Acquaintances(2)

Umur spread his hands out as Richard reached for his sword case, “Feel free, the fist is only my weapon of choice. I can use anything in these plains.”

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Richard nodded, “I’ll try my best to stay in control and not hurt you too much.”

The barbarian youth was about to rage at that comment, but his eyes fell on Carnage and his eyes immediately narrowed, “That’s a good sword.”

“It’s a divine item.”

“No, it has to be more than that. Just a divine item wouldn’t feel so terrifying. You truly are a respectable opponent.”

Carnage seemed to feel its presence in Klandor, the blade vibrating with excitement as a dark aura enveloped it. One could see goosebumps on Umur’s arms as he stared at the blade, while Balibali’s face was twitching. The tyrannosaur even just roared in fear and fell to the ground.

The fight began once more, and Richard side-stepped a punch before ramming Carnage’s handle into Umur’s rib. This should have been a powerful blow to a weak spot, but it felt like he had just slammed into a sheet of rock; his own hand started buzzing with pain, forcing him to fall back.

The barbarian’s punches were extremely heavy. Richard dodged the ones he could, but every single one he had to deflect took a toll on his body. On the other hand, his own punches and kicks seemed to have no effect. Even a few boosted lightning bolts seemed to do nothing to him. Even worse, an invisible force field seemed to be growing in strength as the battle progressed; strikes that initially made contact were now being deflected before they even landed, and punches that should have been dodged were striking from even a metre away.

Umur’s movements were quite simple, but Richard found almost no flaws to exploit in the flurry of blows. Even with his own advanced martial arts, there was almost no opening that he could wedge into, forcing him into a direct confrontation. Against someone with such defensive power, that was suicide.

Only a few minutes into the battle, Richard had been hit several times. Although he had used his skills to lessen the blows, the injuries were starting to accumulate. On the other hand, Umur looked like a god of war as a giant phantom started growing out from his person. The phantom’s moves were perfectly in tandem with his, and as it grew more corporeal it became difficult to distinguish just who the actual person was.

Seeing the obvious end to this fight, Richard finally sighed and flipped Carnage around. He had been using the blade for defence all this while, but Umur left him with no choice but to get serious. He could feel the blade grow excited in response, the black aura converging back within in preparation.

In the eyes of the spectating Balibali, time seemed to speed up as shields of blue and white lightning started revolving around Richard’s body. Richard held Carnage up high with both hands, the blade pointed to the ground as he charged forward.

Every movement seemed to leave an afterimage. Balibali couldn’t even keep up with Richard’s speed, and when his mind caught up once more all he could see was Richard squatting on the ground ten metres behind Umur. Blood was flowing down the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the ground.

Umur remained in a punching posture, but he was looking down at his body with shock. A bloody mist burst out from the side of his abdomen, calling attention to a wound that was ten centimetres deep and nearly half a metre long. The barbarian studied the wound before looking at Richard once more, “That really is a good sword.”

This kind of flesh wound was nothing to Umur, he could just clench his muscles to stop the bleeding completely, but he was well aware that his punch hadn’t even come close to Richard’s speed. The blood flowing from Richard’s mouth was only because he had restrained his power by force, avoiding any damage to the organs.

“You Norlanders really like your armour and weapons,” Umur commented again, “But then again, you’re even better than that blade of yours.”

“I want to continue,” Richard huffed, “But I can’t control myself like that again.”

“That’s alright, you’ve already won. So— Hey!”

“One sec! Today’s a good day, another old acquaintance is here!” Richard’s mocking voice faded into the distance as he dashed away, only leaving an afterimage behind. Umur wanted to chase behind, but speed was his one greatest weakness. There was no way for him to catch up.

...

Far in the distance, the beast-like Heisa was making his way towards the battlefield. Having been interrupted in his ploy to kill Richard before and having grown much stronger since then, he wished to finish the job. His eyes went wide as he saw Richard rushing towards him voluntarily, but then he pulled a heavy mace off his back with a smirk.

The mace didn’t even make it past his head.

Sprinting over themselves, Balibali and Umur only saw an electric light flash before everything went silent. Richard was already ten metres behind Heisa, but this time there wasn’t even a flush on his face. A loud thud rang out as the mace fell to the ground, followed by the two halves of Heisa’s body.

Carnage buzzed softly with satisfaction, as though it had just eaten the best meal of its life. Perhaps it really had, Richard thought randomly. He might have killed many stronger enemies in the Land of Dusk, but this was the first barbarian that he had struck down. After all, this blade was truly Klandor’s Carnage.

Richard placed the blade back into his sword case before sprinting away, completely ignoring the two barbarians who realised just how easy he had been taking it on them. Having felt his sword cut through an enemy known for their bodily toughness as though he had been slicing butter, he suddenly had some doubts about the situation. Had the Eternal Dragon known it would come to this? Was that why he had been given Carnage and the upgrade to it?

......

Located almost right in the centre of the continent, the Azuresnow Shrine was a long distance away. However, Richard strived to maintain his patience throughout the journey— he had learnt in the Land of Dusk that urgency against a strong enemy would only result in death.

A few days later, right on the border of the plains and the rolling mountains, he came across a huge old tree with an abnormally tall black tyrannosaur underneath, a barbarian woman next to it leant against the bark while wiping her sword. She was an entire foot taller than him, her sword alone just as large as his body.

Richard frowned at the sight; he could feel that this would be his first true challenge since he arrived. Bringing Carnage out of the case, he started walking towards her.

The woman looked up and down Richard, scanning over his now-local attire and the blade in his hand before asking hoarsely, “Richard?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Krangma, I am a senior warrior of the Azuresnow Shrine.”

“I can see you’re quite powerful. I assume you’re here for the tooth as well?”

“In part, yes. My main purpose in coming here is to test your skills. Defeat me, and I will give you the qualifications to participate in the holy ceremony. If not, return the Tooth and return to Norland. Going to the ceremony would just mean death at that point.”

“Oh?” Richard’s heart was moved at the mention of the ceremony, “Since you’re from the shrine, you should know why the ceremony was moved up.”

Krangma thought for a moment, “I will tell you if you win. If you cannot do that, then there is no need for you to know.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed as he said softly, “You’re level 20.”

“Who cares about levels?” Krangma snorted, “They are only something you Norlanders made up. If you feel it’s unfair, you can go back home! We barbarians measure strength in battle, not some stupid number!”

“Heh, that’s not what I meant. I was just reminding you not to give me any excuses when you lose. That...” Carnage started buzzing while five different spells instantly buffed him, “won’t leave me happy.”

Krangma felt a chill run down her spine.