Game’s Dogma

‘Who am I? You’ve asked the right question!’ The man clapped his hands and smiled as he pointed at his face and said, ‘Say, don’t you think I look rather familiar?’

Drako Yau focused his gaze, and his face fell upon realising it. ‘You…’

‘Hoho,’ the man chuckled and said, ‘that’s right, I’m John. In other words, I’m the real John. That thing you see in Hell difficulty is just my clone, a failed product of my research.’

Every outstanding game had extensive lore to back it up.

And John had exactly such a massive backstory. Unable to cope with the death of his lover who passed away in an accident, John started researching how to resurrect his loved one. Gradually, he lost his sanity and went mad. The so-called Highlands of John was simply a place to house his failed experiments, as well as protection for his laboratory.

The monsters that players fought on the Highlands of John were all handicrafts of John’s research. The Failed Rampaging Bear King was also a product of failure in his research, thus having the word ‘failed’ in its name.

And now, a perfectly fine John was standing right before Drako Yau. He was stunned; in his original design, John got off the deep end and turned into a half-dead, half-alive zombie that could only rampage based on its instincts.

What’s going on?

‘Ohoho, I succeeded. Alice has resurrected. Yet that damned… ugh…’

Unnoticeable to Drako Yau, an invisible wave constricted around John, as if giving him a warning.

John grunted, but he maintained his smile despite the hatred deep beneath his eyes. ‘I would’ve reunited with Alice if not for your master…’ He extended his right arm that was concealed by his lengthy lab coat and wiggled his fingers. ‘Come at me. Show me what the old geezer’s disciple can do. Fight me with the intent of killing me, or else you’ll die.’

Chilly killing intent flooded out from John, filling the enclosed space in no time.

Drako Yau gasped subconsciously. Such terrible killing intent!

John’s killing intent was no weaker than that of Ichor Hon. Drako Yau felt that he wasn’t up against a person, but rather, a huge monstrous viper! Pressed by such an intense killing intent, he triggered both Frost Form and Flame Form as he charged in with a battle cry.

He had to make a move. Or else, the killing intent that seemed to have physical substance would’ve choked the courage out of him. It just went to show how strong the killing intent was when Drako Yau, who had such a strong way of heart, would falter before it.

Drako Yau thrust his flaming spear at John, who simply stood there with his smile. He suddenly said, ‘No weapons allowed!’

The next moment, Shooting Star vanished from Drako Yau’s hands and returned to his back.

A weapon’s Attack rating counted as long as it was equipped, but spearmanship was what he excelled at. Now he couldn’t use his most confident technique!

Still, he had no choice but to go with the momentum. He clasped two fingers together to form a ‘sword’ and continued the thrust.

‘Ohoho, that’s the good stuff.’ John smiled.

A white shadow flashed between them, and Drako Yau quickly retracted his fingers as if he was electrocuted. His superhuman vision under Frost Form caught sight of what lay beneath the white shadow which was the after-image of John’s lab coat.

John had met his ‘finger sword’ with his own! The moment they clashed, a freezing aura seeped into him through John’s finger. It drilled through his body straight towards his chi centre!

Drako Yau grunted and pulled back with a leap while dispersing John’s power within him. The yin-yang symbol rotated fiercely as the Eight Diagrams radiated his ice and fire elemental forces to counter John’s power.

Infusing his internal forces into the enemy… Such an advanced and unexpected way of using such forces!

Drako Yau didn’t have the time to remain startled because John’s voice suddenly reached him from behind. ‘No escaping.’

He turned around to find John closing in on him with his terrifying smile. Impossible! With my enhanced dynamic vision, how can John go around me without me noticing?

A cold aura ignored his thoughts as it sent chills through him. The aura originated from John’s pearl-white hand that was now retracted back into his wide sleeve. John formed a finger sword with his index and middle finger and stabbed Drako Yau.

Under Drako Yau’s terrified gaze, John pierced his left shoulder with the finger sword.

Bam!

Drako Yau spewed a mouthful of blood as he was slammed to the ground like a sandbag after John caught him mid-air.

John landed ten steps before him and said, ‘This is all the old geezer’s disciple has got? Get up, don’t shame your master.’

Drako Yau stood up and tucked away his mask into his item bag. He then gritted his teeth, bearing the pain in his shoulder while wiping away the blood from his mouth.

John’s arms were hard. They were slender and white, yet they were harder than steel.

But that wasn’t all; John’s footwork was strange, almost eerie.

Drako Yau was confident after achieving initial accomplishment with his Cryoflame style. Even Ichor Hon’s extraordinary agility couldn’t escape his senses. No matter how quickly one moved, he could sense the flow of air, yet he didn’t detect anything from John just now…

Drako Yau put up his fighting stance while his brain was running through countless thoughts at once.

‘That’s what I’m talking about.’ John ran towards him with a high-five!

Fear sprouted within Drako Yau when saw the pearl white glow on the palm. After taking a loss last time they crossed fingers, he didn’t dare fight head-on with John anymore. He snapped his right palm out and slapped it sideways.

John’s palm strike was just an ordinary strike. However, Drako Yau knew it was quick and packed a heavy punch. Enormous strength, lightning speed, and steel-like hardness; such were the characteristics of John’s arms.

When John’s palm was about to hit him, Drako Yau’s right palm went past the incoming attack and slapped John’s elbow to displace the attack. He immediately turned his palm into a claw and reached for John’s right abdomen.

‘Oh? You’re not bad,’ John smiled as he praised Drako Yau.

John couldn’t retract his palm that was already committed to the strike. He instead bent his knees, shifted his posture, and slammed towards Drako Yau with his shoulders!

Drako Yau knew what the next attack was. It was an ancient martial art technique called Leaning Mountain Drop that utilised one’s momentum and weight to smash into the enemy. He turned his claw back into a palm and pushed John’s shoulder, propelling himself back like a fluttering leaf using John’s charge.

It might seem like a simple move, but he had in fact made use of both Empyreal Dragon Step and Dragon Seeker in perfect synergy to pull it off.

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