Garen was silent.
"Still can’t make up your mind?" Lord Clark’s sword tip touched the ground, releasing a small streak of white smoke where it touched the ground,"in fact, I even accidentally acquired some information." he stopped for a bit, lowered his voice.
"You seemed to have joined some underground society, you seem to be searching for something...?" he said with a light touch of suspicion.
Garen’s face dropped.
"You know too much..."
Rumble!!!
He suddenly disappeared from where he stood, the entire courtyard rumbled as ground exploded, forming a massive crater and sending small pieces of rock flying everywhere.
Boom!!
Lord Clark’s expression changed rapidly, a massive amount of crimson sand like speckles of light appeared in front of him, they were streaks of light made by the brandishing over an infinite amount of sword tips.
The red dot collided with a black shadow, releasing a loud and terrifying rumble.
Lord Clark blocked the attack with his whole body, but he felt his limbs go numb, they had been vibrated to the point of total numbness.
Another rumble and a loud sound came again from the front.
"Open fire now!!!" Lord Clark ordered at the top of his voice.
"He is too fast!" two of the Killer Hunters Squad’s marksmen panicked,"didn’t you say that he was really slow? How can be so fast! Fuck!"
They could only see a blackish grey shadow continuously collide with Lord Clark’s body, blow after blow it let out terrifying bangs that scared onlookers till they were numb in their limbs. Even the floor seemed to be vibrating.
Lord Clark’s body was surrounded by the red speckles as he tried to defend, but he wasn’t able to catch up to any of the actions. Ever since the first hit, it seemed as if he was alone in the courtyard.
A streak of black shadow kept attacking him all over his body, the Crimson Sand Sword Gate’s secret defense technique: Crimson Sword Veil, was about to fall apart.
"Quickly open fire! Open fire!!" Clark was losing his sanity, he swung his sword around desperately, each swing weaker than the one before.
Clark was a fighter that had honed his speed and strength to the pinnacle, even Garen was not as fast as him, but yet Garen was facing the tip of Clark’s sword with his bare fists. Each time Garen’s fists met Clark’s sword, Garen would continue unscathed, while Clark’s whole body would tingle, his strength slowly fading away.
Should Clark just miss Garen’s attacks once, it would mean certain death!
As if some sort of inexplicable fear was brewing within him, Clark released all his might like never before, his strong observation abilities were now able to see Garen’s movements as Garen swung his fist, took a step forward, swung his fist, took another step forward.
It was just two simple movements, Garen was expressionless, he was like a dead man, like the world around him had no effect on him whatsoever.
The ground would erupt in small explosions, leaving small craters in the wake of each step Garen took, like small bombs were exploding, they sent gravel and dirt flying all over the place.
Rosetta and Angela could only step away, keeping a distance so they would not be injured by the stray gravel.
At this moment, a huge empty space was made in the middle of the courtyard.
In the centre of it all, Clark was swinging his sword furiously alone like a red ball of light, a black streak kept flying around him, it was the mirage of Garen’s ridiculous speed.
Boom!!
Finally, Clark was hit on the waist by one of Garen’s palms, and was sent flying across the courtyard.
With a big splash, he landed in the fake mountain in the pond of the courtyard. The entire fake mountain was blasted apart, turning into dust instantly.
Clark lied in the pile of rocks with his sword, coughing loudly, his eyes, nose and ears were bleeding.
Pow! Pow!
Two sounds of gunshots went off at the same time.
Clang clang!
Garen’s chest was hit, producing two bright sparks, and forming two holes on his suit.
He casually tore his suit off, revealing two bleeding holes on his chest, the long purple and black bullets actually managed to penetrate about half of their lengths into his skin.
"Oh I’m hurt..." he flexed and swung his chest muscles, squeezing the two bullets out of his body, as they fell with soft dings.
"You folks actually managed to injure me, well done." Garen’s face produced a coy smile.
He stomped the ground.
With a loud bang, a massive piece of rock blew out from the ground, he whipped his feet and produced more.
A large amount of rocks flew out like cannon balls in every direction, taking down members of the Behemoth’s Gate around him in quick blow.
Two of the Killer Hunters Squad members evaded the rocks and lifted their guns ready to shoot.
Roar!!
Garen suddenly made a loud sound like the roar of an elephant, sending a minor earthquake about the entire courtyard.
The loud and terrifying roar shockwave headed straight for the two Killer Hunters, the both of them suddenly felt their whole bodies go numb, as their hands trembled and pointed their guns upwards, Bang bang!
Two bullets flew straight up and landed nowhere.
The two Killer Hunters’ faces were now filled with fear.
"Retreat!!"
With a swift movement, the two Killer Hunters rolled on the floor, evaded more oncoming rocks and took two blind shots.
They hit Garen’s wrist, shaking it slightly.
"Everyone attack!!"
Clark bellowed.
The two Killer Hunters quickly split up and aimed at Garen from two different angles.
At the same time, Clark and King of Fist Leo propelled themselves onto Garen. Angela clenched her teeth, suppressing her shaky hands, she produced two throwing stars and threw them at Garen’s back.
Rumble….
Two rockets appeared out of nowhere suddenly, and were headed towards Garen with a pillar of white smoke behind them.
In that split second, attacks were coming from every direction.
