Mysterious Lady II

"Water Dragon!" Tanner sent a dragon flying at the worm. It constantly screeched, making irritating noises.

"Screech!" The woman suddenly appeared, startling Tanner. Casting the Mid-Tier Sound spell, she screeched loudly, releasing sound waves which were sent at him.

"Reverse Flow!" The river and sea appeared behind him again. However, instead of flowing normally, the water seemed to have been struck by an almighty force, and began to flow backwards.

A vast swathe of water rapidly covered his entire form, and with the protection of two vast bodies of water, he turned and fled, his armor starting to flicker wildly.

"You think you can run? Erupt, Third Chain!" the woman disappeared, leaving no trail behind. She swung her saber at the fleeing Tanner, and it struck the body of water behind him, sending a great force slamming into him, sending him flying.

"I did not have time to condense the body of water, else she would not have generated so much force." Tanner gritted his teeth and activated Phantom Rush, reaching Mach 5.

"Go! Phantom Strike!" Noticing that the woman was still hot on his trail, Tanner released a clone which struck out a fist.

Frowning, she slashed with her saber. However, it collided with nothing, but the fist still somehow struck her chest, sending her flying backwards incredibly quickly.

____________

After half an hour, Tanner sighed and released a clone. Using it's point of view, he scanned he entire area for beasts or the strange lady.

"Hmm....a group of mages a bit away. No, they're heading here." Tanner frowned. The clone disappeared, and he regained his vision.

Being extremely cautious, Tanner started to recuperate, for he feared something would happen the moment the mages reached him.

"Oh, a fattened lamb here.....give us your spatial ring and that armor, and we'll consider letting you go..." one of the mages who was half naked, apart from a casual trouser which covered his 'leg'. His upper body was completely devoid of clothes, showcasing his glistening body which had a tint of bronze on it already.

His body seemed forged, like he had hammered himself in a furnace for years.

Now, he stared at Tanner, who had not even bothered opening his eyes, extremely sinisterly. He stared at the armor and a greedy expression flashed wildly in his eyes.

His teammates were similar, coveting what he wore and how casually he sat on a battlefield, recovering.

We've struck it rich this time!

What a total idiot!

Expressions of greed, malice and disdain flashed in their eyes. Furthermore, he was still a medial Advanced Mage, what a joke! They were all at least beginner Experts, with the weakest being peak Advanced realm.

"Boss, don't bother to speak rubbish with this fool, just steal his stuff already!" one of the mages stepped forward. He was dressed in azure robes, with depictions of golems in a pit of lava. He laughed strangely and let out his medial Expert realm aura, astonishing his teammates.

"Burns has reached medial stage of the Expert realm. How fast!"

"This brat is dead for sure."

Tanner finally opened his eyes, staring at Burns. Not bothering to listen, he closed his eyes again, entering deep comprehension of his Maelstrom Technique, not giving a fart to the ten people in front of him.

Burns face darkened, and he smiled coldly, "Hmph. You overestimate yourself, brat. We've spoken with you for so long but you don't even give us face. Die then! Iron Fist!"

Unleashing his Martial Technique, a huge iron fist appeared in the air. Sending a fist strike at the same time, the iron fist flew directly for his head.

Tanner frowned. He could feel an extremely powerful aura heading toward him. However, he did not still open his eyes. He still wore the Phantom Armor, from the start of his evolution till now.

"Phantom Clone." He muttered silently, and nothing happened.

His body became immaterial, and the fist went right through him. He lazily waved his palm, eyes still closed, and a sharp ring of water spread out in every direction, pushing Burns back.

"Failed again."

"Failed again."

"Failed again."

After half an hour, Tanner still had his eyes closed, and Burns began to sweat lightly. How much Mana did this psycho have? Tanner had just moved twice during the entire exchange, which was when he executed Iron Fist.

"Die! Thousand Flaming Fists!" Feeling extremely depressed and enraged, Burns punched once, and a thousand fists made up of flames which surged wildly appeared, going towards Tanner.

