Close Combat Mage

Chapter 338 – So Powerful Pt. 1

“Clang!” After adjusting his rhythm, Roger suddenly leapt forwards. His feet strode ahead in a chain of steps and he charged at the young warrior opposite him like lightning. At the same time, a bang echoed out as the narrow sword in the young warrior’s hand suddenly flashed brightly. Then…his body shifted forwards like a mirage, and the narrow sword in his hand instantly shook to form fancy sword patterns.

“Shishishi…” Three fell swoops of the sword, as swift as if they were one, formed a misty sword mirage, making it impossible to know where the sword’s real body was.

Roger’s actions couldn’t be said to be slow, but in everyone’s eyes, the instant the young warrior unsheathed his sword, Roger seemed as if he’d frozen in mid-air. The sword mirage, like a slithering, agile serpent, instantly weaved in and out of the right leg he’d just kicked out three times, and each sword sharply pierced through the muscles of Roger’s calf.

“Plop…” Following the end of the attack, the young warrior also nimbly retreated to outside 5 meters radius and was looking at Roger with a relaxed expression. To him, it looked as if his victory in this competition was already certain.

In that case, why didn’t the young warrior continue attacking? Actually, it wasn’t that the young warrior didn’t want to continue attacking, but that the burst of strength earlier had just been the completion of one set of attacks.

Suo Jia couldn’t help but inwardly sigh in admiration at the sight of such an insane scene. It wasn’t like he’d never encountered other adventurers before, but in his memories, Suo Jia hadn’t ever felt that any adventurers were much stronger than magical beasts. They were all just trash that would be slaughtered before Suo Jia.

But while watching today’s fights, Suo Jia suddenly realized just how overpowered the strengths of these adventurers were. Even Xiang Yun and Roger couldn’t stably secure victory! Without paying out a certain price, one would only lose.

Suo Jia shook his head and sighed in praise. Were the adventurers that Suo Jia had encountered just too weak? No…that wasn’t possible. There were no such things as weak adventurers. The reason that those before Suo Jia had collapsed at one blow was really just because Suo Jia’s luck was too good.

Mages were just that type of occupation. Regardless of how powerful one was, the mage would be able to use overpowered attacks once they managed to put some distance, instantly causing the other party to die on the spot. Recalling the fight Suo Jia had back then with the adventurers, when had there been any chance for the adventurers to display their own strengths?

Those fire arts had been directly blasted away by Suo Jia’s Ice Roar. In that battle between mages, the fire elemental mage definitely would’ve lost. Suo Jia was wearing the Atlantis set after all, and it allowed him to instantly activate all ice magics. In addition, Suo Jia’s spirit power and magic power far surpassed his opponent’s, so it’d be stranger if he hadn’t won.

As for those four warriors, they’d been pretty doomed. One had been struck by the Diamond Dragon’s tail a nd then stomped to death, another had been eaten alive by the Diamond Dragon, while the last two had been smashed to death by the Diamond Dragon’s natural descent from the sky. From beginning to end, the four warriors hadn’t been any form of threat to Suo Jia.

In reality, as an ice elemental mage, Suo Jia mainly relied on control. Once his effective ice magics restricted his enemy’s movements and attacks, the Diamond Dragon could use its unrivaled physical attacks and deadly might. In reality, aside from that miserable fire mage, the other four warriors had all lost to the Diamond Dragon.

The mage was a frightening occupation. As long as they were able to maintain their distance, any warrior, no matter how strong, would still lose to them. Even if the warrior was strong enough to overturn the heavens, they wouldn’t be able to alter this reality. But once a mage got close, a mage of any level of power would miserably die to a normal warrior’s hands. Generally speaking, mages were the kings of long ranged fights and they were useless in close combat! It was the occupation with the greatest difference between strengths and weaknesses

Roger slowly stood up from the ground. Blood quickly flowed down his calf and soon gathered in a small pool at his feet.

With his head lowered, Roger coldly stated, “Brat, you’re really despicable, you know? You dared to sneakily activate the fruit’s power in that moment of attack. You…”

“Pfft…” The young warrior sneered in disdain. “Those who win become rulers, and those who lose are reduced to bandits. Nobody said I couldn’t use the fruit’s power. We aren’t competing in martial arts, you know. Rather, this is a fight of life or death. I can only say that you’re being to pedantic, too inflexible!”

