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Chapter 514: Breakthrough
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“Hah!”
Along with the surprise attack, the Killing Zone was also triggered and if this attack hits Ares, it will definitely hurt. Ares’s instincts kicked in and he smiled. It was a smile not visible to Siva, but is as clear as day to the spectators outside the battle stage, watching from far away.
In this place… Siva was in fact the weakest.
That’s why Mohindra was actually very worried.
His yellow aura erupted and the Mana surging on his body formed a sphere that protected his head from being smashed by the Fire Sword.
The flames engulfed the Fire Sword and its body was now like molten lava —as red and as orange as the fires beneath the earth.
The [Fire Sword] was a weapon that multiples its cutting edge and defense-penetrating ability by at least twice when it was ‘fired’ like this.
It was already a Legendary-grade Weapon on its rawest form and when imbued by Fire, it becomes even more of a scary weapon.
C-CLANG!!
—and yet it was bounced back like it had a spring when it touched the yellow Mana-aura.
The follow-up attack of the Avatar of Fire was also blocked and the delay on the hit was the strength and weakness of the Dragonator.
It followed the actions of the user like a persona.
Two sounds of something metal hitting solid rock was heard and Ares shouted, “That’s weak!” then followed with a back handed punch to the person behind.
SWOOSH!
His attack hit empty space….
Siva was already in front of him, on his blind side, a falling slash to Ares’ unprepared back.
“Still weak!” two words full of delight and disdain rung and the back punch Ares released morphed into a twirl to his left foot, his body now becoming a mini tornado that lasted only a moment’s instant.
In just 1/5th of an entire second, the sword slash that should have wounded him was met with a light tap at the side. The follow up attack of the fire avatar was ignored as it hit the Mana-aura that protected his body.
Then, the same hand Ares used to tap away the trajectory of the slash arched and formed sword-fingers with his index and middle fingers.
He stabbed through the air going towards Siva’s face, followed by Ares taking a step forward —it was a fencing thrust and Cortana’s uploaded collection of “Sword Arts” into his brain couldn’t help but to recognize this movement.
Siva twisted his body to avoid it at the last instant, taking this chance to vanish and teleport away. His chest couldn’t help catching his breath as he felt pain on his cheek.
Although he escaped the worst-case scenario, he was still slightly stabbed by the aura on Ares’s Sword Finger attack.
The Avatar of Fire was useless against Ares but it was still useful in at least distracting him and also boosting the Fire Sword’s passive abilities.
A moment later, another tidal wave of aura came and Ares was already in front of him, a wind tunnel followed him from behind.
His palm descended on his face and it covered all of Siva’s vision, the shadowing horror of the might behind it frightened his soul and he defended out of reflex.
The Fire Sword met the Palm Strike of the Dragon King and Siva was thrown off his feet towards the edge of the battle stage in an instant.
SWOOSH!!
With a ripple in space he appeared in the air right above the battle stage. Siva pointed his left index at target and two sharp Dáinsleif bullets traveled the distance in an instant, hitting an invisible aura-shield in front of a surprised Ares.
His eyes went wide at the dent on the shield but it was still able to hold on so he laughed at it.
“Good! That’s the spirit!”
There was no follow up attack from the Avatar of Fire because it can’t ‘copy’ projectile attacks, only ranged-melee —any weapon that Siva held.
Ares jumped, a crater left on his wake below.
Siva vanished again and appeared beside Ares, a diagonal sword slash towards his flank.
Ares twisted and tapped the sword’s trajectory for the second time and then countered with a palm using his other hand carrying the ocean-like tidal wave of Mana going straight at Siva’s face.
Siva’s scalp numbed and he arched his head for a dodge, vanished, and then appeared behind Ares again, 240m away, firing another two rounds of Dáinsleifs. Another clang. Defended. But he didn’t dare to linger on as he saw Ares’s face just a few meters away from him, the bullet marks hitting his passive aura-shield resembled fireworks as they were shattered into multiple fragments by the sheer momentum of Ares’s aerial charge.
