《Vampire System- The Last Mystic Swordsman》
Chapter 1 Power System And Abbreviations
NOTE: This contains some spoilers, so read at your own risk.
(Energy Unit: Mystic Energy.)
(Power Levels for Mystic Warriors)
- Basic Mystic Warrior
- Intermediate Mystic Warrior
- Advanced Mystic Warrior
- Super Mystic Warrior
- Legendary Mystic Warrior
(Power Levels for Mystic Beasts)
- Basic Mystic Beast
- Intermediate Mystic Beast
- Advanced Mystic Beast
- Super Mystic Beast
- Mythical Mystic Beast
(Grades for Mystic Treasures)
? - Basic Grade Treasure
- Intermediate Grade Treasure
- Advanced Grade Treasure
- Super Grade Treasure
- Myth Grade Treasure
(Mystic Abilities)
- Normal Mystic Ability
- Epic Mystic Ability
- Legendary Mystic Ability
(ssifications of Mystic Energy)
- Elemental Mystic Energy
- Domain Mystic Energy
- Unique Mystic Energy
(Battle Domains)
Battle Domains are the different martial art specializations that mystic warriors specialize on and use to channel their mystic energy.
ABBREVIATIONS:
B.R.A- Beast Research Alliance
A.O.S- Advanced Operating Systems
After M.A- After Mystic Awakening
K.R.S Credits- King Resistance Shelter Credits
¡
I will be updating this as the novel progresses, and most especially, I''ll update Rex''s skills here after he gets his system so anticipate it.
¡
[NOTE: This book is not for those who love fast pace from the onset, I will take time to exin the world, Rex, and the mystic world and that is why the first volume is called THE MYSTIC WORLD.]
[My advice despite this is to try it though, once the graduation tournament kicks off, I swear you''re going to fall in love with it so read it.]
Chapter 2 Rex Vector
Dong! Dong!
The loud sound of the ringing bell signified school closure.
The enthusiastic students picked up their bags and other learning materials as they all hurried home. To students, this bell was one of the most memorable sounds to hear in school since they would finally get to go home.
Especially at this time of the semester, when it was only a few days to the graduation battle, they were all enthusiastic to impress their parents.
In this era where martial arts and mystic abilities was the main proof of power, every parent loved to send their children to the best mystic academies.
Obedin Mystic Academy was one of the schools at the forefront of the mystic world. With a huge heritage and history of having produced students whoter graduated to be powerhouses of the era, it was highly renowned.
Every parent wanted to send his child to this mystic academy. Most students were here due to the power and riches of their parents, while a few others consisted of those that were here due to a mixture of luck and talent.
Rex Vector was one of these lucky talented students, an exceptional one at that, being among the few students to finish the 5-year battle course with 1st ss excellence in a specific battle domain.
As an orphan, he got the opportunity to school in such a renowned mystic academy only due to a government schrship.
With a head full of red hair like old wine, a great physique that could turn heads around, dark brown eyes that seemed to hide the secrets of the gxy, and a well-streamlined baby face, Rex was a handsome but introverted young man.
He loved his looks, nobody hated being good-looking but he hated the attention that it drew towards him especially when this attention was mostly bad.
What he actually loved the most was his sword. Even at this moment, while he walked, a sword scabbard was tied to his back.
At this moment, though it was already just a few days to the graduation battle where most students would be happy and outgoing with their friends, preparing their mind for thest battle, he seemed lonely, like he had no friends.
Actually, he had 2 friends, his only friends but like usual during major days like this where the atmosphere in the school was supposed to be harmonious, he avoided them because he didn''t want to drag them into his troubles.
His reason for avoiding his only friends was that during major days like this, others get to be happy but his only fate was to face hate.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
His scrappy-looking pair of sandals made strange scraping-scratching and tapping sounds against the floor as the effects of friction acted on them.
Unlike the other students who came from privileged backgrounds, and like the few students who were the same as him, it was evident that they came from a different background. They were the low-lives of the school.
Their dressing, working etiquette, speaking etiquette, and a lot of other things reflected the painful reality that they were inferior to the privileged ones.
The only aspect where Rex was superior to his fellow students and he was confident about was his swordsmanship. But nobody cared about it much, mystic swordsmanship was at its lowest point in history.
Though Rex lived this painful academy life daily where he had to suppress and ignore the feeling of inferiorityplex in him, at this moment, he didn''t care about all that because he had better things in mind. He needed to get home.
Unfortunately, the things in his mind did not always reflect reality. He was not wrong; the privileged ones were here; they indeed came for him.
"Hey, schrship miser, how''s your day going?"
A loud-mouthed student raised his voice from afar on seeing Rex. Alongside this blonde-haired student where 3 other students, and from their clothing and bearing, there was no doubt that they were the privileged.
On noticing the blonde-haired student, Rex instinctively ignored him, Collins was not worth his attention. This was what he believed, paying attention to the bully would only push him towardsmitting a punishable offense.
"Ohh, someone''s scared, I didn''t think you were too scared to answer me". Collins, the blonde-haired student quickened his steps on noticing that Rex ignored him, clearly not about to give up.
"Hey, what''s with the silence, miser schr?"
"Haha, that''s a new one, miser schr, it fits him so much. 10 achievement points to your ministry, Collins".
"Miser schr, lol. Psychological damage +20!"
"Hahaha!"
The 3 students behind the tall Collins immediately butted in, bursting into a loud fit ofughter after he spoke.
Despite this, Rex never paid attention to them. Today was of great significance to him, today was his 18th birthday so he was distracted.
Collins kept on trying to nib at his trigger points for a few seconds until he started getting annoyed due to being ignored. For some reason, it was like the kid suddenly became mature and his personality changed.
Originally, by now, Rex would have flipped already.
"Hey, Rex, I''m speaking to you!"
"Get lost!"
"Ohhh¡" Collins raised his hands in mocked surrender. "I see what''s going on here, someone''s upset that Daddy didn''t buy him a birthday gift, right?"
"Well, take my gift, happy birthday Rex".
Ssh!
"Hahaha!" The 3 students burst into a louder fit ofughter, including Collins this time after he smashed the birthday cake against the miser schr''s head.
This act seeded in drawing the attention of other students. Once they looked and saw the identity of the student that was being bullied, the students adopted interesting expressions on their faces without any hint of interfering.
At some point while Collins spoke, perhaps a screw was unwound on his head, perhaps a nerve was touched but Rex suddenly stopped walking.
Rex turned slowly, his brown eyes pinning the bulkier and taller youth firmly. "What did you say?"
Collins flinched a bit on receiving the re. "See¡, what''s this? You think you''re Jack Bauer? Go live your miser life in your dad''s miser mansion, haha".
This, touched a nerve.
Bam!
A lightning-fast fist to the nose, and Collins fell with blood seeping from his nose. He rolled in pain for a few seconds before he jumped up, angered.
"Die, b*tch!"
Collins was really angered as he sprinted towards Rex with his 2 hands inclined in a posture like he was gathering air in-between them.
In this posture, fire suddenly sprouted from in-between his 2 hands. Collins may seem like a good-for-nothing bully, but he was one of the few students who awakened and managed to achieve basic mastery over a mystic ability.
On seeing the actions of his opponent, a flip switched in Rex''s head.
The privileged students may be better than him in luxury, but when it came tobat, he already vowed long ago to never bow his head to them though he never seeded in awakening a mystic ability.
He believed that with his sword, he could defeat all these self-entitled rich kids who believed that they could trample over him because he was poor.
Rex also erupted with speed, sprinting towards Collins as his sword was already unsheathed from its scabbard. It was a basic metal alloy sword with no mystic engravements.
It took only a few seconds before both kids closed the distance. Collins threw both his hands forward, while Rex shed down with all his power.
Before Rex''s sword came into contact, Rex briefly felt like something just left him which was weird and almost caused him to lose concentration but to his shock, his sword briefly glowed white beforeing into contact with the raging fireball.
Boom!
Rex only saw white, mixed with a bit of red as he felt his sword sinking deep into flesh but a powerful hand stopped his sword''s motion the next moment.
Thud! Thud!
Both students were tossed to the ground as Collins rolled in agony as blood poured out of his shoulder. From this, it was evident that Rex''s sword managed to cut through his fireball and also injured his shoulders.
Seeing this, every spectating student was shocked, there was no way that a basic alloy sword wielded by a non-mystic swordsman could cut through a fireball.
They were all shocked but their eyes all turned to the brown-haired middle-aged man who tossed the 2 students down.
His white and ck outfit revealed that he was a martial master in the academy. The students briefly cupped their fists as a sign of respect and greeting.
The middle-aged man finally spoke.
"Rex Vector, Collins Mane, see me in the principal''s office".
¡
Plop!
Rex fell hopelessly on his wooden bed inside his father''s house, looking lost.
Once again, his aggressive andpetitive personality did him in, he and Collins were punished severely for their actions today at school.
His was especially painful to him since it was the only area where he felt superior, even if it was for a moment.
When he was already happy, thinking that he graduated with an excellent result, which guaranteed that he could at least get a martial job after graduation, his hopes were ruthlessly destroyed due to a moment of impulse.
The principal gave him 2 options. He was given the option between choosing to forfeit the graduation battle which was supposed to be the highlighting point of his academy life, and choosing to lower his grades to a 2nd ss upper.
Rex had no choice. Choosing to forfeit the battle would ruthlessly cut all his hopes off, no mercenary or government organization would hire him.
As for the 2nd option, its effects were less drastic but as life hated him so much to not put him among the privileged ones, the effects were more or less the same. Without connections, he was going nowhere.
As he thought of all these, Rex felt hopeless. He was a man, men didn''t cry, he always told himself this but tears flowed down his eyes at this moment.
"Dad, mom, why do you have to leave me in this cruel world?"
"Why does life hate me so much?"
His parents died when he was just 5 in a beast tide ident.
Though he lost them at a small age, he still remembered their teachings. He kept to the family way, loving his sword, practicing with his sword, and making the sword integral to who he was despite the declining ways of mystic swordsmanship.
He practiced every day, holding tight to his father''sst lecture that sess woulde once he became one with his sword.
Despite his diligence, despite his hard work, the world simply hated him. His only bit of luck was his 13th birthday, when his achievements with his sword on a teenager''s battle tournament won him a schrship to his academy.
From then on, the world seemed to suddenly resent him as he only experienced bad luck situations. Failing to awaken mystic energy on his 15th birthday was the crystallization of his bad luck encounters.
After the heartbreaking 15th birthday, he stopped celebrating nor anticipating his birthdays, they always brought one heartbreak after the other.
The only one he looked forward to was his 18th birthday, his father''s words were still fresh in his ears like it was just yesterday.
"Rex, the young dragon bes an upgraded dragon on the 18th birthday".
"When you''re 18, go down the ancestral basement and be an upgrade".
Rex always kept true to these words though he never fully understood what they meant, reciting them every day like they were holy words but after this recent heartbreak, he lost hope.
None of the things said to him by his parents were true. After their death, he had always suffered and suffered with nothing to write home for it.
His pursuit for the perfect swordsmanship killed his career. Even his school principal said this, andpared to the Principal of the Obedin Mystic Academy, he had to admit that his father was inferior despite how high he held him in esteem.
"Dad, mom, you were wrong, swordsmanship has no ce in this world anymore. Mystic swordsmanship is now a myth".
"I can''t live alone in this cruel world anymore".
Once Rex made this deration, he concluded it in his mind.
With a clear metallic ringing sound, he unsheathed his sword again and ced it at a slicing motion towards his neck. He was fed up, he wanted to end the suffering here and now.
Unfortunately, he hesitated, he couldn''t do it so decisively. "Before going, at least, I should visit the basement as father said. It has never opened to me before, but today is my 18th birthday, perhaps dying there would be better".
As he said this, Rex also remembered the strange situation where his sword briefly glowed white before cutting through Collins'' mystic fireball.
This had never happened to him before, he was confused. Adding this to the equation, Rex got the excuse that he needed to dy his death.
Once he rationalized this, Rex stood up and walked down to the corridor where the basement was located. Once he got there, he felt something different.
Originally, the door to the basement always seemed as thick as a rock to his perception, but at this moment, it mysteriously seemed as light as a feather.
Rex put his hand on the door and pushed.
ng!
"It¡, opened?"
Before Rex could finish his question, he was drowned in what seemed like a flood of white water. Before he lost consciousness, he heard something.
"Congrattions! Wee back Upg¡"
Chapter 3 The Last Mystic Swordsman
A few minutes before Rex fainted¡
Creak!
The familiar sound of the main door that separated the sitting room from the long corridor reverberated again as it grated at Rex''s ears.
This was one of the numerous signs that showed the deteriorating condition of the ancestral home that Rex''s parents left for him.
ording to his immediate father, this house already stood for more than a millennium. Of course, he knew that it sounded ridiculous, but despite all this, he believed his dad, he believed that everything his dad said was true.
Before his parents died, his father was the closer of them to him. He didn''t know why, perhaps it was because of a programming in their DNA, but he also felt instinctively closer to his dad than his mom.
Though his dad was never clear about this before he died, he kept on mentioning to Rex every night when they sat together on the rocking chair outside watching the stars that their family was special.
He never went into detail, but the repeated deration created a firm mental image in Rex''s mind that he was from a special family.
This was what kept him going after his parent''s death. Despite the mockery, despite the opposition, this was what kept him firm in his decision to practice his swordsmanship to perfection to be one with his sword.
Despite the suffering, the belief of being special kept him strong until today. His mental defenses after being eroded by circumstances for 13 years were already at their weakest, now they finally sumbed after thetest setback.
For the first time in 13 years, he lost grasp of that belief. This is what allowed depression to set in, which eventually culminated into the desire tomit suicide.
As Rex walked forward, he observed this relic inheritance of his that made him feel even more depressed.
Others had big modern mansions, cars, and estates as their inheritance, why was this shabby hut his inheritance? Did the world really hate him so much?
The house had a sitting room, and 5 rooms with a long corridor intersecting through all 5 rooms. At the middle of the corridor was the entrance to the underground basement which had never opened to Rex.
Rex walked for a minute across the rusted metal chairs, shaking doors, and creaking wooden floor panels before he finally arrived before the entrance.
While he walked, Rex''s conclusion that his inheritance was trash and his only redemption was death grew until he arrived before the door to the basement.
Once he arrived there, he felt a difference. Apart from the difference in his perception, to Rex''s shock, he saw a more prominent white glow simr to the one that materialized in his sword a few hours ago around the hinges of the door.
"Is this, mystic energy?"
Fascinated and shocked, he ced his hand on the door knob.
Rustle!
As soon as Rex did this, a strange breeze arrived from nowhere as the old newspapers arranged on top of the old cupboard rustled to the direction of the wind. The lighting in the corridor also seemed to grow dimmer.
Rex''s years of practice with his sword already honed his instincts so much that he was practically already one with his sword. Even without his sword, he had an omniscient view of his immediate surroundings.
He noticed everything that happened, which only made his curiosity to know what was behind the basement grow.
"What is the difference in my 18th birthday?"
He muttered to himself before bending the doorknob and pushing.
Instantly after the door was pushed open, what seemed like a pure white psychic current seemed to pour out like a flood which quickly submerged him.
As soon as he was submerged, Rex lost consciousness.
¡
"Congrattions! Wee back Upgraded 350!"
On hearing that, Rex''s eyes snapped open. He was no longer in the corridor, nor was he in a basement, he was inside a fascinating world of white.
The world was pretty basic which meant that there was nothing to admire except for its dream-like appearance. After admiring to his fill, a mildly shocked Rex finally directed attention to the voice that spoke to him.
He asked cautiously. "Who are you?"
"I am the hivemind".
"Tasked to protect the lineage of Vector, the Upgrades".
"Rex Vector, by making it to your 18th birthday, you have seeded in activating your potential as an Upgraded".
"Your father, Lenor Vector was the 349th Upgraded".
"Your grandmother, Melinda Vector was the 348th Upgraded".
"Your great grandfather, Larkinson Vector was the 347th Upgraded. You''re thest, the 350th Upgraded".
"Hivemind? Upgraded? What the f*ck is all this about?" From the onset, Rex was already confused. He had a million questions to ask, but before he could, the supposed voice of the hivemind continued".
"As programmed by the 1st generation Vectors, the first reveal is what being an Upgraded entail. What you currently are started all the way from the ancient age of awakening".
"Orion Vector, the 1st Vector ancestor lived a millennium ago during the age of awakening. After the awakening, a lot of people then got lucky and obtained special inheritances, Orion got the ability that he called the upgrade".
"Unlike other mainstream mystic abilities that arose after the age of awakening, that of Orion Vector could not provide direct increase inbat strength but its utility was coveted by all".
"The upgrade provided a tform for immortality".
"The only use of the upgrade is to upgrade the soul of its inheritor, granting the user the ability to transcend death and reincarnate through lifetimes".
"Before Orion Vector died, he was a soldier who fought heroically during the age of awakening for decades before dying. 10 years after he died, a new baby was born, Orion Vector reincarnated".
"Once the new Orion Vector grew up, fascinated by his mystic ability, he deduced the true potential of the upgrade through years of trial and error".
"The upgrade didn''t just grant its user with the ability of reincarnation; it granted the user the ability to reincarnate into his new life with all the knowledge and skills acquired from his past life".
"Through this, Orion Vector finally made a name for himself in his 2nd life. To his shock, he discovered that his direct lineage also inherited his mystic ability".
"This heralded the era of the powerful Vector family".
"At our peak, we ruled earth".
"But¡, we fell".
"A rival family with a strange mystic ability rose. By colluding with other ancient families, including some of our allies, the Vector family was attacked, stripping us of our source of power, the upgrade itself".
"The ''...'' family''s special ability is ''¡'' ''¡'' ''¡''"
"Through their special ability, the mighty Vector family was suppressed".
"Stripped of his reincarnation and upgrade powers, Orion Vector died and never reincarnated again but his knowledge and martial skill lived on through the hivemind that was created a few generationster".
"The upgrade also lived on through his lineage".
"Newer generations of the mighty Vector family learned to live a low-key life, hiding from our archenemies while preparing from the dark for our reemergence".
"Unfortunately, we never reemerged, the ''¡'' family grew too powerful".
"Slowly, we were picked and eliminated from the surface of the earth. With time, we sumbed to circumstances and all escaped from the prosperous mid-earth to live in the less prosperous rim".
"This was how we were able to preserve our lineage, but we still died over the years. Now, you are thest direct inheritor of the upgrade".
"You are thest hope, and you are also the strongest hope. The knowledge and martial skill of all your predecessors lives in the hivemind, waiting for you to grow strong enough to ess them all".
"You came from the sub-lineage of sword mysticism".
"You are thest mystic swordsman".
"To develop the heritage of sword mysticism, ce your hand on the hivemind and search for your living sword".
"Your ancestors had one, your father had one, you need one also".
After the supposed hivemind finally went silent, Rex also kept his silence for a long time as his young 18-year-old mind tried to take in everything that was just revealed to him.
The mind-blowing information left him bamboozled, but he said only one sentence after he understood his situation. "I knew I was indeed special!"
His intuition told him that not everything that he needed to know about his family was revealed to him, especially the rival ancient family, but he didn''t care. All he cared about at this moment was that he was finally about to escape his fate.
All the talk about the mighty Vector family and their equally mighty and sinister archenemy family felt distant to him. His current troubles were of more significance to him than a distant enemy.
He had not heard of a living sword before, but the mention of it told him that this would probably be what would lift him from his current harrowing situation.
He took a deep breath and walked closer before cing his hand on the white ball of light that kept on alternating colors and forms, seeming like a mystical supeputer that held all the knowledge in the universe.
Once Rex''s hand touched it, his eyes glowed a white color as his consciousness left his body before entering the world of the hivemind.
"Do not resist it, drift with it, flow with it, resonate with it, navigate the current and find what is yours. Find your living sword".
The background words of the hivemind became the guide that he needed in this darkness. He was like a pilgrim who was traveling through the void, with no direction, just aimlessly going forward after a living sword.
Rex didn''t know how much time passed, it felt like forever and at times also felt like it just started, but his consciousness jolted as it felt a different sensation in the world of the hivemind.
"Shing?"
Rex was shocked as he felt what seemed like a shockwave voice battering his senses. The spooky fact about it all was that he understood this voice, it was a living sword actually speaking to him.
"Shing!" "Shing!"
"You like me?"
"Shing!"
"I like you too!"
"Shing!" "Shing?"
"Your name is Berserker? Mine is Rex, Rex Vector, nice to meet you".
"Will you like to be my living sword?"
"Shing!" "Shing!" "Shing!"
"Huh? I have to promise to feed you martial arts daily?"
"Shing!"
"Deal!"
Whoosh!
Rex felt the currents increase their speed the next moment as they battered his consciousness harder, threatening to tear him apart.
Amid this wave, he felt a lifeform drawing nearer to him. After some time, he finally felt something living intimately rubbing against his consciousness.
"Berserker?!"
Rex couldn''t keep up; he fell unconscious once again.
Chapter 4 Berserker, The Living Sword
"Ouch, it hurts!"
For the 2nd time in his birthday, Rex woke up from unconsciousness. The only difference from the first was that he felt like his brain was heavy, like he just used all his mental energy to read 48 hours straight without resting.
The throbbing pain in his head was so much that he felt like falling back into unconsciousness but he forced himself to stay awake.
It took some time but Rex''s eyes slowly got used to the darkness, this was when he discovered that he was outside the basement door.
It was already mid-night. He vaguely remembered that something happened before he fell unconscious but everything felt hazy to him.
Apparently, through some mysterious power, after he fell unconscious, he was moved here. Rex didn''t feel right at the moment, his body felt foreign in a strange manner to him. It was like, he changed.
As he got used to the darkness, he discovered that even his perception of his surroundings changed. It was like, he suddenly became sharper.
"What''s going on?"
As he rubbed his aching head with his palm to alleviate the pain while trying to make sense of his situation, this was when everything clicked like the puzzle pieces of a rubik cube falling in ce perfectly.
"Holy Shit! The living sword! Berserker?!"
Once Rex called the name of the sword in an exmative manner while searching around for it, he got a response from the spookiest ce ever, the living sword responded from directly inside his head.
"Shing!" "Shing!" "Shing!"
With 3 consecutive metallic ringing sounds, the living sword that Rex bonded with from inside the world of the hivemind emerged from his head.
"Holy Freaking Jesus!" Rex was spooked.
Before his very eyes, the living sword came out of his head before hovering before him like an obedient and excited petpanion.
As a sword enthusiast since 5 years of age, Rex was easily mesmerized by this well-crafted sword as he became engrossed in observing its edges.
This was a one-handed sword of extremely high quality. The hilt of the sword was golden, and it was shaped in a perfect T-shape, providing the best possible grip to whoever was supposed to wield it.
The silvery de of the sword felt cold and extremely deadly. Its sharp edges reflected the sparkle in Rex''s eyes as he observed this monster sword.
This sword felt and looked like a sword that came directly from legends.
As Rex observed the one-handed sword, the sword also seemed to observe him as they did this for over 2 minutes before a change happened. The golden hilt of the sword glowed as this glow reflected in Rex''s body.
Rex resonated with the sword as he felt like that this sword belonged to him, and he belonged to the sword. An invisible and unique bond formed between them.
For the first time, Rex felt a sword being a real extension of his body.
Bam!
Rex grabbed the hilt of the sword forcefully, then another change took ce.
A formless wind seemed to arrive from nowhere, blowing and throwing the curtain, nearby newspapers and other light things away as the resonance between Rex and the sword reached a new peak.
The next moment, his eyes started glowing a whitish golden color. This glow soon extended from his eyes to his body before quickly engulfing the sword.
Suddenly, Rex with the sword seemed like a swordsman legend that just reincarnated into this world after exploits in his previous world.
This white golden energy umtion continued for 2 minutes, where Rex felt invisible throughout before it finally dissipated.
The glow resided, and calm returned to Rex''s eyes.
He looked at the sword fondly. "Berserker!"
"Shing!"
No other words were needed, a bond was already formed between them.
"¡The Berserker is your life-bound partner".
"¡You''ll both grow together, fight together, live together, and die together".
"¡Treat him well, and he will reciprocate".
"¡Goodluck, Upgraded Rex Vector!"
Rex turned his head and gazed at the basement''s door where the voice of the hivemind just came from. He solemnly held the sword and lifted it up.
"I will apany Berserker for life!"
"Shing!"
¡
Plop!
Rex plopped down on his bed in his room after the mind-blowing encounter with his living sword. Berserker already went back inside his head. Just like the way he felt currently, the living sword felt tired after everything.
The tiredness in him meant that he was already feeling sleepy, but Rex could not sleep as he thought about everything that just happened.
The encounter with the hivemind indeed changed his perception of life. Rex had to admit that his father was right, his 18th birthday was the real game changer.
This was his best birthday since 13 years ago after his parents died.
Everything that the hivemind revealed to him, including the fact that he was an upgraded, and that he was thest mystic swordsman all felt like things that could only happen in his best dreams but they were all true.
Overnight, he already transformed from the miserly Rex who everyone knew to being the owner and wielder of a living sword and a mystic ability.
One of the things that shocked him the most about the reveal was the fact that the history of his family dated all the way back to the age of awakening.
Like every other kid who went to school, he knew of the age of awakening. The age of awakening was the age where humanity experienced the greatest of upheavals and where they changed to what they were today.
Suddenly, while humanity prospered and more technological breakthroughs were being made to make life easier, the first dimensional breach was triggered.
After the first dimensional breach, humanity entered what seemed like an apocalyptic era as mystic beasts started descending into our.
Powerful mystic beasts with mystic abilities appeared, beasts who were all out to kill and annihte every human being from earth.
Earth resisted but the mystic beasts were too powerful. When everyone thought that the end of humanity was near, the first mystic warriors emerged.
Surprisingly, the dimensional breach came with disasters and opportunities. Humanity through the breach was exposed to the wonders of mystic energy.
Those who harnessed this power to awaken mystic abilities became the warriors and heroes of humanity.
Harnessing mystic energy granted a lot of benefits apart from mystic abilities, benefits like increased regeneration speed, increased strength, endurance, and a lot of others were all received by the mystic warriors.
These warriors with mystic abilities were known as the first heroes of humanity as they stood up to the challenge to protect the world.
Despite the emergence of mystic warriors, humanity was still the losing side. Left with no choice, humanity could only settle for a battle of attrition where they tried to study the wonderful mystic energy and try to harness more of its power.
This heralded the era of awakening. Lucky and talented humans as generations passed developed better ways to be a mystic warrior.
Now, the world was filled with mystic warriors but there were also limitations. As humanity grew stronger, greed overcame the warriors, and they started hording the mystic abilities to their family members alone.
These families with mystic abilities became known as the mystic families.
Only the rich had a certain chance of buying their way to awakening mystic energy and abilities. The only other ce to awaken mystic energy was the government and military.
In his Obedin Mystic Academy, Rex had the opportunity to awaken mystic energy and a mystic ability, but his luck was limited, his talent seemed to only extend to swordsmanship but not mystic abilities.
Mystic abilities were divided into 3 tiers, the normal, epic, and legendary.
Normal mystic abilities were those that were distributable to the public by the government and military. Epic mystic abilities were only avable to the higherups of the government and military.
As for legendary mystic abilities, these were those that could be transferred through bloodline and were exclusive to the mystic families alone.
Rex always saw himself as an outcast when it came to matters like this. Never did he expect that he was thest of a powerful mystic family whose history stretched all the way to the age of awakening.
And never did he expect to one day wield a legendary mystic ability.
"I guess I was indeed special, Afterall". Heplemented himself again.
Of everything that Rex learned and saw today, what made him most excited apart from his upgrade mystic ability and his living sword was the golden glow that formed between him and his sword when he wielded it.
After years of thinking that he had no hopes anymore, he seeded in awakening mystic energy.
Rex''s excitement knew no end, this was indeed his best birthday in years.
He slept filling fulfilled.
¡
Sleeping was not the end for Rex though as he had a dream where his current strength was disyed in a chronological manner.
------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Human
Blood Affinity: Vampire
Rank: Basic Mystic Warrior
Strength: 12
Speed: 11
Mind: 21
Vitality: 10
Agility: 9
Dexterity: 10
Health Points [HP]: 15/15
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 10/10
¡
Mystic Energy: Domain
Mystic Ability: Upgrade
[Mystic Treasure: Berserker.]
[System Remark: You will remember your stats and basic status but will forget everything about the system. The system will only be truly essed when you awaken a bloodline!]
----------
Chapter 5 Birthday Celebration
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Oh, who''s that? I''ming, wait!"
Rex woke up to the sound of someone banging hard on his door. He rubbed his head, he could vaguely remember a dream but he couldn''t focus on it.
p The encounters of the previous day left him feeling too exhausted so he was unable to wake up on time. He felt a little annoyed at being so rudely yanked from the sweet world of sleep but he still rushed to the door.
Still on his brown night pair of shorts, and a ck underwear that highlighted the prominent muscles of his chest, he rushed to the nearby water sink and watched his face with some water before going towards the door.
Once he opened it, he was about to talk to express his resentment at his sweet sleep being disrupted but he paused on seeing who it was.
"Hey, Cassandra, how''s your day?"
"You''re just waking up?"
"Yeah, umm, actually¡"
"Move aside".
The beautiful curly ck-haired youngdy squeezed herself through inside the house. Once she was inside, she paused and briefly swept a nce at the rough and disorganized sitting room.
Everything in the sitting room was out of ce, from the 4 wooden chairs, to the brown curtains thatid on the floor, to the old radio that was not switched on at this moment which was a rare encounter.
Of all these disorganized things, what attracted Cassandra''s attention was the boxing bag that hung on the wall having no depressions which were signs of it not being used and the basic alloy sword thatid casually on the wooden table.
All these meant that Rex didn''t practice his swordsmanship following his daily routine today, he was indeed just waking up.
Cassandra felt sad and disappointed but she tried hard not to show it as she turned to look at him squarely in the face.
For some strange reason, as she looked, she felt that Rex looked especially more handsome and attractive today. It was like, he became more mature overnight which was weird but she tried to ignore the strange feeling.
On feeling her familiar gaze, Rex flinched.
"Wait, don''t give me that look, I can exin".
"Yeah, you do, I can''t wait to hear the full exnation". Cassandra ced her hands on her prominent hip curves. "Why did you leave us yesterday?"
"¡umm"
"Forget it, happy birthday".
"¡"
"Thank you?"
"Ugh!" Cassandra waved her hand, annoyed as she stormed off into the kitchen, leaving behind a confused Rex.
"Arrange the sitting room!" Her voice thundered from the kitchen.
Cassandra was among Rex''s few friends, his only friend alongside Ben. Actually, all 3 of them were childhood friends who through luck got schrship due to different dizzying performances in major government public tournaments.
Unlike Rex with his rtively tanned skin, Cassandra was a pure white beauty while Ben had chubby dark skin.
Though she sounded pissed for some reason at the moment, she was actually gentle. To Rex, she was stable, attentive, and a firm lover of peace, the perfect girl any sane boy needed.
As Cassandra stormed off into the kitchen, Rex could only watch, stunned.
Her long and mesmerizing ck hair, dreamy blue eyes, otherworldly facial features, and perfect curves would have made her a dream girl to many boys if not for the fact that she was not among the privileged ones.
Her current dress code of a casual pair of tight ck jean trousers and a loose ck shirt reflected the reality that she was in the same ss as Rex.
The fact that she was able to enter the Obedin Mystic Academy revealed her talent. She already awoke mystic energy and wielded the earth mystic ability.
Her personality was as stable as her mystic ability. She loved music, swords which was mostly influenced by Rex, and she also loved her hair, a lot.
As for Ben, he also already awoke his mystic energy and wielded the wind mystic ability. His personality was as carefree as his mystic ability also, he was outspoken and was a hyperactive and knuckle-headed freebie.
He loved girls, beautiful things, and anything round and nice.
Clink!
Rex was jolted awake from his daze on hearing the sound of tes being handled in the kitchen. This was when he came back to reality, he smacked his head and quickly rushed into the kitchen.
"Can I help?"
"No, go wait in the sitting room, do anything to kill time and I''ll prepare the best food soon. Your birthday was yesterday, we couldn''t celebrate it so we''llpensate for it today".
Cassandra pushed her curly long ck hair behind her as she started cutting the vegetables. Rex was a vegetarian; this was also influenced by the many principles that his dad ingrained in him at a young age.
In the end, Rex couldn''t just leave while she did everything so he stood with her in the kitchen, watching while they both engaged in small conversations.
Cassandra already knew why Rex left school, taking a different route from theirs the previous day but she never mentioned it.
The fact that Rex didn''t train already told her enough, she didn''t want to make things harder for him, she wanted to help in the best way that she could.
As Cassandra prepared the fruit and vegetable sd for 3, Rex watched from the side. Watching her cutting motion, her dimples as she smiled, the sweating from her face as she worked soon made Rex to lose perception of time.
It always felt nice looking at beautiful things and he was no exception. At times, he wished the world could just remain so beautiful.
It continued this way until the loud and hyperactive one came.
"Hehe, I see you''re really enjoying your birthday!" Ben''s voice boomed from the outside even before he opened the door to enter the house.
When Rex turned around, his eyes shed with his friend''s. Seeing the mischievous grin on Ben''s face, his repeated winks, and the hand motions that he made on entering made Rex feel like cutting this fellow in half.
Rex ignored him; he was already used to it though his cheeks still burned red a bit. On entering the house, Ben came all the way to the kitchen with a package.
"Rex, happy birthday!"
"I wish you all the best things in life, including the perfect girlfriend who''s currently cutting your vegetables".
Bonk!
"Ouch, what did I do?"
Once Ben was here, the atmosphere became lively. Both boys did what they were good at, getting at each other''s nerves until Cassandra was done.
Once the fruit sd was prepared, together, they all dug into it and ate till satisfaction. Surprisingly, the package that Ben came with was a cake, a cake!
Rex was shocked. "Where did you guys get the money?"
"Doesn''t matter, all that matters is¡"
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
¡
After the birthday feast, Rex spent quality time with his 2 friends as they let go of all their worries, engaging in interesting conversations, discussing the best moments of their lives and their hobbies.
Today, school was notpulsory since all that they would be doing was battle preparations for the graduation battle.
They were supposed to be in school, preparing like the other students but Ben and Cassandra never mentioned it, not wanting to ce their friend in a difficult spot but what Rex said next confused them.
"Let''s go to school?"
"What?"
"Why?"
"There''s something that I want to show the 2 of you".
"What of Collins, and Turan?"
"They''re not important".
Despite their doubts, Cassandra and Ben did not object. They got ready in just a few minutes before they left for school.
Chapter 6 Obedin City
The town where Rex and his 2 friends lived was called Bowling Town.
After the age of awakening where earth was exposed to the wonders of mystic energy and countless mystic beasts invaded, humanity suffered a steady decline in numbers due to the numerous deaths.
The dominance of the mystic beasts was too much, their advantage was so massive that it required a miracle for humanity to get the upper hand.
The emergence of mystic warriors reduced the speed of annihtion by arge margin, but the mystic beasts were still firmly holding the advantage.
Throughout the centuries that followed after the age of awakening, the number of humans on earth decreased from the previous 7 billion where it thrived to mere tens of millions of living humans.
The more time passed, the more the major nations of the world recognized the danger of extinction, this was what brought the great alliance.
All the major nations of the worldbined to form a massive-wide alliance thatter became known as the Resistance Alliance.
Once the major nations were in, the lesser nations of the world had no choice but to join also. Through this, humanity for the first time put up a unified front against the invasion and started the shelter project.
It was already a well-known fact by then that nowhere on the earth was safe anymore. Beasts invading capital cities of nations, annihting every opposition and killing the President was not recent news so they sought to put an end to it.
This unified goal resulted in the greatest project that humanity has ever embarked on, the creation of the 7 Great shelters and the 29 small shelters.
By pulling in all the resources that they could amass by then, humanitybined forces to embark on this project and finish it. After suffering a lot of setbacks and attacks, the shelter project waspleted after a decade.
The 7 Great shelters became the backbone of humanity''s resistance against the invasion of the mystic beasts, while the small shelters became akin to outposts where they could use to extend their area of influence.
The 7 Great shelters had a capacity to take 10 million humans while the 29 small shelters had the capacity to take only 3 million humans each.
Due to the damage and death that was already inflicted by the beasts, there were not enough humans to fill the shelters. This resulted in the few humans being divided into specific shelters to upy them.
Each of the shelters were heavily guarded by the greatest force of mystic warriors that mystic families and the government managed to amass.
It was already proven that despite humanity''s impressive technological developments, technology alone could not do it, mystic energy attacks were the key to defeating mystic beasts.
Every shelter had a huge thick wall that was made using the best and most resilient non-mystical metal on earth, the titranium.
This granted the shelters the thickness and resilience to hold against the unrelenting attacks of the mystic beasts.
Throughout the years, none of the 7 Great shelters have fallen though 8 of the small shelters have fallen, leaving only 21.
As the years passed, humanity reproduced which was something that they were famed for, recovering their numbers in droves, now the remaining shelters were already popted adequately with humans.
The shelters'' defense foundation was already established after so long. It was unlikely for another shelter to fall soon, which provided a much-needed relief to the humans who had to live in fear all their lives.
ording to history that was taught in school, due to the appearance of mystic energy and the establishment of the shelters, earth''s territory was divided into mid-earth and the rim of the earth.
All the 7 Great shelters were built in the mid-earth where not only mystic energy was more abundant, but mystic treasures also abound.
The mid-earth also attracted mystic beasts the most but humanity was already strong enough to defend themselves from them, at least the Great shelters.
As for the small shelters, they were all built in the rim of the earth. Of the 21 remaining small shelters, the King Resistance Shelter was Rex''s home.
The King Resistance Shelter was built to look exactly like a nation, but one whose borders were surrounded by an extremelyrge wall.
Just like any nation, the King Resistance Shelter was divided into states. There were 12 states that made up this resistance shelter, each one governed by an advanced mystic warrior.
Below the states were the cities and towns which itprised of.
Delta State was one of the bigger states inside the King Resistance Shelter. Under it was Obedin City, and under this city''s jurisdiction was Bowling Town.
Obedin City was named after its star academy, the Obedin Mystic Academy. It was due to being from the same state that Rex was able to participate on and win a government schrship that provided him passage into this mystic academy.
The distance from Bowling Town to Obedin City was just a few kilometers. Rex and his 2 friends left for school from their town every day during school sessions, today was no exception after Rex made his strange decision.
Rex woke up at approximately 8:00am, he enjoyed his birthday celebration with his friends for a few dozen minutes, now the time was 8:48am while the school bus that could take them to school was set to leave exactly 9:00am.
Despite the time constraints, Rex and his friends were not pressured. Ben and Cassandra went back to their home which was opposite Rex''s while Rex directly rushed into the bathroom to get a nice bath.
Unlike the privileged ones, they were burdened by less things since they couldn''t afford them in the first ce, fashion was more of something natural to them than something that needed to be artificially funed.
Rex had his bath in 3 minutes, got prepared and put on his blue and ck schoolbat uniform in 2 minutes, roughly arranged his house in another 2 minutes before finally going out to meet his friends.
On getting outside, he saw Cassandra and Ben were also ready.
Together, they caught the bus and left for school.
¡
"So, what did you want to show to the 2 of us?"
"Be patient". Rex grinned. "You guys will be shocked".
The more Rex kept on talking like this, the more his 2 friends'' curiosity kept on growing. If he had his way, the impatient Ben would have thrown a punch at Rex already so he could spill the beans faster.
Despite their biting curiosity, Ben and Cassandra seeded in holding their peace. Cassandra was the main reason for this, having hinted at Ben.
She was 18 but she was already very sensitive for her age. She''s lived close to Rex for years, she knew him, she knew his personality, and she also knew when he was happy or feeling sad.
At this moment, Cassandra keenly felt that Rex was happy. Even though she didn''t know why, she felt happy that he was happy, so she was content with keeping it this way.
Though Rex said that Collins and Turan were not important, to avoid trouble, he took his friends through a rtively remote path inside the school.
After going through a lot of winding corners and avoiding anything that could attract attention, to Cassandra and Ben''s confusion, Rex brought them to the virtual arena hall of the academy.
"What are we doing here?" Ben asked as he looked at Rex suspiciously.
Rex ignored him. "Just follow me in".
Once they were inside, Rex used his remaining shelter credits to purchase a virtual training ticket. Once they entered the isted domain, Rex showed his 2 friends a reveal that left the both of them wide-eyed.
"When¡, did you awaken mystic energy?!"
Chapter 7 Virtual Duel!
Cassandra and Ben were petrified. With eyes opened as wide as saucers, these 2 watched the golden-white energy that revolved around the outstretched palm of their friend with undivided attention.
They confirmed what they wanted after seconds of looking at it. This was no prank, this was the real deal, this was mystic energy!
Cassandra''s eyes widened even further in astonishment as a lot of things started making sense to her, things such as Rex''s sudden happiness even though he was bullied by the annoying students again on his birthday.
She turned to look at Rex with eyes glittering like stars, her excitement was tangible as she literally bubbled up and down like an excited blobfish.
"When¡, did you awaken mystic energy?!"
Just like her personality, despite how excited, shocked, and happy she was for Rex at this moment, she was able to keep calm and not freak out, asking in an excited but reserved tone.
That was her though, Ben was different, he exploded forth, holding nothing back as hepletely expressed his excitement!
"Holy Freaking Sh*t Bro! Mystic energy! You now have mystic energy?!"
"Hahaha, man, I''m dying! He''s done it! He''s f*cking done it!"
"Now, the girls can all bow down and acknowledge the beauty and might of the great Harem Emperor Rex!"
Whoosh!
Rex instinctively tried to bonk his mischievous friend on the head but having anticipated it, Ben dodged as he continued his unrestrained show of madness.
"You really did it, bro! Do you know how excited I am?"
"After so long of suffering in silence, the heavens finally answered my f*cking prayer. Let''s go, let''s go trash those crazy bullies!"
Despite the oundish manner in which Ben used in expressing his excitement, despite the embarrassing choice words that he used, Rex did not refute him this time because he was also extremely excited.
Rex''s eyes seemed willing to drip down some liquid, any liquid so long as it allowed him to express his emotions better, he felt extremely emotional at this moment as he shared his joy with his friends.
Ben was right, this time, heaven really answered his f*cking prayers.
After 3 years ofmenting it, hating it, despising it, and cursing at it, who knew that one day he would also be called among those who awoke mystic energy?
He was bullied mostly because he did not awaken mystic energy. In terms of weapon handling, he was the best in his battle domain, the only shoring that he had which put him on the backfoot before was finally remedied.
"You''re right Ben! You''re so f*cking right! I now have mystic energy!"
A virtual training ticketsted only 2 hours when used by 3 students, it was after celebrating for 30 minutes that this realization dawned in and they finally stopped, feeling breathless from all the excitement.
Rex''s face was still flushed red from his excited screaming even at this moment, but only his breathing could be heard as he kept quiet.
His 2 friends also kept quiet; it was like they had exactly the same thoughts going on through their minds. Rex grinned as he inclined his head to face them.
"Are you thinking what I''m thinking?"
"Let''s duel!" Ben roared, his fighting spirit already rising to the peak.
Cassandra did not interject, her silence was her reply, she was also in on the n of using the remaining 1 and a half hours to fight to their heart''s content to gauge their friend''s current limit.
"Activate 3-candidate battle arena setting!"
Once Rex said this, the virtual world changed as the arena transformed, turning into a bigger one where 3 mystic warriors could fight at the same time.
Shing!
Rex unsheathed a virtual sword from mid-air. In the virtual domain, he didn''t need to bring in any physical sword since he could directly pull one out of thin air.
Once Rex pulled his sword out, Ben and Cassandra reciprocated.
They were childhood friends. Since when they were kids, Ben and Cassandra grew up as neighbors to the Vector family who were sword fanatics, all the way from Rex''s father to his mother.
To them then, the sword techniques were fascinating to watch so while Rex''s father taught him swordsmanship, they took the opportunity to learn also.
If Rex was not such a sword freak, they could also be called sword geniuses.
After Rex''s parents died, Rex took over and taught them sword techniques. In a sense, though Rex was weaker than the both of them overall due to hisck of mystic energy before, he was still a teacher to them.
Now, the students were about to go up against the master.
They did not waste any time in drawing exaggeratedly ridiculous circles with their legs, or swiping their swords randomly the way it was depicted in movies, this was the real world and they fought the way real people fought.
Whoosh!
Rex thrust his sword for a frontal stab as he felt adrenaline rushing through his head, increasing his brain activity and body control.
Ben and Cassandra did not cower from the challenge, they took it head-on.
Ben''s body briefly glowed a light green color as the wind started blowing stronger. All of a sudden, his speed became countless times faster as he rushed to the side like a speed demon before shing from the side at his opponent.
Cassandra made sure that Rex was preupied with her. Like Ben, she activated her mystic ability from the onset as her body, most especially her sword was engulfed by a heavy brown glow.
She countered Rex''s attack with a frontal stab of her own.
ng!
Sparks flew everywhere as the 2 swords briefly came into contact.
Rex''s eyes glowed as calctions went through his head at the pace of aputer. Yes, he had mystic energy now, he empowered his sword with it but the strength could not match with Cassandra who matched hers with her mystic ability.
Weapons and mystic abilities were all ways to channel mystic energy. It depended on how you channeled it that would determine your end result.
For a in mystic energy empowered sword stab like his, it could notpare to Cassandra''s that was empowered with the heavy earth mystic ability.
This was why as soon as both swords came into contact, Rex withdrew his immediately least the sword shattered into pieces.
While he was preupied with Cassandra, Ben''s sword arrived like a viper sweeping towards prey amid the raging wind.
Rex anticipated it.
Whoosh!
He kicked on the arena floor and jumped as the lethal edge of the sword''s de swept below him, cutting through the hem of his trousers.
Rex made a backflip in mid-air andnded firmly on the ground, while Ben''s momentum carried him to the other side where Cassandra was.
With these series of moves, Rex seeded in cutting off the advantage that his 2 opponents tried to get by fighting him from 2 nks. Now, they were both before him on one side and he was not about to let them y any more games.
"Drizzling Rain Steps!"
"Aurora Swordy!"
Rex''s eyes glowed golden as his mystic energy erupted unadulteratedly. At this moment, he seemed to be seeing a silhouette of his father performing this same set of martial skills and he only had to imitate him.
Once Rex activated these 2 skills, Ben and Cassandra grimaced.
Oh boy!
ng! ng! ng!
Rex instantly went from the defensive to the offensive as metallic ringing sounds and sparks filled the arena immediately.
He did not let up to give his 2 friends any chance, his hand was as fast as the wind, his movement as elusive as a ghost, and his swordy as graceful as an eagle''s flight as he taught his 2 friends a more direct sword lesson.
Ben and Cassandra tried repeatedly to capitalize on the advantage of their mystic ability to break the deadlock but it didn''t work.
Before it worked, but now, it was like Rex was an entirely different beast.
Ptui!
Rex''s sword finally cut Cassandra''s shoulders as blood flew.
Rex''s experience told him that the sudden injury would make Cassandra feel a little flustered, which would dull her reaction speed and he immediately capitalized on it in the most ruthless manner possible.
He no longer viewed the 2 of them as friends, they were his opponents.
At this moment, he was already consumed by the situation. He no longer saw it as a duel, it was like he was fighting a life-or-death battle.
This was part of his personality. When he gets emotionally attached to things, his inner mind was stimted and he gets unimaginably serious.
Whoosh!
Cassandra only heard the sound of the wind passing beside her ears, which was quickly followed by that of the virtual domain A.I.
[Ding! A Candidate has been eliminated.]
With Cassandra eliminated, Ben''s fate was decided.
By exploiting the speed boost granted by his mystic ability, Ben managed to give his friend 2 cut injuries before he was also obliterated.
[Ding! Another Candidate has been eliminated.]
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
*****
[NOTE: Shing! is used for when swords are being used to fight, while "Shing!" indicates when Berserker is conversing with Rex.]
Chapter 8 The Debt
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
After finishing Ben off with a set of fast swordbos, as the virtual domain A. I announced the winner of the duel, Rex stood, his breath a little rapid and strained as he slowly raised his right hand to look at it.
His eyes became unfocused a bit as he recalled how easily he managed to dispatch his 2 friendspared to previous virtual duels.
"I am¡, indeed special!" He dered what he never got tired of again.
For 13 years of his life, he had lived his life trying to validate the teachings of his father. Time and time again, he failed, but when all hope seemed to be lost, he finally validated that his father''s teachings were indeed right.
"Dad, you were right, the principal was wrong".
"Mystic swordsmanship still has a ce in this world!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
While Rex muttered to himself, the virtual domain arena reset again as Cassandra and Ben finally appeared before Rex again.
Rex''s 2 friends looked at him like he was a monster.
"Rex, you''re a freak!" Ben roared.
On hearing that, Rex grinned as he turned to face his friend. "Yes, I''m a sword freak. Wanna go again?"
"Hell yeah! Let''s fight another round!"
"I''m in". Cassandra added from the side as her eyes revealed a peculiar glow.
[Ding! New virtual duel has started!]
Ben gripped his sword tighter. "Let''s go!"
Bam! Bam! Bam!
After familiarizing themselves with their friend''s newbat power in the previous duel, Cassandra and Ben put up a lot more resistance this time as, through impable teamwork, they exerted considerable pressure on Rex.
In previous duels, under so much pressure, Rex would have sumbed long ago but this time, the versatility granted by mystic energy enabled him to hold on.
After a fierce duel where Cassandra''s earth ability-empowered sword managed to cut his abdomen, with Ben cutting him 10 times, Rex won by the skin of his teeth due to his superior swordsmanship once again.
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
"Again!" An excited Ben roared again.
[Ding! New virtual duel has started!]
Bam! Bam!
This time, Cassandra and Ben''s familiarity with their new friend grew so much that they almost defeated him, having inflicted serious injuries to his virtual avatar but their tenacious friend held on.
Cassandra and Ben''s teamwork improved as they understood his strengths more, but Rex also grew stronger with time.
The more he exercised, the more he grew familiar with his newly gained strength. The experience of all the duels left him feeling so excited.
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
"Again!"
[Ding! New virtual duel has started!]
Bam! Bam!
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
"Again, freak!"
[Ding! New virtual duel has started!]
Bam! Bam!
[Winner: Rex Vector!]
"I give up, you win".
"Let''s try onest time". Rex offered this time, and though Cassandra was reluctant to continue, they went on onest duel.
Boom!
[Winner: Ben Carter!]
"Holy Sh*t, I won".
"Lol, he let you win". Cassandraughed but Ben was not having it.
"It doesn''t matter, all that matters is that I won".
"I won against the freak!" Ben spread his hands wide and yelled like he just won a jackpot, making his 2 friends eruptughing.
Though over an hour remained that was bought by the virtual training ticket, the friends decided to leave since they already achieved everything and the adrenaline rush that they sought in a duel.
After leaving the virtual arena hall, the 3 friends started going home as they had nothing else to aplish by staying in the academy.
While they left, Rex and Cassandra had to put up with Ben''s shameless boasts of how awesome he was during the duel. Without a doubt, Ben already had a nice fabricated story to boast about to his girlfriends.
Unlike Rex who was an introvert and Cassandra who had a stable and reserved personality, Ben was a hyperactive and easygoing freebie.
He had numerous friends which were mostly girls, he could make friends with any type, both the privileged and the non-privileged students. He discriminated against none so long as they didn''t discriminate against him first.
Together, as soon as they left the academy grounds, Cassandra pulled slightly at Ben''s shirt before leaning in and whispering into his ears.
Ben''s eyes widened. "Oh, I almost forgot".
He turned to face Rex. "Bro, there''s something that we have to take care of before leaving. You''ll have to go without us".
Rex was confused. "Can''t we go together?"
Ben sighed before pulling him closer and putting his chubby hands across his shoulders. Rex always felt amazed at Ben''s chubby body, how on earth did such a chubby-looking boy awaken a wind mystic ability?
Once Rex was distracted by his chubby hands, Ben smiled.
"The thing is this, I have a new girl that caught my attention. She has this extremely beautiful face, sparkling eyes, such perky and round behind. In fact, the soft mountainous essories of her front are¡"
"Umm, don''t worry, we''ll meet at home".
An already red Rex red at Ben, and briefly directed a confused nce at Cassandra before heeding their plea and going home without them.
"Phew! He left".
"Told ya". Ben smirked. "Now, let''s go".
¡
"What?!"
"What do you mean you can''t pay me today?" The man''s face turned sinister. "It seems like the both of you misers want to sleep in the cell".
"I need my pork meat and I need it now. You suckers promised to pay me today, and I won''t hear anything contrary".
"When you borrowed the money, you didn''t give so many excuses, pay up!"
"It''s not that, we''re going to pay. The thing is that it''ste already, I promise that we''ll provide all the pork meat you need tomorrow and even extra if you want". Ben pleaded back at the burly middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man with an ugly scar that ran through his face kept quiet for a few seconds as if he was digesting what Ben just said, then he leaned closer, cing his lips beside Ben''s ears.
"I¡need¡my¡pork meat!"
Cassandra bit her lips. "Mr. Butcher, you know how dangerous the¡"
"Oh yes, I know how dangerous the beast sanctum is! But¡, I don''t care!"
"Bring me my pork meat or be prepared to face the consequences".
"Don''t worry Mr. Butcher, we''ll bring them immediately". A fourth voice interjected into the conversation.
"Huh?" The middle-aged man turned his head to see the young man who walked towards him before turning back to face the 2 defaulters. "I don''t give a damn, just keep your promise!"
With that, he stormed off and Rex finally red at his 2 friends.
"Great! So we''re keeping secrets now?"
"It''s not that".
"I know, I know". Rex turned to face Ben. "Beautiful-faced girl huh?"
"¡"
Chapter 9 Beast Sanctum
"I can exin".
"I know already, you guys borrowed money for the cake, right?"
"¡"
Rex smirked. "You guys can''t keep any secret from me. I knew you guys took a drastic measure once I saw a cake unexpectedly to celebrate my birthday, your weird behaviors minutes ago verified my guess".
"So, what was the bargain that you made with Mr. Butcher?"
Ben turned to look at Cassandra, then coughed before speaking.
"We''ll get the money for the cake in exchange for providing 10 full pork meat for him a dayter. We originally decided to go to the beast sanctum to get them earlier on, but your decision to go to school spoiled our ns".
Rex''s face twitched. "Ok, that''s fine. So, how many hours do we have left?"
? Ben checked the time on his old wristwatch before raising it.
-4:05pm.
Rex''s eyes twitched even more furiously. "What? How does Mr. Butcher expect us to hunt for 10 domestic pigs in less than 2 hours?!"
"Beast sanctums close at 6 pm! Why didn''t you tell me earlier?!"
Cassandra flinched once Rex raised his voice. "I''m sorry".
"¡"
Rex felt like raging some more but Cassandra''s unexpectedly fragile and guilty expression at this moment made him stop. He was still furious at the stupid decision made by his friends but he forcibly calmed himself.
The fact that the cake was for his birthday should have made him feel calmer, but it only left him feeling more furious at the stupid decision.
The beast sanctum was a dangerous ce.
In normal circumstances, hunting 10 domestic pigs in the beast sanctum using conventional means would be impossible for them. The only way to breach this gap was if they employedpletely unconventional means.
As its name suggested, beast sanctums were controlled forest environments that were artificially made to amodate mystic beasts.
After the shelter project waspleted and humanity slowly started developing towards a normal trajectory, the higher-ups decided to create a less dangerous means for basic mystic warriors to temper their strength.
This was the reason for the creation of beast sanctums.
Here, mystic warriors could get the perfect opponents to temper their strength in a slightly controlled environment.
In the 7 great shelters, beast sanctums there were rumored to amodate mystic beasts that were even as high as the pinnacle mythical realm.
After years of battle interactions and understanding, humans graded mystic beasts into 5 major tiers ording to their strength which was the basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and mythical beasts.
Mythical beasts were the strongest that humanity has ever faced. With strength mighty enough to trample over cities, these were beasts that were befitting of their grade as mystic beasts of myth.
As for beasts that were below the basic realm, these were beasts that could not control mystic energy, only receiving the basic boost from it. There was no grade for them, they were simply called domestic beasts.
Even if it was a lion, so long as it could not make use of mystic energy, only receiving a modest power boost from it, they were called domestic beasts.
Humans also graded their warriors using the beast grading as a model. Mystic warriors were divided into basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and legendary.
The Principal of the Obedin Mystic Academy was a powerful advanced mystic warrior, including the governor of Delta State.
This same grading was also used to ssify mystic treasures, mystic treasures were divided into basic, intermediate, advanced, super, and myth grade treasures.
After the advent of mystic energy, humans soon discovered that certain weapons that were created using the raw resources harvested from mystic beasts had a certain chance of evolving into something more than normal weapons.
The advanced-grade Lightning Rod of the Obedin Mystic Academy was the perfect example of mystic weapons. Rumors say that when used by a befitting warrior, it can unleash a lightning st that could range kilometers.
They called them mystic treasures because not only weapons could evolve to contain mystic energy. A lot of other essories could too.
Obedin City''s beast sanctum contained advanced mystic beasts, but all these monsters stayed at the deepest and most treacherous parts of the sanctum.
The periphery sanctum mostly contained domestic beasts, but it was still extremely dangerous with yearly records of countless students dying from encounters in this training ground.
The periphery sanctum was Ben and Cassandra''s goal, but Rex was furious because this was also an extremely dangerous zone, at least to them.
In the end, he could not bear staying angry at his friends. The fact that they took such a dangerous and stupid decision just to make his birthday memorable made him give in, even making him feel a bit guilty about his reaction.
He really had such silly friends. Instead of staying angry, it was best if he thought of a solution to the problem.
Though he had never entered the beast sanctum, he had read and heard more than enough about it to understand it.
The reason why he said killing 10 domestic pigs in 2 hours was extremely hard was because domestic pigs were some of the most cowardly and elusive beasts to target, spending most of their time hidden from sight.
Well, to counter this problem, all he needed to do was to think of a drastic n that could seed in drawing the pigs out on their own ord.
2 days ago, Rex would have never thought of thinking of such a drastic n when he had never entered a beast sanctum.
Beast sanctums were dangerous, yes, but the main reason that gave him the courage to think of this was that he was now a basic mystic warrior. This was enough of a reason to base his confidence on.
Because they were already under a time limit, Rex could not think for long but he seeded in arriving at a rough engagement n.
First, Rex turned and held Cassandra by the shoulders and apologized.
"Cas, I''m sorry for raising my voice at you".
"Hey, what of me?"
"Go away". Rex shooed Ben before focusing back on Cassandra.
"Cas, look at me, I and Ben have everything in control. I want you to go home and prepare the best dish awaiting our arrival".
"I want to go!" Cassandra protested but Rex shook his head vehemently.
"You made this mistake, now allow me to fix it, okay?"
Cassandra squirmed a bit in protest in his arms before she calmed down. "Promise me that you''ll be back before 6:30 pm".
"I promise!" Rex grinned.
"Haha, now go prepare my best food". Benughed aloud.
After they seeded in persuading Cassandra to leave, the 2 male friends were now left alone.
"Rex, you have a n?"
"Yeah, kind of".
"Before we go, one more thing. Do you remember the basics of channeling mystic energy?"
"¡"
Chapter 10 Mystic Energy
The basics of channeling mystic energy.
Once Ben asked this extremely important question, Rex could not help but go red in the face. The reason for his reaction was because this was the most basic and important information that mystic warriors knew going into any mission.
Of course, like his fellow students, he knew this important information in his head for years, but it was eroded with time following all his life encounters.
After missing what others referred to as the golden age of awakening mystic energy, Rex thought he already missed his opportunity forever.
And the basics of channeling mystic energy were useful for only mystic warriors, this was the reason why he forgot this important information.
At this moment, Rex felt a little like Ben. Ben was known by all as the slightly knuckle-headed one, but at this moment, he also felt embarrassingly boneheaded.
Now that he needed it, but feeling the smug look radiating from his friend, Rex refrained from asking Ben, he believed that he could recall the information himself. He was under a time limit but his pride was at stake here.
He spent a precious minute before he recalled the information.
ording to the teachings that were imparted by the Obedin Mystic Academy, mystic energy needed to be channeled before it could be used.
Before trying to channel mystic energy, it was important to know the different types. Mystic energy was divided into 3 main types, elemental mystic energy, domain mystic energy, and unique mystic energy.
Elemental mystic energy was the most popr and widespread.
Newly awakened mystic energy is heterogeneous with no specific attribute, but they change into any of the 3 types after the user awakens a mystic ability.
Elemental mystic energy was those that were used by mystic warriors like Cassandra and Ben who awoke elemental mystic abilities.
Domain mystic energy was the least popr one in this era. This is the mystic energy that is used by mystic warriors like Rex who channel their mystic energy through a specific battle domain.
In essence, mystic ability was the means for mystic warriors to channel their mystic energy but it was not the only means. Mystic warriors could also channel their mystic energy through battle domains.
Battle domains areprehended after mystic warriors dedicate years of their lives to studying a specific mystic weapon type and developing a bond with the weapon domain.
Domain mystic warriors fall into this category. They fight by channeling their mystic energy through their battle domains and weapons.
The main reason why in their first duel in the virtual domain, Rex had to give in to Cassandra''s forceful stab when the duel just started was because the virtual domain still registered his mystic energy as heterogeneous.
This would remain so until he channeled and made use of it in its domain form in real life and a real battle.
Thest of the 3 types of mystic energy, the unique mystic energy was also popr but was the least widespread among the 3.
They are the least widespread because of their harsh conditions to awaken. Like elemental mystic energy, it is channeled by mystic warriors who awaken mystic ability but only by those who awaken special mystic abilities.
Special mystic abilities like those rted to the soul, shadow, light, and a lot of other unconventional energies, and those with mystic abilities like these most often than not belong to a mystic family.
With the 3 types of mystic energy known, information about how to channel it could finally be learned.
Mystic energy was stored in the area around the brain.
With each awakening, humanity studied this energy extensively till they discovered this. The human brain was extremely vital in awakening mystic energy, and it was already confirmed that non-sentient life could not awaken it.
Mystic beasts mutate through an entirely different mystic energy system.
Once mystic energy was awoken, it settles in the area around the brain.
Mystic warriors learn with time to get better control over their mystic energy, and to also improve its quality, this was the way to get stronger and increase through the ranks of mystic warriors.
To channel mystic energy, the first requirement for the mystic warrior was to focus. After entering a state of absolute concentration, the mystic warrior tries to actively manipte the mystic energy that resides in his head.
The procedure was simr to a kid just learning to walk.
Through repeated trials and failures, mystic warriors get better at it until they can instinctively manipte the mystic energy that was stored in their heads.
After learning the basic steps of maniption, this was when the next step of channeling it outwards through either a mystic ability or battle domaines.
Most especially for mystic warriors wielding domain mystic energy, it was rmended that they use the weapons of the specific domain that they were dedicated to since it made energy channeling easier.
As for those wielding elemental and unique mystic energy, the rmended method was through specific mind programming techniques.
For example, in Collins''s case, the student learned to channel his energy outwards by cing both his hands in a specific posture.
Once the brain registers this posture, it instinctively moves and channels mystic energy on behalf of the mystic warrior once the posture was made.
This was why it was said that mystic energy channeling relied a lot on imagination, and those who could do it better were always the intelligent ones.
Once mystic energy was channeled outwards, then the final hurdle was passed and it could finally be controlled to attack an opponent.
The control part to attack an opponent was the easiest of all. Once mystic energy appears outwardly, it ispletely under the control of its creator and could be used to attack like weapons.
When Rex just awoke mystic energy during his small skirmish with Collins, his mystic energy was white then which meant it was still heterogeneous.
But after he got his living sword, his mystic energy turned into a golden white color which revealed its affiliation to the sword domain.
These were the basics of channeling mystic energy.
Though Rex already channeled his mystic ability before, that was in a virtual setting, it waspletely different from doing it in reality.
To avoid mistakes that could lead to death, Rex decided to do it again now.
Shing!
With one smooth draw, his basic alloy sword was in his hand as he closed his eyes and concentrated in a bid to manipte his mystic energy.
At first, focusing on his head and trying to search for an elusive energy felt weird, but with time, he got used to it until he finally caught it. Carefully, Rex manipted his mystic energy to seep down from his head.
Once it got to his hand, his eyes opened as a white golden glow covered his sword the next moment, causing the sword to vibrate intensely.
Ha!
Rex thrust forward as golden sword energy was unleashed by the sword.
"¡"
"Freak!" Ben eximed. "You did it in one go!"
? "Yeah, I did". Rex turned to direct a smug look at his friend.
"Now, let''s go hunt some pork meat".
"Hell yeah!"
Chapter 11 The Hunt! [1]
Once Rex and his friendspleted all the preparations that they needed for the hunt, they departed. With the proficiency that Rex just showed with mystic energy, Ben could not wait to start the beast hunt.
From their current location to the beast sanctum took approximately 5 minutes, and this was enough time for Rex to exin his hunt n.
"Ben, listen, this is my n".
"Since we have only about 1 hour 30 minutes toplete this hunt, I tried toe up with the most time economical n possible".
"You remember when we were kids when we hunted lizards for game?"
"Oh, the lizadry hunt?!"
"Yeah". Rex grinned. "That is my n for this pig hunt".
"Lizards are like every other domestic beast; they don''t really attract pigs much but this is different if we rub robo aphrodisiac on them".
Ben scratched his head on hearing that, but Rex understood his friend so he exined before Ben could ask.
"Robo aphrodisiac is a special gel-like drug substance that was created by the Beast Research Alliance".
"They were created using the most basic DNA of every beast, and they serve as attractions to specific types of beasts that they cannot resist".
"The Robo aphrodisiac that I intend to use is specially tailored towards domestic pigs. They''re not too effective against mystic beasts, but are extremely effective against domestic beasts".
"With this substance, our trouble on how to meet pigs is settled".
"The only thing we need to do is go lizardry hunting again. Once we can get about 20 lizards, we''ll apply robo aphrodisiac to them all and we''re good to go".
Ben still scratched his head. "That''s some really awesome n Rex, but this aphrodisiac," he coughed awkwardly, "how much is it sold for?"
"Ugh, they were specially made to be as affordable as possible to beast hunters but one small bottle still costs 10 shelter credits".
"¡"
"Don''t worry about that". Rex pped his friend''s shoulder. "I have a n for that too, just follow me and we''ll finish this job in a few minutes".
"I believe you". Ben revealed a wide smile.
"Good!" Rexughed.
The 2 friends finally sprinted away.
¡
Bam!
p One precise throw and the missile-like momentum of the stone enabled it to pin the agama lizard to the wall, ending the poor fellow''s life.
The bleeding lizard''s body twitched a bit before finally turning stiff.
"1st kill!"
Ben yelled enthusiastically as he sprinted closer to the corner where the lizard died before picking it up and keeping it in his small leather bag.
To hunt for lizards, Ben and Rex didn''t need to go to a beast sanctum to meet them. All they needed to do was go to a fewpounds on the outskirts of the city, and tons of lizards would be waiting for them.
As for how to kill them, this was not a problem, they were experts at it.
They both started their mystic warrior career killing lizards, this was the reason why although they were 18 now, killing lizards was the first solution to their problem that Rex thought of.
Bam!
"2nd kill!"
Bam! Bam!
"20th kill!" "21st kill!"
In the end, the 2 friends killed an additional lizard who was unlucky enough to be fighting with its brother while predators stalked in the dark, which provided them as easy prey to the 2 friends.
Rex and Ben spent only 5 minutes taking care of the bait problem. Once they were done here, they sprinted towards the nearest Beast Alliance stockist center.
¡
"You want to buy a robo aphrodisiac on credit?"
"Yes".
The beautiful female attendant looked at the 2 young men before her suspiciously. Seeing their unremarkable clothing and casual demeanor, she shook her head inwardly and was about to speak but was interrupted.
Ben teasingly waved his well-groomed ck hair and winked at the beautiful attendant. "We''re mystic warriors".
"¡"
Thedy was surprised as she saw the green energy ball that revolved around the chubby young man''s outstretched palm.
Feeling his prating gaze, clearly making fun of her amazement, she went red and apologized immediately in a fluster.
"I''m sorry, esteemed warriors".
"It''s ok". Ben waved his hands with a bright smile.
After filling some documents while throwing smiling nces at the female attendant throughout, Ben finallypleted the aphrodisiac quest.
"Easy Peasy?" He turned to face his friend.
"Cough¡, yeah". Rex blushed.
With all the things that they needed for the hunt gathered, the 2 friends no longer lingered in the main city. They didn''t have money to take public transport, but they had legs that could do the job.
They erupted in a mad sprint where it took them only 3 minutes before they arrived at the Obedin City Beast Sanctum.
On arriving, Rex and Ben stood still to catch their breath while they admired the spectacle that was before them.
Beast sanctums were controlled forest environments that were artificially made to amodate mystic beasts, so of course, the Obedin City Beast Sanctum was going to be a huge forest.
Standing before them was a huge gray-colored wall, and extending from the wall was a single-apartment building where a lot of activity currently went on.
This wall was not what prevented the mystic beasts in the forest from attacking the city, there were more sophisticated measures for that. Its sole role here was to provide a unified entry point inside the beast sanctum.
The single-apartment building was the home of the beast sanctum guard who was a rare intermediate mystic warrior.
Inside the building was where beast hunters get hunt permits and badges through the guard''s assistants.
To hunt in a beast sanctum, a hunting permit was needed. This was to enable a situation where if one of them that entered the sanctum died, it could be ascertained through the missing hunt permit.
Also, it was to verify the identity of every mystic warrior that enters the sanctum to prevent those with malicious intents from entering brazenly.
At this moment, standing before the single-apartment building were different kinds of people. Students like Rex and Ben, rough-faced beast hunters, and funny-faced clowns were all here to enter the beast sanctum.
Rex and Ben joined the cue where they had to wait for 4 minutes before it came to their turn. Once their identity was confirmed, they got their hunt permit and the 2 friends immediately went racing inside the beast sanctum.
Once they were inside the forest and were covered by tall trees with green leaves from all sides, they slowed down to a crawl.
Rex checked the time.
-4:39pm.
Chapter 12 The Hunt! [2]
-4:39pm.
Once they were officially inside the forest, Rex and Ben dropped their casual attitudes and adopted a cautious posture.
Despite how enthusiastic they felt to use their powers on real beasts, even if they were domestic beasts, these 2 friends knew the danger that they posed and were wise enough to decide to make their entry as less bombastic as possible.
Frommon knowledge that they were thought in the academy, the deeper you went inside the forest, the more powerful mystic beast territory you barge into which meant the periphery of the sanctum was their target territory.
Though the periphery was proven to be the safest, Rex and Ben were not about to take any chances, they already pulled out all their equipment.
Once inside the sanctum, most hunters and hunting groups tended to separate from each other to increase their chances of encountering prey.
Rex and Ben were no exception to this rule. At this moment, they were both isted from all the other hunters in the beast sanctum.
Shing! Shing!
As soon as they pulled out their basic alloy swords, Rex adopted a defensive posture while Ben bent down to open his bag and bring out the hunting bait.
After spending a few minutes inside the small leather bag, the dead lizards already umted a good amount of this bloody smell that irritated Ben once he opened it.
Fighting back his irritation, Ben opened it slightly to confirm that the bait was safely inside. Once this was confirmed, he nodded at his friend and they continued their journey deeper inside the huge forest.
The breakdown of Rex''s bait n was to go deep enough inside the periphery sanctum, then start dropping the bait from there while retreating.
This was to ensure that their was cast wide enough.
This was an incredibly dangerous n that could easily prove fatal, but due to the time limit that they were on, they could only settle for this.
Their sandals made soft twitching sounds as they came into contact with the dried tree leaves and green grass that adorned the forest.
Surrounding them from all sides was a huge green world.
The tall rubber trees that seemed to poke high up into the sky, the asional bamboo trees, wild palm trees, and the numerous wild grass that filled this forest provided a perfect wild world for beasts.
As they walked through the forest, asionally, the friends encountered small beasts like squirrels that scurried away immediately on seeing them.
This was not their target, so they refrained from attacking them. Their sights werepletely fixated on pork meat and pork meat alone.
"Rex, I think we''ve gone deep enough, this should do it".
"A little bit deeper, Ben, have some pa¡"
"But¡"
"Shh!" Rex suddenly shushed his friend and squatted slightly to lower his center of gravity as he directed vignt nces at his surroundings.
Rex may have never entered a beast sanctum before, but not only did he know all the details through books and sses, his sword training already honed his intuition enough to react quickly to the slightest sound of danger.
It took a bit longer for Ben toprehend what was happening, but once he did, his heart tightened as he grabbed his sword tighter.
With absolute silence except for the chirping of birds and falling leaves now being the only sounds, Rex''s mental state finally entered a heightened level as his eyes rapidly scanned the surroundings for clues.
Just 2 seconds and he found a paw print that was originally covered by a dried tree leaf. He recognized the paw print, and from how soft it looked, this was a freshly made paw print.
Rex tried to lower his voice to the barest minimum, almost a whisper.
"Ben, take 2 steps back¡"
Ben obeyed without thinking.
Thud! Thud¡!
Growl!
Just the first step from the human agitated the wild domestic beast as it pounced from its hiding spot behind a dying brown cluster of grass.
As soon as the beast pounced, Rex''s sword stabbed also.
ng!
A clear metallic ringing sound reverberated the next moment as the massive Lion managed to parry the stab on time with its super-sharp ws.
Rex felt the wind blowing past his ears and he reacted immediately.
By jumping and inclining his body to an impossible angle, kicking his friend out of danger at the same time, while also bending and pulling his parried sword slightly, he was able to evade the danger and counterattack at the same time.
The Lion clearly did not expect such clever maneuvering from the 2 youths. Its lethal attack failed to connect as Rex''s sword cut its abdomen open.
Roar!!!
The Lion was enraged!
It ignored Ben and went after the one who injured it. Its powerful legs exploded with speed, empowered by its rage as it prepared to unleash lethal revenge on the human but Rex was ready for it.
ng! ng! ng!
Rex stood his ground, unleashing abo of ruthless sword shes as he briefly held the Lion to a standstill without being able to end the battle decisively.
The thought of channeling his mystic energy crossed him, but perhaps the battle was too fast-paced to enable this, but at this moment, Rex found himself unable to concentrate enough to manipte his mystic energy.
This was what resulted in this situation, but he was not alone.
Unlike Rex who was under pressure, Ben was left unattended and this provided the best opportunity for him to channel his mystic energy.
Green energy enveloped his body as his speed increased exponentially the next moment. Ben rapidly sprinted to the Lion''s side, and before the powerful beast could respond, a shining sword de already cut through its neck.
Ptui!
The Lion twitched furiously, kicking with its legs before it finally went limp. Ben''s one move seeded in ending its life.
"Haha¡"
Ben was about tough at the achievement but Rex shushed him immediately. Experienced beast hunters said that killing a beast was one thing, sessfully carrying it out of the sanctum was another thing.
There were of course mystic treasures that took care of this inconvenience, but at Rex and Ben''s level, they could not afford it.
They could only resort to doing it the normal way. They came for a pig but getting to hunt a lion and taking it was not bad either.
"Drag the body away, leave the leather bag for me".
"Ok". Ben did not tarry as he dragged the Lion''s dead body and started rushing away, leaving his friend behind to protect his retreat.
Rex did exactly just that. This battle though brief would have surely attracted other beasts, and the Lion''s blood did little to prevent this. Rex could only hope to increase the chances of whatever beasting to be a pig.
He opened the leather bag, and rapidly applied the robo aphrodisiac to the lizards, getting his hand bloody in the process before he began throwing one down at a time while retreating with his sword in his hand.
Rex''s heart pounded in his chest as he observed his surroundings carefully.
Rustle!
Any slight rustling sound now attracted his attention.
While they both retreated, it did not take long before a 2nd beast appeared, it was still not a pig, Rex was frustrated.
Ha!
He kicked on the forest floor and jumped high, chopping rapidly at the tree with his sword as the spooked Python immediately turned to escape.
As the effects of gravity finally acted on him and he started descending, looking down, Rex''s heart skipped a beat as he saw 2 pairs of red eyes looking at him straight from below.
Grunt!
Perhaps, it was adrenaline, perhaps it was simply desperation, but the sudden appearance of 2 wild pigs caused Rex to instinctively channel his energy.
In that small nick of time, his sword was covered by the white golden glow as he chopped down at the 2 beasts with all his might.
Boom!
The sword cut through the 2 beasts, the sword energy cutting even further below the ground as Rex finallynded on the ground and rolled to the side.
The 2 pigs died immediately but the robo aphrodisiac finally seemed to start working its magic as another wild pig appeared at the same time, and was the main reason why Rex rolled further to the side onnding.
Grunt!
Rex managed to dodge the initial charge by the pig, rolled even further to the side in the process to the pig''s blind spot as his sword ruthlessly shed again.
Whoosh!
The pig lost its head smoothly to the sword sh.
"Phew!" Rex finally picked himself up.
"Look out!" Ben, who finally dropped the dead Lion and got ready to fight was shocked as he yelled at his friend in rm.
GRUNT!
With a loud grunting sound that was so much louder than the previous pigs, almost bursting his eardrums, the enormous pig charged, giving Rex no time to react as he was hit straight on the back.
Crack!
Rex felt a few of his bones cracking as the pain left him dizzy.
Despite the pain, the fear of death and the stimtion that it made to his mental state enabled him to hold tight to his consciousness.
Once Rex turned around, the first thing that met his eyes and shook his consciousness was the blood red eyes that seemed to look directly from the abyss, then the enormous pig that was easily 3 times bigger than the previous ones.
"A Mystic beast!" Rex was horrified.
The enormous beast was already charging toward him.
"Stand your ground Rex, I''ming!" Ben yelled louder as his body was alreadypletely shrouded with his green mystic energy, rapidly increasing his speed and his perception of his surroundings.
Rex could think of nothing better than to do the same. As he forced himself to concentrate to channel his mystic energy again, something suddenly seemed to have been stimted in his brain as his vision went nk for a moment.
Suddenly, Rex''s vision became filled with a bloody red background.
He suddenly seemed to have been transported into a bloody battlefield. He could see numerous corpses lying about, and a river of blood that seemed about to drown him on this bloody battlefield.
Everything seemed so real that he felt lost in it.
"Rex¡!" "Rex¡!"
Hearing his name being yelled repeatedly woke him up, but it was already toote, the mystic Pig was directly before Rex.
The mighty charge of the beast enabled it to collide directly with Rex.
BOOM!
Chapter 13 First Battle Against A Mystic Beast!
"Ugh!"
Rex groaned, coughing blood as the mighty charge of the mystic beast hit him, causing his chest to cave in like he was just hit by a mighty hammer as he flew away like a ball that was just kicked by a pro footballer.
The wind pressure as he flew away was so strong that it ripped at his clothes, battering his ears as he felt like his eardrums just burst again.
In mere milliseconds, Rex was flung at the nearest rubber tree.
Bam!
Unprotected and disoriented, Rex hit the massive tree with his bareback as a flood of pain immediately battered his consciousness.
His backbone did not snap immediately on impact, but the shock of the impact alone rippled through Rex''s body as he felt like he was being ravaged internally by a group of mutated mystic parasites.
"Ugh!"
Rex coughed blood again as he finally copsed on the ground.
Grunt!
He could still hear the extremely deep snorting of the pig, but Rex could not focus at the moment as the pain tore at his remaining consciousness, leaving him in a state where he felt half-asleep.
The grunting sounds of the enormous mystic pig soon faded into static to him, his vision also turning dizzy as the impact of the mystic beast''s charge finally settled in, dealing its real damage.
While all the pain hit hard at him, Rex was still conscious enough to know that he was in extreme danger against a mystic beast.
Despite knowing this, he could not bring himself to shrug off the pain and dizziness and stand up, it was like he was hit by a petrify spell as his brain becamepletely taken over by the scene that happened a few seconds ago.
The bloody battlefield that suddenly appeared in his vision, Rex was pretty sure that he had never been to this ce throughout his life. He didn''t know why it appeared; he didn''t know what its motive was either.
Despite not even knowing that such a ce existed before, what horrified Rex was the sense of familiarity that overcame him once the battlefield appeared.
It was like, he had been there before whereas he had not.
It was like, he had a hand in the death of all the corpses thaty on the bloody battlefield which was extremely strange to him.
"REX!"
Before he could be drowned by his thoughts that kept on straying in this direction without his consent, Ben''s yell was what saved him again.
When Rex finally concentrated though, the situation was already critical.
Ben did not know exactly what happened, but on seeing what happened to his friend, he did not think too deeply, he was only concerned about the fact that Rex''s safety was now in his hands.
After its sessful charge that almost resulted in the death of the young human, the enormous mystic Pig let out a victorious snort before getting ready to goplete the job but Ben intercepted it.
Though he had only fought against mystic beasts through the virtual domain in his academy, Ben did not exhibit a lot of fear at this moment against this mystic beast as all that was on his mind was protecting his friend.
Pushed by the situation and the burning need to protect his friend, Ben was able to channel his mystic energy more than ever before.
With his increased speed, he circled the beast, sending rapid attacks toward its weak points as he tried to wear down its defense but mystic beasts were called superior for a reason.
Mystic beasts were not only stronger, but they were also intelligent.
The intelligent beast easily figured out Ben''s movement pattern and with one ruthless charge, it rammed into the human the same way that it did to the other.
Perhaps, it was because as a wielder of a wind mystic ability, his defense was weaker but Ben suffered more from the charge of the huge mystic beast.
While coughing blood, he fell down as a bloody hole was now in his stomach. Through some mysterious means, the enormous pig seeded in creating a temporary horn in its head through which it punctured the human.
With this, Ben was incapacitated. He could only groan while gasping for air as the pain left him feeling suffocated.
In just a few moves, the mystic beast seeded in incapacitating the 2 humans. This was how powerful mystic beasts were.
Experience already taught mystic warriors that mystic beasts of the same realm were stronger than mystic warriors, the only thing that could tip this scale was if mystic warriors wielded exceptional mystic treasures.
With Ben unable to move anymore, only gasping for air helplessly, the massive pig grunted victoriously as it got prepared to finish what it started.
This happened to coincide with when Rex finally regained consciousness.
Seeing the situation that his friend was in, Rex''s eyes widened as his emotions alternated between fear, and shock, before settling into rage.
Among the 3 friends, Ben was the oldest but Rex always saw himself as the leader and protector. Seeing his friend about to suffer, even possibly die for something that started with him, Rex exploded with rage.
His strong emotions evoked adrenaline in his body as he suddenly felt like fire was burning through his body and bones.
"Leave him alone!"
Filled with adrenaline, Rex ignored his pain, picked himself up, and exploded forward with speed in the direction where his sword fell.
The pig ignored him, already charging toward Ben to finish the job.
Time seemed to freeze as Rex charged toward his basic alloy sword while the mystic beast charged toward Ben. Any small mistake and a life would be gone, the stakes in this sprint were extremely high.
In the end, Rex got to his sword first.
As soon as he picked up his sword, he turned and scanned his surroundings with his eyes that suddenly turned a bloody red color without him knowing.
Things that felt elusive to him before were now as clear as day, it was like he was seeing the world from a 3D quality perspective before but finally upgraded to an HD quality perspective.
Instantly after he looked, he discovered that under the ground, a few inches ahead of where the pig was charging towards was a rubber tree trunk that due to some reason was stretched tight, making it stic.
His brain worked faster than aputer and he easily deduced that if he timed his actions well, this could be his weapon.
Whoosh!
Rex stomped hard on the ground, manipting and channeling his mystic energy in the process as he threw his sword with all his might.
Bam!
The sword arrived immediately and dug into the ground.
The pig was confused at first but it continued its charge, it understood just a couple of millisecondster as the powerful tree trunk sprang up like an stic rod, hitting it with massive force and throwing it off its course.
Grunt!
Once it fell, the mystic beast grunted angrily as it righted itself again angrily to face the daring human. To its surprise though, Rex who kept on sprinting forward after it was hit was now before it.
"Die, pig!"
Rex shed down with all his might as the sword that was covered with white golden energy tore down towards the mystic beast.
The pig''s eyes shone; it did not cower from the challenge.
Dark brown energy enveloped the pig''s body for a short moment, then the ground quaked briefly like an earthquake was imminent as the rocks in the ground sprang up, forming an earthen armor around it.
ng!
Rex''s sword cut down and hit the stone, then the sword shattered!
The intelligent beast took advantage of their close proximity and charged at Rex again. But this time, not burdened with any bloody battlefield suddenly appearing, Rex''s astonishing body control came to the rescue.
His sword already shattered, but he still had his body and like the wind, Rex moved to the side, narrowly evading the mystic beast''s deadly charge.
Grunt!
Once the pig stopped, it turned and red at the human straight in the eye, then it started kicking, preparing for an ultimate charge.
Looking at the beast, Rex felt frustrated as he seemed to be out of options already, but he was able to think of something. His eyes lit up immediately.
"Berserker, help me out!"
"Shing!"
Chapter 14 Mystic Battle!
For the first time since he got and bonded with his living sword, Rex unsheathed it in preparation to use it in their first-ever battle together.
Coincidentally, this battle was against a mystic beast!
In an extremely cool manner that screamed boss vibes, Rex pulled his living sword out of his head and pointed it toward the beast.
Once Rex had his hands on his living sword, all the tension and pressure in his mind calmed down immediately. An invisible resonance took ce between him and his sword as their bond grew closer than ever before.
He no longer felt afraid of the mystic beast once he held his living sword.
With all the pressure gone, calm took over as his great brain that enabled him to ovee a lot of challenges, even bing the best in the sword battle domain in the whole Obedin Mystic Academy began working at full power.
Rex forgot every other thing, only the battle was now in his mind. In this state, he recognized how awful he and his friend fought against the beast.
"So foolish!"
While he cursed, he entered his battle stance.
Throughout the past few years of his life, Rex may have lived a life deficient in every other thing but swordsmanship was the only thing that he was never deficient of. He lived and breathed swords all his life.
In the 5 years that he lived with his father; Rex did not waste them. The Aurora Swordy which was his only mastered sword technique was not the only gain that he got from his old man about swords.
Rex learned the Drizzling Rain Steps movement technique from his academy''s battle library, but he learned everything that he knew about swords from his father, including all his sword skills.
All that he learned from his school, most especially from his swordmaster was better methods to fune his already ridiculous swordsmanship.
His sword stance was also the signature stance of the Vector family.
With his right leg still in its initial position, and his left leg shifting forward a few inches, he squatted a bit to lower his center of gravity, sessfully activating his subtle sword domain that made his battle responsiveness reach its peak.
In this stance, despite his pain and his injuries, Rex no longer saw the mystic beast as the predator. He was now the predator; the pig was his prey.
"Bring it on!"
After taking its time to prepare, the pig finally started its ultimate charge.
GRUNT!
The massive pig exploded with an unparalleled speed far faster than all the ones it had used before. Its flesh jingled as its short and stocky limbs hit the ground, its snout let out smoke like inside it was an engine, and 2 horns grew from its head.
The battle preparation of the mystic pig was the rock that erupted from the ground again, forming an earthen armor around its massive body that seemed eager to crush Rex into a million pieces.
Rex was not intimidated by this show though. His mind was as calm as the sea, he smoothly recalled briefly and followed the basics ofbat in his head to the letter.
Rex manipted his mystic energy before channeling it far smoother than he had ever done since he awoke the energy. This time, his mystic energy didn''t just cover his sword, it covered his whole body.
Bam!
Rex kicked at the ground and jumped when the pig was just a few inches away, narrowly dodging its charge and providing the counterattack opportunity.
He used his strongest sword skill from the onset.
"Sword Skill: Plutonian sh!"
Rex did not show mercy, his living sword seemed to sing to his song as the sword cut down with such speed and coldness that raised all the hair on the pig''s back, causing this mystic beast to stop for a moment.
ng!
The sword finally came down.
Like the previous attack, the earthen armor held but only for a brief time as the living sword persisted and cut through it, finally drawing blood.
GRUNT!
An angry mystic beast retaliated furiously but Rex was already gone.
Having predicted the furious tantrum, Rex retreated a few inches, using the opportunity to circle to the beast''s side as he shed with his sword.
Once Rex saw this battle against the mystic beast as any other battle, he started performing at his peak and his peak was dripping lethal.
ng! ng! ng!
The furious beast tried to retaliate on more than 1 asion, its rough and forceful maneuvers felling a lot of trees but it never got Rex. Rex got another opportunity to use a sword skill and he did not skimp.
"Sword Skill: Needle Stab!"
The sword dug deep this time as the stab aimed at the massive pig''s flesh just beside its front left limb managed to cut in extremely deeply.
With this attack, the mystic beast''s limbs were affected as it limped in pain. Rex did not leave this opportunity, he was a poacher, and his sword was already ruthlessly shing once the pig limped the first time.
Empowered by his domain mystic energy, the sword cut through, and this time, sword energy was unleashed that dealt even more damage.
Grunt! Grunt!
The mystic beasts'' grunts were no more as intimidating as before but were now as pleadingly gentle as those of a female pig in her period.
Rexpletely thrashed the mystic beast with a mixture of superior intelligence, superior weapon, and superior battle intuition.
The mystic beast was powerful, but he was abnormal.
The mystic beast may have fought more life and death battles, but it hadn''t done so for as many times as Rex has practiced with his sword.
The bleeding of the mystic beast weakened it with time, and in a few minutes more, its mystic energy was exhausted as it could not use its earth skills anymore.
Once this happened, it took only a few seconds before Rex took its head.
Ptui!
Seeing the blood that spurted out of the mystic beast''s head, dyeing his clothes red, Rex finally confirmed that the battle was over.
He looked down at his hand which held his sword, suddenly feeling a closer bond to his sword than ever. The euphoria of killing his first mystic beast, he was not the only one that enjoyed it, his sword enjoyed it too.
With the battle concluded, fatigue finally settled in. Rex''s mystic energy disappeared into inexistence with a pop.
He felt like falling to rest, but Rex did not dare. The mystic beast''s aura certainly prevented other beasts from interfering, but he could not be sure if this strategy could work again the longer the beast was dead.
This was why Rex fought his exhaustion, brought a rope from the leather bag, and rapidly tied all the prey that they killed together.
He was not leaving without his price. And also, he hoped that carrying the mystic beasts'' corpses would keep the deterrence to other beasts.
With this done, Rex finally lifted his friend into his shoulders and started escaping from the beast sanctum.
It took him 5 minutes, but he seeded in leaving the treacherous forest.
Once Rex was outside and he saw the single-apartment building, he let out a deep sigh of relief as his exhaustion finally got the better of him.
He fainted.
Chapter 15 Master Fixten
"How is he feeling, Doctor?"
"He is fine, he just suffered too many stimtions to the brain and got too excited which led to a lot of stress which eventually resulted in the exhaustion".
"As for his injuries, they are not anything serious and have been taken care of. He may wake up anytime now, just give him some time". The female Doctor smiled radiantly at the renowned middle-aged man that was before her.
"Thanks, Doctor, I am really relieved".
"The pleasure is mine". The Doctor smiled before leaving.
As the Doctor''s steps faded into the distance, the middle-aged man finally turned around to look at the youth that was currentlyid on the hospital bed.
A few minutes ago, he received a call that his only sword apprentice suffered an ident and was now admitted to a hospital.
The news scared this man that always seemed stable out of his wits. Without wasting any time, he immediately set out for the hospital, and here he was.
As he looked at Rex who was now breathing properly and was recovering gradually, clear relief showed on his face as the worst that he feared never happened. Rex survived and that was all that mattered.
At this moment, looking at his sword apprentice''s face, he felt a mixture of guilt and joy. The guilt was because of how little help he rendered to the boy when he needed him the most, and the joy was for his fortune.
This middle-aged man was one of the few intermediate mystic warriors of the Obedin Mystic Academy. He was the one who was in charge of the sword domain department of the academy.
He fell in love with Rex on his first day of meeting him. This was mostly due to their simrity in a lot of ways, and the kid''s genius with the sword.
Though their personality was different, they had their simrities. The main simrities between them were their hobbies, most especially their love for swords, and their unflinching belief in the mystic swordsmanship system.
Mystic masters of the academy were not expected to develop any bias towards any student, but he could not help but do it subtly.
Of all his students, though he never told the kid, he took Rex as his only sword apprentice. Most of the time, he loved engaging in talks about swordsmanship with the kid who unlike other students never got bored of it.
He used these talk hours as an avenue to impact his knowledge of the sword domain to the young Rex and the kid never failed to amaze him.
Rex absorbed all the knowledge like his brain was a sponge which was amazing. The even more amazing part was that this kid was able to understand everything and even implement them when fighting which was incredible.
Though he helped Rex from the dark, the amount of help that he could render was extremely limited at times.
He had always known about all the problems that Rex suffered in his school life, but he could not intervene due to circumstances.
The best that he could do while not offending the powers that stood like giants in the dark was to make sure that Rex never died from all the suffering.
To his relief though, Rex was a kid who grew stronger through suffering.
Just today, he received another piece of information that validated this. Even when he already thought there was no more hope, the always optimistic apprentice, Rex broke all conventions again and awoke mystic energy at 18 years of age.
Of course, he did a mini celebration tomemorate this achievement of his apprentice. He just never expected to hear a piece of tragic news just a few hourster.
At this moment, he was here as Rex''s caring academy master.
Rex took his time, sleeping and snoring for another 30 minutes before he finally woke up.
"Where am I?"
"You are¡"
The middle-aged man did not get to finish before Rex eximed. "Master Fixten?!"
"Yes". The middle-aged man smiled.
"What are you doing here?" Rex asked before he quickly corrected his words. "I''m sorry sir, it''s nice to see you here".
By this time, Rex already recalled everything that happened and from seeing that he was in a hospital, he could guess what happened when he was unconscious.
The only unexpected variable was the appearance of his academy master. He didn''tin though, he felt better with the master around.
Though Rex never really had any close rtionship with the master, Master Fixten was one of the few people in this world apart from his friends that could make him feel human and alive.
Though their only rtionship was in school which was that between a teacher and student, even if he was blind, he could see that the middle-aged man treated him a little nicer than other students.
The man came from the same background as him, only fighting his way to the top so he didn''t disdain him as one of the non-privileged students.
The man taught him swordsmanship simply, he never received insults from the Master about his disgraceful background, about his useless parents, and a lot of other things, unlike other mystic masters which easily made this man his best master in the academy.
In this dark world where everything favored the privileged, things like Master Fixten were what kept him going and fighting.
So of course, Rex was thrilled that the man visited him.
He tried to stand up only to feel pain. "Ouch!"
"Stay still, Rex, you''re injured".
This was when Rex came to a realization. Seeing Master Fixten already made him overlook it, but now that he remembered, he was anxious.
"Ben, is he¡"
"Yes, he''s fine, he is in the opposite room. He suffered some minor injuries, but with the standard of this hospital, he will be ok by tomorrow including you".
This made Rex heave a sigh of relief as he could finally rx. This was when Master Fixten started a conversation.
"So, you awoke mystic energy?"
"Yes, Master".
"Which type?"
"Domain mystic energy".
The middle-aged man finally smiled. "Congrattions, Rex!"
"Thank you, Master!"
"You''re wee. I came today to check up on you, and most especially to congratte you on finally breaking the deadlock".
"You''re now officially a mystic warrior which is a great achievement for you".
"This also means that your chances of getting a good ranking in the graduation battle just increased, you''re the face of the Sword domain department".
? Master Fixten quickly became formal, giving a lot of advice to Rex on how to make good use of his mystic energy to get a better ranking at the graduation battle and on how to take care of himself in preparation for the battle.
The importance of the graduation battle in a mystic warrior''s life could not be quantified or underrated. It could be seen as the emergence ground for the greats and the flops.
The Master spent an additional 20 minutes before he stood up to leave.
Before he could leave though, Rex''s body movements gave him hints and he didn''t need the kid to speak before he knew what was on his mind.
"I don''t know how you and your little friend did it, but killing a mystic beast at your age and in your first battle against their species is an admirable feat".
"Don''t worry, the beast hunters who saved you submitted the kills on you and your friend''s behalf. The rewards are already in your ounts".
"As for the Butcher". The Master''s face turned weird. "I have to confess that deciding to exchange 10 domestic beasts for one cake is incredibly stupid".
"Don''t worry about that though, I''ve settled it on your behalf".
"About the hospital, the bill is free since it is the academy hospital".
"Just focus on recovering fast and preparing for the graduation battle".
"Thank you, Master".
As Master Fixten left, he thought of the words of the principal that kept on reverberating in his ears. In the end, he didn''t tell more to the kid, there was no guarantee that he would even make it to the top 50.
Chapter 16 Discharged
"Ouch! It hurts!"
Rex woke up the next day to a severe headache.
He could not even open his eyes as the headache felt so biting like a thousand needles were poking at his brain. He could not concentrate at all, the only sound that filled his head was that of his living sword.
"Shing!" "Shing!" "Shing!"
"Quiet already!"
"SHING!!!"
"Ok, I give up, which deal are you referring to".
"Shing!"
"¡" Rex was left speechless.
"All this pain and noise in my head is just because I failed in fulfilling my promise of feeding you martial arts daily yesterday?"
"Shing!"
"¡"
Rex felt indignant. "What of the fierce battle that you got to participate in alongside me against the mystic beast, that doesn''t count as anything?"
"Shing!"
"F*ck, that''s cheating!"
"Shing!" "Shing!"
"Ok, ok, I''ll go feed you now before you cut my head off".
While feeling indignant about the disturbance, Rex tried to get up from the hospital bed and to his surprise, he felt no pain as he was able to sit up easily.
"Huh?" He chuckled in confusion. "What voodoo is this?"
He still vividly remembered his battle against the huge mystic beast pig. Though he won in the end, he suffered, even suffering broken bones and it was weird for him to have healed so fast.
This remained true despite the advanced medical methods of this era.
Puzzled, Rex could only associate this with his mystic energy and his specialness. Awakening mystic energy did not just grant maniption over the energy, it also increased the physique and basic attributes of its wielders.
Though Rex attributed this anomaly to his mystic energy, he still had doubts since he had already seen numerous other mystic warriors.
He didn''t have the luxury to think too much about it though, his living sword was hungry and he needed to feed it.
"F*ck!" He felt even more scammed. "Why does this feel so much like a mother breastfeeding her baby?"
As he cursed, a knock was heard on the door.
Knock! Knock!
Rex froze. "Come in".
A nurse dressed in blue hospital attire poked a head in, presenting her brightest smile to the injured mystic warrior. "Is everything ok?"
Rex coughed. "Yes, um, I mean, see, nothing''s wrong". Rex smiled back at her. "Don''t worry, everything is absolutely fine".
"Ok¡" The nurse dragged her reply before waving and leaving. "Refrain from doing anything dangerous, your body still needs to heal".
"Roger that, nurse!"
The nurse smiled and left.
"Phew! Time to go feed this nagging living sword".
"Shing!"
"Ok, you''re not nagging, I''m the nagging one".
It felt weird living with a living sword, even more so when it lived inside your head but Rex was slowly getting the hang over living this way.
He pulled his living sword out before going outside to the hospital grass field.
He took deep breaths before starting his daily sword practice routine.
¡
Knock! Knock!
"Come in". A familiar vibrant voice answered.
Cassandra took that as her cue as she pushed the door open and entered the hospital room. In there, she saw Ben who at this moment was being attended to by one of the nutritionists and recovery nurses.
The only problem was that the nurse was not the only one here. 5 girls of different shapes andplexions were currently inside, flocking around the hospital bed.
"Ben, do you know how scared I felt when I heard the news?"
"I''m so d that you are ok". Another one chipped in.
"Eat your food first Ben, you need to recover your strength".
"Hehe". Benughed heartily while chomping on an apple fruit. "It''s nothing, Ipletely thrashed the mystic beast".
"This¡" He pointed at his bandaged abdomen and waved his hand nonchntly. "This is just a surface scratch, nothing more, no need to be afraid".
"Don''t you know me? I''m superman!"
Ben turned to face the nurse. "I find it a pity that I''ll have to be discharged today, leaving all this free food behind leaves me feeling a little guilty".
"You know, I still feel some pains in my abdomen, can I not just stay a day further with you here? I''m pretty sure you need thepany of a great and jovial guy like me to prevent your work from bing boring".
The nurse smiled. "Mr. Ben, the decision belongs to the lead Doctor".
"Oh! What a boring guy he is then".
All the girls chuckled at thatme joke, finding it extremely funny.
"Um, it seems I am intruding". Cassandra who found herself isted and ignored after she entered the room could not help but interject.
This was when everyone in the room turned to look at the neer who had juste, and Ben was pretty surprised.
"Oh, Cassandra, I didn''t know it was you".
"Finally! You''re here, cheer up girl, we paid Mr. Butcher his money". Ben grinned as he expected some praise, he even added some appetizers. "You know, I ripped the mystic beast to shreds with my bare hands".
Cassandraughed. "That''s really awesome, congrattions!"
"Thanks". Ben grinned.
"I''m really relieved that you''re finally feeling better, but do you happen to know which room Rex is in?"
"The room opposite this one". The nurse answered and once Cassandra thanked her, she directed onest nce at all the unfamiliar girls that were in the hospital room before leaving.
¡
Knock! Knock!
"Rex! Are you in there?"
Cassandra knocked some more before she pushed the door open. On peeping in, she was not surprised to not see Rex inside. It was between 6:00 am to 7 am now, this was Rex''s daily martial art training time.
The only problem she had with this diligence was that he was freaking injured. She felt annoyed already at the stupid antics of her friend.
Puffing in anger, she stormed outside.
"REX!"
"Holy!" Rex tripped mid-motion of practicing his hazy steps technique.
"What are you doing?"
"Haha". Rex smiled. "As you can see, I''m practicing".
Cassandra did not answer that, she simply started storming closer in his direction. The closer she got; the more dread Rex felt.
Cassandra got close and picked him by his ears.
"Do you know you''re injured?"
"Ouch! It hurts!"
"Answer me!"
"Yes, I''m injured, sorry".
"Don''t tell me sorry, I don''t need it, it''s your health, it''s your body".
A frustrated Cassandra released her friend''s ears as she red at him. Daily sword practice was not bad, but doing it too much was bad.
At times, Cassandra wished that Rex could change but when she imagined Rex turning into someone like Ben, she could only shudder in dread and reverse her wish. Life was really such a weird phenomenon with infinite facets and personalities.
While she red at him, this was when she saw the sword. Her curiosity was aroused immediately as she directed a suspicious nce at Rex.
"When did you get that, I don''t remember you ever having that?"
Feeling her intense gaze, Rex coughed. "It''s not what you think".
"I really do hope so, now tell me".
"Later, please".
"Ok".
With that, the 2 friends finally went back inside the hospital. Though Rex failed the promise of getting back home before 6:30 pm, Cassandra still prepared his best food topliment his efforts.
Cassandra really knew him best. After taking the first bite, Rex transformed into a glutton as he finished the food to the veryst bite.
It took about an hour more before the Doctor finally came to visit them. After they underwent some routine checkups, they were discharged.
The 3 friends left the hospital together, Ben''s girlfriends left a while ago.
Chapter 17 Preparation For The Graduation Tournament
"¡"
A long silence stretched on between the 3 friends as they walked to the car park where they would get a cab to their home, Bowling Town.
This was uncharacteristic of the 3 friends. Whenever they were together, most especially when Ben was around, it was abnormal for them to be this quiet and they all knew it which made the current situation all the more awkward.
A few minutes ago, while they walked, Ben''s bbering mouth already spilled everything about the previous day''s event to Cassandra.
Now, all they were waiting for was Rex''s input.
Rex could feel the awkwardness in the air, but he tried not to respond to it as they walked through the pedestrian''sne.
He tried to distract himself by looking at the beautiful golden sun, and the beautiful high-rise buildings, most prominently the skyscrapers in the distance that set Obedin City apart as one of the biggest cities in Delta State.
His method didn''t work though, his friends were not having it.
"Rex, do you want to say it yourself or you''re keeping secrets now?"
"¡"
"Sigh!" In the end, Rex gave in.
One way or the other, his friends would have known of his living sword, so he felt that telling them about it now did not result in any difference.
If it brought any difference, it would be a good one as it could smoothen doubts that they may have had if they knew of itter.
"Well, what you saw is my living sword".
"What is a living sword?" Ben was fast to ask.
Rex cleared his throat before continuing. "The sword is¡"
Rex exined only a part of the true story to his friends but managed to convey enough information for them to understand the basic things to know about the living sword.
In the end, he painted his living sword as a family heirloom that was left by his father and he only fulfilled the requirements to take it when he became 18.
Of course, he was not foolish. No matter how much he trusted his friends, he refrained from telling them anything that was rted to the ancient Vector family and the fact that he already had a mystic ability.
The fact that his family had a powerful enemy alone, and that telling them could endanger their lives gave Rex the reasons that he needed not to tell them.
He would never forgive himself if misfortune befell his friends because of his inability to hold his mouth.
Cassandra and Ben had different reactions to the revtion.
"Your family is indeed special!" Ben was amazed.
Cassandra took in everything calmly which was in line with her personality. By this time, they were already before the car park so she could no longer speak as unbridled as before.
With the sale of the mystic beast and all the other beasts that Rex killed with his friend, they finally had money to splurge on public transport after years of living as perpetual paupers.
Once they got into a cab, the 3 friends went on their way and got back to their town in 15 minutes.
¡
Once they got home, Rex waved to his friends before finally going inside his house. He threw his bag in a random direction in the sitting room and went straight to his bedroom where he threw himself on his creaking bed.
Creak!
Listening to the creaking sounds of the bed as he tossed left and right on it, Rex felt like he had been out of home for years whereas it was only for 1 day.
As his body moved instinctively to his emotions, Rex''s mind could not help but shback to the blood phenomenon that he witnessed yesterday.
Till now, despite thinking long and hard about it, he could not arrive at an exnation for the strange phenomenon yesterday.
He already confirmed that it was not a mental attack from the mystic beast, he also asked Ben and confirmed that he was the only one who encountered it which left him more befuddled.
What was that bloody battlefield? How was it rted to him?
The more he thought, the more he found himself ending up in circles so he settled with attributing this anomaly to his increasingly mysterious family.
With the blood phenomenon off his mind, Rex once again thought back on his first official battle against a mystic beast.
All he could describe the battle with was that it was a rollercoaster. He experienced a lot of emotions, exceeded his limits, and even bonded closer with his living sword, unlocking more of its mysteries.
He was not sure before but after the battle against the mystic beast, Rex was now sure that his living sword was a mystic treasure.
Referencing the words of the hivemind when he first bonded with it, he made the extremely bold guess that this was a mystic treasure that could evolve.
This was not Rex''s first-time hearing of evolvable mystic treasures, but as treasures that were more prevalent in the 7 Great shelters, this always seemed so far away from him that he felt bbergasted that he was now a wielder of one.
Life was really a randomly spinning wheel.
Putting aside the fact that he got severely injured and had to be taken to the hospital, Rex was certain that the battle against the mystic beast was a turning point in his life that opened his eyes to a lot of possibilities.
Of everything that was remaining in his mind, what Rex gave the highest scale of preference at the moment was his sword master''s advice.
His master advised that he should focus on recovering and preparing for his graduation battle which was exactly what Rex got resolved to do.
Originally, though he never admitted it, Rex always saw himself as inferior due to hisck of mystic energy even though he was the best swordsman in the sword department of the academy.
Swordsmanship was awesome and all that, but without mystic energy, he would still be thrashed by the powerful students.
The situation now was different though, after awakening his mystic energy, Rex was now more confident of his chances of achieving a good ranking more than ever before, he believed in himself now.
Rex was determined to prove all his mockers and doubters wrong.
This was why he was ready to throw himself into a marathon training for the remaining days to the battle. Today was Wednesday, and Saturday was the D-day.
After a hectic training, once Rex retreated for the night, he had a dream.
Chapter 18 Dream; Eve Of The Graduation Tournament
Blink!
Rex opened his eyes to a world whose background was dominated by red colors. Instinctively looking up at the sky, he saw that the blue skies were gone, only to be reced by a violet sky with a red hue.
It was like he was in a post-apocalyptic world as depicted in novels.
Originally, he should have been terrified suddenly finding himself in a world like this but Rex felt different. Though he was sure that he had never been here before, his body felt a sense of familiarity with this ce.
All around him, he could see skyscrapers that plunged into the skies. Clearly, this was an extremely advanced city, even more, advanced than the current age.
"Where is this?"
Rex asked, confused as he finally looked down at himself. He was shocked.
At this moment, he was not dressed in his familiar ck pants and polo shirt. He was dressed in what he could only call an advancedbat suit.
The ck and red suit was so advanced that Rex suddenly felt like he was the Ironman. In his hand, he held a sword, Berserker!
Rex was even more confused, what was he doing here?
Wrapped around the sword was a potent and extremely sharp domain mystic energy. Rex had never felt this powerful.
He felt that with just one sh of his sword, he could unleash a sword energy attack that could sweep through thisrge city, annihting all life that was inside it.
As he looked at himself more, he was shocked to discover that thebat suit was changing. All of a sudden, the suit had holes on different parts, scorched marks, and other signs that revealed that it had just gone through a fierce battle.
"Ouch!"
Rex felt a sharp prick on his forehead. On raising his free left hand to graze his head, he saw blood on bringing it down.
He quickly looked up, then he drew in a sharp breath. The tall skyscrapers that pierced into the violet skies were now a shadow of their previous selves, now spotting damage spots all over.
Some of them were in mes, others were already copsing.
Rex stumbled, taking a step backward. "Where am I?"
As if in answer to his question, a virtual screen suddenly lit up before him.
[You have activated mystic ability: Upgrade!]
[¡]
[¡]
[¡..]
[User Current Status: Injured!]
"What the hell is this?" Rex felt even more horrified as a lot of things went through his mind.
"Did the mystic beats take over the world? Did humanity lose? Oh, God! What of Ben and Cassandra, where are they?"
"Oh, God!" Rex was going crazy as a lot of things went through his mind, but this onlysted a short while as everything changed again.
Bzzz!
The next moment, Rex saw himself in the skies, watching a massive battle that was taking ce below in the samerge highly advanced city.
He was no longer a participant, he now felt like a spectator.
On the battlefield, he saw himself which horrified him more. His eyes were bloody red, and a red aura like a blood river surrounded him, including his living sword as he engaged in a mindless ughter.
Seeing the blood flying everywhere, the heads flying, and the screams of his victims, Rex felt like puking. Was that really him?
"Noooo!" He suddenly screamed. "Leave my head! Stop messing with me!"
Bzzz!
The next moment, the scenery changed again. He was still in the skies as a spectator, but the world changed, he was now in a medieval world.
He saw himself again, in the forest, hunting for game.
He seeded in killing a massive Lion all by himself, but on his way back, he was ambushed by a snake. Rex was swallowed by the massive Anaconda.
Puke!
Rex puked this time, not able to hold back.
Bzzz!
He was in another world, as a spectator again, in different circumstances.
Bzzz!
He was in another world, as a spectator again.
Bzzz!
Rex got fed up. "Leave me alone!"
"Help! Someone, anybody, please help!"
Bzzz!
"HELP!!!"
Rex woke up from his bed screaming for help.
He jumped up, scanning his surroundings rapidly while ignoring his sweat-filled body. To his relief, the familiar old curtain was in the room, including his old reading desk, and his 5th birthday picture frame was still on the wall.
Rex slumped down on the floor. "So, it was all a dream".
For 2 hours straight, Rex could not sleep again as he kept on thinking about the dream and what it meant only to arrive at a dead end.
"What in the world is happening to me?"
He slept, still feeling confused and terrified.
To his relief, he did not enter the spooky dream world again.
¡
The next day, on waking up, Rex acted like nothing happened as he met his friends who together, started preparing for the graduation battle.
All the specialized training that they needed was already done for the years that they spent in the academy; thisst week was for them to consolidate their power to be at their best for the ultimate battle.
For this, Rex and his friends could do it on their own in their town.
That morning, all 3 friends first started running around the town. After awakening mystic energy, Rex''s physical state improved a lot and so he was able to keep up with his friends as they ran 10 times at full speed around the town.
Filled with sticky sweat and with rapid strained breaths, they returned home and without even stopping to rest, they started martial training.
,m After the age of awakening, martial arts that were originally neglected by the world became normal again as it was a great aid to mystic warriors.
All 3 friends practiced their basic martial arts for an hour before switching to swordsmanship. They trained with the sword, while also training their control over their mystic energy and trying to increase its quality too.
This was the best way that they could prepare for the graduation battle.
For the remaining days of the week, this was what they did.
During this time, Rex refined and mastered his family''s sword stance rtive to his mystic energy. Like he was thought in school, he had been finding the best stance to better channel his mystic energy.
For example, Collins, the boy who bullied him on his birthday had to incline his hands at a specific angle before channeling his mystic energy through his fire mystic ability.
In this one week, Rex managed to achieve the same feat.
In his sword stance was his best state now to channel his mystic energy, channeling it was now so much easier and faster than he could when he fought against the mystic beast pig.
Apart from refining his sword stance, Rex also refined all his sword skills and sword techniques that were taught by his father, including the movement and defense skills that were taught in his academy.
Mystic energy was essential, but these were the basics to win a tough battle. Without specialized skills, the full potential of mystic energy could not be utilized.
Following this routine, time passed quickly, and it was already the eve of Saturday, the D-day to the start of the graduation battle.
Chapter 19 Turan Elliot
The Elliot Family was one of the few mystic families in Obedin City.
As one of the foremost cities in Delta State, it was normal that mystic families would be in the city, most especially when it had such a famous mystic academy.
p The Elliot Family was one of the bigger mystic families in the city.
With a history of having produced more than 1 advanced Mystic warrior, dozens of intermediate Mystic warriors, they were a powerful family with a lot of connections and influence in the city.
What really set the Elliot Family apart from other mystic families was the rumors that it was a sub-branch family of the Ancient Elliot Family.
The Ancient Elliot Family was one of the few Great Mystic Families who started all the way from the age of awakening, joined in the building of the shelters, and was now a powerhouse in one of the 7 Great Shelters.
Just this connection was enough to set the Elliot Family apart from others, and the fact that their bloodline mystic ability was lightning was the cream on top the cherry that made sure that they stayed at the very top.
Even among elemental mystic abilities, there were stages.
It was well known that the power of a mystic ability depended on the power of the mystic warrior, but this was not the only factor that affected overall strength.
Wind and earth mystic ability were generally weaker than fire mystic ability, the same way fire was weaker than lightning mystic ability.
Apart from the rare special mystic abilities, among the elemental mystic abilities, lightning was the strongest, having the most destructive power.
Of course, lightning being the signature mystic ability of the Elliot family didn''t mean that other lone mystic warriors could not awaken it.
The difference was that it was proven long ago that bloodline inherited mystic ability was always stronger than the one that was awoken and learned.
This was what set the Elliot Family apart from others, and of this new generation, Turan Elliot was the star of this forefront family.
Turan Elliot, a blonde-haired youth with fair features, a moderately handsome face and a well-toned muscr physique was a student of the Obedin Mystic Academy, and was Rex''s academy mate.
Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, he did not disgrace his bloodline as he was the undisputed best student of thistest batch of students that were about to graduate from the academy.
No other student had been able to stop his tyrannical lightning mystic ability.
He saw no other student as his direct rival, except one that he barely recognized as a nuisance. Rex Vector, this was the hateful student who prevented him from graduating as the best in all departments of the academy.
He graduated with excellence as the very best in all other areas, his preferred battle domain department which was the sword domain was the only department where he lost to the hateful Rex Vector.
From then, Rex who he never knew till then finally caught his attention. He was arrogant and proud, but he was not such a d*ck to not ept a loss.
He only felt disappointed. If Rex had awoken mystic energy, then he could embrace him as his rival but the sword genius disappointed him.
Once he knew that Rex didn''t awaken mystic energy, he discarded the kid from his mind. He didn''t even remember the looks of the kid.
He never bothered with him again, but hisckeys did. Like in every age, the richest or strongest kid with the best background in big academies like the Obedin Mystic Academy were always immortalized.
Turan never looked for friends, but both girls and boys flocked after him. One of these boys was Collins, who self-imposed himself as his personal assistant to take care of any inconvenience on his behalf.
He knew about the bully rtionship between Collins and Rex but he never cared. If the kid could not protect himself, then he should have never gone to the academy, leeches like him simply wasted academy resources.
With Rex already relegated from his mind as a non-entity, no one was his direct rival to clinging first ce in this uing graduation battle, he was confident of that.
Despite being confident, Turan never cked even for one day.
During the one week of preparation, just like other students, he trained, refining his skills and mystic energy control like his life depended on it.
The main difference between him and other students was that his family house was a mansion that had everything. He had his own personalbat training chamber with advanced training equipment all avable for his use.
At this moment, he was going through an agility swordsmanship training.
Mechanical robots were ced at different parts of the training chamber at such a sheer number that they dwarfed him. These robots could move, and they also had real swords that could cut a head off.
Turan''s challenge once the time started ticking was to erupt with speed, running through every single one of the robots, evading all their sword strikes, while striking with his mystic sword through their mid-section.
The point in the robots'' mid-section where he was supposed to strike was covered by a red ribbon. If he failed to strike there, then he failed the challenge.
3¡, 2¡, 1! Now!
Boom!
Turan exploded with speed as his blue eyes pinned all the robots down. Once he got within range of the robots, he started a dance, a sword dance.
"Dance of the 10,000 Drizzling Swords!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The spectators who were Turan''sckeys could only see a blur, followed by loud whooshing sounds as the boy prodigy cut his way through the robots.
Turan cut non-stop for 10 minutes straight before he finally stopped.
Then, all the robots fell apart like dropping leaves in autumn.
[Congrattions Young Master Turan!]
[Youpleted the challenge with 89 sword shes, 37¡]
Turan did not listen to the training chamber A.I''s rambling. He turned around amid the excited cheers of his spectators, and arrogantly went to his resting chair.
There, he rested his back and his nerves, and drank a bottle of water.
Before Turan could begin enjoying his rest though, a familiar annoying voice reverberated. Just hearing the first word already brought a frown to his face.
"I had a new prophecy; you will lose the final battle".
Hearing the calm and nonchnt tone in which his elder brother said this, Turan was angered as he sprang up from his resting chair and clenched his fist.
"F*ck you!" He yelled at him.
The spooky-looking youth with spooky dark green hair,zy green eyes, who also wore a dark green outfit behaved like he was not the one that was just cursed at.
"I just felt it right to tell you as an older brother".
With that, Bruno Elliot left thebat training chambers, leaving Turan fuming as he clenched and unclenched his fists.
This event already brought bad memories to Turan. He could still remember vividly this time 5 years ago when he just entered the academy, his elder brother came and told him the same thing.
Then was. "I had a prophecy; an all-round excellent academy result in all departments will be clinched from you in the one department that you think you are most proficient at".
5 years down the line, the hateful Rex Vector came.
Turan gritted his teeth. "I''ll show you that your mystic ability is not omniscient!"
"I''ll win this tournament no matter what!"
Chapter 20 Beginning Of The Graduation Tournament
The Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy looked out through his window.
Through the window of his office, this powerful Advanced Mystic warrior looked down at the bustle and hustle going on in his academy.
Through the window, he could see the enthusiastic final-year students who were preparing for the graduation tournament that was starting the next day.
Through their smiles and the expression on their faces, he could read their thoughts and the ambitions that were in their tiny little minds.
All of them could not wait for the tournament to begin, they were happy, they were excited, and they could not wait to showcase what they''ve learned throughout the past 5 years to the whole world.
The principal sighed, feeling nostalgic. "It''s time again".
"I still remember the feeling when I took my own graduation tournament. Damn, how time flies".
The Principal of the Obedin Mystic Academy was a muscr middle-aged man, his ck suit could not hide the prominent muscles, and his hefty chest like those of a Silverback Gori''s that were hidden beneath.
He had milk-colored hair, sharp eyes, a well-shaven mustache and beard, and a strong stone-cold face. He was a no-nonsense man with a fair share of a jovial personality which was all evident on his face.
Despite his strong face, he was a tall and fairly handsome middle-aged man. From his looks, it could easily be inferred that he turned heads during his youth.
His office was a rtively mundane one. It was built in a basic square shape, with the most prominent sights being his desk where martial art books wereid, the 2 sabers that hung on the wall, and his name board.
>MR. DOMINIC BARRY- PRINCIPAL<
There was the 2nd door in the office that led to his resting chambers.
At this moment, a smile was on the principal''s face as he looked down at his students below, he was reminiscing his youth days.
Knock! Knock!
The 2 knocks on his door disrupted his immersion, making him frown a bit in annoyance.
He rubbed his shoulders in a mildly annoyed manner though he already knew who knocked on the door before walking to his chair and sitting down, that was when he replied.
"Come in".
"Yes, sir!"
Following the voice was a soft white hand pushing the door open.
The owner of the fair hands was a beautifuldy in a white and ck official uniform and a crest of a roaring lion was attached to her left chest, which was iconic to the Obedin Mystic Academy.
This was the principal''s personal assistant.
"Sir, the format for the tournament has been finalized".
"Good, show it to me". The principal replied while trying hard to feign interest which he failed miserably at.
Despite hisck of interest, he still saw the borate drawing on the paper.
"Sir, do you need me to exin it?"
"Oh, that''s better then, go on".
Thedy coughed before she started. "The format for the tournament this time is divided into groups between different departments".
"For example, students of the sword battle domain department will go against students of the knife battle domain department, other departments will be matched up against each other too and each matchup is a group".
"By pitting the students of each group against each other in an individual single-elimination battle format, the weak students in the groups will be eliminated, leaving the strong ones".
"After this, the battle format will change where all the survivors of the previous round will be separated into 4 different groups".
"These 4 groups will be pitted against each other 2 vs 2 where they will fight in arge-scale free for all group battle setting".
"Only 4 students are expected to qualify from each group battle".
"These 8 students will then be pitted against each other for the quarter-finals where they will engage in another individual elimination battle to remove the weaker ones, leaving only 4 students to qualify".
"After the quarter-finalse the semifinals where they will be pitted in individual single-elimination battles once again. After the semifinals, only 2 students will remain standing".
"The 2 survivors will then have the chance to fight in an epic battle showdown in the finals that will be broadcasted all over Obedin City".
Snore!
The assistant folded her hands, exasperated once she raised her head from the paper and stopped reading. "Sir!"
"Umm, yes¡"
"You were snoring!"
"Huh, who said that? Is that how you spout nonsense?" While speaking rapidly, the principal rotated his chair, showing its back to thedy.
About 2 secondster, he rotated it back and faced his assistant with that serious look that was befitting of a mystic academy principal.
"You were saying?"
"¡"
The assistant scoffed. "You just cleaned your drool, right?"
"Nonsense!"
"Give me that book". The principal snatched the book from her. "This, only this? That''s all? Very simple, in fact, too simple, I understand everything, now give me the first battle fixtures".
The principal now had an unprecedentedly serious expression on his face.
The assistant still had an exasperated look on her face, she sniffed and sighed before handing the battle fixtures paper to him.
Once the principal looked at it, he smiled.
"Good, good, now you can go".
"¡"
¡
That night, all the final year students found it hard to sleep because tomorrow was going to be a defining day of their lives.
In the end, they all had to find external stimuli before they could sleep.
All of Obedin City was anticipating the start of the graduation tournament.
The night swiftly came and went like the sh, Saturday finally came, and the D-day for the start of the graduation tournament finally came.
That morning was when the first battle fixtures were released.
Rex, Cassandra, and Ben rushed to the academy first thing in the morning to see the fixture since they didn''t have an AOS phone to ess the released battle fixtures through the inte.
All of them heaved a sigh of relief, none of them had battles in the morning. And for that day, Ben was the only one who had a battle fixture fixed to start around 4:00 in the evening.
They left back home to prepare before going back to the academy.
*****
[AOS means- Advanced Operating Systems, it will be exined in detail in ater chapter.]
Chapter 21 The First Battle!
After 12 months of a stable life, the exciting part of Obedin City came again.
The whole city was attracted to the prospects of the graduation battle of their most famed mystic academy, it was like the new year''s celebration to the city.
Citizens of Obedin City took pride in the mystic academy, it was their symbol of honor and this most important event of the academy was also the most important ceremony of the city each year.
The graduation battle did not only mark the emergence of new mystic warriors that would protect the city, but it also marked the emergence of new heroes.
At this age and time, though mystic warriors were not as mysterious as in the old era anymore, they were still revered and were seen as superheroes.
For the introduction battles of this ceremony, it was unrealistic for every citizen of the city to attend since they had other things to do. It was the semifinals and finals that always had the most attendance each year.
Not just physical attendance, the semifinals, and finals of the graduation battle were usually broadcasted through the inte.
This meant that a lot of people had ess to it.
After the graduation battle every year, the winners almost always emerge to be celebrities. Not like celebrities of old, but they would be well known and opportunities in the mystic pathway would be more open to them.
This was the reason why every student took the graduation battle seriously. To most of them, the graduation battle meant more to them than their lives.
Most fought to escape their old status, mostly poverty, others fought to prove themselves to the world, while a few others fought to keep the name of their family relevant in the city.
Rex was one of the few students that fought to escape his old status of poverty, this was his best opportunity to change his life for good.
Having not awakened mystic energy before, he could only be pessimistic, but after awakening mystic energy and even acquiring a living sword, Rex was confident of his chances of emerging from the tournament with a good rank.
As the whole city bubbled in excitement due to the start of the tournament, and as spectators stormed towards the academy, Rex and his friends also left.
Having gone to the academy previously to check the battle fixtures, Rex and his friends already understood the format of the tournament.
They already knew that the first phase of the tournament was divided between battle domain departments and that the sword battle domain department would be going against the knife battle domain department.
The first phase of the tournament wouldst 3 days with students of each department going against each other following the format.
Every year, only 200 students out of the final-year graduating students were nominated to participate in the graduation tournament.
Following the current tournament format, after the department battles of the first phase, half of the students will be eliminated, leaving only 100.
On the 4th day of the tournament, the second phase of the tournament which was free for all would start. The massive battle would be for only one day where a majority of the students will be eliminated, leaving only 8.
To every student, the second phase was undoubtedly the hardest phase of all. The variables involved were too much, and the stakes at hand were big too.
Any student that survived the second phase could be said to have won it already. Being among the special 8 to qualify among 200 students, it was inevitable that they were at the top of all the participating students.
After the 8 students qualified, the third phase of the tournament which was the quarter-finals would start 2 dayster and also end in one day.
After that, came the semifinals, then the finals.
Having understood the tournament format, Rex and his friends felt the pressure to qualify. It was hard, but the challenge only ignited theirpetitive spirit more as they were eager to show what they could do.
In their special green uniform that distinguished them apart as students participating in the tournament, Rex and his friends quickly arrived at the academy.
On arriving, Rex quickly confirmed the crowd that wasrger than during normal academy days. Today was a special day, and the crowd proved it.
Rex and his friends didn''t follow the crowd, they entered the academy through a special pathway that took them directly to their department hall.
On arriving, the dignified Master Fixten was already in the hall.
This powerful Master of the sword domain department did not say much to his students.
He just addressed the 20 students from his department that were to participate in the battle of which only 19 were present, giving themmon advice and some crucial reminders.
After that, he finally dismissed them.
Rex alongside his 2 friends followed his course mates as they all went outside to the single-battle arena to spectate the first battle of the tournament.
The single-battle arena for the 1-on-1 battle was luxuriously built, and there were 4 of them in the academy. The battle arena B was designated for the contest between the sword domain and knife domain departments.
The arena was built t in a hexagonal shape and was cut off from the rest parts of the academy, separated by a huge hole filled with water.
The 2 students for the first battle were transported to the arena through a smart elevator. The 2 students for the first battle were a girl from the sword domain department and a boy from the knife domain department.
Once the 2 students came on stage, cheers erupted everywhere as the expertmentator invited for the tournament finally made his presence known.
"Wee everyone, wee spectators both far and wide".
"Once again, we are about to witness the start of the most popr event in Obedin City, the graduation tournament!"
"Now, I hope you brought some popcorn and a nice soft drink because we''re all about to go on a rough and exciting ride".
"Our firstpetitors today are a boy and a girl".
"The first battle is between Quinn Dame and Olivia Beryl!"
The cheers reached a crescendo as the bell to signify the start of the first battle was finally rung.
Gong!
¡
Once the battle started, both students revealed their specialties.
Surprisingly, both of them already awoke mystic energy which bnced the starting ground for both sides. Olivia Beryl of the knife domain department wielded a wind mystic ability while Quinn Dame a fire mystic ability.
Perhaps, it was due to the pressure of the tournament but both students showed impatience as they lunged at each other once the bell rang.
Like the wind, Beryl took the initiative as she rushed to the side of her opponent at a superhuman speed. Her pale brown hair waved behind her as her knives stabbed at her opponent with unerring uracy at a fast speed.
Before she could hit him though, she felt the temperature rapidly rising.
ng!
Quinn was not only able to block on time, but he retaliated also, not giving his opponent the opportunity to take advantage of her mystic ability and escape again. He tied her down with his sword''s longer reach.
Surprisingly, Quinn''s control over his mystic energy already grew so much that he could not just increase temperature, but could summon real fire.
Once he conjured fire that descended, bombarding their position, the oue was already decided.
Beryl struggled, trying to take advantage of her superior speed to escape but Quinn''s superior control made sure that the raging fire always kept her trapped.
Once he got his opportunity, he ruthlessly cut with his sword at her neck. She was unable to parry on time, as the sword dug a few inches in.
The next moment, a powerful force stopped the sword.
"And we have our first winner".
"Quinn Dame is the winner of the first battle".
The girl could only clench her teeth and leave, feeling disappointed while Quinn basked in the cheers and glory that victory brought.
Chapter 22 Ben Carter Vs Tom Dink! [1]
With the conclusion of the first battle, more started.
As was shown in the first battle, students were not allowed to die in this tournament. Humanity needed mystic warriors to fight the mystic beasts that were trying to destroy the world, they would not waste them away in tournaments.
The rules of the tournament were that once a student was beaten to the point of death, or if a fatal attack was used against him that would end his life, the teachers of the academy would intervene and rescue them.
Of course, the academy had the technology to prevent cheating in this format.
The Masters of the Obedin Mystic Academy could not just decide to rescue a student when he was not due to be rescued, thereby eliminating him/her.
The academy had special mystic treasures to keep track of the battles. Once an attack was confirmed to kill one of the students, the masters intervene.
Following this format, a few dozen battles were fought already.
The atmosphere in the academy was now at a high as the consecutive thrilling performances by the students excited the spectators to no end.
Watching students reveal their abilities, giving their all just to defeat their opponents provided such an epic spectacle for them.
The colliding emotions and ambitions of the students made it spicier.
The first battle was pretty basic and didn''t reveal much to the spectators, but it was still enough to excite them to no end.
Seeing humans just like them manipte and channel the legendary mystic energy to create fire and other effects, they were stoked.
Not all the participating students awoke mystic energy though. Despite humanity''s efforts to increase the awakening rate, the number of humans that could awaken mystic energy was still just 2% of the overall poption.
This was the main reason why mystic warriors were held in such high regard. Though the advanced weapons of this era could easily kill any basic mystic warrior, they were still held with high prestige.
While theymen spectators watched the battles, Rex and his 2 friends also diligently watched.
This was not just a tform for them to get experience, through seeing others'' battles, they could be better prepared mentally for what was toe.
While watching the battles, the one constant that Rex discovered was that none of the students to this point had an above-average control over mystic energy.
With Ben''s control over his mystic energy and his mystic ability, he could be called above average but he was still not an exceptional basic mystic warrior yet.
The best that Ben could do was manipte his wind mystic ability to increase his speed, and also to create mild windstorms to attack but the overall utility was still extremely limited.
This was why they were referred to as basic mystic warriors.
Rex knew that with the same mystic ability, intermediate mystic warriors could use their mystic energy in a lot of ingenious ways to create different wind energy attacks that could even level down a building.
The strongest mystic warriors who had the wind mystic ability could even induce tsunamis and could change the weather at will.
This was the true power of mystic energy and mystic warriors.
At the basic stage, though mystic warriors were limited, they still had a lot of means to attack and this was mostly through skills and battle techniques.
Till now, none of the students who came on stage have been able to demonstrate any useful technique or skill. Like in the first battle, they sh directly without improvising one bit, relying on winning with brute strength.
In the first battle, the swordsman student won through his better control over mystic energy. It was eye-catching to see, but mystic warriors like Rex who studied mystic energy in school, they knew that it was boring.
The tournaments continued this way as students fought, some being eliminated with the others emerging triumphantly and qualifying for the next stage.
This way, time passed rapidly and 4:00 pm finally came.
It was time for Ben''s battle.
Before the time struck, Rex and Cassandra already wished him Goodluck as Ben went to the preparation chamber to prepare himself for his debut.
Though he always looked like he did not care for anything in the world, even just now behaving like he didn''t give a damn about the tournament before his friends, Ben actually did care, he just hated expressing it.
Inside the cold and metal-walled preparation chamber, Ben felt the pressure. The noise made by the spectators, the still ongoing battle, his friends watching from the stands, and his future that were tied to this battle all grated at his nerves.
,m "Now, let us wee our next battlepetitors".
"This time, it is Ben Carter vs Tom Dink!"
"It seems we are in luck this time, ording to their academy assessments, we are probably about to witness our first real mystic battle".
As the spectators cheered enthusiastically, Ben knew that it was time.
"Well, let''s go there and smash it up!"
He stood up, grabbed his sword, and swung it left and right before sheathing it back on its scabbard, then he took the step out into the smart elevator.
Inside the elevator, Ben looked outside at the numerous spectators who were about to spectate his battle from the stands around the arena.
Feeling their energy that never seemed to get exhausted, he was amazed but he quickly wiped this all from his mind before focusing on his opponent.
Tom Dink was a student that Ben was familiar with. He was among the privileged kids, with the only shoring of being less talented but his parent''s money was able to make up for a lot of his shorings.
He was not only the wielder of a powerful water mystic ability, but his knives were famous mystic weapons that were well-known in the school.
Ben''s face turned grim but he never lost hope in himself.
ng!
Once the elevator touched the arena, Ben finally came down. Instantly, he unsheathed his sword and entered a defensive stance, his concentration already reaching the peak that he could manage.
Gong!
The bell for the battle to start rang.
"Steps of the Nightingale!"
Ben made the first move, activating his only movement skill. Instantly, a green gale enveloped his body that was wrapped in the greenbat uniform as his speed increased several folds.
Whoosh!
Compared to other wind elemental mystic ability users that had debuted already, his speed was outrageous as he got to his opponent''s side in mere seconds.
Ben did not hesitate as he attacked immediately.
ng!
Despite the speed of his opponent, Tom Dink was able to react on time. A loud metallic ringing sound reverberated, spreading vibrations through his knives and to his hand as he managed to parry the attack on time.
Ben improvised immediately as heunched a kick at his opponent''s exposed abdomen. Tom could not dodge, the kick hit him squarely and he fell backward.
The sound of the wind turned sharp as Ben took advantage of the opportunity, channeling his mystic energy as a green swirl surrounded his sword while he started a repeat fast sword swing attacks at his opponent.
Tom who fell backward reacted instantly, curling his body while rolling backward rapidly as all of Ben''s attacks hit empty air.
This continued until Ben pushed his opponent to the end of the battle arena. When the spectators thought that Tom would fall away which meant automatic elimination, a powerful force suddenly hit and restrained Ben''s sword.
"Forgot my mystic ability is water, bastard?"
Boom!
The water cooled rapidly, turning into an ice fist as it moved fast, not giving Ben any time to react before it punched him on the head.
Ben was flung away, but even as he rotated like a drunk bird in the air, he was able to stabilize himself by channeling his mystic ability to control his flight pattern through the air as hended quickly.
When he raised his head back to see his opponent, he was shocked.
Tom''s body was nowpletely covered with water like he was a water creature. Behind him, the source of so much water became known, the pool of water that was in the hole separating the arena from the spectators.
Tom grinned. "Water Skill: White Lotus- Water de!"
Chapter 23 Ben Carter Vs Tom Dink! [2]
After awakening mystic energy, how strong a basic mystic warrior became depends on his mystic ability and how proficient he is at controlling his mystic ability to channel his mystic energy.
Mystic energy was like magic, just with some differences with the most prominent being that magic was fictional while mystic energy was real.
Once a student awakens mystic energy, just like magic, the mystic warrior is expected to train his control over it.
You needed control to create fireballs, deadly windstorms, and floods in the case of mystic warriors with water abilities.
Skills of every known mystic ability were readily avable in the academy, but after learning them, without a good enough control, you cannot use them.
This was why the first battle between Quinn Dame and Olivia Beryl was so generic. Without the required control to activate the powerful skills of their respective mystic abilities, they could only resort to basic mystic energy fighting.
Training control over mystic energy was essential because, alongside the quality of mystic energy, it decided the amount of strength that a mystic warrior could exert in a battle.
The difference between mystic warriors depended on the quality of their mystic energy and how good they were at controlling it.
Clearly, Tom Dink kept his secret tight from everyone and was already pretty good at the control aspect. The water surrounding his body was proof.
While he fell backward from Ben''s kick, and could only roll pathetically on the ground backward under Ben''s sword attack barrage, he seemed helpless but it was on seeing the water armor that Ben knew that he was yed.
For basic mystic warriors, they needed catalysts for them to fight at their full strength. For a mystic warrior with a water ability, he needed to be in an environment filled with water to fight at full power.
Ben never thought in this direction because he did not expect Tom to be able to manipte the water in the pool despite how far below it was from the arena.
Getting to the edge of the arena to have better ess to the water was what made Tom retreat, not because of his attack.
Now, Ben''s sword was caught by the water that was already frozen into ice. He needed to act fast to free his sword before his opponent could attack.
He didn''t have the luxury though, Tom already attacked.
"White Lotus: Water de!"
On hearing this name, Ben was shocked.
Of the water skills avable in the Obedin Mystic Ability, this one was the most famous, strongest, and was rumored to be the hardest to control since it was created by the previous principal of the academy.
Once Tom activated this ability skill, the water surrounding his body started revolving fast like they were under the influence of a raging storm.
The next moment, still inside the water, Tom squatted slightly to lower his center of gravity and grabbed his knives tighter as he started swiping rapidly in the direction of his opponent.
This was his energy channeling stance, and it enabled him to channel his mystic energy into the revolving water as a change took ce the next moment.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The signature skill of the White Lotus skill was unleashed. Following Tom''s swiping actions, the water froze, turning into tiny ice des that shot out rapidly in the direction of Ben who was still trying to retrieve his trapped sword.
Ben immediately fell into a dilemma. Should he abandon his sword and save his life first or should he stick with it, and continue trying to drag it out?
Neither of the options sounded appealing enough to him, the ice des wereing his way fast and would cut him open in less than a second.
Ben had no time to think, but one thing was ingrained in his mind by his friend. It was like he could hear Rex''s voice. "Ben, my father always told me this, a swordsman should never lose his sword in a battle".
"I will not lose my sword!" Ben growled as he made a tough decision.
Apart from basic wind maniption to increase his speed and other such minor stuff, like Tom, Ben also already learned skills of the wind mystic ability but he could not use them proficiently due to hiscking control over his mystic energy.
Of all the skills that he learned; he had only seeded in activating one of them once but it was due to luck. At this moment though, Ben decided to gamble and try activating the skill rather than losing his sword.
Ben closed his eyes to get his best concentration.
"Wind Skill: Storm Push!"
For more than a nanosecond, nothing happened, but the next moment, the air stirred as a fierce green storm erupted the next moment before pushing in the direction of the iing water des.
Whoosh!
Most of the water des were pushed away, leaving only a few. Ben could only resort to dodging, but 3 still cut him.
His left cheek bled as the pain affected his concentration a bit, making the wind attack dissipate but Ben already retrieved his sword by this time.
"Movement Skill: Steps of the Nightingale!"
Ben stepped up his game!
He knew that staying in one ce would only leave him as a practice target to his opponent now, to win, his best chance was by closing the distance and taking things close and personal.
More water des were already shooting his way, but with his movement skill active, and with the green wind swirling around him, his speed increased exponentially as he evaded the attacks like he was the wind itself.
Whoosh!
Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!
More water des kepting, but Ben evaded them all.
His chubby skin shook with his maneuvers as the wind sted at his skin due to his astonishing movement speed at the moment as he took detours to evade while also trying to close the distance to his opponent.
The spectators watching this battle were already stoked. The cheers were groundbreaking as they yelled excitedly at the battle performance.
As Ben closed the distance, the fact that Tom did not use another water skill to counter him told him all that he needed to know.
Clearly, Tom sacrificed the time that he would have used to learn other skills just to focus on this one. The skill was indeed terrifyingly strong, but against a strong wind ability wielder like Ben, he was going against his natural counter.
Pu! Pu!
More water des came, but with time, Ben grew more proficient at dodging them as he finally got close enough to his opponent.
With a powerful swing of his sword, he finally attacked.
ng!
To his shock though, the sword could not power through as the part of the water that he attacked immediately froze into a sturdy ice barrier.
Whoosh!
Before Ben could pull out, a water de was shot at point-nk range as the de ruthlessly cut through his abdomen.
Ben finally pulled his sword away, but he gasped in pain as the hole now on his abdomen bled. The blood stained his green uniform.
Ben was in pain, but he was unresigned to give up. He did not retreat, he pressed even harder, increasing his speed as his sword rapidly cut at his opponent from various angles only to be blocked while Tom also attacked him.
The more Ben tried, the more injuries he got instead as the point-nk range water de attacks inflicted terrible injuries on his body.
The blood loss was already making him feel dizzy, but he did not give up.
"I can''t give up now!"
"Losing in the first battle is too disgraceful!"
The more the scenario of losing became more prominent in his head, the more Ben was triggered as he resisted it fiercely in his mind.
He may not be a genius like Rex in swordsmanship, nor did he have a tyrannical inherited mystic ability like Turan, but he was Ben, he was his own person and he was his own genius.
He would not sumb now!
With no options left, Ben could only resort to attempting a breakthrough in control. He closed his eyes entirely, giving 80% focus to inside his mind while leaving only 20% to follow the still ongoing battle.
The risks of this move became clear as he sustained injuries from the water des countless times faster, his whole body was now filled with blood.
The des directly cut his body so much that he now looked like a sieve.
Despite all this, Ben''s focus was on his mind. He tried to ess his consciousness, that part of his brain where mystic energy was rumored to settle in.
"Respond for me!"
He urged his brain repeatedly but got no response.
In his desperation, Ben simply sted every part of his brain with his roaming consciousness. He groped around like a barbarian, not caring if he was perhaps damaging his brain or anything of the sort.
In this barbaric rampage was when he discovered something.
Ben only saw a thick concentrated green ball of light, that was all he saw before he was yanked out of his brain.
He was yanked out, but when he opened his eyes, his eyes glowed green.
"Wind Skill: Storm de!"
Whoosh!
Ben shed with his sword again with all his strength.
This time, a green wind form materialized and enveloped the sword. The sword suddenly seemed countless times more menacing.
Tom instinctively tightened his defense, turning the whole water shield into an ice shield but it didn''t matter much.
BOOM!
The sword cut through the ice shield, tearing it apart before going after the target that was hidden inside it. Before it could cut Tom into 2 though, another wind de arrived from nowhere and countered the attack.
Everything finally died down, silence descended on the stands.
"And our winner is Ben Carter!"
It was only when thementator spoke that the spectators finally woke up, and they started cheering, yelling Ben''s name at the top of their voices.
"I won". Benughed as medical personnel came to take him out of the arena.
Chapter 24 The Highlight Battle Of The First Days Battles
Ben won the battle, but he sacrificed a lot to achieve the victory.
Tom attacked him so much with his water des, inflicting so many injuries on his body that he seemed like the loser more than Tom who lost.
As he was towed away by the medical personnel, a lot of blood was left in his wake in the battle arena which showed how numerous his injuries were.
He was not inflicted with any one overwhelming injury that threatened his life, but stacking so many cut injuries formed a terrifying situation that practically drained him of all his blood and strength.
It was a guarantee already that in the next phase of the tournament, he would not be able to battle at full strength.
This was another factor to take note of climbing the ranks in the graduation tournament. Winning a battle was one thing, but how you won it also mattered since it could affect your overall performance in subsequent battles.
As he was taken out of the battle arena, while the spectators still yelled at his exploits, thementator finally analyzed the previous battle.
The twin mystic daggers that Tom Dink used in the previous battle were called the Telekinesis daggers and were renowned for their mystic ability.
The mystic ability of the twin daggers was akin to Telekinesis.
By throwing one of them at an enemy, a telekinesis connection is formed between both daggers that can enable the wielder to control the thrown dagger from a distance through the other twin half.
The Telekinesis daggers were favored weapons of hunters of the Mystic Hunter Union. Through the mystic ability, it became convenient to attack mystic beasts from a distance, killing them before they could react.
While thementator analyzed the pros and cons, highlighting the exciting points of the previous battle while the next students prepared to start their battle, Rex and Cassandra left the spectator stands.
In their friendship codebook, Ben''s problem was their problem and was the reason why they rushed to the Academy hospital immediately.
By the time they got to the massive hospital, Ben was already admitted and was already being attended to. They had to spend 15 minutes waiting outside before they were finally allowed in.
On entering inside, both friends saw Ben wrapped up like a mummy. They were worried about his condition, but theical sight left the both of them speechless.
On seeing his friends, Ben grinned. "I won!"
He was exhausted, but the prospect of bragging about his achievement before his friends sounded too exciting to miss. "Did you see what I did? I literally obliterated that Tom fellow into pieces; do you know who I am?"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, Jackie Chan, right?" Rex cut in since he knew that letting Ben go unrestrained was a bad idea. "You won a brilliant battle, so why not rest a bit to recover your strength?"
"Hmm, I''m not tired". Ben scoffed.
"You don''t want to look weak before your girlfriends, do you?" Rex folded his hands and spoke bluntly as this finally hit his friend''s weak point.
"You''re right". Ben scratched his head, before suddenly bumping his bandaged fists in the air. "I can be bullied, I can win, I can lose, but I can never look weak before my girlfriends, it''s an abomination!"
"Yeah". Rex nodded.
That sessfully did it as Ben finally calmed down to rest and slowly recuperate from his injuries.
Despite the advanced medical techniques of this erapared to previous eras before the age of awakening, such injuries could still not be recovered from immediately unless it was a hospital in 1 of the 7 Great Shelters.
Cassandra and Rex curbed their desire to watch the remaining battles, making sure to keep their friendpany until he finally fell asleep.
Once Ben fell asleep, Cassandra and Rex rxed on the visitor''s chair as they went through the proceedings of all the battles that they''ve watched since.
In just this one day, both of them have seen their ssmates fight in such a way that they''ve not seen before. In the arena, there were no gangs, norades, just you and your opponent.
One of them already fought and won, theirs was still uncertain.
Tom Dink''s example was not going to be thest, a lot of students have been holding their strength back, aiming to shine in thisst academy tournament.
Every student strived to win, and so did Rex and his friends.
As Rex thought of all this, he could not help but rewind to his birthday. His 18th birthday proved to be the turning point in his life, now he was an entirely differentpetitor than he was a week ago.
He believed that he would surely be one of the strongest dark horses of this tournament, the only problem that left him scared was the blood dream.
During the battle against the mystic beast pig, he never forgot the illusion that he was drawn into where he saw himself on a bloody battlefield.
The dream that he had the same night confirmed that the illusion was not just a fluke. Something was wrong with him that he didn''t know where it originated from, and it all started after his 18th birthday.
Rex had tried different methods, evenmunicating with his living sword to ask and also checking the academy library, but he was unable to get any information that pointed to the phenomenon that was happening to him.
Till now, he could only bear this uncertainty alone as he didn''t tell his friends.
His intuition told him that this phenomenon was rted to his family, and he did not want to draw his friends into his problems.
He could only endure this invisible sword of Damocles alone.
The graduation tournament was the best ce for him to escape his previous poor status and build a name for himself, he did not want his only chance to be botched by the strange blood phenomenon.
When engrossed in a battle like Ben''s, Rex could not see how he would win if the blood phenomenon suddenly started.
Although after the mystic beast encounter and the dream, he had never encountered it again, he still felt concerned in the back of his mind.
Worrying needlessly would not solve any problem, so Rex could only try to forget about it. He soughtfort with his living sword.
"Shing!"
"I know, those petty weapons are not your match".
"Shing!" "Shing!"
"You really think so?"
"Shing!"
"Ok, then, I believe you, we''ll smash the tournament".
Rex smiled at his living sword''s encouragement. Throughout the past week, he had already grown so close with Berserker that theirmunication and synergy were now seamless. His living sword was his onlypanion when he was lonely.
Rex and Cassandra spent another 30 minutes with their sleeping friend before they finally left, returning to the spectator stands.
They returned because the time for the highlight battle of the first day''s battles finally came. The Queen of Obedin Mystic Academy was finally about to fight her first battle in the tournament.
Chapter 25 Wind Fairy Morgana
"After persevering for the whole day, only taking an hour break in between, we are finally about to witness the spectacle that brought a lot of us here".
"We are finally about to be rewarded with the highlight battle of the first day of the graduation tournament of the Obedin Mystic Academy".
"Give it up as we wee the rumored Queen of Obedin Mystic Academy, the Wind Fairy, Morgana Jones!"
"The student going against her is another powerful mystic warrior that was produced by the academy, Eben Deliber".
Once the name Morgana Jones was said, the spectators went wild!
The cheers exploded, reaching a crescendo as it suddenly felt like an earthquake was taking ce inside the academy.
The excited spectators yelled at the top of their voices to wee one of the few students that were seen as the favorites to win the graduation tournament.
Yells of "I love you", "You''re too badass", and "You''re my queen", dominated among the cheers as the over-enthusiastic spectators weed this warrior.
She stepped into the arena as bombastically as the cheers weed her as her elevator arrived first inside the battle arena.
Morgana Jones, a student from the wind elemental department and the Tessenjutsu department. Not only seen as the most beautiful girl in the whole academy but as the strongest female in the whole academy.
The battle departments in the Obedin Mystic Academy were numerous, and the Tessenjutsu department was one of the more peculiar ones, having been adopted from the ancient Japanese iron fan technique.
The ancient technique was only modified to amodate mystic energy.
As used in the Japanese culture, Wind Fairy Morgana had 2 Tessens attached to both sides of her greenbat uniform at her hip side.
Thisdy warrior had natural red hair that was tied into a bun, brown eyes that seemed capable of piercing through any hidden secret, and a beautiful fair face that served as a great contrast to her explosive personality.
Her physique was as explosive as her personality, she was slim but muscrpared to other girls of her age and this made her look more intimidating.
Once she entered the battle arena, her hands slid down herbat clothes as they came back up with the 2 Tessens already equipped.
Her fiery brown eyes pinned the elevator that wasing from the side opposite hers. Once her opponent emerged, a student who she was familiar with, her battle spirit started burning.
From the look in her eyes, she was a battle maniac. Her eyebrows twitched, including her hands as the excitement of battle took over her.
Eben Deliber was a student of the earth mystic department and the War Hammer department. He was a powerful basic mystic warrior in his own right, but against his opponent, he could only serve as a backdrop.
"Let the battle begin!"
Gong!
Once the bell was finally hit, the already impatient Wind Fairy Morgana immediately exploded forth with a speed that eclipsed Ben''s.
Whoosh!
In just less than a second, she arrived before her opponent as her 2 hands holding her Tessens swiped forward at an outrageous speed.
She didn''t just attack with her Tessens, she seemed to drag a storm along with her attack as a purplish gale picked up with her Tessens as the center.
She didn''t need to enter a specific stance to channel her mystic energy anymore, she was a master at it. Her mystic energy was now one with her, it obeyed her every order like a pet before its master.
Eben knew his opponent like the back of his hand, he knew his limits and knew that he could never beat her in a contest of speed.
This was why he never aimed to beat her in her domain, he aimed to take this battle to an extreme to try beating her in his domain with his own rules.
"Earth Skill: Fake Gravity Control!"
"Earth Skill: Earthen Hammer!"
The next moment, a grayish light surrounded Eben before his opponent''s attack could connect. In the vicinity of this grayish light, gravity became 3 times heavier as Wind Fairy Morgana felt her speed dropping.
Her speed dropped, while Eben''s force grew. Not only that, the increased gravity enabled him to stand his ground, easily withstanding the effects of the gale that she induced with her mystic ability.
Boom!
His War Hammer finally came mming down with astonishing force.
From every spectator''s perspective, the mighty m of the War Hammer crushed the ferocious-looking Wind Fairy but this warriordy was nicknamed the Wind Fairy for a reason.
Whoosh!
"Wind Skill: Floating Leaf!"
Morgana''s astonishing control over her mystic energy became evident at this moment. In that nick of time, she managed to activate a wind skill that made her body as light as a leaf as she perched on the mming hammer like a bird.
Her 2 legs were glued to the hammer that was still in the process of mming down. In this dangerous state, she activated another skill.
"Wind Skill: Air Cannon!"
Boom!
A powerful purplish wind that was shaped in the form of a cannonunched from her legs, transmitting all its force directly into the War Hammer.
Crack!
The War Hammer shattered!
Whoosh!
Even as the War Hammer was in the process of shattering, her Tessens already attacked again as they sliced through its shattering form straight at the hand that held it.
"Ugh!" Eben groaned as he lost his palm to the sharp iron fans.
He kicked his legs at the arena floor to retreat but Wind Fairy Morgana was not having it as her legsunched forward with speed, wrapping around his neck before he could react.
Once she changed her center of gravity, all Eben saw was the air as he wasunched up before finally being mmed down hard at the arena ground.
"Kill him!"
"Skin him alive!"
Crazy yells came from the spectators but they all filtered through Morgana''s ears like the background noise that they were.
All that was in her sight was her opponent.
Once Eben was mmed against the floor, he became defenseless. Abusing the advantage of her superior speed and her still active Floating Leaf skill, Morgana somersaulted down at her defenseless opponent.
This time, her Tessens ruthlessly went for the head.
Boom!
Shocked gasps escaped from the spectators since no academy master intervened. When the brief interfering wind finally settled down, they were shocked to see Eben still alive and kicking.
"Rock Armor b*tch!" Eben spat at his opponent and sprang up.
At thest moment, he was still able to channel his mystic energy, activating another famous skill of the earth mystic ability.
He extracted the rock particles that were in the battle arena to create a rock armor around his body, and it also served as his weapon to put up a fight though it decreased his speed exponentially.
Morgana dodged the rock form''s punch as an annoyed frown finally came into her face. Those who knew her shuddered on seeing this look.
"Advanced Wind Skill: Tessen Wind Storm!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Once she finally activated an advanced skill, Morgana turned into a different person. Engulfed by a purplish gale, her Tessens cameunching at her rock form opponent at such speed and force that literally tore him apart.
Eben could not put up a fight, he was suppressed from the beginning to the end. In just 2 seconds, his rock armor skill was breached.
Before the deadly Tessens could cut off his head, the masters intervened.
The Wind Fairy won her first battle of the graduation tournament.
"And we have our winner"
"The inevitable Wind Fairy Morgana!"
Chapter 26 Day 2 Of The Graduation Tournament
After a long and exciting day where Rex and Cassandra spectated a lot of battles between their ssmates, even getting to spectate their friend''s battle, they finally left the academy, returning home.
They left for home with a whole new knowledge about the nature of this year''s graduation tournament, they also left with their battle fixtures.
As soon as thest battle of the first day ended, the school released the battle fixtures for the 2nd day where both Rex and Cassandra featured.
>Leon Demeter vs Cassandra Putin- Time: 9:00 am <
>Rex Vector vs Magma Jones- Time: 3:00pm<
With these fixtures, it meant that neither Rex nor Cassandra could dare to ck on getting home. Ben already qualified, and they were determined to also qualify for the next round of the tournament.
Rex had more reason to be concerned as his opponent was among the more renowned of the students, and here, renown tranted to strength the majority of the time.
This was why once both friends got home, they wished each other Goodluck before going to their various homes where they started intensive training.
Rex had not fed Berserker his daily dose of swordsmanship, so he just used this as the prime opportunity to feed the hungry living sword.
Rex performed his basic swordsmanship repeatedly for such a long time that he was left breathless when he finally stopped.
After this, he performed his sword stance where he manipted and channeled his mystic energy nonstop, releasing sword energy waves towards the sky that made slicing sounds nonstop.
Just like mystic abilities manifested in the form of burning fire, freezing ice, and other effects when activated, the raw manifestation of the domain mystic energy was sword energy.
These sword energy waves always have an extreme attribute, either sharp, heavy or any other attribute, depending on the sword master''s inclination and they were the means for mystic swordsmen to overpower their opponents.
During the encounter in the beast sanctum when he went to look for pigs with his friends, after channeling his mystic energy, Rex was able to release sword energy from his sword that cut through his 2 opponent pigs.
Then was entirely because of luck, and the adrenaline coursing through his body. He still had to train hard to master sword energy control.
Now, after working hard for the past few days, though Rex could not call himself a master yet, he could materialize sword energy effortlessly.
Rex was still astonished by how much his control grew in just a few days. In his sword stance, it was like he was cheating as manipting and channeling his mystic energy bes second nature to him.
This was the main reason for his astonishing growth speed.
While training his control over sword energy, Rex finally started practicing his sword skills and technique again.
In the battle that woulde the next day, his skills and his sword technique were his trump cards. Of course, he had other hidden trump cards already but he refrained from practicing all the time with them.
Even in his home, Rex could not be sure that other students were not spying on him, so he refrained from revealing all his cards even when training.
He could only train unrestrainedly in Berserker''s sword world.
Having lived with his living sword for so many days, Rex never knew of this ability until he was gued with the need to keep secrecy.
It was a world that his sword conjured in his head, very identical to a virtual world where he could practice all his skills nonstop.
Once he retreated inside, he practiced in the sword world until he fell asleep.
¡
Sunday came, and the graduation tournament continued.
On the 2nd day of this esteemed tournament, it finally seemed that most of the freebies in this tournament who had not awakened mystic energy were all eliminated already.
From the very first battle of the 2nd day of the tournament, the difference could be felt as the battle intensity seemed to have increased a notch.
And unlike yesterday when only students with elemental mystic energy came out, today was different as not only students with domain mystic energy like Rex came out, but those with unique mystic energy also came out.
The first student with unique mystic energy who came out was Rhode Foster of the Foster family, a powerful mystic family with the iconic light mystic ability.
This special mystic ability enabled descendants of the Foster family who were able to awaken it to be able to manipte the power of light.
Rhode Foster''s opponent who was a student with the fire mystic ability could do nothing as this 18-year-old girl thrashed the hell out of him.
Light energy skills were not only unconventional, but they were terrifyingly strong and rumored to have the greatest pration power alongside lightning.
Rhode Foster''s opponent stood no chance from the onset.
After her battle that seeded in exciting the spectators, the tournament continued as more students came out to sh against each other.
Different elemental mystic abilities were revealed, and those from Rex''s department got to shine also as the 3 swordsmen with domain mystic energy managed to beat their opponents and qualify for the next level.
Before 9 clocked, another student with unique mystic energy fought. Unlike Rhode Foster, he came from a family with a special soul mystic ability that they called the Fleeting Illusion.
This battle broke the record for the fastest yet.
Once the battle started, John Naga simply channeled his mystic energy and activated his mystic ability. His opponent was immediately drawn into an illusion world that he was unable to extricate himself from.
All he had to do was walk closer to his opponent, unsheathe his knife and cut his opponent''s cheek. There was no contest, he won.
Rex took note of all these students who were famous back in school. He recognized them as his strongest opponents to get the position that he wanted in this graduation tournament.
Immediately after John Naga fought, Cassandra finally got to fight.
Unlike most students who fought on the 2nd day, Cassandra''s luck seemed to shine for her as the opponent she was up against was one of the weakest in the tournament apart from those without mystic energy.
The entitled boy lucked out and awakened mystic energy, butziness and a lot of other factors meant that he had terrible control over his energy.
Despite knowing the notorious reputation of her opponent, Cassandra did not underestimate him as she calmly took this battle like it was against a tournament favorite which was in line with her personality.
She fought the battle in a coolheaded state, and as she hoped, nothing went wrong. All she needed was to channel her mystic energy to empower her attacks and she easily won the battle.
Another boon was that she suffered no injuries.
A few hours after she fought, after preparing his mind mentally throughout the whole morning, Rex finally got called for his first battle.
"And what do we have here? A showdown between the student known as the Earth Monster, and a student who was rumored to have just awoken his mystic energy a few days ago but is renowned in the sword department".
"Give it up as we wee Rex Vector and Magma Jones of the mighty Magma family to the battle arena".
"Will the Earth Monster crush the sword maniac like expected, or are we about to witness an upset?"
"I can''t wait to see the oue".
Chapter 27 Rex Vector Vs Magma Jones! [1]
ng!
Once the mechanical elevatortched at the arena, opening up and revealing its passenger, Rex took a deep breath and finally walked out.
As the more well-known star between the both of them, Magma Jones''s elevator already came before his as the spectators were now going crazy, cheering and screaming his name at the top of their voices.
Rex took all this interference calmly as he walked to his corner of the arena.
Shing!
Having brought Berserker out ahead of time and kept him in his sword scabbard, he simply unsheathed the sword now that he needed it as the familiar presence immediately gave him the confidence that he needed.
"Shing!"
"Yes, Berserker, he''ll be our first stepping stone".
As Rex held his sword, regaining his confidence in the warmth that its hilt brought to him, his already serious eyes pinned his opponent down.
After learning who he was going to fight the previous day, though he knew Magma Jones in school due to his poprity, he still did the needful and did all the research that he needed about his opponent.
Apart from the fact that his mystic ability was the iconic Jade Earth mystic ability of the Magma family that was famous for amplifying the strength of earth skills thrice the normal at its greatest proficiency, the most important thing to know about Jones was that he was a student of the Taijutsubat department.
The Taijutsu department of the Obedin Mystic Academy was the department with the most students.
As a department tailored for mystic warriors who preferred hand-to-handbat, it had the lowest entry requirements.
Though Jones was not the best student in the Tiajutsu department, he was definitely among the top students and paired with his mystic ability, he was a monster to face against any student.
In normal terms, meeting an opponent of this caliber in his first battle would have made Rex feel bad that he was cheated but he didn''t feel this way this time.
Previously, throughout all his academy life, Rex only got his chance to shine in the sword department of the academy. In every other facet, he was not too exceptional because of hisck of mystic energy.
Now that he finally acquired this energy that he''s been coveting all his life, he was ready to rewrite the way that people in this city viewed him.
What better way to rewrite the perception of people about him than to go against one of the favorites of the tournament and emerge victoriously?
This train of thought could be considered reckless, but Rex was ready to indulge in recklessness this time. He had spent too long staying in the dark, he loved the light too, and he wanted to see the light too.
This was why once the bell to start the battle rang, every distraction left his mind as his opponent was the only thing now left in there.
Gong!
With his right leg still in its initial position, Rex shifted his left leg forward a bit and squatted slightly to lower his center of gravity. Once he did this, he felt a ripple traveling through his body like an electric current.
Then, he raised his sword and pointed it at his opponent.
"Come on!"
Magma Jones did not disappoint. He didn''t give a damn about whatever his opponent was doing, all that was in his mind was crushing the damn bug with his astonishing strength and he went for it.
"Earth Skill: Finger Bullets!"
Boom!
Magma Jones erupted with speed towards his opponent, as his eleration immediately reached a peak that almost eclipsed some wind mystic warriors.
While running, his 2 hands were inclined downwards toward the arena ground. While clenching his outstretched hands like he was wing at something, he suddenly pulled up.
With a loud sound, the battle arena floor tore open as brown solidified earth came out before hovering in the air before him.
While still running at full speed, his hands moved like lightning as he tapped the air thrice with his fingers before pointing them at his opponent.
Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu!
The solidified earth suddenly fragmented, turning into bullet-sized solidified earth as they shot towards Rex at an extremely fast speed.
This one move already caused the spectators to explode, cheering loudly.
Rex who was on the receiving end of this skill was calm. His eyes narrowed as he tracked down the trajectory of the earth bullets while he was still in his sword stance, and when they came close enough, his hand vibrated.
With his right hand that held the sword vibrating, Berserker responded in full obedience to Rex''s moves as the sword stabbed 3 times consecutively.
Pu! Pu! Pu!
3 fast stabs and 3 earth bullets were poked since they wereing straight towards the sword as they simply broke down into free soil.
Whoosh!
After the 3 fast stabs, with the sound of the air reverberating like it was being cut apart, Rex drew his hand back, rapidly inclining his sword to a vertical positioning as the rapid maneuver intercepted 4 other earth bullets.
The next moment, in this state of absolute concentration, he instantly channeled his mystic energy as golden sword energy surrounded the sword.
This sword energy evaporated all the other earth bullets, the few others that escaped were deliberately left alone as they missed the target already.
What just happened seemed like magic but it was not, the title of the best sword student in the sword department was no joke.
From the first 3 fast sword stabs to now, a second had not even passed and the spectators were still trying to react to everything that happened but the mystic warrior, Magma Jones went on his second offensive.
While shooting the earth bullets at his opponent, he was already rapidly closing the distance to his opponent.
And now, he was not too far again as he activated another skill.
"Earth Skill: Boulder of Death!"
Once Jones activated this skill, the battle arena briefly shook as a massive boulder was lifted out of the ground the next moment before being thrown towards Rex at an impossible speed rtive to its size.
Rex''s eyes were still narrowed as all this happened, and once he saw the iing boulder, he raised his sword and pointed it forward again.
This time, the sword was already engulfed by his golden mystic energy.
Rex briefly closed his eyes, and when they opened a nanosecondter, they glowed golden as he finally spoke for the first time since the battle started.
"Sword Skill: Drilling Stab!"
Whoosh!
Rex finally moved as he thrust his sword forward.
BOOM!
When sword and boulder finally came into contact, it was like earth and mercury collided against each other as a sound like those of exploding dominoes reverberated.
The sword didn''t shatter as most spectators expected, instead it was the boulder that exploded as a mighty sword energy with an extremely sharp attribute cut through it like a hot knife cutting through butter.
With the boulder shattering, debris and shrapnel flew everywhere.
A pretty shocked Jones quickly recovered and rushed into the flying debris to take advantage of the time when his opponent''s vision was blinded.
What he didn''t know was that doing this was useless, this was because Rex already entered his domain!
Rex''s mystic energy presence exploded the next moment!
Boom!
Chapter 28 Rex Vector Vs Magma Jones! [2]
Magma Jones was a student that was extremely proficient with the earth mystic ability and was a natural practitioner of the taijutsu fighting technique.
This was the reason why despite being shocked by his opponent''s ability to shatter his boulder with one sword strike, he was able to react fast enough to activate his feet vision skill.
The feet vision skill was an earth ability skill that through channeling mystic energy down into the legs, could enable earth ability wielders to be able to see through the earth with their feet.
The earth fraction rtive to the concrete and metal used to make the battle arena was small, but this was enough for Jones to make his move.
Ignoring the flying debris everywhere that obscured vision, he was able to easily locate his opponent through the earth underneath his feet as he exploded forth with speed the next moment towards Rex.
As a taijutsu practitioner, Jones believed that in close quartersbat, he would have the advantage despite the sharp sword of his opponent.
This was the reason why he strived to close the distance as fast as possible.
Rex did not leave his previous location; it was like he was waiting for his opponent toe or the previous attack probably left him too paralyzed to move.
With these thoughts shing through his mind, Jones became emboldened as he rapidly channeled his mystic energy, creating earthen boxing gloves to cover his hands to serve as his default weapons.
With these, he dashed towards his opponent''s location, arriving before Rex in less than a second as his fists rapidly punched towards Rex''s head.
ng! ng! ng!
The sounds of collision easily revealed that Rex was not petrified.
The debris obscured his vision, yes, but not his mind. ording to Master Fixten, swordsmen are emotional mystic warriors who dedicate their whole life to learning and understanding the ways of the sword.
In this lifetime dedication, through a mixture of luck and talent, swordsmen have a certain chance ofpletely unlocking their sword domain.
Once the sword domain was fully unlocked, swordsmen could finally get the full status of a mystic swordsman. The sword domain at its peak could enable a swordsman to have an omniscient view and awareness of his surroundings.
As an extremely talented sword student, Rex already had initial sess at unlocking his sword domain. But at this moment, as his desire to win aligned so much with that of his living sword, Rex discovered that he achieved more.
For the first time in his life as a swordsman, he achieved more with his sword. He felt for the first time that he was not alone, his sword was now his eyes.
Rex closed his eyes, relishing in the feeling as he could now see the wind blowing against his face. He could see the small particles forming the debris, he could track the wind direction, and his senses heightened to an unbelievable level.
Rex at this moment achieved a superhuman state. This was the reason why immediately after Jones entered his sword domain, he discovered him.
His sword domain may only extend to about a meter around him now, but this was already tyrannical enough to give him the edge in this battle.
He perfectly countered his opponent''s fist attacks.
ng! ng! ng!
Still in his sword stance, once Rex countered the 3 sharp punches from his opponent with his sword, he inclined his sword slightly as he retaliated.
Though at this moment Jones had his feet vision skill active, he was still limited due to the little percentage of earth forming the battle arena. At this moment, Rex firmly had the visual advantage.
Despite this, Jones was able to react on time to dodge as the sharp sword swiftly stabbed towards the left side of his face.
Jones shifted his head to the side slightly, barely dodging the first stab. He had to move his head again as a 2nd and 3rd sword stab quickly followed, this trend already showed that he lost the initiative.
While he was already feeling indignant at losing the advantage, his opponent''s next move revealed to him that he was feeling toocent.
Whoosh!
In the brief moment when he felt indignant, Rex changed from rapid stabs towards the left side of his face to a swift sh sideways to his opponent''s right.
Rex ducked but still reacted a fraction of a secondte as the sharp sword cut his right cheek open as blood finally flowed in this battle.
Once blood flowed, Jones'' concentration was affected slightly. Rex ruthlessly took advantage of this small window of opportunity as he shifted his left leg forward slightly with his eyes glowing golden once again.
Once Jones saw the golden light shining from the debris, he knew that he had just f*cked up but he tried to react and remedy it fast.
"Sword Skill: Boomerang sh!"
Berserker danced to Rex''s tune, swinging in the direction that his master''s hands moved as the sword ruthlessly aimed for Jones'' neck with a mighty sword energy shing forward with the sword.
Jones was not fast enough to react with his taijutsu technique, but he was fast enough to channel his mystic energy as earthen armor gathered at his neck.
ng!
The sword paired with the sword energy shattered the earthen armor, inflicting injury on Jones'' neck as he bled but this small hindrance enabled him to retreat rapidly.
Rex was not having it, he was already in his domain and he was not willing to extend the battle any further, he was only willing to end it now.
Rex took a step forward after his opponent as he went in pursuit.
Whoosh!
He attacked, while Jones defended and retreated till the both of them finally left the debris zone, revealing themselves to the spectators once again.
The spectators were dumbfounded by the sight. They never expected the sword maniac to be the one pursuing the Earth Monster backward.
Both students didn''t care about their opinion though as they gave their all to fight. Jones tried to turn the situation around, but the current version of Rex was too horrifying an opponent for him to face.
Rex no longer channeled his mystic energy again, but his basic swordsmanship was up to the task as he constantly beat his opponent to a retreat.
At this point, it was already evident that his sword was a mystic weapon as, despite Jones already covering his whole body with earthen armor, the sword still proved a terrible threat to his life.
2 minutester, Jones grew tired of defending as the frustration drove him into engaging in a reckless offensive.
Bam! Bam!
Rex stopped abruptly once his opponent attacked, then he deflected the 2 punches, swatting them aside while at the same time retaliating as his sword stabbed straight at Jones'' heart.
This time, Jones was out of tricks.
The sword dug a few inches into his flesh after cutting through his earthen armor, causing blood to flow before one of the masters of the academy finally intervened to rescue the student.
A strange silence befell the spectators in the stands.
Even thementator was left speechless for a while. "Well, what do we have here, an upset like some of us spected?"
"Against all odds, the sword maniac, Rex Vector is our winner today!"
Chapter 29 Dark Horses; The Euphoria Of Victory
Rex''s victory came as a shock to a lot of spectators, even thementator himself. Clearly, he was already among the dark horses that were emerging during this graduation tournament.
For a long time, this sword genius was seen as a mystic energy imbecile that the thought of him defeating a powerful opponent like Jones of the mighty Magma family never crossed their minds.
Even though news came that he finally managed to awaken mystic energy, the rumors said that he only awakened it less than a week ago.
How can someone who just awakened mystic energy less than a week ago be so proficient at controlling it?
Rex''s performance in the previous battle may not seem like much, but those who really understood mystic energy and how difficult it was to tame this mischievous energy knew that what they just saw was definitely not normal.
Rex''s calmness in the face of his statistically superior opponent was chilling to watch, the way he fought like he had the whole situation in his grasp from the beginning to the end sent chills down the spine of every student who watched him.
Also, the sword that Rex used, which mystic sword was that?
The students who were spectating the battles to discover their future opponents were not blind. Rex''s performance with his sword already revealed to them that his sword was a mystic weapon.
The only baffling fact was how did this miser get a mystic weapon?
In the Obedin Mystic Academy, Rex Vector was well-known even if it was mostly for a bad reason. Being the only student not of the privileged ss who seeded in bing the best student of a battle department was no easy feat.
Besides, the fact that he was the object of bullying for most students was not hidden and was the main reason why a lot of students knew him.
Knowing him meant that most students also knew his financial situation. Rex Vector was a poor orphan who lost his parents at the age of 5, left with nothing to inherit but his ancestral home.
Due to his talent, he got a schrship into the Obedin Mystic Academy but being a part of the nonprivileged ss, he was discriminated which led to a growing sense of inferiorityplex in him over time.
The only thing that gave him confidence was holding a sword, but this never cut the mark as he was among the students who never awakened mystic energy which was something that directly quenched all his achievements with his sword.
At least, this was what other students knew of Rex Vector for the 5 years that they spent in the academy. But now, this perception was changing.
Winning one battle was not supposed to have such an effect, but the fact that Rex won this battle against Magma Jones carried a lot more weight.
Rex''s disy was so dominating that a lot of students were intimidated.
Throughout the battle, he made very little use of his mystic energy, mostly making use of his impable grasp of basic swordsmanship and sword skills to overwhelm his opponent.
The most horrifying part was that despite having a mystic sword, a powerful opponent like Jones was not able to force Rex to use his mystic sword''s mystic effect. This meant that he didn''t even go all out in this victory.
The students who already qualified could feel the pressure increasing, another dark horse who could be a tournament favorite already emerged, again.
Originally, most students never saw Rex as an opponent to be wary of, but after this disy, they would be a fool to still look at him in the same light.
Rex Vector''s victory was surprising, but the spectators were still stoked. As much as they loved to see tournament favorites crushing their opponents, they even loved seeing dark horses crushing tournament favorites more.
Rex''s victory set the mood in the spectator stands at a high as after allowing them to digest the previous victory, thementator finally announced the next students toe to the battle arena.
"Well, the previous battle just showed us that nothing is set in stone".
"In the graduation tournament, anything can happen, even the favorite to win first ce can falter to an unexpected dark horse like we just saw".
"We''ll not be dwelling on the previous battle since we have a ton of more exciting battles ahead".
"Give it up as we wee Timber Crook and Ondo Rim to the arena!"
While the spectators exploded in cheers, probably already forgetting the previous battle, Rex was escorted to the academy hospital by a group of medical personnel who kept on asking him questions about his present condition.
In the previous battle, Rex''s performance could only be described as impable since he never received any significant injury from his opponent.
Despite this, he still suffered a few internal injuries. As a taijutsu user, Jones was a professional at targeting his opponent''s body weak points as one of the professional courses in this department was studying the human anatomy.
Because of this, though he was unable to injure Rex, all of his few punches that connected dealt a significant number of internal injuries to him.
After getting to the hospital, Rex had a full medical checkup where it was confirmed that he only suffered a bit of internal bleeding that could easily heal with a few medications.
He received some medications from the nurse before he was discharged.
On going outside, Rex was surprised to see Magma Jones. Despite being severely more injured than he was, Jones was able to beg the nurse attending to him to allow him toe for this brief visit.
"Congrattions on your victory, Rex".
"That was a really nice battle, you surprised me". Jonesplimented as he extended his right hand for a handshake.
Rex was pretty shocked, feeling that the current situation was ridiculous but he still took the handshake. "You too, I won only due to a bit of luck on my part".
"No need to console me, you really did good". Jones smiled. "I finally understand why you are the best student in the sword department".
"Thanks". Rex was ttered, suddenly unsure how to reply.
"If you can fight consistently the same way that you fought against me, I believe that you''ll probably be one of the finalists of the tournament".
Rex just smiled in reply, still finding the situation ridiculous.
"I''m rooting for you, don''t dare lose since you already won against me".
Hearing that sensitive word said in such a jovial manner, Rex''s ears perked up as he chuckled before replying seriously. "I won''t!"
"Good". Jones smiled before waving goodbye. "Then, Goodluck".
2 good solid minutes after Jones left, Rex was rooted to the spot as he still found the situation absurd. "Jones, a privileged, congratted me?!"
"¡Damn!"
All of a sudden, his motivation to perform in the tournament skyrocketed.
All his life at the academy, except when with his 2 friends and other nonprivileged students, he always behaved like he didn''t give a damn about the privileged students. This was all an illusion though.
Though he never wanted to admit it, he always envied the lives of the privileged students, getting toze in their ivory towers, worrying about nothing while their parents provided everything that they needed.
He had always wanted this lifestyle but unfortunately, fate screwed him over, and he had to work hard to make sure that he didn''t starve for a meal every day.
Suddenly seeing one of these students that he always envieding to congratte him left Rex feeling so ttered that he was lost for words to say.
"Victory¡, feels so good".
Rex left the hospital to go spectate the other battles for the day alongside Cassandra, he especially anticipated a particr battle.
Chapter 30 The Contest Of The 2 Tournament Favorites!
"Nice battle Rex, you were so badass with your victory!"
Cassandra rarely made such direct and overblownpliments to her friends, most especially Rex, but this time, once he returned, she did not hold back as she showered him withpliments.
This time, he really deserved it.
In the end, Rex was left blushing furiously while trying hard to no avail to hide it from his friend. Cassandra chuckled at his antics.
For the first time in his life, apart from when he bagged his final year as the best student in the sword department, Rex was experiencing the euphoria of victory again apart from his virtual duels with his friends.
On returning to the spectator stands, he felt the change in the way that other spectators and students looked at him.
The looks directed at him now carried respect.
From experience, he knew that this shouldn''t get to his head but he still couldn''t help but feel a little proud of his achievement. He wanted to enter the limelight, and he sessfully fulfilled it.
After sitting down beside Cassandra, he looked at the time.
[4:18 pm.]
"It''s only 2 minutes till they are both invited to the arena".
"Yes". Cassandra answered.
If one looked more thoroughly, it could be easily seen that the spectator stands that were only about 30% filled up with spectators were now suddenly filled with more than 50% spectators all for the next battle that was about to start.
This sudden surge in attendance was not coincidental, this was all because after so long, the first real superpower battle was about to be fought.
All the battles of the previous day and today were mostly unknown students getting to fight against each other and one luckily winning, or a tournament favorite trashing his opponent, or a dark horse emerging.
All these battle settings were exciting, but none of them was quite as exciting as that between 2 tournament favorites.
For the first time since the tournament started, 2 tournament favorites were about to go head-to-head in the first phase of the tournament.
What increased the hype of this battle all the more to spectators like Rex was the fact that these 2 were not just tournament favorites, but they were 2 of the only 3 nonprivileged students that were seen as tournament favorites.
The both of them going head-to-head in the first phase was kind of sad, but this almost always happened in every graduation tournament.
This was mostly to please the spectators who came to watch the tournament, and the effects on the losing student were not much either.
The graduation tournament was the defining moment of students'' mystic careers. Through the tournament, they had the chance of either emerging as a Dragon or fading into obscurity like dust.
Attaining first ce in the tournament was important, but the tournament was notpletely fixated on achieving first ce.
The graduation tournament was organized to present the best battle products of the Obedin Mystic Academy to the rest of the world.
Even if a student lost in his first battle, depending on his/her performance and the caliber of opponent that he faced, he could be scored far more than a student that got to the semifinals through a series of lucky fixtures.
This was why the battle between these 2 tournament favorites was not sad in the slightest but was filled with a lot of excitement and hype.
If the Wind Fairy Morgana''s battle was the highlight battle of the first day''s battles, this was definitely the highlight battle of the first phase of the graduation tournament.
The already excitedmentator did not disappoint the spectators.
"What an hour this is going to be!"
"After watching numerous students going against each other, crushing their opponents with impunity, revealing different mystic abilities, we are finally about to have a real eye feast of a mystic battle".
"The battle that is about to unfold will definitely show us the capabilities of students that are produced by this prestigious Mystic Academy".
"Get your popcorns, get your soft drinks, and tighten your seat belts because we are about to witness the first ssic of this graduation tournament".
Thementator smirked. "If you''re feeling pressed, relieve yourself now, thank meter".
"Now, give it up as we wee 2 students that we see as champions already toe to the battle arena to disy their abilities before us".
"Give it up as we wee Rnd Cross and Reginald Damien to the arena!"
BOOM!
This time, the spectator stands literally exploded with noise as the spectators cheered at the top of their voices. Spectators could be seen jumping excitedly everywhere, yelling the name of their favorite of the 2 students.
This was the energy of the graduation tournament.
ng!
A few secondster, the 2 elevators finally touched down on the battle arena as the 2 stern-faced students finally stepped into the arena.
They both had red hair with fiery brown eyes that seemed to burn like fire.
On the left was Rnd Cross, a red-haired surprisingly delicate-faced youth with a ferocious aura that severely contrasted his handsome face.
His opponent who was on the right of the arena, Reginald Damien also had a head full of short red hair. Unlike his opponent, he was even more ferocious which his stony and extremely serious faceplimented perfectly.
Both of them were pr opposites in appearance apart from their hair and eye color. Rnd Cross looked like a clueless kid who found himself in the wrong ce at the wrong time, while Reginald looked like an old monster who reincarnated into the body of a youth.
While Rnd Cross''s temperament screamed a handsome and carefree youth, Reginald Damien''s temperament screamed a ferocious old-school vibe filled with extreme seriousness.
Unlike most of the previous opponents who fought, thementator did not stop as he delved into exining the peculiarities of both students.
"Both fighters this time are students of the fire ability department".
"Rnd Cross nicknamed the Iron Qi Lord does not only have the fire mystic ability but is a student of the special taijutsu department that focuses on the practice of the ancient Iron Shirt and Vibrating Palm martial techniques".
"Reginald Damien, nicknamed the Fire Overlord is the 2nd best student of the fire ability department. Unlike most students, he focuses on only one department, devoting his whole life to the fire ability department".
"Both opponents are tournament favorites, and would definitely be a joy to watch. Keep your eyes peeled to not miss any of the exciting moments".
Gong!
The bell to start the battle finally rang.
Both opponents took a second to observe each other, then the next second, they made their moves.
Rnd Cross nted his 2 feet on the arena ground and took a deep breath before pushing his hands outwards while lowering his center of gravity as he entered his battle stance.
As for his opponent, the tyrannical Fire Overlord acted exactly in line with his personality as everyone expected as he started sprinting towards his opponent immediately.
His brown ears started burning with fire the next moment.
"Movement Technique: Leaping Tiger Steps!"
"Fire Skill: Fiery Lungs!"
Reginald breathed out roughly as fire puffed out of his nose, his speed increased exponentially the next moment as he charged towards his opponent.
Boom!
Chapter 31 Fierce Battle- The Iron Qi Lord Vs The Fire Overlord!
"Movement Technique: Leaping Tiger Steps!"
"Fire Skill: Fiery Lungs!"
When Reginald made the first move, it was like he was possessed by a beast as he exploded with speed towards his opponent the next moment.
Every breath of his left fire puffing out of his nose. The smoke even seemed to being out of his ears as he seemed to have turned into a speed demon, rapidly eating yards of space as he charged in the direction of his opponent.
Not only that, as he moved forward rapidly with his movement technique, a fiery aura covered his body which soon formed the phantom of a mighty White Tiger with mes dancing around its body.
He sprinted for 5 seconds before he started attacking.
"Fire Skill: Breath of the Western Dragon!"
Reginald mid-sprint raised his hands, rapidly drawing 2 vertical parallel lines with them before forming a funnel shape with them across his mouth. This was the stance that he mastered to better channel his mystic energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Not even a second after he made these gestures, he opened his mouth and breathed out as 3 massive fire breaths followed.
The temperature rapidly increased, the battle arena turning orangish-red as the 3 massive fire breaths rapidly moved towards Rnd who was still rooted to one ce in his battle stance.
p Rnd''s eyes slowly turned as the massive fire breaths appeared, and in a few nanoseconds, the fire was now burning in his eyes like his opponent.
"Fire Skill: Disintegration Palm!"
Rnd took his first step forward as he put his left hand behind his back, while he pushed his right palm forward towards the first fire breath.
Bam!
Once his palm touched the massive fire breath, a reaction of chemicals seemed to have been inducted as a sizzling sound filled the atmosphere.
The next moment, the massive fire breath disintegrated, but 2 others wereing. Rnd took 2 steps forward, bringing his left hand this time also as he formed ws with his hands before wing at the fireballs.
Rnd literally wed the raging fire breaths apart, also disintegrating them.
The effect of such a direct disy of might was that the high-temperature power burned his hands, but as a wielder of a fire mystic ability also, he was able to put off the fire. The only problem was that Reginald was not idle.
Having a deep understanding of his opponent, Reginald knew that fire breaths would not do it, that was just his probing attack.
"Advanced Fire Skill: Spilling Volcano!"
"Fire Skill: Raining Fire Storms!"
"Fire Skill: Fire Kicks of Destruction!"
"Advanced Fire Skill: Fire Seed!"
Reginald activated 4 energy-intensive skills at the same time. This was his battle style, overwhelming his opponents with tyrannical fire, eradicating them before they could even retaliate against him.
The first skill caused the arena floor to burst open as flowing magma came out of the arena, this was an advanced fire skill and was rightfully powerful.
This magma seemed to possess a will of their own as under the maniption of mystic energy, they all rose and flew at Rnd.
The second skill induced a fire rain from the sky that descended, bombarding the arena with impunity. The fire covered everywhere in just a few seconds.
As for the 3rd skill, as Reginald kicked his way forward, fire apanied every one of his kicks that precisely went after Rnd.
As for thest skill, Reginaldpressed a fireball that surpassed a few thousand degrees centigrade before throwing it at the sky.
This fireball exploded, spreading fire everywhere and increasing the fire presence in the arena to a horrifying level.
If a non-fire ability basic warrior entered the battle arena now, he would suffer terrible life-threatening burns while a normal human could literally be cooked from the horrifying heat now in the arena.
Even another fire ability mystic student was not guaranteed to survive this, Rnd and Reginald were that horrifying.
This heat benefited both sides, but as the better fire user, Reginald saw this as an advantage and was the reason why he activated the skill without hesitation.
All this expended a lot of mystic energy, but this was his battle style. His sole mystic treasure, the ring on his right index finger''s only mystic effect was to increase his mystic energy by 50%, this facilitated his battle style.
In just a few seconds, the battle arena already turned into a mini hell.
Being in the center of all this, Rnd was already suffering damage but he was not idle. Unlike his opponent, he was not an outward fire mystic warrior, his fire mystic ability was more like a support for his main battle focus.
His Iron Shirt martial arts were already trained to a level that his defense was at a reasonably horrifying level. His fire buffed this defense further, making his bones as tough as steel and enabling him to take a lot more damage with his skin.
While his Iron Shirt martial arts provided his ultimate defense, his Vibrating Palm martial art was the real deal, being his offensive force.
He was known as the Iron Qi Lord; this was because of his ability to channel his mystic energy to form an equivalent of ancient qi in his attacks that could deal a horrifying amount of vibrational damage to opponents.
He was a taijutsu student, he excelled more in closebat which was why he finally exploded with speed towards his opponent amid the burning fire.
His Disintegration Palm skill was still active, and this was what he relied on.
Whoosh!
Rnd dove into the burning hell. His hands moved like lightning, mming hard against the fireballs flying towards him, disintegrating most of them with his skill while tanking the rest of them with his skin.
His skin was already burning, and the damage was already stacking, but he ignored all the scorching pain, his eyes were only focused on his opponent as the distance between them closed rapidly.
A few secondster, Reginald finally decided to retreat, but Ronald anticipated it as his eyes glowed in a fierier manner the next moment.
"Movement Technique: Draconic Dance!"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Rnd finally activated his famed movement technique, and like a drunken mystic warrior, he weaved his way through the burning hellfire, evading fireballs rapidly like a ghost as he closed the distance to his opponent.
Reginald saw this, he knew his opponent would surely use this movement technique but he was still unable to counter it as Rnd finally closed the distance.
"Taijutsu Skill: Shadowless Kick!"
"Taijutsu Skill: Vibrating Palm!"
Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!
Finally getting close enough without being eliminated, Rnd finally passed his strongest hurdle that prevented him from clinching victory, now he was in his domain as heunched toward his opponent.
With fire covering his legs, he kicked rapidly towards Reginald.
"Fire Skill: Fiery Barrier!"
Rnd directly kicked the fire barrier to nothingness. He suffered damage, and his legs were scorched and bleeding, but he achieved his goal.
Once hended, his palms finally started doing their work, wreaking corporate havoc, this was the apt way to describe his offensive martial technique.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Aware of how lethal his opponent was at close range; Reginald threw all caution to the wind as he spammed fire skills at his current location.
Fire soon engulfed him, including his opponent but Rnd did not care. With his Iron Shirt martial technique doing its job, he focused on striking the lethal hit.
Reginald could only dodge so many times, he was finally hit.
Ptui!
The 1st hit immediately heralded the 2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Reginald attacked without restraint, spreading fire everywhere, burning both his opponent and himself, while Rnd gritted his teeth through all the fire burns, adamant aboutnding his palm strikes on his opponent''s body.
The palm strike hits increased, and both opponents became bloodier with time. Even with their fire affinity, being in such a hot temperature was damaging.
Tension ran high, emotions were stretched taut as the spectators watched silently, guessing who would emerge victoriously.
Rnd''s face was already ckened, having been slowly burned beyond recognition but he held on, remaining focused on releasing more palm strikes.
In the end, after 10 whole minutes of going at it, Reginald sumbed first.
"Ugh!" He coughed blood as his face turned pale amid the burning fire.
The Vibrating Palm martial technique was infamous for the internal damages that it induced in every opponent that faced it.
Having suffered so many hits, Reginald''s internal body regtion was messed up already, most of his bones and organs were already discing from where they should be, and this all culminated in his current situation.
On seeing his opponent''s state, a Rnd who was already at his wit''s end became emboldened as he felt adrenaline rushing through his body, he ruthlessly went for the finishing blow.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rnd''s lethal uracy was put on full disy here. One of his palm strikes hit the side of his opponent''s neck, causing Reginald''s eyes to roll backward.
The next strike hit the pressure point in Reginald''s abdomen, causing him to jerk like a drunkard who just choked on his beer while thest palm strike precisely hit the point of his chest where his heart was.
Instantly, Reginald went into cardiac arrest!
The hidden Masters watching the tournament finally intervened.
A powerful intermediate mystic warrior master of the academy arrived, instantly extinguishing all the fire with a few skillful maniptions as he dove down and grabbed Reginald before quickly flying straight to the academy hospital.
A dreadful silence descended upon the arena and the spectator stands.
Rnd Cross knew that it was over, but he could no longer concentrate as all the aftereffects of suffering so much fire damage finally came with full force.
"I won". This was all he could mutter before he fainted.
Chapter 32 Turans First Battle, End Of The Tournaments First Phase!
And the winner of thest battle was Rnd Cross, this was unexpected to a lot of the spectators who were already engrossed in the battle.
Throughout the battle, Reginald seemed to always be in control of the situation. His fire skills covered the whole battle arena, setting everywhere aze while he dealt constant damage to Rnd, but in the end, his opponent won.
Only the real mystic warriors who could understand the more basic details in this sh of basic warrior powerhouses actually knew that Reginald indeed held the advantage in the just-concluded battle.
What Rnd had over his opponent was endurance.
The previous battle was the peak of epic shes in the first phase of the graduation tournament, and only the real experts understood it.
Rnd and Reginald were both fire mystic warriors, but Reginald was the stronger one by arge margin. His control over his mystic energy and fire mystic ability was so powerful that he was a horrifying natural disaster to face.
In the previous battle, he was the more aggressive one which was in line with his battle style while Rnd was the more reserved one due to his advantages.
Reginald may have the power advantage, but Rnd had his advantages. To him, the fire was just the supplement, his real power came from his mastery over the Iron Shirt and Shattering Palm martial techniques.
With his fire mystic ability, he was more tolerant of fire damage which was another reason that fueled his endurance in the previous battle.
If Reginald fought against another student with a different mystic ability, without a doubt, his chances of winning would have been much higher.
The ability to keep himself in the arena long enough with the Iron Shirt martial technique and the ability to ruthlessly take advantage of openings to end the battle with his Shattering Palm were the reasons for Rnd''s victory.
Without a doubt, this battle was an extremely exciting one.
Rnd won the battle, but both students won the war.
Thementator keptmentating on the just-concluded battle as the tournament stopped for a short break.
"As we just saw, both Rnd Cross and Reginald Damien could have won if they were against another opponent which just goes to show their strength".
"Reginald is a brute man, while Rnd is a man of finesse".
"Without a doubt, both students have managed to impress. They probably already booked a spot for themselves in the recruiting mystic organizations".
"In my opinion, though Rnd won, Reginald''s ability makes him more appealing to mystic organizations. His ability is priceless in any security organization, and gives him an advantage in certain dangerous terrains".
"In desert or forest terrains, he can easily light everywhere up with raging fire with a bit of concentration. This is even more certain since mystic fire is renowned for its effectiveness against mystic beasts".
"His ability''s utility goes beyond this, and is also useful against terrible security challenges like the marauding tribes and other human dangers".
"In essence, Rnd Cross and Reginald Damien are both outstanding talents that have been bred by the reliable Obedin Mystic Academy".
"Break time''s over, and now we continue with the tournament".
"The next battle will be featuring Joel Dame and¡"
As the tournament continued, and more students came out to fight for a ce in the next phase of the graduation tournament, Cassandra and Rex left the spectator stands onest time, returning to meet their friend again.
Their departure did not affect the ongoing tournament.
Ambitious students repeatedly came into the battle arena, with an equal amount of them being eliminated while the rest qualified.
Those that were eliminated could onlyment sorrowfully while those that qualified rejoiced. After Rnd and Reginald''s battle, the hype decreased a bit as a lot of spectators left the spectating stands.
The next battle that managed to make the spectators excited once again was when 2 students almostmitted suicide fighting against each other.
These 2 taijutsu students shed against each other likelike their lives depended on it. In the end, they beat themselves so much that they were both wheeled out of the arena with swollen faces and broken limbs.
The battle ended as a draw which prevented them from qualifying to the next phase of the tournament the normal way but was thrilling nheless.
After this battle, the rest battles for the day were just so-so until the day finally came to an end. That night was fast to a lot of people, it came and left like the wind as thest day of the 1st phase of the tournament finally came.
The 3rd day of the 1st phase of the graduation tournament proved to be the most exciting by far, featuring the remaining students against each other.
Throughout the whole day, mystic energy kept on colliding against each other in different manifestations as the students sought to impress.
All of them were determined to win, but only the truly powerful won and qualified for the next phase of the tournament.
The fact alone that today was thest day of the 1st phase of the tournament attracted more spectators. All the battles were thrilling like usual, but most of these spectators'' attendance was motivated by one particr battle.
After dozens of battles, the time for thest battle of the 1st phase of the graduation tournament finally came.
"Here we are, at thest battle of the 1st phase of the tournament".
"Prepare yourselves because after seeing so many students fighting between themselves in this tournament, trying to be the stars, the real star of the Obedin Mystic Academy is finally here".
"Give it up as we wee the best student of the Obedin Mystic Academy for the calendar year 508 A.M, the Lightning Rod, Turan Elliot!"
BOOM!!!
The spectators, both young and old seemed to turn into fanatic fanboys as they cheered, yelling ''Turan'' repeatedly at the top of their voices.
The cheers dwarfed the sound as thementator introduced Turan''s opponent, but for the books, his opponent was Arda Nak, an earth mystic warrior.
Once both opponents stood in the arena, the superior one became evident instantly. Before Turan, Arda was like a 12-year-old kid. This superiority was not in terms of height or masculinity but in terms of aura.
Compared to the extremely calm and dangerous Dragon-like aura that Turan exuded, his opponent''s aura was like that of a mouse.
Gong!
The bell to start the battle finally rang, and instantly, Arda Nak went into a defensive posture. Unlike other mainstream users of the earth mystic ability who despite earth''s sturdy affinity focused on offense, his specialty was defense.
"Earth Skill: Earth-Dragon Mound!"
"Earth Skill: Endurance Reinforcement!"
"Earth Skill: Morphable Earth Spikes!"
While Arda started a meticulous defensive set-up, Turan was unfazed. With the cool unbothered face that he was already known for, Turan started walking toward his opponent like he was prey waiting to be pounced on.
The walk was casual with no hidden meaning, but Arda was already sweating bullets. As Turan got closer to him, the more flustered he became since he could no longer keep his cool anymore, then he attacked.
"Earth Skill: Earthen Spear!"
With a loud whoosh sound, an earthen spear materialized, quicklying to existence in a few seconds as it flew towards Turan with speed.
In just a few seconds, the earthen spear was already before him, this was when Turan finally looked straight at the rapidly approaching spear.
His muscles tensed, then his eyes briefly glowed white as he clenched his fist, concentrating mystic energy there to form a small ball of lightning as he threw a punch in the direction of the spear the next moment.
Apanying the punch was a lightning energy manifestation shaped in the form of a spear radiating unmatched power.
Boom!
The earthen spear stood no chance, it was obliterated with a lot of residual energy still left behind. Then, Turan pointed his right hand to the sky and clenched it.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Bolt!"
Turan activated an advanced lightning skill instantaneously, showcasing his terrifying mystic energy control as a mighty blueish white lightning bolt materialized in the air briefly before striking down with all its might intact.
BOOM!
Arda stood no chance, all his defense crumbled like paper. Before he could be fried to a crisp, a closely watching academy master intervened to save him.
Turan effortlessly won his first battle which surprised no one.
"Well, there''s no upset here, Turan Elliot is our winner like expected".
"Will our star continue his dominance in the next phase of the tournament or will a dark horse arise and topple his reign? Watch the next phase of this exciting tournament to know what happens".
The spectators left feeling satisfied, the 1st phase of the graduation tournament proved worth watching. To some of them, getting to watch Turan in action alone was enough.
Turan crushed his opponent with a mixture of outstanding mystic energy control, his terrifying mystic energy, and one overpowering advanced skill.
His performance befitted a favorite tipped to win first ce in the ongoing graduation tournament, the game was on to know the winner.
*****
[The first phase of the tournament finally ends; I hope you liked it. If you did, pleasement your thoughts in thement box.]
[NOTE: A.M used in the year description means ''AFTER MYSTIC AWAKENING''. The current year is year 508 After Mystic Awakening.]
Chapter 33 Start Of The Rampage Phase Of The Tournament!
With the end of the first phase of the graduation tournament, the students who participated experienced different emotional swings.
Those that qualified were rejoicing, either treating themselves to luxuries that they could not take on normal days or plunging themselves into an even more strict training regime to prepare for the next phase of the tournament.
Those that were disqualified had more varying reactions.
Most students who were disqualified simply sank into depression for a time, indulging themselves with their hobbies to quickly forget the pain.
It worked for most of them, the others who could not get over the pain could only endure it. Their careers as mystic warriors were already partly decided, all they could do now was wait and hope on luck.
Even though half of the students participating in the tournament were already weeded out, there were still about 90+ students remaining.
What this meant was that while some students indulged themselves in luxuries, more of them were involved in highly intensive training.
Activity in the school became more rigorous as the students trained for the next phase of the graduation tournament that would probably decide their future.
While most of the students engaged in intensive training to prepare themselves for the next phase, a group of 3 friends swaggered through the streets of Obedin City as they indulged themselves in the feeling of victory.
Of course, these 3 friends were Rex, Cassandra, and Ben.
Perhaps, if one of them didn''t qualify, they would all be feeling downcast but the fact that all 3 of them qualified through the first phase of the graduation tournament was a cause for celebration in their books.
ording to Ben, there was no value in life if you could not enjoy it. So, the 3 friends were now together, ready to enjoy life.
As the poor blokes that they were, they would not have been able to afford anything in Obedin City originally but their heroics in the Obedin City Beast Sanctum was still worth a lot, a mystic beast was not cheap.
The sale of the mystic beast pig still left their pockets fat despite so many days already passing. And it yed a great role in their tournament performances since they weren''tpelled to go engage in menial jobs to feed anymore.
Once all 3 friends agreed to go out, Ben, the outspoken one was the first to suggest a destination. Of course, he gave lewd suggestions like going to a nightclub.
After taking time to trash his friend with words about how lewd his choice was, Rex ended up suggesting going to a restaurant.
The Chicken Paradise was a famous restaurant that was renowned all over Delta State, legends say they have mystic beast chicken for VIP customers.
Of course, just the thought of tasting mystic beast chicken meat left Rex drooling but he knew where he stood, he could not afford a VIP subscription not to talk of the meat itself.
This was why he and his 2 friends went for the basic chicken serve.
"Yum!" "Yum!"
Rex crunched on the chicken meat with gusto, humming to the hit song of a famous artiste in the process as his head bobbed up and down enjoyably.
Of Ben''s diverse personalities and hobbies, food ranked at the very top alongside girls. This was the reason why even as a mystic warrior with wind mystic ability, he was a chubby youth with lots of fat on his body.
Ben didn''t care though, food made him float easier and run faster.
This was the reason why as Rex crunched on the chicken meat, while Cassandra took asional bites from it like an Ind Princess, he simply wolfed the food down his throat with even more gusto than Rex.
Ham! Ham! Ham!
His teeth went down and down, biting and biting as the chicken soon disappeared. "Damn, I want more!"
"There''s no more!" Cassandra stressed through gritted teeth.
"Damn, I''m full, feels nice man". Rex puffed contentedly.
With the chicken devoured, though Ben still felt discontent, he swallowed it as he consoled himself by taking hold of the wine bottle. In his opinion, eating chicken meat as enjoying life was notplete without wine.
Pop!
Once Ben opened it, he poured it into the 3 ss cups, and without waiting for his friends, he raised the cup, downing its contents with even more gusto.
"Nice!" His eyes lit up.
They really splurged money this time which was something they seldom did. The wine was from thergest brewingpany in Obedin City, and its brand name was called the sweet diamond.
Ben could not agree more. "Feels spicier than all the diamonds in the world!"
"Lower your voice!" Cassandra hissed.
Ben nodded before his eyes lit up again the next moment as he remembered something ancient, the next moment, he opened his mouth wide and sang.
"Wine that shines bright like a diamond¡!"
"Feels spice like a diamond¡!"
"So sweet like a diamond in the sky¡!"
Cassandra could not take so much cringe again. "You¡!"
Pa!
"Ouch!"
Ben rubbed his arm, looking aggrieved at Cassandra who suddenly seemed like a demon with red eyes, 2 horns, and hair blowing without wind behind her.
"Drink in peace, got it?" Cassandra lowered her voice, suddenly feeling guilty about hitting her friend in such a public ce.
"Ok".
Ben sniffed, Cassandra was the only girl he could never subdue, he felt sad.
When the atmosphere finally turned normal again with most of the other customers already minding their business, Rex who had his head buried in his te, ashamed of their public conduct finally raised his head before shing a smile at his 2 friends.
"H-hi!" He stammered and waved on noticing Cassandra''s re.
"Hi" She replied back.
"Hi". Ben added though he didn''t get what just happened. "So, what do you guys think, let''s spice the atmosphere and trash talk our ssmates?"
Cassandra was about totch out at Ben again for talking so much, but she paused as the impact of what he said settled in.
She grinned. "Well, I won''t object if you say we should do it".
"I''m in". Rex raised his hands.
Ben grinned even wider. "So, who should we start with? Goblin-nosed Jane, Spade-lipped Ann, Needle forehead Rhode, Perfume freak Jessica, or Ugly ice princess Antonia?"
At this moment, hearing Ben call all these names, Cassandra and Rex already forgot that they were in a public restaurant, and they both grinned. "Let''s start with Spade-lipped Ann".
"Good!" Ben bumped a fist in the air. "Space-lipped Ann huh? So where do we start? Perhaps, I should start at analyzing her lip shape first".
"I think her lips are actually hot, she¡"
With Ben leading the conversation, it never became boring.
For over an hour, the trio of friends remained in the restaurant, basking in all the luxuries that the restaurant had to offer as they took turns trash-talking their ssmates with different personalities till they got tired.
On getting home that day, Rex and his friends slept for 5 hours straight. When they woke up, they were fresh, and they finally started training.
They were determined to extend their winning run further.
¡
After a whole day of rest,te that same day, the groups for the 2nd phase of the graduation tournament were finally released by the academy.
- ck Group
- White Group
- Red Group
- Green Group
Once the breakdown of the students that made the 4 groups was essed, Rex and his friends felt their hearts torn apart.
Rex and Cassandra made it into the ck Group, while Ben, unfortunately, fell all the way to the Green Group. The friends felt devastated until they read the rules of the tournament that was written below it.
[ck Group vs Green Group.]
[Time: 9:00am.]
[Tournament Rules: Master Denstein''s tournament format.]
¡
[White Group vs Red Group.]
[Time: 3:00am.]
[Tournament Rules: Master Denstein''s tournament format.]
Master Denstein, a powerful mystic warrior who is rumored to currently be at the highest realm of the mystic warrior rank created this format for battle tournaments that involved such arge number of participants.
It was a group battle, but individual exceptionalism yed a great role in the overall scores. Qualification would not be determined by just winning this time, it would be determined by the cumtive points gotten by each student.
Eliminating a student from the opposing team for the first time gave 10 points, and each subsequent student elimination gives 5 points.
Surviving a 2 vs 1 encounter gives 2 points, surviving an encounter against more opposing students gives 10 points. Surviving an ambush gives 3 points.
Surviving a 2 vs 1 encounter, standing your ground, retaliating, and eliminating both opponents gives 30 points.
Surviving a 2 vs 1 encounter, standing your ground, retaliating, and eliminating only one of the opposing students also gives 30 points.
Surviving a 3 vs 1 or higher encounter, standing your ground, retaliating, and eliminating any of the opponents gives 50 points.
Other small parameters like how strong the opponent you fought was also gave points, but the points given for these were so small, in decimals.
A rule written in red was that students were allowed to attack other students from the same group as him/her.
The 2nd rule written in red was focused on the losing group. Every student in the group who lost overall would have 20 points deducted from their overall points.
These were the rules of the 2nd phase of the graduation tournament.
Unlike the 1st phase of the graduation tournament, following tradition, once the rules were exined, the Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy gave the 2nd phase of the tournament a name.
Early morning the next day, the principal addressed the city.
"Today, the Rampage phase of the graduation tournament begins!"
Chapter 34 The Hillbily Forest
The Rampage phase of the graduation tournament finally started, and all of Obedin City was stoked for one of the most exciting parts of the tournament.
Of the 96 students that qualified from the first phase of the tournament, only 8 students would get to qualify this time which increased thepetition.
To some spectators who had been following the graduation tournaments yearly, the 2nd phase of the tournament was the most exciting.
Unlike the first phase where the 200 students were separated to face each other in 1 on 1 elimination battles, the format of the second phase pitted all 96 survivors in 2 differentrge-scale battle royals.
While the first phase was all about individual shows, the 2nd phase of the tournament focused more on rampage, it was like a war between 2 armies which at this moment were the 2 groups instead of a champion against a champion.
With the technological prowess of this era, a battle arena big enough to amodate thousands of mystic warriors could be built but Obedin City didn''t have the financial prowess to build something of this scale.
The second phase of the graduation tournament would be conducted outside the Obedin Mystic Academy. The location was the Hillbilly Forest located in the southern part of Obedin City.
This forest was renowned in Obedin City as a controlled ground wheremoners without mystic energy got to admire mystic beasts up close. It was like a game reserve, and the government had full control of it.
The Hillbilly Forest already rued a good reputation for recording 0 casualties each year despite the number of tourists that visited it.
This wild but safe forest was the perfect battlefield for the students.
This was where the 2nd phase of the tournament would take ce.
The ck group that had Rex and Cassandra and the Green group that had Ben would be battling that morning by 9:00. By 6:00 am, Rex and his 2 friends arrived at the Obedin Mystic Academy.
The 48 students that would be taking part in the battle that morning arrived at approximately the same time that Rex and his friends arrived.
"See you in the forest".
Rex and Cassandra could only say this to their friend as they were separated. In this phase of the tournament, they were unfortunate not to be on the same team.
Once they were separated from Ben, Rex and Cassandra were escorted to a hall in the academy where about 10 other students were already gathered.
They waited only 5 minutes in which time the remaining students of the ck group came before their orientation finally entered the hall.
The Intermediate mystic master who entered the hall had blonde hair, dropping uninterested eyes, and a casual expression on his face. On entering, he did not waste time as he went directly to the point.
"In a few hours, you will fight the defining battle of your lives".
"My name is Minamito Cage, I''m your orientator about the more detailed rules that are relevant to you as a contestant in this tournament".
"The ck Group, your current group, let''s just say that it is a name, it doesn''t mean anything since only 2 of you will be qualifying from this group".
On hearing that, the atmosphere turned stifled but Mr. Minamito didn''t care as he had the same casual expression on his face.
"The group does not matter is not a ticket for you to act as fools out there, at least you and I have a dignity to uphold, you are all students of the Obedin Mystic Academy and you have to prove it out there".
"Here are the detailed rules of the 2nd phase of the tournament".
"Apart from how to get points that have already been exined by the principal, the main rule is to do anything that you can to get points and qualify".
"If you are fine with being real teammates, good, but beware of a backstab. In this tournament, we need only 2 qualifiers from this group, backstabbing your teammates is allowed and can be done".
On saying thest sentence, Mr. Minamito''s face finally turned serious. "The graduation tournament is not just a tournament".
"The same way that humanity was betrayed by some vicious humans, though we hope against it, mystic warriors should always be prepared for the possibility".
"This tournament also serves as a training for you".
"You''ll understand after the tournament ends".
"The second rule is that¡, there is no second rule". Mr. Minamito finally smiled. "All that is required from you is to qualify, do anything to achieve that".
"But remember something, no matter what happens, you all are warriors!"
"Now, before your faces turn as rigid as stone, you have a few hours, spend it wisely and grind your final preparations for the showdown".
"Good luck, warriors!"
Once Mr. Minamito left, the students fell into a deep silence as the words of the orientator sank into their heads.
On entering this hall before, due to their all-ck uniforms, they originally felt a sense of closeness to each other but now all that already turned intopetitiveness.
They became exposed to a cruel truth, they were all teammates in name, but in reality, they were allpetitors for the same goal.
They all stood up and left to finish their preparations.
Rex and Cassandra regrouped like expected, they prepared together using the resources avable in the school before they were finally called to leave.
A double-decked bus ferried the 24 students of the ck Group to the Hillbilly Forest. On getting to the entrance of therge forest, the bus stopped as all the students were led into a fortified government building.
Inside this building, Rex saw a teleportation portal for the first time in his life. He had heard of it before, he had seen pictures of it, but finally seeing the portal glowing with blueish white light left him fascinated.
For this phase of the tournament, the students were to be transported inside the Hillbilly Forest in random locations through teleportation.
Rex could only admire the portal from afar until it was his turn to leave. On getting close, he still couldn''t admire much as he was given instructions.
"Rx, try to keep your head straight when you enter".
"What¡"
With a nudge from the soldier, Rex entered the teleportation portal.
Bzzz!
Rex felt like he was floating in the skies without bnce, he felt like he was riding a horse without any stabilizing pads or ropes, and he felt like he was stuck in a washing machine, this first-time teleportation felt horrible.
Bzzz!
When he finally appeared out of the hazy world of white, his vision was dizzy as he could not stabilize himself, falling on his butt.
"Ouch, that hurts¡"
Rexined for a moment before he recovered his memories, he sprang up immediately the next moment as he unsheathed his sword from his scabbard.
After the exposure of Berserker, he no longer kept it inside his head when going outside, he always made sure to keep it inside his scabbard to avoid questions that he could not answer.
On standing up, Rex still felt dizzy but he forced himself to stay focused as he watched his surroundings alertly with his sword in his grasp.
