Child of Destiny

...…

As Shin hid behind the tree to avoid the vision of the sniper, he suddenly sensed an immense threat coming from his side.

Swoosh!

He quickly leaned forward without any hesitation, dodging the incoming strike that came out of nowhere.

Shing!

A sudden flash passed over Shin's head right after he leaned forward. He was about to counterattack when another attack suddenly came from the other direction, forcing him to throw that idea at the back of his head.

He quickly kicked the ground and propelled himself in the air, executing a quick spin roll and dodging another attack with a hair's breadth margin.

Phantom and Valdez, who thought that they had perfectly timed their attacks, were caught a little off guard but were not shocked enough to cease their attacks. They quickly recovered themselves and continued attacking.

Phantom flipped his dagger and swung it down, planning to cut Shin's neck in front of him, while Valdez adjusted this grip over his sword and turned it upwards before swinging it at Shin, who was still midair and positioned horizontally.

Shing! Shing!

Both attacks came in perfect synch, making it hard for Shin to avoid them. The two were quite fast, accurate, and decisive with their actions, making it hard for Shin to respond, especially with very few flaws that he could take advantage of.

But while he was spin-rolling midair, he suddenly adjusted his center of gravity to slightly slow down his descent before twisting his body and retwisting it toward the opposite direction, swinging both of his arms along with it as well as the shortswords he was holding.

Swoosh!

Clang! Clang!

Both Phantom and Valdez were shocked as their attacks were deflected by Shin despite being in a very awkward position. They were even forced to take a couple of steps back as they tried to relieve the residual force on their arms right after their dagger and sword rebounded respectively.

That single exchange was more than enough for them to realize that their opponent was in the third tier of his class, making him one of the current pinnacle players of the game.

"Someone from the Hall of Fame?" mumbled Phantom as he frowned deeply.

Valdez also had a similar thought, making him to be more wary of this opponent that they had. He and Phantom also had Tier 3 Classes, but they could already sense that this person in front of them had superior stats, class, and equipment with just a little exchange.

This was also the realization behind Phantom's words, which indicated that even if they were also in the Hall of Fame, the ranking of the person in front of them was way higher than theirs.

With a solemn expression on their faces, they were still forced to calm themselves down and continue attacking Shin.

He might be stronger than them individually, but that did not mean that they would back down just because of that.

They quickly charged forward, trying to attack Shin once again.

Valdez leaned forward and was about to swing his sword forward when he suddenly saw Shin flipping in the air before swiftly kicking at him in a stomping action.

The sole of Shin's combat boots accurately hit the bottom of the hilt of Valdez's sword, making the latter unable to fully swing his sword.

Then Shin used the momentum from the collision to propel backward, avoiding the attacks that were coming from Phantom, who suddenly appeared beside him.

Swoosh!

Due to his actions, Shin was forced out of his hiding space. This made him visible to Claude, the marksman of the other party, once again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without any hesitation, he pulled the trigger of his modified magic pistol, firing a rain of bullets in his direction.

The timing and the accuracy were topnotch as the bullets flew straight to Shin right after he revealed himself from behind the tree. They even flew in a strange trajectory, taking strange angles while reaching their targets.

Ta-ta!

Shin's foot just touched the ground when these bullets flew at him. They were already about to reach him before he could even adjust himself and the fact them.

Swoosh!

But Shin was not even fazed when he saw that the magic bullets completely covered all his escape routes. He did not even have the time to use any movement or escaping skills since they were already right in front of him before he could even do anything.

They were about to reach him when a black and white electricity covered Shin's body and his movements suddenly became much faster.

His arms turned into blurs as flashes of black and white light crisscrossing one another surrounded him, slicing and deflecting the magic bullets that were about to reach him.

'Yin-Yang Swordsmanship: Sword Transmigration'

Cling! Clang!

Clang! Clang!

Claude, who fired all the shots, could not help but stare blankly at the sight. He could not believe that there was someone, who could still respond in that kind of situation. He was confident that even some of the most powerful and highly skilled Godlike Players would have a hard time responding in that predicament.

Even though he believed that there were still a few, who could achieve such a feat, they were only limited. He could even count them with his two hands. That was had few of the people he knew, who could block or dodge his shots in that situation.

"Am I getting rusty?" he mumbled to himself, seemingly slightly doubting himself. His ego seemed to have been hurt by what he was seeing.

That only lasted for a moment as he quickly recovered his composure and started firing more shots.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shin, who just used the power of the Primordial Eclipse – more specifically, the Primordial Lightning – due to the sudden emergency, quickly incorporated this power with his movement techniques.

Crackle! Crackle!

The alternating black and white electric currents suddenly covered his entire body before he kicked the ground.

Bang!

'Yin-Yang Arts: (Self-Created) Lightning Steps'

With his extremely fast movements, the electric currents left behind a trail that traces his path. They also interfered with the magic bullets that were trying to change their trajectory and chase after him.

Shin disappeared and reappeared repeatedly, leaving a series of afterimages behind him. Then, due to his application of the Power of Primordial Eclipse, the afterimages that he had created also carried the black and white lightning elemental properties.

Every time these afterimages were hit by the magic bullets, they would explode and release a moderately powerful electric shockwave that spread within the five-meter radius around them.

This caused Phantom and Valdez, who were trying to chase after Shin, to slow down their movements as they were afraid of getting caught in the explosion.

