Chapter 179 179:Third Ordeal[3]
A certain memory flashed before Lucas's eyes.
"You are a weird guy. Weirdest among all the people I know."
"Huh! Thanks! But what did I do?"
"This isn't praise."
"Instead of having the typical talent in weapons like other people have, you have a knack for weird things."
"Now what do you mean?"Lucas spoke in a heavy voice while panting heavily.
Harris squinted his eyes at Lucas who lay on the floor with a rough breathing.
"When it comes to mastering things, you lack but you can learn enough skills quickly to be at a usable level that can be used during the fight and you have a knack for copying."
"I don't."Lucas refuted.
"No, you do. You try to imitate others when you fall short."
After hearing his words, Lucas remembered his early days when he didn't know anything and tried to copy other moves.
"With careful observation, you can copy the martial arts imperfectly. Subconsciously, you have already used most of the moves I showcased to you."
.........
"Bastard, are you mocking me?"
Ezekiel's angry howl pierced through the vicinity. His face became red with anger seeing Lucas taking out another sword and provoking him with his dual wielding.
"What made you think you are special just because you mastered dual wielding?"Lucas tilted his head with a sinister smile.
"How naive! Even someone unskilled like me can also do that."
"Shut up!"
With a roar, Ezekiel stomped the ground propelling himself towards Lucas.
Ezekiel's figure burst forth with a sudden acceleration in the next instant.
To Ezekiel's call, instead of retreating Lucas stepped forward and smoothly turned around to generate momentum he swung his swords ruthlessly.
BOOM!
CLANG!
On the first strike, both sides felt that the opponent was out of the ordinary.
After a few minutes of struggle, everyone could see that Lucas was losing ground.
Under Ezekiel's relentless attack that showed no sign of ending, Lucas was getting pushed back.
Ezekiel's blade was on Lucas like tides of the sea surging and crashing onto shore one after another without a pause.
Ground trembled and small air blasts creating ripples surged outward.
Tossed back by the collision, Lucas pressed his feet on the ground firmer than before and then nudged forward a little using flash steps to increase his speed and generate more momentum and met Ezekiel's dual blades making a wide crimson arc.
QWANG!
This time the impact of shock waves transverse more towards Ezekiel making him frown as piercing pain went through his arms as if his sword had met cold hard steel.
Lucas gained a footing and started pushing forward however his expression wasn't good as he could occasionally strike back but not often as the speed of Ezekiel's sword swing was faster than his.
Ezekiel roared and fought back.
The next moment, under Lucas's astonishing eyes, Ezekiel shone with a fiery enshrine and burst out on clashing against his sword.
[Flame Ignis]
BOOM!
"What the…"
Lucas jolted in shock as a breath of hot air assaulted his body and letting out a disgruntled voice, Lucas's body flung into the air.
Gnashing his teeth, Lucas pulled his strength and performed a somersault in mid-air seeing Ezekiel rushing forward to strike him, the moment he landed.
Turning his body into a suitable stance, he made use of gravitational momentum and put more mana over his sword making it glow crimson.
The crimson aura converged into the fiery elemental aura and started condensing over the tip. The flames engulfing the blades crackled radiating crimson lightning.
The lightning crackled more vigorously and leaving out a crimson trail, as Lucas's figure descended, he raised both of his blades vertically prepared to strike down Ezekiel.
Ezekiel saw the shadow enlarging and took a turn to gather momentum and swinging his sword with all his might, his sword clashes against Lucas's blade.
The energy of opposite sides collided creating a small bubble of contrasting energy that at first was squeezed to the maximum and then expanded throwing away the swords pushing against one another with a terrifying energy.
BOOM!
An explosion roared through the place and a bright flash of light flickered attracting the attention of many.
The onlookers around them were suddenly startled by the sonic explosion. Seeing cracks on the ground and clouds of dust due to the fight, they shuddered seeing the intensity of the battle.
As they turned towards their opponent, they had a tacit understanding and decided to stop fighting and watch the other fight as when the winner between Lucas and Ezekiel would be decided, it would be them who would be the next fish on the chopping board so it was better to conserve their strength and gang up on the winner.
As a result of the aftermath of the collision, the ground under Ezekiel was pulverized by the impact and turned into dust due force of the outburst weighing down on him.
Ezekiel's inner organ shook under the immense pressure and he lost his footing and almost got buried inside the cracks underneath his feet
Lucas's condition was also not good. Since he had no footing, he was shot back, fortunately at the last moment, he twisted his arms changing the direction of force so he was shot horizontally instead of vertically into the air.
The impact of deflecting such an attack sent tremors of pain jolting up through his arms leaving his arms trembling and shaking.
Even though a terrible pain ached in his arm, instead of grimacing, Lucas laughed out loud.
"You are surely good."
"I can feel adrenaline starting to rush in my blood."
"This violent feeling pulsating in my chest is what makes me feel alive."
"Come on, Ezekiel entertain me more."
Coughing the dust particles that sneaked in his windpipe, Ezekiel shook through the dust cloud with a distorted expression.
"You think this is funny, you bastard."
Ezekiel twisted his torso and with a flash appeared right before Lucss.
BANG!
