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 came to an abrupt halt.

Anglie narrowed his eyes and sprang up, raising his sword over his head to block.

A black shadow dropped from the air, iron chains clattering in a deafening chorus.

Clang!!!

The blade collided with the chains.

Anglie leaped a large step back, a flush of red flashing across 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 useless, talentless young wastrel from the rumors actually managed to fight me to this extent. What laughable rumors..." The black shadow tore away his hood, revealing the somewhat wooden face of a middle-aged man. A deep notched scar ran across his left cheek, as though some creature had bitten away a large chunk of flesh. It looked rather terrifying.

"Who are you? One of Dark Chapter?" Anglie asked, focusing his mind as he stayed on guard.

"You know about 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. I naturally cannot tell you my real name. When I came here earlier, you happened to shoot and wound me. I thought it was an accident then. Now it seems there are not so many accidents in this world."

"Is that so?" Anglie remained expressionless as he began taking note of his surroundings.

They stood in a long trench beneath a slope. Beneath their feet was damp, soft black earth. A wet, heated stench permeated the air.

"You are thinking of running?" Dis grinned. "But what a pity. You will not be able to run this time."

The moment his words fell, he kicked off the ground and lunged forward.

Clang!

Anglie swung sideways, slashing at 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 flooded into his mind in an instant.

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

"Damn it!" Dis's expression changed slightly. He hurriedly twisted aside, narrowly avoiding having his chest grazed by the bluish blade. Cold sweat immediately beaded on his face. After evading the strike, he drew the longsword from his back with a backhand motion. "Brat, you have successfully angered—Bang!!"

Anglie brought his sword down in a savage chop, then spun around and used the force of the rotation to sweep upward. Clang, clang! Dis blocked both strikes with force, but they also left him unable to make any other move.

A leftward lift, a shifting diagonal slash, then another shift—Anglie's footwork was astonishingly fast. The instant one attack was blocked, he immediately changed position. Every precise sword strike targeted a flaw in Dis's stance.

The Chip's prompts came swiftly. Anglie immersed himself completely in this supremely rapid chain of attacks. Every movement he made was connected and powerful, without the slightest drag or muddle, flowing with extreme smoothness. Because of its incredible speed, the silver longsword seemed to trail an endlessly twisting ribbon of silver through the forest.

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

Gradually, Anglie's movements became smoother and smoother. There had perhaps been some stiff transitions at the beginning, but as the battle continued and time trickled away drop by drop, his motions grew ever more supple. The blade he swung drew arc after arc. Even when blocked, it never paused for even a thread of an instant, instead borrowing the rebounding force from the parry to add power to a spinning slash and launch the next attack.

Clang clang clang clang clang!!!...

The collisions of their swords became more and more frequent, nearly merging into one continuous sound.

Anglie's attacks had completely formed a style that borrowed 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 little brat. Several times, he wanted to counterattack, but his opponent's seamless connections left him no time at all. More importantly, he was far slower than Anglie. Even when he spotted mistakes born of Anglie's lack of experience, he could not act before the next movement had already made up for them.

From the moment their close-quarters battle began, he had been completely on the defensive.

The frantic pace of attacks left him not even daring to spare attention for speech. One look at the vivid color on his opponent's blade told him it was no joke. It was definitely highly poisonous!

"Damn it!!" Bloodshot veins began spreading through Dis's eyes. Suddenly, he made a fierce backward leap, putting his back against the slope. Reaching behind himself with his left hand, he produced five silver throwing knives between his fingers.

Whoosh!!

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, and he could only throw himself hard to the left while fiercely raising his sword in front of him.

Clang, clang! Two throwing knives were knocked to the ground. Another two grazed his shoulder and buried themselves in the forest behind him, leaving two bloody marks. The final throwing knife lodged squarely 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 went pale. Following the Chip's prompt, he yanked out the knife, rolled across the ground, and avoided the Chain Claw that came flying after him. Then he swiftly lunged into the forest to one side.

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

The two rapidly 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 prompts, Dis's several shots with the Chain Claw all came to nothing, instead slowing him down.

"Ahhh!!!" Dis screamed in fury. At last, he stopped unwillingly.

Anglie's figure had completely vanished from his sight. Dis himself was panting heavily, having spent more than half his stamina.

"If only I had coated those throwing knives with poison." Dis secretly berated himself. He had always disdained using poison and 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 also much faster than him. The frustration in his heart had reached its limit. But in that brief moment, Dis had also discovered one of Anglie's weaknesses.

"Since you can predict my attacks, then I will not give you time to predict them..." A cold smile curled across Dis's lips. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, then turned and headed back.

Suddenly, a faint sound of wind splitting came from behind him.

Dis's eyes widened. His Chain Claw flew backward from his hand in a fierce reflexive throw.

Whoosh!!

A blue-violet blade hacked viciously into his right shoulder.

Dis turned his head.

Anglie stood behind him, his face deathly pale. He had actually returned in an incredibly short time, striking just as Dis relaxed and believed he had escaped. The bloody scent had also completely concealed the tracking fragrance on Anglie's body. Dis had not expected it at all.

A small cut had been slashed into the leather armor on his shoulder, and the skin beneath had been broken as well. Yet that tiny scrape sent a thread of danger through Dis's heart.

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

Dis suddenly punched at him.

Bang!!

Unable to dodge in time, Anglie was sent flying. He rolled and crashed into the grass to one side, blood splashing everywhere—across tree trunks, grass, black soil, and Dis's standing body.

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 hard, only then breathing a sigh of relief.

But within his body, he could still feel a numb, itching sensation spreading from the wound. The onset of this poison was so fast it was utterly hair-raising.

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

In the grass not far away, Anglie struggled to climb to his feet. After taking that previous attack and the heavy punch, he was badly injured as well. Even his vision had begun to blur.

"Check my physical condition."

"Three ribs fractured. Gastric bleeding. Total blood loss: five percent." The Chip faithfully reported Anglie's current physical condition.

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

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

He had tested it beforehand. If a flower chicken had even the slightest scrape, it would stiffen to death in just three minutes. As for how long it would take after a person suffered a scrape, he did not know. But judging from Dis's current state, the effect could not possibly be poor.

Dis stood where he was, feeling the numb itch from his wound grow stronger and stronger. After giving Anglie one final deep look, he decided to retreat for now and return after treating his injury.

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

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

"You want to leave?" he suddenly asked.

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

"Instinct." Anglie smiled. He sprang forward, lunging fiercely toward Dis.

With a clang, their two crossguard swords collided violently.

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

"Ah!!!!" He roared wildly, pouring all his strength into a savage slash at Anglie, completely ignoring the sword likewise sweeping toward his face. It was clearly a strike-for-strike exchange.

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

Whoosh!!

The two swords pierced their targets almost simultaneously, and blood splattered across the ground.

Anglie and Dis stood almost face-to-face, supporting each other so neither would fall.

Blood ran down their clothes in dripping streams.