Chapter 137: Training With Rangers
Max’s progress to Neuromuscular Combat System remained on the Foundation Level.
His current foundation on the Foundation Level was solid, evident from his consistent improvements across domains of human performance, such as strength, endurance, coordination, stability, and neurological efficiency.
Such progress could also be brought in the game, given the that the neural synchronization existed between his real world’s body and the game’s character.
Max had already thought of combining the Neuromuscular Combat System with his class as a mage.
This cross-disciplinary application had already crossed his mind, aiming to change his combat style inside the game.
When the enemy thought he was the main weakness of his Radiant Knights, he would prove them wrong by showing his combat strength.
For it to happen, he had to train with Radiant Knights, as though he was facing them rather than being protected by them.
The Rangers’ were stunned. We are supposed to attack him at once? They couldn’t determine the confidence their Master had.
However, an order was absolute—questions shouldn’t be raised.
Without hesitation, even Damien took out his recurve bow and waited for their master’s motion to start the battle.
After Max briefly talked with Jeremiah, he faced the Rangers’ and said, "We’ll battle in the center."
As they proceeded to the center, Max had fully assessed himself.
His equipments’ effects were useless in this type of situation—every single effects were directed at his summon being a summoner.
He was fighting a divine-type individuals, so even some of his title’s effects were useless.
In other words, he could only rely on his stats and skills alone.
Jeremiah was aware of it, causing him to be perplexed even more to his Master’s decision.
This type of training would not definitely work unless he could subdue the three Rangers in the battle.
Watching his Master’s back, he was actually looking forward to how Max perform during the first bizarre training.
Max casually swept his gaze around and became familiar with the area they were about to battle.
He assessed the environment in such depth that he could measure the distance between him and the rest of the Radiant Knights, allowing him to calculate his spellcasting precisely.
This simple action already signified the start of the battle.
As the Rangers’ continued to walk, he abruptly stopped.
But their pace didn’t falter and calculated the distance between them and their Master. Once they perceived the distance was enough, they simultaneously turned around.
Owen was at the back and in front of his right side was Damien.
A bit further forward on his left side was Damon who used his shortbow.
They faced their Master with mixed emotions.
Their Master, on the other hand, was staring at them, seemingly putting intimidation rather than control as his summons.
They were perplexed by his actions, but they didn’t let their guard down.
Owen raised his long bow and pulled the string. A light arrow manifested, aiming it at his Master.
I never once thought I would aim this arrow to my Master.
He couldn’t fully assess what he was feeling at the moment.
One thing was for sure, though. His Master was his enemy and he must defeat him as per his order.
While Damien and Damon aimed their weapons at their Master, Max finally started the battle by weaving his fingers, starting to cast his spell.
Three differents arrows bolted to him at once. They aimed in different directions, seemingly sealing his path.
However, Max saw a direction where they failed to cover.
He jumped and the two Lightweave Threads, as thick as his fingers, were summoned and grabbed Owen and Damien’s arrows.
Using the momentum of being in the air, he swung the arrows and returned them to their owner.
The Rangers were taken aback, their Master’s battle style was completely different from what they could remember.
Their Master would heavily rely on his Radiant Lance, so they were completely taken aback by the shift of his battle style.
They immediately evaded, but that momentary action allowed Max to cast two Radiant Lance after dissolving the Lightweave Threads as soon as the arrow bolted forward.
Damon was taken aback. He didn’t know that Omen and Damien weren’t yet aware of their Master’s action as he simply aimed his shortbow at his Master, hoping to interrupt his spellcasting.
But Max’s spellcasting was absurdly fast. Not only he had received many spellcasting reduction effects from his skills and stats, the integration of Neuromuscular Combat System as a mage also helped reduced his spellcasting.
It was simply because the NCS shortened the delay between intention and execution.
This does not make spells inherently faster.
Instead, it reduced his own reaction time.
As a result, Max now has faster initiation of prepared spells, quicker transition between consecutive spells, and reduced hesitation during combat as evident from his action.
Even then, the reduced casting latency was just one of the effects of integrating NCS as a mage.
Before the arrows from the shortbow bolted towards Max, the latter had already finished spellcasting the two Radiant Lances.
But the moment the two Radiant Lance traveled towards Owen and Damien, he immediately cast the Radiant Barrier.
The two Radiant Lance successfully struck Damien and Owen, causing them to lose balance and fell to the ground.
Max, on the other hand, blocked the shortbow’s arrows with his Radiant Barrier that was yet to fully formed.
He landed gracefully to the floor and smirked at his Rangers, who were utterly stunned by what had just transpired.
However, Max wasn’t finished yet.
He dashed to Damon, who was still frozen.
Damon immediately regained his senses, but he was speechless when Max raised his hands as though he was planning to fight him in a close combat.
Damon greeted his teeth and dropped his shortbow and took out his twin blades.
As he was about to take his stance, Max suddenly grinned and weave his fingers, casting a spell.
Damon was taken aback and hurriedly stared intently at the spell being cast, strangely a bit far from Max.
He didn’t pay attention to Max’s pace drawing closer, knowing that the spell being cast would be a lethal strike to him.
Alas, the spell was never fully cast, it was broken once Max formed his hand into a fist and punched straight to his cheeks, leaving Damon to lose his balance and fell to the floor.
His cheeks felt swollen, yet he couldn’t fully perceive it.
He couldn’t think straight.
What had just happened?
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