Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-220

Ever since he had entered the Gold tier domain, Joshua had felt that his body was constantly shifting toward a strange state.

That felt like something he had never experienced before in the original world. That was also something he had never felt before as he just crossed into the Silver domain.

Originally, Joshua could only rely on breathing and muscle movements to indirectly adjust his internal organs and the outburst of his body potential. Although it was amazing to begin with, he was merely a powerful mortal that could use one skill. However, just by thinking and willing it, Joshua could control the surge of the power in his body, allowing his internal organs to move around into different arrangements and positions. He could even temporarily replace the role of certain organs with his Combat Aura, ensuring him to be able to battle even after he was heavily injured.

This was beyond the realm of reality and that had reached an extraordinary realm.

Maybe the realistic fantasy world and the original world were different, and maybe it was because of the appearance of the Extraordinary Gold tier. But regardless of any saying, the ability to allow someone to be able to control part of his or her own body was indeed very powerful. For a master grade person such as Joshua himself, such an ability to control his own body would be extremely powerful. It might even be like adding wings to a tiger.

Meanwhile, it did not end there. Powerful Combat Aura would gradually strengthen the power of the body and the flesh. However, the strong flesh and body would, on the contrary, make the Combat Aura even stronger. Every day when the new sun rises, Joshua could feel that he was becoming stronger—though trivial, but the feeling of becoming stronger could really get him excited.

With that kind of power, one would think of wanting to fight. No, it would be better to say one would pursue that sort of power in order to do better in battles.

Unfortunately, no one in the North was capable enough to spar with Joshua.

Although Archbishop Artanis had broken through into the realm of Gold-tier this year, he did not say that the others were already in their fifties or sixties. Joshua would not be able to lift his spirits in battle if he fought someone that was lower tier than he was. Speaking of Vale Dani and Moreila, one of them was a countess for another territory; a woman who was weaker in strength than him. Meanwhile, even though the other one had rather good strength, that man was already a dwarf that was about to hit 200 years old.

After thinking about it, only Brandon, who was far away in the Imperial City would be a good opponent for him to spar with. However, since Brandon was really too far away from Moldavia, it would still be inconvenient even if they were just communicating with each other through letters or a communication circle. And because of that, Joshua who was ultimately bored would be looking forward to the dragon race to retaliate. Truth be told, when the two Gold-tier colossal demon-blooded dragons appeared right before his eyes, a glimpse of joy, instead of surprise flashed across his heart.

However, unfortunately, his power level was too damn strong now. Two giant dragons turned out to be not so much of a challenge for him now. With his normal fists and his normal evasion, he already pushed his enemies to the point that his enemies could not even fight back. Needless to say, one would not be able to find joy in such a battle, so let alone surprises.

However, 'surprise' had revealed itself.

Right before his eyes.

This holy knight.

With a joy-filled heart, Joshua was looking at the holy knight that was remaining quiet, having no answer to his doubts.

This person had extremely powerful strength. That was something that one did not even need his or her eyes to see it. One could already tell by 'sensing' it. Other than Nostradamus and those Supreme-tier Aragami in the Karlis world, he would be one of the strongest beings Joshua had ever encountered.

So how would it be possible that Joshua would let such an opponent slip through his fingers? Even though he already clearly knew that it was impossible that this holy knight would be some sort of spy for the dragon race—well, just get into a great battle before saying anything further then! If worse came to worst, he would just have to apologize afterward.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, Roland was also having his own thoughts.

—The person in front of him was obviously the Count of Moldavia. He was also the man that his pope spoke of, the man that would be giving him his desired answers, the man by the name Joshua van Radcliffe.

Although the man had obviously misunderstood about the holy knight for some strange reason, however, he too did not have the mood to explain himself.

Regardless of whether the explanation would even have any effect on this apparently somewhat superior Count or not, in fact, Roland himself would also want to engage in a battle with the man before him.

Although Joshua was one of the most powerful Gold-tier elites he had ever seen, the holy knight was also confident in his strength, as the strongest holy knight in the young generation of the Church of the Seven Gods.

Since you want a fight, bring it on!

Joshua tossed aside the two dragon heads in his hands, and the huge and wretched-looking dragon heads fell onto the ground with a dull thud. However, just when the sound was heard, his figure had vanished from the spot he was levitating, charging straight towards the holy knight.

The violent wind that blew all of a sudden took hold of a sense of bloody presence. Within a few tenths of a second of which the sound was unresponsive, a fist that was heavily stained with dragon blood broke through the atmosphere and struck straight towards the face of Roland along with a violent whistling sound.

