The forest was unnervingly quiet, but the quiet was broken by the sound of a battle. What little light filtered through the canopy had carpeted the forest floor across a clearing that looked half-corroded and half-charred, as if two elements, fire and acid had been randomly thrown.

Arthur crouched on a thick branch high above, resting one elbow on his knee while watching the scene below. The wind rustled through his hair, but he barely moved. Below him, a battle was raging, and the fighters were not human.

A demon woman stood in the middle of a decimated grove, her silver hair whipping in the air as she commanded a domain of venom. Her domain had covered a huge area of the clearing, and her every attack turned the ground around her to sludge. Every droplet of her poison hissed on contact, eating through tree bark and stone alike. She was beautiful, yes, but in the way a scorpion’s sting was, cold, elegant, and deadly.

Opposite her, a massive serpent-like beast reared back and hissed, its scales glimmering with faint sunlight. It bared its fangs at the woman and lunged at her.

The demon didn’t flinch. Her eyes, bright like liquid emerald, narrowed slightly. “Pathetic.”

A cloud of toxic mist exploded from her palm, swirling around her like a living organism. The serpent sliced through the haze, snapping its jaw forward, only for its momentum to stop midair. The mist had solidified into countless threads, tangling around its body like restraints.

Then, with a flick of her finger, the entire fog condensed into a single spike of venomous crystal, and shot straight through the serpent’s skull.

Crack!

The creature convulsed for sometime, then fell limp. Its head hit the ground with a thud, shaking the surrounding trees. A faint glow pulsed inside its chest, and the demon raised her hand. The glow, its monster core, ripped out of the carcass and floated gently into her palm.

Arthur was impressed seeing her strength. “Poison and control magic… She’s powerful.”

He leaned back slightly on the branch, and a transparent status screen flickered to life in front of him, and he started to skim through it.

//——————–//

[STATUS]

Name: Arthur Sully

Designation: ECHO Commander

Mage Rank: 5th Circle

Martial Arts Rank: Grandmaster (Early)

Age: 27

Height: 6’3″

Mana: 923,210 Units

Chi: 9.15 M Units

#?#: 109,789 Units

Strength: 1.83 Million Tons

Speed: Mach 49.93

Durability: 2393.6 GPa 

[ABILITIES]

[Reactive Evolution] [Superior Regeneration] [Toxin Immunity] [Gene Lock] [Mana Manipulation (Lv4)] [Pain Tolerance] [Lightning Manipulation (Lv5)] [Chi Manipulation (Lv5)] [Technopathy (Lv4)] [Energy Absorption (Lv5)]

[SPELLS]

[Mana Bullet] [Mana Shield] [Telekinesis] [Mana Bomb] [Telepathy] [Silent Step] [Judgment]

[TECHNIQUES]

[Chi Concealment] [Heaven’s Breath] [Astral Flow Technique] [Chi Manifestation] [Domain: Density Manipulation]

//——————–//

‘Are you really picking fights with literally everyone you come across.’ The sword spirit said as it felt Arthur’s intent to fight the demon.

Arthur shrugged. “Hey before this it was not me who initiated the fights. And well… It helps me become stronger, so why not.”

The sword spirit chuckled deep in his mind. ‘Sure, sure. Keep telling yourself that, lad.’

Down below, the demon kept the serpent’s core in her spatial ring. Seeing that Arthur dismissed his status screen, and stepped off the branch. The air brushed his face as he landed silently on the forest floor and started walking toward her.

The demon froze the moment she sensed him. In an instant, her mana flared as green and violet energy erupted around her, coating her skin like armor. She spun around, and raised her guard. “What do you want, human?”

Arthur stopped a few meters away, smiling in that annoyingly calm, confident way of his. “Nothing that you should be wary of.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? You expect me to believe that you just happened to drop out of the sky right after I killed a monster, and you want nothing?”

Arthur gave a half-shrug. “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound suspicious.”

Her grip on her staff tightened. “You’re either stupid or you think I am.”

Arthur tilted his head, pretending to think. “Maybe you are right.”

The demon was confused for a second at his tone, then scowled. “You have three seconds to explain before I melt the skin off your bones.”

Arthur chuckled lightly. “Relax. I’m not here to steal your loot or pick a fight for no reason. I just…” He grinned slightly, as his eyes brightened. “Wanted to ask if you’re up for a spar.”

The demon blinked in confusion. “You want what?”

“A spar,” Arthur said casually, like he was asking to borrow a cup of sugar. “A friendly one.”

She stared at him blankly. “You,” She pointed her staff at him. “…want to fight me out of nowhere?”

He nodded earnestly. “Yeah.”

“Are you insane?”

“Possibly,” Arthur admitted. “But hear me out. If you win, I’ll give you an item of your choice from what I gained in the Ancient Realm.”

