Chapter 256: Some Bad News and An Event
When Sila arrived at the temporary fight club, he got excited by the atmosphere full of shouting and the sounds of battle. Hundreds of people fought to their hearts" content.
Spotting Sila, several spectators split up to make a path for him, which Sila thanked them for by bowing his head slightly.
"Sila! Come here!" shouted Bluebird from a corner. Sila raised his head and found that Bluebird was sitting on a wooden seat in the front row, surrounded by Lookhin, Asura, and Clute. In a way, it was as if they were his bodyguards, preventing others from approaching him.
Sila pa.s.sed through the crowds and arrived next to Bluebird. He stroked Lookhin"s head a few times.
"It seems everyone is here. Have you finished sightseeing?" asked Sila.
"This city is small, and most of the buildings are in ruins. The only place to stop by is this fight club," replied Bluebird.
Sila turned his attention to the arena where Burapha was fighting. "What do you think, Mister Asura?"
Asura didn"t shift his gaze to Sila. He stared at Burapha, who was fighting his fourteenth opponent, while scratching his bald head.
"He is getting better, that"s for sure. I have been picking a slightly superior opponent to gradually make him grow stronger. The kid has been focusing on defense so he could save a lot of stamina. He should be good to fight seven or eight more opponents."
"But that"s only in terms of one-on-one fights, right?"
"He can manage to stand his ground against a group if his opponents are weaker or equal. His lance art is good at defending, so he can save his life. His stamina will be consumed at a rapid rate though."
Sila had never seen the One-Eyed Evil G.o.d, Kirishima Kai, utilize Eastern Sea Sailing Lance Art before, but he could guess that the art was more profound than it appeared to be.
Based only on what he had seen so far, Sila had no more advice to give. For Burapha to hone his lance art further, he could only rely on himself.
Burapha drew his lance and deflected the spear held by his current opponent. He relied on the parry technique to redirect his opponent"s attack to the left before twisting his elbow, changing the position of his lance to jab his opponent"s armpit.
Burapha"s psychic power flowed along with his movements and spiraled up, leading the acc.u.mulated psychic power in his opponent"s body to flow the same way. The attack came from the inside out, causing several ripples to appear on his opponent"s skin. The strength left his body as he fell on his knees.
"Next person!" shouted Burapha. He took a deep breath, feeling energetic.
Wondering which person he should pick next, Asura"s gaze wandered around the location. Yet Sila suddenly stepped into the arena. "Let me."
Burapha wailed. "Big Brother Sila? How can I stand a chance against you?"
"No matter who your opponent is, you can"t think it"s a hopeless battle. In fact, my fighting abilities and Revin"s are around the same level," Sila replied calmly.
Even though they were aware that this wasn"t a fight to the death, the people were interested to see Sila"s battle. Thus, no one but Burapha opposed Sila"s abrupt decision.
Seeing Sila summon the Crystal Divine Sword, some people were surprised. This was their first time witnessing Sila using a sword.
"Big Brother, do you have to use a sword against me? I heard from Big Brother Blue that you only use it against strong opponents."
"Revin uses a sword too. His swordsmanship is even better than mine."
The name "Revin" seemed to be a good catalyst for Burapha. He no longer complained as he moved his feet to confront Sila. His expression was devoid of hesitation.
Sila tightened his grip while borrowing power from the Great Flow. He started the battle with the first sword style of Heaven"s Decree Sword Art, Inverted Ground.
Nature responded to the sword art by influencing Burapha"s perception with a surreal phenomenon, making him think the ground was unstable and that he had to attack right now if he didn"t want to be buried alive.
Still, Burapha didn"t move forward. He simply adjusted his breathing.
Sila frowned. Heaven"s Decree Sword Art had always worked against his opponents so far. He didn"t understand why it didn"t affect Burapha. Nevertheless, as he had mastered the Cloud Part, it only took him a few seconds to guess the reason.
"I see. Even if he felt the urge to attack, Burapha is aware that he excels more at defense. He would be put into a disadvantageous position if he attacked, so he chose to stay focused despite it conflicting with his intuition. That"s why Heaven"s Decree failed."
It was an unexpected weakness of Heaven"s Decree Sword Art. Even so, after thinking about it deeply, Sila decided it wasn"t a big deal. Even a slight moment of hesitation would give him enough of an advantage if he utilized it right.
"I will have to be more direct in my attacks, then." Sila slowly stepped forward.
The Great Flow, one of Pumin"s profound arts, was categorized as a magic ability in-game. Thus, it worked best when used together with his magic skills—Orbiting Cosmos and Element-Changing Nightmare Magical Qi.
