Armand Nephilim, the privileged acolyte that he had fought in the final of last year's Magus Game, had once again standing in front of him.
Emery, however, was currently in an unusual situation. It wasn't about the numerous wounds on his body, as the pain he felt from the wounds was the last of his list of concerns.
Moreover, his newfound monstrous regeneration ability had already started doing its job and patched up all those wounds.
His main concern was the feelings that were building up within him which became increasingly more apparent with each battle he went through.
This peculiar feeling became even stronger, rising twofold when he saw the figure draped in a golden robe that was slowly approaching in his direction.
Emery felt his head start spinning, and he barely managed to hear when the golden hair acolyte said something about taking the fight easy as it was just a game.
"Taking it easy? How funny…" was the thought that came to Emery's mind when he heard the nonsensical words coming out of Armand's mouth.
Those words even made him second guess it as he was sure he heard it wrong. Is this really the same person he painstakingly fought to the verge of death three years ago?
Seeing the golden robe fluttering in the air, Emery's mind was taken back to the memory of the two Nephilim gods on Earth, Hades and Zeus. Then he recalled the atrocious things those people had done, the fact they played with real, living people's lives, the fact that they messed with the Abbot and Lord Izta's generation.
Remembering those things, Emery subconsciously gritted his teeth like a wild animal as he glared at Armand. Noticing the look given to him, Armand could feel goosebumps all over his skin, as if a ferocious beast had locked its hungry gaze at him.
"Wait.. there really no need to be so serious about this" Armand said exaggeratedly in an attempt to calm himself.
Emery didn't say anything more, he only kept his glare at Armand. The latter saw how Emery's iris turned yellow and his body unknowingly took a step back on its own.
The crowd started to turn rowdy at this. Armand could see both their surprised and mocking smiles. Thanks to that, his fear was immediately replaced by great shame.
Returning his gaze to Emery, Armand gritted his own teeth and quickly used his best skill.
"I am a proud Nephilim!! I will definitely not lose to the likes of lower real scum such as you!!"
Right as he finished saying those words, Armand's body began to bask in a shimmering golden light. He slowly floated to the air as the Nephilim's secret skill was employed by him.
[Angelic Descent]
This is a powerful Divine rank skill that exclusively belonged to the Nephilim family, and the one that brought their name to the top of elite clans in the human universe.
This Divine skill was so important to the faction that the higher ups decreed it to be kept secret from outsiders and those who leaked it would be sentenced with the most severe punishment.
Emery didn't show any exaggerated reaction as he had seen this skill when Jordi and Armand himself used it against him in the past. Of course, he knew that the smart way to counter this was to attack the other party before the skill fully took effect.
Despite that, Emery remained in his position and only let out a smile as he watched Armand's figure go higher to the air. Inwardly, a sense of anticipation rose as he couldn't wait to see Armand's best and fight against his peak state.
Seeing Emery's nonchalant reaction, Armand was furious because he realized that he was underestimated by the other party.
"YOU!! I swear I will make you regret your act of belittling me! You shall see how much different I have become!" Armand said hatefully while glaring at Emery. "The power of a saint is with me!"
Right after saying those words, instead of a single golden wing, this time a second one appeared on Armand's back. It spread its wings wide in the air, as if it wanted to thoroughly tell the world about its elegance and beauty.
"Now you shall bow to my greatness!!"
Multiple [Soaring Shuttle] came out of his ring and darted around his figure. Emery counted and found out that there were now sixteen of them, twice the number compared when he fought Jordi. In addition, each of those ellipse-shaped artifacts were zooming through the air at great speed and gave off a powerful spirit force.
Knowing very well Emery's style of fighting, Armand immediately initiated his attack at the other party. He sent half of [Soaring Shuttle] that he controlled to commence bombardment of attacks while ordering the other half to circle around him to defend against any surprise attack Emery might deliver.
Swish! Swish! Swish!..
The air seemed to be sliced apart by these shuttles as they flew and zoomed around in an attempt to injure Emery. Unfortunately, eight of them were apparently not enough to catch up on Emery's newfound speed combined with the [Blink] spell.
Even though he could see that his attempts failed again and again, Armand was not stupid nor daring enough to send his remaining shuttles to attack Emery. If he did that, he would be left defenseless and certain that his fate would only be like Jordi's.
Emery, however, was not calm nor patient enough to let this battle go on and waste his time.
He quickly took out his second weapon – Magus Xion's forged tier 3 blade, before he decided to stop dodging the shuttles and started parrying them as he made his way towards the Nephilim acolyte.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
A series of loud metal clashing sounds resounded clearly in the air as Emery slowly but surely approached Armand. Under the amazed gazes of the onlookers, his hands continued to move so fast and agile as he flung every shuttle that came his way.
15 feet.
12 feet.
Even though he wasn't that fast, Emery continued walking towards Armand in a steady manner and nothing seemed to be able to stop him.
Seeing the sight of Emery unwaveringly advancing despite the relentless onslaught his [Soaring Shuttle] did naturally made Armand nervous, but the Nephilim actually hoped that the former kept coming closer to him.
Not only could he control the shuttles more easily and adeptly the closer they got, he could now safely use all of the shuttles to defend and attack at the same time.
When Emery reached the distance of 10 feet away from him, Armand smirked as he knew it was the time.
"Now!!"
In an instant, all 16 shuttles gathered together and formed into a wall of moving shuttles that continued to rotate in all directions around him. The sudden increase of shuttles attacking him became too much for Emery, but at this point he wasn't fighting with his brain anymore but with his instincts.
Clank! Splat! Clank! Clank! Splat!..
The [Soaring Shuttle] started to inflict wounds and deep gashes on Emery's body, but he kept moving around and blinking continuously as he tried to break through Armand's 16 shuttles defense that floated creating a ball shape in the air. However, the closer he got to the latter the harder it became.
8 feet.
The numerous wounds and painful sensations throughout his body started to make him a little bit slower, but Emery still persistently wanted to break the seemingly impregnable defense.
Clank! Clank! Metallic sounds continued to echo, blood dripped all over the arena
"Why can't you just die already?!!"
Just as he said those words, Armand saw something that gave him a bad feeling.
Emery's power gradually increased.