Though the expression on Mathias’ face was light and carefree, he didn’t dare to underestimate the man in front of him.
He knew full well that, aside from the few Prime Saints on the continent, there weren’t many who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Ragnor, but he wasn’t scared; in fact, he was excited. It had been a long time since he had got to really let loose.
Ragnor, on the other hand, felt more peeved than anything else. Not only was he a peak staged saint, he was half a step away from becoming a prime saint. The number of people who could defeat him could be counted on two hands, and none of those figures included a mid-staged saint.
Even the likes of Shelia – the Empress of the Dark Alliance wasn’t his match without using the treasures in the Cult of Darkness.
And yet a trivial mid-staged saint dared to not only reject his goodwill but also stand against him.
“It seems like the world’s forgotten about me during my time in seclu…”
“Stop your nonsense!” Mathias snorted as he appeared before his opponent, his axe slicing straight through Ragnor’s afterimage.
“Haha, very well,” Ragnor laughed coldly. “Then you can die too!”
‘So it’s possible to use the Law of the Winds Profound Mystery of Wind Walking like this,’ Ace noted as he studied the fight intently.
When he first read it in the Pavilion’s notes, Ace believed that wind walking was a simple, profound mystery that allowed the user to walk on air, but it was only after seeing Ragnor that he realised how much more it entailed.
Walking on air as though it was solid ground was one of the more basic abilities one could do with this ability, but for those with enough insight into the profound mystery, they were able to walk WITH the wind, essentially allowing their bodies to become one with the wind, improving not only their speed but also their concealment.
Even with his [Observation], Ace struggled to see Ragnor even when he stood still, appearing as nothing more than a slight distortion. And the moment he moved, it became nigh impossible to see him.
Ace didn’t doubt for one moment that had Ragnor completely comprehended Wind Walking, he wouldn’t be able to see him at all, even if he stood right behind him.
‘[Vanishing Winds], huh… What a terrifying movement technique.’ Ace thought to himself, understanding that because the profound mystery Silas had begun to comprehend was the mystery of ‘doppelgangers’ instead of ‘wind walking’, he hadn’t been able to exhibit its true might. ‘There really appear to be no inferior profound mysteries, depending purely on how they’re utilised!’
Upon coming to that realisation, Ace had a sudden urge to enter seclusion himself.
At the moment, all his techniques were either ones he’d created in his previous life before deciding to wield the glaive or techniques created by other people that he’d either modified slightly to better suit him, like the improvised [Soru] he copied from the World Government, or [Divine Descent] a technique created by Leo’s father.
Because of all of Ace’s abilities and incredible comprehension, it made jumping ranks easy for him, meaning it was harder to spot his weaknesses, but he knew the moment he became a deity, these little chinks in his armour would become glaringly obvious.
It was better to fix them now before they cost him his life. Plus, even if he didn’t make any other breakthroughs, he knew, just by making those adjustments, his strength would see a significant improvement.
Whilst Ace was distracted by the direction of his future training, the battle between Mathias and Ragnor was in full swing. Unfortunately, it appeared that Mathias was the one being suppressed.
‘The speedy ones are always the ones who give me the most trouble,’ Mathias sighed.
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Like Ace’s, his body was now also riddled with cuts, but unlike in the fight with Ace and Silas, Ragnor didn’t have so much as a tear in his clothing.
As a saint of the edict of destruction, Mathias’s raw power was unmatched, but his speed wasn’t exactly his strong suit. It only made it worse that, unlike Silas, Ragnor didn’t lose his concealment when he attacked, allowing him to attack as and when he liked.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he made sure to avoid each of his opponent’s strikes, not wanting to clash head-on with Mathias’ destruction battle-qi, this fight would’ve long been over.
Like Cain, Ragnor too was surprised to find someone with an affinity to the edict of destruction, especially a powerful saint, but that was all it was – surprise.
Though rare, Mathias wasn’t the first person he’d met with said affinity; he wasn’t even his first opponent with the affinity. One thousand plus years as an assassin, and you were bound to run into some interesting targets.
