For a few seconds, Rayen couldn"t believe his ears.
A plan to kill the King?
The first emotion he got was actually panic, because he knew that his son"s life was linked to that man.
However, he was a Hero who had been through many high-pressure situations, after all, so he forcibly controlled himself in the matter of a second and responded, "Hmm? Living a long and comfortable life is also my priority, so I would rather not go against that clear directive of the Head. However, if there is something foolproof, then I"m definitely interested. What do you have in mind?"
The voice responded in a neutral tone.
"Of course, it"s completely discreet! And I said that we would just lend a hand, not actually go by ourselves and get caught red-handed. Even I have no interest in risking the Head"s wrath, and recently, the actions of the High Council have kept him pretty much on edge. This is a sensitive topic, though, so you"ll understand if I ask that you come to my place first. I don"t trust these means of communication. Besides, there are a few others in on this too, so it will be a perfect opportunity to meet together and discuss. And isn"t it high time we bury the hatchet over the matter that happened so many decades ago? I"ve changed since then! Come over, and I"ll even open a very limited collection wine that I found, just because I know that you are a connoisseur, just like the Head. What do you say?"
Rayen couldn"t help but raise his eyebrows as he heard this, as the last time they had met, the two of them had actually gotten into a fight that had devastated quite a large area. In the end, the Head, himself, had had to step in, and he hadn"t been very happy. They had both been condemned to two decades in solitary introspection, and it was an unpleasant experience that Rayen still couldn"t come to terms with to this day.
Yet, this guy wanted to "bury the hatchet"?
No, something was definitely off about this, and if Rayen didn"t detect that, then he would hardly be able to call himself a Hero who was said to be one of the smartest in the entire continent.
That t.i.tle, though, which had used to give him happiness, now made him frown because it reminded him each time of the way he had been completely dominated in the interaction with the King of Lanthanor, but he was slowly coming to terms with it. Besides, after meeting his son, Rayen was much happier about the entire thing.
Even if this wasn"t the case, he would have done the same thing that he was going to do now.
"Alright, I"ll be there. Just send me the time and the place, in case you"ve s.h.i.+fted from that sh*thole that you used to call your home."
With a chuckle, the voice responded, "Great! I"ll do that soon."
As soon as this was done, Rayen picked up the communication trinket, and contacted the Jing.
…
Meanwhile, Daneel was busy enjoying himself fighting the two apparitions that were on the same level as him.
He received the message, but because he had told the system to block each and every incoming message except if it was something which required his attention no matter what, he was unable to check it right away.
His concentration was completely involved in dodging each and every punch and kick that were thrown at him, and on the other side, his opponent was wondering why this guy wasn"t displaying the Path that he had chosen to break through to become a Champion as a Fighter.
He was also interested to find out just what it was, but no matter how much time pa.s.sed, nothing in the fight changed.
Till now, the King had only been using his base body, and that was a very unusual method of fighting, especially for a Champion. True, they were still pretty d.a.m.n powerful, but a Fighter"s true strength came from their Path, and the spells that they learned after breaking through which would involve them using their body to manipulate Elementary Particles. The advantage in this was that they could be cast abruptly, and it was the main reason why the gap between a Fighter and a Mage was supposed to be diminished by quite a lot after this qualitative breakthrough.
The truth was that each of those apparitions also only had the base strength of newly-broken through Champions, and he had expected them to be vanquished in quite a short time. In fact, prepared for this, Raul had even begun to partially cast the spell to renew the apparitions, but after waiting for a few seconds and seeing that there was still a stalemate, he had stopped it and focused on his primary one that he would use to end this battle.
While doing this, Raul also wondered from exactly where the King had picked up so many Fighting techniques, when he was supposed to have spent most of his time training as a mage in order to reach that incredible power level which he had used to defeat him earlier.
Almost with each and every second that pa.s.sed, the king was taking out technique after technique, and the amazing thing was that his reflexes seemed to be on a different level. He could always spot the attacks of the two apparitions even before they became visible to the naked eye, and this indicated that he had the terrifying power of foresight, which was apparently supposed to only be present in experienced Fighters who had spent decades repeatedly dueling and mastering the art of reading minute signs to predict from where their opponent"s blows would be landing.
