Chapter 220: The Sky Emperor
"Being slow means constantly changing. The slower you move, the more subtle changes you can make to your strike. The important thing is that we are slow, yet always a step ahead of our opponents."
The above was a core teaching of Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws, the profound martial art which Sila was the least proficient at using. His teacher, Mora, had told him that a proper breathing method was required for him to bring forth Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws" true potential. Sila lacked this knowledge so there was no way he could use it as well as Kawin.
However, Sila found an indirect method to learn that today. He synchronized his breathing with Infernee"s; he exhaled when she exhaled and inhaled when she inhaled. Their exchanges were as slow as each other and their breathing was in harmony. No one could tell which side was winning.
The key was Sila"s calmness. As his mind became clearer, he eventually noticed a path to victory. His profound sense expanded as his power gradually recovered, and he could tell that Bluebird"s breathing was abnormal, indicating that he was only pretending to be unconscious.
Noticing that Bluebird was looking for an opportunity to strike, Sila knew it was his duty to provide it. His swordplay subtly and gradually changed from slow to being a little bit faster, starting as a breeze and growing into a storm, forcing Infernee"s swordplay to become faster accordingly.
Sila drew his feet into circles to reduce the impacts coming from Infernee"s attacks. He progressively shifted his position to stand in the opposite direction of Bluebird, pressing Infernee from both sides without allowing her to notice. It would increase Bluebird"s chance to perform a sneak attack.
Heaven"s Decree — Second Sword Style, Crashing Mountain.
Originally, Heaven"s Decree Sword Art was considered an offensive art. That was because the Sword Prodigy had never met an opponent who could push him into taking defensive actions. However, in front of Sila was Infernee"s longsword. Although it looked like it was made of gla.s.s and could easily break, the might it displayed was like that of a weapon which belonged to a G.o.d. He didn"t dare to receive it directly, so he relied on Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws" Migrate technique to slowly shift the course of the longsword using his Crystal Demonic Sword.
It was an adapted version of Crashing Mountain—the sword style which slowly yet constantly exerted the power of the great flow.
Then, Sila rotated his body and kicked Infernee"s arm holding the longsword.
Attribute of Metal — Metal Stomp.
Even though it was a sword fight, Sila didn"t think that he should only rely on the sword. A sword was an extension of the arm. The true weapon was his entire body.
Sila"s kick struck Infernee"s fragile arm and caused a loud cracking sound. Infernee"s arm was bent, resulting in her inability to maintain the longsword. Soon, it dispersed.
Infernee pulled her arm back, and it was healed in no time. However, there was no way Sila would waste the opportunity he created with difficulty.
Heaven"s Decree — Fifth Sword Style, Triple Lightning Bolts.
Sila"s single sword strike sent three waves of energy at Infernee the instant she stepped back. The black sword waves flew at her head, body, and ankle. Sila was being careful in each strike. He was confident that even if they couldn"t kill Infernee, they would at least open a gap and allow him to continue his attack.
Infernee"s body flashed with white magic power. Then, the three sword waves. .h.i.t her, but not a single wound was visible on her skin.
Sila didn"t have time to be curious. He rotated his body once more and sent another kick at her chest. It was one of his most powerful moves.
Attribute of Fire — Corpse-Igniting Stomp.
Infernee summoned two longswords in her hands, one each, without minding Sila"s attack at all. Once Sila"s kick connected with her body, he felt his power in the kick mysteriously disappear as if throwing a stone into an ocean. He didn"t understand what was happening, but he guessed Infernee must be using some kind of skill. Otherwise, his previous Metal Stomp shouldn"t have done any damage to her.
His guess was on the mark. In the instant that Infernee stepped back, she had activated Immortal Queen—the skill which granted the user temporary "Immortality".
Sila had yet to find out that monsters of Lord Rank and above usually possessed some fraudulent skills, which made killing them difficult for any players who tried, especially the monsters of the dragon race which was hailed as the strongest race.
True, Sila had experience killing dragons. However, the highest rank of them he had slain was Marquis Rank. For Lord-Rank dragons and above, even the Three Slime Guardians—Poluk, Viola, and Divine—wouldn"t be able to catch them alive.
Infernee was the Dragon Empress standing at the very zenith of all dragons in the New World. Even though the current Infernee in front of Sila was only her clone, Sila still couldn"t look down on her ability.
Infernee opened her mouth, and five small gla.s.s-like pearls flew out of it. They hovered around her body like they were moons...o...b..ting a planet. Each of them was sparkling beautifully.
Before Sila could admire the pearls" beauty, one of them emitted a bright light and fired a laser at him. Sila moved his body to dodge it by his instinct, but the laser was too fast. A hole appeared in his torso, and not even a drop of blood gushed out from the wound. The wound neatly appeared as a perfect circle. It was the most beautiful wound Sila had ever seen in his lifetime.
