Chapter 210: Facing off.

Chapter 210: Facing off.

Cerion knew that his main advantage over me was melee combat, and the way I was floundering to respond to his assault only cemented this fact in his mind. My reluctance to use potentially lethal attacks didnt mean I was entirely without options, however, as Cerion realised when a black dome expanded with me at its centre.

The dome grew, drawing in light and hiding me from view. When it didnt react to Cerions attacks, he decided to take a risk and tried to approach me anyway, hoping to catch my bluff. As a result, he was unprepared when my essence cut off his senses and left him stranded in my domain, making him an easy target for my ranged skills, which he hurriedly defended himself against.

In truth, [Essence manifestation] wasnt without its weaknesses. Because the dome always kept me at its centre, opponents could still aim at me with their ranged attacks, despite the fact that I was hidden from view. That weakness no longer counted, however, when that opponent was stuck inside of the dome, as I was sure to beat into Cerion by dashing around him while attacking.

At first, he was still fast and aware enough to notice my attacks and block them in time, but this didnt last. Soon enough, he was on the back foot as I had been earlier, trying to keep up with my pace but failing.

I paid him back for every wound he had left on me earlier, until my mana core was starting to empty out. [Hollow manifestation] was an expensive skill to keep up and it was taking its toll on my reserves. If I kept going, I was bound to run out of mana for a time. Could I defeat Cerion before that happened?

I determined that no, I couldnt. Realising this, I made some distance and released the skill, watching the black dome fade from existence.

Cerion, relieved to be free of it, calmed down and lowered his sword a bit. He looked a bit winded and had some nasty cuts and bruises on his arms and torso, but I could tell that he had preserved quite a bit of mana during the scuffle, relying on his physical stats to empower his defence. In a way, the mana disparity could be seen as a victory for Cerion.

In any other duel, such a difference in reserves would spell the end of the person in my position. In this case, however, that wasnt the case.

My core thrummed with power as more mana flooded into it, before being expelled through my skin, tearing open the wounds that had just closed. Before Cerion could press his advantage, I had already recovered a large part of what I had lost in overloaded mana.

The lull in the fighting was broken as quickly as it had arrived as Cerion summoned a spiralling wave of water from the lake to propel himself into the air, before crashing back down to the earth with a giant water serpent in tow.

Cerion sent a few crescent-shaped blades of water at me in a pattern, forcing me to dodge at the same rhythm, before sending the serpent at me. The life-like creature roared with fury, an odd sound combining the noise of a wave crashing into a cliff and the roar of a lion. I almost thought the beast was an elemental, but discarded the notion when I realised that this was the evolved form of Cerions summoned pet!

By this point it was too late to hold back, so I summoned all of the onyx chains that I could and sent them at the beast like hissing vipers. They pierced through her scaly hide and constricted her long enough for me to react to Cerions own attack, a water ball that rolled across the ground at frightening speeds.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

I had no time to supervise Revan as he dragged Alia onto dry land and began shaking it, instead forced to focus on the man in front of me.

Another blade coursed right past me, drawing a deep cut in the earth as the vertical projectile travelled.

In between us, our attacks and skills kept meeting, before destroying themselves with loud bangs and showers of black and blue mana.

It took a few more minutes before both of us calmed down enough to realise that we had gotten into a stalemate.

I looked down at my tier 3 sword, realising that this was only going to end one way.

Dark mana began storming around the sword in my hands, crackling with white sparks as the blade began to crack under the pressure.

At the lakeside, Cerion began to do the same, summoning a giant ball of water overhead, which quickly grew to the size of a house, before expanding even further.

After what felt like an eternity, all of my mana had been expended to charge up this single attack. From what I could tell with [Mana sense], Cerion had done the same

Then, with a single thrust on my end and a jab on Cerions our attacks collided.

The black laser that screamed to life as it left my disintegrating weapon howled through the air before crashing into Cerions orb.

The water construct pushed back, continuing to float my way as if it were a planet falling from the sky. Gritting my teeth, I pushed even more of myself into my laser, feeling the blood well up from my gums as the beam became reinvigorated.

The moment stretched on for longer than it should have but eventually the stalemate was broken. With a final push from my end, the laser pierced through the ball and scattered the water into rainfall, before ramming into Cerion at full force.