Standing in front of Chrysos was the firstborn son of Viscount Nacoris.
He wore a bright silver armor adorned with blue gemstones on his chest, pauldrons and on his boot's ankles. He has long brown hair that alternates between different shades of brown and auburn. His forearms were protected by dull, non reflective armor with circular patterns. Not only that, there were two spikes that protruded from his armor's elbows that were added for style instead of practicality.
Looking at his waist, there is a silver scabbard holding his magnificent weapon. His sword was a magical artifact discovered from an ancient ruin and was gifted to him by his grandfather during his 20th birthday.
The sword was a purple blade with a two headed lion on its hilt. The purple blade was curved and only had one area that allowed it to cut. The back of the blade had numerous runes and two gemstones of unknown origin.
Vedian's sword has two modes, Protection and Explosive mode. Protection casts a strong Divinious shield around him that casts away magical and physical attacks. Not even gas or water can pass through. And inside this shield, his body continuously gets healed and his Divinious reserves replenished.
Explosive mode meanwhile, cuts and rips through Divinious and physical objects in a very explosive and unimpeded manner. Making this sword very dangerous to face. However, a huge downside was that it needed to be recharged using high tier Divinious-V crystals.
Back to Chrysos…
Chrysos couldn't believe that he just walked into trouble. Did he really have to fight these people over a sword? I mean sure, Ziluite is a good material but surely nobles like a viscount have better equipment than a mere Ziluite sword right?
It just didn't make sense. Vedian has a sword with magical properties but Angelfeather is just a sword that could only be used for hacking and slashing down enemies. It didn't have fancy abilities like shooting out flames, summoning illusory beasts or really just anything. That was the difference between a normal weapon and a magical artifact.
Was there another property that Ziluite has that he doesn't know about? Maybe that's the reason why Vedian wanted it. Vedian probably has special uses for it, so that could be the reason why he wants it.
Chrysos didn't dwell on these thoughts for too long though.
The first man is a swordsman with a strong, yet lean build wearing a long black coat with numerous metal straps around his arms and legs. His pauldrons were designed as raging bulls, his boots were plated in a descending "V"
pattern, he wore a white shirt under his coat, his sword had a sleek design and was paired with an iron snake scabbard.
As someone raised by the Nacoris family as a slave, this man was trained from birth to be a fighter with no thoughts but to obey. His expression was cold and blank. It was as if his eyes didn't have any luster at all.
The swordsman attacked him by casting a spell instead of using his sword. It seemed as if he didn't have the intention to kill. After all, this is still Ironmountain. Laws still apply to them.
Chrysos saw this and thought of it as stupid.
He decided to use a gas that he thought was great to use in this situation.
Chrysos called this gas that he made "Hemoglomorxyn."
He made it using a lot of paralysis poison, mainly the Avanita Flower. A flower that had a legend named after it. The story was about a woman named Avanita who was viciously beaten and betrayed by her lover. And one night when she was getting beaten, the man hit her head so hard that she died. The man buried her body in their backyard full of white flowers.
The next day, the flowers turned taller than usual and instead of the usual white petals, they turned into a shade of dark purple and crimson. And it was so toxic that anyone who inhaled it got paralyzed. Causing the death of her evil and unfaithful husband.
Chrysos used this flower because it was also an anticoagulant, but it caused mass adrenaline at the same time. So not only will wounds not close, they will also bleed out even quicker if anyone heavily wounded got a whiff of the Avanita Flower.
It has the effect of putting the person who inhaled the gas into a torpor-like state. And with their increased blood circulation, bleeding out would be a serious problem.
It also prevents wounds from naturally healing as long as it exists in the body and it even slows down the response of white blood cells.
Chrysos decided to use it now because he was wearing a gas mask and because people had already moved away from the area of conflict.
Back to the fight, Chrysos held Angelfeather on one hand and released Hemoglomorxyn on the other by flicking a vial with bubbling liquid that looked like water open.
The swordsman swung his hand in a downward motion and then a thin colorless arc flew out of his hand.
Chrysos saw it and dodged the arc. He ran towards the man to counterattack.
However, the man flashed before his eyes and disappeared. Chrysos felt extreme danger behind him. He did his best to turn around and parried a hand chop from the swordsman just in the nick of time.
