Ascension: Online

"That name… the Nihon Province, perhaps?" The boy wondered aloud, furrowing his brows in thought, but then shook his head. "No…that's not important. My name is Julius Aethrys — I challenge you, Igarashi Kaze!"

I smiled. "Very well. I accept. But before we start…"

I turned to the magician, who met my gaze with a maniacal laugh.

'Inspect.'

[Name: Moroga Lundy]

[Gender: Male]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 40]

[Realm: Late-Stage Nascent Cultivator]

[STR: 155]

[AGI: 155]

[INT: 50]

[DEX: 50]

[MAG: 5]

[LUC: 5]

So… he's levels below me, huh?

'Vanishing Clouds. Blink. Many Must Fall.'

In an instant, I combined these three skills and teleported in front of the magician, who couldn't even react before I dashed directly through him with Dokujin, puncturing him along with his three allies instantly. But to my surprise…

"Heh… hehehehehee!" Moroga laughed like a psycho, and I spun around to see a massive hole in his body….

… A massive hole, yet there was no blood.

The other three lay dead, but Moroga remained standing like a monster.

"Wha…" Julius gasped in shock, stunned speechless at what just happened.

I immediately tried using Corruption to control Moroga, but it didn't work.

"What… why isn't it…"

"Good… try…"

Moroga lunged at me with his bare hands, but I quickly dodged out of the way. Even though he somehow survived that, his stats were still far below mine.

'Throwing Knife.'

I leaped backwards while activating this art. A heavy throwing knife materialized in my hands, and I tossed it directly at him.

"Gah…" The knife stabbed directly into his head, but he still remained standing. "… Heehee, you can't kill me~!"

I narrowed my eyes. This guy… he was like some sort of zombie.

He came for me once more, but I backed away. This time, however, he didn't follow, but instead just stayed back, as if baiting me to attack him instead.

Why isn't he…?

I looked at where I was, and immediately understood. I was standing directly in the sunlight, whereas he was under the shadow of a tree.

The corners of my lips curved up into a devilish smile as I narrowed my gaze, and for the first time, true fear struck Moroga's face.

"Eh…?"

I ran towards him right as my arts' cooldowns refreshed.

'Blink.'

Teleporting behind him, his eyes widened as I kicked him directly in the back, sending him straight forward into the sun.

"AH! NO-! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

His whole body was lit up on fire as soon as the sunlight contacted him, and he stumbled around while clawing at his own face in agony.

"AHHHHH! I'LL… BE… BAAAAAAAAAAACK!"

With one final cry, his entire body was incinerated, reduced to ashes.

"… Hmph. Didn't even give me an engram or any XP…" I muttered, before turning back to Julius. "Okay… now that the nuisance is gone, are you ready to fight?"

"J-Julius, he's too strong…" A girl behind him patted his shoulder and whispered, eyeing me in fear.

But Julius, the stupi- I mean, brave young man, held his sword firmly and gulped all his fear down.

"Let us fight, Igarashi Kaze."

*****

"So? How are we doing this?" I asked, standing facing him. The others had all retreated a short distance away to make space for our duel. "To the death? Stop at touch?"

"… Stop at touch," Julius said after some hesitation. "I do not wish to slay the brother of the girl I love."

"Okay, so to the death, got it," I said thoughtfully, completely ignoring what he said. "Ready?"

"Wha… I just said-"

Man… this guy is too stupid. Take a hint.

"Mhm. And I said to the death. So, are we doing this or not?"

"Uh… f-fine. You asked for it."

Julius narrowed his eyes, then turned to Hina-nee, who sat on a tree behind me, cheering me on.

"Sakura Hina! I apologize beforehand for your brother… I hope you do note hate me after this."

"Hehe~" Hina-nee merely giggled.

"Hey," I cut in, bringing his attention back to me. "Your opponent… is right here."

'Vanishing Steps.'

Instantly turning invisible, Julius spun around only to see nothing.

Heh… keep dreaming.

I circled around to behind him and struck down, but Dokujin hit some sort of glowing golden force field around him, shielding his body. My eyes widened and quickly backed off as he cut behind him, having felt the impact.

