Child of Destiny

……..

Swoosh! 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Without further ado, Shin kicked the ground and launched himself forward, and charged towards Mammon.

Seeing that, the player entitled as the Sloth Devil of the ‘Pandemonium Troupe’ couldn’t help but smirk at the sight in front of him as he found it ridiculous. “Delusional kid!”

Swoosh!

Just like what Shin did, Mammon also launched himself towards his opponent and with a much greater speed even. It only took him an instant to arrive right in front of Shin while also brandishing his weapons at the same time.

On the other hand, Shin still had a calm and confident look on his face despite witnessing the insane speed of his opponent. And right before Mammon’s weapons chopped off his head, his figure turned into a blur for a moment before appearing behind Mammon all of a sudden.

‘Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Steps’

Immediately after that, Shin swung the [Dusk Blade] on his right hand downwards in a very powerful manner.

‘Extra Skill: Destructive Slash’

Shing!

Mammon could hear the blade of Shin’s saber cutting through the air as it was making its way to slice his back. And relying on that information, he was able to read how fast the attack was coming from his back which also gave him enough time to respond.

With that, Mammon leaned forward and let himself be pulled by gravity. And due to his actions, he was able to avoid getting hit by the incoming saber with a very small margin.

Right before he hit the ground, he suddenly pushed himself up before borrowing the momentum that he gained to spin in the air while swinging his butcher knife to Shin.

Due to his previous attack missing its target, Shin was currently in an awkward position to either counterattack or dodge the incoming attack.

‘But it doesn’t mean I can’t block it!’ thought Shin to himself as his head worked fast, thinking what to do next.

With a quick flick of his wrist, the [Duck Blade] was flipped instantly as he held it in a reverse fashion.

Clang!

Right after blocking the butcher knife, Shin suddenly swung the [Dawn Blade] on his other hand, returning the favor and taking advantage of his opponent’s awkward position.

On the other hand, Mammon continued spinning while swinging his weapons right after the previous collision earlier.

Seeing that, Shin raised his eyebrows as he was quite surprised at his opponent’s crazy control over his body movements. He was not expecting that Mammon was able to still move like that despite not having a proper footing to do such maneuvers.

Clang! Clang!

With that, Mammon was able to create enough space for himself to finally use a movement skill to escape his current predicament.

Ta-ta!

But right after he regained his footing in the distance, he immediately relaunched himself and lunged towards Shin once again.

“You really have a pretty good reflex, but let’s see how much your body can keep up with that!” said Mammon before swinging his weapons at Shin, to which his arms transformed into multiple blurs.

“Heh! You may as well ask my masters about that!” sneered Shin as he responded in kind, also transforming his arms into multiple silhouettes as he swung his sabers to counter.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Metal sparks were flying in the air as Shin and Mammon exchanged blows with their weapons, making the scene quite stunning.

Shin should have a slight advantage in terms of speed and strength given the buffs that he got from Cloe. But he was having a hard time properly execute his attacks due to the strange moments of his opponent.

Just like how he was fighting Arthur earlier, Mammon was flipping his weapons in the air and shuffling in with the other set of daggers from his inventory spaces. And at the same time, the skills that were mixed with his attacks were also giving Shin some trouble during the exchange.

Due to that, Mammon was starting to get more and more confident as their fight progressed. And to make sure that his opponent was not going to regain footing, he picked up the pace and started attacking more aggressively.

But starting at that time, Mammon discovered something that he didn’t expect. The more he exchanged blows with Shin the stronger his opponent became.

He already knew that Shin was a ‘Battle Genius’ based on the data that he got from their information network.

But from what he was seeing right now, the current Shin in front of him was more than a ‘Battle Genius’ who was continuously growing in battle. What he was seeing right now was a hungry beast who was not only absorbing the experience of their battle but also a freak who was also using what he gained as a weapon.

His ‘Storm Dagger Dance’ was a special technique that practically made him known in their organization. It was also the technique that made him quite feared by most of the top experts that he hunted down.

And aside from the very few people who could go against him toe-to-toe just like the top-ranking Godlike Players, no other low-ranking players could stand against this technique. But at this point in time, a rookie Ranker who just got his title recently was currently holding his ground pretty well.

The Storm Dagger Dance was a technique that Mammon used to confuse the senses of his opponents, especially their eyesight. The sharper one’s eyesight the stronger the effect of this particular technique on them. Just like what happened to Arthur earlier.

But this technique seemed to be practically useless against Shin as time went by. Not only was he able to adapt to the unpredictable rhythm of shuffling daggers, but he was even able to use the purpose of that technique to his advantage.

Moreover, Shin seemed to be also trying to mimic the technique and used it for himself. And that realization made him feel insulted.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Enraged, Mammon started attacking more aggressively along with his more powerful skills and much stronger techniques.

But that was when he discovered how much of a monster his opponent could be.

Right after he picked up the pace for another time, Mammon saw Shin start flipping his sabers in the air before trying to engage in hand-to-hand combat which was supposedly unimaginable at the current stage of the game.

The game was able to give the players the ability to fight in hand-to-hand combat when their weapons suddenly broke in battle. But that thing only happened at the early stages of the game where weapons with very low durability existed.

Due to those sudden actions, Mammon was caught completely off-guard and broke his rhythm. And because Shin suddenly shifted to being barehanded, his opponent couldn’t properly attack since he suddenly got too near to him.

Afraid of being grabbed by Shin in that very close distance, Mammon needed to create some space between them so that he could properly throw a counterattack.

Unfortunately, that was the time when Shin was going to take a quick step backward and catch his sabers before throwing a counter of his own.

His movements were quite sloppy at first since he was still trying to adjust. But every time he made a mistake and took a strike, Cloe would always heal him back to full, covering for him. And that practically made Mammon frustrated.

He tried to break free from Shin and takedown Cloe first so that he could focus on a one-on-one battle later.

But the problem was Shin being too persistent.

He was using the combined powers of his ‘True Sight’ and ‘Sensing Circle’ skills to find Mammon’s location every time he tried to hide in sheath.

If ever Mammon tried to outspeed him, Shin would just teleport himself beside Cloe by either using the ‘Phantom Steps’ or ‘Void Steps’. And in the distance, all he needed to do was to deny assassination attempts that Mammon was going to do.

“Tsk! So, I can’t take her out with this guy’s protection but I also can’t kill this rookie in an instant as long as that girl is still around. This is becoming a little tricky,” muttered Mammon with a solemn tone while looking at Shin and Cloe.

And after some hesitation, he finally shook his head and decided to use his berserk skill. “Tsk! This is going to hurt my pride as a member of the ‘Troupe’ but I guess I don’t have any other choice since you are being protected by the ‘Gentle Goddess’.”

Boom!

Then a powerful pressure was suddenly released from his body, trying to crush Shin and Cloe who were standing in a distance.

Sensing the heavy pressure, Shin suddenly took a step forward and hide Cloe behind him before transforming himself into his werewolf form. And at the same time, he also summoned his Phantom Clone who also changed its form just like him.

He then took a couple of steps forward, leaving the Phantom Clone to protect Cloe as he activated the ‘Phantom Dance’ to release nine Phantoms of himself.

Hu~!

After taking a deep breath, he suddenly looked at Mammon with a murderous gaze before saying in a cold tone. “At this point in time, it is my turn to attack.”

……