Chapter 76: Reinforcements

On the other side of the battlefield, the smoke that had engulfed Jordan had finally cleared. Jordan still had his arms crossed but there was a purplish otherworldly glow radiating from his body. He had activated the skill .

Yes, the very same skill that Lloyd from the Tiger gang used in his fight against Huey. Huey had in fact handed over both of skills, and , to him and this would be the very first time he was activating one of those skills.

Honestly Jordan felt as though it was an inferior version of his skill except it didn't have the heavy draw backs it had and instead of boosting all his stats it increased his Strength and Stamina by 60 points which wasn't a bad trade off at all. Add that to the extra stats provided by the [Bronze Armor] and his stats were even higher than Huey's.

'I wonder if I can combine both and and if so how powerful would I get?' Jordan wondered but he wasn't about to try it out now. Not when the situation far from called it.

Jeoffrey's earlier attack would have been devastating if he hadn't managed to block and activate the skill in time. Trails of smoke flew from his gauntlets they had taken the full blunt of the attack and apart from a few minor scratches, they were barely damaged at all.

'That's the Rare grade for you' Jordan thought before paying attention to his opponent who now had a shocked expression on his face.

"You…how?" Jeoffrey stumbled with his words. The skill he had just used was powerful enough to kill any beast within the First Star Order and yet Jordan wasn't even scarved by the attack at all.

"Oh that? I merely activated a skill that's all" Jordan shrugged as he waved the smoke off his gauntlets. He looked off to the side and could see two blurs moving and clashing constantly the sounds of metal reaching his ears. At one point he thought he even heard Huey laughing.

'Since when was my best friend a battle maniac?' he wondered. Although it was surprising he wasn't really one to talk because he too found the thrill of battle refreshing…well as long as he didn't risk his life too much.

"Now then shall we also get serious?" Jordan suggested to his opponent.

Jeoffrey's face went grim when he heard this. It seemed that the fight was about to take on another tempo.

Jordan came in fists forward in a stance that almost resembled that of a boxer except it wasn't. It was a karate style fist form that merely adopted from the sport.

[Author's Note: Okay now at this point I'm just bullshitting but please bare with me]

Jordan's feet carried him across the battlefield as smooth as though he was gliding rather than walking. Jeoffrey wasn't staying still either. He spun his spear making sure that Jordan's reach was nowhere near his body and at the same time it was also the optimum distance to strike.

Jordan was subjected to thrusts and smacks from Jeoffrey's spear but he didn't waver. Instead he responded to each strike with full confidence in his gauntlets as he threw out fists.

Spear and fists clashed repeatedly in rapid succession. Jordan's fists becoming akin to blurs that Jeoffrey found hard to follow. At some point the man began to sweat as he tried his best to keep up, his arms ached and trembled. He didn't know how long he would be able to keep this up for.

Jordan on the other hand was an unstoppable never tiring machine. He relentlessly threw his fists again and again. It wasn't long before Jeoffrey made the first mistake and Jordan's fist managed to slip past his defenses. Before the man to react he felt a crushing force knock into his nose. The fragile organ broke on impact twisting to the side in an unnatural form.

But that wasn't the end of it. Two more punches tore through landing squarely on his chest forcing Jeoffrey to lose his balance at that point Jordan's stance went low and with one clean motion Jeoffrey was swept off his feet.

"Eh?" Jeoffrey could see his vision suddenly flip as he saw the blue sky overhead before it was overshadowed by a leg. "Fuck m-"

The man couldn't finish his sentence before Jordan delivered a devastating axe kick to his torso causing him to spit blood even before his body smashed into the ground. And when it did…

Boom!

His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he lost consciousness.

Jordan stood in the middle of slight crater with Jeoffrey's form laying motionless in the center. He exhaled a breath before deactivating his skill. He scratched the back of his head for a moment as he looked around the one meter wide crater.

"Maybe I overdid it a little" he muttered before looking off into the distance. "It seems Huey is just about done too"

…

The storm of blades was no longer as intense as it used to be and it wasn't as though we could fight to our hearts content. Not today.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I still remembered the woman from the watchtower and the way she vanished. It wasn't normal at all. I blocked several attacks at the same time. Parrying and deflecting my opponent's attack left and right and left again.

