Chapter 523: Testing Strength, 1..2...
’He’s very experienced! Those guys gave me so much wrong intel.’
The Dragonslayer infused more magic power into his arms to prevent them from trembling each time his longsword met Arthur’s blade.
’Pure Swordsmanship isn’t enough to gain the upper hand...’
Coming to this realisation, Rael began to infuse his attacks with energy. He engulfed his blade in flames and swung it in a wide arc, sending a crescent-shaped wave of fiery energy towards Arthur.
On reflex, Arthur almost stopped it in time, but he switched motions at the last moment and used the Stellar guard to deflect it instead.
The clash of Rael’s flames with Arthur’s imperceptible Cosmic Energy shield created a shockwave that rippled through the battlefield, causing nearby soldiers to stagger.
"Oh, you’re tired of a pure sword battle, huh? In that case."
Arthur dashed forward at lightning speed and swung his blade horizontally, releasing a wave of destruction energy with the force to split a mountain in two.
[Mountain Split!]
Celestia called out the name of the attack and Arthur just chuckled as he watched Rael summon a barrier of red scales that shimmered with light.
The destructive energy collided with the barrier, creating an explosion that shook the earth and sent debris flying in all directions.
Arthur burst through the explosion, bringing his blade down in a vertical slash and unleashing a pillar of destruction energy with the kind of power that’d sink any of Aramis’ islands if it were to hit.
Rael gritted his teeth and channelled his energy into his sword, before swinging it downwards and sending a massive dragon-shaped energy projection to meet Arthur’s strike.
For a moment, the sky darkened as the sheer force of the colliding energies disrupted nature itself.
Nearby soldiers, both Gozonian and Aramisian, were thrown off their feet by the shockwaves, struggling to maintain their footing amidst the chaos.
Rael cast a spell to enhance his speed, but Arthur laughed and used time magic to slow his movements, effectively neutralizing the effects of his spell.
Still, Rael charged forward so fast he seemed to disappear, reappearing behind Arthur a second later with a flurry of rapid strikes.
For a moment, Arthur’s perception of time slowed and he debated with Celestia how to avoid this attack, before eventually settling on acting like he could ’barely’ react.
So, Arthur who could ’barely react’, deflected the strikes with his blade while Celestia rolled her figurative eyes, before countering with a burst of energy that sent Rael Skidding back.
"You think you can match me?!"
Rael growled as he released his aura and unleashed a storm of energy blasts that homed in on Arthur, but seeing this, Arthur just waved his hand and distorted gravity, making them all veer off course and put them on a collision course with different flying Aramisian soldiers.,
Unfazed, Rale thrust his sword into the ground, and a surge of earth magic erupted, creating walls of jagged rocks that intercepted the redirected blasts.
"Sword of Victory."
A pillar of silver light surged from Arthur’s sword and he swung it towards Rael, but the Dragonslayer enveloped his body in a spiralling vortex of flames and leapt into the air to dodge it, before diving towards Arthur with an overhead slash.
Still, Arthur blocked his strike, and with only a little bit of effort. On the outside, however, his hands trembled and his legs shook as if he was barely standing from the damage of the impacts running through him.
Rael grounded himself and ducked low to avoid Arthur’s horizontal slash, before delivering a sweeping kick that knocked the godslayer off his feet and then swung his sword in an upward diagonal arc.
He released a powerful slash of flames that hit Arthur point blank, knocking him high into the air.
It was at that moment, that a streak of golden light shot out from behind the crumbled East Wall, streaking through the air and straight towards the reeling Arthur.
Only the other Transcendents on the battlefield could catch the speed with their eyes, and they were the only ones who saw that this ’streak of light’ was actually a humanoid figure charging at Arthur with a glowing spear, thrusting it right at the boy’s neck.
The Aramisians’ strongest combatants were either gods or Divine Factor wielders. So, Arthur’s mere presence was making the fight easier for the demons since he reduced their overall strength.
Naturally, they couldn’t let any harm come to him.
Still, even Aravae who was the highest-level present at the East side wasn’t fast enough to catch up with the speed of the elementalized Divine Human.
Just when the spear was mere inches away from Arthur’s neck, needing only a split second to cross the distance, Arthur suddenly vanished.
The spear, now unobstructed, pierced through empty air with an unstoppable momentum. As it continued on its trajectory, the energy of the missed attack parted the clouds above, creating a violent vortex in the sky that tore the clouds apart and tore a hole in the planet’s atmosphere.
"Huh?!"
The one who unleashed this powerful attack let out a dumbfounded noise. Only the High-Ranked Demons who were well informed about Arthur’s other abilities besides his Summoning and powerful Destruction Manipulation understood what happened.
’He stopped time!’
