As I stood there and said these words, a few metres away from me a cloud of fog appeared.

It was all blue, and it didn’t take the shape of a person and just kept itself like a rising pillar of fog that rose up for ten metres then stopped.

“A human knowing about my abilities… that means you are the one I’m seeking for,” a voice that didn’t resemble anything coming from a normal larynx appeared, echoing like it was a mighty god or something.

“Stop using these lame tricks,” I shrugged, “you won’t scare a kid with that.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you to begin with,” he responded in the same way as before.

“Are you looking for me?” I asked, “a friend of a foe?”

“A love rival,” he said in a tone that told me he held great hatred for myself.

“The deadliest of all enemies then,” I snorted, “but I don’t recall tricking any girl of your race to fall in with me. So how come we are love rivals?”

“Stop lying!” he shouted and even the air trembled like he was a real god, “you played your dirty tricks with her! I won’t let you off, not a chance.”

“The same goes for me as well,” I placed one sword over my shoulder before adding, “you have no power to resist me. So where is your confidence coming from?”

“Even if you have such an advantage, you can’t kill me even if you did it a hundred time.”

His words… damn! What was wrong with me? Attracting all the beasts out of each race in such a way! He wasn’t just a shadow master illusionist, but a damn reincarnator as well.

“So that’s the reason you can’t show up with your real body… why not save all of us the trouble and tell me where your real body is?”

“As expected from my love rival,” he seemed to find my answer amusing as he laughed shortly before adding, “you need to come and look for me. And in return, I’ll always keep coming at you and your loved ones.”

The look over my face changed at once when I heard what he said. Damn bastard! Did he do something to Karoline or what?

“Don’t give me this look,” he laughed in a distasteful tone, “you can’t save anyone from me. After all, you have a lot to watch over, hahaha.”

“Die you motherf*cker!” for a reason my blood got all ignited and turned like lava. The next instant I jumped and instead of aiming at the fog, I hit the ground.

A loud crushing voice came from this hit while his laughs kept echoing for a few seconds. Without hesitating I opened my channel and checked first over Karoline.

This girl… for a reason once I saw where she was I couldn’t help but inwardly sigh. She was throwing herself at the frontlines, killing many enemies and monsters without pause like a god of death.

She used two long and slender swords that I gave her. Her entire body was cladded in silver and golden armour that gave her a magical appearance of a real angel.

“Come…” I had to go to her first. After all that bastard’s words held no other meaning but to threaten everyone I cared about.

He got a point here… I cared about my chosen team and they weren’t just one person. While my warriors got summoned from the city, I sent the same warning message copy and paste to every single one of them.

Watch out from your shadows, there is a strong foe who can attach himself into your shadows and can’t be killed if you slain his shadow

As I finished sending this message over, my warriors gathered all around.

“Kill as freely as you feel,” I pointed at the grand army here, “don’t let anyone alive.”

As that bastard threatened me, I didn’t lose my calm in return. He wanted to make me quite busy running around and burdened with worry.

Dude… I didn’t gather common folks from the streets. Each single person on my side was a mighty figure in the future. With such my warning they would be all safe and secured.

If you have the ability, then come and try your luck with them. I dare you to do that and let’s see who would win in the end!

As I scattered all my warriors around, I simply took out my staff and selected a bookmark in Jersey city. Luckily I had a few points saved in the north while I was first invading the city.

Once activating the staff, I called back my chariot and fell directly into the portal. The familiar feeling from before came as I was teleported towards the northern part of Jersey city, or to be precise to the outskirts of it.

“Come,” I resummoned my chariot before activating its full power, “go, let’s finish this useless fight here.”

With a flash, my chariot crossed almost one and half miles that separated me from my girl in a few seconds. Once I appeared, I didn’t say a single word and simply released a pulse wave first to clear all the hostile around.

Then I jumped off my chariot, landed with my two swords hitting fiercely the ground behind the all shocked Karoline.

She didn’t get the message as she was already absorbed in fighting. That dude wouldn’t dare to touch her in such a state or else she would simply react and kill him.

“You…” with a face filled with wrath and covered with mud and dirt, she gave me a shocked look that made her stop midway in her words.

Her shock wasn’t the only reason for that. The fog that came out from her shadow with that despicable laugh of that dude made her not able to continue saying a single word.

And in a flash the look of a fighter was turned upside down with a look of fear.

She didn’t need me to say anything. She was smart enough to realise the value of danger she was in.

“Just leave them to fight here and come with me,” I said but she took a deep breath and shook her head.