For inexplicable reasons, while being surrounded by all these threats, Garen suddenly thought of his conversation with Duskdune Shura by the cliffside…
"The you now, is just like the him of then," Duskdune Shura recalled,"before Palosa became the Saint of Fist Techniques, he was just like you. Young and undefeatable, even against Grandmasters from an older generation. However, sadly..."
"Sadly what?" Garen stared at him.
"You lack the aura of magnificence."
"Aura of magnificence?" Garen looked up into the sky as if he had just thought of something.
The night sky was littered with infinite stars, a great majestic sense of awe overwhelmed him.
"Without Defeat, Without Competition….." he muttered to himself.
Rumble!!
The rockets exploded, a large amount of bullets were shot in Garen’s direction, a thick fog mixed with dust and dirt formed after the explosions, for a moment nobody could tell what had happened.
Clark and King of Fist Leo still stood on the same spot, they were standing by for Garen’s evasion attempts, but surprisingly, Garen made no attempt to hide nor evade.
The dust finally settled.
Rosetta stood far behind Angela, suddenly cupped her mouth, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Clark and Leo stood side by side, about ten plus meters away from the epicentre of the explosion, their pupils suddenly shrank.
As the smoke finally cleared where Garen stood, a several meters wide crater was revealed, and in the middle of it, was an unscathed Garen.
He had somehow evaded the primary area of effect of the explosions, and everything else didn’t have any effect on him.
"After this fight, I will challenge Palosa," Garen’s last word fell, and suddenly disappeared.
At the same time, a shadow appeared in front of Clark. With a loud "Ka Cha!", the sword in Clark’s hand was sliced into pieces, turning into many pieces of red speckles.
With a loud bang, a massive green and black hand penetrated through the broken pieces and pressed its palm on Clark’s forehead.
"No!!! I do not want to die!!! I DO NOT WANT TO DIE!!!" Clark’s face turned into a stroke of madness, the scars on his body suddenly started glowing. What was originally a thin shade of beige skin was suddenly filled with blood, and his veins glowed like he had been tattooed with blood.
In the split second before Clark’s skull was about to be smashed into pieces, he suddenly mustered a terrifying amount of counter strength and released himself from the grasp of Garen, his forehead now sliced open slightly by the nails of Garen’s palm.
Resisting a flurry of pain from his head, Clark flipped over skillfully, ready to escape.
Bang!!
He was hit by a palm technique, and spat out blood, the force sent him flying over the walls, his thoughts filled with fear of Garen. He didn’t even think twice and started running away as soon as he landed, disappearing into the night.
He was dead for sure.
Garen slowly pulled his right palm back, he was still being shot at by two machine guns and held back by the attacks of the Killer Hunters and Leo.
The seemingly endless rain of bullets on Garen’s body kept lighting up spark after spark, everyone felt chills as they watched Garen casually ignore the gunshots and begin to turn his attention to Leo and the Killer Hunters.
Upon seeing Clark’s cowardly retreat, Leo and the Killer Hunters wanted to run too, but they were so pulled in by Garen’s aura of courage that they simply couldn’t stop attacking. They knew that if they stopped, they would be killed within a split second.
They weren’t Grandmasters of Combat like Clark, and did not have terrifying amounts of explosive energy or durability.
All the attackers were starting to panic, members of the Behemoth Gate held back their fears as they remembered their strict training; members of the Black Mark Association however, were mostly convicts, they couldn’t stand the pressure that came with the fear, some of them started abandoning the mission.
Two of the heavy machine guns were operated by a total of four people. The ones responsible for feeding the chains, their hands were shivering out of fear. The ones responsible for aiming couldn’t even hold the gun still, most of the bullets started straying and hit the wall behind Garen instead.
King of Fist Leo and the Killer Hunters watched as Garen came closer, their foreheads, arms, their entire bodies started cold sweating. Some of the stray bullets flew past Garen’s face, leaving small cuts on his face as he walked.
The guns suddenly stopped, the two Killer Hunters saw Garen about to get close to them, suddenly exploded into a ball of fire.
They simply lit the gunpowder they were carrying on them, killing themselves.
At this moment, Garen was still a few metres away from the epicentre of the explosion.
"They….couldn’t take the pressure, and chose to kill themselves…."
Sky Warrior Corbella said, with sorrow and disappointment.
The surrounding houses around the courtyard were now on fire, the light of that fire glowed on Garen’s face, giving him a demonic look with a reddish shadow.
He stood before the fire, and turned to look at King of Fist Leo.
The gunshots had also stopped by now.
Leo stared powerlessly at Garen’s silhouette, he was shaking all over in fear, with a loud thump, he suddenly kneeled on the floor.
The fire continued to burn around them, making occasional crackles as the wood burned.
"It is finished..."
Corbella looked at that silhouette before the fire, his heart was suddenly filled with motivation, his body pumped up with adrenaline.
"After this battle, you are without competition!" He suddenly remembered the days of Palosa.
He suddenly felt like he had just witnessed history.
"He will become the next Saint of Fist Techniques," Corbella said, as he watched King of Fist Leo kneel before Garen.
Garen lifted up his head and looked at the night sky, as if he had just understood something.
Behind the fire, small policeman Jia Ning stood stunned, an unprecedented thirst rose from his heart.