An Exalted Warrior?!
At this moment, Daneel felt like he had kicked over an anthill to make a rattlesnake jump towards him.
As if to herald the arrival of such a powerful existence, Daneel felt a change in the elementary particles around him.
It was almost as if they were being pulled towards the old man, making it harder than normal to connect with them.
So an Exalted Warrior was this powerful? This sort of effect meant that it would be harder for any mage to perform magic in this location.
If Daneel had known that he would be facing up against such a demon, maybe he would have thought of other plans.
But now that he actually was in this situation, he couldn"t help but feel his blood heating up.
This was definitely one of the changes that had come over him since coming from Earth.
On Earth, if anyone became hyped when facing someone much stronger than themselves, they would be called crazy.
Yet, with the countermeasures he had in place, Daneel wanted to find out just how powerful an Exalted Warrior could be.
Besides, it was even a dual trainer, just like him. He wanted to see the potential that one could reach when they walked down this path to the heights.
After making the bold statement, the old man started to walk towards Daneel with a quiet confidence. It was almost like he was taunting him, by giving him the chance to do whatever he could to stand up against such powerful strength.
Deciding to take the chance, Daneel started to quickly create a defensive Paragon Construct.
This was another one of his trump cards, but Daneel had decided to take it out because his life was in danger.
Along with guns and bullets, Daneel had also studied Kevlar to some degree. When he had remembered this information, he had actually felt glad that he had allowed himself to take breaks between studying and just look up anything and everything over the internet.
Kevlar was one of the best defensive materials on Earth, used for a variety of purposes due to its structure which allowed it to decrease the kinetic energy of objects trying to penetrate it.
The idea which was extracted from this was the basis behind his current spell.
Although he had wanted to cast more spells himself, this one had so much complexity that even the system had only barely managed to develop a technique to cast it.
The way metal elementary particles worked was that by mixing in a few particles of a different nature, the strength decreased but the ability to be bent was added.
Using this trick, multiple silvery strands of metal appeared in the air placed parallelly with a little bit of gap between them. Next, similar strands formed in the gaps before moving to one direction and entwining with the ones that had initially formed.
In this way, multiple strands made of two strings of metal appeared, before moving together and arranging themselves to not have any gaps between them.
This was one layer. In the same way, two more layers managed to form before the old man finally appeared in front of Daneel.
Frustrated, Daneel wished he had a little more time to form more layers. The defense went up exponentially with each because each interwoven strand worked to disperse the force of whatever it was that was trying to get through.
On the other side, it was almost as if the old man was reveling in the feeling of being powerful again after being weak for so long. An arrogance that seemed to be a natural trait of his surfaced, making him tap at the metal dome twice as if warning Daneel to "brace himself".
Taking a deep breath, he first pulled his fist back before forming a gauntlet of spiked metal around it. This metal was then set on fire, resulting in an awe-inducing sight that would strike fear in the heart of anyone who had to face this doom-bringing fist.
The moment he punched forward, all that anyone could see was a blur.
PUMPH
Although the s.h.i.+eld did its work and decreased the force of the fist by a certain margin, it was nowhere near enough to completely stop the power of an Exalted Warrior.
Seeing the fist coming straight towards his stomach, Daneel could only saw two words before being blown backwards.
"Oh s**t."
BOOM
Luckily, at the last moment, he managed to order the system to immediately let go of the metal elementary particles behind him, allowing him to fly through the air instead of being swatted like a fly against his own s.h.i.+eld.
As blood flew around him, Daneel"s mind went blank for a few moments during his flight.
It was only after thudding to the ground and rolling for a few feet did he come back to his senses. There were now four additional scorched holes in his stomach, but they weren"t very deep. Multiple bones were broken and many of his internal were injured.
If anyone sustained these many injuries on Earth, they would definitely be declared dead if they did not receive immediate medical treatment.
Yet, on Angaria, this was nothing a Warrior-level healing spell couldn"t mend.
[Damage has exceeded the threshold. Beginning recovery.]
Feeling the p.r.i.c.kling under his skin that indicated that the healing was underway, a smile spread across Daneel"s face.
Blood was seeping from one corner of his mouth and there were a few scratches on his cheeks from the sharp tiny rocks on the ground, but his smile shone through.
He had actually defended a strike from an Exalted Warrior!
No matter what, this was an achievement that he could be proud of.
"Good s.h.i.+eld. Where did you learn it? Just tell me, there is no meaning in taking your secrets to the grave."
Walking over towards him, the old man said these words in an idle tone.
The s.p.a.ce had been locked long ago, and either party wouldn"t let the other to take out s.p.a.ce lock breaking trinkets and use them.
Without responding, Daneel prepared to put everything on the line for one last attack to drive his enemy back.
A little distance away, hidden discreetly inside a hole made by Daneel when he arrived was his clone.
In one hand, it was holding a Ker Gem from which it had been absorbing all this time.
In the other were the two Champion level trinkets that Daneel had activated before handing over to the clone.
As soon as the old man reached him, Daneel"s plan was to cast a spell to distract him at least for a moment before launching all three attacks: the clone"s combustion and the ones from the Champion level trinkets.
Even if this attack didn"t kill this d.a.m.n old man, it would at least give him the time to try and run.
Suddenly, a racking cough could be heard near him as the old man bent over, spitting out black blood again.
This made his arrogant demeanor disappear, replaced by an expression of anxiousness.
Daneel cursed inside, knowing that his enemy would definitely try to speed things up now. Even an extra second of absorbing energy from the Ker Gem might have made a difference.
He had only taken a glance towards the position of the clone, but the old man had managed to cover the distance of 25 feet between them in an instant.
Just…what kind of speed did an Exalted Warrior have?
Feeling thankful that he hadn"t gotten into a contest of speed, Daneel prepared to launch everything.
It seemed that the old man wanted to end things cleanly, as he had pulled back his arm to conjure another blazing metallic fist.
Yet, just as the fist was about to be launched, both of heard a rumbling sound which made them pause.
Although it was a bit incoherent at first, it became quite clear after a second.
It was the sound of someone punching against something, yet these punches were so strong that they were shaking the ground itself with the aftershock.
3 punches later, it seemed a limit had been reached.
BOOOOM
In the air right above Daneel, two women appeared whom he had never seen before.
What was most puzzling was that they were wearing dresses usually worn by rich people in Lanthanor.
Seeing this situation, one took a trinket from a hidden pocket in her dress before saying, "Stop! By the rules of the alliance, I have the authority to attack with lethal force! If you value your life, step back!"
Just as the old man looked at them with frustration and considered continuing his attack, the fight above ground between the returning son and the selfish King was almost about to begin.