The Gamer's POV

Chapter 300: Battle of the Lords: The Mandate of a Lord

Cedric’s saving grace was that he was sharing his vision with a raven above, and so he saw Lee Lim the moment he appeared. Right before the hand could connect with his neck, he vanished, reappearing high in the air where that raven had been.

Then, in the same breath, he slashed both blades in a cross-motion, and an X-shaped crescent of energy suddenly shot toward the Lord. The energy was so massive and violent that it threatened to consume even Leon and Celeste as they were not too far.

But Cedric was not worried about that because after his evolution into grade three, he had learned how to control his flames better. He could now choose with better precision what they should and shouldn’t decay.

However, just before the flames could reach Lee Lim, he leapt back and his form suddenly blurred and stretched leaving afterimages as he darted away.

[The character Lee Lim has activated the skill: Phantom’s Veil]

At that moment, the flames slammed into the ground where he had been in a massive explosion of black fire.

Lee Lim’s blurry form then solidified like cooling ink as he landed in a low crouch some meters away. In the same instant he landed, he took out an ominous-looking dagger from his inventory and swung it into the air towards Cedric.

The blade was so fast it caused Cedric to scatter into dozens of ravens that took to different directions in order to avoid it, which he did by only a hair’s breadth.

’What is up with that blade?! It didn’t even touch me and I could feel a vast amount of my mana get sucked away from me.’ Cedric thought as his ravens began to converge together.

’But that aside, something is different. When I attacked him in the dream last time, he didn’t try to dodge my flames. But he is doing so this time despite having my flames which should even grant him immunity?’

At the same time, just as the flames he had unleashed were dissipating, Celeste lunged out of the black smoke to attack Lee Lim.

Lee Lim turned, crossing both hands to block her attack, and her fists smashed into him. The impact was thunderous, and Lee Lim skidded backward on the sand.

Using his back leg, he anchored himself, and in the same moment, he clenched his right fist and threw a punch to meet her second attack that was already in motion.

Both fists collided fiercely, only for the encounter to dissolve into an intense, grueling hand-to-hand melee. In less than a few seconds, both exchanged a flurry of bone-crushing blows.

Cedric and Leon saw the opportunity and decided to overwhelm Lee Lim by attacking now. Leon lunged with his spear while the ravens re-coalesced into Cedric some meters away, after which he also lunged in a blur to close the distance. His sword caught on fire as he moved with everything he had.

Lee Lim’s eyes broke away from Celeste for just a split second, and upon seeing the two approach, he activated a skill.

[The character Lee Lim has activated the skill: Godfather’s Mandate]

Suddenly, a force erupted from him in an expanding circle, like a shockwave of pure pressure. It smashed into the three party members, sending them flying back.

While Celeste skidded backward several meters before coming to a halt, Cedric and Leon were hurled through the air like ragdolls. Their bodies skipped on the white sand before coming to a halt, with them quickly catching themselves on one knee. But they didn’t let that deter them, and gritted their teeth as they prepared to lunge again.

However, before they could even move for their counterattack, Lee Lim extended both hands slightly and pointed down with his index fingers.

At that moment, the same invisible force that had slammed into them, sending them reeling, slammed into them again. This time, it came from above and smashed them into the ground. While the pressure forced Celeste onto her knees, it slammed both Cedric and Leon flat on the sand for a few seconds.

Lee Lim then turned to look at Celeste.

The invisible pressure that was pinning her down had stopped, and so she quickly regained her bearings. But unbeknownst to her, Lee Lim was still mentally controlling the blade he had thrown at Cedric earlier. It spun through the air, and just as she began to rise, the blade struck her from behind, embedding itself into the back of her head.

Blood sprayed out across the sand, and her monstrous frame suddenly toppled, before falling to the ground, dead.

Seeing Celeste fall, Cedric thought, ’No! That dagger drains one’s mana!’

He immediately stood up and dashed.

’Aika!’

Since his countdown timer wasn’t yet over, Aika activated the skill on his behalf. He swapped places with his raven, closing the distance in a flash of dark feathers. When he reappeared beside her motionless corpse, which wasn’t recovering, he immediately reached out and grabbed the hilt of the dagger. He could feel his mana getting sucked into the blade the moment his fingers closed around the grip.

’I can’t let him get his hands on this cursed blade again. Inventory!’

Like before, the dagger began to slowly vanish until it was completely tucked away into his inventory. It was only then that the opening in the back of Celeste’s head began to slowly knit itself together.

Quickly looking away from her, he could see that massive golden swords the size of church pillars had begun to rain down from the air above, assaulting Lee Lim who stood meters away.

It was Goldie who was attacking him from above.

As the blades fell one after the other, Lee Lim leapt to avoid the strikes. He gracefully sidestepped the falling steel, missing each blade by a mere hair’s breadth.

Dust and sand exploded into the air as more blades impaled the earth with a deafening thunder, but the man moved through the debris like a ghost through smoke.

At that moment, Leon was already running toward him with his spear held low at his side. The moment Lee Lim dodged the last of the golden blades, which slammed into the ground with a bone-shaking force, Leon reached him. Without a moment of hesitation, he thrust his spear forward toward the Lord’s head.

However, Lee Lim had proven to have supernatural reflexes. He immediately arched backward, his spine bending with an uncanny fluidity as the spear hissed through the air, missing his face by an inch.

Before Leon could retract the weapon, Lee Lim — still arched in that impossible position — clamped his left hand onto the shaft above his face.

With a surge of strength that defied his lean frame, he hoisted Leon into the air while the knight was still gripping the spear. Then he swung Leon through a wide, violent arc before smashing him into the ground on his left side with a sickening thud.

The wind was knocked right out of Leon, leaving him gasping for a breath that wouldn’t come, and in that moment, Lee Lim forcefully snatched the spear from his grasp.

He then spun the spear once and raised it to pierce Leon’s head.