Jinmu's reflection freely floated below Llurrello who carefully readied his chipped swords in case the brat attacks him.
"Bastard, what kind of apprentice mage are you to set up such a large formation like this?!"
"What a fool you are to underestimate an apprentice mage like me then.", Jinmu mocked him instead of answering his questions.
"You think this formation can keep me locked up all day? You are wrong!", Llurrello threatened.
"Be my guest."
Challenged by a lowly apprentice mage, Llurrello gathered his chivalric essence into his upper torso. His hair stood out on end, transforming into sharp spikes.
"Razor Spike Boar: Erupt!"
The spikes were blasted around, raining on the area like endless arrows.
"Hah, let's see your formation crumble into ruins!", Llurrello grinned while wiping off the saliva that dripped on his sweaty face.
His eyes widened, however, seeing that his special technique didn't do anything to Jinmu's Myriad Water Mirror Formation at all.
"Fool," Jinmu laughed coldly, "You think those razor spikes can do anything to my formation?"
A razor spike boar's specialty was shooting spikes from its fat body. Aside from that, it was just prey waiting to be slain.
When compared to Solordo's dragon or Brickman's glacial scorpion imprint, the raw physical strength it could provide on its assimilated knight was akin to none.
Otherwise, Jinmu would not have dared to set up the Myriad Water Mirror Formation if his opponent's beast imprint was savage.
If it was Solordo, he could just tear this formation apart, let out a powerful roar, or burst out an intimidating aura.
"My formation is capable of absorbing your weak attacks as if they were nothing. You will never get out of this, no matter how hard you try, and once all of your other friends are finished, my muscle-brained classmate will take care of you shortly thereafter."
"Lies! I'll keep on slashing and attacking! See how long you'll last, brat!", Llurrello was now on edge, something that Jinmu purposefully wanted to happen.
Unlike the rest of his peers, his battle style could be considered cowardly by some, but he was indifferent to their judgment.
An opponent can be defeated in various ways, and Jinmu's tactics leaned on harassing their mentality and perception of reality. This was equally fatal since most individuals aligned their training and battles in the context of physical improvement rather than their mental health.
Added to that, his expertise in the domain mana synthesis technique allowed him to recycle and gather the used or wasted water elements in the surroundings to sustain his formation for as long as he wished. He could create countless illusions that will drive Llurrello to insanity the longer he was trapped inside.
"Your tactics are too boring.", Jinmu sighed.
Llurrello heard it and tried to slash at his figure reflected on the water stream but to no avail.
"Come out, you coward! Fight me head-on!"
He only heard a snort and nothing else after that.
Llurrello incessantly shouted, cursing Jinmu and his entire family, hoping that he would become irritated and lose his temper.
Unfortunately, Jinmu's magic root prevented such things from happening. Rather, it gave him a slight amusement before turning his head around and observing the fight outside.
He opened his system panel and sent a message.
"Solordo, don't you dare waste time fighting. We still have a long road ahead of us."
…
Meanwhile, Solordo was having fun while fighting against Scarface and the rest of the brothers.
Knowing his behavior, the system didn't prompt Jinmu's message at the middle of the fight.
He pursued Scarface, never letting go of him no matter how fast the enemy was.
Solordo raised his halberd and hit the ground, missing Scarface's nimble figure by a quarter of a second.
The latter turned around and slashed his saber multiple times only to be met with a hard dragon carapace enveloping Solordo's body.
Annoyed, Scarface circled around Solordo multiple times in a second, trying to find any opening for his swift saber strikes. If he kept hitting the difficult spots, his saber might be the one to lose out first and render him useless.
'The gaps are too small! My saber won't fit on them!', quickly backing away as Solordo slashed his halberd around.
"You're fast! I like it!", he grinned, sending chills on Scarface's spine.
'What the hell did he mean by that?!'
"Tempestal Breeze.", Solordo muttered.
The air suddenly thickened, making it hard for him to breathe or move. Scarface widened his eyes, realizing that this brat intended to slow him down and catch up.
'Is his imprint that of a wind dragon? But he is spewing out intense flames for each of his attack. His beast imprint is definitely that of a flame dragon or something similar, so it's impossible.'
He saw Solordo dashed again but this time, a gust was forming on the tip of the halberd.
'Wind Slash!'
Scarface snorted and stepped aside. However, when the turbulent air passed through him, his eyes widened again in utter disbelief.
'M-mana! This is magic!'
"You're a dual cultivator!", he shrieked in fear.
