The Epitome Of Power

A piece of the earth broke off and levitated next to Ita. It's structure broke down and took on the new shape of a spear, and with a bright glow, the earth spear gained a metallic sheen.

Lightning bolts moved around Aoi's body and clouds began to darken the sky once more.

Darius paid attention, but he maintained a calmness that irritated his opponents.

Mana.

The fuel of creation.

Like some cruel punishment from nature for crimes unknown, humans could not access this power. They might have found a way to even the playing field, but it was common knowledge that mages in any rank were stronger than their human counterparts.

But there was some sort of balance.

No one could fully wield the true potential of mana, not even the strongest or most talented mages.

To have any semblance of reasonable attack power, mages couldn't use their limited time to try to understand how to exact control over all the elements. This task would take too long, longer than their mortal lives, and they would fall behind in the struggle for power.

So usually, they would pick one or two elements and increase their proficiency in their control over it.

For Aoi, it was obviously lightning. For Ita, earth. Their proficiency and the size of their mana pool made them beings that could strike fear into most men.

But in the presence of Darius…

BOOM~

The spear shot forward at a speed that broke the sound barrier!

Darius moved his head slightly and it went past it, creating a crater behind him from its sheer force.

About a hundred more spears moved towards him with equal speed as the last, but Darius dodged them all with ease while keeping his eyes on the only relevant opponent here—Aoi.

The dark elf was preparing an attack and Ita was simply buying time with this distraction, as it could barely be called an attack to him.

Ita, noticing that Darius paid him no heed, became even more enraged. He placed his palm on the ground and Darius could sense his mana spike.

The earth began to quake and an earth golem arose behind Darius, trapping him in a bear hug.

It had a strong grip and Darius could tell he would have to exert significant strength to escape it. Something this strong would take a large amount of mana to construct, even for a rank 9 mage.

Noticing this, Darius paused. He wanted to see what Ita intended to do with him now immobilized.

Ita gritted his teeth as he created another spear. As he poured more mana into it, it's metallic shine turned golden, increasing its offensive capabilities and it didn't look like he was going to stop there.

'Is this idiot planning to empty his mana pool on this one attack?'

Even Darius could feel the power held in this attack; it was bordering rank 10!

In a fight between high ranking opponents, a move like this was suicidal! What was he going to do if this attack didn't finish off Darius? Or was he being so bold because of Aoi?

Shifting his gaze to Aoi, Darius saw him turn into a lighting bolt and shoot into the clouds. What followed were the sounds of thunder claps.

It was just like last time. His attack would soon come and Darius suspected it would be in a greater magnitude.

Ita grunted as he let go of his control over the golden spear and it rushed towards Darius, the raging mana within it destroying the landscape as it moved!

Darius raised his foot and with tremendous force, stomped down on the ground and the shockwaves destroyed the golem, even reaching the spear but it was unable to deter it.

He then raised his open palm towards it, "Let me show you… the epitome of power."

BOOM~

The earth quaked at the explosion that occurred after the spear reached his palm. The shockwaves even made Ita steady his stance so as to not be blown away.

He breathed heavily.

Expending mana was akin to using up stamina and Ita could feel his tiredness growing just from unleashing that singular attack.

'Hopefully that is enough,' he thought as he looked up at the clouds. He could feel the rising mana above as lightning bolts raged and converged at a point.

Alarms bells suddenly rang in his head, but before he could react, Ita saw fingers blocking the view of his left eye.

BAM~

Darius had suddenly appeared and pushed his head into the ground with a force that created a large crater!

Ita felt himself losing consciousness but he quickly gained it back as Darius squeezed in an attempt to crush his head!

Without wasting time he immediately teleported away from his grasp and Darius clenched at air.

Looking at his empty palm, Darius immediately made a mental note to squeeze first next time. If they started teleporting around frequently, this would get annoying.

Spreading his aura, Darius quickly locked on Ita's mana signature.

'There.'

Ita appeared miles away, but before he could even steady his feet, Darius had grabbed his head and this time he squeezed first. Ita felt his skull crack and amidst a short scream, he teleported away again.

This time he fell to the ground as he reappeared. Blood flowed from his nose and ears, with the white of his irises now stained red.

He staggered, barely conscious, yet Darius ignored him, turning his gaze to the clouds with a complicated expression.

He then pointed the tip of his sword up and released his aura.

It was powerful, seemingly boundless!

A large part of his aura began to gather above his sword, quickly condensing into a ball that became less transparent as time went on.

Seeing this, Ita gritted his teeth and bore the pain as he stood up. Five earth spears levitated around him, each with a golden glow. He had to stop Darius, no matter the cost.

Even if it meant damaging his mana pool.

Darius noticed this and sent out a small portion of his aura to attack. Ita tried to use his mana to defend, but he was too slow. Darius' aura moved through the field like a scythe!

Ita instantly felt his balance waver and he fell to the ground. He lost control over his mana and the earth spears broke down into dust.

Ita tried to get up again, but he felt a great wave of pain assault his mind. He looked down, and to his horror, his entire left leg was gone!

The thunder claps roared even more ferocious than before as blue bolts of lightning converged above Darius.

He could easily dodge this attack, but he had no intentions of doing so. He had promised to end this fight quick, and he was a man of his word.

ZRRT~ TRRH~

With earth shattering speeds, the converging lightning bolts shot down at their target. It was like an ethereal painting—the scene of the earth defying lightning rushing down, with power that threatened to cleave even the earth into two!

'Aura bomb.'

Calmly, Darius launched the condensed aura towards the lightning bolts. The ball of aura looked insignificant in the face of its challenge, but the moment both attacks clashed, the aura bomb absorbed the mana in the lightning bolts, dispelling it as it came in contact.

It rose up undeterred, reaching into the clouds. Soundlessly, it exploded.

The force produced shattered the sky!

The clouds cleared from the invisible shockwaves that forced even the injured Ita to use all his power to stop himself from flying off when it reached the ground.

Darius stood proud and unmoving like an unshakable mountain at this show of his boundless power.

Ita's face paled even further as he saw Aoi falling down from the sky at high speeds. He didn't look like he was moving.

Suddenly, Darius appeared before him. His gaze was on Aoi the entire time and before Ita could even react, and without moving his gaze, Darius stabbed Ita through his heart.

He gasped, but his life ended shortly after.

BOOM~

Aoi landed hard.

He could barely move!

He had taken the aura bomb head on and had to use all his power to avoid being killed. He coughed an alarming amount of blood as he tried to stand up. His internal injuries were beyond what he could handle, he was at death's door.

"Disappointing," he heard a voice say in a condescending tone.

Darius stood above him with his usual stoic expression. Aoi could only smile weakly as he accepted his fate.

The power gap was too much. He had fought against even peak rank 10 mages before, but he could tell that this man in front of him was beyond them all.

This was the power of the unrivaled champion.

"The empire will kill you for this," Aoi managed to say albeit his heavy breathing.

Ignoring his words, Darius raised his sword, "As promised…" he swung down, detaching his opponent's head from his body, "…quick deaths."