Chapter 90: Please... Have mercy on me!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mana-break Chi, in any form, was lethal to a sorcerer. An energy thread woven by such chi would be able to kill a full-fledged mage. Baiyi's opponent had mentioned finishing off a Holy Level sorcerer with it and he could see how. It was truly a calculative and ruthless method…
But if one had already notice the threads then one could always avoid them!
Baiyi did not wait for him to complete his trap and immediately launched a short-distance teleportation spell to break away from the Magi-breaker’s net of chi threads.
Surprisingly, the enemy did not follow-up with his the Dance of the Shadow.
Instead, he quickly materialized behind Baiyi’s back, a knife in one hand. His other free hand had all five fingers spread opened. And at each of his fingertips was the very fine existent of chi threads.
His voice was chillingly proud. "Master Hope, I sincerely hope you did not think a mere teleportation spell is enough to escape me. "
Baiyi desperately searched through his assailant’s body. His heart almost stopped when he finally noticed what was connected to the man’s fingertips— fine threads of combat chi had long stitched itself on to his navy-blue cape.
The same horrid, bargain-bin cape that Mia had personally sewn for him from the one of the curtains at the dorm. Baiyi had worn it ever since she made it for him.
"W-wait!" He cried out frantically even before he turned his head to face the Magi-breaker.
He was half a pace too slow.
The Magi-breaker released his hold, and every one of them— every Mana-break chi compressed into high pressure threads, connected to Baiyi through his cape— instantly released their volatile energy simultaneously. Thick smog permeated Baiyi’s surrounding as he was literally caught by a net of mage-killing explosives and soon even the shape of his body was obscured by it.
"Wh-what just happened? I-it seemed that Mr. Hope had just been hit by Chi Fury, point-blank! My god! He just got hit by a Chi Fury made from Mana-break chi!" President Rhansey commented to his horrified students. He was just explaining the concept and inception of The Dance of the Shadow in the shadowy history of assassins to them like a Best Educator of the Year would do, and suddenly Mr. Hope fallen?
The judges’ face turned pale and were quickly on their feet to check on Baiyi but the red Soul Armature lifted his arm and stopped them.
"Don’t worry, he’s not really hurt," he said. Then, turning his gaze in the direction of the smog, he raised his voice to a blurry silhouette, "Not bad at all , Master Hope! Teleporting yourself out at the very onset of the explosion! Count your blessing that it was attached to your cape instead of your body, sir, or fate would not have been so merciful."
As he was talking, Baiyi emerged from the fallout. He did not seem to be injured in any way but he was holding the remains of his cape, ripped and charred.
Eyeing what was in his hand, the red Soul Armature jested, "Very sorry for ruining your garment, sir. Need a new one? My summoner’s family, you see, mak—"
Suddenly, as if someone had choked him, the breath was cut off mid-sentence.
The murmuring students, the commentating principal, Tisdale and Mia, who was almost in tears, and even the Voidwalkers whose consciousness lay outside their world— all of them went quiet, as if their esophagus was grabbed by the same force.
Nobody even dared to breathe. The atmosphere in the air seemed to have suddenly turned heavy, the temperature felt like it had dropped to subzero and a deep sense of threat dawned upon everyone who was present. The visceral fear that humans had learnt to suppress as they evolved suddenly visited them again. Even just breathing felt dangerous.
However, just as sudden as it had happened, the asphyxiating sensation dissapeared. The students heaved a sigh of relief at the same time without themselves noticing.
The president himself shook his head, as if he had just woken up from a frightful nightmare.
The only one who did not recover was the red Soul Armature.
He watched in full alertness as his opponent slowly folded the remaining fabric into his storage pouch and then watched him picked up his quarterstaff again.
Baiyi drew a semicircle with the staff before thrusting it forward, his left hand gripping the center of the shaft while his right hand was placed firmly on the tip with the back of his hand facing out.
"What is this…?" The Magi-breaker blurted out as he intently scanned the weird stance Baiyi had assumed.
"Nothing to it," Baiyi replied emotionlessly. "Do you want to know how your clan of Magi-breakers slowly declined and ceased to exist?"
The red Soul Armature nodded, then shook his head.
"Time for a history lesson then," Baiyi raised his voice, "Now, my turn."
He remained in his stance while advancing towards the Magi-breaker. Every part of his onslaught was marked with a burst of killing intent— the Magi-breaker got a feeling that all of the animosity was directed to him and only him. Only he alone could see that Baiyi was going to take his life while the rest of the world remained clueless. That feeling of being isolated by killing intent froze him that he could not even move.
