From the moment the fight began, Ace had been put on the defensive, forced to dodge and run so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

Even though he was virtually invincible amongst those at the eighth rank, the difference between the eighth and ninth ranks was simply too vast.

If it weren’t for his insights into the profound mystery of Fire-body allowing him to become intangible to anyone who hadn’t comprehended impose, Ace would’ve lost his head on at least three separate occasions.

“Is running away all you can do?” The sword-wielding Colonel Lorne roared as he continued to chase after his young target, his sea blue battle-qi coating his body, increasing his speed as much as possible.

“You do realise your like ten times my age!” Ace snorted as his body continually flickered from place to place. “If I were your age and as weak as you, I’d probably have already killed myself out of shame!”

Every time Ace moved, he’d leave a streak of fire in his wake, allowing him to move at speeds that even he had originally been shocked by.

When Ace had first begun leading the Colonel away from his friends, he couldn’t help but replay the scene of General Kaymin entering the battle in his mind over and over again.

The general used a simple but effective movement technique that used his fiery battle-qi to propel himself forward.

Though he hadn’t begun cultivating battle-qi, with his profound insights into the laws of fire, Ace could use his mageforce as an effective substitute. Unfortunately, Ace quickly realised that as his mageforce couldn’t compete with Kaymin’s battle-qi, his usage of the technique wasn’t as effective as [Soru], which sparked the idea of fusing the two.

It was these attempts which almost cost Ace his life on several occasions. Eventually, he realised that although he couldn’t use his flames for each ‘step’ of [Soru], he could almost double his speed by using it on the final step.

At the beginning of the fight, the difference in speed forced Ace to rely on his foresight to barely evade each strike, unable to put any real distance between them, but now Ace was no slower than his opponent, and each use of the technique allowed him to refine it a little bit more, essentially allowing him to slowly, but surely improve his speed, making their game of cat and mouse all the more frustrating for the Colonel.

At this point, Ace knew that the smart thing to do was continue as he was now until Leo finished his group of enemies before the two of them fought Lorne together, but the thought of winning his first fight as ‘Gol D. Ace’ didn’t sit right with him.

‘When I win, I want to win decisively, on my own!’ Ace declared in his head as he suddenly caught his opponent off guard by doing a 180 and charging straight towards the Colonel.

“Finally!” Colonel Lorne roared with laughter as his shock quickly turned into glee as he saw his elusive target charging at him.

Though Lorne still found it hard to believe that a teenage warrior at the fifth rank was actually able to move faster than him, he knew none of that would matter as soon as they were in striking range of each other.

The only thing he was slightly worried about was Ace’s ability to transform his body into fire, becoming intangible. Still, he could sense the drain on his opponent’s mageforce every time he did it, so as long as he was able to keep Ace in striking range, it would only be a matter of time before the youth was defeated.

Ace was well aware of what the Colonel was aiming to do, and he knew that Lorne wasn’t wrong in his assessment. Still, his eyes showed no hesitation as he and his opponent closed in on each other.

When Ace was mere inches from striking range, Lorne’s excitement was at its peak as he could practically foresee Ace’s death from his intended bombardment. But unfortunately, Ace had other plans.

Everything Ace had displayed so far, from his use of the ‘fused state of wielding’ to ‘impose’ to his ‘logia’ ability, made Lorne forget about the first ability, which shocked just about every person on the battlefield – on both sides.

Ace’s jet-black eyes suddenly dilated as his [Haoshoku] Haki exploded out of him, crashing onto the psyche of his opponent, momentarily incapacitating him.

Lorne was only dazed for a fraction of a second, but a fraction of a second in a fight at this level was enough to cause irrevocable damage, especially when they were practically on top of each other already.

Ace’s glaive tore through the air at blinding speed aiming for Lorne’s neck, but lucky for him, he regained control of his body just in time to instinctively raise his swordless hand and lean his head out of the way.

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Under normal circumstances, between the difference in strength and the Colonel’s battle-qi constantly coating his body, Ace wouldn’t even be able to pierce the skin. However, when Lorne was left temporarily dazed by Ace’s haki, his battle-qi also dissipated. By the time he had resummoned his sea blue battle-qi, Ace’s obsidian glaive had already torn straight through his forearm.

Not wanting to give up his hard-earned advantage, Ace’s body flashed, appearing right behind his opponent, his glaive shooting through the air like a meteor, only to come to an abrupt stop just before the back of Lorne’s neck.

With his battle-qi active once again, Ace was back to being unable to pierce his opponent’s defences.

“JUST DIE ALREADY!” Lorne roared in rage as he swung his sword behind him, hoping to cleave Ace in two.

Even though Ace wasn’t caught off guard, the speed of Lorne’s sword was too fast for him to dodge. As such, he was once again forced to use his logia abilities to evade the strike.

