Chapter 336: Unbalanced Knight? Balance of God

“Boom!”

A deafening explosion tore through the air. A crimson, scorching beam of light—a full size thicker than the charged shot unleashed by the Furnace’s Wrath—erupted from the muzzle of the Conqueror revolver, hurtling toward the two figures below detected by the Chariot’s Might.

The intense heat and the sheer kinetic force of the solid projectile effortlessly melted the thick floorboards, driving straight toward the target’s location before detonating upon secondary impact with the solid ground.

Compressed energy surged from the shell, and flames swept through the corridor, filling the confined space with searing heat. The shockwave, finding no exit, vented its fury against the surrounding walls; the ground beneath Wang Yu’s feet buckled upward, fracturing into a web of cracks.

“Such speed. It didn’t hit them. And that other fellow—does he have no weight at all?”

A charged shot like that, if taken head-on at close range, would leave anyone below the constitution of a mid-tier Grand Knight severely wounded and immobile. Yet, this devastating attack had failed to strike the target Wang Yu had aimed for.

The Chariot’s Might saw it clearly: the moment the projectile struck the floor, the young man below seemed to sense the danger. He jerked his head up, grabbed the man he called Joey, and stomped the ground with all his might, dodging to the side with blinding speed.

What surprised Wang Yu was not just the young man’s speed—which was roughly that of a high-tier Grand Knight, a feat a mid-tier Grand Knight could achieve in a desperate burst—but the fact that when the youth hauled his companion away, the man seemed entirely weightless. The youth dragged him as if pulling at thin air, showing no sign of deceleration from the burden.

“The surrounding space has been partitioned into small segments, likely to isolate us from the others in the Truth Oversight Council and pick us off one by one. This spatial division is the work of a massive array from the Sky Mechanical City; I cannot break it for the time being.”

Avia spoke, briefly explaining the situation to Wang Yu. Her hands never stopped, rapidly casting buff spells upon him: Gale Ankles, Granite Skin, Molten Bulwark, Lightning Cloak...

A series of pre-coordinated spells layered onto Wang Yu, causing his combat prowess to climb at a staggering rate. These buffs provided more than mere numerical increases; some granted additional abilities that even a Knight’s innate strength could not replicate.

“Shall we clear the field?”

The young man was running fast. Realizing he had been exposed to Wang Yu and Avia, he fled without hesitation, using the complex architecture to mask his movements.

Although the buildings could not obstruct the Chariot’s Might’s observation, the target had slipped out of Wang Yu’s immediate range, putting them at a disadvantage. Thus, Wang Yu consulted Avia.

“Yes.”

The girl raised her hand and retrieved an item from the Eden Seed’s space—a brown, translucent object that looked like a stone, now wreathed in energy.

Because of the spatial lockdown, the Eden Seed could only open a tiny aperture. It was enough to retrieve small items, but other prepared assets remained inaccessible.

Yet, the fact that the Eden Seed could forcibly open a spatial gate under an array capable of suppressing even the Void Spirit Realm was a testament to the true, budding power it possessed.

Aiming at the ground, Avia slammed the stone-like object down without hesitation. The gathered earth elements erupted upon impact. A powerful tremor rippled out from the “stone,” and cracks, large and small, crawled up the surrounding walls, the floor, and everything they could cling to.

This was the core of an earth elemental creature, an excellent medium for earth-based magic. The girl had imbued it with a sixth-tier non-combat spell: Earth Collapse. Originally intended for mining, it was perfect for clearing obstacles. As the saying went, it didn’t matter what it was designed for; if it worked, it was a good tool.

“Crack! Boom!”

The building, compromised by the Earth Collapse, lost all structural integrity after ten seconds of spreading fractures. In an instant, it buckled and fell. Fragments of the structure rained down like a storm, captured by gravity and crashing to the ground, kicking up a sky-high cloud of dust.

“Hmph!”

The Chariot’s Might swept through the air like an invisible giant’s hand. Falling debris was batted aside, and the dust, stirred by the girl’s howling gale, was blown away before it could even shroud the two of them.

With the building collapsed, Wang Yu finally understood the state of the surrounding space. They were trapped in a cube-like segment, much like the interior of the Eden Seed, only far larger, and this partitioned space happened to contain all the buildings of the Truth Oversight Council.