“I can handle that,” she said and her fear changed again to be replaced with her fighting self.

“Are you sure?” I asked, “this dude can come at any time without you knowing about that.”

“I can handle him,” she said in a firm tone and I couldn’t help but sigh.

Girls and their pride… or was it because she came from such a deeply rooted family in US history? What was it? Her raising or perhaps this ran in her genes?

“Alright, but be extra careful from now on,” under her firm stance, I couldn’t help but show respect to her.

“You too,” she was smart enough to realise that I was also facing the same fate. As I returned to my chariot, I threw my sword carelessly at my shadow.

“Extra careful? Hahaha! I’ll grant you that she will be extra careful, hahaha!”

He laughed again amidst the dying fog of him. Damn! That dude was more troublesome to deal with than I thought.

Without staying much here, I used my staff again to return to my initial spot in the other battleground.

Before leaving, I made sure to bookmark that location so I wouldn’t have to fly all the way there.

As I returned, I opened my channel and checked over my team. Like I expected, that dude was scattered all over their shadows as I saw with my two eyes his blue fog rising after killing him.

The deadliest thing about such a stubborn foe was the fact he was always next to you. He wouldn’t attack while one was fighting, but at the moment when one’s guard would be down.

No one could be on his guard forever. That was given. Another troublesome fact about that dude was the fact he was a reincarnator.

How could you kill someone who was just lying far away and simply using his endless shadows to kill you?

“I have to find him,” I clenched on the hilts of my two swords while trying to recall anything related to that kind of troublesome race.

Reincarnation wasn’t just a limited thing to illusionists, they were also found in other races like humans. But there was something related to an ancient relic or ritual in the possession of the illusionist race, they had the highest number of such troublesome people.

I knew many facts about these reincarnators. For example I knew they couldn’t just shade without paying a price. But I didn’t recall what the old man said about that price. What was it? Coins? I didn’t think so.

I knew that by using shadows, they would enter a weakened status related to the magnitude of their shadows. As far as I could see, that dude was using a large number of shadows at such a short time.

Wait… if he was doing so, then he wouldn’t just leave his body suffering from weakness. He would be in danger even from the weakest monsters or even humans.

Someone must be watching over him… Someone strong enough to make him go full out without worrying about his life.

He was a love rival… a love rival wouldn’t go suicidal indeed. He would only try to kill me and stay alive as far as he could. Or else what was the point of coming all the way here and killing me?

Who might be the one protecting him? A race popped in my mind at once, yet it wasn’t logical.

That dragon archlord was already stationed far, far away from here. The range of using the shadows was limited by distance and numbers.

I recalled the old man’s words about that. Reincarnation could summon up to three long living shadows and release them all around the world, or summon endless numbers with limited area based on their cultivation.

Damn! Why didn’t I focus much on the old man’s teachings from before? I knew the old man kept records of what he taught me before coming here, but that wasn’t accessible now.

Come on! If I just opened my memory beads and watched a record then it would be like inviting that dude to kill me.

“Let me say he can only use his ability in a twenty mile radius,” I just gave that number out of the blue.

*Clang!*

“Hahaha, you won’t find me,” another clone was killed and I heard his voice again. And that enraged me more.

“Calm down… where is the most secure place here that he could hide at?” I took deep breaths in and out, calming down myself before I looked back at the map again.

The map was still on the surface top of my chariot. I looked carefully at such a detailed map while deeply pondering over it.

Fang was leading his Selvator forces to the south. The Berserkers were heading to the south-west as well. Only dragons were in the west and the succubus race would be with them.

I looked at the map and suddenly my thoughts changed.

No… it shouldn’t be like that… If he was seeing me as a f*cking love rival then he wouldn’t position himself away from my girl.

I looked to the north and suddenly I noticed something up there. When I thought about it, I found this was the best location he could hide at.

First of all I was thinking wrong. He didn’t need the help of another race to be safe. He could simply rely on his race gate at a big city and he would definitely be safe.

That city I selected was a big one, and the distance from there to here was like what I thought about. At the same time he would be the closest to my girl while leading me astray to somewhere else.

That dirty bastard… he was depending on tricking me to go west. It was a smart move, I had to give him that credit. But dude, the north was all unsecured or busies by any race at this point of time.

Even the most of the Selvators went south following Fang and few would only remain up there working over their cities. So this created a golden chance for such an opportunistic cowardly race.

Alright… as you were up there, just wait for me and shave your neck… my sword would fly faster than you would imagine and kill you without making a single sound.

But first I had to respond to his trick with another… Or else I might just scare him away.