Nevertheless, the pain was not as beautiful as the wound. Infernee had concentrated her magic power into a small high-speed laser. It could penetrate even a high-level armor. Only Illuminus would be able to block this level of attack. If the previous laser had pierced his vital spot, Sila would have already died.
The five pearls emitted light. Learning from his past mistakes, Sila couldn"t afford to stand still. Infernee"s pearls were scary in mid-range, so he cut the distance and entered a melee-range once again. This time, he had to cope against her two longswords.
Having two swords didn"t mean she had become twice as strong though. It depended on whether the wielder was more proficient at using one sword or two swords. After fighting against Infernee for some time, Sila could somehow tell that the real Infernee didn"t use swords as her main weapon. The proof was that although she wielded two swords, her strength was not that different than before.
Heaven"s Decree — Third Sword Style, Swirling Vortex.
Subduing a complexity with a single strike. That was the concept of this sword style. Sila"s one simple strike was overwhelming like an overflowing vortex, forcefully breaking through all subtle changes in both of the Infernee"s longswords. Unavoidably, Infernee had no choice but to cross her swords together to block against Sila"s attack.
Sila knew his guess wasn"t wrong. Whatever Infernee did before, its effect must have run out. Otherwise, she wouldn"t have to block his sword.
Heaven"s Decree — Second Sword Style, Crashing Mountain.
Sila refused to let Infernee move freely. He pressed down with his sword like it was a giant mountain while circulating qi in his left hand, preparing to cope against the incoming lasers from the pearls.
Attribute of Metal — Nimbus-Severing Sword.
At the same time the pearls emitted flashes of lights, Sila struck his left hand on the back of his blade while releasing his grip on the Crystal Demonic Sword. As Infernee pressed back against his strike, he used her force to fly up into the air and somersaulted over her head to land behind her.
Infernee"s exquisite back was in Sila"s sight. Most people would want to take their time admiring the heavenly beauty, but the only thing in Sila"s mind was a chance to attack.
Attribute of Water — Conjuring Yizichan.
Even though Sila didn"t know whether Infernee"s human form possessed a set of acupuncture points like humans, he was willing to try sending a small portion of his power into her body. Regarding raw power, he was weaker than Infernee. Therefore, he had to rely on superior techniques. Using less to achieve more.
Dozens of small waves of Dark Psychic Corrosion infiltrated Infernee"s body. Each of them ran through her body to seek her most vulnerable spot. Finally, they discovered it as every bit of his power flew and merged with it.
The strongest spot could similarly be the most vulnerable one. Infernee"s source of her bottomless magic power was her heart. Sila didn"t dare to delay. He poured his remaining power into an attack that would stimulate the foreign psychic power within her body.
Attribute of Fire — G.o.d-Slaying Spear.
Sila glided around her and returned to his original position, pulling Infernee"s attention to him before performing a violent elbow strike. As the raging power within his elbow crashed against Infernee and intensified the water-attributed psychic power in her body, the clash of powers ignited from within her. The impact sent her toward Bluebird.
Sila was fully aware that Infernee could heal her injuries in no time. Nevertheless, his intention was to make her suffer an internal injury, opening an opportunity for Bluebird to make his move.
"Now, Blue! Do it!" Sila shouted as he grabbed the Crystal Demonic Sword and dashed forward, following Infernee.
Bluebird quickly got up. He saw a delicate and beautiful woman flying at him as his hand was ready to activate the skill. Due to the momentum, he noticed that the only area on her body that he could touch was her bosom. Although it might be quite inappropriate, he didn"t have the luxury to choose.
When his hand was an inch away from her chest, Bluebird pulled back by intuition. Unnoticed by anyone, Infernee had swiftly brandished her swords, aiming to sever the hand trying to molest her body. If Bluebird was a little bit slower to react, he would have already lost his right hand.
Infernee was recovering her strength. Sila was well aware of that. Their chance of victory was about to disappear. With her realizing that Bluebird wasn"t really unconscious, she would change her approach to fight them. She might unleash another fraudulent skill and defeat them in the next moment.
The distance between him and Infernee was only three meters, but Sila felt it was as far as a kilometer.
"Please, it better works."
Sila thought while brandishing the Crystal Demonic Sword even though its length wasn"t enough to reach Infernee.
Sila recalled the time when Dark Self used crystallized Dark Psychic Corrosion against Montra"s group. The sword was made from psychic power, so its shape wasn"t fixated. As long as he believed that it could reach, it would.
