80: Chapter 80 Rein vs. Eita

Eita flipped, drew his cursed blade, and slashed at Ryan. Ryan leaned his shield, [Silvermoon City Guardian], against his shoulder, jammed it into the ground, and after weathering the blow, pulled out his hammer and swung it straight at Eita's head.

Eita raised his blade to block but was sent flying by Ryan, only stopping after crashing into a small tree.

"Hehe, haha, hahaha—" The neurotic laughter made Ryan shudder. "This really isn't a job for a human."

He steeled himself. "Hey, kid, let's have a duel as noble as a knight's!" Ryan tapped his shield with his hammer, taunting Eita.

Eita's eyes were sharp, and red Qi emanated from his body. "You are no nobody. You are the man who shot down the imperial fighter jet with a bizarre flag! I've seen you in the newspapers! Great, [hirumaru] will be very satisfied with your head."

Like a leech sensing blood, Eita pounced at Ryan, exploding with speed that was almost invisible to Ryan's naked eye.

Ryan was terrified and activated [Bloody Frenzy], [Bloody Hunter], [Enhanced Smell], [Trap Intuition], and [Nightwalker] all at once. He only prayed not to be sliced in two by Eita's blade.

The old rule: if you get hit, you don't make a sound.

After one hit, if I, Ryan, can still make a sound, it means I'm not dead and can still be saved…

His luck was exceptionally good this time; the aura he drew was [Frost Aura: Causes enemies who attack you to be frozen, reducing their attack speed and movement speed by 30%].

But the prerequisite for this thing to trigger is getting hit; blocking with a shield doesn't count. Ryan didn't know if he would die from one slash, and he didn't want to know either.

Eita's [hirumaru] grazed the handle of [grief].

To keep the fingers on his right hand, Ryan slammed his shield into Eita's body, knocked him back, and followed up with a [Holy Charge], causing Eita to momentarily lose focus. Then, he immediately used the spray device on his wrist to spray the pre-loaded black mineral oil at Eita.

Since it wasn't a Qi attack or a poison attack, this stuff couldn't be identified by Eita's red Qi at all. The sticky oil sprayed all over Eita, making him look quite disheveled.

He sniffed the pungent smell on his body, his eyes turning grave; his Qi didn't have fire-prevention capabilities either. "Despicable! You just said you wanted to fight as nobly as a knight!"

Ryan rubbed his nose with the back of the hand holding the hammer and muttered, "I learned this move from Zhang Chulan. If you can live long enough to meet him, you can go argue with him. Use a blade, use your mouth, whatever…"

Stall him! That was the only thing Ryan had to do now. Mia had gone to save the Tang Clan First Master, Loran was trying to rescue Wang Li and Tang Mingyi and his wife, Tuaner had gone to observe the drawbridge to avoid any mishaps, and there was no retreat.

"Go Uncle Ryan!" The [substitute doll] hanging on his body—Xiao Ya's consciousness attached to it to cheer him on—but this cheering didn't make Ryan happy at all. Mia and Tuaner are big sisters, why am I an uncle? I'm your whole family's uncle!

Ryan's temper flared up. It left Eita baffled. The one who was sinister and shameless was this humanoid creature dressed like a tin can (Eita saw wolf fur peeking through the gaps in the armor), yet every time he swung that heavy hammer, it was as if Eita owed him something, vicious and fierce.

After a brief moment of shock, Eita used Shunpo to leap back onto the tree, looking at Ryan with a sinister gaze.

Ryan's iron boots sank deep into the soft soil, and white, mist-like steam rose from the gaps in his armor. He stared at the figure standing on the tree branch three zhang away—Eita.

Wearing his school uniform, he stood motionless in the night wind, like a ghost lingering in the mortal world.

"Ding—"

The sound of the cursed blade leaving its sheath pierced the night. Ryan's heart sank; this time, his eyes failed to track the trajectory of [hirumaru] entirely.

He reflexively leaned his shield against his shoulder and slammed his steel boots into the ground.

He raised [grief] in his right hand horizontally in front of him and pressed his back against the rock face behind him.

Almost at the same moment, the scarlet blade light of [hirumaru] slashed onto his shield. Amidst the spraying sparks, Ryan felt his entire left arm go numb.

"Taste this!" Ryan swung [grief] with his right hand toward Eita's temple. The special thudding sound of the hammer hitting a body always made his blood boil, and Ryan felt a little anticipation.

The moment the blade and hammer collided, the passive stun of [grief] triggered. Eita's vision blurred, and he hurriedly leaned back, but was still hit in the abdomen by the hammerhead and sent flying, crashing through two bowl-thick bamboo stalks before stabilizing his figure.

"Hehe… Hahaha…" Eita's laughter was full of excitement. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and red Qi flames seeped out from his pores, condensing into a large amount of blood-drop-shaped mist around him.

"Mr. Werewolf, armored to the teeth, you're more interesting than the newspapers described. I heard the Empire has a bounty on you three? In that case, [hirumaru] will be even happier to slay you…"

Eita's figure distorted under the moonlight. Ryan didn't even see him move his feet before the fierce wind was upon him. Six blade lights simultaneously stabbed at his throat, heart, and the gaps in his joints, too fast to even leave a shadow.

[Trap Intuition] exploded with red warning lines on his retina. Ryan hid behind [Silvermoon City Guardian] and swept his war hammer along the predicted trajectory.

The sensation of metal tearing through flesh came, and a jet of blood sprayed from his ribs—a palm-sized piece of his left waist armor had been sliced off.

"Hiss…" Ryan gasped. The wound burned with pain, but what was more terrifying was the chilling cold spreading through his blood.

At the edges of the flesh cut by the cursed blade, purple-black veins were spreading like a spiderweb. This blade seemed to be licking up his flesh and essence…

"My kidney just grew back, how could it be cut off by your broken blade? (The previous kidney was shot off by an airplane cannon while waving the flag painted with [Fear Spell] on top of the church.) Even so, Tuaner still scammed me out of a lot of good stuff by relying on her status as Mia's retainer…"

The yammering Ryan poured some of Mia's [Primary Recovery Potion EX] on his lower back, and the stripped flesh visibly healed as good as new.

Ryan's [Frost Aura] took effect; a layer of frost seemed to condense on Eita's body, and ice crystals were falling off.

Ryan's war hammer, [grief], quickly swept an arc through the air, striking Eita's lower leg.

The moment he knocked him down, he dropped the hammer, drew his antique gun, and performed a Mozambique drill on Eita's chest—two shots to the chest, one to the head.

The bullet to the head was blocked by Eita with his blade, and one of the two shots to the chest hit.

The powerful impact of the old-fashioned lead-bullet flintlock sent Eita flying, landing on the moonlit ground in the forest.

Eita looked down at his wound and started laughing neurotically again, "Lead-silver alloy bullets? Are you still stuck in the Middle Ages? It seems the Cleric is nothing more than this…"

His words suddenly caught in his throat because the area around the bullet wound began to swell rapidly, revealing poisoned spots. That's right, he was poisoned—genuine Tang Clan deadly poison.