The horizon behind them stretched on diagonally, Siva cried out and faced the palm strike with his own palm strike.
Lightning flashed and thunderclap followed, the two parted ways in midair from the force of their clash.
But of the two, Siva had it worse.
He immediately drank a Red Potion and spat the vial towards the already charging Ares from down below. Behind him were the big shattered chunks of tiles of the battle stage —the aftermath of his quick movement that warped space that forcefully created a tunnel of flying debris.
—what use is this stage then?!!
Ares’s one step quickly cut the distance between them and so a tunnel was made, the aftermath of the lift vacuum force generated when trying to catch up to his jump. It uprooted every tile of the battle stage and actually completely decimating it.
Ares’ wife who was always calm, face-palmed but Mohindra and the rest wore expression of worry as they knew that this was merely 10% or so of Ares’ total capabilities.
He was just trying to test Siva’s limits.
******
Siva exhaled, “Hup!” and made a downward slash again, vanished, and emerged right in front of the approaching Ares.
“This sudden vanishing and appearing was really a surprise trick but once you know how it works, it becomes nothing more than a party trick.”
How could such words be delivered in complete full in mere moments before a strike lands to the target? And yet, Siva clearly heard such words in an absurd situation that can only happen within a fight scene on “all” animes.
—————TAP——
AGAIN?!!
It was another gentle tap and Siva’s sword path was diverted into another direction… again.
A palm, so much faster than the earlier ones Ares unleashed, met Siva’s abdomen and he was shot diagonally upwards even more.
His world swirled from the pain and the impact.
This was a Neutral Zone so no matter how much he got beaten up, he could never die.
But unlike Safe Zones where pain was also taken away, Neutral Zones will still have pain enabled so Siva —who’s always been 100% able to feel all the pain this virtual world could bring— was in an even more agonizing situation.
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Not even a beat later, Ares’ booming step in the wall of air was heard and another palm strike was on its way to Siva’s face.
—No!
His mind screamed and he pushed the Fire Sword in front of him, meeting the attack.
BANG!!!
Siva fell like a meteor, smashing right into an unsuspecting hill 400m below.
The hill got smashed like a brick mansion with the crater stretching out as big as 100m wide. Cracks on the soil around it webbed and Siva bounced through the dirt and debris, towards the hand of the waiting Dragon King who landed with yet one of the audible loud bangs in the ground.
—fast!!!
Siva felt utter rage. The difference between him and a Dragon King was so absurdly large that it’s really irritating. He dearly wished that he was at least strong enough to touch even just a hair on the guy.
Bounce~! Bounce~~!! Bounce~~~!!!
Siva bounced four times towards Ares who then spoke the words that, again, were clearly heard on his mind in its complete form despite the entire thing being just moments in expanse.
“If you think this is enough to make me recognize you, then I am deeply disappointed and truly feel that killing you now is no different than the demons killing you later. You truly are so weak, it’s pathetic. You know, to tell you honestly, Balaam and Ajora are the supposedly next Dragon Kings of the Hydralisks and the Lao Shans. How do you suppose to stand up to them with your meager strength?”
Siva’s mind went haywire at the words. He knew it was purely provocation but it still touched his ego and also his pride. And it was actually the truth!
What more, the words he said at the end made an impact on his consciousness.
Balaam and Ajora…
Pontifex Balaam of the Bloody Church is actually the Dragon King Candidate of the Hydralisks…
And then…. Ajora…
That scheming witch with a gentle and motherly presence and disposition, according to Kyle’s extracted memories and Metheus’ Intel… was actually the next Dragon King for the entire Lao Shan Dragon Clan…
This shocking piece of news jolted his mind and Siva thought that Gabriel wouldn’t stand a chance if the two of them attacked together.
If Gabriel falls, then there’s no one else that will threaten the Bloody Church.
If that happens, then the Bloody Church, working with The Union, will also threaten Baron’s safety.
—no!
In fact, they already are.
