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Phoenix Rising
[Arc 14] Chapter 348 - Sword Down

[Arc 14] Chapter 348 - Sword Down

Shalany Rutherford was waiting for the return of her husband while cradling her sleeping baby in her arms. It had been several minutes since Dominic left her there for safety reasons so that he handled the discussions with the War Titan without worrying about their safety. It did, however, make her worry because there was no response from him since he left.

“Where are you, dear?” thought Shalany in a worried voice as she cradled her sleeping child.

The forest was silence in the forest lasted for several minutes before it was broken by a wild surging wind from somewhere. Its force was so strong that it almost threatened to lift all the trees up by the roots. It shocked Shalany and woke up her baby into a crying fit because of how scared the child due to the amount of noise in the vicinity.

Shalany desperately held onto her child and looked around wildly due to the shock of not knowing what happened. At that moment, she suddenly felt the presence of her husband going away from her at, what seemed to be, an incredible speed.

A moment later, there was a loud explosion from somewhere and she turned just in time to see a large mountain crumbling down. It widened her eyes as she realised that the presence of her husband was also there, which made her worry instantly.

“No…!” she thought in a concerned voice.

She quickly used a magic spell to make her baby go back to sleep before applying several layers of sound numbing spells to let him sleep undisturbed. Once that was done, she sighed and activated a teleportation spell to create a yellow glowing magic circle on the ground that would transport her to a location near Dominic.

Just as she walked near it, she stopped and hesitated as she wondered whether she would be getting in her husband’s way. That had been the case for the Phoenix Titan the previous times as she was informed by the wives of the Phoenix Titan.

“Still, I want to help Dom,” thought Shalany and she closed her eyes before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “Maybe, I am jumping to conclusions and he will be fine without my assistance. I think I’m just worried with his lack of belief in himself, but he seemed to be doing fine on our way here. I… I think I should have more faith in him because, like he always said, justice will never fail anyone so long as it’s by their side.

Yes…! I believe my husband will achieve victory in this mission and find whatever answer he needs to get confidence in himself. After all, Lakshman said so and I must believe he provoked Dom for that exact reason. Okay. If so, my task is now to look after my son and await for Dom’s return.”

With her thoughts made up and a decision set in front of her, she nodded and smiled a little as she looked in the direction of the destroyed mountain.

***

 Dominic emerged from the rubble and groaned a little as several wounds on his body bled slowly. He could not believe what just happened and was looking around with a confused expression on his face.

“What… just happened…?” he thought.

“The War Titan must’ve hit you with Force Blast,” replied his Sacred Spirit in his mind. “A very powerful force that propels the target away at an—.”

“I know what it does; don’t give me an explanation unnecessarily,” said Dominic as he cut across her dialogue. “What I want to know is; when did he do it? I didn’t notice a thing and then, I was suddenly flying backwards at a speed that I couldn’t even stop myself.”

“It was an extremely powerful technique that man used on you,” stated his Sacred Spirit in a thoughtful voice. “To be able to knock you back while you were on guard... There’s no mistaking it; he’s ridiculously fast.”

“Heh,” said Dominic and he breathed a deep sigh as he looked in the direction of the village.

At that moment, there was a rush of wind and it buffeted Dominic just as the War Titan materialised in front of him. Dominic was shocked to see his foe standing before him with a wide smile on his face with his arms crossed.

“Hello,” the War Titan greeted the Sword Titan in a friendly voice. “Looks like my attack did little damage. Excellent. This is going to be most exciting battle.”

“What?!” Dominic exclaimed in confusion.

There was no time for questions because the War Titan, in an instant, took a fighting stance and pulled his fist backward. Gathering energy into it, he hurled it at Dominic’s face, but the Sword Titan managed to see it and dodge it just in time before it made contact. The force of the attack caused the air to spilt behind Dominic as it created a small shock that pushed dust and rubble aside.

The War Titan smiled as he was very impressed that the Sword Titan managed to dodge his attack and he moved quickly to repeat the process with his arm fist. Once again, Dominic gritted his teeth and swung away just in time to evade the second attack.

