The surge of Spiritual Qi tore Dan"s body in half and his limbs flew in all directions. Dan didn"t even manage to utter his cry of despair as the Spiritual Qi thoroughly buried his body. Witnessing the ghastly sight of his enemy dying in despair, Elder Rudolph"s shoulders trembled as he viciously snickered.
"I didn"t expect that it would be this easy. I thought that the fake b.a.s.t.a.r.d had something more to offer but to think that this is all that he can do..." He sighed in disappointment and his eyes flashed towards the direction of Grace"s room. All sorts of desires flared up within him as his breathing turned ragged and his expression reddened.
"Such an exotic beauty like her, it would be a shame if I killed her outright since the Pavilion Chief doesn"t mind it, I should keep her alive as my stress reliever..." Elder Rudolph"s cultivation base surged.
When someone of the Divine Ascendance Realm utilizes their cultivation base, Heavenly Phenomenon such as thunder and lightning along with a tempest of winds should occur around the area and since there were no signs of such phenomenon it could be said that Rudolph was suppressing his power.
Staring at Grace"s room, a zealous light flashed in his eyes as the wooden floor on his feet exploded. His figure disappeared and in a blink of an eye, he reappeared before the broken door.
"Get the h.e.l.l out of here, old man!" Dan"s fierce voice reverberated like thunder and wind howled as thunder echoed out. Sparks flew and Dan sent a kick towards Rudolph"s torso.
Rudolph smirked upon seeing the attack, as someone of his cultivation, their bodies were harder than steel and someone with lower cultivation like Dan attacking his fleshly body would only result attract his destruction.
Anger of the Lightning G.o.d!
Roaring Thunder in Fles.h.!.+
Lightning rumbled inside Dan"s muscles, his Physique Mastery reinforced his body while his Mental Mastery steeled his mind. Gritting his teeth, his kick landed on Rudolph"s torso as a surge of wind blasted everything around them across the entire hall.
The force of the collision tore the air itself and both fighters flew backward. Rudolph"s body landed near the entrance of the Garden while Dan landed inside Grace"s room. There, he found Natalie rea.s.suring Grace as Dan shouted,
"What are you two doing in here?! He"s a Divine Ascendance Realm Elder! I"ll buy you enough time so Natalie, bring her with you!" Dan wiped the sweat forming on his forehead, from the time that he transmigrated until now, Rudolph was the strongest enemy that he ever encountered.
Natalie turned towards him and shouted, "But how about you? I can"t just leave you here!" Dan clicked his tongue and fiercely glared at her, "I told you to f.u.c.king run so f.u.c.king run! Stop yapping!" Natalie"s figure shook and she revealed a wry smile, taking Grace with her, she stood up and said, "Juliet"s birthday is in three days, please return safely and celebrate it with us..."
With that, lightning arcs formed on her feet and she ran towards the exit of the pavilion. Witnessing Natalie"s escape, Rudolph lifted a vicious smile and said, "It"s futile, the s.p.a.ce around this pavilion is personally sealed by me, until you defeat me, there"s no way that you could escape..."
Natalie"s figure struck an invisible wall and she fell on the ground with a pain-filled moan. Dan darted his gaze at Natalie, but as soon as he turned his attention away. Rudolph took advantage of this opening and dashed towards Dan"s figure, sending a knee strike on his abdomen.
"s.h.i.+t!" Dan violently cursed as Rudolph"s knee neared his body. His instincts activated and he quickly triggered Flicker. When Rudolph"s knee reached about three inches before his abdomen. His figure suddenly became blurry and Rudolph"s attack struck thin air.
Rudolph"s expression went solemn, Dan"s techniques were so mysterious and he didn"t understand what he did in dodging his attack in such a close range. Inside the independent s.p.a.ce of Flicker, Dan took his shotgun and repositioned himself behind Rudolph.
Reappearing behind him, Dan pulled the trigger and a blast of hot bullets battered Rudolph"s body. Despite the reinforcement of his physique made by his cultivation, Rudolph suffered quite the pain and damage as he retreated backward and observed the strange weapon in Dan"s hands.
"What is that?" His eyes squinted and he probed Dan"s weapon.
Dan revealed a wry smile, every pellet of the bullet struck Rudolph"s body but the latter calmly took it like nothing. Rudolph"s health bar merely went down by about two percent.
"Brat, if you hand that weapon over to me along with that woman then I can consider letting you go..." Rudolph smugly smiled and said in a vicious tone, Dan"s strange weapon piqued his interest. If not for the fact that his survival instincts kicked in at the last minute, Dan would"ve blasted a hole on his side.
"Old geezer, do you really think that just because you trapped us in here that you already won? Even if you defeat us right now, you can merely win the battle but not the war..." Dan glanced at Natalie and found that the latter was condensing her Spiritual Qi in an effort to blast through the Dimensional Lock established by Rudolph.
Such a huge concentration of Spiritual Qi wouldn"t go unnoticed by someone of Rudolph"s caliber. However, the old man was currently in a state of frenzy and overloaded with murderous intent and l.u.s.t.
