Chapter 40

Bam! The gold masked man’s gauntlet slammed into the governor’s blocking arms, causing him to stagger back and spit out a mouthful of blood.

‘Fuck…’ The governor groaned as he attempted to get his bearings. However, he wasn’t safe yet - just at that moment, a large silver hammer zoomed into his vision, heading straight toward him!

“Shit!” The governor immediately ducked, the hammer swishing harmlessly over his head.

However, he couldn’t help but develop a cold sweat on the back of his neck. That silver hammer was incredibly large and no doubt extremely heavy, not to mention that the gold-masked fighter was imbuing spirit energy into it. If he was struck even once, he would definitely be devastated!

“Just give up!” Storan cackled from the distance. His hands were held up, in a position ready to send out another spirit bullet. “It’s amazing that you’ve held us back so far, but it’s only a matter of time before you fall.”

The governor only glared at him with clenched fists.

Storan continued to chuckle to himself. “It’s a shame - you’re stronger than I thought. But you’re all alone! If you had backup, I’d actually be a bit afraid right now.”

“Oh, right…” He paused to stroke his chin. “You did have an ally, didn’t you? Who was it, that short person in the black cloak?” He glanced around exaggeratedly. “He’s nowhere to be seen now… it seems that he abandoned you. Haha!”

“No he didn’t!!” A shrill voice suddenly screamed.

Storan glanced a bit surprisedly at the source of the voice.

Standing a short distance behind the governor was a short, stubby boy with blue hair: it was Finn. It seemed that sometime during the fight, he had regained consciousness.

“My master would never abandon us! I bet he’s on his away right now!” Finn continued to scream, clearly upset that they would insult his master. “You’d better count your minutes, because when he gets here, you’re all dead!!!”

Alivia and Grandpa Dinran, who had both awakened from their dazed state as well looked at Finn in an alarmed fashion. He was talking so arrogantly - did he want to provoke these masked fighters to go all-out?

“Oh really?” Storan laughed, turning his attention toward Finn. “You really think this master of yours is really going to show up? You don’t think he ran away a long time ago?”

“No!!” Finn shrieked incessantly. “Just you watch! When he arrives, you’re going to be done for!”

“Oh, really?” Hearing this, Storan couldn’t help but start to smirk.

Not only him, hearing Finn’s words, all of the masked men in the vicinity couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “What a delusional kid… still holding on to such a hope. I feel sorry for him.”

Even the governor couldn't help but give a small sad smile at Finn. ‘Although it’s true Zairen is immensely strong, unfortunately, Finn has false hopes. If Zairen’s been missing for days, he’s probably far away from here at this point.’

Even with all his disbelieving opposition, Finn just stood in his place indignantly, not backing down from his words.

“Alright, enough chatter. Let’s finish this,” the gold-masked with the armguards and gauntlet, Gonar, said impatiently, cutting off Finn. He was already growing tired of the fight and clearly wanted to end it quickly. Holding up his arm with the gauntlet, he grunted, and the gauntlet suddenly started to glow with a grey aura.

The governor couldn’t help but bite his lip. Gonar was finally becoming serious! Previously, he hadn’t imbued spirit energy into his gauntlet. How much power would his punches have now?

“Yes, let’s,” the third gold-masked fighter with the hammer spoke for the first time, the voice higher and light: it was a woman. She was also growing tired of the fight. Holding up her hammer, she once more charged it with her spirit energy, causing it to glow with a dark grey ambiance once again.

“Haha…” Storan smiled. “It’s about time.” Seeing all of his comrades charge up their attacks, he wasted no time in following. He held up his hands and spirit energy fluctuations once again permeated the atmosphere. “Prepare for your end, Yassen.”

‘Shit…’ The governor couldn’t help but breathe raggedly as his adrenaline kicked in. ‘They’re going all out… can I do this?’

“Ha!” Without a moment’s delay, Goran made the first move. Fuoosh! He quickly leaped forward toward the governor, the fist with the gauntlet cocked.

‘With that gauntlet charged with spirit energy, there’s no way I can let it hit me,’ the governor thought. He quickly sidestepped, attempting to dodge the strike.

“I won’t let you do that!” Storan’s voice rang out. At that moment, a singular dark grey spirit bullet shot out of his hands and soared towards the direction where he was attempting to dodge.

‘Fuck!’ The governor immediately made a split-second decision and used spirit energy stored in his legs to leap backward, trying to get out of range of both attacks. However, something felt wrong, as if they had wanted him to do that…

A moment later, his fears came true. As he landed on the ground, he suddenly spotted that the gold-masked woman with the hammer had appeared right next to him, as if she had been waiting for him to be there!

“Ha!” She heavily swung her hammer, directly at the governor’s side!

‘She predicted my move!’ In the split second that he saw the hammerhead approach, he suddenly realized that he wouldn’t be able to dodge - it was much too fast!

‘I can’t dodge… looks like I have no choice!’ The governor grit his teeth, and in an instant, channeled a large portion of his spirit energy throughout his body!

Earth Armor!

Fuoosh! A thick layer of brown earth appeared on all over the surface of the governor’s skin, forming a sort of earth coating.

‘Earth armor! I have no choice but to use this now…’ He grit his teeth. ‘But its side effects... Let’s hope I don’t have to fight again within a three month period...’

BOOM!!! Just as the earth armor had formed, the hammer exploded into the governor’s waist like a meteor! Spitting up dust and creating a massive ring of vibration, it cracked the earth armor in several places. The governor’s body was slammed helplessly into the ground, creating an indentation in the earth.

“Gah!!” The governor couldn’t help but groan out as the vibrations from the hammer strike nearly caused him to lose consciousness. ‘What?! So powerful…! To be able to crack the armor?!’

“Dad!!!” From the distance, Finn saw his father tank this devastating shot and couldn’t help but scream out.

Yet, the governor wasn’t out of the woods yet. BOOM! At that moment, another spirit bullet shot out from Storan slammed into the governor’s body and exploded!

Several more cracks formed in the earth armor, and the governor spit out some blood as his beaten-up body flew backward once more. But truly, the earth armor couldn’t be underestimated: such a damaging and powerful projectile had only managed to create a few more cracks in the armor!

Yet, before the governor could recover, Gonar once again emerged in front of the governor’s helpless body and struck down with a mighty punch from his charged gauntlet!

BASH! The gauntlet landed square in the governor’s side again, causing him to spit out some more blood and the armor to crack some more. Bang! The blast launched his body downward onto the ground, rattling his bones, and causing his rag-doll like body to bounce backward a couple times before coming to an abrupt stop against a tree.

His body became still.