Unable to touch the lava-clad Lux with his fists, Kairos retreated to a short distance away to reassess the battle, and he quickly found himself in a stump. Worse than fire, the moment he places his hands on the golem, the molten rock will flow onto his hand, easily burning through his two defensive techniques and Ki barrier.

Against harsh elemental energies, the Ki barrier is still the best type of protection, but without any martial technique to use with it, it just wasn’t enough to face the lava.

His other defensive techniques are impractical to defend against Lux. The Eternal Empyrean and his True Heavenly Armour are both powerful against impact and cuts. With the former specially made for combating physical effects while the latter, although good against all forms of attacks, it is made to nullify only a single blow. Moreover, after his battle with Calculus, his True Heavenly Armour has not yet recovered.

Even his Formless defensive stance, which is now incorporated into the Eternal Empyrean, can only protect against combat techniques.

“HAH! Why don’t you hit me now?” The teenager gloated. The calmness Lux had before the fight came from his confidence in his golem armour technique, but for a moment, it was completely destroyed by Kairos’ unbelievable destructive power. Now that he noticed that he is no longer threatened by that same technique, he regained his confidence.

But when Kairos did not reply him, his gloating ceased at once, and his face turned grim again.

Lux had thought that without a way to strike him, his opponent would be panicking by now.

“Could he have another hidden trump card up his sleeves?!”

Shaken up once again, Lux secretly prepared a limited-use treasure that could guard against whatever attack Kairos has in mind. It is an expensive thing to use, worth a year’s expense for a middle-rank noble family, but he did not hesitate. It is only the three great noble families that could afford to give a blood-kin like Lux something as luxurious.

Kairos, not using his soul perception, truly did not notice what his opponent is hiding behind his back. But the strange expression on Lux’s face was enough to make him aware that there is something fishy happening.

With a smile on his face, Kairos looked at Lux directly, causing the latter to tremble involuntarily. Just his presence, honed from walking alongside death is enough to weaken the opponent.

“Swallow,” Kairos summoned his weapon with dramatic effect, his long twin-bladed polearm appearing by his side with a glow of blue frost and red flames.

After absorbing the many high-tier materials previously, the powerful weapon is already a step away from becoming a true immortal blade.

It's otherworldly presence caused Lux to waver once more and made Kairos grin wickedly.

“He does not seem to have much real experience.”

Hailing from the Steel Rose family, Lux had experienced plenty of combat, but this isn’t what Kairos is referring to. It is the lack of any life and death combat that Lux is so obviously led by the nose by his opponent.

For this reason, many of the experienced Adventurers would turn their noses at the Academy students, no matter what cultivation rank they attained. Often times, uncertainty only prove to be deadly in the savage wilderness.

If it were any of the members of Snowdrifts that faced the situation that Lux is in, they would be far calmer.

Of course, the condition is for them to be equipped with the same things Lux owns when facing someone like Kairos.

“If I cannot touch you directly, then I will beat you with my Swallow until you give up.”

“H… hah… A… a weapon like that cannot even scratch my Molten Walker…” Lux said in a way more akin to a prayer than a declaration.

In his mind, only a spear might be able to pierce through his armour, but even so, he does not have any confidence.

After all, Kairos had shredded his ‘Woodlands Guardian’ technique with his bare hands.

The fearful noble of the Steel Rose house crushed the talisman he was holding, and a strange power seeped into his body. The elemental affinity within him strengthened at once, becoming twice as strong as before. His technique, Golem body: Molten Walker, started enlarging. From its five meters height, it doubled within seconds, become a fearsome giant that cast great shadows down on his foe.

Kairos stood fearlessly before Lux. The size advantage had not given the latter any extra sense of safety. The silvery Swallow slowly infused with Kairos’ Ki, and the frost runes on its blade started shimmering.

Then before Lux could even react, Kairos has already moved next to him. Becoming far too large, the thick molten stone protecting Lux became the same things that restricted his movement, and he turned into a gigantic target.

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“No… Nooo!!” The young teen cried out desperately.

Kairos responded by unleashing the Formless Stance: Dance of the raindrops, sending out a large number of thrusts that prioritises speed over strength. However, his powerful Titan ranked raw strength still sent the Golem that Lux is riding in, hurling backwards. A being almost as large as a building smacked away by a single boy.

Kairos’ opponent is in no way, weak.

In fact, standing at Peak B rank, Lux is the top practitioner among the 14-years-olds.

Unfortunately, at this level, he is far weaker than Calculus in his Golden Dragon fusion even with the treasured talisman, and far from forcing Kairos to display his true abilities. The rare effect of affinity strengthening proved useless when used by a skittish amateur.

Although Kairos’ cultivation is only at Entry B, all his martial techniques are even more advanced than anything one of the Three Great Nobles, the Steel Rose house, could offer.

Lux stared at Kairos, dumbfounded and helpless.

