Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 23: There’s No Good Ending for Being Weak, Why Can’t You Understand That?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In the empty streets, Joshua and the Gold-tier warrior faced off each other.

Moz Wilson, the strongest among the younger generation of the Wilson family, was known as a Gold-tier warrior with gray hair and eyes. He was fully equipped with heavy armor. However, his movement did not seem to be slowing down at all despite that. Well, the heavy armor would have immobilized the movement of a normal warrior. It was as though this set of heavy armor was as light as a set of leather armor when equipped by a warrior of this standard.

However, the Gold-tier warrior did not put himself at ease, not even the slightest bit. Joshua could see it in his eyes. Now, this huge and sturdy Gold-tier warrior seemed to be filled with restless thoughts. He was amazed yet puzzled at the same time.

He was so surprised because the power level of this enemy did not tally with the rumors he heard.

Joshua van Radcliffe was still a Silver-tier warrior when he was still in the Black Raven Army about a month ago. So it seemed that he managed to break through his own shell and ascend to Gold. However, he should not be able to get himself familiarized with the newly acquired power of his. Gold tier was deemed to be the ascension of the body to a whole new level. Therefore, no matter what kind of prodigy he turned out to be, it would still require a few months of practice before anyone could master that tier of power!

However, it would be pointless as well even if Moz did not believe it. Currently, Joshua was standing before Moz as a Gold-tier warrior, a strong enemy that could threaten him.

“I’m Moz Wilson.”

Unsheathing the broadsword from his waist, Moz appeared calm. He then pointed the tip towards his enemy. His eyes were clear as day now.

“Joshua van Radcliffe.”

Joshua did not hesitate to tell his enemy his name as well. It appeared that exchanging names with your enemies was a tradition around the world. It was a gesture to prove that the warriors were fighting fair and square regardless of who would win. It was just a proof of glory.

The next moment after they were done with their conversation, the wind howled. Two weapons clashed with each other. The clanging of steel against steel was so noisy and the friction between the two weapons had made fountains of sparks across the surroundings. However, the two of them did not notice such a trivial thing. In less than a second, they had already clashed their weapons against each other over several rounds. Before the violent airstream could set off any of the impact shockwaves, the two of them had already done testing out each other’s strength.

“Not bad!”

Backing up to his initial spot, Moz raised his broadsword and placed it horizontally across his chest. He adjusted his breathing pace and let out a low pitched roar. He entirely disappeared once again. In a blink of an eye, a heavily charged slash attack that was tearing the ground apart was heading straight towards Joshua’s head. The black broadsword that was initially placed right before the chest of the Gold-Tier warrior swung out in a blur, like a stream of dark light flashing across the air. Its movement was extremely fast, to the point that it was almost impossible to see.

A tiny fraction his strength was enough to lift and twist the air around him. That strike seemed to be just a normal strike. However, the strength and the speed were unleashed at maximum potential. It was just like a normal strike in between his breathing pace. No subtle changes were needed in that strike at all.

“Foolish.”

Upon letting out a roar, Joshua’s expression was as cool as steel. Facing such a heavy strike that could easily destroy the castle walls and splitting steel, Joshua chose not to retreat. Instead, he raised his left hand up. He was ready to take on that heavy strike from his enemy with his body made of flesh and blood. With merely his flesh and bones, Joshua stopped the strike with ease. At the same instant, he swung that greatsword of his that he was holding in his right hand from bottom to the top. It was a solid upswing strike that was heading towards Moz!

Puchik—

Flesh and blood… Even if it was the body of a Gold-tier warrior, that body should not be compared to the toughness of a weapon forged from steel. Furthermore, that weapon was infused with Combat Aura. Not to mention that it was swung at Joshua by another Gold-tier warrior at full strength. Joshua’s left palm was split in half upon contact with that heavy strike. However, even though that was the case, that strike which was originally aimed at Joshua’s head was slightly set off of its track. Because of that, that strike went all the way down by the side of Joshua’s body. It was a miss. Meanwhile, because Moz stayed in mid-air after his attack, he did not have any way to borrow a force to change his position in mid-air. Moz was helpless against the fully loaded upswing strike that Joshua threw at him!

