The man looked at Shang with interest and readied his weapons.
The man wore shoes and gloves made of red metal, and Shang could feel their power.
Shang had gained a lot of experience, and he knew that these weapons were made of Late General Stage materials. Apparently, even average Middle General Stage warriors had access to these materials.
And that wasn't even everything.
'He's wearing a uniform similar to mine, which probably means that he also has a one-time protection of a killing blow.'
Shang readied his sword.
BANG!
The man exploded forward, leaving a trail of fire behind him.
Shang exploded forward with an explosion of ice.
Both of them were charging at each other, but Shang's opponent was quite a bit faster.
As soon as they met, Shang's opponent punched forward with a fiery fist.
Shang pointed his left arm at the enemy's fist.
BOOOM!
An explosion of ice came out of Shang's left hand, coating the enemy's glove, but the enemy also hit Shang's left arm.
The front of Shang's left arm was burned to a crisp, only leaving a charred stump that ended at the elbow.
However, Shang's right arm swung at his opponent's fist with his sword.
The man was faster than Shang and could react very well to the sword slash. He easily blocked it with his extended hand.
CRACK!
The man's eyes widened, and he jumped back as he looked at his right hand.
His glove was damaged, and a deep cut went through his wrist!
His wrist was actually broken!
Fire and ice didn't necessarily need to cancel each other out. With a bit of control, the ice could somewhat evade the fire and penetrate it. Of course, the ice would be weakened by quite a bit in that process, but it was still useful in some cases.
Shang knew how these weapons worked by fighting Mattheo several times.
The gloves didn't actually heat up. After all, if they heated up, the user's hand would be seared.
Instead, the gloves were coated with a layer of Fire Mana, and they only needed to not heat up too much after an explosion.
After a warrior with the Fire Affinity punched with their gloves, the explosion would heat them up by quite a bit, but it wasn't so much that the hand beneath them would be damaged.
By infusing the gloves with Ice Mana, Shang could achieve the same effect as when his own body got damaged by his Affinity.
The gloves had become brittle, and the explosion had damaged them.
Of course, the gloves wouldn't break because of that, but they would become unstable.
And that was enough of a difference for Shang's sword to show its power.
But it was a heavy price.
Shang had damaged one of his opponent's weapons and injured his hand, but Shang had lost his entire left arm.
Shang exploded forward again and unleashed another strike.
BANG!
One of the guy's boots exploded with fire, and he was thrown to the side, sidestepping Shang's slash.
By now, Shang's left arm had regenerated.
The man unleashed a kick as Shang put his left arm on his sword.
Then, Shang blocked the kick with the edge of his sword.
BANG!
Shang was thrown away by the explosion, several burns appearing all over his body. The back of Shang's sword hit his chest heavily due to the knockback.
Shang's sword had two edges, but since it couldn't cut Shang, no wound appeared on Shang's chest.
Clink!
The man grimaced and moved his leg in a peculiar way. Due to that movement, his shoe left his foot and fell to the ground beside him.
The grass where it landed turned black due to the resulting heat.
Shang had loaded Sword with Fire Mana, which resulted in the shoe receiving two explosions at once.
The metal of the weapon could withstand such heat, but the foot it protected couldn't.
The sole of the man's left foot was black and filled with blisters.
The injuries Shang had received from that clash were light, and he decided not to use his Mana for now. His passive regeneration would deal with these light injuries in just a couple of seconds.
Shang and the man jumped toward each other again.
The man released a kick, and Shang blocked it again with Sword.
BANG!
However, a moment later, an explosion of fire appeared beside the man, pushing him and his kick slightly to the side.
Shang's attack missed, and the man's kick transformed into a roundhouse kick. Obviously, he had already planned on doing that previously.
BOOOM!
The kick hit Shang's right arm and exploded.
Shang's arm flew away along with his sword.
At that moment, Shang's eyes narrowed, and he jumped forward, his nearly frozen left arm touching the man's outstretched leg.
The man was in a bad position, and Shang could regenerate a lot of life energy before he would be able to react.
There was nothing he could do about that!
But then, Shang's eyes widened.
Out of nowhere, a small ball of fire left the man's free hand, and it shot directly at Shang's head.
Shang was stunned as he saw the approaching fireball.
This obviously wasn't a Spell.
But it definitely acted like a Spell!
And then, the fireball hit Shang's head.
BOOOOOM!
The Magic Circle appeared on Shang's head, and he was thrown into the distance.
As Shang flew away, his right arm regenerated, using up the last of his Mana and life energy. Any additional injury would stay until his passive regeneration kicked in.
Sword jumped back to Shang's newly regenerated right arm as Shang was close to landing.
BANG!
But another explosion stopped Shang's thought process.
The man appeared directly in front of Shang, a fiery fist shooting toward Shang's chest!
Shang's mind went into overdrive to find a solution.
Sword was too far away.
His Magic Circle had already activated.
A blast from his left arm wouldn't be fast enough.
There was nothing he could do.
Shang gritted his teeth and pointed his left arm towards his opponent.
Shang's arm turned into dust as his entire body atrophied.
Silence.
Shang landed on the ground, breathing heavily.
Thunk!
Two solitary legs fell to the ground.
There was no torso attached to them.
The man's uniform hadn't been even nearly powerful enough to block this attack.
Shang breathed heavily as his body tried to absorb as much Mana as it could.
Staying alive wasn't easy, but Shang knew that he wouldn't die.
He only needed to rest for a while.
The last time he had used his ability, he had been able to absorb the corpse of his opponent, but this time, Shang was too weak, and there was basically nothing left of his opponent.
The two legs of Shang's opponent began to vanish, but there was no cheering this time.
Sword returned to Shang.
"Are you ok?" it asked.
Shang barely squeezed out a yes, before he coughed up some blood.
It was painful, and Shang felt close to death, but his body would heal with enough time.
A moment later, the two wheels returned.
"Level nine: Powerful Middle General Stage warrior."
The two wheels began to spin while Shang only looked at the sky, breathing heavily.
The first wheel stopped at the image of a spear.
Shang only looked at the sky.
The second wheel stopped at the Wind Affinity.
After a brief burst of light, a man with long green hair appeared in the distance, a charismatic smile on his face.
Shang didn't look over.
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
The man opened his eyes and looked at his nearly dead opponent.
Shang only looked at the sky.
He knew that he would soon feel the most horrifying feeling in the world again.
Shang was waiting for his death.
