In response to his beckoning, Lucas willed mana into his legs and rushed towards Kai with a burst of speed.
However, as he covered half the distance, a multitude of illusory clones emerged from his body and swiftly joined the charge towards Kai.
"Tsk!" Kai clicked his tongue and started swinging his giant sword around, crushing everything that dared to step closer to him. "This is really getting annoying!"
Just as he said that the real Lucas tried to sneak in and stab Kai from his left.
Unfortunately, Kai instantly sensed his presence and noticed him. He swung his sword at Lucas and flung him back in the air like a rag doll again.
Cling—!
Thud—!!
"Arghh!" Lucas did manage to block his slash again but when he landed back on the ground, he couldn't help but feel a little frustrated.
Gritting his teeth, he channeled mana into his shiny red spear once again until the air around it started to crackle.
Quickly, he darted towards Kai like a bullet with his spear poised over his head.
As soon as he stepped into the striking range, Lucas brought down his spear on Kai.
In response, Kai also unleashed a powerful upward vertical slash and matched Lucas' spear head-on.
Cling, Clang, Cling—!!
Both of them fiercely clashed against one another as sparks flew in the air each time the cold steel of their weapons collided.
Each time Lucas would try to overpower Kai, the latter would use his greatsword as a shield to block the attacks.
Then, after Kai would disrupt the flow of Lucas' attacks, he would initiate his own swings and slashes.
However, Lucas would block or dodge them each time before unleashing a flurry of attacks at Kai again.
Like this, both of them were locked in a stalemate.
Lucas needed to land just one strike with his spear which was enveloped in a huge amount of mana.
Unfortunately for him, it was impossible to break through Kai's defence.
No matter how much mana Lucas would put into his attacks, or how strikes would he throw at him, Kai's sword would block everything.
Lucas, of course, knew why his spear couldn't break Kai's sword.
The thing is, Kai's sword was a relic that was known as The Black Orb in the novel.
Yes, in reality, Kai's sword was a sword but an Orb– an Orb that could take the shape of anything that its wielder wants.
Whether it be weapons, armor, or even vehicles– as long as the wielder knows the working mechanism of something and has enough mana to supply, they could use The Black Orb to take its shape.
One of the most noticeable features of The Black Orb was its insane durability.
But if that wasn't enough, it had one more feature.
If its wielder transforms it into a weapon, then they would temporarily become a master in its usage.
So if they transform the Orb into a Spear or a Greatsword, they would temporarily know several weapon arts related to that weapon.
Yes, that's what made it dangerous. It was a Divine rank relic and Quinn got it almost around the same time as when Nero found the Phoenix's Embrace in the story.
That's the reason when Quinn fought Kai in the current timeline, he thought that Kai had several years of battle experience.
Which was actually not the case since it was largely because of The Black Orb that Kai was able to win against Quinn.
However, Lucas would be damned if he let Kai win against him like this right now. He was going to back down.
Swish—!!
So jumping a few steps back to avoid Kai's sword, Lucas pointed his open palm at him and was about to utter a magic chant.
However, before Lucas could do that, Kai bent his knees slightly and got into the sprint position.
He then shot at him with breakneck speed like a bullet and arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye.
"...Haa!" Once again amazed by Kai's display of speed, Lucas widened his eyes in surprise.
However, soon the look of surprise melted into a smirk as Lucas closed his open palm into a fist and pulled his hand backwards.
Almost immediately, a flaming lance was conjured right behind Kai. It shot at him like a missile and hit him in the back before exploding.
Booom—!!
"Arghaaa!" The force of the explosion pushed Kai onto his knees as he fell forward.
Lucas hadn't put enough mana into his spell since he didn't want to kill Kai.
But he also didn't think that Kai would be conscious after being hit by that. So that surprised Lucas a little.
However, he acted quickly and thrust his spear forward at Kai, who was still on his knees in front of him.
"Arghaaa!" Kai let out a groan and gripped his giant sword tightly.
And in the next moment, that giant hunk of iron softened as if it was made of a slimy substance and reshaped itself around Kai's hand in the shape of a shield.
Clang—!!
Reacting quickly, Kai used that shield to block Lucas' thrust before deflecting his spear away.
Kai then rose to his feet and stepped forward while simultaneously his shield transformed into a gauntlet around his left hand.
Thwack—!!
Before Lucas could react in any way, Kai threw his fist forward at him, connecting squarely with his face.
Thack—!!
The force of the impact once again sent Lucas flying back in the air before his body skidded a few times on the ground and hit the terrace boundary.
"Arghh!" Lucas groaned, touching his face as blood trickled down from his nose.
He quickly jumped back to his feet and raised his spear to get back into the fight, but by the time he did that, Kai was already a few steps away from him.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Lucas quickly unleashed a destructive horizontal slash at Kai.
Swish—!!
However, Kai ducked under his spear and swiftly threw an uppercut at Lucas.
Thwack—!!
His fist connected with the base of Lucas' chin, momentarily stunning him from the jarring impact as he gritted his teeth in pain.
Kai used this moment to grab Lucas by his neck with one hand and grip his right shoulder with another.
Mustering up strength, Kai lifted Lucas up, spun around, and threw him forward as if he didn't have any weight at all.
Thack—!!
"Arghh!" As soon as Lucas' body crashed against the ground, a pained groan once again escaped from his mouth.
However, still refusing to stay down, he quickly got up and turned around to face Kai.
Thwack—!!
As soon as he turned around, however, he saw that Kai was once again only a few steps away from him.
Without any hesitation, Lucas thrust his spear forward at Kai's chest. In response, Kai transformed the Orb on his left hand into a crossguard sword.
Cling—!!
Kai parried Lucas' spear before swiftly hitting the base of his spear's shaft with its blade.
As a result of this, Lucas' spear jerked off out of his grip and landed a few steps away from him.
Just as Kai was about to swing his sword at Lucas, the silver-haired boy quickly let out a roar, "Mana Burst!"
