As soon as Priest Davidson finished speaking and the duel began, I coated Sky’s Dream with my mana.

[Sword Arts: Rain of Blows]

Like with Lord Wilbur, I sent one hundred arcs flying towards Lord Asher in order to probe his defenses. Lord Asher observed the arcs of sword mana flying towards with a calm expression on his face. In fact, he looked bored and unimpressed.

Given that most cultivators couldn’t manifest weapon intent, let alone weapon mana, until they reached the high Foundation Establishment stage, or even peak Foundation Establishment stage, I was a little insulted.

Then again, since he had also manifested weapon mana, perhaps he was right to be unimpressed.

When the arcs of sword mana almost reached him, Lord Asher hefted his axe and swung it towards the ground. The moment the blade hit the sand, a massive burst of mana erupted from the contact point. The burst swept away the arcs of sword mana, before rushing right towards me, cleaving through the sand.

Ah. I was beginning to understand why Lady Diana and Lady Isabella looked at me with pity earlier, when I accepted this duel. Back on Spirit Earth, Lord Wilbur would have been considered a genius. Lord Asher, however, was a true genius. He swept away the same attack that had suppressed Lord Wilbur. The two were nowhere close to the same level. Compared to Lord Asher, Lord Wilbur was little more than a frog in a well.

My smile widened even further.

As the burst of mana rushed towards me, I considered whether I should dodge it or face it head on.

After thinking about it for a fraction of a second, I chose the latter option. After all, one of the reasons why I accepted this duel in the first place was to earn Clan Griffin’s respect. Besides, facing the burst head on gave me the opportunity to use one of the Foundation Establishment techniques that I knew, one that held a special place in my heart.

Back on Spirit Earth, when I first reached the Foundation Establishment stage, I developed three techniques as part of my contribution to the Celestial Sword Style. They were the first techniques I had ever created myself. Even when I became more powerful and outgrew them, I kept refining those techniques, perfecting them as my knowledge and experience increased. This remained true even after I achieved immortality and reached the heavens. They were that special to me.

I took a stance, before moving Sky’s Dream in an underhand swing.

[Sword Arts: Split the Earth]

A wave of mana erupted from Sky’s Dream. Like with Lord Asher’s attack, it cleaved through the sand. However, it was thinner. Sharper. My wave collided with the burst, splitting it in half. The two halves of Lord Asher’s attack continued forward, rushing past me, before crashing against the stone walls of the sand pit. The stone must have been enchanted, since the walls remained undamaged.

When the dust settled, Lord Asher tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at me.

“Perhaps you’ll be a worthy opponent after all, Lord Gabriel,” he said in Spirit Tongue, before bowing to me. “My cultivator name is Black Iron Sunderer. May I have the honor of knowing your cultivator name, if you have one?”

Heh. His attack had been nothing more than him testing the waters.

Yes, this was definitely going to be a fun fight.

“My name is Celestial Thunder,” I said, returning the bow.

Lord Asher raised an eyebrow at that.

“An ambitious name,” he said.

I grinned.

“What are cultivators, if not ambitious? Why settle for anything less than the very heavens themselves?”

“True.” Lord Asher took a stance with his axe. “Now then, shall we begin in earnest?”

I adopted a stance from the Celestial Lotus Sword Dance Style.

“Yes,” I said. “We shall.”

A beat passed, before Lord Asher and I both burst into action. The two of us rushed towards each other.

[Sword Arts: Lotus Blade Dance]

As I ran towards Lord Asher, an illusory lotus made up of my silvery-violet mana formed all around me. The lotus blossomed, its petals turning into twenty seven blades comprised of sword mana, a massive increase from my previous limit of three. Controlled by my will, the blades of sword mana flew through the air, shooting towards Lord Asher.

Without breaking his stride, Lord Asher swung his axe. It felt like he was cleaving through the very air itself. His attack shattered several of them right away. Using the momentum of his first attack, Lord Asher followed through with a second attack, which shattered several more blades.

In less than a second, Lord Asher had destroyed a third of my sword mana blades.

The rest hit Lord Asher himself just as I reached him, but none of them managed to pierce through his shield spell. Rather than destroy the rest, Lord Asher ignored them and focused on me.

He swung his axe in my direction. There was a weight to his attack, a heaviness that I hadn’t noticed until now. It felt like his blow had the weight of the earth behind it. My intuition told me that if I tried to block this attack head on, I would regret it. However, I couldn’t dodge it without losing momentum.

If I couldn’t dodge or block the attack, then I just needed to deflect it.

