“Agh!” Ambrose flew through several trees and crashed into the side of a small mountain.
After he recovered from the impact, he shouted angrily. “What happened to not wanting scars on my body, huh?”
“Haha, I am just roughing you a little bit.” Rocinante walked over the destroyed trees with the rusty sword in hand. “Also, it’s my body from now on. You are just a placeholder.”
Boom!
A golden-bodied figure jumped from far away and slammed his fist across Rocinante’s face.
Rocinante stumbled to the side, but there didn’t seem to be any visible damage to its face. It simply moved its head left and right, then kicked Mars with its powerful skeleton leg.
Mars crossed his arms in front of him and tanked the kick. However, his legs still slid backwards, and he almost fell to the ground but barely managed to stay standing.
His arms were aching from the impact of the kick.
‘What the hell is this creature?’ Mars thought to himself. ‘This world is indeed full of evil creatures who are strong as hell. I need the heart, and I must have it!’
After Rocinante threw the kick, Ambrose appeared near and smashed his red-bladed swords down.
However, Rocinante blocked them effortlessly with his rusty sword.
The rusty sword looked like it would never be able to block the red swords, but it did, and without any damage.
Ambrose was shocked and impressed by Rocinante’s skill, but he was more impressed by the pure strength of its skeleton body.
‘With a real body, how strong would it be?’ Ambrose thought to himself.
He quickly backstepped and moved his swords fluidly as he began striking at Rocinante’s rusty sword.
After countless late-night hours of swordsmanship training, both in real life, inside the game, and even in the world of souls, his level had increased drastically.
Yet he wasn’t still satisfied, as he could feel that his swordsmanship skill wasn’t at the level where he could close the gap between him and his opponents.
If the Wisdom King saw him in his current state, he would be shocked by his progress, which could be considered very unnatural, especially reaching the second gate already and even acquiring ‘Formlessness’ which was thought to be only available at the third gate.
He would be amazed by the rapid advancement of his disciple.
As Ambrose danced around Rocinante, he used several Mortal Style techniques to create a powerful and intricate pattern of attacks. Yet, Rocinante parried them all effortlessly.
Rocinante reeled in its skeleton arm and stabbed the rusty sword forward. It pierced through the air with sharp and deadly precision.
As it was about to stab through Ambrose’s body, he quickly used Formlessness to evade the attack and shouted his attack name.
“High Pain!”
The red sword slashed through the air and smashed into Rocinante’s shoulder. Sparks flew as the sword contacted the skeleton shoulder, and a small dent appeared.
It was enough for the stun effect to appear.
Rocinante froze and was unable to move for the time being.
“Suicide Sword!” Ambrose shouted, rushed at Rocinante recklessly without any idea of safety, and stabbed his sword through its skeleton body.
However, Rocinante managed to move again and counterattacked with a powerful blow to Ambrose’s chest.
Ambrose coughed up blood and collapsed on the ground.
‘I-I thought Rocinante would use the sword to stab through me, but I suppose it doesn’t want to kill me… even though I doubt I can die here…’
Ambrose slowly rose from the ground, but then Mars appeared beside him and grabbed him by the throat.
“Give me the heart, now!” Mars screamed and chokeslammed Ambrose down to the ground.
“Ugh!” Ambrose’s eyes shook as his vision started to turn darker, as if he were about to pass out. “F-fucking double team…”
“If you don’t give me the heart, I’ll summon Leon and whoever is still alive here, then torture them till you give me it!”
Ambrose chuckled with a tired look. He knew that Mars could summon whoever had the slave contract.
That’s why he chose a place where that might not work.
This strange world with floating islands and a glowing portal seemed to be separated from the rest of the world. It wasn’t even sure whether this place was inside ‘Martial Online World’.
That’s why Ambrose was about 90 percent sure that the summoning spell wouldn’t work in here!
It was mostly a guess, but he came to that conclusion based on his understanding of the summoning mechanics.
With Yughragh, they had a connection that was thin like a string, and it was difficult to maintain. He believed that the summoning would break if they were too separated from each other.
He believed the slave contract summoning worked the same way.
If the ‘slaves’ were far enough from the ‘master,’ Ambrose was certain that the connection was too weak for the summoning to work properly.
Also, he wanted to throw both Rocinante and Mars inside this strange world because it could be impossible to escape this place. Therefore, if he died, they would at least be trapped here.
“Huh, you are laughing?” Mars scoffed mockingly and lifted his arm. He then snapped his fingers.
Ambrose gulped nervously and watched anxiously whether the ones alive still got summoned. It would be tragic, and the plan would be ruined.
However, even after ten seconds, nothing seemed to happen.
Mars frowned. ‘Are we too far for the summoning to take some time?’
Ambrose quickly used his legs and kicked Mars off his body. He then used Formlessness and flipped back to his feet.
He then charged towards Mars with a determined look on his face and started swinging his swords.
Mars quickly evaded them with swift footwork and tried backhanding Ambrose, but he quickly jumped over the arm and kneed Mars in the face.
Mars stumbled backwards and angrily screamed, then threw a powerful ‘Uranus Strike’ punch.
As the forcefield punch landed on Ambrose’s body, he was sent flying for several dozen meters before crashing to the ground.
“Bastard…” Mars looked toward the wall of shadows and narrowed his eyes. “What’s taking so long with the summoning?”
At that moment, a rusty sword pierced through his back.
“Cough!” Mars coughed up blood and fell to his knees with a sword going through his torso.
“The body is mine; did you not hear?” Rocinante pulled the sword from Mars’ body and walked past him. “Only I can injure it.”
Mars’ eyes widened in shock as he realized the true extent of his injury. He tried to cover the wound with his hand, but he couldn’t stop it from bleeding.
‘You are dying, Mars!’ Eye of Shimon shouted panickly inside his mind.
“I am not!” Mars roared and stood up, ignoring the disastrous damage to his body.
A slight distance away, Ambrose stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.
As he saw Rocinante approach him, he clenched the swords tight and was about to stand up, but then his eyes widened as he saw the third figure walking from the far forest.
He was a pale-skinned man with night-black hair and red eyes. A thick mist followed him like a shadow.
“R-Reinhardt…” Ambrose whispered in shock. “He is still here and alive…”
“So, you survived, and yet you came back.” Reinhardt whispered, his voice cold and emotionless. “A big mistake.”