There was no point worrying about the destruction of the buildings; it was meaningless to fret over property when their lives were at stake. The area was now a ruin, which actually favored Wang Yu and his companion. With nowhere left to hide, the enemy would have to face them head-on.

The dust thirty meters away still lingered, obscuring Wang Yu’s vision, but it could not block the girl’s abilities. The Perfect Fractal Lens was already fixed over Wang Yu’s right eye. Wind speed, anomalous temperatures, mana fluctuations—all were gathered and analyzed by the lens, converted into the data they needed.

“He’s coming, but I don’t see the other one...”

In his field of vision, a figure sprinting at high speed through the dust was marked by a red 3D silhouette. It was the young man, but he was alone. The other presence had vanished.

“Whoosh!”

A blinding bolt of lightning shot from the staff in Avia’s hand, piercing the dust toward the sprinting figure. The man rolled nimbly, trying to lower his profile and let the lightning pass over his head.

But alas, the lightning turned, curving in a beautiful yet lethal arc. His dodge could not evade the fourth-tier spell, Lightning Arc, which possessed self-guiding properties.

“Bang!”

Wood drew a dagger from his waist, channeling his battle aura into it, and slashed at the incoming lightning mid-roll.

The two collided. The battle aura cleaved the elements, reducing the lightning arc—which was not known for raw power—into wisps of electricity that danced onto Wood’s body, only to be completely blocked by the aura covering his skin.

His eyes locked onto the mage standing behind the Knight through the thinning dust. Wood’s lips moved. “Joey, find an opening to take out that mage. I’ll hold off this Knight. I’d rather not use my inner potential if I don’t have to; I need to save it for the others in the Society.”

“Understood...”

A simple response, coming from nowhere.

Quickening his pace, Wood stopped trying to hide in the dust and charged straight at Wang Yu, his speed increasing in an instant.

Wang Yu narrowed his eyes and pointed at the enemy rushing toward him at breakneck speed. The velocity this guy displayed was startling. If he were a high-tier Grand Knight, he would be difficult to handle. For now, he could only test him.

Following Wang Yu’s gesture, the Shattered Meteorite Blades flew out. The shards spiraled through the air in unpredictable trajectories, shooting toward the charging Wood alongside Wang Yu.

“Clang, clang, clang, clatter!”

Facing the high-speed, multi-angled assault of the Shattered Meteorite Blades, Wood drew a second dagger with his other hand. His arms became a blur, the two daggers forming an impenetrable wall that collided with the shards at a terrifying speed.

Sparks flew, and the sound of clashing metal never ceased. Twenty shards of meteorite steel, attacking from every direction, could not break through the defense of those two daggers. The speed Wood displayed truly left Wang Yu stunned.

However, Wang Yu sensed a clue through the Chariot’s Might: the man’s strength did not match his speed. That terrifying velocity was definitely at the level of a high-tier Grand Knight, but the force he exerted when colliding with the blades was perhaps only that of a low-tier Grand Knight. Was this guy a Ranger who specialized solely in speed?

That made things easier. Against such a class, one only needed to find a single opening for a lethal strike. Stepping forward, Wang Yu lunged at Wood alongside the dancing blades.

“Cling! Clang!”

Parrying a shard, Wood’s eyes swept over the approaching Wang Yu. He leaped backward, widening the distance. The swarm of shards pursued, but against Wood’s speed, they appeared sluggish and struggled to keep up.

Watching the enemy retreat and constantly widen the gap, Wang Yu clearly perceived his intent. It didn’t matter; he would play along. He just hoped the man wouldn’t give him an opening.

He didn’t stop the chase. The Perfect Fractal Lens above his eye was establishing a mana link with the girl; a spell was about to be ready.

At that moment, Wood, who had been maintaining his distance, suddenly changed direction. He crouched low and sprinted, his daggers thrusting toward Wang Yu’s throat with a sudden, astonishing burst of acceleration.

Simultaneously, near Avia, who was some distance away, a blade appeared in the empty air. It sliced a rift in the void, allowing the wielder to step through and arrive silently behind the girl, hurling a dagger toward her heart.

A Shadow Assassin—an ancient profession, a branch of the Knight class, possessing immense assassination capabilities and stealth. Aside from Spellbreakers, they were the most terrifying mage-killers, capable of slitting a caster’s fragile throat before they even knew they were being hunted.

