Close Combat Mage

Chapter 266 - Frightening Battle Skills Part 2

Suo Jia slowly stood up and focused his attention on discerning the designs and symbols on the slave necklace. He also lightly ran his hands over the necklace, trying to verify whether or not it was the same type as the slave necklaces the girls had worn.

Seeing Suo Jia’s actions, Nicole stood up in shock and cried out in horror, “What are you doing, Suo Jia! Don’t fool around, this necklace can only be opened with a key. If one wants to tear it off with brute force, it’s equivalent to suicide! This fact has already been proven many times. That slave necklace…”

Completely ignoring Nicole’s shocked cries, Suo Jia’s fingers quickly probed around the necklace for a while. As Nicole continued to rant non-stop, he gently took the slave necklace off of Nicole’s brother’s neck.

Nicole hadn’t seemed to have realized exactly what had happened, and was still talking unceasingly. But soon, Nicole shut her mouth in shock, as she stared incredulously at the necklace in Suo Jia’s hands that he had just successfully removed. This immediately caused her brain to short-circuit.

After a long time, Nicole finally exclaimed in astonishment, “How is that possible? How did you do it? You don’t even have the key, yet you were able to take the necklace off!”

Suo Jia smiled, putting the necklace away. Truthfully speaking, Suo Jia was actually feeling a bit regretful; if he had known of such a great thing earlier, he would’ve made each of the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes wear one, and see whether they still dared to betray him then!

Suo Jia leisurely dusted his hands and looked at Nicole, “Alright, from now on, your siblings are free and safe. Hehe…I suggest you send them to either the mage or warrior academies in Kaya Empire. That way.”

“No!” Nicole’s eyes flashed as she loftily declared, “If the children in my family want to train their battle skills, they don’t need to study outside of our home. Our family naturally provides training to learn the most powerful battle skills!”

“Pa!” Suo Jia slapped his forehead and laughed, “That’s right, how could I forget that? Your influential family has produced 10 Legendary ranked heroes, and even one Epic ranked one. Your family’s battle skills must be peak grade, why would your family bother learning the things that everyone knows?”

Suo Jia seemed to have just thought of something, and he asked Nicole in a puzzled tone, “But speaking of this, there’s something I don’t understand; if your family’s so powerful, how do you keep getting caught?”

Nicole’s attractive face flushed as she said in embarrassment, “That’s because I’m still too inexperienced. With my current strength, I actually shouldn’t be going out to steal from such dangerous places. But for the sake of my siblings, I didn’t have any choice except to take the risk.”

Suo Jia nodded in understanding. It wasn’t that Nicole was weak, but she was only in her teens after all. Although she was powerful, she hadn’t reached the point of being unrivaled yet. While it didn’t matter if she went to common places, she was still on the inexperienced side with respect to locations like the city lord’s residence.

Nicole eventually calmed down and continued, “In addition, my family’s greatest might lies in Absolute Concealment. Our stealth can be maintained over 10x longer than any other stealth technique, and…once we enter the stealth state, we’re pretty much impossible to detect. Most notably, our speed while in this stealth state doesn’t decrease at all.”

“God!” Suo Jia felt chills run down the back of his neck. No wonder Nicole’s family had produced an Epic ranked hero; this Absolute Concealment was too overpowered, even more amazing than the Concealment Ring’s effects! The Concealment Ring could only maintain the stealth state for 12 seconds, but Nicole’s family’s Absolute Concealment could maintain stealth for dozens of minutes! And this was only the beginning level; once the advanced levels were reached, one could probably stay concealed for up to an entire day!

Seeing Suo Jia’s astonished expression, Nicole proudly continued, “Moreover, aside from our stealth, our family’s Instant Kill has improved in might by severalfold after being adjusted by our ancestors. If you understand how the thief realm works, you must’ve heard of the Instant Kill - Revised before; that’s a battle technique passed down my family!

“Gulp…” Suo Jia swallowed with some difficulty, and felt goosebumps rise from his skin. Instant Kill - Revised was definitely a super battle skill. Even though Suo Jia didn’t know much about the thief realm, he’d heard of this renowned battle skill multiple times already.

