"Deploy the anti-magical field." Ye Chen said while looking into Hai's eyes.
Then, the backmost soldiers did a throwing motion and hurled the anti-magical fields.
The things resembled pile drivers, they did an arc into the air, opened their bottom and a stake appeared.
Hai patiently watched as the things hit the ground and fixed themselves into it.
Then, a slight blue field was formed into an area of several kilometers before vanishing.
Hai raised his right hand, the one he wasn't using to support Kryn and willed his magic.
He noticed that although he still could use magic, it was a bit harder now.
Not much but Hai decided to play along.
"Now what?" Hai asked turning to look back at Ye Chen.
In the next instant, Hai raised both of his eyebrows in surprise.
"Oyah? I didn't expect you all to come here." He muttered while looking at the newcomers.
Besides Ye Chen, now stood 3 women.
They were none other than the most powerful heroines that Hai knows.
One martial artist, one sorcerer and a mage.
"Quite the lineup, huh."
Ye Chen didn't reply to his words and only took out a sword from his storage ring.
"Put down the child, bastard." Ye Chen said while pointing at Hai with his sword.
Hai just adjusted Kryn's position as to make sure she was comfortable.
"As a cool guy carrying a baby once said: If you can't even make me put down the child, then you aren't worthy." He stated with a straight face.
Ye Chen didn't find it funny and simply retracted his arm.
"I see…"
*SWOOSH*
Ye Chen suddenly vanished from where he was and appeared before Hai stabbing at his heart.
However, he soon widened his eyes when he saw Hai holding the tip of his sword with only three fingers.
*BAM*
Before Ye Chen could recover from his stupor, Hai kicked his belly and Ye Chen flew back to where he was before.
*TAP*
Ye Chen landed while hold his stomach that was aching in pain and saw that his armor in that region now had a dent in it.
Raising his head, he saw his sword landing before him.
Hai stood where he was while looking at the soldiers around.
Clenching his fists, the sword shot up from the ground spinning and the hilt landed on Ye Chen's hand.
Hai kept his calm smile but inwardly he was analyzing the whole situation.
'Somehow, Ye Chen is in the command of Nivarna's soldiers and they seem to really follow him. Chances are that either he entered in contact with The Phoenix and the world's will helped him to somehow get in The Phoenix's good graces or those soldiers are simply wearing Nirvana's uniforms.' He tiled his head to the side and avoided a fire ball aimed at his face.
Raising an eyebrow, Hai looked at the mage girl, a girl with black hair and eyes and a slim body.
He noticed a dark bracelet on her left wrist.
'I see. They really come prepared.'
That bracelet is an artificial artefact or simply technology that allows the wearer to use magic normally inside the area of an active anti-magical field.
"Kryn, do you like fights?" He asked without looking at her.
Kryn who has been talking with Leila until now turned to Hai and nodded.
"Hm. Like."
Hai smiled and then nodded.
"Hold tightly and keep your eyes wide open, you may like what is to come." He whispered and saw Ye Chen and the heroines running towards him.
Hai materialized a simple metal glove on his right hand and entered a defensive stance.
*SWOOSH*
*CLANG*
With his right foot ahead of his left one, Hai twisted his upper-body, and put his left foot aligned with his right one, thus standing horizontally to Ye Chen's sword.
He twisted his upper-body a bit more so Kryn wouldn't be hit by the sword.
Deflecting the sword with the palm of his metal glove, Hai twisted his wrist and put the back of his hand facing Ye Chen.
Then, in a quicky motion, Hai slapped Ye Chen's right cheek with the back of his hand and dragged his body towards the right before stopping his hand.
Ye Chen was sent flying and hit the martial artist heroine who was trying to sneak on Hai.
*BAM*
"Ugh!" She groaned when Ye Chen's body hit her and both fell to the ground.
Leaning his head and his upper-body back, Hai swiftly dodged a lightning bolt.
He turned to look at the sorceress who had a wand in her hand and extended his right hand in her direction.
Then, his palm started to glow and particles started to reunite in his palm.
The sorceress' eyes widened and she rolled to the side.
However, a few seconds and she saw that nothing happened.
Raising her head, she saw Hai with his hand lowered and looking and her with a smug smile.
A vein bulged in her head when she understood that he was playing with her and she took out another wand with a red gem on its end.
Hai kept looking at her while he leisurely swatted away a black sphere aimed at his face.
*BOOOOOOM*
The sphere fell on the water and exploded sending a huge amount of water up in the sky that casted a shadow over everyone at the edge of the coast.
