144 A Brief Exchange

... The ones that made their first moves are Raijin and Fūjin. Both them transformed into their elemental form and charged towards Hanzo. Psst! Swoosh! Their movements are very fast to react, and the next instant, both of them are already in front of Hanzo while swinging their fist at the Void Spirit. But Hanzo didn't get intimidated, he remained standing on his position without moving an inch with crossed arms in front of him while looking fearlessly looking at the incoming fists with calm eyes. Bang! Bang! The fists successfully hit something. But they didn't land on Hanzo, they were stopped by an invisible wall and preventing them from moving forward. As if expecting it, Raijin transformed into a bolt lighting once again and circled around Hanzo before clenching his right-hand fist while twisting his right wrist a little. Then he throws a haymaker punch, targeting the back of the latter. At the same time, Fūjin took one step backward with his right foot while twisting his hips in a clockwise manner and pulling his right arm in the same direction. Then he took a step forward with his left foot before throwing a powerful punch with his right-hand fist. Hanzo smirks at the two before releasing his crossed arms while taking a slight step towards his right. Then he face the incoming fists sideways before calmly lifting both of his hands and catching the wrist of the two. Immediately after that, he let the two fists collide with each other before quickly blinking away from the two. Boom! Ta-Ta! Raijin and Fūjin took a few steps backward while relieving the impact that they got from the collision of their fists. Then they simultaneously turned their heads at Hanzo few distance away who is smilingly waving his right hand at them. Raijin clicked his tongue before saying. "Tsk! What a cunning old spirit, I thought he is going to blink away to dodge that attack." Fūjin is rotating his right wrist as he said to the Thunderbolt Spirit. "I told you before that that Old Spirit is the most cunning Spirit that you can encounter during the war so don't underestimate him." Raijin smirks before saying. "Heh! Who is underestimating him? Did I asked the Elven Sage to summon the others because I didn't underestimate him?" "But we shouldn't worry much about it now. From that exchange earlier, he can actually block our attacks but he didn't. So he might have some hidden injuries that he is currently enduring." Fūjin clicked his tongue before saying. "Didn't I just said don't underestimate him? What if it is one of his schemes?" "Heh! Then how about we check it out?" sneered Raijin before transforming into a bolt of lightning once again before rushing towards Hanzo. ..... At the same time after the Storm Brothers made their first moves, Grimrace immediately dashes towards Kaolin and Suijin. Kaolin positioned himself in front of Suijin before creating an earth wall in front of him. But as the wall moving upwards, he gets a glimpse of Grimrace, who suddenly sunk on the ground. When Kaolin saw that, he flipped his stone-staff multiple times before powerfully smashing one of its tip on the ground, sending an intense shockwave on the ground. Bang!!! Crack! Crack! Spiderweb-like cracks spread on the ground, starting from the bottom of Kaolin's staff. Then he closed his eyes before feeling the movements below the ground as he tries to locate Grimrace. But the Stone Spirit immediately frowned when he can't feel Grimrace's presence below the ground. Well, that was understandable since Grimrace didn't really sink in the ground as he just merged with his shadow. He just made it look that way to confuse is opponents and make a successful ambush. Then Grimrace use shadow spikes to attack Kaolin while jumping out of Suijin's shadow while swinging his shadow daggers at the back of the Ocean Spirit. Shing! Pwoosh! Unfortunately for Grimrace, his daggers only passed through Suijin's body. Then Suijin suddenly transformed into an enclosing curtain of water that is trying to entrap Grimrace inside it. And with that, Grimrace was forced to use 'Shadow Escape' to enter his shadow before swiftly moving away from the enclosing water curtain. At the same time, Grimrace's shadow spikes successfully landed on Kaolin's body. But they barely tickle. Because the moment those sharp spikes collided at the Stone Spirit's body, they immediately collapsed and shattered just like a glass when it was thrown on a concrete wall. Grimrace clicked his tongue after materializing few distance away. "Tsk! one is is someone that can't be damaged by some normal physical attacks while the other has a body that is very hard to crack. What a pair that I had chose." "But I can't do any about it either, the other guy possessed a fire-related element which is pretty much my bane. Compared to it is this is much better." After