Chapter 23: Fighting Shiv
Shiv then removed another dagger from his space storage and laughed at Lucas menacingly, "Even if you give up on the codex, I don't want any sudden disruptions later, so you have to die."
Lucas knew that the brat was getting serious, so he prepared himself.
Shiv dashed towards Lucas and swung his right arm ferociously.
Lucas tried to parry with a sword he had equipped earlier, but to his surprise, the brat threw the dagger at his face. Lucas's vision was temporarily blocked, and he had to bend his neck back.
Lucas moved his sword instinctively towards the other dagger in Shiv's hand, but Shiv suddenly threw the dagger from his left hand to his empty right.
Slash!
Lucas knew it was too late to change the direction of his sword to counter the dagger coming from a different direction than earlier, but he was still surprised by the brat's performance.
Lucas got stabbed in his shoulder instead of his neck by shifting his body a little. He managed to fall back quickly and pulled out the dagger. Lucas was now angry. He never thought that a day would come when a single kid would deal him such damage. It was humiliating.
"Humph…..kids these days."
Lucas breathed heavily and activated 'Nerves of Steel,' and with his passive healing, the internal injuries started to heal as soon as they were formed.
"This skill combination is dope."
"As for you, brat, I am going to spank you to death."
Lucas then dashed forward in a zig-zag manner. With the new increase in his attributes, he now had a little more than half of his opponent's attributes, which was more than enough for him to deal with the brat.
Lucas, with his hands behind, dashed towards Shiv, who was now feeling as if targeted by a wild beast. Shiv readied himself and took a defensive posture, but he noticed that the closer Lucas came, the more paralyzed he started to feel. It was like walking through some dense fluid around you.
Lucas swung his sword at Shiv from above. Shiv, sensing the danger, brought forth his daggers and blocked the sword with relative ease.
The blow was softer than he anticipated. He knew from previous exchanges that the opponent's attributes were way lower than his own, so he thought that this was just another facade put up by Lucas.
He smiled at Lucas after thinking that his speculation made sense, but what awaited him was Lucas's nefarious smile in return and a gun that had come out of nowhere pointing at his forehead from point-blank range.
Lucas knew that he had to take care of his opponent as soon as possible, so he came up with a plan instantaneously.
Lucas activated the Life Reaper aura, which affected Shiv, and with this opening, Lucas drew his Bang Bang and placed it behind his back, taking advantage of Shiv's disturbed concentration. Then, at the moment he drew his sword, he crossed his hands to make it look like he was using both of his hands to hold the sword and deliver a frontal strong blow. But actually, he held a gun in the other hand, which he just placed crossed above his sword-yielding hand.
Shiv should have noticed it, but due to Lucas's height, he had to block relatively higher, thus blocking his eyesight by his own daggers.
The process looked simple but was very complex, as what Lucas had to implement was the timing of the attack so that the opponent would have the required time to raise his daggers enough to obscure his own view, the prediction of the viewing angle to create an opening, and to time all these actions.
All of this required many instant calculations.
Shiv was rooted on the spot. The combat ability shown by the man who seemed to be merely 2 to 3 years older than him was very terrifying. After seeing that the situation was hopeless, he closed his eyes tightly as he mumbled, "I am sorry, Mom. I couldn't save you."
But what he felt next was a needle piercing his neck, and he became unconscious.
Lucas was going to shoot, but he knew shooting would attract attention and make the approaching assassins know their positions. Even if the guns were silent, they could speculate the signs of battle and would immediately try to eliminate any threat.
"Damn it, being level 1 is not funny at all. Even kids have started shitting me."
Lucas looked around and noticed that the floor didn't have a pillar in the middle like that on the ground floor, implying there was no lift to the next floor. Instead, it had a central staircase just behind the colossal ring structure. The staircase ended with a wide door at its end. Lucas then carried Shiv's body and started climbing the stairs leading to the door.
"Brat, your luck better be good enough to open the door. If not, then we both are fucked up."
Just as Lucas reached the end of the stairs, some noises were heard by him. Lucas knew it was those assassins coming in.
He pushed the doors, and to his surprise, the door got opened. He silently went in and pushed the door from inside to close it. He started looking for something heavy to place in front of the door so as to block it. But before he could even walk 2 steps, he heard a 'clack!' sound from the door. Lucas frowned and tried to open the door, but it didn't move at all.
"Goddammit, how do you unlock this door?"
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@%$#%^$*(#^%$*^(%%^#
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Just as he was busy cursing, Lucas heard an announcement. He furrowed his brows and turned around, ready to fight, but all he saw was what seemed to be a large cabin and a holographic presentation of a bald short guy with purple skin wearing some strange but delicate clothes.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone