Combat Compendium

Fortunately, the powerful enemy's strength quickly faded. The carpet settled back to the floor, the tables and chairs stopped moving, and their clothes no longer felt tight.

The members of the Machinery Hivemind team, as though their throats had just been clutched shut, could finally breathe freely again. They gasped for air in great mouthfuls.

Meanwhile, the badly wounded Zombie from before had already escaped.

Max and the others shoved aside the surrounding tables and chairs and immediately chased into the backyard. They found that the team that had circled around earlier had been blocked by the flowers, grass, and trees in the yard. Although they had killed two enemies, some had still escaped.

Ikanser caught up at this point. Only after seeing that there had been no casualties did he let out a sigh of relief. "The enemy is stronger than we imagined!"

He knew perfectly well that a Demi-God of the Rose School had made a move just now. "Fortunately, we arrived very suddenly. They fled in panic."

Otherwise, a single Demi-God would have been enough to wipe them all out. Luckily, that Demi-God had reservations and did not continue the fight, only covering the escape of his subordinates.

Nearly every member of the Machinery Hivemind had been injured, either struck by tables and chairs or scratched by plants. None of the injuries were serious.

The uninjured members began searching the entire villa. Most of the people here were dead, especially the women. Most had been brutally abused to death.

After conducting a rough search, Ikanser and Max smoked as they watched the busy Doctors and their subordinates.

Ikanser ran a hand through his messy brown hair. "We need to give Odys a larger bonus this time. Otherwise, even if everyone here had died, we might not have discovered anything unusual."

Max first sighed. "The Indulgence Faction of the Rose School is as cruel and bloodthirsty as ever."

Then he added, "Odys previously said that he hoped to obtain the Warlock potion formula."

Ikanser froze. "Try to persuade him to choose a different reward. The voice of the evil god will become increasingly obvious at the Warlock level. He'll become a major unstable factor."

Max crushed his cigarette butt beneath his foot. "I'll do my best to persuade him."

South Borough, in a shabby apartment.

The escaped members of the Rose School's Indulgence Faction cursed those official Beyonders as they treated their wounds.

In another room, the pale, inhuman-looking Wraith stood obediently in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, it was as if a hand had gripped his heart, making him fall to his knees in agony.

An illusory figure appeared in the window glass, accompanied by a cold voice. "Idiot! It has only been a few days, and you've already been exposed!"

The Wraith hurriedly explained, "We... we've been very careful."

"Then how did those official Beyonders get the information?"

The Wraith felt wronged too. How was he supposed to know?

On Sunday morning, the parts for the Arrow of Flames that he had ordered from the foundry arrived.

The parts had already been ground and polished. They could be used after a thorough cleaning.

After washing and drying them, Odys taught Kainer how to carve the parts using the leg bones of a Mutated Flamingo.

There was a trick to the carving process. Mixing Dragon Tongue Grass juice with Mutated Flamingo blood would soften metal for a short time.

Although it only remained soft for three seconds, that was enough time to complete the carving with Flamingo leg bones, which were far more fragile than metal.

Odys first used a white pen to draw the carving patterns on each part. After demonstrating once, he handed the repetitive work over to Kainer.

It would take at least three or four days to finish the carving.

Near noon, Simon came again. "Sir, I have good news. You can go to King's Road to compete tonight.

"As this is your first match, you can receive 260 pounds if you win, and 150 pounds even if you lose."

Odys slowly nodded. "Are there any rules?"

Simon immediately replied, "The match must be completed within the designated venue, and you may use one cold weapon.

"When one side faints or suffers an injury that affects their ability to fight and has to end the match, the other side wins.

"If you withdraw without reason midway through, you won't get a single penny."

Odys chuckled. "In other words, at the very least, someone has to bleed before the match can end."

Simon stood there obediently. If Odys had not known his background, Simon could have asked sarcastically, "Do you think noble lords' money is so easy to earn?"

But he did not dare say that now, and for a moment, he did not know how to answer.

Odys asked again, "When do we leave?"

"Six in the evening. I'll come pick you up."

Odys nodded. "All right."

There was nothing to do that afternoon. Odys had originally planned to visit the Fighting Club again, but since he would be taking part in a Beyonder fight that night, he decided to conserve his strength as much as possible.

So he spent the entire afternoon considering how to write that book about combat.

First, Odys planned to include Eight Extremes Fist in the book as the school to which he belonged.

Of course, he could not call it Eight Extremes Fist. He had already thought of an excuse: he could claim that it was a lost fighting style discovered in an antique.

He had originally wanted to continue claiming that the style originated from Emperor Roselle, but then he thought Bernadette might question him. After considering it, he decided it would be safer to keep the origins of Eight Extremes Fist vague.

If Klein happened to see the book and came looking for him, he would decide based on the situation whether to acknowledge his fellow countryman or continue playing dumb and claim it came from an Elven antique.

Odys drafted ideas while recording them on paper. By the end of the afternoon, he had formed a general outline for the book.

He planned to name it Combat Compendium. It would first contain an overview of combat and its guiding principles, then introduce Eight Extremes Fist and several relatively common schools, followed by a large number of examples describing techniques for using martial arts in actual combat.

Around one hundred thousand words would be enough. Then he could contact a publisher.

A little after five in the afternoon, Odys ate dinner early and had Kainer watch the shop.

Close to six, Simon arrived in a hired carriage to pick up Odys.

After getting in, Odys said, "Go to 75 Hailin Avenue first."

"Okay." Simon knocked on the carriage wall and loudly gave the driver the address.

After returning home, Odys first changed into a neat set of riding clothes, then went down to the basement.

The basement was filled with a dazzling array of Beyonder Weapons he had made or used for experiments. There were metal crossbows, large and small axes, shields, and rifles. The most numerous were swords and small axes with various functions.

In the end, Odys chose a sword and a cane. He wrapped up the sword, carried the cane out of the basement, and took a half-face mask from the study.

Odys generally did not like carrying a cane when he went out. Carrying one so suddenly today felt rather awkward.

He got back into the carriage, and after traveling for more than half an hour, they arrived at 155 King's Road.