Roger’s whole body began to shake uncontrollably as he spoke in a low voice, “Alright alright, if I’m not wrong, the power you activated is most likely the ability of the Speed Fruit!”

With an arrogant smile, the young warrior opposite Roger nodded and replied, “That’s right. I hadn’t imagined that someone as old-fashioned and arrogant as you would actually know of the Speed Fruit. This is an Earth-level fruit, you know!”

Roger slowly straightened his body. His eyes slowly began to turn red, and the expression on his face quickly changed. Seeing this, Nicole told Suo Jia in concern, “Young Master, Roger’s state doesn’t seem quite right. I’ll go out and switch him instead. That guy is controlling Roger, so if I go restrain him and make my move, I’ll definitely be able to get rid of him in a flash!”

Suo Jia glanced at her, knowing that her words were true. Candidates of the speed-type had to have flexible bodies and have their defenses inevitably lowered in their pursuit of speed. This kind of opponent was a piece of cake to Nicole; she could defeat them whenever she wanted. Although in terms of single-attack speeds, a sword attack was indeed fast, it couldn’t possibly surpass the speed of the world’s first Instant Kill – Revised!

However, while this was all said, Suo Jia still held Nicole back. Staring fixedly at Roger’s upright figure, Suo Jia said in a heavy voice, “No! Nicole…you can’t go. This is Roger’s fight. Even if he loses here, we cannot act. Otherwise, it will be extremely detrimental to his mental growth. Moreover…if he can’t even pass this point, he’ll feel fear before even fighting any other person in the future becoming an obstacle that he will never be able to surmount!”

Xiang Yun’s body shuddered and he gaped at Suo Jia in shock. At the same time, Nicole urged, “But Young Master, we can’t just keep…”

Before Nicole could finish speaking, Xiang Yun interrupted lowly, “Nicole, there’s no need to continue speaking. Captain is right, this battle has to be ended by Roger, regardless of whether he wins or is defeated. Unless he loses the entire war, nobody can help him. If Roger keeps retreating before the battle even starts, he’ll never be able to climb up to the peak of martial arts!”

Seeing that both Suo Jia and Xiang Yun were saying this, Nicole calmed down a bit despite the fact that she was still concerned. Together with the two boys, she watched the battlefiled take form.

“Speed Fruits?” Roger murmured, and his eyes flashed in pain as he said in frustration, “Originally, I’d also wanted to use that kind of fruit. However…Nature played with me, and I ended up eating another type of fruit by accident!”

Roger’s eyes suddenly brightened, and with an excited expression, looked at the young warrior opposite him and declared, “Although I don’t have the power of the Speed Fruit, I believe that my fruit’s ability definitely isn’t inferior to anyone else’s!”

With that, Roger’s feet jumped up from the ground again. At the same time, Roger reminisced, “Since you’ve already used the Speed Fruit, then I’ll let you witness the fruit with an extremely similar name—the strength of the Hormone Fruit!” (TL: Speed = Jísù, Hormone = Jīsù)

Following this, a faint, green mist dispersed out from Roger’s body. At the same time, his eyes slowly turned green, and his jumping frequency also increased!

“Speed Fruit? Hormone Fruit?” Suo Jia muttered these two fruits to himself, feeling a bit bewildered. However, he suddenly burst out into laughter. From Roger’s words, Suo Jia had finally been able to understand everything. That guy….had wanted to eat the Speed Fruits, but because the two names were so similar, he’d eaten the Hormone Fruits instead. This was really too hilarious! But what exactly was the difference between the two?

The green mist not only increased the speed of Roger’s jumps, but actually, made his entire body enter a strange state. It was as if he’d added a gear to speed up; his body’s movements were countless times faster than before!

“Yahoo!” Finally, after letting loose an unrestrained shout of happiness, Roger suddenly sprung into action. With a joyful yell, he charged over at the young warrior. In a mere instant, he’d leapt in front of his opponent.

Just as everyone thought Roger would attack at that moment, his body instead whirled around, and he instantly disappeared in front of everyone’s eyes. When he reappeared, he had already reached the young warrior’s side. Then…a foot came smashing towards the young warrior as fast as lightning.