*Thud*
The tree fell with a loud noise. Evan was elated after seeing the destructiveness of his newly created technique, but Anna was different than him.
"NOOO!!" She yelled.
Evan turned around to see her screaming with one hand in her mouth.
He didn't understand why she was doing it, so he asked her directly, "What happened? Why are you yelling so loud?"
"That tree... my father planted it there. Mother always takes care of it. She is gonna be so mad." She was panicked. It was one of the things that her father had left behind, and it broke down right in front of her.
'Her father planted it? Should I care? I am gonna replace him soon, so it doesn't matter anymore.'
But Evan simply didn't care about it at all and he responded,
"You don't feel anything towards him? He is your father."
"Sigh, I don't know anything about him, except his name. He was gone before I was even born, my mother is my only family. I don't know how she will react when she sees this." She replied to him with a sigh.
"Hmm, so it doesn't matter then," Evan said and continued again.
"So, did you see what I just did?"
Anna looked at the broken tree, whose entire lower stem was shattered to pieces.
It was the first time she had seen a genuinely powerful technique with her own eyes, and that truly impressed her.
'That technique was so powerful, it even took down that tree with a single swing. I know he didn't even use his mana and was able to take it down. If he had used his mana, then... our whole garden would have been blown away.'
She couldn't help but think like that. But that wasn't all, the way Evan explained the technique to her and the changes that happened in his sword...
'With his every word, his sword changed from something completely normal to a living dragon; it felt like he was creating the technique himself.'
She sharply looked at Evan deep into his eyes and asked, "How did you do it?"
It was only a hunch of her, but her ability wouldn't lie to her; the technique Evan used was made just now. He didn't use a previously learned technique but created it out of the blue.
With a sly smile on his face, Evan replied to her, "Am I obliged to reply to you? Maybe if you can accept your defeat, I might change my heart and tell you my secret."
But as he had expected, Anna didn't admit her defeat. Instead, she clutched her broken sword tightly and said, "You wish! I won't admit defeat."
'I have copied what he did just now, and if I did the same, I will be able to take the upper hand. My mana has been greater than anyone else; while some awakened get 3-4 mana, and some highly talented get 6-7, I have 24. I can easily win against him.'
She was confident in her ability and it has to be said that she was highly talented. Her mana alone makes her a D-rank hunter.
Her mana while she was awakening is more than Lyra, who has Demigod-tier potential. So it can be clear how much weight her awakening holds. But a factor should still be considered that Lyra hasn't awakened her demonic tendencies like Seraphina and Nova. Her stats will skyrocket when she does that.
Evan's smile grew even larger and he said,
"Then, I will make you admit it today."
The moment he said that, Anna disappeared from her place, but she was well within Evan's field of view, and what she did made Evan more and more curious.
She was using the wind to boost her speed as Evan did, but she wasn't using 'Wind god's fury.' She was just doing what Evan did without realizing the ability itself.
But that wasn't all; she was also using the technique that Evan showcased just now, 'Dragon's fury slash'.
'Now it's getting interesting.' He thought and twisted his body to easily dodge Anna's incoming attack.
He was so fluid with his motion that Anna's attack missed him with just an inch of distance between them. Evan jumped a few steps back and looked at Anna with amusement.
He then decided to play with her for a bit, "It shouldn't be possible to imitate my technique so well. How did you do it?"
Anna swung her sword again and was about to launch another attack at him while saying, "I am just that talented, you see; now brace yourself; I won't miss it this time."
Evan's reply came immediately, "Don't make me laugh. No one can do it like this. It must be related to your ability, right? Is your ability related to imitating others? If that's so, it's an amazing ability."
Listening to him, Anna piercingly looked at Evan; he was spot on, was what she thought, not knowing that Evan could see her profile.
"You should be worried about yourself right now; after I defeat you, I will make you blurt out everything." She said seriously. Sёarᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"Heh, you are so confident in the ability that you learned from me. Then let's do this, I will take you head on." He said, throwing the sword in his hand, and continued again, "I will show you the real difference between us."
There was a crazy smile on his face, and he looked like a madman. Anna sneered at him and the only word she could think to explain his action right now was, "Fool."
But she wasn't an idiot to let such a chance go; she readied her sword, stomped her foot on the ground, and used the technique that she copied from Evan.
She used the wind around her and boosted her speed, within a blink of an eye, she was right beside Evan. And just when she was about to use 'Dragon's fury slash' at Evan, she saw him, smiling with a wicked and sly grin.
She then felt something cold all over her body; she couldn't process her thoughts immediately, but she felt that the time had stopped, and she wasn't able to move.
It took a while for her to realize that she had been caught, caught in Evan's trap. He froze her completely with the new technique he created. She was captured inside a thick block of ice.
"Ice prison." He said while looking at Anna.
He then continued again, "I was going to tell you about one more thing, but the time wasn't efficient. I don't know how people in such fantasy movies get the time to talk while battling. So, you admit your defeat?"
But then, the ice around Anna began to crack. Her sword was still glowing with the radiance of the golden dragon, and its flame melted the ice around her.
But Evan wasn't surprised by it and said, "It's truly impressive."
"Like hell, I will!!" Anna roared after getting freed from the ice and swung her sword directly at Evan's head. It was such a short distance that it would have been impossible to dodge.
But... Evan casually stopped her sword coming at him with just two of his fingers and said, "One thing that you should know about the techniques or skill is that all of them are made from the energies around us and those energies hold many different natural characteristics inside them, whether it be related with the five elements or other laws, a true master who can manipulate even one characteristic of the energies can create a technique, and someone who masters many more and create many others techniques with the combination of different characteristics.
"But... someone who has mastered all the characteristics present in the energies can neglect all the techniques present in this universe, by just changing the flow of energies in that technique, like this..."
He explained, and with just a small movement of his finger, the radiance of the dragon was gone from the sword, and it crumbled down to pieces.
"The originator of the technique can destroy them as well. So it's the foolishness of you to use my technique against me. Now, do you know the difference between us?"
Evan asked her. He now knows the limit of her ability and what it can do.
Her ability is impressive, but that's only if she can see the skills or abilities of her opponent; if her opponent surpasses her by a huge margin, then her ability isn't so impressive. For her to compete with even stronger opponents, she needs to learn many more abilities or skills that influence her strength in battle; that way, she can fight against much stronger opponents.
***
Thanks for reading everyone.
I know, I didn't upload anything yesterday, and I apologize for that. I wasn't in the mood yesterday, but now I am fine, I took a bath and am fresh to start again. Hope you liked this, do comment down your thoughts on this.
Stay tuned for more.