As if it was aware of its owner"s thoughts, while the Crystal Demonic Sword"s length remained the same, the Dark Psychic Corrosion strengthening it extended and shot forward. It slashed Infernee"s back and produced a wound which couldn"t be healed in a short time.
Infernee"s body was knocked forward from the strike, and Bluebird could finally touch her head. He immediately activated the skill without needing Sila to tell him.
"Psychic Nest-Returning Bird!!"
Infernee"s body turned transparent and transformed back into a ma.s.sive lump of magic power soaring into the sky. The remnant of magic power was returning to the original user of the skill Dragon Soul.
Sila recalled the Crystal Demonic Sword into his system window and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. The fight against Infernee lasted only a few minutes but he felt like it had been an hour. He had spent every last bit of qi in his body.
The fight had elevated Sila"s swordsmanship by leaps and bounds. Previously, he was afraid to use a sword as he didn"t want Montra to come up with a countermeasure. However, if he never used a sword in real battles, how could he gain sufficient experience? He needed to be capable of proficiently wield a sword in order to stand a chance against Montra"s spearmanship, which he had been honing for years. Thus, it was better for Montra to find out about his swordsmanship rather than him keeping it a secret and ultimately using his lousy swordplay to fight against Montra"s G.o.d-like spearmanship in the future confrontation.
Sila didn"t obtain any experience points or items from this fight. Nevertheless, the real reward he had acquired from it was combat experience by utilizing his power through hardships.
Five-Attributed Cloud Qi"s prominent point was the cycling of elements while its fault lied in the lower quality compared to Yin Yang Energy. In the fight against Infernee, Sila had learned how to use less to win more. During the fight, he had suffered a heavy injury, forcing him to use every bit of his power cleverly and carefully. This exact experience would give him a strong edge in the future.
Indeed, going beyond limits was necessary. However, it was similarly important to reduce the number of mistakes one made in utilizing power.
In fact, this aspect was what made Montra gain an upper hand over Sila most of the time. Montra rarely made a mistake in his movements, so he could always show the best of his capability. On the other hand, Sila sometimes had an edge yet sometimes lost his advantage. There was a large gap in Sila"s ability to control his power output. It was a result of him focusing too much on breaking his limits while neglecting his training of control over his power.
With the dragon gone, the system-generated NPCs started to resp.a.w.n, along with some system-generated buildings which got automatically rebuilt. Looking from afar, Grea City had become a vast empty s.p.a.ce with five buildings scattered around.
"Oh, no!" Suddenly, Bluebird exclaimed. Meanwhile, Sila sat down circulating qi to regain his strength and heal his wounds.
"What happened?" asked Sila.
"The system is telling me that I helped Grea City overcome a disaster, so I have become the city"s conqueror."
The system a.s.sessed the entire battle and ultimately decided to grant the city to Bluebird. Although Sila played a more active role fighting Infernee, it was Bluebird who dealt the most important blow, sending Infernee out of the city.
What Sila had done could be replaced by numbers of players or other powerhouses. However, what Bluebird had done was something only he was capable of. He alone possessed the skill Psychic Nest-Returning Bird.
"It"s good news, isn"t it?" Sila asked without caring too much about it. His concentration was on the wounds Infernee left on his body. They weren"t normal wounds, so they required more effort to be healed. The rate of the wounds closing was extremely slow.
"Good my a.s.s! Don"t you see the state of the city? What city? This is empty land. Do you think I have enough funds to rebuild an entire city? I have less than 20 gold on me."
Sila didn"t pay attention to Bluebird"s complaints at all. He opened his palm and borrowed power from the great flow. A faint vapor emitted from his hand as he pressed it on his wounds. He also stimulated his body"s natural healing power with the Attribute of Fire. The speed of his recovery became slightly faster, though still less than what Sila desired.
Bluebird contemplated his choices and finally came up with a brilliant idea. "I should donate it to the guild. Boss will be delighted. With this, I will be successfully throwing a problem... cough, I mean, giving a big, pleasant gift to the guild. Heh, I am truly a good guy."
The Royal Armament Guild"s members started to march into the city. Witnessing Sila and Bluebird standing there without Infernee in sight, they couldn"t believe their eyes. Shockingly, it was later revealed that Bluebird was the one who defeated Infernee. People began to respect and be in awe of him. Bluebird possessed a cheerful and friendly personality and a big heart as vast as the sky, willing to donate the entire city to his guild, which would be beneficial to the union. Considering his unimaginable strength, his vast area of knowledge, his expertise in both brain and brawl, and his signature blue clothing, Bluebird was like a majestic bird flying freely in a broad sky. Coupled with his personal ability to manipulate rumors, soon, many players began to address him as "Bluebird, the Sky Emperor".