Her expression twitched, suspicion flickering into interest. “An item of my choice?”

“Yep. Anything from my stash.”

Her eyes glowed faintly as she sized him up. He didn’t look weak, his aura was tightly controlled, but she could tell he had only recently broken into Grandmaster rank. She, meanwhile, had been at the peak of Archmage for some time. In her mind, it was already a done deal.

Still, she crossed her arms. “Prove it, I want to see what you’ve got. If I like what I see, I might agree.”

Arthur’s grin widened. “Sure.”

He reached into his storage ring and began pulling out several items, one by one, artifacts, weapons, scrolls, rare potions, each radiating powerful energy. When he placed the third relic, a silver orb with archaic runes surrounding it, in front of him, the demon’s jaw dropped.

“W…What?!” she stammered. “How in the abyss did you get so many treasures after being here just a few days?!”

Arthur smirked. “Lucky, I guess.”

“Lucky?!” she nearly shouted. “Do you even realize what half of these things are?!” She leaned closer, with wide eyes. “That’s a Celestial-grade storage ring you are holding, those are supposed to be extinct! And there are so many artifacts and potions of the same grade here!”

Arthur looked at it as if he didn’t already know. “Oh? That’s neat. I just liked how shiny it looked.” Though he laughed inwardly as he was just messing with the woman. His dimensional storage could hold thousands of times more things than what the storage ring could hold so he never used it.

She stared at him, then sighed in disbelief. “You’re either the luckiest or the dumbest human I’ve met.”

Arthur grinned. “Well I believe I am just lucky.”

For a moment, she seemed to consider it seriously. Then, curiosity got the better of her. “Fine. But what do you want if you win?”

Arthur paused, genuinely thinking. “Hmm. An SS-rank core will do.”

The demon’s expression went flat. “That’s it?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I already have too many artifacts with me. I just want a challenge.”

She was extremely confused at his nonchalance. “You’re offering artifacts that could buy kingdoms, and all you want is one core?” She was unable to understand Arthur’s thought process, as no amount of artifacts were too much for someone to possess, and here the human was so nonchalant about it.

Arthur smiled faintly. “Yeah, just like I told you. I just want a good fight.”

There was something in his tone that made her stop questioning him. It wasn’t arrogance, it was more like conviction. He wasn’t trying to boast; he genuinely meant it.

“…You’re weird, human,” she muttered.

“Thanks,” Arthur said, lowering his stance slightly, sparks of lightning flickering around his legs. “So, is that a yes?”

The demon stared at him for a moment longer, then smirked. “You’re going to regret this.”

“Maybe,” he said, “but it’ll be fun.”

Arthur after using ‘Analyze’ on her saw that the demon was weaker than him in pure physical strength, but her elemental affinity attracted him. This was the first time he came across someone with poison affinity who was in the same ballpark as him, strength wise or at least close. And he was going to take full advantage of the fight.

The next moment they both moved at the same instant.

The ground cracked beneath Arthur’s feet as he vanished, lightning trailing in his wake. The demon’s staff whipped forward, releasing a spray of venomous mist that covered a huge area in front of her, shooting towards Arthur.

Arthur had reached a level of speed that made dodging such attacks as easy as taking a casual walk, he vanished from front of her and reappeared behind her, his fist glowing faintly with Chi. “You are underestimating me by using such weak attacks,” he transmitted these words to the demon telepathically.

Her body dissolved into smoke before his strike connected, reforming behind him as she swung her staff. “As you wish.”

Arthur twisted midair, dodging the poisonous blast. The mist burned through several trees, melting them into bubbling puddles. The smell of ozone and acid filled the clearing. He could have tanked the attack, but doing that would be useless as they were not strong enough to harm him. He was waiting for the demon to unleash her strongest attack to reap the highest benefit.

He landed on one knee, grinning. “Thats more like it, but you need to try harder.”

“I intend to do more than that,” she said, as her eyes started glowing. “Let’s make this interesting.”

Arthur lunged at the woman again as she created a barrier around her.

This time, Arthur punched forward, his fist encased in crackling lightning. The demon countered, creating a wall of condensed toxin that hissed on impact. Lightning clashed with poison, the two elements fighting violently, sparks and green flames lighting up the forest.

The air grew heavy with poisonous smoke. As trees bent and were uprooted from the pressure.

Arthur smirked, his heart thumping with excitement. ‘Now this is what I came for.’ As he felt the poison was trying to paralyze him, but such a small dose was unable to as his body was adapting fast.

The demon’s lips curved in a thin smile. ‘He’s holding back.’

For the first time in a long while she felt it, a real challenge. The kind that reminded her why she was striving for strength in the first place. 

And as their powers collided again, the forest trembled under the weight of two battle maniac souls, as the two warriors enjoyed the fight.

***

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