Chapter One Hundred: I Long for a Worthy Opponent

The Black Fire Domain.

By now, he had grown thoroughly adept at wielding it.

Within black fire, he moved as a fish moves through water.

Dawnwake instantly stepped into the sea of black flame. The man before him was a monster, but so long as he was within his own domain, he could defeat him.

The Prisoner froze. He had never seen this technique before.

The black flames surged over him like a torrential flood.

A chill seeped in relentlessly.

The Prisoner activated his flesh arts, the Boiling Body.

By virtue of his talent, he had learned many flesh-based techniques. Boiling Body, Raging Body, Ice-Deer Body, Rubber Body, and others like them allowed his physique to transform in an instant, resisting different kinds of attacks.

Steam poured from his body as he used the boiling heat throughout his flesh to resist the frigid black fire.

It barely even stung. He pushed back against the cold and searched for Dawnwake’s location.

Black fire swallowed his vision. The sound of flames tearing apart rang incessantly in his ears, and he could only rely on his intermediate spirit sight to locate his enemy.

But he could not find him.

This black fire itself seemed to possess some power that interfered with spiritual detection, disrupting his sense of position.

The Prisoner’s massive body jolted in disbelief.

What sort of class did this man even have in the New Capital?

The Prisoner looked reckless, but in truth, while imprisoned, he had read many books and gained a solid understanding of the various techniques used by many player classes in the New Capital.

His brute, reckless bulk was merely a mask for his hidden fondness for tactics.

But the technique before him shocked him.

This was an explosive domain-type art.

As the name suggested, an explosive domain-type art created, in a short time, a fighting environment favorable to its user, placing the battle firmly under their control.

Like the Cremator’s Fire Ring, the Weaver’s Nest, the Lantern Gatherer’s Little Moon, the Calamity Emissary’s Weather Pattern...

But those were all advanced classes. By rights, a level 9 player should not have the qualifications to learn such a powerful technique.

Do not lose focus...

Suppressing his confusion, the Prisoner came back to himself and charged out through the tearing flames.

These black fires cut like blades, but they were still far from enough for him.

He was not like those weak cowards who lacked spine. The enemy before him only stoked his battle instincts.

The Prisoner thought quickly: domain-type techniques consumed enormous amounts of energy. His opponent could not maintain it for long.

Wait...

The Prisoner’s heart lurched. He had not caught any trace of the other man’s presence through spirit sight.

Had the opponent used this brief domain-type technique merely to flee?

He snorted inwardly. No one could escape the chains of the Prison Hunt.

So long as those chains were in his hands, no one could flee his pursuit.

And yet, the moment that thought arose, he sensed someone behind him.

He is not fleeing, but daring to strike me instead?

The Prisoner felt no fear at all. Instead, he was filled with unprecedented excitement.

“Not bad. You dare enter my two-meter kill zone!”

Instant Burst Fist!

His waist twisted at once. His muscles tightened, hardening like steel, and a violent punch shot out like lightning.

Boom!

The thunderous crack of the sonic boom revealed just how savage that blow was.

“Turn into a corpse, damn you!”

The body beneath that fist shattered like tofu, blasted into pieces.

But very quickly, the Prisoner realized something was wrong. There was no smell of blood.

Alarm flashed through him. The corpse struck by his fist felt far too insubstantial.

“That was a feint...”

His eyes widened. A chill touched the back of his neck.

Behind him, Dawnwake’s long blade was wrapped in black fire, and like an executioner, he had used a brief burst of speed from Lightfoot Leap to unleash the slash.

That blade of black fire cut down like a reaper harvesting a soul, mercilessly carving toward him.

Disaster!

The Prisoner gritted his teeth.

“Iron Body!”

At once, the flesh around his neck turned as hard as steel.

Even so, it was still a fraction too late.

The blade entered his neck. Black fire tore through flesh. Blood sprayed.

The icy chill kept sinking into his body. The Prisoner endured the pain, but still let out a tiny, involuntary cry.

Just days ago, he had been mocking those Raven Flock fools on the Holy Calamity Association forum.

He was a player who had even fought enemies above level 5. And now he was being driven into such a passive position.

Worse still, he was being handled by a player five levels below him.

A humiliating disgrace. An insult beyond forgiveness.

“Unforgivable!”

The Prisoner’s three-meter frame roared as his muscles reddened and flames burst from his body.

Had his avatar not endured enough torment in the New Capital, that pain, driven deep into his marrow, would have made him lose all composure.

The Prisoner turned, blood boiling in his veins, flames burning across his body.

Dawnwake stepped back two paces and flicked the blood from his blade.

This man had not disappointed the edge of his weapon. Every move Dawnwake used so far had been met with a countermeasure.

Still, that single strike sunk into the bone, combined with the tearing effect of black fire, had already dealt thirty points of damage.

And with the earlier gang assault included, his health had already fallen by more than half.

Dawnwake gripped his blade and kept his distance as much as possible, ready to launch the next attack at any moment.

This enemy was strong, unlike the ones before him. He was pure strength, without any obvious weakness.

One careless mistake, and he might be left with only embers.

The Prisoner clenched his teeth, drank two potions to restore his spirit power and stamina, and looked once more at the Chain of the Prison Hunter in his hand.

Dawnwake also uncorked a spirit potion and drank it down.

The potion surged into his body, and vitality welled up again.

