Shang's instincts shouted at him to dodge to the side, and he did just that.
BANG!
Just an instant later, a terrifyingly fast bolt of lightning shot past the place where Shang had just been, even touching his body.
Shang's armor became seared on the side, but it was powerful enough to somewhat resist the terrifying lightning bolt.
However, if Shang had been hit by that, the Magic Circles on his armor would have been activated, which meant that he would have received a life-threatening injury.
These lightning bolts were no joke.
Shang's right eye quickly focused on the Serpent, and he prepared himself.
He now knew what he had to look out for.
BANG!
Shang continued charging toward the gigantic Serpent in the sky.
And then, a second lightning bolt shot at Shang.
At that moment, Shang didn't evade.
He had just extended his Colossal Sword and quickly angled it so that its tip pointed right at the lightning bolt.
Then, the tip of his sword began to shine with bright light.
The lightning bolt hit the tip of the sword.
DING!
As soon as it hit, the lightning bolt didn't explode.
Rather, it got dispersed like a tidal wave hitting a boulder!
The lightning blasted past Shang with its incredible power, but none of the bolts hit him.
This was one of Shang's new techniques for the Colossal Sword State that was designed to counter Mages.
Like light hitting a crystal, the enemy's attack would be split and scattered over the surroundings.
Shang called it Refraction.
Of course, in order for the attack to work, Shang had to sacrifice some of his life energy and hit the attack at the perfect spot. If he were just slightly off, the majority of the attack's power would still hit him.
Luckily, he had had enough practice with Jerald to get the timing down.
Otherwise, things would have been troublesome since the lightning bolts were so insanely fast.
Shang closed in on the Serpent, now only a couple hundred meters away from it.
When the Serpent saw how Shang had dealt with its attack, more lightning gathered in its eyes.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Shang's right eye widened in horror.
Three lightning bolts had just been shot at him!
This attacking speed was something he would have expected of an average Late High Mage with a Focus, not a Serpent!
Even more, Shang had been prepared to use Refraction again, which was why he hadn't been prepared to dodge.
The attacks would hit!
DING! BANG! BANG!
Shang managed to get rid of one of the lightning bolts, but the other two perfectly hit him in the chest.
At that moment, the Magic Circles on his armor activated, and they blocked the two attacks.
But just a second later, the Magic Circles collapsed.
This meant that the armor had used up all its stored Mana.
Due to the power and frequency of the lightning bolts, their power was only at the upper level of a Mid High Mage's Spell, and that was exactly what the armor was designed to block.
However, all its Mana had been used up.
Yet, if Shang hadn't had the armor, he would be dead right now!
Ironically, this time, Shang would have nearly become a victim of his own fighting philosophy.
Kill a powerful enemy so quickly that they couldn't even unleash their power, making it irrelevant.
The Serpent had just tried to do that, but Shang's armor had saved him.
Shang narrowed his right eye.
'I didn't expect such a rapid barrage of attacks. It seems like Refraction won't be enough.'
Due to the power of the lightning bolts, Shang had been thrown back quite a bit, making the distance between the combatants larger.
BANG! BANG!
Shang quickly unleashed two Blasts and shot at the Serpent again.
BANG!
The Serpent unleashed another two lightning bolts…
But they missed!
Just before the lightning bolts had been fired, the light in Shang's surroundings warped again. He had already used Distortion earlier, but he hadn't spread it over a great distance since he wanted to preserve his life energy.
He wasn't sure if it had been a coincidence or not, but the Serpent had still hit him through Distortion back then.
But this time, Shang used far more life energy for Distortion and spread it over a larger area.
And, sure enough, the Serpent missed its attacks.
By now, the surrounding ten meters were filled with blurry images of Shang, and the Serpent couldn't tell which one was the real one.
Not even with its Spirit Sense.
Then, more lightning appeared in the Serpent's eyes.
WHOOOOM!
Suddenly, a gigantic wave of lightning came out of the lightning ball and swallowed all of Shang's images.
SSSSSSS!
At one spot in Shang's area of Distortion, the wave of lightning dispersed across the surroundings.
However, Shang hadn't been able to use Refraction due to the sheer size of the attack.
Instead, he had simply put his Sword in front of him and hid behind it. The Colossal Sword was big enough to completely hide his body.
Shang remained uninjured, but he was pushed back again by the power.
Shang's Spirit Sense concentrated on the Serpent with frustration.
'My Saber State won't be able to unleash enough offensive power to injure the Serpent, which means I have to get close somehow.'
'Yet, no matter what I do, I get pushed back.'
'If I use Distortion, it just uses this huge wave. Sure, I won't get injured, but I will be thrown back.'
'If I don't use Distortion, I will be killed by the lightning bolts. I can deal with one of them. Maybe I can even deal with two, but I can't possibly deal with three.'
Shang tried to find a way to get closer.
Mana Step was no option since he was currently in the sky.
His Colossal Sword State was already the strongest State when it came to closing distance. The other States wouldn't help.
At that moment, the gigantic ball of lightning began to shrink by quite a bit.
After unleashing so many attacks, it had already shrunken by quite a bit.
Shang had already realized that it was the ball that released the lightning bolts, and there was only a limited amount of Mana inside it.
But now, it suddenly shrank even more.
Then, Shang saw a blindingly bright light.
BOOOOOM!
With a huge explosion, a brightly-white shining beam of concentrated lightning shot right at him.
His Distortion had just been broken, and the Serpent could finally see the real Shang.
You can deal with my small lightning bolts?
How about a big one, then?
Refraction wouldn't work on a bolt with such immense power.
The sheer explosive power would be so great that the streaks of dispersed lightning would still hit him.
Additionally, lightning had the terrifying property of traveling across the body to deal more damage.
Refraction was useless right now.
