Once the ice arrow collided with Fire Guardian's shield, the other experts had already realized the gap in strength between the two men. Therefore, the moment Fire Guardian was blasted away by the ice arrow his comrades had already jumped directly into battle.
Although Fire Guardian was always the kind of man who believed in the sacredness of a 1 on 1 battle, no one bothered to ask for his opinion this time.
"He is the kind of person who refuses to eat some type of food when things are laid back. He would never openly admit defeat." Someone among Fire Guardian's comrades commented.
"Take him down!" The man in the lead ordered the others to take on a formation and attack Silk Hair.
"Attaaaaaaaaack!"
With Silk Hair in the middle, countless attacks of all natures came flying towards him as if seeking to obliterate him from this reality and send him to the next world.
However, it was at this moment that everyone understood why this handsome man with long silky hair bore that name. Everyone had always thought that it was just a tacky nickname but Silk Hair's next actions made it all make sense.
The Amanani's hair which was floating in the air suddenly started whipping around so fast that it blurred in everyone's vision.
"So fast!"
"I knew that hair was not just for show."
Even amidst battle, his opponents could not help but let out sighs in admiration. This Amanani could actually control his hair like tendrils which allowed him to block all of their attacks.
The exchange of blows between these experts was so powerful that the already devastated mine below was destroyed acre by acre. The figures in the mine had no choice but to escape even deeper underground lest they be destroyed by just the aftershocks of the collisions happening hundreds of meters high in the sky.
At the center of the battle, the air was compressed into a solid state and then shattered by the violent energy.
The most commonly used visual senses of humans had completely lost their effect at this moment. Under the tempestuous flow of energy, even light could not be maintained in a straight line.
Around two dozen experts surrounded Silk Hair in a ring and continuously blasted out terrifying streams of energy.
Even for a monster of Silk Hair's caliber, this was not an onslaught he could withstand for long.
"Nine Mountains and Ten Lakes"
"Take the World as a Canvas"
"Invert the Left from the Right"
"Confuse the Ground and the Sky"
"18 Nations Inverted Domain – [Inverted World]!"
When Silk Hair finished chanting this Inverted World Spell, something strange suddenly happened.
It seemed as if the world had turned upside down!
In the next moment, all the attacks from the 30 or so men reached their target. However, this time Silk Hair did not even bother to use his whip-like hair to block the attacks.
While the inverted domain left everyone disoriented, they could still try to keep their bearings. But what happened next broke logic and common sense.
"Aaaaarghh!"
"Uuuuuuuui!"
"What is happening?"
"How can this be?!"
"I'm dying!"
Disordered wails filled the field of battle.
At the moment the attacks landed on Silk Hair's body, they were instantly redirected and 'sent back to the sender'!
"The Inverted Domain is not just a realm where the world turns upside down. It would be too useless if that is all it could do. In this world all actions become reversed." Silk Hair calmly explained the situation.
When his enemies had attacked, they were met with an opposite force that even surpassed their original actions. If someone threw a punch, that punch would instead move backwards thus fracturing the person's arm.
If they performed complex techniques, the consequences were even worse. Their bones were broken and their limbs were twisted like pretzels. Although all the experts confronting Silk Hair were mighty in their own right, the Inverted Domain immediately left them severely injured. Even trying to retreat turned out to be an impossibility as one of the men broke his spine when trying to move backwards.
This time when Silk Hair lashed out. Not only had his enemies lost all power to counterattack, but none of them could even block his attacks. In less than five minutes, they were defeated and dropped from the sky like dazed flies.
But remember, there was no ground to fall to!
Noooooooooo!!!!
Cries of despair were slowly swallowed up by chaotic atmospheric winds and then the deep black void itself. With the sky and the ground now inverted, it looked as if they were falling down into the atmosphere and then to the void of space itself!
Of the two dozen attackers, only their leader remained standing.
[Twisting Thrust: Spatial Vacuum]
The leader, a man named Volk, unleashed a simple sword thrust with a twisting motion. However, although the sword thrust seemed simple, it created a flow that ejected all the air in the path of the sword. The twisting motion of the sword created a horizontal tornado that first shred apart the air and then created a spatial vacuum!
In less than a second, the inverted world created by Silk Hair was pulled apart and erased by the tornado-like force which had the power to shred everything in its path including space itself!
In fact, both Mwana and Terran could actually perform the basic [Twisting Thrust] sword move. However, the difference in effects between their version and the one that was currently on display was like night and day. Compared to this swordsman, they were like ants crawling in the mud – weak and hopeless.
The swordsman's technique immediately reversed the inverted domain returning the world to normal. The crying voices that had almost disappeared out of the world's atmosphere emerged once again, but this time those voices were filled with panic instead of despair. The men who had almost been sent out of the planet's atmosphere were now barreling towards the ground like meteors from outer space.
Since they were heavily injured and their ability to fly was greatly restrained, this would not be an easy landing. Even at their caliber, a fall from space while already carrying heavy injuries was nothing to laugh about.
[Death Thrust: Lifeforce Cut]
Needless to say, the Swordsman Volk did not pause his assault on the enemy. The second sword move he performed was a technique that was infused with the energy of death. It had the unique power to cut off the enemy's lifeforce.
This technique was so lethal that even a scratch could lessen a person's lifespan or directly kill them depending on how much lifeforce they possessed!
'A technique of the Deathdealers?!' Silk Hair was slightly confused when he saw this move, 'But it can't be since Volk is…'
This technique's origin was naturally not simple. In fact, it was a move mainly used by Deathdealers, a special division of dealers within the Toro's Black Card Organization. While some of the top assassins of the black card organization such as the Merchant of Demise, Kaskara, Red Mist, Skeletal Demon, and the Plague Master were merely strong prisoners given a second chance, the organization also had official members who had been trained to be Deathdealers since they were young children.
