'Ooooh, sh*t!! He's cold as f*ck!!' Paxton sheeshed inwardly.

If only he could show this fight to his friends…

Unfortunately, he couldn't. There would be hell to pay.

He could only continue appreciating the duel alone.

Soon, the fight resumed with Ra Mehn snapping and rushing forward, finding it difficult to handle his opponent's words and his anger issues.

Daru only snorted in disappointment.

Aetherborns were indeed strong, but their mentality was this fragile…

"You look pathetic," he taunted, charging right back.

He could still use a [Crescent Dicer] to destroy the two floating swords, but where's the fun in that?

Zigzagging, the two arrived in front of each other, clashing.

Their swords sang in a metallic echo.

Powering through, Daru pushed the Aetherborn off, sending him staggering back.

Then came the two floating swords, stabbing at him with one lagging slightly behind the other.

He was able to dodge the first one with a neat head tilt.

Unfortunately, the other was stabbing right at his body.

Daru could only sidestep, pivot his foot, and then chop down at it, sending the sword stabbing deep into the cold dirt ground.

"DIE!" roared Ra Mehn, shooting towards him like an almost full-speed 125CC motorcycle.

*CLANG!*

Yet another clash.

But this time, it was Daru who was sent skidding back, forward momentum on the Aetherborn's side.

He could only angle his tachi to block.

The remaining floating sword then stabbed at him again, this time at his chest — a bigger target.

Daru couldn't head-tilt his way out of this one, and he didn't.

He jumped back with all his might, narrowly avoiding the attack.

But not unscathed.

He was shallowly stabbed, red cubic particles leaking out of his right pec area.

Daru paid it no attention.

As he said, being wounded in a sword fight was common, yet his opponent was celebrating as though he had already won.

"Haha! Take that, trash!" Ra Mehn laughed uproariously, losing half a second of reaction time before noticing that his opponent was already charging at him, equally as fast, if not faster than he had been earlier.

This snuffed the smug grin right off his face as Ra Mehn was forced to focus.

Deep inside, he knew that his remaining floating sword was his only chance against his opponent — a fact he would never acknowledge.

Yet his actions suggested otherwise.

Instead of using the conjured weapon and risking it, he planned to receive the blow head-on.

This way, although he would probably lose a bit of hitpoints, his chances of victory would remain decent.

But Daru's head was untethered by useless crap, unlike Ra Mehn's.

He long knew that all he needed to do was deal with the two floating swords, and victory was his.

And that's what Daru prioritized, suddenly jumping and barrel rolling.

Ra Mehn was caught off guard, not expecting the maneuver.

The Aetherborn thought that his opponent would capitalize on the weight of his sword and forward momentum to force him to show an opening.

But Daru decided to make an opening for himself instead.

Passing above Ra Mehn, he slashed down, his blade glowing red.

An illusory clang and shattering sound then echoed inside the pathway as the conjured weapon was destroyed with a momentum and sword-weight amplified [Tornado Slash].

Daru landed gracefully behind Ra Mehn, who suddenly bolted in the direction from which he came.

He realized what the Aetherborn was going for.

Daru quickly gave chase, not allowing Ra Mehn to pull the conjured sword out of the ground.

Unfortunately, the Aetherborn was just as quick and light on the foot as him, nimbly diving, pulling out the sword, using his free hand to guide himself into a roll, and willing the conjured weapon to stab at his approaching opponent.

A rather insane maneuver worthy of his arrogance.

But Daru had predicted it, somersaulting to evade the stab, and strangely, he didn't slash to shoot a crescent.

He delayed it.

Daru first landed on his opponent's shoulder, giving him a cold, victorious gaze before proceeding to move his arms.

"I won, Aetherborn," he declared as he chopped down.

"You bas–"

Ra Mehn couldn't finish cursing, his vision turning black as a heavy tachi crashed down on his skull, splitting it cleanly in half.

Red cubic particles burst, followed by a red crescent that shot to the ground, creating a thin smokescreen of dust as dirt flew everywhere.

Daru didn't leave, simply standing on the falling shoulder of his opponent and landing gracefully on the ground the moment Ra Mehn dissipated, sent back to his home continent.

With a cold extra slash at empty air, he summoned the scabbard of his tachi, sheathing it with a practiced motion that sent shivers down Paxton's spine.

[You've slain a level [40] [Novice] Bladeborn of the [Aetherborn] race.]

[You've obtained 2,000 Experience Points.]

[You've contributed (5) War Medal to your race.]

[Your sword passive: [Tainted Enforcer], stole 1 Perception from [Ra Mehn].]

Daru was about to check the notifications when he noticed a blue streak shoot past the cave's ceiling.

It was extremely fast.

So much so that even with his 86 points in perception, he still couldn't see what it was.

The only thing he knew was that it came from Ra Mehn's dissipating body.

Daru's brows furrowed, but in the end, he could only put the strange matter at the back of his mind

He turned his attention to the notifications, smiling in satisfaction.

This was only a bonus to the fun he had.

While the Aetherborn's cringeworthy reactions and endless whining were a bit disappointing, he ultimately enjoyed the battle, as his opponent was truly strong.

He was forced to use his entire arsenal of sword skills in this duel.

"Finnley!" Iris's voice, laced with excitement, echoed from afar, followed by her footsteps as he ran towards him.

"Congratulations on the victory, you fought really, really well, and I learned a lot. Thank you for letting me watch," she continued, bowing earnestly with a shadow of a genuine smile on her face.

Daru met her gaze, faint smile widening slightly.

"Thanks, what do you plan to do now? Do you want to grind levels together?"

"Ahh, no, but thank you for the offer. Watching your duel was enough for me. I'll report your victory to Miss Hailey for a bit and resume grinding levels later tonight. I also kind of want to experience what it's like to fight swordspawns at night, you see…"

"I see, alright then. See you around the realm, Iris."

With a nod, she clapped twice, summoning her mare, riding it, and cantering off with one last look and another nod of gratitude.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.