Chapter 173 - Defeated
...…
At the same time when Lawless and others encounter the notorious 'Lich God: Immortal'.
Shin and his 'Shin's gang' are currently slaughtering the army of undead monsters. With the battle prowess of his clones together with their phantoms, all of these filthy undeads are no match on them. Especially that the latter group are just some mindless monsters.
Well, at least, that was what running inside Shin's head when battling this army of undead monsters. But alas, after few moment of exchange with them, Shin suddenly felt that there was something wrong with them.
And the more he battled against the undead army, the more he got this uneasy feeling. And when he tried to look what it was, he became shocked at what he had discovered. Aside from having an inexhaustible numbers, Shin also discovered that these undead monsters were capable of growth. They are improving as the time goes by.
Shin didn't notice it at first because the skill gap of their battle prowess were too large, but the moment he focus on observing them, he noticed that they were capable of learning some basic moves, especially in the art of dodging and defending.
In the beginning he was able to kill them with ease, but as the battle progress, he could feel that killing these undead monsters was becoming a little harder compared to the fist clash. He even felt he was battling a weaker version of the Blood Doppelganger that he battled before during his Tier Class Promotion Quest, but with a large number of them.
Given all of that, Shin tried to find a way to end this battle for as soon as possible. Unfortunately, when he found the key of winning this fight, he discovered that it was pretty much impossible unless he found a way to clear a path towards Rhaba, which was also not that possible given his current predicament.
No matter how fast he slaughtered the army of undead monsters, the speed of his killing spree was at most on par at the respawn rate of the these monsters, which was also pretty much dampen his mood. What's more, his opponent was also not a complete idi*t either. Whenever he saw Shin trying to shorten the distance between the two of them, Rhaba was always putting more distance in between the two of them.
He also thought of using his double domain skills the strengthen himself while weakening his enemies. But alas, he also discovered that there was formation in the surrounding that was preventing him from using any kind of domain skills.
'Tsk! This is the advantage of having the home ground in battle,' thought Shin to himself when he finally realized the state that he was in. Fortunately, everything was not a bad news for his side. He was also able get some benefits on this predicament.
And the good thing that he discovered was that the AIs of his clones were also improving with at great degree. The more they fought, the more skilled they become. And the speed of their improvements was almost on par with him.
And with of those, Shin was caught in a dilemma. He doesn't know whether to end this fight for as soon as possible or to wait for a little more time so that his clones can improve for as much as they could.
…..
On the other hand, Rhaba also doesn't know what to do. He had already gone all-out when he activated the 'Undead Rising Formation' set up on the vicinity, but no matter how much undead monster he sent, Shin was still standing strong against his seemed to be inexhaustible number of his undead monster army.
And to put the current matter at worse, Shin seemed to be using his undead monster army as his training partners to improve his strength and polished his skills. And as if rubbing some salt on Rhaba's wounds, Shin's clones seemed to be improving too. What's more, it was with a speed that even he could notice, and the rate of their improvements seemed to be even more higher than his undead monsters.
And even if the army of undead monsters seemed to be inexhaustible on the outside, Rhaba was fully aware that it was not the case. Once the Mana inside the Formation Core was exhausted, the Formation will stop re-summoning the undead army; and once it happened, Rhaba knew it will be his end.
He could also try to support the core with his own Mana in the hope that Shin and his gang will be too exhaust when that happened.
...
And the battle continued for another half an hour, making the nerves of both Shin and Rhaba to become even more tense. And this time, both of them really wanted to end this battle real time. The former was starting to feel the burden of continuously using his 'Eclipse Wielding' together with his control over his phantoms. The latter, on the other hand, was starting to notice that the Mana of the Formation Core was about to be exhaust.
And at this point, both sides were also able to notice the changes on the opposing sides. Shin discovered that the respawn rate of the undead monsters started to slow down, while Rhaba saw that Shin's movements suddenly become a little slow and sluggish.
'Chance!'
This was the word that simultaneously entered the heads of the two the moment that they noticed the changes on the opposing side. And naturally both of them made their moves at the same time. And the main question of this clash was 'Who is going to be faster, the respawn rate of the army of undead monsters or the killing rate of Shin?'
Rhaba immediate injected his Mana on the Formation Core, making the spawning rate of the undead monsters to become at little faster. And these newly summoned undead monsters quickly rush towards Shin without further ado.
Meanwhile, Shin also did his move almost at the same moment that Rhaba made his move. First, he order all of his phantoms to scatter around the vicinity as he swung the Snowstorm Edge on his left hand in a right to left fashion while releasing the accumulated power of the Silver Moon on it.
And on the next instant, an almost full moon crescent sword Qi with silver color was sent towards his front and side while cleaving all of the incoming undead monsters that were pouncing at him.
'Self-Created Skill (Personalized): Full Moon Slash'
Swoosh!
Shin didn't wait for anything after throwing that skill and chased after that silver-colored sword Qi with a great speed. At the same time, Rhaba started moving backwards while sending more undead monsters to block the path of his opponent and hinder him from moving forward.
But Shin just calmly responded at his opponent. He used the 'Void Steps' skill to blink 15-meters forward while holding the Yamato in a reverse-hand grip manner with his right hand. And when his feet landed on the ground, he immediately crouched down as he thrust his sword on the ground while realising all of the accumulated power of the Sun of the sword at the same time.
What followed after it was a 7-meter pillar of black flame that devoured all of the undead monsters inside the 5-meter radius away from Shin.
'Self-Created Skill (Personalized): Solaris Pillar'
Boom!
After that, Shin quickly use a three consecutive 'Moonlight Steps' to travel a 30-meter distance forward, shortening the space between him and Rhaba. And naturally, the latter will continue moving backwards trying to widen the distance for as much as he can.
