Chapter 29: Murderous Intent Under the Scythe

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Murderous Intent Under the Scythe

The stealth skill just now must have been Raphael’s first natal ability. If Jeremy continued to let him control the rhythm of stealth attacks, he would fall into a passive position.

Jeremy decisively broke his defensive stance, shifting his entire center of gravity to an active slaughter. The giant scythe spun rapidly in his hands like a meat grinder, slashing out a sharp, semi-circular magic wave that tore through the wind, aiming straight for his opponent’s throat.

Simultaneously with launching the attack, he activated his illusionary cloning skill, his other hand casting a magical incantation with blurring speed, immediately erecting a pitch-black fog that swallowed all visibility on the arena ring.

Raphael casually flicked his wrist, his scimitar tearing through the incoming magic attack. At the same time, the blinding black fog had enveloped the entire combat space.

Deprived of his sight, the white-haired man did not flinch in the slightest. He gathered magic power in his palm, summoning storm elements to slash out freezing gales, roughly dispersing the obscuring fog.

Visibility quickly returned to clarity, taking less than five short seconds from start to finish.

But precisely these five seconds deceived by the spatial distortion caused the marble arena, originally holding only two people, to now possess two additional Jeremys.

Three youthful figures possessing dazzling red hair stood tall, their amber phoenix eyes equally cold, even their magic power fluctuations and breathing rhythms accurately replicated down to the micro-level. From their outward appearance to their sharp auras, the opponent absolutely had no gap to distinguish which was the true body.

The three figures immediately burst forward with explosive speed at the same time, their tall, slender yet firm bodies moving extremely nimbly, in the blink of an eye forming a closed triangular formation trapping Raphael in the center. All evasion angles were thoroughly blocked, and three scythes bearing the deadly aura of a reaper simultaneously tore through the wind, slashing straight down at his head.

A cloning skill...

In Raphael’s still, silver-white eyes, a fleeting glint of amusement flashed. His slender fingers merely flicked lightly into the void; the surrounding space suddenly vibrated. Countless silver threads abruptly crisscrossed and materialized from the nothingness, like a giant spiderweb blanketing the mortal realm, tightly pinning all three plunging scythes.

Those threads also bore a freezing silver-white color, exactly like their master’s eyes.

Each individual thread was as slender as a hair, seemingly extremely fragile and weak at first glance, but in reality, possessed terrifying resilience and durability. Even the weight and sharpness of combat scythes could not tear or break its binding.

In just a blink of an eye, the three powerful scythes were like moths plunging headlong into a spiderweb, firmly clamped in mid-air, unable to inch even half a millimeter further.

The silver threads were like parasitic vines possessing their own sentience and life; they slithered along the scythe handles, with terrifying speed extending sharp tentacles aimed straight at Jeremy’s body.

Raphael’s second core skill - Binding Silver Threads.

The silver threads not only came with a highly toxic effect causing immediate nervous system paralysis, but more terrifyingly, they also possessed the brutal characteristic of devouring and assimilating the opponent’s magic power to turn into nutrients to feed themselves.

The exact moment he felt the magic power in his body being dragged out bit by bit, Jeremy immediately ordered his intent to control the two clones to drop their weapons and retreat. But the opponent’s rhythm was too fast, the woven silver thread barrier too dense and airtight. Under the restricted condition of being unable to cast teleportation skills, wanting to escape this melee encirclement unscathed was absolutely not an easy task.

Jeremy was forced into a direct confrontation. The razor-sharp threads crisscrossed into layers of iron bars, each thread radiating a freezing halo, their murderous intent so sharp it felt ready to slice a human body into fragments if one dared step out of rhythm.

After channeling bursting magic power into his palms to forcefully sever a few obstructing threads, Jeremy immediately discovered this damn thing actually possessed a near-instantaneous self-regeneration and recovery capability.

The very second the silver thread net was about to cast down and entangle his entire body, Jeremy took a long stride as fast as lightning. His firm, agile body slipped through the narrowest gaps of the thread cluster as accurately as a lynx in the dark night. His figure moved with the speed of lightning, so fast it traced blurry afterimages on the arena.

At the same time, the two clone bodies also absolutely obeyed the micro-control from his intent, lunging forward without hesitation to use their bodies as shields, successfully intercepting and blocking all the frantically darting silver thread tentacles.

Before the two clone bodies were crushed by Raphael’s silver thread net, Jeremy astutely twisted the incantation, reverting them back into their primal magic power form and recalling them straight into his sea of consciousness.

The moment the weapon’s weight in his hands changed, the razor-sharp scythe instantly transformed its shape, condensing into the majestic Soul Devourer chain. His wrist jerked hard, the long chain lashing out like an iron dragon tearing through the air, completely severing all the silver threads attempting to cling to his heels.