As if confirming their thoughts, Arthur suddenly appeared beside the Aramisian General who attacked him.
|¬Got you. ¬|
With those words, Arthur grabbed the woman’s outstretched arm and pulled her over his shoulder, using the law of gravity to amplify her weight by 20 times before flinging her body towards Plomux High Command.
The woman flew through the air with tremendous force, her body a blur as she crashed through a still-standing part of the half-crumbled walls.
She continued her trajectory, plummeting into the heart of the city right behind, and the ground below her gave way as she created a massive crater five kilometres wide upon impact.
The shockwaves from her landing radiated outward, violently blowing away demons and Aramisians alike, throwing their bodies like ragdolls. Buildings toppled and shattered, the sheer force of the collision rippling through the cityscape.
Before the sound of the crash could even reach the ears of those present nearby, Arthur had already appeared above the Aramisian General’s body, his hand raised high as Celestia flew right into it.
|¬Extreme Nothingness. ¬|
Without a single split second’s hesitation, Arthur unleashed his strongest attack and aimed it right at the woman’s heart, however, she forcefully moved her broken left arm and used it to divert the trajectory of his sword at the last moment...at the cost of that arm.
Every piece of the limb, from deep into her shoulder down to the fingertips was completely erased and the remaining power of Arthur’s attack pierced deep into the ground, past the planet’s crust and into the mantle.
At that moment, not just Arthur, but every being who could comprehend Universal laws heard a sharp cry ring out in their heads.
A cry of pain.
Most, including Arthur, were confused, unaware of the cause of this sound.
However, more experienced people like Alvey, and McEnda, as well as the gods they were fighting at the Main Gates of Plomux High Command understood.
The planet Aramis itself...had just taken damage!
Not damage to its crust or mantle that could be recovered with a little bit of cosmic energy, but True Damage to its existence!
If the consciousness of Planet Aramis didn’t hate already Arthur before, then ’it’ wanted to get him off at this very instant!
Unfortunately, when ’it’ tried to use ’its’ repulsive force on Arthur, the repulsion power actually bent around Arthur, completely avoiding him.
’Aramis’ cursed at whatever Universe birthed such a High-Grade Singularity like Arthur and at the same time, ’Hell’ sneezed suddenly.
Back on the battlefield, the sudden cry ringing out in his head only stalled Arthur for a split second. In the next, he carried on with what he intended to do from the beginning.
|¬Aravae! ¬|
He shouted the demoness’ name and she understood his intentions without another word. She rapidly condensed demonic energy on her weapon and Arthur grabbed the wounded Aramisian General by her right arm, before lightening her body with gravity power and then flinging her into the air.
Just like she had streaked through the air to try and kill Arthur, Aravae did the same to the Aramisians. Just that unlike her who missed, Aravae’s attack struck true and ended the half-dead woman’s life in an explosion of power that distorted space and cleared the clouds for miles.
"Good.
Now then..."
Arthur turned his head in Rael’s direction and just as the Dragonslayer felt Arthur’s gaze, the boy had already appeared in front of him.
"They usually do finger flicks in these kinds of situations, don’t they?"
Holding up his right hand, Arthur flicked Rael’s chest and the force knocked the man’s body back, sending him skidding across the ground for a few metres.
"Oh, well. I expected this. The strength difference between us is much, but not enough to send you flying with just a normal finger flick."
While Arthur was saying this, Rael was staring at the skid marks on the ground dumbfoundedly.
His kinetic vision wasn’t powerful enough to completely perceive what had just happened like the Transcendents, but he knew that Arthur had done something to the Divine Human General who attacked him.
He not only dodged the attack but even countered.
Rael’s expression turned ugly and he looked up at Arthur.
"...what is this?"
Arthur had wounded a Transcendent just now. A frickin Transcendent! If Arthur had that kind of power, then there was no way Rael could have been evenly matched with him just now.
Rael understood that, which was why his expression contorted as he asked.
"...what is the meaning of this?"
"What do you think?
The person I was waiting for had finally shown themself. So now..."
Arthur took a step forward, cracking his fingers as he continued in his Faux True Voice.
|¬There’s no point in holding back anymore. ¬|
Celestia floated towards Arthur but the boy shook his head and told the sword to stay put.
|¬According to this Universe’s system, my Strength stat is ’X2+’ but the stat level shows ’(195?/100)’, meaning I’ve exceeded the limit of the ’X2+’ stat.
I tested my energy out with that Division we wiped out on Saturday. Now, I want to see how good that Strength is. ¬|
Silver magic power surged on Arthur’s fists and he looked at the Level 850 Rael standing before him with a grin.
In that same second, Rael felt something impact the side of his face, with a force that sent him hurtling through the air and crashing into an Airship in the sky.
The Airship exploded and Rael’s body was blasted to the ground where he crashed and rolled for a few seconds, only stopping when a foot landed on his stomach—Arthur’s foot.
|¬Yo! You were actually still looking at my afterimage, huh? ¬|
