Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 1198: Mesmerized

Damian, who had left earlier than everyone else with the Grand Regent, could be seen standing on the crown of a tree with an indifferent demeanor. Before him floated the Grand Regent, who folded her arms against her chest.

"So, Grace, if I remember your name correctly, the youngest told me that you think you can defeat and kill any Wargrave as long as they aren’t Azaron, Malrik, or Morthern."

Damian spoke, his voice as gentle and playful as ever.

"Aren’t you looking down on me too much? After all, I defeated you a couple of years ago."

He asked as though he was merely here to make conversation and not fight. Although he might appear calm, he really wasn’t. After all, an End-Class Monster might awaken on the wrong side of its bed and decide to attack because of various disturbances.

"You remember my name, huh?"

The Grand Regent replied, as her name was indeed Grace, but it had been a while since she had heard her own name, as everyone referred to her as the Grand Regent.

"Why wouldn’t I? You are the only person who has an ability that is remotely similar to mine. Although, I wonder how far you’ve improved to give you the confidence that you can defeat me now when you couldn’t the last time."

Damian stated in a teasing manner, staring into the Grand Regent’s eyes. His smile still remained, as he didn’t really take the woman before him seriously, not because he was arrogant, but simply because he was just that strong.

Although, personally, he was curious to know what had made her this courageous.

The Grand Regent stayed silent for a moment, then sighed as she shook her head in a weary motion.

"I don’t have time for this. I just need your head, and I can have all the conversation I want if you can still talk at the time."

She stated, as she indeed didn’t have the time for too much talk. Her soldiers were fighting in another direction, and she had to kill Damian before the End-Class Monster intervened.

If the End-Class Monster did intervene, she would escape and let Damian and the Monster battle it out while she tried to get news and information back to the other underground bunkers, even if she had lost her lighter artifact.

And if Damian managed to win against the End-Class Monster, she would finish him off herself, since both Damian and the End-Class Monster would have spent a considerable amount of strength and stamina on each other.

The moment she was done speaking, her hand moved as the sabre that had been hanging on her waist was unsheathed ever so slowly, a hissing sound filling the sky as the blade slid against the scabbard.

Damian stayed silent for a moment, then sighed as he spoke in a final tone.

"Honestly, I’m always mesmerized by swordmasters drawing their swords from their scabbards so stylishly. It’s too bad that people like me, who focus on hand-to-hand combat, can’t pull off such cool movements."

He stated earnestly with a light smile, as he was indeed mesmerized by the sight of it.

With a thought, his gauntlets appeared in his hands, fitting perfectly against his forearms and stopping at the elbow. His demeanor didn’t change to anything serious; his demeanor and expression remained as playful as ever. He didn’t settle into any martial stance; he had surpassed the realm for that. Him just standing playfully was a martial stance in itself.

Time seemed to flicker as the Grand Regent appeared before Damian, her sabre tearing through the air as she aimed for a decapitation right off the bat. Her attack was smooth, precise, and dangerous.

Damian simply raised a hand, his hand shooting upwards to meet the sharp side of the sabre with his palm. As metal met metal, a thunderous roar of metallic shrieking erupted, slamming into both of them before tearing downward and shattering the canopy of trees beneath them.

But then, the unexpected happened as Damian’s body shot backwards like a ragdoll, his body tearing through the air as he had been pushed back by the first attack.

He immediately rotated and caught himself midair as he took zero damage, but the moment he stopped, the Grand Regent was already there, her sabre screaming towards him in a blur from the sky.

Damian’s eyes snapped towards the attack as he had already sensed it coming. He didn’t step back or dodge just because he had been pushed back by the first attack. He had merely been caught off guard, as he had used the same amount of physical strength he used to defeat this woman years ago, and now, this confirmed his guess that she was indeed stronger, so much stronger.

His fist tore upwards like a shooting star as he met the sabre once more with his fist. Dense, world-shattering compressed wind waves surged outwards with hypersonic speed and power.

This time, he wasn’t pushed back. He stood his ground with the same smile on his face as he had read and understood the level of physical strength the Grand Regent was currently displaying.

"It’s nice to see you’ve improved and weren’t just flirting and sleeping with women for the past centuries."

The Grand Regent stated as her sabre pressed against Damian’s gauntlet. But she didn’t wait for him to reply with any sarcastic feedback. She simply moved, her strength increasing as she drew more power from her body.

Deflecting Damian’s hand to the side, she unleashed a series of thrusts, her speed stepping into the re-entry realm as she became even faster. Her speed and strength surged to an outlandish degree.

Damian’s eyes flashed. Honestly, he hadn’t expected this woman to display this level of speed. It was simply too ridiculous to him. After all, she was now moving with double her previous speed and power.

’If I don’t get serious, I might actually lose in a pure physical bout.’

Damian thought to himself, as he couldn’t have that.

His speed spiked, his perception stretching as the world slowed in his perception, as though he had paused it. Within his perception of stillness, only the Grand Regent’s hundreds of thrusts retained their speed and force.

Damian’s body moved, his hand flowing like a calm river as he began to meet every devastating sabre thrust with his fist. His fist shot outwards continuously like bullets from a machine gun.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The air within the sky collapsed as various black sword lines shattered against the force of Damian’s fists, slamming into the flattened earth below as various sword marks painted and restructured the entire battlefield.

As the shockwaves from Damian’s fists reached the Grand Regent, she simply flickered her left hand, knocking the shockwaves to the side like trash. Before she could shoot forward, Damian flickered into place behind her, his forefoot streaking towards her cranium.

But the Grand Regent wasn’t the same person that Damian would have defeated with this level of attack. She had ascended to a plane of power like his; she was no longer a pushover or some random weakling Damian could take on a random Tuesday night.