Alex swung his sword, and the golden slash flew towards the incoming yellow slash. The two slashes collided a few meters away from Alex.
BOOM
A loud explosion rang out on the stage that sent shockwaves to the audience themselves. Most of the ones standing on the inner edge, close to the stage were pushed back a little.
Even Trevor who was a little far away was pushed back by the explosion. He looked in shock at the force he just felt. There was no way in hell the force he felt had come from a person in the 5th Mind Tempering realm.
The force felt like his opponent was at his level, or at least close to his level in terms of strength. 'How is that possible?' he thought.
Alex took the majority of the force of the explosion stood right where he was. He hasn't pushed back even a single step, but he couldn't take the credit for that. After all, his feet were still stuck on the ground thanks to the earth spikes that made it impossible to remove.
Alex struck the earth around his feet and got himself free. The front side of his body felt numb from the shockwave from the explosion, but thanks to his body cultivation, he wasn't harmed one bit.
Trevor got out of his stupor when he saw Alex getting free. He didn't waste a single moment and sent a brown slash towards Alex.
Alex barely managed to break free from the constriction and dodged to the side. 'I can't fight him with ranged attacks. His normal attacks are as good as the best I can use without Sword Intent, and I do not know what other attacks he has,' he thought.
So, without any hesitation, Alex dashed into close quarters and swung his sword. He didn't put any Sword Intent into the attack, but the force of his normal physical attack was still quite strong.
One of Trevor's feet nearly slipped by the unexpected force. 'How is he so strong? I can't even see any element in his attack,' he thought.
Trevor once again used the constriction technique, but Alex was cautious about it so he clearly dodged it.
With the range, Trevor sent out another slash towards Alex. Alex dodged it in time and sent out a slash of his own.
The slash flew towards Trevor who hastily opened a massive bronze-colored barrier that was a combination of both Metal and Earth elements.
When the slash struck the elemental shield, Alex realized how strong the shield actually was. 'That's formed through Earth empowering Metal, isn't it? Damn, that's strong,' he thought.
Normal attacks were one thing, but empowered attacks were going to be a problem for Alex. That was unless he started to use more techniques.
By now, his movement techniques were mostly being used with 0 friction on his body aside from the soles of his feet.
Alex tried to dash back in, but Trevor had started causing spikes of the earth to pop out of the ground everywhere around him.
"Shit!" Alex shouted and jumped up to fly. He was far away from the spikes, but he was now being openly targeted.
Many rocks started popping out from the ground that was then thrown towards the flying Alex in a barrage.
Alex flew to the side, and at the same time, his body started marbling as he used the Jade Skin technique to defend himself.
He managed to dodge most of the barrage, but the few that still hit him weren't enough to do much damage.
Trevor started to get angry seeing none of his attacks working on Alex. He was happy that Alex couldn't attack him, not much.
He felt like he really needed to do something to take care of it all. He had about 2 or 3 techniques he hadn't shown yet that would probably put the match in his favor, but he decided to wait for a perfect chance to use them.
Alex saw that Trevor wasn't attacking at all, so rushed in and swung his sword. Trevor's sword glowed brown and he swung his sword as well.
Alex's hands felt a little numb on impact, while Trevor clearly felt the pain. In fact, there was even a chink in Trevor's sword. It was a very high-grade common sword, but it couldn't hold up against Alex's sword.
Trevor however didn't panic. He had already learned his lesson from panicking about the last two fights he had.
Instead, he found the perfect time to make use of one of his techniques. With a single slam of his feet, numerous yellow energy started appearing from underneath the ground.
Alex was surprised to see them come out so fact. He dashed back to escape, but the energy didn't let him. No matter where he went, they followed, and they were faster.
When they finally converged on him, the yellow light formed into a cage with bars on them with no opening for him to enter.
Trevor didn't waste a moment and took a deep breath, and waved his hands in the air. Many weapons started forming in the sky.
Alex could see the amount of strain Trevor was putting on himself with the technique, but the thing that took away his attention were the dozens of swords, spears, axes, and arrows in the sky.
And they were all turning towards him.
Alex wasted no time and sent out a Palm of the Sun, but the Metal cage seemed to have been empowered by the Earth energy, so it didn't break at all.
There were some cracks and he could probably escape the cage, but Alex didn't have that sort of time or luxury. The weapons were about to fall on him.
Trevor didn't waste any time with the theatrics and waved his hand. The many weapons flew towards Alex in the cage and would definitely hit him.
The Elder was ready to jump in the protect him, but at the last second, he stopped.
The many weapons crashed onto the cage, destroying it in an instant, as well as anything inside of it. Dush rose from the point of impact that threatened to cover the entire stage.
However, no one was looking at it anymore. They watched towards Trevor, who sensed something and immediately turned behind, only to see a sword coming towards him.
Even though he knew he shouldn't panic, he couldn't help it on such short notice. He flailed his arms trying to attack Alex with his sword.
Alex on the other hand was ready for it. His sword started shining golden with a clearly visible white light on the outline.
He intended to cut down the incoming blade, and so did his sword.
CHING
As easily as he could cut down a stationary apple, Alex cut down Trevor's sword too. The broken blade flew out towards the crowd and someone managed to catch it and stop it.
People understood how dangerous the fight was and started stepping back. Only the strong ones stayed on the front to watch it clearly.
Alex then followed through with his attack and swung the sword down on Trevor. Trevor let go of his current sword and crossed his hands on his head to stop the attack.
When the sword landed on Trevor's, Alex could hear a distinct metallic sound coming from it. The yellow robe was torn on the right hand of Trevor, and Alex could clearly see the slightly red metal that made his protective bracelets.
"I see," Alex said. "I guess it's understandable that you have such items. It would be weirder if you didn't."
'How did he appear behind me? He was in the cage? Does that mean he dodged all of my attacks?' Trevor though.
Trevor's hands were numb from the impact he withstood with his arms. A slight fear rose in his heart and immediately took out another sword.
This one was a bit weaker than the first one, but he had to use what he had. In fear, he started sending out slashes after slashes of metal attacks with earth empowering it.
Trevor was clearly fatigued from the burst of attacks he had done since he made that cage, but he wasn't going to go down so easily.
Alex on the other hand had started using Sword Intent, so there was no reason for him to lose now.
He also sent out slashes after slashes of golden color towards Trevor's slashes to combat them.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Alex saw a small brown light passing through the earth underneath him. He wanted to dodge out of the way, but he didn't. Instead, he smiled as a small idea arose in him.
As the slashes landed on each other, the explosion that caused shockwaves was so strong that both of them could barely fight through them to balance themselves.
Finally, the brown light reached Alex once again, and the rock spiked up to constrict him.
Trevor smiled and rose his sword in the sky to create a giant sword that was at least a dozen times bigger than the one he was holding.
Even Alex was surprised by it.
Without hesitation, Trevor sent it flying towards Alex. Alex sent a slash of his own, but it could barely put a stop to it.
Even though he had elemental superiority, the amount of Qi Trevor put into the attack was not small.
However, Alex wasn't worried. Just as the attack landed once again, he disappeared behind Trevor.
Trevor seemed to be ready for it, so he blocked with his bracelets again. Only, there wasn't a sword coming towards him, but rather a fist.
The golden-colored fist was going to become the reason for his defeat.