Black grains of sand swirled around the blade. Sila was exerting dark earth elemental power with Element-Changing Nightmare Magical Qi. Although the sword seemed to be lightly held in his hand, its physical attack power was greatly increased due to the supplementation of the earth element.
Sila jumped into the sky while mimicking Revin"s martial move to attack Burapha by drawing his sword in a beautiful curve.
Revin"s Flame Phoenix Sword Art was fierce yet ever-changing, suitable for a long and heavy sword. Sila"s sword had a thicker edge, so he couldn"t properly replicate the might of the art.
As such, the strike was clearly inferior to Revin"s and Burapha easily blocked it using a psychic barrier.
The attack power in the strike pushed Burapha three steps back while Sila could feel some kind of mysterious power silently submerging into his veins through his arm.
Although this power was currently harmless, Sila was fully aware that it could become a problem in the future, so he quickly circulated qi to drive it out.
"You"re good, Burapha." Sila gave Burapha a compliment. "Still, it"s not enough. Your power is faint and lacking strength. The difference between it and Shueria"s Bomb Lurking Psychic is as large as the difference between Heaven and Earth. I could drive it out with just two laps of qi circulation. Revin wouldn"t take longer than me."
With his weakness being mentioned so clearly, Burapha had time to rethink. He had been controlling his power to become faint in order for it to easily submerge into his opponent"s body. However, as it could easily enter, it could easily be forced to exit as well.
As Burapha was still pondering about it, Sila vanished from his line of sight. Only his words entered Burapha"s ears.
"Scattered, they are weak. Integrate, and they will be strong."
Burapha calmly b.u.mped the handle of his lance against the ground to emit his psychic power around the arena for the sake of pinpointing Sila"s location.
Quickly, Burapha tilted his body to the left and swiftly blocked Sila"s sword using his lance.
The impact wasn"t strong but it sent vibrations through Burapha"s lance and made it harder to hold.
It seemed Sila had changed the element around his sword from earth to water. The dark water element focused on complexity rather than raw power, aiming at the weapon instead of the user.
Burapha gritted his teeth as he rotated the lance to weaken the vibration. However, Sila didn"t allow him to do that so easily. He struck once more, this time with the dark fire element. The black flames were swirling fiercely around his sword. There was no mercy in this attack.
The eyewitnesses thought Sila was too heavy-handed with his actions in what was only a sparring match, though no one could help Burapha in time.
Meanwhile, Burapha himself was getting out of breath. He bore the exhaustion and forcefully exerted more of his power. He quickly came up with a way to survive by kicking the lance"s handle to quicken the speed of the rotation, finally dispersing the vibrations and blocking Sila"s second attack. At the same time, he also activated Water Spirit to melt the snow around him and protect himself with it.
The sound of metal against metal echoed. Both weapons were made by the same legendary weaponsmith, so there was no difference in quality.
Burapha"s psychic power developed during a moment of crisis. The wave of psychic power split into three and infiltrated Sila"s body using his sword as a medium.
The three waves then recombined into one, squeezing Sila"s veins from within as if it was a steel thread.
With Burapha"s evolved psychic power, Sila had to resort to using Serene Circulation and pressed his fingers on his arm in order to negate the wave.
Sila"s eyes gleamed red as he pressed the sword down before dragging it along with the ground. His usage of a sword was bizarre and far from ordinary. It was at this moment that Sila executed his version of Heaven"s Decree Sword Art for the second time.
Sila"s Personal Sword Art — Vast Underworld (Originally Inverted Ground).
Sila"s swordsmanship differed from Pumin"s in the sense that he disregarded the manipulative power of the sword and compensated for it with an increase in profound strength.
He swung the sword upward, aiming at Burapha"s chest.
In the decisive moment between life and death, Sila retracted his power and slightly pulled back his sword. As a result, the back of his blade only sent Burapha flying two meters into the sky instead of killing him.
"As expected of Flaming Cloud Qi, a dark art, I can even make Heaven"s Decree Sword Art into my own. I will have to adapt the remaining sword styles too."
Sila recalled the last strike just a moment ago. He spotted the chance to develop his own sword style, aiming for it to possess the attribute of penetrating an opponent"s defense. Even better, he could control his power at will. It only took him an instant to unleash or collect his sword might.
Despite the fatigue, Burapha stood up while feeling delighted. He could clearly feel the development of his psychic power due to overcoming the danger just now. He hurriedly gave Sila words of grat.i.tude.
"Thank you, Big Brother. I can feel my power rising inside me." Burapha then took a health potion out to drink.
