Infinite Realm

"What did you find?" Yato hurriedly asked Seiichi once he discovered his returning silhouette.

"Two parties of two members were battling each other. One party was that of a [Guardian] and a [Swordsman]. The other was a fire type [Elementalist] and an [Assassin]." Seiichi said.

"Hmm? What else?"

Sato was about to say something else but he saw that Seiichi was hesitating as if he had something else to say.

Seiichi replied. "You previously said that the guys we are teaming up with was a female fire type elementalist and a male assassin right? Those two looked quite similar to your descriptions."

"Let's go check it out then." Sato said.

. . . . .

"I really don't know where you got your confidence from."

Lu Zhen said as he stared at Reeves. In his right hand was his Mid tier Mortal rank dagger that was glistening with a red liquid that slowly dripped to the ground. In front of him stood Reeves and Blue Banana. Compared to before, their stature and look was a lot worse compared to before. Reeves' armour had scratch marks here and there while his inner clothing was dyed red with a blood seeping through the exposed part of his body. One uncanny feature was a dull yellow glow that wrapped round him.

If Reeves' current form was one that lacked any serious injuries, Blue Banana's form would be a different story. Though his injuries weren't so serious, Blue Banana looked a lot worse than Reeves. Black burnt marks were all over his armour and even his face wasn't spared from it. If one had their Gore-and-Blood function activated, they would see that a part of Blue Banana's face was scarred by flames. It looked so terrible and disgusting that one might not be able to stand it. In fact, Xue Yan, the perpetrator of this act, even deactivated her Gore-and Blood function else she might have puked at the sight of Blue Banana's wretched look. Apart from the facial damages, almost his entire right arm was devoured by Xue Yan's unrelenting flame attacks. Right now, Blue Banana barely had enough strength to wield his sword. Of course this injuries could easily be solved with a simple health potion however, it wasn't like his opponent would stand still and let that be.

During the battle, Lu Zhen had taken on Reeves while Xue Yan had taken on Blue Banana. The difference in strength was clear as during their previous exploration at Black Grill's Cave, Reeves' team only held on thanks to Xue Yan's skills whereas against Rolo's team who easily pushed them back, Lu Zhen alone was enough.

Truth be told, this battle, or rather this one sided massacre, should have ended long ago; especially Reeves' fight with Lu Zhen. The only reason Reeves could till stand was because of his Upper tier Mortal rank shield. Yes, the shield was an Upper tier and not a Mid tier. The difference in tiers might not be as huge as the difference between heaven and earth but this difference could still change the tide of a battle. The reason was because at the Upper tier Mortal rank, weapons and equipment would have skills imbued within them. The skills could be weak or strong and most of them where used as life saving skills or trump cards by a good majority of players. In Reeves' case, his shield's skill was perfectly suited for a life-saving skill.

[Resilient Guard]

Though the title wasn't so awe sounding, it explicitly defined the skill. [Resilient Guard] was an active skill that when activated it would create a light shield that totally encapsulates the user. The dull yellow sheen on Reeves' body was actually the [Resilient Guard] in its activated form. The light projection would absorb all strikes and attacks that was targeted at the user, keeping the user safe from any attack.Of course, such a skill had a weakness else it would be a heaven-defying technique and there's no way that the System would let such a technique exist in a low level weapon or equipment; it just didn't make sense. The weakness of the [Resilient Guard] could easily be figured out by majority of pro and veteran gamers, and that was the fact that the light shield had a limit of damage it could receive before it would be destroyed. Lu Zhen knew this of course but the problem was that he couldn't break the shield as the damage limit was far more than he could deal to Reeves within a short time and it wasn't like Reeves would just stand for Lu Zhen to attack him. The shield was worthy of being an Upper tier Mortal rank hence its skill shouldn't be easily dealt with else it would be a joke. If Xue Yan had teamed up with Lu Zhen to attack Reeves, it would be possible to destroy the light shield, but Blue Banana always forced her to focus on him even to the point of receiving heavy injuries.s

" I obviously got it from the fact that you can't defeat me. Where else?" Reeves grinned.

Seeing the annoying smirk on his lips, Lu Zhen was frustrated but he didn't rush to attack.Through out their exchange, Lu Zhen felt that something wasn't right. Though it seemed like Reeves was trying to kill him, Lu Zhen felt that he was trying to hold him back rather than kill him. Each time Lu Zhen tried to dash past his blockade, Reeves would hurriedly set himself in front of him(Lu Zhen) even at the cost of getting injured.This was where a majority of injuries came from. At times, Reeves' attacks gave of the feeling of pushing back rather than going fro the kill. Of course, this was understandable as Reeves didn't have the ability to hurt Lu Zhen much less kill him, but it was also confusing as Lu Zhen wondered why Reeves was stalling him. Considering how much hate Reeves had for him, Lu Zhen expected him to go full strength and try to kill him.

'Or is he trying to wait for his teammate to finish off Xue Yan?' Lu Zhen brought up this speculation in his ind but quickly wiped it off. Unless Blue Banana had a secret weapon that he had yet to use, there was no way he could beat Xue Yan in a one-on-one battle.

'But then what is he waiting for?…wait!' Lu Zhen suddenly widened his eyes. He recalled that back then, Xue Yan had said that she was with a party of 4 or so other players. Right now, it was Reeves and Blue Banana that were present. The other two or so players weren't.

'Even if they came it would make no difference. This Reeves isn't a fool so he should have realised that. Then what is his plan…'

Even as Lu Zhen wondered this, he didn't have any intention of finding out. It might be as he expected, that Reeves was waiting for his teammates or it could be worse. Either way, Lu Zhen didn't want to find out as if it was really worse than he had expected, he might even die. If Lu Zhen could avoid his potential death, why wouldn't he?

"It's time I end this." Lu Zhen spoke up.

"Huh? You really think that you can break my [Resilient Guard]? You sure know how to joke." Reeves chuckled. This skill was one of his trump cards in monster hunting and PVP. As a [Guardian], having such a skill was akin o having a second life. This skill had saved him in tough times. The only reason he had not used it against Rolo's squad back then was because he had used it in a previous fight against a level 6 Rock Golem. As such, the skill was in cool-down. Otherwise with this skill, Reeves wouldn't have had a tough time against Rolo' team. He even believed that he might have been able to turn the tides of the battle back then. The [Resilient Guard] wasn't something any level 6 player could break alone.

"Whether or not I can, why don't we find out?" Lu Zhen smirked. The [resilient Guard] might be very impressive to Reeves but for Lu Zhen, it was something he just had to put more effort in, to break it. I other words, during this entire time, Lu Zhen wasn't taking Reeves seriously. Yes. He wasn't taking Reeves seriously but had still managed to cause him so many injuries. This was the power of an expert who placed 10th in the Goblin war event! This was the power of a bona-fide expert player.

"I was hoping that I would defeat you without much effort but it looks like I would have to take this more seriously." Lu Zhen then outstretched two fingers towards the two opposing players, displaying it before them. With a smile, he said;

"20% ! 20% of my full ability.. That's the amount of strength I need to use and beat you guys."