February 6, 2023, Night, One and a half hours before the Lantern Festival begins.
Jianying's fight. Ten kilometers from Hunter's headquarters.
Crat!
Nathaniel's front neck was deeply slashed. He managed to jump back before Jianying delivered a silent cut.
Both immediately distanced themselves.
"Ugh! Ugh! In... ter... esting..." Nathaniel coughed up red blood several times while holding his wide-open neck. Then, in an instant, the slash wound on Nathaniel's neck closed again, leaving a spray of blood that soaked the white doctor's robe he was wearing.
Jianying didn't pay much attention to it and his focus was diverted by something else. He carefully surveyed his surroundings once more.
"You channeled lightning into your feet after you took a small jump forward, creating an explosion at your inner foot at speed of sound using lightning energy from the sword. That's why you didn't make a lightning sound when you slashed my neck. You purely used your own strength and only used the sword's lightning as a speed enhancer."
Nathaniel smiled broadly like a child. Red blood smeared his mouth. He tightened his round pince-nez glasses.
"So now we're playing a deduction game?"
Click.
Slash!
Jianying lunged forward like lightning, but Nathaniel teleported first.
"After knowing your speed trick, I can easily surpass you. This way, you've already lost, Jianying."
"You're too overconfident, Nathaniel. I've beheaded so many Witches and humans who said such things in front of me until I've lost count."
Nathaniel grinned and chuckled softly.
"That's the reality. You don't have as much talent as I do. Every creature born into this world has different genetics. Those genetics will grow into unique characteristics that only they possess, and that's what I call talent."
Click.
Nathaniel appeared behind Jianying's back. Reflexively, Jianying immediately swung his sword backward.
Tap! Jianying's hand was caught by Nathaniel.
"See. You are fast, but when you don't have advantage to use your lightning speed, you are no match for me." Nathaniel smirked, and his smirk widened as he felt something pierce his heart.
Without turning back, Jianying said with a calm breath as if unaffected by Nathaniel's intimidation.
"Yes, everyone has different talents. But no talent is wasted. There are only foolish talent users and clever talent users."
As soon as Jianying swung his lightning katana backward and it was caught by Nathaniel, at that very moment, with his other hand, Jianying threw a knife from under his armpit.
It pierced very deeply and accurately hit Nathaniel's heart.
Nathaniel spat out red blood from his mouth.
"Haha. You are indeed interesting. No wonder the young master wants you so much."
Jianying quickly spun his body while transferring the sword from his right hand to his left.
"That's also why I have to kill you here."
Click.
Slash!
Both teleported, moving up into the sky. Nathaniel's right arm was severed, and Jianying's face was scratched by Nathaniel's empty left hand attack.
Blood flew as the two men attacked each other in the air.
Jianying swiftly continued his slashes to sever Nathaniel's head, his katana already halfway through Nathaniel's neck.
"Know this, Jianying, as long as my palm touches something, it will teleport with me. At this distance, you will be impaled."
Click.
Before Jianying could sever Nathaniel's head, both of them moved to the middle of a dense bamboo forest, and exactly one centimeter below Jianying, the sharp tip of a bamboo was poised to pierce his back, aiming for his heart. At that moment, Nathaniel kicked Jianying hard in the stomach.
Thud!
Crat!
Jianying tilted his body, causing his left rear shoulder to be deeply grazed. Then he slashed the tip of the bamboo that was almost piercing his head from below as he fell into the bamboo forest.
Both immediately landed in the middle of the dense bamboo trees.
"You brought me a kilometer from where we were just now, just to make it difficult for me to fight with a sword? I thought you'd be more creative with that not-so-practical teleportation magic technique."
"I think that's enough for you. After all, you're just a human. No matter how many times you slash me, I'll still regenerate. Speaking of regeneration, I discovered this ability and was recognized by the young master when I researched a thousand children. I injected them with a serum containing the Witch's core.
"But unfortunately, all those children turned into cursed creatures except one. And he is the measure I use to regenerate quickly without magic spells right now. You have to cut off my head or destroy my brain to defeat me, Jianying. Come on, come on, I know you can do it."
Jianying took a sideways stance. He bent forward. Twenty steps in front of him was Nathaniel, still grinning widely.
"First slash technique; 閃電; Shǎndiàn!"
