Chapter - 461

Fighting the Crazy Man End
Daneel's strategy was simple: he was going to avoid the attacks from this crazy guy until the missile was ready before getting the hell away and letting it pierce through him.

He would just have to see if that smile still remained after a whole meter of blazing steel pierced through the crazy man's body, burning up his insides while making sure that he wouldn't die.

Yes, Daneel didn't want him to die. All he wanted was that the man had to be incapacitated so that he could find out his origin and just what the 'bird' was that he was referring to.

This man was an Exalted Warrior, and by all rights, using Mind Control on him should work.

However, Daneel's gut told him that that would be a bad idea.

His Mind Control had to work the first time, or it would definitely fail if he tried again. This was someone who knew the spell, and hence, Daneel could guess that he must be guarding against it, even if he didn't know whether Daneel was capable of using it.

With that being the case, Daneel couldn't take the risk.

After he had been pierced through, Daneel would try the mind control, and if that didn't work, then he would just have to improvise.

Other than this, there was no other way to stop the man from killing him.

12 seconds had passed since that first strike by the crazy man, and Daneel's clothes were already in tatters.

Multiple strikes assaulted him in each second from various directions, and if it weren't for the Basilisk's Breath, Daneel would have been mincemeat by now.

"Heeeheeeeheee! Dodge all you want, my blade will f-i-n-d youuuu!"

The crazy statements hadn't let up: instead, at the sight of the angry red lines that appeared all over Daneel's body, they increased in number and volume.

He felt as if he had been lashed by a flaming whip over and over again, and his face was set into an expression of pain.

However, 15 seconds were all he needed to create the devastating missile.

At the 15th second, Daneel finally smiled triumphantly before kicking away in the air suddenly.

Yet, things didn't go as planned.

The crazy guy had been ignoring the missile till now, and Daneel had just thought that it must be another mad tic of his-to ignore everything else besides his opponent.

However, it turned out that he had been wrong.

Very, very wrong.

As Daneel kicked away, the crazy man smiled sinisterly and said, "Oh, so you wanted to kill me with that, mighty Paragon? How cute!"

"YAAARGHHHHHH!"

The prick in his mind reappeared, and this time, it's intensity was greater than before.

What the hell?! Wouldn't Mind Control spells lose effect after a target shook them off for the first time?

Instead of a single needle, Daneel felt as if his entire scalp was under attack by a bramble that just wanted to rake its way in.

As he put up a frantic resistance, he let everything else go, and apparently, this included his mageroot, which the system had been using to cast the Paragon Missile spell.

Tsssss.

Instead of the fearsome explosion, a sound akin to a fire fizzling out emanated from the missile, as it fell apart as the numerous elementary particles were no longer under tight control.

Daneel once away shook off the attack, but it was too late.

The missile had begun to disappear, and the whirling chainsaw blade of his opponent was right in front of his face.

At the last moment, Daneel leaned backward, but it wasn't enough.

Sllickkk.

"ARRRGHHHHH!"

The blade didn't penetrate Daneel's face, but it had passed within a centimeter of it.

That was enough for the mini-wind blades to do their work.

As blood flew in the air and was accompanied by Daneel's scream, the King of Lanthanor lost vision in one eye while a deep cut appeared on one side of his face.

It was in an oblique direction, running from his chin to his forehead on the left side.

Frantically clutching at the wound, Daneel flew back.

The left side of his face felt like it had been dipped in molten lava, and the unique pain that came from one losing their eye was driving him crazy.

Yet, at this moment, the system finally gave him some good news.

[Hero-level Mind Control Spell analyzed. Mind Control spell has been upgraded. Multiple attempts are now possible. Effectiveness of the spell will not decrease with failures.]

At this moment, a madness overtook Daneel, making him smile as he looked at his opponent who seemed to be surprised that he still hadn't succeeded, despite the sudden attack.

The bastard had been fooling him along! By pretending that he was completely crazy, he had let Daneel believe that his attack would work while concealing his trump card.

Well, now, he wasn't the only one in possession of said trump card.

As the healing spell quickly went to work on Daneel's eye, he wiped away the blood quickly using a spell as the crazy guy once again flew forward to attack, this time with frustration.

Suddenly, before he could come close to the kid whose eye he had taken, he felt a prick in his own mind which made him pause.

Wham!

As a fist connected with his stomach, he was pushed back with a dazed expression on his face while the blades in his hands disappeared because he, too, had lost the ability to control his mageroot during the attack.

