Chapter 21

"Gahk!" Spitting out blood, Zuyuan tried to register what just happened before his stomach got kicked while his opponent pulled out the weapon smoothly. 

"Kuh!" Gritting his teeth, he tried to stabilize his stance from the impact. But trying to not give any breathing room for him, Rurong had already in the middle of sending out another stab of his spear. Aiming towards one of Zuyuan's feet. 

Seeing the ongoing strike, he tilted his body to the side slightly while using the back of his blade to party the spearhead and averted it. Although successful, Rurong skillfully withdrew his spear in a heartbeat and sent another attack on Zuyuan's head. 

'Shit-' Not hesitating anymore, Zuyuan shouted in his mind 'Phantom's Sword!' 

In no time, four transparent-like doppelgangers materialized beside Zuyuan, two in his right and two in his left. One of the left side quickly blocked the incoming assault as the rest soon followed with their own attacks. 

"Oh? Interesting skill you had there." Whistling playfully, Rurong parried three strikes at the same time with his spear. His spear deflected each strike in extreme precision as it moved so fast it created after-images one after another. 

"Gahk! Guhk!" Coughing up more blood as he clutched into his chest, Zuyuan's vision began to blur. Strength leaving his body in minutes as his blood flowed down incessantly. Not to mention, the use of Phantom's Sword ultimate technique formed a heavy burden on his Qigong reverse. 

'No good…' Waving his hand, he summoned XB11 immediately as he tried to stay away from Rurong. The guy was laughing like a maniac as he dealt with four phantoms at the same time. His movements fended the flurry of attacks in ease as he tried to gather his momentum to counter attack in a powerful hit. 

XB11 saw its master condition and immediately started to take out its weapon and ready to ambush Rurong while he was off guard. Pointing the rifle's gun muzzle, XB11 began shooting at Rurong as it saw Rurong successfully threaded between barrage of strikes and destroyed one of the doppelgangers. 

"Now we have a cyborg too in the house!" Said Rurong as he laughed. 

"Go for it Rurong!" 

"Kill the newbie!"

"Let him taste the power of the crimson meteorite!" 

"Rurong, I love you!" 

Cheers from males and females in the audience alike sounded In a heated manner. Almost every spectators supported Rurong as they held up their hands high in the sky. 

'it will end soon…' Zuyuan squinted his eyes as he saw the rest of the phantoms. Noticing Zuyuan's pale face, Rurong smirked and said loudly, "At your limit?" he evaded another bullet sent by XB11 as his spearhead began to glow in crimson light. 

In a quick sweeping motion, he sliced through one of the phantoms and used the rest of the force to lift him up as his spear stabbed deep into the ground. He dodged another strike midair while a trail of flames enveloped his spear and propelled him. 

Landing gracefully right five meters away from Zuyuan, Rurong smiled and said, "Why don't you fight me as a proper warrior, eh?" 

Pointing the spear at Zuyuan, a column of flames was ejected and it flew straight towards him. Stepping away, Zuyuan quickly used Ghost Walk technique as he created another distance between both of them. 

"XB11!" Zuyuan shouted with urgency and panic in his tone. 

Understanding the signal, XB11 pointed both of its arms as it said, "Full charge, activate." 

Both of its arms released two beams of light at the same time as both of it was swirling together and sailed towards Rurong. The beam of light traveled the space with the speed of 290km/h and quickly closed the distance as it would hit its target in another two seconds. 

"Not bad!" laughed Rurong as he rushed towards the incoming beam. Gripping his spear with both hands, he stabbed to the attack as flames covered his whole body. In a glance, his charge resembled a meteorite coming from the sky with unstoppable momentum. 

The air erupted as two energies clashed with each other. The earth shook as both of them tried to fight for dominance against one another. The spectators started to panic as the sound wave alone knocked down most of them and the one that was too close with the collision had their ears bursted. 

"Hahahahaha!" Smiling and laughing, Rurong had a crazed expression on his face as he said, "Give me your best, metal can!" 

*BOOOMM!* 

Finally, after twenty seconds long, the clash exploded as the air pressure alone blew off Rurong fifty meters away from where he once stood. Rolling on the ground a few turns, he raised his body while gripping his spear tight in his right hand. From the left shoulder below, blood flowing down as he lost his arm. In front of him, a big crater appeared with a width of twenty five meters and depth of seven meters. 

Grinning from ear to ear, he stared at Zuyuan in the distance with burning desire, "Nice mercenary you have there." 

Murmurs spreaded on the audience seats as people discussed with unbelievable tone. 

"His mercenary could withstand Rurong skill…" 

"His mercenary is as strong as a strong Missionary." 

"Who's that guy...."

"Ughk!" Dropping to his knees, Zuyuan feels his entire body become numb as his vision darken. The last sight he saw Rurong's smile ceased a little as he looked down on him. 

"It's my loss." 

Rurong's voice sounded inside his mind as the last thing he saw, Rurong's body dispersed into small orbs of light and clamorous of the audience seats. 

**** 

"He's interesting, isn't he?" 

Sipping his tea on his desk, Astar smiled gently at the translucent sphere floating in front of him. The sphere projected a man's face with an auburn ponytail that raised his eyebrows, "Oh? Did the Administrator have a feeling at this particular missionary?" 

"Define this 'feeling'." closing his eyelids slowly, Astar leaned his back on his chair. 

"Romantic feelings? Heh." Chuckled Rurong as he continued, "Worry not, warriors could love whoever they want, no matter the gender or the social status." 

Staring at Rurong quietly, Astar still smiled in response as silence permeated the area.

Coughing for a few times, Rurong asked in a curious tone, "But why would an Administrator want to know the maximum capability of one single missionary? What's so special about him?" 

Pulling out a card from his desk, Astar replied in a mysterious tone, 

"Just a prank of mine."