"Why is a fake like you saying that even if I can win the battle I won"t win the war? Do you really think of yourself as mighty just because you are holding an Authority Token of an Honorary Disciple? Let me tell you this, only two official Honorary Disciples exists in the Academy and even if you managed to acquire such a thing using your connections, that doesn"t mean that you"re officially recognized!" Rudolph started laughing.
"As someone who"s wielding a fake Authority Token. The Academy may even reward me for disposing of you..." Rudolph"s muscles bugled with infinite power and the air around him popped like cooked popcorns. Despite the fact that he didn"t have any Divine Art, his Physical Techniques were top-notch.
Dan didn"t dare to delay anymore and activated the first stance of the Blessing of the Lightning G.o.d. Lightning enveloped his body, his hair shone in an azure light along with his eyes that mysteriously gleamed in the same color.
"Hooh? A Divine Art?" Rudolph curiously stared at Dan"s figure, "If we had the same cultivation then you could probably kill me, but what a shame that you"re merely at the Spirit Tempering Realm..." Rudolph clenched his fist and the air inside his palms exploded.
The heat from Rudolph"s body alone made him faint, and at this moment, Dan realized that he couldn"t afford to engage his enemy in a close combat battle. Or else once a single hit landed on his body. Dan knew that he would be utterly destroyed.
"What"s wrong? Are you not coming to me?" Rudolph taunted and Dan stared at him before performing some simulations with the System"s help. Dan shook his head, evidently. The result of the simulation that he made, disappointed him.
"Even with the help of "that" I still need to bring his health points down to the thirty percent range or else there"s not even a chance of damaging him..." Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, Dan knew that other than poking his enemy until exhaustion, there"s no other way that he could defeat him.
But the problem was, will his Spiritual Qi Reserves even sustain such an endeavor? If Dan lost the support of his Spiritual Qi in a critical moment, then that would become his death.
[Save: 7; Load: 8]
For insurance, Dan saved his current instance and hope that he could activate it in time before he"s killed.
"Dan, spare me a just a hundred breaths of time! I swear that I will definitely break this down, and when that happens, I will immediately summon Senior Mathias to deal with this old geezer..." Dan received Natalie"s voice transmission and his expression went even more solemn than before.
A hundred breaths of time wasn"t long but it wasn"t short either, in a battle between experts, hundreds of exchange could occur in such a short amount of time. And unfortunately, Dan wasn"t so sure that he could survive against Rudolph in such a high-speed battle.
What should I do? What can I use against him? Blind him using Flash Grenades then try and poke him from afar? Will that really work against a Divine Ascendance Realm Expert? G.o.dd.a.m.ned it, if I ever knew that such a thing would happen then I would"ve already summoned Senior Mathis with me!
Dan cursed himself for being so complacent. Before everything happened, Dan thought that he could handle everything by himself, but unfortunately, a true expert like Rudolph arrived and now he was helpless. His arrogance became his undoing.
d.a.m.n it! I have my family with me, I have Natalie, Grace, Juliet, Sandra, and Jacob! I can"t die here, I can"t let them down! Maybe, maybe I could ask the system for help and ask it to control my body like what it did at that time with the battle against the Necromancer.
Wait, speaking of the System, the System is called the a.s.sa.s.sination System, right? Then, it should be possible for it to instruct me about what should I do against this old geezer!
Dan"s eyes twinkled in a light of antic.i.p.ation as he commanded, "System, a.s.sist me in my battle against this old geezer."
[System Function Initiating: 50%]
[System Offensive a.s.sist Activated by Voice Command!]
[The System will provide precise instructions in real time.]
[Good luck and have fun!]
[PS: Don"t be a wuss and just fight him already, don"t worry about dying, you have me as your plot armor]
The series of system notifications that appeared right before his eyes excited Dan. Taking his dagger and his fully-automatic shotgun. Dan bent his knees and dashed towards Rudolph"s figure.
"Brat, are you that excited to die?!" Rudolph exclaimed upon witnessing Dan"s aberrant actions. Dan disregarded his enemy"s shout and he focused on the changes that were happening before him.
Parts of Rudolph"s body was marked with the System and a mechanical voice echoed inside his mind.
[The enemy will most likely send a punch on the host"s torso.]
A blue dot appeared on his body and a trajectory line that connected with Rudolph"s fist could be seen before him. Twisting his body amidst his attack, Rudolph"s punch arrived and Dan barely dodged it in a hair"s breadth.
[Dodging Success!]
[The host can inflict a damage of 3% if he attacks this weak point.]
A bigger red dot manifested on Rudolph"s back and Dan activated Stab.
Stab!
His left hand blurred and spurred with a mysterious force. Dan"s dagger plunged on Rudolph"s back as the latter howled in anguish and shock. He didn"t expect that Dan"s attack would land on one of the weak spots of his Spiritual Qi Barrier.
