Anthony's reaction was instantaneous, his body moving with the precision of a well tuned machine.
The sharp edge of his axe t the blunt force of the hamr.
For a split second, the air seed to freeze.
Then it didn't just unfreeze, it shattered.
The earth beneath them groaned and cracked, unable to bear the weight of their combined power, caving in under the sheer force of their clash.
Sparks flew, dancing violently as the two weapons collided, a storm of energy rippling outward from the point of impact.
The shockwave blasted through the forest, uprooting trees, sending them tumbling like toothpicks, and hurling everything in its path backward.
Anthony had long known that with just half of his D
strength, he could hold his own against SS rankers.
Now, with the full extent of his D
power, he was able to keep pace with an SSS
rank.
Or so he had calculated.
His opponent in this mont wasn't a demon, a creature bound by certain physical laws.
No.
This was a vampire.
And vampires, regardless of their rank, possessed a superhuman strength that surpassed the limits of ordinary mortals, a strength that varied in degree, but was always formidable.
Suddenly, Anthony and the vampire vanished into the blur of motion.
Their weapons t with a clash that echoed across the mountain's heel, the sound reverberating through the air like the toll of a distant bell.
They fought as if the very fabric of fate would bow to the victor, each strike and parry a declaration of will, a challenge to destiny itself.
A heartbeat of hesitation, just a fraction of a mont, was all it would take for one of them to fall.
The deafening crash of their weapons colliding drowned out everything else, the screams of splintering trees, the groaning of the earth beneath them, all drowned beneath the thunderous symphony of their battle.
Neither stopped. Neither faltered.
There was only the fight.
The world around them seed to vanish, fading into the background, leaving nothing but the razor sharp clarity of their violent exchange.
Amidst the chaos of their clash, Anthony felt sothing shift.
His opponent's strength, it was increasing.
With each strike, the force behind the vampire's attacks seed to grow, building with an intensity that outpaced the rhythm of their battle.
Anthony's eyes frowned as he barely managed to block another crushing blow.
The ground beneath him cracked, his feet sinking into the earth as spiderweb fractures snaked across the ground.
'Super strength'
The realization struck him like a lightning bolt, the missing piece of the puzzle falling into place.
This wasn't just raw power, it was an inherent, escalating force that fed on the very aggression of the fight itself.
The vampire's strength was growing with every blow, feeding off the conflict, the bloodlust of battle itself.
But Anthony was no longer the man he had been eleven months ago.
He had trained relentlessly, each drop of sweat a testant to his dedication.
His strength had evolved, honed through trials and effort.
Now, as the vampire's blow landed, Anthony's muscles surged, bulging with newfound power.
In an instant, his strength exploded outward.
With a deafening boom, their weapons t once more.
But this ti, the outco was different.
Anthony wasn't overpowered.
Speed clashed with speed.
Strength t strength.
Attacks collided with defense in a brutal symphony of violence.
Seeing that their strengths had reached an equal footing, both combatants tapped into their mana, a surge of energy enveloping their weapons.
The mana coated weapons pulsed with raw power, shimring in the air as they prepared for their next exchange.
Then, with a sudden, explosive burst, they flashed towards each other once more, their movents now a blur of speed and intensity.
This ti, the air didn't freeze.
No.
It disintegrated.
The very fabric of the world seed to pause, caught in the tremor of their eting.
Their attack power had surpassed the boundaries of the SSS
rank, stepping into a realm of devastation that few in that rank had ever witnessed.
Ravines split the earth in their wake, the ground groaning under the weight of their power.
A massive dust storm swirled around them, whipped up by the sheer force of their movents, reducing the landscape to chaos.
Anthony's feet barely touched the earth, moving with a fluid grace that seed to defy the chaos around him.
Each attack was flawless, precise, calculated, and deadly.
His parries were a thing of perfection, deflecting each strike with ease, his defense an impregnable wall of resolve.
The axe in his hands carved the air with lethal intent, every swing leaving no room for escape, every movent a relentless pursuit of victory.
His strikes ca without a mont's hesitation, each one a breath away from ending his opponent's life.
In that mont, Anthony was more than a warrior, he was an artist, his every action a stroke on the canvas of battle, a masterpiece painted in steel, forged in fury.
Suddenly, Anthony sensed sothing shift behind him.
His mind sharpened instantly, alert to the danger.
Before he could react, chains made of blood materialized, coiling around him with deadly precision, binding him in place.
The soldier didn't hesitate, following up with another brutal strike.
A massive hamr swung down toward Anthony's skull, the force behind it promising to end the battle in a single, fatal blow.
In that split second, Anthony moved.
He tapped into his mana reservoir, the surge of power flooding through him.
But this ti, the elent he called was not wind.
No, this ti, it was tal.
The hamr, just a breath away from crashing into his head, ca to an abrupt halt mid-air.
For a brief mont, ti seed to freeze as Anthony's control over the tal elent anchored the weapon in place, its massive weight suspended in the air, unable to move.