Dominic took the chance to swung his sword out of its scabbard and swing at the War Titan as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the War Titan dodged it by swinging his head to the side in an almost lazy movement. Angered, the Sword Titan attempted to swing his sword at his foe, but the War Titan did not give him the chance as he threw fist after fist at Dominic at an incredible speed.

Nara’s speed was unbelievable as he threw fist after fist and kick after kick at a speed that could not be seen through an average eye. Dominic found himself on a desperate quest to defend himself as he used his sword to block the attack or didge it by several millimetres difference.

“So fast! Dominic thought desperately as he continued to block and dodge the attacks. “You were right about him, Seta. He’s ridiculously fast!”

“Stop thinking! It’ll slow you down!” Seta said sternly in his mind.

Dominic nodded wordlessly and continued to evade the attacks before taking a step back and swinging his sword at the ground. The released energy cut the ground and created a wild blowing wind and shock wave that send both warrior flying away from each other. A few seconds later, they came to a stop and looked towards each other in silence.”

“Interesting!” Nara said loudly so that Dominic could hear him. “You impress me, Dominic! You’re managing to dodge and block my attacks despite me being a lot faster than you! Very impressive, but it seems you know that you’ll lose.”

“Don’t judge the outcome of a battle because of a warm up like that,” replied Dominic in a serious voice.

“How can you expect me not to when the result is so obvious?” Nara asked in a laughing voice. “I know you’re thinking you can outsmart me and overpower me, but that’s not happening. After all, you are restricted by the limitations of the race you belong to.”

Those words caused Dominic to narrow his eyes sharply as he said, “You are wrong. My master always stated that each and every single race crated by the gods have the potential to overcome their limits and reach greater levels of strength and power. I believe in his words because there is justice in them.”

The War Titan remained silent for a moment before he smirked and said, “Suit yourself, but by all means, I will win. RRRAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!”

He roared like a wild beast and began to charge up with energy, which caused a wild wind to pick up and send shock waves in all directions. The next moment, the War Titan took a fighting stance and kicked off the ground at an incredible speed to fly really fast towards the Sword Titan. The moment he reached his foe, Nara began to unleash a rapid punches and kicks at Dominic, but the Sword Titan fought back with grit.

The War Titan’s speed was unimaginably incredible as he hurled fists and kicks at the Sword Titan, but Dominic did his best to retaliate. He had powered up earlier and was pushing his body to move faster to match the speed of his enemy as he used his sword to block each attack. Their battle was caused the ground to crack and explode all around them due to the immense force they unleashed at one another.

Their close combat continued for several minutes as Dominic was pushed back quickly by the War Titan’s relentless attack. Deciding nothing would happen continuing like that, Nara changed his attack pattern and kicked at Dominic’s sword before instantly using his fist to punch it upward. Dominic was surprised as he was momentarily opened for a direct attack and the War Titan took it as he delivered a straight punch to the Sword Titan’s face.

It connected and sent Dominic flying backwards at high speed as he recoiled from the blow. After flying for a few seconds, his back touched the ground and smacked him upward once again like a ball. He bounced three times after touching the ground and by then, he had recovered to move his body in a way that would make him land on his feet.

He breathed a little quickly and winced as the blow that Nara delivered stung him painfully while blood seeped slowly out of the wound. Angered at his failure to counter the earlier attack, he looked towards his enemy with gritted teeth and was shocked to find multiple energy balls headed his way.

The moment he saw his foe bounce several times before landing on his feet, the War Titan began to unleash a barrage of energy blasts. He moved his hands quickly around and released several energy blasts in a matter of seconds, which flew towards Dominic at extremely high speed.

Dominic saw them and instantly activated his sword as he said, “Energy Blade.”

The moment they reached him, Dominic reacted extremely fast cut down every energy blast that soared at him. With each energy blast exploding, clouds of smoke increased more and more until Dominic was completely covered in it. Seeing this, Nara stopped firing energy blasts and put his hands together to fire a large beam cannon.

