Strongest Duo Part 1

Chapter 49- Revelation

Knowing who my opponent is, it's none other than Volken. Holding back against him is basically committing suicide. With that in mind...

Raising an arm to the sky, I called upon my mastery of [Mana Weapon Construction] and created ten blades that hovered above my head. If I create any more than that, my mana reservoir would drastically reduce. If I want to fight comfortably, ten is my maximum.

"I see you've improved your magic the first time we met. You could only use one blade...now look at you!" Volken grinned. As much as I hate him, he really does love watching talent bloom.

I shouldn't waste my breath speaking to him. My concentration must be at one hundred percent!

Thinking back to Solgens teachings, she advised that playing it safe is a great approach, but there are some enemies that it will not work on, as expected. After watching Volken fight, he is one of those enemies. He's the type to drag out a fight so he can savor his opponent's defeat. He wants them to play defensively as it is an advantage for him. It won't work on me though. My magic isn't used for defense, after all.

It's meant to overwhelm.

As I let go of my arm, the blades controlled through my mind instantly recognized their target; Volken. As I whispered the words go, they flew straight toward the Apithien with a burst of speed.

"Hahaha! Bring it on!" He yelled in ecstasy. Instead of evading, he stood his ground and slashed his black sword against the flying mana blades. While he was distracted by them, I sprinted around in a circle, attacking Volken's blind spot. I lunged forward with my rapier aiming for his right shoulder.

The Apithien deflected it in under a second. However...

"...!"

A mana blade was now sticking out of Volken's arm. He turned his head with a surprised look on his face.

"How-"

I cut his sentence short as I drove a fierce kick at his chin. He was discombobulated for a moment but quickly recovered from the blow, backing away from me and the hovering blades. He spat out blood while smiling.

"I see how it is. You're able to fight while simultaneously controlling these things. The amount of concentration needed for that is nothing less than remarkable!"

As a twenty-year-old university student, studying nearly every day while juggling different class assignments required a lot of focus. I guess you could say it's thanks to that that I'm able to do what I do. He doesn't need to know that though.

"Hm..." Volken took sharp glances between me and the mana blades.

"This should do it..." He mumbled as a fresh new wave of golems was created. The sheer number of golems flooded the streets. The scene was like that of a horde of zombies standing idly by.

Judging by his actions earlier... he's most likely trying to drain my mana reservoir with the help of the golems. He's sorrily mistaken if that's going to work.

In my mind, I ordered the mana weapons to ignore the golems and to attack Volken specifically. They tilted their blades upwards as if they were nodding and zoomed once again to Volken. While they're doing their thing over there, I'll deal with these golems one by one.

I rushed toward the nearest golem. This time, they were created using the materials of the gate checkpoint. Their stench was that of a workshop filled to the brim with weathered metal. They had a smooth silver outer appearance with some chips here and there. Even as they were made of steel, they're of no match to Damastril.

One thrust from me was all it took to blow their heads clean off. There were various sizes of golems marching toward me, some the same height or smaller, and others much taller. One by one I mowed through the horde, not even taking more than a second to dispatch them. Clouds of metallic dust were enveloping the area to the point where I had to cover my nose with my free hand. After about ten seconds, I finished destroying them all. Looking up, Volken just finished destroying all my mana blades.

"Wow... you finished off my creations that fast? I expected you to take a little more time..." said Volken, crushing a mana blade to fine dust. I stared at the Apithien without moving my lips.

"The silent treatment, eh? Are you still upset about the whole Igni Town thing?"

"..."

"Heh. No matter."

That was when I felt an extreme buildup of mana. Darting around trying to locate the source, my eyes fell upon his sword. An inky black aura was wrapping itself around the blade. The scene before me was a familiar sight. It was the same sword transformation that happened a couple of months ago when we first arrived in Athiens. I knew just how troublesome that blade was as it broke our swords in one fell swoop.

I glanced down at my own weapon, the Damastril rapier. It's made from the toughest metal in all of Athiens. Will this thing be able to withstand its sheer power? My hands trembled slightly as I thought of a worst-case scenario.

Volken reached inside the inky substance and pulled out a sword coated in a gooey substance.

"The despair shown on your face tells me you remember... Good... you're finally showing a hint of fear..." He gloated.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. Thinking about whether the rapier will break or not would spell my doom. Hesitation equals death. Besides, I had other means of dealing with Volken other than my rapier...

"The fear in your eyes is gone, Human girl. Are you done psyching yourself up?" Volken mocked.

"Pfft! Fear? I wasn't scared of you, by the way. What should I be scared of? Solgen is way more frightening than you are."

At the sound of Solgen's name, a flash of killing intent was transmitted to my very being. The sheer force of it almost caused me to buckle down to my knees as if a giant thumb was pressing me down to the ground.

"Tch! This isn't nothing at all!" I grimaced. Slowly but surely, I managed to stand up straight. You'll have to try harder than that, Volken. Solgens killing intent is way stronger than yours."

Volken had an ominous look on his face. For a split second, he looked as if he was about to burst in a violent rage, but he soon calmed himself down, sighing to himself.

"To think a provocation of that level managed to push my buttons... I, an Apithien, should be ashamed." He shook his head sorrowfully, his medium-length hair swaying back and forth.

I was hoping for him to lose his cool and attack me in a frenzy, not aware of his actions, but I underestimated his control. I thought mentioning Solgen would really help...

"The stress must be getting to me... I carry a heavy burden on my shoulders, one that my sister was too stupid to carry with me..."

Once again, he mentions sister. With how the flow of the conversation is going, only one person comes to mind.

"Sister... are you referring to Solgen?" I shouted.

Volken looked up and blinked at me slowly. He stared at me like I was an idiot for asking that question and said, "Of course. Wasn't that obvious?"

If Volken and Solgen are siblings... that means...

"You jailed your own sister underground for ten years? That's fucked up!"

If Isaac were to do that to me, I would be pissed beyond hell! I can totally understand Solgens' distaste for Volken.

"You wouldn't understand why that had to be done." The Apithien spat. "If I hadn't stepped in, she would've been killed by the Pillars. If I didn't imprison her, she would retaliate against the Pillars and would perish. The Pillars would then come after every Apithien just because of Solgen's foolish actions."

I wrinkled my nose in disgust at Volkens' reasoning. "From my point of view, all I'm hearing are excuses. It's not like you were being watched for your every move. Why couldn't you free Solgen from her chains and actually had a conversation with her about the situation?"

"Enough of your babbling. I've grown tired of hearing you speak..." The Apithien finished. He marched toward me while waving the black sword around.

"Running away from conversing...typical..." I mumbled. We first walked toward each other, and after slowly speeding up, it was a full-blown sprint, until...

Clang!

Our weapons clashed against each other; the sound of metal scrapping reverberated out into the cold night air.