"This is the Hillbilly Forest?!" As a high-tier tourist game reserve, Rex never really had the opportunity to visit here so of course he was awed by the sight.
At this moment, Rex saw himself in a world that was surrounded by greenery from all sides. The Hillbilly Forest looked extremely simr to the Obedin Beast Sanctum with all the tall rubber trees, palm trees, and bamboo trees.
The only difference was that whereas Obedin Beast Sanctum was aplete wild forest, Hillbilly Forest was a tamer version.
Rex observed all that he wanted in a few seconds, and on seeing no danger in sight, he finally rxed slightly.
Creak!
Only shortly had he rxed his guard did he hear the sound of a twig breaking, Rex paused as his grip on his sword tightened.
After silently counting to 3 in his mind without any further movement, he abruptly turned around in the direction of the sound while raising his head.
The intruder also finally emerged, he was a fellow contestant, a student on a ck-on-ckbat uniform like those of a boy''s scout.
"Hey, we''re in the same group". The boy yelled before Rex could attack.
On hearing that, and confirming through the color of thebat uniform, Rex heaved a sigh of relief as his rapidly beating heart calmed.
"Stop making so much noise while moving next time". Rex casually gave a tip as he turned around to leave. "Follow me, we need to scout the area first and understand it before attacking those from the other group".
"Ok, thanks, bro¡"
The blonde-haired kid spoke only halfway before his hands moved. Hidden in his left hand was a Kunai knife, once Rex turned his back, he started speaking and mid-sentence, he finallyunched his sneak attack.
Whoosh!
Rex felt his hair stand on end.
Chapter 35 Battle Against The Weapons Expert!
Whoosh!
The student''s timing was perfect, his aim was extremely urate, while his bluff seemed to have worked as heunched his sneak attack sessfully on his teammate, but was Rex really fooled?
Having seen Rex''s performance in the 1 on 1 elimination phase of the tournament, this student knew of his partially unlocked sword domain which was why he avoided the range that was visible to Rex through his sword domain.
In battle, knowing your opponent was already a step toward victory, this was what this student believed when he implemented his n.
This student ounted for everything, including the fact that Rex may suspect his motive but he still theorized that his attack would hit its mark.
What he never ounted for was Berserker, a living sword.
When Rex suddenly saw a student in the wild here, a teammate for that manner, he was ecstatic at first since his memories were still a bit scrambled from all the teleportation stuff.
It was when he turned around that he finally knew that something was wrong, and this was all due to remembering thest words of Mr. Minamito.
Instantly, he made his move.
Due to all the time that he had spent with his living sword, Rex was already discovering more abilities that Berserker had.
Apart from the sword world for training and Berserker''s basic mystic weapon effect, Berserker also had another ability that Rex discovered recently which he called the living eye.
Unlike most other swords on the current earth, Berserker was a living sword. This was not just a title; Berserker actually had some living characteristics.
One of the basic characteristics of a developed living organism was sight, Berserker could see through the des of the sword.
This was the reason why after Rex''s brain recovered enough to enable him to remember thest words of Mr. Minamito, he was rmed. He was rmed but he reacted immediately enough to not startle his fellow student.
He turned, leaving his back bare and unprotected against him while not sheathing his sword back in its scabbard. This way, Berserker became his eyes that he used to watch the student that imed to be hisrade.
Rex only had to look for a second to know the thoughts running through the student''s mind, the sinister look in his eyes could not be mistaken, this was why he was able to react fast enough to the ambush.
Whoosh!
Instantly after the Kunai knife was thrown, Rex reacted.
By sidestepping, he was able topletely dodge the impable throw of the knife since he already anticipated it.
This fast maneuver granted him the initiative, and he had no intentions of squandering it as he turned and went on the offensive.
There was still some distance between them, and Rex could not cover it instantly but he was not out of options, he had an alternative.
Rex shed forward with his sword while simultaneously channeling his mystic energy mid-sprint as a sword energy materialized around the sword.
The sword energy shot towards the student with speed.
Everything that happened from the throwing of the kunai knife was still counting in seconds, but this was enough time for the student to know that he f*cked up as he packed his load intending to escape.
On seeing the sword energy that was flying towards him though, he knew that his escape path was already cut off so he could only stand his ground.
He was not a coward who only knew how to sneak attack and run.
Timber Manak decided to ambush Rex to get the initiative, not because he was a coward, but because he was a rare Telekinesis ability user, Telekinesis was a mystic ability that fell into the category of the special mystic abilities.
Timber was not just a wielder of the rare Telekinesis ability, but he was also a student of the weapons specialist department.
The weapons specialist department of the Obedin Mystic Academy was one of the more peculiar departments, its students got the ability to use a myriad of weapons in battle through different means.
Timber used his numerous weapons in battle with his telekinesis ability.
Once Timber saw that his ambush failed, and he also discovered that escaping immediately was impossible, he changed his approach.
"Telekinesis Skill: Control Domain!"
"Telekinesis Skill: Weapon Barrage!"
Whoosh!
Immediately after Timber made his move, the atmosphere seemed to freeze as everything came under the control of his powerful mystic ability.
Keeping this skill active constantly drained mystic energy from him, but he could take it as he finally made his next move.
Unlike Rex who only came with his sword to the forest, he had 2 bags attached to his back, and in these 2 bags was his equipment.
Timber rolled on the bare forest ground to the side, barely dodging the sword energy that was released by Rex as he finally counterattacked.
He threw his 2 bags at his opponent and from the bag came a plethora of weapons. Kunai knives, Shurikens, a smoke bomb, and a pair of metallic discs with a sharp edge that could literally cut through anything.
Poof!
While the smoke bomb detonated, filling the atmosphere with smoke, Timber channeled his mystic energy more as he finally took control over all the flying weapons with his telekinesis ability.
At this moment, Rex was still sprinting towards him rapidly. This left Timber with only a little time frame to make his move and make it worth it.
Taking control over so many weapons with his ability was taxing, but once Timber finally did it, he entered his domain!
While retreating, he wreaked havoc with his numerous weapons.
ng! ng! ng!
Instantly, Rex who was already engulfed by the smoke was put in a tight corner as he had to parry all the attacks while being blind to the smoke.
Despite being held back slightly by the numerous attacks, Rex did not sustain a single injury and he still advanced with his sword tightly in his grasp as he shed, cut, and hacked rapidly in different directions.
On seeing this as the smoke finally started subsiding, Timber took onest step back before pulling his main weapon that was attached to his back out.
Timber''s main weapon was a Kusari-Gama, the ancient weapon wielded by ninjas. Having expected Rex to block all his attacks, all his maneuvers to this moment were in preparation for this, and now, he finally made his ultimate move.
Whoosh!
The scythe of the Kusari-Gama went straight for Rex''s head with speed.
The speed of the attack was too strong as Timber gave his all to amplify it with his telekinesis ability, Rex knew that he was not fast enough to dodge it, so he simply didn''t as he improvised on the spot.
ng!!!
At thest moment, Rex raised Berserker to protect his head, and it worked.
As the ringing sound of 2 metals colliding rang, Rex who managed to block the scythe from barely digging into his head with his sword suddenly made a radical move that was stupid to most swordsmen as he threw his sword at his opponent.
Timber was shocked as his opponent''s weapon suddenly flew towards him.
While the sword still flew, Rex''s eyes glowed golden as a connection between him and Berserker formed immediately. Rex finally activated Berserker''s basic mystic effect for the first time.
The distance was already too close, Timber could not dodge, he could only flinch and shift slightly to the side as the sword cut into his neck.
Surprisingly, his dodge worked and the cut was not fatal. To his horror though, what seemed like a golden sword energy thread was now connecting the sword to Rex and once Rex pulled, the sword followed.
Ptui!
The sword retreated, ruthlessly cutting Timber''s neck again.
While blood was already spurting out in waves, Rex appeared before his opponent as he finally caught hold of his sword back, he stabbed at Timber''s unprotected abdomen without hesitation.
Ptui!
This time, there was no sudden change, the sword went all the way through as Timber gasped for breath in a shocking scene.
Rex''s sword stabbed all the way through his opponent!
Rex was horrified, the academy masters were supposed to intervene!
While blood poured out of his opponent''s mouth, Rex''s mind was a mess as he cursed at himself for getting lost in the moment again.
In his panic, something amazing happened.
All of a sudden, the blood flowing from Timber''s mouth turned to water which soon spread to his whole body as he seemed to turn into a waterman. The water soon lost its form as it fell, wetting the forest floor.
On seeing this, Rex was shocked as an amazed look overcame his face.
"Is that¡?"
Chapter 36 Plan To Ride Out The Storm Of The Rampage Phase Of The Tournament
"Is that¡, the mystic ability of the Wandering Moon Queen?"
Rex was shocked on seeing what just happened to his opponent, and he was even more amazed since he already connected who had this ability.
The Wandering Moon Queen was the only Advanced Mystic Warrior in Delta State who was a wielder of a water mystic ability that was rumored to be able to use the master level water skill, water doppelganger.
This was a master-level water skill that was able to create a water doppelganger of a living organism.
Its mechanism worked by taking advantage of the water in a living organism.
Through the internal water, the mystic warrior can instantly scan inside his opponent, getting his/herplete anatomy which grants him the ability to create a doppelganger of the living organism made up of waterpletely.
The mystic energy expenditure required to use this skill was stupendous for a basic mystic warrior but was just so-so for advanced mystic warriors.
When a water ability mystic warrior with this skill works alongside a space ability mystic warrior, the water ability mystic warrior could create a doppelganger of both of them, while the space ability mystic warrior warps them away.
This was a legendary escapebination skill that the human race has used a lot of times to outwit the dangerous and cunning mystic beasts.
Rex guessed that the legendary Wandering Moon Queen worked alongside a space ability mystic warrior to so impably rescue the student who was his opponent a few seconds ago.
This skill being used was not too shocking, the shocking fact here was that this skill being used represented that the legendary Wandering Moon Queen actually came to spectate the academy''s graduation tournament.
The fact that a space ability Advanced mystic warrior probably apanied her made this all the more significant.
The Wandering Moon Queen was a legend of the nearby port city, the biggest city in Delta State, Anime City.
Having been recognized as a genius since her tender years, she lived up to the expectations that were generated by all the hype, sessfully breaking through to the advanced mystic warrior realm and bing a legend.
Besides this, she was the founder and headmistress of the popr water-style taijutsu dojo. She was an extremely powerful, rich, and influential mystic warrior of Delta State.
Rex''s eyes glittered like stars as he made all these connections, his great ambitions for this tournament already found the needed fuel to grow more.
His ambition was already burning through the roof.
After finally awakening mystic energy, Rex started the graduation tournament to show his power to the world, impress, attract attention and finally escape from his lowly status since the age of 5.
His motivation to reveal his full power burned more than ever now. With such a powerful and influential mystic warrior watching his performance, the stakes involved became higher.
He was ready to impress this powerful woman.
After the exnation from Mr. Minamito, Rex understood the rules of the tournament more thoroughly.
After his first student elimination, he now had 13 points. 3 of these points were from surviving an ambush, while the remaining 10 were from eliminating an opposing student.
It didn''t matter that this opponent was in his team, so long as only 4 people would be lucky enough to qualify from here, such eliminations were allowed.
Rex looked down at his wrist where his electronic tournament band that was designed for the rampage phase of the tournament showed his points.
He needed to rue more points, but Rex was not about to go out to fulfill this recklessly. In this tournament, he was not the only strong student, and he was not the only dark horse either, there were numerous of them.
If he became arrogant for a moment, even with all his advantages, even with Berserker, Rex did not doubt that he would be eliminated.
This was the reason why he decided to take this the slow and steady way.
Though he wanted to impress the Wandering Moon Queen, he also wanted his 2 friends to qualify. This was why Rex''s first n after eliminating his first opponent and settling down was to seek his 2 friends.
If he could group up with both Ben and Cassandra, Rex did not doubt that together, they would be able to tear their way through any opponent.
Once he finalized his n, he took action.
With his sword in his hand, Rex started navigating his way through the trickyndscape of the Hillbilly Forest.
In the rampage phase of the graduation tournament, Rex was not the only studentpeting, neither was he the only student who had ambitions.
When each of these students eliminated their first opponents, they also became exposed to the fact of the legendary Wandering Moon Queen watching their performance. Instantly, their energy levels all rose to a new high.
Their ambition now burned so high like drug addicts who just took a sniff of their meds and got so high that they were already floating in the 9th heaven.
Emboldened more than ever, they actively started hunts for other students. Fights erupted in different parts of the forest with blood flowing where some students were eliminated, while others drew and escaped.
Among these students was Rex who also got to fight more battles. In his quest to find his friends, Rex got embroiled in 3 subsequent battles.
The first was against a random lone student who was hunting for easy prey. Once Rex met him and tested his strength, he ruthlessly went for the kill, eliminating his opponent even faster than the first.
The 2nd was against 2 students of the wind department. These 2 students were friends and they had the same n as he did.
They already cooperated and eliminated 3 opponents but when they saw Rex, they took an extremely shameless decision and escaped. Rex was shocked, the spectators werepletely stupefied.
"When did I be so scary?" Rex was confused.
Despite being confused, he continued his journey until he met his 3rd battle encounter. Once Rex saw the group, he knew that something was wrong.
This groupprised 4 students with their leader being someone that he was familiar with, Rhode Foster was the leader of this group of students.
On seeing the formation of students, it only took a second for Rex to understand their n. Clearly, these 4 already arranged and saw themselves as the only 4 to qualify from this round, they would team up and eliminate all the others.
Rex''s face turned grave.
Rhode Foster alone was already a powerful opponent that could give him a hard time, adding 3 other students who were stronger than average tipped the scales so far beyond his reach that Rex made his decision instantly.
"Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps!"
Whoosh!
Instantly, Rex turned and disappeared into the forest.
Running with his tail between his legs looked embarrassing, but Rex was not embarrassed since he knew that decision-making was a must-have ability of any great warrior. Knowing when to fight and when to retreat in battle was a good trait.
He was ready to impress, and Rex knew that such instantaneous decision-making was a mark of a great warrior that any powerful mystic warrior looked out for in any promising talent.
He was sure that in the eyes of the Wandering Moon Queen, this was a pass, and it was the main reason why he went against his personality and retreated.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rhode Foster''s team was not about to let him escape so easily, once he went on the run, Rhode Foster and her team went in pursuit.
Rhode Foster had the light mystic ability, one of her teammates had the wind mystic ability, while thest 2 were both fire ability users.
In the end, Rex had to fight an uphill battle against 4 powerful opponents. Even with all his advantages, with Rhode leading the group, they proved to be a force too powerful for him to handle.
After running kilometers through the Hillbilly Forest, during which they encountered a lot of students who avoided the confrontation in the process, Rex''s luck finally shone as he met one of his friends.
After so long, Rex met Cassandra.
Chapter 37 A Fierce Battle; A Stalemate!
Unlike Rex, after the team battle started, Cassandra did not decide to start fighting opponents immediately nor did she decide to look for her friends.
Cassandra had an extremely stable personality, if there was another slightly safer choice that was moreplicated to solve a problem, she would dly take the stable andplicated route rather than take risks.
Once she was teleported inside the Hillbilly Forest, she came up with a n on how to survive and tide through the battle.
She was not as strong as Rex; she knew her limits and power level which was the main reason why she decided to spend the first few minutes after teleporting here to build the surrounding terrain in her favor.
If the terrain was in her favor, her chances of victory in a sh would increase exponentially. This was her n to tip the scales in her favor.
Building the surrounding terrain did not necessarily mean build, she spent the first few minutes getting used to the terrain. She marked here as her territory, trying to get used to all the notable factors as fast as possible.
Once she seeded in stabilizing this location as her territory, instead of moving out, she instead opted to release clues that a student was in here.
This was how she lured her first prey.
The first student that she fought against was a taijutsu user, the student was slightly stronger than her, overwhelming her swordsmanship with pure martial arts and outstanding control over mystic energy but she won in the end.
Bybining the home ground advantage with some traps that she already set beforehand, she seeded in eliminating her first opponent.
Her 2nd opponent was eliminated even faster. This male student was weaker than her and paired with her methods, the poor student stood no chance.
After securing her first 2 kills, she became a lot bolder as she employed more means to attract students to this location. To her dismay though, the first 2 students that were attracted were entirely because they were close by.
For the next few minutes, no single prey took her bait.
She waited and waited till she became bored, despite this, she did not decide to suddenly change her n radically since this course of action was stabler.
After what felt like no students woulde her way again, her luck finally seemed to shine as from afar, she heard the sounds of footsteps heavily hitting the forest floor which indicated a student probably running.
Instantly, she became awake again as she set her eyes on her prey.
To her shock though, when the footsteps came close enough for her to see the silhouettes of her new prey, she saw Rex.
Cassandra was confused at first about why Rex was running in a dangerous forest like this, exposing himself to all the other students but she soon understood on seeing the 4 students that were going after him.
She only had to think for a few seconds before she sprang into action.
"Run through the intertwining vines, keep your feet light as you run!"
While yelling instructions, Cassandra unsheathed her sword and stabbed it at one of the thick vines of the trees making up the forest as she jumped and started sliding down the top of the tree through this.
Cassandra''s territory was a part of the forest that was mostly filled with long vines. This yed a significant role in the flexibility of her ns.
Once Rex ran into the first cluster of intertwining vines that were before him, he slowed down slightly as he tried to reduce his weight that was being transferred through his feet to the barest minimum.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
He ran through the cluster of vines without incurring any reaction or damage, and this was all due to the light steps that he took on it throughout.
It was when Rhode Foster and her 3 teammates ran through the cluster of intertwining vines in pursuit that they faced Cassandra''s meticulous setup.
Rhode Foster felt the danger as soon as she took her first step inside the cluster of intertwining vines. She heard when Cassandra gave Rex a hint, but she instinctively dismissed it since it was not directed at her.
Now, she and her teammates paid for it.
Whoosh!
The originally motionless vines suddenly started swinging wildly, as some of them even opened deadly rows of teeth that were ready to bite the students into oblivion by their sheer length alone.
On seeing the vines that suddenly seemed toe alive, Cassandra was stunned. "Swamp Vine Monster!"
Hillbilly Forest was a tourist forest that had an astonishing record of 0 casualties each year despite the numerous dangers that were involved.
The forest was an extremely controlled one, but this did not mean that it was not dangerous, it only meant that the methods employed by the owners to protect tourists were more meticulous than the ways of the predators.
Apart from mystic beasts, mystic nts also popted Hillbilly Forest.
Mystic nts were nts who mutated, some gaining intelligence by absorbing mystic energy. This vine monster was one of them, its deadly rows of teeth and its numerous vine tentacles were its mutations.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Swamp Vine Monster did not think before it started attacking the opponents. Rhode Foster and her 3 teammates were only surprised for a short while though as they changed to the defensive the next moment.
All of them were already channeling their mystic energy, creating skills that they used to start cutting the vine monster apart but Cassandra already arrived.
Once the Vine Monster attacked, Rex already understood Cassandra''s n, their battle synergy was just that horrifyingly good as he turned and pounced on his pursuers the next moment alongside her.
"Sword Skill: Boomerang sh!"
While already being preupied with the Swamp Vine Monster, suddenly being attacked by 2 mystic warriors left Rhode and her teammates a little flustered.
Cassandra descended as she instantly channeled her mystic ability, unleashing a barrage of sword strikes that were all empowered by her earth mystic ability while Rex released sword energies, spamming them everywhere.
Berserker''s basic mystic weapon effect was controlling sword energy.
It was what enabled the trick that Rex used to defeat his first opponent, now, Rex used it again as he manipted the sword energies flying at his 4 opponents, adjusting them to make them a lot more lethal.
Despite being cornered, turning from the hunter to the hunted in just a few seconds, the talented light ability user, Rhode Foster recovered and stood her ground. With her mystic ability, her speed was horrifying.
ng! ng! ng!
With her light spear, Rhode Foster used the advantage of her mystic ability to the fullest. Her speed was so terrifying that she left a blur when she moved.
With her going all out, none of her teammates were eliminated immediately as they finally found a moment of reprieve to recover and rejoin the battle.
Foster''s barrage soon put an end to the Swamp Vine Monster''s life, but her 2 opponents proved to be as annoying as a bug.
Rex''s versatile and extremely mighty technique, paired with Cassandra''s preparation and understanding of this region, they were both able to give their opponents constant surprises that frustrated them.
Cassandra was like a Pandora''s box; she was calm all the time as she pulled one trick after the other out of her box of tricks.
The battle continued intensely like this for 5 minutes before both sides finally started slowing down after suffering some minor injuries.
The battle surprisingly was a stalemate.
Chapter 38 Bens Strategy
Despite the numbers advantage of their opponents, Rex and Cassandra were able to work together, stand their ground, and hold them back.
Paired with the fact that Rhode Foster was one of the favorites to win the graduation tournament, this was an astonishing feat.
Rex and Cassandra showed impable teamwork in this battle, and this was exactly what the academy sought by organizing the graduation tournament. This performance alone was enough to secure their future jobs if they were lucky.
As more time passed, the more natural Rex and Cassandra felt fighting alongside each other as they started retaliating against their opponents.
In no time, the stalemate started turning aggressive again as Rex and Cassandra fought to achieve the significant feat of eliminating one of their opponents when faced with a 4 vs 2 scenario.
Rhode Foster was astonished by the strength disyed by her opponents. Not eliminating the both of them immediately was already humiliating enough, the both of them retaliating even was the epitome of shame to her.
"Ahhh!"
"Die!!!"
Rhode Foster finally lost it, not able to hold it back any longer, she finally decided to reveal one of the trump cards that she originally reserved forter on in the tournament where the stakes would be higher.
"Advanced Light Skill: Speed of Light- 1st Move!"
Once Foster activated an advanced light skill, the tides turned instantly.
Every advanced skill was a big deal for mystic warriors of the basic rank, once Foster activated it, her already astonishing speed increased exponentially as she seemed to turn into a spear-wielding speed demon.
"Die!!!"
ng! ng! ng!
She only needed 3 super-fast spear stabs to dismantle Cassandra''s defense. Another swift sh followed as she cut a deep wound through Cassandra''s left cheek, before she could finish the job though, Rex intervened.
Against the best student of the sword department of the academy, Foster''s astonishing speed proved superior to mastery of a battle domain.
She was so fast that Rex could hardly keep up with his basic swordsmanship not to talk of channeling his mystic energy. He was suppressed from start to end, and he finally suffered an injury once she infused mystic energy in her attack.
Whoosh!
Rex gasped in pain as the light energy attack radiating from Foster''s spear cut a long wound across his abdomen, he rolled backward in pain, barely dodging the follow-up attacks of his remaining 3 opponents.
While Rex was already worried about how to continue dodging, he heard Cassandra''s voice which at this moment was like an oasis in a dry desert.
"Move 2 inches to the left, and stomp down hard with your right foot!"
Rex obeyed her unconditionally. Mid-rolling, he stopped and moved 2 inches before stomping hard on the vine-filled forest floor with his right foot as a hole appeared which sucked him in the next moment.
Before Foster could follow, the hole closed up.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A furious Foster attacked the vine till she tore it open. To her frustration though, the hole was a dead end, her opponents already escaped.
This was Cassandra''s backup n in her territory to escape. A clever Rabbit never had one hole, and Cassandra was a super clever one.
Foster released a mystic energy-empowered spear attack at the nearest tree to vent her anger as she just lost the opportunity to get juicy points.
While she gained nothing, both Rex and Cassandra gained 10 points each for surviving an encounter against more than 2 opposing students.
They lost the battle, but they got the points and won the war.
¡
Ben Carter was having a pretty good tournament run so far, having managed to amass 30 points all from eliminating students who went up against him.
Unlike Rex''s tournament strategy which fixated on meeting up with his friends and empowering themselves to qualify, Ben''s strategy for the rampage phase was more simr to Cassandra''s but also had a lot of differences.
Ben dubbed his tournament strategy the Click-bait Smut strategy!
After the setting for the rampage phase of the tournament became known, Ben immediately started thinking outside the box for more ways to qualify.
Like every other student, he also wanted to perform like a pro in this tournament, attract a lot of attention and get the best possible job that would set him for life where he could get all the girls that he wanted.
The strategy that he came up with was as carefree as his personality.
From Ben''s experience with the male gender, one thing that he was sure of was that no matter how hard they tried to hide it, every boy had lewd thoughts and this was the reason why he decided to take advantage of it.
Before they were ferried to the Hillbilly Forest, he rushed to the nearby mystic shop where he got a mystic toy called the Photo-crop.
This toy had mystic energy infused inside it, and its only function was to project high-quality pictures into the air.
After buying the Photo-crop, Ben filled it with pictures for his Click-bait Smut strategy. Trust him, all the pictures were of beautiful half-naked girls in steamy poses, this was his killer strategy.
Once Ben was teleported inside the Hillbilly Forest, unlike his 2 friends, he didn''t have to think too much since he already had a sound n in mind.
The first thing that he did was understand his surroundings to mark it as his territory in the same way that Cassandra did. After this, he finally put his Photo-crop to work, projecting his steamy pictures at different parts of his territory.
Just 5 minutes in, his first prey was attracted.
The student knew that it was probably a trap, but the sight was too mesmerizing to pass despite the importance of the graduation tournament.
He wanted to satisfy his curiosity, and this brought his end.
For the first 20 minutes after he projected the pictures, Ben seeded in attracting 3 consecutive students and eliminating them with immacte moves. He was lucky not to meet any of the tournament favorites.
His 4th and 5th prey took far longer time to take the bait, but once they took it, though it took more effort, Ben still discarded them.
Now, Ben felt like a king as he vibed to a popr hip-hop song.
From his 4th prey, he started encountering the same problems that Cassandra suffered as the Hillbilly Forest was too big for the students to meet each other so often. Despite this, he was patient, he waited.
For his 6th prey, Ben had to wait 3 full hours before he appeared. As expected, his 6th prey was a boy again, the unexpected fact was that this boy was a student who Ben was familiar with.
"Duncan?"
Duncan, the blonde-haired youth chuckled ominously. "I knew it was you all along, Horny bastard!"
Ben blew his cover due to a moment of losing self-control, this was because he didn''t just know Duncan, but because they were close buddies before.
Apart from Rex and Cassandra, Duncan was one of the few true friends that Ben had. The simrity that attracted the both of them to be friends about a year ago was the simple fact that they were both lovers of girls.
Ben loved girls, and Duncan loved them more, so they naturally flowed together.
This continued until Duncan got a real girlfriend, and he became blinded by love. Ben advised him against it but Duncan refused, his close friend, his buddy was gone.
Duncan was so consumed by love that he proposed to his girlfriend, but unfortunately, on the day of the purposed proposal, he caught her cheating.
Feeling hurt, lost, and torn apart, Duncan''s love died but he didn''t go back to loving all girls. Love left him, even the casual love for girls died entirely for Duncan.
Duncan became an anti-horny propagandist.
Duncan''s obsession with this new goal became so strong that it became his way of life, it became his way of the mystic warrior specialism.
His battle style became adapted to fit anti-horny propaganda. He was a wind mystic ability user, but he switched from the metal rod battle domain to the not popr bonking rod battle domain.
Duncan was a master of the bonking rod battle domain.
Now, he stood before his friend with his bonking rod in hand, about to purge the evil spirit of horny that was residing inside Ben.
Duncan took no time to enter his battle stance.
"Duncan Sage Art: True Several Thousand Bonk!"
Mystic energy ready to purge horniness oozed out of Duncan''s body.
"I am ready!"
Chapter 39 Epic Showdown- The Bonk Lord Vs The Horny Lord!
On seeing Duncan, his old friend who fell into the other way enter his battle stance and emit such aggressive mystic energy, Ben''s face darkened as he felt the pressure of his current situation.
Unlike before, due to Duncan''s identity, Ben already gave up his advantage of being in the dark which was prime for an ambush and this was detrimental to his motive of taking his opponents out when they least expected it.
Besides, Duncan was a powerful opponent to face in battle.
Despite the challenges that were involved in his current situation, Ben felt more motivated than ever before. If it was against any other opponent, he may have given up, but definitely not against Duncan.
Giving up meant relenting to the fact that anti-horny was superior which he would never admit in this life. Horny would always remain superior!
"Without being horny, a man is nothing more than an emotionless robot".
"Horny is not just a feeling, horny is a way of life!"
While saying this with all seriousness, Ben finally jumped down from the tree where he hid originally as he unsheathed his sword with much fanfare.
Shing!
As the vibrating sound of his sword being unsheathed rang, Ben grinned, he now felt full of power. "Come on!"
Duncan did not disappoint, he rushed toward his opponent without any waste of time as the effects of his personalized sage art finally showed its might.
Whoosh!
As Duncan sprinted towards his opponent, he was wielding only one bonking rod, but at this moment as his mystic energy was channeled, it felt to Ben like his opponent was wielding a thousand bonking rods.
The sight was intimidating, but the will to never yield to anti-horny pushed Ben on. His agitated spirit was already making his mystic energy turn turbulent. As he channeled it, wind in the form of a mighty gale soon enveloped his form.
"Movement Skill: Steps of the Nightingale!"
With a loud boom sound, Ben sprinted towards his opponent with speed.
Sword struck, and rod struck, then both collided in a mighty show.
ng!
In the first collision of both metal weapons, none won the test of strength and this was the reason why both opponents soon deviated into a test of speed.
ng! ng! ng!
Ben was unwilling to retreat first, and neither was Duncan as both opponents stood their ground while swinging their weapons at each other savagely.
This was where Duncan''s advantage shone.
With his sage art, the effects like an illusion of wielding a thousand bonking rods were deadly, Ben had to put a lot more focus into watching and dodging since at times, he felt like a thousand rods were attacking him rather than just 1 rod.
As the both of them went at each other at full speed while channeling their mystic energy, it quickly became clear that their strength was basically equal.
Without making use of any special moves, no winner would be decided soon. Duncan was the one to flip the board first.
Duncan''s sage art was a sacred battle stance that he developed after getting a holy inspiration into the art of anti-horny. This stance not only empowered his bonk attacks, it empowered his mystic energy, and also gave him a special skill.
Duncan''s belief in anti-horny was not superstitious, this was a belief that empowered his will to get so strong and develop so many anti-horny ways.
"Duncan Anti-horny Skill: Duplicate Bonking Rod!"
Whoosh!
After dodging another deadly sh of Ben''s sword, Duncan feigned retreating as Ben immediately pounced on him like a stalking Tiger.
As usual, Duncan reacted on time to parry Ben''s powerful sword attack.
The difference this time was that while he parried with his right arm, he hid his left hand behind his back where a duplicate of his bonking rod weapon suddenly appeared. This felt like magic but was a specially adapted wind skill.
While Ben was unprepared, this 2nd rod came swinging like the legendary sword of Damocles that was out to eradicate horny from the universe.
Bonk!
Ben received his first major bonk to the face.
With a broken nose and a bleeding face, Ben groaned in pain as he retreated. Duncan did not let up the pressure as he immediately followed in pursuit.
Ben no longer had a moment of reprieve, he kept on parrying attacks while trying to retaliate. His understanding of his territory helped matters, but he couldn''t quite make use of his territory the same way that Cassandra did.
Ben was frustrated until he was forced to resort to exotic wind skills.
"Wind Skill: Storm Push!"
"Wind Skill: Storm Push!"
Once Ben activated the skill, Duncan reacted like he could read his mind by activating the same skill as both skills easily countered each other.
This was a battle between 2 wind mystic warriors, and it was exciting.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Duncan kept on attacking relentlessly as he easily thwarted any exotic mystic energy moves from his opponent. Being Ben''s friend for a long time, he knew him and his preferences like a book, he countered him each time.
Ben kept on getting bonked as his injuries increased. Of course, Ben also dealt injuries to Duncan but injuries kept on stacking more on his body.
This continued until Ben became fed up, he finally used his trump card.
"Horny shall reign forever!"
"Wind Skill: Storm de!"
As soon as the familiar green wind form materialized and enveloped Ben''s sword, the sword seemed to have turned invisible again as it cut with tyrannical might towards the direction of his opponent.
Duncan reacted impably in such an excited manner like he had been anticipating this move since the very start of this battle.
Ben''s wind mystic ability empowered this attack so much that all it left was a blur, but Duncan as a wind mystic ability warrior was fast enough to react.
Unlike Ben''s opponent in the single-elimination phase, Duncan knew the power of this attack and did not even try to block it. He rather gave his all into dodging this attackpletely and he seeded in the nick of time.
Immediately after he dodged the attack, while Ben was still in the process of recovering from such an all-out attack, Duncan retaliated.
Duncan took a deep solemn breath.
"Duncan Anti-horny Breathing; First Form: Thunderbonk p!"
Duncan stretched his body to the limits in a weird shape as thick green mystic energy enveloped his bonking rod, then he struck at his defenseless opponent.
Boom!
The rod attack blew Ben''s head into a bloody mess. It was gory at first but like before, Ben''s body soon turned into water before dissipating.
Ben was eliminated, and Duncan the anti-horny propagandist won!
With a solemn look on his face, Duncan bowed in the direction of his old friend. "Another soul has experienced the light of anti-horny liberation".
"My mission of an anti-horny world continues".
Duncan suddenly raised his hands in a worshiping gesture like he was a worshiper of the sun god. "I am the Bonk of my rod".
"Abstinence is my body and Chastity is my blood".
"I have created over a thousand mystic techniques and rods".
"I have received epiphanies into the dao of anti-horny".
"Unknown to death".
"Nor known to life".
"I have withstood horny to create many bonks".
He finally closed his eyes. "Now, I say, long live the bonk!"
Chapter 40 Entering The Critical Stage!
"Long live the bonk?"
"Long live the bonk?!"
"F*ck! How can he be so shameless?!"
Ben was frustrated as he listened to the foolish bbering of his rival.
After an admirable fight against a powerful opponent, Ben Carter finally bowed out of the graduation tournament. Though thementator heaped praise on his performance, none of that was on Ben''s head at the moment.
He didn''t even care much about the fact that he just lost the graduation tournament, he was just that carefree.
To him, his image before girls was more important than anything in the world, including graduation tournaments, work, and everything called important.
In this battle against Duncan, everything that Ben cared for was at stake!
Duncan advocated an end to horny which went against his sensibilities from every direction possible. Duncan was his rival to prove the supremacy of horny, losing against this opponent was a horrifying oue but it happened.
Even after giving his best, even after fighting above his best due to the stakes involved, he still lost and this infuriated Ben to no end.
At this moment, he felt like a bug was just dumped into his mouth, the feeling was awful, too awful to tell.
He was already feeling awful, but on turning to look at the footage, seeing the nonsensical ending speech from his opponent, Ben almost puked blood.
"How dare he say long live the bonk?!"
Now, Ben''s head was literally on fire as this made him explode in anger.
Most of the spectators for this round of the tournament were gathered in the Obedin Mystic Academy where the battle was broadcasted live.
The battle was also being broadcasted in other parts of the city but the academy saw the most traffic.
After being eliminated, like the other students who were eliminated, Ben was teleported back directly to the academy where he could spectate with the others. So, as he raged due to having lost, everyone saw him.
At this moment, in the VIP row of seats in the spectator stands, a prestigious woman in a blue luxurious gown sat as she watched the proceedings of the tournament with a gentle smile constantly on her face.
"I like his spirit". She chuckled slightly while turning to face the man that sat beside her, this man was Principal Dominic of the Obedin Mystic Academy.
A woman who was qualified to sit beside the principal had to have such a high status that she was a legend, this woman was the Wandering Moon Queen.
On getting the principal''s attention, she continued.
"Though his source of motivation is stupid, it makes me like his spirit. If he continues like this, he may be someone big someday".
Even while he raged, Ben was not insensitive enough to not have looked at the VIP stands yet. This was why even amidst his rage, he heard it.
"Did she just say, I like his spirit?"
"Woah..., damn!"
Instantly, Ben felt his grievances evaporating like the wind. The legendary Wandering Moon Queen was a powerful mystic warrior, but she was also a beautifuldy, she was a maturedy of great beauty.
Though she was probably old enough to give birth to Ben, he was not a picky person, Ben grinned on hearing thatpliment from her.
Despite the distance, his ears never failed to catch ady''spliment.
Ben finally turned to leave to the spectator stands, but while he left, he pushed his chest out a bit while trying to push his chubby belly fat in. He wanted to look his best at this moment, who knew if he could impress her.
Besides all that, he did the iconic walking stance of his best movie icon.
Unfortunately for him, he failed to garner more of her attention but he did gather some other attention.
"Ben, you fought so heroically".
"Oh¡, Sarah, thanks for thepliment".
"Do you mind me walking you to the stands?"
"No, not at all".
Sarah supported the exhausted boy as they both happily walked to the stands to watch the proceedings of this phase of the tournament.
¡
Shortly after Ben was eliminated, the situation of the battle in the Hillbilly Forest seemed to have experienced a spiking change as it started turning critical.
When it first started, most of the students were preupied with making their ns that they would use to tide the fierce storm of this battle to emerge among the top 4 that would qualify for the quarter-finals.
This was the reason why the battles were a lot tamer then, but like Ben, when their n was finalized, they finally started implementing them.
Once the implementation phase started, shes became a lot more frequent as the students vied with all their might to settle on that top 4 spots.
40+ students started this phase of the tournament, but once the frequency and intensity of shes increased, half were shed out in no time.
In this tournament, a lot of students got to shine as they showcased their power before the spectating audience, using their fellow students as stepping stones while the others could only try and fail miserably.
The students knew that hiding would not get them points, they needed to fight, eliminate and get points which forced all of them out of their hiding.
Groups like the one formed by Rhode Foster were not umon as the students sought shelter in numbers to increase their chances of a top 4 spot.
Not all these groups had a leader as tyrannical as Foster though. After failing to eliminate Rex and Cassandra, she was angry but this did not hold her down as she continued her hunt for other students with herpanions.
Her group was the most sessful by far as they eliminated one student after the other. It was like they were unstoppable, until they met someone.
Morgana Jones was having a fairly stable run in this tournament so far. Once this phase of the tournament started, unlike others, she came up with her attack n instantly as she went on the hunt fearlessly like a Lion.
Even though all her opponents tried to escape after seeing her, she already eliminated 8 students and stood at the top with the highest points.
For the past few minutes though, she had not been able to eliminate a single opponent because all those remaining already banded into teams.
Even for her, she could not eliminate multiple students easily. This was why she stalled and it frustrated her and was the reason why she changed her n now.
Though she disdained it, Morgana now wanted to join her own group.
Once she made this decision, about 2 minutester, she met her first target and it was a team of 4 including a student whom she was familiar with.
Once she saw Foster, Morgana changed her ns instantly. The opponents had not discovered her yet which gave her a huge advantage.
Morgana recognized a powerful opponent when she found one. She was proud of her strength but she always tried not to be arrogant.
For this one, she decided that ending it with an ambush would be the fastest and safest way for her to take over this group.
Her target was none other than Rhode Foster!
Chapter 41 Assassination Elimination!
Rhode Foster cautiously tread through the Hillbilly Forest with her team as they sought more opponents to eliminate to solidify their position at the top.
Though she was not a spectator and did not know how many students were already eliminated,mon sense told Foster that the students remaining in the forest were no longer much.
In essence, this meant that only the best of them were still in the contest.
After the blunder of Rex and Cassandra, the sess streak that she and her team enjoyed in eliminating other students inted her confidence but the encounter with Rex made her always keep her basic vignce to danger.
As they walked through the forest silently, looking for prey, they all suddenly paused as they heard the sound of a twig breaking into 2.
Instantly, the 4 of them reacted as they entered their attack formation with Rhode Foster at the very front of the team acting as the anchor.
They waited a few seconds, and seeing nothing, they stepped forward. They saw nothing until they went behind a giant tree where they saw a dead rabbit.
They observed their surroundings carefully for any danger before focusing back on the rabbit. From the bleeding, the rabbit just died.
Foster was confused at first but her eyes soon widened.
"Who killed it?!"
Instantly, Foster was rmed as she raised her head only to see a familiar mystic Tessen already just a few meters away from her face. The Tessen was thrown directly at her from her front.
Just from seeing the Tessen, Foster already knew who her opponent was.
Foster felt her hair standing on end as adrenaline rushed through her body like a nitro booster, she felt her blood burning hot rapidly.
The will to qualify for the next phase of the tournament in her was so strong that it now empowered her to make an impossible maneuver.
Whoosh!
Foster bent her body at thest moment as the Tessen flew past, cutting a significant part of her untied hair in the process but the attack was not done.
Seeing that the attack had already missed, the Tessen paused in the air for a few seconds as its owner activated its mystic ability.
The mystic ability of the Fairy Morgana''s mystic weapon, the Soaring Jade was to shoot a lethal jet stream of air at the opponent.
By bending to dodge the attack, Foster now had her back facing the floating Tessen and this presented the right angle for the lethal attack.
Boom!
As soon as the jet stream of air shot out from the floating Tessen, Foster''s fate seemed to have been sealed but thisdy was a defiant warrior.
Straightening her body to defend against the attack was already an impossible task for her, and she also didn''t learn the defensive skill of the light mystic ability which left Foster with few options at this moment.
She didn''t want to give up though, so she improvised.
Whoosh!
While her body still bent, Foster jumped and stretched her legs, making her body be horizontal as she suddenly rotated with speed, turning her body and making her face turn up where the lethal jet stream of air wasing from.
This way, she saw the attack and with the swift rotation, she gathered the momentum that she needed to swing her light spear.
Morgana''s attack was fast, but so was Foster''s, their speed was otherworldly as the remaining 3 mystic warriors present were still frozen and unable to react.
Foster knew that despite her almost impossible maneuver, a normal attack would not be able to hold its own against her opponent''s mystic weapon attack which was why she also activated the ability of her mystic weapon.
Her mystic spear resonated with her even as she channeled her mystic energy as a lethal spear sh apanied by light energy was sent out.
Boom!
Both attacks hit, and the impact was mighty.
Foster suffered some injuries as the shockwave pushed her to the ground with force while Morgana''s Tessen was thrown away.
Despite feeling pain, Foster tried to right herself up and prepare for the follow-up attack. She looked at the front but saw no one, before she could be puzzled though, she felt her remaining hair standing on end again.
ng! ng! ng!
This time, her teammates finally reacted and tried to protect her but Morgana in closebat was a beast!
With herst Tessen in one hand, she easily parried the attacks of the 3 students before going for her goal.
While Foster thought that her opponent was in her front because that was where the first Tessen came from, it was all a trick and Morgana hid in the huge tree from the very beginning.
This was why once she focused on her front; Morgana struck like a viper.
Morgana''s Tessen drew blood as it shed at Foster''s neck, but once again, this motivated girl did the impossible as she narrowly dodged the fatal attack again by shifting forward in the nick of time.
Morgana did not let her off as she followed up her attack immediately.
Her opponent was already destabilized by straining her reflexes so much, and Morgana ruthlessly took advantage of it. With just 1 Tessen, she was not at her best but she firmly held the upper hand in this exchange.
Before Foster''s teammates coulde to rescue her though, Morgana''s 1st Tessen returned. Unlike most basic mystic weapons, hers had 2 mystic abilities and the 2nd one enabled her to control the weapon mid-flight like a robot boomerang.
Since she got this mystic weapon, she always kept this ability a secret just for today, and now, her perseverance paid fully in gold.
Ptui!
Foster could not react again. Already preupied with fighting Morgana herself, the Tessen was able to effortlessly sever her neck from behind.
As blood flew everywhere, mid-flight, they turned to water.
Rhode Foster was eliminated!
Morgana bowed in the direction of her eliminated opponent before turning to face the 3 students who were still petrified by all that just happened.
"Your leader is eliminated".
"Now, I am your leader!"
¡
Boom! Boom! Boom!
5 students fought like there was no tomorrow in an intense battle.
Rex led the attack from the front, while Cassandra acted as his support as they both fought an intense battle against the opposing team of 3 students who were all from the fire department.
The 3 fire department students put up a good show, but faced with Rex and Cassandra''s astonishing teamwork, they constantly exposed loopholes.
Rex and Cassandra after fighting repeatedly already suffered a lot of injuries, but still, they persevered as they taught these 3 a lesson.
The battle was fairly even but as more time passed, Rex''s endurance which was gotten from having to train with his sword every day even without mystic energy showed as he ousted all his opponents.
With a well-timed attack, he eliminated the first opponent.
Once the first opponent was eliminated, the remaining 2 became easy work as they both picked them apart with rtive ease.
Rex and Cassandra won a 2 vs 3 battle, this was stunning!
With this, they sessfully established themselves as the 2 students with some of the most points in the tournament.
At this moment, most of the students were already eliminated, leaving few behind. Once Rex and Cassandra finished this battle, they rested for 2 minutes before continuing their hunt for more students.
To their surprise, they met no other student for 10 minutes, they were all already eliminated by another powerful team of students.
They kept searching for another 4 minutes before they finally met the culprit.
After a long time of spreading havoc through the ranks of the other students, with them being the only ones left, Rex''s team finally met Morgana''s team.
This was going to be thest showdown to determine the winners of this phase of the tournament!
The smell of gunpowder in the air was already turning suffocating.
Chapter 42 The Last Showdown!
After spreading terror for minutes, thest 6 students of this phase of the graduation tournament finally met for thest ultimate showdown!
For the past few minutes, Morgana and Rex''s team werepletely bossing the tournament as they eliminated any unfortunate student that met them.
They showed no mercy, ruthlessly eliminating like there was no tomorrow. While they spread havoc without mercy, the spectators outside watched them with keen attention and were already extremely hyped for this showdown.
Now, the spectators were about to see the spectacle that they wanted.
The 2 teams met in the forest at a part dominated by 4rge trees. Morgana led her team arrogantly through the forest from the left side, while Rex and Cassandra who moved cautiously paused on seeing them.
Seeing the 3 familiar faces, Rex and Cassandra were surprised but they felt even more surprised when they saw a different 4th face than they expected.
Rex and Cassandra were both intelligent, once they saw Morgana, their faces became solemn as they quickly understood what transpired in this group.
Unlike her 2 fellow students, once Morgana saw the 2 of them, she showed a relieved expression on her face that finally, she could battle again.
She didn''t know who Cassandra was, but she found the face of the boy a little familiar. She didn''t care to search deep into her memories though because the both of them would soon be eliminated.
"Make sure you contain the girl, wait for me, I''ll eliminate the boy quickly!"
Whoosh!
Once Morgana gave orders to her teammates, without wasting any time, she threw one of her Tessens at the group of 2 as her legs immediately exploded forth with speed as a purplish wind enveloped her body.
Rex''s normal instinct reaction to an attack like this was to simply dodge it and it was a nice reaction, but this time, his reaction was different.
For the first time after bonding with his master, Berserker felt that Rex was meeting a really strong opponent in battle and this stimted the living sword as it made it activate another of its myriad abilities.
Berserker made use of its ability tomunicate with Rex and became a danger alert to him. The living sword warned him of the iing danger.
As a mystic sword, Berserker was far more sensitive to mystic energy and instantly knew the lethality of Morgana''s Tessen which was the reason why it warned its master and Rex reacted instantly.
Instead of dodging, Rex took a step forward and faced the attack head-on. Before even swinging his sword, his head already geared into overdrive as he effortlessly channeled his mystic energy to empower it.
A mighty sword energy sh was unleashed which collided with the Tessen.
ng!
Before the Tessen could veer off course, Morgana stretched her arms towards it as the weapon flew back towards her with speed the next moment.
She had no time to think about why her opponent reacted like that, this was because her speed was so fast that she was already before her opponents.
After deflecting the Tessen, Rex held his sword tighter and entered his sword stance while giving his only order for this battle to his teammate.
"Like usual, we stick together!"
Hearing that, Cassandra instinctively shifted closer to Rex as they stood side by side with the de edge of their swords gleaming coldly, anticipating the showdown that was about tomence in its fullest splendor.
It finally started!
"Wind Skill: Floating Leaf!"
In the nick of time, Morgana, the Wind Fairy activated her trademark wind skill again as her body became as light as a feather the next moment.
She made a feint move to the left where Cassandra was, prompting the student to sh out with her sword instinctively only to pause and make a rapid change of direction before bolting towards the right where Rex was.
Rex''s eyes were an epitome of calm and concentration at this moment, he caught the movement of his opponent despite her speed and reacted.
Shing!!!
Berserker shed out like the sword of a demon lord!
Once the mystic sword shed out in a mighty nted vertical sh with golden sword energy enveloping it, Morgana was rmed by the might on disy as the identity of this student finally clicked on her head.
"Rex Vec¡"
Morgana was surprised, but she was a student who spent so long practicing that her basics were already grounded.
ng!
She made an almost impossible reaction by rapidly shifting to the side in the nick of time, then she hit the sword with one of her Tessens to prevent it from severing her left ear as it swiped across.
Rex''s first move revealed his identity, and Morgana changed her ns instantly, she had an ego but she never made the mistake of underestimating her opponent, especially a strong one.
"Wind Skill: Wind Push!"
While Rex was still in thest phase of his shing attack, Morgana''s speed superiority became evident as she recovered from her maneuver, and threw a front kick at him before spinning to the left while shing forward with her Tessens.
A powerful purplish wind pushed out with her Tessens as the center as Morgana aimed to separate Rex from his teammate, but Rex refused.
"Sword Skill: Plutonian sh!"
This time, the sh was horizontal and it was apanied by shiny golden sword energy. With a loud swooshing sound, the purplish gale was cleanly cut apart.
Morgana''s attack and n were nullified by that move.
She was stunned, and both Rex and Cassandra ruthlessly took advantage of the opening that it brought. They both closed the distance to each other, and entered a special sword stance before thrusting their sword tips outwards at Morgana.
"Sword Skill: Drilling Stab!"
"Sword Skill: Drilling Stab!"
ng!!!
The heavy earth attribute of Cassandra''s sword and the sharp attribute of Rex''s sword overpowered Morganapletely as she was flung backward.
The shock of the impact rattled her fingers as she bled, but Morgana was still able to react in mid-air, activating a wind skill as she rolled in the air to safety.
Before Rex and Cassandra could close the distance to her, her teammates finally arrived and this time, Morgana went into battle with them.
"Change in ns, eliminate them with me!"
Morgana by now already dropped her casual attitude as her eyes became as sharp as an eagle''s as she disyed the natural instincts of a deadly predator.
Like an eagle riding the wind, she lunged back at her opponents. Her 3 teammates nked Rex and Cassandra from the sides and attacked.
As for Rex and Cassandra, they stood with their backs facing each other as they started defending.
A fierce melee battle started the next moment!
ng! ng! ng!
For 2 straight minutes, Rex and Cassandra defended against the attacks of their opponents. They were injured mostly by the asional mystic energy attacks but these 2 friends were tenacious enough to hold on till now.
They calmly waited for an opportunity, and in the 5th minute, after suffering another cut to his cheek, Rex saw the opportunity that he craved.
Once he saw it, he took it with the instincts of a hungry vampire.
"Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps!"
Rex whispered into Cassandra''s ears to watch his back before he exploded into action. His eyes were like a Tiger''s as he pounced on the student who exposed an opening and unleashed a series of basic sword attacks.
The 3 students tried to defend their teammate but with Cassandra watching his back, Rex was able to go all out on the offense and it was horrifying.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
After striking over a dozen times with his sword in less than a second, Rex kicked his opponent''s legs, throwing him off bnce before he ended his attackingbo with a lightning-fast Plutonian sh.
Whoosh!
The student lost his head in a shocking disy of skill superiority.
Morgana and her remaining 2 teammates were shocked, even Cassandra was shocked, teamwork proved stronger than numbers again. Though she was shocked too, knowing Rex so much, Cassandra was able to react first.
"Earth Skill: Fake Gravity Control!"
It took a lot from her, but in this moment of truth, Cassandra was able to exceed her limits to activate this hard earth skill on time.
Once she did, her sword became so heavy that when she swung it down effortlessly, to her opponents, it was like they were facing a mountain.
Once they eliminated the first opponent, Rex and Cassandra strived to build on that momentum and swiftly eliminate all their remaining opponents.
For the 1st second, Morgana and her 2 teammates struggled to cope with the intensity. Everyone was shocked, including Morgana herself.
This was when the real dark horses became evident, Rex and Cassandra doing it against weak opponents did not mean much, but at this moment, this was being done against the Wind Fairy''s team which meant a million.
Morgana felt humiliated and her anger finally amplified. She did not let the anger control her, rather she channeled it as fuel to increase her power.
Angered, this tournament favorite student finally revealed a trump card.
"Special Wind Movement Technique: Spiral Movement!"
The spiral movement technique was an exclusive movement technique of wind mystic ability users. To learn it, mystic warriors needed to thoroughly understand the essence of the wind element which was hard.
Morgana had never revealed her ability to use this movement technique in public, now, she finally made use of it in a mighty reveal.
If previously, she moved like a light leaf, now she moved like the wind itself.
Whoosh!
Morgana seemed to turn into a real Wind Fairy as she floated casually between the attacks of her opponents. She slipped through the tiniest gaps, dodging all the attack efforts of her 2 opponents.
At this moment, she was like a rat weaving through a den of cats, dodging all their attacks effortlessly and toying with them like a boss.
Her 2 teammates were relegated to support as with this movement technique, alone, she took on both Rex and Cassandra.
With her 2 opponent''s attention taken by her, Cassandra was unable to react as one of Morgana''s teammates finally stabbed her in the back.
She tried to turn but that was her mistake, Morgana''s Tessen ruthlessly tore across like the wind, and flying alongside it was Cassandra''s head.
Cassandra was eliminated!
Rex was affected by suddenly losing Cassandra, but his concentration was not affected the slightest as he remained focused and continued this showdown against his 3 opponents.
With Berserker''s timely warnings, his instincts felt superhuman at this moment and served as an exciting spectacle to the spectators.
He fought admirably, disying his formidable sword basics and capabilities in the process before he was finally eliminated after receiving a spear stab to the heart. He was eliminated by Morgana after an admirable battle.
Morgana''s team won, but she was not done.
While her 2 teammates rejoiced, Morgana turned like the wind before throwing her Tessens as they effortlessly sliced through the throats of her 2 teammates, eliminating them also.
From thisst move, Morgana got 10 additional points, bing the sole survivor of the first round of the rampage phase of the graduation tournament.
She turned her head to the still stunned faces of her teammates coldly. "A good mystic warrior should always beware of a backstab, never forget that".
*****
[Wow! Damn man, that''s over 1900 words, almost 2000. This is definitely one of the longest chapters now if not the longest, I hope its size is worth it.]
Chapter 43 End Of The Rampage Phase Of The Tournament
The first group battle of the rampage phase of the graduation tournament finally came to an end in the most epic manner possible.
Thest showdown between Rex and Morgana was such a beauty that the spectators were all entertained. This was what they came for, and these 2 students presented it to them in the most unadulterated way possible.
Though Morgana''s ruthlessness in the end towards her teammates was cold, this did not diminish her poprity the slightest as her fans cheered her name at the top of their voices.
In this first group battle of the rampage tournament, Rex and Cassandra were the real surprises. The performance of these 2 students was so convincing and impable that they already started developing a fanbase for themselves.
If some spectators still thought that Rex''s performance in the first phase of the tournament was a fluke, his convincing performance in the rampage phase of the tournament cleared all these doubts.
There was a high chance that they had both already paved their way to a promising mystic job immediately after graduation.
After he was eliminated, Rex was teleported straight out of the Hillbilly Forest. His breath was rapid as he lived through the moment of being so close to death by the hands of the Wind Fairy again.
Receiving a spear stab to the heart was not something that could be so easily shrugged off. Though the Wandering Moon Queen reacted on time like usual and created a water doppelganger for him, the scene was still vivid in his head.
It took some effort before Rex was able to shrug the residual effects off, but despite losing, he was proud of himself.
Rex gave his all in the group battle and he was proud of the result that he achieved alongside Cassandra, the only thing that he regretted was the fact that he was unable to meet Ben throughout.
After he was teleported back to the Obedin Mystic Academy, Rex finally reunited with Cassandra and Ben.
They didn''t speak much to each other as alongside the other students who participated in the group battle, they waited while holding their breaths for the results of the battle.
In just a few minutes, the A. I in charge ofption finished and presented the results of the first group battle before all the spectators.
A huge list was projected that revealed the results of all the students that participated. The list started with the group of students with the worst performances of getting 0 points, and it ended with the 4 qualifiers.
4th Position- Cassandra Putin.
3rd Position- Duncan Hegemin.
2nd Position- Rex Vector.
1st Position- Morgana Jones.
Morgana was the overall winner of the first group battle of the tournament and she didn''t just win, she broke a record of the Obedin Mystic Academy by getting a gap of 80 marks above the 2nd-ced student.
None of her teammates were able to make the mark. In the end, despite being in such a tyrannical team, Foster was the one who stole most of the points from eliminations and Morgana only came to rece her.
Their teammates were in a strong team, but they didn''t have a strong performance.
Unlike Rex and Cassandra, Morgana was ced on the ck team who was the team who lost overall in the tournament. Despite losing 20 points due to her team losing overall, she still won by such a sizeable margin.
Of her 3 roommates, 2 of them were grouped into the ck team like her and thest one was grouped into the Green team. At least 2 of them would have made the top 4 but having 20 points deducted from their overall hit them hard.
The 5th-ced student who was her teammate lost the qualification to Cassandra by only 5 points, the student was heartbroken.
Rhode Foster was the student who ranked 6th after theptions. Her disqualification from going to the quarter-finals became the main talk of the first group battle, Morgana became the ghost that haunted her.
After the first group battle, of the 48 students who were pitted against each other in therge-scale battle royal, only 4 qualified, the rest all met the end of their journey in the graduation tournament.
"I''m fine". Ben raised his hands in exasperation on seeing the expression that was on his 2 friend''s faces. "Really, you guys are taking this too seriously, we should be happy, who knew that we''ll even make it this far?"
"Are you sure you''re, ok?" Cassandra asked again.
"Yeah, I''m perfectly fine". Benughed awkwardly as he looked around before his face turned serious the next moment.
He leaned closer and whispered to his friends. "I may have lost, but you guys qualified and that''s all that matters. Going into the quarterfinals, I want a favor from you guys, help me crush Duncan if you meet him".
"¡"
"Duncan, that friend of yours¡"
"Shhh, he''s not a friend! He''s a lunatic!"
Ben exploded as he turned to stare daggers at the Duncan in question who responded by looking back coolly at him from a distance.
It took some effort on Cassandra and Rex''s part, but they finally managed to console their friend. In the end, what really consoled Ben was his girlfriends.
Once Sarah came back, he smiled and winked at them before leaving.
After the first group battle ended, some of the spectators and students left while the others waited. The next group battle would start a few hours from now and they didn''t want to miss it, Rex and Cassandra also decided to wait.
They first had to visit the academy hospital for checkups. On getting to the hospital, Rex and Cassandra met a rival, they met Morgana there.
This intimidatingdy stood up once she saw Rex as she spoke with a serious face. "You fought a good battle, see you in the quarterfinals".
"See you too". Rex took her handshake.
With that, they separated and the 2 friends finally got checked up by the doctors. After they were attended to, Cassandra and Rex kept each otherpany till 3:00 pm came which was the time for the next group battle to start.
The battle between the Red Group and the White Group was as epic as the group battle in the morning, but the only difference was that the Red Group which had the prodigy, Turan Elliot dominated throughout.
In this group battle, Turan showed again why he was the favorite tipped to win first ce in this graduation tournament.
He wasn''t a battle monger like Morgana and he took the group battle casually, this was the only reason why he didn''t beat Morgana''s record.
Turan gave the 2nd-ced student a gap of 55 points.
4th Position- Jessica Molotov.
3rd Position- John Naga.
2nd Position- Rnd Cross.
1st Position- Turan Elliot.
With the end of the 2nd group battle, the 8 students who progressed to the quarterfinals stage of the graduation battle were finalized.
2 days of rest were given before the quarterfinals battle would start, and during this time, the battle fixtures for the quarterfinals would be released.
Unlike the previous time, none of the students who qualified thought of celebrating since they knew that the task ahead was much tougher. They all got prepared to start a rough training schedule.
Before Rex and Cassandra could return home to n their training schedule though, Rex bumped into a small kid who dumped a piece of paper into his hands before running away before he could react.
Guided by his intuition, Rex hid this event from Cassandra and only opened the piece of paper when he got home.
(Meet me in the Sloth Bar at 8:00 pm- Master F.X.)
Once he read the letter, Rex''s eyes widened in surprise. He instantly stood up and looked around, after confirming that no one spied on him, he went to the kitchen and burnt the paper to ashes.
For the rest of the day, Rex prepared for 8:00 pm and when the time finally came, he sneaked out without alerting any of his 2 friends.
Chapter 44 Meeting Master Fixten
The Sloth Bar was a popr bar among the old school figures of Obedin City.
Being a night bar that was located at a remote corner of Obedin City, Rex originally didn''t have the qualifications and motivations to enter until he was invited here a long time ago by his master.
When Rex was younger, when he just started disying his abilities as an excellent swordsman, he caught the attention of Master Fixten, the master in charge of the sword department of the Obedin Mystic Academy.
Master Fixten allowed him to grow alone for a year before he made his first personal contact with the kid, having confirmed his potential for the sword already.
Due to some restrictions in the academy, Master Fixten could not tantly disy bias toward a specific student so he decided to do it in a subtle manner.
He invited Rex to the Sloth Bar for the first time 4 years ago. That was the first time that the duo of master and student had a conversation about swordsmanship, and Master Fixten was impressed.
The knowledge about swords and swordsmanship in general that Rex showed was so far above his age that Master Fixten was convinced that he would be something big in the future, that was why he took him in.
He didn''t tantly start teaching Rex sword skills and techniques, rather he just engaged in intellectual conversations with the kid.
Though he didn''t reveal much, the kid learned a lot. Rex had this terrifying intuition towards swordsmanship that made him understand a lot ofplicated topics that other teenagers his age could not understand.
After serving in the Obedin Mystic Academy for years, Master Fixten finally met a student that really drew his curiosity and he invested a lot in him.
Throughout the years, Master Fixten already invited Rex to the Sloth Bar over 10 times which made him a familiar face here already since he was the only teenager among the old schools who ever came here.
To get to Obedin City from the Bowling Town at such a time of the night, Rex needed to improvise but he didn''t have many problems since he was already a pro at it having done it over 10 times already.
All he had to do was go to the house of the nearest rich family in Bowling Town, sneak inside and borrow the electric bike of the family''s teenager.
The bike had an A. I with security codes for opening it, but being a student who studied in the prestigious Obedin Mystic Academy for years, Rex was not new to A.Is, he cracked the security code in minutes and took the bike for a ride out.
It took Rex a few minutes, but he finally arrived in Obedin City and eventually arrived at the remote part of the city where the Sloth Bar was located.
On entering the remote alley, Rex walked to one of the apartments with metal doors and knocked. The door opened the next moment as the face of a beautifuldy with orange hair popped out.
"What do you want?" She rudely asked.
"I want to meet the Butcher Mama".
"Hmm". Thedy finally focused a bit on the young man before her. "Oh! It''s you kid¡,e on in".
With that, Rex finally had ess to the bar.
After walking through a long corridor, Rex heard old school music in the background before he finally appeared inside the fairly scanty bar.
This was how the Sloth Bar was, ording to his master, almost all the customers who visited the bar were old friends who were mostly war retirees.
Sitting at the counter just after the corridor was the Butcher Mama. A huge middle-ageddy with a set of baggy shirts and jean trousers, and a huge hat covering her head, she was the owner of the bar.
Rex always saw her as an olddy who never got over the death of her husband. Her prating gaze and her joyless expression always spooked him.
Sitting across her were her 2 buddies, a blonde-haired middle-aged man who loved ying with knives and a ck-haired reserved middle-aged man with a huge scar probably from a sword on his face.
Once Rex entered, they all turned to look at him. The 2 middle-aged men only looked for a second before turning away, the Butcher Mama red at him though, Rex shuddered slightly before quickening his steps.
"He''s on the balcony".
Rex suddenly heard this from one of the customers seated, he nodded in thanks before hurrying to the balcony where he met his master.
"Master". Rex bowed slightly in greeting.
Master Fixten kept on looking at the stars in the sky with his 2 hands behind his back, then he suddenly asked a question. "Rex, what is your ultimate ambition in this graduation tournament?"
"I want toe out on top". Rex replied without hesitation.
"Good". Master Fixten finally turned around. "Tell me all your abilities".
Rex was confused but he understood what his master meant. He didn''t hide anything as he revealed his full repertoire of abilities.
Master Fixten nodded slightly as he spoke. "Plutonian sh, Needle Stab, Drilling Stab, Boomerang sh¡, that is a nice repertoire of skill moves".
"Your movement technique is the Drizzling Rain Steps, while your sword technique is the Aurora Swordy".
Master Fixten suddenly turned to look his student in the eye. "Rex, that is a nice umtion of abilities, but I think it is not enough to clinch top ce in the tournament, that is why I decided to aid your preparation a bit".
"If you agree, from today till the tournament ends, I will begin to supervise your training and correct anywhere you are being deficient".
Rex was ecstatic but he was confused. "Why? I thought¡"
Master Fixten turned away. "You are the best sword genius that I have seen in a long time Rex, you understand the way of the sword, I don''t want you to fail".
Master Fixten sighed. "And besides, I want the sword department to finally produce a winner".
"So, are you in?"
Rex didn''t even need to think, he just grinned. If it was ok with his Master, then it was super ok with him. "Yes, I''m in".
"Now, show me your moves, let me see what your current level is".
Shing!
Havinge prepared, Rex instantly pulled Berserker out of its scabbard and dashed towards his master as he activated his needle stab skill.
ng!
With one move, Master Fixten pulled out his sword and deflected the attack before cing his sword to his student''s throat in a fast-move execution.
"You executed the skill nicely but youck experience".
"When you don''t know how strong your opponent is, you don''t go for a full lunge attack while wielding a single sword without preparing any defensive measures in the case of any emergencies".
"Fail, try again!"
Whoosh!
Rex went again, this time making a feint movement to the right as fast as he could before unleashing a Boomerang sh towards his master''s face.
Master Fixten easily dodged the attack.
"Fail!"
"You only use feinting moves when you are faster than your opponent".
"Again!"
Whoosh!
"Fail!"
"You can''t expect to win the graduation tournament with such immature moves¡, Again!"
Whoosh!
After 2 hours of an intensive training session where Rex learned a lot and was tired both physically and mentally, Master Fixten finally brought it to an end.
He congratted Rex for his improvement before sending him away.
¡
On getting home around 10 in the night, Rex was ecstatic due to the decision by his Master and how much he learned and improved from this training session.
He felt happier since no Cassandra was lurking in his house bombarding him with questions about where he went sote in the night, she probably also trained till exhaustion and was already asleep.
Once he got home, Rex went to the bathroom to take his bath and once he was freshened up, he retreated to his room to sleep.
Before sleeping, he wanted to spend some time in Berserker''s sword world but before doing that, he reflexively looked at the mirror to admire himself.
Once he looked though, Rex froze in horror at seeing the reflection of himself. At this moment, Rex looked nothing like himself.
Right now, his red hair looked redder than ever before, his originally brown eyes were now bloody-red, his facial appearance seemed pale like he was drained of all blood and the worst was the long fangs now jutting out from his mouth.
At this moment, Rex looked like a vampire!
Rex staggered back in horror.
Chapter 45 The Quarterfinal Begins!
After 3 days of rest in which time the qualified students had the luxury to recover from their injuries and train adequately, the much-awaited quarterfinals of the graduation tournament finally began.
The name for the quarterfinals was decided and released by the principal the same day that the fixtures were released.
The Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy didn''t just give the quarterfinals a name, he gave a general name to the remaining knockout stages of the tournament. Thest stage of the tournament was called the Phoenix stage.
ording to the Principal, thest stages of the tournament had a special significance to the participating students and Obedin City as a whole.
A Phoenix was a legendary bird that ording to ounts of myth lived 500 years, burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another glorious period.
p ording to the Principal, thest stages of the tournament were the stages for the remaining 8 students to fight for a ce in the higher ranks.
From the quarterfinals on, it became a do-or-die affair with a lot more significance. Those who were disqualified became the lesser Phoenixes who lived a glorious tournament but could not rise from the ashes in the next stage.
As for those who qualified, they were the set of Phoenixes who rose alive from the ashes to get the opportunity of living a glorious tournament in the next stage of the graduation tournament.
The quarterfinals wouldst 2 days, with the first 2 battles being fought on the first day and the next set of 2 battles being fought on the second day.
Day 1 of the Quarterfinals:
- John Naga vs Cassandra Putin.
- Turan Elliot vs Rnd Cross.
Day 2 of the Quarterfinals:
- Morgana Jones vs Duncan Hegemin.
- Jessica Molotov vs Rex Vector.
Once the fixtures for the first day were released, Cassandra was immediately put under a lot of pressure so much that her 2 friends had to go visit her, console her, and instill some confidence in her.
Though qualifying for the quarterfinals was already a miracle that she did not expect, once she qualified, Cassandra felt her confidence blooming.
Like every other of the 8 students who qualified, though she recognized that this was the death phase of the tournament, she still yearned to go further.
Though she hated to admit it, she dreaded being fixtured against some specific opponents in the quarterfinals and her biggest fears became a reality as she was faced with one of the most dreadful opponents of the quarterfinals.
John Naga was one of the favorites tipped to win the graduation tournament.
This student was not ranked so high just because of his amazing mystic energy control and his knife domain proficiency, but mostly because of his horrifying mystic ability.
John Naga was from the famous Naga mystic family of Obedin City who were renowned for their special mystic ability rted to the soul.
The Naga family named their mystic ability the Whispers of the Soul.
This was a powerful mystic ability that when mastered to the peak and with sufficient mystic energy could drag a whole city into an illusion world.
Though John Naga was not so powerful yet, to his fellow students, he was a powerful opponent to face, even Turan, the outright number 1 tournament favorite was predicted to struggle if he went up against John Naga.
Being faced with this horrifying opponent, the pressure that Cassandra faced was strong but she had no choice but to remain focused.
She didn''t break, she rather took this as a challenge that motivated her to work harder. After another day of hard work, the D-day finally came.
After the identities of both opponents were introduced by thementator, the elevator ferrying the both of them finally touched down in the battle arena.
"Today, we''ll be witnessing the first quarterfinal battle showdown between the Darkhorse Cassandra Putin and the tournament favorite, John Naga".
"Will the Darkhorse pull off another miracle or will John Naga crush his opponent like a lot of spectators are specting?"
"Stay tuned for the oue of this exciting battle".
Gong!
Once the bell rang tomence the tournament, Cassandra felt the pressure rising as she felt her heart in her throat. She had to close her eyes, and condition her mind properly before opening them again.
She took a deep breath, now she was ready.
Shing!
Once Cassandra pulled out her sword and focused ahead, she was shocked to discover that the battle arena suddenly changed.
Noticing the change in time, she was rmed as she instinctively looked toward the spectator stands. On looking, she saw no spectators and her opponent was nowhere to be seen which only made her feel more rmed.
"¡You''re nothing but a bug waiting to be crushed by me".
Cassandra suddenly heard a voice whispering into her ears as she reflexively ducked before shing outwards wide only to hit nothing but empty air.
"¡You can''t hit me, I am everywhere".
Once Cassandra heard this, she was shocked as the sky before her suddenly changed only to be filled with numerous John Nagas who were all staring at her with such an intense gaze that a predator used on his prey.
Cassandra shuddered; she felt a chill running down her spine. Without her knowing, she was already drawn into an illusion from the first second of the battle.
"This is all an illusion!" Cassandra yelled as she started attacking everywhere randomly with her sword only to hit empty air.
While she did this, John Naga kept on taunting and messing with her head.
While all these happened in Cassandra''s mind, the reality was a different case entirely. The spectator stands were as eerily silent as a graveyard as they watched John Naga perform his magic again in the quarterfinals.
Once the gong rang, he made his move and activated his mystic ability. Once he drew Cassandra into an illusion, he started moving toward her.
While moving towards her, he spoke and these were the words that were reflected in her illusion world. John Naga didn''t make any physically intensive moves, he simply walked close till he stood beside Cassandra.
All this while, Cassandra remained motionless.
Once he came close enough, he unsheathed his knife and cut a wound across her neck. Cassandra didn''t react still, and this ended the tournament in the same John Naga-like fashion, the battle ended without stress.
"And we have our winner for the first battle of the quarterfinals".
"Well, we should have expected it, John Naga won without stress".
"The 2nd battle will bemencing immediately, give it up as we wee our favorite, Turan Elliot and Rnd Cross to the battle arena".
Chapter 46 Turan Elliot Vs Roland Cross!
Once thementator introduced the 2 students who would bepeting in the second battle for a ce in the semifinals, the elevators finally moved.
Once the elevators moved, a tense state descended on the spectator stands.
Throughout the history of Obedin Mystic Academy''s graduation tournaments, the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of the tournament were always the best parts of the tournament and this one was no exception.
The best students of every graduating batch were the ones who always made it to this stage of the graduation tournament.
Though this time there were some changes and 2 dark horses made it to the quarterfinals, it did not reduce the excitement, rather with the possibility that anything could happen only increased the excitement of the asion.
Cassandra and John''s battle was a beauty, but all the spectators knew that this battle between Turan and Rnd would be far more epic.
These 2 were at the top of the best students of this academy session batch.
Having fought convincingly and disyed their intimidating power against weaker opponents in the past 2 stages of the tournament, they finally met in the quarterfinals where only one of them could qualify.
ng!
Once the elevators touched down on the arena, Turan and Rnd came out without hesitation as their eyes shed which seemed to induce sparks in the air.
Both of them were familiar with each other even before the graduation tournament, they deeply respected each other but they were determined to win which only made the atmosphere tenser.
Shing!
While looking intensely at his opponent, Turan for the first time since his debut in the tournament finally unsheathed his mystic sword for battle.
The shiny de of the weapon reflected a dangerous silvery sheen once it was unsheathed. Turan''s mystic sword was a powerful mystic weapon renowned in Obedin City, it was called the Triple Kill Sword.
Once Turan unsheathed his sword, Rnd reciprocated by bncing his center of gravity to enter his taijutsu battle stance.
Once these 2 were prepared, the battlemenced!
Gong!
Once the gong was sounded, both students erupted with speed as they activated their movement techniques and rushed toward each other.
Turan rushed with extreme speed as what seemed like a purple gale followed him, while an orange gale seemed to envelop and follow Rnd as he ran.
As Rnd looked at his opponent, a lot of things went through his mind. Being recognized as one of the favorites to win the graduation tournament, Rnd entered hoping to achieve a result that he would be proud of for life.
His life as a student not part of the privileged few was hard, but he tried his best and persevered, making the best use of what life had in store for him.
After a lot of hard work, he got to where he currently was today and he didn''t intend to fall again. Though his opponent was the terrifying Turan, he did not want to lose, he wanted to enter the semifinals, and he was determined to win!
While these thoughts went through his mind, it took only a few seconds before he closed the distance to his opponent as his eyes turned a fiery red the next moment like that of a raging burning fire.
Rnd smoothly manipted and channeled his mystic energy as easily as moving his limbs as he went on the offensive without hesitation.
"Fire Skill: Fire Kicks of Destruction!"
Instantly, Rnd seemed to turn into a meteor that rushed towards his opponent but Turan was calm as he defended with his mystic sword.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Turan''s eyes were as calm, focused, and dangerous as those of an eagle as he coordinated his body to defend against the attacks of his opponent.
Rnd did not go one-dimensionally, Turan''sbat basics were too solid to be overwhelmed by such basic moves which were why he improvised.
"Martial Technique: Vibrating Palms!"
Having started using his iron shirt martial technique for defense already, Rnd soon started using his vibrating palms martial technique which was his real killer move in this quarterfinal battle.
His palms struck out with the speed and lethality of a raging fire in harmattan, hiding a lot of lethal motives behind each strike as his fierce offensive kept Turan on the defensive side.
His palm kept on striking the powerful mystic sword, trying to deflect it time and time again as Rnd aimed for one strike against his opponent''s vitals.
Despite the fierce offensive of his opponent, Turan never relented. He rarely used his mystic energy for powerful lightning attacks, mainly using it to empower his sword attacks with lightning attributes to make the battle fast-paced.
Turan had the means to unleash powerful attacks with his mystic ability but he didn''t, he wanted to savor this battle to the fullest against such a powerful opponent, he wanted to use it to hone his battle instincts more.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
While the spectators held their breaths, these 2 students went back and forth against each other for 4 minutes before Turan finally found an opening.
Once an opening appeared, he struck like a viper.
"Lightning Sword Skill: Lightning sh!"
Crackle!
,m Turan''s sword sh was apanied by a mighty lightning manifestation as this attack aimed to obliterate Rnd but Rnd reacted.
Rnd rapidly retreated as he unleashed 3 rapid Disintegration Palm fire skills at the lightning manifestation only to end up with no result.
He didn''t give up though, at this moment of truth, Rnd briefly closed his eyes to meditate and when he opened them, they were burning fire.
Rnd suddenly threw a punch at the lightning attack.
Boom!
His body convulsed a bit as an unseen current spread through his body, dealing untold damage, but he persevered and to the shock of all the spectators, Rnd was able to grab the lighting manifestation.
"Advanced Fire Skill: Energy Redirection!"
Rnd released a ssic in the quarterfinals!
Rnd''s move proved that every one of the students who qualified for this stage had hidden trump cards. He grabbed the lightning manifestation, squeezed it, and molded it to his use before redirecting it back to Turan.
Turan was shocked but he was able to react on time as he activated one of the mystic effects of his Triple Kill Sword which was a defensive effect.
Boom!
Turan was attacked by his own attack, but he was saved by his sword.
While holding his sword vertically, Turan peeped and he noticed his opponent''s exhaustion after hisst move. Instantly, he pounced like a tiger.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Bolt!"
Once the blueish-white mighty lightning bolt materialized in the air, Rnd''s fate was sealed. The lightning bolt descended with tyrannical energy.
BOOM!
Rnd was fried to a crisp after a wonderful performance, he wasn''t eliminated yet though despite his terrible injuries but he could not counterattack either as Turan ruthlessly went for the killing blow.
Turan rapidly feinted to the right before unleashing a rapid finishing move horizontal sh towards his opponent''s head.
Whoosh!
Before the sword could connect, the watching intermediate mystic warrior intervened and saved Rnd from sure death.
After an exciting spectacle, Turan Elliot won the battle and qualified for the semifinals of the graduation tournament!
Rnd Cross lost but he made a name for himself with his use of the advanced fire skill, he fought a good battle.
¡
After Turan''s battle and subsequent win, the first-day battles of the quarterfinals finally came to an end, the spectators returned home satisfied.
All the battles were exciting unforgettable ssics, the only pity was the fact that a powerful student like Rnd Cross was already eliminated from the tournament, and a lot of female spectators sympathized with him.
That day, after the battles werepleted, Rex didn''t have the luxury to gofort Cassandra as he started active preparations for his own battle.
That night, he went to the Sloth bar again and had thest training with his master before his quarterfinal battle.
Time moved like the wind and in just a moment, tomorrow was here.
Chapter 47 The 2nd Day Quarterfinal Battles
9:00 am
Once it was time, as scheduled, the first battle of the 2nd day of the much-anticipated quarterfinal battlesmenced.
"Yesterday, we once again bore witness to why the graduation tournament is held in such high esteem".
"Yesterday, we saw 4 of the best students of Obedin Mystic Academy battling it out for a ce in the semifinals and we were all impressed".
"Today again, we are about to witness the remaining top 8 best students of this academy session going head-to-head to fight for a ce in the semifinals".
"This morning, we''ll first be treated to the sh between the tournament favorite popr known as the Wind Fairy, Morgana Jones, and the peculiar student who is referred to by his course mates as the Bonk Lord".
"This is a sh between one of the best students of the wind department and the only Bonking Rod specialist against the best student of both the wind department and the Tessenjutsu department".
"Duncan Hegemin and Morgana Jones both had a fairly stable tournament run so far, who among them would progress to the semifinals?"
"The answer to that will be answered shortly".
While thementator spoke, Morgana and Duncan were already being transported in their respective elevators as they soon touched the arena.
Once the elevators descended, both students came out to face each other.
Like the sh between Turan and Rnd, Morgana and Duncan spent the first minute just ring and observing each other.
From the look on Duncan''s face, it was clear that he was not too invested in this battle. Duncan fought at his hardest when he was fighting against a horny bastard where he could effortlessly draw on the power of his anti-horny belief.
If Morgana was a horny bastard, then Duncan would be at his best. Just the thought of seeing her continuing to live in the ways of the horny was the greatest motivation that he needed topletely obliterate her.
And only when motivated could Duncan use his more personal skills like his Duncan Sage Art and other anti-horny skills that he created.
When against a normal opponent, Duncan could not fight at his best.
"This battle will be such a pain in the ass". He mumbled in a demotivated manner. "Holy Sage of anti-horny propagandists, help me".
The bell tomence the battle finally rang.
Gong!
"Wind Skill: Floating Leaf!"
Morgana started the battle with her trademark skill.
Once she activated her trademark skill, she blended it with herplementary movement technique as she disappeared like the wind.
Duncan Hegemin did not back down, though he felt demotivated as he was not going against a horny bastard, he still wanted to fight for a ce in the semifinals and so could not afford to take this lightly.
Duncan reciprocated and activated his movement technique as he rushed towards his opponent with his bonking rod ready to smack the shit out of her.
Morgana attacked first by throwing both her Tessens from a distance.
Whoosh!
The Tessens moved like the wind, arriving before their target in an instant but Duncan as a wind mystic ability user also was able to react fast enough.
ng!!!
His ears vibrated to the sound as he barely parried the 2 Tessens at the same time, preventing them from injuring him.
Once he parried them, the Tessens were deflected away but having rewatched the rampage tournament battle and seeing Morgana in action, Duncan took a precautionary measure and ducked before rolling forward.
His precautionary action became his life saver as under Morgana''s control, her 2 Tessens returned to her, slicing through where her opponent''s head was previously. She was not disappointed by what happened though.
Instead, Morgana was ecstatic because the distance between the both of them was finally breached. Once she caught her Tessens, Morgana attacked.
Whoosh!
Duncan could only hear the sound of the wind blowing as Morgana seemed to have started a dance of death with her Tessens as the lead dancer, she attacked with such speed and ruthlessness like she had no limits.
Duncan could hardly keep trace of his opponent''s movements, he could only rely on his intuition to defend and the intuition of a basic mystic warrior was not always urate, Morgana finally got him after just 2 minutes of battle.
Her left Tessen first cut his cheeks which caused Duncan to grimace in pain, he tried to react but he was not fast enough, Morgana''s 2nd Tessen finished the job.
Before Duncan could lose his head, the masters intervened to save him.
After an extremely fast-paced battle between these 2 students, as a lot of people expected, Morgana Jones came out victoriously.
The oue of the first battle was decided, and the 2ndmenced shortly after the 1st as Rex and Jessica were finally invited to the battle arena.
"Give it up as we wee Jessica Molotov and Rex Vector to the battle arena to fight for thest spot in the semifinals of the tournament".
Having watched the previous battle, Rex entered the battle arena with a mind free of all worries. The only thing on his head was his opponent and how best he could dispatch her to qualify for the next stage of the tournament.
Perfume freak Jessica was a renowned student of Obedin Mystic Academy. She was strong, but she was more famous for her looks and her perfumes.
She was Morgana''s number 1 rival for the position of the most beautiful female in the academy though Morgana never cared about such trivial stuff.
She took her looks and perfume extremely seriously and Turan was her crush, this was a detail that she never hid from the public though Turan never cared about how she felt.
Despite her wayward tendencies, she was a strong warrior and Rex was not about to underestimate her.
Gong!
Once the bell rang, Rex unsheathed Berserker from its scabbard before sprinting towards his opponent. Once the battlemenced, Jessica dropped her feminine beauty-freak personality and became serious.
She was a student of the sword department and water department, but she wielded twin broadswords instead of Rex''s single sword proficiency.
She sprinted towards Rex also as she engaged in a contest against the best student in her department. To her dismay, Rex dwarfed herpletely in basic swordsmanship and instinctive reactions.
ng! ng! ng!
Byplementing her sword attacks with her water skills, she sought to find a breakthrough point but Rex was too solid a warrior for her to break.
After 10 minutes of this stable fast-paced fighting, Jessica got tired and finally released an opening which Rex ruthlessly capitalized on like a vampire.
Whoosh!
Rex performed 2 rapid sword sh and stab to make Jessica lose her weapons, then he performed onest sh aimed at her neck.
Jessica could not react still stunned by her opponent''s sudden explosive attack; she was saved by the hidden masters while she was still confused.
After 10 minutes of battle, Rex emerged as the winner. By now, Rex''s credibility in the eyes of the spectators was already turning firm.
Rex was now a contender to win the graduation tournament.
After thisst battle that left the spectators entertained, the 4 students who qualified for the semifinals of the tournament were finalized.
Chapter 48 Turans Struggles
After the quarterfinal battles, 2 days of rest were allocated by the principal to allow the students who qualified to rest and recover to their peak state at which time the battle fixtures for the semifinals were released.
The semifinals would be fought over 2 days just like the quarterfinals.
Day 1 of the Semifinals:
- John Naga vs Turan Elliot
Day 2 of the Semifinals:
- Rex Vector vs Morgana Jones
Once the fixtures were released, Obedin City was left buzzing again as the citizens of this massive city spected on the 2 students who would break the deadlock and qualify for the finals of the graduation tournament.
While the city buzzed with activity, hyping the tournament while betting sites for the tournament sprang up, the 4 students who qualified trained like hell.
John, Turan, Rex, and Morgana all shut themselves off from the world as they engaged in what could only be referred to as a marathon training schedule.
All of them wanted to qualify for the finals and eventually win the graduation tournament, which was why they dared not to underestimate their opponents.
Even for Turan, he dared not underestimate his opponent. None of them qualified to the semifinals by luck, it was entirely by their strength and was the reason why none of them could be underestimated.
They were like 4 vampires; any mistake and your blood will be drained.
¡
The Elliot family mansion¡
Like his 3 counterparts who qualified for the semifinals of the graduation tournament, Turan trained hard from the first day of rest that was given.
He suffered some injuries after his battle with Rnd but with the advanced medical equipment avable to the Elliot family, he healedpletely in just less than a day and could focuspletely on training.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In his personalbat training chamber, Turan moved with conviction as his sword moved, flowing in rhythm with his body like water as he hacked, chopped, shed, and stabbed at the swordsmen robots surrounding him.
Turan already mastered the basics of swordsmanship after grinding for years, so the moves were now instinctive to him as he destroyed the robots but still, his mind could not help but drift away.
Though Turan hated to admit it, he was a teenager who had just be an adult like his fellow students and he was prone to emotional setbacks also.
Turan watched Rex''s battle against Jessica, and this brought back some traumas in his mind that he had been trying hard to forget.
Turan believed in his strength, his results in school proved that he was the best student of his batch but Rex''s sudden explosive growth put him under a lot of pressure and this was all psychological, he could not just shrug it off.
Though he tried, he could not stop thinking about it especially when he remembered the prophecy that his most hated half-sibling, Bruno gave.
Turan lost his mom when he was just 3, and being from such a massive extended family with his father being the patriarch, he hardly ever had the opportunity to interact with his dad.
Outside, people saw him as that stable genius who never wavered but inwardly, he knew that he was fighting a losing war with his emotions and insecurities.
Turan already hovered between that point of genius and madness so many times that he could not count, he was tired, he just wanted to live a normal life.
His wish could not be fulfilled though, he was the best of this new generation of Elliots and therefore had to carry the weight of the whole family on his shoulders.
The weight was already crushing him but he had to keep on pretending to be cool to not attract the ire of his father.
"Ha!" Thinking of all these, Turan suddenly upped his aggressiveness as he channeled his mystic energy and unleashed a lightning energy-empowered sh at the robots.
Bzzz!
A lot of them were fried, but he was exhausted as he fell down on his butt and covered his head in between his legs.
Silence followed for about a minute before a voice interjected. "Young master Turan, what is on your mind?"
When Turan raised his head, tears filled his eyes. "Master Naman¡"
"Come here, kid". The old man motioned toward Turan and he could not hold himself as he ran closer and jumped into his arms.
Master Naman was an intermediate mystic warrior whoter had an ident and lost his mystic energy, thereby returning to being a normal warrior.
By losing his mystic energy, he lost his previous status of a mystic warrior and was thereby relegated to the role of being Turan''s tutor since 3 years of age. He was like Turan''s dadpared to his real father.
Master and student maintained the embrace for minutes before the old man asked. "You''re thinking of that student again?"
"Yes, master, I can''t seem to remove him from the back of my mind. Last night, I even dreamt of him".
The old man patted Turan''s back. "It is ok to feel scared, it is a normal reaction, what matters is how well you react to it and if you can rise and get stronger from your moment of weakness".
"How did he get so strong all of a sudden?" Turan asked and looked his master in the eye.
"He awoke mystic energy".
"I know, but¡"
Master Naman turned his back to Turan. "It is normal kid. Rex is a sword genius, so are you also. What held him back previously was theck of mystic energy, once he got it, his shackles were released".
"Rex is a strong kid, but there is no guarantee that he''ll get past Morgana".
"Besides, give yourself some credits, you''re the best student of your batch".
"Remember this, you''ll only win when you believe in yourself first. Believe that you''re the best which you are and you''ll be the best".
After saying thatst part, Master Naman started walking away. "Keep on training and believe in yourself".
Seeing his master''s departing back, Turan finally cleaned the tears from his eyes as his grip on his Triple Kill Sword tightened. "Thank you, master".
Once his master left, he turned to face the robots. "Initiate hell-level test!"
"Warning! Hell-level test¡"
"Do it, this is an order!"
"Yes, Young master Turan".
"Initiating hell-level test¡"
As the strongest robots in hisbat training chamber got prepared to confront him, Turan''s face became serious as lightning shed through his eyes the next moment, then he exploded forward with speed.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: ¡"
¡
Inside the 2nd most sacred region of the Elliot mansion, the patriarch''s chambers¡
Knock! Knock!
"Come in". A deep voice reverberated from within the darkness.
Once Master Naman opened the doors, dim lighting came up that illuminated the room slightly, presenting the faint back of the revered patriarch of the Elliot family who was sitting cross-legged meditating.
"How is he preparing?" The deep voice of the patriarch asked.
Master Naman knelt on the ground and kowtowed before replying. "He is slowly getting along¡"
"He needs to get along fast!" The deep voice of the patriarch turned sharp.
"Yes, my Lord¡"
"Do all that you need to keep him at the best state for the semifinals and the finals subsequently. Since he qualified to this stage, the results are already out of his hands".
"This is no longer his contest, but a contest between mystic families".
"Turan must win the graduation tournament!"
"Yes, my Lord".
"Leave!"
Master Naman kowtowed onest time before turning to leave.
Chapter 49 Semifinal Showdown- Turan Elliot Vs John Naga!
The days moved like the wind and it was already the D-day.
After 2 days of anticipation and a lot of hyping on the parts of the citizens of Obedin City, and a lot of training on the parts of the participating students, the first day for the semifinal battles finally came.
All of Obedin City and beyond gathered as one to spectate the ending stages of the graduation tournament as it was broadcasted throughout the city.
Thementator came alive as he introduced the 2 contestants.
"Here we are again for the semifinals of the graduation tournament".
"Today is going to be a special day for us as we wee 2 of the favorites ranked at the very top of the graduating students to the battle arena for their epic sh".
"Give it up as we wee John Naga and Turan Elliot to the battle arena".
The cheers from the spectators were earth-shaking as the 2 elevators approached the battle arena.
The spectators were notably divided into 2 factions, with the majority supporting Turan while a sizeable number of them supported John.
The excitement and emotions in the air at this moment made the pressure of the semifinals increase, everything was at stake in the semifinals.
ng!
Once the elevators touched down on the arena, John and Turan finally came out as their eyes shed immediately. 2 distinct mystic energies seemed to briefly collide in the air in a short tug-of-war struggle.
Throughout the past 2 days, they already studied each other in such details that they were able to make inferences from the slightest of reactions.
They just red at each other while ignoring the noise being made by the spectators until the bell finally rang.
Gong!
Once the bell rang, Turan avoided eye contact with his opponent but like usual, John was as urate as a neurosurgeon as he made his move just a few milliseconds after the bell rang.
In that short moment, he managed to channel his mystic energy to activate his mystic ability and the dangerous ripples soon came into effect.
Originally, Turan held his sword with both hands as he entered his sword stance but the next moment, his hands that held his sword dropped lifelessly as his eyes turned into a spooky grey color.
Like usual, John''s mystic ability remained omnipotent, even the mighty Turan was pulled into an illusion in his head.
"¡You were destined to lose from the beginning".
"¡My mystic ability is omnipotent!"
Once Turan saw the battle arena changing, he instantly knew that he already sumbed to the mystic ability of his opponent.
Unlike Cassandra, he wasn''t rmed nor did he panic, he was as calm as a dove as he concentrated inside his head while ignoring the ramblings of his opponent to mess with his mental state.
Unlike Cassandra, his master alreadymunicated with him and revealed the best and perfect way to counter this mystic ability which was why he was calm.
Once John dragged his opponent into the illusion world, he did not take things casually like when he fought against Cassandra.
Though Turan''s mental resilience was a lot weaker than he expected, John did not leave anything to chance as he pulled his 2 knives out before breaking into a mad sprint towards his opponent.
While John sprinted towards him, still stuck in the illusion world, Turan concentrated so much until he finally made contact with his mystic energy again.
Once he made the contact, Turan smiled.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Bolt!"
Inside the illusion world, the sky revealed a massive crack as storms seemed to gather there. The turbulence grew so strong till the skies were torn asunder to enable the descent of the mighty lightning bolt.
Boom!
Once the lightning bolt descended, the illusion world cracked and shattered.
Turan opened his eyes the next moment only to see the gleaming sharp edge of a knife rapidly closing towards his head.
ng!
In the nick of time, Turan shed upwards with his Triple Kill Sword and parried the attack and without wasting time, he activated the 2nd mystic effect of his mystic sword which was called the Shockwave burst.
John tried to capitalize on his advantage and continue his barrage of closebat stabs, but the shockwave burst pushed him back the next moment.
John was affected by the attack as he coughed blood.
With this moment of reprieve, Turan was now in his domain as he held his Triple Kill Sword tighter before lunging forward to go on the offensive.
"Mystic Soul Skill: Mind Burst!"
Whoosh!
The next moment, a barely visible ripple spread from John as the center as Turan was hit without being able to dodge.
Turan staggered as his head felt like it was just hit by a massive hammer, this attack dealt damage to him as blood seeped from his nose.
The Whispers of the Soul mystic ability of the Naga family could not only use illusion attacks. They were masters of the soul; they had a myriad catalog of soul skills that could affect and deal damage to the mind apart from illusions.
As the new generation prodigy of the Naga family, John had ess to all the skills that he needed and already formed his repertoire of them.
"Mystic Soul Skill: Your Greatest Fears!"
"Dagger Skill: Spinning Dagger sh!"
John throughout all his battles till now was never forced to use more than dragging into an illusion, but now, for the first time, he finally went all out.
Once John activated the 2nd mystic soul skill, Turan''s face contorted like he was in a great amount of agony. Veins popped in his eyes as he tried to forget his greatest fears only to face the defiance of John''s evil skill.
This skill brought out his greatest fears, his greatest traumas, highlighting them before him in a way that he could not ignore.
"Ahhhhh!!!" Turan roared in frustration.
Whoosh!
By now, John already arrived beside him with his knives as he spun like a whirlwind while unleashing a barrage of knife attacks in the process.
Once Turan was shed 3 times with blood flowing in waves out of his abdomen, the pain stimted him into alertness.
Turan instinctively activated the defensive mystic effect of his mystic sword while he jumped backward as his eyes now had an extra look of malice in them.
Turan just saw John as an opponent before, but now he saw him as an enemy. This enemy seeded in triggering him to an unreal state.
"Die!!!" Turan roared as he rushed back towards John.
Like his opponent, Turan no longer held back, he went all out!
"Lightning Skill: Lightning Charge!"
"Lightning Skill: Spilling Chaos!"
"Sword Skill: Repeated Spinning sh!"
Whoosh!
Turan started spinning like a bull on steroids as his Triple Kill Sword shed towards his opponent with lightning apanying it.
The lightning charge skill enveloped his body with lightning, giving him additional damage advantage while increasing his charging speed while the spilling chaos filled the air with chaotic lightning streams that bombarded John.
Pairing these 2 lightning skills with his repeated spinning sh, Turan went for his opponent''s head straight as John struggled to defend.
Once Turan went all out, his main attributes and battle style easily became known. He was so much different from Rex.
Unlike Rex who was a clinical swordsman who gave a lot of details to finesse and uracy, Turan gave more emphasis to power which gave every one of his attacks such an overbearing attribute that destroyed everything.
John attacked Turan with more mind attacks but anger became the anchor that Turan relied on to withstand the lethal effects of these mind attacks.
He was so angry that though he suffered a lot from the attacks, he never gave up as his determination to eliminate his opponent instead kept on going.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Turan and John went back and forth for 5 straight minutes without any rest in-between as they inflicted each other with a lot of injuries.
After the 6th minute, Turan felt his energy depreciating, this was when he knew that he needed to take drastic action.
Turan finally decided to reveal his remaining hidden trump cards.
"Advanced Sword Skill: Triple shes of Death!"
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Chain!"
Once Turan activated 2 advanced skills at once, his presence changed instantly. His Triple Kill Sword glowed a bright blue as he took a step forward before unleashing 3 extremely swift sword shes.
The first sh was aimed above John''s head, the second was aimed to his left, while thest was aimed to his right, then John was trapped.
Instantly, John felt like he was being held by invisible shackles that dragged him down. This subtle use of sword domain by Turan caught John off-guard.
Just like Rex, Turan already partially unlocked his sword domain.
Once John was trapped, then the powerful advanced lightning skill finally descended. Thick chains of lightning descended on the defenseless John as they battered and thrashed the hell out of him.
John was almost fried to the bones before the watching intermediate mystic warrior intervened, John was electrocuted into aa.
Once the intermediate mystic warrior intervened, the battle ended and silence reigned everywhere both in the spectator stands.
The graduation tournament just produced another ssic.
Turan was thest man standing. He held his Triple Kill Sword tighter as he looked at his opponent. "I am the best".
The next moment, Turan coughed blood and fainted. The mental attacks from his opponent were no joke, Turan was terribly injured.
Chapter 50 Semifinal Showdown- Morgana Jones Vs Rex Vector!
Once the first semifinal showdown came to an end after producing another ssic of this graduation tournament, the hype surrounding the 2nd semifinal showdown only increased the more.
Rex returned home that day under a lot more pressure than before.
Though he tried to downy it, Rex in his secret time still marveled at his tournament run so far. At times, he was shocked by the outrageous speed at which he improved since he awakened mystic energy.
Rex still remembered a week and a few days ago when he still had no hopes of getting a good result in the graduation tournament, but here he was, in the semifinals. Everything felt surreal, the world was so random.
Now, he was about to go toe to toe against the 2nd overall best student of this batch of students, Morgana Jones.
If Rex said that he was not under pressure then he was lying. During this time when alone he could not do it, his 2 friends became his bestpanions.
Though they were already eliminated from the tournament, Ben and Cassandra were still his friends and wanted the very best for him.
Throughout the rest of the day, they apanied him, made jokes, and encouraged him to enliven his mood. Trust Ben, he made sure to trash-talk Morgana so much that this warriordy now looked like a clown before Rex.
Rex was grateful for his friend''s help, he finally got back his motivation to train. He trained for the best parts of the day and went to the sloth bar at night.
Master Fixten didn''t train with Rex today, he only sat him down and gave him advice, revealing some valuable hints to him before finally sending him away.
At this juncture, only Rex could control his fate.
¡
Time moved like the wind; the D-day was here.
"We''vee a long way from the first phase of the tournament all the way to the 2nd-day showdown of the tournament''s semifinal".
"Today, we are sure to be treated to another battle ssic".
"Just like yesterday, today will be a showdown between 2 teenage mystic monsters".
"Today, we''ll be treated to a showdown between the best student of the Tessenjutsu department and wind elemental department and the best student of the sword battle domain department".
"Rex Vector is a prime example of what a dark horse is. Nobody expected him to make it this far, and we can''t wait to see how far he goes".
"Give it up as we wee the Wind Fairy and the Sword Vampire to the battle arena to fight for a ce in the finals".
After getting his own fanbase among the spectators, Rex got this nickname, Sword Vampire due to his precise and ruthless sword battle style.
ng!
Once the elevators touched down on the arena, both students came out from opposite sides as, like their predecessors, their eyes shed.
A psychological battle through the eyes started between both students as they lost perception of time before the bell finally rang.
Gong!
Once the bell rang, like the wind, Morgana grabbed and brought out her pair of deadly Tessens while Rex unsheathed Berserker from its scabbard.
Shing!
Once Rex unsheathed Berserker, perhaps due to the pressure and all that was at stake in the semifinals, he entered such a concentrated state that he seemed to hear Berserker singing to him.
Rex entered his sword stance but he changed the position of his hand this time as he raised his sword to his ears like he was listening to a beautiful melody.
In this state, Rex''s mystic energy flowed to his will.
Whoosh!
Morgana didn''t care about such meticulous arrangements as she activated her movement technique before rushing toward her opponent with speed.
"Wind Skill: Floating Leaf!"
Morgana activated her signature skill from the onset, then without wasting any time, she bent her body backward like a boomerang before shifting forward as she threw her Tessens forward with all her might.
Boom!
The Tessens literally broke the sound barrier.
Rex could not keep up with the Tessens no matter how hard he tried, so he simply closed his eyes and listened to the guiding song that Berserker sang.
Shing!
Rex took a step before shing his sword forward the next moment.
"Sword Skill: Boomerang sh!"
With this massive sword sh, a much more gigantic sword energy followed and this sword energy went straight towards the trajectory of the flying Tessens.
ng!!!
Rex literally felt his ears vibrating as the sound of sword energy and metal fans colliding reverberated, but he still managed to keep his concentration.
The sword energy came out on top after the confrontation as the pair of Tessens was deflected away, but Morgana was as attentive as an eagle.
"Advanced Wind Skill: Eagle Flight!"
Just like Turan, Morgana showed her genius by revealing her 2nd advanced skill in this tournament as this warriordy took flight into the skies.
Mid-flight, Morgana motioned with her hands as her Tessens flew back towards her. Once she grabbed them, she briefly closed her eyes to garner concentration and when she opened them again, they glowed purple.
"Advanced Wind Skill: Tessen Wind Storm!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Once Morgana activated her 2nd advanced skill, she seemed to turn into a sky goddess as a wind storm of des was unleashed toward Rex.
The sky was filled with so many wind des that it seemed that Rex would be cut into pieces, but Rex never gave up.
Rex stood his ground, adapting his sword stance into a basic defensive stance as he removed every distraction from his mind. The only thing remaining in his sight now was the wind des and his opponent.
"Sword Skill: Plutonian sh!"
Rex activated his best sword skill, but not just once, not twice either, he kept on activating Plutonian shes while activating Berserker''s mystic effect at the same time as dozens of sword energies were unleashed towards the sky.
The sound was like those of exploding dominoes as the dozens of sword energies collided against the wind des released by Morgana.
Sword energy kept on canceling wind des even as Morgana descended. A minuteter, this warriordy finally descended.
Boom!
Once she descended, meleebat began.
ng! ng!
While still channeling their mystic energy, Rex and Morgana began an epic melee mystic battle as the pair of Tessens and Berserker kept on colliding.
"Wind Skill: Storm Push!"
"Wind Skill: Air Cannon!"
"Tessen Skill: Tessen Barrage!"
"Wind Combination Skill: Tessen Storm!"
Morgana was unrestrained, and Rex showed her that he was relentless.
"Sword Skill: Needle Stab!"
"Sword Skill: Drilling Stab!"
"Sword Skill: Boomerang sh!"
This was an epic showdown between 2 students who were the absolute best in their various battle domains. They ground so much for so many years that their basics were as solid as a rock, they fought without leaving any openings to exploit.
Morgana and Rex''s battle was legendary!
ng! ng! ng!
Tessens and Sword collided in an epic showdown between these 2 students that went on for 7 minutes non-stop, they both already sustained a lot of injuries.
The more time went, the more Morgana''s little advantage grew. As the only one of the 2 who had ess to advanced skills so far, she dominated Rex in this aspect since advanced skills were so much more powerful than basic skills.
Anytime that she revealed one of her advanced skills, though it drained her mystic energy, Rex suffered a lot.
Rex survived till now only because of his strong will to not lose.
"I can''t lose now!"
"At least not after getting this far, not after putting up such a good fight!"
Rex was reluctant to lose, he must not lose!
By now, the spectator stands were as silent as a graveyard as these glory hounds watched this sh of titans filled with emotions and talent gravely.
No one supported one student over the other anymore, Morgana and Rex impressed them. They would apud both of them no matter who won.
Whoosh!
Rex sustained another injury to the cheek which destabilized him. Before he could recover, he received a kick to the face which made him stagger backward and Morgana ended thebo by activating her Tessen''s mystic effect.
As the jet stream of air shot towards Rex, his eyes glowed aggressively in defiance of the reality, he was about to lose and he didn''t want to lose.
There was nothing Rex could do again, Morgana finally cornered him and it left him frustrated as his stress levels rose to an astronomical level.
In this state, pushed by the pressure, Rex got close to and understood his sword in a way that he had never understood before.
He got close to something that felt like a bottleneck, Rex felt it about to tip over and break but at thest moment, it stalled, the force was not enough.
Rex almost deted but he was distracted by something. All of a sudden, the same phenomenon that happened to him over a week ago when he fought against his first mystic beast happened again.
Rex''s vision suddenly changed into a bloody red battlefield.
Unlike thest time, Rex''s visit here was brief as he returned to reality the next moment but during the brief stay, he saw something that ingrained itself into his head. He saw something that his father taught him before.
This sight was what enabled Rex to tip over that little bottleneck. Rex suddenly channeled his mystic energy in a way that he had never done before.
Ptui!
Morgana''s Tessen finally cut his neck but due to his fast reactions, the Tessen was not able to cut all the way through and this was Rex''s chance.
Like that day, Rex''s eyes were now bloody red as he red at his opponent. Then he roared with all his might the next moment.
"Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move!"
BOOM!
This time, not even the watching intermediate master was able to react on time. Rex''s horrifying sword attack cut a shocked Morgana into 2 as blood flowed like rain, everybody was shocked!
As Rex red agitatedly at his opponent''s half bodies, a change suddenly happened as Morgana changed into water before pouring down on the arena.
While everyone failed to react, the Wandering Moon Queen did.
Morgana survived; everyone was relieved but it was the oue of this legendary battle that would remain unforgettable for all their lives.
Rex Vector won!
Chapter 51 Eve Of The Final
The oue of the 2nd semifinal battle came as a massive shock that took Obedin City by storm. After an unforgettably intense battle, the Darkhorse, Rex did it again and emerged as the victor against the revered Wind Fairy.
The Darkhorse indeed made it all the way to the final of the tournament!
While the city was still reeling over and trying to recover from the shock, Rex and Morgana were hospitalized due to the injuries that they sustained in the battle.
Depending on the state of the 2 students who qualified for the final of the graduation tournament would the principal of Obedin Mystic Academy dere the day for the final battle of the tournament.
A day after the battle did Rex finally wake up after the exhaustion of the semifinal battles, and Principal Dominic finally released the date for the finals.
"The Finals wouldmence 4 days from now which is on Friday".
Once the principal released the date, Obedin City started buzzing again as the hype for this final battle flew through the roof.
It took another day after Rex woke up before Morgana finally woke up. Once she woke up, the first thing that this warriordy demanded was to see Rex.
On seeing Rex, she smiled.
"You earned my respect from our battle, Rex, youpletely deserved the win". After saying this, the smile left her face though as she turned serious.
"Though you won, don''t ever getcent".
"I don''t give a damn about the oue of the finals, but you better train hard because I''ll be trailing just behind you. I''ll definitely defeat you someday!"
Rex smiled on hearing that. "I''ll be waiting".
With that, these 2 students shook hands like respectable warriors before they separated.
¡
On finally getting home, Rex was treated to a great surprise.
Using the remaining money that they earned from killing the mystic pig, Ben and Cassandra organized a small-scale home party tomemorate their best friend''s qualifications for the final of the graduation tournament.
Rex''s victory wiped away all the sorrow that was induced by Cassandra''s defeat in the quarterfinals. Cassandra was so sincerely happy for her friend that his victory made her forget the heartbreak of defeat.
After feeding Rex to the brim, the 3 friends had a nice time together as they did every single thing that they loved before sleeping that day feeling fulfilled.
Of course, before Rex could sleep, he gave Berserker his daily dosage of food which was his daily sword practice.
The next morning, Rex woke up to a different Bowling Town than he was used to. All his neighbors were a lot more polite to him as every single individual in this town vouched for him to win the graduation tournament.
Even in Obedin City, everything calmed down as every citizen of this massive city anticipated Friday when the final of this exciting tournament would show down. A solemn anticipatory atmosphere filled the air.
The finals of the graduation tournament was the best event in Obedin City every year, and the citizens of this city revered it.
Their emotions and attachment to this tournament gave it a lot more significance, and it only increased the pressure of emerging as the winner to the 2 peak students who qualified for this stage.
Rex felt the pressure and started an intense training schedule like usual. He trained from morning till he was tired, then at night, he left for the Sloth Bar.
On getting there, Master Fixten waited for him like usual. Today, Master Fixten was not like his usual self as he asked Rex a question.
"How do you improve so fast? It is illogical".
Once his master asked this, Rex finally started reflecting on himself. In hindsight now did it dawn on him how his rise to hegemony had been extremely abnormal. Like, just a week ago, Morgana could thrash him 10 times out of 10.
Rex was also confused, he could only attribute this abnormal growth to his special family, Berserker, and the strange visions and dreams that he had.
Till now, Rex had no idea what the blood battlefield and his dreams meant.
"I don''t know". Rex finally answered sincerely.
Master Fixten sighed like he already expected that. It would have been abnormal for Rex to know the truth when a master like him was clueless.
Before the training began, Master Fixten visibly hesitated a few times like he wanted to tell Rex something but, in the end, he said nothing.
Master Fixten supervised Rex''s training for the next 2 days till the eve of the finals finally came. Today, there was no training in the Sloth Bar, Master Fixten sat Rex down and revealed some truths to him.
Master Fixten looked at the stars in the sky from the balcony as he spoke. "Originally, I''m not supposed to tell any student this but you''re my apprentice so I thought it right for you to have some privileges over others".
"Do you know what a sword domain is?"
"Yes, Master". Rex turned to look at his master. "ording to what I was taught, sword domain is the first major upgrade and step in the mysticism journey of swordsmanship".
"Yes". Master Fixten smiled.
"Swordsmen learn to make use of and know their sword from a young age. We learn this all our lives, and the motive is to be one with our sword".
"When we are one with our sword, nothing can separate us and this is when mystic swordsmen can fight at the peak".
"Normally, you''ll only get to know this after you enter the army but the progression chart of swordsmen is divided into 3 major stages, the sword domain, the mystic sword domain, and the ultimate sword domain".
"The sword domain can be achieved only after bing one with the sword".
"The mystic sword domain can only be achieved after discovering inner peace".
"While thest and hardest ultimate sword domain can only be achieved by discovering your true self".
"In history, there has only been a handful of swordsmen who ever achieved the ultimate sword domain but each one of them are powerhouses who had led wars against the most powerful mystic beast armies".
"Right now, there is no living swordsman with the ultimate sword domain achievement, this is why mystic swordsmanship is declining".
"Thest 2 are not exactly relevant to you now but the first is what I want you to take home from thisst session with me before the finals".
"Remember, sword domain can only be achieved by bing one with your sword".
"That is all for today".
Master Fixten smiled again. "Good luck Rex".
After Rex thanked his master, as he turned to leave, Master Fixten hesitated if he should tell him again but, in the end, he just sighed.
"I can''t let his belief waver now".
¡
After the session with his master, Rex got home and started conditioning his physical and mental state for the battle that would start tomorrow.
Apart from the recognition of being the winner of the graduation tournament, Rex had a personal reason that motivated him to give his all to win this final, Turan Elliot.
For a long time, though he never admitted it even before his 2 friends, he had always seen Turan as his secret rival who he strived to defeat in battle.
Yes, he was the best when it came to swordsmanship but Turan basically dwarfed him in every other category and this made him feel a bit inferior.
This final, not only victory was at stake, his confidence was at stake too.
After all the bullying from Turan''sckies, after enduring the disdain from this much stronger student before, now Rex had the best opportunity on the best tform to pay Turan back in full and he was not about to hold back.
Rex was determined to win the finals, he trained harder that day.
¡
Bam! Bam! Bam!
While Rex trained, Turan also trained with his all, preparing for the finals of the graduation tournament under the tutorship of his master.
Just like Rex, he also had a personal reason that motivated him to win the finals of the graduation tournament by all means.
Though he was affected by the pressure from his father, that was not the main reason for his motivation. He was motivated to win both to erase the shame of losing to Rex in swordsmanship and to prove his half-brother wrong.
Turan was ready to prove that Bruno''s prophecies were not omnipotent. Just the thought of Bruno''s smug look was enough reason for him to train 24/7.
Under this pressure, Turan and Rex trained hard till they got tired and slept.
The night was swift, in the blink of an eye, the golden rays of the sun that heralded the dawn of a new day pierced through the veils of darkness into the skies.
A new day was here, the day of the finals was here!
The day of the sh between Rex and Turan was here!
Chapter 52 The Finals!
That morning, Rex and Turan went very early to the academy.
They not only wanted to familiarize themselves with the massive newly built battle arena that would be used for the finals, but they also wanted to finish theirst preparations in the academy where it would all go down.
As they trained, the time rapidly ticked away like it was being fast-forwarded and in no time, spectators started trooping into the academy grounds.
The final battle was scheduled to start around 9:00 am, and now, it was only 20 minutes to the time as the anticipation reached a peak.
15 minutes to the time, Principal Dominic Barry of Obedin Mystic Academy summoned the 2 contesting students to his office.
Once they stood before him, he addressed them. This time, Principal Dominic had an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face.
"The graduation tournament is not a tournament to breed enmities, rather, it is a tournament to develop bonds between ourselves and to build our unity".
"As you go out there into the arena, remember one thing, you are not each other''s enemies, what the both of you are is calledpetitors".
"The graduation tournament is meant for the both of you to push each other into bing better mystic warriors of Obedin City".
"Always remember that the enemies are the mystic beasts, not Rex, not Turan".
"Compete with a good spirit and motivation and you''ll cherish this moment all your life. Go out there and fight to your heart''s content".
"Go and make the academy proud".
"Go and make history!"
¡
"Rex Vector!" "Sword Vampire!"
"Turan Elliot!" "Lightning Lord!"
10 minutes before 9:00 am, the massive spectator grounds that were built for this new battle arena were filled up. The spectators went wild as the 2peting students in the finals finally entered their specific elevators.
Thementator now had the perfect stage to express his impable poetic skills in the finals.
"And here we are, about to witness the sh of titans!"
"2 students who are already recognized as legends of Obedin Mystic Academy are about to climb this iconic battle arena to fight the battle of the year".
"Their run in the graduation tournament till now is nothing short of legendary, Rex and Turan had both produced some of the best moments so far".
"Rex Vector, a Darkhorse who no one expected to make it up to the quarterfinals has re-written his fate. Now known as a genius and the Sword Vampire, he is about to take thatst step to hegemony".
"His opponent, Turan Elliot, the favorite to win this year''s tournament did not disappoint. After having a blistering tournament run so far, he made it to the final and now has to go against the Darkhorse called the Sword Vampire".
"No amount of poetic words can describe this showdown; this is a sh between a Sword Vampire and a Lightning Lord!"
"Savor this moment because they rarely evere about even in lifetimes".
"Give it up as we wee¡"
Before he got to this point, the spectators'' blood was already boiling hot and by the time he started thest sentence, they exploded as they didn''t let him finish before the arena was taken by a storm of cheers and apuse.
Turan and Rex''s elevators moved at the same time as thementator introduced them as it quickly came close before touching down on the arena.
ng!
Once the elevator opened up, the 2 studentspeting to be the champion of this year''s graduation tournament finally came out from opposite sides.
The cheers and apuse from the spectators exploded even louder.
Rex donned a redbat vest which struck a sharp contrast with the ckbat vest that his opponent, Turan wore.
Unlike almost all the previous battles, Turan and Rex''s eyes did not sh immediately to start a battle of the mind. Both students closed their eyes and remained motionless amid all the noise to condition their minds for this showdown.
The pressure was strong, the disturbance was much, and for them to fight at their best today, they needed to be in their best state psychologically.
They didn''t have all the time in the world to condition their mental state before the battle though as the bell to start the battle finally rang.
Once the bell rang, Rex and Turan''s eyes snapped open at the same time.
Shing!
Shing!
Both of them unsheathed their swords from their scabbards at almost the same time and speed as their eyes finally shed for the first time, the both of their eyes burned with a fiery ambition and determination to win.
"Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps!"
"Movement Technique: Steps of the Nightingale!"
Neither Rex nor Turan took his time, their blood was already boiling hot, and slowing things down would only affect their rhythm at this point.
Once they activated their movement techniques, they disappeared.
Whoosh!
Rex and Turan ran straight toward each other as their eyes seemed to burn holes through each other''s skin. Mid-sprint, they attacked.
"Sword Skill: Boomerang sh!"
"Lightning Sword Skill: Lightning sh!"
Rex''s sword attack was followed by an extremely sharp golden sword energy, while Turan''s sword attack was followed by a silvery-blue corona of lightning.
Bam!
Once both ranged attacks collided, heterogenous mystic energy dissipated in every direction as both attacks ground hard at each other before canceling out.
This ranged attack was the only one, Rex and Turan were too fast as in the small-time frame when both attacks hit, they closed the distance to each other.
"Sword Skill: Plutonian sh!"
"Sword Skill: Emerald Lightning sh!"
Their eyes briefly glowed intensely as their respective swords shed towards each other with full power, Berserker and the Triple Kill Sword were about to have their first official sh.
BOOM!
Once the attack hit, it was like a nuclear bomb just went off as the powerful shockwave momentarily pushed both Rex and Turan backward.
Both of them felt their hands vibrating but only for a moment as they quickly stabilized themselves before lunging at each other again.
Rex and Turan were not just any students, they were both geniuses of the sword battle domain, being 1st and 2nd ranked respectively in this battle discipline.
Their sword basics and instincts for basic mystic warriors were as thorough as a baby''s smooth palm, meleebat was their forte.
ng! ng! ng!
Once they lunged back at each other, both of them began a fierce melee battle. Their body movement and leg movement flowed with the movement of their swords as everything aligned to be as smooth as flowing water.
As Turan released his wide powerful sword blows, Rex countered by releasing precise sword strikes that dripped with lethal danger.
This melee battle was what enabled the both of them to settle down into this final battle, it allowed them to get aplete grip over their nerves back.
For 3 minutes straight, this melee battle continued with neither of them getting injured as it enabled Rex and Turan to find their perfect rhythm back.
For now, their battle seemed to be a draw but it was just starting. After finding their rhythm back, Rex and Turan finally decided to take it a step further.
"Sword Technique: Dance of the 10,000 Drizzling Swords!"
"Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy!"
Bam! Bam!
Once Rex and Turan both activated their mastered sword techniques, the sword battle took on another dimension as a lot of intricacies suddenly seemed to have been added to each move that they made.
They both seemed a lot more clinical and ruthless as their swordsunched at each other for the kill.
Whereas Turan seemed to turn into a master swordsman who learned and mastered 10,000 different sword techniques with lots of variations, Rex seemed to turn into a master of one which was speed.
The Aurora Swordy emphasized speed above everything else. This was where Rex''s advantage started being shown, Rex was superior here.
Seeing the advantage of his opponent was all that was needed to trigger Turan further as he took the battle more than 2 stages ahead at once.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Bolt!"
"Advanced Sword Skill: Triple shes of Death!"
The contest of advanced skills finally began!
Turan used the exact same advanced skillbo that he used in the semifinals to overwhelm John, leaving only some details behind but a prepared Rex was able to react on time to counter this deadly move.
Rex''s eyes glowed golden as with both hands, he grabbed his sword before sending a mystic energy-filled Plutonian sh upwards to counter the lightning attack while he rapidly turned before activating his own advanced skill.
The Plutonian sh was not able to counter the Lightning Boltpletely, only stalling it slightly but that was all that Rex needed to make his ultimate move.
"Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move!"
Rex''s advanced sword skill collided with Turan''s sword skill in an epic sh that canceled out the remaining energy of the lightning bolt.
Boom!
The explosive soundsted only a second before the ringing sound of a sword de reverberated the next moment. Having fought the shockwave, Rex dived in and went for the kill immediately after he countered his opponent''s move.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Chain!"
Turan was not close to giving up though as he rolled backward before pointing his Triple Kill Sword to the skies to summon a chain of lightning attacks.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rex was bombarded by the lightning chain that eliminated John Naga, but his fate was not the same as his counterpart, he would not lose this way.
There was no use holding back anymore, Rex exploded.
"Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move!"
Whoosh!
Chapter 53 A Clash Of Titans!
Whoosh!
The might of the advanced sword skill''s 2nd move was so much more powerful than the first as under Rex''s mystic energy feeding, Berserker cleared away every obstacle with impunity.
The tyrannical sword energy apanying this advanced sword skill literally cut the lightning chains in 2 as it continued towards Turan.
Turan''s eyes widened in shock at this move that was yed by his opponent, and the spectators'' eyes widened even further.
The might of this advanced skill once again put into question Rex Vector''s real identity. In Obedin Mystic Academy, only the privileged students were supposed to have ess to advanced skills.
Rex revealing the first move of the One Autumn Leaf series was already an anomaly, revealing the 2nd move proved that this was no fluke.
By now, it was already confirmed, Rex''s real identity was definitely not simple or a powerful figure was secretly helping him from the dark.
Advanced skills were so much more powerful than normal skills because they could only be created by advanced mystic warriors and above.
Basic skills were the ones that could be created by basic and intermediate mystic warriors, advanced skills by advanced and above mystic warriors, while master-level skills could only be created by super and above mystic warriors.
The Water Doppelganger skill that the Wandering Moon Queen mastered was a master-level skill and was why she was so revered in the mystic warrior circle.
Rex wielding 2 advanced sword skills meant that in one way or the other he had a certain connection to a powerful advanced swordsman mystic warrior.
Though Turan was shocked by the card that was yed by his opponent and the power that he revealed, he still had a battle to fight and he was not ready to give up as he activated the Triple Kill Sword''s defense mystic effect.
Bam!
Once the attack collided, it struggled a bit but it eventually cut through the defense that was erected as Turan sustained his first injury in this showdown.
Turan rolled backward to avoid any further follow-up attack as his shoulder started bleeding, he gnashed his teeth in agony.
With Turan''s injury, the battle suddenly came to a momentary stop. The spectators could hardly breathe due to the tense atmosphere as these 2 powerful students stood still and red at each other.
As they looked, they squinted their eyes in pain.
Turan was not the only one who was injured. Rex suffered a lot from the lightning chains attack though he tried to counter it with his sword energies, the current from the lightning now affected his reflexes a bit.
He bled on his face and other parts of his body, but he was still not resigned to losing, the fierce determination to win stayed in his eyes.
All of a sudden, as these 2 students looked at each other, they seemed toe to a truce without discussion. The barbaric phase of this battle was over, instinctively, Rex and Turan agreed that to win this battle, they needed more.
Whoosh!
Rex calmed his mind as his right leg dragged across the arena floor like he was drawing a circle as he bent down a bit to lower his center of gravity, then he entered his sword stance.
Turan did the same as he entered the exclusive sword stance of the Elliot family. Once these 2 did this, the battle restarted!
"Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move!"
"Advanced Sword Skill: Triple shes of Death!"
Cling!!!
The sound of Berserker and the Triple Kill Sword colliding reverberated loudly like the sounds of a thousand birds singing metal music.
Once they collided once, the 2 advanced skills once again canceled each other out and without wasting a single second, Rex and Turan continued to the next move as they started a barrage of sword attackbos.
Turan and Rex no longer had any thoughts in their minds except thoughts of their opponent, they gave concentrated focus to this battle.
Their mystic energy drained like water as they both didn''t hesitate to make use of it. Advanced mystic skills were released at every opened window of opportunity as this fast-paced sword battle turned a lot more thrilling.
More than once, they both had opportunities to finish their opponents but their grounded swordbat basics enabled them to extricate themselves from these sure-death situations as they fought at their very best.
ng! ng! ng!
It got to a point where only the ringing sounds as the swords collided reverberated in the battle arena.
In this sword battle, Rex and Turan fought at a level that they had never fought at throughout their life, they developed a closer bond with their respective swords today that they had never achieved before.
It was like they were pilgrims in a desert without any signs of water, their only source of sustenance and survival was their sword.
As this realization became firmer in their brains, the closer a bond they developed with their swords as they danced to the rhythm of their swords.
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Lightning Bolt!"
Bzzz!
After fighting non-stop for another 8 straight minutes, Rex''s mystic energy got exhausted first and with this advanced skill, Turan''s also got exhausted.
Without his mystic energy, Rex became a lot more vulnerable but in the past 8 minutes, he was able to get so close to his sword already that he managed to improvise and counter this attack.
Rex''s connection to Berserker at this moment grew so strong as even without mystic energy, they were able to use an ability that was akin to electromaism.
The concentrated lightning bolt was then attracted to Berserker''s de edge and the sword absorbed all the lightning energy like a sponge.
Rex felt weaker after that maneuver but he was far from burned out yet. Once Turan lunged at him, he retaliated like a relentless rabid dog.
ng!
The battle deviated into a contest of swordsmen without mystic energy. Rex and Turan went back and forth with their sword for another 2 minutes before they started regenerating a bit of their mystic energy again.
Rex and Turan were almost equal in everything, Rex''s slight advantage was his swordsmanship while Turan''s slight advantage was his mystic energy.
In the end, Turan recovered enough mystic energy to use a mystic energy-empowered skill first and this was where the big brain time came.
"Sword Skill: The Boar''s Thrust!"
This was a skill that Turan had never used before now, Rex was caught off-guard as his reflexes failed him for the first time.
Turan, knowing about his advantage in mystic energy kept this as a trump card for a scenario like this and when he found the window of opportunity opening up, he did not hesitate to pounce on it like a tiger.
Whoosh!
By the time that Rex reacted, Turan dropped to one knee before jabbing his sword upward for an impossible-to-dodge uppercut blow. The de edge of the sword was already before him, Rex was on the verge of defeat.
On the verge of defeat did Rex finally enter a special state. Everything seemed to fade out of his mind, turning static and only Master Fixten remained.
Rex could see Master Fixten standing above him and lecturing him.
"¡think of the sword as part of the body".
"¡like a finger".
"¡like a tooth".
"¡like an extension of your body like your fingernail".
At this moment when he was on the verge of defeat, Rex''s eyes glowed golden as the light of inspiration illuminated his mind.
"¡like an extension of my body". Rex muttered.
"I and Berserker are one!"
Once Rex dered this, a change seemed toe about in his mind as he broke an invisible limit.
Rex felt his mystic energy rushing again and unlike the previous time like ake, this time it rushed like the waters of an ocean, he felt his limits increasing, and he felt himself growing.
Rex finally moved and his speed was countless times faster than before.
Cling!!!
Rex moved his sword with such simplicity and familiarity that it seemed like he was moving his finger to grab a fish to eat. He easily countered Turan''s sudden attack, and with time still in his hand, he retaliated.
"Sword Skill: Drilling Stab!"
Ptui!
Turan was unable to react on time as the sword dug into his chest.
While gasping for breath in pain, Turan gritted his teeth and kicked against the arena floor as he rolled backward to dodge any follow-up attacks.
In the spectator stands, the few masters watching this final battle were surprised as they recognized the current state that Rex was in.
"Y-you broke the limit?" Turan finally asked as he clutched his bleeding chest.
"Yes". Rex replied simply before lunging forward for the kill.
After grinding with his sword for years, obeying the ways of his father, Rex finally did it and he became one with his sword.
Rex finally unlocked his sword domain!
Whoosh!
This time, Turan stood no chance as he felt like he was facing off against a ghost. His opponent''s sword moved like the wind in his perception, he could not react as Rex''s sword inflicted over a dozen injuries to him in a minute.
Turan was now at his wit''s end. He tried to ess his advanced skills which were his original source of confidence but his mystic energy was too low.
Turan was frustrated, he did not want to lose the finals. He wanted to prove his father wrong, he wanted to prove Bruno wrong, he wanted to prove himself wrong also, Turan could not afford to lose.
"I can''t lose!"
Ptui!
Turan''s yell did not achieve much as Rex shed through his abdomen as blood gushed out like a fountain, Turan could only stagger backward like a drunkard.
He now felt dizzy but he was still head-strong and determined not to lose.
At this moment, Turan felt like he was defying fate, it was like he was going against the will of the heavens, and at this moment did he encounter his window of opportunity also, he entered a special state.
All of a sudden, Turan saw his master lecturing him in this tense moment. Everything was so vivid that he was drawn inpletely.
"¡the sword is your light in darkness, it is you".
"¡hide weakness in deftness".
"¡use both darkness and light".
"¡reveal rity in obscurity".
"¡in surrender be strong".
"In surrender, be strong¡" As he muttered this, Turan was kicked by Rex and as he staggered back did the light of inspiration lit up in his head.
"I CAN''T LOSE!" Turan roared in defiance.
Rex was shocked, the knowledgeable spectators felt even more shocked. Just like himself, Turan was pushed to the brink and this became the opportunity of his lifetime, Turan also unlocked his sword domain!
"I CAN''T LOSE!"
Turan roared again as he grabbed his Triple Kill Sword tighter before lunging back at his opponent for the kill.
From these 2 subsequent breakthroughs, one thing became clear. After they both unlocked their sword domains, their mystic energy limit increased, and, in the process came a flood of mystic energy.
The battle escted again!
This was no longer a battle between mere students, this was now a battle between 2 basic mystic swordsmen who already unlocked their sword domain!
ng! ng! ng!
This time, Rex and Turan were able to go 15 straight minutes as they attacked with their swords while flexing their advanced skills every few seconds.
By now, they were both already thrilled by their performance but they also felt frustrated that despite achieving so much, they could not seal the win yet.
"I CAN''T LOSE!" Turan roared again.
"I CAN''T LOSE!" Rex roared back as he became extremely agitated.
In this tense moment, Berserker became the key. Berserker started singing to Rex''s hearing again as in the brief moment before Rex and Turan shed again, Rex''s mind was transported away into the familiar world of his mind.
The visit this time was brief again but Rex saw a lot of things.
He saw massive battlefields, he saw a sea of corpses, he saw an ocean of blood, and Rex saw himself again.
"Sigh¡" Rex''s future self sighed and this sigh affected his current self.
Ptui!
When Rex opened his eyes, Turan already stabbed him in the abdomen but he didn''t give any obvious reactions as he stared at his opponent calmly.
After that sigh, Rex suddenly seemed to have seen it all. He seemed to have traveled the whole world, he seemed to have done it all and seen it all, now he felt like he was in a transcendent state where he lived above everything.
Rex felt that he already achieved the legendary state of Nirvana, this was when the light of inspiration illuminated his mind for the 2nd time today.
Rex closed his eyes and muttered.
"Self-created Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana sh!"
Whoosh!
Chapter 54 The Winner Of The Graduation Tournament!
Rex achieved a legendary feat that not even himself ever thought possible!
The first time that Rex entered the world of his mind was when he fought against the mystic pig. Then, it was detrimental, almost resulting in his death, and was why he dreaded this strange urrence happening again.
The next time that he entered the world of his mind was in his dream.
In his dream, Rex saw himself on a bloody battlefield where he saw an older version of himself. He wasn''t sure if that was his future self, but the resemnce was uncanny, and his intuition told him that the dangerous figure was him.
He didn''t understand exactly what the dream meant and what connection it had with what happened when he fought against the mystic pig.
This had always been a concern that nagged at him as he contested in the graduation tournament, and here in the finals, it happened again.
At first, on seeing it happen again, Rex despaired, thinking that this would be the catalyst that would make him lose but what happened next shocked him.
In the world of his mind, his future self sighed and this sigh affected his current self. It was this sigh that dragged him into the special state of inspiration where he seemed to have achieved nirvana.
After he came out of the world of his mind and closed his eyes, the inspiration that he got revealed a lot of mysteries that he didn''t know of before.
No matter how much inspiration a basic mystic warrior got though, he could never create an advanced skill.
Rex never created an advanced skill though, all that he did wasprehend the advanced skill that his future self created through the world of his mind.
Rex had no idea how this was possible; everything was still a mystery to him but he didn''t care because he sought strength and he finally got it.
With this strength, Rex believed that he could win the finals of the graduation tournament and he did not hesitate to make use of it.
During the time that he closed his eyes toprehend the advanced skill, Turan managed to stab him in the abdomen with his Triple Kill Sword but all that didn''t matter now since Turan was now in grave danger!
"Self-created Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana sh!"
The attack came too fast, and Turan was too close, he could not dodge.
At this moment, Rex seemed to carry the aura of an otherworldly creature as his mystic energy-empowered sword sh came down like it had the power to sh the earth in twain.
The spectators all held their breaths at this moment as the sword came down. By now, they were already too shocked to feel shocked again.
Whoosh!
"I CAN''T LOSE!" Turan roared again.
The determination of both students came to the rescue again as in the nick of time, Turan was able to let go of his sword and try dodging to the left.
He managed to avoid death, but Turan lost his right hand!
"Ahhh!!!"
Turan roared in pain as his eyes became bloodshot, he gritted his teeth to suppress the pain as his fierce determination to not lose rose again like a Dragon who was determined to protect her eggs.
Despite the blood that flowed like a fountain from his right hand, Turan''s blood-shot eyes shone likenterns as the veins in his face moved like worms.
Whoosh!
Rex''s Berserker came shing again for the killing blow but Turan managed to duck and roll backward despite his bleeding arm and his hopeless situation.
Having lost his sword, this battle was out of his control already and his only hope of winning was to try flipping the chess board to make the game even again and this was exactly what Turan did.
"I CAN''T LOSE!"
Turan roared before exploding with speed towards Rex again to try tackling him down. Rex looked on calmly as he raised his sword for another mighty sh.
"Self-created Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana sh!"
Rex was not about to take any chances, he respected Turan too much to do that, he intended to end this battle without any fanfare now that he had the chance, and unleashing his strongest skill was the best way to go about this.
Before he could finish channeling his remaining mystic energy to empower the skill though, Rex''s concentration wavered¡, the world of his mind struck again!
"No¡!" Rex could barely shout before he lost concentration.
Bam!
Before he could regain his concentration, Turan already arrived before him as he dived at him with his lone hand and tackled him to the ground.
With blood-shot eyes stimted by desperation, on finding out that he could not fight effectively due to his lost right arm, Turan''s brain worked at the speed of aputer as he improvised instantly.
Turan opened his teeth and ruthlessly bit on Rex''s arm.
Rex tried to retaliate but the world of his mind struck again!
Bam!
Turan elbowed Rex with his lone hand and with this, Rex finally lost grip on his mystic sword. Berserker fell on the arena without being able to help.
On seeing Rex in a state like he was struggling against himself, Turan was confused but the desperation in him to win was too strong for him to care about his opponent as he rolled on the floor towards his sword the next moment.
Once he grabbed his Triple Kill Sword, Turan jumped back towards his opponent, putting his all in for ast desperate stab.
Rex''s mind screwed himpletely, when he opened his eyes, the tip of the sword was already before his face, he was helpless.
This time, there was no breakthrough out of the blue to help him out.
Just a moment before the tip of the sword pierced Rex''s head, the watching intermediate mystic warrior who was assigned to the finals finally intervened and rescued Rex, the winner was already decided!
Unlike what was expected after a final battle, the spectator stands were as silent as a graveyard as the spectators struggled toprehend exactly what just happened. Their emotions were still on cloud 9 without any signs ofing down.
Thementator was the one who recovered from his astonishment first.
"And we finally have our winner after an unforgettable spectacle of genius mystic warriors that would probably remain in our minds forever".
"This is a final battle that is iconic enough to go in the records!"
"The winner of the graduation tournament 508 A.M is Turan Elliot!"
This was when the spectators finally reacted as they exploded, roaring, cheering, and apuding no one, in particr, all for this unforgettable spectacle.
While the spectators roared, an exhausted Turan copsed on the arena. Tears mixed with blood flowed from his eyes as he finally fulfilled his dream.
While Turan rejoiced, Rex was in agony. His eyes teared up on their own volition as he looked back to how close he came to winning, Rex fainted.
¡
While celebrations that marked the end of the graduation tournament started, taking Obedin City by storm as Turan Elliot, the hero was celebrated, Turan and Rex were rushed to the academy hospitals for emergency treatment.
The battle was legendary, but it came at the cost of the 2 contestants as they came out of the finals battered and shattered.
All visitors were restricted as the 2 students received treatments. 2 hourster, the treatment finally ended and both students survived.
Just 2 minutes after the Doctors left the hospital room though, insisting that the patients be given time to recover, Rex sneaked out of the hospital.
At this moment, Rex was in an extremely unstable emotional state of mind. He was angry, frustrated, depressed, and disappointed all at the same time.
At this moment, he wanted to rediscover his purpose for living because he seemed to have lost it.
Once Rex sneaked out of the hospital, he started a sprint despite his aching body as he intended to either let off some steam or just copse again.
He didn''t have a direction in mind, he just sprinted out of the city into the woods where there were as few humans as possible.
On the way, a few people recognized him as Rex who just fought in the final battle but he stopped for no one until he got deep inside the woods.
Deep in the woods, Rex let off his frustration as he started punching trees randomly. Tears flowed down his eyes as he did this, but just 3 minutes after he started doing this, Rex''s intuition warned him of danger!
After unlocking his sword domain, his danger senses became sharper.
Whoosh!
Rex jumped back swiftly, barely dodging the dagger that almost pinned him to a tree as he turned only to see a group of unanticipated guests.
Rex saw a group of 15 ck-d warriors all with long broad swords tied to their backs. They had a ck hood and a mask on, Rex could not recognize them but their motive for being here was as clear as day to him.
The one who seemed to be their leader raised his head a bit and spoke. "Feels nice to unlock a sword domain, right?"
Chapter 55 Assassination!
2 hours before Rex ran into the woods, the Elliot family mansion¡
This year, the graduation tournament became a lot more important to the Elliot mystic family because a descendant of theirs was able to qualify for the finals of the tournament.
Whereas almost everyone else in Obedin City followed the tournament for the excitement, they followed it because they wanted to win it.
A lot of things were at stake already that they could not afford to lose. Prestige, fame, social standing, political standing, all these and a lot more were now at stake.
Though all these were at stake, the Elliots were not bothered because they all believed that Turan would absolutely crush the tournament and win the first-ce prize thereby bringing honor to the family.
Rex, they''ve not heard of him before, he was a nobody and he qualified for the finals entirely due to luck so they had nothing to worry about.
This outlook was from the perspective of the na?ve ones though. Knowledgeable Elliots like the current patriarch of the Elliot family knew that Rex was not so simple, and that was why he made arrangements.
The patriarch of the Elliot family took advantage of his power and numerous connections in Obedin City to make some arrangements for the finals.
The Sloth Bar was not as hidden as people thought it was, the officials knew of it, but they only ignored it due to some hidden reasons.
The patriarch of the Elliot family already knew of Master Fixten tutoring Rex which was why he sent one of his warriors to go speak with this master.
He offered Master Fixten money and the opportunity of having favor with the Elliot mystic family to make sure that Turan won the tournament, not just winning but that he won the tournament convincingly.
He didn''t know how Master Fixten would do it, he just told the Master to do it one way or the other or he would not be able to cope with the consequences.
Being an intermediate mystic warrior also, the patriarch of the Elliot family had a faint idea of how Master Fixten thought and was why he approached him.
After making this and some other arrangements through his connections in Obedin Mystic Academy, the patriarch of the Elliot family awaited Friday with a free heart until the battle finally started.
When the battle started, it started with a bang as Rex and Turan went head-to-head in a battle that thoroughly entertained the spectators.
While all these happened, the patriarch of the Elliot family was calm but his mood started changing when Rex started showing great determination to win.
Rex fought like nothing in this world, not even death could stop him from winning. After Rex''s breakthrough, he was infuriated, Turan''s breakthrough calmed his mind but Rex''s 2nd breakthrough was what really infuriated himpletely.
At that point, this patriarch''s emotions were already yed with too much and he was positive that his son would lose, he felt his dignity being stomped on.
He calmed his emotions, restraining his fury but he was a man of his words. Like they could sense his fury, they asked for his opinion.
"Patriarch, what are your orders?"
"Kill!"
That was all and the hired assassins went on their mission.
¡
"Feels nice to unlock a sword domain, right?"
Once Rex heard this question, all his hair stood on end like antennas. He felt a chill running down his spine as he bit his lips, stimting himself into alertness.
Rex did not move immediately though; his sword domain gave him such heightened senses and awareness that he knew that he was cornered already.
The way that the 15 assassins stood locked all his escape channels.
"What do you want?"
Rex asked as he took slow and calcted steps deeper into the woods.
None of the assassins replied, they were like dead robots without emotions. They only moved when their leader finally spoke.
"Kill!"
Whoosh!
Once the assassins moved, Rex moved also.
The assassins moved with such lethal purpose that none of their movements was wasted, they were as precise as aputer as they moved and went for the kill without making any mistakes but Rex was able to react.
By this point, Rex was already able to deduce that only their leader already unlocked his sword domain, the others were normal basic mystic warriors.
They did not wield their huge broad swords first, while rushing close, they threw their deadly daggers that whistled through the air like vipers on the hunt.
"Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps!"
Rex activated his movement technique as he reacted decisively. He moved his legs fast, maneuvering left and right to dodge some of the daggers before he jumped, doing a backflip in mid-air that allowed him to dodge the others.
He was not omnipotent though, while he was still in mid-air, the leader of the assassins finally threw his dagger and he ruthlessly went for the heart.
Rex had to shift his already aching body in mid-air to avoid sure death as the dagger stabbed deep into his chest.
Bam!
Once hended on the forest floor, he rolled fast before picking himself up as he started a mad sprint deeper into the woods.
Rex didn''t bother to scream for help, for the assassins to engage him, it meant that they already scouted the whole area and were sure that no one around a few kilometers coulde to help him.
Rex tried to run but it was not easy, he was against 15 elite mystic assassins!
Whoosh!
It took only one dagger to the legs to slow Rex down, and this made his situation a lot more precarious as the assassins finally wielded their broad swords.
Without Berserker, Rex was defenseless, he could only dodge.
Ptui! Ptui!
There was a limit to how much he could dodge though as the massive swords started cutting him apart, one cut after the other, limb by limb.
The leader of the assassins didn''t even bother to get involved in the action as his boys were already more than enough to overwhelm the little kid.
Rex tried his best but his best was not enough here as the assassins literally cut him apart. He had not lost any limb or arm yet because he gave priority to protecting his vitals but his body was already more or less like a bloody sieve.
His green vest was already torn apart, his trousers were now a pair of ragged shorts as Rex staggered his way back while more injuries filled his body.
Only one sword swing to a vital organ and he would be dead.
Perhaps, feeling that the assassination was already taking too long, the leader of the assassins finally made his move. He rushed into the scene so fast that Rex could only see a blur as the assassin feinted to the left before attacking.
Before Rex could react, the dagger was already plunged straight at his heart.
Rex gasped as blood flowed freely out of his mouth, his eyes widened as the flow of oxygen through his lungs became blocked. His eyes became dizzy, the world turned blurry, then Rex fell backward.
Surprisingly, on falling, he fell inside a hole that none of them knew was there before as Rex was quickly buried by the darkness of the hole.
"Get in, we''ll only leave after confirming his death!"
Once they heard their leader''s orders, the assassins jumped into the hole.
Chapter 56 The Hivemind System!
From blurry, Rex''s world turned dark as he fell inside the hole.
Surprisingly, he did not hit the ground even after the first 5 and 10 seconds passed. This hole was so much bigger than expected as Rex kept free-falling like there was no end to the depths of the hole.
As he fell, the wind blew past his face. In the darkness of the hole, Rex was able to feel the slightest sensations as he felt extremely cold at this moment.
His heart felt cold, his body felt numb, and his mind felt frozen.
Even as he fell, the blood from all the injuries that were inflicted all over his body flowed as the one from his heart flowed faster.
As more blood left his brain, the dizzier and more light-headed he felt.
Each second that passed, his life slowly drained away as his heart finally stopped working. His breathing slowly started reducing till it was no more than the whisper as a soft wind blew across a grassy in.
At this moment, Rex could not think of anything, he could only think about his life and how unfulfilling it had been that he would die at such a young age.
A tear drop rolled down Rex''s left eye.
Bzzz!
All of a sudden, as Rex fell, he disappeared.
¡
On jumping into the hole, the assassins experienced the same thing as Rex as the depths of this hole were just simply outrageous.
The main difference between them and Rex was that whereas Rex fell into the hole injured and battered, they voluntarily jumped in while feeling good, healthy, and ready to hunt the young student.
Unlike what happened to Rex when he suddenly disappeared though, they finallynded on the ground after what felt like 2 minutes of free-falling.
Onnding, the group of assassins was shocked to discover that they were in an underground basement. At this moment, they were in a possibly star-studded corridor that led through this huge underground basement.
The fact that they did not die onnding was a testament to the power of these elite assassins as they perched on the walls of the basement like bats.
Though the group of assassins was baffled by the presence of this underground basement, they did not give too much of a damn as they were preupied with locating and eliminating their target.
From the corridor, they started a sweep of this underground basement to determine the position of the lone student who could only wait for his death.
¡
Bzzz!
From Rex''s disappearance, it became apparent that a high-tier space teleportation skill was just used in this underground basement.
Rex reappeared in the depths of this underground basement, inside an altar.
Due to his dying state, Rex already lostplete awareness of all that was happening around him. He could only wait and hope in the fight for his life.
Rex was teleported to the depths of this underground basement where there was a square-shaped altar with 4 pirs at the 4 corners. A circle was drawn in the middle of the altar and burning candles were lit around it.
Rex was teleported here and was ced in the middle of this altar.
Once Rex was teleported here, needles emerged from the altar before poking his skin from different directions as this caused more of his blood to flow out. This time though, his blood was not wasted, the altar drank his blood.
Rex''s heart already stopped working a few seconds ago, his breathing was alreadybored, and with more blood pouring out, he finally kicked the bucket.
Rex gave up the ghost, Rex died!
Crank! Crank!
As the altar drank the blood, draining Rex''s remaining life away, cranking mechanical sounds suddenly started being made like a piece of massive machinery construct that was dormant for centuries finally came back to life.
The cranking sounds revealed the amount of rust that this machine must have umted through the years as more sounds of creaking gears and rolling pulleys reverberated.
The noise started softly at first, but in just a few seconds, it grew louder until it sounded like the nexus point of a nt generator.
It was at this point that a change finally happened in the altar.
With a humming mechanical sound, the altar suddenly fell apart, opening up to reveal theplicated machinery construct that was beneath.
In a jiffy, the dome-shaped machine rose as its top was nowpletely stained red with Rex''s blood. The machine opened up further before covering and wrapping Rexpletely like the cocoon of an emerging butterfly.
Once the machine covered him,plicated series of processes started.
Bzzz!
Inside the mechanical cocoon, Rex''s dead body convulsed as what felt like electrical currents were repeatedly sent into his body. This continued for 2 minutes until his eyes suddenly snapped open again, his eyes were bloody red.
[Ding! Revive mechanism is a sess!]
[Body Analysis: Partially Fit for system instation!]
[Mental Analysis: Barely Fit for system instation!]
[Analyzing sess rate of connection: ¡]
[Sess rate: 45%!]
[Commencing System Instation¡]
[¡]
[Instation Sess!]
[Wee back Upgraded 350!]
[Congrattions! You have sessfully inherited the hivemind system of the Ancient Vector Family!]
[Warning! Host has lost too much blood!]
[Current condition of Host: Half-dead state!]
[Warning System Tip: Locate and Bath in the Blood Pond!]
At this moment, Rex was still light-headed and was still between that point between life and death, he did not understand anything about what was currently going on. Despite not understanding though, he reacted.
Once the system gave the warning system tip, Rex''s body reacted instinctively as he stood up and started staggering deeper into the altar hall.
In less than a minute, he staggered to the deepest parts of the hall and in here Rex saw 3 prominent things. A massive blood pool, a blood throne at the end, with a massive bloody red book resting on the throne''s armrest.
Rex used all his energy to get here, on getting here, he was exhausted.
Rex was unable to hold himself any longer as the short burst of adrenaline finally came to an end, he fell face-first into the blood pool.
Ssh!
Chapter 57 Vampire Rex!
After all the blood that he already lost due to courtesy of the assassins, and all the processes that happened on the altar, Rex now looked as pale white as snow.
He could not pay attention to his surroundings due to the critical state of his body as he fell face-first into the blood pool without being able to resist.
Ssh!
Once Rex''s body touched the blood pool, a slight resonance seemed to take ce between the blood pool, the blood throne, and the bloody red book.
The next moment, a bright red glow erupted from the blood throne as the red glow engulfed the blood pool.
On falling into the blood pool, Rex''s body did not float as he slowly sank deeper inside it. As he was slowly buriedpletely, this was when the red glow covered the whole pool including the water thaty under.
As the red glow covered everywhere, just like the reactions when 2 chemicals were mixed in a chemicalbination, the blood pool sizzled and this was what spread the blood resonance to Rex''s body.
[Ding! Commencing Blood Bath!]
Rex''s body shuddered as he felt like electric currents were traveling through his bloodstream and sucking his remaining blood away.
Even after a few seconds, the transfer of current did not stop as Rex''s body increased its shuddering intensity. As he shuddered, his eyes snapped open and close repeatedly as they glowed a deep red color.
Rex did not know what was happening to him, but perhaps due to the current coursing through his body, he felt strength entering his body from nowhere.
Even as strength returned to him, his body slowly graduated from shuddering to a full-fledged convulsion as the blood pool wrapped his skin up.
In no time, Rex was wrapped up by the blood poolpletely to form another cocoon and this was when changes finally started happening to him.
Stuck inside the blood cocoon, Rex could not see but he felt changes happening to his body. He felt like he was having the best bath of his life as he visibly felt impurities being cleansed from his body.
As more and more impurities were cleansed out of his body, Rex felt himself bing more perfect with time, and all of a sudden, he seemed to have crossed a threshold as he felt a dam in his mind being broken.
[Congrattions! You have ovee the shackles of impurity of the Ancient Vector family and you have unlocked the ancient bloodline of the Vector family!]
[Congrattions! You are now a Vampire!]
[Establishing new connection with the hivemind system¡]
[Congrattions! Your system has been modified toplement your bloodline; you have unlocked The Vampire System!]
[Full system package has been unlocked!]
The cocoon covered Rex for 5 minutes, and after that, it shattered as visible changes suddenly started being detected in his body.
After these 5 minutes, Rex''s body was now paler than ever before, it was like what happened in the cocoonpleted the final deed and sucked all his remaining blood away.
His pale body though spooky was not the real highlight here though.
At this moment, Rex''s body was well-streamlined than ever before, his facial contours were at their most perfect version and his skin was perfect and smooth, Rex was super handsome at this moment.
The greatest highlight though was his teeth. At this moment, Rex looked extremely simr to the future version of himself that he saw in his dreams.
His eyes were cold and red, almost emotionless, his face looked lifeless and 2 of his teeth each from the lower and upper jaws were longer than ever before as they jutted out of the sides of his mouth as fangs.
At this moment, Rex was a real Vampire!
[Reminder Notification: Climb the Blood Throne toplete the inheritance of the Ancient Vector Family Inheritance!]
Once Rex heard this from his system, he stood up instinctively. At this moment, his brain was still a mess from the trauma of the death, and everything but his body still moved like they were being controlled by his emotions.
Rex walked on the blood pool till he arrived before the Blood Throne, then he sat down before holding the bloody red book with his right hand.
Once he did this, his system lit up with other notifications again.
[Congrattions Upgraded Rex, you havepleted the inheritance!]
[You have received the bestowment of the Blood Throne!]
[You have received the Blood Book!]
[Now is the time for you to watch the history of the Ancient Vector Family and see the origin of the Upgrade legendary mystic ability.]
Bzzz!
Rex dozed off in the blood throne and his consciousness woke up in a world that was so much different from today, the 21st century!
Rex''s consciousness went back over a thousand years ago back to the age of awakening. Just like in his dreams, he was here as a spectator as he watched a young man''s journey who looked facially simr to himself.
"Orion Vector!" Rex got the name of this youth without asking.
Orion Vector, Rex finally got the opportunity to see the life of the first ancestor of the Ancient Vector family who awakened the upgrade mystic ability.
Orion''s life was simple and uneventful throughout his first life. It was during his 2nd life after he understood his powers that things started getting interesting.
Through the lens of this legendary ancestor of his, Rex was able to watch the rise and fall of the powerful Ancient Vector family.
As a spectator, Rex watched as the Vector family got to the height of their powers. They became one of the strongest mystic families on earth, but everything changed when the Holmes family attacked.
Rex finally knew the name of the mystic family that brought the end of his family, and he was not exposed to them in the nicest of terms.
The Holmes family rose tyrannically like a viin as they knocked the Vector family down from their high pedestal.
Rex was traumatized as he saw millions of his ancestors dying before his eyes. The Vectors were ughtered with impunity.
After Orion Vector was captured by his enemies, he was put to a trial and was sentenced to death by beheading.
In a public event that a lot of powerful mystic families attended, the once almighty Orion Vector was held in shackles as the executioner''s ax was ced on his neck. Once the time came, the ax swung.
Whoosh!
Orion lost his head, blood dyed everywhere red, painting a scene of gloom.
Witnessing this scene so vividly was so traumatic to Rex that he almost had a heart seizure. Tears were already flowing down his eyes, it was like he experienced all these highs and lows alongside his ancestors, it felt painful.
Bzzz!
Rex''s vision changed as his point of view changed from that of Orion Vector to that of another Vector family member, Lenor Vector.
"Dad!" Rex became emotional once he saw this familiar figure.
Just like his first ancestor, Rex saw the life of his father from the beginning to the end. He saw thest survivors of the Vector family, and he also watched as they suffered the same fate as their ancestors, they were ughtered.
When his dad was beheaded, tears no longer flowed from Rex''s eyes, his eyes were now bloody-red from extreme agitation as fire seemed to burn in them.
His intense look seemed to bore a hole straight to the killer of his dad. This mysterious man had a hood that covered his face and the quality was blurry, but Rex still carved the little details that he saw into his head.
"I will kill you!" Rex growled as his consciousness slowly faded.
¡
When Rex woke up, the first thing that he felt was extreme anger followed by extreme hunger as he opened his mouth and roared to vent his emotions.
At this moment, he was in such a horrible state of mind that he already lost the little bit of rationality that remained, only one word rang in his mind.
"Kill!" "Kill!" "Kill!"
This was when his system lit up another notification.
[You are hungry!]
[You have received your first system mission: Feed!]
[You must drink human blood within the next 24 hours!]
[For every hour that passes without blood, your intelligence will keep on degrading till the extent that you be nothing more than a beast!]
[For every 2 hours that passes without blood, you will lose 1 HP!]
[Penalty for mission failure: Death!]
Chapter 58 Rampage!!!
Rex''s disappearance became a known fact in Obedin City just a few minutes after it happened, but it was only known to a few higher-ups and the police department of the city, the news was not circted.
Though all the leaders of this city already knew the game that was being yed, they acted oblivious as they sent the police to go search for Rex.
Only a few close friends of Rex were really affected by his disappearance.
Having been waiting for their friend at the hospital, Ben and Cassandra were one of the first to know of his disappearance as they entered a panic immediately.
They had no idea where Rex would have gone at this point in time and it left them both fidgeting in worry. Having no idea about Rex''s current state almost drove them mad as their brains kept on thinking up a lot of horrifying scenarios.
In the end, they could no longer afford to stay still at the hospital, they decided that going out to search for their friend would be better than waiting here.
They had no guarantee of his specific destination but Cassandra decided to go for the Wind Mill Tower which was a ce she caught Rex going to most times when he was in a bad mood after being bullied in the academy.
Her best guess was that a sad Rex had a higher chance of going there.
As for Ben, he decided to go to the Chicken Paradise restaurant. He already observed after years with his friend that when Rex was in a bad mood, he tended to be like him, being a lot more talkative and he could eat a mountain then.
He didn''t guess, he hoped that Rex was drowning away his sorrows with food as he started a mad sprint in the direction of the restaurant.
¡
Once Ben and Cassandra moved, some shadows moved with them.
"#1 Target: Rex Vector".
"Appearance: Red hair, Dark brown eyes, tanned yellow skin".
"Personality: A lukewarm between jovial and seriousness, introverted, lover of swords".
"Mystic Ability: ???- Domain mystic energy wielder".
"#2 Target: Cassandra Putin".
"Appearance: ck hair, blue eyes, white skin, great curves".
"Personality: Stable, calm, lover of peace, lover of swords, lover of her hair".
"Mystic Ability: Earth".
"#3 Target: Ben Carter".
"Appearance: Dark skin, chubby body".
"Personality: Carefree, outspoken, hyperactive, knuckle-headed, lover of girls and food".
"Mystic Ability: Wind".
"#4 Target: Gogs Neon".
"Appearance: ¡"
This was the updated kill book of the ck Python assassin group when they finally arrived at their destination, Obedin City a day ago.
This notorious assassin group did note to Obedin City because of the invitation of the Elliot family patriarch, this was their original destination and on finding out, the Elliot patriarch decided to hire them also.
The ck Pythons ranked targets in their kill books ording to the amount of money that was paid on their heads.
9 targets brought them to Obedin City, and of these 9, 3 were the students who were wanted dead by the Elliot patriarch, Rex, Cassandra, and Ben.
Due to his anger, the Elliot family patriarch did not just go for Rex, he wanted to eliminate anything close to him that he held dear out of this world.
It felt petty but for someone in his position, killing the 3 students was just a casual gesture that had no further implications, he wanted to kill them just to soothe his ego, his ego was worth more than their livesbined.
On arriving in Obedin City, the ck Python assassins were divided into 2 groups. The main group with their leader went after Rex, the other group went after Cassandra and Ben.
Now, because of the 2 students splitting up to go look for their friends, they also had to split up to catch up with them since they didn''t want to lose any of them.
The ck Python assassin group was one of the most notorious in the Cold Mountain. It would not be long before the authorities in Obedin City caught wind of their presence, then they would be hunted which prompted them to work fast.
The 2 groups patiently waited till they caught their targets in an isted pathway before they descended upon them like falling leaves in autumn.
Whoosh!
¡
Master Fixten was in a great dilemma.
This intermediate mystic warrior was one of the few individuals who had a detailed guess of exactly what happened to Rex, Master Fixten literally felt his heart being torn apart as he forced himself to stay in his home.
After he was approached by the Elliot family patriarch''s messenger, of course, he was irritated by the foul y but he had no choice but to consent.
This was the mystic world, the mystic families ruled and everyone else had to bow before them. The minimum requirement to stand against them was to be an Advanced Mystic warrior and sadly, he was not.
Master Fixten had never felt more regret for not being an Advanced Mystic warrior like now all his life, he felt dissected.
Master Fixten would have easily prevented this scenario if he told Rex from the onset to hold back and let Turan win convincingly in the final battle.
Originally, he was set on telling Rex this no matter how disappointing it would have sounded to his student but he paused due to the determination to win that was shown by Rex during every night training session.
Rex''s fierce determination and unwavering will toe out as the best resonated so much with him that Master Fixten saw his younger self in the kid.
Unfortunately for him, just like the way Rex was about to be suppressed, he was also suppressed whichter rippled on in his life to stunt his growth potential as a mystic warrior.
Swordsmen, most especially domain mystic swordsmen were emotional warriors. They devoted their whole life to their swords only for one reason, to be one with them and be the best alongside each other.
To unlock sword domain, a swordsman needed to be one with his sword but to achieve that, he needed to have a firm goal in mind first.
Without a firm life goal to channel your willpower, unlocking the sword domain was most times impossible.
Master Fixten would have gone further as a mystic swordsman by now but when he was suppressed as a kid, this affected his confidence, this affected his life goals and he wavered whichter rippled to affect his sword discipline.
He already suffered this once, Master Fixten did not want his student to suffer the same mostly after he saw Rex''s determination to win during training.
Rex''s performance in the finals validated his decision to let Rex go unrestrained but now Rex was in danger and it was all because of him.
Once Master Fixten thought to this point, his eyes suddenly zed like fire. "I can''t let my student die!"
Master Fixten grabbed his sword and rushed out of his home.
¡
[You are hungry!]
[You have received your first system mission: Feed!]
[You must drink human blood within the next 24 hours!]
[For every hour that passes without blood, your intelligence will keep on degrading till the extent that you be nothing more than a beast!]
[For every 2 hours that passes without blood, you will lose 1 HP!]
[Penalty for mission failure: Death!]
Creak!
Once the system gave its first mission, Rex could not pay attention to it partly because of his shattered mind due to seeing the fate of his family and ancestors and partly because he just heard something.
Rex felt that he just heard a sound, he waited and listened and he was not wrong as he heard further creaking sounds.
Due to some strange reason, Rex felt overpowered now that he paid attention to it. He seemed to develop heightened senses from nowhere, his vision and hearing were now clearer than ever before.
Not only that, though he still felt terribly hungry, all the previous injuries that he sustained from the sh against the assassins and the needles already healed.
It was like they were not even there.
Originally, Rex would have paid more attention to this strange phenomenon and tried to deduce the reason why but not today, today was ruined for him not just because of the assassins and his battle loss, but because of his family''s truth.
At this moment, Rex''s abnormal vision enabled him to see the faint red figures of the people who were outside the door, they were the assassins!
The mere realization of this fact riled Rex uppletely.
"Hiss!!!"
Rex hissed loudly before he exploded forward with speed. He ran on top of the blood pool like it was smooth ground as he instantly arrived before the door.
Before he got close to the huge metal door, Rex''s hands and feet already grew long and sharp nails as he jumped before puncturing through the door with them. An incredible scene happened; the door was torn apart!
Boom!
Once Rexnded on the other side, he finally saw the group of 4 startled assassins who clearly didn''t expect the door to suddenly be torn apart.
They were veteran assassins though, they all reacted as they shed with their massive great swords but Rex was having none of it.
Whoosh!
Rex''s speed was unstoppable as his hands moved like the wind as his long and deadly fingernails dug into the throats of the first 2 assassins.
Rex''s right hand mmed towards the 3rd one as this assassin''s head was smashed against the wall, his head turned into a bloody paste from the sheer force.
In less than a second, Rex killed 3 of the assassins. Thest tried to retreat but Rex already pounced on him like a bear.
Once Rex pinned this assassin to the ground, his original intention was to rip his head off but his instinct told him otherwise.
Before Rex couldprehend what he was doing, he turned his prey''s head to the side as he bit into his vulnerable neck with his sharp fangs.
Once Rex bit into the assassin''s neck, he tasted a sweet vor, unlike anything he had ever tasted all his life. Instinctively, he sucked as the sweet nectar of blood flowed from the assassin''s neck through his fangs into his mouth.
Rex''s eyes rolled back in pleasure as his system lit up notifications.
[Your hunger has decreased!]
[Your hunger has decreased!]
[You havepleted first system mission: Feed!]
[ess system for mission rewards!]
Rex sucked all the blood away from the assassin till he died.
His system notification distracted him, but before he could focus on it, he heard another sound.
"What is that¡, a monster?!"
Rex raised his head and hissed again, then he exploded forward with speed.
A Rampage started!
Chapter 59 Eradicating The Assassins!
"What is that¡, a monster?"
The assassin asked as he met a test to gauge his wits.
15 assassins jumped inside the hole alongside Rex. Due to the different paths from Rex that they took to get here, they were able to encounter the normal pathway where they were exposed to the riches of the hivemind.
The hivemindir of the Ancient Vector family had been hibernating here for centuries, this was thest heirloom of this powerful ancient family.
For an Ancient family this powerful, their wealth at their peak could only be imagined. The assassins came for Rex but they saw riches and were tempted.
Though they were obligated by their assassin code to fulfill their mission, they were not shackled by this code and could also make money when opportune.
Once they arrived inside their, they were exposed to a lot of rooms that were filled with different luxuries. Unrestrained, the assassins plundered as they continued their search for their target who they suspected to be already dead.
This great plunder was part of the reason why it took them so long to get to the altar and the hall of the blood throne.
To achieve more efficiency in their search, the leader of the assassins ordered them to separate into 3 teams of 5 assassins each.
One of the teams without the leader was the one who got to the inheritance hall of the blood throne first. On getting here though, the ritual was already done, Rex Vector already fully unlocked his bloodline, and Rex was now a vampire!
What followed after was a ughter as Rex killed 4 of the assassins consecutively while curbing his problem of blood hunger in the process.
Originally, after feeding, Rex was supposed to regain his rationality back but this was not the case this time.
? The experience of failure in the finals, an assassination attempt, bing a vampire, and witnessing the fall of his ancestors all in one day already fractured Rex''s brain too much, he was damaged at this moment.
The first team of assassins who met Rexprised 5 assassins. Thest one lingered behind to watch the other''s backs and this saved his life.
In the blink of an eye, he saw a humanoid beast killing his 4rades.
With the blood of his prey dying his body red, and his already torn clothes with his sharp and long fangs, Rex looked no different from a wild beast.
When this assassin looked into the eyes of Rex, he did not see humanity, he saw a damaged vampire who was out on a rampage!
"Code ck!" The assassin was shocked, but he was a veteran as he pushed a button in his ck lightweight uniform to alert all his remaining brothers.
Once he hit this button and spoke, the assassin turned and without hesitation started escaping but by now, Rex had already gone in pursuit.
Hiss!
Rex hissed like a snake as his speed quickly eclipsed the assassin''s.
Rex with bloody red eyes pursued the assassin through a long corridor for less than a minute before he caught up to him. Once he caught up to him, he pounced on the assassin like a hungry tiger.
This time, the assassin did not sumb as easily as his brothers as he was prepared. He was a powerful swordsman mystic warrior.
Icicles quickly formed on the edge of this assassin''s de as he shed at Rex but with superior speed came superior evasion.
Whoosh!
Rex dodged the attack like the wind as his sharp ws swooped for the prey''s neck. At thest moment, the assassin reacted and blocked Rex''s w but this allowed Rex to pounce on him.
Once he pounced on the assassin, his fate was sealed. Before Rex could rip his face off though, a dagger arrived before his head almost instantaneously.
The dagger aimed for his brain, it was dead urate but Rex''s superhuman reflexes came to the rescue again as he shifted his head to the side at point-nk range, leaving the dagger to stab through his left cheek.
Blood sprinkled in the air like drizzling rain but Rex uttered no cry of pain as he looked up at the assassins with pure hate and madness in his blood-red eyes.
Hiss!!!
While the 10 assassins watched from the other side, while Rex hissed, his cut left cheek squirmed as the skin grew back before the watchful eyes of the assassins.
Instant Regeneration!
All the assassins were shocked as Rex finally bent his head to focus on his prey. His fangs sank into his neck and he sucked his opponent dry in seconds.
"Run!"
The leader of the assassins was unsure of what was happening, but he ordered decisively as all 10 assassins turned to escape.
As usual, Rex showed no signs of exhaustion as he went in pursuit.
His speed was faster than them all. It only took him a few seconds to catch up to them, and he started his rampage again but this time against 10 assassins with their leader being a swordsman who already unlocked sword domain.
Once Rex closed the distance, the leader of the assassins stopped and turned around as heunched an attack on the monster.
All the remaining assassins turned and cooperated with him.
Whoosh!
Rex tried to bulldoze through all the swords with his sheer speed and strength but this was an impossible endeavor as the swords cut his flesh open.
He hissed loudly as he lunged at the nearest assassin even as his injuries were already rapidly healing, but they gave him no chance.
The leader of the assassins led the counterattack as they retreated slowly. Being basic mystic warriors with different mystic abilities, they were able to stand their ground against this rabid vampire who was out for their heads.
Despite how coordinated they were and their experience, this was the first time that they were going up against a vampire, 3 more assassins died to Rex before they finally found their way to an alternative exit door.
Once they saw the door, the assassins rushed there and discovered that it was an elevator. Together, they kept the vampire outside before the elevator took off and Rex could only climb and follow them up like the spiderman.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
His ws rapidly dug into the mountain hole where he fell from as he rapidly scaled upward after the escaping elevator.
5 minutes of rapid scalingter, they finally arrived back at the surface.
Once Rex was exposed to the sun though, his healthy body seemed to shrink and shrivel instantly as he uttered a monstrous groan in difort.
[Warning! You have been exposed to the sun!]
[All your attributes and resistances have been reduced by 50%!]
Rex paid no attention to the system notification as he went after his enemies in pursuit. It took only a few seconds to discover that he was nowhere as fast as before, and this gave the assassins more room to keep their distance.
Rex pursued for 2 minutes until he arrived at an elevated part of the forest. Here, another group of 5 assassins waited.
19 assassins of the ck Pythons followed their leader to assassinate Rex, but 5 were left here to scout for any dangers for the others.
Now, they became the backup force.
"Round em up¡, let''s whittle him to death like a beast!"
Once he met his reinforcements, the assassin leader who was already fed up got his strength back as he led the counterattack against this vile beast.
Well, in this situation in the wild, a vampire was not having the upper hand.
Against the well-coordinated group of assassins, Rex became vulnerable as he received injury after injury without being able to kill another assassin.
Once they figured out his brainless battle approach, they easily countered it and this was what made sure that they kept on tormenting him.
Hiss!
Rex kept on hissing but nothing was working as he umted more injuries. Even as he got more injured though, he never regained his rationality, all his mind was focused on eradicating his enemies.
"He''s already lost it, just coordinate and rotate your attacks, he''ll die soon".
The leader of the assassins led this raid like a dungeon raid against a boss monster, and Rex indeed behaved like one as he got to the point of death again.
He already revived once, now he was about to die again.
In this moment of death though was when a different variable came.
Whoosh!
All the assassins saw was fire shaped in the form of a crescent moon as 2 assassins lost their heads. What followed was the sharp edge of a sword de followed by sprinkling blood as 3 more heads flew.
The culprit of this action did not hide as hended in the middle of the formation of assassins, he wore ck robes and had a long sword.
This man was¡
"Master Fixten, the Raging Fire!" The assassins were shocked.
As mystic warriors who operated in the dark world, a basic necessity of theirs to survive was knowing the enemies that they could not afford to offend.
The Raging Fire was a figure that they could not offend!
Before an intermediate mystic warrior, basic mystic warriors were no more than a group of pigs going against a lion, there was noparison.
The leader of the assassins abandoned his subordinates to fight for his life instantly, but his survival was still not in his hands.
Master Fixtennded in a kneeling stance, and in this stance, he surveyed everywhere from the current state of his student to that of the assassins.
On seeing Rex''s current state, he was startled but there was no time for him to contemte exactly what was happening as he exploded into action.
"No one leaves here alive!"
Once he said this, it was like a mandate from heaven.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Master Fixten''s legs created dust from the forest floor as his sword swiped across, sending fire shes and sword energies everywhere.
None of the assassins escaped, they were all eradicated in a second!
After eradicating the assassins, Master Fixten finally turned to face his student. "Rex¡"
Hiss!
Rex listened not to reason as he pounced at his master.
Master Fixten remained motionless as Rex pounced toward him. When he looked into Rex''s bloody red eyes, all he saw was pain, he sighed. "I was toote".
Ptui!
Rex''s sharp ws stabbed his master''s abdomen but Master Fixten remained motionless as he stared into his student''s eyes.
Startled by his opponent''s motionlessness, the vampire turned to look at his prey in the eyes and this was when Master Fixten moved.
Instead of pushing him away or attacking, Master Fixten hugged Rex.
"I''m sorry, Rex".
Instinctively, Rex''s eyes glowed redder as his ws tried to attack but they dropped weakly after what his prey just said.
"I''m sorry¡" This word reverberated in Rex''s head as he felt weak all of a sudden. In his weakness did he start regaining his lucidity.
Rex''s sharp ws slowly retracted in, his fangs retracted also and his eyes turned to normal as he looked up to see the figure who held him.
"Master¡, what is happening to me?"
Rex fainted amid his asking.
Chapter 60 The Hunter Becomes The Hunted!
Ben had a lot going through his mind as he sprinted in the direction of the Chicken Paradise restaurant where he ate with his friends some time ago.
Though he tried not to think about it, the thought that something bad happened to Rex could not leave his mind and it seriously left him sick.
In this unfocused state of mind, he continued his sprint toward his destination. Once he cut a corner into an isted pathway that would take him faster to his destination though, trouble came.
After biding their time in the shadows, the assassins finally deduced that the time was right as they descended from the nearby roofs like floating leaves.
Ben was unable to catch the sound of the wind movements as they fell since they blended so well with the normal wind, what attracted his attention was the subtle sound that he was familiar with as the swords sliced through the wind.
Whoosh!
Ben felt all his hairs standing on end as he heard this sound. Without even thinking, he ducked before rolling without shame into the nearby garbage dump.
Due to his great sensitivity to swords and their sounds, he felt 8 swords cutting through his previous location while 2 collided against the metal garbage dump, cutting a few inches deep inside as Ben''s heart skipped a beat.
"F*ck! How dare you freaks give me such a scare?"
"What did I do?!"
Even as heined, Ben already rolled back out of the garbage dump.
Once he regained his footing, he observed his surroundings only to discover 10 men in ck with such long swords like they were going for a war.
Ben was confused. "This is not men in ck day, why are you all pals in such cringy customs?"
"Kill!"
"Kill? Wait¡, what?!"
The assistant leader of the assassins gave his order and all the assassins lunged at their target without deeming it fit to respond to his words.
,m "Is this a joke? This is not funny please, just stop it!"
Even as Ben demanded, he took steps backward in fear but it was when all broad swords were swung his way that his eyes widened in rm.
Ben ducked, barely dodging most of the swords that aimed at his upper body as his hair was trimmed. Such a close shave was horrifying, but definitely not as horrifying as the swords that aimed at his lower body.
Having ducked already, Ben had to roll back to avoid being hit but still he was hit. One of the swords stabbed into his chest as he groaned in pain.
He dodged all the others but one of them came the closest to cutting off the most precious organ of his whole body.
As the sword swept across, Ben felt a chilling cold in hisher region, his PP survived the onught by the skin of the teeth and this was what called him into action. By now, he was sure that these freaks were really here for his head.
"F*ck, now you asked for it!"
Ben was infuriated!
He could be stabbed in the hand, he could be stabbed in the abdomen, even in his neck, but nothing was permitted to touch his precious PP.
This was an exotic good that was only touchable to the girls and nobody else.
For the first time in forever, Ben was forced to reveal his secret as his mystic energy essed the storage ring that was hidden in his boxers.
Once the mystic energy essed the storage ring, 8 wrist golden rings appeared that revolved around him that emitted a tyrannical mystic energy presence. Without a doubt, all 8 rings were mystic weapons.
Coming alongside the 8 rings were 3 pills, one blue, another ck, and thest red. Ben swallowed the red pill and kept the others before equipping the rings.
"Bow before the Ring and Pill lord!"
"The entertainment industry has Shang Chi and the legend of the 10 rings¡, well f*ck that because I am the Pill Lord and the legend of the real 8 rings!"
At this moment with the rings and after swallowing the pill, Ben had ess to such mystic energy and control that he had never had before.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Ben shot the rings at the assassins like boomerangs as he advanced with his sword. Before the assassins could react to their changed opponent, Ben already killed 2 of them as he turned into a different beast entirely.
He injured 2 others before the assassins finally recognized the new terms in y. Without hesitation, they turned to escape and Ben went in pursuit.
¡
The Wind Mill Tower was an isted ce in Obedin City that people rarely went to and was why Rex loveding here when he was sad to vent.
After sprinting for 4 minutes, Cassandra finally arrived here but instead of meeting Rex as she expected, she met assassins.
The assassins used a different strategy against Cassandra. Unlike Ben, the knuckle-headed one who could fumble at any moment when startled, Cassandra was too calm for that and was why they attacked openly.
They figured that revealing their numbers at once would give them more of an edge in ending the battle quickly.
Cassandra was an intelligent student; she would easily be able to tell that the odds of victory were against her which would crush her battle spirit first.
Once Cassandra saw them though, her reaction was so much different from the script that the assassins expected.
Her eyes narrowed once she saw the 10 ck-d swordsmen as she spoke through gritted teeth. "Assassins!"
Unlike Ben, she recognized them as assassins instantly as she became infuriated. "You lots don''t know the fire that you are ying with!"
"Rex Vector is not someone that low lives like you can think of antagonizing".
"I bet that yourrades who went after him are already dead".
"You all deserve death for even thinking of assassinating him, and that is exactly what I am going to unleash on you lot today!"
At this moment, Cassandra''s voice sounded so cold, mature, experienced, and ancient that the assassins could not help but shudder in fear.
This was a psychological pressure that could only be induced when one party was significantly stronger or older than the other.
But Cassandra was not supposed to be any of this.
As if knowing what was going through their minds, Cassandraughed coldly. "I intended to lie low for a few more years, but you lots forced my hand".
"Since my rebirth, you lot shall be the first that will die to my de!"
Whoosh!
Cassandra unsheathed her sword as she sprinted toward the assassins.
The difference was that while the previous version of herself looked like a student, this version of her looked like a cold-blooded warrior who had already went through a thousand battles with millions of souls taken by her sword.
Mid-sprint, Cassandra''s eyes turned pitch-ck as her long ck hair that waved in the air suddenly grew longer, transforming into what seemed like a snake.
"Secret Martial Art: Serpentes Jutsu!"
While her hair seemed to turn into a snake, Cassandra''s mystic energy became a thick concentrated ck earthen energy as she shed with her sword across straight at the assassins.
"None of you shall live to tell the tale of this day!"
¡
After rescuing Rex from the hands of the assassins, Master Fixten sprinted all the way back to the Obedin Mystic Academy with Rex on his shoulders as he dropped him at the hospital where emergency treatments started.
Master Fixten waited to confirm that Rex did not suddenly start any mutations again before he left the academy straight to the Obedin police barracks.
Once he got to the police barracks, Master Fixten spoke with the presiding officer as he left there with a squad of 10 basic mystic warrior policemen.
The hunt for the assassins officially started!
In the blink of an eye, the hunters already became the hunted.
Chapter 61 Meeting The Principal
Master Fixten started a raid of the city in search of the assassins with the squad of 10 mystic warrior policemen as soon as he left the city''s police barracks.
Today was a celebratory day in Obedin City as it marked the end of this year''s graduation tournament, but amidst the celebrations moved a group of assassins.
At this point, the ck Python assassin group was already screwed.
Of the 40 assassins who came for this mission, the 20 who went after Rex were already annihted. The 10 who went for Cassandra were equally eliminated, only those that went after Ben survived the onught.
After revealing his legendary rings and swallowing the red pill, Ben became unstoppable but he was not as ruthless as a vampire or Cassandra.
He killed 4 assassins as the remaining 6 slipped away and were the ones now on the run. They were merely on the run though; they were far from escaping.
After the age of awakening, humanity discovered a lot more than just mystic energy. Through his authority, Master Fixten alreadymunicated with the surveince department of Obedin City, and the locations of the assassins were already found.
What the ultra-surveince satellites showed though shocked the experts who were behind theputers, it was a total bloodbath.
In Cassandra''s case, the assassins suffered terrible deaths but the student was also in a critical state as she was in a pool of her own blood.
As for Ben, he was perfectly fine only with some surface injuries. He only sat on the floor as he seemed to have gotten a trauma from all that happened.
Once the ultra-surveince satellites caught these, ambnces were sent as the 2 students were retrieved and swiftly rushed to the hospital.
Apart from the dead assassins, the ultra-surveince satellites also pinpointed the location of the 6 assassins who were still on the run.
Master Fixten hunted them down!
Once they caught up to the first assassin, Master Fixten kept him alive briefly as he asked him targeted questions but once the answers sounded unsatisfactory to his hearing, he killed him without hesitation.
The same thing happened for the 2nd to 4th assassin until the 5th assassin was finally caught. Once thisst assassin was caught, Master Fixten questioned him.
"Who ordered the death of the students?"
"Answer me now!"
"You won''t survive this but telling me the truth will reduce the pain of death, you don''t want to force my hand!" Master Fixten''s face turned cold.
"¡F*ck you!" The assassin spat and that was what resulted in his death.
Whoosh!
Once he beheaded the assassin, Master Fixten turned to leave.
"Tidy up the mess".
¡
The news that Rex, Cassandra, and Ben suffered an assassination attempt just after the end of the graduation tournament was suppressed by the academy.
First, the academy wanted to prevent panic from spreading and they suppressed the news with confidence because of their belief that the assassins could not do more harm after they were discovered.
Once they were discovered, Obedin City became their death ground.
For an assassin group of their size, Obedin City with its monstrous strength of dozens of intermediate mystic warriors and an advanced mystic warrior was too fierce for them to handle, it was like hitting an egg against a rock.
As expected, the threat of the assassins quickly fizzled out.
Master Fixten was the only one who went to visit Rex and his friends in the hospital as they recovered. He was worried about Rex''s mental state after what he saw, but to his surprise, Rex seemed to have recovered.
Not just psychologically, by now, Rex already miraculously recoveredpletely from all his injuries which even baffled the doctors.
Cassandra''s injuries were the most severe of the trio but after the emergency treatment from the doctors, she started visibly recovering.
Ben barely suffered any injury. What he suffered though seemed to be psychological as he kept on spouting barely coherent sentences.
"¡I can''t believe my PP survived".
"¡Is that not a miracle?"
"¡Damn! My PP f*cking survived!"
Any time that he started, the nurses politely excused themselves.
Later in the evening that same day, the trio of students were finally discharged but just as they walked out of the hospital, they met a man and a woman who were dressed in the trademark ck and white uniform of Obedin Mystic Academy.
"Good evening, Masters".
"The principal asked for you".
That was all that was needed as the 3 students followed them to the part of the Obedin Mystic Academy where the principal''s room was located.
¡
Click!
Once the door was locked, Principal Dominic of the Obedin Mystic Academy looked up at his 3 students who were involved in this drama.
"Sit!"
"Thank you, sir".
Coming before this legend of Obedin City, the only active current advanced mystic warrior of the city, Rex, Cassandra, and Ben were humbled.
They put on their best facial expressions as they faced him.
"Ahem¡" Principal Dominic cleared his throat. "Well, as you can see, I am your Principal and I want to know everything that happened".
"¡"
The silence stretched on for only a short while but even the principal himself had to admit that he phrased that wrong. Well, it was not his problem for not being a good public speaker, he would act like nothing happened.
"Rex Vector, you first".
"Sir, after I was ambushed by the assassins, I had to run deep inside the forest as I sustained more injuries. I barely survived a dagger stab to the chest and after that, I fell into a pit".
"After this, I don''t know what happened following that".
"All I could remember was screams, some faint mumblings, and moans, then I woke up to see Master Fixten".
"¡"
"I''m not sure, everything still feels blurry".
Principal Dominic cleared his throat again. "Ahem¡, are you sure that this is the current ount of the events that happened, Mr. Rex Vector?"
"Yes, I swear on my name!"
"¡"
"Ok, next, Cassandra Putin".
Cassandra spoke calmly and fluently. "Sir, my friend went missing so in my panic, I set out to look for him. During the process of searching for him did I encounter the assassins, I was outnumbered and outmatched".
"I tried to resist but I failed. After being beaten to the point of death, I suffered onest sh of their sword to the face, then I fainted".
"Before fainting, thest thing that I remembered was a shadow creeping closer to the assassins from an adjacent direction".
"I don''t know what happened after".
"When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital".
"¡Umm, ok". The Principal was speechless at this point as the nonsensical response of the students finally caused his original personality toe out.
He yawned before directing an uninterested nce toward Ben. "What of you?"
Ben shuddered once he was pointed out. "I-I will speak!"
"I survived all because of the 8 magic rings and the red pill!"
"I confess! I saw them some years back when I went lizardry hunting in the neighborhood".
"It is not my intention to keep it a secret, I''m sorry!"
"¡" Now, the Principal was genuinely speechless. "What a different breed!"
"Can I see the rings and the remaining 2 pills?" Before the Principal could continue, his assistant had already taken over from where he stopped.
Ben nodded in fear as he brought the 8 rings and the pills out, he sniffed in slight regret as thedy took them away from his hands.
"You can go, you will receive an official reportter".
"Thank you, Principal".
Once the 3 students left, the assistant turned to face the principal. "Rex Vector lied but for the girl, I am not so sure, it was all so natural".
"What do you think?" The Principal raised his head to face his assistant.
"I am not too sure. Rex''s case is special since we didn''t have surveince drones in the vicinity of the forest where he was attacked, so we cannot determine if he lied or not".
"As for Ben, the surveince drones captured every one of his actions".
"Only the girl is different. Perhaps it was pure luck or experience, but somehow, she was able to lure the assassins to a location where the point of view of the drones was blocked".
"We could not get anything, the only thing that we got which strangely agrees with her exnation is the shadow that was captured by the drones".
"We can''t confirm if this is the same shadow that she referred to".
"That''splicated then". Principal Dominic suddenly sped his hands in resolution. "You know the drill, give it to the analysts".
This female assistant sighed on hearing that as she ced her hands on her hips, exasperated. "How can you be sozy and uninterested in interesting things?"
"Lady, watch your tongue, I am neverzy!"
"Sigh!"
Chapter 62 System Status
Once Ben, Cassandra, and Rex left the principal''s office, they met Master Fixten again and this was when the master suggested that they spend today in the academy to prevent follow-up assassination attempts.
This was just a precautionary measure since few assassins would dare to move against the students of the Obedin Mystic Academy a 2nd time.
The academy wasx at times, but protecting the students and the dignity of the academy was one of the priorities that stood at the very top.
Master Fixten''s only regret was the real culprit not being found.
Since all the assassins stayed true to their dark creed and remained mute till death, no evidence was found and the real culprit who wanted the students dead remained in the dark.
Though Master Fixten clearly knew who was responsible for the assassination attempt, without evidence, he was powerless to move.
Another important reason why he urged the 3 students to spend today in the academy was that ording to tradition, the official graduation ceremony followed a day after the end of the graduation tournament.
Tomorrow was the day of the official graduation ceremony.
Once Master Fixtenid down his reasons to the students, they did not argue to oppose it so they stayed in the academy. They thanked him repeatedly for his help before they left for the students'' quarters.
"Rex, I heard that you suffered an attack, are you ok?"
Once Rex and his 2 friends entered the students'' quarters where some students also decided to stay, they were bombarded with questions mostly aimed at Rex since rumors already spread.
This was a strange experience for Rex. After his performance in the graduation tournament, every student''s outlook of him already experienced a meteoric change that he found hard to adapt to immediately.
For the first time in his life, everyone was not looking at him with scorn. All these were the benefits that strength brought.
Rex clenched his fists secretly. "I will get more strength!"
Once they got to the part of the student''s quarters that was arranged for them, they took different beds and slept to rest as they were exhausted after the long day but only 2 minutes in, Ben interrupted.
"I''m sorry guys, I never intended to break the keep no secret code¡"
"I know you guys are mad and Ipletely understand, but you have to understand that I just couldn''t tell you guys about this, I promise not to keep secrets again, please forgive me¡"
"¡" Silence reigned for a few seconds, Rex and Cassandra were speechless.
"No worries, we forgive you". Both of them responded almost at the same time as they shot down all Ben''s attempts to apologize.
Ben was confused by the weird behavior of his 2 friends but he was nheless satisfied that they had already forgiven him, he slept satisfied.
Silence reigned for the next 10 minutes as they all slowly drifted into the world of sleep, but Rex did not, or better still, he could not.
Today was the most eventful day of his life, it would be weird for him to sleep so easily. Rex had so many things that bothered his mind that he didn''t know where to start, he had to pretend to prevent his friends from worrying about him.
Though his pretending seeded in deceiving them, it could not deceive his heart, he was still traumatized and torn apart by everything that happened today.
In the end, Rex decided to leave the thinking forter, at least after his graduation ceremony. The only thing that he could not leave forter was the system, this was such a revolutionary encounter that he was too curious to leave.
And besides, he somehow felt that speaking with the so-called vampire system would brighten his mood a bit to forget about all that happened today.
"Umm¡, system, are you there?"
[Yes, Rex, I am always at your service!]
Once that word ''system'' was whispered by Rex, a pair of eyes snapped open opposite him but he was not aware as he was captivated by his system.
Rex organized the ideas in his head before he continued. "I know about my family, the hivemind, but I don''t know about this system, what is it?"
[essing programmed system introduction¡]
,m [Rex, alongside the hivemind undergroundir, the system is thest relic of the Ancient Vector family. They are both the umtions of the Vector family in preparation for theirst attempt at a greateback.]
[The hivemind contains all the information of our history and the upgrade inheritance, while the system is the means for you to ess the inheritance.]
[The system was designed to aid you in adapting to the mystic world and surviving. Its main goal is to help you realize your powers, that is the power of the upgrade mystic ability and your awakened bloodline.]
[Throughout the years, the Vector family bloodline experimented and awakened special powers called bloodline powers.]
[The Vampire bloodline that you awakened is the one with the greatestpatibility to you, the system adapted to amodate all your powers.]
[ess the system status to understand your present state and your powers.]
After the long reveal, Rex was stunned. "What are you exactly? An A.I?"
[You can see me as an A.I, you can see me as a treasure soul, all that matters is that I am the intelligence that was artificially created by the Ancient Vector elders through the ability of the upgrade to assist your mystic journey.]
"Ok, so give me this system status".
[Affirmative!]
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire
Rank: Basic Mystic Warrior
Basic Warrior Grade: 1st tier
Strength: 20
Speed: 18
Mind: 35
Vitality: 40
Agility: 15
Dexterity: 20
Health Points [HP]: 30/30
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 80/80
[Basic Skills: Plutonian sh; Needle Stab; Drilling Stab; Boomerang sh.]
>Advanced Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain
Mystic Ability: Upgrade
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients.]
¡
[Berserker- One-handed Sword!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Attack: 45-87 Damage
- Durability: ???
[Mystic Effects: Sword Energy Control; Golden Edge.]
[Golden Edge: When activated, grants 20% more piercing damage, 20% more mystic energy control, and a 20% chance to grant 100% more piercing damage.]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Blood Drain; Life Drain- Killing Touch; Freezing Touch- Freezing, Phasing- Short-range Teleportation.]
[Blood Tome Martial Techniques: Touch of Death; Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]
[Blood Tome Token: Coffin of the Ancients; Death Daggers- Upgradable!]
[Locked! Be a Vampire Knight to ess more of the Blood Tome!]
-------------------
"Yawn¡!"
"Such a long system status¡"
Rex kept on being amazed as he looked at the rows of messages in his system status. He got a detailed understanding of some things from the status, but he could not finish reading it, he was too exhausted already.
Rex dozed off mid-reading but one thing was sure, his mood improved.
Chapter 63 The Graduation Ceremony
The breeze that morning was cool, the chirping of the birds as the trees danced to the morning breeze was harmonious, and the morning sun was bright as all these were signs of the herald of a happy day.
The citizens of Obedin City woke up to this happy day.
After working for the past 11 months of the year, and after spectating the graduation tournament thatsted about 2 weeks, the citizens were d as the most harmonious ceremony of the city was finally here.
Today was December 12th, and today was the day for the graduation ceremony tomemorate the graduating students of academic session 508 A.M.
Today was all for the students and they prepared for it. Originally, Ben, Cassandra, and Rex intended to don their current best attires for this monumental event but Master Fixten took it a step further and took them shopping.
At this point, Master Fixten already given up pretending to not favor Rex. He bought exotic attires for the trio of students to don to the ceremony.
By 8:00 am, the academy was already filled to the brim with family, friends, and well-wishers of the graduating students.
For the first time in weeks, all the students of academic session 508 A.M were gathered again for this moment that would decide their lives.
Today was a harmonious day, the graduation tournament was over and it took with it all the pressure andpetitiveness.
Today was the day that they would enjoy their efforts of the past few years and the students were all smiles. They greeted each other harmoniously as they cherished this opportunity to be together onest time.
For the first time in his academy life, Rex experienced something different, he was not snubbed by others as he saw his year mates smiling back at him and exchanging greetings with him, everything felt so nice to him.
All of a sudden, he felt that the world around him was brighter.
Unlike Rex and Cassandra who only exchanged smiles and basic greetings with their year mates, Ben took it an extra mile as he enjoyed his life to the full.
"Donut Lord, you''re here too? Hahaha".
"Ben, you''ve started? How many times¡"
"Forget that bro, did you see Spade-lipped Ann?" Ben dragged his one-time friend along as he chattered on. "I almost couldn''t believe my eyes, she looked so stunning today that I thought her for someone else".
"Dressing up really makes girls look so much stunning than reality".
"Umm¡, you''re right".
"Yeah, I''m right and I know, the girls are just shutting down everywhere, like gosh, I can literally feel my nose bleeding¡, damn!"
Ben rubbed his eyes to confirm what he was seeing before he jumped excitedly while waving. "Hey, Perfume freak, how''s the ceremony?!"
"Get lost freak!"
"You''re wee, haha".
Ben''s way was a little extreme but scenes like this filled everywhere as the students spent their probablest few hours together harmoniously.
This continued all the way till 10:00 am when the ceremony officially started.
The ceremony was chronologically arranged. The first event on the schedule was the national anthem of the Great Shelters, then the students were officially weed to the celebrants'' seats.
After that, one of the intermediate mystic warrior masters of the academy climbed the podium to read the history of Obedin Mystic Academy.
This was perhaps the most boring part of the whole ceremony as during the 30 minutes, some well-wishers were spotted dozing off.
After that came the special performances. Junior students came to show off their skills before their seniors, not just fighting skills, but skills in other areas like singing, dancing, and script acting.
This went on for an hour as all the spectators were thoroughly entertained. After this finally came the official parts, it started with the HOD of each battle department giving a final speech to his graduating students.
Master Fixten was the HOD of the sword battle domain department, and while the other HODs addressed their students, he also addressed his.
Master Fixten''s speech was concise but inspiring.
"Well, today I won''t bore you to death with useless theories".
"All I want to say to you guys today is that you all did a good job, the past 5 years of your life had been well spent, and for that, congrattions!"
"You became better persons, you became better warriors, you became adults, and above all, you became better swordsmen".
"My parting word with you today is a quote by the legendary Sword Saint, Legendary Mystic Warrior Miyamoto Musashi who is one of the greatest mystic warriors to lead us into the age of awakening".
"-A distracted swordsman is an uninspired warrior-".
"Always remember this".
"Well, that''s all, congrattion guys!"
"Enjoy your day!"
Once Master Fixten concluded his speech, the swordsman students were sent into a frenzy as they sang his name aloud, they all respected him a lot.
It was during themotion that someone unexpected approached Rex. After a lot of hesitation and deliberation, Turan approached him.
"Hi". Turan waved.
"Hey". Rex reciprocated as Cassandra instinctively gave her friend some distance, Turan was appreciative of that as he nodded at her.
Turan stared at his frenzied coursemates for some time before he started a conversation. "So, how is your day going?"
"Cool I guess, I''ve been enjoying it so far".
"Me too". Turan smiled. "You know Rex, I''ve always wanted to meet you after our final battle but we never got a chance".
"First, I want to thank you for the opportunity of the finals. You made me realize a lot of things and I''m d, you made me be a better warrior, I improved more in that battle than I''ve done in 2 years and I''m grateful".
"Thank you, Rex, I really appreciate the opportunity".
On hearing that, Rex was surprised but he soon recovered as heughed. "Ironically, I feel like thanking you too, I improved a lot after that battle too".
Turanughed at that and as heughed, he realized something. "I think I kind of understand the principal now when he said the battle was meant for the both of us to push each other into bing better mystic warriors".
"It did push us to be better warriors". Turan suddenly extended his hand to Rex for a handshake. "It was nice battling you, Rex".
"You too, I look forward to more spars in the future".
Turan smiled then they finally parted ways.
¡
The remaining parts of the graduation ceremony proceeded fast until it came to thest and most pivotal part, the medal-giving ceremony where Principal Dominic Barry will give each graduating student his graduation medal.
The students all held their breaths since this part would decide their future, this was when their future workce would be announced.
The first student soon climbed the podium.
"Congrattions Max Tinker, you are now a graduate!" Principal Dominic handed the graduation medal to the student before reading the other parts of the virtual projection.
"For your outstanding performance in the graduation tournament, you caught the notice of the Rock basinke defense association".
"Congrattions, you have been offered a job!"
Max Tinker left the podium in an ecstatic mood as the next student climbed the podium after being called.
"Congrattions ¡"
"Congrattions ¡"
"Congrattions ¡"
After a lot of congrattions, all the exceptional students finally received their graduation medals. All of them who participated in the graduation tournament got jobs, but only a few got the most coveted army job.
Rex and Cassandra were lucky, as a reward for their performance in the graduation tournament, they got employed in the famous Obedin City army.
Ben''s luck was not too bad as he got employed in the 2nd best and 2nd most paying organization in Obedin City, the Obedin City Government Hunter Union.
The 3 friends stayed with all the remaining students as they were captured in a group photo before they finally left home to celebrate their graduation.
Today was a happy day, and they made sure to enjoy it to the fullest.
Chapter 64 [Bonus Chapter]Life As A Vampire
In a sh, it was already a week since the graduation ceremony.
During this time, a lot of things happened as the students who graduated settled down in their new workces while the Obedin Mystic Academy got prepared for another academy session.
Ben, Rex, and Cassandra also already settled down during this time.
Though the 3 friend''s main residential address was still Bowling Town, the 3 of them now stayed in Obedin City in the residential quarters prepared by their various organizations.
After the graduation ceremony, they got 4 days of rest which were thest few leisure days that Rex spent with his 2 friends before reporting for work.
Once 4 days were up, Ben left for the Obedin City Government Hunter Union while Rex and Cassandra left for the Obedin City army.
Before leaving for the army, thest 4 days that Rex spent with his friends were the weirdest days of his life as he seemed to be going through an existential crisis about how his life would go from henceforth.
With his parents dead, Rex was the one in charge of his life, he was not obligated to report to anyone, he was the boss of his own life.
Despite this, after the graduation ceremony, Rex doubted if that was the case. Everything that happened from the assassination to him bing a vampire, to getting his system, and the story of his family, everything overwhelmed him.
What bothered him the most was his new identity as a vampire and the story of his family. Rex was so affected by what he saw that he was sad for days.
Though he tried to hide it, his friends knew him too much and they were able to deduce that something was wrong. They asked but he refused to answer.
After everything that he saw and everything that he inherited, Rex felt all of a sudden that a great burden was dropped on his shoulders.
Receiving the system and all the other benefits that his family prepared was not for free, in exchange, he was tasked to fight for the re-emergence of the Ancient Vector family which was something that Rex never nned for all his life.
After seeing everything that happened to his family most especially when his father was beheaded, Rex''s hatred for this mysterious enemy grew to a peak.
At that very moment, he was ready to do anything to go after the mysterious hooded warrior and kill him but after he left the underground basement and after the graduation ceremony, his head seemed to calm down.
After calming down, this was when Rex thought deeply about his circumstances. In the end, he discovered that he was stuck.
Rex already had so many memories in Obedin City and Bowling Town that just the thought of leaving this all behind tore him apart. He didn''t want to leave Ben and Cassandra; he didn''t want to leave this beautiful city where he schooled.
Obedin City taught him all that he needed to be a strong warrior, he felt guilty if he just left them all behind and pursued an impossible quest.
Perhaps it was cowardice, perhaps his mentality was too weak, but Rex felt that he couldn''t do it, he could not bear the thought of leaving all this behind.
Besides, even if he left, he did not know where to start. His enemies were hidden, he didn''t know them, not even their name and he was too weak, if he went after them the only oue would be the end of the Vector lineage.
This was why Rex decided to stay in Obedin City and slowly grow stronger. When he felt that he was strong enough, perhaps his decision would change then.
Apart from the dilemma of leaving Obedin City to avenge his family, his 2nd dilemma was his current identity, he was a freaking Vampire now!
Being a Vampire didn''t sound like much at first, but it was a lot as Rex already seen in thest 4 days. The worst of all the troubles that came with his new identity was his weakness to the sun and his craving need for human blood.
Thest trouble almost drove Rex insane on the first day after the graduation ceremony, the idea of drinking human blood sounded so alien to him that he was losing his mind, he was seriously in need of help.
At first, he didn''t want to do it but once the penalty kicked in again, he had no choice but to secretly invade a hospital to steal human blood to drink.
Well, he could only do this for 2 days before his friends caught him. Left with no choice, Rex could only tell them the truth that he was now a Vampire though he remained adamant in hiding any information about his family from them.
On hearing this shocking news, like usual, Cassandra reacted calmly to it while Ben''s reaction was overblown.
"Holy freaking sh*t! You''re a Vampire? Damn sh*t bro!"
"Can you bite? Where are your fingernails? Damn, bro, do you melt when exposed to the sun?"
"¡"
Rex and Cassandra ignored him until Cassandra brought the ultimate question. "So, you sneaked into the hospital to find a solution to your blood craving?"
Her calmness spooked Rex and he could not help but ask. "Are you not scared? Like, I mean¡"
"I''m not scared, I already suspected this from the first day".
Hearing that spooked Rex even more. By now, he already had the full ount of everything that transpired that day. He already knew that just like him, Cassandra probably had a huge secret, what was her secret?
Once he revealed his Vampire secret, he pressured Cassandra to reveal hers but she calmly replied the same way that she replied to the principal.
After that, she proposed a solution to Rex''s problem since Rex was extremely repulsive to the idea of biting a human''s neck to suck his/her blood to feed.
Both his friends would help him in sneaking into hospitals to steal blood. This was how they spent the 4 days as they quickly epted Rex''s new identity.
Behind their backs though, apart from fulfilling Berserker''s daily training request and being a vampire, Rex also interacted more with his system.
During the week as Rex essed his system status more, he understood more about his current strength and all that he gained from the underground basement where he became a vampire.
His current race as written in his status which was a Vampire Neonate corresponded to his age. A Neonate was a vampire of 50 years or less, an Ancie was one of 50 to 300 years, and an Elder was a vampire of 300 years and above.
Besides the ridiculous advantage of being immortal, Vampires grew stronger with age. Apart from his normal mystic energy powers, Rex would grow significantly stronger each time he grew a rank higher on the scale.
ording to his system, every Vampire Elder was a Legendary Mystic Warrior. Rex wondered if some of the famous Legendary Mystic Warriors of this era were vampires.
Rex could not wait to level up through the Vampire bloodline ranks but his only problem was that his first level up would take 50 freaking years!
Rex''s 2nd dilemma about his system status was the basic warrior grade tab which ording to his system was currently at the 1st tier, Rex had no idea what a basic warrior grade was and that was why he asked his system for rification.
The exnation from his system was long.
ording to the system, after awakening mystic energy and bing a basic mystic warrior, the warrior improves through the ranks by training his mystic energy capacity.
By harnessing mystic energy, mystic warriors refine their minds and body to be stronger. The more mystic energy, the stronger a mystic warrior was.
The amount of mystic energy that mystic warriors had was what divided their ranks into specific power tiers.
For basic mystic warriors, every 10 mystic energy capacity limit gives a boost in stats, and every 50 mystic energy capacity limit was a milestone and it separated the strength of basic mystic warriors. To be an intermediate mystic warrior, 500 mystic energy points were needed.
After having above 50 mystic energy points, Basic mystic warriors develop to the 1st tier and each subsequent 50 mystic energy points takes them to the next tier and beyond. There are 10 tiers in the basic mystic warrior rank.
Originally, normal mystic warriors train hard to increase their mystic energy limit but Rex''s system can increase his through mission rewards.
The system gives skill points to upgrade, personalize, and learn skills, while also giving constitution points to upgrade his special constitution, and mystic energy points to increase his mystic energy capacity.
At the moment, Rex''s mystic energy points were 80 which was astonishing for a mystic warrior who awakened mystic energy just a few weeks ago.
After Master Fixtenplimented his growth speed was when Rex started taking notice of it. Originally, he attributed everything to his talent but the speed was too ridiculous, this was when Rex attributed it to something else, the upgrade.
After awakening mystic energy, Rex had always wondered about about the real use of his upgrade mystic ability apart from rebirth until he saw his system status.
By awakening his mystic ability, he awakened some innate abilities which were the mind time travel, spectator, photographic memory, overload, and rebirth.
ording to his system, the mind time travel was his ability to travel to either the past or the future through his mind. Something simr happened that became the catalyst to him creating the Nirvana sh advanced sword skill.
As for the spectator, this was what enabled him to be like a spectator whenever he went into the world of his mind.
Photographic memory gave him such great recalling prowess that at the moment, it would take a miracle for him to forget details. This was what also enabled him to not get lost due to the numerous details in the world of his mind.
As for the overload, this was an ability that Rex had never used. ording to his system, by activating it, he would burn his own blood, mystic energy, and soul essence in exchange for a temporary boost in power.
How powerful he became depended on how much he could sacrifice since the results of burning so much could prove detrimental to his growth.
This was a trump card skill that should be treated with care and dread.
As for thest ability, it was the main ability of the upgrade mystic ability, Rebirth. Combining both rebirth and photographic memory was what enabled the upgrades to remember details from their previous life.
Apart from these abilities though, Rex guessed that the upgrade had a passive ability that was not disyed. His intuition told him that his rapid growth speed was a result of his upgrade mystic ability.
After going through the ability parts of his system status, Rex was about to go to the mystic treasure part before he was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Rex, it''s time to leave, the Sergeant is already in the hall!"
"Aye, I''ming!"
Once he heard Cassandra''s voice, Rex sprang up from his chair and added the finishing touches to his new military uniform before going out to meet her.
After a week of leave and after reporting to the army for the first time, the new inductees were finally about to meet their direct superior.
Chapter 65 Sergeant Stones
Inside a hall in therge army barracks of the Obedin City Army, a group of privates stood before their Sergeant who addressed them from a podium.
"Wee privates to Obedin City Army".
"Thank you, sir!"
Sergeant Stones stood on the podium as his bald head sparkled to the light illuminating the hall while his eyes red at the privates like a hawk.
Amid his re, he got inspiration on how to start his speech.
"German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel of the old era before mystic awakening once said".
"War makes extremely heavy demands on the soldier''s strength and nerves. For this reason, make heavy demands on your men in peacetime exercises".
"I know a lot of you were ecstatic after getting the news that you were chosen to be soldiers of this prestigious army".
Sergeant Stones'' eyes turned sharp. "You better leave that fantasy world that you brought with you behind. Entering the army gives you a nice pay and a lot of other privileges, but it also heaps a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders".
"Here in the army, we dream but we also fight, we fight for our survival!"
"We are still at war with the Mystic Beasts. To survive, we can''t afford to rest on our rails, we need to keep on striving and fighting to stand a chance!"
"That is why nozy soldier is allowed in the army".
"Once you''re foundzy, you''re dead!"
Sergeant Stones'' eyes seemed to shoot daggers at the privates as he said this, some of them shuddered at his re.
"Archilochos of the old era before mystic awakening said we don''t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training".
"I can''t force any of you, but I hope you came here with high expectations".
"Those who perform the poorest will be evicted from the army every 6 months, while those who perform excellently after 6 months will get the opportunity of being promoted".
After saying this, Sergeant Stones'' stony face finally rxed as all the privates in this huge hall all seemed to heave a huge sigh of relief.
Sergeant Stone motioned at the female soldier standing beside him on the podium before he continued. "Before officially being assigned a role in the army, we first need to test your level to know your power level".
"There are 3 tests prepared to test your power level. We have the strength test, the speed and agility test, and the endurance test".
Once Sergeant Stone finished speaking, the front of the hall behind the podium opened as a massive advanced training chamber was exposed.
The soldiers working with the Sergeant went to work as they arranged the new cadets into groups where they would take the test individually.
Turan and Cassandra fell into a group far from Rex''s. Of course, among the privates, Rex saw some familiar faces from his academy who graduated with him. He recognized others as seniors of the previous academy session.
Once it came to Rex''s turn, alongside the other members of his group, they took the 3 tests individually.
The strength test was simple, all that Rex needed was to punch a metal block while equipping a metal glove.
Once Rex wore the gloves, he took deep breaths to regte his internal body state before taking a step backward as all his muscles were stretched taut.
The next moment, like the recoil of a pistol, Rex threw his punch as his right fistunched straight at the metal block.
Bang!
Once both metals collided, a loud sound reverberated as figures quickly started counting on the strength gauge. After a second, the figures stabilized.
>Strength: 20<
The figures were the same as those in Rex''s system.
After the strength test came the speed and agility test. This time, Rex was tasked to fight a group of swift robots with nothing but a pair of daggers.
Rex did not specialize in daggers, but every student who graduated from Obedin Mystic Academy had a basic mastery of everymon weapon.
For the first time, Rex got to make use of the Death Daggers which was one of the mystic treasures that he got from the Blood Tome as a token.
----------------
[Death Daggers!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
Rarity: Rare
- Attack: 25-37 Damage
- Durability: ???
[Mystic Effects: Ancien Gaze; Blood Edge.]
[Ancien Gaze: When activated through your bloodline connection, your opponent will be subjected to the petrifying gaze of a dead Vampire Ancie!]
[Effects of Ancien gaze: +10% psychological suppression to your opponent, 10% chance to mentally petrify your opponent, and it grants +10% confidence in battle.]
[Blood Edge: When activated through your bloodline connection, the edge of the Death Daggers would be coated with blood granting them +100% pration damage and a 20% chance to suck opponent''s blood!]
[Remark: The blood-sucking Dagger!]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
--------------------
Once Rex grabbed the Death Daggers, he felt the dread of the 20 robots fading away from his mind as confidence came in waves.
Whoosh!
Once he rushed at the beasts, he put his full speed on the line as this was a speed and agility test. His main purpose was to incapacitate the robots as fast as possible while evading every move of theirs.
ng! ng!
The sh soon started as Rex''s pair of daggers constantly found a tricky angle to dig into the metallic ting of the robots who were eager to kill him.
The sh continued for 10 minutes before thest robot finally fell, turning into scrap. Rex sustained only 2 cuts which were already far better than most of the other privates who tried their best in this test.
Once the test came to an end, the gauge read fast as the final readings were quickly disyed before everyone.
>Speed: 17<
>Agility: 15<
Compared to his system status, the speed stat was a bit different but Rex attributed this to the fact that he was not tasked to run along a track.
Afterpleting the speed and agility test, like the others, Rex also took the endurance test. The endurance basically involved how much beating he could take and was undoubtedly the hardest test for the privates.
As soldiers though, they obeyed their superiors and took the test. After receiving a hammering from a huge robot, Rex''s score came out.
>Vitality: 40<
Once this figure came out, a stunned silence dominated the hall as every soldier turned to look at Rex. Compared to the other privates, Rex''s vitality score was the best and it surpassed the 2nd best by a sizeable margin of 11.
Themotion onlysted for a moment as the test continued.
Once Rex joined the line of those who alreadypleted the test, he could not help but reminisce back on his performance and his system status.
Through his system status, he already got to understand his stats. The strength stat was basically his power, his ability to carry heavy objects, throw heavy punches, and swing powerful sword shes.
As for his speed stat, it involved his overall speed at great distances. His agility involved short-range eleration, reaction speed, and attack speed.
As for his mind stat, it had nothing to do with his intelligence. This stat was more rted to metaphysics, it was his ability to navigate the world of his mind and his resistance against mind and soul-rted mystic abilities.
As for his vitality stat, it involved his endurance, his ability to take a beating, and his health recovery speed. This was his best stat so far mostly because of his newly awakened bloodline as a Vampire.
As a Vampire, Rex''s health points in a humanoid state may not be too high but his recovery speed waspletely astonishing.
A few minutester, the test finally came to an end. Rex was opportune to see the stat of some people that he was familiar with, especially Turan and Cassandra who both took the test after he was done.
¡
Candidate: Cassandra Putin
>Strength: 13<
>Speed: 14<
>Agility: 13<
>Vitality: 10<
¡
Candidate: Turan Elliot
>Strength: 22<
>Speed: 18<
>Agility: 16<
>Vitality: 21<
¡
Once the test was over, Sergeant Stones faced the privates with his stony gaze again as he gave them his words of conclusion.
"We now have a basic understanding of your overall power".
"To be sincere, I am not impressed, I expect more from soldiers of this army".
"You won''tst a minute against a strong basic mystic beast with such strength, this is the reason why you need to work hard like a maniac in theing months of your stay here".
"Have aspirations and work hard to achieve them".
