Chapter 357: The Gamble

Clang clang clang clang—

Metal clashed without pause, colliding wildly.

Sparks, residual force on the blades, and crimson streams of Qi spilled outward in succession; the surrounding trees and soil were caught in the blast, churned into a pulpy mess wherever the shockwave reached.

The fire spirits who had previously fought with Gray chose to stand by and watch coldly.

On one hand, they were scheming to be the fisherman who reaped the benefit; on the other hand, the residual force was terrifying — especially that black-sword man. Even his scattered sword Qi would shatter anything it grazed. Better to forget it.

Gray gritted her teeth viciously, both hands bracing her spear to block a sword cleaving straight down at her head.

Clang!

Her tiger's mouth 【the web between thumb and forefinger】 shook violently; her strength went limp and her sinews went numb.

She nearly failed to keep her grip on the steel spear in her hands.

How many times had she openly met this man's slash head-on now?

She had no time at all to count such boring things. The black longsword gleaming with bright purple light was clearly just one slim blade, yet every swing carried absurdly heavy force.

It felt exactly like a giant dragon gripping this tiny toothpick and hacking at you.

But at this moment she had also confirmed it.

This man was indeed peak Sixth Tier, the same rank as her.

Although it was hard to accept, the title she herself cherished — "Invincible Below Seventh Tier" — was clearly no longer a fit.

However.

Don't even think I'll just throw in the towel!

Gray snorted, her right hand propping the spear forward in a sweeping twist, forcing the opponent back.

Then she pushed the spiritual energy within her and 【Hero Amplification】 to their absolute limit.

As a former shock-charge general on the front-line battlefields of the Celestial Court's Flower Kingdom, she didn't understand fancy-schmancy spells, and her grasp of spiritual arts wasn't much either.

From the moment she began fighting, she had only ever known one spiritual art.

— The simplest, easiest-to-learn 【Spear Thrust Art】.

Facing the ferocious steel spear thrusting toward him.

Crimson Qi coiled and spiraled, carrying an utterly overbearing momentum.

This was battlefield killing intent.

Rod had once seen it on Isabella Argyle — that is, the eldest daughter of the Argyle family.

But to be fair.

The momentum Gray displayed before him was sufficient, and in raw power she was indeed stronger than Isabella, but it was overly front-loaded with nothing behind it — she'd lost her balance.

One could see it clearly from her fighting style.

If a mage ran into this kind of frenzied close-combat type, they'd probably be broken by this momentum in just a few exchanges.

Specialists have their advantages, but they're also very easy to counter.

Take Rod, for instance.

He didn't even need to raise a shield to take it head-on; he simply stomped one foot down.

— 【War Stomp】.

The ground crumbled, fissures spreading beneath Gray's feet like a shockwave.

The powerful stun effect was just like a trip-rope deployed against charging cavalry.

She was locked in a brief dazed stiffness, an expression of unwillingness and shock on her face.

Rod spun around and batted away a green straight-knife sneaking up from behind, then his legs erupted with tremendous force.

The ground exploded into a huge crater as his figure slammed into the silver-armored woman's chest.

Crack—

The armor caved inward into a dent.

"Ugh—"

Gray let out a muffled grunt, then shot into the mountainside like a cannonball.

A waterfall of rubble tumbled down, burying her.

"Lady Gray!"

The half-deer woman Kira cried out in alarm and rushed to her aid.

Is this a tournament match?

You lose one fight and you still get a chance to rest and be tended to?

Rod flung a 【Slime Binding】 onto the half-deer woman — same as before, tied nice and colorful, every contour of her body squeezed into view.

Kira only felt this slime's black rope faintly rubbing against some part of her body, and instantly grew both flustered and embarrassed.

"Let me go!"

Can't you read the situation we're in right now?

How could I possibly let you go?

Not only will I not let you go, I'll grab another handful for good measure.

"Eek! You— you disgusting bug!"

Rod shrugged, not caring in the slightest.

