178 The Final Trial IV : Retribution

I opened the door by unceremoniously kicking it backwards, there was a dull thud as it smacked into Locke's face.

That was just my luck as I ran out the moment he stumbled back, I didn't even give a time to catch his breath as I ran towards him, used his body as a spring board and smashed my knee under his jaw. His head snapped back as he took three steps back completely dazed, he swung the spear in his hand at me, but he was completely out of it. I ducked under his wild swing and hooked his arm in mine, I didn't even waist time as I brought the elbow of my left arm down.

*CRACK!*

Sure there wasn't really pain in the game, or rather there was but you wouldn't be feeling it to the expected degree. Either way having your arm broken in such a manner would not feel good, especially so if you're not someone used to see your bones sticking out of your skin. My next moved was to smash in his left knee, bending the bone wonder backwards it poked out, with blood and turn ligaments exposed, Locked looked he had hind legs, but I wasn't done with him yet.

I rested his screaming face and struggling body to the sea and shoved his head in, maybe I was being to brutal, but considering the hell these guy just out me through, I'm not giving him one quarter. Besides this was just the first death, which to be honest hasn't happened yet, it was taking too long for this dude to drown, maybe I should.....oh! He's already dead.

{You have slain your opponent, 10 points gained! Lightning bolt skill looted.}

Guess the rest of the skills the guy looted from me when bow tie with the wind, either way I should be looking for the crown. And I already have an idea where it was, but as it stands I really don't want to alarm Locke to my hunch, it was my discovery of a hiding place that had been the basis of my plan, before I ended up getting killed more than half a dozen times by that rock star band reject. Come to think of it, Locke did look very goth, while I looked really...dangerous.

I heard a flap of wings from above me, I looked up to see Locked coming down with guns pointed at my head. I dove to the side, dodging the first two shots as I flung my hands out at him. (Lightning bolt), he banked to the left, dodging the strike and unleashing three more shots at me which were all intercepted by my wings as I used them to cover my body.

I had guns too, but I didn't want to use them yet, they would probably cause a furor, or something like that, I get the feeling that the guns Dinah made were a little bit too strong, so it would better to keep them secret, at least until I have no voice but to use them.

Whatever guns he was using, they were packed a punch, but they had absolutely no penetrating power. I hunched down, my wings covering my entire body as he fired shot after shot at me. My charade should be over by now, but this was the way I learnt to fight, I always come off as weak so that my opponents would underestimate me. And so far it's worked for me, till this point, all that fool needed to do was bring down his guard and reload.

*Click!* Bingo!

(Lightning Bolt!)

This time it smashed into his chest, throwing him backwards and digging a furrow on the ground. I ran towards him, just as he got up, he had discarded the guns and had on two knuckle dusters that had daggers attached to them. He threw the first lunch, I took a step back, but the blade attached to it, had a longer reach as my jaw received a cut, however Sky's war helm form fully covered my head, all there was; was a light show as Sparks raised up from the point of contact.

The Sparks blinded me a bit and his second punch came and his me with force of a sledge hammer, I had to give him that, the guy was strong. And he seemed like a trained boxer, the way he moved his hands, his legs and centered his body was quite similar. But he was using just his hands, I could use every part of my body should the need arises.

He threw an uppercut, trying to capitalize on his previous hit, however the idea was to use the blade on the knuckle to slice me open, bringing this whole fight to a climax with a fatal injury. But I was still ready for that, whatever skill he got, he doesn't seem to confident in using it against me, but come to think of it how did he get here so fast anyway?

I took another step back, but suddenly he was at my side, his punch heading for my neck. Those knuckles of his don't seem normal, so there was no way to guarantee that my armor would out a stop to it, but then again I still didn't understand, his the fuck did he get so close! (Wind School: Sonic Scream!).

*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*

He was pushed back with a loud scream, I sent a lightning bolt after his still flying body as I reached my hand to the above on my back and pulled out a red filled arrow. In his daze state I grabbed his hands over my shoulder and performed a judo throw, before bringing the red filled arrow to the middle if his forehead, making sure to drive it as deep as my strength could possibly allow me.

*Booof!!!*

His skull exploded into fragments, with some of them getting on my body. That was the second death, this guy was really good. But with the elimination of personal skills and classes, he was a step below me. Plus unlike the sin dragons that have most of their skills in a skill list, the elemental dragons have most of their draconic skills in their armor, which was why I knew i could just turn into a massive fifteen foot tall dragon and destroy the shit out of that fucker for as many times as I like. But where's the fun in that.

