Chapter 48 - Going All Out.
Kai was still standing before he ran into the bathroom, changing his clothes into whatever he had at hand. To his astonishment he had nothing.
Quickly opening the system shop he asked for literally anything as he simply needed something to wear
[Would you like to buy the Hunters Garb?]
Kai shouted "Yes!"
[Hunters Grab : A haven grade Protective armor, with Runes etched into the very beast skin.]
[Enchantment : Self Repair : As long as you feed it mana the Garb will Always return to perfection as long as most of it is intact. or the parts are near by.]
[Skill : Quick Foot : As long as you were this your body gains a permanent stat boost of 2+ on your speed and agility.]
Kai quickly opened the window to the room before saying, "Where the hell is he?"
Kai said this because for a second he couldnt even feel the Mark on Elder Huan.
Kai jumped out of the window without hesitation as mana rapidly covered his body, allowing him to float.
Kai closed his eyes and realized that the connection between him and Elder Huan was so faint he could barely feel it, but the moment he focused on it, he could feel it perfectly.
Kai kept his eyes closed, simply following the connection with great speed.
Mere minutes later, Kai stood underground before a massive gate that was already open wide within an equally massive room where, The room was blank white tiled massive walls with runes etched into them. And in the center, Elder Huan sat cross-legged.
Elder Huan smirked and simply said, "Pull out your weapons.
Get ready."Kai internally panicked."Ah... I'm truly going to get beaten up."
Kai raised both of his hands as his sword appeared in his left hand and his katana in his right.
Before thinking," Sure, dual wielding is nice, but I never got a skill for it even though I fought with it more than anyone before."
Kai sighed and asked the system, "How fast can I switch something from my Item Box?"
[The Item Box Skill does not have a speed. It is instant.]
Kai silently removed the short sword and paced himself.
Elder Huan said, "Not going to use that sword? Just so you know, my soul is not as weak as you'd believe."
Kai simply replied, "I know."
Elder Huan raised his hand and said, "Come at me with the intent to kill because you will lose, I assure you."
Kai's eyes twitched and he simply nodded.
[God Eyes activated]
Kai's eye color shifted as always and he stared forward where only Elder Huan's name was visible, nothing more.
But the perks of this skill allowed him to see perfectly in a 2.5 km radius.
Kai nodded and had to decrease the range of God Eyes because of how much data was getting flooded into his brain, Kai already felt a headache coming in.
Elder Huan said, "Well, if you're not going to make the first move, allow me."
Kai jumped."Huh?" And yet, instantly before him, a massive beam of mana appeared.
Kai mentally commanded the system to switch the blades and placed it directly in front of him as he absorbed the entire spell.
Kai switched the blades again and rushed forward.
Kai also began pushing both his bloodline essence and mana to spin faster within his body, allowing his overall power to gain a boost.
Kai quickly glanced to the side of his vision.
[Mana: 30,000 / 30,000]
Kai jumped high and switched the blades once again as he said, "Release."
The same mana beam Elder Huan shot at Kai returned from above.
Kai fell to the side as he quickly slashed with his katana five times, sending five invisible mana blades flying forward.Kai also raised his hand as tiny arrows appeared within it that he threw with all of his might toward Elder Huan.
Kai was able to create them simply because of his [True Mana Manipulation] skill.
And yet, after all of that, Elder Huan just set up a quick barrier before saying, "Commendable work. I can already tell you got better than when fighting with your brother, but if this is all you have..."Elder Huan's body seemed to flicker in and out of reality as he moved.
Kai spat out "Hes not my brother."
That got Elder Huan to rise an eyebrow.
But Elder Huan didn't wait for a explanation and launched forward at Kai.
Kai could barely keep up with him as he suddenly appeared in front of him with a sword in his hand.
Kai barely had time to block the attack.
And when he did, he truly realized that he was no match for him.
Elder Huan's physical stats must be through the roof.
Kai jumped back, barely dodging a sword thrust from Elder Huan.
Kai shouted, "You're using a sword, not a damn spear!"
Elder Huan said, "Fair enough."
As the weapon in his hand shifted from a sword into a long spear.