Avia did not turn, seemingly unaware. Her hands were already weaving mana into a spatial spell.

The dagger moved with incredible speed, covered in the Knight’s secret battle aura, which could displace and mask detection mana. It shot toward Avia’s heart. In less than half a second, it would pierce her chest.

“ROAR!”

A loud boom echoed from afar, reaching Joey’s ears. He didn’t know what had happened, but his target was within reach; the mage would be dead in an instant.

But just as the dagger pierced the mage’s robe and was about to penetrate Avia’s body, her spell activated. The dagger, reinforced with multi-layered battle aura, pierced flesh and entered, but it did not strike the girl.

The Shadow Assassin’s stealth was astonishing; almost all detection spells failed to catch him. But the Perfect Fractal spell was the perfect counter to such concealment.

Perfect Fractal’s ability to reveal hidden targets stemmed from its synthesis of environmental data; it had little to do with whether detection mana was blocked. In fact, the more anomalous the power, the easier it was for the spell to detect the discrepancy in the environment.

Avia had noticed the assassin moments after he appeared. She signaled Wang Yu and cast her spell in one fluid motion.

Spatial Magic: King’s Carriage Swap. It instantly exchanged the positions of two marked targets. It was a special spell that could be cast with almost zero delay; swapping was always simpler than teleportation.

Upon receiving the signal, Wang Yu released his Dragon Roar without hesitation. The fan-shaped, powerful shockwave left Wood with nowhere to hide, sending him flying backward. The next moment, the magic activated, and Wang Yu swapped places with Avia, taking the dagger in his own back instead.

In truth, however, this was hardly a wound to him; the blood itself pushed the dagger out, and the laceration had already begun to knit together with rapid, unnatural haste. To Wang Yu’s chariot-like power, the Shadow Assassin’s stealth was a mere jest at such close quarters. He spun, his leg sweeping through the air toward the position where he sensed Joey lurking.

"Whoosh!"

The air shrieked as it was torn asunder, yet the kick found no purchase. Both of these fellows possessed speed that bordered on the absurd, making them tiresome adversaries indeed. Wang Yu, however, remained unperturbed; the Conqueror’s alchemical revolver was already gripped in his hand, and in the next heartbeat, he triggered the King’s Gambit once more.

Wang Yu and Avia swapped positions, leaving Wood—who had been charging toward him—directly in his path. The man’s reflexes were sharp; after being sent flying by Wang Yu’s dragon roar, he had seized the opportunity to rush Avia, intent on slaying the mage while the chance presented itself.

He raised his hand, toggling the projectile. The spell he had previously cast from a distance via the Perfect Fractal Lens was now primed. A frigid aura spread, flooding into the ice-core component of the firearm, prematurely activating its effect and allowing the Conqueror revolver to discharge its next round.

Specialization is a dangerous vice...

"Hum!"

No aim was required. A violet arc of electricity flickered with blinding intensity before the projectile vanished, locking onto the lightning-fast Wood. A crushing weight of gravity descended, a gargantuan force pinning the swift but physically frail man to the earth, holding him fast and rendering him unable to stir.

Wang Yu was a man of comprehensive talents; beyond his regenerative abilities, he possessed no singular, overwhelming attribute, yet he held a remedy for every contingency—such as this speed-obsessed knight.

Dashing forward, Wang Yu raised his leg, unleashing the full force of his battle aura and physical might in a brutal stomp aimed at Wood’s skull, granting the man no quarter!

"Snap!"

A hand suddenly broke free from the gravity projectile’s restraint, rising to catch Wang Yu’s heavy boot. The immense force transmitted through the limb gave Wang Yu a flicker of alarm; the man’s strength was wrong—it seemed to have reached the same tier as his terrifying speed.

"Bang!"

With a surge of violent power, Wood slammed Wang Yu—who had attempted to crush his head—into the ground. The earth shuddered, and the sickening sound of snapping bone echoed clearly through the air.

Wood had been forced to activate the hidden potential he had hoped to reserve for later.

Hidden Potential: God’s Balance. For ten minutes, all physical attributes are elevated to match the strength of one’s greatest asset, achieving a state of perfect, absolute power through the zenith of a single trait.