Already, the king had lived up to his name of being one who would smash through any and all expectations that were placed on him, and make everyone who were foolish enough to compare themselves to him and dream of surpa.s.sing his talent, despair.
Raul even began to wonder whether the Path of the king was something related to foresight, but the Champion had a feeling that this was definitely not the case.
Indeed, Daneel was just using the Basilisk"s Breath to make this possible.
Right from the beginning of the fight itself, he had activated this inheritance, and to his delight, he had seen that he had obtained this new ability which hadn"t been present before.
On asking the system, he had been pleasantly surprised to know that the breakthrough as a Fighter had essentially upgraded his body, granting him greater vision and greater reflexes that were able to pick up all these minute details which he had used to miss before. Of course, he had had this ability using the system before, but now, Daneel could display it without its help.
For some reason, this appealed to him a lot, and he was actually currently enjoying the feeling of knowing from where the blows would come, and moving to dodge them beforehand and then launching his own.
It was pretty d.a.m.n incredible that at the base level, itself, he was capable of standing up to two Champions who had the same power as him, and repeatedly pulling out various Fighter techniques from the memories that he had in order to test them felt great.
Now that he had had his fun, though, Daneel decided to move to the actual stage of testing his power.
For this, he suddenly got an idea, and asked the system, "Is there any memory or record of any Shapes.h.i.+fter fighting, or explaining how to fight?"
He didn"t know why he hadn"t gotten this thought before, but the answer made him feel overjoyed.
[Scanning. Affirmative. One entry found of the Emperor looking in on a personal cla.s.s that was taken by Xandar, the Shapes.h.i.+fter for those who had newly taken his Bloodline.]
Daneel wished that he had gone through this before, but it wasn"t too late. Looking at his opponent, he used his elementary vision and saw that the man was working very hard to cast an advanced spell: Limitless Thunderfire Prison, which would trap him and leave him no option but to surrender.
Because this was such a complicated spell, casting it with just half of his power while the other half was maintaining the apparitions was quite difficult. However, Raul would still require around 10 seconds for it to complete, so Daneel activated the Basilisk"s Breath to the fullest and asked the system to play the memory, keeping half his attention on his opponents while also having the system take over his body momentarily.
Instantly, Daneel was taken to a lush field where a towering oak that looked like it had been alive for hundreds of years stood, and under the shade of its leaves, five people were standing.
One of those five was actually familiar, and it was Xandar, the Shapes.h.i.+fter.
It looked like he was a man of fas.h.i.+on even during that age, as he was wearing clothes that were different from any on the spot. His robes had artistic cuts here and there, and there were also varying colors, which gave him an eye-popping image that would draw anyone"s attention.
The other four seemed young, and even though they had differing body types, they were all standing alertly, and this reminded Daneel of a file of soldiers from Earth who had been trained and had the utmost of discipline.
This was no sixth person, and Daneel realized that he was looking at it all from the Emperor"s viewpoint, who must have been observing the scene while being elsewhere.
"All of you have obtained the Bloodline of my n.o.ble race. Congrats! Like the others of the graduating cla.s.s who succeeded, you should be celebrating right now. However, I noticed that all of you had sad expressions, and that you were even being teased a bit by those arrogant guys who had gotten the Bloodlines of Dragons, Tigers, and Serpents. So… I decided that I would give you a small cla.s.s so that you"ll understand that you guys actually lucked out. Yes, Shapes.h.i.+fters are supposed to be among the weakest of G.o.dbeasts, but did you know that we are also known for living the longest? This is only when not taking into the equation the Divine c.o.c.kroach, of course, but still: the fact stands that everyone underestimates our powers, because they don"t even know clearly what they are. They think that because we can only mimic the shape of a different G.o.dbeast, we are weak. But what they don"t know… is that if used correctly, a Shapes.h.i.+fter can defeat anyone. I won"t sugarcoat it for you, though. It will require you to put in much, much more hard work than your peers, and it will require you to have patience. You will face pain. Tons of it. But if you persevere…the world will be yours.
