Twenty hours had passed by since Almond was training in the dimension of his weapon art token.
He stood with his sword held.
In front of him, Almond’s clone stood in the same position.
They were already clashing against each other in silence, their eyes reflected blades that otherwise were invisible to observe physically.
The blades bent and spiraled around beneath them, with their center point right under their feet, on the ground, but still, neither of them moved.
The spiral was only visible in each other eyes as they increased in size, clashing against each other eventually.
If it was Almond of twenty hours ago, his head would have rolled, beheaded.
But now, he had grasped the intent behind his clone’s blade and finally knew why his head always turned upside down after getting cut by his clone.
Almond’s eyes flashed, and he made the move, his physical body vanishing along the lines of spirals just like his clone before both of them clashed their clashed, their position meeting at the lines of spirals that interacted with each other.
Unfettered Blade Mayhem’s first stage—Spiraling Execution Blade.
A dreadful phenomenon occurred with their clash of attacks.
Two vertical spirals with golden edges flickered into existence as their swords clashed, the sharp edges of the spirals cutting each other.
But this time, Almond let go of his sword immediately after the clash, letting off his strength as the clone suddenly got pushed forward to find resistance vanishing while Almond went past him, his hand formed into a chop aimed at the clone’s neck.
As his chop brushed at the clone’s neck, a dark gold spiral bloomed, spinning intensely just for a second as it grew several meters while shredding around its neck as the clone’s head flew up and rotated upside down.
[Congratulations, you have successfully and flawlessly learned the first stage of Unfettered Blade Mayhem—Spiraling Execution Blade.]
Almond stood there, soaking in success as he closed his eyes.
Around him, a faint dark golden spiral materialized, storming and rotating with its dreadful edge that never seemed to wane as it only grew sharper.
‘Intent of Spiral Edge….an edge that produces from a single point and grows into a spiral with its ever-increasing sharpness. The tougher the target, the larger the spiral, and sharper its edge.’
Almond opened his eyes as they whirled with a shiny golden spiral with sword-like blade edges he could feel the power of this intent within his grasp, under the rule of his thoughts.
‘Spiraling Execution Blade….perfect name,’ Almond grinned.
Spiraling Execution Blade was a move composed of three steps, requiring great physical exertion and mana control.
Spiral Edge intent didn’t only have its ever-increasing sharpness but also had movement influencing power.
The first step was establishing a huge spiral with him as the center. This was possible with just a thought as he had comprehended the Spiral Edge intent.
A spiral had its origin point, and from there, Almond could move to its line. The greater the physical exertion, the faster and blindingly he would move.
This was the reason why the clone would initially vanish in front of him, and then attack him from the side or behind as his head would roll.
It was because he was within the clone’s spiral range!
Movement on the spiral’s lines was absurdly fast, and that was how he couldn’t react or catch up, but he managed to react after grasping the intent after the first twelve hours and eventually defeated the clone after eight hours of observing, understanding, and learning.
‘This intent is awesome,’ Almond looked at the Spiral beneath them, and suddenly, he vanished, moving twenty meters away at the end of the spiral.
The spiral was always moving, renewing from its center point, and with physical exertion, he could move on the lines of spirals as if he were teleporting.
Not to mention that it was Spiral Edge! Its main power was its sharp edge!
‘If I enchant this attack with elements and Severance Blade, it’s fucking over,’ Almond blinked. ‘I have to see how it fares against other old monsters.’
‘And Intents doesn’t consume any Mana, though it does seem to consume mental stamina.’
‘Intents…it’s a power of thoughts. A thought turned reality,’ Almond’s eyes glinted. ‘So a strong thought of someone turned real with real effects much like this strange Spiral Edge.’
‘I suppose the cores of Spiral Edge intent are movement and sharpness. A single attack, and from it, a spiral of sharpest edges would bloom, cutting through anyone.’
‘The penetration power of this attack is the highest I’ve ever seen. I have to see how this fares against weapon arts of old monsters now.’
