Chapter 80: The Battle Of Chains

Countless chains moved across the ground like snakes, slipping headfirst into the construction site, ready to attack on sight.

Behind these magnificent chains that went against every rule of physics was their owner, moving calmly with every intention of killing Jamie.

What kind of technique is that… breaking apart after it lands on the ground?

He pondered, standing up with his eyes still on the craving chains that were entering the hall of the construction site.

His heart began to rush, hundreds of thoughts rising into his mind. Even a technique he had never seen before was a learning point for him.

Just thinking about it resurfaced a memory from when he was with Castor.

They were in a large deserted house that Castor said used to be a shrine. It was the second stage of their training, where Castor told Jamie to count all the cockroaches in the building just by sensing them.

“When you ever meet an enemy with a strong technique, try your best and find out the following about it: how it works, the principles it follows, why it follows them, and the principles it doesn’t follow. It’s a long experimental process—but one that can save your ass.”

All his concentration finally came pouring back. Before him was a chance to apply what he had been learning.

Experiment with him, huh… this is gonna hurt.

He leaped off, going straight for Captain Ron. Just like an impulse in a human body, the chains realized their host was in danger and jumped off like snakes, shooting straight toward Jamie.

Smash!!

He pushed against them, breaking some of the chains apart—but just like before, other mini-chains split from the bunch, targeting Jamie’s chest and eyes. They wanted to finish him off: either kill him instantly by stabbing his heart or cripple his vision.

He dodged to the sides, taking the hits on his right arm as the impact slammed him back with extreme force. The chains wouldn’t have stopped unless the attacks hit him, so he sacrificed his arm rather than take a strike somewhere vital.

“Shit—”

Blood rushed from his arm. He grabbed it with his left hand as a sharp sting of pain flooded his veins—an effect that wasn’t supposed to come from the small kind of attack he had just received. There was no doubt about it: there was more to the technique than he understood.

“You must be wondering why you’re feeling so much pain,” the captain said calmly. “My chains swallow magic and release it. It’s their bonus feature, as you young people like to say. When you used that Arklaw technique, it swallowed the magic—and when it cut you, it sent a shockwave of that magical power through your body, killing your cells. It’s a technique forged out of training, and no one I’ve faced with it has ever come out alive.”

He enlightened him while ordering the chains to surround him.

This is not good… have to figure this out—and fast.

Lets see, that attack confirmed my suspicions. Those chains don’t stop until they hit a target, and even physical attacks trigger the effect. The option now would be to use magic… but they have that strange magic-swallowing feature.

He really has a good, foolproof technique… and he’s nowhere near those other captains I fought earlier.

I’m in a very difficult pickle…

“Fwahh—!”

They rushed at him once more. By the time this attack began, the chains had filled half the hall, surrounding him from all 360 degrees, closing in slowly—leaving Jamie nowhere to go.

Beeep

Jamie pressed a button.

The space of reality where Jamie stood opened.

His feet sparked with electricity, and with vivid, explosive movement he dodged the incoming chains. Just as they always did, the chains curved back after passing him—like a police car drifting after a thief’s car that suddenly makes an unexpected turn. But by the time they completed the turn, they had already created distance between themselves and Jamie—and were swallowed into the void.

Captain Ron’s eyes twitched like a hunter sensing danger ahead. He knew what was happening: the chains were vanishing into a dark void and never coming back, and if this continued, all the chains would be gone.

[HALT]

They froze, dying down as if they had never had life in the first place.

Jamie leaped backward, leaving the chains stranded.

Luckily the chains had doubled down earlier. Seconds ago they had covered half the hall, but now that was no longer the case. Only five long visible chains remained—and judging by the captain’s expression, there was no hope of creating more.

He had used a lot of his power on that technique alone. Repeating the same move after Jamie had already dealt with it once would be an amateur mistake, and Jamie knew the captain would never do something like that.

“You can create cuts in reality?” the captain said slowly. “That’s a new one.”

“As bad as I want to take the stars… it’s not me. Let’s call it demonic technology,” Jamie muttered, revealing too much with too few words.