Looking down, he saw a bloody imprint of a fist.

Wh-what?! How the hell had an Amateur Warrior succeeded in hurting him, an Exalted one?!

And how the hell was an Amateur Warrior in possession of this spell, that was considered a treasure even during the time of the Empire of Angaria!?!

He only received the answer to the first question, and it was when he saw the next fist that impacted him: this time, on his chin.

Behind the elbow of his opponent, there was a golden boosting spell that seemed to be accelerating the punches to a terrifying speed.

No! Such intricate and instantaneous control of elementary particles to adjust the thrust multiple times in each second…was only capable of a Champion! How! How was this kid capable of this?!!

Indeed, Daneel was pulling out all stops.

This was another attack he had developed: "Heaven-shattering Punch".

Daneel had given the lofty name due to how impressed he had been with the performance, and he now saw that he had been right to do so.

With this and the continuous mind control attempts, victory was in his hands.

However, he had forgotten something.

"DAMMIT! ARGH!"

His opponent could do the same.

As the pain in his mind assaulted him again, the crazy man took the opportunity and attacked.

Thankfully, the Basilisk's Breath saved Daneel's ass again, but this time, his waist had gotten injured by the opponent's punch.

In this way, they went back and forth, distracting each other and landing attacks. Only, neither of them were able to hit critical spots, as the other always managed to recover enough to block and take the attack with a different body part.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The clouds completely scattered, as sonic boom after sonic boom rocked the area, while two figures shot all around, turning each other into a bloody mess.

Magic became meaningless, as in that moment of Mind Control Attack, the mageroot would let the elementary particles go.

Soon, Daneel realized that if this continued, he would lose.

Although he was fighting on par with his opponent, his endurance was definitely lower than a true blue Exalted Warrior.

Soon, his body would run out of Energy and he would have no choice but be minced into nothing.

Frantically, Daneel got out of the mindset of going blow-for-blow and considered what he could do.

One by one, he discarded all the spells he could deploy, as none of them would have much of an effect here.

Of course, it didn't help that he was continuously losing his line of thought due to the Mind Control Attack.

Wait…Mind Control Attack?

As a bulb seemed to light up above Daneel's head, he finally got an idea.

Mind Control attacks were all about distractions.

For his to take effect, he had to do a better job of distracting his opponent.

How to do that? Well, the best method of distraction was making someone face their worst fear.

Again and again, this crazy man had mumbled that he had to finish before that 'old bird' came back.

Picking up the clues from the engraving on the pendant that was responsible for the Displacement Formation, Daneel took a chance and rolled the dice.

Calling on his prowess as a Paragon, Daneel made the image of a gigantic Black Raven, much like the Protector Raven he had seen in the Black Raven Kingdom but much larger, appear behind him.

It was a fake apparition using magic, but for a millisecond, it looked real.

"No! You damn old bird! Don't take me away just yet! I need to have more fun!"

As the crazy man shouted this in fright, a smile lit up on Daneel's face.

He had succeeded.

[Mind Control Successful. With the upgraded Mind Control, host can give multiple commands which the target will be forced to heed.]

As these words echoed in his head, Daneel watched as the crazy man froze in the sky with his fist halfway toward his face.

Although Daneel wished he could revel in his victory, he knew that he had no time. That 'old bird' could come at any moment, so he had to make it quick.

"First tell me who you are, what happened to you, and whether you know anything about the mind control spell on Faxul."

The response startled Daneel, making him take a step back in the air with an expression as if he had been struck by a lightning bolt.

"I was the King of the Black Raven Kingdom 178 years ago-and I was the most talented one to have ever been born in the Kingdom. I passed the test of the Empire Spirit in our Kingdom, but the Empire Spirit was an ancient Black Raven which used to serve the Empire of Angaria and who had reached the level of a Hero and had had its remnant bound to the stone podium. During the process of possession, we were besieged by those from the Withering Leaf Sect, and although the Empire Spirit took full temporary possession of me, thereby raising my Exalted Warrior self to become a Hero before slaughtering multiple Hero-level entities and fleeing, the overall process failed, leaving my mind in a broken mess. The Empire Spirit was also weakened, so it decreased its criteria before slipping into a slumber. It awoke 20 years ago, and after that, it has been watching the Kingdom for a chance to take control of a talented Exalted Human Black Raven citizen, who turned out to be your friend. Now, it intends to wait and recuperate fully, which needs a month's time, before beginning the possession process. You cannot save him."