Chapter 16: Baruch
Linley held a Black Duran heavy sword in one hand and a Violet Blood soft sword in the other, standing in the middle of the street. Bebe sat motionless on Linley’s shoulder. Both man and beast watched as Osenno charged down at breakneck speed, but when Osenno was about ten meters away from Linley, he suddenly came to a halt.
A trap!
Osenno looked at the confident Linley ahead of him, his heart tightening with unease.
“What dirty trick does this kid have up his sleeve?”
“What’s wrong, scared?” Linley said coldly, holding his swords and staring at Osenno. “If you’re afraid, just slink away. Don’t worry, I won’t chase you down.”
Linley’s words nearly made Osenno spit blood.
“Chase me down?” Osenno cursed inwardly. Clearly, he, Osenno, had the upper hand. But Osenno was cautious by nature, and he genuinely suspected Linley might have some dirty trick. Yet, seeing Linley’s confident demeanor, a thought struck him: “Could it be that Linley is deliberately putting on this act to scare me off?”
Osenno scrutinized Linley carefully. “If Linley had some ultimate move, he would have used it by now. Why bother with all this pretense? And even if he has a trump card, he shouldn’t be so blatantly confident—that’s practically telling everyone he’s got something up his sleeve.”
Osenno sneered inwardly. “Bluff and reality, reality and bluff. This kid is playing games with me. I don’t believe he has any way to hurt me.”
“Why the hesitation, Lord Arbiter? Where’s your usual authority and decisiveness?” Linley said coldly.
Osenno stared into Linley’s dark-golden eyes and scoffed, “Kid, I still—” Before he could finish, four ‘Osennos’ attacked Linley almost simultaneously, their speed terrifying. But in that instant—
“Buzz~~~”
A yellow-brown halo instantly covered a hundred-meter radius, and Linley and Bebe were also enveloped in the same yellow-brown glow.
Instant cast—Seventh-Grade Gravity Spell!
The Seventh-Grade Gravity Spell increased the gravitational pull on the body to four times normal in an instant. This fourfold gravity affected not only muscles but also internal meridians, organs, and blood flow. No matter how powerful the expert, their movements would be distorted in that moment, and their speed would plummet.
For a Saint-level expert, throwing a ten-thousand-pound boulder at them would be like flicking away dust—they’d shatter it effortlessly, their speed and form barely affected.
But the Gravity Spell was different.
Take the fourfold Gravity Spell, for example. It wasn’t just about carrying a few hundred extra pounds. It could slow blood circulation, make breathing difficult, and so on… For weaker individuals, fourfold gravity could even cause instant death. Even for Saint-level experts, their physical functions would be impacted.
“Kill!”
After instantly casting the Gravity Spell and applying a counter-spell to himself and Bebe to negate its effects, Linley and Bebe attacked Osenno simultaneously. One Linley and two ‘Bebes’ charged at the four ‘Osennos,’ whose movements had clearly slowed.
“Whoosh.” Linley’s Black Duran heavy sword struck empty air again. The Violet Blood soft sword also hit nothing.
“Bang!” Osenno’s form was sent flying, the four Osennos merging into one as blood spilled from his mouth. He had dodged Linley’s attacks but couldn’t evade the strikes from the two ‘Bebes.’
Linley and Bebe immediately charged at Osenno without hesitation, but Osenno instantly split into four again, and black flames erupted violently from his body. The surrounding street ground was instantly burned to nothing, and even the energy from Linley’s Gravity Spell was dispelled.
“I didn’t expect you to have that trick,” Osenno said angrily, glaring at Linley. “But it’s useless.”
“Useless?”
Linley stood confidently on the ground.
The four Osennos charged again at full speed. Almost simultaneously, a yellow-brown halo emerged from the ground around Linley—Seventh-Grade Gravity Spell!
The four Osennos faltered for a moment, but then “Boom!” the black flames blazed, once again dispelling the Gravity Spell. Osenno’s eyes burned with fury: “It’s useless, Linley. My body can easily adapt to this level of gravity.”
