章 18: Unfortunately
“The man you’ve killed was my only friend, but you…! You dare kill him. That guy might not be too bright, but he had always helped me. I will take your blood as an offering for Nell’s soul.”
Han gritted his teeth with rage. His bloodshot eyes glared at Arias with hatred, and his voice was hostile. The two of them had a bond deeper than that of brothers. When he saw his friend getting killed, it almost made him go mad with rage.
Despite the amount of hatred he had, Han did not immediately charge Arias. In reality, a neophyte should not be able to bring any harm to him. But he knew that Arias was not an ordinary neophyte. The power he felt from Arias’ sword told him that this weapon was at least a mid-level weapon, and it might even be a high-level weapon. If he acted too rashly, he would just end up having the same fate as his companion. A mid-level weapon had a strong power that even he could not take its attack directly.
“Amusing. You think of taking lives from others, but never prepare for yours to be taken.”
Arias said in a cold voice. Since they aimed to kill others, they should have been prepared that others might kill them as well. This was something that every mage must know before they fought with the intent to take lives. But the mage standing in front of Arias only thought about stealing the lives of others, never imagining that one day the weak would fight back. Today, he learned a well-deserved lesson. At last, the hunter became the hunted.
“Die!”
Finally, Han lost his temper. He pulled out a single-edged sword from his dimensional ring. The sword was silver and had a razor-sharp blade, but it was just an ordinary weapon; this sword was no match for even the low-level magical weapons. The light green wind wrapped itself around his legs, enabling him to move at high speed. He quickly darted to Arias.
“An ordinary weapon, you think this could win against Shadow Demon Sword?”
Arias raised the sword in his hand without dodging. The sound of metal clanging echoed throughout the area as the two swords clashed against each other violently. With only one strike, Han’s sword had clearly been chipped and cracked already. The Shadow Demon Sword, however, remained the same. The strengths of the two weapons were too different. However, the impact of the strike had thrown Arias two steps backward. Though his weapon was powerful, Arias himself was just a neophyte; his power was still a lot different from Han’s.
Arias’ arms became a bit numb from the impact of the previous blow. Though his power at the time was more powerful in comparison to normal neophytes, he was still incapable of directly receiving an impact from an acolyte’s strike.
“It seems like you are not worthy of that sword. A priceless weapon has no value in the hand of an incompetent fool, unable to unleash its power. My weapon might not be as great as yours, but my power is certainly stronger. If you want to blame anything, then blame it on your own arrogance. Now, die!”
Seeing that Arias’ power was no match for his own, Han charged at Arias once again. But this time, his attack was only met with emptiness. He quickly raised the sword to protect his back, having learned the lesson from his friend. But his defense was still too slow, and the silver blade left a large cut on his arm. It was fortunate that he was able to avoid the attack, otherwise, his arm would have been severed.
Red blood soaked the entirety of his sleeve. Though he was able to narrowly dodge the attack, he could barely lift his injured arm now. It seemed like the blow just now had hit an important part. He gritted his teeth in pain. Since he had started mugging neophyte-level mages, this was the first time he had been injured this badly. His friend even died at the hands of this young man in front of him.
After taking several steps back, Han glared back at Arias in anger. His eyes looked like it was burning with the fire of hatred. The power of the wind circled around his body slowly. He began to concentrate his magical power for the next attack. At the moment, he was like an arrow that was ready to be shot out from a bow at all times.
“Are you turtles? How could you be this slow?”
In contrast, Arias was just looking at the wound on Han’s arm airily. Since he could not take a direct blow, he chose to use his speed for a sneak attack. But it seemed like this attack was not as effective as it should be. Han turned out to be much more clever than his companion. Thus, he was not foolish enough to be struck by the same move.
“You’ve got some nerve fighting an Air-Wielder with speed. You’re digging your own grave, boy.”
Han angrily said through gritted teeth. Suddenly, the wind that was circling around Han’s body began to turn into a furious gust of wind. Within a fraction of a second, Han’s body had moved so fast until it appeared in front of Arias once again.
“Wind Blade!”
The furious wind pierced through the air together with the blade; its target was precisely where Arias’ neck was. But once again, the blade sliced into nothingness.
SLASH!
The blade slashed at the flesh on Han’s neck, the strike coming from sideway. The body of Arias who had vanished appeared on Han’s left. The razor-sharp blade precisely cut at Han’s windpipe. The man could only stare at the God of Death who had slaughtered him for the last time before he slowly fell onto the ground.
“Air-Wielders are known for their agility and high-speed attacks that are hard to follow. Among the four elements, Air is the fastest…but unfortunately, you were fighting a Thunder-Wielder.”
Arias uttered before taking a look at Han’s lifeless body for the last time. For others, killing a human might be something horrifying. But for him, he had done this kind of thing countless times. In the past, mages lived by the law of the jungle to survive. Bigger fish ate little fish. The great dictated everything. The strong survived, and the weak had to perish. If you did not kill, you got killed. Though mages of the present had written laws to create order within the society, Arias still thought that the rule of the jungle continued to exist. Nothing had changed, and the strong were still the ones who controlled the weak. Just now, if he had not killed those two, it would have been him who got killed instead.
Once an area with a nice atmosphere and lush green forest, now this place had become quite unpleasant. The whole area reeked of blood; the birds that once sang their song from the sky above had turned quiet as if frightened by something. The signs of a fight that must have ended not long ago could be seen all over the place. On the ground lay the two lifeless bodies of unknown mages who wore clothes that concealed their identities. Not far away from them, there was a boy in the grey hood who was sitting down and restoring his magical power.
Arias did not do anything with the two bodies. This road never had a lot of passersby, only those who wished to travel to other cities or travelers from out-of-town would use this route. And if someone were to come across the bodies, they would certainly be able to tell that they used to be muggers. When two muggers were killed, no one would try to find the culprit. This was the reason why Arias chose to lure them onto this route. He knew that they had been following him since he left Cater’s shop. Thus, he came up with such a plan.
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