"Kill!"
It was instant. The second that flowing white hair appeared among the crowd, the elders of the Xue Clan zipped forward to smite her.
Altogether, there were 12 4th class elders, excluding the First Elder, and they were all taking part in the charge.
However, they weren't the only ones waiting for this moment.
Damien's figure flashed away, appearing in the Xue Clan elders' path. His five 4th class subordinates appeared behind him at the same time.
"You know the deal, right?" He spoke jokingly.
The White Dragon King rolled his eyes. "Kill, kill, and kill some more, is it?"
Damien grinned. "You know me best."
The six of them split up. Each of Damien's helpers took two of the Xue Clan Elders and dragged them into combat.
It wasn't a matter of whether the elders wanted to engage them or not, it was a matter of survival. After all, the beasts of the 3000 Beast Mountain Range and the Demons of the Primordial Undying Realm were innately stronger than humans at the same level.
The problem was, there were still two elders left who slipped through the cracks and continued their charge.
But, of course, it wasn't by mistake that they were able to do so.
Damien grinned to himself. 'These guys are really tactful. They entangled the stronger elders, and left the two weakest ones to me. Are they perhaps testing my power? Very well, it's not like I'm afraid to show them.'
But just as Damien was about to charge at the two incoming elders, Ruyue appeared by his side.
"Well, I have a rough idea of what's happening. But this is my revenge, so don't you think I should participate as well? You take the left, I'll take the right."
Damien smirked at her words. As expected of his woman. He put his hands together and cracked his knuckles, doing the same with his neck right after.
"Deal."
With a single word, he vanished from his position and appeared mere centimeters away from the 11th Elder.
"Hi there!"
The 11th Elder's eyes widened in shock. He hurriedly raised his arms to block.
Bang!
Damien's fist landed only an instant later, causing the 11th Elder's bones to emit a guttural snapping sound.
"I'll be playing with you today, so don't disappoint me too much, 'kay?" Damien grinned mockingly.
He was incredibly excited. After all, this was his first fight since all the power boosts he gained from the Primordial Undying Fruit. And having an entry-level 4th class as his opponent was perfect.
This kind of strength…he no longer feared it.
Space twisted into an illusory blade in Damien's grasp. His figure once again disappeared, reappearing before the 11th Elder could regain his bearings.
'Let's test my cutting power first.'
'Void Sword Art First Form: Bladeless'
Ziu! BOOM!
A thin black line formed in space, shooting out like a bullet until it covered several kilometers of the sky. And the second it finished extending, it explosively expanded into a massive gash that swallowed the 11th Elder.
Damien shot into that gash after him. Finding the 11th Elder's figure in the shattered space, he took his stance once more.
'Void Sword Art Second Form: Horizon Break'
His sword was parallel to the ground, his arm pulled back like he was priming a bow. Mana gathered and coalesced around the blade as it sped forward.
Bang!
As if air was forced to compress and expand, a large bang sounded through the shattered space. What followed was…
"ARGH!"
A roar of pain. The 11th Elder was suddenly assaulted by blinding pain in his shoulder, but when he looked down, he noticed that he no longer had one.
'The power of horizon break has risen satisfactorily.' Damien nodded with a smile.
Looking at this man, who was supposed to have an entire class' worth of advantage on him, unable to fight back, Damien couldn't help but praise his own improvement.
But his eyes hardened in the next second. His body twisted at an unnatural angle, almost causing his bones to shatter.
An ice arrow grazed his cheek. If he was only a single second late, it would've pierced his skull without any resistance.
'Tch. A 4th class is still a 4th class after all. I have enough attack power to harm him, but my defense isn't enough to stay unharmed. I can't give him any more opportunities.'
'Void Sword Art Third Form: Dance of the Void'
Damien's figure turned illusory, multiplying endlessly. Tens, hundreds, thousands of phantom projections filled the shattered space.
