Tristan was losing his cool as he was being pushed back by Cassius. He had the speed, but even his speed wasn't able to help him as Cassius was able to intercept all his attacks while attacking back just as firmly.
It was becoming evident for Tristan that he didn't have any advantage.
He was trying to find flaws in the defense of Cassius, but every movement was so smooth and flawless that he couldn't find any flaws. It was as if Cassius had practiced every movement a hundred times, if not a thousand.
"There it is," Tristan suddenly exclaimed as he noticed a bad attack from Cassius, which seemed no less than a brute attack from an immature warrior.
Cassius closed in on Tristan in order to punch him with the strength possible.
Tristan went down and used a Sweep Kick, trying to utilize the opportunity when the balance of Cassius was disturbed.
Cassius seemed like he expected it as he dove ahead. He placed his hand on Tristan's shoulders while his body was upside down. Using the forward momentum and his powerful grip on Tristan's shoulders to toss him far away after he landed on the ground.
Tristan felt like he was as light as a feather the way Cassius picked him up while tossing him away. He felt like his weight was literally gone the moment Cassius touched him, and it returned the moment Cassius threw him away.
He crashed into the wall of a nearby house.
"Does he have super strength as well?" Raia asked, frowning. The way Cassius tossed Tristan, it didn't seem like the work of an ordinary Variant. It seemed as if Lucifer had tossed Tristan with his super strength.
Lucifer didn't reply, but there was a subtle smirk on his face. He realized that Cassius had used the Object Manipulation like he had used on the rubble when they had killed the Beta Squad members.
It was surprising to see him use this ability on a living human, though. The more he saw the practical use of this ability; the more intrigued he became.
"Strike Two," Cassius told Tristan, who was sitting on the ground with the support of a wall.
Tristan stood up while rubbing his back which was hurting as he had just crashed on the wall.
"This is it! Enough playing around!" He yelled as he clenched the sheath tightly. He brought out his sword in quick succession while keeping it back just as fast. But as this motion continued, many attacks were created.
He was even more frustrated as he saw the confident smile on Cassius's face.
One after another, powerful arcs of red lights advanced towards Cassius as if he was being attacked by tens of powerful swords.
"Is that it?" Cassius muttered, seemingly disappointed.
He moved his sword a few times in a circle, making a strange pattern in the air. As his sword moved, a white light moved along with it, but the light didn't disappear as the sword moved ahead.
At this point, even Lucifer was frowning. What was it? He wondered.
It was as if Cassius was drawing on the air with a shining pen. The only difference was that the pen happened to be his sword while the ink happened to be his Divine Energy.
As he finished making a circular formation, he made three slashes inside the formation as if trying to carve a strange pattern inside.
As the pattern was finished, the formation started shining even brighter.
The attacks of Tristan reached Cassius only to be swallowed by the strange character inside the formation.
At this point, even Tristan stopped as he saw the mystical formation that Cassius had made. How could it swallow his attack so easily? He seemed to be so stunned that he even forgot to attack.
All his previous attacks had disappeared after hitting the strange Divine Energy Character that Cassius had drawn, but that didn't seem to be the end of it.
The bright white character turned slightly red as if mixing with the attack of Tristan, becoming even brighter.
There was no expression on the face of Cassius as he watched this happen as if it wasn't a new happening for him.
He slowly raised his beautiful heavy Sword and touched the strange character that was floating in the air with the tip of his Sword.
The character started disappearing as if all its energy was being sucked by the sword. Soon, not only the character but even the formation circle disappeared.
What happened next was even more mysterious.
...
Lucifer even forgot to blink as he saw what was happening. This was the same for Raia as he watched what was happening. This was their first time seeing something like this.
"What is happening down there?" Alicia couldn't help but ask as she frowned.
"I think that's the Sword Formation. I heard about it being used by a few powerful Variants who use swords. I don't know much about it though."
" All I know is that it's a rare but powerful skill that needs a lot of training to master while also needing an equal amount of talent and luck."
It was Vega who answered instead.
"Sword Formation?" Lucifer muttered, realizing what was happening.
He did remember hearing that the family of Cassius was the family of Swordsmen and that they possessed Sword Formation to make their attacks strong.
Even the academy didn't have many details about this, so he had only heard about the name and a few rumors. He knew Vega was right.
"Isn't it just a barrier type thing to protect himself? That's what it seems like?" Alicia asked, frowning.
" I'm not sure. It's my first time seeing this as well," Vega replied. "It's strange, though."
"What's strange?" Alicia asked.
"I heard that the Sword Formation is a skill that a few Sword Families of the other continents keep close to their heart. They never let it leak. So how did Cassius learn it? Wasn't he an orphan who was born on this continent?" Vega asked, frowning.
"Can you shed some light on it? Is he really from this continent?" he asked Lucifer.
"He is. As for how he learned it, I know that as well. He told me about it some time ago. About him meeting a traveler who trained him for a little while. That's where he learned most of his skills," Lucifer replied, making up a story.
...
As the mysterious formation disappeared, a symbol started shining on the Sword of Cassius, which was the same as the symbol which he had drawn. The symbol was blood red at the moment though.
Similar to the symbol, his sword had also started shining as if it was burning in blood-red fire.