*SPLASH*
"So? Are you all just going to stay there? Didn't you come to kill me or something?" Hai asked when he saw that Ye Chen and his heroines were just standing at a distance away from him without any signs of attacking.
Ye Chen again didn't answer him and waited.
After a few seconds, Ye Chen grinned.
"Now!" He shouted.
Then, a huge net with electricity crackling all over it was thrown from above Ye Chen and towards Hai.
Looking at this net, Hai's eyes narrowed but returned to normal in the next instant.
'It seems that it's the first option.' He thought while taking out a katana from his storage ring.
The katana appeared in its sheath tied to his waist.
Hai waited for the net to come closer and when it arrived at 2 meters away from him, he tapped the katana's handle once.
*CLICK*
Then, Hai untied the katana from his waist and threw it back into his storage ring.
The net approached them but when it was around 50 cm away from Hai and Karyn, the net split apart and passed beside them before falling into the sea.
Hai looked boredly at Ye Chen who now had a grim face and took out a pack of cigarettes.
He took out one and when he was about to put it in his mouth, he noticed Kryn curiously looking at him.
Hai slowly put the cigarette away from his mouth and back into the pack.
He then put it inside his storage ring and rubbed her head.
"Don't smoke." He said and turned back to their enemies.
Kryn nodded and looked back with sparkling eyes at Ye Chen and the soldiers. Hai said that she was going to see something interesting and she was truly seeing something amazing.
He was toying with them.
[That is my Hai for you! Get dunked on, b*tches!]
'Leila, bad word.' Kryn commented while looking at Ye Chen's face that was getting redder in frustration.
[Ops. Sorry, Kryn.]
"Master, aid me." Ye Chen said while getting into a battle stance.
Bing Qing frowned at his tone but decided to not comment on it. She was already beyond disappointed in him.
She turned to look at Hai and felt complex feelings about fighting him.
So far, she knows they have no chance of beating him.
But he also shows no hostility against them apart from Ye Chen.
Normally, this would have been enough for her to have a negative opinion about Hai, but with how Ye Chen has been behaving, she good a more positive opinion of Hai instead.
Hai looked at her making a difficult expression and found it funny.
He looked at her and when her eyes meet his, he winked at her and muttered:
"Come to me~"
Bing Qing flinched and felt the urge of obeying him.
She was confused with this reaction but quickly shrugged it off.
Bing Qing vanished from where she was and appeared next to Hai while punching his right shoulder.
Hai simply stood there smiling and did nothing.
Bing Qing hit his shoulder and the sheer force behind it created strong winds that made ripples on the water.
Bing Qing looked at her fist with visible confusion in her eyes.
This wasn't by far her strongest attack but the force that she ended putting into it was way less than what she initially intended.
She looked up still confused and saw Hai smiling at her.
She felt her heart fluttering but immediately woke up from her stupor.
"You! What did you do to me!?" She shouted and concentrated mana on her fist.
This time, Hai stepped aside and dodged her fist.
He then jumped aside and avoided being slashed in half by Ye Chen.
When, he landed, he used only his right foot to land and immediately jumped leaning his upper-body back while twisting his body towards the left.
*SWOOSH*
*ZAAP*
*BOOM*
Hai avoided a low kick, a thunder sphere and a mana blast aimed at where he was going to land.
"You all are sure going all out." He commented after landing and immediately stepping aside, thus avoiding a thunderbolt from Ye Chen.
*BOOM*
"Tsk!" Ye Chen clicked his tongue and channeled mana in his sword, thus igniting it in black flames.
Hai kept his smile but he was inwardly seriously analyzing that flame.
'That flame emits the same eerie feeling I have been picking up since earlier.' He wondered inwardly.
Although Hai is way more powerful than everyone surrounding him, he is still going along with this farse for a reason.
Earlier, Hai didn't know what but something in Ye Chen gave him an uncomfortable feeling.
There is nearly nothing in this world that can give him such a feeling, so Hai has been curious as to what that is.
And the more the fight went on, the more he noticed differences in Ye Chen.
Although he is hotheaded, there were sometimes where he seemed he was going to do a hasty move but then, his face changed for a split second before stopping his action.
Almost as if an instinct, split personality or something like that.
Hai has been seeing that although Ye Chen is more powerful than what he was supposed to be, Ye Chen himself appears slightly off.
He can't pinpoint the exact thing, but Hai is sure that something that isn't the world's will's doing happened with Ye Chen.
"Stop jumping around, bastard. What are you, a kangaroo?" Ye Chen spat while slashing his sword at Hai.