"Burns used his Fire element."

"His opponent has too much defense."

"Did you see when he used his armor to shunt all of his punches previously? Despite them being normal, Burns punches pack five hundred kilograms."

"Yet he survived, and did not even budge a meter."

Finally, Tanner opened his eyes, and grunted softly. Suddenly, a vast river and sea appeared behind him, separated by a thin barrier. He started to move his palms, and the water from the river gathered in his palm.

"Boundless Sea's Transformation." The water rapidly condensed to a state like crystal, and they morphed into countless palms.

"Omnidirectional Strike!" The palms flew out wildly, then converged back to a position, being where a fist would strike accurately.

Several intense sparks flew about wildly and steam rose up into the air, scattering in all directions.

"Die!" Suddenly, the bronze skinned person punched out, and a powerful Bronze Qi flew out from his palms, heading for Tanner.

"Gathering The Rivers, Boundless Sea's Transformation!" Tanner executed the two moves almost instantly, and several crystal swords clashed with the Bronze Qi.

As they clashed, the Bronze Qi seemed to win in terms of power. However, the swords relentlessly attacked, even reappearing even after they had been destroyed, and the Qi dimmed significantly before shattering several moments later.

"I no longer need to follow the moves step by step, I can perform each independently now. However, I have not comprehended it fully." Tanner grunted.

"Thousand Flaming Fists!"

"Divine Fist!"

A thousand flaming fists burning wildly head for him, along with an almighty fist which looked like it could destroy everything. Both of this attacks could kill any Advanced mage, but unfortunately, they met with him.

"Whirlpool." Tanner's two auras suddenly clashed. The river clashed with the sea, not giving way. The two extremely powerful opposing currents created a whirlpool, which slowly materialized into real life.

"Go!" Swinging his palms, the whirlpool instantly sucked up the two powerful attacks, it's might reducing significantly, but not disappearing.

The whirlpool struck the bronze skinned person, and intense sparks flew about. Using his bare body, he clashed unafraid with the powerful whirlpool.

"Flaming Fists!" As Burns prepared to help him, a Profound Sea Strike flew at him, sending him crashing into the unfortunate people behind him.

"Divine Fist!" Gritting his teeth, the bronze skinned person punched violently, and the whirlpool exploded into several raging currents of water, assaulting him. His skin had several marks, and blood even seeping out of some of them. It was still light though.

Clearly, he had not expected it. The currents knocked him several hundreds of metres away, coughing out blood as he did so.

"Gather." Tanner recalled the raging currents, which seemed to calm under the influence of his aura, and became the river and sea again, split by the resilient barrier.

However, he suddenly coughed out blood. His face seemed ghostly, extremely pale, and his legs felt weak.

"I cannot execute it completely yet." Tanner smiled wryly. Without a word, he fled.

"No yo–" Burns had recovered from the earlier attack, and prepared to give chase. However, an extremely sharp wave struck his arm, giving off intense sparks as it clashed with his defensive azure robes. He vomited a mouthful of blood, and flew back.

"Attacked by two mages in one day. How unfortunate." Tanner looked back to the seven odd people chasing after him, shouting all sorts of curse words at him.

"You despicable person! What did you do to our leader?"

"Get him!"

"We'll split his treasures evenly."

Tanner snorted. A bunch of self-righteous people. He stopped, alarming his chasers. After a while, they caught up to him, with evident sinister smiles on their faces.

"Die!" Not even giving him time to speak, they assaulted him with several attacks.

"Bronze Fist!"

"Dragon's Storm!"

"Petrify!"

Several spells flew at him. However, they were almost all at the Advanced level. He could easily deal with it.

"Phase. Phantom Clone. Phantom Strike!" Twenty clones split from his body. Every clone released a palm strike, accurately heading for the seven odd people. They coughed out blood and flew back, losing all combat effectiveness.

"Thrash." Easily passing through the spells, he took flight again, not giving a single care for their fate. With the remaining mana he had left, he activated Phantom Rush, and rapidly created distance between them.