Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 55: The One You Should Fear: Part One

The clashes sing throughout the whole area.

~Clank!~

~Swoop!~

~Ting!~

The sounds merge with the wind.

And my blade with his threads.

Unlike Adder, whose needles came from a Spatial Storage Pouch, his threads look like they’re wrapped all around his body, under his clothing.

He sends them flying like projectiles. Surrounding the entire area with them. They come from every direction.

I dodge and parry his attacks as best I can but it’s not easy.

"Yeah, not easy at all. But still, it’s weird, I don’t feel the same chill that I felt when I fought Melissa... This guy, he’s weaker than her, isn’t he? If I had to guess, I’d say his Physical Related Stats are just a little above three-hundred thousand. Melissa’s definitely above six-hundred. Still, this isn’t anything like the sparring match. He isn’t trying to kill me, but he isn’t holding back either."

I attempt to close the distance between us. He responds accordingly by forming a wall with his threads and catapulting it straight at me. They clash with my blade. Sparks emerging with each contact.

"They’re a lot stronger this time than when I used Sunset Slash on them. He must be using a Skill of sorts, maybe A-Rank or higher."

I activate my Quadron Element King Skill. Conjuring flames forming across my body, I then imbue First Dawn with them. Activating Cultivator, I circulate my Mana to compress the flames around First Dawn, fine tuning them. The blade shimmers, illuminating the surroundings that were once dressed in the night’s dark. It radiates an intense heat that could melt metal instantaneously. I’m resistant to it. In fact, one might say that I bask in it. To me, it feels calmingly warm rather than hot.

I begin my assault on my opponent. He responds in kind, sending a wall of threads placed in a cross-like pattern. A single slash melts them away.

"What!" He exclaims, exceedingly perplexed. "That blade... Just what is up with that blade of yours? There’s no way that blade would be able to do that to my thread when it’s a First Stage Hyper-Grade weapon. Unless...don’t tell me. That blade, is it in the Middle Stage Hyper-Grade!?"

"No actually, it’s First Stage." I reply.

"Ridiculous, you expect me to believe that your blade has existed longer than my thread?"

"Hm... To be honest, I don’t care what you believe."

"I get why he’s acting like this though. When dealing with weapons of equal Stages, the stronger one will be the one that has existed longer. I bet he’s had those threads for years, but here I am with my blade that’s no older than three days and surprise, surprise, it’s stronger than his threads."

"Guess you didn’t get the memo." I utter with a confident grin. "The weapons of the Blacksmith don’t really like to follow the rules. Here. Lemme show you."

It’s on. I attack. Dashing at him at an incredible speed. I launch a strong diagonal slash. Though barely, he quickly parries it with a multitude of threads, each of his fingers wrapped with them. I succeed in closing the distance. Noticing that, I keep my onslaught going. Sending consecutive slashes without giving him a single chance to catch his breath, ultimately overwhelming him.

"Urk! Don’t get cocky!" He yells.

Then, as I’m about to launch another one of my attacks, he immediately disappears.

"What?"

I instinctively start looking around in response.

"Of course, a Covert-Type Skill. I really hate those things."

I activate the Treasure Hunt Skill.

"Oh great. I still can’t find him. Must mean it’s S-Rank. What a pain."

It really is. The large number of threads that surround the area are beginning to fade, as if fusing with the mist that starts appearing out of nowhere. My opponent is nowhere to be seen. The whole park is shrouded in fog.

"He must be using it to conceal himself. I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that he’s concealing his threads with it too."

I’m going in totally blind. I can’t sense him even with my heightened senses as they are, since he’s using an S-Rank Skill to enhance his concealment capabilities.

As I’m lost in thought, my opponent attacks.

It’s a Special Attack. I only realize that the moment he speaks. The sound of his voice travelling across the whole park. He speaks with purpose as he utters:

"Hazing Blades!"

Before I even realize it, I’m bombarded by a multitude of threads coming at me from sides all around, slashing my body all over. I still can’t see the threads however, only their pathways as they move at incredible speeds through the mist. They slash at me repeatedly, my clothes slowly turning to shreds in the process. My body basically bathed in my blood. I still haven’t activated my Resilient Regeneration Skill. Choosing not to in this fight.

"Well, not yet anyway."

"What’s wrong Raid?"

"Hm?"

"You were so confident a moment ago. Is reality finally sinking in?" It’s the Shadow. I’m only hearing his voice, but I still can’t see him.

"Do you finally realize it now? I can kill you anytime I wish. Cease this senseless fight you’ve put on against the Reinhardt Family this entire time. You are but one man, do you really think you can take us all on? Just surrender willingly already. Before you force me to do something we’ll both regre-"

"Just shut up already, damn it."

"Excuse me?"

"Was I not clear? I’ll spell it out then. S-H-U-T U-P, shut up. Your voice is really annoying."

"... Fine then. I admire your spirit, that much I’ll say. It seems it’ll take more than giving you simple scars to convince you of your weakness." He says. "How about this then."

~Swing!~

A sharp sound follows after he says that.

~Clank!~

Followed by the sound of a loud echoing clank. I look down. It’s First Dawn. The blade has fallen on the ground, along with half of my arm.

I feel the pain, it’s immense. But I don’t cry out. I don’t respond to it as I would’ve in the past.

I feel the vivid sensation of an evil grin forming on my face.