Hai decided to test something and parried the sword with his metal glove.
*CLANG*
A shiver run down Hai's spine when he felt the dark flame touching his glove.
'That feeling…' Hai's eyes narrowed.
He already had felt this familiar sensation somewhere.
Deciding to clear his doubts, Hai changed his position.
The sorceress threw a red lightning at him while the martial artist punched the air and sent a shockwave towards him.
Hai joined his index and middle finger and swung his hand in a half downwards arc.
*SWOOSH*
The lightning and the shockwave dispersed.
*CLANG*
Hai raised his two fingers and blocked Ye Chen's sword.
Looking into Ye Chen's eyes, Hai felt that same eerie feeling from before.
"…" Silently thinking about this feeling, Hai swung his hand and threw Ye Chen back before spinning around and grabbing Bing Qing's wrist.
Bing Qing gritted her teeth feeling that same weird feeling and glared at Hai.
"You-"
"Shh…." Hai entered her personal space and his lips brushed hers.
Bing Qing widened her eyes and tried to get away.
Hai transmitted some mana through his touch and released her.
Bing Qing jumped and landed a few meters away from him, and when she was going to shout at him, she stopped and her eyes widened.
She looked at her stomach and felt a refreshening sensation.
*FUSH*
She broke through.
But that wasn't just it.
*FUSH*
*FUSH*
*FUSH*
7th River.
With wide eyes, she looked towards Hai in disbelief.
Hai on other hand, simply smiled and winked at her.
*SWOOSH*
Hai stepped back and avoided Ye Chen sword once again.
Ye Chen, now with his eyes glowing red, changed the direction of his attack mid-air and turned his vertical slash into a horizontal one, thus swinging his sword at Hai's chest.
Hai once again grabbed the sword's blade and stopped the attack.
*CLANG*
Looking closer, Hai saw a small, almost imperceptible dark mist passing from the sword to his metal glove.
He kept feeling the eerie feeling until the dark mist covered his hand and touched a part of his wrist that wasn't covered by metal.
Hai widened his eyes when he felt the mist touching his flesh.
He kicked Ye Chen away and undid his glove.
*TAP*
Ye Chen landed a few meters away and looked smugly at Hai.
Hai's right wrist turned black, almost as if his flesh was in the process of decaying.
"Hai?" Kryn asked when she noticed she couldn't see anything.
Hai had made a blindfold using his mana to cover her eyes.
Then, he simply looked at his wrist and back at Ye Chen.
"How do you feel now, trash?" Ye Chen smugly asked but his smile died down in the next instant.
He saw Hai's right hand simply sliding off.
The thing was cut off and fell to the ground.
"What…"
*FUUSH*
*SHATTER*
The hand was frozen over and shattered into nothingness.
Then, from Hai bleeding wrist, a hand made of mana surged before materializing as flesh.
Hai swiftly separated the part infected from his body and regenerated it back.
He opened and closed his hand before looking back at Ye Chen.
"Hum?" Kryn now felt that she couldn't hear anything.
"Don't worry, it's just that you shouldn't see nor hear what is going to happen now, Kryn." Hai's voice echoed inside her mind.
Although confused, Kryn nodded and fell silent. Hai bought ice cream to her and hasn't lied, so she has no reason to not comply with his words.
Hai looked directly into Ye Chen's eyes before smiling.
"Now I got the gist from whom you got your new power." He stated while doing some slight warmups.
"What are you talking about?" Ye Chen assumed a defensive position. His instincts were screaming that something bad, really bad was going to happen.
Hai smiled and raised his right hand.
Then, he closed his hand.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOOM*
*BOOOM*
*BOOOM*
The anti-magical field was torn apart. The machines exploded out of nowhere and a blizzard come over where they are.
The grass was quickly covered in snow.
The sea was frozen for kilometers.
The winds blew and the soldiers were frozen alive.
The previously clean bright blue sky was no more, now, gray clouds covered the sky and sunlight couldn't shine through them.
Hai opened his hand and cracked his fingers by closing his hand again.
Then, he smiled at Ye Chen.
"Choose a god, and start praying. I'm not sure if the world's will alone will keep you alive, boy." He displayed a small smile but Hai's eyes were cold.
Then, he waved his hand.
*SWOOSH*
Ye Chen flinched and looked down.
He swayed from side to side and nearly lost his balance, but he managed to remain standing after some effort.
Then, Ye Chen noticed in horror that his left leg was gone.
He looked back to Hai and only saw a pale blue light flashing over him.
*FUUUUSH*
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
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