'Yin-Yang Arts: (Modified) Ghost Evanescent'

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Boom!

Bang! Bang!

In the meantime, Claude kept on moving backward, trying to distance himself from their opponent as far as possible and kiting with Shin with his decent skills.

But given the speed that Shin had, and his locations being exposed due to his continuous shots, the opposing party would most likely catch up to him sooner rather than later.

Fortunately, they still had the advantage in terms of numbers.

Swoosh!

Wolf, who almost died at Shin's hands, finally recovered himself and joined the battle.

He did not dare to confront Shin in a head-on battle as he was aware that he was inferior in almost every aspect. But that did not mean that he would lose one-sidedly once again, especially when he would be working with his brother, whom he was very familiar with.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As Claude was bombarding Shin with a series of shots, Wolf suddenly appeared on the side that was not covered by his brother. His body was currently shrouded in a black aura, which quickly converged into his daggers.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

He quickly swung his swords without any hint of hesitation, targeting Shin's vitals.

Shin, who was pretty much occupied with the magic bullets flying in his direction quickly adjusted his form, using his left hand to deflect the incoming bullets with his sword while swinging the other sword that he was holding with his right hand and blocking the daggers targeting him from the side.

Bang!

Wolf felt like he hit a huge metal pole with his daggers as his entire body shook due to the collision.

That casual swing from Shin felt like a heavy boulder pressing on him right after their weapons came in contact.

His arms were even shaking violently, making them numb to a certain degree.

That strike from Shin incorporated the will of 'heaviness' along with elements of earth and metal. It would be stranger if this attack did not cause such an effect.

Wolf did very well at withstanding that attack as he did not fly right after the collision. However, his feet sank deeply on the ground as he tried to redirect most of the force toward the ground right after receiving the impact.

Cough!

He also spit out some blood, indicating that his body suffered serious trauma due to the collision. Even the health bar above his head was chunked down by half without him knowing.

Shin was about to end Wolf with a follow-up attack when the familiar sound of the wind being split apart quickly interrupted him.

Swoosh!

Without even looking at what it was, Shin adjusted the trajectory of his sword and redirected it toward the incoming attack.

Clang!

Sparks flew in the air as his sword collided with the daggers on Phantom's hand.

Shin remained calm while the latter wore a solemn look on his face due to how heavy that strike was from Shin. If for his reinforced stats from the buffs that he had received earlier, then he would most likely be sent flying by now.

As Shin and Phantom maintained their positions, Valdez quickly appeared beside Wolf and dragged the latter away as fast as he could.

Shin did not bother to look at them as he was more curious about this assassin in front of him as well as the marksman that was keeping him occupied earlier.

From his observation, these two were the strongest ones within the group while that swordsman earlier slightly was behind them.

He was not confused as to why the marksman suddenly stopped firing at him as he knew that it was a basic principle for a marksman to actively change his position when the opposing side was already aware of his presence.

Shin kept his guard up, waiting for the sounds of the gunshots, before making his move.

But to his surprise, a different form of attack arrived.

The assassin in front of him suddenly disappeared while the ground underneath his feet suddenly shone brightly.

Glancing briefly at the patterns of the magic circle, Shin quickly gave an idea of what type of spell it was, especially when it was somewhat similar to what Cloe usually used when fighting alongside him.

"A Holy Mage Spell? It is at most Tier 2 as well," mumbled Shin as he responded.

Before the magic circle was fully activated, his True Sight ocular skill had already seen through it and found a few flaws in it.

He flipped his wrists along with the pair of swords that he was holding in each hand before infusing his Primordial Lightning in them.

At the same time, he was also circulating the energies within him through a certain pattern before gathering most of them toward his feet.

When the magic circle was about to be fully activated, he suddenly stomped onto the ground with all his strength, creating fissures that spread throughout the magic circle.

Then he channeled the Primordial Lightning toward the ground, destroying the flow of mana within the circle.

'Yin-Yang Arts: (Self-Created) Thunderclap Step'

Boom!

An explosion quickly erupted as a pillar of lightning flashed and soared into the air, filling the surroundings with black and white electric currents.

Such a sight was so stunning that the group felt like they were fighting the God of Lightning and Thunder himself.

But that spell was no ordinary spell. It was a tier 2 spell of a Holy Mage, which majored in Sacred Magic. Due to this, the effects of the black-and-white lightning were fairly limited.

However, Shin had destroyed most of the magic circle, so the flow of mana was completely disturbed. This caused the collapse of the gathering mana, which also resulted in another explosion.

This time, it would be hard for Shin if he did not handle it very well.

But Shin was already prepared for this. The gathered energies within his swords had already been prepared since the beginning of his actions.

Right when the explosion was about to devour him. He suddenly swung them, applying the energy circulation method that he had learned from Jade Kirin Scripture while also utilizing the sword wills that he had already mastered.

A new sword technique was formed.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

'Myriad Transformation Swordsmanship: Thunderbolt Cross'

Two strikes!

It was only two strikes, yet the massive explosion that was in the middle of the eruption was suddenly split apart, revealing his majestic and cool figure standing in the middle of it.

Phantom and his group, who were watching from a safe distance, could not help but fall in awe after witnessing this scene.

They could not help cursing themselves. "What kind of monster are we trying to fight?"

...