Both of them knew that they were confident in their abilities after their exchange of eye contact.
Angele slowly stood up and scanned the other side of the area.
A white light was flickering on top of a mountain.
Although the two were far away from each other, Angele could feel pressure in the middle of his chest. It seemed that the woman was aiming at his chest.
Ka!
Angele heard strange noises.
Suddenly, he felt something weighing him down increase.
In the middle of his chest, a white cross appeared, flas.h.i.+ng. It was the sign of an incoming attack.
The mark penetrated my energy barrier and forcefield s.h.i.+eld… Then it landed on my body as if nothing happened…. Angele's face became dire.
Yet for some reason, the energy wave from the cross seemed familiar to him.
Angele lifted his hands and conjured two silver crossguard swords. He executed forth a cross slash, leaving a silver cross in the air.
At this point, Angele decided to rely on his high attributes since he was not sure if the spells he knew would work on this opponent of his. Some of the opponents he had fought knew much stronger spells than him, yet they still lost.
With that in mind, he elected to use spells that would augment his physical skills, coupled with the metal force-s.h.i.+eld.
Angele leaped forward with both swords in hand and jumped down the hill, descending into the river. He leaned closer to the ground and started running toward the woman at full speed.
He knew that the woman possessed incredible marksmans.h.i.+p just by seeing how she locked onto her target. He needed to reduce the distance between them.
Although Angele possessed the aid of his biochip, he would not be able to triumph over an archery face-off without a good longbow. The only solution he had was to get closer to the woman and initiate a close-quarters combat.
Angele was like a black dot moving between the mountains and rivers. He was traveling so fast his body became a blurred shadow.
The wizards that were flying in the sky pa.s.sed by, like birds. Seconds later, all the other wizards had escaped the area. Angele and the woman were the only ones who remained here.
Angele could hear the loud noises generated by the wind and all the surrounding objects become unnoticeable to him. The only thing he could clearly see was the path ahead.
Suddenly, after some time, white light flashed from the top of the hill while he was making a beeline for it.
Chi!
A sharp and strange noise was approaching him, and it was becoming sharper and sharper every second.
Angele's eardrums hurt just from listening to the noise. He knew he had to defend when he witnessed the white light flash.
A layer of silver materialized before him, followed by a transparent s.h.i.+eld, and then the two swords in his hands.
Booom!
The impact that hit Angele's body was so great that the metal barrier was destroyed in an instant, along with the energy s.h.i.+eld from the crystal scorpion.
The white light that had an appearance of an arrow broke through his two crossguard swords easily and smote Angele's chest fiercely.
For a second, Angele stopped breathing when the arrow landed on his chest.
Everything around him was surrounded by the white light, and his ears were ringing.
Warning. Warning. Metal forcefield has been destroyed. Repairs are required. Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears.
You have been hit by an unknown energy strike. Damage: Over 500 degrees. 0.42 percent of your body is damaged. Time required for recovery: 2 seconds.
Angele retreated more than ten steps back after being hit by the arrow. He looked at his chest after the white light disappeared.
A nail-size wound was left in the middle of his chest, revealing the pink flesh under the skin. However, the wound was healing at an inconceivable rate.
This was not the first time Angele learned what his high attributes could do for him.
Angele could not transform into his true form, but his Stamina was already higher than magic beasts'.
He picked up the pace and rushed toward the mountain without an ounce of hesitation.
The woman in white looked baffled as she checked her longbow. Yet, she did not know why Angele was not severely injured after taking the attack.
There was a black dot moving along the river, approaching the mountain at full speed.
The woman pulled the bowstring again.
Chi!
A transparent arrow was conjured on the bow, and the woman uttered an incantation in a deep tone. Seconds later, the incantation was completely invoked.
"Mu! Bul! Kul! The Twisting Arrow of Fate!"
Strangely, several sharp arrows took form on the bow one by one. The arrows were made out of white light and lined up quickly. All the arrows were targeted at Angele at a strange angle.
Dozens of arrows were on the bow, looking like a line of terrifying sawteeth.
White flames appeared in the woman's right eye again.
"Strike!"
Chi!
Countless arrows disappeared from the bow and drew multiple curves in the air, flying toward Angele from all angles.
At that instant, the entire sky was covered in translucent arrows.
Just like stars falling down from the sky, the arrows started raining down when approaching their target.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
All the arrows landed on the target.
The arrows began exploding after landing, and white light covered the area with the light as the only thing visible. An arrow would explode every time a white light flashed.
The woman did not stop; she dropped the longbow immediately.
It disappeared into the air after it turned into a streak of light. She then lifted up her right hand.
"Tals!"
"Tals!"
Wooo!