A very powerful and very fast sideways slash hit the stomach, splitting Nathaniel's body in two before he could snap his fingers. And in Jianying's straight path, lightning-fast steps moved twenty steps forward, bamboo stalks falling, also hit by the blue lightning katana's clear cut.
Nathaniel smiled broadly and coughed up blood in the air. Half of his body was severed by the lightning-fast slash, very neatly.
"Haha! That's right! You have to fight me seriously, Jianying! Only this way can you defeat me!"
Jianying raised his katana above his head and swung it quickly within one second after Nathaniel was split in two. Nathaniel didn't want to lose and snapped his fingers just as the katana touched his neck.
Click!
From above Jianying's head, Nathaniel delivered a punch even though only his upper half remained.
The punch missed because Jianying anticipated it. Then Nathaniel's mouth was pierced by the lightning katana, going through to the back of his throat when his surprise attack failed to hit Jianying's head.
"It seems this is as far as it goes. Turns out you're weak. Disappointing."
Click.
Jianying and Nathaniel teleported to the middle of a small village. At that moment, a small child ran into Jianying's body, and Nathaniel threw a knife he had taken from Jianying's pocket at the child.
Jianying extended one hand to catch the knife flying towards the child who had bumped into him. The knife stuck in his right palm. At that very moment, Nathaniel hit Jianying's left hand, which was gripping the katana's hilt, causing it to loosen, and snapped his fingers once more.
Click.
Standing with only his upper half on the edge of a resident's rooftop. He pulled out the lightning katana that was stuck in his mouth.
His body regenerated quickly. Growing his lower half back. He was naked from the waist down like a newborn baby.
"Now I have your sword. You shouldn't have bothered with that child, Jianying. Your defeat is now certain at my hands. You've lost your weapon." Nathaniel swung Jianying's lightning katana to shake off the red blood from himself.
Jianying told the child to go away. He looked up to see Nathaniel, who was half-naked from the waist down.
"You should re-examine your regeneration ability. Add to your formula to regenerate pants and clothes as well. You look embarrassing fighting like that." Jianying adjusted his loose glasses and pulled out the knife that had pierced his right palm.
Nathaniel didn't care at all. He was still grinning widely.
"Now, what are you going to do, Jianying? Your weapon is in my hand. You have no magical talent. Your talent is only in using magical weapons to their fullest, which is why you earned your dragon shengxiao title."
Jianying grinned.
"Yes, you're right. I reached the top by relying on magical weapons because I have no magical talent. I'm just an ordinary man. But."
Jianying ran quickly towards Nathaniel. He jumped, and with one leap, he reached the top of the village house roof. His hand was raised high, holding a knife.
Clang!
"I am not a weak ordinary man."
Nathaniel didn't need to use his teleportation magic technique. He blocked Jianying's knife attack with the katana he had obtained.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The two exchanged weapon swings. Jianying deftly parried every heavy swing of the lightning katana Nathaniel held. He was relaxed and didn't move much. Meanwhile, Nathaniel just swung his katana wildly at Jianying.
"Hey, hey, hey. Is this all you've got?"
Jianying's movements were very agile, so even though Nathaniel held a lightning katana, he saw no open gaps in Jianying's defense, which relied only on a knife. The two fought on the rooftop. The homeowner was startled to hear the clang of metal echoing on the roof.
"From my perspective, it seems you're the one starting to struggle, Doctor."
Jianying parried, then hooked Nathaniel's katana swing aside and stepped forward to the opposite side while delivering three rapid consecutive stabs to Nathaniel's neck, heart, and temple in an instant.
Click.
Nathaniel was caught off guard and snapped his fingers to teleport to the edge of the house roof. He put several steps of distance between himself and Jianying, who had accurately stabbed all his vital areas.
Nathaniel touched the stab wound on his head. The stab wounds on his head, heart, and neck closed slower than before.
"It seems you have a limit to your regeneration, Doctor. In the end, you are still a mortal being with limits." Jianying swung the blood-stained knife to the side. Splattering and dirtying the clay village house roof.
"Heh, at least I got the latest data from my research." Nathaniel still stood casually. Jianying was the same, standing casually like Nathaniel on the other roof edge.
