Chapter 187 :

Episode 36 : Upskilling (6)

Not a short while has passed when Asher had begun fighting against a redhead guy, whereas Zeon handled the crowds of greedy folks.

BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!

The leafy ground that was beautiful to anyone's eyes, was massacred by the sheer bombardment of attacks such as slashes and stabs.

In the middle of it, Asher chuckled with pleasure while enjoying the exasperation of the fight. "Man, I didn't know you were this strong."

Her opponent, the redhead man replied with slight irritation. "You're too noisy."

"Being noisy has its perks, redhead." 

[Player ‘669’ has activated the Skill, ‘Death Zone’ Lv. 2.]

FWOOSH!

Not in the color of leafy anymore, the ground was immediately outshadowed by the color of death itself, preventing any living beings from escaping the area in mint condition.

And the ones within this zone's radius were none other than Asher and the redhead man.

WHOOSH!

Dodging the halberd from getting any closer to her heart, Asher bailed by hopping into her portal before reappearing behind the redhead guy with her scythe ready to slash.

"I will not let you." The redhead man uttered.

At that moment, Asher was a little bewildered when she witnessed the redhead turning his head as though he predicted she would attack there.

It was getting on her nerves a bit as she realized numerous times where the redhead just acted strangely and blocked all her attacks with ease.

Oftentimes, her opponents would have died from the unpredictable ways that Asher attacks through her portals.

But the redhead was different..

‘This guy is really pissing me off.’ Asher scowled.

As quickly as Asher goes, she opens up a portal where her scythe will strike, sending the blade elsewhere.

Swish!

Immediately after that, the scythe that was masked from every inch with the hidden skill, ‘Wither’, was found aiming at the thigh of the redhead man.

With an eerie feel to the blade, the redhead gazed as he sensed the edges of the blade reaching to him closer.

ClinK!!!

"Tsk." Asher groaned when she noticed her scythe to be easily blocked by the redhead yet again.

She resumed on. "It's funny you parried my attack, but you can't evade the ground filled with the sense of death."

"..." The redhead remained silent when he knocked Asher back.

"Escape if you try, because if you don't, my skill, ‘Death Zone’ will send arms to drag you to death."

From what Asher had stated, it caused the redhead to think cautiously, imagining the fact that if arms were to grow, it would definitely come to grab his legs.

That meant it would prevent him from moving an inch which would put him in a disadvantageous situation.

Even though he can see 'everything', he couldn't bear having to fall by the hands of Asher, which led him to retreat out of the death zone's radius.

Swoosh!

Dashing in an unbelievable speed after knocking back Asher with his halberd, the redhead skipped and jumped in a few spots as if to avoid something.

And before long, those things were portals Asher tossed and spawned in seconds after redhead's hop.

If his feet were to fall into those portals, he could already predict what the outcome would be for him.

Rustling..!

Closer to reaching the end of the death zone, the redhead increased his pace as he launched himself forward.

But..

..SLAM!

"Pfft..!!"

Within Asher's vision, she could see the redhead hitting face first into something invisible, prompting her to burst out laughing from how ridiculous it was to watch it happen.

"Hahah! You assume I said that without thinking you wouldn't escape?" Asher sneered.

At that point, the redhead grumbled and slammed the invisible wall with his utmost, but it was to no avail. "You trickster."

It was then that the redhead had noticed a man who was standing right in front of him, having a casual yet provoking smile on his face. 

..It was Zeon, by the way.

Eventually, the redhead expressed his frustration despite remaining rational. "So it was your doing."

In the end, Zeon happily offered his help to Asher, ignoring the redhead. "Reaper, are you having trouble with this one guy? Want help or not?"

"No way, dude. You're going to kill all the fun." Asher grunted, resting her scythe on her shoulder while staring at the redhead.

Rustling…

‘This redhead looked too calm.’ Asher thought as she glanced at the redhead man with an observant gaze. ‘What is he planning? He must have a trump card up on his sleeve.’

The moment when Asher was pondering, she was becoming aware of that redhead inhaling a huge amount of air into his mouth.

It looked almost like the redhead was preparing to shout or do something far worse.

Immediately Asher thought while glaring at the redhead. ‘Fucking.. This just screams danger to me now.’ 

Either way, Asher unraveled a ton of portals around her to shield herself from the odds of the redhead attacking.

And just in case, she had a gut feeling to cover her ears tightly so that no noise could be heard. 

A few seconds later..

RAWRRRRRR!!!!!!