Sensing the incoming beam cannon, Dominic stepped aside and flew out of the smoke just as the beam soared past him. He, immediately, soared straight at Nara, who was looking impressed that the Sword Titan had reacted quickly to evade his attack and come straight at him.

Dominic flew towards Nara as fast as possible and attempted to cut him down with his sword. As if in slow motion, Nara stepped back and allowed the sword to cut empty air harmlessly. The Sword Titan did not step there as he began to cut at the War Titan as quickly as he possibly could, but Nara evaded them all by taking simple steps.

“ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!” Dominic roared and he swung at Nara’s head in rage.

The War Titan smiled and he caught the blade in between his two fingers, which shocked Dominic. The next moment, the War Titan delivered a powerful blow into the Sword Titan’s gut, causing Dominic to widen his eyes sharply and release blood out of his mouth. Nara pulled Dominic closer and delivered another punch on the same spot on his face like before, which caused Dominic to groan.

The Sword Titan’s body went into a shock from receiving such powerful blows and he found himself unable to defend himself. Nara took this as an opportunity to grab Dominic’s legs and began swinging him around rapidly for several seconds before releasing them. Being suddenly released caused Dominic to soar several meters away at high speed.

Dominic crash landed several times and once again, he bounced a few times before managing to land on his feet. He was breathing a little quickly as blood seeped a little out of his mouth and the side of his face while he glared at Nara.

Holding his sword firmly in his hand, he held it above his head and swung it down while shouting the technique name out loud.

“Destiny Slash!”

In an instant, a powerful slashing energy wave was unleashed and it caused the wind to blow wildly in the vicinity. It cut a deep groove in the ground as it soared towards the War Titan at high speed. Nara stared at the incoming attack and managed to make a smile on his face with his fists clenched tightly.

The moment it reached him, Nara quickly brought his clenched fists to the front and smashed the sides of the attack. In an instant, the attack was bent so out of shape that it exploded in front of him, resulting in a wild blowing wind and shock wave that was sent in all directions. As it cleared, Nara was seen standing firmly on his feet with a wide grin on his face while bruises were seen on his hands where he smashed the energy attack.

Dominic could not believe that the War Titan managed to destroy the attack by simply smashing his fists against it. He was even more amazed to see Nara smiling despite his arms wounded and bleeding, which would cause any man, woman or child to wince or cry in pain.

Nara raised his fist into the air and shouted, “This is the weight of my fist! What’s yours?”

Dominic had nothing in reply because he did not know how to respond to such a statement and question. Throughout his life, he had learnt that victory can be achieved by any means, so long as justice is by their side. It was also the same teachings of his master, the previous Sword Titan, which lead Dominic into putting such heavy faith in justice. So, with his lack of confidence in his justice, Dominic did not know how to respond.

The Destiny Sword realised this and in support, she told him in his mind, “Say what you normally say.”

“What?” Dominic asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I know you’re believing that justice betrayed you, but it’s the opposite way around. You were betrayed by your own faith in justice because you blindly followed it. Your predecessor did tell you to put faith in justice, but he never said that you should follow it so blindly. Anyway, you’ll soon understand that there is more to justice than what you’ve experienced so far. So, go ahead and say it because your master will not be pleased to see his ex-student not having the courage to talk back!”

Dominic was not sure himself of what he must do, but her last words made him determined nonetheless.

“Your fist is strong, but it doesn’t guarantee you victory,” replied Dominic firmly in a loud confident voice so that the War Titan could hear him. “Firm belief in justice will.”

Those words made Nara very angry because he felt that Dominic was delusional, which he hated the most. Being down-to-reality and facing facts head on with firmness is what Nara had been doing throughout his whole life, which was why he had become so strong. He attained such power and strength to prove to the world that he was the best without the use of magic or weapons as support.

“I’m gonna beat the smack out of this bastard until his delusion becomes history!” Nara thought firmly.

“RRRRAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!” he roared again and began to surge with more power, creating wild blowing winds and shock waves that were sent in all directions.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In an instant, Nara brought his hands together in front of him and fired an extremely large beam cannon that created a large groove on the ground as it soared towards Dominic. The Sword Titan was momentarily buffeted by the strong blowing wind and shock wave before he noticed the enormous beam cannon headed his way.

“I’m going to defeat you!”

Nara’s shout could be heard loud and clear with the wind blowing wildly as the attack charged towards Dominic at high speed. In his defence, the Sword Titan aimed his sword at the incoming attack and shouted its technique out loud to activate it.

“Destiny Blade!”

In an instant, a blinding golden light was shone from the sword’s blade and an enormous wave of light was released. The large energy sword, whooshed away at high speed and smashed forcefully against the energy attack released by the War Titan. There was a struggle for power between the two warriors as they pushed their individual attacks to achieve victory over the other.

The clashing of forces lasted only a few seconds before an enormous explosion was created, which was massive. The force of the explosion knocked both warriors away from it for several meters as the force destroyed several mountains in the vicinity and uprooted nearby forest of trees.

Shalany, who had been in a forest near the village, was shocked by the force of power that was unleashed so far away. It caused her to fear that the trees might get uprooted due to them shaking so violently. She, automatically, cast barrier magic on her surroundings to ensure she and her child are safe. At the village, many were crying in despair as some of their roofs flew off and the buildings threatened to fly away as well.

“This is insane…” muttered Shalany in a quiet voice. “What is happening over there…?”

Meanwhile, a large energy dome formed at the place the explosion had occurred. It lasted several seconds before dispersing and freeing a lot of smoke that made it impossible to see anything.

It took a minute or two for the smoke to clear almost completely before their visions returned to normal. At the centre of the explosion point was a deep groove of where the ground had sunk several meters, making it look like a crater.

The two warriors, who were separated by almost a kilometre of distance, slowly rose up to their feet in the aftermath of the explosion. Once they stood up, they surveyed their surroundings, which caused Dominic to breathe a sigh in relief and tiredness while Nara gritted his teeth in anger. The War Titan’s reaction was like that because his massive release of energy was evenly matched by the technique used by the Sword Titan. It hurt his pride of being the strongest warrior and it made him fly into a rage.

“RRRAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!”

Roaring like a wild beast, his hair glowed crimson red and he surged with power while radiating red aura that surrounded him. His eyes shined brightly and he glared fiercely at Dominic, who was standing a little easily due to being tired of releasing so much energy so quickly.

Nara disappeared and instantly reappeared right before Dominic and took the Sword Titan by surprise. Before his foe could do anything, Nara unleashed his fist and delivered a powerful uppercut to Dominic’s jaw, sending the reeling warrior into the sky at an incredible speed. A moment later, Nara kicked off the ground and soared after his flying foe to beat him down.

Dominic fly high into the air while spinning uncontrollably, but his mind was still firmly intact and he managed to pull himself together. He hovered in mid-air and coughed blood out of his mouth as he checked his jaw to see if the damage he received was severe. It seemed that his jaw was okay, but another blow like before might actually break his jaw.

“RRRAAAAA!!!!”

The Sword Titan looked down and saw the War Titan flying towards him at high speed with a fierce expression on his face. It was almost as if the beast within the War Titan was raging out of control and made Nara to chase after him as its prey.

Dominic swing his sword around and aimed it towards Nara before he said, “Raining Blades.”

In an instant, magic circles appeared beneath the sword and swords began to emerge out of the magic circles. In a matter of seconds, a rain of swords was unleashed and they soared towards the raging warrior, who was flying straight at them.

 The War Titan was surprised and he was attacked relentlessly by them as they cut his clothes and wounded his body. Dominic never fought to kill, so his swords simply struck the War Titan and caused a bruise to appear with blood seeping out of it. The rain of swords lasted several seconds like that until the War Titan recovered to retaliate.

“AAAAHHHH!!!”

He roared and caused a shock wave to hurl the raining swords away from him before he looked up at the more swords charging straight down at him. Grinning broadly, he clenched his fists tightly and began to unleash fist after fist after shouting the technique name out loud.

