Chapter 569: Meeting Son of Heaven Again
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
While Son of Heaven was still in shock, he saw the Snow Charmer raise her lance again. A flaming bird of fire soared through the sky, looking like a phoenix, raining fire down on the battlefield.
"Ah! It's an aura-type beast soul. How does that work?" The look on Son of Heaven's face was bleak. An aura-type beast soul employed area-of-effect techniques best designed to go against groups of opponents. It was something sought after by numerous parties and shelters. He was in disbelief at the sight of an aura-type beast soul being used by a royal spirit. Even worse, the radius of the attack seemed significant, which might have suggested it was a sacred-blood aura-type beast soul. The color drained from his face.
Son of Heaven's assessment was incorrect, however. The range of a Desert Bird's aura was no different than the Second Shelter's sacred-blood beast soul; the difference between the two was in power. Still, it was an intimidating attack and its efficiency was still quite remarkable.
The Demon had been totally restrained by the attack, and no matter what beast soul it had or at what quality, it could not overcome the Snow Charmer's bombardment. They were both royal spirits, yet the Demon could not compete with her.
Even without the Desert Bird, the double Berserk armor and glyph would have proven too much for the Demon to breach.
The Snow Charmer paid no heed to the fruitless attacks of the Demon and traded them for a significant blow to her opponent's weak point. In reaction to the critical hit, the Demon fell backwards, screaming in agony.
"It's too strong. This is sick!"
"If I had those beast souls, I'd be that strong, too."
"This is no longer an arena, it's a showcase of one's richness!"
"Yep, the Snow Charmer's owner is too freaking rich!"
"I may not know who that person is, but I didn't think they could get sicker than Son of Heaven."
"It's like two fairies competing, in that it has nothing to do with us."
...
Son of Heaven couldn't stop his face from twisting and contorting as he viewed the battle. After a while, he ordered his Demon to throw in the towel. Acknowledging his opponent's victory, he felt extremely depressed.
If she killed the Demon, every sacred-blood beast soul he possessed would be gone. Even someone like Son of Heaven could not incur such a significant financial blow.
"Bring him to me. I want to see who this person is." Son of Heaven gritted his teeth. From what had just happened, he felt humiliated.
Zhang Xiang quickly went in search of Han Sen and when he found him, said, "Mister Han, the boss wants to see you!"
Zhang Xiang did not dare refer to Han Sen as "brother," anymore. The performance of the Snow Charmer had well and truly rattled him. He knew that Han Sen was an extraordinary character and could not possibly be any lower in status than Son of Heaven himself. He now felt the need to refer to him more appropriately.
"Son of Heaven?" Han Sen looked at Zhang Xiang and quietly asked.
"Yes," Zhang Xiang replied.
Han Sen then casually said, "If he wants to see me, then tell him to come down and meet me. I don't have the time or interest to go up there."
"But... Mister Han, please, wait here for a moment." Zhang Xiang, having received his permission for an audience with him, ran off to inform Son of Heaven.
"Fine, I will go and see who you are." After Son of Heaven heard what he had said. He suppressed the anger he felt in his heart and followed Zhang Xiang back down to Han Sen's room.
The moment he pushed the door open and laid eyes upon Han Sen, he stiffened as if he had just suffered petrification. He just stood in the door frame and did not move.
He could not believe that the Snow Charmer's owner was Han Sen. He could not believe that Han Sen, who had only just gained access to the Second Shelter, had already amassed such a fortune.
"How is this possible?" Son of Heaven's face was a mixture of conflicting emotions.
Zhang Xiang was standing behind Son of Heaven, looking at him with shock. He was used to seeing Son of Heaven as cocky and intimidating, but this was the first time he had ever seen him show restraint.
"Does he not dare to go inside fully? God, what happened? Who is that man named Han? He seems to have stricken fear into Son of Heaven himself!" Zhang Xiang thought, looking upon Son of Heaven's face but misunderstanding him.
Son of Heaven was not afraid of Han Sen, it was just that Ning's family avoided Han Jing and they had issued a decree stating no member of the Ning family could have any contact or conflict with Han Sen. So, when Son of Heaven saw Han Sen, he was crippled with shock and was unsure of what to do.
He did not dare throw Han Sen out, but he knew that he couldn't be friends with him, either.
"Didn't you want to see me? What are you standing there for; aren't you going to say your bit?" Han Sen looked at Son of Heaven with amused confusion.
