Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out within the sealed space Damien was currently inside of as he butted heads with the translucent sword.
After he dragonized, the fight became much more even. The sword now needed to actually put in effort to get through his defenses.
Damien dashed through the spatial layers like an assassin, chasing the sword’s tail as it fled from him. He reached out his hand to grab it, but it teleported away.
Flash!
He teleported right after it, but the sword was ready for him. It abruptly turned and slashed through the air, aiming to slice through his neck in a single blow.
Damien leaned his body to the side and narrowly avoided the slash, using that moment when the sword was in front of him to reach out and grab its hilt.
Skree!
The air screeched as the sword was forced to halt from Damien’s grasp. But it didn’t stay idle. It moved rampantly to try to escape him and loosen his grasp.
“Ha! As if I’m going to let you get away!”
Seeing the sword’s efforts, Damien strengthened his grasp. But the sword, just like him, could easily move through space. One second he was holding it, and in the next, it had already vanished.
But Damien wasn’t surprised by the situation. They had been playing this cat and mouse game for over an hour already, where they would take turns attacking and defending. Due to the fact that both could proficiently make use of space element, neither was able to get the upper hand.
‘If I could read its spatial movements, things would be much easier, but I’m always just a second too late.’
The sword wasn’t a human, after all. The spatial fluctuations emitting from it registered as if they happened at a different frequency. Damien needed prolonged contact with the sword to understand that frequency and read it, but the sword didn’t allow him the time.
The sword, however, could perfectly read Damien’s movements. It had clearly accompanied a human spatial practitioner as its owner before, so it was long accustomed to the way humans used space.
Damien shook off his thoughts and gave chase again. The only way to capture the sword was to continue this until he could get a hold of it.
The situation was too odd, the sword had a limited moveset since it was an object, but its sharpness, durability, and spatial ability were enough to supplement that.
And while the sword was trying to kill him, he was trying to subdue it. Due to this, Damien was always in a passive position.
When he caught up to the sword again, the same situation repeated itself. The clanging of impact rang out as the sword attacked him, and Damien’s hands moved rapidly to grab at its hilt.
‘If I could grab the blade, things would be much easier. But that thing is too sharp. Even my dragon scales will be cut through if it exerts enough force. Dragon scales are good enough for passive defense, but they can’t help me subdue the sword. I need to switch things up.’
Damien recalled his Dragon Transformation and stimulated his second bloodline. The sword immediately saw the opening and charged towards the space between his eyebrows.
Damien’s visage quickly changed again. His hair turned white and pitch black runes formed on his skin.
‘I don’t need to multiply my attack power, so let’s focus all the runes on defense. Congregate most of the strength towards my arms and my vital points. The other areas can be healed fine with regeneration.’
The runes moved to his command and centered around the points he mentioned. At that same time, the sword reached its target. It was just centimeters away from piercing through Damien’s forehead, however…
Clang!
A set of pitch black runes gathered at the point of contact, causing the blade to fail its penetration. But this situation had happened before. Instead of giving up, the blade continued to push, looking to break through Damien’s defense.
“Not this time.”
Damien grinned. He raised his arms and directly grabbed onto the sword’s blade.
Screeech!
The sword screeched loudly as it tried to wriggle free of his grip, but with the exponential enhancement on Damien’s defense caused by the runes, it couldn’t penetrate his skin anymore.
Damien closed his eyes and focused. Without caring for the sword’s will, he endlessly poured his mana into it.
Voom!
He and the sword were already extremely compatible. It was probably the reason he got paired with it in the first place. So when he poured his mana into it, an astounding resonance occurred.
“Haha! I see, I see. What an interesting way to teleport. However, now that I understand it, don’t think you can run anymore.”
The sword was still struggling earnestly, but Damien had locked the space around it. This time, he had no plans of letting it escape. The resonance he had just had with the sword allowed him to understand a bit more about it, so he could accurately pinpoint the “frequency” it used for spatial movement.
The sword no longer had a path of retreat. Damien quickly moved one of his hands and firmly grabbed its hilt.
The sword let out a frightening aura. It was the same aura he had felt when he first opened the coffin. Damien’s muscles bulged as he tried hard to contain it.
“Obey me!”
He roared as he continuously poured mana into the sword. Even though its will was rejecting him, its body was much more honest.
Damien was by far the most suitable candidate to wield it that the sword had ever seen. This much was a fact. However, it was a being who had achieved sentience. It wasn’t just going to hand itself over to him because of his affinity.
If he didn’t have the strength to control it, the ability to weird it properly, the character to be compatible with it, and the potential to lead it to greater heights, why would it choose him as its master? It was wholly illogical.
So the will of the sword resisted to the bitter end even though its sword body happily accepted his mana. As more and more mana entered the sword, its resistance began to weaken.
Whoosh!
The winds in the secluded space whipped and whirled as the resonance between Damien and the sword increased. With every passing second, their auras seemed to merge and become one.
‘My sword aura…’
From the beginning, Damien never used sword aura by itself. He had been infusing it with his spatial mana and creating skills related to space from the start. And with time, his sword aura had been influenced by this fusion and had incorporated spatial properties within it.
When this sword aura met with a sword that had similar properties, it saw a massive increase in its purity. Now, even Damien was feeling the same affinity with the sword that it felt towards him.
Their game of cat and mouse had ended. The sword in Damien’s hand was now silent as it basked in the feeling of resonance as he did.
And when the winds died down, the only thing left was Damien standing quietly in the secluded space.