Old monster Hiroshi bent his knees and spread his legs slightly as he grounded himself in a stance with his right hand grabbing the katana’s handle, ready to draw it.
A burst of powerful yet calm aura of water floated around him along with a gentle yet sharp breeze whirling.
“This is my strongest single-target attack,” Hiroshi said as the veins all over his body popped, exerting his physical strength to the highest and using all of his Mana.
And then the aura suddenly turned pink like cherry blossom, with its motes akin to petals as they stormed around him.
‘Intent!’ Almond’s eyes glinted. ‘He is using some kind of intent! The cherry blossom theme is entirely due to his intent. How did he achieve this?’
In the next second, Hiroshi drew his katana and slashed diagonally twice, forming a perfect ‘X’ with millions of tiny blades flowing in that projectile.
‘He didn’t use this intent-based attack before in the S-rank Dungeon at his place,’ Almond blinked.
The attack stormed around Gunther in a wild yet graceful manner, attacking him from all sides as cracks appeared all over his red coating.
“So this old coot got stronger last I saw him,” Silvester grinned. “Well, it wouldn’t be fun otherwise.”
“Impressive weapon art,” Gunther nodded with a grin as his coating recovered.
Silvester moved forward as he said, “I’m next, I know.”
Gunther laughed, “Show me what you got, swordsman.”
Silvester held his sword in front of him with both of his hands before it became three meters long and thinner with a wider blade before patterns appeared all over it and glowed as a powerful gray metal aura pulsed out of it.
Flame and Metal conjoined in an unnatural synergy, empowering the sword as it glimmered with potent power.
‘Intent,’ Almond narrowed his eyes. ‘He has intent as well, but it’s different from elder Hiroshi’s one…’
Silvester slashed downward as a glinting gray-metal blade struck King Gunther first before the sword physically struck in the same trajectory, causing the ground to crack beneath Gunther’s feet while also cracking his red coating as it reached his flesh and forming a mark.
‘What kind of intent is that? Sharpness?’ Almond blinked. ‘Intents are such mysterious things, it seems that it’s impossible to predict the power of someone’s intent entirely.’
‘All old monsters have intents or are in the midst of actualizing those intents…’
“Hahaha, very good attack,” King Gunther laughed as the dust settled and everyone saw the slash mark recovering.
“Well, I would say in terms of overall attack power, the cherry blossom sword was more powerful, but against me, the sharp slash attack was more effective.”
“Tsk.”
“Tsk.”
Both clicked their tongues at the same time and glanced at each other.
“Hahaha, now the next one,” Gunther said as he licked his lips and turned to Shiro-sen “You next.”
Shiro-sen wasn’t pure offense-oriented style as he had more debuff and control type build, so he used his battle art that aimed at King Gunther’s weakness with his ghostly blue variant fire element and variant wind element that he had comprehended from a Dungeon. His attack was still powerful, breaking King Gunther’s guard and injuring him.
Next, It was elder Arjun’s turn, who boasted the highest firepower and raw damage among other old monsters.
He manifested a fiery golden orange bow he created as the first step of his weapon art before pulling its string as the floor around him began melting.
The other old monsters covered themselves in fortification to prevent the heat from affecting them.
‘This intent is more powerful,’ Almond narrowed his eyes. ‘But what the heck is it? Heat? Melting?’
Elder Arjun released the arrow as it instantly struck King Gunther, blasting his red coating instantly before making a deep hole in his chest before the arrow’s power subsided. The ground around him already melted due to the arrow’s power.
“Ouch, that was awesome,” King Gunther laughed. “And you got quite a powerful anti-healing, eh? I have to drink a potion now.”
He took out a potion and drank it before his wound completely healed.
“Next, your turn,” King Gunther looked at Admiral Rudra with a wide grin, “Honestly, you feel strongest out of all, but the kid gives me strange goosebumps. I can’t decide, so you’ll come first since I’ve already decided the kid would attack last.”
Admiral Rudra’s arms pumped as he revved his physical body while calmly walking a few steps before stopping.
A glassy blue dimensional aura enveloped him before his fists gathered his sorcery breaker energy along with pure constructed mana to fuel it further with his mastery.
A hazy majestic avatar five meters big resembling his upper body’s half manifested behind him with powerful glinting fists.
‘He is really going to go with his strongest attack,’ Almond wryly smiled. ‘That’s going to hurt this King for sure.’
“Impressive, impressive!” King Gunther’s eyes shone as he observed Admiral Rurdra’s stats. “What’s the name of your move?”
“I like to name my battle art simple,” Rudra smiled. “I call this Absolute Breaking Fist Art.”
“Here it comes.”
*BOOM!*
The ground cracked as he kicked his feet and dashed with his full power, gathering momentum and instantly reaching King Gunther as his punch struck King Gunther.
*Smash!*
The red coating all over King Gunther’s body instantly shattered before Rudra’s fist struck his skin, causing it to crack and burst out blood as a big hole formed before King Gunther was shot back like a bullet, but he abruptly stopped before crashing into the wall as a powerful aura burst out of him, followed by his loud laughter.
“Amazing, wonderful! That was a magnificent attack,” King Gunther laughed as he chugged a potion again “I am already willing to ally with your kingdom, but I must experience one more attack.”
Looking at Almond, King Gunther said with a grin, “Come on, young man. Show me what you got.”
‘Sorry, but I am not going to show you my best move, what if you accidentally die?’ Almond internally rolled his eyes. ‘But I guess this is a good opportunity.’
Almond walked forward with a nod as he conjured a sword with his Sand of Vibrant Wave before he synergized it with his lightning, empowering it, and solidifying crystals over it.
“What a strange sword. There’s no edge to it,” Hiroshi raised his eyebrows.
“It’s just to empower the attack I release from this makeshift sword,” Almond smiled. “Basically, this sword is just a medium for my main attack.”
‘They already know about my domain, albeit that it’s not as small as they think and they don’t know what I can do within it, so I can use it,’ Almond blinked as his eyes glinted, and an invisible domain expanded from him, though other old monsters could see its outline.
‘My Sand elemental mastery is only at C-rank, but that still gives 40% bonus sand elemental damage.’
Almond adjusted the distribution of 1000 Mana for 70% for Lightning and 30% for Sand element as he conjured his sword.
The damage bonus from the lightning element was higher since it was at S-rank elemental mastery, meaning the 700 Mana he transformed into lightning was as strong as an attack of 1400 Mana due to a 100% bonus damage boost from S-rank mastery.
Meanwhile, the 300 mana he transformed into Sand was as strong as an attack of 420 Mana.
The synergy between them was basically combining their attributes, A.K.A the elemental effects to include in his next.
Almond’s eyes glinted as he spent the remaining 90% of his Mana to conjure a Severance Blade within his makeshift sword and 10% Mana to shape a slash-projectile as he swung his sword, causing a destructive golden-sparkling slash that vibrated faintly at insane speed.
‘This might be too much as well, but whatever, he won’t die from this,’ Almond internally thought as he unleashed his slash.
As the slash struck him, King Gunther’s pupils shrank, ‘Crap.’
His red coating was slashed away before the slash cut deep through his chest, even severing his bones as he grunted in pain.
King Gunther’s aura surged as he burst out with a powerful red aura, using some kind of skill as he began recovering wounds before chugging a potion.
The old monsters were dumbfounded as they saw the effect of Almond’s attack!