A large, white plate that was about two meters tall slowly appeared behind the woman. On the plate were five blinking runes, each representing a gear or a weapon. These runes formed a dark circle in the middle of the plate.
"Minge!"
"Minge!" The woman lightly beckoned with her right hand.
Crack!
The white plate began spinning, and one of the runes stopped near her right hand.
Chi!
A golden axe appeared in her hand after a flash.
The white plate evanesced after the axe fully materialized into a solid form.
Including the length of its handle, the golden axe, overall, was about two meters long and was greater breadth was larger than the woman's body. It looked simple yet mysterious and like an axe normally wielded by a normal infantryman.
The woman held the axe tightly and watched out for the black shadow that had just jumped out of the area covered in white light. She wasted no time as she jumped down the mountain and slashed forward.
Angele was seeing the woman jump down the mountain when he escaped the arrows' onslaught. The woman was merely brandis.h.i.+ng her axe, but he noticed the unusual energy wave coming from that weapon.
Clank!
It sounded like metal striking each other. The strike ripped his black robe open and left a white mark on his right shoulder.
Angele immediately ceased his advance after taking damage. His body was burning bright amid the white flames, and white light was glistering everywhere. It almost made him look like he was being devoured by an enormous — more than ten meters in height, approximately — white fireball.
The woman silently stared at it, with her still grasping the axe.
"It's over," she uttered under her breath.
Outside the battlefield, in the Sky City.
In a secret chamber of the city.
At the dark chamber grounds, there was a large screen that displayed the multiple battles happening in different areas.
The large screen itself was a division of five sh.e.l.l-shaped, smaller screens, and battles from five different locations were being directly broadcast live.
There were five black chairs surrounding the screen.
The surface of the chairs was slightly damaged. Furthermore, all of them were engraved with monster and plant figures. It looked like someone tried to repair the chairs and filled the surface cracks with special alloy.
Five human-shaped shadows were respectively seated on these chairs. Black smoke encompa.s.sed the shadows, and the mentality waves they were emanating could twist light and s.p.a.ce itself.
"The 4th rift is finished, and Hunter has jumped to another rift. I think she'll become the winner of this compet.i.tion," the shadow at the leftmost part spoke, whose voice sounded like an old man's.
His eyes fell on one of the sh.e.l.l-shaped screens.
In the broadcast, a young woman in white armor was standing near a river before a mountain and peering at a burning ball of white flames. Within the fireball was her opponent, the strongest wizard in the particular rift she was now in.
"Yeah, Hunter inherited and has successfully activated concept gear. She only needs to use the sealing ability of the concept gear when battling normal wizards. When facing a strong wizard that can't be ensnared in time, she can still use the special ability of the gear and then use her power as a rank 3 wizard to win. I don't think anyone in that rift can survive a battle against her," another shadow concurred, but this one sounded like a woman.
"I don't think Swordsman will lose so easily."
"Yeah, I agree."
Two other black shadows of the five had a different opinion, however.
The last one of the black shadows sat in his chair, feeling hesitant.
"We shall not conclude so early. Let's just watch," he spoke in a low voice.
Things escalated as soon as he finished speaking.
A man wrapped in white flames jumped out of the fireball and, transforming into a white shadow, charged toward the woman.
"I knew it. Swordsman likely possesses the strongest physique among the partic.i.p.ants, so he will not lose so easily," one of the black shadows that had a contradicting thought laughed.
"Hunter will never lose. I won't take my word back," the female voice muttered.
The white flames around Angele's body had burnt his clothes to ashes and his pouches too had completely disintegrated. He was, right at this moment, running buck-naked.
His metal forcefield had been destroyed, and he could no longer rely on Metal Mastery. Although his body was absurdly st.u.r.dy, and the destroyed forcefield would not be a problem, he was trapped in a difficult situation.
However, that was not what enraged him — it was the pouch that did so. In it, there were far too many rare spell materials and potions significant to him, including the summoning potion of the Blood Giant. It was a potion he had spent a huge chunk of time on developing, and he had only used it once, in the Nightmare Realm.
Angele's body transformed into a white string, rus.h.i.+ng toward the woman at his greatest speed. The woman looked shaken up. She, after all, could not believe what was happening.
"How dare you… My pouch…" Angele bellowed and closed in on the woman and then he tried to grasp the woman's face. He was certain that — if the strike could land — the woman's head would explode because of his absurd might that was too powerful.
The woman quickly had doused her panicked state. She was witnessing Angele charging toward her, but her facial expression did not change. She was looking at Angele as she would a corpse.
Pa!
With a flick of the woman's fingers.
Time itself stopped.
Color itself disappeared from the world. Everything turned monochromatic.
Angele felt surprised when he noticed himself becoming trapped in time. His hand was only about a centimeter away from the woman's nose, but now, he could not even move one inch forward.
