Chapter 237 Knights And Bandits III
'Hey, Pride.
The thralls are this brown-haired dude and that Warhammer woman you're fighting, right?'
[Yes.
She has a bit more of his power than he usually gives his thralls so I just wanted to see if there was anything special about her.]
Pride replied to Evan's message via their connection, causing the young hero to narrow his eyes as he stared at the man who was gazing at him warily.
'So, I'm guessing the reason Greed's Idiosyncrasy isn't working on me is because of my contract with you, right?'
[Yes.]
After getting a reply from the high demon, Evan nodded to himself before suddenly flaring up his aura and allowing his magic power pressure to spread out.
'Let's see if I can get the intimidation skill just like I got fracture.'
With that thought, Evan unleashed the full might of his higher-quality magic power and aura onto the surroundings, causing the knights behind him to drop to their knees from the pressure.
He glared at the bandit leader before kicking off the ground and dashing towards him, carving up the ground as he moved.
The unforged tore a rift through the air, slashing down towards the bandit leader who rose his curved blades to block Evan's full forced strike.
Sparks flew through the air as the two weapons clashed, with their wielders quickly drawing back before attacking again.
Even if he was a 'bandit', he was still a master-level existence who had made his way to level 184 in the end. As such, it was simply just impossible for his skills with a blade to be half-baked.
The two light curbed blades sliced through the air, loaded with enough aura to bypass Evan's durability in a single strike. Yet the blades did not creak under the stress, showing how powerful they were.
Evan on the other hand, did not attempt to directly block any of his strikes, either parrying them or diverting the force behind them to the ground.
'Having a strength stat of 'B-' despite being only level 184? Definitely not normal.
He's no doubt a thrall of Greed, I don't even need to see the title to know.'
Those were Evan's thoughts as he pulled his foot backwards, dodging a single powerful strike that went straight for his feet, before twisting his body to avoid the other curbed blade that threatened to lop off his other arm.
He then filled his sword arm with aura and activated his most powerful assault skill, Vortex, without hesitation.
**BOOM!!
The bandit leader was stunned when the ambient magic power suddenly gathered around Evan's sword and slammed into his body faster than he could react.
He was sent flying into the air, crashing on the ground and kicking up clouds of dust and dirt in the process.
His skin was covered in a multitude of cuts and burns, with his clothes and armour not faring any better.
"Chain Lightning."
Evan's voice rang out as the bandit leader struggled to his feet, only to see the young hero in the air holding up a ball of lightning nearly half a metre in diameter.
In the next moment, Evan's arm suddenly bulged up and blurred, moving at a speed that far exceeded the bandit leader's realm of cognition.
"Shi-!"
Before he could even finish cursing, the ball of lightning shot through the air and arrived in front of his face, leaving a trail of yellow light in the air.
He reflexively pulled up one of his blades and attempted to slice through the lightning orb after infusing it with aura, however it exploded on contact, releasing a shockwave that sent his body flying by a dozen metres.
Now then, one would wonder why Evan used a skill like chain lightning that was best used against multiple enemies when he was only fighting one person.
The reason was simple, it was because when he slammed into the bandit leader with vortex, the unfortunate brown-haired man was tossed in the direction of Pride and the Warhammer-wielding woman.
As such, the moment the lighting orb exploded in his face and charred his upper body black, the lightning moved on to the next thing Evan considered an enemy.
The Warhammer-wielding woman who was currently being beaten black and blue by Pride.
Naturally, he had already informed the high demon of his intentions beforehand, so the deadly sin was not caught off guard and reacted appropriately.
Seeing the streak of lightning heading towards her, the woman clicked her tongue and gripped her weapon tight.
The veins in her arms could be seen clearly as she poured enormous amounts of magic power into her weapon.
She then took an action that Evan most certainly did not expect, she tossed the Warhammer in the direction of the incoming lightning, before coating her own body in lightning magic and blitzing towards Pride who was heading towards her with a black flame-coated fist.
**BAMMM!!!
The sound of the two women's fists colliding mid-air was like that of thunder during a rainstorm. Evan saw the ground cave in due to the pressure, with cracks spreading out omnidirectionally.
"Well, that didn't go as expected."
The young hero light-heartedly remarked as he made an effort to regain his balance, his eyes narrowing in the next instant as he realised something.
'Pride, was actually overpowered and had no choice but to pull back?'
Appraising the woman again, he saw that her strength stat had not shown any difference, with it still being the same 'B-' that he had seen earlier.
However, right before his very eyes, that 'B-' changed to a 'B', causing his eyes to widen in surprise.
"Liz, check the life forces of all living beings within a 500-metre radius and tell me if you sense anything abnormal."
Evan shouted out to Liz as he held out his arm, kicking off the ground in the next moment and shooting towards Pride's opponent.
Responding to his call, the unforged flew into his open palm and he gripped it tightly before filling it with his golden aura and swinging it wildly.
He released multiple blade cannons towards the woman, before blinking out and reappearing right beside the woman who was about to throw a punch in Pride's direction.
'Kuro.'
The shadow spirit that had been silent since the first beginning of the battle, responded to Evan's call with his actions, generating multiple shadowy tentacle-like appendages that shot out of the woman's shadow and wrapped around her body tightly.
"What the-?!"
Naturally, she was surprised as hell, but Evan did not give her a chance to even express it fully, slapping her in the face with all his strength.
However, in the instant his palm touched her face, he activated his energy blast skill, releasing the rapidly condensed energy ball at point-blank range.
He then stomped his foot on the ground and used ice magic to freeze her feet at the same time that Pride's flame-covered fist landed on her torso.
"GRAUGHH!!!"
She couldn't even scream properly as more than half her face was disfigured due to Evan's point-blank energy blast.
The young hero then grabbed the already pulled-back arm of the high demon and blinked out of the way just in time for the fist-sized aura bullets to reach their restrained target and riddle her with holes.
The fact that Evan and Pride completed this set of actions in the time it took the blade cannon aura bullets to reach their target showed how fast they had moved.
However, this wasn't the end of it as they two ignored the explosions in the distance and the pearl of lightning that appeared in the air a couple of hundred metres away, infusing their weapons with aura and striking out.
**SWISH! SWISH!!
Their aura-laden weapons sliced towards the arms of their unfortunate victim; however, the blades were unable to cut through her flesh in time.
Perhaps feeling the fear of impending death, the woman let out a strange scream as she released a burst of aura and magic.
She then grabbed Evan's sword with her injured arm and pulled the young hero alongside the blade, slamming his body against Pride's and flinging the both of them into the distance.
Contrary to her expectations, the tow didn't crash and ragdoll on the ground, but instead suddenly stopped moving mid-air, as if held up by invisible forces.
Next, the ground cracked open and a large pillar of ice emerged from within, shooting up a dozen metres into the sky.
Evan grabbed Pride and blinked to the top of the pillar, when the voice of the demon's contracted spirit suddenly rang out in his ear.
[Eliza said that there is a huge life sign about 400 metres away from us, however, it seems to be stuck in place and unable to move.
She also said that its life force distribution across its body is currently not stable.]
Hearing this, Evan's eyes narrowed as he downed the contents of a magic recovery potion. He then turned to the high demon and spoke.
"This woman seems to be a favoured thrall of you brother, given that he allowed her to use enough power to take her strength stat to 'B'.
If any of her blows gets to us, it's game over."