"Remember my promise of eviction from the army and promotion".
"We need leaders and warriors in the army, notzy baboons".
"Remember this, newer generations of privates will look up to you as seniors. if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and be more, you are a leader".
"Go to the ck Camp where you''ll be assigned to teams".
With that, Sergeant Stones dismissed the soldiers.
Chapter 66 The Coffin Of The Ancients!
The ck Camp was the part of the Obedin City Army that was designated for addressing the problems of new privates in the army.
Like the other privates that were just addressed by the Sergeant, Rex went to the ck Camp where he was assigned to a military team.
The military teams in the army were made up of at least 5 soldiers.
Rex was assigned to a team called the Death Card team, the team already had a powerful team leader in the form of Justin, a private who came to the army a year before Rex''s arrival.
The Death Card team was among the top 10 best private rank teams in the army, and Rex was assigned to it only because of his performance in the evaluation test by Sergeant Stones.
Turan was also assigned to a simrly powerful team due to his performance, while the others were spread randomly among the other private teams.
Once he was designated to a team, Rex received his army identity card before he followed the directions to his team''s camp.
The rules of the army said that once you were designated to a team, you were obligated to stay with them as the next 6 months of your life in the army would be spent alongside your teammates.
Like all other teams, the camp of the Death Camp team was in the massive green field that epassed arge part in the middle of the army base.
The team camped in a smart AOS tent.
AOS was the short form for Advanced Operating Systems and was more or less the Android of the age of awakening. The smart tent offered a lot of uses to its users as it waspletelyputerized.
At this time of the day in thete hours of the morning, Justin already gathered every member of the Death Card team in the tent as they awaited the arrival of their new member.
Once Rex arrived, he was introduced to his 5 teammates, Merry, Antonia, Antonio, Gundogan, and Justin who was the team leader.
Of his 5 teammates, Rex paid attention to the blonde-haired Justin more. From the little that he could see, Justin was definitely a few levels higher than him in mystic energy capacity which validated his team leader status.
None of his teammates gave him a hard time, they all weed him harmoniously though Rex did not fail to notice thepetitiveness among them.
Due to his achievement in the graduation tournament, every one of his teammates knew him and some saw him as a kind of hurdle to surpass.
Due to the army''s policy of eviction or promotion due to growth and performance in 6 months, the army was always in apetitive state as the soldiers strived to grow and outperform their counterparts.
The Death Card team was no different but Justin was fast to rify some things. "Wee to the Death Card team, Rex".
"In our team, we are foremost teammates beforepetitors".
"We''ll be assigned missions together; we''ll fight and die together so I expect all of us to get along. The faster we create some chemistry the better for us".
"Remember, this is a brotherhood".
"I won''t say more, rest for now before essing the training systems of the army". Justin grinned. "You''ll thank meter".
With that, everything was settled as Rex easily integrated into the team. Inside the smart AOS tent was big enough to seem like a mini house, Rex had more than enough space to rest his back for a few hours.
Rex slept for 2 hours before waking up as he finally got to ess the advanced training systems that the army provided for its soldiers.
Rex was exposed to such advanced training methods here that he had only ever seen in movies and adverts, and he finally understood the advantages that the privileged students enjoyed. He was d he made it into the army.
In the training ground, Rex got to meet Cassandra and her teammates as like usual, they made up and started training together.
Like almost every other soldier, Rex and Cassandra were determined not to be evicted out of the army so they were determined to train like maniacs.
In 6 months, Rex wanted to look back and be proud of how much he grew.
Rex and Cassandra trained for a few hours before they took a break to rest. After washing up, they visited the army''s library as they started reading about the history of Obedin City Army and some rules that they needed to take note of.
By the time they left the library, the day was already dark. Both friends bid farewell as Cassandra finally left back to her team''s tent.
Rex didn''t return to his team''s tent immediately though, instead, once he discovered that Cassandra was gone, he walked towards the army''s forest reserve.
Once Rex entered the forest, he repeatedly confirmed that he was not followed nor was he being recorded before he went deep inside it.
After going deep enough, Rex sat cross-legged on the bare forest floor and took a deep breath.
For the first time, Rex used his Death Daggers to pass the test. When he held the pair of daggers, his system revealed their stats to him and this was when his curiosity about the packages that he got from his blood tome was aroused.
"System give me every information about the Blood Tome".
----------
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Blood Drain; Life Drain- Killing Touch; Freezing Touch- Freezing, Phasing- Short-range Teleportation.]
[Blood Tome Martial Techniques: Touch of Death; Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]
[Blood Tome Token: Coffin of the Ancients; Death Daggers- Upgradable!]
[Locked! Be a Vampire Knight to ess more of the Blood Tome!]
¡
[Death Daggers!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[The Coffin of the Ancients was the deathbed where Orion Vector''s body wasid to rest before the enemies took him. They took him, but the coffin was retrieved and it mutated.]
[Through the powers of the upgrade, the Coffin developed a strange transformation ability and thus became an heirloom of the Ancient Vector family.]
[Humanoid Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead humanoid creature is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline humanoids.]
[Beast Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead mystic beast is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline mystic beasts.]
[Transformation % is below 20%, and the difficulty of transformation increases with the rank of the target of transformation.]
[Mystic Stones can be offered to increase the rate of transformation.]
[Current Humanoid Transformation Slot: 1]
[Current Beast Transformation Slot: 2]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
¡
[Does Host want to bond with the Coffin now?]
[Requirement: Host''s blood!]
-------------
"¡Damn!" This was Rex''s reaction after reading everything.
Though after seeing the Death Daggers, Rex was confident that the Coffin of the Ancients was probably going to be impressive, he was once again proven wrong as this coffin was not just impressive but it was super OP.
After the age of awakening, apart from harnessing mystic energy, humans mutated as they started awakening special bloodlines like the vampire bloodline.
Rex was a vampire already but in a literal sense, he was just a half-vampire since he still retained all his humanoid traits.
Pure blood humanoids were those that shed away every shred of humanity to embrace the power of the bloodlines. Theoretically, pureblood humanoids were stronger than normal humans since their bloodline powers were purer.
As for pure blood beasts, it was more or less the same.
The arrival of the Mystic Beasts was what catalyzed the age of awakening. The original beasts that invaded earth then were called the pure blood beasts.
A lot of the mystic beasts today were normal beasts who took in a lot of the prevailing mystic energy in the atmosphere and mutated.
Pure blood beasts were those who descended directly from the original beasts. They were far stronger and more dangerous than regr mystic beasts.
The ability of this coffin to transform normal humans and beasts into purebloods waspletely priceless. Rex could just imagine how powerful he would be when he could finally ess the abilities of this coffin.
To ess it, hisbined stats needed to clock 400 first.
Once again, Rex was exposed to the greatness of the Ancient Vector family. Rex did not hesitate after seeing his system notification, he cut his fingers with his dagger as he let his blood drip down on the pale white coffin.
Once the blood touched the coffin, a weird reaction started as the surface of the coffin started squirming like it was made of living tissue.
The scene was extremely spooky but Rex endured till the process ended.
[Congrattions! You have bonded with the Coffin of the Ancients!]
Just like the Blood Tome itself, Sebastian finally bonded with another OP treasure that he could not use at the moment due to hiscking stat points.
All the skills in the Blood Tome were greyed out in his system, and would probably only be avable to him once he got 200bined stat points.
After the bond waspleted, Rex was d, he was about to justy down there on the forest floor and feel the embrace of the earth but his AOS smartphone rang a notification to him the next moment.
>Hi Rex,e to the tent, our team just received a new mission<
>Sender: Justin<
On seeing that, Rex stood up and cleaned his body before leaving.
¡
Faraway in mid-earth, in a dark world that was filled with shadows, hovered 3 massive eyeballs. The eyeballs were greyed out as they seemed to be asleep.
Back in rim earth, after a certain 18-year-old bonded with a coffin, a ripple spread through this silent dark world as all 3 eyeballs suddenly opened at the same time as they seemed to re through space and time.
"¡Orion Vector".
"¡The Coffin of the Ancients".
"¡Thest inheritor".
The 3 eyeballs widened to the limit as they red through the darkness.
"¡Decicion Eliminatus!"
Chapter 67 Ben And The Big-Bone Bloodline
The Beast Research Alliance was the leading research organization in anything mystic beasts rted in the current era of earth.
Rumored to be created by an alliance of some of the greatest scientists in present-day earth, the Beast Research Alliance had its tentacles everywhere from the 7 Great Shelters to the 21 Small Shelters.
A branch of this massive organization was also in Obedin City.
At this moment, the scientists in the Obedin City branch of the Beast Research Alliance were working on deciphering the mysteries behind some pills and weapons that were handed over to them by the Obedin Mystic Academy.
After the assassination saga that followed immediately after the graduation tournament, the academy interrogated the 3 students involved and they were able to retrieve 2 pills and 8 rings from Ben.
The academy''s researchers tried to study the ring and decipher its identity but they were stuck, so they sent it over to theirrades in the Beast Research Alliance who took the job with much enthusiasm.
For the past few weeks, the scientists worked on the samples without much progress but now they finally seemed to get some progress.
The lead scientist among the trio of scientists had his sses on as he studied the pill sample through aputerized chromatographic mixture separator again.
Beep! Beep!
The next moment, theputerized chromatographic separator made 2 beep sounds as it finally found a match to the properties of the blue pill.
>Matching Results: Adrenaline Pill-Blue<
Once the lead scientist saw this result, his face scrunched up a bit in thought as he adjusted his sses. His eyes narrowed the next moment as he rushed to remove the blue pill before cing the ck pill on the separator.
Theputerized process started again but this time, having gotten matching results for the blue pill already, the process was faster.
Beep! Beep!
>Matching Results: Adrenaline Pill-ck<
On seeing this, the lead scientist''s eyes narrowed more. He thought some more before tapping at the air as a virtual screen appeared before him.
"Online search for Adrenaline Pill, Red, Blue, and ck".
>Results Found: The Big-boned Bloodline<
The lead scientist''s eyes narrowed even further into slits on seeing this, he sighed as he already got the result that he was looking for, it was just unexpected.
He turned to face his 2 assisting scientists. "ce the 8 rings on the Computerized Treasure Dictionary, search with the Big-boned Bloodline as a reference point".
Once the 2 assisting scientists did as was ordered, they got matching results and they all pointed to the Big-boned Bloodline.
All 3 scientists looked at each other. "Boss, is that¡?"
"Yes, it''s the Ancient Carter Family".
"Contact the Obedin Mystic Academy, show them the results". The lead scientist removed his gloves as he spoke. "Also, return the pills and the rings".
p ¡
Obedin Mystic Academy¡
In the Principal''s office, Principal Dominic Barry looked at the information that was before him with a somewhat helpless smile on his face.
"Who would have thought that silly student had such a background?" He rubbed his chin as he turned to face his assistant. "Well, the Ancient Carter Family are not exactly renowned for their big brains so it matches up".
"What are you going to do with him?" Ms. Hiry, the Principal''s personal assistant asked as she looked at him.
"Return what belongs to him of course". Principal Dominicughed. "I''ll leave him to his own devices, his family has ns for him and I have no right to interfere, I still love my life you know".
Once the result from the Beast Research Alliance came, the principal was surprised but he quickly understood what was happening and epted it.
This was not the first time that something like this happened.
In recent years, some rumors said that the Ancient Families were fed up with the conceited and arrogant nature of their younger generations, and to curb this, the elders of these Ancient Families implemented some new rules.
In the age of awakening, only one thing was truly respected and that was strength, the strongest gets to be the leader, not the most cunning.
To nurture powerful leaders to continue their legacy, some Ancient Families started teleporting their newly born descendants to different ces on the earth rim where they had a chance of either dying or slowly struggling to the top.
Sometimes, they leave special inheritances for these descendants to ess and inherit depending on how much they adapted and strived in their suffering.
It was a gamble, if they died, they would only lose a descendant but if one of them strived in suffering then they would have hit the jackpot.
The Ancient Carter Family like the Ancient Elliot Family was one of the leading Families in the Great Shelters and their special bloodline was the Big-bone bloodline which was one of the most peculiar in the world.
From what was deduced by the Beast Research Alliance, Ben was probably a descendant of this powerful family that was sent on this gamble.
That connection was all that Principal Dominic needed. That same day, the 8 rings and the 2 pills were sent back to Ben in a clean and pristine state.
In the Mystic Hunter Union, Ben was about to embark on a mission when his trump cards were returned. He was stunned and confused.
He looked at the 8 rings that he adored for so long in disbelief.
"What sorcery is this?"
¡
In a developed district of Obedin City, there was a greatmotion around a massive mansion as 5 police cars blocked the gate to the mansion.
At this moment, while hiding behind their cars, the policemen held speakers as they tried tomunicate with the criminals inside the mansion.
The previous night, armed robbers invaded this mansion.
Like all other mansions of this era, the mansion was fortified withputerized defense systems but havinge prepared, the robbers were able to ovee all the obstacles and enter inside the mansion.
They were able to rob sessfully, getting all that they wanted but unknowing to them, the defense systems of the mansion bypassed a hole in the firewall that they created to send a distress signal to the police.
Once the police arrived, everything changed, regressing into a hostage situation as the police and armed robbers were now at a stalemate.
While the police were at a stalemate with the armed robbers, behind the mansion was a group of 6 soldiers who were hidden.
Justin''s voice was audible and clear. "Our mission today is very simple".
"All we need to do is to incapacitate the armed robbers as swiftly as possible while making sure that they are unable to harm any hostage in the process".
"We are mystic warriors while they are not, we can do it".
"Merry, Gundogan, the 2 of you will be following me into the mansion as the main force of this mission".
"Antonio and Antonia, the both of you are twins and your chemistry is the best. You''ll both stay outside and support us with ranged firepower, make sure your arrows don''t kill, just incapacitate them".
"Rex, your only role in this mission is to watch and learn".
"Let''s do it!"
Putting mystic warriors up against normal criminals was just overkill.
Whoosh!
Once Justin led his team of soldiers into the mansion with Antonio and Antonia giving ranged support while all Rex did was watch, the fate of the armed robbers was sealed.
Armed with their mystic weapons, they bypassed all the defenses erected by the criminals before they could even think of pulling their gun triggers.
The mission started and ended in less than a minute.
The armed robbers stood no chance as they were outssed, all 8 of them saw the terror of their lives as they were beaten before being cuffed.
In the blink of an eye, when mystic warriors became involved, this situation that would have been life-threatening was easily resolved.
It was an easy mission for the Death Card team.
Chapter 68 Emergency!!!
Every 6 months in the Obedin City Army was a tenure.
After a tenure will the evaluations be conducted to determine the soldiers that will be evicted from the army and those that will be promoted.
The evaluations were based on certain criteria, mainly the number of achievement points achieved by the specific soldier, amount of special achievement points, and the number of honors if any.
In the army, achievement points were gotten afterpleting a mission. If it was a team mission, all members of the team get the same amount of achievement points so long as the mission waspleted.
As for special achievement points, they were only given if any of the soldiers in a team performed spectacrly.
For example, if a heroic feat by a soldier resulted in civilians being saved or a heroic feat by a soldier result in the survival of his teammates, that soldier is eligible to receive a special achievement point.
As for honors, they were of different types and they could be seen as a higher and more recognized version of special achievement points.
If a soldier''s heroic feat resulted in thousands of civilians being saved, he was eligible to receive an honor inmemoration of his brave act that saved lives.
These were the basic criteria for determining eviction or promotion.
After the Death Card team easilypleted their mission, on returning and after Justin gave a report to the army, their rewards were given.
Each one of them received 10 achievement points and 50 K.R.S Credits [King Resistance Shelter Credits]. K.R.S Credits were the official recognized currency in the King Resistance Shelter.
This was another benefit of being a soldier of the Obedin City Army. Apart from the basic monthly sry, the soldiers were also paid ording to each mission that theypleted depending on the difficulty of the mission.
After receiving their rewards, Justin and Merry returned to theputerized tent while Rex and the others left in different directions to do their thing.
If there was another team mission, Justin could simply alert them through their AOS smartphone so their presence was not always needed in the tent.
Rex did not just decide to leave his teammates, he had another motive in mind. In the army, there were not only team missions, but there were individual missions also and unlike team missions, there were a lot more individual missions.
This presented a situation where individual soldiers could go to the ck Camp and browse through the avable missions to decide to take any.
This first team mission was like an eye-opener to Rex. After this mission, though his contribution was not much, he now had experience on how to approach missions and his intention was to take individual missions.
Other soldiers equally came to the army with ambitions, but Rex saw his case as a special one. Though he already put it to the back of his mind, his family''splicated situation was still in his mind.
He would not feel settled if he did not give his all to get power. If possible, he still wanted to get strong enough to avenge his father.
He knew that the best way to grow fast was to engage in real battles, virtual duels were good but not as good as a real physical battle.
The blood rush of a real battle was what he really needed to push past his limits, his battle with Turan in the finals was a perfect example of this.
Besides, he wanted to get extremely familiar with his current weapons and also meet the requirements to use his other mystic treasures since that was the only way that he would be able to fight at his peak.
Once Rex set his priorities straight, he went at it with gusto as for the next few days, his daily routine became taking on missions non-stop.
¡
It seemed like just yesterday but in the blink of an eye, it was already 2 months since Rex became a soldier of the Obedin City Army.
During this time, Rex was not idle as he already achieved a lot.
By taking on missions non-stop, both individually and joining his teammates on team missions, he already amassed a savings of 724 achievement points and 5,500 K.R.S Credits just from missions alone.
Now, Rex was no longer a novice in the army, he was already a semi-veteran soldier and this much experience was mostly due to his mad work rate.
Apart from working on his military career, Rex did not neglect other parts of his life. Due to some of the rare times that he spent with his friends; he already knew a lot about the Mystic Hunter Union through Ben.
The more he knew about this union, the more he understood the danger of mystic beasts. Recognizing that one day he may perhaps need it, Rex decided to start learning about different types of mystic beasts and how to best kill them.
In this aspect, Ben became his mentor as in their free time, the pair of friends asionally entered Obedin City Beast Sanctum to hunt.
At times, Cassandra tagged along as the 3 friends kept on working hard to not let one overtake the otherspletely. Despite their hard work though, Rex was always the one on top while they trailed behind.
After 2 months, these three 18-year-olds were already unrecognizable from their graduation tournament self. Money could indeed transform people.
They looked clean and fresher than ever before.
Another achievement in Rex''s tab in the past 2 months was the fact that his secret was not yet exposed. Through abination of his perseverance and the unrelenting help from his friends, Rex''s identity as a vampire stayed hidden.
Even Master Fixten never brought up the topic after that day.
Rex was able to live off blood stolen from the hospital; he could not afford to buy so much blood since it would easily arouse suspicion.
Overall, the past 2 months were well spent in his books.
Today was another day for Rex as he took another individual mission like usual. This time, it was a fairly ridiculous mission as a middle-aged businesswoman was looking for her lost cat but Rex took it nheless so long as it brought money.
After searching for half the whole day around the whole city, the cat was nowhere to be found and Rex had to enter the Hillbilly Forest before finding it.
Once he found the cat, he returned it in one piece to its owner as the chubby middle-ageddy heaped praise on him while giving him extra K.R.S Credits.
Once Rex was done, he decided to return to the army base since he didn''t feel the need to take on another mission for the day.
On his way back, Rex reflected on how much he had grown over the period of 2 months. Though he already graduated, he never lost contact with Master Fixten as both master and student kept on exchanging pointers in their free time.
With his Master''s help, his system''s help, and most especially the help of his upgrade mystic ability, Rex already developed a lot in the past 2 months.
His sword skills and proficiency were smoother than 2 months ago, and most especially, he already broke through 3 tiers in the basic warrior grade and was now at the 4th tier with over 200 mystic energy capacity.
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire
Rank: Basic Mystic Warrior
Basic Warrior Grade: 4th tier
Strength: 41
Speed: 32
Mind: 37
Vitality: 40
Agility: 30
Dexterity: 34
Health Points [HP]: 65/65
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 185/230
¡
Mystic Energy: Domain
Mystic Ability: Upgrade
¡
Special Constitution: Vampire
¡
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients.]
---------------
From his system status, it was clear that his increased mystic energy capacity brought a lot of increase to his basic stat points.
Rex was now significantly stronger than 2 months ago, and that was not the best part though, the best part was that he could finally make use of the abilities of his Blood Tome in battle.
He had not used the Blood Tome openly since he got the requirements to use it, but he secretly practiced with the abilities to get used to them.
Overall,pared to 2 months ago, Rex grew a lot.
On returning to the military base, Rex hummed a song to himself as he walked merrily towards the location of his team''s tent but he paused mid-way as his AOS smartphone rang an rm.
Beep! Beep!
>EMERGENCY!!!<
>Come to the ck Camp<
>Sender: Justin<
Chapter 69 Rescue Mission!
Thud! Thud!
Rex''s boots hammered down on the tiled floor of the military base as he sprinted rapidly in the direction of the ck Camp.
For over 2 months that he spent in the army already, this was the first time that Rex was receiving such an urgent message from his team leader with a message title of Emergency in caps lock with 3 exmation marks.
Rex had no idea what was happening, but Justin definitely did a good job in conveying the urgency of the situation through his message as he dared not dy.
As Rex sprinted away, he delegated some of his attention to observing his surroundings and he soon noticed the unusual atmosphere in the army base.
In normal circumstances, he would not have noticed this unusuality but after Justin''s message, he easily read an ominous meaning to the base''s current state.
Rex could feel his heart beating faster as he increased his speed. A minuteter, he arrived at his location as he barged inside the ck Camp.
On entering the ck Camp, Rex felt his heart sinking due to the sight that presented itself before him. The originally always boisterous ck Camp was nowhere to be found, the camp seemed scanty and left out.
"Rex Vector, climb to the 2nd floor!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Rex obeyed the order of the Camp attendant as he rushed and scaled the stairs to the 2nd floor where he was finally allowed inside a room.
On arriving before the door to this room, Rex felt his heart skipping a beat again, this was because this room was the ck Camp Sergeant''s office.
"Come in!"
A deep voice reverberated from inside and Rex instinctively opened the door and entered the office. On entering, he ignored everything else as he fixed his gaze on the Sergeant before saluting respectfully.
"Sergeant!"
After saluting, Rex walked to the corner before blending in with the others.
Once Rex joined the others, Sergeant Gaud finally stood up from his chair. "All 20 required soldiers are nowplete, now is time to know your mission".
While the Sergeant spoke, Rex''s tense nerves rxed a bit as he finally observed all the soldiers that were currently in this room with him.
With just one look, Rex saw all 5 of his teammates. Not just his teammates, Rex saw Cassandra and also recognized her teammates.
Apart from the Death Card team and Cassandra''s team, another team seemed to be here also and Rex recognized 2 of the soldiers in the team. Reginald Damien and Turan were members of this military team.
Apart from them, there was another soldier who seemed to not be in any team. This was a soldier that Rex knew also, Morgana.
"3 teams are gathered, what exactly is happening?" Amid Rex''s dilemma, Sergeant Gaud''s face turned solemn as he faced the soldiers.
"Some of you may already know or may have guessed but yes, yesterday, Obedin City suffered an attack from a unanimous marauding tribe".
On hearing this sensitive term ''marauding tribe'', for the umpteenth time today, Rex felt his heart skipping a beat as memories of this term returned.
Rex learned of the Marauding tribes during his 5 years spent in the Obedin Mystic Academy. The term that mystic beasts were our main enemy but humans are our greatest enemies was made because of the Marauding tribes.
After the age of awakening, as humanity entered a golden age where the Ancient Mystic families ruled and had all the power, it was inevitable that other families who lived through the period of transition would be dissatisfied.
They tried their best but unable to topple the grip of power of the Ancient Mystic families, these dissatisfied families decided to go rogue.
Over the years, their dissatisfaction with the ruling Mystic families grew until it developed into hatred. Theyter became known as the Marauding Tribes.
Famed for not having fixed homes, roaming from one ce to another while making attacks and raids in search of plunder, the Marauding Tribes were one of the greatest scums that threatened to bring the downfall of mankind.
Sergeant Gaud continued on seeing the reaction of the soldiers. "They arrived swiftly in the night and their target was our Commissioner of Defense".
"We deployed a lot of soldiers but we were unable to stop them".
"We killed a lot of them in the veil of the night but we also lost over 50 soldiers, we lost the Commissioner".
"Now, their numbers are few and they are exhausted but we can''t openly go in pursuit of them due to some political reasons and demands".
"This is the reason why I called for these 3 military teams".
"For the same political reasons, we can''t send our best soldiers and intermediate mystic warriors to go after the marauders since their movements are always being monitored by our rivals".
"In the past 2 months, you have proved to be among the best teams in the army, and with the others upied with other missions, we could only resolve to seek your services for this priority mission".
"In short, this is an off-the-book rescue mission".
"I want you guys to go after the Marauding tribe. Your task is to go in fast without attracting too much attention, catch up to them, overwhelm them and do anything in your power to rescue the Commissioner".
"Remember, rescuing themissioner is the priority".
"For this mission, due to theck of time, there is no specific approach n. You all are soldiers, use your intelligence and make decisions as you go".
"You will also have to decide the leader of this mission among yourselves".
"Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good!" Sergeant Gaud nodded. "Get ready, in 15 minutes you''ll be leaving the city through a hidden pathway. Details on the mission will be sent to your AOS smartphones after you leave".
"Good luck!"
¡
10 minutester, Rex and every single one of the soldiers that were selected was back after havingpleted their preparations as fast as possible.
This mission was out of the blue, it was extremely sudden but they had no basis toin, that was why they were soldiers.
They were paid over 300 K.R.S Credits monthly just for moments like this.
Once they were gathered, Sergeant Gaud and his superior, Lieutenant Crook led the 20 soldiers to a hidden pathway in the army base.
They activated some mechanisms to open the door and once it was open, Rex and the remaining 19 soldiers in their all-ck attire entered the dark pathway. As they left, the Sergeant and Lieutenant wished them Goodluck.
"What do you think of their chances, sir?" Sergeant Gaud suddenly asked.
"Extremely small". The old Lieutenant gave a bitter chuckle.
"We sent them for the formality, to fulfill all righteousness, there is no way those kids can rescue the Commissioner from the hands of veteran marauders".
"I also sent them for another reason". The old Lieutenant''s eyes narrowed. "My instincts tell me that this kidnapping is the first step of an even greater conspiracy and I think that Weaver City is involved somehow".
"We need to remain alert".
The old Lieutenant sighed. "God help us".
"God help us".
Chapter 70 Into The Dead Of The Night
20 soldiers secretly left the Obedin City Army.
With their all-ck clothes, all 20 of the soldiers having been trained in the past 2 months easily blended into the background of the city as they started traveling through the shadows without being caught.
Leaving the city without being seen was their first objective.
Though they were 20, they were all talented soldiers and they moved with such understanding and skill that for the next 30 minutes, they were not discovered by the police nor were they seen by any civilians in the city.
When they finally arrived outside the city, it was already 5:47 pm.
By now, each one of their AOS smartphones already gave them beep notifications to indicate the new message from the Sergeant who assigned them on this secretive mission that was off the books.
Like the others, Rex hid in the shadows of the nearby tree before checking his smartphone to see the new message.
>The Marauders werest seen moving in the deep east direction<
>Their destination is probably the Spider Swamp<
>Sender: Unknown<
Once they saw the message, they all understood where they had to go.
The Spider Swamp was a massive well-known swamp forest that stood between Obedin City and Weaver City.
Anime City shared a border with Obedin City from the north, Bowling Town shared a border with them from the south, while the Spider Swamp covered everywhere from the east to southern borders of Obedin City.
The Spider Swamp separated Obedin City from Weaver City, which was the city that was supposed to border it from the east.
In normal circumstances, both cities would have leveled the swamp to build their boundaries together like they did with other cities but they could not.
The Spider Swamp was one of the few regions in Delta State that were not controlled by the government. This was a mystic beast-infested region, 40% of adventurers who entered yearly were rumored to nevere out.
There were rumored to be thousands of basic mystic beasts inside, and a sizeable number of intermediate mystic beasts also which easily made it one of the most dreaded locations in Delta State.
The Spider Swamp featured a wide variety of mystic beasts but it was famous for its high concentration of mystic spiders.
These dangerous mutated spiders were the real dangers of the swamp. They had a lot of abilities, but their most recognized power was their ability to turn mud through their mystic energy into powerful weapons.
Apart from their mystic energy, the spiders were dangerous melee and rangedbatants and they were highly poisonous.
Once all 20 soldiers understood what they were up against, their faces turned solemn but they didn''t leave immediately although they were in haste. They needed a leader if they were to seed.
Before any soldier could speak, Turan spoke first. "Let Crane be the leader!"
"He is a veteran soldier with over 3 years of experience in the army already. He is a veteran leader, he is intelligent, he has a rare summoning mystic ability, and prominently, he is a powerful 8th tier basic mystic warrior".
Every single soldier here knew Turan due to his achievements in the past 2 months in the army, Crane was the leader of his military team.
Him vouching so confidently for his leader eased the other soldier''s nerves. In the end, no one objected and private Crane became the leader of this mission.
Crane cleared his throat and spoke. "We don''t have much time on our hands, but to increase our chances ofpleting this mission, we need to know ourselves properly including our strengths and weaknesses".
"I''ll start first".
"My name is Crane, an 8th tier basic mystic warrior summoner".
"My weakness is¡"
Once Crane was done, the other soldiersplied as they quickly gave every useful information about themselves that could possibly help in this mission.
Once they were all done, Crane brushed his hand above his head as he briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. Turan''s evaluation of his intelligence seemed to have been right as he came up with a n the next moment.
"This is not the first time that you and I are hearing of marauding tribes, you know how notorious they are, they are powerful opponents".
"This is why we need a game n if we even want toplete our mission".
"ording to the Sergeant, they are now few, weak, and injured but I don''t want us to be too confident. Let us take the worst-case scenario as our approach".
"My n for this mission is a hit and run tactic".
"We need to enter the Spider Swamp without caring about anything else. Let us ditch stealth after entering, they are veterans, if we take the normal way, we may probably not be able to discover their traces till forever".
"Let them find us instead of the other way around".
"Them finding us will put us in more danger but it is our only chance".
"No matter what ambush they prepare for us, I want us to give our best out there. We will fight explosively to rescue themissioner and once we get him, as the strongest soldier here, I will escape with him".
"Your roles from here are to protect my retreat. Do that for 2 minutes and also escape for your lives, separate into 2 teams for a higher survival chance".
"I know that our chances of survival are still slim despite this but that is why we have the mystic beasts. The mystic beasts are not just our enemies, they are the enemies of the marauders also, we will use them to our advantage to escape".
"This is my n". Crane took a deep breath. "If we can implement it properly, I believe that we have a high chance ofpleting this mission".
"If you have any objections, say it now".
"¡"
"In the absence of none, let''s move!"
Almost immediately as the n was finalized, as they moved, Rex briefly stared into space as his system notified him of a new mission.
[You have received a new system mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Details: The Commissioner of Defense of Obedin City has been kidnapped by marauders, and you have been chosen among a team to rescue him.]
[1st Sub-mission: Kill 20 marauders!]
[Mission Reward: 50 Skill Points.]
[2nd Sub-mission: Kill 100 mystic Swamp Spiders!]
[Mission Reward: 100 Skill Points and 15 Constitution Points!]
[Main Mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Reward: 50 Mystic energy limits!]
¡
Due to the need to keep secrecy, bikes were not provided for Rex and hispanions for this mission. They had to travel on their barefoot as this enabled them to avoid the drones that patrolled in the air.
This slowed them down but they didn''t have to give up since it gued and slowed the marauders also, they took their quest one step at a time.
An hour and a few minutester, all 20 soldiers finally arrived in the dreaded Spider Swamp undetected. They alreadypleted arge part of their n.
By the time of their arrival, they were already deep into the dead of the night.
Different beast sounds echoed from deep inside the dark swamp forest as they produced a chaotic and horrifying cacophony but the soldiers were not deterred as they remained focused.
They steeled their minds before decisively entering the massive swamp.
Chapter 71 Swamp Spiders!
Slow mashing sounds reverberated softly in the swamp forest as a group of 8 warriors dressed in brown leather clothes and brown masks marched through the Spider Swamp while remaining alert to their surroundings.
In the middle of this group of 8 strange warriors were 2 civilians, civilians who currently had their hands, mouth, and feet tied and were asleep.
2 of the warriors who walked in the middle of the formation bundled them on their shoulders as the group continued moving forward.
One of the 2 civilians was a middle-aged man, the Commissioner of Defense of Obedin City while the little girl was themissioner''s daughter.
These were the remainders of the Swamp Marauders who attacked Obedin City the previous night. They suffered a lot of casualties but they fulfilled their goal.
All 8 of them were armed with different weapons.
As they moved through this dreaded swamp forest alertly, they asionally experienced ambush from the native beasts of this forest but as veteran marauders, they always reacted a step ahead to kill these beasts.
This way, their journey continued slow and steady in the direction that they wanted as they did not awaken any unwanted beast in their journey.
A few minutester, as their slow journey continued, the marauder who was leading the group from the front suddenly stopped as he closed his eyes.
Once he stopped, every other marauder stopped as they grabbed their weapons before directing doubled vignce towards their surroundings.
While this happened, the marauder who stopped remained still with his eyes closed as he slowly raised his hands to hold and widen his ears a bit. He ced his ears to the blowing wind of the swamp and held this position for 2 seconds.
The next moment, his eyes snapped open.
"What is the situation, Sniffer?" The n head of the marauders asked.
"We are being followed".
On hearing that, the marauders reacted calmly like they already expected it. "How many of them and is the kid with them?"
"The distance is still too far; I can''t tell how many of them but I can guarantee that the kid is with them. I can smell his vampire powers from far away".
"Good!" The n head smirked. "That f*cked army is still so full of formalities; I can predict their decisions from miles away".
,m "What is the n n head? Should we wait to ambush them?"
"No, we continue moving, I already understand their n". The middle-aged n head grinned. "Leave deliberate traces behind for them, let them follow us to ourir, we are going straight to the tribe".
"Yes, n head".
¡
Thud! Thud!
Unlike the serene atmosphere, as the Swamp Marauders moved through the swamp forest, the situation among the soldiers was entirely different as all 20 of them were now in a race as dozens of beasts were hot in pursuit behind them.
Originally, on entering the swamp forest, they decided to walk normally in pursuit of their targets to minimize the noise that they made.
They didn''t continue with this n though since just 2 seconds in and they discovered that walking normally in this swamp was not too different from running.
The swamp was so muddy that normal steps would still induce squashing sounds as the soldier''s boots stepped on the swampy floor.
Besides, walking was too slow for them, they were the ones in pursuit of the marauders. Once Crane thought deeper about the situation, he changed his mind as he ordered them to start a sprint after their targets.
Once the sprint started, the soldiers sessfully increased their speed but in exchange, they awakened the dangers of the Spider Swamp.
Every few meters, they now encountered a mystic beast and dozens were still in pursuit behind them as they refused to let them go.
Whoosh!
Rex''s eyes widened the next moment as a mud Python disguising as a tree suddenly sprang forth after the group of soldiers passed through it.
The Python''s target was the female soldier behind Rex but because of his sword domain, Rex spotted it when the Python made its first movement.
[You have activated skill: Boomerang sh!]
Despite the speed that he moved at, Rex was able to jump and orient himself in a way where Berserker carried all his weight to empower the sword sh as the snake was smoothly cut into 2 halves.
Hiss!
The Python hissed loudly but onnding, Rex''s sword already descended on it as he diced it into bits and pieces, ending its miserable life for good.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mud Python!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
"Run!"
Rex yelled at the female soldier who was about to tell him thank you as they both picked up speed again just in time to escape the diving attacks of dozens of Mud Pythons who were all disguised as tree branches.
After escaping this close encounter, the group of 20 soldiers continued traveling fast through the forest. It got to a point where they started seeing more vivid hints that pointed them in the right direction toward their opponents.
The rate of appearance of hints started bing more rampant with time and Crane became suspicious, but before he could voice his worries, their luck finally seemed to run out as they encountered the demons of this swamp forest.
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
From the frequency of the hissing, even without looking, all the soldiers instantly knew that this was no snake, these were Swamp Spiders!
"Take the other direction!" Crane yelled but it was already toote as the dozens of Swamp Spiders already had them surrounded from every direction.
Before they could react or make any subsequent decision, the demonic Swamp Spiders lived to their reputation as they attacked without any fanfare.
Pum! Pum!
The ranged spiders dug all 8 of their legs in the swamp as they raised their butt, exposing their dangerous weapon, their poisonous mutated tail as they instantly started unleashing waves of purplish-brown poison through their tails.
While they unleashed this disaster, the melee Swamp Spiders rapidly skittered across through the mud with their 8 legs as fast as they could.
In no time, they closed the distance to the students as they unleashed their load of destruction. Their muscle-filled poisonous tailsunched forward at the students while they employed defensive options to protect themselves.
In mere seconds, these tenacious Swamp Spiders ejected tons of silk as they used it to grab dead tiny woods in the forest, using them to form body doubles of themselves which now served as their defense.
Behind their body doubles did they get to unleash the vengeance of their poisonous tails as the tail kept on poking towards the soldiers ruthlessly.
Of course, as mystic beasts, the Swamp Spiders were far bigger than normal spiders. These Giant spiders towered up to the soldier''s calves.
Ptui! Ptui!
Rex could hear the sound of a hard object stabbing into flesh beside him as his adrenaline levels immediately rose to an extremely high level.
With a low thud sound, Rex kicked the ground before jumping upwards, barely dodging a lethal tail stab attack from one of the Swamp Spiders.
On looking down, he saw that 2 of his teammates for this mission were already got. These 2 now coughed ck blood as the poison already invaded their blood system in mere seconds, this was how dangerous Swamp Spiders were.
At this moment, they struggled futilely as more Swamp Spiders stabbed them with their tails before dragging the both of them down to be devoured.
Just like Rex, the other soldiers in this team reacted on time as they protected themselves through different means.
Rex intended to use a big attack onnding but someone was ahead of him.
ng! ng!
The rattling bugle call of a Crane reverberated!
Rex instinctively looked up expecting the worst only to see a magnificent White Crane descending into the battlefield. Crane''s summoned beast attacked even before descending fully as its feathers detached from its body.
In mid-air, the feathers turned into metal spikes that shot down at horrifying velocities at the Swamp Spiders. Dozens of Swamp Spiders died instantly to the attack, and this was what brought the soldiers back to life.
Rumble!
Turan''s Triple Kill Sword shed towards the spiders as a thick connected chain of lightning descended to roast the spiders to death.
Almost instantly after he moved, Morgana grabbed her Tessens and rotated in ce as she generated a great wind that blew arge number of the Swamp Spiders away. The other members of this team also attacked.
Reginald''s fire spread divine judgment upon the Swamp Spiders as the smell of roasting flesh soon filled the air.
When Rex descended from his brief flight, he wreaked havoc also.
[You have activated skill: Plutonian sh!]
Boom!
Over 2 dozen Swamp Spiders were wiped out by the sword sh and the massive sword energy that apanied it to wreak havoc.
From these series of moves, an opening finally revealed itself among the beasts. The soldiers dared not dy as they all picked up speed again to escape.
Only one of them remained behind, the soldier had a bitter look of regret on his face as ck foams came out of his mouth, he was already poisoned.
Having lost 2panions already, seeing this scene, the soldiers hesitated but Crane did not as he roared orders to make his soldiers focused.
"We already lost him!"
"Remember that saving themissioner is the priority!"
"Run!!!"
All of them felt torn apart but they listened to the orders of their leader, they escaped. The least that Crane could do was throw a dagger backward to end hispanion''s misery as the dagger dug through his head.
They lost their 3rdpanion in this mission in just a few minutes.
Chapter 72 The Beta Swamp Spider!
When they first entered the Spider Swamp, everything seemed rosy as together, they were able to keep all the threats at bay but their first encounter with a swarm of Swamp Spiders ended up being a nightmare.
It all happened in just a few minutes and they were still shaken.
Most of them, even Rex, this was their first time witnessing a closepanion dying in action. Rex''s original teammate was the 3rd soldier that died.
Though he could not refer to him as a friend, he already saw Gundogan as a fellow brother in arms so he was affected by his death.
They may have already undergone months of experience and training in the army, but this was still a lot to take in.
Despite the difficulties of epting the 3 deaths, none of them stopped to mourn their deaths, they were soldiers and they were obligated to fulfill orders.
Discipline as emphasized by Sergeant Stones was one of the core traits of a good soldier, Rex and every other soldier here strived to develop this trait daily.
Now that it was needed the most, they proved the reason why they were the best performing soldiers of the past 2 months. None of them broke, they held strong like a turtle''s shell as they continued their journey deeper into the swamp.
Shortly after escaping the deathtrap of the Swamp Spiders, they encountered another one but Crane proved why he was the leader of this team.
This veteran soldier was a prime example of ''I won''t fall for the same trick twice. Once again, he proved why Turan held him in such high regard.
While he led his soldiers deep into the swamp, Crane never spoke much and this was because he was busy studying his surroundings for signs.
As a kid, he never had it as easy as Turan who was a privileged nor Rex who had the privilege of getting a schrship. He worked his way from the ground to the top as a hunter of beasts in the most dreaded forests in the region.
This was one of the many traits why he was recruited into the army.
Having spent hours in the swamp, he already figured it outpletely. After the Spider Swamp disaster, Crane seemed to turn into a movingputer.
His orders were as precise and as urate as the readings of a scanner.
"There are mud Pythons ahead, take the left!"
"These snapped leaves are traces of mud ants, there are also marks of Swamp Spiders here, we''ll go past here!"
His leadership qualities were fully embodied as he led the soldiers to escape a lot of dangerous situations even as they stepped up their speed.
Despite his observation abilities and leadership qualities, he was not omnipotent, he slipped up at times. In these rare times that he slipped, he did well to warn his soldiers beforehand as they bombarded the beasts with vengeance.
Rex''s set of graduates of the Obedin City was called the Golden generation, this was because their standards were much higher than previous sets.
The fact that over 50% of this group wereprised of them spoke a lot, and this was why together, they were able to annihte every obstacle that appeared before them with rtive ease.
The only times that they had it rough was when they encountered intermediate mystic beasts, and oh boy, the danger was real then.
The first intermediate beast that they encountered was a mud Lizard. The beast was much faster than them so they had no choice but to fight it.
This time, they all revealed their full abilities. Crane showed why he was the strongest again, he could summon 3 Cranes who all had 8th tier basic mystic strength. With these 3 taking the lead, they were able to injure the lizard.
Once they did, they escaped, the swamp was not safe to elongate the battle further. Their 2nd intermediate mystic beast encounter was against a Swamp Spider, this tricky beast almost imed another life but Crane stepped up again.
Perhaps, Crane''s most significant achievement in this mission was that they never fell for an ambush of Swamp Spiders again. They always discovered them ahead of time, Crane was like a fictional ranger character.
In this manner, an additional 6 hours passed without them finding their targets though they kept on meeting their trail and seeing hints left by them.
This frustrating situation was supposed to make Crane order them to increase their speed further, but Crane rather gave a surprisingmand.
"Stop! Let us rest".
"What?" Turan spoke up first. "What of the Commissioner? Who knows if the little time wasted here would result in him being killed?"
Crane turned to face his teammate calmly. "If the Commissioner was to be killed, he would be dead long before we even got to the swamp".
"This was a gamble from the beginning. If they already killed him, then our mission already failed from the beginning but if he''s still alive, to give him a chance of survival, we need to be at our best so rest".
"But¡" Turan was about to speak further but he sumbed on seeing the look on Crane''s eyes, the rest of the team settled down to rest also.
As they sat down to rest, Crane closed his eyes in thought. Whereas his teammates were still kept in the dark, he already had a vague idea about the n of the marauders, and that was why he ordered them to rest.
His real purpose for telling them to rest was so they could get to their destination when the sun was already setting.
The dark of the night could prove very useful in chaotic circumstances.
While all his teammates settled down to rest, Rex did the same but his attention was totally focused on his system.
[1st Sub-mission: Kill 20 marauders!]
[Mission Progress: 0/20]
[2nd Sub-mission: Kill 100 mystic Swamp Spiders!]
[Mission Progress: 8/100]
,m [Main Mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Status: Notpleted!]
Whereas the others had only one rescue mission from the army, Rex had that and his system missions also.
Of the 3 missions, the first was still static, the 2nd was stagnant since they evaded every Swamp Spider after their first encounter with them.
The 3rd and main mission were still pending.
Rex was most motivated toplete the main mission, the rewards were too tantalizing. 50 mystic energy limits could basically take him through a full tier.
What worried him was that with great rewards came great requirements.
¡
Despite the words from his teammates, Crane stuck to his decision as they all got to rest for 4 hours before they stood up to continue their journey.
By now, they already spent almost 24 hours in the swamp forest as their smartwatches now indicated that the time was around 5:00 pm.
When they stood up to leave, Crane took other crazy decisions. Instead of leading them to follow the trail, he instead led them in an entirely opposite direction. They didn''t understand his n but they trusted him and followed.
Crane led them almost a kilometer in the opposite direction before he suddenly threw one of his daggers upward without looking.
When the dagger fell, a tiny thread of web followed it.
"Run!"
Without hesitation, Crane turned and started sprinting away. His teammates were confused but they dared not look up as they sprinted after him.
They sprinted non-stop for 30 minutes after which they appeared in a region of the swamp that was clearly more organized than the other parts.
The trees here seemed to have been organized in a way where they formed a pathway through their middle. Crane did not stop on getting here, so his teammates followed as they sprinted through the middle of the pathway.
2 minutester, they arrived before a tree that was far more massive than the others. Below this tree stood 2 individuals, themissioner and his daughter, their feet, hands, and mouth were tied.
"That''s our target!" Turan intoned but like the others, his expression turned grim, he already figured out that something was wrong.
Whoosh!
The next moment, the mud surrounding the pathway of mud trees rose as they formed a blockade around the soldiers then the next moment, holes opened from the mud on the ground as warriors in brown clothes and masks came out.
Everything was natural, it was like this was the home of the marauders.
"As I suspected, they are a tribe and this is theirir". Crane said while unsheathing 2 of his daggers as he looked calmly at his surroundings.
The other soldiers finally reacted, stunned. "This is an ambush!"
Crane replied. "Yes, but remember, rescuing themissioner is the priority, any sacrifice is eptable so long as he is safe".
"Do not forget my n, move!"
The other soldiers were shocked by Crane''s nonchnce. The marauders outnumbered them by more than 5 to 1, there was no escaping sure death here but perhaps feeding on his confidence, they also got ready to give their lives.
They all unsheathed their weapons and sprinted towards themissioner and his daughter as their eyes burned with zeal and confidence.
The n head of this marauding tribe who already prepared a speech to give the soldiers when they experience the despair of being outnumbered was stunned, this was not within the script.
Before the marauders could react, Morgana who was the fastest already arrived before themissioner. Her daggers moved like the wind as they rapidly set themissioner loose, then she threw him towards Crane.
"Save my daughter¡"
Bam!
Crane pped him unconscious before he couldplete his sentence, then he yanked him on his shoulders as the rattle of a Crane reverberated the next moment. Crane jumped on his summoned beast as he prepared to escape.
"Stop him!"
The marauders finally sprang to life as they erupted at the soldiers with the intent to kill them, but this was when the beta finally made known her presence.
HISS!!!
Every marauder froze. "A Beta Swamp Spider!"
The massive Swamp Spider set her massive butt forward as her tail appeared and started shooting her load of poison at the intruders of her kingdom.
And oh boy, they were massive!
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Chaos ensued.
Chapter 73 Trapped In The Swamp
The soldiers finally understood their leader''s n.
Crane had been a soldier for only 3 years, but he had been a hunter all his life, he lived and strived for survival so close to beasts that he understood a lot about their ways and hierarchy also.
When the hints being left by the marauders became too much, his brain worked as intended as he quickly deduced that this was a deliberate leading.
If he followed blindly, he would fall into a sure-death trap.
The easiest option here was to not follow the hints again and retreat, but they could not, the mission was that they should rescue themissioner by all means which meant that they needed to do it even if they had to die.
Crane had no intentions to die though, this was why he improvised his n. By now, he already guessed that the marauders were a tribe and theirir was probably here, so his nning was on how to confront them.
After thinking hard, he thought of the night idea.
If they met them at night, the marauder''s n would no longer be as full-proof which would open more opportunities for them to make mistakes.
This would increase his and his soldier''s survival chances but it was still not reliable enough. This was why Crane thought more and his thinking paid off, he arrived at the most dangerous but most reliable n.
From his years as a hunter, Crane knew that every mystic beast pack that dominated a region divided themselves into ranks to govern their territories.
The mostmon ranks were the alpha, beta, and omega ranks.
Already knowing that the strongest Swamp Spider in this swamp was an advanced mystic beast, Crane concluded that he was the alpha.
Below the alpha, there should be at least 3 betas who should all be intermediate mystic Swamp Spiders. Then below them would be the Omegas who could be weaker intermediate mystic Swamp Spiders or those of the basic rank.
This was information that was not written in the textbooks, hunters learned them through experience.
Once Crane arrived at this, he started consciously searching for signs of a beta Swamp Spider. His search was fruitful, he found one and he told his soldiers to rest just a kilometer away from the one he found.
Below the alpha, betas were the strongest beasts of a territory and thus were not as vignt as other beasts. They were notorious deep sleepers, the only way to wake them was to ruffle their feathers.
Crane did just that by cutting the webs of this beta Spider. Once he did, the spider woke slowly but he already escaped with his soldiers.
The beta Swamp Spider followed their trail all the way to their of the marauders, and this was when all hell broke loose.
On seeing the massive Swamp Spider and seeing the fear on the faces of the marauders, the soldiers finally understood the genius of their leader.
At this moment, they remembered Crane''s words. "The mystic beasts are not just our enemies, they are the enemies of the marauders also, we will use them to our advantage to escape".
,m Without hesitation, they cut the girl loose as Turan grabbed her. As was nned, they all separated to increase their chances of escaping.
Not only did the poison of this massive Swamp Spider deal irreparable damage to the marauders and theirir, but her maniption over mud also triumphed that of the marauders as she copsed their wall of mud.
This was what enabled Crane to rapidly escape on top of his Crane.
For a brief moment, Rex hesitated due to the lure ofpleting his 1st system sub-mission but he pped himself into realization.
"This is f*cking survival mode!"
When he came to, Cassandra was nowhere to be seen. Rex cursed before choosing a random direction to escape.
Of course, escaping was not going to be that easy. Rex had to fight his way out of the horde of marauders and Swamp Spiders, his efficient mystic swordsman fighting style became a great boon here.
The marauders became the victims. Wherever a beta Swamp Spider went, a swarm of Swamp Spiders was sure to follow and they arrived in just seconds.
The marauders were reluctant to leave theirir, this became their death bed as the hundreds of Swamp Spiders wreaked havoc and destruction.
They may have lived in this forest for years and in this timepletely understood how to deal with the Swamp Spiders, but against a beta Swamp Spider, experience alone could no longer make the cut.
The few that survived went after the soldiers for revenge.
¡
2 hourster¡
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Swamp Spider!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
[2nd Sub-mission: Kill 100 mystic Swamp Spiders!]
[Mission Progress: 29/100]
After killing another Swamp Spider, Rex got 2 mystic energy points to replenish his reserves. As he already knew from his training days with Ben for the past 2 months, killing mystic beasts gave him mystic energy points.
This way, he had a more efficient way of replenishing his exhausted mystic energy than the generic way of absorbing mystic energy from the atmosphere.
This was what kept Rex going for the past 2 hours.
Crane''s n was really the most dangerous and most reliable. It was reliable in the fact that they at least already rescued themissioner and her daughter from the marauders, but dangerous in the fact that they awakened a beta Spider.
They caught the marauders off-guard, pulling off their rescue in such a bad-ass manner mostly because the marauders underestimated them.
For these beasts though, they were too unintelligent to know what underestimation meant. They became the biggest obstacle to Rex.
The annoyed Beta Swamp Spider had no intentions to let any of them live. Despite being a distance away from her already, Rex could still hear her loud hissing that encouraged the other Swamp Spiders to hunt with more energy.
A Beta mystic beast''s sleep was never supposed to be disturbed.
At times, Rex heard screams in the swamp of another person dying, he had no idea if those were his teammates or the marauders.
With the Beta Swamp Spider waking up, the swamp became a lot more dangerous. Rex survived only because, at night, he was no longer suppressed and could finally make use of his full powers.
In 2 hours, though he tried to avoid them, he met so many Swamp Spiders that he ended up killing an additional 21 already.
After journeying for so long with only 4 hours of sleep in-between, Rex was exhausted but he dared not rest. Rest was not what troubled him most though, what troubled him most was that he lost his bag of supplies.
In his bag of supplies were the 5 blood bags that he brought for this mission.
Without blood, Rex was screwed. Thest time that he drank blood was more than 24 hours ago due to traveling with his teammates and the effects were already showing.
Rex''s vision was already beginning to turn hazy.
Another fact was that due to the Beta Swamp Spider, the concentration of Swamp Spiders was too much. He could not escape; he could only go deeper into the swamp to save his life which in the long term was not a reliable solution.
Rex was forced deeper into the swamp for another hour during which time he killed another 14 Swamp Spiders, taking his total killed to 43.
Rex''s situation did not improve much though, his sanity continued to be eroded the more his hunger for blood grew, and he was afraid of what he would do.
[You are hungry!]
[You must drink human blood within the next 24 hours!]
[For every hour that passes without blood, your intelligence will keep on degrading till the extent that you be nothing more than a beast!]
[For every 2 hours that passes without blood, you will lose 1 HP!]
It was during this dilemma that Rex met one of his teammates, he met an injured Turan who was still with the daughter of themissioner.
Just like him, there was no opening for him to escape and he had no choice but to keep on going deeper into the swamp.
Now, together, these 2 soldiers were trapped in the swamp but Rex was more worried about his lingering hunger than he was about being trapped.
Chapter 74 Half-Bat!
"What are your orders, n head?"
The n head of the Mud Marauding Tribe kept silent.
The past 3 hours were the most tragic in the history of this marauding tribe. Not only did they lose theirir, they already lost more than half of their members in just the span of these 3 hours.
And all these were because they took a mission from a notorious assassin.
At this moment, the n head of this marauding tribe regretted his decision. He was initially tempted by the huge amount of money that was offered, now he was tied into a quagmire that he could not get himself from.
After the losses that his tribe already suffered, the n head felt tempted to just ditch the mission but the mere thought of the assassin caused him to shudder.
"We cannot defy the will of the Scorpion after epting it".
"Let us find and kill the boy".
"Perhaps, if we hand his head over, we''ll be rewarded handsomely".
"We will follow your decision, n head". All the remaining members of the Mud Marauding Tribe who survived the onught voiced their support.
The n head nodded. "Sniffer, lead the way".
"Yes, n head".
¡
"Ugh!!!" Rex suppressed a growl as he grabbed his head.
"Rex, are you alright?" Turan asked.
For the past hour, Rex had been anything but normal and it made Turan raise his vignce as he now shielded themissioner''s daughter behind him.
His hand grabbed his sword tighter as he was ready to react to any change.
It took a few seconds, but Rex finally replied. "I''m fine".
Turan did not refute that but the reply made him raise his vignce all the more. He was never a friend of Rex, but after the graduation tournament, he tried to get close to him in the army and already more or less understood him.
At this moment, Turan was 98% positive that something was wrong with Rex.
After 3 hours of rampage by the Swamp Spiders, they finally seemed to reduce their intensity a bit but they never truly retreated.
The loud hissing of the beta Swamp Spider could still be heard asionally, and the Swamp Spiders still roamed aimlessly around the swamp.
Despite their roaming though, their decreased intensity of savagery and attacks let Rex and Turan take a much-needed breather.
Due to the roaming Swamp Spiders, they could not escape the swamp yet so they rather climbed one of the huge trees in the swamp to seek refuge.
For the past 1 hour, they''ve been on this tree as the frightenedmissioner''s daughter, Anna fell asleep. Only Turan and Rex were awake and their reasons for being awake were different.
Turan could not sleep since he wanted to keep watch for the night, while Rex could not sleep because he was hungry for blood.
Rex''s abnormal state gave Turan more of a reason to stay awake.
Turan stared at Rex. At this moment, Rex was huddled up in a corner of the space inside the tree where they hid.
His body shook constantly like someone who just caught a cold, and his forehead was filled with sweat, he probably had a running temperature.
Turan''s first intuition was that Rex caught a cold but the asional growling from him like he was suppressing something was what spooked him.
"Rex, are you really ok? You look sick".
"I''m fine!" Rex snarled which made Turan instinctively back off.
Rex''s snarl briefly echoed through the veil of the night as Turan backed off while remaining alert. By now, he was 100% sure already that something was wrong, he contemted taking Anna and going on the run.
In his moment of contemtion was when an attack came.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
3 solidified mud spears were thrown inside the hole in the tree as Turan instinctively jumped to block Anna with his body.
He activated his Triple Kill Sword''s defensive mystic effect which blocked 2 of the spears that went directly at him, thest went straight towards Rex.
"The marauders!"
Turan growled as he carried Anna before shifting to a more secure corner of the hole inside the tree but he paused after getting no response.
With a back filled with cold sweat, Turan turned to face Rex only to see a spectacle that left him spooked. Rex could not defend himself on time, the mud spear pierced straight through his chest as blood poured like a fountain.
This was not what spooked him though, Rex was not gasping for breath or dying as he expected, he was rather morphing into a monster!
Rex''s breath turned ragged and rough like a beast as his eyes glowed red all of a sudden while his fingers and legs grew sharp nails.
This was not the only change this time, Rex growled as his bones made crackling sounds while his body squirmed. His physique seemed to be changing as he grew taller while a pair of bat wings jutted out of his back the next moment.
"Ugh!!!" Rex growled louder as this transformation started.
Turan could already feel his heart in his throat as he witnessed all of this. The next moment, he decided that he already saw enough as he made for the opening that led into the hole but Rex''s transformation was alreadyplete.
Whoosh!
Rex moved before Turan could even blink as his right hand pinned him firmly to the walls of the tree hole. Turan could not resist as this half-bat monster turned his neck before digging its long fangs into his exposed neck.
"Ugh!" Turan growled in pain and pleasure as his blood was sucked.
At this moment, Rex already lost his sanity once again.
While all these happened inside the hole, Anna was still fast asleep while the marauders were already rapidly climbing the tree to finish their unfinished job.
Turan''s body soon started turning white and shriveled as all blood was being drained out of his body. All sensations of pleasure soon left and were reced only by pure pain as Turan groaned in deep pain.
He struggled but the half-bat was far stronger than him.
Left with no choice, Turan could only beg. "Rex, please stop".
This was the magical word, the next moment, Rex''s brain seemed to have short-circuited as all his actions froze while his eyes closed.
"Please stop¡" "Please stop¡"
The word kept on reverberating in Rex''s head as his eyes opened the next moment, they were still red but they were no longer glowing. "Turan?"
"Rex, please stop".
On hearing this voice, Rex melted, he released Turan immediately as he grabbed his head. This was when he noticed his current state, in his moment of madness, he activated his morphing ability and was already a half-bat.
Rex never intended to bite Turan and now he felt extremely guilty as he looked down at the weak soldier, this was when he heard it.
At this moment, Rex''s sensibilities were at an all-time high, both his sight, his hearing, and literally everything rted to his 5 senses was amplified.
Creak!
Once Rex heard it, he looked down.
As Rex looked, his heightened sense ability kicked in. His red eyes prated the blockade of the tree as he instantly saw all 33 marauders, 6 who were currently climbing the tree and the others who surrounded the tree on the ground.
Rex revealed his fangs instantly and growled.
"Marauders!"
Chapter 75 The King Of The Night!
----------
Name: Rex Vector
Morphed Form: Half-bat
Strength: 82
Speed: 102
Mind: 56
Vitality: 200
Agility: 112
Dexterity: 120
Health Points [HP]: 375/450
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 212/230
[Half-bat Skills: Steel ws; Sound Maniption; Flight; Bat King!]
[Passive Abilities: Echolocation; Fear Apostle!]
[NOTE: All humanoid skills and abilities are retained!]
[Remark: F*ck you scaredy-cat! Got any problem with that?]
--------------
Rex''s strength doubled while all his other stats were either amplified more than double or were just a little short of making it to the double increase limit, this was an astonishing increase in overall power.
On seeing his stats and abilities in his Half-bat form, Rex was surprised but only for a few seconds as the hands of the first marauder finally entered the hole.
Instantly, Rex''s red eyes focused on the hand as he finally made his move.
[You have activated skill: Steel ws!]
[You have activated skill: Flight!]
Whoosh!
Rex folded his wings before diving as he grabbed the marauder in the process. As soon as he got exposed again to the outside world, Rex instantly noticed his vision which was 3 times better than normal.
As soon as a bat-like figure dived out of the hole, all the other marauders looked up and they bore witness as their brother was torn apart.
With his steel ws active, all Rex needed to do was hold the marauder tighter before ripping him to shreds like he was tearing a piece of light cloth.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Marauder!]
[You have gained 5 mystic energy points!]
This was Rex''s first time killing a human in a sane state, and he quickly discovered that he got the same goodies as when he killed a mystic beast.
Well, since mystic warriors and mystic beasts were not different to his system, who was Rex to think otherwise as he instantly started a massacre.
Whoosh!
Rex pped his wings as he flew towards the remaining 5 marauders who were still climbing the tree, they stood no chance before him.
His ws grabbed them while they struggled futilely as he also ripped them to shreds, it was too easy.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Marauder!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Marauder!]
[You have gained 6 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed ¡]
One point that Rex got to note instantly was that sustaining his half-bat state required a lot of mystic energy. Thankfully, killing these bastards replenished his reserves which meant that he nevercked mystic energy.
On seeing 6 of their brothers dying so easily to this beast, the other marauders turned to escape but they were going nowhere before the King of the Night. Rex hunted them all down.
A few minutester, Rexpletely annihted them all.
[1st Sub-mission: Kill 20 marauders!]
[Mission Progress: 20/20]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 50 Skill Points!]
It was after getting the skill points that Rex finally remembered what they were for. ording to his system, he could use skill points to either learn new skills or upgrade current skills.
By using skill points, Rex would no longer have to spend months or even years trying to learn a new skill, he could instantly master it.
Since there was no skill pamphlet at hand to learn a new skill, Rex easily made his choice and decided to upgrade one of his skills.
The question was which of his skills should he upgrade?
---------
[Basic Skills: Plutonian sh- (45 Skill Points to upgrade); Needle Stab- (20 Skill Points to upgrade); Drilling Stab- (20 Skill Points to upgrade); Boomerang sh-(25 Skill Points to upgrade).]
>Advanced Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]- (180 Skill Points to upgrade and get the 2nd Move of the One Autumn Leaf skill series)
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]- (250 Skill Points to upgrade and get the 3rd Move of the One Autumn Leaf skill series)
[Nirvana sh!]- (350 Skill Points to upgrade)
-----------
Once Rex demanded it, his system remained diligent as it showed him his options. Upgrading any of the advanced skills was far beyond his budget so Rex instantly set his eyes on it and focused on the basic skills.
Once he looked, he got 2 options. Should he level 2 of the weaker basic skills or should he ssh 45 Skill Points to level up his strongest basic skill?
Rex only thought a bit before making his decision.
He felt that he already had more than enough basic skills, besides, his basics as a mystic swordsman who already unlocked the sword domain meant that he could deal with most basic situations easily. What he really needed were strong skills.
This was why he decided to upgrade the Plutonian sh skill.
[Your choice has been registered- 45 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[Basic Skill- Plutonian sh has been upgraded to Double Plutonian sh!]
[NOTE: When activated, instead of one sword sh, a 2nd sword sh would be created with mystic energy to apany the first.]
In the blink of an eye, Rex seeded in upgrading one of his skills.
Rex smiled as he felt more strength coursing through his veins. He looked up at the white moon illuminating the skies and he was encouraged, his bloodline was made for the night, he was made to hunt at night!
Rex was not tired. After tasting the benefits and thrill ofpleting one system mission, he was enthusiastic toplete the other.
Before going into the deep of the night, Rex flew back up to check on Turan and Anna. On getting there, both were already asleep, he was relieved since through his mystic energy, Turan had already began to recover from the blood loss.
This gave him the confidence that he needed to continue with his n. Rex grabbed Berserker and spread his bat wings before disappearing into the night.
¡
[You have activated skill: Sound Maniption!]
Boom!
The sound st swept through the group of Swamp Spiders.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Swamp Spider!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Swamp Spider!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed¡]
That night, the Spider Swamp saw a new King of the Night!
Taking advantage of the moment, Rex rode the momentum as he started a ughter of the Swamp Spiders that were roaming around the swamp because of the pissed-off beta Swamp Spider.
In the half-bat state and in the dead of the night, Rex was invincible.
It took him only half an hour before hepleted his 2nd sub-mission.
[2nd Sub-mission: Kill 100 mystic Swamp Spiders!]
[Mission Progress: 100/100]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 100 Skill Points and 15 Constitution Points!]
Once hepleted his mission, Rex set his sights on a greater goal. First, he wanted to test his mettle against the beta Swamp Spider and see how he would fare and he also wanted to help his teammates that were stuck in the swamp.
Once Rex finalized his goal, he started implementing it immediately.
Well, 40 minutester, Rex learned that fighting against an intermediate mystic beast and not just that a beta Swamp Spider was no minced beans.
Against the beta Swamp Spider, Rex was beaten throughout the 40 minutes but the Spider never came close to killing him due to his horrifying vitality.
,m In the half-bat state, Rex was a literal undying freak!
After trying his mettle against the Swamp Spider, Rex finally decided to abandon it as he left in search of his teammates. For the next hour, he flew around the swamp as he helped them in different situations from the dark.
During this hour, Rex discovered that another of his teammates already died and for the first time, he really saw Cassandra in action.
Having been suspicious of her real strength before now, Rex finally got his opportunity to see a Cassandra who was fighting at her full strength.
The current Cassandra had such skill with the sword that even eclipsed his, this raised further suspicion in Rex. In the end, he did not reveal himself as he flew away to help his next teammate.
The only teammate that Rex didn''t see in the swamp was Crane.
After spending over 2 hours in the half-bat form, Rex finally flew back to the tree where he left Turan and Anna.
On getting back though, as soon as he changed back into his human form, he discovered that something abnormal was happening to Turan.
Turan''s body was filled with sweat as he convulsed, his eyes asionally sprouted golden fire like inside his body was a furnace.
Rex was rmed as he went closer to feel his temperature. Immediately as his hand touched Turan, his system lit up a notification.
[You have sucked and drank the blood of an ancient bloodline carrier!]
[Through the stimtion of your fangs, Turan Elliot is now awakening the Ancient Golden Fire bloodline of the Ancient Elliot family!]
[For drinking a rare ancient bloodline: You have received 50 free stat points!]
[You have received the stimtion of the Golden Fire bloodline!]
[You have unlocked the ckfire¡]
"Ugh!" Rex could not continue reading as a piercing pain distracted him the next moment. He groaned as his red eyes turned pitch-ck.
Chapter 76 Blackfire Mystic Ability!
[You have sucked and drank the blood of an ancient bloodline carrier!]
[Through the stimtion of your fangs, Turan Elliot is now awakening the Ancient Golden Fire bloodline of the Ancient Elliot family!]
[For drinking a rare ancient bloodline: You have received 50 free stat points!]
[You have received the stimtion of the Golden Fire bloodline!]
[You have unlocked the ckfire Mystic Ability!]
[Congrattions! You have received 50 mystic energy limits!]
"Ugh!" Rex growled in pain as he knelt inside the hole in the tree.
At this moment, his body also started convulsing as ck and green lines started snaking through his body. At the same time that this happened, his red eyes turned pitch-ck which matched those of the night.
Rex struggled hard not to scream in pain to not startle and wake Anna.
Currently, he felt like he was just ced in a furnace where he was left to burn to be refined ande back glittering like gold.
The reason for this pain was for a good cause, but it was unbearable.
The few series of system notifications revealed a lot of things.
Rumors said that the Elliot family of Obedin City was connected to the Ancient Elliot family of the Great Shelters, and with this Rex could finally confirm it.
The Ancient Elliot family was known for their Golden Fire bloodline, the only problem was that no Elliot in Obedin City had ever been rumored to awaken this ancient bloodline. Clearly, the bloodline had already grown too thin and diluted in them.
Elliot coincidentally awakening the bloodline now was rted to his blood being sucked by Rex, this was kind of a symbiotic association.
As a vampire, once Rex sucked on Turan''s blood, a connection was established between the both of them, a symbiotic connection.
This was what stimted Turan to awaken the already faint bloodline in his blood. He was not the only one who benefited though, Rex benefited also.
Unlike an Elliot, vampires had a greater affinity for dark and shadow abilities. On establishing a connection with the Golden Fire bloodline, instead of suffering a bacsh, a miraculous reaction was induced instead.
In physics, science said that negative pole mas attract each other.
Something simr happened, when the Golden Fire bloodline and Vampire bloodline met, a strange reaction happened and Rex benefited as he was stimted through the connection to awaken his 2nd mystic ability.
The ckfire mystic ability was rted to fire but dark fire, it dealt more ethereal and soul damage than it dealt physical damage.
Rex''s change was faster, once he fully unlocked the ckfire mystic ability, he recovered as he started taking note of the changes in his body.
There was not much change in his body nor his status yet. Awakening a mystic ability was one thing, he could use it in a base manner now but to unlock its full potential, Rex needed to ess skills of the ckfire mystic ability.
The only major change was in his consciousness and the 50 mystic energy limits that he gained. In his head where his mystic energy settled, Rex noticed that his mystic energy was no longer entirely golden.
Now, a part of it was golden while another part was filled with ckfire.
Rex still could not fantom how he was able to unlock a 2nd mystic ability since he was never taught in school about mystic warriors awakening more than one mystic ability.
All that didn''t matter though as after thest few minutes of transformation in his body both inward and outward, Turan finally woke up.
Once he caught sight of Rex, he scurried away to the side, grabbing his Triple Kill Sword in the process as he instinctively guarded Anna.
"Who are you?" Turan demanded.
"I''m Rex".
"What are you?"
"I''m¡" Rex hesitated but knowing that Turan was not dumb, he decided to tell the truth. "I''m a Vampire".
"¡"
It was a hard truth to ept but having awakened an ancient bloodline himself and the fact that his fortune was entirely due to Rex sucking on his blood, Turan felt nothing but gratitude.
Both of them thanked each other then this became their little secret.
After everything that happened, they were already tired. They decided to catch up on some sleep to recover their energy before leaving the next morning.
A few hourster when it was already morning, they left the Spider Swamp.
¡
Whoosh!
The ringing sounds of a sharp sword de reverberated in the muddy swamp as a warriordy cut her way through a group of Swamp Spiders.
Like most of her teammates, once she found a temporary safe haven during the night, Cassandra decided to rest to get back her strength for the next day.
The morning was not sunny like usual, it was gloomy with clouds.
Cassandra could have easily employed some of her trump cards to fight her way to safety during the night, but she remained adamant about protecting her real identity. Until she became strong enough, she needed to continue lying low.
By this time, she already discovered the anomaly in the swamp forest.
Unlike characteristic of the Spider Swamp where most mystic beasts here were content with staying in one ce andying ambush for their prey, this morning was very different as this swamp seemed to awaken from slumber.
Mud ants, mud Pythons, Swamp Spiders, and a lot of other mystic beasts that dominated the Spider Swamp became a lot more active this morning.
The most concerning factor about them was their organization. They all moved in the same direction like they were being directed by a sorcerer in the dark.
As Cassandra witnessed all these, her face turned grim. "History did not change; everything is still the same".
"It has finally begun!"
Once she confirmed what was already happening, she no longer followed the conventional way as she boycotted back into the forest to find her teammates.
Despite the circumstances, she stuck with her goal of keeping a low profile.
Chapter 77 Helpers
"John Naga!"
"Yes, Sergeant!"
Sergeant Gaud had a serious expression on his face as he faced the 6 students before him with his attention mostly focused on John Naga.
Of all the students who graduated from Obedin Mystic Academy during the recent batch, John Naga was the only one who rose through the ranks at such an outrageous speed to be a team leader in just 2 months.
Evaluations were done every tenure, but they were not the only tickets for promotion in the army, extremely exceptional soldiers could be promoted anytime.
Just a month after John Naga was inducted into the Obedin City army, he proved his mettle as one of the most useful and sessful newbie soldiers out there in the army.
His mystic ability, the Whispers of the Soul was such a peculiar and rare ability that he instantly rose to the top in terms of importance.
Most times, a spike in demand was not entirely due to the quality of a good but also due to the rarity of a good. The famed mystic ability of the Naga family was extremely rare, the army would do everything to keep it in their ranks.
John did not rise through the ranks entirely because of his rare mystic ability, his rise was affected also by the rare elite leadership qualities that he possessed.
John Naga was the team leader of the Fleeting Illusion military team.
Like most other teams, this military team was sent on a mission but their mission was force-canceled by Sergeant Gaud as they were summoned back.
After thinking deeper about the current situation of the army, Sergeant Gaud felt more and more insecure and that something was terribly wrong.
Though his intuition gave him signals, they were subtle as for some reason, he didn''t get a conclusive hint if the army or Obedin City as a whole was in danger. For some reason, it was like his intuition was being suppressed.
Having not experienced this all his life, Sergeant Gaud became vignt.
Just from the previous day to today, after the Commissioner of Defense was abducted, one trouble after the other kept on springing up as almost all the military teams in the army were already sent out on different missions.
At this moment, the army and the city''s defense were vulnerable.
This was abnormal and was why Sergeant Gaud decided to f*ck the rules as hemanded some teams to abandon their missions and return including John''s team. He didn''t just call John''s team back; he had a mission for them.
It was already a day since the firstbined team that was sent on themissioner''s rescue mission left, Sergeant Gaud decided to send John''s team as reinforcements.
After exining the circumstances to them, he gave them one specific order.
"Take, this is an ultra-long-rangemunicator".
"You will be able to send a message to the army even if you are in a heavily scrambled space filled with electronic interference".
Sergeant Gaud looked John in the eye. "Besides rescuing the soldiers and themissioner, I want you to send me anything that you see in the swamp".
"Understood?"
"Yes, Sir".
"Good, now leave!"
¡
Crane hid in an unupied cave inside a rock outside the Spider Swamp.
Unlike his teammatesst night, with his 3 contracted beasts, Crane was able to fly out of the Spider Swamp despite the attacks that he suffered from the flying beasts that dominated the swamp.
After a tight struggle where he even lost 1 of his contracted Cranes, he finally managed to escape outside the swamp and themissioner was safe.
On escaping though, he was alreadypletely tired and could not return to Obedin City immediately so he decided to rest in a cave inside the rock.
This was where he spent the night.
On waking up though, Crane woke up to the sound of different footsteps. As a beast summoner, he only needed to ce his ears close to the earth and listen in a focused manner to discover what was happening.
Due to some reason, the beasts of the Spider Swamp were marching outside. He could hear their footprints, not just Swamp Spiders, literally, every beast that was in the Spider Swamp was marching out due to an unknown reason.
After themissioner woke up, he told him to lie still as he left the cave to see exactly what was happening. Oning out, Crane was shocked.
All over his vision, all Crane could see were beasts of different types and sizes. Thousands of beasts filled the green in and beyond and they were all marching towards a single direction, Obedin City!
Crane was horrified. "Is this a beast invasion?!"
"No, it is not natural".
As a beast summoner, Crane immediately noticed some subtle hints and concluded that this was probably the work of a powerful beast tamer.
Beast summoners and beast tamers were different in a lot of ways.
The most predominant difference was that beast summoners had mystic abilities that could enable them to summon and contract beasts from the beast ne, but beast tamers could only find mystic beasts in the wild to contract.
At this moment though, Crane was not concerned about this difference as his head was instantly filled with worrying thoughts about his city.
Did the army know of the beast invasion already? Would his family be safe? Would Obedin City survive this disaster?
Crane remembered something as he instantly picked up his AOS phone to send an emergency message to the army but thework reception was unavable.
There was some kind of electronic interference in the air that intercepted his signals, this failure only made Crane feel more flustered and confused.
Amid his confusion was when he saw lights of collision from the distance. Instantly, he picked up his military telescope and looked, this was when he saw the military team of 6 soldiers from the Obedin City army.
Without hesitation, Crane sent out his 2 contracted Cranes to help. A few minutester, John Naga finally led his team safely to the cave.
Crane turned to him fast. "What is happening? I have tried to contact the army but I can''t, what is going on¡?"
John ignored Crane as he went to a corner before immediately fishing the special radiomunicator that he was given out.
"Obedin D-29, this is Illusion 0-9, radio check, over!"
"Obedin D-29, this is Illusion 0-9, radio check, over!"
Bzzz!
"Illusion 0-9, this is Obedin D-29, roger, over!"
"Obedin D-29, this is John Naga speaking!"
"Initiate Code Red!"
"I repeat, Initiate Code Red!"
"There is an ongoing beast invasion from the Spider Swamp, over!"
Bzzz!
"John, this is Captain Gaud speaking, how many minutes do we have?"
John looked outside through the entrance of the cave at the army of beasts that were already climbing towards the 10,000 marks.
"Sir, 8 minutes, 10 minutes at most".
"How big?"
"Probably the whole Swamp Forest".
A subtle Jesus exmation escaped from the Sergeant through the specialmunication device. "Roger, out".
p Crane turned to face John, still flustered. "What are we to do?"
"Definitely not going back, we can''t, we''ll only die to the beasts". John turned to face Crane and, in the process, he secretly activated his mystic ability as he used a skill that calmed the nerves of all the soldiers present without them knowing.
The effects of this move were instant as Crane and the other soldiers calmed down a lot which made them more receptive to critical thinking and ideas.
This was when John finally continued. "Where are your teammates?"
"Most of them are still stuck inside the swamp".
"This is what we are going to do then, we''ll save them".
"The fate of the city is already out of our hands, the best that we can do at the moment to help is to organize ourselves before going back to serve as reinforcements no matter how small".
"Hopefully, after rescuing the others, we''ll be strong enough to make a difference and move through the beast tide back to the city".
"Can and Stark will protect themissioner here, the others will leave with me for the Spider Swamp".
No one objected and themissioner kept silent throughout as the n instantly started being implemented.
Chapter 78 Beast Invasion! [1]
Wom! Wom! Wom!
Civilians of Obedin City were still sleeping peacefully when their slumber was disturbed by the loud tolling of several bells and rm sts which broke the silence of the previously cool morning.
No exnation was given to the civilians as dozens of military vehicles invaded the streets while the soldiers yelled out orders, prompting the civilians to go hide in the underground shelters.
The civilians needed no exnation though; this was the age of awakening.
After all the death and suffering that were already wrath by mystic beasts since their invasion started, civilians learned to respect the opinion of soldiers no matter how unpleasant they sounded to the ears.
No one dared toin as they all obeyed the orders of the soldiers and followed their directives to orderly enter the underground shelters.
While this happened, even more military vehicles sped past the streets and highways as all military forces were mobilized to the collision zone.
Immediately after the message was ryed through John, Sergeant Gaud did not dare to dy as he ryed the information to his superiors.
Once the superiors got the news, they reacted fast as they gave orders after calcting the possible collision points of the invading beasts with the city.
As John suggested, a Code Red alert was initiated across the army.
All the soldiers that were present in the city were mobilized to the city gates while priority orders were sent to those who were outside the city to return.
The city defenses were already activated as energy shields were erected to support the city''s protective walls. The South gate was calcted to be the main collision point and that was where the soldiers were ordered to gather.
The Obedin City army was not alone though in the protection of the city. When Obedin City''s survival was really threatened, the whole city would react and this included all the organizations that were not run by the city''s government.
The Mystic Hunter Union and other famous mystic organizations that settled to build branches in Obedin City joined the rally for battle as they emerged with their warriors, and this was when Ben made his debut.
Being the forerunners when it came to mystic beast-rted matters, the Mystic Hunter Union had a higher speaking power in this mobilization.
Ben''s elite hunter team was one of the first to get to the city walls. Once they climbed the ramparts and stood on the city walls, they finally got to see the threat that faced Obedin City.
Ben sucked in a deep breath of air as he saw such a massive army of mystic beasts that he had never seen all his life.
The Spider Swamp was more than 10 times bigger than Obedin City; its poption was no joke. Over 10,000 beasts trooped towards the city.
Swamp Spiders, Mud Pythons, Slippery Foot Rabbits, Wild Boars, Mud Lizards, these were just a part of the unstoppable beast army that was stampeding towards the city.
This invasion did not just involvend beasts. The sky far away in the distance was filled with different unnatural colors, colors of the beasts now dominating it.
Thunder Crows, Iron-beaked Hawks, and Fire-breathing Falcons dominated the skies as they swooped towards Obedin City intending to tten it.
This was not the first beast invasion attempt that Obedin City had experienced, but from Ben''s history knowledge, this was probably the biggest.
Ben felt that the whole Spider Swamp came out for this invasion.
Despite the confidence test that the sight of so many beasts put them through, Ben, the other hunters, and the soldiers stood their ground as they started preparing themselves for the inevitable collision with the beasts.
The weapons on the protective walls started being activated, but most especially, space was made for the all-important mystic warriors to exercise their strength since they literally trained most of their lives to fight mystic beasts.
The mystic warriors stood closest to the walls. On their hands were mystic swords, and other different mystic weapons, but predominantly at the moment were daggers that they could throw since the battle was still at a range.
From the faces of the soldiers, like Ben, they were also shaken by the sheer number of invading beasts but being veterans who already survived multiple beast invasions, they stood their ground.
Apart from the mystic warriors who were at the front, the non-mystic warriors stood behind them in the wall wielding different weapons of technology.
Sub-machine guns, rail guns,ser guns, kic rifles, and a lot of others. With hands filled with sweat, they focused their aims on the iing beasts.
"They will step over our corpses before they can even think of invading our city!" A Captain on the wall yelled to increase the morale of the soldiers.
"For our children!"
"For our families!"
"FOR OBEDIN CITY!!!"
Everything was happening so fast; the fight would start in at most 2 minutes but this was when a massive hissing sound reverberated from far away.
The distance was probably all the way from the Spider Swamp but every soldier shuddered, this was the war-cry of an advanced mystic beast!
The Spider Swamp had 3 alphas; this was the voice of one of them.
As soon as the hiss sounded, the beasts increased their speed and they collided against the wall the next moment. After collision came battle!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
All hell broke loose as the battle first started with the long-range weapon being used to hammer the beasts. Apart from mystic development, humanity already developed a lot technologically and it showed.
Different hot weapons were used to batter the beasts from afar but all these did was slow their approach, they soon started climbing the walls after breaching the massive energy shields that previously protected them.
Led by the intermediate mystic beasts, the beat tide was unstoppable.
While this tug of war continued, the aerial beasts finally flew over into the city. Once they did, the formation of the soldiers was disrupted a bit.
This was the tipping point that rapidly elerated the beast''s advance.
The next moment, bothnd and aerial beasts invaded Obedin City as the fight started for real. The sheer number of the beasts was too much, there was no way that they could stem their approach in the wall.
Once the beasts invaded the city, blood finally started being spilled as soldiers and beasts shed in a bloody struggle.
With his new mystic sword and his 8 mystic rings, Ben was among the soldiers that brawled with the beasts as he yelled before diving into battle.
ng! ng! ng!
ws and swords collided as the war between man and beast continued.
In no time, the beast invaded deep enough that they finally started getting ess to the civilians. Everything happened too fast, it was impossible for every civilian to have been evacuated as civilian deaths started being recorded.
For the first 2 hours, the battle progressed inplete favor of the beasts as they invaded deeper into Obedin City while spreading more destruction.
After the 2-hour mark though, the city''s defenders finally found their rhythm as they brought things to a stalemate though they were still the losing side.
All Obedin City''s hopes were on reinforcements that Principal Dominic of the Obedin Mystic Academy already requested from their allies.
The Principal and the real powerhouses of the city didn''t show up yet because the beasts had not presented their best yet.
Despite this, the beasts were still the winning side.
Chapter 79 Beast Invasion! [2]
"Are you going to keep on sitting there while your citizens die?!"
"What¡, oh wait, now I''m the Governor?"
"You don''t need to be the Governor, you''re the f*cking Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy and it is the duty of the principal to protect the city".
"You¡, ugh".
Principal Dominic covered his head as he turned away from the prating re of his assistant, he felt obligated but like usual, he feltzy and a little scared.
On seeing his reaction, Martha held back her anger. "Children are dying out there, don''t you have a conscience?"
"The city will be leveled by the time you finishzing around in fear".
"For heaven''s sake, you''re an advanced mystic warrior!"
This seemed to poke a nerve as the principal sprang up and pointed a finger at her. "What do you know about being an advanced mystic warrior?!"
"I do everything in my power to make this city grow and develop yet how does the leaders pay me? By screwing everything up in their quest for more money and political power".
"You expect me to put my life on the line for those greedy bastards?!"
"There is not 1, not 2, but 4 advanced mystic beasts out there, me going out to meet them alone is suicide!"
Once hepleted his outburst, the principal sat back down while Martha kept quiet for a few seconds before she spoke up again.
"Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the greater good".
"What will your son think? His invisible dad hiding behind his office while children his age die to mystic beasts out there in the city under his protection is not something that you''ll be proud of telling him".
"Reinforcements areing, you are not alone".
"Besides, you''ll also get to use the advanced-grade Lightning Rod heirloom of the academy like you''ve always wanted".
As Martha said her first few sentences, the principal''s shoulders slumped in defeat but once she said thest sentence, he sprang up like an energetic cat.
"Yes! I can finally use the Lightning Rod; the safety of the city is threatened!"
"Damn! I can use it while also looking cool before my son!"
"Don''t forget to get a footage of my legendary battle!"
Before Martha could react, the principal rushed into the room in his office as he came back already donning his mystic war armor.
He left without saying a word to her.
Martha smiled. "Please don''t die".
¡
"Stand your ground, hit them 10 times for every 1 time that they hit you!"
"We can''t give up now!"
"Reinforcements areing!"
Sergeant Stones'' voice reverberated across the battalion of soldiers in the front lines as he led the defensive line that was formed against the invading beasts.
By now, the invading beasts already crossed 30,000.
Though a lot of beasts already passed the defense line of the wall and invaded the city, more than 70% of them were still held at the defense line.
With his massive mystic Axe on his right hand, and a kic Rifle on his left, Sergeant Stones was like a beast himself. His bald head reflected the glow of the sun as he yelled while ditching damage after damage to the beasts.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Beasts died to him every second but a lot more filled their spot a secondter. Despite this, Sergeant Stones was not discouraged, he kept on fighting.
He was not alone at the front. Intermediate mystic warriors from all over Obedin City, both the academy, the army, the hunter union, and the mystic families held the line of defense with him as they fought the beasts with their all.
Though after the 2-hour mark, they found their rhythm and started gaining on the beasts, the beasts reciprocated as they finally brought out the big guns.
Loud hissing and cricketing sounds reverberated from the faraway Spider Swamp as 4 advanced mystic beasts made their debut into the battlefield a few minutes ago. Unlike most believed, the swamp had 4 alphas!
3 massive Swamp Spiders almost as tall as bicycles led the charge from deep inside the swamp while an equally massive Mud Lizard followed behind them.
Once these 4 moving disasters appeared, the soldiers at the defense line shuddered as all 4 charged towards them. They tried to attack them from ranged distance but their attacks were mere prickles to these 4 powerful beasts.
If they got close and attacked the wall, the situation would turn dire for Obedin City. Every soldier had their hearts on their throats as the 4 beasts moved.
They hoped for intervention but none came even as the 4 beasts came very close to the wall, the soldiers were about to abandon the wall and jump for their lives but this was when the protector of Obedin City finally arrived.
As the massive Swamp Spider at the front of the group hissed intimidatingly and raised his front legs, gathering mystic energy to shoot a massive fire ball at the wall was when he finally showed up.
Principal Dominic made his debut in a cool manner as his mystic boots enabled him to jump over the tall wall, and on his hand was a massive Rod.
Mid-air, the Principal''s eyes darkened before brightening up with thunder the next moment as he descended while striking with the rod towards the spider.
"You¡, Shall¡, Not¡, Pass!!!"
BOOM!
The mighty lightning manifestation that made the sky to briefly darkenpletely roasted the face and front legs of the spider as it limped and hissed in pain. Before it could react, the principal alreadynded in front of it.
Wielding the famous Lightning Rod of Obedin Mystic Academy, Principal Dominic showcased the power of an advanced mystic warrior using an advanced mystic weapon as he fought against and temporarily held all 4 alpha beasts back.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Take that bastard!"
"For all the children that died!"
"For all the soldiers that died!"
"For sullying my dignity!"
"For my son!"
"For Martha!"
"For Obedin City!"
The Lightning Rod kept on releasing mighty lightning sts as Principal Dominic supplied it with all the lightning mystic energy that it needed.
This powerful heirloom of the academy was one of the requirements for choosing principals of the academy. Every Principal that has ever governed the academy were established warriors with lightning mystic abilities.
Today, Principal Dominic showed the reason for this strict requirement as he had the time of his life alongside this powerful weapon.
Of course, against 4 advanced mystic beasts, he was still outmatched but he did not cower as he gave his all in this fight for survival. For every injury that he got, he made sure to ditch back twice.
This way, the defense of Obedin City stood strong again.
"Do not give up yet, fight with me!"
"The Wandering Moon Queen is on her way!"
Once the soldiers heard this from the principal, morale rose to hit a new high as they yelled and fought with much more gusto and zeal.
¡
By the 4th hour since the invasion started, Obedin City was already looking like a ruin as lots of the high-rise buildings were already leveled by the beasts.
Despite the fierce struggle that a Principal Dominic led army put up, the beasts were just too numerous as they found more angles to invade the city.
The line of defense still held, but inside the city was already a ruin.
At a remote corner of Obedin City, a hidden bar remained untouched even as the mystic beasts rampaged through the city.
A raggedly breathing and injured Master Fixten rapidly sprinted from the front lines as he appeared in this remote region in no time with his sword.
Once he said the password, he finally got to enter the Sloth Bar.
On entering inside, like he expected, Master Fixten saw few people in the bar since it was a night bar but like he also expected, he saw the Butcher Mama and her 2 buddies seated on their usual spots drinking their sorrows away.
Master Fixten rushed towards her. "How can you be sitting here indulging in drinking? Have you seen the current state of the city?"
"Yes, I have, it is not my fault that the army was caught off-guard".
Master Fixten was infuriated as he banged his bloody hands against the table. "How can you say that so nonchntly?"
"Soldiers are dying out there, warriors, innocent warriors, even innocent children are dying to the mindless ughter of the beasts out there".
"There is nothing that I can do, I dropped my hammer over a decade ago".
"Then pick it back up!"
"Little Fixten, you don''t tell me what to do¡"
"F*ck it! Screw you, what would your husband¡"
Bam!
Master Fixten barely got to finish his sentence before a huge hand pinned his head to the wall, a pair of red agitated eyes red at him.
"Don''t you ever mention my husband when trying to cajole me".
Master Fixten deted. "I''m sorry, but really, how would he feel knowing that you now let children die mindlessly without even blinking an eyelid".
"You¡" The Butcher Mama sighed before releasing him. "Actually, I stopped giving a damn long ago but damn, you are so good with words".
"Is that a yes? Will you help?"
"Wait for me outside".
"Thanks, I''ll do everything in my power to repay this favor".
"Everyone, out of the bar! The bar is closed for today". Master Fixten yelled as he hurried out of the bar, making the drunkards here to look at him weirdly.
Well, that was thest thing they heard since they were pped the hell out of into unconsciousness before being thrown out of the bar.
"Well, he convinced me again, so I guess we''re going to help".
The Butcher Mama''s 2 bodies only grinned before they left to various corners of the bar. A minuteter, they came out like new beings to meet Master Fixten.
The Butcher Mama''s huge frame was now covered by a heavy mystic armor. She still had her huge pirate hat like usual, but on her hand was now a huge mystic hammer, a hammer hefty enough to smash a car in pieces.
Knify, the blonde-haired middle-aged man donned a light leather mystic armor with a pair of mystic knives jingling about in his arms.
As for the ck-haired middle-aged man, Infecto, he licked the t side of his pair of sabers. "My Gundam Sabers hungers for blood!"
Master Fixten smiled for the first time since this invasion started. "Can we leave now?"
"Yes". The Butcher Mama answered.
As she spoke, she grabbed her mystic hammer tighter as a tyrannical mystic energy presence that could only belong to an advanced mystic warrior oozed out of her huge and hefty body the next moment.
"Let us go kick some beast asses!"
Chapter 80 Beast Invasion! [3]
[You have received a new system mission: Survive the Beast Invasion!]
[Mission Details: Obedin City has been attacked by a beast invasion from the Spider Swamp Forest and you are a soldier of the Obedin City Army.]
[1st Sub-Mission: Kill 2000 mystic beasts!]
[Mission Reward: 500 Skill points.]
[2nd Sub-Mission: Join the Wall protection defense line and prevent the protection wall of the city from falling to the beasts!]
[Mission Reward: 200 Skill points.]
[3rd Sub-Mission: Protect Bowling Town!]
[Mission Reward: 500 Skill points.]
[Main Mission: Survive the Beast Invasion!]
[Mission Rewards:]
- 100 Free Stat Points
- 1000 Skill Points
- 50 Constitution Points
- 100 Mystic Energy Limits
- 1000 K.R.S Credits
¡
Immediately after Turan, Rex, and Anna came out of the Spider Swamp a few hours ago, they instantly discovered that something was wrong.
At that time of the morning, the beast invasion was still in its starting phase which prompted the 3 of them to find a ce to hide.
It was before their eyes that the beast invasion started.
From their hiding spot, they saw as thousands of beasts started trooping out of the swamp forest towards the direction of Obedin City.
Their first reaction at that moment was to send a warning message to the army but their AOS phones and radiomunication gadgets could not connect to the army since there was an electronic interference in the air.
They instantly regretted their decision to hide since as they were already surrounded by so many beasts, it was now impossible for them to try out-sprinting the beasts to the city to warn them since the beasts would just attack them.
They had no choice but to wait until the beasts fully invaded the city and their attention was no longer here before they could finally move.
During this agonizing wait of over 4 hours, Rex received a system notification about a new mission. Though Rex was worried about the city, he was thrilled with the system rewards that he stood to get once hepleted the missions.
His only worry was that since his system was giving him so many rewards, then this mission was probably going to be extremely hard.
He worried about the safety of the city for all 4 hours.
Once the 4-hour mark psed and the concentration of beasts reduced, without wasting any time, they moved towards Obedin City at their fastest speed.
For thest and most rewarding main mission, Rex could decide to sit the battle out and he would stillplete it. This was easy reward in his opinion but Rex could not bring himself to stay idle when the city was in danger.
What worried him more was the protecting Bowling Town mission. Unlike Obedin City which was heavily fortified, Bowling Town enjoyed none of those.
If the invasion extended all the way to his town, Rex was afraid to think of the consequences. This was why he ran towards the city at full speed.
Rex''s only worry was the fact that all these happened in the day. On the day when exposed under the sun, he could not fight at his full strength, and to keep secrecy, he could not expose his vampire abilities also.
All these worried Rex but he temporarily put them all out of his mind and focused on the present.
Due to the speed at which they moved; it only took them 30 minutes to arrive at Obedin City. They arrived to meet a ruined city.
The protective wall still stood and the defensive line held, but the city was ruined. From afar, Rex and Turan could see raging fire and smoke rising into the skies as the hot sun beat down, encouraging the battle to continue raging on.
From afar, they could already see the numerous casualties both on the beast sides and on the side of the army of Obedin City.
Rex''s eyes turned red. "Turan, lead Anna to safety".
"What of you?"
Rex did not answer as he revealed his intentions with action.
Shing!
Once Rex pulled Berserker out of its scabbard, he scanned the beasts.
----
>Swamp Spider<
Health: 45
Attack: 4 ¨C 15
¡
>Mud Python<
Health: 30
Attack: 6 ¨C 12
¡
>Wild Boar<
Health: 80
Attack: 15 ¨C 25
¡
>Mud Lizards<
Health: 50
Attack: 3 ¨C 10
------
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Once Rex finished scanning the beasts through his system, his sword swiped across in the shape of a crescent moon as he unleashed a boomerang sh.
He barely corrected his center of gravity before he swiped his sword across again for a double Plutonian sh as heads and blood flew in his wake.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Swamp Spider!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Wild Boar!]
[You have gained 5 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mud Lizard!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
Once Rex started, he was unstoppable as he started carving a path through the beasts straight towards the protective wall where the main battle was fought.
When he encountered intermediate mystic beasts, he wriggled into the cluster of beasts, using other beasts as obstacles to lose those stronger than him as this way, he got to the wall in just 2 minutes.
By now, the soldiers on the wall already saw him as they extended a rope for him to climb up. In no time, Rex scaled the wall and joined the defense line of the protective wall to resist the invasion of the beasts.
Once Rex joined the defense line, he gave his all as, alongside each other, they worked together to resist the invasion of the army of beasts.
His system repeatedly sent him notifications of his mission progress and of beasts that he killed but Rex paid them no heed as he was entirely focused on this battle, all his focus was on killing one more beast and protecting the city.
While they fought at the defense wall, Principal Dominic and a few brave intermediate mystic warriors were out in the open fighting the army of beasts.
After a few minutes of battle, the principal started struggling against the 4 advanced mystic beasts despite the advanced-grade Lightning Rod but to his relief, help came unexpectedly in the form of a fat heavy middle-aged woman.
"Is that not the Butcher Mama?" Rex was stunned.
This heavy woman entered the main battlefield with a bang as her hammer mmed down left and right, killing beasts like a ughter machine.
It was like she was ying a game where all she needed was to hit some random keys to keep on killing beasts, it was insanely too easy.
She didn''t just fight random beasts though, once she joined the principal, she proved to be even stronger as she hammered one of the advanced grade Swamp Spiders to death after just 10 minutes of intense battle.
They were stuck in a stalemate with the other 3 as these furious beasts fought as their lives depended on it, but not for much longer though.
After over 4 hours and 30 minutes of battle where Obedin City already suffered a lot, reinforcements finally came from the nearby Anime City.
"We were dyed by an unknown enemy!"
The Wandering Moon Queen''s voice reverberated far to Principal Dominic''s hearing as she and her warriors invaded the battlefield to im their ce.
"Yeah!!!" Morale in the army rose again with her arrival.
Once she arrived, the momentum easily swept from the side of the beasts to the side of the defending city. Just about another 2 dozen minutester, by the 5th hour after the battle started, the invaders lost another alpha.
Once the 2nd Swamp Spider died, the remaining 2 turned and ran for their lives. With them abandoning camp, the other beasts also ran for their lives.
After such a harrowing encounter, the invasion finally came to an end.
The soldiers did not pursue the beasts, there were a lot of other beasts still inside the city wreaking havoc and they needed to take care of these ones first.
While soldiers rushed back into the city to fight the beasts, news arrived that the beasts also spread to the neighboring towns and were wreaking havoc there.
Another set of soldiers was mobilized to the different towns, Rex and Ben were among those that were mobilized to go reinforce Bowling Town.
Chapter 81 Scorpion, The Sting Assassin!
After what could only be described as an exhaustive mission where they met a lot of harrowing encounters, thebined rescue team finally returned.
Crane led the party of 21 back after fighting their way through therge number of mystic beasts who were scurrying their way back to the Spider Swamp.
Abined team of 20 soldiers was originally formed for this mission, but 4 soldiers died halfway through while 2 others separated from them leaving 14.
With John Naga''s team, they became 20 again which was one of the reasons why they were all able to return to the city intact. Adding themissioner who was sessfully saved into the group, then theypleted a party of 21.
Once they returned to the city, they handed themissioner''s custody over to their superiors before joining their fellow soldiers in the sweeping mission to rid the city of the remaining mystic beasts that were running amok.
Crane would give a mission report to his superiors after everything calmed down. For now, they needed to do their part in the recovery of the city.
While the others were focused on fighting to rid the city of beasts, Cassandra was focused on only one thing, or better still person and he was Rex.
Once they returned, they all learned that Turan and Rex already returned safely with themissioner''s daughter which meant that apart from the 4 deaths, their mission was wlessly executed.
Cassandra soon located Turan as he asked about Rex''s whereabouts.
"He left to reinforce Bowling Town".
Turan said this casually as he got prepared to join the soldiers that were eradicating the city of the beasts, but to Cassandra, it meant a lot more.
Her eyes widened once she made that connection between Bowling Town and Rex. "I should have known!"
"What?"
Cassandra did not answer Turan as she turned and sprinted rapidly in the direction of Sergeant Stones who was assigning duties to the soldiers.
"Sir, please I want to apply to go reinforce Bowling Town".
"No". Sergeant Stones'' face was at its very sternest as he red at the female soldier. "Soldiers have already been mobilized there; your only mission now is to help in eradicating the beasts from the city".
"But sir¡"
"I said no!"
Cassandra said nothing else, instead, she red back at Sergeant Stones in the eye as her eyes narrowed the next moment. She secretly activated a skill as her narrowed eyes changed into those of a snake.
Sergeant Stones was petrified.
"I will go to Bowling Town alone, and it will not be a breach of protocol!"
The voice echoed in the Sergeant''s head like it was a decree from the gods themselves, he answered. "Yes".
It was after Cassandra left that Sergeant Stones snapped out of the weird state as his eyes narrowed. "What just happened?"
¡
"I never knew that your city hid such a powerful advanced mystic warrior".
"Neither did I, this is my first time meeting her".
Principal Dominic conversed with the legendary Wandering Moon Queen as they strolled through the streets of the city, evaluating the destruction that was wrath by the beasts while contemting who was behind it.
By now, they were both already sure that this was not a normal beast invasion. The question was who did it and for what motive?
This was where they were stuck, they knew no enemy that Obedin City had that had a motive strong enough to induce such hate to mobilize such a massive army of beasts from the Spider Swamp to annihte the city.
They tried to ask the middle-ageddy who identified herself as the Butcher Mama but she simply replied no before leaving with her 2 buddies and Fixten.
"I wonder who the culprit is". Principal Dominic scratched his chin.
¡
After an exhausting battle, the Butcher Mama and her 2 buddies finally returned to their beloved Sloth Bar.
"Why are you following me? I already fought for the city and saved it". The huge middle-aged woman turned to re at Master Fixten.
Master Fixten was exasperated. "Am I not allowed in your bar anymore? You really impressed me; at least can''t we celebrate that with a hearty drink".
"Yeah, we can little Fixten". The blonde-haired Knify smiled.
"Hmph!"
The Butcher Mama snorted before turning to continue leading the way. As she walked, she seemed to remember something as she asked.
"Besides, where is that pestering student of yours? Did he see me fight?"
"Of course, he did". Master Fixten smiled. "I''m pretty sure that he would be here telling how awesome you were already if he was not mobilized to Bowling Town to help reinforce and save the town from destruction".
The Butcher Mama kept quiet after that as she seemed deep in thought.
In no time, they got to the Sloth Bar but the Butcher Mama ced a leg on the stairs before she stopped and looked into the distance.
"Where is your student again?"
"Bowling Town, is anything wrong?" This was when Master Fixten finally caught unto the abnormal behavior of this powerful middle-ageddy.
The Butcher Mama did not reply as her face turned grim. "I don''t know why he is here but what matters is that he came and he is in that town".
"Who is that?"
"An old friend of mine turned enemy".
"Who?"
"Scorpion, the Sting Assassin!"
"The what?"
"Send word to Principal Dominic and be fast. Scorpion spells danger, anywhere he goes, disaster follows and I have a bad feeling about this".
"Let him meet me in Bowling Town".
¡
Smash!
A bottle was smashed against a table as both shattered.
"Scorpion, rein in your anger". A young voice demanded authoritatively.
The assassin who donned a yellow and ck assassin attire turned to look as his fiery eyes red at the young man clothed in ck with a ck hood, but the young man did not flinch as he stared back cooly.
"Rein in your anger".
Scorpion took in a deep breath to control his emotions but he could not as he burst out the next moment. "How do you expect me to rein in my anger?"
"For 2 decades, you hold my daughter captive and threaten me".
"I did all that you demanded, I fulfilled all your ridiculous requests, I hunted, I killed, I bled for your quest that never seemed to end but all I get in return is speaking to her through virtual projections".
"For 2 decades, I have not seen my daughter physically!"
"For 2 decades, I have been deprived of the warmth of my only family and you expect me not to be angry?"
"HOW?!"
Smash!
Another bottle of beer was smashed on the ground as he finally stood up. By now, he was so agitated already as his ck and yellow tight assassin attire became engulfed by a thick yellow manifestation of mystic energy.
An oppressive atmosphere invaded this casual home as the floor creaked. If Rex was here, he would have recognized that this was his home.
Crack!
Once the tiled floor shattered and cracked open, Scorpion''s eyes glowed yellow the next moment but before he could move, a virtual projection appeared.
The virtual projection only showed a hooded face shrouded in shadows.
"Scorpion, rein in your anger!"
On hearing this voice, the powerful assassin calmed down instantly. "Yes".
"Be patient, after thisst mission, you will meet your daughter again".
"Yes, Lord Dreamer".
"Besides, the boy just came".
Chapter 82 Danger!
[Main Mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 50 Mystic energy limits!]
¡
[2nd Sub-Mission: Join the Wall protection defense line and prevent the protection wall of the city from falling to the beasts!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 200 Skill Points!]
¡
[1st Sub-Mission: Kill 2000 mystic beasts!]
[Mission Progress: 63/2000!]
¡
On his way to Bowling Town, Rex got these series of system notifications.
Originally, this was supposed to make him happy but Rex was far too worried to be happy. All his thoughts as the massive military bus moved were on the current situation of Bowling Town and if the town even survived the disaster.
Having lived in Bowling Town all his life, Rex knew everything about it like the back of his hand. Compared to Obedin City, his town was too backward.
This was the reason why he could do and get away with a lot of things that the Obedin City police force would have easily discovered and nabbed him for.
The town had no army, even their police force could barely be called one. Overall, Bowling Town was in no condition to resist such an invasion of beasts.
The only thing that Rex could do at this moment was hope. Hope against all hope that the god of luck smiled on Bowling Town today and a miracle happened.
6 minutester, the bus arrived in Bowling Town and all of Rex''s fantasies of a miracle happening shattered. This was reality, not some fantasy, the first sight of the town hammered this cruel truth into Rex''s head.
The first sign of a disaster that Rex saw was the torn-down ''wee to Bowling Town'' signboard, it was never torn down in the history of this town.
Entering the town, the bus seemed to drive into hell itself as blood immediately stained the tires red. Like Obedin City, Bowling Town was in mes.
Unlike the high-rise buildings of Obedin City, Bowling Town had none of them but it was these low buildings that served as a better stomping ground for the beasts.
The fire was ignited after the only gas station in the town was destroyed. The gas exploded, killing both beasts and humans in the process as it swiftly spread through different channels to all corners of the town.
Rex felt like tearing his eyes out as everywhere he looked, he saw blood, dead bodies, mutted flesh, and broken limbs.
He saw no survivor in sight, what he saw were the mystic beasts who were still roaming all over the town like they were the rightful owners.
On seeing the beasts, Rex''s blood started burning hot as his eyes turned redder. Before he could move, orders came from the leader of this mission.
"Our target are the beasts, go out there and kill them all!"
"While killing them, be on the lookout and search for any survivors".
"Once you see a survivor, make rescuing them a priority".
"Move it boys!"
As the soldiers around him rushed down from the bus, Rex reacted instinctively as he grabbed Berserker before following them down.
The beasts that invaded here were exactly those that invaded Obedin City. The fact that they urately navigated their way from the city to Bowling Town once again confirmed that someone was behind this beast invasion.
Rex didn''t know the real culprit, but he knew the beasts and they were now his vent outlets as he roared before swinging Berserker towards the closest beast.
[You have activated advanced sword skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move!]
[Splitting sh!]
Boom!
Rex started the hunt aggressively to vent his anger.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Wild Boar!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
Like every other soldier who fought at the forefront of the defensive line in Obedin City, Rex''s military uniform was drenched with blood already, now more beast blood stained it as he started a massacre.
Alongside the other soldiers that were mobilized here even as more buses arrived, they started a sweep across the town to wipe out the mystic beasts.
Rex killed for over 5 minutes before he found his first survivor, a little girl. Curled up in a corner, this traumatized kid sobbed while grabbing her mouth in fear of making sounds and attracting the beasts.
This scene tore Rex''s heart apartpletely.
Once Rex rescued the girl and sent her back to the buses, he started seeing other survivors but they were few and far betweenpared to the total number of civilians who originally lived in Bowling Town.
Rex knew without a doubt that after today, Bowling Town would never be the same again. After searching for some more, he finally deviated to his home.
Like the other houses, Cassandra and Ben''s home was demolished by the beasts but what surprised Rex was that his home still stood intact.
Curious and suspicious, Rex went closer before going inside the house. His intuition reacted slower like it was being suppressed by something but when Rex fully entered the house, this was when his danger sense spiked.
"Danger!"
Every hair in Rex''s body stood on end as he was about to retreat but he could not as a Kunai knife elerated forward before cutting a scar across his cheek.
Rex froze and looked ahead; this was when the illusion shattered.
When Rex''s eyes focused, he saw that his home was already surrounded by assassins. Assassins in ck cloaks, ck hats, and ck masks perched around the walls of the house like birds of prey waiting for their prey to enter their trap.
With just one look, he easily counted 20 assassins, but they didn''t matter since all his attention was drawn towards the 3 who stood at his door.
The tall and hefty man who stood in the middle was dressed in tight-fitting ck and yellow assassin attire with a ck with yellow stripes mask.
On his hand was a long assassin sword, Rex saw different signs of hidden daggers kept all over his body, and most predominant was the now blood-stained kunai knife that was attached to a long ck chain.
Looking into his yellow eyes, Rex felt like he was looking into a furnace and he was petrified as he felt fear biting into his very soul.
Without needing any introduction, Rex knew that he was looking into the eyes of an extremely powerful advanced mystic warrior.
The hooded man in ck who stood beside this powerful assassin, and the hoodeddy who stood to his left looked so weak and insignificant to Rex that he instantly ignored them as the subordinates but what he heard shocked him.
Scorpion, the tall assassin turned and spoke respectfully to the hooded man in ck. "Master Arthur, this is your family''sst target".
Though all Rex saw inside the hood was shadows, he still felt the young man inside grinning as a young voice reverberated the next moment.
"So, this is thest living scum of the Ancient Vector Family".
Once Rex heard this, his eyes widened as fear mixed with realization finally came over his face which was quickly followed by anger.
"Who are you?!" He growled.
"We are the Great Ancient Holmes Family, the conqueror of the age of awakening, and I, Arthur Holmes shall be your killer!"
Rex was about to speak but his agitated emotions made him lose control as he unconsciously activated some of the abilities of his unique skill.
[You have activated Upgrade Ability: Mind Time Travel!]
[You have activated Upgrade Ability: Spectator!]
[You have activated Upgrade Ability: Photographic Memory!]
Instantly, Rex''s consciousness left the material world in his mind.
Bzzz!
Everywhere was covered by a bloody mist as he traveled through the world of his mind all the way to 2 decades ago when the killing of his kin was still rampant.
Whoosh!
The blonde-haired Vector nsman warrior tried to parry the thrown kunai knife, but it wrapped around his weapon before disarming him.
The next moment, an assassin donning ck and yellow attire descended as a dagger cut across. This nsman instantly lost his head.
The others stood no chance as this assassin singlehandedly annihted them all with his numerous daggers, his kunai knife, and his long sword.
When the massacre was over, his glowing yellow eyes became thest memory that followed these Vector nsmen to their graves.
Bzzz!
Time fast-forwarded to a decadeter as another group of Vector nsmen were rounded up for ughter, Rex''s father was among them.
"Today shall mark the end of the Vector bloodline!" Rex in his spectator state froze as he heard a voice that was extremely simr to that of the young man who was currently speaking to him in reality.
"Is that him?"
Rex expected no response but his Photographic Memory ability enabled him to distinguish the difference, the man who killed his dad was the father of the young man who was currently speaking to him.
The father of the young man was the culprit behind his father''s death!
Crack!
The mind-traveling shattered as Rex returned to reality only to see the hooded young man already standing before him with a dagger to his neck.
Rex spat at him hatefully. "Even if you kill me, I will be reborn!"
The young man chuckled. "It seems that daddy did not tell you stories about the Ancient Holmes Family, you will soon know why we are your nemesis".
Instead of cutting Rex with the dagger immediately, the young man stalled as he instead ced his index finger on Rex''s head.
Rex''s vision instantly turned ck.
[Danger! Danger! Danger!]
The system sent monotonous danger alerts but Rex could see none of them, he was now petrified in the world of his mind that he always felt like a fish in water in, he was petrified by an intruding mystic ability.
In the world of his mind, for the first time, Rex saw his upgrade mystic ability which glowed a vibrant green. Beside it was a ck color which signified the ckfire mystic ability but now, an intruding blue energy invaded.
For the first time in his life, Rex felt the fear that all his ancestors felt before dying as his green mystic ability energy started being sucked by the blue energy.
Rex felt like his soul, his very essence was being sucked away.
He gasped for breath, he gasped for life.
The green energy of his mystic ability was almost sucked awaypletely by the blue energy as in reality, Arthur finally motioned to cut off his neck but in the nick of time, a dagger with a snake head collided against Arthur''s dagger.
"Rex, snap out of it, fight for your life!"
Rex heard a familiar voice and instantly, the grip on his mind was shattered as the green energy of his mystic ability returned to him while his eyes opened.
Rex saw Cassandra soaring through the skies with eyes like those of a snake.
Chapter 83 A Battle Of Ancient Families!
Hiss!
Up in the skies, Cassandra hissed like a snake as she finally revealed her true form for the first time since being reborn in the past.
Without anyone knowing, in her new body, she already advanced and became an intermediate mystic warrior while still keeping a low profile.
Cassandra had the Ancient Python bloodline all the way from her previous life. Through a secret technique that she used after being reborn, she was able to make her new body gain the affinity to awaken this ancient bloodline.
Now, she revealed her real abilities in public for the first time.
Unlike her previous basic grade sword, Cassandra now wielded a Super Grade sword that pushed her mystic energy control to the very limits.
She donned a light leather Super Grade armor, while every other equipment that she wore was an advanced grade mystic treasure.
Still in mid-air, she activated a skill as her tongue became long, jutting out of her mouth before shooting towards the Scorpion like a stinger.
Boom!
The notorious assassin, Scorpion dodged the deadly attack as his yellow eyes started glowing the next moment. Without saying a word, his grip on his advanced grade sword became tighter as he sprinted towards this unknowndy.
Once Cassandra descended, a mighty battle started.
As soon as they shed, it easily became evident that despite her ancient bloodline and her Super Grade mystic treasures, Scorpion still firmly held the upper hand as this powerful assassin battered her ck and blue.
Despite being on the losing side, Cassandra was never flustered as she revealed such skill and battle experience that was far above her level.
Her eyes were as calm like a warrior who already seen a thousand battles.
The fight between those 2 onlysted seconds though it seemed like a long time, and this was more than enough time for Rex and Arthur to recover.
Having been pushed so close to death already and barely surviving, instead of being traumatized, knowing that a descendant of the killers of his ancestors was before him, Rex instead took this near-death experience as motivation.
His eyes glowed a golden color the next moment as his desire for revenge bloomed more than ever before like unquenchable fire.
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 1.]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
[You have opened Mystic Weapon: Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[You have activated Mystic Effect: Freezing Touch- Freezing!]
[You have activated Mystic Effect: Blood Drain!]
[You have activated Mystic Effect: Life Drain- Killing Touch!]
[Warning! Your mystic energy has reduced below 10%!]
Though this was day, Rex could still transform into a Half-bat.
As he transformed, Arthur was rmed as he intended to retreat a bit but Rex was faster as with vengeful eyes, his bat legs raised up before grabbing the hooded young man back towards him.
Before Arthur could react, a tome appeared in Rex''s left hand as its pages started flipping open by themselves before stopping at a certain page.
The next moment, the book floated without support as Rex''s left hand touched him. Arthur''s breath froze as he experienced a kind of cold unlike, he had never experienced all his life.
His chest where Rex''s left hand touched became covered in ice.
Even as Arthur struggled to free himself, another mystic effect took ce as his blood started being drained rapidly out of his body. Every second, he lost blood, and in the process his health points.
This was not all, Rex took it a step further as the life drain took effect. Instantly, Arthur felt like his heart stopped working.
He aged a few years on the spot as his vitality was drained away.
In the blink of an eye, Arthur came extremely close to instant death.
By activating the life drain mystic effect, Rex''s mystic energy was sucked like water but he did not give a damn as all his attention was on getting his revenge.
Once the life drain mystic effect stopped, Rex released his opponent as the Blood Tome disappeared, Berserker finally had the opportunity to help his master seek vengeance as the sword stabbed forward with lethal danger.
All 3 mystic effects affected Arthur too much, he could not react to this attack but his nsman, thedy who stood to Scorpion''s right previously reacted on time.
Everything that happened from Cassandra''s arrival till now was still measured in seconds even though so much already happened, but thisdy finally reacted.
Whoosh!
As Rex''s sword stabbed at Arthur, her dagger stabbed towards him in return. Despite seeing the danger, Rex did not dodge, an injury for an injury, a scar for a scar, he was ready to suffer this much to get his revenge.
Ptui!
Rex was stabbed in the chest close to his heart as his sword stabbed into Arthur''s abdomen, Arthur finally reacted and retreated.
The dagger did not get Rex''s heart, Rex lived.
ng! ng! ng!
The hoodeddy did not let him rest as she shed with him, this was where Rex''s horrifying basics as a mystic swordsman who already unlocked his sword domain came into y, he parried all her attacks and retaliated.
Once Arthur recovered and understood what happened, his eyes zed from his hood in anger and humiliation as he finally brought his main weapon.
Having been so close to death, to recover his vitality and fight, he brought a bottle from his storage ring before drinking its contents as both his vitality and mystic energy recovered in just a few seconds.
Arthur''s mystic Spear was surrounded with tyrannical blue mystic energy as he charged toward his opponent the next moment, the assassins who perched on the fence around the house also reacted at this moment.
Against so many enemies, Rex stood no chance of winning but not even once did he think of giving up as he was adamant about getting his revenge.
If he was going to die today, he would do it like a man.
ng! ng! ng!
With his mystic energy exhausted, Rex could only defend but his basics stood strong as he fought against more than 20 opponents alone.
For 2 minutes, Rex stood his ground as his mystic energy slowly recovered but these 2 minutes were more than enough for Scorpion to emerge victorious. It was already a miracle that Cassandra survived for so long against him.
Rex heard her groan as she was flung to the side, then he saw the yellow eyes that struck fear in his heart staring in his direction again.
Whoosh!
Before Rex could react, the Scorpion elerated before arriving beside him the next moment as the Kunai knife was stabbed straight through his heart.
Rex did not die immediately, as a mystic warrior, his vitality was strong as he held on and this presented the opportunity for Arthur toe to finish the deed.
Once again, Arthur touched his head as he experienced the familiar fear of his mystic ability about to be sucked away but like before, something interfered.
"Scorpion! What the f*ck are you doing in my domain?"
Bam!
The Butcher Mama jumped over the fence andnded with the force of a bulldozer as a mini earthquake seemed to be induced that disturbed Arthur''s concentration, Scorpion turned, shocked and annoyed.
"Mad Butcher?"
"Yes, it''s me f*cker! What are you doing in my domain?"
The huge middle-aged advanced mystic warrior did note alone, Principal Dominic and the Wandering Moon Queen followed her here.
Scorpion did not answer as his yellow eyes scanned all 3 of his opponents.
"Arthur, Run!"
Instantly, Arthur and thedy apanying him tried to teleport out of this zone but they could not, anti-teleportation means were already employed.
The only way out of this was through battle, the old way!
Chapter 84 A Battle Of Advanced Mystic Warriors!
In the blink of an eye, Scorpion and his prot¨¦g¨¦ were trapped.
Being an experienced assassin, Scorpion instantly knew that the only way out of this situation was through battle the old way and he did not hesitate as he stomped hard on the ground before elerating towards his 3 opponents.
Yellow mystic energy surrounded him apanied by a raging yellow fire as for the first time, he activated his main mystic ability to fight.
The Butcher Mama and her 2 allies were ready for him as they got prepared to wee him and teach him a lesson reserved for intruders.
Instead of throwing his Kunai knife like expected which was already his trademark opening move in most of his battles, Scorpion held back and instead threw a golden token toward his 3 opponents.
The 3 advanced mystic warriors were confused and rmed as they braced themselves for impact only for the golden token to explode in mid-air.
Once the token exploded, what seemed like a virtual projection appeared in mid-air as a hooded face shrouded in shadows appeared.
"Sleep!" The hooded face dered in an imperious tone before dissipating.
Every other person on this battlefield felt nothing, but the Butcher Mama, Principal Dominic, and the Wandering Moon Queen instantly felt their eyelids turning heavy as they seemed to receive a decree from heaven to sleep.
3 of them fought hard against this outside influence but by the time they barely recovered, Scorpion, the Sting Assassin was already before them!
Whoosh!
Principal Dominic and the Wandering Moon Queen were caught off-guard but the Butcher Mama was not as her body instantly transformed into stone.
She head-butted the Kunai knife as it instantly shattered into pieces.
,m The next moment, she moved like she was marching in an army parade as her left and right legs stomped on the ground rhythmically. The earth responded by moving to her will as massive boulders rose out of the ground.
This was when the Scorpion appeared again out of the shadows with his long sword. For the first time, he used his 2nd mystic ability as he moved through the shadows before appearing before his opponents the next moment.
With yellow fire apanying him, he seemed like a demon from hell as he prated through the blockade of boulders to the other 2 mystic warriors.
Principal Dominic and the Wandering Moon Queen finally reacted.
"Advanced Water Skill: Water Wave!"
"Advanced Water Skill: Ice Surfing!"
"Advanced Lightning Skill: Thor''s Wrath!"
The sword engulfed in wildly raging fire tried to stab through but it was stopped by the water wave as the Wandering Moon Queen instantly surfed out of her previous location through an ice trail that appeared before her.
As for Principal Dominic, he jumped into the skies after being defended by the Wandering Moon Queen as he unleashed his strongest attack.
With the Lightning Rod, this attack was amplified even more.
The thick chain of lightning with a power that could level a city was concentrated as it all descended towards the assassin, Scorpion could not dodge.
He did not dodge though, he instead retaliated with his strongest skill also.
"Advanced Fire Skill: Hell''s Fire!"
Concentrated through the tip of his advanced-grade sword, the concentrated fire collided with the concentrated lightning chain as a massive shockwave quickly spread everywhere after the collision.
Principal Dominic was flung away but Scorpion improvised as he activated his 3rd mystic ability instantly.
"Advanced Wind Skill: Tornado!"
"Advanced Combined Skill: Super Breath of Fire and Wind!"
"Advanced Wind Skill: Asphyxiation!"
With Tornado, a violent destructive whirling wind descended as Scorpion instantly ascended to the skies through the apanying funnel-shaped cloud.
In the sky, he breathe fire and wind as a super breath attack was released towards the Wandering Moon Queen who was forced to focus on defense.
As for the legendary asphyxiation skill, he used it on his strongest opponent, the Butcher Mama who responded impably to his move.
"Advanced Earth Skill: Ultimate Earth Defense!"
"Advanced Summoning Skill: Mountain Wind Wolf!"
"Awoo!!!"
After defending her head from the dangerous wind attack through her ultimate earth defense skill, the Butcher Mama activated her 2nd mystic ability as she summoned her contracted beast after years of not seeing it.
The huge Mountain Wolf descended from the beast ne as his massive eyes immediately narrowed down on the human who was on top of the whirling Tornado.
"Fang, wolf him down!"
"Awoo!!!"
The huge Mountain Wolf growled loudly before sprinting towards Scorpion. This advanced mystic beast controlled the wind as he stepped on the air like it was bare ground as he engaged in a sprint to wolf down the powerful assassin.
While the wolf did this, the Butcher Mama stomped on the ground again as the ground softened to bring forth more boulders that she threw at the assassin.
The earth obeyed her will as they did not just form boulders, they also formed earthen spikes and other earth attacking forms which she threw at Scorpion who was still riding the waves of the skies.
With her setting the course of the battle, the Wandering Moon Queen and Principal Dominic of the Obedin Mystic Academy finally got to deal real damage.
Both of them made use of all 3 of their mystic abilities as they hauled skills non-stop at the powerful assassin who never seemed to give up.
The more he fought, the angrier he became and like a real scorpion, he never revealed any weaknesses as Scorpion fought all 3 of his opponents tooth for tooth.
He suffered a lot of injuries mostly from the huge Mountain Wind Wolf and the Butcher Mama, but he stayed true to keeping them upied.
The area across kilometers got destroyed by the intensity of this battle in no time, but by then, everyone else already escaped.
Instantly after the battle started, Arthur and the hoodeddy who apanied him went on the run as they disappeared from the scene.
Having been stabbed in his heart, Rex was dying and could not move.
Once again, Cassandra was the one who saved him as she fed him a rare potion that temporarily kept him alive before taking him and escaping out of the destruction scene.
The other assassins all escorted the young master of the Ancient Holmes family to safety as they were not the least worried about the safety of their leader.
Battles between advanced mystic warriors always tended to be extremely intense and long and this one was no different, the fightsted 3 good hours as Bowling Town became the suffering recipient in this whole spectacle.
After 3 hours during which Scorpion finally confirmed that the young master was safe, he sacrificed his body by receiving a lot of lethal injuries from his opponent to buy that window of opportunity of escape.
Once the window of opportunity finally opened, he ruthlessly took it.
He was a veteran assassin; escaping was his forte.
In mere seconds, he disappeared from their vision.
The Wandering Moon Queen and Principal Dominic intended to go after him but the Butcher Mama stopped them. "He is already gone!"
"You won''t see him even if you search to the ends of the earth unless he decides to deliberately appear before you, just drop it".
And so, the battle of advanced mystic warriors finally came to an end.
Chapter 85 Recovery
From themissioner''s abduction to thebined rescue mission, then the beast invasion and the great battle of advanced mystic warriors in Bowling Town, a lot happened in just 2 days.
In 2 days, foundations that were built across decades were destroyed.
Obedin City suffered a lot as its huge protective wall now had cracks and breaches through different parts.
With the nuisance of the aerial beasts taking the lead, the mystic beasts that invaded the city wrath a lot of damage. Lots of the high-rise buildings which showcased Obedin''s identity as a city were already leveled.
Thousands of soldiers died in the job of protecting the city.
When the situation got too dire, even the able-bodied civilians came out to help. Some climbed their roofs as through the self-protective weapons that they had, they joined in fighting the beasts.
For the civilians to join the fight showed how dire the situation in the city was. Apart from the soldiers who died in the thousands, over a hundred civilians also fell to the ruthless rampage of the mystic beasts.
This was a dark day in the history of this city that they would never forget. But that was already in the past, now was time to slowly recover.
Obedin City suffered a lot as they faced the main invasion army of the beasts, but they were not the ones that suffered most, Bowling Town suffered most.
3 other nearby towns were also attacked by the stray beasts that left the city but Bowling Town received the lion''s share out of the lot.
With only a basic police force unit and a single Basic mystic warrior, Bowling Town stood no chance as the rampaging beasts stampede through them.
Thousands were recorded dead in the town as the only survivors were those that hid and escaped the detection of the beasts and those that detected the danger ahead of time and fled the town.
All in all, Bowling Town was now a bloody cemetery.
The fierce battle between the 4 advanced mystic warriors only escted things as the foundations of the town were literally torn apart by the shockwaves.
There was barely any standing construction in the town anymore, the town was now like a ruin from an ancient age, it was inhabitable at the moment.
After their battle, as the Butcher Mama returned to Obedin City alongside the principal and the Wandering Moon Queen, they saw everything as soldiers worked hard to recover the corpses of the dead civilians of this town.
Broken limbs filled everywhere, blood dyed the ground red, and even the sun now had a shade of red to it, today was a sad day to all.
"Bring everybody that you can find to Obedin City!" Principal Dominicmanded after meeting with the leader of the excavation teams.
"We''ll be organizing a mass burial for them all".
"Also, bring every survivor to Obedin City for treatment".
¡
On getting back to Obedin City, the Butcher Mama refused to attend the mass burial despite the huge role that she yed in the city surviving this disaster.
She had seen enough of wars and death, she got embroiled in this one reluctantly and the aftermath only reminded her of why she left it all behind.
Alongside her 2 buddies, they drank till stupor.
After trying to no avail to drag her along, a sad and heavily injured Master Fixten had no choice but to attend the mass burial alone.
The mass burial was done outside the city where all the survivors could attend. Soldiers, civilians, and survivors were all present to send their heroes and the unfortunate souls who died in this disaster to the afterworld.
A Priest led the proceedings and after 30 minutes, they were all finally buried.
With the burial, this dark day finally came to an end with the veils of the darkness of the night covering this chapter of their lives.
¡
2 weekster¡
Rex''s secret was no longer hidden after the dark day.
He was supposed to be dead but Cassandra gave him a 2nd chance at life, and it was not without its consequences. Thinking that he would die, Rex did not hold back against his enemies as he used every single trump card that he had.
Facing Arthur Holmes, Rex had no choice but to use all his vampire abilities including morphing to be a half-bat in the day.
Principal Dominic and the others saw him first, then the others saw him. While the advanced mystic warriors fought and he fought for his life, Cassandra thought about nothing else but saving his life.
She dragged him all the way to Obedin City while he was still in his half-bat form, and this was how everyone knew his secret.
In the end, despite Cassandra''s miraculous potion that allowed him to hold to his life despite his heart already dead, it took Rex 2 weeks topletely recover.
This was when he was told the aftermath of everything and when he heard it all, Rex sank into depression. By now, he was already 110% sure that the beast invasion and everything started because of him, because he was a Vector.
Because of him, thousands of soldiers died.
Because of him, thousands of civilians died.
Because of him, Bowling Town was no more.
Because of him, a happy town turned into a bloody cemetery.
For a whole day after he was told of the aftermath, Rex refused to see anyone as he locked himself inside the hospital room where he was admitted.
Alone, Rex thought of his life and the life decisions that he had made so far. At the end of everything, he only had more questions and confusion.
"Is my fate so different from others? Why don''t I have control over my life?"
In the end, he discovered that he could no longer stay alone as he allowed his 2 friends toe to visit him. Ben and Cassandra were the only ones who visited him, others who knew him were somehow spooked about his secret.
Unlike other conventional bloodlines, being a Vampire was out of the norm. Vampires were existences who ruled the night, they lived a solitary life in darkness.
Rex took all these calmly, but they had subtle effects on his psyche.
On the 3rd day after he recovered, he was summoned by Principal Dominic.
Chapter 86 Decision
"When did you be a vampire?"
"On the day of the finals of the graduation tournament".
"How did you be a vampire?"
"After I was pursued by the assassins deep inside the forest, I coincidentally fell inside an underground basement where I had a fortuitous encounter".
"I don''t know what happened next, I just knew that I came out as a vampire".
"We already thoroughly searched every area around the location that you indicated but we found no traces of an underground basement, do you know where it might have gone?"
"No".
"Did you have previous encounters with the underground basement?"
"No".
"Ok, what is your rtionship with Scorpion, the Sting Assassin?"
"No".
"Um, what do you mean no?"
"I don''t know him, that was my first time meeting him".
"What of the youth in a ck hood, do you have any recollection of him?"
"No".
Rex continued giving mechanical answers as he was questioned for over an hour before the session finally came to an end.
"Ok, we got all we need, you can leave".
Rex was stunned as he stood up to leave.
Due to some reason, he expected the Principal to me him for the beast invasion and all the lives that were lost but surprisingly, they never mentioned it.
Rex didn''t know what to feel after that. For some reason, he felt worse that it was never mentioned, he wanted to be med, he wanted to be punished.
By the time he left the Obedin Mystic Academy, it was still 10:00 am. Instead of going back to meet his friends at the hospital, Rex instead decided to go alone to see the aftermath of what he caused.
Without informing anyone, he returned to Bowling Town.
On returning, Rex tried hard to hold back his emotions and it worked as he looked on at the aftermath of everything with a nonchnt look on his face.
The once glorious, boisterous, and ever-happy Bowling Town was now nothing more than a town filled with rubble, dust, and ruin.
As Rex walked around the town, memories shed in his head as he had visions of the little kids who always ran joyfully around the lobby ying to their heart''s content without a care in the world.
He could almost see the smiling face of the elders as they watched the children y while asionally cautioning them not to go overboard.
On walking a few meters forward, he came before the ruined restaurant of the ice cream man which was a hot spot in the town for both adults and children.
Rex knew Bowling Town like he knew his swordsmanship, every single spot in the town was still vivid to him and he visited them all without fail.
Each ce that he visited sent a sharp pang of pain through his new imnted heart, he now had a new heart but he experienced the same pain that his old heart felt when he discovered the truth.
Rex hoped to at least see one ce that was left untouched and intact after the rampage but he was disappointed, there was none.
Bowling Town was gone and gone for good.
After walking around the whole town, Rex could no longer hold it in as he copsed on his knees and wept his heart out.
He wanted to be a man but he could not this time, he wept.
After weeping to his heart''s content, Rex unsheathed Berserker from its scabbard as he looked at his living sword which was his onlypanion at the moment. Rex forced a smile but it was still sad.
"Shing?"
"¡" Rex did not reply.
"Shing!" "Shing!" "Shing!"
"Berserker, you won''t understand, you''re not human Afterall".
"Shing!!!"
Rexughed. "I think I understand who I really am now".
"I was never meant to live among people, my fate became different from others the day that I made it to my 18th birthday".
"I''m thest warrior of the Ancient Vector bloodline".
"I carry a huge burden of revenge on my shoulders".
"It''s either I give it my all and get revenge or they''ll find me and kill me like what happened, there''s no turning back or escaping this fate for me".
"Perhaps, I was never meant to have friends".
"Ben and Cassandra survived this time, but who says they won''t die like the thousands of others who died just because of me next time?"
"Hehe, I understand, I think I understand now".
As heughed like a maniac, Rex grabbed his sword tighter.
"System, give me my status".
[Affirmative!]
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire
Rank: Intermediate Mystic Warrior
Intermediate Warrior Grade: 1st tier
Strength: 220
Speed: 300
Mind: 80
Vitality: 380
Agility: 312
Dexterity: 308
Health Points [HP]: 850/850
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 610/610
[Basic Skills: Double Plutonian sh; Needle Stab; Drilling Stab; Boomerang sh.]
>Advanced Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients.]
[Skill Points: 205.]
[Free Stat Points: 50.]
¡
[Main Mission: Survive the Beast Invasion!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 100 Free Stat Points, 1000 Skill Points, 50 Constitution Points, 100 Mystic Energy Limits, and 1000 K.R.S Credits.]
¡
[1st Sub-Mission: Kill 2000 Mystic Beasts!]
[Mission Failed!]
¡
[3rd Sub-Mission: Protect Bowling Town!]
[Mission Failed!]
---------------
Rex smiled on seeing his new system status.
Arthur Holmes bringing his entourage to assassinate thest descent of the Ancient Vector family put him in a lot of danger, but in the mystic warrior trade, risks and danger came alongside benefits.
After awakening his 2nd mystic ability, Rex got 50 mystic energy limits and he got an additional 50 afterpleting a system mission.
This already did a lot to push him close to the boundary of the intermediate realm. After all the harrowing encounters in the Spider Swamp, and the subsequent assassination attempt by Arthur, Rex was pushed to the limit and the dam broke.
Now, Rex was an intermediate mystic warrior.
In the mystic world, it wasmon knowledge that the intermediate level was the basic required level for a mystic warrior to barely travel the world.
After achieving this level, Rex finally made his decision.
"It is time to leave and truly face my fate".
Chapter 87 Departure
After bing a Vampire and discovering the true story about the tragic fall of his family, Rex became stuck between 2 ces.
Then, he contemted going to revenge his father''s death immediately but, in the end, logic pushed him to stay in Obedin City with his friends.
Now, a simr situation came again but he had only 1 choice this time.
Rex would be damned if he let any of his friends die due to his family problems, he would rather leave them and face his fate alone. If his fate was death, he would face it alone like a man rather than implicate others.
Even if his fate was death, Rex was ready to give his all to defy it.
Having met the Scorpion once, Rex was pretty sure that one on one, he would be destroyed in less than a second by this powerful assassin.
This was why he did not contemte leaving to get revenge immediately, his main reason for deciding to leave now was to get strong.
He wanted to get so strong that people won''t have to fight for him again.
He wanted to get so strong that everything would be in his control next time.
He vowed not to be so helpless in his next encounter with the Holmes family.
He vowed to put up a struggle the next time that he went up against Scorpion, the Sting Assassin.
After making his decision, Rex stood up and went to the local Bowling Town church. The church was one of the few sturdy buildings in the town that was notpletely leveled by the beasts'' rampage.
On his way there, Rex briefly recollected the information that Master Fixten revealed to him after he recovered from his heart injury.
Throughout the past 2 months in the army, Rex had seen multiple signs of it but he was never sure until he saw the battle between the 4 advanced mystic warriors. Rex finally knew that having multiple mystic abilities wasmon.
ording to Master Fixten, bing a basic mystic warrior was the basic requirement to awaken a mystic ability. Each subsequent breakthrough gives another chance to awaken another mystic ability.
This was why advanced mystic warriors had 3 mystic abilities.
The only problem with this exnation was that despite being just a basic mystic warrior then, Rex already awakened a 2nd mystic ability.
After thinking hard, Rex once again associated this anomaly with his upgrade mystic ability. This legendary mystic ability kept on showing him new facets of its numerous and unqualifiable abilities.
Once Rex got to the church, he pushed through the rubble on his path till he got to the sacred hall where therge clock and some other materials were kept.
His eyes narrowed on the massive as that was in the center.
Rex already matured after these past few months of living as a mystic warrior. He knew that to survive and evade his enemies, he needed to hide far away from their reach and he needed to go somewhere where he could grow fast.
Rex navigated through the as ball as fast as he could until he narrowed down on another small shelter that was far from the King Resistance Shelter.
Rex did not just intend to leave Obedin City, he intended to leave the King Resistance Shelter after seeing the strength that his enemies could amass.
Rex quickly pinpointed his target. "The Gundam Shelter".
Once Rex got his target, he removed everything else from his mind but he did not leave yet since he had another n in his mind.
Bing an intermediate mystic warrior did not just mean that he had a great leap in strength, it also meant that all his stat points already crossed the 400 mark and he could now use the Coffin of the Ancients.
Rex essed his system inventory.
---------
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Intermediate Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[The Coffin of the Ancients was the deathbed where Orion Vector''s body wasid to rest before the enemies took him. They took him, but the coffin was retrieved and it mutated.]
[Through the powers of the upgrade, the Coffin developed a strange transformation ability and thus became an heirloom of the Ancient Vector family.]
[Humanoid Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead humanoid creature is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline humanoids.]
[Beast Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead mystic beast is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline mystic beasts.]
[Transformation % is below 20%, and the difficulty of transformation increases with the rank of the target of transformation.]
[Mystic Stones can be offered to increase rate of transformation.]
[Current Humanoid Transformation Slot: 1]
[Current Beast Transformation Slot: 2]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
----------
From Rex''s perspective, this was one of the greatest boons of his breakthrough to be an intermediate mystic warrior. He could finally use this mystic treasure whose mystic abilities never failed to fascinate him.
His journey to the Gundam shelter would without doubt be filled with danger. With a loyal beastpanion, Rex reasoned that his chances of survival would be higher which was why he set his sights on the Spider Swamp.
After all that the beasts did to him and his town, turning one of them into his loyalpanion was the least that Rex could do to pay them back.
With this, Rex was ready, he left.
Of course, Rex felt bad when he thought of his friends and his master''s reaction when they discovered that he was gone but he steeled his heart.
This was just one of the many sacrifices that he would give in his quest for power and revenge, he wanted to condition himself for them now.
¡
After the beast invasion disaster, a lot of good soldiers died but a lot of other good soldiers among those that survived also benefited from the disaster.
Good soldiers were born in training, but great soldiers were born from wars.
Turan was among the great soldiers that were born from the beast invasion. After stalling in the basic mystic warrior realm for close to 2 years, the dam holding him back finally broke after the invasion.
Like Rex, Turan was now an intermediate mystic warrior.
Bing an intermediate mystic warrior was a cause for celebration, and the Elliot family did celebrate their genius but Turan found it hard to celebrate.
The news that Rex also broke through at the same time hit him hard.
After the graduation tournament, he stopped looking down on Rex but he kept on being affected by him. He didn''t want to admit it but he already saw Rex as a rival of his that he needed to surpass to validate himself.
Compared to Rex''s achievement of bing an intermediate mystic warrior in just 3 months, his achievement of doing the same in 2 years looked like trash.
Turan locked himself in his room as a lot of thoughts went through his mind.
"I am not improving fast enough!" He growled, reprimanding himself.
"How can I find mom if my growth is this slow?"
On mentioning his mom, he hit a limit as he broke down in tears. From the tender age of 3, Turan started living a life without a mother.
ording to his father, she was kidnapped by a powerful marauding tribe and the Elliot family was not powerful enough to go after them to rescue her.
From a tender age, Turan worked extremely hard to be a mystic warrior for just 1 main purpose, to rescue and finally reunite with his mom.
He thought he was already improving fast enough but Rex''s achievement showed him that he was still a slowpoke, he was frustrated.
Turan vented his emotions and thought so much throughout the day to the night that he arrived at one conclusion. "The Elliot family has nothing to offer me again, I''ll forever be at the whims of father if I remain here".
"If I really want to rescue mom, I need to go out and seek power".
"Power will note to me; I need to seek it to find it".
Instantly after he made his decision, the dilemma of where to seek power came but it didn''tst long as the notorious shelter crossed his mind.
"If I really seek power, where else to get it than the chaotic and dangerous Gundam Shelter?"
That night as the celebrations continued, Turan sneaked out and departed the city.
Chapter 88 First Transformed Beast
Whoosh!
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Wild Boar!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mud Python!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
Apart from his weapons, all Rex needed for his journey was a basic set of clothes, a sack of blood bags, and a map to navigate through the wild.
By the time he finished venting in Bowling Town and went on his journey, it was already evening and this was when he arrived at the Spider Swamp.
After the beast invasion, the same way that Obedin City suffered a lot of casualties did the beasts in the forest also suffer casualties. Of course, their numbers were still pretty much ridiculous but they reduced a bit.
On arriving back at this Swamp Forest as an intermediate mystic warrior, Rex did not have to be as careful as before as he barged his way in.
With Berserker in his right hand, he killed his way into the swamp.
Only 1 target brought Rex to the swamp forest, the beta Swamp Spider that Crane awakened whichter helped in their escape from the marauders.
Having fought against it just 2 weeks ago, Rexpletely knew the strength of the spider. He had 2 slots for beast transformations in the coffin, but Rex intended to get only one beast from the forest.
After killing his way deep enough into the forest, Rex climbed a tree and perched, waiting for the opportune time to strike like an assassin.
In just a few hours'' time, the day finally darkened. The golden glow of the sun made way for the darkness and tranquility of the night to descend.
Once night descended, a pair of bat eyes opened in the darkness.
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 1.]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
[You have activated skill: Steel ws!]
[You have activated skill: Flight!]
Whoosh!
Rex pped his bat wings to propel himself as he disappeared into the night.
In his half-bat state, Rex''s stats increased again, and not only that, his heightened senses were amplified again in the night. Rex''s vision and senses were even sharper than the original inhabitants of the swamp.
He flew for 3 minutes before he found his target. Like usual, the powerful beta Swamp Spider was taking a nap in a cushion made by its silky webs.
Rex did not hesitate after discovering it as he dived straight in with his steel ws ready to wreak havoc. Rex tore all the webs obstructing his way in mere seconds as he arrived before the Spider before digging his ws in.
Hiss¡!!!
The massive Swamp Spider woke up with a startle but the damage was already done as Rex''s high agility enabled him to dodge its furious counterattack.
Being an intermediate mystic beast, this massive Swamp Spider already grew above some of the limitations of its weaker brethren. The beta Swamp Spider was both a melee battle spider and a rangedbatant spider altogether.
Its poison was deadlier, and its mud maniption was leagues ahead of the others as the furious Spider immediately started an attacking barrage on the intruder.
Whoosh!
The massive Spider moved through its webs like a fish in water as it repeatedly shot poison and mud attacks at the elusive enemy.
Rex did not go for the kill immediately, he rather toyed with the massive beast as he was focused on testing the new extents of his strength.
Even while he was toying around, he still firmly held the initiative in this battle. Rex observed to his fill after 2 minutes and he finally stepped the battle up.
Shing!
Once Berserker was unsheathed, the fate of the Spider was sealed.
The sounds of the wind moving were the only thing that the Spider heard as Rex started flying around it erratically like an annoying bug. The only difference was that this specific bug was not just annoying, but it was dangerous.
Under Rex''s control, Berserker cut dozens of injuries across the Swamp Spider''s body as it kept on hissing in pain and fear.
5 minutester, the massive Swamp Spider fell as it could no longer support itself through its webs, its body was filled with its green slimy blood.
Once the Swamp Spider fell, Rex descended as he finally brought out the Coffin of the Ancients. It took some effort on his part, but he managed to carry the massive Spider inside as the coffin expanded to swallow it.
Once he closed the coffin''s lid, he poured his mystic energy in through the tiny holes that surrounded the lid as a mysterious process started.
[500 mystic energy points have been deducted!]
[Beast Transformation process has started!]
[Wait for 15 minutes¡]
15 minutester, the coffin expanded as the lid opened on its own only to allow a Swamp Spider to climb out which looked no different from the one that entered. The Spider turned before bending its legs to bow before its new master.
Rex''s luck seemed to shine this time, though the percentage of sess was only 20%, he was able toplete it in one go.
[Congrattions! You have created your first transformed beast!]
[You have acquired a pure bloodline beast: Dark Mist Spider!]
[Do you want to give your first transformed beast a name?]
"Yes". Rex answered as he turned to look at the massive Spider who was looking back at him with its grey misty eyes. "I''ll call you Grey".
[First transformed beast has been named: Grey!]
----------
[Transformed Beast: Dark Mist Spider!]
[Grade: Intermediate Mystic Beast!]
Name: Grey
Master: Rex Vector
Strength: 320
Speed: 400
Mind: 30
Vitality: 220
Agility: 180
Dexterity: 150
Health Points [HP]: 1500/1500
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 212/230
Mystic Affinity: Darkness
[Skills: Tail Stab; Silk; Poison Throw; Jump; Sprint; Mist Travel; Dark Mist!]
[Dark Mist: When activated, a cloud of darkness will cover a region of 10 meters around Grey. This cloud of darkness can be recognized as night by the naturalws of Vampires and can therefore offset the sun''s weakness.]
[Mist Travel: When activated, +200% movement speed and the ability to move with a dark mist obscuring the vision of enemies within a region of 10 meters.]
[Passive Abilities: Poison; Leverage!]
[Leverage: When around its master, Grey''s speed and strength are amplified by 10% and the same applies to the master.]
[Remark: I''m f*cking Gandalf the Grey!]
-----------
After seeing the stats and abilities of his transformed beast, Rex was impressed. Grey came out as a far stronger version than his Swamp Spider self.
In some stat aspects like strength, Grey was even stronger than him unless he morphed into his half-bat form where his stats experience a ridiculous increase.
Overall, Rex was satisfied with his newpanion''s strength.
To truly test Grey''s strength, the only old proven method was through battle. At this moment, they were in the Spider Swamp, and what better location to try out his newpanion''s strength than here?
Rex and his transformed beast soon started a rampage across the swamp.
They both killed hundreds of basic mystic beasts and 4 intermediate mystic beasts until their rampage finally awakened one of the alpha Swamp Spiders.
Without hesitation, they escaped but Rex was more than satisfied since he got his first 3 mystic stones out of this massacre in the swamp.
Unlike basic mystic beasts, having absorbed more mystic energy from the atmosphere, intermediate mystic beasts develop mystic cores on their bodies.
When killed, their mystic cores be mystic stones that can be picked and used by mystic warriors for different benefits.
The most important use of mystic stones was the ability that it granted mystic warriors to have a higher efficiency of training their mystic energy with it.
Rex got his first 3 ever mystic stones.
Chapter 89 Scorpions History
An hour after Rex departed the city, Master Fixten went to the Sloth Bar like usual as this time he came to drink away the sorrows of the beast invasion.
Like every other soldier who participated in the great battle, he was affected. The beast invasion left a deep mark on every soldier and civilian who survived it.
Master Fixten was not a soldier but as a mystic educator of a battle department of Obedin Mystic Academy, he was obligated to protect the city and this was where a lot of his colleagues died.
Though he knew that they died for a good cause and that their death possibly saved a lot of civilian lives, he could not bring himself to simply forget them.
Like a great man once said- We can''t change what it is, so we keep it light until it''s time to get dark. And then we get pitch ck. That''s how we deal with death.
Since it was not his death time yet which was his dark time, Master Fixten agreed with this quote and decided to keep it light until his dark time came.
On entering the Sloth Bar today, Master Fixten saw the Butcher Mama and her 2 buddies in their previous spot drinking away like nothing happened.
He was about to just wave at them and go to his favorite spot, the balcony to drink away his sorrows but on second thought, why should he drink alone?
"Hey! Is there room for a 4th wheel?"
"Yeah,e on in".
Master Fixten did not stand on ceremony as he joined the 3 drinking pals. None of them spoke, it was as if they couldmunicate their sorrows telepathically to each other as they just kept on drinking.
As mystic warriors, it was very hard for them to get intoxicated by alcohol but like everything else in life, there was a limit to it also.
Master Fixten drank so much that he became intoxicated, this was when he started speaking. "Butch Mama¡"
The Butcher Mama turned to him on hearing that but she didn''t refute him.
"Why is it that good people are the ones who almost always die first?"
"Because they are good people".
"Hmm, does that mean they are stupid?"
"No, it just means that we''re living in reality and not some fantasy world that you envisioned".
"Hehe, what of Scorpion, that bad guy, who is he to you?"
This time, the Butcher Mama took longer to speak but she did after sighing. "Scorpion was once my sworn brother".
"Hmm, interesting". Master Fixten supported his chin with his left hand which almost made him fall but he seeded. "Continue, I''m listening".
The Butcher Mama turned to face the intoxicated Master Fixten, wondering if she should smack the drunkenness out of him but she decided to ignore him. Perhaps, it was better if he didn''t listen.
"Over 2 decades ago, I broke into the mystic world as a promising intermediate mystic warrior of the Mystic Bounty Hunter Alliance".
"Then, I was recognized as a mystic warrior with a lot of promise and potential and like all my predecessors, I became arrogant".
"I was sent on a bounty mission to kill a notorious criminal of the Killin Mountains and this was when I met him, the brat with anger issues".
"Then, he was not Scorpion, he was just known as the Sting. Coincidentally, we took the same bounty mission which instantly made uspetitors".
"Well, he called me fat, and you know," the Butcher Mama suppressed augh. "I flipped out and we had our very first battle".
"I was strong and heavy; he was swift and precise".
"We fought long and hard, he incapacitated my legs but not after my hammer hammered him enough to prevent him from using his legs for a week".
"So, there wey alone in the Killin Mountains, defeated and deted".
"I don''t know how it happened next, but what is important is that we somehow became friends after that. Not just friends, we became best friends".
"We learned to respect others for the first time after that battle".
"From then on, we took on numerous bounty missions together and we never failed toplete one. We became known as the Hammer and the Sting".
"Of course, he still had his anger issues but I tolerated him".
"This friendship continued until it was interrupted by well, the love of his life". The Butcher Mama sighed. "I think her name was Sophia".
"After they came together, Sting became scarce, we rarely saw and he no longer took on bounty missions so I became a lone hunter once again".
"I was hurt by his decision to abandon our brotherhood but I took on more bounty missions to relieve the hurt. I was determined to forget about him and I did, not until I got the news a few yearster".
"From what I heard, Sophia died, his 3-year-old daughter was taken and like expected, Sting went after them. That was thest I heard about him in a long time, I thought he was dead until Scorpion, the Sting Assassin broke into the scene".
"I worked with him for years so, on hearing of him and his assassination style, I instantly knew that he was the one".
"He came back angrier than ever before. Rumors say that he even gained an ability that could make him stronger the angrier he became".
"I didn''t know what happened to him, but I knew that he was in a lot of pain".
"I didn''t go back to him since I also found the love of my life a few yearster. Together, we relocated to Obedin City and forgot about the chaotic life of the mystic world. I never expected to see him again 2 decades on".
After finishing her story, the Butcher Mama finally turned to face Master Fixten, expecting to see a snoring version of him but she was shocked to see an attentive version of this sword master, she frowned.
"You faked being intoxicated?"
"Yeah, I''m sorry, I really wanted to know the truth".
"Sigh, I feel like smashing you to death with my hammer".
"Sorry, sorry¡" Master Fixten was quick to raise his hands in surrender. "So, do you know the rtionship that Scorpion has with my student?"
"I don''t know but I think it''s somehow rted to his daughter. She is the only possible reason for Scorpion to put so much effort into an endeavor at this age".
"Besides, I think that brat of yours has a huge secret".
Beep! Beep!
Master Fixten excused himself as his AOS smartphone rang. On picking up the call, he didn''t speak once as the person on the other side said all the words before hanging up. When he turned, the others knew instantly that something was up.
"What happened?"
"Rex left town".
¡
The news of 2 of the best students produced by Obedin Mystic Academy in this session going missing came like a bombshell to Obedin City.
After everything that the city had already went through, the news that both Turan and Rex were gone was thest thing that the civilians wanted to hear.
From their performance in the finals of the graduation tournament, everyone already saw them as the future stars of the city. And this came just after the news of them advancing to the intermediate mystic warrior realm came.
A massive search party was organized though the authorities knew that it was a futile effort. Since both parties were part of the army and left on their own volition, they would definitely employ measures to thwart any search effort.
Despite this though, the search party was still organized.
The only question now was why did the 2 best students leave the city? No one seemed to know the right answer, except Cassandra.
While everyone left to go search for them, Cassandra left for Bowling Town. On getting there, she easily saw clues about Rex''s arrival here which eventually led to her going to the local church where Rex essed an as.
On looking at the as board, Cassandra sighed. "Gundam Shelter huh?"
"Exactly the same as the future¡"
"Rex, can''t your fate be any different from the future?"
Cassandra had a lot of things going on in her mind at this moment, but in the end, she decided not to give up. She already sacrificed so much to give up now, she was determined to help Rex to change his future fate.
Cassandra destroyed the as to prevent anyone from tracking Rex before parking her loads in her storage ring as she also departed.
¡
In the early hours of the next day, the search party returned fruitlessly.
As the citymented over the disappearance of these 2 geniuses, Master Fixten once again locked himself up as he reflected on the decision of his student.
Hourster, he finally epted the truth.
"I may not know what made you arrive at this decision, but I respect it".
"Carve your own path as a mystic swordsman".
Chapter 90 Preparations To Enter The Wild
1 weekter¡
It took Rex only a week to truly understand the dangers of the wild.
During the past 1 week, he was able to learn that a lot of truths were withheld from them in the Obedin Mystic Academy. Truths about how really dangerous the outside world was and the real dominance of mystic beasts.
At this present age, humanity was still on the losing side of the great war between man and beast as they remained holed up in their shelters.
The 9 Great Shelters and the 21 small shelters only covered a small fraction of the earth, the remaining bigger fraction was dominated by mystic beasts.
Rex wondered what was preventing the mythical mystic beasts fromunching a raid to wipe out humanity for good.
In this one week, Rex finally understood why despite the technological advancements of humanity, they rarely used them against the mystic beasts.
The reason was that no matter how researchers and scientists developed, they could never invent technologies that could overthrow the use of mystic energy. Mystic energy was the superior and invaluable force.
Only legendary mystic warriors could stand against mythical mystic beasts, no weapon could stand against any of these powerhouses and survive.
Outside the shelters, technological devices became more of a liability than an asset as mystic warriors could simte most effects of the devices through their mystic abilities.
Technology was only useful for the beginning levels of the mystic world and most could serve as support for the higher levels.
Unless a revolutionary technology ever broke out in the future, this trend was not going to change and was why mystic warriors still used cold weapons.
Apart from the mystic beasts, humanity still had other powerful enemies in the form of themselves. In this one week, Rex learned this important lesson also.
As was already demonstrated during his stay in Obedin City, the marauding tribes were a tumor that if not eradicated would keep on eating humanity from the inside. Marauding tribes were all over the world.
Apart from the marauders, there were assassins who were ready to kill anyone for the money and a lot of other human scum out there.
Rex learned an important lesson which he held as a creed- In the bigger picture, mystic beasts were the ones who really threatened humanity''s survival, but in smaller terms, the greatest enemies of humans were humans themselves.
1 week was not enough for Rex to leave the King Resistance Shelter, but he never stopped to rest at a single location for extended periods as he kept on moving to avoid any chances of being discovered by any search party.
He traveled more through the thick forests than through cities or towns.
During the 1 week, Rex encountered more mystic beasts of different species than he ever saw during his time in Obedin City.
He avoided meeting other humans, but he killed beasts with gusto.
Rex continued this for 2 more weeks until he finally got to the boundary of the King Resistance Shelter. Leaving a shelter meant leaving human territory, Rex was finally about to enter the wild.
Before taking this pivotal step in his journey, Rex decided to find a cave where he intended to spend one night to truly consolidate all his gains.
Once Rex settled down inside the cave, he essed his system.
[Skill Points: 1,205.]
[Free Stat Points: 150.]
[Constitution Points: 65.]
[K.R.S Credits: 7,500.]
This was all his savings and umtions for 2 months in Obedin City.
Having savings was nice and all that, but what mattered was spending them on yourself. Before leaving for the wild, Rex intended to spend all his savings to make himself as strong as possible.
p Originally, Rex would have decided to buy new skills or upgrade his current ones with his 1000+ skill points but this time, he was attracted by something else.
After getting the inheritance of the Vector family and bing a Vampire, Rex got the Blood Tome as an heirloom and this mystic book had been fantastic.
The Blood Tome did not just have powerful mystic effects, it came with tokens in the form of the Coffin of the Ancients and the Death Daggers andstly, it came with martial techniques that Rex had not essed till now.
Rex did not ess the martial techniques previously because the Tome was locked, and then he didn''t have the time to ess them after unlocking the tome.
Now, he could finally give them the time that they deserved.
------
[Blood Tome Martial Techniques: Touch of Death; Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]
[Touch of Death- 1000 Skill Points to learn!]
[This is a legendary martial technique that was envisioned and created by the first Ancestor, Orion Vector, and was perfected by legendary tiajutsu Ancestor and Vampire, Grog Vector!]
[When mastered, by sacrificing your blood, you can create an attack that can deal 100 - 1000% single touch damage.]
¡
[Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]- (1500 Skill Points to learn!)
[This is a legendary sword technique that was created by the Death Ancestor, Ka Vector who fully mastered death and the rebirth ability of the upgrade.]
[NOTE: Only swordsmen that are truly devoted to the way of the sword can learn this legendary sword technique!]
¡
On seeing both martial techniques, Rex briefly had a dilemma. The first was a martial technique that was more or less an attacking skill, while the 2nd one was a martial technique that was just like his Aurora Swordy.
Having a powerful attacking skill like the Touch of Death was awesome, but so was having a new sword technique that could probably make his swordsmanship develop faster and could effectively raise his strength by a lot.
Both had pros and cons but Rex arrived at his decision after very little thinking. After all, he didn''t have the required skill points to get the sword technique so he just went for the Touch of Death that he could afford now.
[Your choice has been registered- 1000 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Martial Technique: Touch of Death!]
Instantly, Rex felt like new knowledge was being forcefully injected into his brain as he experienced some difort. This did notst though as it soon ended, Rex was fascinated as it was like he already mastered the martial technique.
Through a bit of system magic, he possibly skipped years of learning in just a few seconds as he mastered this martial technique.
The only requirement on his part was to use it in battle to get used to it.
Once Rex learned the martial technique, his skill points reduced to 205 again so he deviated to his free stat points. The lowest requirement to upgrade his constitution was 100 constitution points so he could only leave it for now.
Having thought about it before now, Rex easily allocated his stat points.
[70 Stat Points have been added to Vitality!]
[80 Stat Points have been added to Strength!]
------------
Strength: 300
Speed: 300
Mind: 80
Vitality: 450
Agility: 312
Dexterity: 308
Health Points [HP]: 850/850
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 610/610
----------
By adding 80 points to his strength stat, Rex made it catch up with his other stats and for his vitality which was his trump card as a vampire, Rex increased it more. In his opinion, 1 great attribute was better than 5 good attributes.
After this little shuffling and spending, Rex felt satisfied. The only currency in his system that he had not spent now was the K.R.S Credits.
He was about to leave the King Resistance Shelter and once he left, K.R.S Credits would be useless to him, it was wise to spend them all now.
Rex made a list of most things that he needed. He needed a pair of mystic boots, a pair of mystic gloves, basic seasoning to survive from eating meat in the wild, a basic map of his destination, and most especially a stockpile of blood bags.
Rex left the cave and located the nearest town as he splurged all his money to get everything that he needed. A few hourster, he returned to his cave.
As soon as Rex entered the cave, he heard a voice.
"You finally returned?"
Rex was rmed.
Chapter 91 Farewell Gift
Shing!
Rex unsheathed Berserker as his heightened sense ability instantly kicked in. Once this ability kicked in, this was when he calmed down, puzzled.
First of all, even after the voice called his name, his intuition never warned him of danger and for some reason, he felt a sense of closeness to this person. Now that he thought of it, the voice even sounded a little familiar.
Rex was stunned as he looked deep into the darkness of the cave, and through his night vision, he was able to see the silhouette in the darkness.
"Cassandra?"
A gentle but aggrievedugh soon sounded from inside the darkness. "I thought you''d forgotten my name already".
Cassandra no longer kept the suspense as she switched on a mystic light bulb that floated in the air, illuminating the cave.
Rex remained stunned as he looked at this childhood friend of his. Like him, Cassandra was dressed in basic hunter clothes and leather armor and as she tied her long ck hair to a bun, it made her look more attractive than ever before.
She was seated upon a mattress that she brought along on her storage ring, but Rex''splete attention was on her face as she had this strange wild beauty to her at this moment that he had never noticed before.
"Wait¡, wait!"
Rex spoke up the next moment to stop himself before his imagination could run wilder as he looked at her. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Cassandra threw his question back at him.
Well, that certainly left Rex speechless. At this moment, he was already thrown off-bnce, seeing Cassandra again was something that was so out of his script for the next phase of his life that he didn''t know how to react.
"Come, sit, let''s talk". Cassandra motioned at the mattress and Rex did not resist as he nodded before going to sit beside her.
After sitting down, silence reigned for the next few minutes as both of them seemed not to know how to start a conversation till Cassandra finally sighed and spoke. "Do you want to tell me what is happening now?"
Rex turned to look at her one more time as her wild beauty kept on mesmerizing him but he shook his head. "I can''t tell you, this is personal".
"When did we start keeping secrets?"
"You also have secrets!" Rex raised his voice a bit at this point.
Cassandra sighed. "So, you want to know about my secret?"
"Yes".
"Will you tell me yours after I''m done?"
"Depends".
Cassandra only smiled at that before she started. "I''m from the future".
"¡"
"Cough!"
"Come again you say what?"
Cassandra smiled again. "I''m from the future and I''m serious".
"I came from 50 years in the future, where you and I will be Super Mystic Warriors. Of course, you are the stronger one and the most notorious".
"In the timeline that I came from, you are a viin".
"A crazy lone wolf marauder".
"Not many people knew your motive for doing it, but you were crazy in your quest for power. You could do anything to get power, including ughtering whole viges and refining their blood to upgrade your vampire powers".
"I am a genius of the Ancient Putin family. Like a lot of others, we fell to the trap of the Holmes family and we were almost annihted".
"At his point of death, my grandfather prophesied to me that the only way to save the Putin bloodline is to ply my trade with the crazy vampire, the Blood King Rex. I was reluctant but in no time, I became thest of my bloodline".
"To save my bloodline, I had no choice but to do it. I activated my legendary mystic ability and was able to travel through the river of time to 50 years in the past. Due to my maniption, I was able to be Cassandra".
"On starting over, I lost a lot of my abilities and that is why I decided to enter the Obedin Mystic Academy with you. Besides, I wanted to get close to you".
"With time, I grew to be close to you and here we are".
"On seeing the dreaded Scorpion, I think I know the reason for your crazy personality in the future now. The Holmes family did something to your family too, and that''s why you also want to leave the city right?"
Rex kept quiet as Cassandra looked at him, waiting for his answer.
Seeing Cassandra again already made him lose bnce a lot, now this reveal of hers came like a bombshell to him. The cute Cassandra that he yed with and always had a crush on, he never expected her to be from the future.
"So, you became close to me to take advantage of me?"
"No, I became close to you because I want to save my family and my bloodline from extinction. I never expected our rtionship to develop so far beyond my expectations".
"What is Scorpion''s fate in the future?"
"20 years from now, you will both be fierce rivals but like is characteristic of them, heter discovered that he was deceived. He fought for the Holmes family thinking that his daughter was kept captive, but she was already dead".
"She died the same day that his wife died".
"On that day that he discovered, he went mad and fought against them but he stood no chance, the Holmes family exterminated him".
"That is the same fate that befell all their rivals and is why I came to the past to seek your help. Also, after getting so close to you, I don''t want you to take the same path that you took in the future".
Cassandra looked into Rex''s eyes. "Please, don''t be a viin".
At this point, everything that Rex heard was like an ancient foreignnguage to him. He knew that Cassandra was not lying but he still found it hard to believe.
"What of Ben? Is he also from the future?"
"No, Ben is just like you, he''s just from an influential Mystic family".
It got to a point where Rex just kept asking questions and Cassandra kept on answering, this continued for hours until Cassandra started another conversation.
"Rex, please don''t leave. If you do, you''ll just start that viinous life of your future all over again, I don''t want to see that future version of you".
"I love you, Rex; I''m scared to see you like that again".
"¡" Now, that was the word that toasted Rex''s head. "You love me?"
"Yeah, I do since a long time ago as I got to know you more. The more I know you, the more I love you, and that is why I don''t want to see that future you".
Cassandra went closer and gently hugged him. "For me, for us, please stay".
At this moment, there was no point in rejecting it anymore. Cassandra would be a fool if she hadn''t noticed his tant crush on her for so long, so instead of resisting it, Rex epted it as he hugged her back.
So, there they stayed in each other''s arms for minutes as they poured their hearts into each other.
"You may have already guessed, but I''m from the Ancient Vector family". Once Rex said this, he nted his lips on Cassandra''s, preventing her from replying.
From there, things quickly escted. Rex could barely make sense of what was happening as he let his instincts take control and in mere seconds, their skin was already intertwined as they expressed their love for each other the old way.
With their mystic warrior physique, they were able to keep at it for over an hour before they finallyy in each other''s arms, exhausted.
None of them spoke, they justid in each other''s arms as the time passed, it was like they could transmit their thoughts to each other telepathically.
A long time passed and Rex raised his hand to caress her neck.
This was when Cassandra finally spoke up as she gave him her ne. "This is from my grandfather, keep it in remembrance of me".
"For me, please be good".
Pa!
Rex''s hand gently tapped her neck the next moment.
[You have activated mystic ability: ckfire!]
The ckfire mystic ability was rted to fire, but it dealt more ethereal and soul damage. This light tap from Rex contained this mystic ability as it affected Cassandra''s soul, making her instantly fall into a deep slumber.
As she slept, Rex kissed her on the neck before standing up. In no time, he cleaned himself up before standing beside her.
"I love you Cassandra, and that''s why I will not put you in danger".
"As you said, the enemy is too strong, I will not forgive myself if you died".
"For you, I will be strong".
"And if fate says that I survive, I''ll marry you".
With that, Rex wore the ne and left the cave.
Chapter 92 Myth Grade Treasure- Affection Necklace!
----------
[You have acquired a new mystic treasure: Affection Ne!]
[This ne contains the affection of a daughter of the river of time.]
[Bonded Owner: Cassandra Putin & Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: The love of the giver.
[Mystic Effects: Love Protection; Soul Protection; Absolute Protection!]
[Passive Mystic Effects: Soul Nurture.]
[Love Protection: When activated, a heart-shaped defense shield is erected around you that protects against physical attacks depending on the level of mystic energy that is offered.]
[Soul Protection: When activated, a heart-shaped defense shield is erected around you that protects against soul attacks depending on the level of mystic energy that is offered.]
[Absolute Protection: When activated, provides absolute protection against any level and type of attack for 10 seconds.]
[NOTE: The lowest level to activate absolute protection is the super mystic warrior realm. It can also be barely activated by you in the advanced grade, but you''ll need to make a lot of sacrifices for it in blood.]
[Soul Nurture: When equipped, the Affection Ne constantly nurtures your soul, increasing your resistance against ethereal and soul attacks.]
[Remark: A remake of Romeo and Juliet''s love. Watch out for part 2!]
---------
When Cassandra gave Rex the ne, he simply thought that it was a show of her affection, he never expected the ne to be a mystic treasure.
Once he left the cave, he did not wear the ne immediately as he was focused on escaping far away. Having left hints that enabled Cassandra to track him the previous time, he became wiser this time and removed all traces.
This way, it took him longer but he was able to erase any traces that could be used to track him down. After doing this did he finally wear the ne.
Once he wore it, he saw this system notification and he was shocked. Of his current repertoire, he had everythingplete except a proper defensive mystic treasure, Cassandra''s ne effectively took care of this problem.
,m Besides, this was a myth-grade mystic treasure!
Only his Blood Tome, the Coffin of the Ancients, and Berserker were the myth-grade treasures that he had. And unlike those 3, he didn''t have to upgrade the ne, it started directly at the myth grade.
Having lived his whole life crushing on Cassandra without ever finding the courage to confess his love to her, today was Rex''s best day.
With both of them having expressed their love for each other, he felt like a huge burden finally left his shoulders. He felt like a void that was originally in his heart was finally filled and this gave him the motivation to go ahead.
He felt vibrant, motivated, and full of energy like never before.
Of course, he felt heartache at leaving Cassandra behind again but Rex rationalized that this was for the better.
To make their wish of a happily ever after life sessful, he felt more motivated than ever before to seek power the right way.
He would get strong, he would be the greatest vampire and mystic swordsman alive, he would get his revenge for his family, he would save Cassandra''s family and he would marry her.
"This, I promise!"
Once Rex made his vow, he kissed the ne before finally crossing the boundary that separated human territory from the territory of the beasts.
¡
Cassandra woke up when the day was already bright with a throbbing headache. On seeing herself alone, she curled up as tears flowed down her eyes.
Despite all that she said the previous night, Rex still left. She already expected it since she understood Rex the most but she still felt bad.
The one thing that she hoped for was that Rex listened to her words, she hoped that the ne would prevent him from going down the dark road.
She cried to her heart''s content before finally standing up.
Once Cassandra stood up, she cleaned herself up before picking up all her gear. Rex being ready to take on all the main troubles did not give her the luxury to remain idle, she traveled through the river of time for a reason.
For Rex and for her family, she would work hard and help him in any way that she could so that together, they could finally get rid of the curse of the Holmes family. She could not wait for that day toe.
Like Rex, Cassandra no longer decided to stay in Obedin City. To elerate her growth as much as possible, she needed to go out into the world where there were much more opportunities to stimte her growth.
Once she was ready, Cassandra finally left the cave.
¡
After spending 18 years in hisfort zone, Rex finally entered the wild.
Beyond the King Resistance Shelter was mostly forest and destends. Huge forests and grasnds now served as the territory of the beasts.
In these forests and grasnds roamed dangerous mystic beasts, advanced mystic beasts were just the minority of the danger that mystic warriors traveling through these territories should worry about.
The Super mystic beasts and the basic mystic beasts were the real dangers. Yes, the basic mystic beasts were a real danger.
In a game of chess, the pawns were always more than the queen, king, knight, and the other special chess pieces. In this ecosystem that was ruled by mystic beasts, the same way was there more basic mystic beasts.
The real dangers in this uncharted territory were the hordes of basic mystic beasts. More mystic warriors died to these hordes than they died to higher-ranked mystic beasts, they were the real menace of the wild.
Having spent some time with Ben in the Hunter Union to learn of their ways, Rex did not expose himself immediately as he was able to stay out of the radar of the horde of beasts that dominated this wildnd.
Through the map that he got; Rex mapped out his destination. After thinking long and hard, to get to the Duncan Shelter, Rex decided to take the unconventional route that cut through the Great Forest of Elias.
Before getting to the Great Forest though, Rex marked another point on his map, his first destination in his journey was the Temple of ckfire.
The Temple of ckfire was a cultist group of religious freaks spread over the earth who worshiped the ckfire mystic ability. They believed that the ckfire was the divine relic left by their ck god, so they worshiped it.
They may be crazy fanatics, but they had something that Rex needed, skills and abilities of the ckfire mystic ability.
To be able to fight at his full potential, Rex needed to fully begin to use his 2nd mystic ability and the way to do that was through the Temple of the ckfire.
Without adequate skills to practice with, Rex would not be able to improve fast with this mystic ability.
He wanted to master the ckfire mystic ability before thinking about his new slot for a mystic ability after upgrading to the intermediate warrior realm a few weeks ago.
Rex estimated his journey to the Gundam Shelter to take around 1 month.
Once he was set, he started moving through this uncharted territory of beasts. This was Rex''s first time but he felt like this was his one-thousandth time.
Chapter 93 Visitors From The Ancient Carter Family; Young Master Ben!
"What do you think the young master will be like?" A young girl dressed in luxurious white clothes with a cute baby face and cute blonde ponytailed hair faced her big sister as she asked excitedly.
The olderdy looked more dignified in the same set of luxurious white clothes. She had that serious no-nonsense look on her face but she still answered.
"He''ll be like the other young masters; how else do you want him to be?"
"Hmm, so uninventive like usual". The young girl pouted.
"I bet he''ll be a prince charming, full of wisdom and charm, eloquent, confident, and with a charisma that can win every female heart".
The olderdy only gave her the eye before shaking her head, causing the blonde-haired young girl to pout again and stick her tongue out.
At this moment, the entourage from the Ancient Carter Family all the way from the Golden Oar Great Shelter were on their way to the King Resistance Shelter where the family radar pinpointed a new inheritor.
This was a cause of good news for the family as this inheritor did not just awaken the Big-boned bloodline, but he awakened the purer version of it.
Thest person to awaken the purer Big-boned bloodline was the grandfather of the current patriarch of the family who was now retired and was resting in the elders'' chambers.
The beautiful middle-ageddy who was the leader of this entourage was a direct member of the Ancient Carter Family, her name was Charlotte. The younger girl beside her was her niece, Anne.
ording to what the family radar sent back; the boy was from a sub-branch of the family that came from her branch. This was why she was given the task to go fetch him to take him to his rightful ce to enjoy his inheritance.
Though her niece was enthusiastic to meet this genius who awakened the purer Big-boned bloodline, she didn''t quite feel the same.
In history, the few individuals with the purer Big-boned bloodline were those with the greatest exploits.
They were the strongest and most influential, but they all had onemon trait, they were the most entric and were the brawn-over-brain type.
She hoped that this Ben was not as extreme as the others that she had seen.
¡
Principal Dominic weed royal guests from afar.
The 2 mystic Pegasus that pulled the royal mechanical chariot from afar was the first sign that indicated the identity of these guests. And the drawing of 2 big bones grinding against each other on the mechanical chariot confirmed it.
Having been waiting for their arrival patiently, Principal Dominic gave his guests the best reception that he and his academy could afford.
While he attended to them, Ben was sent for.
Mrs. Charlotte did not beat around the bush as she quicklyid down the motive of their arrival. Having expected it before now, Principal Dominic was all smiles throughout as he epted everything that they said.
Well, they didn''t go overboard, only asking for simple requests like Ben''s record in Obedin City to be wiped out and a lot of other minor demands.
When Ben finally came, he faced the Principal and a bunch of strange faces. He was puzzled and trust Ben, the principal was na?ve if he thought he could make him guess who these guests were through hand and eye signs.
"Um¡, nice to meet you, Ben, I''m Mrs. Charlotte".
"Oh, nice to meet you too beautifuldy, your dress looks luxurious".
Mrs. Charlotte smiled. "Thanks for thepliment Young Master, we are from the Ancient Carter family in the faraway Golden Oar Great Shelter".
"Like you may have guessed, you awoke a powerful bloodline that connects you to our family. Our patriarch sent us toe to invite you to get your full inheritance at home where you can fulfill your full potential".
"¡"
For 2 full minutes, Ben stood staring at the beautiful woman before him with one eye raised like she just spoke a bunch of jargon. "You for real?"
"Um, Ben, what she means is". Principal Dominic tried to intrude and properly exin but Ben yelled the next moment as the principal almost jumped in fright.
"I''m a f*cking Prince?!"
"Woah! Damn bro, I always told Rex that I was special, hahaha!"
Mrs. Charlotte tried to speak but Ben was faster. "So, are you my mom? No, I have a mom already, my stepmom?"
"Woah, what of this beautiful youngdy right here, your name sweetheart?"
"Miss Anne".
"Anne, what a beautiful name". Benughed aloud. "You know, I once read of royalty preparing brides for their inheritors when they finally find them".
"Hehe, is this my bride?"
"¡"
ck lines filled Principal Dominic''s face as his student said all this. He felt like smacking Ben to theherworld but he could not, he could only grit his teeth.
"Ha¡" Mrs. Charlotteughed awkwardly. "If a bride is what you want, that can be arranged at home, so is that a yes from you?"
"Damn right! I''ve always wanted toze at home while my dad prepares my bride for me, what a fulfilling life that''ll be".
"Since Rex and Cassandra left, I''ve been so f*cking lonely here, perhaps this is a setup by God to spice up my life a bit, spicy!"
Mrs. Charlotte could feel sweat running down her face despite the venttion as she looked at Ben. The big-boned bloodline really produced another freak, she could already feel a headacheing for the return trip.
Instead of discussing with Ben further, she rather discussed with Principal Dominic. Unlike what she expected, everything went smoothly and they soon left.
Having been in situations where the inheritors were reluctant to leave their city to go to a distant shelter and start a new life, Mrs. Charlotte''s eyes were definitely opened by the personality of this knuckle-headed freebie.
¡
A few hourster, the pair of Pegasus crossed a long distance as the entourage finally returned to the Golden Oar Great Shelter.
Once they returned, Mrs. Charlotte escorted the inheritor to the royal court to meet the patriarch. On the way, she made sure to educate him about the etiquette needed to be observed before the patriarch.
Despite how much she spoke, she was still worried if any of them settled on this boy''s head, she could only hope for the best.
Once they stood before the patriarch, the patriarch finally got to personally validate that Ben was the real deal.
"Wee to the Ancient Carter family, boy".
"From today, like everyone here, I am your father and you are my son".
"Coming from a great distance away and settling in a new region entirely is hard, this is why you have family members, they will help you unconditionally to settle into the family. This, I promise!"
"I was told that you were enthusiastic abouting here, I am happy about that but to really show you our familial bonds, ask me 1 favor and I''ll do it for you".
"Do you have anything that you want me to do for you?"
At this moment, no matter how carefree he was, Ben already recognized that he was before a bigshot of the mystic world so he made reasonable requests.
"If possible, I want to know if my friends are safe".
"Done!"
"Thank you, Lord Father".
The patriarch smiled. "Ben, work hard. In our family, we recognize strength above all else. If you work hard enough, you may get to upy my seat".
"You may now leave".
¡
Mrs. Charlotte heaved a huge sigh of relief after they left the royal court, surprisingly Ben followed all the etiquettes that she taught on the way.
She was about to thank him but Ben spoke before she did.
"Did Lord Father say work hard to upy his seat?"
"Lol, who gives a damn about his seat?"
"Hehe, I''m here to live my life and enjoy it to the fullest!"
"¡"
Chapter 94 The Khunu Mountain
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Berserk Mountain Goat!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
Once he was discovered, Rex did not hesitate toe out of his hiding spot with the intent to kill as his first instinct was to exterminate all 5 Mountain Goats before they could alert others.
Whoosh!
Once Rex separated the first Mountain Goat''s head from its body with his sword, he rotated on the spot as his free left hand swiftly swiped 2 times.
With each swipe in the same direction, a dagger was thrown as the Death daggers easily pinned the 2 Mountain Goats to the mountain wall.
[You have activated mystic effect: Ancien Gaze!]
[Mountain Goat has been petrified!]
[You have activated mystic effect: Blood Edge!]
Once Rex activated the first mystic effect of the Death Daggers, his luck shone as the 10% chance to petrify opponent took effect on one of the Mountain Goats that was pinned to the wall.
With petrify, the massive Goat stiffened like it was dead, and having calcted the duration of this effect during his 1 week in the wild, Rex easily deduced that it would buy enough time for him to finish the others.
This was why he left the dagger on the Mountain Goat while activating his Blood Edge mystic effect on the other dagger.
With 100% more pration damage, the Death Dagger became extremely lethal as Rex rushed to the Mountain Goat''s side before stabbing rapidly.
Before this Mountain Goat could even bleat in pain, Rex stabbed so fast before removing its head with Berserker before the Goat could retaliate.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Berserk Mountain Goat!]
[You have gained 5 mystic energy points!]
Watching 2 of their brothers dying instantly and seeing another stiffen while pinned to the wall, the remaining 2 Mountain Goats panicked.
They forget to bleat for help and instead tried to run but this was their mistake since Rex having read them already was more than a step ahead.
[You have activated skill: Double Plutonian sh!]
Empowered by his domain mystic ability, this sword sh exceeded the range of the sword as the 2 golden sword energies flew towards the 2 Mountain Goats. Their legs were sliced throughpletely by the sword energy.
Meh¡!
Both were about to bleat in pain before a massive tail that looked like those of a fictional scorpion struck down, relieving them of their pain.
[Grey has killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mountain Goat!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
[Grey has killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mountain Goat!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
The massive Dark Mist Spider stood proudly on the corpse of the 2 Mountain Goats as he looked at his master like he was demanding praise that he was due.
Rex was speechless. "Ok, you did good, you''re a good boy".
The Dark Mist Spider raised his massive body proudly but a jealous entity was there toin like usual as the sword on Rex''s hand vibrated the next moment.
"Shing!" "Shing!"
"The heck! Ok, you did good too Berserker!"
"Shing¡!"
Rex did not know whether tough or cry as he took hold of Berserker before going toward thest Basic Mystic Mountain Goat who was still petrified.
The Mountain Goat''s body barely moved but its teary pleading eyes told Rex all that was going on through its mind.
,m Rex walked closer before cing a leg on its body as he looked it in the eye. "Sorry buddy, but you have to die, I can''t leave you to alert your friendster".
Ptui!
Once Berserker stabbed its head, the Goat struggled a bit before going limb.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Mountain Goat!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
After killing thest Mountain Goat, Rex sat down on the mountain rocks to rest a bit as he brought out a bag of blood before drinking its contents.
As soon as he sat down, Grey came closer beforeying down beside him.
Rex''s hand instinctively went to his first transformed beast as he caressed its hard body while thinking about his journey through the wild over the past week.
In the blink of an eye since the day that he separated from Cassandra, it was already a week. During this week, Rex was able to experience the full dangers of the wild that made it so dreaded to mystic warriors.
Even with all his advantages, he already came close to death in this one week more than he had ever been in his full 18 years of living.
After leaving the borders of the King Resistance Shelter, he entered arge forest where he traveled for 5 days. He encountered the most dangers in the forest, but alongside Grey, he was able to fight his way out.
After leaving the forest, as indicated on his map, he finally arrived at this mountain called the Khunu mountain. ording to the map, all he needed was to cross this mountain before he got to his destination, the Mist Vige.
This vige was where the nearest Temple of ckfire was located.
For the past few days, Rex was still stuck crossing the Khunu mountain. Apart from the numerous dangerous Mountain Goats present, and the asional snakes, the real dangers of the Khunu mountain were the Golden Eagles.
These dangerous mystic beasts were the rulers of the mountain. Before leaving the King Resistance Shelter, in the vige where he got the map, Rex heard of rumors of the alpha of the mountain being a Super Golden Eagle.
The betas were the Advanced Golden Eagles under it, while the real dangers were the intermediate Golden Eagles that roamed the mountain daily.
Rex had never seen a Basic Mystic Golden Eagle since he arrived in the Khunu mountain, intermediate Golden Eagles were the pests here and they were dangerous. Because of them, he could no longer use Grey as a mount.
The journey through the forest was supposed to take a week but through Grey, Rex was able to cut off a lot of time to arrive at the mountain earlier.
On getting here though, he could no longer continue his speedy journey since he dared not travel through Grey. Because of the Golden Eagles, his approach was more cautious as the main goal was passing through safely.
Once Rex was done resting, he patted Grey as like usual, the Dark Mist Spider took the lead at the front to serve as the scout of the party.
With his unique abilities, most especially his sprint and jump skill that Rex already grew to envy, Grey could almost escape every dangerous situation.
With Grey taking the lead, Rex continued his journey for another full day where they killed a few more Mountain Goats and snakes.
Around evening, precisely 5:53 pm, Rex finally saw the silhouette of a vige appearing in the distance. Rex was ecstatic but he did not leave immediately, he instead set his eyes on the skies where the Golden Eagles reigned supreme.
He smiled dubiously. A rule that he made for himself during his travels was to never leave a location without hunting one of the leading beasts as a souvenir.
"Grey, get ready for battle!"
"Hiss!"
[You have activated mystic ability: ckfire!]
[You have activated advanced skill: Nirvana sh!]
Having trained with his new mystic ability for the past week, Rex could now barely integrate it into most of his attacks. Bybining it with his strongest sword skill, Rex was able to send an ethereal sh to one of the flying eagles.
Instantly, the soul of the eagle was damaged as it fell from the skies.
The other Golden Eagles were rmed but before they could make sense of what was happening, a ck spider jumped high into the skies before snatching the Golden Eagle it started attacking it while still in mid-air.
Once the spider fell, it was over for the Golden Eagle as master and transformed beastpletely rip it into shreds in less than a minute.
The Golden Eagle could not even use the metal mystic ability that they were famed for, its damaged soul did it bad before it died.
[You have killed an Intermediate mystic beast: Golden Eagle!]
[You have gained 15 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained a mystic stone!]
The other Golden Eagles still circled in the skies as they watched what just transpired, stunned. It was only when the spider started sprinting away with the human on its back that they finally understood.
Screech!
They screeched loudly before going in pursuit but the 8 legs of the spider were not for fancy as he ran like his life depended on it.
In no time, they left the territory of the Khunu mountains and the Golden Eagles could only protest in anger since they could not leave their territory.
Rex gave them the middle finger.
Chapter 95 The Mist Village
The sun shone from the east like usual in the morning, illuminating the little vige hidden in the Khunu ranges with its beautiful golden rays.
This was a little vige filled with men and women working basic upations, with children running around and ying to their hearts content.
Compared to ces like Bowling Town, the Mist Vige had an even lower concentration of mystic warriors. The only presence of mystic warriors in the small vige was the Temple of ckfire.
There was a basic government governing the vige, but the Priests of the Temple of ckfire were the real leaders of the Mist Vige.
In the evening, the sun slowly set after turning red. And as the sun receded, this was when the vige weed an outsider.
The children ying at the vige edge were the ones who saw him first.
His short red hair that blended with the glow of the receding sun was the first thing that they saw, then they stopped ying and looked. Following the red hair was the dull face of a warrior who seemed to have seen the world''s end.
Dressed in ck leather armor, a pair of ck shades, and a pair of ck leather boots, this red-haired warrior was riding a huge Spider.
Once the children saw him, they observed him for a bit and without saying a word, they packed all their toys before sprinting inside the vige.
The children''s reactions alerted the elders. They saw the red-haired warrior but they had no reaction whatsoever as they allowed him into the vige.
On his Dark Mist Spider, Rex moved casually through the vige while observing his surroundings. Just 4 minutes after he started moving in, he noticed ck d warriors following him in the dark but he acted like he was unaware.
Rex stopped at a tavern with a sign that read- Happy Drunkards.
"Grey, stay here and wait for me, don''t cause any trouble".
Rex said before entering the tavern as Grey settled outside the tavern. Rex could keep Grey inside the Coffin of the Ancients but as their rtionship grew, he slowly grew used to leaving him to his own devices.
Once Rex entered the tavern, he was exposed to a rowdy atmosphere filled with a lot of noise with music ying in the background.
He ignored the crowd and located one of the free chairs avable.
"What drink do you want foreigner?" A young boy soon came to ask him.
"A bottle of ck Beer is enough".
Rex turned but soon turned back as the boy did not leave. He looked down and saw the boy''s outstretched arm. "Huh?
"Payment before service".
"Oh¡"
"If you don''t have our currency, you can pay with other materials".
"Oh¡, what about this?" Rex soon brought a dagger that he used during his days in Obedin City army, it was no mystic dagger but it was of good quality.
On seeing the dagger, the boy''s eyes shone as he grinned. "Deal!"
Once the beer was served, Rex took hold of it as he sipped while minding his business. He focused on his business but his ears were as active as antennas.
"F*ck, the intion these days is damn f*cked up man".
"I can''t even get me self a bottle of beer anymore".
"Even Old Grob recently inted his prices, me can''t even shine me hunting daggers, that damn old man!"
Rex listened as the drunkards in the tavern bbered on about different topics. From what he could hear, they mostly dwelt on the issue of intion and the old man called Old Grob.
By now, Rex already noticed that though most of them were drunkards, they were allbat proficient and were probably hunters.
Also, he already noticed the real job of the middle-aged bartender.
By around the time that night slowly crept in, Rex stood up and approached the bartender. "I want information".
The rough gray-haired bartender adjusted his pirate hat as he looked at his new customer carefully. "Payment before service".
ng!
Rex dropped another dagger.
"A foreigner I see". The bartender picked the dagger and carefully kept it before turning to face Rex with a smile. "Specifics".
"I want to erect a stall to sell some rare goods and I need a ce to stay for the night, also give me every information about Old Grob".
After saying this, Rex leaned in slightly and whispered. "Tell me everything about the Temple of ckfire".
Once Rex said thest line, the bartender''s eyebrows rose then he stretched his hands. Rex sighed before dropping another dagger, the bartender smiled.
Without saying a word, the bartender bent and brought a paper from under his table. "Every information that you need is here. When you''re ready, meet Mary and tell her that I sent you, she''ll help you open a stall".
Rex took the paper, nodded at the bartender and left the tavern.
On getting outside, Rex was not surprised to see Grey gone. The freaking Dark Mist Spider probably already entered the nearest forest to hunt for food.
Once Rex left the tavern, he walked casually around the vige observing everywhere and when he was done, he easily evaded his stalkers.
Rex casually entered another rowdy tavern, this time a high-tier one where the privileged ss of people in the vige visited. In here, he spent only 2 minutes beforeing back with a pocket full with Mist Credits.
Mist credits was the currency of the mist vige as they were not under the rule of any shelter, they were a lone vige in the wild.
Once Rex left the tavern, his system lit up a notification.
[You have learned a new skill: Steal!]
[You have earned a title: Thief!]
[When engaging in theft, you have a +20% chance of sess.]
With the mist credits that Rex got, he was able to hire an inn where he slept for the night. Before sleeping, Rex made sure to draw his objectives of the next few days after going through the information that he bought in the paper.
Once he was done, he burnt the paper and slept.
Chapter 96 Old Grob, The Shrewd Mystic Technician
During the night, Rex expected to be attacked or robbed but surprisingly, neither of these 2 scenarios happened as he slept peacefully throughout the night.
After reading the information from the bartenderst night, Rex confirmed that his n was feasible in this vige.
Like what he predicted, he was not the first lone mystic warrior to enter the vige. Other foreigners frequently visited as viges in the wild like these were perfect ces for lone warriors and adventurers to rest and wind down.
In most cases, apart from resting to wind down from all the pressure and action of the wild, mystic warriors also visited viges like these to sell their goods.
To prevent suspicion, Rex intended to do the same and was why he asked for a ce to set up a temporary stall to sell his goods.
Another reason why Rex intended to erect the stall was to get some Mist Credits. To have any purchasing power here, he needed to get their currency.
Having read of Old Grob through the paper, Rex now knew that this old man was the only mystic technician in the whole vige.
Unlike most mystic technicians who specialize in single areas, Old Grob worked on all ranging from servicing daggers and old mystic weapons to working on leather and other mystic treasures made from different materials.
Though Rex was an anomaly who already had 4 Mythical grade treasures, he was still a pauper whose most of his mystic treasures were basic mystic treasures.
Before leaving this vige and most especially before implementing the n that brought him to this vige, he wanted to upgrade both the mystic boot that he bought and his mystic leather armor.
----------
[Wind Boots!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Basic Grade!]
Rarity: Common
- Speed: 30
- Durability: 80/80
[Mystic Effect: Wind Runner!]
[When activated, +5% movement speed for 5 minutes.]
[Remark: A mystic boot meant for a pauper. You cannot surf the wind with these, you can only run after the wind.]
¡
[Coke Armor!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Basic Grade!]
Rarity: Common
- Defense: 45
- Durability: 200/200
[Mystic Effect: Lightweight Warrior!]
[When activated, the armor will be 5% lighter.]
[Remark: This is not an armor; this is a freaking bunch of leather mashed together!]
---------
Upgrading a basic grade treasure to the intermediate grade was far cheaper than buying a standard intermediate grade mystic treasure, so also was a standard intermediate grade treasure superior to an upgraded one in stats.
As a cheapskate, Rex could only afford an upgraded one and was why he decided to upgrade both his mystic boots and armor here.
Once he was ready, he left the inn to the small market of the Mist Vige where he met the youngdy called Mary.
Once he introduced himself that he was sent by the bartender, Mary confirmed it before taking him to an open part of the market to open his stall.
Rex thanked her and without hesitation, he put his goods for sale.
Of course, it took some time before the first curious customer came but once he did, he was astonished by what this foreigner ced on disy.
"Mystic stones? Wow, you''re selling mystic stones?"
"Yes, 8000 Mist Credits a piece".
"Damn, I don''t have the money but I''ll definitely tell my friends about it".
Once the news spread that someone was selling mystic stones, the vige hunters were excited as they started rushing to go prepare their money.
Mystic stones were popr in the mystic world. As the core of intermediate and above mystic beasts, they contain the mystic essence of these beasts including their mystic abilities.
The main use of mystic stones was to aid mystic warriors in training.
If Rex had a metal mystic ability, by refining the Golden Eagle''s mystic stone with his mystic energy, it could temporarily increase his training speed with the mystic ability.
Since training mystic abilities was one of the main ways to increase mystic energy limit, mystic stones were an invaluable resource to mystic warriors.
Mystic warriors rarely sold them for money as they preferred to batter them with other mystic warriors in exchange forpatible mystic stones.
Apart from their main use, mystic stones could also be integrated into some mystic weapons to amplify their powers or to grant them special abilities.
Rex put only 2 mystic stones for sale and in just 30 minutes after the first customer saw his goods, he sold them out. Despite the persuasion from the customers, Rex insisted that those 2 were all he had as he left the market.
After leaving the market, Rex went all the way to Old Grob''s technician shop.
Once he made his request, the old man with grey hair smiled bitterly. "Sorry young man, I already have 6 month''s pile of work from other customers, I can''t leave them to focus on yours".
Rex pped 16,000 Mist Credits on the table. "I''ll pay you another 16,000 when you are done, deal?"
"I''m sorry young man¡"
"I''ll pay 32,000".
"Young man¡"
"I''ll pay 64,000".
"¡"
The old man kept quiet in contemtion. He coughed and rubbed his shin like he was in deep thought, Rex gritted his teeth and offered again.
"80,000".
This time, on seeing the agitated state of the young man as he coughed out this number, the old man coughed again before smiling shyly.
"I would never do this, but as a young foreigner who may lose his life if you don''t get your offer done, I''ll be generous andplete it for you".
"¡"
Rex cursed this old man''s shamelessness in his mind before removing his boots and his armor and dropping them on the table. "I want them upgraded".
"When do you want them?"
"As soon as possible".
"I''ll be able to finish them in 5 days".
"2 days".
"3 days at least".
"2 days!"
"Ok, ok, I''ll be generous". The old man smiled awkwardly.
"I''ll bring your money in 2 days".
With that, Rex left the technician shop feeling drained of all energy as he walked back to the inn. "What a cunning old man," he cursed.
On getting back to his inn, Rex saw that Grey was back and before the massive Dark Mist Spider were 3 shiny mystic stones.
Rex smiled and went closer to rub the spider''s hard skin. "Good boy!"
¡
For the next 2 days, Rex pretended to go out hunting everyday in the morning while he secretly counter-tracked and followed the movements of the mystic warriors of the Temple of ckfire.
After leaving in the morning, he woulde back in the afternoon, pretending to have hunt other mystic beasts as he presented mystic stones from his stockpile for sale.
On the 3rd day, Rex already arrived at the perfect n for his infiltration as unlike before, before going out for his morning hunt, he went to Old Grob''s technician shop to get his armor and mystic boot back.
The old man weed him with a smile.
"Wee back, exotic customer, your goods are ready".
"I experienced some more difficulties than expected you know, I had to use some more Mountain Goat leather than expected which you know is more money. Even for the boots¡"
"Here''s your money". Rex mmed 80,000 Mist Credits on the table before ring at the shrewd old man.
Old Grobughed awkwardly and shrank. "Nice working with you".
"You too". Rex took his goods and left.
Chapter 97 Raiding The Temple Of Blackfire! [1]
----------
[Wind Boots!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Intermediate Grade!]
Rarity: Umon
- Speed: 120
- Durability: 490/490
[Mystic Effects: Wind Surfer; Glidiator!]
[Wind Surfer: When activated, +10% movement speed for 10 minutes.]
[Glidiator: When activated, the pair of boots grow a ski that can enable the user to easily glide across smooth surfaces at 3 times the normal speed of the user.]
[Remark: Nice upgrade, but still the boot of a mystic pauper.]
¡
[Coke Armor!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Intermediate Grade!]
Rarity: Umon
- Defense: 200
- Durability: 950/950
[Mystic Effect: Featherweight Warrior!]
[When activated, the armor will be 15% lighter.]
[Passive Effect: Counterstrike!]
[When attacked, there is a 10% chance of dealing 20% counter damage.]
[Remark: A decent armor, but still sh*t quality!]
---------
Rex instinctively ignored the derogatory remarks of his system as he instead focused on the good parts of this upgrade that cost him an arm and a leg.
Old Grob may be a shrewd and extremely shameless old man, but he sure knew his job well. This major upgrade by the mystic technician was able to take the armor and the pair of boots from the good category to the decent category.
For the Wind Boots, apart from the first mystic effect being upgraded and the increase in speed and durability of the boots, the 2nd mystic effect that was added was something that Rex felt grateful for.
Coincidentally, the Glidiator effect perfectly fit his current objective of infiltrating the Temple of ckfire and getting out as fast as possible.
With this upgrade, his chances of sess just increased.
As for the Coke Armor, apart from the upgrade to the defense and durability, the only mystic effect of the armor was upgraded also while it got a passive effect.
With this passive effect, the tables were stacked a little closer in his direction. Though a 10% chance was not much, it was not low either. When stuck in a dangerous situation, this effect could be the difference between life and death.
After leaving Old Grob''s workshop, Rex returned directly to the inn where he essed the new stats of the 2 mystic treasures through his system.
Now that this was done, he was ready tomence his n.
¡
It was still early in the morning as activities started in the Mist Vige.
The children came out to y like usual as the stay-at-home adults yelled their names to prompt them to attend to their chores. While this happened, stalls were opened as the Mist Vige fully woke up to a new day.
"Good morning, Mr. Red Hair".
"Good morning, Madam Stacy".
Rex waved at the middle-aged woman as he casually walked through the streets of the inn where he lived. Having stayed here for 3 days already, he was now known by most of the vigers here.
As Rex walked casually while waving at the viges who greeted him, he paid attention to his pitiful stalkers who were still hard at work following him.
Rex got to one of the stalls before sitting down. "I want 2 fried fish".
Thedy was surprised, this was the first time that Mr. Red Hair wasing here to get food. Though she was surprised, she acted fast as she went to fulfill his order and this was when Rex acted.
Rex gave the order in his head, and faraway, Grey obeyed.
The beautifuldy who erected the stall came out the next moment as she smiled at Rex. Rex reciprocated the smile but before he could be handed the chopsticks and the fish, both of them frowned and turned to look into the distance.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
They first heard the loud sounds of stampeding feet against the ground, and as they looked, this was when they saw the horde, a horde of spiders!
Rex reacted fast before anyone could. "Beast horde!"
"Everyone, hide in the underground shelters!"
The guards of the Temple of ckfire that protected the vige were stunned, but they reacted fast as they echoed Rex''s words.
Instantly, the vige''s activity increased as the panicking civilians started being escorted to the underground shelters where they had a higher chance of surviving. In such rushing situations, chaos was sure to ensue.
Amid the chaos, Rex disappeared towards the temple.
Having lost his stalkers who were now worried about the beast horde, and as the civilians were led to the underground shelters while more warriors rushed out of the temple to go defend the vige, Rex rushed inside the temple.
As a small vige, it did not take Rex much to get to his destination.
The Temple of ckfire was the most defended location in the vige.
With over 500 basic mystic warriors, and 3 intermediate mystic warriors who were the 3 Priests in ck of this branch, this temple was literally an imprable stronghold but due to the beast horde, the security grewx for a little time.
This little time was all that Rex needed to infiltrate the temple.
Having secretly scouted every single corner of the temple in the past 3 days, Rex was like a fish in water after climbing the walls into the temple.
His hard work for the past few days paid as he advanced swiftly.
None of the tower guards saw him as he infiltrated under their nose. Through the information that he got from the bartender, Rex easily navigated his way inside the temple till he arrived at the most sacred chamber, the altar room.
Rex infiltrated this deep without alerting a single guard.
By the time he arrived at the altar room, the battle between the horde of spiders and the mystic warriors of the temple already started.
After getting here, the next problem was how to open the door into the altar room. The massive reinforced door had a riddle mechanism as the password, and only those who were proficient with the ckfire faith could answer it.
Rex had zero knowledge about the ckfire faith but he did not need to answer a riddle though, this was because he awakened the ckfire mystic ability.
Those with the ckfire mystic ability could substitute it as the password, but none of the guards of the temple had ever dared to use it since they all saw the altar as sacred. Well, Rex was not part of their group.
Once Rex ced his hand on the door and channeled his mystic ability, covering the reinforced door with the zing ckfire, the door opened.
Instantly after the door opened, an rm started sting across the temple.
Wom! Wom! Wom!
As soon as the rm started ringing, the 3 Priests in ck who were at the church premises were rmed as their sharp eyes turned towards the direction of the altar. Without hesitation, they moved.
The 3 Priests in ck were not the only ones that moved. On knowing that their sacred altar was just infiltrated, every worshipper of the ckfire was infuriated. All of the guards remaining in the temple moved.
The ringing rm did not elude Rex. Once it rang, Rex''s adrenaline level rose as he instantly knew that he was now on a time limit.
Without hesitation, he sprinted inside the now open altar room.
Inside the altar, Rex saw aplicated set-up ranging from different ritual materials, a massive bible, a library, a massive ck mystic Axe, and most prominently 2 burning ckfire on top of 2 candles in the middle of the room.
He ignored everything else as his eyes instantly narrowed on the library.
Rex could already hear the footsteps of warriors rushing in his direction but he did not care as he stormed towards the library before ransacking through the books and pamphlets, then the next moment his system lit up a notification.
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Fortified Soul!]
[Do you want to spend 1000 Skill points to learn soul cultivation technique or do you want to store inside the system?]
Rex was stunned.
His original intention was to steal every single book and pamphlet here and keep it in his storage ring for future reference but this option from his system made things a lot easier and faster for him.
"Store inside the system!"
[Affirmative!]
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Ethereal sh!]
"Store inside the system!"
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Zone!]
"Store inside the system!"
[Compatible Advanced Skill book has been discovered: Self Combustion!]
"Store inside the system!"
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Soul Manifestation!]
"Store inside the system!"
[Compatible Master Skill book has been discovered: Oxygen Maniption!]
"Store¡"
Whoosh!
Rex jumped, performing a backflip in mid-air as he dodged the dagger that was thrown in his direction beforending back in the same ce where he previously stood as his hand touched the pamphlet again.
"Store inside the system!"
[Affirmative!]
"How dare you infiltrate the sacred altar room¡"
Before the Priest in ck who was red in rage could vent his anger verbally, Rex rapidly scanned his surroundings as his eyes soon narrowed on the windows.
Without hesitation, he sprinted before jumping outside through the window.
It was time to escape!
Chapter 98 Raiding The Temple Of Blackfire! [2]
As soon as Rex jumped outside through the window, the first reaction of the 3 Priests in ck was not to go after him but to observe the sacred altar.
They constantly heaved sighs of relief as they scanned one ce after the other, this was until they saw the library as their eyes started burning in rage.
Due to some unknown reason, the thief did not take any of the sacred books or pamphlets but the mere fact that the library was ransacked and that the sacred books were scattered was enough to send them into the highest level of anger.
"Damn thief!!!"
All 3 of them roared in unison as they turned before storming out of the altar room like a group of enraged bulls who were out for blood.
Thud!
As soon as Rexnded on the floor after escaping out of the altar room through the window, he rapidly scanned his surroundings, this was when he discovered that every escape path that he previously marked was already blocked.
There was no easy escape path any longer, he had to fight his way to safety.
Once Rex came to this conclusion, he did not panic nor did hein as he improvised instantly having expected beforehand for unexpected changes.
[You have activated Wind Boot''s Mystic Effect: Wind Surfer!]
[You have activated Coke Armor''s Mystic Effect: Featherweight Warrior!]
Instantly after he activated these 2 mystic effects, Rex felt his body bing lighter like he was just relieved of a massive burden that he was previously carrying.
While Rex made all these decisions and mystic effect activations in his mind, the warriors of the Temple of ckfire were not idle as they were already storming toward him for the attack that would im his life.
At thest moment, before one of the warrior''s spears could stab into his flesh, Rex finally moved and he did like flowing water as he dodged the attack.
Shing!
Rex unsheathed Berserker as the eager living sword finally made its debut.
He did not sh to kill with Berserker, he shed and bashed to incapacitate. Being an intermediate mystic warrior who already unlocked his sword domain against these basic mofos, Rex was far superior.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex only used the t edge of his living sword to bash the warriors as red-hot marks filled more than a dozen cheeks instantly.
This bashing was strategic as through it, he was able to create a temporary pathway through the crowd of warriors and this was his escape path.
Rex dove into the midst of the mystic warriors as he started weaving in and out like a boss rat casually running and evading an attack of a dozen cats.
In mere seconds, Rex crossed a great distance purely due to his light body movement as none of the temple worshippers were able to catch his movements.
On getting close to the temple gate, Rex stepped his speed up a notch.
[You have activated Wind Boot''s Mystic Effect: Glidiator!]
Whoosh!
Rex glided across on top of his boots like a professional skier even as Berserker''s t edge constantly hit more cheeks, leaving them red and swollen.
He got extremely close to the gate already, this was when they finally arrived as the angry roar of one of the Priests in ck got to his ears.
Before Rex could react, the path before him turned bumpy as his skiing abruptly came to an end.
Due to the sudden bumps, Rex was unable to control himself as he flew helplessly into the air, this was when the Priest trident attack began.
Rex heard the sound of the wind moving beside his ears as his danger sense spiked the next moment. Mid-air, he improvised and forced himself to dive down.
Cold sweat drenched his back as this maneuver from him enabled him to barely dodge the dagger stab of the Priest with a wind mystic ability.
This was not the end though, the Priest followed up on the attack and this was when Rex finally got serious as he retaliated with a boomerang sh.
On finallynding on the ground, Rex was greeted by red hot fire and massive stones being hauled his way as he blocked with Berserker against the closest ones before ducking and rolling to the side to dodge the remaining attacks.
Rex was about to ignore them and continue his escape but together, all 3 Priests pointed a finger at him as he instantly felt dizzy the next moment.
[You have been affected by an attack: Soul Barrage!]
Ptui!
When Rex recovered, a dagger was already stabbing into his neck as he grabbed the hand with his left hand the next moment before head-butting the Priest in White hard as blood flowed from his neck.
The other 2 Priests tried to attack but Rex was a step ahead, he dared not hold back anymore after seeing their capabilities.
[You have activated Blood Tome''s Mystic Effect: Phasing- Short-range Teleportation!]
Bzzz!
In the blink of an eye, Rex disappeared before appearing outside the temple.
From these few attacks, he already deduced the mystic abilities of the 3 Priests. They all had the ckfire mystic ability, while their 2nd mystic ability was red fire, earth, and wind respectively.
Together, thisbo was deadly and he almost became another of their victims but his trump cards once again came to the rescue.
For some reason, Rex felt an impulse to spar with these masters of the ckfire mystic ability to test the limits of this ability but once he thought of the 500 basic mystic warriors,mon sense told him to escape for his life.
Without hesitation, Rex whistled loudly as he started sprinting in the opposite direction of the temple towards where the battle of man and beast raged.
Having heard the rm ring, the warriors who fought the invading spiders already knew that something was wrong and now that they saw Rex running, they understood as they became furious the next moment.
These furious fanatics left their battle against the spiders as they turned their focus to exterminating the thief, pursuers came from Rex''s front and back.
As they pursued, from afar, the 3 Priests in ck kept on hauling skills at Rex which he remained diligent in dodging as his life was now on the line.
Rex continued weaving in and out of dangerous situations for 2 minutes, barely keeping himself alive until a massive color-riot Spider started sprinting in his direction. Grey had so much make-up at this moment that he was unrecognizable.
In the past 3 days, while Rex was hard at work observing the temple, Grey was hard at work subordinating all the mystic spiders in the nearby forest.
On the night of the D-day, Rex applied make-up on Grey to disguise him as he became the leader of the spiders who led them to attack the vige.
None of the civilians died so far and this was all because of the orders that Rex gave to Grey. Now, Grey was here to save him once again.
After whipping 2 more cheeks with Berserker''s t edge, Rex jumped on top of the Massive Dark Mist Spider as Grey instantly picked up speed in a direction that led out of the Mist Vige.
The warriors of the Temple of ckfire were relentless as they pursued him for over 2 hours outside the vige into the deep parts of the Mist Forest.
They only stopped their pursuit after they forced the red-haired thief from the Mist Forest boundary into the boundaries of the legendary Forest of Elias. They all stood at the entrance to this forest without daring to step foot in it.
"He just stepped foot into his grave". One of the Priests dered.
Chapter 99 With Great Risks Come Great Benefits
"He just stepped foot into his grave".
Perhaps, he said it to console themselves of this humiliation but none of the worshippers of the ckfire doubted the words of the Priest in ck.
They all dreaded the Great Forest of Elias and this fear was for a valid reason.
After the age of awakening, human civilization was hit hard as they had to relinquish control over most of their territories to the mystic beasts. Holed up in their shelters, the mystic beasts got to control every other part of the.
Some of these parts that now roamed with beasts were once great human nations, but they were now reduced to nothing more than beast settlements.
Most of the relics left by these nations were already reduced to nothing more than rubble over the years as outside the shelters of human civilization were mostly deserts, forests, and ice nes.
After the age of awakening, as humans learned to manipte mystic energy, even as mystic warriors rose, so also did they mutate to awaken special bloodlines.
Like Rex''s Vampire bloodline, history said that there was once a time where Elves roamed thend. These human variants awakened special bloodlines and mutated, differentiating themselves from normal humans in the process.
The Great Forest of Elias was once rumored to be the territory of the Great Elven Kingdom that rose after the age of awakening, but it fell.
Assaulted by an attack led by multiple Mythical mystic beasts, the Elves could not resist as they sumbed and werepletely annihted.
Their territory slowly degraded to be the Great Forest of Elias.
After their extinction, rumors said that the forest was cursed. Only mystic beasts could live and survive inside it, and though most imed that these were mere rumors, the locals like those in the Mist Vige believed that it was true.
The 3 Priests in ck that were assigned to this branch of the Temple of ckfire were embarrassed by their inability to stop a single thief.
Though the thief left unfruitful in the end, the mere fact that he escaped tarnished their reputation. The only thing that made them feel some fulfillment was that the terrible thief ran to his grave inside the great forest.
They believed that he was already dead.
"What an anticlimactic way for such a strong young man to die".
¡
Whoosh!
A pair of 8 legs rapidly shuttled through the forest at great speed as Grey kept on eating yards of space deeper into the thick forest.
