The Devil’s Cage

The moment he dished out his kick, Kieran’s single kick turned into ten more, and an instant later, the kicks’ afterimages filled the sky like a tidal wave from the sea, drowning Ye Jing whole.

Unlike when he was fighting with weapons, Kieran, while engaging with his kicks, completely relied on his own Strength, Agility and Constitution.

His Strength and Agility reached SS+ at the moment and his Constitution was at ZZZ-, nearing the level of Strong I.

With the +4 buffs on Strength and Agility from [Hand-to-hand Combat, Transcendence Kick Combats], Kieran’s stats easily reached the New Advance Ranks, and though perhaps it might be the weakest level, it still surpassed the common, especially Transcendence option [Outstanding Kicks], which granted him an extra +1 attack buff when he faced off against common and materialized beings.

Even though attacking with kicks consumed extra Stamina, the kicks easily boosted Kieran’s attack to the transcendence range, and that still wasn’t the end.

Huu!

Amid the sky-encompassing kicks, flames started to burn.

Blazing Devil Flame was infused into Kieran’s kicks as he relentlessly attacked Ye Jing’s defenses.

Back in the Character Template Limit dungeon world, when Kieran had successfully broken through the limit of [Hand-to-hand Combat], he acquired the extra effect [Outstanding Strength], which allowed him to infuse Dawn Force or Devil Flame into his legs, forming an extra Strong level attack.

Perhaps the extra attack wasn’t as powerful, but when Kieran combined it with Grand Master [Hundred Violent Kicks], its 225% attack speed compensated for the lowered attack.

And this was even more so when [Bide] from [Barsical Kick] was triggered, as he then became a tiger with wings.

From the second kick to the fifth kick, Kieran’s Agility was buffed by +1, +2, +3, +4 respectively, and when the fourth and the fifth kicks landed, he gained an extra +3, +4 respectively on top of his original Strength and Agility, making Kieran’s attacks fiercer with each increase and scarier with each kick.

Although Ye Jing’s “Extreme Night” possessed a defense that far surpassed Kieran’s attack, Ye Jing couldn’t help but falter.

Qualitative changes incite quantitative changes!

Numbers shouldn’t be neglected regardless of time and situation, especially when Kieran was attacking the less-than-complete “Extreme Night”.

Kak!

Kak kak!

Cracks were sounded relentlessly.

Kieran felt that the defense of “Extreme Night” was becoming weaker, but his heart had another sense of danger coming out.

Without further thought, Kieran pulled himself backwards and the moment he did—

Ye Jing’s hand grazed the bottom of Kieran’s boots.

His hand didn’t really touch Kieran but Kieran shivered nonetheless, not because of the temperature but because of instinctive fear. He felt that had the hand touched him, he would have died without a grave.

At the next moment, the scene before Kieran’s eyes seemed to prove himself correct because Ye Jing’s aura plummeted once more, more than just blocking the combined attack and relentless combo now.

Following the plummet of his aura, Ye Jing’s current danger level fell from the initial extremely dangerous to less dangerous.

Although Ye Jing still triumphed over Kieran in terms of raw power, he was no longer the deep, profound powerhouse that Kieran couldn’t get a grasp of.

“Rank IV!”

Kieran rated Ye Jing based on the big city’s system.

Then, he quickly adjusted his breath for the next round of attack.

Kieran could already see the light of victory and the rewards hiding behind it!

What kind of spoils of war would Ye Jing drop?

That sole thought alone excited Kieran beyond words.

The other who shared his excitement was [Arrogant Word]!

Being able to potentially kill such a strong enemy was no doubt a plus for [Arrogant Word], it seemed to have acquired a very good grindstone.

The more grinding, the sharper it would become, thus also the stronger it would become.

Ultimately, it might even reach the level its forger had hoped for in the first place.

Kieran, the wielder, slightly lowered down his body like a tiger off the mountains.

[Arrogant Word], the sword, was pointed straight ahead like the claws of a tiger.

When the tiger leaped out at its target, its indomitable power would be unstoppable.

Ye Jing seemed to feel the aura from Kieran, as he stared with a dreadful gaze.

Then…

He backed off!

After his current level’s strongest strike missed its target, Ye Jing had completely abandoned all thoughts of ramming into this place.

Would he lose face if he ran like this?

Ye Jing never cared about face since he had no honor to begin with, or else, he would have never used all kinds of treacherous tricks to deal with Great Swamp.

He would only act as righteous when he was strong, but whenever the situation was against him, Ye Jing would always retreat first before thinking about staging a comeback, similar to this exact moment.

Before Kieran even attacked, Ye Jing had started to retreat. He did not turn around and run with his legs, but rather, he tiptoed on his feet and started to float backwards without any extra body movement.

Thus, Ye Jing was still facing Kieran, and despite the situation, he didn’t forget to voice his threats.

“You were just lucky this time. Remember, my powers are only temporarily restrained by this place! When I get back to the surface, my powers will be restored! Until then… you better pray that I’ll show mercy and leave you an intact body!”

As he spoke, Ye Jing placed his finger over his neck.

It was certain that Ye Jing hated Kieran to his bones due to his appearance, which Ye Jing’s efforts fell short of.

No!

“I haven’t failed! I still have preparations in Flame City! If I can utilize them properly, I can still stage a comeback!”

With that thought formed, Ye Jing retreated even faster but not as fast as the spider web.

Silently, [Mardos Web] stuck itself to Ye Jing’s hand after he moved it over his neck. The other end of the spider web, which was held tightly in Kieran’s hand, was pulled with all of Kieran’s might.

The spider web shortened rapidly, the distance between the two of them instantly shrinking down, and even though Ye Jing freed himself of the spider web in the very next moment, [Arrogant Word] already swung down.

This time, Ye Jing had no “Extreme Night” to his defense.

After Kieran’s relentless attacks, “Extreme Night” was badly overloaded and on the verge of crumbling at any moment.

While the slash was impending, Ye Jing was forced to use a more primitive move that he ditched a long time ago to defend himself: using the core of “Extreme Night” to block the attack.

A pitch black sword that’s blade was only two fingers width wide appeared in Ye Jing’s hand. It was around 1.2 meters long and filled with many cracks, but the moment he wielded it, the sword managed to block [Arrogant Word].

Dang!

After the loud iron clanking, Ye Jing’s face turned for the worse because the strength from the greatsword wasn’t right.

It was too soft!

Right after that, Ye Jing saw Kieran switch his two-handed wielding to single-handed wielding again. Ye Jing’s face almost distorted when he saw Kieran’s left hand in front of his face.

He never thought Kieran would still play the same old tricks in times like this.

Huu!

Devil Flame burned again but, before it could engulf Ye Jing, darkness appeared.

The darkness devoured all light around it, including Devil Flame.

It was extinguished right after it burned.

Inside the darkness, Ye Jing’s voice could be heard.

“Do you know why I am called Ye Jing? It’s because only in the night can I wield my true power! Especially… at dawn!”