I placed Sky’s Dream between the axe’s blade and myself, angling it to redirect most of the force behind Lord Asher’s attack away from me. When axe met sword, sparks flew as the two weapons ground against each other. A horrible screeching filled the air.

Even with me redirecting most of the force behind the blow, it felt like I was facing the weight of the world. It wasn’t easy to keep hold of Sky’s Dream. With a heave, I pushed Lord Asher’s axe away, before retaliating with an attack of my own.

Lord Asher moved to try and blow my blow, but I was too fast. Sky’s Dream struck his body. I attacked him with the blades of sword mana at the same time, hitting him from all angles. Despite this, Lord Asher’s shield spell held. Hell, it wasn’t even all that damaged.

Before I could attack again, Lord Asher retaliated, forcing me to dodge. We exchanged several blows like this: me dodging or deflecting his attacks, while he blocked or endured all of mine.

He was like a mountain, solid and immovable. His blows were like an avalanche, overwhelmingly powerful.

I was like the mist, ephemeral and untouchable. My blows were like the rain, steady and persistent; with enough time, they’d be able to grind down any mountain.

Unfortunately, this particular mountain was proving to be more stubborn than most.

It had only taken me a few blows to realize that Lord Asher had used a specific kind of shield spell to deal with me. Unlike the standard shield spell, this one specialized in protecting against slashing and piercing attacks. I would break through if I kept chipping away at it, but that would take too long.

Tch. Damn it. I hated it when my opponents fought smart.

At the moment, we were locked in a stalemate. If this went on, this would become a battle of endurance. Considering that I was up against a cultivator with an affinity for Earth, a body cultivator at that, it was just a matter of time before I lost.

In that case, it was time to change things up.

Lord Asher must have thought the same thing. With a yell, he stomped on the ground and a wave of force erupted out of him, throwing sand into the air. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it was enough to throw me off balance. Lord Asher took advantage of this opening to slam his shoulder into me. My shield spell protected me from any damage, but his attack still knocked me back.

Moving with the force of his blow, I “stumbled” back. Lord Asher swung his axe at me. I tried to deflect it with Sky’s Dream, but the angle was bad and my sword was “knocked” out of my hands. After disarming me, Lord Asher followed up with another attack, leaving himself open.

Perfect.

I could've dodged his shoulder earlier by using one of my movement techniques, but I decided to take advantage of his movements to create an opening. Without my sword, Lord Asher didn’t consider me as much of a threat, just as I wanted.

[Fist Arts: Explosive Fist]

An explosion rang out as my fist collided with Lord Asher’s chest with enough force to knock him back. His shield spell, which had resisted my sword attacks, cracked. Ha! It specialized in protecting against slashing and piercing attacks, but was weak to blunt attacks. This was why I preferred the standard shield spell, since it didn’t have any weaknesses like this.

Still, hitting Lord Asher with my fist felt like I was punching a mountain. It fucking hurt. Despite that, I kept hitting him over and over again with Explosive Fist. Both to shatter his shield spell, and to maintain my momentum. I hit Lord Asher over and over again, leaving him little time to react, each blow knocking him back.

When his shield spell reached the breaking point, I went for the finishing blow.

[Fist Arts: Explosive Fist Barrage]

I hit him with a chain of attacks, each one so close to the others that they all sounded like a single blow. Lord Asher’s shield spell shattered, the mana dissipating into the environment. At the same time, I attacked with my remaining blades of sword mana, which tore into his enchanted robes. Unlike his shield spell, his robes were just imbued with general defensive enchantments. They wouldn’t last long against my blades.

I was about to punch him once more, but then my intuition warned me that I was in great danger. Without hesitation, I leaped back and put some distance between us. At the same time, one of my sword mana blades struck Lord Asher’s body. A clang rang out, as if it had hit something metal.

Lord Asher grabbed the sword mana blade with his bare hand and crushed it. I looked closer with my divine sense and saw that his hand had turned dark gray, and was growing darker by the second. No. Not just his hand, but his entire body.

Soon, all of Lord Asher’s skin turned solid black. He looked like a sculptor carved from black stone.

Or cast from black iron.

To my divine sense, he seemed more like a living magical item than a flesh and blood person, like a construct or a golem.

“I can’t believe you forced me to use this, Celestial Thunder,” Lord Asher said, stretching his neck from side to side. His voice sounded normal, despite the changes to his body. “You continue to surprise me. I’m impressed.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

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“Is that an ability resulting from your body cultivation technique?” I asked.

Lord Asher nodded, before once more taking a stance with his axe.

“Yes,” he said. “This is the Black Iron Body Cultivation technique of Clan Griffin. Be honored, Celestial Thunder. Very few people get to witness it and survive.”