“Bebe, go.”
Linley and Bebe charged at Osenno at the same time, and Linley cast the Gravity Spell again. But this time, it was the Sixth-Grade Gravity Spell!
Osenno, who had already braced himself to adapt to fourfold gravity, suddenly found his movements distorted again under twofold gravity.
“Pfft!”
Wind Essence—Rhythm of the Wind. The Violet Blood soft sword moved sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and a spatial blade appeared on its edge. The blade struck Osenno’s body, piercing through the hellfire and sending him flying once more.
A wound appeared on Osenno’s chest.
Osenno had dodged Linley’s Black Duran heavy sword and the attacks from the two ‘Bebes,’ but he was wounded by the Violet Blood soft sword.
“How is it so powerful?” Osenno’s expression changed.
He had no way to dodge earlier. Since four shadows were attacking Linley simultaneously, Linley could naturally strike two of them. Meanwhile, the two ‘Bebes,’ faster than him, could easily attack two as well. No matter what, he had to take one hit.
He didn’t dare to take the Black Duran heavy sword head-on, and he didn’t want to face Bebe’s claws either.
In the end, he chose the Violet Blood soft sword.
But… the Violet Blood soft sword’s power seemed even slightly greater than Bebe’s claws.
“According to the intelligence, this purple longsword’s attack power isn’t that strong,” Osenno thought in disbelief.
Indeed, during the fight with Hodson, Linley’s ‘Rhythm of the Wind’ technique wasn’t very powerful. But now, having broken through in both the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ realms of the Wind Elemental Laws, raising his level, and then combining them to execute ‘Rhythm of the Wind,’ its power had increased not just by one level but by two or even more.
“Osenno, weren’t you going to kill me?” Linley said, sounding somewhat arrogant.
Attack!
Linley, transformed into a hellish demon, and Bebe, now enlarged, charged side by side at Osenno in a frenzy. As they charged, Linley kept casting the Gravity Spell instantly, and yellow-brown halos repeatedly covered the ground.
“Boom!” Black flames erupted from Osenno’s body, instantly destroying the Gravity Spell’s energy and canceling its effect.
But for Linley, casting such low-level Gravity Spells a hundred or two hundred times in a row wouldn’t drain his magical power, especially since he had the ‘Coiling Dragon Ring.’ It only consumed one-sixth of the magical power.
Seventh-Grade Gravity Spell, Sixth-Grade Gravity Spell—Linley alternated between them.
“Not good.” The constantly shifting gravity levels distorted Osenno’s attacks.
The Sixth-Grade Gravity Spell was only about twofold gravity, a stark difference from the Seventh-Grade. The drastic variation in gravity made Osenno’s movements awkward again. It was like a normal person walking, then suddenly losing gravity—moving in a weightless state would feel unnatural.
Same logic.
Sometimes, with the Gravity Spell, higher wasn’t always better.
“Bang.” With no way to dodge, Osenno chose to take a heavy claw strike from Bebe, sending him flying again. A cracking sound was heard—Osenno’s ribs had broken… This time, Osenno leaped into the air, no longer daring to stay near the ground.
“I never thought different gravity levels could achieve this effect,” Osenno said, clutching his chest as he hovered in midair.
His injuries were severe.
He had been struck once by Linley’s Black Duran heavy sword, once by the Violet Blood soft sword, and two or three times by Bebe’s claws.
“Bebe, go. He’s badly injured and in bad shape,” Linley said.
Osenno didn’t hesitate. Four figures simultaneously flew south at top speed. He didn’t care about Bebe chasing him. Bebe might catch up, but Osenno could keep switching between his four shadows, so he had no fear of Bebe.
If Linley chased…
Osenno might counterattack and wound Linley. After all, in the air, Linley couldn’t use the Gravity Spell, and his speed was inferior to Osenno’s. That would be suicide.
*******
The five Barker brothers finally ran out of the city lord’s mansion.
“Osenno escaped,” Ankh sighed.