“Hehe…” Nicole’s brother proudly declared, “Our family is just like that. If we were to fight head-on, we probably wouldn’t even be able to defeat an average warrior. But…once we enter our concealed state, the entire world becomes our hunting grounds!”

“Mhmmm…” Suo Jia furiously nodded. If one raised their guards, both the Instant Kill and the Instant Kill - Revised were nothing to be afraid of. What was frightening was being attacked from the darkness while caught unawares. That meant being basically defenseless.

Thinking about it, how could one possibly defend against a concealed enemy that secretly hid by one’s side without the person knowing? The moment one relaxed, the enemy would use the Instant Kill. Even if one wore an unrivaled armor, who would wear it for every moment of their life?

Instant Kill wasn’t actually that big of a deal, just an attack that was two times faster than a normal attack. With its gale-like speed, its penetrative ability couldn’t possibly be lacking either; it was even able to pierce through a steel armor. However, Instant Kill was useless under normal circumstances. If one faced their enemy head-on, it wouldn’t matter how fast Instant Kill was, it couldn’t possibly be faster than the other person’s weapons. While the enemy might be unable to dodge, their weapons could still block the attack.

When facing an enemy head-on, the opponent could easily use a weapon to deflect the dagger. While Instant Kill was bizarrely fast, its strength wasn’t comparable. This was why Nicole’s family was on the weaker side in terms of their strength with respect to fighting opponents face to face.

But once one entered the concealed state, it was impossible for the opponent to determine where the person’s attacks were coming from. Oftentimes, the opponent didn’t realize what was going on until after their backs had been pierced by one’s dagger. Only then would the opponent realize where one was.

Instant Kill’s profound essence lied in the fact that it was impossible to defend against. With its matchless speed, it could quickly pierce through one’s vitals, thus killing in a single blow.

Of course, Instant Kill wasn’t unparalleled either. Once it was activated, there were bound to be energy fluctuations. If the enemy’s strength was high enough, or their speeds fast enough, they could still block the attack last minute. It was also possible for the enemy to use a shield to block it directly, but someone faster and able to face off a thief’s Instant Kill had to be stronger than the thief by severalfold.

This was Instant Kill. On the other hand, Instant Kill - Revised was the result of altering the technique with Instant Kill as a base. It used special footwork and movements to quickly advance in attack! Instant Kill was 2x faster than a normal attack, while also being 2x more damaging. On the other hand, Instant Kill Revised was 3x each.

The thief occupation was originally the most superior in terms of speed. With the addition of Absolute Concealment, as well as Instant Kill - Revised, the thief became beyond terrifying. It was said that…long ago, no target of Nicole’s family had ever been able to escape their fate of being assassinated. The combination of a 10 minute long Absolute Concealment and Instant Kill Revised could only result in a true one hit kill! This single strike was impossible to survive.

It was a shame that Nicole’s parents didn’t like military force or wealth. Instead, they were more obsessed with influence. Otherwise, with such formidable abilities, there was no way they’d ever fear anyone; rather, everyone would fear them instead!

Suo Jia sighed in admiration and shook his head. He looked at Nicole and recalled how that day, before Dawn City, Nicole had managed to burst outwards and pierce his stomach despite being surrounded by the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes. If he hadn’t been wearing the skin-tight Monarch Armor, he would’ve turned into a corpse back then.

He hadn’t paid much attention to it in the past, but now that he reflected on it, it was really too terrifying. First, Nicole had to have torn apart the corpses on top of her, then she had to exert strength to leap up off the ground, and cover a 5 meter distance to stab Suo Jia. Even after all this had happened, Suo Jia hadn’t been able to react. It had really been too fast.

Suo Jia was only a mage, so he couldn’t possibly compare to a thief in speed. But back then, the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes had been surrounding Suo Jia, yet even their speeds weren’t enough to block the attack in time. This showed just how ridiculous Nicole’s attack speed had been!

Some really long and pointless Author’s Note…tl;dr, the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes at some point left the Fourth Prince and are currently searching for Suo Jia on the Greater Trade Routes, because after writing so much about them, how could they just disappear?