The lizard shaman roared and jumped in front of Spring-Autumn. His kinsmen were behind him and his imposing stature made them relieved.
Numerous orbs of different colors gathered around the shaman and shot out towards Spring-Autumn. Without wasting any movements, Spring-Autumn easily dodged the orbs with several steps.
Spring-Autumn's green eyes were lit up like a lantern at this moment. He dashed towards the shaman, leaving a trail of green light behind. His gray sword struck down from above. The shaman intercepted the blow by blocking it with his staff.
Spring-Autumn was relentless, driving down blows after blows, slashes after slashes. At this moment, the shaman let out a loud roar and knocked Spring-Autumn back with his staff. Light blue orbs gathered around him and shot out like missiles to Spring-Autumn.
[Bullet Time]
Swoosh!
The world turned monotone. There was the sound of surging tides.
Swoosh!
The sound became louder. In Spring-Autumn's furthest view of vision, there was a river surging forward, coming to engulf him.
[River of Time]
Spring-Autumn was forcibly knocked out of his [Bullet Time]. Back where time flowed, the river was no longer there. He was distracted by this and one of the shaman's orbs hit his forearm, burning a hole in it.
The surrounding lizard people cheered at his injury while the people in the cage noticed Spring-Autumn's state. "Is he tired?"
"At least save us before you go down!"
"Hey!"
"What? Don't act like a goody two shoes now. I know you're worried about your life too,"
Some people argued back and forths. Human selfishness could be seen at this moment. When one's life was in danger, any form of morality was thrown out the window.
Spring-Autumn paid no heeds to the voices around him besides remembering the faces of those who were disrespectful. As a petty man, he would have to take revenge later.
"Is this the limit of my abilities?"
He did not panic. He was confident in his abilities. So what if one of my abilities ran out? He still had [Chrono Vision]!
[One as Before]
The hole in his injured forearm disappeared while his energy was coming back every second due to his increased [Vitality].
He was not so weak that he had to rely on one ability for everything.
His gray sword finally stopped dripping with blood and he used this moment to engage the shaman once again.
In the blink of an eye, several dozens of exchanges were done with the lizard shaman. Spring-Autumn powered through with his future prediction abilities and sword play. The lizard shaman used the perfect combination of staff combat and magic.
When the shaman couldn't attack with the staff, he would attack with the surrounding magic orbs. Spring-Autumn was sure that if anyone else was fighting the shaman, they would've been toast.
"You're definitely the strongest I've faced so far," Spring-Autumn said while they had an exchange of blows.
The shaman grunted in return as if to acknowledge his words.
"I'll definitely give you the best of treatment when I'm eating you," Spring-Autumn started to laugh. "I'll marinate your meat with my secret marinade recipe,"
"I'll use the best basting sauce when I'm cooking you!" Spring-Autumn's attack became more crazy.
"I won't forget to put a thermometer on your meat when I'm grilling your meat!" His sword started to glow a gray light.
Lizard shaman:"???"
"Do you think I'm dumb for not realizing I could imbue my weapon with mana!?"
[Attribute Cloak: Attribute Activated!]
The power of time gathered around the Sword Form Attribute Cloak. With a soft sound, the lizard shaman's wooden staff began to rot with age.
Another slash was struck down and the staff snapped in half. The shaman had no time to react. His head was decapitated and a pillar of blood burst forth from his body.
"Hahaha!" Spring-Autumn laughed in joy while all the lizard people took a step back. Their faces were full of fear. With no further hesitation, they immediately rushed for the exit. Their goal was to run away from the demon in front of them as far away as possible.
Spring-Autumn had finally realized another function of the Attribute Cloak. When he first received the item, everything he cut would remain stagnant in time such as the tentacle. It would not bleed and remain in the state before it was cut. As such it was "stagnant", or in the "past". Later, he managed to manipulate it to get rid of the effect. When he cut something it would bleed. It was not "stagnant", but it was in the "present". Now, he realized another effect. That was the "future". It was a lot more complicated to use than the other features but in essence, he had to channel his power along with the surrounding mana to fuel it.
His power would "age" the object while the surrounding mana would act as fuel to keep it going.
Spring-Autumn gave the lizard shaman's head a deep look before storing it into his Attribute Cloak along with the rest of his body.
With its duty done as a sword, it turned back into its cloak form, covering Spring-Autumn's blood-soaked body.
"Now for you guys… Are you ready to die?" Spring-Autumn asked. His green eyes glowed an eerie green light.
"Hiiieee!" Someone made a strange noise.
"I'm joking,"
"W-Who are you?" Someone asked.
"You can ask that guy," Spring-Autumn pointed at Winter.
The people that hadn't noticed before immediately noticed the resemblance now.
Winter gave a sigh, "He's my brother,"
The surrounding [Users] immediately assumed that Spring-Autumn would be a good ally and their fear of him lessened considerably.
"Why did you come down here?" Winter asked. There was a complicated look on his face.
"I wanted to know what it was like to perform a duty for my family. Turns out it was just so-so," Spring-Autumn said mysteriously.
He took a step forward and slashed down the wooden cages. Just like what happened with the shaman's staff, the wood began to age and rot before collapsing.
Once again, the useless [Users] wowed at the power of Spring-Autumn. He was like a god of death. They didn't understand what his power was. From their point of view, anything that came near him would just get decapitated. However, the same applied to Winter's power. They didn't understand what it was but they knew that they could rely on him… at least the more knowledgeable ones did.
That was why some of them weren't afraid of what the lizard people were going to do. They had seen how calm Winter was. Such a man who kept his cards hidden till the last moment was someone scary.