Four powerful attacks crashed onto him. The only thing Pharder saw was a blinding golden beam.
"Such powerful skill!" Pharder could sensed the power within the attack was greater than anything he had received before. This meant that Aldred had the highest skill in swordmanship in the Empire. He had fought against all of them, and none could match Aldred's technique.
Pharder raised his arms to block while the golden light engulfed him.
Boom!
Right after the golden beam vanished, Pharder could barely stood on his two feet. His whole body was covered in wounds and blood. The attack left him weak, and his eyes twitched. The only thing that left them open was his will power.
Pharder looked at the weapon in Aldred's hand. "You cheated. That weapon is too powerful."
"In that case, I will let you use a weapon while I use my bare hands."
Pharder grabbed an axe out of thin air. It was a massive black axe, and then he slammed his eternal crystal onto it. Powerful energy spread throughout the axe, and then made a channel into his arm.
Pharder roared as he charged towards Aldred with the axe in his grasp raised high in the air.
"Triple Axe Strike!"
Pharder connected three attacks together at once. It was so fast that it seemed like he attacked three times for every movement.
Aldred was calm. He had been fighting every single day for the past two years. Not much could shock him anymore. He had fought against something weaker and something far stronger than him. He had seen his enemies using tricks, wit, or pure power to try to defeat him.
In the end, they all died. This wouldn't be any different.
In the next instant, a flaming sword appeared in Aldred's hand. It was created using his own spell. He raised the sword to block the axe, but it went through because the flame was not solid.
"Foolish!" Pharder grinned and struck his shoulder.
Aldred smiled and thrust the flaming sword into his chest. And then magic circles appeared everywhere and fired fire needles at an alarming speed.
Despite being able to damage his opponent, Aldred was wounded as well. He retreated 5 steps and looked at his left arm. It was cut off from the shoulder. But it immediately regrow anew.
Pharder was covered in fire needles like porcupine. He wasn't really hurt by it, but more like annoyed. He roared and all the needles disappeared while the magic circles in the air shattered.
"Is this all you got? Are you nothing without your sword?"
Aldred scoffed. "Why don't I show you then."
Flames burst out of his feet, and Aldred rushed towards Pharder at a high speed. His whole body ignited into flames, and Aldred punched Pharder in the face.
"You've done it now!" Pharder swung to Aldred's shoulder, but he dodged it.
He swung again, but Aldred managed to dodge easily. Pharder was enraged and kept attacking, and yet Aldred kept on missing the attack.
It was as if Aldred could see through his movement.
Aldred smiling as he activated his godly eyes. He already knew how, where, and when Pharder will attack.
He ducked as an axe went to his neck. He then rolled to the side, as the axe quickly changed direction.
Aldred opened his palm and then slammed it towards Pharder's leg. "Flame Jet!"
A powerful burst of fire went out of Aldred's palm and blasted Pharder's left leg.
Pharder leaped away, but when he landed, his leg could barely held his own weight.
Gritting his teeth, Pharder glared at Aldred.
"You said I was nothing without my sword. But you can't even defeat me with an Eternal Crystal in your hand."
Pharder trembled in rage, and then slashed forward. A powerful arc of energy went straight towards Aldred.
Aldred stepped to the side. The arc sliced a strand of his hair, but that was it.
Pharder sent more arcs towards Aldred. Left and right. Horizontal and vertical.
Aldred simply stepped to the left, ducked, and jumped.
The hills behind him were cut open though.
"It's time to end this," Aldred said.
Raising his hand, gigantic magic circles began to appear in the sky.
Pharder was shocked to see this. Even though he wasn't a magician, he had magician friends, and had studied some of their books to understand that to create massive magic circle such as this would require a massive amount of mana.
Aldred had always been a weird one. He could use swords, but he also used spells. And of course Pharder had heard about his undead and golem army.
Only now did he realized that Aldred wasn't even using his full power to attack him.
"Is he mocking me? He can kill me any time, but he wanted to make me feel I have a fighting chance. Is this what he wanted?"
"Are you prepared to die?" Aldred asked.
Pharder took a deep breath. "You can't kill me."
"We will see about that."
Aldred bring his hand down, and all the gigantic magic circles in the sky began to rain fire javelin, fire fist, fire balls, and fire arrows at Pharder. It was an endless amount, and even the size of the fire arrows were as big as a carriage.
Pharder slammed his the butt of his axe to the ground, and a protective barrier appeared around him. The barrier fed off the energy from his life force, and his life force got its energy from the Eternal Crystal.
The Eternal Mana Crystal contain endless power. It could sustain the barrier until the end of time. But, his body couldn't sustain it. Every attack blocked by the barrier was another toll taken to his body.
Each attack however was like a mountain being slammed into him.
And his body proved to be unable to block such an attack for a very long time.
A crack appeared on the barrier. It got larger and larger. Pharder gritted his teeth and forced himself to hold on, but eventually, the barrier shattered, and all fire arrows, fire javelin, fire balls, and fire fist crashed onto him.
BOOM!
The impact shot out a dust cloud. Aldred stopped the spell, and slapped the dust cloud away.
There, he saw Pharder lying on the ground with a huge fire arrow on his stomach.
Pharder weakly gazed at Aldred.
"You shouldn't have taken the crystal from him." Aldred grabbed the Eternal Mana Crystal and put it in his inventory.
"That old man. He was a nice guy with a sick grandchild. His daughter left him in that small village. Can't you see his suffering?"
"Everyone suffers, Aldred. We are all just blinded by our own."
"Some people suffers more than others."
Pharder let out a small laugh. "A man who lost his arms, or a man who doesn't have arms since he was born. Which one suffers more?"
"What kind of question is this?"
"Never mind. Do what you have to do. Put an end to me. I have failed because I am weak. That's all there is to it."
Aldred breathed in. He recalled the moment the first time he met Pharder. For a long time, Aldred had expected Pharder to die in his hand. He had imagined this scene numerous times.
But now that it happened, he couldn't help but felt a little dissatisfied.
The fight was too easy.
But he wouldn't make a mistake of sparing his enemy. That would make him a fool.
Aldred summoned his Phantom Doomblade and raised it high. "This will be our last meeting, Pharder."
"So be it."
STAB!
