectory. It was then flicked away following a collision with what appeared to be a thick shell.
Perhaps because of being obstructed by the sword, the movement of the creature’s body turned sluggish.
“Hsss…” The creature appeared to be very upset. With thread spitting out of its mouth, its small densely-packed red eyes were blinking and moving non-stop. Its 8 legs that were thrust deep into the ground were covered with sharp black hair. The bottom half of its body had the size of a carriage and undoubtedly was the body of a spider, while the upper half of its body resembled the figure of a naked, well-developed woman. There were no facial features on its face, instead, its entirety was densely covered with countless red small-eyes. A pair of large pincer teeth extended their way downwards from the position where the ears should have been.
“Hsssss…” A hissing noise capable of causing one’s scalps to turn numb echoed within the small, peaceful alley.