"Let's do this!" He yelled out excitedly.
Springing forward, he spun around and swung his blades, unleashing a wall of fire against both of the dragon-turned warriors.
It was a momentary whirlwind of scarlet flames that swirled around both of the warriors, swallowing them in its burning wrath before dissipating.
"Wait, wha–"
Catching him off-guard, the enemies before him weren't harmed in the least from the scorn of the flames as the one with the ponytail launched forward, slamming its fist into his stomach.
"Pyuh-!" He spit out the air from his lungs.
As he was launched back, he slammed into the body of the mountain, being embedded in the caved-in rock.
Bambang slowly walked towards him, "An insult. Did you believe your flames could harm our scales? We're one of the Dragon's blood. Flame is the very essence of our blood."
"Huh?" Bowen let out.
To the dragon-men's surprise in turn, the young man grinned despite the attack he suffered, dislodging himself from the mountainside and hopping onto his feet without a scratch on him.
"How is this possible? I hit you with all of my strength!" Bambang growled.
He smirked, "I've got the hide of a rhino right now! A little lizard like you ain't shit!"
"You…!" Bambang clenched his teeth.
"Bambang, wait–!" Bowen called out.
However, the ponytail-wearing dragon-man launched forward anyway, solely approaching the young, sharp-toothed man with clear anger boiling in his blood.
"I'll have your head for your insolence, invader!" Bambang roared.
"Talk is cheap!" He laughed out loud.
This time, the warrior charged at him with speed that momentarily took him by surprise, forcing him to have to lean back to avoid the swift strike sent his way.
–He got faster–I just thought he got bigger! He thought.
It didn't let up with just a single attack; he was forced to flip to the side as it went for another strike. In addition to the increase in speed, the sheer strength it possessed was amplified greatly–resulting in a straight line of stone being cut through cleanly.
Huh?That coulda killed me! He thought.
For just a moment, he'd forgotten that he was facing two adversaries–only remembering this once he felt the wind pressure shift behind him, glancing back to find the comrade of the other behind him.
The scale-clad foe was already midway through a swing aimed for his neck, to which he opted to guard against instead of dodging.
He had to solely rely on his own physical merit to block the attack, which proved difficult as the moment the dragon-turned warrior's steel clashed against his own, he was knocked back several feet.
This power–! It's no joke! He thought.
There was a difference from gauging an opponent's strength from sight rather than feeling it out and experiencing it first-hand; that was what he had just experienced. He didn't properly prepare himself for his opponent's strength, so he was launched back.
Though he managed to flip around and catch himself on his feet, he quickly found himself being pressured by the two warriors instantly.
…No mercy, huh? Fine, then! He thought.
It was a dangerous gambit fighting on the edge of a mountain, but he made do as he sprinted along the edge of the trail, sliding off intentionally and running along the side of it in an unorthodox path.
"Hunting Wolf," he invoked.
Unlike the "Rhino" invocation, this one opted more for speed, even more so focusing on sheer nimbleness than anything as he effortlessly ran along the side of the mountain, with only the floor far below underneath him.
This unquestionably took the unknown warriors by surprise as he sprung back up, launching himself with a spinning slash that was aimed for one of their necks.
"What?! Who moves like that?!" Bowen said.
–But, such words were snuffed out as the dragon-turned warrior had his head cleaved off by the speedy attack. It was a seamlessly executed attack, leaving Bambang frozen in silence for a solid moment.
It dropped to the ground: Bowen's perplexed expression.
A flood of emotions seemed to exude from the scale-clad warrior, who had little restraint on himself as he yelled out.
Bambang swelled up in rage, shouting out as he stomped out the ground below, "Insolence! A barbaric, no-name invader like yourself striking down a Yinlong soldier?! I will not stand for such baffling disrespect!"
In the depths of blind rage, the gray-scaled warrior seemed to shift more into "dragon" than "man", flinging himself towards him as there was no semblance of grace left in his swordplay.
"Fall! Fall! Fall!"
