Dark Moon Era

Chapter 209: End

“You killed almost everyone in my family.” Clyne was calm when he saw Tang Ling finally stepping into his room.

“But never mind.” He then pressed a button on the table as Tang Ling stepped closer to him. The heavy wall behind him started to move and slide apart, revealing a large space behind it.

It was a storeroom filled with rows and rows of racks. The top of the racks was filled with items while the area below the racks stored opened boxes that had gold, jades, and even crystals. Even in the Purple Moon era, these rare commodities were still used as a type of currency.

Other than the racks, in the center of the large storeroom was a huge ring that was covered by a giant steel cage. It reminded Tang Ling of the bloody cage exam. Was the exam inspired by this place?

As a matter of fact, the whole fifth floor of the Agnes manor only housed Clyne’s average-sized office attached to his chamber. The rest of the floor was occupied by this secret storeroom.

Tang Ling’s heart raced, not because of the wealth before his eyes, but because he saw two things on the racks that spelled treasure to him. He had a hunch that these two things should have been inside the manor early on. They were none other than his grandmother’s urn and his sister’s torn skirt.

Was it strange for these things to end up in the hands of the Agnes family who had taken over the safety sector?

“Although you aren’t wealthy, I kept them for you.” Clyne stood up to remove his sleeping robe and reveal his armor. He did not don the purple standard-issued armor. Instead, it was a brand new black armor with three stars carved on his chest plate.

He slowly walked to the side of the ring and started browsing the racks. Then, he selected a pair of turquoise fighting gloves and slid them on. After he pressed another button that opened the little door of the steel cage, he walked inside.

“I don’t mean anything ill. I’m just afraid that these bargaining chips aren’t sufficient to move you. That’s why I kept them for you, especially after I knew that you are from the settlement.” As he spoke, Clyne stretched his limbs and twisted his neck like a boxer entering the ring and warming up before a match.

“You can be more direct if you have something to say.” Tang Ling also walked to the ring though he was not in a hurry to enter it.

“This is the deathmatch ring. It was passed down from the first generation of the Agnes family leader who started off as a war family. I moved the deathmatch ring into the secret storeroom when I rose to this position,” Clyne said calmly.

“You know, it isn’t easy to select a new leader of the family. Everyone has ambitions, and in order to be fair, the few qualified candidates that can match each other in various aspects will have to enter the deathmatch ring. In the end, the survivor will become the new leader of the family. I became the leader this way too.” Clyne reminisced about his past.

He then added, “This ring is a grand gambling stage where you gamble your life away. I’m here to take a gamble with you, not just gambling with our lives, but the winner who walks out of the ring alive will get even more.

“In order to show my sincerity, if you win, not only will my life be yours, but everything you see in this storeroom will be yours.”

“Do I even have anything valuable that catches your attention?” Tang Ling had a hunch what the answer would be, but he asked the question nevertheless.

Tang Ling had glanced at the whole storeroom when he came in. Other than the few boxes of gold, jades, and crystals, the majority of the items on the racks were weapons, armor, art pieces from the old civilization, firearms, and a few boxes of ammunition, plus a whole rack of vicious beast meat that was more than a hundred kilograms in weight. Tang Ling also spotted Level 4 to 5 vicious beast meat. In short, it was a huge amount of wealth.

“If I win, I want the seed you have,” Clyne finally uttered his purpose.

“I see. You are just afraid of Uncle Su Yao after all!” Tang Ling chuckled. He tossed his sword, dagger, and his bloody clothes away before he started to browse the racks in the storeroom for a weapon.

In fact, he could not distinguish the weapons from one another. Even if a superalloy weapon was in front of him, he might not recognize it or know how to use it.

Although he had limited knowledge, he was not an idiot. Would he fight Clyne with a mere grade B alloy weapon and the battle uniform that he had snatched from someone at the last minute? No way.

Clyne did not say anything about Tang Ling browsing the weapons on his own. In fact, he was more concerned about the silence from Mad Lion Su Siao.

If the Mad Lion did not say anything, that meant that he recognized this death match between him and Tang Ling. Should Clyne defeat Tang Ling in the end, given the Mad Lion’s character, he would have to accept the outcome.

