Keith decided to not waste any more time trading words with this uncouth lout. From the dawn of time, the best tool for communication was never the mouth, but the fist!
Punch someone's jaw off and they will accede to your request far better than any diplomatic eloquence could!
Keith burst forward with speed beyond the scope of all Amateur and below spectators, only the Journeymen and above able to follow his rapid steps as he accumulated power in his arms.
He then brought it down in an overhead swing with all his strength. The axe whistled as it tore through the air with such force that Xela's robes were mussed by the ensuing winds.
All of this culminated into a loud 'thop' sound as the sharp blade connected with Gunner's shoulder blade, where he had 'requested' a massage just now!
However, the cruel expression that had appeared on Keith's face at the last moment when his weapon connected and the excited one on Darkus' crumbled into pure shock, as they saw that apart from cracking the ground beneath Gunner a little, nothing of note happened to the large lad.
Xela directly burst into laughter due to something only she and Gunner were able to see.
0!
That's right, the powered-up attack from a Master stage expert had resulted in no damage to Gunner whatsoever. It would be exceedingly hard to, since his power was light years from what he had used in the fight against Lord Darm.
He hadn't even activated his Earth's Guardian yet. He was just relying on his passive skills like Energy Ward which resisted 30% of all damage, his 90 points of Endurance as well as his 166 points of Defense.
Xela was curious as to how a Master who had likely been at the stage for a while could be so weak, so she Inspected him.
[Keith Durant - Level 75 Axe Knight
HP: 8,568/8,568 MP: 1,875/1,875 STA: 5,380/5,400]
'Hm, so his Strength is 119 points, his Endurance 72 points, and his Intellect 25 points. Not too shabby." Xela deduced with a smile.
'However, he has no other abilities I can detect apart from Limit Release and Fast Regeneration. I can't sense Afterimage, so he has to be below 50 points of Agility. Hm, judging from his attack speed, his Agility should be between 20-30 points.'
'As for his Charisma, I bet it's between 10-15 points. His Luck should between 5-12 points at best.' Xela estimated. She was more sure about his Luck as her high Spiritual Senses as part of her own high Luck gave her more insight into these things.
Xela's rapid deduction was done in seconds. The current her was no different from Darius in terms of computing ability and intelligence. The only thing that separated them was experience and wisdom, both of which Darius had in spades.
Gunner could care less about such things though. He looked at Keith and shook his head, for the fellow was far weaker than the Masters he had fought in Elysium's Colosseum of Blood.
Back then, he only had like 1/3rd of his current stats, yet he had still been able to survive under the brutality of those fellows, using his body to learn how they fought and how to gauge them.
As such, looking at Keith, he knew he was dealing with low-quality goods.
Then again, what was there to expect? If the Andrato Kingdom deserved to be called the shitty underdog of the entire Fallon continent, then Fallon had to be called the shitty underdog of Faust.
Vena and Caesar could have put Darius anywhere, but had chosen Fallon. Why was this? Because in terms of power, skill, and technology, Fallon ranked last in almost any category.
Objectively speaking, the continental rankings was;
#1 was Elysium (Gods),
#2 was Armadon (Demons and Devils),
#3 was Unyris (Mythological Beasts),
#4 was Kiel (Continent of Ice, also where the Core of Faust resided),
#5 was Pan (Cultivators),
#6 was Houto (Samurai and Yokai),
#7 was Gravitas (Continent of secrecy and technology),
#8 was Ludo (Desert Warriors),
#9 was Pokterr (Underground world of the Moles and Insects)
#10 was Fallon (Swords and Sorcery).
Pokterr used to be much higher up on the rankings, but that was naturally before the mass genocide of the Insect race as a response to their invasion. Gravitas' position was also largely regarded as inaccurate because no one could truly gauge them, not even the Fake Lords of Faust.
There were also other problems with the rankings, such as Unyris technically being the first if one took into account a certain terrifying existence that slept in the clouds which even the True Lords of Faust feared. However since he hadn't bothered to do anything for millennia, he had been cleverly ignored.
One also had to take into account a certain bias, since the one who had published this ranking was Elysium's City of Divinity.
Right now, Gunner understood why this was so. It was definitely prejudiced in some parts and inaccurate in others, but the general truth lay bare.
Keith had continually struck at him, even using skills while increasing his speed. His axe was like a blur of metal, striking Gunner everywhere it could reach.
Nevertheless, Gunner just stood there with his arms folded, his expression one of bored sadness as he contemplated such matters, while Xela watched on, both herself and the two Divine Concepts in her soul fascinated at the sight of such a powerful man incapable of doing anything apart from humiliating himself in public.
Darkus and the men behind him were left in the pits of despair, their hearts clenching with every strike Keith made on Gunner that caused a boom as well as a shockwave, yet failing to harm anything but the land beneath the large lad's feet in the slightest.
Keith himself was almost out of his wits, refusing to believe the reality of the situation.
However, the more he struck him without Gunner doing anything in retaliation, the more his hope started to turn to despair.
His rapid swings started to slow down as he simply stared at Gunner with incomprehension.
