Lourain mustered an energy shield to stop the power of the massive golden swords, but alas, it could not even protect him. It was not long until he felt his back burning in intense pain due to the gash inflicted on his back. He could not help but cry out in agony as he rushed toward Fane.Marth was not in a much better fate. Thankfully, he was faster than Lourain was and started running a moment before Lourain. When Lourain was attacked, Marth managed to flee as he was faster.Fane had arrived at that moment. Marth could feel that the space in front of him was distorting. The next second, a familiar figure appeared in front of them. Lourain was stunned by the sight.Not only was Fane incredibly strong, but he knew the laws of space as well.Fane was a monster. Most warriors were normally good at one aspect; either their attack power or their speed. Someone who was good at both and better than others at it too was a monster among prodigies—a warrior that stood above everyone!Loura
While Lourain was overtaken with fear, Marth was so excited he wanted to shout. The masked man had not been bragging at all; he was that strong! Marth was so excited that he did not know what to say.After a long time, he said, "I guess I was ignorant. What you said before wasn't just empty words. I can't believe…"As he said that, his voice shuddered a bit. The Seven Deaths Array had a very low rate of success. Warriors that were stronger than Marth had failed, and even if it was possible, their circumstances dragged them back.Regardless, many warriors failed.Marth had been hoping to luck into stronger companions, but he ended up with Lourain. On top of that, Fane was from a third-grade world as well. Before they entered the Seven Deaths Array, Marth had not been that hopeful and felt like his companions were just oddities. Yet, the person he thought was bragging was, in fact, truthful. Marth was lucky enough to have someone this powerful as his teammate.With someone as strong
"Just shut your mouths," hissed Fane, his tone mature. His single command immediately ceased the argument.Lourain looked at Fane apprehensively, worried that Fane would bring up what happened before. After all, he had been rude to him before they entered the array. He did not even dare to think about what he had said before.He could say everything he did with conviction in front of regular warriors from third-grade worlds without any worry. However, the situation was different. Fane was no ordinary warrior; he stood at the top of the food chain. Not only at the peak of third-grade worlds, but the absolute one, including second-grade worlds. Fane was probably one of the five or three strongest warriors in the Whirling World. Someone as horrifyingly strong as that was someone he would not even dare to say anything in front of, let alone offend. Not only had he run his mouth, but he was harsh with his words as well. Lourain had offended Fane, and knowing this, he felt like dying.F
As Fane walked, he counted his steps. When he took the seventh step, a mature, old-sounding voice rang."Challengers, will you raise the difficulty? The difficulties are spread into the black-iron, bronze, or gold ranks. You're currently at the black-iron rank. If you increase it to the bronze rank, the strongest one will get a special treasure. If you increase it to the gold rank, the strongest warrior will get three treasures and a special badge."All three of them were stunned to hear that. They could choose their difficulty? They were at the black-iron difficulty at that moment, and there were two other difficulty levels they could choose from. They never heard about that before.Marth frowned and said, "So there are three difficulties inside the Seven Deaths Array. Why haven't we heard about this before?"Lourain coughed as he said fearfully, "How strong were those people? How strong is this…man? Those that barely passed wouldn't have been allowed to choose their difficulties.
"Please don't mind my crude mouth, but I feel like I have to say something. Our little team has some special circumstances. If you make it too difficult, the two of us would just be complete burdens. We would be completely useless."That problem could not be ignored as Marth frowned and sighed. Even though he was not willing to be called trash, he really was basically trash in this situation. He would not be able to help at all, and would only drag Fane down.If Fane ignored them, it was very possible they would end up failing. So, when he chose the difficulty, Fane would have to think about that. Fane nodded, and he furrowed his eyebrows even more tightly. If he would need to face the challenge for all three of them alone, he would easily be able to deal with a black-iron-level challenge.However, if it was too difficult, then it might not necessarily work out. He did not know how much more difficult the gold difficulty would be. That was the uncertain point. If anything unexpected
The green breeze surprised the three of them. The appearance of the breeze told them that the array had been activated. They were about to face the challenge. Lourain could even feel his heart beating rapidly.His mouth trembled slightly and he gulped. This would be the greatest challenge he ever faced. He could die if he was not careful. Even though the rules clearly stated that they would not get injured or die from the challenge, there were no guarantees.Fane had raised the challenge to the highest level. Lourain felt like not many people would have dared to pick that. He had only been able to survive the black-iron challenge because of its low difficulty. The gold challenge would be different. He might not even have his body left behind if he was not careful.Just thinking about that made Lourain feel incredibly miserable. He met someone as strong as Fane and no matter how he tried, he would still be a burden to Fane. Someone like him should have just remained where it was safe
Lourain clenched his teeth. His hands were still free at that moment, so held his sword tightly and frantically slashed downward. However, the vines felt like they were made of metal. No matter how many times he slashed at them, they did not break at all.He could not control the vines continuing to climb upward either. As time passed, the vines had already completely wrapped the lower part of his body and had even started to climb up his arms.At that moment, he did not even have the freedom to continue attacking. The vines were harder to deal with than he thought. He was completely restricted, making him lose all hope. He had still been able to deal with a bit of the black-iron difficulty. The moment it was raised to gold difficulty, he was not able to defend himself at all. After all his effort, he could still not harm the vines at all. That caused him to feel completely hopeless. Lourain gulped, unable to even speak.Marth was not in a much better state. Both of them used swor
However, against Fane, those vines were absolutely nothing. They had been easily cut up by a single slash, forcing them to rapidly retreat. That was the distance between Fane and him!He had wondered how wide the gulf between him and those who were truly strong was. This was the first time he had clearly felt the difference. Lourain's breathing got erratic. At that moment, he was already completely free to move around. Other than the liquid on his face, he did not feel anything wrong with him.However, his heart went through a tremendous change. At that moment, he hated himself for being so weak. Just as he was thinking about it, Fane sent another slash over. However, he was not the target this time, but Marth. With another squelch, Lourain looked over to see the vines being cut through like butter. After regaining his freedom, Marth slumped on the ground.Earlier, Marth had spent all of his strength trying to deal with those vines to no avail. After regaining his freedom, Marth w