Game’s Dogma

At that very moment, Drako Yau’s pupils turned ice blue without him knowing it. He let out a long breath, covering his fiery red mask in a layer of frost.

The attack travelling its way towards him gradually slowed down.

Is it that weird state again? No, it’s a little different.

His mind was operating a hundred times faster than its usual speed. In less than a second, it thought about countless questions.

The previous state didn’t only enhance my vision and speed of thought, but also motor functions. Yet my physical functions are completely normal now and I only have increased speed of thought and greater vision.

He then thought about the battle with Mister Unfettered. Back then, he felt like he had limitless strength, but his mind and vision weren’t enhanced.

I split it into two separate modes?

The first mode, or more accurately, the first set of changes was the kind he had experienced when fighting Mister Unfettered—physical enhancement. Strength, speed, reflexes, and those weird, ancient flames. The second one was about the mind: enhanced speed of thought, vision, and sensations.

Drako Yau used to see nothing but a flash of red before getting hit. However, he could now see the blade’s glimmer and its trajectory was now visible.

It was headed for his left chest—his heart.

That guy’s really trying to kill me!

Realising such, a tint of rage sprouted within Drako Yau. Still, the only enhancements he had now were vision, taste, smell, touch, and speed of thought. His body couldn’t move swiftly enough to match the lightning-fast attack.

He barely managed to lean sideways in time. The glimmer went past him beneath his armpit and smashed another hole in the pit’s barrier.

‘Oh?’ Ichor Hon’s eyes lit up. ‘I can feel your internal powers. You used the forces within you, right?’

Drako Yau didn’t say anything. He simply plucked Moon Breaker from the ground and entered a battle stance.

‘Ahaha! Good, good!’

Ichor Hon laughed as his gaze was filled with fervour. He was a battle maniac, hooked onto fighting without even knowing why. His passionate gaze was close to that of a lover, causing Drako Yau to shiver involuntarily.

A light step could be heard before Ichor Hon vanished from the spot.

Drako Yau, who couldn’t catch even a glimpse of Ichor Hon’s movement before, could now detect it vaguely through his senses.

The light step was in fact a combination of five steps in extremely close intervals. Ichor Hon had stepped the ground five times in quick succession and launched himself with great speed. It was simple in theory, but in order to execute it, it would require extreme levels of physical abilities and resilience.

Too quick.

Even in his current state, Drako Yau was hard pressed to track down Ichor Hon with his sights.

But he had other means to visualise his enemy’s location—the surrounding blood mist. The intense stench of blood almost made him, whose smelling was currently enhanced, vomit. However, no matter how quick Ichor Hon was, he would still stir up the bloody mist as he moved.

He could feel a tingling sensation from his left. It was the physical sensation of bloody mist pressing against his skin.

Average people wouldn’t even feel a thing because the sensation was simply too soft, like how some people wouldn’t even notice mosquito bites until he was covered in tons of bites. The sensation caused by the light flutter of bloody mist was even several folds lighter than mosquito bites.

Having sensed the flow of mist, Drako Yau turned his spear to cover his left flank. Metal clashed against metal, creating a soft clang, but he didn’t feel a lot of force behind the blow.

Moon Breaker’s blade caught Ichor Hon’s blood-dyed katana, startling the swordsman. Drako Yau didn’t sit idle and reached for Ichor Hon’s chest with his left arm, then slammed his enemy heavily into the ground.

‘Ugh…’

Drako Yau gasped. The series of movements was very painful for him as he was covered in wounds.

Having enhanced sensations was a double-edged sword. While his senses were sharper, the pain he felt was also amplified. For him, a light pat felt like a punch, and getting stabbed felt like getting sliced back and forth.

In such an urgent and dangerous situation, his enhanced mind forcefully suppressed pain, allowing him to reverse his grip and stab his spear at Ichor Hon lying on the ground with his right hand while maintaining his control over his enemy with his left.

While Ichor Hon was in a bit of a daze after getting thrown to the ground, his reflexes were just as quick. He thrusted his katana at Drako Yau like a streak of lightning.

A longer weapon had greater reach, while shorter weapons had the element of surprise and speed. Spears were most certainly longer than katanas, but with Drako Yau still grappling Ichor Hon, they were at an extremely close range. At such range,  Ichor Hon’s thrust was a lot quicker than Drako Yau’s single-handed spear thrust.

Drako Yau wasn’t deluded enough to think he could block or evade such a quick and powerful attack. Instead, he released his grasp on Ichor Hon and pushed the swordsman’s arm with his palm, deviating the thrust off its intended trajectory by a quarter inch.

The thrust which was supposed to pierce through Drako Yau’s head like a watermelon sliced off his left ear. The pain was so excruciating that he almost lost consciousness. He bit the tip of his tongue lightly, and the foul iron taste of blood forcefully brought him back to his senses. He immediately entangled Ichor Hon’s right arm with his left arm and clawed onto Ichor Hon’s right shoulder with his left hand.

This guy…

Ichor Hon was also getting fired up. However, his right arm which held onto his katana was being restrained. He had spent his entire life honing his katana—once he lost his weapon, his strength would drastically drop by at least 80 per cent. It was exactly what Drako Yau was aiming for.

If they fought fairly, the chances of Drako Yau winning… no, surviving the fight was less than a single per cent. After going through countless simulations and considerations in his second state, he realised his greatest chance of surviving was through grappling and striking.

The martials arts he had learnt from the old geezer could be roughly separated into three categories: spearmanship, Empyreal Dragon Step, and Dragon Seeker.

Dragon Seeker was a close range martial art. Like the old geezer’s spearmanship, Dragon Seeker also was the amalgamation of all sorts of hand techniques, ranging from punches, palm strikes, finger strikes, clawing techniques, and various other techniques such as entanglement, slapping, and snapping. It was a powerful bare-handed martial art, but Drako Yau decided to focus on spearmanship. Still, he was forced to practice Dragon Seeker for years by the old geezer’s hellish training regimen.

Who would’ve thought that it would come to save his life today?

Ichor Hon’s life was dedicated to his sword, and his only opening was when he lost his sword. Forcing him to engage in bare-handed combat was Drako Yau’s only chance of survival.

Drako Yau even tucked away Moon Breaker, sparing his right arm for a palm strike to Ichor Hon’s chest.

For every 1000, then 2000, then another 2000 Likes on all chapters (1000 -> 3000 -> 5000), there will be bonus chapters! Register a Penana account and start Liking now for more chapters!