{You have killed your opponent! Ten points gained! The skill Warp has been looted.}

{Warp: basic level 1: move to an location with a five meter radius in an instant./ Cost 20MP/ cool down 15 seconds}

Now that's just unfair, this skill was broken. It wasn't a speed buff skill, but an actual teleportation skill with such a short cool down time, and this was just the basic level 1 version of it. I can't imagine what Advanced or master level versions if this skill would be like, I wish I really owned it. I shrugged my shoulders and took to the sky, I didn't stop as I pushed myself upwards, going against the wind draft or rather using it to my advantage.

I flew past a few of the floating islands, marveling at the structures on them and the weapons on most of them until I was well above them and high enough into the air that they looked like dots to me. Looking at them from my vantage point, I noticed that all of them were arranged in a manner that made them look like a giant tree, or rather like the tree of revelations. The various precious stone like islands were very much reminiscent of the tree of revelations multicolored leaves, and it was said that each leaves held a skill.

Looking down at this whole cluster of islands, the center of the tree, the very spot where the heart seed was located, the same place where I had gotten the memory disk that led my to Zephyr and the rest of the elemental dragons; that spot was empty, completely devoid of any islands, it was just a straight shot into the ocean, it was practically a bulls eye which more than confirmed the theory I had that led to the implementation of my plans. The crown was hidden in the ocean, the islands were a distraction, or rather they were a compass to the crown, a veritable x marks the spot map, so...

"Fuck!"

Some sort of force pulled me out from the sky, bringing my body die at a speed I couldn't control. I couldn't even keep my eyes open due to the amount of wind rushing past me, wind dragon or not this was so fucking uncomfortable. I took my eyes off Locke for too long, he already had an equipment that amplified the effects and powerful of his skills by more than ten food, and gave them an entirely different attribute and effect. He was dangerous, and I took my eyes off him.

*Booom!* I smashed into an island made of emeralds, green rocks flying into the air as the house I landed in turned to rubble in seconds. I took a deep breath and looked up to see Locked dive bombing me with his income dusters and their blades aiming for my skull.

(Warp!)

He slammed into the ground just as appeared behind him with the Kusanagi in hand, I brought it down on his neck in one smooth stroke, taking off his head as I fell back clutching my stomach in pain. It was really getting hard to breathe, but I was healing, however to be honest I don't think I would be fully healed by the time he gets here

{Gravity mastery has been looted}

I sat back amongst the rubble of the destroyed house, and closed my eyes a bit, trying to catch my breath as I slowly counted the time until his respawn and he found his way back here. I was healing, but it was a bit slow, but none the less I was going to be ready for him, getting that crown was my priority, but the idea was to make sure he didn't follow me or fight me for it.

I had no other choice but to break him, thoroughly. I used the Katana as a crutch and got back up to my feet, I moved to the edge of the floating island, spread my wings and dived down. The wind rushed past me as I let gravity pull my downwards, and then once the surface of the ocean got close enough, I spread my wings and let the with catch onto my wings. There was spray of water as I flew over the surface of the ocean, heading towards Locke's island.

It was in that moment he came out of his shack, even with the pain in my body, and my slow speed, I could see the look of shock on his face. And he in turn could see the rather sinister look I had on mine. Gravity was a mastery, so when I used it to pull him towards the edge of his island and closer to me, I wasn't to surprised by the amount of control in had over it, but Locke was smart, he expected me to use the skill against him, so he acted.

Massive spikes made of metal shot out of the ground towards me, going as high as 20 meters, showing just how dangerous of a skill it was. But I wasn't there, at least not anymore. (Warp) I showed up behind him and stabbed the Katana straight through his head. I twisted the sword for good measure before I pulled it out, flicking the blood off the sword as his body faded to dust.

(Iron spikes skill has been looted.)

The skill gave me an idea, a very nice one if I do say so myself. I looked at the house, and counted the time until he was ready to respawn, and then I used gravity on it, this was just guess work on my part, but all of these skills were a whole lot more powerful than you would expect a level 1 basic skill to be. The idea is that the skills were as powerful as they need to be, not nerfed or overpowered, so I was banking on that as I used the iron spikes skill, smashingly it through the house whilst using gravity to smash it to bits.

The results were...beautiful to say the least, I've really got a talent for destructive art. But that should keep our boy a little bit occupied for a while, let's see if his house respawn with him, or he's left to use mine. But either way, I'm going for that fucking crown.