Arrogance Was the Common Failing of Most Iron Riders

Arrogance Was the Common Failing of Most Iron Riders

Li Aoz was furious.

Personal Talent: Objective Resonance—this could not exactly be called a rare talent.

Rather, there might have been only one such case among the planet's billions of people.

It was extraordinarily rare.

This was a talent that fit the Starcaller prerequisite class—Bishop—exceptionally, exceptionally, exceptionally well!

Its description seemed rather ordinary: more focused attention, an easier time observing the patterns behind changes in things—but its actual performance was terrifying.

Simply put, this talent could directly eliminate the casting windup created by chants, gestures, movements, and formation setup.

What did that mean?

It meant that ultimate moves such as Dragon's Breath, Great Void Demonic Flash, and Gate of Purgatory, which required casting times of several minutes, no longer required the caster to stand still and wait. They could move freely, use mobility skills at will, and never interrupt the cast.

You could even open a warp, charge straight from a safe zone into a restricted area to unleash an ultimate, and still have time to slip back out.

It was practically useless for classes like Martial Artists, Ability Users, Biochemists, Mechanics, and Architects, who barely needed to cast skills at all.

Their cooldowns were already short, and activating their abilities required virtually no windup. Their damage came from means other than skills—sometimes just Basic Attacks.

But for classes with lengthy casting windups, this was a god-tier talent!

For example, Summoners, Soul Ferrymen, Netherworld Envoys, Apostles, and Bishops all possessed tremendous damage potential, but to deal their full damage, they had to completely sacrifice mobility.

So—

"You have such an incredible talent, yet instead of becoming a famed spellcaster, you graduated college and came to Law Enforcement Division Four to be some lowly agent?!"

And you even played Anomaly Class? And a medium, at that? Anomaly Class skills generally had almost no windup, strong spell penetration, and all sorts of bizarre little tools. Even if they could not serve as the carry, they could still make excellent support and intel roles.

Mediums were even more famous for their short cooldowns and high mobility. It was one of the few magic assassin classes available early on, and later could transition into a Cursemancer, Apostle, Heaven's Condemned, or Pathfinder.

Every one of those paths had enormous potential and was a must-pick on the professional circuit.

And then look at what you chose to learn. You—you actually took on agent as a secondary class? Li Aoz was about to go insane.

That was a Strength-based class!

You were a medium—a medium whose Primary Attribute was Will.

This is criminal. Go die for me!

Li Aoz claimed he had few desires, but this one talent made him unbearably jealous.

It was like spending a fortune pulling for a character you liked from an anime mobile game gacha banner, only to blow all your allowance and still fail to get them.

That would have been one thing, but then the developers announced that the character was permanently unavailable and would never return, meaning all that money had gone down the drain.

As for why Li Aoz was so angry?

Because he had actually spent money on gacha.

Agent Ya Wen's every move, each one textbook agent combat technique, sent Li Aoz's blood pressure soaring.

What a waste! "Are you kidding me? I'm going to puke!"

Li Aoz clenched his fists and, with the mindset of a beast, swung at Ya Wen.

"Your vision is too narrow—way too narrow!"

Holding a golden rice bowl while begging for scraps—this was no different!

This was no longer merely being terrible. He had to hit her hard enough to make her understand her mistake! Li Aoz gritted his teeth, throwing both fists without holding anything back as he unleashed a full combination.

His straight punch struck Ya Wen in the chest. He stepped forward with his left foot and bent his knee, seizing the centerline, then slammed a left hook into the arm she had raised to block. Ya Wen's already dislocated wrist took the impact, and the pain was unbearable. She let out a muffled cry. "Guh—"

Before the pain could overwhelm her, Li Aoz sent another punch straight for her throat.

"There's an opening—"

Ya Wen saw through the move and immediately raised a guard to parry it.

However, while the fist was still in midair, Li Aoz suddenly activated gravitational acceleration and smashed it into her throat.

"Urk—cough, cough, cough—"

Ya Wen gritted her teeth through the pain and instinctively clutched her throat.

Had her reflexes not been so sharp, had she not tilted her neck slightly to the side, that blow would have ended her life.

