The battle between Gensi and Tristan was still raging on, only getting fiercer with each passing second.
Gensi appeared behind Tristan, holding an illusory knife in his hand as he slashed forth in a flurry, causing numerous cuts on Tristan's back.
Tristan grunted, using his left thumb to flick up to his katana, causing it to unsheathe by an inch before he used his right hand to sheathe it back.
But immediately, intense gales whipped up in the area as a tornado formed around him, filled to the brim by sword lights.
The tornado crashed into Gensi, sending him flying back. But, Gensi was unharmed as something formless had appeared before him, resembling blades revolving around him as they defended against the attacks.
Gensi crashed into the ground and was dragged a certain distance before he plunged his dagger into the ground and arrived at the stop.
He craned his head and looked behind him, noticing that he was only a couple of inches from the poison bog.
'That was dangerous.' He frowned, then looked in the direction of Tristan as he noticed an intense tornado had been stirred up.
Hidden within the tornado of wind was the figure of Tristan, moving like a madman as he sheathed and unsheathed his katana a little numerous times, reinforcing the tornado around him.
Slowly, the tornado began to climb up in strength and power, beginning to suck in all the surrounding dust as sparks of lightning flashed amidst it.
Tristan then trailed after the figure of Gensi, shouting as he yelled, "Gensi!"
He stomped on the ground hard and flashed forward, pulling the tornado with him.
His raging momentum surprised Gensi.
Gensi's figure flashed past, disappearing from the place. Unfortunately, everywhere he appeared, Tristan followed him like a raging bull.
The ground was ravaged as all the bizarre landscapes created as a result of various terrain changing rank S abilities were pulled into his tornado, causing it to become something even he himself felt difficulty in controlling.
But no matter what, Tristan refused to relent his attacks as he chased after Gensi. And from time to time, he unleashed sword beams straight at Gensi, preventing him from escaping and trying to force him into the tornado, intending to shred him into pieces this way.
Whenever an attack came that he was unable to defend against, Gensi used his invisible blades to defend against them. And, it seemed Tristan's attacks were unable to breach his revolving invisible blade defense.
But, it didn't seem like something he could rely on forever, judging by the way he tried to dodge most of the attacks. After all, the number of invisible blades he had was limited.
And every time he defended against Tristan's attacks, they suffered damage. And after defending against a couple of attacks, one of the invisible blades shattered.
And every time this happened, Gensi scowled, flickering faster as he surrounded the tornado with his after images. He observed the tornado, looking at the numerous abilities it had sucked out from the changed terrain.
And as his figure flashed past, he noticed how the various abilities affected the sword beams, the empirical driving force of the tornado.
He also noticed that almost all the abilities were slowly destroying the sword beams.
Even if it seemed like the tornado had become deadlier, it was just like the final throes of a wounded beast. The tornado was bound to collapse sooner than later. And in the meantime, he instigated Tristan into attacking him further and further.
Every time Tristan unleashed a sword beam through the tornado, it turned more and more unstable.
Finally, once he unleashed a relatively stronger attack in anger, the strongest he had released until now, Gensi's figure vanished from the scene, appearing on the opposite side of the tornado.
He noticed how Tristan's attack had caused a weak spot to appear in the tornado. Taking in a deep breath, Gensi's figure flashed right through the weak spot as he relied on his invisible blades to shield himself.
The tornado had become incredibly thick, even though it was on the verge of collapse. And given its momentum and the innumerous items rotating in it, the moment Gensi's figure moved through it, he grunted in strain as all the nerves on his body popped.
His invisible blades were on a strain as numerous abilities attacked it, intending to break his defenses and render him dead.
However, fortunately for him, he was fast, super fast. So, even if it seemed like he had spent a lifetime enduring the attacks in the tornado, everything happened in the blink of an eye.
In the eye of the tornado, accompanied by fluttering clothes, was Tristan, panting a little as he seemed a bit exhausted. Suddenly, he flinched and shifted his body, noticing a knife impale his stomach.
If he hadn't moved his body, his heart would have been impaled. Just when Tristan planned to use his left hand, the one holding the sheathe, to smack Gensi, something flashed as his eyes widened in shock, enveloped by fury.
His vision turned monochromatic as all he noticed was his left arm that had been severed. It slowly detached itself from his body and flew, rotating once as it seemed to move up due to the updraft.
The blood leaked out from it splashed on his face, dyeing his eyes red as Tristan closed his eyes in reflex, seething in fury as he could mentally imagine the derisive tone of Gensi.
Until now, he had been unable to land even a single blow on Gensi, the cause of his anger. But if he said it was Gensi alone that made him feel this way, then he would be lying.
He was a prideful warlock, someone that was absurdly confident in his abilities, aware that there weren't many who were capable of facing him alone.
But when he faced Cassius, he was frustrated when his attacks failed to do anything.
Even though it was just a friendly spar, when he failed to even make his opponent serious, Tristan was frustrated. This was the first time he felt like that after becoming one of the strongest.
And now, Gensi had been getting into his head as well, infuriating him further. Finally, when his left arm was severed, he snapped. "I never wanted to use it here. But today, you'll realize how scary this Tristan is. Be glad you forced me to do this."
As his severed left hand—that was still holding his sheathe—was about to fly further up, his right hand moved at breakneck speeds and grabbed the hilt of his katana. And, followed by a grunt, he unsheathed it completely, "Say your farewell, Gensi."
Gensi had just severed Tristan's left arm and had just aimed at his neck when his eyes widened in absolute shock.
When his illusory knife was about to sever Tristan's neck, it stopped just a millimeter from his skin.
There seemed to be intense wind concentrated above Tristan's skin, forming a layer of defense that Gensi was unable to penetrate.
But, this wasn't all. The moment Tristan fully pulled out his katana, Gensi noticed that the katana directly vaporized.
And, the layer of wind on Tristan's skin pulsed once and vanished. Gensi stood rooted to the spot in shock before he realized that he was no longer able to move.
As he thought of it, the faint wind in the eye of the tornado blew past his body, causing him to dissolve like dust and be carried by the wind.
And just like that, Gensi died. But, Tristan showed no expression of delight upon the victory, displaying a pained expression as he clutched his severed left arm, plopping to the ground in agony, "That bastard really took my left arm! Arghh!"
Veins popped all over his body as Tristan groaned in pain because of his arm being slashed. And to add to it, the tornado finally lost all stability.
Tristan's final attack completely destroyed it as air, liquid, and solid of all sorts of harmful substances hovered in the air and began to drop towards the ground one after another. And at the center of it all was Tristan, unable even to blink.
Despite being in so much pain, he still managed to hold onto his sword as he waved it again, forming a barrier around him to protect his body from the disaster he had caused. At least as much as he could at the moment.
Fortunately, he had managed to survive. There were wounds all around his body. He was bleeding all over, but he still managed to survive. He had won, actually.
He looked at his severed arm weakly as he sighed. He couldn't help but wonder if he could do it better.
Gensi had really pushed him to the limits, but he also knew that he could have handled it better if he was more careful.
"Are you alright?" Kellian appeared near Tristan, just killing his opponent, surprised to see Tristan's severed arm.
"Do I look alright?" Tristan asked, rolling his eyes.
....
[ Author Note:
Important:
1) For mass release of next month, we'll move to a new system for mass release.
Every 100 Golden Tickets= 1 Bonus Chapter.
2) The highest Golden Ticket giver of the next month will be given an important character in the novel, including name and physique of their own choice, if they wish. They can also suggest a power for the character.
3) If we're top 4 in Golden Ticket ranking of next month, there will be a Webtoon chapter of this novel for you all, including future scenes. ]