"Psychic power will develop in desperate moments, so I had to put you in danger. I"m sorry I didn"t tell you about my intentions beforehand. It would block your psychic power from growing if you knew the danger was false," Sila explained while returning his sword to his armor.
Witnessing the fight, Bluebird rushed at Sila and Burapha and intimately put his arms around their necks. "You two are getting stronger. Cool! At this rate, you will have a lot of followers in the future. When that time comes, you can just order them around without having to do anything yourself. Such bliss~"
Sila and Burapha awkwardly smiled at Bluebird"s remark. Before the conversation continued, Bluebird"s system window notified him about an incoming message.
Seeing the name of the sender, Bluebird quickly read the message. His expression immediately turned grim as he read the contents. It was an expression that his two friends had never seen on Bluebird"s face.
"What happened, Big Brother?" asked Burapha.
Bluebird replied with an exceptionally serious expression. "A problem occurred with Boss. Her ident.i.ty as a spy was exposed and she was killed once. She is now offline and has requested my help."
Sila realized that this was indeed a grave situation. "What can we do to help?"
The playfulness from earlier could no longer be seen in Bluebird"s eyes. He sent a message to Sila in order to prevent anyone else from eavesdropping.
"I will go to the Floating Magic City and sneakily help Boss out."
Sila replied to the message. "That city is the base of the Heavenly Dragon Guild. How can you alone make it?"
"I have to do it by myself, as our mobility will be negatively affected if many people go. I will appoint the time with Boss. When she logs in, I will take care of the person in her path and escape together with her."
"In that case, let the three of us go together."
"Do you think Burapha can do it? I am not looking down on him or anything, but with the task ahead of us, his ability to fight won"t be as important as his ability to survive."
"Don"t worry. You will see a new version of Burapha soon," Sila affirmed.
With that, Bluebird was no longer opposed to the idea. "In any case, I will head over there in advance and make preparations. We have to plan an escape route at the very least."
Sila nodded. "Be careful."
Bluebird closed his system window and left. People were more interested in Sila, so they let Bluebird go without trying to stop him.
Sila thought the time for him to proceed with his plan had come. The earlier he finished his goal here, the sooner he could go and help Bluebird.
"Everybody, please listen to me."
Sila was becoming famous, so they all paid attention to him without complaints even though his voice wasn"t loud enough for some of them to hear clearly.
"Three days from now, I will host a big event that is meant to bring us closer together. This event will be extremely dangerous. Anyone that doesn"t want to take part, I will have to ask you to leave the city before we start. Those who stay will automatically be forced to partic.i.p.ate."
One person shouted. "What kind of event you are talking about?"
"Raiding the Dragon Kingdom." Sila had said it rather casually, but his words were like thunder to everyone"s ears. The silence vanished in an instant as it was replaced by a noisy atmosphere.
"The Dragon Kingdom? Are you still sane?" White pa.s.sed through everyone else and stood in front of Sila.
Sila nonchalantly replied, "I know what kind of an opponent a dragon is. It possesses st.u.r.dy scales which are durable against all kinds of energy, a tremendous amount of magic power, the ability to manipulate the results of spells, and a domain that puts its opponents into a disadvantageous position. Furthermore, against many of them, their Dragon Domains will overlap with each other, making it hard for us to even lift our hands.
"I won"t tell you this event will be easy, because it will be insanely difficult—so difficult that we have to join forces and bring out our full potential. Its difficulty will be enough to make most of us die in this raid. In any case, I"m not asking you to risk your lives for free. If most of you agree to partic.i.p.ate, I promise I will shoulder the burden of rebuilding the city no matter how the raid turns out."
Sila had said what he wanted to say, so he simply waited for their replies. Meanwhile, the players looked askance at each other.
After some discussions, people took turns to converse with White. In the end, White once more acted as the representative of the city when negotiating with Sila.
"They have all agreed to partic.i.p.ate, but under a few conditions. You have to prove to us that those weren"t empty words. The first condition is that we must see some progress for the restoration of the city—it must show signs that it will be done within a week. The other condition is that you must show your true strength, and it has to be at an acceptable level for bringing us to raid dragons."
Listening to White"s proposed conditions, Sila fell silent. Everyone thought the condition was too hard, though the fact was Sila was mentally communicating with Sebastian.
While White was hesitating over whether she should lower the wager, Sila replied, "I accept your conditions. About the first condition, it will take only three days. The city will be completely rebuilt even before the event starts. Regarding the second condition, please pick a handful of the strongest people among your group, and I will show them my true strength."
"You never cease to amaze us, Mister Sila," White muttered while shaking her head.
"Don"t be amazed just yet, Miss White," Burapha interrupted, "When Big Brother Sila is involved, this kind of thing can only be trivial."