KWAANG!
Fragments of Aura burst outward in every direction along with sand and dust. From within, a low chuckle leaked out.
It seemed he had the same thought as me—no need to test each other, unleashing his ultimate Technique from the very first move.
Right. We both knew well enough that this wasn't an opponent we could fight half-heartedly, so there was no point in probing each other's limits.
Before the wind could even settle the dust, the Lord of the Black Alliance's form—which had been nothing but a blurry outline—suddenly sharpened, then regained its original color.
A thick smile lingered at the corners of the Lord of the Black Alliance's mouth as he charged through the dust.
"Fast! In your battle with the Heavenly Demon, you showed a sword skilled in strong strikes… but I never imagined your swift sword would be this quick!"
On the surface, it looked as if he was admiring my achievement. But the Lord of the Black Alliance's eyes were scanning me without pause.
As if he were searching for even the tiniest crack to pry his way into.
That was only natural. A swift sword was a Mystery with clear strengths and weaknesses.
Being able to move faster than your opponent rendered both defense and evasion meaningless, and the faster the speed, the greater the Power behind each strike.
That was also why those who had never learned proper martial arts naturally gravitated toward the swift sword and the strong sword. It was, one could say, the most Real Combat-oriented approach.
But there was one fatal flaw. If a carefully thrown strike missed its mark, it left an enormous opening.
The same held true for the Thunderclap Sword.
There was no such thing as a perfect sword in this world. A Mystery was, in the end, a matter of Choice and Concentration. It was no different from abandoning one thing in order to maximize another.
But just because I knew the problem didn't mean I could leave it alone. Only half of it was complete, and the other half existed only in theory…
That being the case, I had no choice but to succeed on the first try.
"Hup!"
I took a deep breath and forcibly slammed my Intent and internal energy into my limbs, which had been about to falter from the recoil.
What followed was a thunderclap that rang out in succession.
BOOM!
With a loud noise that was hard to believe came from human muscles, the sword that should have stopped for a moment swung again like a streak of lightning.
"Huh?"
The Lord of the Black Alliance's expression—sharp as a beast stalking a wound—cracked. He surely hadn't expected the Thunderclap Sword to be unleashed again here.
From below, upward. The spear curved once more toward the sword that drove in with the force to split the Alliance Lord's chin apart.
CRACK!
A clash that sounded almost simultaneous. But having experienced it firsthand, I knew. That was a masterful technique that scattered the sword's center of gravity and robbed its force of direction.
Whether he caught the blade—which shot out half a beat faster than sound—with his eyes, or read the sword path that had grown simple because even I couldn't control it, I couldn't say.
What was certain was this: no matter how fast the sword, the Alliance Lord could see its trajectory, and he possessed the ability to strike it away with precision.
So one or two exchanges wouldn't be enough.
RUMBLE!
"What a madman!"
The Lord of the Black Alliance let out a startled cry as he thrust his spear wildly, having faced the Thunderclap Sword three times in a row.
His Intent carried absolute certainty. Unless the Alliance Lord truly failed to track my sword, the outcome would not change.
It didn't matter. I kept swinging the Thunderclap Sword in succession.
It was the same technique that had cornered and slaughtered the Golden Ghost Wolf King, an absolute master in his own right.
The Alliance Lord had clearly been the first to strike, yet with every exchange, it was he who was pushed further back.
Just moments ago, he had enough composure to toss out a few words, but now his mouth was shut tight, focused solely on deflecting my sword.
CRASH! BANG! CRAAAASH!
Once. Twice. Three times. And then, past ten exchanges, until reaching twenty.
Each strike carried such overwhelming power that the mere impact left my ears ringing, shards of Aura scattering in every direction with every thunderous clash.
Under normal circumstances, even a Harmony Realm Martial Artist would have made a mistake at least once by now. The Lightning-Sound Sword was, quite literally, a sword swung with all my strength.
If one kept blocking it without pause, their stance was bound to collapse. In fact, whenever I had unleashed the Lightning-Sound Sword in a continuous barrage before, most opponents had destroyed themselves that way.
But the Lord of the Black Alliance was different. He had retreated backward, but aside from that, nothing about him had changed.
If a single mistake leads to an inescapable quagmire, then all one has to do is deflect without making a mistake — that willpower came through in full.