that, he release a pair of Shadow Clones before charging forward once again together with them. .... Meanwhile, Xin and Vladimir are currently having a staredown competition. Since the beginning of the battle, Xin didn't move from his position even for an inch and continue to stare daggers to the Blood Spirit. And since Vladimir is an 'awesome and amazing' Spirit, he is not going to back down. His brows clashed with each other as he sends a fierce glare at the Hellfire Spirit. They continue their staredown competition for quite a few minutes before Vladimir run out of patience. "F*ck! For how long are you going to stand there? Just attack me already, this is starting to get boring!" And the exact moment Vladimir finished those words, Xin immediately swung both of his flaming shortswords and sends a burning X-shaped Energy Wave at Vladimir's direction. "Cheap tricks." sneered by Vladimir while having a smirking smile with his mouth.Then he immediately swung his left arm together with his steel-like fingernails. And immediately after that, a claw-like Energy Wave was sent at the incoming blazing one. Boom!!! Xin immediately charged forward after throwing his X-shaped energy wave. Then he enfolds himself with a flaming barrier as he changed through the explosion. But the moment he gets through it, a thrusting crimson longsword that is made of blood, immediately greeted him. But like an elite soldier during the war, Xin calmly responded to it. He redirects the sword thrust with a simple wave of his left-hand shortsword outwards. Clang! At the same, Xin is also swinging his right-hand shortsword downwards. But he immediately stopped his downward slash when saw Vladimir thrusting his left hand together with his steel-like fingernails. Xin twisted his waist as he forced his body to spin in the air, barely dodging Vladimir's sudden attack. Vladimir brushed past the Hellfire Spirit before turning his body around and immediately charging at the latter. And that is the same time when Xin landed on the ground. He also turned his body around quickly before rushing at the incoming Blood Spirit. Then the two of them were immediately engaged into an intense melee exchange. .... Meanwhile, the audience on the sideline are quite enjoying the show. "So this is how Elemental Spirits fight. It is quite a feast for the eyes. They keep using some cool moves." commented by Lawless without removing his eyes at the ongoing battle. "Looks like your friend's Spirits are quite stronger than the other side." said Hayden. "Hmm.... I'm not sure. How about you Faker? What do you think." asked Lawless. Faker is calmly looking at the battle while replying. "Brother Swordsman's Spirits are quite special, but the other side's Spirits didn't lose in that aspect either." He paused for a moment to talked with his own Spirits before replying. "Base on what my Spirits had said, that lightning and wind Spirits are Legendary Spirits, and they are pretty much strong when they have gone all out." "Meanwhile, that blinking Spirit is an ancient one that lived for a very long time already so he is quite a veteran since he is already gone through all the past three Eras. No, maybe even four if we include the Ancient Era. That is the reason why he can hold himself against the two." "As for the others, that Clown Spirit is an Abomination Spirit which is slightly stronger than common Spirits. What's more, he is an evolved one so he is quite stronger than ordinary Abomination. That is the main reason he can hold himself against the stone guy and water lady, but those two are also not simple, it's just they didn't go all out yet." "I'm not going to discuss the vampire guy since it is just a one-on-one fight." The others become at awe after hearing that. Then they wish that they also have a Transcendent Race for them to get an Elemental Spirit of their own. They continue watching for a few more minutes before Lawless stood up while patting the back of his pants. Faker looked at him and asked. "Are we making our moves now?" Lawless nodded his head and said. "That is enough entertainment for now. It's time to get to work." Faker shrugged his shoulders before also standing up. And when the others saw that, they also started to stand up one by one. ..... As the battle of Elemental Spirits continues, the degree of the battle also started to escalates. And all of them are about to use their Elemental transformations. Shin and the Elementalist girl are also about to make their moves. But before that happens, Lawless and the others are already started moving. Shin immediately stopped himself when he saw that. The Elementalist girl, on the other hand, become solemn. She already expected this from the start since they are Shin's teammates after all. The first one to move is Hayden. He immediately dashes forward and uses a charge skill at the Elementalist girl. The Elementalist girl immediately blinked away from her previous location before starting to cast a spell. But before she managed to do it, she was frozen in place as she discovered that her body become paralyzed by a dagger that pierced on her back. Faker had unknowingly appeared behind her, but he didn't immediately follow an attack after paralyzing her with a 10-second stun skill, he just calmly put his dagger at the side of the Elementalist girl's neck as if saying. –"Do something funny and your dead."