Chapter 173 Testing The Limits



"You have significantly slowed down, so what happened? Don't have enough mana or out of stamina?" Alex said as he easily avoided the incoming attacks.

It's been four minutes since the battle started, and even though Alex suffered a few injuries and came close to losing his life twice, he survived using his mana sense and mana step skill.

"If you can survive this, it would be my loss." The man said as the lightning around him intensified.

'He is serious about this being the last attack.' Alex thought, seeing a barrier of lighting forming around his opponent.

'I can't break the shield in time to disrupt the skill, and there is a meager chance that I can avoid this attack which only lefts the option of taking it head-on.' Alex thought, evaluating his situation.

'I can defend against a powerful attack with brute strength and technique and survive, but I would lose a large chunk of my health and will receive major injuries.'

'The other option is to execute a technique using my Unstable Sabre Intent, which could be risky and could get me killed if I fail.' Alex thought, weighing his options.

Alex had studied the knowledge given to him by the 'Nameless Battle Art' and had been trying to create the Blade intent but even with the knowledge and his past life experience with sword intent, he was unsuccessful.

In his previous life, Alex could use the Sword intent on a decent level, but he had very little experience with sabre intents, and even though both sword and saber were bladed weapons creating their intent was very hard.

All weapon Intents didn't require a certain amount of mana or strength to create, but they required mental strength to develop and properly use them.

'If I am going to win this battle, let's do it in a dominating way.' Alex thought as he held his saber hilt with both hands and closed his eyes.

The Blade's intent was the manifestation of a person's understanding of his weapon and mentality to use it for a purpose it is built to achieve to the best of his ability and understanding.

The concept was very simple, but putting it into action and making it a reality was very difficult because a blade was a weapon to slash, cut, kill, and do pure violence, but it could also be used to protect, defend, and create peace.

In the end, it was a weapon with different uses depending on different ideals, and each individual needed to understand his ideals to manifest his weapon intent.

After a few seconds, Alex's saber started to get covered in a dark aura that flickered like a flame in the wind, and in the next few seconds, the dark aura became thicker and more stable.

'Any more than this and the Sabre intent would go out of control and crumble.' Alex thought as he coldly stared at his opponent, whose spear was covered in thick lightning and icy mist.

Alex was most familiar with the path of violence and despair, and to him, his weapon was a tool to achieve his purposes, and the best way to do it was by eliminating any obstacles in his path.

'This is my limit for now, but it is more than good enough.' Alex thought, looking at his Sabre covered in a dense pitch-dark aura.

Alex could see that his sabre intent was not stabilized and could dissipate if he lost focus for even a moment, but it was the best he could do for the time being.

"Mu Name is Heinz, and it was a pleasure fighting against a monster like you," Heinz said with a smile as the lightning barrier around him disintegrated.

"Frost Lightning Dragon," Heinz said aloud, slamming his spear into the ground.

A giant magic circle appeared on the ground, and with every passing moment, the radiating spear dimmed while the magic circle shined and got brighter and brighter.

After a few seconds, the spear became dull while the magic circle radiated with light, and in the next few moments, a realistic-looking dragon made from ice covered in lighting with sharp jagged teeth came into existence.

The ice dragon shot toward Alex with incredible speed, and with a single flap of his wings, he appeared in front of Alex with his jaw wide open, filled with dark blue cracking lightning.

"ROOOAARRRRRRRR"

The dragon reared, releasing a thick beam of lightning that Alex avoided by stepping to the side and swinging his saber in the dragon's face.

Alex's saber sliced through the dragon's face without any resistance, but it didn't stop the creature's advance, and the next instant, claws covered in rich lightning were sung at him.

Alex stepped back, avoiding the claws, but the next instant, lighting covered tail came at him that he barely defended against using his saber and still got pushed back.

'I underestimated his trump card.' Alex thought, feeling the strength behind the tail impact while seeing the dragon-damaged face returning to perfect condition.

'Let's see how many times you can heal before your energy runs dry.' Alex thought as he swung his sabre, slicing off the dragon claw.

The Dragon was a golem-type creature, with its biggest strength being his inability to feel pain and his instant regeneration, but it was also his biggest weakness because he only had limited mana.

The Dragon charged toward Alex swinging his claws covered in tendrils of lightning that made Alex take small chips of damage even after successfully avoiding them.

The dragon was relentless with his attack, and knowing that he couldn't drag this battle for long, Alex went on full offense while only avoiding big moves.

After three minutes, the battle was close to its end, and even though the dragon looked completely fine physically, the tendrils of lightning around his body were much less than at the start.

'Now, what the hell is he doing.' Alex thought, seeing the dragon opening his jaw and creating a small ball of misty white energy.

What surprised Alex was that the energy ball was getting darker in color while the dragon's wings were crumbling to dust, and after the wings were gone, the tail started to crumble.

'Now, this is a very good skill.' Alex thought, realizing what the dragon was up to.

'I can destroy the energy ball to render this attack useless, but I can test my new skill theory against this attack.' Alex thought, deciding to pick the risky route.

'Let's see if I can substitute mana with pure saber instant.' Alex thought as he griped his sabre hilt with both hands.

Alex burned his mental strength increasing the saber's intent, and when he felt it was getting out of control, he stopped and started forcefully condensing it on the edge of his blade.

"ROOAARRRRRRR"

The dragon roared, releasing a breath of lightning and frost toward Alex, and in return, he swung his saber, releasing his control over the saber intent he was forcefully keeping in control, sending a slash of pitch-dark energy.

Alex watched as the energy slash sliced through the energy breath, splitting it into two halves and tearing its way toward the dragon.

But to the disappointment of Alex, the energy slash started to twist, losing its form, and crumbled to the dark particles in mere moments after the contact.

The dragon breath regained its form and reached Alex in a flash, hitting him head-on and making him feel the intense cold from the frost and the shock and burn from the lightning.

'I was hoping to get lucky.' Alex thought, already expecting his unstabilized attack to fail, but he had no choice but to try his luck.

'Let's end this battle.' Alex thought as he bent his legs and jumped high into the air getting out of the frosty breath.

After reaching high in the air, Alex rewound his arm and threw his sabre at the dragon, who now had almost half his body crumbled to rumble but was still releasing the energy breath.

The saber whistled the air hitting the dragon on his skull, ripping it open, and crashing into the energy ball being used as the source of energy breath resulting in its explosion.

"BOOOOOOMMMMM"

A big explosion of frost and lightning occurred, destroying the dragon and sending chunks of solid ice everywhere.

'I took more damage than I like, but that's because this guy was much stronger than I thought.' Alex thought as he landed on the ground and checked his body condition.

Alex had half his face covered in frost and brittle and cracked skin while his hands and exposed skin areas were littered with burn marks, exposing his flesh, and even his health was down to 40%.

'The good thing is I was able to test my limits without my skills, and I was even able to push my skills to newer limits in this intense battle.' Alex thought with a smile, happy with the results.