<h4>Volume 6, Chapter 5: Recovering the Dragon Cross Ne</h4>
“Lanski! Why did you run out by yourself? Don’t know you it’s really dangerous outside right now?”
As soon as they heard the voice calling out, both Lanski and Li were shocked. After turning around, Lanski yelled in surprise, “Third brother, why are you here?”
‘Third brother?’ Li carefully examined the man jogging towards them. ‘So this is the third Prince, Cappino?’
The silver-haired, blue-eyed man had a face filled with worry, but his rxed atmosphere was still present. Li felt the man in front of him didn’t seem to fit Kaiser’s description of an annoying pig Prince. It must be Kaiser’s own bias…
When Cappino ran to his only sister, he realized her face was covered in tears. As far back as Cappino could remember, he had practically never saw his independent little sister cry.
He asked anxiously, “Why are you crying? Did someone bully you? Is it this strange guy with a mask?”
Cappino turned his angry eyes towards Li, and he stood in front of her, as if he was the kind of brother who would protect his little sister from any and all harm. But his sister didn’t appreciate his gesture, and instead she hurriedly pushed him aside to apologize to Silver Mask,
“Sorry! My brother is always like this. He always jumps to conclusions before finding out what’s really going on; please don’t me him.”
Seeing Cappino being pushed aside by his little sister and then acted as if he was really hurt, Li found it funny to the point ofughing out loud.
Hisugh seemed to entrance Lanski, and also surprised Li himself. It dawned on him of Kaiser’s warning about the excitement magic on the mask, not being fake. The magic was quite strange to make himugh like this.
“Is this guy, Silver Mask?”
Cappino saw his sister was acting cutesy, and was a bit jealous. He loved his little sister so dearly, but she had never treated him well in return. This man, however, captivated her with just a simpleugh. Cappino suddenly felt like he was marrying off his own daughter.
Seeing the guy may very well be his brother-inw, Cappino startedmenting andining about Silver Mask,
“He’s wearing a mask and you can’t even see what he looks like. What if he’s really ugly? Or maybe he’s an old man. Sister, before you see what he looks like, do NOT marry him!”
“Brother!”
Lanski’s face was burning red, and she was very close to kicking her own brother into the pond so he would stop talking nonsense. But since her crush was there, Lanski warned her brother with a vicious look.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop.” Cappino didn’t dare to continue. His sister had never really been respectful to him. She always held up a sword and chased him around the pce. He didn’t want to be chased around the entire academy now.
Though he said he’d stopining, Cappino seemed to be interested in something else. He looked up and down Li’s body and said, “Tsk tsk, too thin. He looks like he doesn’t have any strength. So how is he going to protect my little sister.”
“Brother! I thought you were going to stop?!” Lanski was almost enraged by her own brother.
Cappino put on a rascal smile, and said innocently, “I’m notining, I just want a spar.”
‘A spar?’ Lanski suddenly remembered the only thing her brother was more interested in than being a yboy was his obsession with Kung Fu!
Before Lanski had time to stop her brother, Cappino had already rushed to Li. He had no ns for an ambush, but instead he just wanted to push Li a bit, to remind him the fight was starting. However, as soon as Cappino’s hand reached where Li’s chest was, he suddenly disappeared.
‘On the side!’ Cappino took one step back, and saw Li standing leisurely on the side.
“Such amazing speed.” Cappino couldn’t hold back a praise, but he didn’t stop there. He unsheathed his sword, and reminded his opponent, “I’m about to attack.”
Perhaps it was Cappino’sck of malice, or perhaps it was his reminder to his opponent before his attack, but whatever it was, Li didn’t seem to mind the person who suddenly started attacking him. He even had a bit of desire to spar with him to see who was stronger, which was rather rare for an Assassin who advocated not having any meaningless fights.
Li put Baolilong down from his arms, and used telepathy to tell it to stand back. He took out Broken Silver from his boot, and blocked Cappino’s sword just as it was about to strike.
Li’s leisure in the fight made Cappino’s eyes shone, and at the same time, decided not to underestimate his opponent.
Countless lights then suddenly shed between the two: Cappino attacked fiercely, but Li’s defense was absolutely impermeable. However, neither one of them used their true strengths; they were just exchanging moves to determine each other’s true strength.
Lanski, who was anxious before, had now gone quiet. Being a little obsessed with martial arts herself, she really didn’t mind the opportunity to observe two strong warriors fight. Her beautiful eyes opened widely, afraid she would miss something. Even though Lanski may not be able to distill the essence from watching and learning their moves, but she would still benefit greatly from doing so.
