'My experience is not up to par with the cannibal in front of me. Nor do I have any skills. All I could do is rely on my punches and kicks. Maybe swing a few weapons but that's it. The man standing before is six to eight years old and had possibly engaged in life-to-death battles countless times. What experience do I have? Compared to him, almost nothing.
'But if you think I'm going to fall, then you couldn't be more wrong.' A small smile hung on the corner of his lips, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a two-way assault is heading right towards him.
He didn't have the time to dodge by taking a step back nor could he think of jumping over his opponent's body to dodge. He simply didn't have enough time to do that. 'In that case, I'll move forward.' Like a reckless madman, he moved his body towards Banci.
The punch fell right on his face. From the impact, he was pushed away and fell on his butt.
The arrow missed his body.
He was successful in holding back the impact from the punch for a fraction of seconds and that's what he needed to do. What he did was simple but it required a lot of guts.
Banci had the same blank expression.
Rewen got up and instantly made a gap while there was still time. His nose was bleeding, his eyes were cold and his hands gripping two daggers. He lost the mood to joke around. He knew that the situation had turned serious. 'It's impossible for him to transfer his consciousness this quick. If he could do this, he would have already done it way back instead of hiding it till now. Not to mention, he himself said that I have understood everything of his skill - [Weeping Ghost] so it's out of the question to think that he could transfer his consciousness within a fraction of second.
'If I had to guess, it's probably another skill that's similar to [Weeping Ghost].'
Rewen thought of all the possibilities, then took a deep breath. 'It's useless to think too much. I have to act. Time to let it all loose…' He relaxed his muscles. The defensive stance he was taking while crossing two daggers collapsed.
*Swish*
He noticed another arrow heading towards his direction. This time, he didn't step back like he usually does. He dashed towards Banci who picked up the saber that had fallen on the ground.
He didn't go to Banci straight. He curved from the right to get the momentum and when he was near to Banci, he suddenly jumped.
*Swish*
An arrow went past under his legs as soon as he jumped.
Banci got alerted when he felt two hands on his shoulder and raised his shoulder to defend. However, Rewen made no offense.With a side-flip, he landed on the ground and struck the dagger on his right hand towards Banci's chest.
*Clang*
Banci blocked the incoming dagger with his saber.
'All according to keikaku.' Rewen's lips flashed a grin and striked his opponent's chest with the dagger in his left hand.
The dagger pierced deep into Banci's chest but not deep enough to touch the heart.
Rewen was about to heave a sigh of relief when he noticed a strange thing. "Where is the blood?"
Piercing Banci's chest chest made him feel as if he was piercing a rubber. 'Something's wrong again. I shouldn't linger in the spot any longer.' Having learned from his mistake, he adopted the "hit-and-run" strategy. Jumping a few steps back, he put a considerable distance between him and Banci.
He was expecting some arrows to come but not a single arrow came saving him the trouble to dodge. He then raised his head to look at Banci. He was shocked to find that his opponent still had the same nonchalant expression he had since he came out.
'I think I got this.' Rewen relaxed his muscles which had become tense again because of the strange thing that happened.
It wasn't particularly hard for him to guess that the man who he was fighting for the past few seconds wasn't the real Banci. 'Since he doesn't bleed, he can't be human.' As he was guessing, the man looking like Banci rushed towards him. Along with him, three arrows were simultaneously shot out.
"Well, no time to think too much." He had a single dagger on his right hand. He stood at his spot still as if Banci and three arrows didn't exist. 'My stamina is running low. After him, I have to fight with three others. I don't know if I'll last or not but…'
Rewen squatted.
*Swish*
The three arrows went past his hair.
Banci came to him like a raging beast let loose and swung his saber vertically towards the squatting Rewen.
Rewen's face had a frown but eyes were still burning with no hint of fear. The saber approached his body slowly. He felt as if time had slowed down but logic told him that it didn't. 'Is this my potential?' He asked himself, not expecting any answer.
When the saber was a few inches away from touching him, Rewen's body moved.
His body flowed like water, parrying the powerful saber strike with his dagger. The sound of metals clashing sounded.
*Jizz*
Sparks appeared at the clashing point of the two sharp weapons.
Rewen himself didn't notice but his eyes had turned indifferent. From the previous excited eyes filled with burning passion to indifferent as if nothing worthy could come to his sight. His body slowly went upwards, gradually overpowering his opponent.
A second later, he completely stood up standing on Banci's eye level.
*Swish*
Another arrow shot out.
Rewen didn't move away immediately. He exerted the maximum force he could on the saber and jumped back from the impact. He didn't stop there. He turned around and climbed on a tall tree and coldly looked at his opponent. 'I'll see how much sense you have.'
Banci, still expressionless, ran up to the tree Rewen had climbed on and jumped to reach a branch and was about to take another jump when an overwhelming force struck his chest and fell down flat on the ground.
Rewen, sitting above Banci, sneered. "You are a puppet." Not giving the other party to retaliate, he slashed off his neck. 'Not enough.' He went ahead and cut off his limbs. Because this was happening behind a bunch of trees, no arrows came.
"Even if this is a puppet, it's still disgusting." Rewen commented, after cutting off the puppet's body into twenty-eight pieces. The puppet was made up of an unknown substance.
"Do you still have any more tricks?" Rewen spread his arms and sat down at the same fallen tree. He was back to his playful mood.
"I underestimated you." A rough voice came from where arrows were being shot out. The real Banci came out again. Unlike last this, not a hint of craziness could be seen on his grave face.
"So did I." Rewen honestly admitted. "So? How do you want to play? I'm still waiting for your squad mates. Where are they?"
Banci snorted. "You better start worrying about yourself. Also, I think that it's time to put an end to this game."
"Wait. Before that, can you tell me what was the skill you used? It's basic etiquette to at least let your opponents know the name of your skill even if they didn't know the purpose or how it works."
"[Spirit Puppetry]." Banci casually replied. According to him, only killing the person in front of him mattered.
"Do all Rank 1 Mages have these dangerous skills?" Rewen was very skeptical of Rank 1 Mages being this strong. It's not that he looked down on them. It's just that he thought that Rank 1 Mages are supposed to have low-key pathetic skills. 'No wonder why Mages are more respected than Martial Artists.'
"Did you forget where I come from?"
"Real Waifus Corporations Limited? The name isn't domineering but from little I have heard, it's a big deal."
"It is." Banci started stretching his arms and legs.
'He looks like he is preparing for something.' Rewen's eyes squinted. 'What will it be this time? Damnit! I should have waited for a day, practice [Custom] using [Mana Manipulation] the entire day and come tomorrow. Not that I think a day is enough for me to create a skill.'
Although he complained, Rewen had a calm expression. Facing constant life-and-death situations many times in the last few minutes made him numb to surprises. 'I am growing too quick.
'I don't even know if what I'm feeling is normal. I never faced a crisis like this in my entire life yet I never panicked. Is this what it means to be born for battles?' He sighed. 'Now's the right time to think things like this.'
He focused his gaze and got up.
Opposite to him, approximately ten meters away, stood a long-face thin man.