Chapter 38
The world held its breath.
The dust from the titanic mana explosion had finally begun to settle, revealing a landscape of shattered earth and scarred sky.
At the center of the destruction stood Lucas, his silver hair catching the wind, his katana gleaming with cold intent.
Across the crater, Peter's body crackled with furious lightning, the air around him humming with raw, electric power.
No words were wasted.
The time for talking had ended with the rain of blood from the fallen Iron Cultivator.
There was only the battle, and the will to survive it.
Lucas moved first.
[Mana Spell: Flash Step]
He vanished from his spot, appearing ten meters to Peter's left in the same instant.
But Peter was already reacting.
His Lightning Body spell granted him reflexes that matched Lucas's supernatural speed.
He pivoted, his lightning-wreathed fist lashing out in a brutal, crackling hook.
Lucas leaned back, the charged air singing as it passed centimeters from his face.
The sheer heat of it seared his skin.
He countered immediately, his katana a silver streak.
[Mana Spell: Slasher]
A crescent of condensed mana, sharp enough to split stone, shot from the blade.
Peter didn't try to dodge.
He roared, and the lightning gauntlets on his hands flared brightly.
[Lightning Spell: Stormwall]
A shimmering, crackling barrier of pure electricity erupted before him.
The mana slash hit it and detonated in a shower of blue and white sparks, the concussive force shaking the ground at their feet.
Through the dazzling aftermath, Peter lunged.
He was a bolt of living lightning, covering the distance in a blink.
Lucas met him head-on.
Katana met lightning-clad fist.
CLANG! CRACK-BOOM!
The sound was a deafening mix of ringing metal and thunder.
A visible shockwave pulsed outward, tearing up the already ruined earth in a fresh circle around them.
Lucas's muscles screamed under the impact.
Peter's strength, amplified by both his cultivation and his lightning, was monstrous.
But Lucas had his own advantages.
[Mana Spell: Body Reinforcement]
[Mana Spell: Body Enhancement]
His body hardened, his strength surged.
He pushed back, forcing Peter's fist away and spinning into a low, sweeping kick.
Peter leaped over it, but Lucas was already gone again.
[Mana Spell: Shadow Mirage]
Three identical Lucass split from the original, each darting in a different direction before charging Peter from all sides.
Peter's eyes, sharp with battle focus, scanned the illusions.
With a grunt, he thrust both hands downward.
[Lightning Spell: Ground Surge]
Jagged forks of lightning erupted from the earth in a wild circle around him, spearing through two of the mirages.
They popped like bubbles.
The real Lucas, however, had already used the distraction.
He was above.
[Mana Spell: Searing Lance]
A spear of blazing white mana materialized in his free hand.
He hurled it down like a javelin from the sun.
Peter looked up, his expression grim.
He crossed his arms above his head, lightning coalescing into a solid, circular shield.
BOOM!
The lance struck the shield and exploded.
The force drove Peter a foot into the ground, his boots carving trenches in the soil.
Smoke and electrical discharge clouded the air.
Lucas landed lightly, his mana eyes glowing fiercely, cutting through the haze to see his opponent.
Peter emerged from the smoke, his clothing singed, but his fighting spirit undimmed.
"Impressive tricks!" he shouted, a fierce grin on his face.
"But mana alone cannot withstand the storm!"
He clapped his hands together, and the sound was a thunderclap.
[Lightning Spell: Chain Bolt]
A thick, snapping rope of pure lightning shot from his palms, not aimed at Lucas, but at the ground around him.
It slithered across the earth with impossible speed, then erupted in a dozen different directions, creating a dancing, deadly web of electricity meant to cage and cook its target.
Lucas didn't try to outrun the forming cage.
Instead, he slammed the flat of his blade against the ground.
[Mana Spell: Revolting Mana]
A violent, invisible storm of raw mana exploded outward from his body.
It didn't have a specific element; it was pure, chaotic force.
The swirling mana collided with the lightning web, disrupting its form, causing bolts to sputter and veer off course.
The cage fractured.
Seizing the opening, Lucas shot forward through a gap.
But Peter was waiting for him.
[Lightning Spell: Gale Fist]
Peter's punch came not just with power, but with the screaming wind pressure of a localized hurricane.
It was like being hit by a lightning bolt and a tornado at once.
Lucas brought his katana up in a desperate parry.
SCREEE—BANG!
The impact was colossal.
Lucas felt the bones in his arms groan in protest.
He was lifted off his feet and hurled backward, skidding across the broken ground for twenty meters before digging his heels in.
His katana hummed, the metal superheated from the lightning strike.
Peter didn't let up.
He pursued, a relentless avatar of thunder.
Lucas knew he couldn't keep trading blows like this.
He needed to limit Peter's movements, to create a real opening.
As Peter closed in for another crushing strike, Lucas made a grasping motion with his left hand.
[Mana Spell: Astral Chains]
Glowing, semi-transparent chains of blue energy erupted from the air around Peter, snapping around his wrists, ankles, and torso.
They tightened instantly, their purpose not to hold his physical body with immense strength, but to bind his mana flow, to stifle the lightning at its source.
Peter snarled, his forward charge stumbling.
The lightning around his body flickered uncertainly.
He grunted, muscles bulging as he strained against the magical bindings.
He raised his katana, mana coalescing at its tip for a finishing strike.
But Peter's eyes blazed with defiance.
"You think a 7 Star Elite can be bound so easily?!" With a raw shout of effort, he forced his mana core to surge, overwhelming the chains from within.
[Lightning Spell: Overcharge]
Power erupted from him.
The Astral Chains shattered like glass, exploding into motes of blue light.
The resulting burst of energy was a sphere of blinding lightning that expanded outward, forcing Lucas to throw up a hasty Revolting Mana barrier to avoid being blasted away.
When the light faded, Peter stood panting slightly, the cost of breaking the chains clear.
But he was free, and his anger was now a cold, focused thing.
The playful tension was gone from the fight.
This was now a duel of annihilation.
He raised a single hand toward the sky.
The clouds above, began to swirl.
A deep, ominous rumble echoed, not from Peter, but from the heavens themselves.
[Lightning Spell: Heaven's Judgment]
Lucas looked up, his mana eyes widening slightly.
This was no simple bolt.
The very atmosphere was charging, coalescing into a pillar of celestial fury aimed directly at him.
He couldn't outrun this.
He had to counter it.
He planted his feet, sheathing his katana in a fluid motion and bringing both hands together.
He began to chant, pulling on every ounce of control his Mana Eyes granted him, drawing the ambient mana of the broken landscape toward him, shaping it into a defense that could shatter the sky itself.
The air grew heavy, charged with two opposing, catastrophic powers.
Peter's downcast hand began to slowly lower, guiding the building cataclysm above.
Lucas's form began to glow with an intense, steady blue light, a dense shell of compressed mana forming around him.