The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 80

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Strongest One in the Neighborhood (80)
“What? Are you out of your mind?”
“Me? My mind’s perfectly sound. But this fellow Jang Gain—he’s no pushover. You’ll need to be very careful.”
“Good grief, how am I supposed to take this? Listen here, human.”
“Duke Jang Gain.”
“Right, Duke Jang Gain. You really think you can fight me?”
“Well, I see no reason why not.”
“Fight me and you might die if you’re unlucky. Of course, since you say you’re Noxscarsis’s ally, I’ll be careful—but it’s still very dangerous.”
Jang Gain met Virus’s eyes, which burned with fighting spirit.
‘He’s already itching for a fight! Well, my Strong Thread has gotten thick enough now that I shouldn’t lose by much.’
Thanks to steadily absorbing Demonic Qi from a Duke-rank demon’s fingers, his Strong Thread had thickened to about the width of a thumb.
“Just because I’m Noxscarsis’s ally doesn’t mean you need to hold back against me. And just because you’re his friend doesn’t mean I’ll show you mercy.”
“What! No mercy? Haha… You’re the first human to provoke me this far. I’m really looking forward to this. Noxscarsis, one last question—it’s really okay if I beat this human to a pulp, right?”
“Do whatever you want. Just don’t blame me if you get beaten to a pulp yourself.”
“Got it. Human—no, Duke Jang Gain. Now go prepare yourself for a fight.”
“I’m ready anytime. But you should go back to your true form and get ready yourself instead of wasting time talking.”
Virus’s eyes widened in an instant.
“What? Go back to my true form? Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight the real me? Not my human form?”
“I fought Noxscarsis once, and his human form seemed a bit weaker.”
“What? Noxscarsis, is what this human is saying true?”
“It’s embarrassing, so don’t ask me. If you want to fight, just fight. I haven’t had a chance to watch others fight in a while.”
“Alright. Good. I like that courage of yours.”
Roooaarrr…
Virus’s body shot into the air and swiftly transformed into a massive dragon roughly a hundred meters long from head to tail.
Compared to Noxscarsis, his frame was slender and elongated, his wings relatively smaller, yet his draconic oppressiveness was even greater.
As Jang Gain watched his opponent transform, he summoned Sillon, an upper-grade wind spirit.
Whoooosh…
In an instant, a violent whirlwind rose and a wind wyvern materialized.
-Did you call? Contractor.
“Yeah. I called you because I’m going to fight that dragon, so I’m counting on you again.”
-Huh? That’s a Worm-rank sea dragon! They handle water as well as an ultimate-grade water spirit does—are you sure about this?
“Water’s easier to handle than wind since it’s at least visible, so it should be easier to counter.”
-Easy? No, that’s not it at all. You can’t afford to be careless. It’ll be far trickier. Sea dragons can control water like extensions of their own limbs, so they’ll pull off all sorts of strange tricks with it. And if they freeze the water, it becomes harder than a blade and tougher than rock—you need to watch out for that too.
“R-Right. I understand. I’ll be careful.”
“Oho! So you command an upper-grade wind spirit. Well, since you’re Noxscarsis’s ally, you should have that much skill at least. I’ll give you time to make whatever preparations you can.”
“I’m already prepared.”
“Then let’s begin!”
“Good!”
‘Changtian Xuejue!’
The moment Jang Gain drew his sword, a three-foot sword aura erupted from its tip, and a thumb-thick Strong Thread extended through it.
Crack-crack-crackle…
Then a massive water spout erupted from the sea below, spinning upward in a whirlwind.
‘He handles water as well as an ultimate-grade spirit does—it’s like watching a waterfall reverse and rise!’
Before the water spout could reach him, Jang Gain mounted the wind wyvern and flew toward Virus, slashing his blade.
Swish-swish-swirl…
In an instant, lights gathered before the dragon’s face, forming geometric patterns, and immediately a massive space began to shimmer. Then, the enormous volume of water rising from the sea poured out from that space.
‘W-What? He moved the water using Space Displacement Magic!’
Startled by this unexpected attack method, Jang Gain quickly adjusted the wind wyvern’s direction to shoot vertically upward, only to see the dragon’s gigantic claws rake down in front of his eyes.
‘He was predicting where I’d dodge!’
Though greatly surprised, Jang Gain didn’t panic and swung his blade, infused with Strong Thread, toward the claws.
Slice…
In that instant, the Strong Thread severed three of the dragon’s claws at once and extended further, drawing blood across his palm.
Grraaahhh…
Moments later, the dragon’s mouth let out a scream as pain finally registered, and the water spout that had been dispersed through Space Displacement fragmented into hundreds of streams and came crashing down on Jang Gain from all directions.
The moment Jang Gain realized there was nowhere to dodge the whirlpool of water, he immediately activated the Wind Character Technique at full intensity.
Empowered by the wind wyvern’s Spirit Power, the storm intensified drastically, transforming into a violent maelstrom that deflected the incoming water streams in all directions as Jang Gain advanced toward the dragon.
“How can an upper-grade wind spirit possibly deflect my attacks?”
Virus’s eyes widened upon witnessing this. That was a display of strength only an ultimate-grade wind spirit should be capable of.
Virus swung his long tail at the approaching Jang Gain like a whip.
The wind spirit changed direction to avoid the tail, but such a maneuver was well within Virus’s own abilities.
Whoooosh.
