Whoosh!
Before the twins could even begin to conjure barriers around themselves in preparation for what was to come, the passage of time around the three of them had slowed down to a grinding halt.
With their eyes being the only thing that could move to see what was happening, Daon and Dawan's pupils shrunk in slight fear as they noticed that their surroundings had become muted in color, giving off a slight aura of despair.
Then again, it did not take long for this fear to cement into their bodies, feeling that the aura of despair had more than condensed underneath their feet.
Try as they might, the two remained immobile as they watched the ground beneath them turn a pure black, gradually expanding to cover a size that was at least 50 meters in diameter.
At this point, Valyr had distanced himself from the skill, even though he knew that staying within its vicinity would not harm him in anyway.
However, he could not say the same for the aftereffects that arose from the skill.
Bang!
Just as the aura of despair surrounding the pair of twins had reached its climax, the darkness underneath their feet burst forth with all of their energy, forming two cocoons around them.
Taking a brief glance at the cocoons to see that the power within the two cocoons were now beginning to swell, Valyr went ahead and prepared his arquebus for firing, hoping to catch the two more than unaware this time around.
By the time he had armed the arquebus and activated a few of his empowerment skills for safe measure, the power brewing within the cocoons had finally made its presence known, exploding into a giant cloud of desolate energy.
Boom!
Seeing that the amount of energy generated by his attack was far greater than he had initially thought, Valyr decided to distance himself as he gripped tightly on his arquebus.
Waiting for a chance to shoot his armed bullet, the young man soon found his chance the moment the clouds began to settle.
With both twins remaining immobile, a faint smile tugged on the edges of the young man's lips as he activated [Extended Charge] for greater firepower.
Though, just as a few seconds had passed since the skill was activated, the silhouettes of the twins began to move as one of them let out a groan.
"Man… that's way worse than the attacks from earlier." With the cloud of desolate energy beginning to settle, Valyr quickly found out that the one who began to speak was none other than Daon.
Noticing that the two were more or less unscathed after his attack, the young man began to feel a bit of terror from the two, making him wonder whether it was even possible to damage them.
Canceling [Extended Charge] for the meantime, he decided to move the arquebus to the side, keeping it armed as he watched what the two planned on doing next.
"Well, we did have it coming for us." Letting out a sigh, Dawan looked at Daon for a bit before shifting his gaze towards Valyr.
"We did become a bit complacent after seeing Valyr use weapons on his first move."
"Had to tip the scales to my favor somehow," replied Valyr with a slightly bitter smile, inwardly letting out a sigh as it looked like the two had not been damaged whatsoever by what was basically one of his strongest attacks.
Though, as he looked closer, he soon noticed that there were a few marks on their bodies that seemed darker than usual.
Sensing the desolate energy from the cocoons faintly emanating from those small marks, a slightly relieved smile appeared on the young man's face.
After all, even though they seemed invincible to his attacks so far…
These marks showed him that they weren't infallible.
"Speaking of his first move…" Giving the dust around them time to settle, Daon eventually focused his gaze towards Valyr as he slightly frowned. "You attacked twice earlier when you were supposed to just attack once."
Hearing that, the young man looked at Daon in slight confusion before soon understanding what the man meant.
Wryly smiling in response, he then recalled that he had struck the duo with a skill from his Supreme Blade of Primeval Flames first.
Then, while they were preoccupied with the skill, he then made use of the chaos to attempt an attack on the twins once more with a shot from his arquebus.
Letting out a bitter chuckle at the realization, Valyr looked at them. "With how large the disparity is between our strengths, wouldn't you consider the earlier attack as a singular move?"
"Unfortunately, the Gates of Awakening disallows it," replied Dawan with a low sigh, his face showing the young man that they would have done so if they could.
"With that, we'll have to consider your current attack as your third move," Daon said soon after, the frown on his face now replaced with an apologetic smile. "Seeing as how you had your arquebus out, it seemed like you planned on doing the same thing again."
"With what you guys just said, I'm sure glad I didn't follow through," said Valyr with a chuckle in response, only for his expression to quickly turn despondent as he let out a sigh.
"I'm guessing I'm gonna take a penalty because of this, right?"
Hearing those words, the twins looked at him with apologetic smiles.
"I'm afraid so." In the end, Dawan was the one who broke the news to the young man. "Not only will you have to defend against Daon's attack, you'll also have to defend against one of my attacks after that."
"I had a feeling that was the case." Valyr chuckled in response. Though, with how bleak it sounded, it seemed as if the chuckle was aimed towards himself.
"Alright." Taking in a deep breath to calm down his emotions, the young man returned his arquebus into his spatial bracelet for the meantime, reminding himself that the weapon was fully armed.
At the same time, he looked at the two in silence for a bit as the gears in his mind turned.
After that, he nodded at the two, signaling to the twins that he was ready to take on their attacks.
"Come at me." Valyr smiled with a hint of confidence.
"How bad would taking two attacks in a row be?"
…
To make a long story short, the answer was bad.
Really, really bad.
Of course, with how he had defended himself against two of Daon's attacks before, the young man had accrued more than enough experience to defend against his third attack with relative ease.
However, that still meant that he had exhausted all of the defensive skills in his arsenal once again, as well as sent an unceasing barrage of attacks to whittle down its force.
Fortunately, the amount of mana he had consumed this time around was far less than his previous attempt at defending, leaving him with half of his mana bar to spare.
Quickly downing a health and mana potion to replenish his reserves, Valyr let out a drawn-out exhale as he told Dawan that he was ready to take on his attack.
In response, Dawan merely nodded as he flared out his aura in its entirety.
Sensing the power of someone at the peak of Rank 6 come from just one man, the young man braced himself for the attack that was about to come, the intent emanating from Dawan alone already instilling him with a great amount of fear.
"[Intent of the Unceasing Storms]."
Rumble…
Crackle…
At the very moment Dawan activated his Intent, the surroundings slightly darkened as the young man heard a bit of rumbling in the air.
Though, knowing that the phenomenon was just a precursor for what was about to come, the young man returned his attention to Dawan, seeing yet another large pattern appear in front of the man.
However, unlike the pattern Daon had conjured through multiple random stances, Dawan conjured his pattern in one move.
"[Art of the Undying Thunder]."
Whoosh!
Before Valyr could even put his defense, Dawan struck forward with his fist, imbuing his Intent Energy into it as he punched towards the pattern.
"[Final Fist of the True Fulgurite]."
At the very instant the fist and the pattern made contact, a large golden fist appeared in front of the young man's vision as it headed towards him at great speeds.
Understanding that even whittling down the attack wouldn't work this time around, Valyr turned tail and activated almost all of his movement skills to exhaust the attack's momentum.
Yet, as if Dawan had infused all of his energy into the attack, only a small fraction of its force had dissipated after the young man had expanded the distance between him and the twins to over a dozen kilometers.
Though he knew that the attack would dispel at some point, the young man ultimately knew that he would be the one running out first.
With that, he popped another mana potion into his mouth before conjuring his usual set of defensive skills.
"[Refined Defense Aura]!"
"[Refined Mana Barrier]!'
"[Refined Bulwark of Life]!"
"[Refined Mana Shield]!"
Whoosh!
Deciding not to hold back, Valyr empowered his stats to their very limits in hopes of bolstering his defenses.
With that, he activated both [Primeval Immolation] and [Descent of the True Wyvern], causing the aura he emanated to exceed Dawan's for a bit as he transformed into a being that looked like the origin of flames.
But just as he was about to utilize his spear to lay down his final layer of defense…
The Shard of Defiance in his mind began to move.
