Knowing the Nephilim bunch were with them, the whole situation completely changed, as things became even more complicated than he initially thought.
Emery descended down to the ground and quickly prepared himself for whatever those people were about to do. If he was to meet with danger, he would immediately cast [Blink] or [Spatial Gate].
But for now, Emery stayed put, because he was also slightly curious about what this was all about. After all, this was the first time those Nephilim bunch tried to directly make trouble.
On the other hand, the seven figures quickly approached Emery from the sky. Except for Bradley Raven, who had the magus-level cultivation, all of them were having an orbiter on their feet that helped them travel across the sky.
"Hahaha, look what we have here! The fool has finally come out of his hole. It appears all of you can just stay back and watch as I give the dog a good beating!" Bradley said in a boisterous manner, with a cruel grin on his face.
"Bradley, this one has plenty of tricks. You should not underestimate him," said Armand, who came along with two of his Nephilim mates.
Emery inwardly heaved a sigh, when he realized his assumption was correct, that these people had come to make trouble with him.
Fixing his gaze at the person who visited his cave earlier, Emery calmly asked, "What is it that you really want?"
The man named Bradley laughed hearing the question. He then turned to the others, who were together with him and spoke in an exaggerated manner. "Is this guy really a fool or what? Why is he asking such a dumb question?"
Turning his eye to Emery again, the cruel grin on Bradley's face intensified, "You ask me what do I want? Of course I want my duel! Hahahah!"
Immediately after that, the privileged class bracelet on Emery's hand shone indicating that he had received a notification.
[You have been challenged to a duel]
"Don't you dare refuse my challenge again!!" said Bradley, glaring at Emery with an evil smile on his face.
Emery didn't immediately do anything, as his mind went to work. He knew this would not be a simple matter. Even if he rejected the duel the other party would definitely make a different kind of trouble. Otherwise, why would they all come here?
He looked at the others in the group, to try and figure out what they were here for exactly.
Information came from Emery's bracelet, telling him who these people were.
[Rank 20 - Bradley Raven (18)]
[Rank 33 - Abrafo (38)]
[Rank 49 - Fei Ling (49)]
[Rank 65 - Armand Nephilim (58)]
[Rank 83 - Simoan Nephilim (81)]
[Rank 86 - Jordi Nephilim (85)]
[Rank 99 - Atlas III (14)]
Emery knew the strength of the Nephilim bunch and was not too sure about the other two new ones. Abrafo was a dark skinned man with weird ornaments on his face and the other was an asian looking girl with a shining looking sword on her back, definitely a sword expert. However, what worried him the most was the half-human half-machine figure he had fought against, who was currently very quiet without any expression.
The rank that Atlas currently had also surprised Emery when he saw it. It was a much higher test ranking from before, but the man only stood at the 99th rank. Naturally, such an eerie contrast made Emery suspicious and wary at the same time.
Seeing Emery ignoring him, Bradley snorted and said, "Hah! Don't tell me you were intimidated by them? You don't, do you? I brought my friend here just to watch the two of us fight. I am a magus after all, certainly I don't need anyone else to beat someone such as you."
Emery did not have the slightest bit of faith in what the man said, not with someone who held a grudge against him like Armand stood among them.
He did consider the option to just cast [Spatial Gate] and quickly run back to the cave, but with the Nephilims among them, it seemed there was a bigger agenda behind all this and they would certainly not leave him alone until that point.
"Do I have your words that you will leave me alone after this one fight?"
Hearing that, Bradley broke into laughter. "Hahha, of course! I am a man of my word. In fact, as promised before, I will even give you twenty, no, forty Spirit Foundation Pill if you can win against me! Hahahha!"
Hearing those words, the asian girl next to him clapped her hand and said, "Wow, Brother Bradley, you are really generous!"
In response, Emery just once again shook his head. From the looks of it, the man seemed to be a show-off type of person, therefore he hoped he really came only for that reason - showing off.
Emery motioned a gesture with his finger, opened a Spatial Space and told Twik, who was in his shoulder to enter inside. However, instead of entering as asked, the creature decided to entangle itself on Emery's right shoulder up to his upper arm and form into some kind of a shoulder pad with two pitch black eyes.
"You can really get hurt from this, you know?"
The little wooden creature simply ignored those words and continued to entangle itself more tightly, making Emery just shake his head in helplessness.
Emery sighed knowing he was unable to control this little creature at all. Moreover, as he knew Twik had a rather durable body of its own, he eventually decided to let the little guy do what he wanted.
Emery then operated the privileged bracelet on his hand.
"Accept the challenge."
[Challenge accepted]
[Your duel with Bradley Raven will start immediately]
Turning to Bradley, whose bracelet received the same notification, Emery said in a calm tone. "Let's just get this over with."
"Haha Hahhahaha HAHAHHAAH!!"
The man laughed even harder than before, eliciting a strange and confused look from Emery. Based on how severe the laughter was, Emery couldn't help but think his opponent had gone completely insane.
"What is so funny?"
"Hahaha, you stupid fool! Now that you have accepted the challenge, even if I kill you, I will get away with it. But don't worry, I won't commit such an unbecoming act."
The smile on Bradley's face turned even crueler, as if he was a predator looking at its food.
"I mean, what's the fun in that? There are many other, more exciting options out there after all."
As soon as he finished his words, the man's two arms were quickly engulfed in blazing flames that grew bigger and stronger by the second, threatening to swallow everything in their path.
It turned out Bradley was a fire element magus.
"You plant lovers all have zero chance against fire." The eyes which looked at Emery turned crazy, as Bradley's mouth opened once again. "Which means you will burn! Hahaha!"
Emery was calm as he watched the man seem to have fallen into a frenzy. He just heaved another sigh. He really couldn't imagine what he had done to make such a stranger hate him so much. Even so, now that he was basically cornered, he would really be a fool not to fight back.
His opponent was a bonafide magus, so Emery had no plan to let the other party take the initiative and overpower him. Therefore, he quickly took out his own card and activated the ability he thought was most suitable against the man.
[Day Transformation]
Upon activation, Emery's body started to change as usual. Glossy white fur began to appear all over his body and his strength increased exponentially with each passing second.
[Battle power increased by 30 points]
[Battle power 244 (274)]
[Day Wolf Form has increased your spell power.]
[Day Wolf Form has increased your magic resistance.]
When Emery completed his transformation, he immediately felt a wonderful sensation throughout his entire being. Finally, he was able to unleash the full power of his rank 9 Fey Warlock.
On the other hand, Bradley also did not remain still. While Emery's transformation process that lasted for a few seconds was happening, a massive sphere of fire materialized in front of the man's palm.
At the same time Emery completed his transformation, Bradley's magus ranked tier 5 [Pyro Sphere] spell had fully manifested and he immediately launched it at Emery.
Seeing the red orb rapidly heading towards him, Emery calmly cast his [Jade Root] spell. Dozens of dark green roots as thick as an arm bursted out from the ground and quickly covered his entire body.
However, as soon as the spell hit Emery's plant spell, the latter was slowly decimated by the former. The flame was strong enough to burn the roots, and their remains of ashes began to scatter in the air.
This result was expected though; after all, it was a magus-level spell.
"AHHAHAH! BURN! Burn everything!" Bradley turned eccentric as he watched his spell destroy the roots that covered Emery's body.
However, he soon realized the dark green roots that were burned, regenerated back and were replaced by even thicker roots. As a result, the flames were eventually extinguished by itself.
"What the fu*k!"