*SWOOSH*

The sound of objects slicing through the air..

For a split second, absolute silence..

The next..

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Sonic booms are heard in rapid succession..

The cause?

Two swords that move at a speed where it isn't strange to have broken the sound barrier..

In fact, that's just what they did..

One was a fiery-red sword with black luster..

With flames released, it showed burning ambition and passion..

The 1st Progenitor Dragon King's prided weapon, "Sin of Wrath Sword"

It practically embodies the flame itself..

The intense heat generated is said to scorch the frozen tundras and melt even diamonds..

Is swung in a horizontal slash..

The other, a clear grayish-silver sword that looked like it was decorated with pure simplicity..

The size of this sword might make you think it was heavier than average..

But this sword was special..

And at the same time not..

For its unique attribute was the fact that it was weightless..

Only those who are in tune with the flow of aura can even hold its ethereal presence...

One of the swords created with [Aura Sword Creation] melded with [Yin-yang Aura]

Swung in a diagonal arc releasing not even a iota of magic power..

For it retains it within the weapon..

Condensed aura energy in blade form..

Its creator usually calls these swords [Nameless Aura Swords]..

For he didn't care about naming that much..

Or he was just lazy, it's irrelevant..

Both arcs might look beautiful if you have the means to keep up with their speed..

When the blades meet each other..

*CLANG* *BOOM* *CRASH*

*STRIKE* *STRIKE* *SWOOSH* *CLANG* *BOOM*

The next moment, both of the scenery at their backs disappeared like magic..

But what really happened was the ground made a semicircular arc and gouged everything uproot and got blown apart..

But the people in question didn't notice one bit..

And even if they did..

They still wouldn't care..

Since a second after the first clash, they broke away from each other..

And the next moment, brought their swords against the opponent again..

And again..

Dodging slashes..

Felling trees in the process..

Aura Spheres bombarding the area..

Craters are formed and deform the surroundings..

Reading their opponents next move using their senses..

Dirt, blood and sweat is released during the course of the high-speed battle..

But they never look away from each other's eyesight..

If there was an audience that could have noticed this, they would be amazed..

Even though the attacks of both could come from any direction..

They don't let the other out of their sights..

The repeated clanging and sonic booms reverberate throughout the forest..

It might not even be called a forest anymore after this..

Since 20 meters around them, the trees are nowhere to be found..

You can hear demon beast's cries and death throes while some are screaming while running for their lives..

Away from the monstrous spectacle which is happening right in the center of their former territory..

And the strangest thing of all is that..

Even though normally the older one would be calm and the younger is frantic..

It's the exact opposite..

*CRASH*

*BREAK*

It happened again..

The young man's sword might be powerful enough to match the opponent's..

But the strain of keeping itself condensed while fending off the sword imbued with a dragon's strength is nothing short of an impossible challenge..

But every time the result doesn't change..

After it breaks, he throws away the sword while keeping his opponent in check using [Aura Sphere]..

After it touches the ground, it disperses into small particles that shine in gray light..

Then it turns pure white after and goes to the now-empty hand and in turn, covered with black aura..

Materializing itself into a blade-shape and finally turns back to gray..

All this in the short span of 5 seconds..

And the weird thing about it was that the young man looks calm and indifferent with red and blue eyes that look like gems but inside is a deep abyss where the pupils are supposed to be present, in what you call a "poker face"

In contrast with the old man with a huge grin on his face showing 2 fangs which were not there before showing an ecstatic expression swinging his sword in different angles crashing into the ground if he misses but he doesn't seem to mind it that much since he just picks it up just as fast as he swung it before..

The endless repeating actions..

No one even knows how much time has passed..

But what they do know is..

They have reached a stalemate..

But after a few exchanges, things start to tip in one's favor..

When the old man swung his sword like he would many times already, something happened..

Even though the young man was calm, he let his guard down slightly since he got used to crossing swords..

He never expected it..

Which is why he got blown away..

*BOOM* *CRASH*

*GUHAA*

The young man vomited blood like a fountain..

Countless wounds appeared on his skin bleeding although it was tempered to even mimic the toughness of steel..

But his demeanor didn't change..

It was like he was wearing a mask..

A normal person's heart would be beating as fast as it could right now..

But his was terribly calm and collected..

In fact, his heart rate at the moment was slower than normal..

The next moment, bright green light was released from his body..

After a few seconds, the wounds recovered like time turned back for him..

He slowly stood up and said with an indifferent face..

"That's the first time I saw that move, you tricky old man(tanuki-ojiisan).."

His demeanor might have stayed the same..

But if one looks closer, you can see he said it in an annoyed and mocking tone..

"What do you expect, I told you I was getting serious and I am, a dragon in case you forget again.."

The old man said it while showing his fangs and pure white teeth grinning..

What happened was that after the swords connected, the old man twisted his waist and..

"I guess I did let my guard down thinking you didn't have..that"

While pointing to it, what appeared was..

A tail..

A red-scaled dragon tail coming out of his backside..

It was what caught him surprised and swung towards his unguarded torso, blowing him away..