Unless he unified the Inner Continents to have a single unified purpose on eradicating the Bloody Church along with a definite target and a plan at the very least, then he could still afford planning how to enter Dakar while slowly taking his time in preparing for the battle nine months later.
But the Inner Continents aren’t unified with a plan for a single purpose yet so he can’t relax.
If he could pull the Saipan Dragon King to his side and make him understand his goal, then he would have an easier path towards securing the forces of the Inner Continents and erasing all spies of the Bloody Church in their ranks, thereby making it easier for him to share the plans he had for the future of Terroa… especially plan on how to deal with the Demons and the invasion nine months later on.
He cannot be defeated here!
Gritting his teeth thru the pain of being smashed into a hill and actually shattering it, Siva twisted his body and threw the Fire Sword towards Ares.
The Dragon King easily dodged it and smiled as he grabbed —or was about to— Siva by the neck.
His eyes went wide as he reflexively raised his left arm, blocking the Fire Sword held by another “Siva” who wore the same set of armor as him.
“This is…”
His aura unleashed, scanning the second Siva and discovered that he too, just like the “Siva” in front of him, didn’t contain any signs of life.
At that moment—
BANG!!!
A blunt impact resounded as Ares’s feet was lifted ever so slightly from where he stood, the God Hammer and its orange aura-drowning wielder had hit him on his body.
Siva didn’t relent and space rippled, two bullets from Dáinsleif hit the invisible barrier again but the smile on Ares’ didn’t wane despite the shock and the hit —he only beamed wider.
VANISH—!!
The “Second Siva” on his left disappeared and in its place were four Lightning Bombs, exploding with a flash of light and a thunderclap later on.
For a Dragon King, this was nothing more than a momentary flash of light —a distraction— and his instincts told him that Siva was going to attack his head from above and behind.
T-DANG!! T-DANG!!!
The weapons, Fire Sword and Mjolnir, almost hit at the same time followed by their Fire Avatars also doing the same actions with their materialized ranged-melee attacks. Though it dealt minimal-to-negligible damage, it was still damage even so.
But Siva’s attack didn’t stop there for not even a half-beat later did another Vajra-quality Lightning Bolt hit Ares on his left side.
This threw him off his feet entirely.
—but only 100 meters away.
With a slight twitch and an air flip, Ares landed on his feet and took a step —BOOM!!!— he placed a palm on the “Siva” in front of him but just as his attack was about to land, “Siva” vanished and the body was replaced by a full swing hammer blow of a Siva bathing in orange aura-flames.
“Ah, I see. I understand now.”
With a slight twitch, the yellow Mana-aura around his body pulsed twice and two attacks were then blocked as well as neutralized.
Ares moved his body and grabbed the orange-aura filled Siva’s hand and tossed him towards the second Siva.
The act was so easy to the eyes yet happened so fast that Siva felt frightened by the casualness of his actions.
But he didn’t cower.
He had to use every card he had on his sleeves!
Six Lightning Flash Bombs exploded and cracks spread on the ground, covering their retreat —no, it only covered Siva’s retreat.
[Omni Strike] doesn’t work with Ares but perhaps it will once he goes faster than he was now.
With the NEO-BMA working as he moved, he held the «Black Dragon Sword of Triune» and then put the Godhammer as an extension; large and heavy parts connected and firmly solidified into a whole as the two weapons combined in an instant to be the «War God Axe» that was then affected by the Fire Avatar and materialized its own huge weapon as well as engulfing it with it Touch of Fire.
“Oh? Another trick?”
The entire thing happened in just an instant but it was still a completely profound problem for Siva as to how Ares was able to deliver a complete and utterly clear statement that fast.
Nevertheless, he didn’t stop and attacked.
[Focus] + «Kamaitachi»
The stance completed like it was second nature and Siva vanished.
“Ho?”
It’s not that Siva actually vanished, but he actually just entered God Speed —a realm of speed that he could only use for five seconds in his own time but only one second in the Primary Dimension.
The speed was really that fast that he vanished in an instant and took a step, appearing next to the Dragon King —only to hesitate halfway because his target who kept on smiling met his eyes.
