NOVEL NEXT Chapter 254: Za-Lord’s Guard
Vanar
Vanar looked out over the large training ground he found behind the mountains, filled with multiple different constructed battlefields, from artificial forests to an absolutely huge tank filled with water, and there he could sense a total of 967 C ranks, over 600 of which he recognized. The most noticeable ones of all, however, were the four men of different races attached to a bloodtree in the center, seemingly being fed on by the plant and obviously the ones he’d been ordered to talk to. So, not wanting to die from not following orders, Vanar infused his movements with his Law Scarab of Speed and quickly arrived in front of the tree.
“You’re the Devil Blade, correct?” One of the men on the tree, an elf radiating an aura showing he specialized in life and water element Laws, nodded to him as he approached. “The Lord’s Shadow has spoken and you’re a candidate to be the head of our group, while I’m to give you an introduction.
“First, my name is Wen Alexis and, as you can see, some bastards out in the main universe decided to feed me to a bloodtree to extract my power, along with my three sleeping friends.” His hands, both free even as his back and legs were imbedded into the bloodtree’s bark, gestured toward the three others attached to the tree, all of whom were asleep, particularly the human. “Raven, the human here, is the older brother of one of the Lord’s most talented subordinates, so the Lord rescued us when we were sold at auction.
“Then we made a deal and the Lord did some sort of modification to the bloodtree and the formations in the cauldron.” Wen Alexis pointed down at the cauldron below him which held the bloodtree along with a whole bunch of monster flesh. “He would have just freed us if we had asked, but we would be weak, most of our power extracted, so we instead chose the option of allowing the bloodtree to fully bloom, which, if the Lord is to be believed, will generate one fruit and use the power of the remaining four which would have been produced to modify our bodies and make our souls stronger than they were previously.
“We still won’t be able to advance to B rank, our bodies having the same type of problems the Lord’s Shadow says yours does, but the Lord promised, should we work hard, he’ll help us reincarnate and rise up again from G rank. And, given Raven’s little brother—someone who, as a C rank, can slaughter B ranks with ease—would be pissed if that were a lie, the four of us are inclined to believe it’s true.”
The elf smiled, and Vanar could sense genuine excitement from the man, exactly what he’d expect from a stupid slave being conned into working hard by a new master.
“Enough about me, though.” Wen Alexis gestured out at the training grounds. “Everyone here is part of a force called the Za-Lord’s Guard.
“Why the name when our Lord is not called Za, no one knows. But most of the Lord’s long term subordinates we’ve met have a tendency to laugh when the name is mentioned, while Raven’s little brother grows sad, so the running theory is it is some sort of joke name that is also in honor of someone who died.
“More important to you, however, our force has great benefits. These include having a whole quarter of this B rank planet all to ourselves, pills for accumulating stats which we can use as fast as we can rid ourselves of impurities, and Fabled to Empyrean grade artifacts in high enough numbers that everyone is always able to find at least one which is suitable. And these are just what is given to every member.
“Personal servants of the Lord, such as myself, get an increase in the effectiveness of our Soul and Attunement stats by 50% and in our affinity with all Laws by 100%, as well as an increase to the max stats of our races by 50% and the ability to transform any extra stats which would be lost due to the stat’s limit having been reached into free stats and even use free stats to increase the size of our soulstructures.
“Then, for special achievements, there are pills and other methods for reducing impurities and increasing cultivation foundations, as well as specialized resources for creating or strengthening uniquenesses.”
Vanar was a little surprised. Resources for gaining uniquenesses could usually only be found in divine level forces, but, even in divine forces, Empyrean grade artifacts for use at C rank were rare. And those benefits for personal servants were enough to raise a cultivator’s talent level by a rank, turning C rank talents to B rank and B rank talents to A rank, something he’d never heard of.
Still, however, it all felt like a scam.
“And what is the purpose of this force?”
“What is the usual purpose of any force under a powerhouse?” A man walked over from one of the nearby battlegrounds, large with indigo draconic eyes, lavender hair, and runic tattoos completely covering his exposed chest and arms. “We help with anything which requires numbers.”
“This is Isaiah,” Wen Alexis introduced, “Raven’s brother and the most powerful C rank in our force.”
“Wen, you flatter me.” The draconic man smiled at Wen Alexis and then turned back to Vanar. “Care for a duel? If you win, my master says he’ll answer any three of your questions. If you lose, you have to do something tedious.”
The man was obviously a dragon in human form, the draconic aura surrounding him far too potent for a half dragon, but what type of dragon was hard to tell. His coloration suggested a balance dragon, but the tattoos were definitely representative of a runic dragon, and there was an element of chaos around him, especially when Vanar met his eyes. His aura was also stronger than any C rank Vanar had ever met, suggesting his stats were quite a bit higher than Vanar’s own, and the way he carried himself, along with the dense slaughter aura around him, showed he was not at all unfamiliar with combat, likely having fought in many wars.
If Wen Alexis was to be believed, the human specializing in the Law of Speed was this dragon’s brother, which meant the man had either been born a human and become a dragon through some kind of reincarnation or, less likely, the two were only half brothers and the dragon had been born a half-dragon and somehow advanced his race to become a monster.
Whatever the case, however, the man was powerful, almost certainly experienced, and this challenge was a second test, the force he’d been coerced into to join now testing his battle prowess after already having tested his personality.