“Infinity Fists!”

Nara’s movement was suddenly increased dramatically and he became faster than efore as he delivered fist after fist at each and every sword that soared at him. The swords shattered into countless pieces upon making contact with his fist while a wild blowing wind is released. Like this, the War Titan continued to destroy the raining swords and shocked Dominic, who was watching this in silence.

“He is insanely fast!” Dominic muttered with his eyes widened in shock. “Almost as fast as Lakshman!”

Nara destroyed several more swords and made a move to sweep his fist upward in an arc. As he did that, he unleashed a powerful force of wind and shock wave while he shouted the technique name out loud.

“Infinity Smash!”

The arcing force of attack swept through the air and destroyed all the swords in an instant. Even the magic circles were not spared as they were shattered and made to disappear into thin air while Dominic was buffeted by the unleashed force.

Dominic recovered just in time to see the War Titan reach his height and was about to deliver a powerful punch to Dominic’s face. Reacting quickly, the Sword Titan brought his sword up and blocked the attack just in time. The clashing forces caused a blinding flash of light to occur before sending both warriors flying away from each other.

Nara quickly recovered and flew towards Dominic as fast as he could while the Sword Titan managed to recover a moment later. Dominic managed to recover just in time to see the War Titan’s face up close and personal as the enraged warrior aimed to punch Dominic once again. Yet again, Dominic managed to evade him by sheer instincts that he had developed while training to be the Sword Titan.

After dodging the assault, Dominic swung his sword around and pointed its end at Nara’s face before shouting, “Sword Blast!”

The sword glowed momentarily before an energy blast was released and it smashed straight into Nara’s face. The War Titan was shocked as he recoiled from the attack as more energy blasts continued to smash into him. Like that, Dominic pushed the War Titan away and kept him at a distance, but not for long because Nara suddenly roared and deflected all energy blasts and knocked Dominic into becoming unsteady in the air.

The War Titan took this as an opportunity to try and attack him, but Dominic stopped him in his track by surrounding him with a lot of swords using Hurricane Blades. Nara got badly injured because he was not expecting such an attack, but it still made no difference as he used his energy to destroy them all.

As the wild blowing wind and shock waves knocked Dominic unsteady again, Nara raced towards him at top speed to not give him a chance to retaliate again. The Sword Titan saw him coming and realising he did not have the time to use any technique, he brought his sword up in defence to block Nara’s fist.

For a moment, Nara appeared to make contact with his fist against the sword, but he suddenly disappeared and reappeared in an instant. Due to his incredible speed, Nara had changed the course of his fist and managed to make direct contact against Dominic’s chest as he shouted the technique out loud.

“Infinity Smash!”

There was an instantons release of wild force that propelled itself against Dominic’s chest, which caused him to widen his eyes in shock. The next moment, Dominic was blasted away at an unbelievably incredible speed that had him fly over the continent and around the world before returning to the same location in a matter of several seconds.

As he returned from the other side, the War Titan swung around and delivered a powerful elbow smash straight into Dominic’s chest. That move stopped Dominic from flying any further, but it caused him to belch blood out of his mouth as his eyes widened even larger from the sheer shock and pain of the attack.

Nara followed his attack with another attack by clasping his hands together and bringing them down onto Dominic’s head, sending the vulnerable warrior plummeting towards the ground. Unable to stop his movement, the Sword Titan flew towards the ground at an unbelievable speed before smashing heavily onto the ground.

The force of impact was so strong that the ground exploded and released rocks that were sent in all directions by the wild blowing wind. As the risen dust slowly cleared, Dominic was seen lying onto the ground that had sunk several meters downward. He slowly groaned and slowly moved his body a little to experiment whether his body was far more badly damaged than he imagined it to be. Surprisingly, he felt only small pains in his body joints from smashing so hard into the ground.

“You are lucky your body is a lot stronger than what you imagined yourself to be,” said his Sacred Spirit in his mind. “Up until now, you’ve never had to fight so hard, so I’m sure it feels strange. Keep this feeling because it’s a reminder for you on how difficult it is to fight someone who is far stronger than you are and is not holding anything back against you.”

