“Well. It seems I do not need to wait for too long.”
As the young man turned his gaze in the direction from which the axe had been thrown, he saw the newcomer emerging from the shadows of the trees.
A rough-looking man with beaded hair, his face weathered from countless battles, stepped forward with heavy, confident strides. His muscular arms were inked with intricate tattoos, and his eyes gleamed with a fierce, animalistic intensity.
PITU!
He spat onto the ground, the sound sharp in the otherwise silent clearing.
The man’s lips curled into a sneer as he locked eyes with the young swordsman. “You lookin’ for me, boy?” he growled, his voice thick with an accent that hinted at northern roots.
The young man smiled, tilting his head slightly, intrigued. “You are Loren, then?” His voice was calm, carrying none of the arrogance or bravado that the other man exuded.
Loren let out a deep, rumbling laugh, his chest shaking with the sound. “Aye, that’s me,” he replied, his grin widening. He raised his chin proudly as if savoring the moment. “Loren, son of the north. Known by the wolves as ‘Raven-Wolf,’ breaker of clans, and the terror of the ice-lands.”
He spoke his titles with an almost theatrical arrogance, his posture radiating confidence as if he expected his name alone to strike fear into the young man before him.
“Raven-Wolf,” the young man repeated, his smile widening as he absorbed the information. His gaze flickered with amusement. “Quite the titles, I must say.”
Loren’s chest puffed out as he stepped forward, his posture exuding arrogance. “Of course,” he growled, his voice filled with pride. “I’ve fought in countless battles. Crossed blades with warriors from the northern ice-lands to the desert sands. I’m no mere bandit, boy—I’m a conqueror.”
The young man, however, threw his head back and laughed heartily, the sound rich with mocking amusement. His eyes sparkled with disdain as he looked Loren up and down, clearly unimpressed. “A conqueror, you say?” he chuckled, shaking his head. “You speak quite highly for someone who’s nothing more than a bandit on the edge of some forgotten border. Especially considering you’ve been running.
Escaping like a rat from the mess you’ve made.”
Loren’s eyes flared with fury, his teeth grinding together. “Escaping?” he spat, his voice rising with indignation. “I didn’t escape, I came here to conquer these lands, to make them mine!”
The young man’s mocking smile didn’t waver. He shrugged casually. “Ah, so it’s true. I was just trying to provoke you, but I didn’t think you’d actually confirm it.”
That last jab hit its mark. Loren’s face flushed with rage, his pride and anger bubbling over. His hand shot to the axe at his side, and with a roar, he swung it toward the young man with all the force he could muster. “Enough of your mouth! I’ll cut you down!”
Loren’s roar echoed through the clearing as his twin axes came crashing down, lightning sparking wildly from the blades. The force of his strike sent ripples of energy through the air, crackling arcs of lightning lashing out, scorching the earth around them.
The power of his inner mana accumulation art—the Lightning Wolf Art—pulsed through his body, enhancing his movements with a terrifying ferocity.
CRACK!
The ground beneath them trembled with each of Loren’s strikes, and the air hummed with electricity. His axes blurred with speed as he swung relentlessly at Lucavion, each attack leaving a trail of lightning in its wake. Loren’s eyes gleamed with savage joy, his strength on full display as he tried to overwhelm his opponent.
But Lucavion was not so easily swayed.
With a calm, precise movement, Lucavion drew his estoc. The long, thin blade gleamed with starlight mana as it hummed to life in his hand.
He moved with an eerie grace, each step measured, his eyes locked onto Loren’s movements with deadly focus.
His face, once playful and mocking, was now cold and serious, reflecting the intense concentration.
Watching the scene, Vitaliara could confirm.
‘He is paying attention to it now.’
Lucavion was changing. Slightly, but better.
CLANG!
Loren’s axe came down again, but Lucavion met it with his estoc, parrying the blow effortlessly. The force of the strike sent sparks flying, but Lucavion’s blade held firm. He pivoted smoothly, allowing the electricity from Loren’s attack to pass harmlessly around him.
CLANG!
Another strike, and again Lucavion deflected it, his movements fluid and precise. His eyes remained focused, the purple glow of starlight mana swirling around his body as he calmly withstood the onslaught.
