Under the night sky, the boat slowly stopped and the team jumped onto the rocks. The light that fell from the sky did not brighten up the area and they could barely see anything around.
Melissa stepped on a piece of rock and overlooked the island. The only thing in her sight was a tall black hill with no trees anywhere. The areas covered by shadows were deep and dark.
"Stay alert, everyone. This was the territory of a mid-sized wizard organization. I think there’ll be many traps around, so be careful," Melissa advised.
The other four wizards jumped through the rocks and landed on the beach. The yellow dust was buried in pieces of broken black stones.
Kuirman jumped off a rock easily as Ainphent walked to his side.
"I don’t know why Melissa invited to you to join the team, but I hope you can prove that you’re necessary for the mission," Ainphent said in a low voice.
"What’s the problem?" Kuirman’s brow furrowed. "It’s not you who decides if I’m valuable to the team or not. Oh, wait, you’re the one who invited a Gas stage weakling to the team."
"I’m confident that he’ll do great in the mission and I believe he won’t disappoint me." Ainphent smiled. "He’s not a weak Gas stage wizard by the way."
He turned around and left.
"Are you sure about this?"
Kuirman narrowed his eyes.
He suddenly turned around and walked to Angele.
"Wizard Green."
Angele scrunched his eyebrows and backed off a bit—he wanted to keep a safe distance from this man.
"What do you want?"
Kuirman took a glance at Angele.
"Wizard Ainphent trusts you a lot, but I want to make sure you can contribute to the team."
Kuirman’s voice was deep and loud.
"So, will you accept my challenge? Just me and you. The loser shall quit the mission and admit that he’s worthless."
Kuirman pursed his lips to a sneer.
Angele narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that Kuirman did not like Ainphent and was taunted into something, so he decided to challenge Angele to a fight. However, Angele needed to try his best not to reveal his signet and heart bombs here, and using only the Metal Mastery would not guarantee him a win. Kuirman had many practical experiences, and he was a wizard at the Liquid stage.
Although Angele was learning new energy compression formulas and had spent most of the time experimenting on the ship, he was still not sure if he could win against Kuirman.
Angele’s spell power was higher than before but using the energy compression method required a lot of mentality. They were getting close to the ruin and he did not want to waste his mentality, also, there was no time for him to recover.
"Well, I’m not interested," Angele answered in a light tone.
Ainphent looked at him. "It’s just a test. Accept the challenge."
Old man Belem laughed. "You’re a dark wizard, right? Why are you backing off?"
Melissa stood without saying a word but she was interested in the fight as well. Isabell still had no expression on her face; it seemed like she was not concerned.
The followers had already woken up. They jumped to the beach as well, attracted by Angele and Kuirman’s conversation.
The team lined up beside the two
"Don’t worry. It’s just a test. I won’t hurt you." Kuirman’s green eyes were staring at Angele. "Also, you need to show us what you can do. You’re the only Gas stage wizard in the team at the moment since the other one didn’t show up. If you want to share the reward with us, you must accept the challenge."
He slightly leaned forward. "Also, if you really are a coward, you can just go stay on the boat while the rest of us will continue the mission. What do you think?"
Kuirman turned his face to Ainphent and sneered.
Angele just realized that Kuirman was taunting Ainphent, but he feared his background and decided to mess with Angele instead. It seemed like the wizards here were all familiar with Ainphent’s family.
Angele glanced around. The wizards watching the argument all wanted to know how strong he was.
"Let’s get started then."
He saw a green needle rushing toward his chest as he finished the word.
The needle was traveling at full speed, drawing a green arc in the air.
*DING*
A silver shield formed before Angele and blocked the attack. Fire sparked as the needle hit the front of the shield.
Angele barely had no time to react and Kuirman’s sneak attack almost succeeded.
‘Warning! Threat detected! Target’s attributes: Strength over 20, Agility over 15, Stamina over 17. Safe distance, 15 meters…’
The chip’s mechanical voice echoed in Angele’s head.
Goose bumps rose on his skin.
‘F*cking hell… Kuirman’s Strength is over 20?’