Moreover, the people from the Stardust Council were on their way. Clyne had to kill Tang Ling before they arrived. Otherwise, he would not get a piece of the precious seed!

Tang Ling grabbed a grade A alloy spear. Compared to a longsword, his current state was more suited for a spear. He then wanted to get a set of armor for himself, but the sets in the storeroom were nothing stellar. The best one was only a grade B alloy armor which was just slightly stronger than the usual standard-issued purple armor of the Purple Moon Warriors.

On second thought, he chose to give up on the selection of armors and chose a fitting sewn protective inner armor which was similar to the innerwear that he usually wore in the Hope Barrier. The protective layer was only as strong as a bulletproof vest but it was better than nothing.

Nevertheless, Clyne was rather surprised by Tang Ling’s choice. His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish as he wanted to say something, but no words came out.

As a matter of fact, the inner armor that Tang Ling picked at random was very precious.

The overall integrity was no weaker than a Purple Moon Warrior’s armor. The best part was that it was a lot lighter than a standard-issued armor, so it provided more agility to the wearer. It only covered the knees, elbows, wrists, and torso. Despite lacking a headgear or helmet, compared to the heavy standard-issued armor, one could identify which was better.

The other precious thing about the inner armor was that it was sewn with a great amount of organic material from a certain monster, so it had exceptional tenacity and would fit any body size.

Did the kid spot something? This inner armor is actually the best gear for his size-altering transformation!

Unfortunately, since Tang Ling had used another type of enhancement, he could no longer use his little seed. Based on common sense, the extra enhancement to his body would consume a great amount of energy, hence exhausting him. Therefore, he could not possibly have enough energy to provide the seed for transforming now.

Clyne’s opinion was correct but not entirely so. After Tang Ling melted the war seed, he had a feeling about both the seeds and it was not as beautiful as he wanted it to be. Yes, the two seeds could be activated at the same time and the power would stack up so that he would get an explosive super form, which was probably four times stronger than his current form, but he did not have that much energy to support both seeds at once!

Every time he transformed, he usually used the energy stored in the little seed.

With the little seed’s current level of energy storage, there was no way for him to achieve an imaginative super form, but...

Tang Ling continued browsing. The weapon that he was most familiar with right now was the dagger, so he had to rely on one during the critical moment.

However, Clyne’s collection disappointed Tang Ling. There were no exceptional daggers on the racks. The best one that he found was a grade A alloy dagger and it only had aesthetics. While it was beautiful and exquisite, it was not practical enough.

In Tang Ling’s opinion, the simpler the dagger was, the better. After all, he sought the potential damage inflicted instead of aesthetics.

With that thought in mind, Tang Ling was prepared to simply pick a grade A alloy dagger. However, at that moment, he glanced over a special dagger in an inconspicuous corner.

The hilt of this dagger was made out of wood, a crookedly carved wood to be exact, and with the curves on the hilt, its grip was snug and secure. Above the hilt was a dried vine circling the hilt as the guard. He could not tell whether the vine was from the wood itself or if it had been added by someone, but the vine guard perfectly divided the hilt and the blade.

Other than that, the blade of the dagger was in a strange shape. It was dark gray in color, but the material was not iron, alloy, wood or even bone. It felt like rock that had the texture of wood. On top of that, it felt like it was naturally formed.

Similar to its hilt, the blade was also crooked like a snake. At the spine of the blade was a line of sawteeth and at the edge of the blade was a fuller. Both the sawteeth and fuller had no trace of artificial grinding as it looked like it came as it was.

Unfortunately, the dagger was broken. Only half its blade remained and the cut at the blade was smooth like a log of wood that had been chopped and the cut had smoothened over time.

Tang Ling was somehow attracted to the dagger. However, when he held the lightweight dagger in his hand, he could not think of a way to make use of it, so he placed it back down. What use was a broken dagger in a death match?

Clyne heaved a breath of relief when he saw Tang Ling put the dagger back.

