Child of Destiny

…

Seven stood still in his current spot while staring solemnly at his opponent. The blazing wings behind him flapped softly and released flame embers in the air, scattering them throughout the whole area.

Seeing that full transformation that Seven had, Voltage couldn’t help but smile as he was now sure that Seven possessed the Spirit of the Vermillion Bird.

Their group looked everywhere just to find the clues for the Four Guardian Beast, but who would have thought that they would stumble upon one of the possessors during their current commission?

The only problem was the fact that Seven was a lackey of a very troublesome guy, Sword God Zero.

“Well, all I have to do is to capture this guy quickly and leave the rest to captain,” muttered Voltage as he halted his steps and waved his hand forward.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡．𝙣𝒆𝙩

With that simple gesture, the lightning spears floating behind him suddenly shot forward, heading towards Seven who was maintaining his stance.

‘Thunderbird King Skill: Spear Storm’

Seven took a deep breath and held his blazing swords firmly before throwing a series of slashes in the air. And right after he was done with his actions, a gust of wind was sent forward while carrying an immense it.

‘Guardian of the Vermillion Bird: Firestorm Talons’

Whoosh!

Then the gust of wind seemed to be ignited by something, creating a hell-like storm of fire that spun around like a tornado.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of explosions immediately followed after the collision of the two powers. It also turned the forest into a scorched land with only fully burned trees left behind.

But despite the transformation of the land around them, the two warriors continued their battle, not concerned about their surroundings.

Swoosh!

Bang! Bang!

The two turned into a streak of lights that repeatedly clashed against each other, causing a series of explosions in every collision.

One of them was clad with lightning that could destroy the land while the other was covered with a blazing fire that could burn anything.

Voltage jumped into the sky and raised his hand above him, materializing a huge lightning spear on it. And when he grabbed the spear made of lightning, the air around him seemed to contract as his appearance resembled the appearance of a great god.

‘Thunderbird King Skill (Tier 2): Storm Torrent’

Then he swung his arm with great force, throwing a lightning spear toward the ground.

His movements seemed to slow down while he was doing that throwing motion. But immediately after it, time seemed to move much faster right after he released the lightning spear from the tip of his fingers.

Boom!

Swoosh!

The giant spear made of lightning suddenly disappeared with a flash of light as it headed toward its destination.

Given its extreme speed, anyone could tell that it was impossible to escape from this particular attack, especially when it was carrying a power that could annihilate everything in its path.

Seven couldn’t see where the attack was coming from since Voltage suddenly disappeared in front of him during their melee exchange.

It was already too late when he noticed the giant spear falling from the sky and heading towards his direction.

Fortunately, the Spirit of the Vermillion Bird had a passive ability that could help him avoid certain death. Though, the cooldown time was quite long.

Shriek!

A blazing bird suddenly appeared behind him and wrapped its wings around him, forming a sphere of fire that protected him from the descending spear of lightning.

‘Guardian of the Vermillion Bird: Protection of the Guardian Beast’

Boom!

Then a towering pillar of light shot up toward the sky right after the lightning spear sent by Voltage landed on the blazing sphere protecting Seven.

The ground shook before a series of cracks appeared on it, spreading like a spiderweb.

Bang!

And a few moments later, an unstoppable force pushed the blazing sphere and pressed it harder toward the ground which led to the formation of a huge crater.

Ta-ta!

Voltage fell on the ground in a relaxed manner as he looked at the cloud of dust a few distances away. His previous attack was one of his most powerful skills, and since he was able to catch Seven off-guard with it, he was confident that he won this battle.

But it didn’t mean that he would let his guard down just because of that. He was not an average player to commit such an amateur mistake.

“Tsk! I controlled the strength of that skill, so it should only be enough to weaken him to a certain degree. Enough for me to capture him with the imprisonment prism,” muttered Voltage while opening his inventory to take out a capturing item from it.

There was still a barrage of lightning strikes bombarding Seven in the distance, so he should have had enough time to take out the item that he needed.

Puff!

Whoosh!

At least that was how it was supposed to be. But when he was about to take out the imprisonment prism, a hole suddenly appeared on the cloud of dust in the distance followed by a gust of hot wind swept through him.

Then Seven appeared behind his left side with the blazing swords and was in the middle of swinging them.

‘Guardian of the Vermillion Bird: Blazing Talons’

This skill might not be the most powerful one that he could possibly use, but they were the fastest ones to execute from the set of skills that he had.

Unfortunately, Voltage didn’t lower his guard despite taking away his attention from the could of dust for a brief moment.

Crackle! Crackle!

His lightning armor released a flow of electricity that surrounded him from all directions. And that electric current paralyzed Seven momentarily, giving him enough time to counterattack.

