Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
I frowned as I watched Fayez get thrown back by Judge’s Gavel.
-Shit! I know Unrivaled isn’t working right now, but this hurts way too much. And this Touch of Death is really starting to get on my nerves!-
I didn’t have any ranged attacks besides Fissure. All I could do was attack him from up close, but the Reaper’s attacks did too much damage for me to be able to keep it up for long. It didn’t help that every time he landed a successful attack, I was dealt an additional 30% of damage thanks to his Touch of Death debuff.
“Lee Jiwon, you son of a bitch!” Fayez shouted as he got up. He was thrown back about ten meters from the blow and was embedded into the ground. He didn’t have his Doll of Death to protect him from Judge’s Gavel again, and his body was in tatters. Once I saw that, I could finally smile. I was getting hurt, but I was hurting Fayez even more.
I raised my hand and pointed a finger at him. “Altered Equality!”
==[You have activated Altered Equality – Altered Equal Stats on your opponent.
Your opponent’s base Stat points, Stat points increased by skills and items and Stat points granted by specials will all be redistributed.
Calculating all Stat points…]==
==[Your opponent’s Stats have been redistributed.
The effects of Altered Equality will last for the next 24 hours and you must wait that time before using Altered Equality on someone else.
Stat points received for Kiran will be set to 0 as payment for using Altered Equality.]==
The reason I hadn’t used it on him from the start was simple: Abu Dhabi was winning. They had only lost a thousand of their men while Astes lost half. I had thought that I wouldn’t need to try as much for us to win, but obviously that wasn’t the case anymore. I had to pull out all the stops to defeat the Reaper.
“Grr! What the hell is this now?” Anyone affected by my Altered Equality grew furious. It had happened to the Predator Duke and the Dark Caster, and it wasn’t any different with the Reaper. It just meant that they were affected heavily by Altered Equality.
I charged in at the Reaper glaring at me with shocked anger, giving him no chance to react. “Fissure!”
“Come forth, Roots of Death!”
I was ready for his counter. “Blink 2.”
“Mantle of Death!” Again, he summoned his Mantle of Death to try and stop me, but it was no use.
I stabbed at the black wall with my spear. The Mantle shattered in three hits and disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.
“Fuck! Multi-Thorns of Death!”
“Gah!” I blocked what I could and didn’t bother trying to dodge the rest. By now, I realized that even if I did, they all turned around to hit me in the back, homing in on me. This was going to be battle of who would outlast the other, and I had more experience in those types of battles than anyone else.
“Shit! Why won’t you die?”
“Are you crazy? Why would I want to die now?”
“Wave of Death!”
“Blink 1.” I Blinked over to the other side of the black tidal wave and was rewarded with the unguarded backside of Fayez. I quickly slashed at him twice.
“Fuck you! Chains of Death!” The Reaper didn’t bother turning around and instead summoned a black chain from his shadow, which shot for my leg.
I was already expecting it and quickly slammed my spear into the chain, stopping it an inch away from my ankle. I then used my spear as a springboard to jump right at the Reaper who still had his back turned. I landed a perfect dropkick right on his backside.
“Oof!”
My whole body was a weapon. Including the Shaman Ko stat points, my STR was close to 26,000. Fayez did not expect the attack at all and was thrown forward by the force of the blow, rolling several feet away.
Another chance. I used the momentum from the jump to hit the ground and jump high into the air. Fayez was still on the ground with his back to me and I brought my spear right down onto him. I was rewarded with a thundering crash, telling me that attack had inflicted a tremendous amount of damage. I could see Fayez grimace in pain, but he didn’t shout out.
Instead, his body exploded into a cloud of black smoke. All that was left was my spear stuck in the ground, as if he wasn’t there at all in the first place.
“Hey, asshole! I don’t like fighting like barbarians!”
“Really? That’s a shame, because I really do.” I pulled my spear out of the ground and turned to the right. Fayez was standing a few meters away, panting and with his left hand over his chest. His face was covered in dirt and mud.
“Let me ask you something.”
“Go ahead. You’re half dead anyway, so I can at least hear you out.”
“Cut the crap and listen. Are you really a deva?”
“Of course I am. You obviously know that a deity can’t learn Unrivaled, don’t you?” Unrivaled devas were the enemies of deities. A deity couldn’t learn Unrivaled and an Unrivaled deva couldn’t become a deity. “Well, I think that just about answers your question. Shall we continue?”
“No. It’s my loss.”
“What?” I was surprised, to say the least, at his sudden surrender. He was supposed to be one of the Seven Monarchs. But this was the Battlefield of Valor. The only way out of here was if everyone on the enemy team was dead. He was my enemy. There was no way we could shake hands and become friends. Well, maybe there was if he actually surrendered here and now, but I highly doubted that was the case. He was my enemy through and through, and there was no way I was going to let him get out of here alive.
“Huh, really now?” I feigned interest and slowly walked towards Fayez. Unfortunately, my actions seemed just as transparent as Fayez’s.
“Fuck off! Did you really think I’d fall for your ploy?”
