Chapter 272
She smiled wickedly, her lips curling with a predator’s delight, a glint of amusement flashing in her crimson eyes.
[Shadow Rift Step]
Sera stepped forward and, in almost no time, appeared before him.
Oliver’s hair stood on end as a cold shiver ran down his spine. His breath hitched—his body already knowing the danger before his mind caught up.
His body tensed, but before he could even react—
Thud!
A strong and powerful kick slamed into his stomach.
“Cough—ugh!”
He barely registered the impact before he was sent flying.
The world spun as he crashed against the ground, rolling several times before coming to a halt.
Pain exploded in his ribs.
He gasped, hands pressing against the dirt as he forced himself upright.
Across the battlefield, Sera stood, her form outlined against the darkened sky.
She hadn’t moved.
She was waiting.
Mocking him.
Oliver wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his deep frown darkening.
He couldn’t keep up. Not at that speed.
He knew it for sure.
Then—
A flicker of purple light danced across his pupils.
[Cosmic Void Gaze]
A strange light flashed through his eyes discreetly as Sera moved once again, but the situation was different this time.
This time, Oliver could see it—see the way her form flickered, how the dark espera seemed to ripple around her. The movement technique she was utilizing wasn’t just speed; it was something else entirely.
Instead of simply dashing forward, her body melted into the darkness beneath her feet—like ink dissolving in water—before emerging seamlessly a few feet ahead.
There was no flicker, no blur of movement. One moment she was there; the next, she had reformed somewhere else.
It wasn’t teleportation.
It was fluid displacement.
This technique seemed quite useful as it allowed her to reposition mid-attack without traditional movement.
A spear materialized in his grip as she moved closer and closer to him.
The moment her foot touched the ground—
Bang!
Bang!
Clash!
Her fiery sword sliced through the air—but this time, Oliver met each attack flawlessly.
Sera’s expression changed after a moment of strikes; her earlier amusement turned into an expression of wide disbelief.
“How…?”
All of her strikes were perfectly met by the boy with his spear.
‘How is this possible!?’
Just a moment ago, he could not follow her movements, and now he was able to perfectly match her moves?
Was she crazy enough to believe that he adapted in that split second to her footwork technique?
Impossible!
She had mastered a Grand Demonic Hall technique, one so high-ranked that even elite demons were rarely permitted to learn it.
Even among demons, it was not a well-known movement technique.
There was no way—no possible way—that a mere human could see it once and adapt to it.
Yet—
He had.
Had she underestimated him? No, that was impossible.
Oliver’s eyes were focused; his pupils, shimmering with a faint purple light, were scanning everything in the surroundings at an insane speed. He was tracking every miniscule shift in her stance.
[Rhythmic Counter]
That was what he had used just before.
Using [Cosmic Void Gaze], he wasn’t just watching her technique—
He was learning it.
Every movement. Every adjustment.
It allowed him to perfectly time his parries with Sera’s attacks; he subtly redirected her momentum, making it harder for her to fully commit to her strikes.
Every attack she made—he matched it.
A thin trickle of sweat slid down her temple.
Her strikes—once swift and overwhelming—were now missing their full impact.
“You little bastard…”
Sera showed her pearl-white teeth in a snarl, her sharp canines catching the light as she looked at Oliver as if she were looking at some sort of relic in a museum.
Her eyes were filled with fascination.
She wasn’t just fighting a human. She was fighting an anomaly
Just what sort of abnormality had she met?
She took a deep breath, and the red fiery sword disappeared from her hand; instead, a cold dark blue curved sword appeared in her hand, replacing the red sword.
A sudden drop in temperature made the air dense and heavy. Frost crackled at her feet.
Unlike before, this wasn’t searing heat—
This was deathly frost.
Sera’s stance changed.
Legs together. Blade held perfectly vertical before her chest.
A quiet exhale—
Then—
She moved.
A single, fluid arc cut through the air, leaving behind a ghostly, shimmering crescent. It pulsed with dark energy, then—like a tear in space—it solidified, radiating waves of frozen death.
[Infernal Moon Slash]
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
One after another, dark-blue crescent waves surged forward at terrifying speed.
Oliver’s eyes widened.
Too fast!
He rolled sideways, barely dodging the first crescent wave—
But then—
More kept coming.
His legs burned, his breath came in ragged gasps, and panic was taking root at the edges of his mind. He dodged left—barely. A crescent wave shredded the ground where he had just stood. Another one came. Then another. His heart pounded. There was no end to them—no escape.
He had to remain calm, he kept reminding himself every second. Being panicked was the worst thing to do on a battlefield. He tried to think of ways to handle this.
They weren’t singular attacks—they were multiplying.
His gaze flickered toward Sera.
‘If I can just disrupt her stance, even for a second…’
She wasn’t even looking at him.
She didn’t have to.
The mark in the air—
That was what was attacking him.
A glowing, fixed crescent wound in space, continuously launching strikes at him.
“Tch—!”
Oliver dodged again—but the ground exploded beside him.
The energy waves didn’t stop.
This wasn’t just a technique.
This was a battle formation in itself.
Those crescent waves were destructive and filled with dark espera; the sheer force behind each blast sent tremors through the ground. One shot, and he would be injured badly.
‘What a dangerous technique!’
He gritted his teeth, rolling again as another explosion sent dust flying.
He had no time to counterattack. It was relentless.
Kneeling on one knee, he heaved deep breaths as he looked at the floating ominous mark. His hair was disheveled, and his face was messy.
He felt a little envious at the same time and wanted to understand the basic principles of this technique, but alas, right now, just saving himself was becoming difficult, much less trying to learn it.
But—
Something was off.
Sera wasn’t moving.
She hadn’t moved since activating the technique.
His mind worked rapidly.
If she was standing still…
If she wasn’t looking at him…
Then that meant—
This technique required a fixed stance.
‘A fixed stance… That’s it.’
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