Truth be told, Clyne had been researching this particular dagger for a very long time now. Despite the methods he tried and even hiring a scientist to help him analyze the dagger, he returned fruitless. Nevertheless, he was unhappy with the result. Because the dagger was once a treasured item of a rank 5 powerhouse, he did not want to accept the fact that the dagger was useless! How useless would such a dagger be if it were to be restored?

In Clyne’s opinion, Tang Ling had already lost and he did not want him to use the dagger because he was afraid that it might be damaged in the process.

Tang Ling put the dagger back and picked a grade A alloy dagger up, but a moment later, he picked the dagger back up and sheathed it at his waist.

“Are you choosing two daggers?” Clyne was furious in his heart, but he kept his emotions in check as he feigned surprise.

“Is that a problem?” Tang Ling raised a brow and walked into the ring. Five minutes had passed since the storeroom was revealed. With his precious time having been delayed, he did not wish to waste anymore.

“It’s fine. I’m just curious why you’d choose a dagger that cannot cut. It’s just a symbol of victory of the past, a collection of sorts.” Clyne pretended like it was nothing.

Tang Ling did not respond either because his Precise Instinct sensed something unusual from the dagger, and factoring in Clyne’s reaction, he knew he had selected something outstanding.

Shuaaa!

Tang Ling pointed the spear at Clyne. “Let’s begin.”

Without further ado, both sides lunged at each other.

******

It was as though time was in reverse. Tang Ling’s first battle in Safety Sector No. 17 had been the bloody cage exam. Now, his final battle in Safety Sector No. 17 was with Clyne inside a steel cage. This match would determine who walked out alive.

The steel cage was shut tightly after Tang Ling entered. Even if Clyne wanted it to open, he had to twist a lock and key in the password before opening the door. If either one of them wanted to break out from the grade C alloy cage, given their strength, they would still have to spend a great amount of effort and time to do it.

Who would have the time to escape or open the door in a deathmatch unless either side had great advantage over the opposite? So, who had the advantage in this deathmatch? Was it Tang Ling or Clyne? Neither!

Both of them were equally powerful on rank 3, and the battle started off on a climax.

In less than 30 seconds, Clyne released punches more than 300 times with each blow powerful enough to kill a Purple Moon Warrior-to-be. Tang Ling also brandished his spear more than 300 times, and each thrust perfectly blocked Clyne’s ferocious punches.

Without a doubt, it was a fight between two powerful people. Normal people could not possibly capture their movements or imagine the power in each blow, what more react to the reflexes.

With every block and defensive move in the ring, an explosive sound followed. The huge grade C alloy cage was shaking as the blastwave from the punches, the gale from the brandished spear, and every attack left irregular dents on the metal.

Tang Ling was a lot tougher than expected! All the predictions before the battle were only theories, and only in battle did Clyne finally realize the fact.

Although Tang Ling might not be a threat to him, he was somewhat stronger than Tang Ling in terms of basic stats. Nonetheless, not a single of his 300 punches actually landed on Tang Ling because the spear that the latter wielded always perfectly blocked his strike!

Is this the reason Tang Ling chose the spear? Is it because of its length so that he can block my fists in almost all directions?

Given Clyne’s understanding of Tang Ling, the kid was not skilled at using a spear, so him choosing the spear felt a little strange. At first, he suspected that Tang Ling had concealed the fact that he was a spear user, so he was prepared to see him show off his skills in the battle.

Still, Clyne was not overly bothered since the choice of weapon was not the determining factor of a battle anyway. However, after the battle started, he realized that he was wrong. Tang Ling was really lousy at using the spear!

The initial movements from the spear were awkward and stiff. Tang Ling knew none of the spear techniques: dive, stab, flog, beat, twine, circle, block, grab, lunge, point, not even entry-level knowledge!

Nonetheless, half a minute later, Tang Ling became more skillful wielding the spear. From the start to the end, he had been repeating a single technique of the spear: block. However, no matter how shocking it sounded, could he win with just one technique?

Clyne had his own plans. He paused for a split second and attacked Tang Ling again.

Be it intentional or the advantage that he had from the start, Clyne was able to slightly lead the fight. He was bringing Tang Ling around the cage in circles.

