"Yes, I can speak. Are you afraid?" It grinned and asked him.
He replied confidently, "I am not afraid. Your intelligence makes no difference. Power is power. There is no need to be afraid of a weakling that can speak. I have met a lot of them today. In fact, I killed tens of thousands of them at once."
He is not afraid of the Viper but he has more reasons to be careful and cautious with it. It is not encouraging that it has intelligence. The dragon didn't have intelligence but it was able to use skills. He knew to expect skills from a monster that is rank 10 but the intelligence caught him off guard. It having intelligence could mean a lot of things that he doesn't know so he will be extra cautious with the Viper.
"You should be afraid. You should be very afraid because I am not some ordinary opponent that you will face. I am the last barrier, a wall created to be your end. You will go no further. No battle sage monkey can go further. So I will be the last opponent you face in this challenge and the next."
Soverick smiled, "So you're a barrier. Do you know that barriers break? Let us find out what can break you."
He doesn't consider the Viper a threat. His WORLD BREAKER can shatter the Viper but he doesn't want to use that because he wants to preserve the code that makes it up. But he has other tools at the ready to slowly chip away at the manifestation of the Viper in order to get access to its root concept which is the new law of order.
The Viper settled into a stance and narrowed its vertical pupils at him. It didn't move to stop him from attacking. It still didn't move when Soverick shot ten arc blades with his spear. The Viper stayed still until the ten blades reached it. Then its six arms moved in a blur of motion. The swords in its hands turned into an impassable wall that deflected the attacks. All ten arcs were redirected to slip by the Viper.
Soverick narrowed his eyes. The fast movement of the arms isn't confusing him. He saw something more than simple deflection. There is a power at play here that is more than just speed and skill but he can't tell what it is because he doesn't understand what he is seeing. He can see the mana but he doesn't understand them. It's like they are speaking to him in a different language.
Now he understands the struggle that the other competitors are going through by having to deal with a foreign world. He didn't have to go through this problem because he already spent some time analyzing the law of order of the sage before the competition.
He stretched forward his left hand to the Viper and invoked flames. He decided to use what he has gained to acquire what he lacks. He has already comprehended the law matrix of this world so he can use his Origin spells now.
Fire poured forth from his hands towards the Viper. The Viper didn't move until the attack came. Its hands moved again in a blur but this time, he shredded the attack. The flames hit its sword defense and couldn't pass through. They were torn to pieces, worn out, and scattered into the wind before his attack died down.
Soverick tried Earth then. Large Earthen spikes appeared from the ground and tried to impale the Viper but they were deflected by its blades. The spikes were far larger than the Viper. They ought to bury the Viper but they turned away when they come in contact with its swords. Even the ones that appeared beneath it only made it move out of the way a little. It's as if he could tell where an attack is as long as it is close to him.
The same thing happened to air and water attacks. Wind blades and water whips are disabled without much effort. Phantom weapons and gravity manipulations didn't work too. Anything that comes near the Viper gets resolved easily. It looks like skill and precision but Soverick could tell that there's more to it than meets the eye. He can also disable spells. In fact, he can stop people from using origin spells at all. But he can't do it like the Viper is doing.
He asked an unrelated question. "Why don't you move? Is that all you're going to do? Just stand there and block?"
"A wall doesn't move."
"It will move when it is broken down." He retorted.
The Viper smirked at him. "Why don't you make me move then?"
He snorted. He can see a pattern here. His opponents are always cheeky. They believe themselves to be unbeatable. The Ravens did it. So did the armored rhino and the dragon. But he is the one still standing. It is because he is better than them. They don't know it yet so they cat cheeky.
"I'll just have to enlighten this Viper." He said to himself before activating a move.
"WRAITH OF DEATH: DANCE OF THE SPECTRAL WIND."
Soverick decided to try something new that will push the limits of his opponent. He used the second move of his skill set. He waved his spear around his body. Nothing seemed to have happened from his actions but the Viper moved its entire body for the first time. It seems to be blocking some unseen attacks coming at it from every direction. Its swords clashed audibly with these numerous unseen attacks as if two metals are colliding.
Sparks appeared in the air due to these clashes. Small tears appeared in the location of the clashes and they surrounded the Viper as it weaved around blocking unseen attacks and creating more tears. These tears healed quickly but they were so much that it is difficult to notice them healing. They continued to increase in amount and threatened to overwhelm the Viper.