"My name is Ervin Donovan. I request a duel with you."
Ervin said to me with a clear and unwavering voice.
His voice doesn’t contain any ill intention.
"Raven Obadiah, I accept the duel."
So, I casually accepted his challenge.
And immediately after I did so, I placed my left foot forward and crouched down.
Then I placed [Emmeranne] beside my left waist as if I’m in a unsheathing position.
"Aren’t you gonna use that?"
Ervin suddenly asked me while pointing at [Nyx] in my holster, he seems displeased.
I shook my head and opened my mouth.
"Don’t regret your decision later."
After our short exchange of words, Ervin took his fighting stance as well, and he became much more intimidating.
’Ervin... In terms of fighting experience, he has more than me.’
’So I need to finish him as fast as possible.’
I concluded in my head.
"Hmm, I want to try something. I hope this works."
I mumbled to myself as an excited smile crept up to my face.
[You’re slowly becoming a battle freak, you know.]
’I don’t care... It’s exciting.’
Which I replied telepathically.
"I’ll count to three, and on three, the duel starts."
Ervin stated and I nodded my head as an agreement.
When Ervin started counting.
I started gathering mana all over my body.
Then I activated one of my skills.
At this time, black electric particles and strong winds started appearing around me, especially around my sword and my lower body.
It’s because of my wind and electric attributes.
I casted buffs on myself, then I focused on Ervin.
Raging mana is overflowing from him and he seems ready to attack any time now.
It was then... I saw him open his mouth.
’[Thought Acceleration—!]’
I immediately activated another skill and tensed every muscle I can in my body.
My body, and my head—both of them hurt.
But I ignored the pain and clenched my teeth together.
I pressed my feet on the ground.
As soon as Ervin literally finished his last count, I kicked my feet on the ground and propelled myself toward Ervin at a terrifying speed!
Winds rippled as I moved forward, then when I arrived in front of Ervin...
I raised my sword above my head and swung it diagonally down from my top left with all of my strength!
At that moment, I saw Ervin’s shocked face, but I also saw him raising his sword, attempting to block my attack.
I thought. Ervin’s response was incredible, he was too fast.
’Too bad I have this sword.’
In response to Ervin’s attempt to block my sword, I used [Emmeranne]’s skill, , in its blade.
And when [Emmeranne] passed through Ervin’s sword like a ghost, I immediately deactivated the skill.
And cut Ervin’s body into two parts.
Looks like I used too much strength as I wasn’t able to stop my sword in its place.
Resulting in it continuing and hitting the ground violently.
The contact of my sword on the ground created a fairly strong force.
But I ignored that and quickly deactivated my skill, .
I saw Ervin was looking at me with surprised eyes.
’His consciousness is still intact.’
I thought, so opening my mouth...
’I’ll talk to you later.’
I mouthed that to him before taking out a stamina and a mana potion and drinking them consecutively.
"Ugh... Fuck, my body aches..."
I grumbled as I massaged my right hand.
I noticed the silence around me.
I looked around and saw everyone looking at me with shocked faces.
’Is that all the expression they can make? I’ve been seeing that since earlier.’
[You’re the reason they’re like that. You keep on dropping surprises, after all.]
I shrugged my shoulders in response. Instead, I looked at Barry and Sean.
I asked them, a casual smile on my face.
"He’s such a dickhead."
Adelle said and Aoi muttered . They’re watching Raven’s live stream where he’s clearly provoking Sean and the others.
Curtis then joined in.
"Not like you can talk."
Which Blake unconsciously replied to him.
Curtis got angry at him, but because there’s a lot of people (Eve is) around, he didn’t do anything.
"I’ll get back at you next time."
Curtis weakly said instead, and that’s just when Blake noticed he did something wrong.
"Anyway, what’s with Raven’s attack...?"
Then, Eve shifted the topic to where everyone is really interested.
They all got silent and serious hearing her words.
Then they looked at Alec, as he might know something about it.
Too bad, Alec shook his head.
"I don’t have any idea nor clue about it. Everything happened so fast and I didn’t expect it too."
"But I do know he used his elemental attributes."
"Raven apparently used two attributes—one is wind, and the other one is..."
Everyone said in unison as they looked at Raven again on their phone screens or V.Ds.
Then they saw something interesting again.
’Barry versus Raven.’
And in the background, they saw a massacre ongoing. The others frowned because they didn’t know when that happened, they only looked away for a couple of seconds.
