The Devil's Cage

Translator: Dess Editor: EbonyFrost

When Kieran sensed the unique power, he frowned, but when facing the slashing hand blade, he didn’t even hesitate.

Souu!

A half-moon qi energy wave was fired along with his kick, crashing into Mayer’s hand blade.

BANG!

After a glass-breaking sound, [Blade Kick]’s energy wave with the -1 debuff was shattered by Mayer’s hand blade.

Mayer’s hand blade suffered a slight pause before going down on Kieran’s right leg.

Ugh!

It has been a while since Kieran felt pain and it came from the spot where his leg was struck by the hand blade.

Kieran quickly retracted his kick and staggered backward.

Mayer was in hot pursuit, he raised up his right hand again and this time the aura energy around his hand got denser.

At the side of his palm, a faint image of a real long blade started to take shape.

Kieran’s pupils shrunk, he had seen the scene before and was even quite familiar with it.

Back in [The Queen’s Shield] during the battle with the Prairies King, when Kieran used [Sword Skill, Tiger Stance], a similar situation occurred.

Although until now, he didn’t figure it out what was going on, it didn’t stop him from knowing whenever such situation occurred, the skill would generate power far beyond its own limits.

Kieran instinctively wanted to retreat but the pain at his right leg robbed the nimbleness from his body movements, forcing him to tumble backward.

Still, the hand blade strike grazed Kieran’s body.

Souuu!

A hole was slashed at the waist part of his shirt, revealing his abs.

The cut was clean, neat and maybe an inch deep. Blood then splashed out from the smoothly cut wound.

Kieran ripped his T-shirt off and tied it over his wound.

Although it wasn’t a real bandage, -1 [Medical Treatment, Bandage] was still at Entry level, allowing him to take care of his wound while retreating backward.

Of course, it was just a simple treatment as it was impossible to reach the result of a real bandage and hemostasis balm.

Even when Kieran was stopping his own bleeding, his eyes never left Mayer.

After performing two consecutive slashes with his hand blade, it seemed like the consumption of energy was quite big as well.

Mayer was panting heavily but compared to Kieran who suffered significant damage, Mayer was still in a good shape.

Right after a moment, Mayer stepped forward again, heading towards Kieran.

He was ready to claim his victory from this friendly spar with Kieran.

Kieran frowned when he saw Mayer coming close.

The situation at hand had placed him in a disadvantaged position, the injuries on his leg and waist had decreased his strength more than 50%.

Mayer however only suffered some light damage.

Kieran glanced over the bruises on the back of Mayer’s hand, his furrowed brows got tighter.

The Goddess of Victory seemed to be on Mayer’s side.

Kieran felt unwilling. He wasn’t a person who couldn’t afford to lose but because this friendly spar represented the sub-mission and once he lost, it would mean the failure of the sub-mission as well.

From the moment he stepped into the underground game, whether was it his main mission or sub-mission, Kieran had never failed before.

He would complete them without any exception and despite not telling anyone about it, in his heart, he was quite proud of himself, or should it be, it had become his habit.

He was used to being successful in clearing missions and was unable to accept failure.

Even though failure was lingering before his eyes, he wanted to risk it and try to redeem his failure back into success!

Undoubtedly, such a habit was a scary one.

Kieran saw Mayer approaching him step by step, his brain was calculating the distance in between and his breath was trying to regulate itself.

His slightly messed up breathing was once again stabilized with [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]’s technique.

The whole process wasn’t that hard because it had also become a habit for Kieran.

A warm energy stream flowed out from his heart, spreading out to his four limbs and hundreds of bones. It warmed his cold body up once more after losing a big amount of blood.

His warm body was gathering energy ceaselessly all of a sudden.

Mayer instantly noticed the changes on Kieran. He wasn’t mad at all but instead, he smiled.

His rigid face revealed a smile with his white teeth underneath.

“You are a respectable opponent! Being able to claim victory in a friendly spar with such an opponent is something worth commemorating!” Mayer said, his steps didn’t stop.