She lowered her head and hunched her shoulders, ramming him with a shoulder strike into his chest. Her elbow drove into Li Aoz's diaphragm, checking his advance.

"Ugh—ahh—"

She could not—could not lose here.

Under the pressure, Ya Wen's guard steadily and inexorably began to collapse.

If she lost here, everything would be over.

[Ya Wen! Think about why you came to Law Enforcement Division Four... If I fall, everything in the family will be over.] She could not die. She could not lose.

Ya Wen reminded herself in her heart.

Her gaze sharpened. Catching an opening, she lifted her foot and stomped down on Li Aoz's instep.

-5

This woman had not learned a Spirit Medium's Soul Erosion or Evil Soul Thrust. With that tiny frame of hers, and with Li Aoz's Gravity Aura passively reducing damage by 8%, she had even less killing power.

If a Spirit Medium had fallen to this state, she might as well obediently hand over her talent.

In a sense, without Aura and spiritual power, their physical attacks were basically like scratching each other. But considering that neither of them had particularly robust health bars, the attacks were still quite significant.

Li Aoz did not care in the slightest. He grabbed the back of her neck, activated gravity, and made her whole body float weightlessly. Then he pressed down on her head and stuffed her into the car through the sunroof.

Bang! Ya Wen landed painfully in the front passenger seat, startling Qiu Ran and Nomi beside her.

Seeing a pretty older sister climb in, Qiu Ran instinctively waved. "Hello?"

"Hello my ass!" Nomi raised a wrench and swung it at her.

Spirit Realm Drive

Ya Wen entered that unnatural ghostly state again, moving swiftly in defiance of the laws of physics. At first, she tried to open the door and jump out, but the locks could only be controlled from the driver's seat.

So she tried to crawl out through the sunroof above, but Li Aoz's entire body was wedged there. He was full of confidence; according to what he knew, even in a ghostly state, she could not pass straight through him.

This was called trapping a ghost behind closed doors.

Players loved fighting Spirit Mediums like this. The moment the other side activated Spirit Realm Drive, they would shut the doors, toss poison gas grenades inside, and enjoy the scene within like some twisted paradise.

If conditions allowed, it was best accompanied by a cup of coffee and the piano piece "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence." Very elegant. Very enjoyable.

Li Aoz's lofty attitude made Ya Wen deeply displeased.

"Since I can't get out—then you come down too!"

Ya Wen reacted quickly. Seeing her spiritual power was about to run dry, she immediately canceled the ghostly state of Spirit Realm Drive, grabbed Li Aoz, and used her entire body weight to drag him down with her.

"—Oh?"

Li Aoz was slightly surprised.

It seemed he had overplayed his hand a little.

If he activated Aura at this distance, he would probably bury the entire vehicle in the sand along with himself.

Lift it upward? Uh, if he killed someone in the car, it would stink of blood for the next few days.

In the next instant, Li Aoz paid for his arrogance. Entangled at such close range, he could not properly use his Aura at all and was dragged into the car by Ya Wen.

Even so, his skill still surpassed hers. The two immediately grappled into a tangled heap inside the car. Ya Wen did not struggle for long before he gained the upper hand again.

"Fuck! Are you crazy? Why are you fighting in the car?!"

Nomi raised one hand to shove away Li Aoz's shoulder as it crashed into her. The steering wheel slipped in her hands, and the entire car swerved right into Law Enforcement Division Four's SUV.

Bang!

"Damn it! You white-skinned bastard with a death wish—you dare cut me off?!"

Nomi's violent hit nearly triggered the SUV driver's airbag. Furious, he yanked the steering wheel hard, floored the accelerator, and slammed into Nomi's car again! Clang—!!! "Aah! Aaaaaah—"

Qiu Ran clutched her head and screamed loudly.

Ya Wen's wide-brimmed hat had already flown off during the struggle. Li Aoz pinned her beneath him, chain in hand, about to smash it down at her throat! "Urgh... ngh..."

Pinned down, Ya Wen could barely breathe. Her golden-green eyes met Li Aoz's gray eyes, which glowed with golden rings.

