CHAPTER 55

  THE WALL BETWEEN CLANDOR AND PARV

  “So what would you do now, Hans Parv?” Rudolf asked, expanding his domain.

  “Win, of course. You are still in my jungle, grandpa.” Hans remained confident.

  “Your little pranks amount to nothing in my domain.” Rudolf said, as his nimbus skill kept striking everything that looked a little dubious or anything which had an odd amount of mana surrounding it. He strolled like he was in some sort of garden, not a killing forest summoned by Hans.

  “You had a pretty great run. I admit you’ve become quite strong too. But that’s it. You are still far weaker than I, and I can’t condemn you enough for risking your life.” Rudolf reached Hans, his sword pointing straight at his head.

  “Gravity well.”

  Suddenly, the gravitational force around Hans increased severalfold and brought him down to kiss the ground.

  It was Rudolf’s cursed sword’s innate ability which increased the gravity of his sword or around his vicinity. Hans knew it too. It was just that he was feeling it for the first time. “He could even change the weight of his sword as desired. That is one overpowered sword. But I have one too.” Hans struggled but couldn’t even raise himself.

  “Give up.” Rudolf suggested. He was quite proud of Hans internally. A brat whom he had to look after had grown into a fierce existence, but he needed to install some discipline in him because his life wasn’t solely his. Neither he nor Sierra could survive losing him.

  However, Hans kept struggling. “As I’ve said,” he gritted his teeth and shouted his lungs out, “this is my jungle.”

  ~SolarMine~

  A zooming sound echoed as the light bubbles converged into the forest. “Boom!”

  The whole forest lit up and exploded. The explosion was quite strong, many would have gotten injured if Aredhel and Walter didn’t deploy their barriers and Sierra’s sanctuary.

  As the dust settled, Rudolf stood firm, but he was quite far from his initial position. It was evident that he had lost quite the aura since his domain was canceled out, and he had to use quite an amount to defend himself, but he wasn’t injured any further.

  However, since Hans was without any protection, he was bleeding from several places, his skin was burned, and his blood stains were dry as he had suffered third-degree burn. And several of his bones were broken. He looked critically injured, but there was a smile in his face.

  “Reckless idiot.” Rudolf fumed and turned to call Sierra to heal him.

  ~ParadiseGarden~

  He authoritatively said, and the ground around him got covered with lit-on flower fields that healed him with insane speed.

  “See, I’m unkillable. You don’t have to worry about anything—”

  “Astrape.” Rudolf motioned his index finger from up to down, and a lightning bolt fell from the sky at Hans, and he finished calling Sierra. “Patch him up.”

  The show was over; Hans was knocked, charred black. Rudolf had to use his ultimate; he was holding quite back since he didn’t want to injure him, but Hans wanted to taste victory and sort of knew Rudolf could take his attack head-on, so he wasn’t holding anything back.

  And when Astrape hit him from out of nowhere, he realised it was quite difficult to beat Rudolf, who was even fighting on eggshells.

  His aces didn’t work against Reina, but it did on Rudolf, and even with that, he couldn’t beat him. There were three enemies in front of him; he clashed with two and was about to with the last, in the graduation exam. He needed to know how far he was, so he fought against Rudolf and lost with pride; he forced the ninth-ranked knight to use his ultimate skill.

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  “Wake up, Hans Parv — Bang” Rudolf knuckled the sleeping Hans in the head and roused him quite painfully. “Till when are you going to refer to me with my full name?” Hans complained, rubbing his head.

  “It was you who was blabbering your full name, Hans Parv.”

  “Quit it, geezer—Bang!” Another hit his head, and another was incoming, but Sierra stopped him. She was silently checking for anything that she had missed in Hans. It took quite a few cutesy acts from him to coax Sierra and Vanessa, and eventually, they turned around and forgave him.

  However, a wave of Hans’s prowess spread throughout Floatlands; another prodigy had risen from Concordia.

  It was afternoon, and Hans was completely healed from Astrape. His tactical fighting style brought satisfactory results against Rudolf, but the one who analyses their opponent for every possible move, like Reina and Xandor, he needed to become so strong that their analysis became useless. In Hera’s words: in front of overwhelming strength, no plan works.

  He stood up and stretched his hands. There was something he had to do first. “Wait! Where are you going, senior?” Vanir, the steadfast subordinate of Hans, asked, coming out from the shadows.

  “Nowhere, just to bully someone — where is the elven princess?”

  Vanir didn’t ask why Hans was asking and just led him to her. However, Hans was puzzled when he found her in the training ground. On the other hand, the second years were quite excited to see Hans, but none dared to flock around. Just as he was famed for being strong, he was also the crazy dog around.

  Allynna felt the steep gaze of Hans and turned towards him. “Wha..what do you want? I don’t care if you are the imperial or not. I will get that from you.” Allynna pointed her finger at Hans’s pendant. “I will become someone whom you can’t look down on. Just you wait.”

  “Tsk! Bold, stupid shrimp.” Hans clicked his tongue and returned, his mood ruined. As he disappeared from the second years’ training ground, Allynna breathed in, relaxed. “Just as you’ve told me, he really left, but why was he here to torment me? Did I do something wrong?” Allynna was perplexed.

  “It’s not you, but someone else. However, if you really want him to remain backed off. Keep showing that you are committed to hard work. After all, he likes determined people and it’s almost sacred for him to not disturb someone who is doing their best to improve themselves.

  Allynna nodded, and as Delimira began to move, she asked, “So where are you going?

  “To speak with the one responsible for this shitty situation.” Delimira responded without looking and moved back to her home. There she found her own communication orb, the artefact which was of no use to her till now. She drew a pattern and got connected to the other side.

  ….

  ..

  .

  “This is quite odd.” The person from the other side responded.

  “I told you not to use him, didn’t I?” Delimira quickly threatened. She was quite angry, and her tone was showing it perfectly. “I’ll never let you use him, aunt. So stay the fuck away from him. Parv will never join the war. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “You are quite good at using your pretty head as always. If you weren’t half-blood, I’d have taken you under my wing. But do you think that’s all the scenarios I’ve planned for him? No matter how much you think, I’ll always be two steps ahead of you, niece.”

  “You want to tell me you’ve steps planned? Then how do you explain your miserable condition, Aunt? You want Parv to take the Council’s side, so others won’t have a choice but to support you. Dream on. I’ll be the wall separating Clandor and Parv. Good luck, you’ll need it.— click!”

  The conversation got cut off, and Reina laughed like a mad woman for quite a while. She was scheduled for a meeting with the Royal faction of Clandor, so Bernard escorted her there. The people were bickering with each other, passing one agenda over another until the queen entered the room.

  “You’ve put it on for quite a while, Queen Reina. We want answers. Why is Parv not reacting to it? But first, how did you fail?” An old man, the high elf who had supported the faction from a young age, asked Reina.

  But Reina remained silent. So her own mother, the previous queen, asked, “Why is that child alive? Did your human knight save him? That’s why I wanted your brother to go, but no, it has to be you. Now see, for yourself, he is alive—”

  “You can’t kill him in the barrier, mother. That bastard Samson designed it like a playroom for his child. The whole barrier listens to him, empowering him with some explosive energy. Taking him out in the barrier would be impossible, even if my dear brother had attacked. I almost died. But that is not the problem. Now he has someone on his side who can influence his thinking so much that he can forget his revenge.”

  Reina paused as others stared at her and said, “We need to separate them.”

  “And who is this person?” The former queen asked.

  “Our half-blood, Delimira Winters.”