The next set of bouts in the Geno Being Scroll was underway. When Han Sen was transported into his next battleground, he found himself standing in a forest that was tangled with a copious number of trees.
Across the entire universe, many different races tuned it to spectate Han Sen’s fight. Han Sen’s contest was now receiving more attention than the fight of any King.
“Hm, it appears that Dollar’s next opponent is Kun of the Pirate. The Pirates are fairly mysterious, aren’t they? They have many elites and their powers are, for lack of a better word, strange. I am really hoping Kun is going to cause him trouble. She needs to put him in a sticky spot that will prompt him to use Coin again, so that we can get a better look at it.” Clear Sea King was currently speaking with King Rosa.
Clear Sea King and King Rosa had been sent there to investigate the enigmatic Dollar’s ability widely dubbed Coin. Even though they weren’t very interested in watching Marquises fight, they were looking forward to seeing Han Sen’s performance.
King Rosa nodded and said, “Dollar is indeed strong, but Pirates don’t put up with weak, middle-of-the-road characters amongst their ranks, either. Perhaps we will be able to find out something through this fight. Even if we are unable to, later, when Dollar faces off against Lone Bamboo, we are guaranteed to see it again. It’s all just a matter of time.”
Clear Sea King and King Rosa weren’t the only ones trying to research Han Sen. Even Sky Path Garden of Sky Palace had tasked a whole bunch of researchers to observe Han Sen’s fight in the hope of seeing Coin again.
Han Sen looked around, but all he could see amidst that forest was trees. He couldn’t see his enemy lurking anywhere nearby. Han Sen frowned and took off into the air. He wanted to fly above the trees of the forest and see if he could spot his enemy from the air.
But when his body lifted off of the ground, he saw a swarm of bugs begin filtering down from the top of the trees. They were all very small like flies, and they flew quickly. Like a black cloud, they came forward to try to cloak Han Sen.
Han Sen swiftly tapped into his Dongxuan Sutra’s simulation abilities and attuned his powers to fire. He threw a punch towards the bugs once he was set, which sent a comet of fire soaring through the swarm.
The cloud of insects was charred into ash, and not a single one of the critters was left alive.
You are good! Realizing that bugs are afraid of fire means you are smart, and on top of that, you have the ability to wield fire, too.” A woman’s voice sounded from someplace amidst the forest, but Han Sen still couldn’t see her. It was as if her voice was coming from all directions at once.
“Why are you hiding? Come on out and fight me. These petty little tricks won’t work on me,” Han Sen said calmly.
The woman’s voice sounded once more, but this time, it was mocking. “Tricks? Well, you might like this next trick. Let’s give it a try, shall we?”
As soon as she stopped speaking, another swarm of bugs came crawling out of a tree. So thick were their numbers, it was like a black fog headed right for Han Sen.
Han Sen wreathed himself in fire. As the flames torched every bug in his proximity, Han Sen moved to one of the trees and punched it with all his might. That tree was hollow on the inside. Something had been hiding within, but whatever it was, it was gone now.
“Oh, were you looking for me? Finding me won’t be that easy. If you want to find me, you’ll have to try harder than that. Ha! Ha!” The woman’s laugh echoed all across the boughs of that infinite forest.
The bugs kept coming to attack Han Sen, but the fire that enveloped him was enough to incinerate any that came too close. Fortunately, none were actually able to do anything to him.
“Ugh, your bugs are useless! Why are you wasting my time?” Han Sen stood in the middle of the bug fog, while the flames around him raged even hotter.
All the bugs that came close were burned to a crisp, and a pungent smell of charred corpses began to fill the forest.
“You are right!” The woman’s voice sounded once again, and the bugs ran off. In an instant, they scurried out of sight.
Han Sen could see far through the forest, and as he peered down a long stretch, he saw a woman appear from behind a tree. She seemed to be clad in armor.
“I have heard that your Coin is powerful. It will interest me to see how good it really is.” Kun stood at a great distance away from Han Sen, but her voice still reached him without trouble.
Han Sen put away his fire powers. He wished to say something, but all of a sudden, a frown crossed his face. He used his fingers to pick up a tiny bug. It was so small that it was barely visible to the naked eye. It was practically invisible.
That small bug almost landed in the space between the joints of his armor. Even though Han Sen had managed to capture and hold it between his fingers, he did not crush it. The fiend even squirmed in his grip, trying to return to what it had been doing.
Pat!
Han Sen used his fingers to crush the bug.
A smile spread over Kun’s face. She clapped and said, “Powerful eyesight! It impresses me that you can see the products of my small bug power. I’d like to know just how much you can see. So, tell me, can you see this?”
After that, Kun disappeared from sight. And in that instant, Han Sen heard bugs coming at him from every direction. They appeared from every piece of bark and every leaf, and they even crawled out of the ground. These bugs were even ugly for your liking.” The stone gate opened, and when it did, a woman came walking out.
The audience could hear the noise of the bugs, but only the Kings could actually discern where the bugs were. Not even the Dukes were able to do that.
Clear Sea King’s eyes turned bright, and he smiled. “Kun’s power is quite interesting. She turns her power into a vessel that is smaller than the size of bacteria. Even Dollar’s full set of armor will have gaps and seams that the insects can take advantage of. Those bugs can probably fit into his face or even the pores of his skin. No matter how strong Dollar is, I believe avoiding something that small is out of the question for him.”
As Clear Sea King spoke, Han Sen wreathed himself in fire again. He was completely set ablaze.
Although he could not see the small bugs coming for him, he could hear the sound of them dying whenever they came close to the heat that shielded him.
“Dollar, how long can you keep yourself on fire like that?” A woman’s voice sounded through the forest again, dripping with mockery.
Han Sen did not speak. All he did was look around, hoping to catch sight of Kun.
King Rosa nodded. “Kun is rather smart. Her bugs of that microscopic size are way too small. Han Sen won’t have a clue if he has any around him or not. He’ll just have to keep burning to keep them from getting close. He doesn’t know when or where those powers will come at him from. But if he keeps burning like this, it’s only a matter of time before he runs out of energy. When he uses all that energy up, the small bug powers will finally get a chance to drill into his body and ravage him. Kun is most certainly the one in control of this fight. And while this fight may lack the excitement we all crave, the stakes for Dollar are continually increasing. We would all do well to leam from this, and understand that ^ should never underestimate the Pirate.”
All the audience members could tell Dollar was being toyed with. No matter how strong he was, he was facing an invincible enemy. There was nothing he could do.
“I didn’t know fights could go on like this. This woman is keeping Dollar from being able to make use of his powers like Coin. She’s suppressing him, well and truly. Kun of the Pirate is a most fearsome being.”
“Yeah. Her powers are small like bacteria. We’d never know her critters were in our bodies until it was too late. Not knowing how you might die is quite a scary thought.”
“If Kun was a hitman, I’m sure her targets would be incredibly nervous.”
The thieves are killers.”
