Jarlan

A few moments later and the Mist disappeared, giving Kai and the highwaymen a view of each other once more.

The leader of the men stepped slightly ahead of his men, holding his arm up in the air telling them to wait.

He slowly unbuttoned the top of his long coat before grabbing a hold of his hat and throwing it to one of his men revealing his appearance.

The man looked to be in his mid to late-thirties. His skin was as white as a sheet. His hair was pine green in colour and long, reaching past his shoulders. His lips were painted the same colour while his eyes were surrounded by a small amount of black.

He smiled cheerfully before clapping and speaking with a slightly effeminate voice.

"Wow! My name is Jarlan and I must say that I am impressed, boy! You have managed to kill five of my men." [1]

Putting his hand on his cheek and slightly shaking his head the man says.

"Ah, whatever should I do with you? I should kill you but it would be such a waste."

He looked Kai up and down. Scrutinizing every inch of him.

He slowly licked his lips and grinned

"I know, join our merry little band and I will spare you! Huh? What do you say?"

Kai scoffed at the idea.

'At this point what would be the point of giving up? Plus Kai was confident that he would be fine. Even if the tigers stayed back they'd be able to save him in time. So why not use this opportunity to piss the green weirdo off?'

"I killed five of your men, what makes you think I can't finish the remaining four and you?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You seem to be mistaken about something young man. I full-heartedly do not doubt that you could kill the rest of my men. Heck, I would let you. Who needs men who can't beat a single kid while ganging up on him?

But after my men are dead you will be exhausted, and I am not like my men. You are most likely at the same level as my men. So even if you kill them your mana and stamina should be low. If they can get some attacks in that would be fine too.

I will only make a move once my men are dead and you've exhausted yourself. So I will ask you again, do you feel like joining us boy? Or should we have some fun? Take a moment and think things through"

The man licked his lips once again while staring Kai down.

Unknown to Jarlan, Kai wasn't close to being level 16. But that didn't mean he didn't have equal strength. His base stats were that of a level 9 class holder.

During the short breather he had, Kai levelled up to 10 due to the man encased in ice finally suffocating to death. Now that he has gone from level 1-10 he has gained 9 more levels worth of stats.

His level might be 10 but his true level is closer to that of 18. With the level up, Kai's mana and stamina were refreshed.

To top it off he had managed to gain a new skin.

[Unique Passive Skill: Heart of the Ice Phoenix] (Skill Description: Your heart is that of the mighty Ice Phoenix. A shield of Ice forms around your heart and different sections of the body. [2]

The shield can negate any damage but once broken it cannot be regenerated until every section is destroyed. If a section is destroyed by direct contact with an enemy, the enemy will be frozen for 0.75s

If the heart is attacked the shield around the heart will negate any fatal attack once and after that, the skill will be destroyed.)

With this skill, Kai now had a well-rounded arsenal. While the skill was far from ideal. It would at least give him a way to defend himself better. It also had a life-saving feature but unfortunately, it was a one-time use.

'Heh, good thing that he is underestimating me, although I'm curious how he so accurately judged my strength.'

With that thought, Kai decided to once again take a peek at the man.

[Eye of Judgement]

_____________________________

[Status]

[Name: Jarlan]

[Level: ???]

[HP: ???]

[Mana: ???]

[Stamina: ???]

[Age: ???]

[Sex: ???]

[Class: ???]

________________________

Kai's eyes almost bulged out when he saw this. Seeing the question marks meant one of two things. Either the enemy has a skill that can hide his status or he far surpasses Kai's level.

While minuscule, the changes on Kai's face didn't escape Jarlan's gaze.

"Oh? Seems like you've realized something. Well, no matter, I've given you enough time already."

He signalled for his men to move forward.

"At least throw me my sword, or are you afraid your men won't stand a chance then?" Kai taunted Jarlan, he knew that without his sword the fight would be much, much harder.