The void had been created by a machine he stored in his magic storage—an invisible package buried deep within his soul. A utility pack.

It was the same place he had taken the revival syringe from when he revived the mother killed by the Genki. But deeper inside that pack was a device called a Reality Warper—a machine that allowed him to temporarily shift into another reality so that if they fought, they wouldn’t destroy the infrastructure of the real world.

In this case, it had become extremely handy.

Sigh.

The captain began removing the chains from the points where they connected to his suit. One by one, he gathered them into his hands. In a single grip, the golden chains melted, turning into real liquid gold that streamed to the ground.

But something about it was abnormal.

When the liquid touched the ground, it vanished—absorbed into the surface.

Jamie narrowed his focus, his body ready for any attack. Something was wrong, and he could feel it. At first he wanted to strike, but his instincts screamed at him to stop.

Because in that moment, anything he did might mean walking straight into a trap.

Suddenly—

Two twin blades materialized in the captain’s hands.

They were golden in nature, yet sharp as the embodiment of death itself—death given the form of a blade.

An evil grin spread across his face as he muttered the words:

[The King’s Land… Land of Thorns.]

The gold on the ground rose instantly—but this time on Jamie’s side, erupting upward from the floor. And this was no longer liquid gold.

They were thorns.

Large golden thorns, sharp beyond reason.

Unfortunately, Jamie noticed them too late. As he tried to float into the air, one of the thorns sliced through his leg, the gold sending a shockwave that killed the cells in a single sweep.

The result—

He lost his balance.

Both legs dropped toward the thorns beneath him, and with the speed of his fall, the spikes would easily pierce straight through his feet.

If that wasn’t enough, the captain jumped toward him, twin blades ready to kill him instantly.

This was the moment.

When his guard was broken and his balance shattered.

Suddenly—

Thud

Jamie landed on one thorn with one leg—but at the same time balanced with the other, like a Chinese monk in training.

Swing!!

In a matter of seconds he conjured his own blade—a dark katana swarming with violent energy.

Their blades clashed while the captain hung in midair and Jamie balanced on the thorn.

Sparks burst in every direction. Metal screamed as the weapons pressed against each other. Their teeth clenched, eyes crossing with pure killing intent.

Silently, as if it were nothing, the captain made the thorn Jamie stood on rise—growing longer until it drilled through Jamie’s shoe, piercing his foot like a vicious injection.

Jamie’s eyes twitched with unbearable pain. Who could blame him? A golden thorn had stabbed clean through his foot, and with every passing second it pushed further through the side of it.

The odds were once again against him, and the captain knew it.

Jamie was losing his composure—and the captain’s blades were creeping closer to Jamie’s neck with every passing second.

Suddenly—

Gu!!

Something thumped inside Jamie’s body, deep within his chest.

Gu!

It thumped again.

This time it was clear.

It was Jamie’s second heart.

Not… yet.

He thought, suppressing the surge of emotion that flooded his body all at once.

Gu!

His eyes turned red.

His hair began changing to pure white—at least half of it.

The captain noticed something was wrong, but he didn’t stop pushing. This was his chance to finish him.

Until—

A rough, heavy voice came from Jamie’s mouth.

“Pathetic.”

The captain’s eyes widened instantly. The voice made his ears ring violently—it was a wonder they could recover at all.

The dark katana in Jamie’s hand began to vibrate, as if preparing to release a surge of energy. Subtle waves leaked from the blade, foreshadowing what was coming—and each wave alone cut into the captain.

There was no doubt about it.

If the main surge was released, he would die.

Alexander’s uncle… dead at Jamie’s hands.

Boom!!

The surge erupted.

Black energy blasted Captain Ron away. The blades slipped from his hands as his body was thrown into violent shock. The thorns disintegrated in a single millisecond, as if they had never existed.

But something strange appeared within the chaos—

A green glowing arrow shot into the captain’s back, its expanding energy shielding him and reducing the damage.

And the person who fired that arrow… was Sandra.

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