However, his opponent absolutely did not grant him a single second to regulate his breathing. Raphael’s figure merely flickered, and his tall silhouette once again vanished into the void.

Raphael’s first skill was stealth that erased his aura, his second skill was long-range control threads, combined with a sharp scimitar oriented towards close-quarters assassination. His overall combat style was nearly devoid of any flaws; trying to find a weakness to counterattack was even more like finding a needle in a haystack.

Jeremy gripped the handle of the Soul Devourer chain tightly, half-closing his eyes, suppressing his breathing to the lowest level, trying to calm his mind so his hearing and spiritual power could sense the slightest magic power fluctuations circulating in every current of air around him.

A sharp, dark arc had just torn through the wind from the void. Recognizing the direction of his opponent’s blade swing, Jeremy did not hesitate, immediately bending over and lowering his back close to the arena floor to dodge, borrowing the momentum to slide a long distance on the marble surface to decisively escape the attack range.

Despite his lightning-fast reflexes, the residual magic blade aura from the scimitar’s tip still grazed his broad shoulder, tearing through his uniform, leaving a deep, bleeding wound. Deep red fresh blood immediately gushed out, soaking a patch of his white shirt.

Jeremy completely ignored the burning pain on his shoulder, his wrist channeling force to lash out hard. The Soul Devourer chain in his hand erupted, swinging out exactly like a giant python bearing fury, whipping straight toward the coordinate where Raphael had just revealed himself.

For an unknown reason, during this clash, Raphael’s reflex speed and footwork suddenly became a beat slower. His entire abdomen took the full brunt of the heavy attack from the metal chain.

Fresh blood immediately sprayed from the freshly torn flesh; however, on Raphael’s flawless face, not half a hint of anger or pain appeared. His expression maintained a gentleness and composure so calm it sent chills down others’ spines.

The two sides on the arena continuously engaged in a stalemate without a clear winner; the spreading tense atmosphere caused conflicting opinions and murmurs to start rippling across the grandstands.

"He actually managed to hold out against Raphael for this long..."

"Holy crap... How can the reaction speed and collision intensity of these two be unreasonably fast like this? Is this truly the level and tactics that first-year freshmen should have?! It’s not logical at all!"

"Exactly, isn’t Jeremy the guy ranked at the very bottom just because he awakened the lowest-tier Spirit Covenant? Even if his magic star level could be piled up using the Duke mansion’s resources and medicine, this actual combat capability and direct survival reflexes absolutely cannot be faked... Honestly, it’s too surprising."

"... Can you guys not flip-flop your attitudes so quickly?"

"No one is flip-flopping; although their current magic power realms might be evenly matched, the Spirit Covenant talent is a gap between heaven and earth. Dragging the match to the very end, the winner can certainly only be Raphael."

"Rightly said, how could a useless person possessing a bottom-tier Spirit Covenant have a chance of winning against a prodigy; I think it’s highly likely that Raphael is holding back out of consideration for their old friendship, deliberately going easy on him."

"Alright, stop arguing; what the hell habit are you guys bickering over? Maintaining this high-intensity slaughter rhythm, the magic power reserves in their bodies will sooner or later be drained. Who wins and who loses, just patiently watch, the results will be clear soon enough."

The noisy, clamoring murmurs from the grandstand were completely incapable of invading or disturbing Jeremy’s high concentration.

The only thing that made his heartbeat sink slightly were a few wild barks of judgment from the crowd out there... seemingly reflecting the exact truth.

Every drop of fresh blood dripping from the metal chain links onto the marble floor emitted a chilling pitter-patter sound. Jeremy’s sharp phoenix eyes swept over the bleeding flesh on Raphael’s abdomen, finally directly meeting the opponent’s silent gaze: "Why didn’t you dodge?"

Facing the blunt question carrying the coldness of the youth opposite him, Raphael merely replied softly: "I couldn’t dodge in time."

"... Ha."

Couldn’t dodge in time?

The corner of Jeremy’s lips curled into a sarcastic smile, but deep within his amber pupils, there absolutely existed not half a hint of amusement. His vision grew cold, the aura around his body beginning to radiate an obvious arrogance and danger.

The Soul Devourer chain grasped in his palm once again changed its structural form; the silver-gray metal loosened and then compressed tightly, turning into a slender magic scepter.

The Holy Artifact in its scepter form bore a freezing blue-white color; hovering right in the center of the scepter’s head was a blood-ruby rose-shaped crystal radiating a brilliant pale yellow halo. Following the ancient incantation just silently chanted in his consciousness, the ground right beneath Jeremy’s black leather shoe immediately exploded, revealing a golden-attribute magic circle with countless exquisitely carved and incredibly complex runic matrices.

