Child of Destiny

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While Shin was engaged in an intense battle against King Yulis, Lodhir finally made a decision. He would be making his move and interfering.

He could see that despite the fallen elven king gradually getting stronger due to the changing phase, Shin was still able to adjust accordingly and respond to everything without a problem. It was as if he was also getting stronger as time went on.

If Lodhir knew that Shin was a player, then he would think that he was a boss monster that could also become stronger as the battle progresses due to the changing phase whenever his HP Bar decreased.

Speaking of which, Lodhir also noticed that his undead summon, a humanoid King Class Monster, had yet to get a clear hit to Shin since the start of the battle. Aside from the small chunks that his HP Bar had suffered from the strong impacts during the powerful frontal attacks that Shin could not avoid, he never got hit by any attack. He would always somehow avoid them despite how unexpected they were or block whenever he was forced into a corner before counterattacking.

Realizing that he could no longer wait, Lodhir finally made his move. He could not afford to continue with his act earlier.

Not that Shin was not aware of it.

Raising his bone staff, Lodhir gathered his mana before slamming it down. Right when the bottom of his staff hit the ground, an intense tremor suddenly spread in every direction and shook the whole floor of the throne room.

"You finally can't wait any longer, huh?" Shin, who was already expecting that to happen, smirked. He then disengaged from exchanging more blows against King Yulis and leaped back.

Swoosh!

Right when he leaped away, the ground where previous stood sprouted out with shadow spikes that seemed to be planning to skewer him alive.

At the same time, King Yulis suddenly charged forward, breaking through the shadow spikes, and jumped straight at him.

Shin flipped in the air multiple times while moving away from the fallen elven king, creating distance between the two of them. He somersaulted from time to time to dodge some of the attacks of the latter as he retreated.

While retreating, he was keeping an eye on Lodhir, who was constantly casting a series of spells and sending them his way.

Shadow spikes, dark spheres, cursed arrows, and shadow tentacles made their way toward Shin as he engaged in battle against King Yulis. Each of them was accurately sent at him whenever the fallen elven king left a gap in his attacks.

But as if Shin had extra eyes on him, he was able to dodge everything without problem. None of the spells touched him despite engaging with King Yulis. It was as if he did not have any blind spot that Lodhir could take advantage of in the battle.

Some of the spells that he had sent were even deflected by Shin and sent toward King Yulis by slightly changing their trajectory. Even though the fallen elven king remained affected by those spells since their dark properties were of no use against him, his movements were still being hindered by the explosions of those spells.

Seeing that his spells were ineffective, Lodhir felt frustrated, especially when he supposedly had the upper hand in this battle with the help of King Yulis. It seemed like he still underestimated Shin despite witnessing what he could do earlier.

Realizing that he could not afford to continue hiding his real capabilities, he started using more advanced spells from his arsenal.

Clasping his hands together, Lodhir held his bone staff with both of his hands while chanting a series of necromantic words. The aura around immediately changed as the surrounding mana gathered.

Swoosh!

Huge magic circles filled with dark energies appeared behind him, spinning with a constant rhythm. Then a group of dark spears wrapped with shadow chains came out from those magic circles.

Shin felt that the hair on his back suddenly stood up, sensing an intense chill right after the appearance of those spears. He felt that they were locked on him. It seemed like they would be chasing after him wherever he went and not stop until they caught up.

Bang!

Stomping the bottom of his bone staff on the floor once again, Lodhir fired the dark spears.

'Corrupted Necromancer Skill (Tier 2): Spears of the Sealed Fate'

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Seeing the incoming spears with insane speed, Shin did not hesitate to retreat further away, trying to shake off King Yulis while preparing to counterattack.

But the fallen elven king seemed to stick to him like gum and refused to let go. He assaulted Shin with a series of sword movements and techniques, which forced Shin to defend himself.

Shin forced King Yulis to retreat for a moment with a powerful strike before sheathing the [Yamato] in a swift yet accurate motion. He then ducked forward as he controlled his breathing and circulated the mana within him according to the 'Solar Breathing Technique' and the 'Golden Immortality Technique'.

When the chained dark spears were almost upon him, they circled and blocked off all his retreat path under Lodhir's skillful control.

King Yulis also jumped forward, forcing Shin to choose whether he defend himself against those dark spears or him.

Click!

The subtle sound suddenly rang in the whole throne room as Shin's thumb flicked the sheathed sword open.

Shing!

He then fully unsheathed the [Yamato] and swung it around. His arms seemed to disappear as he did that while blazing trails were left behind with each of his swings. Those blazing trails intertwine with one another, forming a crisscrossing net and a dome of fire that protected Shin from outside harm.

'Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw (Fire and Metal Form) – Blazing Firmament'

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The chained dark spears hit the blazing dome surrounding Shin and deflected away upon the impact. Even though they circled him and tried to throw themselves at him for another time, they were still unable to break through his defense until they exhausted their powers.

Bang!

When they disappeared, the final strike from Shin accurately clashed against the incoming strike of King Yulis, who was about to strike him.

King Yulis crossed his swords, squeezing the [Yamato] and preventing it from moving forward. He was also trying to lock the sword in place as another spell from his master was about to arrive.

Shin smirked when he saw that as King Yulis seemed to have forgotten that he still had other swords.

The sheath on his left hand took the 'Judgement Form' as Astaroth possessed it with [Summit Shaper Possession] in greatsword form.