The 11th Elder smirked. "Haha, brat. You think a mere illusion technique could fool me?!"
A thousand Damiens shook their heads in response. "No wonder you didn't talk before. The only thing that comes out of your mouth is bullshit."
The illusory phantoms danced through the shattered space. Their movements seemed random, but had an unpredictable and ever-changing flow within them.
Small blades of space continuously cut the 11th Elder's body as their dance continued. Thousands of Damiens attacked him at the same time from every direction, not even giving him a second to pinpoint the position of the main body.
This was the glory of Dance of the Void. The phantom illusions weren't just afterimages produced by his speed, they were spatial phenomena caused by his rapid movement through and manipulation of the spatial layers.
It could be said that none of them were real at all, or that all of them were the real Damien at the same time.
Calling the technique a mere illusion technique? It was at that moment when Damien realized that the 11th Elder wasn't a standard for 4th class beings.
Frankly, he was subpar.
Damien shook his head and continued his assault. This fake 4th class wasn't worth his time. If he couldn't even stand against the 3rd form of his sword art, then a single Dimensional Severance would be enough to end him.
And so, that's exactly what Damien chose to do.
His blade pointed to the Heavens, as if trying to gather the power of all things. Pitch-black Void Essence covered the blade, concealed by a heavy coating of spatial mana that lay on top of it.
However, that was nothing. Even after these ingredients had been layered on top of the blade, the attack seemed to get more and more powerful without new additions.
Dimensional Severance wasn't a simple vertical slash combined with Void Essence. If it was just that much, it wouldn't have the right to its name.
When Damien said Dimensional Severance was the epitome of his comprehension of space, it wasn't a joke. Because that was exactly what he used to fuel his blade.
"Distance," "Destruction," "Vectors," "Expansion," "Compression," and many more conceptual fragments that made up the foundation of the concept of space itself, all of his comprehension of these concepts was poured into his blade.
It was a truly ethereal feeling to do so. Even Damien didn't quite understand how he was able to. After all, Dimensional Severance was created in a bout of enlightenment, and he was still riding that enlightenment every time he used it.
If he ever managed to understand the foundation and workings of the attack itself, its power would far outstrip what he could show today.
But even what he had now was enough to split Heaven and Earth in two.
'Void Sword Art Fifth Form: Dimensional Severance'
A thin black like, no bigger than the width of a piece of paper, traveled through space at a snail's pace. The 11th Elder had a mocking grin on his face as he saw it, causally moving to the side to avoid the slash.
But, strangely enough, no matter how he moved, that vertical slash was always directly in front of him, approaching to split him into two halves.
The 12th Elder frowned. This kind of trick, was it enough to cause his death? He was a 4th class! No matter how much effort a 3rd class put into their attack, it didn't change the fact that they couldn't connect with the laws of the world yet.
With a mocking look in his eyes, the 11th Elder pushed his mana.
'I'll show you what it means to enter the 4th class.'
An icy chill spread through the air. No, the chill spread through space itself. The shattered space that was just beginning to fix itself was frozen into ice crystals that fell to the ground.
But those crystals didn't shatter. No, they impacted the ground and turned the area a few hundred kilometers around the duo into an icy desert.
"Utilizing laws isn't something mere elements can compete against. Freezing space, freezing time, I can do it all! What, do you think this tiny attack can faze me?!"
The 11th Elder held out his hand, causing the icy blue mana to rush toward Damien's Dimensional Severance. Even though it was an attack, it looked like the 11th Elder was building a construct, since space froze around the mana whenever it came into contact.
But none of that mattered. It only took an instant for the icy mana to collide with the slash of Dimensional Severance.
As it did so, Damien smirked. "Laws? I can use those too."
And as if to prove his words, the thin black line of Dimensional Severance cut through the icy blue mana like paper. Contrasting its snail's pace from before, it reached the 11th Elder before he could even comprehend what had happened.
And then, it split him in two.