Interesting. Turning one’s body into metal like this wasn’t a common ability, at least not for Foundation Establishment cultivators. It was something akin to a divine ability, which required a cultivator to be at the Core Formation stage at a minimum. Even a reincarnated Immortal such as myself couldn’t get around this limitation; at least, not without paying a dear price for it.

Divine abilities were weird in general, and often broke the rules. Spells, mystic arts, and formations worked by utilizing the laws that governed reality to one degree or another. The most powerful of them directly invoked natural law. However, this meant that they were limited by those same laws.

By using divine energy, a cultivator could impose their will upon the universe, often bending or even outright breaking natural law. At first this was limited to the cultivator’s own body, but the more powerful they grew, the more they could bend the universe to their will. Cultivators who reached the Immortal Bone Creation stage, two stages below Demigod/Immortal Ascension, could even summon their own internal worlds and manifest in an area around them. These summoned internal worlds were called domains.

That’s what divine abilities were.

If Lord Asher wasn’t using a divine ability, then I suspected that he had a special physique that synergized with his Clan’s body cultivation technique, similar to how the Body of Poison technique interacted with Corie’s special physique. However, instead of poison, Lord Asher had cultivated a body of black iron, turning his body into the equivalent of a magic item.

I suspected that the rest of Clan Griffin also had this special physique, especially when taking Lady Diana’s cultivator name into account.

“Looks like I’m going to have to stop holding back, Black Iron Sunderer” I said. “I thought I could win this duel without resorting to spells, but it’s clear that that’s no longer the case.”

Lord Asher smirked at me.

“As I said earlier, I don’t need a handicap.” His expression turned serious. “Come at me with everything you have, and I will do the same for you.”

I liked Lord Asher. Despite how poorly our initial meeting went, I think he and I would get along quite well in the future.

The two of us faced each other for several seconds, neither one moving or saying a word. Then, almost at the same instant, we acted.

I launched several ranged attacks towards Lord Asher as he charged right towards me, moving even faster than before. Each step of his impacted the sand with tremendous force. I guessed that changing into that form increased his strength and speed, as well as his toughness.

I sent a thousand arcs of sword mana toward Lord Asher in the blink of an eye, using Rain of Blows. It took a good amount of my remaining mana, but now was not the time to hold back. I was going all in. I also summoned and launched several Lightning Lances, as well as a Wind Blade Barrage.

Meanwhile, Lord Asher summoned a shield spell as he continued to rush towards me, even as a storm of mana descended upon him. It appeared that he wasn’t even going to try to dodge my attacks.

As the first of my attacks reached him, Lord Asher swung his axe and launched a massive wave of axe mana. It looked similar to my sword mana arcs, but instead of several smaller arcs, he just launched one big one. His wave swept most of my attacks and spells away, as if they were little more than annoyances. The remaining ones impacted against his shield spell, damaging it.

Lord Asher’s wave continued towards me. I leapt over it, before running towards Lord Asher. The two of us charged towards each other. Even as I ran, I continued to launch spells and ranged attacks at Lord Asher. This included harassing him with my flying blades of sword mana. He blocked the ones he could, smashing them to bits, and endured the ones he couldn’t.

I noted which attacks Lord Asher blocked and which ones he let through. He endured my Air spells, but blocked the Lightning ones. Interesting. I’d save that for later, when it came time to end this fight.

Just before we reached each other, I used one of my trump cards.

[Mist Arts: Beguiling Mist]

I breathed out, covering the area around us in a thick fog. Now that I had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, my Beguiling Mist could now affect the spirit sense of a Second Circle wizard/Foundation Establishment cultivator, though it had no effect on me.

Lord Asher swung his axe, aiming for where I had been, but I had already circled around him. I attacked from behind with a thrust. Lord Asher must have had good instincts, because he managed to block my attack with the haft of his axe. However, before he could retaliate, I disappeared back into the mist.

I repeated this pattern several times, using the mist as cover. I would attack, before retreating right away. With the mist messing with his senses, Lord Asher couldn’t strike back. At the same time, I used my sword mana blades to harry and harass him. I would have used spells, but they would have dispersed the mist.

Little by little, I whittled down Lord Asher’s defenses. My constant attacks shattered his shield spell, leaving him exposed and unable to cast a new one. They also tore his enchanted robes to shreds. I guess his robes weren’t created with repeated, continuous attacks in mind. Despite this, my attacks seemed to have little to no effect on Lord Asher’s body. That black iron body of his could take a beating.

“Enough!” Lord Asher yelled out after one of my sneak attacks.

