"What kind of Sacred Gear is this?"
Vali held back from making a move. Since he could not make sense of the situation before him, all he could do for the moment was stare straight into the eyes of that purple armor.
But what came next was a chill that pierced through his whole body from behind.
Those human-like eyes were filled with killing intent.
Vali's instincts told him that Rod, as he was now, was far too dangerous. If he wanted to resolve the situation in front of him, the only option was to destroy him.
If he wanted to win, then he had to take the other side out before he could make a move.
With that thought, Vali stopped letting his mind wander, and intense fighting spirit filled his eyes.
When it came to Sacred Gears, Vali was confident he would not lose to anyone.
"No matter what this power of yours is, I will never lose!"
Vali beat his wings, and from the pale blue membrane of light burst compressed blasts of magical power. In an instant, the torn atmosphere rang with deafening thunder as a violent storm of energy poured madly toward Rod's position.
And Vali was not foolishly standing still while doing it.
As he beat his wings and rose into the sky, he launched one attack after another toward the ground below.
The axes of those beams of magical power crossed over each other, tearing apart the ground of Kuoh Academy. If the entire school had not already been covered by a powerful barrier, attacks of this magnitude would have spread across all of Kuoh.
But in Vali's eyes, as the flames from the explosions swelled without end, Rod disappeared into them before he had even made a move.
Then new explosions erupted one after another, fireballs and shockwaves devouring the ground even deeper, while the air around Rod's position had long since been stripped away.
And mixed in with those compressed magical bombardments were several Divide beams capable of reducing the target's power.
Yet the moment Vali became certain he had scored a direct hit, he saw only two glowing golden eyes inside the flames.
"What...?!"
There was no time to dodge. The purple figure burst through the fire and charged forward in an eruption of holy radiance.
A hundred meters of distance vanished in an instant.
Relying on the combat experience he had built up over so many years, Vali threw a punch straight ahead. Yet just as it was about to connect with Rod, Rod caught Vali's right wrist with one hand. Vali reflexively raised his left hand, only for that wrist to be pinned down as well.
The two of them stood locked, one to each side.
Vali's magical aura exploded outward, while his pale blue wings of light burned like meteors dragging blazing tails behind them.
The closely fitted armor let out a harsh metallic grinding sound, and the particles of light spewing from his wings caused the surrounding air to ripple like disturbed water.
Vali was shocked that he could not push forward even an inch. He had already brought out his full strength in Balance Breaker, yet he was still being forced back.
And more than that, even the Divide beams firing from his hands were being blocked by a layer of burning purple flame surrounding Rod's body.
Divide was not an invincible ability.
It could be offset by an equal force. Otherwise, Vali would have become invincible in the world through that one ability alone.
But Vali was not the strongest in the world, and even the White Dragon Emperor at his peak had been killed, then dismembered and forged into a Longinus. That alone was enough to prove that the target selection of Divide was not without limits.
Of course, there were not many existences capable of blocking White Dragon Emperor's Divide effect.
Rod just happened to be one of them.
Vali clenched his teeth and abruptly jerked his head back before smashing it forward.
Even with less than a meter between them, the movement still produced a violent tearing sound in the air, carrying terrifying force.
Yet this time, Rod neither dodged nor gave way. He raised his own head and smashed it straight into Vali's as well.
Boom!
A thunderous crash rang out. Rod felt his brain buzzing, but quickly recovered.
Vali, on the other hand, only felt the world spin.
How was this guy's head this hard too?!
Rod seized the opening created by recovering faster. He released one of Vali's wrists with his left hand, grabbed the jewel on Vali's chest instead, then twisted his body and unleashed all his strength, directly hurling him toward the ground.
The move came too quickly. Vali had no time to react. Even though Albion had already sounded a warning, his body simply could not keep up.
Boom!
With a heavy crash, Vali fell to the ground in a spread-eagle shape, his back once again slamming hard into the earth.
The ground caved in beneath him at once, and countless cracks spread wildly outward in a spiderweb pattern.
The sheer inertia still carried Vali onward across the ground. His armor scraped violently against the earth, throwing out sparks and arcs of light all the way until his body finally crashed into the edge of the barrier and came to a stop.
After activating the Balance Breaker of Incinerate Anthem, all of Rod's attributes had risen explosively. Even though Vali had been training since he was only a few years old, he still could not withstand it.
After all, how could your tempered body and day-and-night effort possibly compare to Rod's sweat and hard work?
No one could see his one-click power-up. All they saw was hard work and sweat.
After landing that blow, Rod knew full well that Vali was not going to just give up like that.
A battle freak like him would keep getting back up even if he was covered in blood, then say, "I can do this all day."
Rod understood perfectly well the principle of beating a drowning dog.
Silver light flashed in his hand as he gripped the dragon-slaying Holy Sword Ascalon.
Without giving Vali even the slightest chance to catch his breath, Rod had already rushed in front of him before he could stand up.
The next moment, black-and-white sword-light flooded everyone's field of vision. A radius of around ten meters was engulfed in dense streaks of blade-light, while the torn atmosphere churned with white shockwaves, and even space itself seemed to tremble beneath that strike.
Bang! Bang!
The armor on Vali's body exploded apart piece after piece. Although he had already done everything he could to form a protective barrier of magical power, Rod's strength tore it apart by force, while Ascalon, carrying its dragon-slaying property, sliced through Vali's armor as easily as if it were cutting tofu.
Flesh split open, and blood quickly soaked through his clothes and skin. The burning pain all across his body gnawed at his nerves.
In truth, Rod could have ended the fight with the Eight-Point Light Wheel right then and there.
But once the Eight-Point Light Wheel was used, the mildest outcome would still be severed limbs. That was also why Ace was known as a complete dismemberment maniac.
All Ultramen knew that move, but when it came to the Eight-Point Light Wheel, he was still the one who used it best.
Since Vali was Lavinia's old friend, Rod naturally could not go too hard on him. If he dragged back someone missing arms and legs, that would not look good on Rod's side either.
"You can surrender now, right?"
Against dragons, Ascalon was outright venom.
The armor that had not been broken by several of Rod's punches was split apart by a single casual stroke, as easily as cutting through cloth.
But upon hearing those words, Vali forced himself up again.
"You want... me to surrender? In... your dreams!"
Hearing that, Rod sighed helplessly beneath the mask.
"Why bother?"
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