“What is this something tedious?”
The dragon nodded at the bloodtree. “Taking care of the tree for the next 49 years.”
“Ah.” Vanar nodded, the task making sense. It truly would be tedious to take care of the bloodtree until it was ready to flower, but who better to take care of such a tree than him, a master of the Blood Law?
“So, do you agree?” From the man’s smile, Vanar couldn’t see any excessive pride, but there was confidence, and a level of excitement, leading Vanar to realize the dragon wasn’t anywhere near as old as he’d thought, probably not even 5,184.
Interesting.
“Sure.” Vanar stepped into the air and flew through the upper atmosphere, up into the cold emptiness of space, the dragon easily following him. “Let’s fight up here then, in the true battlefield of C ranks.”
His last words were said by sending vibrations of mana toward his opponent, a technique anyone could perform with a tiny bit of practice, and then he immediately attacked, summoning out a blood colored sword from his spatial storage ring and rushing at full speed directly toward his opponent.
In response, the dragon summoned out a spear and shield, both seemingly Empyrean grade artifacts, two grades higher than his Fabled grade Blood Slicer, but this didn’t matter. What did matter were the skills the dragon used, some sort of high grade domain skill which slightly suppressed the usage of Vanar’s Laws, his Law of Speed especially; some sort of powerful berserker skill which traded his lifeforce for power, the natural way he used it showing his life regeneration was at the level of a troll; and a high grade version of a knight line skill, the power of the entire universe flowing into him.
Then the dragon moved, flying backwards with ease and at a speed faster than Vanar’s own.
The dragon’s Law of Speed was a couple grades lower than Vanar’s, only an early grade Law Scarab, but this was already ridiculous given his age, and he made up for it by having an Agility stat seemingly more than double Vanar’s and a movement skill which appeared to be Empyrean grade, something Vanar had never seen on a C rank in his life.
As a result, Vanar’s surprise attack did nothing. And then the dragon roared, sending bursts of disruptive chaotic qi, mana, and psyforce out of his body in every direction.
Had Vanar not been prepared for the attack, he would have been stunned for half a second and the dragon could have impaled him, but thankfully he had been. So, when the dragon used an Empyrean grade version of a power attack line skill, his spear infused with an early grade Law Scarab of Destruction, Vanar was able to dodge to the side, away from the dragon’s shield side, and slash out with an attack of his own, getting up close so his sword would directly cut into the dragon’s abdomen.
In response, the dragon summoned out another Empyrean grade artifact, green pants and a dark green battle robe appearing over his body, and, at the same time, the dragon activated an Empyrean grade guardian line skill, all his skills apparently at that grade, and all seemingly empowered by the same amount by an Empyrean grade Runic Enhancement racial ability, the defining racial ability of runic dragons.
This wasn’t enough, however, to fully block Vanar’s attack, empowered by the perfectly combined might of his high grade Law Scarabs of Sword and Speed, even with the dragon’s early grade Law Scarab of Defense empowering the skill, but it was enough to stop most of Vanar’s attack, making it so Vanar’s sword only barely grazed the dragon’s flesh.
Against Vanar the Devil Blade, however, this was still a major loss. With the power of his high grade Law Scarab of Blood, Vanar’s Blood Poison skill had entered into the dragon’s body and the dragon was already done for.
At least this was what Vanar initially thought as he moved away from the dragon, the man not chasing after him.
But then Vanar felt the obvious sign of the dragon gaining a Law Egg, something very rare for C ranks whose already established cultivation techniques generally made gaining new Laws harmful for their future advancement, and it was a Law Egg of Blood.
At the same time, due to the new Law, for an instant all the Laws of the Dragon could be easily felt by analyzing his aura, and Vanar realized the man had seventeen, most at the Law Larva level, while the four aspect Laws of Speed, Destruction, Defense, and Regeneration, seemingly the man’s core Laws, were all at the early grade Law Scarab level.
For a second, Vanar was confused, and his resulting lack of action allowed the man to start ridding himself of the blood poison with a powerful Empyrean grade healing skill, but then Vanar realized what he was dealing with.
The man, somehow, was part chaos dragon, and he had a high grade version of the Power of Chaos racial ability. He could learn new Laws by being hit with them during combat, combine multiple Laws at the same time with ease, and, if his C rank core, the foundation of his power, was, as Vanar expected from the feel of the man’s energy, a chaos core, extra Laws, even weak ones, wouldn’t mess up his cultivation at all, but instead increase it.
And, getting a feel for the dragon’s stats during their brief exchange, at least the body related ones and Aura, they were all simple multipliers of each other, completely what Vanar would expect if the man’s base stats were all equal before effectiveness boosts were taken into account, an Empyrean grade Power of Balance racial ability the most likely explanation for the abnormally high effectiveness of the man’s stats.
Vanar was not dealing with a runic dragon, nor a balance dragon, nor even a chaos dragon. He was dealing with someone who was, somehow, seemingly a perfectly stable combination of all three, with some kind of high grade human bloodline to make up for the draconic weakness of slow cultivation, and this was all added to a warrior who’d already reached the point he was one with not just his weapon, but his shield and armor as well, showing him to be an absolute combat genius.
If Vanar wanted to win, he’d have to stop holding back.
