Clank!
Sparks flew as the hard metallic boots clashed with the sword made from an unbreakable substance.
Reginald was breathing excessively as he gazes upon his opponent who was also trying to catch his breath.
They have been attacking and canceling each other's attack for ten minutes now with neither side taking any hit.
Neither has taken damage but they were both exhausted.
For one, both of them couldn't use aura techniques which can only be used by individuals with massive ain reserves.
They focused on using doping to boost their physical abilities past the human limit thus putting a lot of strain on their bodies.
What's more, the two were both overlapping their doping with the power of their relics.
The boots of Hermes which grant near-lightspeed powers and the Hat of Lupin, which copies the abilities of relics which in this case, was copying the powers of the boots. Transforming into an identical pair of boots.
'The effect of combining two speed buffs is amazing. Demon spawn kept up with this guy for so long in his weakened state?'
Reginald seems to have developed an even more profound feeling of respect towards his Captain.
Reginald might have been holding his own for so long now but, there was a limit to how well he could use someone else's relic.
It was showcased when he used his relic's transformation ability to turn into Ace so he could trick Rada Khan.
He used snatch steal then and tried using Killswitch which was easily canceled out by Rada Khan.
Kill switch was a technique that gets stronger the more aura that's poured into it.
Reginald's kill switch was weak because he couldn't manipulate aura like Ace. And even if he did, he wouldn't be able to exert enough explosive force to pose a threat to the opponent.
This is the type of moves that snatch steal can never perfectly recreate.
However, it is still an incredible feat of mental fortitude for Reginald to have been able to use Chase's relic which resulted in the latter panicking and getting pissed.
'How could he use my relic so masterfully the first time when it took me years to reach where I am with it now?'
Reginald was simply gifted with a natural talent for using relics.
It was true that snatch steal cannot exert a hundred percent of the original relic's powers. But not a lot of people could use the Hat as Reginald could.
It was one of the perks of being a thief. The ability to quickly adapt to most situations.
They were both evenly matched, but it won't be long before the scales tip to one side.
It was simply a contest of stamina now.
Who would fumble at a crucial moment?
Who would get tired first?
Who would run out of ain first?
Clank! Clank! Clank!
The two had the same thought as they continued to block and avoid each other's attacks creating more sparks and flashes.
"If I make one wrong move, it's over."
Meanwhile, another heated duel was taking place in another section of the mansion.
In the long and dark hallways of the creepy mansion, two archers were sending streams of arrows at their opponents.
Golden colored arrows coated with aura colliding with silver-colored also arrows coated with aura.
This is an advanced ain technique of controlling aura by channeling the aura from the body to the item the user touches in order to boost its power by bounds.
"Sun purge!"
"Purifier!"
The two fired stronger arrows at each other.
They kept sending streams of regular arrows while matching themselves whenever one fires a much powerful arrow.
What might look like two archers firing multiple arrows at each other was actually a game of psyche.
Whenever Conroy fires sun purge, his opponent will counter with a purifier, and vice-versa.
This was how two blazing arrows of different colors shot from separate sides kept colliding with a mild explosion.
"You're a pretty good archer."
The female archer commends her opponent. Adrenaline rushes through her system over the excitement of this heated confrontation.
Conroy also had a broad smile on his face as they kept firing at one another.
The art of archery takes precision, focus, and on-time thinking.
These two were canceling each other's attacks waiting for the other to make one wrong move.
They weren't just throwing their signature moves at random.
They would first send streams of regular arrows and aura-enhanced arrows while sending their more powerful arrows at the back.
They did this while running around the room to evade attacks that they couldn't block out in time.
The scorching arrows of the two gods from different religions ended up colliding once again.
These two were going all out as they both saw it as an opportunity to truly test out their archery skills which they both honed in their own ways.
"It's time we kick things up a notch don't you think?"
She closes her eyes and began chanting a mantra, soon afterward strange markings appeared all over her body.
Conroy started sweating bullets as he developed an uneasy feeling.
"The ain in our surroundings... She's absorbing it."
Like a cornered wild animal, he gave in to his instincts and quickly shot an arrow at the idle opponent.
As the arrow flies towards her, it disintegrated completely before it could even reach her.
"Mantra point!"
She declared as she opens her eyes. The once black-colored iris were painted green and yellow.
In ancient times, individuals were said to obtain a boost of power or boon from Hindu gods upon chanting a series of coded words. This was the mantra.
This was another advanced ain technique that only those who could speak and understand the wordings can use.
"Tsk. My arrow was completely nullified! "
"Anyone in the possession of a Hindu relic can easily use mantra, hee hee. Think of it as a bonus package."
