novelraw Chapter 39: MARCUS VS SILAS
Chapter 39: MARCUS VS SILAS
Silas stood calmly in front of Lilura. He did not dare to leave the lady for a moment.
In a place as chaotic as this, a stray attack could easily end her life.
"I can’t believe you dared to come here when you are this weak," Silas said to her as he casually sliced through an attacker’s neck.
"I only want to see them get destroyed. That is enough for me," she said with a seductive tone.
Silas turned back to look at her. "I have a girlfriend, kill whatever thought you have."
Lilura looked up to meet his gaze. "You are handsome and young, having two girlfriends is nothing."
"I don’t plan on doing that." As Silas said those words, a person suddenly landed in front of them, radiating the unmistakable aura of a Master-rank cultivator.
Silas looked at the new enemy, then at Lilura.
"Lilura, so you were the one who brought them here," the man yelled, brandishing his spear to attack her.
He disregarded Silas completely.
Lilura seemed to shiver at the sight of this man. Her eyes teared up as he got closer.
Then she fell to the floor, her head facing down. "No, don’t let him get to me," she said, her voice shaky.
Silas could only wonder what the man had done to her.
But he had more pressing things to worry about at the moment.
He swung his leg, planting it deeply into the man’s chest.
The man was sent flying into the distance.
"Who is he?" Silas asked Lilura calmly.
"He is one of the three deputy leaders here. Marcus. He is the most wicked one too."
Silas nodded. "Can you hide somewhere until I get rid of him?" he asked, seeing Marcus running toward them.
She nodded. "I know some places to hide here."
She began to run from that place toward wherever she planned to hide.
Silas turned, only to be met in the face by the tip of Marcus’s spear.
Instinctively, he ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack.
Marcus did not relent. As Silas stood up, he thrust forward again, toward his abdomen this time.
Silas parried with equal force.
The collision destroyed the earth beneath them. But both parties ignored the destruction.
Silas moved, stepping cleanly behind Marcus.
Marcus, like a seasoned warrior, did not panic. He pinpointed Silas’s location immediately, dodging the strike easily.
Silas was not surprised. For someone of his position, he should have had his own fair share of fights.
"Who are you? You don’t look like a true Veritas Corps member," Marcus said calmly.
Silas did not reply. He assessed Marcus calmly.
Marcus did not wait for an answer either. He closed the distance in a single leap, opening with a sharp pierce to the left.
Silas reacted, moving to the left calmly.
A feint. Marcus withdrew his spear the moment Silas fell for it, then drove it in a rising arc toward Silas’s jaw.
Silas tilted his head, let the tip graze the air behind him, and drove his elbow down onto the spear’s shaft.
The wood cracked but did not break.
Marcus yanked the spear and adjusted his stance.
He came again, faster this time.
A low sweep aimed at Silas’s ankles, then a rising thrust toward his throat. Silas stepped over the sweep and deflected the thrust in the same motion.
Sparks flew as metal clashed against metal.
Marcus pressed forward without pause, driving the butt of his spear into Silas’s ribs.
Silas rotated, letting it pass. Before Marcus could withdraw, Silas slashed across his forearm.
The cut was shallow. Marcus had coated his arm with aether in that split second before impact.
He leapt back and corrected his stance.
Silas allowed him. He knew that if he was not careful, Marcus could take advantage of him.
Aether began to hum along the tip of Marcus’s spear.
He lunged, delivering a straight pierce with full commitment toward Silas’s head.
Silas sidestepped, bringing his katana down in a diagonal cut along the spear’s shaft.
The crack deepened.
Marcus pulled his spear back before it could snap entirely and created distance between them.
Aether flooded his legs and he burst forward at a speed that carved deep craters in the floor beneath him.
The gap closed in an instant.
He swung the spear in a wide horizontal arc, the aether along it splitting the air around it.
Silas dropped under it and swung upward.
The shaft could not hold any longer. It snapped in two.
Marcus did not hesitate. He discarded the longer half, reversed his grip on the shorter one and thrust toward Silas’s eye.
Silas leaned back, the tip grazing his cheek.
A cut appeared and from it, blood seeped out slowly.
Marcus grinned, seeing he had managed to draw blood.
Silas did not linger on the pain. He stepped forward into the space between them, where Marcus could not reach.
He drove his elbow into Marcus’s jaw.
His head snapped to the side. He stumbled, planting a foot to stop himself from falling.
He coated his hand with aether just as Silas’s katana came down.
He caught the flat of the blade, the force pushing him two steps back.
Silas, like a machine, moved instantly, his leg tearing forward toward Marcus’s head.
Blood poured from his mouth, his eyes red from pain.
Silas yanked his katana from Marcus’s palm and looked down at him with a condescending gaze.
"It was nice learning from you," Silas said for the first time since the fight started.
His katana came down, drawing a clean arc.
As Marcus neared death, he thought about what Silas had said.
The battle played back in his mind. Silas had never truly tried. He only dodged and countered. He had not even used aether throughout.
"So this is what a true genius means."
Blood splattered, dyeing the floor red.
Marcus’s head fell to the floor, shock still apparent in his eyes.
Silas raised his head, only to see a pillar of black flames shoot into the sky.
"Isn’t that the same place General Bryan went?" he muttered, eyes wide.