Chapter 171: Meaning of Freedom

Freedom was one of the most important things Shane wanted to retain after getting to know what it meant to be shackled down and forced to do things he never wanted to do.

He had lived his second life in oppression. Even though he had to acknowledge that his childhood and the knowledge gained during the last few years had been extremely helpful, Shane had never been able to truly be himself.

There were very few people who knew of his parentage and even fewer who cared about him. Except for his aunts and uncles, who loved him, the other higher authorities only wanted him to prove his worth. To them, he was only John Stella's son, who had no other choice but to become unparalleled.

However, now that he was inside the Primordial Dimensions, free from his responsibilities and far away from anyone's oppression, Shane felt that it was the happiest he had felt in both his current and past life.

To him, Freedom was not only the chance to move around without being observed or even locked down, but much more than that!

He didn't want anyone to control him, and live his own life and be his own ruler!

Furthermore, he wanted to adventure freely through the Dimensions and also get to know other races.

Maybe, he could even visit their planets and see all kinds of miracles in his life.

To him, that was freedom. Maybe others saw freedom differently, but why should he bother about their opinion if only his comprehension was important to establish his own bloodlust and not someone else's.

Now that he figured out that his desire to retain his freedom by all means possible, he finally knew what would make him stronger.

However, after pondering on the concept of freedom for some time, Shane also noticed a small issue.

Would the System be considered a restriction to his freedom?

That was something he couldn't answer because he had to follow the system's rules on one side but was also free to do whatever he wanted to on the other side.

Would the system weaken or even restrict the bloodlust he was about to establish with 'freedom' as its foundation? Was that even possible?

The more he thought, the more questions seemed to bombard his mind.

Frer, who had been waiting patiently until now, warned him with a serious expression that was devoid of any shyness.

"If you don't pay attention now, I might injure you accidentally!"

Hearing this, Shane felt that he knew what was going to happen as he adjusted his stance. He summoned his curved longsword and held it in front of his body.

Frer exerted her movement technique and at the same time the Slaughterer's Path technique, causing the surrounding air to crackle lightly.

As she charged towards Shane while exerting strength into her legs, minuscule cracks appeared in the ground with every single step she took forward.  Her entire being was enveloped in a thick bloodlust-killing-intent that was further reinforced with mana.

Gulping down his saliva, Shane began to ask himself if it was really a wise move to have asked Frer to come with him.

He mentally scolded himself for that thought because she had already helped him a lot in the last few hours.

Furthermore, Shane knew that it was Frer who had pushed him in the right direction by making him think hard about what his ideals were. He had only figured out that he wanted to establish his bloodlust with his comprehension of freedom because of her.

With that in mind, he immediately adjusted his mindset and focused on Frer who had already appeared in front of him.

Shane noticed that she kept getting stronger by the minute as he tried to evade and deflect the slashes of her curved longsword, the more time passed.

It looked like she had just begun to warm up to her adjusted strength that was comparable to his, which caused him to frown.

'How can she be so fast after she restricted her strength to such an extent?!'

He was already beginning to feel drained as it took him every ounce of his energy to evade the first few slashes. He deflected a few more before he grew overwhelmed and was forced to retreat.

With his current strength, Shane knew that he was unable to fight her head-on, while his combat experience was also much lower than Frer's.

If he wanted to stand a chance, he had to change his strategy. This led him to try constructing his bloodlust during the fight.

'If what I felt earlier was bloodlust, my desire to not lose should have been enough already!' He gritted his teeth in frustration as he tried to find a way to comprehend bloodlust faster while trying to get out of Frer's overwhelming and oppressing combat style.

"Nobody…." He tried to speak as Frer flared her mana, worsening Shane's situation further.

She inflicted several small cuts on Shane, whose eyes turned cold, as he ended his sentence.

"...is allowed to subdue me!!!"

Releasing this whole mana pool and killing intent at once, he intertwined them together to envelop his Crimson Yaeli longsword with it as he deflected Frer's sword slash by an inch.

Twisting his body, Shane used the small opening to slash out with his own curved longsword.

Subconsciously, he started to release a faint, crimson-red hue, when his desire to win against Frer reached its peak.

However, before his attack could even reach Frer, she kicked out with her leg to hit the longsword's flat side.

Astonished by Frer's reaction, Shane was barely able to hold on to the curved longsword which was almost thrown out of his hand once again.

'That kick was not only her restricted strength, or was it!?'  Thinking that her kick was extremely powerful, Shane couldn't help but feel excited as she might be able to unleash even more strength when he saw that Frer lashed out at him again.

Jumping backwards while slashing his own sword at Frer's, he could barely avoid being cut in two parts.

Seeing that Frer didn't want to continue playing around anymore, Shane couldn't help but smile brightly as he felt adrenaline kicking in.

The crimson hue around him intensified, and Shane noticed that his speed increased while evading and deflecting Frer's attacks.

'Did I already adjust to her attack speed and pattern?' He asked himself, thinking that he might be able to counterattack once he found the right opening.

His desire to win against Frer seemed to increase with each second. The same applied to Frer who was astonished to see the complex, crimson-red bloodlust flickering around him, waiting for Shane to utilize it.

At that moment, the crimson-red bloodlust started to envelop Shane who noticed that his strength and speed had increased by a small margin.

His eyes widened in surprise, as the rush of the battle invigorated him. He ducked under Frer's sword slash, only to dash forward, slashing out at her legs.

However, instead of targeting her legs, Shane only used this as a feint to change his trajectory as he slashed upwards.

Surprised by the sudden change, Frer's lips twitched, forcing her to use a skill that enveloped her in a thick, white transmuted mana armor.

Using her free hand, she punched Shane's chest after her skill forcefully blocked his attack.

Her powerful punch flung him away several meters in the air before he slumped to the ground. Frer noticed that she had failed to curtail her strength while attacking him which caused her to shout out in shock.

"Shane!!!! Are you still alive?!"

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