Seated and riding on the spider''s back, Rex watched his surroundings.
Despite hearing different theories and rumors about the Great Forest of Elias already, Rex was still amazed after getting inside. Even though this was day, the forest still had very little sunlight illuminating the ground.
The thick shade formed by the towering trees blocked the sun, this was by far the thickest and most ancient forest that Rex had ever been to.
Of course, he already heard of the legends of the forest but he believed none of them, he even doubted if Elves really once roamed the earth.
The worshippers of the ckfire thought that they pursued him into the forest, whereas he was the one who escaped here of his own volition. He already decided to take this forest as his route to the Duncan Shelter.
Taking the route of the Great Forest would be unexpected to his enemies, Rex believed that taking this dangerous route was the safest to his destination.
Though Rex did not believe most of the rumors about the forest, he still epted that it was ancient and had some of the most dangerous mystic beasts around. Rumors said of the forest''s alpha being a mythical beast.
Just the mention of that term could send shudders through the spines of most mystic warriors, this was why Rex would only be traveling through the periphery of the forest. He still loved his life.
Rex spent an hour on Grey''s back escaping deeper into the forest before he ordered it to stop. Once Grey stopped, Rex groaned and fell down.
Due to the suppression of the sun, Rex''s fearsome vitality could no longer perform its usual magic as the injury to his neck was barely healing. Another factor that caused this was that the attack was powered by ckfire.
"Keep watch over the surroundings".
After ordering his transformed beast, Rex opened up his storage ring and he brought out some bags of blood before downing their contents.
Once Rex drank enough blood, he noticed instant improvements in the injury. The pain was alleviated and this was when he finally smiled.
Despite all the trouble that he had to pass through, they were all worth it.
Rex essed his system.
---------
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Fortified Soul!]
>This is a cultivation technique to fortify your soul against soul attacks and to increase your soul power. There are 40 cultivation opportunities inside it, and each opportunity increases your soul power randomly<
[Do you want to spend 1000 Skill points to learn soul cultivation technique?]
¡
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Ethereal sh!]
>When activated, deals 40% physical damage and 60% ethereal and soul damage<
[Do you want to spend 600 Skill points to learn ckfire skill?]
¡
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Zone!]
>When activated, you enter a state of absolute concentration devoid of distraction and the effects of every one of your skills are amplified by 10%<
[Do you want to spend 800 Skill points to learn ckfire skill?]
¡
[Compatible Advanced Skill book has been discovered: Self Combustion!]
>When activated, you burst into mes. In this state, you are immune to any type of me and your ckfire abilities are amplified 2¡Á<
>You can also deal heat damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 1,900 Skill points to learn Advanced ckfire skill?]
¡
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Soul Manifestation!]
>This is a cultivation technique to train your ckfire and soul maniption. When mastered, you can manipte your soul to manifest outside of your body in an ethereal form where you can deal ethereal damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 5000 Skill points and 300 Constitution points to learn soul manifestation technique?]
¡
[Compatible Master Skill book has been discovered: Oxygen Maniption!]
>When activated, under perfect control, you can cause oxygen in the air to ignite and deal pure lethal physical damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 10,000 Skill points to learn ckfire skill?]
----------
On seeing the expanded list that was just made by his system, Rex smiled. Even if he had lost a limb in the process, the fact that he got a master-level skill meant that it was all worth it in the end.
After all his nning for 3 days, the make-up sacrifice on Grey''s part, and Berserker''s cooperation, he finally reaped the rewards that he was due.
The only regret that Rex had was that among the hundreds of books in the library, he could only get his hands on so few of them that were useful.
Despite this though, he was still extremely satisfied. He felt even more satisfied knowing that the worshippers of ckfire still thought that he left without getting any benefit from his attempted theft.
This ability of his system really came in handy. Raiding the temple was a great risk, but with great risks came great benefits as were evident.
Due to hiscking skill points, Rex could not learn any of the skills and cultivation techniques that he got immediately. He could not wait to amass more skill points so that he could finally increase his repertoire of abilities.
After going through all his gains, Rex finally fell asleep.
He would continue his journey at night when he was at his peak state.
Chapter 100 Determination To Get Strong
After hours of light in the day, the thick veil of the night finally covered the Great Forest of Elias, plunging it into perpetual darkness.
Somewhere inside this great forest, as the beasts of the night woke up to start another journey of survival, a human and his transformed beasty under the exposed roots of one of the towering trees of the forest.
Once night came, every lingering injury in Rex''s body visibly started healing as in no time, they all disappeared, leaving his body brand new again.
In the night, the familiar feeling of power returned to Rex''s body again. As he kept on being revitalized, this was when his eyes snapped open.
On hearing movement, Grey''s eyes also snapped open as he stared at his master. His orange eyes glowed faintly in the darkness of the night like fireflies.
After waking up, Rex washed his face as he started checking up on his travel stuff. Due to theck of a hospital in the Mist Vige, Rex was unable to stock up on blood and now, it was only a few more times before he startedcking.
The blood issue was just one of the many problems that came with traveling through this dangerous forest, but Rex was ready for them all.
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 1.]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
Once Rex made sure that everything was in order, he morphed into his half-bat state without hesitation as he flew to the top of one of the taller trees.
On top of this tree, Rex surveyed across a region of kilometers as his radar-like vision and echolocation ability enabled him to view everywhere around him. He mapped out the location of all the dangerous beasts in the vicinity.
Leaving Obedin City and all that he loved, including Ben and Cassandra, was not something that Rex voluntarily signed up for.
He was pushed by circumstances to abandon his home and his friends. To keep them safe, he decided to go solo.
Going solo did not mean that he intended to just keep on running though, Rex''s real n was that as he ran, he would train like a maniac to develop his powers no matter the risks involved to get powerful enough for his revenge.
After all the secrets that Cassandra revealed to him, he was stunned by some but they opened his eyes to the deeper secrets of his situation.
Rex finally confirmed that the cold-blooded killer that he saw in the world of his mind who stood on bloody battlefields as the only survivor was his future self.
Pushed by circumstances, he fell into the dark side just to get more power. Now, after being cautioned by Cassandra, Rex was still ready to give anything to get more power but he consciously warned himself from going to the dark side.
To get his revenge on the Holmes family, he could never let his guard down for a moment, he could not staycent, he needed to work extremely hard.
Choosing the Great Forest of Elias was not just for the unconventional route that it presented, it was also for the great training opportunity that it presented.
Here, Rex had more than enough powerful beasts to train with and constantly push himself to the limits.
This was his training ground for the nearest future, he was ready to ride the waves of the wild and master them.
"Grey, follow me let us go on a hunt".
After giving his transformed beast orders, Rex pped his wings and disappeared into the night as the Great Forest of Elias weed neers.
¡
Dark mist covered a certain region of the forest in the night as a barely visible silhouette rapidly pursued 3 mystic Red Foxes in the dark of the night.
Once Grey closed the distance enough, the dark mist that he moved on covered the 3 Red Foxes as their vision was obstructed. In their panic, Grey attacked as he activated his Poison Throw skill, unleashing a barrage of poison.
Pushed to the corner, the Red Foxes let go of all misgivings as they decided to give their all for a final struggle. Before their red fire could fully materialize, the humanoid bat who hovered above their heads descended.
[You have activated skill: Sound Maniption!]
[You have activated skill: Steel ws!]
Once they were hit by the sound waves, the Red Foxes bled but what affected them the most was fear as Rex''s Fear Apostle passive ability triggered.
Petrified by fear, this made them easy kills to Rex as he descended and ripped them to shreds with his steel ws, he showed no mercy.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Red Fox!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed¡]
Once the Red Foxes were dead, Rex led Grey as they located the intermediate mystic Cobra that he already sighted from afar hiding amidst the grass. Once the Cobra discovered that it was found, it retaliated.
Grey rushed to the front as he shed with the massive Cobra. The Cobra''s poison was deadly, but so was Grey''s poison as an epic sh started.
As for Rex, he flew into the sky before decisively diving back down to gather momentum as he stabbed Berserker straight through the Cobra''s massive body.
The massive Cobra hissed in pain and focused on him but Rex was prepared for it. Rex showed his grounded sword skills again as he dueled against the much more massive beast, holding it to a standstill and even getting the advantage.
With both Rex and his Dark Mist Spider fighting together, the Cobra could only dy the inevitable as it finally sumbed after trying without sess to escape the grasp of the 2 maniacal demons.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: King Cobra!]
[You have gained 24 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained a mystic stone!]
After killing the first intermediate mystic beast, the burning fire in Rex''s eyes to fight barely faded as he actively started looking for more of them.
For the rest of the night, while he was at his peak state while traveling, he would use the beasts of the forests to train himself to develop his powers.
He was determined to get strong by crook or hook.
Chapter 101 Oh Sh*T!
For the next few days, Rex barely allowed himself to rest as he journeyed through the forest while giving his all to fight and develop himself.
More than once, during the few encounters where he met an advanced mystic beast or a group of intermediate mystic beasts, Rex was close to death but his great Vampire vitality and Grey helped him through it all.
His most harrowing encounter was when he flew into the territory of a mystic Owl n thaty deep in the forest.
Barging into unknown territory was a taboo in the Great Forest of Elias, Rex broke this unspoken rule because he was always strong enough. This time though, he met beasts that were stronger than him.
The Owls fought and pursued him for a long distance, leaving Grey heavily injured in the process as he barely escaped by the skin of his teeth.
After that encounter, Rex had to spend 2 full days recovering from his severe injuries but he came out of the encounter stronger. In the mystic world, with risks came opportunities, this rule was simply universal.
As he trained like a maniac, his mystic energy limits also increased.
In the intermediate mystic warrior realm, instead of the previous 50 mystic energy limit to increase through a tier, 200 mystic energy limits were now needed.
After his maniacal training for the past few days, Rex was able to develop even without getting any system missions as he leveled through 2 tiers.
After another tiring night where he hunted alongside his transformed beast like maniacs, the night slowly faded away and this was when Rex decided to go rest.
Like usual, Rex found a location that could not be easily seen under the thick roots of the towering trees to hide. He yawned as his eyelids grew heavy.
Once Rex slept, he lost all perception of his surroundings.
¡
A few minutes after Rex slept, as the sun slowly started peaking out of the veil of the night, the leaves of the tree under which Rex and his transformed beast slept started waving more frequently than those of other trees.
No sound was made, everything happened silently like they were a professional group of assassins as the group of 6 Jaguars got extremely close to the human. Before they could attack, Grey''s eyes snapped open.
Grey was not startled by sound as the Jaguars werepletely silent, what woke him was the familiar energy that he felt.
"Dark Mist powers!"
Once the Dark Mist Spider transmitted to his master, Rex woke up with a startle only to see a massive jaw filled with a fearsome set of teeth already closing down with speed and force to crush his skull into meat paste.
For an instant, Rex froze as everything happened so fast. He was barely waking up after a tiring night and he was already so close to death.
Due to the exhaustion and the new suppression from the sun, Rex''s reflexes dulled a bit but he was barely able to activate an ability in his mind.
Perhaps, if this was a few months ago in his greenhorn experience deficient state, he would have not been able to react but having been in a few dozen near-death situations, Rex was able to stimte himself to give his all and react.
[You have activated Martial Technique: Touch of Death!]
Once Rex activated this martial technique, he felt his blood churning, and instantly, he directed almost all the blood in his body to his forehead.
The Jaguar''s deadly rows of teeth finally dug into his head as Rex felt a sharp spike of pain but he retaliated as he head-butted the Jaguar''s jaws.
Bam!
Once Rex head-butted the jaguar, blood burst from the point of collision as all the blood concentrated before dealing single-touch damage to the Jaguar.
The next moment, the Jaguar roared in pain as its jaws were literally fragmented into pieces by the lethal attack. It did not survive it.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: Dark Mist Jaguar!]
[You have gained 18 mystic energy points!]
[You have suffered a Concussion to the brain!]
Even as Rex''s head bled, his vision grew dizzy due to the attack on his head as he could barely keep himself from falling unconscious.
This was when the remaining 5 Jaguars pounced on him to finish him off but Grey was a step ahead as he rushed to protect his master valiantly.
Hiss!!!
5 against 1 was too much for Grey, the Jaguars pummeled the Dark Mist Spider as they also used their Dark Mist powers to oppress him.
In just a bit, they proved that they had even better proficiency with the dark mist powers. They could create different mystic effects at will, obscuring Grey''s vision as this enabled them to attack him unrestrained from blind spots.
Grey who was still recovering from his previous injuries got heavily injured again in the blink of an eye, he could only hiss in deviance and anger.
On hearing his transformed beast''s hisses, Rex finally recovered a bit despite still feeling dizzy as he instantly essed his storage ring.
Rex brought out 5 blood bags as he downed their contents instantly. With such extravagant consumption, he finally finished his stockpile of blood bags.
This left his future uncertain but Rex did not care at the moment. If he could not survive this ambush, then thinking of the future was of no use.
Even as his injuries started recovering, Rex grabbed Berserker again as he reentered the battle by starting with his strongest skill immediately.
[You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana sh!]
Boom!
The attacknded with force, heavily injuring one of the Jaguars as the others separated, finally relieving Grey from the pincer attack.
Before the others could react, Rex pounced on the injured Jaguar as his Blood Tome appeared out of his storage ring and floated before him.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Blood Drain!]
Rex used a needle stab attack to drill his sword into the Jaguar''s skull as its blood started being rapidly drained, the Jaguar twitched a bit before going limb.
[You have killed¡]
Rex ignored his system notification as he continued his fast-paced attack.
[You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move- Splitting sh!]
Whoosh!
This time, Rex was only able to barely injure the Jaguars as they all dodged on time. They retaliated as they covered Rex with the Dark Mist.
One of them disappeared before appearing the next moment from the dark mist beside Rex''s face as its lethal ws dug in and inflicted a deep cut across his exposed cheek.
Grey hissed as its master was injured again as it rejoined the attack. This time, Grey made use of its intelligence and activated a really useful skill.
Once Grey activated the Dark Mist skill, a dark cloud covered Rex, and instantly, the suppression of the sun disappeared as Rex could fight at his peak again. Instantly, his eyes turned red as he grabbed his sword tighter.
With his free left hand, Rex gently poked the Jaguar that wed at his cheek.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Life Drain- Killing Touch!]
The Jaguar whimpered in fear as its body rapidly shrank. The next moment, Rex unsheathed one of his Death Daggers and separated its head from its body.
[You have killed¡]
While Rex dealt with that Jaguar, of the remaining 2, one already got him on his right leg as the long teeth of the Jaguar prated his skin.
"Ugh!" Rex groaned in pain as he gritted his teeth.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
Grey fired poison at the Jaguar as Rex turned before ruthlessly stabbing Berserker straight through the Jaguar''s neck. Instead of letting go, the Jaguar instead added pressure to its bite as Rex''s leg almost got separated from his body.
Rex roared as the pain from his leg became too much even as thest Jaguar pounced on him, biting him on the neck. Amid the extreme pain, Rex managed to activate another skill.
[You have activated Blood Tome Mystic Effect: Phasing- Short-range Teleportation!]
Bzzz!
Rex briefly disappeared and reappeared behind the 2 Jaguars.
"Die!"
This time, a bloody-eyed Rex attacked with a vengeance as Berserker easily removed one of the unsuspecting Jaguar''s heads, ending its life for good.
[You have killed¡]
Rex ignored his system and went for thest kill but it did not connect.
Thest Jaguar was startled by its opponent suddenly disappearing but it reacted before Rex could attack as, without hesitation, it turned and escaped deep inside the forest out of Rex''s reach.
[Warning! You are in a critically damaged state!]
Even as his Vampire physique and vitality worked to heal his injuries, Rex groaned again as he tried to sit down and rest his injured right leg but he stopped the next moment as he heard the sound of thudding footsteps.
Rex turned only to see a group of humans running from a Lion pride.
"Oh, sh*t!"
Chapter 102 The Mysterious Archer
"When shall we eat them? Why are we dying?"
"We shall wait until the King returns from his hunt".
"But I''m starving!"
"Stand down!"
"No!"
"Do you dare defy the will of King Dufasa?"
"¡"
The young and energetic Lion paced around as one of the King''s concubines enforced her authority, he was frustrated and impatient, feeling an urge to duel the Queen but he dared not defy the will of King Dufasa.
The King of this Pride was one who already proved himself through numerous duels, hunts, and n wars, he dared not defy his authority.
In the end, he could onlyy on the ground after pacing around for a few more minutes like all the other Lions and Lionesses of the Dufasa Pride.
Rex woke up to his head ringing like he had not tasted food for the past century, his head felt extremely heavy like it was filled with lead. He could only hear the strange roars reverberating in the background.
What shocked him though was that apanying the well-paced roars were coherent sentences that he understood from the lions.
Rex was shocked. "Am I dreaming again?"
Once Rex asked this question, his eyes finally snapped open and the attention of all the captives currently in this cage turned towards him.
Rex froze for a moment as all the attention focused on him, then he quickly sat up as he groped around for his Death Daggers only toe up with nothing.
"Give up young warrior, we are already at their mercy".
Rex did not respond as he slowly raised his head to observe his surroundings. By now, he was already positive that every mystic weapon of his including the Blood Tome and Berserker were no longer in his possession.
Once he raised his head, he discovered that he was now trapped inside a cage alongside dozens of other humans who were surprisingly in this forest.
Rex was confused at first but as he looked at all the humans, he quickly recollected everything that happened from the ambush of the Jaguars.
After barely surviving the ambush from the Jaguars, Rex barely had time to catch his breath before the group of humans and their pursuers showed up. He tried to escape but he could not as the Lion Pride soon rounded them up.
He stood no chance; he was knocked out before he could evaluate the strength of the Lion Pride. He had no idea where Grey was but through their connection, he was positive that his first transformed beast was still alive.
At the moment, he already recovered from most of the minor injuries that he suffered from the Jaguars, only the attack on his head, his hand, and his leg was still fresh as he felt the pain from them though reduced.
If not for his Vampire bloodline, he would probably be a dead man already after suffering so many injuries. The only problem was that his bloodline''s vitality came at the expense of blood.
It took a lot of his blood to heal those injuries, and having used a lot of his blood to activate the Touch of Death martial technique for the first time in the previous battle, Rex was now drained of blood like never before.
He could feel his body already reacting to theck of blood.
After recollecting everything that happened, Rex sighed and epted his current condition as he observed all the humans and the Lion Pride.
The Lion Pride consisted of easily 20 Lions and Lionesses, all intermediate mystic beasts. The cubs were nowhere to be seen which showed that this was probably not the realir of the Lion Pride.
Though most of the Lions present were mature already, Rex could easily deduce that the real alpha was not here, the Lion King was not present and this made him heave a sigh of relief.
Another fact that astonished him was that the Lionsmunicated with each other. Having been taught in the Obedin Mystic Academy before, Rex knew that high-grade beasts could be very intelligent but he was still stunned.
Seeing a bunch of Lion and Lionessesmunicating could spook anyone.
It took some time for him to calm his nerves after seeing everything as Rex started worrying about how to save his ass.
Amid these worries, he turned back to the other humans who were here with him and the middle-aged man who previously spoke did so again.
"Yeah, I know, we''re unlucky". The middle-aged man chuckled.
"My name is Maximo; I am the leader of the 3 Bowls Merchant Trade Company. I left my town to go on a business trip but well, just 2 days in, luck screwed us over and here we are".
"Oh¡" Rex reacted exaggeratedly. "I am a lone warrior".
"We can see that". The middle-aged man smiled.
"Do you have a n to escape?" Rex rubbed his nose.
"None, no merchant trade group has ever survived a Lion Pride attack. Once their King is back who is probably an advanced mystic beast, I bet we''ll be kissing this life goodbye".
"¡"
"Oh¡!" Rex eximed before minding his business.
At this point, Rex already noticed the nearby tree where all the weapons of the humans were kept including Berserker and his Blood Tome.
As Maximo and the other humans talked about their imminent doom, Rex focused on cutting all sound from his mind as he nned for his escape.
His journey barely started; he was not about to die now. He did not want to think nor regret anything that led to him being trapped here, all his mind was focused on thinking of tangible ns to escape this quagmire.
After thinking for a few seconds, Rex decided to check his status first.
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire
Rank: Intermediate Mystic Warrior
Intermediate Warrior Grade: 3rd tier
Strength: 408
Speed: 360
Mind: 100
Vitality: 490
Agility: 360
Dexterity: 325
Health Points [HP]: 850/850
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 1120/1120
¡
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire
¡
Special Constitution: Vampire
¡
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients.]
¡
[Current State: Injured!]
---------------
After a few weeks of rapid self-development, Rex finally essed his system status again, and to be honest, he would have been extremely satisfied with his growth in normal circumstances if he was not trapped at the moment.
The injured line at the end of the status was what really bothered Rex.
In an injured state, Rex had no idea how much his abilities were impaired and this could spell the difference between escape and death in his uing n.
"The Alpha Lion ising".
"Shut up! Stop raising death gs!"
"But he''lle eventually right, wouldn''t he?"
Rex''s facial muscles twitched as he fought the urge to punch these bbering merchants who were toying with death to death. He forced himself to focus and continue his nning.
Though Rex hated to admit it, the Alpha Lion could return at any time and this prompted him to elerate his nning. In 2 minutes, he was done.
The key to his escape n was getting Berserker and his Blood Tome back but how the hell was he supposed to break out of the cage?
With so little blood in his body, Rex could not morph into his half-bat state which directly cut off his half-bat''s steel ws from the equation.
Amid Rex''s nning, this was when his heightened senses kicked up again as he felt like he was being watched. Without a word, Rex stole a nce at the skies and that was when he saw the strange warrior perched on the top of a tree.
Rex could not deduce his/her gender instantly, but this mystic warrior was dressed in dark green leather armor with a mystic bow and arrow aimed at them.
Once Rex saw this strange warrior, the strange warrior spotted him also.
None of them spoke but sometimes, the eyes could transmit messages far faster than the mouth could ever aplish. In the blink of an eye, a thousand messages were exchanged as the arrow was released.
Whoosh!
An arrow apanied by a golden energy glow flew through the air with such speed and velocity the next moment as it ripped the cage into shreds.
Immediately after the cage was torn apart, while the Lions and the merchants were still stunned, Rex already sprang up towards the tree. He rolled on the floor as he picked up Berserker and his Blood Tome the next moment.
Rex faced the Lions and they reciprocated, but that was their mistake as dozens of golden arrows started descending from the skies the next moment.
Whoosh!
Chapter 103 The Power Of The Affection Necklace
"Roar!"
The Lions and Lionesses roared in pain as they were drowned in the flood of golden arrows that descended from the skies like falling missiles.
With the arrows distracting the Lions, Rex finally paid attention to his remaining gadgets as he rapidly equipped his Wind Boots and Coke Armor again while also keeping the Death Daggers back in their sheath.
By the time that he did all these, the merchants finally reacted in a panic as they rushed to get away from the range of the angry Lions.
As all these happened, the Lion Pride finally recovered. They were caught off-guard by the hidden enemy, but in the end, this was not enough to kill them.
"ROAR!!!"
The biggest female Lioness of the Pride who was King Dufasa''s first concubine took the lead as she stood her ground and roared at the skies.
With her mighty roar, a raging corona of red fire was breathed out of her massive jaws as they spread upwards, burning everything in their path to ashes.
The Lions were all fire controllers.
The dozens of golden arrows that were still in the process of descending from the skies were burnt into ashes by the raging fire as the other Lions quickly got into formation and became prepared to fight.
Everything was happening so fast from the moment that the first arrow was shot. After getting all his gadgets back, Rex''s first reaction was to escape and save his life but he was curious about the identity of the mysterious archer.
He raised his head, squinting his eyes to try seeing the archer but this archer seemed to have no intention to be seen as he remained hidden amid the leaves.
"F*ck it!"
[You have activated Wind Boots Mystic Effect: Wind Surfer!]
Rex cursed as he kept his Blood Tome before starting a sprint to escape.
Even with this mysterious archer, Rex was sure that they stood no chance against the Lion Pride, he would only die if he stayed.
"Help us!" Maximo yelled at Rex but he got no answer.
"I will pay handsomely! Please help!"
[You have triggered a system mission: Maximo''s Quest!]
[Mission Details: Maximo, the merchant of the Dragon Horn Town has requested your aid for him to escape safely with his goods and subordinates.]
[Main Mission: Lead Maximo safely to the Dragon Horn Town!]
[Mission Rewards: 1000 Skill Points, 20 Constitution Points, and 20,000 Dragon Horn Credits!]
[Bonus Rewards will be given ording to missionpletion rate!]
[Do you want to ept mission?]
Rex did not listen to the pleas of the rich merchant but once his system lit up this notification, he hit hard on the breaks and slowed to a stop.
Having tried day and night without much sess to learn and master the new skills of his ckfire mystic ability, Rex finally knew how important skill points were to his cause and now that it was offered, he was tempted.
Rex was not just tempted, he was persuaded.
In his moment of hesitation, the angry Lions already shrugged off the unrelenting attacks of the mysterious archer as they pounced on the merchants.
Having lost most of their mystic warriors who were the protectors in this journey in their initial struggle against the Lion Pride, now, the merchants were like pigs before the ughter as they could not resist.
Seeing the unstoppable momentum of the Lions as they ughtered the merchants, Rex was intimidated but, in the end, his greed for Skill Points won as he exploded with speed towards Maximo who was in the middle of the group.
[You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move- Splintering sh!]
Boom!
Rex''s sword energy overpowered the raging fire from the Lions as they hastily dodged the area of effect that the tyrannical sword energy passed.
With them dodging, Rex got to Maximo''s side. His original intention was to take hold of the merchant and escape but after getting here now, Rex was exposed to the real savagery on disy as blood already dyed the ground red.
Most of the merchants in the trade group were young energetic men, now, they barely struggled as they were roasted and ughtered by the Lions.
What was the use of power if he could not use it to help others? Once Rex asked himself this question, his intentions instantly changed.
In normal circumstances, Rex already calcted that they stood no chance against the Lion Pride even with the mysterious archer helping but what if a mythical grade treasure was added to the equation?
After entering the Great Forest of Elias, due to his n to take this as a training opportunity, he gave himself a rule not to make use of this mythical grade treasure since it would make things too easy for him.
Now though, he really needed it and he did not hesitate to use it. After all, rules were made to be broken.
[You have activated Affection Ne''s Mystic Effect: Love Protection!]
Instantly after this mystic effect activated, Rex was surrounded by a pink-colored heart-shaped energy shield as his mystic energy started burning like water but he did not give a damn as he pounced on the Lions.
Rex used no skills, with such a powerful defensive shield already protecting him, he simply preserved his mystic energy to focus on maintaining it as he let his skills and sword proficiency flow through Berserker.
The Lions were startled by the sudden change in the aggression of the mystic warrior. The Aurora Swordy''s real strength was speed, and Rex fully embodied it at this moment as he started a rampage.
Whoosh!
The Lions could barely react as the extremely sharp sword cut one of them in 2. Rex no longer cared about dodging; he was now focused on pure offense.
This was the powerful support that a mythical grade treasure was capable of. With the Affection Ne, Rex became a raging bull with finesse and intelligence as he cut through the Lions like a hot knife through butter.
The raging fire of the Lions was fierce and strong and could deal a lot of damage when it met any skin surface, but Rex''s defense was sturdier.
Their teeth were sharp, but his defense was sturdier.
Their ws were deadly, but his defense was sturdier.
Once the mysterious archer in the tree noticed the change in Rex, the archer also switched into a new gear of intensity as the golden arrows started descending in batches of 3 at a time and they provided the ultimate support to Rex.
This rhythmic barrage of arrow and sword attacks brought an end to the career of tyranny that the Lion Pride had been enjoying till now.
Together, Rex and this mysterious archer started a massacre.
The formation of the Lion Pride waspletely torn apart as they became like a bunch of sheep without shepherds, they died meaninglessly.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: Fire Lion!]
[You have gained 35 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained a mystic stone!]
[You have killed¡]
[You have killed 10 Intermediate Mystic Fire Lions: You have achieved the title- Fire Lion Killer!]
[When facing mystic Fire Lions in the future, your overall strength will be amplified by 2%.]
Once the first Lion died, the 2nd quickly followed subsequently as they dropped dead like falling leaves in autumn.
In the blink of an eye, of the originally 23 Lions and Lionesses which formed this pride, only 7 were remaining as these 7 were now intimidated.
They roared angrily at their enemies before escaping deep into the forest.
Just like a dream, the dangers that threatened to swallow them up disappeared. The surviving merchants were about to celebrate but their bubble was shattered by the nonchnt voice that came from on top of the tree.
"The Alpha is already on his way back".
"¡"
"F*ck! Run! Escape!"
As all the merchants picked the few goods that they could and escaped, Rex stayed behind as he looked up at the tree.
"May I know who you are?"
"No".
"What of your name?"
"No need".
"¡" Rex was speechless.
"Ok, but if you ever need my help in the forest, do not hesitate to ask for it. Also, if you can, please help me save my pet".
"You will meet your pet in Dragon Horn Vige".
"Thanks". With that, Rex left and sprinted away with the merchants.
¡
10 minutes after the merchants escaped, the Alpha Lion arrived from his hunt with jaws filled with the blood of his victims as he saw the corpse of his family.
"ROAR!!!"
The loud roars of an angry Alpha Lion King reverberated in the forest.
Chapter 104 Blackfire Skill: Zone!
[Main Mission: Maximo''s Quest!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 1000 Skill Points, 20 Constitution Points, and 20,000 Dragon Horn Credits!]
¡
[The 3 Bowls Merchant Trade Company returned safely to the Dragon Horn Vige with more than 50% of their members and goods.]
[Youpleted the hidden mission requirement.]
[You have gained bonus rewards of 500 Skill Points and 50 Constitution Points!]
In the end, Rex gained more from this mission than he ever expected.
Due to the dangers that could threaten even Super Mystic Warriors that were at the heart of the Great Forest of Elias, Rex decided to travel only through the periphery of the Great Forest and this decision now saved him.
After traveling a great distance from the Mist Vige through the forest, Rex already left that region entirely and was now in a new region.
In this new region, if he decided toe out of the forest, he would meet viges like the Dragon Horn Vige and others that were not affiliated with any of the Great or Small Shelters that humans sought refuge on.
This was the reason why he was able to escort the 3 Bowls Merchant Trade Company safely out of the Great Forest in less than a day.
After the remaining 7 Lions and Lionesses of the Lion Pride escaped, Rex sprinted away with the merchants as they worked hard to hide their traces.
This was the only reason why the powerful Alpha Lion could not track them as all traces were already erased, the Alpha could only roar to vent his anger.
After arriving in the Dragon Horn Vige, Rex discovered that the merchant, Maximo was like a dignitary here as he received the best wee.
After the ambush from the Dark Mist Jaguars, and the subsequent great battle against the Lion Pride, Rex was already exhaustedpletely.
As Maximo''s savior, Rex was taken to the best hospital in the vige. By now, he already noticed that this vige was far more developed than the Mist Vige which he visited some time ago.
He could even bet that the vige was more advanced in some areas than Bowling Town where he grew up, they had sspared to other viges.
As soon as Rex was taken to the hospital before he was attended to by the doctors, he made ame excuse that enabled him to sneak out and grab some blood bags to replenish his blood reserves.
After doing this, he felt revitalized as the doctors finally attended to him. In no time, he slept and he went at it for 12 straight hours.
When Rex woke up, it was already the next day and the first thing that greeted him was the notification of havingpleted his recent system mission.
With the gains from this mission, a lot of things became more convenient for Rex and he did not hesitate to spend the currencies that he just earned.
After essing his system, Rex was ced in a dilemma on which of the ckfire skills he should ess but he soon narrowed down on the Zone skill.
He theorized that this skill was the best to easily amplify his overall strength in the immediate termpared to the others.
----
[800 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned ckfire skill: Zone!]
[You have learned the skill, but practice with it to master it.]
¡
[Skill Points: 405.]
-----
Once the skill points were deducted, Rex felt the familiar feeling of knowledge being forced into his brain as he quickly understood everything that he needed to know about the Zone skill.
Rex was astonished since he had been trying his best to understand the deeper secrets of this skill the conventional way without much sess.
"Having a system really is an OP advantage".
With 405 Skill Points remaining, Rex could not do much on this front anymore which was why he deviated to his constitution points and their use.
The constitution points had only 1 use and that was to upgrade his constitution. The 1st limit to upgrade his constitution was 100 Constitution Points, and after this mission, Rex finally had the required number of points.
As this was his first time about to upgrade his Vampire constitution, Rex was hyped as he imagined the benefits that would follow this upgrade.
"System, upgrade my constitution".
[Affirmative!]
Well, Rex soon learned that upgrading his constitution was not as stress-free as learning a new skill. He groaned as his body felt like it was being broken into pieces the next moment, he felt like a giant was giving him a body massage.
"Ugh!"
Crack! Crack!
Rex heard his bones crackling as the pain increased. This continued for approximately 5 minutes as he squirmed in the bed before it finally stopped.
------
[Congrattions! Your Special Constitution has been Upgraded!]
[Your Vampire Constitution has been upgraded to be the Vampire Knight Constitution- Locked!]
[Vampire Knight Constitution bonuses: +2000 Health points, +200 Vitality!]
[To unlock your new Vampire Knight constitution bonuses, upgrade your Blood Rank and be a Vampire Knight!]
[Requirements to upgrade Blood Rank: Drink 2 rare human bloodlines!]
---------
As the pain stopped and as Rex finally got to see the benefits of upgrading his constitution, he smiled. Even though he could not unlock the new bonuses immediately, he was still satisfied by this new way to grow his powers.
Rex could see his advantages over conventional mystic warriors every day.
Apart from the normal mystic energy growth, his bloodline and his system provided so much more sophisticated ways of growth for him that it was inevitable that he would be OPpared to others of his rank.
Rex wondered if others enjoyed simr advantages that he enjoyed.
[You have activated ckfire skill: Zone!]
Instantly after Rex activated this ability, he felt like he fell under the embrace of the mother goddess of the earth as he felt his soul and mind calming down.
Every distraction left his mind as he became extremely concentrated. In this state, he became capable of taking note of every tiny detail as he clearly heard the conversations of the hospital nurses who were far away from his room.
Apart from his even more heightened senses in this state and his concentration, Rex was more fascinated by his amplified state.
His overall strength was amplified by 10%, but not only that as even his overall mental and physical state also enjoyed this amplification.
Rex enjoyed this state as he maintained the skill with his mystic energy to remain active as he stood up from the hospital bed and went outside.
On going outside, he heard the conversations of the nurses and patients more clearly. And the astonishing fact about this skill was that he could easily decide to mute some voices while amplifying others, it was magical.
As Rex listened to random conversations, this was where he heard the name of the merchant that he just saved.
"I heard that Maximo almostmitted suicide".
"It is inevitable, losing his only son to the ve traders will make anyone feel like giving up on the world".
"I feel like pitying him but I can''t when I think of how many children were lost in this raid by the Desert Cowboy Gang".
Chapter 105 Aragorn, The Last Mystic Mechanic
"Warrior Swordsman, please save my son!"
"Please! Please!!!" Maximo, the wealthy merchant pleaded with Rex as he looked nothing like his dignified self at the moment.
After recovering in the hospital and after listening to the conversations by the nurses and patients in the hospital, Rex finally got the news about what happened in the Dragon Horn vige just after Maximo left with his crew.
Apparently, the vige suffered another major raid from a notorious criminal group that dominated the bands, the Desert Cowboy Gang.
The Desert Cowboy Gang were well-known for a lot of nefarious and criminal acts that they engage in, but they were known more for their ve trading.
Though humanity was already at an advanced state in terms of development, some inherent criminal parts of humanity could not be erased over the years.
After the age of awakening and as the shelters were finally built, the first great gulf between humans was created in the form of the Great and Small shelters.
The territory of the Small Shelters were the less mineral-filled and resourceful territories and these parts were called the earth rim, while the resource-filled and rich territories were upied by the Great Shelters.
These rich territories of the earth became known as mid-earth.
Only the really rich and powerful could live in the Great Shelters, the lower levels of human society lived in the small shelters.
As the years grew by and as the superiority of the Great Shelter dwellers grew, they also began to develop ambitions. The limit was finally hit when the idea of ve trading came again in the age of awakening.
Once the idea came, no one really suppressed it and it grew. The Great Shelter dwellers started seeking the low lives to serve as their ves.
Over the years, different types and levels of ve trading were introduced and the type that the Desert Cowboy Gang engaged in was juvenile ve trade.
By trading children to the scions of the Great Shelters for astronomical prices, they get rich while these unfortunate children are trained by their masters to be perfect robots to perform tedious and time-consuming tasks.
In the mystic world, there was a quote that once you became sold to the Great Shelters as a ve, it takes the intervention of a Legendary Mystic Warrior to save you. This was an indication of how dire the situation of the children was.
For a long time, the Desert Cowboy Gang harassed the Dragon Horn vige as they barely resisted their ve-trading actions.
All the viges in this region hated the notorious gang of criminals, but they could never bepletely annihted because of their powerful leader.
While Maximo went on his trip, the notorious gang attacked again, and this time inrge numbers. A lot of children were taken and unfortunately, Maximo''s household was among those that were raided as his only son was taken.
Once Maximo heard the news, his world fell apart.
By now, the wealthy merchant already tried pulling all strings and connections that he had but no one could stand up against the notorious Gang.
Left with no choice, he could onlye to Rex but like the others, Rex was not about to throw his life away and politely declined the request.
Rex received a mission notification after Maximo asked but after understanding the strength of this notorious gang, he refused to put his life to the test. He loathed them but he also had to admit that they were a powerful bunch.
[System Mission: Maximo''s Mission of Trust!]
[Mission Details: Maxime, Maximo''s son has been taken by the Desert Cowboy Gang and is to be sold to the Great Shelters.]
[Main Mission: Help him to rescue and save his son.]
[Mission Rewards: 2000 Skill Points and Maximo''s lifetime trust!]
[Do you want to ept mission?]
Rex was undecided because of the danger involved, so he neither epted nor rejected the mission, he just left it hanging.
"Please, Warrior Swordsman, I''m willing to be your servant so long as my son can be saved from the hands of the criminals".
"I''ll think about it". This was the best reply that Rex could give.
¡
After leaving the wealthy merchant''s mansion, Rex located a local restaurant in the vige as he sat to eat a hot te of the local specialty.
Originally, after suffering that ambush by the Jaguars, Rex learned a great lesson through blood as he decided to slow down a bit and recoverpletely.
After arriving at this vige, Rex intended to rest for at least 2 days after treatment to recover. He was determined to get power, but he also needed to carter for his mental health as cautioned by Cassandra.
If he was so fixated on getting power without caring about anything else, it would be too easy for him to be lured into the darker ways of getting power.
Rex''s original intention was to rest in the vige, then go search for his transformed beast before continuing his journey in the Great Forest of Elias.
His n though was affected a bit after hearing of Maximo''s desperate request. As he already learned through experience, training the normal way was good, but the fastest way to amass strength was through his system.
Instead of spending months or even years learning a new skill, he could just spend skill points to learn them andplete the work of years in seconds.
The risks were much but Rex was still tempted by the rewards.
Another reason why he hoped to help this merchant was that despite the tragedy that happened to him, Maximo was still faithful to his promise as he paid him for his services.
Rex received a storage ring containing 20,000 Dragon Horn Credits.
This did not make him friends with the merchant, but Rex felt that it was nice to pay good with good. And for some reason, he felt that doing more good would help him in his quest of trying not to join the dark side in search of power.
The only problem was that going solo against the Desert Cowboy Gang even with his Affection Ne was suicide. The only way for this to work as if he had a helper that was at least as strong as him.
The mysterious archer in the forest would have been a great candidate, but Rex had no idea what his/her real identity was.
Left with no choice, he could only look in the vige. After asking around, he heard of the only Intermediate warrior in the vige who fit his requirements.
This candidate was a Mystic Mechanic.
Unlike mystic technicians, mystic mechanics were a greater profession with much more importance since only mystic warriors who awaken the extremely rare mechanic mystic ability could be mystic mechanics.
In the mystic world, despite the technological advancements of this era, cold weapons were the main weapons of mystic warriors because it was countless times harder for mystic energy to be channeled throughplicated machinery.
Only mystic mechanics could createplicated machinery like guns, bikes, and cars that mystic warriors could channel their mystic energy through.
ording to the information vendor, Aragorn was not a native of Dragon Horn Vige. He settled in the vige 3 months ago and he was one of the few mystic warriors who were not afraid of hunting down the Desert Cowboy Gang.
Maximo already tried to hire him but he declined for the same reason. He could go against individual criminals of the notorious gang, but he would not throw his life away by going against the full Desert Cowboy Gang.
Both of them had the same reason, but what if¡
Rex made his decision instantly as he stood up and left for the well-recognized mechanic workshop of the only mystic mechanic in the vige.
Chapter 106 When A Chickens Feathers Are Ruffled, It Bites
From afar, Rex could already hear the whirring sound of machinery.
Arriving before the Blood Mechanic Workshop left Rex feeling like he just walked into an industrial district. The sound was loud as even from the outside, the rowdiness currently inside this building could be detected.
Therge workshop was built like a bunker. ording to Rex''s information vendor, Aragorn hired and renovated this building to be like this.
Rex observed his fill in just 10 seconds outside as he went closer to the building before knocking gently on the door.
"Locked!"
"We ept no customers today, thank you".
"Locked!"
"We ept no customers today, thank you".
Rex looked up at where the sound came from only to see a Parrot, no, a mechanical Parrot bbering about through the series of programs given to it.
Looking at the mechanical Parrot that kept on hollering, Rex got a basic image of the personality that he was about to meet. He cleared his throat and knocked some more on the door before pushing it open.
Once Rex entered the workshop, he was assaulted by noise from all sides. Machinery sounds filled the workshop as they formed a chaotic cacophony.
[You have activated ckfire skill: Zone!]
Once Rex activated this skill, all the chaotic sounds faded into the background. It took some effort on his part but after manipting the zone a bit, he was finally able to pinpoint the sound that he wanted from the other sounds.
ng! ng!
Rex heard the clear ringing sounds of metal beating against metal, and he easily guessed that this was the work of a human amid all the machinery.
Rex navigated around thebyrinth-like workshop to where the sound originated from. Along the way, he saw different machinery ranging from bikes to guns, and a lot of other unconventional machinery.
On getting to where the sound originated from, he saw his candidate.
At this moment, Aragorn was bare-chested with only a pair of shorts on, exposing his prominent muscles as he hammered hard with a massive hammer on a short curvy dagger.
As he worked, he had headphones on his ears as he hummed to the song that was on the ylist. He seemed to be detached from the outside world.
At this moment, Aragorn seemed to be in his own world entirely but Rex was mistaken as this mystic mechanic spoke up the next moment.
"Did Charlie malfunction again?"
"What?"
"Did the Parrot not announce that we are locked?"
"Umm, yes¡"
"Then why are you here?"
"¡"
Rex was speechless for a few seconds, and this was when Aragorn stopped his hammering as he finally turned to look at him with that reproachful look that a father gave his son when he f*cked up.
"Umm¡" Rex was tongue-tied on how to reply so he rather changed the topic. "Why are you working manually with so many automated machines present in your workshop?"
"Well, sometimes, a mechanic got to revisit the old ways to regain the feel".
"Um, ok, actually, I am an intermediate mystic warrior".
"I know".
"¡"
The mechanic''s tone irritated Rex a bit as his attitude finally changed. "I saved Maximo and his crew''s lives in the Great Forest of Elias".
"I was due to leave this vige in a few days but I heard of the tragedy that befell here. As apassionate warrior, I decided to help him rescue his son but to seed, I need a helper and that is the reason why I came to meet you".
"Do you have what it takes to follow me on this honorable mission?"
"Lol".
"What?"
"Haha".
"¡"
On noticing the young man''s mood change and the gathering of strange sharp mystic energy, the mechanic was quick to raise his hands in surrender.
"Take it, easy brother, you can''t take a simple joke?"
Aragornughed again before turning to pick his hammer up. "I''ve heard of you already and I know what befell Maximo. I also already know how strong you are, but don''t you think you''re underestimating the enemies a bit?"
"Hmmm, what makes you think so?"
"I''ve shed with them a lot of times, and yes, I''m powerful enough to damage them a lot but I never entertain the idea of going against all of them alone".
"Putting aside their outrageous numbers, Pain, their leader is a badass".
"I once fought with him and he trashed mepletely. Trust me, you won''tst 5 minutes against him".
"I don''t know your rtionship with Maximo, but I advise you to forget it bro. The risks are not worth the efforts nor the gains".
Rex rubbed his chin in thought. "You may be right".
It was after Rex said this that his thoughts quickly went into a spiral.
"F*ck!" He cursed in his mind.
He came here to get a helper and y boss but without him knowing, the mechanic already won the game of words and was now leading him by the nose. Rex felt embarrassed all of a sudden after discovering this truth.
Aragorn noticed at the same time as he smiled.
,m "Look bro, I know that you want to get the trust of a wealthy merchant but not this way. I''ll only be convinced to go if there is a squadron of intermediate mystic warriors all ready to hunt the criminals by all means".
"Give me that or just forget about it".
"¡"
Rex was left speechless again for more than a minute. Before he could speak again, a loud horn sted from outside into the workshop, dwarfing all the other noise from the machinery.
He had to cover his ears to shield them from the loud st. Once they survived the st, Aragorn picked a pistol before shutting down his systems.
As the pieces of machinery came to a stop, both of them tiptoed outside.
Through a hidden port, they were able to spy outside and what they saw shocked them. A helicopter was currently hovering in the skies, and outside the workshop were parked 3 armored military vehicles.
At this moment, Maximo stood before all 3 military vehicles with a sound amplifier in his hand as he spoke the next moment.
"Blood Gunner and the foreigner Warrior Swordsman, I plead with the 2 of you onest time to join in the rescue team to save my son".
Aragorn and Rex turned to look at each other, stunned.
-------
[You have received a new system mission!]
[You have received your first faction series mission: Eradication of the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
>Mission Details<
[Maxime, Maximo''s son has been taken by the Desert Cowboy Gang and is to be sold to the Great Shelters.]
[Pushed to the wall, the wealthy merchant pulled all stops as he made use of his expansive connections to organize an elite rescue team.]
[5 Intermediate mystic warriors have already been pulled into the elite rescue team, join the team of warriors with the Blood Gunner to make it 7.]
[1st Sub Mission: Kill 20 members of the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
[Mission Reward: 100 Skill Points.]
[This sub-mission is divided into 4 series: 20 killed members for 100 Skill Points; 100 killed members for 3000 Skill Points; and 500 killed members for 10,000 Skill Points.]
[2nd Sub Mission: Kill the leader of the Desert Cowboy Gang, Pain!]
[Mission Rewards:]
- 200 Free Stat Points
- 2000 Skill Points
- 100 Constitution Points
- 200 Mystic Energy Limits
- 1 Ability or Skill from the boss criminal, Pain
¡
[Main Mission: Eradicate the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
[Mission Rewards will depend on contribution to the eradication of the notorious criminal gang.]
[System Remark: When a Chicken''s feathers are ruffled, it bites!]
Chapter 107 Elite Rescue Team
[Do you want to ept this system mission?]
Rex was leftpletely bbergasted.
Due to his increasing need for skill points and the other rewards from his system, he was already drooling over the little rewards that were offered by the first mission that was triggered by the wealthy merchant, Maximo.
Because of that, he was bold enough to even entertain the thought of going against the dangerous criminal gang along with only 1 helper.
All these were because he wanted some skill points. Now, Maximo proved his desperation to get his son back as he pulled all stops to assemble an elite rescue team, now Rex received a new mission to exterminate the criminal gang.
Rex already made up his mind to do good, exterminating a ve-trading criminal gang was definitely good but what better feeling than getting overpaid for doing good? There was none.
Rex was thrilled. "Hell yeah, I ept!"
[To ept a faction mission, you need to join the mentioned faction!]
[Do you want to join the faction of the 3 Bowls Merchant Trading Company?]
Rex was confused at first on seeing this but once he asked his system, he got his exnation. By joining a faction, they became tied to one boat.
The benefits included increased favorability with the said faction, ess to benefits that were only avable to members of the tradingpany, and a lot of other minor benefits that whenbined amounted to a lot.
As for the disadvantages, well, the major disadvantages were that they shared each other''s troubles and enemies.
If he joined the tradingpany''s faction, their enemies would be his enemies, and his enemies would be their enemies.
The rippling consequences of this decision were much but Rex did not oveplicate things and think too much about it, all he wanted now was the rewards of this faction mission and that was enough to persuade him to join.
[You have joined a new faction: 3 Bowls Merchant Trading Company!]
[Rating: 1 star.]
[Growth Potential: 3 stars.]
[You have epted the faction series mission: Eradication of the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
Once Rex epted Maximo''s offer, Aragorn did not hesitate as he also epted. Just like Rex, the danger was what previously deterred him.
Like Rex, he hated evil and the Desert Cowboy Gang, and that was why he hunted them with his whole life and energy. Now that an opportunity came to eradicate this criminal gang and get paid in the process for it, he did not hesitate.
Maximo heaved a huge sigh of relief as he could feel his favorability of these 2 powerful mystic warriors already rising due to their decision.
With the both of them in, the ultimate elite rescue team that Maximo hoped for was finally organized. All 5 Intermediate mystic warriors that Maximo already assembled walked forward to meet their 2 new teammates.
"Hi, my name is Gilbert but most people call me Eagle Eye". A ck man, one of the 5 came forward to shake hands with Aragorn. "I am a Sniper, nice to finally meet you, Blood Gunner".
"The pleasure is mine". Aragorn smiled.
"My name is Sophia, I am a Tiajutsu expert". A blonde-haired slimdy came forward to meet the 2 new additions as she introduced herself.
"My name is Goro, I am a Shapeshifting and Tiajutsu expert". A massive bald-head man shook both neers'' hands with an unsmiling face.
"My name is Cain, Pain''s brother".
"¡"
Rex and Aragorn speechlessly looked at the funky-styled red hair youth. "Nice to meet you too".
"I am Tim, I believe that you know who I am, Blood Gunner".
Aragorn smiled as he exchanged handshakes with this fierce middle-aged warrior. "Who does not know the Lord of earthquakes?"
With a smile, Aragorn turned and led the 6 warriors into his workshop. It was time for nning, there was no further time to waste any longer.
¡
The 5 warriors that Maximo assembled were all cream of the top.
There were 2 Intermediate mystic warriors who guarded the Dragon Horn vige all year round, but their only job was guarding the vige. Though Maximo tried, they refused to leave the vige to go rescue his son.
This was why Maximo set his eyes out, and he did not just go out, he set his eyes on the best that were avable in the Intermediate warrior realm.
The best that he could find was Tim, the Lord of Earthquakes. With the Blood Gunner joining the entourage, his anxious heart finally got to see some relief.
Once they entered the workshop, the short ck-hair middle-aged Tim took center stage. "To rescue Maxime, we have to move in swift and fast".
"Our main mission is to exterminate the whole Desert Cowboy Gang and we already have a battalion ready in ce for that. The real use of this elite team is to infiltrate swiftly to get the boy out before the chaos begins".
"After the boy is safe, we can finally go all out to exterminate the criminals".
"Most of you here have extensive knowledge of who we are about to go up against, so I won''t go into many details".
"The Cowboys have many bases, but it ismon knowledge that they store all their captured children in their main base until its time to sell them".
"From the time that Maxime was taken, it is over 24 hours already and so it''s safe to assume that he is already inside the main base with the other ves".
"Our goal is to get in there as silently as possible without being discovered, get the boy and escape, then we give the signal to start the attack".
"We have 10 unique basic mystic warriors in the elite team, most are tech experts and they can help us in our quest of smooth entry inside the main base of the Cowboys without alerting Pain".
"Are we up for this?"
"Yes".
"I think so".
As the warriors in the team answered barring Rex and Aragorn, Tim finally turned to face them as he asked the ultimate question. "So, who will be the team leader of this elite team?"
All eyes except Rex''s instantly turned towards Aragorn.
Aragorn coughed. "Ahem, I think the Lord of Earthquakes will be more befitting of that role, I am more fit to be the supportive firepower".
"Then so shall it be, I am the team leader of this operation".
"Listen to my orders and our mission will bepleted effortlessly".
"Let us leave".
"Wait". Aragorn stopped them before they could leavepletely as he grinned. "I am a Mechanic remember; I have my mount for the main warriors of the team".
¡
A minuteter, a massive truck drove out of the workshop with speed.
Zoom!
[You have entered a Mechanic Mystic Treasure: Monster Truck!]
Chapter 108 Main Base Of The Desert Cowboy Gang
"What do you think of these new kids man? I swear they''re so mature".
"Yeah man, I feel what you mean".
A green-toothed criminal of the notorious Desert Cowboy Gangughed with hispanion as they dragged the new kids down from the trucks, dragging them towards the main storeroom where they would be kept in preparation for sale.
"Have you seen this girl? I bet she''s only 12 years but man her skin is so white and soft. Hehe, even her twin watermelons are already fully developed".
"Damn, I felt like squeezing the juice out of them on seeing how big and round they were, I bet they must taste so sweet".
"You''re so right bro, I wish I can have a go at them sometimes but the boss won''t agree. I envy the Great Shelter dwellers, those f*ckers get to enjoy them".
"Haha, what do you expect, a miser like you can''t have a go at them".
"F*ck off! Who''s the miser between the both of us?"
"We''re both misers! Hahaha!"
"You''re actually right, we are both misers, hahaha!"
"Silence!" An authoritative voice shunned the noise. "Silently ce the goods in the warehouse, you don''t want to mess them up or you''ll have the boss to face off against".
The criminals all shuddered on hearing the boss being mentioned.
Without a word, they continued their job of dragging the kids who were now officially ves into the warehouse to store them in preparation for sale.
The silence did notst long though, one of the fools among them quickly forgot the orders of the gang executioner as he spoke.
"I heard that one of the kids this time is the son of a filthy rich tycoon".
¡
Zoom!
The sound of multiple armored vehicles moving through the uneven bands reverberated as dust was left billowing in their wake.
The Desert Cowboy Gang was the ruling criminal gang that terrorized all the viges within the region of the Trojan Bands. The viges upied the few fertile regions in the bands, while the Cowboys upied the bands itself.
The main base of the Desert Cowboy Gang was located at the heart of the bands, hidden amid golden sand and endless hills.
Aragorn''s Monster Truck and the 3 other armored vehicles drove through the bands filled with scanty vegetation without being discovered.
Apart from Rex, each one of the 6 Intermediate Mystic Warriors who made this elite rescue team were veterans who already shed numerous times with the criminals of the Desert Cowboy Gang.
They knew most of their deployment formations already, Aragorn drove through the few holes that they left in their formations.
Inside the Monster Truck, Rex was exposed to the genius of a Mystic Mechanic first-hand. Aragorn already funed this Monster Truck that inside it was no more than a highly sophisticatedputer.
Virtual projections hovered before Aragorn as the Truck was on autopilot. With an assistant from the 10 basic mystic warrior supporters of the elite team, they were able to constantly infiltrate the holes left by the Cowboys.
The Monster Truck had every survival kit that Rex could think of. It was basically a rugged survival truck; it gave Rex Zombie Highway vibes.
As Rex was exposed to more abilities of the Mystic Mechanic profession, the more he became curious about the real abilities that Aragorn had.
For him to hunt the Cowboys so nonchntly even before this elite team was organized, and the way the other warriors held him at a high regard, Rex felt himself bing more and more curious about the real capabilities of this warrior.
He wondered what his Blood Gunner nickname meant.
The Trojan bands was a massive territory. Though they traveled for a far distance, they were not able to get to their destination before night came.
Having expected this, the elite team was calm as they camped for the night. During that night, they suffered attacks from Desert Snakes but they suffered no casualties as theypletely massacred the snakes.
While they ate, Rex continued his journey of secrecy as he drank his blood in secret. The next day, they continued their journey.
5 hours after they restarted their journey, Aragorn''s calctions were no longerpletely full proof as they ran into their first contingent of Cowboys.
Once the criminals saw them, neither side hesitated as they unleashed fire on the other. Aragorn''s Monster Truck got involved in its first battle in this mission and the truck''s full abilities were shown.
With Aragorn controlling the monster truck from the inside, the Truck erected an interference field that prevented the team from sending distress signals.
Once this was done, the Cowboys were hammered hard. Different guns came out from hidden ports in the Monster Truck as singlehandedly, itpletely vited all 5 armored trucks of the Cowboys.
Some Cowboys survived the explosion, but Gilbert was as alert as an eagle as his Sniper rifle roared rhythmically while unleashing high-caliber bullets from its muzzle, ending their journey of life.
The elite team barely let out a sweat as they exterminated this team.
That was thest mishap from Aragorn as after a full day and 9 hours, the elite rescue team finally arrived at the main base of the Desert Cowboys Gang.
The first phase of the rescue mission was finallypleted.
2 kilometers away from the massive yellow structure that was built in the middle of the bands, a Monster Truck and 3 heavily armored vehicles stopped as the support basic mystic warriors went to work.
3 of the basic mystic warriors were professional hackers, and while the Intermediate Mystic Warriors surveyed the security profile of their target, these 3 went to work on hacking the virtual defense of the base.
Gilbert was the eye of the team as through his massive Sniper Rifle, he was able to pinpoint every dangerous location that was taken by enemy forces.
In 6 minutes, they already came to a conclusion on the best way to infiltrate the criminal base. 5 minutes more, the 3 hackers finallypleted their job.
"Done!"
"Good". Tim nodded in approval as he turned to face his warriors.
"Remember the n, move in fast, rescue our target and escape".
Chapter 109 Special System Event [1]
"Remember the n, move in fast, rescue our target and escape".
After reminding them about the overall n, Tim did not rush to infiltrate the main base of the criminals as heid some more ground rules to facilitate and make sure that this rescue mission was a sess.
The main change that he made to this elite rescue team was dividing the Intermediate mystic warriors into 2 teams that he called rescue and support.
Tim learned the hard way through experience never to ce all his balls in one basket. They had no idea what the criminals were up to, if they encountered an ambush or any other hazardous situation, they needed support.
Once Tim made the decision, he let all 6 Intermediate mystic warriors to decide on which of the 2 teams that they intended to join.
"I will be part of the support team".
"Me too".
Gilbert did not waste time as he quickly made his choice known. As the main Sniper and best long-ranged expert of the team, support was his best forte.
Once he made his decision, Aragorn followed. Just like Gilbert, he also decided to be part of the support team.
Tim turned to face the others and as they seemed to be deliberating on which team to join, Rex was surprised as he received a new system notification.
-------
[Special System Event has been triggered: Mystic Currency!]
[By joining your first faction and epting your first faction series mission, you have triggered a hidden system event.]
[During the duration of the system event, every criminal that you kill will give you mystic currencies in the form of mystic energy limits.]
[Each basic mystic warrior kill will give mystic energy limits ranging from 3-10 depending on their basic mystic tier and their overall strength.]
[Each intermediate mystic warrior kill will give mystic energy limits ranging from 40-100 depending on their intermediate mystic tier and overall strength.]
[Remark: Let the mystic currencies rain!]
[NOTE: System Remarks are triggered randomly once special milestones are achieved or special system missions are triggered and epted.]
----------
"¡" On seeing this, Rex waspletely stunned.
In his journey of the mystic world, Rex already learned that the greatest currency that he needed in the world was mystic energy limits.
Now, this limited-edition currency was now beingid bare to him to take in the easiest way possible, Rex waspletely taken aback.
In his moment of speechlessness was when the other Intermediate mystic warriors who formed this elite team started choosing their sides.
"I will be part of the rescue team".
"Me too".
"Me too".
The others all decided to join the rescue team.
Once all the intermediate mystic warriors decided on their sides, all eyes turned to Rex and he finally regained focus as his eyes sparkled with energy.
Rex looked at them with a serious look now on his face. "For the past day and 9 hours, I have noticed that I have not really been pulling my weight in this elite rescue team though we were all hired by Maximo".
"Today, I have decided to make up for mypses".
"I volunteer to lead the rescue team deep into enemy territory". Rex beat his chest with valor and emotion. "Let me be the sword that will cut our enemies apart to rescue the son of the merchant who hired us!"
"¡"
Aragorn looked at him suspiciously but Rex was so focused on his acting to even notice. This system event was a god-sent opportunity to elerate his growth, he would grab it with both his hands, his legs, and everything that he got.
Tim finally spoke. "Well, since no one has any objections, so be it!"
¡
Having spent a full day and 9 hours alongside the other warriors of this elite team in Aragorn''s Monster Truck, Rex already grew to understand them.
They all had differing personalities but he didn''t focus on that, what he rather focused on was their strengths and weaknesses since that was the only important factor in this deep strike rescue mission.
By now, Rex already knew that Aragorn and Tim were the 2 strongest warriors in the team. Both of them were pinnacle 10th tier Intermediate warriors.
All the others in the team were at least 5th tier Intermediate mystic warriors and this ced them at the higher spectrum of intermediate mystic warriors. On paper, Rex was the weakest warrior of this elite team of warriors.
Due to Tim discussing how they would deal with Pain with them, Rex already knew about their mystic abilities which were their trump cards and also the mystic ability and strengths of their main enemy.
,m Pain was a powerful Intermediate mystic warrior with a shadow mystic ability, and a strange parasitic mystic ability.
These alone were enough to make him a dangerous foe, but his greatest trump card was the Super Grade weapon that he had thatplemented his parasitic mystic ability. This was Pain''s most lethal and valuable treasure.
Pain was strong, but Rex''spanions at the moment were not weak.
Gilbert''s first and main mystic ability was a mind-rted mystic ability called Eagle uracy. This mystic ability gave him unerring uracy with any ranged weapon, Gilbert decided toplement this by being a Sniper.
With his Sniper Rifle, Gilbert was a deadly hunter.
His 2nd mystic ability was a damage amplification mystic ability. It amplified the effects of his Sniper Rifle''s shots, making them much more deadly.
Sophia was a Tiajutsu expert. Her first and main mystic ability was also a damage amplification mystic ability toplement her Tiajutsu abilities, and her 2nd mystic ability was a wind mystic ability.
Goro was also a Tiajutsu expert. He had a rare shapeshifting mystic ability as his main, and an even rarer mystic ability that could control sand and dust called Dune. He was a natural hunter in desert and barren conditions.
Cain, Pain''s brother was a domain mystic warrior like Rex. He was a domain mystic spearman as his main, and his 2 mystic abilities were shadow and wind.
Tim was a powerful warrior with a fire mystic ability, that was not his main though. His main which gave him the nickname of the Lord of Earthquakes was his earth mystic ability that he was renowned and feared for.
As for Aragorn, he was the only one among the 7 who felt toozy to expatiate on his abilities. Rex already knew of his mechanic mystic ability which he guessed was his main, what he didn''t know was his 2nd mystic ability.
Despite his curiosity, he could not pester him anymore as the mission already started. The rescue and support teams quickly separated.
Once Gilbert and Aragorn positioned themselves in prime sniping positions, the remaining 5 Intermediate mystic warriors left with all 3 basic mystic warrior hackers following behind them to help in the case of any virtual security problem.
Once they moved, Goro transformed into a massive sandworm as he burrowed deep into the sand. At the same time that he did this, he conjured dust that filled everywhere, obscuring the vision of the criminals.
Through the shade of the dust, the 5 intermediate mystic warriors smoothly evaded all the hot zones of the main base till they arrived before the massive gate.
"We will enter stealthily and prevent any criminal from seeing us".
Whoosh!
Rex threw one of his Death Daggers before Tim could finish his sentence as the Dagger smoothly cut through 3 throats simultaneously.
In the blink of an eye, 3 thuds softly sounded and 3 criminals were dead.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Desert Cowboy Criminal!]
[You have gained 6 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy limits!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Desert Cowboy Criminal!]
[You have gained 6 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 5 mystic energy limits!]
[You have killed¡]
Rex turned to face hispanions with a grin on his face.
Their faces scrunched up into a frown but Tim reacted swiftly like a real leader without ming anyone. "We already started leaving traces, so abandon stealth and aim for speed".
"Infiltrate fast and silently, kill any criminal on sight!"
"Understood!"
Chapter 110 Special System Event [2]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Desert Cowboy Criminal!]
[You have gained 8 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 5 mystic energy limits!]
Whoosh!
With Rex starting the trend of killing the first criminal, it became enforced on all the others to join in on the killing. They needed to prevent the other criminals from noticing any anomaly and sounding the rm.
Though that impulsive act on his part may have irritated his teammates, in Rex''s books, it waspletely worth it all because of the special system event.
Rex had never felt more motivated to kill humans in his whole life.
As he saw the mystic energy limits rapidly increasing with each criminal that fell to his sword, he felt motivated more than ever before to kill.
Without him knowing, his eyes already started glowing red as this was a sign of his bloodline that he was already in an extremely excited state.
Like he volunteered to do, Rex became the sword of the team as he led the massacre that was currently going on inside the main base of the Desert Cowboy Gang. He was now the mastermind behind all these deaths.
Due to the need to still keep their presence here hidden, Tim could not make use of his bombastic earth mystic ability since it would just alert all the criminals.
It was in scenarios like this that warriors like Sophia and Rex got to bloom. Rex''s sword kept on making whooshing sounds like the sound of a sad flute ying as blood dyed the grounds of the gate with criminals losing their heads.
Killing so many basic mystic warriors was impressive, but the more impressive feat was engaging in this massacre while keeping the other criminalspletely oblivious of it. This was a legendary feat.
Though Rex felt motivated to simply leave the main mission and focus on killing as many criminals as possible, he still knew the reason why he came here.
Under careful guidance from the 3 hackers that were taken along, once they climbed into the periphery gate of the main base, they killed all the criminals guarding it as they finally entered the inside of the criminal base.
Inside the criminal base was filled with activities. The periphery gate where Rex and hispanions entered was like the back gate.
The front and main gate at this moment were experiencing a lot of traffic as armored trucks of the criminal gang kept on bringing new ves.
From the activities, it became clear that Pain probably brokered a lucrative business deal with another scion of the Great Shelters, and was why he was so motivated to go search for new ves all across the bands.
Seeing children being manhandled, mistreated, and taken advantage of, the mystic warriors of this elite team were affected but they remained professional.
"Lead us to the main storerooms!"
"Yes, sir!"
The 3 hackers worked fast even amid all the pressure as they rapidly tapped away at the virtual projections hovering before them. "This way".
Under the nose of the thousands of criminals that were in this criminal base, 10 enemy mystic warriors infiltrated.
The priority was still on stealth and silence as they infiltrated, but once they encountered anypromising situation, Rex was quick to act as his Death Daggers went to work, ruthlessly bringing the criminals'' lives to an end.
By now, in just these few minutes since the infiltration started, Rex already built a reputation of extreme hatred against the criminals.
For some reason, this caused the other warriors of this team to respect him. Perhaps, he already suffered a lot from the criminals and now that he finally got the opportunity, he was giving his all to vent his hate on the criminals.
They all sympathized with him and respected him, little did they know that Rex was literally on cloud 9 already with every subsequent criminal that he killed.
This elite team proved itspetence as for 15 minutes straight, they were able to infiltrate without being caught until they arrived at the main storerooms.
Compared to the thousands of criminals in the base, they were only able to kill a few dozen since their main mission was still a rescue mission for now.
The 5 main storerooms of the criminals were built like giant containers, the only difference was that instead of storing goods, they stored child ves.
Getting to the storerooms provided the first real challenge to the team. The 5 main storerooms were guarded 24/7 by a battalion of criminals, and the hackers needed to make physical contact before they could open the storerooms.
Tim was ced in a dilemma.
At the moment, they had no idea if Pain was inside the base. If Pain was here and they were busted, the sess chances of their mission would decrease drastically and they would also be in danger.
Also, due to the criminals that they already killed on their way here, it would only take a little while before other criminals discovered them.
Lasting 15 minutes without being busted was already a miracle. They were now on borrowed time and needed to act fast.
Tim thought hard but he saw no soft or easy way to solve this dilemma.
In the end, there was no choice, there was no open space for peace, and it could only be settled with violence.
"Sophia, once we start, take 1 of the hackers to the storerooms to open them. Time will no longer be in our favor".
"As for the others, spread violence with me!"
"Hell yeah!" Rex was hyped.
Once it started, it started bombastically!
Cain grabbed his spear and rushed into the battalion of criminals instantly as a powerful ck domain mystic energy surrounded his sword.
Before the criminals could react, he already started a massacre.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Rex threw his 2 Death Daggers first as he killed 5 mystic warriors with them.
The criminals were startled by the daggers as they instinctively looked at them, when they raised their heads, all they saw was a golden sharp sword energy descending towards them with vengeance.
Shing!
Berserker''s sharp de edge resonated as a ringing sound reverberated.
Even as Rex and Cain led the charge to start the massacre, Sophia already exploded with speed. With her wind mystic ability, she was like a formless phantom as she grabbed one of the hackers before carrying him to the storeroom.
Tim did not fight, rather he stomped on the ground hard as the sand paved the way for earth to emerge. Tim raised the earth and formed a massive blockade in an attempt to try muting whatever sounds that would be made by the criminals.
This way, they would not be discovered instantly.
2 minutes of pure ughterter, a loud nging sound reverberated as one of the storerooms finally opened. Once the storeroom opened, Rex and the other mystic warriors were exposed to the pitiful sight inside.
Hundreds of children ranging from the age of 4-12 filled the storeroom. They looked pale and emaciated, they were clearly starving.
Due to the darkness in the storeroom all day, they looked like zombies. The fear and hopelessness in their eyes paired with the innocence hidden within was enough to fully arouse the anger of all the mystic warriors present.
Rex got even more of a reason to massacre the criminals.
"Die! Die! Die!"
"Die you piece of unfeeling sh*ts!"
While Cain and Rex continued the massacre, Tim already took the other 2 hackers forward. They spent a good few minutes and all 5 storerooms finally opened, but at the same time, an rm rang around the criminal base.
Wom! Wom! Wom!
Once the rm started ringing, the criminal base rose to life as the loud yells of the criminals immediately filled the massive base.
Rex and the others felt their blood boiling hot as they abandoned the remaining criminals and rushed into the storerooms to search for their target.
"Found him!" Sophia yelled the next moment.
The 6-year-old Maxime in just a few days now looked like an entirely different person. From the fear in his eyes, the boy was already traumatized.
"Move out! We got the target! Lock the storerooms back!"
Tim yelled as he sprinted closer to Sophia to help protect the boy. Like usual, Rex and Cain took the lead again as they tried to tear a hole through the formation of hundreds of criminals that were now trooping towards here.
As intermediate mystic warriors, they were not only stronger, they were faster also as they evaded the basic mystic criminals with ease.
Through the help of the 3 hackers, they discovered a faster route to escape the main criminal base as they boycotted the main gate of the base.
They killed a lot of criminals on the way while sustaining a few injuries but they could not be stopped, they only stopped when another group of armored trucks started riding through the main gate into the criminal base.
This was no simple entourage of trucks, this time, on the roof of one of the trucks poked out the half body of a handsome warrior in ck with ck hair.
This iconic look was famous in the bands, Pain was here!
Having left the base to go take care of a few matters before, Pain was just returning. He never expected to meet an old enemy on his return.
"Dogsh*t luck!" Rex cursed as he stopped his advance.
"Tim, to what honor do I have this visit?" Painughed loudly as he jumped down from the massive truck that was previously ferrying him.
Tim''s eyes narrowed. "n B!"
"Goro, now!"
Boom!
Chapter 111 Special System Event [3]
-----------
Name: Pain
Race: Human- Parasite Variant
Rank: Intermediate Mystic Warrior
Intermediate Warrior Grade: 10th tier
Strength: 840
Speed: 635
Mind: 320
Vitality: 350
Agility: 480
Dexterity: 530
Health Points [HP]: 4,500/4,500
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 2,390/2,390
Mystic Ability: Shadow/Poison Parasite
-------
Once Rex saw Pain for the first time, while he was still on the roof of the armored truck, his system revealed the stats of this boss enemy to him.
On seeing Pain''s full stats, Rex finally understood the difference between the current him and a pinnacle Intermediate mystic warrior.
Pain literally dwarfed him on every single stat except the vitality stat and his advantage was entirely because of his Vampire bloodline.
Of all the stats, what bothered him was the health points. After checking Tim''s and Aragorn''s, he was positive that both of them had more health points but still, facing so many health points as an enemy felt awful.
"n B!"
"Goro, now!"
Having nned for the scenario of Pain suddenly showing up, Tim reacted before his enemy could employ more sophisticated means to stop them.
Before the criminals could understand what was going on, the ground burst open as dust and sand started flying everywhere. Amid the billowing dust and sound did a mighty Sand Worm emerge.
Howl!!!
This mighty yellow Sand Beast was like a worm, just much more exaggeratedly gigantic. It had a mouth that looked like a ck hole with rows of jaws that seemed capable of snapping the world in half as it howled loudly.
The Sand Worm was Goro''s strongest transformation form.
Instantly after the Sand Worm appeared, it opened its fearsome jaws and sucked at the surrounding. The criminals stood no chance as they lost their footing before being sucked into the terrible jaws of this beast.
Grinding and crushing sounds followed the next moment as they were crushed into meat paste. This short intrusion seeded in destabilizing the criminals, and this was all that Tim and his warriors needed.
Sophia exploded with speed amid the billowing sand and dust as she grabbed 2 of the hackers before sprinting towards the location of the Sand Worm.
On getting close, she jumped high andnded on top of the massive beast, at the part of the massive Worm where a massive saddle sat.
Once Sophia moved, Cain fought against his instincts to exact his revenge on his brother as he grabbed thest hacker before sprinting away.
Rex did not hesitate as he followed before jumping into the saddle on the massive Sand Worm''s back. Once all 3 of them were in, the Sand Worm turned and started bulldozing its way out of the main base of the criminals.
Behind the Sand Worm, an earth cmity seemed to have been induced as Tim performed his specialty as the Lord of earthquakes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Massive boulders were uplifted and thrown as they mmed everywhere, bringing an end to the lives of dozens of criminals in the process as Tim worked hard to protect the retreat of his teammates.
The Sand Worm barely escaped a few meters when its own shadow squirmed before rising and swallowing it whole.
"Ugh!"
Goro groaned in pain the next moment as he reappeared in his human form. Sophia, Cain, and Rex were sent flying like kites that had their strings cut.
Before they could recover, the massive shadow appeared again, this time in the form of a giant Cain as it motioned to grab and squeeze them all.
This was when fire came roaring like mes spreading through leaves in harmattan. Tim flew through the skies with fire spouting out of his legs as he controlled a massive fire convergence to illuminate and extinguish the shadow.
Once the shadow was extinguished, Pain appeared again from the dust but he was not injured as a green entity materialized from his back.
Pain''s parasite formed a massive green shield around him that protected him from the fire. And once the fire died down, the parasite broke the shield into fragments before sending the fragments away like bullets from a machine gun.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Tim controlled earth to block as a fierce battle restarted.
Rex and the others tried to escape with Maxime but reinforcements of the criminals finally came. Pain was not the only Intermediate mystic warrior of the Desert Cowboy Gang, they had more than a dozen.
In the main base alone, they had 6 and now the remaining 5 showed up.
Rex and the others went on the defensive as, alongside the hundreds of basic mystic warriors, these guys boxed them in with the intent to kill them.
Because they were also protecting Maxime, they could not fight at their full strength as they gave their all to protect the boy.
If this trend continued, more and more criminals would show up and, in the end, their mystic energy would be exhausted. At that point, they would be left defenseless for the criminals to ravage apart and devour.
Rex, Tim, and the others already arrived at this conclusion but there was nothing that they could do as all their options were cut offpletely.
As they started thinking of drastic means to escape, even extreme means like abandoning Maxime, intervention finally came after taking their time.
Boom!
A high-caliber bullet followed by a pure white mystic energy manifestation and one of the criminal Intermediate mystic warriors suffered a grievous injury.
Once Pain showed up, they already sent out distress signals since. The only reason why Gilbert and Aragorn could not help yet was due to the great distance separating them, both had to get closer before they could help.
Once Gilbert got close enough, he did not hesitate as he aimed before unleashing one of his most lethal shots.
After amplifying the shot damage to a ridiculous degree, he released it and its effects were evident as the injured warrior''s right hand was crippled.
He was lucky as his heart was the original target of the shot. Gilbert had unerring uracy but this was also an Intermediate mystic warrior, this warrior''s intuition saved him as he was able to react on time and dodge.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
After the first shot, the 2nd and 3rd followed as from a distance, Gilbert instantly started imposing himself in this battle of experts.
Every shot of his took a lot of mystic energy from him but it was extremely lethal as the Intermediate mystic criminals became wary and started hiding.
This opened windows of opportunities for Rex and the others as they instantly started running outside the base again, but escape was never so straightforward.
Tututututu!
After taking their time to reboot, the machinery turrets and defense systems of the main base that were previously scrambled by the 3 hackers of Tim''s elite rescue team finally came to life as they unleashed destruction.
Rex and the others immediately ran to safety as Goro transformed into a massive Turtle as he shielded them with his tough shell.
They were not the only ones that were targeted, Tim could not dodge on time as he was injured by the shots. Gilbert who was far away was also targeted as he also had to escape to safety to avoid being injured or worse shot to death.
The sounds of roaring machines and flying bullets filled the air as the criminals firmly regained the initiative, theypletely suppressed the intruders.
Rex could only hear the sounds of flying bullets as he holed up behind Goro''s shell. He was pretty sure that even with his frightening vitality, he would notst up to a minute if he faced concentrated fire from these turrets.
"Damn, are we going to die here?"
Once Rex asked this question, he got his response from range.
After not pulling his weight for the majority of the time since this mission began, Aragorn finally feltpelled to really show his true capabilities.
Amid the rapid sound of gunfire, 2 louder gunshots reverberated.
BOOM! BOOM!
The Blood Gunner finally made his debut!
Chapter 112 Aragorn, The Blood Gunner!
BOOM! BOOM!
2 high-caliber bullets apanied by a blood-red glow appeared after the massive booming sound as they found their target in 2 of the war turrets.
A suppressed hissing sound followed first, then the 2 war turrets exploded.
The numerous mechanical defenses of these war turrets and even the energy shield that protected then were unable to hold before these blood gun shots.
There were 6 war turrets in this massive criminal base, now with just 2 overpowered gunshots, 2 of these 6 were already destroyed.
Still hiding behind Goro''s turtle form, Rex and the others were barely able to turn to see Aragorn sprinting through the line of fire straight to the criminal base.
On his hand were 2 gigantic Pistols, Blood Pistols!
Rex finally understood the mystery that was eluding him. Aragorn was actually a wielder of the legendary mystic ability, the Blood Gunner.
After the age of awakening, alongside other powerful Ancient families who awakened the first mystic abilities, the Larkinson Ancient family also awakened and theirs was the legendary Blood Gunner mystic ability.
By crafting pistols that they called Blood Pistols, this bloodline of humans was able to channel their mystic ability into their pistols to shoot lethal shots.
Every shot from their pistols dealt critical damage to any opponent that it touched, theirs ranked at the top of most damage-dealing mystic abilities ever.
Their greatest ability was the Blood Shot and that was what Aragorn just used. By channeling their blood into their gun through their mystic ability, they could shoot blood-red overpowered bullets with ridiculous damage levels.
It was not unheard of for masters of the Blood Gunner mystic ability to one-shot their opponents to death before they could even properly start their battle.
Rex had no idea why the descendant of such a prestigious Ancient mystic family that still ruled to this day was in this vige and was struggling as a mechanic.
He didn''t know why but he now knew that Aragorn definitely had a backstory, all that didn''t matter though at this moment because they were still embroiled in a fierce battle and Aragorn was finally giving his all.
Aragorn was not unknown to the Desert Cowboy Gang; they just didn''t know that he tagged along for this mission. Once they knew that he came, they adjusted.
All the remaining 4 war turrets readjusted their aims towards the human that was rapidly sprinting towards the army base as they unleashed their loads.
Bullets rained down towards him but Aragorn did not panic as his boots glowed blue the next moment. He was not just a Blood Gunner; he was a mystic mechanic too and he was damn good at both professions.
The mystic boots developed a pair of skis like in Rex''s mystic boots; the only difference was that these were far more superior to Rex''s boots.
Whoosh!
Once he supplied them with mystic energy, the boots rapidly elerated as Aragorn escaped the range of the bullets as they hit the sand harmlessly.
Even as he did this, his hands never stopped putting pressure on his Blood Pistols as high-caliber bullet after high-caliber bullet found its way to the criminals, iming a lot of their lives in the process.
In less than a minute, Aragorn arrived before the main gate of the massive base. Then he activated another effect as his mystic boots changed again, the next moment he stepped on the floor and he bounced high into the sky.
Aragorn bounced so high that he leaped above the massive front gate.
In the skies, he briefly stored his Blood Pistols and brought out a simrly red-colored gun, this time a Blood Sniper Rifle.
Aragorn briefly aimed before pulling the trigger.
Boom!
Pain reacted on time but the blood-red bullet still caught his shoulders as blood bloomed in the air while he fell, giving Tim a moment to catch his breath.
Aragorn was not done as he aimed again and shot 3 times. Each shot was empowered by his blood, and they took 3 more war turrets, crippling the damage potential of the criminals even more.
This was when he finally started descending from the skies.
As Aragorn descended from the skies, he kept one of his Blood Pistols since he was already in melee range. Before hendedpletely, a lightweight mechanical arm came from his storage ring as he equipped it on his right hand.
Once Aragornnded, a brawl started as his lightweight mechanical arm hammered the living hell out of the faces of the criminals.
While he hammered them, his free left hand kept on pulling the trigger as more critical shots were released on the criminals from his Blood Gun.
In the blink of an eye, Aragorn singlehandedly turned the situation around.
Boom!
Gilbert entered the scene again as his Sniper Rifle unleashed a lethal shot.
All the other warriors finally had a moment of reprieve and they tookplete advantage of it as they erupted and started hammering the criminals to death. Sophia led it with her speed as they started fighting their way to safety.
After being injured by Aragorn, Tim was now able to keep Pain at bay as he barely made any impact in the battle more as they escaped.
Despite everything that happened, the criminals were still adamant on not letting them escape as they still boxed them in, insisting on overwhelming them with numbers. Aragorn did not care though as his baby finally arrived.
Zoom!
After taking its time, the Monster Truck finally arrived as it bulldozed through a wall straight into the massive criminal base to fetch its master.
The weapons installed in the Monster Truck roared to life as bullets were unleashed like flowing water, reaping life like they had no meaning.
Once Rex and the others pulled their weight, they were finally able to escort Maxime safely to the Monster Truck as they all rushed inside.
After they entered, Aragorn and Tim finallybined forces to briefly hammer Pain before rushing towards the Monster Truck.
Once they entered, the Monster Truck''s powerful engine roared loudly as the Truck jerked a bit before going on another rough and jumpy ride.
As the Monster Truck disappeared in the sand and dust, Pain stood up from the rubble of sand as he wiped the blood away from his mouth and smiled.
"I like this game". He grinned. "Go after them!"
"Yes, boss!"
Chapter 113 The Vengeance Army [1]
"Monster Babe, fly at full speed!"
"¡"
As soon as the Monster Truck escaped from the massive criminal base and started disappearing amid the cover of dust, Aragorn yelled a new order at it.
cklines filled the faces of every single one of the other 9 warriors currently inside the Monster Truck as theymented Aragorn''s useless naming sense.
Though they felt awkward, the Monster Babe itself felt none of those as the powerful engine of the Monster Truck roared loudly. Aragorn did not leave it at that as he went to the piloting chair and finally took manual control over the truck.
As his hands were on the steering wheel, wisps of blue electromaism started escaping from his body as he actively powered the truck with his mystic ability for the first time since this mission started.
Once the blue wisps of electromaism infiltrated the Truck''s systems, the Truck reacted like a criminal who was high on drugs as it jerked.
Then the next moment, it''s speed increased by more than 5 times. Aragorn did not end at that as he activated the Truck''s nitro boosters.
Zoom!
The massive Monster Babe tore through the veil of dust created by the sand dunes at high speed as it escaped further away from the criminal base.
For the first time, Aragorn revealed the true specialty of a mystic mechanic which was empowering their powerful machines with their mystic energy.
Even as Aragorn controlled the Monster Truck to move fast, Goro was hard at work as he controlled the sand dunes to release even more sand and dust to obscure the exact position and escape direction of the truck.
Despite all the measures that they employed, this was still the territory of the Desert Cowboy Gang, Pain and his minions ruled this region.
Once Pain gave the order for pursuit, dozens of armored Trucks left the criminal base as they went after the escaping Monster Truck in pursuit.
They did not just go in pursuit, they unleashed firepower as they moved as bullets andser beams raked across the region where the Monster Truck escaped.
The Monster Truck endured a lot of fire as it''s A.I systems kept on giving damage reports to Aragorn. Aragorn gritted his teeth and endured, he endured for 10 minutes until the Monster Truck finally crossed a certain point in the bands.
Once this territory was crossed, all 10 warriors heaved a sigh of relief as they were able toplete their first mission without suffering any casualties.
As they heaved sighs of reliefs, Rex''s system lit up a notification.
[System Mission: Maximo''s Mission of Trust!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 2000 Skill Points!]
[You have gained Maximo''s lifetime trust!]
Shortly after Rex got his system notification, Aragorn stopped the Monster Truck. The 3 basic mystic warrior hackers who tagged along in the elite rescue team came down out of the Truck while carrying Maxime.
Sophia came out of the Monster Truck too as she sprinted after the 3 warriors. She was chosen to be Maxime''s protector till everything was over.
They did not waste any time as they sprinted a few meters forward where an armored Truck was hidden. Once they entered, they drove away with the target.
With that, Maxime was officially saved and safe.
Now came the next phase of this mission, the extermination phase. Rescuing Maxime was just part of the mission, the main mission was the extermination of the whole Desert Cowboy Gang and rescuing all the other kids.
As the armored truck drove into the distance and as the engines of the pursuing Cowboy trucks reverberated from their backs, all the faces of the warriors in the Monster Truck became serious as Tim grabbed his AOSm.
"Unleash the Vengeance Army!"
"Aragorn, let us go and finish the mission that we started!"
Immediately after Tim gave these series of orders, Aragorn went to work as his electromaism powers once again engulfed the Monster Truck.
The Monster Truck roared again as it jerked forward but this time not in the opposite direction, the Monster Babe turned back as it elerated rapidly in the direction of the approaching criminal armored trucks.
The sudden change in approach of the Monster Truck surprised the criminals, it was in their moment of confusion that the army was finally unleashed!
The loud reeving sounds of truck engines reverberated first, exposing thepany that was hidden in the sand dunes. Before the criminals could understand what was going on, dozens of armored trucks emerged from the bands.
The army did not hesitate. As soon as the armored trucks came out, the soldiers manning them unleashed destruction on the pursuing criminals.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Over a dozen armored trucks of the Desert Cowboy Gang exploded instantly as they were exposed to fire from multiple directions.
"Kill!"
"Exterminate the filth of the bands!"
"End the Desert Cowboy Gang!"
The criminals were horrified as they saw the emerging armored trucks.
Maximo was wealthy and had a lot of influence, but he alone could not amass an army. For a long time, the Desert Cowboy Gang had terrorized the bands, creating a lot of enemies in the process.
Pain''stest rampage for ves thoroughly angered the viges to a tipping point, Maximo''s rallying was what gave them the courage to bring their armies.
The Vengeance army to exterminate the Desert Cowboy Gangprised of armies from the Dragon Horn Vige, Bull Fest Vige, and all the other neighboring viges of the bands who suffered the tyranny of the criminals.
For a long time, they endured as their children were captured and sold as ves but no more. They were now out to fight for their lives and their children.
"To a better future!"
"To a criminal-free future!"
While yelling war and freedom slogans, the Vengeance Army was ruthless as they throughout steamrolled through all the pursuit trucks of the criminals.
Against an army of trucks that was more than 5 times more than theirs, the criminals stood no chance. With Aragorn''s Monster Truck taking the lead, they were able topletely overwhelm the pursuing criminal Trucks.
On the Monster Truck''s roof, Rex, Goro, and Cain joined the killing.
Sword energy, spear energy, and sand energy manifestations joined the rampage as the ughter continued. Few of the pursuing criminals survived.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Warrior: Desert Cowboy Criminal!]
[You have gained 6 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy limits!]
By now, Rex already recognized that he got less mystic energy limits for each criminal that he killed but he did not give a damn as he was motivated to kill more.
1 of the Intermediate Mystic Warriors of the criminal main base was tasked to lead the pursuit. Alongside the others, he did not escape, Rex went above board, even jumping from the Monster Truck to secure this big whale''s kill.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Warrior: Desert Cowboy Criminal!]
[You have gained 18 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 55 mystic energy limits!]
Seeing this figure, Rex felt his energy levels rising. "Bring the f*cking criminals! I want more!"
Pain was among the pursuing force. His Truck was among the few that escaped back to the main base, but not without injuries.
Pain coughed blood as he was sent flying after his armored truck exploded. He barelynded before he was engulfed by sand that soon solidified into earth, Tim was already descending from the skies like an earth god.
While still in mid-air, Tim controlled the surrounding earth as boulders were flung towards this notorious criminal. He was not alone though as Aragorn already left his Monster Babe to autopilot again as his Blood Pistols roared red bullets.
Goro and Gilbert joined the other warriors of the Vengeance army to support them with their powerful AOE abilities, but Cain and Rex were adamant on joining the main battle.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Pain stood no chance; he was beaten ck and blue.
Before Tim couldnd the killing blow though, Pain dodged as heughed like a maniac. "Good fight¡, hehe, I love this".
"I wanted to fight like a gentleman and grow stronger with you but forgive me guys, I have no choice but to show you who I really am".
"Shut up!"
Aragorn''s Blood Pistols already roared but something else intervened.
Aragorn was shocked as a pair of daggers cut his bullet in 2. Once he looked at the recipient of this evil, he saw a pair of mechanical arms. Tracing them up, Aragorn saw 2 fighter robots with blue eyes that already pinned him down.
"Hahaha, open your eyes peasants and see the power of wealth!"
"Alpha, Delta, join me and take them down!"
As Pain spoke, another trump card of his already soared through the skies towards him, his Super grade parasitic mystic treasure!
"Hahaha, the world shall know Pain!"
Chapter 114 The Vengeance Army [2]
The main n in the n was to kill Pain.
Pain was the leader of the Desert Cowboy Gang; he was the backbone of this notorious criminal force. No matter what the vengeance army did, if Pain was still alive, another Desert Cowboy Gang could rise any day.
This was why Tim prioritized killing him.
By bringing the whole Vengeance Army to attack and overwhelm the main base of the criminals, it would make sure that they had no time for reinforcements toe help them which would increase the chances of Pain being killed.
If Pain was killed would exterminating the Desert Cowboy Gang be realistic. If Pain was killed, they could finally go out there and exterminate all the other bases of the criminal gang one by one.
The Vengeance Army was superior in numbers to the criminals in the main base by more than 5 to 1, this was their greatest advantage.
They did not deem to slow down or even employplicated strategies, with Goro''s help, the warriors simply invaded and started steamrolling through the criminals like a hot knife through butter.
In just 30 minutes, the main base of the Desert Cowboy Gang was close to being taken. Only Pain was the real problem that needed to be solved.
With Tim, Aragorn, Cain, and Rex taking him on at the same time, no matter how strong he originally was, Pain could no longer stand his ground.
Tim and Aragorn alone were experts that were already at his level, pairing 2 of them together was a cheat already, and adding his younger sibling and the strange swordsman to the equation onlyplicated matters further.
For the first few minutes, Pain was trashed but he did not die as he barely saved his life. Crazy as a he was, he knew that this was his limit.
After never showing them to the outside world, Pain finally decided to show these 4 warriors the power of wealth and why he engaged in ve trading.
In his trades with the rich scions of the Great Shelters, Pain did not just get money, he also got ess to some Great Shelter-level mystic treasures.
The 2 ck fighter robots that he unleashed were some of his greatest trump cards only below his Super Grade parasitic armor.
Both robots had advanced grade durability but due to theirck of human traits, some other shorings, and less than ideal processors, their effective strength was capped at the pinnacle of the Intermediate grade.
Despite all these shorings though, individually, they could give Tim and Aragorn a run for their money.
His real trump card despite these was his Super Grade armor. Once Pain equipped the armor, his Poison Parasite became hyperactive and excited as his skin turned purplish ck the next moment.
In this state, all Pain''s injuries were healed. The next moment, bug-like wings from his parasite emerged from Pain''s back as he flew into the skies.
Pain''s parasite was the dangerous 6 Poison Bug, a notorious mystic bug. This parasite did not just grant him flight abilities simr to that of a bug, it gave him its lethal poisonous abilities and the ability to sting to death.
Pain''s purple eyes red at his 4 enemies as heughed maniacally.
"Hahaha, the world shall know Pain!"
While maintaining his maniacalughter, Pain descended from the skies as he wreaked havoc. With his shadow abilities, he warped around like a space bug and thisbined well with his 6 Poison Bug parasite.
With Tim and Aragorn taking the lead to resist, a great battle began.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
With his trump cards, Pain was right as he showed the real abilities of wealth. With his 2 fighter robots taking the lead and absolving most of the damage, he was free to be unrestrained and he did not waste it as he spread destruction.
He constantly released poisonous mists in the air that affected his 4 opponents, and his ability of flight granted him a great advantage also.
With his pair of stingers, he was a monster at closebat battle, and with his shadow mystic ability, his speed was unmatched, not even by Cain who was a wind mystic ability user.
As he fought, Pain continuedughing maniacally.
Even though Tim and Aragorn were his greatest threats, he gave the most attention to his kid brother as Cain was beaten to an unrecognizable state.
As he dominated the battle, Pain finally found it right to speak as for some reason his emotions were now extremely agitated.
"Cain, I always hated you but you have no right to hate me back!"
"I killed the old man, yes, but he hated me".
"Hahaha, no one has the right to hate me!"
"I never went after you but you came, today, I will give you the death that you seek. You will join your father in the afterworld, hahaha!"
After these few minutes of fighting, all of them already suffered significant injuries as even with the robots, Tim and Aragorn were still powerhouses. Rex also brought a different package to the battlefield with his abilities.
Despite all the injuries, Pain still had the advantage.
After pushing the others back one more time, Pain suddenly descended from the skies to finish the job and end his brother''s life but Tim reacted.
p Tim stood on top of a rock as it propelled him into the skies to collide with Pain. As for Aragorn, he aimed with his Blood Pistols as he got ready to unleash another Blood Shot to heavily injure this notorious criminal.
Both of them reacted appropriately but they did not ount for everything, they could not as Pain finally revealed hisst trump card.
Another fighter robot appeared, a sniper robot.
Boom! Boom!
2 shots and blood blossomed as both Tim and Aragorn were heavily injured. They coughed blood as they fell like dead eagles.
A 3rd shot followed despite the fighter robot''s ambush as one of the Blood Pistols roared, Aragorn''s shot barely saved Cain from sure death. Despite the intervention, Cain was heavily injured also.
Rex was now the only one injured but was not incapacitated yet. At this point, he observed Pain with his red eyes as he finally understood why Aragorn imed boldly that he would notst 5 minutes against this warrior.
He had to admit, Pain was the strongest intermediate mystic warrior that he had ever encountered even if all his OP trump cards were excluded.
Rex was ced in a dilemma. Should he escape now while he still could or should he put his life in the line to end this battle no matter the sacrifice involved?
Boom!
Having noticed their situation, Gilbert and Goro''s attention finally turned towards this direction as they both worked to barely keep Pain upied.
In Rex''s dilemma, he felt a hand grab his legs. Rex looked and saw Aragorn''s blue eyes looking back at him with blood now staining a part of them.
"I know who you are¡" Aragorn coughed and spoke. "My bloodline mystic ability is rted to blood; we are the Blood Gunners. I already noticed our affinity; I knew you were a vampire from the first day that we met".
"No matter what your bloodline is, it is not something to be hidden and be ashamed of, your bloodline is your pride".
"Stop resisting it and embrace it, that is how you''ll grow more".
"You are a Vampire!"
"Suck my blood and finish the job on our behalf".
"Pain cannot escape¡, no matter what".
Rex was shocked but he did not ask any questions, this was no time for questions and besides, he was reluctant to abandon the other benefits that he could possibly get from this mission and the special system event.
Rex bent down and gently picked Aragorn by the head as his fangs already jutted out instinctively, he dug his fangs into Aragorn''s neck and sucked.
The sweet feeling of blood and the pleasure of sucking it, something that he never felt from drinking through blood bags flooded Rex''s brain as he closed his eyes and moaned in pleasure the next moment.
Rex''s system lit up a notification almost instantly after he sucked.
[You have sucked and drank the blood of an ancient bloodline carrier!]
[For drinking a rare ancient bloodline: You have received 50 free stat points!]
[You have received the stimtion of the ancient Larkinson bloodline- The Legendary Blood Gunners!]
[Your blood rank has been stimted and upgraded!]
[Congrattions! You are now a Vampire Knight¡]
Chapter 115 Pursuit By The Vampire Knight
--------
[Your blood rank has been stimted and upgraded!]
[Congrattions! You are now a Vampire Knight!]
[You have received the following benefits.]
- +200 Vitality
- +100 Free Stat Points
- Bloodline Potency Upgraded
- New Skill- [Blood Strike!]
- Upgraded Blood Tome ability
- Upgraded Coffin of the Ancients abilities
¡
[New Skill- Blood Strike!]
[When activated, you can sacrifice 1 liter of your blood to release a one-hit damage attack that will deal between 300-600% damage to the target!]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
[Phasing- Short-range Teleportation mystic effect has been upgraded to be Mid-range teleportation!]
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Slots for the Humanoid Transformation mystic ability has been upgraded from 1 to 2!]
[Slots for the Beast Transformation mystic ability has been upgraded from 2 to 3!]
----------
As soon as this series of notifications came to an end, Rex took in a greedy breath of the free air in the atmosphere as he savored the feeling.
At this moment, he felt full of energy and strength like never before.
This upgrade was unexpected as he also didn''t expect it. At this moment, the rowdy atmosphere from the raging battle already faded from Rex''s mind as he looked down at Aragorn who made all these possible.
Aragorn nodded and gave him the go-ahead. "Don''t resist it".
Rex grinned. "I am a f*cking Vampire!"
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 1.]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
[You have opened Mystic Weapon: Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
At this moment, it was already evening and the sun already started setting. It was not the perfect time for it but Rex could still transform into a half-bat in day time though his powers would be suppressed like usual.
This was why he no longer decided to suppress himself.
,m They may see him as horrifying and hideous in this state, but he no longer gave a damn, this was his bloodline, he was a Vampire and he should be proud of it. Once Rex embraced this truth, his mind became free.
Whoosh!
He flew into the skies instantly towards Pain as he drew Berserker.
"Shing!"
"Yes, let''s vanquish this ve-trading bastard!"
[You have activated skill: Nirvana sh!]
As the mighty golden sword energy shed towards him in mid-air, Pain finally became aware of this threat as he let go of his brother and focused on Rex.
The next moment, he dissipated into a shadow as the faraway sniper fighter robot unleashed another high-caliber bullet. Rex''s danger instinct spiked but only for a moment as the ever-reliable Gilbert countered with his own shot.
The 2 high-caliber bullets collided and countered each other; this gave Rex the prime opportunity for him to continue his assault.
By now, the Blood Tome already opened and Rex did not hesitate at all as he burned his mystic energy like water to show his full powers before this ve-trading bastard. He unleashed his full anger on him.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Sword skills, Berserker''s mystic effects, Blood Tome mystic effects, half-bat skills, and even his Death Daggers, Rex used them all to fight this warrior.
Against Pain, he was pushed to his limits as he gave the fight his full concentration. Even with Gilbert and Goro supporting him from the side, he still did not have a decisive advantage as both of them suffered injuries rapidly.
In the end, Rex''s vitality proved superior. As Pain got weaker, Rex''s body condition barely changed as his Vampire constitution reared its head again.
After a 3-minute short battle, Pain was stunned by his opponent''s vitality and without hesitation, he decided to escape. After fighting for so long, his mystic energy already started getting depleted, he needed to save his ass first.
Pain roared even while stillughing maniacally as his speed increased explosively the next moment. He dived down and grabbed the weak Cain.
Before Rex could intercept him, he dived into the nearby shadows and disappeared as he started escaping out of the base into the deep bands.
"Pain cannot escape!" Tim and Aragorn stressed it at the same time.
Without hesitation, Rex pped his wings as he flew into the skies in pursuit. The new Vampire Knight started pursuing the parasite deep into the desert.
Gilbert was too slow to join the pursuit, but Goro followed as he shapeshifted into a Desert Eagle and quickly flew in pursuit of the trio.
In the blink of an eye, all 4 of them disappeared into the distance.
¡
20 minutes of unrelentless pursuitter¡
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Goro and Rex harassed Pain from afar as he barely retaliated.
In the mystic world, apart from the normal preached method of awakening mystic ability, getting skills, and training how to increase mystic energy limit, one of the necessities of everybat mystic warrior was learning the mystic calculus.
In mystic battles, one of the greatest variables was mystic energy. If your opponent had more mystic energy limits, he had a higher chance of winning.
The act of learning to minimize mystic energy usage, using the least amount of mystic energy to deal the greatest damage was what was dubbed mystic calculus. It was the real modus operandi of mysticbat.
Pain was a master of the mystic calculus, but his craziness and a lot of things resulted in him using his mystic energy rampantly to fight his enemies.
Now, his mystic energy was too low to fight appropriately.
Goro and Rex tookplete advantage of this as they harassed and pursued him deeper into the bands. By now, the main base of the Desert Cowboy Gang was no longer in sight, they were now on their own.
As the minutes counted, the more injuries Pain sustained as he recovered slowly. The pursuit continued until the veil of the night finally came.
Just before Goro and Rex could catch up, Pain found a cave hidden within the depths of the bands and he ran inside to hide with his captive brother.
Goro and Rex followed inside without hesitation.
Chapter 116 In Danger, There Are Great Dangers
Instantly after Rex and Goro rushed inside the cave, everywhere turned ck as a massive stone was rolled to cover the entrance to the cave.
In the pitch-ck darkness, Goro panicked as he could no longer see but Rex was calm as his eyesight was even better in the night.
He rapidly looked around and seeing no one, he was confused. He did not give up as he started thinking, this was when he remembered. Pain had a shadow mystic ability whose users like Vampires had their abilities amplified at night.
Not only that, Pain had the 6 Poison Bug parasite. With this parasite, he could not only fly but he could climb through walls as well.
Rex instinctively looked up and his eyes narrowed.
"Dodge!" Rex yelled but it was toote.
Whoosh!
The deadly stingers of the Bug parasite stabbed at 2 directions as both Rex and Goro were hit. Rex reacted fast and only got hit on the shoulder, but Goro was not as fast as the stinger stabbed straight through his neck.
Blood gurgled as Goro slumped on the wall while grabbing his neck tight.
Rex was rmed on seeing his dyingpanion, but he didn''t have the luxury to help as Pain was now fully on him after getting Goro.
[You have been poisoned by the 6 Poison Bug Parasite!]
Rex felt dizzy a bit but he dared not leave himself vulnerable.
He threw a backflip to make some distance between them while he looked out for his enemy but Pain was nowhere to be seen. Before he knew what was happening, he felt the wind blowing beside his ears.
All the hair on Rex''s body stood on end as he reacted instantly.
[You have activated Affection Ne''s Mystic Effect: Love Protection!]
The heart-shaped shield activated on time, barely keeping the pair of daggers from separating Rex''s head from his body. Rex felt cold sweat soaking his back as he ducked and rolled backward to dodge the follow-up attack.
Whoosh!
Rex retaliated with a Needle stab attack but Pain was just too fast, he was faster than the wind, he moved in the shadows and he was untraceable.
Rex only attacked empty air as Pain''s daggers rapidly stabbed at his shield. Not only that, his Super grade parasite armor kicked in again as the pair of Stingers and the other attack modes of the armor were spammed at him.
[Warning! Shield''s durability has gone below 10%!]
Rex was horrified, he did not have a single moment to catch his breath.
Before Rex could react, the Love Protection shield shattered as Pain''s pair of daggers ruthlessly sliced formations and patterns through his body.
Each swishing sound was followed by blood flying as Rex groaned in pain and fell backward. Before his back could touch the cave floor, Pain was on him again as this time he went for the head to finish the job.
Rex saw the daggers as they closed in to slice his head off.
[You have activated ckfire Skill: Zone!]
In this moment of extreme danger, once Rex activated this skill, he could think of nothing else as his brain worked as fast as aputer to deduce the right action to take. He got what he wanted in less than a second.
[You have activated Vampire Ability: Adrenaline Surge!]
Rex''s blood flow elerated as his energy levels increased rapidly.
ng!
Rex blocked in the nick of time with his Death Daggers but Pain was too much. This warrior when not crazy was a horrifying veteran powerhouse to face.
Rex''s Adrenaline Surge ability helped him survive but not for long. The Adrenaline Surge was like an orgasm, its effects helped Rex but only for a few seconds as Pain overwhelmed him again.
This time, there was no helping it, Rex was about to lose his head.
Rex was out of options again. He felt fear engulfing his heart even as his Zone skill tried to counter it, Rex felt extremely close to death again.
Rex almost gave up but an extreme solution soon popped into his head by the help of his zone skill like a ripple induced in an originally gentle sea.
[You have activated Upgrade Ability: Overload!]
[Your blood, mystic energy, and soul essence have been extracted!]
The next moment, Rex roared like a demon as his blood-red glowing eyes instantly turned into a pure glowing light green color.
He could feel his body burning but with it came great strength.
Pain''s dagger finally arrived but Rex was now a demon. He moved so fast that Pain could barely react, Rex did not attack with his sword neither his daggers, rather his mouth bit down on Pain''s dagger and chewed on it.
The dagger shattered!
Pain was shocked as he saw this while he also felt the current energy presence of his opponent. Rex current energy was probably the strongest that he had seen in his long life from an Intermediate mystic warrior.
Before Pain could move, Rex''s right leg alreadyunched forward to kick him on the abdomen. Pain flew back as a few of his ribs were broken.
This was the cue that he needed; Rex was no longer the same warrior nor the same half-bat that he knew before.
Without hesitation, Pain read the situation and turned into a shadow as he grabbed his brother before escaping deeper into the cave.
Rex could not stop him; Pain was gone almost instantly.
Rex gritted his teeth as he turned to look at Goro, this warrior already stopped breathing. Seeing Goro''s motionless form, Rex felt his anger exploding to the roof even as his body burned and this was when he felt a strange connection.
Once Rex concentrated on the strange connection, he discovered¡, bats!
Rex instantly understood, this was a cave of Vampire Bats.
[You have activated Half-bat skill: Bat King!]
The next moment, Rex experienced a peculiar feeling as every single one of the hundreds of bats in this cave came under his control.
He could feel what they felt, he could see what they saw.
Rex soon gave them his order. "Find Pain!"
All the Vampire Bats obeyed as they went into action, Rex followed the trails that they left behind as he flew deeper into the cave.
¡
Despite with the help of the Vampire Bats, it took Rex more than 30 minutes before he found Pain and by now, he already deactivated his Overload skill. If the skill was still active, he would probably be sucked dry already.
[Warning! You are currently in a weakened state!]
[All your stats have been suppressed by 60% for 1 month!]
This was the reason why Rex did not jump in immediately to kill Pain. If he did that, there was no guarantee of who would be the one dying.
Though Rex already expected a high penalty for the Overload skill, this was still beyond his expectation and the penalty already came while he was still very much in this battle, Pain was extremely injured but was still dangerous.
Rex hid in the shadows as he silently watched the 2 brothers.
At this moment, Pain sat on a rock as he rested his exhausted body against the wall of the cave while he looked down at Cain whoid weakly before him.
"Hahaha". Painughed maniacally as he looked at his brother. "I always tried to hold myself from being proactive, but if only you knew how much I looked forward to this day, then you would have never joined the force to kill me".
"I hate you as deep as the f*cking Antic Ocean!"
"I hate you too!" Cain growled softly. "You killed father, why?"
"Why?"
"Why¡? Hahaha, why? WHY?" Pain raised his voice and smashed a stone against the cave wall as his emotions got riled up again.
He stood up as he turned away from his brother. "All my life, everything I ever wanted was a parent''s love too".
"I was the first child; I was supposed to be the first and only love but Emily and Rukky were born. I never hated them, I only started hating them when mom and dad''s love was divided".
"What right do they have to leave me and love them?"
"I endured but like that was not enough, you were born".
"Hahaha, from there, everything turned south. I was no longer dad''s adorable Abel, from nowhere, I became the viin".
"I was beaten for my mistakes; I was beaten for your mistakes also. You were never scolded; I received all the scolding in your stead, why?"
"WHY?" Pain punched the wall to vent his pent-up frustration as he spoke.
"Despite all these, I still loved dad, waiting for his love toe back but it never came. After Emily and Rukky died to the beast horde in the farm, they med me for their death, that was what killed the remaining bit of hope in me".
"Dad disowned me but I didn''t feel as much pain as I expected".
"You know why?" Pain turned to his brother andughed maniacally. "Because I became Pain itself, hahaha!"
"I came back as an adult, strong and independent. I came back to kill those who killed Abel, I killed both dad and mom for their sins against me".
"But I let you live so that you can experience the same thing that I experienced. I wanted you to be deprived of love too, I wanted you to experience pain and I was sessful, you did experience pain".
Pain finally turned to Cain as his face turned cold again. "Since you already experienced pain, then my only mission in this life isplete".
"We both no longer have any use in this world, we are Pain!"
"See you in the afterlife brother".
Whoosh!
Pain stabbed his weak brother on the brain, ending his life for good.
"Hahaha¡, hahaha, that is for you dad!"
"And this is for you mom¡"
As soon as he finishedughing, Pain wiped the tears away from his eyes as he motioned to stab himself to death but Rex was one step ahead.
[You have activated skill: Plutonian sh!]
[You have activated Berserker''s Mystic Effect: Sword Energy Control!]
Pain only heard the sound of the wind as the golden sword energy was controlled to smoothly separate his head away from his body.
Blood gurgled and sprayed like a fountain as Rex''s voice reverberated from the darkness. "No one dares to take my food, not even you the food itself!"
[2nd Sub Mission: Kill the leader of the Desert Cowboy Gang, Pain!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 200 free stat points, 2000 skill points, 100 constitution points, 200 mystic energy limits, and 1 random ability or skill draw chance from the boss criminal, Pain!]
[You have received 5 random ability and skill draw chances!]
1. [Shadow Mystic Ability Skill: Shadow Purgatory Pull!]
- When activated, you have a 10% chance of dragging your opponent into the shadows where they will receive AOE purgatory damage!]
2. [Poison Parasite Mystic Ability Skill: Mist Poison!]
- When activated, you can release poison in the form of mist.
3. [Dagger Battle Domain Skill: de Draw!]
- When activated, your normal de attack will deal 20% more damage and 100% more damage when used alongside the assassination skill.
4. [Lifestyle Skill: Master Thief!]
- When activated, your theft skills be master level.
5. [Special- Shadow Cultivation Technique: Shadow Mystic Ability!]
- This is a cultivation technique to awaken the shadow mystic ability.
¡
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Warrior: Pain!]
[You have gained 41 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained 100 mystic energy limits!]
Chapter 117 The Survivors
After almost an hour since the 4 mystic warriors entered the cave, one of them finally came out. Rex, now back in his humanoid state was the only mystic warrior out of the 4 who came out of the cave alive.
On both his shoulders were 2 corpses, Goro and Pain while tied to his waist was a sack that held a round-shaped object from which blood dripped.
Rex came out of the cave with his 2 friend''s corpses and the enemy''s head.
After he finally seeded in killing Pain, though his system already gave him a vague exnation about the system rewards that followed, Rex was still astonished by everything that he got after the kill.
He did not only get a bunch of skill points, free stat points, constitution points and others, what fascinated him most was the random ability draw chance.
Apart from the Dagger Battle Domain skill and the Lifestyle skill, the other 2 were rted to Pain''s shadow and poison parasite mystic ability.
Each one of them were skills that could improve Rex''s proficiency at any given criteria and were therefore extremely valuable, but thest of the random draw chances that appeared was what really fascinated him.
As an Intermediate mystic warrior already, he now had the chance to learn and awaken another mystic ability.
He originally wanted to wait until he mastered his ckfire mystic ability first, but Rex had no intentions of letting this opportunity slip by.
Skills could be stolen and learned from others, even created by mystic warriors once they are strong enough but the same could not be said for mystic abilities, they were far more valuable than any skill avable.
Once Rex made his calctions, he immediately arrived at his decision on which to choose. Of course, he felt that it was a pity that he could not take them all but he could not be greedy, Rex decided to take shadow cultivation technique.
[You have acquired a Special Shadow Cultivation Technique: Shadow Mystic Ability!]
[Details: This is a meditation technique that gives you insights into the shadow realm. You have 20 cultivation chances, and these 20 chances are your best shot at awakening the shadow mystic ability.]
After acquiring this cultivation technique and all the other benefits that followed with killing Pain, Rex was ecstatic but he could not help but rewind back to the conversation between the 2 siblings before their death.
From the little that he heard, Rex was able to feel Pain''s pain. Pain did not be evil because he took pleasure in it, circumstances forced him into it.
Though Pain''s crimes were inexcusable no matter what caused it, Rex could not help but ce himself in the criminal''s position. What would he have done if he faced Pain''s dilemma of losing his parent''s love and trust?
After thinking hard, in the end, he discovered that he was unable to arrive at a decision that would have yielded a significantly different result from Pain''s.
"Is this the reason why I became evil in the future life?" Rex shuddered as he made connections to the truths that Cassandra revealed to him.
"Even the best and kindest man can be evil when pushed by extreme circumstances". This was the lesson that Rex learned from this mission.
Rex reflected and cautioned himself to avoid getting into situations that would push him to the extreme as he left the cave with the 2 corpses.
His main regret was Goro dying in the feud between these 2 brothers.
By now, night already fully descended as it cast a veil of darkness over the bands. Rex morphed into his Half-bat form again and flew into the skies.
He didn''t get to fly far before his echolocation ability enabled him to locate the Monster Truck who was still looking for the 3 of them in the bands.
Rex flew closer before boarding the Monster Truck again.
Thud! Thud!
Rex threw the 2 bodies on the Truck as he spoke. "Pain is dead but Cain and Goro apanied him".
On seeing the 2 corpses on the Truck, Tim, Gilbert, and Aragorn kept quiet as they silently mourned their teammates'' deaths.
They may have only cooperated for a few days but bonds were developed faster when warriors survive dangerous ordeals together. In these short few days, they already developed unbreakable bonds that would remain for life.
They felt sad, angry, and a little frustrated but as veterans, they were already used to scenes like this.
This was when Tim finally spoke. "The foundation of the Desert Cowboy Gang has already been destroyed, the next is to demolish the building itself".
"I say we engage on some more destruction as a farewell to our 2 friends".
"I concur!" Rex was quick to voice his support.
The other 2 did not hesitate as they also voiced their support. That night, even as the Desert Cowboy Gang kept on searching for their leader and as the Vengeance Army rested, the elite team went on further rampage.
With Pain and the main base of the criminal gang gone, the remaining parts toplete the mission of exterminating the Desert Cowboy Gang was slowly destroying the other bases of the gang that were spread across the bands.
Once they all gave their support to the idea, Aragorn stepped on the gas.
By now, they already recovered a bit from the grave injuries that they sustained while battling Pain. Rex was also given a mystic pill to eliminate the poison of the 6 Poison Bug that was currently flowing through his veins.
By the time that they got to the next base of the Desert Cowboy Gang, their emotions were already riled up as they got set to avenge their teammates.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
With Aragorn and Monster Babe taking the lead, Rex rushed out with his sword into the unsuspecting criminal base as he started a massacre.
With no powerful expert around this time to hinder him, Tim lived up to his nickname as the Lord of Earthquakes as real earthquakes started.
As for Gilbert, he was always the reliable support from the back as he hid about a kilometer away from the base where he released constant lethal shots.
All it took was 20 minutes for this base to fall to this formidable team of Intermediate Mystic Warriors. From there, they went to another base and the massacre continued.
By the time that they finished exterminating the 3rd base of the Desert Cowboy Gang, it was already deep into the night and past 12:00am.
This was when they finally stopped to rest and bury their friends.
Goro and Cain were lone Intermediate mystic warriors, they had no family in Dragon Horn Vige nor any of the other viges. This was why Tim and the others buried the both of them together deep in the bands.
After paying their final respects to them, they finally turned to leave.
As the Monster Truck drove away, Rex fought the exhaustion in his body that threatened to swallow him as he focused on his system notifications.
---------
[Duration of Special System Event- Mystic Currency hase to an end!]
[During the duration of the Special System Event, you killed 179 Basic Mystic Warrior criminals and 2 Intermediate Mystic Warrior criminals!]
[You have gained 1080 mystic energy limits!]
[Remark: You are slowly getting experience, good! In no time, you will be a shameless veteran proficient at fishing in troubled waters!]
-------
Chapter 118 Mission Completed
After returning to Dragon Horn Vige, Rex, Tim, and the others only got to rest for a few hours before they were interrupted the next day.
Though they were all extremely exhausted, they still forced themselves to attend the massive party that was organized by their employer to celebrate the sessful rescue of his son.
Maximo pulled out all stops as he splurged money on this huge party.
Rex and the others reunited with Maxime and Sophia during this party, and this was when she heard about the death of her 2 teammates.
This news came as a bombshell to her though she had no real visible facial reaction. In the end, after a great party together, what set the mood at an all-time high was when Tim finally dered that Pain was dead.
At first, the people were shocked but once the severed head of this notorious criminal was disyed, the citizens of Dragon Horn Vige went into a frenzy.
Most wept as all the others rejoiced, they were finally saved.
Tim did not hoard the glory to himself as he told the truth that Rex was the killer of the notorious criminal. Instantly, Rex took on a celebrity status here.
Though the guards prevented the citizens from getting close to him, Rex could feel the sheer joy, relief, and gratefulness that emanated from them.
As he sipped his beer, Rex savored this scene and imprinted it in his mind. Doing good things was nice, but it was even more satisfying when you are recognized, validated, and appreciated for it.
Just for moments like this where he could put smiles in people''s faces, Rex was ready to continue doing good and he hoped that this could curb his tendencies to turn to the evil side to seek power.
As he savored the atmosphere, Rex instinctively touched the Affection ne and caressed it, he wished Cassandra was here to witness this moment.
After the party was over, Maximo, Rex, and the others were called for an inter-vige meeting to discuss how to officially bring an end to the Desert Cowboy Gang. With Pain dead, the notorious criminal gang was now vulnerable.
Toplete the extermination n, all that was needed was the continued cooperation of the Vengeance Army to hunt down every criminal base out there.
The war would only be over after thest criminal base was destroyed.
With the support from Rex, Aragorn and the others, everything was settled quickly as the massive raid to end this criminal organization started.
For the next 2 weeks, explosions kept on reverberating across the territory of the bands as the Vengeance Army stormed the remaining criminal bases.
As the massacre continued, the criminal gang could no longer stay intact as it imploded from within. The remaining Intermediate Mystic Warriors in it vied to be the next leader and this internal war caused its faster breakdown.
Though after using his Overload skill, all his stats were suppressed by 60% for 1 month, Rex was still a danger to any basic mystic warrior.
Alongside his other pals in the elite team, they continued raid after raid until thest criminal base of the Desert Cowboy Gang finally sumbed.
------
[1st Sub Mission: Kill members of the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
[Mission Progress: 364/500!]
[You have been rewarded with 3000 Skill Points!]
¡
[Main Mission: Eradicate the Desert Cowboy Gang!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 500 free stat points, 1000 skill points, and 5 Character Summon Cards!]
- Character Summon Cards:
1. [Gilbert- Lethal Shots! ¡Á3]
- When activated, your damage while using a gun of any type will be amplified randomly by 100-500% for 1 minute.
2. [Sophia- Berserk Fighter! ¡Á5]
- When activated, your damage in Tiajutsu hand-to-handbat will be amplified by 200% for 20 seconds.
3. [Goro- Shapeshifter! ¡Á1]
- When activated, you will shapeshift to be a Sand Worm and will receive all the attributes, strengths, and weaknesses of this mystic beast. Duration of use is 5 hours.
4. [Aragorn- Blood Shot! ¡Á2]
- When activated while using a gun of any type, you can replicate an effect simr to the Blood Shot ability of the Larkinson family.
5. [Pain- Shadow Purgatory Pull! ¡Á2]
- When activated, you have a 100% chance of dragging your opponent into the shadows where they will receive AOE purgatory damage!]
---------
"What in the name of freaking Jesus!"
"What?"
"Umm, nothing¡"
Aragorn and the others looked at Rex weirdly but he did not give a damn as he was literally over the moon already, he was currently in cloud 9 chilling out.
When he thought he already saw it all, his system presented him with something new that kept on leaving him astonished.
Due to previous encounters with his system, Rex had madeparisons of his system being simr to VR games and now, he was sure. This new perk that was exposed by his system just gave him another powerful trump card for the future.
Rex followed the others of the elite team to go celebrate their sess in eradicating the Desert Cowboy Gang, and this was when Maximo met them to give them each a cheque of 50,000 Dragon Horn Credits.
After most of the others drank till stupor, Rex excused himself and rushed home to the inn where he hired to stay in the vige.
After these series of events and the main mission, he now had so many system currencies to spend to make himself more powerful that he could not wait to use them all. Rex was ready to splurge them all and grow stronger.
After getting to the inn, Rex locked the door before sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room as he finally fully essed his system.
After everything that happenedtely, Rex gained 7000 skill points, 350 free stat points, 100 constitution points, 200 vitality, and 1280 mystic energy limits.
This was a ridiculous amount of currency that Rex never expected to gain. Now, he was spoiled to spend these currenciesvishly on himself.
Rex did not hesitate to start spending.
Chapter 119 My Boy Finally Turning Badass
[Skill Points: 7,450.]
Of course, Rex intended to spend his skill points first.
Seeing the ridiculous figure of 7000 which was his highest for stored skill points ever in his system, Rex felt like he was floating in the clouds. Completing system missions was really the best and fastest way to grow.
Before now, Rex already had a long lineup of things to do with skill points and now, he finally had enough skill points to attend to them.
---------
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Fortified Soul!]
>This is a cultivation technique to fortify your soul against soul attacks and to increase your soul power. There are 40 cultivation opportunities inside it, and each opportunity increases your soul power randomly<
[Do you want to spend 1000 Skill points to learn soul cultivation technique?]
[1000 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Soul cultivation technique: Fortified Soul!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 0/40.]
¡
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Ethereal sh!]
>When activated, deals 40% physical damage and 60% ethereal and soul damage<
[Do you want to spend 600 Skill points to learn ckfire skill?]
[600 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned ckfire Skill: Ethereal sh!]
¡
[Compatible Advanced Skill book has been discovered: Self Combustion!]
>When activated, you burst into mes. In this state, you are immune to any type of me and your ckfire abilities are amplified 2¡Á<
>You can also deal heat damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 1,900 Skill points to learn Advanced ckfire skill?]
[1,900 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Advanced ckfire Skill: Self Combustion!]
¡
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Soul Manifestation!]
>This is a cultivation technique to train your ckfire and soul maniption. When mastered, you can manipte your soul to manifest outside of your body in an ethereal form where you can deal ethereal damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 5000 Skill points and 300 Constitution points to learn soul manifestation technique?]
[Insufficient Skill Points detected!]
[You are unable to learn the Cultivation Technique: Soul Manifestation!]
[Current Skill Points: 3,905!]
---------
"¡"
Rex was bbergasted. "What the f*cking hell?!"
He barely even got to immerse himself in the spending experience before the currency was exhausted, Rex felt like crying rivers of tears as he looked.
He finally understood the saying of how hard it was to work for money and how it was contrasted by the unreal ease of spending it.
He literally had to work his ass off for 2 to 3 weeks to get these 7000+ skill points but in just the blink of an eye, they were exhausted.
He felt like really crying when he thought of the 10,000 Skill Points that was required to learn the only Master level skill that was in his repertoire. These skills were really far above his current level so it was kinda understandable.
Though Rex felt like hitting his head against a wall, he was still satisfied with the little that he could get.
To console himself, Rex deviated from his skill points to the next avable currency for spending. After hisst upgrade, the requirements to upgrade his constitution was now 500 constitution points so Rex could only abandon it.
Once Rex deviated to his free stat points, he smiled. He easily allocated them.
[50 Stat Points have been added to Vitality!]
[100 Stat Points have been added to Strength!]
[100 Stat Points have been added to Speed!]
[50 Stat Points have been added to Agility!]
[50 Stat Points have been added to Dexterity!]
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire Knight
Rank: Intermediate Mystic Warrior
Intermediate Warrior Grade: 9th tier
Strength: 678
Speed: 620
Mind: 180
Vitality: 990
Agility: 490
Dexterity: 415
Health Points [HP]: 3,850/3,850
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 2,410/2,410
[Basic Skills: Double Plutonian sh; Needle Stab; Drilling Stab; Boomerang sh; Zone; Ethereal sh; Blood Strike.]
>Advanced Sword Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
>Advanced ckfire Skills<
[Self-Combustion!]
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire Knight
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients; Wind Boots; Coke Armor; Parasitic Armor.]
[Skill Points: 3,905.]
[Constitution Points: 110.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Blood Drain; Life Drain- Killing Touch; Freezing Touch- Freezing, Phasing- Mid-range Teleportation.]
[Blood Tome Martial Techniques: Touch of Death; Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]
[Blood Tome Token: Coffin of the Ancients; Death Daggers- Upgradable!]
[Locked! Be a Vampire Lord to ess more of the Blood Tome!]
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Intermediate Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Humanoid Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead humanoid creature is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline humanoids.]
[Beast Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead mystic beast is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline mystic beasts.]
[Transformation % is below 20%, and the difficulty of transformation increases with the rank of the target of transformation.]
[Mystic Stones can be offered to increase rate of transformation.]
[Current Humanoid Transformation Slot: 2]
[Current Beast Transformation Slot: 3]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
[Remark: My boy finally turning badass!]
----------
After going through his new system status, Rex felt like a King. It was embarrassing but he was too ecstatic to care as he did a little leg dance to celebrate these new heights that he reached as a mystic swordsman.
His current status experienced a full overhaulpared to before.
In literally every aspect, he experienced a ridiculous amount of growth. This was the greatest sprout growth that Rex had ever experienced all his life.
1000 was the cap stat for Intermediate mystic warriors but rarely did mystic warriors even get close to this capping. The fact that Rex''s vitality stat was now at an outrageous 990 was aplete miracle in his opinion.
Adding the new skills and every other benefit that he got, Rex was now at least 6 times stronger than he was when he just left Obedin City.
Also, his Blood Rank that was upgraded yed a huge role in his ridiculous strength increase. After his blood rank was increased was when Rex finally had the leisure to ask his system in-depth about the blood rank.
Unlike his race that could only be upgraded with age, his blood rank was like the purity of his bloodline. He could upgrade it through a series of requirements.
Overall, he was extremely satisfied with how much he grew in this period.
Rex admired his new status till he finally fell asleep.
¡
The next day, after waking up, Rex made ns for his rest days in this vige.
Due to the suppression after he used his Overload ability, there was a change in his ns. Rex had no intentions of leaving the vige to brave the dangers of the Great Forest of Elias again till hepletely recovered.
This was the reason why he decided to apany Aragorn on his hunts. After their little adventure together, Rex already grew fond of this warrior.
He and Aragorn had a lot of things inmon that instinctively drew them close to each other. Once he made his proposal, Aragorn agreed.
For the next 2 weeks, these 2 warriors visited the Great Forest of Elias on a daily basis as they went on a rampage hunt for beast materials.
During this time, they got to know each other more than ever before and it was also during this time that Rex came up with a ridiculous idea.
The more time he spent around Aragorn, the more he felt reluctant to separate with him. On the same day that the suppression of his powers finally came to an end, Rex went to Aragorn''s workshop to visit him.
"Yo, what''s up?"
"I''m cool". Rex smiled as he gathered confidence. "Aragorn, there is something that I want to tell you".
"What?"
"Let''s form a team and leave together".
"¡"
Chapter 120 The Brotherhood
"Let''s form a team and leave together".
"¡"
The atmosphere in the mechanic workshop turned awkward for a few seconds until Aragornughed. "Haha, you''re joking right?"
On hearing that, Rex felt like jumping into an ocean and hiding there forever in shame. This was so f*cking embarrassing but in the end, he did none of that as Aragorn''s words instead surprisingly gave him more confidence.
"I mean what I said".
"For the past 2 weeks, we''ve grown to be great friends. We know most things about each other already and I believe that we''ll flourish together so I''m serious, let''s form a team and leave together".
"Like me, Dragon Horn Vige is just a temporary stop to you. Your ambitions for power lie farther away from here, follow me let''s seek power together".
After saying his mind, Rex heaved a huge sigh of relief like he just dropped a huge burden from his shoulders that was previously holding him back.
Now, he could only wait for Aragorn''s reply as Aragorn turned to look away.
Rex did not just arrive at this decision on a whim. For the past 2 weeks afterpleting hisst system mission and after killing Pain, Rex went through a period of self-reflection as he reflected on all his previous decisions till now.
In his self-reflection, he dwelt more on Cassandra''s words. He discovered that only some of the decisions that he made till now were perfect.
Most of his previous decisions were wed one way or the other.
As he hunted alongside Aragorn for 2 weeks, he slowly learned the power of brotherhood and camaraderie. He finally understood why the Ancient Spartans could lose their helmet in battle but were adamant at not losing their shields.
The Shield did not just protect them, it kept the whole line protected.
As Rex hunted with Aragorn, he noticed that most of his ws no longer mattered since with apanion now, Aragorn covered up for him the same way that he did when Aragorn made mistakes.
No human was perfect, humans ratherplemented each other to replicate perfection. This was the lesson that Rex learned in his 1 month in Dragon Horn Vige and this was why he made his proposal to Aragorn.
ording to Cassandra, in his future life where he was evil, he was a lone wolf also. Rex guessed that being a lone wolf influenced his decision too.
With apanion like Aragorn, they could keep checks and bnces on each other which he guessed would decrease his chances of going to the dark side.
Like they said, the idle mind was the devil''s workshop.
After Rex confirmed his proposal, Aragorn kept quiet for 5 solid minutes before he finally spoke. "Do you know why I came to Dragon Horn Vige?"
"No". Rex replied sincerely. "But I believe that it has something to do with your daughter, I heard some rumors during my stay here".
Aragornughed softly as his eyes turned red and wet. "Those rumors are mostly true. Yes, I have a daughter, Anabel".
Aragorn picked one of his Blood Pistols and looked at it while caressing it. "A Larkinson in a lowly vige like this, I know you must have made your own theories but I trust you so I think it''s time I opened up".
"I am from a side branch of the Ancient Larkinson family. After awakening the Blood Gunner mystic ability, my master took me in".
"My master was a Super grade mystic warrior, a powerful mystic mechanic who was from the main branch of the Larkinson family".
"Under him, I flourished and my life was on a smooth trajectory. At the age of 18, I got married to my dream girl and on the same year, Anabel was born".
"Well, in every powerful organization or Ancient mystic family, there is a great whirlpool of politics that only the strong ang experienced can survive".
"Till today, I don''t know the real culprit but my master was assassinated".
"With my master''s death, I became defenseless. Vulnerable, I could no longer protect my family, my wife died and Anabel was taken by a notorious Super grade mystic warrior of the Great Shelters, the Grand ve-master".
"Yes, he is a ve trader and he took my precious away from me".
"He saw me too insignificant to kill and that is the only reason why I survived. As for my family, I already fell from grace, no one helped me".
"This is the reason why I keep on roaming the earth rim hunting down any ve traders. Since I can''t save my Anabel, I try to reduce the guilt of failure as her dad by helping others from the same situation".
Aragorn turned to face Rex. "I would love to join you and get power together but I hate to put you in danger. Rex, allying with me spells danger".
"You have no idea what it feels to have a Super grade mystic warrior as your archenemy and I believe you don''t want to experience it".
"Hahaha".
"¡What is funny?"
Rexughed again. "That is your reason? Peace of cakepared to mine; I am the target of a whole Ancient mystic family".
"My strongest enemies are no less than at least 1 Legendary Mystic Warrior".
"¡"
"Sit, let me tell you my story".
For the first time, Rex told a stranger about his family. Of course, he omitted certain details like his system but he told enough for Aragorn to understand.
When he was done, Aragorn was bbergasted as heughed.
"Damn bro, you''re so f*cking messed up!"
"We''re both f*cking messed up!" Rexughed in reply.
After they bothughed to their fill,menting their situations and the powerful enemies that they had to ovee, they finally came to an understanding as they kept quiet and looked into each other''s eyes.
Rex sipped on his beer before speaking. "I am ready to keep your secrets, fight alongside you, help you in time of need and be your brother forever".
Aragorn patted his chest. "I am ready to keep your secrets, fight alongside you, help you in time of need and be your brother forever!"
It was cringy but this was a necessary step to take.
Once they both made this deration, it was like a stamp from heaven sealed the pact as the bond between the both of them increased instantly.
Their trust for each other rose to a new high, a brotherhood was created.
Both of them shook hands andughed. "For our powerful enemies!"
"For our hopeless situations!"
"For power!"
For the rest of that day, both of them stayed in the workshop as they drank till stupor while discussing more about their lives and powerful enemies.
"You know, Anabel would be 5 this year".
"Don''t worry, we''ll rescue her before her 10th birthday". Rex dered confidently in his drunkenness as Aragornughed loudly.
¡
The next day, on waking up, Rex and Aragorn finally got ready to leave Dragon Horn Vige. Aragorn was ready to follow Rex to the Gundam Shelter since he was also in a desperate quest for power.
Aragorn made the finishing touches to his Monster Babe before hauling the massive Monster Truck into his storage ring.
With that, they finally set course to leave the vige. They informed no one of their decision, not even Maximo knew that they were about to leave.
After getting to the edge of the vige, they were both surprised to see a group of vigers surrounding what looked like a massive beast.
"How did a mystic beast get so close to the vige?" Rex asked, stunned.
As they walked closer and as Rex looked closer, he was stunned to see a massive ck Spider. A species of spider that he was familiar with, a Dark Mist Spider, Rex''s eyes opened as wide as saucers.
"You will meet your pet in Dragon Horn Vige". Rex could still vividly remember the voice and tone as the mysterious archer said this.
The next moment, he went wild.
"GREY!!!"
Chapter 121 The 3 Watchers
A month ago, a new mystic warrior walked into the Seraphim Shelter.
The nearest shelter to the east of the King Resistance Shelter was the Seraphim Shelter. After separating from Rex, Cassandra did not return to Obedin City as she also decided to leave the shelter.
After the intimate encounter with Rex, Cassandra was determined more than ever before to help Rex and most importantly protect him from joining the dark side like in his future life.
In both lives that she lived, this was her first time falling in love and losing her virginity.
In her future life, as a genius of the Ancient Putin family, she was revered not just because of her strength and status but because of her great beauty.
She was in that category of women that could be described as Jade Beauties but she never got to lose her virginity because she looked down on every boy.
In her youth, every boy that she met was always beneath her and she had an instinctive sense of disdain for everybody that she was better than.
Because of this, none of the boys that she met though they admired her never got the courage to make advances on her. She remained a lone warrior and genius until she met the demonic warrior, Rex Vector.
Rex became the first man to defeat her in any category on their first encounter. Singlehandedly, this powerful demonic warrior defeated her and all the entourage of mystic warriors that were dispatched by her family.
On their second encounter, it was not a battle of fists but that of intelligence and wits but once again, the demonic warrior trashed herpletely.
After these 2 thorough defeats, Cassandra found herself falling in love for the first time. She wanted to take the initiative but having lived alone her whole life, she never found the courage to speak to Rex during their few encounters.
They shed a lot of times, battling fiercely like archenemies while she secretly already fell in love with him.
Things continued like this until the Ancient Holmes family finally set their eyes on the Putins which rapidly escted things and forced her to time travel.
Now, in this different timeline, she got to live from a young age with Rex whom she admired and this gave space for Rex to finally develop feelings for her.
Everything followed naturally from there and she lost her virginity.
Though she was devastated that Rex abandoned her after the intimate encounter, she did not feel too bad since she understood his reasons.
As she already had a faint idea of Rex''s outrageous growth speed, Cassandra was reluctant to be left behind which was why she did not wallow in sorrow. Also, she remembered that she time traveled for a reason.
She also needed to be powerful enough to help Rex.
And if possible, she wanted to take advantage of her future knowledge and get stronger than him so that she could help him more and easily protect him from joining the dark side.
For personalities like Rex, darkness was already ingrained in them, a little trigger was all that was needed for the darkness to be unleashed.
She vowed never to allow Rex to encounter one of these triggers.
After going through her future knowledge, Cassandra decided to go to the Seraphim Shelter where she joined an upstart assassin organization.
Cassandra joined them because, in 2 months, the leader of this assassin organization will unearth a Myth grade cultivation mystic treasure.
Through the Evolution Pool, the Sad Flutes will rise within just 6 months to be the most dreaded assassin union of the Seraphim Shelter.
Cassandra wanted to be a part of them during this time of rapid growth.
After arriving at the Seraphim Shelter, it took her only 2 days to enter the assassin organization that was still in its infant stages. Once she entered, she started working hard as she aimed to be the leader''s closest aide.
She wanted to benefit as much as possible, she wanted to recover her powers as fast as possible and this was the best way that she could think of.
She was already in a race against time.
"Rex, I hope my Affection Ne can keep you safe till I''m strong enough".
¡
2 hooded Intermediate mystic warriors casually walked through a street in the Seraphim Shelter as they soon met up with another hooded warrior.
"Search results are still negative Young Master".
Arthur''s face scrunched up on getting this result as his emotions started boiling again, but his cousin noticed on time as she ced a hand on his shoulders to calm him down.
"Arthur, stay calm".
"He cannot hide away forever".
"One day, one way or another, he will surely show up. Remember, he is alone and alone, he cannot do much no matter how much inheritances his ancestors left for him to make his journey easier".
On hearing that, Arthur''s riled-up emotions calmed a bit.
After the high-scale but disastrous mission to end the bloodline of the Ancient Vector family by him, that went south, Arthur literally went mad as his desire to hunt Rex became stronger than ever before.
All his life, despite being the recognized best and future of the Holmes family, Arthur wanted to achieve more to impress the 3 Watchers.
The 3 Watchers were the oldest and strongest ancestors of the Holmes family who were rumored to have personally gone head-to-head against the Great Orion Vector of the Ancient Vector family.
After they defeated Orion, history said that they no longer cared about matters of the material world as they retired to the soul world where they watched everything happening here from their eyeball soul manifestations.
The goal of every modern Holmes was to impress the 3 Watchers. Once you receive their favor, your path in the family was practically already glorious.
The mission to end the line of the Vectors was assigned to Arthur personally by the 3 Watchers, and Arthur was determined to not disappoint.
He nned for a long time, and everything was perfect but a single mystic warrior, Butcher Mama whom he did not anticipatepletely ruined all his ns.
He was angry for days after escaping from Bowling Town but once he calmed down, Scorpion secretly snuck him back to the town where they looked for clues. After deep searching, they found clues that revealed Rex''s n.
They were able to deduce that his final destination was the Gundam Shelter. Once they saw it, they guessed Rex''s n and without hesitation, Arthur started nning to intercept Rex before he got to his destination.
What he failed to deduce was Rex''s decision not to take the conventional route but to take the dangerous route that led through the Great Forest of Elias.
This was why once again; his n was unfruitful as Rex was nowhere to be found. To calm himself, Arthur followed his cousin to a nearby restaurant.
As he drank while thinking, suddenly, his eyes turned white.
Bzzz!
When Arthur regained consciousness, he was in the soul world in the domain where the 3 Watchers of the Holmes family resided.
Arthur bowed instantly to pay his respects. "Watchers!"
The 3 massive eyeballs did not stand on ceremony as they went straight to the point. 3 of them took turns as their deep voices resounded in the darkness.
"Arthur Holmes¡"
"Go to the Great Forest of Elias¡"
"There, you will find thest line of the Vector bloodline¡".
All 3 spoke thest sentence together in a spooky spectacle. "Do not fail us this time. Exterminate him!"
Chapter 122 Promotion
Turan''s journey had not exactly gone ording to n since leaving home.
Due to a lot of reasons, but most prominently the pressure from his father and his quest to save his mother, Turan decided to leave home to seek power since he no longer saw great prospects in seeking power in Obedin City.
Obedin City may seem big and developed in the King Resistance Shelter, but the King Resistance Shelter was one of the lowest ranked small shelters.
In the greater scheme of things, Obedin City was one of the weakest and less-developed cities of current humanity so Turan''s decision was not exactly wrong.
He wanted power, and he wanted to get it fast.
Having decided to go to the Gundam Shelter also, the most chaotic of all the small shelters, Turan unlike Rex took one of the conventional routes there.
This was the safest way to get to the Gundam Shelter but it was still dangerous since he still had to pass through the wild territory filled with beasts.
Unlike Rex, he made his decision abruptly after news came that Rex already became an Intermediate Mystic Warrior. Ne never once nned to leave Obedin City, actually, it was better to say he never had the courage to contemte it.
Once he finally got the courage and motivation to make this decision, he went into the wild searching for power naively and unprepared.
Entering the wild was a great deal for Turan. He may be a powerful mystic swordsman, an extremely talented one at that but if you did not know the rules of the wild, you were bound to suffer in the wild.
For a journey that was supposed to take just 2 weeks, due to his inexperience, he spent a full month in the wild where he almost died 15 times!
Turan emerged from the wild like a mad barbarian, battered, wired, and ironed to shape. He became experienced after but not nearly enough.
After getting to the next shelter did the real problems start.
It was 3 months now since Turan left home but he was nowhere close to getting to the Gundam Shelter. Unlike Rex who had such OP treasures, a system, and a love ne to help him, he was all alone, stranded.
In these 3 months, Turan learned that it required more than talent to survive in the wild. For the first time, he understood what underprivileged students like Rex and the others experienced while hevished in luxury.
In this shelter, he had no help, he had to get food himself, fend for himself, and he also needed to protect himself from the greedy eyes of robbers.
Turan''s mystic treasures, most especially his Triple Kill Sword were worth a fortune to most and naturally, he became the target of many.
Alone, this 18-year-old navigated the toxic environment of this shelter but Turan could not cope. No matter how much willpower he had, no matter how talented he was, without the right means to channel it, it was all useless.
Turan was drownedpletely by the toxicity that he almost gave up until he met him, the hooded swordsman in purple that called himself the Sword God.
The Sword God intervened when he was almost killed by a local gang in themunity, Turan was left incapacitated in a pool of his blood.
"I have been watching you for the past 2 months, you have a lot of talent with the sword, and you have a pretty firm and strong willpower also".
"What you need to flourish is the right resources and a master".
"What do you seek?" The hooded man turned to face Turan as from his purple hood, his yellow eyes like a Big Cat glowed.
"I seek power¡" Turan muttered amid gasps for breath.
"I seek power to be better than Rex¡"
"I seek power to rescue my mother¡"
"I seek power to be the greatest Swordsman ever!" He roared.
"Good!" The hooded swordsman nodded. "I can mold you to be all that you seek for, I can make you powerful, I can make you the strongest".
"All I need from you in return is your unflinching loyalty and service".
"Join the cult of the Sword God!"
"Swear to always answer to me for I am the Sword God!"
"I swear!" Turan roared amid his gasps.
The swordsman''s yellow eyes dimmed. "It is done!"
¡
Obedin City post the Spider Swamp beast invasion never remained the same.
After the great invasion from the beasts of the Spider Swamp, and the subsequent great battle that leveled Bowling Town, Obedin City seemed to enter an era where they kept on encountering disasters.
It was already over 4 months since the beast invasion, but the city never got to recover as they kept on encountering one problem after the other.
Economical problems, political problems, inter-border problems, and even more beast invasion problems, they kept on stacking, adding to the troubles of this city that was already suffering a lot.
Though the citizens never knew the reason, powerful figures like Principal Dominic knew. By now, he was already pretty sure that Scorpion and the 2 youngsters that almost assassinated Rex were behind all that happened.
Perhaps, feeling angered at their failure to pull off the assassination attempt, they vented their anger on the city instead to feel better.
Principal Dominic felt sad but he also heaved a sigh of relief since this meant that Rex was still alive. "Lenor, I did the best that I can to help him, what matters is that he is alive and the hope for your family lives".
"I''m sorry for not doing more".
Principal Dominic felt sad about Rex but he had hopes that he would survive, his father was a survivor, he believed the son would be nothing less.
As the Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy though, his worries were more on the city. For the first time, Principal Dominic finally decided to abuse the powers that were invested on his seat as he extended his authority to the army.
He believed that for the city to survive and grow from this terrible period, they needed to rely more on their youths of the golden generation.
Rex and Turan may be gone, but a lot of other geniuses were born from the students that graduated from academic session 508 A.M.
He believed that with these geniuses, Obedin City would thrive.
¡
"Today is your big day Morgana, I can''t believe you made it".
Perfume Freak Jessica was the one speaking as she gushed excitedly over her roommate''s achievements after 6 months in the Obedin City Army.
During their academy days, these 2 girls were fierce rivals but after Turan dumped her and ran away from home, Jessica learned a bitter lesson that all men were scum. Devastated, Morgana was the only one who helped her.
From there, they became best friends. They were colleagues in the army and were also roommates, now it was 6 months since they joined the army and every 6 months in the army was evaluation time.
Yesterday, the anticipated evaluation was made as a lot of soldiers were dropped out of the army while few were promoted to higher positions.
After 6 months of growth, Morgana and some other mystic warriors of the golden generation already became Intermediate Mystic Warriors.
Yesterday, Jessica made the cut to stay in the army but Morgana and 3 others went even further. Yesterday, Morgana, Reginald, Rnd, and John Naga all received multiple promotions that took them to the rank of Sergeant.
Today was their oath-taking ceremony.
After both girls were ready, they left for the army.
The ceremony was not big, it was reserved the normal army style. Alongside the other soldiers that were promoted, Morgana and the others climbed the stage.
The few civilians that were allowed to attend cheered at the top of their voices as they weed the future protectors of their city to the stage.
Rex and Turan were gone, Obedin City may have experienced a great talent drain in the past few months due to the disaster but they were not down yet.
Morgana and the others were proof that they were still fighting.
Once it came to her turn, Morgana took centerstage and made her oath. As she spoke, her eyes never left the audience who were at this moment solemnly silent as they gave their respects to her new military rank.
This sight reaffirmed her motive for being in the army as she dered loudly with unrestrained confidence.
"I, Morgana Jones, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of Obedin City and the King Resistance Shelter against all enemies, foreign and domestic".
"That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will obey the orders of the Principal of Obedin City and the Mayor of the King Resistance Shelter".
"And the orders of the officers appointed over me ording to the regtions and the Uniform Code of Shelter Justice".
"So help me God!" Morgana saluted.
Chapter 123 The Next Step Forward
-------
[Parasitic Armor!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Current Grade: Super Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
- Defense: 5,600
- Durability: 13,000/13,000
[Mystic Effect: Super Shield Defense!]
[When activated and supplied with enough mystic energy, the armor will manifest a circr blue shield that can defend against most attacks of the Super Grade for 10 minutes.]
[Mystic Effect: Lone Berserker!]
[When activated and supplied with enough mystic energy, depending on the parasite that the user is bonded with, the parasite can fuse with the armor thereby allowing the armor to replicate the abilities of the said parasite in an amplified form.]
[Mystic Effect: Parasite Power!]
[When activated, your parasite will receive power amplification that can randomly fluctuate from 2-10¡Á more power!]
[When 10¡Á is triggered, the Parasite enters Super Mystic mode!]
[In the Super Mystic mode, the bond between the parasite and host bes stronger than ever before, allowing them to harness more power from each other.]
[Remark: This is an armor best used by hosts and their parasites!]
---------
After going through the stats of this Super Grade mystic armor, Rex finally understood why Pain was so horrifying to go up against in battle.
After killing Pain, of course, Rex took the armor for himself. His teammates in that mission knew this but no one bugged him about it. Before the missionmenced, they already made an agreement concerning situations like this.
This armor was the most overpowered mystic armor that Rex had ever seen.
Due to hiscking mystic energy, Pain could not make use of the first 2 mystic effects but the only one that he could use was enough to make him so strong.
With the Parasite Power mystic effect, Pain was like a fish in water, he and his 6 Poison Parasite were literally unkible by most Intermediate Mystic Warriors.
Though his luck meant that he never amplified his parasite by 10 times its base power to get the Super Mystic mode effect, Pain definitely enjoyed his fair share of amplification as it was the main reason for his reign of terror.
Rex finally understood Pain''s greatest and most notorious achievement which was killing 3 Intermediate Mystic bounty hunters in a fair 3-on-1 battle.
He must have triggered such a great amplification to his Parasite that both of them probably became Semi-Advanced mystic warriors to their opponents.
Thinking of it now, he was fortunate that Pain never got to trigger this horrifying ability during their battle. It probably had a cooldown time.
Apart from the mystic effects, the base durability and defense of the armor were also pretty ridiculous.
The main reasons why Pain died in the first ce were because he could not make full use of the armor and also because he was ready to die.
By now, Rex already knew the basic ssifications of armors to the Super Grade. Basic Grade Armors had 10-100 Defense, Intermediate Grade Armors had 200- 1000 Defense, while Advanced Grade Armors had 1000-5000 Defense.
As for Super Grade Armors, all Rex knew was that the least defense for them was 5000 but he had no idea what the capping was for them.
In literal terms, the Parasitic Armor had basic defense for a Super Grade Armor but this was normal since the armor was not really made to amplify defense but to amplify the powers of a Host''s parasite.
After showing the armor to Aragorn, Aragorn advised that he keep it till they get to the Gundam Shelter where he could sell it for a good price.
After a full month of being separated, Rex met Grey again just when he was about to go back to the Great Forest of Elias to go look for him.
Of course, he was left ecstatic and Grey did not feel any less.
After they expressed their love for each other, Rex was surprised to discover that after meeting Grey again, they suddenly developed a telepathic ability that enabled them tomunicate through their minds.
At first, Rex was fascinated by this ability until someone had a reaction and protested in his mind after feeling the presence of the intruder.
"Shing!" "Shing!"
"Hiss!"
Rex instantly felt a headacheing. Now, he no longer had just Berserker to worry about in his mind but freaking Grey too.
"Damn, I''m screwed".
To serve as punishment for abandoning him in the wild, Rex had no choice but to let Grey start narrating all his adventures during his 1 month in the wild.
Rex was originally prepared to die from boredom but he was soon captivated as Grey narrated his blockbuster-level adventure in the Great Forest of Elias.
As Grey narrated, Rex and Aragorn continued their journey through the Great Forest of Elias as they were determined to get to the Gundam Shelter soon.
Even with their determination to get to their destination, they never forgot the real reason why they took this route.
They sought power and though the Gundam Shelter was a better location, the Great Forest of Elias was a great short-term solution.
From the first day that they set foot in the forest again and started their long journey, both of them started a rampage as they hunted the mystic beasts that ruled this wild ecosystem.
As Rex killed rampantly, he made use of this opportunity to train with Berserker. Despite having spent 6 months together already, Berserker never let go of its demands for daily training which it imed was its food.
Another joy that Rex had while leaving Dragon Horn vige was that he finally could put his days of traveling with blood bags behind him.
After experiencing it once, Aragorn now endorsed it as he prompted Rex to suck his blood instead of drinking from blood bags anything that he felt thirsty.
Apparently, his blood-sucking could make Aragorn rx like he was soaking in a hot spring or he was in his girlfriend''s bosom chilling out.
At first, Rex was spooked by it but it soon became natural to him.
After an eventful day in the forest, Rex and Aragorn finally settled to rest in the night under the reassuring shade of a massive tree''s roots. Rex sucked on Aragorn''s blood who fell asleep during the process.
Once Aragorn fell asleep, Rex sat cross-legged on the forest floor as his eyes shone brightly in the night. It was finally time to think of the next step forward.
After his recent sprout growth, Rex wanted to evaluate himself and determine the best direction for him to channel his energy to grow stronger.
By now, he already recognized most of the ways to increase his strength which was another boon from his system that no other mystic warrior enjoyed.
Upgrading his constitution, upgrading his blood rank, bing older, upgrading his sword proficiency, mastering his skills, and the age-old method of training to increase mystic energy were the ways to increase the strength that he already recognized.
To upgrade his constitution again, he needed 500 constitution points and it was only after upgrading his constitution that the requirements to upgrade his blood rank would be disyed by his system.
As for getting older to be a Vampire Ancie, this was something that Rex could not rush. As for his swordsmanship, ording to Master Fixten, this was probably the hardest way for him to get stronger.
Master Fixten despite his knowledge on swords still being only a Sword Domain practitioner said a lot about the difficulty of increasing through the ranks.
ording to Master Fixten, to achieve Mystic Sword Domain which was superior to Sword Domain, he needed to discover inner peace.
The problem was that Rex had no idea what inner peace was. Well, he had to search for the answer himself, every mystic warrior had a unique growth path.
Rex was already working hard on mastering his new skills, and his mystic energy limits were already extremely close to the limit of the Intermediate Grade. Rex wondered if his next breakthrough would be as straightforward as his first.
After evaluating all his options, Rex discovered that there was no easy way to grow stronger again, he needed to take all of them slow and steady this time.
His chances of triggering another mission in the forest were not too high since they were now his best way to grow stronger.
With no other choice, Rex settled to take it slow and steady. He closed his eyes as he focused on a cultivation technique that he learned.
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Fortified Soul!]
[Your Soul Power has increased!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 8/40.]
Chapter 124 The Genderless Stalker
A new day began, and the grind continued.
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Illusion Monkey!]
[You have gained 3 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Bloody-eyed Ape!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
After Aragorn woke up from his slumber, he met Rex awake and they both discussed their next approach to their training in this forest.
After a few days of traveling through the Great Forest, they now arrived in a region that was dominated by primates of different types.
This time, they were not just killing, they were also now working on their cooperation in battle. During their little discussion, both of them agreed that it was paramount that they trained on increasing their cooperation in battle.
To survive the Gundam Shelter together, they had to understand both their strengths and weaknesses thoroughly and know how to fend for each other.
Today, the primates were the practice targets of the both of them once again. With Rex jumping in and fighting aggressively with his sword from the front, Aragorn''s Blood Pistols constantly unleashed bullets in support.
Being a mystic mechanic, creating powerful machines that could be empowered by mystic energy to fight was the least of Aragorn''s abilities.
Of course, he did not have the proficiency to create a masterpiece like his Monster Truck yet, the truck was a gift from histe master.
What he did know how to create though was a mech-space. Like space mystic abilities, mechanic mystic abilities could replicate some abilities rted to space.
By pulling all his peak knowledge and experience, Aragorn''s greatest creation was the mech-space whichwhich was extremely simr to a storage ring. Unlike a storage ring, the mech-space had the shape of a box.
Aragorn had more control over his mech-space box than casual mystic warriors had over their storage rings and this was a great boon.
He kept his Monster Truck and most of his other important mystic treasures inside the mech-space, he wielded only his Blood Pistols.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Aragorn and Rex were unrestrained as together, they killed their way deeper into the forest as they continued eating yards of space into the distance.
While cooperating, they broke individual records that they already set as their cooperation grew. This validated a saying in the mystic world that the addition of 2 mystic warriors in the right circumstances was greater than 3.
Of course, considering the powerful existences in this Great Forest, Rex and Aragorn dared not be too unbridled as they gave themselves boundaries.
These boundaries prevented them from ruffling the feathers of a Super or even a Myth grade mystic beast which would trante into suicide.
This way, they crossed a great distance till it was 4:00 in the evening and this was when they encountered a problem, the Red-butt Baboons!
[You have killed a Basic Mystic Beast: Red-butt Baboon!]
[You have gained 2 mystic energy points!]
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: Red-butt Baboon!]
[You have gained 4 mystic energy points!]
The Red-butt Baboons were the lords of this primate ecosystem.
Having read of them and their notorious reputation back in Dragon Horn Vige, Rex and Aragorn set out with the intention to boycott their territory, they never expected to still stumble into the path of these dangerous primates.
Their original reason to evade the Baboons was not because of fear but because they still wanted to get to the Duncan Shelter within a week.
Now that they already encountered the Baboons though, they were attracted. The Red-butt Baboons were powerful, almost as powerful as a pureblood beast like Grey and this presented them as the best training opponents.
Rex and Aragorn''s eyes gleamed excitedly.
Their excitement was not due to the prospect of challenging the basic or intermediate mystic beasts, but the alpha Red-butt Baboon who had a high chance of being an Advanced mystic beast.
After Rex''s stint in Dragon Horn Vige, he grew so outrageously fast that he was now ahead of Aragorn already in terms of mystic energy limits.
Individually, it was still suicide going against an Advanced Mystic Beast but after bing sworn brothers, they already tried it and they survived.
After the first try, they became addicted to it. At every opportunity, they jumped at it with gusto to test their mettle against a stronger beast.
This was not just to build their tenacity and willpower, but to also develop their mystic energy limits. Rex no longer had any missions here but no problem, missions were not the only way for him to increase his energy limits.
Once they made up their mind, they took action.
Rex whistled and a Dark Mist Spider immediately erupted from another part of the forest. Being tired of boredom already, Grey rushed out enthusiastically as he immediately engaged the Red-butt Baboons in action.
Almost immediately after Grey rushed out, he activated an ability as a cloud of darkness followed him which soon engulfed both Rex and Aragorn.
Instantly as he was covered by the darkness, Rex felt revitalized.
[You are under the cover of the Dark Mist!]
[50% suppression of powers by the sun has been offset!]
Rex grinned in the darkness. "Let''s hunt an alpha!"
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Aragorn took the lead as he rushed out with both of his Blood Pistols unleashing bullets rapidly. Rex followed from behind and once he raised Berserker, a barrage of skills empowered by the domain and ckfire mystic abilities followed.
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Beast: Red-butt Baboon!]
[You have gained¡]
The Red-butt Baboons stood no chance before them, their main powers were their speed, their powerful arm strength for throwing dangerous tree branches at enemies, and their water control.
Unfortunately for them though, none of these advantages could take their 2 opponents down as Rex and Aragorn continued their rampage.
In just a few minutes, they killed so deep inside the territory of the Baboons that the atmosphere now reeked with the smell of Baboon blood.
"Aw!" "Aw!" "Uh!" "Uh!"
The next moment, as they expected, the angered alpha Baboon started shouting as the heavy effects of movement in the trees were detected.
On seeing these movements, instead of being afraid, Rex and Aragorn were thrilled as they got prepared for the inevitable sh excitedly.
While they got ready, they heard the genderless voice again.
"You don''t want to square with the Alpha Baboon".
"Oh shit, the f*cker''s here again, stop stalking us!"
"You''ll regret not listening to me, the difference in strength in the Advanced realm is wider than what the both of you imagined".
"F*ck off!"
Aragorn barely said this before he paused as the massive trees of the forest started falling down. He and Rex paused as they looked up.
What they saw was no Baboon, instead, they saw what seemed like an apocalyptic monster shaped like a Baboon with a chest ripped and full of muscles. This monster was taller than both of them and heavier than thembined.
"Sh*t, retreat!"
It was already toote, the pureblood Purple-butt Baboon grabbed a tree and ripped it to shreds as it threw one of the branches at the 2 humans.
Aragorn was almost pinned but Rex jumped on the path of the tree branch as he was pinned to a tree like a criminal on a death sentence row.
"Ugh¡, f*ck!"
Aragorn turned and without hesitation started unleashing Blood Shots, Grey fought like his life depended on it, and so did Rex and after 15 hectic minutes, they barely escaped with the skin of their teeth.
As theyy on the ground exhausted, Rex and Aragorn looked up to where the genderless stalker archer was still following them.
"Freak!"
Chapter 125 The Demon Kamaitachi Curse
For the past few days as Rex and Aragorn traveled through the Great Forest of Elias, their biggest headache was not actually the beasts but the genderless archer who kept on stalking them like a wardrobe pervert.
Rex''s encounter with this mysterious archer was also in the forest when he was trapped alongside Maximo''s merchant trade group.
Then, they barely spoke and though he showed his curiosity, this genderless archer refused to say anything about his/herself, revealing only ambiguous words.
He encountered the archer again after restarting his journey through the Great Forest of Elias. Surprisingly, Aragorn also already met her in the forest.
ording to him, this archer stalked him whenever he hunted for beasts in the forest. He had already grown used to the archer''s presence since this fellow never attacked him and didn''t seem to have an evil intention.
Throughout their journey for the past few days, the archer stalked them and though Aragorn was fine with it, Rex was not and he started scheming.
He tried to use his system to snoop on her many times but his system''s notification replies always left him astonished.
[Snooped target is wearing a concealment Myth Grade mystic treasure!]
[Status cannot be snooped!]
For the first time, Rex became exposed to the fact that his system''s snooping could be blocked. Did this mean that his system was a mystic treasure also?
Rex had no answer to his question but what he did know was that with a Myth Grade mystic treasure, this archer''s identity was definitely not simple.
For the past few days, he and Aragorn already shed with the archer numerous times but every single time, this strange archer outsmarted them.
Individually, Rex believed that the archer was weaker than both of them but his understanding of the Great Forest of Elias was top-notch. Also, he had a nt control mystic ability that literally made him unstoppable in the forest.
Pairing his nt mystic ability with his unnatural uracy and archery proficiency, this archer was a literal god of this Great Forest.
Rex was pretty sure that this was the greatest archer that he had seen all his life, not even thebat instructors in Obedin Mystic Academy were this proficient with a bow and arrow.
"Freak!" Rex spat again as hey exhausted on the forest bed.
"My name is nor".
"¡"
Rex and Aragorn were stunned. "Wait, you can speak?"
"I have always been speaking with the both of you".
"¡" Both of them were bbergasted.
"Wait, you are female?" cklines filled their faces as soon as they caught on to her real voice, they reyed how a warrior of the opposite gender toyed with them for days. "Damn!"
Though Rex was not sure, he always associated this archer with the male gender. Now that he knew the truth, he felt strangely humiliated and hurt. "Ouch!"
Tap!
Before the both of them could react, for the first time ever, the mysterious archer descended the tree tops where she stayed always.
Shended on the floor so smoothly that she barely made a sound, the sound was just like a tap and this surprised Rex and Aragorn.
Being so close to her, they stood up and got ready to fight.
Thisdy warrior was unfazed as she calmly walked towards them, she walked towards Rex even as the green cloak that covered her body disappeared.
Once the cloak disappeared, her real body was finally revealed to them. This was an astonishingly fair beautifuldy with blonde hair.
Rex and Aragorn were petrified by her beauty but most of all, they were petrified on discovering her real identity.
[Snooping Sessful!]
----------
Name: nor
Age: 20
Race: High Elf
Title: Princess of the Great Elven Empire of the Micro-world of Elias
Natural Talent/Gift: Legendary Archer
Rank: Intermediate Mystic Warrior
Intermediate Warrior Grade: 10th tier
Strength: 510
Speed: 750
Mind: 400
Vitality: 220
Agility: 890
Dexterity: 680
Health Points [HP]: 2,000/2,000
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 2,500/2,500
Mystic Ability: Golden Metal/nt Control
-------
? "¡"
Even after receiving confirmation from his system notification, Rex still stood stunned with Aragorn as they gawked at this otherworldly beautifuldy.
"You are an Elf?" Rex asked,pletely bbergasted.
"Hahaha". The next moment Aragornughed as he turned to face Rex. "What cursed beer brand did you give me? I think I''m sleep-walking, what is f*cking wrong with me?"
"I am an Elf; my name is Princess nor".
"¡"
The next moment, this beautiful Elven Princess knelt before Rex. "Great Blood King, please rescue my race from the curse of the Micro World".
"¡"
"¡"
"¡.."
From bbergastedness, Rex was now as clueless as clueless could get.
"Um, are you alright? Maybe you have a fever¡"
"My intuition never lies, I already confirmed that you are a Vampire and the prophecy said the first vampire to walk thesends will be our liberator".
"¡"
"Haha". Rexughed awkwardly but feeling this Elven Princess''s intense gaze, he coughed. "Ok, can we take things a little slower, please exin to me what this is all about because I am so f*cking clueless right now?"
"Yes, Blood King".
¡
After 30 minutes, Rex got the full gist and he was well, stunned. The story sounded sus but Rex held himself back from saying the truth least he bust her bubble.
ording to Princess nor here, she left her city in the Micro World every night toe search for the prophecy carrier.
ording to her, the Great Forest of Elias as they saw it was just a part of this massive forest. There was another world, a micro worldprising an economy of micro beings that hid from the outside world.
The Great Elven Empire of the Great Forest of Elias was supposedly not a myth. The Empire disappeared due to valid reasons.
ording to nor, after their Empire rose to power, their reign of power was long but like most others, the mystic beasts attacked.
To imprison the Mythical Mystic Beast who terrorized their home, the Demon Kamaitachi, the strongest Ancestor who was the Emperor then led his strongest elven war generals to a great battle against the Mythical Beast.
On that day, a Legendary Mystic Warrior died, the Elven Emperor sacrificed his life alongside his strongest war generals and the sacrifice was not in vain, they imprisoned the Kamaitachi forever.
The Kamaitachi was imprisoned in the Great Forest of Elias but at great cost, the Elven Emperor''s sacrifice fragmented the Forest into 2 worlds, the normal world, and the micro world.
Before the Elven Emperor died, he prophesied that the Elves were doomed to live in the micro world until their savior, the wandering Vampire arrived.
ording to the Ancestor, the wandering Vampire was called the Blood King.
Now, for the first time in centuries, a mystic warrior with blood-rted abilities came to the forest in the form of Aragorn. nor started stalking him but with time, she discovered that he was not a vampire.
Rex''s subsequent arrival was what really set her hopes up. Daytime in the normal world of the forest was night in the micro-world and vice versa.
Every night, she came to the normal world to spy on Rex. She witnessed everything that happened during his mission against the criminal gang, and by now, she was already 100% sure that Rex was the chosen in the prophecy.
Now, she could no longer hold herself back, she told the truth.
Well, the truth didn''t sit too well with the 2 men that she told them to.
"Haha, no offense but seriously, Princess nor, whenst did you go for a checkup?" Rex said while raising his hands to indicate that he meant no harm.
nor was not offended as she spoke calmly. "Follow me to the Micro World and see for yourself".
"But we barely just met, who knows if you''re a ve trader who intends to sell us as ves after we follow you blindly? Women are no longer trustworthy in my sight most especially after the stunts that you pulled in the past few days".
"I''m sorry that I hurt your ego but¡"
"Wait, wait¡, damn, who said you hurt my ego? My ego is perfectly fine¡"
As Rex bbered on, Aragorn touched his shoulders and gave him a meaningful look. "Speak kindly to a beautifuldy Rex, where are your manners?"
"Surely, ady as beautiful as her can''t sell us as ves right?"
"Right". Princess nor nodded seriously.
Rex directed a suspicious look at Aragorn, then the beautiful Elf as his eyes went back and forth.
The sudden change in Aragorn''s personality after meeting this beautiful Elven Princess almost left him thinking that his sword brother was brainwashed.
"What sorcery is this? What happened to our ambitions?" Rexined as he finallyplied to follow the both of them to the so-called Micro World.
He didn''t just agree. Though he still felt that this story was sus, if it was coincidentally true, Rex could already smell a system mission from far away.
And by now, he already made it a rule never to miss system missions.
So off they went for the Micro World of the Great Forest of Elias.
Chapter 126 The Micro World
The Micro World was hidden in the middle of the Great Forest of Elias.
Rex still had his doubts till his first encounter with this mystical world. After getting to a hidden location in the forest, beneath where Princess nor imed that the Demon Kamaitachi was imprisoned, they saw a small portal.
"Follow me". This was all Princess nor said before she jumped in.
Rex and Aragorn exchanged a nce before jumping through the teleportation portal. With a slight buzzing sound, they disappeared.
When Rex regained his vision, he was already in an entirely different world than he was used to. The first thing that he noticed was the trees of the Great Forest which seemed to have been magnified a hundred times.
The 2nd thing that he noticed was the perception difference. For some reason, the beasts of the forest that were magnified now seemed as slow as sloths. Their movements were so sluggish that he was bbergasted.
He shrank in size after entering the portal and now looked no bigger than a bug in the forest, this was ridiculous but true.
? For some strange reason also, after shrinking into this smaller size, the day changed to night. It was like looking at world from the perspective of the micro world was opposite to looking at it from the normal perspective.
Rex and Aragorn werepletely stunned as they observed their massive surroundings like kids who went to a shopping mall for the first time.
"Come on". This was when Princess nor urged them on.
Without waiting for them, this elven princess picked up pace as her long legs ate yards of space through the forest. In just a few minutes, she took Rex and Aragorn through arge distance until they arrived before a massive castle.
This massive blue castle had a massive statue of a male Elf King between its massive gates, and this was what weed the 2 neers.
Manning the castle walls were elven soldiers, dozens of them. If they were still doubtful before, this alone was enough to tell them that Elves actually lived.
Everything here was not so rosy though. At another part of the massive castle walls, Rex saw the elven soldiers fighting against a pack of strange foxlike beasts with such long nails that looked like sickles for harvesting.
"Those are the Demon Amaitachi''s descendants". Princess nor spoke.
"Since the great sacrifice of our ancestor, we are not the only ones who got to live, the descendants of the Demon also lived and since then, we have been archenemies who kept fighting for the extinction of the other".
"The amaitachis believe that our race bing extinct is the way for their ancestor to be released from this prison".
nor exined till they arrived before the massive gate where she received respectful salutes from the elven soldiers that manned the walls.
They barely got past the wall before a loud angry voice reverberated. "ELANOR!!!"
"You left the micro world without permission again?!"
"¡" Rex and Aragorn shuddered at the sheer venom in this voice.
¡
10 minutester, Rex and Aragorn were seated with the immediate royal family of the micro world of the Great Forest of Elias.
Once her parents who were the King and Queen knew about what she was up to and also knew Rex''s identity as a Vampire, they were astonished as they instantly forgot nor''s sins and invited them for dinner.
In this luxurious castle, Rex was made to listen to the glorious history of the Elven race by King Algar. Though the King tried to keep it subtle, he also talked about the prophecy of their ancestor and how Rex was the chosen one.
In the end, after a 20 minutes dinner session that extended to be 40 minutes, the Elf Queen Gdriel finally made an offer that Rex loved.
"You have a nice sword; I see that its upgradable. What''s its name?"
"Oh, thanks, its name is Berserker".
"We Elves are renowned for our craftsmanship and mystic technology. If you want, I can upgrade your sword all the way to the Advanced Grade".
"Shing!" "Shing!"
Berserker already yelled his approval even before Rex could react, Rex smiled awkwardly. "I''ll forever remember this favor, your highness".
With that, the dinner came to an end as the Elven King and Queen left with Berserker, leaving him alone with Princess nor.
Once Aragorn heard of craftsmanship and mystic technology, his shameless side was aroused as he pleaded shamelessly to go with the Queen.
Now that they were alone, Rex finally turned to face nor and sighed. "The past hour to me has been pretty crazy, everything is moving so fast, I never knew Elves were real and now I already had dinner with elven royalty".
"This world is really crazy".
Princess norughed. "Do you want to have a tour of the castle? There are many sights that you''ll like, even some that are rted to you".
"Me?"
"Yes, your bloodline".
"Oh".
Rex''s curiosity was piqued and he agreed to leave with her. Princess nor took her time as she showed him around the massive castle.
After spending about 30 minutes going around this massive castle with the Princess, Rex''s head was able to calm down a bit. He was fascinated by the sights, and even more fascinated when he really saw something rted to him.
In the deep halls of the castle, there was another statue of the same Elf King that was on the gates but not just him this time, there was another statue.
From the blood aura around the statue, Rex instantly knew that he was depicted as a Vampire. "This warrior was a Vampire?"
"Is," Princess nor corrected with a smile. "We believe Elder Bam is still alive".
"Elder?" Rex was astonished.
From the exnations of his system, his bloodline level which was his race could upgrade 3 times. The first was below 50 years as a Neonate, the next above 50-300 years as an Ancie, a Vampire Elder was above 300 years.
Rex''s curiosity was piqued instantly. "Who was this Elder Bam to you?"
"He was a Legendary Mystic Warrior just like our ancestor. He was the one who helped our ancestor to seal the Demon Kamaitachi".
"We believe that our Ancestor''s prophecy is rted to him. To get the inheritance of liberation that was left by our ancestor, 2 warriors need to fulfill stringent requirements but in hundreds of years, we never seeded".
"We believe that to seed, a High Elf and a Vampire warrior are needed to cooperate together and is why I paid so much attention to you".
"Wow, can I get an inheritance too?"
"I don''t know, we''ve never been able to fulfill the requirements to enter the chambers of inheritance". Princess nor smiled bitterly.
"Can we do it now? I mean, don''t worry if you can''t allow me to go there¡"
"We can".
"We can?"
"Yeah". Princess nor smiled. "So long as my parents don''t find out, I can sneak you close enough so we can have a peak".
Rex was scared at the idea but so also was he thrilled. "Let''s do it".
¡
High up in the massive castle, King Algar and Queen Gdriel looked down from one of the rooms of the castles. Through the mystic mirror that was before them, they were able to see the 2 mischievous young mystic warriors.
"I''ve not seen nor smiling like this in like ages". King Algar smiled bitterly.
Queen Gdriel ced a hand on her husband''s shoulders. "You know her personality. She has always been obsessed with breaking the curse, she wants to be the difference maker, she hates being second".
"The fact that she was able to invite him here impressed me, it shows that she''s slowly learning to suppress her arrogance which is good".
"Just look at their conversations, her arrogance hardly shows anymore".
"Let''s just hope, this encounter with this Vampire may change her life the same way that Elder Bam changed our ancestor''s life".
"Let''s hope that they surprise us". King Algar finally smiled.
¡
After bypassing a lot of guards along the way, Princess nor was able to lead Rex underground to the most sacred and hidden locations of the Elven castle.
After going so deep underground, Rex saw more things that fascinated him but Princess nor could not exin least she alert the guards.
They continued like this until they saw a well-crafted one-handed sword. Rex could not leave this one behind, he was captivated instantly.
He was captivated not just because of the sharp sword''s craftsmanship but also because of its feel and life. Having lived over 6 months with Berserker already, Rex could not mistake this feeling, this was a living sword!
"Whose sword is that?"
"Oh, that?" Princess nor spoke in a whisper. "That is the sword that was gifted to my ancestor by Elder Bam, he fought the Demon Kamaitachi with it".
Rex wanted to say more but due to the need to keep silent, he could only continue. This way, they soon arrived before the door to the chamber of inheritance.
Rex looked up at the massive door.
...
.....
.....
Rex was instantly attracted by the massive 2-colored door.
Rex secretly hoped for a system mission notification to pop up as he looked at the door but he was disappointed this time, apparently, not every single thing that he did would be turned into a mission by his system.
After removing his mind from the system mission, he finally focused on the door. The left side of the door was green, while the right side was colored red.
Chapter 127 The Vampire Elders Inheritance
Rex was instantly attracted by the massive 2-colored door.
Rex secretly hoped for a system mission notification to pop up as he looked at the door but he was disappointed this time, apparently, not every single thing that he did would be turned into a mission by his system.
After removing his mind from the system mission, he finally focused on the door. The left side of the door was green, while the right side was colored red.
Instantly after he looked at the red side, Rex felt his body resonating with it. On the right corner of the red part of the door was a port that could fit in a massive book, as Rex kept on looking at it, his eyes suddenly widened in realization.
Before Princess nor could question his actions, Rex essed his storage ring as his Blood Tome appeared on his hand the next moment.
When he looked at it now, the size was exactly the same. His Blood Tome was actually the secret key to activate the red part of this door.
Rex without a word went closer and pushed his blood tome into the port.
Click!
The Blood Tome fit in easily as the red part of the door became aligned.
Nothing happened after a minute of silence, so Rex turned to face Princess nor. "You said the problem was with the red part of the door".
"Try activating the green part let''s see the reaction".
"Ok". Princess nor simply answered before going to work.
Without a word or a polite please turn your eyes, this Princess removed her luxurious clothes instantly, exposing her smooth thighs, chest, and arms which were only protected by a Super Grade mystic armor.
Rex coughed and removed his eyes but nor did not give a damn about him as she picked her Bow and Arrow before jumping.
Shended on a tform that materialized out of mid-air and a voice spoke.
"Begin!"
Princess nor''s face became instantly serious as she pulled her bow and arrow and started unleashing attacks at invisible opponents.
She did not just use her battle domain proficiency to fight, she used her Golden Metal mystic ability to control the metals that were in the surrounding to fight on her behalf against the invisible opponents.
She also used her nt Control mystic ability as her armor ejected sturdy tree branches which she fought with; she was a warrior princess at this moment.
As she fought, Rex started thinking of everything that happened. Was this Elder Bam rted to his Blood Tome which in essence meant his family?
He was not sure but his curiosity was now piqued. After encountering his family''s inheritance ground where he saw the blood throne and took the blood tome, he never saw it again for 6 months.
Now, he seemed to have found another clue to it. Though he was improving fast already, to face his archenemies, he knew that he needed to improve faster.
Click!
The next moment, Rex was startled as the green part of the door made a clicking sound also. Princess nor finally descended and they both retreated as the door for the first time in centuries moved.
Mechanical gears were moved, mystic runes and formations were activated as the massive heavy door finally opened for the first time since its creation.
"An Elf should enter the green passage for the elven inheritance".
"A Vampire should enter the red passage for the Elder inheritance".
"You have only 5 seconds to enter".
Rex and Princess nor were about to celebrate and think about what happened before, but on seeing 5 seconds, they dared not hesitate as they both jumped into the red and green passages that appeared respectively.
Bzzz!
Both of them disappeared instantly and the door closed back.
¡
Rex regained his sight and saw himself in a vacant dark room with its only furnishing being a massive blood throne that stood at the end of the room.
Rex recognized this blood throne instantly, it looked extremely simr to the same blood throne that he saw in his family''s inheritance ground.
Shockingly, a figure was seated on the blood throne. Rex was spooked at first but on looking closer, he discovered that no figure was seated there, it was just a ck cloak that seemed to be worn by an invisible figure.
As Rex looked while keeping his guard up, 2 red eyes suddenly lit up from the emptiness wearing the cloak as Rex''s consciousness was drawn away.
Rex woke up in the starry skies where he saw a hairy old man. This old man was so hairy and muscr that he looked like an ape, he was a bonafide Pugilist.
"Wee kid, if you got the Blood Tome, it means you are thest".
"My name is Bam, the 3rd Elder of the Vector Family".
"I am the greatest Tiajutsu expert of the Vector Family". The old man grinned which only made Rex shudder as it made him look like a demon ape.
"I have an inheritance for you but since I don''t have any guarantee if you''ll be able to fulfill my requirements, I prepared 2 freebies for you".
"The cloak outside is my Iron Mike Cloak". He grinned again.
"You may not know Iron Mike but he was a great boxer of the 21st century that I adored. My Tiajutsu fighting technique was made with him as an inspiration, so also is my Iron Mike Cloak which was my greatestpanion during my rise".
"I''ll give you the Iron Mike Cloak and a self-defense Tiajutsu skill".
"I know you''re a talented swordsman so I have no intention of teaching you my Tiajutsu technique".
"You just have to know that there are times where you will be forced to fight outside yourfort zone and this is where my skill wille in y".
The next moment, before Rex could react, the old man tapped his head.
Bzzz!
[Soul information transfer has been initiated!]
[You have learned Master level skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!]
Without waiting for Rex to get used to the new knowledge that was in his head, the old man continued. "The inheritance that I left in the micro world is the Soul Rider inheritance".
"Try it to see if you canplete it".
"Even if you can''tplete it now, it''ll follow you. Once you are ready, you can attempt it outside the micro world of the Great Forest".
Again, without waiting for Rex to thank him for all the freebies that he just received, the old manughed before flicking him away like a bug.
Bzzz!
After his consciousness returned back to his body, the first thing that Rex did was confirm that the master level skill that he learned was real.
"Damn, it''s real! I just learned my first master level skill!"
The fascinating thing about this was that unlike when he learned skills from other sources, the skill points required to learn this skill were waived. It was like this ancestor of his personally taught him this skill for years.
It took him a few seconds but after he finally broke away from the joy of learning his first master level skill, Rex deviated to the inheritance test.
He obeyed the old man''s instruction, went closer and sat on the blood throne. Instantly, Rex''s consciousness left his body again.
This time, Rex saw himself appear in a world that was dominated by green. It was like he was stuck inside a green ocean, and he was not inside a boat, rather he was inside a strange mystic bike.
A strange voice suddenly reverberated in the green world.
"On your mark!"
"Get set!"
"Go!"
"Huh?" Rex was confused for the first few seconds until he saw body doubles of himself having already started the race and were speeding ahead.
"Wait¡, the goal is for me to beat them in a bike race?"
"Ugh, start!" Rex finally started his race with his body doubles and their bikes but the distance was already too much, he could not catch up.
They drove for a long time that Rex could not estimate and when they finally crossed the finish line, instead of the race ending like Rex expected, he was dragged into an even more turbulent and dangerous race track.
The race continued like this, taking him to more dangerous tracks until the voice suddenly sounded again, this time in a harsher tone.
"You failed!"
Rex was instantly booted out of the green world.
"F*ck! What type of messed up inheritance test is that?"
Amid hisints, Rex rubbed his aching head as he finally stood up from the blood throne. Beside the throne, he was surprised to see his Blood Tome as he bent down to pick it.
Alongside his Blood Tome, he also picked the Iron Mike Cloak.
----------
[Iron Mike Cloak!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Current Grade: Super Grade!]
Rarity: Very Rare
- Defense: 6,000
- Offense: 13,000
- Durability: 18,000
[Passive Mystic Effect: Cloak Defense!]
[The Cloak will instinctively protect you when you are in danger.]
[Mystic Effect: Iron Mike Uppercut!]
[When activated, the cloak wraps around your hand to help you unleash a lethal uppercut attack that enables you to deal damage ranging from 400-1000% of your base damage.]
[Mystic Effect: Shadow Mirage!]
[When activated with a shadow mystic ability, you can create shadows that can obscure you from vision. When supplied with enough shadow energy, the mirages be real and can attack.]
[Mystic Effect: Blood Flight!]
[When activated with your bloodline powers, you can fly.]
[Remark: Iron Mike''s ultimate knock-out cloak!]
-------
Chapter 128 The Legendary Archer Inheritance
Rex came out of the inheritance chambers feeling satisfied.
Aragorn''s decision for them to follow Princess nor to the micro world was originally opposed by him, but now, he thanked the goddess of luck for not making him stay stubborn on his decision of not going.
In this short time, he broke milestones that he had not gotten before. Not only did he learn his first and only master level skill, he also got a Super Grade Mystic Armor which were literally God-tier rewards.
Apart from the material rewards, he also got another link to a previous ancestor of his which was something that he was grateful for.
On arriving outside the chambers of inheritance and standing before the 2-colored door again, Rex discovered that Princess nor was not out yet.
Considering the fact that theiring here was illegal in the first ce, he decided not to leave and rather wait till shepleted her inheritance.
Rex sat down cross-legged and started ying around with his new master-level skill in Berserker''s sword world, it came in handy at this moment.
¡
Queen Gdriel personally led Aragorn to the great forge of the Elven Kingdom of the Great Forest of Elias where Rex''s sword would be upgraded.
As they walked, through their little talks, Queen Gdriel already confirmed that Aragorn was a real craftsmanship enthusiast. Aragorn revealing that he was a mystic mechanic only increased her favorability of him more.
Surprisingly, the Queen was the master craftsman of the great forge.
The forge of the Elven Kingdom was of course modified to amodate the modern use of mystic energy. Entering the great forge left Aragorn feeling like he just entered a great machinery hivemind where legendary mechanics worked.
He saw Elves working enthusiastically on crafting more mystic weapons for the Elven army, he saw different metals and crafting techniques in disy.
He saw ancient crafting techniques being used together with advanced technology, and this formed a rowdy atmosphere filled with machinery that a mystic mechanic like him saw as heaven.
Most of what he saw were ssified information that were not supposed to be shown to a human, but the Elven Queen made an exception for Aragorn.
Just the tour around the great forge opened Aragorn''s eyes to so many possibilities and new techniques that he felt his brain flowing with ideas.
At this moment, he was like an author who just watched a blockbuster movie and whose head was now flowing with ideas to write in his book. He could not wait to erect his new workshop in the Gundam Shelter and realize all his ideas.
When Princess nor told them of the micro world, he also felt that it was ridiculous, but he was d he trusted his instincts that told him to follow her.
Aragorn was sure that not even his master was privy to most of the craftsmanship techniques that were being used by the Elves here.
After the 2-hour long tour, Queen Gdriel finally led Aragorn to her personal workshop in the great forge where she intended to upgrade Rex''s sword.
Berserker was already vibrating in excitement as he was worked on by the Elven Queen, Aragorn became the Queen''s assistant.
For 30 minutes, Queen Gdriel worked on the well-crafted sword, integrating high-grade metals that made up for thecking areas until Berserker came out anew as an advanced-grade mystic sword.
Berserker already had Myth Grade craftsmanship. It simply started with powers of a basic mystic sword, and to unlock its full potential, Rex needed to constantly upgrade it ording to theid down principles.
Once the sword was cooled, it emerged anew as a new living organism as Queen Gdriel wielded the sword and swung it a few times.
She smiled at the feel of the sword as she turned to face Aragorn. "I feel that this sword will be legendary in the future".
"I believe so too". Aragorn reciprocated her smile.
After thanking her profusely for the opportunity of visiting the forge, Aragorn finally left with Berserker to go break the news to his sworn brother.
¡
"Being a legendary archer entails more than skill".
"To bring out your full potential, at times, you need to ignore the little details and statistics and focus more on honing your emotions".
"When the power of emotions is properly harnessed, that is when you can really be called a legendary archer because then, you are impossible".
"Adrenalinees about through emotions that are evoked by situations. Learn to actively channel adrenaline, and you''re a legendary archer".
Princess nor''s Elven inheritance was vastly different from Rex''s Vampire inheritance. Oning here, she met a mechanical elven avatar through which her ancestors were able tomunicate with her.
The special gift of the Legendary Archer was a natural talent that started being passed down all the way from the first Elven Ancestor.
Every generation, there was an Elf that had this special gift.
ording to the mechanical avatar, every one of these special Elves left imprints on it. All these imprints were their life experiences, and they were the inheritance that they left for each subsequent Elf with the special gift.
Princess nor''s key to leaving the inheritance chamber was to learn how to control her emotions to the extent where she could actively channel adrenaline.
This was an extremely rare ability that could only be mastered by Elves with the special Legendary Archer gift.
Even as the mechanical elven avatar kept on instructing her, both of them were embroiled in a fierce brawl as arrows kept on flying like bullets.
The more she fought the mechanical avatar, the more she shot arrows and the more it became natural to her.
Princess nor already unlocked the equivalent of domain with her bow and arrow, but still, achieving this state of absolute emotional control was difficult.
Despite not achieving her goal yet, she never despaired, she never cared about time, all she focused on was to continue putting on the grind.
Since a young age, Princess nor had great pride. As a lofty genius, she found it hard to socialize with others and hence lived a solitary life, the only thing that motivated her was beating her previous records and getting better.
Today again, she was determined to get better.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As her hand bent and straightened repeatedly with each arrow shot, the drill became so natural that she felt all of a sudden like she was floating in the clouds.
The arrows and her bow no longer felt like cold weapons to her, they now felt like the wind caressing her body as she floated in the clouds.
"Don''t fight your emotions, embrace them and master them".
"Once you master them, control them and draw strength from them!"
Once the mechanical avatar said this, something seemed to click in Princess nor''s head as her eyes glowed pure white all of a sudden.
Her next 2 arrow shots carried a white mystic energy manifestation along, this was the power of adrenaline that she channeled. The mechanical avatar could not withstand the arrows as it was obliterated into pieces by the arrows.
Before turning to wreak, the mechanical avatar said itsst words.
"Congrattions, Legendary Archer nor¡"
Chapter 129 Leave My Daughter Alone!
"You''re back?"
"Yes". Princess nor replied Rex while still feeling light-headed.
As they looked at each other, without any exchange of words, they both knew that they benefited a lot from this encounter.
"Thank you". They expressed their gratitude to each other.
Without Princess nor''s invitation and effort, Rex would have never found this opportunity while without Rex''s Blood Tome, Princess nor would have never been able to ess her ancestral inheritance.
They were grateful to each other.
"So, umm, what about your parents?" Rex coughed.
"Don''t worry about them". Princess nor smiled. "Once they know that we essed the inheritance chambers, they''ll heap praise on us rather than admonish us for going behind their backs toe here".
"Oh!"
With that, the 2 mystic warriors started climbing back up.
As they climbed back up, it did not take long before they discovered that something was wrong. Rex could still remember when they came underground as they had to sneak and bypass a lot of guards along the way.
Now, for some reason, more than half of the guards were gone. As they noticed this more, Princess nor''s face suddenly turned serious.
"No need to sneak anymore, follow me!"
Princess nor grabbed Rex''s hand and started running up the stairs. The guards who saw them did not interrupt them, they only seemed to send messages whose recipients Rex guessed were the Elven Queen and the King.
"What is going on?" By now, Rex already guessed that something was wrong.
"I''m not sure, I need to confirm first".
About 2 minutester, they arrived before the door through which they entered the underground and to Rex''s shock, the door was closed shut. Beside the door were ropes that extended all the way to the top.
On seeing this, Princess nor''s eyes narrowed. "Like I expected".
"What?"
"The Kamaitachis attacked again, I think that they felt something wrong when we opened the ancestor''s inheritance ground after so many years".
Rex was shocked. "Shouldn''t we go fight them then?"
"Yes, but first," Princess nor turned to face Rex. "Did you discover the way to rescue my race from the curse of the Micro World?"
"No, I''m not sure, I just got an inheritance that I was unable toplete immediately. I was told I couldplete it at ater date".
Princess nor was visibly disappointed on hearing that but she soon recovered. "Then, let''s go fight some Kamaitachis".
"Grab a rope!" Princess nor and Rex grabbed one of the ropes that extended to the top as they were instantly pulled away.
Mid-flight, Rex''s system finally lit up a notification.
"Yes!" He was ecstatic.
[You have received a new system mission: The Wrath of the Kamaitachis!]
[Mission Details: Your actions in the Elven Kingdom have angered the Kamaitachis. Now, they are out to exterminate you and the Elven Princess with their whole force, the whole Kamaitachi race is after you. Escape!]
[Main Mission: Escape and Survive!]
[Mission Reward: 15,000 Skill Points.]
"Holy Sh*t! The whole Kamaitachi race?"
"Huh?" Princess nor turned, directing a weird look at Rex.
"Nothing". Rex quickly raised his hands in surrender.
The mission reward for this system mission was mouth watery but so was the danger enormous, going against a whole beast race that was able to go toe to toe against the Elven Kingdom for close to a millennium was no easy feat.
"Damn, I''m screwed!" He cursed in his mind.
"Be careful!" Rex made sure to warn Princess nor as the ropes finally pulled them out of underground. His warning came right on time as dozens of wind des flew past their heads, cutting some of the Princess''s hair in the process.
Princess nor was shocked. "They breached the castle?"
Rex waspletely petrified as he looked at the disaster currently before his eyes. The originally harmonious Elven castle was now a warfront.
Loud barking sounds made by the Kamaitachis filled the background.
These wild beasts with ws as long as steel and as sharp as razors were now stampeding through the castle. Their spiny fur like those of a hedgehog gave them natural defense that enabled them to breach the defense of the Elves.
This was not the first sh between Elves and Kamaitachis, and in all these years, the castle of the Elves had never been breached so fast.
The difference maker today was that the Kamaitachi race came with their full force. Every Kamaitachi that could fight was mobilized for this battle today.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In the now barely standing castle walls, Elves could be seen shooting the Kamaitachis with their bows as arrows flew like raining bullets.
The Kamaitachis were not to be outdone. Apart from their natural bestial body made for war, they had a natural affinity for wind. Now, with their mystic energy, they rode the wind to war like the hurricane itself.
Seeing hundreds of thousands of Kamaitachis outside, Rex felt a chill running down his spine but this was not the greatest danger, the greatest danger was the Kamaitachi who was almost 2 times bigger than all the others.
"King Kama Itachi!" Princess nor''s face turned pale in horror.
Almost at the same time that the Princess saw the King of the Kamaitachis, the Beast King also saw her as its eyes narrowed the next moment.
The Beast King shrieked loudly before going towards her.
At the same time as it shrieked, all the other Kamaitachis shrieked also as they finally found their target. Without wasting any time, all of them turned and started bulldozing their way towards the Elf and human.
For the first time since her birth, Princess nor was petrified by fear though she already learned to control her emotions. "They areing after us¡, they¡"
"I know, run!" This time, Rex was the one who reacted first as his face already turned serious.
Rex grabbed nor as they started sprinting away.
They could run but they could not escape, before King Kama Itachi himself, they were like sitting ducks. The Elven soldiers tried to assist their escape but they became canon fodder instead as the Kamaitachi King bulldozed across.
King Kama Itachi fully embodied the dangerous specialty of Kamaitachis, his long ws cut Elven soldiers left and right with such speed and precision that not even their blood flowed before they died.
In just seconds, it closed the distance to Rex and Princess nor as it channeled its wind mystic ability but before it could pounce on them, someone intervened as fire came raging down on it.
King Algar after hearing of his daughter''s arrival was fast as he rode from the part of the massive battlefield where he fought to go save her.
He arrived just in time on his Elk to stop his archenemy, King Kama Itachi.
The Elk ate yards of space even as with his raised sword, he was already channeling his mystic energy to pour fire on the Kamaitachi King like a flood.
"Leave my daughter alone!"
Chapter 130 Escape! [1]
King Algar went straight to the battlefront once the first signs of the defense of the Elven Empire breaking started showing. Unlike his wife who was a master mystic mechanic, he was a warrior, all he knew was war.
The Kamaitachis attacked the Elven castle from all sides, stretching their defense that was trained and honed for centuries thin.
King Kama Itachi of the Kamaitachis did not join the war immediately which was why the Elven King choosed a random direction to support his fighting soldiers.
The King quickly got overwhelmed in the chaos of the raging war as he lost all perception of the big picture, only focusing on his immediate surroundings.
The Elves may not have the strength and savagery of the Kamaitachis but what they did had was coordination, their archers were highly coordinated.
With their King himself joining the war, their coordination reached a new high. Even as more Kamaitachis stormed towards the castle walls, even more of them fell to the constant arrows that flew from the city walls.
With the Elven King already preupied, he did not know when his enemy King also joined the war and when his daughter returned from underground.
Once Princess nor''s life was threatened, the coordination of the Elves was disrupted for the first time and this was what attracted King Algar.
Seeing his daughter involved in the heat of the action and the approaching enemy King, King Algar felt his blood boiling hot as he instantly urged his Elk who exploded with astonishing speed towards the center of the battle.
In the Micro World, King Kama Itachi was known as the Wind Demon due to his ferocious wind powers while King Algar was known as the Fire Drake.
Rex and Princess nor were helpless as the raging tsunami approached them, about to engulf them and shred them to pieces at its center.
This was Rex''s first time having first-hand experience with a Super mystic beast''s strength and it waspletely suffocating.
Just before the tsunami engulfed thempletely though, fire came raging down like an unstoppable storm.
Boom!
"Leave my daughter alone!"
The sh of mystic energiessted a few seconds as fire and wind grinded at each other before canceling each other out, the 2 Kings red at each other.
King Algar did not even have the luxury to look at his daughter. He simply made an Elven hand sign for her to escape as he grabbed his custom-made sword before rushing towards the King Kamaitachi on his Elk.
Booming sounds soon reverberated as the 2 Kings collided, this was a sh of titans as the shockwaves alone cleared a personal battlefield for them.
Rex and Princess nor were flung away alongside the others as Princess nor looked, stunned. She was stunned not because of the battle nor the power in disy but because of the hand sign from her father.
The hand sign did not just indicate escape. King Algar told his daughter, the wielder of the Legendary Archer gift of this generation to leave the micro world.
Princess nor was the only one who could freely leave the micro world. Now, her father''s intention was for her to leave the micro world entirely.
Having read the situation already, Rex understood the order that the King gave to his daughter. Unless they left the micro world, the Kamaitachis would never relent on their attack until Princess nor was dead.
Rex grabbed her the next moment. "Snap out of it and follow me!"
-----
You have activated ckfire Skill: Zone!
----
Instantly after Rex activated this skill, it was like all the noise faded into the background as for the first time, he finally had the luxury to observe everything.
In this state of heightened sense, Rex was not only able to observe his surroundings, he was also able to check all his skills, evaluate his options and instantly arrive at the best alternative to move forward.
-------
You have activated Master level skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
¡
You have activated Vampire Ability: Blood Adrenaline Surge!
¡
You have activated Blood Tome Ability: Phasing- Mid-Range Teleportation!
-----
In the little time after he activated the Zone skill, Rex was able to pinpoint all thepanions that he needed to take along for his escape with the Elven Princess.
He already saw Aragorn who was also escaping from the assault of the Kamaitachis at the eastern direction.
He also saw Grey who was busy whimpering while searching for its master even as it fought against the Kamaitachis in the Northern direction.
He moved and activated skills after analyzing all these information.
Soon after he grabbed Princess nor''s hand as the 2 Kings fought, other Kamaitachis already came to surround them both but Rex was ready for them.
Instantly after he activated the Ultimate Iron Defense skill, his only master level skill, he suddenly felt like he was an ancient Tiajutsu expert.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex developed superhuman instincts as with his bare fists, he blocked the attack of the almost a dozen Kamaitachis while even retaliating. His fists were coated with his golden domain mystic energy as he fought.
Booming sounds reverberated as Rex''s fists sted out with power.
The Ultimate Iron Defense skill granted him imprable defense; his fists were like iron as he fought against the Kamaitachis.
As he did this, the Blood Adrenaline Surge ability activated as his strength increased again. His blood started burning like it was ced on fire and like calories, his blood burning gave him boundless energy to work with at this moment.
He unleashed a few more deadly blows at the Kamaitachis before his Phasing skill finally activated as he disappeared with the Elven Princess.
Bzzz!
When Rex and the Princess appeared, they were next to Aragorn, barely dodging the lethal w stabs of the Kamaitachis that were after Aragorn.
"Take your sword!" Aragorn was only startled for a second at their arrival before he quickly unsheathed and threw Berserker at Rex.
Once Rex grabbed Berserker, he felt the difference instantly as his living sword''s consciousness seemed stronger than ever before.
His system interface lit up with Berserker''s new status.
-------
[Berserker- One-handed Sword!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Attack: 880-1,700 Damage
- Durability: ???
[Mystic Effects: Sword Energy Control; Golden Edge.]
[Golden Edge: When activated, grants 20% more piercing damage, 20% more mystic energy control, and a 20% chance to grant 100% more piercing damage.]
¡
[Special Skills: Sword Draw; Blood Draw; Soul Draw.]
[Sword Draw: When activated, your sword attack whether sh or stab bes 100% faster, deals 500% more physical damage and 500% more sword energy damage to opponents.]
[Blood Draw: When activated by sacrificing your blood, your sword bes empowered by your blood. Each attack has a 10% chance of triggering bleed.]
- Bleed drains 1% of target''s overall health every 2 seconds.
[Soul Draw: When activated with the ckfire mystic ability, your sword attack carries soul attack properties and can deal soul damage.]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
p [Remark: Berserker is slowly turning berserk!]
------
On seeing the new stats of his living sword, Rex was enchanted but he had no time to admire it as he used one of the new skills that appeared.
------
You have activated Sword Special Skill: Sword Draw!
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: Nirvana sh!
-----
Rex drew his hand back before bringing it down to unleash a great energy-empowered sword sh as sword energy ravaged across, bringing an end to the lives of over a dozen Kamaitachis who stood on the way.
"Let''s go get Grey and leave this ce!"
Even as he roared, Rex led the way again by activating another skill.
-----
You have activated Advanced ckfire Skill: Self Combustion!
----
Rex burst into ck mes!
Chapter 131 Escape! [2]
For the first time since he got the ckfire Advanced skill, Rex finally had the opportunity to make use of it as he burst into ck mes.
Instantly after Rex burst into ck mes, he gained the ability of not just flight, but the ability to deal fire and heat damage also.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rex flew into the skies instantly as ckfire was unleashed from all over his body like missiles, his hair burned a fiery red like those of the Ghost Rider.
By now, he and his 2panions were alreadypletely surrounded by the Kamaitachis but Rex did not care as all his attention was focused on his head where his mystic energy was stored.
When the concentration became strong enough, Rex''s eyes turned pitch-ck as he soon started activating and spamming skills at the beasts.
-------
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- Splitting sh!
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- Splintering sh!
You have activated ckfire skill: Ethereal sh!
You have activated skill: Blood Strike!
You have activated Vampire Ability: Blood Rejuvenation!
You have activated skill¡
You have activated skill¡
-----
For this brief moment, Rex ignored the fact that skills consumed mystic energy as he simply activated and spammed them on the beasts.
His sword that was already coated with the burning ckfire spread disaster with his sword energy as sword skills were unleashed rapidly.
This time, Rex really went all out and revealed all his trump cards.
With the One Autumn Leaf sword skill series, he made use of his domain mystic energy powers. With the Ethereal sh, he made use of his ckfire mystic ability and with the Blood Strike, he made use of his Vampire powers.
Combining this trilogy of powers, Rex became invisible even if it was for just a short while as hepletely dominated the surrounding Kamaitachis.
[You have killed an Intermediate mystic beast: 2-Horned Kamaitachi!]
[You have killed a Basic mystic beast: 1-Horned Kamaitachi!]
[You have killed an Intermediate mystic beast¡]
[You have killed a Basic mystic beast¡]
As the corpses piled up beneath him even as Princess nor and Aragorn also spread rampage on the ground, they finally carved a path that led towards the direction where Grey fought against the Kamaitachis.
Without hesitation, Rex took the lead as he started flying towards his transformed beast. Princess nor and Aragorn followed on the ground.
Aragorn''s Blood Pistols constantly roared as he fought alongside the Elven Princess. The loud sounds of his gun were what first attracted Grey''s attention.
Once the Dark Mist Spider looked in the direction of the sound, it easily saw its master who was flying towards it as it jumped excitedly the next moment.
Having stayed longer fighting the Kamaitachis than any of them, though a pile of corpses alsoy at its feet, Grey was also seriously injured already. Being a pureblood beast was what kept it alive, it was just that tenacious.
The reunion of master and beast was swift as Rex soon descended from the skies as he spread his raging ckfire everywhere, scorching the Kamaitachis.
He created a makeshift shield with the ckfire to defend against the deadly wind energy attacks that was the trademark of the Kamaitachis.
Once Princess nor and Aragorn arrived, Rex took the lead again as they continued escaping, this time with Grey. The only problem that they faced this time was the mystic calculus, they needed to control their mystic energy usage.
p After his oundish disy just moments ago, Rex''s mystic energy decreased a lot and they needed to be replenished before he could do anything simr again.
He didn''t have that luxury though, the Kamaitachis attacked like mad dogs.
In just 2 minutes more, Rex, his 2 friends and Grey were boxed in by the Kamaitachis as their mystic energy kept on depleting rapidly like flowing water.
They tried their best but against such an overwhelming horde of Kamaitachis, they had no choice but to be cornered. Princess nor''s defensive treasures and Rex''s Affection Ne was what kept them alive.
"F*ck! Am I going to die here today?" Aragornined indignantly. "I didn''t even get to use all the techniques that I learned today, so f*cking cruel!"
Aragorn''sints could not change the situation though.
As their defense wore off, their injuries increased till it got to the point where Rex was out of options. He felt bitter though he already expected this, going against a whole race of beasts was not something to scoff at.
They were even lucky since all the Advanced mystic Kamaitachis were being tied down by the Elven warriors who remained focused on helping them escape.
Out of options, Rex was annoyed to experience this loathsome feeling of helplessness again. He hated feeling this way, he hated feeling helpless.
Grey could sense its master''s feelings and anxiousness as it indirectly affected the Dark Mist Spider. Grey''s attacks became more reckless due to the anxiousness as it sustained injury at a much faster rate.
Just a few secondster, Grey made a big mistake as one of the Kamaitachis managed to slice a few centimeters into its head as blood poured in waves.
Grey hissed loudly in pain but it did not just hiss in pain, it hissed in anger also as its body started vibrating all of a sudden like it was being charged with electricity. All of a sudden, a massive energy exploded from Grey''s body.
-------
Grey has experienced an external stimulus for growth
Grey has leveled up a rank
Congrattions! Your first transformed beast is now an Advanced mystic beast!
------
Having trained with Rex for months, Grey already developed a lot and now, the stimtion of pain was what pushed it across the edge to the next grade.
Grey leveled up a rank and became an Advanced Mystic Beast.
"Hiss!!!"
Grey instantly ballooned a few meters bigger as the much bigger Dark Mist Spider hissed loudly the next moment, intimidating the nearby Kamaitachis.
After the level up, all of Grey''s abilities experienced an upgrade. Its tail, its silk, its poison, its Dark Mist powers, they all became stronger.
Grey did not even wait for approval from its master this time before it rammed into the Kamaitachis. This time, they stood no chance before the upgraded Spider as Greypletely stomped through them.
"Climb on its back!" Rex was quick to react.
Aragorn and Princess nor did not hesitate long as they climbed the Dark Mist Spider''s back. Grey''s level up was sudden but it was highly wee.
Now on top of the Dark Mist Spider, Rex and his 2panions finally had the luxury to attack the Kamaitachis with Grey already defending them with its body.
On top of Grey, their escape kickstarted again as the Dark Mist Spider sprinted away while still killing more Kamaitachis.
Grey''s level up was not hidden from the stronger Kamaitachis. Seeing their 2 main targets about to escape, the Advanced Mystic Kamaitachis became frenzied as some of them made bitter sacrifices just to go in pursuit.
The Elven warriors tried their best but they could not hold them back, in the blink of an eye, 3 Advanced Mystic Kamaitachis were on to the Dark Mist Spider.
Grey sprinted for less than a minute before he was cornered, again.
"Hiss!" Grey hissed angrily as it got ready to attack.
Before it did though, the loud reeving sounds of an engine reverberated the next moment as a massive Land Rover vehicle burst into the scene.
This mystic armored vehicle was powerful as it unleashed its load thatprised guns, short-range bombs, and cold weapons at the Kamaitachis.
The Land Rover came in-between the 3 Advanced Mystic Kamaitachis and Grey as it instantly picked up a fight with the Kamaitachis. The back of the Land Rover that faced Grey opened as a familiar face came out.
Queen Gdriel had a weary look on her face as she looked at her daughter with a bitter-sweet smile. "nor, obey your father".
She did not let Princess nor reply as she turned to face Rex and Aragorn. "Young warriors, please, I''m entrusting my daughter to the care of the both of you".
"Please, help me take care of her, protect her for me, that is my only wish as a mother since I can''t do it myself".
"Whatever happens, promise me that you''ll never abandon or leave her".
"I won''t!" Rex dered instantly as the battle kept on escting.
Queen Gdriel heaved a sigh of relief as she turned to look behind her. "Then I''m relieved, take these 2 mystic bikes, they''ll help you escape the micro world".
2 sleek mystic bikes rode out of the Land Rover the next moment.
"Goodluck!" With that, Queen Gdriel motioned to close the Rover''s door but she was stopped by her daughter.
With tears in her eyes, Princess nor asked. "Will you and dad be safe?"
Queen Gdriel smiled. "Yes, we will. We''ve survived the Kamaitachis for centuries, today is not going to be the day that we''ll fall to them".
"Believe in your father, believe in us". With that, the Queen mmed the door shut as the Land Rover pushed the 3 Advanced mystic Kamaitachis away.
Princess nor was sad but this was not the time to be emotional. Aragorn responded fast as he grabbed one of the bikes. "Rex, take the other one. Your highness, please join me so we can escape".
Princess nor wiped her tears and nodded firmly. "I''lle back someday!" She dered before entering the mystic bike.
As Aragorn drove away, Rex imed the 2nd mystic bike. His system lit up a notification the next moment as the bike''s stats were disyed.
-------
[Mystic Bike: The Wild Rider!]
[Bonded Owner: ???]
Rarity: Umon
Requirements: 500 Combined Stats
- Speed: 1200- 5000
- Comfort: 400- 600
[Mystic Effects: Speed Demon; Wild Rider; Nitro Demon!]
[Remark: A replica of the Soul Rider Bike!]
-----
Rex could not appraise bikes but his instincts told him that what he saw was good. "Sweet!" He eximed as he switched the bike on and reeved its engine.
Rex rode away with speed.
Chapter 132 Escape! [3]
[You have activated The Wild Rider''s Mystic Effect: Speed Demon!]
Zoom!
Once Rex activated this mystic effect, the mystic bike reacted like a Bull on steroids as its performance on literally every parameter increased exponentially.
With this sudden performance increase, it sped forward rapidly, enabling Rex to keep up with Aragorn who rode the other bike like a maestro.
The Wild Rider had only 3 mystic effects but they were all useful and self-exnatory. The Speed Demon when activated increased all the bike''s parameters with a bigger focus ced on its speed.
As for the Wild Rider effect, when activated, the bike bes extremely wild and was perfect for riding through rough and dangerous terrain.
For thest of them all, the Nitro Demon when activated makes the bike like its name, it bes a Wild Rider on a nitro booster.
With the Speed Demon activated, Rex could barely control the bike not to talk of paying attention to the Kamaitachis. He and Aragorn werepletely focused on escaping, fighting was left to the Elven Princess and Grey.
Despite the speed of the 2 mystic bikes, after Grey''s recent upgrade, the Dark Mist Spider was a real speed beast too as it was able to keep up.
Together, they rode with speed, rapidly escaping the territory of the Kamaitachis even as these tenacious beasts never gave up pursuing them.
From this distance, they could still hear the angry roars of King Kama Itachi of the Kamaitachis as the Elven King stayed steadfast in holding him back.
The battle of these 2 Super mystic powerhouses already changed the terrain. They were like bulldozers while everyone else in the battlefield were bicycles, the difference in strength was as vast as the ocean.
Queen Gdriel became the greatest help to their escape hope as with the 2 Wild Riders, Aragorn and Rex were able to ride to safety after 40 grueling minutes.
Corpses of Kamaitachis were left in their trail courtesy of Princess nor and Grey who were both out on a vengeance journey.
Despite the grueling journey, they finally got to their destination. On seeing the familiar jump portal, Aragorn and Rex heaved a sigh of relief.
Without hesitation, they activated the mystic bikes'' greatest mystic effects.
-----
[You have activated The Wild Rider''s Mystic Effect: Nitro Demon!]
----
Instantly after the nitro boosters were activated, the mystic bikes emitted fire from their exhausts as their speed increased more than 5 times. Rex only saw the wind as the bikes rapidly elerated to the location of the portal.
They didn''t even stop to look back as both bikes drove into the portal. Before the bikes could fully enter, Rex did an experiment and briefly brought out one of his most important inherited mystic treasures.
With the mystic treasure, he was able to catch and seal one of the pursuing Kamaitachis. He jumped through the portal with the sealed beast.
Grey jumped in after them.
As they were engulfed by a white light that sucked them in, Princess nor was the only one that looked back at her home with a bitter-sweet smile.
"I''ll definitelye back one day!" She dered. "I''ll lift the curse!"
Bzzz!
The 2 mystic bikes and transformed beast disappeared the next moment, leaving the pursuing Kamaitachis frustrated as they roared angrily while attacking the small portal to no avail.
¡
Bzzz!
p When Rex regained his vision, he was back in the world that he was familiar with. The only problem was that he was flying in the air, the bike soared like an eagle, spooking Rex as he clutched his chest in shock.
He was able to jump out on time though as the mystic bike fell down. Onnding, Rex looked left and right and seeing that they wereplete, heughed.
"We escaped!"
"Yeah¡" Aragorn replied wearily.
"Hiss!" Grey hissed before dropping on the forest floor with a plop, exhausted. They returned back here to meet night due to the contrasting day and night patterns of the real world and the micro world.
None of them decided to stand up immediately as they were exhausted. Princess nor was not just physically exhausted; she was also emotionally exhausted as she closed her eyes and let the forest breeze caress her face.
In this rare state of silence, they recovered and like usual, Rex''s brain started wandering until it hit a block road. "Huh? Why did my system not notify me of missionpleted yet?"
Once Rex thought of this, his eyes narrowed as he referenced the system mission notification again. The main mission objective was Escape and Survive, not just survive, did this mean that they were not safe yet?