Almond exited the training space and opened his eyes before using the teleport function as he left the Sanctuary Area and arrived at the GAA headquarters.
From there, he used his status’s battlefield function and arrived on the battlefield.
The big shots and old monsters had turned the battlefield into their new homes as they were securing their base and strengthening it as much as possible with high magi-tech and every possible preparation.
They were also exploring the areas, and their fruits also bore as they found several Epic-rank resources and also earned cumulative battlefield points.
…
“Haha, bring it on, kid. Show us what you got.”
“You finally decided to come face us, haha. Don’t worry, we won’t hold back.”
“So, who is going first?”
Almond looked at Hiroshi and Silvester who stood five meters away from each other, facing him with grins while holding wooden swords.
‘Damn, I have to choose who first now…’ Almond wryly smiled.
“Cough, how about this?” Almond smiled as he thought of something and stood in stance as his wooden sword pointed upward and leaned forward.
“I will attack both of you. The nature of this attack allows me to strike at everyone within the range almost immediately with barely a micro-second difference between each target.”
“Interesting. Alright, go ahead,” Silvester nodded.
“Fine by me,” Hiroshi nodded.
“Please stay alert,” Almond grinned. “This weapon art’s first stage is no joke. Even though I will be using minimum stamina and mana required for its execution, its intent is quite strong and lethal.”
Both of them nodded, their eyes showing a gleam as Almond also felt intent oozing out of them.
‘Nice.’
“Here, I come,” Almond said and suddenly, both Silvester and Hiroshi felt a certain pressure on them.
‘The brat got quite a sword pressure. It seems we are within his intent’s range,’ Silvester’s eyes flickered.
‘Yeah, it feels quite nasty. I can feel its power within a 30-meter radius,’ Hiroshi nodded, his focus on Almond.
‘Interesting intent,’ Silvester grinned.
Suddenly, both of them saw Almond vanishing and their necks turning cold.
If someone played it in slow motion, Almond traveled circularly on his spiral’s edges from its point of origin, and due to its rather long distance, the gathered momentum and power behind his slash was immense.
His wooden sword’s edge aimed at the old monster Silvester and Hiroshi’s neck and both of their swords also timely clashed against Almond with their full power to defend against it.
Almond was already past them, but the spiral blooming out when his sword struck their swords destroyed their swords, shredding before a line appeared around their necks.
“Crap,” Silvester muttered as he rubbed his neck, his Fortification shattered at the last moment.
The same happened with Hiroshi as both of them looked at each other and then turned around to look at Almond who was smiling at them.
“How the heck did you learn this level of weapon art?”
“Yeah, you didn’t create it, right? I won’t believe that.”
Almond coughed and dryly chuckled, “Yeah, well, I didn’t create it. But something else created it. A device called Synthesis Forge of Eternal Power that you may encounter as a reward by completing hidden challenges in the Labyrinth.”
“So, how was it?” Almond asked as he rubbed his nose while smiling.
“It was stronger than the weapon arts we created, that’s for sure,” Elder Silvester weakly smiled.
“Indeed. And what’s the name of intent you comprehended?” Elder Hiroshi curiously asked.
“It’s called Spiral Edge.”
Both old monsters muttered their names, their eyes glinting.
“That’s an interesting name for an intent.”
“What about you two?” Almond blinked. “I am curious about your Intents.”
“Mine is Cherryblossom Shard,” Elder Hiroshi said with a smile.
“The one I grasped and use in my attacks is called Steller Cut,” Elder Silvester grinned.
“Nice, they sound cool.”
“Intents are all-powerful, but the attack you executed and how you used your intent was interesting. Compared to that, it felt like we only used half of the power of our intents in designing our attacks,” Elder Hiroshi said thoughtfully.
“Indeed, it seems we got much to learn, haha. Thanks, brat. I got solid insight with this,” Elder Silvester laughed.
“Glad to be of help,” Almond chuckled. “Now, I’ll go and leave you two be. It’s time that I finish my sub-class quests and awaken it.”