The man let out a loud belch and took another swig from his bottle, only putting it down after he realized it was empty. He threw the bottle towards the cave, letting out a fraction of his true power in a fit of apathetic rage. The bottle caught on fire as it flew, shattering into a million pieces as it hit the wall. That was not just hyperbole. It truly was turned into a cloud of microscopic specks. The wall behind it cracked, and Gordanus let out a pain filled laugh. Sam eyed the man apprehensively. If the E Ranker lost his temper, it would not end well for him. However, Gordanus was more composed than that, and the man reined in his drunken anger.

“I apologize for that display,” he said a few minutes later, after cleansing his system with a skill. A wave of golden light had coursed across his body, presumably removing the alcohol. Sam had no idea how strong a drink would have to be to affect someone as powerful as Gordanus, but it was clearly something that would be fatal to a mortal. “I wish that you did not have to see that. However, it is too late for that. The anger was not directed at you. Rather, I feel that your departure comes too soon. There is so much more of your potential that could be unveiled.”

The man lapsed into silence, telling Sam that there was some underlying reason for his behavior. Perhaps Gordanus had lost a promising student in the past. After all, he was quite old. He looked to be in his mid forties, but such things were highly deceiving among the higher rankers. He was at least a few centuries old, if not older. Most people in E Rank and above were thousands of years old, mainly because they were content to rest on their laurels.

The Enlightened and Ascendant tiers were known as the Graveyard of Titans for the near impossibility of progression, as well as the temptation to stay put. When one could live hundreds of thousands of years, it might seem easy to let the years fly by. However, progressing in those ranks took eons, and eventually time would run out. Immortality was possible, but nobody knew what rank it happened at, at least nobody that Sam knew. It was likely B Rank or A Rank though.

“I am sorry that I have to leave, master. I had no idea that you had feelings like that for me,” Sam said, trying to cheer up his mentor somewhat. The man let out a wry laugh, and looked over at Sam.

“If you still have a tongue like that on you, perhaps it's time to show your teacher everything that you have learnt. What do you say about that? A fight against the unfettered might of an E Ranker. If you can even withstand my aura, that is. I will only use my stats.”

Before Sam could say anything, a presence erupted into being beside him. It felt like he was sitting beside a primal god, a being capable of wiping him out with a thought. Auras could be deceiving, but Gordanus was still incredibly strong.

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Sam looked at the man, seeing a pillar of light instead of a person. Its edges seemed to bleed off a concentrated conceptual aura of the Sword into the air, and Sam could feel the oppressive energy of a high tier Dao. He pushed back with his own aura, managing to clear a tiny space around himself. With a surge of motion, Gordanus moved, faster than Sam could even think. Only his reflexes saved him, and as a blurry shape whistled towards his head, spacetime opened up in front of him, sending Gordanus’ fist into the ether. It was something that Sam had not tried before, and a moment later, the portal opened up behind Gordanus.

Rather than punching himself in the head however, the man showcased the supreme bodily control of a high level being, and stopped the strike before it went anywhere near his head. Laughing, Gordanus stomped the ground. Fissures spread outwards, and the ground started to tremble. With a single step, he had triggered an earthquake. Sam knew that Gordanus was directing most of his power into the world around him, rather than at Sam. He might have been telling the truth about using his full power, but if he had actually directed that at Sam, he would be nothing more than a smear on the ground. The man was more showing off than anything else.

Sam sent all of his enhancements into overdrive, filling his body with power. As Gordanus moved again however, Sam realized that it made no difference. His movements were still too fast to see.

He gathered power to his hammer and met the incoming strike with his own, only able to do so because Gordanus aimed for the weapon rather than Sam. With a shockwave, Sam was blasted off his feet and into the wall, his armor heating up from the air pressure. Sam crashed into the wall like a meteor, and his bones almost broke at the impact.

Gordanus was regulating his power well however, and a strike that should have killed Sam only mildly injured him. It seemed that the man was really looking for Sam to show him his newest skill. In any case, he was only too happy to oblige. It was the only way he might do anything to his smug mentor.

With a grimace, Sam summoned the light of his purified mana to his hammer, coating it with his Dao energy. As the caustic mixture of power gathered in his weapon, he teleported to Gordanus’ side, swinging his hammer. Rather than evade, the other man simply held up one hand. The hammer came down, and the world vanished for a moment, whited out by the power unleashed by the simple strike.

The air boiled around Sam, and he fought to keep a hold on his consciousness. The cave floor turned to gravel, and Gordanus was pushed down. While the E Ranker was too tough to be moved much, the rock beneath him was not. The entire cave started to shake itself apart, and Gordanus laughed, his voice barely audible above the din.

The man withstood the full strike, only suffering a small wound on his arm from it. With a chuckle, he pushed Sam’s hammer away effortlessly, as if the damage that had been dealt to the cave did not exist. The various training apparatuses around the cave were crushed, but seeing as Sam was leaving soon, it mattered little. Gordanus sat down on the fractured ground, and beckoned for Sam to sit with him.

“That was good,” Gordanus said.