Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1289: Another Draw

Flames rushed forward in a roaring wave and collided with a massive earthen wall that burst upward from the ground, the impact sending violent tremors through the entire island as heat and stone clashed and broke apart in a storm of embers and shattered rock.

In the next instant, two figures burst out of the wave of flames and the earthen wall respectively, shooting toward each other at hypersonic speed.

A sword cut through the air and released a multi-coloured tide of flames that spread outward in a wide arc, which was instantly met by a dense storm of sand and wind that ground against the flames as grains scattered violently across the land.

"Pillars of the Earth: Striking Pillar!"

"World Sunder!"

Earth law energy-infused fist and destruction-coated sword collided faster than the sound of the words could even reach the ears of those who spoke them, the impact sending a violent tremor through the air, pressure bursting outward from the point of contact as the ground beneath them cracked and split, and the surrounding winds were thrown into disarray.

Evan adjusted his grip lightly and slid his blade off Leoniel’s fist as his prismatic flames ignited around the edge, then followed up with another slash that cut toward Leoniel’s side in a blazing arc.

Leoniel answered by generating a wall of earth at his side, the blade cutting through part of it before coming to a stop.

The flames continued to burn and melt the wall, but Leoniel instantly used his Unique Skill, generating a spiralling sandstorm that spread outward and knocked Evan away with immense force.

As the sandstorm engulfed Evan, the tips of his fingers and his joints began to stiffen, a grey layer of stone slowly creeping over his skin beneath his clothes.

Feeling this, Evan roused Mesarthim’s power, igniting his entire body with YELLOW flames of purification that burned the creeping stone away.

He flipped through the air and landed on a broken slab of earth, raising his left hand and snapping his fingers.

Blue bolts of lightning descended toward Leoniel in rapid succession, forcing the man to generate multiple pillars of earth that rose one after another to intercept the strikes.

The impacts of the lightning bolts shattered the constructs, fragments scattering across the battlefield as lightning dispersed through the ground. Evan, however, gathered the dispersing lightning, the blue bolts turning golden and merging with the ambient law energy to form a humanoid half-body avatar, which was then covered in an armour of frost.

The avatar raised its hands, a giant sword of ice with crackling lightning manifesting in its grip, and without hesitation, it swung its blade down toward Leoniel.

"I’m not fond of copying others’ tricks, but I guess you need to be informed how ineffective this one is on me."

With those words, Leoniel stomped his foot on the ground, dominating the ambient law energy and causing the ground beneath him to rise and shift, forming an equally massive humanoid construct of stone that met the descending blade head-on, the collision sending shockwaves across the field as ice and earth ground against one another.

And while the two constructs clashed, Leoniel moved again, closing the distance with a step that shattered the ground beneath his feet, his fist pulling back as law energy gathered around it, aiming straight for Evan as the space between them became near zero.

Evan swung his sword with one hand, deflecting Leoniel’s punch with little difficulty, and with a flash, he retaliated, an aura slash erupting from his blade toward Leoniel at point-blank range.

Leoniel bent his body backwards to avoid the slash, but when he sprang back upright, he was hit in the chest with five fist-sized aura bullets that sent him back with immense force.

’?! Unshakable Pillar!’

The man’s quick reaction in activating his technique saved him from being knocked off his feet by the impacts, allowing him to block Evan’s next slash with his forearm, followed by a counter that forced Evan to step back.

"It’s been a while since I used Blade Cannon, and somehow, you didn’t get caught off guard," Evan said casually, twirling his sword around his fingers, and hearing him, Leoniel chuckled.

"Oh, I did get caught off guard. I just have quick reflexes."

With those words, the man shot forward, throwing a fist straight toward Evan’s forehead, which the Hero blocked with the flat side of his blade, allowing him to easily parry it.

