The few seconds Vazgan had before impact were enough for him to realise that if Duke Charles hit him while in that state, it would not be good for both him and his mount.
He made the split-second decision to take a similar action to his opponent, getting off the horse and blitzing straight towards the incoming Duke of the North.
**DOOOON!!!
The two streaks of orange and blue auras clashed mid-way, and naturally, the ground beneath their feet gave up on withstanding the force of their clash, cracking open and cratering deeply as the two swordsmen swung their weapons against each other.
Bit by bit, they slightly bypassed their defences as small cuts began to accumulate on each other's bodies, however, the two grandmasters possessed powerful regenerative capabilities and these small wounds easily healed up in seconds.
Vazgan's eyes narrowed when he noticed that despite inflicting cuts with wisps of death energy infused into his sword, Duke Charles still healed from them.
'Must be that Paladin's blessing.'
The Dullahan king had that thought as his inferno sights darted to the right, before twisting his body to dodge the aura-infused slash of Duke Charles.
Mid-swing, Duke Charles changed his sword's trajectory and turned the diagonal slash into a horizontal one, with Vazgan's eyes perceiving all these movements like it was in slow motion.
He moved his own blade and blocked the slash, before throwing out his other hand to punch the Duke's face with a fistful of death energy.
However, just like he expected, Duke Charles easily dodged the punch and pulled back his sword, sliding his index and middle fingers against the blade as he infused it with his blue aura.
Immediately after, the Third Sword thrust his sword forwards repeatedly at speeds that intermediate grandmasters on his level would have trouble following, however, Vazgan's eyes captured each and every movement and twisted his body just in time to dodge each individual thrust while raising his sword to block some of them.
'Now!!'
Vazgan who was closely watching Duke Charles' movements, picked the moment the Duke pulled his sword back in preparation for another thrust to throw his hand backwards and grab the large cleaver that was strapped to his back.
Immediately after, he infused the weapon with his orange aura and swung it forward, blocking Duke Charles' incoming sword thrust.
He then flipped his grip on the weapon and slashed downwards, however, Duke Charles dodged it with a paper-thin margin, before taking distance from the Dullahan King and staring at him silently.
"Hmm…"
Duke Charles titled his head to the side and looked at the cuts he had inflicted on Vazgan's body, before analysing the Dullahan King's previous movements and coming to a conclusion.
'He has enhanced perception of some sort; however, his body can't seem to keep up with it.
He can see my attacks and moves to dodge them, but he's not fast enough to do so. It's just like Evan said.'
Before the battle, Evan had given all the members of the commanding group information on the skills and abilities of the Dullahan King, as such the Duke wasn't too surprised that Vazgan could somehow perceive his attacks despite how fast they were.
He silently gazed at the Cleaver that Vazgan had pulled out and just as he was about to begin recalling the special techniques that Evan told him could be used with it, Vazgan did something that made him raise an eyebrow in light surprise.
*BAM!!
The Dullahan King stabbed the large cleaver into the ground, taking his hand off it before removing the weapons holster and flinging it to the floor.
Just as Duke Charles was studying Vazgan, Vazgan was doing the same to him and at the end of his analysis, he arrived at the decision to drop the cleaver.
'It's a heavy weapon, one that adds to my body weight and slows me down.
Plus, the man is too fast so fighting him with such a heavy weapon isn't something I can do given that it would only make me slower and have a harder time dodging his attacks.
And from the looks of things, he can go even faster.
I might have to use my Geass to be able to keep up with him at his full speed.'
Vazgan clenched his fist tightly as he deliberated activating his Geass of Vengeance, but he held himself back from doing so.
'Not yet.'
The Dullahan King decided to put off using his 'Revenge-related' skills for now, deciding to wait for better timing and catch Duke Charles off guard.
If only he knew that the Third Sword was already aware of his skills and knew what their effects were.
However, it was impossible for even the First Finger to deduce the possibility that someone would be reincarnated from another world with knowledge of majority of the near future events of Aidos, along with information on the Demonic Hand's, plans, members, and associates.
Returning to the fight at hand, the two grandmasters stared at each other in silence for a few more seconds, as if sizing each other up again.
And then suddenly;
*BOOM!
The two instantly kicked off the ground and dashed forward at breakneck speeds, their blades clashing with a loud 'clang' that signified the beginning of another high-speed battle.
However, it wasn't all about speed, as the power behind each of their attack was nothing to scoff at, especially given that both beings were intermediate-level grandmasters with 'S-' strength stats.
Combat between the two was not stationary, with them hacking and slashing at each other as they moved across the battlefield, killing the occasional human or undead who got in the way with their attacks.
Duke Charles' sword moved in a circular path, delivering an upward arched slash that Vazgan casually parried with his blade, before reversing his grip and sending a diagonal slash towards the Duke's head.
As expected, Duke Charles blocked it easily and even managed to send in a counterattack with his fist.
Using the back of his palm that was coated in aura, he diverted the blade's trajectory before clenching his fist and sending in two lightning-fast punches.
Blue tendrils of lightning snaked across his arm as he sent a punch towards Vazgan, who managed to block the first punch but unfortunately could not do the same about the second.
The Dullahan King's body was engulfed in lightning as he received both blunt physical and explosive elemental damage.
"Guh."
He let out a low grunt as he was knocked back by a few metres, however, he did not have time to rest as the arcs of lightning created by the energy discharge from Duke Charles' punches, went on to surround the man's body and boost the speed of his next set of attacks.
It was basically a recreation of Evan's fracture skill, done with more skill and higher-level control over the lightning element.
Duke Charles closed the distance instantly, delivering three consecutive strikes; a diagonal slash, a forward thrust and a horizontal slash.
Basic as they may be, the power behind each of these attacks was not basic in any way, shape or form.
And that was evidenced by how Vazgan quickly roused his aura and moved his sword and his body to dodge, block and then parry the three attacks.
The undead then released a burst of death aura that knocked Duke Charles back by a few metres and temporarily destabilized his footing.
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