“Shit!” Ace cursed.

  “What is it?” Julius asked from Leonel’s back wheiced Ace start to speed up, with Amira and Leonel upping their paatch. “Are they heading in our dire?”

  At a time like this, Ad Amira were both thankful that Leonel was with them. Although Julius owerful mage, his running speed was below average, even for mortals.

  “Yeah, unfortunately,” Aswered sombrely as he suddenly led his team in a new dire. “Follow me.”

  “Dammit!” Ace cursed when he sehe assassins ge dires to follow them. “Why’re they chasing us? How’re they even able to follow us from so far away.”

  Ace was only able to seheir presence due to his [Observation], which could reach up to 2.5 kilometres, but haki was an ability uo him and his mother. The fact that they could track them from over a kilometre away was mindboggling to him.

  However, Amira seemed to have thought of something as her head suddenly turo Leonel before turning back to Ace. “I think they’re trag Leonel.”

  “Huh, what makes you say that?” Ace asked back.

  “Well, although there are ways of trag us, such methods are only used by major forces, and none of us has done anything to offend any of them. Not retly, anyway.

  So the only other possibility that still makes sense is for them to be chasing after Leonel,” Amira expined. “There’s an item called a tracer that allows you to locate Divis within a certain radius. Although it’s exceedingly rare, I’m pretty sure there are at least two fas able to get their hands on one, he Radiant Churd the Cult of Darkness.”

  “Cult of Darkness?” Ace asked as arms suddenly went off in his head. “Five years ago, Wukong said that it was the Cult of Darkhat stole a certain dragohat caused the Dragon’s Pit to start the beast tide that hit Silverlight City.”

  “You think that Azure Dragon was that Dragon?” Amira asked, uanding what Ace was hinting at.

  “It fits. A Divi of that calibre would definitely be enough for them to react like that.” Ace tinued. “I mean, it would be like them being guaranteed a leader at the Deity realm iure. With it being a Divi, they would no longer have to fear the human’s deities.

  I don’t know how they could’ve allowed it to escape, but the ces of there being another Dragon with a Divine Bloodline so far away from the Dragon’s Pit is virtually zero. It would also expin the presence of a group from the Cult of Darkness of that strength.”

  Though they khey were likely correct with their theory, it didn’t actually help them in their current predit. In fact, knowing they were being chased by the Cult of Darkness only added to their worries.

  “They’re getting closer,” Ace sighed. “What does the tracer look like?”

  “It’s a fist-sized gem that glows red when it sehe presence of a Divi,” Amira expined when she suddenly guessed the reason behind Ace’s question. “You’re not thinking to destroy it, are you?!”

  “Boss, don’t!” Leonel said mentally. “If anything, we should split up. If I head off on my own, I should be able to ditch them somewhere a ba-”

  “Enough!” Aapped. “I’ve made my decision. You guys keep running. I’ll intercept them with an ambush, destroy the tracer, and then escape.”

  “But…”

  “You should know that even if I ’t fight someo the ninth ra if I want to escape, there’s no way they’d be able to stop me,” Ace said as he smiled fidently to put their minds at ease. “Just believe in me.”

  Amira hated feeling so useless. Whilst she had faith in Ace’s strength, especially after the improvements he’d showhe st month, she hated that he always had to face the danger aloo protect them.

  ‘I o get stronger faster so I stand by his side,’ Amira thought to herself as she saw Ace turn and head ba the opposite dire on his own. “e o’s go!”

  .

  .

  .

  Whilst Amira, Leonel, and Julius were heading deeper into the mountain range, Ace was making his way towards the approag cultists. He showed no nerves as he ran towards them, only a cold posure.

  When they were only 500 meters away, Ace suddenly jumped in the air and then, against all logic, he jumped again off the air.

  This was the reason he was so fident about esg. After reag the fifth rank, he could finally use [Geppo], another one of the teiques from the Wover from his previous life.

  It wasn’t that he had fotten about it before, but it was a teique that required oo kick off the air with such force that the air beh their feet temporarily became solid. It required a lot more strength than [Soru].

