Jirah was forcefully pulled out of the trance and thrown into hellish pain. His head felt like splitting apart and a guttural scream escaped his lips.
Then Michael's spear thrust forward.
"You fucking bastard!!!" Jirah roared inhumanly.
Following the humiliation he faced, the young Descendant began to use his Inheritance Technique – at full power at that.
'Are you finally warmed up? Me too!'
There was something interesting Michael noticed whenever Descendants fought against each other. They were trying to hide their Inheritance techniques' true power from others. The Descendants were taught several martial arts techniques to use in a battle. The Inheritance technique was the strongest, but it was also easier to counter if one had studied the respective families for a long time. It happened often enough that rivaling Descendants studied their enemies for weeks to counter their Inheritance techniques and defeat their opponents. Thus powerful techniques were invented to prevent the enemy from the use of an Inheritance technique and to potentially overwhelm those who planned to counter one's Inheritance technique.
That was how it usually worked. It was a hassle and not something Michael would be bothered about under normal circumstances. However, he learned a lot in the last two weeks. Observing and analyzing the Descendants made him realize one thing; All the Descendants tried to hide their Inheritance techniques from others. They didn't want to show others how far they had progressed with their Inheritance technique.
In future events held by the High Society, they might have to fight each other again. Therefore, it was better to hide their power during events such as the Battle Exchange. That was fine as long as the Descendants, who'd been ordered to claim a Flag War Token and participate in the Interdimensional Flag War, would obtain their Token.
Michael also learned that some students didn't participate in the Battle Exchange to claim a Flag War Token. Instead, they had been ordered to get to know other Descendants, befriend them, and interact with the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs. Their mission was mostly to mingle socially rather than exposing their powers.
Michael thought that it made sense. Not everyone had to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War like him. In fact, most first-year students participating in the Battle Exchange merely joined to befriend the Descendants and prodigies of other Academies and Universities. A freshman was not someone who could deal with a Tekur easily after all. It would already be a wonder if they could survive fighting a Tekur on the same rank and Tier.
But Michael's situation was a little bit different. He had to win.
Though he was quite certain that nothing major would happen to him if he failed to meet the requirements to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War, Michael didn't want to risk it. He was interested in the Tekur as well because he saw them as a challenge and a golden opportunity to learn more about powerful races, mankind's enemies, and to earn a decent number of Soultraits and SoulStar Fragments.
It would be dangerous, but with the increase in danger came opportunities to grow stronger much faster than everyone else. And that was something Michael was in dire need of.
'Descendants usually hide their Inheritance technique. Jirah is done hiding and waiting. Looks like I enraged him enough,' Michael thought as he pulled the Wyverntooth Spear back. It narrowly missed Jirah's neck after the young Descendant of the Loar family had been struck with a Spirit Disturbance.
Jirah had subconsciously retreated right after Spirit Disturbance struck him. This made Michael wonder whether Jirah was subjected to a stressful and unbearable training session to artificially create this type of protection mechanism, or if the Descendant had developed this particular mechanism to protect himself after getting struck by a mind, or spiritual attack.
The answer didn't really matter, but Michael was glad that Jirah had such a protective mechanism. It allowed him to go all out against a Descendant who used the full extent of his Inheritance technique.
Jirah moved back, activated Speedster, and used his Inheritance technique, God Speed, to gather the power of his Soultrait and charge ahead. The moment Jirah shot forward with the use of God Speed, the young Descendant created ripples in the space around him. An explosion resounded where he kicked the ground and the foundation of the arena began to tremble.
For the first time since he became a Lord, Michael witnessed the real power of an Inheritance technique in a fierce battle. His heart was beating wildly, and he thought he would be too stunned to do something. But the opposite was the case.
The cogs in Michael's brain moved much faster than usual and his perception reached new heights as the tension in the arena increased. Michael held his breath so long that his lungs cried for air, but his eyes shimmered brightly. His pupils dilated and he saw a glimpse of Jirah charging at him too fast for Michael to respond with his body. Not even eight layers of Enhancement would be enough to increase his Agility enough to evade Jirah's straightforward charge. His physique was simply not enough against God Speed.
But that was fine.
