Hariko activated his innate talent which he acquired when he awakened, which purely doubles his strength, mana, speed.
A very thick red Aura seeped out of Hariko's body covering his body further enhancing the already doubled speed and strength, also covering his weapon with aura which further strengthened it
Space seemed to bend just from his presence alone due to all this.
Anthony's eye activated on its own as it sensed the danger and gazed a second into the future where Anthony's head was cut off, then went back to its passive state.
Anthony didn't bother thinking why the eye activated on it's own but thanked it for activating.
Anthony dodged as soon as he was back to the present, he moved by leaning sideways in an attempt to dodge, but his left hand was cut off and he was sent flying like a broken kite.
Hariko sped up and met Anthony who was still flying backwards and slammed his knees in Anthony's chest mid air.
Anthony was sent flying backwards further
He collided with trees, broke through mountains and stopped after slamming on another mountain.
"Masterrrrrr" all the shadow soldier screamed and moved to save Anthony, but before they could even take a step, Anthony commanded them through their telepathy while standing up from the stones and leaves covering his body.
'Don' interfere unless I say so, focus on your own fights and killed them immediately, don't make me repeat myself again'.
He couged up blood, his body was battered, bones broken, even his chest was caved in.
But his 'infinite regeneration' he got from his sign-in system reward was already at work and healed him in two seconds, even his hand regenerated immediately.
Anthony looked at Hariko while thinking
'I could barely match him before but now he has activated something like his physique or whatever and even boosted it with aura, even if I activated my Aura I won't be able to match his speed since he has stepped one foot in the door of the paragon rank'
Don't think of the Paragon rank as just another rank like the Master rank or Grandmaster.
Even if Hariko has doubled his speed and strength and mana, even further boosting it with aura, at the end of the day, a true Paragon ranker just needs a slap to kill Hariko.
Right now in this state, Hariko can be considered a pseudo-paragon, even though this is not an actual rank, but he has one foot already in that room.
The difference between the Paragon and Grandmaster rank is no different than that between and SSS rank and F rank.
There is simply no comparison at all between the Paragon and the Grandmaster Rank
(Remember that Anthony is matching Hariko who is a Peak Grandmaster rankers, while being at the Master rank, this is how broken Anthony already is)
Anthony didn't bother fighting those assassin at the Paragon rank because he knew he was still an ant compared to them.
He couldn't match them in anyway unless he used his magic he possess which is broken.
'Why is someone as talented as him with the Forsaken cult, well it doesn't matter all I have to do is kill whoever that takes a step near me' Anthony thought
Anthony breathes out and activated a magic he has never used before since he reincarnated, today in other to fight an enemy stronger than him, he has brought out another card, if not for his skill 'infinite mana', he won't dare to bring out this element and use it like this at his current level.
Time seemed to slow for him, he could feel the wind slowing down, falling leaves getting slower to the point as if time has stopped for him, everything kept on getting slower.
An illusionary huge clock appeared behind Anthony which only him could see, the moving hands on the clock seemed to increase in speed before dissipating immediately it appeared.
Anthony using time magic increased the time around him, thereby increasing his own speed
Anthony released his Aura and covered his entire body and Katana with it, further increasing his speed and strength
He took a stance and moved as if he teleported, arrived before Hariko and swung his sword in a horizontal manner.
Hariko caught off gaurd by Anthony's speed immediately blocked but he was sent skidding on the floor, which he easily regained his balance immediately.
Hariko activated his wind element to further increase his speed as he saw Anthony's speed has increased.
As they both moved and collided, the sheer impact destroyed everything in its wake.
A Master ranker could die just from being near this fight these two were having.
[Sword Technique: Wind Style: Hurricane Slash]
Hariko slashed at Anthony with his sword covered in aura and wind element sending out a thousand cresent shaped wind attacks, Anthony saw the fast attack but didn't fret, he simply controlled time and slowed down the speed of the approaching attacks, increased his own speed and cut all thousand of them into pieces.
He immediately moved to attack.
[Endless Technique: Katana Series: Lightning calamity]
Anthony's katana which was already covered with aura immediately got covered with lightning and he slashed out with his full strength in a diagonal way, leaving a a faint purple line.
Hariko was shocked by this sight with his sense tingling sending him death signals, he immediately brought out his armour which he always hide inside him and activated it, pouring all his mana into it before the attack landed on him and his surrounding
*BOOOOOOOM***BOOOOOOM*****
Everything within a ten kilometres radius was reduced to ashes and atoms, some charred, trees set on fire, mountains collapsed, smoke occupying everywhere.
The paragon rankers were shocked by this scene, this was too much power for people at the Grandmaster rank
They were shocked that Hariko has reached such level, even more shocked that Anthony could match one of them at the Grandmaster rank and he could release such devasting attack at such a young age.
Anthony could be seen panting as he has never been pushed to this degree before, he looked around looking for the sight of his enemy
Hariko could be seen in a pit of charred stones with blood around him, his body and armour with his skin and hair burnt.
He stood up dizzyly, looking at Anthony who could match him after training all these years, he cursed the heavens for being unfair.
He knew he would fall here, as he has used the amour he once found in a ruin to save his life, but he poured all his mana into the amour leaving him with nothing.
He could take potion but there was no way his opponent would allow him
Anthony walked towards Hariko who was haggard and was on his last feet.
They looked at each other without saying anything, but the fight said it all
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...The heaven truly are unfair, even if I fall today I shall take you with me" Hariko said while laughing maniacly
The next moment Hariko eyes looked resolute, like he still had a final card.
Mana from Hariko's core moved from within as he wanted self destruct to bring down Anthony with him.
Before he could detonate, time seemed to stop completely for them, it came to a complete halt as Anthony looked at Hariko, then he sighed and swung his katana, decapitating him.
Time resumed, but the explosion didn't occur due to Hariko's death.
Anthony sheathed back his katana and looked round and saw the destruction and shook his head, if not for the barrier set up by the forsaken cult, other people might have arrived here due to the disturbance.
The Paragon rankers that came with Hariko have been caught alive by Igris and the rest.
The Grandmasters were simply killed off by the other shadow soldiers before Anthony's fight even ended
.....
Author 's note
Time is a very strange and strong concept, don't think because someone can control time, they are automatically the strongest.
Controlling other people's time is a very hard thing to do and depends on the power level difference between the two individual.
An F ranker can't just go halting time of a Paragon rankers and killing them, how much time you can halt depends on the strength difference and you control over it
This is why Anthony just controlled his own time to increase his speed, rather than controlling time to halt or slow down Hariko
It all depends on your progress with the time element and also the power gap