“You are finally here” A man wearing an odd-looking black robe spoke.
‘So this is him?’
Michael was at the very top of the mountain and the only person in front of him was this oddly dressed man, he couldn’t see his face clearly for some reason.
“Not the talkative type? That’s fine.. you will die soon anyways” The man chuckled and a transparent barrier appeared around him, it looked like a magic shield.
‘It does not look as strong as mine though..’ Michael kept observing him, it did not seem like he was as big of a powerhouse as he thought, but nonetheless, he would not let his guard down.
The man stepped forward and with lightning speed and took out a sword from his robe, appearing right in front of Michael.
He attempted to slash him in half, however, it did not work, Michael cast his Shield of Light at the very last moment, effectively parrying the attack.
But unlike the time he parried Elizabeth’s attack, this guy did not suffer that much damage.
‘He weakened his attack at the very end.. smart.’ Michael couldn’t help but admit that despite lacking magical skills, he more than made up for it with experience.
However, Michael was no pushover either, just as the man headed in for another attack, he summoned a single Sword of Light, displacing the sword’s trajectory to gauge his reaction.
He wanted to use this battle as practice, he hadn’t had the chance to test out his full capabilities ever since he obtained a Mana Core, but now was the perfect time.
The sword didn’t bounce back as much as Michael would have liked, if he had gone for a second attack, it would have missed.
‘Well, too bad for him, I could send out hundreds of Light swords, they barely use up my mana anyway’ He snickered and continued sending attacks one by one targeting different vitals each time.
From what he could tell, the man had a Dantian Core, at first it seemed like he was a mage due to his outfit, but it appeared he was not.
‘What’s the word.. hard work and talent? I don’t even know which category this guy falls into’ Michael definitely found the man strong, however, that was about it, his experience made him a decent fighter but not the best of swordsmen.
He felt like even Elizabeth had better swordsmanship, that’s hard work right there.
The battle went on like a stalemate, Michael did not attempt to go for his vitals as he was just testing out his skills.
Meanwhile, the man was trying his hardest to kill Michael, aiming for his heart and neck with each blow or so it seemed anyway.
He backed off and put on a wide smirk “Shall we start the real fight then?”
The moment his words fell, he unsheathed another sword he had been hiding inside of his robe.
‘He was a dual wielder? I’ll be damned’ Michael finally began taking this fight seriously, the pressure the man began emitting was many times that of earlier.
He actually felt threatened, even after the massive strength increase, there was always someone stronger.
Told you not to underestimate him, you could have just tried ending the fight early, now it’s down to pure skill, which quite frankly, he beats you in that aspect.
‘I know’ A frown appeared on his face as he cast a few Shields of Light and recast Shield of Nourishment.
A week went by and he didn’t really take one thing into account, he could combine the 2 skills.
Too much was on his mind and the system didn’t remind him either, now was not the time to do that though, if he did, he could potentially lose the fight if the skill came out not the way he wanted it to.
Don’t blame me for it, had you actually thought about it, you would have realized you could do it.
‘Yeah right, you forgot as well didn’t you?’ Michael sighed and summoned a few Swords of Light preparing for battle.
All this time, the man patiently waited, he could not see his expression but for some reason, it felt like he was amused.
“Are you finally ready?”
Michael replied with a few Swords of Light to catch him off guard while he cast the other ones high in the sky.
However, as he thought his plan was going great, he felt a few of his shield layers break, turning around he saw the man with the 2 swords.
‘The fuck?’ He quickly glanced back and noticed the man was still standing where he was earlier, yet for some reason, there were 2 of him now?
The mana he felt from both of them was the same, however, he noticed one of them had less mana than the other.
It was the one who had been stationary all this time.
‘So he is some kind of an assassin type huh.. how annoying’ He stared at what he thought was the man, but suddenly, his mana halved and he became stationary once more.
‘He’s doing it again’ Michael used his Detection skill and tried locating where the man was, however, no matter where he looked, he could not find him.
That was until another layer of his shields broke and the moment it did, Michael sent an onslaught of Swords of Light, piercing the man’s body.
He was not naive enough to think he might have killed him right then and there, as the mana from the other bodies did not disappear, it seemed to have replenished instead.
‘So he creates some kind of mana clones that restore the mana he spent on them when they die..? That seems bullshit’ Michael thought with a frown and shot his Swords of Light at both of the remaining bodies.
One was pierced, the other one blocked, however, that was enough to notice some kind of an irregularity.
The reaction time was slow, the first one seemed to have tried to block the attack but was not able to, the moment it died, the second one managed to react in time.
‘I am not fighting the main body, am I?’ Michael finally came to this conclusion and spread out his Detection as far as he could.
He felt a faint trace of mana spread around the entire peak of the mountain, with one area in particular being more dense than the other ones.
Looking directly at that location, he did not see anyone, however, the faint trace of mana he felt earlier trembled before going back to normal.
‘Found you.’
Michael pretended to cast a Shield of Light, however, in reality, he lined up the Swords of Light that were still high in the sky towards the location where the man was located.
And with a mere downwards hand gesture, they all flew down simultaneously, turning that particular area into a death zone.
The swords ran down for a solid 5 seconds before they stopped, the mana consumption from this attack was 10% surprisingly.
“The fuck are you made of?” The man who somehow survived that attack appeared beside Michael, his clothes torn, revealing his peculiar appearance.
Completely white hair and eyes, it seemed unnatural, he looked pretty young too.
“Surprised you dodged that, you sure are a slippery one aren’t you?” Michael smirked at him and began casting his Swords of Light.
‘The fight finally begins..’
