"Amazing." Duke Lorelei smiled.
"Tsk. It's still too short." Noel clicked his tongue. He thought he could reach him this time, but his control wasn't at that level yet.
"To think it would need our rune and abilities for him to draw his sword halfway. It seems that we have to go all out for him to fully unsheathe that sword." Anna stood next to him, ready for the second round.
"That's right. If you have the ability, force me to fight you seriously." Duke Lorelei provoked them again, showing that he was nowhere near his peak.
Noel and Anna exchanged looks. They seemed to reach a tacit understanding about their next plan.
The Empowerment Rune in their body got activated, boosting their physical abilities. The surge of strength was noticeable even by the Sword Arbiter.
In that instant, both of them disappeared. Their movement was much faster than earlier, startling him.
The Duke took a deep breath, sending them with his Spiritual Energy instead of his eyes. One of them got caught by the Spiritual Energy and the Duke immediately jumped toward this person, which turned out to be Noel.
Circular Sword Strike.
Noel waved his sword, creating a circle around his body. The Duke ended up striking this circle, which soon expanded, pushing the duke back.
The duke slightly closed his body so that he could gain another surge of strength from his lower body before using it to break the circle apart.
After that, he closed in to lure out Anna.
All of a sudden, Noel smiled as though everything had gone according to the plan, causing the duke to be wary. His sword ended up hesitating, allowing Noel to push him back with his swing.
The duke never thought he would fall for such a trick at this age.
"You youngsters are really good at giving this old man a heart attack." Duke Lorelei smirked.
"It's not enough." Noel stomped the ground with his Rune Blast, crashing the ground underneath them. With this, they would have to fall for at least one second.
The Duke understood this kind of movement. After all, Anna immediately approached him from behind once the duke lost his foothold. She would definitely take this chance.
Unfortunately for the duke, Noel hadn't done it yet. He created an Enhance Forward Rune to the duke.
"!!!" The duke widened his eyes in shock. He could feel the energy from the rune trying to affect him, but because he had never experienced this before, he was too late in releasing his energy to resist the control of the rune. As a result, the Enhance Forward Rune tossed him in Anna's direction, closing the gap between them.
Noel also jumped forth, surrounding the duke. His black flame gushed out of his body and formed a giant avatar behind him.
"Come forth, Flame Devil."
'Is he going to attack both of us together? No, from what I can see, he is loyal, so…' The duke thought about it instantly and ended up throwing the sword to Anna.
"!!!" Anna struck this sword but failed to knock it down.
However, she had done enough just to hold the sword here so that the Sword Arbiter wouldn't be able to stop Noel's attack.
But to everyone's surprise, the reason why he tossed the sword to Anna was because he wanted her to stop it. This way, he rotated his hand and reached out for the sword behind his shoulder. It was at this moment that the duke drew his sword.
"No!" Anna tried to release more strength, but it was too late. The energy that had been contained within the scabbard was released at once, knocking her back.
At the same time, the duke swung the sword above his head and released the residual energy to split the Flame Devil in half.
Even Noel had to withstand the massive energy that fell upon him. That massive energy created another wall-shaped trail that stretched for over thirty meters. If he ever unleashed this kind of attack inside the town, numerous people would have lost their lives and houses.
And Noel who had to withstand all this power ended up breaking the ground underneath him as blood started to flow out of his mouth.
"Haaaa!" Noel roared as he used the Sword Transmutation and released it upward. The Sword Transmutation ended up knocking the sword energy from the duke and flew into the sky before destroying each other. The destruction caused a shock wave loud enough to be heard by the people inside the town and strong enough for the gust to destroy all the grass within ten meters radius.
"Ha… Ha…" Noel panted a few times, finally understanding the strength of the Sword Arbiter. "So, this is the number one Arbiter, who is known to be unparalleled under Spirit Transcendence."
"He finally draws his sword." Anna smirked. While she wasn't injured, her hands still felt numb from the energy released by the sword earlier.
Noel took a deep breath, looking at the duke's sword. A normal person wouldn't have noticed anything special, but Noel could see how the energy flowed in that sword. It was so smooth as though it had memorized the duke's control.
It was something different from Ardagan, who was a living spirit. But when he thought about it, Ardagan was just a normal sword if he ignored his consciousness as a spirit. He had been living in this world for too long as a normal sword.
During their battle earlier, Noel noticed something. The duke had been releasing the energy contained in that sword, but had he actually controlled his energy this whole time? If he didn't have to control his energy and just let it flow as the sword had memorized it, wouldn't it mean he could focus on anything else other than controlling the energy?
When he thought about it, he looked at Ardagan again and asked inwardly, 'You have known me for so long, do you think it's possible?'
[Yes. But don't forget that I'm only responsible for following your usual reaction.]
'If that's the case…' Noel smiled, realizing that he could do something else. "Duke Lorelei. If you don't mind, could I try something?"
"Hmm?" The duke furrowed his eyebrows. It seemed that Noel had noticed something, so he permitted it. "If it's interesting, then sure. But if it's not, I'm going to attack you."
Noel nodded with a serious expression. He gathered the energy in Ardagan while utilizing the 'Anger.'
In the past, he had to control this energy, causing him to be unable to do anything else other than swinging his sword. Now that he had defined the kind of anger he wanted to have after the sparring with Anna, Ardagan should be able to control that flow of energy just by following the program he had set earlier.
It allowed Noel to be able to do something that he couldn't do before, especially a sword technique.
That was right. Noel was using the Sword Transmutation, gathering a massive amount of energy. It looked like a normal Sword Transmutation until Noel swung the sword.
The Sword Transmutation ran through the ground, smashing everything around it. Its power at least doubled, and there was a different kind of sharpness in this strike. This was the combination of the Sword Transmutation and Noel's Anger.
"!!!" The duke struck the energy, planning to cut it apart. Yet, the sword strike actually pushed him back until he reached Anna's position before the duke understood the energy a bit better and cut it apart.
Since Noel had requested the duke earlier, she didn't do anything other than watching the duke. But even she was surprised by this level of attack.
'Isn't this… the same sword strike that Noel used in his previous life? So, that's how it is… Duke Lorelei was the trigger to stimulate the growth of his unique sword style.' Anna couldn't help but remember Noel's Everchanging Sword Style.
Each swing was so powerful, yet had a different purpose. Even she had a hard time discerning what kind of attack he would unleash.
"It seems that you've gotten a hint of where to step to go forward." Duke Lorelei smiled.
"It's thanks to you, Sir. If I couldn't see your sword, I wouldn't have noticed this."
"But don't forget that this is the first sparring. What is the objective of this spar?"
Noel's expression turned serious as he raised his blade again. "Yes, Sir. I apologize for my actions earlier."
That was right. This was the first sparring, which would be seen by the spies. This improvement would be recorded as well. Evan could tell them that this was just a repayment for the injury, but if Noel improved any further, it would be seen as Evan training these two youngsters. His stance would be questioned by his allies.
Hence, they had no choice but to end this sparring as quickly as possible so that the spies could report to them and Noel could learn a bit more about this newfound ability.
Although it was a shame, he had to do it.
"In that case, let's end this battle within ten minutes." Noel took a deep breath. The temperature started to go down as the gentle breeze turned into a chilling wind.
Anna noticed this power and hurriedly did the same. Her hair started to change its color as the lightning began to cover her entire body.
If they wanted to make the spies believe them, they had to do this much.
All of a sudden, the energy from within their bodies erupted as both of them said a similar thing.
"Awaken! Ice Transformation (Lightning Possession)!"