For a split second, the vampire appeared unfocused, his grip slipping as he lost control of the hamr suspended in mid-air.
And then, in that fleeting mont, he sensed a presence beside him.
It was Anthony.
He had broken free from the blood chains.
Before the vampire could fully react, Anthony's axe descended like an unstoppable force, a divine judgnt aid at the hand clutching the hamr.
The strike ca with the finality of a guillotine, its deadly arc promising to sever more than just flesh, it would cleave through the very essence of battle itself.
But the vampire was no novice.
With a preternatural speed, he responded, as though he had anticipated the attack.
His hand shot out with terrifying precision.
Blood surged from his veins, swirling violently in the air.
It condensed, reshaping itself into a sharp, wicked dagger.
In a deafening clash, the axe t the dagger, their collision echoing through the mountain as sparks flew.
"To think you can control tal"
The vampire's voice rang out, dripping with amusent.
"You are indeed special"
In an instant, the vampire stepped back, his eyes narrowing as he sized up Anthony, a subtle grin playing on his lips.
The vampire let go of the hamr in his hand, realizing that holding it any longer would be a fatal mistake.
His opponent's control over tal would render the weapon useless against him.
Without hesitation, the blood dagger he held morphed, the crimson liquid swirling and reshaping itself into a blood hamr of terrifying proportions.
"You continue to impress "
The vampire's voice was laced with grudging respect, yet it held an edge of deadly intent.
Mana surged through his veins, empowering the blood hamr as he hurled it forward with unparalleled speed and force.
The air cracked with the weight of his attack.
Anthony reacted with surgical precision.
Mana flooded into his axe, amplifying its already formidable power.
Without hesitation, he threw it directly at the incoming blood hamr.
Like two inevitable forces eting head-on, the weapons collided mid-air with a cataclysmic shockwave, their impact resonating through the very core of the mountain.
The force of the clash sent a tremor through the earth, yet neither weapon faltered.
They hung in midair, locked in an intense struggle, as if they were alive, two opposing powers trying to wrest control from the other, determined to claim victory for their masters.
The air crackled with charged mana, the very atmosphere vibrating from the force of the confrontation.
Neither weapon would give way, each locked in a battle of power.
Anthony and the vampire circled their weapons, their eyes locked in a silent duel, each gauging the other, waiting for the slightest movent.
The air around them thickened, a thick sense of anticipation building.
"Let's end this with a single attack"
The vampire spoke, his voice smooth but laced with deadly intent.
They halted simultaneously, a perfect stillness settling over them.
Ti seed to freeze, the world holding its breath as both combatants prepared for the final strike.
In an instant, they both dropped into martial stances, graceful, yet poised for destruction.
Mana surged around the vampire's fists, swirling with the blood elent as it coiled around his knuckles, dark energy flickering in his eyes, a grin spreading across his face.
The temperature around Anthony plumted, the icy chill creeping through the air as the ice elent answered his call.
Frost gathered and condensed around his fist, the ice crackling with raw power.
There was no verbal countdown.
No warning.
No modification of their movents.
It was simply a collision of fate.
Neither blinked.
Then they did.
They vanished.
There was no blur.
No flicker of movent.
For one heartbeat, they didn't exist at all.
Then, in the next instant, they were there, frozen in space, their bodies locked in perfect synchronization.
Two forces, drawn from opposing realms of power, surged forward.
A palm of blinding white energy.
A fist of searing blood-red might.
The mont they collided, the world seed to shudder and tear apart.
A cataclysmic explosion of energy erupted in all directions, white and crimson swirling together in a tempest of destruction.
The air crackled, frozen and burned in the sa instant, as the energies of ice and blood clashed with an unimaginable fury.
The ground buckled beneath them, the earth itself trembling with the magnitude of their strikes, fissures appearing in the terrain, the shockwave devouring everything in its path.
For a mont, there was nothing but destruction, the swirling storm of energy that blotted out the very sky above, leaving only chaos in its wake.
Suddenly, the vampire was hurled backward, as if a force greater than nature itself had seized him.
His body flew through the air, battered and broken like a ragdoll caught in an unforgiving gale.
The once pristine figure of the vampire was now encased in solid ice.
His shattered form losing an entire arm as he crashed into the earth with a deafening impact, leaving destruction in his wake.
Standing in the aftermath, Anthony remained untouched, unscathed by the brutal clash.
His body was pristine, his breath steady, his posture perfect.
Not a bead of sweat marred his brow, his aura still radiating with unshaken confidence.
The vampire, though broken and bloodied, grinned, his defiance unbroken even in the face of defeat.
"You truly are special"
He muttered, his voice still tinged with admiration.
Without waiting for a response, the vampire disappeared, leaving only the remnants of his power swirling in the air.
Anthony's gaze lingered for but a mont.
Then, without a second thought, he turned and continued his journey toward the peak, his pace unbroken, his focus still as sharp.
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