The spinning wind disc shattered in mid-air as though hitting a steel wall. Dust and wind exploded in every direction, but Max stood untouched.
Levi didn't stop there.
"Sky Tyrant Howl!" he roared, raising both arms.
A massive tornado, thick as a tower, surged from behind him, swallowing half the arena and charging straight toward Max. The sound was deafening, the pressure threatening to crush anyone watching too closely.
Max exhaled. 'Ti to end this.'
He stepped forward, lifted his hand to the sky, and activated Magic Sword Descends.
The arena dimd.
And then—whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!—gigantic, glowing blue swords began descending one after another from above, each the size of a building, forming a floating army of one hundred swords around him.
Levi's tornado crashed into the field of swords—only to be obliterated instantly. The glowing swords tore through the wind with no resistance.
"W-What!?" Levi gasped.
Max didn't speak. With a gesture, he ordered a dozen swords forward. They flew—not to kill, but to pressure. Levi tried to counter with Wind Storm Spear, his final large-scale attack, but Max t it head-on with a slash of his sword wrapped in black flas and Level 3 Sword Aura.
BOOM!
The spear shattered. The air was silent. Max stood tall in the middle of the arena, untouched, unmoved.
Levi, panting and wide-eyed, lowered his stance. He had no more attacks to use. No openings to exploit.
Max raised his sword slightly in acknowledgnt and said with calm authority, "You're strong. But it wasn't enough."
And the crowd? Dead silent.
Max remained undefeated.
Levi clenched his fists tightly, his breathing ragged but his spirit unshaken. He had poured out nearly all his high-speed techniques and mid-tier skills, and Max had handled them like swatting away dust. But Levi wasn't done yet—not by a long shot.
His eyes burned with determination.
"Fine," he growled under his breath. "Let's see if you can handle this."
In an instant, the air thickened. The wind around Levi roared like a beast unleashed. He drew in mana from all directions, his white hair whipping violently as his level 3 wind aura surged to its peak. The atmosphere shifted. Pressure slamd down on the arena.
"Gale King's Wrath!" he shouted, and with a single stomp, a colossal serpent made of green wind erupted beneath his feet, coiling high into the sky. Its body crackled and twisted violently, the sheer force of its roar sending shockwaves through the ground. The giant wind beast lunged at Max like a divine punishnt descending from the heavens.
Max raised his sword and slashed forward in a clean, vertical line.
Elite Sword Arts — Skyfall Split.
The glowing sword aura cut through the wind serpent like it was paper. It didn't even explode. It just vanished—dispersed into mist.
Levi didn't pause.
"Heavenly Cyclone Prison!" he bellowed.
Dozens of wind pillars shot up around Max, spiraling and converging into a cage of rotating blades, all closing in from every angle. Max didn't move until the very last second. Then his feet glided using Angel Float, and with three precise swings of his sword—left, right, upward—the entire cyclone shattered into harmless gusts.
"Howling Typhoon Blades!"
Thousands of wind blades ford into a wave and rushed at Max, shrieking as they tore through the air. Max blinked once—Blink Dash—and in the next instant, he was in the middle of the storm. His sword moved like light, every swing followed by an arc of Level 3 Sword Aura. Every blade was sliced, deflected, or destroyed mid-flight. He didn't take a single step back.
Levi's eyes narrowed. He gritted his teeth.
"Storm God's Roar!"
An explosion of compressed air detonated around Max, forming an invisible, soundless sphere of destructive wind, one that even twisted the stone tiles of the arena. But as the storm cleared, Max still stood there. His black sword rested lightly on his shoulder, a layer of black flas now flickering around the blade, shielding him from even invisible assaults.
Levi's face twitched, sweat sliding down his cheek.
"Then take this!"
"Final Storm: Heaven Render!"
His ultimate attack. A massive javelin made purely of wind, dense and refined, ford above him—spinning faster than anything before. He hurled it with both hands, and the mont it left his grip, the entire arena trembled. It scread toward Max, splitting the air.
Max didn't flinch.
He took one step forward, raised his glowing black sword coated with black fla, and swung upward with one arm.
Elite Sword Arts — Heaven Cleave.
BOOM!
The javelin exploded mid-air, disintegrated by pure sword aura and fire.
The dust settled. Max stood where he had always stood.
Calm. Composed. Untouched.
Levi's shoulders dropped.
He had given everything.
And Max hadn't even broken a sweat.
'The sword moves I created by improvising the Elite Sword Skills… even though they're just basic replicas of cut, slash, and parry—the foundation behind them is solid enough to take my sword technique to another level,' Max thought as he stood quietly in the arena, his sword still humming faintly with power.
After reading the book on how to create one's own sword technique, Max had decided to experint with what he already had—Elite Sword Arts.
Instead of blindly inventing sothing new from scratch, which would require years of combat experience and refined sword comprehension, Max took a smarter path. He broke down every movent and variation of the Elite Sword Arts, studied them, and restructured them into his own fighting rhythm.
He rged the essence of every lower-ranked sword skill that ca before the Elite Sword Skill he had used before this—common, uncommon, rare, even epic—and poured them into his current Legendary Rank skill, shaping a system that suited him perfectly.
Each slash, thrust, and block was refined to maximize efficiency and power, tailored to how he moved and fought. It wasn't flashy, but it was terrifyingly effective. And the best part? It worked.
It was easier for Max to build upon sothing solid like Elite Sword Arts than to forge a path entirely on his own at this stage. After all, he knew he lacked the battle experience of swordmasters who'd walked the path for decades. But with what he'd created, the results spoke for themselves—and Max couldn't help but feel more than satisfied with how far he'd co.
"You! How can you be so strong?!" Levi's voice rang out, filled with disbelief and frustration. The despair in his tone cut through the lingering silence, and Max turned his head slightly to look at him. His expression remained calm, almost indifferent.
Max gave a light shrug. "It is how it is," he said simply, not offering any explanation, not trying to rub it in.
Levi stared at him for a long mont, then let out a deep, defeated sigh. "I admit defeat," he said, his voice low but clear. With that, he stepped down from the arena, the crowd parting as he passed, while Max's Essence Stone glowed faintly once more, gaining another steady stream of Life Essence.
"Damn this kid," Elliot muttered under his breath, his fists clenched at his sides. He hadn't expected this. Not at all.
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