Ashenfog was unable to understand what Alex had done or how he had disappeared from everyone's senses and arrived at the other side when he had been clearly standing on the other end the entire time.
Alex had told him not to stop the attacks, which was why he had let the attacks pass through. He hadn't realized that Alex hadn't even been there in the first place.
On top of that, Ashenfog was beginning to realize that Alex was a lot stronger than he appeared. He could tell that the human had a very high battle power. Was that why the Celestials had brought him there as a guest?
He grew even more curious now.
Alex stepped away from Deathrime, letting the dragon deal with his shock all by himself.
"So, to reiterate," Alex explained. "Never trust your knowledge of what a human can and cannot do. Not in the way you can expect with a beast. As I said, they are unpredictable. I could show you a dozen other reasons why that is the case, but I think I should move along to the second reason."
As he said that, Alex brought out Midnight. The dark blade was presented for everyone to see.
"Unlike beasts, humans aren't born with any body part that they can use to attack or defend themselves. So, they have to rely on artifacts as a result. More often than not, it will be a weapon," Alex explained. "In my case, I use a sword, so I am a sword master. It is my claw, my fang, my horn. And unlike those actual things, weapons allow you to gain access to something known as Weapon Intent. That opens a whole other layer of strength to a human that you cannot prehend without ever fighting one."
Alex's words were meant for the entire arena, so he turned toward
Deathrime, speaking to him directly next.
"Have you yet fought with someone who can use any sort of Weapon Intent?" Alex asked.
The dragon shook his head. "Not exactly. There was a senior before who had learned Sword Qi. He was brought here for demonstrations and mock battles," he said. "But I was never among those that got to fight him."
"A beast?" Alex asked.
The dragon nodded.
"Well, that's something alright, but it wouldn't be the same even if you had fought the beast directly, since Sword Qi is still quite weak overall. Let me show you."
Alex's sword glowed with a white outline, as if light had suddenly been brought forth from the aura around him.
"This is the first stage of a successful sword master," he explained. "This stage of the sword is called Sword Intent."
Alex moved at an imperceptible speed, arriving right before the dragon and swinging before it could react.
He struck the dragon in the chest, sending it flying backward. The dragon crashed into a large barrier that had been prepared around the fighting arena so as to keep stray attacks from hitting those in the stands.
The dragon fell to the ground before finally gathering himself. He felt at his chest, seeing a small mark on his body. Only then did he realize that the attack hadn't been a genuine one at all. If it had, he would've likely been cut down.
"That is Sword Intent," Alex said. "You can only apply it around your sword, and thus it requires the cultivator to engage in closed cultivation if he wishes to make use of it."
"But the second stage takes care of that," Alex said as he raised his
sword. The white outline pletely covered the sword this time. "This is Sword Qi. This is what you saw previously from the beast." Alex swung his sword, sending a flying slash attack. Deathrime immediately formed frost silk threads, which he swung at the ining sword slash. The two attacks met and destroyed each other. When that happened, Deathrime realized that the attack was slightly stronger.
"Sword Qi is strong, but not as strong as the next stage," Alex said as Sword Qi began jumping out of his sword, forming an aura around
him.
Ashenfog raised an eyebrow to the side, genuinely impressed. He was an experienced beast and thus knew how difficult it was to learn Sword Aura. Any Immortal who had learned Sword Aura would usually be considered an acplished swordsman after all.
"Sword Aura allows me to add an actual Intent to my attacks, other than just the most basic Intent, giving them strange properties," Alex
said as he casually swung his sword.
The sword slash flew toward Deathrime, this time seemingly much stronger than before.
Deathrime knew he couldn't hold back, so he used one of his strongest techniques. The temperature dropped significantly in front of him, flakes of ice forming out of nothing. They converged before him a second later, forming a strong wall that almost seemed metallic on the other side.
The sword slash landed on the wall but failed to shatter it.
The ice wall had another property to it beyond just defense. It formed with an ability to reflect all attacks to a certain degree back to where
they came from.
However, no such thing happened.
The two attacks seemingly canceled each other out, with none
ing out on top.
Deathrime failed to understand what had just happened, but
Ashenfog and a few of the other Divinities around the room didn't
miss it.
'That attack, Ashenfog thought. 'It continued pressing on even after it
was stopped!
Alex's sword slash had been stopped, and a portion of it had been reflected as well. However, even when reflected, the sword Qi within the slash already carried the Intent to keep moving in the other direction, and as a result, the two forces canceled each other out in
the end.
Alex's sword slash had pletely countered one of the strongest defensive skills that belonged to the Winterborn Dragon's bloodline, and he barely even understood the importance of the situation.
He only raised his eyebrows and moved on.
"After Sword Aura, we move on to the next stage," he said as Sword Qi
freely appeared all around him.
"Sword Domain."
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