However, the holy knight was not some sort of a weak person after all. Even though those demon-blooded dragons could not evade this punch, the holy knight could.

With the palms in his both hands gleaming with the radiance of the holy light, followed by an activation of a solidification of the divine skill, a warhammer and a large shield which was large enough were raised to cover his entire body appeared right in his hands, shielding him from any sort of attack that would come at him from the front. Roland confronted Joshua's assault upfront instead of retreating backward.

Boom!

The giant shield engraved with the holy emblem of the Seven Gods had crashed solidly into the iron fist that was enough to break through the dragon scales. At the instant when they came into contact, the white visible shockwave began to sweep back and forth, along with thunderous tremors resounding throughout the entire area. All the berserk drakes that had been soothed by the holy knight were once again startled by the terrifying noise. However, these drakes that initially wanted to cause havoc to their surroundings were instantly dreaded by another force that was much more dreadful than the presence of the demon-blooded dragons. They just remained in their positions obediently as they shivered in fear.

Meanwhile, Joshua who launched a punch and Roland who blocked the attack head on temporarily pulled some distance between themselves.

Joshua opened up his palm moving his fingers around as if he felt a little numb in his hand. some of his right-handed heels and closed them again. He nodded, and the corner of his mouth revealed a hint of a smile.

The first experimental engagement with each other did not bring any result. However, it was a very normal thing. Both sides had a basic understanding of each other's strength, reaction speed, and endurance upon making contact. The upcoming battle would continue based on the information they could gather from the first engagement.

—Power was strength!

Meanwhile, on the other side, Roland cautiously put his shield sideways and held his left hand tightly on his warhammer. He was glad that he was holding the shield with his right hand. Under the full attack of Joshua, his fingers were already a little numb. If he was using his left hand to hold the shield in order to block Joshua's attack, that heavy blow from Joshua's punch would certainly have affected his flexibility. If that was the case, he would no longer be able to block the opponent's attack.

The holy knight had been accumulating experiences dealing with daemons over the years. They had been battling against daemons that were far more powerful than the humans all the while. Hence, would be more accustomed to using more powerful right-handed shields.

The brief confrontation ended at the next instant and the two sides began to move rapidly at the same time. Although Joshua had no weapon in his hands and was unable to be compared to the fully-armed Roland, at the same time, his flexibility was also great. The increase, moving back and forth, looking for flaws on his opponent while he could still throwing jabs again and again at the holy knight. Meanwhile, the holy knight was not a simple target as well. Even though the shield he was holding was extremely heavy, but he could wield the shield freely, blocking against the assaults of the warrior one after another. And sometimes, he could also find the right time and perform counterattacks with the sharp edge of his shield.

However, as he was focusing on his defense, the war hammer in his hand was rarely used, and because of the distraction to control his defense against Joshua's attack, each time when he used his hammer to perform a counterattack, he was a little slow. And because of that, he was completely unable to hit his opponent.

That was also a disadvantage battling against daemons over the years —Due to the great size of the daemons, there was no need to worry about getting hit in the face as long as one could set up a good defense against them. Even though the holy knight had the strength that soared on the pinnacle of Gold-tier, however, he still lacked experience with human being opponents.

In the meantime, Joshua had quickly noticed that. He laughed loudly and then launched a continuous onslaught upon the holy knight.

The shockwaves that emerged from the impacts from the battle of the two fighters had long swept away the camps and the trees in the surroundings. The ground was cracked. Sand and gravel were flying towards Roland along with the violent wind that came from the punches. Each stone and gravel was like a bullet, hitting the surface of the shield, causing a loud and clear vibrating sound as it smashed into the shield and shattered itself completely.

The holy knight did not panic. Faced with such a huge momentum from the warrior, he only raised his shield as he positioned himself in a steady state, blocking Joshua's heavy punches again and again. Even though there were several times the ground had sunk and collapsed deeper in due to the impact he endured from his opponent's attacks, causing his body to lose balance for a little, however, he had also used the holy light to support his body, ensuring that he would not be blown away by the power of his opponent.

Faced with the onslaught that was enough to collapse city walls and destroy houses, they, who only had the size and weight of a human body would be easily blown away by the attacks of their opponent, losing their stance in battle. Meanwhile, as a holy knight that emphasize more on defense more than offense, postures would be much more important, or even essential to them compared to the other classes.

At this time of the battle, Joshua also naturally knew that his opponent was a true holy knight with true skills. And it was very likely that this holy knight would turn out to be the holy knight from the Church of the Seven Gods that the old priest Artanis had spoken of —But screw that. Who would want to stop such a fun battle now? He took a deep breath and let the power of his body run its course. After that, in an instant, he burst out with a hundred punches!