  ‘There you are,’ Ace thought to himself as he saw the group of six armoured men swiftly cutting through the forest and more specifically, at the gem hanging from the nky warrior’s waist.

  ‘Rank 8, huh?’ Aoted as he assessed the man whilst he subsciously thanked heaven it wasn’t being held by the leader. ‘Okay, let’s do this.’

  As his thoughts reached that point, his eyes became eerily focused as he became oh nature.

  Spapressed around the bde of his obsidian-cive, but he still mao swing his polearm with such speed and force that a crest-shaped bde of pressed air no smaller than him shot towards the leader.

  “[Flying Ssh]!” Ace voiced icily as he used [Geppo] to unch himself in the dire of his target.

  This was aeique he had remembered from his previous life. It was a teique predominantly used by swordsmen that retty simple in theory.

  By swinging your bde with enough speed and force, you create a powerful pressure in the form of a pressed air bde.

  Unfortunately, the spa this world seemed a lot more stable than his st. It was the reason why all the teiques from his previous world required so much more strength than it would have had he been in his former world. Still, all that mattered was that he could use it now.

  Due to him having bee oh nature and being so far away when he first made his move, no one, not even the group leader, sensed anything amiss until the attack was near enough on top of him.

  Still, as a warrior of the ninth rank with a lot of experiehe man was able to draw the great sword strapped to his back just in time to block the attack, although he was still knocked off bance.

  Though Ace would’ve liked if his attack killed, or at least incapacitated the man, he expected this much from someohat strong. His initial attack was simply to give him enough time to attack his actual target.

  Like the others in the group, the nky sabre wielder was also caught off guard by the [Flying Ssh]. By the time he drew his sabre in preparation to face whatever enemy had decided tet them, the hairs on the back of his neck were stood on edge.

  Out of the er of his eye, he saw a shadow desding from his blind spot at a ridiculous speed. He hurriedly tried to jump out of the way, but space suddenly pressed around him, slowing him down by a rge margin.

  When used on Julius or even Amira, Impose kept them from moving, but Ace already knew from his tests on Leohat impose could only somewhat slow the movements of someoh power at the eighth rank. Fortunately, that was all he needed…

  Ace’s give was like a shooting star as it tore through the air. He watched as a shadowy skin-tight aura coated his target’s body, but he remaieadfast. Between his [Armament Hak Coating his bde and his fusion of both states of ‘wielding’ Ace was full of fidence.

  His bde slowed slightly as it pierced the man’s head, but ultimately, his give pierced through the left side of his skull and out the right, but he wasn’t dohe cultist wasn’t his primary target in the first pce.

  Despite the speed he desded, Ace elegantly nded on the ground and swiftly sshed the ‘Tracer’ in two before using [Soru] to jump bad raise his give across his body.

  “Ugh!” He grunted as he was sent flying through the air, barely having blocked the leader’s ssh.

  “A warrior at the ninth rank is no joke,” Ace muttered as he coughed a mouthful of blood and rolled to his feet.

  “Who are you?” The leader asked coldly, hiding the sho his heart over a mere teen successfully killing one of his stro men and successfully blog an attack from him.

  Even if it was just a casual strike, it wasn’t something a boy so young should be capable of dealing with.

  Unfortunately for him, Ace had no iion of wasting any more time with him. He’d already used his e to Leoo tell him the tracer was destroyed; now it was time for him to leave.

  .

  .

  .

  A little over two kilometres away, Leonel suddenly came to a plete stop causing Julius to almost go flying off his back.

  “What is it?” Amira asked hurriedly. “Did he do it?”

  She couldn’t help but sigh in relief when she saw Ace’s familiar nod, but when she saw the look of worry in his eyes, her heart re-tightened. “What is it? Is he still in danger?”

  Leonel looked hesitantly at Amira, he khe st thing Ace would want was to put Amira in danger, but he didn’t evehe ce to lie to her before she jumped on his back.

  “If he needs help, the’s go help him!” Amira excimed, not leaving any room for discussion. “Hurry up!”

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 4 - Chapter 28