Michael immediately sensed the sudden shift in Killian's tactic, energy circulation, and positioning. His movements grew sharper and the energy within him traveled through his body with a slight delay, which made it increasingly more difficult to make precise predictions.
Fortunately enough, Prognosis was still working properly, just not at the same efficiency as before.
Killian was still surprised about Michael's ability to predict his attacks even after he made so many sudden changes. It showed that Michael was just as good at adapting to new situations as he was. That was a bit troublesome, but certainly something he could work with. Killian switched to using smaller thunderbolts that required less energy and a much shorter period to be manifested and released.
The smaller thunderbolts were still as fast as before but they were manifested earlier, making it increasingly more difficult for Michael to create Glacicle Swords in retaliation. He could still react in time thanks to Prognosis and his high proficiency in Glacicle, but Killian didn't show any mercy. He manifested dozens of thunderbolts at once and released them in various directions, precisely blocking Michael's paths of escape.
Two smaller thunderbolts grazed him, leading to high voltages of electricity coursing through his body upon impact.
Michael groaned in pain and stared down on his body. He hadn't used Enhancement or the Soul Technique of Superior Constitution yet, therefore his physique was not at its peak. The electricity currents that passed through him caused some harm.
Killian smiled in response and chose to enter close combat. Even though long-distance attacks seemed to work against Michael, Killian decided that it was time for the melee battle. He was much stronger in close combat with his great versatility, either way.
Killian's combat prowess couldn't be underestimated by any chance. He was good at almost everything. However, his swiftness, the fierceness of his thunder, and the thunder armor's characteristic to strike everything living in its range – other than Killian – was terrific. Adding his high Sword Style Mastery of the Lightning Saint's 42 Lightning God's Slashes, it was obvious that Killian's close-combat fights would be far more brutal and several times more dangerous for Michael to handle and counter.
Michael had much less time to respond to Killian's rapid attacks in close combat, after all.
But Michael was not in the mood to go easy on Killian and give him the opportunity to hit him once again. He had accumulated enough Soul Energy to use the heavenly Beast Physique thrice and manifest several Soul Glacicle Bullets. Michael wasn't about to jump into the hot water by using up every trace of Soul Energy at once.
Instead, he focused on a single use of Heavenly Beast Physique and to maintain it while simultaneously weaving enough origin energy through his body to use Leviathan Diffusion at full power. The energy weaved into his body and enhanced his strength further, only for six layers of Enhancement to join the fray, pushing his physique's capacity to the limit and above. His skin burst open and blood gushed out of him, taking Killian by surprise.
He was not sure what happened to Michael but his presence intensified all of a sudden. Michael charged ahead, cracking the ground beneath him as he kicked it. Michael turned into a flash, his body coated in a thick hue of white. At last, golden glittering stars coated Michael from all sides.
The Aethyr Blade burst forth. It transformed into a longsword coated in Enhancement, Reinforced Sword Qi, and a hue of Extraction. The blade whizzed past Killian's head, narrowly missing him. A strand of hair was cut off, resulting in an instinctive action from Killian. He unleashed his Inheritance Technique purely on instinct.
There was no way that he could deal with Michael without going all out. That was what his body and mind told him near-simultaneously.
'How can someone at the 2nd Tier be so fast and strong? What kind of fiendish technique did he use? Is that a Sacrificial Technique? No, his Lifeforce is not being drained. A special technique that boosts his physical strength? No, his energy level isn't dropping rapidly either. He is growing stronger instead of weaker. Is that an Inheritance Technique? A Soultrait?...ANOTHER Soultrait?!?'
Killian was going crazy trying to understand what Michael was doing. He had no clue what this young Lord was, but one thing was clear. Michael was a monster. There was no other explanation.
He'd seen Michael fight the six Descendants who betrayed their own kind, while simultaneously protecting Maria. He'd channeled energy into her while dealing with the six traitors using a wide variety of Soultraits and powerful attacks. Killian had yet to determine the potency and effect of all of Michael's Soultraits, but he had seen more than enough to understand that Michael had too many powerful Soultraits.
Was he also a traitor? That shouldn't be the case. He protected Maria and killed the other traitors. He searched their memories and shared the intel he procured without hesitation. Michael helped the Tritan Alliance before as well. His swift help allowed them to retrieve the exploration spaceship and find out about various plans of the Dark Heaven organizations.