As the tail lashed out at the upper-grade Wind Spirit, it burst like a overripe melon, scattering in all directions, and the presumptuous human riding atop it flew off like a stone struck by a club.
‘Heh, it was touch and go, but I won. After all, no matter how strong an upper-grade spirit is, it can’t withstand the raw physical power of my true body—Ugh! What’s this?’
Virus flinched at the sudden pain shooting through his tail.
Opening his eyes wide, he examined the tail and saw three or four scales split open, blood seeping slowly through the cracks.
‘Surely he swung his blade the moment my tail connected, cutting it this deep?’
The wound was deep enough that pain radiated all the way to the bone.
Virus stared in turn at his severed claws, the gash across his palm, and the wound on his tail.
‘The Aura of the Sword Masters I’ve faced before was never this sharp.’
Just then, Noxscarsis’s words from before this fight came back to him.
That Jang Gain was far stronger than any Sword Master he’d known.
Whiiiiing…….
At that moment, he saw wind swirling around the human as he flew far from the impact of his tail.
The wind quickly took the form of a wyvern, and the human climbed onto its back before it flew toward him again.
‘What?! Didn’t he just get unsummoned back to the spirit realm after my tail hit him?’
The confusion deepened because he’d clearly seen the spirit scatter to pieces.
Once a spirit was unsummoned, considerable time was needed before resummoning, and the summoner always suffered spiritual damage and internal injuries—yet he showed no such signs.
The confusion passed quickly, but if the opponent was coming again, he could simply attack back.
‘Water magic clearly won’t work anymore. Should I use Breath? Or Fear?’
Breath had raw destructive power, but considering the opponent’s evasion abilities, there was no guarantee of a hit.
That made Fear the better choice—a wide-range attack.
He drew in a sharp breath, compressed his lungs with the mana from his heart, and opened his mouth wide.
Roooooaaaarrr…….
Exhaling, he unleashed a Fear infused with Ninth-rank destructive power.
He kept his focus sharp, ready to adjust the direction if the human strayed from the Fear’s center axis—but instead the human charged straight ahead on the wind wyvern, swinging his blade in a wide arc.
Following the sword’s trajectory, an Aura erupted and clashed with the sonic wave of the Fear.
Screeeeeech…….
As the Aura struck the rippling space created by the sonic wave, part of the wave dissipated, but the Aura scattered and dispersed as well.
And through those gaps, a single thin beam of light passed through.
Centered on the light’s trajectory, the rippling space split cleanly in two, and that split extended all the way to the mouth still releasing the Fear.
Skreeeetch.
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
In that instant, something severed within his open mouth, and Virus’s eyes went wide.
Several of his teeth—the same teeth that chewed through ogres like crackers—were severed in a heartbeat.
‘That thin beam of light, barely visible, just cut through my Fear and took my teeth with it.’
It was likely that same beam that had severed his claws and cut open his tail moments before.
Although the Fear was split in half, the sonic shock seemed to have caught the Sword Master; he’d lost the wind wyvern he was riding and was plummeting toward the ground.
‘He looks unconscious—there’s no way he can dodge Breath now!’
Despite the lost teeth and the cuts on his palate and lip, he was still capable of unleashing Breath.
He drew in a deep breath to pull mana from his heart toward his mouth, when suddenly wind spiraled around the falling human’s body once more. And the wind wyvern, which he’d thought unsummoned, appeared again.
‘What?! Even if the Fear was split in half, it should still have at least 8-star Rank destructive power……’
He was startled, but there was no time to hesitate.
Breath, unlike Fear, required a moment to gather mana. And given the speed of that wind wyvern approaching, his throat could be severed by that thin beam before he even finished unleashing it.
‘Damn it!’
He urgently fired the gathered mana directly at his opponent instead. The Breath wasn’t complete, but he couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom…….
An incomplete Breath, its destructive power roughly Ninth-rank like the Fear.
The human riding the wyvern again unfurled an Aura and swung his blade toward the Breath.
That thin beam of light was surely hidden within the blade’s sweeping arc.
He couldn’t afford another hit, so he ducked his head to escape the sword’s radius and hurled his body toward the sea.
As a dragon who naturally lived in the sea, he could fight far more favorably beneath the waves.
Skreeeetch.
As he flew toward the sea, something severed with a cutting sound, and one side of his head felt suddenly lighter.
‘No—you bastard—my horn! My horn’s been cut off!’
The severed horn fell behind his neck, bounced once, bounced again off his tail, and continued receding into the distance.
He glanced back at the distant horn, then at the human. The Sword Master had split the half-finished Breath with his blade, but seemed staggered by the backlash—the wind wyvern had scattered, and the human was falling unsteadily to the ground.
‘This time, a proper Breath—no. Don’t fall for it! He’ll turn it around like nothing happened. I have to fight in the water, no matter what.’
Roooooaaaaa…….
Virus cast aside his hesitation, twisted his body through the sea mist, and plunged into the depths.
Whiiiiing…….
Contrary to Virus’s expectation, the wind spirit summoned by Jang Gain as he fell did not transform into a wyvern, stopping instead at the size of an eagle.
The wind eagle, the moment it manifested, caught Jang Gain’s plummeting body from below and surged upward, stirring rough winds in an attempt to lift him—but having already drawn so close to the ground, it could only slow his descent, not reverse it.
Once Jang Gain had crashed to earth, he sent Sillon back to the spirit realm and hastily retrieved a potion from Noxscarsis from his pocket dimension, drinking it down.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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