The sky inside the arena suddenly poured down a rain of illusory golden petals. Those fragile petals, before even touching the ground, tore through the wind, transforming into thousands of rough vines brimming with sharp thorns, carrying a razor-sharp murderous intent straight toward Raphael’s position.

Almost simultaneously with that bombardment, Jeremy did not hesitate to cast the second sub-skill of Phantom Cage - Phantom Fragments.

Spatial fragments immediately condensed from crystal, forming in just the blink of an eye. The sharp prism facets reflected cold light, besieging and sealing off the entire arena area, creating an absolute cage leaving absolutely no escape route for the one trapped inside.

Right after casting the vine storm and the crowd-control barrier skill, Jeremy did not choose to stand still maintaining long-range magic attacks anymore. He channeled force into the tips of his toes, his entire body exactly like an arrow leaving the bow, taking long, straight strides darting toward Raphael.

The scepter in his hand immediately transformed into a pair of Crescent Blades enveloped in brilliant silver light. Every move and strike unleashed carried decisiveness, ruthlessness, and powerful masculine force, not holding back the slightest bit of mercy.

Raphael stood in the center of the encirclement, not taking a single step back to dodge. He merely used one hand to wield the scimitar, accurately swinging it to block all of Jeremy’s air-tearing, continuous, and frantic slashes.

Although his body had suffered significant injuries, every parrying movement of Raphael still revealed an ease and elegance so graceful it was terrifying.

It was exactly in this moment of harsh metal clashing that Jeremy truly tasted and clearly felt what the absolute disparity of Spirit Covenant ranks meant.

From the beginning of the match until this very second, Raphael had always been holding back his strength, suppressing his own magic power limits, and even absolutely possessed not a single hint of intention to use the ultimate exclusive skills belonging to his Spirit Covenant.

With the reflex capability and tactical profoundness the opponent was displaying, if Raphael truly wanted to secure victory, then his chain whip attack earlier would absolutely have had no chance of touching even a corner of his clothes.

Speaking bluntly... From the first step onto the arena floor until now, Raphael fundamentally had never seriously considered this a life-and-death battle.

Regardless of whether Raphael was holding back out of consideration for his old friendship with the original owner, or simply due to the arrogance of a superior who couldn’t be bothered to win and deliberately went easy... to Jeremy right now, all of it carried no meaning whatsoever.

Jeremy’s biceps tensed hard, the force channeled into his wrists skyrocketing; the two twin blades tore through the wind, slashing straight down with the speed of lightning, simultaneously pivoting his body and lifting his leg to execute an incredibly tricky sweeping kick.

The razor-sharp blade mercilessly sliced across the flesh on Raphael’s arm and continued to tear a gash on his abdomen.

The number of bleeding wounds on his body increasingly piled up.

The rhythm of Jeremy’s attacks became increasingly fierce, the soaring murderous intent pressing down to the point where Raphael vaguely realized the emotional fluctuation of the red-haired youth in front of him had fallen into an extreme state, not normal in the slightest.

Raphael immediately raised one hand, using the scimitar to block the descending twin blades; his other hand quickly gathered force, summoning an explosive fire to cleanly burn away the thorny vines wrapping toward him. Thousands of cold, silver-white threads simultaneously shot out from the flames like a rain of arrows, piercing through the prism glass wall created by the illusion, then under micro-control, they spiraled intending to tightly bind Jeremy’s body.

One would have thought facing this controlling counterattack, Jeremy would apply his slipping tactic to dodge like last time. However, this time, he not only did not retreat or dodge, but on the contrary, decisively dismantled all magic defensive barriers on his own body completely.

"!"

Raphael’s silver pupils immediately contracted in extreme astonishment. Following the instinct of someone not wanting to take their opponent’s life, he immediately wanted to recall his magic power to retract the thread cluster. But his vision was shaken witnessing the red-haired youth in front of him extending his two firm hands, bluntly gripping tightly onto the razor-sharp threads that were in the midst of jerking backward.

The silver-white threads with a colossal pulling force mercilessly cut deep into Jeremy’s palms, tearing flesh and skin, creating long wounds that bled profusely.

Furthermore, because the surface of the threads inherently contained evil toxins and high-intensity neuroparalyzing effects, the skin on his palms immediately broke out into hideous dark purple toxic blisters.

Jeremy’s mouth leaked a streak of bright red blood due to reversed blood flow, but his two hands showed absolutely no signs of stopping or loosening. He gritted his jaw tightly, forcefully propelling the explosive magic power within his meridians to surge, brutally breaking through the blockade barrier created by the paralyzing poison, flipping his wrists to grip the deadly silver thread bundle extremely tightly.

The threads, under the constricting force from both sides, dug deeper and deeper into flesh and skin, cutting through every muscle fiber; even the cold, sharp white bone beneath the bloody flesh could be clearly seen.