Regardless of their actual strength, these born-and-raised Deathdealers were far more deadly compared to someone like the Merchant of Demise as they had been indoctrinated since they were young toddlers.
However, it was obvious to everyone including Silk Hair that Volk was not a Deathdealer. From where he learned their techniques, no one knows.
The Wolf Swordsman – 'Volk' stood out even among the men that followed him. The man not only had green eyes but he also wore western silver Knight Armor that clashed with the types of armor worn in Toro and across the entire continent. In addition to the silver armor, he also had an extremely full and long blue cape attached to his shoulders that followed the wind wherever it went.
The Wolf Swordsman's hair was long, pitch-black, yet rough like a wolf's fur. His skin was tanned showing that he was someone who was always outside a lot. In fact, this man had very humble beginnings. He had never touched a sword or learned any martial arts before the age of twenty. He was raised doing farm work by his parents and it was only in his 20s that he became a warrior.
However, in the two or so decades after he had picked up a sword, Volk's strength had advanced rapidly. Not only did he have great achievements in swordsmanship achieving the Sword Grandmaster Rank, he was also an accomplished magician – a Magic Master who was one realm away from the Supreme Realm.
Further, his two paths – magic and swordsmanship were directly integrated rather than separate.
Those who had achieved this unique state, excelling in magic swordsmanship, had the title of Wizard Knight!
Volk was not born in the Kingdom of Toro or even anywhere within the Swordscar Continent. His hometown was in one of the western continents – Zero Acadia also called Continent Zero. Unlike the Lands of Yellow Sands which were basically a stretch of apocalyptic deserts, Zero Acadia and the Herenfterl Continent [the Land of White Forests] that bordered each other were lands of year-long ice and snow.
Heading back to the battle...
The death thrust which had been struck out by Volk created a dangerous stream of dark energy that headed towards Silk Hair seeking to devour him. Looking at the black stream of energy, Silk Hair could see images of contorted wailing faces stretching within as if struggling to escape to the outside world.
'If the dark energy lands on me, those faces would surely latch onto my flesh with their teeth seeking to bleed me dry of anything and everything I have!'
Although Silk Hair seemed flustered, this type of attack was still not enough to make him despair. After all, the methods of a monster are endless.
When the death thrust hit Silk Hair, Volk already sensed that something was wrong.
"No weight?! An illusion spell?"
"That's right." A sound emerged from right beside Volk answering his speculations.
"Don't you dare!" With a shout, Volk swung his sword horizontally cutting apart Silk Hair who had appeared beside him.
"Another illusion!"
"That's right." Once again the same answer drifting in the wind. But this time Volk did not react violently but chose to pinpoint his opponent's true location.
"While it is hard for illusions to mislead warriors of your caliber, I only needed to trick your senses just enough for your attack to miss by a hair's breadth. And as long as I keep this up, you will never be able to hit me no matter how many times you swing your sword."
"You can evade it once, you can evade it twice, but there will not be a third time!"
With these words, a greyish blue aura emerged from Volk's body shooting high into the sky.
"Awoooooooooo!"
A wolf's howl appeared from thin air as the aura gathered together forming the visage of a gigantic wolf's head and torso. The moment the wolf image fully materialized, the glowing blue and silver energy around it immediately disappeared causing Volk's aura to turn pitch-black.
[Wolf Aura]
This pitch-black aura in the form of a wolf seemed to affect the world around him as the bright daylight suddenly turned into a pitch black night with no stars in the sky. Within a radius of 5 kilometers, everything was plunged into absolute darkness creating endless panic among anyone in this range.
This darkness only lasted for a few seconds before Volk chose to dissipate it himself. However, when he appeared in everyone's sight again, his entire look had already changed.
Just like Mwana's GOD.F [Great Overwhelming Divine Forest] that could conjure the image of a divine forest, [Wolf Aura] was an aura technique that shrouded the user in a black fog that took on the image of a wolf.
When Volk appeared again, his green eyes had turned golden and he was wearing a black wolf mask on his face. The wolf projection behind him was as black as ink with contrasting deep white teeth. Even though it was just a projection, its eyes showed an uncanny sense of intelligence.
By activating this aura technique, Volk received a buff in defense, agility, and cutting speed since the wolf claws would lend power to the sharpness of his sword. But most importantly, the wolf aura had the ability to counter any and all illusions including the ones cast by an Amanani like Silk Hair.
"Such great power! As expected of a guardian swordsman of the great magician!"
That's right, as Silk Hair had said Volk was the Right Guard of the Grandmaster magician.
[Conical Light Finger]
A cone of bright red light circled around Silk Hair's index finger while rotating at a great speed. It looked like an inverted spinning top rotating on his finger.
Fwish!
The cone of light shot off towards Volk at a speed that exceeded what natural eyesight could capture! But for someone of Volk's level, he did not need to see an attack to block it. As long as he caught the enemy's body movement before they struck, he would be able to dodge or block any attack no matter how fast it was.
"Where are you aiming?"
Volk was prepared to block this attack but he was left confused since the beam of light only passed beside his face without even harming a single hair on his head.
Ha ha ha ha ha
Ha ha ha ha ha ha
However, the sound of someone's thunderous laughter quickly answered his question.
'He is here!'
Both combatants had the same thought.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
However, the strange thing was that even though they could hear the sound of laughter around them, they could not pinpoint where it came from.
The man who was laughing seemed to be invisible. No, not invisible, he was just moving too fast! So fast that even characters of Volk and Silk Hair's level had trouble tracking him with their eyes!
Mwana's Book of Knowledge
Bonus Notes 11: Wizard Knight Ranks
Silver Knight
Golden Knight
Black Knight
Beyond Knights