His estoc, though thinner and lighter than Loren’s axes, moved with such precision that it seemed to cut through the air itself, meeting each blow with deadly accuracy.
Loren snarled, frustration creeping into his expression. “Stop dodging and fight me, you coward!” he bellowed, his axes crackling with lightning as he unleashed another flurry of brutal attacks.
Lucavion’s eyes narrowed, his expression unchanging. He shifted his stance, the starlight mana covering his blade growing more intense.
His estoc began to shimmer, glowing with a soft purple light as he prepared to counter.
SWISH!
Loren brought both axes down in a powerful double strike, arcs of lightning surging toward Lucavion. But just as the axes were about to connect, Lucavion’s form blurred, his body twisting with inhuman speed as he sidestepped the attack. In one swift motion, he spun behind Loren, his estoc flashing with starlight mana.
SLASH!
The blade cut through the air with lethal precision, its tip grazing Loren’s side, sending a thin spray of blood into the air. Loren growled in pain, but his anger only fueled him further. He turned on Lucavion with another wild swing, lightning surging through the space between them.
Lucavion parried once more, his estoc meeting Loren’s axe with a sharp clang, but this time, there was a shift in his stance. His blade, coated in starlight mana, seemed to hum with anticipation as he prepared his next move.
“Void Starfall Blade,” Lucavion whispered under his breath, his eyes locking onto Loren’s enraged expression. The stars seemed to shimmer in the dim light as his mana surged.
Loren, undeterred by the growing power in Lucavion’s blade, lunged forward, lightning crackling around his axes. “I’ll tear you apart!” he snarled, swinging with all his might.
Lucavion smiled, his starlight-coated blade moving faster than the eye could see.
CLANG!
「Void Starfall Blade, Altered Starsurge.」
Lucavion’s movements were fluid, his body moving with an almost unnatural grace as he twirled his estoc, the blade glowing with starlight mana.
CLANK!
As Loren’s axes came crashing down, crackling with the violent energy of his lightning-charged strike, Lucavion’s sword met the first axe with a sharp clang, but instead of simply blocking the blow, he twisted his wrist ever so slightly.
The Void Starfall Blade: The Starsurge technique was a precise, swift strike that would instantly overwhelm the enemy with a trail of stars.
However, Lucavion altered the stance slightly just to fit the way Loren fought. It was instinctual, something that he did naturally, to disrupt the flow of an opponent’s attack in the subtlest of ways. Lucavion’s blade didn’t just parry the axe—it altered its trajectory by a hair’s breadth. But that minuscule shift in momentum was all it took.
Loren, already preparing for his follow-up strike with the second axe, found himself momentarily off balance. His eyes widened in surprise as his body lurched forward, the momentum of his heavy swing thrown off-kilter by the unexpected deflection. He tried to recover, but it was too late.
The lightning mana that had been building in both axes, intended to converge into a devastating blow, was now misdirected. Instead of surging toward Lucavion, the crackling energy burst outward wildly, arcing harmlessly beside him, missing its target entirely.
Lucavion’s eyes gleamed as he saw the opening.
SWOOSH!
In a flash, Lucavion’s estoc shot forward, its starlight-coated blade cutting a lethal arc across Loren’s chest. The tip of the blade traced a glowing line of energy, cutting through flesh and armor as if they were nothing more than air.
The trail of starlight mana that followed the strike shimmered brightly for a brief moment before it detonated with a resounding BOOM!.
The force of the explosion sent Loren hurtling backward, his body crashing into the ground with a heavy thud, blood spraying from the deep gash in his chest. The scent of burnt ozone from his own misfired lightning attack hung in the air, mixing with the smoke from the starlight explosion.
Loren gasped, his hand instinctively reaching for his wound, his vision blurring from the shock. He struggled to push himself up, but his limbs felt heavy, the power of Lucavion’s strike leaving him disoriented and weakened.
Lucavion stood where he was, his estoc still glowing with residual starlight mana, his expression calm and unbothered, as if the fight had never truly been a challenge for him.
“You… bastard…” Loren wheezed, his voice barely a rasp, as blood dripped from his lips.
Lucavion simply smiled, watching as Loren’s once-mighty presence crumbled under the weight of his own arrogance and the fatal precision of Lucavion’s blade.
He looked down to see the marks on the blade.
“Not bad.”
He was getting better.