A strong wind was blowing across the entire arena.
The deep cracks that had been created by the previous clashes covered the entire battlefield like huge wounds.
At the center of this destruction, Lian and Seris stood several meters away from each other, for several minutes, they had fought without using their main skills.
Only with experience, only with raw power, so they could see how close they were to each other in terms of stats, and the result surprised both of them.
Their stats were far too close to each other, so close that neither of them could gain the advantage by using only raw power.
The mana around Lian suddenly exploded, purple lightning ran through his body, hundreds of sparks appeared in the air.
The sound of thunder echoed across the arena like the roar of a monster.
[ Thunder Calamity ]
Lightning covered his entire body, his muscles tightened, it was finally time to use this skill with its full power.
With the same amount of power that had been shown inside the simulator.
But at that exact moment... Seris also moved, she was not going to simply watch either, and she slightly raised her silver sword.
And finally, in this tournament, she used one of her skills.
[ King’s Breaker ]
No blinding light appeared, no huge explosion happened, but those who had a high understanding of mana immediately noticed the change.
Something around the sword blade had changed, it was as if the very concept of "defense" had become weaker against it, and that was when they understood that this was a skill that could ignore defense.
BOOM!
The first clash happened, Lian’s fist and Seris’ sword collided in the air, and a huge shockwave spread everywhere.
BOOM!
The second clash.
BOOM!
The third clash.
Seris attacked more accurately every time, and suddenly... a very faint sound could be heard.
Crack.
Lian frowned, a noticeable wound appeared on his arm, his opponent’s attack had managed to injure him!
After Cassius, now Seris had also managed to break through his Diamond Skin defense and directly hurt him.
"At this rate, this skill won’t be very useful in the future, I need to find a better one." he muttered.
Diamond Skin was already a Divine Rank skill, it had to be powerful, and it was, but he realized it was not absolute against geniuses like Seris, and that was dangerous.
He needed that defense against powerful enemies like this girl, not against a few useless normal monsters that he could kill with one punch.
But this was not the time for that, and Lian’s attention was somewhere else, he was analyzing.
This was how he always fought, he always analyzed his opponents during battle, at least the ones he could not defeat with only raw strength and had to use his mind as well.
His fist and her sword clashed once again.
"Her speed is lower than mine."
The next clash.
"But the timing of her attacks is better."
The third clash.
"No..."
The sword passed beside his face.
"It’s not just the timing." He started examining every movement Seris made.
Her steps, her breathing, the movement of her wrist, the movement of her shoulders, even the way she shifted the center of her body, and little by little he realized a strange truth.
There was not a single unnecessary movement, none at all, not even one centimeter, not even one millimeter, every movement Seris made was perfectly optimized.
Every step, every strike, every turn was done in the most perfect way possible.
It was as if she had practiced each one of them thousands of times until they became perfect.
’I am willing to bet she spends all day training.’ He admired this girl, and he had to admire her.
Seris’ silver eyes shined and then...
[ Silver Requiem ]
Her sword disappeared.
Or at least that was how it looked to the eyes of most of the spectators.
In one moment, just one moment... dozens of sword marks appeared on the ground, and long cracks covered the entire arena.
The spectators had only seen one movement, but the result showed something completely different.
Dozens of slashes, dozens of attacks, dozens of different angles, all within a fraction of a second, and dozens of places on Lian’s body were cut open, blood started spraying everywhere.
His defense had been completely broken.
"Damn it." Lian was forced to use another skill and increase the power of his attacks.
[ Glacial Reaper Claw ]
The air inside the arena suddenly froze, and a huge claw of ice formed around his hand.
The lightning of Thunder Calamity flowed through the ice crystals, lightning and ice mixed together.
BOOOOOOM!
A huge collision happened, the ice exploded, and lightning spread through the air.
Seris’ defense was finally broken as well, her right shoulder was injured, and blood flowed down from that area.
Seris looked at her shoulder and frowned for a moment, injuring her right shoulder could affect her performance.
