Chapter 57: Armored Dragon Cavalry
He still knew little about the professions of this world, and some of them were truly bizarre.
“More or less. To be precise, I’m a Heavy Armored Dragon Knight!”
At this point, Ivan seemed to recall something, and his expression grew rather smug as he said, “Have you ever heard the saying? ‘If a mage doesn’t fight in close quarters, no melee fighter can defeat him!’”
“…”
Luo Yong was speechless.
His opponent was surely arrogant to an extreme. Of course, it was possible he simply had little real experience.
“You’re looking at things too narrowly,” Luo Yong said, shaking his head with a note of criticism in his tone. “No matter how eccentric a profession is, some are unbeatable, some are weaklings. The key is the person, their opportunities. Not every melee mage is invincible—some are ridiculously weak…”
“But there is one thing that’s true: ‘A true mage always fights in close combat.’ Take me, for example.”
As he spoke, Luo Yong pointed at himself, and the longsword in his hand began to tremble.
It wasn’t trembling from excitement or fear.
The sword’s blade was floating up and down, weighed by gravity and anti-gravity. Luo Yong was searching for the balance point.
“Huh? Are you joking?” Ivan’s face showed doubt. At the same time, he stepped forward, clearly done with idle chatter.
“I’ve told you many times, my class is Spellblade—a melee mage. You’ve already seen my magic. Now, it’s time for you to see my swordsmanship!”
Without waiting for Ivan to close in, Luo Yong activated Gale Step, bursting forth with wind magic for a second acceleration. His figure flickered and he was suddenly right in front of Ivan.
At that moment, Ivan had assumed a defensive stance, maintaining his magic shield with one hand and holding his longsword ready to strike with the other.
But Luo Yong’s longsword suddenly accelerated in mid-air. A flash of light, and the blade crashed down on Ivan’s magic shield.
Tenfold gravity!
Using gravity magic to speed up his slash, the blade struck the magic shield, sending a violent wave of magical energy through the air.
Both Luo Yong and Ivan were shaken, sword and shield locked together.
Ivan was momentarily stunned, but his body’s instincts kicked in—he swung the longsword in his other hand!
“Die, Luo the Liar! You, a melee mage? What a joke!”
“Wind Blade!”
At that instant, before Ivan could bring down his sword, the longsword Luo Yong pressed against the shield shone with a faint, clear light.
Wind magic surged forth.
Whoosh!
A razor-sharp gust, cast at point-blank range, struck the magic shield and exploded.
Boom!
Both men were thrown back.
Ivan staggered back several steps before regaining his balance.
Luo Yong retreated much farther, dissipating all the force of the impact before coming to a halt.
“Tch! Trash will always be trash, a weakling no matter what. Didn’t believe me before, did you?” Ivan sneered with open disdain.
“What’s the rush? The fight’s only just begun. I can get faster and stronger, but you don’t seem to have much room to improve.” Luo Yong replied coolly.
“Pah! You think I’ll believe that, Luo the Liar?” Ivan spat at the ground.
“Then come at me again!”
With that, Luo Yong charged once more, even faster than before.
“What?!”
Boom!
Ivan barely had time to cry out before he felt an incomprehensible force slam into his magic shield.
“This can’t be!”
Through the shimmering barrier, he saw Luo Yong’s face mere inches away. Ivan roared, forcing his body not to falter or fall back, but suddenly the ground beneath his feet seemed to soften; his body began to sink uncontrollably.
“I can get even faster!”
He heard these words at his ear as another wind blade slashed at point-blank range, almost breaking through the shield and grazing his face.
“Damn it!”
Ivan swung furiously, but struck only Luo Yong’s afterimage—not so much as the hem of his robe.
“That was fifteen times… let’s see. With my current physique, adding five more times—twenty times should be my limit. Any more would risk injury…”
After two rapid attacks, Luo Yong didn’t strike again right away. He stood there, head cocked as if calculating something.
Ivan had no idea what was happening, but the elven lady watching intently seemed to have guessed the truth:
“Gale Step—that’s usually unique to Windblade Champions. Most heroes of other classes can’t learn it… Wind magic, just basic usage. And that spell—gravity magic, I think…”
When Luo Yong wielded his sword, it felt light—thanks to anti-gravity magic. But during the swing, from movement to impact, he shifted from anti-gravity to gravity magic, making the blow immensely heavy upon landing.