– The Elementalist girl was gotten off-guard at what had happened. She can't seem to understand how did this guy appeared behind her, or to he more precise, how the hell did he managed to predict where is she going to appear after her blink. She took a quick glance at her status bar and saw that aside from being paralyzed for ten seconds, all of her skills are also grayed out. What's more, she can't use any CC-removing Skill. Then she took a quick glance at her surroundings and saw Lawless calmly standing few meters away from her while Morgan is pointing his magic pistols at her from few distance away, and beside Stephanie. Hayden, on the other hand, is on her left side ready to use another stunning skill at any given time. Now that she had a clear look at them, she finally realized that this group is not as simple as it seems because they are composed of experienced expert-players. And all of them are quite strong in their respective fields. When she accepted the mercenary job earlier, she thought that these guys are just some average elite players at most. That is the reason why she didn't put them on her eyes when she arrived, especially with her status as a player where she can look down at anyone. But from the looks of it, she is currently surrounded by some not so ordinary individuals, especially the Master Twilight behind her and the Master Berserker on her front. If she is not wrong, these two might even be the same as her, it's just she didn't notice it earlier because they are quite skilled at hiding their auras. Lawless crossed his arms in front of him and said. "Alright, that should be enough for releasing your frustrations. I don't know what is the story behind the two of you, but you should stop for now." "You are currently in a mercenary job, so you should at least respect your contractor. And how about we sit for a little to discuss the details of our job? You two can always talk with each other once we are done with it." The Elementalist girl finally had gotten herself to clam down. She took a deep breath before relaxing her body. And when Faker saw that, he slowly remove his dagger beside her neck, but he still didn't let his guard down. "You should unsummon your Elementals for now, I guess." said Lawless while pointing at the ongoing battle. The Elementalist girl sends some mental orders, recalling her Elemental Spirits. And when Shin saw that, he did the same before walking towards the group. Lawless nodded his head in satisfaction and said. "Then how about we talk about the job now?" "I'm not taking it anymore." said the Elementalist girl almost instanly with a cold tone. Lawless clicked his tongue and said. "Tsk! That was cold. We are on the same generation of «True Era» online so how about we give some respect with each other?" The Elementalist girl turned her head at Lawless as if she is assessing him, but she can't see his details at all so she just said. "How can I be sure about it? And even if it is true, I don't even know if we are standing on the same level." Lawless chuckles after hearing her. He knows that alomst every player on the Monster-Level class of that game are all arrogant figures so he didn't get surprise at her attitude. Then he removed the hood of his cloak and said. "Then let me introduce myself, I'm previously known as 'Tora'. Some people call me 'Crimson Tiger', 'Berserk Byakko', and any other names but I'm going with the name 'Lawless' now." The Elementalist girl stared at Lawless blankly before saying with a slightly less cold tone. "This is unexpected. If that was the case then the man behind me is–...." "You can all me Faker this time." Faker immediately interrupted her before she managed to complete her sentence. Then the Elementalist girl removed her hood after regaining her movements, revealing her silver-white hair and crystal clear eyes. She is still covering the lower half of her face with a white veil though. Then she switched her staff to her left hand before extending her right hand at Lawless and said. "It is a pleasure to meet a renowned individual like you. I'm Charlotte." This time, it is Lawless and the other's time to be surprised. And it took Lawless a few seconds to recover himself before taking Charlotte's hand and shaking it while saying. "The pleasure should be mine." .....