Frost Butterfly's Performance (23)

Bullets traveling several times the speed of sound sounded fast.

But in reality, to an ordinary Second Energy Level ascender, they were merely something one could dodge upon seeing.

Some ascenders even possessed passive defenses capable of stopping bullets with that kind of kinetic energy, because their defenses did not care about penetration at all. They simply used kinetic energy to cancel kinetic energy, naturally countering all armor-piercing warheads.

Ian was precisely that kind of ascender. The complete Rockforged Knight had five layers of defense: the Origin Matter layer of the Silver-Scaled Bastion, the physical layer of the Silver-Scaled Bastion, the physical layer of the Sand Armor Apprentice, Ian's own earth-element Origin Matter layer, and Ian's physical body.

The Silver-Scaled Bastion was a defensive ability that could use fine feather-scales to deconstruct and dissipate most penetrating impact damage.

But Ian did not want to reveal that.

Someone's trying to assassinate me?

The instant it happened, Ian's all-round Fairy senses detected the bullet. He even had the leisure to think, Should I pretend to stumble forward and dodge it, or turn sideways?

The first would be a little too exaggerated. The second could probably only be explained away as my psychic power, but this is also a good chance to show it off.

Or should I wait for Mikael to help me? He probably wouldn't just watch me die—though I wouldn't die. Still, better not gamble on it.

With that in mind, Ian felt it would be better to dodge sideways. After all, the Second Prince was no fool; he could definitely tell that Ian had already noticed the bullet.

Everything happened in an instant, but when Ian turned aside, the bullet did not streak past the front of his forehead as expected.

Clang!

A shriek rang out, as though a