Chapter 363: Disgusting Opponent

Staring at the endangered Fire Demon, I noticed that while he looked very similar to a normal Demon, the main difference was the bright red veins that could be seen through his layers of flesh along with the small flames atop his two horns. It was my first time ever laying eyes on a Fire Demon, so I was slightly surprised by how they looked; given that demons have one of the biggest groups of subspecies, I was expecting something more terrifying or intimidating, though it seems I was mistaken.

'Though, I'm more interested in how strong he is rather than his lackluster appearance.' Mused Elif lightly as he gazed at the Fire Demon, who suddenly raised his hand and pointed his finger at him.

Following his sudden movement, I felt a sense of déjá vu as I watched a large amount of reddish Qi converge in front of his finger while it compressed itself; after a few moments, he stopped, only for a beam red beam to be shot through the air as it rapidly headed for me with impressive speed and power. However, seeing as I knew exactly what technique he was using, I was able to easily dodge it just in time while the reddish Gyakusatsu pierced the very air until it eventually hit the wall behind me.

Glancing behind me, I shifted my focus back to my opponent, though this time, I had a faint smile as I realized who I was facing in battle.

"The creator of the coveted Gyakusatsu… Sizzle." Muttered Elif with a faint smirk as he gazed at Sizzle in the distance, who didn't show any expression and merely used Gyakusatsu once more.

With my opponent being Sizzle, I saw no point in quickly defeating him; instead, it would be smarter to keep him alive while I used this chance to further improve Gyakusatsu; after all, while this Sizzle may be nothing but a mere projection, he'd still know Gyakusatsu better than anyone.

"Besides, I'm also curious: who has a larger Qi reserve, me or Sizzle?" Asked Elif with a curious expression as he raised his hand and pointed his finger at Sizzle while compressing a tremendous amount of Qi into a tiny sphere.

Once it had reached a sufficient amount of Qi, I released it, causing a purple beam of Qi to shoot through the air, though it didn't manage to hit Sizzle as he had blocked it with a Gyakusatsu of his own; of course, that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't lowered my cultivation base to the same level as his, though he was required to use slightly more Qi than normal to do so.

"Hmm, well, this should be interesting." Muttered Elif with a raised eyebrow as he and Sizzle continuously fired Gyakusatsu's at each other.

While I'm sure our battle must've looked humourous from an outsider's perspective, I was entirely focused on Sizzle as I watched his every move while using the technique; when I spotted something he was doing better than me or something I wasn't doing at all, I quickly improved upon it and mid-battle, which was no easy feat at all, though even a slight improvement would force Sizzle to use slightly more Qi than before.

After a few minutes of our rather boring yet very fruitful battle, something finally changed as Sizzle, for the first time, rotated the tiny sphere of Qi before firing it at me; this sudden change caught me slightly off guard since he'd never used it, nor is such a thing even mentioned within the techniques manual. However, to my surprise, despite using the same amount of Qi, his attack actually carried more power than usual, as he managed to not only pierce overpower my technique but also pierce through my arm, leaving behind a gaping hole.

Frowning, I switched my arms and attacked with my other hand, using significantly more Qi with each Gyakusatsu I fired at Sizzle to offset the power granted to him by rotating it just before he shot it.

"Tsk, well, I now know what it feels like to be attacked with Gyakusatsu… Not pleasant in the slightest." Muttered Elif with a frown as he glanced at the gaping hole in his arm before shaking his head and shifting his focus to Sizzle.

Although the rotating Gyakusatsu just before firing it was something I'd like to implement, I wasn't bold enough to try and do that right now in the middle of a battle, so I just continued fighting Sizzle while making very slight improvements that wouldn't possibly end up with me destabilizing my own technique.

"Still, I have a feeling this is going to take a while." Said Elif lightly as he and Sizzle slowly walked circles around each other while continuously firing Gyakusatsu's.

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After what felt like an eternity, Sizzle attempted to fire another Gyakusatsu, only for his technique to fall apart from his lack of Qi, causing him to fail in dodging my purple beam that shot through the air before piercing right through his head, only for another on to pierce his heart a second later.

Watching Sizzle's body collapse onto the ground before dispersing into nothingness, I released a sigh of relief while lowering my arm; we had been fighting for fifteen minutes, which may not seem long, but when you're only using one technique repeatedly, it was rather boring.

"Still, I'm impressed his Qi reserved managed to last that long." Muttered Elif genuinely as he flicked his purple streak behind his ear while glancing at where Sizzle previously was.

Although a large chunk of my Qi was inaccessible, given that I had suppressed my cultivation base, the fact that I still only had half of my Qi remaining was shocking to me. After shaking my head, I stopped suppressing my cultivation and basked in the comfortable sensation as my single injury quickly healed while my Qi reserves were promptly filled to full capacity.

Once I had returned to peak condition, the comfortable sensation vanished as I shifted my focus to the other side of the room, where I spotted a projection of an incredible size standing opposite of me.

"A Titan?" Muttered Elif in surprise as he stared at his twenty-second opponent, causing him to lift his head to the ceiling to fully view him.

I didn't know if the being standing before me was a Titan, but I couldn't think of any other creature besides Leviathans that could ever reach such a monumental size, and the being before me definitely wasn't a Leviathan.

Anyway, there was no point in delaying things, so with a slash of Hokori, I launched a heavenly scar right toward the left ankle, yet my power wasn't quite adequate as I only managed to leave a flesh wound a few inches deep, wish was nothing to a being as massive as this. However, with me attacking, my opponent finally made a move as I saw him glance at me before raising his fist and punching me; yet his fist was so large, it threatened to hit nearly the entire room, so dodging was out of the equation.

"Oh, this may very well be rough." Said Elif with a wry expression as he gripped Hokori with both hands and engulfed the blade in a flaming purple aura.

Once the first approached me, I brought Hokori upwards and slashed at the fist, my blade digging deep into the fist, yet it might as well have been a needle stabbing him; thankfully, despite his unnaturally massive size, he didn't have the actual strength to back it up, so I was able to eventually repel his fist, and while I wanted to take one of his fingers, Hokori, despite being only slightly short than me, surprisingly wasn't long enough for that.

'Well, isn't that ironic, Hokori.' Mused Elif with a small smile as he gazed upwards at the massive Titan before leaping into the air while the aura that surrounded Hokori converged to the tip.

Flying into the air, I compressed my Qi and sword will to the tip of Hokori, and when I reached a height parallel to the Titan's chest, I thrust forward, launching a heavenly pierce as it managed to stab through his heart, yet it didn't exit the other side; I had injured him, but like I said previously, give the sheer size difference, this won't be nearly enough to defeat him.

Looking at a massive hand heading my way, I brought my sword close to me before slashing down, latching a much thickening heavenly scar, which managed to draw blood this time as I left a decently deep gash on his open palm, though that didn't stop his actions of swatting me out of the sky.

Slamming against the wall, I clicked my tongue and quickly moved out of the way, which was a hard task to do when I was stuck in a confined space like this. Just as I was about to attack his chest with a heavenly pierce, he suddenly released a mighty breath, though what caught me off guard was how bad his breath smelled despite being a projection.

"Ugh, disgusting!" Said Elif loudly with a tone of disgust as he held his nose while waving his hand, only for him to be violently punched into the ground, which caused the room to tremble.

Just as the Titan retracted his arm, I launched another heavenly scar, though unlike before, this time, I had used my true strength and didn't hold back, causing a massive sword wave to cut through the air as it sliced into the projections hand and half-way down its arm before finally dispersing.

"Tsk, what a disgusting opponent." Muttered Elif in slight anger as he coughed in disgust.