"You. Why have you come here?" Son of Heaven wasn't exactly sure what to say. He had never bowed to anyone else before, and he wasn't used to showing modesty or courtesy. An unexpected meeting such as this made Son of Heaven uncomfortable, and it clashed with the way he generally presented himself to others.
"I heard there was a sacred-blood beast soul up for grabs here at the arena, so I came to take it. Can I have the Four-Winged Thunderbird now?" Han Sen smiled wryly as he spoke.
Son of Heaven's eyebrows jumped as he looked at Han Sen, and then said emotionlessly, "Zhang Xiang, give him the Four-Winged Thunderbird."
Zhang Xiang had never seen Son of Heaven behave like this before. He was flabbergasted, but he nodded and then went to retrieve and deliver the Four-Winged Thunderbird to its new, rightful owner.
"Ah, there it is. Well, I have what I came for. I should get going now, perhaps I'll see you around." Han Sen took the beast soul and prepared to leave.
Son of Heaven's face looked quite ghastly, and he moved his lips as if to say something, but then stopped.
Han Sen left the Demon shelter almost immediately. The human shelters were well-developed around here, but it made it more difficult to kill creatures here than on the ice fields.
There were too many people. If you weren't attacking a spirit shelter, you'd most likely end up competing against others for the kills of the local creatures. The greater resources a place had, the more people it would attract. It was unavoidable, really.
Back in the Crystal Palace, Han Sen teleported to the Alliance.
Now that he had both swords, he just needed to perfect the Dual-blade skill itself. After that was done, he could finally tackle the spirit shelter he wanted.
Back in the Alliance, he stuck to refining the Dual sword skill each and every day. He practiced and practiced to ensure that he could master it.
Because beast souls couldn't be used on Skynet, Han Sen stuck to practicing in the training room. At the same time, he was trying to perfect his wielding of the Silver-Eye Ice Snake King sword and Purple-Copper Ancient Mascot Beast sword.
Annie wasn't particularly thrilled about Han Sen occupying the only high-class training room all the time, because that was the only room that had artificial gravity.
To have gravity support, you had to visit the gravity chamber. But the things that you were able to do in such chambers were quite limited, and those places were too restrictive to train freely. For this, Annie was quite upset.
When Annie arrived that day, she saw that the high-class training room was still in use. She bit her lip and went to the control room. She wanted to take a look at what Han Sen was doing in there. If he was training in there, then she'd let him be, but if he wasn't, she was determined to kick him out.
As a guard of Ji Yanran, Annie had great authority. Quickly, she obtained the tape of footage from the training room and took a look.
"Training a sword skill?" Annie saw Han Sen in the video training with two beast soul swords.
Chapter 570: Dual Blade
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Annie watched the tape for a while, and her demeanor changed. She cared little for his power or speed, but she was shocked when observing his skills.
She noticed Han Sen's left hand was holding a thin, silver sword. The style was quite floaty, and each slash was reminiscent of some toxic snake leaping out of a cave to strike. His arm was swinging from a wild variety of angles, and it was impossible to guess where he would be thrusting or slashing next.
In his right hand, he was holding a purple and copper sword, and the style was very free and wide. The power of each swing brought with it the force of a mountain.
The beat and rhythm of each sword skill were different, and they didn't follow each other. If Annie saw these two skills being cast individually, she wouldn't think much of it.
It was the fact that they were being cast in tandem, by the same person, that amazed her.
Each hand rolled and waved with a different beat and a different rhythm, and it was hard to believe anyone could use both hands so effectively. It was like two people using a sword but in one.
The more Annie watched, the more shocked she was. This was not any ordinary dual-blade sword skill, that was for sure. It had to be something completely different, one that employed both hands to do things separately. Very few evolvers in the Alliance could achieve something like this.
It required more than talent to do something like this, as you needed a lot of focus to control both hands individually. If you lacked this, you would quickly become confused and lose all semblance of the skill.
There were a few surpassers that had evolved in a way that gave them two personalities, so they could control each hand independently and cast two sword skills at the same time. But amidst evolvers, such a thing was very rare.
Annie really wanted to know whether or not he could use a dual-blade skill such as this in a proper fight. It would be quite terrifying to go up against someone who could.
After thinking for a while, Annie left the control room and went towards Han Sen's training room.
Inside the training room, Han Sen was frantically practicing with his Dual skill. Han Sen did not have two personalities, and controlling two minds used a lot of focus that could be better spent elsewhere. This meant that Han Sen's willpower was far stronger than anyone else's. If it wasn't, using a Dual sword skill like this would split his personality.
