Dragon Heart. Land Of Magic. Litrpg Wuxia Saga. Book 6 - Volume 1 Chapter 19 440

Neither Hadjar nor Einen bothered to remind the giant that there was little honor in sending young men and women into battle while the leader stayed back. Even now, Araz’s request contained neither decency nor honor. The warrior still hoped that, if he could defeat one of his two opponents in a duel by some miracle, he would have a chance to get out of this mess not just alive, but also a winner.

“I demand a duel!” He declared again, a bit more petulantly this time.

Plate mail gloves shaped like tiger heads appeared on his hands. They were an artifact at the Heaven level. The friends wondered where a simple ordinary disciple had gotten such an expensive weapon…

“I’ll deal with him.” Einen’s voice was weary.

“Maybe it would be better for us to do it together?” Hadjar suggested. “He isn’t worth wasting our time on, my friend.”

“I’m not going to waste our time.”

The islander opened his eyes properly, showing the purple irises of his inhuman eyes. Realizing that his friend had a trump card up his sleeve, Hadjar didn’t insist. Dismissing his Call, he picked his sword up from the ground and returned it to its scabbard, taking a few steps back.

Araz, who’d already put some energy-restoring pills in his mouth, slid down the slope that was slick with blood. Stopping in front of Einen, he slammed his fists together. A metallic tinkle caused the surface of the blood pool to shimmer. Concentric circles spread across its surface like someone had thrown a stone in. Araz was clearly stronger than anyone in his gang had been. That was probably why he’d been their leader.

Einen saluted in the local manner. It was how any duel of honor began. However, before the islander had even finished the salute, Araz shouted, “Diamond Fist!”

The tigers on his battle gloves came to life and snarled, gnashing their teeth. The energy around his hands, forearms, and collarbones took the form of diamonds. The whirlwind of power that burst out from the cultivator’s body scattered the earth and blood, creating a dry space around Araz’s legs.

“Look out!” Hadjar shouted.

He drew his blade and ran in to help, but it was too late.

Curse the High Heavens! It had been foolish to expect honorable conduct from a man like Araz. The destructive power of such a Technique, backed by the power of a Heaven level artifact, would be almost as terrible as a direct hit from a Heavy Sword Technique.

The giant’s attack exceeded all of Hadjar’s expectations. Even if he was still at the middle stage of the Heaven Soldier level, Araz could’ve fought Ragar on equal terms thanks to his training and artifact.

In his mind’s eye, Hadjar saw Einen fail to block the attack in time and get launched back; he landed on his back, a fountain of blood spurting from his mouth.

It happened just like that. A dead body landed on the ground. Only it wasn’t Einen’s body, but Araz’s.

“River Serpent,” Einen said.

He did it more for Hadjar’s sake than to help himself concentrate on the Technique. Only now, after the attack itself, was Hadjar able to comprehend what had happened from memory. The islander’s lunge had been so fast that Hadjar had been unable to even distinguish the afterimages. This attack was faster than any attack Hadjar had ever seen before.

A staff-spear was a shorter weapon than a simple spear. It had far more maneuverability and speed. However, its short reach remained its greatest weakness. Einen had found a Technique that compensated for this weakness. It gathered energy at the very tip of the staff-spear, then concentrated it into an unimaginably small but equally dense point. Then it imbued the staff-spear with the mysteries of the Spear Spirit and sent it flying. The attack, which traveled in a straight line, was several times weaker, but ten times faster than the similar Technique of Sunshine Sankesh Hadjar had been forced to contend with.

Araz probably hadn’t even understood what, like the thinnest of threads, had pierced his head. The life was draining from his eyes, and his body was convulsing in its death throes.

“So that’s why you needed the cores of all sorts of crawling monsters,” Hadjar suddenly realized.

“Exactly.” Einen nodded, and with an effort of will, he gathered all the Glory points from the bodies that had died at his hands. “Three hundred and seventeen. Not a bad haul for a day’s work.”

“Two hundred and ninety-six,” Hadjar said. “Yes, it’s not bad, but…”

He moved his hand away from his hip. There was a long, deep gash across his leg, left by someone’s axe. Hot blood trickled down his back as well. There was also a wound from someone’s sword that had cut into his flesh. There were numerous cuts on his arms.

Einen, though he appeared unharmed, was a bit unsteady on his feet and often spat out blood. The attacks on the rainbow ape had left their traces inside the islander’s meridians and nodes. Such wounds, even if they were treated faster than bodily ones, were much more dangerous when they didn’t receive the proper care.

“Do you think we’ll be able to sell their artifacts?” Einen asked as they both climbed out of the ravine and sat down on the trampled grass.

“Who knows? As they say in Lidus, the barn gets filled grain by grain.”

With an effort of will, Hadjar collected all the artifacts that were scattered on the ground. There were so many of them that only a few acres of space remained in the storage ring.

“What a useful-”

Before Hadjar could finish praising the ring, Einen suddenly slammed his fist into the palm of his hand.

“That’s the solution!”

Hadjar had never seen his friend so happy before. Except for the time when, after their adventure in the Sea of Sand, they’d visited the brothel of Underworld City.

“The solution?”

Suddenly, it dawned on Hadjar. What was the main problem of collecting leaves from the shrubs? The fact that they had to be separated from the branches in a tedious manner that wasted time. No one, not even the most skilled Heaven Soldier, had such deep control over their power that they could use it to do this work instead. It was different with using raw will. Especially when a special artifact, originally created for collecting and storing things, became the instrument of said will.

“I’m positive,” Hadjar said, looking at the crumpled ring on his finger, “that this spatial artifact has never been used for such purposes before.”

“Have you seen how much they cost?” Einen asked.

Indeed, even the simplest spatial artifacts, such as the one Hadjar possessed, were worth about fifteen thousand Imperial coins! A truly princely sum for which a person could probably buy a cheap Imperial level artifact!

“All right, let’s go back to the School. We’ve had enough adventures for one day, and we’ve even earned some points.”

“I agree, my barbarian friend. More than ever, we need a plan. I’m afraid that, after this battle, the number of people who want to send us to our forefathers will only increase.”

“And you know what, my bald friend?” Hadjar tapped his scabbard. “There is only one fate for all of them.”

Einen responded with a very bloodthirsty smile

The friends whistled and their Three-horned deer appeared out of the Forest of Shadows. They had waited out the danger and were now once again ready to perform the duties in exchange for which they were so well fed and groomed. Leaping into their saddles, grunting in pain and spitting out blood, Einen and Hadjar started riding back.

“By the way, my friend,” Hadjar said, filling his pipe and pulling out a match, “while we’re riding, can you tell me about the elves?”

“What do you want to know about them?” The islander didn’t ask why his friend from the north knew who elves were, but knew nothing else about them.

“Everything.”

“Well, in that case, we should start with-”

Neither of them was surprised when their conversation was interrupted.

Right in front of the deer, grabbing the animals by their reins, the girl with pink skin, white hair, and long ears fell from the sky. She had the aura of a Heaven Soldier at the peak stage, but the power she exuded was comparable to a Spirit Knight.

“Let me tell you instead.” Dora Marnil smiled innocently, showing off a big hammer. It was an Imperial level artifact!