"With your clever brain, it seems you still don't understand the situation you're facing right now. Nathaniel, you won't be able to defeat me."
Jianying pointed his knife at Nathaniel. His gaze was cold, as if completely uninterested in Nathaniel, who continued to grin enthusiastically.
"We'll see."
Click.
Nathaniel appeared in front of Jianying's face, but Jianying anticipated it first and slashed Nathaniel's left wrist artery while Nathaniel swung his sword from Jianying's open side.
Splatter!
In a fraction of a second, Jianying also quickly slashed Nathaniel's right wrist so he couldn't move his fingers anymore.
Splatter!
Using his other free hand, Jianying gripped Nathaniel's neck like an eagle catching a snake and slammed him onto the roof, breaking through it. Both of them landed inside the house of a small, panicked villager. Seeing strangers fighting fiercely and falling from their small house's roof.
Thud!
Slash! Slash! Slash!
And upon landing, Jianying didn't stop and continued to slash Nathaniel's eyes, left and right wrists continuously without stopping. Nathaniel tried to get up but couldn't move his hands and couldn't see anything because Jianying relentlessly stabbed his eyes with the knife. The pince-nez glasses he wore shattered, scattering with the pooling red blood. The moonlight illuminated Jianying's brutal actions, continuously and relentlessly cutting Nathaniel in the same spot. Not giving him a chance to regenerate.
After more than five minutes, Nathaniel finally stopped regenerating. He lay pinned by Jianying on his chest. With both hands severed and eyes gone from his face.
Jianying's entire suit and clothes were soaked with Nathaniel's red blood. If Nathaniel was a Witch, he should have bled black. But strangely, he was still human.
Jianying was not tired, his breathing was stable as if doing that was daily life for him. He didn't even care about the wound on his left back shoulder and his right palm.
"How.. cough! Do you know the secret of my teleportation magic technique? Cough!"
Nathaniel asked while coughing, or rather, spitting red blood. He trembled in pain. But Jianying didn't care, he got up and took the lightning katana that was not far from him. Then he stabbed Nathaniel's heart until the tip of the katana was stuck to the wooden floor.
"I realized you need sight to accurately coordinate your teleportation magic. The flick you use is a substitute for uttering a magic spell. Basically, magic cannot be used by humans unless they cast it or they use a tool as a substitute for casting the spell.
"Most people who are talented in magic prefer to cast spells manually by uttering them, even though there are other ways such as writing talismans, or making the same magic familiar so that you only need to read half of the spell, or even one word of the spell and the magic will activate because you are used to using the same magic for years."
Jianying stood beside the dying Nathaniel, laughing while choking on his own blood.
"I knew you would realize it. All this time you were just testing how far I could teleport? You're fit to be a teacher, Jianying."
"As I said, your teleportation magic is not practical. You brought me this far, surely using something as a marker for teleportation. I saw that the marker was a hidden camera in a tree connected to your phone. From that, I realized you need sight to teleport. Without sight, you don't know where to teleport."
Jianying took the phone from the back pocket of Nathaniel's doctor's robe, which was cut at the bottom. The phone showed the place where Jianying and Nathaniel fought a few minutes ago.
Nathaniel tried to laugh but couldn't.
"Ha! Cough! Cough! This is as far as it goes.. but you made one mistake, Jianying. You should have killed me right now. The condition for activating my teleportation magic is.. sound."
Jianying pulled out his katana that was stuck in Nathaniel's heart. And hurriedly stabbed Nathaniel's tongue, which had already made a flicking sound.
Click.
Nathaniel disappeared from Jianying's sight. His katana stabbed the wooden floor.
"Shit! I underestimated him too much."
Jianying cleaned his square glasses, which were dirty with Nathaniel's blood splatters, with a handkerchief stored in his suit pocket. An old man stood shivering in the corner of the room, staring at him in horror.
"Ah, no need to worry. The villain is gone. I am a five-star Hunter from the central Hunter headquarters. Qincheng. I apologize for destroying your roof." Jianying said in a polite tone. The homeowner nodded timidly.
Then Jianying left the house through the front door.
"Thirty minutes, I can get back to Hunter headquarters in thirty minutes." Looking at the watch on his wrist, Jianying loosened his tie.
"I hope I can trust them to prevent the Goujian sword from being stolen."
***