Li Xiuman patted the dust off his body, his mind spinning furiously as he tried to find a way to break the deadlock.
Yet he knew absolutely nothing about the backgrounds of the people standing before him.
To deal with him, who knew how long they had been plotting.
To think they had actually set up a teleportation magic circle inside the Landmark Tower.
How could Count Wit not know about a teleportation magic circle being set up inside the Landmark Tower?
Most likely, Count Wit had turned a blind eye and tacitly approved of these guys making a move against him.
The moment he entered the Landmark Tower, he was teleported away.
Once he was disposed of, regular people would probably just assume he had met with an accident in the dungeon.
That old geezer Count Wit knew perfectly well that Ilu was backing him.
Even so, he had still allowed this group to lay hands on him.
In that case, their goal...
Was it Ilu?
That had to be it. Only then would they still dare to target him even after Count Wit knew of Ilu's connection.
Once that was established, there were only two possibilities left.
First, they were enemies that Ilu had provoked, and they wanted to capture him alive to use him as leverage against her.
But that strike just now had been executed with the clear intent to kill him.
A corpse didn't make for very effective leverage.
So that option was ruled out.
Which left only one possibility with the highest likelihood.
Jealousy?
Given how ridiculously gorgeous Ilu was, she was bound to have other pursuers.
So, he was being targeted by one of Ilu's rivals in love?
The retribution of riding her coattails?
What a brave fellow. If you've got the guts, go find Ilu herself!
You can't beat her, you can't woo her, so you come to bully me instead.
If Ilu were here, she would've ripped your head off to use as a chamber pot for me.
The chamber pot business could be discussed later.
What do I do now? What do I do?
At this rate, my chances of survival are incredibly slim.
“Who are you?”
Hoping to buy some time, Li Xiuman spoke up.
“Kid, you don't need to know.”
“All you need to know is that today, you will definitely die here.”
“If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself for not knowing your place. A toad trying to eat swan meat.”
The blonde man finished speaking, tightening his grip on his greatsword to attack again, giving Li Xiuman no chance to speak further.
Looking at the afterimage of the swinging greatsword, Li Xiuman couldn't express his frustration.
It wasn't that he, the toad, wanted to eat the swan.
Rather, the swan was shoving herself down the throat of this toad. He couldn't even dodge if he tried. What else was he supposed to do?
She deepthroated him directly, understand?
Dammit, seems they don't understand.
Li Xiuman propped up the Shield of the King, bracing himself against several greatsword swings, his arms going completely numb.
The level gap was simply too wide.
He was sent flying once again, slamming hard against the ground.
“I really don't know what kind of love potion you fed Ilu.”
“How could she possibly fancy someone like you?”
The blonde guy leaped high into the air, his greatsword coated in a layer of sword qi as he brought it down in a powerful slash.
Li Xiuman raised his wand, barely blocking the blow.
Then, he threw a kick straight at the blonde guy's crotch.
However, it was easily deflected by the layer of plate armor, leaving Li Xiuman's foot throbbing in pain instead.
“To deal with you, I alone am enough!”
“I hope your head will show Ilu who is superior!”
The blonde guy crushed a crystal orb. Instantly, golden light burst from the shattered fragments, wrapping tightly around Li Xiuman and binding him.
“A holy relic?”
Li Xiuman struggled a bit, finding himself completely unable to move.
He had no choice but to forcefully activate the Giant's Belt, triggering Giantification to break free from his bonds. Towering with his massive frame, he ran backward.
In such a desperate situation, his only path of survival...
...was this blonde guy right in front of him.
Out of some foolish masculine pride, this guy insisted on a one-on-one duel with him. Only by doing so could he prove he was superior to the man Ilu had chosen, and more deserving of her.
How tedious.
At the same time, he was incredibly overconfident.
Li Xiuman had to play weak first to lure him in, and then strike in a sudden, explosive burst. In that split-second opportunity, he had to bridge the level gap and take him hostage.
Only by using him as a hostage could he find a way out alive.
Of course, it wasn't all acting. Without revealing some trump cards, he really was in a pitifully miserable state.
“Die, trash!”
“You despicable thief!”
“Ilu can only be mine! How could a piece of garbage like you ever deserve her!”
He swung his greatsword, his handsome face twisting into an increasingly hideous grimace.
“Kid, all you can do is talk big in front of me.”
“If you said those words to my darling Ilu, nobody here would be able to stop my darling Ilu from sending you to the afterlife tomorrow.”
Li Xiuman dodged clumsily, but his mouth began its counteroffensive.
The blonde guy visibly froze for a fraction of a second, apparently not expecting Li Xiuman to actually dare talk back!
“You bastard! You have no right to call Ilu that!”
The blonde guy roared, his attacks growing even more fierce.
This left Li Xiuman with no choice but to focus all his efforts on parrying, leaving him no room to snap back.
After all, he was a Mage. In close combat, he couldn't use martial techniques like a Warrior could, so he was being utterly suppressed.
However, the hot-headed blonde guy failed to notice something.
As he drove Li Xiuman back, he was drifting further and further away from the two old men who were above Level 40.
Nobody minded.
After all, the blonde guy was the one pushing Li Xiuman back here.
How could a pathetic kid who was being utterly dominated have any tricks up his sleeve?