Using his blade like a club, Bambang swung it around rapidly and without any technique, simply aiming to cleave the young man, one way or another.
He weaved through the rampant slashes, using his dual-wielded blades to deflect those that sailed too close to his own flesh.
"Angry, huh?! Ain't it the warrior's way to die on the battlefield, or somethin?!" He yelled out with a smirk.
Bambang's veins grew even more prominent as he growled, "--Don't you dare speak of a warrior's pride, you ignorant barbarian!"
Though try as he might, Bambang simply was unable to connect the edge of his silver blade to the skin of the scar-covered young man with two different colored eyes.
This failure to land but a single glancing blow infuriated the dragon-shifted soldier further, causing each slash of his blade to crack the surrounding stone and invoke the air to hiss as it was cut.
"--You'll pay!"
"Sayin it won't make it come true!" He replied.
Just as he said those words, he harshly deflected the incoming strike, causing the towering dragon-man to stumble back, leaving him completely open.
Alright–lemme finish this one in an instant! Azure Dragon, Raging Tiger! He thought.
Around both of his blades, azure strands of electricity formed, coiling around the shining steel as his muscles slightly swelled again.
It all happened in an instant–
From the moment the hiss of lightning was heard, and the birth of a thunderclap sounded out–Bambang was dead.
Huh…? Bambang thought.
To the dragon-shifted warrior, the world was upside down in his eyes. It was a perplexing sight–the clouds were at his feet, and the blue sky had shifted into a rocky horizon.
Oh…I've lost my head, Bambang realized.
It was as if lightning had flashed past the dragon's eyes initially; such a sight of grandiose elements that it wasn't even initially perceived.
He landed several meters beyond where he had initially sprung, finding himself right at the edge of the mountain with a victorious grin.
"--No-name invader, huh? That's Yeong-Un to you!"
–
["Some Forest", The First Floor]
Through his march through the forest, he found himself feeling dehydrated as his mouth was dry and his head began to throb.
Guess I haven't drank a thing in a while. I thought the juice from the berries would be enough to hold me off, but I guess not, he thought.
As a certified shut-in, the wilderness definitely was something outside of his expertise as he found himself ignorant of what anything did or how to handle himself in such an area.
"I seriously need to find some water…" He muttered to himself.
At some point, he had wandered far enough that the simple forest had shifted into some almost resembling a vast jungle. It became more arduous to traverse with uneven ground, steep inclines, and vines obscuring his path at every turn.
Seriously, is this some sort of punishment for staying indoors all that time? He questioned.
The humidity within the bounds of the region of nature prompted him to remove his coat, tying it around his waist as he continued marching onward with the goal of finding water.
It's been a few hours…It's going to be night soon, probably. I don't really like the idea of being stranded in a forest like this during the night, but it's not looking like I have much of a choice anymore, he thought.
As he was walking, something caught the corner of his eye–a jarring set of movements. It was something that was clinging to the bark of the widthy tree he passed by.
"Huh?"
Glancing to his left, he saw it: a yellow-skinned arachnid that was larger than both of his hands put together.
Such a sight made him experience a quick succession of feelings in the span of a singular moment: he froze, he dreaded, then he ran away.
The truth was, Jeong-Hui suffered from severe arachnophobia; this was not something the System cured him of.
Giant spiders?! Man-eating bushes weren't enough?! He thought.
When his instincts fired off like that with fear empowering his legs, the speed he ran with surpassed any athlete by realms, finding himself only stopping after ten seconds had passed. In those few seconds, he had covered quite a ways.
"...Huh? What…? Is this some kind of joke?" He mumbled to himself.
By some stroke of luck, while running with no direction in mind, he had stumbled upon a crystal clear river flowing calmly through the forest.
He almost felt like dropping to his knees and thanking God, but he was reminded that such an entity was the entire reason this scenario happened in the first place.
Sitting at the riverbank, he cupped the clear, fresh water into his hands, looking down at it before beginning to gulp it down.
[Survivor Proficiency: +1 | 1/20]
Huh? He thought.
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