Clank!
The swordsman's hand felt like it was made of steel. Chrysos is no stranger to that sensation. The swordsman showed a slight frown on his face. He wasn't happy that Chrysos wasn't taken down on one strike. He kicked backwards to give him some room to accelerate for an attack.
His hand turned into something like steel because he was covering it with a strange Divinious energy coming from a magic circle locked on his wrist. The swordsman then raised his fist, dashed forward and used it to punch Chrysos.
Chrysos used the rhino's skin hardening and used "Steel Rage" for extra strength to counter the swordsman's advance.
Boom!
The two fists collided and created a small sonic boom from the source of the impact. Chrysos was unmoving from the punch, but the swordsman had to take at least four steps back before he managed to stabilize himself.
The swordsman's frown became even deeper. He didn't expect an alchemist to be this strong.
Standing there, facing his opponent, the swordsman's eyes looked unchangingly cold as ice. His left hand dripping blood as his right hand clenched his sword even tighter.
The swordsman decided not to hold back anymore, he unsheathed his sword and exhaled to calm himself down.
"You're taking this fight too seriously... you're even controlling your breathing just to fight me." Chrysos noticed that the man's Divinious circulation was very balanced. This didn't give him a good feeling.
The swordsman didn't respond but because of what Chrysos said, he subconsciously breathed a little bit more air.
The swordsman stepped forward and swung his sword. He used a unique ability called "Powered Slash" to enhance the strike.
Chrysos felt that it was a spell meant to strengthen the impact dellivered, so he used the spell "Swordsman's Willpower" and swung his sword towards the swordsman as well. The magic circle on his blade shone brightly.
Bang!
The swordsman's sword was almost blown away from his hands. He was shocked that Chrysos used a repulsion type sword technique, so he used a repulsion type of his own.
Chrysos smiled and dodged the sword strike coming from the swordsman and used the spell "Caziwair Serpent Sword," stabbing the swordsman in the chest.
The swordsman's eyes narrowed. He used a unique footwork ability and leapt back, avoiding the stab of Angelfeather.
Chrysos clicked his tongue. "Vedian, your stupid pet is struggling against me. Maybe send another one so that it will become a little more challenging." Chrysos turned to Vedian with a mocking tone.
Vedian glared at Chrysos, but he didn't lash out on him.
He gestured with his hand and the other man on his right side joined the battle. The man was a Warborn equipped with the same uniform as the swordsman except that the Warborn used a sword that was a bit shorter than the swordsman's, but it was thicker and slightly heavier.
"Great, another pushover.." Chrysos said in a disappointed tone. The golden light in his eyes shone even more prominently.
The swordsman and the Warborn didn't hesitate and they stood side by side. They raised their swords at the same time and both lunged at Chrysos while using their own unique abilities.
The synchrony between them was great. Chrysos already knows that he's in for a bit of trouble.
Chrysos focused his efforts more on parrying their strikes and dodging. Every time the two of them attacked, he found himself almost getting hit multiple times.
He dodged the sword coming for the left and he had to parry the one coming from the right. After that, he has to worry about the left one before focusing his attention on the swordsman on his right. It was very tricky to fight against.
Chrysos stepped back to create some room, but they weren't going to let him go away so easily. Chrysos dodged another strike, but he was struck by a sword stab from the Warborn. The ability on the sword had powerful repulsion power, so because of the impact generated by it, he almost fell over if not for his foot being fast enough to catch his fall.
However, the swordsman didn't give him a chance to catch his breath, he took this opportunity to continue attacking Chrysos.
Bang!
Chrysos used "Steel Rage" once more and tried to break out from their entrapment, but they were just too skilled. His attempts were all countered and he was in a very passive situation.
Vedian chuckled. His laugh held his cruel nature very well. He found it amusing that Chrysos was desperately grasping for any chances that he could.
Seeing Chrysos struggle like this, Vedian couldn't contain his laugh anymore. "What? Weren't you just so cocky earlier? What happened now?"
Chrysos didn't respond. He was too occupied with the Warborn and the swordsman.
Vedian saw this and commanded the two of them, "Don't kill him. I'll be the one who gets to make him suffer the consequences of going against me." Vedian laughed at Chrysos' miserable state.