Rex''s eyes widened the next moment. "Wake up! We''re still in danger!"
Almost instantly after he spoke, Rex''s heightened senses in the night enabled him to hear the sounds of rustling leaves up in the trees as he sprang up and grabbed Princess nor.
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 1]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
In the micro world, Rex could not do this since it was day, but at night now, not only could he ess his full strength now, he could also morph.
Rex pped his massive bat wings as he barely dodged the daggers that were thrown down from on top the trees, raining down like a hail of arrows.
The specialized mystic daggers were powerful enough as they destroyed the mystic bike that he rode out of the micro world.
Instantly after Rex felt rmed, Grey felt it and woke up. Aragorn also woke up once he yelled danger as his Blood Pistols roared, shooting down the daggers that were about to impale a thousand holes into his body.
The ambush was well executed, unfortunately, they were up against Rex and the other 2 warrior monsters, none of them were injured from the sneak attack.
As a half-bat now, Rex''s eyes were superhuman as he peered through the veils of darkness. The familiar scene that he saw chilled and angered him, assassins in ck cloaks, ck hats, and ck masks perched on the trees.
"Scorpion!" Rex''s eyes narrowed as his blood flow rate increased.
Instinctively, he searched for the Sting Assassin but he was nowhere to be found. Instead of the Scorpion, he rather saw another familiar face, Arthur Holmes.
Seeing this face, Rex felt a strong urge to go on the offensive and eliminate him but he was able to hold himself back. Common sense reminded him that he was exhausted and not at his best right now, escaping was the more logical option.
"Escape!" Rex roared.
Aragorn did not hesitate as he pounced on one of the mystic bikes but fire came from on top the trees, burning the bike and turning it to wreak. Aragorn barely dodged the fire attack on time and kept himself.
"Princess nor, pull your weight, we need to escape!"
"We have 25 assassins currently after us, all Intermediate mystic warriors".
As Rex through his incredible eyesight gave information, Princess nor and Aragorn finally understood the enemies that they were up against as they instantly reacted, retaliated, and started their escape at the same time.
Aragorn and Princess nor were not just incredibly familiar with the Great Forest of Elias, but the Elven Princess also had a mystic ability rted to nts.
With her nt Control mystic ability, Princess nor soon took center stage as the trees, grass, and weed started bending to her will.
The trees that the assassins perched on opposed them and attempted to strangle them to death. These originally docile trees became even greater assassins as branches aimed to impale them to death.
The assassins were briefly distracted by this, and they could not react as Golden metals started flying everywhere like bullets from a machine gun.
Princess nor was not alone. Even as Aragorn deployed mechanic devices to hide their trail, his Blood Pistols started roaring again as he aimed at the assassins. In no time, 3 assassins were killed.
By now, Rex already confirmed that the Sting Assassin did not tag along for this attack. Arthur Holmes was no weakling though as he led the assassins to attack.
Their formation waspact and extremely lethal, but once again, when he thought he already overestimated Rex, he discovered that he actually still underestimated him again.
Grey started a rampage again, providing the perfect ground for his master and his 2panions to escape. Grey ran after themter on as the assassins pursued, a great pursuit started in the forest.
The force of the assassins was the superior but they were not the better party here. Rex and his 2panion''s superior familiarity with the forest enabled them to y their enemies like this was a mere board game.
They sustained even more injuries from the assassins but after 2 hours, what mattered was that they were able to lose them and escape.
By now though, they were all exhausted including Grey. They all fell down on the forest floorpletely spent, this was when Rex''s system lit up a notification.
------
[Main Mission: The Wrath of the Kamaitachis!]
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with 15,000 Skill Points!]
¡
[Youpleted hidden mission requirements!]
[You have received bonus reward of 10,000 Skill Points and 200 Constitution Points!]
-----
Rex smiled on seeing this. "Finally!"
He could not keep his consciousness though, he fainted.
Chapter 133 The New Transformed Beast- Storm
"I''ve already observed their defenses, they are weak and fragile. By now, I''m sure they are all just basic hunters, they pose no threat to us".
"We can escape anytime". Aragorn whispered to his 2panions.
"Wait, let''s still wait a bit". Rex interjected with a smile. "I have something that I need to take care of first, it won''t take long".
Rex closed his eyes and essed his system.
-----
[Skill Points: 28,905]
[Constitution Points: 310]
----
After his visit to the Micro World and the mission that he triggered, he was rewarded with a system currency that he badly needed, skill points.
During his previous spending spree, he did notst too long as his skill points got exhausted fast, now he could finally fulfill his spending wish a bit more.
He was also rewarded with constitution points which he also needed.
Rex did not hesitate as he started spending.
--------
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Soul Manifestation!]
>This is a cultivation technique to train your ckfire and soul maniption. When mastered, you can manipte your soul to manifest outside of your body in an ethereal form where you can deal ethereal damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 5000 Skill points and 300 Constitution points to learn soul manifestation technique?]
[5000 Skill points and 300 Constitution points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Cultivation technique: Soul Manifestation!]
¡
[Compatible Master level Skill book has been discovered: Oxygen Maniption!]
>When activated, under perfect control, you can cause oxygen in the air to ignite and deal pure lethal physical damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 10,000 Skill points to learn ckfire skill?]
[10,000 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Master level Skill: Oxygen Maniption!]
¡
[Skill Points: 13,905]
[Constitution Points: 10]
------
After this spending spree, Rex took a deep breath as he felt like a great burden finally left his heart. There was no worse feeling than having something but being unable to use it due to certain reasons.
After spending his skill points to learn these skills, now, he could finally make full use of his strength as an intermediate mystic warrior.
Once he finished learning his skills, he finally turned to look at his 2panions and the other prisoners that were kept here with them.
Yesterday, after they were pursued by his old enemies, they escaped but they all ended up fainting from exhaustion.
Arthur Holmes was not able to catch up with them, rather, it was a group of primitive mystic hunters who saw them and took them away as prisoners.
From just a nce, Rex knew that all the dozens of hunters were basic mystic warriors. At this moment, the hunters were busy preparing what seemed like a ritual for their gods, it seemed Rex and the others were the sacrifice.
Grey was the only one who was not among the prisoners, it seemed that the hunters refused to take such a massive beast as a prisoner or Grey escaped.
Through their connection, Rex knew that his transformed beast was still alive which was why he settled for either of those 2 options.
As he looked at them, Princess nor looked back. Looking on at this pretty Elven Princess now, Rex could not help but smile, they indeed escaped.
From her slightly swollen eyes, it could be easily deducted that she was still exhausted both physically and mentally. Everything that happened in the previous day still haunted her, it would take some time for her to heal fully.
"Can we go now?" She asked.
"Just a moment". Rex smiled.
The Vampire Elder''s Inheritance, the skill points, and the constitution points were not the only things that he got from the Micro World of Elias.
Even apart from Berserker being upgraded straight to the Advanced mystic level, he got other benefits that he was about to work on.
Once he was ready, he essed his storage ring and brought out his Coffin of the Ancients. Once the coffin came out to the shock of the primitive hunters, Rex ignored them and ced a hand on it.
[1000 Mystic energy points have been deducted!]
[Beast Transformation process has started!]
[Wait for 15 minutes¡]
"Hey! Stop that! I''ll shoot you¡, I''ll shoot you!"
Rex ignored the hunters who pointed guns at him. Aragorn and Princess nor also kept quiet as they already recognized the coffin as a special one.
This time, Rex did not just continue doing it, he threw in mystic stones like water as the color of the coffin kept on changing for the entire 15 minutes.
After a tense 15 minutes, everything quietened down, the transformation was a sess as his system lit up a notification the next moment.
[Congrattions! You have created a Transformed Beast!]
[You have acquired a pure bloodline beast: Storm Kamaitachi!]
[Special Requirement met: Starting point of Transformed Beast is the Advanced level!]
[Do you want to give your transformed beast a name?]
"Yes". Rex answered with a grin as he looked back at the massive Kamaitachi whose body was different from the others.
The body of this Kamaitachi had patterns making it look like a raging storm. Without a doubt, this was a purer blood Kamaitachi.
"Well, your name is evident already, I''ll name you Storm!"
[Transformed Beast has been named: Storm!]
------
[Transformed Beast: Storm Kamaitachi!]
[Grade: Advanced Mystic Beast!]
Name: Storm
Master: Rex Vector
Strength: 2,325
Speed: 4,800
Mind: 500
Vitality: 2,100
Agility: 4,550
Dexterity: 4,200
Health Points [HP]: 8000/8000
Mystic Energy Points [MP]: 4,900/4,900
Mystic Affinity: Storm
[Skills: ¡; ¡; Sprint; Weather Maniption; Storm Harness; Storm Assassin!]
[Passive Abilities: Wind Speed; Sharpness!]
[Sharpness: Nails are naturally extremely sharp and is further mystic energy empowered to be sharper for attacking!]
[Remark: The mount of the good life.]
¡
[Transformed Beast: Dark Mist Spider!]
[Grade: Advanced Mystic Beast!]
Name: Grey
Master: Rex Vector
Strength: 3,100
Speed: 2,300
Mind: 350
Vitality: 3,500
Agility: 2,100
Dexterity: 1,800
Health Points [HP]: 14,000/14,000
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 3,800/3,800
Mystic Affinity: Darkness
[Skills: Tail Stab; Silk; Poison Throw; Jump; Sprint; Mist Travel; Dark Mist!]
[Passive Abilities: Poison; Leverage!]
[Remark: Gandalf is growing¡]
-----
Rex stood up, snapping the chains that bound him in the process. "I''m done," He turned to smile at hispanions. "Let''s go".
"And what is a Kamaitachi doing here?" Princess nor asked vigntly.
"Oh, that''s my new pet, Storm".
Well, not much needed to be said as Storm singlehandedly rampaged through the base of the hunters, setting all the prisoners free in the process.
They escaped effortlessly and continued their journey to the Gundam Shelter. 3 dayster, they finally arrived at their destination.
Chapter 134 New Environments
"Why did you decide toe to the Gundam Shelter again?"
Rex smiled as soon as Princess nor asked. "Well, in more simpler terms, the Gundam Shelter is the most dangerous andpetitive of all the small shelters".
"Here, survival of the fittest is embodied at its finest".
"Here, thew of the strongest fist survives rules supreme".
"It''s the shelter with the most blockbuster history in the earth rim too".
p Rex sucked some of the Princess''s blood to replenish his reserves before he continued. "ording to history that was taught to me in my mystic academy, the Gundam Shelter was among the very first small shelters to be built".
"It is surrounded by 3 dangerous forests, the Great Forest of Elias, the Great Dungeon Forest, and the Great Ape Forest".
"Of all the small shelters that were built in such dangerous locations, only the Gundam Shelter has survived to this day".
"Being such a dangerous location, most politicians and mystic families refused to settle here and govern it, thereby leaving it to warriors like you and I".
"Over the years, the Gundam Shelter degraded until it became no greater than a criminal hub".
"On paper, it is a shelter but in reality, it is a home to misfits like us".
"Gangs, military organizations, mercenary organizations, criminals, theye to the Gundam Shelter to try their hand at a new life to see if they can get to the top, the same reason that motivated I and Aragorn toe here".
"Over the years, the mystic beasts have tried to run down the shelter but the warriors that were produced by this dangerous shelter rose to the challenge".
"Most of the dark Legendary Mystic Warriors of this day were rumored to have been bred and produced by the Gundam Shelter".
"Mystic warriors thrive in chaos and the Gundam Shelter fully embodies it".
"With the 3 Great Forests, there are nock of mystic beasts to fight. Beast tide invasions are normal urrences here".
"And with the number of criminals here, there is no order which means there is nock of opportunities for mystic warriors to fight among themselves".
"Essentially, the Gundam Shelter is a chaotic ce where the strong gets stronger and the weak are trampled on to death".
Aragorn scoffed amid the speech, irritating Rex. "What''s with all the borate descriptions, you suck at it".
Without caring about Rex''s expression, Aragorn turned to face the beautiful Elven Princess. "In simple terms, the Gundam Shelter is the Afghanistan of today".
Well, Aragorn cut him off but Rex also had to admit that his exnation was far smoother. He could only suck it up and lead the way to the dangerous shelter.
"You''d better hide your ears; we don''t want to attract attention so early". Rex was kind to remind the Elven Princess as they made their way into the shelter.
¡
"Scorpion, why did you not act? How dare you defy my will?!"
Arthur raged in his secret hideout at the Sting Assassin, his blood boiled as it felt like he was on a burning fire. Once again, he failed in his mission to take in thest descendant of the Vector family, he felt humiliated and frustrated.
Rex eluded him again so easily this time that he felt extremely ashamed. "Dammit, dammit, how does he improve so fast?"
"How?! He barely knew the mystic calculus thest time, f*cking how?!"
"Scorpion, you idiot! Answer me¡" Arthur paused mid-sentence as the familiar yellow and ck assassin attire suddenly appeared just beside him, the breath caressing his neck chilled his blood as Scorpion finally spoke.
"Call me an idiot again and you''ll lose your head".
"Y-you, how dare you¡"
"Your family can kill me; I don''t give a damn, at least not anymore".
"Before they can move to kill me though, I may have already started dining in the blood spurting from your severed throat".
Before turning to leave, the Scorpion left hisst message. "I''m willing to help you, but first of all, I want to meet my daughter".
"If I can''t meet her, forget about it".
"B-but¡"
"You fought him; you should have a good idea of how strange his improvement is. If you think your family''s archenemy left theirst descendant all alone to fend for himself, then you''re more foolish than I thought".
Scorpion left as his calcted strides left a deep impression in Arthur, he stammered. "M-my father will kill you!"
"I no longer care; I''ve lost my patience".
After the Scorpion disappeared, Arthur gritted his teeth angrily. "That arrogant fool, you''re nothing but a ve!"
¡
Unlike most other mainstream shelters out there, the massive walls that were built around the Gundam Shelter already suffered a lot of damage.
Entire sections of the wall were already leveled down, there was barely any intact section and this was as a result of the constant beast attacks over the years.
There was no order in the shelter but Rex and hispanions already knew that there were some hidden rules to follow. To save their necks, it was not advisable to enter the shelter through the main entrance.
Aragorn took the lead this time as they located a smuggler. "I want to enter the shelter with my friends and I also need a map of it to navigate around".
"3000 Gundam Shelter credits or an equivalent mystic treasure". The smuggler with a huge cowboy cat that covered part of his face spoke.
"Deal!" Aragorn soon brought out a pair of pistols. "Both are of a rare quality, basic mystic treasures, are they enough?"
"Haha¡" The smugglerughed and was about to talk but Aragorn interjected. "I''ll triple the amount, deal?"
The smuggler hesitated and seeing this, Aragorn turned to leave without a word. Before he left though, the smuggler relented. "3 pairs of pistols it is then".
With that, the 3 of them who were all dressed in ck at this moment were able to enter the smuggling vehicle which soon started driving away.
After getting his hands on the map, Aragorn''s eyes soon found what he wanted even as Rex and Princess nor observed their new environment.
>Warehouse for sale<
>Base Price: 3,000,000 Duncan Shelter credits<
"Tsk!" Aragorn clicked his tongue. "Starting over is hard".
Chapter 135 The Master Plan
In a restaurant at a remote part of the Gundam Shelter sat 3 friends, 2 handsome and fit young men and a hoodeddy with fair skin.
Even with the thick hood that covered her face and body, hiding most of the more tantalizing parts of her great beauty, Princess nor still received perverted stares from the drunkards in the restaurant.
She fought hard to hide her irritation since this was a first to her. Back in the Micro World, as the Princess, she was respected by all.
Adapting was hard for her but she forced herself to. There was a saying that in the Gundam Shelter, even a lousy beggar was a powerful mystic warrior.
This was still an exaggeration but it spoke a lot about the concentration of mystic warriors here, Princess nor had no intentions of pissing them off.
As neers, to survive here, lying low for the meantime was a must.
In the table for 3 where they sat, beside the drinks was a map of the Gundam Shelter. Through the map, the 3 friends already knew of the 3 major parts of the shelter that they needed to take note of.
The major locations were the Red Zone, the ck Zone, and the Snake Territory which was the home ground of the most notorious criminal gangs around.
The ck Zone was predominantly the territory of the numerous military organizations and mercenary organizations that settled here to ply their trade.
The Snake Territory was predominantly the ground of the criminal gangs, while the Red Zone was the real chaotic zone where newbies could start all over.
Like every other newbie that came to the Gundam Shelter to try their hand at an opportunity to turn their fate around and rise to the top, Rex and his 2 friends started in the Red Zone.
The Red Zone was full of small-time military organizations and criminal gangs, it presented the best chance for Rex to start their power struggle.
"So, what do you think of it?" Rex asked as he turned to look at Aragorn and the Elven Princess who still seemed pissed by all the stares in her direction.
"Ignore them, you''ll have to get used to it sooner orter". Aragorn gave his little piece of advice before he continued. "Actually, beforeing here, I already have aplete n for my progression through the ranks".
"My first n is getting a suitable warehouse to take as my workshop".
Aragorn scratched his head. "After my visit to the Micro World, I have a lot of techniques and ideas that I wish to bring to reality as soon as possible".
"Through the workshop, I''ll improve my mechanic abilities. As for how to improve my other mystic ability, there is nock of battle and beasts to fight in the Gundam Shelter, what I should be worried about instead is surviving them all".
"Also, if you agree, we can make the workshop our base of operations. Everything that we do would start from there".
Once Aragorn presented his n, he and Rex turned to face the Elven Princess, leaving her stunned. "Huh, me?"
"Yes".
She frowned slightly before speaking. "I don''t really have a n yet, probably I''ll develop one along the line but for now, I''m content with following yours".
"Well, that''s eptable". Rex nodded his head. "Actually, my n toe to the Gundam Shelter started months ago and I already did a good number of research to arrive at aprehensive n".
"An important factor that I learned in my research was survival, it is the greatest factor and to survive, we need to make friends here".
"The only friends we can make here are the different criminal gangs and military organizations, we need to find a suitable and powerful enough friend".
"To get a powerful friend though, we need to be powerful enough also".
Rex looked at Aragorn. "Do you have a target in mind already for your mechanic workshop?"
Aragorn scratched his little beards. "Well, I did my own research and I have a suitable target already but the problem is the money".
"How much?"
"3 million Duncan Shelter credits".
"Good". Rex nodded.
Aragorn was stunned. "Good?"
"Yeah, that just solved our problem of trying to prove our strength. Don''t forget, we are in awless region now, all we need to do is find, thrash the original owners, and seize the warehouse by force to prove our strength".
"After that, we find the archrivals of the gang who originally owns the warehouse, they''ll surely agree to an alliance with the exterminator of their rivals".
"With that, the friend problem is solved".
"After that, well, everything else wille naturally. Like you said, there''s nock of opportunities to fight, train, and get stronger in the Duncan Shelter".
"All we need to do is take advantage of our opportunities and not die".
"¡" Princess nor was left speechless after Rex was done.
Aragorn chuckled. "I never knew you were such a master ner".
Rex smiled. "When you have as much time as I had to n, you''ll find it easy arriving at a master n, now let''s drink".
As the 3 friends drank, it was not even up to a minute after they finished talking that 5 muscr thugs came and stood before them imposingly.
"Hey!"
Rex raised his head to look at them.
"I overheard you talking about the Skull warehouse," The first thug turned to look at his 4panions before smirking. "Do you know who we are? You''re not actually thinking of crossing the Skull gang, right?"
"If you kneel and kowtow 3 times before me, perhaps I may decide to make your death painless".
Rexughed and stood up while looking at Aragorn. "Told ya? Things are so easy and straightforward here. Now, we don''t have to go looking for them".
"Humph, you dare ignore me¡?"
"Whoosh!
The thug barely finished before a sword was unsheathed. Before he could react, sword light already passed as his lips were cut cleanly into 2 equal parts.
The restaurant froze as every warrior looked in rm.
"Ahhh¡.!!!" The thug who lost half his lips screamed in pain as blood poured.
"Get him!" The other 4 thugs reacted.
------
[You have activated Skill: Double Plutonian sh!]
-----
Rex started with a Double Plutonian sh followed by a series of rapid swordbos. In just 2 seconds, 4 thugsy on the floor dead as Rex walked up to the first thug who lost half his lips.
While all this happened, Princess nor and Aragorn remained seated sipping at their drinks. An effective show of power was fully embodied by them.
Rex soon grabbed the thug by his remaining half lip. "Location?"
"Guhh¡, uhh¡, you''ll die¡, ahhh!!!"
"Location?"
"Ahh¡, I''ll talk, please wait". The thug was released by Rex as he fell down and rolled on the floor in agony. "I''ll talk, please, our base is directly opposite the Blood Market".
"Good". Rex nodded. "Let''s leave".
The trio of mystic warriors finally left the restaurant after an effective show of strength. As they left, news of the neers rapidly circted.
The news in no time got to the desk of the Skull Pugilist.
Chapter 136 The Skull Gang
The Skull Gang was one of the established gangs in the Red Zone.
They were renowned and feared not only because of their numbers, but mostly because of their leader, the Skull Pugilist who was a powerful Advanced mystic warrior who already proved his strength numerous times.
The Skull Pugilist who singlehandedly founded the notorious Skull Gang like most Advanced mystic warriors here had only 2 mystic abilities.
In the Gundam Shelter here, there were no established academies like the Obedin Mystic Academy to teach students and distribute mystic abilities to them.
In here, mystic warriors had to fight for themselves and acquire mystic abilities themselves.
The Skull Pugilist''s 2 mystic abilities wereplementary, with the first being a purely physical mystic ability that amplified his physical strength.
The 2nd was a mystic ability that massively amplified his soul defense against soul attacks which also gave him the capability to use basic soul attack skills.
For mystic warriors like him, they had no ring weaknesses which was one of the basic requirements to survive in the Gundam Shelter.
The main base of the Skull Gang was a massive mansion that was opposite the Blood Market which was run by multiple of the leading gangs in the Red Zone.
During times like this when there was no beast invasion orrge-scale gang fights, the Skull Pugilist was chilling in his mansion like usual after a stressful expedition to the Great Dungeon Forest where he almost got stuck in a dungeon.
Heid down carefreely at the center of the garden in the mansion as he was attended to by 6 beautifuldies who massaged his muscles, giving special attention to the little brother that was now rigid underneath his pants.
All of a sudden, he frowned and not long after that, the beautifuldies looked to the right where one of the gang members came running in.
"What?" The Skull Pugilist''s rough and ugly voice reverberated, irritated.
"Boss, a little trouble popped up".
The Skull Pugilist''s face squinted in irritation. "How many times do I have to tell you not to bring little troubles to my attention anymore?"
"Boss, this one is worth your attention".
"It better be," He snorted. "Or you''ll pay with your head".
After going through the report, he snorted again. "Humph, someone actually dares to target my prized warehouse, who is he?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Boss, it''s a trio of neers. 5 random warriors in our gang confronted them and 4 of them ended up dying to one of them in just 2 seconds".
"As for thest of them, half of his lips was cut off while he was told to run here and tell us. ording to him, 3 of them are already on their way here to the mansion".
The Skull Pugilist''s eyes narrowed even further; he could already see the intentions of the 3 mystic warriors. "They intend to steamroll through my base to establish their standing in the city?"
"Yes boss".
"What rank are they?"
"The one who attacked seems to be their leader and is a peak Intermediate mystic warrior, the remaining 2 have a high chance of being of the same rank".
The Skull Pugilist sneered. "The nerve of them! Let theme to meet death, I''m waiting for them".
¡
Though from the restaurant to the Blood Market only took 10 minutes, Rex and his 2panions deliberately stalled for over an hour as the tension between both sides finally permeated into the Red Zone, attracting attention.
This was when they finally came out in the most high-profile manner possible. Rex, Aragorn, and nor walked out in the open straight towards the massive mansion as the Elven Princess already nocked her arrow.
Whoosh!
Without hesitation, nor released 3 arrows at once as 3 of the warriors who watched them from on top the mansion walls instantly lost their lives.
Everyone was stunned including the Skull gang warriors, they never expected such proactiveness, this was pure violence in disy, there was no time for peace.
"Skull Ass, if you know that''s your name, get your f*cking p*ssy out here!"
When living among criminals, behave like one to feel among. This was exactly what Rex did, to fully send a message across, this was necessary.
Killing 3 of their warriors was already a great nerve-racking action, with Rex''s words, the proud warriors of the Skull Gangpletely lost it.
"Who the f*ck is this bastard?"
"He thinks he can screw over with our Skull Gang?"
"Get him! Get that f*cker!"
As the riled-up warriors ran towards him, Rex raised his hand and switched on a mechanical device that Aragorn gave to him to amplify his voice.
The next moment, he smirked and spoke in a loud voice. "If the legendary Skull Ass is content with hiding like a scared p*ssy behind his meaningless warriors, then so be it, I''ll dly dine in their blood".
Shing!
"Shing!" Berserker yelled in anticipation as he anticipated the battle.
Once Rex unsheathed Berserker, he was about to start a sprint to begin the ughter but a loud voice stopped him the next moment.
"Stop!" With the voice came a towering mystic warrior in Brown Barbarian clothes that looked like a Giant, the Skull Pugilist.
When the Skull Pugilist came forward and stood beside Rex with his massive Hammer, all the warriors of the Skull Gangughed. At this moment, Rex was like a Dwarf before this massive fellow, he alsoughed at the scene.
"Do you know what?"
"Huh?"
"Bring your head closer if you want to hear".
The Skull Pugilist was irked and amazed by the confidence being disyed by this swordsman, he leaned closer to hear what he had to say and this was where Rex did the impossible by grabbing this Giant''s ear.
"This scenario kind of reminds me of the David and Goliath scenario".
"The guts!" The Skull Pugilist was thoroughly incensed by this act from the swordsman as he raised his massive Hammer and was about to smack him to death.
As he raised the hammer up, Rex said only one word. "Storm!"
The first thing that happened was the sky darkening, then a massive wind blowing across, everything happened in less than a second as the silhouette of a massive white beast shed across.
Whoosh!
A moment ago, the Skull Pugilist was still ring at the daring young man, the next, he felt his vision spinning as he first saw the blue skies, then the crowd of astonished warriors, then the brown earth, then finally darkness.
Rex''s new transformed beast, Storm the Kamaitachi responded to the call on time as nned and assassinated the Skull Pugilist before he could react.
The Skull Pugilist''s head was cleanly cut through by Storm''s sharp nails.
Everyone was shocked senseless. "What the f*ck!!!"
Chapter 137 Building Foundations
Absolute silence reigned that you could even hear a pin drop.
Everyone expected a one-sided battle but definitely not this.
They expected the scene of the Giant Skull Pugilist thrashing the arrogant swordsman to death, no one expected to see the opposite where the Skull Pugilist died without even struggling.
As the dust of the shock died down, this was when attention finally turned to the culprit, the massive white Kamaitachi who now stood beside Rex.
Rex caressed the Kamaitachi''s head and this single act was able to prove a point as it sent ripples of shock through the minds of every warrior present watching this, this swordsman was the owner of this Advanced mystic beast.
Rex did not stop there though. In a world of criminals, there was nothing like too much bravado since it was the only ticket to keep other criminals away.
To make them respect you, show them your strength, this was their creed.
To amplify the shock of the warriors, Grey finally came out of his hiding spot as it bathed all the warriors present with its Advanced mystic aura.
As they basked in its aura, the warriors of the Skull Gang shuddered as some even messed themselves up. Rex sheathed Berserker back while ignoring itsints of having not joined the battle so he could pat Grey''s head also.
If they were shocked previously, this act from Rex exploded their brains.
"He has 2 Advanced mystic beasts?! F*ck!!!"
It was at this moment that they knew that they f*cked up.
It was also at this moment that Aragorn and Princess nor came forth to stand beside him, Rex no longer hesitated as he rode the moment and finally spoke.
"From today, there shall be no more Skull Gang".
"From today, this gang shall be called the Berserker Gang and I am the leader. If any warrior here objects to my decision,e out now or forever stay silent".
No warrior dared to walk out and Rex continued.
"From today, the Skull Mansion bes known as the Berserker Mansion. The Skull Warehouse also bes known as the Berserker Warehouse".
No one knew who started it first, but after Rex finished his short speech as he predicted, the warriors of the new Berserker Gang started dropping to their knees in respect of their new leader.
The notion of loyalty did not apply to criminals unless they were family to the gang leader. They all came here for benefits and survival, not to be loyal to a leader who did not give a damn about their living or dying.
In their opinion, Rex was a better leader than the Skull Pugilist ever was. He may just be an Intermediate mystic warrior, but he had 2 Advanced mystic beasts.
This was a force stronger than anything that the Skull Pugilist previously represented. With such a powerful leader, their lives ahead would be much easier.
After they paid their respects, an Intermediate mystic warrior came forth to meet Rex. "Gang leader, what should I refer to you as?"
Rex contemted before replying. "Call me the Blood King".
"Gang leader Blood King, I was the administrator of the previous Skull Gang. I have experience at the job, I hope you can appoint me to the same position".
Rex did not hesitate. "The job is yours but first, I want you to calm the other warriors fast before taking me to your archenemies".
"The Bat Gang?"
Rex raised his eyebrows at the term bat but he nodded. "If they are your archenemies, then yes".
"Understood, Gang leader".
Gavin, Rex''s new administrator showed his specialties as he worked fast to get the Berserk Gang up and running. In 30 minutes, he was done as he finally took his 3 superiors to the territory of the Bat Gang.
¡
5 minutester, Rex, Aragorn, Princess nor, and Gavin were seated before the leader of the Bat Gang and his subordinates.
"What do you want?" The middle-aged man with bat-like eyebrows asked.
"I at least expected some appreciation". Rex chuckled. "I just killed your archrival, is that not a feat to be appreciated for?"
"You didn''t kill him for my own good, you did it for yourself".
"Yes, and no". Rex smiled. "Of course, I admit that I killed him to establish myself in this city but there''s a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Rex''s face turned serious. "You and I know that no matter how strong your Bat Gang currently seems, you are not safe".
"To survive, allies are needed, strong allies".
"I eliminated a rival for you and in exchange, I want us to be allies. The race of the Gundam Shelter is not an individual one, we rise by lifting others up, those that rose to the top have this as their code".
The middle-aged man with bat-like eyebrows kept eye contact with Rex as it seemed like he was still contemting, making Rex chuckle.
"You know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I and my 2 friends are peak Intermediate mystic warriors with a great chance of leveling up in the near future".
"Also, remember that we are still young".
"Deal!" Gang leader Beastmare finally agreed.
Both gang leaders shook hands and signed a pact together before sharing dinner together. With this, Rex seeded in building his first foundation for sess. It was during the dinner that Rex made a proposal to his first ally.
"I''m searching for a warrior who can manage my gang on my behalf".
The Beastmare was surprised. "But you have Gavin".
"No, I want someone strong enough to at least take care of himself when I can''te immediately. I came here with a lot of ambitions, I can''t share my time to manage this gang, I need a fill-in gang leader".
"I want someone capable and smart".
"Hmmm, I can give a few candidates but the repercussions of choosing any of them are yours, not mine, agreed?"
"Of course," Rex smiled.
20 minutester, Rex and his 2 friends left the territory of the Bat Gang alongside Gavin as they finally went to the newly named Berserk Warehouse.
As soon as he entered the massive warehouse that looked as huge as a fantasy stadium, Aragorn sniffed the air as a wide smile came over his face.
"This is mine, this is all mine!" He grinned like a maniac.
Rex smiled at Aragorn''s antics as he turned to face Gavin. "How much do we have in our treasury?"
"Approximately 18 million Gundam Shelter Credits".
Rex turned back to face Aragorn. "Well, that''s all yours".
Aragorn was shocked. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, what are bros for?" Rex chuckled before adding. "Just make sure that your workshop makes money for us in the future as a return for the investment".
"That''s a surety". Aragorn grinned.
Once Aragorn got his hands on the ount, he offloaded every random thing away from the warehouse as he finally started his ultimate workshop creation.
2 weekster, there was a new mechanic workshop in the city called the Berserk Mechanic Workshop.
With this, they finally built the basic foundations to start their quest of oveing all odds and rising to the top.
Chapter 138 Bring It On!
-------
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Fortified Soul!]
[Your Soul Power has increased!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 34/40.]
¡
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Soul Manifestation!]
[Your ckfire Soul energy maniption affinity has improved!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 5/35.]
¡
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Shadow Mystic Ability!]
[Your Shadow Energy Affinity has increased!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 4/20.]
-----
It felt like yesterday, but it was already 2 weeks in the Gundam Shelter.
,m During these 2 weeks, the Berserk Gangid low due to orders from their 3 leaders as they slowly adapted to the life of being under a new leader and understanding the personalities of their leaders.
During this time, Rex and his 2panions alsoid low as they had a lot of things that they intended to put in ce and master.
After all their adventures mostly in the Great Forest of Elias, they acquired a lot of things that they needed to give time to thoroughly master first before they could move forward.
Whereas Aragorn acquired new craftsmanship techniques, Princess nor got herplete gift inheritance and was adapting to a new region, while Rex acquired new skills including a master-level skill.
To fight at his full strength without his transformed beasts, he needed to properly master his new skills and integrate them into his fighting style.
After all the system missions that he aplished and all the mystic energy limits that he was rewarded with, he was already close to the 10th tier of the Intermediate mystic realm to match up with Aragorn and Princess nor.
In these 2 weeks, he took thest step that was remaining for him to get to the peak of the Intermediate mystic realm and he received a system mission.
-------
[You have triggered a Level up mission: Advanced Mystic Realm!]
[Mission Details: Kill an Advanced Mystic Warrior alone without any help.]
[Mission Reward: Sessful grade level up.]
¡
[Mission Completed!]
[You have been rewarded with a sessful grade level up.]
[Congrattions! You are now an Advanced Mystic Warrior!]
[You have unlocked Zone Aura!]
[You have unlocked Soul Perception!]
-----
For the 2nd time in his life, Rex experienced the satisfying feeling of his strength ballooning like a rocket that was about to exceed escape velocity.
It always felt nice to get stronger but grade level ups brought this feeling to an even higher level, Rex wanted to experience this feeling forever.
After his level up, like usual, all his stats experienced an increase again and this time the increase was even more ridiculous.
Once Princess nor and Aragorn heard of his sessful level up, they were shocked. Aragorn felt shocked the most as he met Rex when he was still just a newbie Intermediate mystic warrior with barely any noticeable strength.
"Holy freak!" He was astonished by this growth speed.
It was natural to feel envious, but Aragorn felt even better that his sworn brother was slowly achieving his dreams.
He remembered when he first met Rex, Rex was almost unapproachable then after he just left home. After all the traumas of his family and his town, he always felt like an outcast but this started disappearing as their brotherhood grew.
Rex already made a decision to disassociate himself from his loved ones due to the terrible dangers that lurked behind his back and destiny, but with Aragorn, he slowly learned to trust a brother and to do things together.
In just these few weeks to months that they had spent together, they had impacted each other so positively that they changed a lot without knowing it.
Aragorn took Rex''s level up as motivation as he worked harder on setting up his workshop. As for Princess nor, she took it as a challenge as for the next few days, she put in an absolute bonkers level of work rate on her training.
Her training paid off also, having lingered at the peak of the Intermediate mystic realm for a few months, she also finally leveled up to the Advanced realm.
Now with 2 weeks having passed, 2 of them were Advanced Mystic Warriors while Aragorn fulfilled his dream of erecting his ultimate workshop.
Overall, things were moving in the right direction during their first 2 weeks in the dangerous Gundam Shelter.
In the 2 weeks, after leveling up, Rex mostly focused on training his swordsmanship as this was also a vital aspect of his strength as a mystic warrior.
After another session of training with his cultivation techniques, Rex sat down in his room as he finally decided to check his system status again.
---------------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 18
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire Knight
Rank: Advanced Mystic Warrior
Advanced Warrior Grade: 1st tier
Strength: 1,445
Speed: 1,380
Mind: 800
Vitality: 2,200
Agility: 1,090
Dexterity: 1,050
Health Points [HP]: 11,000/11,000
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 6,100 /6,100
[Basic Skills: Double Plutonian sh; Needle Stab; Drilling Stab; Boomerang sh; Zone; Ethereal sh; Blood Strike.]
>Advanced Sword Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
>Advanced ckfire Skills<
[Self-Combustion!]
>Master Level Skills<
[Ultimate Iron Defense!]
[Oxygen Maniption!]
¡
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire Knight
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients; Wind Boots; Coke Armor; Parasitic Armor.]
[Skill Points: 13,905.]
[Constitution Points: 10.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Blood Drain; Life Drain- Killing Touch; Freezing Touch- Freezing, Phasing- Mid-range Teleportation.]
[Blood Tome Martial Techniques: Touch of Death; Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death!]
[Blood Tome Token: Coffin of the Ancients; Death Daggers- Upgradable!]
[Locked! Be a Vampire Lord to ess more of the Blood Tome!]
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Intermediate Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Humanoid Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead humanoid creature is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline humanoids.]
[Beast Transformation: When a recently dead or half-dead mystic beast is ced inside the coffin and is supplied with mystic energy, the coffin can randomly transform them into pure bloodline mystic beasts.]
[Transformation % is below 20%, and the difficulty of transformation increases with the rank of the target of transformation.]
[Mystic Stones can be offered to increase the rate of transformation.]
[Current Humanoid Transformation Slot: 2]
[Current Beast Transformation Slot: 3]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
[Remark: By boy living the dream!]
----------
"Tsk!" Rex ticked his tongue after going through his new system status. "The system is right; I''m really living the dream already".
He still remembered vividly when he had toment his inability to use mystic energy, now in less than a year, he was already an Advanced mystic warrior.
"Damn, life is so unpredictable".
The attribute that surprised him the most in his new status was his health points which were more than one of his transformed beasts, this was possible because of the massive advantages that he got from his Vampire bloodline.
Apart from the health points, in literally every other stat, his 2 transformed beasts dwarfed him. This was natural for beasts to have higher stats than humans.
Beasts enjoyed the greatest boost from mystic energy since they were the original carrier of this energy. Humans made up for this deficiency with their better control over mystic energy which they channel through their skills and techniques.
For the first time since he knew the truth about his family, Rex no longer felt so insecure, he felt confident for the first time.
He clenched his fist. "Bring it on!"
Chapter 139 Aragorns Plan For A Grade Level Up
The sound of moving gears and whirring machinery reverberated in the background as Rex and Princess nor entered the Berserk Mechanic Workshop.
Unlike 2 weeks ago, not only did the massive warehouse experience a huge overhaul in terms of now being filled with machines of different types, it was also no longer as silent as mystic technicians filled it.
With a budget of over 18 million credits, Aragorn was extremely grateful to his 2panions as he had the free will to put a lot of things in ce.
Aragorn was someone who once worked under a master mechanic in the form of his master, and another master mechanic in the form of Queen Gdriel of the Elven Kingdom of the Mystic World.
Having worked under these 2, he was already exposed to a lot of techniques and setups and his knowledge about mechanics were the cream of the crop.
Even with all that money, getting the best machines was impossible. Aragorn didn''t need the best machines though, he needed what he could use.
There was no use getting the best machines when he could not use them to their fullest potentials yet, that was just a waste of money and resources.
With his budget, Aragorn was able to get the best machines that were just right for the job. He also got mystic technicians to serve as his assistants.
Mystic mechanics may be extremely raremodity, but the same could not be said for mystic technicians especially in a ce like the Gundam Shelter.
Before, he was a lone wolf but with such a huge workshop now, he needed assistants. His assistants were thest piece that solved the puzzle.
"With that smile on your face, I bet you''re living the dream already". Rex smiled as they finally met Aragorn at the heart of the workshop.
Aragorn was dressed in yellow mechanic attire with a ck glove on, he turned to look at them with a grin. "Yes, you can say that, I''m living the dream".
"So, is everything set?" Princess nor asked as she looked around. "Can you return your focus back to your training now, you''regging behind you know right?"
"Yeah, I know". Aragorn smirked. "But not for long".
"My mystic energy limit is already at the peak of the intermediate realm, my Blood Gunner basics are solid also, so over the months I think the catalyst that I need for a level up is through my mechanic mystic ability".
"Just let me follow my passion and create machines, I guarantee that I''ll be an Advanced mystic warrior in a month if I''m fast enough".
"Good!" Princess nor nodded, satisfied.
For some reason, after the encounters that led to her running away from home, this Elven Princess matured and developed a strange obsession for training.
Just like Rex, she now wanted to get power by all means and fast. She wanted to return home fast and liberate her race from the curse that gued them.
Aragorn reassured her further. "As a start, I want the both of you to make a list of all the mystic treasures that you arecking and that you need".
"I''ll try my best to provide them in a month".
Princess nor was quick to raise her hands. "I have everything that I need".
Rex was the one who contemted before replying. "I need a stronger pair of mystic boots, and a mystic armor".
"Well, if you have any ideas, you can also decide to make any mystic treasure that you feel that I can use. I don''t hate having too much mystic treasures". Rex smiled.
"Ok, consider it done". Aragorn gave a thumbs up.
Seeing this, Princess nor blushed before speaking. "Err¡, if there''s a mystic treasure to cover my ears, I''ll be d if you can make that for me".
"Oh, I''ll try my best to design and make one". Aragorn smiled at her.
After he finished setting up his workshop, Aragorn''s energy and happiness levels always seemed to be at a high now. This achievement of his seemed to have washed away some of the traumas that he lived with.
Seeing Aragorn like this, Rex felt happiness in his heart.
If these were the benefits of being strong enough to do things, then he was determined to get stronger just to see smiles like this in the face of those he loved.
"I''ll be the strongest!" He vowed as he secretly clenched his fists.
After giving his 2panions his reassurance, Aragorn was about to dive back into his craftsmanship work but Rex was quick to interrupt him.
"Bro, not so fast. Before you go, we want you to spectate us".
"Huh?" Aragorn was confused. "Spectate?"
"Yes". Princess nor finally spoke again. "After our grade level up, we both have not fought a real battle yet and after discussing, we decided to have a sparring contest between the both of us to gauge our current strength".
"We want you as the only spectator and officiator".
"¡" Aragorn scratched his head. "Uhh¡, ok".
Rex and Princess nor did not arrive at this decision in a whim. Here in the chaotic Gundam Shelter, it was either you fight or you are fought and killed.
For gangs here, their ways of making money and staying relevant was definitely not through peace, violence was the only truth known here.
To get money, gangs either robbed, fought against weaker gangs to annex them, or engage in mercenary and assassination businesses.
In the Gundam Shelter, there was now, there was no human rights.
Rex came here having knowledge of all this. He knew that here; he could no longer be a saint. To get stronger, he needed to do things, nefarious things.
If the Berserk Gang didn''t start soon enough, things would continue going down for them and one day, the gang members would abandon and betray him.
Before starting though, Rex wanted to know where he stood in the grand scheme of things and was why he agreed to this spar with the Elven Princess.
Aragorn waspletely fascinated by this decision that was made by his 2panions, he agreed to follow them as he brought his Monster Truck out.
The 3 warriors drove out of the shelter on the Monster Truck.
Their destination was the dreaded Great Ape Forest.
Chapter 140 A Sparring Contest [1]
Another factor that made the Gundam Shelter unique was the 3 forests which grew as they absorbed mystic energy andter evolved into Great Forests.
Rex and hispanions already experienced the Great Forest of Elias. As for the Great Ape Forest, it was home to the incredible Apes.
These incredible Apes were some that benefited most from the advent of mystic energy. They mutated, not just gaining more strength, but also gaining more intelligence that literally put them on the same level as some humans.
The strongest Apes of the Great Ape Forest could ride Hell Horses, they could use mystic weapons, they were some of the real dangers to humanity.
Despite the danger of the Great Ape Forest though, it was nowhere as dangerous as itsst counterpart, the Great Dungeon Forest.
The Great Dungeon Forest was ranked in the world as the 3rd in the list of the 5 most mystical locations that appeared after the age of awakening.
This forest had a shallow surface forest, the real forest was underground. Through the numerous tunnels that filled the forest, mystic warriors could literally ess other dimensions that were called dungeons.
There were different types of dungeons, some in desert settings, cier settings, and some even with alien settings.
Mystic warriors who were strong enough to roam around inside the dungeons when lucky could chance upon legendary mystic treasures, and it was one of the many attractions of the Gundam Shelter to vagabonds.
Rex''s decision toe here was also motivated a lot by this.
Zoom!
After the Monster Truck evaded a horde of apes and went deep inside the forest, all 3 friends came out as Aragorn now stood before the 2 contestants.
"Over the journey, I already thought about the perfect spar for you guys".
"I think just a 1 on 1 spar would not do the both of you justice. The spar would be in 2 phases, the first which is a normal 1 on 1 battle, and the 2nd phase which will involve you both going on an Ape killing spree".
"The one who kills the greatest number of Apes win".
"In 5 minutes, I will let my Monster Truck set a barrier around this location to prevent disruption, that is when your first spar would start".
"Use these 5 minutes to prepare yourself for the battle".
5 minutester, Rex and Princess nor stood facing each other from opposite directions with absolute serious expressions on their faces.
The rules that Aragorn made for the contest were no use of Super Grade and above mystic treasures, and no use of pet beasts to battle.
This way, both contestants could battle to their heart''s content in an even ground, Rex and Princess nor both agreed to the rules.
"3¡, 2¡, 1! Start!"
Whoosh!
Princess nor acted first as she released 3 arrows at the same time. Rex reacted almost instantaneously as he unsheathed Berserker from its scabbard.
------
You have activated skill: Double Plutonian sh!
-----
The sound of metals shing reverberated as the sword parried the first arrow. Rex dodged the remaining 2 arrows while his 2nd sword sh of the double Plutonian sh skill ruthlessly went for the kill.
Princess nor easily dodged the sword energy.
Rex did not stop with using a sword skill as he already started a mad sprint to close the distance to his opponent.
Despite the intimidating show by her opponent, Princess nor was not fazed as she stood rooted to the ground like a statue while her hands conjured arrows from the air through her mystic energy which she noosed on her bow.
The next moment, she briefly closed her eyes before opening them as instantly, she was able to actively channel her adrenaline reserves.
The wind around her seemed to increase as arrows started flying from her bow like the bulletsing from an automatic machine gun.
Rex tried to dodge but he was only able to keep up for 4 seconds before he was injured. He reacted instantly by activating both his Zone skill and his Self-Combustion advanced skill as his body was set in mes.
Some of the arrows that came close to him were incinerated by the raging ckfire even as he continued his sprint while putting his swordsmanship to full use, his hands moved like flowing water in a mesmerizing disy.
Swhaa! Swhaa!
Slicing sounds reverberated as Berserker cut arrows left and right.
This way, Rex was able to slowly close the distance even while sustaining some injuries as none of his long-ranged attacks was able to injure the Princess.
After closing the distance, he was about to lunge at her but Princess nor entered phase 2 of her strength. A shield made of golden metal first materialized to protect her before the trees in the forest started waving to her will.
Before Rex could react, tree branches grabbed him from different directions even as his raging ckfire incinerated the majority of them.
A few secondster, he was bound and unable to move as Princess nor finally made use of one of her trump card skills.
"Master Level Skill: Theater of Dreams- Reincarnation Arrow!"
Whoosh!
The arrow came so close as Rex felt goosebumps all over his body, his hair stood on end as his brain seemed to short circuit but adrenaline took over.
Rex instinctively activated one of his master level skills also.
-----
You have activated Master Level Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
----
Having trained with it for over a period of 2 weeks to use this skill with his sword, Rex finally made use of it in battle and it was a sess.
The loud sound reverberating from the impact was like a mighty sword cutting earth in twain as the arrow was ripped in 2 equal parts.
Rex lost more than 40% of his mystic energy from this one move but he was not done as his tired eyes zed onest time for ast grasp at victory.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex gave it his all in thatst moment as he rapidly closed the distance before unleashing his full repertoire of closebat abilities on the Elven Princess.
He literally used all his sword skills, vampire, and ckfire skills in the span of a few seconds as Princess nor rapidly sustained injuries.
Despite the injuries though, she never sumbed as her pride pushed her to retaliate like a Lion King who was at death''s door but was unresigned to its fate.
After onest sh, Rex received a golden metal stab to the chest even as Berserker reciprocated by stabbing into Princess nor''s abdomen.
Both contestants gasped as they staggered backwards, seemingly out of options but Rex was not. Rex gritted his teeth as he made use of thest trump card that he was ready to use for this spar.
He raised his left hand and grabbed at the air.
-----
You have activated Master Level Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
----
Princess nor''s eyes widened in shock as the air before her literally ignited out of nowhere into a burning hellfire.
The heat alone scalded her face, she dreaded to bath in this raging fire.
Rex did not relent as he controlled the burning air in her direction, he was already engrossed by thepetitive spirit in the spar to care.
Princess nor tried to defend with her golden metal mystic ability but the window of opportunity to act was too short, she was burnt.
As she groaned in pain, Aragorn finally yelled. "Stop!"
"The spar is over!"
Rex was finally able to stop himself as Princess nor red at him defiantly while he red back at her, his blood was still burning hot and pumping fast.
"Nice battle". He smiled the next moment.
Chapter 141 A Sparring Contest [2]
"Even without morphing into a half-bat, you were able to win". Princess nor frowned to express how she felt but she soon made up with Rex.
"Nice battle too, you''re really strong". She sincerelymended him.
All her life, Princess nor being the only Elf of her generation to inherit the bloodline gift of Legendary Archer enjoyed the status of being the most talented.
She basked in this status and enjoyed it during her teenage years, but as she grew older, she slowly started growing bored of not meeting a match in battle.
For the first time, she met a mystic warrior that was even more talented than her in Rex. Having listened to Aragorn''s ount about Rex, she already knew about the ridiculous amount of talent that this Vampire had.
What amazed her more was how Rex was able to trante this talent into realbat strength so easily. Not just his skills, Rex''s sword basics were super solid.
Overall, Princess nor finally met her match and this ignited herpetitive spirit. She was ready to work harder than ever now to surpass him.
"When is the 2nd phase of the contest beginning?" She asked impatiently, making Aragorn smile awkwardly.
Aragorn replied. "You guys won''t start now".
"After such an intense battle, though I know you''re not tired yet, it''s important to rest to be at your peak state for the next phase of the contest".
Aragorn smiled. "You know of the mystic calculus, right? That''s basically what it entails, knowing when to fight and knowing when to take a step back".
"I know!" Princess nor snapped once she started getting simr vibes to when her father was lecturing her back home.
Rex smiled at the two''s antics as he also went closer before sitting close to them to rest. This short battle allowed him to loosen up a lot after literally locking himself in to train for the past few weeks.
The rest was short, they had no intentions of staying in the Great Ape Forest longer than expected, and the forest was no ce for a vacation.
30 minutester, Aragorn led the 2 contestants to a location of the forest that was filled with Apes ranging from the basic mystic level to advanced level.
Aragorn started speaking. "For this phase of the contest, you 2 will contest under a timeframe of 1 hour".
"You are required to kill as many apes as you can during this period. The one who kills the greatest number of apes wins".
"A basic mystic Ape kill awards 2 points, an Intermediate mystic Ape kill awards 10 points, and an Advanced mystic Ape kill awards 50 points".
"I already scouted the region, there are no Super Mystic Beasts so you don''t have to worry about that".
Rex and Princess nor were about to start but Aragorn stopped them. "Onest reminder though, don''t die".
"You can start in 3¡, now!"
Whoosh!
Like usual, Princess nor was the first to attack as her bow literally started spamming dozens of golden metal arrows in the direction of the unsuspecting apes.
More than 5 Apes died instantly to the barrage of arrows, angering the others as the powerful Apes rose and started beating their chests while making loud challenge noises at the human intruder.
Princess nor ignored them and continued her attack.
Rex ignored his opponent''s progress and went at his own pace. With Berserker in his hand, he focused on the angered Apes that were now ring at him after seeing their brothers dying to the female human.
Unlike Princess nor, Rex was not a pure ranged attacker and before he could close the distance, the Apes finally attacked with their specialty.
The massive Apes broke tree branches, turning them into makeshift spears in an instant as they hauled them at the human sprinting towards them.
Once they made their moves, Rex also made his as his eyes glowed golden the next moment. By channeling his domain mystic energy, the golden energy soon covered Berserker as he swung his sword a few times.
Each sword swing was followed by extremely sharp sword energy as for the first time in a while, Rex fought again like a pure mystic swordsman.
Bam! Bam!
Each collision tore the thrown tree branches apart before ravaging through the Apes. Rex''s sword energy tore through the Apes like a hot knife through tofu.
"1, 2, 3, 4¡" Rex counted his number of kills as he progressed deeper.
In no time, he encountered his first Advanced Mystic Ape and he reacted ordingly. Rex first activated his Zone skill, rapidly mapping his surroundings to detect any other danger before activating his Self-Combustion skill.
Before the Ape could react, the human turned into a fiery burning torch which soon flew towards it. The ckfire scorched its thick skin, and before it could roar in pain, Rex already stabbed Berserker through its skin.
After 3 minutes of battle, he finished the massive Ape with a Nirvana sh.
30 minutes into the contest, Rex''s mystic energy was still at a high while Princess nor''s was already dwindling. This was an advantage granted by his system since every beast killed refunded him with mystic energy points.
Due to this advantage, he finally started closing the distance to Princess nor since his intuition told him that she was leading this round since.
15 minutes before the hour mark though, Rex felt rustling sounds in the forest. He instantly knew that this was no Ape, this was something else.
He took a defensive stance as the next moment, what seemed like a damaged space shuttle rushed out of the thick cluster of grasses and trees.
Behind this strange shuttle was a massive Ape. This was an Advanced mystic Ape, but this guy was bigger, older, and much more badass than every other thing that Rex had encountered in this forest.
The Ape jumped and mmed down on the shuttle with its 2 massive arms that looked like bulldozers ready to level a mountain.
Boom!
Rex was spooked by the impact as it felt like an earthquake took ce.
Thisst hit thoroughly crushed the shuttle, as the next moment 2 humans in silver vests were ejected out of it before it exploded.
As soon as the 2 humans were ejected, they saw the warrior swordsman. "Help us! Please help us! We''ll pay handsomely, please help us!"
Rex raised his eyebrows as a system mission appeared the next moment.
------
[You have triggered system mission: The Distressed Great Shelter Dwellers!]
[Mission Details: A group from the Great Silver Shelter in mid-earth came on a tour to mid-earth, they were betrayed by their bodyguards and ended up escaping all the way to the Great Ape Forest. They are still in danger.]
[Main Mission: Help them or kill them!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
-----
Rex was surprised. "A 2-faced mission?"
Chapter 142 The Invincible Ape!
The mission was short and urgent since the 2 humans were still in danger.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Rex was still able to understand something from the mission details and the main mission.
The main mission said to either help them or kill them. From the mission details, he guessed that if he killed them, he would be getting his rewards from the bodyguards of these 2 Great Shelter Dwellers.
In the same way, if he helped them, he would be getting his rewards from them.
"Great Shelter Dwellers huh, this is my first time meeting them".
Rex felt like a barbarian all of a sudden as he thought of the identities of these 2. Despite the many thoughts in his head, he still knew that he needed to act fast, and was why he did exactly just that.
Perhaps, killing them and handing their dead body over would give him more benefits, but in the long term, Rex believed he would suffer from it.
To prevent himself from going to the dark side, he already decided to do good when possible. This was a prime opportunity to do another good.
The joyful part about it was he would get paid for it.
-----
[You have activated Master Level Skill: Oxygen Maniption!]
----
Instantly, the air ignited as fire raged and concentrated in the direction of the massive Ape that was after the 2 humans in silver vests.
The fire engulfed the Ape, dealing a lot of damage but unlike what Rex expected, the Ape came out of the fire with only ckened skin.
It roared and beat its chest angrily before changing its target to him.
As the Ape charged toward him, Rex prepared himself for collision as this allowed the 2 Great Shelter Dwellers to finally catch their breath and hide behind a boulder that was nearby.
"Leave, here is not safe!"
"Keep on yelling Aragorn and nor until you''re saved!"
The 2 humans were stunned but they dared not dy as they obeyed and started running away while yelling. They barely started running before a collision sound reverberated again, Rex took the Ape head-on.
-----
[You have activated Master Level Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!]
----
Rex activated his 2 Master level skills consecutively as his mystic energy drained rapidly, but he was d he did since without it, he would have been crushed to meat paste by the ridiculous strength of this beast.
For the first time since he got this defense skill that his ancestor dubbed invincible, Rex learned first-hand that it was nowhere invincible.
He shed with the Ape fist for fist and the repercussions followed.
Rex''s eyes watered as the ripples of the collision spread through his hand into his body, jiggling his cheeks, lips, and muscles in the process as he suddenly felt like someone that was carrying the weight of the whole world.
Rex felt his knees buckle but as he felt the angry Ape about to punch again, his adrenaline levels soared in the face of danger as his eyes glowed.
Definitely, this Ape was above most other Advanced mystic beasts. This was a veteran Ape that had probably spent years or even decades in this realm.
Rex tried but he soon discovered that he could not dodge the Ape''s follow-up attack. The Ape was not just super strong but super-fast too.
-----
[You have activated Blood Tome skill: Phasing- Mid-range Teleportation!]
----
Bzzz!
Rex disappeared, finally escaping the harassment of the Ape but he was nowhere safe as this Ape seemed to also have enhanced senses.
As the Ape sought out his new location, Rex felt his heart in his throat for the first time since his grade level up to be an Advanced mystic warrior.
"Damn, what kind of Ape is this?!"
Rex dared not stay in one ce, he activated the 2 active abilities of his Wind Boots as he instantly started a mad sprint towards his friend''s direction.
Themotion of the battle was already felt by the others, and Princess nor who was the closest was the one who arrived first.
Whoosh!
Golden metal arrows rained from the skies, blotting the sun in an intimidating disy as the Elven Princess arrived but the Ape was not intimidated as it beat its chest angrily while facing the skies.
The next moment, the Ape mmed its 2 massive arms together. The impact was like a thunderp as a massive shockwave came from its epicenter.
Boom!
All the golden metal arrows were shattered to pieces as the shockwave further went to throw Rex and Princess nor flying away like headless chickens.
Even as they flew away, the massive Ape like King Kong did not relent as he ate yards of space sprinting towards its 2 prey that was in the air.
While still in mid-air, Rex used his Oxygen Maniption and other methods to try to hold it back while Princess nor manipted the nts to aid her but none of them could stop the Ape as it bulldozed through it all.
As the Ape was finally about to jump up to snatch one of them and end its life, the 3rd in the brotherhood finally appeared with his Blood Pistols.
Aragorn maintained his aim before unleashing hell on the massive Ape.
As the red-colored beams hit the Ape, it was pushed back for the first time but not for long as it started beating the momentum of the bullets and red beams.
Rex and Princess nornded and they rejoined the battle. Their pride did not let them escape. They believed that together, the 3 of them could kill this Ape but oh boy, they could not have been more wrong.
This Ape went against all odds as its massive arms wreak havoc like the Destroyer, smacking everything that the 3 warriors spammed at it to pieces.
The battle between the 4 of themsted just 4 minutes, and in this time, their mystic energy was almost depleted already due to the level of skills that they used while the Ape was injured but still fresh and raring to go.
"Roar!"
"Run!!!" That was the only conclusion that they coulde to.
The Monster Truck arrived right on time as it unleashed one of its newly updated killer missiles that sent the Ape flying back.
This bought enough time for 3 of them to board the Truck as the 2 Great Shelter Dwellers were already aboard. The next moment, Aragorn overloaded the Truck''s engines as it sped away from the Great Ape Forest.
The Ape was relentless as it pursued for 12 minutes before it finally lost them. Its angry roars continued reverberating in the forest as they escaped.
"Phew!" Rex wiped his sweat in the Truck.
Chapter 143 The Quest Of The Elden Descendants
Zoom!
A huge Mystic Truck drove out of the Great Ape Forest.
Despite escaping this dangerous territory already, Aragorn still had his legs firmly on the elerators as he pushed the mystic Truck to ride even faster.
For the past few minutes till now, all 3 of them were as quiet as a mouse as the events of the past battle yed again in their minds. When they thought back to the dangerous moments of the battle, they instinctively shuddered.
Rex suddenly spoke. "Don''t tell anyone about this battle, agreed?"
"Agreed!" Aragorn and Princess nor softly agreed.
Perhaps, having spoken once, the dam that was holding him back from talking finally burst as Rex continued. "Damn, I can''t believe that freaking Ape!"
"How can 1 Advanced Mystic beast be so powerful?"
Thinking back to how they were forced to escape pitifully from the Ape despite attacking 3 on 1, Rex felt like a knife was used to slowly twist and dissect his intestines as it left an extremely bad taste in his mouth.
This was when Aragorn finally heaved a sigh of relief. "We should be grateful that we escaped in the first ce, notin". Heughed to relieve stress.
"Actually, it is not strange to encounter Advanced Mystic Beasts this strong. The higher you climb the ranks, the vaster the strength gap between not just the different ranks but between the boundaries of the same rank".
"A peak 10th tier Advanced Mystic Warrior can theoretically battle and kill 10 1st tier Advanced Mystic Warriors, the same applies to the beasts".
"The same way a 1st tier Super Mystic Warrior is rumored to be able to battle, dominate, and kill a hundred peak Intermediate Mystic Warriors".
"This may be slightly exaggerated but it clearly showed the strength gap".
"As for how many Intermediate Mystic Warriors a peak Advanced Mystic Warrior could kill, well, it depended on a lot of factors but it''s pretty ridiculous".
"Despite all these though, the Ape is definitely an anomaly. I''m sure it is a pureblood beast and probably also a peak Advanced Mystic Beast".
"It was bad luck on our part to encounter it".
"Phew!" Rex sighed again. "I''m just d we escaped".
Finding it strange that one of them was silent, Aragorn and Rex turned to face Princess nor and she asked a question that left them speechless.
"Who won the 2nd phase of the contest?"
"¡"
"Uhh¡" Rex and Aragorn exchanged quick nces before Aragorn replied with a wide smile filled with fakeness. "You won!"
Princess nor bit her lips. "I was supposed to win but the Ape interrupted everything, no one won, I''ll definitely win next time though".
"¡Uhh, ok".
Silence reigned among them after this, and before it could turn too awkward, Rex finally decided to give attention to the 2 strange faces that they rescued.
They were now the perfect anchors to escape this awkward moment.
As soon as Rex turned his head to the corner of the Truck where they were both seated, the 2 Great Shelter Dwellers gulped. They even shuddered as Aragorn and Princess nor finally remembered them and turned to look at them also.
Till now, Aragorn and Princess nor still didn''t understand how they met these 2, all they heard was the both of them shouting their names for help while running and they intervened.
This was when Aragorn asked Rex. "How did you find them?"
"I found them in the forest being pursued by the Ape".
Aragorn frowned. "So how did they survive? I''ve seen them move, they are both just basic mystic warriors, there''s no way that they''ll survive a second against that Ape".
"I know that they came on a special shuttle that helped them fend off the beast, but I also don''t know the full story, that''s why they are here". Rex smiled and turned back to look at them.
The 2 strangers gulped again, then they exchanged nces before the male who seemed to be the female''s elder brother finally gathered his courage.
"My name is Elden Max, she is Elden Stark, my younger sister, we are both descendants of the Elden Family in the Great Silver Shelter".
"My main upation is a master Custodian of the family".
"After a long year of work, I decided to go on a vacation tour around the remaining small shelters alongside my younger sister. I didn''t know of the Gundam Shelter since it is no longer part of the map but my chief guard rmended it".
"Having described it as fascinating, I agreed toe here and, on the way, I was betrayed. All the Custodians that I came with were killed".
"I and my younger sister survived only due to the sacrifice of one of the young guards who was not in support of the actions of the chief guard".
"Through the young guard, we got ess to one of the Surf shuttles which we escaped in. We''ve been escaping for 3 days until we arrived in the forest".
"In the forest, we lost them but not after they shot our Surf shuttle with a beast Aphrodisiac. It was what attracted the menacing Ape".
"We almost died until we met you, Rex". Max said as he already got Rex''s name from the conversations between the 3 friends.
"Thank you for saving us, I and my sister will forever remain indebted to you and your friends, we hope to repay this debt in any manner that you want".
After the story was over, Princess nor and Aragorn were silent as a lot of things went through their minds. As someone who once lived in a Great Shelter, Aragorn already recognized their origin from the first time that he saw them.
"So, what do you intend to do from here?"
"I don''t know". Max hugged his sister who seemed to already be on the verge of tears again. "No matter where we run to, there''s the mystic waves radar on all the other Surf shuttles, we''ll be found by Gaud one way or the other".
From the look on this Custodian''s eyes, Rex and the others could already understand his intentions but they did not answer instantly.
"We''ll get to the shelter in 6 minutes". Aragorn spoke again. "Stay sharp, you need it to survive, the Gundam Shelter is not your regr shelter".
"We understand". Max replied in a shaky voice.
As the Monster Truck continued moving forward, a system notification arrived before Rex.
-----
[Main Mission: Help them or kill them!]
[Mission Completed: Help them!]
[You have been rewarded with 1000 Skill Points, +2 Loyalty, and +10 Respect from Elden Max and Elden Stark!]
¡
[You have triggered a Series Mission: The Quest of the Elden Descendants!]
[You have triggered Stage 2 Main Mission: The Evil Chief Guard!]
[Mission Details: Gaud, the evil chief guard of the 2 descendants of the Elden family is after them. They are helpless against him.]
[Main Mission: Help them survive, get the truth of the real culprit wanting them to die from Gaud, and kill Gaud!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
----
6 minutester, the Monster Truck that was already sprayed with the emblem of the new rising Berserk Gang arrived back in the Shelter.
Like Aragorn said, he dropped them off inside the shelter before driving off to their hideout, no one said a word as all this happened.
Chapter 144 A Step Filled With Thorns And Thistles
By the time they returned to the Shelter, it was alreadyte afternoon.
After going back to the Mansion of the Berserk Gang, Aragorn separated from his 2 friends as he returned to his workshop to go check on some things.
Princess nor waved Rex goodbye before also going out for her own business. Left alone in the mansion, Rex went inside and after having a nice bath to freshen up, he left for the Blood Market.
After a few weeks of staying in the Gundam Shelter to settle down and thoroughly digest his gains, Rex was now ready to sell one of his loots.
After defeating one of the strongest Intermediate Mystic warriors that he ever faced, Pain, he left with the Parasitic Armor.
Since the armor was notpatible with him as a mystic warrior, Aragorn already advised him long ago to trade it when they finally get to the Gundam Shelter. The Blood Market was the perfect ce for businesses like this.
Rex pulled out of the Berserk Gang mansion with one of the red armored cars that were left in the park, prestige was important for everything here.
¡
A few minutester, when Rex pulled over in the parking lot of the Blood Market, all the sharp eyes that originally red at neers like Vultures left him since this was the Gang leader of the Berserk Gang.
"Gang leader, what can I help you with?"
To keep themselves in business, the Blood Gang still needed to appease every one of the major gangs and the Berserk Gang was ssified as one.
This was why a female guide was sent here to help Rex.
Rex turned to look at the female guide on a mask with a beautiful shape. "I''m here to trade a Super Grade mystic Armor".
She smiled brightly the next moment. "This way please".
Having been trained in the art, thedy was able to instantly know that Rex was not like typical gang leaders due to his authoritative tone of words that were not too filled with vulgarities.
She reacted instantly and spoke with polite English which worked its wonders by appeasing to Rex''s ears as he instantly felt morefortable.
The female guide took Rex through the walkway until they arrived at an Elevator. There, they ascended to the 4th floor where Super Mystic trades were conducted. The Blood Market was easily one of the biggest structures around.
On the 4th floor, Rex finally met the master trader who was to appraise the Parasitic Armor and attend to him.
Once the middle-aged man with a grey beard took the Armor, he ced it on a special scanner as he took a lot of notes down for 2 minutes.
After the scan, the middle-aged man finally looked at Rex. "It''s a nice mystic armor with 3 mystic effects, but its main use is to amplify the powers of a mystic warrior with a parasite-rted mystic ability".
"Good stuff". The middle-aged man smiled. "Its original price should be around 200 million Gundam Shelter credits".
"Since it is already used and has seen its fair bit of battle, its price would naturally degrade a lot". The middle-aged man rubbed his chin like he was deep in thought. "We can take it for 50 million Gundam Shelter credits".
"No worries". Rex smiled. "I''ll like to trade it for another Super Grade Mystic Armor, is that doable?"
"Oh¡" The middle-aged man raised his eyebrows in realization. "That''s doable, we have a collection of 3 Super Grade mystic armors".
The next moment, the cab behind the middle-aged master trader moved as 3 Armor samples were presented before Rex.
"The 1st with purple color is called the Dragon Scale Armor. It has only 2 mystic effects, but its defensive abilities are the cream of the top".
"The 2nd with the grey color is called the Mist Armor. Its defensive abilities are average at best, but it has 5 mystic effects including the ability for its wielder with enough mystic energy to transverse through the mist dimension".
"As for thest with a red color, it''s slightly special, one of our archeologists and his team of mystic warriors discovered it deep inside an ancient tomb".
"Its abilities are unknown; we only know that it''s a Super Grade mystic Armor but our archeologist guessed that it is probably rted to a Vampire".
The middle-aged manughed at the ridiculousness of his words. "Well, you can decide to go wild and try your luck out. You never know, you may luck out and get a rare Super Grade mystic armor that is being sought for centuries".
"I''ll go for it".
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I''ll go for it". Rex smiled.
Even before the middle-aged man started introducing the armor, Rex already felt an affinity with this Red armor and his heart went to it immediately.
"Are you sure?" The middle-aged man asked calmly to confirm.
Rex was about to reply but he paused and frowned as his smart wristwatch blinked red, his eyes narrowed. "Yes, I''m sure, give me the armor now!"
"Yes, Gang leader".
Rex took the armor and rushed back to his car before dumping it inside. He switched on the car as he rapidly sped away deep inside the city.
¡
Somewhere in the Gundam Shelter¡
A group of 8 drunk thugs surrounded a fragile group of 2, a young man and his sister. Max shielded his sister from the thugs as he pleaded with them.
"Please, I''ll pay any amount, just leave my sister alone".
"Hehehe, no amount you can pay can give us the amount of pleasure that we''ll get if we get to ravage through her Gold tunnel".
"Haha, we want the gold tunnel, get the f*ck out of our way!"
Before Max could react, one of the thugs smacked down as he was hit in the nose, causing him to bleed. Max was triggered as he clenched his fist before lunging to attack and protect his sister but his moves had no technique behind them.
He was a basic mystic warrior but one who never bordered to train.
Bam!
Once a fist connected to his abdomen, a pummeling started as Max was beaten to the point where his whole face was swollen.
Stark tried to intervene, but like her older brother, she was weak. She was soon bundled up like a sack of wood as she was carried away while she screamed.
No one intervened, they only watched the beautifuldy being taken away while salivating and fantasizing if they were the ones who had the chance to have a go at her. This was the reality of the Gundam Shelter.
The 8 thugs barely walked away though before a red armored car sped towards their front before breaking to a sudden halt.
Whoosh!
They barely even understood what happened as golden sword energy shone the next moment. In mere seconds, 8 heads were sent flying.
Rex took Elden Stark from the headless thug as the thug finally lost all strength and fell down. By now, Stark was already petrified by everything that happened as she found it hard to even breathe.
Rex left her in the car before walking toward Max. He forced a pill inside his mouth to heal his injuries before carrying him on his shoulders to the car.
Rex ced the both of them inside the car and just looked, he did not drive away instantly as the repercussions of his decision started settling inside his head.
"This is a step filled with thorns and thistles". He concluded.
Chapter 145 Vampiric Armor- Will Of The Blood Sage
Inside the Berserk Gang Mansion¡
Rex stood inside the section of the mansion where he recently renovated to be his personal training chamber as he looked at the armor that was before him. Rex''s eyes were on the armor, but his mind was elsewhere.
He still vividly remembered just about a year ago when he was still a student of the Obedin Mystic Academy, one of the underprivileged students.
Though he always reminded himself to not dwell too deeply on it, he knew how envious he felt of the privileged students who had their own training chambers. Now, this long dream of his was fulfilled.
For the first time in all his life, he had a personal training chamber of his own.
"I''ve reallye a long way in just a year". He sighed.
Rex tried not to be too dramatic with his emotions, this was because of the 2 neers in the Berserk Gang mansion who were currently in the training chamber with him also looking at the armor.
Max Elden and Stark Elden already recovered from the trauma caused by the thugs, they felt even more grateful to Rex after this action from him.
Despite feeling grateful for Rex saving them, they could not assume and still didn''t know the real reason why Rex brought them to the mansion.
As they looked at him, Rex''s system lit up a notification.
-----
[Your rtionship with the 2 Elden descendants has increased]
[+1 Loyalty and +4 Respect from Elden Max and Elden Stark]
----
Rex ignored this system notification as he returned his attention back to the red mystic Armor that was standing before him.
Even till now, he still felt this faint resonance from the armor.
"Well, let''s see what you got".
Rex went closer before finally touching the mystic armor. Instantly after he touched it, he felt a faint fluctuation in his consciousness like something fleeting tried tomunicate with him before his system lit up a notification.
------
[Vampiric Armor- Will of the Blood Sage!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Super Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Defense: 10,000
- Durability: 25,000/25,000
[Mystic Effect: Blood Sea Genjutsu!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power, the user can draw the enemy into a world of the mind set in a Blood Sea that is inside the armor. Inside there, mental attacks are dealt to opponent for 5 minutes.]
[NOTE: 5 seconds in the world of the mind is 5 minutes in reality.]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Gathering of the Ancient Ones!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power and mystic energy, the user can draw enemy into the world of the mind in the Blood Sea where the 10 Ancient Ones will appear to suppress enemy with their mental prowess.]
[There''s a 30% chance of enemy''s head exploding!]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Blood Defense!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power, a red defense shield is formed that can defend against all attacks of the Super Grade for 2 minutes.]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Mystic Siege- Ultimate Defense!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power and mystic energy, an ultimate red shield is formed that can defend against all attacks of the Super Grade for 10 minutes.]
[NOTE: This Mystic Armor can only be used by Vampires!]
[NOTE: The Vampiric Armor has a partially awakened mystic treasure consciousness!]
[Remark: This is an armor for the big boys¡, you wanna chill with the big boys?!]
------
Rex smiled after going through the armor''s stats. "I indeed hit the jackpot!"
Though he already expected something great after he felt a resonance with the armor, Rex was still pretty impressed by what he saw.
The basic defense and durability of the Vampiric Armor were miles above those of the Parasitic Armor. Apart from that, it had 4 mystic effects and each one of them were mystic masterpieces that could turn dangerous situations around.
From the descriptions alone, Rex already had a vague idea of what to expect when using the armor. He wished he could make use of the mystic effects now.
Of the many amazing facts about the Vampiric Armor, one major fact that astonished him was the fact that it had a partially awakened mystic treasure consciousness akin to Berserker.
Of all the mystic treasures that Rex had, Berserker his main sword was the only one with a living consciousness.
Back in the Obedin Mystic Academy, because of Berserker, he already researched about mystic treasures with living consciousnesses.
From what he discovered, only few mystic treasures in the whole world had living consciousnesses. They could not be made, consciousnesses awaken randomly in mystic treasures and they only awaken in the best mystic treasures.
As Rex looked at the red Armor that was before him, his love for it already grew a lot as he finally took it and donned it on before his 2 spectators.
Instantly after he wore the armor, it fitted into Rex''s body like a swim suit.
Before Rex could do anything with it, he suddenly felt a prick from the armor as his blood was sucked. The next moment, he felt his resonance with the armor increasing as his consciousness was suddenly dragged away from his body.
¡
Bzzz!
Rex was surprised as he saw himself appear in a world set in a red sky.
All around him was a battlefield as mystic warriors shed in a great battle. The timeline seemed to be at least a few centuries from the current era, Rex was able to recognize from the weapons being used by the battling warriors.
At this moment, Rex was shocked to find himself inside the body of a powerful mystic warrior that he had no idea of his identity.
Instantly as he thought of it, the name seemed toe to him instantly. The name of this middle-aged warrior was Minato Musashi.
His identity further shocked Rex. Minato was the grandson of the famous Legendary Mystic Warrior, Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest swordsman alive.
Like Rex, he was a mystic swordsman and more importantly was that he was a Vampire. Unlike Rex, he didn''t bother to hide his identity as he morphed into a beast like a werewolf in mid-day while fighting his adversaries.
As Rex spectated this battle, instantly, he knew that it was his upgrade mystic ability at y again through the Spectator and Mind Time Travel abilities.
Takumi Minato was a Super Mystic Warrior, he was the owner of the Super Grade Vampiric Armor and then, the armor had no consciousness.
What attracted Rex the most to this mystic warrior was that Minato already fully mastered the ways of the sword, he was so devoted to his sword that he already unlocked the ultimate sword domain.
He already achieved the status of Sword God and it showed in the battle.
Minato killed rampantly like a maniac. His roars of anger filled the battlefield, his blood maniption spread destruction, while his swordsmanship was the artist of destruction as he continued killing.
3 dayster, the battle continued and all around him was already a sea of blood. Despite his astonishing strength though, the enemies were too many.
After felling tens of thousands of enemies, Minato finally came close to death. With tens of arrows impaling him, and a broken sword stuck in his abdomen, Minato was on his knees as he roared defiantly.
Before he died, he ced a curse on his enemies and released his inheritance.
"My Vampiric Armor shall be my inheritance; it shall be a manifestation of my will". He said aloud amid his blurring consciousness.
"My inheritor shall be my avenger".
"One day, the Killing Sword Marauder tribe shall rise again".
"One day, the 10,000 Swords shall rise again and my death will be avenged".
"One day, you shall all taste the wrath of an angry swordsman again!"
With that, Minato finally breath hisst.
Bzzz!
The scene soon fast-forwarded to a few dayster as this Super Mystic Warrior wasid to rest. He wasid to rest alongside his Vampiric Armor.
A statue of this legendary warrior was created close to his tomb.
¡
Despite having seen it all, Rex still did not leave the world of his mind. As he waited, a few weekster after Takumi Minato wasid to rest, the dried-up blood in his bone marrows rose and attached themselves to the statue.
The statue instantly gained a special mystic treasure attribute.
The statue and the Vampiric Armor were the 2 main inheritances that this Super Mystic Warrior left for his inheritor.
Only a Vampire could inherit the Vampiric Armor, and only a swordsman that was talented enough could get the inheritance of the statue.
If one mystic warrior was lucky enough to fulfill both requirements, then he was the chosen avenger of Takumi Minato, the great swordsman who once walked thend and whose sword spread terror far and wide.
¡
Bzzz!
Rex''s consciousness finally returned to his body only for him to hear the worried voices of Max Elden and his sister as they attended to him.
"Are you ok? You suddenly nked out".
Rex turned to face them. "For how long was I out?"
"Not too long, like 6 or 8 seconds".
Rex rubbed his growing beard. "Understood".
Chapter 146 New Morphing Form
-----
[You have received an epiphany!]
[You have unlocked a new Vampire Morphing Form: Bear-man!]
¡
[Current Morphing Forms avable: Half-bat, Bear-man!]
----
After the short conversation with the 2 Elden descendants, Rex excused himself away from them and locked himself inside an exclusive part of his training chamber where he could meditate alone silently.
Having experienced multiple trips to the world of his mind already, he understood its mechanisms and some of the mysteries behind it.
After this short trip to the world of his mind through the connection of the Vampiric Armor to see the history of Minato Musashi, Rex experienced a simr sensation that he felt 6 months ago during a battle that he fought.
During the finals battle against Turan, Rex was pushed to his limits and he coincidentally went to the world of his mind where he saw his future self.
It was there that he got his first self-created advanced sword skill, the Nirvana sh which had long been one of his most used sword skills.
Once again today, after the trip, he felt himself in an inspired state again. Once he felt this, he cut his conversation with the 2 siblings short and locked himself in where he meditated on this epiphany.
30 minutester, his system lit up a notification.
On seeing the system notification, Rex smiled and clenched his fists as he felt a new strength connection through his blood.
After so long of having only one morphing form, he finally broke this bottleneck and got the ability to make use of another morphing form having been inspired by Minato''s form as a Bear-man.
When he first saw the Vampiric Armor in the Blood Market, Rex instantly knew that it would be something good but he never expected it to be this good.
The Armor did not only grant him ess to a decent defense measure, it connected him to the inheritance left by Minato Musashi and also enabled him now to unlock his 2nd morphing form as a Vampire.
Having benefited so much in such a short time, it was inevitable for him to be happy as a bright smile now lit Rex''s face.
He finally stood up from the part of the training chamber where he isted himself but before leaving to see the others, he first tried something out.
After unlocking a new morphing form, his curiosity was already piqued. He wanted to see himself in this form and he also wanted to see his system attributes.
Once Rex thought of it and concentrated on it, his body instantly reacted and started having changes which first started internally.
The first physical change that he experienced was his hair suddenly growing thicker and longer. Rex went in front of the mirror and that was where he experienced everything.
In just a few seconds, Rex morphed into an entirely different beast than the half-bat form that he was already used to after each morphing.
Through the mirror, Rex saw a huge Giant humanoid figure filled with hair all over looking back at him. His ripped arm muscles and huge chest like an ape dominated the image in the mirror, Rex felt like a gym freak.
His eyes also changed and were now a mixture of brown and red.
Rex clenched his right fist as he felt unbelievably powerful, he suddenly felt like he had the strength to punch right through the earth crust now.
Boom!
Rex threw a punch which induced a sonic boom, putting a grin on his face. "Nice!" He finally essed his system to see his status.
------
Name: Rex Vector
Morphed Form: Bear-man
Strength: 3,800
Speed: 2,000
Mind: 600
Vitality: 5,000
Agility: 1,600
Dexterity: 1,500
Health Points [HP]: 14,500/14,500
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 8000/8000
Mystic Affinity: Ice
[Bear-man Skills: Rage Dash; Berserk; Rage ws; Battering Ram!]
[Ice Skills: Ice Spear; Ice Armor; Ice Roll; Freeze!]
[Passive Abilities: Super Smell; Swim!]
[NOTE: All humanoid skills and abilities are retained!]
[Remark: Well, what can you say? You are the f*cking Bear King!]
-------
Unlike his Half-bat form that gave more attention to a speedy and finesse battle style, Rex''s 2nd morphing form could be summarized with only 1 sentence- let there be carnage!
In his Bear-man form, Rex was a strength freak. His strength stat in this state was even higher than those of either of his 2 transformed beasts.
Of all the stats, the Vitality was the most ridiculous. It dwarfed those of himself and his transformed beastspletely.
In this state, he was literally an undying cockroach tank.
He could punch extremely hard in this form, and he could also take a ridiculous amount of beating, and with his intelligencepletely intact, this literally made him the bane of every same ranked mystic warrior.
Only his mind stat suffered a decrease. But considering the great increase that the other stats experienced, Rex did not give attention to this little decrease.
After all, the mind stat did not affect intelligence but resistance against soul and ethereal attacks which Rex could simply remedyter in the future.
Rex wanted to give an order to his training chamber''s A.I to let in some sparring robot partners to try his new strength against, but he stopped having remembered that he still had 2 strangers waiting for him.
After changing back to his human form, Rex returned back to the main training chamber where Max and Stark Elde were still waiting for him obediently.
"I''m sorry for your time, I had to go take care of something".
"No worries¡" The 2 forced a smile, as even they despite being just basic mystic warriors could feel the change that Rex just experienced.
They felt that Rex had this sudden wild aura to him that intimidated them.
Having thought a lot through his decision to bring the 2 of them here already, Rex did not beat around the bush as he went straight to the point.
Rex looked into Max''s eyes. "Tell me everything you know about Gaud".
Max was surprised but Rex felt toozy to give an excuse about how he knew the name of his chief guard. Unknowing to Rex, this mysteriousness only increased the respect that Max had for him as he finally started speaking.
"Gaud is my chief guard; he is an Advanced Mystic Warrior that was personally trained by one of the master trainers of my family".
"He was recognized as a great talent since when he was a kid, and his position in the hierarchy increased after he awakened his first mystic ability which was one that no one in my family have seen before".
"Gaud''s first mystic ability is an extremely rare Invisibility mystic ability".
"His 2nd mystic ability is rted to the soul, while his 3rd mystic ability is rted to taming beasts. He fought his way to the top to be my chief guard".
"I never once thought that he''ll betray my trust and try to kill me". Max fell into a daze as he said this, clearly still not believing the reality of things and this prompted Rex to ruthlessly bring him back to reality.
"Did he show any suspicious signs before the official attack? Anything, no matter how little that you feel that he does not do before".
"I''m not sure". Max scratched his head. "Gaud had always been a solitary person whose only motivation is getting stronger, but recently, he seemed to finally fall in love with one of the females in my family".
"¡" Rex was speechless.
"I remembered I was the one who always motivated him to fall in love and get a wife or at least a girlfriend. I''m not sure, but I think that''s the only anomaly that I noticed around him during the past few months".
"Umm¡, ok". Rex fought hard not to have a weird expression on his face as he maintained seriousness. "What is the size of the force on his disposal?"
"I''m not sure, but probably more than 20 mystic warriors".
On hearing that, Rex heaved a sigh of relief as this meant that things were not hopeless already and they still had a chance.
From the shuttle that Max and Stark escaped in alone, he already expected the difference in mystic treasure quality between both sides to be ridiculous.
If they also had the numbers to back up this quality difference, then they had no chances of victory at all and Rex would not bother to endanger his life.
Rex asked them a few more important questions to know more about Gaud, the talented chief guard for a few more minutes before the session finally ended.
After the questioning session, Rex finally spoke to them. "I will not beat around the bush; I will tell you my reason for helping you".
"I admit your situation is pitiful but that is not the reason that I helped you. You both have connections to the Great Shelters; I and my sworn brother have businesses there and we could make use of your connections".
"Leave that forter, you''ll know if you survive Gaud".
"Besides, Max can be the chief custodian of our Gang for the time being".
"Before finalizing anything though, you both need to meet my sworn brother and my otherpanion". Rex stood up and led them away.
Chapter 147 The Invisible Warrior
A tense mode lingered in the atmosphere as the 3 looked at each other.
Princess nor had a cold but unbothered look on her face as she looked at Rex, but her eyes alone could convey the question that was on her mind. As for Aragorn, he gave Rex a confused and questioning look.
5 minutes ago, after calling a sudden emergency meeting with his 2panions here in the Gundam Shelter, they gathered in Aragorn''s workshop.
For 5 minutes, the 3 mystic warriors stood like statues with 2 of them ring at one of them and all this was because of the 2 strangers that followed him in.
Max and Stark Elden shivered in the corner as the oppressive atmosphere induced by the wills of the 3 mystic warriors suffocated them slowly.
When the atmosphere got too awkward, Rex finally spoke. "I can exin".
"Yeah, we''re waiting". Aragorn said while finally directing a look at the 2 strangers as his brain warned him that what he feared already happened.
"Before I exin, I want to ask something". Rex said while looking at Aragorn. "What is our ultimate motive ofing to the Gundam Shelter?"
"What is our ultimate goal of creating this brotherhood?"
Aragorn did not answer despite a few seconds having gone so Rex took it upon himself to answer. "I say our ultimate motive ofing here are 2. The first is to get strong enough, and the 2nd is to go to mid-earth".
Rex stared at Aragorn as he said this. "You and I both know that the easiest path to bing Legendary Mystic Warriors is in mid-earth".
"Not only are the best mystic materials and treasures concentrated there, the best mystic warriors are also concentrated there".
"Besides, our greatest enemies are in mid-earth".
"Before thinking of going against our sworn enemies, we first need to think of defeating the minion powers in mid-earth before setting our eyes on them".
Rex took his eyes from Aragorn and turned to look at Princess nor. "You said you don''t have an actual n ofing here yet since everything happened to fast and you''re not settled yet, so I''ll give you one".
At this moment, Rex did not speak like an 18-year-old at all but like a veteran who already had decades of experience under his belt.
He was determined to convince his 2 friends through any means.
He looked intensely at Princess nor. "If you didn''t know before, allow me to tell you that undoing the curse that gues your race is no easy task".
"If I were you and I really wanted to see them again, I''ll grab any opportunity to go to mid-earth where growth prospects are higher".
"It doesn''t have to be now, we don''t have to go now, we just have to secure the pathway so that when we are ready, we''ll receive straight ess".
After going through that roundabout route, Rex finally returned to the main point. "I already researched the Elden mystic family; it is a powerful mystic family that is in the middle spectrum of power in the Great Silver Shelter".
"Max and Stark are both descendants of this family. After thinking it through enough, I decided that they were our best immediate shot at mid-earth".
"What do you think will happen if 2 descendants of a mystic family this renowned is saved by us? Will they kill us? Will they help us?"
"I know, the world is messed up but it''s good to have faith at times. This time, I believe that if we y our cards right, we''ll benefit".
"Even if we don''t benefit, I''m an Advanced Mystic Warrior now. It''ll no longer be as easy for us to be ckmailed and disregarded".
After ring at Rex throughout his little speech, Aragorn finally relented and sighed. "You''ve already done the deed, what can I do? Tell me what you know".
Princess nor only nodded to show that she would follow any decision that they made, which finally made Rex to smile for the first time.
He did not hesitate as he started telling both of them about Max and Stark. He narrated everything that he knew to them in a few minutes.
When he was done, Aragorn took a deep breath. "Well, we are already in this deep pit so the best we can do to survive is to give our best".
He turned to face the 2 Elden descendants the next moment. "I heard your story, and a few points that you made attracted my attention".
"Can you tell me more about this girl that Gaud fell in love with?"
Max stammered. "I-I don''t really know much; he never spoke about her".
"Since when did he fall in love?"
"I don''t know, probably 3 months ago".
"Do you know any notable females in your family that he visited in this period of 3 months ago?"
"I-I''m not sure¡" Max stammered again.
"Ok". Aragorn rubbed his beard. "I guess I''ll take the questioning route".
"Do you know of any notable things that Gaud hates doing as a chief guard?"
"Hmm, I think he hates hotdog and fried foods".
"I think he also hates guarding female descendants of my family. He naturally hates staying around females so that is understandable".
"Good". Aragorn interrupted him. "So do you know any female that he was tasked to guard during this period of 3 months?"
"I''m not sure".
"Ok, another question. If today, news suddenlyes that you are dead, which female stands to gain the most that firstes to your mind?"
"As you think of this, also try to associate it with Gaud".
Just the question alone and Max''s eyebrows already raised. When Aragorn told him to associate it with Gaud, Max and Stark''s eyes widened.
They both said the same name at the same time. "Jezebel!"
Rex stood closest to the 2 Elden siblings. When they both suddenly shouted Jezebel, as a mystic warrior, he was not supposed to be affected but Rex curled and grabbed his ears instantly as his eardrums seemed to burst.
-----
[You have been affected by a mystic treasure: Ghost Sound Amplifier!]
----
Rex was not the only one that was affected. Aragorn, Princess nor, and even Max and Stark were affected also as they all grabbed their ears.
When Max and Stark yelled, the Ghost Sound Amplifier was secretly used.
Having started working in the workshop for sometime already, Aragorn already created some basic machines.
Coincidentally, one of these mystic treasures that he crafted was designed specially to counter mystic warriors with sound rted mystic abilities.
At this moment, this mystic treasure came in handy as it shattered, taking the full blow of the sound attack while allowing Aragorn to instantly recover.
Once he recovered, only one word dominated his mind. "Invisibility!"
Aragorn unleashed his Blood Pistols as he instantly pulled the trigger without hesitation. His aim was pin-point urate as 2 strange rats that sneaked behind Rex were shot as they exploded into a bloody mess.
Bam! Bam!
Aragorn did not stop as he continued shooting.
In just the span of a few seconds, his bullets met different strange beasts ranging from rats to lizards, to even cats that were not supposed to be here.
The most horrifying fact was that all these small creatures had the strength of intermediate mystic beasts which made them a powerful force to go up against.
In these few seconds, not only was Aragorn able to fight back, he was also able to push his 2panions, including Max and Stark behind him to safety.
Not long after he kicked them to safety though, he felt dizzy.
Bzzz!
The soul attack came like a raging tsunami and Aragorn''s legs buckled instantly. In the end, he was still just a peak Intermediate mystic warrior while the enemy was a bonafide Advanced mystic warrior.
Aragorn almost lost consciousness as he staggered backwards.
This was when the enemy hidden in the shadows finally appeared. In a blue attire with the crest of a falling hammer, Gaud, one of the chief guards of the Elden mystic family finally left his invisible state to finish the job that he started.
He came alone, but from the current state of his 3 main enemies and his 2 targets, he alone was more than enough to take care of them.
At least, that was what he thought until Rex''s eyes suddenly started glowing red. Even as blood still poured from his ears, Rex''s energy surged rapidly.
-----
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing Forms avable: 2.]
[You have transformed into a Bear-man!]
----
Rex roared loudly as his body transformed in less than a second.
After morphing into his new form, Rex felt boundless energy surging through his body as his damaged ears started hearing again. As this energy flowed through his body, he channeled it into a skill.
[You have activated Bear-man skill: Rage Dash!]
Rex exploded with speed like a race car dashing along a straight track as he seemed to disappear, leaving blurry afterimages in his wake.
Rex appeared before the enemy in almost an instant as their eyes shed. Gaud reacted instantly as he started fading into invisibility but Rex was faster as he grabbed him by the neck with the strength of a beast.
[You have activated Bear-man skill: Rage ws!]
"Caught you, bastard?!" Rex red at him.
Chapter 148 Battling Gaud, The Chief Guard
4 hours ago¡
About a dozen Surf shuttles appeared close to the Gundam Shelter.
After days of relentless searching and pursuit, during which time he got himself and his warriors into terribly dangerous battle situations, Gaud finally traced the tracks of the 2 young masters to the Gundam Shelter.
"They actually made it here". He said absentmindedly in an amazed tone.
None of his warriorsmented though because they knew what would follow next. They were right, Gaud''s face soon experienced a rapid switch back to its usual seriousness as he gave instructions authoritatively.
"All the Surf shuttles will be left outside the shelter".
"Banter, you will be the leader of the 10 that will be tasked to stay with and protect the Surf shuttles".
He continued without turning back. "As for the remaining 7 of you, get ready. In 5 minutes, you will all be following me into the Gundam Shelter".
"Yes, Chief Guard".
These 18 warriors were thest of the entourage that followed Gaud.
10 minutester, 8 new strangers were sessfully smuggled into the Gundam Shelter the same way that Rex and his 2panions got in.
As someone who got to fight his way to the top, despite achieving all this under the banner of the Elden mystic family, Gaud still understood the ways of the trenches and was how he was able to adapt so easily.
After entering the shelter, with his group of 7 mystic warriors, they spent money and did a fair bit of showcasing their strength to intimidate others.
This way, they established a little reputation whichbined with their money enabled them to get the information that they wanted.
"So, they were the ones who saved those 2". Gaud''s eyes narrowed.
In this little time of having discovered his target, Gaud already arrived at a n as he turned to face his warriors. "This is the n, remember it".
¡
"Caught you, bastard!"
As Rex red into the eyes of his opponent, he used his free left hand to grab his Death Daggers before activating the Ancien Gaze mystic effect.
Instantly, his confidence soared even as Gaud received the psychological suppression from the powers of the Death Daggers but it did notst as this elite warrior easily shrugged it.
Not seeding did not leave Rex discouraged as he reverted to make full advantage of his outrageous strength in his Bear-man form. With his Rage ws activated, he grabbed Gaud''s neck tighter as he tried to w at him.
The next moment though, after catching his breath for just a second already, Gaud was finally able to react to Rex''s offensive and he did it impably.
Before Rex could understand what happened, his opponent''s hands moved like the wind as 2 sensitive spots in his arms were hit, causing his right hand to go temporarily limp, letting go of his opponent in the process.
Gaud did not let go after this as he counterattacked.
Bam! Bam!
2 fast fists to his abdomen and Rex saw himself puking blood. Just from their first sh, he already suffered from ack of information, Max never said that Gaud was a Tiajutsu expert and such a talented one at that!
Rex reacted instantly by trying to keep his distance but it did not work as Gaud stuck to him like glue while his fists constantlyunched like missiles.
He may have superior strength, but Gaud had the superior technique.
Gaud did not just attack with his fists. As he attacked, Rex received asional bursts of soul attacks that left him dizzy. This was not all as a menacing Bull Dog and a literal Kangaroo appeared inside the mystic workshop.
The 2 tamed mystic beasts fought alongside their master as for 5 seconds straight, Rex was absolutely trashed despite being in his Bear-man form.
One major fact in this whole thing though was that Rex was not alone. Though they took longer to recover, Aragorn and Princess nor finally recovered.
Whoosh!
Gaud stopped his follow-up attack as 5 arrows were released at the same time by the female warrior, with one of them shooting right through his beards, causing his eyes to narrow in rm.
Aragorn dared not hesitate as he unleashed Blood Shots with his Blood Pistols. Gaud turned invisible again as he dodged the 2 shots.
Knowing the advantage that this invisible state brought, Rex dared not let the enemy be so unbridled as despite being injured, he pounced towards Gaud''sst known location.
Mid-jump, he received a kick to the abdomen. Rex almost puked blood again but he held on this time and grabbed his opponent''s leg.
From the direction that Gaud faced, Rex instantly knew his opponent''s intentions. Gaud probably did not expect the 3 of them to be so strong, so having not seeded immediately, he wanted to retreat and regroup before returning.
Letting the enemy leave uninjured after wreaking so much havoc was not part of Rex''s code of conduct and this was what riled him uppletely.
Having not practiced with it before, he knew that his swordsmanship in his Bear-man form would deteriorate a lot and was why he did not use Berserker.
Despite not using his sword though, Rex was determined to leave a mark on this powerful middle-aged and extremely experienced Advanced mystic warrior.
For the first time since getting them, Rex finally made use of a trump card that he kept to be used only in situations that absolutely required them.
------
[You have made use of Character Summon Card: Sophia- Berserk Fighter!]
[Sophia- Berserk Fighter!]
- When activated, your damage in Tiajutsu hand to handbat will be amplified by 200% for 20 seconds.
-----
Instantly after making use of this character summon card, Gaud felt the difference as his intuition told him that he was no longer facing the same warrior.
Gaud finally made effort to pull back his leg but Rex was defiant. With his vastly improved Tiajutsu capabilities, he won the battle of technique as he grabbed Gaud and twisted him before throwing him down in a back m attack.
Boom!
p Gaud fell and instantly lost his invisibility state.
Aragorn was quick to pull the trigger but Gaud recovered fast and dodged the bullets only to meet Rex again. This time, he did not dodge as he collided with Rex in a fast-paced pure Tiajutsu battle.
For 2 straight seconds, fists, legs, and both heads attacked at a rapid pace as Rex matched this closebat warrior fist for fist.
At the 3rd second, Rex finally gave him a noteworthy attack which left Gaud''s left cheek swollen. This was a deliberate sacrifice though to prevent being surrounded as Gaud finally found his opportunity to sneak away.
Aragorn tried to block his path but this only led to him beingbo-hit as he was left stunned with his Blood Pistols flying away.
Before Gaud could escape the workshop, Rex rapidly sprinted forward before grabbing Aragorn''s 2 Blood Pistols as he channeled his mystic energy.
-----
[You have made use of Character Summon Card: Aragorn- Blood Shot!]
[Aragorn- Blood Shot!]
- When activated while using a gun of any type, you can replicate an effect simr to the Blood Shot ability of the Larkinson family.
----
Boom!
This time, Gaud did not expect it as the red-colored bullet tore a hole through his blue vest through his abdomen as a part of his intestines were sent flying.
Blood flowed as Gaud groaned but he still ended up escaping.
Rex looked at the broken window. "I at least gave him a scar to remember before deciding to ambush us again".
Chapter 149 A Strong Enemy
A pair of eyes blinked open inside a small dark room.
Gaud groaned as he stretched before grabbing and rubbing his abdomen slightly before finally removing the special virtual reality helmet from his head.
As soon as he removed the special helmet, his 7 subordinates switched on the lights in the room as they silently looked at him and waited for him to speak.
Unlike the Gaud that was bleeding just a few seconds ago, this one was not bleeding and he was not wearing a blue attire either. This middle-aged man at this moment was wearing a ck vest and waspletely uninjured.
Gaud rubbed his aching neck. "They actually injured one of my VR avatars".
"I have to admit, they are really strong mystic warriors. That Rex surprised me the most, he has abilities that are not publicly known". His eyes narrowed.
"I was injured even when the Kamaitachi and Dark Mist Spider are not around, I definitely met a strong fort this time, so annoying". He frowned slightly.
"If the whole Berserk Gang is put into the equation, and with the fact that he would now be more cautious against an ambush, my chances of secretly assassinating the 2 young masters are literally less than 10% now".
Gaud''s frown grew. "I must finish this task in a week''s time at most or else¡"
Just thinking of the consequences of his actions if he was discovered made his face turn cold, but Gaud was never out of options all his life.
He finally turned to face his 7 subordinates. "Wait for me here, make sure this location is not discovered until I get back".
Without waiting for a reply from his subordinates, Gaud stood up and looked through the window. "To seed, we need help".
¡
Inside the territory of the Bat Gang, the Batbyrinth¡
Gang leader Beastmare had a serious look on his face as he sat before this stony-faced Advanced Mystic Warrior. Unlike when he spoke with Rex and hispanions, this time, he recognized that he was speaking with a superior.
His hands were constantly on his weapon as despite being in his territory, he was careful and alert for any sudden ambush from this mystic warrior.
Gaud had a nonchnt look on his face as he looked back at him. After thinking through his circumstances thoroughly, Gaud decided that the Gang leader of the Bat Gang was the best candidate to further his objectives.
Not only were the Bat Gang and the Berserk Gang now allies and knew much about each other, their Gang leader already met the gang leader of the Berserk Gang also. Knowing your enemy was the first step to victory.
In the Gundam Shelter, there was nothing as sweet-sounding as loyalty. Every alliance worked in a basis of win-win benefits.
If better benefits are ced as a stake, alliances could break anytime.
Gaud did not beat around the bush as he went straight to the point. "I want the leader of the Berserk Gang dead".
Gang Leader Beastmare narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"I mean what I mean". Gaud replied with all seriousness.
"Let''s n and attack him together. If the Gang Leader of the Berserk Gang is dead, you can easily annex them, this is a prime opportunity to expand".
From Gaud''s serious face and his strength, this Gang leader had no choice but to take his words seriously.
Besides, Gaud''s mode of entering the Bat Labyrinth definitely demanded attention. This powerful warrior literally ignored all the defenses of this gang base and infiltrated directly to the room of the leader.
This was enough for the Gang Leader to respect him, Beastmare looked at him with narrowed eyes. "What is in it for you?"
"You don''t need to know, once he is dead, I''ll naturally get what I need".
Beastmare still had a lot of doubts but there were hidden rules in a criminal society. So long as I can benefit and you can benefit, no one is hurt, there was no pressing need to know the intention of either side.
"Deal?" Gaud presented his hand for a handshake.
Beastmare extended his hand for a handshake. "Deal".
Despite previously having misgivings against it, after seriously thinking about it and the mysterious identity of this strange Advanced Mystic Warrior, Beastmare decided to trust his instincts.
In the blink of an eye, the deal was concluded. This was how things worked in the Gundam Shelter, this was the normal here.
¡
"What? That was just a VR avatar?!" Rex asked aloud with a red face.
He still could not believe the facts that these 2 Elden descendants were spitting before his eyes. The fact that after putting in so much effort to injure him, but he ended up only injuring a VR avatar irked him to no end.
This once again showed him the reason why he wanted to go to the Great Shelters. The technological level of both sides of earth was just too vast.
Besides the embarrassment of having put in so much effort just to injure a VR avatar, Rex''s face was now grave as he recognized the increased danger.
Gaud was not just your typical Advanced Mystic Warrior. This guy came with gadgets and mystic weapons that they still couldn''tprehend most of them, this alone gave Gaud and his party such an overwhelming edge in this struggle.
Having fought against Gaud also, Princess nor and Aragorn were silent as they mentally reyed the scenes of the previous battle.
After ying the scenes, they discovered that they were still vastly unprepared to face this warrior. If a VR avatar alone was already this hard to take on, they shuddered thinking of facing the real warrior himself.
This time, Aragorn being the eldest of the trio finally stepped up as he spoke with an absolutely serious face. "To stand a chance of survival, we need adequate and swift preparations".
"Since the enemy already has so many advantages over us, I think we should also prepare our first advantage which is to let the battle take ce in our home ground no matter what way theye in".
"Apart from the home ground advantage, we also need to work on ourselves, we are definitely not ready to take on the real Gaud".
"Rex, do what you do best, be a genius, train and improve".
"nor, do the same, I''ll also go back to focus on my machines, it''s best if I be an Advanced mystic warrior before the showdown". Aragorn said as he remembered the few times when he shed against Gaud.
Ater addressing them, he finally turned to face the 2 Elden descendants. "As for you guys, wee to the Berserk Gang".
"Max, you are now officially the custodian of the Berserk Gang".
"A position will be arranged for Stark".
"Rex, inform the gang, we have a strong enemy ahead of us. Put them all at high alert, they should be ready for arge scale battle any moment".
Aragorn''s eyes narrowed. "From this little encounter with him, Gaud is someone who loves keeping things simple and taking care of things efficiently".
"If I''m right, he''ll try to use the simplest way to take care of us, we need to be prepared for any eventuality, even a betrayal from our own warriors".
"Get to work, get to work!" Aragorn pped his hands for emphasis.
As the others left and as Rex left, his system lit up a notification.
[You have killed a mechanic Intermediate Mystic Warrior: VR Avatar!]
[You have gained 50 mystic energy points!]
[You have gained a mystic mech core!]
Rex paused. "A mech core?"
Chapter 150 Appointment
Rex was surprised by the system notification that appeared before him. Clearly, he still underestimated the power of the Blood Shot ability.
Aragorn''s bloodline inheritance was in no way simple. As an ability that was ranked at the very top of abilities with the most explosive ranged damage, the Blood Shot skill was the most dangerous weapon in Aragorn''s arsenal.
The reason why Aragorn was unable to injure Gaud in the battle was because he was still a peak Intermediate mystic warrior.
He was unable to keep up with Gaud''s pace which was why he was unable to hit this powerful enemy even once. As for Rex, though it was only a replica of this ability, his attack still ended up severely injuring the VR Avatar.
Well, Rex still underestimated it since this stunt by him did not just injure the VR Avatar, his Blood Shot attack also ended up killing the Avatar.
As the others already left, curious, Rex went back to the part of the workshop where the VR Avatar escaped through. Getting there, he saw a group of his gang members already surrounding the dead VR Avatar a few meters away.
Rex did not hesitate as he jumped down through the window to get there as fast as he could. On getting there, he was able to see the injury clearer.
The shot from himpletely evaporated arge portion of this Avatar''s internals, leaving a lot of mechanical circuits that were originally hidden inside it exposed. Rex was able to see the genius of technology in disy.
"To think a machine can replicate a mystic warrior so urately". He was amazed as he thought back to his battle against the VR Avatar.
As Rex focused on the VR Avatar, the attention of the group of warriors of the Berserk Gang that were gathered already focused on their leader.
Meeting this legendary figure who became the leader of the new gang not long ago left the mystic warriors breathless. As the atmosphere turned stiffer, Rex finally recognized that others were there as he turned to face them.
"I''ll be taking the enemy, clean the ce up as I leave".
"Yes, gang leader".
Rex bundled the whole VR Avatar away, including any of its parts that may have fell along the way as the enthusiastic mystic warriors went to work.
On returning back inside the workshop, Rex instantly saw Aragorn''s efficiency in full disy. In this little time of him going out to retrieve the VR Avatar, Aragorn already organized a team to start repairs on the workshop.
Welders were already at work as they welded the holes in the workshop that were caused by the battle, while others did different misceneous tasks.
Aragorn was personally supervising the activities and it made it easier for Rex to meet with him. As he turned on hearing the footsteps, the first thing that caught Aragorn''s attention was what Rex carried on his shoulders.
His eyes widened in surprise. "Is that...?"
"Yes, it''s the VR Avatar".
"Follow me!"
A few minutester, they were both inside Aragorn''s special inspection chamber as under the bright light illuminating the room, Aragorn carefully examined the VR Avatar that wasid before him.
Aragorn''s family was from the Great Shelters, including his dead master, so he had tinkered with materials of Great Shelter grades already but this VR Avatar was definitely a few heads above everything that he had dealt with before.
After a few more tinkering from him, the VR Avatar finally opened up to expose the blue pulsing orb like a heart that was installed on its center.
Aragorn''s eyes widened in shock as he saw this pulsing blue orb that was installed at the center of the VR Avatar. "A mech core?"
Rex was surprised. "You know what it is?"
"Hell yeah!" Aragorn replied in a raised tone and his eyes shone as he reminisced. "I first worked with a mech core under my master".
"Rex, you just hit the jackpot". Aragorn turned to look at him. "This thing that you''re seeing here, it is the heartbeat of every mechanical mystic treasure".
"My Monster Truck is the only mystic machine that I have that has a mech core. The others have mech orbs as substitute for their mech cores".
"A mech core is like the energy house of a high-grade mystic machine. It is what enables the mystic warrior to channel his mystic energy through the mystic weapon, it is like the pituitary nd of any mechanic mystic treasure".
"You killed the VR Avatar, so it''s yours".
"If you want, I can use it to create a new mystic treasure for you. Or I can even use it to upgrade one of your current mystic treasures to be a mechanic mystic treasure".
"Which one do you want?"
When his system notified him that he got a mech core, Rex never expected this reward to be so important but now that he knew, he felt better about the 2 trump cards that he had to sacrifice just to take this VR Avatar down.
After basking in the contentment that ownership of the mech core brought, he finally started thinking about Aragorn''s proposal.
He didn''t have to think long though as he quickly arrived at his decision.
"After getting the Vampiric Armor, I don''t think I''m in any pressing need for another mystic treasure so I guess I''ll just go with upgrading one of my current mystic treasures".
"I already made my decision, work on Berserker".
"You already worked on him back in the Micro World with the Elven Queen. It''s my anchor to channel my main battle domain, I think I''ve been neglecting my swordsmanship for some time now, I want to go back to mastering the sword".
"After bing an Advanced mystic warrior, I can already feel that the journey ahead will be long and tough, improving my swordsmanship is one of the alternative ways that I can think of to elerate things".
On hearing Rex''s decision, Aragorn was a little surprised. "Are you sure? A mech core of this level is very valuable, don''t you think using it on a Super Grade treasure like your Vampiric Armor will be better?"
"No, I already made my decision". Rex smiled slightly.
"Ok, hand it over to me then".
Once Rex handed Berserker over while ignoring the sword''s cheers of gratitude for the opportunity, Rex finally turned to leave the workshop.
Like the others, he recognized that he also needed to prepare adequately to face Gaud. Apart from Scorpion whom he met some time ago, this was the 2nd Advanced mystic warrior that was giving him the chills.
Rex was determined to no longer be helpless against any enemy. "Since you''re blocking my way to my goals, you''ll have no choice but to die to let me".
After leaving the workshop, Rex went straight to the Berserk Mansion where he saw Princess nor, Max, and Stark Elden waiting for him.
Having given Princess nor the permission to call for a gang gathering, the field in the middle of the mansion was already filled with mystic warriors when Rex arrived. He climbed the podium to address them.
Rex did not beat around the bush. The first thing that he did was to warn them about the danger that was iing and about to face the Berserk Gang.
After that, he gave his advise for the whole gang to be at alert and be ready for a gang war at any moment.
The details of the gang''s preparations would bemunicated to themter.
After emphasizing the possible war that was about to break out, Rex finally brought the 2 Elden descendants to the stage and officially introduced them to all the warriors of the Berserk Gang.
"This is Max Elden, and this is Stark Elden".
"After a lot of thought and considerations on my part, I have decided to appoint Max Elden as the Chief Custodian of the Berserk Gang".
"He''ll be in charge of anything collection rted in the gang. He''ll be in charge of cash flow, transport of goods, and other minor activities in the gang".
Rex held Max as he spoke to emphasize who he was referring to. After the introduction, the warriors weed the new Custodian by cheering loudly.
After Max, Rex finally turned to face Stark. "Like with Max, after a lot of thoughts and considerations, I have decided to appoint Stark Elden as the assistant Chief Custodian of the Berserk Gang".
After the appointments of the 2 and after the gang epted them to the displeasure of some few warriors, the gathering was finally called to a close.
Max and Stark met with Rex onest time after the appointment to discuss things where they were rified more about their duties in the gang.
After the rification, neither of them dared to beat around the bush as they knew what was at stake. Having lived close to Gaud all their lives, they knew how dangerous this Advanced mystic warrior could be.
That same day, the both of them dived into their work and after just a few hours of starting, they already discovered several loopholes that Rex skipped.
Like was normal in every gang, there were lots of double-faced criminals here.
Chapter 151 Berserkers 2nd Upgrade
After just an interval of 1 day since appointment, Max Elden and his sister proved to Rex why they were part of the elite custodians of the Elden family.
They did not only create a perfect blueprint to store all the material goods of the gang ranging from the mansion to the workshop, but the greatest work that they did in this time was fishing out the snitches in the gang.
In the Gundam Shelter, it was natural to have snitches who took any opportunity to take advantage of any privilege that they had to get more benefits.
There were lots of them in the Berserk Gang also. Normal snitches would not require such attention, Max was able to fish out 8 of these infectious warriors who already embezzled over a million credits from the gang.
On seeing the list with illustration images that was ced before his desk, Rex smiled andmended the 2 siblings'' work as sincerely as he could.
Aftermending them, he finally made his decision. "You''ll only penalize one of them".
"They may have stolen a lot, even sold confidential secrets of the gang but its natural here in the Gundam Shelter. If I start my tenure by trying to instill fear in the warriors, I predict that my reign would notst too long".
"Want I instead want to achieve is to put that impression in the warriors that they cannot escape scot-free after engaging in acts like this".
"The chosen one will be the scapegoat, he''ll be punished which will serve as a warning to the others. If they are wise, the other warriors will adjust their behaviors and be put in line".
"If they don''t, well, taking the punishment is their choice".
"Of course, the punishment is death".
Just a day after the appointments, Max and Stark''s works were exposed to the other warriors of the gang as the scapegoat was taken to the execution ground.
Rex was there personally as he took the book and started reading out the atrocities that the warrior did during his time as a member of the gang.
As one of the rare senior members of the gang who was an Intermediate mystic warrior, seeing him at the execution ground shook the other warriors.
The fear of the warriors did notst long though as after 4 minutes into the reading, the other warriors of the gang were riled up and angry as they shouted slogans for the scapegoat to be killed and beheaded.
This warriormitted more than enough atrocities to warrant his death.
2 minutester, Rex fulfilled just that which they asked. To drive home a point, Rex personally climbed the execution ground as he was the executioner for today.
After cing the axe on the warrior''s neck, Rex ignored him and addressed the crowd. "Today shall serve as a lesson to every other warrior".
"In the Berserk Gang, we are brothers, we are expected to look after ourselves. Whoever tries to ckmail us again for benefits, you will be subjected to a fate that is even worse than this".
Without saying another word, Rex tightened his fists on the axe as he finally raised it up before bringing it down in one smooth motion that severed a head.
As the head of this Intermediate mystic warrior rolled on the ground, some of the warriors were chilled while the majority of them yelled excitedly.
With that, Rex finally left the stage.
¡
It was a day already since the encounter with Gaud.
Having spoken with the 2 Elden descendants and understanding Gaud''s current situation a bit, Rex and hispanions were able to make urate deductions on the schedule of their enemy.
This was an important point to direct their nning for this battle.
ording to Max and Stark, Gaud had no reason to spend so much time here in the Gundam Shelter. The radar of the Elden family extended far and wide.
The faster he settled the problem andplete his mission of killing the 2 descendants, the better it was for him since it would massively reduce the chances of what he did being discovered.
If he was discovered, not only would Gaud''s mystic career officially be over, there was an extremely high chance of him losing his life too.
The Elden family like most other mystic families that were established in the Great Shelters had a great collection of high-grade mystic warriors that ranged from the Advanced level to the Super level, and even in some cases beyond.
Gaud was strong, but he still did not have the balls to offend the Elden family.
This was why Rex and Aragorn predicted that Gaud would still want to end this mission as fast as possible, which pointed to the next few days.
In the next few days, there was a higher chance of Gaud attacking. This was why any n that Rex and hispanions took were focused on the immediate.
For the next few days, Princess nor and Rex were in charge of organizing the gang for the eventual battle since they were the least busy of the trio.
During these 2 days, Rex literally turned the Berserk Gang mansion into a defensive bulwark. The walls of the mansion underwent emergency repairs, and all the repairs were focused on improving the wall''s defensive capabilities.
While Rex and Princess nor prepared, Aragorn also prepared, the only difference was that the location of his preparation was in the Berserk workshop.
¡
Locked inside his personal workshop, the sound of whirring machinery reverberated in the background as Aragorn worked alongside his assistants.
After a few weeks of working together already, Aragorn already recognized the most talented of the mystic warriors that volunteered to be his assistants.
From these dozens, he was able to choose 8 who were the mostpetent of them all. They were the ones who also assisted him in histest assignment.
Modifying a normal mystic sword to be a mechanical mystic sword was easier than creating an entirely new mechanical mystic sword, but still, the difficulty was at a level that choked Aragorn.
On the first day after he started work, alongside his assistants, they spent 8 hours drawing the perfect blueprint for Berserker that the mech core couldfortably work with to draw out its full potential.
After 8 grueling hours, he arrived at the perfect blueprint.
Aragorn gave the mystic sword 2 theoretical mechanical abilities. The first mechanical ability that he gave it was the morphing ability where the mystic sword could break up its basic configuration into 2 different forms.
The first form was the Composite Sword form. In this form, a different perspective was presented for Rex to better express his incredible swordsmanship.
The 2nd form was the Triple Sword form. In this form, the sword hilt was shifted to the middle and 3 des came out from it in 3 different sides.
As for the 2nd theoretical mechanical ability that Aragorn gave Berserker, it enabled the sword to break up into dozens of short swords that Rex could control through an electromaism mechanism through his mystic energy.
Before making any of these decisions on the mechanical abilities, like a good mechanic working for his client, Aragorn did well to consult with Rex.
He had a lot of other much more sophisticated and ingenious ideas that he intended to implement on Berserker through the mech core, but Rex rejected all of them through a reason that he could not refute.
No matter how powerful those ideas that he intended to implement were, if they did not allow him to express his swordsmanship in full, Rex rejected them all.
Rex was an Advanced mystic swordsman; this was the first thing that he was known for everywhere when he was being described.
Though Aragorn felt reluctant, the client''s wishes came first and he took up the 2 theoretical mechanical abilities once he got Rex''s consent.
For the past 2 days, he and his assistants were hard at work as they gave their best to realize the theories that they already assumed to be true.
As his first mechanical creation where he was the lead mechanic, Aragorn experienced a lot of setbacks but hispetence enabled him to improvise through them all as he also learned a lot through his mistakes.
With each setback, he learned something new to take him further.
After going to the forge over a dozen times in just 2 days, Aragorn finally hit the target that he wanted. Everything aligned as the real craftsmanship finally began in the forge where they spent 4 hours without any rest in between.
Inside the forge, 8 mystic warriors surrounded the burning forge and the sword in the middle as they helped the lead mechanic who directed everything.
4 hourster, cold water was finally poured on the sword as mist filled the air. When the mist subsided, a new Berserker was presented before them.
Berserker''s upgrade was a massive sess, Aragorn basked in the glory of this moment as he soon fell into a moment of epiphany.
Aragorn''s breakthrough started after this achievement.
Chapter 152 Aragorns Masterwork; Rexs New Sword Of War
The breakthrough to the Advanced level was more emotional and less physical than Aragorn expected.
He didn''t even have to think to know why this was so. Mystic energy was harnessed and developed in the mind, the full mechanisms of controlling mystic energy started from the mind and the will before the physical.
Aragorn felt no physical changes but, in his mind, he was no longer in his workshop. All that was in his sight was the upgraded Berserker.
He was now in a world of pure white light with the upgraded mystic sword being the only notable object in sight. In this world, Aragorn was able to look down at his creation from the perspective of a God.
Aragorn saw this mystic sword in a way that he had never done before for all his other mystic creations.
In this world, every little details were highlighted before him as this enabled him to see Berserker in a new light.
Seeing the intricate details behind the shine of the de, the glow of the de, and the silvery sharp edge, Aragorn felt like he was in heaven.
It was when Berserker finally transformed on its own that his epiphany hit a peak. Seeing the upgraded sword in each of its 2 configurations in such great details enabled Aragorn to finallyprehend mysteries that he never knew before.
Instantly, his mechanic knowledge increased to a level that he had never experienced before. He felt like he evolved as a human and it showed.
Boom!
This was when Aragorn finally experienced the physical manifestation of his breakthrough after a sound like that of an exploding nuclear bomb detonated in his head, giving him a splitting headache that caused him to grab his head.
It took more than 2 minutes, but when the ringing sound in his head finally subsided, Rex felt like a new being.
It sounded ridiculous but he was positive that his muscles grew more prominent than a few minutes ago. His mental capacity seemed to have experienced a great increase, and most of all was his fingers'' dexterity.
As a ranged mystic warrior whose main weapons were his Blood Pistols, finger dexterity was one of the main things that Aragorn trained to master.
Now, if his APM was a few hundreds before, he now felt that his APM already increased to an incredible level of over a thousand.
Aragorn grabbed his Blood Pistols and he felt the difference. He felt that now, he could pull the trigger 12 times in 1 second and each shot would be far more urate than his previous peak as an intermediate mystic warrior.
Aragorn clenched his fists. "Coming to the Gundam Shelter was really the best decision, Berserker was a great contributor also".
After years of embarking on this journey to avenge his master, Aragorn felt ecstatic as he finally took another step forward by bing an Advanced mystic warrior. He felt closer to his goal more than ever before.
If he had the luxury, Aragorn would have wanted to party all day to celebrate his breakthrough but he did not have it as he went back to work.
After giving the finishing touches to Berserker, Aragorn gave the honor of handing the sword over to its client to one of his male assistants.
As for him, he wanted to go master his new strength as soon as possible.
¡
Once the news got to Rex that Berserker''s upgrade wasplete, for a few seconds, he felt like he was swimming. As the very first treasure that he got from his family''s inheritance, Berserker had a special ce in his heart.
As heid his eyes on the new sheath that Aragorn crafted for the living sword, Rex was enchanted as he instinctively motioned forward to caress it.
"Shing!" "Shing!"
Rex was left speechless. "Hey! Can''t I at least savor you first?"
"Shing¡, who gives a damn?! F*cking train with me already! I also want to see how badass I am currently don''t you think¡?"
"¡"
Mid-sentence, Berserker paused as Rex was already leftpletely speechless. The sword remained rigid as Rex stared at it stunned, as for the assistant mechanic, this poor warrior was left looking in horror.
Rex turned to smile at him awkwardly. "Haha, it''s an artificial effect"
"Oh¡" The warrior vocalized before smiling weirdly, he did not wait as he quickly asked for permission before leaving the Berserk Mansion.
Alone with the sword now, Rex finally turned to face it. "You can speak andmunicate with me normally now?"
"Shing!"
"Don''t f*ck with me, speak like you just did!"
"Shing¡"
Rex red at it.
"Umm, ok". The sword emitted a weird unnatural vibe as it spoke. "I also didn''t know that I could speak normally, I wanted you to use me to train immediately and, in my agitation, it just came to me naturally".
"Ohhh¡" Rex rubbed his small growing beards in thought.
He didn''t think long before giving up though. Just like Berserker was enthusiastic about it, he was also hyped to make use of his upgraded sword in battle to see the new variations that he could add to his fighting style.
Before training with Berserker though, Rex had one more important task to take care of and that was checking Berserker''s new system status.
------
[Berserker- One-handed Mechanical Sword!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Level: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Attack: 880-1,700 Damage
- Durability: ???
[Mystic Effects: Sword Energy Control; Golden Edge.]
? [Golden Edge: When activated, grants 20% more piercing damage, 20% more mystic energy control, and a 20% chance to grant 100% more piercing damage.]
¡
[Special Skills: Sword Draw; Blood Draw; Soul Draw.]
[Sword Draw: When activated, your sword attack whether sh or stab bes 100% faster, deals 500% more physical damage and 500% more sword energy damage to opponents.]
[Blood Draw: When activated by sacrificing your blood, your sword bes empowered by your blood. Each attack has a 10% chance of triggering bleed.]
- Bleed drains 1% of target''s overall health every 2 seconds.
[Soul Draw: When activated with the ckfire mystic ability, your sword attack carries soul attack properties and can deal soul damage.]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
¡
[Mechanical Abilities: Morphing; Replication!]
[Mechanical Morphing Forms: Composite Sword Form; Triple Sword Form!]
[Replication Level: Low]
[Number of sword replications: 18]
¡
[Remark: This is Aragorn''s first masterwork!]
------
Berserker''s system status did not experience any meteoric increase in basic attributes, what it instead gained was the new mechanical abilities.
With Aragorn having exined the different mechanical abilities to him in details already, Rex was not clueless after seeing them outlined by his system.
What instead surprised him was the fact that Berserker actually got upgraded to be a masterpiece work.
After bing sworn brothers with Aragorn, they both tended to reveal some of their secrets to each other when they were alone.
It was during one of these rare moments that Aragorn revealed his ambition of creating a masterwork mystic treasure. ording to Aragorn, creating masterworks was one of the criteria to grading mystic mechanics.
Once a masterwork is created, both the mystic treasure and the mystic mechanic who was in charge of creating it enjoy great benefits.
In Aragorn''s case, it was what gave him the epiphany and what enabled him to go to the world of his mind where he saw Berserker in such a simplified manner whichter culminated into him bing an Advanced mystic warrior.
As for Berserker, it''s future growth potential already increased again.
ording to Aragorn, a mystic treasure could either experience an exponential increase in basic stats immediately after bing a masterwork or the improvements are all umted to be unleashed on its next upgrade.
From Berserker''s status, clearly the 2nd scenario was what it experienced. Despite this though, Rex was still super satisfied by his brother''s creation.
Shing!
Once Rex grabbed Berserker''s hilt, he felt the difference. After unsheathing it, he felt such a close affinity with his sword that he had never felt before.
Berserker resonated with Rex in a way that he had not experienced before.
Without any further ado, Rex threw the sheath to a corner as he ordered the A.I of his personal training chamber to release robots for a fast-training session.
After grabbing Berserker, Rex knew that he already entered a special state and he believed that in this state, he could break a lot of his previous records.
Once the robots were ready and the training session began, Rex was like a Demon Asura who was imprisoned for a thousand years and finally found freedom.
He unleashed all the umted anger of loneliness on the robots. Berserker flowed like water in Rex''s hand as he rampaged through the robots.
Not even one of the robots was able to touch the helm of his clothes as he simply swept through them like a hot knife slicing through butter.
For this training session, Rex originally already hit a time limit of 18 minutes but this time, he finished the training session after 12 minutes.
This was an astonishing 6-minute increase.
After the training session, Rex stared at the sword. "Oh boy, I''m beginning to love you more and more".
Chapter 153 Tension!
Aragorn was still in the process of digesting his gains from his evolution to the Advanced mystic realm, while Rex was still in the process of understanding his new sword and fully mastering how to use it.
Berserker''s new form provided a lot of versatility to his sword style but it also increased the skill level for Rex to make perfect use of it.
For him to be able to use the sword as fluently as before and possibly exceed his previous limits, he needed practice and Rex fully recognized this fact.
Also, Rex intended to integrate his swordsmanship with his morphing forms to fullyplement his Bear-man form.
Even in his Half-bat form, Rex never really gave much attention to his swordsmanship. Against this powerful enemy though, he felt that any power-up was necessary and mastering his sword in his different forms mattered.
With 2 morphing forms now, he had more options for different battle scenarios. If the battlemenced at day, then the Bear-man form was the best but if itmenced at night, his half-bat form was the perfect vessel for it.
If he could achieve this feat of mastering his swords in his different forms before the showdown against Gaud and his ns, then his chances of survival would be much higher.
While Aragorn and Rex were busy, Princess nor became the only one who was free to look after the 2 Elden siblings and the Berserk Gang as a whole.
Unlike the other 2, she didn''t have any major open ways to improve her strength instantly. Growth in the Advanced mystic level required patience.
After analyzing Gaud''s personality and his goal, she and the others already concluded that Gaud''s ultimate goal was the death of Max and Stark, so they were the main points in this showdown that was about to take ce.
From his love for efficiency, they did not doubt that Gaud would ruthlessly take advantage of it if he ever found an easier opportunity to kill the Elden siblings.
This was why Rex and his 2panions decided to never let the 2 siblings leave their sight. At least, one of them must always be present to protect them.
Now that Rex and Aragorn were temporarily undispensed, the pressure of facing this mystic warrior who could turn invisible fully rested on the Elven Princess''s shoulders.
The pressure was much but she believed that she could take it, being the princess of a cursed race taught her how to work under pressure.
With Aragorn having installed motion sensors in the Berserk mansion and workshop already to detect if an invisible enemy infiltrated, a lot of the work already left her shoulders but nor was still at high alert.
As Max and his younger sister worked in their new office, Princess nor remained hidden in the shadows as she watched the both of them carefully.
Despite all her fears and her preparations, the day came to an end uneventfully as neither Gaud nor any other enemy messed with the Berserk Gang.
Having predicted the first 2 days to be the prime time for Gaud to take action already, this left Princess nor baffled but she did not think too deeply about it as she kept on watching the Elden siblings until they finished working for the day.
Having arranged their room to be close to Rex''s in the Berserk mansion, they easily went to their rooms and Princess nor took advantage of this opportunity to go meet Rex who was still engrossed in his training.
Through the CCTV camera, they were able to watch the 2 siblings who rxed after a long day of work as Princess nor also joined the training session.
Training against robots in your personal training chamber was an effective way to train, but as Rex already learned long ago after his finale battle against Turan, physical battles were the best ways to improve for every mystic warrior.
Once Princess nor came, he was ready to meet her as the both of them went at it as hard as they could while still keeping an eye on the CCTV cameras.
Learning to multitask was a must-learn skill for mystic warriors who survived without tribes or major families who had their backs.
Fighting intensely and at the same time watching the cameras was their way of training their multitasking ability.
2 hourster, Aragorn finally left his workshop and returned to the mansion in the night to meet his 2panions who were still embroiled in their spars.
Having be an Advanced mystic warrior too, like Rex and nor felt some time ago, battling against another same-ranked warrior was a craving that they had since they wanted to validate their new strength.
On hearing of the news, Rex and Princess nor congratted Aragorn but they also did good to initiate him into this realm proper with intense sparring sessions that left Aragorn thinking about his life.
Against these 2 genius mystic warriors, Aragorn was able to fight to a stalemate with them for a few minutes but in the end, he always lost.
They were all still just 1st tier Advanced mystic warriors but the difference in their abilities came from their different mystic abilities and other abilities. In this aspect, Rex and Princess nor were the superior force.
After another hour of intense sparring, the trio of mystic warriors finally stopped to rest as they started thinking of the reason for Gaud''s dy.
Against this powerful enemy, there could never be too much precautions.
After thinking for a long time to no avail, they concluded that this was simply a battle of reverse psychology from Gaud''s part. They did not give a damn though, they simply went at their own things while still keeping an eye on the 2 siblings.
Still in his training chamber, Rex practiced his cultivation techniques.
-------
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Fortified Soul!]
[Your Soul Power has increased!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 39/40.]
¡
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Soul Manifestation!]
[Your ckfire Soul energy maniption affinity has improved!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 7/35.]
¡
[You have used Cultivation Technique: Shadow Mystic Ability!]
[Your Shadow Energy Affinity has increased!]
[Cultivation Opportunities: 9/20.]
-----
It was already midnight but Rex stayed up training. The phobia of the personality called Gaud did not allow him sleep.
He may not have been a mystic warrior for long, but during these few months, Rex already met mystic warriors with different mystic abilities.
Of all these different enemies, Gaud''s invisibility mystic ability was undisputedly the one that caused him the most anxiety and fear.
With this mystic ability, Gaud was the perfect assassin. Even with the motion sensors, there was no guarantee that you''ll know if this invisible assassin crept to your side and was about to sever your head.
Late into the night, a strange oppressive atmosphere filled the Berserk Gang. Having received orders from the higher ups for a strict night shift guard, the warriors of the gang were under pressure as they sensed that something was up.
Too much pressure could culminate into courage or fear. In this case though, it was mostly fear since the warriors werepletely ignorant about this enemy.
The unknown was always the most dangerous and spooky of all.
Like most other warriors in the gang, Rex and his 2panions did not sleep as they kept on using this opportunity to train throughout the night.
In the early morning, when they were already feeling puzzled and disappointed about Gaud''s unpredictable thought pattern, they finally struck!
Chapter 154 The Attack [1]
Gaud''s attack n was very simple and effective, just the style he loved.
The same way that Rex, Aragorn, and the others researched his personality through Max and Stark to better implement ns to counter every move that he made, so also did he research extensively about his enemies.
Rex''s time in the Gundam Shelter was short which meant that not a lot was known about him yet, but Gaud was able to work with the little that he got.
From the little that he was able to get about the 3 gang leaders of the Berserk Gang, he knew that they were not fools that he could easily outwit.
It was definitely not going to be easy, but he still had confidence to outwit them. It would just require more effort and nning on his part.
After knowing about them, he knew instantly that they''ll research him and n contingencies to counter his ns.
Well, he simply decided not to give a damn about their counters and to make a n that could make full use of the resources that were at his disposal.
Gang leader Beastmare of the Bat Gang was a powerful Advanced mystic warrior whose main mystic ability was the shadow mystic ability.
His 2nd mystic ability which he was known for more was the bat taming mystic ability that granted him the ability to tame, rear, and lead bats into wars.
Like most gang leaders of his level, he still didn''t have a 3rd mystic ability yet.
In Gaud''s opinion, he had no problems and it was better if he worried about his temporary bouncer. Beastmare would only be able to fight at his peak at night and was why Gaud instantly decided to attack at night.
When he didn''t attack all day, Rex and his friends would 90% be sure that he''ll attack at night. They were right but they were also wrong at the same time.
Gaud was a great fan of efficiency. If he had the opportunity to poison his enemy to fight him at his weakestter, he would ruthlessly take advantage of it, he was not a glory hound who saw fair battles as a thing of honor.
He was a great fan of fighting dirty.
This was why he decided to attack during the early hours of the morning where it could still be ssified as night to enable Beastmare fight at his peak.
After having stayed up all night, despite being Advanced mystic warriors, Rex and Princess nor would have definitely weakened even if it was only slightly.
This was his n to weaken his enemies and to fight at his peak.
Around 3 in the morning, the Bat Gang finally stormed the Berserk mansion.
...
As the sentries of the Berserk Gang kept watch on top the mansion walls, with most of them already tired after having stayed up all night, the warriors of the Bat Gang appeared suddenly like thieves at night.
The first sign was the sky suddenly turning darker as the glow of the moon was bloated by dark arrows that descended from the skies like dark fireflies.
On seeing this phenomenon, the sentries were rmed as they instantly gave the order for the rm to be rang.
Before the rm could be rang, the rain of dark arrows already descended as they wreaked havoc with their shadow energy.
Dozens of the sentries lost their lives from the first attack as a follow-up attack was soon unleashed, but by then, the Berserk Gang already responded.
Having splurged 1 million Duncan Shelter credits to purchase an energy shield through an auction just a day ago, Rex''s defense measure finally came in handy as the energy shield was erected.
Most of all the follow-up attacks from the warriors were held at bay by the energy shield as the warriors of the Berserk Gang finally started retaliating.
In no time, fire skills, water, earth, and different mystic skills were unleashed by the mystic warriors as a war began.
This war between the basic mystic warriors seemed to only be through rangedbat as despite the bombardment, the warriors of the enemy gang still did note out to attack in the open.
About a minuteter, theputer operators of the gang finally saw the enemy location and to their surprise, they also had smaller protection energy shields.
If neither side was able to breach the energy shield of the other, then this battle would slowly degrade into a siege battle.
In a siege situation though, the Berserk Gang would be at an advantage since the enemies were the ones attacking.
Inside the center control room of the Berserk mansion, Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor were already gathered as they watched the proceedings.
"Gaud can''t be so rigid". Aragorn said with narrowed eyes.
He barely finished speaking before a loud sound reverberated from a corner of the energy shield that surrounded the mansion.
Instantly, the shield started losing energy like a poked balloon losing air. The CCTV cameras turned there only to see 14 mystic warriors in ck cloaks and ck masks infiltrating the shield after poking it.
Some of the warriors close to that location rushed forward to attack the intruders but this was a mistake since they all died in no time.
From the little battle, Rex and the others were able to deduce the overall level of the enemies as their faces turned solemn. "Three Advanced mystic warriors and eleven 10th tier Intermediate mystic warriors!"
Aragorn took center stage at this moment. "nor, protect the 2 Eldens, I and Rex will be going out to confront them".
Without a moment of hesitation, Rex and Aragorn rushed out of the central control room after donning their war gear as they got prepared to engage in battle.
Having prepared an elite battalion of Intermediate mystic warriors already, Rex and Aragorn led their warriors as they confronted the enemies in battle.
Despite being vastly outnumbered, the enemies did not cower as all of them entered a circr offensive formation before aggressively shing with them.
Boom!
The sound was like exploding dominoes as mystic energy shed fiercely.
Elemental mystic energy, domain mystic energy, and even unique mystic energy shed as different skills were hauled at each other from both sides.
The 14 enemy mystic warriors were super strong and could hold their own against such a horde of enemies as some warriors of the Berserk gang already started dying in droves, but they also didn''t progress into the mansion.
Having led army units before now, Aragorn took overmand as he led his warriors to battle with a strategy aimed at surrounding the enemies and boxing them in. With their numbers, this was not hard as they surrounded them in no time.
After surrounding thempletely, Aragorn changed his strategies to defend and spam attack. Defensive mystic warriors went to the front to defend against their attacks while those with ranged attack abilities attacked from behind.
Once the first mystic warrior death happened, the 2nd and 3rd soon followed. It seemed like they were winning, but nor''s voice soon sounded in theirm.
"Gaud is already inside the central control room".
Rex felt a chill crawl down his spine as he and Aragorn instantly checked on the motion sensor parameters only to discover no strange movements recorded.
"How?"
Chapter 155 The Attack [2]
Gaud''s n was only a few levels from being a masterpiece n.
Apart from nning to weaken his opponents, Gaud''s n epassed a lot more than this. During the past 2 days, he also traced the spending of the Berserk Gang and noticed it when they spent millions recently.
It did not take a lot of thinking on his part for him to guess that these spending was for countermeasures against his invisibility mystic ability.
He thought of other scenarios, but the main reason was definitely to counter his extremely rare mystic ability.
Literally every enemy that he faced who had time to prepare did this so he was not deterred. In his track record though, no matter how much his enemies prepared, he always came out on top.
In his years as a mystic warrior, he already mastered the art of taking full advantage of his mystic abilities to fight at his peak state always.
Gaud had dozens of spare mystic treasures that he did not use. Most of these mystic treasures were for specific battle scenarios, and one of these mystic treasures, his Autumn Gale Boots were made to fight motion detectors.
With these pair of mystic boots, Gaud''s movement speed did not only increase by a lot, but he could also move so stealthily to easily blend with the wind.
Through his meticulous nning, he was able to attract another Advanced mystic warrior other than Beastmare to support his cause.
The Bat Gang was one of the more established gangs in the Gundam Shelter, Beastmare already had some friends during his years here.
When his friend knew that swallowing the Berserk Gang was the price, Thoram, the leader of the Hammerhead gang did not hesitate to join in.
As for thest Advanced mystic warrior who formed the trio, it was just a bluff on Gaud''s part. Apart from physical warfare, he also engaged in psychological warfare as a means to weaken his opponents'' resolve.
With the knowledge that they were going up against 3 Advanced mystic warriors alone, the morale of the warriors of the Berserk Gang would drop.
What he didn''t expect was that Aragorn already broke through to the Advanced level during just 2 days. Gaud was shocked, but it didn''t really matter since Beastmare and the others were actually just the distraction.
He never trusted anyone else but himself to be the main figure in any of his ns, he only trusted himself enough to execute the main n wlessly.
With his Autumn Gale boots and his invisibility mystic ability, Gaud was able to fool Rex and Aragorn as he bypassed them while they fought against the distraction force that he organized.
He easily blended with the blowing wind which was especially strong that early morning, preventing the motion sensors from detecting his movement.
This way, he easily infiltrated all the way to the central control room which was the most defended location in this mansion and was also where his main targets stayed. From afar, he set his eyes on his price.
If it was Rex or Aragorn who were left to protect the 2 Elden siblings, they would have been helpless up till the point that they were dead since Gaud camepletely prepared this time to finish the job.
The only reason why he failed was Princess nor. The ability of actively channeling adrenaline did not only extend to the physical, it also extended to the mental aspect as nor''s mind was now vastly more developed than before.
Once Gaud entered the room, her instincts were triggered despite this professional assassinpletely suppressing his killing intent.
All she needed was channeling her adrenaline a bit to know the truth. The first thing Princess nor did was to warn her 2panions before she exploded into action as she released a dozen arrows at the same time.
Whoosh!
Gaud was shocked by his opponent''s sharp instinct, but having nned for the worse case scenario already, he was not caught off-guard as he reacted.
Gaud channeled his mystic energy aggressively as he empowered his mystic boots, allowing him to move fast enough to dodge this lethal attack. This aggressive movement disrupted his flow as he finally left his invisibility state.
Without even caring about stabilizing his stance, Gaud shook his sleeves as a massive Goldenhead snake slithered out straight towards the 2 siblings.
Feeling the deadly energy that the Goldenhead snake emitted, Princess nor was stunned as she tried to use her golden metal mystic ability to fight this snake but Gaud was a step ahead of her.
"Soul Magician Advanced Skill: Sounds of horror!"
A loud screeching sound reverberated in the room the next moment like those of a dozen witches with horrible voices singing that was solely directed at the Elven Princess as she jerked on being hit.
Princess nor was shaken so hard that blood dripped from her nose even as her disguise was wiped off instantly. The heavy attire that she used to cover most of her face fell off, exposing her longer than normal ears.
Gaud was already on the 2 Elden descendants, but on seeing this, he paused, stunned. "An Elf?"
This hesitation was what cost him as an angry Elven Princess made hereback. "You shall not pass!" Princess nor yelled as she raised her hands.
With her hand gestures, the ground all around the central control room seemed to be uprooted as thick tree roots dug out of the ground like angry Titans.
Just like Gaud, Princess nor prepared for this moment ahead of time and through the gang''s money already bought a rare mystic battle nt. Now, this was her weapon of war that she used to fight Gaud.
Having warned theputer operators in the center control room ahead of time, once the roots jutted out, they all sought cover behind an energy shield.
Max and Stark Elden hid behind their own exclusive energy shield as they stared at the menacing warrior who was once the always happy and caring Gaud, the chief guard that they were previously used to.
Tears rolled down their eyes as they watched this battle.
By now, Princess nor was already fully unleashed as she put her incredible archery, and her 2 mystic abilities into use to fight against this powerhouse.
Gaud was powerful, but his mystic abilities made his fighting style stray more towards the assassin style. As for Princess nor, this Elven Princess was a pure ranged offensive mystic warrior and it showed now.
Gaud struggled to pass through her defense, and though thissted only a few dozen seconds, this was enough time for Rex and Aragorn to do something.
For some reason, the battle for victory now seemed to be on a time limit and it depended on who could get the first overwhelming advantage.
...
Instantly after nor''s message, Rex and Aragorn''s intentions changed. Rex turned in the direction of the mansion with a look of rm on his face. "Max and Stark cannot be allowed to die".
Without any need to exchange words, Rex and Aragorn came to the same consensus as they unhesitatingly abandoned their current battle and started sprinting in the direction of the central control room.
Once Beastmare and the others saw this, they also changed their battle n as they finally left their defensive bulwark andshed out like a leash.
Due to the masks that previously covered their faces, Rex and the others could not know the identity of these mystic warriors.
Most Advanced mystic warriors were known for their trademark mystic abilities, but in the previous battle, Beastmare and Thoram did not feel the need for it and was why they did not reveal their main mystic abilities.
Once the battle n changed though, they also improvised.
As Aragorn and Rex rapidly sprinted away, the sounds of flying bats soon filled the air as a battalion of bats appeared out of the sleeves of one of the masked mystic warriors,pletely stunning the others.
Rex''s eyes widened. "Beastmare?!"
This mystic warrior did not give a damn as alongside the other Advanced mystic warrior, they used their ranged abilities to attack and try stalling them.
Beastmare''s bats were well-known for their poison. They could not only inflict their opponents with poison through biting, but they could also inflict opponents with their poison through poison mists that they asionally released.
None of the mystic warriors present dared to face these bats directly as they all took measures to protect themselves.
With the bats wreaking such havoc, Thoram the mystic warrior whosebat style was purely Pugilistic soon started his rampage.
The mystic warriors of the Berserk Gang struggled to hold them off.
Rex was angered by this betrayal but not for long. From the onset, he already knew that if better benefits were ced in the table, betrayal was natural.
This was the nature of the Gundam Shelter and having understood it already, Rex knew that in times like this, he needed to remain calm and collected.
Bam! Bam!
They no longer rushed, everything started flowing rhythmically as Aragorn defended against the ranged attacks with his Blood Pistols while Rex with Berserker carved his way forward through all the chaos.
It took them more than a minute, but they seeded in escaping the harassment of the bats and Thoram with minor injuries.
They finally returned inside the central control room where all the stakes of this battle were, this was the real stage for this showdown.
Chapter 156 Attack! [3]
Once Rex and Aragorn rushed inside the central control room, they were exposed to a bloody battle that already imed dozens of lives.
Gaud was relentless and absolutely ruthless this time.
He thought he already prepared enough to finish this mission effortlessly, but once again, he underestimated his opponents when he thought he already vastly overestimated them.
This Elven warrior revealed a strange degree of strength. With her bow and mystic arrows, and her 2 other mystic abilities, Princess nor was like a Jungle Queen as she fought this powerful mystic warrior to a standstill for minutes.
Apart from that, having lend the Affection Ne to Max to power it through an artificial means, Gaud could not prate the defense of these 2 basic mystic warriors as easily as he thought anymore.
The battle choked him and was what brought out his beastly side.
On seeing the nature of the battle, Gaud was finally forced to drop his gentlemanly approach as he became a full-fledged viin.
Gaud did not hesitate to drop all his morals as he employed the dirtiest means that were in his disposal just to get rid of this elven warrior.
With his invisibility mystic ability, he could effortlessly y dirty. Once he started, a massacre started as this mystic warrior abandoned his enemy and went on a massacre through theputer operators here.
Most of them already escaped as soon as Gaud appeared here, but not all of them could escape on time as they now became the victims.
The massacrested a few seconds with about a dozen deaths apanying it before Princess nor was finally forced to leave her favored position where she could attack, defend herself and the 2 Elden siblings also.
Once she moved, Gaud showed his true colors.
Both of them shed again, and Gaud was the undisputed superior. With his Goldenhead snake, ck Mamba snake, and Python snake mystic pets, he was literally fighting a 4 in 1 battle at this specific moment.
In just a few seconds, Gaud seeded in inflicting injuries all over her body as Princess nor struggled to protect herself.
Despite Gaud''s aggressiveness and superiority, Princess nor never gave up and was able to stand her ground.
She was already bloodied over, and poison already infiltrated her bloodstream, but she never once allowed Gaud to pass through.
Despite the poison of the dangerous snakes already seeping deep into her blood and making her dizzy, she never once hesitated to continue her mission.
After having agreed to protect the 2 Elden descendants, her pride would not tolerate any other oue. The only way for Gaud to pass through was if she was dead, but for now, this theory was not a reality yet.
Rushing inside the central control room and seeing the state of the Elven Princess, Rex and Aragorn experienced different rush of emotions.
In Rex''s part, he remembered the Elven Queen''s parting words. Queen Gdriel pleaded with the both of them to always protect the princess, and he gave his promise. He had no intentions of breaking his promise.
Now seeing Princess nor in such a state and still feeling her drive to keep on going, instantly, Rex felt an emotional shift that affected his consciousness.
His mystic energy started churning without his consent as he roared. In the blink of an eye, he entered a special state that he had only ever experienced during his finale battle against Turan back in Obedin City.
The only difference between now and then was that he was now significantly more powerful, and had lots of more skills and abilities at his disposal.
The blood all over the Elven Princess''s body awakened a primordial instinct in him as his eyes turned red, his body seemed to turn into a zing red fire.
Instinctively, Rex turned into his Bear-man form even as he unsheathed the upgraded Berserker. Without waiting for Aragorn, Rex''s red eyes prated the invisibility cloak as he sprinted towards his opponent.
-----
You have activated sword skill: Double Plutonian sh!
You have activated sword skill: Boomerang sh!
You have activated Advanced sword skill: One Autumn Leaf- Splitting sh!
You have activated Advanced sword skill: Nirvana sh!
You have activated ckfire skill: Zone!
You have activated ckfire Advanced skill: Self-Combustion!
You have activated Master level skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
You have activated mystic effect: ¡
You have activated¡
----
Boom!
Rex was unleashed as he activated skills instinctively.
They finally shed the first time and Rex felt a soul attack hit his mind. It only bounced off harmlessly though, he had not been training with his Fortified Soul Cultivation technique for nothing.
Having failed to establish his superiority in the soul domain, Gaud tried to capitalize on his superior closebat abilities through his Tiajustsu technique, but this time, he was up for a great surprise.
Rex''s sword shed so fast before he could react as a sword draw, a soul draw, and a blood draw were unleashed at the same time.
This attack was at point-nk range, Gaud was unable to dodge as he was affected and injured. Rex instantly followed up the attack as he had no intentions of slowing it down, he activated his Oxygen Maniption.
Gaud was rattled by the intensity and speed at which Rex attacked but he was able to fall back on time against this fatal attack.
The burning oxygen fire only grazed his face as he dodged on time. This was not the end though as a spam of attacks started from Rex, Rex no longer thought as his system just kept on activating the skills following his instincts.
He was in a special state where hepletely obeyed his instincts.
He literally activated all the mystic effects of his mystic treasures, including his Vampiric Armor and the Blood Tome as he seemed to turn into a Blood Deity.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Gaud struggled to cope with Rex''s intensity and drive.
Once Beastmare and Thoram finally entered the central control room, on seeing this battle, they werepletely bbergasted. "How?"
Their distraction worked against them though as before they could even understand what was going on, Aragorn pounced on them with his Blood Pistols.
As the red-colored bullets scorched them and as Aragorn''s machine unleashed more disaster on them inside here, Beastmare and Thoram were forced into the defensive, giving room for Rex and Gaud to fight longer.
Rex had no intentions of slowing down despite being so strong already and it became evident after he finally activated his upgrade''s skill, the Overload ability.
Once Rex activated this skill, he seemed to turn into a depiction of the fictional character Goku in its strongest state as he roared like a beast.
Even in his Bear-man form, Rex never felt himself so in tune with his sword as he fought like a swordsman who had been learning the ways of the sword for a thousand years already.
After activating his Overload ability, his power did not just increase this time but his upgrade mystic ability proved its unmatched abilities again.
Through the Overload, Rex was able to ess the swordpetency of his future self. Through this, he was able to have the proficiency of a master swordsman who already unlocked the mystic sword domain.
This was when Rex finally became the undisputed superior in the battle.
Gaud was shocked and frustrated as he fought against this mystic warrior. By now, he already threw all his ns away and only escape was in his head.
Never in his wildest dreams did he expect this new gang leader to be this powerful, he recognized that he hit the wrong opponent already.
Another thing that baffled him was Rex''s mystic energy. If Rex was a new Advanced mystic warrior like he guessed, his mystic energy limit should be exhausted by now. He was right but Rex had ns in ce.
At his signal, Princess nor after recovering a bit opened a hidden path inside the control room through which mystic beasts stormed in.
Rex spammed attacks at them instantly as he started killing them.
-----
You have killed an Intermediate mystic beast: Storm Pig
You have gained 22 mystic energy points
¡
You have killed an Intermediate mystic beast: Fire Lion
You have gained 30 mystic energy points
----
Once again, Gaud was horrified as Rex simply kept on going.
3 minutester, he gave up as he finally put in all effort to escape. Surprisingly, Rex let him go this time as he instead turned towards Aragorn''s battle.
Once he turned to Aragorn''s battle, Princess nor did the same as a 3 on 2 battle began. Having witnessed their battle already, on seeing theming, Beastmare and Thoram were horrified but it was already toote.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Once they boxed them in, they killed them efficiently without any fanfare.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior: Beastmare!
You have gained 750 mystic energy points
You have gained¡
----
Aragorn dealt thest killing blow to Thoram the Pugilist.
Once this happened, Rex did not care about going through the remaining system notifications as he exploded with speed outside after Gaud.
Gaud was horrified at the speed at which his minions died, he tried to escape faster but a mixture of apletely prepared, riled up, and angry Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor was too much for him.
And with the fact that Rex''s red eyes could see through his invisibility through some hidden means, he was screwed.
3 minutester, a familiar sword was just a few inches away from his neck.
"Surrender or die!"
Chapter 157 Taking Care Of All Loose Ends
"Surrender or die!"
Gaud was petrified as he suddenly felt a funny feeling rising up in him. He thought he would be the one saying this, he never expected the vice versa to be the case and his enemies to be the ones saying this to him.
Every millisecond that he wasted thinking, Berserker dug deeper into his neck as blood started flowing and finally made him snap out of his daze.
This time, Rex had no ounce of mercy remaining in him. The energy and intensity of the battle already took all that away from him, now what remained in him was pure violence that he was eager to unleash.
Gaud could feel this violence and was why he mellowed down.
He looked up at his opponent with mixed feelings but in the end, he just sighed. "I really underestimated you lots, I give up".
As a mystic warrior who was used to making meticulous ns, he already knew that all his chances of escape were gone with the strength showed by these 3 Advanced Mystic warriors that he had to go up against.
And with his 2 minions dead, he was all alone which reduced his chances even further. He was intelligent, he knew that he stood no chance against them.
He did as was ordered and raised his hands in surrender.
Despite his pride, Gaud still had hopes of living and was why he surrendered. His life was so much more important than his pride in his opinion. Besides, he still had a contingency n in ce that he banked his hopes on.
Once Gaud surrendered, the oue of this raid became evident, the Berserk Gangpletely defied expectations and came out on top.
The mystic warriors of the Bat Gang were horrified.
The intervals between the time when the leaders of the Berserk Gang boxed in their leader to the orchestrator of this raid finally surrendering was just a few seconds, everything happened so fast.
No matter how small their I.Q was, most of the warriors already recognized that the situation already turned south and they turned with it.
Without hesitation, the mystic warriors abandoned their opponents as without shame they started running for their lives as fast as their legs could carry them far away from the Berserk Gang mansion.
While this happened, Rex and hispanions also reacted fast. Their reactions after this victory would determine how much they benefited from it.
Rex left protection of the mansion, the gang, and the 2 Elden siblings to Aragorn after Gaud was tied firmly with a mechanic mystic chain.
As the warriors of the Bat Gang escaped, Rex and Princess nor led all avable warriors of the Berserk Gang as they went in pursuit.
When he first saw gang leader Beastmare, Rex instantly knew his intentions for agreeing to join this battle. Without a doubt, Beastmare hoped to kill him which would end up with him annexing the Berserk Gang.
If he could assimte the Berserk Gang, the Bat Gang would quickly skyrocket in importance, notoriety, and strength, bing one of the biggest in the region.
Unfortunately, their ns could not y out. Now, who said Rex could not do the same to them and try to annex their gang?
"If you can think of screwing with me, I can definitely do the same to you".
Rex was ready to fish in the troubled waters now surrounding the Bat Gang.
With his horde of mystic warriors from his gang, Rex led the charge as they pursued the warriors of the Bat Gang all the way back to their territory where Rex finally boxed them all in for his address.
Like he expected, the warriors did not fight them as they remained docile and waited for him to finally climb the stage.
This was not the first gang to suffer a defeat, and knowing what befell mystic warriors in the Gundam Shelter who did not have gangs to back them up, they were ready toply to Rex''s demands.
Rex took the stage and went straight to the point. "Every mystic warrior here from today bes a member of the Berserk Gang".
"Agree and be inducted into the gang".
"Refuse and die!"
None of the mystic warriors of the already dead Bat Gang dared to make a ruckus. Like a group of obedient children, they all agreed as they started being inducted into the gang one at a time.
There was a procedure to inducting new members into the gang in such arge scale and Rex had no intentions of staying through it all.
This was a lengthy activity that Rex left to Gavin; he didn''t have time for this since he had other pressing matters that he needed to take care of after the battle.
¡
Having known of Gaud''s ability to switch through VR Avatars already, Rex did not just fend him off, he also attacked Gaud''s hideout.
Their n against Gaud was even meticulous than the meticulous Gaud himself, Rex and his 2panions gave their all for the nning.
This time, their intelligence was really stretched to the limits as Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor did not just make ns but also made other ns to counter the possible ns and contingency ns that Gaud could make.
Having spent a lot of time questioning Max and Stark Elden, apart from the more basic information that they revealed about Gaud, Max was also able to reveal some vital information about the VR Avatars.
From his personality, for a battle of that scale and after his meticulous preparations, Gaud would likely not send a VR Avatar but would rather go with his real body since he had more confidence to win this way.
Despiteing with his real body though, Gaud also had contingencies in ce in the form of the other warriors in his team and his VR Avatars.
His intention was that if anything went wrong along the way, his VR Avatars piloted by his subordinates would be his backup but he failed to ount for something else that Rex had, Grey and Storm.
Having hid and instructed his 2 transformed beasts not to make an appearance for so long already, Gaud at some point missed thempletely.
This was the edge that Rex had over him in this struggle. While the battle in the Berserk Gang mansion raged, Grey and Storm singlehandedly stormed into Gaud''s hideout in a showdown against the VR Avatars.
Gaud had 8 VR Avatars. With Rex having destroyed one, 7 were remaining for him to cause trouble with and now Grey and Storm attacked them.
Each VR Avatar was a strong opponent though. Despite the fact that the battle already continued for a few minutes, with 2 VR Avatars destroyed and both Grey and Storm injured, the battle was not ending anytime soon.
Now, Rex and Princess nor joined the battle with the army of mystic warriors from the Berserk Gang to annihte the VR Avatars.
They did not hold back as they joined the fray, activating their strongest skills and abilities to fight off and destroy these masterpiece works of mystic mechanism.
With so many enemies and qualities in the form of Rex and Princess nor and with their incredible teamwork having trained together for a long time, the VR Avatars no longer stood a chance.
The VR Avatars soon turned into wreaks after 10 minutes of intense battle.
Rex stood over the rubble of broken machinery as he remained still to catch his breath. After recovering a bit, he finally went inside the hideout where all 18 warriors that were left of Gaud''s entourage stayed.
Rex grabbed the one who seemed the strongest of them all as the pivotal questioning session finallymenced.
This was important to know if another battle was iing.
As Rex questioned this powerful Intermediate mystic warrior who was Gaud''s 2nd inmand, Aragorn alsomenced his questioning session on the culprit himself, Gaud the chief guard.
Aragorn grabbed Gaud by the neck. "I know that you have a contingency n that you bank your hopes on, but forget it, we already took care of it".
"Perhaps you may have forgotten so let me refresh your memory. When we just came to the Gundam Shelter, what was our first feat? I know you researched about us so don''t try to act dumb".
Gaud stared coolly back at him as he soon chuckled bitterly.
Aragorn nodded. "Yeah, Storm killed the former leader of this gang in one move, that''s our first feat".
"Storm and Grey are Rex''s pet beasts. Both already went ahead to your hideout and from what I just heard; all your VR Avatars are already wreaks".
Aragorn did not let him speak as he continued. "I have very simple questions for you, I understand your personality already, so don''t even try to fool me".
"Do you have any other forces that are hidden to us?"
"Who is the real culprit nning for Max and Stark''s lives?"
"You have 5 seconds to answer¡, 4¡, 3¡, 2¡, 1¡"
"Wait!" Gaud raised his right hand. "Will I leave with my life?"
Aragorn stared at him calmly. "No, but she''ll get to live a few months or even a year longer, I think that''s fair towards you".
Gaud sighed dejectedly and answered, the fact that Aragorn knew the culprit was a female already left him with few options left. "There are no other forces".
Gaud sighed again as tears welled in his eyes, he no longer looked as valiant as before. "The culprit is Jezebel; promise me she''ll get to live longer like you said".
"She''ll surely live longer". Aragorn smiled. "Thanks for cooperating".
In Gaud''s hideout, Rex''s system lit up a notification.
-----
Mission Completed¡
----
Chapter 158 Youll Be Of Greater Use To Me After Bathing Inside This Coffin
-----
[Stage 2 Main Mission: The Evil Chief Guard!]
[Mission Completed!]
[Mission Completion Rating: A+]
[You have been rewarded with 10,000 Skill Points, 1000 Constitution Points, 800 Mystic Energy Points, Max and Stark Elden''s loyalty.]
¡
[You havepleted the Stage 2 Main Mission of the Series Mission: The Quest of the Elden Descendants!]
[You have triggered Stage 3 Main Mission: The Great Silver Shelter!]
[Main Mission: Safely escort the 2 Elden descendants back to the Great Silver Shelter where the Elden family is a major power.]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
----
Still in Gaud''s hideout, on seeing the system notification that lit up before him, Rex heaved a sigh of relief as a smile finally lit up his face.
From the level of intelligence that Gaud already revealed, Rex could not believe any word that came from this mystic warrior''s mouth. Despite that, he stillpletely believed everything from his system.
With his system ssifying the Stage 2 mission of the series mission aspleted, Rex had no doubts that the mission waspleted already.
After this, Rex tied the 18 warriors of Gaud''s entourage together before finally taking his 2 transformed beasts out as he basked in their presence.
In the previous battle against Gaud, he really went all out as he had to strain and exert himself to a level that he had never done before.
Despite the strain on his body, he was happy. In his opinion, all the efforts were worth it since after this battle, he got to measure his strength against other powerful Advanced mystic warriors to know where he stood in the spectrum.
Though Rex also acknowledged his own hard work and discipline, he still attributed most of his achievements to his family''s setup that helped him a lot.
Without bing a Vampire through the inheritance ground, without his Blood Tome, Berserker, and other mystic treasures from his family, a lot of his achievements the previous day would have not been possible.
Things like the Vampiric Armor and the master level skills that he recently acquired and learned also yed a huge role in his mighty strength disy.
Of all these boosts though, Rex respected the Coffin of the Ancients the most. This mystic treasure was proving to be his best already.
As he caressed his 2 transformed beast''s hides, Rex thought back on his journey since bing a mystic warrior.
It was not exactly long but it had been filled with a lot of ups and downs already, he loved the adventures so far and the friends that he got to make along the way. Rex stayed like that, reminiscing for 30 minutes straight.
When he was finally done, he did not stand up to leave immediately.
He instead essed his system as he wanted to spend some of the system currencies that he just gained frompleting this series mission.
After thest and only time that he upgraded his constitution, the amount of constitution points that were required for an upgrade increased to 500.
Due to ack of constitution points, Rex could not do this previously. But now, after this system mission, he could now afford it.
Having experienced it the first time, this time, Rex was prepared for it as he gagged his mouth before finally giving the order to his system. "Do it!"
[Affirmative!]
Rex was grateful for gagging his mouth as he would have really embarrassed himself, the pain caused beads of sweat to flow down his face.
The pain this time was much more intense than during the first time that he upgraded his constitution, he felt like his body was being dissected piece by piece.
For 10 minutes straight, it was like he was being tortured as his bones kept on making crackling sounds. When everything died down, Rex was drenched in sweat as he struggled to catch his breath.
When he did, he cursed in agony. "What the f*ck was that?!"
His system replied him with a notification.
------
[Congrattions! Your Special Constitution has been Upgraded!]
[Your Vampire Knight Constitution has been upgraded to be the Vampire Hunter Constitution!]
[Vampire Hunter Constitution Bonuses: +1,500 Health Points, +400 Speed, +500 Vitality]
[You have acquired 2 Vampire Hunter Skills: Blood Hunter, Bat Hunter!]
>Blood Hunter: When activated, you can leave an imprint on your prey''s blood which will enable you to hunt and locate him no matter how far the distance between the both of you is<
>Bat Hunter: When activated, you can transform into a vampire bat that specializes at tracking opponents through their smell<
[Remark: Wee to the hunter side of vampires!]
-----
On seeing the system notifications, the agony, pain, and anger of undergoing the upgrade process instantly vanished from Rex''s mind as only contentment remained. His system was indeed the difference maker.
Compared to other mystic warriors, this was the ultimate inheritance that his family left for him that enabled him toe all this way.
"Probably this is what the Holmes family is so adamant to get". Rex reasoned as he thought of the numerous advantages of having the system.
With his 2nd constitution upgrade, his power experienced another great leap that would help him in his journey in the dangerous Gundam Shelter.
With that, Rex''s business here was finally over as with Storm and Grey''s help, he finally bundled all 18 of the Intermediate mystic warriors who they caught in the hideout before dragging them back to the Berserk Gang mansion.
On getting back to the mansion, Rex saw that repairs were already going on as he dragged all 18 warriors inside where they met their leader.
Seeing all his warriors bundled together and finally getting to see the 2 transformed beasts for the first time, Gaud sighed once again before saying a word that all the warriors here would forever remember.
Gaud looked at Rex and spoke. "I hate defeats but I surprisingly don''t think so this time, it was an honor getting to fight you and being defeated by you".
By now, he already arrived at his conclusions, Princess nor and Aragorn yed a huge part but Rex was the main reason why he lost.
Despite his ttering words though, Rex was not moved as alongside his 18 warriors, they were imprisoned in the Berserk Gang mansion.
Gaud and his 18 warriors may have said the same answer despite being in different locations, but Aragorn''s mind was still not settled after such a close battle.
And as he did not have a system like Rex, he was not sure if Gaud already nned for a scenario where he lost. Because of this, Aragorn stressed the motion for the gang to remain alert and prepared for battle for the next 2 weeks.
Rex did not oppose the n so as to not arouse suspicions.
¡
2 weekster, the Berserk Gang finally returned to normal.
Within these 2 weeks, not only was the gang able to repair all the damages that were caused by the battle but they already assimted the Bat Gangpletely. The Berserk Gang was already one of the biggest in the region.
Rex, Aragorn, and nor''s notoriety and name became widely known across this region of the Gundam Shelter even as the name of the Bat Gang decayed.
Like Rex, Aragorn and Princess nor also benefited a lot from the battle.
Battles was the sure and verified way for mystic warriors to develop faster, and this was even more potent if this battle was against unconventional and powerful mystic warriors like Gaud.
Against Gaud, Aragorn and Princess nor were forced to make full use of their brain, their strength, and their skills just for a chance to win.
Against his invisibility mystic ability, they had to strain their brain and decision-making abilities just to cope with his strange ability.
After all these, they came out stronger and more developed. During the past 2 weeks, they digested their gains from the battle as they grew stronger as Advanced Mystic warriors.
Today marked 2 weeks since the battle, and the decision of what to do with Gaud and his warriors finally came. Over the weeks, they already spoke about it.
Rex looked at the other 2. "Like we said, Gaud cannot live". He continued on seeing them keep silent. "I''ll be taking Gaud, every other loot including the mystic treasures can be shared between you both but Gaud is mine".
Princess nor and Aragorn were still confused at what Rex intended to do with Gaud, but they did not argue as they let him continue with his ns.
As for the 18 warriors in Gaud''s entourage, unlike Gaud himself, they were simply following others which gave them a path of redemption.
Besides, some of them still respected Max and Stark Elden. Due to these reasons, their lives were spared as they were inducted into the gang.
As the others rummaged through the loot from the battle, Rex went to the part of the Berserk mansion where Gaud was imprisoned.
On seeing him, Gaud knew that his fate was already decided, he sighed. "Really? I can be of a lot of use to your gang alive".
"Point of correction, not you, all I need is your body".
Rex smiled and brought out a special coffin, causing Gaud to constrict his eyes. "You''ll be of greater use to me after bathing inside this coffin".
Rex poured his mystic energy in and activated the coffin.
Chapter 159 1st Transformed Humanoid Warrior- Ambition
Gaud''s eyes widened as fear appeared in them for the first time.
On seeing the massive blood-red coffin that appeared, his danger instincts tingled as all the hair on his body stood up like daggers. Referencing back to Rex''s identity as a vampire, he guessed what this coffin was capable of doing.
He finally knew how Rex being still a new Advanced mystic warrior was able to subordinate 2 powerful Advanced mystic beasts as his pets.
In all his years as a mystic warrior, this was his first time witnessing a master and beast pet rtionship like the one Rex enjoyed with his pet beasts.
Just thinking of himself bing like that sent him into a frenzy.
"Please, don''t do it". He begged for the first time.
Rex ignored his pleas as he brought out another mystic treasure that he recently bought. Once he locked Gaud''s hands with the energy lock, the flow of mystic energy in his body was instantly locked, leaving him paralyzed.
Rex brought out his death daggers before stabbing him on the left part of his chest where his heart was, then he finally rolled him into the coffin.
As he rolled the human into the coffin, Rex felt some feelings in his heart but he numbed them all, not pausing once as he continued his actions.
With his heart damaged, Gaud still struggled but once the coffin closed, all his struggles and grunts were muffled as the coffin started its dark work on him.
This time, for perfection and to increase the chances of sess, Rex preferred to put Gaud into the coffin while he was still alive. Apart from this, he also had other ns in ce to increase the sess rate of the transformation.
All these was because this was his first humanoid transformation.
Even as he poured his mystic energy into the coffin, Rex also dropped mystic stones one after the other inside the coffin as the hungry coffin absolved them all.
,m This time, the procedure was much longer and much more straining to him as Rex found himself sweating in no time.
His mystic energy also got exhausted but having prepared for it, he substituted with an energy box that could store mystic energy where he already poured his mystic energy ahead of time.
In the end, the coffin required 3 times the normal amount of Rex''s mystic energy limit before it''s weird changes finally stopped and it calmed.
His luck shone in the end, after 3 grueling hours ofplicated processes that he did not understand, once again, his 3rd transformation and 1st humanoid transformation was a massive sess.
[Congrattions! You have created your first transformed humanoid warrior!]
[You have acquired a pure bloodline warrior: Wraith Warrior!]
[Do you want to give your first transformed humanoid warrior a name?]
On seeing the system notifications, Rex finally removed his hands from the coffin. He opened the coffin slowly to allow the humanoid inside to step out.
Gaud was still Gaud, but the life in his eyes was gone. Unlike with the beasts, Gaud''s soul seemed to have been killed and was now reced with a soulless consciousness who was loyal to him and his cause.
Seeing these soulless eyes look back at him in this same body that caused him dread a few weeks ago, Rex felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"I guess I don''t really have a choice".
"To fight off my enemies, getting stronger this way is the least that I can do".
As he thought of this, he remembered Ben and Carter. He wondered where his original friends were and what they were up to at the moment.
He hoped they were not dead yet, he hoped they could wait until he became strong enough to take the world by storm and return to help them.
"For you guys, I promise to keep on getting stronger".
"For you guys, I promise not to fall to the dark side".
His works with the Coffin of the Ancients gave evil vibes but Rex didn''t see it as pure evil yet, he only intended to use it on scum warriors like Gaud.
After making up his mind, he finally turned to face Gaud again. Before giving it a name, he first wanted to see its system status.
------
[Transformed Warrior: Wraith Warrior!]
[Grade: Advanced Mystic Warrior!]
[Advanced Warrior Grade: 4th tier!]
Name: ???
Master: Rex Vector
Strength: 3,300
Speed: 2,150
Mind: 950
Vitality: 1,800
Agility: 2,400
Dexterity: 2,000
Health Points [HP]: 8,000/8,000
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 3,800/3,800
Mystic Affinity: Ethereal/Soul
Mystic Abilities: Invisibility, Beast Tamer, Soul Snatcher
[Special Bloodline: Wraithling!]
[Invisibility Skills: Invisibility, Phasing, Blink!]
[Beast Tamer Skills: Beast Tamer!]
[Soul Snatcher Skills: Soul lock, Soul shake, Soul Barrage, Soul Snatch!]
[Passive Abilities: Ranger, Master Combatant!]
[Remark: A really powerful and unpredictable Advanced mystic warrior!]
...
[NOTE: There were minute traces of a Wraith bloodline on the target. The coffin worked overtime to stimte Wraith bloodline and would now go on hibernation for 1 year to recover.]
-----
After going through the Wraith Warrior''s status, Rex finally confirmed how formidable of a mystic warrior Gaud actually was.
He lost only because he was up against anomalies like the 3 of them.
Knowing that this mystic warrior was a 4th tier Advanced mystic warrior hit Rex more since it showed him that all the effort that he put into bing a better mystic warrior were not wasted.
He was still a new and green Advanced mystic warrior, this achievement to his name was what gave him the confidence that he needed to go even further.
Rex finally looked at his first transformed humanoid warrior again. "You are a symbol of my goals and my motivation to continue working hard at them".
"From today, you shall no longer be called Gaud, you are now my property, you shall be called Ambition".
"Yes Master". The humanoid warrior kneeled respectfully.
After getting his first humanoid warrior, Rex no longer had any business doing in this prison as he finally left back to the interior of the mansion.
On returning, he rehearsed the exnation that he was about to give. After all themotion that originated from the coffin, Rex would be a fool to think that his 2panions did not peek once at what he was going to do.
He did the transformation here also because he wanted to let the both of them on another secret of his, he guessed it was time to tell them about the coffin.
On returning to the living room, he saw Aragorn and Princess nor sitting on opposite chairs as they sipped on a ss of wine.
Their acting was textbook perfect, they tried so hard to behave like they saw nothing but Rex was too close to them already, heughed. "Will you guys stop the pretense already? It''s seriously kinda cringe".
Aragorn turned his head to look at him swiftly. "What was that?"
"It is an heirloom from my family".
That was the best and most concise answer that Rex could give. Once he heard it, Aragorn no longer pressed as he nodded his head. "I understand".
On feeling both men turn in her direction, Princess nor felt obligated to speak. "I also have a simr heirloom, but its mechanisms are not as dark as yours".
"If things y right, I''ll be getting my first pet beast in a month".
With that, this chapter of their lives together finally came to a close since neither side bothered to press deeper to know more about themselves.
Before the other 2 left though, Princess nor could not help but ask a question that has been lingering in her mind in recent weeks.
"Am I considered a part of this brotherhood?"
Aragorn and Rex were stomped as they looked at themselves, at the elven princess, then back at themselves before replying. "Do you want in?"
"After the battle against Gaud, if I''ll get to fight against more powerful enemies like this alongside you guys, I guess I want in". nor smiled.
"Then you''re in, right?" Rex turned to look at Aragorn.
"Yeah, you''re in". Aragorn nodded. "We already trust you, and that is the most important element in our brotherhood".
With that, the brotherhood weed its 3rd member.
Even after taking care of Gaud and swallowing the loot from that great battle, there was still a lot of work to do in the Berserk Gang.
Having expanded in strength and size, some things that the trio originally ignored that were not up to their standards could now begin to be changed.
And after the strength that they all disyed against Gaud and Gang leader Beastmare, every single mystic warrior in the gang already saw them as myths. Respect for them was at an all-time high and they took advantage of it.
Rex took advantage of this opportunity to start his reforms.
If his rise to the top was to start in the Gundam Shelter through the Berserk Gang, he loved to do it his way and not the way that others did.
With Aragorn and Princess nor''s support, things went on smoothly and in the blink of an eye, it was already 3 months.
Chapter 160 The Myriad Metal Shelter; Bens Motivation
The Myriad Metal Shelter was one of the more recognized of the 7 Great Shelters that were built after the start of the age of awakening.
All the 7 Great Shelters were built in prosperous regions whichter became known as mid-earth. The greatest characteristics of mid-earth and the Great Shelters were the unique mineral resources that were enriched with mystic energy.
As its name suggested, the myriad metal shelter was the home of all kinds of mystic metals that were used in creating some of the greatest mystic treasures.
The Ancient mystic families that settled in this shelter did not just have ess to the greatest deposits of metals containing mystic energy, they also evolved over the years due to constant exposure to the metal energy.
Over the centuries, the Ancient mystic families adapted to the metal energy which affected their bloodline, making it purer and more potent.
Of the Ancient mystic families that enjoyed this benefit of living in the myriad metal shelter was the Ancient Carter family who was among the rulers here.
The Ancient Carter family enjoyed this advantage a lot as their original bloodline evolved to be the Big bone bloodline today.
The Carter household was experiencing a busy week as, after another 12-month cycle, the time finally came for the bloodline carrier ranking test.
Of the contestants, this time was a new name. A knuckle-headed chubby and dark-skinned youth with a lot of strength and who had a great mastery of the sword, who was also rumored to have a higher variant of the Big bone bloodline.
Ben Carter was having the best and worst times of his life at the same time over thest few months, and it showed in him being nominated for the test.
A few months ago, Lady Charlotte and her niece Anne went all the way to the King Resistance Shelter where they brought out this previously hidden warrior.
After meeting the patriarch and getting his approval, Ben was easily integrated into the family as he started learning the way that things were done here. One of the things he learned first was the carrier rankings.
In the Carter family, every descendant that was able to awaken the Big bone bloodline was referred to as a carrier and had a higher status than non-carriers.
Even among the carriers, there were ranks and they were divided into the Iron rank, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Mithril ranks.
Due to Ben''s purer bloodline, he automatically got promoted to the Bronze rank. From that day, he started his journey of training to rise through the ranks.
To have a higher status and to enjoy more freedom in the family, you had to have a higher ranking. The ranks were affected by purity of bloodline, mystic warrior rank, and achievements in battles for the family.
Lady Charlotte became Ben''s mentor in the myriad metal shelter and in no time, Ben learned that his dream of a carefree life was not so sure.
Being a family that was ruthless enough to send their descendants to unknown locations just to stimte them to awaken their Big bone bloodlines, the Ancient Carter was one of the most disciplined out there.
To remain relevant, Ben had to work, there was no other option for him.
At first, on knowing this truth, Ben was sad but after a month, his mentality changed. After a month of not seeing Rex and Cassandra, of not getting to see girls the way that he wanted, the reality of his situation finally dawned on him.
To meet his friends again, to get his freedom back, to get his girls back, and to trulymand his fate, he needed to train and be stronger.
The day that Ben realized this was the day that his fate started changing.
Back in the King Resistance Shelter, Ben never saw himself as a genius since Cassandra and Rex always outperformed him but here in the myriad metal shelter, he finally knew that his bloodline was what previously held him back.
Once he awakened his Big bone bloodline, his fate changed. His talent that was previously being suppressed was finally unleashed.
With Lady Charlotte as his mentor, Ben trained as hard as he could. The end goal of meeting his friends and ying with his girls again was his daily motivation throughout all these as he fully gave his all into training.
Ben was never an avid fan of swords, he loved them only because Rex did but once he became determined, he started recognizing his love for swords.
After 4 months of unrelenting and intense training, Ben came out of it all like a Phoenix rising from its ashes and like gold from the purifying fire.
Ben did not just be an Advanced mystic warrior; he also became a mystic swordsman who already unlocked his sword domain. His growth speed waspletely outrageous and was what made him known in the family.
His feats warned other contestants that there was a new challenger in town, and after waiting a few more months, the week for the ranking test finally came.
Once he was ready, Ben left his apartment and joined the thousands of other contestants in the waiting hall where they waited for the patriarch to address them.
The patriarch arrived and gave a short speech.
His emphasis was on self-development, which was the main goal of the Ancient Carter family, to build strong warriors that could take care of themselves and by extension, the family.
Once the speech was over, all the thousands of contestants were taken to the Mithril Forest where their task was to kill the metal affinity beasts.
This contest was not just for carriers to jump through the ranks, they could also regress through the ranks if they were unable to fulfill the requirements.
Staying in the Iron rank required a total kill of 500 metal affinity beasts, the bronze rank required a total kill of 1,500 metal affinity beasts, and the Silver rank required a total kill of 5,000 metal affinity beasts.
As for the Gold and Mithril ranks, to climb these milestones required total kills of 15,000 and 50,000 metal affinity beasts respectively.
Once they were dumped in the forest, the contest began.
Having practiced for this moment for a long time, Ben was calm about being dumped into this dangerous forest as he first sought shelter to protect himself.
After finding a shelter where he could retreat in danger to hide, he finally started his hunt. After training for months, apart from unlocking his sword domain and bing an Advanced mystic warrior, he also had 3 mystic abilities already.
His first mystic ability was a water mystic ability, his 2nd was a power amplifying ability that enabled him to get stronger by expanding and getting fatter.
As for hisst mystic ability, it was the Bone Maniption mystic ability. This was the mystic ability of the first Carter ancestor, and it was given to Ben personally by the patriarch after his astonishing achievements in the past few months.
With this ability, the Big bone bloodline could no longer just amplify his strength, he could also amplify the strength of his bones now while also granting him the ability to manipte his bones.
Apart from his Advanced level sword, Ben''s main weapon and defensive armor were now his bones due to the versatility of his 3rd mystic ability.
Once Ben started his hunt, it soon became clear that him finding a shelter to retreat to was him being conservative as he steamrolled through the metal beasts.
Having studied the metal affinity beasts with Lady Charlotte already, he knew them like the back of his hand and it showed in his performance.
In just the first 3 days, Ben was able to kill 10,000 metal affinity beasts which was apletely outrageous feat at the very top of the participating contestants.
For the next 4 days though, he slowed down not only due to his depreciating stamina but also because the stronger metal affinity beasts finally started emerging. Ben''s most dangerous encounter was against a Super beast.
Against this extremely powerful beast, Ben was pummeled to the point of death but what saved him was his bone as his 3rd mystic ability reared its head in this desperate moment again.
After a very close battle, he was able to escape to his hideout to recover. He recovered after half a day and after consuming a healing potion.
After he healed, without fear, he returned to the battlefield to confront more metal affinity beasts. At the end of the 7th day, he ended up killing 16,000+ beasts which enabled him to clinch the 7th spot in the overall rankings.
When the final results came out, the whole Carter household was sent into a frenzy as the new kid in the block snatching 7th ce waspletely legendary.
As usual, only the 3 previous carriers who upied the Mithril rank defended their ranking by repeating the same feat.
6 other students who all made it to the Gold rank alongside Ben made the top 10. With this astonishing feat, Ben also broke another record as he became the first warrior to jump 2 ranks straight to the Gold rank.
As his fame grew after the test, so also did his fortune as all contestants who upied the top 10 got to meet the patriarch again.
"Congrattions, after 12 years, the inheritance ground of a sword grandmaster is about to open again in a month. That is the ultimate prize that I organized to be rewarded to the top 10 of this ranking test".
"As for those whose main battle domain is not swordsmanship, you can exchange the inheritance token with an equivalent opportunity in the household".
While others contemted, Ben blurted his reply. "I ept!"
This was the opportunity that he sought, and he had no intention to miss it as he shed back to his friends and his girls.
"Keep waiting, when I get strong enough, we''ll meet again".
Chapter 161 They Are Here!
3 months was a long time in the Gundam Shelter.
During this period, a lot of things changed with the most prominent being the massive power shift in the Red Zone. Like usual, a lot of gangs fell and others rose with a lot of new faces appearing.
In the struggle for survival to gain prominence here, powerful mystic warriors dying and fading to obscurity was not a new urrence, neither was the appearance of new promising mystic warriors.
During this time, one of the major talking points of the massive power shift that urred was the Berserk Gang who already grew to be a behemoth.
The Red Zone was the prime zone for beginners like Rex and his 2panions when they just came to this shelter 4 months ago.
Most gangs in the extremely chaotic Red Zone had gang leaders who were just Intermediate mystic warriors, it was only a minority of gangs that had Advanced mystic warriors as their gang leaders.
From the Advanced level upwards, the difference in strength between mystic warriors bes more prominent and noticeable.
Of the Advanced mystic warriors who were gang leaders here, none of them were above the 5th tier, all of them were the bottom feeders of this mystic realm.
This was the reason why with abination of Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor, the Berserk Gang soon became an unstoppable force in the region.
After getting rid of Gaud and recovering from the aftereffects of that battle, the Berserk Gangid low for 1 month as they recovered from their brief slump.
After the first month though, this gang''s meteoric rise to the top finally started. With it''s 3 gang leaders spearheading the operation, the Berserk Gang started a mission of rapid expansion by swallowing other gangs.
In the Gundam Shelter, this was allowed, there were hidden rules that governed this chaotic society but with enough strength, rules could be broken.
In the first week after they stopped lying low, they announced their ns, making it a public affair before arrogantly raiding a nearby gang.
That week, 3 gangs fell to the tyranny of the Berserk Gang, they became the first victims of the revolution that would continue even after 3 months.
Being a mystic warrior was expensive, and developing further was even more expensive. To further Aragorn''s research, to get more mystic treasures, these raids were a necessity as they took it with all seriousness.
In the past 3 months, after swallowing 15 small-sized gangs and 4 medium-sized gangs, the Berserk Gang was already the most notorious.
Now, Rex and hispanions no longer needed to talk about their gang since it was the talk of the Red Zone. Promising mystic warriors who sought opportunities to start over now voluntarily applied to join them.
As the gang grew, the necessity to state the gang''s goal came and Rex gave the most arrogant goal. "The Berserk Gang''s goal is to rule the Gundam Shelter".
It was extremely arrogant, but it fueled the zeal of the mystic warriors who represented the gang as they now represented it with pride and honor.
The gang now had 3 major departments. The hunter department whose main job was sending mystic hunters to hunt for beasts in the Great Forest of Elias and the Great Ape Forest.
There was the official guard department who were the warriors tasked to always stay prepared and alert to defend the gang when in danger.
Thenstly was the mechanic department. Aragorn''s mechanic workshop already became a machine that churned out mystic treasures.
For the workshop to take a major department spoke volumes of Aragorn''s attainments during the past 3 months through his mystic workshop.
Apart from the gang''s objectives, Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor already grew personally as mystic warriors. All 3 of them were now above the 3rd tier of the Advanced mystic realm and this speed was outrageous already.
After getting to the Advanced mystic level, due to the ridiculous amount of mystic energy limits now needed for an upgrade, progress was usually very slow.
Princess nor already mastered her 3rd mystic ability that was rted to sound, Aragorn''s 3rd mystic ability was rted to metals and maism.
As for Rex, he was able to unlock and learn the shadow mystic ability already through the cultivation technique manual that he got months ago.
Overall, they were now far more powerful than they were 3 months ago.
In the living room of the recently renovated Berserk mansion, Rex rubbed his beards. "It''s been 1 year already since I became a mystic warrior".
Aragorn and Princess nor yawned. "Won''t you get tired of this catchphrase already?! It''s getting boring".
"I can''t". Rex said with a smile. "Looking back on all my achievements and how much I grew within 1 year; I feel proud and grateful".
Princess nor rolled her eyes before lying down on the couch where she raised a topic. "What about the ck Zone? Have you heard from Gavin?"
Once she raised this, Rex''s eyes widened. "Oh! I almost forgot, I already got word from Gavin despite the interference, we got a deal!"
"Nice". This time, it was Aragorn that spoke as through his voice he was able to express his joy on hearing this.
Over the months, as their reign grew, they learned more about the Gundam Shelter, the 3 zones and the 3 Great Forests.
They had all been to and had hunted numerous times in the Great Forest of Elias and the Great Ape Forest, but for some reason, despite asking already, they never were able to get the real location of the Great Dungeon Forest.
This Great Forest ranked as the most dangerous of the 3 was so mysterious that they never got information about it until they got connections to the ck Zone where they were tasked to pay for the information.
Rex sent Gavin ahead to engage in the negotiations, building rtions for the Berserk Gang in the ck Zone. After 2 weeks, Gavin finally seeded.
Apparently, essing the Great Dungeon Forest required a special runic token. Having paid an astronomical amount for it already, they now expected to get this token within the next week.
"I can''t wait to enter this mysticalnd". Aragorn bbered excitedly. "I heard it''s filled with the most sophisticated mystic treasures in the whole world".
While Aragorn bbered on, Princess nor remained seated cross-legged as she started her meditation session to train her control over adrenaline.
As these 2 warriors did their thing, Rex became left out as he soon sank into the world of his thoughts. After a long time of preparation, Rex finally felt that he was prepared to tackle some problems.
3 months ago, after going to the Blood Market where he got his Vampiric Armor, Rex discovered that the original owner of the armor left an inheritance.
For a long time already, he craved to find opportunities to speed up hisprehension speed and increase his swordsmanship mastery.
When this swordsmanship inheritance opportunity came up, he was ecstatic but he was also realistic enough to see that he was not ready then.
Suddenly leaving when the Berserk Gang was still in its infant stage with barely any foundations was a recipe for disaster. Now that the gang had a bit of renown and some foundations, he reasoned that he could go.
After living a barely monotone and repetitive life for over the past 3 months, he was ready to return to the live filled with adventures that he loved.
He wanted to visit this inheritance before going to the Great Dungeon Forest. Having told his 2panions of his intentions before now, Rex simply reminded them that he was finally ready to leave.
"Just do well not to die". This was Aragorn''s simple wish to him as he left.
"Live". Princess nor''s was even more concise.
After leaving the living room, Rex returned to his room toplete his preparations. After 30 minutes when he was done, before leaving the Berserk mansion, he did something that he had not done in a few weeks.
Rex decided to ess his system status again.
------
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 19
Race: Vampire Neonate
Blood Rank: Vampire Knight
Rank: Advanced Mystic Warrior
Advanced Warrior Grade: 3rd tier
Strength: 3,050
Speed: 2,600
Mind: 1,060
Vitality: 3,900
Agility: 2,000
Dexterity: 1,980
Health Points [HP]: 14,500/14,500
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 9,300 /9,300
[Basic Skills: Double Plutonian sh; Needle Stab; Drilling Stab; Boomerang sh; Zone; Ethereal sh; Blood Strike; Ghost in the Night.]
>Advanced Sword Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 1st Move: Splitting sh!]
[One Autumn Leaf- 2nd Move: Splintering sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
>Advanced ckfire Skills<
[Self-Combustion!]
>Advanced Shadow Skills<
[Shadow Doppelganger!]
[Dark Arrow!]
>Master Level Skills<
[Ultimate Iron Defense!]
[Oxygen Maniption!]
¡
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire/Shadow
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire Hunter
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense, Blood Hunter, Bat Hunter.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
? [Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat; Bear-man.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients; Parasitic Armor.]
[Skill Points: 18,905.]
[Constitution Points: 180.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Transformed Beasts: Grey; Storm!]
[Transformed Warrior: Ambition!]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
[Remark: By boy living the dream!]
-----
Rex whistled happily as he finally packed his bag to leave, but before he could a knock came on the door. On opening it, Aragorn came in with a solemn look on his face as Rex waited for him to speak.
"They are here!"
Chapter 162 Arthur Holmes Arrival And Signs Of The Sad Flute Assassins
That morning, the borders of the Gundam Shelter weed 2 new parties.
Every month, new warriors looking to pave a way to greatness for themselves migrated to this chaotic shelter even as those who already settled here died in droves from the chaos that reigned here.
After months of preparation and even having to serve a punishment, Arthur Holmes and his entourage finally arrived at this notorious shelter.
Arthur''s eyes seemed to burn with the anger of ambition and revenge as he looked at this shelter from on top his mount. "So, this is where you are".
2 years ago, Arthur was a nobody, just one of the numerous talented warriors who were all tipped to be the best of the new generation of Holmes mystic warriors until his father, one of the executioners of this ancient family stepped in.
By artificially helping Arthur to grow stronger and by pulling some strings that sold his freedom, he was able to make his son be the chosen warrior.
Once Arthur was anointed by the 3 Grey Watchers, the mandate of the family to eliminate all remnants of the Ancient Vector family finally fell on his shoulders.
The pressure from carrying such a huge responsibility at a young age was much, but with the guidance and secret help of his father, Arthur was able to prove up to the task as he finally pinpointed the location of thest Vector.
Once he got the location of thest Vector, as a gift for this achievement, his father rewarded him by handing over custody of the Scorpion to him.
Scorpion was just one of the different powerful mystic warriors that were caught under the ruthless tentacles of the Ancient Holmes family, giving out one of them to the best youngster of the family was eptable by everyone.
Arthur got Scorpion''s strength but he also got the headache as Scorpion was not the docile one who simply obeyed orders without objecting.
The only grip that they had on him was his love for his daughter.
Taking advantage of this grip, Arthur had the Scorpion do things for him which all culminated into the raid and attack in the King Resistance Shelter.
Arthur thought that he already nned for everything, but due to one moment of mishap in the form of the Butcher Mama, he missed it all as he ran with his tails behind his legs while Rex escaped.
The 3 Watchers were not impressed but they let him go again. It was after his 2nd failure that the Watchers finally lost their patience with him.
On returning to the Great Alpha Shelter, Arthur received his first punishment whichsted 2 months and it was personally done by the 3 Watchers.
After spending 2 months alone in the dark world of the Watchers, Arthur came out traumatized and broken. He needed more than a month to recover.
Once he did recover though, the Watchers gave him hisst chance. It was either he came with Rex Vector''s head or his own head served on a gold te.
The trauma of being reprimanded and punished by the Watchers, and now the ultimatum from them threatened to killpletely Arthur''s mentality but once again it was his father who rose to the challenge.
After a lengthy session where this man exined the realities of life to him, Arthur finally came out of his slump stronger and motivated than ever before.
Since then, he started his preparations to really take down Rex. Since this was hisst chance at it, he gave it his all.
For over a month, Arthur was busy drafting the basic parts of his n. The rest parts of the n would bepleted when his entourage finally got to the Gundam Shelter, but for now, thest thing was Scorpion.
For the first time in all his life, Arthur spoke convincingly without any ounce of arrogance to Scorpion. Like his father advised, he lied that his daughter would finally be released to him after thisst mission seeded.
Well, his father was right. On being promised that, the Scorpion became even more motivated than he was for the mission to be a sess.
During his heydays, the Gundam Shelter was among the different shelters where he plied his trade which made it easier for him to be a pivotal member now.
He spearheaded the team''s actions and movements until they got to the Gundam Shelter. And now, even here, he was still the spearhead.
Scorpion''s fiery red eyes were narrowed as he looked. "From what I gathered; the Vector descendant is already a big figure in the Red zone".
"To avoid attracting his attention, let us enter through the backway".
Entering through the backway of smuggling had its disadvantages since they had to leave all their powerful mystic vehicles and others behind.
Despite the disadvantages, they were able to feel safe and out of the public eye as they were smuggled in. Entering the Gundam Shelter though was just the first step to more nning as Arthur turned to Scorpion for help.
Scorpion replied coldly. "I once had a friend here, an Energy Blocker".
"What''s an energy blocker?" Arthur asked, prompting an extremely rare smile to emerge on Aragorn''s face as he turned to look at him.
"A mystic warrior that you don''t want to meet in battle".
...
A few months ago, a new international assassin group burst into the scene, they called themselves the Sad Flute Assassins.
Despite their recent rise, they already established themselves in just a few months as the current most feared assassin group.
Having been involved in missions that saw them assassinate world leaders in several of the small shelters, they were already wanted in both a good and bad way in different corners of the earth rim.
They were rumored to have only 3 Peak Assassins who were the leaders of this notorious organization, and of the 3, only one was female.
All 3 Peak Assassins were rumored to be extremely powerful Advanced mystic warriors with the weakest of them already achieving the 7th tier.
The only female among them, the Snake Empress was Cassandra.
After the intimate session with Rex more than 6 months ago, Cassandra migrated to the Seraphim shelter where through her future knowledge, was able to join the Sad Flute Assassins that would soon be on the rise.
Due to her impable timing, she was able to witness it when this organization finally discovered the Evolution Pool that changed their fortune.
Like the others, she enjoyed this important advantage and already bathed on the evolution pool several times. What she had different from her peers was the outstanding knowledge that she returned with from her previous life.
Despite being just an Intermediate mystic warrior when she arrived, through her knowledge, she was able to improve rapidly with the speed of a rocket.
After they got the Evolution Pool 2 months after her arrival, a monthter, Cassandra became an Advanced mystic warrior which waspletely outrageous.
In another 2 months, shepletely broke everymon sense that was already established about the growth of mystic warriors as she rapidly climbed the ranks all the way to her current stage of the 8th tier of this mystic realm.
After all her achievements, she easily became the 2nd strongest mystic warrior in the whole organization, thereby bing the 2nd Peak Assassin.
She was well-known in the assassin organization as the Snake Empress not only through her mystic abilities, but also through her achievements, having single-handedly assassinated more than a dozen prominent figures already.
A few weeks ago, she brought a proposal to the council of Peak Assassins. The Snake Empress wanted the Sad Flute Assassins to embark on an extremely ambitious mission that shocked the other 2 Peak Assassins.
"Due to the Evolution Pool, the Sad Flute Assassins will only keep on getting stronger as the months and years rolls by".
"We''ll get strong to an extent where we start thinking of extending our base of operations to the Great Shelters. Before doing that though, we have to start our foundations by focusing on much more easier feats first".
"Like they said, little drops of water makes a mighty Ocean".
"The Sad Flute Assassins deserve to be the secret owner, controller, and leader of a shelter. All the shelters are official, and that leaves us with only one truly chaotic shelter withoutws, the Gundam Shelter".
"I say we make the Gundam Shelter our first pawn. As assassins, we don''t need to build a base, we simply need to take over and control things from the dark".
"This is after secretly subduing the major powers there".
Once they heard her suggestion, for a second, the Lightsaber Ghost and the King of Daggers thought she was crazy but after remembering their interactions throughout the months, they concluded that she was always crazy.
They wanted to think about it but Cassandra added. "You know, if we are not ambitious enough, other more ambitious enemies will take us and tear us apart".
"Our Evolution Pool is priceless, what guarantees that every assassin will forever be loyal to our cause? Once the truth of our rise bes known, enemies wille from all sides just to snatch it away from us".
"By then, if we are not prepared, think of our fate".
This was actually how the Sad Flute Assassins died and faded into obscurity in her previous life so hearing it now, it rang to the 2 other Peak Assassins strongly.
They did not contemte any longer, they gave their consent. "Let''s do it!"
That was when the first traces of the Sad Flute Assassins finally started appearing in the Gundam Shelter unannounced and unprovoked.
Cassandra was determined to reunite and finally get to help her man.
Chapter 163 Gandalf, The Energy Blocker
-----
[You have triggered a new system mission: Ultimate Showdown!]
[Mission Details:]
>Arthur Holmes, the best descendant of this generation of Holmes warriors is upon you again. This time, humbled and wiser from being punished, Arthures with the greatest determination to eliminate you<
>This is the ultimate showdown of this generation between both families whose great feud started centuries ago<
>There is only one oue to this showdown. You die or he dies<
[Main Mission: Kill Arthur Holmes!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
¡
[Sub Mission: Liberate Scorpion, the Sting Assassin!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
----
"They are here!"
Instantly after Aragorn told him this with a solemn look on his face, Rex''s system also lit up a corresponding notification that exined everything.
Compared to the info that Aragorn had, his was even more urate. Despite this, Rex did not act like he knew as he continued acting clueless. "Who?"
"Our enemies are here".
Without wasting any time, Aragorn exined to him and the Elven Princess how the news came about. Just like them, while entering the shelter, Scorpion took measures to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.
Despite Scorpion''s cautiousness and all that, he still underestimated the current reach of the Berserk Gang and was already burned for it.
One of the warriors that was smuggled alongside them was a warrior of the Berserk Gang, and having received simr report missions already, for contribution points, this warrior did not hesitate to reveal the truth.
Over the past 3 months, apart from digesting the gains from Gaud, Max, and Stark Elden and growing the Berserk Gang, they also worked on their safety.
Unless something really drastic changed up there, Aragorn''s enemies were still pretty far away in the great shelters. He was the one seeking revenge and had the intentions to take the fight to the enemy.
Princess nor had no external enemies; her enemies were the Kamaitachis and they were all locked with her family in the micro world.
Only Rex''s was a different case. Having experienced the determination of his enemies to kill him already, nning for their safety ranked very high in their priority list of things to attend to as soon as possible.
As the Berserk Gang grew, they employed more measures to protect themselves which included setting up spies to be on the lookout for their arrival.
From what they just got; their efforts appeared to not have been futile.
Without hesitation, they decided to take action. The best way to deal with your enemy was to take them out when they were at their weakest.
At this moment, Arthur Holmes had no foundations in the Gundam Shelter while they had the Berserk Gang, they had the overwhelming advantage now.
Rex, Aragorn, and Princess nor no longer hesitated as they geared up before rushing out with a team of 8 trucks from the gang.
Like they calcted, they were able to intercept the smuggling vehicle after just 5 minutes but to their shock, the vehicle was empty with only the driver in.
This young chubby driver smiled as his cheeks jiggled while he spoke to them. "Namaste brother, what happened? I''m simply delivering supplies".
Looking at the smiling face of this chubby driver, Rex felt an urge to smack his face into a pulp as he ordered. "Check the vehicle!"
The vehicle was literally ransacked but still, the driver was the only one in. Frustrated, Rex had his warriors follow him as they searched around the perimeter for a region of about a kilometer to no avail.
For some reason, Arthur seemed to have anticipated this and was a step ahead. They were strangely able to react fast enough to escape this ambush.
The even more baffling fact about this was that they were supposed to have no foundations in the Gundam Shelter, so how did this happen?
The questions were too much and the answers were too few. Out of options already, Aragorn sighed before suggesting that they return to the mansion.
On getting back, the 3 of them isted themselves as they talked about their circumstances, this was when Rex made known his decision.
"I won''t change my mind; I''m going for the Vampiric Armor''s inheritance".
In the little time of them returning to the mansion, Rex already thought over everything and made his decision, he would continue with his previous decision and leave the shelter for the inheritance.
Having stayed 3 months in the shelter building the Berserk Gang already, he now craved some outside adventures to refresh his growth mechanism.
In his 1 year as a mystic warrior, one thing he learned was that apart from fighting physical battles to breakthrough, when a mystic warrior got stuck, changing environments for more varied options and adventures could help a lot.
Rex stuck with his decision to leave. He didn''t know how Arthur Holmes was able to escape his encirclement, but he still believed in himself.
"What of your safety?" Aragorn asked.
"Don''t worry about me". Rex smiled. "I have Grey, Storm, and Ambition, remember? With them, I''m literally unkible to most Advanced mystic warriors".
"Also, there''s been a lot of recent upheavals in the shelter, I feel that something big is happening. My instincts are screaming conservativeness to me".
"To avoid getting caught in the wrong side of whatever storm ising, we need to halt our expansions to fully digest the ones that we''ve swallowed already".
"About your safety when I leave, I already thought of that".
"From the little that I learned about Arthur, he loves to keep his ns hidden from his enemies before exploding in ast moment attack to take him unawares".
"When they confirm that I''m absent, they''re unlikely to take the fight to the both of you just to keep their ns out of our reach".
"I may be wrong but I believe you''re both capable of taking care of any new variables that emerge. For now, I''m off to the Great Desert".
Minato Musashi''s tomb has already been overrun by the constantly expanding territory of the Great Desert.
Aftering to a consensus with his sworn brother and sister, Rex finally bid them farewell before leaving to further his journey as a mystic swordsman.
As soon as he left, Aragorn and Princess nor took over as they started employing more sophisticated measures to protect themselves.
Knowing that Arthur was from a Great Shelter put them at alert. Having experienced what it felt to go against one of the mystic warriors from these much more prosperous areas in Gaud, they dared not underestimate him.
While they did their thing, Scorpion did his own thing.
¡
At the heart of the Red Zone, inside a random restaurant sat 3 mystic warriors as 2 of them chatted like best friends who were finally meeting after separating for over 3 decades.
"I can''t believe I''m actually seeing you again after so many years". The white-haired middle-aged manughed his heart out as he spoke.
Even as he spoke, his mouth never stopped chewing on the peas on the table even as his other hand kept on pouring cups of beer down his throat.
"Hahaha, you too". Scorpionughed. "You know, I find it ridiculous that you''re still alive, I expected you to be dead already".
"You too motherf*cker".
Arthur was like the outcast as these 2 mystic warriors seemed to talk about the good old days, they did this for a long time before the white-haired middle-aged mystic warrior finally asked a question.
"Where is your partner in crime? I thought you guys were inseparable".
Scorpion''s face finally changed. "Well, as you can see, we separated".
The man raised his hands up. "Sorry man, I didn''t mean it as an offense". He poured down another ss of beer. "So man, what brought you here?"
"After all the sins that youmitted here in our heyday, I never expected you to have the courage toe back here".
"Aha¡, I remembered that you married and had a kid, right? Right?"
Scorpion stared coolly back at this mystic warrior. "Yes".
Though he tried to y it cool, the white-haired man knew he was talking to, he could easily read that something was wrong as he finally decided to stop taking it so casually. "Can this kid listen in?"
"Yes".
"So, what actually brought you back here?"
Scorpion kept a poker face. "Do you still have your powers?"
"Did a Ghost Face finally eat up your brain?" The white-haired mystic warrior asked sarcastically. "When did mystic warriors begin losing their mystic abilities?"
"Just wanted to be sure". Scorpion kept his poker face and continued. "This kid here is my employer and he has a mission¡"
"I''m done with missions, don''t bother".
"I know, that''s why I came personally". Scorpion adjusted himself, something he rarely did, causing the white-haired man''s eyebrows to raise.
He continued. "Gandalf, this is not a mission but please take it as a plea of help from an old friend. If we''re sessful, I''ll owe you this favor for life".
Gandalf raised his eyebrows again. "It''s been decades since youst called my name, besides, you almost never put your favor on the line in negotiations".
Heughed. "I don''t know man, but that thing at stake must be surely important to demand you putting your favor on the line".
"This is a rare thing I guess, just for the excitement, count me in".
"I''ll remember this favor". Scorpion said solemnly.
With him in, Scorpion no longer hid anything as he gave the stage to Arthur. Arthur did not hesitate as he exined everything that he could to this warrior.
When he was done, Gandalf rubbed his grey beard. "Your opponent is actually that kid? Interesting, I guess I can do that".
"Follow me to my gang".
Before they stood up to leave, Arthur asked a question. "What''s an energy blocker?"
"This!"
Before Arthur could react, the old man poked him on the head and instantly, he felt like a cripple since all flow of mystic energy in his body seized.
He felt goosebumps as his body turned chilly.
Gandalf smiled. "That''s an energy blocker".
Chapter 164 The Great River Of Gold
After spending more than 5 eventful months here, Rex was finally about to leave the Gundam Shelter to ply his trade elsewhere.
Though he had only spent his time in this chaotic shelter at one major part of it which was the Red Zone, he was still able to experience a lot with the Berserk Gang as they slowly rose to the peak of power in their territory.
Before leaving, he turned onest time to look at the shelter.
Alongside him was a mature Storm Kamaitachi and a Dark Mist Spider. Grey and Storm were as loyal to him as ever, and they followed him everywhere he went.
Ambition did the same but unlike the 2 transformed beasts, his only transformed warrior was special. Like the other 2, Ambition had its own entric personality, the warrior loved the life of an assassin more.
With the invisibility mystic ability, Ambition was able to follow Rex without needing to expose himself to any spying eye that may be watching.
Since he got the transformed warrior a few months ago, Ambition already grew to be Rex''s trump card for the most dangerous situations.
With Ambition, he was literally unkible through an ambush or assassination. The only way to kill him was the straightforward way and if the enemy was far stronger than him, more likely if he/she was a Super mystic warrior.
With how rare Super mystic warriors were though, Rex became somewhat of a god in his realm since no conventional Advanced mystic warrior could kill him.
This advantages that he had spearheaded the rise of the Berserk Gang.
Now, Rex was about to seek more opportunities out there to get stronger. These days, his system no longer gave him new missions like before, clearly, he was no longer receiving newbie bonuses.
He only triggered missions when the situation was truly serious or necessary.
Without missions, he had no choice but to keep on training personally. Even without his system though, Rex already recognized that he was a genius long ago and it showed as he continued improving.
The reason why he wanted to go to this inheritance ground now was that though his improvement speed was fast, it still felt too slow to his liking.
His enemies were not mere Advanced mystic warriors, Scorpion and the others were just the minions, his real enemy was a whole Ancient mystic family with Super mystic warriors and Legendary mystic warriors.
If one day, they decide to descend on him with their full strength, he would be like a fish that was scooped from the sea and left on the drynd.
Helpless, that was how he felt on thinking of these scenarios.
This was why Rex was determined not to rest on his rails, this was why he was determined to keep on working hard, this was why he was determined to keep on putting the grind, he was thest hope of the Vector family.
Until he got so strong that he became the undisputed god of swords and became capable of wiping out the Ancient Holmes family, Rex was not ready to rest, he would keep on striving till he got there.
The only thing that could stop him was death. If he didn''t die, he would just keep on going without getting tired of it one bit.
After looking back at the Gundam Shelter and cutting off his sentiments, Rex finally turned back to leave through the nearest route.
As he left, he asked in a whisper. "How many are following me?"
Ambition''s spooky voice came like a ghost. "28 mystic warriors so far. 4 Intermediate mystic warriors and 24 Basic mystic warriors, and they all have concealment and scouting mystic abilities".
"Good, secretly round them up for a sh in 5 minutes".
"Yes, master".
Ambition went to work very smoothly, one of this transformed warrior''s greatest traits was efficiency. In his invisible state, he manipted things from the dark and all the warriors were clustered in one location without them knowing.
5 minutester, before the warriors could understand what was going on, 2 beasts descended on them and in mere seconds, they were devoured.
Storm and Grey savored the feeling of human blood on their lips as Rex finally came close to check the identity of these warriors that stalked him.
Though even in death they tried to hide their origins, as an experienced gang leader of a gang in the Gundam Shelter, Rex was not fooled.
Like he expected, they were all from gangs in the shelter.
He rounded them up and burnt them, leaving no evidence behind as he finally started his journey officially after confirming that no one else was stalking him. Even if there was, this act from him would intimidate and pursue them.
As he traveled on Storm, Rex referenced the map again.
On the map were marked 4 prominent ces, with 2 of them with a green mark, one of them ck, and thest of them all a bright golden color mark.
The 2 green-marked locations where the Great Forest of Elias and the Great Ape Forest. The ck-marked location was the Great Dungeon Forest.
As for thest of them all that was located in the far South of the map, the bright golden-marked one was the Great Desert moremonly referred to as the Great River of gold.
Over the months as he stayed in the Gundam Shelter, Rex studied the Vampiric Armor more and already knew everything about the inheritance.
Rex already knew that apart from the main inheritance token that was attached to the Vampiric Armor, there were other inheritance tokens that were spread across the world that could allow ess into the inheritance ground.
The difference between the main inheritance token and the others was that the main inheritance token could ess the inheritance ground anytime, but the other tokens could only ess it once every 4 years.
It was remaining less than a month till the next 4-year opening of the inheritance ground, Rex left now to have a head start over the others.
He could have gone for the inheritance since, but one reason that deterred Rex from going months ago was hisck of confidence in his personal strength.
Though he was an extremely abnormally gifted and endowed mystic warrior, Rex recognized the danger that was posed by the Great Desert.
Unlike the Great Forests and Dungeon, the Great Desert was more special. The concentration of pinnacle mystic beasts here was low, but the desertplemented this by spreading mystic energy more to the lower ranks.
Statistics showed that there were approximately 80% more Basic and Intermediate mystic beasts in the Great Desert than in the 2 Great Forestsbined, and 30% more Advanced mystic beasts.
As for the number of deaths recorded, there were approximately 50% more mystic warrior deaths recorded here yearly.
Going to the Great Desert was like entering the belly of a beast. It was only after so many months of umtion that Rex finally felt ready to go.
With his current personal strength, Grey, Storm, and the invisible Ambition, he believed that he could take care of most situations in this dangerous desert.
The journey to the Great Desert would be long, Rex expected to spend at least a week before he got there and this was if he had an uninterrupted journey.
The dream of an uninterrupted journey was unrealistic though. Just 3 days after he moved, he came under the attack of a marauding tribe.
Against a whole tribe that had an Advanced mystic warrior as their leader, he didn''t have much chances of emerging victorious but he could escape.
After putting in a lot of effort and with Storm and Grey''s interference, he escaped. The marauders did not rest though as they pursued him for a long distance, keen on capturing at least one of his transformed beasts.
This was a marauding tribe that was obsessed with beasts.
They were predominantly beast tamers, a mystic ability that was moremon among desert men. And as their leader already had 3 mystic abilities, they gave Rex a hard time and Ambition had to bail him out again.
With this encounter, Rex wasted about 4 days escaping. More cautious in his approach now, he was able to escape more encounters like that but not entirely.
