’How to surpass myself?’
I wondered as our swords t and shattered together. Clenching my fist, I threw a punch at him but he blocked it with a similar punch.
’Can he really copy everything?’
A took a soul out of my abyssal pocket and devoured it to repair Yamato faster, and surprisingly, he still did the sa.
He had everything I had before entering the challenge, so the solution was to make a change here and now.
I couldn’t make a breakthrough now, and even if I could, he would do that too, so that was out of options.
’The change must be internal rather than physical.’
At this thought, only one idea ca to my mind...
’Learning.’
I had to learn sothing new. Sothing the clone had no idea about. Sothing I myself had no idea about before.
There were plenty of things that could help .
Aura Slash, the first technique that the cultivators made to kill the weakness of having no magical ranged attacks. It could be used with any affinity to give different effects. Master Kai tried to teach it multiple tis before, but there was no progress.
There was also my abyssal core. Until now, I only used it like my aura core, but I was sure that it had more potential than just aura.
I could also think about my soul research. Maybe a breakthrough on it would help to defeat him.
There were many possibilities, but there was only one problem...
Ti.
Even though the clone was matching all my moves, I noticed that his enhancent power was still on its peak while mine was slightly weaker to save my ntal power.
It was either he didn’t care about being ntally exhausted... or he didn’t have to worry about that at all.
It was expected. If the clone didn’t have an advantage over , the challenge would last for days or even months. And that wouldn’t be a real challenge if it was that easy.
Thinking about my options, I decided to think about the abyssal core.
Whatever was the thing it was making with my will, it definitely wasn’t aura, but sothing stronger and darker. I was sure that I wasn’t a cultivator anymore.
My mind drifted to the duchess and the demons. They could use the sa energy to enhance themselves and use magic. What if I could do the sa?
But then ca a problem... How to use magic? I had never studied it before, but I heard that it was related to... instincts?
*BAM!*
Our legs t as I flew away and the clone did the sa. Seizing the opportunity, I focused on the darkness under him.
I rembered how Drago used to manipulate the darkness with just a look. So I squinted my eyes and kept trying to imagine the darkness moving. But nothing happened.
The clone tilted his head as he looked at with confusion.
"Did Ỳ̡̛̀̕͢͢͡ờ̷͜͟u̸̷͟͜͝ finally lose your mind? Kaito will be really disappointed."
As he finished talking, he summoned the Yamato’s copy and charged at , then I did the sa as well.
’What am I missing?’
I thought inwardly, and the answer ca to instantly.
The manipulation was consuming Drago’s mana, I needed to use my ntal power and to also send my energy at what I want to manipulate.
I stood motionless with my sword connected to the clone’s sword, we were pushing each other, but with our powers being almost equal, we stood still.
Secretly, I tried to move my energy out of my right leg. After a few minutes, it left my body successfully.
’It worked... I can use magic. That abyssal energy... definitely isn’t aura.’
Deciding to not waste any ti, I began to feel my control over the darkness. I felt like all I needed was a thought to move it, but I didn’t test it instantly.
The clone had my vision. If I moved the darkness, he would see it.
I needed to make a small critical move that would catch him off guard and break our matching.
I began to raise Yamato, and he did the sa as our swords stayed connected.
Then out of nowhere, with an insane speed, a dark tentacle wrapped itself around his legs.
"Huh?"
I manipulated the tentacle to pull his legs, causing him to stumble backward.
The world began to slow around . All my focus was on that clone’s face. His eyes were widening slowly as the realization began to hit him.
"Wha—!"
I cut his talking off as I left Yamato in the air and punched his jaw with a flaming fist.
*CRACK!*
He flew away instantly without his sword as ice ford on his broken jaw.
Seizing the opportunity, I caught his sword in the middle of the air before he could resummon it.
He tried to dismiss the sword, but under my tight grip, the sword didn’t return.
"Y-you b̷a͡s̸t̴a̷r͞d̷!"
He cursed loudly as he turned into a parrot and flew toward , but this ti...
I didn’t do the sa. Our fight finally beca normal.
’I wonder...’
A small smirk spread across my features as I dodged the clone and used Yamato’s new ability.
A mist similar to what I use leaked out of Yamato and wrapped itself around the fake sword. It began to shatter as the mist devoured it piece by piece.
The sword was devoured eventually, leaving the clone screaming in pain as he lost a part of his will.
Yamato had beco slightly stronger as well, which was a good result from a fake sword.
"Damn you! Ỳ̡̛̀̕͢͢͡ờ̷͜͟u̸̷͟͜͝ are dying today!"
He rged with the darkness and leaped at from my back, but I swung Yamato imdiately and cut his hand.
I pointed the tip of my blade at him and unleashed a beam of flas. He tried to fly away, but his legs were caught in the fire.
I followed him instantly in my parrot form. Once I was above him, I turned into a human and struck him with my leg.
*BAM!*
He fell on the ground. His body was shattered and had only one hand remaining with no legs.
With his hand shaking, he took a soul out of his abyssal pocket to accelerate his healing, but...
*CRACK!*
I fell on his hand and crushed it before cutting it with Yamato and pointing its tip at the clone’s face.
Facing the tip of my blade, the clone chuckled.
"Hehe...you win. I hope that Ỳ̡̛̀̕͢͢͡ờ̷͜͟u̸̷͟͜͝ live happily instead of all who died because o—!"
*BOOM!*
I unleashed a beam of flas, shutting him up forever.
The clone turned into pieces of shattered ice, and the will inside of it died imdiately.
Master Kai told that many people died because they decided to wait for their enemies to finish talking.
I couldn’t afford making any stupid actions now. He wasn’t saying anything important anyway.
*Ding!*
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
A notification sound rang in the air and strange bombs exploded in the sky, filling the sky with beautiful colors as if celebrating my victory.
’Is this... the end?’
After spending almost a year in this place, that thought seed strange to .
Would they really let out?
I focused on the screen that was hovering before . With an indifferent face, I began to read.
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