Chapter 197: Making a decisive move
Florida was far more domineering than Han Shuo would’ve thought. He could feel a dangerous pulse of magic the instant he shut the door. Han Shuo immediately sprang backwards.
The door exploded with a tumultuous bang as the room wreathed itself in white light. Large pieces of wooden slats flew across the room as Florida’s handsome face once again appeared in front of Han Shuo.
He still clutched the bouquet of fresh flowers tightly, with a strongly pulsating magic staff embedded with a red, blue, and yellow crystal in his right hand.
“I said, I want to see Phoebe. Didn’t you hear me?!” Florida looked harshly at Han Shuo as he bit off his words.
At roughly 25 or 26, Florida’s age was similar to the deceased Clark. The two of them had many similarities, both having the same high level of strength and charming exteriors.
However, although Clark was devious, he wouldn’t flaunt it so boldly. He at least understood that his identity as a noble; conscious he had to conceal his emotions, he made his moves in the dark. On the other hand, Florida looked like a completely lawless person, with an even more brash style, seemingly having no reservations at all.
“And I said, don’t disturb our rest!” Han Shuo snorted coldly and flashed to Florida’s side like lightning. He raised a fist with magical yuan circulating within it and smashed it towards Florida’s face.
Han Shuo’s sudden move was outside of the other’s expectations as panic suddenly appeared on his face. He threw out the bouquet in his hands and swiftly backpedaled.
Han Shuo’s punch whistled through the air as it smashed the bouquet to pieces. Petals flew everywhere as a floral fragrance wafted through the air.
When this punch had obliterated the bouquet and seemed like it would land on Florida’s face, a strong magic pulse suddenly burst from his body. A rainbow colored, glass-like magic shield suddenly enveloped him like an enormous light bubble.
Bam. Han Shuo’s fist connected with the shield. He felt like he was punching cotton candy as the shield distorted at the point of contact. The impression left by the fist deepened until Han Shuo’s blow stopped right above Florida’s well defined nose, unable to proceed any further.
Completely flustered, Florida was forced back a few steps, bringing the force field with him and widening the gap between him and Han Shuo. Disarrayed, he looked at Han Shuo with an even more unfriendly glint, as if Han Shuo had become his mortal enemy.
“You dared to attack first!” Florida’s voice was as distorted as his expression as he roared furiously at Han Shuo.
Han Shuo shook his hand and retracted his fist, pointing at the shattered room door. He said coldly, “You trespassed the moment you broke through the door. I’m just defending myself!”
Nodding his head with a frosty smile, Florida cast a dark glance at Han Shuo. “Very good, you’ve got some guts. However, you won’t get a chance to come near me again now that our distance has been increased. Let me see what you’re made of now!”
Florida once again stepped back after he spoke and raised the staff in his right hand, planning on facing off with Han Shuo. In response to Florida’s move, Han Shuo solemnly brought out the Demonslayer Edge from his space ring and prepared to take Florida’s attack.
As a light archmage, his strength was certainly uncommon. Han Shuo had tested him just now and had noticed that his reaction was swift and movements agile. It was obvious that he’d weathered hundreds of battles. Han Shuo hadn’t even been able to harm him just now with that punch, despite their proximity. Now that they were separated, Florida would be able to deploy his advantage as a mage and would be difficult to deal with.
Hasty footsteps sounded at this moment and seemed to approach the room. Just as Han Shuo and Florida were about to really get into it, vice chief Harris from the Cairo mercenary band suddenly appeared with a few soldiers.
“Isn’t this chief Florida? What are you doing here, creating a mess in territory that’s under the Cairo mercenary band’s protection instead of staying in yours?” Harris’ voice was filled with obvious sarcasm as he maintained the same remote expression from earlier in the day.
The splashing sounds from the bathroom suddenly stopped. It seemed that after these disturbances, Phoebe had finally discovered something was happening outside after having her hearing affected by her shower.
The wildly posturing Florida looked back at Harris when he heard the latter’s voice. He put away the staff in his hand and said with an aloof expression, “I came to visit Miss Phoebe and hadn’t expected to be blocked by some blind kid.”