"Well now. Why didn’t you just fight like this from the beginning!?" Now I’m really excited. I pick up my blade with my left hand. "If you hold back on me, how the hell are you gonna expect me to take you seriously!?" I activate Hypermove, multiplying my Speed Stat by five, then add Cultivator, Astral Unification, Fury of Dantian, Soul-Piercing Eyes and Bladework. My senses spike.

"There you are, you sick son of a bitch." I turn my head to look at him.

I can clearly see him now, he’s right behind me. After all, Treasure Hunt is still active.

"No way! That can’t be! I’m the third strongest Shadow of the Twelve Guardian Shadows. No one among them except for number two and one can see through my Skill. Do you mean to tell me that you, some no name Warrior who only appeared recently, are as strong as them!?"

"Hm... So they call each other by numbers in accordance to their individual ranking among one another."

"No." I answer his idiotic question. "That’s not it at all. I’m actually...a hell of a lot stronger. I’ll show you...with my very own special disappearing act."

In an instant, I’m gone. Well...from his perspective anyway.

"Look behind you stupid, seriously. Oldest trick in the book." I say.

He then looks behind him and there I am. "How did-"

"Now look down." I interrupt.

He does and the moment he sees it... "A-arrgghh!" He squeals.

"What do you think?" I ask, staring at my blade while he cries out in pain. "An arm for an arm... Quite the nice sentiment wouldn’t you say?"

"Keukk! J-just wh-who the hell are you?" He asks desperately holding what’s left of his right arm with his left. "How did you move so fast?"

"Do you really have the luxury to ask a dumb question like that? You’re about to die, you know?"

"Hah...hah." He breathes heavily. "You think...this is over? Hah... You think...hah, that, you’ll be able to do away with me that easily? No! My pride as a member of the Reinhardt Family won’t allow it! I’LL FIGHT TILL MY DEATH IF I HAVE TO!"

"Oh? Quite the battle-cry. Alright then, till your death it is." I take a stance. "Get ready then."

"No need, I was born ready." He then instantly dashes towards me.

We clash.

I launch consecutive slashes with my blade, he parries with his threads using the only hand he has left.

"He probably can’t regenerate like me. So there’s a chance he’s thinking he’ll rely on the Priest Class Warriors of the Reinhardt Family to help him out if he defeats me. This will be my only gift to you as a fellow Warrior, number three, to fight you on equal terms."

As such, I decide not to regenerate my arm as we continue fighting. The clashes continue to sing all over the whole park. We’ve already made significant changes to the terrain. I’m making sure not to drag the fight anywhere beyond the soccer field to keep the damage at a minimum, but said-field is still getting messed up pretty badly.

"I’m sure Uncle Chadwick will figure something out with that one. He’s a Manager after all."

I then shift my full attention to the fight.

With all the Skills from before still very much active, my Stats get enhanced beyond anything I’ve ever felt before, considering they had already reached an incredibly high level to begin with.

My speed, strength and senses go through the roof as the fight progresses.

I send a large number of slashes laced with intense heat at my opponent. He dodges and parries them surprisingly well.

"Seems he’s also decided to go all out. He’s not fighting to simply capture me anymore, but for his life. He’s probably riding on the idea that as long as I end up dead, then Andrew Reinhardt might be a little kinder to him even though he would’ve failed his original mission. How sad..."

"Urk. Let’s see you make your way out of this!" He backs up to make some distance between us. I can quite easily tell that he’s getting ready to launch another Special Attack. The mist that had covered the whole park from before has already entirely dissipated. He moves his threads around, manipulating them to form all around me. They start to shape up like multiple circles, spinning at great speeds, forming a cylinder-like structure with me at the center.

Then he shouts.

"Spiral Tornado!" He then pulls the threads and the tornado made from them, surrounding my entire body, starts to get smaller, as if being compressed.

"He’s tryna turn me to mincemeat! What a gruesome Special Attack."

I immediately jump upward. To my surprise, the tornado goes up with me.

"It followed me!? That bastard!"

An instant-kill Special Attack.

"He didn’t wanna kill me before. That must be why he didn’t use it. But right now, all bets are off."

I hold the threads off with my blade from the front as they clash, however my back is left undefended so they make a mess of it. Spinning as they grind through my skin, reaching my bones while holding me up in mid-air.

"Urk! What an annoying Special Attack-eh!?-" I notice it as soon as it happens. A thread wrapped around my neck. It leads straight to number three’s thumb. It’s my head the moment his pulls it, literally.

"He used his Special Attack to distract me from his main offense. Smart... No one would expect something like a Special Attack to be used as a decoy. He’s got a lot of experience. The type that can only be honed in hundreds, maybe thousands of battles like the one we’re having right now. But... I’m no slouch either..." I activate Item Space, enhancing my Stats even further. All in but a split second, I use Astral Unification to synchronize all my active Skills while I use Cultivator and Item Space to draw out a large amount of Mana and circulate it expertly across my whole body, and then use Fury of Dantian to reinforce it, transferring the flames around my blade over to my body, I conjure out strong winds as well, as the two elements begin complimenting one another, circulating around my body, I then use my trusty blade, First Dawn, to cut off the thread wrapped around my neck.

"Gotcha!" Yells number three with confidence. The Spiral Tornado immediately begins closing up fast, since First Dawn has been removed from the threads that are spinning around me in order to cut off the thread that was on my neck.