The Giant didn"t look too happy that it was interrupted, but that was before it comprehended what Daneel had said.
Puzzled, it scratched its head, which caused fist-sized flakes of dirt to fall to the ground.
In the list of things that Daneel had thought he would never see, this was one item that could be ticked off.
Elanev"s legs were still shaking from being blown back in that manner by the sheer force of the Giant"s fist, but when he recovered, he looked at Daneel as if he was crazy.
"Daneel, are you out of your mind?! You don"t want to go through this, believe me! If I had talent as a Mage, Heavens know that I would never choose this! It"s not fun to bleed all day and have your bones broken multiple times, hour by hour, you know! Oh, pipe down, old man."
Obviously, the last sentence was in response to the grumbling that the old man must have started on hearing what he said.
Clearly, from what Daneel had said to the Giant, Elanev had misunderstood that Daneel also wanted to join the "real h.e.l.l" that he was going to go through.
The statement made by Elanev made Daneel receive a new perspective of what kind of training his elder brother must be going through, but he just laid a hand on his shoulders and said, "Don"t worry. I know what I"m doing. Besides, it"s not my intention to completely enter the path of training of a Fighter, yet. I"m doing this because I need the access that you have. Just trust me."
No sooner did Daneel say these words, did he look up to find that same fist heading toward him, too.
It was just too fast! Daneel was pretty confident that even if he kept his eyes on the Giant all the time, he would definitely have missed this fist being launched unless he used his inheritance.
Thankfully, the distance between them wasn"t too small, which was why he was able to at least spot it before it was too late.
Without thinking, Daneel first activated the Basilisk"s Breath, which made it slow down considerably. Although it was still at a speed which he couldn"t contend with, at all, he could at least see it now unlike before, when it had just appeared like a blur.
He had no time to be gentle, so Daneel unceremoniously threw his elder brother to the side and launched a Hidden Kill Fist, just like Elanev had done.
Just like before, he expected the fist to stop right at the moment before it hit him, but, to his horror, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
His gut screamed at him that he would soon be turned into meat paste if he didn"t act, while even the system started giving warnings due to the subroutines he had placed which detected perilous situations in which there might be a need for the system to cast certain spells.
By now, he could see what was different, too. Before, the speed of the fist had been noticeably slower, and there had also been a sign at the end where the Giant had applied force to stop the fist before it hit Elanev.
There was no such sign now, which meant that he was going to contend against the power of Hero.
He only had an instant, but Daneel utilized it as best he could.
This was his Kingdom, which meant that… The Ruler"s Inheritance could be used to full effect.
As the thoughts of many, many people appeared in his mind again, he skilfully segregated them in the same way that he had done during the fight with the Black Raven Empire Spirit. It still pounded in his head, threatening to take over and drive him insane, but he kept it at bay for the time being while concentrating on doing one single thing - conjuring barriers.
One after the other, barriers went up until a thick sh.e.l.l formed through which Daneel couldn"t even look outside. His fist was still flying forward as he had had no time to take it back, but, soon, it would meet the wall of the barrier instead of the Giant"s hand.
Initially, there were only normal barriers, but then, barriers of strange shapes also started appearing, such as ones filled with hexagons and others made of interlocking circles.
All of these were designed to ablate force and push it to the side instead of having to take it all on directly. In essence, their goal was to enable contraction and expansion of the overall construct, which was due to the nonrigid structure which was built on top of a solid base that would basically turn Daneel into a kind of bouncing ball that would be bounced away instead of being crushed in the face of a force which could not be resisted against.
Even Elanev seemed to have noticed that something was wrong, as he heard a scream from that direction at the moment before impact.
When the impact did occur, Daneel wondered whether this was how it felt to be crushed.
His barrier construct which he had named "Turtle Sh.e.l.l" had worked wonderfully - instead of putting up resistance, it had allowed the force to pa.s.s by it while being launched away just like a ball being hit by a baseball bat.
The fist was slightly angled up, which caused Daneel to fly upwards into the sky at a speed which almost made him look like a shooting star.
Some in Lanthanor even spotted this, and wondered why they were seeing shooting stars during the day.
Inside the ball, Daneel was tumbling around endlessly, with his mind spinning in circles while he felt pain all over his body due to the residual force that had entered the barrier.
Thankfully, his Peak Warrior level body was strong enough to endure, even though it hurt like h.e.l.l.
The force finally died down after he had traveled hundreds of kilometers diagonally from Lanthanor, which almost put him in the airs.p.a.ce of the Black Raven Kingdom.
As he finally started to slow down, Daneel struggled to cast spells to stop the momentum, which finally allowed him to come to a halt.
Instantly, he spat out blood as all of his internal organs had gotten injured due to them moving around and tumbling inside him due to such an instant and insane change in state.
His face was completely red due to all the blood that had rushed up, and his eyes were bloodshot as he blinked in shock, wondering what the heck the intention of the Giant was.
"Not harmful, my a.s.s!"
Cursing the Head, Daneel teleported back to find a crater where he had previously been.
It was over 10 feet deep and 20 feet wide, almost making it look as if an asteroid had barrelled down from the sky and impacted the Academy Grounds of the Kingdom of Lanthanor.