“—how are you able to…”
Siva was really shocked. This was his greatest hidden trump card and yet the best it did was to be on par with Ares’ speed.
Then, if so, what about strength?
None of his attacks worked on Ares. Even those Lightning Bolts that Mohindra and the Vajra Escort Team painstakingly “gathered” for him could only push Ares a few tens of meters back but not fully make him frown or even as much as remove that beaming smile on his face.
Realizing this, Siva felt really insulted. Weak. He, once again, just like how Kyle made him feel this way during their fight, was made to realize how feeble he actually was in front of an overwhelming and absolute true power.
—I can’t accept this!
——no!
———no!!
————NO!!!
The slowing down slash accelerated and still went on to clash with Ares’ Mana-aura shield, leaving a smidgen of a scratch on its surface —just a grade away from the “dent” that the Dáinsleif can do on its yellowish gold surface.
A rattling sound occurred but «Kamaitachi» was already triggered so unless he completes the five preset slashes on this “granted ability” that it was meant to do, he couldn’t stop the attack but can still guide its trajectory.
Thus, Siva gathered his mind, focusing on guiding the sword slashes and putting over other layers of actions while he attacked.
His focus exceeded its past and his brain worked on a speed faster and more accurate than it was able to work before.
Lightning Flash Bombs, [Omni Strike], Vajra Bolt, Dáinsleifs, Bloody Mary Cannons, Hammer Blast, even the rarely used «Attention» ability of Naiki’s Scepter of Divinity, Siva used all his cards and he timed them all that Ares could only defend against his non-stop assault.
He wanted to maximize the five seconds of God Speed he had, ignoring the stress translated in all of this towards his body in the real world.
But he persevered with all the combinations of all of his trump cards, working them in conjunction with the [Omni Strike] skill of himself and his Neo-BMA… forming an endless color of barrage that’s as beautiful as it was deadly to their audience.
*****
Adrenaline pumped into his cells, making his body react faster than normal.
His body back in the real world received 3% of all the experiences of his game avatar. Right now, a “Siva” who had 900 stats —nine times that of any normal person— transferred 3% of all the stress, all the damages, and all the tension on his Terran Game Avatar towards his real world counterpart.
Like a curse, although “asleep” beside the sofa in the hotel room in the real world, he still received a little less than 30% of the work of a normal person who’s awake.
30% of a normal person was already enough to make any ordinary person perspire.
30% of a normal person’s work limitation was like exercising for 15 minutes. It was enough to make one burn calories to make them slim.
Although Cortana could choose to cancel the work-transfer to Siva’s body because it could lead to unavoidable calm-stress that could lead to even more serious medical complications, Rex gave her this command because he had already calculated everything with her help.
As such, with the 3% she could control of all the NanoMechs on his body, she used it all to, even as he sleeps while being online, he could also do exercises and still be as healthy as he can.
Currently, he was sweating and unknown to him, Amanda was already awake and she was worriedly looking at his sweaty body, fidgeting, and asking Lily all sorts of questions while communicating externally with Cortana.
When she learned that Siva was fighting a God-level existence, Amanda could only bit her lips as she knelt and held his hand, praying internally.
She didn’t know that the fight was just a duel——
*****
——but for some reason, Siva felt her touch and it helped him breakthrough a [limit] that he’d been stuck on so far.
He didn’t realize that he’s been attacking Ares for ten seconds already while maintaining [Focus] to that long a time.
Two seconds in the Primary Dimension later, the effect of the [Focus] stopped and Siva felt the backlash —the headache— that came after using [Focus].
Noticing the opening, the still ever smiling Dragon King moved faster than the speed he’d shown just before, delivering a ruthless palm strike at Siva’s chest that blew him back… six steps before Siva knelt and panted.
But the look in his eyes, however, was of a clear confusion and bewilderment.
Ares didn’t continue attacking.
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A Dragon King is this ridiculously strong…!!
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Next Chapter: A new race with old enemies….