"Oh… interesting artifact," I chuckled while still being invisible, letting him guess where I was. He slashed towards my location, but I dodged out of the way with ease, then decided to try something else.

'Basic Luxomancy Art — Luxostrike.'

Sending a crescent projectile of pure concentrated light energy towards Julius, I quickly changed position to behind him and launched another.

'Basic Umbromancy Art — Umbrostrike.'

Front and back, light and darkness. Which one will he guard against?

Julius, not even realizing I had shot off another attack at him from behind, opened his palm and closed his eyes, probably chanting something in his head. Before long, his eyes snapped open — and from his hands, shot out an orb of light that clashed with my own. A bright explosion blew up the air, right as my other attack struck him in the back.

But once again… Julius was merely pushed forward a bit, undamaged.

My invisibility wore off and I looked at him in disdain.

"… Is that your own strength, or an artifact?"

"I will not lie," he replied. "It is an artifact, passed down to me from my father, King Julius the Second. I am the Third."

"Hmph. Pitiful."

"What did you say?!"

"Relying on an artifact? I find that sad. But it's a duel, so anything goes. I don't believe I can't break that shield of yours today…!"

I jumped up into the air, eyes as cold as the seas of Antarctica back on Earth.

'Lotus of a Thousand Cuts!'

I felt my body begin rapidly spinning around as thousands of blades appeared on every pore of my skin. With my mind, I controlled them to all focus on Julius, then unleashed the beast.

"What… ngh!" Julius shut his eyes tight and took on the barrage of blades head-on with his shield, unable to get out of the way.

I shot all thousands of my blades one at a time, focused on one singular point on his shield for maximum effectiveness. The blades fired one after another, so quick that it seemed like a laser rather than separate projectiles.

300… 400… 500.

"Gah… my shield… THE SHIELD OF THE AETHRYS BLOODLINE WILL NOT FAIL!"

'Oh? Then… eat 500 more.'

I intensified my laser of sharp blades, making all of them explosive. This way, they didn't clatter the the floor after hitting the shield, but instead exploded on spot.

"NGH…!" Julius continued standing, gritting his teeth in determination.

700… 800…

By this point, his shield was slowly beginning to break. Cracks appeared, centered around the spot where I continuously struck him. He tried moving so that I would end up hitting a different spot, but I bent the knives' trajectories to follow him.

900…

"RAGH!!"

Julius roared in frustration, desperately begging for this torment to stop.

950… 975… 995…

Time seemed to slow down. His shield slowly began to break more and more, threatening to shatter.

996… 997… 998… 999…

"AH-!"

… 1000.

The final knife I threw, a heavyweight, pierced through his shield at last and stabbed directly into his heart.

"G-Guh…"

He fell to the dirt on his knees, blood coming out of his mouth as his arms fell limply by his sides.

I fell back to the ground as well, panting heavily. I was completely depleted of Essence… that art used way more than I expected. But alas… I was still alive. He, was not.

"I… lose."

He collapsed onto the ground completely, dead, and I slowly pulled myself to my feet, only to fall back down again.

"Ngh…"

"Kaze-kun!" Hina-nee cried, hurriedly jumping off the tree and landing by my side.

"I'm fine… just… need some time to recover."

"I see…" Hina-nee hurriedly set my head on her thighs and let me rest there as the others rushed over as well.

Meanwhile, the three from the other side had crowded around their leader, weeping and sobbing.

"Julius… I told you not to…" The girl cried, wiping the tears from her face.

Julius… I underestimated you. You are a respectable man. Perhaps, had we met under different circumstances, this wouldn't have had to happen. Perhaps, we may have even became friends.

If only you didn't try to hit on my sister.

No… that's not it. If only you weren't royalty, and I wasn't so greedy.

Deep down, I felt something in my heart go hollow once more. It was just like when I consumed a Blight. I figured… I had lost another one of my emotions, though I didn't know which one it was.

And in my mind, a new message from my System popped up.

[Obtained Julius Aethrys Engram x1.]