‘Formidable Indeed!’ Cappino didn’t dare to underestimate his opponent. Even though Lancelot wasn’t very close to him, but his warnings to Latte did reach Cappino, that this man’s powers may rival even Lancelot’s. This warning was enough to make Cappino spar with Silver Mask no matter what.
Cappino took one step back, and his body was suddenly surrounded by a gold aura. His eyes shed with passion and anticipation of a good fight. He quietly stood still, waiting for Silver Mask to release his aura. If everything went as he expected, it would be at least a gold aura, rather than the silver uniform that Silver Mask wore.
“Brother…” Lanski saw her brother released his aura, and she was a bit worried. Despite worrying about her crush’s safety, she still wanted to see theplex Kung Fu moves they could do, so even her yell was rather empty.
Li was rather happy. He never had the chance to use his newly-learned aura in actualbat. But now the strength of a Gold Knight presented itself before him and they could spar, and Li wasn’t going to let go of this opportunity either.
As he closely observed and sensed Cappino’s way of controlling his aura, Li imitated him and released his own aura. This time, however, his Ki did not explode out of control from within him, instead, it slowly encircled him like an air current.
As soon as Li’s aura materialized, Cappino and Lanski were both in shock. ‘Red Aura?!’
Cappino’s observational skills were much better than those of the academy students, and therefore would never mistake the man in front of him as a Red Knight like they did.
In fact, Cappino had already noticed the color of this aura was far different from a Red Knight’s: the dark red color of the aura looked as if it was made out of dried blood of his victims, and it was imposing like the feeling of impending death.
Cappino observed for quite a while before he sighed and said, “This reeks of blood, and not like an aura a Knight should have. But then again, that guy Blood Wolf’s dark aura isn’t much better than this.”
“Damn! My dark aura is way more normal than his.”
Aint suddenly came out of the surrounding thicket, and scared Lanski. She looked around but was unable to find the source of the sound, but the other two weren’t surprised at all.
Cappino already knew Blood Wolf was secretly hiding himself, and Li had already noticed with his Assassin instinct someone was around watching them.
Then, moreints came, “Hurry up and fight! If you’re not going to, I’m going to fight with him. I’ve been itching for it.”
Cappino immediately yelled, “No, you’re not allowed to steal my opponent. If you want to fight him, you could look for him another day. Unlike you, I can’t run everywhere I want every day.”
No moreints came from the trees, and Cappino rushed forward without anymore dys, so Blood Wolf wouldn’te down and fight because he can’t hold his itch.
At the same time, Cappino knew casual attacks like before werepletely meaningless, so he practically started off with his ultimate, “Dragon Sword Dance!”
This move deeply shocked Lanski. When she first met Silver Mask, this was the move that almost took his life. Although Lanski knew Silver Mask purposely took the hit, she was still very concerned about her crush.
‘Time to experiment with my aura.’ Li thought as if he wanted to get beat up.
Even if the aura he emitted can’t stop it, his internal Ki should prevent the attack from seriously injuring him. Subconsciously, Li started calling the energy he emitted as aura, and the energy within as Ki, even though they both refer to the same power.
In an instant, Cappino unleashed 88 streams of Dragon Ki. These Dragon Kis were far different than Lanski’s attacks back then: hers were rudimentary and only shaped somewhat like serpents, where as his Dragon Kis looked like real Dragons with their sharp teeth, which would drive fear into any observers.
These 88 streams of Kis converged on Li from all directions. The reason why the Dragon Sword Dance was one of the most feared skill was the fact that its attacks were far too dense, and there was almost no possible of dodging all of them.
With the spirit of experimenting, Li did not n on dodging at all, not even from just a few of the streams. He stood still in the center where every stream of Ki could hit him.
Li immediately released more aura, and the red light surrounding him immediately expanded, which even forced Cappino to take a few steps back. It was then when all 88 of the Dragon Kis mercilessly collided with the red aura.
As soon as they hit, Li realized something was wrong: it looked as if his aura could not withstand the Dragon attacks. It seemed as if…
Li began to wonder why this was the case; his strength was undoubtedly above Cappino, and the energy from his aura exceeded that of the Dragon Kis.
Cappino was shocked. From what he could see, Silver Mask’s aura could never block the Dragon Sword Dance. But since he had alreadyunched the attack, and it was one of his strongest moves, so he could not withdraw his attack and had to watch as the Dragons hit collide with Li.
“What the hell is this little runt doing?!” A dark shadow flew down from a tree, and sped towards Li.
Lanski also noticed something was wrong, but there was nothing she could do other than scream in panic.