Combined with Luo Yong’s own momentum…
“So that’s his trump card… Is his class truly Spellblade, not Necromancer?”
She agreed with the notion of the melee mage. Just as Luo Yong had said, a true mage must be able to fight up close.
In this era, single-discipline mages could no longer handle the diverse challenges and pressures of survival.
As time passed, many mages trained in multiple schools, and some professions combined several systems from the start.
The elven lady herself was a fusion of mage and warrior—capable at range or in close quarters, able to attack or retreat…
“My turn to attack, Luo Yong! Brace yourself—don’t fall with a single blow!” Ivan shouted, face flushed, charging forward.
He was level eleven, inlaid with rune gems—effectively eleven plus. In terms of physique, magic, speed, and strength, he surpassed Luo Yong.
Except, perhaps, in intelligence…
Ahem.
“Seven-plus versus eleven-plus—only a fool would stand their ground!”
Luo Yong could withstand Ivan’s assault only by combining spells from several disciplines in concert, using every trick he knew to barely keep up.
But in a straight-up fight, there was a fundamental gap.
Still, that was the truth, but he would never admit it aloud.
Dodging aside, Luo Yong declared, “I only know how to attack, not defend. A true warrior is always charging, or preparing to charge!”
“Triple Strike!”
“Twenty!”
Before Ivan could react, Luo Yong shouted as if he’d been injected with adrenaline, and dashed at his opponent.
Boom!
The sword sang as it tore through space-time. Luo Yong, pushing his abilities to the limit, unleashed his full power.
This blow forced Ivan back several steps.
This time, Luo Yong didn’t retreat. Instead, he deployed the Gravity Field.
“The rule on the streets: if you’re down, you can’t keep fighting… Ivan, why aren’t you on your knees? Submit!” Luo Yong bellowed.
“You… damn…”
Smack!
Ivan’s face twisted. He managed only two words before his body stopped responding, weighed down unbearably. Even his magical energy seemed to slow.
His heavy iron sword was plunged into the ground, deeply embedded.
His body groaned and creaked—he could barely hold himself up. His legs nearly buckled, almost dropping him to his knees.
Worse still, his magic shield, maintained with all his strength, was on the verge of shattering.
“Ah!” Ivan roared, straining with every muscle, and then—
Thud!
He crashed to the ground, face-first, in a pitiful heap.
“Pah! Luo Yong, you bastard! Killing a man is one thing—must you humiliate me as well? I’ll tear you to pieces! You won’t die a good death!”
Ivan, stung to the core, went berserk. His muscles swelled, his body thickening instantly.
His clothes were pulled taut, nearly bursting. He wrenched his iron sword from the earth and swung it with a howl, charging straight at Luo Yong.
Luo Yong was conflicted. The twentyfold gravity spell had drained him deeply; he had to back off, or risk harming himself.
“If only I’d had just a bit more…”
He sighed, drinking a healing potion as he dodged Ivan’s furious assault.
But this berserk Ivan was far fiercer than before—both his speed and strength seemed boosted.
The heavy iron sword, weightless in his hands, drove Luo Yong into a corner with nowhere left to run.
“Bao’er, find me at the camp later!” Luo Yong shouted to the elven lady in the distance.
He still had some strength left, but didn’t want to risk all-out war with Ivan now.
Once today had passed and he’d leveled up—just to level ten—he could defeat Ivan fair and square.
But at this moment, he was still just short of what he needed.
He had two scrolls ready in his hand: a teleportation scroll to open a light gate, and a tactical scroll to end the fight.
But to his surprise, the elven lady didn’t leave as he’d expected. Instead, her figure flashed and she rushed over.
Clang!
With a clear ring, she appeared at Luo Yong’s side, deflecting Ivan’s furious blow and sending him reeling.
“Bao’er?”
“How could someone I’ve chosen lose to such trash?” the elven lady said, snatching the two scrolls from Luo Yong’s hand and confiscating them on the spot.
“Huh?”
Before Luo Yong could grasp her intentions, he found another scroll in his hand.
“If you don’t want to taste the Sword of Judgment right now, you’d better not attack Luo Yong,” the elven lady warned, flashing her sword and stunning Ivan into silence.