Pride

Chapter 105 – Pride

"Hey, brat. Spar with me!"

Tong turned into the direction of the haughty voice, then he was shocked by seeing the body of the person.

He was about 195cm tall with toned muscles. His hair was tied to the back, and his bearing was majestic and dignified. Though he did not wear armor at this moment, his statue and outward look were enough to scare every commoner in front of him.

Tong was only 182cm tall at the moment. From his perspective, Lu Bu was a head taller than him. It was like he was standing face-to-face with a giant.

By instinct, Tong took a step back from the sudden approach. Lu Bu's natural pressure was unbearable even to Tong. Meanwhile, Tong's subordinate soldiers were shaken in fear. Their legs could not stop shaking and their teeth were clattering.

"Didn't you hear what I said? Spar with me!"

Tong took a deep breath to calm down and glared into the eyes of Lu Bu. He did his best to exert his mentality aura of a majestic prince that he practiced with Lu Zhi, yet Lu Bu did not flinch the slightest.

"… May I know who you are?"

Tong asked while he was gritting his teeth, enduring Lu Bu's pressure.

"Lu Bu Fengxian! Son of Dian Yuan!"

Staring at Lu Bu in shock, Tong realized the reason behind the unusual pressure from the man now.

He was standing in front of the God of War himself! But why did this War God want to duel with him?

"For what purpose did you want to fight with me?"

"Because I want to!"

The corner of Tong's eyebrow twitched.

'This man is thoughtless as the rumor said. But if he is stupid, he would not be able to become a general in the first place. There should be a reason that made him challenged me.'

As always, Tong was careful with his decisions. But this time, He did not have much of a choice but to accept Lu Bu's challenge.

He had to befriend him in order to poach his subordinates during his stay here.

Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were as much as a good general like Lu Bu.

The feats that Zhang Liao did in Tong's previous world timeline showed that he was a great general, much better than Lu Bu in terms of commanding, insight, and strategies.

Meanwhile, Gao Shun was the renowned heavy cavalry commander that was capable of crushing any formation of his enemies. His private troops were nicknamed "Formation Crushing Army" by his enemies and his allies.

As for Lu Bu, he was untrustworthy. Tong did not want him in his ranks unless he could somehow find a way to tame this beast.

"Ok, I accept your challenge. When and where should we fight?" Tong asked.

"Now! Draw your weapon."

Tong did not know what to do with Lu Bu's frankness and recklessness. However, an opportunity to test his skill against the strongest man in this era was hard to come by. He had to try.

Tong drew his sword and got into a kendo stance in preparation. Meanwhile, Lu Bu did not use his halberd. He casually grabbed a sword at his side and waved it around to warm up his shoulder without drawing it from the scabbard.

Staring at the casual Lu Bu, Tong felt intimidated. It was already hard to withstand his natural oppressing aura. Now, he had to solo this world boss by himself. It was not a good feeling at all.

No matter how hard Tong tried to calm down or console himself that he had many cheat skills and he was immune to all physical attack, all Lu Bu required was a simple glance into the eyes of Tong to petrify both of Tong's legs.

"Huh? Is that it?"

Lu Bu had a distorted expression on his face as if he was disappointed with something.

"Brat, I won't kill you. Heck, I won't even attack you! I want you to attack me with everything you have! I want to know how you get those killing intents with your age!"

Tong snapped out of his trance by Lu Bu's shout. It came to him that he was not himself at all.

He took another deep breath and poured all concentration into his sword and his opponent. Everything else was forgotten and was treated as a simple stone on the roadside.

His focus sharpened, and so did his aura.

Seeing the serious Tong, Lu Bu smirked. He could detect that Tong's aura was strengthened and appeared more intense than before. He pointed his scabbard at Tong and taunted.

"Come!"

As he taunted, Lu Bu also emitted his killing intent to overwhelm Tong. Although he would not attack him, Lu Bu still used his aura to make Tong give out his best attack.

*Rumble*

The menacing cold air overlayed with Tong's killing intent.

Because of the overwhelming aura of Lu Bu, the pressure weighing upon Tong's mind increased. The pupils that were once black turned into the devilish red.

