Chapter 44 44: Andrew Appears! The Deathmatch Begins!
Back at the Gardenford Restaurant..
Dylan and his companions were fighting with the spirit beasts that surrounded the Restaurant. The three tanks were singlehandedly taking care of the north and east sides as they overwhelmed the monsters like war machines. Dylan took care of the south while his employees struggled in the west flank.
The restaurant has suffered considerable damage and it has not even an hour before the strike. The numbers of the original spirit beasts has been reduced to 150 but they kept increasing as new ones replaced the dead ones! They keep coming back to their peak number of 300!
Another hour has passed, Dylan felt like he already killed over two hundred beasts. The employees were able to kill over 450 spirit beasts while the three tanks were able to kill about 700 beasts. Fortunately, the vanguard unit was able to arrive in time so they were able to completely eradicate the beast horde of Spirit Veins Realm! Dylan felt that there was more or less 1400 spirit beasts that appeared. He scanned the area and mountain of corpses could be seen and he could see that all of his employees were already tired and out of breath if another attack were to happen then they would be wiped out.
Most of his employees were already injured and a minority was severely injured. Dylan felt how insufficient his strength was but he could not dwell on that matter yet because there are other important matters he needed to pay attention to. He was in high alert as he scanned the surroundings because he feared that there would be another attack.
To recover his strength, Dylan crushed ten primal stones. Although primal stones were already obselete in increasing his strength, they were still enough to replenish his energy.
*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
Dylan became vigilant as he questioned, "Who's there?"
"Hahaha, what a wonderful struggle you displayed, Dylan. I was quite amused as I watched. Hahaha." A person wearing a black robe slowly walked out from the shade of the wild. He was slowly clapping his hands as unspeakable coldness could be felt from him as though he was...
already dead.
"Andrew! Did you do this?!" Dylan angrily questioned him!
"This? Well, yes, it was all part of my revenge! Mwahahaha!" Andrew laughed maniacally.
"How could you put all those innocent people in harm's way?! Do you still possess even the slightest conscience inside of you?!" Roland protested angrily. Although he was completely tired, he just couldn't keep in the anger he felt for this man!
"Oh who are you? Hahaha, pfft. You ask, why? Why?! HAHAHA, it's all because of this man! He took away everything from me! If it wasn't for him, I would still have everything I had! My future, my talent, and my money! It's all because of him!!!" Andrew's hatred to Dylan showed like an eruption. He was fuming in anger everytime he saw Dylan's face!
"But that doesn't give you the right to put anyone's life into harm's way!" Larry reprimanded him as well.
"That's right! If you really wanted to settle everything with sir Dylan, you should have done so face to face! But you couldn't because you're nothing but a coward!" Jason seconded.
"If you were a true man, you should have just accepted your defeat at the hands of sir Dylan when he defeated you back at the Vigor Hotel!" Rick voiced his anger as well.
"That's, right!" Scott agreed with haste.
"Yeah!" John strongly felt the same as well!
"SHUT UP!" Andrew's aura became even more cold and chilly as dark clouds started to appear from his feet and his hands! He stretched his arms and subsequently six arms formed from the dark clouds that Andre was conjuring. He aimed at Rick, Scott, John, and everyone who spoke. The six hands grabbed their necks and started lifting them up to the air!
"What are those?!" Everyone else was shocked when they saw how those dark hands formed and grabbed the necks of Jason, Larry, Roland and everyone who voiced out there opinions!
"You bastard!" Frank cursed Andrew.
"DIDN'T I SAY TO SHUT THE FUCK UP??!!!" Andrew was extremely angry at the moment and the slightest noise annoyed him greatly. He formed another dark hand from the dark and grabbed Frank by the neck and lifted him up to the air as well.
The seven men were trying to do their best to get out of the bindings of these hands but they were not able to do so because it was too resilient and tough to destroy. They tried attacking it but they were unable to destroy as it slowly regenerates.
"Andree, stop what you're doing right now!" Dylan dashed towards him and executed the [Four Soft Steps-Perfection].
"Hahaha, you imbecile, my strength is far stronger than what it used to be and I can easily block any single one of your attacks! Hahahaha, I'm easily comparable to those three old fools! Mwahahaha!" Andrew confidently said as the black clouds conjured a shield. The shield further fluctuated and had formed dark spikes that were later shot to the charging Dylan.
" You are not the only one who got stronger!" Dylan used his [Four Soft Steps-Perfection] to its fullest extent. He sidestepped and leaped past the spikes. The spikes were only able to graze his clothes but not cost much damage when he was evading all of them. He looked like he was dancing rather than he evading the projectiles. His movements were refined and flexible as he escaped the spikes.
When he arrived at the shield, he sidestepped and leaned to the left side of the shield where Andrew could be found. He spinned to the side until he was able to arrive in front of Andrew. Dylan changed his stance and executed the [Boulder Breaking Fist-Perfection].