A thunderous boom echoed as Lucas deflected Ezekiel's sword.
"This isn't but seeing your face becoming green in anger is sure interesting."
Ezekiel nudged his shoulder and stabbed.
"Damn you!"
Lucas swung his sword vertically with one hand to deflect and swung the other blade.
Ezekiel reacted quickly, and stepping aside, clashed his other blade in a reverse grip, he parried it and revolving his blade in the left arm with fluid movements stabbed straight at Lucas's face.
With the month of rigorous training, Lucas reacted instantly and tucking down his head, jumped to a safe distance.
Lucas's dominant hand movements were fast, smooth and precise but things were a bit awkward on his left hand as he wasn't able to execute his thoughts well and move the sword in his left arm as freely as his right arm.
Unlike Ezekiel who could use both his hands for offence and defence, Lucas uses one hand to attack while the other hand to defend in most cases.
However, this discomfort was momentary as Lucas knew that with more practice, this would go away.
His goal wasn't to show off but rather to piss Ezekiel to the core for pestering him and make him understand that he can kick his ass with half-baked dual wielding.
That was his plan but he would switch back to normal swordsmanship and become serious if he can't hold his own.
CLANG!CLANG!CLANG
Both sides attacked each other. In addition, Lucas used every kind of skill to pry the sword into Ezekiel's defence but Ezekiel would slyly dodge the attack.
"Look carefully, this is the difference between the two of us. You dare to show that rough skill in front of me."Ezekiel roared violently and swung his sword like a whip loaded with aura.
BOOM!
A large crevice formed on the ground as his sword struck but Lucas rolled around, increasing the distance between the two and making Ezekiel frown.
Ezekiel immediately lowered his body and ran towards Lucas.
[ Haste]
[Holming Fire Style:Flame Ignition]
Ezekiel used a movement skill that increased his speed by a minor realm as he dashed towards Lucas leaving a gust of wind while both of his swords became red hot making a crackling noise.
[Flash Steps]
[Mana Devour]
[Abyssal Asura Art 1st Form:Madness]
Lucas also followed the notion and activating his skills at once, his image flickered.
Lucas's sudden gain in speed startled Ezekiel as Lucas seemed to be faster than him.
In an instant, both of them appeared before each other.
The moment Lucas's foot touched the ground, his ankle almost turned 90° creating a tremor on the ground. All the power focused on his body shifted to his right leg and his momentum was delivered to his forward stroke.
The air seemed to freeze at the collision.
The time slowed down and under Ezekiel's astonishing gaze, the mana poured over his sword and started getting sucked over and assimilating over the other side.
Soon, a starlight flashed amidst the vast expanse of dusty clouds.
In the very next moment, that starlight created due to an immensely concentrated energy burst open and obscured the vision.
BOOOM!
The ground beneath them shook and ripped apart creating minute tremors making the ground tremble as the surface of waves and formed cracks over the surface.
This was followed by a violent surge of wind and with a sonic blast, two figures were pushed back.
While drag marks appeared under Lucas's feet, Ezekiel's figure was blasted away for many metres like a rag doll.
As his body rolled on the ground and came to a standstill, Ezekiel coughed blood with a bewildered expression.
Spatting the blood choked in his throat, he wiped his lips and for the very first moment in his life gave Lucas a hint of admiration.
The moment his blades touched Lucas, a burst of magical energy exploded and the wave of explosion was pushed toward his side. He tried to repel the attack but Lucas used more force than him. He also felt that Lucas's control over mana and aura was a step higher than his.
The admiration that came into his heart lasted only for a few seconds which was then replaced by seething anger due to humiliating defeat by a mere filthy blood commoner.
"Damn!"
Ezekiel coughed again and got up on his feet.
After this clash, Ezekiel was sure about one thing, Lucas's realm may be lower but his strength and speed were comparable to his and his attack was much more explosive than he could handle.
"Just because you managed to bring me down, doesn't mean you win. You are just a small fry."
Ezekiel's eyes shone with madness. His heart was bleeding with fury and he wanted to wash away this humiliation no matter what.
"I am gonna kill you...."
BOOOM!
A thunderous bang drew everyone's attention and interrupted their fight.
"It seems you are lucky today."Lucas mocked and stared at the scene with a solemn expression as he guessed the origin of the blast.
Lucas was surprised for a moment as he was too absorbed to hear the previous announcement.
'It seems we have reached more than a hundred participants in which a scenario of a boss monster attacking everyone would take place to lower the number.'Lucas muttered remembering the contents however it didn't happen in the original one as the number was struck at 98.
But with him and Roan appearing here, and the deviation of the plot, it seems someone else also managed to get here and the number went past 100.
'Damn, it didn't mean my words backfire. My previous words about changing isn't valid as our fight was interred by an external force.'
A loud blast shook the entire area.
The lake at the other end exploded and a cold icy gale bellowed creating terrifying winds that were enough to blow everyone.
Seeing a surge of icy-cold mana surging towards him, Lucas squatted and stabbed his sword into the ground activating Mana Devour.
Ezekiel who was staring blankly was hit by the shock wave and was blown away along with others who stood gawking at the scene instead of taking measures.
The blast was soon followed by a cacophony of grievous and gruel screams of pain.