Kai stared dumbfoundedly at what had just transpired.
And yet, a small portal appeared in front of Elder Huan's spear and he thrust into it.
The next second, a portal materialized behind Kai.
Kai had spotted it at the last second because of God Eyes, but that did not mean he wasn't damaged.
As massive gash lay across his right forearm.
Kai spoke mentally."WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"
[Supreme Regeneration Level - Max, Activated]
At the same time, his arm began healing, but far slower than normal.
Kai noticed that Elder Huan had somehow infused his mana into the attack to slow down Kai's healing speed.
Kai mentally smirked.As if something like that would work on someone like me.
Kai began fully utilizing [True Mana Manipulation], pushing out Elder Huan's mana and speeding up his healing even more.
Kai spoke."Overcharge."But this time Kai moved to do three things at once.
He activated [Advanced Cultivation Technique] and [True Mana Manipulation] while Overcharging.
But he didn't stop there as he jumped away from another portal.
The mana in the portal stopped and got siphoned toward Kai.
He looked toward the sky and released a guttural scream.
[War Cry of Mana - Level 1]
Kai suddenly felt as if all of the mana in the 25 km room had begun to slowly move toward him.
Kai fell to the ground as he coughed out blood.
The sheer speed of him absorbing mana was forcing his mana pathways to open even more.
Elder Huan spun the spear in his hand as mana also began to spin with the spear and the tip began to glow red hot.
Elder Huan said, "Truly a nice boosting skill you got there. However, if it weakens you this much just to activate it, I don't believe it's that good."
Elder Huan thrust the spear toward Kai.Kai smirked without showing it, keeping his head down.
[War Cry of Mana Level 1: Release a guttural war cry, causing mana to favor you and flock toward you, creating an impregnable wall of mana around your body. If any skill is fired at this wall, it is absorbed and turned into mana, increasing your mana cap if you already have full mana, while also improving all of your skills by nearly twice.]
The spear hit Kai's body and bounced off harmlessly after if failed to penetrate his shoulder.
But that didn't mean the strength didn't do anything.The mana was surely absorbed, but Kai was hurled into the other side of the room.Kai got up and quickly looked at his mana after Overcharging so much.
[100,000 / 30,000]
Kai was utterly shocked when he saw the number and accidentally shouted,"Oi! How the hell did that happen?!"
[You combined many skills whose goals were to absorb mana with your Overcharge, causing an influx of mana.]
Kai smirked."Well... damn. I can't even use the second bloodline."
[You remain untrusting of Elder Huan.]
[A smart move. It is not advised to show off your two bloodlines.]
Kai's smirk faded away as he nodded mentally.Well, I know. It's impossible for someone to have two bloodlines. The cores would always try to destroy each other. Why aren't mine doing the same?
[Due to your mana acting to stop them whenever they try, they have decided to simply exist.]
Kai was about to ask something more when he barely spotted a portal above him with a massive hammer coming down.
Kai jumped to the side quickly, but even that wasn't enough.
The damn hammer was simply too massive, making one wonder how Elder Huan had even summoned it.
But this was not the time to think about something like that.
Kai kept running but already knew this was it.
Kai mentally spiraled.Is this it? Is this how I die after so long?
Kai activated a spiral of skills all at once as his eyes took on a darker hue.
And Kai's shadow flew forward.Kai said,"Shadow Step."
As his body disappeared within the shadow of the hammer just before it hit him.
He appeared five meters away from his shadow.
Kai instinctively felt a connection between him and his own shadow.
Kai realized that the skill had somehow changed, but he couldn't tell how.
[Your skill [Shadow Life] has become a passive skill.]
Kai was interested for a second before he noticed the hammer still on the ground disappearing and then appearing above him once again.
This time Kai joined both God Eyes and his shadow sense.
To no avail. Though he could vaguely sense Elder Huan's shadow, he couldn't teleport toward it just yet.
Kai sent out his own shadow, which seemed like it had nodded as he told it to go.
But Kai believed he was imagining it.
Once again, he teleported back toward his shadow.
This time didn't wait as he began rushing at full speed toward Elder Huan.This time he removed his weapons.
