816: 816. Talismans

816. Talismans

Noah's eyes sharpened when he saw the white sphere flying toward him. He had yet to use any of his "Breath". Even the slash from before had only consumed primary energy.0

However, it felt strange seeing an opponent manipulating his flames so easily.

Noah slashed toward the sphere, but he chose to use his darkness at that time. The Demonic Sword roared when it felt that energy flowing through its form and released a black line that severed the incoming attack in two and continued to fly toward Peaceful Storm.

The rank 5 cultivator of the Empire felt slightly surprised when he saw the outcome and moved to dodge the slash. Yet, right before the black line went past him, it divided and gave birth to a cloud of black smoke. The cloud then took the form of multiple sharp claws that changed their trajectory to chase after the cultivator.

All of Noah's abilities had changed drastically in the past years. Creating a personal "Breath" had forced Noah to adapt most of his attacks to his new energy, which meant that he had to completely reinvent them at times.

His Dragon's Claw martial art had initially been just a tool that made use of his physical might and his spreading destruction. Yet, it wasn't any different from a spell now that Noah used the Demonic Sword as a conduit for his darkness.

The energy that he had created could easily take any shape while also keeping its destructive force since all its particles were small swords capable of high sharpness. Noah could just pour power into his weapon and decide to change the shape of his attacks even when they had already left the sword!

Also, the fact that the Demonic Sword had the corrosive smoke of the Demonic Form as part of its fabric made each of its attacks quite threatening.

Peaceful Storm saw the incoming claws and felt forced to drop his previous behavior. He lifted his arms slowly, keeping his palms toward the sky as if he was trying to create an upward gale.

To Noah's surprise though, his attack suddenly changed trajectory and missed the cultivator's head by a few centimeters.

Peaceful Storm was about to speak again after he blocked that attack too, but Noah had charged ahead as soon as he understood that the claws weren't going to hit him. The rank 5 cultivator realized just one instant too late that Noah was already above him, ready to deliver a kick to his face.

Noah felt the world around him changing at that point. His opponent had been in front of him just now, but he could only see the blue sky a fraction of instant later.

At first, Noah thought that Peaceful Storm had used some kind of movement technique to disappear from that spot, but he soon noticed that his opponent was still in his original position.

The cultivator didn't move at all. Noah was the one who had been flung away!

Noah didn't feel hurt, but his mind reviewed the scene at high speed as he prepared for another offensive.

'Does he control the space?' Noah thought as he deployed a series of saber-shaped runes from his palm. 'That should be impossible. King Elbas would have made the dimensional portal far sooner if it was possible to create an aptitude able to control the space.'

He activated the Divine Deduction technique to analyze the strange cultivator's individuality, and he found just an explanation that could solve his doubts.

'It's an imitation of the laws connected to space, but he uses the air to express it.' Noah concluded in his mind.

His evaluation only covered the most evident effects of Peaceful Storm's individuality, but it would be quite useful if it turned out that he was right.

The saber-shaped runes hadn't changed after his breakthrough since they used the primary energy in the environment to work. Yet, he still used his "Breath" to make them appear in the open, which meant that their destructive force only increased due to his darkness.

Also, they were already on Noah's level when they came out. It was pointless to say how powerful they would become if the battle were to last for a long time.

Noah proceeded on slashing, launching flames, and charging ahead with the split version of the Demonic Sword. However, Peaceful Storm seemed untouchable, no matter how many plans and strategies Noah came up with.

It was clear that the cultivator specialized in defense, but Noah felt that he wasn't using his real strength.

In Noah's mind, that was fine since he was doing the same, but he didn't have all the time in the world since he didn't know how the leaders would act once the battle under them ended.

"The Almighty has left this world," Noah said, "I don't know why you even keep the name that he has given you."

Peaceful Storm's grin froze at those words. It seemed that Noah had finally obtained some kind of reaction from that elusive cultivator.

Nevertheless, he didn't let that opportunity go to waste and waved his Demonic Swords a few times in seemingly random spots. His slashes created oval black trails made of strange flames that seemed to carry metallic properties.

Peaceful Storm seemed to understand what was happening and tried to react as fast as he could. The escorts during the crisis of the winged beasts had seen that ability, even if just a different version. So, he could vaguely imagine what was coming for him.

A gale suddenly came out of his body and deflected everything that tried to reach him. However, he had been just one instant too late, and he had underestimated the new power of the Warp spell.

Two trails of those metallic flames appeared behind his back, and a series of claws came out of them. The claws though seemed different from the previous ones since they were surrounded by the same flames that made the spells.

Peaceful Storm's gale managed to block some of the claws, but the others pierced his defenses and stabbed his back, creating a series of deep wounds and spreading corrosive black smoke inside his body.

The cultivator of the Empire cursed and dropped his smile. Still, Noah was already on top of him, ready to deliver the kick that his opponent had dodged for a while.

"I told you that we are hard to kill," Peaceful Storm said as he lifted his arm and showed a cracked talisman at the center of his palm.

A whirlpool appeared on his hand, and its suction force was so strong that Noah didn't manage to escape its area of effect even with his incredible physical strength!

It was at that point that Noah called the saber-shaped runes on the battlefield and aimed them toward the cultivator's arm. Peaceful Storm felt the incoming danger and retreated, taking that threatening vortex away with him and freeing Noah.

The whirlpool eventually ended, but Noah was wearing a stern expression as he inspected his right leg. There were a series of cuts on his skin.

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