When he finished talking, he was in front of Kieran and slashed down with his right-hand blade.

Wung!

The sharp slashing noise stung Kieran’s face once again but he pretended he didn’t see it as though he ignored such a powerful attack.

Mayer didn’t seem to be stopping either, or rather, he didn’t think it was the time for him to stop yet.

His hand-blade continued slashing down.

When the hand-blade was less than a finger away from Keiran, he finally moved by tilting his whole body backward, replacing his feet with his palms and arching his waist.

His left kick was fired out like a loaded spring, aimed towards Mayer’s chin.

Fuuu!

The powerful wind from Kieran’s left kick even fluttered Mayer’s spiky hair but Mayer didn’t have any intentions to dodge it. His left hand was idle from the start!

After Kieran raised his kick, Mayer too raised his left hand, pressing down at Kieran’s feet and his right-hand blade went on slashing down.

Sssss!

Snake hisses sounded suddenly and Kieran’s left kick twisted out of trajectory, dodging Mayer’s left hand’s blockade and went towards Mayer’s chin.

Mayer smiled.

He was fooled by the freaky trick last night, how would he not take precaution against it today?

Mayer’s left hand, which should have been avoided, twisted as well and it went after Kieran’s left feet again like a soft whip.

But Mayer missed again because Kieran’s hissing left kick suddenly accelerated and even brought up layers of kicking afterimages.

A snake’s hiss buzzed ceaselessly and the kicking afterimages were relentless, as if a single venomous viper turned into a group, engulfing Mayer directly.

But the truly lethal one was…

Sssss!

Another series of snake hisses sounded and it was louder and clearer than anyone before, as though a myriad of snakes was hissing at the moon.

Snakes after snakes sprung up from the ground below suddenly. Their cold reptilian eyes, lethal venomous fangs, and scarlet red tongues were all aimed at Mayer.

[Sword Skill, Myriad Viper]!

Categorized as a sword skill but actually, an illusory skill that relied on Spirit to activate. It caught Mayer off guard as it stunned him for a while.

During that minor window, Kieran’s combo attack, [Viper Kick] and [Hundred Violent Kicks] truly landed on Mayer’s body.

Bang Bang Bang!

A barrage of hitting noise later, Mayer was sent flying after the barrage of kicks and crashed hard onto the ground further away.

Kieran too fell to the ground as though he exhausted his energy.

However, moments later, Mayer who was covered in dirt, spitting a mouthful of blood, and was breathing heavily, climbed up once more.

Kieran couldn’t afford to lose but Mayer could?

No! Mayer never wanted to lose!

As the strongest fighter in Edland City, his pride in himself was higher than anyone could imagine. That sense of pride forced him to not admit defeat easily.

So he stood up and looked at Kieran with an even more fanatic gaze.

Funng!

A heavy buzz later, the faint image on his right hand materialized! It materialized into a true blade!

Kieran, who staggered to get up, skipped a beat in his heart when he saw the materialized blade.

He gave it all his effort and yet he was still going to lose?

Despair rose up swiftly in Kieran’s heart but was discarded them by himself in the next moment.

No! He didn’t want despair, he hated it because he never really lost a battle before!

He still had a chance!

Mayer abruptly endured barrages of kicks from Kieran, his injuries weren’t light either. His condition was almost the same with Kieran a while ago.

Even though the materialized blade was sharper than ever, its power must have been affected.

“If I can dodge this strike, victory will be mine!”

Kieran told himself in his heart and because of that conviction, his heart was beating fiercely.

There wasn’t the devil’s energy nor the growls of the Creature of Desire, not even sharpness from the Saint Thorns but only the shine from Dawn.

The first light from dawn shone through the darkness of the night and shed its light of hope over despair. His heart would not give up on hope and thus, it started to beat, beating in its own way.

The first time his heart truly beat.

Dong.

Dong Dong.

Dong Dong Dong!!

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