With a sudden ambush from Alina, Bai Xun crashed onto one of the stores and fell inside.
Meanwhile, Alina landed on the blue drake's back.
The Drake twisted its head to breathe the flames. However, Bai Xun's voice stopped it.
"Chong, stand down." His voice reached the drake, making the latter twist its body instead of attacking the enemy.
Alina lost her balance and started falling towards the ground. In the mid-air, she controlled her body and carefully landed on a roof of a nearby store.
Bai Xun jumped high and landed before her. He stared at her with a serious expression.
She proceeded to conjure a dark energy dagger, "I guess this answers your proposal."
Bai Xun narrowed his eyes for a second before taking out a custom-made platinum grade Ji weapon from his storage card.
It is a two-handed pole weapon, comprises a long handle with a curved blade attached to the top and a sharp metal tip. Ji is a diverse and useful weapon, it can be used to slash with the side blade or stab with the tip.
Alina nodded to herself after scanning the weapon.
She leaped towards him at a high speed. Bai Xun also leaped towards her.
Both of them slashed at each other at the same time.
The dagger and the weapon collided but the force behind Bai Xun appeared to be higher. Alina was pushed back a few meters and she landed safely before she dashed forward once again.
This time, her speed was at its maximum and Bai Xun, who landed on the roof down below at the same spot where the collision took place, didn't get the time to gain speed like her. So, he went into the defensive.
As Alina attacked him, he blocked it with his Ji. He was pushed back a couple of feet to the edge of the roof.
It was then, Alina raised her other free arm. The second energy dagger appeared in her left hand and she threw it at his chest, taking him by surprise.
Just as the dagger was about to pierce his chest, Bai Xun hurriedly used ether energy to form armor.
The dagger pierced and suddenly dissolved into some unknown black energy.
Bai Xun felt that his ether energy was going to be corrupted at a rapid pace. He hurriedly dismissed the armor and backed away for a few meters.
Meanwhile, in the store;
"What energy is that?" Mark asked the system. He was curious about it.
*Ding! It is a diluted form of corruptive energy called Protos, unique to cosmic beings known as the Protos race.
"Protos?" Mark didn't understand what it is and what it meant by cosmic beings but either way, the battle seemed like it was in Alina's favor. That was enough for him in the current situation.
Back to the battle, Bai Xun stared at Alina and the daggers made of unknown energy.
"In a glance, it appeared to be like a dark attribute mixed in ether, but I couldn't sense the presence of ether in it. What is it?" As he went into thoughts, Alina conjured the energy dagger once again and dashed forward, once again.
The battle went on for twenty minutes. From time to time, while Alina appeared to gain an advantage, she had yet to wound him even once. At the same time, there were a few holes in Alina's dress, one at the right shoulder, one at her right arm, one at her thigh, and the other at her waist.
Her skin at those spots looked like they were pierced but there was no indication of any blood.
Bai Xun's Ji also didn't have any blood on its blade. Based on how he heard the sounds of metal, he assumed that Alina must be a metal attribute user. A metal attribute is a variant of the earth element and she isn't the first person he had fought either.
So, he was confident about it. The only thing that he didn't understand is the presence of that unknown black energy. His weapon and body are fine but the moment his ether energy gets contacted by the daggers, the former is started to get corrupted. This is what he observed so far.
Another thing that he observed is how Alina is controlling her breathing. Despite fast pace attacks, she was calm. Her breathing rate was completely stable, right from the start.
It is anything but abnormal in his eyes.
"Twilight Shackles"
Alina conjured the pitch-black energy chain with a blade at its end as the 10-minute cooldown timer is finished.
Bai Xun was alarmed and hurriedly stretched his Ji. Alina controlled the chain and dodged it, going straight for his face.
At the moment the blade was about to pierce his nose, Bai Xun tilted his head and evaded the attack before swirling his weapon and letting a part of the chain get trapped around the weapon.
Once it was trapped, Bai Xun tightened his grip and swung it in the opposite direction. "Oraaa."
Alina, who was attached to the chain on the other end, lost her footing and crashed into a store, making a large hole out of its roof.
"You cannot defeat me, girl." Bai Xun let out a smirk, looking at the hole formed on the roof of a store.
Just when Bai Xun thought that he had an upper hand, all of a sudden, his back was pierced by the blade.
"Argh… He let go of the weapon in his hand and leaped back.
Alina jumped high and landed on a roof. She raised her hand and dismissed the chain. As the chain was returned to her palm, the Ji that was tangled by the chain seized by her.
Grabbing it, she nodded, "it was a superior weapon compared to the one in master's inventory."
Bai Xun's facial expression changed as he touched his back. It is bleeding and for some reason, his ether energy couldn't heal the wound, and neither the wound is closing up. It was the first hit in this battle.
Looking at the blood in his palm, he mumbled, "I guess it's time to get serious."
He raised his hand above his head and spoke, "Come out, Aetherius."
An exquisite bow appeared in his hand. It was off-white in color and shaped like wings. Then, a blow of wind hit the roof below Bai Xun's foot and he started to fly higher and higher.
Alina stared at him. Her mission isn't to kill him but to protect herself. So, she didn't bother jumping high and proactively attacking him but prepared herself to defend.
After reaching a 100-meter altitude, Bai Xun stopped and pulled the string.
A translucent arrow made of wind attribute was conjured between his fingertips and he aimed at her. "You are the first person who forced me to use my Aetherius against a lower realm opponent. You could have been something better. Alas, you chose the wrong side. Prepare to die, Alina."
As he pulled the string to the maximum, Alina's expression turned serious and she gripped the Ji weapon in her hands, tightly.
Meanwhile, Mark received a notification and his face also changed immediately.
*Ding! Alina wishes to use the Protos core to channel the energy into the weapon in her hands to increase her strength. Warning: Doing this would drop her strength from rank-6 to rank-5, permanently.
Do you accept?
Mark gave a quick answer, "No."
Alina appeared to be surprised by the order and she decided to teleport away to dodge the attack, instead.
"Die." Bai Xun released the arrow. The arrow transformed into a powerful gust of wind, intending to blow away everything on its path.
Mark immediately proceeded to unleash his backup plan.
"System, send a message to Allen to summon the… Eh? What is that?" He halted his order as soon as he saw a wall of flames appear all of a sudden, blocking the wind.
When the flames are powerful than the wind, then, the wind will aid its growth but when the latter is more powerful, it will try to wipe out the flames.
The same thing happened here. As the gust of wind with seven-circle power collided with the six-circle wall of flames, the latter was wiped out. However, in return, the wind was no longer violent.
As Alina was just hit by the residual wind energy, she teleported towards the north and escaped it. The residual wind blow away a dozen houses and calmed down.
"Stop, right there, Commander Bai," A powerful voice echoed in the surroundings, and Alina, Bai Xun looked towards the source. Two people were standing there.
Mark was taken aback by surprise, "Second Prince? Song Yue?"
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