The Devil's Cage

Sneering laughter came from the corridor.

"Aren't you so smart? Guess who I am!"

The voice was getting closer by the second, and if he just took a step over the corner between the hall and the corridor, Kieran felt like he could see who the man was.

"You are the one who is trying to seize an advantage," Kieran said in a sure tone while at the same time leaning his body on the wall tightly. He subtly, quietly, moved towards the edge of the corner and readied his sword in his left hand.

Then, he continued, "Am I right? The survival of the Dragon Sect."

As his words sounded, the breathing beyond the corner came to a pause.

"How did you…" the man questioned Kieran.

Before the voice could finish his question, Kieran ran out and swung his sword.

Chang!

Amidst the metal clunking, the sword was pressed down at the assault rifle, the blade leaving an obvious mark on the gun. Half of the masked man's body was floating as he was holding the assault rifle at both ends, blocking the slash from Kieran's sword.

The clean mask was covering the man's face but the astonishment in his eyes was unconcealable and made clear to Kieran, who was meters away from him.

Compared to when Kieran figured out his identity, the masked man was even more shocked by Kieran's sudden strike.

Although his voice was getting closer to Kieran, it might be a trap. After all, the masked man had shown the powers of the mystical realm, so some sound dislocation technique wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Based on his thoughts, Kieran should be more careful and test him.

Had Kieran been patient and tested the situation, Kieran would have fallen into his meticulously prepared trap, thus granting him the upper hand to overpower Kieran, tipping the scale of victory to his side.

He would eventually be the final victor, but why had Kieran attacked him so suddenly?

It didn't fit Kieran's always vigilant character.

"You have seen through my plans again? No! It must be my power! You must have realized that my power doesn't lie in reviving the dead, but telekinesis, didn't you?"

The masked man's heart skipped a bit as he looked down at his body that was floating 10 cm above the ground, the sudden realization hitting him.

Kieran didn't answer the question, but the laughter in his eyes said it all.

The masked man's breathing became even heavier when he caught that gaze.

"You also know that someone has restricted my abilities, so you have gotten the initiative to everything! You knew that whenever you unlock a certain level of your Constitution, I will recover some of my powers but it's destined to be limited, just like how you know your Constitution is stronger than normal!"

The masked man was almost shouting.

Kieran remained quiet, thus acknowledging the claims. He further pressed his sword down on the gun, as if he was going to slice the masked man in half.

"Do you think you know it all? I still have…"

"I think you should look behind me."

Kieran suddenly interrupted the masked man, slightly moving his body, creating a seam for the masked man to see through him.

The hall in ruins behind Kieran was full of bodies and weapons.

The bodies had died in a gruesome way, and the weapons were scattered all over the place.

At least that was what it looked like at first sight. On a second glance, one would notice the scattered swords were arranged in a meticulous way.

In fact, anyone standing outside the corridor where the masked man came out would see one body and sword at the left hand side, further away from the opposite corridor. The sword stuck on the wall diagonally and its blade was pointed towards a second sword at the same wall further down the corridor. The second sword was also stuck diagonally and its angle was bigger than the first one, pointing towards the corridor on the right side of the hall, at an angle which was a blind spot to the masked man walking out from his corridor.

However, as the masked man walked out, his blurry image would be reflected to the first sword's blade and further projected towards the second sword, and the third and eventually into Kieran's sight.

The masked man couldn't see the reflection but he could speculate what the swords meant.

"You used the reflection on the swords? What kind of coincidence is this? Your luck is really…"

Before the masked man could finish, Kieran landed a charged up right kick on the man's chest.

Bang!

After a loud bang, the man was sent flying backwards. Kieran dashed towards the man like his shadow, followed by a second kick.

Bang!

This second kick was weaker than the first charged up kick, but the masked man still screamed loudly, the pain altering his voice to sound like something being broken.

Kieran didn't stop after delivering the near lethal kicks. He quickly followed up with a third kick, a fourth, a fifth…

When Kieran's kicks had finally deformed the masked man severely, he stopped and used the sword to slit the masked man's throat and cut off his limbs.

The masked man died just like that. His eyes were wide until his last breath, as if he couldn't believe that he had died so easily.

"I've said it before, I don't believe in coincidence. I purposely laid those swords around to watch you," Kieran said each and every word slowly, as he stared at the dead body.

That's right!

The moment when Kieran knew the masked man was hiding at the end of the corridor, beyond the door, he had prepared the swords in this way to gain extra vision on his target.

During a battle, individual strength wasn't the sole factor that determined the fate of the battle, there was also the surroundings, which could turn the tides.

Kieran understood the saying after countless battles with cunning enemies. The masked man, however, seemed to have forgotten about this simple thing.

No! Not just this simple one, the masked man had seemed more anxious than normal!

It was safe to say that the masked man had lost his defense when Kieran suddenly attacked.

The feeling of defeat after his plan was revealed by Kieran and anger out of embarrassment must have caused it, but the most important thing was the masked man gave up on himself.

Feelings of defeat and anger due to embarrassment were normal.

A person will face all these emotions in front of defeat. Not even a warrior who roamed the battlefield could be spared, but a warrior wouldn't have given up simply because of some negative emotions.

"As I expected… the restrictions on your powers are much heavier than I thought. These restrictions didn't just cause your powers to plummet, even your way of doing things changed, to the point that you couldn't act normally."

Kieran suddenly laughed coldly.

"Or is that what you thought I would say? A mask that is still as white as paper after an explosion and didn't even suffer a crack, yet the owner lost both his legs in the same blast. Did you think I wouldn't pay attention to the mask? Or did you think I would touch the mask with my hand after I noticed it?" Kieran said coldly, the sword in his hand raised up high.

The moment his words subsided, the sword swung down.

The mask shook and wanted to fly away, but…

Too late!