If anyone knew that this was all just the side-effects of an attack from a Hero-level Fighter, they would definitely be amazed.
"Young King… You should know that that was just a casual punch. If he really wanted to kill you, a fully powered punch would not give you any time to react. You would have been obliterated by now."
The statement from Drakos made Daneel gasp in shock.
That had actually been just a casual fist?
So Heroes were THIS d.a.m.n overpowered?!
At this moment, Daneel got a clearer estimate of the chasm that lay between him and the Hero level. Even though he couldn"t quantify it perfectly as he didn"t know just how casual the punch of the Giant was, he could tell that this was a chasm that couldn"t be crossed by using cute tricks such as before when he had utilized the Paragon techniques to battle against Raul.
The Giant smiled wide when he saw Daneel reappear, which made him wonder whether he should contact the Head for help, in case more attacks were going to come.
Daneel has been pretty sure that this must have been some test, which was why he had gone back, but now, as he was face to face with the Giant, he couldn"t help but rethink that decision.
Should he have killed his pride and contacted the Head, just to be safe, anyway?
After all, that was the only person who could protect him in this case, other than Rayen, but the latter couldn"t do so unless he wanted the secret of their agreement to be exposed to everyone.
This really irritated Daneel. Right now, he felt as if he was once again that weak Amateur Human who had only been able to look up to the Exalted Human level foes that he had gone up against during his ascension to become the King.
He had kept them in mind each and every moment when he trained, which had really helped to push him forward and enable him to endure.
It seemed… that this incident might have the same effect as then, when he had been made to kneel in front of the King because he was weak.
The Giant spoke up at this point.
With the innocent face of a child who had meant no harm, he said, "Sorry, King. The Grandmaster ordered me to test whether you are strong enough to take a casual Bam from me. It"s because you"re a Mage. The grandmaster doesn"t approve of those not focusing on one path. But you pa.s.sed, so you are eligible now, too. I"ll be leaving now - it"s time for my second breakfast. See you soon when you come to the Sect!"
Saying this, the Giant waved his hand in an animated motion before disappearing from where he was.
This… Made Daneel take another step back and rub his eyes, while he wondered whether he was hallucinating.
His elementary vision had been switched on, as it always was during a fight, which had enabled him to see just how this Giant had used teleportation.
There had been no use of a Mageroot!
Somehow, the Giant had forced the elementary particles to change in such a way to facilitate teleportation.
It reminded him…of the Mageroot-less spell that he, himself had cast during the Olympics.
How was it even possible to do this?
Daneel had no idea.
It was almost as if… he had learned all his life to sail a boat in a particular way, by seeing many others do so. Yet, right now, he had just seen someone accomplish the same thing without using a "rudder", which was, in this case, his Mageroot.
Daneel had heard once that once one reached the levels of Champions and Heroes, there was no longer a difference in power between Fighters and Mages, as was the case in the lower levels where a Fighter was weaker because they had to get into close range to launch their attacks, while the latter was capable of handling multiple opponents using various spells.
He hadn"t really believed it, but now, as he saw this, he realized that that must be true.
After all, this was the first truly powerful Fighter he had seen, as the old man didn"t count because he was just a spirit.
Taking a deep breath, Daneel tried to clear his mind of all the thoughts that had appeared because of everything he had just experienced
All in all, although Daneel was thoroughly disgruntled by that grandmaster"s actions, he was still happy because he had achieved what he wanted - he now had unlimited access in one of the Big Four, which, he felt, was worth the near-death experience.
Also, because he had had to endure the attack himself instead of before when he had only seen the Giant in action, Daneel now had a very intense admiration of the power that the Fighter path contained. In fact, right now, he even felt foolish that he had not placed this path, too, on the top of his list.
He had a G.o.dd.a.m.n Heaven-defying system, for Heaven"s sake!
Equipped like so, it would really be a shame if he didn"t aim as high as possible.
Just as Daneel was about to help Elanev up, a message resounded in his mind.
"HELP, DANEEL!"
It was from Faxul.
With panic filling his mind, Daneel instantly teleported to the location where Faxul was supposed to be- the underground area where they had built the "March Through h.e.l.l".
Only, as soon as he appeared in the cavern, he was greeted by a sight which made him wonder if he had gone crazy for the second time today.
A 6-foot tall Black Raven was in front of him, which screeched as if in pain before falling to the ground.
That was what it looked like, but through the elementary vision, Daneel could see that it was actually…an Elementary Particle Construct of dizzying complexity.
In the middle of it was Faxul, with his eyes closed and his face twisted into an expression of agony.
As Daneel looked on, unable to understand what the f*ck was going on, the Raven construct in which his friend was present phased in and out of existence.
Drakos"s shout returned him to his senses.
"KNOCK HIM OUT, YOUNG KING! HIS BLOODLINE HAS BEEN TRIGGERED! IF HE ISN"T STOPPED BY FORCE, HE WILL GO MAD!"
Without any further thought, Daneel made a large metallic hammer appear above the Raven"s head, which was also where Faxul"s head was.
Apologizing silently, he let it drop.