"What the hell?!" Asher bellowed by the ear-splitting sound she heard despite the fact that she was blocking her ears the entire time.

Much worse, the place was enclosed by Zeon with his hidden skill, ‘Solidify’, so Asher had to experience an agonizing time within this enclosure.

On the other hand, the outside of the enclosure was rumbling from the reverberation of the roar, even causing an increase of earthquakes.

RUMBLING!!

Currently, there was already a problem with the hurricane quaking the earth, but adding another earthquake was troublesome and dangerous to the people.

"Are you insane? This is how we'll die from the earthquake. If you keep bawling like this, then you'll crack the ground and cause us all to fall with it."

With immediate response, Zeon exclaimed toward the redhead man, not even hearing the roar but understood what that guy was doing already, judging by Asher's reaction. 

"Stop it right this instant." Zeon warned that redhead.

In a second, the redhead replied. "No."

"You're counting death, aren't you?"

CLATTERING!!!

Out of the blue, the ground grumbled tremendously and vigorously without a break, unveiling not a crack to the floor, but a horde of dark hands reaching out from the circle of ‘Death Zone'.

"How unfortunate for you." Zeon spoke to the redhead who was looking quite startled by the dark arms gripping his legs.

Hands with the sense of death oozing out extended long and wide to grab hold of its victim, clenching firmly onto the redhead's legs and reaching from his thighs to his chest.

During the redhead's struggle to get rid of the death arms, he finally had enough of these shenanigans and proceeded to use his full potential for this moment.

[Player ‘888’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Authority’ Lv. 4.]

The arms that were supposed to grasp onto the redhead's body, were now stopped by the mere gesture of the redhead's clenched fist.

Stopping the arms completely was a bombshell to Asher, however to let her opponent prevent her from using her skill..

[Player ‘669’ has deactivated the Skill, ‘Death Zone’ Lv. 2.]

..Would Asher easily allow that to happen?

[Player ‘669’ has activated the Skill, ‘Death Zone’ Lv. 2.]

For a second, Asher took an HP potion from her inventory, drinking it to heal her ears so that she could hear properly again after what her ears traumatically went through.

"Really. I was hoping for a good fight, but look at this, my ears are bleeding from that horrible noise of yours." Irritated, Asher grumbled as she crushed the glass potion into pieces.

She continues, tossing those glass shards at the redhead man. "Were you hoping to piss me off, moron? Tsk, think of a better way than hurting my damn ears."

In the end, Asher pointed her scythe at the redhead while commanding the newly formed dark hands behind her.

She then sent the death arms flying toward the portals that she had summoned earlier, attempting to use this opportunity to confuse the redhead where the attacks were coming.

At that moment, Asher spoke to the redhead who easily evaded the glass shards. "There's no way you could predict where I would attack, am I wrong?"

..Swoosh!!

And wrong she was.

The countless baits and traps Asher had set up, were dodged by the redhead as if it was a piece of cake while the real attacks were effortlessly parried by the redhead's halberd.

From this sight, Asher had concluded by the plenty of observation she had from watching this redhead. 

Watching the redhead taking care of the dark hands, Asher thought to herself. ‘..It's sad that I can't actually get his ‘Numbers’.’

‘It's obvious that he has a skill to tell him whenever and wherever my attacks come and go.’

‘Or else it would be impossible to tell which way the attacks are coming. Either that or he just has six senses or whatever.’

‘So, it would be a smarter move to just stop this stupid fight before I run out of MP.’ 

‘..This really hurts my pride.’ Asher groaned. ‘But I'm not the sin of pride, I'm the sin of greed. So screw pride.’

With that thought, Asher set her foot into her portal where it led her above the redhead.

Fwoosh~!!

In a blink of an eye, she wielded her scythe covered with most of her skills toward the redhead while he was unbeknownst to Asher's presence.

..Nevertheless, it was what Asher had guessed.

CLINK!

Her attempt at assassination failed when the redhead just swayed his halberd up without even looking toward Asher.

"Let's call it a truce, shall we?" Asher said while colliding with the halberd.

At that point, the redhead gazed up, taking a long hard look at Asher before settling down a little. "Sure."

The response was short, but it was what Asher wanted. It was a bit unsettling that he accepted the truce without a thought, yet it was better than nothing for Asher.

"What a good boy." Asher smirked, getting down on her foot before looking at the redhead with her hand out.

 

"..I will not fall for your trick." The redhead figured it out, refusing the handshake.

"Tsk." 

For anyone's information, Asher's hand was covered secretly with her hidden skill, ‘Wither’, attempting to kill the redhead yet failed.