A precision that seemed almost inhuman. A bizarre trajectory that made the word "forced" spring unbidden to mind.
All of this was the fundamental Intent of the Lord of the Black Alliance. A stubbornness that said: if I want it, I will have it, no matter what.
That was the will to strike true, manifesting through the spear.
Unlike me — my head throbbing as if scorched, my internal energy and Intent drained by the backlash of the Thunderclap Sword, my eyes parched and stinging from excessive Concentration and the use of the Heavenly Eye — he seemed quite composed.
The Lord of the Black Alliance was probably a little tired, but that would be all. If he so wished, he could keep up that absurd acrobatics for half a day more.
I, on the other hand, could swing my sword at most three or four more times before I could no longer mask the backlash even with Intent.
So this was as far as the Thunderclap Sword could take me.
To marshal what little strength remained, I abandoned Protective Qi and withdrew the internal energy I had focused into my limbs.
A flicker of interest appeared in the Lord of the Black Alliance's gaze, which had been silently deflecting the Thunderclap Sword with deep, sunken eyes.
"So this is the end. Your opponent was not worthy. It might have been quite effective against other Harmony Realm Martial Artists, but to this Alliance Lord, it was a meaningless sword."
"It. Meant something."
As I answered, splitting my ragged breaths, the Lord of the Black Alliance switched to the offensive at the same moment.
Like a beast that had been crouching low the entire time finally rising to its full height, the domain his Intent occupied swelled abruptly.
The Intent that had naturally been commanding the surroundings was pushed back each time it clashed with the Alliance Lord's Intent, and in response, his movements grew larger and bolder.
He swung in wide arcs, thrust straight, bent at diagonal angles, and sometimes fired only his Aura to close distances that should have been unreachable.
At times it felt like facing two different spears, and then in an instant they would merge into one, striking at the same spot.
But one thing was certain—every strike targeted a place I, with my strength drained, could barely hope to counter.
Had I not wrapped myself in the White Sword with its Aura condensed even further, had I not been able to somehow hold on each time sword met spear, I would have fallen long ago.
I probably would have been caught up in the Lord of the Black Alliance's spear long ago and pierced through somewhere.
That wasn't to say I could easily withstand it now, though.
The Lord of the Black Alliance's Aura, stained crimson, grazed past me, drawing a faint line across my shoulder.
No. It wasn't just my shoulder. My forearm. My cheek. My thigh. My flank. My chest.
My martial robes were already in tatters, and between the fluttering scraps of cloth, beads of blood seeped out—not much, but steadily flowing.
This wasn't the reckless, strength-driven rambling like mine from a moment ago. It was the fighting style of a born hunter, methodically whittling down its prey.
A beast in both appearance and demeanor, utterly menacing—yet when it came to fighting, it fought cleverly.
I let out a hollow laugh inwardly, but only for a moment. Seeing me covered in wounds in an instant, the Lord of the Black Alliance asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"You there. What exactly are you thinking?"
"What do you mean?"
"Raging about with techniques that look impressive on the surface but have nothing behind them, only to be turned around and defeated. At this rate, it looks like your goal is to lose publicly to this Alliance Lord in front of everyone else."
"You're mistaken. I genuinely intend to win. That's still true right now."
"Then that would mean this Alliance Lord has misjudged your skill… but that's not it either. No matter how I think about it, this isn't your way."
"This is your first time sparring with me, so what are you talking about?"
"It's the first time we've clashed directly, but I've looked into all your deeds from start to finish. Haven't you always valued skill over raw power?"
"…You're rather creepy."
How many people in this world enjoy being the object of a middle-aged man's obsession? I certainly wasn't one of them.
Of course, the man himself seemed unaware of how repulsive he was, merely curling the corner of his mouth into a smirk.
"More importantly, if this is all you've got, you might manage against the One-Blade Asura or the Golden-Eared Wolf King, but you wouldn't stand a chance against the Slaughter King's successor, the Boundless Lust Demon, or the Illusion Witch you brought along yourself. I've never crossed blades with them directly, but I recruited them after meeting them in person, so I can say this with certainty."
"Your words are most wise."
Unlike the One-Blade Asura and the Golden-Eared Wolf King, who were in a sense brutally honest martial artists, the others were not opponents who could be pushed back with pure strength and speed alone.
