Chapter 212: Prelude (3)

"It's weird how weak he is," Blue10 spoke in a barely audible voice as he looked down on the tablet he was holding while sitting on a toilet seat. He was one of the guards in charge of directly protecting Luciana in case something goes wrong. On his tablet was the moving live footage of a red-haired young man lying on the floor. 

Above him stood the fallen devil, Luciana.

Blue10 noted the situation and touched the earbud on his left ear and softly spoke. "Till now, everything is good. Highly unlikely for the target to launch a frontal assault based on the condition he is appearing himself to be. The possibility for the target to be feigning is small but not impossible. 4 and 7, be on standby."

"Copied."

"Copied." 

Blue10 nodded. "1 and 2. Depending on the situation, act as backups."

"Copied."

"Copied."

Meanwhile, Rewen coldly stared at the woman above him.

The latter stared back at him. "Are you regretting your decision? Answer me. How do you know my name?"

"..." Rewen refused to answer.

Luciana didn't like the answer she got and crouched down. Grabbing his collar, she looked at him with a devious look. "If you don't want to answer, I have better ways to get an answer out of you."

At this moment, a small smile formed on Rewen's face.

"Cough, what are you? Some generic-ass villain? This might possibly be the last time we could properly… cough… properly speak to each other so I'll be straight with you. Curb your main character syndrome. You aren't as important as you think. Your personality isn't special, your expressions are childish and I have never seen the word "trash" personified to this extent. Imagine being unironically proud of being a fallen devil.

"I'm sure you feel empowered having minions by your side because that's the last piece of straw you have. You are the kind of person who thinks that having a superior status is equivalent to being superior. At this point, if you hadn't indirectly caused me to hate you, I would find you quite pitiful. Oh, and also… the reason I didn't fuck you is that you are ugly. Don't let others fool you. You aren't a natural beauty. Try putting on some make-up. It might cover up some imperfections on your face… Heh! Not that anything matters in the first place since…" He stopped speaking and looked directly at her eyes that had hints of anger which was concealed by the crooked smile on her face.

"Are you done? Is that it? I expected more from you." 

She tried to make a mockery out of him but that didn't go well as…

Rewen spat on her face, making her momentarily stunned for a while. This was the second time she was spat on by a single person. The first time was when she failed to "negotiate" with him. The reason she didn't chase after him that night was that she was held back by her Left Reverend.

Eventually, she decided to not go after that but the spat on her face had always been on her mind. In fact, the source of a large portion of her anger was the spat. To her, it was the most humiliating incident of her life, even more than the time she was disowned by her family.

Her eyes turned cold and she raised her arm preparing to punch him.

Rewen quietly looked at her arm. 'This is a perfect time…' Taking a deep breath, he thought. 'Use all the cumulative luck from [Missions to Doom] and also use… [2x Power Spike].' 

Freestyle Knights Combat!

17!

68!

100!

His combat power (stats) skyrocketed, then stopped when it reached 100.

Luciana's vision blurred. The figure below her had already got up and pushed against her body managing to flip the position. Now, her body was on the floor in a constant struggle and confusion against the unmoving body. Because of the sudden action, she didn't notice his left hand moving towards her neck.

Just when he touched her neck and pressed a little, he felt something coming towards him.

BOOM!

There was smoke all over the place. 

It was a small explosive thrown by Blue10 after coming out of the toilet. From different corners of the room, two masked men emerged and hurried to Luciana. They were Blue4 and Blue7.

Blue1 and Blue2 were also alerted and prepared to launch an all-out attack anytime soon.

Blue10 had a serious look on his face while looking towards the smoke. 'We have to take care of this quickly before the authorities arrive.' His eyes squinted when he saw a hand breaking through the smoke.

"Hurry!" He shouted, before making his way towards the smoke as well.

It's difficult to believe but all of this happened in 1.5 seconds!

That's how ridiculous Rank 3 Mages are. 

Luciana was recovering from the shock. She looked around and upon seeing that Rewen was nowhere near her, she heaved a sigh of relief. 'What's with that sudden outburst of strength? Was he hiding his strength all along?'

While questioning her situation, she failed to notice a hand creeping up behind her. 

"Move!" Blue4 shouted.

Luciana figured that something was wrong and quickly tried to move her body. However, could she contend against a person with the physique of a peak Rank 3 Mage?

The answer was - No!

Rewen wrapped his hand around her neck and was about to take her as a hostage. 

*Swish*

A kick from nowhere landed perfectly on his face. 

'What?'

Before he could formulate a response, he flew off towards the window. 'Shit!' Quickly thinking of a way to not get thrown off the window, he flipped himself in the air. His two feet fell on the wall between the window, then pushed back. With a flip, he landed on the floor. 

Despite this, he wasn't completely unharmed. Blood spewed from the corner of his lips. Just now, it wasn't Blue4 or Blue7 who kicked him. He had expected their attacks and wasn't worried. It was the masked man who was near the toilet, Blue10. 

What's tricky and weird about him was that Blue10 was nowhere as close to Rewen as the other two were.

'No time to thoroughly analyze my opponents. I gotta do what I have to do quickly.' Rewen exhaled a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the sight in front of him.

Blue4 and Blue7 had covered Luciana.

Behind her were Blue1 and Blue2 who had already prepared to launch their skills the moment their target came close.

Blue10 was the closest to Rewen, taking a defensive stance.

Within a matter of three seconds, they had completely managed to avoid the worst-case scenario. They weren't professionals for nothing.

"Hah…" Rewen stiffened his limbs, then relaxed them. 

*Swish*

Without any warnings, he shot out towards Blue10.

'Oh? Does he intend to have a fight in close quarters with me?' Blue10's eyes dropped. 'My kick infused with natural energy should be enough to throw an average Rank 3 Mage or D-ranked Martial Artist out of the window… yet, here he is. He is significantly stronger than me. Which means… I have to get 4 and 7 to fight beside me.'

Making his decision, he tapped on the floor twice. 

It is a sign language used to communicate between them.

Tapping on the floor once means he needs a single reinforcement.

Tapping on the floor means that he needs two of them.

Blue4 and Blue7 got the hint and moved forward.

Blue1 and Blue2 were fixed on their positions.

"Kuh…" Blue1 spurred a mouthful of blood on the floor. This sudden action alerted his partner Blue2.

"What's wrong? Do you want to redo it?" Blue2 asked. Although on the surface, they were just standing there doing nothing, they were controlling a [Dual-Linked Skill]. It is a type of skill exclusive only to Rank 2 Mages and above.

While it's much more complicated in practice, the basic function of the [Dual-Linked Skills] is to merge two skills coming from two different sources, essentially unleashing a skill much more effective than the two of them combined.

Meanwhile, Rewen was in an extremely difficult position.

His initial plan was to reach Luciana by defeating the opponents in front of her one by one. Since he had superior physical qualities, he had the confidence of overpowering each of them. Of course, he would fall short if they were to use skills but skills aren't something that one uses when their opponents are extremely close to them. Not only does it give the other party to strike, it also increases the chance for the skill to fail.

Right now, however, he was facing strikes from all three strikes.

Rewen ducked, then swung his arm towards Blue10.

River of Right Hand!

A deep cut was made on Blue10's arm and he moved back from the impact.

Rewen's eyes then turned to Blue4 and Blue7. 

'This is impossible.'

He only had four seconds left before his luck runs out.