All of a sudden, the training room's door was open. A shadow rushed through with a sword in its hand and speedily approached Han Sen. He didn't even see the shadow's face before lifting his sword to block the incoming strike.
Dong!
The swords struck each other, and when the sparks cleared, Han Sen noticed it was Annie.
"Annie, what are you doing?" Han Sen furrowed his eyebrows.
Annie did not answer. Instead, she brought up her longsword and cast a skill. Although her move did not hit anything, it looked like a thunderbolt. It was quick enough to interrupt Han Sen's intention of continuing to talk, and it only gave him the time to try and block.
It was too quick. Han Sen's sword wasn't enough to block Annie's attack, so he had to use two. He managed, but it was no small feat, and he was sloppy in his execution.
"Annie, are you looking to kill someone?!" Han Sen managed to regather his composure and yell his question.
Although it was a question with a certain gravitas, Han Sen knew that if she truly wanted to kill him, he'd have been unable to dodge or block her previous strike.
Annie remained silent, and she restarted her assault. Her method of combat was wide and quick, like the brief flashes of lightning. To evolvers, her speed was remarkably scary, and few would be able to withstand her attacks.
Han Sen, however, was able to block every strike, and Annie could see for herself that he was using different sword skills without a single misstep. It was an exceptional choice.
"You can really do two things with one mind, can't you? You can cast two skills, one for each hand," Annie spoke with surprise, and her face looked strange.
Han Sen was super happy to be able to repel Annie's attacks. Annie's sword skills were quick, even quicker than the Twin Spirit itself. This was a perfect opportunity for Han Sen to train against someone with fast skills.
Annie was a surpasser, and although she lowered the speed of her attacks to go against Han Sen, she was still faster than any other evolver. Ordinary evolvers could never hope to dodge her frantic attacks.
Annie merely wanted to give Han Sen a quick test, and after doing so, she was ready to leave. But Han Sen shouted and ran towards Annie with both swords drawn.
"You come here, try to act cool and then just leave? I can't let you walk away so easily." Han Sen swung both of his swords in a bid to get Annie to stay.
Annie was surprised at his behavior. She made a hum sound and stayed her exit. She brought up her longsword once again and ran towards Han Sen, deciding to beat him up before leaving.
She didn't boost her sword speed from earlier but kept it at what it was instead. But even like that, it was both faster and stronger than Han Sen was capable of dealing with.
Han Sen's Dual sword skill was strange, but Annie still thought it wouldn't be difficult to beat him.
Dong!
Annie's sword struck Han Sen's silver sword in his left hand. She expected the strike to knock the sword away, so she could follow up with a couple more hits and push Han Sen to the brink of defeat and achieve the revenge she sought for the game Han Sen played upon her previously.
But when the two swords collided, Han Sen's sword did not receive the impact how she predicted it would. In fact, she felt an unnerving strength encroach and push against her own sword. She felt as if she had hit nothing at all.
"This sword skill of yours is spooky." Annie's heart was wondering why her skill was unable to disarm Han Sen how she wanted it to.
After a few more slashes, Annie was fairly sure that Han Sen's left hand was imbued with Yin Force. When her sword clashed with his, she felt his sword feed and drain most of her energy and power. Unless Annie was willing to amplify her powers beyond what any evolver could do, there would be no way she could knock the sword out of his hand.
"Then I'll just go for your right-hand sword." Annie switched her target and attempted to go after Han Sen's Purple-Copper Ancient Sword.
Dong!
Annie's longsword met the ancient sword and immediately felt a horrible strength push back against her. Although the force was not as grievous as her true max potential, it was enough to prevent her from knocking the sword out of his hand.
"How can he possess such power?" Annie was puzzled and distraught.
Han Sen's Dual skill was far from a combination of two separate sword skills. He was employing Yin and Yang, fusing the sword skill with Yin Yang Blast. The balance of Yin and Yang was helping each other, combining the skies and humans together.
Although now it was just the first shape, and he obviously had not mastered yet, it was still a shock for Annie to witness this.
The number of surprises she was receiving only kept growing and growing. The sword skills Han Sen possessed were incredibly special. This was the first time in her life she had been able to witness an evolver with such tremendous power, and it truly amazed Annie.
Dong!
Lightning now erupted from Annie's body and following her next attack, the thenar space on both of Han Sen's hands were cut. His swords were sent rocketing away, and the force made them both pierce and remain stuck in the metal walls of the room.
Annie looked at Han Sen one last time. Then she turned around and walked away. Her tall and slender shadow left the training room.