Leoniel followed up without hesitation with another strike, his fists moving in succession, each one forcing Evan to block or deflect. Evan responded in kind, his blade weaving through the openings he created in Leoniel’s defences, the exchange of attacks speeding up to a level that could barely be seen by anyone not near Transcendence.

Neither gave ground as the clash continued, their attacks threading past one another by narrow margins until the moment came when both of them committed to delivering killing strikes.

Evan’s sword slashed toward Leoniel’s neck, and Leoniel’s fist simultaneously shot toward Evan’s chest, both breaking past each other’s guard in the same instant.

Leoniel’s fist closed the final distance toward Evan, only to meet a solid block of ice that formed before him, stopping the strike before it could make direct impact, while Evan’s blade reached Leoniel’s neck and met resistance as grey stone scales appeared across his skin, the edge of the sword bouncing off without cutting through.

The impacts from both sides released a burst of force that spread outward in all directions, the ground around them flattening under the pressure as the air trembled from the simultaneous collision.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then both of them eased back slightly, shoulders loosening as they exhaled.

"Another draw," Evan said with a shrug.

"Draw? I dare say my fist can break through your flimsy ice barrier faster than your sword can get through my scales. This is my win," Leoniel countered.

Hearing this, Evan raised an eyebrow, his lips curling up lightly as he activated the Shockwave skill, the sudden burst of magic power blasting Leoniel with full force and sending him flying back several metres.

The man quickly flipped through the air and landed on his feet with his arms raised, but Evan simply stabbed his blade into the ground and asked,

"You sure about that?"

"Haa... you really like to get the last laugh, don’t you?"

Leoniel dropped his fists and raised his hands in mock surrender, while Evan just laughed and unsummoned his blade, leaning back and dropping onto a chair that appeared from his inventory.

He summoned a juice pack and began sipping its contents, while Leoniel used magic to clean the dust off his blazer, adjusting the pocket square of his suit.

"Just how many skills do you have?" the man suddenly asked. "And how do you activate them silently?"

Leoniel’s questions made Evan shrug as he replied, "I dunno. I stopped counting my skills years ago."

"You have so many you lost count?"

Evan nodded silently, finishing his juice pack and turning it to ashes as he opened his status board to see what it currently looked like.

|Name- Evan Von Bourne

Race- Body: Draconic Human; Soul: Elder-Breed godslayer

Gender- Male

Age- Body: 18; Soul: 22;

Level- 900

Existence Level- Undefined

Titles- The Second of Seven Heroes, Leader of the Seven Heroes, Reincarnated Hero, Wielder of Mystic Eyes, Loved by Nature, Irregular, The One Who ’Killed’ a ’Planet’, The One Who Overcame Adversary, Vortex Dragon, Disaster Lord, White Dragon of Destruction [...]

Class- Elemental Combat Fusionist.

Health– X3-

Energy– X3

Strength– X3-

Agility– X3-

Durability– X3-

Intelligence– X3-

Condition– Normal.

Magic Tiers– Fire Tier 6, Lightning Tier 5, Shadow Tier 2, Ice Tier 5, Wind Tier 3, Water Tier 2, Darkness Tier 3, Light Tier 3, Non-Attribute Tier 4;

Resistances- Divinity, Poison, Charm, Fear, Lightning, Mental, Elemental, Demonic Energy, Magic Energy, Death Essence, Acid, Pressure, Power Negation, Pain, Radiation, Biological, Spiritual Force, Memory Reading & Alteration, Destructive Energy, Law Energy, Petrification, Corrosion, Illusions, Curses, Time.

