The Devil’s Cage

Just when Kieran was intentionally looking at the river, Allen’s heart turned cautious as well.

When the freezing mist appeared, a short staff already appeared in Allen’s hand and followed by its activation, a special layer of defensive barrier appeared over his body.

The freezing mist that was forming a thick layer of ice over the bridge was halted by the barrier and couldn’t move another inch.

Unlike the natives in the dungeon which only had limited methods, the players, however, had plenty of skills, items, and all sorts of emergency measures to counter sudden situations. Players were not something that could be measured with common sense, they might be wielding swords and knives one moment and a moment later, they might switch to guns and grenades.

Kieran didn’t feel weird when Allen pulled out his short staff but instead Allen was shocked by Kieran’s countermeasures. Kieran did nothing as he stood where he was, without any equipment or skills activated, and when the freezing mist and the layer of frost reached him, it didn’t cause any damage to his body.

”Resistance type skills eh?” Allen speculated. His view of Kieran’s changed once again.

Even though Allen had tried to estimate Kieran’s strength as much as possible, at that very moment, Allen realized that he was still underestimating Kieran’s power.

However, Allen wasn’t dissatisfied at all, instead, he was happier than ever.

The stronger Broker’s enemies were, the happier he would be.

Kieran too felt the changes from Allen. He knew exactly what Allen thought of him and it was also what he wanted from Allen.

The collaboration between the both of them has to be built on a strong base and to strengthen the mentioned base required none other than a display of strength.

The stronger Kieran was, the more cooperative Allen would be. So, Kieran wouldn’t let the opportunity slip by.

Although he has no idea whether the new attack was from the group of bodyguards from before or the extra insurance measures from Broker, one thing was for sure, the attacker was not there to talk.

Fuuus!

[Charles’ Fire] was burning the Lineage Fire in his left hand fiercely.

The blazing fire was expelling the freezing air and the mist, thus revealing a figure taking form outside of the bridge.

The figure was floating in mid-air, donning a long robe over his body. The huge hoodie blocked his face without any extra layer of cover, yet it was effectively preventing Kieran’s [Deadman’s Gaze]. The man has no need to cover his eyes with his hands anymore, all he needed was a slight tilt of his head.

He came prepared!

Kieran commented in his heart.

The ball of blazing fire was hurled out straight away.

Fuuuum!

The 1-meter wide fireball was tossed out like a catapult hurling out its stone pellet, whipping up an air-breaking sound that could numb one’s scalp. The fireball rapidly approached the floating figure.

Huuuuu!

It seemed like the man had no intentions of dodging, instead, he took in a deep cold breath, the mist in the surrounding area was drawn to him like rumbling clouds.

The freezing mist consisted of endless water vapour and as the fireball was approaching him, it was shrinking bits by bits at exponential speed.

When the fireball really came in contact with the man, it had shrunk into the size of a common knuckle and the man did a back slap with his hand, extinguishing the fireball instantly.

More water vapors turned into freezing mist the moment the man raised his hand and was poured down at Kieran.

Space turned crystal white instantly. Allen too dodged aside quickly, moving out of range of the mist.

He was sizing up the enemy that appeared all of a sudden with an anxious mind.

The power level of the enemy has far exceeded his expectation which made his heart heavy.

How could he miss the information that Broker had roped in some powerful player like this?

Since when?

While Allen was troubled by his thoughts, Kieran was calm and cool.

He looked at the downpouring frost mist, he raised his right hand with an opened palm, pointing towards it.

”AIO!”

A cone-shaped flame burst out from his palm, instantly clashing with the frosty mist.

KABOOOOSH!

The clash of two contrasting elements produced the fiercest reaction upon contact.

The explosion was echoing throughout Reeder Irla Bridge, violent wind ravaged the whole path.

The shockwave even shook the pillars of the bridge a little yet the mist wasn’t scattered by the wind, instead, it turned even denser.

The dense mist instantly devoured the attacking figure and Kieran together within.

A colder than before atmosphere spread throughout the bridge. Allen could even feel that his breath freezing.

The notifications in his vision about his decreasing HP told him what he should do.

Allen backed off again. Other than taking revenge, he wasn’t stubborn or persistent against anything else. He wouldn’t get himself hurt trying to save his own face but of course, he wouldn’t have given up during the situation either.

Allen then took out special glasses and wore them. It allowed him to see through the mist clearly while getting ahold of what was going on inside.

However, the moment he saw what was happening inside the mist, he was dumbstruck and his face changed.

Kieran who was standing inside the mist proudly was pierced by multiple longswords like icicles. The attacker was going to stab even more icicles into Kieran’s body but Kieran, on the other hand, seemed like he couldn’t feel pain.

He was contemplating his foe with an arrogant gaze. The attacker was infuriated, thus launching his attack one after another but every strike had no effect on Kieran.

The proud attacker then surrendered his heart to the rage that was caused by the arrogant target.

”What the hell?” Allen opened his eyes big, looking frightened. He noticed something wasn’t right.

Allen did in-depth research on Kieran’s abilities and he got to know that Kieran had some kind of avatar creating ability but he would never have thought that the avatars would have the abilities to affect people’s emotions.

”What a fearsome ability!” Allen gasped. He knew how important it was to remain calm during a battle.

Allen wasn’t holding any hope for the attacker. He was sure that the attacker was doomed and then, it proved him right.

When Kieran charged up [Sword Skill, Dragon Force] with [Arrogant Word], a fierce slash brought up a violent wind in its trajectory, slicing the attacker’s body in half.

However, the attacker’s body did not disintegrate into light particles but instead, it exploded.

KABOOM!

The heavy explosion even sent Allen flying backward.

Kieran’s [Primus Arm, Primus Scale] was activated, his arm guard was shining ceaselessly.

The Powerful force field barrier had to be activated twice to mitigate the explosive shockwave. Kieran’s expression was as calm as water throughout the process.

He looked at the ball of paper that fell to his feet and squinted his eyes.

The ball of paper looked nothing in particular but the way it appeared struck a chord in Kieran’s memory.

He bent down, picked up the paper and opened it up.

When the scarlet smiley face appeared before his eyes again, he skipped a breath instantly.

”So it is this crazy thing again!”

After verifying his own thoughts, and before he could relate into more, the paper burst into flames.

As the paper was burning hot, a smiley face formed by the smoke from the fire appeared once again before Kieran.

Kieran had dealt with this encounter before, so he wasn’t eager to strike, instead, he stared at the smokey smiley face.

”You have proved yourself! Now then… Find us and join us!”

When the heavy voice subsided, the eerie smiley face disappeared.

The scarlet red tattoo on the back of Kieran’s palm also changed slightly.