Alex stood in front of Sarah with, a sword in his hand, and calmness in his mind. No thoughts were floating through his mind. All attention of his was focused on the woman in front of him.
The challenge had been made and accepted, so all that remained was for the battle itself.
Sarah stood steady as well, but there was little calmness in her. She had heard rumors about Alex fighting people as strong as Saint Transformation 3rd realm, despite only being in the Saint Soul 4th.
She could only wonder if he was hiding even more. It was time to find out.
She threw out the first attack, a single bolt of lightning flying from her hand, forking in many directions, all of which seemed to redirect halfway through toward Alex.
Alex quickly formed multiple balls of fire around him with his free hand, each of which targeted the lightning bolts. Fire element weakened Wood element, so it was the correct element to use.
Not that many cared about elements during battle or had the right to. The perfect element to use right now would have been Earth, but he didn't have any Earth techniques.
What he did have was Earth Dao, but since it wasn't necessarily an offensive Dao, it wouldn't have helped him. The fire was good enough for now.
With his other hand, Alex swung Midnight, sending a bright orange flaming slash toward Sarah.
Sarah stood there with no fear and simply struck out once, the slash disappeared into motes of light. She could recognize that she was stronger than the two here when it came to Qi.
'Or he is still holding back,' she thought. It didn't sound right, but she had to be careful.
Alex threw out more Fire attacks, while the girl moved wind and called lightning. The attacks were small and frequent, and neither of them could get the upper hand.
Whatever Sarah did, her stronger Qi wasn't strong enough to overwhelm Alex. Fire against Wood was a bad matchup.
Spinning in the air, the spear danced per her instruction. Alex saw a green aura of Wood energy gather around the spear, getting stronger and stronger as she went on. It was quite an incredible technique that built upon itself and improved its damage by a lot.
Alex knew he should do something to stop her before her winds became too strong, but he had to test himself. He had to test his technique.
He had used the techniques many times, but never had it been against someone who was clearly stronger than him.
With a sudden and difficult strain on his mind, Alex felt the flows of Metal Qi surge through his body and gather on the sword in front of him. At the same time, Sword Intent flared in him as well, creating Sword Qi that covered the sword.
The technique didn't take as long to be ready, especially after having practiced it day and night, all throughout the previous week. Now, he could prepare it in half the time.
Even so, it was enough time for Sarah to build up her technique to the point that her attack was most likely going to carry a strong Saint Transformation 5th realm power, if not Saint Transformation 6th realm.
Seeing that Alex was ready to receive her attack, she thrust her spear around her before finally directing all the energy in front of her.
A large gust of wind, visibly green to the naked eye. The wind caused dread amongst many who felt it in the air, and even Alex felt panic at its power.
But he remained calm. He looked at the incoming wind, looked at the girl behind the wind, and then at an empty area where he could throw the attack.
After being sure he wouldn't hurt Sarah, he unleashed the attack.
A thin line only he could see rushed forward, destroying everything in its wake. Wounds were left in Space where the attack traveled, taking a little longer than normal to heal, as if they hadn't realized they had been cut.
The line passed through the incoming wind next, passing through it as if it didn't touch anything at all.
Alex felt the sword attack weaken considerably, but it didn't lose anything other than damage. It flew past the wind, no longer disturbing space, disappearing into the distance where it would dissipate.
The wind that flew toward Alex still held the aura of a strong attack, but Alex knew it was not so. The attack landed on him and then disappeared like water droplets on a hot frying pan.
The attack had only held the majesty of what it once was, not the damage.
Sarah's eyes bulged in surprise when she saw what happened. She couldn't believe what she saw, neither could she believe that Alex had done nothing.
She had seen him swing and had been told that one of his sword techniques was hard to see. But this went beyond just hard to see. The attack was downright invisible to her eyes. Had he even used any technique? But there had been that slash and that had the energy to it, which vanished.
She couldn't understand. Whatever he had used though scared her. 'And here I was wondering why he was giving me time to gather up my power,' she thought. 'He has a damn technique of his own that takes time to prepare.'
She understood that she could no longer give him time to prepare attacks. If she did, he would most likely use the time to prepare whatever attack he had made.
Thinking so, she swiftly flowed together Wood energy around her, creating a lightning bolt that she shot toward Alex.
Alex struck away the lightning bolt with his sword and punched it with his other arm, sending four golden spears flying toward the girl.
Sarah spun her spear and leaves appeared in front of her, created out of nothing but energy that quickly grew to become more and more until there was a thick collection of them in front of her.
The spears slammed into the leaf-woven barrier.
The barrier was shattered instantly, the leaves floating away, but the golden spears were nowhere to be seen either. What she could see was a Palm-shaped yellow attack flying toward her.
Without much thought, wind energy gathered around her as she used a Dao, and at the next moment, she moved away from the palm, easily dodging it.
Alex felt a small shock go through him at seeing her dodge. What should've been a sure hit, she had dodged so easily. And she had been fast as well, very fast.
He doubted he could've seen her move this fast if he had been keeping an eye on him without the Demon Eyes.
'And that Dao,' he thought. 'She did use a Dao, didn't she?'
He had seen green energy drifting toward her from her surroundings, giving her a boost of speed which…
'Is that what is it?' he wondered, looking at the girl to the side, he couldn't tell what Dao she had used by the feel of it, but he had an idea now that he had seen her use it.
'That dao, it is most certainly the Dao of Swiftness.'