‘I only have three of those left in me,’ Ace thought to himself as he distanced himself from his one-handed opponent, fighting to steady his breathing. ‘I can’t drag this out any longer…

But even with his injury, I still can’t get passed his battle-qi, unless…’

Ace suddenly roared with laughter catching his opponent by surprise.

“I’m such an idiot!” Ace said to himself as he began coating his glaive with his fiery mageforce. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!”

Just when he was ruminating about what he could do to win his fight, he thought back to how he was able to mimic General Kaymin’s battle-qi-induced movement technique with his mageforce and realised that since he could use mageforce as a viable substitute for battle-qi before, there was no reason why he couldn’t again.

He wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but he was excited to try.

Lorne watched in disbelief as Ace’s fiery mageforce formed a skin-tight coat around his glaive before his opponent all but disappeared, only to appear directly beside him, the sound of a sonic boom threatening to burst his eardrums as Ace’s fiery glaive broke the sound barrier.

As a highly experienced veteran warrior, Lorne was able to suppress the pain of losing a hand and the shock of Ace’s improvised battle-qi to calmly raise his sword to block Ace’s attack, but he wasn’t able to suppress the shock in his heart as both sword and glaive made contact.

“You… Your strength… How is that possible?!” Lorne stammered after being forced two steps back.

Ace grinned excitedly as he looked at the Colonel in front of him like he were prey.

Although still not quite as strong as his opponent, after their last clash, Ace was able to confirm that the difference in strength between him and a rank nine warrior had just been significantly reduced. If nothing else, he finally had a way to pierce the battle qi of a warrior at the ninth rank.

When he first began chasing after Ace, Lorne thought the task of killing this mysterious young genius would be one of low risk and high reward, but Ace insisted on surprising him at every turn, and now, without even realising it, seeds of genuine fear had taken root and began to sprout.

No longer was Lorne trying to kill Ace for the inevitable rewards for taking out a future threat to their nation. Instead, he fought to survive against someone he now viewed as no weaker than him.

The fight went on for several minutes with Lorne, for the first time since the beginning of their battle, kept on the defensive, with small cuts and burns appearing on his body as he failed to block or dodge several of Ace’s attacks.

Still, Ace wasn’t an idiot. He could clearly see that other than the severed hand, all of Lorne’s other injuries were superficial at best and that the Colonel was just biding his time now, waiting for Ace to run out of mageforce, something Ace knew would happen very soon, but unfortunately, there was nothing Ace could do – he was already going all out.

If he could hold on for another five minutes, Ace knew he would definitely be able to finally defeat his opponent, but as a mage of the third rank, stamina was never going to be one of his strong points when fighting at this level.

Still, his eyes showed no traces of hesitation as he continually attacked, constantly searching for a path to victory. Alas…

“HAHAHAHA, FINALLY!” Lorne roared with laughter as Ace’s mageforce finally ran dry.

Their weapons clashed for what felt like the 10,000th time that day, but this time Ace was the one retreating this time.

With his pseudo-battle-qi no more and his strength not what it was at the beginning of the fight, not only was Ace sent flying, his left shoulder was dislocated as he rolled along the floor.

“Without your mageforce, what are you now?” Lorne derided as he strode towards the panting teen, enjoying the dynamic returning to what it should be – with him in control of the situation.

But as Ace shakily stood to his feet and looked back up, instead of the fear and apprehension Lorne expected to see, he saw a sneer that gave him goosebumps for reasons that escaped him.

Ace had a dislocated shoulder forcing him to hold his glaive with one hand, his whole body was aching, and each breath felt like sandpaper was rubbing against his lungs, and yet his eyes grew in excitement as he eyed his opponent.

At first, Lorne genuinely had no idea what Ace possibly had to smile about, but suddenly he felt the temperature skyrocket as a sea of flames suddenly materialised in the sky above him.

“That’s impossible! You ran out of…” Lorne suddenly stopped midsentence as he looked down from the sky-consuming fire at the dark-haired youth holding his glaive in front of him with his one good hand. “You… You broke through?!”

Ace had been at the peak of the third rank as a mage for some time now. Initially, he assumed it would take another few days before he made his breakthrough, but between the pressure he was under in the fight and his continued use of his mageforce, he was able to make a breakthrough midbattle.

“I WON’T LET YOU!” Lorne roared as he shot towards Ace, the fear of Ace finishing his spell allowing him to move faster than he ever had before.

Unfortunately, Ace no longer had any desire to fight at close quarters. Without hesitation, he leapt into the sky and began leaping through the air, once again shocking the O’Brien Colonel.

Lorne was just about to leap into the air in a last-ditch effort to chase after and kill his target when he saw the fire above him finish morphing, taking the shape of Ace’s glaive.

“It’s about time this comes to an end,” Ace voiced as he looked down at Lorne, staring up in fear at the giant scarlet glaive that blotted out the sky. “Divine Descent!”