By the time that the five days were up, Sam’s destructive potential had gone up exponentially. He was still unable to blend his pure mana with his Dao energy, as that would reduce all of his achievements to nothing, but he had managed to layer it into his Justice is Best Served Cold skill, using it every other strike. That allowed him to both build up the power of the skill that was naturally there, as well as deal a greater amount of damage than he normally would have. His mana was still nothing like the mana that Gordanus possessed, and although he could truthfully say that it was “pure”, he was still far away from true purity. No matter what he did, it would always be tainted by a small amount of outside energy. Only when he grew to a level of power that allowed him to bend reality around him would he be able to overcome this effect.
At the end of the fifth day, he faced off against Gordanus once more, ready to show off everything that he had learned. The other man gave him a grin and then pushed off, unleashing a greater portion of his speed than he had shown thus far. The man was capable of moving at upwards of ten thousand miles per hour, or at least that was what he told Sam, which was over ten times the speed of sound. That was not even counting his teleportation abilities, which covered almost a quarter of an average sized planet. A lot of that was to do with his Dao, but it was still impressive regardless. Sam hoped that he would one day be this strong.
Sam ducked as the attack came flying in, but it was like he was moving in slow motion, and he was still clipped by the punch regardless. If Gordanus was this skilled with his bare hands, then Sam was scared to see how powerful he was with his sword. He had already gotten a taste of the man’s true skill when he had first come to this world, but he knew that Gordanus had depths that he would never see.
Sam sent his mana to his hammer and sent a strike clipping into Gordanus' chin, knocking the man off his feet. Before he could get his bearings, Sam started to teleport, driving his hammer into the man’s body, alternating his energy usage as he did so. Glowing red arcs of light mingled with the blue energy of his mana as he pummeled his opponent midair, and he finished off the attack with one final desperate strike, bringing it down like a thunderbolt onto Gordanus’ chest. He flew into the ground like a meteor, cracking the stone for hundreds of feet in every direction. Gordanus lay there for a moment and then got to his feet, raising one hand for Sam to stop. He raised one hand to his head, which was bleeding profusely.
“What was that skill?” Gordanus asked, seemingly lost.
“It was just my normal finisher move, but I mixed in my purified mana with it,” Sam replied, gratified at how effective the attack had been.
“You are a monster. You know that, right? At your level, I would never have been able to even scratch an E Ranker, let alone make them bleed, no matter how much their strength was suppressed. And I suspect that you have even more secrets hiding away.”
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“I don’t think I could ever beat you, even if I used all of my power,” Sam replied, truthfully. Even with the addition of his Dao Juggernaut skill, there was no way that he would even be able to defeat someone like Gordanus.
“You shouldn’t even have thoughts of such things. Most F Rankers would be kowtowing to an E Ranker, too afraid for their life. I could easily kill you, but it would actually require me to use a greater portion of my power than I have ever used on an F Ranker before. Your teleportation abilities would render you a pain to hunt down, unless I used my full speed,” Gordanus said.
“Well, at least I’m getting the most out of this training session,” Sam said, grinning.
‘That you certainly are. I believe that your lizard companion is waiting for your presence though before he launches the final assault on the natives of this planet. I have kept you for long enough. It is time to gain some more levels. With your degree of power, I have no doubts that you will be able to accomplish your goal, no matter how absurd it sounds.”
With that, Gordanus snapped his fingers, and Sam was teleported away to the bridge of Manarox’s ship, where the alien warlord was addressing his subjects. Upon seeing Sam, he smiled.
“You devious bastard! You always seem to show up when glory is to be had, and never when the fighting is tough,” Manarox said.
The other aliens trooped out of the room rapidly, and Manarox strode over towards Sam as they left.
“What can I say? I like it easy,” Sam jokingly replied. Both men knew the real reason that Sam was always turning up though, which was because of Gordanus.
The presence of an E Ranker on this planet must have been galling for Manarox, who was used to being the strongest man in the room at all times, but he dealt with it in his own way. Sam was already used to being in the ship, so he focused on Manarox instead.
“I assume that the war is wrapping up by now? Capturing those two portals should have made victory almost assured.”
“We are preparing for the final assault on the capital city of the enemy now. However, all of their strongest fighters are waiting there for us. Dozens of those Dao abominations, their king, and a host of high leveled fighters. It will not be an easy fight,” Manarox cautioned.
“When has anything worth having been easy?” Sam replied.
“Damn straight, Sam. Damn straight.”
The two men prepared for the battle over the next half hour, with Manarox suiting up fully and stocking up on supplies. The man took another sword with him, one of the other artifacts that he had stored in his trophy room. The sword was called Chrysaor, and was said to be far sharper than any other blade at its level.
Manarox had shown this off by slicing through the air, creating a vacuum that quickly filled in with a sharp retort. That little display had told Sam just how powerful the weapon was. However, it was very brittle, and on the off chance that it struck something that it could not cut, it would break. It was a very powerful weapon, but also a very balanced one too. It suited Manarox well. With the aid of its sharpness, he could launch razor thin attacks that would carve through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter.