Barbarian combat was famously simple and brutal. Charging headlong into the fray was instinct for them — but that only applied to ordinary barbarians.
A battle between shamans was not about recklessly throwing oneself forward. It was a contest of cultivation depth and mastery of shamanic arts.
The moment Ya had accepted this Shaman Bull's challenge, he had already sketched out several plans for an instantaneous victory. A mere upper-grade shaman apprentice — the fellow couldn't so much as stir a ripple beneath him. In terms of both cultivation realm and combat experience, this Shaman Bull simply couldn't hold a candle to him.
So when Ya saw Yang Kai charge straight at him in a beeline, his brain momentarily short-circuited.
Wasn't he a shaman? Why wasn't he unleashing any shamanic arts? Why was he barrelling in like some common tribesman?
The abrupt surprise made him hesitate for a heartbeat, but as a seasoned mid-grade shaman, Ya recovered quickly. Ancient, guttural syllables spilled from his lips, and he swept his wooden staff lightly forward. The air before him shuddered and condensed into a solid, transparent shield blocking his path.
Without missing a beat, he thrust the staff forward.
A sphere of blazing fire erupted from its tip, a fireball the size of a washbasin, screaming toward Yang Kai with terrifying speed.
It was over!
Two simple shamanic arts — one defensive, one offensive — yet they showcased Ya's formidable skill as a shaman with devastating perfection. Even a lower-grade shaman would struggle to withstand that fireball, let alone an upper-grade apprentice. The Bull had no choice but to fall.
Ya stood at ease, a look of pure mockery in his eyes, quietly savouring the moment his opponent crumbled beneath his attack.
When the fireball blazed forth, the villagers of Cangnan gasped in unison, their faces a mask of dread and alarm. Ah Hu opened his mouth to shout a warning, but Yang Kai paid no mind, marching straight toward the oncoming fireball.
Boom!
Light erupted. The entire gorge was bathed in blinding radiance, and no one could keep their eyes open. Over a hundred Cangnan villagers felt their hearts plummet into the pit of their stomachs.
It's over. It's over. Ah Niu is finished. Hit dead-on by a fireball that massive — how could he possibly survive? The future hope of Cangnan Village, snuffed out just like that. Ah Hu clenched his fists, guilt flooding through him. He should have stopped this duel between Ah Niu and Shaman Ya long ago. Even at the risk of blasphemy against the Barbarian God, anything would have been better than watching him lose his life.
A moment later, when Ah Hu and the others regained their vision and glared toward where Ya stood, their eyes went wide as saucers. Several of them looked as though they had seen a ghost, and a few villagers rubbed their eyes furiously, desperate to make sure they were seeing correctly.
Meanwhile, the members of the Flame Fury tribe, who had been gloating just moments before, wore expressions of sudden shock, frozen stiff where they stood.
There was Ya, his entire body locked rigid, and before him — the Shaman Bull, who should have been obliterated by the massive fireball — had somehow appeared right in front of him, smiling pleasantly. Ah Niu bore no serious injuries whatsoever; only his hair appeared slightly singed.
"Lord Ya. I believe I've won. Wouldn't you agree?" Yang Kai looked up at Ya with a grin.
Ya's face twitched several times. No matter how he turned it over in his mind, he couldn't comprehend how this had happened. His fireball should have hit its mark — how had the man dodged?
But to simply concede...
"The battle has only just begun!" Ya snarled. Ancient words spilled from his mouth once more, and he raised his staff, pointing it at Yang Kai.
This time, however, he would have no chance to unleash his art. The instant the staff began to lift, Yang Kai threw a devastating hook.
The shamanic shield in front of Ya warped violently, crumpling like a flattened balloon. The horrifying force behind the blow quickly exceeded the shield's structural limit, and it shattered with a thunderous crack.
In that instant, Ya's eyes nearly burst from their sockets, and ice flooded through his veins.
He had allowed Yang Kai to close the distance. He hadn't dodged because he'd insisted on finishing his spell — he'd had absolute faith in his shamanic shield, convinced that this Shaman Bull couldn't possibly break through it. That was why he'd stood his ground so calmly.
Who could have guessed that the shield he'd been so proud of couldn't even withstand a single punch?
The shamanic art he'd just cast had been performed flawlessly. How could it be so fragile?
Boom...
The fist connected with his face. Ya's features distorted on impact, and teeth scattered through the air. His body — a full head and a half taller than Yang Kai's — flew backward like a kite caught in a gale, crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.
Before Ya could even begin to push himself up, Yang Kai had already pounced on him like a leopard, one hand clamped around his throat, the other raised high with fingers curled into a fist. Yang Kai's lips peeled back in a grin.
"Lord Ya. Do you concede on your own, or do I beat you until you do?"
The body that should have been small and weak now loomed in Ya's vision like an immovable mountain.
"You... you cheated!" Ya spat through gritted teeth, his eyes brimming with unwillingness.
If not for this Shaman Bull's underhanded tactics, catching him off guard, this fight might not have been so one-sided. He was a mid-grade shaman, for heaven's sake, while the other was nothing but an upper-grade apprentice — two minor grades separated them!
Yang Kai snorted coldly. "Next time you run into a barbarian beast, are you going to expect it to duel you with shamanic arts instead of closing in on you?"
Ya's expression froze, and his voice died in his throat.
"Release Lord Ya!"
"Let go of him this instant!"
The Flame Fury barbarians surged forward in a flood, surrounding Yang Kai layer upon layer until he was hemmed in on every side, their eyes blazing red with seething hostility.