Shin then twisted his body as he swung the greatsword with all his might, cutting through the air and producing an ear-piercing sound. The sword was also imbued with the Earth and Metal Elemental Mana, containing their heaviness and sharpness during the swing.

'Perfected Four Symbol Scripture: Divine Yellow Dragon – Mountain Cleaver'

Swoosh!

The poker face of King Yulis remained unchanged since it was already an undead puppet. But when he saw the incoming attack from Shin, he seemed to flinch and felt like death was already approaching.

Fortunately, Lodhir already made his move at that moment and saved him in the nick of time.

Black chains wrapped themselves around the body of the fallen elven king and pulled him back right before his body was cleaved by Shin's strike.

Before Shin could even chase after him, the ground around him exploded as bone spikes shot up from beneath and surrounded him. They formed a cage that entrapped Shin within it, preventing him from going anywhere.

At the same time, Shin saw dark swords hovering in the air, surrounding the bone cage from every direction. They pointed their tips at him, fully ready to stab him to death.

Before he could even respond to the situation, Lodhir waved his hand and pointed at Shin, commanding the dark swords. They flew at their target at a speed that was no slower than the previous attack. They flew through the gaps in the bone cage as they headed to Shin.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Shin was forced to use his defensive technique against it, forming a blazing barrier that protected him from the dark swords.

The blazing barrier, the 'Pheonix Embrace', spun intensely as the dark swords collided at it, trying to take it down.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Explosions continued to erupt from every collision as the two sides met.

The dark swords seemed to form continuously and endlessly, bombarding the barrier. It looked like they were not going to stop until they exhausted the energy of the barrier and forced it to collapse.

Understanding what his opponent was thinking, Shin snapped his fingers and detonated the barrier, making it explode and spearing its raging flame in every direction. The explosion was unable to destroy the bone cage but they passed through the gaps that it had and swallowed the remaining dark swords hovering in the air.

Shin had already sheathed the [Yamato] at that time. He then used the residual flame energies linger in the air and absorbed them, channeling them into his sword.

Shing!

He then unsheathed it immediately after, swinging in a full circle while releasing a blazing wave of fire in every direction. It formed a flaming ring that moved outwards and destroyed the bone cage that exhausted some of its powers from the previous explosion.

'Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw (Fire Form) – Sunlight Cleaver'

Swoosh!

At that moment, King Yulis charged through the raging flames while covering his body with a thick black haze to protect himself.

He then spun in the air as he swung his swords at Shin, who was still in the middle of maintaining his final pose after the earlier move.

The swords in King Yulis' hand suddenly ignited with a shadowy flame that absorbed the surrounding flame, forming a spinning twister around them.

Shin slightly raised his brows when he saw that. But instead of backing down, he welcomed the incoming attack with open arms.

The sheath on his left hand transformed once again and turned into a longsword, taking the 'Meteor Form' of 'Mondi's Style'. Then Astaroth fused with it once again for another [Summit Shaper Possession] but in a different form.

Then Shin swung both of his swords one of them covered with a blazing flame while the other was enfolded with metallic luster.

Bang! Bang!

Right after the two sides collided, the strong aftershock shook the entire throne room, which also affected the floor underneath them.

Gravels and rock fragments flew in the air due to the strong aftermath of their clash before turning into dust as they were crushed by the residual force from the collision.

The two paused for a moment, maintaining their positions, before engaging in an intense exchange.

King Yulis executed a series of sword techniques produced by his limited sword skills. He seemed to be able to create a new set of techniques by just adjusting the angle of his strikes, the speed of each of his swings, and the power behind them.

In response, Shin used a variety of his sword techniques, combining his sword-drawing and sword-changing styles. He was able to respond to everything but was forced to retreat from time to time since he had to also deal with the spells that were sent to him by Lodhir.

Shin seemed to be struggling in the battle when King Yulis increased his pace and Lodhir used his more advanced spells.

From time to time, Shin was glancing at the direction of the necromancer, who remained in the same position up until now and seemed to gauging the distance between them.

When he was forced into a corner, the two opponents coordinated with another combination of attack, trying to end him there.

But at that moment, Shin mumbled with a whisper. "It seemed to be enough."

He then exploded with a series of movements, heading toward Lodhir.

'Elemental Skill (Void): Void Steps'

'Slayer Skill: Moonlight Steps' x3

'Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Steps'

In just a couple of seconds, Shin appeared right behind Lodhir while brandishing his sword with great force. It was clear that he had no intention of letting of this opportunity that he had created.

He had purposedly lured King Yulis away, so that he could create more distance between the two and prevented the latter from rescuing Lodhir in this situation.

But Lodhir seemed to have expected something like this to happen, so he quickly raised his bone staff and appeared tens of meters away from his previous location. Not only this escape was instantaneous, but its distance was also quite far, so Shin would still take some time to catch up.

"That time is more than enough for King Yulis to rescue me," he mumbled as he turned around and about cast a spell to buy him some time.

But it was also at that moment when he was greeted by a cold voice. "Is that so? Why do I feel that it is not the case?"

Shin suddenly appeared right in front of him the moment when he turned around as if he was a ghost.

'Equipment Skill (Leg Armor): (Megumi's Shadow) – Death Travel'

He then swung the sword on his hand, severing the head of Lodhir, who was still staring at him in great shock and disbelief.

'Perfect Four Symbol Scripture: Sacred White Tiger – Guillotine Execution'

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