Chapter 369: Gabriel or Gabriela

He landed heavily on the ground just a few meters away from Adrian and shook his head slightly to clear the static shock.

The white-robed guy looked at Adrian and slowly raised his hand, keeping his palm open. A silver ring on his finger glowed, and a pair of thick knuckles materialized around his fingers. He slowly lowered his arm and pulled back his white hood.

"Remember this face," the Apostle said, his voice surprisingly deep and masculine. "Because I will be the one who kills you."

Adrian just stared at him.

The guy’s face was incredibly pretty. He had a lot of distinctly feminine features like soft skin, high cheekbones, and large eyes. But his voice was deep, and his short, choppy hair gave him a very strange, androgynous look.

Adrian couldn’t help but let the words slip out.

"Wow, I honestly never expected to see a femboy... especially a tomboyish femboy..." Adrian muttered.

The Apostle didn’t even care what Adrian was saying.

"My name is Gabriel," the Apostle stated proudly.

"I don’t know, man," Adrian shot back. "You definitely look more like a Gabriela instead of a Gabriel."

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. "You can call me Gabriela if you really want to. It doesn’t matter. Because you won’t be alive to utter my name after I’m done with you."

Adrian just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, you sure talk a lot for someone who supposedly just wants to kill me and doesn’t care about what I have to say," Adrian taunted.

Gabriel’s pale face actually flushed a faint shade of red from sheer anger.

"Shut up!" Gabriel screamed.

The Apostle instantly dashed forward, crossing the distance between them in a fraction of a second.

Adrian immediately squinted his eyes. He triggered a Gust spell beneath his boots, launching himself backward and to the side to create distance. He hit the ground and immediately started sprinting away while he continued to use gust to accelerate.

Gabriel skidded to a halt and glared at Adrian’s retreating back.

"You coward!" Gabriel screamed.

But Adrian completely ignored the taunt. He was already busy thinking, his mind rapidly processing the sheer, explosive acceleration the Apostle had just displayed.

’His speed is basically identical to the High Elves,’ Adrian calculated quickly as he ran. ’Even though I’m technically a C-rank knight now, I just know for a fact that I cannot compete with that level of raw speed in a direct fight.’

He took a deep breath, calming his racing heart as he continued to weave through the chaotic battlefield.

’Okay, let’s just use this chance to sort everything out in my head since he’s having trouble closing distance. He is an Apostle. That means he is a servant of the Angels. He is obviously much stronger than a High Elf because Angels are a much higher-tier race, and the High Elves basically got themselves driven to extinction.’

Adrian ducked under a horizontal sword slash from a random soldier.

’It wasn’t deeply explained in the novel’s lore, but it was mentioned that in the ancient war between the Angels, Demons, and Elves, the Elves were the ones who lost horribly. So I’m pretty sure the Angels are the top ones here along with demons, so I really shouldn’t underestimate this guy.’

He let out a soft, frustrated sigh.

’Well, at least I’ve already mentally prepared myself for a situation like this. But this is still definitely one of the worst-case scenarios.’

Adrian quickly glanced over his shoulder.

Gabriel was chasing him through the crowd of fighting soldiers. But luckily, Adrian’s mobility was slightly superior. By repeatedly casting small, controlled bursts of Gust under his feet, he was easily out-pacing the Apostle’s running speed.

Adrian focused his eyes forward so he wouldn’t accidentally crash into one of the soldiers and end up getting caught.

But as he continued to run, he thought back to Gabriel’s initial burst of speed. He couldn’t help but frown in confusion.

’Wait a second,’ Adrian realized. ’If I remember correctly, those two High Elves I fought up north were actually much, much faster than this guy. And when they fought me, they looked like they were just casually playing around. This Gabriel guy seems incredibly serious. He looks like he wants to end this fight as quickly as possible, which probably means he is actually going all out right now.’

A sudden surge of relief washed over Adrian.

’If this is his top speed and his full capability, then he is actually weaker than those High Elves.’

Adrian smirked.

’Okay, never mind. This is definitely not the worst-case scenario. Yes! This is not the worst-case scenario at all.’

Feeling a sudden, massive spike of confidence, Adrian abruptly dug his boots into the ground and spun around.

He instantly sent all four of his electrified chakrams flying toward Gabriel, and instead of retreating, Adrian cast Gust again and dashed directly toward the Apostle alongside his weapons.

Gabriel saw the attack coming. He raised his metallic knuckles and rapidly punched the spinning chakrams to deflect them away.

He was incredibly fast, but there was a limit to what one person could do. How could one guy perfectly deflect four unpredictable, telekinetically controlled blades attacking from entirely different angles when he only had two hands?

Gabriel managed to cleanly dodge one chakram and punched two of them to deflect them.

But the fourth chakram slipped past his guard and sliced a deep, bloody gash right across his left shoulder.

Gabriel hissed as he felt the sharp sting of the cut.

But just a fraction of a second later, he felt an agonizing, blinding surge of pain erupt slightly above his left elbow. It was the exact same arm he had just extended to punch the chakrams away.

Gabriel looked down and his eyes widened in horror.

His entire left forearm was completely gone.

Draven was standing right beside him. The massive northern warlord had perfectly timed his ambush. His heavy battle axe was embedded in the ground, and Gabriel’s severed, bleeding arm was lying right next to the blade.

[A/N: Please do tell me early on if the war gets too lengthy. There’s a reason why I write things in a certain way but i’m a human after all and I do make mistakes. I don’t want to repeat the mistake of the past where I wrote multiple Chapters of just cooking stuff.]