’Is Qi something you can teach me in thirty seconds or less?’
Jason suddenly asked Esdeath this question while keeping his eyes on the fight happening in front of him. Jason had instructed Azrael to be in charge of the battle, so he didn’t need to maintain full focus, and he listened as Esdeath chuckled out a response.
’Thirty seconds!? You want to learn Qi in thirty seconds!? Kikikikiki! You’re hilarious! Qi is the greatest tool for immortal Ascension! The culmination of centuries of human evolution, and you want to learn it in thirty seconds!? Are you insane!? Of course, that’s not possible! But what I can teach you is a breathing exercise that will allow you to unlock your Qi foundation! This is the first skill all practitioners must learn, and if you are even half as talented as I am, then it shouldn’t take you one minute to do it! After that, you’ll need to meditate and study great literature to improve your foundation and raise it to the—’
’Not interested.’
’Ehhhh!!!?’
Jason’s immediate dismissal shocked Esdeath into stupor, and for a few seconds, Esdeath seemed to be too shocked to speak, but then Jason heard Esdeath scream out in disbelief, and Jason flinched before he turned off the connection between them again.
’Yeah, I’m not listening to all that.’
Jason knew that Esdeath wasn’t wrong about Qi being a great power source, but Jason was just too busy right now to think about gathering Qi and meditating to improve his foundation, especially since Jason was in the middle of a fucking battlefield. Jason decided that when the battle was done and he had finally gained the Shadow Attribute from Evon, then he would bully Esdeath into teaching him what he needed to know.
ROARRR!
A large giant suddenly rose from the ground behind Jason, and it raised a large club and brought it down on where Jason was, but Jason didn’t even bother to move as he activated [King’s Substitute] and... nothing happened.
’Fuck. I forgot.’
Jason raised his hand with a frown on his face, and he caught the large club before it could pummel him, and his feet dug into the ground from the intense force!
BOOM!
Jason could feel the giant straining to try and press Jason down, but Jason was far too strong for it, and he just sent a mental message to one of his subordinates who was close enough to them, and in the next moment, the Sovereign burst out from the shadow with his sword pulled back!
SLASH!
The Sovereign unleashed a slash that tore through the Giant’s body like butter, and the beast let out a massive roar as it vanished and suddenly reappeared from the shadows to attack the Sovereign again! Jason fell into the shadows, and he quickly traveled past all the fighting monsters and to the other side of the battlefield. For a moment there, Jason had forgotten that all his Legion skills needed mana to be activated. At a moment like this, Jason had to let go of his instinctual habits and resort to using only his body to fight. Jason quickly sent out another message to the Sky King, and the Sky King let out a massive screech as it flew over the hill where Evon was standing! Evon looked up at the Sky King with a maniac smile on her face, and she got into a fighting stance as the Sky King suddenly hardened its feathers into blades and shot down towards her!
Woosh!
Clang!
The Sky King’s speed when free-falling from the sky was the highest among all of Jason’s subordinates, but even with its insane speed, Evon was still able to react in time to deflect its attack! Many more Iron-bladed Falcons suddenly appeared around Evon, and Evon blurred into motion as she deflected attacks and tore them down with her spear! Even though Evon wasn’t completely sane, her fighting ability and her instincts were still as strong as they had been when she was a General in the Raksha army, and she easily tore down more than a dozen Falcons before she deflected another attack from the Sky King!
Clang!
Evon grabbed one of the Falcons that flew past her by the tail, and she laughed loudly as she swung it around and tossed it toward the Sky King!
CAW!
The Falcons screeched in shock as they slammed into each other, and Evon laughed!
"Hahahahahah! Weak! Weak! Weak! They are all weak! They think they are strong! They are strong! But they are weak to us! We are stronger! They are weak! Hahaha—!"
WOOSH!
A sword suddenly flew out from the shadows beside Evon, and she had to quickly fall back to avoid getting stabbed by it! Jason jumped out from the shadows and drew another sword from his Alternate Dimension, and he commanded the Falcons to go back and help the other subordinates as he charged straight for Evon!
[The innate skill [Advanced Swordsmanship] has been activated!]
Clang!
Jason didn’t bother to react to the message from the system as he brought his sword down, and Evon brought up her spear, and she blocked an attack from Jason! Jason rolled with her deflection, and he used it as leverage to land on the ground and unleashed another slash that was aimed for her neck!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Evon grit her teeth as she felt Jason pushing her back with every attack, and a mad laugh escaped from her as she was suddenly thrown back by a particularly vicious slash! Jason’s hits were extremely heavy, and there was no way Evon could hope to match them! It was so dangerous that she knew she would die from a single hit! Jason threw his sword towards Evon before following behind the sword at breakneck speed with another sword in his hand, and Evon felt a sudden rush of adrenaline flying through her body. Her eyes glowed with power, and she suddenly ducked faster than Jason had ever seen her move before she thrust upwards with her spear!
WOOSH!
’What?’
Jason quickly shifted his head to the side and barely avoided getting skewered by that spear, and he was shocked when he saw Evon spin through the air and slam her feet into his cheek! Jason caught her feet before she could push him away, and he spun around and threw her to the ground like a rocket!
SLAM!
"HHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
Evon laughed like a banshee as she dug a deep trench into the ground, and she flipped to her feet and suddenly started to flash around Jason with speeds that were so intense that they left afterimages behind her! Jason frowned when he saw this! How the hell could Evon still move this fast!? Jason knew for a fact that she had canceled out all the mana in the area. He had been trying to gather his mana all this time, but there was no magic at all, so there was no way he could do it. Doesn’t that mean that Evon should have also not been able to summon any mana for her Gift?
’Wait... why do I think this is a Gift?’
Clang!
Jason deflected an attack from Evon and swung out to slash her, but Evon rushed away and continued circling him again! Jason realized that he had made a mistake right from the start! Jason had been thinking of Evon in the same way that he thought about all the other humans on Earth. Humans needed mana to activate their Gifts because they were born without those powers, and it was the only way they could make their bodies withstand the intense strain that their Gift would put on them! But Evon wasn’t a fucking human, so why would he think that her ability depended on mana to activate?
’Just like the Adamantine Ant species. Even though their main ability is their Adamantine Skin, that doesn’t mean that they depend on Mana to be able to use it. They have only been using mana as a way to strengthen their Skin over time, and even if you take away all the magic around them, their body would still be just as strong without any mana! It is an innate ability!’
Jason felt a smile spreading on his face once he made this deduction, and he lashed out and deflected another strike from behind!
Clang!