All of a sudden, the boy's spear began to swirl with a black-and-white aura, the creaking of the metal echoing through the entire city. It was as if the spear itself was fighting to keep itself intact while external forces pushed its own body outwards, twisting it and then contorting it. And it struggled. Like a lot, a lot.
"Hm?"
But then, just as the spear looked as if it was about to shatter into thousands of pieces, the closed eye, which I thought was just a decoration in the center of the spear, snapped open. It made a grotesque fleshy sound as its second clear eyelid came over, moistening the dark red pupil.
Squirming around in its socket, it looked for the source of power, attempting to tear it apart. But upon realizing that the source of power was all around it, it strained, going bloodshot while revealing the hundreds of veins hidden deep beneath it.
It released a tremendous amount of power, causing a massive gust of wind to rustle past me, tearing my hair backward and nearly sending me flying into the wall behind me. This was just a warmup to Orion's power, and from what I could assume, there was much more in store for me.
"Tsk… tsk… tsk… tsk… tsk…"
A repeated clicking came from the mass of white steam behind me. It echoed and bellowed throughout the entirety of the estate, wrapping it in its enigmatic distinguishment. It was similar, but not the same.
Soon, a figure identical to me stepped out of the white steam, eradicating all of it once every single inch of her body had been revealed. And not only did she mimic my body and clothes perfectly, but also the incredible daggers which I gripped tightly in the center of my palms.
She could not talk but only clicked her tongue, signaling the countdown from when she will disappear from this world. I had about ten minutes which was more than enough time for me to feel satisfied with this juicy scrimmage I was about to partake in. And I wasn't the only one excited as Orion's grin only continued to widen.
"Come on… I thought this was one-on-one," Orion chuckled jokingly, spinning his spear around his arms, torso, legs, neck, head, hands, wrists, ankles, everything. He built up more and more momentum until the atmosphere around him literally began to crack.
Around Orion, massive tears in the spatial isolation opened up, forcing the Demon God to snap her fingers once more, reinforcing its defensive capabilities to withstand my friend's next attack. The build-up was long and tedious, but still… I felt threatened by the continuous swelling of power practically presenting itself on a silver platter. It screamed at me to try and do something about it, yet I couldn't.
"[Demon Splitter]."
The announcement of a single skill echoed across the plane of dirt which we had deemed our battleground. Dust rose from its sun-baked body, and the quivering of the aura around him stopped, sucking straight into the young man's spear.
It fell. The spear which had built up so much momentum that it practically just looked like a blur to me… fell straight towards me. But, it was slow in my world. [Eyes of The High Ghost], [Breath of The Undead World], and [Breath of the Snowy Underworld]. In tandem, they all reinforced my eyes to the point my white sclera turned a vanta-shade of black while my pupils shifted into that of a golden arch hanging in that void of darkness known as my eye.
The space around the blade of the spear quivered as its intensity tore through the spatial isolation once again. But it was so fast in real time that the demon god just barely managed to get a second reinforcement in before I dodged the attack.
FWOOSH… BOOOOOOOOOOM
The spear hit the ground beside me, splitting open the arena into two separate sides. A ravine of incredible length and width had been formed inside the estate, only to be regenerated by the spatial isolation around us.
"You're faster than before-"
BOOOOM
I sent Orion flying across the arena as my foot planted into the back of his head, crashing into several of the weapon racks holding all of the training weapons. And as he got up, completely unphased by my attack, his grin widened.
"I couldn't see you."
Of course, he couldn't see me. [Body of A Ghost] on top of all of my buffs and overwhelming speed stat, I would be ashamed of myself if he never even saw an afterimage. He probably thought I hadn't moved until my kick clapped against the back of his head.
To give him the benefit of the doubt, he came out completely unscathed… but it wasn't because of some ridiculous defense stat. No, I had no clue if it was high or not. Yet, just from that exchange, I felt my blow land rather awkwardly, as if he sensed my attack and leaned forward, minimizing some of the damage.
"Hmmmm… Okay, let's do something different," he grinned before raising his spear once again. But before he could even hope to gather any amount of power, I dashed in, both of my daggers slicing the very outer layer of his throat. "Damn… are you going for the kill?"
As his eyes met mine, I attempted to withdraw, only to find myself stuck in place. He had lured me in, hoping to catch me in order to minimize my speed, but little did he know, my speed was so high that it could translate to an insane amount of strength.
"Oof… ow…"
Or so I thought. As I tried to escape, utilizing my full power to its max potential, I was stopped in place, my arm nearly ripping out of its socket as Orion maintained a harsh grip on my wrist. His fingers began to dig into my flesh, only causing his smile to widen while my expression went colder and colder.
All of a sudden, he visibility shivered before snapping his head around. Meeting eyes with my double, he caught one of her blades with his teeth while the other dug into his shoulder. He had just barely dodged a fatal attack, forcing him to realize that she wasn't going to be holding back either.
"I was wondering where you went…." He muttered with the blade still in his mouth. And somehow, with a single chomp down and the flex of an incredibly strong jaw, he bit down and chomped straight through the blade of the dagger. It shattered in his mouth while the remaining shards scattered across the dirt ground.
"Tsk… tsk… tsk… tsk… tsk…"
"So, you gonna keep gripping a lady's tender wrist or let her go? We can continue from here… but I'm sure you'd lose."
"Oh, and I'm dying to see how that will happen," Orion smiled, his face approaching mine, that massive smile pressing up against my aura. It almost seemed to dent it as a strange power pushed through me and into my body.
I felt it. Mind magic was placed on me. Well, not exactly [Mind Magic], but just some mind-altering skill in general. It was probably meant to influence my thoughts, but the fact that the world around me was so slow and my thoughts were running at a million miles per second, it did absolutely nothing to me.
"If you insist…" I muttered coldly before letting a few ice-cold words slip from my lips. "[Throne World: Concentrated Capsule of Ice]."
Krkkkkkkkkkk
My back exploded with veins of ice shooting out into the space around us. They shook and quivered before imploding, its icy steam soon unleashing massive dragon heads and necks that craned over me and around me. They stalked Orion like he was prey, but before he could let go and back up, I grabbed him with my double doing the same.
RAWRRRRRRRRR
All of them cried out in a synchronized roar, quaking the earth and space around me before shooting straight at the young man. He raised his spear to block their bites, but they only swirled around and chomped straight into his flash, still unphased Orion, who just stood there.
BOOOOOOOOM
The dragons exploded into massive flowers of ice, planting themselves into his flesh and sprouting out into massive flowers that began to drain his essence. And as his power began to fill me up, I felt something begin to drain straight out of my pores.
For a second, I was growing stronger, but once the young man muttered something indescribable, everything stopped. Sure, the energy was still pouring into me, but at the same time, it was leaking from every orifice in my body and gathering a red mist around us.
But then, just as we deactivated these skills, and split apart, realizing that nothing was going to happen if we stayed in that stalemate, instinctively, we activated our best skills. It was almost like a silent agreement between the both of us.
"[Throne World…" We muttered unanimously.
