Nightmare's Call

Time indeed passed much more slowly there than in reality, but even that had a limit.

Lin Sheng had found the techniques to use his holy powers, but what confounded him was the information that he had gotten. It categorized his current stage as a basic accumulative stage.

At this stage, there were no techniques to be used, as the seed of holy power had yet to give birth to a holy power that is flowing. That meant it was not usable and all he could do was wait.

Of course, if he was lucky, he could unleash his holy powers given time, but that was simply an unleashing of holy power after a period of accumulation, not some sort of ability or talent.

It was simply a matter of preparation.

A Level 3 paladin, aside from some boost to his body and strength through the holy power, he still would need to rely on the Ashen Seal to fight.

That was because, at that stage, the holy power was accumulating to strengthen his physical attributes.

While the Furious Howl seal’s ability, based on what Lin Sheng had gleaned from the information he got, was a sound-based howl that could flinch an opponent for a short period of time and knock them unconscious.

If it is trained to the highest level, a howl could even shock any weak foes to death.

“Isn’t this something like Piercing Howl?”

The Ashen Seal would need plenty of time from meditation to the formation of the power. And when he meditated for the first time, it took him many days of meditation to succeed.

Thus it was pretty much impossible for him to use that ability in the near future.

He then forgo any further testing and started checking his body.

His scale mail was still pretty much intact, and only a wooden shield was on his hand. So going out to face the gray angel was probably impossible.

As for summoning the Sacred Shield Tyrant, he had given it a quick try, and found out that there was no reaction at all. It seemed like the summoned being did not even exist inside him, and could not be summoned out in the dream.

“Seems like I have to depend on myself.”

Lin Sheng did not dither, he still had one more thing to test out; a thought that he had before.

“I have already awakened the holy power, and my body is stronger than before. With the shield, I can still try to fight that gray angel, and see if I can find an opportunity to take it out!”

Lin Sheng still remembered that insane speed and power the angel had.

And his only weapon, the great sword was lost during that encounter.

As he lifted his shield, he slowly walked towards the bedroom door.

The hole which he had come through was still there. The hall outside was bright because light shone in from the windows of the sidewall.

Lin Sheng placed his head near the hole and peeked out.

“There’s day and night cycle over here?” A thought struck him, as he continued to investigate the gray angel’s location.

The odd rock pillar still stood in the middle of the hall, and on it was the gray angel in its original state.

It was just the same as last time. A spear in one hand, and a shield in another. Its wings expanded wide, unmoving.

Lin Sheng started thinking as he squatted by the hole. “I probably won’t be able to beat it in terms of speed and strength. While I have already broken through Level 3, and my holy powers have awakened, but the strengthening is not instantaneous and would need time. At this juncture, I’m probably not much stronger than I was before.”

So his conclusion was, he was still no match.

“I need to come up with some strategies.”

Lin Sheng was not afraid of challenges, just like when he faced an ancient tome in a language that he did not understand.

There was no Google, no dictionaries, he only had himself to match the pictures, words and sentence structure and figure it out himself.

And he had managed to persevere through that, so this was nothing.

After some thinking, he finally had an idea. He took up his shield, as he squatted down carefully, facing the hole.

And then...

*Whoosh!*

He dashed forward, through the hole and into the hall.

*Crack!*

The gray angel shuddered as it quickly roused to motion. However, Lin Sheng rolled on the ground, grabbed the massive twin-edge blade and threw it violently against the gray angel.

The massive blade spun under the massive kinetic energy into a flying razor and smashed against the angel’s chest.

Lin Sheng did not even bother looking as he turned around and dove into the hole again.

The angel had only started moving then, and could not react in time before the blade struck its chest

*Thump!*

A small about of broken debris fell from its body.

A rent the size of a walnut appeared on the gray angel’s chest. It was however still emotionless, and seeing Lin Sheng diving into the hole, it stopped moving and returned to the pillar.

And very soon the gray angel returned to its original position as if nothing had happened.

The heavy blade rebounded against the wall and after a few spins, fell about ten meters away from Lin Sheng.

And calm returned to the hall.

Lin Sheng’s face too was calm behind the hole.

“It worked! I never thought that’ll work.” Through the hole, he saw the rent on the side of the gray angel’s chest.

“I did not judge the rebound well enough, the sword is quite far away...” Lin Sheng looked around and there were no other weapons near him. Retrieving the weapon was his only choice.

“Again!”

After a short rest, and adjusting his status, he darted out again.

This time, he counted the gray angel’s activation time.

Two rolls, picking up the sword, and returning to the hole took four seconds. While the gray angel’s activation time was about three seconds.

As he did not have a watch, his timing was not too accurate, but as long as he had a rough timing, it was fine.

*Whoosh!*

Lin Sheng dove through the hole and brought the sword back with him.

He was not used to his surroundings earlier, but once he had a good grasp of his surroundings, things became easier.

“Again!”

Lin Sheng rolled out again.

*Bam!*

The sword flew out, smashing a new rent before bouncing back onto the ground.

Lin Sheng then rolled back, and out again to pick up the sword.

As he repeated the motion, Lin Sheng was getting more and more accustomed to it. He was now better at grasping the activation trigger of the gray angel.

And slowly, countless rents started appearing on the gray angel’s body.

Most of it was on the chest and next to the wings. At first, Lin Sheng had placed to simply grind down the gray angel, but soon found the rock on its chest a little too thick, so he went for the wings instead.

As soon as the gray angel loses its ability of flight, that will give him an even bigger window of opportunity.

And as time passed, the massive blade flew out and was repeatedly retrieved.

Lin Sheng was at the point where his hand was feeling numb and sore, after pitting against the gray angel for fifty-seven times.

And finally, it was at its limits.

Its chest like was like porcelain that was close to shattering, its wings had long been clipped, its right arm was broken, and its legs were gone.

Yet, Lin Sheng still did not face it head-on. He repeated the process another ten times.

*Bam!*

A sudden thud rang.

And finally, the gray angel fell wordlessly against the ground as its head broke apart from the body and shattered into countless pieces.

Even before its demise, it did not show any emotions.

Yet, Lin Sheng felt sad for it.

It was a powerful killing machine, and if someone was controlling it, even with ten Lin Shengs, its strength and speed were still beyond his ability to fight against.

The statue had simply allowed itself to be pelted by Lin Sheng, and even that took him about sixty-odd strikes to totally kill it. Each strike was done using full force.

“Such a waste...”

And after waiting for a few minutes, a black line flew over and entered Lin Sheng’s chest.

“Ugh...”

He frowned slightly as he held his head.

“This time it’s rather simple, just memories about flight and combat.” He quickly browsed through the memories and found that the angel was based on a very swift bird.

Its memories were all about flying across mountains and trees without a shred of intelligence.

“Well, better than nothing.” Lin Sheng finally got out of the hole and to the gray angel’s side.

He squatted down and started to search the ruined statue. He found nothing but gray rocks. There were no cores or any control mechanisms like those in the legends.