Skills– Full Appraisal, Magic Control, Weapon Control, Paladin, Concealment, Language Comprehension, Martial Arts, Fracture, Void Steps, Irregular, Everlasting Chains, Lightning Flash, Energy Manipulation, Coercion, Dragon Breath, Imperial Scales, Skywrath, Frozen Inferno, Lethe, Dive (E), Distant Strike;

Mimicked Skills– Energy Blast, Aura Slash, Blink, Inventory, Limit Break, Blade Cannon, Elemental Shield, Chain Lightning, Track Down, Tenacity, Intimidation, Collapse, Elemental Weapon Projection, Thunderclap, Physical Damage Reduction, Danger Sense, Vindiction’s Strike, Time Difference, Hollow Magic, Flux, Elemental Gale, Farsight, Elemental Skewer, Stout Guardian, Hydra, Pierce Guard, Adamantine Might, Burst Cannon, Shockwave, Nox Magic, Energy Regeneration, Devastation, Permeating Wave, Elemental Surge, Blue Judgement, Gravilife Convergence, Anima, Titanium Body, Hammerfist, Electroflame, Hologram Creation, Space Warp, Time Bomb, Gravitational Maelstrom, Prism Pulse, Detection Field;

Stoneheart’s Embrace, Body Transformation, World Sunder, Tempest Avatar, Disaster Genesis, Machine god, Dominator’s Decree;

Available Skill Slots- 17;

Unique Skills– Mystic Eyes of Mimicry (6), Adaptive Evolution, Blessing of Destruction (2), Vortex, Harbinger of Ice, Mesarthim: Prismatic Inferno, A R ■■■.|

’There are so many things I’d forgotten were on my status board, especially Adaptive Evolution’s resistances.’

He remembered the time when he relied heavily on those resistances, a nostalgic smile appearing on his face.

’When I see my Magic Affinities, I remember that I can also Mimic magic spells and not just skills. These days, however, the only spells I really use are World Magic and simple lifestyle spells.

It’s all good since the Magic Tier level affects the amount of damage I deal when using that element’s power.’

Evan closed the status board, of course, having forgotten to count the number of skills he had, the reason he’d opened it in the first place.

There were 59 in total, by the way. 21 Base Skills, 53 Mimicked Skills and 6 Uniques.

It was the kind of status board that could give the average man a stroke if they saw it.

Looking up lightly, Evan used Appraisal on Leoniel and was fairly surprised as he immediately noticed a change.

|Name- Leoniel Gilbert Franco

Race- Basilisk

Gender- Male

Age- 220

Level- 880

Existence Level- Sovereign (Superior)

Titles- Stone Protector, Myth of Isolon, Great Basilisk of Isolonian Legend, Marquis of Isolon, Ruler of Hauhull, Oradiff’s Saviour, [...]

Class- Fist Sovereign

Health– X2+

Energy– X2+

Strength– X2+

Agility– X2+

Durability– X3-

Intelligence– X2+

Condition– Normal

Magic Tiers– Earth Tier 6, Wind Tier 6, Water Tier 2, Fire Tier 0, Darkness Tier 0, Non-Attribute Tier 5.

Skills– Earth Manipulation, Petrifying Touch, Martial Arts, Unarmed Combat, Bulwark, Rising Ground, Earthen Reinforcement, Stone Skin, Ground Shrink, Tremor Sense, Pressure Field, Wind Manipulation, Air Step, Distant Strike, Force Amplification, Earthen Coffin, Internal Reinforcement, Physical Damage Reduction, Elemental Damage Reduction, Seismic Break, Wind Shear, Tectonic Smash.

Unique Skills– Negative Sandstorm, Pillars of the Earth.|

"You levelled up?"

"Hmm? Ah, your Appraisal. Yeah, I did," Leoniel replied while stretching his arms lightly.

"I was close to 880, so those Demonic Hand members we hunted ended up giving me the final push."

Evan nodded, looking back at Leoniel’s stats and shaking his head slightly when he saw the man’s durability.

’He’s already comparable to a below-average Inferior Transcendent, which is impressive, considering he still has 20 Levels to go to reach Transcendence.’

Just as Evan had that thought, Leoniel, creating a stool with earth magic, sat down opposite Evan and looked right at him as he asked,

"You said the Demonic Hand’s Fourth Division was targeting me, didn’t you? Exactly what do you intend to do about that?"