Tap! Tap! Tap!

Rain falling like a rising crescendo.

Watchful eyes in the dark.

………………………………………………………….........

Code A – The Apotheosis, what a formidable opponent!

To this day this was the strongest enemy Mwana had ever faced.

“It was a good thing to come out of the village otherwise I would still be stuck in ignorance.” Mwana silently said to himself.

After leaving the village, he had learned about the horrors of the night with the Blood Mural incident, seen with his own eyes some of his agemates on the Rising Dragon Rankings, learned about all kinds of unique magical spells and intense sword moves, and even fought against a whole gang by himself!

He probably would never experience anything like this if he was still stuck in the village.

While Mwana was spacing out with all sorts of thoughts running through his mind, Code A said with a calm voice, “Hidden Technique: Shimmer.”

Code A seemed to disappear from where he was standing like a swarm of butterflies.

Disappearing without a trace; this was the mark of a true assassin!

“Moon Bracelet: Blade Form.”

Kting!

Sword and blade collided.

Mwana was quick to react by raising the extended blade on his moon bracelet to guard.

“So close!”

It took everything just to parry a single move from his opponent. However, Mwana did not despair.

Although he would not claim to be a ‘God of the Sword’, Mwana’s achievements in swordsmanship were not low. He was almost scratching the Great Swordsman rank after all.

More importantly, the Sword Dragon Mantra that Mwana practiced could be used to strengthen the body like a sword thus increasing speed and attack power.

The sword art itself was no joke! Just the sword cleave move alone already had 3 sub-moves covering speed, defense, and attack.

Cling! Clang! Cling! Clang!

Ting! Ka-ching!

The sound of metal clashing rang out repeatedly in the streets as the two opponents went back and forth.

However, the strange thing was that the sound seemed to be a few paces behind the actions of the fighters. In fact with both Mwana and Code A’s speed, their sword swings easily surpassed the speed of sound.

Each clash was like a flash of lightning exploding out with endless might and bright silver lights.

‘I have to switch up and catch him off-guard!’ Mwana thought as he suddenly threw a punch with one arm while swinging his moon blade with the other.

“Dambe: Heavy Arm Blow!”

The attack Mwana launched was a Dambe punch that mysteriously increased the arm’s weight therefore generating more physical power with each successive attack.

“Physical arts? Bring it on!” Code A said with a slightly excited voice. This voice did not seem to match the stony expression on his mask.

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However, despite Mwana being an enemy, Code A still could not help but marvel at the boy’s strength, ‘So young yet so skilled! What a talented kid!’

It was very evident to him that Mwana’s martial rank was not anything special, just the 4th rank of Body Forging – the Bone Strengthening realm. However, what truly impressed Code A was Mwana’s martial arts skills; he had a high level of expertise and skill despite his young age.

Outside Milele town, Mwana was no match for most of the thugs he fought tonight. They would have been able to suppress him based on their high ranks alone. After all, most of these gang members were already Senior Warriors!

However, when the use of mystical powers was limited under the Milele’s normalization magic formation, their skill was insufficient to take down Mwana.

In response to Mwana’s fist technique which was accumulating power with every move, Code A responded with his own physical external martial art.

Suddenly, Mwana’s arm felt as if he was striking iron. His arm even felt stinging pain!

[Muscle Rigidity] – this was a skill that made the muscles across the fighter’s body enter a state of rigidity. These hardened muscles were the perfect move to counter Mwana’s strength.

After deflecting Mwana’s fists, Code A retaliated with a body blow that sent Mwana flying.

“Not good!” Mwana exclaimed as he almost lost consciousness from this attack alone.

The worst thing was that he saw his opponent take off one of his gloves and point his hand at him as if unleashing something. Naturally, Mwana had a bad premonition when he saw this.

“What is he doing?” Mwana asked himself. But he soon came to understand his opponent’s actions when a projectile came flying at him, ‘Oh no, I have to dodge!’

In the same movement that Code A had launched Mwana back, he also removed his gloves and shot out his own nails like bullets!

In fact, what Mwana saw were the nails peeling off from his opponent’s fingers before being ejected by a spray of blood and shooting out of his hands!

This technique! One could not even imagine the pain. Only a madman would use such a move.

Puff! Puff!

Mwana’s body was pierced!

By reorienting his body midair, Mwana dodged three of the nails but two of them still managed to strike his body.

Instantly, a wave of extreme pain rushed through Mwana’s arm and stomach. Although the attacks did not penetrate his body that deeply, the pain did not match the damage at all!

[Nail Bullets] – This was a very lethal but also painful technique.

Before Mwana could get through the pain, he saw his opponent repeat the same action with his other hand!

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

Five finger nails flying through the air!

“What a masochist?!” Mwana could not believe what he was witnessing.

With Code A’s strength, did he really have to resort to such a self-torturous technique against Mwana? No. At least Mwana did not think so.

“Sword Cleave – defensive form.”

This time, Mwana did not dare get hit. He instantly swung his blade to defend himself from the flying nails.

At the same time, Mwana took on a defensive stance.

“Dambe Curtain” – This defensive stance involved hand movement that started with placing one hand forward. The palm was open and flat as if warning someone to stop. The fighter then moved both hands in a strange manner forming a screen of misdirection.

With this move, Mwana’s opponents would not be able to easily predict where his next attack came from.

“Where did he go?!” Code A was shocked to see Mwana disappear right in front of his eyes.

This disappearing act was part of the Dambe Curtain. Through misdirection, the user could even disappear into their opponent’s blind spots with the “Blindspot Screen” technique.

“Hidden Technique: Shimmer!”

Code A was quick to deploy his own movement technique as he once again disappeared from the spot like a cloud of smoke.

Bang!

The two fighters seemed to flash in and out of existence through sheer speed before clashing.

A knee to the groin flew towards Code A. No explanation is needed as to why this was effective against any opponent. However, Code A reacted quickly by protecting not just his groin but also each of his vitals. Although his defensive form was not as amazing as the Egalitarian's Law of Equals, his Close Quarters Combat skills were still very impressive.

The exchange between the two fighters involved a shower of lethal strikes ranging from low kicks to the knee, groin, and abdomen, to elbows to the neck and head, as well as powerful punches, claws, and even grappling moves that would tear an amateur fighter apart.

The two zoomed back and forth across the street as their kicks broke through rocks and bricks like nothing. Dozens of large barrel-sized water containers were also smashed apart with water splashing everywhere.

Each punch and kick was extremely destructive to the point that neither Mwana nor Code A could even breathe properly.

Ka-bang!

A loud sound exploded across the street as Mwana’s kick collided with Code A’s knee sending him to the ground.

However, the opponent was not willing to lose. From his kneeling position, Code leaped toward Mwana and tackled him through a building wall!

This attack sent both fighters barreling into what seemed like a restaurant.

On this night, it was the second time that Mwana had been smashed head-first through a wall. In fact, this wall was far sturdier than any concrete wall; tough as thick steel and iron. It was enough to momentarily knock the wind out of Mwana.

Building rocks crashed everywhere.

Dust exploded out of the hole in the wall mixing with the rain outside.

The violent air currents flowing outside the building quickly filled the once calm restaurant.