One-Eyed Monster

Kadi took a look at the situation in front of him and realized he had to get closer to the smithy to complete a kind of Integration with his weapon, so he used Devil’s Steps again to dodge a few of Ruben’s thrusts, then said to Igor, ”Help me deal with this guy for a bit, I’ll be right back.”

”Got it!” Igor agreed in one breath without the slightest hesitation, not even caring that his own legs were currently bound.

The few members of Smoke who heard what they said couldn’t possibly let this chance slip by, and immediately sped up their offensive rhythm.

More Rubens appeared around Kadi, each one gripping a dagger, clearly not planning to let Kadi into the smithy. Off to the side, Igor was feeling the sensation of that Smoke crawling up his body; originally the Smoke only reached his calves, but now that it had sped up its climb, it was about to reach his thighs. Flames still encircled Igor, and all sorts of Flame Arrows kept flying in from time to time, but unfortunately those flames just couldn’t burn Igor in the slightest…

”Igor, he’s all yours!” Kadi finished speaking and disappeared…

This sudden disappearance left all those Rubens dumbfounded. They hadn’t expected something like this; by the time they processed it, Kadi himself had already appeared inside the smithy.

The Rubens glanced at each other, then all concealed their figures and moved toward the smithy. In Ruben’s eyes, that Igor couldn’t move at all right now, wrapped up in Smoke with no way to move.

Yet just as Ruben thought he could give that masked guy a sneak attack, a vague chill drifted over beside him!

”Not good!” Ruben’s body flickered aside in a hurry, but he still didn’t manage to dodge in time and had no choice but to forcibly block that strand of Sword Qi with the dagger in his hand!

That’s right, Igor had slashed out a strand of Sword Qi!

”Master, if I end up damaging something somewhere, please forgive me!” Even now Igor didn’t forget to apologize to Master, knowing that once his Sword Qi was unleashed he couldn’t rein it in and might accidentally damage a lot of things.

”I’m a blacksmith. If something gets chopped up, I can just fix it again!” Master Lao didn’t care in the slightest.

”All right then!” Igor grinned. ”Now I can chop people without worrying!”

Ruben’s hands were still trembling. That Sword Qi had cost him plenty, and several of the clones formed by combining with the surrounding Smoke popped out of existence one after another. He had never imagined this boy’s Sword Qi had already reached such a level.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before this boy Igor broke free of that Smoke chain!

This won’t do…

Before Ruben’s thought had even finished forming, he saw Igor’s Sword Qi swing out again. He hastily raised his still-trembling arms to block this Sword Qi, hoping his dagger could survive this strike! However, this time when Igor’s Sword Qi swept out, it also formed a Shockwave around him—the aftershock from the Sword Qi. Clearly Igor had no intention of dealing with just Ruben alone. The aftershock Shockwave from that Sword Qi directly blasted Grim, who was swinging his axe, away, and wave after wave of Shockwave spread out from around Igor. The flames that had been circling him were all shattered into pieces by this Shockwave.

The flames were completely blasted apart. What had been a mass of blazing fire was shattered by the Shockwave into fragments of sparks that scattered in all directions. This shocked Sims even more than when the flames had been sliced apart earlier. Sims strained himself to the limit to control those flames to resist the Shockwave, but no matter how hard he tried, the flames simply couldn’t get in!

The Smoke that had been wrapping around Igor was also blown away by those Shockwaves and gradually dispersed without a trace.

At this moment the big guy Grim had just climbed up from the ground. He was rubbing his arm, clearly never having suffered such humiliation before. Grim turned to look at the wooden-faced Sims, then at Ruben, whose hands were twitching as he hesitated to step forward, and was for a moment at a loss for words. Their boss, the smoking old man, was now coughing violently; clearly the force of the Sword Qi Igor had just unleashed already had the four of them scrambling.

Smoke’s strength wasn’t so overwhelming that they could annihilate anyone they met, but they were farsighted and would never cross hands with a true powerhouse. Yet these two boys had left them in such a sorry state; it had to be said they’d judged this one wrong.

The smoking old man coughed, turned his head to look at that girl, his eyes full of expectation.

But Igor had only just swung out one strand of Sword Qi; this was only the beginning…

Igor bent his knees, raised his sword, and aimed it at the girl behind the smoking old man. ”Still not going to make a move?”

With that, another strand of Sword Qi was swung out.

This time the big guy Grim was knocked out cold on the spot, and Sims, too, was so rattled he lost all ability to act, standing there like an idiot. The smoking old man didn’t dare take this Sword Qi head-on and hurriedly shouted, ”Third!”

Unfortunately Ruben couldn’t move. He still hadn’t recovered from the shock of that previous Sword Qi, and his hands were now shaking so badly he couldn’t even hold his dagger steady.

At this moment Kadi had just finished the blood-melting under Master Lao’s guidance.

Master Lao didn’t ask why Kadi’s blood was blue; he only focused on Quenching Flame for Kadi’s short blade, then grabbed his polishing tool at the fastest speed. Clearly this weapon only had one last step left—polishing it sharp!

The smoking old man was hit by that Sword Qi head-on, his internal organs almost turned upside down from the shock. He coughed and spat blood nonstop, nearly coughing his entire old life out!

”A bunch of trash.” The girl said carelessly, her gaze never once leaving the smithy from start to finish.

When the Sword Qi reached the girl’s side, it abruptly stopped, as if absorbed by something, with not even the slightest leftover momentum, completely vanishing.

Igor froze for a moment and lowered his raised sword, not swinging out another Sword Qi!

”I’ve been waiting so long, and I finally got to see it!” The girl suddenly grew excited, but her voice didn’t sound like a girl’s voice at all. Her eyes never left the smithy, and those words were naturally spoken to the smithy.

”Hey, your opponent’s over here!” Igor reminded the girl.

But the girl didn’t care in the slightest. She continued speaking excitedly, ”They’re going all out, this is a real Craftsman Spirit! My waiting wasn’t for nothing, I’m so excited, so excited!”

Hearing this, Igor became even more convinced of the judgment he’d had in his heart earlier. These people really were here for Master Lao. Now was truly the time for them to go all out.