‘Thunderbird King Skill: Electric Body’

‘Thunderbird King Skill: Wind Crescent’

He then twisted his waist slightly while holding his spear with both of his hands before throwing a circular swing, covering every direction.

Bang!

Seven was pushed away by that circular swing from Voltage since he was currently in the air when throwing his attack. He clearly didn’t have a stable footing in that exchange.

But he was able to quickly halted himself from moving further away by spreading his blazing wings wide. And with a powerful flap of those wings, he flew straight back to his opponent like a bullet released from the gun barrel.

As he flew parallel to the ground, Seven crossed his arms in front of him and held both of the blazing swords parallel to one another.

‘Guardian of the Vermillion Bird: Flame Road’

A trail of the blazing path was left behind him as he continued moving forward. And when Voltage saw that, a huge grin suddenly appeared on his face. “As expected of the right-hand man of the Sword God, you really are a tough one.”

Bang!

He then stomped on the ground and spread his lightning wings behind him before launching himself forward, heading straight to Seven.

Swoosh!

*********

Few minutes before Seven and Voltage started fighting.

Zero frowned deeply as he read the message that Seven had sent him.

Seeing the expression on his face, Shin quickly asked. “What’s the matter? Did Seven encounter trouble?”

The others also turned their heads toward Zero when they heard those words.

Zero then turn to them and heavily nodded his head. “Yeah. It seems like he encountered a member of Earners.”

Hearing that, the others couldn’t help but also wear a heavy expressions. They just left the place where the teleportation was located and was getting ready to resume their quest.

Shiella sent a quite reliable group of people to guard the teleportation formation. Black Hand, Thinker, and Adept Hands were sent by her to personally oversee the situation.

Alongside them, there was also another chief from the firm who arrive at the Saint Heaven Kingdom just recently, Chief Runemaster, Balle.

These chiefs of the Hand of Midas Trading Firm were also here to build the altar required for the creation of the portal.

That way, they would be able to build a portal as soon as possible that could be their bridge to send immediate reinforcement when things go wrong.

If they were successful, then they would be able to save a lot of time when transporting their forces. It would directly cut down the time needed for traveling towards this place. This was the main reason why Shiella sent the four chiefs of the firm to personally build the altar.

With the presence of those four, Shin and the rest of the group were able to put their minds at ease and focus on their other problems.

This was also the reason why Shin suggested to continue tackling the quest. With Immortal and the Silent Night recuperating and the Earners worrying about the Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants, it was the right time for them to proceed with fighting the Fallen Dragon Knight Army.

But from the looked of it, another problem suddenly appeared before they could even start executing their plans.

Zero understood their situation and was also aware that they would lose this chase if they waste more time saving Seven. But at the same time, he also couldn’t abandon his friend just like that.

Dying once or twice by normal means shouldn’t be a problem, but being captured by another player had another consequence behind it. Aside from that, Seven couldn’t be killed while they were in the middle of the current Empire Quest since it would automatically count as him falling the quest.

From the message that he received, it looked like the members of the Earners were going to capture Seven to steal the Blessing of the Vermillion Bird, one of the Four Guardian Beasts.

While everyone was currently troubled, Faker suddenly asked. “They still haven’t captured him, right?”

Zero turned in surprise before nodding his head. “Yeah. From the looks of it, the other members of the Earners are also not present as he is only facing a single person.”

“Seven also said that he will pull his opponent away from the area and lead that guy towards our direction, so we will be able to meet him midway,” he added.

Hearing that, Faker turned to Lawless, seemingly waiting for his permission.

Lawless understood the meaning behind that look as they were together for a long time already, both inside the game and in the real world.

Moreover, they were also in a similar position during one of the operations assigned to them by their family.

Lawless then turn to Shin and spoke. “You guys proceed with the plan. And leave the rest to us.”

“Faker and I will accompany Zero to rescue seven and regroup with you late,” he added as he started getting ready.

And before Shin and the others could even voice out their thoughts, he quickly continued. “Don’t worry. We know our limits and will immediately retreat if it is an impossible task.”

“Just make sure to stay alive until we came back,” he then started walking away, not waiting for the others to reply.

Faker quickly followed after him as well as Zero who was taken aback and was in the middle of hesitation earlier.

Shin stared at their backs for a few moments, seemingly thinking deeply about something. But he immediately shook his head as he remembered that Faker and Lawless were still stronger than any of them in terms of Martial-Arts.

If those two were able to summon their true powers from the real world, then he was not confident that he would be able to fight them on an equal footing. After all, those guys were on the same level as Shiella and David.

He then turned to the others and waved his hand. “Let’s go.”

“Let’s put our trust in them and focus on the current matter at hand. We can’t embarrass ourselves when they come back later and regroup with us, can we?” he added as he led the group to proceed with the plan.

……