Because it was night, Kai was already going to receive the insane 6x boost to all of his stats.Kai rushed as he smiled.Kai mentally said,I thought I would never be here, nor have a Heaven-ranked bloodline, let alone two bloodlines... and whatever the system is... I am grateful.
Kai finally began to perfectly feel Elder Huan's shadow after he was only sixteen meters away.
But while running he had to dodge many sudden spears, leaving his arms and legs riddled with rapidly closing wounds.
He was limping, After all, he was only human, and this pain was real.
This time Elder Huan turned the weapon into a tiny earpiece and hid it in his ear.He raised his hands and a massive beam of mana shot toward Kai.
Kai smirked."I have used that same spell many times as well."
Kai raised his hands, but instead of summoning an equally massive mana beam, he did something new.
[Mana Degradation - Level 0: As long as you understand the core concept of a spell, skill, or rune active around you, you can degrade its performance.] (1,000 mana)
It was one of the unused skills of the newly upgraded bloodline.
Kai smirked as he saw the mana within the beam perfectly. How each sphere of pure mana was connected.
How all of them held the power to de-atomize anything they touched.
Kai funneled a mere 1,000 mana into the skill as the mana beam began disintegrating into nothing but ambient mana.
Kai didn't hesitate."Oi, that unnamed skill I used. Time to do it again."
[Do you mean Beam Bolt? Bolt Beam? Ahh... who cares. I'll do that later?]
Kai blushed mentally."...Yeah. That crap."Suddenly 10,000 mana left Kai's body and a massive beam that eclipsed Elder Huan's sevenfold was unleashed.
At the same time Kai commanded his shadow to move forward.
Kai began rapidly teleporting every few meters, getting closer and closer to Elder Huan, who had just summoned a barrier of mana to block Kai's attack.
Kai mentally said,We'll call it Mana Bolt.
[Mana Bolt - Level 2 - Summon a large beam of mana infused with lightning attributes.] (10,000 Mana)
Kai sighed as he activated a skill.
[Nightfall's Magic-Martial Art - Level 1]
Kai felt his body empowered and a small, sharp, jagged suit of thin mana armor covered the already Nice looking Garb.
Kai felt his speed increase rapidly as he suddenly shot toward Elder Huan.At the same time, Kai's mana beam shattered Elder Huan's barrier and forced him to resummon his weapon and use whatever pulse skill he had to disrupt mana.
Kai pushed forward as he jumped above Elder Huan."MANA BOLT!"
A massive beam of mana appeared once more.And the second it landed, he summoned another.
[80,000 / 30,000 Mana]
Kai smirked as he summoned his sword and pushed 20,000 mana into it.
[60,000 / 30,000 Mana]
Kai also activated Bladed Mana.
This time not limiting the mana cost to a mere thousand, but ten thousand.
Kai slashed the air with his sword as a massive slash of mana, barely visible to the eye, appeared.Elder Huan was laughing with joy within the two beams.
But his laughter came to a halt when he sensed the massive slash.He barely dodged it, causing his entire left arm to fall. Kai didn't hesitate and switched the blades as he launched twenty soul attacks at Elder Huan.Only five hit him, but he clearly took a lot of damage as his body was riddled with wounds, one less arm, and yet he still had a smile.
Kai was worried, knowing an Elder was nothing to scoff at.
Suddenly Kai felt that same energy he felt when Overcharging.
Kai saw Elder Huan's wounds completely disappear as he said,"Truly commendable. In fact, I will forgive you for being late."
Kai had a bad premonition about what was going on.
Suddenly Elder Huan appeared in front of him, throwing a punch.
Kai naturally blocked it, but the bones in his arms shattered.
Kai flew back but healed just as fast.
But suddenly his body disappeared into dark particles and appeared from behind Elder Huan. No. From his shadow.
Kai threw a punch toward Elder Huan, who was sent flying for the first time in the fight.After all, the 6x boost to all stats was nothing to scoff at.
Kai smiled as he appeared once again, this time with the sword, and disappeared again as Elder Huan turned. His sword penetrated through Elder Huan's right shoulder.
Kai said,"Explode."
