Fierce Battle 1

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

Anglie's grip on his longsword tightened as he crouched beneath the slope.

Smack! The footsteps abruptly stopped.

Anglie narrowed his eyes and sprang up, raising his longsword over his head in a block.

A black shadow descended from the air, iron chains clattering all around.

Clang!!!

The sword blade collided with the chains.

Anglie leaped a large step back, a flush passing over his face as he calmly watched the black shadow land.

His opponent did not attack again, merely standing where he was and slowly drawing back the chains that had been knocked aside.

"Anglie Leo. The rumored useless, talentless wastrel actually managed to fight me to this extent. What a ridiculous rumor..." The black shadow tore off his hood, revealing the face of a somewhat dull-looking middle-aged man. A deep, gaping scar ran across his left cheek, as though a large chunk of flesh had been bitten away by something. It looked terrifying.

"Who are you? One of Dark Chapter?" Anglie focused his attention and remained on guard.

"You know of Dark Chapter too?" The black shadow smiled. "My name is Dis." He gathered up his chains and gripped them in one hand.

"Of course, that is only a codename. Naturally, I cannot tell you my real name. Actually, when I came here earlier, I happened to be wounded by your arrow. I thought it was an accident then. But now it seems there are not so many accidents in this world."

"Is that so?" Anglie gave nothing away as he began observing the surroundings.

They were standing in a long ditch beneath a slope. Damp, soft black soil lay beneath their feet, while a humid, fetid stench filled the air.

"You are thinking of running?" Dis grinned. "Unfortunately, you cannot run this time."

As soon as he spoke, he kicked off the ground and lunged forward.

Clang!

Anglie immediately slashed horizontally, striking Dis's hands. Only then did he discover that Dis wore a pair of black metal gloves.

"Full Data Assist Mode activated. Leap back and thrust." The Chip's information instantly flooded into his mind.

Anglie made a short hop backward, and the longsword in his hand shot forward with a hiss.

"Damn it!" Dis's expression changed slightly. He hastily twisted aside, barely avoiding having his chest grazed by the blue-glinting longsword. Cold sweat immediately beaded across his face. After dodging the attack, he drew the longsword from his back. "Kid, you have successfully angered—Bang!!"

Anglie viciously chopped downward, then spun around and used the force of his rotation to slash upward. With two clangs, Dis blocked both blows with all his might, but was also forced into a position where he could make no other move.

A leftward slash, a shift in position and a diagonal cut, then another shift—Anglie's footwork was incredibly fast. The instant an attack was blocked, he immediately changed positions. Every precise sword strike targeted a flaw in Dis's stance.

The Chip's prompts came rapidly, and Anglie immersed himself completely in this lightning-fast chain of attacks. Every movement of his was smooth and powerful, without the slightest drag or hesitation, flowing with extreme grace. Because of its tremendous speed, the silver longsword seemed to weave an ever-turning ribbon of silver through the forest.

He had fully exploited his advantage in agility over his opponent. Though his strength was far inferior to Dis's, this style of combat completely suppressed him for the moment, dragging him into Anglie's attacking rhythm.

Gradually, Anglie's movements became increasingly fluid. There had perhaps been a few stiff transitions at the start, but as the battle continued and time trickled away bit by bit, his movements became softer and smoother. The blade traced arc after arc through the air. Even when blocked, it never paused—not for a single instant—but followed the rebounding force of the parry, adding force into a spinning slash to form the next attack.

Clang clang clang clang clang!!!...

The collisions of their longswords grew more and more frequent, nearly merging into one continuous sound.

Anglie's attacks had completely formed into a method of borrowing force. He spun left and right, his longsword linking together with the precision of flowing water, like a hurricane.

Dis's face had turned red. He had never imagined that he would be suppressed to this extent by a green brat. Several times, he had tried to counterattack, but his opponent's seamless transitions left him no time at all. More importantly, he was far slower than Anglie. Even when he spotted mistakes born from Anglie's lack of experience, he had no time to act before the next movement patched them up.

From the very beginning of their close-quarters battle, he had been completely passive.

The frenzied pace of the attacks was so intense that he did not even dare divert his attention to speak. One glance at the vivid color on the opponent's longsword was enough to tell him it was no joke. It was definitely coated in deadly poison!

"Damn it!!" The bloodshot veins in Dis's eyes began to spread. Suddenly, he made a fierce leap backward, pressing his back against the slope. Reaching behind him with his left hand, he produced five silver throwing knives between his fingers.

Hiss!!

Five silver streaks suddenly shot toward Anglie, who was about to rush in for close combat. Two flew at his chest, while the other three targeted his head and hands.

Anglie's expression changed slightly. His body had no time to dodge, so he could only throw himself hard to the left and raise his longsword in a fierce block.

With two clangs, two throwing knives were knocked to the ground. Two more grazed his shoulder and buried themselves in the forest behind him, leaving behind two bloody streaks. The last throwing knife lodged directly in Anglie's left forearm.

The palm-length silver throwing knife was firmly embedded in his forearm, blood immediately flowing from its groove. Intense pain surged through Anglie's nerves.