The feedback that Dan felt made him excited as Rudolph turned around and stomped on his torso.
[The enemy"s attack will most likely land on the host"s left torso, send a wave of Spiritual Qi on the ground to propel the host"s body backward.]
Dan did as instructed and Rudolph"s attack struck nothing. The wooden floor collapsed and dust flew towards the skies, reducing visibility.
[Visibility is reduced.]
[The host"s attack will hit if he sends an attack at eleven o"clock in the next three seconds.]
Dan hurriedly lifted his fully-automatic shotgun and blasted a hole through the mist of dust. Rudolph who was still recovering from the pain didn"t expect that sudden attack as cracks appeared on his Spiritual Qi Barrier. Staring at Dan"s direction with eyes full of anger, the Elder formed a ball of Spiritual Qi and sent it flying towards his direction.
[Ball of Spiritual Qi, the host can choose to evade or block the attack.]
[To block the attack, the host will need to expend ten percent of his Spiritual Qi.]
Ten percent of my Spiritual Qi? Why should I block it? Dan shrugged and leaped on the ground. The ball of Spiritual Qi swept past his head and seeing Dan"s actions. Rudolph smirked, "What a fool," The ball of Spiritual Qi missed Dan but it would definitely hit Natalie and Grace behind him.
"s.h.i.+t!" Dan cursed upon this realization, but Grace coldly snorted and summoned the might of her Heaven Grade Defensive Artifact. The small orb in her hand shone in a milky-white light that destroyed the ball of Spiritual Qi. The milky-white light of the orb considerably dimmed and Dan predicted that it could at most, block two more attacks from Rudolph.
A Heaven Grade Defensive Artifact? Rudolph"s eyes turned redder in greed. He specialized in offense and was lacking in defense. But if he could acquire Grace"s Defensive Artifact, then he could even possibly deal with the arrogant Pavilion Chief.
Lifting his upper body, Dan dashed towards Rudolph"s direction and the two engaged in a fierce close quarter combat. Their battle looked intense and b.l.o.o.d.y, but Rudolph couldn"t even land a single attack on Dan"s body while the latter"s attack struck directly at his weak spots.
Dan lifted a small smile, with the System"s help, even if he closed his eyes, he was confident that he could completely dodge Rudolph"s a.s.sault and even counter-attack with his own strike.
[Take two steps away and turn torso to the right.]
Rudolph"s fist swept past Dan"s left torso.
[Send a feint at this direction while shoot at this weak point.]
Bang!
Rudolph"s miserable shriek echoed out, Dan landed a point-blank attack from his shotgun. At this point in time, Rudolph looked wretched and bedraggled while Dan merely sustained scratches from the torn wind that struck his skin.
"Brat, you"ve truly angered me..." Rudolph retreated backward, with his eyes flas.h.i.+ng in utmost hatred, he screamed and the earth itself trembled, swift winds that could compare to a typhoon battered the area around them and the entire pavilion collapsed, revealing an empty s.p.a.ce as a result of Rudolph"s Dimensional Lock.
Inside this Dimensional Lock, anything that was inside could be affected but everything that was outside wouldn"t be affected nor damaged. Rudolph unleashed the entire might of his cultivation base as Dan"s body kneeled on the ground.
[The enemy"s source of power is increasing every second.]
[Suggestion: Get the f.u.c.k out of that place or you"ll definitely die.]
Natalie who was in the middle of concentrating her power froze. Feeling the sensation of imminent danger behind her. She knew that it was useless to try and break through the Dimensional Lock. For before that happens, she was sure that they were already dead.
Dan lifted his head and stared grimly at Rudolph"s display of power. Instead of feeling the sensation of despair, he couldn"t help but smirk when he saw Rudolph"s remaining health points.
[HP: 27/100]
[Qi: 63/100]
[Note: Numbers are in percentage]
Taking a certain item from his Virtual Inventory that he never dared to use unless there was no other choice. Dan slowly unveiled the golden parchment as Natalie"s eyes widened in shock and excitement.
As soon as Dan opened the golden parchment, a surge of Imperial Might descended from the skies and the Dimensional Lock itself distorted. Rudolph"s expression changed and a sensation of dread filled his heart.
"W-w-what is that..." Rudolph uttered amidst his hopelessness, the Imperial Aura that came from the golden parchment pressured his soul itself and there was no way to negate such direct suppression.
Opening the Imperial Decree that he personally received from his father, Dan uttered a wish, "Imperial Decree, annihilate my enemy..." As soon as his sentence was completed, the golden parchment exploded into resplendent lights which formed the faint silhouette of an Emperor.
The Emperor looked as tall as the mountains and when it lifted its golden hand, s.p.a.ce itself distorted as Rudolph cried out in horror, "No, please don"t, please don"t do this to me, I will do everything that you want me to do from now on, I will become your dog if you wished as long as you don"t kill me!" He immediately discarded his pride and shame in an effort to plead for his life.
But unfortunately, the Emperor"s decree was absolute and his death was certain.