‘There's really no use. Now I'm sure it isn't a skill, but a hidden skill. No way in hell would this redhead be able to detect my ‘Wither’ with just a normal skill.’ 

‘..Or maybe I'm just overthinking this.’

In any case, Asher knocked the invisible wall a few times to tell Zeon to remove the walls. 

In no time, Zeon cancelled the invisible walls as it disappeared entirely. He then walked up to Asher without giving the redhead a single glance.

Zeon spoke. "Hey, Reaper. Did you get cold feet or something? For you to stop fighting, that's a new sight to see." 

"Shut up, dude. Even if you're an idiot, you already know what I'm thinking."

Zeon smiled dauntingly when he shifted his attention to the redhead. "Of course, I do." 

"Do you think you can beat him?"

"Huh.. He looked strong and clever."

"As much as I hate to say it, I'm pretty sure you can defeat him since that redhead literally slammed his face right into your invisible walls."

"He can predict stuff, but he can't predict something he can't see, is that what you're saying?"

"Good thing you're observant."

"By the way, that guy's eyes resembled greed."

"Well, duh. You shouldn't expect much from humans, they're just greedy morons, including me."

"I don't think he's greedy for ‘Numbers’ though."

"Then I sure do know what he's greedy for from the way he's literally wearing a pirate outfit as if he's obsessed with treasure."

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Reaper."

"If I did, I would have turned into a racist right when I saw you."

"Haa.." Zeon sighed before ignoring Asher to take a look at the redhead who was standing by himself.

‘This guy wisely accepted the truce, since he knew he wouldn't win against all the people within this island.’ Zeon rubbed his chin as he pondered.

‘And the reason Reaper wanted a truce is only for her selfish greed, but I can't deny I also want to get his ‘Numbers’.’

Thud.

All of the sudden, Zeon felt Asher's elbow being nudged to his arm, perceiving as if it wasn't just a gentle nudge but a hit instead.

"Can't you be gentle?"

"No." Asher replied. "Stop talking to me and talk to that redhead, dude."

"Why should it be me? Couldn't you do that?"

"No way, man. I just did all the work fighting him and asking him for a truce. So it's your job now to talk to him."

"Wow. You're really annoying."

"You just now figured that out?"

When Asher said that, Zeon had already exhaled a sigh, knowing she would say that.

In the end, Zeon went up to the redhead, watching the latter giving the former a stern look. 

"Hello, my name is Zeon Marco, the guildmaster of ‘Fatal Savage’. Who might you be?"

Taking a short while, the redhead reluctantly responded as he shook Zeon's hand. "Qian Long. Call me Long." 

"I see, Long. This masked girl you just fought is Reaper. She doesn't like it when her real name gets exposed. Might as well add her real face since she has never shown her face at all."

"Why so detailed?" Asher scowled by how laid-back Zeon was. "Whatever.. Hey, you."

She was talking to QianLong. "What are you going to do from on? Are you going to think about escaping or killing us in our sleep or something?"

"We have a truce, so I won't break my promise." Long replied.

"Big talk. There's no way any player would miss the opportunity to kill for ‘Numbers’ or items."

"I'm being honest."

"..Ha, right. Let me guess, you're going to attack us when we're fighting, won't yah?"

"..."

With a stare to Long, Asher heaved a sigh before shrugging it all out, giving Zeon a short glance as though she was signaling him.

Sooner or later, Asher had left the vicinity with her portal, leaving behind Zeon and Long by themselves as well as the other players. 

"Just like Reaper said, I'll be keeping an eye on you. But remember that I could have ended you right then and there if Reaper hadn't asked for a truce."

Long gulped, feeling slightly intimidated by Zeon's sinister grin. "I.. understand."

"Reaper is my rival, you see. So I can't anger or displease her if I want a good rematch. You get what I'm saying, pal?"

"Yes."

"Then stay where my eyes can see you because I can't have you dying by the hands of the players around me just yet."

"..." Hesitating, Long still accepted and nodded to Zeon.

‘He became obedient so quickly. Does he know that I'm the only one who can defeat him?’ Zeon wondered while rubbing his chin like a detective.

Certainly looking like one as well..

‘Long, that guy.. Is he cooking up a plan inside his mind? Then I won't get bored while staying on this island if Long causes problems for us.’

‘Could it be the second or third reason why Reaper wanted to keep him here? Isn't she quite smart?’ Thankful to Asher, Zeon etched a smile dedicated to her.