Chapter 249: Test of Might (1/2)
[A/N: In chapter 247, James showed his Legendary metal, and the following dialogue revealed he was the fourth one to have reached Legendary rank in something. Correction: Not fourth, but seventh.
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"I choose…you. You are first, show me what you got."
Everyone traced King Gunther's finger and saw it pointing at Theo Gabris, the old monster with four high-ranking elemental mastery above S-rank, possessing a highly synergizing elemental combat style of a mage.
The old monsters' expressions became weird while Admiral Rudra wryly smiled.
"So I am the weakest among the ten of us?" Theo asked with a weak smile.
"According to my instincts, indeed," Gunther said with a grin.
"Ahem, shouldn't it be me?" Almond asked with a cough.
Gunther blinked as he looked at Almond and narrowed his eyes, "Are you joking? Every fiber of my being feels threatened by you more than others here."
All the old monsters looked at Almond with an even weirder expression.
Seeing them, Gunther blinked and said, "Perhaps, you all are not aware of this young adventurer' capabilities…well, nor I am, so I am eager to find out. You'll be the last."
[Silvester: Brat, it seems that you got a lot more up your sleeve than you're letting out, hahaha.]
[Aarav: So you are strongest among us, eh? Interesting.]
[Almond: This king must be confused, it's just his instincts speaking, haha.]
[Bianca: Instincts are rather reliable in our profession, especially if they are honed with experience, much like this King Gunther.]
[Theo: Brat, you better show us something good when it's your turn, hahaha.]
Theo walked forward after saying in the mana network, his body, beard, and hair glowing with colorful hues as his aura surged.
"Shoot," Gunther said as he crossed his arms.
Theo spread his arms as both of his palms whirled with two different powers—An icy cold energy and a fiery hot energy.
Afterward, he conjoined his palms with the first two fingers straightened and others bent as if gesturing a 'gun'. Both opposite temperature energies synergized and created a dark purple energy that condensed into an orb before his hands, pulsing out destructiveness.
Almond's eyes glinted, 'Damn, that's powerful. He achieved a destruction attribute on his own by balancing the combination of specifically using hot and cold of his fire and water.'
"Interesting," Gunther grinned as his skin turned faint glassy red.
"Here it comes," Theo said before unleashing the orb. It instantly struck Gunther, creating a loud blast as the smoke of dark purple covered the area.
"Wonderful! That hit me good, alright!"
A loud laugh rumbled as the smoke scattered and everyone saw Gunther again with a circular mark on his chest where the orb had struck.
But the mark quickly healed in front of them.
[James: Well, well….I was expecting more damage on him from Theo's full-powered attack, but it seems this King Gunther's skin is quite tough.]
[Liang: He used a skill that increased his defenses drastically. His physical body is his greatest weapon.]
"You are next, come here," Gunther said as he pointed at Aarav.
Aarav wryly smiled as he walked forward while saying, "Don't be disappointed by my attack. I specialize in defense."
'Well, I have some tricks, but I can't use them without setting my barriers to absorb damages, and this king just wants me to attack,' Aarav thought about what to do since most of his weapon arts and attacks were based on defense-first and then switching to attack.
"No worries, shoot your strongest attack," Gunther said with a nod.
Aarav set up three half-circular mystic blue barriers like a shield in front of him before they turned red as he used a skill. From behind the barrier, he used another specialized class skill as a magical cannon manifested around his right arm, made purely of mana and no elemental energy.
But he made it elemental with his fire elemental mastery by enchanting it and released an attack consuming all of his remaining Mana.
The cannon unleashed a spherical attack that struck the barrier, but the moment it touched it, the barrier shattered while the sphere became bigger and more powerful!
The same thing happened with the next two barriers shattering and empowering the attack instantly before it finally struck King Gunther.
An explosion occurred, cracking the floor and blowing powerful gusts of wind, but King Gunther stood absolutely still, only his feet dragging back due to the powerful explosion.
"Mhmm, good. Although your attack was less powerful than the previous one, you got some interesting tricks," Gunther said with a grin. "Barrier master, eh? That's going to be helpful in our conquest."
[Bianca: It seems that he knows what this battlefield is about.]
[Rudra: That seems to be the case. Allying with the kingdom is indeed the best option to get more information about this battlefield.]
"Next, your turn," King Gunther pointed at James.
"Tsk, knew it would be me next."
James walked forward as his legendary metal conjured into a huge two-meter fancy hand cannon extending from his right arm.
It was his specialized class's skill that further evolved with his modifications.
The cannon's patterns glimmered before James consumed all of his Mana and unleashed a laser beam that dealt constant Plasma-element damage, the advanced element made of Fire and Lightning, boosted by his legendary nanometal's adaptive power that enhanced the attack by boosting plasma element's attributes further.
King Gunther was pushed back a meter as he blocked the constant laser impact and damage, which wasn't really working on him as the laser couldn't break past the red faint energy coating around his body.
"Mhmm, not bad," King Gunther nodded.
James wryly smiled. 'I guess my attack was also weaker than Theo's attack.'
His Legendary nano-metal was not exactly offensive, but adaptive as it depended on his capabilities to bring out its potential. He had just acquired this, so he hadn't had time to utilize it better yet.
"Next, your turn," King Gunther pointed at Liang.
Liang unleashed his heavenly lightning dragon battle art with his destructive dual variant lightning, dark blue and jade green, forming a rather majestic wingless dragon with mixed colors as it rained down on King Gunther for an absolute destructive attack.
"Wonderful," Gunther said with a grin. "That was a good battle art."
"Next, you, show your move," Gunther said as he pointed at Bianca.
Bianca calmly walked forward before darkness spread around her. From within, five pulsing black daggers shot toward King Gunther as she consumed all of her Mana on executing her battle art—Five Daggers of Corroding Death.
Each dagger struck at apparent weak spots on King Gunther, making cracks in his defensive red coating.
"Wonderful!" King Gunther laughed as he recovered swiftly. "A fearsome assassin move indeed. Getting struck by this unexpectedly could cause trouble given the damage and debuffs you inflicted."
"Next, you," King Gunther pointed at Hiroshi.
"Hah," Silvester grinned. "I am stronger than you, old coot, now it's clear."
Hiroshi snorted and walked forward as he looked at King Gunther with a serious expression, "Can you evaluate who got the strongest attack move between the two of us?"
King Gunther laughed and nodded, "Sounds good. I shall be the judge for that."