After Ying transformed into her Divine Armament form, she became a heavy and huge weapon that was even larger than the size of a human. So while encountering Moz’s broadsword Joshua lost the agility in wielding his weapon. It was hard for him to take the pre-emptive strike in battles.

However, that would also mean that if he could land his attacks on his enemies, the damage he could deal would be much higher than the damage regular weapons could deal.

Moz never expected Joshua to risk his life just after their first encounter. Because he did not want to simply let go of the weapon in his hand, Moz did not activate his Combat Aura in the first place to fight back. Instead, he chose to avoid the strike that was coming at him. So the Gold-tier warrior kept his weapon based on his battle instincts and saved himself from Joshua’s heavy strike that could have split him in half. However, after a moment’s notice, Moz only realized that his elbow on his left hand was broken after deflecting the impact of Joshua’s attack.

“…Your courage could even astound the gods.”

After witnessing Joshua controlling his arm muscles to stop his bleeding wound, Moz broke out in cold sweat, clenching his teeth.

“I’ve never met an opponent like you.”

“That’s because your previous enemies were all weak.”

Joshua closed the wound on his left palm looking nonchalant. With his Combat Aura blazing on, his blood and bones were swiftly restored. His left hand regenerated back to its former state. Joshua smiled coldly and said, “You must not have experienced many battles with other Gold-tier warriors. So how would you know the way to use such a skill then?”

He was speaking as if he had experienced many rounds of battles with Gold-tier warriors.

Moz was bewildered for the moment. This guy should have only ascended to Gold tier less than a month ago. Moz looked doubtful. So why did he seem like he was much more experienced than Moz?

Truth to be told, Joshua’s experience was much more than Moz’s. Furthermore, the difference was not a little, but vast.

After acquiring power, Gold-tier warriors had healing abilities which were on an entirely different level. As long as the warrior’s vitality was strong enough and the body of the warrior had sufficient nutrients, the warrior could regrow any lost limbs over a couple of days. As for wounds that did not involve losing a limb, the warrior would only need a matter of seconds to regenerate. They could swiftly recover a certain level of their battle power within that few seconds.

Receiving a wound that could quickly recover as the cost, Joshua had given his enemy a blow that hard to recover from. That was an instinct he had as a legendary warrior.

Joshua once again clenched his healed left fist, unclenched it, and then tightened it again.

Joshua was feeling great at the moment. In fact, he had never felt this great in his life. It went beyond his imagination that he enjoyed the taste of his own and his enemies’ blood in a battle of life and death.

Meanwhile, the street where the two of them were battling against each other became silent. The residents that were once living there had moved far away from the streets to seek shelter. Some dust from the rocks that floated out from the potholes was the result of the impact of the battle between the two Gold-tier warriors.

Frankly speaking, Moz’s strength most probably went beyond Joshua’s current strength, which made sense. After all, there had been two versions of Gold tier before Continental War’s server was open to the public. They were from the same legend though. The Gold tier was different from the Gold tier after the Dark Tide. The Gold tier during that time was valued for their quality rather than their numbers. Most of their forms were elites. Some of them were even leaders, so they were much more powerful than the regular form after the Dark Tide.

However, even though that was the case, this is also an insurmountable gap. From physique to the control over the power, ascending to Gold tier was a whole new level, in terms of power. In the game, such process had been replaced with the [Glorious Quest] that countless players were complaining about. The long list of quests had replaced the adjustment process. Meanwhile, in this real world, an adjustment period was needed. Just like a child could not wield a greatsword, an infant could not wield a greataxe. So common people could not have familiarized themselves with such new changes over such a short period of time.

However, how could Joshua be categorized the same as those people?

About a month ago, he could just simply unleash an extraordinary natural gift. His punches could have easily destroyed the mountains and stir up waves. He was a legendary warrior! Now he was ‘demoted’ back to a Gold-tier warrior. So it would not take long for him to get used to his battle style. It would only take a few seconds—

In other words, he could just easily get used to it during the few seconds while he was talking to his opponent.

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