He is already from one of the most ancient and prestigious families in the Empire. The resources he uses since young had all been top tiered items that even a single of the training pills, which he consumes daily, is worth enough to feed someone from the slums for a year.

The martial techniques he has, without saying, is exceptionally high grade. On Gaia, martial techniques had always been classified into Man, Beast, and Titan rank, each separated into Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Huang tiers. Not unlike the classification method for weapons, pills, or any materials.

Except for Titan Heaven tier skills, which is reserved for the royal family, the Three Great Nobles are the only families that have access to martial arts of all grades. And Lux, as a young, promising, member of his family were given the best Titan Earth Grade martial technique they could offer: Golem Armour Body. Needless to say, with this martial art, he is undefeated in his class of third-year students.

However, when he faced Kairos’ attacks, he could scarcely believe these are techniques from the mortal realm.

Lux has no idea just how correct he was; the techniques he is so overwhelmed to the point of awe and fear was taught to Kairos by Aisa, a Primordial Dragon, and Enki, a Celestial being.

However, even if Enki himself see how Kairos had been using his technique now, he would be immensely shocked.

The three movement techniques imparted to Kairos, for example, are executed so fluidly and at such fearsome speed that a B ranker could match a triple S ranker in battle in short bursts of speed. Kairos had made the techniques his own by concentrating all his strength for short spurts. During combat, having a greater speed can be lifesaving against superior opponents.

The deity’s original techniques are incredible, to say the least, especially when compared to what the mortal realm has, but it is insufficient for Kairos to battle a Guardian.

For Enki, the originator of those movement techniques, combat with other divine ones may last for months or even years, and he needs consistency and efficient energy usage in his skills.

The battle becomes a downhill fight for Lux after Kairos pulled out his weapon. The Swallow emanated a powerful cold from the Nine Heavens Frost Array that is engraved on it. The air turned heavy from just coming close to Kairos.

Now, with every strike, a biting chill will rush into the enemy, causing intense, searing pain, from the cold and freezing up the flesh that is wounded. The frost is like a venom that will slowly spread through one’s body that when applied enough times, it could be fatal.

Although the frost and fire effects were strong, Kairos never managed to use them to take down most of his previous foes. The material of his Swallow limiting the output of his runes played a factor, but it was mainly because those that he had fought in Saint Empire were far too powerful.

Lux, on the other hand, despite his Golem Armour Body found himself pursued mercilessly by Kairos.

The frost flowing out from the weapon turned the lava armour cold, and cause parts to break off like toiled earth with every hit.

The cumbersome defensive technique only allowed Kairos to easily chase Lux down, hammering relentlessly away and causing the latter to yelp in pain from the frost venom.

The Steel Rose noble’s inexperience quickly show. Instead of waiting for an opportunity to overturn the situation, Lux began to cower. Unable to get away, the boy quickly threw up his arms in surrender.

With this kind of opponent, Kairos’ eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment, and he turned away.

Without a word, he left for his next class. Talismans Creation. In fact, since their fight was completely one-sided and had not taken up much time he will reach rather early.

Long after Kairos was gone, Lux was still sitting on the ground unable to stop his body shivering. The armour he had been so confident with had completely broken.

At the auditorium, there are already a few members of the Snowdrifts, and Kairos joined them in conversation until the instructor arrived.

As usual, those of Kairos’ team were not mentioned during the roll call.

Then the instructor, a mountain of a woman, began to explain the class.

She spoke in a sweet and girlish voice, sounding far too petite for her size, “Class, we will be going through all the basic things needed to create a talisman today. At the end of this year, you will all be capable of creating your own talismans. Aren’t you excited?”

She paused and looked at every student. Suddenly, amongst them, she noticed a pair that was immersed in conversation with each other and had ignored her.

The instructor who is already a head taller than nearly any man Kairos had seen before, seemed to bulge and grow even larger in size. Then with a shouted in a fearsome, voice, rumbling like a beast’s growl, she silenced the entire class. Though it somehow still sounded feminine, it was much more commandeering than how the Orc King had barked orders.

Satisfied at the students’ reactions, she immediately smiled and continued with her lecture with the same small voice she was using before.

“… Is she bipolar?...”

Everyone wanted to ask this question, but they now gave her their full attention, especially the two rude students before.

Some people, after being reprimanded, they will learn all sorts of things. Respect, consideration and humility.

The instructor explained with great patience, even to those uninterested, “Talismans are treasures that make use of limited materials to create extremely powerful effects. Unlike artefacts that are meant to be reused, Talisman Masters aim to fully consume every material used in the creation to bring out the maximum potential of a runic formation.”

After saying so, she took out several items and placed them on the table before the students.

A bottle of beast blood, several pieces of yellowed paper, a paintbrush, and a small mound of spirit stones.

Then she asked the students, “All these items are needed to make a talisman. Which amongst them do you reckon is the most important?”