The 10,000 mana stored within the blade violently exploded, destroying both Elder Huan's right arm and Kai's right arm.
Kai made sure to send back the sword into the Item Box before teleporting back to his shadow.
One might think why Kai was clearly using the second bloodline.
It was quite simple, He forgot all about it.
He was a battle maniac at heart. The smile on Kai's face only widened as he saw both him and Elder Huan healing at the exact same rate as him.
And yet Kai said,"I see."
Kai mentally asked,I just used a skill, right?
[Yes. It's a part of your Bladed Mana.]
[Since you have named it Explode, it shall be called that.]
Kai sighed before saying,"Let's create a rune. A trap to explode when someone walks on it."
Kai pushed 10,000 mana out of his body as he activated [Rune Weaving: Allows you to create your own runes using skills or spells in exchange for a large amount of mana based on what the skill is.] (10,000 mana)
Kai smirked as an invisible rune etched itself into the ground beneath him.Kai jumped back and provoked Elder Huan to come at him.Elder Huan pulled out his weapon again and rushed toward Kai, which only made Kai's smile widen.Kai mentally said,Can I explode it whenever I want though?
[It is completely under your control.]
Kai's smile turned into a cocky smirk.
Kai summoned his sword in his left hand, sending another 10,000 mana into it.
[30,000 / 30,000]
Kai was disappointed at the amount of mana he had left.
Truly, Overcharge was a lifesaver.
But it had been active for so long that the backlash would surely be severe.
Kai watched as Elder Huan walked on top of the rune, but nothing happened.
Only after he took another step did Kai explode it, making Elder Huan believe Kai had teleported and activated that exploding skill again.
This forced Elder Huan to turn around and change the form of the weapon into a massive shield, blocking only the front.
Only now did Kai teleport toward Elder Huan's shadow and said,"Old man, I do not feel bad about this. You asked me to come with the intent to kill, no?"
As he stabbed the sword into Elder Huan and exploded it, not before kicking Elder Huan into the shield he had made.
Then switching the blades, he shot five soul attacks, all hitting.Kai jumped back and changed the sword again.
[10,000 / 30,000 Mana]
Kai frowned, only now realizing how much mana he was wasting, and so quickly too.
Since Kai was five meters close to Elder Huan, he could try something.
[Shadow Control - Level 1: You can naturally control shadows around you within a five meter distance as if they are a third hand.]
Kai moved Elder Huan's shadow in front of him as he teleported toward it and, with all of his might, punched Elder Huan into the shield once again. Just for the shield to disappear and Elder Huan to heal instantly and stand up.
But it was clear to Kai this time Elder Huan seemed to strain him self to heal.
Elder Huan said, "Well. I can tell you're low on mana while I have enough to keep going unlike you. Wont you be a good student and call it a day?"
Kai laughed, "See, here's the thing about me. I am a sore loser."
Kai deactivated Overcharge as he gave a mental command to the system.
[Are you sure you would like to split the skills?]
Kai mentally answered "Yes."
[Overcharge - Level Max: True absorption of all mana around you, allowing you to hold more mana than normal. However, the longer you remain in the Overcharged mode, the more damage is done to your soul and body at the same time. You can Overcharge a maximum of three times within one day. Each time absorbs less mana than the last and causes more damage when done. If you reach the third Overcharge, then even your emotional state will be affected.]
Kai smirked "Combine.
Since the system understood intent, he had no fear of anything going wrong.
[Advanced Cultivation Technique and Overcharge have merged.]
[Absolute Charge - Level 1: Completely absorb mana in a 5 km radius. Even if your mana is completely full, Absolute Charge will allow you to surpass mortal limits and hold more mana than ever thought possible. This comes with the downside of intense emotional instability, complete fatigue after Absolute Charge, and a limit of two times a day.]
Kai said, "See. I am a sore loser."
As, in a 5 km radius throughout the room, all mana, whether from Elder Huan's weapon, from Elder Huan himself, or even the runes etched into the walls to make them sturdier, was absorbed.
[Absolute Charge has been activated]
[100,000 / 30,000]
Kai laughed before suddenly stopping and roaring toward the sky.