‘Right!’ It was because the density of his aura was too low; it was like a fluffy ball of cotton, so of course it couldn’t stop the needle-like Dragon Ki. Li finally understood.
In an instant, Li contracted his aura, and the cotton-like aura waspressed into a thin sheet. The Storm of Blood’s already dark color intensified to the point where it was near impossible to see Li’s body.
The Dragon Kis had already arrived at Li’s body. The needle like Dragon Kis collided with a thinyer of Storm of Blood in the form of sheet metal. After continuous sounds of explosions, dust flew at where Li stood, as if arge bomb had been set off.
Before the explosion settled, Lanski ran up recklessly, but she was promptly stopped by Cappino. Lanski yelled desperately,
“Brother, Sir Blood Wolf, please, you have to go save him!”
Blood Wolf, however,zily raised his eyebrows. He had just dropped down from the tree and was about to race towards Li when he realized his aura had beenpressed to the point of being capable of stopping the Dragon Ki.
The only thing the Dragon Kis caused was just a bunch of light and sound effects.
“Lanski, don’t worry. Your crush ispletely fine.” Cappino hurried to exin to his sister, otherwise, seeing Lanski had drawn her sword, she might stab her own brother for her lover momentarily.
Hearing this, and seeing Blood Wolf sitting there and waiting, she finally calmed down a bit. She held her gaze in the direction of Silver Mask. After the dust slowly settles, a figure appeared, and Silver Mask stood there, unscathed.
“Hahaha, little runt, what did you do to yourself?”
Blood Wolf saw Li’s situation, and started toughing rudely.
Li’s Silver Knight uniform had been badly torn, and it was missing sleeves and cuffs on his pants. He was practically covered by just a torn rug. Li looked at his clothes with frustration: hepressed his aura so closely to him that most of his clothes were not protected by his aura, and therefore destroyed by the Dragon Ki.
Cappino started murmuring, “Tsk tsk, too skinny, how is someone like him going to protect my sister.”
While Lanski lowered her already flushed face, trying to avoid looking at Silver Mask at all cost.
“Papa, ne ne!”
Baolilong’s voice suddenly echoed in Li’s heart, and Baolilong’s pink big eyes stared straight at Cappino’s chest. Reflecting the moonlight, the Dragon Cross Ne was glimmering light onto Li’s face, as if it were telling him to quickly take it back.
Li’s heart remained very calm. He knew what he had to do. He said lightly to Cappino, “Now, it’s my turn.”
Hearing what Li said, Cappino’s eyes shone. With his bodypletely surrounded by his golden aura, Cappino faced his immensely strong opponent without any fear.
Li withdrew his aura back into his body. Although he finally understood how aura could be used for defense, he was unclear on how to use it to attack. Since this fight involved getting back the ne, Li did not n to use something he was unfamiliar with.
Even though he had no idea why Silver Mask would withdraw his aura, but Cappino did not dare to lower his guard, and he carefully examined his opponent. He noticed Silver Mask’s figure blurred slightly…
‘No! That was a mirage!’ Cappino immediately realized the figure standing where Li was standing was actually an afterimage.
Just as Cappino realized, a stream of practically unnoticeable Ki was headed towards the back of his neck. It was already toote for him to dodge, so Cappino had no choice but to concentrate his aura at where he felt was the point of attack. The attack collided head on with Cappino’s protective aura, and the enormous momentum forced Cappino to take a step forward.
He immediately turned to face Silver Mask, but when he saw Silver Mask from the corner of his eye, he noticed it too was an afterimage. This attack was on his left side, and Cappino maneuvered his aura to, once again, block the attack.
Aura was quite troublesome to Li, and after two attacks without any result made Li a bit frustrated. As the best Assassin, ever since he was 18, he had never had to repeat an attack to the same person, unless he wanted to mutte the corpse.
Li knew, however, it wasn’t hard to break through Cappino’s aura, but to do so without seriously injuring Cappino was a bit of a problem.
Blood Wolf was, at first, curious why Li would attack so aggressively, but as soon as he saw the little Baolilong staring at Cappino’s chest and the ne there, he understood Li’s true intent.
Li had already attacked five times, and these five failures made Li impatient. Cappino, however, was extraordinarily happy: fighting with a stronger opponent was one of the main ways that he could be stronger, especially since he had already reached Gold rank. To him, whose power was reaching a teau, it was an once-in-a-life-time opportunity to gain experience.
“I’m going to use my ultimate.” Li’s eyes shed.
