Lilith, who just so happened to have lost the last person she cared about, felt immense sadness when Leonardo appeared.
''Hehehe! How unexpected to see you here, Dear princess of the demons.''
Because Leonardo didn't bother to change his voice, Lilith was able to identify him immediately.
Fwoosh!
Abruptly Leonardo's pupils dilated as at the exact moment she appeared before, she who was twenty meters away. Lilith swung her scythe; it took Leonardo a lot of effort to be able to deflect the scythe with his sword; the sheer of the clash sent Leonardo flying.
From this clash, Leonardo could see how powerful Lilith had become even though he had never really clashed against her. Leonardo's brows pulled together when he sensed a sickle shooting towards him, aiming for his neck. If he were late by a millisecond, he would have been beheaded.
He swiftly blocked the sickle with his sword and deflected it, sending it back in a certain direction..
'Damn, this is too hard.' Leonardo felt that it was too tiring to regain the initiative after Lilith took it. He immediately spread his mana to act as a detector.
*Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!*
Metal clanging sounds continuously resounded. The shockwaves spread in the air as Lilith's scythe fiercely clashed with Leonardo's sword.
Leonardo didn't try blocking Lilith's attacks directly as it would be too difficult. Instead, he deflected her attacks towards the empty air by skillfully using his sword.
No matter which position she moved or the direction from which she attacked him, he was still able to deflect her scythe as if it was nothing.
He realized that he could only sense Lilith or her weapon only when it was in a range near him, giving him only a short window to react.
Lilith finally stopped striking at Leonardo as it wasn't much effective. Her eyes glinted as she vigorously swung her hand scythe not at him but simply in the air.
Five beams of darkness in the shape of the sickle of her scythe shot out from her weapon as those beams stormed towards Leonardo at breakneck speed.
For the second time, Leonardo's brows pulled together, seeing those darkness-curdling beams shooting towards him out of nowhere.
Purple lightning crackled around his body as he swiftly moved his hand to deflect all five blood beams.
''Tch! Tch! Tch! Tch! Tch!''
The ground behind Leonardo cleaved a few inches as all five Dark beams struck the ground.
'So fast!' Lilith couldn't help but raise an eyebrow was surprised how fast Leonardo's movements were as she knew best the speed at which her dark beams shot towards him.
''Ethereal Dance!" Lilith announced as she flicked her scythe as her body seemed to execute some form of dance. She spun the scythe at breakneck speed, and from the spinning scythe, dozen dark beams were shot at Leonardo, who jumped back.
A droplet of sweat dripped down Leonardo's forehead when he suddenly saw twenty sharp projectiles charging towards him at a terrifying speed out of thin air! Lilith used her second element, the darkness element, as she was well aware that Leonardo excels at the lightning element.
Leonardo snorted; lightning streaks crackled across Leonardo's body again as he prepared to move in a different direction to dodge her attacks.
But he was surprised when half of the dark beams were still following him even after moving in a different direction while the other half already curved through the air, surrounding him, making him unable to dodge them. Those beams were acting like homing missiles.
Forced to face those dark beams, Leonardo decided that the best outcome was to deflect them. However, when he tried to deflect the closest blood beam, his eyes widened.
'An illusion??'
Leonardo's sword didn't deflect it but instead went through it, making him lose his balance. It was too late when he realized that the dark beam had strange properties to them. But he quickly recovered and drew a slash in a semi-circular fashion with his sword; purple lightning flashed out his sword.
*Rippp*
The air and most of the dark beams got ripped apart as soon as Leonardo's slash ripped through them, while some of them were lost their unusualness.
However,
*SLASH*
"Arghh…"
Leonardo was shocked when he felt two of the dark beams vanished before reappearing to ruthlessly slashing his back, which sent him flying a few dozen meters. Even his defensive armor was utterly dispersed, corroded, and the dark corrosive beams lacerated his skin.