Chrysos could only grit his teeth in frustration.
Vedian watched him being cornered without any way to fight back. He was getting struck left and right, barely able to defend himself properly.
Vedian knew that Chrysos was at his wits end, which also meant that the fight wouldn't last too long. However, the swordsman missed Chrysos by a short distance. He was just swinging his blade like earlier, but it didn't even hit anything.
This caused the coordinated entrapment from the both of them to collapse momentarily. The Warborn made up for the swordsman's mistake and managed to keep Chrysos trapped.
"What happened?" The Warborn looked at him with a confused look.
"Nothing, I just made a mistake." The swordsman shook his head and continued fighting Chrysos.
This small error seemed harmless.
But as time went on, both of them kept making more and more mistakes.
Vedian noticed the two of their attacks were getting worse and uncoordinated. He shouted. "What are you doing? Are you trying to let him get away?!"
The Warborn and the swordsman tried to snap out of it and focus on the fight, but their movements became sluggish and their vision was getting blurrier by each passing second.
Chrysos laughed and took the opportunity to use "Blade of Fortune" and slash them in their chests by abusing the gaps between their armor.
"Took the gas long enough!" Chrysos put all of his strength into the sword slashes.
The cold swordsman and the Warborn looked at him with disbelief. What did Chrysos do to gain the advantage?
Swish!
Blood flew out from their chests. They were feeling so dizzy and unenergized to the point that they couldn't even think properly anymore.
They both fell down on the ground and struggled to get up.
Vedian's eyes narrowed. He eyed Chrysos very carefully. "Alchemist, what trick did you use on them?"
Chrysos slowly stood up and drank a healing potion and a Divinious recovery potion. "I used a very simple method of gaseous poisoning. I'm just a bit worried that it wasn't working earlier. That's all." Chrysos looked at the two men who were still bleeding from their wounds. "You should heal these two. The wound in their chests won't heal normally. And if left untreated they'll continue bleeding out until they die."
Vedian unsheathed his sword. And flicked his hair away with an arrogant air. "Honestly, I'm done waiting... I'll just have to cut your arms off to shut you up shouldn't I?" His magical sword was glowing menacingly with purple gemstones. "Plus, these men are indebted to the Nacoris family. Why do I have to save their lives?"
Chrysos' impression of Vedian lowered by a lot after he uttered the last sentence.
"Tell me, what is the real reason why you want my sword?" Chrysos found it suspicious from the beginning. "I'm sure that the Nacoris family is rich enough to have better swords than mine, so what's the reason?"
Vedian looked at Angelfeather before looking back at Chrysos. "I know that you used something on that sword."
Chrysos frowned hearing this. "What do you mean?" He asked.
Vedian shook his head and replied, "Don't play dumb. I know that you've been invited by the Arlangier and I've sent men to learn more about the situation. I know what you did here in Ironmountain. I also know that you changed an iron sword into an Alizuite sword. And then, you turned Alizuite into Ziluite." Vedian released his Divinious to overwhelm Chrysos. "I know that you have a recipe that can improve the tiers of weaponry. If I get my hands on that, the Nacoris family will be placing more importance on me after this."
"Ah, the conversion process... why didn't you ask me instead? I would've sold it if you asked nicely." Chrysos spread his arms to gesture that Vedian missed a chance to get what he wanted if he just asked.
Vedian scoffed. "I wouldn't dare spend a single coin on you." Vedian charged forward as he held his sword to the side. "I admit that my methods are usually stained with blood. But to be fair, a weak alchemist cannot hope to hold such a treasure, shouldn't they? Only the strong shouldn't be the ones to lower their head!"
Chrysos corrected him. "I'm not like those other alchemists.. but to be fair as well, you're right..." He flicked a vial on his chest open and activated "Wind Slash," sending five wind blades laced with Inferno Mist towards Vedian.
Vedian easily dodged these wind blades as his pace didn't even slow down...
"I shouldn't lower my head, especially before you..."
With a flash of lightning from his fingers, Chrysos ignited the wind blades, causing an ear splitting explosion in under a second.
BOOM!!!
A small area in Ironmountain suddenly lit up with a bright red color before fading away. Replacing it with a cloud of black smoke.