“Tsk!” I tightened my grip on my spear and charged. At that moment, Fayez turned around and turned tail. He was heading back to where Khalid was standing.
“Are you running away?”
“I am. You ran away, so I should be able to as well.” Fayez sprinted towards the Astes side of the Battlefield. If I was going to chase after him, then I was going to have to follow him into the enemy’s army. I decided to not give chase. There was nowhere for him to run anyway.
Instead, I turned around and shifted my attention to the Astes soldiers. The more I decreased their numbers, the higher the chance Abu Dhabi had of winning. I smiled as I cut down the enemy soldiers in front of me. The Grim Reaper, one of the Seven Monarchs, had run from me. I had defeated yet another Monarch.
“Alright! Lee Jiwon chased away the enemy’s champion!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!”
—
“I see you had your ass handed to you.”
“Ha…ha…are they ready?” Fayez didn’t react to Khalid’s taunt and just tried to catch his breath. Fayez knew exactly what he said to Khalid before he faced Lee Jiwon, that he would face the man alone. Fayez would make sure Khalid paid for his insolence later. Right now, he had to focus on Lee Jiwon.
“They’re ready for you.”
“They have to be willing to take on the irreversible death penalties. No one can be forced.”
“I know that full well. That is why they are all my direct subordinates in Astes.” Khalid actually wanted to use the soldiers of the other six emirates rather than his subordinates that followed him out of Abu Dhabi. But the sacrifices had to give their utmost consent, so he had no other choice and even chose another fifty.
“Good.”
At Fayez’s reply, Khalid gestured to his aide, who then ran out to shout towards the Battlefield.
“Form up!” The command seemed unexpected, but the Astes soldiers did not even turn around. They had already knew what was going to happen. Four hundred and fifty soldiers who had been moved to the sidelines changed their positions to stand in formation in front of Khalid. It took them less than a minute.
“I’m sorry for making you all do this. I only have you all to rely on!”
“No, sir! We are prepared to do lay down our lives for victory!” These soldiers had been Khalid’s most loyal followers since before Otadolon. Khalid hated having to put them through this.
“Are you done filming your little drama skit?” Fayez sneered.
“We’re done. Just make sure you kill Lee Jiwon.” Khalid was not happy with Fayez at all.
“Of course,” Fayez said and turned to the gathered soldiers. “As the servant of Death, I offer these souls gathered before me! Dark One, grant me your strength so that I may cut down my enemies in your name!” As soon as Fayez completed his incantation, a black smoke oozed from Fayez’s body and surrounded the soldiers. A message appeared before each soldier.
==[Will you accept an irreversible death penalty?
Yes/No]==
The soldiers all selected Yes, as per Khalid’s request. At that moment, four hundred trails of smoke emerged from the black cloud and connected with four hundred soldiers. In less than a minute, those soldiers disappeared into thin air. The smoke that had absorbed the four hundred lives was soon sucked back into Fayez and a message appeared before him.
==[You may now turn into the Incarnation of Death for 24 hours.
You will not be able to use Death’s Sovereignty for 90 days once Incarnation of Death deactivates.]==
Fayez had never used Incarnation of Death before, not even against the deity considered to be the strongest of the Seven Monarchs. He knew he could only use it against a target that was stronger than him. If he didn’t use it, he risked dying and losing his abilities anyway.
“Incarnation of Death!” A huge cloud of black smoke bellowed out of Fayez’s body and surrounded him, before taking Fayez’s form. It resembled a suit of armor made out of shadow. Fayez smiled as a message appeared, notifying him that his Stats, Death-type skills and Touch of Death were doubled in power. Once again, he sprinted back to the Battlefield to face Lee Jiwon once more.
—
“Hmm…” Fayez had definitely run away, but the little ritual he did with the separate group of soldiers worried me. I watched as a cloud of black smoke enveloped the soldiers and absorbed a good chunk of them. Something wasn’t right, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“That doesn’t look good,” Baden muttered.
“No, it doesn’t,” Umaru agreed.
I heaved a heavy sigh as I watched Fayez with a frown. He already wasn’t easy to deal with, and yet, he had another card up his sleeve. I honestly should have expected he would do something like this. He was one of the Seven Monarchs; they all had failsafes.
Soon, the now three-meter tall Reaper stood before me.
“What are you, some sort of Transformer robot?”
“Again with that mouth of yours!”
“What, did you think I’d cower in fear after you ran away like a coward?”
“Gahahaha! Good. Let’s see how long that façade of yours lasts! I bend the earth to my will! Become the Field Where Death Blossoms!” The ground where Fayez stood soon turned black and the blackness spread to where I stood.
==[You are now in the Field Where Death Blossoms.
All non-Undead types lose 10 HP per second.
All non-Undead types have their ATT, MATT, DEF, MDEF decreased by 10%.]==
“…” There was another message that appeared the moment Fayez appeared before me.
==[Incarnation of Death doubles the power of Touch of Death.]==
Thanks to that, my ATT, MATT, DEF, and MDEF were already lowered by 30%. This Field Where Death Blossoms lowered those Stats by another 10%.
“Well, shit.”