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

A series of continuous heavy blows were unleashed upon the shield. Right in the middle of the splashing dust, the impacts of the punches on the surface of the shield had actually blown a huge hole in the ground around the holy knight!

"Wait a minute, how can he still have physical strength after launching all those attacks?!"

Upon noticing Joshua was bursting out with his power, Roland's heart was filled with surprise. The two of them had been locked in a battle for quite some time now. As the one who initiated the attack, the amount of physical strength Joshua exhausted should be a few times greater than the amount of physical strength Roland had exhausted. Meanwhile, currently, the right arm of the Holy Knight had become numb to the point that he could no longer feel anything there. Although his giant-*ss shield was forged with Glowing Crystal Iron using a holy spell which made the shield indestructible, his right arm that was holding the shield could no longer endure the impacts from Joshua's attacks.

Meanwhile, Joshua had become even more excited as he battled on with the holy knight. His power continued to flow out from his blood like an endless stream, gushing out from his muscles!

How many times was it now?

How many times has he punched out his fists?

Three hundred times? No. It should be more than that now. Five hundred times? Not right as well. Maybe a little lesser.

In this short-lived battle that lasted only less than ten minutes, he should have already hit thousands of punches out, right?

When was the last time he had met someone who could take on his full strength?

With another flick, he arrived at the rear of the holy knight. The warrior then took a solid step forward as he was approaching the holy knight at a supersonic speed. He was ready to enter into a range where the shield no longer could guard its wielder. However, the reaction of the holy knight was extremely swift. He took a step back and lifted his right hand, blocking his extremely tough shield right before Joshua.

The violent shockwaves went back and forth across the surroundings and the impacts of those shockwaves had devastated more than half of the caravans. In the center of the battle, there was even a huge pit hole with a radius of tens of meters and a depth of more than twenty meters formed. Fortunately, most of the people had already left the vicinity of the area at the very beginning of the battle, hence, no one was affected.

So this would be how the battle between Gold-tier champions looked like. Even though both sides had yet to cease the opportunity to charge and unleash even more powerful attacks, however, the destruction caused by such brief and swift attacks was enough to destroy a city and deform the terrain of the area.

Because of continuously bombarding the shield that was forged from steel with his bare fists, both of Joshua's fists had become bloody as hell. The dark red blood contained a strong presence of life. Although the strong self-healing ability of the Gold-tier champion was repairing and healing wounds on his body at a constant rate, the frequency of the attacks from Joshua had significantly outweighed the speed of that recovery rate. So gradually, every time a fist was punched, there was a blood splatting out caused by the frictional heat brought by the supersonic speed, which then evaporated into a red mist in the air all around Joshua. The mist even looked as if they were turning into the shape of a beast roaring in silence.

On the other hand, the longer and more Roland defended against the continuously ferocious attacks from Joshua, the more frightened he became.

Although the opponent was injured much earlier than himself, he had no idea why he did not have any sense of excitement over the success of using his tactic against Joshua. Instead, he felt a chill straight down his bones.

What's going on?! Why isn't he exhausted by now?! Why are his punches getting heavier as he punches faster and faster?!

After all, this guy did kill two dragons and flew all the way back here earlier on! It was because knowing that, knowing that the warrior was not in his best state now, Roland had chosen the tactic to purposely exhaust the stamina of his opponent first.

But who would have expected that Joshua was not weakened at all. Instead, he was striking his fists on the shield harder and harder, heavier and heavier in every passing moment, causing the holy knight more difficulty to counter back! The holy knight was even pushed off to the point that he could only fully focused on his defense. He had completely lost the slightest chance to perform any sort of counterattack now!

Would the battle really stay like this until the very end?!

In his mind, he could not help but have such thought. But even so, he did not lose himself in it. Instead, he felt excited about it.

That's right, this is indeed a powerful opponent. This opponent is truly too powerful!

"This is great!"

In addition to the fierce attacks, the warrior could still speak intermittently. With a smile filled with joy and excitement on his face, Joshua spoke with sincerity, "Holy knight, you're strong, you can actually take on my attacks—"

"You are the strongest Gold-Tier opponent I have ever encountered."

"Same goes with you—"

A few scattered words came out from his mouth, and then, a smile that seemed similar to the smile that was revealed on the warrior's face was seen on Roland's face. Instantly, he suddenly understood one thing.

—the best offense is the best defense!

Hence, in the next moment, the holy knight dropped the giant shield in his hand. In the face of the iron fists that came along with Joshua's roaring, he roared as well as he started charging forward, followed by a swing of his right fist straight towards the face of his opponent. The fist slammed solidly into the warrior's face!