The fourth day was... Well, intense. I wasn't wrong in my previous assumption, that all the noise I made so far would lure the ghosts to me, and I wouldn't have to travel long distances to find another prey. I just didn't take into consideration how strong my enemy could be.

The one I encountered on that day gave me flashbacks from my first visit to Loistavadvaar.

It started kinda casually. I looked around after shadow walking to the city of pyramids, but I didn't spot anything at first. I originally came up with the idea of taking more of those strange drones. They were kinda cool, and I didn't share the one I had in my vault with the researchers, since I just have them all the junk, so it would give me an opportunity to surprise them with one.

Mainly I wanted to hand around Mika Sawamura and Sudarshana Patel, cause they were kinda hot.

I noticed one in close vicinity, but as I was looking at it, I saw a darker spot in the sky covered by the clouds of grey smoke.

I focused my senses, just to discover a flying ghost. He also discovered me. I couldn't really see his attire from the distance, because he was just a little stain on the solid coloration of the curtain blocking the sun. A bit later I had the chance to witness the surprisingly rich attire.

I'm gonna throw it here because later might not be enough time for that.

He was wearing a red robe with some black and white fur on one of his shoulders. It was surprisingly clean compared to other ghosts I encountered in that world. The robe had long stripes of leather with precious gems embedded in it, and with his powers, those straps were drifting in the air behind him, kinda like tentacles. He was also wearing iron circled around his head, which was basically a skull with thin, dried leather stretched around it. The circlet was made of squares with even more jewels in each of them.

He was so far that I didn't even notice him making his first move until all the rubble in the vicinity around me, suddenly got picked up. I knew that was the last whistle blown before the action started, so I immediately activated all of my skills climbing the territory with the 'Void domain'.

My body changed, fusing with the shadow as the winds started to swirl around, and move the void essence slipping through the ground.

Then I got bombarded by all the junk around ma and there was no time, but to run. The rush quickly brought me to breach the speed of sound, creating a shockwave. There was so much shit flying my way, that despite this tempo, I could barely get ahead of the ginormous cloud of chunks of concrete-like substance, and just some pieces of metal used for construction.

I quickly shadow walked on the roof of the nearby complex, but it all got almost immediately just buried underneath all that rubble thrown with such force, that it was piercing through the walls, and caused the whole thing to collapse.

I needed to make that fucker stop at all cost, so I attempted to close the distance.

My assault was stopped before it even properly started, as he showed another one of his cards, and just blew up the building I was running on top of.

I didn't even hear the explosion, as my eardrums just burst, and then I was blasted into the air. Since I couldn't really fly, it was dangerous to the point I had to immediately shadow walk several times, just to avoid another chained explosion.

That ghost was clearly a better fire mage than me because I couldn't do what he was doing.

I landed on a pile made out of the rubble and sticking out, jagged pieces of metal, used in construction. Which led to him showing another move, as a lightning bolt tore through the cloud of smoke, and blasted me. I repositioned again.

The electricity was running through my body, discharging with every move. Jumping from my arms to the torso, and trying to hit the earth to escape. I didn't have time to do anything but immediately start running again, so all that power escaped quickly.

Unfortunately for me, it, and the previous explosion, managed to burn my clothing completely, so I was bolting through the empty streets completely naked, avoiding an incoming hail of all the garbage in the vicinity.

I had a bit of time to think about my situation. There was no way for me to get closer to that asshole, so the most obvious way to win the fight was a war of attrition. He most definitely didn't have infinite mana, although probably quite a lot of it. I was pretty sure more than me, so as long as I could avoid being blasted with something on the level of a nuclear weapon, I should be able to take it all thanks to my sturdy body.

I ran a bit more, avoiding almost everything, and keeping a steady pace. This made him switch tactics, as he attempted to set up something like landmines ahead of me. I just bolted through it, causing a series of explosions, and not stopping despite the heat and flames passed through all the obstacles, eventually emerging from a cloud of flames, leaving a trail of smoke behind me.

I didn't have to worry about a haircut or shaving anymore, but that was the end of the positive outcomes.

I had to piss that fucked off, since the next thing he tried to blast me with, took me by surprise. Suddenly a storm of swirling, raging flames erupted from the ground melting anything on its way. It was so intense even my fire-resistant body started to cook. There was no other choice, but to evaluate.

I dropped the anchor and shadow walked back to Loistavadvaar. I quickly healed my burned skin. It wasn't painful, more strangely itchy.historical

- Fuck! - escaped my mouth.

I won't gonna be bested this easy though, the fight was still on.. The second round was about to start soon.