Child of Destiny

Chapter 1636 Competition at the Center of the Plagued Lands (Part 4)

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Lambert started at Shin as he tried to forcefully move his body from being frozen. However, after a couple of failures, he was forced to use one of his strengthening skills instead.

'Warlord Skill (Tier 3): Hex Enchantment'

"Ahh!"

With a powerful roar, bright tattoos appeared on Lambert's body one after another, shining with crimson light and enhancing his overall stats.

Crack! Crack!

It took him an instant before he freed his body from the ice covering his body. Cracks appeared one after another before he finally regained his movement.

Coordinating with him, the others resumed attacking Shin, covering their captain.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of shots came from Hun, aiming at Shin and preventing him from attacking Lambert. He had already learned his lesson earlier, so he moved from his previous location to fire his magic rifle from a different angle.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

As the rain of bullets was flying in his direction, Shin calmly sheathed the [Yamato] once again and executed a series of movements, leaving a series of afterimages as he dodged these reinforced bullets.

At the same time, Magnolia moved alongside Hun, afraid that Shin would target her if she was alone.

Given what Shin had shown them earlier, it was impossible for her to survive even a couple of his strikes once she got caught by him.

She moved closely with Hun, who was adjusting his speed and matching hers. She also cast a series of spells while moving, sending a couple of holy spheres and providing some buffs to every member of the group.

As the light shone on their bodies, Ricky and Night Hound quickly moved and charged at Shin once again.

They moved strategically this time as they were matching the movements of Hun and Magnolia, making sure that they were covering them properly so that they could block Shin if he tried to attack their backline.

Even if the most basic strategy in such situations was to take down the healer as soon as possible, Shin chose to take a different approach as he wanted to use this group as a grinding stone to polish his techniques.

He was digesting his most recent gains and polishing them through battle. Since he found a decent 'grinding stone', he refused to let them get away that easily, especially when he currently had a lot of inspirations right now.

"It's just a pity that I can't properly use any rune techniques inside the game to fully utilize my true Mentalism Techniques," mumbled Shin as he fought.

Even though he could perform some most basic rune techniques by combining 'Regan's Method' and 'Demonic Telekinesis' to mimic his Ruen Mentalism Techniques, it was still not enough to fully showcase their real power.

He lacked the right knowledge to utilize the Mentalism Runes to the fullest within the game as their principles were somewhat different from one another despite sharing a couple of similarities.

The rules of this word were different from what he knew in the real world, so there were some failures if he wanted to utilize those techniques.

"I guess I have to learn some rune techniques from Cloe and Alice. Or I can also take the lifestyle profession of Runemasters to further study them," he continued to mumble to himself as he dodged another rail of bullets while blocking the planking attacks from Ricky and Night Hound.

He somewhat had learned quite a few techniques about forging after watching a few Blacksmiths do their work, particularly NPCs like Berlin and a famous player such as Black Hammer. But he did not study enough to make himself a true blacksmith.

He had also learned a couple of techniques about alchemy and tailoring from others, but he also did not take their path to properly call himself an alchemist or a tailor.

All of these were because of the special abilities of one of his legacy skills, the 'Duplicator's Eyes'.

Since he already had a secondary combat class, Shin did not dwell too much on lifestyle professions as believed that he only needed to learn the most basic skills that he should need for repairing his equipment previously.

But now that most of his equipment was indestructible, he lacked the opportunity to practice those techniques and somewhat found them useless aside from Alchemy which could help him concoct some potions.

"I guess it is now the perfect time to properly take a lifestyle profession and seriously learn them," he continued to talk to himself as he started to consider his next plans. "I should choose the runemaster profession once I perfected my current style and further polish it."

"That way, I can finally showcase my true mentalism techniques and combine them with my unique swordsmanship," he added while nodding inwardly. "After all, the rune mentalism is the true nature of the Four Symbol Scripture."

He then paused and looked at Lambert, who seemed to be getting stronger the more they fought.

It was not like his Battle Genius Combat Talent. Lambert was physically getting stronger as the battle progressed as if he was gaining bonus stats the longer the battle dragged on.

"I guess those tattoos are similar to Owen's Divine Tattoos," he commented as he closely observed the opposing side. "Tier 3 Classes sure know how to make surprises, especially those who have upgraded their regular class through the orthodox path and not rely on Ascended Classes."

Seeing that Lambert was charging straight at him for another time while Ricky was sprinting at the same speed from another side, Shin took a stance while regulating his breathing.