Although knights couldn't sense mana when they were in the lower helm realms of chivalric cultivation, assimilating a beast's blood and imprinting the same beast into their chivalric cores grants them the ability to do so.
After all, the demonic and magical beasts have the ability to sense and manipulate mana.
The knights, however, cannot manipulate the mana to cast magic due to the lack of magic root, or even if they had, it would conflict with their chivalric essence and cause internal implosion.
That was why Scarface became frightened when he knew that Solordo could do both chivalric and magic cultivation at the same time.
It was already stressing enough to face his dragon imprint. With the addition of magic and the fact that he didn't know much about Solordo's expertise in it put him in an even worse position.
"So what if I am?", Solordo laughed before jumping, pulling his halberd back and sending out a thrust.
Scarface gritted his teeth. Evading and counterattacking was useless. The thick carapace of a dragon was more than enough to stop him from landing even the simplest strike upon Solordo who was now covered from head to toe.
Relying on Carruva and Bulfrang were out of the question as well. Although Carruva could dig around by utilizing the ability of a grounder worm, he didn't place hope in it since Solordo may have the ability to sense the disturbance in the earth.
Bulfrang wasn't even a fighter of both their levels. He was a coward who liked to pick fights that were in his favor.
'And where the fuck is Brickman? He looked like he's been bricked for centuries!', Scarface cursed.
What a laughable name that brother of his had. That loser fell out the moment Solordo struck him with a punch to the sides and was sent crashing into the walls.
'Does he know that he won't win against this brat after knowing that the poison won't work?', Scarface assumed.
It seemed like he was the only person remaining that was fighting against a formidable opponent.
'If I fall out now, this fucker will definitely kill me off. Ah, fuck it!'
He was about to dash further away when he felt that his feet were stuck on the ground. Dumbfounded, he glanced below his feet and found that the earth has molded with his lower body.
'This is magic?!'
"But when-?!"
"Boring, and I thought the so-called six cold-blooded brothers were this challenging."
An uninterested voice sounded in his ears before a halberd severed both of his legs.
Scarface shrieked in anguish as his upper body dropped, drenched with blood spurting from his cleanly cut legs. Then, the halberd's tip dropped on his glabella, killing him without a doubt.
Carruva and Bulfrang witnessed everything and became speechless. For Scarface to die just like that without even scratching his enemy's skin, it had to be his worst battle of all time.
He was known to be quick and leave his enemies with endless wounds on their bodies, yet he was helpless upon meeting someone with a dragon imprint.
They then saw Solordo shook his head in disappointment, angering them.
"I thought that he would be fast enough to react as well, but… I guess it's too much for him.", the brat lamented, "Or rather, I'm too much for the six of you."
Carruva and Bulfrang ignored him. They only wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and not die under Solordo's hands.
"You're not going anywhere. Earthen Collapse!"
He stomped the ground, caving the entire land, 50 meters in front of him. However, the two brothers had already leaped high in the air, evading his spell.
"What an idiot."
Solordo used his halberd's tip and picked up the rubble in the collapsed earth before throwing it into the backs of Bulfrang and Carruva.
Bulfrang noticed it and tried to grab Carruva's thin arm but Carruva reacted faster. A net was already on its way to catch Bulfrang.
"Carruva, you piece of shit!"
Carruva utilized his chivalric essence and pulled the heavy Bulfrang with all his might to block the incoming rubble.
Bulfrang's body collided with the rubble, breaking his spine and shattering his bones and organs. The bloody sight plastered an elated expression on Carruva's face.
"I'm sorry, Bulfrang my brother. You have to die for me."
However, his happiness was short-lived as another rubble was sent on his way.
Carruva, with no time to react or prepare, turned into meat paste, dying in vain and throwing all of his futile survival efforts into nothing.
"So that was why they were called cold-blooded brothers, huh?", Solordo touched his chin in wonder. He thought that their infamy was coupled with strength and skill as well.
Much to his dismay, it appeared that these brothers primarily targeted the weak and exaggerated their achievements, creating a false image in the minds of the easily fooled populace.
Scarface couldn't land a hit on him and Brickman couldn't endure a hit from him. Bulfrang, Carruva, and Scypher were nothing else but prey waiting to be killed.
As for Llurrello, he didn't know where he and Jinmu went.
"Oh yeah, there's that Brickman still, right?", he turned around but saw nobody else but him.
"Damn, he must have escaped while I was distracted by those two goddamn brothers."
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