Apollo came streaking in like a blazing meteor across the skies. Except he wasn’t nearly as fast, not nearly as bright, and not nearly as powerful.
’Vector Class.’ Grey noted instantly. However, he could feel the pressure coming off of Apollo was orders of magnitude compared to any of the Vanguard Classes he had fought until now.
He had only just finished the thought when Apollo was instantly upon him.
’Fast.’ Grey’s eyes narrowed.
Rings of white gold formed beneath Apollo’s feet and Grey recognized it as some active form of Wrath Coronation.
’You can use it like that?’ Grey blinked, a spear appearing between his brows.
He bent back in a dodge, kicking his heel up at Apollo’s chin. The solid echo of a connection rang through the air and Apollo was sent three meters into the air.
Grey flipped to his feet, squatted down like a compressed spring, and sprang forward in the same fluid motion. By the time Apollo was coming down from the air, his blades were already there to meet the man.
The echo of a rhythm bloomed in Grey’s ears and he felt the formation of Sacred Bulwark take form. It was incomplete, and not true immunity, but he could feel that if his strike landed now, at least half of the force would be dissipated.
’What the fuck? You can use it like that too?’
Grey instantly swapped, his blade strike becoming a feint, his foot pivoting on the ground as he unleashed yet another kick at Apollo’s head.
BANG.
The young man was sent flying, skidding along the ground, through corpses and streaks of blood before he came to a stop. He might have suffered a devastating blow, but the purpose of Sacred Bulwark worked out just right. It managed to save his life through another exchange.
Apollo hurried to his feet, a blast of Holy Energy sending the corpses around him flying. Some couldn’t withstand the pressure at all and burst apart at the seams, blood and sinew skewing across the marbled surface.
’He activated his Neural Frame. Fantastic.’
Grey grinned. He had only exchanged two blows with Apollo now, but he found out that Wrath Coronation could be used to amplify physical stats and that Sacred Bulwark didn’t have to build up momentum to the peak. Instead of chasing after immunity every time he used Sacred Bulwark—or, rather, his own Last Bulwark—he could clip the rhythm to gain himself partial nullification of an enemy’s strength.
Not only would that give him more flexibility in combat, but it would be more effective in most situations too.
Apollo’s golden hair danced in the air as though it had been lit by white gold flames, his body surging with a layered might.
’He’s pretty decent.’
Grey could tell that Apollo had brought at least three of his six Abilities to Core Sync. Other than the alien, Grey didn’t think he had fought a single person with even a full slate of Active Link Abilities, let alone this.
His expression became a hint more serious.
If his battle was just defeating Apollo one on one, that was easy enough. But he needed to defeat Apollo with enough stamina left over to draw out more members of the Imperial Family.
After all...
He needed their blood.
’In that case.’
Grey’s eyes flashed, a magnetic field pulsing from his back that almost made him look like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon.
BANG.
Grey moved so fast he blurred in Apollo’s eyes.
The flames of Wrath Coronation lit in Apollo’s eyes and his senses became sharper. His pupils shifted, tracking Grey through the blurring lines he left in his wake.
He struck out with his spear.
Grey shifted to one side but Apollo’s thrust became a swift downward slash.
Without missing a beat, Grey retracted one of his blood blades and summoned the Turning Shield into its parrying form. He raised it up and the spear clipped it before it could bite into his neck.
Grey tilted his wrist down just the slightest bit as he slid forward and his parrying shield met the bumps and grooves that separated the blade of Apollo’s spear from its pole arm.
As though a car hitting a speed bump at 60 miles an hour, the spear jostled up and shot into the skies, Grey and Apollo’s power working together to add to the volatile speed.
Apollo nearly lost control of his blade entirely, and in that brief instant, Grey’s blood blade thrust forward, piercing into his chest.
Chi.
A protective treasure activated and Grey’s blood blade shattered, the stubby point of the fang dagger being all that was left in his palm.
But Grey hardly missed a single beat. Apollo was exhaling a breath of relief, but Grey himself was still surging forward, still cutting across the last distance that had been the difference between the tip of his blood blade and the tip of his fang dagger.
He had already fought Terran before. If Terran had had all those treasures, then how many more treasures would his much more favored brothers have?
Of course, Grey didn’t actually know if they were related. But it hardly mattered. He had never expected to be able to kill Zara so easily. And thus he would assume all of these bastards were armed to the gills.
That he was ready for.
The instant his blood blade broke, Grey had already calculated everything. He knew exactly how powerful Apollo’s protective items were, what circuits made them up, what sort of Loading phase they had had, and where their weaknesses lay.
Shattered Eclipse.
Grey’s fang dagger glowed a completely different color. Hidden within his palm, it looked like a saber of black light, and when his wrist twisted in the sun beaming down from the windows above, it was like everything in its path was burnt to ash.
PUCHI!
Grey broke through Apollo’s protective coating and a new blood blade erupted from the fang dagger, ripping through his chest and rending his inner organs to a meaty paste.