Swoosh!

As he was preparing for another move, Night Hound appeared behind him like a ghost, forming a perfect triangle attack along with the other two.

Hong!

As his breathing followed the method of the Great Dominator Technique, the 'Pulse of Earth' elemental skill was passively triggered and made him sense the vibrations coming from the ground.

Each step that the three took was perfectly reflected inside his head, which he had drawn after sensing the surroundings.

He then shifted the way he breathed, changing toward the Solar Breathing Technique. A hot steam came out from his mask's gaps as he exhaled slowly and steadily.

Click!

As the three approached from different directions, Shin unhurriedly and calmly unsheathed his sword. His actions were clearly reflected in their eyes, as if they were seeing Shin move in slow motion.

The three quickly sense a deadly threat right after seeing those actions. Their experience in battle was telling them that they would be killed in a single strike if they tried to continue their advance.

Bang! Bang!

With powerful stomps, Lambert and Ricky forcefully halted their steps as they activated their respective skills.

Lambert took a more offensive stance as he swung his war axes multiple times before him, creating a series of crimson flashes that intertwined with one another as they headed toward Shin.

Ricky, on the other hand, chose to take a defensive stance as he raised his shield in front of him and activated an advanced version of 'Shield Wall' to protect himself while acting as a buff to reinforce his defense.

Night Hound's instincts also kicked in. He decisively used one of his lifesaving skills, the 'Gale Steps', to retreat. He did not even show any hesitation as he swiftly distanced himself away from Shin.

Swoosh!

It was at that moment when Shin's right arm flicked as he swung the [Yamato] multiple times, leaving a series of trails in the air, which also formed a dome-like barrier created by the blazing and crisscrossing flashes in the air.

'Jade Kirin Scripture: Quickly Draw – (Blazing) Flash Firmament'

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The collisions produced a series of small explosions.

Ricky repeatedly retreated each time the blazing sword flashes collided with his 'Shield Wall' until it was shattered while Lambert was forced to take a series of steps back after his war axes clashed with the sword of their opponent.

The two were somewhat exposed right now, Ricky had his arm holding the shield to bounce back due to the explosion of the 'Shield Wall' while Lambert had both of his arms in the air as he tried to forcefully nullify the force from the previous exchange.

Shin could now take this opportunity to kill either of them with a single strike reinforced with a powerful skill.

But the opposing side also knew it, so the rest of the team quickly responded.

Night Hound took advantage of the speed boost provided by his 'Gale Steps' to sprint at Shin once again, appearing behind the latter while executing 'Reinforced Backstab' at the now exposed back of Shin.

Swoosh!

Hun fired a series of shots that were not aimed at Shin directly but covered the space between Shin and the other two. It was to prevent Shin from going either of them as he would have to face the hail of bullets aimed in those directions.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Magnolia, on the other hand, raised her staff and cast a series of buffs that would boost the defense of the two and help them survive even if Shin successfully injured them critically.

"What an amazing teamwork," mumbled Shin as he saw how everyone moved as one to save their companions.

Between the two targets, Shin knew that he could not kill the Warlord as the guy was purposely hiding his real strength for some unknown reason while the Knight Lord was more challenging to kill due to the nature of his class.

Either way, he still had his method to kill them as fast as he could in this situation. But it would require some effort.

Moreover, he preferred to fight the group altogether as it was more challenging and quite satisfying for him. It was also somewhat beneficial for him while he was 'preparing' until Lambert was ready to show him his real capabilities.

"A peak Titled Ranker who has the power to fight against top-notch Godlike Player. This guy is interesting," he commented as he slightly turned his body while tightening his grip over the sheath on his left hand.

Clang!

He used the sheath to block incoming stab from behind before suddenly hacking with the sword in his right hand.

Shing!

The sharp sound of metal cutting through the wind reverberated in the air, scaring Night Hound, especially when he saw the blazing flame covering the sword.

It was no ordinary strike, without a doubt.

Without any hint of hesitation, Night Hound used another lifesaving skill, the 'Shadow Escape', to retreat one more time.

Puff!

Shin cut an illusionary figure, which turned into black smoke immediately after.

"Nice reflexes," he commented before disappearing from his spot, which was drilled with a rain of bullets in the next instant.

The intense battle continued as Shin purposely dragged it for quite a while until he had gotten his fill.

What would come next was a nightmare for this party of five to deal with.

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