With a roar, he swung his axe around and summoned another massive wave of mana. It tore through the mist with ease, dispersing most of it.

Tch.

That was the problem with Beguiling Mist. It was too fragile. In that case, it was better to strike hard and fast while I still had the chance.

[Sword Arts: Illusory Strike]

Keeping to the little bit of mist that remained, I created four illusory copies of myself out of mana, before we all emerged and attacked Lord Asher at the same time. Faced with five identical opponents, Lord Asher was forced to guess which one was the real me. He swung his axe, destroying two of the copies, allowing the rest through.

I took advantage of Lord Asher’s momentary distraction to get in close and use one of the sword arts that I had created. I doubted that slashing at Lord Asher’s skin would do much good, so I wanted to see if I could break through it instead.

[Sword Arts: Pierce the Sky]

Putting as much strength into it as I could, I aimed for Lord Asher's chest with an upward thrust. My sword hit his body and sank into it a little. Lord Asher let out a pained yell.

Ha!

While it wasn’t much of a wound, it was proved that Lord Asher could indeed be wounded in this form. However, when I tried to pull Sky’s Dream free, it didn’t budge. It was stuck inside Lord Asher. I let go of it almost immediately, but that moment’s hesitation cost me. Lord Asher swung a fist, hitting me square in the chest.

His blow sent me flying, almost shattering my shield spell. It was like getting hit by, well, a giant made of metal. One more attack like that, and I was done for. And that was just his fist. If his axe hit me, I wouldn’t survive.

I tumbled back, before using the momentum to roll onto my feet. Lord Asher pulled Sky’s Dream out of his chest and tossed it aside, before chasing after me. The sight of a giant metal man coming at me with an equally giant axe was rather terrifying, I’ll admit.

Rather than wait for him to reach me, I charged towards Lord Asher. One again, I launched a constant barrage of attacks at him, relying wholly on spells now since I didn’t have Sky’s Dream on me. As before, he blocked my Lightning spells while tanking the others.

As we reached each other, I drew my fist back, as if I were about to punch Lord Asher, before switching tactics.

[Lightning Arts: Lightning Flash]

I dashed to the side, before coming up from Lord Asher’s flank. The sudden change caught him off guard, allowing me to get inside his reach before he could react.

[Claws of the Storm Dragon]

I coated my hands with two claws made up of my mana. They crackled with lightning. The smell of ozone filled my nose. I leapt up and latched onto Lord Asher, gripping him with my claws. The moment I touched his metal skin, I unleashed Lightning using all of my remaining mana. It wasn’t a spell or a technique. I channeled raw magic into Lord Asher’s body. He screamed as my Lightning tore into him.

When he blocked my spells earlier, I guessed that Lord Asher’s black iron body had a weakness against Lightning magic. It was a risk to gamble the entire duel on this guess, but it was one I was confident in.

Despite the pain he felt, Lord Asher didn’t give up or fall right away. He dropped his axe and grabbed me, pulling me into a bear hug. In his position, I would have knocked my opponent away, but maybe he didn’t have the strength to continue the duel. In that case, this was his last ditch attempt to win.

Lord Asher crushed me even as I electrocuted him with my Lightning magic. It was a contest of endurance now. Whose body would give out first? His or mine?

With his strength, Lord Asher easily shattered my shield spell before he started to grind my bones and crush my flesh. It was agonizing. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like he was squeezing my lungs. I coughed, spitting flecks of blood into Lord Asher’s face. My vision started to go dark from the pain and the lack of oxygen. Despite that, I continued to tear into Lord Asher with my magic.

And then my magic fizzled out as my mana ran dry.

Fuck.

Well, this was it.

I gave it my best, but it wasn’t enough.

Without magic I wasn’t a match for Lord Asher, since he beat me when it came to raw physical prowess.

Better luck next time.

I opened my mouth to forfeit, using whatever little air I had left, so Lord Asher didn’t kill me. However, just as I did so, I realized that he wasn’t squeezing me any more. He maintained a hold on me, but he was no longer crushing my body against his.

I looked into Lord Asher’s eyes. He stared forward, his eyes unfocused. Oh. So that’s how it was. The lights were on, but no one was home. Lord Asher had fallen unconscious.

Realizing what this meant, I pushed against Lord Asher to break free from his grip. It took a lot of my remaining energy, given his insane strength even while unconscious, but I managed to free myself. I landed on my feet, before my legs buckled and I fell to my knees. Lord Asher, on the other hand, swayed on his feet before falling onto his back. He hit the ground with a thud, throwing up a cloud of sand.

I sucked in a breath. It hurt, thanks to the damage to my lungs, but the air tasted sweet despite the pain.

