Chapter 324: Edward vs Knight Commander I
Mages completed their chants, their energies generating and activating dozens of Tier 3 Spell circles, causing Fire, lightning, water, earth, and wind to converge, their devastating power decimating the approaching monsters.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes were engulfed in flames, electrocuted, drowned, and crushed under the onslaught of magic.
The Earth Magic used by the mages shook the ground, causing the behemoths to stumble and fall, flattening hundreds of monsters in the process.
However, the absence of the Behemoths’ towering forms revealed the next wave of creatures that were rushing forward, obliterating the buildings in their path.
Amidst this advancing tide, a figure stood out among the monsters—a figure familiar to the knights of the Empire.
"That Appearance?!"
"Impossible!!"
"HOW COULD HE?!"
Voices laced with all kinds of shock rang out as they all recognised the figure.
It was the Commander of the Empire’s Knight Order, one of the powerful people who had vanished mere days after the portal in the sky had appeared.
But something was different about him.
He now emanated an aura similar to that of the malevolent god of lightning who hovered in the skies above, and from the looks of things, he seemed to have stepped into the Epic Realm too.
Shock and betrayal washed over the knights as they beheld their former leader. Some felt a surge of rage while others were simply astounded.
The man was known to be invincible in the Grandmaster Realm, and now that he had become an Epic, they feared that this may also be the case now.
Observing the impact this had on the knights, Edward clicked his tongue and drew his longsword, lightning crackling along the blade as he stepped forward and spoke.
"He’s affecting their morale."
He declared with a lightly annoyed tone, tightening his grip on his sword as he continued.
"I’ll handle him. You guys cover me and make sure the other Malevolent gods don’t interfere."
Leaving those words, he kicked off the ground and propelled himself forward, his form transforming into a streak of blinding white lightning that carved the ground and decimated all the monsters in his path of movement.
The Knight Commander sensed his approach and hastily raised his sword, engulfing it in flames at the last moment to protect himself.
**BOOOMMMMM!!!
The clash between lightning and fire resulted in an explosion that reverberated through the area, reducing everything within a hundred meters to ashes.
The monsters surrounding the epicentre were obliterated by the destructive blast, while others were thrown off their feet by the powerful shockwaves.
Yet, undeterred, the surviving creatures rose once more and charged forward with unbridled madness.
In this single exchange, both Edward and the Knight Commander could discern that despite being Inferior Stages, they were both Nonstandard types: beings who possessed powers that surpassed the usual limits of their stages.
Edward only snorted in disdain, increasing the strength in his sword arm and forcefully knocking the Commander backwards.
"I’ll end this quick."
He declared as he took his stance with his longsword held pointing towards the sky.
Seeing this familiar stance, the god of lightning who had been silent after ordering the monsters to attack frowned and decided to take action.
However, the instant he made that decision, a sudden disruption shattered his concentration.
A bolt of golden lightning, intertwined with blazing flames, hurtled towards him at supersonic speed, forcing him to instead focus on blocking.
The divinity he had gathered for attacking was instead diverted to create a formidable defence.
*BOOM!!!
A compact explosion materialized in the skies, its radiant burst briefly illuminating the brooding clouds above.
This signified the beginning of the battle between the two gods of lightning, the same instant that Edward called out the name of his technique.
"Hazy Style."
*SWOOSH!!
In an instant, both Edward’s body and his presence disappeared, leaving nought but a lingering cloud of dust as a ghostly trace of his former presence.
The Knight commander’s eyes widened in shock as he tried to use his aura to search for Edward’s presence but it proved futile.
"Rumbling of Heaven."
His body moved on reflex, twisting his waist and holding out his sword horizontally to block the upward arcing slash that came from his right side.
**BOOMM!!
The two blades collided with a small blast, one that sent the body of the Knight Commander flying into the air and through a wave of charging monsters.
He crashed on the ground and rag-dolled for a few metres, colliding with the feet of some weak master-level monsters and squashing their bodies due to the force of his crash.
It took him a few seconds to regain his bearings and get up to his feet, however, the instant he looked up, he was met with the sight of a blade covered in bright white lighting bearing down on his head.
"Rumbling of Earth."
Edward’s arcing slash thundered down towards him, pulsating with lethal intent and filled with enough power to cleave the knight commander in two faster than the latter could react.
However, at the last moment, the energy of the universal law of metal rapidly condensed in front of the Knight Commander’s form.
The ground around him cracked open and dozens of long metal strips burst out, surrounding the man’s body and creating a dome-shaped shield that stopped Edward’s slash just merely 15cm away from his forehead.
***BOOOOOOMMM!!!!
Edward’s slash collided with the metal shield created at the last moment, the two energies clashing and igniting in a massive explosion that shattered the earth and fractured it open.
Buildings collapsed, thousands of monstrosities fell to their deaths, and one unfortunate giant troll had its lower body obliterated completely.
A giant cloud of smoke, fire and lightning rose up into the skies, billowing for kilometres and obscuring the visions of countless other monsters.
But within this massive cloud of smoke, a single figure moved swiftly, undeterred by the obscuration as he charged forward with two twin daggers infused with dense elemental energies.
His target was the brown-haired blue-eyed human boy who nearly bisected the Knight Commander a mere moment ago.
Just as he shot forward, his daggers ready to deliver a cross slash and sever the boy’s neck, a presence suddenly materialized behind him, with a hand reaching out to grab the back of his neck faster than he could react.
Although the fingers that held his neck were thin and delicate, the strength of their grip was far from delicate.
He released a burst of wind elemental energy from his body, swirling outwards and clearing out most of the smoke, more than enough to reveal the figure of the person holding him.
The vice-like grasp tightened around his neck, constricting like an iron vice that refused to yield despite his struggles to break free.
And then, with an absurd amount of strength unexpected from the slender arms of the owner of that grip, the man’s whole body was flung out of the cloud of smoke and into the air.
That same instant, his instincts screamed out to him and he manipulated his energy, creating a barrier of swirling wind that blocked and diverted the trajectory of the massive earthen great sword that nearly stabbed into him.
On the ground, Nicole calmly gazed at the Malevolent god of wind who was now being attacked by the Benevolent god of Earth, shaking her head with a look of disappointment in her eyes as she turned towards Edward who was flicking the blood off his blade.
"Could have handled him, but thanks."
The girl nodded lightly, tilting her head to the side and gazing at the Knight commander who was holding his injured shoulder, red blood pouring endlessly, showing that the last-minute defences conjured up were not enough to block a full-powered strike from a serious Edward.
His slash had not cleaved the man in two like planned, but it was still enough to nearly sever his entire left arm from his shoulder.
While she did this, she was issuing out mental commands to the nearby ambient spirits, commanding them to go and aid the other Benevolent gods in battle.
Her affinity with spirits was so high that other elemental spirits, even the spirits of darkness who had filled the capital, listened to her and moved to carry out her commands without objection.
"First of Sword: Crescent Moon."
Edward’s voice rang out and Nicole turned around to see him swinging his sword and releasing a powerful horizontal curved slash of white lightning that sliced through the air at near-sonic speed.
Universal law energies surged and dozens of metre-thick reinforced metallic walls burst out from the ground, surging upwards to serve as a defence against the slash.
Nevertheless, the powerful white lightning contained in the slash enabled it to cleave thigh these defences with relative ease.
But by the time the crescent moon-shaped slash had cleaved through all the metallic defensive walls, the power within it had waned and it had become so weak that even the Knight Commander could easily block it in his injured state.
"Second of Sword: Dancing Shadows."
