Shang could barely process that they were actually being chased by someone belonging to one of the Mage Emperors before the person following them actually arrived just behind them.
"What do you want?" the Sweeper asked via voice transmission.
But then, the Ancestral Mage shot directly at her, his fists surrounded by a dense shroud of Darkness Mana.
The Ancestral Mage's actions shocked the Sweeper immensely.
Just this one action of shooting forward, trying to attack the Sweeper, created so many logical inconsistencies and questions.
The guy had to know that the Sweeper was very powerful, right? After all, he was a member of the Twilight Dusk Family.
But then, why was he attacking her at this moment?!
He should know that any kind of powerful Spell from the two of them would directly summon the Eternal Maw to this place!
So, was he trying to attack and kill them without using any kind of powerful offensive Spell? For fuck's sake, they couldn't even use Mana Shield here!
And even if he tried to actually kill her right here, how would that even work?!
They could both use Mana Step to retreat more and more, and those comparatively weak attacks wouldn't injure them that much.
Also, wouldn't the Ancestral Mage have a way higher chance of killing them if he just followed them until they left the area? At that point, they would probably just die to him.
And that wasn't even everything! By fighting here, either of the two combatants could just unleash a powerful Spell on purpose to attract the Eternal Maw. If they were about to die, might as well take the opponent with them, right?
What the fuck was going on?!
Literally what the fuck was happening right now?!
This made zero sense!
What could possibly happen to make a powerful Ancestral Mage do something this incredibly idiotic and illogical?!
As the Ancestral Mage shot forward with his darkness-covered fists, the Sweeper moved to the side.
The Ancestral Mage's attack missed, and the Sweeper summoned a sword made of darkness.
Due to the Eternal Maw, neither of the two could unleash any powerful Spells, and they were both fast enough to avoid the Spells they would be able to cast.
In this fight, casting a Spell would be like blowing a bubble toward the other person.
Because of that, they had to rely on their bodies to make up for the loss of speed.
The Sweeper slashed forward with her Sword of Darkness, but the Ancestral Mage avoided it by flying backward for a bit.
Then, the Ancestral Mage punched forward again, but the Sweeper held her sword in front of her opponent's fist.
The fist stopped, and the Ancestral Mage gritted his teeth.
How was he supposed to attack her when she had a sword?! He couldn't think of any way to get past that.
After the attack stopped, the Sweeper slashed forward with her sword, but the Ancestral Mage easily sidestepped.
The Sweeper gritted her teeth.
How was she supposed to hit her opponent with her sword?! Her sword needed so much time to gain speed, and before it gained enough speed to hit its target, the target had already moved. She couldn't think of a way to deal with that issue.
The fight continued going on like this.
In the beginning, Shang had been very worried, but as time passed, he just grew incredulous.
Shang could feel that the Ancestral Mage was incredibly powerful, probably even more powerful than the Sweeper, but he chose to attack them in a location that essentially made him harmless.
And then, this ridiculous performance happened.
Two Mages, who had never fought anyone in close combat ever since they had been teenagers or children, were fighting each other with fists and swords.
Their display was absolutely pathetic.
There had been students in the Warrior Academy that had been better at fighting.
These were Ancestral Mages!
They were as powerful or even more powerful than Zone Beasts!
Yet, even though this entire situation seemed beyond ridiculous, Shang could still feel the unending rage and killing intent emanating from the Ancestral Mage.
But this made everything just that more surreal.
It was like an enraged man was charging at someone with a child's toy as a weapon.
"What do you want?!" the Sweeper transmitted to the Ancestral Mage with rage. Every moment this guy kept attacking them was an additional moment they could be found by any member of the Natural Selection Company.
This was not funny!
"I have to kill you!" the Ancestral Mage answered after being bombarded by one question after the other while continuing to not-hit the Sweeper.
"What the hell are you even talking about?!" the Sweeper asked in anger. "You know as well as I that this stupid fight, if this can even be called a fight, won't end in anyone's death."
"I have to kill you!" the Ancestral Mage transmitted with rage, hatred, and… something else.
The Sweeper couldn't be certain, but she felt like the Ancestral Mage felt shame right now.
The "fight" continued for several minutes.
Usually, fights between Ancestral Mages took a couple of seconds at most, but this fight had already dragged on for minutes.
This fight broke every convention.
And Shang was not planning on interfering.
Sure, Shang would definitely manage to push the Ancestral Mage back, but then what?
The Ancestral Mage's mind was so fast that his Mana Step could be used faster than Shang could strike, and he would move by over a hundred kilometers when using one.
Shang just wouldn't be able to hit him.
Additionally, even if he managed to drive the Ancestral Mage into a corner, he could just unleash a powerful Spell and doom them all to die.
Everything was pointless.
All of this was pointless.
But then, Shang came up with a possibility.
"He's most likely buying time for the Chairman of the Natural Selection Company to arrive," Shang said with a dark voice.
As soon as Shang said that, the entire atmosphere changed.
The atmosphere around the Sweeper grew dark.
If that were true, she would need to do something very drastic!
However, the Ancestral Mage's aura changed in a way the two of them hadn't predicted.
It was panicked, afraid, and frustrated.
"No!" he shouted with all of his power and conviction. "I have to kill you! No one else! I have to kill you! You must die by my hand!"
The Sweeper and Shang only looked at the Ancestral Mage with shock.
That sounded and felt way too real to be a lie. Additionally, even the Chairman probably wouldn't want to attack them this close to the Eternal Maw. Was killing a Sweeper worth provoking the biggest source of revenue for his company?
But then they were on ground zero again.
What the hell was going on?!
