Chapter 373: Blessing Of Apostle

Gabriel slowly looked up at Adrian, and their eyes met.

Gabriel suddenly lunged forward, ignoring the freezing punches, and grabbed Adrian by the throat.

He pulled Adrian closer until their faces were inches apart. He smirked as his golden mana completely expelled the remaining frost from his system, his body emitting steam.

"A Third-Circle Frost spell," Gabriel said, his voice completely calm. "A really creative way to use that in close-quarters combat, I won’t lie. But at the end of the day, it is still just a Third-Circle Frost spell, no matter how many times you cast it in succession."

Gabriel’s grip tightened slightly on Adrian’s windpipe.

"My magical output is similar to a Fifth-Circle Mage," Gabriel mocked. "Did you really think that a mere Third-Circle spell could be effective against me?"

Adrian didn’t panic. He just reached up and grabbed Gabriel’s wrist.

He pressed his thumb directly against the soft, exposed underside of Gabriel’s wrist and pushed inward with all his strength.

He successfully dug his thumb right through the Apostle’s skin, pushing his thumb into the guy’s wrist.

Gabriel immediately winced in pain, let go of Adrian’s throat, and quickly jumped backward to create distance.

Adrian stumbled slightly. He coughed a few times, gasping for fresh air before looking up at the Apostle.

"So, even though you can instantly heal fatal wounds..." Adrian rasped with a smirk. "You’re really not that good at actually tolerating the pain, are you?"

Gabriel just glared at him while his wrist rapidly healed itself.

"You really are a complete anomaly," Gabriel muttered. "How are you getting stronger and faster as we fight?"

Hearing this, Adrian’s smirk widened.

"Well, let’s just call it magic."

Adrian immediately dashed forward and threw a heavy punch at Gabriel’s face.

This time, Gabriel easily dodged it by slipping his head to the side. He instantly stepped in and threw a devastating counter-punch aimed at Adrian’s ribs.

But Adrian was ready for it. He immediately pointed his free hand downward and fired Gust, rotating his entire body out of the way of the counter-strike. A few more rapid blasts of Gust later, and Adrian had successfully vaulted backward, completely re-establishing the distance between them.

Gabriel just stood there and watched Adrian getting noticeably better and better at close-range combat with every passing second.

He let out an annoyed sigh and aggressively rushed toward Adrian again.

But this time, Adrian didn’t stay and fight. He chose to run.

Gabriel tried his best to chase him down through the chaotic battlefield, but as he ran behind Adrian, his mind rapidly analyzed the situation.

’This guy... his battle instincts are incredibly sharp,’ Gabriel thought to himself. ’And he’s clearly talented, considering he’s adapting and learning my rhythm so quickly. This is getting out of hand. I need to end this fast, or he’ll just get really annoying to deal with later.’

Gabriel quickly glanced around at fights going on around them.

It was incredibly clear to see that Adrian’s side was winning the battle.

Ever since the fighting started; even when Gabriel had been observing from the top of the Avarice fortress, he could clearly see the massive difference in quality between the two armies. The group that stood out the most to him was Adrian’s personal core of Oresfall soldiers in the center.

Every single one of them fought like true, seasoned knights.

Even though the soldiers of Avarice had also been artificially raised to the knight stage by Reiji’s system, there was a stark, undeniable difference between them.

Adrian’s side was much, much better trained. It looked like they had fought multiple fights together before. On top of that, their unit cohesion and teamwork were levels above the chaotic, brawling Avarice soldiers. And to make matters worse for his side, Adrian’s army simply had higher numbers.

It was blatantly clear that Avarice was going to lose this war today. That was the primary reason why Gabriel had decided to jump down and assassinate Adrian early before his side completely collapsed.

Seeing how the Oresfall army was gaining momentum and pushing the Avarice soldiers back, Gabriel suddenly stopped running.

Adrian instantly sensed the lack of pursuit. He stopped his own retreat, spun around, and looked back at the Apostle.

Gabriel just looked at him with a disappointed sigh.

"You sly bastard," Gabriel muttered. "You’ve just been trying to stall for time this entire fight, haven’t you?"

Adrian smirked playfully.

"Well, do you think we humans were born without brains?" Adrian asked. "Of course I was trying to stall for time. I obviously can’t beat you in a one-on-one fistfight, bro."

Gabriel just shook his head with a wry, condescending smile.

"Did you really think that stalling for time gave you a chance to actually win?" Gabriel asked.

Hearing the confidence in the Apostle’s voice, Adrian’s smirk faded into a deep frown.

Gabriel slowly raised both of his arms out to his sides before effortlessly levitating high up into the sky.

Seeing this, Adrian instantly summoned his steel chakrams and magic rifles from his dungeon. He pushed his telekinesis to its limits and his chakrams flew up into the sky toward Gabriel, but the Apostle was simply faster. He flew so high up into the air that Adrian’s range just couldn’t match anymore.

Feeling a sharp spike of frustration, Adrian cut the connection with the chakrams, summoned even more rifles around his body, and started firing at Gabriel.

Dozens of bullets ripped through the air, but a massive, spherical golden mana shield materialized around Gabriel, effortlessly blocking every single round.

Adrian tried to shoot faster, pulling more rifles from his dungeon, but it made no difference. The durability of the Apostle’s divine mana shield was simply too high, and the mana recovery of the barrier was easily outpacing the damage the bullets were causing.

With the golden shield still active, and bullets still helplessly pinging off the barrier, Gabriel looked straight up into the sky.

His entire body began to glow like a miniature sun.