She aimed and fired a single regular arrow.
He could feel it in the split second that she shot the arrow, it was even more powerful than her purifier from earlier. Meaning there's a huge chance that even sun purge could be rendered useless.
He tightened the grip on his bow putting a stop to his shaking as he took aim and fired sun purge.
He quickly used his dexterity as an archer and fired another sun purge aiming at the back of the previous shot arrow.
The first arrow collided with her silver arrow and dissolved completely and just a few meters behind, the second arrow completely disintegrated the silver arrow as it flies towards his opponent only to once again fade out before it could get near her.
Things have taken a bad turn for Conroy.
He has been continuously firing sun purge after sun purge only for them to be effortlessly destroyed either by her arrows, or the power of her mantra which has created an invisible barrier that weakens all projectiles coming her way.
"I'm running out of ain."
That was the case. It takes a considerable amount of ain to fire a single sun purge but Conroy had been sending streams of sun purge continuously for over twenty minutes now and the current battle situation hasn't changed one bit.
What's worse, his opponent seems to be only absorbing more ain from their surroundings while toying with him by using basic shots.
"That's it!"
Conroy's face lit up as he aims once again at his opponent.
'I know how to beat you now.'
In the security room of the mansion. The seated figure was watching the clips of four areas of the mansion each with one of her teammates squaring off against the invaders.
"Took you long enough."
She turned around to meet the ferocious gaze of the ex-assassin as he summons his shadow daggers.
"I take it you're Rhea?"
She got up from her seat and summoned a black and red colored scythe.
"The one and only, I was getting bored watching all the exciting fights that were going on. Especially the one with what's his name, uhm. Aha! Vorus and my dearest brother, Falkner."
She finishes as ace takes a glance at the screens behind her.
'Guys...'
They were all fighting with their all.
Rohan was just about to enter a room where his opponent Jack had been waiting.
Vorus had already begun his clash with Falkner.
Reginald was still blitzing around the room as he exchanges blows with Chase.
Conroy was being pushed behind a corner but seems to have a confident look on his face.
Ace has known most of them for a while now and he knows just how capable they are.
'I'm glad I have them as a squad.'
He points his blade at his opponent.
"I made a promise to save Radakar. And I plan on keeping my word to the end."
"Hahahah, to think that Rohan will actually seek the aid of relic users to save hi s brother."
"Enough chit-chat. Let's do this thing!"
The ex-assassin tightened the grip on his daggers and charges at the grim reaper.
The heated battles between the two clans rages on with neither side backing down.
The crackling of electricity filled the room containing a large man wielding a hammer and a thin man holding an oddly shaped mace.The two objects were channeling electricity as the two fighters charged at one another.Clank! Thud! Clank!The two massive weapons collide sending sparks all over the room.These two have been fighting for nearly forty minutes now without rest."Former district commander Vorus, your talents precede you."The thin-looking man commended his opponent.This man was Falkner, wielder of the Vajra relic.In Hindu mythology, Vajra is the weapon of Indra, the god of thunder and king of the devas.The vajra is a powerful weapon having the combined features of sword, mace, and spear.It was created out of the hard thigh bones of sage Dadhichi who gave up his life willingly for a noble cause so that his spine could be used to build the weapon.Truth to the legends, the vajra now was in the form of a mace and was trading blows with the mighty weapon of another god of
Swoosh!Clank!Swoosh!Having completely shattered all the furniture and items in the room they were in, Reginald and Chase both stopped on their tracks and faced each other.The two were both battered and tired as they were breathing heavily too."Huff. Huff. Had enough?" Reginal said with a corky attitude."Hahahaha. I am just getting started." Chase disappears as he finished and starts blitzing around the room at light speed.'Tsk, I have less than five minutes to end this or my snatch steal's duration will end.'His opponent had a similar thought as he had also burned a lot of stamina and was planning on ending the fight as well.Reginald sounded confident earlier whereas in reality, he was worried that soon enough his relic' s ability will end and enter a cooldown period thus he won't be able to keep up.'Here I come.'He holds his sword with both hands and took a stance as he closes his eyes.After duking it out for so long against the speedster, Reginald had finally figured out