"So let me ask once more. You made such bold claims to this Alliance Lord, and yet you put on this shabby sparring display — what exactly is the reason?"
"Shouldn't you at least pause your spear before asking such questions?"
Even at this very moment, the Lord of the Black Alliance was swinging his long and short spears wildly, adding to the small cuts on my body.
I grinned at him and continued.
"Well, if I were to answer once more, I intended to win for real from the very start. …And I still do."
My internal energy and Intent were both fairly depleted. I could no longer unleash a supreme technique like the Thunderclap Sword.
But that didn't matter. The reason I had swung the Thunderclap Sword consecutively from the very first move wasn't to bring down the Lord of the Black Alliance. I knew from the start that it would be blocked.
Everything was, in the end, to learn the Lord of the Black Alliance's spear.
And this was enough.
How the Alliance Lord's Intent led to an unerring strike — I had seen the entire process, and I had felt it all.
If so, then now I could cut him down.
The remaining Intent, now nearly spent, gathered once more and took the form most familiar to me.
Uwoong—
A translucent second sword layered itself over the blade that blazed white-hot.
A sword without form, forged to cut what cannot be cut. Only now, in the examination, had I drawn out the Formless Sword.
Kadeuk!
"What—"
The Lord of the Black Alliance blinked as his spear, which should have been enough to push me back even if it couldn't fully deflect my strike, was blocked.
Only then did he realize something had changed, and the corner of his mouth began to twitch.
"Indeed. There was something after all. …I'll have to find out what it was that you were so tightly hiding."
The Lord of the Black Alliance's arms moved busily as his spear came alive once more.
His Aura blazed in an even deeper shade of red, weaving impossible trajectories.
Simple yet flashy, fast yet slow, seeming to take a long detour before abruptly bending to strike the shortest distance in a straight line.
Two spears, each troublesome on its own. Worse, they were of different lengths and never swung as expected.
A relentless martial art that forced a choice at every moment and took everything away with a single mistake.
But this time, nothing touched me.
Clack! Clack-clack! CLANG!
All that could be heard was the sound of dense energy colliding, grinding against each other, and sometimes rebounding and bouncing off.
"How did you do that…?"
Nothing had changed from a moment ago. My body was still exhausted, and my internal energy and Intent were running on empty.
My movements were sluggish compared to the beginning. Even my power had weakened considerably from its original state.
Yet despite all that, the Lord of the Black Alliance's spear was blocked by my sword every time it swung.
Just like how the Lord of the Black Alliance had somehow deflected my Thunderclap Sword moments earlier.
Only then did he seem to realize it, and the Lord of the Black Alliance's eyes flew wide open.
"Hahaha! Surely you haven't stolen this Alliance Lord's martial art! No, that can't be. This isn't something you can manage by merely imitating a form. You'd have to harbor the same Intent as this Alliance Lord to make it possible."
"That's right. I'm not imitating the Alliance Lord's Intent techniques."
"Then what is this?"
"I've broken through it."
What I'm cutting isn't the Lord of the Black Alliance's spear. It's the trajectory his spear creates, the decades of experience he's built up.
Even if he can wield his weapon in unexpected ways and land strikes wherever he pleases.
In the end, where he swings and where he aims all originate from the Lord of the Black Alliance's thoughts.
So what I truly need to sever is the possibility of the twin spears the Lord of the Black Alliance conjures.
That's all it's ever been from the start.
"…!"
Realizing it belatedly, the Lord of the Black Alliance gritted his teeth and began swinging his spear in a manner different from before.
But as familiar as it had become, it was gradually starting to show in my Heavenly Eye. The precursor created by the Lord of the Black Alliance's subtle Intent.
Crack!
The trajectory, twisted with brute force, was blocked before it could even complete its swing.
Crunch!
Now my sword was swinging ahead of the Lord of the Black Alliance's spear.
Boom!
And then, of the twin spears that had nowhere left to move, the longer one was cut clean through.
The spearhead spun through the air before embedding itself in the ground a good distance away.
The Lord of the Black Alliance stared blankly at his broken spear and the sword pressed against his neck, as if possessed by a ghost.
I smirked at him.
"I've learned a thing or two."