Chapter 21.

“How about this!”

Xander’s sword emitted a dark purple glow. His eyes flashed as he swung two times in rapid succession forming as cross as strong gusts of wind picked up behind him. A dark purple, cross-shaped slash traversed the gap between the two in a flash.

White quickly unequipped her dagger returning it to her inventory before she immediately re-equipped it and reset its position back into her hand. It was much faster than trying to pull it back manually. It wouldn’t have made it in time if she’d waited for it to return to her, Xander’s slash was far faster than it.

Both her reaction speed and judgment was impressive, nothing less than what I’d expect of a top ranker. It was easy to describe the process of what she’d done, but pulling it off in practice was by no means simple. If you were just a bit slow or misjudged the timing of the enemy’s attack, it would have cost her greatly.

“Ignite!” White howled, a white aura grew around her blade as she slashed upward and cut the cross slash Xander dished out in two. The remnants of the attack whizzed by her sides and landed on the ground behind her. When it came into contact with the ground, a large V was carved out with White calmly standing at the crux 

“So you’re a bit more capable than I thought.”

“Haaaah. Xander sure likes to pose. I can just imagine what’s really going through that head of his right now. It’s along the lines of ‘Kyaaaa! What do I do? What do I do? She made that look easy! Who is this crazy woman attacking me for no apparent reason? What did I do to piss these people off anyway?’”

“No way, Xander is definitely thinking, ‘Muahahaha. I will kill this little ant then go back and take my nap.’” Yin countered with her own theory.

“Do death knights even need naps?”

“Ah. Good point.”

Back to the fight.

White had just ignited her weapon, whatever that meant. Was that what kids these days called it? Why’d these youngsters like to give things random names they thought sounded cool? Was I the one out of touch with reality for thinking it was pointless to give things cool sounding names? Ugh, whatever, forget it. I’m making myself feel old. Disregarding my naming sense, the dagger in White’s hand emitted a dangerous white aura that rivaled the oppressive one around Xander.

The two faced each other with dead serious expressions, clearly, they had acknowledged each other’s strength from their little exchange of blows just now.

White was the first one to make a move as she lunged toward Xander with her dagger in a reverse grip. Xander didn’t pull any punches, he sent another energy slash flying toward her. She kept her body low to the ground and right as the slash arrived in front of her, she leaned her body back just dodging it by a hair's breadth.

She slid along the ground and passed between Xander’s legs. She slashed his right leg in passing then immediately jumped up behind him into a spin while slashing downward diagonally across his back. Xander had anticipated where she would attack from behind and he’d positioned his broadsword behind his back without looking at her.

White let go of the grip on her dagger right before impact to avoid losing her momentum and kicked off of Xander’s back as he pulled his sword forward over his shoulder to cleave her body in two behind him. Though he missed, he still launched another energy slash chasing after her.

With White still in the air, she had no way to avoid it. She took the slash head-on. However, while taking the blow, she made sure to dish out her own. If I’m hit, you’ll be hit in exchange was what could be discerned from her veteran eyes. She twisted her body mid-air while yanking on the lace attached to her dagger that Xander blocked earlier. The dagger was pulled toward Xander’s helmet and dealt a bit of damage in the process.

After she was hit, a line of blood was visible at the corner of her lip. However, there wasn’t a pained expression on her face. Rather, she was smiling. She looked excited, thrilled even.

The two felt no need to exchange any pointless words. They did not pause in their battle. It only intensified the longer it went on. The air around them was heated. Flames ignited around them every time their two auras clashed together.

After several more confrontations, White seemingly realized she was at a disadvantage. She paused for a short moment and after a slight internal struggle, she suddenly raised her hand up and brushed her hair to the side to fully reveal her left eye that was always hidden. A mysterious white flame ignited around her left eye.

“She’s a kid with eighth-grader syndrome,” I retorted.

“Yeah, without a doubt,” Yin agreed.

“Uh… what’s with that flame engulfing your left eye? Is it okay? Do you need to see a doctor? I know a good one if you’d like them to take a look.” Xander asked concernedly.

“Shut up you idiot, don’t worry about your enemy! I’m fine. Ugh, it’s so embarrassing to have to use this, it’s not like I have this because I like it. I only have it because it’s useful, okay? Don’t misunderstand.”

Ah. She’s self-aware, but she sounded like a tsundere which made her case even worse.

“Uh… okay... if you say so...” It seemed even Xander had a similar thought.

“Also, I’m not a tsundere. I don’t know why, but I just felt like you probably thought that.”

Ah. She’s more self-aware than I thought.

“I didn’t think that at all...” Xander awkwardly denied it.

Well, at least she didn’t go and do something cliche like revealing what this white flame does. Though she didn’t say anything about it, I could tell that her passive health regeneration had skyrocketed tenfold. However, that wasn’t all, something about her felt completely different.

When she kicked off the ground she exploded with immense speed, she was significantly faster than before, five times faster to be precise. Her reaction speed had also gone up noticeably. Was it just a timed buff? With this sort of unbalanced buff, it had to come with major downsides like limited uses per day or even some sort of heavy backlash like an extreme debuff once it wore off. 

With all the different worlds and storylines in this game, there were an infinite amount of things you could acquire. Even for me, it was impossible to keep track of it all. New things were created every day and the meta from one day to the next could change at the drop of a hat thanks to the constant evolution of the game.

It was always a new experience with each new hero that appeared.

Before she activated that buff her HP was down to 20% while 40% of Xander’s HP remained. Now that she’d activated it, her health was constantly going up.

Xander, who noticed her health went all out and sent out a barrage of slashes her way.

She didn’t care at all this time and confronted them all head-on. Her hands moved at an insane speed cleaving dozens of Xander’s energy slashes in half. When she arrived directly in front of Xander she paused for a moment and pulled out her dagger’s sheath from her inventory. Her right hand fully extended out to her side with the sheath in hand. She placed the dagger inside the sheath and clenched her teeth with blood rolling down her forehead and corners of her mouth.

“Icy Flames of Time: Freeze!”

The flame burning around her left eye exploded out and fully engulfed Xander’s body. He was locked in place, unable to move an inch. It really looked like time had stopped for him. His blade, mid-swing, froze only a centimeter above her head.

“Take my life as an offering to vanquish the great enemy before me, for each drop of blood I bleed, present my foe one blade in return! Dagger of Goddess White Flash, Crucifixion by Daggers!”

White’s HP immediately dropped to one in a flash. But for each HP she lost, a dagger made out of pure energy formed around the two bodies at the center.

When she pulled the dagger out of the sheath, all the energy daggers around them instantly plunged forth all at once deep into Xander’s armor.

Xander’s health plummeted all the way down to 10% in a flash. 

I see, so her build was optimized for pure single target DPS. It suited that personality of hers.

When White realized that it hadn’t finished Xander off, she immediately jumped back, just barely avoiding the blade only a single centimeter away when the white flame that had engulfed Xander dissipated.

“Tch. I thought it would be enough to finish you off and avoid a second phase.”

Xander let out a deep sinister chuckle, “Hahahaha! Little girl, you have truly enraged me now! You thought you could finish me off so easily? Fine, I’ll show you what it means to enrage me.” He pulled out the second sword he lugged around on his back.