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Ha, do you want to throw in the towel now?"

In a condescending manner he said it..

But deep inside, he didn't really want a boring thing such as surrendering willingly..

In these moments he went back to his younger years..

Where he battled every single day..

For fights for each other's lives are wagered..

And the sound of battle is all that fills his ears..

Where every place was a battlefield..

The times when he truly felt alive..

He hasn't forgotten it's taste even after all these years..

It might be a trial for his student..

But for him, it was salvation..

From all the things in the material plane..

Battle was his favorite..

And he couldn't delude himself anymore..

He wanted to have a match without regrets with the boy in front of him..

The disciple he is proud of..

The one he believes will change the entire world turning its laws by its head..

And he only needs to see his determination to use his strength for the greater good..

"Like hell I will just lay down and die!"

As expected, He taught him well..

Well now that he confirmed his resolution..

"It's not fair for you to be the only one showing resolve! I have my own way to let you see that I'm serious as well!"

A bright red and black light with searing heat covers the old man..

"SIN OF WRATH PURGATORY FLAME FULL ARMAMENT, RELEASE"

The flame melds together into a reddish black flame and further turns into pure blue clear flame..

This spreads in a 1 meter radius around the user and scorches the area around it like it was lava..

Or even hotter than that..

Since the ground around the flames are imploding in itself making a circular cut in the earth..

After a few moments, the flames burn up into the atmosphere and leaves in its place..

A shining luster of white and blue armor..

With full plated helmet, arms with claws at the end of them looking sharp..

And what looks to be clear mettalic dragon wings and a tail..

With red eyes coming out from the visor looking straight in the direction of the young man..

Exuding an abnormal amount of power that might make it look like stares can kill..

When the young man looked at this form he thought..

I normally thought an incarnation of Wrath would be more demonic-looking but what is with this cool-looking armor?

As he always does, he usually thinks of things irrelevant to the present situation..

It might be a defense mechanism for you see..

Even in the face of death itself, he remains indifferent..

Or so at first glance..

But you notice that beads of sweat are flowing down from his pores..

Which meant he was very afraid of the strange entity..

"Old man! Is this what you meant by resolve?"

".."

He is met by silence..

But the silent rage is scarier than saying anything at all..

The young man who found this strange..

Decided not to mind it..

Because if he didn't move on..

He would definitely die without even a corpse nor ashes left..

If this continues, he would surely be crushed like a bug..

He knew his current self can't win against Wrath himself..

But he couldn't just surrender..

But in fact, he thought he would if he could..

All in vain though, since he knew if he did, he'd just be culled mercilessly..

And he wanted to avoid that "bad end" very much..

So he said..

"I guess I really don't have a choice, huh?"

There was something he had up his sleeve..

Something he developed over these 12 years of hell..

Which he never told nor showed the old man..

His last resort..

A skill he made to release his untapped potential for a short span of time..

And a skill tree that is usable during that period..

When he used it in the past, he couldn't test its full power..

Due to the fact that no beast in the area could match him..

When he enters this state..

That day, most of the demon beasts got massacred for experiment..

Poor, poor guinea pigs..

After that, he never used it again due to the high energy consumption rate and painful recoil..

But if he didn't use it now, he would surely regret it..

So he gathered his courage and said..

"It's now or never!"

He inhaled a surge of air with a big breath..

"[Aura Limiter Surge]"

He felt his body growing stronger by the second and his senses further heightened..

His Aura Points doubled, tripled and kept growing..

Then he condensed his aura skills into one and activated his ultimate skill..

"[Aura Convergence]"

The clashing of different auras condensed into one core and is placed at the center of his soul..

This skill gathers every aura-based skill into one and is a skill not even at its peak since it can still grow further..

The number of aura skills gathered determines its strength..

A bright light of rainbow-colored prisms surrounded the young man's body and clad itself around him..

His aura now looked so bright it was almost divine..

Meanwhile in the barely conscious thoughts of Arcveil..

That power is almost like that guy..

He couldn't control his current form anymore but he could still see what was going on with pure willpower..

The last time he saw that was deep within his hazy memories but it was the only thing he clearly recalls..

Divinitus Prisma Amadeus..

"Now, let's give it our all, old man!"

"..."

No one answered but the armored entity moved as fast as sound towards the young man..

But the young man expected this..

The air trembles around him and at the next moment..

"Take this! [Unlimited Aura Blades]!"

The sky was filled with different-colored aura swords glittering, refracting the light from the sun into the opponent..

But the armored knight was unfazed..

The young man swung his arm down and hundreds of blades fell down into one place..

The location of the enemy..

"[Aura Lock]"

".."

The wings of the knight spread out and further exuded his dignified presence..

While simultaneously making his movement even faster..

The blades moved even faster towards the enemy and got closer and closer..

While the dragon-knight swung his giant claws at the young man..

Who was surprised at how quick his enemy reached his range..

In the next moment, blood flowed..

----------------------------------------

Cliffs, cliffs everywhere..

Sorry, not sorry..

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What happens next?

Find out next time~

Thanks so much for reading!