She had landed dozens of attacks, but none of them had affected her opponent’s overall performance, but only one attack from her enemy had targeted her performance and caused much greater damage.
Lian took a deep breath, he had managed to land one important hit, and started calculating again.
"This doesn’t make sense, it really doesn’t make sense, even if she has a five-star class..."
Numbers appeared in his mind, Seris should be at most Level 15, and even if she really had a five-star class, she should have gained at most around three hundred stats from leveling up.
How is she this strong?
"Of course... the Pendragon family’s resources."
The answer was simple.
The Pendragon family’s resources, he immediately reached that conclusion.
This girl had access to resources that most people could not even imagine.
Permanent medicines, treasures that increased stats, items, everything that a family at the level of the Pendragons could provide.
Besides that, an Awakened with a five-star class could gain at most two thousand stat points before the first evolution.
Lian himself currently had more than one thousand stats, and this girl definitely had the same.
But there was one difference between the two of them, he had gained this amount in one month, while Seris had gained this amount of power during the last two years.
But even that alone did not explain why this girl was so powerful, because his brother was also Level 15, and his stats were not that much lower than hers, they were definitely lower, but the gap was not that huge.
But besides her stats, this girl also had terrifying swordsmanship.
Seris attacked once again, and this time...
[ King’s Edge ] was activated.
At first no one noticed, but Lian felt it immediately, every sword strike became heavier than the previous one, every attack became more accurate than before, and every clash became more dangerous.
It was as if Seris’ swordsmanship itself was becoming more perfect every moment.
And little by little... the advantage started moving toward her.
More wounds appeared on Lian’s body.
On his arm, on his shoulder, on his cheek, and unlike before, the wounds were no longer random, every single one targeted an important spot.
The spectators felt that maybe Lian was truly under pressure... and maybe they were finally going to witness this boy’s defeat.
Lian jumped back and frowned, if he allowed this to continue, the situation would only become worse.
So...
[ Cataclysm Pulse ]
Mana became dense throughout the entire arena, the air shook, the ground collapsed, hundreds of new cracks appeared across the arena.
Then... the explosion.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
A wave of destruction covered the entire arena, the protective walls cracked, and some of the stadium’s defensive barriers flickered for a moment.
Even the elders frowned from the pressure.
Seris was pushed backward, and she felt that the explosion had injured her bones.
"Cough, cough." She unconsciously coughed up a few drops of blood.
Seris’ silver eyes shined with excitement, she was not angry, instead, her blood was boiling from excitement.
She was finally experiencing a real battle! A battle she could truly enjoy.
’If this keeps going, I might become addicted to fighting him.’ She thought to herself, and came to the conclusion that maybe it was better to end this battle.
Seris quietly whispered.
[ Sovereign’s Judgment. ]
No huge explosion happened, no blinding light appeared, no wave of mana appeared, but suddenly... Lian stopped.
He completely stopped... his body would no longer move, it was as if time had stopped only for him.
His mana would not respond, his muscles would not obey him, everything had stopped.
He knew this skill, it was the skill Seris had used against Deadmaw, the skill that had managed to stop even an Unholy for one full second.
If it could stop an Unholy for one second... then for how many seconds could it stop him?
At the same time, he realized that this was a soul attack skill.
Seris raised her sword, and her third offensive skill was activated.
[ Heavenfall Execution ]
A dazzling silver light covered the entire blade, the mana pressure increased several times, the ground beneath her feet cracked, even the air itself started shaking.
"Does that girl intend to kill him...?" That thought appeared in everyone’s mind.
Lian still could not move, Seris appeared only a few meters away from him, and her silver sword was falling.
The pressure coming from that attack was terrifying even before it landed.
Every spectator held their breath.
And at that exact moment... a small smile appeared on Lian’s face.
A calm smile, a smile that looked as if he had understood something... and that... was the biggest reason to be afraid.
Because no one knew why someone who was standing on the edge of defeat... would suddenly smile.