But what if that was a trap? What if the Supreme Human Alliance tried to use Michael as the rising star of the human race just to expose him as one of their members? They could reveal his identity to the whole human race across the solar system and Kelta once Michael was strong enough before sharing knowledge about the Supreme Human Alliance, their ideology, the massive amount of their resources at their disposal, and the offers they had to make for everyone willing to join their mission.
The more Killian thought about Michael the more his confusion and doubts grew. Michael didn't seem like a bad guy, but he was confusing. He gave Killian the chills, which was something not many were capable of – even less in the case of people at his Tier. Yet, Michael was capable of doing that while he was at a lower Tier. He was merely a Tier-2 Lord, yet Killian couldn't help but feel that the young Lord was creepy.
His Inheritance Technique was unleashed to the peak of Killian's understanding and mastery. The thunder armor erupted and expanded, turning into a half-armor, half-domain. The domain portion of the thunder armor lashed out at Michael, who was standing in the middle of a small thunderstorm before he could respond.
All Michael could do was endure the attacks that impacted. The thunder hit him, resulting in high-voltage electricity coursing through him from all directions.
Oddly enough, it didn't look like Michael was in unbearable pain. He was suffering and in pain but it seemed bearable. Michael's clothes and skin burned, but he was still standing on his feet. It was almost like his physique possessed natural elemental resistance. Or was it lightning resistance?
Michael was no stranger to pain and he could tell that he had been hit worse before. There was no problem for him to endure the pain. The only issue was that he couldn't move properly and he couldn't initiate a counterattack easily. Fortunately enough, that was not necessary. Michael had already responded to the lightning strikes hitting him. Every lightning strike that struck him would Insert more and more Extraction threads into the thunder armor and domain.
The Extraction threads would spread, therefore depleting Killian's energy even faster.
Killian could clearly sense that his energy was drained rapidly, but he didn't worry much about that. He sensed an opportunity to attack Michael and charged ahead, swinging his longsword rapidly. Lightning enveloped his sword as he struck out and a sudden burst of strength elongated the sword blade. The blade accelerated and sliced through the air, leaving an arc of electricity currents behind as it was on the verge of cut through Michael.
Killian could already see Michael's dead body in front of him when he recalled something: Michael was not actually a monster. He was a human, and he was on his side. Michael saved his life once – doing something a betrayer wouldn't have done in this situation.
Instead of helping Killian, he would have helped Raven in the tent, forcing Killian to consume the Death Orb before disappearing with Maria, kidnapping her while Killian would have turned into an Undead Skeleton that wanted to destroy everyone. Michael had received several chances to do that if he wanted to, yet he didn't take any. If anything, he stayed loyal to the Tritan Alliance.
He had the potentiality to grow into a valuable support pillar for the Tritan Alliance and the human race. Killing him was not something Killian should have thought about in the first place.
"Fuck!" Killian cursed aloud, dispersing the thunder around him, and stopping in his tracks.
He thought about what he was on the verge of do just now, grit his teeth, and removed his Artifacts. The raging anger within him died down and a cursed expression appeared on his face.
"I really sense shit now. Feel lucky that I want to beat the shit out of the Tekur and the Supreme Human Alliance more than you… Fuck off, bastard!" He bellowed, only to turn around and walk away.
Michael's eyes narrowed.
'What was that? Did our fight end just like that? We were just on the verge of reach the climax!'
Michael had seen the blade approaching him with the intention to kill. It was not surprising to have such intentions in the heat of the moment while fighting an exciting battle. However, Michael was also fully aware that he could change the trajectory of the attack by sustaining a more or less severe injury before counterattacking.
Aethyr was already transformed into a sevenfold enhanced glow with blades sticking out of it. The blades were further reinforced by Extraction, Insert, and Reinforced Sword Qi.
Michael was certain that he would have won the fight if they'd continued just a bit more. The only cumbersome task would have been to alter Killian's Sword Path.
But…the battle ended just like that…with Killian surrendering because he didn't want to end up accidentally killing Michael.
'Why is he acting like he is a cool player? Bastard! I want my thrill back!!'
