Flashy Adventurer System : Show Off to Get Stronger!

Chapter 383: Shye Crowley Versus John Oni (2)

"C-C-CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! SHYE CROWLEY, THE CHANTLESS MAGE, SCORED A MINOR VICTORY IN THE FIRST MELEE CLASH!! JOHN ONI HAS BEEN SQUARELY KICKED AWAY!!!"

Hearing Corey's voice, John, who was in utter disbelief moments ago, gnashed his teeth so hard that one would be able to hear cracking noises if one stood close enough.

'I…lost? To this damn bastard of a mage? In a melee battle? UNACCEPTABLE!!!'

Eager to have his revenge, John madly bolted towards Shye, once again dodging the projectiles with unmatched finesse—a replay of what happened earlier.

Only, this time, he didn't take Shye's melee skills lightly, focusing just like how he would with other warrior or scout-class opponents.

With a cold, vengeful look, John slashed his dagger towards Shye's neck, fully expecting this blow to be blocked.

His assumptions turned out to be correct as Shye easily angled one of his elemental staffs to block his neck slash.

The young mage then viciously thrust his other staff towards John's face.

If this attack successfully hit, although it wouldn't kill John, the impact would probably blow his head back, and a few of his facial bones would crack.

Moreover, his reputation would take another blow, as being squarely struck in the face by a blunt force was undeniably humiliating.

Naturally, John wouldn't let this happen.

Evading the thrust by ducking, the scout advanced once more, further closing the distance until he was nearly eye-to-eye with Shye.

'Now, let's see if you can still keep your cool!'

At the current extremely close distance, John was confident that the mage would not be able to keep up no matter how adept the guy was in defending himself from scouts.

Only…the utter opposite of what he was expecting happened.

Why would Shye, originally a warrior, be scared to fight someone at an extremely close distance?

Remaining as composed as always, Shye seized the ideal moment to deliver a knee strike aimed at John's face, which was lowered as a result of him ducking the staff thrust.

Scouts were naturally adept at extremely close-range battles.

Unfortunately, no matter how skilled John was, his face was simply begging to be kneed at its current position.

"MMPHKK!"

A muffled groan sounded as John received a knee strike right at the center of his nose and mouth.

Due to the impact, his eyes slowly rolled up, causing his face to look ugly as heck for a brief moment before he was able to recover.

Unluckily, that exact brief moment was zoomed in on the holographic screen suspended above, eliciting mild laughter from the serious yet excited crowd.

Well…there was a single person in the crowd whose laugh wasn't modest at all: Seira.

The purple-haired midget laughed her heart out while pointing her index finger at John's ugly face on the screen—her other hand clutching her hurting stomach.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! HEY, BANAR AND ALAN! LOOK AT YOUR JOHN BALONEY! DID YOU SEE HOW UGLY HIS FACE WAS AFTER LOSING TO MY BOSS IN THEIR SECOND CLASH?! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Banar wanted to retort, however, he couldn't defend John this time as his face truly looked ugly at that moment.

Hence, he decided to just grit his teeth and clench his fists, temporarily suppressing the rage in his heart as he waited for John to score a minor victory.

'You midget…just you wait!'

…Naturally, Shye didn't simply stop at kneeing his adversary's face, adding in another bonk attack towards his face using the elemental staff on his right hand.

Unfortunately, although blown back by the force, John was able to block the attack, getting away with only a single knee strike.

Given the terrible position he just put himself in, he was quite lucky to get away with only a rearranged nose.

Still, this was a great humiliation for John.

Not only as a scout but also as the young master of the renowned Oni family from Roddentrodge City.

"YOU BASTARD!! YOU CAN DIE NOW!"

Utterly enraged, the scout rookie's eyes turned pitch black, his black hair grew even longer, his muscles shrunk yet became more defined, and a black aura started oozing out of his body.

This…was the trump card he used against Pokyuu—one of his trump cards: Shadow Rage.

Witnessing John's current sinister appearance, Banar erupted into wild laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I believe you've seen this earlier, midget? Now, what will your clown of a boss do?!"

"Hmmph!"

Indeed, Seira witnessed this trump card earlier, and to be honest, she wasn't sure how Shye was planning to defeat the scout.

However, since her boss still had absolute confidence in becoming the champion, Seira knew that Shye must have some way to deal with this trump card of John's.

And so, she simply snorted in response while waiting for her boss to surprise everyone again.

…Without saying anything, the sinister shadow charged toward Shye at an unbelievable speed, zigzagging akin to the shadow of an agile cheetah.

In a single second, John already arrived in front of Shye, slashing his dagger towards the latter's neck with a visible drastic increase in dexterity.

This attack speed…would've normally caught a rookie like Shye off guard. However, he already fought someone who was at a similar level—possibly even higher: the old goat who tried to assassinate them when they were on the way back to Colzen Academy.

Hence, although it became harder for him to fend off John's attacks, it was still fairly manageable as he was already used to such hand speed from past experiences.

He even counterattacked right after, only, it landed on nothing but air.

For a while, the two rookies impressively exchanged blows as though they were both scouts given how nimble both are.

At this moment…Shye…didn't look like a mage at all. Fortunately, he didn't look like a warrior either as his speed resembled mostly those of scouts.

'HOW?! HOW IS THIS BASTARD SO FAST?! IS HE USING SELF BUFF SPELLS?! OR…ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES?!'

John…simply couldn't believe that his trump card was only enough for him to fight Shye into a stalemate.