Yet, a cool-headed Li Xiuman was constantly calculating the distance.
At the speed of a Tier 4 Swordsman, it would take one and a half seconds to cross this distance.
For a Tier 4 Mage to chant a Tier 3 spell, it would take two and a half seconds.
Chanting a Tier 2 spell takes less than a second, but with his magic resistance and Constitution, he could face a Tier 2 spell head-on.
With [Self-Healing] and [Hyper-Regeneration], he could also recover rapidly.
He had only one second to deal with the Level 38 blonde guy in front of him.
Thankfully, this kid was not very experienced in actual combat. Moreover, under his deliberate provocations, he had completely lost his cool.
There was a chance.
Li Xiuman gripped the Crystal Orchid tightly. Seizing the opportunity, he bared his chest, baiting the blonde guy.
“Leaving yourself wide open like that!”
“You are nothing special after all! Go to hell, kid! Ilu belongs only to me!”
The greatsword pierced straight through his chest.
But the blonde guy felt as if his strike had hit empty air, leaving him somewhat dazed.
“Dragonification!”
Horns and a tail shot out simultaneously.
“Golem!”
Number Zero was summoned out of thin air, its sword swinging down.
A large number of Golems materialized instantly, crowding the surrounding area.
The Level 48 Swordsman moved at that very moment, leaving only a blur of afterimages!
“Snow Wolf Summoning!”
The Crystal Orchid erupted with blinding cold light. The phantom of a snow wolf roared into existence and slammed right into the blonde guy.
Frost coated his body, and chilling energy invaded his flesh.
Li Xiuman closed the distance. Augmented by the Giant's Belt, he crashed heavily into the blonde guy.
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison!”
He hurled all of his attacks toward the blonde guy at once.
The sudden, precise, and ruthless onslaught caught the overconfident blonde guy completely off-guard, throwing him into a panic.
How is this possible? How could this toad suddenly unleash such an explosive series of attacks in an instant?!
With his tail wrapping around a rib, he pulled it free, transforming it into a Rib Sword that thrust straight toward the blonde guy's neck.
Number Zero's falling sword forced the retreating blonde guy to halt his backward step.
The Rib Sword carved a crack into the plate armor protecting his neck but was deflected away.
Li Xiuman seized the opening to lock the blonde guy's neck in a chokehold. He slid the Crystal Orchid through the crack in the neck plate, pressing it firmly against his bare throat.
“Everyone, freeze!”
Li Xiuman roared.
Everyone rushing forward froze in their tracks.
However, the old Swordsman believed Li Xiuman wouldn't dare follow through and continued to charge.
All the Golems in his path couldn't even delay him for a fraction of a second before being sliced into mincemeat.
“I said, freeze!”
Li Xiuman immediately severed one of the blonde guy's arms.
“Keep coming and I'll take the other one!”
Li Xiuman caught the severed limb and, without a single word of waste, burned it to ashes, leaving the blonde guy with absolutely no chance of reattaching it.
The blonde guy could do nothing but scream in agonizing pain.
The old Swordsman finally halted, glaring at Li Xiuman with a dark, grim expression.
“Kid, release that young lord, and I will let you go.”
“The identity of that noble lord is not something you can afford to offend.”
Without saying a word, Li Xiuman hacked off the blonde guy's other arm.
“Aaah!!!”
Another blood-curdling shriek pierced the air.
“My noble lord, please forgive this lowly peasant for his offense. If you want to blame someone, blame that old geezer.”
“If he hadn't been so arrogant, how could I have ever cut off your two arms?”
“By the way, the wounds inflicted by this sword of mine can never heal.”
“Even if you use the highest-tier healing magic, I'm afraid it won't make your arms grow back.”
Li Xiuman offered his humble explanation, his respectful posture absolutely impeccable.
“Shut the fuck up!”
The blonde guy shrieked at the top of his lungs.
Everyone fell as silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to utter a sound, save for Li Xiuman.
“Noble blonde lord, my name is Xiuman Pound Li.”
“Now, I wonder if I might have the honor of hearing your distinguished name?”
Li Xiuman asked politely while thoroughly burning the blonde guy's other arm to ash.
At the same time, he rested the Rib Sword right against the blonde guy's eyeball.
His expression clearly screamed: Tell me, or I'll gouge your eyes out.
“...Fusuida Jonesdaur.”
“Well then, Lord Fusuida, please allow me to clarify something with you.”
“My darling Ilu and I are deeply in love with each other. Since when is it a foolish mutt's turn to object?”
“If you have the balls, go talk to Ilu about it!”
“You don't even have that shred of courage. A cowardly bully who targets the weak! Ilu would only need the nail of her pinky finger to deal with trash like you!”
“Dammit, you're getting on my nerves!”
Saying so, Li Xiuman swiped his Rib Sword, slicing off Fusuida's groin ornament.
“Aaah!!!”
The blood-curdling wails set the nerves of everyone standing around on edge.
It caused Li Xiuman to instinctively pull Fusuida closer as a shield.
“Kid, I will see you dead!”
Fusuida's eyes nearly split open, grinding his teeth so hard they were on the verge of shattering.
From childhood until now, when had he ever suffered such humiliation?
Rate on N.U.
