Chapter 152 Playing Dirty

Manifesting a small wisp of crimson flame on his left hand, Valyr brought the Goblin Suppressing Incense to the flame and lit it, instantly causing a great amount of light gray smoke to spread throughout the room within seconds. Though Valyr could not help but cough a bit at the fact that the smoke swiftly bombarded his field of vision, the smoke in the room coalesced soon after, all of them congregating towards Riekan.

"Graaagh!" With the majority of the room now devoid of the smoke the Goblin Suppressing Incense had produced, Valyr was able to clearly see how the smoke affected Riekan, seemingly through all of the orifices in the man's body as the tyrannical aura he radiated was swiftly whittled down.

Knowing that he would be the target of his wrath once the smoke had subsided, Valyr went ahead and moved closer towards the entrance of the room, thinking that this distance was more than enough for him to react to any attack Riekan might send at him later.

Eventually, the smoke surrounding Riekan had disappeared, revealing a tall goblin covered in a thin layer of soot, with his aura being significantly weaker than before. Nevertheless, this did not hide the rage overflowing out of his eyes as his gaze shifted towards Valyr.

"Human… you dare?!" Riekan exclaimed in great fury, swiftly dashing towards Valyr with great murderous intent.

In response to the action, Valyr dashed towards his right in a curve, thinking that this would reduce Riekan's speed to a level where he would be able to dodge any attack the latter sent out. Unfortunately for him, rather than become slower, this action of his only made Riekan move faster, unknowingly appearing before Valyr out of nowhere as he landed a ferocious punch on his chest.

Bang!

'-56!'

With the strength behind the attack, the portion of Valyr's chestplate that made contact with Riekan's fist slightly crumpled inwards while the remaining force sent him flying, the final result being him colliding with the wall soon after, forming a small crater in the shape of his armor.

'-5'

Then, just as Valyr got himself out of the small crater to reduce the chances of him being hit by another of Riekan's attacks, the silver blade Riekan held started to glow a bright orange light all of a sudden, giving off a feeling of immense heat as he soon slashed out in Valyr's direction.

"[Ardent Blade]!"

Whoosh!

With great speed, a blade made out of flames hastily made its way towards where Valyr was, prompting Valyr to activate [Defense Aura] before getting out of the way with a quick [Elusive Dash], appearing a few meters to his left.

However, just as he thought that he had avoided all of Riekan's attacks, another one was speedily making its way to where he had appeared, carrying the destructive properties of lightning.

"[Fulgurous Blade]!"

Bang!

'-411!'

With the next attack Riekan shot out having the properties of lightning, the attack unfortunately dealt greater damage to Valyr due to the armor he wore, causing him to scream out in pain as he was sent flying back once more.

Clank!

"I was going to help you reach the same level of power as me, human." As Valyr fell to the ground with a slightly cacophonous clang, Riekan opened his mouth as he slowly made his way towards the former. "But to think you would use the Goblin Suppressing Incense on me… the same incense the man that locked me here used to defeat me."

"You could have chosen to be on my side, human, and all would be fine…" Raising his blade as he continued talking, indicating to Valyr that another attack was about to come, Riekan eventually slashed down, causing a torrent of winds to swiftly head towards Valyr.

"But you didn't."

"Beg for mercy all you want, human… but it's already too late."

"[Zephyr Blade: Torrential Gust]!"

Whoosh!

"[Inferior Heal]! [Elusive Dash]!" Activating two skills together, Valyr barely escaped the area of effect of the attack heading his way, letting out an audible sigh of relief as he regained a portion of the health he had lost from the two previous attacks.

After that, he went ahead and ran around the entire room, trying his best to avoid all of the attacks sent at him by Riekan, which were mostly in the form of blades made out of specific elements.

Though his mind was on full alert, utilizing the entirety of his senses to make sure he wouldn't get hit by any of them, Valyr could not help but go back to Riekan's earlier words, mentioning how the Goblin Suppressing Incense was an item made by the one that locked Riekan in this room.

'So, if I'm getting this correctly, this dungeon actually isn't an inheritance, but a prison instead?' With that thought in mind, Valyr could not help but think that the disembodied voice he had been talking to earlier came from the man that had locked Riekan in this room.

'Agh! I'll think about it later!' However, since he had no proof that his thoughts were true, and since he was in the midst of battling for his life at the moment, he placed the thought at the back of his head for now, noticing that Riekan had taken a brief respite.

'Now's the chance!'

"[Elusive Dash]!"

"[Offense Aura]!"

Whoosh!

Without hesitation, rather than continuing to maintain a great distance away from Riekan, Valyr instead headed closer to the being, which ignited a bit of the former's rage as he sent out a blade made out of mana to deter Valyr from getting closer.

Surprisingly, even though the disparity between their stats was quite substantial, Valyr was able to dodge the blade sent at him, continuing to move forward before thrusting out with his trusty blood red spear.

"[Venomous Strike]!"

Bang!

Mustering up all of the strength and agility in his body, Valyr swiftly thrust his spear towards Riekan's head, aiming to land a Brutal Hit in order to shave off a chunk of his enemies' HP. Unfortunately, Riekan seemingly had a feeling that such an attack would come at him, swiftly raising his sword to meet the spear before deflecting the latter's momentum away from him.

Lightly clicking his tongue, Valyr conserved the remaining momentum from the failed attack before attempting to attack once more, aiming for the opponent's chest. Of course, noticing that the human before him was aiming for his vital spots once more, Riekan moved his sword over his chest before flashing a smirk at Valyr, thinking that the latter was too naive to do such a thing.

However, all of that changed when Riekan noticed the smirk that had appeared on Valyr's face just as he had redirected the spear's momentum towards the ground. Then, while Riekan's gaze was directed towards the spear impaled on the floor...

Bang!

'-134!!'

Valyr ferociously kicked Riekan in the area between his legs, making the latter's eyes pop out of its sockets as an excruciating amount of pain washed over the latter's body. Then, taking advantage of the fact that the pain made Riekan open to any attack…

"[Descending Fang]!"

Bang!

'-1716!!!'

Valyr's spear moved in a forward arc, squarely hitting Riekan on the top of his head before following it up with a square kick to the latter's chest.

​ Thud!

'Who says I'm going to beg for mercy? If anything, you'll be the one doing that.' As Riekan fell to the ground with a thud, his blade a considerable distance away from him, this thought could not help but enter Valyr's mind, recalling Riekan's earlier words.

However, he could not help but slightly shudder soon after, thinking that such words should be kept to himself in times like these.

With that, he proceeded to where Riekan was, hoping to maintain the momentum he had just created.