The Devil’s Cage

Kieran swiftly dashed out of the study room and closed the door when he was out.

Anne Aldrich Augen’s laughs never stopped throughout the process.

Anyone who heard her laughs will feel the delight in her heart, including Kieran.

In fact, as the person involved, he couldn’t do anything despite he knew it was one of Anne Aldrich Augen’s test again. If he didn’t need her help in certain places, Kieran wouldn’t mind teaching her an unforgettable lesson.

But now?

Leaving was the only choice he had.

Kieran arrived at the corridor that he dropped by last night, the shattered window and torn carpet had been replaced by new ones.

Kieran’s knowledge was not enough for him to judge the value of these things but from the looks of Anne Aldrich Augen’s attitude, these things should be pricey.

“That damn woman!”

The moment Kieran thought about Anne Aldrich Augen, he remembered the previous scene again and instinctively commented on her behavior.

Until he saw Mayer on the side of the corridor, only then he swiftly put away his messy thoughts.

Both of them should be on the same side now but facing against a powerful fighter, Kieran knew what he should do that would cause things to end in the best manner.

The one who lost his vigilance would be the one who suffered a terrible death.

Kieran had no intentions of being one.

“You are strong,” Mayer said directly and outspoken.

Similar to his square facial features that looked rigid, his words sounded hard like a robot as well.

“I want to have a friendly spar.” Mayer didn’t conceal his thoughts, or in other words, a person like Mayer didn’t know how to conceal his thoughts.

Kieran frowned against the suggestion, it wasn’t rejection but surprised.

[Discovered sub-mission: Friendly Spar]

[Friendly Spar: Fighter Mayer wished to spar with you to train his own technique, it is also a rare opportunity for you as well, especially when you win…]

A very surprising sub-mission, the contents even exceeded Kieran’s expectation but after being dazed for a while, he quickly came back to his senses.

“Sure!”

Kieran would not reject given the arrival of a sub-mission.

“Follow me.”

Seeing Kieran agreed in a straightforward manner, Mayer’s rigid face had softened a bit. He turned around and lead Kieran outside to an empty space within the manor.

The empty space was another garden beside the manor’s main building and was different from what Kieran had seen before, this new garden was much more primitive.

Most of the flowers were grown on the ground, not in the gardening pots.

It added a different livelihood to the flowers and when the afternoon breeze blew, the aroma of the flowers wound enter one’s nose and cause one to squint in satisfaction.

Of course, it didn’t include Kieran at that particular moment.

Following a short “Shall we begin?”, Mayer started to look at Kieran fiercely like a tiger.

When Kieran nodded, the blade-like aura from Mayer exploded immediately, as though he was an ignited barrel of explosive filled with sharp blades.

The feel of sharp blades cutting one’s his face made Kieran squint his eyes unconsciously.

Without even looking at the notification spamming his visions, Kieran also knew if he didn’t possess a high enough Spirit attribute, he might be terrified before he even started the fight.

“Spiritual battle tactics?”

Kieran thought of it while he squinted his eyes.

It wasn’t the first time he came in contact against the battle tactics that utilized one’s own aura and battle manner to suppress his enemy. Whether it was in the chats with Lawless during their hangouts or the enemies he used to fight, everything had allowed Kieran to experience real spiritual battle tactics.

Though, it was the first time Kieran came across a furious aura like Mayer’s.

It wasn’t even exaggerating to say that the suppression from Mayer’s aura and manner was already similar to [Half-Dead’s Gaze]’s [Deadman’s Gaze]’s effect.

Kieran clearly could feel a similar suppression from him, but against Kieran’s strongest Spirit attribute, the suppression was still too weak.

Even Kieran had suffered the penalty of -3 to all his attributes, SS+ Spirit granted Kieran the power to face such suppression as though it was a slight breeze to the face.

But as seconds passed, the slight breeze grew stronger.

The slight breeze turned into a strong gale and further elevated into a rampant cyclone!

Kieran still didn’t budge at all, he stood there on the spot as though he had turned into a small hill.

He stood there mightily without the slightest movements!

KABOOM!

A heavy explosion later, Mayer moved.

The first step he took, the rampant cyclone around him wreaked havoc.

The flowers on the ground around him were uprooted together with the dirt and petals. They were flying around as though an unknown furious beast was inside that rampaging cyclone, stirring everything into a mess as it threw itself at Kieran.

BANG!

Kieran raised his kick in a straight line, striking precisely on the beast’s head!

Amidst the heavy blow, the petals and dirt flew off and revealed the true face of the beast: Mayer’s fist!

The erected veins on his iron fist were like the roots of an old tree, supporting that metallic-like skin around it.

Garks!

A tooth numbing screech later, Mayer retracted his punch and so did Kieran with his kick but right after that, both of them attacked again.

Wooosh!

The right fist was switched to the left fist and the right kick was switched to the left kick.

The fist and the foot clashed once more with powerful energy and a harsh air-whistle.

Bang!

BANG BANG BANG!

A second time, third, fourth…

Each time their fist and foot collided, they’d split up right away and launched another round of attack.

Sounds of heavy clashes were ceaseless and relentless. The barrage of fists and feet lasted for a whole full minute.

BANG!

Another hard clash later, both of them split up again but this time, neither of them moved further.

Kieran’s face had a sense of shock, he had already tried to overestimate Mayer’s strength but he didn’t think Mayer would be on par with him in hand-to-hand combat, even though it was just a hard brawl absent of any technique.

Compared to Kieran’s shock, Mayer was overwhelmed.

Mayer’s hands were quivering, his iron-like skin on his hand had visible bruises, it was completely unbelievable for Mayer.

One needed to know that Mayer’s hands had gone through rigorous training of a secret legacy technique. Even facing against bullets, his hands would be free from any scratches, literally. It also was a part of his rigorous training.

Aches, numbness, pain, all three sensations were transferred from his hands to his heart.

It reminded Mayer of his early days to become a fighter. Back in the day, he had to endure thousands and thousands of painful sensation.

The feeling was strange yet familiar to him.

Mayer took in a deep breath. His rigid face was overflowing with the true excitement of a fanatic.

“AGAIN!” Mayer growled.

Then, the technique that Mayer used last night was performed again as he appeared in front of Kieran as though he teleported. His right hand was in a chopping stance, slashing down towards Kieran.

This time around, it was different than the hard clashes from before.

An extremely unique power enveloped Mayer’s right-hand slash.

It looked formless yet was constrained to a shape, it should be invisible yet ripples rippled out of his hand.

The power made his hand slash as sharp as a real blade! Even on par with some famous swords that was forged into existence!