Noah and King Elbas' opponent had short black hair and a long beard. His dark eyes darted between the two experts as if searching for a reason behind their presence there.
The expert had understood that the guild was under attack, but he couldn't explain why his opponents were two experts in the liquid stage.
"Do you know who I am?" The expert asked when he realized that no one else would come to face him.
A tinge of anger appeared on his expression. The invading force was obviously underestimating him if it thought that two liquid stage experts were enough to keep him busy.
Noah didn't answer. Two swords appeared in his hands, and Snore's massive body came out of his chest to envelop his figure. King Elbas didn't reply either. Countless peak middle tier items appeared between him and the expert and spread a golden radiance through the area.
"Arrogant fools," The expert said in a low voice. "I, Victor, will make you regret coming here today."
Victor's robe suddenly expanded. The metal that covered his clothes transformed into a spiked wall that hid his figure. Holes then appeared on that structure, and a series of silver spears shot at high speed toward his two opponents.
King Elbas exploded into a sea of flames while Noah performed his movement technique to dodge the attack. Snore spat a black beam before turning into smoke that followed Noah through the dark matter that he released.
The spears exploded when they touched the ground. Countless azure shards flew through the environment after a large piece of the terrain disappeared.
The shockwaves released in the explosion kicked Noah out of his movement technique, but his body managed to endure those vibrations. A cold smile appeared on his face when he sensed that he didn't suffer any injury. He could only rejoice at that sight.
Noah waved his hands, and a storm of slashes flew out of his swords. Some were nothing more than an unstable mass of dark matter, while others were neat shapes that radiated an intense sharpness.
Noah had fixed Charles' weapon during his return to the Outer Lands. The task had been quite difficult since the blade was an item in the upper tier, but his dark world had allowed him to alter its fabric and fill the damaged spots with dark matter.
Adding meanings to an already finished inscribed item in the upper tier was almost impossible at his current level. The white blade enhanced the sharpness radiated by its user, and Noah couldn't modify it without destroying the core of the weapon. Still, he liked that feature, so he had used his dark matter to fill the missing spots and reinforce the sword's structure.
The white blade wasn't wholly white anymore. The purple marks on its shape had also changed color. Black lines now ran through its body and shone with a dark light whenever Noah's darkness flowed inside it.
Charles' blade couldn't contain Noah's individuality. It was a weapon meant only to enhance sharpness, so he couldn't add the many features of his laws to the attacks that it released.
Yet, his sharpness worked well with his destruction, and the blade didn't reject that feature. Noah could now use his Demonic Sword to launch attacks that carried his creation and the white weapon to express his destruction.
The result of that duality gave birth to a storm of different slashes that transformed the environment as they flew toward his opponent. Explosions happened whenever those attacks interacted with each other, and their detonation ended up creating even more slashes.
Victor felt confused in front of that attack. Noah had targeted one of the unprotected sides, so the expert could see his storm of slashes in its entirety.
The area between him and Noah had transformed into a place where only Noah's sharpness existed. Every speck of dark matter launched by the Demonic Sword changed under that influence and took the shape of slashes that flew toward Victor.
Noah had launched less than one hundred slashes during his attack, but their number had surpassed ten thousand when they reached Victor!
"Hmph!" Victor snorted and morphed his metallic wall again.
When Noah had fought Charles, the expert's individuality could naturally block most of his attacks. However, his new offensive had forced Victor to defend with his spells. Noah's base slashes had become strong enough to threaten the innate defenses of a solid stage cultivator!
The wall expanded, and more spears shot out from its holes. The attacks destroyed his storm of slashes and forced him to deploy his movement technique again. Still, the detonations that followed soon flung him away.
'You can help the others if you don't plan on joining this fight,' Noah transmitted through his consciousness after straightening his position.
'Why would I lose the chance to inspect your power?' King Elbas replied, but their conversation only made Victor angrier.
Victor could sense that his opponents were conversing mid-fight. He couldn't accept that offense. He was a mighty solid stage cultivator, but two mere experts in the liquid stage had the gall to talk while fighting him.
"I have let you play around long enough," Victor said before his wall morphed again.
The wall shrunk as it enveloped the expert. A spiked sphere soon covered Victor with an impenetrable shield that could launch threatening attacks.
Countless spears came out of the sphere. The weapons flew in every direction and turned the entire environment into a chaotic battlefield with their explosions.
Noah barely had the time to dodge anymore. The spears never stopped flying, and their explosions always kicked him out of his movement technique. Also, his attacks didn't manage to reach the spiked sphere through that chaos.
'Do I have to rely on the Shadow Domain again?' Noah wondered as he continued to dodge the spears.
Noah had activated Miss Void's spell at the beginning of the battle, but he wanted to win without relying on that technique. Even if his opponent was a solid stage cultivator, Noah saw that battle as part of his training. His focus was on improving his base abilities.
'We need to destroy the shell,' King Elbas transmitted.
'You don't say,' Noah replied as he closed his eyes and expanded his consciousness.
Noah continued to dodge the spears even without relying on his sight. His mind was enough to keep track of the weapons' movements, but their explosions were quickly starting to affect his body.
Blood soon accumulated in his mouth, but Noah didn't leave the area. He was searching for something inside him. He wanted to recall all the experience accumulated during the years spent wielding two blades.
'It feels so natural wielding two of them,' Noah thought as he raised his blades above his head.
A spear flew toward him as he stood still in the sky, without moving a muscle. The weapon would take less than an instant to reach his chest, but Noah needed even less to perform his technique.
Dark matter flowed through his black vessels. His physical strength skyrocketed as he fixed his mind on the incoming spear. His blades began to descend at that point, and they drew a cross as Noah slashed them forward.
Nothing came out of the swords, but the spear that was flying toward him suddenly disappeared. It didn't explode nor crumble. Its entire body vanished out of thin air.
Noah opened his eyes at that point, and his cold smile broadened. Even if it was only a fraction of the offensive, he had managed to stop the attack of a solid stage cultivator without using his cursed sword.