Umbrella

The umbrella whizzed through the air, piercing towards Resi who was forced to the ground. The woman smiled, knowing that she will pierce through flesh and blood. She was ecstatic as she thought about the spurting blood tainting the ground and its iron smell mixing with the air.

She used all her force and unfurled her umbrella, only to feel a hard collision that knocked her back a few steps. This confused her greatly as she didn't feel the texture of flesh and instead, she was knocked back. She was furious. Her hand gripping her umbrella with such force that her hands trembled, she looked over towards Resi.

There she saw an unassuming man with no great taste in clothes and had a shield on his right hand. He looked at her with such hatred and fury that she felt a tingle in her spine.

Ligi was glad that he was able to defend Resi in time. As soon as the man spoke trash about Gotang, he knew that Resi would not take it lightly. He prepared his shield and reacted in time when Resi was about to get pierced. With his eyes glaring at the woman and his body bent low, he defended Resi until he could stand up for himself.

The woman was thrown off-guard when she flew backward due to Ligi's reflective shield. The man in the middle showed a surprised reaction by raising his eyebrows. Even the buffed-up man couldn't help but gawk at the result of the woman and Ligi crashing.

"Hohh.....even though you said it reflected power, I wasn't expecting much but this....this is different."

The man with the finely combed hair and all-black suit turned his head back and spoke to Andy. He didn't seem all that much-surprised by Ligi's shield due to Andy telling him of its prowess. The blacksmith had truly betrayed them for the holy grail. Bang couldn't believe that he let his guard down for the blacksmith. He should have assumed that just because the system arranged a mission for him did not mean that the blacksmith was safe. Ge should have been more careful showing all their cards with someone he did not know.

The woman landed on her butt, skidding through the ground with a perplexed face. After she had stopped skidding, she looked up at the sky and displayed a deadpan face. Suddenly, her umbrella stood upright without her physically touching it. It trembled and shot off towards Ligi.

Ligi steeled himself even further and waited for the attack. His feet were not firmly planted on the ground. His toes were the only support he had for his whole body and his heel was in the air, suspended. He waited for the impact the umbrella stopped in front of him.

The umbrella was suspended in mid-air as it unfurled itself. With the umbrella opened, Ligi's vision was obscured. He couldn't see what was in front of him so he got a bad premonition. Then out of the side of his eyes, he saw movement in his right. The woman appeared at his left with her hands holding a black teacup made of the same black powder as her umbrella.

This was the right moment that Ligi prepared for. With his feet in a versatile position, he was able to twist and turn his shield towards the woman and her mysterious black teacup. The woman was once again surprised that her surprise attack didn't work and she bit her lip in frustration.

She splashed the black powder inside her black teacup and most of it was deflected by the shield but some of it went over and splashed Ligi's hair. The woman saw this and smiled as she got ahold of her umbrella and attacked Ligi on the opposite side.

Her black teacup vanished in the air and as her hands touched the handle of the umbrella, it contracted back into a lance-shape. She accelerated to the left with black soot leaving a trail on the ground to where she was. She unfolded her arms and thrust her lance-like umbrella towards Ligi.

Ligi saw this and steeled his heart. He knew what to do in this situation and since his feet were in the proper position, he was confident in reflecting the attack. With his toes acting as a spring, he turned his shield towards the attack. He turned but it felt like the woman was attacking too fast. No, he was just moving too slow.

Ligi tried his hardest to turn but there seemed to be an invisible constriction that prevented him from moving too fast. The blade of the lance-like umbrella hit Ligi's left arm. Thankfully, the shield was able to reach the blade in time deflect it from hitting his heart. If he was even a little bit late, his heart would have been pierced and he would have instantly died. Once again, Gotang had saved his life from the grave by teaching him this technique.

Ligi retreated with a bleeding arm but it didn't seem to reach the bone. It did not hinder him from the fight one bit due to his adrenaline numbing the pain. Lobo moved quickly and picked up Resi away from the fight. Once Ligi saw this, he also retreated from the fight.

"Blaire, do you want Bodt to take care of this?"

The man in the middle with a spotless full-black suit spoke to Blair with a stern tone. He did not seem like he was asking with concern. From the pressure emanating from him, it was more of like a threat than a question.

"Tsk...I can deal with him just fine. I was just testing him out."

Blaire stood up with her back straight and assured the man in the middle that she could take care of Ligi. Her black uniform was still clean without any injuries. She knew she could take on Ligi because there was one glaring weakness that Ligi had. He had no attack. Even though it seemed like Ligi had great defense, it meant nothing if he could not defeat Blaire. Blaire could attack again and again until Ligi was tired and his defense lets down and then go in for the kill.

Lobo also gathered the same opinion when he watched their fight. It wouldn't be long until Ligi gets careless and becomes vulnerable. He had to do something. He thought of what Gotang would have done to help Ligi.

"Ligi, I'll help you attack."

Lobo offered his help to Ligi. Even though he knew that Blaire was beyond his capacity, he wanted to help nonetheless. He could throw in some slashes to pressure her in some way or he could even take some of the blows for Ligi. As a leader, he couldn't just stand here doing nothing.

Bang stood there without any clue what to do. He was still stealing glances at Andy, infuriated at the betrayal. His head was now filled with fury as he couldn't think of anything else. He ignored the fight happening between Ligi and Blair because of his tunnel vision towards getting revenge on Andy.

"No, I can take this on my own."

Ligi spoke to Lobo which surprised him. Lobo did not think that Ligi would reject his help. He looked towards Ligi and saw that there was a red hue in his eyes. His eyebrows were slanted downwards as he looked towards the man in the middle. Lobo recognized the hatred that Ligi felt towards the man who insulted Gotang.

He was also infuriated at the man but his instincts told him that nothing good would come out of it. He was knowledgeable enough about the upper echelons of the town to know that he stood no chance against a leader of that caliber.

If Gotang was here, he would have retreated the moment the leader presented himself. The holy grail was not worth the death of every person in the Defending Tip. Even if they survived here in the Dreaded Valley, you can be assured that everyone you loved in the town will be dead before you even reached the gates.

"Ligi, don't be reckless."

Ligi knew that if he was all defense, then he would lose the fight and that would mean that he couldn't defend Gotang's name. He needed to be aggressive; he needed to attack. For the first time, Ligi ran towards Blair with his shield up front in an attempt to bulldoze his way towards her.

Blair was surprised at the reckless actions of Ligi. The way that they exchanged actions before, she gathered that Ligi was the defensive type. She thought that Ligi was a wait-and-see type of guy so she was surprised that he, all of a sudden, attacked her without any regard for himself.

She smiled at Ligi like looking at a kid. She did not feel at all threatened by Ligi's dash towards her as she thought of a nice idea to finish off one of her targets.

She side-stepped away from Ligi as she launched her lance-like umbrella towards Resi who was on his knees, facing the ground.

Ligi saw this and immediately tried to run back and defend Resi from the attack but it was too late. The umbrella was already aiming towards Resi's heart. Ligi subconsciously reached out his hands to reach out to Resi.