When Blake turned to Luciano's battle, he saw him matching up to the speed of the Praying mantis.
'Are my eyes playing tricks on me?' Blake couldn't help but ask. With Luciano displaying such speed, Blake felt more threatened than usual.
[Something is definitely up here.] The system said.
'Is it his weapon?' Blake said referring to the golden sword that was now a chain with sickles at the end.
[Epic weapons do boost the user's stats, but not to this extent.] The system pointed out.
'They boost user's stats?' Blake asked with a confused look on his face as he looked at Ebony and Ivory in his hands.
The system ignored the question and began looking through Blake's memory of what happened minutes ago. [Although I can only see through your eyes, it doesn't mean I can't make out what happened with my mana senses.]
The moment Luciano attracted the attention of one of the armored praying mantis, the system saw golden energy move from the swords to every part of his body. The energy began energizing all the cells in his body, increasing both his strength and speed.
[The swords seems to grant the user a kind of berserk state that boosts both his physical and magical capabilities.] The system muttered.
"Isn't he too calm for someone in a berserk state?" Blake couldn't help but ask.
[My thoughts too. Either the adverse effects of the berserk mode isn't strong or he can enter rage mode.] The system explained.
'I think we both know the answer.' Blake said causing the system to nod.
The chances of the adverse effect of the epic tier weapon not being strong were quite low, while the latter looked more plausible. This was because it made more sense for the direct descendant of the fire emperor to negate the effects of the berserk state.
With the boost from the berserk state, Luciano was able to block some attacks and easily make explosions strong enough to create some distance whenever he was in a bad position.
This way the cycle continued and both parties weren't able to harm each other for some time, but the table slowly began turning in Luciano's favor.
[Is it what I think it is?] The system said when it noticed something during the fight.
Every time Luciano's sword got struck, it would create an energy ripple that would increase the flow of energy that powered the berserk mode.
It had turned from Luciano compensating his inability to block attacks with explosions to having a close-quarter combat with the knight rank armored praying mantis.
"I don't think I need to help him." Blake said when he saw wounds all over the armor of the insect. The armored praying mantis had no idea of how the speed of the human was getting faster, but its instincts were telling it to move away from the human.
Trusting its instincts, the praying mantis spread its wings and returned to the air where it had an environmental advantage.
"You think you can run?" Luciano said with a smirk on his face as he saw the knight rank insect running. He began spinning the golden chains of the sickles causing them to light up and releasing a large spinning vortex of flames 10 meters wide.
Firestorm vortex!
Seeing the ocean of flames coming its way, the armored praying mantis tried its best to fly out of the spell's range, unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough to cover 10 meters in a second.
The spinning waves of flames continuously spun the praying mantis in the vortex, burning its wings to ashes and hitting up its hard armor to the point where its innards began heating up at an incredible speed.
"I am bored already." The smirk on Luciano's face had changed to an indifferent expression as he canceled the firestorm vortex spell causing the armored praying mantis that was now wingless to free fall.
With no wings or elements to fly, the armored praying mantis could only watch as it was going to crash on the ground, or so it thought.
"It's not yet over!" Luciano threw out the right sickle wrapping the knight rank insect before drawing to himself.
At this point, the armored praying mantis had neither the energy nor the wings to resist the pull. It could only watch as the sickle in Luciano's left hand changed to a sword and stabbed through its armor.
"I have heard that praying mantis meat is delectable. Too bad I am not in the mood." Luciano said as the sword began lighting up, releasing golden flames that burst out through every hole in its body.
"Time to end this exercise." Luciano burst out in flames as he shot towards the armored praying mantis attacking Tessie's group.
He shot out a giant flameburst that the knight rank insect easily dodge, but before it got out of range, Luciano made it explode sending the armored praying mantis flying.
"Oh... I am meant to be fighting." Using both the floating orb and fire element, Blake shot through the air and went after the armored praying mantis.
By the time Blake was within range, the pissed Knight rank insect had already recovered and was coming at Blake, but that was when a giant golden flameburst had come from the side.
Having been tricked once, the armored praying mantis quickly changed its path of flight, but Blake had already predicted this and had gone to intercept it.
Sensing the human behind it, the armored praying mantis bent, dodging the greatsword aimed at its head, before spinning and striking at the right side of the human that was left open due to the sword slash.
'I knew this would happen, but it was worth the try.' Blake had predicted his attack failing, so he had prepared a void shift.
The left forelimb of the praying mantis went through the spatial tear but had stopped all of a sudden. That was when its right forelimb was in a stabbing motion aimed for his heart.
'Holy fuck!' Shock was written all over Blake's face as he saw the blade inching closer.