“Well then, give me your best shot, Almond.”
Kexell’s eyes glinted, both of their domains suddenly stilling as the clash abruptly ended.
Almond’s eyes flickered before spirals flashed, and a storm of invisible blades shone in the spatial silver radiance that sliced Kexell instantly as his pieces floated.
“Bwahahaha, this is nice,” Kexell’s separated head laughed, but suddenly, all body parts turned into darkness and gathered together before he became whole.
‘Figures. Spatial Severance is useless, and I can’t use other solid attacks on it yet because of the curse Admiral Rudra mentioned. But this made one thing clear. The rebound is not physical but meta-physical. I cut him, but I didn’t get cut, though if I had poisoned or shocked him, that could have rebounded to me.’
Almond frowned. He knew this dragon’s stats and its power. Attacks that only affected physically were useless against Kexell.
Slicing him physically without properly affecting him wouldn’t reduce his vitality at all. He would simply turn intangible like darkness. Out of all the elements, light and darkness were the most intangible, so their Psychophysiology was more tricky than other elements, but they also had more potent weaknesses against each other.
‘I have Lumeir, but its effects can’t suppress his darkness. The space element is useless when it comes to killing Kexell. I can’t use full power, or my clone will get killed instead.’
‘Wow, alright. This is tricky. It looks like I’ll have to take a different approach here.’
He didn’t want to get this clone’s body killed, which would send his consciousness straight back to the second layer.
This clone business wasn’t as easy as he thought since it cost him 7,000 Academy Points to buy something to make the clone’s core structure after he learned the ability.
But because of that, he could use Mana’s techniques as well. If he had a shabby clone, it would be too weak to take real hits or bring out more of his powers as Mana techniques required proper chakra points that usual shabby clones wouldn’t have.
‘Well, let’s play with it and see what I can do.’
“Your turn now,” Almond crossed his arm, his eyes glinting. “Show me what you got.”
Kexell’s snouts burst with his dark silver sparkling flames that shaped into spears before shooting at Almond.
“Seriously?” Almond was speechless as the spears vanished into tiny spatial holes before shooting back at Kexell.
“It’s not like you did anything to me. You barely even used your Mana in your attack, so why should I get serious if you are not?” Kexell snorted.
“…”
‘Either this dragon’s nature is like this, or he is deliberately messing with me and wants me to give him a serious hit so he can return my attack back at me.’
But Almond couldn’t do that. He absolutely couldn’t afford to get “affected” by his own attacks, or his clone body would evaporate.
“Hey, come on. Hit me properly. Are you a wuss or something?” Kexell floated upside down, his eyes on Almond.
“Your mother dropped you when you were small,” Almond said with a flat expression. “And your father never returned after going to get milk.”
“Are you high?” Kexell tilted his head.
“You are a dumb idiot. Your eyes are like butts of stinking money, and you smell like someone ate a mountain of feces and farted.”
“Are you trying to make me angry so I attack you?” Kexell narrowed his eyes.
“Yeah,” Almond nodded as he pointed his sword at him with a smile, “Come on, roasted fried sizzling flying lizard.”
Kexell stared at Almond for a moment before he burst out laughing.
“That was funny! Hahahaha.”
Almond shook his head as he looked down. ‘I guess I’ll have to make a temporary solution.’
Suddenly, a spatial pulse spread out from Almond, spreading all around.
Kexell paused his laughter and asked, curious, “What did you do?”
“A temporary solution.” Almond smiled as his eyes deep within flickered with images of a cyberpunk-ish advanced base at the corner of the battlefield.
Getting the coordinates, he waved his hand at Kexell, “See you later…I’m sure you’ll have fun with your next opponent.”
In the next moment, Kexell’s pupils shrank as he felt the space around him shifting. He tried to get out, but it was too late.
Kexell appeared right above the headquarters of Cyberterra Planet.
“Well damn.”
Suddenly, a powerful intent targeted him. Kexell turned his head to the side and saw a figure floating with hands behind his back.
He had a slim build, less than 6 feet of height, and a long but thick black beard. Half of his right-side body was metallic but looked alive, pulsing with power and nano-metallic particles that made the metal like water for him to control, as indicated by a stream of particles, colorful and neon, traveling from his heart toward his right eye as a strange symbolic pattern flickered in it.
“You must be the Arcane Champion of Empyradrake. I am Neo Elvergarde.” Neo narrowed his eyes. “Are you here to take us on all alone?”
Kexell’s mouth stretched wide into a smile, with his fangs glistering dark silver with black linings. “Yes. Kexell the Cursed Vagabond is here to rest his grave. Please kill me.”
Neo raised his eyebrows, his eyes glinting.
“Stand down, everyone. Don’t interfere, and don’t attack,” Neo shouted at the incoming powers.
The Epic-rank powerhouses who arrived heeded the order and left right away.
“What’s your deal? How did you arrive here unnoticed?” Neo’s eyes glinted. ‘There’s spatial disturbance set within 10 kilometers, so teleporting is not possible. But then how did this dragon arrive here?’
Kexell snorted as the usual flames burst out of his nostrils. “I didn’t come here on my own. The Arcane Champion of Earth forcefully sent me here when I went to fight him.”
‘Teleport despite being spatial disturbance?’ Neo’s eyes glinted. “That’s good to know. So? What’s your plan?”
Kexell grinned, “I told you already. I am here to rest my grave. Please kill me.”
“I can see the ulterior intent behind those words with my eyes closed.” Neo narrowed his eyes. He could see that this dragon’s scales were not like those of regular dragons. They were all injured and sizzling as if acid was constantly burning them. He had never seen a dragon as ugly as this, but also one that gave him such uneasiness.
Neo’s right eye suddenly flickered, and he looked diagonally to his top right before saying, “You must be the Arcane Champion of Earth. Why don’t you join us if you are watching?”
“What? Where?” Kexell blinked as he looked around.
However, Almond, who was on the other side of the battlefield, was surprised.
Because along with Kexell, he also sent a spatial eye there, allowing him to see everything and also show old monsters the fight on the screen.
Since he didn’t want to risk his clone body getting destroyed, he decided to send Kexell to another Arcane Champion and see their fights to uncover Kexell’s abilities as well as another Arcane Champion’s—two birds with one stone.
With his All-Seeing Eyes, he could see many things, but not the intents and details of their power sources, unless the opponent displayed its power outside, which would then allow him to see more and learn more because skills were not just a matter of a power’s nature, but a constructed move from multiple power sources, application of Mana, and intents and concepts for elevated effects, which was the most he ever saw in Kexell.
From what he sensed, this Kexell dragon had even more powerful conceptual power than his current Riftveil Grimblade.
‘I really have to up my game. Riftveil Grimblade is the strongest power source, and I’ve not explored it fully.’
“What now, Almond? That cyberborg guy knows we are watching them,” Aryan asked. “And their base is high-tech, as expected. They are ahead of us in terms of magitech development.”
“Not for long,” Aarav commented sharply.
James nodded, “We’ve uncovered many things from the items that Almond and his colleagues got in the first War Event, while we have also made substantial progress of our own branches of Magitech.”
“I have a new branch of Magitech with me that I’ll help develop as well,” Almond said, his eyes on the screen.
“What’s your plan?” Arjun asked as he saw Almond’s eyes shifting.