Chapter 968 - Win?

"What?!" She felt as if there was a huge monster stomping her sword. She even fell on her butt before storing the sword into the Space Ring to free herself.

Alex let her retreat and took out her sword again while smiling. "Is that all?"

"You must use your Divine Body!" Aria couldn't help but comment.

"I am not. I still have another technique that can enhance my strength." Alex shrugged. "Besides, my sword is stronger than you."

"…" She gritted her teeth and raised her Sword again, knowing that if she fought him in close-quarter combat, Alex would surely defeat her.

Sheathing her sword, she looked left and right, trying to find an opening.

'Eve, let me do this alone.' Alex sent a thought transmission to his Sword Spirit.

'Alright. It will be a bit boring, but I guess that's fine.' Eve pouted and reluctantly agreed.

'There will be a time where we need to fight strong opponents. Unfortunately, that's not today.' Alex tried to comfort her.

'I am not talking about that. It's just using my power is so satisfying. You know that I have never used it once for around ten thousand years, right?'

'Ah. I apologize.'

'It's fine. There will always be fights in the future.'

Alex sighed inwardly before regaining his focus on the match. He summoned his dragon. "Swallowing Heaven."

Seeing that the dragon flew out of the sword, heading to the left and waiting for Alex's next instruction, Aria saw this as a chance.

Due to the dragon, Alex shouldn't have time to react if she attacked him from behind the dragon.

"Purgatory Sword."

Alex glanced to the right and strengthened his dragon with the Pure Sword Qi and his elements, making it rock solid.

When the Sword Wave hit it, only a shallow could be found. It wasn't like when the Sword God used it.

Even so, Alex felt this was already a good attack. "Nice one. Keep it up."

"What is nice? It only leaves a graze." Aria clicked her tongue before changing her strategy. Since Alex would prolong this match, she didn't mind going all out and a bit reckless just to put a wound on him. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step."

Alex found Aria on his back and waited for her to make a move while moving his dragon to his back.

To his surprise, Aria ran forward while waving her sword up and down, creating a vertical zig-zag movement.

This was the technique that could destroy a powerful Sword Wave, and she planned to use it to destroy his dragon.

The sword struck the same wound that she left previously, trying to deepen it.

Alex didn't say anything and waited until she managed to do whatever she wanted to do before sending the dragon's head toward her.

"That is still not enough?" Aria widened her eyes. Her Sword Eye told her the danger behind the dragon as if asking her to retreat.

It was futile to strike the dragon because Alex could summon another one, so she blocked the incoming dragon head with her sword, albeit blowing her away to the air.

Knowing that she wasn't capable of bringing the dragon down, she chose another strategy and leaped to the dragon's body while slashing the air toward Alex. "Purgatory Sword."

Although the dragon looked so slick, it shouldn't be able to move its body fast enough to block it.

And as she expected, the dragon turned around, so she leaped to the air, watching how Alex would block that Sword Wave.

Alex only smiled and controlled the dragon's head to chase the Sword Wave instead.

"Are you kidding me?!" She saw the dragon's head move faster than the Sword Wave and bit her attack, shattering it into pieces. "That's illegal."

"Are you done? If you don't like it, it's better to stop. Don't forget. I am limiting my strength to 1-Star Martial Saint together with my strength." Alex glanced at her.

"But you still have your Divine Techniques and Divine Sword Qi."

"I didn't use my Divine Sword Qi this whole time." Alex shook his head, denying her claim.

"Then—!!!" Words stuck in her throat as she realized something wrong with his reply. "You…Do you happen to have a special Sword Qi? What is that?"

"Hehe…Do you think I will tell you? That's right. How about if you beat me, I will teach you this technique?" Alex calmly taunted her again. "If you don't have confidence in beating me, you are free to continue your training."

"Hmph. We will see whether you can maintain that calm face of yours." She snorted and thought for a moment. 'What should I do? Even though I said all of that, I didn't have the confidence to penetrate the dragon's defense, let alone him.

'When his excellency Sword God taught me, he told me that both techniques were very useful to fight against opponents stronger than me…But why was it ineffective? But he also met with him, so is the more powerful Sword Qi that makes the difference?' She fell into deep thought before sheathing her sword once again.

Little did she know Alex was actually smiling when he saw her stance.

What she was about to do was the latent ability of her Sword Eye.

Instead of creating a barrier made of Sword Qi, she poured every single Sword Qi into her Sword. It was hard, but she got the hang of it after several tries.

"Your enemy won't wait this long, you know." Alex provoked her again, trying to break her concentration.

"You are not my enemy. Besides, are you scared of what I am going to do?" She didn't feel like losing in the last argument, so she asked with a provoking smile.

"Ho?! You can talk big now. Why don't you attack me then?" Alex smiled.

"Fine by me." She raised her sword after channeling the Sword Qi into her Sword instead, tripling the amount she usually poured to the sword. "Take this."

"Purgatory Sword." She slashed the air, sending another Sword Wave.