Andrew was flabbergasted because of Dylan's swift and flexible movements. Dylan wasn't this fast when he was fighting the beasts. Although Andrew was shocked when he saw how great the increase of Dylan's strength is, he was sure he would be able to easily kill him. But, now it seemed like he will need to put more effort in doing so. Andrew furiously stretched his arms towards Dylan to block him by forming a shield.
"Too late. [Rushing Flow of Water-Perfection]!" Dylan continued to strike his fists and brought his full power!
Using the [Rushing Flow of Water-Perfection] Secret technique, the speed and potential energy, Dylan built up during evading the projectiles that Andrew shot towards him, was fully utilized as he stretched out his fist. The use of the secret technique enabled him to use every single energy that he was storing and fully utilized every ounce of strength that he could get for every strand of energy he was releasing! The hastily made shield that Andrew conjured crumbled in the face of this overwhelming force and it continued to strike until it reached Andrew's chest where the full impact contained within Dylan's fist was completely released!
"Take this! [Boulder Breaking Fist-Perfection]!" Dylan roared as he launched a full-frontal assault to Andrew as he smashed his fist into Andrew's chest!
Andrew felt a strong surge of energy in his chest which exploded with force that caused him great pain as he was blasted away from his original position! Andrew crashed several meters away from Dylan. Andrew was lying down on the ground with some rubble and dust on him. Dylan's strike clearly caught Andrew by surprise and inflicted great damage to him.
Andrew's dark hands dissipated as soon as Andrew was blasted away. The seven hostages were finally able to escape from Andrew's grasp thanks to Dylan. The seven were coughing for several times and was trying to catch their breaths because of the constriction that Andrew impose onto them. Several moments later, their conditions finally stabilized.
"Thank you, sir Dylan. *Cough* *cough* *cough*" Jason was the first to thank Dylan for saving the seven of them.
"Thank you so much, sir Dylan. We are really sorry. We were truly careless." Roland was next to say his gratitude and others followed.
"That's right. We were careless." Frank apologized as well.
"But, sir Dylan, you sure showed him who's boss." Scott praised.
"It's fine. Don't be confident just yet. I'm sure he won't be going down that easily." Although Dylan was able to deliver a deadly strike, he was certain that Andrew wouldn't be going down that easily because he had this feeling that Andrew was just too overconfident that was why he let his guard down.
Dylan had this foreboding feeling that the dark clouds that Andrew conjured had more abilities that would grant Andrew great power.
Andrew slowly stood up and cleaned himself from the dust and rubble. He spat some blood and stretched his body. The dark clouds were slowly being conjured once more but this time Andrew was more serious as he conjured his Avatar. His Avatar's appearance changed from being a sword to a spider. But the spider was peculiar in appearance. It did not have the legs it would commonly have because at the end of each legs was not the usual pointed ends, instead it was replaced by hands. The hands were the same hands that Andrew used to strangle Jack and the others.
"You caught me by surprise when I had my guard down but you won't get to have another chance to repeat something like that again." Andrew said seriously.
"Sir Dylan, let us take care of him." One of the three tanks said.
"Don't worry, I prepared a playmate for you guys. Look." Andrew smiled as he pointed at the place east to the restaurant.
"Rooooaaaaaar!!!" A tiger as big as 3 meters and was red in color. The tigers arm was already as big as an average human would be. The entire body of the tiger was emanating a strength of 14th level of Awakened Spirit Realm! It was known as the Blood Tiger! A ferocious beast that lists over blood of Spirit Veins Realm beasts and practitioner. It was known as one of the kings of the forest near the Soaring Cloud City.
"What?!" The seven employees were shocked and they rushed to the restaurant.
"Disregard me! Protect my employees first!" Dylan ordered.
"But we were ordered to protect you." The three tanks replied in unison.
"I can manage by myself while dealing with Andrew but they can't deal with the Blood Tiger. Now go!" Dylan shouted.
"Yes, sir." The three tanks could only comply and engage combat with the Blood Tiger.
The three tanks charged at the Blood Tiger simultaneously. They attacked the Blood Tiger one strike after the other. The Blood Tiger was just feeding on some corpses of the Spirit Veins Realm beasts when the three tanks attacked it. It was extremely enranged and started to attack the three tanks.
The roar of the tiger was strong enough to blow away any Spirit Veins Realm beasts and practitioner. It's claws was enough to to directly injure any practitioner at the same realm.
The three tanks were no pushovers as well as they slowly pushed back the domineering strikes of the Blood Tiger. Being familiar with each other's skills, they were able to create combos that render great damage to the Blood Tiger. The four were continuously exchanging blow after blow that started a match that shook the Soaring Cloud City!
"Hahahaha, now with all of the nuisances gone. Let us continue where we left. Hahahaha. Get ready to die, Dylan Ford!!!!" Andrew bellowed.
"You don't know who's going to die for sure!" Dylan got ready for battle.
"Then, let's see who will be the last one standing and stand above the corpse of the other!" Andrew charged.