“I guess that means I win,” I said, my voice raw and raspy.

As soon as I finished saying that, I started coughing up blood. Pain racked my body.

“The winner of the duel is Lord Gabriel Sturm of House Sturm,” a voice rang out. It sounded like Priest Davidson’s.

Oh right. We had an audience. I had been so focused on fighting Lord Asher that I had forgotten about that.

“Gabe!” Annabelle’s voice rang out.

Gabe! Aurora said, her voice in my mind.

A moment later, Annabelle embraced me, her vanilla scent filling my nose. I let out a groan. As much as I loved Annabelle’s touch, I was in an immense amount of pain right now. Aurora flew around us, fussing over me.

“Oh shit,” Annabelle said, pulling back. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s…fine,” I said, giving her a grin.

Rather than looking reassured, Annabelle looked even more worried.

“We’d believed that,” Aurora said, speaking out loud, “If you weren’t coughing up blood and covered in bruises,” she said.

I looked down. My familiar was right. The upper areas of my torso were covered in nasty looking bruises.

“I’ve endured worse,” I said.

“So?” Annabelle said. “That doesn’t lessen the pain you’re feeling now. Don’t belittle your injuries.” She looked off to the side. “Will you take a look at him, Priest Davidson?”

I followed her gaze. Aside from Annabelle, who knelt in the sand next to me, a few others had joined us in the sand pit. Priest Davidson knelt next to Lord Asher, healing him with his Holy magic. Lady Diana stood next to him, a concerned expression on her face as she looked down at her son.

“I can’t, Lady Annabelle,” Priest Davidson said, a grim look on his face. “Despite his appearance, Lord Asher is in critical condition. He is suffering from severe internal damage. Lord Gabriel’s injuries, on the other hand, aren’t life threatening.”

Annabelle opened her mouth to respond, but I touched her arm and shook my head.

“Here,” Father’s voice said. “Take this.”

I looked to find Father standing next to me. He held out a vial containing a mid-grade healing potion in his hands. I took the vial, which took considerable effort on my part, before downing its contents. I felt the potion take effect right away. It wasn’t enough to heal all of my injuries, but at least I could breath without pain now.

Aurora flew into my dantian to do what she could from the inside.

Tsk, she said. Next time, don’t get into a wrestling match with a Griffin.

Father walked over to Lady Diana and held out another mid-grade healing potion towards her. She gave him a suspicious look.

“Consider it a gesture of goodwill, Lady Diana,” he said.

She studied him for several more moments, before she nodded and took the potion. She handed it to Priest Davidson, who used it as part of Lord Asher’s treatment.

“Thank you, Lord Sturm,” Lady Diana said. “Though I have to ask, do you always carry around spare healing potions?”

Father nodded.

“Yes.” He glanced back at me. “My son has a distressing habit of disregarding his own safety.”

“Hey!” I protested. “No, I don’t.”

My protests fell on deaf ears and they ignored me.

“I trust that this matter is over and done with,” Father said in a deceptively calm voice. “And that we no longer have to worry about House Shelton?”

Lady Diana narrowed her eyes at him, before nodding her head.

“Yes,” she said. “It is.” She sighed. “I apologize, Lord Sturm. If I had known that they would take it this far, over a cat of all things, I would have intervened sooner.”

I glanced over at the people in question. They remained in their box, staring down at us with perturbed expressions on their faces. Lord Wilbur, in particular, wore a look of complete disbelief on his face. It was as if his entire worldview had been completely shattered. Good. Maybe he’d learned something from this.

The old man, Unyielding Resolve, wore an inscrutable expression on his face. My intuition told me that unless House Shelton rid itself of its arrogant attitude, the rift between them and House Griffin would only grow worse.

Ah, well. That had nothing to do with me. It was none of my business.

“Good,” Father said, giving Lady Diana a smile. “In that case, we shall take our leave. It is late, and my son has been through a lot. He needs his rest.”

Lady Diana nodded.

“I shall send a retainer with Lord Gabriel’s prize tomorrow.”

“Good. You have a good night, Lady Diana.”

“You as well, Lord Sturm.”

With Annabelle supporting me, I stood up and followed my family towards the arena’s exit. I may have leaned on her more than I needed to. Annabelle noticed and pulled me tighter against her body.

“May accompany you, Lord Sturm?” Lady Thorne said, coming up beside Father. “Given that we’ll be in-laws soon, I feel like our families should get to know each other better.”

“Of course, Lady Thorne,” Father said with a smile. “I would be honored.”

The two of them talked as we left House Griffin’s arena and this particular matter with House Shelton came to an end.