However, Alex already felt the difference in that attack even without looking. The dragon soared to the sky and bit the Sword Wave, albeit failed to do so.

The Sword Wave cut through the Dragon. Unfortunately, it was already weakened to a certain extent.

Alex only raised his right foot a few inches above the ground before stomping the ground. "Spirit Step, Second Step."

The pressure point formed above the Sword Wave, pushing it down as if the gravity in that area increased rapidly. As a result, the Sword Wave actually struck the ground near him instead.

"It seems you have managed to learn the second ability." Alex smiled.

"Thanks to you for making me realize. Fighting is really a great way to improve." She controlled the Sword Qi again, infusing it to the sword.

"Since you talk big, let's make it even harder." Alex smiled and summoned another one, albeit not a dragon.

What Aria saw was a giant translucent red fox, looking at her with that sharp gaze that was ready to burn her.

Not only that, it created a ball with its mouth. Aria instantly felt the impact of that ball. Scorching heat reduced her ability and made it hard to concentrate.

"What is this?"

"Your Sword Eye can last for half an hour before you completely get exhausted. It has been five minutes since we started, so I am going to speed it up a bit more. Under this influence, you are to defeat me." Alex smiled before his sword released another Dragon. "Oops. You won't be able to destroy both the fireball and the wolf too, with the help of this dragon."

'Shameless.' Aria screamed. What she saw was Alex's Fire Authority and Sun Descent. If only she knew that Alex's Fire Authority had another level which became his armor, she would become even more stressed. After all, the moment Alex added his Phoenix Aura into that armor, Aria wouldn't be able to penetrate it unless she used her all in one strike.

"Come on. Just give up." Alex smiled.

"You bet. I am going to show you that I am not a weak girl." She snorted and channeled everything to her sword. Instead of using the Purgatory Sword, she prepared to fight Alex. Even if she couldn't handle his power, it was still enough to avoid it and land a strike on his body.

"Sixth Dance, Lightning Rabbit." She jumped forward like a rabbit while maintaining her focus on the dragon.

As she expected, the dragon charged at her while using the rest of its body to protect the fox and the fireball that restricted her movement.

Looking at the incoming dragon, she finally took another leap and landed on the dragon's back. After that, she kept leaping unpredictably while slashing the dragon's body that seemed to be easier to cut after pouring most of her Sword Qi into it.

"Interesting." Alex watched how she utilized her technique just to beat his dragon first.

Unfortunately, he just did something she wouldn't expect.

The fox suddenly raised its paw and waved it downwards, trying to flatten her.

When she saw this, she halted her movements once and changed to another step. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step."

She used speed to run away from the paw, albeit she wasn't fast enough. Her head touched the paw, and she spun in the air. Luckily, she still managed to escape even though she was in that sorry state.

Alex became even more intrigued when he saw Aria use that force to make another move.

"Third Dance, Spinning Star."

It went up as if there was a bike inside a track. It completely followed the path, but the blade cut the dragon continuously, leaving it in a sorry state.

Alex understood that the Sword Dance she learned from his advice was powerful. It contained six important dances which had important aspects.

The Z Slash was when she needed to strike down a stronger move. The Flash Strike allowed her to make the most powerful move. The Spinning Star could be used when she was in an unstable position, while the Lightning Draw was useful to improve her overall stance. The Lightning Step emphasized speed, while the Lightning Rabbit allowed her to move unpredictably.

Using all of this would surely create an opportunity like this time. The moment she reached the head, she stopped spinning and used the head as a stepping ground to launch herself toward Alex.

"This is it!" Aria shouted and slashed downward. "Second Dance, Flash Strike."

Alex still maintained his calm and struck her sword. "Triple Draws."

Like the previous attack, Alex's two other strikes appeared before her eyes, but Aria had prepared for this. She used Alex's strength to be her support to spin mid-air. "Third Dance, Spinning Star."

Instead of attacking both strikes at the same time, Aria chose to attack it one at a time and utilized that high-speed rotation to destroy both strikes before they reached her body.

'So daring…' Alex smiled and widened his eyes when he realized it wasn't over.

The rotation had yet to die down, but he realized that her attack was different.

As soon as he focused his Spirit Eyes on her sword, he realized that Aria was sheathing her sword at this kind of speed. When she drew that sword again, it would have another boost from the spin, allowing her to get a more powerful attack.

"!!!" Surprised by her action, Alex changed his grip and used his other hand to help him block this attack.

"Fourth Dance, Lightning Draw."

Clank.

The clash created a powerful shockwave before Aria fell to the ground—head first.

"Kya!" She pouted because she needed to kiss the ground and felt that she didn't have any energy left to attack him.

"You lose." Alex recovered in an instant and pointed his sword toward her.

"Whatever…I have completed my objective." Aria laughed happily while pointing her finger at Alex as if she just beat him.

"Why are you laughing even though you lose to me?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Look at you, you don't have energy left."

"Even so, I have finally made you move from your position." She smiled while lowering her hand and pointing at the mark on the ground, showing him that she managed to push him back a little bit.

"…"