One of the main reasons Raze had attacked the Lethal Bite Clan in the first place was to breakthrough, to become a middle stage warrior.
He had been struggling for a while now and had reached the peak of the initial stage. His power was still growing, but he hadn't broken through to the middle stage.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he might have been the strongest 6th stage warrior in the whole of Pagna, no, in the history of Pagna.
There were a few ways one could grow stronger and try to break through to the next stage, but there was something that Raze had that made it easier for him compared to others.
That was the deadly extraction technique. So skilled at using the technique, Raze could even use it in the middle of a fight to drain his enemies somewhat.
The more energy one had, the longer it would take to fully drain them. Which was why most of the time, it wasn't something he would use in battle.
Yet in this battle, it might have been his key to victory and advancement.
Raze held Niang's head, and energy started to drain from him into his own dantian.
"Even if your body will heal, it takes some time for it to repair itself," Raze spoke. "There were two things I needed to do this."
"First, I needed to get closer to you. With your newfound power, you were able to shoot Light magic out. The worst type of magic that I could have gone up against."
"My magic powers were running low so you forced me to use a pill. However, still, I knew you would run away the moment I got close to you, which was why the best option in all of this was the Nightmare Veil."
"It left you open, allowed me to attack you, and damage you to the point where you were unable to escape; a few seconds was all I needed to hold you in place."
As Raze was explaining, Niang noticed something. The power of the sword was trying to heal him, but it wasn't working. The glow from his body was fading away, and his hands that had been cut off weren't regenerating.
"Then I used my magic to keep you still, and now here we are. Right now I'm taking your life energy; your body's not damaged. I wonder how the sword will react, or even more so, whether or not the sword can keep up."
The glow from Niang's body had completely faded, and right after just like many of the others that Raze had used the extraction technique on, his entire body was shriveling up.
His eyes were sinking in, his muscle structure was getting smaller, and then eventually, just like with all of those if the extraction technique was used too much, his heart stopped beating.
Letting go of his head, Raze waited for a moment, waiting for the sword to act up, to heal the enemy in front of him once more.
After a few seconds though, nothing had occurred. 'Hmm, I still had two minutes of Mana left… I wasted a precious pill on this one. The Nightmare Veil was more effective than I thought.'
The ice that was holding up Niang melted, as Raze took away his power, and the body fell to the ground. The sword was still stuck in his body.
It hadn't disappeared, and the strong radiant power could still be felt.
"It should be fine, right?" Raze said to himself.
Just in case, he cast Dark magic over his hand and held on to it, pulling out the handle. Now that it was out of the body, Raze knew for sure Niang had died.
Slowly he started to place his Dark magic away and held the sword firmly in his hand with no magic at all.
'A new sword to add to my collection; after losing the other swords, this will be good to have.' Raze thought as he held the Ghost blade in one hand and the new Light sword in the other.
'I don't know any dual sword techniques so it's pretty useless to me to use it that way. Besides, having one hand free for magic is always handy.
'Regardless, I will be able to switch out what weapon to use depending on the situation I'm in.'
While holding the sword, Raze was sure of it; the weapon was a special one. Either an enchanted one or one that had been retrieved from another dimension.
It carried at least Mythical power. To see what it could do, Raze was ready to use his magic on it. That was until he felt something rumbling in his stomach.
A great pain was burning up from his stomach and was rising to the top of his throat. It felt like his insides were stabbing him.
As it climbed up his throat, he fell to his knees.
"What happened, is he hurt from the fight!" Ivor asked.
The others rushed to him, wondering if there was anything they could do. They had seen him getting hit from the light a few times, and he was bleeding out blood from his mouth before.
As they got close though, Raze opened his mouth and a wave of black blood spewed out onto the floor. It spread out violently, splattering down.
Right after, Raze's entire body was covered in sweat, but not just any sweat, there were black beads of sweat running from his body.
Then even worse was starting to come; from the corner of his eyes, rather than tears, a black substance was coming out, including from his ears.
"This is… he's breaking through!" Bargo realized. "He's going to the next stage."
After Raze had absorbed the energy from Niang, it was enough. His dantian was pulsating with power, until it could take it no more and had exploded from the inside.
The energy was taking a while to settle. Now his body was healing up the dantian to allow it to become stronger than before, while also getting rid of more impurities from his body.
Making him become less like that of a regular human, and closer to that of a god. Reaching the middle stage was one step from the Divine stage where power was unimaginable to them.
Yet there was something that was worrying Bargo as he looked at Raze.
'How many impurities does he have in his body, for this much black blood to come out from him.' Bargo thought. 'This makes sense when a person breaks through to the first stage, and even as they go up.'
'As a person goes higher and higher in stages, though, a fewer amount of impurities come out of one's body. Yet here, there's still so much. Just what type of body does this person have?'
Regardless, as Raze's body was going through an extraordinary amount of pain, trying to twist out whatever dirt it could from his body, he had a smile on his face.
'The middle stage, I'm finally going to have reached the middle stage, I will be a 7th stage warrior, with this, my magic, and the new sword I have obtained..! I am getting closer to having power that will help me deal with the Principal… and then… it's your turn, Grand Magus!'