“If you’re here to be a guest, then I welcome you on behalf of the owner. However, I hope you don’t try to start a fight here, or else our Cairo mercenary band will definitely get involved. You surely know the rules after being in the Valley of Sunshine for so long!” Harris snorted coldly when he saw Florida retract the staff in his hands.
“Humph! Today was your lucky day!” Florida said coldly to Han Shuo and turned to leave. He halted when he passed by Harris, saying with his back turned to Han Shuo, “In the near future, I will definitely retake control of the valley. Then, I won’t be as polite to you as I am now!”
Florida laughed heartily after throwing down these words and walked out with large strides, not waiting for Phoebe to come out.
Harris had an ugly expression on his face and a vein began to throb on his forehead. He looked like he would go berserk at any time. In fact, Han Shuo knew that he was a berserker, It was said that a berserker’s strength was quite astonishing. They were able to use a mysterious method to provoke themselves into a mad state, increasing their strength exponentially and giving them incredible destructive power.
Han Shuo rather wished Harris would go berserk as he looked at the latter. If Harris couldn’t control the fury in his heart, he would immediately attack Florida until one of them died.
It was a pity that Harris quickly regained normalcy and Han Shuo’s daydreams didn’t play out. Harris cast a detached glance at Han Shuo and said, “You still need to pay for the door. Florida’s group has great power in the Valley of Sunshine, so you need to be careful after offending him. You can come find us if there’s anything you need from the Cairo mercenary band.”
Although his expression was still aloof, Harris seemed to have undergone a change in attitude towards Han Shuo because of their newly acquired common enemy. There were even traces of concern in his words.
Han Shuo hadn’t planned on paying for the door because it’d been Florida that had broken it, but his thoughts completely changed after seeing Harris’ attitude shift. He did still have need of the Cairo mercenary band to obtain the shop with the place of extreme water, so he laughed decisively and said, “No problem!”
Nodding, Harris didn’t say anything else and waved his hand, departing with his guards.
The room to the bathroom creaked open after Harris left and Phoebe came out wearing a bathrobe, like a flower emerging from the water. Her wet hair was plastered all over and a small expanse of reddened, fair skin was revealed at her chest. Her red lips were full and wet as she flicked her eyes towards the door. “They’re all gone?”
“All gone. What’s going on with that Florida?” Han Shuo looked at Phoebe and asked unhappily.
Chuckling lowly, Phoebe hiked up the bathrobe a bit and wrapped her legs tightly. She walked up to Han Shuo and batted her wet eyelashes, looking at him with interest. She teased, “What, are you jealous?”
“Yeah I’m jealous! That kid doesn’t look too bad and came looking for you with a huge bouquet! He even told me, the boyfriend, to get out of the way. I’m very pissed off right now!” Han Shuo was quite direct as he looked irritatedly at Phoebe.
Her body softening, Phoebe sat on Han Shuo’s legs and chuckled softly. “I used to come to the valley a lot and had business dealings with the Rainbow Sickle mercenary band. But it’s always been him pursuing me, I’ve never had anything to deal with him.”
“Alright, alright, don’t be mad. I’ll explain things to him next time so that he doesn’t bother me in the future. How’s that?”
“No point in explanations, I don’t think that brat is the kind to accept such things. I didn’t like him from my first impression of him, but I think he thinks the same of me. I think our grudge has been well and truly formed!” Han Shuo shook his head.
“Then what do we do? The Rainbow Sickle mercenary band has great power in the valley and is second only to the Cairo mercenary band. It’s said that they’ve been recruiting in recent times and have even hired a group of experts from the Church of Light. They seem to want to replace the Cairo mercenary band. It will be very troublesome to stay in the valley if we’ve offended them!” Phoebe was startled and spoke with some worry.
“We’ll deal with matters as they arise. He’s not the sole ruler of the valley, he won’t be able to do anything to me!” Han Shuo snorted coldly and spoke without fear.