And then, something had snapped.

[WARNING! DEMONIC SEAL HAS BEEN WEAKENED!]

[WARNING! DEMONIC SEAL HAS BEEN WEAKENED!]

[WARNING! DEMONIC SEAL HAS BEEN WEAKENED!]

The system message roared inside of Tong's mind as if it shouted to his ears directly, yet Tong did not pay attention to it. Rather, he did not hear it. His vision only had Lu Bu and himself. The rest was just nothingness.

Then

...

[Your [Demonic Curse] skill, [Pride], can be used.]

…

*BOOM*

The aura within Tong's body exploded. His killing intent engulfed all living being in Jinyang City. The eyes which once appeared normal was painted in black. His pupils turned into flaming red as if he was a devil incarnated.

Ding Yuan, who was about to step up and stop his adopted son, was panic-stricken. All soldiers were frightened and stumbled onto the ground. Zhou Cang opened his eyes wide in astonishment. Though his legs had given up on him, he still managed to keep his eyes on his Lord to witness his greatness.

Lu Bu got goosebumps by the sudden the outburst killing aura.

Instead of being afraid by the devil, Lu Bu was so excited that he reneged his promise earlier as he also exploded his killing aura to match up with Tong. He intended to go all out.

*BOOM*

The clashing of killing intent made the soldiers nearby lost consciousness. Zhou Cang also almost fainted from the outburst.

"HAHAHAHA! THAT'S RIGHT, BRAT! COME ON! LET'S GO!"

Lu Bu broke his promise and attacked Tong head on. He swung his sword sideways to get rid of his scabbard. Then the flashing iron sword in the hand of Lu Bu hacked down, aiming for Tong's forehead.

Tong took a step forward and welcomed the attack with his sword strike of his own.

*BANG*

It was not a sound of clashing between swords. It was a sound of a collision of hard objects as if two trucks ran into each other head-on.

Both Tong and Lu Bu came to a stop with the sword collision. Both swords locked and grinded each other, which caused sparks on the surface of the iron swords.

"Good power! Again!"

Lu Bu shouted and shoved forward, which Tong also did the same. Both of them used the momentum to leap back two steps and then charged forward one more time.

As if both of them could read each other, they did not collide with their swords again. They knew that their swords were cracked from the previous impact. With another strike, their sword would be shattered.

Lu Bu feinted a strike and sidestep into a low sword sweep while Tong dodged the low blow with a jump and countered it with a horizontal sword sweep, aiming at Lu Bu's eyes.

Lu Bu bent his head backward and dodged the sweep by half a centimeter. His arm and shoulder of the hand that held his sword did not stop. They made a half rotation and his sword was swung in a half-moon motion at Tong, who was still in mid-air.

"TIME S-! Ugh!"

Tong almost shouted the activation words for his time stop skill by reflex, but the sudden head pain made him stuttered in mid-word.

Because of the hesitation and the mistake in the split of a second, Tong was hit by Lu Bu's sword on his left ribcage.

The sword broke upon the impact, but it did not harm Tong's body. On the other hand, Tong was surprised by the sudden impact and lost balance. He fell and rolled on the ground as if he was hit and flew away by the impact.

The duel ended with Lu Bu's victory in three moves.

[The Demonic Seal has been restored.]

[Your skill [Pride] has been disabled.]

"Huh? What the fudge?"

Tong was confused by the sudden turn of events. Everything he did in the duel just now was not under his control. He temporary fell into a half-awake state and fought as if he was moving his body inside a dream.

Then, the headache made him fully awake again before he was hit by Lu Bu's sword.

Tong lied on the ground while he touched his forehead with his hand to ease his headache. The pain only lasted for three seconds before it subsided.

"Aw, crap. What a pain."

Tong complained in annoyance. There were many questions about his skill that he subconsciously used, but he had to deal with the situation at hand first.

Meanwhile, Lu Bu was dumbstruck by the durability of Tong's body.

'It was a clean strike, yet he wasn't injured a bit. There is no wound on his body, too. Hahaha! I like this guy. I should ask him to spar with me more!'