Even if his punch could not effectively land on Tang Ling, he tried as if he did not know the meaning of fatigue. He tested every angle of attack in the attempt to find out if there was any weak spot that Tang Ling’s battle wisdom missed out.

The intense and rapid battle lasted for another minute. After that, both sides were a little exhausted.

Should this continue? Would it be a battle of stamina? No, both Tang Ling and Clyne did not plan to drag it out!

At that moment, Tang Ling shook his spear while drawing the dagger that he sheathed at his waist. He had gotten used to the spear and it was time for his new tactic coupled with his Precise Instinct to come into play.

He chose to attack this time! The spear and dagger matched each other perfectly, meeting Clyne’s punches offensively and defensively.

The sudden change caught Clyne offguard. He never thought that Tang Ling could fight with divided concentration.

Compared to the spear, Tang Ling’s mastery of the dagger was a lot more amazing. Every time the grade A alloy dagger attacked, it was as ferocious as a jumping viper, striking the second Clyne was most unaware.

It was not exactly fighting with divided concentration but it was close, and Clyne could not do the same. It was the first time he was forced to react passively, defending Tang Ling’s dagger strikes. His black armor had suffered a dozen cuts from Tang Ling’s dagger, but none harmed his body.

It’s time! Tang Ling hopped back, gripping his dagger in reverse and sliding the spear forward as he held the near end of the handle.

What is he trying to do? Clyne was stunned. In that fraction of a second, Tang Ling’s spear dove towards Clyne’s armor at an unimaginable speed.

Clunk!

The tip of the spear poked a little hole in Clyne’s body, causing him to bleed.

The minor injury did not affect the battle, but it infuriated Clyne who bellowed and raised both his fists for a barrage of punches at Tang Ling. Less than five seconds later, he realized a shocking fact: Tang Ling was the one who was controlling the pace of the battle.

Tang Ling had used the spear defensively at first, then he swapped to the dagger and spear combination to attack and defend at the same time, ultimately turning the spear into an attacking tool and the dagger into a defensive tool.

The changes in his battle style were drastic. Clyne needed time to adapt to such an illusionary battle style, but during the switch, he had fallen into Tang Line’s pace and inevitably suffered an attack while he tried to adapt.

It’s just a small jab that won’t affect the battle! But what the hell is with that absorption of knowledge? How did use the stab of the spear to such a godly extent in such a short amount of time? But this will end soon!

Clyne was an old fox in the battlefield. He decided to break the pace and reveal the trap that he had set from the beginning. Right after the thought arose in his mind, he changed the way he punched. He discarded the offensive and defensive punching, and went all out, exchanging damage for damage madly.

Ten seconds later, a dozen more holes appeared on Clyne’s body and every single one of them was bleeding, but Tang Ling also endured three punches.

Every of Clyne’s punches had chills that would freeze the spine. They hit Tang Ling in the limbs, and albeit not being lethal, they were able to slow his movements down a little.

However, judging by how things had panned out, Tang Ling still had the advantage. Such an advantage was turned into nothing when Clyne flashed a cunning smile on his face.

“It’s time to end this!” Clyne stepped back and jumped up. He then released a powerful punch on the ground.

His punch was enveloped in a layer of white light. A closer look would reveal the light as countless ice crystals. The punch landed on the ring powerfully, and a thick layer of ice spread from the point of impact, blanketing the entire ring in an instant.

Tang Ling instinctively wanted to jump, so he did, but when he landed and smashed the ice in the ring, it threw him off balance a little.

Clyne seized the moment and lunged towards Tang Ling, attempting to land a powerful punch on his chest.

Tang Ling turned his body sideways and dodged the punch, but due to the slippery ice, his movement was not as smooth as before. As a result, he was unable to dodge Clyne’s punch completely, so the punch grazed his chest and hit his right arm.

“Freeze!” Clyne roared. When his punch grazed Tang Ling’s body, the ice on his fist made contact with Tang Ling. Then, an unbelievable scene happened. Tang Ling’s limbs started to freeze as a thick layer of ice enveloped his hands, legs and ultimately his body.

“This ends now!” A thread of worry flickered over Clyne’s face, but there was no movement from Su Siao outside the manor.