Chapter 1462 (2/2)

Your enthusiasm is your greatest virtue, Hank. Alana reflected. She wondered if he knew it. Then she continued forward to the raised marble platform. After they moved into their positions opposite each other on the arena, the crowd gradually quieted down. The referee looked back and forth. “Are both sides ready?”

Wivanya snorted. Alana nodded. Hank smiled and flexed his fingers. Ancho whinnied and sniffed at the referee’s pockets for snacks.

Ignoring the horse, the referee raised his hand. “The let the second semi-final match of the duos tournament… begin!”

Alana raised her spear and released her tight control over her image. Orange-golden flames flickered to life along her limbs. She flexed her hand and a winged helmet grew on top of her head. But it was Wivanya who took the first step forward. The Frostdragon Broodmother raised her head and roared. Her frigid image exploded outward to seep into the surrounding air and drag down the temperature. The heavy grey clouds that were already hanging above the arena darkened. From the look of them, it would only be a short amount of time until it began to snow.

Hank just chuckled and drew his repeater. Rather casually, he spun the gun in his hand and popped out the magazine. After flicking away a minuscule speck of dust, he snapped the clip back into place and raised the gun to point at Alana.

Bang!

Claaaannnnnggggg!

Alana boldly stood in position and slashed the bullet out of the air with the head of her spear. Hank’s homemade bullets were quite strong, but Alana was just as overwhelming. Besides, that bullet hadn’t contained much of his image at all. In old-style westerns, the first bullet was never the one that would finish the bad guy. It wasn’t until the end of the fight that the gunslinger could make the perfect shot that turned everything around.

In a way, your image makes you predictable.

Alana casually strolled forward. There was no need to rush right now. As someone who had traveled and fought quite a bit with Hank Howard, she was quite familiar with his strengths and weaknesses. Which was why she felt confident that she and Wivanya would be able to defeat him even before she had made a decision regarding her image. Now that she had finally decided to put everything on the line… To put it bluntly, there were two methods to defeat the man, and Alana and Wivanya possessed both.

As Alana walked forward, Wivanya rose into the air and unleashed a blast of sleet and ice from her fanged maw. Hank flashed a grin and Dodge Rolled to the side so fast that he briefly seemed to vanish. It was almost impossible for a human eye to follow as his body hunched over and tumbled. But then he was suddenly back on his feet, unleashing a barrage of bullets up toward Wivanya.

Most of them deflected harmlessly off the thickening layer of ice on Wivanya’s body, but one happened to strike the soft tissue at the corner of her left eye as she hovered in the air. Wivanya roared in fury and flapped her wings; with a few powerful wingbeats, her bulk was suddenly propelled forward with powerful winds gathering behind her.

The cold of Wivanya’s image began to clash very directly with the subtle touch of Hank Howard’s image. Steam hissed off of Wivanya’s body. Despite the fact that the Wild West could accept cold at night, the days were hot and dry. In this way, it was surprisingly delicate.

Alana walked forward with her spear raised, watching the interaction. Attacking the image directly was the first way that Wivanya could defeat Hank. After all, he was just a man. He had invested quite a few Stat points into his precious Focus, but even he had limits. If you could push Hank toward exhaustion, his razor-sharp Focus would naturally decline. He would miss the opportunity to take a shot to turn everything around.

Images that clashed directly with Hank’s like Wivanya’s chill were rather rare. If they pushed it, they could use this opportunity to take him down.

As the dragon continued to glide forward, a veritable blizzard formed around Wivanya. Although you could barely see the tips of her wings peeking out of the white maelstrom, the rest was screened by ice and wind. The result took up about a tenth of the massive marble arena, likely blocking the vision of quite a few people in the audience. Despite the fact that such a monster was bearing down on him, Hank didn’t panic at all. He spun his repeater and then holstered it. With light fingers, he pulled out his revolver.

Alana’s eyes narrowed. Of course, exhausting Hank was a slow game. And the man had survived for this long in the System governed world, so it was clear that he possessed plenty of tricks. The process would not be as easy as it seemed. There was, of course, a more reliable way to defeat Hank Howard. Her fingers on her spear tightened and the orange-golden flames grew higher.

“Crippling Shot,” Hank announced. His revolver bucked and a piercing bullet ripped forward and blew a hole in Wivanya’s blizzard. Alana didn’t need her high Perception to know that the bullet would impact Wivanya’s wing joint. Even with the dragon’s high Physical Defense Stats, that bullet would do significant damage.

In the short term, further flying would be almost impossible.

A split second later, Wivanya roared and the blizzard crashed into the ground a good twenty meters short of Hank. Ice snaked outward in deadly slashes, but the man Dodge Roll’d again and drew his repeater to fire a dozen shots in quick succession. Wivanya responded with a blast of ice that Hank continued to duck and weave between. When he ran out of bullets in his first clip, he professionally ejected the empty and snapped another into place.

Above them, the sky was perfectly split as Hank’s insidious Wild West image caused the sun to peek through the clouds. Opposite that bashful sun, the grey clouds continued to darken toward a snowstorm.

Gradually, Alana began to spin her spear as she walked. Hank Howard’s image was undoubtedly strong and served as a way to emphasize Hank’s capability. But its hardiness and constant spread came at a cost; it didn’t really attack the opponent’s image. Hank’s victory was premised on the fact that when all the chips were down, his best was better than yours.

So the second method to beat Hank was simple: just overpower him directly.

Alana raised her spear. The wings on her helmet shivered and then began to grow. The feathers transformed into a pearlescent white. “The First Book of Revelations: Advance!”