Black lightning crackled across the sky before descending, aiming straight at Leonardo, who had not regained his balance.
He faced the incoming black lightning, which was more like a lightning dragon than a normal lightning strike.
Leonardo thrust the black longsword forward using his right arm; the latter bulged, seeming to have doubled before purple lightning burst out of the sword and shot at the incoming dark lightning.
Siiiiiii!
Like a snake flicking its tongue, the purple lightning resonated before both lightning clashed mid-air.
Crackle! Boom!
Lightning exploded midair, sending shockwaves in all directions; the two had to firmly plant their feet on the ground to resist being sent flying.
"I guess it's time I fought you for real," Leonardo said as he smiled. He then disappeared in a flash of lightning, and when he reappeared again, he was right before Lilith; he slashed at her with his sword, the speed of the sword was deadly; normal people shouldn't be able to react, not even powerful Rank 10 could as Leonardo's sword strikes mixed illusion and speed, lightning and darkness.
Lilith snorted, wanting to act like a darkness expert user; nothing could be more laughable as she was born with it.
Looking at the sword slashes that seemed to cover her whole field of vision, Lilith moved her scythe, then something astonishing happened the scythe enlarged.
Clangs! Clangs! Clangs!
Lilith deflected the first volley before moving forward, then the scythe shortened for her to be able to deflect the sword slashes.
Leonardo was shocked by what just happened; he couldn't believe what he was seeing. However, he knew now wasn't the time; smiling, he jumped back. He then fiercely swept his sword in the air.
"Lightning Vortex!"
An intense and bright vortex of purple lightning escaped from his sword as it became larger and moved towards the ground.
The ground ruptured and got shredded as the debris got sucked into the whirling tornado of lightning. A huge pressure descended on Lilith and found it hard to move in the opposite direction while slowly getting pulled towards the vortex!
Even the air was not left alone and got ripped apart as if a sword was cutting through them. Because a bit of Sword Will was imbued in his attack, it was more powerful than it should be.
To make sure that Lilith couldn't escape from his lightning vortex as he prepared his next attack.
"Ahhh!"
With a loud bellow, Leonardo swung his sword again. He sent another lightning vortex behind Lilith to be surrounded by two lightning vortexes, making it harder to escape.
Closing her eyes, Lilith opened them again as purple light flashed through them, her scythe vanished to be replaced by a black sword.
''You gotta be kidding me!" Leonardo said in disbelief.
Lowering her body a little, Lilith unexpectedly used the same technique as Kamishiro, not quite the same, but it was closer to it; dark sword slashes were sent in two times, the first at the front while the second to the back.
Dark sword slashes clashed against the lightning vortex producing a shocking explosion that engulfed Lilith. From the explosion, Lilith was sent flying; no, when looked closely, she was riding on the explosion momentum to escape it.
Everything happened too fast, and by the time Leonardo could react, Lilith was already behind him; her back was facing him; however, this didn't stop her from thrusting her sword in reverse with her two hands.
Swoosh!
The black and almost ethereal sword tore through the air and was about to tear through Leonardo's waist; half of his waist would be gone if this strike were to connect.
Leonardo's instinct flared up, and never like before he gained perfect control of his body, he waited until the last moment before moving his body to the opposite side with all his strength.
Although Leonardo didn't come out unscathed from Lilith's sword, he succeeded in minimizing the damage; he received a light injury; however, the injury seemed to be eroding.
Suddenly, Leonardo's eyes almost bulged from their sockets; he couldn't believe what was happening.
''What?"
That sword he thought he had dodged was now turned into a huge black scythe, and this scythe blade gleamed; it was like the gleam you saw just when the grim reaper harvested a poor soul.
Lilith moved her hand from behind, and the scythe descended toward Leonardo's neck like a starving beast that could not wait to taste blood.
Since Lilith first attacked from behind to her switching to scythe form, not even five seconds passed; the black scythe was about to claim Leonardo's neck due to its quickness.