His face turned pale. Following the Chip's prompt, he yanked out the throwing knife, rolled across the ground, and dodged the chain claw that came flying after it. He swiftly lunged into the forest to one side.

"Trying to run?!" Dis roared as he hurried after him.

The two quickly gave chase, one in front and one behind. But it was obvious that Anglie was much faster than Dis behind him. Under the Chip's guidance, Dis's repeated launches of his chain claw all came to nothing, instead slowing him down.

"Arghhh!!!" Dis cried out in fury before finally stopping unwillingly.

There was no trace of Anglie left in his field of vision. Meanwhile, he was already panting heavily, with more than half his stamina spent.

If only I had poisoned the throwing knives. Dis regretted it inwardly. He had always disdained using poison, so he had never coated his weapons with it. Yet now he had encountered a freak who could perfectly predict every one of his attacks and was far faster than him. The frustration in his heart had reached its limit. Still, in that brief moment, Dis had also discovered one of Anglie's weaknesses.

"Since you can predict my attacks, then I simply will not give you time to predict them..." A cold smile appeared at the corner of Dis's mouth. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, then turned and walked back.

Suddenly, a faint sound of something cutting through the air came from behind him.

Dis's eyes widened. His chain claw flew backward from his hand in a fierce reflex.

Hiss!!

A blue-purple blade viciously slashed into his right shoulder.

Dis turned around.

Anglie stood behind him, pale-faced. He had actually returned in an incredibly short time, just as Dis had relaxed and assumed he had escaped. The smell of blood had also completely covered the tracking scent on Anglie's body, leaving Dis utterly unprepared.

The leather armor on his shoulder had been cut open with a small gash, and the skin beneath had also been lightly broken. Yet that tiny scrape made a sense of danger rise in Dis's heart.

"You are finished..." Anglie smiled, his lips forming those three words.

Dis suddenly punched at him.

Bang!!

Unable to dodge in time, Anglie was sent flying, tumbling into the grass to one side. Blood splattered everywhere—across the tree trunks, the grass, the black soil, and even Dis's body where he stood.

Dis had no time to think. He hurriedly pulled a small packet from his waist pouch, opened it, and dumped all the medicinal powder inside into his mouth. He swallowed it down with force, only then breathing a sigh of relief.

Yet he could still feel a numb, itchy sensation spreading through his body from the wound. The poison acted so quickly that it was simply outrageous.

I have to leave this place immediately, he told himself. Only now did he finally feel a deep sense of crisis.

In the nearby grass, Anglie struggled to his feet. Having suffered the previous strike and that heavy punch, he was severely injured as well. His vision had begun to blur.

"Examine physical condition."

"Three ribs fractured, stomach bleeding. Total blood loss: five percent." The Chip truthfully reported Anglie's current physical state.

"Fortunately, it is not a major problem." Anglie secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Supporting himself with the longsword in his hand, he stood steady and looked up at Dis in the distance.

The Dark Chapter assassin's face was livid now—not from anger, but truly a ghastly blue-green. This was the deadly poison Anglie had concocted by mixing One-Eyed Snake venom with toxic components analyzed from other substances, a poison even he himself did not know how to cure.

He had tested it beforehand. As long as a flower chicken had even a tiny scrape, it would stiffen and die completely within three minutes. As for how long it would take for a human with a scraped wound, he did not know. But judging by Dis's current appearance, the effect could not possibly be poor.

Dis stood where he was, feeling the numb itch from his wound grow heavier and heavier. After taking one last deep look at Anglie, he decided to retreat for now and return after healing his injury.

His Concealment Technique and ranged attacks, which he had taken such pride in, were a joke before his opponent. His great strength was restrained by precise force-borrowing swordsmanship because he could not keep up with Anglie's speed. Finally, even his healthy and vigorous body had been infected with a deadly poison that not even the best antidote could handle. The frustration in his heart had reached its limit. His fighting style was almost completely countered by his opponent. Or rather, this method of fighting countered nearly all powerful opponents. Those attacks, precise as gears and unceasing as a flowing stream, gave no one any chance to fight back.

Anglie's gaze shifted as he noticed the change in Dis's expression.

"You are thinking of leaving?" he suddenly asked.

"Before I go, I have one final question. How did you see through my Concealment Technique?" Dis asked in a deep voice.

"Instinct." Anglie smiled. With a leap from his feet, he lunged forward.

With a clang, the two crossguard swords slammed viciously together.

For the first time in close combat, Dis staggered back two steps.

"Ah!!!!" He howled, pouring all his strength into a savage downward slash at Anglie, completely ignoring the sword that was also cutting toward his face. It was clearly a fight where he traded injury for injury.

Anglie tilted his face to the left, a flash of gloom passing across his expression. His longsword accelerated toward his opponent.

Hiss!!

The two swords pierced each other almost simultaneously, and blood violently splashed across the ground.

Anglie and Dis stood nearly face to face, supporting each other to keep from falling.

Blood dripped down their clothes.