As Xandar paused, the eyes of the four gleamed, as if they were seeing hope for the first time.
Smiling, the Shapes.h.i.+fter continued.
"You see, as Shapes.h.i.+fters, we directly have the ability to take the form of a G.o.dbeast we choose. Do you think that a form is weak, even if you can"t channel the power? If so, you are wrong. Think of this like this. If the form of a G.o.dbeast is its weapon, then its power…is its ammo. If the form is its bow, the power is its arrow. If that is so, can"t you simply…use your own arrow, after borrowing the bow? A Dragon"s fire comes from its ever-burning heart, and true, we cannot mimic that exactly, as it is the aspect of its power. But we can mimic the pathway that the fire from the heart takes, and this pathway serves the purpose of amplifying the fire, shaping it, and giving it destructive strength. Watch."
After saying the last word, Xandar phased, just like Daneel had seen him do before, and in his place came a gigantic emerald Dragon that was 30 feet tall and 80 feet long. It towered over them all, and its four legs padded on the ground, raking up the earth and causing deep furrows to form. Without any more hesitation, it bent back its long neck, and shot it forward in the direction of the oak tree.
Lo and behold, at the end of its trajectory, a barrage of flames flew forth, impacting the mighty oak which looked as if it would never fall and making it break apart with sheer force before burning it to ash.
Turning back and drinking in the awe displayed on the faces of the four, Xandar declared, "To become able to do that, I needed to train for 43 years. The difficulty lies in channeling our own fire body of the Dragon as if it were real, and each and every small mistake will cause injuries that will leave you stranded in bed for days. This is because we are attempting something unnatural, so there is a backlash each time we get it wrong. But if we get it right…you see the result."
The vision cut off here, and as Daneel regained control of his body, he paused.
THWUMP!
THWACK!
Two kicks. .h.i.t his back, and he staggered forward.
Raul was startled. What had gotten into the King?
What happened next, though, made him drop his jaw and almost run back in horror.
The King seemed to become…transparent, and in his place, a magnificent creature 20 feet tall and 50 feet long appeared.
It crushed the two apparitions under its feet easily before turning to Raul, and as it did so, it bent back its neck.
Raul didn"t know what to expect, so he abandoned his spell and immediately began to conjure layers and layers of barriers. He felt an intrinsic fear that made him feel fl.u.s.tered, and this shocked him as he was known for his calm heart and mind.
Still, how could he be blamed?
It was a f*cking Dragon, for Heavens" sake!
He had seen this creature in a few ill.u.s.trations back when he was in the Big Four, and he had never thought that he would have to face it in real life.
Right when he was done making 10 layers, the Dragon shot its neck forward, and Raul fully expected to be destroyed in the next second.
He had even forgotten that this was a "friendly" battle, and he began to tell his last prayers.
Like a whip, the Dragon"s neck stretched, and at the end of the trajectory, it stopped and opened its mouth.
The magnificent teeth which could eat him whole were displayed to him clearly, and in the depths of its maw, he could see the telltale glow of the legendary Dragonfire that would soon engulf him.
BOOM!
Raul braced himself and closed his eyes, and as this loud sound echoed in his ears, a painful roar accompanied it.
Huh? Was there another target behind him or something?
Unable to understand why he wasn"t a smoldering pile of ash yet, Raul opened his eyes, and to his shock, he found a gory sight in front of him.
The explosion…had actually occurred in the middle of the Dragon"s neck.
The front part of its head had been blasted apart from the rest of its body, and the smell of burning flesh permeated in the vast underground room.
Seeing its twitching body, Raul even had to wonder whether he had died, and had begun to dream.
After all, what kind of a Dragon would blow itself up in the act of doing the one thing it was known for? Was it a new kind of power he hadn"t heard of? Suicide-Fire? No, that couldn"t be possible.
It looked like there was no one to answer these questions, though, as there was only silence in the arena, while the Dragon continued to twitch.