The little black slime in his hand once again triggered 【Multi-Form Shift】 and 【Form Lock】.

It stretched out into a black long spear.

He weighed it in his hand, then stomped hard and twisted his bear-like waist like a whip.

Boom!

The black spear pierced through the Qi barrier, bursting open a cloud of white mist, and shot straight into Grey's position before even her shadow could be caught.

"Ah—"

Another muffled cry of pain.

In between came the teeth-grinding sound of teeth grinding against each other.

Kira's face went deathly pale, her lips trembling slightly, unable to speak for a long while.

Rod rolled his arm to loosen up.

Fighting this candidate hero Grey was mainly to get a taste of that scarlet Qi stream's power, and to see if he had any chance of plucking even a thread or two of it.

Look at that.

He hadn't even used any spiritual arts — pure, honest blade-on-blade combat.

But this thing seems bound to the 【Hero Bestower】.

Even with the comprehension boost of a dozen or so Spirit Seeds, he couldn't catch even a single clue.

The grade is awfully high.

Since he knew it couldn't be forcibly taken, Rod couldn't be bothered to bother with it.

Kill her?

Forget it. Since ancient times, anyone who killed a son of destiny favored by fate has never met a good end — especially one who's the figure from that Grand Elder's hero prophecy.

As long as she doesn't die, it counts as the hero's trial, right?

Anyway, this place is a hundred thousand miles from Shi Ying Town, and the disguise domain didn't give anything away.

I'm not touching that bad luck — at least I can't be the one to do it personally.

Rod thought it over.

So he went over and tossed a 【Slime Binding】 at Grey as well.

Her chest was pierced through by the black spear, she was spitting blood in a wretched state, but those eyes of hers still stared coldly at Rod.

Rod couldn't care less about any of that.

He only regretted that this woman was covered head to toe in armor — the slime binding didn't squeeze out any cute, sexy marks, unlike the half-deer-man beside her.

Rod bundled those two things together and tossed them in front of the watching fire spirits.

"Let's have a wager, how about it? Fire spirit friends."

This was a group of rookie fire spirits that Grey could charge through single-handedly, let alone Rod who had defeated her with ease.

So they exchanged glances, knowing they had no right to refuse.

As a primitive tribal fire spirit clan, they believed even more in the strong being honored above all.

After a moment's deliberation, a fire spirit whose flame was orange-red spoke up:

"My lord, may I ask what this wager means?"

Rod grinned, spreading his hands toward the sky.

"I'll become your firewood son-in-law. I'll give you the chance to try and melt me into your winter firewood."

That orange-red fire spirit's eyes went wide — a powerful spiritual warrior willingly becoming firewood?!

Oh no, drooling.

But he still said hesitantly, "My lord, do you know what firewood son-in-law means?"

"Of course! So this is a wager! You can bring every female fire spirit in your tribe to try and melt me, but don't blame me for what I do. Hehehehe— fire spirits, I want you to aid my cultivation!"

Saying that, Rod pointed down at the half-deer-man and the female hero bundled up together.

"Whether I survive or not, these two things are yours outright!"

The orange-red fire spirit was silent for a moment, seemingly judging whether Rod was lying.

In recent years, there have been no shortage of mages seeking to learn special arts by borrowing fire spirits' power, but a spiritual warrior was a first.

As far as he could tell, this was a sure-win, no-loss deal.

Even if he lost, he wouldn't lose a piece of flesh.

If he won, he'd get three spiritual-warrior-grade firewood bodies of quite decent spiritual quality.

As for this lord's condition of wanting only female fire spirits—

Heh, the fact that humans are sex maniacs isn't something from just yesterday or the day before, and fire spirits don't care about this man-woman business anyway.

If it weren't for him, the clan chief, holding them back — and if fire spirit bodies weren't something few carbon-based creatures could handle — these hot-tempered, lust-burned female fire spirits would have long been harming men across the continent.

(End of chapter)