BOOOOM—!!!!
A loud shockwave echoed in the air.
The surrounding area appeared devastated. Several craters and potholes, along with tons of debris, littered the landscape.
Smoke ascended into the air, and several explosions occurred, causing wave after wave of vibration to surge through the ruined city.
As that happened, the perpetrators of this destruction stood tall on the quaking ground, facing each other.
One – a redhead – was out of breath, panting heavily as he knelt on the ground.
The other – a black-haired boy clad in gauntlets and armor that was made of what could only be described as darkness – seemed to be on the verge of fainting too.
None of them were in their top condition, yet neither refused to give up.
"Just stay down, dude!" Lucas yelled, clutching the spear in his hand tighter and initiating his weapon art.
[6-Movement Lance Style: Blossom Shattering Blast]
[Meihua Zuan]
As mana swirled around his weapon, Lucas rushed at the black-haired boy as fast as he could.
Cling—!
However, Quinn effortlessly thwarted the incoming attack by simply raising his hand in front of him, which appeared more like a claw after being engulfed in darkness.
Swoosh—!
But he didn't stop there.
Thwack—!!
After he successfully parried Lucas' spear, Quinn swung his hand upward to throw the fallen noble off balance before he swiftly stepped in and landed a powerful punch on his solar plexus.
Although he didn't register any serious damage, the force from the impact of the punch sent Lucas flying.
"Arghhh!"
Lucas tried to balance his body when he was in the air so that he could successfully land, but when his eyes landed on his opponent, he couldn't help but gulp a mouthful of saliva in nervousness.
"Gilth Swoein!"
On the ground, Quinn chanted in High Elven and invoked a dark magic spell. He raised his arms in the air and pointed his palms at Lucas, who was still in the air.
In a flash, tendrils of purple lightning crackled around Quinn's figure, and an ominous dark aura started gathering in front of him, clustering into an orb of shadow energy.
Lucas clenched his jaw and covered his arms over his chest while bracing himself for another impact.
Thwuuuush—!!!!
The shadow orb in front of Quinn broke out into a purplish beam of darkness and struck Lucas in an instant.
Thack—!!
This time, the force of the attack sent him violently crashing inside the second floor of a ruined building.
"Arghhhh!" grunting in dissatisfaction, Lucas pushed the chunks of concrete and debris aside and rose up to his feet, severely out of breath.
"Fucking hell!" he muttered under his breath, staring at the gaping hole in the building's wall that he had just created. "Why the fuck is he so god damn strong?!"
Despite using underhanded tactics like drugging Quinn and setting up traps, and even resorting to all-out assaults such as executing a Level 3 Spear Art and using Phoenix's Embrace, Quinn still had the upper hand.
However, Quinn was still beating his ass. If not for the near-invincible protection provided by his armor, Lucas would've lost this match much sooner!
Well, it's not like he didn't expect this. In fact, he knew this fight would be a tough one.
Right now, after augmenting his body with Shiya's shadow, Quinn was around a ‹Platinum 3› ranked mana core warrior give or take.
Yes, he was THAT strong!
Merging with Shiya provided him with a Vampire's physical strength and dark element affinity while also simultaneously raising his stats.
Because of this, when in the later parts of the story, Quinn increased his own base stats and mana core rank, he became unstoppable with Shiya by his side.
And he only became more of a monster after he made a contract with the Vampires for power.
He could've been the second person in history to reach the ‹Mythical› rank and destroy the world if it wasn't for our protagonist, Nero Dekrauf.
With his legion of undead shadow minions and unfathomable strength, Quinn was a monster among men.
However, even though the story was just starting and the events that pushed him to be stronger didn't happen yet, Lucas discovered that Quinn was still leagues above him.
"Hehe!"
However, that didn't scare him.
If anything, he was excited as he felt a rush of adrenaline in his veins.
The only regret he had was that this battle was happening in a VR world where their lives were not on the line.
Although that was a bummer, Lucas was still excitedly waiting to beat Quinn and make him one of his very first pawns.
"Fuuu!"
Letting out a deep breath and shaking his mind out of his thoughts, Lucas brought out four pills from the dimensional storage of his smart bracelet.
Two of them were Stamina Recovery pills, while the other two were Mana Recovery pills.
"Aaap!"
Without any hesitation, he gulped down those pills.
He then brought out a glass bottle full of some green liquid from his smart bracelet and rubbed it all over his hands and upper body.
It was a rubbing Healing Potion.
Although Lucas didn't receive much damage after he used Phoenix's Embrace, he still had some wounds before he used it.
He wanted to be in his top condition before exchanging some final blows with Quinn.
Swoosh—!
Ahh, speak of the devil.
From the very same hole that Lucas created when crashing into this building's floor, Quinn jumped in.
Bloodlust was clearly visible in his deep abyssal black eyes.
Although the violet aura that shrouded his figure was diminishing, from the looks of it, Quinn was ready to drag this battle on for another hour or so… which wasn't good for Lucas.
Although he had just consumed Mana Recovery pills, they just refilled a small, VERY small portion of his mana pool.
And as for his stamina, well, let's just say he could only go on for five more minutes.
Besides, the mask that he was using to conceal his identity was going to deactivate too.
Oh, why was he using the mask to conceal his identity?
We'll get to that question soon enough.