“Tsk tsk, looks like you’ve made quite a lot of progress, to the point where you can actually force him to use his ultimate, considering he’s on par with us.” Blood Wolf had gotten excited at the thought of being able to watch a new move.
Cappino was, too, unusually excited. It’s not because he hadn’t sparred with Blood Wolf or Lancelot, but neither would ever use their ultimates. Even if Cappino used his Dragon Sword Dance, both of them would just sit there and take a beating.
This badboy Blood Wolf would even often crouch on the floor and yawn as the Dragon Kisnd on him. Being able to force Silver Mask, who was on par with Blood Wolf and Lancelot, to use his ultimate, was something that made Kung Fu fanatic Cappino happier than anything else in the world.
“It’s just an ultimate. Didn’t third brother just use Dragon Sword Dance?” Lanski asked with confusion.
Blood Wolfughed, “Little Princess, you have not reached that level yet, so you do not understand. For a Silver Rank to reach Gold, or for a Gold to reach an even higher level, it all depends on the individual’s ability for apperception. Being able to see a stronger person’s ultimate skill is undoubtedly the best way for apperception. However, very few people would use their ultimates toward others, and the fewer people knowing about their ultimates the better. Otherwise, as soon as your enemies find a way to counter your ultimate, things could get really ugly.”
“That’s why all you Dragon Empire Royalties use Dragon Sword Dance,” Blood Wolf pouted, “Your brother isn’t even willing to exchange another move for my ultimate.”
Cappino awkwardly exined with grievance,
“I want to exchange too, but we are not allowed to use other moves unless absolutely necessary; this is themandments passed down from my forefathers. If my dad knew I exchange ultimate moves with you, he will definitely use me as target practice. Blood Wolf, you don’t want to lose a wingman who drinks with you, right?”
Blood Wolf grunted.
“Can we start already? I have to beat you in one move.” Li frowned.
Blood Wolf burst intoughter, “I hope you’re not doing this because you’re toozy to keep fighting? I didn’t think you were thiszy. I thought only the green-haired little runt would be thezy one.”
“That’s not the reason. I can’t move too much.” Li said straightforwardly.
“Can’t move much?” Blood Wolf paused, “Why? Were you hurt by the Dragon Sword Dance?’
Li shook his head and lowered his head to look at his left hand. The others followed, and realized Li held a fist at his belly.
“Do you… need to go?” Blood Wolf asked stupefied.
“You can go to the bathroom first, I can wait for you.” Cappino said with the same stupefied expression as Blood Wolf.
Li remained silent briefly, then lightly said, “No, the belt broke, and my pants will fall if I don’t hold onto it.”
“……”
Lanski lowered her head even more, until Cappino anxiously yelled, “Stupid sister, there’s an ultimate moveing, and you have to watch! You’re not even allowed to blink!”
Lanski struggled a bit, but the Dragon Empire royalties’ obsession with martial arts finally won against a girl’s shyness. Lanski raised her head, and her blue eyes opened as wide as they could, without even blinking at all.
Li raised his Broken Silver in his right hand (left hand, of course, was still holding onto his pants), and Cappino emitted his brilliant gold aura over every bit of his body.
Li kicked the ground behind him, and his body flew forward like a rocket. In the short distance he travelled, Li kicked the ground two more times, each of both left a deep shoe mark on the ground. When he reached Cappino, the enormous momentum forced Cappino’s Gold aura to flicker like a candle light in a hurricane.
When Li’s white rocket-like body reached Cappino’s face, Cappino felt countless fears in his heart. His Gold aura was torn apart like paper, and he felt like he was standing naked on a boulder by the beach, seeing a brutal tsunami heading towards him.
His years of training did not help him react to this danger, and the only thought was in his mind was, ‘Am I going to die?’
Although Li was going to be running soon, he did not n to add a ‘Prince’s murderer’ to his list of charges.
He didn’t aim for Cappino from the start, but just the force of passing by him was more than enough to scare him. He was practically knocked onto the ground by Li’s charge. When Li finally stood still a dozen meters away, Cappino had already been lying on the ground unconscious. Of course, Li could have kept him conscious, but it would have gone against his original intentions.
Li quietly put Broken Silver back into his boots. At the same time, there was another thing being put into the same boot — the Dragon Cross Ne.
“Third brother!”
Lanski ran to her brother with fright. It wasn’t until she ascertained her brother was only unconscious did she rxed a bit. When she turned around, only Blood Wolf remained next to the littleke.
Lanski immediately yelled, “Where’s Silver Mask?”
“Probably went back to change his pants!” Blood Wolf shrugged, ‘but it’s going to take him quite a long time to change his pants.’