Throughout the journey, Rex kept on encountering marauding tribes or lone warriors who were attracted by their greed. Kamaitachis were ranked as some of the rarest beasts, mystic warriors loved rare things and were attracted to it.
Rex had to put up with all the ambush and attacks which seeded in extending his journey from a week like he nned to almost 2 weeks.
After a stress-filled journey, Rex finally arrived at the Great Desert.
Without hesitation, he took a step on the Great River of gold.
...
Somewhere deep inside the desert, a pair of fiery red eyes suddenly blinked open after being attracted by a radar-like signal that passed through it.
Once the pair of fiery red eyes opened, light illuminated the cave, exposing the beast who had the body of a human and the tail of a snake.
This powerful Naga extended her longue tongue to lick her lips excitedly. "After months of tasting it, to think another Vampire would finallye to my territory, this leaves me so excited".
"This time, I will make this one my husband and slowly feed on his blood, savor and enjoy it till he dies, just like a female mantis does".
"If he pleases me, I can even give him my body, hehehe".
"Go and bring me the Vampire!"
"Yes, Queen Mother!" The beasts responded to their Queen''s orders.
Chapter 165 Scorpions Lamentation
After a few days of familiarization between Gandalf and Scorpion, the energy blocker finally confirmed that this was the same mystic warrior that he fought alongside and engaged in wild adventures with some time ago.
The mystic world was a dangerous world, there were nock of mystic warriors, including those who could change appearance to imitate others.
Gandalf had to be absolutely sure before deciding to help his old friend with all sincerity, and once he did, he no longer kept them in the dark.
Throughout their whole time of familiarization again, they roamed the Red Zone searching for more information about the Berserk Gang and their 3 leaders.
In these few weeks, they literally already dissected the Berserk Gang to its basest form. They knew the shift of guards in the gang, the number of warriors in the gang, even to the tiniest details about the gang.
Also, they already knew that Rex was no longer inside the gang mansion. What they weren''t sure of was the destination of their main target.
With Gandalf''s connection, they were also able to get detailed information about the 3 gang leaders that spanned to their time before the Gundam Shelter.
Arthur knew more information about Rex than anything that could be researched by them, so it was not needed. Aragorn was the one whose real identity was dissected as they confirmed that he was once a Great Shelter dweller.
They were able to know so much about Rex and Aragorn, but the female Elf was the only one who eluded them. It was like nor originated from the wind.
There was no information about her family, about her heritage, literally no information about her. It felt like, nor was a ghost.
The fact of nor''s real identity as an Elf alone already cast a veil of mystery over her, now this just added a thicker veil to the already thick veil.
Of the 3 gang leaders, nor was the one they originally underestimated the most since both Rex and Aragorn already proved their strength, experience, and leadership but after this, the veil of mystery around nor grew thicker.
If Princess nor was like a brown pot to them previously, now this pot just suddenly became stained with charcoal that ckened and deepened its mystery.
This time, Arthur was determined to fully research, understand everything about his enemies, and cut off any loose points before he engaged them in battle.
For the next few days, Arthur put all his resources into researching about this mystic warrior and despite all the effort, they did not get anywhere.
Despite all the failures, Arthur was reluctant to give up.
This was when Gandalf decided to intervene, he was finally ready to open up to them but first, he wanted to have a talk with his old friend.
Over the past few weeks, Gandalf already recognized that the young warrior was the leader of this team. Aragorn asked him for help which was something he rarely did, and with this kid as the leader, he was left with a lot of questions.
He was only able to force himself from not asking since, and now that he finally wanted to open up, he reasoned it right to get his answers first.
Gandalf called Scorpion out as they left their secret hideout to go on their regr old friends'' walk, that was where he brought up the conversation. "You know, I lied, I''m not an insignificant nobody here as a portrayed".
"I know". Scorpion was calm. "What I didn''t know was how much power you had here, I always knew that you had ambitions for staying in the Gundam Shelter".
Gandalf smiled and rubbed his beard. "Like Rex, I''m a gang leader too, and my gang is located in the Snake territory".
Scorpion turned to look at his friend with raised eyebrows. "So why did you keep the truth from me previously?"
Gandalf smiled. "I wanted to confirm that you are you, also, I wanted to know the real reason why you asked me for a favor".
Gandalf turned to face him, this time with a serious expression on his face. "I know you, you''re an adventurer, a lone wolf, you work for nobody, that''s why you named yourself Scorpion, tell me the real reason why you work for that kid".
Scorpion scoffed before answering normally, clearly, he already expected the question. "I do it for the money, they pay a lot, are you interested?"
Gandalf smirked. "Money made you break 2 of your core warriors codes. Your number 1 code of working for no one, your number 2 code of never asking for a favor, you think I''m that easy to fool?"
"How much has your knowledge of me degraded over the years Scorpion?"
Scorpion sighed and didn''t speak for the next 4 minutes as they just kept on walking, then he finally spoke. "You''re really making this hard for me".
"No offense, I just want to know the truth".
The next moment, Gandalf experienced a part of his friend that he never knew before despite their decade of partnership, Scorpion shed a tear as he spoke. "They took her".
On hearing that, Gandalf felt the atmosphere turning colder, something that he was ustomed to as he sighed and whispered. "The life of a mystic warrior, always filled with heartbreaks, deaths, and heartbreaks¡"
"Maximin, the greatest Energy Blocker said it".
Then, he asked. "Is it her or her?"
"They killed her, then they took Sophia. They took the only treasure that I have left in this world, they took the beating part of my body, I can''t live without her, I can''t die and leave her, I''m stuck in this quagmire like a zombie!"
"For years, I have worked for them as the Sting Assassin, fighting, killing, assassinating, and what was I rewarded with for all these? More missions!"
"They''ve made use of my for years but for Sophia, I keep on going".
"I''ve felt like a fool for over a decade, but for my baby, I can endure it all".
"Gandalf, you have no idea of the pain that I''ve been through all these years, I''ve been through hell and back thinking of the things happening to my baby".
"Hahaha, what an irresponsible father I''ve been, I''m the worst dad in the world. I''m strong, I can take life but I can''t protect my daughter''s life, pathetic!"
"Sometimes, I feel like if Thanos was real, I want to be in his position and just do the thing to wipe away half of the world, the world is too evil".
"Gosh, I hate this life¡"
For straight 30 minutes, Scorpion kept on venting pent up emotions that he had hidden at the back of his mind for over a decade.
Emotions that were threatening to swallow him up, emotions that were threatening to eat his brain and mentality up, emotions that were about to drive him insane, emotions that were killing him.
When his outburst finally came to an end, Scorpion felt no other strength in his body as he copsed only for his old-time friend to support him.
Throughout the outburst, Gandalf never intervened, he knew how his friend felt having passed through the same when his wife and only son died.
He had words offort but he kept them to himself, after finally getting to vent, he knew that Scorpion was strong enough to recover and bounce back.
Instead of words offort, he asked only 1 question. "Do you have any evidence to determine that Sophia is still alive?"
"Not really, but I get to speak with her every 2 years through a virtual projection. That is the only thing that had kept me going".
"This time, they promised that if we seed in killing the kid, my daughter and I will finally be released".
Gandalf gave his old friend a long-focused look, then he patted him on the back. "Rest, when you wake up, you''ll be in the Snake Territory".
With his energy blocking skills, he put Scorpion to sleep.
The next moment, Gandalf returned to their hideout where he spoke with Arthur, revealing the means that were in his disposal.
Of course, Arthur''s spoilt brat personality reared its head as he used him for not revealing the truth since but Gandalf simplyughed it off before leading them away.
With his authority, their journey to the Snake territory was uninterrupted. After 2 days, they finally arrived at the dreaded Snake territory, Gandalf''s turf.
The Gandalf Gang was among the top 20 strongest gangs in the whole territory, Gandalf was their sole leader for over a decade already.
On arriving before the massive expanse ofnd and mansions that were part of Gandalf''s Gang, Arthur was humbled.
Gandalf turned to face them. "Wee to my domain!"
"With my help, killing Rex is just a matter of time".
¡
"Sh*t, am I cursed or something?"
It took entering the Great River of Gold for Rex to confirm that his luck was at an all-time low. During his journey here, he was ambushed by marauders and lone warriors because of their greed to get his transformed beasts.
Well, here in the River of Gold, after just his first 2 days spent here, he confirmed that beasts were still the greater nuisancepared to mystic warriors.
Beasts of all types and forms that lived in the Great Desert seemed to hold a grudge against him as they came at him from all sides with the intent to kill.
"Did I offend their god or something?"
Rex was confused but he had no choice, he had to continue his journey and that was exactly what he did, he still wanted to meet his deadline.
Chapter 166 An Encounter With The Dangerous Dust Snake
The journey through the Great River of Gold was more harrowing than expected, Rex was literally living a horror life throughout this journey.
In the day, he was affected by the extreme heat despite countermeasures that he already employed against them and the powerful beasts that roamed the desert at this time.
In the Great Desert, the apex predators were the giant Sand Worms which every desert traveler feared.
With their gigantic sizes that could dwarf ships, and with their capability to freely manipte the desert sand, they were extremely dangerous beasts.
Having learned of their ways and patterns, Rex also had to give special attention to them every minute of the day to avoid attracting their attention.
In the past 3 days as he traveled through the desert, he already met these apex predators on 2 asions as they hunted other travelers and beasts.
On both asions, none of those at the receiving end were able to withstand the wrath of these apex predators as they were all devoured without mercy.
Having witnessed such scenarios already, Rex respected what he learned about these apex predators more. Taking care not to attract and anger them ranked at the very top at his list of priorities.
What angered him more than the Sand Worms though was literally every other beast, the frequency at which they attacked him was just too much.
It was so much that even at night, he was afraid to sleep since he was not sure when a Desert Fox woulde and nibble at his face.
Unknown to Rex, this was a result of the Desert Queen''s orders. On her orders, literally every type of beast in the ind obeyed as they started hunting him down but the ind was too big for all beasts to swarm in one direction.
The gigantic size of the ind was originally supposed to be a limitation to Rex who was traversing it, but now, it became his saving grace.
As the days counted, Rex understood more about the beasts which aided his survival a lot. He now had much more specific methods to counter specific beasts.
Today again, just an hour into his journey and he encountered another nuisance. Rex was annoyed but for his life, he had to fight this group of sand snakes.
He recently entered a territory that he deemed to be snake territory due to the abnormal dominance of snakes here.
With Berserker, his other tricks, and his transformed beasts and warrior, he was able to keep the horde of snakes at bay as he hunted them one after the other.
Rex vented his frustration and anger on these beasts as he ughtered them, the ughter continued until well, their alpha finally attacked from its hiding spot.
-----
You have been affected by a Dust Illusion!
You have been attacked by an extremely dangerous predator: Dust Snake!
----
As Rex fought against the snakes, the next moment, he seemed to be detached from this specific desert as he suddenly saw himself in another entirely different desert that was filled with dust.
The dust was so thick that he could barely see a meter ahead.
It was in this thick dust where Rex saw a massive pair of red eyes appearing, followed by the body of a snake that seemed as big as the world.
The body of this snake was so gigantic that it seemed to epass the whole desert, without a doubt, this was the king of this fictional desert.
"All trespassers shall die!"
As soon as the gigantic snake dered this, Rex felt like a massive hammer just hit him in the head as his brain experienced a sharp spike of pain.
At the same time that the headache came, his eyes started bleeding as the massive pair of red eyes of this massive snake glowed like the sun.
Rex was shocked by everything that was happening but he already understood what was going on. Throughout his short journey as a mystic warrior, Rex had experienced a lot of things including illusions.
And with his system notification, everything became clear to him as he was able to confirm that this was an illusion ability.
He knew how to break out of illusions, the most paramount factor that would determine his sessful break-off was the strength of his own mystic energy.
Rex tried and in no time, he discovered that the snake''s mystic energy was stronger than his own. He did not despair yet though since there was another method of breaking off, the only other way was through external stimuli.
Almost instantly after Rex thought of it, he felt the pricking sensation of a pair of teeth digging into his flesh as a snake ruthlessly bit him.
The lethal poison of desert snakes was injected in his bloodstream but at the same time, the pain jolted him back to reality.
Once Rex''s eyes snapped open, he first felt the painful sensation before he saw himself already surrounded by an army of snakes with one of them already tying him up and was the culprit who bit him on the neck.
Grey and Storm were preupied with fighting the snakes, Ambition was nowhere to be seen, while the king of snakes casually watched from a sand dune.
Rex recognized this snake after seeing it. If the Sand Worms were the apex predators of the Great Desert, then Dust Snakes were the apex predators among all the snakes of the Great Desert.
The Dust Snake was responsible for drawing him into the illusion.
Dust Snakes were one of the rare beasts that had 4 mystic affinities. They had control over sand and dust, over the wind, over fire, and over illusions.
Dust Snakes were notorious and known for their ability to carry more than one type of poison. Through their special poison nd, they could secrete different poisons to infect their enemy for different battle scenarios.
At this moment, the Dust Snake was content with attacking from a distance while he let his subordinates finish the job because of its danger instincts.
Though its enemy was already surrounded, the pure bloodline snake still felt its danger sense tingling, like its enemy still had a powerful hidden trump card.
"Hiss!" "Hiss!"
With every hiss from the Dust Snake, the army of snakes attacked Rex in a more frenzied manner even as the poison seeped deeper into his bloodstream.
Grey and Storm were already injured, Rex himself was injured.
-----
You have been affected with a Paralysis Poison
>For every 5 seconds that you hang on fighting the poison, your body will keep on getting paralyzed until you bepletely paralyzed<
----
On seeing this, Rex was able to confirm his truly dire straits.
Out of options, he could only resort to his trump cards as he activated both his Affection Ne and his Bear-man form that finally enabled him to put up a resistance against the army of snakes.
With his other skills, he tried to fight and pave a way of escape for himself.
He was only able to put up a resistance though, he was unable to escape the horde of snakes as they kept on nibbling at his defenses.
About an hourter, the Paralysis Poison finally finished the work that it was released to do as Rex waspletely paralyzed.
Both Grey and Storm were also in dire conditions as their bodies were covered by snakes from every side, the same thing with Rex.
The only difference was that his transformed beasts still put up a resistance, while Rex was paralyzed already. On seeing the state of its prey, the proud Dust Snake finally slithered down the sand dune where it mounted previously.
It slithered proudly towards its prey to show who was the boss here.
Halfway through its slithering though, the sand beneath it loosened slightly as the dangerous bite attack of another snake came.
The Dust Snake was stunned for less than a second before it reacted. It sprang up with such speed like it was a spring, but this was not the end as 5 more snakes that were originally its subordinatesunched an attack on it.
The Dust Snake proved its prowess as with its different mystic affinities, it was able to fight all the snakes off but it soon focused too much on the snakes.
With its focus on the betraying snakes, the real culprit of this attack finally showed up. With its soul snatcher skills, precisely the soul lock skill, Ambition was able to temporarily lock the Dust Snake''s soul for a second.
Having used his Beast Tamer skills on the 5 snakes, they were now on his side. Now with the second bought, he was able to jump up and grab the Dust Snake before diving back into the desert and disappearing out of view.
All the snakes and Rex were shocked by what happened.
Before they could understand what happened, sounds of collision came from underneath the sand, clearly the Dust Snake was already fighting with Ambition.
The other snakes were stunned for a few seconds before they all turned, leaving Rex, Grey, and Storm as they went after their leader and the new enemy.
Once all the snakes left, Rex''s Vampire Hunter constitution enabled him to briefly fight the poison as he mounted Storm''s back and ordered the massive Kamaitachi to escape. Storm ran despite its heavy injuries as Grey trailed behind.
As soon as they started escaping, Rex saw the signs of a massive dust rising in the air from afar off, his eyes widened. "A Sand Worm!"
He turned back to look onest time. "Ambition, survive, please!"
With that, he and his 2 contracted beasts escaped, leaving Ambition''s fate to luck. Rex had no other choice on his hand, he had to escape to save his life.
Chapter 167 Aftermath Of The Encounter
Boom!
Ambition was embroiled in a fierce battle with the powerful Dust Snake.
Dust Snakes were powerful enemies, and this veteran snake leader was an even more difficult enemy but despite its massive advantages, Ambition was able to stand his ground as he fought toe to toe against it.
Still underneath the ocean of sand, the angry Dust Snake attacked rampantly as the sand and dust in the desert moved aggressively like an angry grind mill.
The massive grinding power of this sand under the Dust Snake''s control proved dangerous but Ambition''s mystic armor enabled him to tank it all.
Apart from its dust and sand powers, the Dust Snake did not rest as it also made use of its wind and fire abilities. Since it could not make eye contact with its enemy, its illusion powers were temporarily rendered useless.
asionally, apart from the prevalent sand that moved with the intent to kill, explosions also detonated in the ground as fire raged following the snake''s will.
Each explosion of fire was quickly followed by short but powerful gusts of wind blowing about dangerously but still, the Dust Snake remained entangled.
With its soulless eyes, Ambition waspletely focused on the job.
Unlike Gaud who had a soul and emotions, the current Ambition''s consciousness was more or less an advanced soul A.I. It was not bothered by distractions and desires, all that bothered it was catering for its master''s safety.
Gaud''s 3 mystic abilities before his death were allplementary. His invisibility mystic ability for stealth, his beast tamer mystic ability for control and support, and his soul snatcher mystic ability to incapacitate.
Gaud''s fighting style never had any of his 3 mystic abilities as the main focus to deal damage, they were more or less catalysts to support his main damage dealing ability which was his Tiajutsu battle domain proficiency.
Gaud was an extremely powerful Tiajutsu practitioner.
His fighting style was staying in the dark, stalking the enemy, using his tamed beasts to distract his enemy, using his soul snatcher skills to disorient his enemy, eventually leaving his enemy at his possibly weakest state.
In this state was when he finally appears and engage in an explosive Tiajutsu battle that 9 out of 10 times ended with him obliterating his opponents.
His short-burst damage waspletely explosive.
Gaud was a master of hisbat style, but Ambition proved to be a grandmaster of it. Unburdened by emotions and distractions, Ambition had the required concentration to make perfect use of this body and its abilities.
As the Dust Snake attacked and thrashed about destroying everywhere with its mystic affinities, he remained close even as he attacked with his soul snatcher skills that continually disoriented and drained the soul power of the snake.
And with his tamed beasts assisting, the Dust Snake never had the opportunity to settle down in the sand to search for its invisible enemy.
The battle continued like this for a few minutes until the Dust Snake got exhausted. Once the battle intensity reduced, Ambition''s eerie soulless eyes shone, this was the window of opportunity that it was waiting for.
Like an assassin, Ambition sprang up with vengeance as this time, hepletely forsake his invisibility state which enabled him to fight at his peak.
Ambition''s hand became coated with an ominous green energy, courtesy of his soul snatcher mystic ability as he finally unleashed hell on the Dust Snake.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
For 12 seconds straight, it was like the earth crust was being torn apart as Ambition''s powerful fists hammered and pounded at the stunned Dust Snake.
The Dust Snake was stunned by its enemy''s sudden counterattack, leaving it heavily injured in the process but it was still able to hold on and not die.
"Hiss!" "Hiss!"
The Dust Snake''s loud hiss for help riled up its subordinatespletely as the army of snakes moved faster and finally arrived at the scene of the battle.
Underneath the sand, an army of angry snakes dove towards Ambition who was still reluctant to let go of the Dust Snake. Ambition calcted that this was not enough time for Rex to have escaped yet and was why he held on.
Once the army of snakes arrived, Ambition switched from offense to defense as he weathered the attack of over a hundred snakesing at him.
He suffered injuries but he felt no pain, he had no soul.
As its injuries increased and it seemed that he was about to die, the loud wail of a familiar apex predator rattled the hearing of every beast and warrior present.
The loud wail of the Sand Worm was like the cry of invitation by the sentries of hell before death. It was toote to make anyplicated moves to escape, the massive Sand Worm was already upon them.
With a loud screeching sound reverberating, a massive maw filled with tens of thousands of spear-long teeth opened underneath the sand to swallow them all.
The snakes scrambled without any results to escape as alongside the sea of sand, they started falling helplessly into the belly of this apex predator.
Once they fell in, they were grinded to a bloody mess by theplicated digestive mechanism of this apex predator.
Amid all the noise,motion, and panic, Ambition turned invisible once again as this time, he put all effort into escaping this death zone.
Ambition and the Dust Snake were the only ones who were able to put up a resistance as they gave their all to ride against the tide and escape.
For 10 straight minutes, the Sand Worm devoured its meal.
For 10 straight minutes, Ambition and the Dust Snake had to fight for their lives as it constantly dangled at the tip of death and life.
After 10 minutes, the satisfied Sand Worm dived back deep into the ocean of sand as it let out low wails of contentment while moving away.
No one survived the onught, except 2, Ambition and the Dust Snake.
At thest moment, both were forced to cooperate with each other and as an intelligent beast, the Dust Snake was able to recognize what to prioritize first as they both cooperated and barely survived the onught.
2 minutes after the Sand Worm left, the sand and dust settled down to expose a bloody humanoid warrior and a mutted Dust Snake.
Both of them were covered in a pool of their own blood from all their heavy injuries, both of them were too weak to move or speak, so there they rested, waiting for their imminent death or possible rescue.
Ambition''s situation was much more dire as the poison of the snakes were already working on his body, breaking down his natural resistance faster.
In 20 minutes at most, he would die.
10 minutester though, envoys from the Desert Queen arrived here. The massive horned Lizard looked down at the 2 survivors and spoke. "That''s a follower of the Queen''s sex target, let''s take him".
"Take the Dust Snake too".
"Yes, boss".
With that, the Dust Snake and Ambition were rescued and taken away.
¡
Storm ran as fast as its legs could carry it.
After the deadly encounter against the snakes, both of Rex''s transformed beasts were left heavily injured and poisoned but they still embarked on the all-important task of taking their master to his destination.
After the territory of the snakes, the location of Minato Musashi''s tomb was not too far again, it was just a 2 hours journey till they got there.
The only question was would theyst 2 hours after such serious injuries?
Storm was supposed to be the fastest but after suffering so many injuries, it was left incapacitated and Grey who had the greater vitality could nowpete with it in a race of speed.
Grey took on the important task of carrying the master as they escaped while Storm followed, but after an hour, they felt the toil of so many injuries.
Grey''s speed decreased significantly, while Storm could no longer move on. Storm''s vitality was actually weaker than both Rex and Grey''s.
With the poison and all the injuries already getting to it, Storm could no longer continue. Rex wanted to wait and attend to its injuries but he was too weak to speak, and Grey was too focused on protecting him to stop escaping.
In the end, Storm was left all alone in the dangerous and lonely desert.
As Grey continued galloping along the river of gold, a lot of things filled Rex''s mind. He wondered what fate befell Ambition and Storm, he wondered if he would survive, he wondered if they could get out of this desert alive.
He chuckled on thinking of the fact that he may not get to meet Aragorn and nor again. Amid his thoughts, Grey suddenly fell and stopped moving.
Rex groaned in pain as it took all his willpower for him to roll himself over. On rolling himself over, he saw that Grey already passed out.
"We''re not making it, I guess". He chuckled bitterly.
Rex was about to fall on his butt and let nature take control but he was surprised on seeing what felt like a small antenna barely visible amid the dust.
Pushed by hisst curiosity before death, Rex crawled to the antenna where he saw a stone inscription under it that read- Minato Musashi.
Rex''s eyes widened. "We made it¡?!"
Before he could finish the sentence, the sand beneath the antenna loosened to expose a winding staircase that led under through which Rex fell.
It took thest of his strength to crawl to the antenna, once he started falling, Rex''s vitality finally gave way as his eyes finally closed, he also passed out.
At thest step to his goal, Rex passed out and left his life or death to fate.
Chapter 168 Arrival Of The Token Holders
A few minutes after he was taken, Ambition woke up again to galloping sounds as he opened his eyes only to see himself in a strange ce.
At this moment, he was no longer on the desert surface nor was he engulfed by sand which was the feeling whenever he dived underground.
He was actually underground, but he was not engulfed by sand.
He was in what seemed like a city underground, and at this moment the beasts that carried him were moving through an underground staircase.
The sand of the desert was manipted to form solid structures through which this city was built. The walls were made of solidified sand, and in some other areas heated sand which already turned to ss.
At this moment, despite hisck of a soul and emotions, Ambition was dizzy as all sensations in his body were already lost, the poison already infiltrated deep.
His body and face were white as his body asionally convulsed due to his contaminated blood, his eyes were bloodshot and stressed.
He was just a few steps away from death.
As the beasts moved, he felt like he already started his journey through the pathway of death. After 2 minutes that felt like 2 lifetimes to him, he was finally dropped down on the solidified sand floor.
Ambition exerted strength to move, barely turning his body upright which enabled him to finally see the throne that he was dropped at.
This little movement from him sapped away all his energy, making him feel even more light-headed as he struggled to look through his dizzy eyes.
He was dropped at the feet of a massive throne that was upied by an equally massive Naga. This mythical beast looked down at him with a curious and slightly annoyed look on its beautiful face.
"Where is my lover?!" The Naga''s voice boomed like thunder.
"My Queen, we finally located him but on getting there, we discovered that he suffered an ambush from a snake group led by a Dust Snake".
"After a great battle, theyter encountered a Sand Worm¡"
"They¡"
As the beasts exined themselves to the Naga Queen, Ambition''s senses got duller till all he could hear were whispers that seemed toe from the afterworld where the dead lived.
"So, he is a subordinate of my lover?!"
The Naga''s booming voice was what aroused Ambition again. He struggled to open his eyes as his life was already nearly drainedpletely by the poison.
"What happened to him?"
"My Queen, he is poisoned¡"
The Naga''s eyes narrowed as it finally directed its eyes to the equally weak Dust Snake. Just one look at Ambition and she knew that he was almost dead.
Without a word, the next moment, the massive Naga moved as with a smooth motion of its long snake tail, it scooped the Dust Snake up before plucking one of its fangs.
The Naga chewed on the fang till all that was left of it was pieces and sticky fluid. The next moment, she picked Ambition up before feeding him the fluid.
At that moment, Ambition already lost consciousness again.
Just 5 minutester though, Ambition regained consciousness only to see himself still before the Desert Queen. The dizzy feeling already disappeared.
The Naga looked straight at him. "Where is my lover?"
"¡"
"Is he deaf or is he a mute?"
"¡"
On still not getting any reply, the Naga moved Ambition closer to her face. "What are you? You are not a regr human¡"
The Naga felt curious and decided to find the truth out by herself.
As she looked into the eyes of this strange human and observed, activating one of her special abilities in the process, her eyes suddenly glowed red and with a scared look on her face, she dropped Ambition.
The Naga Queen rose from her throne for the first time as she red at Ambition, causing all her subordinates to shiver and cower in fear.
"Such a powerful mystic treasure, so you''re not living huh?" Her brows crunched. "I hope my love is lovable and malleable, and not so capable".
She soon turned to slither deeper into her city. "Keep the Dust Snake alive!"
"Yes, your highness".
¡
6 hours after the great battle¡
Despite all attempts that were made by its body to activate its natural defense mechanism, Storm failed as the poison was more potent than his resistance. In just 2 hours, Storm became a corpse.
As the hours counted, the sand soon started covering the huge Storm Kamaitachi thaty in the desert dead.
When it finally became 6 hourster, before Storm was covered by the desertpletely, a wooden desert sail passed through the area.
A few minutester, the specialized wooden sailer returned. Its sailor, a muscr middle-aged man came down and moved closer to the silhouette.
And scooping away the sand, the sailor was shocked at what he discovered. "An ancient Kamaitachi?!"
Kamaitachis were beasts that were already close to extinction in the real world. Those that lived in the Micro World of Elias were special cases that lived there all their lives starting from centuries ago.
Regr Kamaitachis were extremely rare beasts, as for those with pure bloodlines like Storm Kamaitachis and Rage Kamaitachis, they were an exotic rarity.
Ecstatic by his extremely rare discovery, the sailor did not even care to check if the Kamaitachi was still alive as he hauled it into his sailer before sailing away.
¡
Ambition was carried away by the subordinates of the Desert Queen, Storm was carried away by an unknown desert sailor, even Rex at least fell into the inheritance ground, Grey was the only one who fate screwed with.
It was already a day after the great battle¡
Despite the long time that already passed, Grey was the only one of the 4 whose fate was still left hanging at the edge of a precipice.
For 24 hours, he kept fighting against death and the poison that was wreaking havoc in his bloodstream while not receiving help from anywhere.
By now, the sand already buried itpletely in the desert but Grey kept on fighting against death. For some strange reason, despite literally being the ve of a human already, the Dark Mist Spider felt very reluctant to die.
It held on tightly to its life due to a strange reason that motivated it.
After the 24-hour mark and still with no help appearing, Grey already lost all hopes of receiving help and it finally decided to focus on itself.
In the end, life and survival were a personal race.
Once Grey came to this realization, it seemed to experience a moment of epiphany despite being a beast as it entered a special state of meditation.
In this special state of meditation, Grey''s internal body regtion worked in a way that it had not done before as he felt that his body was suddenly in its peak physical state where his strength and resistance were at their strongest.
After another 2 hours, the sand shook before copsing as one of the 8 legs of a massive spider dug out of the ground. In the end, despite itscking speedpared to Storm, Grey had one advantage which was its vitality.
Its tenacious vitality paired with its changed mentality after experiencing the moment of epiphany was what enabled its body to fight and purge the poison.
With the poison purged, Grey still felt weak but this served as the starting point of itseback. Weak, weary, and mentally drained, Grey picked itself up from where life left it as it crawled deep into the desert.
A few minutester, it discovered another snake, a weak snake. Grey was able to kill the snake and feast on it which replenished its strength a bit.
Grey''s survival journey officially started.
¡
A weekter, the time finally came.
The time for the official 4-year opening of Minato Musashi''s inheritance ground finally came, and all the inheritance token holders from all over the world finally started converging in the Great River of gold.
The Ancient Carter family was among those that got one of these inheritance tokens for their descendants. And after Ben Carter''s incredible performance in the carrier ranking test, he got the inheritance token.
After a lot of preparation over the past few months, Ben Carter finally set off alone from the Great Myriad Shelter to the Great River of gold.
Over the past year, Ben already matured a lot as a mystic warrior from the previous horny and woman-obsessed warrior that he was, and with his current strength, embarking on such long journeys was no longer a suicide mission.
Like Rex, the journey was a rollercoaster for Ben as he encountered different situations ranging from marauders to hostile viges, and other dangerous encounters that most times left him hanging at the edge of a precipice.
After entering the desert, unlike Rex who had to grope his way through, Ben knew where he was going and he also had advanced equipment for navigating.
Ben set out on his journey and arrived at the inheritance ground in just 2 days.
Chapter 169 Minato Musashis Inheritance; Bens Tribulations [1]
"So, this is the tomb of the great Minato Musashi?"
After 2 harrowing days where he pushed himself to the limits just to meet up the time, Ben finally arrived at the famous tomb of Minato Musashi.
Just like every other mystic swordsman of this era, Ben had a lot of reverence for this powerful mystic warrior. Through his advanced navigation equipment, he was able to arrive at the main entrance to the tomb.
Tomorrow was the day of the official opening of the inheritance ground, and the energy-gathering technique of the tomb already started working its wonders.
The entrance to the inheritance ground that was originally hidden was no longer buried by sand. The entrance was now visible above the sand, it was a huge door with the statues of 2 sword-wielding knights erected at its front.
Through the energy gathering technique of the tomb, it slowly generated more mystic energy which slowly pushed the tomb from underneath the sand.
Ben calcted that in another 24 hours'' time, Minato Musashi''s tomb would fully see the light of day again.
After getting here, Ben heaved a sigh of relief but he dared not stay and wait at the entrance to the tomb. It seemed like he was the first to get here, but Ben doubted and he had no intentions of waiting for the other candidates here.
Ben moved a few dozen meters away from the rising tomb before digging under the sand and erecting his tent there, which became his temporary shelter.
About 50 meters away from the rising tomb was a sand dune. It looked natural, but if thoroughly looked at, what seemed like binocrs could be seen barely poking out of the sand, these were the first warriors that arrived here.
They were able to watch everything that transpired through their binocrs.
"Our firstpetitor already arrived". The mystic warrior whispered to hispanion who diligently wrote the figure down.
For the next few hours, this part of the desert seemed to call a gathering of humans as mystic warriors of different backgrounds started appearing.
Due to the fact that the inheritance token was needed to ess Minato Musashi''s inheritance ground, not many mystic warriors came but all of them that came were talented warriors from prestigious backgrounds.
For the next 24 hours, the pair of warriors who were hidden in the sand dune was able to record 18 mystic warriors who werepetitors.
After the long night, as soon as the dawn of a new day started, the tomb finally became fully exposed to the morning sun and a reaction urred as powerful red energy spread out with the tomb at its center.
Once the energy erupted, the loud cries of Sand Worms were detected in the desert as these apex predators that were nearby were frightened away.
After the energy eruption, the massive door that led inside the tomb finally opened. Once it opened, all 21 mystic warriors who arrived came out of their hiding as they all moved towards the entrance.
In tacit understanding, none of them attacked each other as they followed the entrance through the winding staircase that appeared down the tomb.
As civilized mystic warriors, they all knew that in scenarios like this, it was better to get the benefits before doing the fighting.
Ben caught a lot of attention due to his huge frame which grew bigger in recent months, but he acted naturally as he followed the mystic warriors in.
Once all of them were in, the entrance to the tomb closed back as the desert finally regained its liberty to swallow it up.
¡
After 20 minutes of walking, they arrived before a massive 12-leveled pagoda inside the tomb. In here, a voice spoke to them through the pagoda.
"The master''s inheritance is simple".
"The master''s inheritance mainly emphasizes sword proficiency".
"Only swordsmen who already unlocked the sword domain cane here".
"The first 3 levels of the pagoda correspond to the sword domain level, the next 4 levels correspond to the mystic sword domain level, and thest 5 levels correspond to the ultimate sword domain level".
"The requirements are simple, finish the challenge of every level to receive benefits from the master".
"As you climb higher, the challenge bes tougher and the benefits also be better".
"The duration of the inheritance is 1 month, and during this period, none of you gets to eat. Obstinance from food is one way to get enlightenment".
"The test starts now".
"Prove your swordsmanship!"
The inheritance of Minato Musashi was pretty simple and primitive, just like the man''s personality but all the talented mystic warriors here dared not underestimate it having heard stories of their seniors who benefited from it.
With a serious expression on their faces, the mystic warriors here entered the first level of the pagoda one after the other.
Once Ben entered the first level of the pagoda, he saw himself appear in a world that was filled with a raging fire. An apocalypse seemed to have taken ce in this world as a beast that seemed like a Fire Elemental wreaked havoc.
Though he already prepared himself mentally for it, Ben was still shaken to the core by what he saw, everything looked and felt real.
What baffled him though was that despite bathing in this ocean of fire at the moment, he received no physical damage.
He was confused at first before his eyes widened. "I got a mental test?!"
The next moment, Ben felt his head being split open by a sword. He finally felt pain for the first time, agonizing pain as his head was cut into 2 equal parts, and the most horrifying part was that he did not die.
Ben could not control himself as he screamed in pain.
That was not the end of his mental torture. With his head cut apart, tubes were stuck into his head through which his blood was sucked.
The sensation of his blood being sucked drove Ben crazy and that was not the end, he finally felt the heat as the fire started cooking his blood raw.
"Ahhhhh!!!" Ben screamed with all his might as he experienced unimaginable pain, he was literally already going crazy.
Ben could not hold on, hested just 5 seconds before passing out.
When Ben woke up, he was back to where he started with his body intact back in the world of fire as the fire Elemental continued wreaking havoc. As he looked, he heard the familiar voice speak.
"You failed!"
"Again!"
This time, Ben brazed himself for it but the effects were not different. In just 2 seconds, he was already screaming like a castrated goat.
For what felt like centuries, Ben kept on passing out and being awoken as he underwent this torture. The worst part of it all was that Minato Musashi gave no authority to the challenger, they could not back out mid-way.
It was either Ben passed the test or he was stuck here forever.
Minato Musashi was renowned for being a masochistic warrior who could inflict unimaginable pain on himself just to improve his strength and swordsmanship. He expected no less from warriors aspiring to inherit from him.
Having tried different ways to cheat his way around the torture to no avail, Ben had no choice but to simply focus on building his willpower through the pain.
"Ahh!"
"Ahhhh!!!"
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"
His cries of pain reverberated in this world like the cries of souls in hell.
After a long time of screaming, gritting his teeth, and great endurance, Ben grew to the extent where he was able to grit his teeth through the first 5 seconds only to scream and pass out 2 secondster.
After an indeterminate time, amid his screams of pain as he exerted every ounce of willpower in him to endure, the torture suddenly stopped.
The fire disappeared and Ben''s body was restored.
Ben looked around, stunned and ecstatic. "Did I pass it?"
He barely asked before the world before him changed again. He was still on the first level of the pagoda, what changed was the scenery.
He was on an open battlefield set in the Victorian era, all around him were dead bodies, and he was the only survivor.
Ben felt a chill crawling down his spine as his danger sense tingled, he looked up only to see an infinite number of swords falling from the sky.
"Don''t tell me the first level has stages, don''t f*cking tell me, don''t f*ckin¡"
Ben was cut short as the millions of swords that blotted the sky finally descended on him. He was not even given time to recover from the first torture.
No part of him survived the onught, every part of his body to the smallest bit including his pee-pee was sliced into pieces.
Like before, his consciousness was left alive to endure through all the pain.
"Ahhhh¡, f*ck¡, f*ckkkkk!!!"
Ben screamed like a goat as soon as his consciousness registered the pain.
Amid his screaming, another round stared as the swords descended from the skies. Each descent took an interval of a second before they cut him to pieces again.
Ben''s consciousness could not survive the 2nd time as he passed out.
"Ahhhh!!!"
Once again, his cries of pain continually reverberated around the battlefield as the ocean of swords continually cut him apart like he was a fish.
After taking an even longer time, he finally persevered through it and crossed the 10-second mark. As soon as he achieved this, everything stopped but like thest time, the scenery changed again.
Ben cried. "Are you f*cking kidding me?!"
Chapter 170 Minato Musashis Inheritance; Bens Tribulations [2]
For the 3rd time, the scenery changed again.
This time, Ben was prepared, he grimaced and braced himself for another round of torture. As soon as he braced himself, the world around him responded as he finally arrived in his new location.
As soon as he was transported to the new world, the first sensation that Ben felt was that of something extremely heavy dragging him deep, the 2nd sensation was that of water clogging his breath.
It took only a second for Ben to understand his new type of torture.
At this moment, he was stuck deep inside a great ocean while tied to a massive rock that was dragging him deeper into the ocean at this moment.
Being forced to drown in water was his torture this time.
Ben reacted fast and closed his mouth to hold his breath. He kept still and let the rock keep on dragging him deeper.
With his constitution as an Advanced mystic warrior, he was able tost for the first 3 hours but problems soon came.
By now, Ben''s face was already as red as chili pepper as the strain of holding his breath for so long finally started taking its toll on his body.
He jerked for the first time which soon became a constant urrence.
Out of breath already, Ben finally started struggling to no avail, he felt like his body was on fire and that his head was on a burning pan. His brain was already protesting having not received oxygen for 3 freaking hours.
"Gurgggg¡!" He finally opened his mouth only to start choking.
Without the ability to die, Ben was forced to experience all the pain, inconvenience, and torture from all these without being able to die and leave it all.
Hested only 4 minutes in this state before he passed out.
When he woke up, without anyints, he prepared himself and took the drowning torture test again. After getting experience from his first 2 torture tests, Ben was able to adapt extremely fast to the circumstances this time.
From every failure that he experienced, he took it with a positive attitude as he worked the next time on remedying any weakness that he had.
With this attitude, Ben continually improved with time.
After an indeterminate time, after increasing his endurance countless times, Ben was finally able to persevere through all the pain past the 10-hour mark.
Once Benpleted this torture test, for the first time, the scenery no longer changed as everything simply disappeared. Ben heaved a sigh of relief on seeing this as he heard the familiar voice of the pagoda speaking again.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the first floor".
"Your endurance and willpower have increased, your mystic energy limits have increased, you have been rewarded with 3 fragments of a sword skill".
Instantly after the voice finished speaking, Ben saw 3 fragments of a rock flying towards him. He grabbed them and instantly, a voice spoke in his mind.
''Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!''
"A master level sword skill!" Ben was ecstatic as he instantly felt all the grievance in him of passing through so much torture dissipating.
Apart from the 3 fragments of the master level sword skill, Ben''s endurance and willpower increased exponentially which was something that excited him.
He could also feel that his soul power increased too.
After finishing the test in each floor, each of thepetitors could see how much time they spentpleting said test. When Ben looked, he waspletely shocked as it took him 20 days toplete this freaking test.
"F*ck! Just for one test?!"
Ben no longer dared to waste time as he rushed into the entrance to the 2nd floor of the pagoda. Once he passed through the entrance, he disappeared.
When Ben regained his perception, he saw himself inside a battlefield that was set in a medieval setting back in the era of Samurais in Ancient Japan.
At this moment, he was also a Samurai with his sword and standing before him were 50 Samurais who all had their swords pointed at him.
Without a doubt, the goal of this test was him eliminating all Samurais that were before him. At the same time that Ben recognized what he needed to do toplete this test, he also recognized the changes in his body.
At this moment, all sensations of mystic energy in his body were gone. He was stripped of his ess to mystic energy, leaving his only battle option to win this test to his swordsmanship.
He needed toplete this test with his swordsmanship.
Another terrible fact was that like him, every single one of the 50 Samurais before him were swordsmen who already unlocked the sword domain.
"F*ck! I''m expected to fight and defeat 50 warriors with sword domain?!"
"Is that even possible?"
Ben felt like swearing for a million years to avenge this injustice but he was not given the time nor energy to do so as the Samurais finally went to action.
Shing! Shing!
The sound of their katanas shing through the air was rhythmic to the ears and goosebump-inducing at the same time as Ben felt all the hair in his body rising on end, he forced himself to reciprocate their actions.
"Ahhh¡, f*ck you!"
Ben overcame his fear and drew his sword as he rushed forward to sh with the dozens of Samurais who were charging at him all with hostile intentions.
Ben shed with the first one and instantly, he felt the difference from regr swordsmen as this warrior was a genius like him if not even better.
Boom!
Before he could understand what was going on, Ben saw a sword descending from the air like a copsing mountain as another Samurai descended with it.
Ben was barely able to dodge out of the way, but there were dozens of other Samurai warriors after him as they pounced on him like a group of lionesses after a helpless and abandoned zebra.
Rex was only able to struggle for a few seconds before he lost his head.
This time, Ben experienced death for real and it was traumatic. Despite experiencing this feeling already when he met his family''s inheritance ground and died to be a vampire, he never mastered the dread of experiencing it.
Ben was resurrected and he saw himself at the same ce, the same battlefield as a samurai, facing the same group of 50 samurais.
The test this time was both a physical test and a test of his willpower to not break when faced with the prospect of dying a thousand times.
"Die!" Ben gritted his teeth, picked his sword and lunged at them again.
This time, Ben was able tost over a dozen seconds before he was killed. He did not give up, not that he had the option as he kept on giving his all to fight these samurais to stop the traumatizing experience of death each time.
Faced against such powerful enemies, Ben was forced to enter a state of absolute focus where he gave 110% of his effort each time he went up against them in battle. This led to himsting better than thest each time he fought them.
Facing such fierce opposition and the pressure from it stimted his swordsmanship that was already dull and stagnant for a long time to start growing again, Ben could feel his sword proficiency increasing every day.
Every one of the Samurais were sword masters, fighting against them for so long, it soon became like Ben was getting the opportunity to learn from them.
With each failure and death, he learned something new about swordsmanship. He suffered but gained massively each time that he died.
After the 111th death, Ben finally did it. With blood all over his body having lost a leg and arge chunk of parts of his body, Ben finally dealt the killing blow, beheading thest of the Samurais who were after him.
The familiar voice in the pagoda spoke again.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the second floor".
"Your sword proficiency has increased; your tight-space battle instincts have increased; and you have been rewarded with 4 fragments of a sword skill".
After getting his rewards, the first thing that Ben did was to check how much time it took for him toplete these tasks. The test took him 8 days.
After confirming this, without any dy, he continued to the next floor.
On entering the next floor, Ben saw himself appear inside space. For some strange reason, Ben was stuck in the dark endless void of space and left alone there.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Ben finally understood the motive of this test. Minato Musashi once said that to be a master, master patience.
The test of the 3rd floor was a test of patience and perseverance.
After some time, Ben finally knew that this test was the hardest of all. An excess of everything was bad, true loneliness and silence was torture, emptiness was the greatest torture that Ben had experienced all his life.
It got to an extent where he started feeling attuned to emptiness. He forgot who he was, what he was, and the reason why he was here.
Despite everything, only something kept Ben going, patience.
,m At thest moments, when he seemed on the verge of turning into emptiness itself, a beacon of hope finally appeared in the distance in the form of light.
Ben followed the light and he soon found his exit. Once he did, the empty void cracked, finally releasing his soul to the real world again.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the 3rd floor".
"Your willpower has increased; you have been rewarded with 4 fragments of a sword skill and a random ability that ispatible to your bloodline".
"You have received the Special Ability: Gene Liberation".
''Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!''
"You have acquired all 10 fragments to unlock the Master level Sword Skill: Precision sh!"
"You have unlocked Master level Sword Skill: Precision sh!"
"You have unlocked the mystic sword domain floors".
"To ess the mystic domain floors, your sword proficiency needs to be at the mystic sword domain realm".
"Opening mystic domain swordsmanship stimtion test¡"
Before Ben could understand what was going on, his consciousness was dragged away without his consent again into another test.
Chapter 171 Unlocking Mystic Sword Domain
Ben got his first tangible benefits from Minato Musashi''s inheritance.
Though after he got the inheritance token, he already did his fair share of research to know more about Minato Musashi and also already understood how beneficial the inheritance was, Ben was still amazed by what he got.
Apart from the other benefits of his willpower, endurance, and swordsmanship increasing, he got his first special ability that was in tune with his advanced Big-bone bloodline.
Ben did not know how Minato did it, but the Gene Liberation special ability was like it was made just for him toplement his bloodline powers.
The specialty of the Big-bone bloodline was the incredible strengthening of bones and physical strength buffs that enabled the Carter descendants to fight harder than most of their opponents in close-rangebat.
With their specially created pills, the strengthening of the Big-bone bloodline is amplified further. Now, the Gene Liberation took this even further.
When activated, this special ability enabled Ben to exceed the original limits of his bloodline, exponentially increasing the strengthening effect of his bloodline.
If originally, his Big-bone bloodline made him 2 times stronger than his counterparts, now, with the Gene Liberation special ability, his strength was amplified at least 5 times better than normal mystic warriors.
Though it affected only brute strength and not technique, finesse, and other attributes of a mystic warrior, Ben was still left ecstatic after this discovery.
With this, his overall battle strength just experienced a meteoric increase.
Apart from the Gene Liberation ability, Ben also learned his first master level skill which was a sword skill, the Precision sh.
Though Ben had not used it in battle yet, from the memory that was ingrained in him through the pagoda, he understood how lethal this skill could be.
Like its name suggested, this master level sword skill gave full emphasis to precision and sharpness. When enough power was concentrated to a single ce, the umtion could split even heavens.
This was the premise of the Precision sh. By concentrating all your strength to a single narrow sh, power that was at least 10 times stronger than the original strength of the swordsman could be released.
With these 2 gains, Ben was already satisfied with his journey to Minato Musashi''s inheritance ground but this was not the end of his journey yet.
Now, Ben needed to face the mystic domain stimtion test. If he seeded, he would get to benefit even more by taking the other floor tests.
What this stimtion test did was simply giving him different challenges to stimte his swordsmanship.
The main requirements for unlocking the mystic sword domain were a deeper understanding with your sword, and achieving inner peace with it.
Once the test started, Ben removed all distractions from his mind and focused, he was determined to take full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to improve his swordsmanship as much as he could.
In no time, he soon lost himself in the groove and went with the flow.
With every swing of his sword, Ben felt his sword affinity improving.
¡
Ben was not the only challenger of the 12-floored pagoda.
Alongside him were the other challengers, and like him, most of them benefited in various ways. The best among them who already unlocked the mystic sword domain before now already essed the higher floors.
As for the unlucky and weak-willed ones, they were unfortunate and were still stuck in the 1st floor where they experienced mental tortures of various degrees. Without passing this test, they were bound to gain nothing.
The fate of every swordsman challenging the pagoda was up to them. For this challenge, they had the option of defining their luck or sumbing to defeat.
Even in defeat though, Minato would never let them quit.
They would suffer the mental tortures for 60 days till the challenge ends.
While all these challengers did their best to climb the 12-floored pagoda, unknown to them, there was another challenger, the real inheritance candidate.
¡
"Lord Asuka, how did the Saint discover his true self again?" Rex asked as an expression of extreme curiosity now clouded his face.
The white-bearded old man smiled at the younger swordsman. "The Saint discovered his true self in a battlefield".
"Long ago, during the age of beast wars a few centuries after the age of awakening, Saint Minato Musashi rose as one of the most promising swordsmen of the era following the legacy of his father, the Great Sword Sage".
"Those who knew him and crossed his path described him as an extremely hot-tempered and determined man who could do anything to get to his goal".
"To others, the Saint was perfect but he actually didn''t discover his true self yet. Unknown to others, like every human, the young Saint had insecurities then".
"It was not until the battle of the 5 armies where he discovered his true self. In that battle, he was drawn in so much by the energy in the battle that he forgot that he was in a modern era, he let himself sink into the medieval age of Samurais".
"By following the flow, he discovered his true self as a Samurai".
"The exact process is elusive as every mystic warrior who attained that level experienced different processes. When you get to that level, you''ll know".
The old man smiled the next moment. "Before thinking of discovering your true self, you should first strive towards achieving inner peace with your sword".
Rex sped his hands respectfully before this old man and expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, Lord Asuka, I will focus on achieving inner peace".
Rex finally stood up and looked around again. At this moment, he was inside what felt like a medieval training ground for swordsmen.
This was the real inside of Minato Musashi''s inheritance ground that had never been discovered by the public, Rex became the first outsider to get here.
For the past 1 month, this was where Rex stayed after the harrowing battle against the Dust Snake and its army of snakes.
After the encounter with the strange antenna, Rex found himself here. Though his chances of survival were close to 0 at that very moment, this white-bearded old man, Lord Asuka was able to save him.
Through the old man, he was able to understand what happened.
ording to Lord Asuka, the antenna was a special mystic treasure that was designed to detect the bloodline of mystic warriors.
Before Minato Musashi''s death, he set some requirements for the lucky mystic warrior that would get his inheritance. Though he knew that the chances were slim, Minato set the requirements focus on 2 main points.
His inheritor must be a vampire and a worthy mystic swordsman.
Coincidentally, after centuries of not finding it, Rex finally came who fulfilled all criteria that were set by the Saint. Once Lord Asuka confirmed it, he dared not hesitate as he pulled Rex in to save his life.
Once Rex regained consciousness, Lord Asuka took his time to exin everything about the Saint to him including information about himself.
Lord Asuka was Saint Minato Musashi''s follower. Being a Super mystic warrior who already unlocked the mystic sword domain and had the potentials to go further, Lord Asuka was one of the strongest warriors in the Saint''s entourage.
What set him apart from others though was his loyalty, Lord Asuka was loyal to Saint Minato to a fault, to the extent that he could die for him anytime.
Saint Minato Musashi set up his inheritance ground through him.
After the Saint died and after he set up the inheritance, Lord Asuka did an act that would seem selfless and foolish to others but was right for him.
Apart from being a talented swordsman, Lord Asuka was also an extremely talented puppet master. With his mystic ability, Lord Asuka was able to create the ultimate puppet through which he kept his soul safeguarded.
With the puppet, he was able to live on centuries after death to fulfill his master''s ultimate wish of finding the perfect candidate for his inheritance.
After finding Rex, arge part of Lord Asuka''s goals was fulfilled. The next was impacting unto the candidate the Saint''s knowledge on swordsmanship.
For the past 1 month, Rex simply underwent light sword training here in this chamber as he spent the majority of the time listening to Lord Asura speak on swordsmanship. Lord Asura also spoke on the Saint''s inheritance.
If by the end of 2 months, Rex was able to rise to the expectations of the Saint, he would be rewarded with the Saint''s centuries-long umtion.
Minato Musashi had a greater n and mandate for his inheritor.
Diligent as ever before, Rex obeyed Lord Asuka''s advise and started his light sword training. As he swung his sword, the lectures of the Lord started ying in his head again like a song spreading coolness, freedom, and peace.
Unlike the other days of the past month, today was different as Rex''s concentration hit a new peak again.
As his concentration increased, so did the frequency of his sword swings and stabs increase. This resonance between him and his sword increased so much to the extent where he and his sword felt like a single entity.
In this state, Rex felt all his worries mysteriously disappearing.
All his worries about his family, about Cassandra, about all his friends, they all faded away like the wind, paving way for perfect peace to settle in.
A few minutester, Rex swung his sword as the air before him was cut in twain. Air was intangible, but for a second, the air became a cutting object.
As soon as he did this, Rex''s eyes opened and almost at the same time, his system lit up a notification to him.
-----
Congrattions! You have unlocked mystic sword domain¡
----
Chapter 172 Taking The Pagoda Test [1]
-----
Congrattions! You have unlocked the mystic sword domain!
You have taken another big step in the path to be a Sword Saint
Your overall swordsmanship abilities have increased by 1000%
----
That was how much different a mystic swordsman who already unlocked the mystic sword domain was from that who only unlocked the sword domain.
By unlocking sword domain, a mystic warrior was able to fight and utilize arge part of his inner potential with the sword. The sword bes an extension of the body, thereby enabling unmatched efficiency in battle.
Efficiency was not the only requirements in mystic battles though. As the mystic world developed, warriors had epiphanies and discovered more ways to improve their specific battle domains to get stronger.
Every era, mystic warriors learned from the mistakes and stumbling of their ancestors and the mystic beasts to device more effective methods.
Just like science, the study of mystic energy had continuous breakthroughs through the years which opened the veil to greater individual strength.
Even for an extension of your body like your fingers, you didn''t have full control and perception of it. Most body processes were controlled by the nerves and the moreplicated processes took ce in the cells.
Unless mystic warriors became capable of understanding their fingers to the very minor details like the cells, they could never fully make use of it.
This was the goal of Tiajutsu practitioners. The same way that mystic swordsmen pursued a goal of understanding their sword better, Tiajutsu experts also strived to understand their body better.
The strongest Tiajutsu warriors in the world understood every single detail in their body to the tiniest cell and blood vessel.
They were the true experts and controllers of their body.
That was for Tiajutsu practitioners, as for mystic swordsmen, making the sword an extension of your body was not enough. To fully make use of this new body extension, they needed to understand a lot of mysteries.
Mysteries behind why a metal object could be a body extension, mysteries of mystic energy that connected the sword to the warrior.
To know these mysteries though, inner peace was needed.
By soaking in Lord Asuka''s words of wisdom about swordsmanship for the past few months, Rex was able to saturate himself with the necessary knowledge.
Apart from being an incredible swordsman and puppet master, Lord Asuka also dabbled into sword craftsmanship. This was his way of understanding the physiology of swords to better make use of them.
Lord Asuka imparted every bit of knowledge in him to the vampire.
Rex was soon like a bowl that was filled to the brim with water, any slight shake and the water would spill. All that he needed to progress now was to organize every piece of information into perfect whole.
When Rex picked up his sword to practice again, the water in the bowl was finally spilled and he attained inner peace.
Rex''s system notification was like a mirage to him, he did not pay attention to it, all his mind and body was already taken over by the feeling of inner peace.
Rex felt so much at peace with himself that even as he forgot all his worries, he was also able to peer deeper into himself unlike ever before.
He recognized his faults, he recognized ways through which he could improve, and he recognized some silly decisions that he took throughout the years.
"I''ve been really foolish at times". He muttered in a daze.
For a full week, Rex meditated in the feeling of inner peace before he finally woke up. Once he did, he woke up as a new being.
Like his system indicated, his swordsmanship increased by approximately 1000%. This was a ridiculous figure that increased his swordsmanship from the previous master level that it was to the grandmaster level.
At this moment, Rex felt like a sage who finally discovered the goal of life. He did not just seem to understand Nirvana, he also seemed to understand death, life, and even the mysterious nature of reincarnation.
At this moment, Rex felt a connection unlike what he had experienced before with his upgrade mystic ability. For a long time, this mystic ability of his was dormant but now it seemed to rear its head again.
For some reason, achieving inner peace seemed to have awakened hidden abilities of his upgrade mystic ability that were not visible before.
Despite the strange phenomenon that achieving inner peace did to his upgrade mystic ability, the greatest change was still his swordsmanship.
With his sword now, Rex felt like he could battle an army of thousands alone and emerge victorious, that was how confident he was of his swordsmanship now.
Rex grabbed Berserker and swung it a few times to check it out.
"Shing!"
The excited chiming of his sword as soon as he grabbed it spoke volumes to Rex on how excited Berserker was to be held by him again.
After letting him to limatize, enjoy, and soak in the feeling of having discovered inner peace, Lord Asuka finally asked. "Will you like to continue listening to my silly stories?"
"Yes, of course". Rex grinned.
Having benefited once from the old man''s stories and lectures, Rex already recognized that the best way for him to benefit from this inheritance opportunity was not training but to continue listening to the old man.
Despite the specialized training chamber for swordsmen that was here where with each training session could yield him at least 3 times more results than normal, Rex still recognized that the old man''s stories were the best.
For maximum gain with the old man, there was no need to work hard, what he instead needed to do was to work smart.
Rex was d to be patient this time as he listened to the stories of Lord Asuka and Saint Minato''s adventures as they roamed the earth during their heyday.
Considering the Saint''s legendary life and legacy, most of the stories were exciting adventures that sent his blood racing while only few were boring.
Despite the boring ones, Rex listened to them all.
After every story session, Lord Asuka would ask Rex for his opinion and what he understood from the experiences. This was where Rex got to learn as Lord Asuka corrected his opinion and understanding of the adventures.
For the next 14 days, they kept at this until Lord Asuka finally drew the curtain close. "Well, that''s all, you''ve sapped me dry of all stories".
"I have bestowed all the notable stories of the Saint to you".
Lord Asuka looked straight at the young warrior. "Train for 4 days with your sword, master all the new realizations and understanding that you got about swordsmanship, then take the pagoda test".
"If you can finish all 7 floor tests that correspond to your current understanding with the sword, you''ll be eligible to take the Saint''s other inheritance, the most significant of them all".
Rex bowed respectfully before this mystic warrior. "I will not fail!"
With that, he gave himself some rest to meditate for 2 hours. After the meditation session, Rex finally grabbed his sword and started training.
With his eyes closed, Rex navigated through the army of training dummies that were before him as his sword continually cut, shed, and stabbed.
With each movement of the sword, one of the training dummies became the victim as the dummy was dispatched of. Rex''s movements and body coordination as he fought with his sword at this moment waspletely off the charts.
Each move that he made with his sword instantly became more natural to him, at this moment, he fought in an inspired state.
As he fought, Lord Asuka''s words of advice kept on reverberating in his head. He did not oppose it as he let the words flow and lead him.
After a training session thatsted 2 hours, in which time Rex got to defeat every single training dummy for the first time, he finally stopped.
Rex turned to face Lord Asuka. "I''m ready to take the test!"
? ¡
Once Rex was ready, Lord Asuka did the thing and instantly, a portal appeared before him as he was transported inside the 12-floored pagoda.
Like the others, his first test was a mental torture test.
Rex saw himself appear inside what seemed to be a massive Lion''s den. All around him were menacing lions with teeth that could tear him apart.
His only escape channel was the wall that seemed to extend infinitely into the skies. But for some reason, his instincts told him that it had an end and this was his only path to escape this den.
"Roar!!!"
The Lions barely got to roar before he jumped on the wall and started climbing. Soon enough, Rex learned that it was not as easy as he thought.
For 5 days, he was still climbing and the most horrifying fact was that the Lions could climb too. On the 6th day, one of them caught up to him as his speed already reduced due to tiredness.
Once the first Lion bit him, the 2nd did, followed by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and in no time, he was torn apart like a rag doll.
The sensation of pain sent Rex mad. "Ahhh¡!"
Chapter 173 Taking The Pagoda Test [1]
Rex experienced agony unlike he had ever experienced before now.
The teeth of the menacing Lions seemed to beced with poison, a poison that could numb his bones and inflict the greatest amount of pain to him, not just to his body but to his soul too.
Rex screamed until oxygen left his lungspletely.
"This is not what I bargained for!"
When Rex first heard of the 12-floored pagoda test, he imagined it to be filled with tests where his swordsmanship would be put to the test.
With his massively improved swordsmanship, though he knew that getting a perfect score was unrealistic, he still had high hopes of getting a good score.
Well, reality was so much different from what he expected.
He did not sign up for this, he never expected there to be a torture test.
Rex struggled to no avail as every time that the Lions caught him, he was torn to pieces in no time, he was not able tost more than 3 seconds each time as the sensation of extreme pain sent him into unconsciousness.
After getting tired of struggling, Rex finally decided to try listening to Lord Asuka''s advice. Before he took the test, the Lord gave him only one advise.
"Remember my stories".
After exhausting all the strategies of passing this test that he could think of, he finally decided to heed the Lord''s advice, he started remembering the stories.
Lord Asuka had a habit of adding philosophical quotes to his stories to spice them up. ording to him, he picked this habit from the Sword Saint.
As the crackling sound of another Lion''s maw snapping his bone reverberated followed with the sharp pang of pain, Rex forced his eyes closed.
With his eyes closed, he focused and this was when he remembered. "Nature is constantly changing, like the wind".
Originally, when Lord Asuka said these words, Rex did not attribute a hidden meaning to them until now. Nature was indeed changing; just a moment ago, he was still a free Rex who was relishing in the feeling of absolving knowledge.
Now, he was no longer free, he was stuck inside a pagoda where the only sensation that he could feel was pain, agonizing pain.
"When you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality".
He also remembered this and now, these words only seemed more striking. He felt the agonizing pain only because it was the present reality.
The pain was what he felt, but there was also another present reality which was that the pain he was currently feeling was just an illusion.
Bybining these 2 present realities, he arrived at a random conclusion that left him thinking, this was when he also remembered. Lord Asuka once said. "The natural order is disorder, understand this and get inner peace".
"I finally get it!" Rex''s eyes shone. "The goal is inner peace!"
Rex finally understood why Lord Asuka made him achieve inner peace before taking the pagoda test, inner peace was the short-cut topleting the tests.
Rex closed and tightened his eyes as he recited one of Lord Asuka''s most iconic quotes that he imed was not his. "Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and be wind".
With his eyes closed, Rex let his inner peace to take control. The natural order was disorder, he let all the sensations of pain in his head flow without order, he no longer tried to restrain them.
What he instead strived to do was to ignore them. By letting go of his earthly tether, he aimed to view the pain like it was nonexistent.
"Pain is just a thought, it is all in my head, let it go".
Rex kept on reciting this in his head till he achieved it, this was only possible because he already achieved inner peace and once he did, things changed.
Rex instantly felt like a cool wind was blowing as it caressed his face. He felt all his sorrows and worries washing away and the next moment, the pain started subsiding and in no time, the pain was nonexistent.
Rex no longer felt the pain as he turned to face the Lions. "You are all nonexistent, you are not the real reality".
Unknown to him, in this time while he did all these, 10 seconds already passed without him losing consciousness. He finallypleted the 1st torture test.
The 2nd torture test came and Rex used the same strategy. Everything went smoothly, he breezed through the test with unnatural ease.
The 3rd torture test was the same and hepleted it at a record time.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the 1st floor".
"Your endurance and willpower have increased; you have been rewarded with 3 fragments of a sword skill and a special swordsmanship manual".
''Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!''
Once Rex finished the test of the 1st floor, without hesitation, he moved to the 2nd floor where the test of patience and endurance was presented before him.
Like the first, all that he needed toplete this test was inner peace. Once he let go of his earthly tether, nothing was able to hold him back anymore, a second could feel like a millennium to him and vice versa.
In reality, he only had to wait a few hours whereas due to his inner peace and self-control, he tricked the system into thinking that he already waited for centuries, he breezed through the patience test like the first.
Instantly afterpleting the patience test, the pagoda did the thing and the scenery changed again for him to take the real swordsmanship test.
On seeing the group of 50 Samurais that were before him, all yearning to end his life, Rex grinned. "Now, this is more like it!"
"Shing!"
For the first time, Berserker finally got a role to y.
Rex grabbed his sword tighter before pouncing on the Samurais. Having achieved mystic sword domain already, these group of 50 Samurais with sword domain were like kids before him, they stood no match.
All it took from him was a bit of sweating, a bit of brain power for the mystic calculus, and just 20 minutes of his time before he breezed through all 50 Samurais.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the 3rd floor".
"Your willpower has increased; you have been rewarded with 4 fragments of a sword skill and a random ability that ispatible to you".
"You have received the Special Ability: Sword Berserker".
"Fragments of the Master Level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You have acquired all 10 fragments to unlock the Master level Sword Skill: Precision sh!"
"You have unlocked Master level Sword Skill: Precision sh!"
"You have unlocked the mystic sword domain floors".
Without giving Rex time toprehend and appreciate his gains, the 12-floored pagoda moved again as he was transported to the 4th floor.
Once again, Rex was subjected to a torture test and once again, having discovered the tricks behind it already, despite the fact that this torture test was far stronger than the previous, he still breezed through it.
For the patience and endurance test, he experienced the same.
"Too easy". Rex grinned as he was transported to the 6th floor.
This was what finally gave him a bit of trouble as he had to fight against 50 Samurais who already unlocked the mystic sword domain, he struggled.
Rex spent the most time in this floor, he had to use some unconventional means to try outwitting the Samurais before he was finally able to defeat them.
One major disadvantage of the Samurais was that Saint Minato was so fixated on replicating the past that he gave them the personalities and knowledge of Samurais of old, they still fought like Samurais of the old era.
There was no sense of mystic calculus being disyed by them, there was no cooperation, no sense of advanced fighting techniques, just raw swordsmanship.
This was what Rex took advantage of toe out on top.
Thest test of the mystic sword domain thatmenced in the 7th floor was a hard onebining both the torture test and swordsmanship tests.
Rex had to ovee the pain of the torture while at the same time having to fight 50 mystic warriors who already unlocked the mystic sword domain.
It was hard, but Rex was up to the task. Having discovered ways to go around the restrictions of both tests already, he won and came out on top.
Once he seeded, the pagoda''s familiar voice spoke again.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the 7th floor".
"Your willpower, endurance, soul power, mystic energy, and swordsmanship has increased, you have been rewarded with 8 fragments of a sword skill and a random ability that ispatible to your bloodline".
"You have received Saint Minato''s Special Ability: Age Extraction".
"You have acquired all 18 fragments to unlock the Master level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You have unlocked Master level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!"
"You can use sword skill fragments to upgrade your sword skills".
"You have unlocked the ultimate sword domain floors".
"To ess the ultimate domain floors, your sword proficiency needs to be at the ultimate sword domain realm..."
The pagoda barely got to spoke before the silhouette of Lord Asuka suddenly appeared. "Grant the kid passage".
"Level 00 order received! Granting Level 00 ess".
To Rex''s shock, the pagoda moved and did its magic again as he was picked up with one smooth move before being tossed to the 8th floor of the pagoda.
Rex''s journey through the 12-floored pagoda was not over yet.
Chapter 174 Congratulations, You Are Now A Master Swordsman
On seeing himself on the 8th floor of the pagoda, Rex took a deep breath to control his excitement and dread as this confirmed that the journey was not over yet. He was finally entering the hard parts of the pagoda test.
Originally, he did not expect himself to be able to ess the levels that corresponded to the ultimate sword domain level.
All these were privileges of him being the main inheritor.
From the first 2 stages of the sword domain and mystic sword domain, he already benefited a lot from the inheritance, he was even more hyped now about the rewards that he could get if he finished all 12 levels of the pagoda.
Having slowly limatized himself to the ways of the Sword Saint, he knew that the tests would only be harder on him now even though he was the perfect candidate for the inheritance that he wanted.
Sword Saint Minato was a mystic warrior with such an entric personality that he would rather his legacy be wasted than for it to be inherited by an unworthy mystic warrior, he was a swordsman with a lot of pride.
Rex was ok with hard, he just hoped that the consequent tests were not so hard that they became impossible for him toplete since that would be disappointing.
"What will it be this time?" Rex prepared himself for the uing torture.
Amid his preparations, he suddenly felt a gentle breeze blowing in hisher regions. Rex shivered as a chill crawled down his spine, before he could react, the rod that seemed capable of cracking the universe hit his golden rod.
The sounds of the twin eggs shattering were audible, Rex''s eyes rolled over as the pain, weakness, and trauma of this hit smashed at his brain with the momentum and force of a tsunami.
"My¡ Little¡ Brother¡!" He fainted instantly.
The pain, weakness, and trauma were still there when Rex was revived. Pure horror shone in his eyes as soon as he woke up he looked around, rmed.
Torture against his body was tolerable in his opinion, but against his little brother, this was torture of such gravity that Rex was unable toprehend.
The vivid sensation of the rod hitting his twin eggs still haunted him.
Rex shivered. "Lord Asuka, please, I don''t think I can do this, I quit!"
He barely spoke before the rod appeared again, he finally got to see the real color and appearance of the rod. This was a massive golden rod that seemed to be specially made to bonk and shatter pps and their twin eggs.
As the rod elerated with a momentum that could shatters, Rex shivered as the familiar breeze started blowing into hisher regions.
He tried to move and escape but he could not. Through some unknown magic, his body was petrified and firmly held in ce for the bonk.
When it finally hit, Rex saw his life and everything shatter with it.
Boom!
"F*ckkkk!!!"
After an indeterminate amount of time where he tried without any sess to try quitting the pagoda test, Rex finally became resigned to his fate.
He finally started thinking of ways to ovee this obstacle, but man, it was hard. Even with inner peace, the peace could not extend to theher regions.
The little brother was a powerful rod. Over history, this little brother was responsible for the notorious downfall of Emperors, Monarchs, and Presidents, all these were manifestations of the power and sway that it had.
Not even inner peace couldpletely suppress the little brother.
Rex had to devise entirely new means to trybating this torture. He went out of the normal, takingpletely unconventional routes just to seed.
After a long time of concentration, Rex learned something, the ability to use his sharp domain mystic energy here. By concentrating his mystic energy to form a sharp energy, he learned to use it to cut.
Rex''s strategy became taking the lesser of 2 evils. Instead of letting the rod smash his rod and balls, he instead took the easier route of cutting his rod himself.
The pain from cutting the rod was much more bearable than the former.
It was cruel, but it was this unconventional approach that let Rex seed. After a lot of trials and errors, he was finally able to endure through the 10 seconds in which time he had to cut his little brother approximately 14 times.
At the end of it all, Rex was like a starved orphan who already gave up on life, his face seemed to be dehydrated of all water, energy, and life.
The 2nd and 3rd torture tests were equally evil, but having ovee the torture of his little brother already, Rex was able to ovee anything else that came. All it took was time and he seeded.
After he received his rewards and the congrattions from the pagoda which were lesser than normal, Rex moved upwards again to the patience test.
This time, there were no idents or variations, he already mastered the technique which enabled him tost through the patience test.
After receiving his rewards, he finally climbed to the 10th level of the pagoda where he was faced again with the Samurai swordsmanship test.
As soon as the 50 Samurais appeared, Rex lost all hopes of victory. "50 Samurais with ultimate sword domain, why don''t I justmit suicide then?"
He barely got to show his despair before Lord Asuka appeared again inside the pagoda. The white-bearded old man made some gestures at the pagoda and instantly, the test changed again to his favor.
The first 50 Samurais disappeared, and in their ce appeared another 500 Samurais. The difference was that these ones only unlocked the mystic sword domain.
The challenge was steep but Rex heaved a sigh of relief, it was not impossible.
For insane challenge situations like this, Rex already learned through experience that he needed his brain more than he needed his swordsmanship.
Instantly, he observed the terrain where they were supposed to fight for any loopholes. Despite the impable design by the Sword Saint, Rex was sharp enough to see some minor loopholes that he soon jumped at.
With his incredible swordsmanship, he was able to make these originally minor loopholes have the effects of major loopholes.
By isting himself in a way where he made it possible for only 1 Samurai to fight him at a time, he started picking them out one after the other.
Though they tried, they found no way of offsetting his advantage. The natural disadvantage of mystic energy did not apply to Rex this time, with each Samurai kill, his system worked its wonders to replenish his mystic energy.
For some strange reason, the mystic energy replenishment effect of his system still worked even in this world that was created by Saint Minato.
"Is the Saint rted to my system?" Rex was confused.
Despite his minor confusion, he was able to remain focused long enough till he was able to annihte every single Samurai that came after him.
With this, Rex achieved a great milestone as he finally unlocked another Master Level Sword Skill called Master of the Elements.
After each master-level sword skill unlocks, the requirements became higher and so also was the quality of sword skill. The Master of the Elements sword skill was a skill so powerful and unlike anything that he had seen before.
With this sword skill, Rex could make use of the power of the elements.
This was still not the end; Rex was transported to the 11th floor where he met another torture mixed with Samurai test. This time, he had to undergo torture while still facing off against 500 Samurais with mystic sword domain.
Rex spent the most time here, but he was still able to seed but not after looking like an animal who was at its death bed already.
After the 11th floor, Rex finally got transported to the final 12th floor.
In here, Rex faced a simple test, all he needed to do to finish the 12-floored pagoda test was to defeat a single Samurai in battle.
The main difference was that this Samurai was one who already unlocked the ultimate sword domain, his sword aura alone oppressed Rex.
Rex was oppressed mentally and physically but he never lost hope of victory once. If he was able to make it this far despite the odds that were against him, he believed that he could also make it to thest step.
Rex got prepared and started the battle.
In just a few minutes, this became the fiercest battle that Rex fought. After dying more than 100 times to this warrior, Rex became attuned to Berserker unlike ever before and in a moment of epiphany, he won.
He was still far from the ultimate sword domain realm, but he took a step closer and it was the momentum of growth that enabled him to narrowly win.
With this win, Rex finallypleted the pagoda test.
"Congrattions! You havepleted the test of the 12-floored pagoda".
"Your willpower, endurance, soul power, mystic energy, and swordsmanship have increased, you have been rewarded with 10 fragments of a sword skill and 2 specialpletion rewards".
"Over the course of the pagoda test, you gained the special abilities: Sword Berserker, Age Extraction".
"Over the course of the pagoda test, you gained the Master Level Sword skills: Precision sh, Phoenix Ash, Master of the Elements".
"Over the course of the pagoda test, you gained the myth grade mystic treasures: Vampiric Armor, Berserker".
While Rex was still light-headed from the harrowing experience, Lord Asuka appeared before him again. "Congrattions! You have be a Sword Master!"
Chapter 175 The Ultimate Inheritance
"Congrattions! You have be a Sword Master".
Hearing this from Lord Asuka, Rex felt a burst of pride surge in his heart.
Even with how humble he was, he recognized the incredible feat that he just achieved. It felt like a dream, but hepleted the whole pagoda test.
For a long time, Rex had been seen by others and himself as a sword genius but today, he finally recognized himself as a sword master.
From now on, no matter which part of the world that he saw himself, he would still be able to beat his chest and stand out as a master mystic swordsman.
"Thanks, I was only able to achieve all these due to your guidance and help".
Lord Asuka smiled. "If you still remember, I once told you that if you can finish all 7 floor tests of the pagoda that correspond to your current understanding with the sword, you''ll be eligible to take the Saint''s other inheritance".
"The most significant inheritance that was left behind by my master".
"Before taking that inheritance, I want you to take the full rewards ofpleting the pagoda test. Of the rewards, only the mystic treasures are remaining". Lord Asuka led him to somewhere else as he spoke.
A few minutester, they arrived before a great forge that was hidden deep inside the Sword Saint''s tomb, unbeknownst to anybody.
Lord Asuka turned to face Rex again. "The pagoda has a plethora of different mystic treasures, it simply improvised to provide you with myth grade mystic treasures that would help you the most".
"Swordsmen mostly use one sword all their life, so instead of providing you with a new sword, the pagoda simply offered to upgrade Berserker".
"Throw it inside the forge and the upgrade would begin".
"Shing!"
Even before Rex could reply, Berserker already started vibrating in its sheath. Rex smiled and grabbed the sword before throwing it into the great forge.
What baffled him was that there was no mystic mechanic here to oversee the proceedings of the sword''s upgrade but Rex did not ask.
"The same thing with your armor". Lord Asuka smiled.
Rex did not hesitate as he unequipped his armor before also throwing it inside the forge, he took a deep breath then he finally turned to face Lord Asuka.
"Thest inheritance?"
"Yes, follow me".
Lord Asuka took Rex through the massive tomb until they arrived before a winding staircase that led downwards. As they started climbing down the staircase, Lord Asuka finally started speaking again.
"Do you know your master''s roots?"
"The Sword Saint?"
"Yes", Lord Asuka smiled. "You took his inheritance, now he''s your master".
Rex smiled, he had nothing against epting the Sword Saint at his master, this inheritance helped him a lot in ways that he was not even sure of.
He finally replied. "I don''t know much, but I know that he is the son of the Sword Saint and Legendary Mystic Warrior Swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi".
"You''re right, but what else do you know about him?"
"I know that he was once a warrior of a marauding tribe".
"Yes, he was the greatest warrior of our old marauding tribe. Our story is a sad and tragic one, our family became marauders after being betrayed by one of our founding fathers¡, Miyamoto Musashi".
"By using our whole family as a stepping stone, Miyamoto Musashi was able to take thest step and be the first mystic swordsman to unlock ultimate sword domain, making him the greatest swordsman of all time".
"Even after rising to the top, he never repented, instead, he wanted topletely annihte the survivors of the old family".
"He enticed other marauding tribes to go against us and despite our struggles, we could not win, we ended up being annihted".
"We did not thoroughly die though, we survived through a desperatest n. Minato and other leaders of our marauding tribes spent a long part of their lives creating the ultimate n that would save our bloodline from going extinct".
"That is when we created the Blood Spartan tribe".
"We brought the best youngsters of our marauding tribe, trained them specially and sent them to another. Before sending them though, we created the ultimate mystic treasure that would enable them to survive there".
Lord Asuka''s voice deepened. "We created the Blood Shackle".
Tioron back then was an untamed. It was the center of most disasters that happened in the universe, when we discovered it, the atmosphere was thick with the blood of people who died through the universe".
"The Blood Shackle is a mystic treasure that enabled mystic warriors to survive by taking the blood in the air as a form of oxygen".
"Only vampires can use the Blood Shackle".
"Take".
Surprised, Rex looked only to see what seemed like a helmet appear in Lord Asuka''s hand. He took it. "Is this¡?"
"Yes, that is a Blood Shackle".
"The n of our marauding tribe was that after our death, our youngsters who were sent to Tioron would take the mantle on our behalf and develop in a that was not terrorized by a Hiroshima Musashi".
"After centuries, we believed in theirpetency to be strong warriors that woulde back to take what belonged to our family and tribe".
"We called them the Blood Spartan Tribe because only our best youngsters at the time were able to make the roster to leave for Tioron".
"The Sword Saint''s inheritance is also our marauding tribe''s inheritance".
"The Sword Saint and all our leaders want you to be the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe. Go to Tioron, organize the warriors under your wing, be their leader and bring them back to earth".
"You have only 5 days to do this before you''ll be transported back".
"You''ll figure how to bring them back to earth yourself".
Rex was about to ask a question but Lord Asuka stopped him. "That is not the end to thisst inheritance, the Sword Saint added an extrayer of benefit to entice you in the case that you feel reluctant to go".
"The Age Extraction Special Ability that you inherited from the pagoda test is a result of some extreme experiments that the Sword Saint did when he lived".
"Through this same experiment, before he died, Sword Saint Minato Musashi was able to unlock the secrets of time travel and time eleration".
Rex''s eyes widened, the first reference that he made to this was of course his system and his family. "So, another person discovered the secret to this".
He kept silent but his curiosity about the real depths of the mystic world grew more than ever before as Lord Asuka continued.
"After unlocking the secrets of time travel and time eleration, the Sword Saint was able to create a mystic treasure that he called the Fate Circle".
After speaking for so long already, they finally arrived before the end of the winding staircase. What was at the end was a single small room, and inside this small room was only one thing, something that Rex recognized.
Stored inside this small room was a greatary teleportation portal, a portal that belonged to the old marauding tribe that the Sword Saint was a part of.
Lord Asuka continued in a reminiscing tone. "Ist saw thisary teleportation portal centuries ago when the youngsters were sent away".
"Do you see that blue circle surrounding the portal?"
On being reminded, Rex paid close attention and this was when he saw it. The blue glowing circle surrounding the teleportation portal distinguished itself from the portal itself, and in no time, Rex attributed mysterious elements to it.
"Is that the Fate Circle?"
"Yes!" There was emotion in Lord Asuka''s voice now. "That is the greatest creation of my master, Sword Saint Minato Musashi!"
"With the Fate Circle, time can be elerated or decelerated. The Sword Saint''s Fate Circle will be adjusted by me to elerate your time. You''ll only need to spend 5 days, but it''ll be recorded for you as 50 years".
"You and I know how important time is to vampires".
The next moment, Lord Asuka did something that shocked Rex. The old man fell to his knees, kowtowed and begged. "On behalf of my master and all the masters of my marauding tribe, Rex, please be the leader of the youngsters".
"Lead them to glory, lead them to rise like Spartans just the way we envisioned them to be, lead them to fight Miyamoto Musashi!"
Rex was bbergasted as he rushed to raise the old man up. "Hey¡, I''ll help if I can but I''m not sure I can? I''m but an advanced mystic warrior".
"It doesn''t matter, what matters is that you''re the Sword Saint''s disciple".
It took a lot of argument and persuasion and kneeling, but Rex finally agreed to the proposal. Thinking back to all the benefits that he got from the inheritance ground, he reasoned that this was the least he could do to repay his benefactors.
"Ok, I''ll do it!"
"Good! My soul can finally rest in perfect peace knowing that I fulfilled my part in building the Blood Spartan Tribe".
The next moment, Rex stood inside the glowing teleportation portal after wearing the Blood Shackle. Lord Asuka took control of the portal and manipted it a bit, the next moment the light intensified before dimming.
Bzzz!
Rex disappeared.
¡
Somewhere dark and hidden, a pair of eyes suddenly snapped open.
The owner of this pair of eyes was an old man on white robes. His eyes were as sharp as daggers, his eyebrows as long and sharp as swords. His demeanor was mean and straight, he was a man with a powerful and sharp aura.
Everything about him depicted the sharpness of a sword.
His croaky voice reverberated. "After centuries, it finally activates again".
"Admirable patience".
The next moment, he stretched a hand only for a mighty sword to appear on it. With the sword, he tore the void open and jumped inside it.
Chapter 176 Day 1 In Planet Tioron
Aary teleportation portal was unlike anything Rex had seen before.
With his Blood Tome, he had ess to teleportation abilities but not even the myth grade tome''s mystic effects couldpare to what he was experiencing at the moment. Rex observed in awe as he traveled at light speeds.
Teleportation portals were supposed to be instantaneous, but perhaps, due to the great distance of his destination or other interference, it was not instantaneous as Rex got to see the raw universe.
When his eyes opened, he saw himself enveloped by a phasing blue film that seemed to protect him from the destructive powers of the universe. Enveloped in this blue film, he streaked across the cosmos like aet.
p For a few seconds, Rex eximed in awe as he saw the giants far away in the distance. At this moment, he was traveling through space.
The speed of the teleportation portal was so fast that everything was a blur to him, he could barely make out thes as they passed.
Despite the slight inconvenience caused by the travel, Rex did notin, rather he saw this as a memorable moment as he got to see the cosmos for the first time and he had to admit that it was a beautiful sight.
After the age of awakening, as technology increased, humanity also started exploring more about the stars but after the establishment of the shelters, any information about the stars became confidential information.
For the first time, Rex saw the world outside earth.
Rex kept on admiring what he saw as he was transported away but this did notst forever. Like everything, his happy moment soon came to an abrupt end.
Bzzz!
The first sound that Rex heard was the sound of something being torn, which was quickly followed by the sound of space being separated in twain.
It happened so fast that he had no time to react.
Before he understood what was going on, he saw the de edge of a massive sword cutting the void apart. And out of the void came the owner of the sword, an old man with such a strong sword aura thatpletely petrified Rex.
Over the course of 1 year since he became a mystic warrior, this was the first time that Rex was so outmatched and suppressed by just the aura of a mystic swordsman.
Without a doubt, this old man was a Sword Saint!
"A Sword Saint?!" Rex''s eyes widened in horror as the realization of his conclusion settled in, a Sword Saint was after him!
Due to the speed at which he traveled, he was unable to speak as the old man in white robes matched the speed and came close to the blue film that surrounded him. Before the old man could touch him though, someone interfered.
In this desperate moment, Lord Asuka appeared and at this moment, this old warrior no longer had that all-knowing and dignified look on his face.
His face was filled with hatred, vengeance, and determination.
"Hahaha!" Lord Asukaughed like a maniac. "My soul can indeed finally rest at peace knowing that myst achievement was stopping you!"
"How dare you¡?"
Before the old Sword Saint''s powerful voice couldplete its sentence, Lord Asuka''s puppet body became covered with an extremely powerful armor.
The puppet that he created for his body was a myth grade puppet.
Without hesitation, Lord Asuka engaged the Sword Saint in battle. The blue film flickered a lot but Rex was unharmed as he continued his journey.
While he continued his journey, he became the spectator of this mighty battle in space as the shockwaves constantly rocked the blue film that protected him. His heart was always on his throat as the battle raged.
The battle was fierce but it was one-sided, the old Sword Saintpletely thrashed Lord Asuka. The Lord only survived because of the special armor.
Despite the defense of the special armor though, it was not omnipotent. The massive sword of the Sword Saint finally cut all the way through the armor.
Lord Asuka stood no chance, once the puppet was destroyed, he died.
"For the Sword Saint Minato!" Lord Asuka yelled as he died.
After killing him, the old Sword Saint finally tried to cut the blue film in 2 but it was toote. As soon as it detected the red ahead, the blue film became like a warrior on steroids as it rapidly elerated towards the.
The old Sword Saint went in pursuit but he was not fast enough. Disappointed, he could only watch as the blue film entered the atmosphere.
The old Sword Saint could only look at this red from afar, he dared not enter inside it, his danger senses tingled at the mere sight of it.
"What a pity¡, sigh". He sighed before turning and leaving.
¡
Whoosh!
Rex was dumped in Tioron in the air.
He barely had time to observe his surroundings as the strong gravity of this pulled him to the surface. Despite trying his best, he was not able to change his fall direction as he was currently falling straight into a forest.
The next moment, he finally hit the tallest trees as the sounds of twigs and branches snapping reverberated through the hall.
After a pretty eventful fall, Rex finallynded on the floor with a mighty thud. His eyes rolled back from the impact, things were worse than he previously thought, he f*ckingnded in where there was a rock.
He coughed blood as the sensation of a few of his bones snapping made him groan in pain. Despite his injuries, he was still alive and that was what mattered.
For like the next 30 minutes, Rexid on the floor as he recovered from the impact of the fall. He didn''t die only because of his special constitution.
After these minutes, his vampire bloodline worked its wonders again and he fully recovered. After his recent constitution upgrade, his vitality and recovery abilities increased again to an even more ridiculous extent.
After fully recovering from the injuries caused by the fall, this was when he finally stood up to observe his surroundings.
The first thing that attracted him about this was the red background. The natural air was red in color, testament of the blood phenomenon that Lord Asuka exined to him a few minutes ago.
Talking of Lord Asuka, Rex finally recalled the great battle. As he remembered the Lord''s sacrifice, his eyes moistened.
"I can''t believe that he''s dead already".
Despite how much he wanted to believe that this was all in his head, having seen it vividly with his eyes, Rex knew that this was no dream, it was real.
Lord Asuka was dead and he had to ept that fact.
Also, he already knew the identity of the old Sword Saint. For someone with such frightening understanding of the sword, and who could kill Lord Asuka so effortlessly, Rex guessed no one else but the legendary Miyamoto Musashi.
Lord Asuka did the impossible by fighting him for so long without dying.
Rex was heartbroken at the death of this mystic warrior. Lord Asuka was literally the first mystic warrior that he really got close to who died.
His father died when he was still a powerless kid, but this time, he was already a mystic warrior yet he was still powerless as someone he was close to died.
Rex clenched his fists tight, he hated this feeling, this feeling of helplessness and powerlessness as something you loved slipped away from your fingertips.
Originally, he only wanted to fulfill Sword Saint Minato and Lord Asuka''s mission because of the benefits that he got from the inheritance ground but after this, he got another more legitimate reason to fulfill this mission.
"I must avenge my friend!"
Lord Asuka may be old enough to be his great grandfather, but all that didn''t matter since in their few times together, they were akin to close friends.
Once he gained this determination to seed, Rex instantly startedying down his ns. He had only 5 days toplete the mission.
Rex soonid down 2 objectives that he must aplish for his 1st day here. The first objective was to find a save haven to hide, this was not simple, he dreaded the thought of facing the beasts that adapted to survive here.
His 2nd objective was to locate the home of the Blood Spartan Tribe. If he was to be their leader, he first needed to meet them.
Once Rexid his objectives down, he did not waste any time as he quickly went at them with gusto. As he went deeper into the that was saturated with a bloody mist, he soon discovered some interesting facts.
One of these interesting facts was that he could use his mystic energy here and for some reason, it was even more potent and concentrated than on earth.
"I wonder how the beasts here look like?"
Rex barely spoke before he heard a deep growl from behind him, he paused.
Chapter 177 Day 2 In Planet Tioron
Rex paused as soon as he heard the growl of the strange beast.
Remembering the basics of fighting mystic beasts that were taught to him back in the Obedin Mystic Academy, Rex did not run, panic, nor did he make any sudden movements as he turned as naturally as he could.
After such a long time, he barely remembered thest time that he was forced to do this but he did it because he already felt that this beast was an advanced mystic beast. Also, its aura was unnaturally strong.
At this moment, Rex had shbacks to a year ago when he just met his first mystic beast in the form of the mystic pig that he ended up killing.
As soon as he turned around, the first thing that greeted him was the bloody red pair of eyes that seemed toe straight out of hell.
This was an enormous beast that had the physique of a Bull. The main difference was its head, instead of 2 horns, multiple horns jutted from different part of this beast''s head, making it seem like a war machine.
As soon as their eyes shed, the massive beast growled again and moved. It dragged its huge body along as it charged towards Rex with its head facing him.
The beast''s battle strategy was as clear as day. Clearly, the beast intended to directly m into him, impale him with its horns and kill him.
As soon as the beast moved, Rex finally remembered that he did not have his main weapons at the moment.
When he was transported through theary teleportation portal, Berserker, his Blood Tome, and all his mystic treasures were left behind.
He originally left at a loss, but on remembering something, Rex checked what he was wearing at the moment, this was when he discovered that he was d in entirely new clothes to the ones that he wore before.
Apart from the Blood Shackle that covered his face, at this moment, he was d in primitive red hair clothes that made him look like a red Ape.
His clothes at this moment were not important though, what was important was that alongside his new clothes was the sheath of a sword that was attached to his waist. Once he grabbed it, he felt the sensation of a sword.
Shing!
As soon as Rex pulled the sword out, a sword with a red de edge followed. This was when the beast finally roared and pounced on him.
The Pounce of this Bull-like beast carried such force, speed, and momentum behind it unlike Rex had experienced from any other Advanced mystic beast.
Like he expected, due to the increased concentration and potency of mystic energy here, the mystic beasts here were much more powerful than those on earth. In no time though, Rex soon discovered that he was also stronger.
Whoosh!
Rex dodged with an unnatural speed that he previously didn''t know that he had as with it, his incredible swordsmanship finally showed.
The sword cut through the exposed and unprotected mid-section of this beast as blood poured like a fountain while the beast roared. In reaction, the horns covering the beast''s head disappeared and appeared on its stomach section.
The beast did not hesitate despite its injury as it pounced on him, Rex weed it with his sword as he faced it fearlessly.
The sounds of metal shing against tissue kept on reverberating for a few minutes as Rex fought this beast. After 6 minutes, the beast finally recognized that it was up against a superior opponent and it tried to escape.
Rex did not allow this though as he followed it tightly and got his kill.
Like he expected, his system lit up.
-----
You have killed a pure bloodline Advanced mystic beast: Hell Bull!
You have gained 2,100 mystic energy points
You have gained 50 mystic energy limits
----
On seeing this figure, Rex''s eyes widened as wide as saucers.
Mystic energy points were something that his body naturally recovered on its own, but mystic energy limits were the real rare currency that his system could reward him with.
He was shocked. "Killing beasts here gives mystic energy limits?!"
All of a sudden, Rex felt a sudden urge to abandon every other thing that brought him to this andpletely focus on farming mystic energy limits through the beasts but he soon disciplined himself.
The first reason was that he was determined to repay the trust that Lord Asuka had on him, and the 2nd reason was that taking such a route was dangerous.
Like was evident from his battle against the Hell Bull, beasts in this were far more powerful than those on earth.
If he fought against a much more powerful beast, without his usual advantages and cheats back on earth, he was not sure if he would be able to survive, he needed to act more cautiously.
Another fact that he discovered was the additional phrase that his system attributed to the Hell Bull. This random beast here was a pure bloodline beast.
Once he attributed this fact to the potency of mystic energy here, he made a guess that perhaps getting pure bloodlines was rted to the quality of mystic energy. Perhaps, the first pure bloodline beasts were the original invaders of earth.
He also guessed that perhaps, all beasts here were pure bloodline beasts.
Though his curiosity wanted him to look deeper into all the intricacies of this more potent mystic energy, he did not have the luxury to do all that.
After the briefmotion that was made by his battle against the Hell Bull, other beasts were already attracted and Rex could sense them getting closer to his location, he no longer dared stay at the same ce.
He collected the mystic core of the beast before escaping into the blood mist.
After spending a lot of time to evade the beasts and hide his tracks, when it was alreadyte and the blood mist turned dark, Rex finally found a hiding space.
Unaware of how dangerous Tioron was at night, Rex refrained from turning into his half-bat form and exploring as he spent the night safely.
...
The next morning, Rex woke up to another bloody mist day.
Having found a safe haven for himself to fall back to when he encountered danger already, his next step was locating the territory of the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Since Lord Asuka did not give him any clues whatsoever on where the tribe''s territory was, it probably meant that he had a whole to search.
The prospect of this endeavor terrified him but Rex still forged ahead. For the whole day, Rex was like a vagabond with no home as he roamed across this red while evading any beasts that he met and killing those he could not evade.
For those beasts that he killed, after confirming that they were not venomous, he turned them to meat through which he sustained himself.
The only problem now was human blood. Without human blood, he could not survive in this strange red for more than another 24 hours.
Rex spent all his energy in the day looking for the Blood Spartan Tribe to no avail until his system started giving him familiar system notifications.
-----
[You are hungry!]
[You must drink human blood within the next 24 hours!]
[For every hour that passes without blood, your intelligence will keep on degrading till the extent that you be nothing more than a beast!]
[For every 30 minutes that passes without blood, you will lose 100 HP!]
----
Once this system notification came, Rex''s life became timed.
His body kept on growing weaker with time even as he lost health points every 30 minutes. From its previous 2 hours interval, as he grew stronger, the penalties of him going without human blood also grew harsher.
Rex did not know if any other humans upied this red, the only ones that he was sure of were the Blood Spartan Tribe.
This journey to find them soon graduated from just a quest to live up to Lord Asuka''s trust in him, it soon became a quest for survival.
Unless he met the warriors of the Blood Spartan Tribe and sucked their blood, his journey on this world of the living was already numbered.
Rex continued searching till it was night again. This time, he did not sleep, he dared not sleep as there was a high chance of him dying in his sleep.
He persevered and kept on searching until all strength was finally drained out of him. Rex met a strange deer-like mystic beast at his weak moment and after a great battle which he barely won; he was leftpletely exhausted.
Heid on the floor as he looked at the red sky through his dizzy eyes. At this moment, he felt like the whole universe was upside down and was spinning crazily.
"Hahaha, I''ve barely even started but I''m already dying to hunger".
Rex''s eyes soon closed due to extreme weakness.
He was soon buried in the dead of the night, but a few hourster, before he waspletely buried by the blowing sand, a pair of hands grabbed his long hair and pulled him out of the sand.
"Check his pulse".
"Yes, leader".
The next moment, the young warrior turned to face the leader. "He''s alive".
Chapter 178 Day 3 In Planet Tioron
-----
You have been affected by a Special Vampire Ability: Interrogation!
You have entered a state of¡
----
Rex''s system notifications woke him up, everything was a blur to him.
"How did he get a Blood Shackle¡?"
"¡I don''t know, do you think he is perhaps rted to our ancestors?"
"I''m not sure, but from how he was taken all the way back to the tribe tent, I think he is somehow rted to the famed earth".
Rex woke up groggily to the noise made by gossiping young voices.
Once his brain fully woke up, he kept himself still and tried hard not to attract attention to the fact that he was already awake. Even without opening his eyes, he could feel at this moment the dozens of eyes that were fixated on him.
He tried to open his eyes while making it very subtle, but he was busted.
"YOU''RE AWAKE?!" The loud voicepletely rattled Rex''s senses.
He grabbed his ears and jumped up.
As soon as he jumped up, he put up his guard but he was not attacked. After 5 seconds of not being attacked, Rex finally raised his head to look.
On raising his head, the first thing that he discovered was the tent-like house where he was in at this moment. He was not the only one here, alongside him were dozens of other humans who he already recognized as mystic warriors.
They were all dressed in red cover-all attires that made them look like desert men. From their aura, the least among them was an Advanced mystic warrior.
The strongest among them, the man who was seated in the middle of the tent with long white beards and hair had an aura thatpletely suppressed Rex. He was a Super mystic warrior!
On seeing this man, Rex gave up all hopes of trying to escape through force as he soon sumbed to his present circumstances.
"Who are you?" He became proactive and asked.
"We are humans, what are you?" This time, the man''s voice was not as deep as before as Rex could finally tolerate and listen to it.
"¡"
Rex was speechless on the man''s reply but he dared not take it for a joke as he also answered while trying to follow the flow. "I am a human too".
"I know". He finally stood up from his chiefly chair and walked down till he was just a few meters from Rex. "We are from the Blood Spartan Tribe, what tribe are you from?"
"Uhh¡"
"How did you get a Blood Shackle?"
"Umm¡"
"How are you able to use a Blood Shackle?!" By now, the man''s voice was as sharp as a sword as Rex was suffocated by the force and pressure that followed it.
The man was already standing so close to Rex that their eyes were mere inches away from each other, then he threw hisst question.
"Who are you?"
This was what made him lose control, Rex''s legs buckled as he fell from the pressure and cried. "I''m innocent, I swear! I''m innocent!"
"Innocent of what?" The man suddenly turned to return to his chair, the difference was that this time, his voice was no longer as oppressive and pressurizing as Rex heaved a sigh of relief and coughed.
This was when he remembered his system notification.
"He had been using a special ability on me since". He shuddered.
He finally understood why the man''s voice turned less oppressive. The man already sounded him out and already got the oue that he wanted.
Another fact that he discovered was that his system ascribed a Vampire attribute to this huge man. He finally understood why he survived, and he now knew that there was a great chance that he already met his target.
There was a high chance that these group of mystic warriors belonged to the Blood Vampire Tribe, but the question was would they ept him?
What was he to say? Could he just say that he was their leader?
Just thinking of the ridiculousness of his argument deterred him. He soon felt at a loss, how did Lord Asuka expect him to achieve this impossible goal?
Amid his thoughts, the white-haired man spoke again. "Are you from earth?"
Rex paused as a lot of things went through his mind at the same time. He did not have all the time in the world, so he took a gamble.
"Yes".
The man smiled. "You know, there is a prophecy in my tribe that was passed down from our n head about a savior that would descend on our".
"ording to our n head, his first days here willst only 5 days".
The man''s sharp eyes red at Rex. "I hope that you''re the one. Pray that you''re the one or once we get to the n and its not you, you''ll die".
"Carry him, we''re returning to the main tent".
"Yes, General Spinlock".
¡
Rex was hauled along by the group of mystic warriors; he was given the freedom to walk freely since they were confident that he could not escape.
As they traveled, Rex got to know more about this group of warriors.
They were indeed from the Blood Spartan Tribe, and they were all vampires. In this group, there were actually only 8 mystic warriors with 7 of them Advanced mystic warriors with the leader, the General being a Super mystic warrior.
Perhaps, because the General said he was rted to the prophecy, they were polite to him during the journey as they told him basic facts about Tioron and also more facts about themselves.
They were just 8 humans in this group, the other 16 warriors in the entourage were referred to as Blood warriors and were not living.
On making contact with them, Rex discovered an uncanny simrity between these Blood warriors and his only Transformed humanoid warrior, Ambition.
He tried to know more about the Blood warriors but probably because of the presence of the General, they were all tight-lipped. Among the 7 warriors were some youngsters even younger than him, but none of them spoke about it.
ording to them, Tioron was a special that was dominated by mostly deserts with few forests and grasnds joining into the mix.
The bloody mist that covered the year-round made life here very difficult for all types of living organisms, both nts and animals.
Only beasts that evolved to be pureblood mystic beasts could survive here. The same thing applied for nts; only mutated nts could survive here.
The Blood Spartan Tribe was not the only human tribe in Tioron, ording to the warriors, there was a rival human settlement in the.
Though Rex probed, they refused to give him more detailed information about the rival human settlement.
Apart from the humans and beasts, there were 3 indigenous intelligent alien races in Tioron. The Dalkins, Erodites, and Manians.
The Manians were the only ones that had humanoid appearances. The other 2 had beastly appearances but set themselves apart from the others due to their intelligence and incredible achievements.
By the time that Rex knew all these about Tioron, he already developed a mental image of this that made him seem like a sole survivor.
At this moment, he was like a lost soul from earth that wandered the cosmos before being dumped in this where he was nothing but prey.
Perhaps, if not because of the Blood Shackle, he would have been dead already once the warriors of the Blood Spartan Tribe met him.
Another important fact was that for the past 2 days, Rex had been calcting wrong, a day in Tioronsted 27 hours.
The blood mist deceived him into thinking otherwise.
After all the reveal, Rex''s curiosity about the current state of the Blood Spartan Tribe grew but all 8 warriors remained tight-lipped about this sensitive topic. Clearly, they were all disciplined warriors, even the youngsters.
After traveling for hours across the without encountering any significant danger, Rex''s streak of safety finally got broken.
The bestial roars that reverberated from underneath the sand shook Rex to his very bone marrows but all 8 warriors in this group did not panic as they cooperated before taking him away to escape.
The warriors already recognized their enemies. "Dalkins!"
When Rex finally set his eyes on a Dalkin, he was shocked. These intelligent beasts had the physique of an octopus, one that moved and lived in the desert.
3 of these giant beasts went in pursuit of the warrior group.
Rex''s heart was constantly in his throat throughout the pursuit as the vampires of the Blood Spartan Tribe showed their talent.
Rex had never seen such tenacious, versatile, independent, and self-sufficient mystic warriors in all his life, never had he read of such also.
Even the youngest of the mystic warriors fought like real Spartans. They were disciplined and principled in battle, making no mistakes throughout.
Their greatest trait that Rex observed though was their teamwork.
Despite the odds against them, they were able to kill one of the Dalkin, skin it and get its loot before escaping from the pursuit of the other furious 2.
At the end of it all, Rex was left awed and bamboozled. "Awesome disy!"
None of the warriors responded to his praise, surprising him again.
For the next 2 hours till they finally arrived at the so-called main tent, the group of 8 mystic warriors kept on showing him things that surprised him.
Rex saw such a disparity in literally every sense from other mystic warriors that he had met before that even with his pride, he had to admit that warriors on earth were inferior to these group of mystic Spartans.
"Is this even real?" His shock only kept on increasing till he was dragged inside the main tent of the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Chapter 179 I Have A Lot Of Training To Do
As soon as Rex entered into the main tent of the Blood Spartan Tribe, he instantly saw the difference between the main tent and the other tents.
The main tent of the Blood Spartan Tribe was like the coven of a great vampiremunity, and it was right since all the tribesmen were vampires.
As soon as the 8 mystic warriors entered the main tent, their 16 Blood Warriors left in different directions as all 8 of them escorted their prisoner who was no other person than Rex to the center of the coven.
As they escorted the prisoner in, they drew a lot of attention as the avable tribesmen of the Blood Spartan Tribe started trooping out from different locations.
In no time, the news of a prisoner being brought to the main coven spread as all the vampire tribesmen were soon gathered before the n head.
When the tribesmen gathered at the center of the coven, they were shocked to see the n Head, Army Commander, and 4 of the 5 Army Generals of the Blood Spartan Tribe already gathered as they waited for the prisoner.
After interrogating Rex, General Spinlock did not hesitate before contacting the higherups of the Blood Spartan Tribe and they all responded.
All of them arrived at the coven before General Spinlock arrived with the prisoner. Now, they were finally able to set their eyes on him.
At this moment, Rex was already petrified in fear.
His senses that kept on tingling already told him his present situation. At this moment, he was standing before not just 1, not 2, but 7 Super mystic warriors!
It took every ounce of his willpower to remain standing.
Like they all came to a tacit understanding, an eerie silence reigned in the coven as every single vampire here started observing this prisoner silently.
When the silence almost suffocated him, one of them finally made a move.
The muscr n Head of the Blood Spartan Tribe finally stood up. Unlike what he expected, the n Head did not don beast clothing or any of the sort nor did he look like a berserk barbarian that came straight out of a fictional novel.
The n Head was a moderate sized muscr man with middle-aged facial expressions. His face was as stony as a rock, his demeanor as straight as a spear.
The aura that he exuded seemed to squeeze Rex by the neck as he stood up and started walking closer to him, Rex could barely breath.
After walking to him, the n Head touched Rex on the forehead beforeing down to touch his abdomen. He seemed to engage a strange ritual of identification to confirm if Rex was who he suspected.
The n Head did this for only 10 seconds before he stopped. The expression on his face already changed as it was now filled with emotion.
The next moment, he grabbed Rex and pulled him into an affectionate warrior embrace without caring about the current setting of this gathering.
Rex was stunned, not just because of the embrace but because tears already started streaming down the eyes of this Super mystic warrior.
The n Head whispered into Rex''s ears. "Is the Sword Saint still alive?"
Rex was stunned for a few seconds before he answered after thinking. "He died centuries ago".
The n Head took a deep breath and grasped him tighter in the embrace. "What of Lord Asuka?" His voice was more emotional as he asked this.
Now, this was what left Rex tongue-tied. The n Head noticed his hesitation and prompted him to speak. "Don''t worry, I can take it".
"He died protecting me on my journey here from the enemy Sword Saint".
This time, for the next 1 minute, the n Head did not speak as he clenched his fists till the point that they kept on making crackling sounds. His veins constantly popped but he was able to vent his emotions this way, he soon calmed down.
After calming down, the n Head finally pulled away from the embrace. The tears already left his eyes as he finally turned to face his tribesmen.
"Today is a day of celebration!"
"The child of prophecy is finally home!"
The n Head''s deration sent the tribe into a great frenzy. Every tribesman knew about the child of prophecy, even the kids, the higher-ups made it a priority for every tribesman to know about this hope from their ancestors.
As soon as their n Head confirmed that this warrior standing before them was the child of prophecy, their joy knew no end as they celebrated wildly.
As the vampires celebrated, Rex was escorted into the inner chambers which was only essible to the n Head, Army Commander, and the 5 Generals.
Inside the Chamber, the n Head finally addressed him. The n Head used as few words as possible to exin everything that he needed to know.
The n Head, Guko, was Lord Asuka''s first disciple. He was the leader of the 20 vampire youngsters that were sent to Tioron by the Sword Saint and the other leaders of the old family, and he was also the strongest.
When they arrived in Tioron, adaptation was hard for them.
Within the first 2 months, 5 of them died, and within the next 2 years, 2 more died. The 13 that survived became the founders of the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Following the n that was given to them by their ancestors, they procreated among themselves and started the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Despite their hard work though, Tioron was a hostile. After more than 3 centuries, the Blood Spartan Tribe had only 500+ tribesmen.
They did not just have to fight against the hostile environment of the, but they also had to fight against the indigenous aliens that resided here and the mystic beasts that were far more powerful than normal.
Over the years, despite their few numbers, they were able to break one milestone after another. Like real Spartans, they overcame all odds and established themselves. Now, they were one of the most feared groups in the.
The Blood Spartan Tribe had approximately 150 blood warriors who were all Advanced mystic warriors. Intermediate and basic warriors of the tribe were the children less than the age of 15, and they were less than 20 in number.
The strongest warriors in the tribe were the n Head, the Army Commander, and the 5 Generals who were all Super mystic warriors.
Being pinnacle Super mystic warriors, the n Head and the Army Commander were the 2 pirs that kept the tribe standing and fighting.
After giving him their ount, they finally asked Rex to give his own ount. By now, everything already spiraled out of Rex''s control and he followed the flow.
Rex gave the full ount about the tragic fate that befell their old marauding tribe, how he met Lord Asuka, how he became the Sword Saint''s inheritor and how he was transported to this.
Unlike what he originally had in mind, Rex changed his mind and also emphasized on the reason why Lord Asuka sent him to the.
On knowing that the n Head was Lord Asuka''s disciple, things became a lot easier for him. His greatest obstacles to bing the leader of the Blood Spartans was if they refused to acknowledge him.
With the n Head though, he believed that things would go smoothly but Rex was surprised by their reaction after he gave his full ount.
"Over the years, the Blood Spartan Tribe grew a lot".
"Though we never stopped preaching about the child of prophecy, we also had to ept the reality that there was a high chance that no help wasing for us so we developed and adapted to live independently".
"Due to living independently, we developed new principles. One of our greatest principles was the full emphasis on individual and collective strength".
"In Tioron, we learned to be self-sufficient to survive".
"We learned to be real Spartans".
"Though I still respect Lord Asuka, for your own good and ours, you need to follow the principles. For you to be the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe, you need to defeat the strongest challenger among our youngsters".
"Our strongest challenger will be my son this time, Zuko".
"Defeat him in battle and earn the respect of the tribe".
Once theyid down their ultimatum, the brief gathering came to an end.
The n Head granted Rex unrestrained ess to the whole coven, to all the other vampires, to the sword masters and sword grandmasters, and to the best training chambers for him to train and prepare for the duel.
The duel would take ce 2 dayster, on hisst day in Tioron. This was Rex''s only n to convince the whole coven that he was indeed the child of prophecy and was worthy of bing their leader.
Though Rex had a lot of things going on in his mind, he abandoned them all and simply toured the massive coven that the Blood Spartans upied for the rest of the day which was part of his preparations.
With this, he got to limatize himself with the culture of these warriors that had to adapt to the extreme conditions of this hostile.
Amid his tour, he finally met n Head Guko''s son, Zuko.
Zuko was a 10th tier Advanced mystic warrior and a spear master just like his father the n Head, he was an elite mystic warrior.
Rex was fired up. "I have a lot of training to do!"
Chapter 180 Day 4 In Planet Tioron
Rex spent his 4th day in Tioron like a man on a mission.
He was really on a mission, a mission to train under the special energy surrounding this and improve with it to be the perfect Blood Spartan Warrior and to be the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Just an hour of training in this told Rex all that he needed to stay motivated to continue jacking throughout the whole day to improve himself.
The concentration of mystic energy made training so beneficial to mystic warriors, more so to mystic warriors like Rex who was experiencing it for the first time. He was like a child, he just kept on assimting the changes.
This time, Rex really had ess to the best training conditions possible to any mystic warrior. Not only did he have the perfect training chamber for swordsmen, he also had one of the best instructors.
Lord Asuka already taught him most of the intricacies about swordsmanship, all that he needed now was to fully master the basics which was the foundation to mastering the more intricate ways of swordsmanship.
General Katake became the perfect candidate to guide him to fully mastering the basics. This General was the only swordsman among the 5 Generals.
Though he had not unlocked ultimate sword domain yet, his proficiency with the sword was still far above Rex''s. He already attained the level of a sword grandmaster; he was a ughter demon on the battlefield.
Under his guidance, Rex trained and improved rapidly.
Beforeing to Tioron, after the rigorous training in the Sword Saint''s 12-floored pagoda, he already identified the next step to get stronger.
For a long time, he had deliberated on his choices.
To improve his swordsmanship further, he either had to choose the route of getting and creating a lot of sword skills to increase his options as much as possible in a battle situation and the other route of sword mastery.
The sword mastery route involved him reducing the number of sword skills that he had, this was possible by upgrading and merging his skills together.
With these, his options with his sword in a battle situation would be less but with absolute mastery over every single one of his sword skills, he would be a more lethal threat in battle.
Today, after listening to General Katake''s advice, Rex finally made his decision, he decided to choose the sword mastery route.
He made this decision after careful considerations. He was not just a mystic swordsman anymore, he was a vampire, and he had 3 mystic abilities. In a battle situation, having so many options were not always good.
He preferred lesser options that he truly mastered, this was what fit his battle style more and was why he went for it.
Even with the concentration of mystic energy in Tioron, achieving his goals for sword mastery the normal way in just 1 day was impossible.
Rex was not worried though because he was prepared. Not only did he have his system to assist, he also had the sword skill fragments from the 12-floored pagoda to upgrade andbine his skills.
After saving his skill points that he got through his system for such a long time already, he had a sizeable stockpile and the time to use them finally came.
Rex did not hesitate, even as he continued training, he essed his system.
-----
3000 Skill Points have been deducted
You havebined the Needle Stab and Drilling Stab Sword Skills
You have created a new Sword Skill: Piercing Stab
¡
8000 Skill Points have been deducted
You havebined the Double Plutonian sh, Boomerang sh, and Ethereal sh Sword Skills
You have created a new Sword Skill: Trident of Ethereal ckfire
¡
10,000 Skill Points have been deducted
You havebined the Blood Strike and Ethereal sh Sword Skills
You have created a new Special Sword Skill: Blood Prophecy
¡
You have made an unsessful attempt tobine the 2 Advanced Sword Skills of the One Autumn Leaf Series which requires 50,000 Skill Points
[Current Skill Point Bnce: 18,000]
[Automatically making up with sword skill fragments¡]
[You have acquired the 3rd Sword move of the One Autumn Leaf Series: Annihtion sh!]
¡
Sword Skill Fragments have been deducted
You have upgraded Sword Skill: Piercing Stab
[+50% pration power, and +60% sharpness when used.]
¡
[Basic Sword Skills: Piercing Stab; Trident of Ethereal ckfire; Blood Prophecy.]
[Advanced Sword Skills: Nirvana sh; One Autumn Leaf- Annihtion sh.]
[Master Sword Skills: Precision sh; Phoenix Ash; Master of the Elements.]
>Precision sh: When activated within range of opponent, your opponent has 0% chances of dodging. The Precision sh always hits, it can only be blocked<
>Phoenix Ash: When activated, you gain ess to special disintegration powers. Each attack deals 1000% more damage and has a high percentage of inflicting your opponent with the disintegration state<
[The disintegration state eats up the durability of mystic treasures over time and also eats up the vitality of your opponent over time.]
>Master of the Elements: When activated, you gain ess to the 4 main elemental powers of water, fire, earth, and wind. With each sword attack, by sacrificing mystic energy, you can make use of any of the 4 main elemental powers<
----
After this great splurge, Rex''s sword skills got reduced to 8.
Despite the reduction, he did not get weaker, he only got stronger. Compared to his previous self, he was far stronger now with his sword.
With only 8 sword skills, he would be able to understand all 8 skills and have far greater mastery over them than he previously had for all his skills.
Just thinking of his future battles, Rex could already feel his blood boiling hotter. "I can''t wait to start the duel tomorrow".
Though General Katake did not know how Rex was able to do it, he instinctively felt the difference in proficiency that was shown by Rex.
He was curious but he did not ask as he continued guiding Rex''s training.
After training for 8 hours straight, General Katake finally gave a suggestion. "By now, you already more or less used up the energy for speedy improvement that is granted when training for the first time with concentrated mystic energy".
"To improve further at the smallest time possible, you have to fight a battle, a battle that is life-threatening enough to stimte your full potential".
"Till the duel is fought, the n Head forbids you from fighting any of the warriors of our tribe so your only option is setting your sights outside the tribe".
"I rmend the Dalkins".
"To be a true adult Blood Spartan, there is a passage rite for our youngsters. The passing rite is singlehandedly defeating a young Dalkin".
"If you think you''re up for the task, use this dangerous challenge to measure your current strength, that is the best way to gauge how prepared you are for the duel tomorrow. Also, it will further validate you before the tribesmen".
After thinking about the possible benefits that he could get from this, Rex did not hesitate, he agreed to fight a Dalkin singlehandedly.
General Katake made the preparations and a few minutester, 2 tribesmen of the Blood Spartan Tribe left into the dusty embrace of the desert again.
With an experienced veteran like General Katake leading the way, they only needed to spend 30 minutes wandering the wild before they found a Dalkin. Or better still, it took them 30 minutes before a Dalkin found them.
This Dalkin was smaller than the 3 adults that Rex encountered yesterday, but this fellow was still a massive beast, a horror of gigantism.
Rex steeled his nerves as he remembered the pointers that General Katake gave to him, then he exploded forward with speed. "Wish me luck".
Boom!
When the collision finally came, it was sword against flesh.
The mighty Dalkin shrieked loudly as its octopus tentacles waved crazily, apparently, this intelligent beast already went berserk after being injured.
ording to General Katake, the strategy to killing a Dalkin was perfection. Perfect discipline,posure, and skills were needed to fight a Dalkin, this was because even the slightest mistake could result in death.
If any of the Dalkin''s tentacles caught Rex ounce by mistake, it would spell the end of his duel since the force was enough to crush him into meat paste.
Fighting against Dalkins was the reason why the warriors of the Blood Spartan Tribe were so disciplined. Unless you loved death, it was hard not to stay disciplined when you had such gigantic fellows as neighbors and enemies.
In this battle, Rex thoroughly exceeded the limits of his mental capacity as he was able to keep perfect concentration for 2 hours while he fought this beast.
Every strike from him was full with venom and his intent to kill.
After a great battle that saw him exhaust his mental reservespletely, Rex finally emerged victorious after an explosive burst of strength using one of his new Master level Sword Skills.
With one explosive strike of the Precision sh, the Dalkin shrieked loudly onest time before finally falling lifelessly on the desert.
Rex panted as his system lit up a notification.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic alien: Dalkin
You have gained 5000 mystic energy points
¡
[By killing a Dalkin, you have unlocked the title: Gigantic Beast yer!]
[Gigantic Beast yer: When fighting against beasts that are 10 times bigger than you, +10% increase to all attributes.]
----
Rex fainted from exhaustion after looking at his system notification, General Katake had to take him back to the tribe coven to rest.
Tomorrow was the D-day of the duel.
Chapter 181 Day 5 In Planet Tioron- The Duel!
Day 5 of Rex''s stay in Tioron finally came.
This day was not just significant to Rex, but it was also significant to the Blood Spartan Tribe as a whole. Today, the whole tribe woke up early as they were all hyped for the most memorable duel of the year.
During the past 2 days, the 2 contestants kept themselves busy. They both dared not underestimate their opponent as they trained like their lives depended on it, they wanted to impress under the watch of the whole tribe.
The oue of this duel was very important for both contenders, so they were both eager to give their best and be the winner.
After the hectic 2-day training, the D-day of the duel finally came.
Having fainted from exhaustion the previous day after the harrowing battle against the young Dalkin, Rex had the whole night to rest and recuperate after being administered some herbs by General Katake.
Today, he woke up energized and revitalized.
Once the 2 contenders were prepared, under the leadership of the n Head, the whole Blood Spartan Tribe finally left their coven to the surface. The energy of the tribe was at a high as they all ascended to the surface.
The arena of the duel would be in the surface.
Once they arrived at the surface, 10 Blood warriors of the tribe went to work. Being all mystic warriors, they used their mystic abilities to great effect in an effort to create a massive battle arena for this duel.
Those with earth and sand-rted mystic abilities controlled the sand of the desert into a desired shape and allowed those with fire mystic abilities to heat it.
Once the temperature crossed a certain threshold, the sand solidified and turned into ss. The battle arena was a massive one that was made of ss.
It was a ss square-shaped massive battle arena with stands for audience like those of a stadium surrounding it. Just after the stands was a massive red shield that was erected using a special mystic treasure.
Once all the preparations for the duel were made, n Head Goku finally took the stage to address the crowd.
As he took the stage, cheers exploded among the tribesmen.
"Today, we''ll be bearing witness to a great duel".
"A duel that may possibly change the direction of our tribe".
"A duel between Zuko, myst son and the strongest warrior among the young generation, and Rex, the child of prophecy that was sent by our ancestors".
"The stakes are high; I expect both warriors to give their best".
"The rules of the duel are simple. Fight till one of you gives up, but remember that we are one, none of you should kill the other".
"Bring the contenders to the arena and let the duel begin!"
As the other tribesmen yelled and hailed the n Head after his short speech, the 2 contenders in this duel finally climbed the arena from opposite directions. Zuko was dressed in blue, while Rex was dressed in red.
Once they climbed the podium, they looked at each other.
Zuko was a pretty muscr mystic warrior. He had a handsome facial look which wereplemented by battle marks that made his face look more heroic.
Rex with his long ck hair stared coolly back at his opponent.
As they looked at each other, without saying a single word, they silently exchanged thousands of information between themselves as in no time, they got a shallow understanding of each other.
This was when the order finally came. "Begin!"
Once the order was given, the blood of both mystic warriors burned hot as without hesitation, they rushed towards each other for the sh.
-----
You have activated basic sword skill: Piercing Stab!
----
Once they got close enough, Rex opened the battle as he unsheathed his sword before pushing it forward in a great thrust that divided the air as it moved.
Shing!
Feeling the powerful force of the sword stab and the impable technique that was behind it, Zuko respected it but he was not intimidated.
His grip on his spear tightened as he retaliated with a stab of his own spear.
Boom!
The sound was like those of exploding dominoes as sword and spear shed. Even amid the shockwaves that were induced, both warriors red their mystic energy to stand their ground as without hesitation, they continued.
-----
You have activated basic sword skill: Trident of Ethereal ckfire!
You have activated basic sword skill: Piercing Stab!
You have activated basic sword skill: Blood Prophecy!
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- Annihtion sh!
----
The aura around Rex changed after the first sh as he began abo attack that was filled with the venom and energy that he entered this battle with.
Thisbo attack started with his new Trident of Ethereal ckfire skill.
Zuko did not back down, he gritted his teeth and roared before responding with his ownbo as his spear seemed to leave afterimages behind.
Rex''s Trident of Ethereal ckfire had the ethereal qualities of his old Ethereal sh skill. With this skill, he was able to catch Zuko off-guard, striking through his stance defense straight to his armor.
This time, Rex''s mastered movement technique came to y again. Having expected the effects of the ethereal sh, he struck his opponent''s armor while using his Drizzling Rain Steps movement technique to dodge Zuko''s attack.
The first attack was just the beginning as following it was his Piercing Stab attack. Zuko responded with a stab of his own and both attacks canceled each other, the 3rd consecutive attack followed at almost the same time.
This time, Rex''s attack was even more unpredictable. The Blood Prophecy sword skill did not just contain the ethereal qualities of his ckfire mystic ability, but it also contained the powerful blood powers of his vampire bloodline.
Zuko despite being a 10th tier Advanced mystic warrior and overall stronger warrior was unable to adjust to the unpredictable nature of his opponent''s skills.
For the 3rd consecutive time, Rex dodged his attack while his own attack connected and this time the Blood Prophecy sh chipped arge hole through the mystic armor that Zuko was given for this duel.
The force of the attack finally pushed him back, breaking his stance to continue hisbo attack and leaving him vulnerable to Rex''s follow-up attack.
Rex did not hesitate, he finally unleashed his 4th andst attack of hisbo and this time, it was an Advanced sword skill!
The Annihtion sh came with a fury to annihte the world!
Whoosh!
As the wind blew at his face, Zuko was shocked, he felt his life threatened. Without hesitation, he finally made use of one of his trump cards.
"Roar!"
Just like Rex, Zuko was a vampire, he had morphing forms.
Zuko morphed into a giant 3-faced humanoid monster!
In this form, he could still use his spear to attack and having no time to go on the offense again, he simply crossed his spear for a block.
Boom!
Rex''s sword empowered by the Advanced sword skill collided against the spear and it was like he hit a wall; the spear did not move an inch.
Zuko roared again as he bashed Rex with the back of the spear at superhuman speed before bringing one of his heads forward to bite at Rex.
----
You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!
Morphing Forms Avable: 2
You have transformed into a Half-bat!
----
Instantly after the transformation, Rex pped his wings and escaped into the sky but Zuko was relentless as he pursued him.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Zuko''s spear kept on releasing loud pping sounds as it swiped at the air, every attack from the spear was lethal to Rex and he had no choice but to dodge.
In the end, Zuko was the superior mystic warrior. Even with his better proficiency with his battle domain, and his incredible battle talent, Rex was going up against a 10th tier Advanced mystic warrior while only being at the 5th tier.
After his crazy training session in the Sword Saint''s tomb, his swordsmanship was not the only thing that increased, his mystic energy limits increased too.
For the next few minutes, Zuko oppressed Rex in this duel. Rex was not impatient as he took his time to observe his opponent, when he was done observing, he suddenly swooped down from the sky at his opponent.
----
You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!
Morphing Forms Avable: 2
You have transformed into a Bear-man!
¡
You have activated Advanced ckfire skill: Self Combustion!
You have activated Advanced Shadow Skill: Shadow Doppelganger!
You have activated Advanced Shadow Skill: Dark Arrow!
¡
You have activated Master Tiajutsu Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
You have activated Master ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
You have activated Master Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
You have activated Master Sword Skill: Precision sh!
----
Boom!
Rexnded and decided to decree an end to this battle, he no longer held back, he revealed himself fully by using every single trump card avable to him.
His mystic energy drained like water but temporarily, he turned invisible.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Zuko tried to go on the defensive but it did not matter, he was overwhelmedpletely. At this moment, Rex was like a possessed mystic swordsman!
The fire, the shadows, the sword energy, it was all too much, Zuko was consumedpletely in the process until one of the Generals finally intervened.
Once the General intervened, the battle stopped and only Rex was left in the damaged battle arena panting like a rabbit.
The duel was finally over.
Chapter 182 Leader Of The Blood Spartan Tribe!
The duel was over, and silence reigned in the stands.
In the stands, the 400+ members of the Blood Spartan Tribe that were in attendance to witness this legendary duel were in a shock as they looked speechlessly at thest man that was left standing in the battle arena.
Since Generals did not have public duels among themselves, battle duels among Advanced mystic warriors were one of the most exciting events in the tribe.
Of all the duels that had been fought in this tribe since its inception, this was one that definitely ranked at the very top.
Not just due to the stakes that were up for grabs, but the identity of the 2 warriors, the energy that they put in, the incredible heights of intensity that the battle attained, and the contestant''s ridiculous strength disy.
Even when pitted against the strongest Advanced mystic warriors on earth, Zuko would still be a stand-out performer but here they were, standing witness to a duel where a weaker Advanced mystic warrior defeated him.
Despite being 5 whole tiers behind, Rex took this duel by the tip of the horns and flipped it over into the greatest upset victory in the history of the tribe.
Thinking about the final moments of the battle, every warrior of the Blood Spartan Tribe that was in attendance felt their blood boiling hotter.
Zuko''s disy was befitting of his status as the n Head''s only son, he lost only because Rex''s disy was simply out of this world.
From the beginning to the end, the intensity of the battle was at a record-breaking level. Both mystic warriors got to exert themselves to their fullest, and reveal all their trump cards before a victor was determined.
This was exactly what the warriors of the Blood Spartan Tribe came for, this was what they came to see, this was what they respected, now, they were satisfied.
Rex''s powerful burst at the ending was the cream on top the cherry.
General Katake who rescued Zuko had a calm look on his face as he looked on, Zuko who sat beside him was in a daze. At this moment, this powerful mystic warrior was drenched in blood as he stared at his opponent.
Even though his injuries were severe, there was no cause for rm as he was a strong vampire, his injuries already started healing as he watched.
He didn''t care about his injuries though, he just stared fixatedly at his opponent. This was not a stare of anger nor was it of vengeance, it was that stare of awe, respect, and acknowledgement.
Despite giving his all in this battle, Rex was able to overturn the situation around and win despite being the weaker mystic warrior.
This feat was able to win Zuko''s respect and reverence. Without giving a damn about the current setting, Zuko kneeled and paid his respects to this freak.
Once Zuko kneeled, it was like his energy infected the hundreds of vampires of the Blood Spartan Tribe that spectated this duel as one after the other, all of them went on their knees to pay their respects before this freak of nature.
Over the years, like every living organism, oning to Tioron, the Blood Spartan Tribe had to adapt their ways to survive and they did that by grabbing the ideology of the ancient Spartans where strength was everything.
After Rex''s incredible disy, he was able to win the respect of everyone present. Not just the normal vampires, but the Generals, Army Commander, and even the n Head of the Blood Spartan Tribe himself.
The Generals and the other higher-ups simply cupped their fists in Rex''s direction to express their respect. Now, there was no more doubts.
Without a doubt, this was the child of prophecy sent to liberate them.
Being the center of all this attention, Rex was surprised and overwhelmed as he simply stood and basked in all the glory that came with his victory.
As he basked in this glory, he felt his mind changing in mysterious ways that he did not understand. For some reason, he felt that he had a strange breakthrough and this was when his system finally lit up a notification.
-----
[Congrattions! By winning a duel against a 10th tier Advanced mystic warrior while being a 5th tier mystic warrior, you have achieved an insane feat!]
[You have been rewarded with 15,000 Skill Points, 1000 Constitution Points, 1000 Mystic energy limits, and a Special Dungeon Event Token.]
[You have unlocked a new Title: Natural Leader!]
[Natural Leader: Through your great battle achievements, you have sessfully proved your strength and won over the loyalty of the Blood Spartan Tribe, a special tribe that puts emphasis on strength.]
[When you are recognized as the leader of an organization, tribe, brotherhood, or nation, +20% increase to all attributes of your allies when you are fighting alongside them in battle.]
[Current affected factions: Blood Spartan Tribe; Berserk Gang; ??? Brotherhood.]
----
"A new title?" Rex was surprised, even more ecstatic after going through it.
Having not received a mission when the duel was scheduled, he originally thought that he would have to fight without expecting any rewards from his system but clearly, he was wrong.
Not only did he receive skill points, mystic energy limits, and constitution points from his system, he also received the strange Dungeon event token.
Though he didn''t know what use the token had at the moment, experience told him that everything that came from his system had a tendency of being useful and could benefit him in the future so he was satisfied.
Of all these rewards though, the most unexpected was the new title. Unlike his previous 2 titles of Thief and Gigantic Beast yer, the Natural Leader title was different since it affected his allies instead of affecting himself.
With this title, he would be a formidablemander in any battlefield since his mere presence would increase the overall strength of his allies'' countless times over, this was an incredible title forrge-scale battles.
Rex finally understood the strange feeling of breakthrough that he got from basking in the glory that the vampires gave him, it was a mental breakthrough which was heavily rted to his leadership qualities.
As Rex basked in the glory, n Head Goku no longer wasted any time as he descended from the stands alongside the Army Commander and his 5 Generals.
"You won!" The n Head''s loud voice boomed like thunder.
"Yes, it was all due to your grace, n Head".
n Head Gokuughed. "No need to call me n Head anymore, from today, you are the official leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe!"
"All that remains is for you to undergo the blood ritual".
Clearly, though his system already recognized that he was the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe, to the vampires, he needed to undergo this ritual first before they could officially recognize him as their leader.
As he was escorted back underground by the hundreds of vampires, Rex felt a surreal feeling engulf his heart.
He remembereding here as a prisoner, someone who needed his identity to be checked by the n Head of the Blood Spartan Tribe. Now, in just 2 days, he was able to ovee all odds and overturn his situation.
Now, he was about to be inaugurated as the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe. Rex was speechless, fascinated, and amazed all at the same time.
"Life is really so unpredictable man".
After a great march down the coven, Rex and the hundreds of vampires that were escorting him soon arrived before a river of blood that was hidden underground the coven hidden from the eyes of all outsiders.
The incredible fact about this was that despite the incredible amount of blood that was gathered here, they were able to suppress the smell of blood through mysterious means and was why Rex did not detect it before now.
On getting to such close proximities with this bloodke, Rex was enchanted as he took in a deep breath. As a vampire, this was paradise to him.
He felt vibes that were simr to when he just became a vampire. It was like he went back to the past; it was like he was repeating the same sequence all over again to be a vampire and he was right.
The only difference was that unlike the previous time, he was no longer alone, n Head Goku took him in and was the one who preceded over the ritual.
The n Head followed him in as Rex was dipped inside the bloodke.
As an Advanced mystic warrior, Rex''s constitution already far exceeded those of a normal human''s, he could stay underwater without breathing for hours but this time, just 5 seconds after he was in, he started drowning.
Rex tried to struggle but a hand patted his back.
"Let it in¡"
"Let the blood in, let it cleanse your veins, purify your body and soul, and strengthen your bones¡"
"Let it remold you¡"
Rex soon lost consciousness.
-----
Congrattions! You have undergone the Blood Ritual!
You have gained 5000 Health Points!
You have gained 500 Vitality!
----
Everything happened so fast, when he opened his eyes again, he was already awake and he was back standing beside the bloodke.
Standing before him was n Head Goku, the Army Commander, the 5 Generals, and the hundreds of vampires of the Blood Spartan Tribe who were privileged and lucky enough to spectate the whole ritual.
Once he opened his eyes and stood before them, in unison, they all kneeled on the ground and paid their respects to their new leader.
"Leader!"
Chapter 183 If I Perish, I Perish
Rex became the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe.
Once the Blood Ritual was over, under n Head Goku''s order, the whole tribe went into a jubtory mood tomemorate the transfer of power.
Ever since the inception of the Blood Spartan Tribe, there had only been 1 n Head, 1 Army Commander, and the 5 Generals whotter rose up after realizing their talents and bing Super mystic warriors.
For the first time in centuries, this order was finally broken and not by the expected son of the n Head Zuko nor by a Super mystic warrior who was stronger than n Head Goku, but by the child of prophecy.
For a long time, after centuries of receiving no help ormunication from their ancestors who sent them here, the vampires of the Blood Spartan Tribe already learned to remove their minds from home to prevent heartbreaks.
The only thing that kept them going was the child of prophecy, and finally, not only did hee, he fulfilled his potential and imed the seat of leadership over the Blood Spartan Tribe.
The verdict that followed the 20 original warriors that were sent from earth was that, after the arrival of the child of prophecy, light would finallye.
Light in this term meant that they would finally get hope of leaving the terrible, Tioron. All that Rex needed to do now was to safely return to earth, work hard, and pave the way for their return home.
"Did the Sword Saint or Lord Asuka leave any clues to guide me?" Rex asked n Head Goku as he sipped on the local blood refined wine.
-----
You have consumed a Special Wine: Blood Nectar
Your Vampire Hunter abilities have experienced a slight increase
Your constitution bonuses have experienced a 0.001% increase
----
Just by drinking this wine, Rex''s constitution bonuses and his Vampire Hunter abilities increased, this was all the validation that he needed to get himself drunk.
At this moment, as the whole tribe celebrated, so also did Rex and the other higher-ups of the Blood Spartan Tribe and was where he finally asked the question about any clues to guide him that may have been left by their ancestors.
After bing the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe, his next important priority became paving the way for them to return home to earth.
The Blood Spartan Tribe was an incredible force that if their return home was sessful could bolster his strength in ridiculous ways that would enable him to fulfill goals that he did not dare ce emphasis on before.
Even if it was not to fulfill his trust for Lord Asuka, just the prospect of having such a powerful mystic tribe at the beck of his call was too tantalizing to miss.
He was determined to achieve great things on earth with the Blood Spartan Tribe. Afterall, by bing their leader, he just acquired another powerful enemy.
Apart from perhaps the Holmes family, his 2nd greatest enemy now was the strongest mystic swordsman of mankind, Sword Saint Miyamoto Musashi himself.
His only problem was that he had no ess to such ridiculously high-grade technology that could enable him to transport hundreds of mystic warriors over light years across the infinite cosmos.
For a mission this great, he hoped that he had at least some clues.
To Rex''s disappointment though, the n Head, Army Commander, and 5 Generals didn''t have any clues that were left by their ancestors.
n Head Goku rubbed his head and spoke. "Though they didn''t tell us about any possible clues, Lord Asuka always said that the greatest task of all was actually finding apatible mystic warrior to inherit the Sword Saint''s inheritance".
"ording to him, once the child of prophecyes, everything else will follow naturally, including how he would free us from Tioron".
On hearing that, Rex went deep in thought. Perhaps, Lord Asuka saying things would follow naturally meant that the clue was in the Sword Saint''s inheritance or he had to do everything himself.
No matter which one the answer was, he still needed to return back to earth before he could make further decisions.
Another problem was that Rex had no idea how he was going to be transported back to earth. Besides, ording to his estimates, he still had like 14 hours before the end of his 5-day stay on Tioron.
"14 hours¡, nice, that''s enough for me to have a basic tour of the¡" Rex barelypleted what he was saying before his eyes started dropping close.
As an Advanced mystic warrior, he was supposed to be immune to every type of alcohol intoxication already but the Blood Nectar was a special case. This special wine was able to take him to the point of intoxication.
Originally, once this happened, the tradition was to let the affected vampire have a nice sleep to put the effects of the wine to better use but not this time.
Having spent the past few days observing him, they already had a basic understanding of him and from hisst words before his eyes started dropping close, n Head Goku knew that he had no intentions of sleeping.
"Give him the suppressor vinegar". n Head Goku ordered.
Once Rex tasted this vinegar, his previously dropping eyes suddenly snapped open and shone likenterns in a dark night as he became fully awake again.
His innards felt like they were on fire, he asked. "What was that?"
"We call it the suppressor vinegar, it''s the only thing that can suppress the intoxication effects of the Blood Nectar".
"Oh, nice".
Rex thanked him before making his intentions known. "I still have like 14 hours before my stay in Tiorones to an end, I want to make the most out of it, I want to have a basic tour of this".
"When I was being brought to the coven by the General and his troop of warriors, they told me a few things about Tioron".
"Through them, I was able to know about the nature of the, it''s rule for survival, and some of the major powers that dominate here".
"Through them, I was able to know about the gigantic Dalkins, the horrifying Erodites, and the humanoid Manians".
"Haha, actually, throughout my whole life staying on earth, I never heard of the phenomenon nor did I believe that there were others out there that were inhabitable by humans".
"Since I didn''t believe that, I also didn''t believe in the existence of other intelligent indigenous races that were self-dependent and developed like humans".
"Before I leave Tioron, I want to see the Dalkins, the Erodites, and the Manians properly, I want to get to know them".
"I¡" Rex paused and didn''tplete his sentence, a smile lit up his face as another reason for wanting to see them was so that he could brag to Aragorn and nor about it.
"Also, I want to use that opportunity to use and try mastering one of the Special Abilities that were created by Sword Saint Minato Musashi".
Once n Head Goku heard the name of the Sword Saint, he bowed reverently. "Leader, a young warrior team will be assembled to escort you shortly".
"Enjoy your time in Tioron".
¡
Inside a dark enclosement that seemed like a cave, through the little illumination that was avable, a hand scribbled on the cave wall and a voice apanied, narrating the contents of the scribbling.
"Day 5 in Ben Carter''s Logbook¡"
"Despite all my efforts, I''m still stuck and stranded in the Great Desert".
"Enemies from all sides are still on a rampage looking for the weak to prey on, beasts are also on the look-out for reckless strays to devour, living remains hard, survival still seems to be hanging by the tip of the thread".
"Hidden and starving, my options keep running low¡"
"Should I go out and join the fight? Should I stay holed up in my cave hidden? The dilemma of survival keeps on gettingplicated as the hunger lingers".
"Everyday, the cave seems to get darker, perhaps an indication of my darkening fate that inches closer to hell every passing moment".
"I feel like a coward, but to survive, I must suppress my ego".
"There is a time to fight, there is a time to not fight, and there is a time to run and hide¡"
"Those who fight and run away lives to fight another day¡"
"These 2 are my only saving graces from not dying from shame of my situation yet but¡, I don''t think I can continue".
"If I stay a few more days like this, my chances of dying will increase".
"Sigh¡"
"I have made a decision".
"I will return to the surface, fight the other contestants, and pave a way of escape for myself out of this godforsaken desert!"
"If I perish, I perish!"
With that, after 5 days of holing himself up inside this cave licking his wounds, Ben finally got the courage that he needed to stand up and face his fears.
He marched out of the cave with his sword still being his onlypanion.
Chapter 184 Re-Union
The loud shriek of gigantic beasts reverberated through the desert.
Rex''s 14-hour tour around Tioron already started and he was determined to make the most out of it.
Having met them once, Rex made an easy decision to make his first priority visit the mighty Dalkins again. With his assembled group of young warriors, they spent over an hour searching before they finally found a group of Dalkins.
This time, they did not just meet young Dalkins.
There were 5 Dalkins in total, 4 young Dalkins and a much more massive Dalkin which they already recognized as the mother of the 4.
Adult Dalkins had at least Super grade mystic strength. Going against them was still an impossible task for the current Rex, but Rex did not have to since Dalkins were renowned for being extremely protective of their children.
Despite the savage and aggressive nature of this beast, this mother Dalkin was able to suppress its base instincts, Afterall, it was an intelligent race.
One of the passing grades of an intelligent race was the ability to restrain the baser instincts that made them beasts, self-control yed a great role.
The mother Dalkin refrained from attacking as instead, it led the retreat so that all its children could survive.
Since the Dalkin race already went head-to-head against the Blood Spartan Tribe numerous times, they knew the danger that the vampires posed.
Despite their small size whenpared to them, the vampires were famed for their ability to assassinate even through the most secure defensive formations. This mother tightly protected her children.
Instead of attacking the Dalkins as they escaped, Rex rather followed them. He was not here to kill them; he came to see the home of the Dalkins.
Perhaps, if his Blood Tome was here, he would have loved to make a Dalkin be one of his transformed beasts but unfortunately, this was not possible.
Rex and his group of 8 mystic warriors followed the Dalkin diligently until they finally arrived at their hideout. The home of the Dalkins were built upon massive sand dunes that were spread across the surface of the desert.
This was just one of the Dalkin settlements that were spread across Tiron but this one alone was enough to steal Rex''s breath.
On arriving here, Rex did not spend more than a minute before he escaped for his life, this region of the desert was stacked with dozens of adult Dalkins.
These octopus-like beasts were extremely territorial, staying in their territory was a daring idea that Rex had no intentions of trying to see its oue.
Like he expected, with its children finally safe, the aggressive mother Dalkin turned back and faced them with the full fury that was characteristic of the Dalkin race. The mother Dalkin was not alone, others followed it.
The escape was all part of the adventure tour as Rex and hispanions spent a few dozen minutes before the Dalkins finally lost them.
After the encounter with the Dalkins, following Rex''s instructions, the group soon left to find and locate a group of Erodites.
Unlike the other 2 indigenous races in Tioron, the Erodites were a little special, they were the out of the norm children of darkness.
They were ustomed to the shadows and the dark, mostly operating at night but they still formed some of the most dangerous groups in the alongside the other 2 indigenous races.
If the Dalkins and the Manians were the King of the day, they were the undisputed King of Tioron''s nightlife.
Meeting the Erodites opened Rex''s eyes to an entirely new part of the mystic world about mystic beasts that he was previously unaware of.
The Erodites were like chameleons, but these reptilian beasts could not only change their color ording to their environment, but they could also temporarily change their body structure if the need ever called for it.
The strongest Erodites could undergo temporaryplete body transformations to look like humans, they were that bizarre.
Unlike the Dalkins, they had an entire Empire of their own that lived deep under the sand. They were rumored to have the biggest army on the.
After paying a caution visit to the Erodites, Rex finally diverted to thest of the 3 indigenous races on Tioron, the Manians.
The Manians looked exactly like humans, with the only difference being that they were slightly taller and that they all had blue skin.
With these attributes, they were easily distinguishable from humans.
Like the Erodites, the Manians had an Empire of theirs that was erected above the sand. Having adapted to life without dying in the hostile, the Manians were the race with the greatest achievements in terms of technology.
n Head Goku spected that their real origins were from earth. His theory was that like them, the Manians were dumped into Tioron.
Unlike them though, perhaps due to one or more reasons, they lost their way of escaping this and left with no option, they could only adapt to living in the. Over time, they mutated to be their current appearance.
Not only did the Manians create shuttles to ferry themselves across the desert, but they also created weapons and other gadgets that elevated them to the status of the strongest race in all of Tioron.
Armed with their weapons, the Manians were a great enemy to face in battle. They were also more than intelligent enough to employ battle strategies.
For the Manians, Rex was only able to see their Empire from afar. He dared not getting close least he risked getting range-attacked to death.
After the tour to see the Manians, Rex was able to have a deeper understanding of Tioron and he also understood how great of a feat n Head Goku and hispanions did to survive with such powerful enemies.
The more that he understood their struggles, the more he was determined to get them out of Tioron to strive back on earth.
After the great tour, though Rex wanted to spend some more time in this to continue his exploration, he only had an hour and a few minutes remaining till his official 5th day expiration time reached.
During thest hour, he finally returned to the coven of the Blood Spartan Tribe alongside the group of 8 Advanced mystic warriors that he left with.
Inside the coven, he stood before all the vampires and simply waited.
Anticipation started running high among the vampires as the time counted, and in no time, the 24-hour mark to indicate Rex''s 5th day here finally hit.
Instantly after the 24-hour mark reached, a rainbow light shone from above, illuminating the previously dark coven as Rex was engulfed in its middle.
On seeing the rainbow light, all the vampires paused as a look of awe and emotion filled their eyes. They were emotional because this was evidence of the actual existence of their ancestors who sent them to this.
All of them paid their respects as the rainbow light fully enveloped Rex, Rex did not have the time to say goodbye before he disappeared with the light.
Unlike the first journey, perhaps because he already did it once, it was not as dragged-out as Rex expected as he opened his eyes the next moment to see himself in the sky¡, back on earth.
"Ahh¡!"
¡
After crawling out of the cave that he hid in for the past few days, like Ben expected, the battle was still raging among the contestants.
After every opening of Sword Saint Minato Musashi''s inheritance ground, there was always a bloodshed as the mystic warriors who could not benefit much from the inheritance tried to benefit by stealing from the others.
The inheritance was actually the minor challenge, the real challenge after benefiting from the inheritance ground was surviving and escaping,
Instantly after the inheritance came to an end 5 days ago, a great battle broke out among the contestants as they fought themselves with the intention to kill. On that day, a lot of the contestants ended up losing their lives.
Ben fought hard but the battle was too chaotic and high-level to have full control over. He suffered a severe injury and had no choice but to go into hiding.
Despite his hiding though, his situation did not improve and only got worse. This was the reason why he decided to take the gamble toe out and fight.
Instantly after he came out, Ben''s luck seemed to be at the lowest level that he had experienced all his life as he was exposed to battle again, he had no choice but to fight for his life.
After fighting right through a group of beasts that attacked him on emerging, other contestants were attracted by the sound and his life was in danger again just a few minutes after he emerged.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Ben tried his best but he only received more injuries. At this moment, 3 mystic warriors who allied together ganged up on him.
When it seemed that his fate was sealed, the sound of thunder suddenly reverberated in the clear skies then a ck object started falling.
It was when the object got closer that they recognized it as a human.
All 4 mystic warriors were shocked, thinking that this was another contestant but it was when this mystic warrior after shouting in shock for about a few minutes suddenly transformed into a strange bat that Ben''s eyes widened.
Rexnded awkwardly in the midst of this raging battlefield.
"F*ck!" He cursed as he rubbed his butt.
These 2 friends had their reunion in the weirdest of ways.
Ben blurted out. "Rex?!"
Chapter 185 The Dangerous Duo Of Rex The Vampire And Ben The Big-Boned
Rex did not know why, but the-grade teleportation portal seemed to have a slight glitch that made him arrive outside the inheritance ground.
This was the coincidence that enabled him to meet the battlefield.
Once he returned to earth''s atmosphere, he started falling at such ridiculous velocities that he could barely see what was before him.
His free-fall speed was unnaturally fast but Rex was still perceptive enough to notice the battle raging below him.
It took every bit of his willpower and reaction speed before he was able to barely shift himself away from the path of one of his swords, his butt barely escaped the sharp edge of the sword.
"Phew!" Rex wiped his sweat as he finally fell.
Falling was not the end, the momentum of his fall was so much that like a somersaulting vehicle, he started bulldozing through the desert, sending sand dozens of meters into the sky and disrupting the battle even further.
"F*ck!"
"F*ck!"
"F*ck!" Rex cursed as he rolled on the desert causing amotion.
On seeing the effects, the first thought that came to the 3 mystic warriors who were embroiled in battle was that this was a Sand Worm.
All 3 of them were about to turn and run for their lives before Ben heard the familiar voice that was behind the familiar curses.
All it took from Ben was looking closer before he recognized the familiar face.
Though it was already more than a year since theyst met, though they both already grew a lot and were almost entirely unidentical to their previous selves, having spent years together, Ben was still able to recognize his friend.
Rex was his partner in crime, Ben could never forget this face after all the pranks, the theft, and the lizardry hunting that they both did in Obedin City.
"Rex?!"
Hearing the familiar voice calling his name that was filled with surprise, excitement, and relief, Rex jolted to life as he finally flexed his mystic energy.
Vroom!
Once Rex finally made a move, Advanced mystic energy of such potency that suffocated Ben and his 3 enemies who were equally Advanced mystic warriors was released, Rex''s mystic energy felt much more potent and concentrated.
Rex supposedly only spent 5 days in Tioron, but like Lord Asuka said, the Sword Saint prepared other rewards for him and it was now that he felt it.
His 5 days were equated to 50 years through the Fate Circle of the Sword Saint, and the effect of 50 years in a vampire''s life were unquantifiable.
Spending 50 years in such a that had such concentrated mystic energy mutated his own mystic energy, making it much more potent and concentrated.
Apart from that, he enjoyed more benefits in terms of his Vampire bloodline.
Rex felt a stronger connection with his blood more than he had ever experienced before and now that he paid attention to it, without a doubt, his vampire bloodline seemed to have upgraded and was far stronger than before.
This was when his system finally lit up a notification.
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[You have lived for over 50 years as a Vampire]
[Congrattions! Your racial powers have been upgraded]
[You are no longer a Neonate; you are now a Vampire Ancie!]
[You have received the following Ancien bonuses: +8000 Health Points; +1000 Vitality; +500 Constitution Points.]
¡
[You have acquired a Special Vampire Ancien Ability: Probability Hunter!]
[Probability Hunter: When activated, your fate is no longer controlled by the heavens. For 10 minutes, you can control your fate. Any probability rted event in battle has a +200% chance of tilting in your favor.]
[Skill Duration: 10 minutes.]
[Cooldown: 10 days.]
¡
[You spent 50 years inside a filled with primordial mystic energy]
[Your mystic energy has mutated]
[You have unlocked the primordial mystic energy: Primordial Mystic Energy!]
----
In just the interval between him returning from Tioron to Earth, Rex received such a ridiculous upgrade that left even himself bbergasted.
When he was told about the Fate Circle by Lord Asuka, he was ecstatic as he knew that if it worked, his bloodline powers would benefit the most.
He anticipated the changes then but after going to Tioron and meeting the Blood Spartan Tribe, everything that followed made him to forget it.
Now though, he was made to remember in the best of ways.
Though in a literal sense, he still was an 18-year-old mystic warrior who had spent only 1 official year in the mystic world, in vampire terms, he was already over 50 years and was an Ancien Vampire already.
For the upgrade, not only did he receive other bonuses that would make him much stronger again, but he also received a special Vampire Ancien ability.
The Probability Hunter was a ridiculous ability that Rex ranked directly at the level of the Age Extraction ability that was created by Sword Saint Minato.
Any ability that could mess with the powers of fate was a ridiculous one.
With the Probability Hunter, for 10 minutes, he could cheat fate in his favor. Just thinking about the effects of this ability in battle sent Rex to a cloud nine of his own imaginations as he saw him vanquishing through entire armies of his enemies.
"I really f*cking benefited this time man!" Rex yelled.
"Rex, is that really you? What the f*ck are you doing here man?"
This was what finally broke Rex from the peak of ecstasy that he was experiencing at this moment as he turned to look at his friend.
Seeing Ben in the Great River of Gold, Rex experienced a great rush of emotions. He remembered his goal of leaving Obedin City to get stronger so that he could protect those that were close to him, and Ben was among them.
What Rex didn''t expect was that even as he grew, his friends that he wanted to protect also grew. Ben was an Advanced mystic warrior now!
Both friends stared at each other as memories swirled in their heads. "I can''t believe I''m seeing you again so soon, you''ve grown so much man".
"You grew even more; you actually grew beards more than me already". Ben''s voice was louder as heughed. "Wait, are you still a virgin?!"
"Get lost!"
"Hahaha!"
Seeing the strange reunion between the 2 friends, the 3 mystic warriors were surprised as they turned to look at each other before finally going back.
Remembering the fact that they were about to run with their tails behind their legs just a moment ago, their faces turned red in embarrassment. Their bruised ego only increased their irritation and intent to kill Ben the more.
They collectively red at Rex. "How dare you try to scare us with a prank?"
"A prank?" Rex turned to look back at them cluelessly and asked.
As soon as he looked back at them, Rex finally noticed their hostility. He turned to face Ben, then back at the 3 warriors, then he looked around at the golden desert, this was when everything clicked back at him.
He previously wondered why Ben was here but he just remembered that Sword Saint Minato Musashi''s inheritance ended just 5 days ago.
With the fact that Ben and all 3 mystic warriors were mystic swordsmen, he finally understood why all of them were here. Without a doubt, they were all contestants to benefit from the inheritance of this Sword Saint.
? Like them, being a contestant who got an inheritance token also, Rex took his time in the Gundam Shelter to research about the Sword Saint''s inheritance.
He knew of the trend where after the end of the inheritance, the contestants fight against themselves to try getting all the benefits of the inheritance for themselves. Due to Lord Asuka, he avoided the first few days of this skirmish.
Now, he was back in Earth and had no choice but to continue the tradition. The only thing was that, he came back much stronger than before.
Rex turned to look at Ben''s injured self. "Buddy, you''ve tried, now it''s time for you to watch, watch and witness greatness!"
"Hahaha, go for it!" Benughed heartily. "Destroy all the girls with cuteness, manliness, and charm, haha!"
"As or the boys, vanquish them!"
The next moment, Rex stretched his right hand towards a random direction in the desert. Angered, the 3 mystic warriors rushed at him.
Before they arrived, the sound of whistling wind reverberated and the next moment, Berserker could be seen flying rapidly from afar.
The next moment, Rex finally grabbed Berserker''s hilt and a massive energy erupted with them as the center.
Berserker was now a myth grade Sword!
Boom!
Rex stabbed down with his sword and the desert gave way.
None of the 3 mystic warriors were able tost more than a second against him, against the current Rex, they were like toddlers. Rex finished them off in less than 4 seconds, then alongside Ben, they went on a rampage across the desert.
Just 2 hourster, the legend of the dangerous duo of Rex the Vampire and Ben the Big-boned spread terror in the hearts of the few swordsmen that survived.
All of them that survived without exception all went into hiding.
None of them could withstand Rex''s ridiculous strength, and with a Big-boned freak like Ben to assist him, both of them were absolutely unstoppable.
After bing the undisputed winners of this great skirmish battle, instead of leaving the desert, Rex diverted and instead led Ben back to the location of the Sword Saint''s inheritance ground.
Once they got there, to Ben''s shock, the ground loosened and shook as the familiar pagoda started rising out of the ground again.
Rex and Ben entered inside the Pagoda before it was buried back by the sand.
Chapter 186 The Vampiric Armor
Of the dozens of mystic swordsmen that came, only 8 survived.
After the great struggle to get all the benefits of the inheritance ground to themselves, human blood soaked the river of gold as mystic warriors died everyday for the past 5 days which finally ended.
A sh of Advanced mystic warriors was always bound to involve a lot of energy and area of effect damage, and this one was no different.
Apart from Rex and Ben, all 6 of the remaining mystic warriors who fought as contenders of the Sword Saint''s inheritance left the desert quaking in fear.
Thinking back to the incredible strength that was disyed by the mystic warrior duos, they felt goosebumps, some even left with long-life traumas.
Meeting mystic warriors like Rex pre going to Tioron was already horrifying enough, getting to meet him post going to Tioron was a disaster that they would never forget all their lives.
Without a doubt, Rex was the strongest Advanced mystic warrior that they had met. This was how out of this world Rex''s strength became after returning from Tioron.
Rex was now like a god among men when against other mystic warriors who were Advanced mystic warriors like him.
Of these 6 mystic warriors, 5 escaped leaving the bravest of them all.
This brave mystic warrior stalked Rex and Ben as they returned back to the location of the Sword Saint''s inheritance ground and tomb.
When Rex dripped his blood on the sand, causing the buried tomb to rise back up, this warrior felt his heat leaping out of his throat.
"Monsters! Freaking monsters!"
This warrior freaked out and finally ran for his life.
¡
This time, entering the Sword Saint''s inheritance ground was much more convenient and straightforward since a lot of things were no longer hidden.
After getting the Sword Saint''s full inheritance, Rex already got a lot of authority over the tomb. ording to Lord Asuka, it would be the future headquarters of the Blood Spartan Tribe after their return to earth.
This time, they went through the winding staircase that led downwards without any surprises and appeared at therge hall where the pagoda was.
This time, the 12-floored pagoda was not as resplendent as before, its energy seemed to have been exhausted as the pagoda glowed very dimly.
Rex guessed that it already started gathering natural mystic energy already to open up again after the next 4 years.
The pagoda was not Rex''s focus this time, it was just but one part of the massive tomb. This time, he decided to have a tour of the whole tomb and an awed Ben followed him throughout without asking any questions.
Sword Saint Minato Musashi was like the idol of all new generation mystic warriors, Ben was no different. Previously he only got to see the 12-floored pagoda, now he was hyped to see this legend''s tomb in its full entirety.
Of course, Ben had a lot of questions but knowing Rex and his shenanigan for getting involved with mysterious elements, he remained patient.
When Rex was ready to tell him, he would not need to ask for it first.
The tombprised of the extremelyrge hall where the 12-floored pagoda was located, another location that was built like a strategy hall, the tomb itself, and the small room where theary teleportation portal was located.
On getting to this small room again, Rex heaved a sigh of relief to see the Blood Shackle and the Circle of Fate still intact.
The glow of theary teleportation portal seemed to have dimmed a lot but it still glowed which was encouraging. Also, Rex noticed that it was drawing energy from somewhere to keep itself active.
Perhaps, like the 12-floored pagoda, theary teleportation portal also drew supplements from the natural mystic energy in the atmosphere.
After observing that everything was intact, Rex started looking for clues, any clues that would point him in the right direction and thing to do to be able to bring the whole Blood Spartan Tribe back to earth.
Though Ben still did not understand what was going on, he stuck with his friend and started searching for the elusive clue.
Despite spending over an hour doing this, Rex was unsessful and frustrated already, he gave up with a sigh.
"Umm¡, what exactly is this all about?" Seeing Rex so deted and silent, Ben finally got the opportunity that he wanted to voice his doubts.
"Did you get the main inheritance or?"
By now, after all that happened, Ben already had an idea or 2 about what was happening but he was still not sure and was why he asked.
Rex finally turned to look at his friend with a smile. "You remember that I became a vampire, right?"
"Yeah¡"
"So, you also remember my talent with the sword, right?"
"Right¡" Ben rolled his eyes at Rex''s tant attempt at a flex but he was subjective enough to read behind the lines as he finally started getting the clue, Rex''s next clue was what pushed him over the edge to finally get it.
"The Sword Saint was a powerful vampire before his death".
Ben''s eyes widened even more. "So, you became the perfect candidate?"
"Yeah, kinda, I got the main inheritance and also got a mission from him".
Both friends sat down inside the small room where theary teleportation portal was as Rex finally started giving his ount.
He revealed everything to his friend ranging from Lord Asuka, to the Sword Saint, to the Blood Spartan Tribe, to Sword Saint Miyamoto Musashi, to the great mission that he took on by bing Sword Saint Minato''s disciple.
He did not exclude his adventures in Tioron which left Ben''s mouth gaped open, Rex felt a burst of pride as he narrated his achievements.
At the end of his story, Ben eximed. "What a story!"
It was hard to believe but being a close friend of Rex, he never knew him for being a liar and was why he believed everything that he heard.
"Your story is pretty unbelievable, but I think mine is even more unbelievable. Are you not curious about how I became an Advanced mystic warrior in such a short time after you left?"
Rex raised his eyebrows. "Now that I think about it, something feels fishy".
"Hehe". Ben rubbed his nose. "Just like you, I am actually the descendant of an Ancient Mystic Family, the Ancient Carter Family".
"I left not too long after you left Obedin City".
"After the event of the assassins that came to kill you which eventually culminated to you being a vampire, I also revealed some secrets that I have been hiding before which was actually a connection to the Ancient Carter family".
"Through this connection, the Ancient Mystic family was able to send some special envoys toe take me home". Ben winked as he said this, causing Rex to roll his eyes even as he continued the story.
"In the Myriad Metal Great Shelter, I was able to unlock my full potential through the Big-bone bloodline. Since then, my growth has been at a speed of a rocket under the guidance and protection of my master".
"After a tournament among the descendants of the Ancient Carter Family, I was able to prove all my doubters wrong and get a decent ranking, surprising even the monarch of our family himself".
"That was when the monarch rewarded me with an inheritance token".
"I got here with a lot of expectations but well, I was humbled by more talented swordsmen that I met here until you came, haha".
"To be sincere, I''m still marveled by the incredible disy that you showed".
Rex onlyughed at that as they started discussing more familiar terms. They discovered their personal life, their love life, their adventures, and of course, they discussed Cassandra before they finally stood up to leave.
Before leaving though, Rex had onest thing to do.
He turned and looked into the distance. "Let''s go to the forge".
¡
A few minutester, Rex arrived before the forge and hovering before him was a familiar armor which no longer seemed as familiar.
Rex was surprised, him calling Berserker was purely through his instinct as a swordsman. Though he expected changes for the armor also, he never expected to see ring changes like it being capable of flight too.
What happened next shocked him more.
"Master!" The Vampiric Armor imitated the bow of a subject to its king.
Rex''s jaw dropped open. "System, freaking show me the stuff!"
[Affirmative!]
-----
[Vampiric Armor- Will of the Blood Sage!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Defense: 100,000
- Durability: 250,000/250,000
[Mystic Effect: Blood Sea Genjutsu!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power, the user can draw the enemy into a world of the mind set in a Blood Sea that is inside the armor. Inside there, mental attacks are dealt to opponent for 50 minutes.]
[NOTE: 5 seconds in the world of the mind is 5 minutes in reality.]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Gathering of the Ancient Ones!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power and mystic energy, the user can draw enemy into the world of the mind in the Blood Sea where the 30 Ancient Ones will appear to suppress enemy with their mental prowess.]
[There''s an 80% chance of enemy''s head exploding!]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Blood Defense!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power and mystic energy, a red defense shield is formed that can defend against all attacks of the Super Grade for 10 minutes.]
[NOTE: When supplied with Myth Grade mystic energy, all attacks of the Super Grade are defended and those of the myth grade can be defended for 2 minutes.]
¡
[Mystic Effect: Mystic Siege- Ultimate Defense!]
[When activated and supplied with enough blood power and mystic energy, an ultimate red shield is formed that can defend against all attacks of the Super Grade for 30 minutes.]
[NOTE: This Mystic Armor can only be used by Vampires!]
[NOTE: The Vampiric Armor has a partially awakened mystic treasure consciousness!]
[Remark: This is an armor for the big boys¡, you wanna chill with the big boys?!]
------
The defense of the armor literally increased to ridiculous levels, and though a new active ability was not added, all of them were upgraded.
Rex''s jaw dropped. "Show me Berserker''s new status".
Chapter 187 Baby Vamp, Come Out To Meet Daddy!
The new Vampiric Armor sent Rex to a cloud nine level of euphoria.
For a long time, though he always had an advantage over themon mystic warriors that he had to go up against, most of his enemies were such powerful warriors that they had ess to much more powerful mystic treasures.
Though after bing a vampire, through his family''s inheritance, he inherited mystic treasures that all had myth grade potential, he could not use them to their full potential yet unless he upgraded them.
For a long time, the Affection Ne and the Coffin of the Ancients were his only mystic treasures that were of the myth level.
Though this was already pretty ridiculous for an Advanced mystic warrior, considering the caliber of enemies that he had, it was still nowhere enough.
Now though, the same thing could no longer be said.
He now had 4 myth level mystic treasures, and 2 of them were the most important mystic treasures that a mystic warrior needed, a weapon and an armor.
With these 4, he finally became an all-rounded mystic warrior.
With the new Berserker, he could finally fight at his full potential always. With the Coffin of the Ancient, he had reliable and extremely powerful helpers in the form of Ambition, Gray, and Storm.
As for thest 2, they both catered for his defense. With the Affection Ne and the Vampiric Armor, his defense would no longer be weaker than his enemies like he experienced when fighting against Gaud.
As Rex thought of all the new possibilities that his new Vampiric Armor brought after looking at his system''s status, he was hyped to look at the other.
"System, show me Berserker''s new status!"
[Affirmative!]
-----
[Berserker- One-handed Mechanical Sword!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Peak!]
[Current Level: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
- Attack: 48,000-85,700 Damage
- Durability: 101,000/101,000
[Mystic Effects: Sword Energy Control; Golden Edge; Mechanical Sharpness.]
[Sword Energy Control: When activated, +50% sword energy uracy and +20% sword energy damage and you gain the ability to control every sword energy that is released while using the sword.]
[Golden Edge: When activated, grants 100% more piercing damage, 100% more mystic energy control, a 90% chance to grant 500% more piercing damage, and an 80% chance to grant 1000% more piercing damage.]
[Mechanical Sharpness: When activated while using the mechanical forms and replications of the sword, +100% uracy and control.]
¡
[Special Skills: Sword Draw; Blood Draw; Soul Draw.]
[Sword Draw: When activated, your sword attack whether sh or stab bes 100% faster, deals 500% more physical damage and 500% more sword energy damage to opponents.]
[Blood Draw: When activated by sacrificing your blood, your sword bes empowered by your blood. Each attack has a 10% chance of triggering bleed.]
- Bleed drains 1% of target''s overall health every 2 seconds.
[Soul Draw: When activated with the ckfire mystic ability, your sword attack carries soul attack properties and can deal soul damage.]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
¡
[Mechanical Abilities: Morphing; Replication!]
[Mechanical Morphing Forms: Composite Sword Form; Triple Sword Form!]
[Replication Level: Medium]
[Number of sword replications: 32]
¡
[Remark: This is Aragorn''s first masterwork!]
------
Just like with the Vampiric Armor, Rex was left amazed after looking at Berserker''s newly provided system status.
Not only did Berserker experience a ridiculous upgrade in its durability and attacking prowess, literally making it unbreakable in battle, all of Berserker''s 2 previous mystic abilities were upgraded and a 3rd was unlocked.
The 3rd unlocked mystic ability perfectlyplimented the current mechanical form of the sword, and though he had not made use of it in battle yet, Rex could already imagine how OP he would be using this new mystic ability.
As for the special skills that he already unlocked before, though the upgrade did not increase their effects, it still affected them in subtle ways.
For example, his replication level increased to medium and the number of sword replications that his sword could do now increased to 32.
Rex was not just shocked; he was awed by Berserker''s new prowess.
Holding this living sword in his hand now, he felt like he was holding a legendary sword that was created at the very beginning of the world.
Rex felt goosebumps as Berserker''s de made slight chiming sounds as he looked at it, he felt that this moment would be recorded in the annals of history.
Rex soon became perplexed though, if he as the wielder could feel how powerful Berserker currently was, there was no way that the sword''s living consciousness would not have felt it yet.
Berserker was supposed to have an even more in-depth understanding of its current strength than him, so why was the living consciousness quiet?
Rex became suspicious. "Hey buddy, why are you so suspiciously quiet!"
"Shing!" Berserkerughed smugly in Rex''s mind.
The next moment, after letting it all out, the living sword consciousness could no longer hold it back as it yelled and expressed its excitement in Rex''s mind.
"Shing!"
"Shing!!"
"Shing!!!"
"F*ck! Will you f*cking stay quiet?!"
"SHING!!!"
"Ok, sorry boss, please can you stay quiet?"
"Shing". Berserker finally calmed down, causing Rex to sigh in exasperation.
Throughout as all this happened, Ben was at the side looking at his friend with an amused expression on his face.
"Was that Berserker speaking to you again?"
"Oh, yeah". Rex scratched his head only to look down at his sword as it seemed to suddenly stand more erect.
Since bringing Berserker out of the forge, Ben had never spoken, being contented with staying in the background. Because of this and due to its excitement, Berserker was unable to detect the presence of this close friend.
Being 1 of Rex''s childhood friends, Ben knew about Berserker and though they could notmunicate, they were able to grow to be close friends.
Now, Berserker''s senses stood at erect after hearing Ben''s voice. Once it confirmed that this was the one, Berserker did something that shocked Ben, leaving Rex even more shocked than his friend.
To the 2 human''s shock, the one-handed sword briefly glowed before an illusory golden sword charged out of it and hovered before Ben.
This floating illusory golden sword was Berserker.
"Bro!!! Is that you?!"
"¡"
"¡"
"¡.."
Ben and Rex stood petrified without answering the sword, the shock of this moment was still so strong that their brain found it difficult to react appropriately.
"Bro¡! Answer me, is that you?"
"Uhh¡, yes?"
"Yeah, Ben the Horny Lord!" The illusory golden sword yelled excitedly before charging forward to embrace Ben excitedly.
In the end, the embrace turned into Berserker simply harmlessly passing through him. Throughout this, Rex was still petrified from the shock.
In just a few seconds, Ben was able to confirm that this was Berserker as he easily forgot about his shock. The next moment, the living sword and the human started rapidly chatting away like Rex was a ghost.
It took more than a minute, but after Rex finally ditched his shock, he carefully observed the sword on his hand and the illusory golden sword.
Without a doubt, this was Berserker then came the questions.
Rex marched towards the illusory golden sword. "How did you be like this?"
"When did you be like this? After the upgrade?"
"Finally, when did you be able to talk in humannguage?"
"Tsk". Berserker scoffed in disdain, shocking Rex once again.
The illusory golden sword finally turned to focus on him. "Primitive human, you have no idea about the immense possibilities of mystic energy".
"Lol, infact, you don''t even know the full capabilities and possibilities of ordinary technology, picking mystic energy as a whole is too high a topic for you".
"This forge remolded me, now I am finally in my perfect state".
"As a living sword in its perfect state, of course I can speak, of course I can project my consciousness to interact with the outside world".
"Stop being such a barbarian".
"¡" Rex was left speechless.
By now, he no longer even paid attention to Berserker''s insults, his eyes sparkled as he thought of the implications of this upgrade to his living sword.
"Awesome!" He eximed the next moment. "Berserker, you da best!"
Berserker tsked in disdain again. "Just because I can talk and you are getting so worked up and shocked, wait till you see something even more shocking".
"Baby Vamp!" Berserker turned its illusory form smugly. "Come out to meet daddy".
The next moment, Rex felt goosebumps all over his body as he felt a different consciousness surround him all of a sudden. This consciousness was not his, nor was it Berserker, nor was it hostile, it came out of his armor.
Rex''s eyes widened in shock. "Sh*t! Vampiric Armor is now living too?!"
"Master!"
The consciousness projection of the Vampiric Armor was a simple thick blob that was red in color. The projection radiated cuteness and horror at the same time.
The next moment, this blob bowed before Rex. "Master!"
Rex''s eyes widened bigger and bigger, then he fainted.
Chapter 188 Plans
Rex gained his 2nd mystic treasure with a living consciousness.
ording to the red blob living consciousness that Berserker already started referring to as Baby Vamp, the Vampiric Armor was the personal armor that was previously used by the esteemed Sword Saint before his death.
In the great battle that led to his death, the armor suffered a lot of damage, leading to it dividing into 2 parts which became scattered in different locations with time.
Lord Asuka was only able to bury one before he buried his master.
As for the other main part of the armor, Lord Asuka gave up on it and left it as an inheritance for the potential candidate for the main inheritance.
Through his incredible powers as a Super mystic warrior, he was able to configure the armor in a way where its future wielder would automatically be connected to the main inheritance.
By bing the new owner of the Vampiric Armor after centuries of it being ownerless showed Rex''s fate and affinity with the Sword Saint.
It was after he got the Vampiric Armor that all the coincidences started happening which eventually culminated into him getting the main inheritance.
One important fact in all these was that at its peak, the Vampiric Armor that was used by Sword Saint Minato Musashi had a living consciousness.
The advantages of having a mystic weapon with a living consciousness were numerous. Like with a sword, as swordsmen were required to develop a closer affinity with their sword to make full use of it, a living consciousness helped.
It was only through a living consciousness that the greatest mystic warriors could make full use of their mystic weapons and now, Rex had 2 of these.
Over the past year, as he interacted more with Berserker, though the sword could be annoying at times, but they also grew to understand each other more.
His understanding with Berserker served as a great catalyst that pushed him into unlocking the mystic sword domain as easily as he did. Though Lord Asuka''s teachings were essential, his affinity with Berserker also yed a huge role in it.
By now, Rex already recovered from the shock of meeting the armor''s living consciousness. He coughed and gestured at it. "Umm¡, can you go in now?"
"Bum!" The red blob made a weird echoing sound before nodding cutely at its master, then the next moment it streaked towards the armor.
Rex felt his heart leaping into his throat as the red blob passed through him before finally disappearing back into the armor. Noticing this, Ben fought hard to hold back hisughter even as Berserker tsked in disdain.
Having observed more than enough, Berserker also returned to the sword. By now, it already recognized that its presence was no longer needed.
Rex still had some imminent things that he needed to attend to.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Ben finally asked after Rex calmed down. "Will you be returning to the Gundam Shelter?"
"I will, but not now, I have some things to take care of in the desert". Rex finally stood up as he looked at the massive forge that was before him.
At this moment, the greatest priority that lingered in his mind since returning from Tioron was still rescuing the Blood Spartan Tribe from their bondage.
He had so many things to gain and nothing to lose if he seeded in achieving this. With the Blood Spartan Tribe at his grasp, he would finally get the manpower that he needed to further a lot of his ambitions.
With the caliber of his enemies, he could not afford to slow down his progress. He was constantly under pressure to improve and get stronger.
Despite his burning desire to set the Blood Spartan Tribe free from their bondage immediately, Rex still had to bow down to circumstances and admit that he didn''t have the means yet.
Rescuing the Blood Spartan Tribe was a huge endeavor.
Despite observing and checking around the full tomb already, he was unable to find a single clue that pointed to how he was supposed to rescue them.
After searching to no avail, he finally came to a conclusion. This was thest mission that Lord Asuka gave to him after his death, the mission of finding a way to bring the lost vampires back from Tioron to Earth.
Without even needing to think about it, Rex was pretty sure that his only chances of fulfilling this mission were hidden in the Great Shelters.
Compared to the Small Shelters where he grew up and where he still pried his trade as a mystic warrior, the Great Shelters were so much more technologically equipped and developed.
Currently, he had 2 great chances of having ess to 2 of 7 Great Shelters that defended humanity from the mystic beasts in Ben and the 2 descendants of the Elden family that were currently working in the Berserk Gang.
Before even thinking of embarking on any of these expeditions though, Rex needed to be fully equipped, prepared, and stacked.
At this moment, he was nowhere prepared enough to embark on such an expedition. That was why he brought his attention to the present, his beasts.
Rex turned to face Ben. "When I came to the Great Desert, I was exposed to a great deal of danger far above my estimations".
"Alone, my chances of making it to the inheritance ground would have been literally zero, I survived only because of the assistance and sacrifice of my transformed beasts and transformed humanoid warrior".
"I lost 2 of them in the way, thest followed me close to the location of the tomb before I also lost it, in the end I came here alone".
"After going through so much together, I don''t want to leave them behind".
"I want to rescue them before leaving the Great Desert".
Ben was quiet till Rex finished, then he finally asked. "Staying longer in the Great Desert is a great risk, what are the chances of them still being alive?"
Rex took a deep breath. "To be sincere, the chances are not high but I still want to try it, I want to at least look for them".
"I''ll only give up when I''m 100% sure that something happened to them".
"Fine". Ben ruffled his hair like a ruffian. "If we are to do it, let''s do it now, let''s go".
As the 2 friends walked back up through the winding staircase that led into the tomb, Rex was no longer to keep his curiosity as he finally asked.
"Ben, what really happened to you? How did you change so much?"
"Your mode of speech and a lot of things contrasts the old Ben so much, at times, I find it hard to believe that this is you, I probably wouldn''t have believed if I didn''t know you so much".
"Hehe". Ben chuckled. "I guess having no choice to struggle pushes a mentality change in you. Besides, living over a year in an entirely new region filled withpetition has a great tendency of changing the way you think".
"Don''t look down on me Rex, I am no longer the same warrior that you know".
"I know". Rexughed as they finally left the tomb.
Once they left the tomb, they threw all caution to the wind and went into the dangerous terrains of the desert in search of Rex''s 3panions.
¡
Deep inside the Great Desert, the Desert Queen''s kingdom¡
The massive Naga Queen rose up from her throne after a few days sleep as she was interrupted by something. After more than 2 months of inactivity, through one of her stranger mystic abilities, she finally detected a change in Ambition.
For 2 months, the Naga Queen kept Ambition alive as her subordinate as she used him to keep tabs over her love.
She did not assign any difficult tasks to the transformed humanoid warrior; Ambition''s only purpose was to stay alive and stay within her observation range.
Since Ambition was not dead yet, it meant that Rex was still alive. This was her daily motivation that kept her going and to keep on waiting for the day when she could finally get her hands on him and get all the dose of love that she wanted.
? Today though, she finally detected something different and was what woke her up, she felt a special bond form inside the transformed humanoid warrior.
This special bond was in the form of a bond link. Through her special ability, she was able to see the threads of fate that connected Ambition to a greater existence that was somewhere hidden in the desert.
On seeing this, the Naga Queen finally smiled. "My love!"
"You finally came out".
"ves, go out, bring my love to me!"
She did not waste any time before barking out new orders to her subordinates as hundreds of powerful mystic beasts left her kingdom to go hunt Rex again, she was already impatient to get him.
Her orders were not just to those in her kingdom, through her special abilities, other beasts that were weaker than her in the desert instinctively received the order as they also joined the quest of finding the lost love.
The Great Desert became busy again.
¡
For 2 months, a lone wolf and survivor strived in the Great Desert.
Against all the odds, Grey survived and escaped death, defeated it and overcame it, Grey''s vitality proved powerful enough to prevail over death.
Grey''s story over the past 2 months was one filled with suffering and tenacity; it was the story of a Dark Mist Spider that simply refused to give up.
Chapter 189 Greys Survival Story
Grey''s survival story was an epic one.
The Dark Mist Spider simply refused to give up. Like a goat, it remained stubborn despite the enticing calls from the god of death hovering over its fate.
The Coffin of the Ancients was an incredible mystic treasure with a powerful mystic ability. The Coffin did not just turn the beasts to pureblood beasts, it also ingrained a sense of loyalty in them that they could not break.
This was why all 3 of Rex''s transformed warriors and beasts did everything to ensure that he fulfilled his goal, even if that meant giving up their lives in the process. Once he became their master, they no longer had a will over their fate.
From Ambition''s sacrifice to hold the powerful Desert Snake and its minions, to Storm''s sacrifice, to Grey''s even more tenacious sacrifice, they were all synonymous of the incredible powers of the Coffin of the Ancients.
After doing his best to escort his master as far as possible to fulfill his goal, Grey finally fainted as the strain of so much stress finally settled in.
From there on, Grey no longer knew what happened.
The poison of the Desert Snake was deadly, it already took Storm down and was about to take him down also. Grey was helpless after fainting, and this time, there was no Rex avable to administer the antidote to him.
Once his eyes closed, everything faded into darkness for Grey.
They said there was life after death, but did this phenomenon also apply to beasts? They also said there was heaven and earth, but did it apply to beasts?
This was a question that Grey had no answer to but even if it applied to beasts, there was a high chance that it didn''t apply to Grey.
Unlike normal beasts, Grey was abnormal, in a sense, he was no longer living. He already died once to Rex, he only survived after being worked on by the Coffin of the Ancients. Even Rex didn''t know the current form of Grey.
Grey''s life was akin to that of a zombie, a living dead.
After an endless darkness that seemed to stretch to the ends of the universe and seemed tost a millennium, Grey finally opened his eyes again, he was alive.
Grey woke up alive but he was more clueless than ever before.
Once Rex entered the tomb of the Sword Saint, the connection between him and his transformed beasts and warriors seemed to be cut off.
This was why after Grey woke up, he felt off. This massive Dark Mist Spider for some reason no longer felt the connection between its master, all of a sudden, he felt like a stray pet that was abandoned in the wild.
Confused and clueless, Grey did not know what to do.
Despite his confusion though, one thing gave him direction, survival.
Even when facing the most confusing of circumstances, when lifees fighting at you, it''s nature to respond and this response was survival.
With no other goal, Grey''s sole goal became that of survival.
After waking up, for the first few hours, Grey was at his weakest state physically but despite this state, for survival, he had no choice but to fight 3 consecutive harrowing battles that almost resulted in his death again.
After fighting through those 3 near-death battles, Grey became strong mentally. The more death came knocking, the more its will to oppose it grew.
"I will not die!"
"I will survive!"
Though he did not voice them out, in his mind, these became Grey''s slogans.
For the next few days, Grey sought to carve a territory for himself in this part of the desert. Every territory in the desert was ruled by a powerful Advanced mystic beast, just like they experienced with the Desert Snake.
To survive, Grey either had to submit to the rule of the leading Advanced mystic beast or to ovee it and be the new ruler of the territory.
For some reason, despite not knowing its master again or having any clear goals, Grey was extremely averse to the prospects of having to submit to another beast. Hidden in the back of its mind, it still had only one master.
Grey soon made his choice. To survive, he needed to be the ruler.
Bing the ruler soon proved not to be an easy task. For the next few days, beasts attacked the intruder in this territory on a regr basis.
Grey did not have a single hour of rest. One moment, he was running away from enemies that were more numerous and powerful than him, another moment, he was annihting an unlucky group of beasts that encountered him.
When ying with fire, expect to be burned.
As he danced so close to the edge of death, Grey soon paid the consequences as he suffered horrible injuries on a constant basis through his battles.
Every week, he came at least 3 times close to death.
He survived only because of his horrifying vitality and his strong will to live.
Through this extremely harsh life, Grey was remolded. His instincts became so funed towards survival that he soon became a master survivor.
After every battle, he was able to recognize his weak points and ways through which he could improve. After every battle, after every injury, after every near-death experience, he came out as a stronger and more tenacious survivor.
For 2 months, Grey went at this as he fought against all the odds that were against him. Having developed a notorious reputation for himself, during this time, he was able to sh with the ruler of this territory twice already.
The massive Rage Bull who was a pinnacle Advanced mystic beast was such a powerful opponent that before it, Grey was like a toddler.
Despite the massive strength difference, this toddler was able to ovee all odds ande out of all 2 terrifying shes alive with only injuries.
During the 2 months, Grey recognized his main weakness as speed. Having realized this, he worked towards fixing it and he seeded.
Grey worked great under pressure and it showed, pushed by the need to survive, he was able to unlock 2 new abilities of its Dark Mist powers.
[Dark Mist Ability: Stealth!]
>Stealth: When activated, a barely visible mist is created in the region that corresponds to the color of the environment. Through this mist, Grey is able to fade into stealth and hide in in sight<
[Dark Mist Ability: Mist Strangle!]
>Mist Strangle: When activated, a thick mist is created around the target location through which grabbing hands made of mist emerges. The mist grabs, restrains, and strangles any target recognized as an enemy within range<
¡
Through these 2 abilities, Grey strived.
Since hecked speed to escape from his enemies all the time when the odds were against him, with the stealth ability, he no longer necessarily needed to run.
He could simply hide in in sight and still fulfill his objective of escape.
The same thing applied to the Mist Strangle ability. Due to hisck of speed, most times, beasts that were faster than him ended up easily escaping from him or even worse, harassing him if they were also strong enough.
This always put him at a disadvantage in battles, but with the Mist Strangle ability now, this problem was finally rectified.
The grabbing hands from the Mist Strangle were more than powerful enough to tie down and restrain most beasts that he had to go against.
Having used both numerous times in battle, Grey knew their significance. They yed crucial roles in him escaping from the powerful Rage Bull.
2 monthster after so many harrowing encounters, Grey was still not able to go toe to toe with the Rage Bull but at least, he was able to survive now.
Today, Grey came out of his cave again to go on another survival food hunt. The massive Dark Mist Spider didn''t have to move long before it discovered prey.
"Roar!"
"Hiss!" Grey hissed aggressively before rapidly rushing closer.
Over the course of the past 2 months, apart from unlocking the 2 new Dark Mist Abilities, he also formed a battle style that was perfect for his body.
Grey soon discovered that proactive aggressiveness in battles was the best way to fight at his full potential, and he did not shy from fully embodying it.
"Hiss!!!"
Grey hissed again as he finally engaged the massive Mutated Sand Mantis.
The battle was so aggressive that themotion drew the attention of other beasts. 2 minutester, as the other beasts arrived, Grey was already chewing on the meat of the mantis but in return, he now had much more enemies to fight.
Grey did not back down, he hissed again before aggressively engaging them.
He fought non-stop for more than 40 minutes, killing and killing till he was finally injured. Instantly, Grey stopped and was about to activate his Stealth to hide but this was when he paused, he just felt something.
Grey turned and looked into the distance. "Master?!"
Boom!
One of the more powerful beasts mmed into him as he was pushed away but he was not angered. Grey sprang up and instantly activated his stealth ability.
For a second, he disappeared from the sight of his enemies, confusing them and the next, he was already like a kilometer ahead sprinting into the distance.
Grey sprinted with all its might in the direction that its instincts pointed at.
9 minutester, Grey saw 2 silhouettes moving in the desert.
Both silhouettes paused and took on defensive stances once they noticed movement, but Grey did not care as he hissed excitedly. "Hissssss!!!"
Rex who looked on from the distance was bbergasted. "Grey?"
Chapter 190 Reuniting The Gang
"Grey?!"
Rex was petrified from surprise but Grey was not as the massive Dark Mist Spider ran into him. Despite bing a tenacious survivor already, Grey still retained that inherent loyalty and love that it had for its master.
The massive Spider engulfed Rexpletely in a hug that almost suffocated him. Grey''s hug was not exactly that of love, but to check if he was injured.
It was only after confirming that his master was uninjured and was fine did the Dark Mist Spider finally calm down and stood beside Rex just like old times.
Once Grey calmed down, it finally became Rex''s turn to be emotional.
Though it was not supposed to be, as his first transformed beast, it was inevitable that after going through many battles and surviving together, he already developed a lot of emotions towards it.
Rex patted one of Grey''s legs before hugging it tightly.
As all these happened, Ben stood to the side and watched quietly. Though Rex already told him about his transformed beasts and warrior, he was still astonished after meeting Grey in person.
Grey was much more menacing and stronger than he expected. Alone, he was not even 100% sure of defeating this massive Spider in battle.
He chuckled thinking of how in just 1 year, Rex already overtook him and became this strong. "He really is a 1 in a millennium genius".
"I still have a long way to go". He motivated himself with this sight.
Despite the help from his family, Rex''s genius was what pushed him to be this strong in so little time. Without his genius talent and willpower, he would have been long dead due to the caliber of enemies that he had.
Ben gave master and beast all the time that they needed to enjoy their reunion. While still hugging its leg, Rex finally asked Grey to give an ount.
After spending so much time together already, he already discovered long ago that his transformed mystic beasts couldmunicate with him telepathically.
Once he asked, Greyplied and started giving an ount.
Hearing of how much Grey suffered and had to go through, Rex was amazed that the Dark Mist Spider was able to survive it all and evene out stronger.
"You''re my buddy for life". Rex patted its thick skin with a smile.
"Now, it''s time to go locate Storm, do you have any idea where he is?"
Grey nodded. After Rex left the vicinity of the Sword Saint''s tomb and the Coffin of the Ancients was no longer suppressed, Grey did not only be capable of locating Rex, but also the remaining 2 transformed beast and warrior.
ording to Grey, Storm was not too far away at the moment.
Without hesitation, Rex invited Ben as they both mounted the massive Spider. Once they were settled on top it, Grey sprinted through the desert.
Having lived and survived here for 2 months, Grey already knew the safest and fastest routes as he sprinted and evaded most of the dangerous groups nearby.
¡
Whooo¡!
The sound of the wind blowing was especially strong today.
This time though, the strong wind being induced was not natural. This massive wind and dust were induced by a specialized wooden sailer moving through this part of the desert, it''s sailor must be the sh.
The speed at which this specialized wooden sailer moved was so fast that it was at the very least 10 times faster than its other wooden sailers.
Wooden sailers were most times either pulled by mystic beasts that their sailors tamed, or simply moved by the mystic warriors themselves through their mystic abilities that were most times rted to sand.
For this sailor, he had to do nothing even though he had 2 mystic abilities that were rted to sand. This was because he had a specialpanion.
Since 2 months ago after he hit the jackpot and found an Ancient Kamaitachi, John''s life changed. As a sailor, his life was always eventful as the possible adventures in the desert were so numerous that he was never left bored.
His life was already adventure-filled previously, but since finding Kamaitachi, his life became much more exciting and eventful.
When he carried the Kamaitachi, it was already dead but as a sailor who already spent 30 decades sailing the desert, he knew a lot of things.
Every region of the earth had their specialties, and the Great Desert also had its own specialty in the special gold sand that was said to revive the dead.
John had only ever heard of the special gold sand before, but once he rescued the Kamaitachi, he finally got the determination to brave the dangers and get it.
For 6 full hours, John sailed through some of the dangerous locations of the desert before he was finally able to get his hands on the special gold sand.
And like was spread through rumors, the special sand was indeed capable of reviving the dead. Once Storm ingested the special sand, he choked back to life.
Since then, both beast and sailor became the best of friends. Storm''s personality and life was so free that it was not as restricted by its loyalty to Rex.
Over the course of 2 months, they both grew to be a deadly duo. They conquered other sailors, they killed powerful beasts, and built a reputation for themselves as the invisible speed demon and the blood sailor.
Today again, they were off to another adventure.
The cause of this unnatural wind was Storm. The Kamaitachi put his race''s talent to work, rapidly racing through the desert and dragging the sailer along.
Like Grey, Storm also felt the connection when Rex left the vicinity of the Sword Saint''s tomb. He told the sailor and the man agreed to take him to meet its master, and that was their destination.
On their way though, they met a horde of Scavenger Desert Boars.
These beasts were clearly hungry and on seeing the sailer, they were eager to devour the sailor as they went in pursuit.
Originally, John would have startedplicated calctions to evade the beasts but with Storm, he soon grew used to leaving most things to the Kamaitachi. And once again, Storm did not disappoint and rose to the challenge.
Once Storm took control of the wind, the weather and everything came under its control, the beasts were up against nature itself.
Once it gathered enough momentum, the wind exploded with force and erupted towards the group of beasts that were trying to surround and box them in before devouring them. With the eruption of the powerful wind followed sand.
The velocity of the sands moving grew so much momentum that they became as sharp as daggers, and they became the weapons to attack the beasts.
For this encounter, Storm was not about to take advantage of his speed to escape, his intention was to take advantage of his speed, kite them and whittle them down until thest beast was dead.
After the harrowing encounters 2 months ago that led to its death, Storm developed this innate hatred to constantly want to annihte all desert beasts.
Once the wind''s momentum finally reached its peak, a massacre started.
The Desert Boars died left and right, only their miserable cries of pain were heard amid the whooshing sounds of the wind and sand moving rapidly.
Rex, Ben, and Grey came to meet this horrifying spectacle.
The wind carried the sand and rose high like a mighty tsunami, everywhere dead beast body parts and blood could be seen flying with the wind. The death cries of the Boars were what added the finishing touches to this hellish scene.
As a mystic warrior, Rex had seen his fair share of deaths and he did not shy from killing too since he killed his first mystic beast but still, this was gruesome.
Massacres were always more visually impacting than one on one battles.
When the battle finally came to an end, only 1 Storm Kamaitachi and a Sailor remained alive, none of the Desert Boars survived the assault.
Rex and Ben watched with mouths gaped open in shock. Grey grew stronger and more tenacious, but Storm definitely changed the most.
After dying once, Storm dropped all its naivety as a young Kamaitachi.
Storm matured so much and developed killer instincts to kill. Storm though did not improve much in strength, because of its change in mentality became a much more dangerous killer than it was before.
The reunion this time was much more muted. Rex no longer felt as emotional as he expected, he was shocked to meet this serial killer version of his transformed beast.
He turned to face the sailor but before he could speak, the sand became loose and opened up only for a massive mouth to rise out of it, a mature Super Grade Sand Worm''s mouth.
Rex, Ben, John, and the 2 transformed beasts were caught off-guard. They tried to escape but strange warriors with tail as legs and humanoid upper bodies prevented them from escaping from above.
In no time, the massive Sand Worm seeded in swallowing them all.
¡
After what felt like an hour, Rex finally saw light again.
On waking up, he was not inside the belly of a beast nor was he on top the desert. From the humidity around him, he guessed that he was underground a lot of sand, this was underground the desert.
Since he was not tied up, he turned to look and was surprised. He was in what felt like an underground city, hispanions were with him, and the most surprising fact of all was Ambition that stood before him.
Rex was speechless, before he could regain his speech, a powerful voice interrupted him.
"Finally!" The Naga Queen eximed. "Wee to my kingdom, my love!"
Rex felt goosebumps creep all over his skin.
Chapter 191 Negotiation With The Naga Queen
"Your love?" Rex raised an eyebrow.
Rex felt goosebumps instantly after this massive Naga called him love. Even for Cassandra who he crushed on for 90% of his life, she had only called him love once and that was after they admitted their feelings for each other.
Hearing this sensitive word from this Naga, Rex felt like he was walking on pin needles. For the first few seconds after that, he simply lost bnce.
But in every Rex''s losing bnce, his brain was always active.
The first question that came to his mind was why did this Naga call him her love? At the first second of asking this question, he was confused.
Rex had to think deeper into the deepest parts of his memory before he got his first clue. Once he got his first clue, the 2nd soon followed and in no timeter, he started piecing all the clues together.
Rex looked at his surroundings as he thought. On seeing the setting of this underground city and hispanions that were captured alongside him, his eyes finally lit up a bit as he seemed to have arrived at the truth.
''Perhaps, I finally found the reason for my bad luck sinceing here''.
Rex vividly remembered the day that he stepped foot into the Great River of Gold 2 months ago. From that day, the goddess of luck finally seemed to turn her bosom of luck away from him to feed another lucky soul.
For some reason, he felt like he was targeted as beasts came for him from all over the desert. The even more baffling fact was that some of the more intelligent ones among the beasts didn''t try to kill him, they instead tried to capture him.
If it was any other Advanced mystic warrior facing such circumstances, his chances of death in the desert would easily be as high as 99%.
Rex survived only because he was Rex. With his trump cards like his transformed beasts and humanoid warrior, and his talent, he was literally an anomaly in the Advanced mystic level and was why he survived.
No matter how much Rex tried to avoid them, the beasts seemed to actively seek him out from all across the desert which was not normal.
Due to the frequency of attacks from the beasts sinceing to the desert, Rex at some point due to frustration associated it to the work of a higher being.
What if he was right? What if the attacks were really the work of a higher being? What if this higher being that frustrated him was this Naga before him?
Rex made all these thoughts, observations, and realizations within 5 seconds, and instantly, he changed his approach and asked again.
"Your love?" This time, he raised his eyebrows even more exaggeratedly.
Till now, he still could not know the real strength of this powerful Naga and was why he easily concluded that he was nowhere near being her match.
Instead of trying to fight a suicidal battle, he simply improvised.
On seeing his confident question despite the circumstances, the Naga Queen finally rose from her throne as her curiosity was piqued.
This massive Naga slithered all the way from her throne till her face was mere inches away from Rex''s face. She soon stuck her long tongue out as she gently caressed the young human''s face with it.
Surprisingly, this action was not disgusting as the Naga hadplete control over her tongue, instead, Rex felt aroused by her actions.
Goosebumps filled his skin again but he forced it all back and smiled. "If you keep on doing that, no one knows if I''ll really fall in love, stop it".
The Naga Queen smiled and shifted back. "Interesting, I like you already".
With these subtle risky actions, gestures, and words, Rex was able to set the tempo of this conversation in his favor but he was still very much at risk.
He kept a cool face and hoped that his n worked.
The Naga Queen quietly stared at him, then the next moment, she gestured with her hand as her throne moved closer towards her. She sat back on it, with the only difference this time being that the throne was closer to Rex than before.
On her throne, she stared fixatedly at Rex and Rex reciprocated without showing any fear, the only thing that threatened him now was her beauty.
Despite her huge and massive snake tail that made her look fearsome, her upper body was an absolute beauty. She could easily give most of the finest human females a run for their money just with her facial beauty alone.
Despite this beauty, Rex was not fooled.
''I refuse to be fooled!'' He emboldened himself inwardly as he cooly stared back at her, and it worked as he did not give himself away.
The Queen soon tsked her tongue. "Well, I like you, I want you to be my son".
Then she smiled evilly. "Be my son, and I will be your sugar mommy".
On hearing this, goosebumps threatened toe back but Rex fought them back. "Well, I can do that but I also know that you''re lying".
"In ancient history, Desert Nagas are not known for falling in love with boys like me. From what I know, they instead love blood samples more". Rex smiled.
By piecing in clue after clue, and by guiding the queen''s words, he was able to steer her in the direction that he wanted to get information from her.
And finally, he seeded, he was able to get what he wanted.
It almost eluded him but as she tried more to emphasize on her love for him, he finally remembered an ancient myth that Desert Queens loved different blood samples and was why they mostly fell in love with vampires.
Rex was not sure if his dad exaggerated the story, but ording to him, if as a vampire your blood is able to please a Naga, you can get her for life.
Rex was not sure but since he had no choice, he decided to take a gamble.
Before the surprised Naga Queen could recover from hearing her inner thoughts being exposed, Rex temporarily revealed his fangs and cut his finger.
As his blood dripped down, he raised it towards the Naga with a smirk on his face. "You want?"
The Naga Queen''s face changed, showing slight longing and also irritation as she seemed to hesitate but not for long, she soon disappeared from her throne.
Before Rex could understand what happened, the Naga Queen was already before him and was already sucking his blood through the injury on his finger.
She sucked so hard that his vampire recovery abilities were unable to fight against it. Just 30 secondster, Rex started feeling lightheaded.
He was shocked. "Stop! Please¡"
The next moment, he fainted from blood loss.
¡
Rex woke up with a blink.
At this moment, he was inside a room that was surrounded by solidified sand and ss. Besides him were familiar faces, Ben, Grey, Storm, Ambition, and the old sailor who seemed to be Storm''s savior.
Rex looked around as John the sailor answered him.
"She already left, she said you should go meet her when you wake up".
p This old sailor smiled. "I advise you go meet her if you love your life".
"Who is she?"
The old sailor sighed. "I never expected to meet her in my lifetime".
"She is rumored to be part of the Primordial Ones".
"Some call her the Red Ruler of Death, others call her Ancient Devourer, few call her the Naga Queen, while majority simply refer to her as the Desert Queen".
"From what I know, she is one of the strongest Mythical mystic beasts alive".
"It is all rumors but I heard that she once had a battle with the Ancient Basilisk and lost, she became severely injured and retreated deep into the desert to recuperate".
"Despite centuries having passed, she still has not returned to her peak".
"I don''t know why she wants you but hope it is for good".
The next moment, 6 Nagas armed with mystic weapons slithered into the room. "The Red Ruler seeks your attention".
Rex was quick to take note of the tone, it was soft, polite, and not authoritative. He really hoped that his n worked as he stood up to leave.
Rex was escorted deep inside the underground city to arge area that was upied by a mudke. At this moment, the Desert Queen was bathing in the mud pool as she finally turned to look at Rex.
With her snake tail submerged in the mud, and only her humanoid upper body visible, Rex gulped as the beauty of this Queen was put in full disy again.
He held himself only by thinking about the fact that she was probably a few centuries old. "She is old enough to be my great grand mom, so little brother, stay quiet!"
Rex smiled and walked closer. "So, can we negotiate?"
The Naga looked at Rex for a few seconds and sighed. "I know exactly what you''re trying to do, but I won''t do anything".
She sighed again. "Yeah, I sumb, your blood is damn sweet".
She finally rose out of the mudke. "So, can we negotiate?"
"Yes". Rex smiled.
She spoke first. "These are my terms, you provide me with your blood anytime that I ask for it, and in return, I allow you to leave the desert alive".
Rex smiled. "Don''t you think that is cheating¡?"
Rex barely finished before the Naga''s eyes turned pitch-ck.
Darkness filled the city as she finally flexed her strength for the first time, her mystic energy was still at the peak of the Super Grade but her aura was that of a pinnacle Mythical beast.
Rex was intimidated by her disy but he did not show it, he looked her in the eyes. "My father was a vampire, so was my grandfather, and my great grandfather, and so forth and so on, I know a lot about Nagas".
"Since you confessed that my blood is sweet, it means that we arepatible which also means that I can be of much more use to you".
"I know that its not because of the sweetness, your real n is to recuperate and regain your powers by feeding on my blood".
"Your Excellency, with all due respect, please don''t cheat me".
"I also respect you too much to cheat you".
"These are my terms. I provide you with my blood, you let me and mypanions leave alive, and we be allies".
Rex looked her in the eyes. "Yes, I mean allies. You are too old; I can''t trick you so I''ll be in with you. You''re a boss to me, I can''t stand up to your level so the best I can do is try to suck up to you and leach from your greatness".
Rex bowed his head. "Please allow me to leach from your powers".
"I''m not demanding anything from you but by bing allies with you, I believe that with your benevolent mind, things would be easier for me".
The Naga stared fixatedly at Rex then sheughed. "You''re really interesting. Well-done, you seeded in arousing my curiosity again".
"Now, I really want to see what you''re made off".
The Naga Queen moved closer for a nefarious act and Rex did not resist. The next moment, she nted her lips on his and kissed him passionately.
Rex did not resist, instead he grabbed her by the waist and reciprocated. As soon as Rex grabbed her, she shuddered but did not resist.
A few secondster, the Naga Queen separated from the kiss with a bright smile on her face. "I guess I underestimated you".
"Deal!"
Chapter 192 A Powerful Ally
-----
[You have gained your first ally: The Desert Queen!]
[Grade: Mythical Mystic Naga Warrior- Injured!]
[Current Strength: Super Grade!]
[Titles: The Desert Queen, The Naga Queen, Ancient Devourer, the Red Ruler of Death, the 8th Primordial!]
[Attributes: ???]
[Health Points: ???]
[Mystic Energy Points: ???]
[Remark: A powerful ally!]
----
Rex was having the time of his life alongside his self-proimed lover.
After the Desert Queen agreed to the deal, a few minutester, his system lit up with a notification tomemorate him getting his first ally.
Clearly, ording to the system, hispanions like Aragorn, Princess nor, and others were not worthy enough to be regarded as his allies, only someone of the Desert Queen''s status was capable.
Rex still did not know the full benefits that he stood to gain by bing this powerful Naga''s ally, but he believed that there would be a lot of them.
After bing allies, the Desert Queen threw a feast. Originally, she wanted the feast tost a month and Rex and his friends were required to stay throughout but Rex refused and pleaded with her to reduce the time.
In the end, she finally relented and reduced the time to 1 week.
The feast already started and the whole underground city was in a state of merry. John the sailor was still finding this situation quite unbelievable, he was still amazed by the incredible feat that was achieved by Rex.
He had never heard of the Ancient Desert Queen relenting once, now he saw this revered Naga relent to Rex not just once to be allies, but twice by reducing the timeframe of the feast that she started.
John felt like he was dreaming. "Is this real? Am I dead? Is the worlding to an end or it already ended?" His inner questions revealed how shocked he was.
Despite his surprise and shock, that did not stop him from joining in the celebration. Alongside Ambition, Storm, and Grey, a mountain of food was ced before them as they stuffed their stomachs to the brim.
As for Rex, he was seated in a VIP ss banquet table and chair alongside the Naga Queen and her group of attendants that also attended to him now.
For the Naga Queen''s benefit, blood was the drink being distributed in this table. Through aplicated mechanism set by the Queen, Rex''s blood was constantly sucked into a ss cup through which she sipped.
As for Rex, he enjoyed the same and replenished his blood reserves through the blood of the beautiful Naga attendants that attended to him.
Surprisingly, he got other benefits for drinking the beautiful Naga''s bloods.
-----
[You have sucked and drank the blood of an ancient bloodline carrier]
[For drinking a rare ancient bloodline, you have received 200 free stat points!]
[You have developed a special affinity with Nagas!]
----
The more he spent time with them, the more he realized how crazily beautiful Nagas were. ''If not for the tail, man, they''re really wife material''.
Despite being centuries old already, the Naga Queen never acted like an olddy. She vibed and spoke like a young girl who was still in her early 20s.
She had no shame and openly flirted with Rex who didn''t cower at her actions. Of course, her actions were arousing, but he already resigned himself to giving 100% focus to holding himself before he would do something regrettable.
,m The Naga Queen constantly started naughty conversations which Rex flowed with, and like this, the celebration went into the night.
When she was already drunk on his blood, Rex finally raised a conversation. "As allies, don''t you think we should know more about ourselves?"
"I still don''t know much about you; we barely know each other".
"Yes¡, yes¡, I really want to know you to the innermost parts of your body".
Rex smiled at her and gestured for them to go on a walk which she acquiesced to. As they walked, Rex started the conversation. "You know, I came from a prestigious vampire family".
"I didn''t get to see it at its peak, but from what I know, at our peak, we were one of the strongest ancient mystic families".
"Unfortunately, though, there is always an end to everything. Our dynasty soon came to an end as we were betrayed and dethroned".
"Despite centuries having passed, our enemies still hunt my family".
"I am thest of my family and I am still being hunted".
"Funny but sorrowful, right?" Rex turned to look at the Naga Queen who reciprocated and followed his lead before starting to speak about herself.
"Your story is sorrowful I guess, but mine is much more eventful".
Drunk in his blood already, the Queen was more talkative than normal.
"Do you know what is called the Primordials?"
"No".
"The Primordials were the pure bloodline mystic beasts that led the invasion on earth. I was one of them, I am a Primordial, I was the 8th Primordial".
"We are 12 in number who came from others, and our mission was to take over earth and share the spoils equally".
"Well, what can we say, humans are some tenacious bastards!"
"Well, your tenacity yed a minor role, the main reason behind why we did not yet overrun earth is because of the internal fighting between us".
"None of us wanted to take equal shares with the other, we wanted to receive the highest shares and was why we started fighting each other".
"I first fought with the Ironfoot Rabbit and I won after killing it".
"Alongside my Naga army, I integrated the Ironfoot Rabbit race who are now my loyal followers into my army, expanding my power, reach, and domain".
"My next target was supposed to be the Heavy-Scaled Hippopotamus but I became someone else''s target, the 2nd primordial''s target".
"Unexpectedly, the Ancient Basilisk already targeted me".
"As a master of ambushes, she ambushed me and severely injured me. I escaped by forsaking my mortal body and jumping into the reincarnation pool to reincarnate, I was reborn as an Advanced mystic beast".
"Once I was reborn, I took off to escape her pursuit till I arrived at the Great Desert. Due to my mystic affinity, the desert was like home to me".
"In the Great Desert, I am all powerful".
"Even with my current strength of only the pinnacle of the Super Grade, when pushes to shove, I can increase my strength through the resources of the desert to fight and even kill mythical mystic beasts".
Having been drunk by the sweet blood nectar already, the Desert Queen did not know as she continued rambling on and exposing information about herself.
By the time that she was done, Rex was wowedpletely.
Without even needing to verify it, he knew that he just got a powerful ally.
For the remaining parts of the night till the next day, the celebration continued as some mystic beasts simply refused to sleep and rest.
¡
The next day, the Desert Queen took Rex on a tour of her city.
The underground city was huge. Most of the structures and demarcations were made with ss, her sand that was personality heated by her.
She had mystic affinities for fire and sand, and other affinities that she had.
Another thing that Rex noticed about her was her inherent ability to read minds. The only thing that exposed her during her attempts was Rex''s system.
-----
Warning! You are being subtly affected by a mind-reading ability¡!
You are under the effects of mental fatigue!
----
Once Rex saw this notification, he would stop and take precautions.
Apart from the ss structures that were used to demarcate the underground city, Rex also learned that the solidified sand was another type of sand that was made by heating it with fire.
Not heating it to temperatures where it turns into ss, but to an eptable temperature where the sand bes congealed and cohesive enough.
As the days passed in the underground city, they grew closer as the Desert Queen tried more chances and opportunities to get into his heart but he fought it.
It got to an extent where she tried using other methods, this was when she finally used her hypnotic abilities on him but he resisted it.
-----
Warning! You have been hit by an ability: Hypnosis!
----
Rex may be cooperating with all her flirtatious and naughty actions now, but this was all in order for him to hold tight onto and leach this powerful existence.
He still loved his heart; he had no intentions of falling for a snake yet. Perhaps, if the Queen knew what he was thinking, she would kill him on the spot but Rex was extremely vignt when he talked about her.
With the Naga Queen on his side, arge part of the world was on his side.
Till the 1 week psed, Rex, his transformed beasts, and John the sailor thoroughly enjoyed themselves in this underground city.
Finally, it was time to go home to the Gundam Shelter.
Chapter 193 The King Dust Snake, King
Rex''s one week stay in the underground city was a memorable one, and after enjoying himself thoroughly alongside his friends, he was ready to go.
Having made all the negotiations and talk with the Naga Queen already, he no longer had any shackles here that tied him down and prevented him from leaving. Though the Queen wanted him to stay, she did not force him.
And having spent one week with her, Rex learned to respect her.
Apart from her flirting and naughty side, the Red Ruler of Death was a truly powerful existence. Rex revered her more after learning of the primordials.
Because of his Coffin of the Ancients and some other observations that he made, especially recently after his trip to Tioron, he already came to the conclusion that pure bloodline beasts were the original invaders.
Perhaps, due to the atmosphere and otheryers that protected the earth surface, mystic energy was not as unbridled and unadulterated here.
This was why mystic beasts here had undiluted mystic powers and bloodlines, only those that had ties to outside the were pure bloodline beasts. Rex confirmed this after hearing the story about the ancients.
The fact that only 12 Primordials were responsible for leading the invasion that almost led to the extinction of humanity was all that Rex needed to fullyprehend the full extents of the Naga Queen''s power and influence.
She was a powerful warrior and a powerful Queen.
For a long time, despite his outrageous growth speed, Rex was always under pressure since his enemies were those who were far more powerful than him.
If for one reason or the other, his enemies lost patience and decided to send their strongest warriors after him, despite all his trump cards, he stood no chance.
But with the Naga Queen now, he finally stood a chance.
If he could continually please the Naga Queen with his blood and help her recover, perhaps on that rainy day in his moment of need, she would be the one that would stand up for him and fight on his behalf.
And in his opinion, for a Primordial like her, despite being injured now, very few mystic warriors on earth could stand up against her and survive.
Even if he didn''t get Sword Saint Minato''s full inheritance, even if he didn''t be the leader of the Blood Spartan Tribe, making the Naga Queen his ally was already more than he bargained for whening to the Great Desert.
All in all, he made a great gaining here.
And before leaving though, Rex still wanted to make one more gain. "I have onest favor to ask of you".
The Naga Queen turned to face him with a teasing smile on her face. "What?"
"I want the Dust Snake that attacked me and mypanions".
"Oh". She flicked her tongue yfully. "You want to use that mystic treasure of yours on it?"
"Yes".
"Well, no, I refuse". She smiled yfully. "The Dust Snake is my subject".
"But I am your ally".