The silver shield in front Angele was penetrated while he was thinking.
The green needle stopped for a second and started rushing towards Angele again.
Angele stepped back right away when the green needle was stopped by the shield. He raised his hand and created a long black dagger. He tried to stop the needle by hitting it with the tip of the
dagger.
*Crack*
The black dagger broke into pieces.
*CHI*
The needle went past Angew'a left, turned into green light dots, and vanished into the air.
Angele kept retreating, but his boots were already in the chilling sea. He raised his head and saw Kuirman was more than ten meters away from him.
He was breathing heavily and his chest was pumping. Cold sweat covered Angele’s forehead.
The place was deadly silent. The others wizards seemed surprised after witnessing Kuirman’s skill.
Kuirman’s one simple-looking strike almost slew a Gas stage wizard. The wizards here all had serious expressions on their faces. They had all already learned how strong Kuirman was through that strange green needle.
Angele narrowed his eyes again and stared at Kuirman.
‘This man’s attributes are higher than Grand Knights', what kind of monster is he… The glowing elephant’s Strength is 8 and its Stamina is 15… Harland of Lennon is a famous Grand Knight and he only has 8.2 points of Strength... This Kuirman must be a close-combat wizard that enhanced his body with special spells or…’
Angele had thousands of thoughts in his mind, but he was still observing Kuirman’s movements carefully.
Kuirman looked surprised. "Impressive. I didn’t expect you to dodge that attack. Half of the wizards I killed died to that spell. So, Ainphent didn’t trust you for no reason."
He slowly raised his right hand and pulled out a silver scimitar from his long green robe.
The scimitar had the width of a human’s arm and the blade was smooth like a mirror.
*CHI*
Waves of green gas climbed up the scimitar.
"Everyone, stay away from him!" Melissa suddenly shouted.
The wizards and the followers were all strong enough to sense the breath of death twisting around the scimitar.
"It’s a cursed weapon… You need to kill wizards that are at the same level as you, collect their dying curses, and concentrate them before crafting such a weapon… No wonder you’re so strong," Melissa explained with a low voice. She was staring at the scimitar with a serious expression on her face.
"Ha, you’re probably the only one here that can recognize where my weapon comes from."
Kuirman smiled and turned the scimitar around.
*KA*
Two more blades appeared on the right and left side of the handle, coated with the same green gas.
Kuirman started to swing the scimitar with his right hand.
The weapon turned into a spinning fan and Angele could hear the wind howling.
He had no idea how he should counter the next attack.
Angele was used to striking his opponents first with physical attacks, however, Kuirman was a close-combat wizard. His attributes and equipment were also much better.
Angele deactivated his metal force field after his shield was penetrated. He had realized he could do such a thing after his mentality was compressed. The mentality compression method helped him control the Metal Mastery a lot.
Zero warned him as the shield failed to block the needle and he had to deactivate the force field to prevent direct mentality damage.
He would be dead or severely injured if his metal force field was completely destroyed. The damage to his mentality would even prevent him from casting any damage spells.
The Talent Spell was the reason why wizards were strong, but it would become their weak point if the force field was broken by opponents.
Angele was considering using his signet or heart bomb since Kuirman’s Stamina was over 17. Basic damage spells would not be effective on him.
"Are you ready?"
Kuirman chuckled and disappeared. Two small holes were left at the place that he had been standing in.
A green shadow appeared beside Angele and hit him hard.
*BAM*
The two traded hits and fell into the sea together. They were about five or six meters away from the shore.
They were slowly sinking into the freezing sea.
Angele’s face turned red. The wing pattern on his left palm was sending out distorted waves around him quietly.
He grabbed Kuirman’s right hand, and the cursed scimitar almost cut his waist open.
‘The energy waves from the signet distracted Kuirman’s attack… I probably should’ve fully activated it… That was too close…’
Angele focused on Kuirman’s right arm.
The other's strength was so strong that Angele could barely hold his arm.
Silver metal liquid started coming out of Angele’s skin. It climbed up Kuirman’s right arm and started solidifying.