Dominic narrowed his eyes and asked sadly, “Did no one fight me so seriously? Master? Felix? Not even Lakshman?”

“Neither of them did and the Phoenix Titan defeated you quickly because he did not like harming his own friend,” replied his Sacred Spirit in a truthful voice. “No one, who cares about you, wanted to harm you in any way seriously because it hurt them to do so to begin with. As such, your true potential and battle strength was left to your own training and development from experiences you’ve seen so far.”

Dominic took a moment to digest that information and it stung him inwardly to think his friends had soft heart on him when he wanted them to fight him seriously. At the same time, however, he did not know how to find fault in them because it was unreasonable of him to request to fight against them in the first place.

“I suppose I should’ve taken my training into my own hands like I always did from when I was a kid,” muttered Dominic in a quiet voice. “I guess, I burdened them by telling them to fight me seriously when they did not wish to. There is no justice in my actions.”

“Yes, but remember it so that you will move forward to becoming stronger yourself,” said his Sacred Spirit in a supporting voice.

“Right…” said Dominic weakly when he suddenly heard a loud roar from somewhere above.

Dominic looked up to see the War Titan racing towards him at an alarming speed with rage completely shown on his face. Reacting quickly, the Sword Titan moved his body and got out of there just in time as the War Titan raced down and smashed his fist exactly where Dominic was lying before. It caused the ground to quake and sink even deeper as Dominic reappeared barely standing with his legs shaking a little as they slowly recovered from the shock.

Nara rose to his feet slowly and looked towards Dominic before he said, “I can see that you’re shaking. It seems fear of losing as finally settled in on you!”

Dominic grimaced and asked, “Fear? Me?” He laughed a little before he said firmly in a confident voice, “If justice is by my side, I will win.”

“Like hell you will!” Nara retorted and he disappeared to reappear instantly in front of Dominic.

The slowly recovering Sword Titan made an attempt to dodge him, but his slow movement made it no difficult for Nara to attack him. The War Titan’s first strike was to the gut followed by an uppercut that lifted Dominic into the air, but Nara grabbed him and began swinging him around before slamming him hard onto the ground. He began to repeat this cycle over and over for many times until he was satisfied.

Dominic found himself at the mercy of Nara as the enraged War Titan did his best to beat the living daylights out of the Sword Titan. Unable to retaliate, Dominic was wounded beyond anything he had ever faced throughout his life. He was losing a lot of blood and it was causing his vision to become hazy as he was smacked around like a ragdoll by the War Titan.

It took a minute to satisfy the War Titan from beating the Sword Titan up and he released Dominic and allowed the weakened man to stumble around groggily as if he was drunk. Blood was gushing out of every places on his body and mouth as his eyes became unsteady along with the rest of his wounded body.

Nara looked at him for a moment with cold eyes before taking a fighting stance and shouted, “Impact Smash!”

With the shout of the technique name, Nara released his fist and delivered it straight at Dominic’s face. A lingering light of reality made Dominic pull his sword up in defence to block the attack, but the force of the attack was so strong that it shattered the blade before making direct contact against his face.

The impact was so strong that Dominic was lifted into the air and he soared several meters away from his foe before crash landing. This time, he did not find the opportunity to stand up and remained, face down, on the ground with blood slowly spreading all around him. His bladeless sword lay beside him as the shattered blade pieces were scattered all around him.

The War Titan, who was breathing a little heavily with his own wounded body, stared at Dominic’s fallen form and smiled in satisfaction. He straightened up and shouted, “The Sword Titan has finally fallen!”

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Author's Note

Hello everyone and thank you very much for reading this chapter. I hope you liked the action packed sequential battle scenes that I managed to do for once in a while. I liked it as well and although there are things that are confusing in this chapter, please look forward to it in the next one. So, I hope that you will look forward to more as the story continues!

Also, almost 350th chapter coming up. So excited! If there's anything you readers want me to write at that time, please open up and comment. I'll try my level best to not disappoint you. :)