Chapter 1828 Confrontation [8]

Chapter 1828 Confrontation [8]

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The clash in the arena grew fiercer by the second. When Damien was forced to stop playing defensively, the crowd absolutely fell in love with the scene they were lucky enough to witness.

Damien and the Dragon Lord were no longer stationary, nor were the bounds of their territories so easy to distinguish. Black flames littered the ground, but rising out of those flames like snakes whose only goal was to devour them was none other than Damien's metallic web.

He fragmented it and spread it further, scattering concepts throughout the arena. With this separation, the flames were no longer able to easily melt the metal. More importantly, Damien could attack the flames as well.

He focused more on the Dragon Lord's energy than the man himself, but that was when the Dragon Lord proved why he was titled as such.

In the end, he was not a man, but a dragon. He could not use the majority of his bloodline abilities without mana, but there was still one thing left inviolable.

Physical strength.

Whether he'd been informed that Damien had a powerful dragon aura beforehand or decided to save that move for later, he didn't release his bloodline suppression.

He charged at Damien with black flames surrounding his fists and punched out.

Damien didn't try to meet the punches head-on from the beginning. He crossed his arms and blocked to test their might, allowing his body to fly back and crash into the arena wall.

'It's the same strategy.'

Instead of letting his flames do all the work, the Dragon Lord was equipping them as gauntlets and taking them to the prey. There wasn't much of a difference between that and normal fighting. If Damien wanted to do the same, he just had to grab one of the many metal spikes on the ground and use it as a sword.

But that wasn't his end goal.

'He's taking the base concept of the domain and replicating it in a mobile form. Rather than that, I want to take everything my domain has to offer and manifest it in a weaponized form.'

Say Damien used the same strategy. In that case, the most he could do was create blades of confinement or fatal strike. He couldn't create a blade to confine, attack, and detect weaknesses all at the same time. Still, watching the Dragon Lord maneuver his energy was definitely helpful.

The public sentiment wasn't entirely wrong. Though Damien wasn't weak enough to be called a real underdog, he was indeed a newcomer. He didn't have the millions of years of practical combat experience that his opponents possessed. He had been using raw power to overcome them this entire time.

This was a match with the world at stake, but it was still an extremely useful learning experience for Damien.

'I can take his punches.'

Didn't Damien already have the perfect weapon?

He couldn't access the original because it was in reality, but he could make a copy using the powers of this realm.

As the crowd watched on, Damien pushed his arm out as if he was grabbing something. His hand wrapped around an invisible sword handle, and suddenly, the sunlight started refracting and creating caustics on the ground around him.

"Something" had been formed.

And that "something" was none other than Mirage, a translucent sword made of an almost glass-like material. That sword had all of the characteristics necessary for containing the power of Nonexistence.

'It's been beside me for almost my entire life. I'm glad I was able to find another purpose for it at this stage.'

The metal spikes and web fragments scattered around the arena rose into the air and turned into shining lights that coalesced inside Mirage.

The translucent sword became one of light for a brief moment, and by the time it faded and returned to its original appearance, it had truly become a weapon of Nonexistence.

'With this...'

Damien looked down at the sword with a grin.

'...everything becomes possible.'

He shot forward and raised it into the air. He smiled even wider when he thought about what he was about to do.

It was a true moment of reminiscence, a meeting between past and present.

'Void Sword Art First Step: Bladeless'

WHOOOOOOSH!

A huge gust of wind filled the arena. Nobody could understand what was happening. Space couldn't be collapsed or torn in this realm where space did not exist and was only perceived. However, somehow, through some esoteric means, Damien created something that looked awfully similar to a tear in space.

And as it enveloped the area where the Dragon Lord was standing...

...the first drop of blood was drawn in this battle.