As the massive halberd missed its mark, Laxus violently twisted his left wrist.
The weapon carved a bizarre arc in mid-air, transitioning seamlessly from a failed thrust into a brutal horizontal sweep aimed straight at Ace's waist!
The fluid motion held no hesitation, as if he had rehearsed it a thousand times.
Before the blade even arrived, the fierce wind pressure from the halberd carved a deep trench into the stone floor.
Ace brought the Dragon Soul Sword back to defend, positioning the heavy blade vertically beside him with the flat side facing outward.
At the same time, he retreated half a step with his left foot, turning his body slightly to minimize the surface area exposed to the impact.
CLANG!
The Heaven Halberd slammed into the spine of the Dragon Soul Sword, unleashing a deafening roar louder than any before.
A ring-shaped shockwave erupted, pulverizing every fragment of rubble and debris within thirty meters.
Ace's form wavered slightly, the ground beneath him sinking another three inches, yet he held firm, steadily weathering the crushing blow.
Then, Ace moved again.
This time, he didn't use a fist, but an open palm.
His armored hand glowed crimson like hot iron, its edge wreathed in gold-white flames, slashing like a blade directly toward Laxus's left wrist!
Before the palm even landed, the scorching wind it carried had already begun to heat and soften the air around Laxus's arm.
Yet, Laxus neither dodged nor retreated. In a display of pure, battle-crazed madness, he momentarily let go of the halberd!
As the weapon hovered in the air for a fraction of a second, Laxus gathered a concentrated burst of lightning into his left hand and threw a desperate, point-blank punch in return.
BOOM!!!!!
Palm met fist.
Flames clashed with lightning.
Crimson fire and golden electricity wildly collided and annihilated each other, erupting in a blinding flash.
The ground beneath their feet shattered simultaneously, sending rubble flying like shrapnel.
This time, it was a draw.
No, upon closer inspection, Ace stood as steady as a mountain, while Laxus had been forced half a step back.
But only half a step.
Surprise flickered in Laxus's eyes, quickly replaced by an even fiercer fighting spirit.
Before his halberd could even hit the ground, he snapped his left hand out, catching the falling shaft perfectly.
With the heavy halberd back in his left hand, his imposing aura didn't diminish; it intensified!
Compensating for his dead right arm, Laxus's fighting style abruptly changed.
If his previous assaults were broad, forceful, and overwhelmingly fierce, his current style was bizarre, unpredictable, and swift as lightning.
The halberd transformed into a blur of golden shadows in his single grip. He thrust, lifted, swept, hacked, and slashed—countless moves pouring down like a storm.
Each strike was cunning and ruthless, aimed exclusively at vital points.
Even more astonishingly, while launching this frenzied assault, he didn't leave any openings.
In every gap between halberd strikes, his legs would dart out like venomous snakes, or he would unleash point-blank blasts of lightning from his mouth.
He seamlessly coordinated his magic with the halberd's attacks to form a three-dimensional assault with absolutely no blind spots.
A trace of genuine gravity finally appeared in Ace's eyes.
He could sense that Laxus was in a peculiar state. He wasn't at his peak, yet he was far from exhausted.
His catastrophic injuries were being forcibly suppressed by his lightning magic, his pain completely masked by his raw fighting spirit.
He had entered a unique state of "battle frenzy," where his strength, speed, reactions, and techniques had all reached unprecedented, adrenaline-fueled heights.
"Interesting…" Ace murmured to himself, the Dragon Soul Sword weaving a crimson curtain of blade shadows in his hands.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A torrential downpour of collisions erupted.
The Dragon Soul Sword blurred into countless afterimages, precisely blocking every halberd strike and deflecting every lightning-infused kick.
Flames and lightning violently clashed, bursting into dazzling sparks across the ruins.
The two engaged in a frenzied, high-speed exchange at the center of the crater.
Wherever they passed, the ground cracked, walls crumbled, and even the air was torn by the residual shockwaves of their battle, emitting piercing shrieks.
Finally, after one particularly violent collision, both combatants retreated simultaneously, coming to a halt ten meters apart.
Laxus breathed heavily.
Sweat streamed down his face, mingling with blood and dripping to the ground with faint sizzles.
The crackling halberd in his left hand had dimmed slightly, and the webbing of his fingers was split, blood trickling down the golden shaft.
But Ace wasn't giving him time to rest.
KaiserGreymon's left foot shot out like lightning, delivering a devastating front kick that slammed squarely into Laxus's abdomen!
Thud!
Blood sprayed from Laxus's mouth.
He was sent flying backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing through three ruined walls in succession before finally smashing heavily into a pile of rubble.
A thick cloud of dust soared into the sky.
The Heaven Halberd flew from his grasp, spinning several times in the air before embedding itself deeply into the distant ground.
The lightning coursing along the halberd's surface rapidly dimmed, extinguished, and vanished.
A brief silence fell over the ruins.
Only the sound of the wind and the rhythmic drip of blood broke the stillness.
A few seconds later, the rubble shifted.
A single, trembling left hand emerged from the debris, its fingers digging fiercely into the scorched earth.
Using every ounce of his remaining strength, Laxus dragged himself out of the rubble bit by bit.
His movements were excruciatingly slow.
Each exertion was accompanied by the sickening sound of bone friction and muffled groans of agony.
Yet, he persisted, crawling outward.
He staggered, swayed, and miraculously rose back to his feet.
"Why…" Laxus gasped, each word tinged with bloody froth. "Why can't I… win…"
He lifted his head to look at Ace, his eyes filled with resentment, rage, and a near-desperate confusion.
"I trained relentlessly for years… day and night… enduring pain beyond imagination… I thought I had become strong enough…"
He paused, his voice growing even hoarser.
"I couldn't even defeat BlackWarGreymon… and now… why can't I even touch you?! Why, after all my preparations… all my planning… do I still lose?!"
Ace watched him quietly, his crimson armor gleaming under the moonlight, saying nothing.
"I refuse to accept this…" Laxus murmured, the golden lightning in his eyes flickering erratically. "I refuse to lose like this… I refuse to let it end like this…"
Slowly, he raised his left hand—the only one that could still move.
His entire arm trembled violently, and the sparks at his fingertips were as faint as fireflies.
Still, he raised it, his fingers gradually curling into a tight fist.
"Then let's settle this with one final move…" Laxus rasped.
He recalled a Secret Art technique he had yet to fully master, the madness in his eyes reaching its absolute peak.
"With this move… we end this!"
Zzzzt!!!
A piercing, high-pitched electric screech erupted.
This time, the lightning didn't gather from the sky—it surged from within Laxus's very core!
Countless fine, golden arcs of electricity burst from his pores, writhing through the air like venomous serpents.
The arcs thickened, growing brighter and fiercer, until they all converged upon his tightly clenched left fist.
On the surface of his fist, a small but devastatingly dense golden sphere of lightning slowly took form.
Within it, highly compressed lightning energy spun wildly, radiating a heart-stopping aura.
The space around the sphere actually began to warp and shatter, revealing dark, jagged fissures in the air itself.
Ace's pupils contracted slightly beneath his visor.
'This terrifying aura… this method of extreme compression… this destructive fluctuation…'
'Could it be the Dragon Slayer's Secret Art?'