That look again—the look that saw nothing in the world and treated no one as worth noticing.

"Don't..."

Her eyes were stained with deep blue. Gritting her teeth, she ignited the last of her spiritual power. Spirit Realm Drive gave her a ghostlike state, though it could only last for a brief second.

Bang! Ya Wen raised her hand and smashed the gun barrel into his armpit, making Li Aoz's strike go wide. Even so, the gravity-empowered chain smashed a dent into the seat.

One second was enough.

Her fingers had turned white from exertion, and the overdraft of spiritual power made Ya Wen's head feel as though it were splitting apart. She muttered to herself, as if reminding herself, "Don't look at me... with that arrogant look."

She rolled out from Li Aoz's left side, grabbed the seat belt in passing, looped it around Li Aoz's neck and over his shoulder, then used both hands to try to choke him unconscious.

"Urgh—"

She had been set up.

Who knew that, in the next moment, the driver on the right would ram them hard? The violent impact loosened her grip, flinging her straight into Nomi's lap.

"Fuck! Get off!"

A woman suddenly landed across Nomi's thighs, startling her. She swung her wrench down at her own legs. Before Ya Wen could react, Li Aoz grabbed her thigh and yanked her fiercely back into the rear seat.

"Awoo!!!"

Nomi's wrench struck her own knee, leaving it red and swollen. She let out a muffled cry, and the car slowed, falling half a car length behind the SUV that had been preparing to ram them again.

The result was that the SUV's rear end slammed directly into the front of their car.

Bang—

Li Aoz had just grabbed Ya Wen by the collar and pinned her against the rear seat, preparing to throw a punch, when the front of the car suddenly crashed into the vehicle ahead. With a tremendous boom, Li Aoz was hurled straight into the front windshield.

Li Aoz instinctively activated Gravity Aura, landing steadily with his body pressed sideways against the glass. Golden rings lit up in his eyes, and thanks to the sudden illumination, he clearly saw Agent Ya Wen flick a dagger out from her waist, grip it one-handed, and stab toward him with the momentum of the impact.

Li Aoz paid it no mind. He tilted his head slightly, and the dagger plunged into the windshield.

"This isn't glass. It's bulletproof resin—"

Li Aoz found time to quip.

At the same time, he canceled gravity, swung the chain off his arm, and pressed his entire body down onto her! With the chain nearly at her throat, Agent Ya Wen's wrist dislocated, and her other hand was pinned beneath Li Aoz's. Yet she suddenly calmed down. Facing Li Aoz, she parted her lips and revealed a row of pearly white teeth.

The gun was out of bullets, the blade was stuck, and her fists had no strength left—but she still had her teeth!

"Are you seriously not going to stop until you've killed us all?! Fine! I'll ram them to death!"

Nomi suddenly erupted. A bump had risen on her head, tears clung to the corners of her eyes, and the grievance in her heart swiftly turned into rage. She stomped the accelerator and drove straight ahead, accelerating into the car in front.

Bang! The violent impact hurled the passengers inside hard onto the floor. Nomi laughed wildly and recklessly, continuously flooring the gas until she flipped the car ahead completely over, exposing its undercarriage with all four wheels in the air. Only then did she burst into loud laughter, turn the wheel, and speed away.

Boom—

Not long after they passed, the vehicle behind them exploded and caught fire. But that was hardly surprising. With one press of Nomi's accelerator, the blaze vanished into Outland's wind, snow, and red-black sky.

"Bwahahahahahaha! Hahahahaha! Bet you didn't see that coming! Still wanna ram Nomi's car? Ohohoho, you flipped over! Hahahaha!"

Nomi smugly tapped the steering wheel, then turned toward Li Aoz as though seeking praise. "Well? Nomi's driving skills are absolutely breathtaking... Little Li?"

Unexpectedly, the back was frighteningly quiet.

"Hey..."

She paused. Her expression abruptly changed, and she sharply turned to look behind her.

The instant the sight in the back seat entered her eyes, Nomi's mind went blank with a buzz. Her five fingers unconsciously clenched the steering wheel hard enough to leave deep dents.