As such, he could remain perfectly calm as he patiently whittled his opponent down, one cut at a time.
Still, Mathias didn’t seem the slightest bit hurried. In fact, he didn’t even seem phased by his injuries. As his injuries slowly accumulated, Mathias patiently bided his time, only attacking when attacked, despite knowing his wild power swings were unlikely to land.
‘It’s time to end this!’ Ragnor’s eyes flashed coldly as he saw a slight flicker in his opponent’s grey battle-qi.
The flicker was so faint that Killian and the others missed it, but Ragnor knew precisely what he was waiting for from the beginning. That flicker was a sign that Silas was weakening.
The only other person who noticed the flicker was Ace. He knew the flicker wasn’t staged by Mathias to lull Ragnor into a false sense of security; he could sense that Mathias really was starting to weaken, but after hundreds of small cuts by his opponent’s knife, that was hardly surprising.
But Ace wasn’t worried. He could sense the emotion Mathias radiated wasn’t worry or fear but anticipation. He didn’t know what the principal of the pavilion was planning, but he knew he had a plan.
“NOO!” Killian roared as he subconsciously stepped forward upon seeing Ragnor stab through his master’s heart from behind.
If it weren’t for Ace holding him back, Killian really would’ve jumped in without thinking and gotten himself killed.
“GET OFF, ACE!” Killian struggled violently. “Master needs help!”
If not for his [Armament Haki], Ace would never have been able to successfully hold him down; even so, Killian’s struggling made his wounds worsen.
“Calm down, Kil,” Ace said whilst using what little strength he had left to pin down his brother. “The old man’s just fine; he let himself get stabbed on purpo…”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Ace and the others were all sent flying by a terrifying shockwave.
It was exactly like Ace said, Mathias allowed himself to get stabbed on purpose. He knew Ragnor was simply too fast to get hit by any of his ordinairy strikes, and he also knew he was too observant to see through a faint.
So Mathias had to channel his inner masochist and wait till he was really fatigued, knowing an assassin like Ragnor would go for the kill.
The only thing he had to do was find a way to lure his opponent into attacking his heart instead of his head, so he purposely focused all of his attention on protecting his head throughout the fight. As a result, the moment Ragnor smelt weakness, he aimed to pierce the heart.
What he didn’t know was that Mathias was born with his heart on the right side of his chest.
As such, when Ragnor stabbed Mathias, instead of dying like he expected, Mathias used that momentarily lapse to use a spell that Killian was all too familiar with – [Destructo-Pulse].
Though shocked by the sudden development, Ragnor was still a peak saint known for his speed. He reacted quickly, attempting to pull his knife from Mathias’ chest, only to find his opponent had tensed his muscles to keep it in place.
He proceeded to let the knife go; unfortunately, that fraction of a second wasted trying to free his weapon meant he was a little slow in escaping.
He escaped with his life, but his hand ended up turning to dust as he shot back. But before he could wrap his head around what just happened, the hair on the back of his neck stood on edge.
Looking up, he saw a grey crescent-shaped beam of pure destruction mere inches away from tearing him in two. Which was when Mathias’ cold and deathly voice entered his ears. “[World Sundering]!”
Without a moment of hesitation, he leapt out of the way. Unfortunately, he, for the second time in this fight, and maybe only the second time since becoming a saint, was too slow to completely dodge.
“ARRGHHHH!” Ragnor roared in pain as he watched his arm turn to dust under the might of Mathias’ attack.
Mathias had no intention of giving the assassin a chance to regain his composure. The moment his last attack had been executed, Mathias had already begun moving, already anticipating his slippery opponent to be able to dodge.
His destruction-styled battle-qi-coated war cleaver came hurtling down, aiming to split the man in two, only to find the body was, shockingly, nothing but an afterimage.
Ace, whose injuries had only gotten worse after being sent flying by the last shockwave, barely managed to stumble to his feet in time to see a man who appeared to be in his 30s or 40s donning a long baggy black robe casually opened down the middle carrying the badly injured Ragnor over his shoulder.
“Cesar, I presume,” Mathias said calmly as he put his axe back in his storage ring.