She ignored him like she didn''t hear what she said. "For any transaction, there must be payment. If you pay me enough, I may decide to give you".
"What do you want?"
"Guess". She continued smiling yfully.
"Ok". Rex sighed exasperatedly and gave in. "You''ll take a hug?"
"A kiss".
"A peck".
"A passionate kiss on the lips!"
"¡"
Rex palmed his head. "Ugh¡"
"Take it or leave it".
"Ok, fine".
This time, Rex was bolder. He grabbed her tightly by the waist and proactively kissed her, after like a minute, he detached from her and turned to leave. Of course, he left with the Dust Snake.
As he left, the Naga Queen flicked her tongue. "Goodbye, my love!"
Rex shuddered again on hearing this word despite hearing it so many times already, making her to chuckle in amusement.
Once he left her chambers, Rex went to get Ben, John the sailor, and his transformed beasts and warrior before finally leaving the underground city for good. If everything went ording to n, he was not returning anytime soon.
¡
Rex stood before the weakened Dust Snake and brought out one of his most important mystic treasures, the Coffin of the Ancients.
Instantly after the snake set its eyes on the coffin, it shuddered in fear like it just saw its natural nemesis as the snake tried to squirm away to no avail.
With the Naga Queen herself putting a suppression on it, the snake could not struggle to escape, it was firmly in Rex''s grasp.
Rex looked the snake in the eye. "You remember that day?"
"With your minions, you outnumbered me and surrounded me. You bullied me and mypanions, you almost made me die and lose all 3 of mypanions".
"For a long time, I''ve thought of how to get my revenge".
"Death is too light a punishment for you to pay for your sins".
"I am toozy to spend my time torturing you before killing you".
"In the end, after a lot of thinking, I thought of this, the coffin".
"What better punishment than turning your enemy into your loyal servant whose sole purpose in life is dedicated towards serving you and dying for you?"
"After a lot of thought, I think turning you into my 3rd transformed beast is the best punishment that you can ever serve".
"That way, you get to atone for your sins by helping me".
The Dust Snake struggled even more now as the fear in its eyes intensified. Warriors were not afraid of death, what they were more afraid of instead was losing their rationality and bing ves of their own selves.
The Dust Snake pleaded but Rex was ruthless.
Once he opened the coffin, he grabbed the snake and threw it in. Having prepared for it during his 1 week stay in the underground city, he brought out a bunch of mystic stones and started throwing them inside the coffin.
The coffin swallowed them all and in no time started glowing with a red light. This time, the coffin asked for his blood which it drank to glow brighter.
After pouring in a lot of his mystic energy, to Rex''s disappointment, for the first time, the sess rate of his coffin worked against him and it was a failure.
Fortunately, the Dust Snake''s body was not destroyed in the process which gave him another chance to try transforming it.
Despite its cries, he ruthlessly started the procedure again. At this moment, this apex predator among desert snakes was no longer as menacing as before.
After pouring in his blood, a lot of his mystic energy, and tons of mystic stones, a few minutester, the glow of the coffin finally dimmed and this time, it was a massive sess.
-----
[Congrattions! You have created your 3rd transformed beast!]
[You have acquired a pure bloodline beast: King Dust Snake!]
[Do you want to give your 3rd transformed beast a name?]
----
"Yes". Rex nodded and briefly thought.
Dust Snakes were prestigious beasts among Desert snakes. The same way that Sand Worms were regarded as the apex predators across the desert, so also were they regarded as apex predators among all snakes in the desert.
They already had that prestige and royalty vibe, and with the new bloodline that it got after being purified by the coffin, Rex easily decided on a name for it.
"Your name shall be King".
-----
[Transformed Beast: King Dust Snake!]
[Grade: Advanced Mystic Beast!]
Name: King
Master: Rex Vector
Strength: 3,850
Speed: 3,500
Mind: 900
Vitality: 3,000
Agility: 1,800
Dexterity: 1,850
Health Points [HP]: 12,000/12,000
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 13,800/13,800
Mystic Affinity: Sand & Dust; Wind, Fire, Illusions!]
[Special Organ: Myriad Poison nd!]
[Special Ability: Myriad Poison Secretion!]
[Skills: Poison Secretion; Dust Conjurer, Sand Maniption; Wind Envoy, Fire Brigadier, Illusion Sorcerer!]
[Poison Secretion: When activated in battle while attacking with the teeth or tail, the myriad poison nd is activated to secrete the poison of choice into attack to affect opponent.]
[Dust Conjurer: When activated, dust is conjured through mystic energy from the air which can be used to form a mist to obscure the vision of opponents. Dust can also deal minor internal damage to opponents which stacks over time.]
[Wind Envoy: When activated, the windes under the control of the Dust Snake through which hurricanes and other wind attacks can be unleashed.]
[Fire Brigadier: When activated, the fire elementes under the control of the Dust Snake through which it can unleash most fire skills.]
[Illusion Sorcerer: When activated through the eyes, enemy is drawn into an illusion world where the Dust Snake is king. Enemy is suppressed in the illusion world, and would constantly receive damage until death unless he escapes.]
[NOTE: At the mythical level, the Illusion Sorcerer skill can grow to be as powerful as the Gorgon Medusa''s Illusion of Endless Horrors!]
[Sand Maniption: When activated, sand is manipted and turned into lethal weapons through which enemies are attacked.]
[NOTE: When fully mastered at the mythical level, Dust Snakes have a percentage chance of unlocking the myth level skill, Carbon Maniption!]
[Passive Abilities: Patience!]
[Patience: Patience is a virtue.]
[Remark: An absolute kill of a transformed beast!]
----
Rex sessfully turned his enemy into his strongest transformed beast!
Chapter 194 Johns Only Wish
Despite already reading about them and knowing that Dust Snakes were among the apex predators of the Great Desert, Rex was still shocked by what he saw. King was indeed a King among the apex predators.
Every single one of it''s 6 skills were a situation changer. Alone, they were good enough to be the special trump cards of other beasts.
But to King, they were its normal everyday skills.
Unlike most beasts, King didn''t really have a trump card skill. Its trump cards were its 4 mystic affinities which was the main reason which made it so OP in the first ce, and its special poison organ and special ability.
With all these ced in one beast, King became the strongest and most all-rounded of all Rex''spanions. In a fair battle, King was even stronger than himself currently.
With his mystic sword domain, his vampire abilities, and his other powers, the fact that King could still beat him spoke volumes about the capabilities of his newly created transformed beast.
Rex thanked the Naga Queen onest time from the bottom of his heart for this gift. With King, his overall power and survival ability increased several folds again, his unpredictable factor increased again.
With entricities like Storm''s unnatural speed, Grey''s tenacious mentality and vitality, Ambition''s invisibility, and King''s all-roundedness, Rex''s battle strategy became further fine-tuned to ount for different scenarios.
After taking his time to thoroughly observe and admire his new beastpanion, Rex finally turned to face Ben.
"My n is to return to the Gundam Shelter".
"What is your n? Do you intend to follow me?"
Ben briefly thought before replying. "I am in no hurry to return to the Great Myriad Metal Shelter, and you said you need to visit a Great Shelter in the future".
"Since I got separated from you and Cassandra, my day-to-day living was simply pushed and motivated by the thought of our eventual reunion".
"Now that we finally reunited, I have no intentions of separating again so soon. Let''s go to the Gundam Shelter together, no matter how long it takes, I''ll help you fulfill your objectives there so we can go to the Great Shelter together".
Though the both of them already talked about this specific topic numerous times and Ben constantly showed his willingness to follow him, Rex was still surprised that Ben was able to make such a big sacrifice for him.
All of a sudden, he felt a stronger burden pressuring down on his shoulders. For his friends andpanions who had trust in him, he absolutely could not fail.
He needed to fulfill all his goals so that their trust in him would not be in vain.
After speaking with Ben, Rex finally turned to face John the sailor.
Though this old man was content with staying in the background, he was pivotal in Rex''s rtionship with the Naga Queen since it was his knowledge about the Queen that enabled him toprehend her personality so fast.
Besides, this sailor was Storm''s savior, he could not just leave him behind. "For onest time, I want to thank you for saving Storm''s life".
"What can I help you with? Name it and if I can, I will try my best to do it".
John revealed a wide smile. "I am an old man already, there are few things that I really need that I don''t have yet, the rest are just wants".
"Me getting to see not just a Kamaitachi, but a unique one like storm is an experience that I would forever cherish and take with me to my grave".
"In my long life, Storm is the most unique beast that I''ve ever met".
"Saving Storm gave me the opportunity to develop a bond with it, fight alongside it, go to quarrels and wars with it, and win together".
"My time spent with Storm is arguably the best time of my life, perhaps only peaked by the time when I was a family man".
John smiled again. "I don''t need any direct help from you, what I instead need from you is a promise to help my son".
"My name is John Hunt; I was once known throughout the Great Desert as the Green Pirate Sailor. I had a great crew, but I was betrayed¡, by my son".
"Till today, I don''t know what motivated him but he staged a coup and dethroned me as the leader of the crew. I was abandoned in the desert, and since then, though I know they''re still alive, I''ve never seen them".
"Myst wish before death is for you to promise to protect my son".
"Protect him and if possible, take him and the crew under your wing".
"I would love for the tale of the Green Pirate Sailor to continue".
"This is my only wish; can you promise me this?"
"Yes, I promise". Rex answered without hesitation.
Fulfilling this proposal would perhaps take an arm or a leg from him, but considering the help that John rendered to him, he could make this little sacrifice.
Once he promised, the old man patted him on the back before boarding his sail. He waved onest time to Storm who whimpered in reply before sailing away.
In no time, John the sailor was gone.
"Let''s go". Rex finally left with Ben and all hispanions.
As he left, Rex essed his system and referenced back to a system notification that he received over 2 months ago.
-----
[You have triggered a new system mission: Ultimate Showdown!]
[Mission Details:]
>Arthur Holmes, the best descendant of this generation of Holmes warriors is upon you again. This time, humbled and wiser from being punished, Arthures with the greatest determination to eliminate you<
>This is the ultimate showdown of this generation between both families whose great feud started centuries ago<
>There is only one oue to this showdown. You die or he dies<
[Main Mission: Kill Arthur Holmes!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
¡
[Sub Mission: Liberate Scorpion, the Sting Assassin!]
[Mission Rewards: ???]
----
"Arthur Holmes!" Rex''s eyes narrowed.
¡
Uncharacteristically of them, the Gandalf Gang was having a quiet period.
The Snake territory was predominantly the territory of the criminal gangs. After years or even decades of growth in the Red Zone, gangs that were powerful enough had the opportunity to upgrade to the more prosperous Snake territory.
In here, thepetition was far stiffer and deadlier.
Since only the best of the Red Zone coulde here, the quality of warriors here was far higher and the mystic treasures in use had much more quality.
In here, there was no period of calm or quiet, the criminal gangs were always at war with each other not just to vie for resources or im territory, but to affirm other gangs that they were still lethal and could wrath violence.
Gandalf was able to take his gang to the peak this way by engaging in constant battles, he was a battle maniac who matured and was made in war.
Through his energy blocking abilities, he led them to numerous victories which cemented the Gandalf Gang''s name in the history of the Snake territory as one of the strongest gangs.
Now, the Gandalf Gang set their sights on another gang. This time though, it was not among the top gangs in the Snake territory, rather it was a no-name gang that was founded just a few months ago in the Red Zone.
No one knew the reason why, but the Gandalf Gang constantly crossed territory to harass the Berserk Gang without going all out to annihte them.
It was like they were waiting for something or someone to appear.
It was like this throughout the past 2 months. Arthur Holmes and his warriors were ready to attack, the only problem was that their target was nowhere in sight.
Since Rex left 2 months ago, it was like he had no intentions ofing back.
Frustrated, Arthur could only resort to harassing the Berserk Gang and with time, the Berserk Gang slowly started declining.
Inside the Berserk Mansion¡
"Lord nor, Elden Max seeks your audience".
"Let him in!"
A handsome man in white schrly robes soon marched into the massive office. This young handsome man was Max, and this office was nor''s.
As the Berserk Gang grew and became more centralized in power, Rex, Aragorn, and nor who were the main leaders of the gang started being referred to as Lords and this title only solidified within the 2 months of Rex''s absence.
As soon as Max entered the office, he made a surprising movement as he went closer to the Elven Princess''s chair before dragging her up.
Princess nor flowed with his movements and cupped her hands around his neck as he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in, then they both engaged in a passionate kiss through which they expressed their love for each other.
During the past 2 months, apart from the few highs and plenty lows that the Berserk Gang experienced, Max and nor found the time to fall in love.
Both of them were locked in an intense show of their love for a few minutes before they finally came to their senses, then Max''s face changed a bit as he reported. "We just got another report of attacks from the Gandalf Gang".
"We lost approximately a dozen gang members".
Princess nor sighed. "There''s nothing we can do; we will be annihted if we go against the Gandalf Gang in a frontal confrontation".
"This decision should be made by Rex, but where the f*ck is that d*ckhead?"
"C-cough¡, cough¡!" The sound of someone choking soon sounded outside the door, spooking the 2 lovers who were still hugging each other.
"Who''s there?" nor turned around with an irritated look and asked.
The door was pushed open as a familiar face entered. Aragorn entered who was followed in by an unfamiliar face, before another familiar face followed, Rex!
"Rex?!" Princess nor jumped. "W-when did you return?"
"Y-you didn''t hear anything right?"
"Ahem, cough¡"
"¡"
Chapter 195 As You Can See, I Am Not Dead!
Rex found it hard to cope with the changes, but he forced himself to.
Unlike the cold and unapproachable Elven Princess that he met deep inside the Great Forest of Elias, the current nor was so different from how he left that he found it hard wrapping his head around it.
Also, he never expected such a massive change in status for the 2 Elden descendants that he took a gamble on and saved months ago.
Max and Stark Elden after months of working in the Berserk Gang already managed to prove theirpetence and climb their way to the top.
Though nor yed a huge role in this rise through the ranks, it was also a great show of the ability of the 2 Great shelter dwellers.
Of the many changes that happened to the hierarchy of the Berserk Gang, the one that shocked Rex the most was nor again, her love life.
"You f*cking fell in love?"
"Damn! What happened to our brotherhood code?"
Princess nor twisted her lips in denial. "You can''t expect me to be single forever, right? Afterall, I''m not like you who keeps on focusing on a long-lost childhood crush".
Rex patted his chest; he felt the pain from nor''s words.
Though he wanted to troll nor to the ends of the earth due to her decision to fall in love, out of respect for Max, the man in the rtionship, he held back before finally reuniting with them officially.
"Who''s the new guy?" Princess nor finally asked.
"Hehe". Rex rubbed his nose. "You''ve both probably heard a lot about him already, do you remember the Horny Lord that I always talked about?"
nor raised her eyebrows. "The famous Ben the Horny Lord?"
"Wow, I''m that famous around here". Benughed heartily; he did not feel offended the slightest to be referred to as the Horny Lord.
"So, you''re that guy?" nor looked at Ben weirdly.
"Yeah". Ben patted his chest confidently then he turned to face Rex. "Who''s the beautiful chick? Is she taken?"
As soon as Ben asked, he felt a pair of eyes ring at him then he finally remembered Max, the other guy in the office as heughed awkwardly.
Rex rolled his eyes and ignored his friend''s question. "Princess nor is my sworn sister; she is an Advanced Mystic warrior and an Elven Princess".
"¡"
Ben''s jaw dropped. He looked back and forth between Rex and nor, then he cleaned his eyes and looked again. "An elf?"
"Yeah". nor smiled reservedly as she finally removed her smart disguise that Aragorn created for her, exposing her long elven ears.
"Holy freaking sh*t! Elves are really still alive?"
"Damn! No wonder you look so freakishly beautiful!"
"The patriarch would be so hyped to meet you!"
"Huh?" nor was confused.
Rex had to step in. "Don''t mind him, I''ll also like to introduce you to my newest battlepanion, King".
Almost instantly after he called its name, dust appeared beside Rex''s neck as a strange silhouette started materializing from it. In no time, a long snake materialized and wrapped itself around Rex.
"Meet King, the King Dust Snake".
Aragorn and Princess nor already took battle stances as soon as the dust appeared as they felt a powerful aura that threatened to suffocate them.
On seeing the snake appear, they were surprised and as they looked into its dark-toned golden eyes, they shuddered, it was like they were looking at an abyss.
"I-is that your new transformed beast?" nor finally asked.
"Yes".
The snake soon slithered upright before bowing its head before the 2 warriors. King already recognized the 2 as closepanions of its master.
Just King alone already sent Aragorn and nor''s imaginations running wild. "Exactly what did you experience in the Great Desert?" nor blurted out.
"Before I tell you, tell me everything that happened in my absence".
Princess nor was adamant to hear his story first, but after Aragorn intervened, she finally relented as they gave an ount of all the happenings for the past 2 months after his departure.
Most of the talk was centered around the Gandalf Gang and his departure.
"After over a month of not seeing you, rumors started flying around that you were dead and this was where things started going down the drain".
"They never showed it before, but the Berserk Gang relies on you. When the rumors of your death started being circted, morale in the gang dropped to an all time low and it keeps on dropping every day".
"In the same time that morale started dropping was when the Gandalf Gang started attacking and harassing us, making morale to drop even more".
"I believe Holmes is responsible for the attacks, apparently, he was able to seek the help of the renowned Advanced mystic warrior, Gandalf who is rumored to be a dreaded energy blocker".
"What''s an energy blocker?" Rex asked.
"We''re not sure". nor answered. "Over the months, we already tried to get information about him but every information vendor refuses to work with us".
"They are reluctant to work with us and antagonize the Gandalf Gang".
"Things regressed to the extent where our gang members started deserting the gang to join other gangs. We had to impose strict rules to stop this".
After listening to the full story, Rex took a deep breath and sighed.
"What are you going to do?" Aragorn finally asked with a serious expression on his face, this was what he had been longing to ask since.
Rex closed his eyes and took another breath before opening them again. "I''ll make a decision quickly. First, let me tell you about my adventures in the desert".
"But¡"
"Don''t worry, after I arrived at the Great Desert¡"
Rex felt like he went back in time as he started narrating his journey and adventures. As for Aragorn, nor, and Max who listened in, they were drawn inpletely by the adventures that their brother experienced.
More than 40 minutester when Rex finally finished narrating after simplifying a lot of details, Princess nor sighed in envy.
"I thought you were suffering but who knew you were living my dream, now I''m so envious". She red at Rex who only chuckled at her antics.
After this session, food was prepared and the circle of friends ate. It was during this session that Aragorn asked again. "What are you going to do?"
"Fight of course". Rex answered easily.
"I and Holmes are sworn enemies, it''s either one of us dies or our feud would never die. It''s only normal that we try to kill each other".
"And since they started it first, I have no qualms in retaliating".
"After here, both of you will escort me to greet the gang. We need to reassure our warriors that I''m alive and well and avable to protect the gang".
"Once we restore morale this way, the next step is to start attacking".
"But the Gandalf Gang is a way more powerful gang than us that is located in the Snake territory". Aragorn interjected.
"Don''t worry, I didn''t suffer so much in the Great Desert in vain".
"I came out a much stronger warrior and I''m not about to waste my talents".
Rex rubbed his beard as he looked at his 2 brothers. "Do you remember why we came to the Gundam Shelter?"
"To escape from the powerful enemies after our life".
"No, to grow, fight, and get strong enough to kill our enemies".
"We didn''te to this chaotic shelter to be content with average, we came here to turn our situation around, the Gandalf Gang will be our stepping stone to greatness, all I need from the both of you is your trust".
"I understand". Aragorn nodded. "But are we ready?"
"Yes, we are". Rex smiled. "There''s me, you, nor, Ben, my 3 transformed beasts, and my transformed humanoid warrior, that''s 8 Advanced mystic warriors already, do you still think that we''re not yet ready?"
Aragorn and nor''s eyes widened. Though they knew that Rex had them, they still instinctively saw Rex''s transformed beasts and warriors as supplements.
But after feeling the powerful aura of the Dust Snake, they were not so sure anymore, everyone of those 4 under Rex were powerhouses of their own right.
Both of them stood up. "Brother, we''ll support your every action".
"Good, let''s enjoy our food".
A few minutester after they finished eating, they stood up and left the office after sending a high-priority message to gather the whole gang.
As the Berserk Gang expanded, it became impossible for all the warriors to be inside the gang mansion at the same time. This didn''t matter much though since Aragorn already created gadgets through which they could keep in touch.
At this moment, even those warriors that were not in the mansion had ess to what was going on through their gadgets that were created by Aragorn.
With the whole Berserk Gang gathered, Rex took the stage, shocking not just the warriors of the Berserk Gang but the onlookers from outside.
"As you can see, I am not dead".
"I''ve heard of all the sins that the Gandalf Gangmitted against us in my absence, and I say NO! We will not take it!"
"The Berserk Gang submits to no one".
"We are our own masters".
"From today, I officially dere war on the Gandalf Gang!"
The blood of the onlooking warriors started burning hot.
"We will not rest until Gandalf either surrenders or his head is served before me in a gold te!"
"Long live the Berserk Gang!" Rex cupped his right fist and pumped it in the air.
Instantly, all the warriors responded. "Long live the Berserk Gang!
"LONG LIVE THE BERSERK GANG!!!"
Chapter 196 We Are Going To War!
"Rex, I have a special treat for you". Aragorn smiled mysteriously.
"A treat?" Rex raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, just follow me to the Berserk Workshop and you''ll see".
Aragorn was rarely one to engage in meaningless pranks and jokes. His mysterious act baffled Rex, but he believed that he was up to something, he agreed and followed him to the Berserk Gang.
On arriving at the Berserk Gang, Rex noticed differences.
There was no ring technological or construction development in the Berserk Workshop since the Berserk Gang was stagnant for the past 2 months, but instead of those, the Berserk Workshop got the most important development.
While allocating all the budget of the newly acquired gang to Aragorn to build a mechanic workshop, Rex saw it then as an investment.
He trusted Aragorn to pay him back for his trust and investment, and now, the investment finally paid. The Berserk Workshop was already an established production firm that churned out mystic treasures on a daily basis.
The workshop already became the greatest source of ie for the gang as even in this time of crisis, it was the main reason that kept the gang afloat.
As Rex walked through the gang, he saw hundreds of apprentice mechanics hard at work controlling the gigantic machines to mass-produce mystic treasures.
Of the first apprentice mechanics that Aragorn took in, some of them already developed a lot and upgraded to be full-fledged mystic mechanics.
With such growth, Aragorn got better helpers to further his research. As a mystic mechanic, furthering his research was also furthering his mystic realm.
Though he became an Advanced mystic warriorter than nor, and despite the fact that he rarely fought any battles in the past few months, Aragorn still overtook nor and was already a 3rd tier Advanced mystic warrior.
As for nor, she became a 2nd tier Advanced mystic warriors just weeks ago.
All in all, Rex was impressed by what he saw and he was not stingy with his praise. "You''ve really done a great job".
"Damn, if I knew beforehand that being a mystic mechanic was so profitable, I would have at least tried to be one".
Both brothersughed at the joke and in no time, they arrived at Aragorn''s personal space in the massive mechanic workshop.
Along the way as they walked, Ben already separated from them to more thoroughly tour round the workshop, now, Rex was alone with Aragorn.
As soon as he entered Aragorn''s personal space in the massive workshop, 4 well-packaged items were what instantly attracted his attention.
Packaged in 4 different transparent disy films were a pair of daggers, a pair of boots, a pair of gauntlets, and a pair of metallic kneepads.
Aragorn smiled. "Remember the promise I made to you some time ago?"
"Huh?"
"Haha, I know you''ll forget. I promised you that once I settle down, I''ll make custom mystic treasures for you and nor".
"Well, I fulfilled my promise".
Though his brain already hinted at it on seeing the 4 well-packaged mystic treasures, Rex was still thrilled after hearing it confirmed by Aragorn.
Courtesy said he should thank Aragorn first but Rex was already too attracted by the 4 beauties to care about his brother as he rushed towards them.
Rex observed them closely as he caressed the 4 transparent disy films like he was caressing his babe''s bosom, this was when his system lit up a notification.
-----
[3 new mystic treasures have been detected!]
¡
[Death Daggers!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
>Attack: 810-1,115 Damage<
>Durability: ???<
[Mystic Effects: Ancien Gaze; Blood Edge; Assassin Instinct.]
[Ancien Gaze: When activated through your bloodline connection, your opponent will be subjected to the petrifying gaze of a dead Vampire Ancie!]
[Effects of Ancien gaze: +30% psychological suppression to your opponent, 20% chance to mentally petrify your opponent, and it grants +30% confidence in battle.]
[Blood Edge: When activated through your bloodline connection, the edge of the Death Daggers would be coated with blood granting them +150% pration damage and a 30% chance to suck opponent''s blood!]
[Assassin Instinct: When activated through your bloodline connection while wielding the daggers, you gain the cold-blooded and killer instinct of an assassin!]
[Effects of Ancien gaze: +200% damage for all sneak attacks!]
[Remark: The blood-sucking Dagger!]
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
¡
[Aragorn''s Weapon Set- Killer Boots!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
>Speed: 910<
>Durability: 1,100/1,100<
[Mystic Effects: Ghost Rider; Glidiator; Killer Boot!]
[Ghost Rider: When activated using the ckfire mystic ability, fire spouts from the pair of boots, increasing speed from 5 to 7 times the normal speed.]
[Glidiator: When activated, the pair of boots grow a ski that can enable the user to easily glide across smooth surfaces at 4 times the normal speed of the user.]
[Killer Boot: When activated, +10% Strength stat, +10% attack speed, +10% attack damage, and +10% reaction speed.]
[Remark: Aragorn''s first weapon set boots.]
¡
[Aragorn''s Weapon Set- Gauntlets!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
>Defense: 980<
>Attack: 350-450<
>Durability: 1,100/1,100<
[Mystic Effects: Leonidas''s Block; Leonidas''s Strike!]
[Leonidas''s Block: When activated while parrying an enemy strike, +100% defense and +50% chance to reflect 50% damage back to the enemy.]
[Leonidas''s Strike: When activated while striking an enemy with the gauntlets, +100% attack and +50% to deal critical damage to the enemy.]
[Remark: Aragorn''s first weapon set gauntlets.]
¡
[Aragorn''s Weapon Set- Kneepads!]
[Bonded Warrior: ???]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
>Defense: 780<
>Attack: 450-550<
>Durability: 1,100/1,100<
[Mystic Effects: Knee Defense; Leonidas''s Kick!]
[Knee Defense: When activated while parrying an enemy attack to the knee, +100% defense and +50% leg bnce and strength to withstand enemy force and attack momentum.]
[Leonidas''s Kick: When activated while attacking an enemy through a kick, +100% attack and +50% to deal critical damage to the enemy.]
[Leonidas''s Kick additional effect: When kicking enemy more than once, percentage bonuses stack and when up to 3 times,bine to give a super kick.]
[Remark: Aragorn''s first weapon set kneepads.]
----
The system notification was long but Rex took his time to go through it all.
Though Aragorn felt that it was weird for Rex to stand before the transparent disy films admiring the mystic treasures for so long, he calmed down after remembering the type of maniac that Rex was.
After going through the full system notification, Rex was beyond impressed, he was freakishly impressed and left extremely proud by Aragorn''s achievements.
Rex instinctively felt like tearing up as he remembered months ago when Aragorn was still a vignte fighting against the Desert Cowboy Gang.
Then, Aragorn was content with staying in the vige working as a small-time mystic mechanic. As Rex thought back now, he felt angry, how dare Aragorn waste his incredible talent for so long in that godforsaken vige?
"Huh?" Aragorn felt Rex''s re. "Is everything ok?"
"Yeah, everything is ok".
"I''m just baffled at your f*cking genius! You''re a genius man!" Rex left admiring the 4 mystic treasures and went to embrace his brother in a tight hug.
He had never felt more proud of Aragorn than he felt now. Aragorn may be older than him, but the sense of pride in him following Aragorn''s achievements were so pure that he felt like a father figure at the moment.
A few minutester, Ben came and alsoid his eyes before the 4 pieces of genius that were created and upgraded by Aragorn.
Despite living in a Great Shelter for months already, Ben was also impressed.
Rex no longer wasted time. After wearing a set of leather clothes to cover his body, he finally donned all his mystic treasures in preparation for battle.
Rex donned his new Vampiric Armor, Aragorn''s weapon set, slot his Death Daggers in, before finally grabbing Berserker as he got set for battle.
At this moment, he looked like an Asura that was ready to go on a ughter.
Aragorn was surprised at his actions. "You''re going out?"
"No, we''re going out". Rex smiled.
"When I dered war on the Gandalf Gang, I didn''t dere it with the intentions of starting it in the future. Once I dered it, the war started".
"Our first step to destroying the enemy is wiping off all their traces from our backyard and destroying their foundations here".
"We need to wipe every trace of the Gandalf Gang from the Red Zone". At this moment, Rex''s face already turned serious.
"Show me the list that has all the base of the Gandalf Gang in the Red Zone".
Aragorn was caught off-guard by this but he reacted fast. A few minutester, he returned with a map that outlined the Red Zone. Red marks were all over the map and they were the secret bases of the Gandalf Gang.
"Good". Rex nodded.
"This is my order, mobilize the Berserk Gang army immediately".
"We are going to war!"
Chapter 197 Full War Gear
"Before we leave, I need my Iron Mike Cloak back".
"Oh, I almost forgot". Aragorn pped his head.
Before leaving the Gundam Shelter to the Great River of Gold in search of opportunities to grow stronger, Rex made measures in ce to look after the safety of his 2 friends having known about Arthur''s arrival in the shelter already.
Having shed with Arthur Holmes multiple times already, he had a basic idea about how this sworn enemy of his worked and he did not take any chances.
Despite going to an extremely dangerous region himself in the Great Desert, Rex was still benevolent enough to leave 2 of his trump cards to his sworn brother and sister to carter for their safety.
For Aragorn''s safety, Rex gave him the Super Grade mystic treasure, the Iron Mike Cloak that he won from his ancestor in the micro world of Elias.
As for Princess nor, for her safety, he gave her his Affection Ne. The Elven Princess may have other impressive mystic treasures, but none of them could not offer an advantage like was offered by the Affection Ne.
With those two gifts, Rex was then able to leave with peace of mind.
Now on his return as he was about to ignite a war between the Berserk Gang and the Gandalf Gang, he needed to be in his peak state and he finally needed his 2-trump card mystic treasures back.
Aragorn went into the warehouse that was inside the workshop before returning with the massive red cloak that looked like those of Superman.
The only difference was that the cloak had a more menacing look to it.
"Thank you". Once Rex grabbed the cloak, his system lit up another notification.
-----
[Iron Mike Cloak!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Super Grade!]
Rarity: Very Rare
- Defense: 6,000
- Offense: 13,000
- Durability: 18,000
[Passive Mystic Effect: Cloak Defense!]
[Cloak Defense: The Cloak will instinctively protect you when you are in danger!]
[Mystic Effects: Iron Mike Uppercut; Shadow Mirage; Blood Flight!]
[Iron Mike Uppercut: When activated, the cloak wraps around your hand to help you unleash a lethal uppercut attack that enables you to deal damage ranging from 400-1000% of your base damage.]
[Shadow Mirage: When activated with a shadow mystic ability, you can create shadows that can obscure you from vision. When supplied with enough shadow energy, the mirages be real and can attack.]
[Blood Fight: When activated with your bloodline powers, you can fly.]
[Remark: Iron Mike''s ultimate knock-out cloak!]
----
Even as Ben apanied Aragorn as they went to don their own mystic treasures in preparations to go mobilize the Berserk Gang army, Rex returned to the Berserk Mansion where he met 2 lovebirds expressing their love again.
"Ugh¡" He facepalmed. "Max, can I have your girl for a minute?"
"Sure, gang leader". Max bowed respectfully before shrinking and escaping.
"What''s happening?" Princess nor asked in a surprised tone as she eyed Rex''s stacked form suspiciously. "Are you going for a battle?"
"No, we are going for a battle".
Rex did not waste any time as he exined his intentions to nor, after which he finally asked for his trump card mystic treasure.
"I need the Affection Ne back, it''s my luck charm".
Princess nor pouted at his demand but she still went inside to bring it. Once Rex set his eyes on this beautiful ne again, his heart softened as the image of the girl who stole his heart shed past again.
"I will do all I can to meet you again!" Rex vowed as he finally grabbed the ne only for his system to lit up another notification.
-----
[Affection Ne!]
[This ne contains the affection of a daughter of the river of time.]
[Bonded Owner: Cassandra Putin & Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: The love of the giver.
[Passive Mystic Effects: Soul Nurture.]
[Soul Nurture: When equipped, the Affection Ne constantly nurtures your soul, increasing your resistance against ethereal and soul attacks.]
[Active Mystic Effects: Love Protection; Soul Protection; Absolute Protection!]
[Love Protection: When activated, a heart-shaped defense shield is erected around you that protects against physical attacks depending on the level of mystic energy that is offered.]
[Soul Protection: When activated, a heart-shaped defense shield is erected around you that protects against soul attacks depending on the level of mystic energy that is offered.]
[Absolute Protection: When activated, provides absolute protection against any level and type of attack for 10 seconds.]
[NOTE: The lowest level to activate absolute protection is the super mystic warrior realm. It can also be barely activated by you in the advanced grade, but you''ll need to make a lot of sacrifices for it in blood.]
[NOTE: When used by a myth grade warrior, the duration for absolute protection increases exponentially to a level befitting a myth level ability.]
[Remark: A remake of Romeo and Juliet''s love. Watch out for part 2!]
----
Though this was not his first time looking at it, like usual, Rex was still amazed by the defensive capabilities of this mystic treasure.
This was the best parting gift that Cassandra could have ever given to him in his opinion, he cherished this mystic treasure with his life.
With the Affection Ne secured, Rex was finally ready for war. He was ready to face any opponent and showcase his newfound strength to the world.
"Bring it on!" He growled softly as he essed his system status again.
While the army was being mobilized and as nor and the others got prepared for the war, he decided to use this time to check his personal system status again after checking itst months ago.
-----
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 19
Race: Vampire Ancie
Blood Rank: Vampire Knight
Rank: Advanced Mystic Warrior
Advanced Warrior Grade: 5th tier
Strength: 3,540
Speed: 2,900
Mind: 1,700
Vitality: 5,000
Agility: 2,000
Dexterity: 2,000
Health Points [HP]: 16,500/16,500
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 10,800 /10,800
[Basic Skills: Piercing Stab; Trident of Ethereal ckfire; Blood Prophecy; Zone; Blood Strike; Ghost in the Night!]
>Advanced Sword Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 3rd Move: Annihtion sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
>Advanced ckfire Skills<
[Self-Combustion!]
>Advanced Shadow Skills<
[Shadow Doppelganger!]
[Dark Arrow!]
>Master Level Skills<
[Ultimate Iron Defense!]
[Oxygen Maniption!]
[Phoenix Ash!]
[Precision sh!]
[Master of the Elements!]
¡
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Mystic Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire/Shadow
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
Special Constitution: Vampire Hunter
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense, Blood Hunter, Bat Hunter.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat; Bear-man.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients; Parasitic Armor; Affection Ne; Iron Mike Cloak; Aragorn''s Weapon Set- Boots; Gauntlets; Kneepads.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Transformed Beasts: Grey; Storm; King!]
[Transformed Warrior: Ambition!]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
[Remark: My boy living the dream!]
----
"What are you doing staring into empty space? You drunk?"
Rex turned to look at nor with a smile. "I''m not drunk, I''m just marveled at how much I''ve grown within just a year".
"I wonder how much stronger I''ll be in 3 years".
"You know that our growth speed is finally capping right?"
"Yeah¡" Rex nodded.
nor was correct, after the rapid growth spurt that he enjoyed for arge part of the year, he already noticed that his growth speed was capping.
Not only his natural growth speed, but it was now harder to trigger system missions too. Without a doubt, his path ahead would be tougher and longer.
Despite the challenges that were up ahead though, he believed that he was up to the task. Instead of fearing the challenges, he rather anticipated them.
Rex turned to face nor again. "You ready?"
"Yeah".
Rex wore the Affection Ne, and with that, his war gear wasplete. He sheathed Berserker in its scabbard before marching out of the mansion.
On arriving outside the mansion, Rex saw an army of mystic warriors already gathered before him with Aragorn and Ben at their front.
After months of growth, the Berserk Gang already crossed the 5000 mark in terms of number of warriors. At this moment, about 3000 mystic warriors were gathered before him who were all pumped and ready to go to war with him.
Rex took the center-stage. "Today, we kill those who killed us!"
"Today, we avenge our dead brothers!"
"Today, we dine in the blood of our enemies!"
"To war!"
"TO WAR!!!"
With the mighty response, the warriors boarded the military vehicles that were already waiting for them as they drove out of the Berserk Gangpound inrge numbers. The Berserk Gang was about to prove a point today.
As the other military vehicles left thepound, Aragorn''s Monster Truck also left thepound and went to war.
Today was going to be a long and bloody one.
Chapter 198 War Against The Gandalf Gang
The aim was to wipe out all traces of the Gandalf Gang in the Red Zonepletely within one day and Rex was determined to achieve this.
Onlookers saw military trucks trooping out of the Berserk Mansion inrge numbers, but they had no idea what they were up to.
They could only specte in curiosity and fear.
¡
One of the few secret bases of the Gandalf Gang in the Red Zone.
Before upgrading to the Snake Territory where he grew over the years to establish his gang as a powerhouse, Gandalf, the energy blocker once plied his trade in the Red Zone and also left a deep imprint here.
Upgrading to the Snake Territory did not mean that hepletely abandoned the Red Zone, he left some elements here to monitor this territory.
With his previous strength and influence in the Red Zone, establishing secret bases without drawing too much attention was no hard task for him.
Over the years after establishing the secret bases for his gang, they became akin to spies as through them, he got every information regarding the Red Zone.
Through the secret bases, he knew when Rex and hispanions were smuggled into the Gundam Shelter and when they took over the Berserk Gang.
He also knew when Arthur Elliot and his old friend, Scorpion came to the shelter. Long before Scorpion took the initiative to meet him, he already started stalking this old friend of his to know his motive foring here.
Inside one of these secret bases¡
A burly blonde-haired warrior attended to the pimples on his face through a rotating mirror as he constantly applied pressure to his face, bursting the pimples that were ruining his impable beauty in the process.
This handsome blonde-haired warrior was dressed in thick leather armor, with a pair of daggers attached to both sides of his waist.
Due to his look, he may seem like a good-for-nothing yboy but this yboy was the leader of this secret base of the Gandalf Gang, an intermediate mystic warrior. He was tested and chosen by Gandalf himself.
Today was different though. As he attended to his pimples, against his wishes and order, one of his subordinates rushed into the room.
"Insolence!"
Without even thinking, this angered mystic warrior turned and before the intruder''s eyes could barely register his change in position, the wind blew slightly and a dagger passed, then red flowed and a head rolled.
Without even trying to know what happened, this tyrannous leader killed his subordinate in cold-blood without batting an eyelid.
With a nonchnt look on his face, he turned back to focus on attending to his handsome face but only a few minutester, another one intruded.
"You are courting death!"
He was about to attack already, but unlike the first, this subordinate was wiser. Even before he barged in, he was already yelling his report.
"Tyrant, we are under attack!"
"Huh?" Tyrant paused mid-action of almost severing the subordinate''s head already. And yes, his well-known nickname was Tyrant.
"What did you just say?"
"We are suffering an¡"
This time, the subordinate didn''t get to finish.
BOOM!
Tyrant felt as if an earthquake was imminent as the ground underneath him shook. The loud sound was like those of exploding dominoes as he sped his ears in difort but they still rattled at his senses.
Dozens of explosion sounds rocked this secret base as the few armed war trucks among those that came here attacked, sending the enemies into a panic.
When the loud explosion sounds finally died down and Tyrant recovered, with a look of horror in his face, Tyrant could only watch, stunned as the explosion sounds were reced with those of shing cold weapons.
He rushed outside and what appeared before him stole his confidence away. Over a dozen military vehicles and trucks surrounded the small base, and dozens of mystic warriors were already inside attacking like their lives depended on it.
"How dare they?"
"Who are these?!" He roared angrily.
"The Berserk Gang!" The leader of this attack team answered, also an intermediate mystic warrior as he drove one of the trucks towards Tyrant.
Tyrant was intimidated but he had too much pride to escape with his tail behind his legs. He may be a fool and tyrant in a lot of ways, but he was no coward. When his pride was challenged, he was ready to die than to preserve his life.
Extremely triggered already, he roared and pounced at the military truck as his outrageous speed talent was put in use.
His 2 mystic abilities were rted to the wind and a physical damage-amplifying one. With these 2, he was the perfect intermediate mystic assassin.
Unfortunately for him though, this was not an assassination mission. This was a frontal battle where he had to fight against an equally strong opponent.
With his war axe mystic weapon, the tenacious intermediate mystic warrior from the Berserk Gang stood his ground until this secret base was taken over.
Once it was taken over, more warriors came to support him and the instant that Tyrant could no longer use his outrageous speed to harass him, he died.
This powerful warrior separated Tyrant''s head from his body with his war axe, then he raised it up and roared. "For the Berserk Gang!"
His warriors responded. "For the BERSERK GANG!"
Killing Tyrant and taking over his secret base was not the end of his quest, thinking about the juicy rewards that Lord Aragorn automated to be given to warriors based on their performances, all of them were pumped-up.
Without wasting a single second to rest, they left to their next destination.
To motivate the warriors to give their best in this battle, having learned through experience of studying other gangs, Aragorn put down lucrative rewards that would surely push them to giving beyond their best in this raid.
This was what motivated the Berserk Gang''s incredible performance.
Just like happened with Tyrant''s secret base, the secret bases of the Gandalf Gang who already grew to becent through the years paid the price of their ipetence in blood.
All over the Red Zone, scenes like this happened as the Berserk Gang became their first major military operation after a long time of silence and umtion.
¡
Alongside Aragorn''s Monster Truck, Rex''s onlypanion was Storm.
For this gang raid, he intended to reveal only one of his beasts to intimidate his opponents with Storm''s current strength and leave them guessing about the current strength of his remaining beasts and transformed warrior.
Wars between gangs did not just involve the physical aspect but the psychological also. Rex already started a psychological battle with them.
Inside the Monster Truck, having upgraded it and personalized the truck, Aragorn was able to oversee the whole raid from inside the truck.
With him overseeing everything, he didn''t need to fight, all he needed was to escort Rex, Ben, and nor to the destinations which were giving their subordinates a headache like here.
4 Intermediate mystic warriors of the Gandalf Gang put up a fierce struggle with their warriors as they ended up killing one of the intermediate mystic warriors of the Berserk Gang that raided this secret base.
That kill was theirst though because a massive truck soon appeared.
Almost immediately after the truck appeared, a massive Storm Kamaitachi also appeared. Storm appeared with the wind; Rex rode it like a horse as Storm used its weather maniption ability to take control of the weather.
Lightning and thunder roared in the sky even as the sky turned dark like a storm was imminent, and it was in this storm that beast and master wreaked havoc.
Storm wreaked havoc with its speed, storm harness, and storm assassin skills which made it more or less a speed demon assassin in this battlefield.
As for Rex, he simply ughtered with his sword from on top Storm.
Since there were no enemies here that could hold a candle to him, it was a one-sided ughter that left blood flowing like a river in his wake.
nor and Ben only joined the battle to not remain left out of the fun. For every secret base that they personally attacked, it didn''t take up to a minute before a massacre waspleted, they were simply that outrageously stronger.
Adding the fact that the Gandalf Gang never expected Rex''s sudden return and aggression, they stood no chance as the secret bases just kept on falling.
From the morning when the Berserk Army was mobilized, with Rex leading the charge, they fought more and more to the deepest corners of the Red Zone.
Over decades, the Gandalf Gang despite not maining here had deep roots all over the red zone. This time, Rex was not just content with cutting these roots, he intended to cut off and integrate these roots into his own tree.
The Berserk Gang massacred, integrated, and took over these secret bases.
That day, the Berserk Gang really dined in the blood of their enemies. The aggression led by Rex was so strong that it overshadowed everything else that happened in the red zone that day.
Despite the fierce resistance of their enemies, under Rex''s leadership, they were able to wipe out all of them, the Berserk Gang emerged victorious.
Rex raised his sword. "This is just the first of many victories".
"For the Berserk Gang!"
"FOR THE BERSERK GANG!" The excited warriors roared.
Chapter 199 Conquest Plan
"What? Rex already came back?"
Arthur stood up in shock as soon as his subordinate reported to him.
Having waited for a long time and searched everywhere for him to no avail for over 2 months already, though Arthur hated to admit it, he started believing the strange rumor that Rex was perhaps already dead.
Rex dying was a joyous news in his books, the only problem was that after suffering so much humiliation from him, he wanted to kill Rex himself.
Arthur wanted to relish the pleasure of sucking Rex''s life away, he was too greedy to leave this pleasure to someone else and was why he was paranoid.
For the past 2 months, he was the sole motivator behind the constant attacks on the Berserk Gang. The more he attacked and the more the Berserk Gang did not respond, the more he was irritated and motivated to wreak more havoc.
For the next attack, he was ready to mobilize a troop which he would personally lead to attack the headquarters of the enemy, the Berserk Mansion.
If he attacked the Berserk Mansion and Rex still didn''t show up, then he could finally confirm that Rex was really dead.
Before he could act though, an emergency was reported in the headquarters of the Gandalf Gang as they seemed to begin losing ess to their secret bases through which they monitored all activities in the Red Zone.
Arthur was curious but he remained patient and let the specialists troubleshoot the problem. During his wait was when one of his subordinates came and reported the news to him.
On hearing that the Berserk Gang attacked the Gandalf Gang''s detached secret bases, he was shocked as he wondered what gave them the confidence.
It was after hearing of Rex''s return that he finally understood. "That fearless bastard is capable of doing this!" Arthur gritted his teeth.
He was d at Rex''s return and irritated by the fact that he had to wait for so long. Without hesitation, he grabbed his mystic daggers and left.
A few minutester, he entered an office where Scorpion and Gandalf were already gathered. Without hesitation, he spoke. "Rex is back!"
"Yes, we know". Gandalf turned to face the younger mystic warrior.
Arthur was already agitated. "We need to go kill him now!"
Gandalf smiled. "You promised to be patient. You''ve already tried to kill him more than once in the past with your own n but you failed, leave this to me".
"If you really want him dead this time, be patient and leave it to me".
Arthur was reluctant but on looking back at his track record when facing Rex and remembering the warning from his elders, he calmed down. "Ok".
Throughout the whole conversation, Scorpion remained quiet.
¡
The Berserk Gang had a great victory, but it was not without sacrifices.
"What is the casualty estimate?" Rex asked as soon as he returned to the Berserk Mansion where he finally got to free himself from his war gear.
Wearing such a thick mystic armor with his other mystic treasures into battle looked dope, but he still had to admit that thefort levels while wearing them was still not the best, especially now when he already stressed himself.
Once Rex asked, Aragorn focused on hisputer screen as he typed away at the virtual keyboard that hovered before him.
About a minuteter, he finally answered. "There are already 800 confirmed deaths with a tendency to rise over 900".
Rex paused. "What about the enemies?"
"More than 2000 of their warriors died since they didn''t expect the attack and were caught off-guard. All their secret bases have been taken by us".
"Good". Rex nodded in satisfaction, this was more or less what he expected before starting the raid. "Prepare a funeral for the dead warriors".
As Aragorn went to work organizing a befitting funeral for the warriors who died to further the cause of the gang, Rex thought back to their sacrifices.
During the past 2 months as the Gandalf Gang harassed them, there were casualties here and there but they never crossed the dozens. Thebined casualties of the past 2 months were lesser than the ones suffered today.
Though he already expected it, Rex was still affected as he thought of the possible consequences of so many warriors dying at the same time.
The consequences were numerous and they were all negative.
They were only up against the detached forces of the Gandalf Gang, and they already suffered such harsh casualties. Considering that the Berserk Gang barely had 10,000 mystic warriors, this was a huge blow.
Apart from the fact that they seeded and took over all the secret bases of the enemy, every other fact resulted in a drop in morale of the Berserk Gang army.
If fighting against just the detached troops of the Gandalf Gang already resulted in so much casualties, they dreaded to think about fighting the main gang itself, it would by far be the greatest test of the Berserk Gang.
Another demoralizing fact was that the Berserk Gang was still far smaller and weaker than the Gandalf Gang. Rex had the confidence to go on this impossible mission due to his incredible personal strength after returning from the desert.
Unfortunately, his incredible personal strength didn''t trante to the strength of the Berserk Gang as a whole. He was just one part of the gang.
He may be powerful but he was no one-man army yet especially against enemies as strong as the Gandalf Gang. Rex felt the need to re-strategize.
Without hesitation, Rex started re-strategizing. If he could think despite this victory and arrive at so many negative points that were against the gang, some of his warriors could definitely think too.
If he left this unattended, it could bring problems for the gang in the future.
At this moment, they had confidence in him due to the incredible boldness that he showed while motivating them to go to war.
But the effects of being an incredible public speaker could onlyst so long. If the casualty rate continued like this, no one could guess when morale would start dipping fast and the desire to leave the gang would starting.
Once the desire to leave came, the Berserk Gang was already half-way towards destruction and this was what Rex desired to prevent the most.
No matter how important he saw himself and his sworn brothers and sister to the Berserk Gang, he still had to admit that the other warriors who made up the gang were the real pirs of foundation of the gang.
Without the thousands of basic and intermediate mystic warriors, there would be no Berserk Gang and catering for them was catering for the gang.
After removing his war gear and locking himself in his room to think, Rex was only able to arrive at a single n, expanding the Berserk Gang.
With today''s raid, he already kickstarted the war. Even if the Gandalf Gang did not retaliate immediately tomorrow, they would retaliate soon and to survive, the Berserk Gang needed to be prepared for the iing heat.
Instead of resting after today''s sessful raid, Rex decided that it was time that the Berserk Gang rode the current momentum and expanded again.
In the Gundam Shelter, apart from integrating new mystic warriors that came here, the only other way for expansion and growth was the chaotic way of attacking and taking over other gangs.
Attacking other gangs was the best possible short-term method for the Berserk Gang to get strong enough to put a resistance to the Gandalf Gang.
Rex stopped this activity after taking over the Berserk Gang since then, he, Aragorn, and nor had to consolidate their nearly discovered powers as Advanced mystic warriors. Now though, they were free to be ambitious again.
Once he thought of it, Rex could not suppress it as he soon left his room and returned to the strategy room while calling for his sworn brothers and sister.
By the time that Aragorn, nor, and Ben arrived at the strategy room, Rex already drew a chart on the virtual screen that illustrated his n.
"What are you up to?" Aragorn narrowed his eyes as he looked at the screen.
"Is that a conquest chart?" Princess nor asked in a surprised tone.
Rex was surprised. "Yes, how did you get it so fast?"
"My father regrly had conquest campaigns to take over the territory of the Kamaitachis, I grew used to it".
Rex gave her a thumb up and started exining. "The Blood Market is the focal point of this region and the only point that we cannot covet due to the powers that own it, I marked it with blue".
"To the south of the Blood Market is our territory, the Berserk Territory which I marked with green".
"The other cardinal locations of the Blood Market are territories of loose gangs and organizations which I marked with red. These are our targets; I want us to start our conquest with them".
"If we can take all of them in even after fighting a great battle, we can have an influx of mystic warriors not less than 5000 or 6000 which would be a great boost to our army".
Aragorn rubbed his chin. "But we''ll have to lose warriors too in the conquest".
"That''s why I drew a chart". Rex smiled. "My n is not to attack but to use advanced intimidation tactics to take over all of this territory".
"If we can take all of them in without a battle, we can have an influx of mystic warriors not less than 10,000, effectively doubling our current numbers".
"After our little victory over the Gandalf Gang, our notoriety in the Red Zone grew a bit. Let us ride the momentum to full effect and benefit maximally from it".
For over 40 minutes, Rex and his sworn brothers and sister nned on the perfect strategy to take over the surrounding territories without a fight.
It was not perfect but they seeded in arriving at a n, all that was needed now was the finishing elements for the n to be perfected.
"We''ll perfect the n tomorrow".
With that, Rex drew the nning to a close as his brain was already tired and needed rest. On his way back to his room, nothing happened but Rex froze as soon as he entered his room in the Berserk Mansion.
An intruder in ck was seated on his bed.
Rex''s eyes widened in alert as all traces of sleep left him. "Who are you?"
Chapter 200 Meeting The Snake Empress
"Who are you?" Rex''s eyes already turned red as he asked.
After Berserker''s recent upgrade in the Sword Saint''s tomb, their telepathic rtionship increased and now Rex could simply summon Berserker no matter where it was by simply outstretching his hands and asking for it.
Even as he asked, Rex was already about to stretch his hands having left Berserker in the armory but the intruder in ck finally spoke.
It was a familiar voice. "Rex, long time no see".
"¡" All of Rex''s actions paused as soon as he heard this.
His eyes widened as he stared at this figure in ck in astonishment. This was when his brain finally clicked as he started registering the familiarity, he stammered. "I-is that you?"
The figure in ck kept silent as she finally stood up and turned to face him, then Rex''s breath eluded him as he gasped for breath.
Rex could not control himself. He rushed closer as his hands grabbed her face and caressed it to make sure that he was not before the wrong person. The feel felt rougher but he was 100% confident that this was the girl he loved.
Once he confirmed, without saying a word, Rex engulfed her in an embrace.
Both of them kept the silence, they said nothing, simply expressing their love for each other through their bodies which were in close contact at this moment.
After about a year of not seeing her, Rex finally saw Cassandra again.
For a long time, due to his busy schedule and his pressure to be stronger, he simply forgot about her.
It got to a point where it seemed like he didn''t miss her but it was on seeing her again that Rex discovered how much he really missed her.
Having to worry about enemies like the Ancient Holmes family, and the greatest swordsman alive, the pressure on his shoulders was enormous but, in this embrace, Rex felt all the pressure dissipating like the wind.
He hugged her so tight that he didn''t want to release her anymore.
It was only after about 5 minutes did Cassandra finally protest.
She punched him slightly on the waist. "You didn''t even care to try checking to know my current condition for once over 1 whole year and here you are trying to squeeze the breath out of me".
"Give me some space".
She soon pushed him away but Rex was all smiles.
After a long time of keeping his face serious due to the stress and pressure, for the first time in a while, a genuine smile of joy filled his face.
Though he wanted to use this rare opportunity to express his love that reached the ends of the earth to her, Rex was also perceptive and realistic enough to see the abnormality in her sudden arrival.
They''ve been forging their own journey for over a year already, why did Cassandra suddenly appear today? And why did shee in the night?
Lastly, how did she be strong enough to infiltrate the headquarters of the Berserk Gang so effortlessly without triggering any rms?
After expressing his apology for not even asking about her all this while, Rex finally gave her the ''tell me everything'' look that always worked wonders.
By now, he could already tell that Cassandra was no longer the same girl that he knew. She had a new aura that made him stay restrained and respectful.
"Have you heard of the Sad Flute Assassins?" Cassandra did not beat around the bush; she went straight to the point.
Rex raised an eyebrow on hearing the question but he answered. "Yes".
"I am the Snake Empress of the Sad Flute Assassins".
"Ahem¡" Rex coughed and almost choked but he soon gave a knowing smile. "Then I am the Lightsaber Ghost¡, no, the King of Daggers of the Sad Flute¡"
"I¡, am¡, serious!" Cassandra stressed as her eyes and aura changed.
Instantly, a cold aura engulfed Cassandra''s body like that emitted by a Python that was curling, patiently stalking and waiting to devour its prey.
As soon as Cassandra''s eyes turned into those of a snake, Rex felt a predatory aura that jolted his soul as instantly, all the hair on his body stood on their end.
Whoosh!
His hand instinctively stretched and with the speed of the wind, Berserker flew into the room beforending on his grasp. It was when he finally felt the reassuring feeling of Berserker''s hilt that his anxiety finally calmed down.
Silently, both of them stared at each other.
"I am serious". Cassandra said again, this time in a lower tone.
Rex nodded quietly to indicate that he was in the same page as her. At this moment, an unnatural expression was on his face though he tried hard to no avail to hide it and remain neutral.
Cassandra ignored his expression and continued. "As the Snake Empress, I have a lot of authority in the Sad Flute Assassins".
"Do you remember your reason for why we can''t be together yet? Youined of not wanting to burden me, and I held this word close".
"Over the year, that word pushed me and I worked hard after joining the Sad Flute Assassins until I ascended to be one of the 3 leaders of the assassin organization".
"What have you been doing all this while to still be a gang leader while I grew to be the 2nd most important member in such a big assassin organization?"
"¡" Rex speechlessly looked back at Cassandra.
Without a doubt, Cassandra the girl he loved was no longer the one who was speaking to him now, rather it was Cassandra the Snake Empress who spoke.
Cassandra noted his silence and continued. "After so long of developing, the Sad Flutes Assassin is finally ready to expand its reach and territory. I finally got the opportunity that I was waiting for".
"I brought the suggestion up first and therefore took priority for the proceedings. With my authority, I influenced their decision toe here".
Rex finally spoke. "The Sad Flute Assassins are here?"
"Yes, in the Gundam Shelter but not in the Red Zone".
She spoke again. "I want to help you and your gang".
"Once we settled in the Gundam Shelter, we observed things for the past few months and discovered that a takeover would not be as straightforward as we thought. We needed an insider to seed".
"If we forced things, taking over the Red Zone and even the Snake Territory was not impossible, but the ck Zone of the Gundam Shelter is a different story".
"The military organizations and mercenary organizations that settle there are evolutions of gangs which thrived in each of the previous 2 zones of the shelter for at least a century already before upgrading to the ck Zone".
"2 of the military organizations in the ck Zone has Super Grade mystic warriors as their secret leaders unbeknownst to the public".
By now, Rex was as silent as a mouse as he only listened.
"Despite the power of the organizations in the ck Zone, it didn''t deter us, it only motivated us after we thought of the possible benefits of sess".
"Despite being motivated, we are realistic enough to know that we cannot take over the ck Zone without inside help".
"We need a local gang that can serve as our mascot".
"We believe that by secretly supporting a local gang, we''ll get their loyalty while secretly orchestrating their rise to the top to topple the immovable powers of the ck Zone".
"We still haven''t decided on a target, but I already choose you".
"All you need to do is perform well and attract the attention of the other 2 leaders. Once you do, with my support, the Berserk Gang will be chosen".
"Within 1 week, make sure that the Berserk Gang secures a spot for itself in the Snake Territory. This is your ticket to receive my support".
Cassandra finally stood up and turned to leave, but she paused. "One more thing, through the incredible influence that my organization gained in recent times, I was able to get information about the Great Shelters".
"Have you not always wondered why the powerful Super Grade and Myth Grade warriors of the Holmes family didn''te to personally kill you yet?"
"Well, put your mind at peace, something is holding them back".
"This thing would die though after 5 years".
"You have only 5 more years to develop".
"If you don''t make it and acquire enough strength, you''ll die".
After leaving those cold words, Cassandra disappeared from the room like a shadow. Even with his shadow mystic ability, Rex could not trace her.
It was after she left that the air that was stuck in his lungs finally flowed freely. Rex coughed hard as her parting words left a deep impression on him.
Cassandra offered to help him; he was supposed to be grateful but the manner in which she did it left him in a great dilemma.
Cassandra spoke as the Snake Empress to him with such nonchnce like his life or death didn''t matter before her. He knew that this was probably to pressure and stimte him to work hard, but it was still an awful experience.
"Why did she change so much?"
Instantly after he asked, he got his answer. "Strength".
Over the past 1 year, he thought he already tried and even contemted slowing down, but after Cassandra''s speech, he now felt really inadequate.
"I can''t let myself be outdone!"
"I can''t lose!"
That night, Rex did not sleep as he spent the whole time working on perfecting the n. His perseverance paid off as even though the n was still not perfect, it was miles better than where they stopped yesterday.
Despite his blood-shot eyes, Rex was super motivated. "I can do this!"
Chapter 201 Accelerating Plans
"I can do this!"
Rex grabbed his n draft and put on his shoes as he stood up to leave the room, he had no intentions to waste time or even rest.
Due to his Vampire Knight constitution, he could now stay even 3 days without getting a single sleep and he would be fine but the problem with this night was that he was justing off of a great raid of the Gandalf Gang.
Apart from that, having been challenged by Snake Empress Cassandra, he was motivated as he gave his all and used his brain all through the night.
Using mental power was in the end more tiring than using physical power. Rex felt dizzy but he was adamant to fight it through sheer willpower.
He was going to show his n draft to Aragorn and nor, and if possible, mobilize the Berserk Gang army to implement the n immediately.
As soon as he stood up though, Rex missed his step, barely stabilizing himself as he suddenly noticed the lights all around him fading into ck.
The ground before him started widening and elongating, the objects before him strangely started being farther than expected, it was like he was stuck in an optical illusion that was messing with his brain.
Rexughed. "Who is using illusory powers on me so early in the morning?"
His next step answered him, he was the one using illusory powers on himself.
Taking the next step was what took him over the edge, all the lights faded to darkness and Rex waspletely unaware as he passed out.
Thud!
He soon fell in an unnatural position but that was not enough to wake him up as he rode the momentum and dove into the sweet world of sleep.
He was soon snoring loudly.
¡
Knock! Knock!
"My girlfriend can''t be stronger than me¡"
"My girlfriend is not stronger than me¡"
"My girlfriend is not more talented than me¡"
"My girlfriend¡"
Aragorn, nor, and Ben looked down at their friend weirdly. "Rex?"
"Ahh!!! F*ck you girlfriend!" Rex was startled awake.
He grabbed Berserker as he jumped up and turned around like he was fighting a formidable enemy. Throughout all this, his 3 friends looked at him with an amused expression on their faces.
"Hey!" He finally greeted them as he also noticed the strangeness of the current situation, he blushed thinking of how he just yelled from his sleep.
"Were you just dreaming?" nor asked first as she barely held herughter.
"Umm, kinda¡"
"Muahahahaha!" Ben soon erupted intoughter. He was so caught in into theugh that he even fell down and rolled on the floor.
When he finally stood up, theugh was still stuck in his throat. "Get a girlfriend I always preached to you but you refused, now you''re fantasizing about a girlfriend in your dreams, so pathetic".
Rex wanted to get angry at his friend but he ended up only blushing as he thought of her embarrassing his current situation was.
He decided not to sumb to them though but to rather act tough. "By the way, why are you 3 here? Aren''t you supposed to be in your rooms?"
Aragorn gave Rex a look. "Check your time".
Rex nced outside through the window and seeing the shadowy light of the moon disappearing which was a trademark of early morning, he asked. "Isn''t it still morning?"
"Check your time". Aragorn stressed again.
Perplexed now, Rex gave the order and the electronic clock on the wall lit up. Instantly after the clock lit up, he felt lightheaded again and almost fell.
>6:34 PM<
Rex''s eyes widened in shock, then he scratched his head in confusion. "From the looks of it, I seemed to have slept for a long time. Is this evening of today or the evening of another day?"
"¡" All 3 of his friends palmed their faces. "Rex, you''re drunk".
It took some lengthy exnation from his 3 friends before hisgging brain that still seemed asleep finallyprehended that this evening was of today.
Apparently, after passing out, he slept throughout the whole day and possibly could have kept on going if his 3 friends didn''t check up on him.
"We already perfected some parts of the n,e see it".
"Oh, I perfected some parts too, I''ming".
Once his 3 friends left the room, Rex rushed to have a quick bath beforeing out refreshed and energized.
Before leaving his room after picking up the draft though, Rex closed his eyes and gently touched the ne that surrounded his neck.
-----
[Affection Ne!]
[This ne contains the affection of a daughter of the river of time.]
[Bonded Owner: Cassandra Putin & Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: The love of the giver.
----
On seeing that the bonded owners of the ne where still the 2 of them, Rex literally felt like crying as his insecurity that lingered from his dream reduced.
"She still loves me". He consoled himself with this and left the room.
On returning to the strategy room, he saw nor and Ben already seated with Aragorn standing and manipting the virtual screen that illustrated the n. He sat and also listened to Aragorn''s presentation.
Just a few minutes in, he was able to catch the changes that they made to the n. The changes indeed increased the sess rate.
Once Aragorn was done with his presentation, Rex smiled before also taking the stage. Then he also illustrated the changes that he made to the n.
He didn''t spend such an enormous amount of his brainpower for nothing, his changes increased the sess rate of the n by as much as 20%.
"The main aspect of focus is the propaganda".
"Before now, I already built a reputation for myself as a ruthless mystic warrior after I let Storm kill the previous owner of the gang during the takeover".
"That was thest high-profile act that I did among the gangs in the Red Zone despite spending more than 1 year here already apart from the recent raid that we all took part in to weaken the Gandalf Gang".
"The effects may not be much, but having not heard much about me in the past months, my impression in the minds of most warriors here has reduced".
"They no longer see me as that crazy, ruthless, and powerful mystic warrior".
"To achieve our objective of taking all these small gangs and organizations in and expanding our territory without a battle, I need that notorious reputation back. The raid on the Gandalf Gang increased the Berserk Gang''s notoriety, not mine".
"To truly serve as an intimidation object, I need my notoriety back".
"That is the focus of my improvement to the n and I already created an implementation strategy which I will start this night".
"This night, I will go out there, hunt and kill 3 gang leaders who are Advanced mystic warriors. I want to use this to restore my notoriety back".
"By morning, words of my ruthless actions would have spread widely across the Red Zone, adding this momentum to that of raiding the Gandalf Gang is what we need to achieve sess".
Rex''s n was radical but it was a bullseye hit straight at the root of the problem, it covered for all major shorings of their intimidation tactic.
After illustrating his n to them, Rex gave them room for their opinion. For 30 minutes, they gave opinions as they funed the n even more until it was finally perfected in their opinion.
Once they all agreed on one n, having thought about it for the past few minutes, Rex drew the attention of his friends as he told them about Cassandra.
Aragorn, Ben, and nor already graduated from being his friends, they were his sworn brothers and sister already and he trusted thempletely.
Cassandra''s message served as both motivation and help to him, but it also put him under a great deal of pressure and was why he told them.
On hearing that he finally got a girlfriend, Ben was shocked and ecstatic. "Come get a hug bro, you''re finally prioritizing the really important things".
nor was also surprised but Aragorn''s focus was on the more serious points of Cassandra''s intrusion, he soon came to a conclusion.
"We must win and take over the Gandalf Gang!"
He turned to face his friends with a serious look on his face. "Unlike you guys, I know a lot about the Sad Flute Assassins. If we can get the help of these guys, we are set for domination in the Gundam Shelter".
"Our only hope of making it to the Snake Territory in one week is through the Gandalf Gang, we need to start elerating our ns".
Instantly, they became busy. While the others started organizing the Berserk Gang Army for tomorrow, Rex returned to his room to prepare.
He meditated for 5 hours till it was 11 in the night, then he opened his eyes. In minutes, Rex donned his full war gear and left the Berserk Mansion.
Blood would flow and heads would roll that night.
Chapter 202 The Terror Of The Night
"The night is going to be a long one". The gang leader of the Rising Sun-giant gang muttered as he looked outside through the window in his room.
Unlike the mainstream powerful gangs like the Berserk Gang and the Axe Gang who were more or less the bullies of the Red Zone already, the Rising Sun-giant gang was among the average gangs in terms of power.
They were not at the lower end of the spectrum of power in the Red Zone, they simply settledfortably in the middle where they hoarded power.
And unlike the Berserk Gang, they didn''t have a huge mansion which was their base of operations. There territory was a collection of upleted buildings.
The Berserk Gang having a mansion showed their luxury and status. For most gangs of the Gundam Shelter in the Red Zone, they settled for upleted buildings as their territory and base of operation.
Since it was already past 11 in the night, most of the warriors of the gang already went to sleep, only those on sentry duty were still awake.
The gang leader of the Rising Sun-giant gang was a huge and muscr man that looked no different from a giant when before other warriors.
He had an eye patch on his left eye and arge sword scar on his right cheek, these physical traits set him up as a fierce and mean warrior.
In this lonely room of his, his onlypanion was his battle hammer. After staying with his battle hammer for over a decade already, he already developed a special rtionship with it where they couldmunicate subtly.
At this time of the night, he was supposed to be asleep already but he could not this time. For some strange reason, his beloved battle hammer was restless.
He could only feel the restlessness of the hammer as he caressed its smooth surface. The frustrating thing was that the hammer could notmunicate smoothly with him so he was left guessing.
"Dragon Horn, what are you trying to tell me?" He asked but got no reply.
Frustrated, this muscr warrior stood up and went closer to the window. There, he was able to see the half moon that illuminated the sky.
The strange thing was that as he looked, to his shock, the moon suddenly started developing a shade of red. In just a few minutes, the originally white and bright moon turned into a red moon.
He was even more baffled as the weather suddenly changed, then rain started falling from the skies. An ominous feeling instantly rose in his heart.
Whoosh!
The sound was like the wind blowing, but Gaga instantly knew that this was no ordinary wind as goosebumps filled his skin.
He grabbed Dragon Horn, his battle hammer and looked into the distance. At the entrance to his gang territory, he was able to see the remnants of the sword energy that just cleared about a dozen of his warriors on sentry duty.
The strange thing was that this sword energy carried a water element with it. Through the red moon, the flying blood, and the 8 warriors who nowid on the ground dead, Gaga finally saw the culprit behind this strange phenomenon.
He first saw a beast, a beast that people all over the Red Zone were already growing to know, a Kamaitachi. Riding this beast was its master, Rex!
On seeing Rex, Gaga''s face tightened as a bad feeling rose in his heart. Without hesitation, he rang the rm bell through which the gang alert rang.
Wom! Wom! Wom!
11:30 in the night, the whole Rising Sun-giant gang was aroused.
Once they knew that they were suffering an attack, the warriors rushed towards the entrance of the gang territory where they met the Kamaitachi and its master who at this moment was dressed in a red attire.
Rex''s red attire blend perfectly with the red moon and the blood that was about to flow tonight. Once he raised his head, he activated his ability again.
-----
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
----
This time, instead of water, Rex used the fire elemental affinity which he briefly gained control over as the massive sword energy swept over like a gue.
The sword energy cut apart with incredible sharpness, while the fire incinerated every living thing that survived the onught of the sharpness.
In one attack, more than 20 mystic warriors died.
Rex''s third sword attack made use of the wind elemental energy, and instantly, another 15 mystic warriors died to his master level sword skill.
By now, the Rising Sun-giant already lost all the momentum and confidence through which they previously sprinted at him as they paused in shock and fear.
Due to his intentions of propaganda for this intimidation act, Rex deliberately caused amotion and other nearby gangs already woke up. They did not interfere as they watched themotion from a distance.
With blood all over in this blood moon, a Kamaitachi and its master swaggered deep into the Rising Sun-giant territory with no warrior daring to attack them again after his incredible show of power.
Even Gaga, the giant warrior was petrified in shock as he stood shivering with his Dragon Horn hammer. He could not attack, nor could he run, he was already affected by another of Rex''s abilities.
-----
You have activated the Death Dagger mystic effect: Ancien Gaze!
----
Under the petrifying gaze of a dead Vampire Ancie, Gaga was like a paralysis patient as he just stood shivering till the Kamaitachi was beside him.
"Please, spare my life". He begged.
He looked up at Rex in hope but the only thing that he saw looking down at him was a pair of glowing red eyes that showed no signs of sympathy.
Gaga shuddered and inwardly said hisst prayer.
Whoosh!
All it required was one casual swing with Berserker, and the powerful Advanced mystic warrior of the Rising Sun-giant lost his life.
The same way that Rex swaggered in, after taking Gaga''s Advanced mystic battle hammer, he swaggered out, leaving a scene of blood and disaster that left a deep impression on all that saw it.
As soon as Rex left the spotlight, he gasped breathlessly. He may be more powerful than Gaga, but winning so effortlessly required some sacrifices on his part. Though the battle was short, he used up more than 90% of his mystic energy.
Rex waited till he recovered before he left to his next destination.
¡
News travel fast, despite it already being past 12 in the night in the Gundam Shelter, the news of Gaga''s death spread fast like wildfire spreading in harmattan.
All the gangs were left shocked and guessing Rex''s motive.
That same night though, around 12:40, another gang was attacked. Like the previous time, Rex''s target was once again a gang in the middle ranks of the spectrum of power in the Red Zone.
The 3 Elephants gang were just as shocked and caught off-guard as the Rising Sun-giant gang. This time, to increase the sess rate of his wless and convincing battle n, Rex morphed into his half-bat form.
With the Fear Apostle passive ability of his half-bat form, the Ancien Gaze mystic effect of his Death Daggers became even more lethal and effective.
By feeding on their fear, after a powerful disy of strength from him that left a deep impression on them, they were all petrified in fear again.
In his half-bat form, Rex grabbed Lemar, the gang leader of the 3 Elephants gang before flying high into the sky where he could be seen far and wide.
With the red moon focusing its light on him, Rex was like a vampire god.
"I sentence you to death!"
With his thick ws and strong grip, Rex squeezed and severed Lemar''s head from the rest parts of his body as blood sprayed everywhere.
Most of this blood sprayed towards his face and Rex''s more feral instincts as a vampire were triggered as he opened his mouth and drank the blood ravenously.
Every single warrior who saw this scene felt a chill crawling down their spines. Just like with the Rising Sun-giant gang, the 3 Elephants gang lost their gang leader without being able to put up a fight.
Rex took the Advanced mystic weapon of Lemar before swaggering out of the territory of the 3 Elephants gang, the news once again traveled fast.
After the 2nd assassination that night, all the gangs in the Red Zone were instantly put on high alert mode as they anticipated attacks from the red vampire.
¡
Rex''s 3rd target was the Triple Threat Gang.
Unlike the previous 2, having been spooked by his actions in the previous 2 gangs, all of them were awake and they prepared for hising.
This time, Rex could no longer have a wless and overwhelming victory like he did with the previous 2. Despite this, the oue was not so different.
Having been tasked with only a minor job of changing the weather and inducing rain previously, Storm finally got his opportunity to y a major part in this night raid.
Alongside his transformed beast, Rex ran riot through the Triple Threat Gang.
Not less than 200 mystic warriors died before Quinn, the powerful Advanced mystic warrior leader of the Triple Threat Gang finally died.
After this, every gang in the Red Zone was ced in a panic and super high alert level. No warrior dared to sleep anymore, they were all on high alert expecting an attack. This was exactly the effect that Rex wanted to induce.
When the tension was at the highest and fear was prevalent, Rex finally retired for the night.
That night, only the Berserk Gang was able to sleep without worries.
All other gangs had to worry about the terror of the night, the red vampire.
Chapter 203 If Its A War You Want, A War You Will Get
The Gundam Shelter was easily one of the biggest shelters out there as over the years, its numerous gangs and military organizations expanded its territory.
The Red Zone itself upied a huge expanse ofnd.
The territory around the Blood Market was just one small part of the massive Red Zone. All 3 gangs that Rex attacked the previous day were around the territory of the Blood Market which was also where the Berserk Gang based.
Despite the fact that the targets were all in the Blood Market territory, news of Rex''s notorious deeds the previous night still spread far and wide.
Literally the whole Red Zone already heard of the news.
Those that were perceptive enough could already sense the undercurrents that was starting with the Berserk Gang. As for the others who were clueless, they could only guess in fear at the intentions of the Berserk Gang.
Throughout the night, no mystic warrior of any gang dared sleep as they all did night vigils, straining their tired brains to constantly remain alert against an attack, the red vampire already struck fear through their hearts.
In the whole Blood Market territory, though there were dozens of gangs, only 7 gangs had Advanced mystic warriors as their gang leaders.
Of these 7, Rex of the Berserk Gang already killed 3, leaving only 3 alive. In the grand scheme of things, this looked like a major loss to Rex who intended to take them all in but he saw it as a necessary evil for the greater good.
During the night, while Rex went solo to assassinate the 3 Advanced mystic warriors, Aragorn, Ben, and nor were also hard at work organizing the army.
If the night was the vigil, today was the D-day.
After having a good night rest, Rex finally woke up to meet his 3 friends already waiting for him in the strategy room.
Before leaving, he did not forget to don his war gear.
"Are you set?" Aragorn asked as soon as he saw Rex.
"Yes, have you chosen the target that we''ll meet to negotiate with first?"
Aragorn looked at the other 2 before replying. "We decided to meet the gang leader of the Silver Surfer gang first, he is the strongest of all 3".
"What tier?"
"Hisst battle shows that he is a 2nd tier Advanced mystic warrior. The other 2 including the 3 that you killed yesterday are all 1st tier Advanced mystic warriors".
"Ok, once you''re ready, let''s leave".
Having decided on it during their previous gathering, Aragorn and Rex would be responsible for the negotiations to integrate the target gangs into the Berserk Gang. As for Ben and nor, they''ll protect the Berserk Mansion in their absence.
Before they left, nor asked a question. "Rex, what of the smaller gangs?"
"They''ll follow the trend", Rex smiled. "They don''t have a choice. Once I subdue the Silver Surfer, Mountain Pir, and Ape Ville gangs, those that are wise enough would recognize the trend and seek to join us themselves".
"As for those that don''t seek to join on their own initiative, we''ll offer an olive branch towards them. Those that agree, we''ll integrate them".
"As for those that refuse, they have only one fate, death".
It was cruel, but this was the way of the Gundam Shelter.
This was the reason why Rex and hispanions came here to start anew. In the Gundam Shelter, there was no constitution or rule ofw, strength was the only rule ofw that was respected in this chaotic shelter.
If you had the required strength, you could create your own rule ofw.
Having been developing for months already, Rex and his gang finally got to the point where they could create their ownws and enforce them.
On going outside, Rex and Aragorn saw thousands of mystic warriors already gathered outside the mansion. They were all prepped and ready for battle, all that they were waiting for was the order from the gang leader.
They saluted respectfully on seeing Lord Rex and Lord Aragorn.
After waving at them, both leaders of the Berserk Gang boarded the Monster Truck whose powerful engine soon reeved loudly. Aragorn took hold of the steering wheel as he piloted the powerful truck away from the gang.
¡
A few blocks away from the Berserk Mansion, hidden in different corners were mystic warriors from different backgrounds which kept an eye on the Berserk Gang after the urrences of the previous night.
As soon as the famous Monster Truck left the mansion, they all scrambled to grab theirmunication devices and send messages to their masters.
Today, the main roads in the Blood Market territory were unnaturally quiet.
Perhaps, having a hunch that a great upheaval wouldmence today, most of the merchants and businessmen who did business here already took precautions. There were barely any restaurants that opened for business.
Aragorn did not pay attention to all of these as he piloted the Monster Truck straight to the destination. 7 minutester, they arrived.
Originally, when an unknown truck approached a gang''s territory, the normal tactic was intimidation through questioning to deter the intruder.
This time though, the sentry guards of the Silver Surfer gang dared not create a ruckus. The sentry leader stammered. "W-who are you?"
"What business do you have with our gang?"
The inhabitants of the Monster truck were unexpectedly polite. "We want to meet the gang leader of the Silver Surfer gang for negotiations".
"Negotiations¡?"
"Let them in!" Amid the sentry leader''s dilemma, an authoritative voice ordered and he instantly obeyed and opened the gate inside the gang territory.
Unlike all the other gangs, like the Berserk Gang, the Silver Surfer gang had a mansion for themselves though it was far smaller than that of the Berserk Gang.
An entourage was already waiting for them inside as Rex and Aragorn were escorted inside the mansion to the living parlor where a blonde-haired handsome middle-aged warrior was already seated waiting for them.
The blonde-haired warrior stood up as soon as they entered. "To what honor do I owe this impromptu visit from the great red vampire himself?"
In a single sentence, the blonde-haired middle-aged warrior was able to set the atmosphere, instantly elevating Rex''s status above his own.
Rex got the clue which made things a lot easier for him. As soon as they sat down, he smiled and turned to face the blonde-haired warrior.
"You should know a lot about the Berserk Gang".
"Yes".
"You also know that we are about to fight the Gandalf Gang, right?"
"¡Yes". The blonde-haired warrior hesitated a bit this time before answering as he tried hard to read Rex''s intentions through his facial expression.
"I and my sworn siblings may form a powerful trident force, but I''m realistic enough to know that to fight a gang of the Gandalf''s level, we need an army of mystic warriors who can fight at the lowest level on our behalf".
"I intend to integrate all the gangs in the Blood Market territory under my rule, and I intend to start with the Silver Surfer gang". As he said this, Rex stared straight at the blonde-haired warrior to see his reaction.
The blonde-haired warrior did not fidget nor did his face change, his reaction shocked Rex as he instead smiled. Then the next moment, he kneeled down.
"Gang leader, before I pledge my loyalty to you, since this is a negotiation, I wish to ce my terms before you".
Rex was briefly caught off-guard, he did not expect this mystic warrior to sumb so easily, he soon recovered though. "Tell me your terms".
"I want to be one of your sworn siblings and also be another leader of the Berserk Gang".
Rex was silent for a few seconds as he stared at this warrior. "I don''t control it, fate will determine if you and I can be sworn siblings in the future".
"As for your 2nd term, I can fulfill it. You have the full qualifications to be one of the leading figures of the Berserk Gang, I ept your 2nd term".
"Then, I''m relieved". The blonde-haired warrior smiled.
"From today, I, Erling, hereby pledge my loyalty to you".
The process was pretty straightforward after the pledge of loyalty. Rex revealed his ns to this warrior before officially merging the Silver Surfer gang with the Berserk gang, they''ll help them fight the rebels who refused to join them.
Once he got the n, Erling went to get his warriors prepared for battle as Aragorn and Rex left on the Monster Truck. Throughout the negotiation, due to how malleable Erling was, Aragorn didn''t need to speak.
Their next destination was the Mountain Pir gang. The leader of this gang was a renowned defensive Advanced mystic warrior with 3 defensive mystic abilities, he was a turtle in battle, slow but with irritating defensive abilities.
Like Erling, Jacob was also malleable. He recognized the changing trends and to not be overwhelmed by it, he aligned with it and also pledged loyalty to Rex.
His only problem was the battle with the Gandalf Gang, he was not optimistic about the gang''s chances but Rex gave him evidence to show him that they stood a chance. This was what pushed him into pledging his loyalty.
After the Mountain Pir gang, they finally went to the Ape Ville gang.
Once they got to thisst gang, the defensive and hostile nature at which they were received already spoke volumes but Aragorn still drove in.
Once the negotiations started, Haman spoke his mind.
"You are a fool to think you stand a chance against the Gandalf Gang".
"The Ape Ville gang will not join the Berserk Gang!"
"Before you attack us, beware, we are part of the Axe Gang". He red at Rex. "I joined them in the night when you massacred those 3".
"If you attack us, just know that you are indirectly attacking the Axe Gang".
Rex was not offended by the words or the re, he simply asked. "Does that mean you are ready to go to war with us?"
"Yes, I''m not afraid of you!"
"Fine". Rex smiled and stood up. "If it''s a war you want, a war you will get".
Chapter 204 War To Unite The Blood Market Territory
Once the negotiations fell through, they had nothing else doing here.
As soon as they left the territory of the Ape Ville Gang, Aragorn drove straight towards a nearby valley which was the meeting point that was decided on. He didn''t even bother to hide his tracks or intentions as he drove.
As he drove, Rex picked a specialmunication device through which he gave his orders. "Move all the warriors and meet at the Spring Valley".
"We are going to attack the Ape Ville Gang".
"The main army will attack from the front; Jacob''s defensive army will block their escape route from behind while Erling''s army will attack from the side".
"The n is to kill Haman".
"Once he is dead, the Ape Ville gang will crumble and surrender".
"Yes, Gang Leader". nor, Erling, and Jacob acknowledged the order as they instantly went to work on mobilizing their respective armies.
While the others left themunication channel, Erling stayed. "Gang Leader, I have a report to make".
"Speak".
"Haman contacted me".
Rex eyes instantly constricted. "What did he say?"
"He asked if you already met me which I denied. Then he informed me that you already met him, he also informed me of his decision to reject you".
"He asked me to join him in the greener pastures of the Axe Gang".
Rex smiled. "And what was your reply?"
"I agreed". Erling paused for a few seconds before he continued. "I told him that if youe meet me for negotiations, I''ll also reject you".
"I made him enter a fake alliance with me. So, once I mobilize my army, he''ll think that I''ming to defend him rather than to attack".
"If we take proper advantage of this, we can end the attack with fewer casualties than expected".
"Well done, Erling, you will be duly rewarded. "Rex was all smiles.
"One more thing Gang Leader, Haman has reinforcements from the Axe Gang which arrived in the night to protect him".
Well, this was news to Rex as his eyes narrowed. "What are their tiers?"
"He didn''t tell".
"Ok, good job". Rex did was not shy with his praise. With that information, Erling just did a great service for the Berserk Gang.
¡
As soon as Rex and Aragorn left, 2 warriors that were previously in hiding, eavesdropping on the conversation between the 3 finally came out.
Haman turned to face the 2 warriors. "You heard him, he''lle attack me".
One of the warriors smirked. "Don''t worry, you won''t die today. If that Rex is not even lucky, he''ll be the one dying today".
"Goro is the 2nd inmand of our whole Axe Gang. Not only is he an expert with his Axe, he is a 4th tier Advanced mystic warrior. Only our gang leader, the Axe Demon is stronger than him".
"For decades, he had not met a match in the whole Red Zone apart from our gang leader, Rex is definitely not his match".
On hearing that, Haman''s eyes lit up as he paid his respects.
"How strong is Rex?" Goro, the burly mystic warrior that looked like a giant asked as his strong eyes stared into the distance.
Haman was quick to answer. "Some say that he is already a 4th tier mystic warrior but I don''t believe, the rumors are too much to know the truth".
"What I can confirm though is that he became an advanced mystic warrior less than a year ago".
Goro turned to look at Haman then he scoffed. "He became an advanced mystic warrior less than a year ago yet you think he''s at the 4th tier already?"
"You''re really an ignorant fool".
He scoffed again and looked into the distance. "Despite my unmatched talent, it took me 15 years after bing an advanced mystic warrior before I got to my current level at the 4th tier".
"Only a special bottleneck is holding me back. Once I find my moment of epiphany, I will easily be a 5th tier Advanced mystic warrior".
"As for that Rex, he is overrated, he is no more than a 1st tier peasant Advanced mystic warrior just like you". Goro stated confidently.
"If it took me 15 years to achieve it, just think of how long it would take him".
Goro turned confidently to face Haman and appease his fears. "Do not panic. If he darese, he''ll be digging his own grave".
"I like his ambition though, he made things easier for the Gang leader".
¡
The fear of the inhabitants of the Blood Market region was finally here, the war that they were afraid of was finally about to start.
Having prepared for it already, once Rex gave the order, Ben led 80% of the Berserk Army to war. Just for safety reasons, nor and 20% of the army were left behind to safeguard and protect the Berserk Mansion.
For the task of leading the soldiers, it was delegated to Ben.
In his war gear, Ben looked like a chubby version of the god of war. With his armor hugging his chubby frame, and his 2 sharp swords on his hand, Ben faced the army as he gave his little speech to motivate the soldiers.
"The Gang leader has ns for the Berserk Gang".
"ns of greatness, ns of supremacy".
"Today, we are honored to be his tools to fulfill his ambitions".
"Today, let us fight to our heart''s content, let us build the Berserk Gang".
"For Glory!"
"FOR GLORY!" The warriors responded enthusiastically.
Once he was set, Ben boarded the heftiest of the military trucks and he was off to the war. Over a hundred trucks followed him as he left the mansion.
The Berserk Army was off to war!
The same scenes could be seen in the other 2 major gangs of the Blood Market territory, both Jacob and Erling led 60% of their armies to this war.
They were determined to take over the Ape Ville Gang by any means.
15 minutester, they arrived at the Spring Valley where they met Rex. There, Rex designated roles to the 3 armies.
The army of the 3 Elephants gang circled to the back, the army of the Silver Surfer gang left their trucks and climbed into the forest, while the Berserk army led the charge and attacked from the front.
Leading the charge was Rex. This time, he was no longer riding the sleek Storm Kamaitachi, he was riding a menacing Dark Mist Spider.
"For Glory!"
Chapter 205 Battle Against Goro
A tense atmosphere surrounded the territory of the Ape Ville Gang.
The thousands of warriors of this powerful gang already surrounded their territorypletely in defensive formations. On Haman''s orders, every Ape Ville gang warrior left all their other duties and came to defend their territory.
At this moment, more than 6000 mystic warriors were gathered and jampacked in the territory prepped and ready to fight a siege war.
At the very front of this defensive army stood Haman, the gang leader of the Ape Ville Gang. He donned his war gear already, his brown armor glowed in sync with the bright sun as his hand was already wrapped tight around his spear.
They didn''t have to wait long, the sounds of thousands of foot soldiers running soon came. The Berserk Army like promised led the charge.
They didn''t take any detour nor did they employ anyplicated moves, the thousands of warriors of the Berserk Army simply charged through the front.
"Defend the Ape Ville Gang!"
"Defend it with your life and receive glory in Valha!"
The defending soldiers were spooked by the numbers of their enemies, but the words of their gang leader were able to calm their nerves a bit but not for long.
Wars between gangs were always chaotic and this one was no different.
Boom!
Once the first mystic warrior with a gun pulled the trigger and shot a bullet, the defenders responded in sync and in a jiffy, the war started!
War cries filled the battlefield as the hot-blooded warriors charged into the ranks of the defending enemies. Metal weapon soon started colliding with metal weapon, and with this came blood flowing as warriors started dying.
Apart from the melee warriors that shed with the enemies, there were those specialists that were assigned to control the war weapons of the gang.
Artillery guns soon started operation as bullets raked through the battlefield.
Once the defenders brought theirs, the Berserk Army also brought out their trump cards which were all Aragorn''s creations that the gang was already renowned for. Rex did not shy off from spending, this was war.
The sounds were like exploding dominoes as the huge canons unleashed their loads towards the enemy camp, setting their territory on fire.
Haman did not just send his warriors to die. He did not shy from the challenge as with his spear, he soon prated into the Berserk Army.
He killed left and right but he onlysted a little while before Rex finally showed up. Having set his eyes on him from the beginning, as soon as Haman moved, Rex also entered the battlefield.
-----
[You have activated Killer Boot''s mystic effect: Ghost Rider!]
----
ckfire spew from Rex''s boots as his speed increased to a ridiculous level. Like a ghost, he weaved his way through the battlefield at an astonishing speed before finally making it towards his opponent.
Instantly after he arrived, he drew Berserker as he swung the sword, drawing a crescent shape in the air as he activated his Blood Prophecy skill.
Haman could not dodge, he was forced to parry with his spear and instantly, the difference in strength was shown in full disy.
Haman''s face contorted as he felt like he was just hit by a hammer. He stood his ground for only 2 seconds before the force of the attack threw him down like a rag doll, Rex was ruthless as he instantly went for the kill.
Before he could attack though, Rex heard a whistling sound.
Whoosh!
A mighty Axe came rotating with unmatched speed through the battlefield, slicing heads apart in the process as it flew straight at Rex.
The mighty Axe looked intimidating, but the funny thing was that Rex did not feel frightened in the slightest. Having fought against powerhouses like Zuko and winning already, facing this Axe now, he felt like it was more than 2 levels lower.
Just before the Axe could reach his position, Rex saw the pair of eyes of the owner. Goro was hidden among the army and was about to sneak attack him, Rex''s reaction was impable as he bent to an unnatural angle.
The speed of the Axe was impressive, but after bending, Rex was able to grab it at its handle. Instantly, the Axe reacted aggressively on being held by a stranger.
Before he could be injured, Rex swung the Axe at its owner with force.
Goro''s eyes constricted in shock, he barely dodged the attack. After rolling over, on finally recovering, he raised his head only to see a pair of red eyes staring him down, the trademark red eyes of the terror of the night.
Berserker was already swinging down to behead him with frightening momentum, Goro''s eyes narrowed even further as his danger senses tingle.
"Master Level Axe Skill: Buddha''s Defense!" Goro yelled and rose up, grabbing his Axe in the process as his mystic energy red powerfully.
ng!
Berserker hit the Axe once and bounced back, then Rex went again.
"Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!"
This time, Rex used the earth energy contained in this master level skill as the heavy earth attribute followed the sword''s descent.
Master level skill collided with Master level skill.
Once the sword hit Goro''s Axe, Goro''s face twisted, his legs tightened as his battle pants tore due to his stretching and strained muscles then he farted.
"I thought you are just¡"
Bam!
He could not finish his sentence as the sword finally overpowered his spear. Rex did not let him rest, he followed him like a parasite across the battlefield.
Goro was strong, it was just that Rex was outrageously strong.
Not only was Haman shocked, the 2nd reinforcement warrior from the Axe Gang was shocked. He rushed closer to help but the oue was already set from the beginning, Aragorn didn''t even need to join the battle.
After a 6-shbo, Rex beheaded Goro with the 7th sh of his sword.
The head touched the ground and rolled before blood spurted from the neck, courtesy of Rex''s outrageous technique and swift attack.
Goro was still in disbelief as he died. "I thought you were just a 1st tier¡" He could notplete his sentence before his consciousness faded into death.
It was like a pause button was hit on the battlefield, Goro''s death spread a ripple of shock through the Ape Ville Army.
With their gang leader having described this warrior as their savior, Rex killing him so effortlessly hit them so hard that morale instantly hit rock bottom.
The Berserk Army was motivated as they roared and fought harder.
It was at this same timing that the Silver Surfer Army came out. The Ape Ville warriors were at first hyped to see reinforcement, but they soon fell into the deepest pits of despair as the Silver Surfers attacked them with fury.
The death rate among them grew to a ridiculous rate, morale dropped even further. As for the other reinforcement from the Axe Gang, he was scared.
Bzzz!
By activating an expensive teleportation gadget, he saved his life and escaped out of this chaotic battlefield, leaving Haman alone and confused.
Rex looked this warrior straight in the eye. "It is over".
Chapter 206 War Success
"Over?" Haman asked as he looked at Rex then down at his spear.
His face twisted. "Over? Hahaha¡, over?" Heughed like a maniac.
"It''s never over for me, I will never surrender to you".
"You''ve angered the Axe Gang and the Gandalf Gang, there''s no way on earth that you will survive the wrath of these 2".
"The Gundam Shelter since antiquity after its fall has always been significant with chaos. Young man, there''s no order here".
"You trying to unite so many gangs is a sin to the natural order of the Gundam Shelter. If I can''t stop you, another would definitely stop and kill you".
"As for me, I would rather die than surrender to you".
"Die!" Haman grabbed his spear and rushed towards Rex to attack.
Rex looked at him calmly. "As you wish".
-----
[You have activated sword skill: Ghost in the Night!]
----
The Ghost in the Night sword skill was Rex''s fastest skill by far.
Once he tapped into his shadow mystic ability energy and activated this skill, shadowy dust seemed to ooze out of his body as they soon engulfed him and his sword,pletely coating Berserker in them.
Rex looked onest time at Haman, then he took a step.
Whoosh!
He moved like the wind, like the shadow that could not be caught, like a ghost that could not be seen. Haman only saw a shadow passing by and a breeze blowing past him before he suddenly felt cold.
With his spear still raised up, Haman paused as all energy started fading out of his body. "I¡, feel weak".
He said hisst words before his body was divided in twain, he died tragically.
As blood gushed out of the dead body of their gang leader, horror gripped the hearts of every single Ape Ville gang warrior as they lost all motivation.
They simply didn''t want to fight again since they stood no chance.
"Retreat!" "Run!" "Escape for your lives!"
They didn''t know who yelled it first but once they heard it, it was like the straw that broke the camel''s back as every single Ape Ville warrior went for it.
To your tents oh Israel, all of them ran for their lives without looking back.
They barely started escaping before they met a roadblock. Jacob''s defensive army came in the thousands as they blocked the escape route of the Ape Ville warriors with their giant shields that hungered for blood.
The warriors of the Ape Ville gang panicked, they feared for their lives as thebined army converged, blocking thest free direction which they could escape in. Then the army started boxing them in.
They no longer fought, they just jampacked themselves in the middle as thebined army box them in. The next moment, they started falling on their knees.
If peace couldn''t solve it, violence definitely could.
A convincing war was all it took for the Ape Ville Gang to sumb to Rex''s Berserk Gang. With their leader dead, they all surrendered to preserve their lives.
About 2000 Ape Ville warriors died, leaving only a little over 4000 alive.
As the Berserk Army tried to calm the warriors of the Ape Ville gang down for Rex to address them, on Rex''s orders, Erling and Jacob led their warriors to go pick the spoils of the just concluded battle.
Once they were ready, Rex addressed them.
"You are all on the verge of history".
"Today, the Berserk Gang will unite all the gangs of the Blood Market region".
"Today, we shall all be part of the rise of a new hegemon gang".
"Eat, rest, for in an hour, we will make history!"
Like he said, Rex gave all the soldiers an hour of rest.
During this hour, having given the order, Aragorn through his electronic transmissions sent texts to all the gangs in the Blood Market zone about Rex''s ambitions that he intended to achieve today.
The sent texts did not explicitly say that they should surrender but the message was delivered.
Just 15 minutester, armies from lesser gangs in the Blood Market zone started trooping towards the Spring Valley which was the meeting point.
There, the gang leaders pledged their allegiance to the new gang leader.
"From today, I, the gang leader of the Sneakere gang pledge allegiance to you".
"I, the gang leader of the Nile Sword gang pledge allegiance to you".
"I, the gang leader of the Ancient Ones gang pledge allegiance to you".
"I¡"
After a long affair, all the avable gang leaders finally finished pledging their allegiance. Of all the gangs in this region, 9 came to pledge their allegiance and surprisingly, 5 refused to ept the current reality ande.
Rex had no idea about their reasons but he did not care to know.
"Erling, lead the attack to the Smoove Gang".
"Jacob, lead the attack to the Oriental Blood Gang".
"Aragorn, lead the attack to the Death Climbers Gang".
"Ben, lead the attack to the Sniper Gang".
"As for me, I''ll lead the attack to the Minotaurs Gang".
After designating tasks to the 4 leaders that were under him, Rex mounted Storm once again as like the wind, they rushed towards their new destination.
Dozens of military trucks followed him for thisst battle.
On getting to the small territory of the Minotaurs Gang, Rex finally understood why they refused to surrender. They had a mythical treasure.
During a dangerous trip to the Great Dungeon Forest, the gang leader of the Minotaurs Gang discovered a tonic which he was instructed to pour in a pool as a reward for his achievements in a dungeon.
On returning to the Gundam Shelter and pouring it on a pool, the pool became a magical pool that could temporarily turn mystic warriors into powerful minotaurs once they drank its water.
After bing minotaurs, the strength, defense, and vitality of these mystic warriors would increase to a ridiculous level with their intelligence as the sacrifice.
They became unstoppable physical monsters.
The gang leader of the Minotaurs gang didn''t spread this news to the world yet because he was afraid of the powerful gangs out there that could take it from him. He was content with slowly building his power in the dark.
What he didn''t n for was Rex''s sudden decision for expansion.
Secretly, they already amassed the power that made them as strong as any of the gangs of the average rank in the Red Zone despite not having a single Advanced mystic warrior but it was not enough.
With Rex leading the charge, thebined army swept through them like a gue, not stopping until thousands died and they finally surrendered.
The gang leader this time was wise. Seeing his impossible chances of victory and his great chances of death if the battle continued, he was the one who surrendered first to Rex to save his life.
With this victory, the Berserk Gang was finally able to unite the whole Blood Market territory. News of sess already came from the other battlefields.
It was not yet the end of today for Rex. Once they regrouped in the Spring Valley, Rex left thebined army for Aragorn to escort back to the Berserk Mansion while he took all the other leaders with him.
"We are going to the Blood Market".
Chapter 207 Becoming A Stakeholder
Today, the Blood Market was less busy than usual.
The Gundam Shelter like all other shelters was dominated by civilians who had no ess to mystic energy, but also like other shelters, mystic warriors ruled.
The only difference was that mystic warriors lived more chaotically here. In this chaotic environment, the Blood Market strived.
To keep up the chaos, mystic warriors had to constantly change their mystic weapons since old ones depreciated because of the constant battles.
,m Advanced mystic weapons and above were the only ones guaranteed tost a long time and had great durability. For weapons that were below the Advanced grade, when put under enough stress were liable to depreciate.
Today, the 5 directors of the Blood Market were put under even more stress than the weapons that they sold were ever put through.
With the high-profile action of the Berserk Gang against all the other gangs in the territory, they could only watch, isted and abandoned in the midst of all the chaos and death.
At first, they thought that Rex was afraid of their background but they could not have been more wrong.
After a long day of conquest where he achieved great sess, Rex finally found his way to the Blood Market on Aragorn''s Monster Truck.
This time, he didn''te alone like thest time he came to get the Vampiric Armor. After the Monster Truck parked in the deserted parkway, Rex, Ben, Erling, and Jacob alighted the truck before marching towards the market building.
Like Rex expected, as soon as he came down from the Monster Truck, a beautifuldy attendant came towards them to attend to them.
This time, probably out of courtesy, the beautiful female guide refused to wear her mask as she exposed her attractive facial look to the 4 warriors.
None of them were fazed though, they simply looked at her until Rex spoke.
Rex smiled for the first time. "Darling, can you please take us to the 4th floor?"
The attendant shuddered slightly at being called darling which didn''t elude the sharp eyes of the 4 Advanced mystic warriors, but they remained silent.
She only smiled slightly before turning to lead the way. Unlike the previous time that she attended to Rex, this time, her confidence levels were way lower.
All these were a result of the notorious reputation that Rex built for himself within a single night and a day, what he did was simply stuff of legends.
Without a word, the female attendant escorted them with a strained smile until the elevator took them to the 4th floor of the Blood Market.
There, Rex sent her away with a polite smile, he knew his way around here.
Once she left, Rex led his 3panions as he went straight to the trading booth with mystic treasures encased in ss containers where a familiar master trader traded. "Yo, long time no see".
On seeing these 4, the master trader paused as an unnatural expression came over his face. "Hi, good evening".
"Why the formality boss?" Rexughed. "We alreadypleted one transaction thest time, we should be closer than this".
"Haha, yeah". The middle-aged master trader strained a smile.
Rex smiled. "This time, I want to do even more spectacr business. You can''t fulfill my wishes, I want you to take me to the directors".
The middle-aged master trader''s smile turned even more strange, but another nce at the 4 warriors made him decide on his choice. He stood up, bowed respectfully towards the 4 of them before leading the way.
The elevator took them 2 more levels up to the upper-most floor of the Blood Market building, this was where the directors stayed.
"Yeah, you''ve tried, you can leave".
After sending the master trader away, Rex and his 3panions swaggered their way in. Since the path was pretty straightforward, they no longer needed direction until they arrived at the office of the 5 directors.
Having done his research before now, Rex already knew that the 5 joint owners of the Blood Market were 5 major gangs. The Axe Gang, the Bull Gang, the Godzi Gang, the Kong Gang, and the Exquisite Gang.
All 5 gangs had representatives here and they were the directors.
Knock! Knock!
As soon as Rex knocked on the first door that they saw in the long corridor, a voice gave the consent for him to go in and he opened.
Inside, the 5 directors were already seated waiting for his arrival. Unlike usual, none of their guards were beside them. They probably already deduced that having guards against these 4 was pretty useless.
Rex and his 3panions swaggered their way to 4 chairs as they turned to face the 5 directors confidently, then Rex shed a smile at them.
"What do you want?" An old man with white beard asked.
"That''s it!" Rex pped. "I like your straightforwardness". Heughed.
"My demands are simple, since the Blood Market is in my territory, it''s only normal that I have a stake in it. My proposal is to be the 6th owner of the Blood Market, I want my director to report to work tomorrow".
The old man narrowed his eyes, clearly, he was the highest-ranking director here and Rex nodded at him. "Yes, I want to be the 6th stakeholder of the Blood Market".
All the other directors kept quiet, the old man took a deep breath then he spoke. "Rex, do you think you can afford offending all 5 of our gangs".
Rex smiled. "I guess you''re the director representing the Axe Gang. I heard you guys imed a stake in the Blood Marketst, now you seem to be the leading director here, I didn''t think you guys saw it as offending the other gangs, right?"
"So why do you think my humble proposal is an act to anger you?"
"You¡"
"Arnold Schwiengster!" Rex''s voice was deep this time as his powerful mystic energy red, spreading an oppressive aura inside the room.
The old man shuddered as soon as his name was called.
"You and the other directors have 5 minutes to make the decision. Make the call or pay the consequences, just remember that the Blood Market will be mine before any reinforcementes from your gangs".
"And I doubt any one of them would individually want to antagonize me".
A long silence reigned in the room after Rex spoke, then 2 minutester, apart from Arnold the old man, the other 4 directors raised their hands.
"I consent to the addition of a 6th director".
"I consent to the addition of a 6th director".
"I consent¡"
Rex turned to look at the old man. "Arnold?"
The old man sumbed. "I consent to the addition of a 6th director".
"Nice". Rex pped again with a smile. "My representative will be here tomorrow morning, make sure to give him a warm wee".
"My sworn brother will also visit, he has some goods to put on sale".
With that, Rex turned to leave with his 3panions.
As soon as Rex left, like nothing happened, 4 of the directors calmly went back to their daily activities, only Arnold gritted his teeth as they left.
He soon stood up and went to his personal residence in the 6th floor where he locked himself in. After jamming all signals that could eavesdrop on him, he used a specialmunicator to dial a number.
"Arnold".
"Gang Leader, the Berserk Gang took over the whole Blood Market territory".
"I know, I heard it was a bloodbath, just my style". The Gang leader of the Axe Gang chuckled. "Why did you call? Did he also be a director there?"
"Yes¡, sorry for my ipetence".
"Yeah, but his actions did more good than harm to us". The Gang leader''s voice soon turned excited. "With his actions, ours gained the momentum to grow".
"Once I fulfill my ns, he''ll be rewarded for being the trailzer".
"Just let him enjoy the shine for now".
"Yes, Gang Leader".
Chapter 208 The Minotaur Pool
-----
[Name: Minotaur Pool!]
[Bonded Owner: Melkor James!]
[Quality: Nature Level!]
[Current Level: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
>Mystic Energy Capacity: Unlimited
[Mystic Effects: Berserk Minotaur; Minotaur Curse!]
[Berserk Minotaur: By drinking any quantity of water from the Minotaur Pool, a mystic warrior bes affected by the Berserk Minotaur Effect. By sacrificing humanity to temporarily be a Minotaur, +100% increase to all base stats, +100% critical hit chance, and +150% vitality.]
[Side Effect: -20% Intelligence throughout duration of being a Minotaur.]
¡
[Minotaur Curse: By drinking the water of the Minotaur Pool, a mystic warrior receives the Minotaur Curse. After 20 Minotaur transformations, a mystic warrior suffers a -20% permanent Intelligence reduction.]
[40 transformations= -40% permanent Intelligence reduction.]
[60 transformations= -60% permanent Intelligence reduction.]
[80 transformations= -80% permanent Intelligence reduction.]
[100 transformations= -100% permanent Intelligence reduction.]
[NOTE: After 100 transformations, user bes an IDIOT!]
----
Rex shuddered after going through the side effects of this mystic treasure.
On noticing him shudder, Melkor mistook it as a shudder of excitement as he took this as an opportunity to lick the boots of his new boss. "Gang leader, the Minotaur Pool is the most miraculous mystic treasure that you''ll ever see".
"Back then, I braved the dangers of that cursed dungeon alongside my 4 friends. I was the only one who survived and came back with the tonic".
"With the pool, the Berserk Gang will grow to even greater heights".
Rex forced a smile as he looked at the previous gang leader of the Minotaurs Gang. "How many times have you drank the water of the pool?"
"Huh¡?"
"I mean how many times you''ve drank the water of the pool".
"Ahh¡, oh, I really don''t remember, haha". Melkor scratched his head while thinking. "I''m not sure, but I think at least 20 or 30 times".
"¡"
The look that Rex gave this warrior now turned to that of pity, he patted him on the shoulders. "Stay strong brother, we''ll always be here for you".
"Ahh¡, yes, thank you Gang leader".
The side effects of this mystic treasure were definitely not something that any mystic warrior should be made to experience.
Most mystic warriors did not fear death since that was what they trained to embrace their whole life, what most of them feared instead was turning into an idiot. The concept of living as a senseless idiot alone was terrifying.
That alone made Rex degrade the value of this mystic treasure.
Despite the terrifying side effects of the Minotaur Pool though, it did not stop Rex from appreciating its incredible mystic effects that were extremely helpful.
Due to those mystic effects, a small-time gang like the Minotaurs Gang was able to secretly amass power of such a level to even put up a fight against the Berserk Gang. That in itself showed the usefulness of this mystic treasure.
Rex turned to face Aragorn. "It''s best as ast gasp measure in battles".
"Yes". Aragorn nodded. "Due to it''s side effect when used, I advise for it to be used by our warriors only when their death is certain".
"At least then, they''ll have a chance to fight death".
Ben was amazed. "This can easily be a trump card of the Berserk Army in the future. Rex, you really hit the jackpot this time".
Without hesitation, the leaders of the Berserk Gang started getting bottles of the pool water. As they did, Rex coughed before giving a friendly advice.
"You are only allowed to take 15 bottles each, I''ll exin my reasonter".
After taking the bottles, as they prepared to return to the Berserk Mansion, Rex already started thinking of the restrictions that he would put to the use of this mystic treasure to protect all his warriors from turning into idiots.
Once they were in the Monster Truck, Rex finally told them his discovery.
"It turns warriors into idiots?" All the warriors shuddered in fear as the look of excitement on their face turned into that of horror, the bottles at their hands now felt heavy like it was carrying the greatest poison of all time.
While they shuddered, they soon came to their senses and directed pitiful looks at Melkor. This warrior was confused as he reminisced his life. "An idiot?" He mumbled incoherently.
Withforting words from the others though, Melkor was able to recover. Now, he felt super grateful for being able to meet Rex on time.
He shuddered at the thought of bing an idiot if he never met Rex.
By the time that they returned to the Berserk Mansion, they returned to meet a convergence of an army not less than 50,000 gathered outside the mansion.
The warriors were so many that if they were in the sky instead of the ground, it seemed like they would blot the sky with their numbers alone.
This was thebined army after their incredible victory.
Rex had no intentions to waste time, after the incredible victory, the next step was uniting all the scattered gangs into a unified Berserk Gang.
He took the stage and addressed the tens of thousands of mystic warriors that were standing before him. "Today, we made history".
"Today, we united to achieve a greater cause that individually we cannot achieve".
"Today, we united to make the Blood Market territory stronger".
"Today, we became legends".
The tens of thousands of warriors cheered enthusiastically as he addressed them. Rex let them finish before he continued. "From today, you all are no longer different, we are now part of the Berserk Gang".
"We are the Berserk Gang itself".
"To celebrate our victory and achievement, I will be holding a feast today. We shall drink and merry and make today one of the most memorable days across our lives filled with battles and wars".
"For the Berserk Gang!"
"FOR THE BERSERK GANG!"
The warriors cheered enthusiastically as celebrations began.
With nor staying behind and already arranging everything, the feast kickstarted without a ruckus as food and drinks were served in great numbers to the tens of thousands of mystic warriors that were in attendance.
Today was a day to merry, tomorrow was for official duties since Rex still had administrative duties and decisions to decide on how to upy all this territory that he just gained for the Berserk Gang.
From that evening, they celebrated through the night to the next day.
The next morning, after enjoying himself throughout the night, Rex finally got set to sleep but this was when the news came like a bombshell.
Rex turned to face Aragorn, shocked. "What?"
Chapter 209 A Shift..., The Dawn Of A New Era
All across the Red Zone, 4 gangs were recognized as the cr¨¨me de cr¨¨me of the Red Zone, they were known as the big 4 Gangs.
The Axe Gang, the Kong Gang, the Godzi Gang, and the Exquisite Gang, these were the big 4 Gangs that were recognized as the undisputed deadliest.
Not only did these 4 gangs have armies consisting of more than a hundred thousand mystic warriors, they were more renowned for their leaders.
All the Gang leaders of these 4 gangs were rumored to be above the 5th tier of the Advanced mystic grade already. They were already qualified to upgrade their gangs to the Snake territory but they refused due to a simple reason.
Like most humans believed, it was better to be a tenant living than to be andlord of the dead. The gang leaders used this same psychology.
In their perspective, it was better to be the Lords of the Red Zone than to upgrade to the Snake territory and start all over as the underdogs.
Just like the Snake territory and the ck Zone, despite the prevalent chaos, the Red Zone was segmented into territories using the 4 cardinal points.
In the Red Zone, there was the East Region, the West Region, the North Region, the South Region, and one other region called the Blood Market Region or the Outskirts of the Red Zone.
The Exquisite Gang was the overlord of the South Region, the Godzi Gang was the overlord of the East Region and were fierce rivals with the Kong Gang who were the overlords of the Western Region.
As for thest and most prosperous Northern Region, their overlord was no other gang than the notorious Axe Gang led by Max Fury the Dictator.
Despite these 4 gangs being the overlords of their various regions, it was just in name since none of the other gangs submitted to them, it was still a chaotic affair though they enjoyed a lot of privileges in their various regions.
One of these privileges was the Blood Market. The Bull Gang of the Southern Region was responsible for establishing the Blood Market after seeing its potential to make a lot of money in the outskirts of the Gundam Shelter.
Once the market kicked off and the money started rolling in, the greed of bigger gangs was attracted. The big 4 butted in and imposed themselves on the market, forcefully making themselves stakeholders of the Blood Market.
Their tentacles of authority and power were all over the Red Zone.
Despite all these, they were content with their gangs. Apparently, none of the big 4 gangs ever contemted taking the smaller gangs around them in until a daring gang in the outskirts pulled this move off.
The actions of the Berserk Gang were not hidden from the other cardinal zones. It drew a lot of ire but none of the gangs took action to fight them.
None of them wanted to be the scape goat, so they just watched.
To the shock of the whole Red Zone though, the Berserk Gang was not the only gang who thought of this radical n to unite gangs in the Red Zone.
While the Berserk Gang did theirs in the day, attracting all the news and diverting all the attention away, the Axe Gang took advantage of it and struck in the night. In one night, this powerful gang imposed themselves.
Unlike with the Berserk Gang where Rex used subtle and intimidation tactics to destroy his opponent''s mentality to increase their chances of surrendering, the same did not work for the gangs of the powerful Northern Zone.
It was a bloodbath throughout the night in the North Zone.
Max Fury the dictator himself led the army as they went on a raid throughout the North Zone. After the death of over 20,000 mystic warriors in one night where some gangs got to escape from the North Zone, Max Fury finally won.
He seeded just a few hours after Rex seeded and united all the remaining gangs of the North Zone under his Axe Gang through force.
Just one region was not enough for him though, Max was extremely ambitious. That same night, he took all his new soldiers in and took them to war.
Max Fury took his gang to attack the nearby East Zone. Before morning, they were able to sweep over half of thisrge territory already and by morning, the Godzi Gang became the sole gang leading other smaller gangs to resist them.
In one night, multiple shocking events urred.
In one night, so much changed, Rex was shocked as soon as he heard the news. "What?"
He finally understood why the Axe Gang had such a muted reaction to him killing their 2nd inmand. He now dreaded the type of personality that Max was.
For his ambition and the greater picture, this gang leader was able to ruthlessly abandon his 2nd inmand who he was close with to die just to use the oue of the Berserk Gang''s victory as distraction to achieve his goals.
Probably, Max did not know about Rex''s outrageous strength or he would have sent another mystic warrior to help Haman when he asked for help.
But the incredible ability to ept his closepanion''s death and improvise to take advantage of the situation instead shocked Rex, Max Fury was indeed a dangerous man.
Instantly after the news, all signs of exhaustion and sleep left his eyes. Rex was intelligent enough to already notice the shift that was caused by his actions to unite a part of this shelter that was known for its chaos.
If his intuition was right, then a new era was upon the Red Zone. A new era where the top gangs wanted to rule all the other gangs, a new era of order, and the catalyst that elerated this new era was none other than himself.
"Sh*t!" Rex cursed as he rushed back to don his war gear.
Now was the time to delegate his army to properly secure, arm, and guard his newly owned territory or he feared that he would lose it all soon.
The tired Berserk Army was aroused by the Gang leader''s urgency despite their exhaustion as they were all put to work.
Rex was on a time limit.
Chapter 210 Hit Him First Before He Kills You
If the gang leader could not sleep, none of the gang members could.
That morning, as soon as he donned his war gear, Rex called for a strategy meeting which all the leaders of the Berserk Gang, both current and old attended no matter how exhausted they were from yesterday.
Once Aragorn, nor, Ben, Erling, and Jacob were seated, Rex looked straight at them. "Have you all heard the news?"
"Yes".
"What do you think?"
Aragorn was the one to speak first. "The closest region to the Blood Market region is the South. Though my spies have not found out any clues about them mobilizing, I think we should be wary of the Exquisite Gang".
"You think?" Ben asked loudly as he stood up. "In the Great Myriad Metal Shelter, there''s a famous saying, hit him first before he kills you".
"This is my first time being to the Gundam Shelter but I''ve heard a lot about it, the Gundam Shelter is extremely simr to a famous district in the Great Myriad Metal Shelter and something like this once happened there".
"You know what enabled one of the leading gangs to defeat and annex all the others?" Ben looked at everyone in the room. "While they were specting and thinking that he won''t attack them first, he was scheming in the dark".
"In the end, due to one simple yetplicated and intricate n, they were able to attack all 8 gangs in one day, annexing them all and bing the overlord".
"When everyone thinks, no one acts, giving the enemy the advantage".
Ben turned to face Rex. "With all due respect, I may not be a genius at war strategies and the psychological aspect of war but I have a decent knowledge of it".
"If I was the leader of the Exquisite gang, my army would already be on its way marching to the Blood Market zone while I employ expensive andplicated means to trick our spies into thinking that they are not mobilizing".
"There are too many pros and too few cons for them not to attack us".
"Ours is the less-developed cardinal points among the zones, we have the least high-ranked mystic warriors, we just finished a great battle and celebrated throughout the night, getting drunk in the process".
"With all due respect, the Berserk Gang is currently in its weakest state since its inception far long ago before I came here".
"Of course, the gang will recover in no time but that doesn''t matter at this moment. What matters is that the gang is temporarily vulnerable and this is a weak point that the Exquisite gang would miss if their gang leader is not an idiot".
Ben brought out a pill. "This is a stimtion pill called the Tutaonin that fights intoxication and sleep, and it ismon even in the Gundam Shelter".
"Give it to all the warriors of the gang and prepare them for war".
"Apart from that, the first priority is setting a defense perimeter".
Ben was able to speak for so long without being interrupted once and this spoke volumes about the quality of the content that he just gave.
The strategy room was left dumbfounded. In the end, Erling and Jacob agreed with him first.
"I agree with him". Jacob spoke as he looked at all the warriors present in turns. "Instead of sitting likes fools and hoping for the best, we should take matters into our own hands and form a defensive perimeter".
"If we still have time then, I think we should take the initiative to attack them first. Like Ben said, hit him first before he kills you".
"I support this n". Erling also gave his consent.
"I hate to admit this". He continued as he turned to look at Rex. "But with all due respect, you are the one who started this trend so be prepared for it".
"When you killed Haman, he said that if he couldn''t, someone else would punish you for your crime against the Gundam Shelter. I think we should prove his dead ghost wrong that the Berserk Gang can survive all the storms".
Aragorn turned to look at Ben one more time, then he smiled. "I didn''t know that you were such a genius, forgive me". Then he turned to face Rex who was looking at him. "I support the n".
Like Aragorn, Rex was also left astonished after Ben''s words. Ben''s words were so detailed and simplified at the same time that they addressed the main subject, and they madeplete sense to Rex and the others.
Aragorn said that he didn''t know Ben was such a genius, well, even Rex who was Ben''s childhood friend didn''t know about that also.
After finally oveing his astonishment, Rex turned to face nor who had remained quiet throughout the session. nor directed a look at Ben, then she replied with a simple nod which indicated her support of the n.
She didn''t leave at that though, she made her own suggestion. "Rex, I think you should call Melkor to this meeting, this is where the minotaur pool ys a role. Without it, I doubt our warriors stand a chance against the Exquisite army".
Once again, nor''s suggestion was right. While the new Berserk Army barely clocked 50,000 gang warriors, the Exquisite gang had an outstanding figure of warriors that was far above that and above 100,000.
To even the odds, Rex needed to take advantage of every single opportunity to tip the scales of victory in the favor of the Berserk Gang.
"Well, that''s it, it''s decided".
Rex stood up. "We''re mobilizing our soldiers and our first priority is setting up a defensive perimeter around the Blood Market region to protect our territory".
"Ben, prepare the pill to stimte the gang warriors. I want the Berserk army fully mobilized and ready for battle in less than 30 minutes".
"Also, call in Melkor".
Once Rex gave the order, the others went to work.
¡
About 2 minutester, Melkor walked into the strategy room. Having heard about the news also, he fought his exhaustion and decided to stay awake.
As soon as he entered the strategy room, Rex turned to face him. "Melkor, the gang needs your help the most at this very moment".
"If you are able to fulfill my proposal, you have a chance of being promoted to be one of the leaders of the Berserk Gang".
Melkor''s eyes shone at the mention of that. "Lord Rex, speak, your subordinate is all ears".
"I need more bottles of the water from the Minotaur pool".
"This time, I mean already prepared bottles of water".
"The Berserk Army will be mobilizing to go set a perimeter around our territory in about 20 minutes, that''s not enough time to go to your territory and fill bottles with the pool''s water for all of them".
"When I attacked you, your personal strength was not what motivated me to spare your life nor was it your plea, it was your intelligence".
"You''re too intelligent to have such a naturally urring mystic treasure at your disposal and not takeplete advantage of it".
"To prepare for scenarios like how the Berserk Gang annexed your gang, I believe that you secretly stored and hid a batch of bottles".
Rex stood up from his chair as he went closer to this mystic warrior before patting him on the shoulder. "I don''t know how much they are but the Berserk Gang need them now, the Berserk Gang need you now".
"I need you now". Rex looked at him straight in the eye.
Rex''s sincerity was unmistakable at this moment as Melkor looked into his eyes. He knew that he was being patronized, he was too intelligent to be fooled by that but for some reason, Rex''s sincerity left him weak to y chatan.
Melkor was weak and he sumbed. "I will help the Berserk Gang".
Rex patted him on the shoulder again. "I will never forget this favor".
With that, Melkor left with Aragorn''s Monster Truck leading a group of about 2 dozen military trucks that were ready to ship bottles of the minotaur pool''s water.
In 15 minutes, the military trucks were back with about 20,000 of the bottles loaded inside. The warriors dropped the truck load then they returned.
Melkor only had a little over 20,000 bottles prepared, and it was not enough for the whole gang. He took the initiative to stay behind as he used his special method with the assistance of other warriors to start filling more bottles.
Melkor worked hard, Ben worked hard, all the leaders worked hard and even the warriors themselves cooperated, making things much easier.
At the 30th minute after the strategy meeting was held, the Berserk Army consisting of approximately 50,000 mystic warriors was ready to move.
Without hesitation, Rex personally led his army to go set the perimeter. All the way from the Spring valley to the locations of all the old gangs, to the Blood Market and beyond, Rex and his warriors covered them all in less than 2 hours.
Almost instantly after they covered them, the sound of war came.
The Exquisite Gang was here!
Rex remembered Ben''s words. "Hit him first before he kills you".
Chapter 211 The Berserk Gang Vs The Exquisite Gang! [1]
Rex felt a chill crawling down his spine as he looked at therge army.
Like he predicted and Ben confirmed, the Exquisite gang army really came in its fullest potential to take advantage of the current weak state of the Berserk Gang.
Without a doubt, they mobilized through the night considering the distance from the South region of the Red Zone to the Blood Market region.
Like an ant colony, they filled the valley as their military trucks steadily intruded into the territory of the Blood Market region.
With thousands of military trucks on the move, Rex easily made an estimate that at least 80,000 mystic warriors were mobilized for this mission.
Like he suspected, they decided to invade the Blood Market region through the Spring Valley and the previous territory of the Ape Ville Gang. This was the easiest way to enter this region without attracting too much attention.
What they didn''t expect though was for the Berserk Gang to have already guessed their intentions and were prepared for their arrival.
Rex did not know the reaction of the Commander of the Exquisite army on seeing them prepared, one thing that he knew though was that the Commander didn''t stop the thousands of military trucks from trooping forward.
Without a doubt, the Exquisite army was ready for war.
A war involving tens of thousands of soldiers of this scale in a single battlefield was one that Rex had never fought in all his life as a mystic warrior.
He felt slightly intimidated but he dared not show it. He was the gang leader of the Berserk Gang, he had to set an example for the others to follow.
The Berserk Gang army was divided into 3 parties.
Ben led one to block the road that led to the South region, Aragorn led the other to block another strategic location that led into the Blood Market region, while Rex led the majority of the army to block the Spring Valley.
As soon as he confirmed the direction of the enemies, without feeling flustered, he fished out the specialmunicator as he switched on its signal.
"All army units, report to the Spring Valley".
"The enemies are on sight".
Instantly after he gave the order, Rex kept the specialmunicator as with one smooth motion, he unsheathed Berserker out of its sheath.
"This is the moment of truth!" He turned to the soldiers and spoke.
"Today, we fight and defend our territory and the Berserk Gang!"
"Today, we fight for our lives!"
"Today¡"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Exquisite army was not polite enough to let him finish his little war speech as hundreds of canon balls, energy beams, and kic projectiles were instantly unleashed from the military trucks, bloating the sky in no time.
Bzzz!
Before the enemies arrived, the Berserk army was already set up in apact square shape that covered half of the massive Spring Valley.
As soon as the enemies attacked, the alert soldiers reacted as they activated the hundreds of shield generators, erecting huge blue energy shields in no time.
The kic projectiles and energy beams finally fell as they hit the energy shields, rippling them with force. The energy shields kept most of them at bay but it was not omnipotent as others prated its defensive perimeter.
Explosions rocked the Spring Valley as dozens of trucks exploded on impact.
On seeing this scene, Rex felt his blood burning hot like magma on a volcano as his eyes instantly turned blood-red, then he turned to re at the enemies.
He finished his speech. "Today, we eradicate the Exquisite Gang!"
"Storm!"
Storm came right on time as Rex mounted his transformed beast and led the charge towards the enemies, hundreds of military trucks followed his lead.
On the front and with his sword, Rex started the attack.
Like the wind itself, the Storm Kamaitachi dodged the hundreds of energy beams and kic projectiles that were shot in its direction, it rode the wind.
Despite Storm''s incredible speed and wind control ability, when the attacks increased to the thousands, it was inevitable for him to be hit.
One of the kic projectiles went straight at Rex and this prompted him to act having focused on riding Storm''s momentum since.
-----
You have activated Gauntlet''s mystic ability: Leonidas''s Block!
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic ability: Blood Flight!
You have activated Master Level ckfire skill: Oxygen Maniption!
----
As soon as Rex raised his Gauntlets and blocked, a blue energy covered the Gauntlets that not only blocked the damage but also reflected it back.
The energy from so many attacks was powerful as it went far, destroying 4 enemy trucks in the process but this was just the start for Rex.
As soon as he activated the Gauntlet''s mystic effect, he also activated the Blood Flight of the Iron Mike Cloak as he finally ditched Storm and rose into the sky.
Unlike in his half-bat form, he didn''t need wings to fly this time. In the skies and covered with a blood aura, Rex was like a demonic version of the superman. His eyes now glowed red in the sky like a second sun.
In the skies, Rex activated his 3rd skill, the Oxygen Maniption master level skill and instantly, he started diving back from the skies straight at the enemies.
Metallic ringing sounds reverberated as the warriors of the Exquisite army shot at him but Rex''s myth grade Vampiric armor shrugged all the damage off.
As Rex descended, the oxygen in the air suddenly ignited on his control.
BOOM!
Rex finallynded straight at the middle of the enemy camp in a cloud of fire. On his control, the fire spread uncontrobly through the oxygen in the air.
Military trucks surrounding him ignited and exploded under the heat of the fire as hundreds of warriors died instantly to the first eruption.
Once the first eruption ended, a crater and a huge space was left in the middle of the originally charging army. Now, they no longer seemed as invisible.
Singlehandedly, Rex faced the 80,000-capacity army of the Exquisite gang and he didn''t die, rather he killed over 200 of them in one attack run.
If this was not intimidating enough, then Rex didn''t know what was.
Though they already heard about the famous vampire gang leader of the Berserk Gang, this single action shocked the warriors of the Exquisite gang.
As for the warriors of the Berserk Gang, they were emboldened.
"For glory!"
"Annihte the Exquisite gang!"
While some preferred to ride on the military trucks most especially the ranged specialists to get better shot angles, the others that were mostly close-rangedbatants jumped down and decided to take the battle personal.
In just seconds, both armies finally collided and a huge battle royal started.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Bullet shells rattled through the battlefield like the repetitive and seizing speeches of a stammerer, cold weapons shed echoing the drums of war, explosions rocked the battlefield like Armageddon was here, it was a chaotic affair.
Amid all thismotion, 2 entities were able to make their mark, Storm was absolutely unstoppable as he spread riot throughout the battlefield.
No Exquisite gangman survived his assault.
As for Rex, he was inevitable as a berserk version of him wreaked havoc.
The battle raged energetically.
Chapter 212 [Bonus Chapter]The Berserk Gang Vs The Exquisite Gang! [2]
-----
You have activated sword skill: Trident of Ethereal ckfire!
You have activated advanced sword skill: One Autumn Leaf- Annihtion sh!
You have activated Killer Boot''s mystic ability: Glidiator!
You have activated advanced shadow skill: Shadow Doppelganger!
You have activated advanced sword skill: Nirvana sh!
You have activated sword skill: Piercing Stab [¡Á5]
----
Rex was simply unstoppable on this chaotic battlefield.
The battle was raging for more than 10 minutes already and he remained the star of the show, sending dozens of enemy warriors dying each time that he attacked with his equally unstoppable sword.
Berserker constantly vibrated in excitement as it feasted on the blood of hundreds of mystic warriors, it was definitely living the dream.
Rex''stestbo attack which he was already notorious for in this battlefield did the deed as he cleared another vacant space through the enemies.
Berserker''s de edge became coated in a dark shade as it was surrounded by the raging ckfire, empowering it even further to cut through the military trucks and warriors blocking its way like a hot knife through butter.
The attack that seemed toe from an Antian warrior using their famous war Tridents barely ended before Rex followed with an advanced sword skill.
This time, he knelt down and rotated in one ce with Berserker following his movement as a wave of annihtion sword energy erupted with him as the center. The enemies stood no chance, they were washed away with the wave.
The warriors simply faded into ash as the annihtion energy cut through them, this attack opened a huge circr void around Rex once again.
This did not make him stop there though, he continued.
The warriors outside the perimeter of the annihtion wave who survived this attack barely had time to catch their breath before the inevitable vampire glided towards them at a speed that left their jaws dropping.
Once again, Rex could not be stopped as his attackbo continued.
To end hisbo, as soon as Rex rushed into his enemies, he activated his Shadow Doppelganger skill, dividing himself into the real him and 3 doppelgangers.
Once he activated Nirvana sh next, not only his real body but the 3 doppelgangers did the same as the range of damage extended even more this time. Rex ended thebo with 5 rapid stabs with his piercing stab skill.
His doppelganger did the same and by the time that thebo finally came to an end, Rex already reaped over 150 lives from the enemies.
His mere presence on the battlefield meant danger to the enemies. Despite being outnumbered by their enemies, Rex''s presence and battle performance was the one constant that kept the morale of the Berserk army high.
The Exquisite army recognized his threat but they did nothing to stop it. All 5 of their advanced mystic warriors on this battlefield avoided him and his beast.
Having heard stories about him, they didn''t want to try to see for themselves, they were fine with whittling him down until he used up all his mystic energy even if this meant sacrificing thousands of mystic warriors in the process.
Rex knew their n but this did not stop him from attacking. What they didn''t know was that with each kill, his mystic energy was replenished.
Another thing that pushed him was that as he attacked, he tried to find the main truck of the enemy where he guessed the Commander would be hiding.
By now, he already knew that none of the advanced mystic warriors were the Commanders, he expected this though since the Exquisite army were famous for just that. Their gang leader favored strategists to brute warriors.
Dave of the Exquisite gang named his gang exquisite for a reason. He was a perfectionist, he loved strategies, his army was the most organized in the whole Red Zone and this trait was what led him to being an overlord in the South region.
Even now, Rex was still the only positive of the Berserk Army. Apart from him and Storm, the Exquisite Army dominated in literally every other department.
Their warriors fought like one, like a unit or a well-oiled machine.
Despite Rex''s massacre, they were winning. They had more basic mystic warriors, more intermediate mystic warriors, and even more advanced mystic warriors. This was why Rex sought their Commander to turn the tides.
Another 2 minutester, he found what he wanted, the Commander hid in in sight among the military trucks that were fighting in the battlefield.
Once he discovered the Commander, Rex did not hesitate.
-----
You have activated Killer Boot''s mystic ability: Ghost Rider!
----
As soon as ckfire sprouted from the boots, Rex''s speed increased 7 times!
"Storm!" Rex called as he charged.
The Storm Kamaitachi responded to its master''s call as it started wreaking even more havoc across the battlefield.
The formation of the enemies tried changing as the Commander employed countermeasures to protect himself but Storm nullified all his efforts.
After clearing through 50 mystic warriors, Rex finally arrived before his target but before he could attack the truck, a mighty fist stuck out first.
BOOM!
The sound was like exploding dominoes as Rex received a direct hit to the chest. A 6th advanced mystic warrior came out of the truck, he was the champion of the Exquisite army and was the special protector of the Army Commander.
Rex coughed blood as soon as hended but it only made his blood burn hotter. He stood up and red at this Tiajutsu expert as Berserker vibrated.
"This enemy is strong!" He admitted but he was not intimidated.
The enemy champion cracked his knuckles then he charged forward like a Berserker, Rex did not back off from the challenge as he also charged forward.
Both shed again and a mighty battle started.
They carved a whole territory in the battlefield for themselves. Wherever the battle led them, death followed as the others simply couldn''t stand their intensity.
In no time, the stronger warrior between the both of them became evident. Rex was stronger but this big fist maniac was much more tenacious.
He was like a tank, he simply absolved most of Rex''s attacks with his armor and those that hit his skin only left minor injuries on his body. Even the few serious injuries were unable to stop his momentum, he was like a robot that felt no pain.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
With this Tiajutsu expert tying Rex down, the other 5 enemy advanced mystic warriors finally rallied to gang up on him and eliminate him.
For another 2 minutes, Rex fought alone against 6 powerful advanced mystic warriors. Despite the odds that were against him, he never once went on the defensive as he had full confidence on Cassandra''s ne and his armor.
He went on the attack with gusto as he killed one of the advanced mystic warriors in the process. Well, this did break the confidence of the enemies.
Almost at the same time that he killed the mystic warrior, the reinforcement from Ben and Aragorn finally came as both warriors led their army in enthusiastically. The battle became even more chaotic and uncertain.
Rex no longer became the focal point of the Berserk army, Ben revealed his talent as his big-boned body rolled through the battlefield wreaking havoc like a heavenly boulder that was sent to earth as a heavenly tribtion.
As for Aragorn, despite spending most of his time outside battle and in his workshop, he still got it as for one more day, he became a Blood Gunner again.
Aragorn, the Blood Gunner was fully unleashed as he flexed his strength.
The tides of the battle were no longer as one-sided.
Chapter 213 The Space Box
"Rex, you need to do something". Princess nor finally voiced her worry as she was tasked with tracking the battle situation from the Berserk Mansion.
Of the 50,000-capacity army of the current Berserk Gang, only a little more than a thousand were left by Rex to guard the Berserk Mansion this time.
The only boon was that alongside them were 3 leaders of the Berserk Gang, Rex assigned not just nor this time, but Erling and Jacob to also stay behind.
The Exquisite gang army attacked with 80,000 of their army that was rumored to be more than a hundred thousand, which made it very likely that the enemies still had an army of 20,000 at their disposal.
Just for safety reasons for his gang to not fall so terribly, Rex left the 3 of them to protect the headquarters in the case that it was attacked from another direction that was different from the main battlefield in the Spring Valley.
Apart from protecting the gang mansion, 3 of them were also tasked with protecting Melkor as he did his job of bringing in more minotaur pool water.
Apart from those 2, they had onest mission, the most important of all 3 which was to track the proceedings of the main battlefield through a satellite battle projection that Aragorn invented some time ago.
When embroiled in battle, even warriors as strong as Rex could lose themselves in the moment and fail to pay attention to their surroundings.
This was the exact reason why Dave of the Berserk Gang never made his war champions Army Commanders. Rumors said that even in decisive wars where he fought, he never made himself the Army Commander once.
The Army Commander was always a warrior that was not fighting but was rather much more ardent at strategies and battle formations.
Rex desired to achieve the same effect with his 3 leaders.
Through the satellite battle projection, nor and the other 2 were able to watch the battle and see everything that was going on for the past 20 minutes.
,m "Rex, you need to do something". Erling echoed nor''s concerns. "If the battle continues like this, though we are winning at a ratio of 10.7-10 deaths every second, there is still no guarantee that we''ll win".
"The enemy''s numbers advantage is simply too much for us to ovee. Their advantage of having much more intermediate mystic warriors is also a great hindrance since they are the main game changers of this battle".
"If we continue like this, even if due to some miracle we win, it will be at a huge loss after losing more than 80% or even 90% of our army".
"If that happens, then it''s safe to say we lost".
"Apart from the Axe Gang which would be an even more powerful opponent, if this trend continues, we also have the Kong Gang to face in battle".
"We can''t think of those if after each battle, we lose so many warriors".
Jacob interrupted Erling and butted in. "Rex, we need to do something to end this battle with as few warrior deaths as possible or we would have lost".
"Think of something!" Rex screamed from the other end.
Still embroiled in a battle of advanced mystic warriors, Rex did not have the time or the luxury to focus on thinking since he started feeling the mental toil.
nor took a deep breath then she spoke. "We need to assassinate Dave".
"Killing him is the only way to put an end to this battle".
"But he''s safe in his territory!"
"That''s it". nor stood up as she transmitted. "You think he''s safe but he''s not. For a long time, he was already used to being protected by his huge 100,000 army but now with majority of them gone, he''s as vulnerable as never before".
"20,000 is still an extremely powerful army, but they are not used to thinking like an army of 20,000, they are used to thinking like an army of 100,000 warriors".
"If we y our cards well, you can assassinate him".
In the chaotic battlefield, Rex finally retreated a bit as he paused and looked at the battlefield. In just a few seconds, he saw what they saw, if nothing was done, the Berserk Army would woefully lose this battle.
This was not the time to hesitate in his decisions but he was just not confident, fighting against 20,000 enemies to assassinate 1 man was in no way easy, he doubted if he was up to the task.
In his dilemma, he heard Aragorn speak in them despite still embroiled in a fierce battle with the enemies. "Rex, you can do it".
"I''ve seen you achieve even more difficult feats, this is not impossible for you. I believe in you, do us a favor and also believe in yourself".
"As for the battlefield here, don''t worry, we''ll hold the fort until you are victorious, Erling, Jacob, and nor wille reinforce us".
"The mansion has no use if we lose the battle".
nor and the others also voiced their support. "Rex, don''t worry about here, we''ll try our best even if it means dying just to prevent the enemies from taking over the Blood Market region".
This was something that Rex was not used to. As he received the encouraging words from his leaders, he first felt it cringe but he soon started epting it.
Having warriors that had his back felt great, Rex loved this feeling. His blood started burning hot again as these encouragements served as fuel for it.
Rex looked at the chaotic battlefield onest time then he backed off.
"Storm!"
The Storm Kamaitachi responded as it rode the wind and sprinted towards him. This time, Storm alone was not enough, Rex called for the others through the telepathic rtionship that he had with them in his mind.
A minute after he escaped out of the battlefield, he met Grey along the way. Instantly after he appeared, Ambition appeared from his invisible state while dust appeared in the air as King formed out of the dust particles.
All 4 of Rex''s transformed beasts and warrior were now avable.
For this assassination, Rex was ready to pull out all the tricks in his repertoire, he could not afford to underestimate the difficulty of this mission.
Before leaving, Rex looked down at the box that Aragorn gave him as a gift. As he held it, his system lit up another notification on his order.
-----
[Space Box!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Advanced Grade!]
Rarity: Rare
>Durability: 5,000/5,000<
[Mystic Effect: Dimensional Space!]
>Dimensional Space: The Space Box contains a dimensional space of 50 square meters. When activated, the door to the dimensional space is opened and anything can be stored inside, including living things and even humans<
[Remark: Aragorn''s first attempt at Spatial technology!]
----
Rex put on a determined expression on his face. "Let''s go!"
Chapter 214 Rexs First Assassination Attempt
The journey to the Southern region took approximately 3 hours.
Though at Storm''s maximum speed, the time would be reduced to less than 2 hours, Rex still went at the normal speed to let his other beasts catch up and to also let himself think and formte a viable assassination n.
Rex''s journey as a mystic warrior just started a year ago, but after all his adventures that even led him to a faraway, he felt like an old warrior.
He felt like a veteran warrior who had gone through a thousand battles.
In all these thousand battles though, one vital experience that hecked was assassination instincts. After the revtion from Cassandra, he worked hard to go against the beliefs and what he was supposed to be in the future.
Because of this, he instinctively loathed anything that had any rtion to evil and he ssified assassination as one, this was why he never engaged in it.
Well, today, Rex learned that the world was not always so rosy.
He was put in a situation where the Berserk Army either had to suffer a great defeat or a victory at a great expense, or he had to go assassinate the enemy leader to make things easy for his gang and his future goals.
Rex had no choice, he already pledged to take the Berserk gang to great heights that would enable him fulfill his goal of finding a way to rescue the Blood Spartan tribe that was stuck in the Tioron.
To fulfill his goals, he had to bend to reality and go for the assassination.
As Storm sprinted across the forest, a lot of things went through Rex''s mind, he recollected and started analyzing all the assassinations that he had suffered.
His first assassination was against the group of marauders who tried to kill him on someone''s orders, while his 2nd and 3rd were both from Arthur Holmes.
Despite the strength that Arthur had at his disposal, Rex was always lucky when facing him, this was why he ranked his first assassination above all of Arthur''s as his most harrowing and dangerous as he almost died.
After analyzing andparing them, Rex got amon point. "The whole point of assassination is to catch the enemy off their guard".
Once Rex got this, he got a base to build his n on.
¡
After 3 hours, Rex finally appeared in the Southern region.
What shocked Rex was that as soon as he appeared, he saw different gangs escaping from this region. He understood their motives immediately.
With the shift in the era, gangs would no longer be the same again. Every gang leader with a sane mind knew that if the Exquisite Gang seeded in defeating the Berserk Gang, they would be the next to be swallowed.
The braver gangs defied the Exquisite Gang and were already escaping.
This put a chaotic atmosphere in the region, exactly what Rex wanted.
Through the chaos, Rex infiltrated without attracting any attention and the first thing that he did was getting information from an inn to get himself updated in the current trends of this region and the Exquisite Gang.
Unknown to them, the Exquisite Gang''s numbers already grew to over 110,000 mystic warriors over the past 2 years.
Dave had 30,000 warriors at home protecting him.
And at this moment, only about half of the warriors were at the outside posts protecting the assets of the gang, the remaining half were all at the pce-like headquarters of the Exquisite Gang.
Rex was relieved on hearing this but it was still pretty dangerous. He didn''t have time on his side though, he tore the information to pieces and refined the n that he developed on the way here.
After paying the innkeeper, he went outside. A spy from the inn followed him but the spy didn''t see him again, Rex already disappeared.
Ambition carefully held the Space Box after putting his master and the other beasts in it as he put it on his pocket, also making it invisible.
One of his greatest traits was that he didn''t need to stay naked to be invisible, his invisible powers also affected his clothes and now the Space Box.
After keeping the box, Ambition embraced his Invisibility abilities as he phased and blinked through the void until he arrived before the pce.
Though Rex was bad at it, Ambition''s Invisibility mystic ability made him a natural assassin. Unless special measures were made towards it, nobody on the world could discover him if he infiltrated as an assassin.
Having inherited its instincts from Gaud, Ambition did not hesitate as he smoothly infiltrated the headquarters of the Exquisite Gang.
Just a few minutes in though, he discovered motion sensors. As this was the exact way in which Aragorn countered Gaud, Rex was prepared for it ahead of time.
Ambition simply activated one of the mystic effects of his mystic boots as he climbed the building and started walking through the wall like the spiderman.
Ambition continued for 5 minutes, walking through the enormous pce until he finally arrived at the building inside that was the gang leader''s residence.
Throughout all this, he did not make a single sound.
He dared not climb the walls of the gang leader''s residence though, electricity was just one of the set-ups installed to counter assassinations.
Ambition instead attached a sound amplifier to the wall, a device that picked all sound signals in the building, amplified them, and sent them to him.
Rex inside the Space Box was the one listening.
"Gang leader, we are still receiving signals from the army in the outskirts".
"What are they saying?" Dave asked in a deep voice that failed to hide how anxious he was at this moment.
"Sorry sir, but the signal keeps on being interrupted".
Bam!
Dave unleashed a p on this female warrior that left her bleeding. "Don''t report baseless news to me!"
"Go out there! Break the interference and find out what they''re trying to send! Do that in 15 minutes, if you can''t,e back with your head!"
nor and the others were right, the protection around Dave was toox. Though without Ambition, Rex definitely would have been caught infiltrating, but the speed at which Ambition infiltrated told him howx the security was.
Even as messages from the battlefield were constantly intercepted, Dave''s originally genius brain that he was known for was not working at this moment.
Rex had heard a lot of stories about Dave. From what he knew, hitting a subordinate was not part of Dave''s hobbies, this was all the effects of war.
This was his first attempt at fighting an inter-region war and it was against the Berserk Gang who dared to go against a Snake territory gang, it was only normal that he would be anxious and this pleased Rex.
"Do it!" He ordered Ambition through their telepathic connection.
The next moment, Ambition squatted like a rocket that was about to take off, activating another mystic effect of his mystic boots that enabled spring-like abilities that allowed him to jump high.
The sound was just like the wind blowing but to avoid being shocked by the electricity circuits, Ambition had to brute-force his way through the window.
Crack!
As soon as the reinforced ss shattered, the whole building became alert.
Wom! Wom! Wom!
An intruder alert rang loudly but Ambition was already in the room with Dave. The spooky thing was that Dave and his warriors saw the ss shatter, but they didn''t see who or what broke it.
"Fire!" Dave ordered as he grabbed his sword and unsheathed it.
The dozens of mystic warriors unleashed fire at the surrounding, shooting randomly while unknown to them, their target was on the ceiling.
Ambition climbed directly above Dave, then once again like spiderman, he dropped cooly. Dave only felt the wind slightly blowing beside his ear before he felt the cold edge of a knife pressing against his neck, drawing blood.
Ambition activated the Space Box now, enabling Rex toe out.
Rex looked Dave in the eye. "It''s over, surrender¡, or die!"
Chapter 215 Rex Vs 30,000..., One-Man Army!
"It''s over, surrender or die!" Rex repeated as he looked at Dave in the eye.
It was like the pause button was hit as every single warrior in this room went still. Though Ambition was still invisible and they could not see him, their instincts was still able to tell them that their gang leader was in danger.
In the silence and stillness, Rex''s demand echoed loudly.
Surprisingly though, Daveughed as he reciprocated and looked Rex in the eye. "Are you a fan of the old 20th century?"
Rex kept quiet, his cold ruthless eyes gave away his answer.
Daveughed again. "No need to be so mean, if you''ve heard of marvel, then you''ve surely also heard of the avengers, I love that series man".
"I love Thanos the most, especially his words directed towards Thor".
Rex''s eyes narrowed, Dave smiled. "You should have gone for the head".
Whoosh!
Ambition dragged the dagger, cutting Dave''s neck in the process but instead of the expected blood to flow, only white light was reflected.
"Hahahaha!"
"Did you really think I won''t be prepared for an assassination after hearing of your notorious strength and Ambition, your invisiblepanion?"
Dave appeared at the far corner of the room beside a machine that looked like a giant air conditioner. "This baby here is called a swap projector, it has teleportation abilities that can instantly rece me with a clone and teleport me anywhere instantaneously within my pce".
"I''m sorry Rex, the tides have turned".
"At this moment, 30,000 soldiers are surrounding my pce all prepped and ready to chop you into a million pieces".
"Surrender to me and join in the rise of the glorious Exquisite Empire".
Rex looked around the room, even without Dave confirming it, his danger senses already warned him of the danger that was all around him at this moment.
He was caught off-guard, he was already surrounded.
"What is your answer? Choose wisely Rex, I know you''re a wise man". Dave urged him with a wide smile of victory smugly on his face.
Rex chuckled and smiled. "You want my answer?"
"Yes".
"You already know my answer".
Rex barely finished before 2 blood-curdling hisses reverberated all over the room and the pce as a whole. A familiar Spider was already wreaking havoc.
Even as Grey wreaked havoc, he put even more energy on spreading a dark mist through the air. In mere seconds, the sky turned grey from the thick mist that diffused into the atmosphere and the clouds.
Rexughed. "Back to you, you should have also gone for the head".
"Kill him!" Dave screamed at the top of his voice as his warriors instantly went into action, shooting and rushing closer to attack Rex.
The funny thing was that amid all the attacks, Rex stood still with a smile on his face. Another invisible enemy, this one of dust already struck.
King''s Illusion Sorcerer ability was able to catch all the warriors off-guard, sucking them into an illusion. While they believed that they were attacking Rex, they were actually attacking each other as blood filled the room.
The scene of these warriors killing themselves was chilling.
On seeing this scene, Dave felt a chill crawl down his spine. Without hesitation, he activated the swap projector again as he teleported outside the room. Instantly after he moved, Rex followed.
On getting outside the gang leader''s building, Rex confirmed Dave''s words, an army of 30,000 mystic warriors already surrounded him.
The sight of so many warriors was intimidating but Rex was not fazed. The sight only made his blood to boil hotter as he grabbed Berserker tighter.
-----
You have activated Master Level Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
You have activated Master Level ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
----
This time, Rex no longer held back, he erupted with all his strength.
By spamming 4 master level skills one after the other, Rex erupted like an Asura from hell after the escaping Dave. With the ultimate defense, he rushed through the army of warriors while incinerating them with fire.
His 2 sword skills tore a hole through the enemy''s defense formation.
Almost immediately after Rex moved, already in his domain, Dave regained his confidence as this 6th tier Advanced mystic warrior turned to face him.
Standing alongside him in the middle of his army were 3 mystic warriors, his 2nd inmand who was a 4th tier Advanced mystic warrior and 2 other Advanced mystic warriors, they would lead the ughter against Rex.
"Kill him!" Dave roared as the army shed against Rex.
Rex did not back down from this challenge despite the numbers advantage, this time, he gave in to his irrationality as he lost himself in the battle.
With Grey''s dark mist diffusing the atmosphere and reducing visibility, the advantage of the enemy''s outrageous numbers was reduced to the bare minimum, presenting the perfect scenario for all of them to shine.
King, Grey, and Storm ran riot around a circr formation, annihting dozens of mystic warriors every second as they escorted their master to the front where Dave and his close confidants were.
When the distance closed, Rex initiated with a master level sword skill.
Thunder rumbled in the dark sky as a mighty wind apanied Rex''s sword after he activated the Master of the Elements sword skill.
With the sharp edge of his de, he cut every obstacle apart. The main enemies dodged the mighty attack but Rex was not fazed as he improvised.
His incredible swordmanship was put in y at this moment.
With Grey, King, and Storm protecting him from the surrounding army of 30,000 warriors, he fought against these 4 Advanced mystic warriors alone.
Rex swung his sword more than a dozen times every second as he shed against 4 different weapons and different battle styles alone.
It was hard, but with him sting at full gear, Rex overwhelmed his opponents with his incredible swordmanship that was simply out of this world.
Whoosh!
The sword de swept across with the momentum of a raging tsunami.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 3,500 mystic energy points!
----
In this uneven battle that was against him, not only was Rex able to stand to the challenge and resist, but he ended up killing one of the enemies first.
They''ve heard rumors of Rex''s strength, but not to this extent.
Dave and his warriors saw a demon on human flesh fighting against them. Alone in enemy territory, Rex and his beasts resisted an army of over 30,000, dominating even, this was the perfect disy of a one-man army.
"Monster!" Dave was horrified.
After killing the first Advanced mystic warrior, with his red glowing eyes, Rex rode the momentum as he morphed into his Bear-man form.
In this state, his strength increased again to an even more ridiculous level as he crashed through all their defenses till, he arrived before his 2nd victim.
The Advanced mystic warrior stood no chance before Rex''s ridiculous strength, Rex mmed his 2 palms against both his ears, smashing his brain in the process as blood blossomed like blossoming flowers in spring.
Dave and his 2nd inmand were the only Advanced mystic warriors now alive, Rex pounced on them with renewed energy, he was indeed a demon right now and both warriors were horrified.
Dave teleported away with the swap projector, abandoning his 2nd inmand but Rex abandoned this warrior and went after Dave himself.
For 8 minutes straight, while his beasts fought against the overwhelming army of 30,000, Rex chased the enemy gang leader all over his pce.
Dave ran till he was finally cornered by an invisible opponent.
Having been stalking him since, like the perfect assassin, Ambition ambushed Dave and this time he took Dave''s advise by going for the head.
Once the window of opportunity opened, in a second, Ambition''s dagger stabbed more than 40 times, poking countless holes into the head of this gang leader until his head was no more than a bloody sieve.
Dave died a miserable death.
For the umpteenth time that day, the Exquisite army was intimidated by the disy of a single warrior, Rex broke all thews of the mystic world that they thought they previously knew, he was simply a demon.
Instantly after Dave died, his 2nd inmand abandoned the Exquisite army as he ran for his life. He was fast, but he was not faster than wind itself.
Whoosh!
Storm rode the wind with Rex riding it as they appeared before the enemy in an instant. The Advanced mystic warrior paused in his steps as the sharp edge of Rex''s Berserker slightly cut his throat open.
"You know what to do".
This warrior only had to look up at Rex''s glowing red eyes filled with bloodlust before he agreed, he shot a signal into the air.
Then he roared. "Drop your weapons!"
The Exquisite Gang submitted before a single warrior and his beasts.
This battle was one that already made its way into the history books as one of the anomalies of the age of awakening, Rex was an anomaly.
Chapter 216 Annexing The Exquisite Gang
ng! ng!
The metallic ringing sounds of weapons falling down reverberated.
Psychological warfare was part of war. Today, the originally strong and tenacious hearts of the Exquisite warriors was already broken so much that they now had a phobia for Rex, they literally now saw Rex as a god.
In all their lives, they''ve heard stories of powerful Super mystic warriors running riot through an army of tens of thousands of lesser mystic warriors.
,m They''ve also heard of Myth grade warriors doing the same.
What they have not heard of was a single Advanced mystic warrior running riot through an army of over 30,000 with 4 Advanced mystic warriors and thousands of intermediate mystic warriors, Rex''s achievement was a miracle.
When his beasts held them for over 5 minutes, killing thousands of mystic warriors in that same time, they were intimidated but they kept on fighting.
When the 1st and 2nd Advanced mystic warrior was killed, they were even more intimidated but they kept on fighting despite all this.
All this was only possible because this was the Exquisite Army. They were renowned for their order, Dave trained his gang like a real military army, they were disciplined and orderly which was their greatest trait and strength.
Today though, this trait of theirs was unable to bail them from the tentacle of the living demon, Rex himself who singlehandedly broke them in pieces.
Once Dave their gang leader died, they were no longer simply intimidated, they were horrified and this was where they started seeing him as a god.
They were horrified, the penalty of defying a god was death.
When Rex finally cornered Tango, the 2nd inmand of the army and he ordered them to drop their weapons, they were all ecstatic because this meant that they were given a chance to redeem themselves.
Rex giving them a chance of surrender in their opinion was him having mercy on them, none of them dared to hesitate as they dropped their weapons and kneeled in awe of this god that now walked among men.
Still on top Storm, Rex looked down upon his new armyprising of about 26,000 mystic warriors, he looked at his loot, at his achievement proudly.
After such an epic battle, his battle will was still burning hot like a burning furnace but this scene of the warriors'' awe made his burning heart cool a bit.
Rex finally spoke. "Today, you are no longer the Exquisite Gang!"
"You are now part of the Berserk Gang!"
"All hail the Gang Leader!"
"ALL HAIL THE GANG LEADER!"
"All hail the Sword God!"
"ALL HAIL THE SWORD GOD!"
They didn''t know who started it but once it started, it never stopped again as the tens of thousands of mystic warriors chanted Rex''s new honorifics.
Once everything died down, Rex finally looked back down on his beasts. Like Storm, King and Grey were also injured after the incredible battle.
Only Ambition was still rtively clean, he was the assassin of the group.
As Rex looked down at them, a sense of pride rose in his heart. "Well-done". He appreciated them with all the sincerity that he could muster.
After this epic battle and the even more epic victory, he was finally able to gauge his strength as he was forced to fight at his best.
Through this battle, Rex was able to recognize how truly OP he was already. "I am indeed a one-man army".
His confidence already shot to the nine heavens but he was still able to keep a cool head as he directed Storm to walk towards Tango.
It was almost 4 hours already since he left the Blood Market region, leaving his outnumbered army to fight against the overwhelming army of the old Exquisite Gang. He didn''t know how well they fared, but it was time to end the battle.
"Send an order to stop the war". Rex ordered Tango.
Tango respectfully received the order and proceeded to carry it out instantly. While he did that, Rex also sent a message to his subordinates.
He picked up the specialmunication device. "Aragorn, you can lift the virtual interference now".
Instantly after Rex gave the order, the interference created by Aragorn that was cutting off allmunication between the headquarters of the Exquisite Gang and their army in the Blood Market region was finally deactivated.
All the messages starteding in like a flood and they had only 1 theme.
"It''s been 30 minutes since Rex wasst seen in battle".
"It''s been an hour since Rex wasst seen in the battlefield".
"Please tighten defense at the headquarters, there''s a high chance that Rex embarked on an assassination mission".
"It''s been 2 hours already since the war started, the Berserk Army is proving to be too strong a hurdle to ovee, they''re barely budging".
"They have some strange bottles where they ingest some tonic. After that, they turn into powerful Minotaurs that are far stronger than us".
"We want headquarters to look into these beasts, deduce their origin, and the best way to kill them".
"It''s been¡"
Rex smiled as he listened to all the messages.
"Gang leader, the message has been sent". Tango finally came back after sending the message as he reported to his new gang leader respectfully.
"Good". Rex nodded. "Take me to themand center".
"Yes, sir".
On arriving at themand center, Rex addressed his new army. "I believe that Tango already informed all of you, I am your new gang leader".
"You all are no longer the Exquisite Army, you are now part of the Berserk Army. You shall no longer report to Commander Chase but to Commander Aragorn, follow every instruction that he gives".
After addressing his new warriors, Rex finally finished his broadcast and switched to a more personal and secure channel with Aragorn.
"Inform Cassandra to lead the other leaders to properly integrate our new members into the Berserk Army without problems".
"As for you, I want you and Ben to lead an army of 50,000 here".
"We need to ride the current momentum to take over the Southern region".
"News just came in, the Axe Gang already took over the East Region, there is no more Godzi Gang, we can''t afford to rest on our rails".
"Yes, gang leader".
Chapter 217 Title- Gang Conqueror
Rex was tired.
He was justing out from back-to-back wars without sleep. After taking in the whole Blood Spartan Tribe in a single day, he celebrated throughout the night and without rest, he had to organize a defensive perimeter around his territory.
After establishing the defensive perimeter, the Exquisite Gang attacked and still without rest, he was dragged into another war.
After fighting for a long time, killing over a thousand mystic warriors in the process, his fellow leaders finally suggested the assassination n.
Once again, without rest, he forced himself to go on the assassination. Unlike a war, an assassination was even more draining mentally since he had to be alert 100% all of the time to avoid falling into a harrowing situation or worse a trap.
From an assassination, he messed up and it became another full-blown war until he finally killed Dave and 2 more Advanced mystic warriors.
He achieved all these in 2 days and a night without an ounce of rest in between. Now, Rex wanted nothing more than to retreat to a nice and cozy room to rest his back but circumstances did not allow this.
At the current rate at which gangs were leaving the Southern region, if he were to sleep first, perhaps he would wake up to see a Southern region with only the Exquisite Gang as the only gang around.
And having won Tango''s trust only due to his powerful disy in the war, he did not trust him enough to lead this operation alone.
"Tango, mobilize 15,000 soldiers and follow me".
Having dominated the Blood Spartan region with even lesser mystic warriors, Rex already mastered the craft as he left the huge pce with the army.
Unlike in the Blood Spartan region where he had to take so manyplicated steps because he was not really notorious yet, here, he didn''t need to take all thoseplicated steps since the Exquisite gang already did it for him.
Despite not taking the other lesser gangs around in, the Exquisite Gang was for a long time recognized as the overlord of the Southern region.
Their army was feared and Dave was feared even more.
When the news that the mystic warrior who killed Dave was out to integrate the other gangs into the new Berserk Gang, only few dared to resist.
? As for the few gangs that resisted, Rex was already too mentally drained to try knowing the reason for their rejection or negotiating with them.
"Kill them till they agree".
The army of 15,000 mystic warriors that Rex carried along swept across the Southern territory like a gue, annexing different gangs.
Rex didn''t need to exert himself much since the gangs that rejected their offer were also scared of fighting them head-on. It was a one-sided war as the Berserk Gang hunted them while they focused on escaping.
The real war was not inside the region, it was at its borders.
¡
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rocked the battlefield as blood flowed like a river.
Having acknowledged the orders of their gang leader, Aragorn and Ben rushed from the Blood Market zone with their army of 50,000 mystic warriors.
On their way to their destination, they met some of the gangs that were trying to escape from the Southern Zone. Those gangs who were brave enough to escape first were either the top gangs or those at the middle ranks.
The least that their armies numbered was warriors in the thousands.
As soon as they met them, Aragorn did not even try to stop them or negotiate with them, he unleashed fire on them instantly since that was thenguage that they best understood. Of course, the gangs retaliated furiously.
"Create a circr perimeter around them".
"Don''t let a single warrior escape".
"We''ll box them in and pick them one by one until they surrender".
Aragorn gave orders from inside his Monster Truck as he focused on being the battle Commander this time. As for Ben, he led the attack at the very front of the battlefield where he disyed his sword skills.
Ben killed with impunity. Back from his lizardry hunting days, he already had in instinct for killing, all that he needed was unlocking his full potential.
As he became stronger as a mystic warrior, the more he understood and unlocked his potential, now he could freely wreak havoc on this battlefield.
After 15 minutes of intense battle where 15% of the enemies were dead and their gang leader was dead, they finally surrendered.
The first battle served to herald the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th as battles raged all over the border that led out of the Southern region.
To upy more ground, Aragorn divided the army into 4 equal parts so that they could intercept more of those gangs that were escaping.
This continued all the way till it was evening, this was when all the escaping gangs finally came to an end. Majority of them were captured and retrieved by the army, while the others were all officially gone.
For the first time in forever, the Southern region became united under one banner, under the banner of the newly rising Berserk Gang.
Rex became the leader and lord of all this new subjects and territory.
This time, he left the taking over, indoctrination and setting up a defensive perimeter to his subordinates. After stressing himself so much already, Rex was absolutely tired and had no other craving than to sleep.
As soon as heid his back on the new king-sized bed that was presented in the room of the gang leader inside the pce, Rex''s system notification lit up.
-----
[Congrattions! You have annexed your first top gang!]
[You have unlocked a title: Gang Conqueror!]
>Gang Conqueror: +5% chance when persuading gang leaders of lesser gangs to submit and be part of your gang<
¡
[Congrattions! You have crossed the milestone of 100,000 subordinates!]
[You have unlocked a title: Thousand-Centenarian Leader!]
>Thousand-Centenarian Leader: +10% authority over your subordinates, and +10% respect from your subordinates<
[Remark: The first step to building a legacy.]
----
Rex did not finish reading it, he fell asleep due to exhaustion.
Chapter 218 Pressure To Perform
Before crashing to sleep, Rex left orders to his subordinates.
Though in a literal sense, he already annexed the Exquisite Gang and they were not part of the Berserk Gang, Rex still didn''t fully trust Tango enough to leave everything including his life at the hands of this advanced mystic warrior.
Before sleeping, Rex promoted 2 of the more outstanding warriors of the army who were previous Commanders of the Exquisite army to leader status.
Both of them were meant to bnce the power at Tango''s fingertips.
Rex only slept after doing that, and as for his safety, all 3 of his transformed beasts and Ambition were together with him in the room protecting him.
If anything happened, his transformed beasts and warriors were more than capable of taking care of it since they alreadypleted the hardest job.
Having received Rex''s orders before he slept, after taking in most of the gangs that were trying to escape, Aragorn went to Rex''s new pce for the first time with the army of 50,000 warriors and the new additions that he came with.
He was the one in charge of the indoctrination process, and he also needed to impose on Tango that he was the 2nd inmand of the Berserk Army.
Imposing his authority on Tango was the hardest task that he needed done but Aragorn didn''t shy from it as he confronted the mystic warrior head-on. He was not aggressive, he just made sure that they were on the same terms.
Once this was concluded, everything else became super easy for Aragorn. As a mystic mechanic,municating to hundreds of thousands of warriors was not a problem for him since that was how he would indoctrinate the new soldiers.
Apart from ingraining in them the rules of the Berserk Gang, Aragorn''s other important task was making them respect and trust their new leaders.
It was a hard task but it was not impossible.
Having done it previously when Rex just took over the Berserk Gang, Aragorn already had a blueprint to draw ideas from which made things smoother.
That same night, having received Rex''s orders, Princess nor also embarked on a journey with an army of 5000 warriors to the Southern region after leaving the Blood Market region under the leadership of her boyfriend.
All the leading figures and Advanced Mystic Warriors of the Berserk Gang found themselves in the Southern region in no time, Aragorn addressed all of them.
"The Gang Leader is exhausted but he alreadyid the foundation for us".
"Unlike the Blood Market region where we ruled, the Southern region is one of the major cardinal regions of the Red Zone".
"There are much more easier ways for armies from the North, East, and Western regions to attack here which is why we need to act fast".
"Every second wasted without doing anything is taking a great risk".
"While the gang leader recovers, I want us to fully integrate the Southern region under our rule and organize a defensive perimeter around the region".
"We need to be prepared for the Axe Gang or the Kong Gang''s attack".
"We don''t know when they will attack us".
After making sure that they got the message that he intended to pass across, Aragorn divided them into groups before sending them out with the army.
Half of the army was left at the pce while the remaining half were all sent outside to go set a defensive perimeter in preparation for war against the other overlord gangs of the remaining 2 cardinal regions.
Rex''s individual brilliance was the sole reason for the Berserk Gang''s victory over the Exquisite Gang, the inventory of this top gang revealed this.
After scouring through the incredible new inventory that he had ess to, with his mechanic genius, Aragorn was able to delegate duties to the machines, rapidly speeding up progress.
In just an hour and 20 minutes, the Berserk Gang seeded in setting up a defense perimeter. Ben was the twin Commander of the defense perimeter alongside one of the best traditional Commanders of the old Exquisite Gang.
Having witnessed their effectiveness inrge-scale wars already, Aragorn took a script from Dave''s book and left the strategists in ce.
By pairing a strategist Commander with a war champion Commander like Ben, Aragorn believed that this was the best way to achieve maximum effect.
One thing that Dave neglected was morale. As much as impable strategy in wars was vital and could singlehandedly win battles, so also was the morale of the army. When the army was high on morale, they perform better in battle.
It was after finishing all this that Aragorn and the others finally felt confident enough to sleep. Just like Rex, they were also tired.
¡
The next morning, like they were used to, explosive news came.
For some reason, it seemed like Max never got exhausted, like he was a robot. It was not even a full day yet since he conquered the East zone and the Godzi Gang, but the Axe Gang already went after the Kong Gang.
They marched in the night, hiding their traces and intentions until they arrived at the Western region where another war broke out in the night.
As soon as the news came, Aragorn woke Rex up.
Rex was still not fully rested but once he heard the news, his eyes shone in alert as he immediately convened a meeting between all the leaders of the Berserk Gang and this time, the Army Commanders also.
Rex rubbed his aching head as he focused on his subordinates. "We are already at the eye of the storm, we can''t retreat nor can we rest".
"We and the Axe Gang are currently under a great pressure to perform".
"You''ve heard about Max Fury''s movements, I need your opinion".
Ben spoke first. "Attacking is the only option, we cannot stay idle and allow Max to keep on riding the momentum to annex a 2nd top gang".
"If he does, the war would be literally over for us".
"At this moment, the war is at a very delicate moment where the one to take the first advantage has a very high chance of winning".
"Rex already did it once, there''s a 99% chance that Max won''t fall for an ambush. Besides, if we let the Axe Gang to annex the Kong Gang, the tides of the war would bepletely one-sided".
"We should either decide to join the war as a neutral and seek to earn benefits, or we should try negotiating with the gang leader of the Kong Gang".
"Either ways, we need to stop Max Fury from seeding".
Chapter 219 A Difficult Decision
For the 2nd time, Ben showed his vastly improved war acumen.
The others in the strategy room including Rex were intelligent enough to think of this, but it was the speed at which his brain worked to quickly think of this that set Ben apart from the others as a better war strategist.
Ben was chubby, direct, a terrible womanizer, and even sometimes knuckle-headed but when he was motivated to learn something, he gave his all to it.
During his short time spent in the Great Myriad Metal Shelter, he attended military sses of the Big-bone family on war strategies and responses.
Back then when he thought about his 2 childhood friends, from the wars that went on in the Great Shelter, he knew that strength alone did not cut it to fight and save them, he also needed a proper war mind to achieve great things.
After graduating from the academy of the Big-bone family, his decision was to go seek the patriarch''s permission to go out and build his own army.
When he heard that Rex already started this route before him, it served as one of the hidden reasons why he no longer returned to the Great Myriad Shelter but instead decided to stay behind and help Rex.
Being childhood friends with Rex and understanding his personality, he knew that if Rex made it to the top, then all of them were literally already at the top.
As soon as Ben made his suggestions, no one opposed it, they were impable and everyone including Rex bought into his suggestions.
The dilemma became choosing the option of either joining the war as a neutral to seek benefits or taking the option of trying to negotiate with the Gang leader of the Kong Gang.
Aragorn spoke first. "Joining the war as neutrals to seek benefits is a great risk on our part, we''ll be terribly exposed if this irritates the other 2 gangs and forces them into an alliance which will worsen our problems".
"I advise we take the 2nd alternative of negotiating with the Gang Leader of the Kong Gang, that''s the safest and more surefire way for us".
"I''m sorry Aragorn, but we''ll have to disagree with that". Erling and Jacob spoke up almost at the same time as the same thing went through their minds.
Erling continued. "During the take over of the Blood Market region, Rex used intimidation tactics to lower our resistance. Of course, that yed a huge part but the other reason why we submitted was because you are far stronger than us".
"If we rejected your offer, we had a high chance of dying".
"Now y this scenario, if both the Axe Gang and the Berserk Gang asks the Kong Gang to surrender, who do you think they''ll likely surrender to?"
"The Axe Gang". Jacob answered. "They have a more notorious reputation than us, and we have to be sincere, they also have a stronger army than ours".
"This is why we should take the option of entering the war as neutrals, if things y out well, we can take advantage of their hatred for each other".
"And if luck is on our side, we can reap the most benefits from the war".
This was a critical decision that involved the fate of a lot of lives, for the first time in all his life, Rex felt scared of making a decision.
When he decided to take in more gangs to stand a chance against the Gandalf Gang, his ambition was big but it was definitely not this big.
The actions of the Axe Gang escted everything to a level out of his control. In the end, he started getting involved in the lives of warriors and civilians in such a scale that he never envisioned even in his wildest dreams.
Rex suddenly stood up. "This decision is too important to leave to me alone, it will be decided in a voting pool where all of you must pick one of the 2 options".
"It willst 15 minutes, I will be back then to see the results".
-----
[You have activated Blood Tome''s mystic effect: Phasing- Mid-range teleportation!]
----
Without waiting for them to object, Rex left the strategy room.
Rex''s actions showed how heavy this decision weighed on his mind, their faces soon turned solemn as they also gauged the weight that each of their votes carried in the lives of hundreds of thousands of warriors and over a million civilians.
Aragorn stood up first. "I will cast my vote now".
Without waiting for the others, he drew a chart with 2 sides where he put option 1 on the left and option 2 on the right. Below both sides of the chart, he put a mechanical ballot box to represent both options.
He picked a random book, wrote his choice before putting it on the ballot box. As soon as he voted, the others stood up and also started voting.
¡
Bzzz!
Rex appeared far from the gang headquarters, the civilian quarters.
Due to the differing powers and status between both sides, in most shelters, there were usually civilian quarters which were the poorest in the whole shelter. The Southern region of the Red Zone was no exception to this rule.
Since he became a mystic warrior, Rex hardly paid attention to the world of the civilians but today, he felt an urge that pushed him here.
He came to see if he could wind down all the pressure.
As Rex walked through the streets, all he saw was suffering and poverty. Malnourished kids, beggars in the streets, thieves, armed robbers, the scene was like that of a nation that was hit by a mega-scale nuclear bomb.
While the gangs flexed their superhuman strength and fought for supremacy, it was the civilians who suffered it the most.
When powerful mystic warriors fought, sometimes, earthquakes, storms, and tsunamis could be induced and all these unknowingly end up affecting the innocent civilians who already had piles of problems of their own.
As Rex walked, he could tell that the recent battle between him and the old Exquisite Army had repercussions here as he saw signs of a mini earthquake.
He was shocked, he never knew that the mystic world affected the civilian world so much. Back in the King Resistance Shelter, he was really pampered.
The more Rex looked, the more guilt he felt.
"The war is not even over yet". He mumbled. "The ultimate showdown against the Axe Gang is definitely going to cause even more trouble".
Rex wanted to give up and stop the suffering but he also recognized that giving up would mean all their suffering before now would have been in vain.
He made some realizations as he clenched his fists. "I owe you all a debt".
"To pay it, I must ovee the Axe Gang and bring a future of prosperity to all civilians, I must ovee the Axe Gang by all means".
So much suffering showed how much the overlord gangs neglected the civilians. Rex also neglected them before, but after seeing this, he had a change of mind. He was now motivated more than ever to achieve his goal.
"To achieve my goal, I will do anything!" He clenched his fists.
Rex activated the Blood Tome again and teleported back to the strategy room. On getting there, the voting already came to an end, he was thest voter.
He looked at the results, votes for the 2nd option was winning with a mere 1 vote. This made thisst vote of his even more important.
Rex clenched his fists again. He was ready to do anything to achieve his goal, but if he could reduce the suffering while doing it, he would feel better.
Rex took a paper and wrote down his vote, he voted for the 2nd option.
Once the oue of the vote was announced, Rex took the leader''s position again and addressed them. "This is my n".
Chapter 220 The Ultimate Showdown! [1]
Rex took the leader''s position again and addressed his subordinates. "The result of the collective votes favored the 2nd option which is to try negotiating with the Gang Leader of the Kong Gang".
"Following the result of the votes, this is my n".
"During my time out, I thought deep about both options".
"The first option is the one where we have full control but it is also the one with the most risks. As for the 2nd option, it is more out of our control since our next step depends on the response of the Gang Leader of the Kong Gang".
"I also understand the problems that both Erling and Jacob pointed out which is why I say we should address them first".
"We should not just go in and start negotiating with the Gang Leader of the Kong Gang, that will put us at the back foot with few choices left for us".
"I say we wait until the Kong Gang suffers enough damage".
"Probably, by afternoon. With the incredible momentum of the Axe Gang, if everything goes well, by then, they would be hammering the Kong Gang already".
"At the moment where they hammer the Kong Gang is the perfect time for us to enter the scene, not to negotiate but to fight".
"We''ll ignore the Kong Gang and focus our whole army on the Axe Gang. We need to stop their incredible momentum, we need to show not just to them but to the Kong Gang what we are made of".
"After showing both sides what we are capable of before we would take the first step to form an alliance, the Kong Gang won''t take lightly to a straight subordination plot, we need to take things steadily".
"This is my n to turn the tides in our favor during this war".
"If anyone opposes the n or sees any problem with it, speak now or forever stay silent".
After a minute of no one speaking, Rex stood up. "That''s it".
"From now till 12 noon, I want all of you hard at work preparing the whole Berserk Gang for war, our mystic warriors need to ovee their fatigue and be in their peak state, do anything to make sure this is done".
"As for myself, I''ll also go work on myself to regain my peak state".
While his subordinates fulfilled his orders, working hard to bring the Berserk Army back to peak performance state, Rex locked himself in his room.
His strategy to bring himself back to his peak state was through meditation.
His physical state already recovered to its peak, what needed attention now was his mental state and he believed meditation was up to the task.
After sitting cross-legged, Rex closed his eyes as he breath calmly.
-----
[You have activated ckfire skill: Zone!]
[Your concentration has increased by 100%!]
----
As soon as the zone ability activated, Rex felt all the distracting thoughts in his mind turning into fleeting clouds and disappearing into the heavens.
His increased concentration put him in a state of absolute stillness and silence, and in this state, his mind entered a state of pure calmness.
In this state, Rex lost perception of time until 2 knocks reverberated from his door. He opened his eyes and looked at the time. "4 hours already passed".
Rex smiled and stood up, he cracked his neck and his knuckles. "I''m back".
Rex grabbed Berserker who reacted with excitement as he finally went outside. On going outside, he met Princess nor at the door.
"Rex, it''s time, the army is waiting for you".
"Any news from our spies in the Western region?"
"The Kong Gang already lost majority of their prime territories".
"Good". Rex nodded and led the way to the army.
This time, Rex''s address to the army was rtively short. "Let us go out there and fight the good fight that will determine our future".
"Let us fight the good fight that will determine the future of our children".
"Let us go out there and make history".
"For the Berserk Gang!"
"FOR THE BERSERK GANG!"
The old warriors of the Berserk Gang responded like usual. As for the new warriors, having seen Rex trample through them like a god, they had godly respect for him and the fact that they were fighting alongside him now pumped them.
"FOR THE BERSERK GANG!!!" They roared at the top of their voices.
With that, an army exceeding 100,000 mystic warriors left the Southern region with Rex as they made their way to the Western region which was now the focal point of this inter-region war.
The journey to the Western regionsted less than an hour, they spent over 30 minutes only because Rex wanted his army to stay under the radar.
On arriving, they met chaos, they met death, they met disaster, they met war. The Western region already seemed to turn into the focal point of a fire apocalypse that was ravaging through a whole.
Explosions filled everywhere with hundreds of warriors and civilians dying every moment as both sides gave their all to destroy the other.
Despite the fierce retaliation of the Kong Army, the Axe Gang Army was losing. They were much more than their opponents, and they had more ways to torture the life out of their opponents.
The Axe Gang Army from afar was like an unstoppable colony of ants at war.
The scene of the war alone set Rex''s already cold heart aze again. His battle will started turning fiery again, and in no time, his eyes started glowing red again as he turned to his soldiers.
"Follow me and exterminate every Axe Gang warrior!"
"Today, we celebrate on earth or we dine in hell!"
-----
,m You have activated Master Level Skill: Master of the Elements!
----
Rex rushed forward first and started the first attack.
Storm followed tightly after its master as the sky instantly turned blueish dark with thunder rumbling in the heavens. From the clouds came the sharp wind that was shaped in the form of a sword ready to cleave the world in twain.
The warriors of the Axe Gang saw it but they could not stop it.
BOOM!
The massive wind sword energy descended and swept across the warriors like a gue, over 500 mystic warriors died from Rex''s first attack.
"Die!"
With him opening the way, the warriors of the Berserk Gang whose energies were already rising to the nine heavens finally charged in to unleash their energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
An army shed with an army, and war began.
Chapter 221 The Ultimate Showdown! [2]
Till the Berserk Gang Army got to their side and attacked, the Axe Gang Army had no idea and this was all due to the genius of a single warrior, Aragorn.
Aragorn''s talent as a mystic mechanic were generational, all that he previously needed was a tform to channel it and with Rex providing this tform through the Berserk Gang, Aragorn flourished like a dragon in its domain.
While the Axe Gang Army was still focused on invading and eradicating their enemies, another enemy of theirs hit them where it hurt the most.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The war machines of the Berserk Gang roared with fire concentrated at the center of the Axe Gang Army as the same explosions that rocked the territory of the Kong Gang started rocking through the middle of their battle formations.
While the war machines temporarily destabilized the momentum of the Axe Gang, the over a hundred thousand warriors of the Berserk Gang rushed into their enemies following their gang leader to prove their strength and courage.
For the first minute, the sh was bloody and one-sided.
The spirited Berserk Gang Army charged into their enemies like a bull. With the melee warriors leading the battle line, blood was spilled to form a river.
For this ultimate showdown, Ben outdid himself. During the 4 hours of preparation that Rex gave since morning, apart from helping the soldiers to return to their peak state, Ben also improvised their battle formations.
Their battle formations that were taught by their previous Commanders were already amazing, but Ben modifying them increased their might even more.
Now, they shone on the battlefield like fireflies in a night sky.
With the ranged warriors behind them assisting them, the melee warriors put their lives on the line and fought the battle of their lives. With no regards given to their life or death, they were able to flourish and shine like peacocks.
Deaths in the Axe Gang army increased to hundreds every second due to the incredible momentum that the Berserk Gang Army came with.
This onlysted a minute though since the Commanders of the Axe Gang Army finally improvised. Once they improvised, their warriors also improvised as they got ready to counter the Berserk Gang Army.
This was the exact moment that he had been waiting for, while the enemies improvised, Ben finally gave the order for the first taking of the minotaur pool''s water. Melkor''s hard work meant that every warrior had one.
Once they ingested the water, tens of thousands of warriors of the Berserk Gang transformed mid-battle into huge, powerful, and menacing Minotaurs.
The enemies were shocked and caught off-guard, before they understood what was going on, the Minotaurs'' guttural roars reverberated like thunder in the sky before they rushed into them like a truck ramming into a little kid.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
This time, the Axe Gang was really in for a hammering.
For 20 minutes straight, the Berserk Army dominated while the effects of the Minotaur pool''s watersted as they killed their enemies as effortlessly as Chucky chopping off the arms of his victims.
To the Axe Gang warriors, it was like they were hearing the words. "I''ll make you a deal. Kill Jake and I''ll let you live".
That was how horrifying the momentum of the Berserk Gang was at this moment and at the center of it all was Rex Vector, their gang leader.
-----
[You have drunk water from the Minotaur Pool!]
[You have transformed into a Minotaur!]
[Effects:]
+100% increase to all base stats
+100% critical hit chance
+150% vitality
[Side Effects:]
-20% intelligence
----
Rex was in the strongest state that he had ever been since he became a mystic warrior, in this state he felt invincible and he was invincible.
Losing 20% of his intelligence temporarily for such power was absolutely worth it. After all, when he was consumed by battle and his eyes started glowing red, he tended to lose his rationality so it didn''t really matter.
He already gave targeted orders to his subordinates before he started the battle. All that was needed for him now was to wreak havoc and damage to the enemies as much as possible and that was exactly what he was doing.
-----
You have activated shadow skill: Ghost in the Night!
You have activated Advanced Shadow skill: Shadow Doppelganger!
You have activated Advanced Shadow skill: Dark Arrow!
You have activated Advanced Sword skill: Annihtion sh!
You have activated Master Level Sword skill: Phoenix Ash!
You have activated Master Level Sword skill: Precision sh!
You have activated Master Level Sword skill: Master of the Elements!
----
At this moment, Rex was a beast on this battlefield!
He spammed skills on the enemies like a maniac. Skills were instinctively activated by him as with his living sword, they painted a beautiful explosive art of death and blood on this massive battlefield.
Rex was so destructive at this moment that in just 30 minutes, he killed more than 10,000 enemy mystic warriors singlehandedly, painting himself once again to these warriors as an unstoppable sword god.
Max Fury was leading the invasion against the Kong Gang, his attention was focused on the invasion and hence could not divert his attention here.
He instead sent 2 Advanced mystic warriors which was a choice that he would regret not long after he made it, Rex soloed both Advanced mystic warriors.
Not just soloed, Rexboed them to death.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
His hands were so fast and strong that the 2 mystic warriors could only passively react to his actions as he used Berserker to torture the life out of them, he battered them till the extent where life lost its meaning to them.
Till their death, they still didn''t understand how they were unable to put up a resistance, they still didn''t understand how Rex was so freakishly strong.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 2,800 mystic energy points!
¡
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 3,200 mystic energy points!
----
This feat by Rex was what broke the camel''s back, the warriors of the Axe Gang were now literally horrified at his mere presence alone.
As for the warriors of the Kong Gang who watched this from afar, only shock, awe, and respect filled their minds as they saw Rex disy his masterpiece art.
It was during this exact same moment that Princess nor deduced that it was time to make her move. Without hesitation, she ignited Aragorn''s monster truck and drove straight towards the military base of the Kong Gang.
"Let me in, I want to meet your leader".
Chapter 222 The Ultimate Showdown! [3]
Walker, the gang leader of the Kong Gang dared not face the notorious Max Fury on a one on one battle. While Max led his army at the forefront battering his enemies, he opted to control things from inside his control room.
Walker was not exactly a great strategist, but he just didn''t have the courage to throw his life away fighting Max and was why he hid in the control room.
In the control room, he was able to watch everything that happened.
Unlike the other gang leaders of the overlord gangs, he was already an old man past 100 years old. He was a 6th tier Advanced mystic warrior yet he was still not confident to fight Max, it showed this conqueror''s notoriety.
From the control room, he watched as his army was slowly and ruthlessly picked apart like an Eagle picking apart the innards of his prey.
From the control room, he kept on sighing as he thought keeping hold of his gang was already a lost cause until the Berserk Gang arrived.
This spirited army did not send him a single message, they ignored him and his army like they were nonexistent and directly threw themselves at the Axe Gang.
For the past 40 minutes, he watched as the Berserk Army started battering the Ape Gang Army from the rear. He watched as they turned into Minotaurs and dominated in the bloody battlefield.
Most importantly, he watched as Rex showed his ss on the battlefield. He watched as Rex killed over 10,000 enemy mystic warriors and he also watched as Rex effortlessly killed the 2 Advanced mystic warriors that Max sent.
Rex fought like a possessed warrior, he fought like he never got tired and his mystic energy never got exhausted, his energy was unlike any other.
This old mystic warrior sighed, feeling even more old all of a sudden. "The young are really surpassing the old, they have so much energy".
At first, he didn''t understand the intentions of the Berserk Gang until he finally saw the Monster Truck driving towards the direction of their military base. Once nor spoke and asked for him, he gave the order to let her in.
2 minutester, nor was standing before him in the control room.
? Walker spoke first. "Do not lecture me about this war, I have my reasons for staying here in the control room and watching out the battle instead of getting involved in the action".
"I am not here to lecture you, I am here to seek an alliance".
"Our gang leader wants the Kong Gang and the Berserk Gang to ally and pull our strength together to defeat the tyrannous Axe Gang".
"So that after winning, we''ll be your subordinates, right?" Walker asked then heughed. "Sorry but no, we like our independence, the Kong Gang will never submit to any other gang".
"Rex promises your total independence after the victory¡"
"No! I said I don''t want your proposal".
The manner at which Walker cut her off this time seemed to hit a sensitive spot on nor''s head, she shook as her head seemed to start bringing out smoke while she clenched her fists until they started making crackling sounds.
The tense atmosphere in the air became tenser and even more oppressive.
Walker felt the change in the atmosphere then he turned to face her only to see a furious version of this beautiful female that he never expected.
"How dare you stay here and watch casually like it is just a movie while tens of thousands of your warriors are dying out there?!"
"How dare you hide while your warriors put their lives on the line for you?!"
"Lady, I said don''t lecture¡"
"SHUT UP!" nor exploded.
"Have you no shame?!"
"Where are your creeds as a mystic warrior? Where is your pride?!"
"Don''t you feel guilty to have the respect of your warriors?"
"Lady, I won''t repeat it¡"
"SHUT UP! nor exploded again then she removed her disguise.
"I am an Elf!" She pointed at her face. "Despite not being human, I can still feel sympathy for your warriors who are out there dying for a shameless leader, a shameless leader who does not give a damn about their deaths".
"If there is hell after death, you will rot at the deepest depths in hell!"
Without putting her disguise back on, nor turned and started storming out of the control room, leaving a bewildered and shocked Walker behind.
In the space of 2 seconds, hundreds of thoughts went through Walker''s mind as a screw finally turned on his brain. He moved so fast that nor could barely react before a palm picked her by the neck and mmed her to the wall.
"How dare you condemn me?!"
"How dare you call me shameless?!"
"I can kill you in the blink of an eye¡, HOW DARE YOU?!!!"
nor looked at this warrior without fear in the eye. "Because you are shameless, that is why".
Crack!
Walker tightened his fist around her neck as nor coughed blood but she still looked at him straight in the eye without fear. Walker red back at her but soonter he was bewildered again, then he burst into crazy maniacalughter.
"Hahahahaha¡, hehehehe¡, what an interesting personality you are".
Walker released her and nor fell down coughing blood.
"I ept your proposal". Walker suddenly looked up and said.
"The Kong Gang will temporarily ally with the Berserk Gang".
"Inform your Gang Leader".
Princess nor wiped the blood away from her mouth and stared at this old man for seconds without saying a word.
Walker coughed. "Go now, tell him, I''m serious this time".
nor stared at him for 5 more seconds then she stood up. "Ok".
As the Elven Princess left, Walker ced his hands behind his back and shook his head. "What an awful day today is proving to be".
The next moment, he cracked his knuckles and his neck before pressing a hidden button on his wrist, he disappeared from the control room instantly.
Walker appeared at another part of his headquarters, underground. In here was an epic collection of battle puppets ranging from bestial battle puppets to humanoid and to even transformable battle puppets.
Walker stared at the collection as a nostalgic expression came on his face. "I thought I won''te back here after she died, life is so full of ups and downs".
Walker was a 6th tier Advanced mystic warrior, 2 of his mystic abilities were battle puppet rted mystic abilities while his 3rd was a special mystic ability that he created himself, it allowed him to turn himself into a battle puppet.
The next moment, Walker threw his clothes away, exposing his red metal body that was as thick and heavy as the heftiest weightlifter to never exist.
Walker cracked his knuckles again.
"Ok boys, it''s now or never".
"Let''s go fight ourst famous battle and die gloriously!"
As soon as Walker spoke, this hidden underground bunker seemed toe to life. Thousands of battle puppets trooped out as the gang leader of the Kong Gang got ready to fight hisst famous battle on earth.
Walkerughed maniacally. "Our battle shall be legendary!
Chapter 223 The Ultimate Showdown! [4]
The same way that Rex was a cheat code in the part of the battlefield where he fought, so also was Max Fury a cheat code in the part where he fought.
Covered in his iconic blue Myth Grade mystic armor, Max was a terror to the Kong Gang Army as he went through them like a scythe through a rice field.
Unlike Rex, he was a powerful Tiajutsu practitioner, the most powerful Tiajutsu expert in the history of the Red Zone, he was Max Fury!
His first 2 mystic abilities were body strengthening mystic abilities where his Tiajutsu skills shone always and he was more known for. As for his less known mystic ability, it was even more powerful, it was a space rted mystic ability.
In this battle though, Max had not yet been forced to reveal his mystic energy hungry 3rd mystic ability as he fought the army of tens of thousands with his fists alone and managed to batter them senseless. Boom! Boom! Boom!
"All gangs shall bow before the might of the Axe Gang!"
"I am the Conqueror!"
Even as he fought, he still found the leisure to spread his propaganda.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
His fists were so fast and powerful as they moved that the friction resulting from it set them aze. With fire raging on his fists like the ghost rider, Max Fury unleashed his fury on the mystic warriors of his enemy that dared to face him.
All around him was like an apocalypse, blood was the main sight followed by raging fire and mutted limbs, it was a bloody massacre.
It was like he had an exclusive battlefield of his own where he just killed and killed. All around him, casualties exceeding 10,000id under the bare sun.
Not just basic and intermediate mystic warriors, 5 of the Advanced mystic warriors under Walker already shed with him and all lost their lives.
This was exactly what he wanted. With so many soldiers dying including Advanced mystic warriors and Walker remaining in hiding, the morale of the Kong Army would keep on reducing until the warriors deserted their leader.
This was close to the strategy that he used on the Godzi Gang. While his army battered the Godzi Army, he battered their gang leader.
Unlike Walker, the gang leader of the Godzi Gang was brave enough to face him. For hours, they both fought while he dominated.
The scene of their gang leader being battered for hours was what killed the morale of the Godzi Army. They deserted their leader in the tens of thousands, and once this happened, the Godzi Gang fell.
Max hoped to replicate this same feat here.
He already heard of the Berserk Gang''s arrival and Rex''s exploits but in the heat of the battle, he could not think too much, he simply focused on eradicating the Kong Gang before turning his focus to the stubborn Berserk Gang.
Well, this was where he was wrong.
Walker was not confident of beating him but he didn''t hide because of cowardice, he stayed behind because of the vow he made after his wife died but nor was able to achieve the impossible and convince him to join the fight.
Now, Walker really wanted to take the battlefield by storm.
BOOM!
The old geezer entered the battlefield explosively.
Thousands of puppets stormed outside the headquarters of the Kong Gang surrounding him, they were his sheep and he was their shepherd.
As soon as they arrived, none of them held back as they unleashed disaster on the Axe Gang army that had been dominating since.
Bullets, hidden weapons, melee weapons, everyone of the puppets had a collection of them all as they now used them all to unleash destruction.
At the center of all this action was Walker.
"My sheep, fight till you die".
"My warriors, I''ve failed you but I''m here to make up for it".
"Fight till you die¡, I''ll also fight till I die!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Walker raised his 2 hands up as his fingers retracted in only for 2 massive destroyer cannons to appear in their ce.
BOOM! BOOM!
Walker unleashed pure destruction as hundreds of enemy warriors were wiped out by the lethality of the destroyer canon attack.
His eyes turned shiny blue like those of a puppet, the battlefield changed into a 3D version before him like he was a robot. His legs transformed into tires, his heart turned into an engine, while his brain became the pilot of this puppet.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Walker became a walking disaster as destruction walked through this valley of shadows of death, leaving its imprints like the god of death himself.
As soon as Walker joined this battle, Max finally understood why his warriors didn''t break before now despite his absence. Warriors of the Kong Gang had mad respect for Walker, they were ready to give their lives for this old man.
Walker''s presence alone brought an unnatural X Factor, all the Kong Gang warriors became pumped as they now fought 3 times fiercer than normal.
The war between the Axe Gang and the Kong Gang seemed to start anew.
15 minutes was all it took for Max to recognize the serious danger that Walker''s presence in this battlefield posed to his conquest.
At the rear, Rex was already leading his Berserk Army to thoroughly destroy his army. Now, at the front, Walker was spreading even more destruction.
Max could not take it anymore, he roared. "Walker,e fight me!"
"Come let us settle this feud man to man!"
As he roared, Max already started making his way towards the old man. His red hair seemed to turn redder under the re of the sun, his eyes became as sharp and focused as a sharp dagger as he red at his opponent.
Walker didn''t back down from the challenge.
"The youngsters have grown ego-blown".
"Come, let this old man teach you a lesson to never forget!"
Walker activated his boosters as his tires screeched, taking him to speeds exceeding 300km/h instantly as he rushed towards the iing Max Fury.
Mid-sprint, Max Fury activated one of his master level Tiajutsu skills as his fiery fists seemed to transform into a fire dragon seeking death and destruction.
Walker reciprocated as he activated a master level skill. His puppet body became engulfed with a red aura that increased his speed by 5 times and his strength by an outrageous 10 times, then came the inevitable sh.
BOOM!
The sound burst eardrums, it shattered brain cells, it was like exploding dominoes in an apocalypse.
The shockwave spread like wildfire spreading in a dry harmattan, harvesting over 800 lives in the process, highlighting this sh of pinnacles.
Walker red at Max, Max red at Walker, both were in a stalemate as the attacks canceled each other out but Walker''s puppet body soon revealed a crack.
The crack was about to widen when a bright light shone from afar.
Walker only saw sharpness that sent his senses tingling when he looked at it, as for Max, with his back facing it, he only felt the wind blowing as he rushed to dodge before the mighty sword energy descended.
He was fast enough to avoid death, but the sword energy swept through his cheek like a gue, leaving its imprint behind as blood flowed like a fountain.
-----
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
You have dealt critical damage to your opponent!
----
"Walker is not alone b*tch!" Rex joined this exclusive battlefield.
Chapter 224 The Ultimate Showdown! [6]
"Take this token".
"You are a rare genius but never forget that there are even rarer geniuses than you in this world, the mystic world is bigger than you know".
"During the conquest, if you ever need my help, just crush¡"
"I never ask for help in my conquests".
The middle-aged man calmly ignored Max''s words like he didn''t hear it. "Just crush it when the timees".
"Against Rex, you''ll need it".
That was thest conversation that Max had with Gandalf, the gang leader of the Gandalf Gang before he started his conquest.
¡
As soon as the warship appeared, the battlefield seemed to freeze.
The warship''s boosters fired on all cylinders as the warship rapidly elerated forward, the warship ignored the massive battlefield and went towards a single target, Rex Vector.
Even without seeing inside the warship, Rex could literally feel the hatred and thick will for revenge that exuded from inside the warship.
Without a doubt, his archenemy was inside this warship.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The warship did not hesitate to unleash its destructive rail guns as Rex was left scrambling for his life, his danger instinct tingled fiercely at this moment.
-----
You have activated Affection Ne''s mystic effect: Love Protection!
----
Rex grabbed Walker into a hug to let the heart-shaped defense shield to cover him too as the destructive ray of the rail gun finally arrived.
For a second, Rex grew deaf as everything around him turned into a bright white despite him closing his eyes tightly. The sound was so high that it exceeded his hearing limits, in the end leaving him feeling like he was in thend of the dead.
Rex remained deaf until the limit of the Love Protection was finally exceeded, the heart-shaped defense shield popped like a burst balloon.
Having taken the majority of the damage, Rex could not react as the residual shockwave flung him away, dealing countless internal damage to him.
-----
Warning! You are currently in a critical health state!
You are losing health points at a rapid pace¡, heal yourself¡
----
Wom¡!
As Rex was flung away, he could barely pay attention to his system notifications before the familiar sound of the rail gun charging started reverberating again just after shooting the first shot.
Rex''s eyes widened but his body was too weak to listen to his orders.
In the end, it was the old man who only survived due to Rex''s protection that was able to react on time. On seeing the charging rail gun, Walker was rmed.
The next moment, he did a self-destructive act as he overloaded the engines of his puppet body, transforming his hands which previously turned into destroyer canons into swords, and he used the energy from the engine to charge them into bing super-hot sma swords.
While the warship flew closer and was about to release another shot from the rail gun, Walker looked back onest time before jumping up.
"For the Kong Gang!" He roared and flew straight at the warship.
Walker crashed into the tough alloy armor of the warship as the need for the sma swords finally came. His puppet body waspletely trashed, but the sma swords did their job as he attacked chaotically in a frenzy.
The super-hot swords were cooked to such a temperature that they were able to cut through the imprable metal of the warship, including the rail guns.
The massive warship imploded on itself.
BOOM!
The massive explosion sound deafened the battlefield, lighting a bright glow across its massive length before everything finally died down into silence.
All the warriors of the 3 gangs who were involved in this war stopped in shock and awe at the power that were just put in disy. They no longer fought amongst themselves, they only watched what would happen next.
-----
Warning! You are currently in a critical health state!
You are losing health points at a rapid pace¡, heal yourself¡
----
Rex received the notification again as he felt even more weak now.
His eyes started turning dizzy, and in this dizziness was when the skeletal remains of Walker''s puppet body that survived the explosion dug itself out of the piles of body and ashes and crawled towards Rex.
The old man brought out an injection from his mostly destroyed body.
"You know, my wife was also a powerful Advanced mystic warrior, we created the Kong Gang together. She died due to a situation simr to yours, she died because I could not find the right medication to save her".
"Since then, I vowed not to fight again and instead put all my energy into creating a medication that can heal even when the victim is a second away from death. I didn''t even train again and hence my stunted growth".
"Well, it was all worth it in the end, I seeded and created this".
"I barely know you Rex, but take this as payment for saving my life".
Without allowing Rex to speak, Walker injected the injection on him, emptying its contents as he finally stood up jerkily.
"Stay strong and finish what you started".
With that, he turned and started walking towards the enemies.
By now, a badly mutted Max already dug himself out of the ground as he limped. Behind him were the warriors who came on the warship, 4 of them, Gandalf, Scorpion, Arthur, and his female assistant.
"A 10th tier Advanced mystic warrior, an 8th tier Advanced mystic warrior, a 1st tier Advanced mystic warrior and an intermediate mystic warrior". Walkerughed. "This is the day I really go meet Cynthia in heaven".
As he walked towards them, Walker opened his chest at the part where his heart was supposed to be but was now reced by a working engine.
He put his hand in and started making some configurations as he walked.
Maxughed manically. "Hahaha, are you finally giving up old man?"
Walker looked at him. "Giving up? Who said I''m giving up, where did you hear such rumors? Cynthia''s husband never gives up".
As Gandalf looked at this mystic warrior, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Be careful!" Gandalf yelled in rm but it was already toote, Walker was already too close to them.
He turned the engine''s revolution direction anti-clockwise, then Walker turned onest time to look at Rex. "Look after the Kong Gang for me".
BOOM!!!
Walker self-imploded!
Almost at the same time as this happened, Rex''s system lit up.
-----
You have been injected with an ultimate healing tonic!
Your health points are recovering¡, please wait¡
You are back to your peak state!
----
Rex opened his eyes to see Walker self-imploding.
Chapter 225 The Ultimate Showdown! [7]
The explosion rocked the whole battlefield.
Walker concentrated it in a way where the explosion went only in one direction, it''s destructive might wiped out over 20,000 warriors of the Axe Gang army almost instantaneously, including 2 Advanced mystic warriors.
A deste scene was left in the wake of the explosion.
Like he always said, Walker indeed fought hisst glorious battle and died in an explosive manner that would be remembered decades after this war.
Rex alreadypletely recovered, he stood up as he looked at the destend that served as the remains of the powerful old mystic warrior.
He clenched his fists. "Rest in peace old man¡, I''ll avenge you!"
With Walker dead, Rex lost his biggest ally on this battlefield. Warriors like Aragorn, Ben, and nor were simply too weak to take part in battles of this scale, they would simply die meaninglessly.
Rex looked into the distance and hoped for the best.
Boom!
As Rex looked far away, the ground was soon torn open as 4 mystic warriors made their way out of the hole. They survived but not without injuries.
Walker''sst sacrifice was indeed worth his life, he was able to injure all 4 mystic warriors including Gandalf, the gang leader of the Gandalf Gang.
Crack!
As both sides red at each other, the ground cracked again and Max Fury crawled out. Despite the suffering, despite the close proximity to the explosion, this tenacious genius was able to rise through it all and survive.
He lost a limb and an arm but he was still alive.
"Well done Max". Gandalf finallymended Max. "You did the job and sessfully wore him out. He may have survived and regained all his vitality but he is not at full strength, he is already tired after so many body exertions".
Gandalf turned to face Scorpion. "Old friend, this is the time to get the job done and get back your daughter".
Scorpion clenched his fists as he red at Rex. The next moment, he crushed another token through which an even more bigger teleportation portal opened.
Through this teleportation portal, tens of thousands of warriors of the Gandalf Gang were able to cross hundreds of kilometers to arrive at this battlefield. Alongside the normal warriors were the reinforcement to kill Rex.
The Gandalf Army did not waste any time as they went to reinforce the Axe Gang to kickstart the war, a Commander from the Gandalf Gang became the overall Army Commander as he prepared the enemy gangs for a ughter.
As for Arthur, he now stood at the center of a catalogue of Advanced mystic warriors that were all stronger than him.
Apart from Gandalf and Scorpion, among the reinforcements were 5 Advanced mystic warriors who were all 6th tier Advanced mystic warriors.
This was the team that Gandalf prepared to kill Rex.
Arthur finally spoke. "Today is the day that I have anticipated for a long time, the day that I will finally kill thest descendant of the Ancient Vector Family with my own hands".
"Today, I shall wash away all the humiliation that you have brought upon me by submitting your head to the council of Grey Watchers".
"Kill him!"
It was a much younger mystic warrior that was ordering them around, but for his old friend, Gandalf swallowed the insult and so did his warriors as together, they all charged towards Rex to put an end to this vampire.
Despite healingpletely already, having juste out of such a harrowing battle, Rex still felt different parts of his body aching.
Yet, he needed to fight in another battle where the odds were even more against him. He had no choice though, like Walker said, he needed to finish what he started. This time, Rex dared not fight alone.
As soon as he grabbed Berserker, Ambition, King, Grey, and Storm abandoned the battlefield of the other warriors as they all rushed here.
Together with his transformed warrior and beasts, Rex finally took the first step in this ultimate showdown to eliminate his archenemy.
-----
You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!
Morphing Forms Avable: 2
You have transformed into a Bear-man!
¡
You have activated ckfire ability: Zone!
You have activated Master Level Sword skill: Master of the Elements!
----
This time, the battle was even more legendary.
Rex shed with his enemies in a chaotic affair that was led by Scorpion, the Sting Assassin who was motivation by his quest to reunite with his daughter.
As for him, he formed a Trident with Grey supporting from behind him while Storm attacked from the right and King from the left. As for Ambition, he went invisible as he did his mischief from the shadows.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
By starting with his Master of the Elements master level skill, Rex set the tempo for the unendingbo that would follow as again in this ultimate showdown, he pushed himself to fight at his very strongest.
In his Bear-man form, Rex pushed himself to use every single one of his skills in the fastest-paced battle of his life just to keep up with his opponents.
His sword skills, his ckfire skills, his shadow skills, Rex used them all to their fullest potential in this battle as a crater was left in their wake.
Gandalf the Energy Blocker followed Scorpion like a shadow as heplemented this mystic warrior perfectly to counter Rex''s attack.
With the both of them leading the charge, the other mystic warriors were free to exercise their strength as they spammed attacks on Rex.
-----
You have activated Blood Tome mystic effect: Phasing- Mid-range Teleportation!
You have activated Blood Tome''s martial technique: Touch of Death!
----
After a long time of using this abilityst, after taking a risk just for the window of opportunity to open, Rex jumped at it with gusto.
His aim was to kill Arthur but one of Gandalf''s reinforcements jumped in the fray. Rex felt his blood churning rapidly and his adrenaline levels increasing as his hands finally made contact with this mystic warrior.
Thest time that he used this ability, he was still an intermediate mystic warrior. This time, the ability proved to be even more deadly and demonic.
Instantly after he touched this mystic warrior, his skin started decaying and in no time, he was nothing but barebones. His bone was not even spared as it all soon decayed and turned into dust.
Rex killed a 6th tier mystic warrior in less than a second.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 5,600 mystic energy points!
----
The warrior''s death shocked the other mystic warriors, but Gandalf was a ruthless veteran as he took advantage of his opening to flex his powers.
Bam! Bam!
After pping 2 sensitive parts of Rex''s chest, Rex felt a sudden pause in the flow of his mystic energy as his left hand instantly went limb.
Once the window of opportunity opened, Gandalf did not hesitate to make use of his energy blocking skills, now Rex was open.
"Kill him!" Scorpion roared.
The warriors pounced on Rex like a pride of Lions attacking a lone Tiger. Rex resisted but they were too strong and they were too much, he could only resist for some time before they beat him to a critical health state again.
While they did this, they were caught in the moment and forgot an important participant of this battle like usual as Ambition struck from the dark again to kill another enemy.
Rex and hispanions killed their 2nd enemy but he was already in a critical state due to Gandalf''s moment of genius as his beasts surrounded him to protect him. This action did not stop the momentum of the enemies though.
This time, they didn''t even stop to talk to him, Scorpion went ahead to deal the killing blow as his Kunai knife aimed directly for Rex''s head.
Rex was too weak to react, he could only watch as the knife closed the distance but at thest moment, a familiar silhouette rushed into the path of the knife. nor groaned in pain as the knife stabbed all the way through her chest.
Blood flowed like a fountain as the Elven Princess fell on her knees weakly.
"No¡!" Rex tried to scream but it was only a whisper due to how weak he was, he could only stare helplessly as the cold Scorpion came closer to finishing her off. Scorpion was eager to kill him quickly to avoid anyplications.
Ptui!
Scorpion dug the knife again this time at her heart as nor finally started falling lifelessly, this scene took Rex''s soul, mind, and rationality away.
Rex literally went insane as he looked at this as his dim eyes started glowing red again. His blood started burning hot at the sight of nor''s body.
Despite all this, it was toote, Scorpion was before him.
With one smooth motion, Scorpion dug the knife into his brain and everything instantly turned ck to Rex.
Everything turned ck just after he gave amand.
-----
You have activated Upgrade Special Ability: Overload!
Warning! You are in an emotionally unstable state¡,
You have been stimted by the Upgrade Mystic Ability; you have unlocked the Ultimate Rage State of the Primordial Vampire Ancestor!
Warning! You have triggered the Ultimate Rage State of the Primordial Vampire Ancestor!
You have¡
----
As Scorpion looked down at Rex''s lifeless eyes and was about to heave a sigh of relief, the ck lifeless eyes suddenly glowed red again, this time with such intensity like it was the sun itself.
Scorpion was shocked. "What¡?"
Chapter 226 Ultimate Rage State! [1]
-----
You have activated Upgrade Special Ability: Overload!
Warning! You are in an emotionally unstable state¡,
Congrattions! You have unlocked one of the 6 Hidden States of the Upgrade Mystic Ability!
You have been stimted by the Upgrade Mystic Ability; you have unlocked the Ultimate Rage State of the Primordial Vampire Ancestor!
Warning! You have triggered the Ultimate Rage State of the Primordial Vampire Ancestor!
You have unlocked Rage Energy!
1 MEP= 1 RE
[You have received the following bonuses:]
+10,000 HP; + 5000 MP; +3000 VIT; +3000 SPE; +2000 AGI; +4000 STR!
You have triggered Ancien effect of Eternal Night!
You have triggered Beast-Human Harmony!
----
BOOM!
Rex''s eyes that were nk from lifelessness suddenly glowed red like the sun as his mystic energy that was already weak from exhaustion also erupted like a volcano, spreading a dark red menacing energy round about him.
As soon as the knife stabbed through Princess nor''s chest, Rex felt like his heart was torn apart and it was the rage that fueled his rejuvenation power.
nor was not just his close friend, she was his sworn sister.
For a long time, Rex had always hated one thing, the inability to protect his loved ones. It was the reason why he ran from Obedin City, he left to sought power, he wanted to be strong enough to protect those that were close to him.
In the course of a year, he grew strong extremely fast but despite bing an Advanced Mystic Warrior already, he still could not stop this.
Not just nor, but Walker the old man left a deep impression on him. Despite their short interval of knowing each other, Rex already saw the old man as a warrade and his dying words only ignited his rage more.
Rex felt angry, he felt enraged at his powerlessness.
His anger pushed him to grab at any avable avenue for help despite his despairing situation. Once he activated the Overload ability, his rage became the key to unlock one of the 6 hidden states of the Upgrade mystic ability.
"ALL OF YOU SHALL DIE!!!" Rex roared as he stood up with veins standing out and popping all over his body like slithering snakes.
At this moment, surrounding Rex''s body was a thick red energy, this was his rage energy and as he roared, the energy shockwave sent Scorpion flying.
Rex did not go berserk immediately as he felt the new energy that was flowing through his body, he no longer felt human, he felt like a monster.
Almost instantly after he stood up, the sky started changing. Rex looked up only to witness thest of the sun disappearing, the sky turned dark as a red moon now dominated the sky when it was supposed to be a clear day.
"Eternal Night!" Rex clenched his fist as his fangs grew out.
At night, he was at his peak, and now, he felt even better than his peak. Thest change that Rex detected was that between his transformed beasts.
At this moment, he no longer just shared a telepathic rtionship with them, Rex felt that Ambition, Grey and the others were an extension of his body.
He could read their thoughts, all their powers wereid bare before him like a movie, he could manipte their powers and control them like he was ying a video game, reality seemed to be warped before him.
Feeling this boundless energy flowing through him, Rex finally turned to face the culprits who caused his current state and his rage flew through the roof again.
-----
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!
[Morphing Forms avable: 2]
[You have transformed into a Half-bat!]
¡
[You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!]
