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nThe man looked at Shang with interest and readied his weapons.

nThe man wore shoes and gloves made of red metal, and Shang could feel their power.

nShang had gained a lot of experience, and he knew that these weapons were made of Late General Stage materials. Apparently, even average Middle General Stage warriors had access to these materials.

nAnd that wasn’t even everything.

n‘He’s wearing a uniform similar to mine, which probably means that he also has a one-time protection of a killing blow.’

nShang readied his sword.

nBANG!

nThe man exploded forward, leaving a trail of fire behind him.

nShang exploded forward with an explosion of ice.

nBoth of them were charging at each other, but Shang’s opponent was quite a bit faster.

nAs soon as they met, Shang’s opponent punched forward with a fiery fist.

nShang pointed his left arm at the enemy’s fist.

nBOOOM!

nAn explosion of ice came out of Shang’s left hand, coating the enemy’s glove, but the enemy also hit Shang’s left arm.

nThe front of Shang’s left arm was burned to a crisp, only leaving a charred stump that ended at the elbow.

nHowever, Shang’s right arm swung at his opponent’s fist with his sword.

nThe man was faster than Shang and could react very well to the sword slash. He easily blocked it with his extended hand.

nCRACK!

nThe man’s eyes widened, and he jumped back as he looked at his right hand.

nHis glove was damaged, and a deep cut went through his wrist!

nHis wrist was actually broken!

nFire and ice didn’t necessarily need to cancel each other out. With a bit of control, the ice could somewhat evade the fire and penetrate it. Of course, the ice would be weakened by quite a bit in that process, but it was still useful in some cases.

nShang knew how these weapons worked by fighting Mattheo several times.

nThe gloves didn’t actually heat up. After all, if they heated up, the user’s hand would be seared.

nInstead, the gloves were coated with a layer of Fire Mana, and they only needed to not heat up too much after an explosion.

nAfter a warrior with the Fire Affinity punched with their gloves, the explosion would heat them up by quite a bit, but it wasn’t so much that the hand beneath them would be damaged.

nBy infusing the gloves with Ice Mana, Shang could achieve the same effect as when his own body got damaged by his Affinity.

nThe gloves had become brittle, and the explosion had damaged them.

nOf course, the gloves wouldn’t break because of that, but they would become unstable.

nAnd that was enough of a difference for Shang’s sword to show its power.

nBut it was a heavy price.

nShang had damaged one of his opponent’s weapons and injured his hand, but Shang had lost his entire left arm.

nShang exploded forward again and unleashed another strike.

nBANG!

nOne of the guy’s boots exploded with fire, and he was thrown to the side, sidestepping Shang’s slash.

nBy now, Shang’s left arm had regenerated.

nThe man unleashed a kick as Shang put his left arm on his sword.

nThen, Shang blocked the kick with the edge of his sword.

nBANG!

nShang was thrown away by the explosion, several burns appearing all over his body. The back of Shang’s sword hit his chest heavily due to the knockback.

nShang’s sword had two edges, but since it couldn’t cut Shang, no wound appeared on Shang’s chest.

nClink!

nThe man grimaced and moved his leg in a peculiar way. Due to that movement, his shoe left his foot and fell to the ground beside him.

nThe grass where it landed turned black due to the resulting heat.

nShang had loaded Sword with Fire Mana, which resulted in the shoe receiving two explosions at once.

nThe metal of the weapon could withstand such heat, but the foot it protected couldn’t.

nThe sole of the man’s left foot was black and filled with blisters.

nThe injuries Shang had received from that clash were light, and he decided not to use his Mana for now. His passive regeneration would deal with these light injuries in just a couple of seconds.

nShang and the man jumped toward each other again.

nThe man released a kick, and Shang blocked it again with Sword.

nBANG!

nHowever, a moment later, an explosion of fire appeared beside the man, pushing him and his kick slightly to the side.

nShang’s attack missed, and the man’s kick transformed into a roundhouse kick. Obviously, he had already planned on doing that previously.

nBOOOM!

nThe kick hit Shang’s right arm and exploded.

nShang’s arm flew away along with his sword.

nAt that moment, Shang’s eyes narrowed, and he jumped forward, his nearly frozen left arm touching the man’s outstretched leg.

nThe man was in a bad position, and Shang could regenerate a lot of life energy before he would be able to react.

nThere was nothing he could do about that!

nBut then, Shang’s eyes widened.

nOut of nowhere, a small ball of fire left the man’s free hand, and it shot directly at Shang’s head.

nShang was stunned as he saw the approaching fireball.

nThis obviously wasn’t a Spell.

nBut it definitely acted like a Spell!

nAnd then, the fireball hit Shang’s head.

nBOOOOOM!

nThe Magic Circle appeared on Shang’s head, and he was thrown into the distance.

nAs Shang flew away, his right arm regenerated, using up the last of his Mana and life energy. Any additional injury would stay until his passive regeneration kicked in.

nSword jumped back to Shang’s newly regenerated right arm as Shang was close to landing.

nBANG!

nBut another explosion stopped Shang’s thought process.

nThe man appeared directly in front of Shang, a fiery fist shooting toward Shang’s chest!

nShang’s mind went into overdrive to find a solution.

nSword was too far away.

nHis Magic Circle had already activated.

nA blast from his left arm wouldn’t be fast enough.

nThere was nothing he could do.

nShang gritted his teeth and pointed his left arm towards his opponent.

nShang’s arm turned into dust as his entire body atrophied.

nSilence.

nShang landed on the ground, breathing heavily.

nThunk!

nTwo solitary legs fell to the ground.

nThere was no torso attached to them.

nThe man’s uniform hadn’t been even nearly powerful enough to block this attack.

nShang breathed heavily as his body tried to absorb as much Mana as it could.

nStaying alive wasn’t easy, but Shang knew that he wouldn’t die.

nHe only needed to rest for a while.

nThe last time he had used his ability, he had been able to absorb the corpse of his opponent, but this time, Shang was too weak, and there was basically nothing left of his opponent.

nThe two legs of Shang’s opponent began to vanish, but there was no cheering this time.

nSword returned to Shang.

n“Are you ok?” it asked.

nShang barely squeezed out a yes, before he coughed up some blood.

nIt was painful, and Shang felt close to death, but his body would heal with enough time.

nA moment later, the two wheels returned.

n“Level nine: Powerful Middle General Stage warrior.”

nThe two wheels began to spin while Shang only looked at the sky, breathing heavily.

nThe first wheel stopped at the image of a spear.

nShang only looked at the sky.

nThe second wheel stopped at the Wind Affinity.

nAfter a brief burst of light, a man with long green hair appeared in the distance, a charismatic smile on his face.

nShang didn’t look over.

nThe jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.

nThe man opened his eyes and looked at his nearly dead opponent.

nShang only looked at the sky.

nHe knew that he would soon feel the most horrifying feeling in the world again.

nShang was waiting for his death.

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