Eternal Rivals (2)
On the peak of a snowy mountain, I tightly held my sword.
"Huu..."
Focusing my sense, I stood facing him again.
Under the night sky, the stars brightly shone across the horizon, and the moon gently glowed in the sky.
In an instant, we moved as if teleporting
-Boom!
The shockwave shook the earth, and powerful wind sweep the surrounding snow creating a powerful blizzard.
The world slowed down as I entered a state of trance, every part of my senses focused solely on him.
-Clack!
-Clack!
-Clack!
Even in the slowed world, we moved as if unaffected by time.
[Sword Technique: Destruction Form
Intense cold energy instantly gathered around my katana.
I Swung my sword vertically.
"Haap!" (Laila)
-Boom!
A wave of cold energy spread like an explosion. The cold energy killed hundred of players around affected by our fight.
Dense formation of ice formed around me.
"As expected of you, an attack like that is no use" (Laila)
-tap
-tap
-tap
Walking from the cold mist, A man in a luxurious black coat equipped with an elegant black katana appeared. With a smile on his face, he spoke.
"I need to have this much to keep my spot, besides I almost died from that" (Ray)
"Someone like you wouldn't die even if I did the same attack hundreds of times" (Laila)
"That's an exaggeration, that attack of yours wiped an entire guild just now" (Ray)
"That only proved my point" (Laila)
"Hahaha... Now shall we and this?" (Ray)
"It's about time you said that" (Laila)
Ending the conversation, we immediately raise our mana.
The two powerful energy mixed and distorted reality. Their imaginary world collided and assimilated with each other changing the space around us.
At the same time, they snapped their fingers.
[Environmental Domain:
[Environmental Domain:
***
Beneath a giant tree made of pure mana, countless stars shone brightly in harmony across the gentle night sky.
An imaginary world that should reject foreign entities combined creates a new world, it was as if our world was supposed to be one in the first place.
There was no ground in this vast space, it was like stepping on shallow water which reflect the sky.
In the vast space, two players stood facing each other.
Dense mana gathered around them as they focused their sense to the limit.
In that instant, they both drew their katana.
[Ultimate Technique: Void Form <
[Ultimate Technique: Infinity Form <
The world turns pure white, and the imaginary world collapsed.
Two large energy collided.
***
*Back to the present
A high-speed sword exchange took place on the lake.
-Clank!
-Clank!
-Clank!
Seeing Rayford rushing towards her, Laila jumped back and cast her magic.
[Intermediate Magic:
Using the lake's water to her advantage, a complicated ice structure unbefitting its magic rank formed around Rayford.
Spikes of ice hindered Rayford's approach, seeing this calmly Rayford touches the hilt of his katana.
[Sword Technique: Flowing Form
-Click!
In an instant mana was strangely distorted, and countless white lines like spiders web appeared in the air. Those lines' identities were distorted spaces with the ability to cut everything with lower mana concentration.
Those lines were created by condensing mana as a thin line in the air that cut the space itself. To create such a phenomenon, you need to eject mana very quickly and condense a high density of mana.
The technique difficulty was not something to scoff at, to pull that off you need to be able to control mana with high accuracy. The process of condensing mana can be illustrated as if trying to compress all the water in a pool into lines a couple of millimeters in diameter.
Doing this will naturally drain a high amount of mana, especially for us since most of our mana is kept secret.
But Rayford somehow manages to make the technique efficient enough to not use any mana.
The trick is to absorb the mana using aura after the technique took effect which is highly difficult to do if I have to describe it, it was like trying to catch gas with your bare hand.
I remember that his technique went viral back in the game, even though difficult, people successfully save 10~50% mana by using his trick. But this trick becomes significantly harder when there is more mana to recycle, and would drain mental energy very quickly.
Even I the ranked second player who is considered a genius equal to him can only recycle 96% of mana from my small attack and 60% at most when doing a big attack, absorbing more would take too much concentration or cause nausea which is very fatal in a high-level fight.
I remember asking him how he came out with such a revolutionary idea, which he said to me
"Why would you waste such precious mana? Are you an Idiot?" (Ray)
When I heard that, I smacked his head multiple times.
Seeing that monstrous technique unfolding, a smile bloomed on my face.
'No matter how many times I see that technique, it never gets old (Laila)
White lines neatly cut through every surrounding Ice formation, like art painted using air as its canvas.
As I have seen it often, I didn't get flustered and rushed toward him swinging my katana.
As my blade was about to reach his body, mana in the air distorted again.
[Sword Technique: Flowing Form
-Click!
Detecting the mana distortion, I quickly jumped back and immediately counterattack.
[Sword Technique: Swift Form
Moving in a zigzag, I avoid the white lines and approach him with lightning speed.
Responding to my movements, he drew his katana blocking my attack.
-Boom!
The exchange created a wave of water from the center of the lake and pushed us back ten meters backward.
"It has been thirty minutes already, how bout we end this" (Rayford)
"I've been waiting for you to say that" (Laila)
Gathering all the mana I have I smiled at him. We were an acquaintance at first, but then he became a precious friend, a dependable comrade, a great teacher, an unbeatable rival, and now
"Let's end this with a bang" (Laila)
At that moment, they used their strongest technique.
A high density of pure energy gathers on my sword, while the energy of the void gathers on his sword.
[Ultimate Technique: Infinity Form <
[Ultimate Technique: Void Form <
While we are not as strong as before, we still manage to pull off our ultimate attack with only
"Haaaaaaa!!!!!" (Ray & Laila)
.
.
.
As the two strong energy collided, the world was colored white.
[Match Result: Draw]
Test result:
-Attendee 0325: Rayford Zyavn Aquinox, Mana:
-Attendee 0326: Laila Snow Callestio, Mana:
Today marked a historical day of what will be called a legendary duel in generations to come.
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A/N: Their status will be shown in the next chapter.