President Rhansey furrowed his eyebrows at the scene, something about Master Hope's stance seemed familiar. He hurriedly reached out to his notebook from his storage pouch and thumbed through the pages. His eyes lit up as he found the entry he was searching for. "I got it! Th-this stance that Master Hope is assuming? It originated from a legendary congregation of sorcerers who were famed for wearing heavy armors and using close-quarter combat weapons in battles. They eschewed using magic as their main offense— instead, magic was used to supplement their physical attacks and were thus deemed as heretical by the Association of Sorcerers back then… The world had known them as War Druids but they called themselves—"
"The Druids of Moloch!" The Magi-breaker cried out together with the president.
Alarmed, the Magi-breaker’s entire body was surrounded by a powerful aura of Mana-break chi like an inferno. The flames danced frantically, then leaned forward towards Baiyi as the Magi-breaker attempted to execute another Dance of the Shadow.
His hands briefly changing position, Baiyi swung his quarterstaff in full circles as his own body spun, quickening the rotations as the momentum of both his staff and himself built up. Soon, retinal persistence from the speed of the spinning had created mirages of staves around him, forming an unsettling illusion of a sphere-like barrier.
There were no openings anywhere for the Magi-breaker to breach through Baiyi’s defense. Even the chi threads were sniped and scattered into the air by the gales surrounding the barrier.
"Although the Molochian Druids was reported to be skilled with all weapons available in their times— hacking with a mace, slicing with dual-wielding swords, stabbing with a dagger and shooting with a crossbow— the weapon they had always wanted the world to remember them with was their magical staff. Despite all of their deviations, the druids had always identified themselves as sorcerers…" The president explained. "Their elite art of quarterstaff-fighting had long deviated from its normal brethren. And as the War Druids’ needs became more and more pronounced, one particular technique stood out as the ultimate defense against all physical attacks— Moloch’s Tanoura. If I’m not mistaken, Master Baiyi is using it right now!"
Although there were no better evidence to support his claim of it being 'the ultimate defense', the Magi-breaker already had a hard time breaking through Baiyi's barrier. He stopped his futile attacks and while he was catching his breath, he started furiously brainstorming on his next move.
Not intending to give his opponent a chance to even catch his breath, Baiyi stopped his movement and immediately, through unknown means, duplicated himself into two, then four, then eight mirages of himself. Battle-readied, the eight images leapt towards the Magi-breaker.
"Hmph. A child’s trick!" The Magi-breaker muttered in a low voice and then with a quick swing, his blade was aimed towards one of the mirages.
His calculation was simple. As mirages would not be affected by any physical nor magical damage, there were little reasons for them to react.
Yet, that particular mirage sidestepped his attack.
"That was the real one?" Bemused, the Magi-breaker prepared an attack directed at that particular mirage—
But the seven others had drawn their staff, aiming at seven different parts of his body.
"What a remarkably nuanced skill in controlling all of his illusions," The Magi-breaker sneered and quickly drew his attention back to that particular mirage, striking his blade precisely at the mirage's chest.
The mirage disappeared immediately but a sudden sting of pain coursed through his body from his knee, the surprise and the force almost knocked him off his feet.
"— Not the real one!" He spun and slashed horizontally at the mirage that had attacked his knee. That mirage vanished but yet his other knee suffered another hard blow. He could hardly keep his balance.
"Impossible!" The Magi-breaker cried. How could that two act like the real body while they were not? Even their attacks were real?
Not one to give his enemies chances, Baiyi quickly created two new mirages and resumed his attack. Although only one of the mirages could truly attack, the copy that was able to do that always changed. No matter which one he cut down, the Magi-breaker realized that it would never be the real one.
Frustrated and consistently suffering from heavy damages, the Magi-breaker had tried to conjure another explosion of Chi Fury to wipe out all of the mirages once and for all but Baiyi was always one step ahead, teleporting all of them out of harm's way just in time. Then almost as if they weren't interrupted, the eight mirages would resumed attacking again.
The Magi-breaker couldn’t even use the Dance of Shadow. He did not even know which one was the real Baiyi!
His body could no longer withstand the assaults. With a heavy thud, the Magi-breaker’s body shuddered, lost balance and fell heavily onto the ground.
Once Baiyi had finally calmed down from his rage enough to hear his surrounding, he finally heard the low, almost-tearful whisper from the beaten red Soul Armature at his feet, "Please, good sir... Have mercy on me!"
"I’m surprised you expected any," Baiyi replied coldly before strutting out of the arena.