"It just happened, Raven’s order."
But Blake shortly explained it to them, so they immediately got what happened.
(Going back a bit earlier...)
Raven arrogantly asked Sean and Barry with a wolfish smile.
He received no answer.
Raven looked around and saw everyone’s face—no one wants to fight him.
"Well, this is boring..."
He mumbled to himself before raising his hand.
Then with a casual face—
"Eliminate everyone except Barry and Sean."
Not even a second after his order, countless arrows were already launched at Sean’s teammates!
And some of Raven’s team members came out from hiding to fight in close combat while being led by Jeanna!
"WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!"
"ENEMIES ARE STILL COMING!"
Sean’s team members immediately fell into chaos. Their fear toward Raven made them panic.
And because Jeanna and the others improved their team coordination earlier, even against strong enemies, in this mess—then it’s easy for them.
And so, Raven’s group started massacring Sean’s group.
And while all of that was happening—
Raven walked forward, toward Sean and Barry who remained in their place as their teammates were dying.
Sean thought as he saw Raven’s bright smile as he got near them.
’What should I do...?!’
He’s panicking. It’s Sean’s first time being in this kind of situation.
He’s scared, he’s nervous.
’THAT BITCH ERVIN, HE SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST PUT UP A FIGHT!!!’
So Sean blamed others—to be precise, Ervin.
’Because he died easily, I wasn’t able to gain any information about Raven’s skills!’
Sean angrily thought as he clenched his hands into fists.
Then he heard Raven’s audible footstep again.
Out of nervousness, Sean looked around desperately.
Then he saw someone who could ease his problem even for a bit.
And with a devilish smile—
He pushed Barry toward Raven!
Because Barry didn’t expect Sean to do such a thing, he fell on the ground easily and stopped a few meters away from Raven.
As soon as he realized what happened—
"What are you doing?!"
He got angry at Sean.
"You dog-like bitch... i’m telling you to fight."
"Do this and I’ll reward you later. I don’t care if you lose, just fight."
Sean replied to Barry casually as he regained his calm.
’There’s no way Raven is in his top form right now. Barry might have a chance.’
"Shut the fuck up, Barry, and JUST FIGHT!"
Barry was about to refute, but Sean didn’t let him.
In the end, Barry cursed out of annoyance and finally stood up from the ground and faced Raven.
He doesn’t have a choice but to fight.
A few meters away from him, Barry saw Raven looking at him with cold eyes.
Making him flinch as cold sweats covered his back.
’I... I really don’t want to fight him...’
Barry thought. He just knows he wouldn’t win.
So he started thinking of a way to escape this situation.
Then his eyes suddenly lit up when he thought of one!
"Wait, Raven, let me join your side!"
Barry immediately exclaimed as he bowed his head!
"I don’t want to be with Sean anymore! He treats me like a dog and he doesn’t care for me! Look, I was forced to fight you, I don’t want to be anymore!"
He said as he acted pitifully.
"You son of a bitch!"
He could hear Sean from behind, but Barry just ignored him.
’I’ll backstab you too, bitch.’
He thought as he smiled inwardly.
Barry then peeked at Raven...
And he saw him stop a few steps away.
Raven sheathed his sword.
’Oh... That’s a good sign! He’s gonna accept my offer! What a pushover!’
’Maybe with my money, I can even make Raven obedient—he doesn’t have much of that after all.’
Barry thought as a smile crept up to his face.
He felt a sudden chill all over his body and a feeling of being crushed by pressure followed afterwards!
Barry couldn’t lift his head up and beads of sweat started forming on his forehead.
’What’s happening...?!’
Then Raven called his name.
Raven’s cold voice made Barry flinch again as chills washed all over his body.
"You use your family’s power to harass anyone you don’t like—for simple reasons like because they’re better looking than you."
Raven stated, and Barry groaned.
Each time Raven said a word, the pressure pressing on Barry got stronger!
"In short... You’re a piece of fucking crap."
Raven continued as he continued walking toward Barry again.
This time, anger could be felt in Raven’s voice, and Barry couldn’t breathe properly anymore.
"You use your power to sexually assault women who have lower status than you..."
When Raven’s words finished, the pressure Barry was under became overwhelming.
Forcing his knees and hands to slam on the ground.
"I hate people like you."
Raven declared, his fists clenched tightly.