Reginald and Conroy had finally bested their opponents and were now standing across their unconscious teammate and his opponent."Get off him, now!"Reginald draws out his sword as Conroy takes aim, ready to fire."My my, there's no need to be so angsty."The man got up and begins to approach the duo, leaving the flattened Vorus behind."I take it you two have beaten Chase and Lexi? Sisi won't be happy about that."'Tsk, I still need about ten minutes before I can use snatch steal again.'Reginald grits his teeth while Conroy was sweating bullets as they both watch Falkner as he approaches them slowly."Why don't you both surrender? You might have beaten those two but even I can't possibly come out of that fight unscathed."The real reason Reginald and Conroy were sweating nervously right now was due to the fact that they were both exhausted and way past their limits.They have suffered a lot of injuries and taken a considerable amount of damage from their respective opponents.Conroy
The blackness was perfect, a sort of visual silence that could send chills through anyone's spine.The two captains were squaring off in the void dark room.Ace, being able to use seismic sense was freely maneuvering through the darkened room.Rhea on the other hand was barely able to block some of Ace's attacks.It was truly a one-sided battle.The room was completely pitch-black and she was being forced to heighten all of her other senses in order to keep up with Ace.Black zone was one of the techniques that Ace used proficiently as an assassin.The fact that he was using a technique that he swore never to use again shows just how formidable Rhea was.At the start of their confrontation, Ace had taken considerable damage from Rhea's scythe which drains power from the victim's soul directly.It was a completely agonizing experience for Ace who was used to all sorts of pain.He experienced the same type of pain that he usually feels whenever he trades his life force to his relic for
"Huff. Huff. Huff. Finally made it."Reginald was carrying an unconscious Conroy as he arrives at the ark.He lumps the archer on the bed and takes a moment to catch his breath."Now for the big palooza."Vorus was nowhere to be seen as Reginald only arrived with Conroy. Where could he possibly be?"Undo shadow realm prison!"The shadow lurking around Reginald swells as the large warrior appears out of it.Reginald had used snatch steal once again and copied Ace's relic. He then activated the shadow technique that Ace used to send Reginald to the shadow realm when he was in a critical condition.It was all so that he could carry the both of them to safety while Ace wraps up the battle."Now where did we stash old man Shuntal's medicine?"Rohan was kneeling with his arms spread apart as awaits his faith.Jake clenched the handle of his sword hard as he charges at the other swordsman.Rohan closes his eyes and a great silence enveloped the room. He opened his eyes to see the blade point
"Ack! What are you doing!?"Ace who had arrived with Rhea at the nick of time grabbed the blade that was aiming for the captured General's chest.Before anybody could react to the sudden appearance of the ex-assassin, he sent Rohan flying with a punch."What in the world do you think you're doing!?""Tsk, it's none of your business." Rohan scoffs as he looks the other side not wanting to make eye contact with Ace. "This is the only way for justice to prevail."He got back up and wipe Ace's blood that splattered all over his face from when he stopped the sword with his bare hands."Justice? You think killing him is justice?" Ace takes a few steps forward till he was standing face to face with Rohan."Rhea, what are you doing here? Did you bring the enemy here?""Jake, I know this may sound selfish, and I know how far you all went for me and I'm very grateful to you guys. But, let's forget the past and move on."Jake widened his eyes as he couldn't believe what he's heard. He can unders
"There are so many people here!""And they're all braves like us."The gang had made their way to the top of Mount Lily for their first crypt raid as a clan."Woah, I can see Lily town all the way from here."The mountain top was also a famous tourist attraction sight in the western continent.Braves travel far and wide from different corners of the world so they could participate in the Aquarius crypt trial."There's the portal." Vorus points towards the direction of the crypt's portal."Come on let's go!" Ace dashes in the direction of the portal.He turns around and calls out to his clanmates to follow suit.Thud!"He crashed into a woman and her glasses fell to the ground."My glasses! Hey, watch where you're going, punk!" She gets down and begins to pat the ground helplessly trying to feel her glasses.Ace picks up the glasses and hands them over to the woman with both hands as he bows apologetically."My apologies, I wasn't looking where I was going."She snatches the glasses an
Along the route leading to the Capital of Cronoa, a carriage was passing through."You truly plan on going against your own family, brother?""I lost my brother the day you let your hatred for relics turn into an obsession."Rohan was driving the carriage with his brother tied and seated behind him."I plan on conveying the truth to the king, that it was you who shared letters with the enemy and framed Rhea."He carefully maneuvers through the bumpy road."I will bring you to justice, that shall be my repent-"Just as he was about to finish, an arrow flew in their direction.'Tsk. Ambush!?'He avoided most of the arrows that aimed for them.Eventually, he couldn't dodge an exploding arrow that sent them crashing into a tree.Rohan burst his head as his vision got blurry. He could see the silhouette of a woman standing in front of them with a dozen archers behind her.He sneered at the sight of the woman untying his brother as they all looked down at him."What do we do with him, comma