“The boss and Bebe drove Osenno away,” Gates said excitedly. They looked at the street in front of the city lord’s mansion and fell silent. The six angel corpses were still there, frozen into blocks of ice.
Near Linley’s position, the ground had sunk about a meter.
A meter-thick layer of soil had been burned to nothing by Osenno’s hellfire. Linley, transformed into a Dragonblood Warrior, stood at the edge of the sunken area.
“Boss.”
“Boss.”
The five Barker brothers rushed toward Linley excitedly. Linley reverted to human form, pulled a robe from his spatial ring, and put it on. Bebe landed beside him, and Linley let out a long breath.
“Boss, we won,” Barker said excitedly, the other four looking at Linley with equal fervor.
Linley wore a faint smile as he gazed south. “We didn’t really win. Unfortunately, each strike of my Wind Essence ‘Wind Ripple’ isn’t powerful enough. If it were, I could handle Osenno alone.”
Wind Ripple unleashed thousands of sword strikes in an instant.
It was incredibly fast, but its attack power wasn’t very high. If the four Osennos had surrounded him, using this technique wouldn’t have hurt Osenno at all. Instead, Linley would have been severely wounded.
“Rhythm of the Wind and Wind Ripple are two different concepts; they can’t be merged. Only by integrating the sword techniques from the ‘Fast’ realm of the Wind Elemental Laws into Wind Ripple can its power increase by several levels.”
Linley still remembered Higinbotham’s strike.
It was so fast that space itself twisted and overlapped, the penetrating power terrifying.
If Linley could reach that level and then use Wind Ripple, unleashing countless ‘Phantom Space Swords,’ even if each strike was slightly weaker, it would still be devastating.
“Same for me,” Bebe muttered. “Shadow Split Technique—if I could master splitting into four, I could fight him alone.”
The five Barker brothers looked at Linley and Bebe, the man and beast lamenting their shortcomings, and were left speechless.
“Boss, you’re not even thirty yet. You’re already this strong!” Barker exclaimed loudly.
Linley and Bebe exchanged glances and laughed.
True, one shouldn’t be too greedy.
Linley’s understanding of the Wind Elemental Laws and the Earth Elemental Laws was progressing rapidly. Unlike some people stuck at bottlenecks, he had reason to be happy.
“Barker, immediately send people to reclaim the Sheli Duchy. Now that Sheli City is under our control, the army probably has no morale to resist,” Linley said confidently. After the angel battle and the recent fight, who in Sheli City would dare to resist?
“Yes, boss.”
“As planned, since we’ve clashed head-on with the Radiant Church, we’ll go public. In ten days, we’ll officially announce the establishment of the duchy. Its name will be—Baruch!” Linley declared.
Barker, Ankh, Black Shark, Boone, and Gates all knelt respectfully and said, “Yes, boss.”
*******
The battle at Sheli City decided that the Radiant Church couldn’t suppress Linley for now. Linley had killed six four-winged angels and forced the Arbiter ‘Osenno’ to flee. Under Sessler’s arrangement, this news spread far and wide.
Linley’s side was brimming with morale.
The Sheli Duchy offered no resistance and returned to Linley’s rule.
Inside the garden of Black Soil City.
“Lord Linley, the Anni Duchy to the west surrendered immediately after we threatened them. The duchy to the east was a bit more stubborn,” Sessler said with a smile. Linley’s reputation was indeed effective.
A simple threat, and a duchy surrendered.
What else could they do? Fight a Saint-level expert? After all, most duchies had at most an eighth-level warrior as their strongest, with a few having ninth-level warriors. As for Saint-level experts… why would they stay in a duchy?
“Sessler,” Linley ordered, “in three days, we’ll officially establish the Baruch Duchy. Send someone to the Dawson Merchant Guild branch and have them send a message to Delia in the imperial capital of the Yulan Empire. Tell her about the establishment of the Baruch Duchy.”
“Yes,” Sessler acknowledged.
Linley stood in the garden, gazing south. “Delia, I’ve fulfilled our agreement. When will you come?”