Jirah's speed might be exceptional after being boosted by both Speedster and the Inheritance technique, God Speed, and his reaction speed might have been trained to a terrific degree as well. Despite that, Jirah's reaction speed was not faster than Michael's. That was something Michael tested in his first clashes against Jirah.
He was fast and reacted quickly, but Michael reacted faster. Therefore, no matter how fast Jirah was, Michael could react. Theoretically, at least.
And that was where the distance reaction calculation came into play. The distance Jirah passed before he could react was determined by his current speed and his reaction time.
Given his extraordinary speed that allowed him to cross 100 meters per second for a short instance and his reaction time being around 50-70 milliseconds, Jirah would cross a distance of roughly 5 meters before he could react to Michael's attacks.
Of course, God Speed was likely to reduce Jirah's reaction time since it was a powerful Inheritance technique, but Michael already took that into consideration when he came up with his plan to defeat Jirah in an overwhelming and destructive manner – which was something Michael had planned to do when he first decided to pick Jirah as his target.
Using Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes to perceive Jirah's movement path and the exact moment of his arrival, Michael received just enough time to prepare for his attack and go all-out. Michael conjured a total of 12 Glacicle Swords in front of him. He coated them in Reinforced Sword Qi and further enhanced them to boost their resilience, and acceleration as Michael released them with a burst of energy the immediate he finished conjuring the Enhanced Qi Glacicle Swords.
The dozen Swords shot through the air to Michael's left, shining in vibrant colors of silver, white, and glacier blue just as Jirah was about to arrive next to Michael – to his left.
Just as Jirah propelled forward to pierce a hole into Michael's neck, the dozen Enhanced Qi Glacicle Swords manifested and shot toward him.
Jirah wanted to react in time, but the Glacicle Swords were already right in front of him, giving him no leeway to move aside. All Jirah could do was channel his momentum and release the Speedster's Rapier Style all while God Speed enhanced his movement speed. The Rapier pierced through the air. It moved around in flashes, drawing sapphire-blue pictures in Jirah's vicinity as the rapier collided with the dozen Enhanced Qi Glacicle Swords.
Four of a dozen Glacicle Swords burst apart, releasing a tremendous amount of freezing mist that Michael willed to move around Jirah, obstructing his sight from the next attacks that were just about to follow.
Michael used Spirit Disturbance with four layers of Enhancement applied and he created a second batch of a dozen Enhanced Qi Glacicle Swords.
His energy storage was slowly drained, but that was of no concern for Michael. He unleashed the freezing mist compressed within the first batch of Glacicle Swords and shrouded Jirah with them. Right after the second batch pierced through the freezing mist, the freezing mist transformed into thousands of tiny icicles. The freezing mist turned into solid Glacicles, uncovering the frightening sight that lay behind the shroud of the freezing mist.
Jirah's chest was impaled by six Glacicle Swords, his neck was hanging by a thread as one of the Glacicle Swords must have cut cleanly through his neck, and his left leg had been severed. Meanwhile, his right leg was impaled with the remaining Glacicle Swords.
The sight was hideous but even more frightening was the irresistible fear and disbelief in Jirah's eyes. The last thing he could remember was tremendous pain in his head and that his feet seemed to have been frozen to the ground. He couldn't move no matter how much he wanted.
Then it all ended. The Enhanced QI Glacicle Swords impacted. They pierced through his skin and bone and nearly killed Jirah in an instant.
But Michael was not yet done. There were still a thousand small Glacicles ready to conclusion Jirah's life painfully.
"Stop!!" The referee bellowed loudly. He released some of his energy to destroy the Glacicles and appeared next to Jirah. Then he released some of his energy to keep his body intact. A strand of his energy picked up Jirah's leg as the referee looked around to call for the medics.
Michael looked at Jirah and the state of his body and nodded.
'That should be sufficient to ensure that nobody will bother me until the conclusion of the Battle Exchange,' He thought right before turning to Maria Seraph and her group.
"I went a little bit overboard. Could you heal him, please?" Michael asked Maria nonchalantly.
He didn't force a smile on his face nor did he fake interest in whatever she was going to do. If Maria didn't want to rescue her childhood friend that was on her. All Michael did was fight with all he had. That was exactly what the Battle Exchange was being held for, after all.
Maria's expression changed for the first time. Michael literally had no interest in her. He looked at her like she was some side character, an unimportant extra.
That was new. Refreshing.