At this point, Shin simultaneously gathered another batch of water
/ice and fire elemental Mana on each of his swords before transforming them again into the powers of the Silver Moon and the Black Sun respectively, and reactivating his 'Eclipse Wielding' Combat Technique.
And immediately after that, Shin's body suddenly disappeared at where he was standing and reappeared behind an undead monster that was 10-meters away from his previous location.
'Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Steps'
At the same time, his hands were moving both of his swords in a circular motion as if they were chasing each other. And those swords on his left and right hands were leaving a trail of silver glow and black flame during their movements. Unknown to himself, Shin was actually creating a Ying-Yang symbol while doing those actions.
And when his arms were crossing with each other, Shin simultaneously swung both his swords in an upward diagonal motion while also releasing the accumulated powers stored on both of his swords at the same time. Then a rotating X-shape sword wave was sent forward, slaughtering all of the undead monsters on its path.
'Self-Created Skill (Combined): Eclipse Cross'
Swoosh!
BOOM!!!
And at the end of the 10-meter range of the skill, the cross sword wave suddenly created a powerful explosion with 5-meter radius range.
At the same time that Shin threw that cross sword wave, he immediately release the 'Meteor Form' of his 'Mondi's Style' and transformed the Snowstorm Edge back to its sheath form before sheathing the Yamato in it with a one swift motion.
After that, he sprinted forward while following after the cross-shaped sword Qi. And since it was his own powers, he didn't receive any kind of damage from the previous explosion.
But the moment he walked through that explosion, a large number of undead monsters immediately greeted him and started swarming towards him without further ado.
But Shin just smirked at them and started turning his body into an illusionary figure. Then immediately after that, he dashed forward while transforming into a stick of silver light as he pulled the Yamato out from its sheath before slashing it forward at all of the incoming undead monsters that he passed through.
Swoosh!
'Class Fighting Style: Moonlight Splitter'
Shing!
And the moment his body materialized once again, Shin found himself in the middle of five giant High Undead Monsters that are currently swing their fist at him.
But Shin was still looking at them with tranquil eyes. Then he calmly sheathed his sword with a one swift motion before accumulating a bunch of fire elemental Mana on it that suddenly transformed into the power of the Black Sun immendiately after.
Immediately after that, Shin pulled that Yamato out from its sheath before swinging it powerfully to the right while simultaneously releasing all of the power of the Sun that he gathered.
Shing!
Boom!
Then a circular sword Qi that was made of black flame was created along with that sword draw skill and extended up to5-meter radius while cleaving the bodies of all of the high-undeads in half.
'Class Fighting Skill: Sunshine Cleaver'
At the same time, Rhaba immediately use a few consecutive escaping skills to put more distance away from Shin, especially when he saw the later killing the high-undeads in one move. Those high-undeads were almost as strong the powerful undeads that were holding Shin's other summons.
'Good thing that I am still 60 meters away from him.' Is what Rhaba wanted to say. But alas, the next moments were something that exceeded his expectations once again.
First, one of Shin's phantoms appeared on the 50-meter mark away from. He forgot about its existence because he was too focused on the former's movements.
Then Shin switched places with that phantom without further ado, and immediately after that, he use the movement skill that have the farthest range on his arsenal.
'Equipment Skill (Lower Armor: Megumi's Shadow): Death Travel'
And in just blink of an eye, Shin was now only twenty meters away Rhaba. And because of that, the latter was suddenly gotten off-guard and immediately planned to use another movement skill, but that was also the time when he realized that all of his movement skills are currently on cooldown.
'Good thing that we still have a 20 meter distance between us, and I can still buy some time with this so that my skills can become available one again,' those were the thoughts that are running inside Rhaba's head when he gauged the distance between him and Shin.
But too bad for him, Shin will not let this opportunity to gone in to waste so he immediately used a consecutive 'Sword Rush' skills to get near Rhaba on the next moment.
Clang!
Then their swords finally collided once again, but before they start a melee exchange, Shin suddenly hopped backwards; which gotten Rhaba a little more off-guard and confused. Shin worked so hard to shorten the distance between the two of them yet he is backing away now?
And that was when Rhaba saw Shin sheathing his sword with a flawless and swift motion. Then he also saw Shin's body to flicker a little as the latter shortened the distance between the two of them for another time while doing a sword-drawing stance and squatting low right in front of him.
At the same time, Rhaba suddenly noticed that was suddenly became surrounded by five more 'Shins', which distracted him a little.
'Equipment Skill (Foot Armor: Death Boots): Death Assassination'
'It is fine! My HP is over fifteen Million now that I am in my Super Undead Form,' thought Rhaba when he realized that he couldn't block or dodge the incoming anymore.
Then Shin quickly pulled his sword out for another time and swung it at his opponent with a great speed.
'Class Fighting Style: Quick Draw'
Shing!
-3 019 824
-4 020(Burning Damage)
The corner of Rhaba's mouth suddenly twitched after seeing that damage. 'This guy's Class Fighting Style Skill is sure scary.'
Then Rhaba saw Shin turning his body around while putting his sword back to his sheath. After that, the latter started walking away from the former who become even more confused at his actions.
'Is this guy underestimating me?' thought Rhaba once again and about to raise his sword and planned to cleave Shin's body with it. But that was also the time he suddenly heard a simultaneous sounds of swords that were being pulled out from their sheaths.
'What? Isn't these guys are just some fake clones that can't deal any kind of damage?' Rhaba wanted to say something to Shin, but alas, his vision was already turning dark, indicating that his HP was depleted and killing him in the process. All he could do was to keep those words to himself while muttering. 'Nameless Swordsman, Huh? I guess I need to report it to Chief. This guy is pretty much similar to that man.'
.....