As soon as I saw those words flashing in front of my eyes, it felt like the entire world has suddenly calmed down. There was no fear, anxiety anger or wrath. Everything stopped mattering to me, all my senses sharpened while ignoring all the unnecessary stimuli. While I was conscious of my feet touching the ground, I couldn't feel it anymore. I knew that the air was flying through my air and cooling my head, but I didn't feel it anymore. Everything sank down in the bottomless hole of my focus, with only the silhouette of this new, strong enemy remaining in front of my eyes!
With my breathing slowed down, I could imagine my body temperature falling a few degrees lower. That's strange… From what I heard back on earth, to have this kind of reaction in a fight, one needs to go through at least a few real fights where his own blood got spilt. Only then would the body recognise the threat of bleeding out in a serious fight and slow the blood flow in an attempt to prevent it even before the fight starts! At the same time, the beating of my heart suddenly turned stronger, as if my own internals knew that if they lowered the speed of oxygen circulation in my veins, they need to make it up by increasing the amount pumped into my bloodstream!
"Could we stop it now?"
At this moment when I was about to give this fight my all, this random newcomer expert suddenly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. While he still holds his steady posture in case I would launch my attack despite his pacifying words, even in my state I could realise that he acted as if he didn't want to fight.
"You attacked us first and when you realised that you can't win, you are trying to placate us? There is a very specific way to do such a thing!"
With the handle of windslord slowly heating up from my strong grip on it, it served as a point of detachment for my mind. With my body cooling down by a huge margin, the residual heat of my sword allowed me to keep my mind awake, despite the ability trying to put me down to sleep and turn me into some kind of beast mode.
Since they wanted to talk, I need to keep a grip over my mind for now. I can let go at any time, but fighting with someone who can match me isn't the best thing to do right before the tournament! The only good thing about this situation is that I almost managed to forget about the death that came from my own hand!
"You are right. Cyris, Kanno, apologise for your actions!"
Turning around to his underlings? Disciples? Let's stick with juniors, the expert actually was brazen enough to ask them for an apology? As he turned around and bowed slightly, he said.
"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience that we caused you. We will be on our way now."
"But Master…"
Even in this situation, those small fries still dared to have anything against it? Even after their master was soo shameless to actually think about excusing himself after they tried to claim our life in the lands of our sect? There is no way I will let them do that!
"... they killed Masa!"
Ignoring the words of this youth, I raise my sword in preparation to jump at those people. While this expert is strong, I can feel that with my new ability I will be able to face him on equal grounds! With Eve's support, we should be able to take care of him without any major troubles!
"Now, now. We should all calm down. It's not like fighting everything out is the best way out of any inconvenience. As for the poor Masa… he just got what he asked for!"
Despite one of his disciples being dead, this expert still refused to take this matter seriously! After learning that he won't be able to easily gain a victory fighting me, his attitude turned so shameless that I can't even bear his presence anymore!
"Attacking us on our Sect grounds is grave misconduct of the eternal law. If you want to avoid fighting, state and prove your belonging, otherwise we will treat you as common bandits and clean this land from the filth that you are!"
While to this point I was the one to lead the conversation, Eve must've noticed the state that I was in and took over this role. To be completly honest, I have no idea what is she talking about! Eternal law? What does it even is? Some kind of commonly agreed moral compass or a set of ancient rules? Either way, without a strength to enforce them, they are just useless morals for weak to hide behind!
"You are obviously right. We hail from…"
Just as I thought that there is a chance that we will be able to get this over with without any real problems since Eve took over, I noticed this foreign expert making a move right in the middle of his sentence. In a flash, my mind blanked out, forcing me out of the equation. While I still could observe the events, it was as if someone took control of my body!
Jump, shift the centre of the weight, use the windslord to slash at the ground and use the recurring explosion from the wind-wave to propel my own body forward even faster, while adjusting slightly the direction of my lunge.
In a time that it would normally take me to just execute a single slash, this ability actually allowed me to not only counter the enemy attack by simply smashing my body against him, but also forced my hand to execute a devious sidestep followed by a fatal strike right after my body moved to this expert side!
So I can actually be so powerful at my current level of strenght already?
*Poor attempt to beg for power stones. We need just 23 more as I write it to reach the second level of bonus chaps next week! (sounds fishy when I'm not sure if I will be able to get all of them in time though :_:)*
1/2 daily
0/6 bonus