Within the black fire, Dawnwake held his long blade and waited, ready to cut again at any instant.

The Prisoner’s chest rose and fell heavily.

He could not underestimate his opponent.

Within the black fire, the enemy remained calm, never losing his composure.

He had no proper awe, and that too was proof of strength...

Then the Prisoner looked at the chain in his hand. Heat radiated from its links.

This was a divine weapon given to him by the White-Robed Man, extracted from the corpses of many Prison Hunters.

It was the only Prison Hunter chain that had been recovered intact and could still be used.

Though damaged, this chain still possessed a terrifying skill: Binding.

This was his finishing blow, the only one he could use once within this limited window.

But there was a major problem. He could not unleash it instantly. He had to take damage, and he would lose a tremendous amount of spirit power and mental strength.

Once the target was trapped by Binding, killing them would take only two punches.

I can endure it.

The Prisoner gritted his teeth and clamped his two rough, giant hands around the chain, blood dripping steadily onto its surface.

Dawnwake watched as patterns began to emerge across the chain.

The Prisoner had chosen to expose his own body in order to unleash this strike.

He is charging power...

Black fire, advance!

Under his command, the black flames rushed forward like a savage beast at full gallop, once again pouncing on the Prisoner and completely covering his vision.

Dawnwake slashed.

The Prisoner ignored the blade and kept his grip locked on the chain, blood streaming from his hands.

“Too late, genius. You will become one more lost soul beneath this chain, one more dead beneath the Prison Hunter’s bind. There are countless geniuses like you.”

Feel the fury of the Prison Hunter’s chain!

The Prisoner’s eyes bulged wide as he unleashed the chain’s final technique.

The Prison Hunter’s chain suddenly radiated an unprecedented heat. The serpent-like head of the chain shot toward Dawnwake’s heart like a streak of thunder.

Dawnwake withdrew in time, masking his position with black fire, but the chain had already locked onto the location of his heart.

A massive sense of mortal danger surged from the chain’s head.

Too fast. Impossible to evade.

“Die!”

Once bound by that chain, he would be subjected to overwhelming restraint, his spirit power drained to the bottom, unable to move.

The Prisoner watched as the chain, like a thunderbolt, plunged into the black fire. In that instant, his opponent would become his captive.

He let out a long breath, and from within the black fire he heard a shrill scream like a child wailing, as though it were some cornered beast.

His entire body relaxed at that instant, releasing the heat building up inside him.

Then a horrifying sight appeared.

The black fire beside his left cheek, like a ghost, faintly revealed a human face.

Was it a coincidence?

A fleeting trace of doubt rose in the Prisoner’s mind.

And in the next instant, the black fire began to gather, and a human silhouette emerged within it.

Walking through black fire...

Dawnwake stepped out of the flames, using the burst of agility from his emergence to swing his long blade like the wind.

“What kind of move is this?”

The Prisoner’s face twisted. He tried to turn and block the terrifying attack, but the opponent’s speed had become much faster.

He gritted his teeth and, almost instinctively, glanced toward the direction where the chain had struck.

This was the Prison Hunter’s chain. By rights, aside from the White-Robed Man’s illusory mist, no one should have been able to escape its lock.

And yet, in the next instant, a massive figure burst out from the black fire in that very direction.

Its eyes gleamed scarlet, and its mouth was full of sharp, vicious fangs.

It was a black fox, four meters tall, lunging straight for him.

The Prisoner felt his mental state start to crack. Somehow, it seemed as if the other side had even more hidden cards than he did.

That instant of panic sent him into confusion.

Should he deal with the huge black fox in front of him first, or the humanoid monster behind him?

Hesitation meant defeat.

While he was still thinking, he had already been struck.

“You just wait...”

The Prisoner managed one final, feeble threat, but it sounded no louder than a mouse’s squeak.

He could hardly believe it, yet in the end he had no choice but to acknowledge the brutal truth.

He was going to lose.

Dawnwake, behind him, unleashed several sharp cuts in an instant.

That chain had consumed too much of the opponent’s spirit power. He was now at the end of his strength.

Several blades flashed.

I cannot fall like this...

The Prisoner clenched his teeth in unwilling despair. Fearful instinct gnawed at him, and he had no technique for forcibly enduring with only a sliver of health left.

A wisp of black flame extinguished at the tip of the blade. At last, the Prisoner’s three-meter body could no longer withstand the loss of vitality and collapsed with a heavy thud.

[You have killed the Prisoner, Level 13. You gained 400 experience, plus 80 bonus experience from Blade Aspect. You have reached Level 10. Current experience: 187/600.]

It was over.

Dawnwake exhaled slowly, slid the Debt-Collector’s long blade back at his waist, steadied his breathing, and looked toward the entrance of the gas station.

A few hostile players had originally intended to flee from there, but they seemed to have scattered in terror because of his battle with the Prisoner.

No new enemies for the moment...

Dawnwake did not immediately pick up the searing chain. The Prisoner had not had time to send this item back through the New Sun Game.

He touched the chain. If not for Walking Through Black Fire, that burst attack just now would have been enough to reverse the situation.

It was an extraordinarily powerful weapon.

Now, the Prison Hunter’s chain would belong to him.

Using Morning Star, Dawnwake picked up the rare item.

Two highlighted notifications appeared.

[You have obtained the Prison Hunter’s Chain.]

[You have obtained the Hidden Amulet.]

End of chapter.