[You have activated Master Level ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!]
[You have activated Master Level Skill¡]
----
Having witnessed everything that happened, Scorpion and Gandalf were confused while Arthur only widened his eyes in shock at this moment, it was like he knew more about this phenomenon than the others.
Their knowledge of Rex''s current state didn''t matter though, this was because his rage was directed towards all of them.
The sky turning dark when it was day would spook anyone, and the thick red energy emanating from Rex at this moment intimidated all of them.
"Brace yourselves¡!" Gandalf barely spoke before Rex pped his wings.
Whoosh!
Mid-flight, Berserker flew on its own volition back to meet Rex as he grabbed the sword in the sky before diving down at his enemies.
Rex''s glowing red eyes burned with a fire for vengeance.
Boom!
This time, they stood no chance before Rex''s newly gained strength, he swept through them like a gue sweeping through a vige in medieval times.
They had no cure to this gue, they were helpless against this gue.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex went berserk as he wreaked havoc through their midst. By now, the army consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers already stopped their battle as soon as the sun disappeared as they watched in fear and awe.
This time, Gandalf and Scorpion could no longer tie Rex down, they still outnumbered him but they were now outmatched, they rather focused on saving their lives, leaving Gandalf''s 5 Advanced mystic warriors exposed.
From the sky, Rex picked them one by one like an Eagle patiently stalking and eventually swooping down to eliminate its prey.
These spooked warriors could only scream in horror as the half-bat that was surrounded with a menacing red energy filled with rage tore them apart.
When they basked in the rage energy, all they felt was anger, hatred, and boiling anger again, Rex was unstoppable in this state.
In just less than a minute, Rex killed all 5 Advanced mystic warriors.
-----
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 5,300 mystic energy points!
¡
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 5,100 mystic energy points!
¡
You have killed an Advanced mystic warrior!
You have gained 4,900 mystic energy points!
¡
You have killed¡
----
In the blood that was left in the wake of his ughter, Rex basked in it as he turned to face his archenemy. "Arthur Holmes¡!"
Arthur felt a chill as his name was called, like his name was just written in the book of death, he instinctively sought for help but received none.
"Today, you die!"
Chapter 227 Ultimate Rage State! [2]
"Today, you die!"
Scorpion felt a chill crawl down his spine. "We must save him!"
After over a decade of missions and patiently waiting, Scorpion thought that it was time to finally meet his precious little baby, he never expected Rex to survive his blow ande out even stronger from it.
By the second, as he looked at this powerful vampire, he could see his little chances of meeting his baby girl drifting farther and farther away from him.
After over a decade of waiting, he was tired of waiting, he could not wait again, it was today or never. "Nothing shall stop me!"
Scorpion roared as he stimted his mystic energy.
"Don''t do it!" Gandalf warned but it was already toote.
By feeding his blood to a strange scorpion parasite that he brought out of a precious storage pouch, Scorpion''s eyes turned red and lifeless like a zombie.
In exchange for his rationality, he gained incredible zombie strength.
"Nothing shall stop me!" He roared and charged towards Rex.
-----
>Grey Control<
You have activated Dark Affinity Skill: Silk!
You have activated Skill: Poison Throw!
You have activated Dark Affinity Skill: Mist Travel!
You have activated Dark Affinity Skill: Dark Mist!
You have activated Skill: Tail Stab!
>Storm Control<
You have activated Storm Affinity Skill: Weather Maniption!
You have activated Storm Affinity Skill: Storm Harness!
You have activated Storm Affinity Skill: Storm Assassin!
>King Control<
You have activated Dust Affinity Skill: Dust Conjurer!
You have activated Fire Affinity Skill: Fire Brigadier!
You have activated Wind Affinity Skill: Wind Envoy!
You have activated¡
----
By sacrificing all his blood to the parasite, Scorpion gained incredible powers for a short period of time while putting his life in danger as he charged towards Rex to end this struggle without a care for his life or death.
He gained power, but Rex''s Ultimate Rage State was much more overpowered. At this moment, Rex was unbeatable.
As soon as Scorpion started charging towards him, the Beast-Human Harmony state took effect again as he controlled his transformed beasts like they were an extension of his body.
He activated their skills like he was ying a video game while his transformed beasts were his in-game characters.
Scorpion barely charged a few meters before he crashed into the beasts.
Storm got there first as he arrived with a storm apanying him. Like an assassin riding a tsunami, he overwhelmed the human mystic warrior with his storm powers, providing opportunities for the other beasts.
Taking advantage of the opportunity that Storm provided, Grey charged in like a bulldozer by traveling through the Mist and crashing on him directly.
King was the cream on top the cherry, this King Dust Snake did what it was best at and its bloodline was renowned for, spreading damage and destruction.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The beasts battered him but Scorpion was not about to give up as he retaliated like a mad man, at this moment, he already lost his rationality to the parasite, he was like a beast and was controlled by his savage instincts.
Standing a few distance from the center of the battlefield, Gandalf watched. He turned to look at the teleportation portal and back at the battlefield.
He already understood their situation, he didn''t know how Rex did it but in this current state, they had no chance of defeating the inevitable vampire.
This was his only chance to escape but seeing the pitiful state of his long-timepanion and warrade, Gandalf could not bring himself to escape.
"I''ve already lived a long enough life, I would never forgive myself if I abandoned Scorpion now".
"I''m too old for this". Gandalf brought a parasite that looked like a scorpion, identical to the one that Scorpion fed his blood to.
This was ast gasp measure that they saved from their days of adventures in the prime of their youth, Gandalf never expected to use it now.
Once the parasite drank his blood, Gandalf also turned into a living dead.
"Leave Scorpion alone!" This powerful energy blocker charged towards the beasts with all the venom and strength that he could muster.
The 3 beasts did not back down from the challenge, Rex did not also as he continued controlling them, and he also sent the assassin in the dark this time.
-----
>Ambition Control<
You have activated Invisibility Skill: Invisibility!
You have activated Invisibility Skill: Blink!
You have activated Skill: Beast Tamer!
You have activated Soul Snatcher Skill: Soul Shake!
You have activated Soul Snatcher Skill: Soul Barrage!
----
Gandalf made it on time to reinforce hispanion, but only to attract the ire of the Wraith Warrior as Ambition spread its assassin properties.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
As this battle raged on with both warriors unable to interfere with his real body, Rex was finally able to swagger all the way to his real target.
Rex descended until he was barely hovering above Arthur Holmes, then he repeated the cold phrase hatefully. "Today, you die!"
Arthur and his female assistant were both petrified, unlike the others, they were mere Intermediate mystic warriors and stood no chance before Rex.
Whoosh!
Rex did not hesitate as he swung Berserker in one smooth motion to remove the head of the hatefuldy that had haunted his dreams alongside Arthur.
On seeing the lifeless body of hispanion falling down dead, Arthur shuddered as he wet his body unknowingly. He was embarrassed but his fear of death did not let him dwell on it as he sought for any route of survival.
He tried to send a distress signal only to discover to his despair that the eternal night covering this location blocked all signals iing and outgoing.
In essence, he was trapped.
"P-please¡" Arthur finally begged. "Spare my life¡, I won''t pursue you again I promise¡"
"Plead with my ancestors in the afterlife". Rex grabbed him by the head and without hesitation squeezed as Arthur''s head blossomed red, exposing the innards.
For some reason though, all the blood and innards started evaporating and everything started seeping into Rex''s body.
His system lit up a notification almost instantly.
-----
Corpse of the Ancient Holmes Family Detected!
Ancient feud blood ritual has automatically activated¡, extracting¡
Congrattions! You have extracted the essence of your bloodline archenemy!
You have gained an additional tier in the Advanced Mystic Realm!
----
Chapter 228 The Ancient Feud Secret
-----
Corpse of the Ancient Holmes Family Detected!
Ancient feud blood ritual has automatically activated¡, extracting¡
Congrattions! You have extracted the essence of your bloodline archenemy!
You have gained an additional tier in the Advanced Mystic Realm!
----
Rex hovered in the air and watched in a daze.
As soon as he killed Arthur, his body assimted his remains automatically and he seemed to break a limit in his mind. The Ultimate Rage State that left him hungering for blood like a savage beast became more controble.
In this more controble and rational state, he watched in a daze.
When he crushed Arthur''s head, he expected to see and gloat at the lifeless body of this foe of his who had haunted him since he became a mystic warrior, he never expected to assimte Arthur into his own body.
His system notification shocked him even more. "Ancient feud blood ritual¡, what''s that?"
Though the system notification came out of the blue, he seemed to have an inkling of what just transpired as he looked at his system status to confirm.
-----
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 19
Race: Vampire Ancie
Blood Rank: Vampire Hunter
Rank: Advanced Mystic Warrior
Advanced Warrior Grade: 6th tier
¡
----
That was all that Rex needed to see.
On seeing his Advanced warrior grade increasing by a whole tier all of a sudden, he was shocked as the realization of what just happened started sinking in.
In his shock, a familiar phenomenon urred.
Rex''s vision went nk for an instant, and when he regained consciousness, he was stuck in a bloody battlefield with thousands of corpses lying all about him. Once again, he was dragged into the world of his mind without his consent.
"Is this the effects of another mind travel?"
Having experienced this numerous times already, most notably when he saw his future self and got the inspiration to create the Nirvana sh sword skill, Rex was familiar with this phenomenon but this time, it was different.
As Rex looked at the bloody battlefield that surrounded him, he felt something which made him put up his guard as he squinted his eyes and looked up.
Like he expected, there was a figure floating in the skies.
This figure was cloaked in a long ck robe with red markings snaking through it. He had long white hair and beards that flowed down his shoulders, his eyes were as ck as the abyss and they now looked at him silently.
As he stared back at the eyes, Rex shuddered, he felt like he was looking at the eyes of a millennium-old beast, it was that frightening.
In his fear, the name of this figure floated before him.
"Orion Vector¡"
Rex''s eyes widened then he bowed his head the next moment to pay his respects, this gesture from him finally prompted a smile on the old man''s face.
Slowly, he descended from the skies till he hovered just above him.
"I have waited for your arrival for centuries already".
"You killing a Holmes means that the hope of our resurgence lives". The old man stared down at Rex with the gentle eyes that a grandfather gave to his grandson, inducing a fuzzy feeling in Rex.
"Young man, what is your name?"
"Great Ancestor, my name is Rex".
The old man smiled. "Rex, you are a great warrior, you managed to unlock one of the 6 Hidden States of the Upgrade Mystic Ability".
"You did it even faster than I did, you have a lot of potential".
"I know that you are curious about why I am here, I''m not alive, this is one of my consciousnesses that I left to interact with the chosen one".
"Sit, tell me about yourself, I want to know about your adventures".
Like a grandfather listening to his grandson''s school adventures, Orion Vector materialized a rock where he sat with hisst descendant.
Rex was restrained at first but as he became more free, he soon let go of all his worries, even forgetting that he was stuck in the middle of a battle as for the first time in all his life, he poured his whole heart to someone.
From the days of being bullied by the hands of Collins, to his 18th birthday and how his life changed, to Arthur''s attack on Bowling Town, to his decision to leave to protect his friends, to his new friends and all his adventures, he omitted none as heid everything bare before this old man.
Orion Vector was patient enough to listen to it all.
When Rex was done, he patted him. "You''ve gone through a lot kid".
"You managed to fight the demonic will of the vampire bloodline with your will of fire, you are indeed a worthy grandson of Orion Vector". The old man boasted with a proud grandfather smile on his face.
"My time with you is short, so I will tell you everything now".
"After my rise, the Vector Family became one of the strongest Ancient Mystic families in the world. My upgrade powers struck terrors in the hearts of the mystic beasts and humans alike, and naturally, envy and greed came".
"My allies in fighting the mystic beasts sought to get my power for themselves".
"For a long time, they plotted without seeding until a radical experiment by Diabolos Holmes seeded in mutating his mystic ability to rival mine".
"He developed a mystic ability that was fueled by hatred, and it be my nemesis. The Mind Devourer mystic ability is a natural enemy of our Upgrade mystic ability, both has the ability to prey on the other".
"Once the rest of the world knew about it, they plotted behind me and supported Diabolos conspiracy as he hunted Vector descendants".
"He devoured a lot of upgrades, fueling his powers and rapid rise to the peak of the world. He almost devoured mine also¡" The old man chuckled. "I was lucky, my loyal followers helped me in ourst stand battle".
"Afterying the foundations for the creation of the vampire system, we sacrificed our lives and put our full hope in theing generations".
"My consciousnesses watched from the inheritance ground as my descendants were hunted including your father, until you finally came".
"By unlocking one of the 6 Hidden States, you unlocked your destiny".
"Diabolos''s n is to devour all upgrades alive which will perfect his Mind Devourer mystic ability, making him the strongest mystic warrior alive with powers rivaling those of a god".
"Your destiny is to oppose him, devour the Mind Devourers".
"I don''t know how you go about it, you are Rex, I am Orion, you may decide not to carry the burden of a whole family on your head and I won''t me you".
"But if you do, I and countless others will be grateful to you from our graves".
,m "And who knows, you may be saving the world by doing that?"
"I would love to spend more time with you but the time allocated for this consciousness of mine is exhausted".
The old man patted Rex on the head. "Rex, get stronger".
"If fate favors it, we''ll meet again".
"Also, you can now ess the inheritance ground again to finallymence your training to master the Ancient Legendary Sword Style- Death".
The old man chuckled. "It was created by one of my more mischievous descendants, unlike you, he embraced the demonic path of the vampire".
"A little grandfather advice, thread carefully around his techniques".
"Goodluck kid".
Chapter 229 End Of The War
-----
[You havepleted the system mission: Ultimate Showdown!]
[You have been rewarded with 20,000 Skill Points, 3000 Constitution Points, 1000 Free Stat Points, +1 Shelter Legendary Point, and 1 random ability or skill draw chance from 3 of your main enemies!]
[You have received 1 random ability and skill draw chances!]
1. [Advanced Level Fire Mystic Ability Skill: Scorpion''s Fury! ¡Á3]
>When activated, you call upon the fiery god to unleash raining fire balls from heaven to scorch and kill your foes.
2. [Advanced Level Mind Devourer Ability: Nightmare Demon! ¡Á3]
>When activated when up against a user of the Upgrade mystic ability, you can temporarily incapacitate and devour your opponent''s soul through the world of the mind.
3. [Master Level Energy Blocker Skill: Energy Byakugan! ¡Á3]
>When activated, you can see the energy lines of your opponent, thereby pinpointing the locations to hit to block their mystic energy flow.
¡
[You have killed an Intermediate Mystic Warrior: Arthur Holmes!]
[You have gained 3,500 mystic energy points!]
¡
[You have received 1 Shelter Legendary Point!]
[You have unlocked an upgraded version of the title: Elite Gang Conqueror!]
>Elite Gang Conqueror: +10% chance when persuading gang leaders of lesser gangs to submit and be part of your gang<
----
Bzzz!
As soon as Rex''s consciousness returned from the world of his mind, he was greeted with his system notification indicating thepletion of his mission.
On seeing the missionpletion notification, Rex heaved a sigh of relief. And for some reason, he didn''t want to postpone the choosing tillter as his choice among the 3 random ability draws was as clear as day.
"I choose the Energy Byakugan!"
-----
[Affirmative!]
----
After making his choice, Rex briefly remembered the 5 ability and skill draw chances that he got after killing Pain sometime ago during his adventures.
Most of the skills already became obsolete to him since his speed of development was just too freakishly fast. His normal skills were better than them all, and he already had advanced and master level skills now.
The Energy Byakugan was relevant only because it was a Master Level Skill, Rex had lesser interest for skills of lesser levels these days.
Rex had the leisure to think of all this because he was just returning from a hearty man-to-man talk with the first ancestor of his ancient family.
Having lived without a grandfather figure his whole life, this experience was so significant to Rex that he felt all his fatigue and anger disappearing.
When he finally opened his eyes, he noticed that he was still surrounded by the aura of the Rage Energy but he already regained his rationality. In this rational state, he was able to deeply understand how really strong he was right now.
By seeing through the lenses of his transformed beasts and humanoid warrior, Rex felt like a god, he felt indomitable.
Through their eyes, he surveyed the whole battlefield.
He saw the tens of thousands of mystic warriors that were watching in shock and awe. After the showdown among the powerhouses began, they all froze and became spectators watching this great showdown of power.
As for Aragorn and the others, they were also mixed among the tens of thousands of mystic warriors as they were not strong enough to interfere into the battlefield where Rex dined and bathed in.
He saw Gandalf who already resigned to his defeat and Scorpion who was still desperate and unwilling to admit that he lost this battle.
Scorpion was still berserk and thrashing everywhere like a monster despite suffering dozens of injuries already, Grey and the others did well to keep a tight leash on him as they rendered him powerless.
Amid all these tens of thousands of warriors, Rex''s eyes narrowed on a single warrior, nor. Through his special state, he was able to see beyond the physical inside her, she was still alive though barely.
Whoosh!
Rex flew towards her without hesitation.
On getting close enough, he ced his hands on her chest and let his Rage Energy do the rest. Through some instinctive mechanism, the red Rage Energy turned blue before seeping into nor''s chest.
A few secondster, her condition stabilized as her breath returned to normal.
After this, Rex pped his massive bat wings again, propelling himself into the skies as he flew towards the 2 enemies that almost caused his downfall.
While all this happened, Eternal Night was still in effect, leaving the tens of thousands of mystic warriors that watched in even more awe.
Rexmanded his beasts to stop as hended before Scorpion.
"I¡, will kill you!" Scorpion roared and pounced on him.
Rex easily grabbed him by the hand, incapacitating him. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before opening them as he looked at this warrior.
"After what you did to nor, all my instincts scream at me to end your life but my heart sings a different tune".
"You are a victim of your circumstances".
"I understand you which is why I sympathize with you".
"I may not understand your rtionship with your daughter, but having developed bonds with my friends and sworn siblings, I understand the effects of bonds, I''ll also go the extra mile to rescue them if they were captured".
"Yours is pitiful though¡"
"Your daughter is long dead, long erased into the history of casualties of the Holmes family". Rex closed his eyes again, "¡just like my family".
"I have sworn to get my revenge".
"I don''t know about you but if you survive today and somehow get to return to your senses, if you ever seek revenge, I am avable to be your ally".
"The Holmes Ancient family has been unbridled for too long".
"Today, I, Rex Vector swear to bring them down!"
After his little powerful speech, Rex finally let Scorpion go who fainted. He looked briefly at Gandalf before turning to face his army.
By now, the Gandalf Army and Axe Gang Army already surrendered after seeing their leaders killed or incapacitated by his incredible disy of strength.
As Rex looked at his warriors, he suddenly felt dizzy but he forced himself to speak. "We fought¡, we persevered¡"
"There were casualties like expected, sacrifices¡"
"But what matters is that we won!"
Rex raised his clenched fist up. "For the Berserk Gang!"
The tens of thousands of warriors roared. "FOR THE BERSERK GANG!
Amid all themotion, Rex''s eyes finally closed, he fainted from exhaustion as the aftermaths of forcing the Ultimate Rage State finally came in full force.
Chapter 230 Aftermath Of The War
A weekter after the war¡
The aftermath of the inter-region war was immediate, without a doubt, every single individual, both civilian and mystic warrior in the Red Zone knew that they were about to experience the herald of a new era.
By defeating the enemy who was manipting things behind the scenes, the Gandalf Gang, the Berserk Gang ushered themselves into a prosperous era.
Rex''s incredible disy of strength was already stuff of legends.
After entering his Ultimate Rage State and eliminating Arthur Holmes and hispanion, he fell into aa. Fighting back to back wars for days and capping it off with such an epic showdown took its toil on his body.
The Ultimate Rage State did the most damage to him. Entering the Overload state had its aftereffects which was being weakened for a whole month.
When Rex entered the Ultimate Rage State, his body suffered even more damage, no one knew how long he would stay in aa before recovering.
Despite his absence, the Berserk Gang experienced no difficulties, Rex''s disy was just too dominating to bring any doubts within the gang.
Apart from killing Arthur, Rex''s rampage left Max Fury at a near-death state, the fearsome conqueror Gang Leader of the Axe Gang was also left in aa.
Apart from Max Fury, Walker the Gang Leader of the Kong Gang also sacrificed himself during the ultimate showdown.
This left Rex as the only standing Gang Leader since the Gang Leader of the Godzi and Exquisite Gangs were already dead courtesy of both Max and Rex himself. The age of conquest in the Red Zone was a short-lived one.
Despite it being short-lived, the aftermath of the conquest was massive.
With Rex out, Aragorn tookmand as the interim Gang Leader of the Berserk Gang. Under Rex''s will, Aragorn integrated the remaining warriors of the Axe and Kong Gang under the banner of the Berserk Gang.
The 30,000 mystic warriors that were mobilized by the Gandalf Gang did not escape the wrath of the rod, they were also integrated into the Berserk Gang.
With their Gang Leader, Gandalf captured and incapacitated, they had no choice but to surrender and give in to the demands of their captors.
Since Rex left the both of them alive, Aragorn also decided to leave Gandalf and Scorpion, content with locking them in a secure prison alongside Max Fury. Their fate would be decided when Rex eventually woke up.
Within the period of a week that followed after the war, significant changes took ce all over the Red Zone. Apart from recovering from the effects of war, the Berserk Gang also focused on swallowing and digesting all their new territory.
For the first time in the history of the Gundam Shelter, a single gang became the sole ruler of the expansive territory of the Red Zone.
With the big dogs having surrendered, every other gang in the Red Zone also sumbed to the era of the Berserk Gang. Even those that escaped during the war found their way back to integrate into the banner of the new behemoth.
Within the week, under Aragorn''s leadership, the Berserk Gang digested all their gains and set foot on a path of stability for themselves and the civilians.
Rex''s wish of a stable life for the civilians was finally aplished.
The only problem that hindered Aragorn from achieving a perfect score in his works was the new hierarchy in the gang. With the Axe and Kong gang being integrated, a new batch of Advanced mystic warriors were introduced.
To appease them, Aragorn gave them random roles in the gang, the real shuffle of the hierarchy would be done by Rex after he woke up from hisa.
With everything stabilizing, time finally came for the heroes of the war to be honored. Aragorn organized a mass burial that would take ce today to honor all the dead warriors of the previous war, with emphasis on Walker.
Despite them being the victors, the Berserk Gang did not overlook the heroic sacrifice of the previous Gang Leader of the Kong Gang.
Like Rex would have wanted, Aragorn organized a befitting burial worthy of a hero to him. He took the podium to address the warriors that were gathered.
"Today, we send home the heroes of the previous war".
"Like us, they stood strong in faith for different reasons but all to embody the wish of our leader to build a unified Red Zone under one banner".
"We spilled blood, sacrificing a lot of them but their sacrifice was not in vain. Their sacrifice is the reason why we are able to see the shining new sun today".
"They died to pave the way to our greatness".
"They died to pave the way to our unity".
Aragorn clenched his right fist and raised it high. "Gang Leader Walker died for this exact moment, for unity!"
"Let us take a moment to pray for all their souls to rest in perfect peace".
The procedures after this were notplicated, it was a military burial. Gunshots reverberated across the graveyard as the bodies wereid to rest.
Once they wereid to rest, Aragorn revealed a surprise. After days of thinking about it since Rex revealed his ambition to unify the Red Zone, after surviving the war, nor finally got inspiration to create an anthem for the gang.
It was a short but inspiring anthem.
"Fight along, sing our song, with the gang of the free".
"Divided wee, with different motives, but all for freedom".
"In chaos we met, but in unity we merged".
"In our differences, we''ll fight for the same cause, freedom".
"Together, we''ll fight for our rights and a better future".
"Even in obstacles, we shall not waver, cause we are the Berserk Gang!"
"Even in blood, in death, we shall not waver, cause we are the Berserk Gang!"
It was unusual to all the warriors who were in attendance, even to nor who wrote it herself but she felt that it was a good change to wee the future.
Chapter 231 War Prisoners
After the mass burial, a period of optimism came over the Berserk Gang.
The borate mass burial was both a strategy by Aragorn to honor the dead warriors who sacrificed their lives in the previous war, and also a way to form the foundation for a sense of camaraderie within the new Berserk Army.
Compared to when the Berserk Gang just started fielding less than 5,000 mystic warriors, now the gang was a behemoth with over 200,000 mystic warriors.
Though the gang already swallowed them all, digesting them all was difficult and was why Aragorn took advantage of the mass burial to subtly effect it.
During the war, they were parts of different gang armies, but after the war, they became one. Bing one was just in an official sense, it was not easy for warriors who pledged to a certain banner to switch loyalty so easily.
But with the mass burial and the emotional power that it dragged with it, seeing theirrades buried and honored together alongside the dead heroes of the Berserk Gang, they felt for the first time that they were indeed one.
If their deadrades who once fought against the Berserk Gang could be honored like this, then their future was bright, this brought optimism.
This was all that Aragorn sought to achieve, it was the foundation.
He had no hopes of a strong sense of camaraderie being built in the army immediately, but with this foundation, after oveing the future challenges that would surelye, they would grow from the trials and be closer.
Under Aragorn''s interim rule, the Northern region which was the most prosperous in the Red Zone became the new headquarters of the Berserk Gang. Of course, he was the one in charge in the headquarters with nor as his assistant.
He delegated Ben to be in charge of the Southern region with an army of 30,000 at his disposal. He delegated Erling and Jacob as the dual leaders of the Eastern region also with an army of 30,000 at their disposal.
As for the Western region, Aragorn left its leadership to its rightful owners. Under the Berserk Gang, Tosh, who was Walker''s 2nd inmand in the old Kong Gang became the leader of the Western region.
As for the Blood Market region, Aragorn gave its leadership to someone unexpected. He decided to reward a certain warrior for his efforts in the war.
Melkor yed a huge role in the Berserk Gang emerging victorious from the inter-region war. With his Minotaur Pool and the water that it provided, the Berserk Gang was able to survive despite being pushed to the wall so many times.
For his efforts and his tireless determination to keep on producing water for the Berserk Gang Army, Melkor became the ruler of the Blood Market region despite being just a pinnacle Intermediate mystic warrior.
For the next week after the appointments, the Red Zone weed a strange period of peace. Yes, peace was strange since the Gundam Shelter was renowned for its chaos and constant wars.
This one week rewrote the narrative, for a whole week, peace reigned in the Red Zone as the leaders worked on recovering the various regions from the aftermath of the war, everything was moving in the right direction.
Once a week passed, while Aragorn went through the list of weekly report files from the delegated leaders of the various regions, he got a knock on his door.
"Come in".
nor walked in. "Max Fury just woke up".
Aragorn paused, then he turned to face her before standing up. "Lead the way, we''re going to meet him".
"Yes".
The new Berserk Mansion which was the previous mansion of the Axe Gang was a massive one, it was built like a military fortress straight out of a sci-fi movie.
After walking through the grey metal-walled corridor downwards, both warriors with their entourage of guards went through different bends in the mansion until they finally arrived underground where the prison was.
"Good morning, Lord Aragorn".
"Good morning, Lord nor".
? The guards were surprised on seeing the 2 Lords of the Berserk Gang, but they were fast to express their respect through greetings and a military salute.
Aragorn and nor smiled at the prison guards before moving deeper.
They went straight towards the prison where the notorious Max Fury was held. Unlike before, this warrior was no longer lying on the small bed unconscious, he was rather seated cross-legged with chains binding his legs and hands.
After just a week, Max''s incredible constitution already enabled him to recover from all his external injuries, only some slight internal injuries lingered.
Once his visitors came, he opened his eyes and smiled. "Wee".
Aragorn and nor stared at him without saying a word for seconds, then Max smiled even wider. "Where is Rex? I want to see him".
"What makes you think you can see our leader?" Aragorn asked.
Max no longer smiled as his face turned neutral. "Because he''s the only one worthy of speaking to me, you lots are all not worthy".
nor tsked. "Says a war prisoner".
"Yes, I''m a war prisoner". Max smiled. "But that''s because of Rex".
Max clenched his fists. "He is the first warrior that made me admit defeat to my inferiority, without him, my army would have won this war effortlessly".
"What do you want?" Aragorn asked.
"Nothing, I just want my superior to end my life". Max smiled creepily. "He was strong enough to beat me despite being an Advanced mystic warrior than me and being of a weaker tier, he is worthy to kill me".
Max''s eyes narrowed the next moment as the atmosphere turned cold. "Do not disturb my personal space again,e before me when Rex wakes up".
"Even with these mystic energy shackles, when provoked, I can still bite, do not push my patience until Rex wakes up".
After saying his piece, Max closed his eyes and started meditating.
In the end, Aragorn and nor simply stood looking at him from afar. Like Max said, they were not confident in fully restraining him after witnessing the incredible strength that Max had at his disposal in the previous war.
It was pitiful but Max was right, without Rex, he would have won.
They both respected his wishes and left him to his personal space.
Aragorn and nor did not leave immediately though, they diverted and went towards the other part of the prison where Gandalf and Scorpion were kept.
On getting there, they met a doctor checking up on both warriors.
The middle-aged mystic warrior with a healing mystic ability stood up to greet the 2 leaders respectfully.
"How is their condition?"
"Scorpion is still in a critical state, but Gandalf woke up just a day ago only to fall back into unconsciousness, his body is still too weak".
"I see". Aragorn was not surprised. "Notify us when they wake up".
"Yes, Gang Leader".
With that, the 2 mystic warriors turned and left the prison.
A few minutester after they left, the doctor finished his examination and finally left the 2 war prisoners. Immediately after he left, a pair of eyes that belonged to one of the 2 supposedly unconscious warriors shone in the darkness.
Gandalf turned to look at his friend. Seeing the struggling look on Scorpion''s face despite being unconscious, he felt pity for his friend.
He knew exactly why Scorpion broke off his deadly partnership with him in their heyday, it was because of his daughter.
Now, after over a decade of searching and serving the orchestrators of his tragedy, learning that his daughter was actually dead probably dealt even more damage to him than any physical injury could ever deal.
"Life¡, is cruel". He closed his eyes again.
Chapter 232 The Legend Of The Vengeful Vampire
The past 6 to 8 months were the most incredible in Gavin''s life.
Having be a mystic warrior more than a decade ago, he was supposed to have experienced a lot of things and adventures already but Gavin was absolutely sure that these past 8 months were the most incredible of his life.
Like mostmon mystic warriors, his life was anything but normal.
Unlike geniuses like Rex, Aragorn, and the others, he was like your regr mystic warrior who awakened mystic energy due to the element of luck.
He was born in the streets in one of the small shelters. After awakening mystic energy, he thought his life would finally change for the good but he didn''t have the talent to go far so he was recruited into a criminal organization.
In that organization, he worked for 2 years mostly engaging in armed robberies and kidnapping activities since internal security in the shelter wasx.
Everything started going well, and he thought that was how his life would go till he became an old man but life was not always so easy-going.
After ignoring them for years already, the government finally tracked their organization down. In one night, the organization was raided and annihted with the few survivors scattering in different directions far from the shelter.
Gavin was among the lucky survivors. Homeless now, he had to fend for himself outside the shelter that he was born in while being a mere basic mystic warrior. His life was anything but easy.
By treading through beast and human territories, he grew resilient and since he didn''t have talent for power, suffering made him to develop his brain talent.
He became a genius with his brain, working his way out of dangerous situations. For 3 years, he did this until he became a veteran survivor.
In those 3 years, he hit the jackpot, encountering a strange fruit in the wild that pushed him all the way to the intermediate mystic realm.
After that, he stagnated for real, his mystic grade no longer improved again.
The more he grew adept at using his brain, the more ambitious he became and he was no longer content with his life. In his quest to look for change and overturn his fate, Gavin found himself in the Gundam Shelter.
For the first year, he struggled but on the 2nd year, he became known. This was when the Skull Gang under the leadership of the powerful Skull Pugilist finally snapped him up under his banner.
In just 2 more years, he became the Skull Pugilist''s right-hand man until a few yearster, when a young vampire and his friends finally set foot here.
After the Skull Pugilist died, Gavin didn''t feel anything, their rtionship was purely that of benefits. He easily switched to Rex''s side and quickly cozied up to him, also bing the administrator of the new Berserk Gang.
Due to how young Rex was, he expected the chaos of the Red Zone to swallow him up in no time, he didn''t put much hope in him but he was shocked.
In just a few months, Rex achieved impossible feats.
Rex did not only be an Advanced mystic warrior, his friends also leveled up a grade too, increasing the tally of Advanced mystic warriors in the Berserk Gang to 3. This was what made him change his opinion on these 3 sworn siblings.
Then, he knew that these guys were the real deal, what he didn''t expect though was that he was still underestimating their talent and ambition.
In less than a year, he simply couldn''t fathom what Rex achieved.
Rex became incredibly strong at an outrageous speed alongside his transformed beasts and warriors, and not only that, his incredible feat of uniting the Red Zone was the cream on top the cherry.
If he had any doubts before, Gavin no longer dared have doubts now.
"This guy is the G.O.A.T! The f*cking G.O.A.T!" Gavin concluded.
While Rex was still unconscious after the inter-region war, Gavin became more motivated in his administrative duties. Unlike all the previous leaders that he served, for the first time, he was ready to give his all just to live long to witness more miracles from Rex.
Apart from bing more motivated in his administrative duties, Gavin developed an ambition. "My life is notplete without writing a biography of this legend". His eyes shone. "Perhaps, that is why life made me survive this long".
During that first week after the war, Gavin put in bonkers level of work rate to look for any means avable to him to get the history of the Gang Leader.
He even went as far as taking the risk to do unconventional work for the leaders of the gang who were close to Rex just to glimpse information from them.
The best part of it all was that all the leaders that were close to Rex had one thing inmon, they were enthusiastic and proud to speak about the Gang Leader''s history and exploits in his short journey since bing a mystic warrior.
The truth shocked Gavin. "The Gang Leader has only been a mystic warrior for 1 year? Holy Freaking Jesus!"
The more he knew about Rex, the more he was motivated to put in even more effort in the work till he finally got all the materials that he needed.
With everything ready, he finally wrote Rex''s biography that started all the way from his time in the King Resistance Shelter in Bowling Town.
The story of a legend that started from a small town.
He wrote the story of a legend who overcame all odds that were against him. Despite being seen as having no talent with mystic energy, despite being bullied by others, he overcame all odds and shew the world that he was not to be forgotten.
Gavin wrote about Rex''s journey in the Obedin mystic academy, the graduation tournament, his academy rival, Turan Elliot.
He wrote about his first assassination experience, little details about Rex bing a vampire that he could get, then Rex''s rise to power.
He wrote about Rex''s first battle with Scorpion and Arthur Holmes.
He wrote about Rex''s decision to finally leave Obedin City to protect his friends, he gave little details about Rex''s childhood friends, Cassandra and Ben.
He wrote about most of Rex''s adventures since leaving Obedin City till he finally arrived at the Gundam Shelter, and this was where the story turned into a blockbuster. There was so much content in Gavin''s head to write here.
Despite trying his best to summarize it, by the time that he wrote every piece of information that was avable to his brain, he already wrote a massive book.
Rex''s adventures and exploits in the Red Zone was just that crazy.
Gavin felt it iprehensible that all these happened in just 1 year.
In the end, he left a note. "¡to be continued in the future if I live to witness it all, about the legend of Rex Vector, the Gang Leader of the Berserk Gang".
After he was finally done, Gavin sighed. "What name should I give to it?"
"What of¡, the Legend of the Vengeful Vampire?"
Chapter 233 Scorpions Tragedy
2 monthster after the war¡
"Cough¡, cough¡"
Gandalf was woken up by 2 coughs that reverberated close to him.
Quietly, he turned his head to look at his friend only to see a familiar pair of eyes open. The only problem this time was that his friend''s eyes were not normal, they were filled with confusion and bewilderment.
Having woken up more than a month ago but pretending to still be unconscious, Gandalf already learned a lot of things about their current state.
He didn''t do anything though, he simply waited for his friend to wake up and now Scorpion finally woke up. He kept his silence as he looked at his friend.
Scorpion just kept on staring at space for a few seconds before blinking twice, then he finally turned to face his friend. After 2 months, all his injuries both internal and external already healed, all that remained for him was his consciousness.
Now, he was fully awake and fit but psychologically, he didn''t feel fit.
As Scorpion stared at his friend, he could not hold himself, even while trying his best to harden his face and prevent it, tears flowed from his eyes uncontrobly.
He clenched his fists so hard till they bled as tears flowed from his eyes.
Gandalf did not say a word as he looked at his friend. The next moment, he patted Scorpion slightly on the back before pulling him into an embrace.
On his friend''s shoulder, Scorpion''sst line of defense finally shatteredpletely as the tears flowed without cease like rivers of waters flooding down towns and viges after the falling of a dam.
For 5 minutes, this powerful warrior and notorious assassin cried his heart out till he finally regained control over himself.
Without saying a word, Scorpion slightly patted his friend on the back before pulling away from the embrace. Gandalf also did not say a word as he finally sat cross-legged and started meditating.
Scorpion did the same thing, he sat cross-legged and meditated.
As soon as he started meditating, a lot of things went through his mind, moving around chaotically but he didn''t put in any effort to arrange them. They moved chaotically for some time before they finally settled.
With his eyes closed, Scorpion started reying his life in his head.
After years of forgetting it already, he remembered his name. "Jack".
His life started from one of the small shelters, the Twin domain shelter. The specialty of the Twin domain shelter was that most of the warriors born there tended to master a battle domain focused on using 2 weapons.
At a young age, Jack developed a love for twin swords.
He had 2 warrior parents who supported his ambitions to be a mystic warrior. They supported him but the problem was that he didn''t get the expected love of a parent, his parents were both overly militaristic.
They always criticize him when he failed and barelyplimented him when he did good, this developed a tendency of not being satisfied with anything that he did in him, he always strived to go stronger and surpass his parents.
At the young age of 15, he became known as a genius.
Everything started spiraling down when he was 16 though. During a war against mystic beasts, to save his life, his father sacrificed her mother on the battlefield just to buy a chance for himself to escape.
His mother died, while his father survived and was left in aa.
The trauma of the truth devastated young Jack. Not willing to face his father anymore, young Jack at 16 being a newly awakened basic mystic warrior ran away from home to pursue his career as a mystic warrior.
Due to what happened, he vowed never to love again.
In the years that followed, he strived in the wild, growing stronger and developing a notorious name for himself. He became known as the Emotionless Scorpion, this was when the name Scorpion first became synonymous to him.
Once he heard the name, he epted it and ditched his real name. He sessfully cut off thest link that connected him to his parents and anyone that he ever loved, he seeded in cutting all his bonds.
With this, he started growing stronger even faster, bing an Advanced mystic warrior at the tender age of 22 years old.
This was when he took his adventures elsewhere to the Gundam Shelter. There, he met Gandalf who he allied with on the basis of pure benefits.
Together, they became the notorious Scorpion and Snake with a venom that very few mystic warriors could go up against and survive.
They fought and killed a lot, establishing a name for themselves in the chaos. No matter how much they fought together and grew closer though, Scorpion never epted Gandalf as his friend, he vowed to never develop bonds long ago.
Later, they were joined by the Butcher Mama who together, they established one of the most notorious assassin trios in the history of the Gundam Shelter.
His life seemed smooth-sailing in his opinion until he met her on a mission, Sophia, the warrior princess that stole Jack''s stony and lonely heart.
He didn''t know how it happened, it was just like magic but what mattered was that he fell in love. Unwilling to admit it before his assassinpanions, Scorpion abandoned them and ran away with Sophia.
Together, they expressed their love for years and a beautiful gem in the form of a baby girl became the warmth that finally melted Scorpion''s heart fully.
Young Sonia only got to live for 3 years before tragedy befell them. Sophia was ruthlessly killed by the rampaging Holmes warriors who were on a hunt for a certain ancient family, and in the process Sonia was taken.
Scorpion was left terribly injured but he survived.
On waking up and seeing his dead wife with himself alive, Scorpion remembered his father, he literally went mad from grief and guilt.
This was when his vengeance hunt started. A few yearster though, when he almost killed the culprit who killed his wife, the truth was finally revealed to him that his daughter was still alive.
They gave him one alternative. To see her, he should fight for them.
Scorpion knew that this being the truth was extremely unlikely, but Sonia was one of only 2 things in the world that melted his heart. With them involved, he always thought irrationally and this time was no different.
He believed them and his journey started as the Holmes'' family''s pawn.
For over a decade, he worked for them, going on inconvenient missions, killing targets all round but still he didn''t get a glimpse at his daughter.
What kept him going was the promise that he would see her one day. This was until he met Rex who told the truth to him inly without hiding anything.
After the ultimate showdown, before Rex fainted from exhaustion, while he spoke to him, Rex used his upgrade mystic ability to draw him into the world of his mind where he showed him a lot of things.
Having been gued with the curse of revenge too since his 18th birthday, Rex understood how Scorpion felt and was why he was reluctant to kill him.
Through the world of his mind, he showed Scorpion the full encounter of the annihtion of the Ancient Vector family under the hooves of the Holmes.
He showed the scene of his father being killed and his reaction on knowing the truth, he also showed Scorpion his conversation with Cassandra where she revealed the truth about Scorpion to him.
After everything, Rex left him with somest words.
"We all have our own sufferings, how much it pains depends on us".
"I understand your feelings, that is why I can''t bring myself to kill you".
"When you learn to stop channeling your hatred and fury at the whole world but rather at just the right people, perhaps you will understand".
"Sonia would not want to see you and I who are victims of the Holmes family killing each other, she would rather see us bringing vengeance on the Holmes".
"Scorpion, make the right decision".
That was Rex''sst words before he fainted.
Scorpion also fainted in confusion in bewilderment while he thought about all the truth that he just learned about himself, Rex, and the world as a whole.
After waking up now, as he meditated, Scorpion thought about all this. A few minutester, he finally opened his eyes then he muttered.
"I am Jack¡". He made a decision.
Click!
The door to the prison suddenly opened with Aragorn and nor making their way in, they stood before the 2 mystic warriors who were in chains.
"You''ve both woken up".
Chapter 234 Waking Up
Jack wiped off the residue of tears from his face as he turned to the door to see the neers, Gandalf also opened his eyes and looked.
On looking, they saw 2 familiar faces, 2 faces that Jack already grew to associate Rex with after shing with them in 2 major asions already.
"You''ve both woken up". Aragorn said to lighten the gloomy atmosphere in the prison as he and nor made their way closer.
Knowing that these 2 mystic warriors were even more dangerous than Max Fury the conqueror, they made sure to stay on the defensive as they got ready to react to any ambush from the 2 warriors.
As they did, they also observed them. Compared to before, the 2 mystic warriors were clearly shriveled which was probably effects of using such powerful battle techniques in the previous battle.
Gandalf looked better but Scorpion had ugly dark circles around his eyes, he still had a weird resemnce do a zombie despite waking up already.
As they looked, Scorpion suddenly spoke. "No need to stay so tense, if I wanted the both of you dead, you''d have been dead within the first 5 seconds".
"Do you see that ss shard lying a meter to my right?"
Aragorn and nor instinctively looked that way while putting their guard up, Scorpion continued. "If I wanted, as soon as the door was pushed open, I could have pushed the limits of the chains to grab the ss shard".
"Mystic energy shackles are great restraints but they are not full-proof".
"With the ss shard, the both of you are dead. Do you know why I was renowned as Scorpion, the Sting Assassin?"
"¡" Both warriors were speechless at Scorpion''s sudden talkativeness.
Having researched all 3 of their war prisoners extensively, they knew that Scorpion was known as a gloomy and silent warrior. He rarely spoke, the words he just said were already more than he usually said in a day.
Jack did not mind as he continued. "They called me the Sting Assassin because of my sword style, it relies on pushing speed and uracy to the maximum, making the attack hit the enemy swiftly like a bee sting".
"You barely feel the pain before you die".
"With that ss shard, I can sting you guys to death within the first 5 seconds so rx, I have no intentions to kill you".
"¡" Aragorn could feel sweat already pouring down his pores. These were the disadvantages of holding war prisoners far stronger than you were.
"Where is Rex? I want to speak to him". Scorpion said again.
"¡" Aragorn paused as he felt a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. ''The same with Max¡''
The next moment, Aragorn gritted his teeth and fought back his fear. "Shut up! You''re nothing at this moment but a war prisoner".
"Even if you kill me, you can''t escape our army alive, you''re trapped".
Aragorn''s eyes narrowed as he left Scorpion and red at Gandalf. "I don''t know why you did it, our Berserk Gang never offended your Gang".
"You pushed our Gang leader into making so many drastic decisions".
"I was also puzzled why he left you alive but in the past 2 months, I began to know the reason. With you as a war prisoner, the Gandalf Gang would not dare attack us in fear of indirectly killing you in the process".
"You are nothing but a bargaining chip".
"Are you so sure?" Gandalf smiled, he finally looked Aragorn in the eye and asked. "I woke up a month ago, through the guards, I already know a lot about what happened and exactly where we are held captive".
"All I waited for was my friend to wake up".
"Besides, I know that the Berserk Gang is now extremely powerful but you still have not left my Gandalf Gang in the dust, at best, we are even".
"In terms of technological development though, we are miles better".
"My will is why I have not escaped yet. Do you really think my subordinates have not tracked me down?"
"I told them to stand down and wait for me to handle everything".
? nor gritted her teeth. "Don''t you dare underestimate our technological capabilities, Aragorn is a genius mystic technician who knows¡"
"Have you ever felt like you''re being watched?" Gandalf cut her off and smiled. "If I wanted, one of my spies here would have poisoned your food and killed you already, I have 3 spies among your prison guards".
"I won''t mention the others, I don''t want to break you guys so hard".
"For my benevolence, do me a favor, listen to Scorpion".
"My name¡, is Jack".
"Oh¡" Gandalf smiled. "I always knew you were hiding your real name for me, so even Henry was a bluff, thanks for telling me the truth".
Aragorn for some reason felt goosebumps as the 2 friends spoke, even without confirming, his intuition told him that what Gandalf said was true.
''We have so many spies among us already?''
''I knew it¡, integrating such arge army definitely had its shorings''.
Aragorn clenched his fists. "What do the both of you want?"
"Not me, like I said, listen to Jack".
Jack took a deep breath. "I want to meet and speak with Rex".
"If he has not recovered yet, I will wait".
"Why do you want to meet him?"
Jack closed his eyes for a few seconds before re-opening them, then he sighed. "I want to stop channeling my fury at the whole world, I have done that for majority of my life and now I regret it".
"I want to atone for my sins while I still can".
"I¡, want to channel my hatred and fury at the right people now".
¡
''Where am I?''
''Hmmm¡, is this heaven?''
''Lol, can I even make heaven as a mystic warrior after all the warriors that I killed? But this doesn''t look like hell''.
Rex woke up floating in a world that was filled with white.
All around him, he felt like he was being illuminated by a hundred suns which also prevented his vision from seeing beyond mere inches from his body.
He scratched his head trying to remember what brought him here. ''All I remember is sparing Scorpion''s life, then¡, then I fainted!''
''Damn, don''t tell me that I died!''
''After all that I achieved¡, f*ck!''
''So¡, is this heaven or hell?''
''Or is this the road that leads to heaven? Maybe that''s why its white''.
As Rex bbered on, the white light suddenly switched off and everything went ck and nk again.
After what felt like a few secondster, he opened his eyes again. This time, he was no longer floating, he was resting inside a cozy king-sized bed.
The only problem was. "Ouch¡, my brain f*cking hurts!"
Chapter 235 A Reunion Of Lovers
Minutes before Rex woke up, a ck shadow appeared in his window.
Like a ck guardian angel, this ck shadow had been visiting this room for the past 2 months and 2 weeks without a day of rest in-between.
Despite all the measures that were employed by the Berserk Gang to protect the gang leader and detect intruders, this ck shadow was not detected.
''He''s still unconscious huh? When will you wake up Rex?''
As she thought, the ck shadow suddenly noticed movement in the bed.
In a milli-second, her hand was already on her sword hilt as her eyes narrowed, changing into those of a snake as she red at the bed. On looking closer, her aura became gentler as she saw Rex shifting slightly in the bed.
"Achoo¡!" Rex woke up with a loud sneeze then he grabbed his chest.
The next moment, he grabbed his head. "Ouch¡, my brain f*cking hurts!"
"¡" The ck shadow stared speechlessly as ck lines filled her face.
Whoosh!
The next moment, she disappeared from the window and appeared beside the bed. Rex almost got the heart attack that took his life.
"Whoa¡! Who''s there?"
"Shh¡, it''s me, don''t attract your subordinates".
"Who''s me? I know no shadow of death!"
Bonk!
"¡" Rex paused as his face turned purple in pain.
"Shout again and I''ll skin you alive! Don''t attract your subordinates!" The ck shadow grabbed him by the cheek and stressed into his ears.
By now, Rex already knew who this was as tears flowed down his face.
"Cassandra¡, my head f*cking hurts¡" He fought back his tears as he tried to force himself to stand up on the bed only to be pushed back.
"Why do boys always try to act so tough? It''s foolish". She grabbed him on the cheek again. "You''re just waking up from a 2 monthsa, rest on the bed!"
Rex''s eyes widened in shock. "2-2 months?"
"Yes, now rest". Cassandra pressed him back in the bed.
This time, Rex obeyed as he suppressed the pain andid silently on the bed like the words hit him hard. Just a secondter, he turned his head to face her again.
"But Cassandra, when did you change, you were not so fierce?" Tears flowed again only for Cassandra to pinch him on the cheek again.
"People change dumb, you also changed, who knew that shy boy who preferred lizardry hunting to loving girls could lead a gang one day?"
"¡" Rex scratched his head. "Umm¡, well never mind".
For the next minute after this, an awkward silence stretched in the room as Rex looked at the other side while hugging his pillow, Cassandra stared speechlessly at him as she had a sudden urge to bonk him on his aching head again.
The next moment, she sneakily looked around to confirm that nobody was watching her, the reputation of the Snake Empress must not be sullied.
After confirming that no one watched, she finally sneaked into the bed.
As soon as she entered, Rex turned and hugged her in a cuddle.
Cassandra froze at his actions. "You''ve changed¡, you''ve turned bolder".
"Well, like you said, people change". Rex smiled. "But seriously, I''ve missed you, it feels good to have you back".
Cassandra was about to say a Snake Empressy word of bravado before she paused, then she hugged Rex''s hands. "You too". She replied softly.
For the first time in a year, Cassandra dropped the mask of the warrior queen that she wore, for the first time, she abandoned the identity of the Snake Empress and let herself remain vulnerable in Rex''s arms.
Ironically, this was their first time cuddling since young Rex never had the boldness to ask for it. She was d that he finally changed.
Both of them stayed like that simply enjoying each other''s presence for 2 hours before Rex finally whispered into her ear. "Tell me about everything that happened after I fainted".
Cassandra smiled. "Well, I''ll start by saying that you exceeded my expectations, your sess was far beyond anything that I ever imagined".
"I believe I can convince the others to sponsor your gang now".
"Yeah, thanks".
Bonk!
"Ouch¡" Rex grabbed his head as he put on a grievant expression on his face. "My head hurts, why did you hit me?"
"You don''t say thanks to your lover dumb, you kiss her".
"Oh¡" Rex scratched his head. "Sorry, my bad".
Rex didn''t know why, probably because he unlocked the Ultimate Rage State or because he became the leader of a gang, or because he was now so strong, or even because they spent so much time apart but he was now so much bolder.
He hugged Cassandra tighter and kissed her on the neck. "Tell me everything, I want to hear everything from your mouth".
"Ok¡" Cassandra smiled and started narrating everything that happened.
"Damn, Aragorn is really capable".
Cassandraughed. "Like I''ll leave anybody incapable to be yourpanion, I''ve been watching you from the shadows like a ghost".
Rex shuddered. "That''s creepy".
"I know". Cassandraughed again. "Besides, I was shocked to meet Ben".
"Yeah, I met him in the desert stranded, I saved him lol".
Both of themughed.
The conversation kept on flowing naturally till Rex''s exhausted brain could not take it anymore, he fell asleep naturally in the middle of the conversation.
When Cassandra noticed, she didn''t say a word, she let him sleep as she also closed her eyes to catch up on some sleep. ''I want to go but he''s hugging me, it''s wrong to push your lover away right? Ugh¡''
''I guess I''ll just leave him for 2 more hours before leaving''
''Dumb, enjoy it while itsts''.
¡
8 hourster¡
Click!
The door opened with a click as Aragorn entered the room with a nagging nor. "Every warrior who was in aa from the war already woke up, Rex is so weak, he''s the only one still in a¡" She paused. a?"
nor''s eyes widened in horror as she looked at the bed.
"Ahh¡! Rex?!"
Rex jumped from the bed with a startle. "Ahh!!!"
Cassandra took advantage of themotion to disappear into the shadows, as she escaped, her face was as red as a potato. ''F*ck!"
Chapter 236 Celebration
nor''s face was red as she blushed fiercely on re-picturing the state at which she saw Rex just a moment ago, she stole a nce at Aragorn who had a nonchnt look on his face as they both stayed outside the door.
Then she whispered. "Damn¡, I''ve never seen Rex so intimate with a girl".
"And I always thought he was so insensitive and unromantic, damn, I''ve never even cuddled so intimately with Max, I''m jealous".
"Damn, I can''t believe Rex was pretending all this time".
"That devil is a yboy, he''s been pretending all this time".
nor soon grew annoyed as it seemed like she was talking to herself as she bumped Aragorn on the shoulder. "Hey, I''m talking to you".
"I''m listening".
"Gosh, you''re so annoying". nor sighed exasperatedly. "If it wasn''t for this your nonchnt personality, perhaps, if fate had it, we would have been lovers".
Aragorn turned to face her. "I''m not looking for love¡"
"Damn you!" She cut him off before he could finish with an angry face.
Seeing her reaction, Aragorn chuckled. "You''ve changed a lot, I don''t remember you being so talkative and sensitive when we first met you".
"You¡!" She red at him.
"I told you before, I was an unmatched genius back in the micro world, I was too proud to make friends with the others but you guys humbled me, especially that yboy Rex, that guy is a freak".
She sighed and rubbed her nose. "I changed to fit in, can''t you appreciate a good change for once? Don''t you like this version of me better?"
Aragorn held his chin in thought. "I think the previous one brought me more peace of mind to focus on my experiments and mechanical ideas".
nor shook in rage. "Damn you!!!"
¡
While Aragorn and nor bickered outside the room, with a look of exasperation on his face, Rex tiredly looked at his surroundings for someone.
"Hey, they''re gone, you cane back now".
"¡"
"You cane now, really, please¡"
"F*ck! Stop acting like a kid, all we did was cuddle".
Bzzz!
Cassandra appeared from the shadows again and grabbed Rex on the cheek tightly as she red at him. "The nerve!"
"You just sullied my reputation!" She sighed and slumped on the bed.
While rubbing his cheek greviantly, Rex looked at Cassandra whoid on the bed as he chuckled. "You keep ming me but I didn''t force you lol, you enjoyed mypany and stayed, or did I force you?"
Cassandra red at him again. "You hugged me".
"We cuddled".
"Ahh¡, get lost". Cassandra covered her face. "If my subordinates ever hear of this, my notorious reputation would crumble like rotten cake".
"Why care so much about reputation? I don''t give a damn about it, not before and definitely not now. If we can stay happy, who gives a damn about reputation?" Rex spoke casually as he stood up and put on his clothes.
Cassandra just looked at him without saying a word.
"Damn, I''m so hungry". Rex finally grabbed his grumbling stomach. "They''re waiting outside, let''s go meet them".
After just one night with Rex, Cassandra already experienced a mysterious change psychologically. As soon as Rex said to go, she felt an instinctive urge to nag which was something that her usual self would never do.
"No, I''m not going¡"
Knock!
A knock reverberated on the door followed by a whisper from a mischievous female voice. "Rex, we''re not eavesdropping or anything but I just wanted to remind you that we''re here".
This time, Cassandra no longer nagged, she stood up to leave with Rex. As soon as they went outside, Aragorn and nor finally got the chance to have a good nce at her.
"Wow, so this is Cassandra". nor smiled as she went closer to her. "I''ve heard a lot about you from Rex, he''s so obsessed with you".
"nor¡" Rex cried. "I''m hungry".
"Umm¡" Aragorn coughed. "Let''s go have a feast then".
The news that the Gang Leader finally woke up swept across the Berserk Gang like a gue, its momentum was unstoppable as the news got its way to each of the different regions of the Red Zone in no time.
And like expected, all the leaders of the Berserk Gang representing in the different regions made their way to the Northern region to celebrate.
Aragorn, the interim Gang Leader already ordered a celebratory feast.
In this feast, Rex got to eat like a beast as the effects of spending almost 3 months in aa took its toil on his body. Almost all his energy reserves were exhausted by his body already, he ate to fill all of them up.
After eating to his fill, he finally had the energy to socialize and merry with the others. Today was a memorable day for the Red Zone as a whole.
From that morning, the feaststed all the way to the night and this was when Rex finally asked for all the urrences of the past 2 months in his absence.
Though he already got everything from Cassandra, getting it personally from his subordinates hit differently.
As they joked, Rex reminisced. Looking at warriors from the Northern region, Southern region, and all the other regions gathered together celebrating his recovery, he felt a sense of contentment well in his heart.
He felt that he was finally doing something good.
That same night, as the celebrations still continued while Rex excused himself to retreat for the night, Aragorn followed him and gave him deeper intel about the current situation of the Berserk Gang.
This was when Rex learned of Max, Gandalf, and Scorpion''s demands.
"I will make time to meet them tomorrow".
"Ok, what of the official delegation of leadership in the gang?" Aragorn asked before Rex could leave, putting him in deep thought.
"For that, I''ll call for a higher-ups meeting with you guys, but announce on my behalf that I''ll be announcing all the leaders of the gang in 2 weeks".
After that, Rex retreated to his kingly room to rest again. On returning, he saw Cassandra already on the bed which put a wide smile on his face.
"What''s so funny?"
"Nah, nothing, I''ve just fantasized about this moment for far too long". Rex sighed and jumped into the bed. "I''m d it''s finally bing reality".
This time, no one demanded it first. After doing it once, it naturally happened again as both lovers instinctively drifted into each other''s arms for a cuddle.
While they cuddled, Rex asked. "You forgot your reputation".
"Huh?"
"Back in the feast, you ate and celebrated with us without abandon, won''t that affect your reputation? I thought you were so specific about it".
Cassandra smirked. "I had a motive for doing it".
"Didn''t you see the reactions of your subordinates? The more you get famous, the more poachers would want to poach you from me".
"I had to establish the fact to them that you were taken".
"¡" Rex scratched his head.
"As for my reputation". She smiled. "Few assassins know my real face among the Sad Flutes Assassins, they mostly know my iconic mask and my snake eyes".
"Even if they see me, they won''t know it''s the Snake Empress".
"Wow, that''s awesome, I think I''ll get a mask at some point too".
For the 2nd consecutive night, the lovers talked themselves to sleep.
As soon as Cassandra fell asleep, Rex opened his eyes as he essed a treasure of his that he had hidden in his mind.
"System, show me my updated system status".
-----
[Affirmative!]
----
Chapter 237 Updated System Status
-----
Name: Rex Vector
Age: 19
Race: Vampire Ancie
Blood Rank: Vampire Knight
Rank: Advanced Mystic Warrior
Advanced Warrior Grade: 6th tier
Strength: 3,900
Speed: 3,240
Mind: 1,900
Vitality: 5,800
Agility: 2,340
Dexterity: 2,280
Health Points [HP]: 18,200/18,200
Mystic Energy Points [MEP]: 11,500 /11,500
[Basic Skills: Piercing Stab; Trident of Ethereal ckfire; Blood Prophecy; Zone; Blood Strike; Ghost in the Night!]
>Advanced Sword Skills<
[One Autumn Leaf- 3rd Move: Annihtion sh!]
[Nirvana sh!]
>Advanced ckfire Skills<
[Self-Combustion!]
>Advanced Shadow Skills<
[Shadow Doppelganger!]
[Dark Arrow!]
>Master Level Skills<
[Ultimate Iron Defense!]
[Oxygen Maniption!]
[Phoenix Ash!]
[Precision sh!]
[Master of the Elements!]
¡
[Movement Technique: Drizzling Rain Steps.]
[Sword Technique: Aurora Swordy.]
[Sword Level: Mystic Sword Domain!]
Mystic Energy: Domain/Ethereal
Mystic Ability: Upgrade/ckfire/Shadow
[Upgrade Abilities: Mind Time Travel; Spectator; Photographic Memory; Overload; Rebirth.]
[Special Upgrade Ability: Ultimate Rage State!]
Special Constitution: Vampire Hunter
[Vampire Abilities: Blood Rejuvenation; Blood Adrenaline Surge; Cell Regeneration; Heightened Sense, Blood Hunter, Bat Hunter.]
[Special Vampire Abilities: Morphing.]
[Current Morphing forms avable: Half-bat; Bear-man.]
[Mystic Treasures: Berserker; Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients; Death Daggers; Coffin of the Ancients; Parasitic Armor; Affection Ne; Iron Mike Cloak; Aragorn''s Weapon Set- Boots; Gauntlets; Kneepads.]
¡
[Blood Tome, Oath of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Owner: Rex Vector!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 200 Combined Stats
¡
[Coffin of the Ancients!]
[Bonded Warrior: Rex Vector.]
[Quality: Upgradable!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: 400 Combined Stats
[Mystic Effects: Humanoid Transformation; Beast Transformation!]
[Transformed Beasts: Grey; Storm; King!]
[Transformed Warrior: Ambition!]
[NOTE: All transformed creatures are always loyal to you!]
[Remark: My boy living the dream!]
----
Like Rex expected, his system experienced significant changes.
All his attributes experienced an increase after he leveled up a tier to the 6th tier of the Advanced mystic grade. Andpared to before, the increase to his attributes this time was even more ridiculous.
Rex wondered what the limit for attributes in the Advanced grade was.
Apart from the significant increase in his attributes, Rex also noticed the slot for the special upgrade ability that he unlocked in the war.
Though it came with a great weakening aftereffect, having experienced how powerful he could be in the Ultimate Rage State, Rex already ssified this special ability as his greatest trump card already.
Of all the changes and discoveries though, Rex was more hyped and curious about the new ability of his to devour descendants of the Holmes family.
Apparently, his ability to extract Arthur''s mystic essence was because of the ancient blood feud ritual between the 2 ancient families.
Diabolos created a mystic ability that could enable him to devour and assimte upgrades, it was only natural that the Vector family reacted and they did by mutating the upgrade mystic ability to also devour the Holmes.
Just thinking of the consequences of this discovery left his blood boiling hot as it meant if he could keep on hunting descendants of the Holmes family, his rise through the ranks as a mystic warrior would be beyond ridiculous.
Rex was grounded to reality though. "Unlike them and all their powerful experts, I am the only descendant of the Vector family, I need to be more prudent to avoid the annihtion of my bloodline".
After going through his system status, Rex was satisfied and was about to finally sleep but he was surprised as another notification lit up.
-----
[Congrattions on meeting a consciousness of the first Ancestor!]
[You have re-established your connection with the hivemind!]
[To ess the hivemind, infuse your mystic energy into the family heirloom, the Blood Tome, the Oath of the Ancients!]
[Through the hivemind connection, you can now remotely teleport freely into the inheritance ground no matter how far you are from it.]
¡
[Congrattions! After meeting the first Ancestor, you have unlocked a special system milestone reward.]
[You have temporary ess to an Advanced Mystic Sword Skill and a Master Level Sword Skill, thest 2 of the One Autumn Leaf series!]
[Advanced Level Sword Skill:]
>One Autumn Leaf- 4th Move:ary Devastation sh!<
[Purchase Price: 30,000 Skill Points!]
[Master Level Sword Skill:]
>One Autumn Leaf- 5th Move: Cataclysm!<
[Purchase Price: 80,000 Skill Points!]
[Duration of ess: 5 days.]
----
On seeing this, Rex was surprised as well as ecstatic.
He already knew about the first part of the notification since the first Ancestor already told him that he could now ess the inheritance ground to learn the Ancient Legendary Sword Style called Death.
It was the 2nd part of the notification that was the real surprise to him.
When he was small and was till learning swordmanship from his father, he already knew that the One Autumn Leaf sword skill series had 5 skills but he didn''t know the name of the others.
Slowly in his journey, he was able to master them to the 3rd move but he got stuck there, he never expected to get ess to them again now.
He also never expected the 5th move to be a Master Level Skill.
''Damn, this is what unexpected joy feels like''. He made sure to say this in his mind to avoid disturbing Cassandra who at this moment was sound asleep.
The only problem was that at the moment, he only had a little over 26,000 skill points. "The duration is 5 days, I can make up for it within that time I think".
He believed that if he put in effort into it, he could make it to purchase the 4th move, purchasing the 5th move was the real unrealistic option.
No matter how hard he pushed it, he did not see himself getting about 50,000 skill points in just a matter of days since his system was no longer so generous with them.
"Well, maybe, if I get the 4th move, I canbine it with the 3rd move to get the 5th move just like I did to get the 3rd move".
He was not sure of this theory but just the belief that it would work was able to make him peacefully fall into the deep embrace of sleep.
He nudged closer to Cassandra as he slept peacefully.
Chapter 238 Meeting Max Fury
The next morning, Rex woke up energized.
Having spoken extensively with Aragorn yesterday, he felt that he had a grasp of what the war prisoners were about to say to him. As Aragorn already proved capable, he left all the administrative duties to him.
This time, Rex wanted to go see the war prisoners alone.
All he wore was a casual leather attire, 2 daggers and Berserker before going deep into the Berserk Mansion to where the prison was located.
Despite receiving descriptions from Aragorn already, since this was his first time touring this new mansion, Rex was left awed by almost everything.
Having grown in Obedin City that was even more restricted technologically, this mansion was without a doubt the most luxurious that he had seen.
After navigating his way underground, he met the prison guards.
The news of the Gang Leader waking up did not just circte in the surface, the prison guards also knew already. As soon as they saw Rexing, they developed cold feet as they all rigidly stood at attention.
Most if not all of the present warriors of the Berserk Gang took part in the previous war. In the war, they got to witness the outrageous strength of this god.
Despite bing his subordinates, most of the warriors still could not shake off the feeling that Rex was a battle god. This induced a sense of outmost respect and fear in them that they couldn''t even look Rex in the eye.
Having unlocked the mystic sword domain already, Rex was able to notice everything that happened to the smallest details but he didn''t pay attention to it.
Since he became the Gang Leader of the Berserk Gang, he already learned a lot of things and got experience, and one of them included tolerating this.
The stronger he grew and the more feats that he achieved, the more frequent he would witness this, the road to the peak was sometimes lonely.
Rex already grew to get used to it.
As soon as he passed the guards, he went deep into the huge prison to an isted part, this was where Max Fury the dictator was held.
Rex decided to meet this prisoner first before meeting the others. Unlike the others, he still didn''t understand why Max asked for him.
He put the key in the slot and twisted.
¡
Click!
Inside the darkness, as soon as he heard the sound, a pair of eyes opened.
''It''s not feeding time yet, still they dare to open the door to my cage''. Max smirked. ''It''s either Rex woke up or they''re trying my conviction''.
''I won''t wait to confirm which of the 2 options is the truth''.
Whoosh!
The huge metal door barely started opening before Max red his mystic energy, causing it to pulsate like the movement of electricity through a conductor as he grabbed the special chains that held him and rushed towards the door.
Like he said, despite the restraints of the mystic energy shackles, if he really wanted, he could push them to the limits and still exert strength.
His speed was so fast that he left only a blur in the darkness. Mid-sprint, Max wrapped the chain around his arms, forming a makeshift weapon in the process as he punched at the intruder with all the strength that he could muster.
The punch almost induced a sonic boom but the intruder on the receiving end was prepared, a pair of red eyes stared at Max from the other side before he moved. Rex moved even faster than him.
Boom!
In one smooth movement, Rex dodged his opponent''s punch and used his force of momentum against him, mming his hand against the metal wall.
The mystic energy shackles shattered on impact as Max''s hand bled.
From the darkness, he grinned like the devil. "Rex, you got stronger like I expected, wars are indeed the best way to fulfill potentials like mine and yours".
"It''s nice to meet you again".
Rex looked back at his war prisoner with a neutral look on his face. "You asked for me, what do you want?"
"Before I answer you, I also have a question for you". Max turned to walk deeper into his cage as he switched on the lights in the process.
With the lights on, Rex got a close glimpse at his war prisoner. After almost 3 months in here, Max''s skin was more shriveled but the hidden strength in his body could not be mistaken, he was still Max the conqueror.
His brown hair was now like the mane of a lion as they hung scattered across his shoulders, giving him a rough and unruly vibe.
Max walked back to his bed before sitting cross-legged, then he looked at Rex with a smile. Rex got the clue and walked closer to sit with him.
Max finally asked. "Why did you spare my life?"
"I was simply too exhausted to end your life".
"Hehe, I''m no fool, we''re both warriors". Max grinned. "Considering how much suffering I caused you in that battle and knowing my strength fully well, a rational mystic warrior would have strained himself to kill me before fainting".
"You spared me for a reason, I want to know the reason".
Rex had no change in his expression. "Don''t overthink it, I did not spare you out of mercy, I left you alive because I simply didn''t see you worthy enough to exert so much effort into killing".
"It''s never toote to kill you, I can do it now".
Max smiled. "You know, I have a strange ability to read emotions, I can tell if someone is lying to me or telling me the truth".
"Its one reason why I was sessful in ruling the Axe Gang".
"And right now¡" He grinned. "You''re telling the truth".
"I''m not worthy enough to make you exert so much effort, you are indeed worthy of getting the power of ending my life".
Rex stared at him without saying a word.
Max smiled. "As a fellow genius, I''ll reveal a secret to you".
"In my years of killing, I learned one thing, defeating your enemy gives you half the experience of the battle to get better and stronger".
"Killing your enemy gives the full battle experience in war".
"Killing gives power!" He clenched his right fist.
"I lived my whole life pursuing the peak of power to kill death".
"As my superior, I believe that you can achieve it". Max looked straight at Rex. "Kill me, use me as fuel to hone your battle experience to get to the peak and kill death".
Rex kept quiet and stared at his opponent.
At this moment, he no longer sensed the arrogance of a conqueror.
At this moment, he only sensed the innocent sincerity like that of a kid asking his father for a favor. At this moment, Rex felt that Max asking this demand of him was asking for a favor and it briefly made him get goosebumps.
"Kill me Rex, that is the best way to get to the peak".
"Kill me! He stressed with gritted teeth.
The system lit up the next moment.
-----
[You have triggered a system mission: Max''s Creed!]
[Mission Details: Max Fury, Gang Leader of the Axe Gang has asked a favor of you to kill him to fulfill his ultimate dream.]
[Main Mission: Kill Max Fury!]
[Mission Rewards: 5000 Skill Points and a Special Ability!]
----
On seeing the system notification, Rex''s eyes constricted even more. ''Does he really see me killing him as fulfilling a favor?'' He was shocked.
On reading in-between the lines of the mission details, he discovered something, Rex stared at Max and asked. "What is your ultimate dream?"
Max froze in shock for a moment, then heughed. "My ultimate dream¡?"
Chapter 239 Maxs Creed
Boom!
Armed robbers broke into a small household in the night.
Armed with automatic rifles, they rampaged across the poor household of 2 parents, 2 young girls and a small boy, destroying and stealing things.
They didn''t stop at stealing; the thieves took it a step further.
A young boy of barely 7 years watched while shivering in fear from under a small table as the robbers rampaged across the small house where he grew.
As he watched while tears flowed from his eyes unceasingly, his eldest sister of 13 years old was grabbed by one of the armed robbers.
"Dan, f*ck you! Leave the kid alone!" The robber who seemed to be the leader of the crew yelled as soon as he saw the actions of his subordinate.
"Chill boss, she''s grown up already and ripe in just the right ces".
"I can''t wait to ravage this beautiful rose boss, hahaha".
While the little girl screamed and his young brother of 4 watched from under a table, her skirt was ripped to shreds by the aroused robber.
Just a few secondster, the robber started viting the girl.
The young boy of 7 shuddered at his sister''s screams of pain as tears flowed uncontrobly down his eyes, he was traumatized by the scene.
While other robbers continued stealing valuables, perhaps aroused by the actions of one of theirs, 2 other robbers came out with malicious intentions.
Once again, they grabbed the 2nd young girl in the house. The 2 hefty armed robbers were merciless as they ravaged the girl of only 9 years old.
Amid her 2 daughters'' screams of pain, the mother could no longer take it as she rushed forward to plead for her daughters to be spared.
Bam!
One of the annoyed robbers smacked her on the head, leaving her dizzy as she fell down. "Stay down old hag!" He roared.
Perhaps no longer satisfied with the daughter, one of the robbers left the daughter and did exactly what she did to the daughters to the mother.
As all these happened, a young boy of 7 watched from under the table.
After what felt like a terrible nightmare thatsted years, the armed robbers finally got satisfied and left. All 3 women were left lying in a pool of their own blood.
This was when the father of the household finally stood up having surrendered andid on the ground since. On seeing the aftermath, he ced his hands on his head and cried. "No¡, no¡"
Numb from crying already, the boy finally crawled from under the table.
He went closer to his favorite 9-year old sister who was covered with blood and nudged her. "Coral¡"
"Coral!"
Despite nudging for minutes, Coral did not respond, the young boy cried.
"Max¡" He soon heard a voice calling him.
On raising his head, he saw his mother calling with thest of her strength.
Max crawled towards his mother.
Blood flowed down her eyes. "Max¡, look at me¡"
"Promise me that you''ll survive¡, promise me that you''ll live¡"
As she spoke, she soon grew stiff, she died.
Tears overflowed again as Max cried. "Ahhh¡" He roared.
"Why is mom dead?"
"Why is there death?"
"Why is Coral dead?"
"Why is there suffering?"
Recognized as a genius from a young age, Max was intelligent and knew a lot. Now, he was questioning life itself as he cried his heart out.
He cried till his eyes turned red as he questioned life, then after 2 hours, he red at his father who still cowered at a corner crying.
Then he concluded. "There is death because we are weak".
"There is suffering because we are weak".
"The only way to kill death is to be strong and kill weakness".
Max stood up and picked up a knife from the table before walking towards his father. "Dad¡, you are too weak to live, only the strong can live".
"M-Max¡" The father stammered. "What do you think you''re doing?"
Whoosh!
The man barely reacted before the knife stabbed him straight on the head, he struggled for a few seconds before going stiff.
As soon as his dad died, Max felt a mysterious energy flowing through him, the power of death, the power to ovee death.
When he finally opened his eyes after doing the deed, his eyes were pitch-ck, he awakened mystic energy and a special ability at the same moment that he stabbed the knife at his father.
With his pitch-ck eyes, Max made a creed. "Power is the only way to kill death".
"Killing others is the only way to get power".
"Getting power is the only way to stop suffering, so I must kill!"
"I will not be like dad, I will find and get power".
"I will get power by all means until Coral won''t die anymore".
Max stood up, then he set the house on fire before leaving home.
He roamed the wild for 2 years and soon gained notoriety for his pitch-ck eyes and impable talent for killing. He was noticed by a rogue intermediate mystic warrior who took him in as a student, Max aged and got stronger.
At the age of 12, he killed his master. Over the years, the power of his eyes developed, he more he killed, the stronger he grew.
After killing his master, he grew even stronger.
At the age of 15, he returned to his vige and killed the armed robbers. He didn''t stop at that. "To get power to protect Coral, I must kill!"
Max massacred the whole vige, leaving a scene of destion as he soon became a wanted fugitive. He killed all the bounty hunters that went after him and established a name for himself. At the age of 20, he went to the Gundam Shelter.
In 5 years, he established the Axe Gang and started growing. Even as the years passed, his creed never changed. "To get power to save Coral, kill".
"My ultimate dream is to kill every mystic warrior and stand as the only mystic warrior in the world, then I will control the world as a god".
"Then can suffering and death finally end".
With this creed, he motivated himself into killing and expanding his gang until he finally met the Berserk Gang. Motivated by his creed, he almost seeded until a mystic warrior called Rex stopped him singlehandedly.
For the first time since he was 7 years, Max doubted his creed. "Am I not the chosen one? Am I not the god to save Coral and bring peace to this world?"
In his prison, Max agonized for a long time after waking up till he finally understood, he added a set of new beliefs to his creed.
"If I am not strong enough to protect Coral, I deserve to die".
"The one who is strong enough to kill me is the one who deserves to kill death, he is the one who deserves to carry the creed of death".
"He will kill me and get my powers then he will be the god of this world, only then can Coral be saved".
Max ignored the tears that flowed from his eyes as he red at Rex. "Kill me and get my powers, you must save Coral!"
Rex closed his eyes, then he sighed and stood up. "I understand".
-----
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- Annihtion sh!
----
Whoosh!
With one smooth motion, Rex beheaded the war prisoner.
After killing him, he stood in a daze as he reyed everything that he just witnessed. Due to some strange reason, as soon as he asked Max for his ultimate dream, his upgrade ability triggered again.
Alongside Max, they time-traveled to Max''s past. In just a few seconds, Rex was able to live the whole life of this warrior and was why he understood.
Rex clenched his fists. "Is this the mystic world?"
Chapter 240 The Demonic Special Ability
-----
[You havepleted system mission: Max''s Creed!]
[You have been rewarded 5000 Skill Points and a Special Ability!]
[Special Ability: Max''s Creed.]
>Max''s Creed: For every mystic warrior that you kill, you will get a varying amount of mystic energy limits. For every major milestone of mystic warriors that you kill, you will be rewarded with mystic energy limits<
>Killing close friends and family gives 10 times more mystic energy limits<
>For every 100 mystic warrior kill, you will receive mystic energy limits<
>For every 1000 mystic warrior kill, you will receive mystic energy limits<
>For every 2000 mystic warrior kill, you will receive mystic energy limits<
>For every 5000 mystic warrior kill, you will level up a tier<
>For every 10,000 mystic warrior kill, you will level up 3 tiers<
[Max''s Creed: Killing others is the only way to get power!]
[System Remark: This is a demonic Special Ability that was created and perfected by Max Fury the Conqueror!]
¡
[You have automatically learned Special Ability: Max''s Creed!]
----
After looking at his system notification, Rex felt his heart dying more.
Still in a daze, he looked down at the mystic warrior that he just killed. As he looked down at Max''s corpse, a lot of things went through Rex''s mind.
In one hand, he felt that he just rid the world of a demonic mystic warrior that if left alone was ready to annihte the whole world in his creed just to get power but on the other hand, he feel empty after killing Max.
Having lived Max''s full life in just a few seconds, Rex could no longer look at this viin the same way. He wished he never got to experience the traumatic life.
For a long time, he saw his life as a tragedy. Losing his parents at the tender age of 5, living alone till the age of 15 when he finally won a schrship into Obedin Mystic Academy then the eventful life that followed after that.
From being bullied on a daily basis to not being able to awaken mystic energy, to awakening mystic energy and learning of his family curse.
Bing a vampire and witnessing the scene of his whole ancestors being annihted, Rex thought he already witnessed the peak of tragedy until he saw this.
His view of the mystic world experienced a huge change after the experience.
Max experienced even more traumatic and tragic encounters than him, all the pain and trauma shaped him into the merciless viin that heter became.
Max''s approach was wrong but Rex couldn''t bring himself to me him.
"Haha". Heughed. "Will Max go to hell or heaven?"
Rex left the crime seen and locked the cage door but he could not leave as he leaned against the wall in thought. "Is this how I was in my other life?"
As he thought back to how Cassandra described him previously, he could not help but think. Perhaps, like Max, he was unable to get friends who made him develop a reason for living, instead he directed his hate at the whole world.
"If not for Cassandra, would I have ended up like this?"
Rex clenched his fists as an unquenchable hate arose in his heart. "The mystic world system is the cause of all this, it''s already ingrained".
He never thought about it previously but thinking back now, after the advent of mystic energy, the world just kept on degrading intowlessness.
Powerful warriors could now takews into their hands and perpetrate evil. The Holmes family was an example of this unbridled use of power, perhaps even the Vector family was once like this.
Using Max''s family as an example, thinking of the suffering that normal humans suffered at the hands of mystic warriors left Rex breathless.
"Are we still humans?!" He questioned with gritted teeth.
Rex''s anger and hate bred a new conviction in him at this moment.
For the first time in all his life since he became a mystic warrior, he developed another goal. "I will change the mystic world system". Rex vowed.
Since he was already pitted against enemies that stood at the pinnacle of the mystic world, he felt no harm in adding an even greater ambition for himself.
"I will use Max''s Creed to change the mystic world system".
Rex had no intention to kill innocent souls, he knew that Max was wrong in his approach but his goal was not wrong. To bring peace to this world, Rex was ready to oppose all the perpetrators of the current evil.
It took some time before he was able to recover his calm again.
After taking deep breaths, Rex picked up hismunication device. "Aragorn, send in a unit to clean up Max''s corpse".
"Bury him, I will address the gangter in the evening".
With that, Rex kept themunication device before sheathing his sword and going to his next destination. It took him less than 3 minutes to arrive.
Rex inserted the key and twisted.
¡
Inside the cold and dark prison, 2 mystic warriors sat cross-legged and meditated. They were both so silent that they seemed detached from the world.
The next moment, Scorpion opened his eyes. "He''s here".
Click!
Almost at the same time that he spoke, the door opened.
This time, Rex was not attacked on entering inside the cage. On entering, the first thing that he did was switching on the lights to see the 2 prisoners.
As he observed them, they also observed him then Scorpion spoke. "You finally woke up".
Rex did not answer him rather he asked a question. "Do you like the current system? Do you approve of the current system of the mystic world?"
"¡"
Gandalf finally opened his eyes as he looked at Rex then Scorpion asked. "Why the sudden question?"
"I just wanted to know your answer". Rex walked closer before sitting cross-legged opposite them. "Max Fury is dead".
"I killed him".
"He asked me to kill him after bestowing his life goal to me".
"Before we talk, I want to know what your answer is".
"Do you approve of the current system of the mystic world?"
Scorpion thought for a few minutes and answered. "I¡"
Chapter 241 New Allies
Scorpion thought for a few minutes and answered. "I think the current system of the mystic world is inevitable, it is the price for power".
"Until someone noble and powerful enough takes matters into his hands to change the current trajectory of the mystic world, I doubt it''ll change".
"With poweres greed, and with greedes the current system".
"Those at the top are just too fixated in their current power and on getting even more power that they no longer care for those that are beneath them".
"The currentwlessness is a result of the leaders''cency".
"Shelters were built and were divided into Great and small shelters, it''s just like an economy ss, those in the Great shelters enjoy all the good things and are basically nobles while those in the small shelters are themoners".
"The system was fractured from the very beginning when Great and small shelters came, the currentwlessness was inevitable from the beginning".
"To change the current system would be like rewriting history".
"That is what I think about the current system of the mystic world. Of course, I don''t approve it but I just don''t have the power to change it".
After he finished his exnation, Scorpion chuckled as he looked at Rex. "You really changed me, I don''t remember when Ist said so many words in one sitting".
"It feels like I was stuck in a well before¡, but now I see the sunlight".
Rex looked down as he let Scorpion''s words settle deep into his mind, then he turned to face Gandalf. "What of you?"
"The current system of the mystic world is inevitable". His reply was the same but much more concise but Gandalf portrayed his point.
"Ok". Rex nodded. "I think I understand now".
"Do you want to listen to Max''s story before his death?"
Gandalf did not reply but Scorpion nodded, so Rex continued. "Max was just like you and me, a product of the current system of the mystic world".
Rex took his time as he exined Max''s full life story from when the tragedy befell his family. Though he spent over 45 minutes narrating, the 2 mystic warriors were silent throughout as they listened to him.
When he was done, Scorpion sighed. "The system is really¡, messed up".
For the 2nd time since meeting Rex, Scorpion was given a prompt to self-reflect. He was just like Max, their tragic fate pushed them into taking extreme decisions that resulted in even more disaster to the world.
Thinking of all the lives that he took just to pursue the unrealistic goal of seeing his dead daughter, heughed. "We''re really just pawns in this chess board called the mystic world, the ones at the top y the game".
"And that is what I intend to change". Rex spoke again. "Who are they to think of us as only chess pawns while they y the game?"
"I want to change the current system of the mystic world".
"To prevent scenarios like yours, Max''s, and the tragedy of my family from repeating itself, the current system of power need to change".
Scorpion agreed but he sighed. "I know your ambition is noble and all that, but do you really think you''re capable of changing the current system?"
"No". Rex was swift with his answers". I''m not sure but that''s what pushes me to try my best".
"Even if I have less than 1% chance of fulfilling this dream, I will grab it and hold tight to it with all the energy that I can muster".
Scorpion closed his eyes, then he took a deep breath. "During the past few weeks, I''ve been reflecting about the words you told me in the battlefield".
"I''ve made my decision, I will support you in your quest".
"I''ve done a lot of evil in my impossible quest to see my dead daughter, and the only way for me to atone for my sins is to make the real culprits pay".
"One thing that made me believe in the false hope that she was still alive was because I felt that I never stood a chance if I went up against the Holmes family".
"I still believe that I don''t stand a chance, but for some reason, after that battle with you, I feel that you may perhaps stand a chance against them".
"That is why I decided to throw all my goods with you and support you".
"Someday, I want to witness the fall of the Holmes family".
Rex turned to Gandalf who finally started speaking. "For over a decade, I lost my friend to a family who manipted him".
"Of course, after getting him back, I want to help him seek revenge".
"To fulfill your goal, the Gandalf Gang will now be at your beck and call". Gandalf pledged his loyalty. "But first, what is your n after now?"
"Knowing the Snake Territory well, I know that after hearing about what happened here, most of the gangs there would be already eyeing the massive territory under your gang which they probably see as free food for the taking".
"How do you intend to manage them?"
Rex smiled. "I have a n, an even bigger n that you''d expect".
"My conquest is not stopping at the Red Zone, I want to take over the Snake Territory and ck Zone too, I want to be the sole ruler of the Gundam Shelter".
"For our future quests, the Gundam Shelter will be our headquarters".
"¡"
"¡"
"¡.."
This time, not just Scorpion but Gandalf was left gaping at Rex''s oundish ambition. Before they could speak though, Rex did.
Rex chuckled. "I believe that I can do it and I also have a powerful ally".
Gandalf creaked his brows. "Is it that one hiding in the shadows?"
"Huh?" Rex was surprised.
The next moment, Cassandra walked out of the shadows where she hid. At this moment, she was cloaked in a notorious snake-design ck gown and a ck Queen''s crown which was another notorious mystic treasure.
On seeing this female and this attire, Scorpion and Gandalf gasped.
"The Snake Empress?!"
"Oh, you know her?" Rex was surprised, he was also surprised that Cassandra was here.
''Has she been stalking me?'' He wondered.
Scorpion and Gandalf were shocked but they did not show any weakness, they calmly looked as Cassandra walked forward before standing before them.
"I secretly followed him to make sure that you 2 don''t do anything to him".
"I never expected you to see me though". She smiled at Gandalf. "And yes, the Sad Flutes Assassin will soon be the secret backer of the Berserk Gang".
Gandalf''s eyes narrowed as he turned to face Rex. "They helped you win the war?"
"No". Rex replied. "They set winning the war as a criteria for them to support my rise into bing the overlord of the Gundam Shelter".
Gandalf threw onest nce at Cassandra before turning back to face Rex. "I thought you''d know better, how can you trust an assassin?"
"Ahh¡" Rex scratched his head, by now, his emotional state from Max already disappeared. "Well, let''s say my rtionship with her runs deeper".
Since they already became allies, Rex felt it was a need to rify things. Sometimes, revealing secrets was a way to build trust among allies.
Having spoken with Cassandra about it previously and getting her approval, Rex revealed everything about him and her. He revealed both the secrets to how she traveled to the past and how she also opposed the Holmes family.
By the time he was done, Scorpion and Gandalf were left speechless.
"So, it''s like that¡"
It took them about a minute to ept Rex''s words but once they did, everything proceeded smoothly and was finally settled.
"By the way, my real name is Jack". Scorpion said as they left.
As they both left, Rex''s system lit up another notification.
-----
[You have gained your second ally: The Gandalf Gang!]
[Current Gang Strength: 200,000 Mystic Warriors!]
[Top tier Strength: 17 Advanced Mystic Warriors!]
[Technological Prowess: A!]
¡
[Berserk Gang current status!]
[Current Gang Strength: 300,000 Mystic Warriors!]
[Top tier Strength: 12 Advanced Mystic Warriors!]
[Technological Prowess: C+!]
----
Chapter 242 One Autumn Leaf- 4th Move: Planetary Devastation Slash
After over a month since gaining his first, Rex gained his 2nd ally.
After gaining his 2nd ally, his system created a status for gangs. Through the status for the 2 gangs, Rex was finally able topare the current strength of the Berserk Gang to mainstream gangs that were in the Snake Territory.
Considering that the Gandalf Gang was one of the top gangs in the Snake Territory, theparison showed the current strength of the Berserk Gang.
After integrating the whole Red Zone, the Berserk Gang literally ballooned in strength and was miles better than they were a few months ago.
Despite losing a ridiculous amount of warriors from his side and his enemies in the previous war, Rex was still able to expand his gang army massively.
With an army capacity of 300,000 mystic warriors, he eclipsed the Gandalf Gang with almost 100,000 mystic warriors which was a ridiculous figure.
Apart from that though, the major difference was the technological prowess. Compared to gangs in the Red Zone, those in the Snake Territory fared much better.
The Gandalf Gang''s technological prowess was A rated in contrast to the Berserk Gang''s that seemed much inferior and was rated C+.
''I wonder how the Snake territory looks like''. Rex thought.
Apart from the technological prowess, despite losing 5 Advanced mystic warriors in the previous war, the Gandalf Gang was still the leading gang in terms of top tier strength with 17 current Advanced Mystic Warriors.
If Jack joined the Gandalf Gang, that would make 18 Advanced Mystic Warriors. This also showed how more developed the Snake Territory was to the Red Zone as he experts would obviously love there better.
After the encounters with Max Fury, Rex was mentally drained and felt a need to rest before he would be able to continue for the day.
Before resting though, he had something urgent to do. After receiving the notification of gaining a 2nd ally by his system, he finally remembered his 1st ally that he neglected for 2 months already and he was rmed.
"F*ck! I''ve not given the Naga Queen blood in over 2 months!"
Rex called Aragorn about the emergency as he rushed into theboratory. Before he got there, Aragorn already called the specialist doctor of the Berserk Gang who went ahead of Rex to theboratory.
Cassandra was curious about who this Naga Queen was but seeing Rex''s haste, she decided to wait until he was done before asking.
"Gang Leader, please take off your clothes".
"¡" Cassandra''s eyes twitched as she watched.
The female doctor continued. "Take this tonic, it would rapidly give you more blood and also increase your blood pressure for a limited amount of time".
"Don''t panic if your little brother reacts".
"¡" Cassandra''s eyes twitched even more furiously.
As soon as Rex took the tonic, veins popped out all over his body and they showed red. This time, he was really going all out to produce blood.
As the tonic produced blood in his body, the doctor worked hard in extracting his blood through tubes through which she filled gallons.
5 minutester, Rex was able to fill 3 gallons to the brim with his blood.
"¡" Cassandra as shocked as she speechlessly observed.
After having so much blood produced in his body and subsequently sucked away, Rex felt like he was hit by a thousand nks and his body felt weak.
"Please give me a paper". He whispered. "Let me write an apology letter¡"
As soon as the paper was brought, with thest of his energy, Rex forced himself to write an apology letter, detailing why he was unable to produce blood.
Of course, Rex also nagged about the fact why she did note to his rescue, stressing that what was the point of being allies if she won''t help him in trouble.
As Rex wrote, Cassandra saw it all.
When he was finally done, he called for nor and gave her to help give the stuff to the right mystic warriors to deliver them to the Great River of Gold.
As nor left, Rex turned to face Cassandra with pleading eyes. "I''m weak, please help me to the room".
She was irked by his demands but she was also curious, she let Rex lean on her as she moved through shadows before taking him to the room.
Just like Rex, she had a shadow mystic ability.
As soon as she arrived at the room, Cassandra dropped Rex on the bed before cracking her knuckles as she stood up and paced around the room.
"Now tell me Rex, who is this Queen Naga that I don''t know of?"
"Answer now before I lose my cool!"
Snore!
In response, Cassandra got the unpleasant sound of snoring.
She turned and red at Rex. "You bastard¡!"
She felt an urge to smack him but she didn''t though, she instead also entered the bed andid down with him. Since reuniting with Rex, she didn''t know why, she becamezier and now felt the urge to sleep more.
In no time, she also soon fell into slumbernd.
¡
2 hourster, Rex woke up.
On waking up and feeling the warm presence close to his body, he was surprised. ''Damn, is she getting addicted to cuddles?''
He didn''tin though, he rather made himself morefortable.
After making himselffortable, Rex essed his system again.
After the encounter with Max Fury where he killed him, apart from getting Max''s exclusive evil Special Ability, he also got 5,000 Skill Points.
And with 5,000 extra skill points, his current total tally went over 30,000 which was the required amount to purchase and learn an Advanced sword skill, the 4th move of the One Autumn Leaf series.
-----
[Order to deduct 30,000 Skill Points have been confirmed by the system!]
[30,000 Skill Points have been deducted!]
[You have learned Advanced Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf- 4th Move:ary Devastation sh!]
>One Autumn Leaf-ary Devastation sh: When activated, like the other moves in the series, all power and sword energy is concentrated to a single point to amplify damage by as much as 500%<
>+40% Bleed chance and +60% Stun chance when used on enemy<
>20% chance to triggerary Devastation Effect: +500% additional damage base damage and +200% additional sword energy damage<
>5% chance to trigger Cell Destruction: For the duration that the sword energy of the attack lingers in enemy, his cells begins to die at a rapid rate<
[Remark: A massive upgrade to the 3rd move of the series!]
----
Having felt the power of the One Autumn Leaf series already which was one of his oldest and favorite go-to skills in battle, Rex was in love with the series but this, this absolutely blew his mind away.
Compared to the previous 3 moves that mainly focused on concentrating his energy to deal ridiculous damage, this one came with a lot of OP additions.
''Damn, if the 4th move is this, I can''t think of how OP the 5th would be?''
''System, give me the option of fusing my 2 sword skills''.
------
[Affirmative!]
[Insufficient Skill Points bnce tomencebination!]
[Requirement to fuse the 3rd and 4th move of the One Autumn Leaf Series: 30,000 Skill Points!]
----
''Sh*t!'' Rex gave up.
Chapter 243 New Leadership Structure
"What are you spacing out for?" Cassandra could not help but ask as she could no longer hold her patience, she turned to face Rex on the bed.
"Nothing". Rex raised his hands in surrender.
Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "Just like you, I have a shadow mystic ability and mine is even more funed towards stealth, detection, and assassination".
"I knew the exact moment that you woke up, then you just spaced out like you had a lot of things on your mind, don''t think you can lie to me".
"¡"
"Ahh¡" Rexughed and scratched his head. "I guess I can''t lie to you then so I''ll be in".
Rex held Cassandra closer before whispering into her ears, making her blush slightly but she was still adamant to hear his answer.
"Sorry, with you in my embrace, it''ll be a sphemy for me not to space out, I''ve been thinking about how lucky I am to have a beauty goddess like you".
Cassandra rolled her eyes before poking him on the head. "Since when did you be so good with words?"
"I was always this good, you just didn''t pay attention".
"Nah, I don''t think the shy Rex I knew could ever tter a woman with words". Cassandra tilted her head slightly to look him in the eyes.
"Damn, but you''re really beautiful today".
"Really?" Cassandra rolled her eyes again then she sighed.
"Prove it". She pushed Rex t with his back on the bed before climbing on top him. "Prove that I''m really beautiful today".
"Ahh¡" Rex was shocked. "What if Aragorn and nore?"
"They won''te, they know there''s a woman in your room now".
"But¡"
"Don''t worry, my shadow mystic ability can sense any presence before they evene close to the door". Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "Don''t tell me you''re scared to fulfill your duty as a boyfriend?"
"Hell no!"
Provoked, Rex took the lead and led his girlfriend on.
Everything else proceeded naturally, their blossoming love served as the catalyst that pushed them into exploring the deepest parts of each other.
For the 2nd time, the pair of lovers expressed their love for each other in the oldest ritual of love for over an hour until they were exhausted from pleasure.
After cleaning up, they spent the next hour in each other''s arms.
This was when Cassandra brought up the topic again. "So, be sincere this time". She patted his hand. "Tell me, who''s the Naga Queen?"
"She''s my first official ally".
"Ally?"
"Yes". Rex smiled. "Just like her title, she''s a real Naga".
Cassandra creased her brows. "You mean like those creatures in myth depicted as beautiful females with snake tails?"
"Yeah".
Cassandra narrowed her eyes. "The heck where you doing alone with such a beautiful female even if she is a Naga?!"
"Ahh¡" Rex was surprised. "I was not alone with her!" He denied.
It took some calming down before he soothed his girlfriend. In the end, Rex was left wiping off imaginary sweat. ''Women are so scary''.
After spending an hour resting already, Rex finally stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"I want to address my gang". Rex said as he put on his warrior clothes, a pair of thick ck fitting attire with red strips.
"After that, I intend to go somewhere with you so get prepared".
"Oh, you want to take me out? Where?"
"It''s a surprise". Rex winked before going out.
¡
Though they had not seen him yet, the news that the Gang Leader finally woke up already spread throughout the whole Berserk Gang.
Morale in the gang rose even higher as the hundreds of thousands of mystic warriors that served in the gang were motivated to see their war hero.
Especially the old gang members of the Berserk Gang, they already idolized Rex since his incredible performance was the sole reason why they won the war.
Today, they finally got to see him as Rex called for a gathering in the main field of the new Berserk Mansion. Not all the warriors were present since most of them were out on duty, but tens of thousands of mystic warriors were gathered.
There were representatives from each of the other zones around the Red Zone, and the other mystic warriors could watch through devices.
As soon as the time came, Rex came before the gathered warriors.
As soon as they saw him, the army broke into loud cheers as they weed their Gang Leader. In the end, the Berserk Gang was not a real military organization, the mystic warriors were not as restricted as real soldiers.
Rex waved to acknowledge their cheers as he took the podium.
On the podium, Rex watched the thousands of mystic warriors. A proud smile lit up his face as he viewed the rewards of his and hispanions'' hard work.
Rex clenched his right fist and pumped it up, the warriors imitated him as they roared at the top of their voices. Themotion only calmed down after a few more minutes, then Rex addressed the warriors.
"We won".
"We fulfilled our incredible dream of building a Red Zone under one gang".
"This would have not been possible without the sacrifices of all the warriors present and those that lost their lives, may their souls rest in peace".
"Today, I want to tell you all that our dream lives".
"We built a unified Red Zone, we shall protect it".
"We shall protect it from every stranger that seeks to devour it".
"I want to give special recognition to our war hero, Gang Leader Walker Olufsen, he paved the way to our sessful unification and victory".
"I also want to inform you that our ambition does not end here".
"We''ll continue expanding our territory and power until we achieve the outmost of glory for the Berserk Gang"
"Also, today, the Gandalf Gang became our official allies".
"Together, we''ll rise to the top".
Rex''s deration this time caused mixed reactions amid the gathered army but order was soon restored as he continued.
Rex thought deeply on his next choice of words before he continued.
"Max Fury is dead".
"Just like me, though we were enemies, he had a dream of a unified Red Zone. I will carry on his will through his warriors that are now part of the Berserk Gang to fulfil his dream".
"For the Berserk Gang!"
"For the Berserk Gang!" The mystic warriors roared.
After the speech came the more important part, the part where the Gang Leader would delegate duties to the warriors of the gang.
Rex brought out a paper where he read from.
"After convening with the other leaders, we already decided on the next course and leadership that will lead the Berserk Gang to greatness".
"The Northern Region is the headquarters of the Berserk Gang".
"Commander Aragorn will be in charge of all administrative duties in the headquarters with nor as his assistant".
"Commander Erling and Commander Jacob will be in charge of all administrative duties in the Eastern Region of our territory".
"Commander Tosh will be in charge of all administrative duties in the Western Region of our territory".
"Commander Cinnabar of the Axe unit will be in charge of all administrative duties in the Southern Region of our territory".
"As for the Southern Region, Commander Melkor will take charge".
"Lastly, I am the Commander in Chief of the Berserk Army".
"Every other army delegation will be disyed in the notice board".
After announcing the new leadership structure of the Berserk Gang, with that, Rex brought the gathering to an end and finally left the podium.
Chapter 244 Going To The Inheritance Ground
"You removed Ben from his leadership post?"
Rex turned to face his girlfriend with an amused expression on his face. "You really thought Ben was happy being delegated as a leader".
"That guy likes his freedom more than he even like girls".
"Ugh¡, you may be right". Cassandra threw her hands and gave up.
Rex''s decision to remove Ben from a leadership position was not made on a whim. Apart from considering what Ben liked, he also had his personal motives since he felt Ben was more valuable in a non-leadership position.
After setting some things here in the Gundam Shelter, he intended to engage in some expeditions and Ben was an indispensable friend and ally to apany him. They understood each other thoroughly and Ben was strong.
Despite it being a few months already since he went to the Great Desert to benefit from the Sword Saint''s inheritance, everything remained vivid in his mind.
Rex''s determination to rescue the Blood Spartan Tribe still burned.
He would not rest until he found a way to rescue them.
After the speech, as Aragorn already proved his capability to get things done, Rex left every other thing to him as he focused on his own goals.
On returning to his room, he donned his Vampiric Armor and was soon in his full war gear. Rex turned to face Cassandra. "Are you ready?"
"I thought you said you''re taking me out?" She frowned. "Who takes a girl out in war gear?"
"Well, that''s me". Rex smiled. "Juste closer".
Though Cassandra had a lot of misgivings about Rex''s mysterious tourist destination that he had in mind, she shelved her doubts and went closer.
"Today, I''ll be taking you to a secret ce.
As he spoke, Rex infused his mystic energy into his family heirloom, the Blood Tome as directed by his system as changes started happening.
-----
[You have triggered special teleportation effect of the Blood Tome!]
[Destination Locked-on: Ancient Vector Family Inheritance Ground!]
----
Bzzz!
The next moment, a brief white light shed that enveloped the 2 individuals that were in the room. They disappeared in less than a second as the light also faded out, everything happened naturally without causing amotion.
¡
Bzzz!
When Rex reappeared and he regained his vision, he saw himself standing before a familiar massive vampire throne in whose armrest the Blood Tome was once stored. The only difference was that the Blood Pond was gone.
He was back in the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the inheritance ground that was left by his ancestors to aid him in his rise to the peak.
"This is¡?" Cassandra asked as she turned around to admire the massive hall with a lot of amenities and technology that stood before her.
She didn''t feel any danger here and was why she was calm.
"This is the inheritance ground that was left by my ancestors to aid me". Rex replied as he turned to face her then he pointed at the ground. "A pool of blood is supposed to be here, this is where I became a vampire".
Though she already made a guess on seeing the surroundings, Cassandra was still surprised when Rex confirmed the truth with her.
She trusted Rexpletely but she never expected him to bring him to a ce as sensitive as this that was connected to his family.
"Wow¡, thank you". She didn''t know when or even why she said it but as she looked around, the words suddenly came out of her mouth.
She could feel her trust for Rex rising even more.
As she looked, to her shock, the previously empty throne was suddenly upied by what seemed like the virtual projection of an extremely old man in ck robes with long white hair and beards that flowed down his shoulders.
On noticing Cassandra''s sudden pause, Rex turned to look and he was shocked. The familiar ck robe with red markings snaking through it alone already gave out who this was, he didn''t even need to look at his face.
Thud!
Rex knelt down the next moment then he tugged at Cassandra who got the clue and also knelt down alongside him.
Rex sped his hands together. "Great Ancestor".
Cassandra simply bowed while remaining silent.
Orion Vector looked down at the 2 youngsters before him with an amused smile on his face. "Young Rex, who would have thought you''ll have a girlfriend already? You''re really representing the Vector bloodline well".
"¡" Rex blushed fiercely. "Thank you, ancestor".
"I never expected to meet you here".
"Who did you think would guide you?" The old manughed then he stood up the next moment. "Both of you, follow me let me show you around".
"Yes, Great Ancestor".
Rex whispered to Cassandra as he followed. "He''s my first ancestor".
"Oh¡" Cassandra looked at him. "A soul projection?"
"Yeah, he''s long dead".
"No need gossiping behind my back, I control this domain until you grow strong enough to be able to control it".
"¡" The pair of lovers blushed.
Now silent, Cassandra followed Rex as they both followed the old man''s lead who led them deeper into this underground building. This time, Rex did not just get to see one part of the building, he saw it in full for the first time.
The peripheral side where the mechanisms were prepared for him to be a vampire was just one part, the real part was inside.
After taking them through a long corridor, the old man finally arrived at a massive training ground. The inheritance ground was a massive training ground.
In here, Rex saw all sorts of training equipment that ranged from purely mechanical to others that were fully mystic treasures.
This massive training ground had a different section to train all the main battle domain types, there was also another training ground exclusive to vampires.
Orion Vector spoke. "This is the Vector Family''s main inheritance ground".
"Dozens of your ancestors trained here before you and all left their imprints here for the chosen one, there is an exclusive chamber to ess their knowledge".
"The vampire training ground is the perfect training ground to hone your vampire abilities". The old man turned to look at Rex. "Thest time that I met you, I noticed a dormant vampire special ability inside you".
"Ahh¡, the age extraction?"
"Yes, where did you get it?"
"I got it from an inheritance ground left by a Sword Saint".
"I see¡, that fellow must have been a pretty aplished vampire in his lifetime to create an ability like that. Learn and master it, it will help you a lot".
The old man patted Rex''s shoulder the next moment after he finished admiring. "Follow me let me take you to the exclusive chamber left to hold all the knowledge and inheritance left by your ancestors".
"Your girlfriend can stay here and train, only Vectors are allowed there".
Rex turned to face Cassandra who nodded. "No worries, I''m still fascinated by everything that I''m seeing, I''m ok with looking around".
"Ok, thanks". Rex turned to face his ancestor. "I''m ready".
The next moment, Orion Vector grabbed Rex''s hand before levitating towards the ceiling of the inheritance ground with him.
A few secondster, they disappeared into shadows.
Chapter 245 The 10 Great Ancestors
Whoosh!
After a few seconds of darkness, Rex finally saw light again as he seemed to slip from the shadows into an entirely different dimension.
He was standing on solid ground again and beside him was the old man.
Rex did not pay attention to his ancestor though, rather, his attention was drawn away by this exclusive domain. Unlike the other gloomy parts of the inheritance ground, this domain at least seemed presentable.
This was a huge hall that spanned about 10 meters long.
There were no shy decorations in the hall but the lights were bright, the only things upying this huge hall where 11 massive statues that were erected at different corners of the hall to form something like a round table formation.
At the front of the statues stood the 11th statue which was clearly more magnificent than the others, and its facial looks resembled someone that Rex knew.
Rex turned to face his ancestor. "Is that you?"
"Yes". Orion Vector smiled. "Wee to the hall of the 10 Great Ancestors, the true inheritance ground".
"Over the years of our existence, despite being persecuted by the Holmes family and the world, we were still able to survive and produce powerhouses".
"To leave better opportunities for our future generations, apart from creating the system and the hivemind, we also created this".
"Every statue here contains a will of the family''s 10 greatest ancestors".
"Of course, over the years, new ancestors that were greater than those of the past emerged and they took the ce of the old ancestors after their death".
"Through the statues, they leave a will of their strongest abilities to pass it down to the chosen one whose promise the family will hope on".
Orion smiled again. "Of course, as the greatest ancestor, my statue was also left and is the 11th statue, all my insights on the upgrade mystic ability are there".
"Understanding them is the way for you to make full use of your ability".
The old man pointed at one of the statues the next moment. "You see that bald and muscr ancestor, he is the one you met in the elven kingdom".
"His name is Bam but he preferred people calling him Iron Mike. I believe when you met his will he shamelessly boasted of being the greatest tiajutsu expert of the Vector Family, unfortunately, yes, he is right".
"He has a brash personality but he was one of the finest warriors that ever descended from my bloodline, he had the strength of a beast".
"His greatest ability was the soul rider bike, it is an ability that transcended the master level abilities, it was a myth level ability".
Rex''s eyes literally expanded as wide as saucers. ''Damn, and I had the opportunity to train this soul rider since but didn''t''.
As if he read his mind, Orion Vector chuckled. "Everyone of you was always this enthusiastic, you''d be humbled after just a day though".
"Ah, others came here before me?"
"Yes, this exclusive chamber was not just made essible to you. The chosen one was someone we hoped could win against the Holmes, so we put our bet on all our descendants until it finally got to your turn".
"Even in your turn, we''re not 100% sure that you can win against the Holmes family. The oue is never set in stone".
"I would rmend you to ess my will inheritance first but you are not yet up to the task. To ess the inheritance of the upgrade that I left behind, your mind power needs to be significantly stronger than this".
"Excluding my inheritance, you can easily decide on which of the others you want to take now before leaving but I advise Bam''s inheritance".
"You''ve met him before and already learned some techniques from him, you have a higher chance of benefiting by learning from him now".
Rex kept quiet and looked through all the statues. Only 3 among them were female, the remaining 7 Great Ancestors were all male powerhouses.
He listened to his ancestor''s advice. "Where do I ess inside the statue?"
"Just go and touch it".
Rex obeyed and walked closer before cing his hand on the statue. As soon as he touched the statue, Rex saw all the statues in the hall disappearing, leaving only Bam''s statue which majestically hovered to the middle of the hall.
"Finally, another student".
On hearing this familiar voice, Rex shuddered slightly. The next moment, the bald ancestor who he already met sometime ago crawled out of the statue.
Just like the statue, he was a giant so he bent down to look at Rex.
"Yo boy, I feel like I''ve met you before".
"Yes, in the elven inheritance ground".
"Oh, you met that mother*cker, hahaha, he must have been really polite with his words. I had to fune that mother*cker to fit that old elf''s taste".
"It is a pleasure to learn under you sir¡"
"Ok!" Rex barely finished before Bam''s powerful voice reverberated through the hall. "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes, you are Bam Vector, the 3rd Vector Elder¡"
"Wrong!" He interjected again. "I am Bam, the Soul Rider, get it?"
"Yes sir!"
"Say it!"
"Bam, the Soul Rider!"
"Good, you''re a fast learner. Now run at me and throw everything that you have at me, try your best to defeat me".
"¡"
"Don''t worry, my strength will be suppressed to the Advanced tier,e".
"¡"
Bam!
Rex was left in a daze at how fast his new teacher was proceeding and could notprehend his order toe at him, words couldn''t do it, but this definitely did as one kick to the cheek sent Rex rotating in the skies like a ball.
"Ugh¡" When he fell, he coughed blood.
"Good". Bam nodded in satisfaction. "Nowe at me".
"With everything I got?" Rex red at this ancestor of his as he remembered old man Orion''s friendly advice. ''Do everything he says or you''ll suffer''. He gritted his teeth.
Bam smirked. "Yes, with everything you got".
-----
You have activated Master Level Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
You have activated skill: Zone!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
----
Boom!
Rex exploded with such speed that the floor beneath him cracked.
Since his ancestor already promised to reduce his strength to the Advanced grade, Rex was ready to teach him a lesson to never belittle him anymore.
His eyes were focused and intent on killing as he rapidly closed the distance.
With the first master level skill that he activated, he kept his defense up, with the zone, his concentration was at its highest while with the precision sh skill, he went for the swiftest and deadliest in his arsenal for one attack.
Whoosh!
The sword finally descended with all the extremely sharp sword energy apanying it. Bam only looked at it once then he smirked.
In a great disy of wizardly that Rex could not fathom, this tiajutsu expert twisted his body in such an unnatural angle that the precision sh whose precision never disappointed failed for the first time.
"How¡?" Rex was shocked but he did not fail to notice the strange green energy that was surrounding his ancestor''s body at this moment.
"You are too f*cking weak!" Bam punched Rex on the chest.
Rex could not scream as he felt all his ribs and upper chest bones shattering like fiber ss, he flew away with speed like a kite.
Boom!
Chapter 246 Myth Level Ability: Soul Rider
? Inside the exclusive chamber where the true inheritance was held, Orion Vector rxed on top his statue as he enjoyed a bottle of beer.
A loud sound suddenly reverberated as Bam''s statue shook.
Boom!
Orion spilled his beer then he sighed exasperatedly. ''Bam, take it easy on the kid please, he''s ourst hope''.
''I know, that''s why I can''t afford to take it easy on him''.
Orion sighed again. ''Just don''t kill him!''
''Just pray he''s not the type to die quickly''.
''Sigh¡''
¡
Rex was left in a pool of his own blood as he coughed blood, he struggled to look up at his ancestor in disbelief. "W-why¡?"
"Why?!" Bam exploded in rage. "You dare ask me why?!"
"If I was an assassin from the Holmes family, poof, you''re dead!"
"You know what that f*cking means?"
"Not just you, but the whole Vector family bes extinct!"
"Don''t even think that little girlfriend of yours will survive, you don''t know the Holmes. They''ll hunt you down, hunt your girlfriend down, hunt your friends down and kill you all. They always clean up, they never let any threat loose".
"The fact that you''re not healing yet despite your vitality means you''ve never actually used your cell regeneration ability". Bamughed maniacally. "You''ve really had it easy kid, now I''ll show you the reality of this world!"
"You have 10 seconds to heal up and face me in battle".
"If you can''t, you die".
"But Ancestor Orion said¡"
"You dare rely on that f*cking old man?" Bamughed. "It seems you''ve always had people to rely on all your life when you''re in trouble, you think you''ll always have them, do you f*cking think you''re the protagonist of the world?!"
"Heal yourself and fight or die!"
"You have so many abilities, so many skills but you''re too dumb on how to use them effectively in battle, you''re better off dead".
"No wonder you rely on the system so much".
''Damn!" Rex fought his pain. ''This guy is just like Orion said''.
His words were harsh but the old ancestor was right, even in the previous war, when he was pushed to the wall, he forgot to use the cell regeneration ability.
''Am I really dumb?'' Rex was angered by this statement.
''Old fool, I''ll make you swallow that!''
-----
You have activated Vampire Ability: Cell Regeneration!
----
Instantly, Rex felt his blood flow elerating as his body started visibly healing. On seeing this, Bam started counting.
"10¡, 9¡,8¡,7¡, 0!"
"Sh*t!"
Rex was barely healed but he sprang up to fight for his life.
-----
You have activated Advanced Level Skill: Self Combustion!
You have activated Master Level Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
----
This time, Bam went on the offense but Rex was ready for him.
This time, Rex was able to see it clearly. As Bam moved, a powerful green aura covered his body that seemed to have the power to annihte everything in its part, Rex responded well to this with his selfbustion skill.
Boom!
Bam''s punch induced a sonic boom.
Rex did his best to restrict his enemy''s movements with his burning mes while also doing his best to defend himself with the master level defense skill.
Bam''s punch went through all the obstacles, when it was mere inches away from hitting Rex''s chest again, Rex risked it and went on the offensive.
"Ahhh!" He roared as he stabbed with his sword.
The precision sh was his swiftest shing sword skill, but the piercing stab was overall Rex''s fastest skill ever. If the punch connected, it would connect.
At thest minute, the nature of the green energy suddenly changed as it acted on its own volition and parried the sword stab for its master.
With the stab blocked, the punch went all the way through.
Bam!
"Ugh¡" Rex coughed blood again as he flew away.
"The essence of the Soul Rider is built from peak physical performance". Bam finally started speaking as he rushed towards his opponent to continue his attack.
Rex desperately tried to defend himself and retaliate.
"It involves exerting so much physical strength that through it, you break your realistic limits and begin affecting the material".
"I call the first ability in my series the Green Warrior".
"By exerting peak physical strength, I am able to manipte my physical waste to be energy. My sweat under my will control bes green, bing my cloak and it is the Green Warrior".
"It increases my physical strength and abilities by 2 times".
Bam!
Rex received another punch to the nose as he coughed blood. In fear of his life though, he dared not give up as he sprang back up to fight for his life.
"Waste from my body is part of my body".
"This is my inspiration to creating the 2nd ability in my series, I call it the Green Knight because it protects more than the Green Warrior".
"To master this ability, you need to have full control over your body to the extent where you can even master and control your bodily waste like your sweat".
"When in the Green Warrior state, all I need is exert even more physical strength to take control over my sweat, then I enter the Green Knight state".
"In this state, my physical strength and abilities increases by 5 times".
"Also, I be capable of controlling the green energy formed by my sweat to be the Green Knight that actively protects me from danger".
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex wasboed 3 times in the air before being kicked away as he coughed even more blood, his eyes were bloodshot from pain but he dared not stop.
"Thest ability in my series is the Soul Rider".
"Once you be capable of controlling your sweat, all you need is to continue honing it until you get to the level of the Soul Rider".
"All I need is to control my sweat to form a bike. With it, I rapidly elerate to build enough momentum to deal my killing blow, my self-created myth level skill, Bam''s Crush!"
"In this state, my physical strength and abilities increases by 20 times".
"Watch the demonstration".
The next moment, Bam''s eyes turned green as the green energy surrounding him turned even thicker and unstable. The next moment, a green bike formed under him which he mounted as he elerated towards Rex.
Despite the short distance between them, it was like the bike was already riding for a long time from another ne as it easily reached a speed of hundreds of kilometers, closing the distance to Rex in less than 1/8th of a second.
Before collision, the bike disappeared leaving only Bam who used the momentum to fly towards Rex with his right fist already clenched for a punch.
Rex for a moment thought he saw a green dragon envelope the punching fist, he gave up as he closed his eyes. ''Is this where I die?''
''By the hands of my own f*cking ancestor? It''s not fair!''
Like he read his mind, Bam said. "The world is not fair!"
BOOM!
The punch connected and reduced the whole hall to mere ruins, Rex included as he simply evaporated into bloody mist.
A few secondster, everything repaired itself, returning to normal, including Rex. Rex was left shaking in his boots as an urge to wet himself came which he used all his willpower and pride to hold back.
His legs shook. "Did I die?"
"No, this is a virtual world".
"Congrattions, yousted till I unleashed my killer move".
"You''re qualified to learn the first ability in my series, all you need right now is intense physical conditioning, you can''t learn it with a meager strength of 3,900, you need a strength of at least 5000 or 4800".
"¡" Rex was tongue-tied.
"You''re wondering how I measured your strength so urately? You''re really dumb to doubt my abilities, I haveplete control over my body. Of course, I can also urately estimate other''s strengths too".
"Follow me".
"Y-yes sir". Rex stammered, he was relieved that he survived.
Chapter 247 Strength Conditioning Training
After what felt like a lifetime in this prison, Rex was finally out of the evil statue where he was tortured for the past few dozen minutes.
Oning out, Rex was shocked to see old man Orion chilling on top his statue. On noticing his look of grievance, the old man turned his way before waving with a bright smile on his face. "Goodluck".
"Umm¡"
"Don''t say anything, keep that energy for your training". Bam said with a strict look on his face as he led the way out of this exclusive chamber.
Rex felt an urge to cry but he also felt an urge to get back at this freak ancestor of his. ''They can take ces here right? I''ll definitely take your ce''.
"You can''t take my ce with that lousy attitude of yours".
"¡" Rex was shocked again. "Do you read minds?"
"I don''t but I read muscle and nerve impulses. Your nerve impulses are a reflection of what you''re thinking, I simply read them to read your mind".
Once again, Rex was bbergasted by the ability of this ancestor of his. Apart from his extreme and always angry personality, Bam was just like the perfect warrior that he envisioned when he was still a student in the academy.
Bam''s way may be extreme but no doubt that he had the strength.
"Come". Without waiting for him, Bam jumped into the shadows that led out of this exclusive chamber.
"Ah, wait for me". Rex ran after him and jumped into the dark void.
A few secondster, he saw himself free-falling from the skies back in the familiar inheritance ground.
-----
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic effect: Blood Flight!
----
Rex reacted just in time to prevent himself from colliding with the floor.
On descending, Rex witnessed a bizarre scene. Bam was already ahead of him and went to the sword battle domain training chamber where he exined things in a polite tone to Cassandra who already dove into training.
A single tour around the inheritance ground was enough to show Cassandra the treasure trove that this was, she didn''t take this opportunity for granted.
As soon as Rex and his ancestor left, she took her sword and started training using the advanced training equipment of the inheritance ground.
Bam finished exining to her in less than a minute, the next moment she nodded firmly before turning to face Rex with a smile. "Goodluck".
"Huh?"
"Boy, your girlfriend already gave her consent so follow me".
"Pretty girl, make sure to block the noise, it''ll be embarrassing if you hear his screams of pains so do him a favor".
The next moment, without giving Rex a second to react to his girlfriend''s betrayal, Bam the hotblooded ancestor led him to the strength training chamber.
All the training chambers in the inheritance ground were in hidden pockets of space and wererger than seen on the outside.
Entering inside the strength training chamber, Rex saw himself inside a massive square-shaped room filled with different strength training equipment.
Apart from the normal gym equipment, Rex saw some incredible equipment that he guessed were mystic treasures but Bam''s attention was not on them.
After arriving inside the training chamber, Bam turned to face him. "You know one advantage that we vampires have? Our incredible vitality".
"The training schedule that I''m about to put you through is only doable to vampires. To any other race, it''s a suicide mission".
"There are no easy routes to rapidly increasing your strength as a mystic warrior, the only routes involve a lot of sacrifice and pain".
"For this training, I''ll be giving you strength steroids".
"Their effects increase your strength rapidly in a short amount of time but it''s a painful experience. Due to their incredibly toiling side effects, your body and blood vessels will start tearing open".
"Normal mystic warriors die within 2 days at the dosage that you''re about to use, but as a vampire, I expect you to survive on your cell regeneration ability".
"While the effect of the strength steroids take ce, you''ll be fighting these strength Golems. They have an amazing effect of stimting strength potential".
"You have 5 days to increase your strength, make the most out of it".
Everything from his girlfriend''s betrayal to now was just so fast for Rex, he could notprehend everything yet. "Wait, please wait¡"
"What if I''m not ready?"
"Goodluck".
Whoosh!
The next moment, before Rex could react, 2 needle injections jutted out of the ground directly underneath him before injecting their contents in his body through his legs.
-----
[Warning! You have been injected with a Strength Stimnt!]
[Your blood pressure is increasing¡]
[Your body temperature is increasing¡]
[Your bone density is increasing¡]
[Warning! Your brain rage function is acting up¡]
----
Rex felt dizzy for a brief moment before his eyes turned blood-red.
He looked around but could no longer see anyone in this massive hall. Bam was gone, he was alone and he was in an unimaginable amount of pain.
"Ahh¡" Rex screamed as he scratched his head.
The next moment, strange brown Golem monsters appeared out of nowhere with different weapons like batons and rods as they charged at him.
Rex''s field of vision was red already. He was confused until the first Golem monster hit him with its massive rod, the pain added to the current pain of his body as his skin tore apart, stimting his rage even more.
"Ahh¡" Rex roared as his muscles and veins bulged.
Having acted ahead of time, Bam already removed all his war gear and clothes. In this strength conditioning chamber, Rex was naked.
In his nakedness, he shed against the Golem monsters.
This time, Rex was too braindead already to care about finesse and technique. He simply shed against the beasts with the rage of a monster.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As time passed, the Golem monsters started growing stronger as Rex was now forced to keep up with their incredible strength.
Without a logical sense of reasoning, Rex could only let his instincts take over and its natural response was striving to keep up with the monsters'' strength.
Even as the strength steroid worked its effect on his body, remodeling him, Rex was also forced to give his best to increase his strength on the outside.
A cycle of pain and strength began as Rex continued the ritual of pain for strength that was used by literally every other Vector descendant that came before him, the pain was excruciating but the gains were incredible.
-----
Your strength is increasing¡
¡
You have activated vampire ability: Cell Regeneration
----
Rex did not pay heed to the system notification as he just kept on fighting.
Even as the damage to his body increased, instinctively, he still activated his cell regeneration ability to keep up with the damage to his body.
With his rationality lost, he seemed to give himself an impossible mission of killing anything moving that came before him.
Rex fought till he fainted from exhaustion.
An hourter, the pain of the strength steroids woke him up and seeing the Golem monsters still around, he once again continued his impossible quest to eradicate them all till they were extinct.
Rex continued this for 2 days straight.
Chapter 248 Master Level Skill: Green Warrior
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex''s fists smashed golem monsters until they bled.
The only time when his fists got to rest was when he passed out but yet his rest time didn''tst long since the pain of the strength steroids always woke him up just a few minutes or hours after he slept.
At this moment, he was like a ve that was enved in a recurring timeline of masochistic training where he had to try his best to get stronger.
As the Golem monsters'' strengths increased, so also did Rex''s strength increase though he barely noticed it as the titanic struggle continued.
Throughout, his screams of pain were the main constant that never changed.
Hiding at a safe location on top this training chamber, the Tiajutsu expert ancestor Bam watched the proceedings with a calm look on his face.
"His hand-to-hand skills are average at best but it is to be expected since he is a swordsman, what is really incredible is his vitality".
"Even among same-graded vampires, his vitality is impressive".
"This makes things a lot easier, he can take more pain".
"Afterall, pain is the gateway to strength".
The next moment, Bam gave the order as 2 more strength steroids were injected into Rex''s body. Veins literally snaked out of his eyes as he roared in pain.
Rex''s temperature increased to the extent where his blood boiled.
His thirst for blood increased as he hunted the Golem monsters more fervently while roaring in pain and anger of not being able to escape his situation.
As the fight dragged on, Rex''s strength and those of his enemies increased.
His temperature increased to the extent where his sweat and blood started evaporating into bloody mist, it was unbearable pain and strength.
-----
You have activated vampire ability: Cell Regeneration!
You have activated vampire ability: Blood Rejuvenation!
----
With these 2 vampire abilities, Rex was able to keep himself afloat.
No matter how much damage his body suffered and no matter how much blood he lost, with these 2 skills, they were recovered in no time.
After another day of battle, Rex'' strength increased again. With this increase came another increase in temperature, the sweat and blood evaporating from his body formed a bloody mist so thick that the training chamber seemed like hell.
In this hell, Rex whose skin was now extremely red charged at the golems with renewed strength as he shed against them like a maniac.
For the first time, Rex became truly unstoppable before the golems as he ughtered them for 4 hours straight till he finally rpsed and copsed again.
This time, he copsed after achieving his goal.
"He achieved above 5000 strength in 3 days, impressive".
Bam gave another order as another type of injection was injected into Rex''s bloodstream. The potent tranquilizer was able to neutralize the residual effects of the strength steroids, finally relieving Rex of his pain.
Rex woke up after 16 straight hours of rest to a system notification.
-----
[Your strength has increased by 1,095 points in 3 days]
[Congrattions! You have unlocked the passive ability: Way of a Pugilist]
>Way of a Pugilist: When fighting one-on-one battles even while using a weapon, your closebat instincts are 80% sharper than normal<
[Remark: You''ve unlocked the ways of a masochistic Pugilist.]
----
On opening his eyes to see the bright light illuminating the training chamber, Rex felt a splitting headache like his head was about to fall apart.
He grabbed his head in pain and closed his eyes.
This was when the voice floated to his ears like the whispering of the devil. "You''re awake?"
As soon as he heard the voice, Rex''s eyes snapped open in rage as he sprang up. "How dare you¡?"
"I did it for your own good". Bam did not back down as he replied coldly. "Without pain, you have no chance at grabbing strength".
"That does not give you the right to torture me!" At this moment, Rex''s rationality was already clouded by anger as he remembered the pain that he was put through. "You can''t justify that inhumane treatment!"
"We''re not humans, we''re vampires".
"You¡!"
Bam smirked. "If you''re so upset, take your anger out on me".
"I thought you said you''d disce my position in the elder statues".
"Being such a coward won''t help, what if it was your girlfriend that was being tortured, with you being such a coward, she''d regret¡"
-----
You have activated skill: Zone!
You have activated Advanced Shadow Skill: Shadow Doppelganger!
You have activated Advanced Shadow Skill: Dark Arrow!
----
Whoosh!
This time, Bam''s words really turned a nut on Rex''s head.
With his eyes literally zing red with fury, Rex activated his zone skill which rapidly increased his concentration. He watched this ancestor of his like a hawk as he created 2 doppelgangers of himself who all threw dark arrows.
Bam reacted on time to dodge all the dark arrows but this was all Rex needed, having stretched out his hand since, Berserker finally arrived.
Rex grabbed his sword with the same anger and exploded with a speed that was fueled by his rage.
Boom!
-----
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
You have activated Master Level ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!
----
This time, Rex went all out on the offensive and abandoned defense.
His attacks reverberated like thunderps as they tore everything in the air asunder. Bam was prepared for his attack, this war veteran counterattacked.
-----
You have activated vampire ability: Cell Regeneration!
----
"You taught me well mad man!" Rex growled in fury.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The pace of the battle increased to an incredible level in just a few minutes as Rex withstood all his opponent''s counterattacks and started pushing him back, with his cell regeneration ability, he was able to exceed his previous level.
His proficiency with his sword was already at the mystic sword domain, now fueled by his anger, Rex was literally now unstoppable as he shed with Bam.
Despite all that he tried though, he could not overpower this man.
Rex was frustrated. "Why? Ahh¡!"
-----
You have activated Advanced ckfire Skill: Self Combustion!
You have activated Advanced Level Sword Skill: One Autumn Leaf-ary Devastation sh!
----
BOOM!
After catching him off-guard with his suddenbustion, Rex finally found the window of opportunity and he took it ruthlessly with theary devastation sh that literally left a wake of destruction in its path.
Amid all the debris that followed, Rex hoped for it to have finally happened but he was disappointed as Bam climbed out of the rubble.
"Nice move, but you still can''t¡!"
"DIE!!!" Rex yelled in frustration and fury.
His frustration, fury, and disappointment at this moment grew so strong that Rex awakened a strange power. Though the battle had been ongoing for less than 5 minutes, it was extremely intense as sweat filled his body.
As Rex exploded forward with speed fueled by his rage again, this time, his sweat was also affected as they seemed to develop a strange attribute.
-----
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
----
He activated the Precision sh master level skill again but this was no ordinary precision sh, this time, it was coated by an aggressive green energy.
Sweat was a reward of hard work, Rex''s sweat already soaked in all his frustration and fury and at this moment took that as its energy to empower the Precision sh to an even more ridiculous level.
In Rex''s most angry moment, he did it.
Bam struggled to defend as the sword sh descended like a tsunami.
-----
Congrattions! You have learned a new Master Level Skill: Green Warrior!
You have activated Master Level Tiajutsu Skill: Green Warrior!
----
BOOM!
The training chamber literally got ripped in twain.
Chapter 249 Emergency!
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Immediately after Rex''s powerful sword attack, blood flew in the training chamber as a deep cut went straight through his ancestor''s abdomen.
As the ancestor gasped in pain, Rex ruthlessly took advantage of the opening.
-----
You have activated sword skill: Trident of Ethereal ckfire
You have activated sword skill: Piercing Stab
----
While Bam staggered backward, trying to regain his steps, Rex dashed forward like a beast as his sword moved swiftly, echoing his anger.
In 3 smooth shes that embodied the Trident of Ethereal ckfire skill, Rex incapacitated this ancestor of his as ckfire started burning through his injuries.
Bam did not scream in pain, he just red back at Rex.
As soon as he incapacitated him, like the sh, Rex dealt thest blow as his sword stabbed straight through his ancestor''s chest.
After this move, Rex released his sword, leaving it on his ancestor''s chest as he pounced on him. Since this was a mere consciousness that was left behind, he could not erase it from existence by killing it but he could inflict pain on it.
As soon as he pounced on his ancestor, Rex vented all the frustration and anger that he had been bottling in for the past 3 days.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
His fists descended in tandem like lightning and thunder as he pummeled his incapacitated ancestor, beating his face till it was unrecognizable.
2 minutester, Bam was still beating him and this was when the ancestor spoke. "Rex, that''s enough, you''ve vented your grievance already¡"
"Die, old bastard!"
At this moment, Rex already lost every fraction of respect that he had for this ancestor of his. Pain had an incredible way of changing people and having suffered it for 3 days straight, all he had for this ancestor of his was hate.
"That''s enough Rex".
"Get lost!"
"I said that''s enough!"
A powerful green energy erupted the next moment as Rex was pushed back, Bam stood up with his injuries already healed as he red at Rex.
"I allowed you to vent your anger but if you don''t appreciate it, I don''t mind showing you who is superior here by beating you again".
"I dare you". Rex roared as he sprinted towards him again.
-----
You have activated Master Level Tiajutsu Skill: Green Warrior!
----
After learning and activating the skill the first time, his system already recorded it. As he sprinted back, Rex activated the skill again as he channeled his rage in one focused attack that made use of his lethal sword.
"Fine, so be it". Bam said coldly.
The next moment, a powerful green energy covered his body as his eyes glowed green. He activated all 3 phases of his Soul Rider skill series in an instant.
As soon as he reached the Soul Rider stage, the iconic green bike appeared again as Bam mounted the bike. He no longer had any misgivings having allowed Rex to vent his anger, now he was out to teach this kid manners.
Whoosh!
Even with the speed at which he moved and how attentively he watched his opponent with his zone skill active, Rex only felt the wind blowing.
He thought he saw a gre moving across as a crushing force collided against his cheek the next moment, Rex felt a few of his teeth shattering from the force as the force of inertia finally acted against him.
Boom!
While coughing blood, Rex flew away like a kite with its strings cut.
When he finallynded, he felt like his face was no longer his. Apart from his swollen cheek, he felt that his skull had fractures everywhere.
Amid the dizziness and pain, Rex acted to heal himself.
-----
You have activated vampire ability: Cell Regeneration!
----
Thud!
He heard footsteps and looked up through the dust in the air.
Bam looked down at him. "You still have a long way to go before you are able to defeat me when I suppress my power to the Advanced grade".
"If I had my full war gear, I would win".
"Don''t rely so much on your war gear, the Holmes have ways to neutralize them sometimes. At times, you have to enter a battle knowing that only your personal strength and sword are your most reliable allies".
Bam extended a hand to help him up which Rex refused as he stood up on his own, Bam did not mind. "Congrattions on passing my first test".
"When youplete my 3rd andst step of mastering the Soul Rider, I will give you a gift, the only gift that I prepared for the chosen one".
Rex looked at him without replying.
Bam patted him on the shoulder before turning to leave. "Till next time".
The next moment, Bam''s consciousness dissipated into white light as he returned to his statue which was his home.
Rex clenched his left fist and looked down at it. ''Having killed 10th tier Advanced mystic warriors already, I never expected to be beaten so hard''.
Rex sheathed his sword back before leaving the strength training chamber.
On going outside, he did not see Cassandra who already received a tip from Bam. Rex guessed that she was training so he ignored her and returned back to the exclusive training hall where he met Orion Vector''s consciousness again.
"Bam told me everything, congrattions". Orion smiled and said as soon as Rex came before him.
Rex gritted his teeth. "I hate him".
"I know". Orion smiled. "You know, he was not like this before, things changed him. After witnessing all yourrades, family, and friends being ughtered by your archenemy, you change".
"He put you through so much pain because you''re hisst hope at revenge".
"He''s ready to take all the hate if that will make you stronger".
"If you die when facing the Holmes inbat due to him holding back from causing you pain in training, he will not be able to forgive himself".
"He gained strength through pain, so he''s only impacting his values to you".
Rex kept quiet. Though he still had not forgiven him, he was still intelligent enough to understand Bam''s intentions, he just didn''t like his extreme approach.
''What did he go through to be so extreme?'' He thought.
At the thought of this, Rex remembered his girlfriend, his childhood friend, and his sworn siblings. ''If I lost them, will I be like this?''
The thought alone sent a chill down his spine, he didn''t want to experience it as he clenched his fists. ''If taking all the pain now will prevent me from losing them, I guess I can take it''.
Rex looked up at Orion Vector the next moment then he bowed respectfully. "I understand, thank you for this great opportunity to learn from the strongest experts that graced the massive history of my family".
Orion smiled. "It''s your inheritance".
"So, what should I do next?"
"Digest what you just learned". Orion rubbed his long beard. "Over centuries, we learned one thing, fully mastering one was better than barely mastering 10".
"Come back to learn more only when you fully master the Green Warrior ability and can use it to change battle situations singlehandedly".
"Remember, this is Bam''s magnum opus".
"Ok, thank you great ancestor".
Rex finally turned to leave but as he left, he paused as a beep notification sounded from one of hismunication devices.
Rex picked it and looked at it.
>Emergency!!!<
Chapter 250 Rexs Desire
>Emergency!!!<
>Rex, like you predicted, we already have visitors from the Snake Territory. A gang called the Hades Gang just entered our territory with an army of 30,000 mystic warriors<
>They''ve not met our warriors yet but their intentions are clear as day<
>We need you to make decisions<
>Sender: Aragorn<
Rex sighed. "Already? It''s been months already so I guess they tried in even staying patient for so long before making their move".
Rex turned and waved onest time at his ancestor before leaving the exclusive training hall. Having asked his ancestor, he knew that Cassandra was now inside the training chamber to train ranged weapons.
Click!
With a soft click, he pushed the massive metal door open.
Whoosh!
Rex ducked as swiftly as he could, barely fast enough to save his head from being impaled by the snake-shaped dagger that Cassandra just threw.
"Ahh¡!" She paused in surprise as soon as she saw him.
Rex rubbed his head in exasperation. "You''re so intense in training, I hate my decision of imprinting my hot-bloodedness in you back then, you were so calm back in the academy".
"I miss that calm you". Rex sighed.
Cassandra wiped off her sweat as she descended from the elevated tform where she stood previously. "Wassup? You finished your training?"
"Ugh¡, I don''t want to talk about that". Rex waved his hand. "You didn''t receive any notification from Aragorn?"
"Oh, I put mymunication devices aside while training".
"¡" Rex scratched his head. "Anyway, our presence is needed in the gang".
"Can''t you go alone?"
"I''m not leaving you here! You''re getting addicted to this gloomy ce".
"You''re so unromantic, can''t a girl fall in love with a ce?"
Rex soon learned that his girlfriend simply refused to be realistic today, so he abandoned polite asking and dragged her out of the inheritance ground.
"No cuddling for you for a month". Cassandra dered her punishment.
After channeling his mystic energy into his Blood Tome, Rex triggered the key as the both of them were finally teleported out of the inheritance ground.
Bzzz!
As soon as they regained their orientation, they found themselves in the familiar confines of their room.
"Right back where we left". Rex smiled.
Of course, the first thing that the both of them did after returning was going straight to the bathroom to take a long cold and refreshing bath to wipe out all the effects of their 3 days'' marathon training.
Cassandra preferred to stay back in the room to digest her gains, so Rex waved her goodbye before going to the strategy hall where the others were already gathered. Here, Rex saw Ben again after a long time.
"You''re back?"
"Buddy, you don''t know how much I''m grateful to you man". Ben grabbed Rex in a tight embrace. "You saved me by relieving me of that job, just another month and I don''t think I could have coped psychologically".
"Anyways, I''ve heard about your beautiful other half". Ben winked beforeughing. "I always saw myself as a prophet, now I confirmed it".
"I always said that a day wille when all the girls will bow before you, I think I''m already witnessing those days". Benughed proudly.
Bam!
nor kicked Ben as heughed. "A girl is in this room you know".
The othersughed as the serious Aragorn finally took proceedings of this strategy meeting. He first showed a footage of the invading mystic warriors.
Since they already knew the intentions of these mystic warriors, the main problem became how to react to their approach.
Rex spoke. "It''s simple, we have 2 options, to go the peaceful route and try to negotiate with them or to go the violent route and show them who''s boss".
"This time, I won''t be making the decision, I want you Aragorn to make it since in a few days, I won''t be in the Gundam Shelter anymore".
Aragorn raised his brows. "Where are you going to?"
"I think I''ve told you of my desire to go to the Great Dungeon Forest".
"Before we officially resume our conquest into the Snake Territory, I first want to explore this mystical forest and have my own opinion of it".
"I intend to take Ben and nor along, so you''ll be alone to take care of the gang in my absence. Taking care of these pests will be your responsibility and is why I want you to start getting the experience now".
"¡" Aragorn looked at Rex speechlessly.
Rex smiled. "Don''t worry, during this time, you''re in full control, you can control the budget of the gang anyhow you like, you know what I mean".
"With your obsession with machines, I think I know exactly what you''ll do with so much money at your disposal".
"But¡"
"Object and nor can stay and have full control over the budget while you follow me". Rex smiled. "So, do we have a deal?"
"Yes, deal". Aragorn epted then he shooed them away.
"No need to concern yourselves about how I take care of this, you all should go rest and prepare yourself for your trip to the Great Dungeon Forest".
"That''s why you''re my best brother". Rex gave him a thumb up.
As they left, nor could not help but bump into Rex. "Hey, I think you''re beginning to act all bossy these days?"
"You didn''t inform me first and you''re just saying it so unbridled to Aragorn like it''s a concluded fact that I''ll follow you".
"You know, I have my own will, I can decide not to go".
Rex turned to look at her. "Sorry then, Erling can rece you".
"F*ck you!" nor kicked him on the leg. "Can''t you ask politely?"
"Lol, why? I know that you''re into adventures more than I do, you''ve stayed put in the gang only because you feel you''re obligated to us right?"
nor gritted her teeth. "Still, ask politely".
"Why?"
Bam!
"¡"
Bam!
"Sorry, please follow me to the Great Dungeon Forest".
"Good". nor finally nodded.
As they separated and as Rex left with Ben, he rubbed his cheek painfully. "She''s changed a lot".
Ben smirked. "That''s girls for you, they''re like a chess game, veryplicated, you need to pay attention to understand them".
¡
As soon as they left, Aragorn called his 2 personal assistants in.
"This is the n¡"
"I will be going personally, meet me outside in 5 minutes".
"Yes sir!"
Chapter 251 Aragorns Obsession
"Reporting to the Commander!"
Aragorn nodded as he acknowledged the warriors that were gathered before him. On his orders, his 2 personal assistants already gathered a detachment army for him to go on this mission.
At this moment, 5000 mystic warriors were gathered outside the headquarters of the Berserk Gang. They took no military trucks.
For this mission, only Aragorn''s monster truck was taken, all the other warriors were only allowed to take mystic bikes on 2-man teams.
"For this mission, we''ll be going to the Tarlock Jungle".
"Ourst report indicated that our enemies are there".
"Now, on going there, remember to follow the gang rules, no impulsive actions, always wait for orders before acting".
"Yes Commander!"
"Good, let''s move out".
The next moment, with Aragorn''s monster truck taking the lead, 5000 mystic warriors left the headquarters of the Berserk Gang to the Eastern Region.
After a few dozen minutes, they arrived at their destination where they regrouped with theirpanions in the Eastern Region.
500 mystic warriors who were familiar with the Tarlock Jungle that were specially hand-picked by Commander Erling joined Aragorn''s troop.
After the merge, Aragorn met Erling to receive more updated information about the intruders for him before setting out for the Tarlock Jungle.
Inside his monster truck, Aragorn looked at the information about the intruders with an excited gleam in his eyes. Among the 2 options that Rex listed, he already made his choice long ago and it was the 2nd option.
He took the easy choice of using violence.
Aragorn had another reason for choosing violence though. ''Finally, I can really go against the warriors of the Snake Territory with their higher technology''.
Despite winning the previous war, as one of the leading figures in the war, Aragorn knew how close they were to defeat, the belief that Rex was the sole reason why they won the war was not false.
Especially when the 30,000 mystic warrior army of the Gandalf Army descended into the battlefield, Aragorn felt like he was fighting a hell legion.
They were few in numberspared to them, but fighting these 30,000 mystic warriors, Aragorn felt suffocated.
Their weapons and mystic treasures were so much advanced than the Berserk Army that they almost steamrolled through them.
The only reason why this side of the war was not highlighted was because of Rex''s ultimate showdown against the champions of the enemies.
Rex was the sole reason that saved the Berserk Gang''s blushes.
After reconciling with the Gandalf Gang, before their leader could leave, Aragorn took the opportunity to ask him about the incredible gadgets that his subordinates used. Gandalf called them the omnidirectional movement devices.
At the thought of getting his hands on even more of such advanced gadgets and weapons, Aragorn felt his blood burning hot. ''I can''t wait''.
Just a few minutester, they entered the jungle.
¡
"Commander, why do we have to act so sneakily?" A brash and burly-looking warriorined to his Commander as they moved through the forest.
"We can''t afford to spook our enemies".
"Why care so much? They''re just bumpkins of the Red Zone who don''t even have omnidirectional movement mystic treasures, what''s the fuss about?"
"I know it''s incredible that a single gang managed to unite a whole zone but it only matters little, I believe it was just a fluke".
"If it is not, why else are they not targeting the Snake Territory yet?"
"With our status, all we need to do is meet their gang leader, threaten him and he''ll buckle under pressure to give us a part of his territory".
"We need to act fast before our rivals beat us to it".
The Commander frowned. "Maga, I hope you''re not entertaining any thoughts of moving against my orders, you''ll listen to me for this mission".
The burly man snorted, almost at the same time that he did, he went alert.
He narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.
"Enemies!"
Whoosh!
The burly man was brash but he was clearly an elite mystic warrior.
He barely finished roaring in rm before the mystic arrows descending from the skies reverberated. The troop of 30,000 mystic warriors was only able to do so much before they were hit by the arrows.
Though they were prepared for it, they never expected the Berserk Gang to be so unbridled as to start a battle immediately without negotiations.
30,000 mystic warriors for any gang was a crazy amount of manpower, the Gang Leader of the Hades Gang only risked sending them here to intimidate the Berserk Gang and to serve as a show of power.
Unfortunately though, this was life, things didn''t exactly y to the script that you nned, there were always variables.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Mystic arrows had different effects, those with impact bombs exploded, others releasing smoke bombs with some even releasing poisonous mists.
Instantly, chaos entered the enemy camp.
The sound of mystic bikes reverberated from the forest the next moment. From their ambush points, the Berserk Gang rushed out but they didn''t engage.
The sound of so many bikes gave the illusion that they were already surrounded by an army of 100,000 mystic warriors since they could not see through the veils of the smoke bombs.
The Commander of this detachment gang of the Hades Gang troop was angered as he gave the order the next moment. "Use the omnidirectional devices".
Whoosh!
He took action first as he instantly rose into the skies rapidly.
The omnidirectional devices were special mystic treasures attached to the body like armor that could enable mystic warriors to move and fight in 3D space.
Embedded with special grapple hooks for grabbing onto objects to enable flight, mystic warriors could empower the specially designed mystic engines of their devices with their mystic energy to fly.
Aragorn saw this incredible invention for the first time in the previous war.
Bam!
Almost at the same time that the Commander moved though, the Commander of this detached troop of the Berserk Gang also moved.
Aragorn''s aim was immacte, it hit this mystic warrior where it hurt the most. The force of the bullet hitting the codpiece part of his armor sent this Advanced mystic warrior into such agony that left him braindead.
The Blood Gunner of the Berserk Gang set the tempo of this battlefield.
After getting the enemy Commander''s balls, taking him down was easy as Aragorn incapacitated him in no time. Without hesitation, after taking this man down, he went after the 2nd Advanced mystic warrior in the enemy camp.
The 2nd inmand was an even more powerful warrior with his War Axe.
His skills with the omnidirectional mystic treasure were impressive as he weaved through the trees in the forest like a bird floating freely in the skies.
He tried to confuse Aragorn before rapidly closing the distance to him. Unfortunately, though, he was not going against just a powerful Blood Gunner but he was also going up against a talented mystic mechanic.
Since he learned of the omnidirectional mystic treasures, Aragorn was obsessed with this gadget and was why he went full in researching it.
This was also why he easily epted Rex''s appointment, he believed that if he had the right budget and the right exposure, he could replicate the technology and also create these incredible treasures for the Berserk Gang.
For their future conquest to take over the Snake Territory, they needed the omnidirectional devices since without them they were at a huge disadvantage.
Having studied them extensively, Aragorn knew all the maneuvers.
His opponent''s feints and turns in the air now felt like a clown performance to him at this moment, heughed. "Not going to work against me".
Aragorn aimed with his Blood Pistols and unleashed 2 Blood Shots.
2 of the shots hit, one of them hitting the sensitive balls again.
"Damn, my aim has improved a lot".
Once they got him on the balls, the 2nd in Command of the enemy troop was spent, Aragorn incapacitated the 2 leaders of the enemies when the battle barely started. It was just 5 seconds since their leader gave the order to attack.
Everything quietened down on the side of the Berserk Gang but for the Hades Gang, their tens of thousands of mystic warriors finally started activating their omnidirectional mystic devices after receiving their Commander''s orders.
As soon as they rose into the skies though, escaping the range of the smoke bombs, they were able to see clearly and what they saw shocked them.
Their 2 leaders were already captured by the enemies.
Aragorn smiled amiably at them. "My friends from another zone, surrender".
"¡"
Chapter 252 The Omnidirectional Mystic Gadgets
Inside Aragorn''s massive newly built mystic workshop.
The sound of whirring machinery reverberated in the background as a dedicated team of mystic mechanics worked under the supervision of their leader.
A wide smile endowed Aragorn''s face as he worked on his new obsession. ''Violence is the true way to peace''. He sighed in satisfaction.
After the alliance between the Gandalf Gang and the Berserk Gang, the warriors of the Gandalf Gang that were captured were released.
Releasing them also meant releasing their confiscated mystic treasures.
Aragorn was reluctant to release their mystic treasures but he had no choice. After pleading though, Gandalf agreed to leave 2 omnidirectional mystic treasures with him through which he researched for the past few months.
In his months of researching, Aragorn achieved a lot of breakthroughs and understood a lot about the revolutionary mystic treasure but he had a theory.
To confirm his theory in practical, he needed more omnidirectional mystic treasures. This was another thing that motivated his decision for violence.
Under his impable nning, despite the fact that the enemies had more quality and quantity than them, Aragorn''s n neutralized thempletely.
With the explosions, smoke bombs and all restricting the enemies, like he guessed, the leaders of the enemies rose above the smoke to fight them.
This was the nexus of the n. Once the Commander rose up, with his warriors making sure that nobody intervened, he would swiftly incapacitate him.
With the knowledge that they were surely going to use their omnidirectional mystic devices ahead of hand, Aragorn made targeted ns towards them.
Maneuvering smoothly with the omnidirectional devices required a lot of muscle control which took a lot of energy. By targeting the untouchable balls, the enemies were sure to loss all energy and control over their muscles.
Aragorn executed his n and it worked exactly as he nned, with their balls taken out, the 2 leaders of the enemies were easily knocked out.
With that, their shocked subordinates were spooked into surrendering.
Apart from taking in tens of thousands of mystic warriors as prisoners, Aragorn was also able to confiscate thousands of omnidirectional mystic devices that were given to some of the best mystic warriors of the enemy troop.
Aragorn left handling of the tens of thousands of enemy captives to Jacob and Erling while he focused on working on his obsession.
Under his leadership, branches of the Berserk Workshop were already made in every region under the control of the Berserk Gang.
He easily essed the regional branch and went to work.
For 8 hours straight, Aragorn locked himself in research.
After sacrificing hundreds of omnidirectional mystic treasures, Aragorn''s research finally bore fruition, he unlocked the mysteries of this gadget.
"I see¡"
As soon as he said this, his assistants scrambled to get pen and papers to scribble down since they were sure that he was about to unleash wisdom soon.
"I finally get it". Aragorn''s eyes shone with joy and relief.
"The invention of this revolutionary mystic device banked on 3 main elements, the user, the mystic engine, and the grapple hooks".
"By using special metals to create the engine, it developed mystic attributes and became capable of taking mystic energy in as fuel".
"The grapple hooks were then added to the equation to make it functional".
"In the hands of a talented enough mystic warrior, it became a lethal weapon since they could use it to move and fight in 3D space".
"Damn, I can finally redeem myself for Rex". Aragorn grabbed his head as he literally started crying tears of joy.
From what he understood about this weapon, it had unlimited potential when in the hands of a mystic warrior that was talented enough to make full use of it. Aragorn believed that Rex was probably the right one for this.
In his opinion, none of the enemies that he just fought met the bar.
For months, Aragorn had agonized about his design for Rex. After making Rex''s mystic sword mechanical, he expected it to rapidly increase his brother''s strength, serving a great purpose in his journey to the peak.
Despite his expectations and the hard work that he put into designing the sword though, not everything worked ording to n, it never worked.
Rex could not integrate the different transformations of the sword into his battle style and instead preferred sticking to his old sword basics.
Though Rex neverined about it, Aragorn felt guilty. The greatest joy of a mystic mechanic was fulfilling the demands of his customer, if he could not achieve this, then his work was not perfect yet.
Aragorn now had a belief though. ''If Rex can master the maneuvers of the omnidirectional mystic device, I believe he can integrate it into his sword transformations which will make him an even more formidable mystic warrior".
Thinking about the different possibilities already sent him into a state of excitement but he paused since he had something to take care of now.
Aragorn left the busy part of the workshop before going to meet his 2 exotic prisoners. On seeing him, the 2 enemy leaders gritted their teeth.
"Do you know what you''ve done? You''ve angered the Hades Gang!"
"Tsk". Aragorn shook his head in disapproval. "And who f*cking cares?"
"How dare you?!"
Smack!
Aragorn wacked the Commander on the cheek, making him pause in shock.
Aragorn''s face turned serious. "In case you''ve forgotten, remember that you''re now a war prisoner, your life and death is in my hands".
He smiled the next moment. "Congrattions though, you''re not dying today".
He turned to face the other warrior. "You, I loved your skills with your Axe and the omnidirectional mystic device, you''ll be my test subject".
"You''ll test run my creations on my behalf and tell me when I finally create the perfect omnidirectional mystic device".
"F*ck I would¡"
"No need to rush to conclusions, if I''m satisfied with your performance, you can be my friend and you''ll be duly rewarded".
"If you perform awfully, well, let''s say your beloved Hades Gang will be the first target of the Gandalf Gang and Berserk Gang''s conquest".
Both warriors were shocked. "You allied with¡?"
"Yes, we''re now allies". Aragorn smiled. "So make the right decision".
"As for you". Aragorn turned to the Commander of the enemy troop. "I want you to go back and tell your gang leader to remove his greedy eyes from our territory or there will be immediate consequences".
"Safe journey". Aragorn escorted the enemy Commander out.
Still in disbelief and shock, this warrior started making his way home.
Aragorn returned back to meet the enemy 2nd in Command. "Axe Guy, it''s me and you now homie, you''ll help me right?"
"¡"
Chapter 253 The 4th Peak Assassin, Swift Spear
"Have you heard of the new weapons that Aragorn is so excited about?" Rex asked as he left his girlfriend''s embrace to go brush his teeth.
"Yeah, I''ve even used them a bit".
"He says it will revolutionize the mystic world".
"I know, it''s already revolutionizing how battles are fought in the Great Shelters". Cassandra stood up as she also got set to leave. "The only problem is that it requires a certain amount of talent to use it".
"Despite my experience from my previous life, mastering the maneuvers of the omnidirectional mystic device is still stuff of geniuses".
"Out of a thousand soldiers, less than 3 can use it proficiently".
"That is why it is not yet widespread in the mystic world".
"Hmmm". Rex rubbed his chin. "Even you can''t use it proficiently, the person who created this mystic weapon must be sick in the brain".
Cassandraughed. "Those who master it are monsters in battle though".
"If Aragorn masters the technology to create it, try to learn using it, if youbine it with your incredible swordsmanship, you''ll be even more formidable in battle".
"Also¡" Cassandra turned to nt a quick kiss on her boyfriend''s lips as she left. "It''ll y a huge role in the takeover of the Gundam Shelter".
"Don''t underestimate this mission Rex, the Gundam Shelter is a rogue shelter filled with deep roots that have stood for centuries".
"I know". Rex waved his hands to send her off. "Extend my greetings to the first Peak Assassin".
Cassandra smiled. "I will, if he is not too rigid to ept it".
As soon as Cassandra left the mansion, Rex also went to work, getting set to startpleting his schedule for the day.
After a lot of consideration, Rex finally decided on the mystic warriors that would be following him on his expedition to the Great Dungeon Forest.
First of all, he wanted the mission to be stealthy which meant that he needed a small team of elite warriors, he didn''t want the whole Gundam Shelter to know that the Gang Leader of the Berserk Gang left.
Secondly, all warriors in the team needed to be those hepletely trusted. Having heard rumors about the danger of this forest, he was not taking chances.
Basing his considerations on these 2 factors, he easily decided on hispanions. Apart from Ben and nor, Cassandra would be the 4th member of his team that would head to the Great Dungeon Forest.
With the team organized, then came the nning.
To have contingency ns for most scenarios that they would meet in the great forest, Rex called Ben and nor to help him with the nning.
As for Cassandra, she had an even more important task today. Since her candidate already fulfilled the requirements that the Peak Assassins gave to assist him, she intended to go finalize things with the other 2 Peak Assassins.
When Rex left to the nning hall, Ben and nor were already there as they presented him with food that they already prepared beforehand.
"Thanks, let''s get to work".
¡
The hideout of the Sad Flutes Assassins was not in the Snake Territory, rather it was in the even more revealing and dangerous ck Zone.
On her disguise, Cassandra was able to smoothly infiltrate her way into this zone as she easily located the hideout of her organization.
It was a small underground bunker with only a few dozen elite mystic warriors and 2 of the Peak Assassins of the organization.
On entering the deepest room inside the underground hideout, Cassandra saw her other 2patriots already seated as she also located her seat.
As she entered the room, from under their hoods, the eyes of the 2 Peak Assassins never left her as the Lightsaber Ghost finally broke the silence.
With narrowed eyes, he asked. "What took you so long?"
"I heard that the Berserk Army concluded the wall like 3 months ago".
Cassandra calmly turned to face him. "I remember myself as the 2nd Peak Assassin, I don''t ever remember reporting my actions to you".
"¡" This hooded man with a sword scar running across half his face red at Cassandra with an eerie smile on his face. "You love him, right?"
"I know you spent majority of the time in his room".
"Did you know him before now?"
Cassandra looked at him without replying.
The Lightsaber Ghost grinned. "Vixen, I''ve always told you that you''re mine. One day or the other, you''ll admit the truth and be mine".
"That Rex, he is not worthy of you".
"If he keeps angering me, I don''t mind squashing him with my bare¡"
Cassandra ignored him and turned to the 3rd and oldest member in this room. "Are we starting or what?"
The King of Daggers smiled as he yfully flicked the dagger that was on his hand. "What did he say about our proposal?"
"He is in on the n".
"Good". The old assassin nodded. "During your absence, we have infiltrated deep and researched a lot about the Gundam Shelter".
"Like you said, the power structure here is extremely deep".
"We have to be more cautious with our nning".
"Also, in your absence, one of our subordinates rose through the ranks".
"We appointed a new Peak Assassin". The King of Daggers turned to face the door. "Come in".
The next moment, a petitedy with an extremely thin spear on her hand entered the room before paying her respects to the 3 Peak Assassins.
"Her codename is Swift Spear".
Cassandra kept quiet as she looked at thisdy. ''The future is finally ying out huh?''
In the future where she came from where she never became a member of the Sad Flutes Assassin, this petite girl was the figurehead of this assassin organization. She was petite but deadly.
She was one of the few who grew to fully master the maneuvers of the omnidirectional mystic device, she was a born genius.
"Wee Swift Spear to the top of the Sad Flutes Assassins". Cassandra stood up with a wide smile on her face as she went closer to embrace her.
The petite girl raised her guard but she did nothing as the Snake Empress embraced her, Cassandra smiled. "Since we''re the only females among the Peak Assassins now, don''t you think we should get along well?"
"You know, to counter the masculinity at the peak". Sheughed.
The petitedy was still tense but Cassandra''s unlikely wee eased her mind a bit, even the other 2 Peak Assassins were surprised at her unusual actions.
Once the introductions wereplete, they got Swift Spear up to speed with the major ns of the organization for the nearest future.
After an hour of talking, the gathering was finally about toe to an end. Before it ended, the King of Daggers asked. "Our candidate, Rex, does he have any demands for cooperating with us?"
"Yes". Cassandra smiled. "He wants to use the evolution pool".
"What?" The Lightsaber Ghost exploded. "Absolutely not! No warrior outside our organization is permitted¡"
The King of Daggers raised a hand, forcing the Lightsaber Ghost to remain silent. He smiled. "I think that''s a good idea".
"To increase our chances of victory, we need to help our ally since it will also build the trust among us. Even assassins need trust at times don''t you agree?"
"When he is ready, tell him that he''s free toe".
Cassandra nodded before standing up.
As they left, Cassandra deliberately increased her pace to match with those of the Swift Spear, she whispered into her ear.
"Are you in for an adventure? It''ll be intense".
"¡"
Chapter 254 Clashing Personalities
The Berserk Mansion¡
"Huh? You brought another warrior to join the team?" Inside his office, Rex was surprised as his girlfriend entered with an unknowndy.
"Yes Rex, how many times do I have to repeat it?" Cassandra sighed as she palmed her face while secretly making eye signals for Rex to cooperate.
Rex was not having it though. "I thought we already decided¡"
Cassandra smiled and cut him off. "Rex, meet Swift Spear".
"Swift Spear, meet Rex, the Gang leader of the Berserk Gang".
At this moment, Swift Spear was not wearing her mask nor her assassin gear, she tensed up instantly as soon as the Snake Empress divulged her identity.
Cassandra was sharp enough to notice it as she smiled and turned to look at her. "Rx, Rex is a friend".
This petitedy had a cold look on her face as she looked at the Snake Empress. "I never expected the Snake Empress whom I admired to have friends".
"What''s wrong with having friends?" Cassandra asked with a smile.
"We are assassins, we don''t make friends". She replied coldly.
"¡" Rex paused as cold sweat trickled down his face. ''Which demon has Cassandra brought to my home this time?''
"Haha". Cassandraughed it off. "You know, staying tense all the time is not beneficial to your assassination instincts. Through years of experience, I know that having a friend who you can confide in can help in rxation".
"Rxation sharpens your instinct when you''re out on the field, and judging by your talent and experience, you should have noticed it already".
"A 0.0001%pse in your concentration can determine life or death in our field, that''s why having a friend is beneficial".
If it was any other mystic warrior who said this, this petitedy would have coldly refuted him and if she was stronger than him, she may have killed him already but when it came to the Snake Empress, she was lenient.
As the warrior who was said to have found the location of the evolution pool, and the forerunner for all female assassins of the Sad Flutes Assassins, Swift Spear had a crazy amount of respect for her.
If it was her words, she found it mandatory to at least dwell on it.
Amid her thoughts, Rex''s eyes suddenly widened as he looked towards Cassandra in shock and whispered. "Is she that Swift Spear?"
"Yeah". Cassandra nodded nonchntly.
Rex''s eyes widened like saucers. "The one who assassinated the governor of an official small shelter and has a massive bounty reward?"
"Yeah".
"Ahh¡" Rex''s outlook of this petitedy experienced a 360-degree turn.
Looks were indeed deceiving at times. Looking at her small petite form, she looked just like a weak chef who would run from the kitchen in horror at the mere sight of a rat, Rex never expected her to be the notorious Swift Spear.
He realized. ''I''m really involved with the Sad Flutes Assassins now''.
Amid Rex''s thoughts, Swift Spear suddenly raised her head as she looked straight at the Snake Empress. "Are you saying that having friends can make me be a better assassin?"
"If you put it that way, then yes".
"Thank you". She expressed her gratitude seriously. "I will definitely put this tip to good use, I will definitely make a friend". Her tone was dead serious.
"¡"
"¡"
"¡.."
Rex looked at Cassandra and coughed.
Cassandra smiled. "Ok, it''s good you definitely make a friend".
With that, Cassandra was able to lower the defense of this notorious assassin and sessfully recruited her into Rex''s adventure team.
With the final piece of the puzzleplete, Rex finally called for the other members of his team to convene in the strategy room.
On arriving, nor and Ben had surprised expressions on their faces as they curiously looked at the neer who stood with them.
With her short dark haircut, narrowed eyes, and petite body, she looked like the perfect embodiment of a devil caged in the body of a vulnerable child.
Ben chuckled. "Rex, who''s the new chick here¡?"
He barely finished before he felt a pair of predatory eyes staring him down, Ben paused as cold sweat filled his back all of a sudden. ''The f*ck!'' He cursed in his mind as he stole a nce at Rex.
Cassandra smiled and touched Swift Spear''s hand. "Easy, he''s a friend".
Her eyes widened. "A friend?" She said nothing else as her face turned cold again, the atmosphere in the room turned chilly till Rex intervened.
"Haha, no need to stay so tense towards each other". He pped. "Ben, nor, this is Swift Spear, the newest member of our team".
nor''s eyes narrowed in realization and wariness. "That Swift Spear?"
"Yes, that Swift Spear".
Ben had no idea what Swift Spear they were talking about but he was able to read the mood, he kept his mouth shut and just watched the proceedings.
The neer was definitely making things hard for Rex but he continued, heughed. "As you can see, we''re finding it a bit hard to get along".
"And like we all know, the Great Dungeon Forest is the most dangerous, unpredictable, and mystical of all the 3 Great Forests. To survive our adventure there, we need to be at our optimum best".
"We can''t be at our best if we don''t get along".
"To survive, we need to understand ourselves well and be able to cooperate appropriately when faced with outside threat".
"That is why I proposed that we first have a short tour around the Great Ape Forest, it''s nothing really, just a tour to familiarize with each other".
"At this point, we don''t even know our mystic abilities and best skills, how are we supposed to cooperate appropriately?"
"I reveal my mystic abilities to no one!" Swift Spear dered coldly.
"¡"
Rexughed it out awkwardly. "No worries, I won''t demand for it".
"I''m just saying we need to know each other, more right? Don''t you agree?""
"No".
"Haha". Rex turned to look at the others.
Ben and nor kept quiet, only Cassandra answered. "Yes".
Rex pped. "That does it then, we''ll be leaving for the Great Ape Forest in an hour, get prepared".
Chapter 255 An Anomaly In The Great Ape Forest
In just a few minutes after going to his room, Ben was prepared in his full war gear with his mystic sword, armor, and every other essential.
In the same time frame, nor was prepared in her full war gear with her ancestral bow and arrow that she usedst during the inter-region war.
Once Cassandra and Swift Spear were ready, they came outside to meet the others who were ready and were already waiting for them.
For this trip, Rex borrowed Aragorn''s Monster Truck.
Once they entered, Rex took control of the truck and drove out of the Berserk Mansion. After a few dozen minutes, they left the Gundam Shelter.
¡
-----
You have activated Advanced Shadow Skill: Dark Arrow!
----
After 2 hours since arriving in the notorious Great Ape Forest, Rex and hispanions finally found a barely worthy foe and they did not hesitate.
Rex''s Dark Arrow advanced shadow skill was not only known for its damage, but it was even more known for its restraint properties.
As soon as the Dark Arrow barely restrained the struggling Mud Python, Ben jumped down from the Monster Truck.
This was the first advanced mystic beast that they''ve seen in 2 hours sinceing and Ben did not let go of the opportunity to showcase his power before his teammates. "Watch and see the beauty in me!"
Ben roared enthusiastically before diving at the struggling Python.
A mere Dark Arrow was unable to restrict the snake for long though, as soon as it broke out, the Python hissed loudly as it pounced towards Ben.
Bam!
Ben reacted in mid-air to the Python''s deadly attack as he somersaulted, colliding with the ground with a loud sound while barely dodging the deadly fangs of the Mud Python.
As soon as hended on the ground, his eyes gleamed as he twisted his body sideways in a bid to sh with his sword to remove the Python''s head.
The Python was one step ahead of him though, Ben somersaulting on the ground was his mistake, the ground was the home ground of a Mud Python.
Whoosh!
Ben barely moved before the ground turned into mud and started moving on its own volition, a quagmire formed instantly underneath him.
This was not all as the mud moved to try restraining his hands. Ben''s effort to impress by killing the Mud Python in one smoothbo attack failed.
''F*ck, I embarrassed myself''. Ben cursed as he finally took this seriously.
With seriousness came an advanced sword skill. He cut the quagmire apart, using the momentum of his sword swing as a force bnce to lift himself up.
Mid-air, Ben activated a mystic effect of his mystic boots that allowed him to step in the air like it was bare ground.
He ran in the air, swiftly closing the distance to the Mud Python as he shed with his sword again. This time, the mud Python tried to defend with its mud but it could not stop Ben.
"Wait¡, don''t kill it!" Rex yelled but it was toote.
The wind mystic energy empowered sword sh went all the way through, severing the head of the Python in one smooth motion as blood flowed.
As the Python''s tail twitched furiously, Bennded and grabbed the free-falling head of the Python before it could reach the ground.
"Done". He turned to showboat before his teammates.
Rex came down from the truck and sighed. "It was supposed to be a teamwork, I want us to improve our cooperation and understand each other".
"How do you expect all 5 of us to cooperate to kill a mere Mud Python?" Swift Spear was swift to talk. "That is beneath a warrior of your status".
"Umm¡" Rex coughed. "Let''s not mind that, but have you guys noticed the anomaly in the forest since 2 hours ago when we came".
"Yes, something is wrong". Cassandra finally spoke for the first time in a while as she came down from the truck with a frown on her face.
She observed the forest around them carefully.
Since arriving in the forest 2 hours ago, this was the first Advanced mystic beast that they''ve met. They''ve met some Apes but they were all intermediate mystic apes who seemed to be roaming around aimlessly.
Having been to this forest before alongside his 2 sworn siblings, Rex knew that something was wrong. "The forest is too quiet. Thest time that I came here, there were Apes everywhere, we had to carefully navigate through".
"Something is wrong". Cassandra said again as her eyes narrowed. "I have a bad feeling about this but I''m not sure, let''s continue finding targets".
Like Cassandra suggested, for the next 25 minutes, they continued searching for Grade D beasts while ignoring the anomaly in the forest. This time, their search finally bore fruition and they found 2 gigantic Apes.
Rex stopped Ben before he could move. "Remember, teamwork".
The strange thing though was that at this moment, these 2 Advanced mystic Apes seemed to be in a hurry as they rushed towards a certain destination.
Rex was excited at this discovery as he whispered to his teammates. "They probably have a family of Apes around here, if they could both lead us to their family with even stronger Apes, that would be for the better".
Rex was not sure what put them in such haste but he still followed them as his team members followed him, they followed the Apes to a rock-filled area of the forest that looked like a mountain range.
On arriving, they were shocked. Like Rex hoped, these 2 Apes indeed led them to more Apes but it was the sheer number of apes that shocked him.
At this moment, hundreds of apes were gathered together as they made a lot of noise. Rex felt a chill crawl down his spine as he hid with his teammates.
Without needing much scrutiny, he could already detect the auras of dozens of Advanced mystic Apes among those that were gathered at this moment.
"What''s going on?" He was shocked at such a massive gathering.
In the Great Ape Forest, the Apes were known for their sense of camaraderie and their leadership structure but yet, such a massive gathering of Apes was not an urrence that you see often.
While staying alert, every single warrior in Rex''s team kept quiet as they watched the apes while specting what they were up to.
In the rock-filled area was the entrance to a cave, and all the Apes seemed to be gathered before the entrance to this cave.
As the noise from the Apes continued, the sound of thudding footsteps suddenly reverberated from inside the cave as all the Apes kept silent.
As the seconds went by, the thudding sounds grewrger until a massive hoof finally stepped out of the cave. It was a massive Hell Horse, and riding this Hell Horse was a gigantic Ape that was bigger than the others.
''A horse-riding Ape?'' Rex was shocked as different spections went through his mind, what were the apes up to?
In the history of the Great Ape Forest, there were gifted Apes who could tame and ride Hell Horses and who always tended to be stronger than their brothers. In history, horse-riding Apes appearing meant only one thing.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Rex''s thought process was interrupted as this massive and powerful Ape started hooting, grunting, and barking amid grunts while beating its chest with its powerful arms while also making gestures at the same time.
It was like, this horse-riding Ape was addressing the others.
Rex''s ominous instinct grew even more on seeing this.
"I can understand apemunication". Swift Spear whispered as she listened. "He seems to be saying something about orders from an all father".
"He is encouraging his soldiers, he seems to be a warmander".
"He''s encouraging them to give their all to reim lostnd".
"He''s encouraging them to fight¡" Swift Spear paused. "Humans?"
Rex''s eyes instantly narrowed in realization and rm. "It''s a beast invasion!"
Chapter 256 Invasion Of The Mystic Apes! [1]
"It''s a beast invasion!"
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Almost at the same time that Rex came to this realization and eximed, the horse-riding Ape seemed to finish its speech of addressing the other apes as they all erupted aggressively grunting and hooting while beating their chests.
"They will move soon".
"The horse-riding Ape is about to give the order". Swift Spear said coldly as her hand moved to grab her spear.
Rex came to the Great Ape Forest for an entirely different reason, he never expected to experience such a mind--boggling twist and was shocked.
His shock limited his instantaneous decision making a bit but in times like this was why it was paramount to haverades. Rex froze from the sudden shock but Cassandra did not freeze, she took overmand almost instantly.
"There''s a cave to the left just behind where we came from, follow me there as fast as you can to hide before the apes can discover us".
Without waiting for the others to react, Cassandra grabbed her boyfriend by the hand as she sprinted towards the nearby cave.
Like Rex, having experienced a situation that was extremely simr to this when he was way weaker as a mystic warrior, Ben froze in shock.
The dark day of Obedin City was still fresh in Ben and Rex''s mind. Having felt weak and useless the other time, they began to experience the same thing again.
As soon as Cassandra sprinted away, nor followed with her bow and arrow in tow. Swift Spear moved even before nor but she paused on noticing thest member of their team that was still frozen in shock.
Looking at his burly frame but feeling his shocked mind, she felt irritated.
The usual Swift Spear would have left him without hesitation but after spending the past 2 days with the Snake Empress, though she hated to admit it, some of her values as a mystic warrior were already changing.
"I hate boys". She rushed closer and tore a p across Ben''s face.
Smack!
Ben was jolted awake by the shock of the p which was even greater than the shock that he felt from seeing so many Apes gathered for an invasion.
Without saying a word, Swift Spear grabbed him by the hand before pulling him along. Due to them staying behind while the others moved, the closest Apes was already too close to them, they would not make it to the cave on foot.
Swift Spear''s eyes narrowed as soon as she finished calcting.
The next moment, her eyes gleamed sharply as she hit a button on her waist. Instantly, her omnidirectional mystic device activated.
Whoosh!
Swift Spear grabbed Ben like a pig as she rose from the ground instantly into the skies. As soon as the engine picked up, by her will, 2 grapple hooks were shot consecutively as she was pulled away at an incredible speed.
In not less than a second, she made it inside the cave as she threw Ben on the ground just in time for the stampede of Apes to arrive.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
After receiving orders from their leaders, the Apes no longer hesitated.
In their huge numbers, they all went on the move and their destination seemed to be in the direction of the Blood Market Region.
Rex and all hispanions held their breaths as they watched.
"The Monster Truck!" Cassandra suddenly eximed in rm.
"It''s safe". nor replied. "The Apes are most likely to move through the huge trees since they are still in the forest, which means they have a high chance of not meeting its position".
"As for the truck, Aragorn already set it to go stealth mode when it detects danger". nor said before turning her head to look at Ben.
She looked at Ben who was still dizzy and the cold Swift Spear.
¡
Melkor was themander of the Blood Market Region.
Under hismand was a single Advanced mystic warrior of the old Exquisite Gang. Being used to having weaker warriors as Commanders, this 1st tier Advanced mystic warrior was the only one who agreed to serve under Melkor.
All the other Advanced mystic warriors felt that it was a disgrace to serve under an intermediate mystic warrior and for peace, Rex listened to theirints and delegated them to other regions.
Only 1 Advanced mystic warrior guarding the Blood Market region meant that it was by far the weakest territory under the Berserk Gang.
Aragorn reasoned that this didn''t matter much since the Blood Market region was at the rear of the army which meant they were thest to suffer if any gang from the Snake Territory decided to attack the Berserk Gang.
Having never witnessed a beast invasion since he arrived at the Gundam Shelter, Aragorn did not put this threat into the equation.
Now, this negligence haunted the Berserk Gang at the wrong time possible.
No news came from the scouts for some strange reason.
It was not that no news came from them, they tried tomunicate and send a message of the threat across but for some reason, they could not.
Melkor''s territory only knew of the threat when they heard the tremors.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was like an earthquake was imminent as the ground vibrated.
Dust rose high into the skies as the beasts finally charged from their territory in the Great Ape Forest. The soldiers manning the perimeter of the Blood Market territory nearly pissed their pants at the sheer size of the enemy.
Thousands of Apes charged out of the forest.
Apes with arms as big as sledgehammers, Apes with less huge arms but carrying wooden spears with athletic bodies that could enable them throw far, Apes with speeds that could rival cheetahs, the invasion had them all.
Due to the frequent beast invasions of past years, the wall built around the Gundam Shelter was already breached by the beasts in this part.
And also due to the negligence of the gangs and chaos that originally filled the Red Zone, no one ever thought of rebuilding the protective wall.
This decision now haunted Melkor''s territory.
Boom! Boom!
The sound was like exploding dominoes as the Apes with spears threw their loads, unleashing destruction on the nearest humans who manned the perimeter.
Blood instantly dyed the remains of the wall red as warriors died in droves.
Before the beasts could fully close the distance to the destroyed wall, Melkor received the news. He was shocked and spooked but recognizing the responsibility that was given to him, he stayed brave and mobilized all his warriors.
Thousands of warriors manned the perimeter in just a few minutes before the Apes could get to the walls as they unleashed disaster on the beasts.
The sounds of bullets raking through the frontline of the Apes reverberated.
Gunshots countered the spear throws of the Apes.
For a few minutes, a certain illusion that both parties were matched was established, this onlysted until the fastest Apes finally hit the wall though.
BOOM!
The warriors stood no chance against the incredible strength of the Apes.
Even with an Advanced mystic warrior in their midst, he was just a 1st tier Advanced mystic warrior. He stood no chance against the over a dozen Advanced mystic Apes that led this Ape invasion.
They could not be stopped, they breached the perimeter and effortlessly invaded inside the Blood Market territory, this was where the massacre began.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The Apes mmed the mystic warriors to bloody sh*ts on most shes as they left a long trail of human blood in their wake.
In just a few minutes, thousands of mystic warriors died.
Horrified, Melkor tried to call for help.
Beep! Beep!
For some reason, despite there not being any signs of a clear jamming device interfering with thework, he could not send a distress signal outside the territory, Melkor was horrified by this streak of bad luck.
"Is the Blood Market territory going to fall under my watch?!" He was horrified at the mere thought when he thought his life was getting better.
Every sound from the shes and the blood of his warriors that spilled sent an even greater chill down his spine than the previous.
The Great Apes steamrolled through the humans, dining on their blood.
Chapter 257 Invasion Of The Mystic Apes! [2]
"Commander Melkor, do you copy?"
"This is nor, there is a beast invasion currently heading towards the Blood Market territory, call for help and stand your ground!"
"Commander, do you copy?"
Bzzz!
nor turned to face the others with a look of despair on her face. "For some strange reason, the message does not send despite thework being normal".
"Thework is not normal". Rex''s eyes narrowed. "It''s not a coincidence".
After being saved by his girlfriend, Rex already recovered and now, he was angry with himself at his inability to react instantaneously on the danger.
At this moment, he was ready to channel his anger towards the beasts.
"Are you saying¡?" nor''s eyes widened.
"Yes". Rex nodded confidently. "I think someone is behind this".
"There are too many matching elements for it to be a coincidence".
"If we didn''t decide toe to the Great Ape Forest today, we would have never known of this. And if thework problem is also affecting Melkor, that means they can''t send for reinforcements from the other regions".
"It would be the perfect moment to wipe off a whole region of our territory and upy it, I wonder who the enemy is". Rex''s eyes gleamed maniacally.
He had not felt this full of bloodlust and anger since the inter-region war.
"The first Apes would have reached your territory by now". Cassandra said as she looked outside at the Apes who kept trooping out inrge numbers.
"Yes, that is why we need to act". Rex dered as he stood up.
The invasion seemed to involve arge number if not all the Apes in this forest. As one of the 3 Great Forests, the sheer number of Apes in this Great Forest could only be imagined, imagining all of them invading was mind-boggling.
Even as the first invading Apes already rushed out since dozens of minutes ago, others were still trooping out to go destroy the humans.
"I always thought the threat of the 3 Great Forests were nonexistent since I have not suffered from it since my time in the Red Zone".
"I once read in a book that if there is no beast invasion from the beasts in a long time, the one that follows is a big one that can herald a change in era".
"I thought it was just journalism writing then".
Rex ignored nor. "We can''t wait anymore, we need to act now!"
"Act and die alone!" Swift Spear dered coldly. "Individually, the Apes are known for their irritating strength and endurance".
"If we meet a powerful Advanced mystic Ape, we have no guarantee of defeating them individually yet you want us to go up against so many Apes".
"Yes, I epted to join your mission but I''m not in for a suicide mission".
"This is not a suicide mission!"
"Prove it".
"See, I have a n".
"Say it!"
Rex was irritated. His muscles bulged as he felt an urge to give this girl a piece of his mind but Cassandra touched his shoulders and whispered. "We can''t afford to fight, we need to save Melkor and your other warriors".
Rex calmed down. "You remember why we came to the forest?"
"We came to the forest to hone our teamwork through fighting the Apes, what better way to do it than now?"
"I will not join a suicide mission!"
"I know, that''s why all we need is to fight the Apes to get to Aragorn''s Monster Truck. That truck is crazy durable, it''s a war truck, once we get to it, I believe it can take us through all the apes to the Blood Market territory".
"Once we get there, I and my friends will help my warriors, you can decide to stay and just spectate then but by then, we would have achieved our goals of familiarizing with ourselves already".
"I concur". Ben spoke this time before Swift Spear could.
"I concur". Cassandra also spoke.
"I concur". nor said as she turned to look at Swift Spear provocatively.
"I concur but¡, if I feel that my life is threatened, I will abandon you all and withdraw without hesitation, I am not yourrade".
"Understandable". Rex smiled as he said a random quote. "Without threats to our lives, we can never improve as mystic warriors, it''s part of our daily life".
"This is the breakdown of my attack n".
"Swift Spear, with your omnidirectional mystic device, you will lead the vanguard alongside me".
"These are the powers that I intend to mostly use¡"
"Cassandra, your job is to¡"
¡
-----
[You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!]
[Morphing forms avable: 2.]
[You have transformed into a Bear-man!]
¡
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic effect: Shadow Mirage!
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic effect: Blood Flight!
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic effect: Iron Mike Uppercut!
----
"Roar!"
The strange guttural roar attracted the attention of literally every Ape that was in the vicinity as they turned to look at the unwanted intruder.
Instantly after they looked, Rex in his hairy Bear-man form seemed to turn into a bad replica of a mirage as his real body disappeared from its position.
Whoosh!
The next moment, the real body was in the skies close to a tree just behind one of the massive Apes who was now scaling the trees.
A blood-red energy covered Rex''s hairy and powerful fists the next moment as from underneath the Ape, he gave it the uppercut of its life.
Boom!
One punch was all it took!
One punch to kill an Advanced Mystic Warrior!
The Iron Mike Uppercut showcased why it was a specialty left by Rex''s tiajutsu ancestor, Bam. The man was cruel but no doubt he was extremely strong.
The bloody mist that formed from the remains of their brother shocked andpletely angered every single one of the other watching Apes.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
The angered Apes charged towards the intruder.
With his Blood Flight, Rex was already levitating in the skies. Seeing the Ape''s charge, he was not intimidated, rather he licked his lips excitedly.
-----
You have activated Killer Boot''s mystic effect: Killer Boot!
You have activated Gauntlet''s mystic effect: Leonidas''s Strike!
----
"Come on!"
Bam! Bam!
The kick to the Ape''s head turned it into a fool while the gauntlet strike tore its brain open, bringing an end to another Advanced mystic Ape.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
The Apes were even more riled up as they had eyes for nothing else.
Whoosh!
This was when Swift Spear exploded out of the cave with speed.
With her omnidirectional mystic device, her speed was otherworldly as she evaded the angry and rushing Apes like a slippery eel evading a bunch of sharks.
The Apes did not give special attention to her due to being riled up by Rex, this gave her the opportunity to start moving towards the truck''s position.
No matter how strong Rex was though, he could not stand up against so many beasts alone and survive, this was when his friends came into the y.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cassandra led the charge as the remaining 3 erupted out of the cave.
Unleashing their strongest attacks, they left Ape blood and mutted body parts in their wakes for 2 minutes as more and more Apes were attracted.
Just before the numbers of the powerful and angry Apes could be too overwhelming for them to handle, a much wee sound different from the others reverberated in the forest.
The Monster Truck''s engine reeved to life.
They were ecstatic. "She did it!"
The Monster Truck powered its way out of its previous hiding spot into the open, bulldozing through any Ape that stood on its way.
When it came close enough, Rex and the others jumped in and despite the harassment of the angry Apes, the Monster Truck was unstoppable.
It shot its way with its main canon and bulldozed its way out of the forest.
Chapter 258 Invasion Of The Mystic Apes! [3]
"Do not let the Apes trample on our territory!"
"The Gang Leader entrusted this territory to us, it cannot fall!"
"We cannot let the Gang Leader down!"
Perhaps, he was roaring this to his warriors, perhaps he was roaring it to himself to motivate himself but all that didn''t matter because Melkor was really at his wits end.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Despite Melkor''s desperate roars, the Apes did not listen to his pleas.
They breached the defense of the perimeter in less than an hour, and that was where the real massacre began. With thousands of powerful mystic Apes charging at them, Melkor''s warriors were exposed.
The incredible strength and vitality of the massive Apes made them the worst enemy, they could pack a lot of punch and could also absolve a lot of damage.
The tremors made by their stomps through the streets of the Blood Market territory left Melkor''s blood pressure rising by the minute.
The screams of his warriors dying, the shrieks of the civilians dying, they all added together to form a cacophony straight from hell in his ears.
As he watched from the strategy room, his eyes turned bloody red by the minute. After all his hard work to get to where he was and after getting the minotaur pool, everything was about to crumble before his eyes because of Apes.
"Because of bloody Apes!" He mumbled aggressively.
For the first time, Melkor started thinking of extreme measures.
Having served as a gang leader of a small gang who fought against stronger gangs as the underdog for most of his life, he was good at evaluating victory chances when fighting against overwhelming odds.
At this moment, Melkor could tell that if something drastic didn''t happen, the Blood Market territory of the Berserk Gang would fall today in his watch.
"Not in my watch!" Melkor finally made his decision.
He spat. "F*ck them! F*ck the Apes!"
"If they want to f*ck with us, let''s show them that we''re not whores!"
"They''ll have to work and bleed for it before f*cking with us!"
"Warriors, heed the orders of your regionalmander".
"Ingest the water and follow me into battle!"
"Let''s decide our fates ourselves".
Melkor''s decision was drastic as his subordinates were shocked.
Having used the water from the minotaur pool inrge numbers during thest inter-region war, they had a good grasp over the power boost that it brought and the aftereffects that also followed it.
As soon as the water was ingested, every single warrior that ingested it lost his mind and became a brainless maniac, they attacked every other person that was not a minotaur like them even if they were allies.
Since the Apes already invaded inside the territory, if they followed Melkor''s orders and all transformed now, they would kill both Apes and civilians alike.
"Don''t worry". Melkor reassured his soldiers.
"It''s been more than an hour already and most of the civilians have already been evacuated to the underground shelters, the others are the unlucky ones".
"If we don''t want the lucky ones to suffer the same fate as the unlucky ones after we all die, we should strive hard to save their lives now".
"Any warrior that believes in my leadership should do it with me now".
Melkor opened the bottle first and downed its contents.
His eyes turned brown as his body expanded, he clenched his fists and opened his mouth wide to scream silently as he transformed the next moment.
"Roar!!!" Melkor roared and charged out of the building.
"ROAR!!!" He roared again and charged at the nearest Ape.
Seeing their Commander make the first move to transform, all the warriors were shocked. They were even more shocked when another warrior did it.
At the very forefront of the battlefield where the battle was hottest, where the only Advanced mystic warrior of the Blood Market region fought valiantly.
All bloody from injuries already, as soon as Melkor transformed, this warrior no longer hesitated as he also downed the contents of his bottle.
"Roar!!!"
Not only did all his injuries heal, he became a minotaur that was far stronger than Melkor. He grabbed the nearest Ape and tore it to pieces.
Melkor transforming already pushed them close to the edge, the only champion of the Blood Market Zone also transforming pushed them over the edge.
The frenzied warriors of the Blood Market region all downed the contents of their bottles as the next moment, roars of minotaurs filled the battlefield.
From a battle between mystic Apes and humans, it became a battle between mystic Apes and transformed minotaurs who had no fear of death.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Roar!!!
Both sides collided again as the battle started afresh, this time with the minotaurs putting up a far better resistance than the humans ever did.
For the first time since the invasion started, they started killing the Apes at a regr basis as their counterattack started for the first time.
Despite their current momentum, it did not mean much since more and more Apes kept on trooping out of the Great Ape Forest.
Also, the first horse-riding Ape was finally attracted into the battlefield.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The hooves of the hell horse hitting the ground reverberated like thunder.
With fiery red eyes glowing from its eye sockets, the Ape that rode the hell horse beat its chest with its ancient wooden spear as it charged into the minotaurs.
Boom!
Every strike from this Ape induced a sonic boom.
Every strike from the Ape imed at least 2 Minotaurs with it.
The momentum of the hell horse was unstoppable as despite the fact that its strong legs carried it prating through the blockade of the Minotaurs, its strongest trait was its hellfire that burnt the minotaurs to death.
Roars of pain filled the battlefield but the minotaurs never relented.
Like zombies that had no feeling of pain nor fear of death, they simply threw themselves at the massive horse-riding Ape who was d to dine in their blood.
With this single Ape, the tides of the battle turned again.
The momentum of the Apes resurged as they pushed the Minotaurs back, in a few minutes time, they started steamrolling through them again.
The battle continued like this for another 10 minutes until a different sound reverberated. After spending its time, the Monster Truck finally arrived on the battlefield, an angry Rex rushed out to greet them.
"Damn Apes!"
"My territory shall be your graves!"
-----
You have activated Master Level Tiajutsu skill¡
----
Chapter 259 Invasion Of The Mystic Apes! [4]
-----
You have activated Master Level Tiajutsu Skill: Green Warrior!
You have activated Master Level Tiajutsu Skill: Ultimate Iron Defense!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
----
"Damn Apes!"
"My territory shall be your graves!"
Seeing the thousands of corpses that belonged to his warriors lying across his territory, Rex lost itpletely and he channeled his anger to be strength.
BOOM!
Rexnded with incredible power as the green energy that erupted with him as the center evaporated 5 Apes that were closest to him.
With his now green eyes burning with an aggressive fury, his body moved of its own volition against the Apes that now turned their attention to him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With the Ultimate Iron Defense master level skill taking care of his defense, Rex focused fully on offense against the hateful Apes.
Water, fire, wind, earth, he made use of all 4 Elements in quick session through his Master of the Elements master level skill as the Green Warrior empowered them to an even more ridiculous level.
No Ape that ate his attack had the mettle to survive it.
All traces of them were wiped off the face of the earth.
At this moment, Rex already entered an inspired state that was made possible due to his anger as he attacked with a vengeance for destruction.
He bulldozed through the Apes with unstoppable momentum, and he did not do this aimlessly, his target was the horse-riding Ape.
With repeated piercing stabs which was by far his fastest skill, Rex was able to rapidly close the distance while killing even more Apes.
As soon as he saw the Ape, the green in his eyes erupted aggressively.
-----
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Precision sh!
----
The Precision sh was by far Rex''s most urate and most dangerous single-damage attack, it concentrated all of its power on a single point.
Rex attacked with the speed and aggressiveness exceeding the Apes.
The horse-riding Ape felt the danger as it instantly reacted. Originally, it ignored this human like the other Advanced mystic human that protected the humans but Rex''s sudden attack left all its hair standing on end.
The Ape bent to an unnatural angle as he aimed to block with his ancient wooden spear. Rex''s Berserker descended with fury against the spear.
BOOM!
The sound of collision was like exploding dominoes.
The Ape''s face was strained as the incredible force apanying Rex''s attacked pushed it down from its hell horse, the hell horse became the victim.
The fiery red eyes of this beast watched in fear as the residual sword energy of the Precision sh descended into its unprotected frame.
The Hell Horse could not escape, the attack dissected it in twain.
HO! HO! HO!
The massive Ape grunted and hooted in fury as soon as its mount was cut into 2 equal parts as it erupted with aggressiveness for a 2nd attack.
Rex was ready for it, and someone else was also ready.
Whoosh!
It was day with the sun shining brightly but Cassandra was still able to move wlessly through the shadows like a descendant of the Shadow goddess.
Her sword sliced rapidly like the slicing sounds made by a master chef expertly slicing vegetables in a cutting board.
The difference this time was that the cutting board was the battlefield and it was not vegetables that was being sliced, it was a horse-riding Ape.
"Roar!" The Ape roared in pain as blood flowed.
Cassandra gave it 3 lethal slices across its body as blood flowed before it could react, it pursued the Snake Empress with its ancient wooden spear but someone else was one step ahead.
Whoosh!
With her omnidirectional mystic device, Swift Spear rose into the skies like the god of the skies as her grapple hooks wereunched on her will.
The Apes roared again and tried to counterattack but she was too fast.
With her swift spear, she toyed around with the Ape with absolute speed as she moved all around him while slicing nitty bitty injuries all across its sturdy hide.
"ROAR!!!" The Ape roared again.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In it''s bid to get the human that was flying all around it like an annoying mosquito, the Ape was unable to react to the attack of the legendary archer.
nor''s 2 impable arrow shots got the Ape where it hurt the most.
Ptui!
Blood flowed like a river as the 2 arrows dug into the Ape''s 2 eye sockets.
The Ape seemed to lose its voice due to the pain as it alternated between roaring, hooting, and grunting even as it lost its bnce.
The Snake Empress and Swift Spear went back at this moment.
With their sword and spear, they harassed the Ape who was already at its wit end, preparing it for the ultimate attack from Rex.
-----
You have activated Advanced Sword Skill:ary Devastation sh!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Phoenix Ash!
----
Theary Devastation sh opened a hole in the Ape''s exposed chest, and the Phoenix Ash skill that followed after widened the hole, cutting so deep inside that the Ape staggered and gasped for breath.
Blood flowed like a fountain as all the other Apes hooted in a panic.
They tried to interfere but this was when Ben finally came into y, with his sword, he cut through the Apes like a hot knife cutting through tofu.
-----
You have inflicted severe damage to the Horse-riding Ape!
The Ape has been affected with the disintegration state!
----
As soon as the disintegration state triggered, the fate of the Ape was sealed.
It roared loudly in pain as its body disintegrated while it lost its vitality until it turned into ash, this was the true power of the Phoenix Ash.
As soon as the horse-riding Ape died, Rex picked up its ancient wooden spear before sprinting towards the direction of the strategy hall of the Blood Market region alongside Cassandra.
Swift Spear retreated to a random direction while nor and Ben stayed behind to help the thousands of warriors that turned into minotaurs.
On getting to the strategy hall, Rex met only one warrior, Melkor''s assistant.
"Gang Leader". This warrior fell on his knees with tears on his face.
"You didn''t transform?"
"I didn''t have the courage, I deserve death, please kill me".
Rex ignored his reply. "Tell me everything that happened".
"Yes, Gang Leader".
Using as few words as possible, this mystic warrior managed to tell Rex about the overall situation about how the invasion started and how it progressed till now.
Cassandra spoke first after the warrior was done. "Rex, you saw the scenes inside the forest, more and more Apes are trooping towards here".
"No matter how strong we are, we can''t fight so many Apes alone".
"We need to call for reinforcements".
"Yes, I know that". Rex''s eyes gleamed aggressively.
"When I guessed that Melkor was also experiencingmunication problems, Imunicated with my transformed beasts through our telepathic rtionship. 50% of our full army is already on the way".
"They will get here in 30 minutes, we just need to hold the Apes".
Rex turned his eyes to re at the Apes.
Chapter 260 Invasion Of The Mystic Apes! [5]
"Our only job is to hold the Apes and wait for reinforcements".
"Our job is to also protect our remaining warriors".
"It''s not time for our counterattack yet".
Through themunication devices that he gave to all the members that were in his organized team, Rexmunicated his orders to them.
Swift Spear also received the orders.
After giving his orders, Rex turned to look at his girlfriend onest time before jumping down from the tall building where the strategy hall was built.
-----
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s mystic effect: Blood Flight!
¡
Iron Mike Cloak''s passive ability has been triggered: Cloak Defense!
¡
You have activated sword skill: Piercing Stab!
You have activated sword skill: Trident of Ethereal ckfire!
You have activated sword skill: Blood Prophecy!
You have activated sword skill: Blood Strike!
You have activated shadow skill: Ghost in the Night!
----
Rex literally activated all the basic skills that were in his repertoire.
With the Blood Flight activated, he was able to fly without turning into a half-bat which made it easier for him to dominate this battlefield.
And with the Cloak Defense passive ability of his Iron Mike Cloak triggering, his defensive duties were conveniently taken care of, giving him the freedom to fully focus his attention on dealing as much damage as possible.
Rex was d and was why he activated so many skills at once.
Before colliding with the ground, he took control over the Blood flight as he started levitating. Almost instantly, his sword started a dance of death.
Starting with the piercing stab and ending with the Trident of Ethereal ckfire skills, Rex annihted 6 Apes in an instant.
Whoosh!
He flew forward as using the other skills that he just activated, he started another massacre across the formations of the angry Apes.
By mixing hisbos with Advanced level and Master level skills asionally, he turned into a terror ghost that haunted the Apes.
The Ghost of the Night shadow skill granted him even more unprecedented movement speed that made him a thorn at the Apes'' sides.
With this skill, like Cassandra, he was able to effortlessly move through shadows andbining this with his flight ability formed a terrifyingbo that the Apes wished they never lived to witness.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Rex massacred the Apes as he was fueled by his anger, the sights of his warriors lying cold on the floor motivated him to ughter more.
He was not the only one fighting though, once they received his orders, Ben, nor, and Cassandra jumped into the battlefield as they massacred the Apes.
Only Swift Spear watched coldly from where she hid.
After a few more minutes of battle, the first warriors that turned into Minotaurs finally started turning back. As soon as Melkor turned back, on seeing that he was still alive and seeing Rex''s reassuring back, he wept tears of joy.
"I''m saved!"
"We''re saved!"
"We''re f*cking saved!"
Not long after he turned, all the other warriors who turned into minotaurs started turning also as the effects of the minotaur pool''s water started wearing off.
Once all of them turned, Melkor resumed motivating them.
"Our Gang Leader showed up like expected, he would never abandon us".
"With him around, we can finally avenge our deadrades".
"Join me and let''s show these Apes the price to pay for killing warriors of the Berserk Gang! Join me to ughter them!"
The warriors roared as they rallied behind Melkor.
With coordination now as leaders like Rex spearheaded the attack for them, they were able to be effective again as they massacred the Apes.
The massacre continued until more horse-riding Apes appeared. Unlike the first time, 3 horse-riding Apes appeared at the same time as they rode their fiery Hell Horses into the battlefield, spreading their hellfire with impunity.
As soon as he saw the 3 Apes, Rex felt his blood burning hotter.
"Today, we dine in hell!"
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You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Morphing!
Morphing Forms Avable: 2
You have transformed into a Bear-man!
¡
You have activated Vampire Ability: Blood Hunter!
You have left a blood imprint on your prey!
¡
You have activated Master Level ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
You have activated Master Level Sword Skill: Master of the Elements!
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Once again, without fear, Rex crashed towards the beasts.
Not with the intention to kill this time though but to stall. Having fought against one of the horse-riding Apes already, Rex was positive that they were the strongest Advanced mystic foes that he had fought against apart from his ancestor.
It required 4 of them despite their strength to kill the previous one.
He didn''t know if it was because of their rtionship with their Hell Horses but the horse-riding Apes were simply freaks of nature.
This time, all he aimed to achieve was preventing them from killing more of his warriors, Cassandra, nor, and Ben echoed his motives as they all charged from different parts of the battlefield towards the 3 Apes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The battle barely began when the familiar whooshing sounds of grapple hooks beingunched reverberated, Swift Spear acted again.
"I thought you said you won''t help". Ben taunted.
"Get lost!" She replied coldly.
"I am not helping, I am simply honing my skills against powerful foes".
Whoosh!
She entered the battlefield in a bombastic manner as her skills with the omnidirectional mystic device and her spear did the talking.
The 3 Apes cooperated impably as they held all 5 of them at bay.
Both sides just kept on inflicting nitty gritty injuries on their foes as they seemed incapable of breaking through the defense of their opponents.
Rex was content with this though, the battle continued like this with even more Apes charging into the battlefield until..., 30 minutes finally psed.
Honk!
The sound of the horn reverberated loudly like heaven''s trumpet.
After using the fastest means avable to them to transport their warriors, 100,000 mystic warriors led by Commander Aragorn arrived on this battlefield.
They arrived bombastically.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Their war trucks bombarded the Apes with canons and missiles.
Rex''s eyes gleamed excitedly. "Our counterattack begins!"
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You have activated Master Level Skill¡
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Chapter 261 The Berserk Armys Counterattack
"Our counterattack begins".
Rex did not just say this in words, his actions also echoed it.
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You have activated Master Level ckfire Skill: Oxygen Maniption!
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With a single skill, Rex sessfully isted one of the horse-riding Apes from the others as the air around it erupted into a burning fire cage, trapping it.
The others tried to intervene but they could not.
From afar, Aragorn led the army like a veteran War Commander.
"Reinforce ourrades".
"Revenge their deaths by wiping off all the Apes".
"On me!"
In Aragorn''s sight, his Monster Truck have been massively underutilized by Rex and the other warriors in his team so far.
Once he entered the battlefield, the first thing that he did was locating his Monster Truck. As soon as it detected his presence, from afar, the Monster Truck was already bulldozing its way towards its real owner.
"Wee big boy, let''s show the Apes some love".
Aragorn in one smooth motion dived into and boarded his truck.
He activated all the defense and offense systems of the upgraded Monster Truck as from all over its metallic body came out gun and canon muzzles.
Over the months, as Aragorn researched more into his mystic mechanic profession, he never once neglected his inherited Blood Gunner ability.
Instead, one of his main ambitions was merging the powers of his 2 main mystic abilities and after months of research, he achieved preliminary sess.
Though he could not use it on himself as easily, by incorporating some rare reactive exotic metals in his Monster Truck, the truck could now resonate with his mystic energy to unleash Blood Shots at enemies.
Blood Shots from the Monster Truck were even more lethal than those that he could shoot personally with his Blood Pistols.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground vibrated like the earth was being drilled open as it fired.
As the red blood shots flew through the air like envoys of the god of death, blood blossomed wildly in the air, the perfect world for a vampire as the gun muzzles and canon muzzles of the Monster Truck went releasing their loads.
Despite their incredible strength and endurance, the Apes could not endure the impact. It was either a part of them exploding or them bursting into a bloody mess, the Monster Truck made an instant impact on Aragorn''s hands.
Aragorn was not the only reinforcement though, with the Monster Truck taking the lead, all the other trucks unleashed their loads on the Apes.
They spread the fury of the Berserk Gang to the Apes.
Gunshots filled the battlefields, swordsmen, spear experts, they flexed their mystic energy as they hunted the Apes that once hunted theirrades.
"For the Berserk Gang!"
Chants like this filled the battlefield as the momentum of the battlefield shifted, leaving the favor of the Apes and favoring the human warriors.
For every Ape attack, the humans pounded them 10 times more and harder.
This was a pound for pound battle but the humans hit harder now.
In just 10 minutes after the reinforcement arrived, the tides changedpletely as corpse of Apes filled the battlefield, painting it red and ck.
During this time, Rex and hisrades already fought the isted horse-riding Ape and severely injured it. Though the 2 other Apes and their Hell Horses tried to interfere, the mes of Rex''s oxygen maniption were just too fierce.
Whoosh!
As soon as her grapple hooks wereunched, Swift Spear descended to unleash thest judgement to the already incapacitated Ape.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Her spear cut through its thick hide like a butcher ughtering a pig.
Before he could finish the Ape off though, Rex who had been watching attentively rushed in for the kill.
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You have activated Special Vampire Ability: Age Extraction!
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As soon as Rex''s hand touched the head of the Ape, its eyes turned white like its soul was ruthlessly yanked out of its body.
For a few seconds, it jerked like it was struggling before going still.
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You have used the Age Extraction Special Ability on a mystic beast!
Remaining lifespan of the Horse-riding Ape: 185
Ratio of beast to man extraction- 5:1
You have extracted 37 years from the Horse-riding Ape!
Cooldown to use Special Ability again: 3 months
¡
You have killed a pinnacle Advanced Mystic Beast: Horse-riding Ape!
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As soon as Rex received this series of notifications, the Ape''s eyes returned to normal as it looked at the sun in horror and gasped for breath.
While it looked, its eyes faded as its body withered in seconds.
The gigantic Horse-riding Ape faded into dust.
The sight spooked not just Swift Spear and the others who were able to watch this from up close, but also the remaining 2 Horse-riding Apes.
The 2 Horse-riding Apes briefly turned to look at the battlefield, everywhere, Apes were now the ones dying as the humans ughtered them.
The bigger of the 2 raised its war Axe the next moment and roared.
"Roar!"
Soon after he finished roaring, he kicked his hell horse as the fire of the horse burned brighter than ever before. Without a moment''s hesitation, the hell horse turned around and turned into a fiery streak, disappearing from the battlefield.
The other Horse-riding Ape who also wielded a war Axe did the same thing. They escaped but Rex was not having it as he was already prepared for a scenario like this while he still fought them.
After so many of his warriors dying in this invasion attempt, he had no intentions of letting 2 of the main culprits escaping so freely.
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You have activated Vampire Ability: Blood Hunter!
Blood Imprint located!
You have activated Iron Mike Cloak''s active ability: Blood Flight!
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Whoosh!
Rex was dyed with a blood aura as he rose from the ground and flew into the skies the next moment deep into the woods after the 2 Horse-riding Apes.
He disappeared as a red streak was left in the sky.
Whoosh!
Swift Spear reacted almost at the same time that Rex moved. Launching her grapple hooks, she flew into the skies and rapidly went in pursuit.
Just like Rex but though with different reasons, she did not want to let the 2 Horse-riding Apes escape without a proper fight.
nor and Ben were about to go in pursuit but Cassandra stopped them.
"We''re not as fast as them, we won''t be able to keep up".
"We should rather help the warriors to finish off the remaining Apes".
After the mighty roar from the Horse-riding Apes, a lot of the Apes already started retreating back into their Great Forest but most of them were still in the Berserk Gang''s territory. This was ripe time to pick them one at a time.
With Cassandra leading them, the 3 of them dived into the battle enthusiastically as they elerated the massacre of the mystic Apes.
Ben''s sword dissected them apart with a vengeance. "This is for the shock!"
"This is for my deadrades!"
"This is for making me remember sad memories".
"This is for the freaking destruction!"
In 20 minutes time, thousands of Ape corpses were littered across the Blood Market territory all the way to the Great Ape Forest.
The remaining Apes escaped but not after a scar of a lifetime from the warriors of the Berserk Gang, they survived the invasion.
Chapter 262 Rexs Plan
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You have activated Vampire Ability: Cell Regeneration!
You have activated Vampire Ability: Blood Rejuvenation!
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Whoosh!
The tree leaves waved as a blood-red silhouette moved swiftly across the forest like a nightmare haunting the day.
A bloody red streak was left in the skies as Rex went after the 2 horse-riding Apes with speed. Despite the fact that he could not see them yet, through the blood imprint that he left on them, he was able to deduce their location.
With the Blood Flight ability active, his speed was otherworldly.
After the initial burst of speed by the 2 Hell Horses, both horses already slowed down and were now even slower than before.
Apparently, that burst of speed did note without a price.
For 20 minutes, Rex pursued them deep into the Great Ape Forest until his blood imprint finally indicated to him that he was getting closer to them.
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You have activated Vampire Ability: Heightened Sense!
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Once this ability was activated, Rex''s senses became even more heightened. His sight improved to such a ridiculous level that everything became clearer to him.
His eyes like the radar of an army prated the forest and saw across kilometers to where the 2 horse-riding Apes were currently escaping.
As soon as heid his eyes on them, Rex finally reduced his speed a bit to match theirs, he followed them while keeping his distance.
He didn''t just do this, he knew that Swift Spear was following from behind.
The first horse-riding Ape that they killed wielded an ancient wooden spear while the 2nd wielded an ancient Axe. Rex took the spear after killing the Ape but left the Axe since he went in pursuit of the 2 beasts.
Though he already had a glimpse of the attributes of the spear when his system just notified him about it, Rex still had a hard time believing that the spear that the Ape used was a myth grade weapon.
It perhaps exined the ridiculous strength of the horse-riding Apes.
Rex decided to check the weapon''s status again.
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[Oathbreaker- Ancient Ape Spear!]
[Bonded Owner: ???!]
[Current Grade: Myth!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
>Attack: 37,000-60,000 Damage<
>Durability: 89,000/89,000<
[Mystic Effects: Ultra Instinct; Primordial Barrage; Bone Piercer.]
>Ultra-Instinct: When activated, your battle instincts be incredibly heightened. +150% reaction speed, attack speed, and processing speed and 10% chance to trigger ultra-instinct which gives you reaction speed close to the level of the speed of light<
>Primordial Barrage: When activated, an attack series of 12 spear strikes begins with each subsequent strike having 100% more attack power and speed than the previous<
>Bone Piercer: When activated, +400% piercing ability and damage<
¡
[Special Skills: Call of the Ape Ancestor.]
>Call of the Ape Ancestor: When activated, you call upon the power of the great Ape Sages who blessed the Oathbreaker on its creation to lend you strength<
>+500% attack strength for 2 minutes<
>Each subsequent 10 seconds after activation grants +50% additional attack strength to the user<
[NOTE: These effects can be used and maintained with mystic energy.]
[Remark: A spear for the swift and strong!]
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After looking through the attributes of the spear, Rex waspletely short of words. "Where did those Apes get such badass weapons?"
This discovery first increased the mystery of the Apemunity of the Great Ape Forest to him and it also made him fear them a bit.
Through the words of his system, the call of the ape ancestor special ability enabled whoever its wielder was to call upon the power of ape sages who were present and blessed the spear during its creation.
For a long time, though humanity already learned the hard way that mystic beasts could form their ownmunities, the Great Ape Forest was still always believed to be a savage forest filled with savage Apes.
Beast groups that formedmunities were part of the greatest threats to humanity since singlehandedly, they could deal a lot of damage to humans.
If the system was correct, that meant that there was amunity of Apes in the Great Ape Forest. Rex dread the mere thought of them invading as one.
This discovery made him improvise his ns again.
''The truth is getting deeper than expected''.
¡
Whoosh!
4 minutester, Swift Spear finally caught up.
As soon as she saw him upfront, she increased her speed to move closer to him. "Did you lose them?"
"No". Rex turned to face her. "Stop, I want to tell you something".
Since there was no time, Rex did not make anythingplicated. As soon as they stopped, he went straight to the point. "I have a n".
"Because of all the coincidences that took ce which all culminated and led to this invasion, my hunch tells me that someone was behind the invasion".
"To trigger an invasion of this scale, he is definitely no simple warrior".
"I didn''t just follow after the Apes to kill them, I want to follow them to see if they have a hideout and to try my luck if I will see the culprit".
Swift Spear was surprised as she looked at Rex.
Before she could speak though, Rex beat her to it again. "Take". He brought the familiar spear that Swift Spear already saw some time ago.
"I got it from the first horse-riding Ape that we killed".
"It is a myth grade spear".
Without even hearing Rex out, just a mere look at the spear already told her all that she needed to know. She took the spear reverently as she admired it.
She turned to look at Rex. "I have never used a myth grade weapon once".
Rex smiled. "Wee to our league then".
He looked straight at her and finally made his offer. "I''m giving you the spear as a gift but I want your help in infiltrating the Ape territory".
"I don''t know how theirmunity is or how dangerous it is, and I don''t know how dangerous the culprit may be also".
"If you are with me, my chances of victory will be higher?"
"Please, will you help me?" He looked her in the eye.
Swift Spear looked down at the spear that was on her hand then back up at Rex, she nodded. "I can help you".
"Good, thank you".
Without hesitation, Rex activated the Blood Flight mystic effect again as he set off this time with Swift Spear following behind him.
He upped the speed and in just 4 minutes, they met the 2 Apes.
"None of you shall escape today!" Rex yelled as he pounced on them.
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