Chapter 673 Punch first, talk later
Erste who broke through the wall saw Nikki and the others as well as a couple of unknown faces. When Erste saw the three who were wearing armor and were emitting mana from their bodies he smiled a vicious-looking smile.
In this kind of situation, the first thought Erste had was to beat up the unknown people in front of him and then ask them questions. Erste did not even hesitate as he suddenly attack.
The first person Erste charged at was of course the one closest to him, it was the tallest guy who had a mean-looking face. The man was quite shocked by Erste suddenly dashing towards him and was unable to pick up his spear when Erste punched him in the abdomen.
Erste's punch seemed to bypass the man's armor hurting him and making him kneel on the ground, Erste then followed up by hitting the man's carotid artery with such precision and power that it made the man faint.
Erste was about to attack the other two but unlike the first one, the remaining two were now ready for battle holding their lances.
"Wait, we're not your enemies!"
The leader of the trio shouted, but Erste did not respond and instead once again charged at the nearest person. The guy that Erste attacked quickly defended himself, but due to the space being quite tight, it was rather difficult to properly use his lance.
'Still, I shouldn't be having this much trouble with someone who just gained mana.'
The two then began to fight one another in close quarters. Erste's punches and kicks were quick and precise, not to mention he was using mana to enhance his strength, while the other party was having difficulty just defending himself.
The leader who was watching the battle on one side noticed that as the battle continued Erste's attacks were becoming sharper, faster, and stronger, even his mana control was showing improvement visible to the naked eye.
'What kind of talent is this?!'
The leader had unconsciously gripped his lance tighter as his heart was beating faster wanting to fight Erste. After a while Erste's opponent could no longer hold on and he fell as well, now among the three only the leader was left standing.
Just like the first two times, Erste dashed toward the leader and punched at a speed that actually made the sound of a sonic boom. The leader who barely evaded the strike was still hurt a little by the wind pressure alone. The leader unperturbed quickly reacted and countered by thrusting his lance forward at a similar speed to Erste's punch.
Erste parried the attack by pushing the lance to the side with his forearm. At first, Erste wanted to grab hold of the lance but the leader's thrust was too fast making it hard to grab hold of the lance, not to mention there seems to be some force surrounding the lance.
'Did he coat his lance with mana?' The moment he had that thought, Erste wanted to test something. Erste controlled his mana to cover his arms and legs with them as if he was wearing armor.
When the leader saw what was happening before him he couldn't even laugh at it anymore, the guy before him was a monster amongst monsters. It took the other missing people who gained mana years to figure out mana coating but Erste did it almost immediately after seeing it once.
Erste fist then met with the tip of the leader's lance, when the two clashed with each other both the leader and Erste were pushed back. Erste took two steps backward while the leader slid towards the wall.
'Damn, I need to go all out or I'll lose here! As long as I don't kill him it's going to be alright.' The leader then changed his fighting stance as mana circulated throughout his entire body he held his lance in one hand and got into a stance that made him look like a lion that was about to pounce on its prey.
When Erste saw the change in the leader's fighting stance a vicious smile appeared on his face. After that brief confrontation between them, Erste understood that the other party was holding back which made him feel disappointed but now it seems the other party was ready to go all out.
Erste then took the lance of one of the fallen men and after twirling it around a little bit he held it with both hands and pointed it in the leader's direction. Seeing Erste pick up a weapon to face him the leader felt ecstatic.
"Heh, this next attack is going to be different since I'll go up a gear, I hope you don't get hurt too badly."
"Come at me!"
Erste who was getting even more excited roared. The leader then moved at an incredible speed and did a forward thrust at a speed that broke the sound barrier twice, making a loud sonic boom that blew away the unconscious two men, Nikki, Tala, and Miguel. Just the shockwave from the leader's movement had made Nikki, Tala, and Miguel fly into the wall. Tala and Miguel had fainted afterward but Nikki lay on the ground barely conscious.
Erste evaded the supersonic thrust by spinning and used the momentum of his spin to counter with his own lance. Erste's lance was about to hit the leader but unfortunately, it was just an afterimage and the leader was already behind Erste ready to strike.
Erste then stomped on the ground creating cracks in the floor which not only made the ground tremble but also made the leader lose balance momentarily creating a small opening that was enough for Erste to evade the attack and counter again.
This flow of battle continued for a little bit, evade, counter, evade, counter, evade, counter, the two repeated the same thing for several moves, but then Erste did something surprising. As the leader was getting used to the flow of battle, after counter-attacking he expected Erste to once again evade, but that wasn't what Erste did instead he blocked the attack.
As the leader's lance and Erste's lance collided, Erste let go of his weapon and the leader's momentum made him stumble a bit. Erste got behind the leader and got him in a chokehold. The leader tried to struggle but to no avail, as he lost consciousness shortly after.