Jarlan tried to hold back his laughter at the ridiculous taunt.

"That was a good one boy, but sure, why not? Give him his sword!"

"B-but..." One of the men tried to reason against it but Jarlan snarled at him.

"Shut it, do as I say. Let's watch the boy struggle a bit harder."

One of the men picked up Kai's sword and threw it toward him.

Kai picked up the sword and swung it before taking a fighting stance.

He was ready to cut these fools down but his mind was blank when it came to Jarlan.

'Why can't I see his status? I could have sworn that I saw it earlier. Something is wrong...'

"Good luck" Jarlan chuckled with his hand over his mouth.

One of the four men immediately rushed up at Kai. He swung his sword which Kai deflected with ease. Kai pushed his sword forward into the assailant's face, hitting it with the pommel of his sword.

The man was momentarily dazed but before Kai could kill him safely the remaining two of the remaining three were already trying to attack him.

Kai moved his right hand with the sword to deflect one of the attacks while turning his back to the other.

His left hand pointed towards the dazed man's head.

[Absolute Zero: Icicle]

The Icicle shot through the man's head leaving a large hole in it, causing a splatter of blood and brain matter.

*CLANG*

Kai blocked one of the attacks with his sword while the other sword stabbed at his upper back.

*CRACK*

[Segment destroyed: Upper Torso]

[Enemy frozen for 0.75s]

The attack broke the segment of the ice shield covering his upper torso stunning the opponent.

Kai was in a deadlock of swords with his opponent who must have had fairly high strength stats.

Kai quickly analyzed his situation and before the 0.75s was over he used

[Erebus: Void Step]

He teleported behind the man he was in a deadlock. The man was using his full strength to try and push down Kai with his sword. So when Kai teleported the man slashed down with full force slashing and killing his unfortunate ally.

Kai immediately spun around on his heel as he used [Absolute Zero: Icicle] once again skewering a man.

With this, only two were left.

The sun had already disappeared over the horizon. The full moon brightly illuminated the battlefield as Kai's piercing cold blue eyes shone in the moonlight.

Seeing his comrades get slaughtered without causing any damage to the naked man scared the last of the underlings to his core. The man chose to run off the path and into the fields. Trying to create as much distance between himself and Kai.

Or so Kai thought. When the man got around 100 meters away Jarlan sighed.

"Ah, that's a shame. I didn't want to have to do it myself."

"Fight me?" Kai asked for clarification.

"He would have had a much nicer death if he just fought you. Oh well," Jarlan smiled innocently, ignoring Kai's question.

Kai looked in the direction of the running man when out of nowhere he was lifted 25 meters in the air by a large thick green root.

The root was wrapped around his ankle dangling him upside down before smashing him down into the ground over and over again until the root held nothing but scraps.

"Ahh, sorry about that, it's really hard to find good help these days. Well, shall we?" Jarlan continued to smile at the expressionless Kai.

'WHAT THE FUCK?!' Kai was internally screaming.

_________________________

[1] Originally he was meant to be a throwaway character but after some planning I have some ideas for him.

[2] It parts are Head, Neck, Upper Torso, Lower Torso, Upper Arm x2, Lower Arms x2, Hand x2, Upper Leg x2, Lower Leg x2, Feet x2 and Heart.

If the heart is attacked, even if its a non fatal attack the shield will be broken around it protecting Kai from any damage but the skill will be permanently destroyed. And I know it will be a spoiler but don't worry it wont be destroyed in the next chapter or anytime soon!

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A/N: What do you guys think of Jarlan? We won't be seeing him for a while but his presence will be felt throughout the story. (If I do my job right)

As of posting this chapter we are at 19 Power Stones. I think we can easily get 31 more for a bonus chapter don't you guys? ;)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did then make sure to add it to your collection and vote for it with your power stones! The support that you give me on this novel is what keeps me want to write more! No clue if that's a good thing though, so you guys will have to be the ones to judge!