We clashed once more and then as if by prior agreement we shot away from each other.

I felt my feet drag across the ground as I came to a stop and gave my opponent a look. A distance of about five meters separated us. It wasn't a lot of space and if I really wanted to, I would have been able to close it in what felt like the blink of an eye. I would probably catch my opponent off guard and win instantly too

However this fight wasn't about just killing my opponent but also getting a feel for them and I think he realized this as well as he gave me a tired look.

He looked down to stare at his arms. They were shaking and trembling. Probably from our earlier clashes and it was probably taking all his efforts just to not drop his katanas.

He looked back at me

"You're really skilled with the sword you know that?" he complimented.

I laughed when Black Salamander trembled in my arms for a moment.

'Not according to this guy' I thought. 'He says I would be defeated in mere seconds by a swordman from the Martial World'

I don't know what sort of world that actually is but I was now starting to get curious about it. I wondered if there would ever be a time I could visit it because it sounded like a world straight out of a cultivation novel.

"Well…I'm not that good really. I still have a long way to go" I said while shaking my thoughts away. Now wasn't the time.

He smiled. "Either way…Xander"

"Eh?" I blinked at him in confusion.

"I said my name was Xander okay!" he blushed with a slightly embarrassed look on his face. "You better remember it"

I was just about to respond when

"What is the meaning of this!?" I heard a foreign voice sounding from the distance. Xander and I turned to look in the direction at the same time.

Standing at the gates of the camp was now a group of about five more people and among them was the woman from the watchtower, Arina.

Reinforcements had arrived.

Standing in the lead was a man in a red leather armor. He was gaunt man with a blonde hair and a scar running down his cheek but instead of making him look bad it actually gave him a charming quality to his already handsome mature face. Add the goatee on his chin in the mix and he was a bound lady killer.

Even with the large sword to his back, the resemblance he had with Conrad was striking to say the least and if Conrad hadn't told me himself, I would have presumed they were father and son.

"Blonde hair just runs in the family doesn't it?" I muttered

"What do you mean by that?" Xander asked me gave me a quizzical look

"We his nephew is standing over there I said pointing a thumb behind me.

"Mh? Conrad?" Mayor Bennet muttered before a smile bloomed on his face. "Conrad!"

The man practically run up to him ignoring the Jordan and the crater where Jeoffrey lay and even ignoring me and Xander as a whole. He appeared before Conrad and gave him a tight hug while laughing his heart out.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! My boy! I'm glad you made it back alive now, now want to tell this uncle of yours what happened?" Mayor Bennet said.

Conrad looked nervous for moment as the large man let him down. And for a moment I thought he was going to tell an altered version of events you know make me out to be the bad guy because since day 1 of the apocalypse the guy seemed to have had it out for me.

To my surprise Conrad didn't do any of that. He merely told his uncle about how our group brought in survivors and how we were denied entry into the camp without having our weapons confiscated. Something that everyone was clearly dissatisfied with before we were attacked.

"I see…" the mayor sighed. "I'm sorry for that its just as you have heard the lack of weapon treasures is starting to get to us your group seems to have had more luck in that regard than us.

"Anyway I'm guessing that snow haired angel of yours is the leader of this group right?" he asked and I swear I when I saw Conrad blush.

I snorted trying to hold back my laughter. Jordan on the other hand wasn't nearly as restrained

"OH SHIT! HA! HA! HA! LOOK AT HIM BLUSHIN LIKE A MAIDEN!" he laughed

Mayor Bennet turned to look at him and smiled slightly before saying "You're quite spirited kid"

A smile tugged my lips. 'Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all'

"Well it is funny. Conrad always has a serious expression on his face that I can never imagine him making a face like that at all" I stated garnering the man to turn his attention towards me for the first time.

"And you are?" Bennet asked

"Huey Coleman leader of this group. Nice to meet you" I said

"Oh…your quite young but I guess your capable" Bennet said before walking towards me