Chapter 54
A cloud of dust surged from the ground to the sky inside the massive one-hundred-meter-wide crater.
At its edge stood a figure, his clothes destroyed, leaving only his fighting pants.
His bare upper body was exposed, muscles sharply defined, one arm slightly damaged from the clash.
Lucas looked down at his arm, his twin blue-sun eyes narrowing as he sighed.
"At least I didn't damage my meridians. That would've been troublesome to deal with," he muttered.
He sensed his mana pool.
It was low, but he could still fight a little longer.
As the dust settled, Ezra became visible on the opposite side.
He too stood shirtless, his hand damaged far worse than Lucas's, though still usable.
Lucas wanted time to recover physically and regain some mana, so he spoke.
"The Keno spell is interesting. Can it also control space?" Lucas asked.
Ezra chuckled from several meters away.
"Trying to buy time, huh…" He stretched slightly, then said, "No, it doesn't control space."
He groaned in pain and continued,
"It converts stored kinetic potential into instant relocation. I can only move to places I can see. It can't go through walls or obstacles. The range is short, about twenty meters around me. It's extremely costly in mana and very taxing on the body. In battle, I can only use it twice, or my body would be destroyed. On a normal day, maybe three or four times."
Lucas frowned, curious."Why are you telling me this?"
Ezra smiled as he chanted,
[Keno Spell: Instant Transmission.]
In the next second, he appeared right in front of Lucas, already casting another spell to strike him down.
"Because I still have one use left."
[Keno Spell: Gravitational Shackles]
He cast it without a moment's delay.
Last time, Lucas had managed to react it, but not now.
As Lucas tried to blur away with Flash Step, the air around him turned thick and heavy.
Ezra focused the crushing force into a circle only ten meters wide.
Inside it, the weight of the world pressed down.
A person would feel like a mountain sat on their shoulders, their feet glued to the earth.
In the same breath, Ezra dropped into a fighting stance. His clenched fist burned with a deep, angry red light.
[Keno Secret Art: Impact Fist.]
The glowing fist smashed into Lucas's chest.
The world spun and went white from the pain.
The sound of his own ribs breaking filled his ears.
The punch was designed to wreck more than bone.
Its force shot through the body, scrambling the nerves and shocking the system into silence.
The target's body would lock up, paralyzed—for a few seconds or much longer, depending on their strength.
Lucas was thrown like a ragdoll.
He flew out of the crater and into the wall of trees beyond.
He smashed through trunk after trunk, tearing a long, raw scar into the forest floor before finally skidding to a stop.
Blood coughed from his lips onto the dirt.
Ezra was already moving, a streak of speed chasing after him.
He had to end this now, before his own energy ran dry.
He pushed his tired body to its limit.
He shot toward Lucas for a final blow.
Somehow, Lucas forced himself up onto one knee.
Blood ran from a cut on his forehead, painting streaks of crimson through his silver hair.
Ezra reached him, a hard smile on his face, and threw another world-shattering punch.
[Mana Spell: Musculature Weave]
Pure mana threaded directly into Lucas's muscles, weaving into his flesh.
Suddenly, he had perfect, powerful control over every movement, and his strength multiplied.
Ezra was a blur, moving faster than sight.
But Lucas moved faster.
He cast a shield spell just in time.
[Mana Spell: Revolting Mana]
A storm of wild, spinning energy wrapped around Lucas's body—a protective and dangerous whirlwind.
Ezra's fist, burning red once more, drove straight into it.
[Keno Secret Art: Impact Fist]
The punch hit the swirling barrier and stuck. It could not break through.
The force recoiled, snapping back into Ezra's own arm and shoulder, throwing him backward off balance.
Lucas let the spell drop.
He was already crouched, ready to sprint.
[Mana Spell: Flash Step]
His speed, already terrifying, shattered its old limits reaching 100 meters per second.
He crossed the distance in the blink of an eye and drove his own mana-packed fist into Ezra's stomach.
The hit sent Ezra flying backward, crashing through a line of trees.
In a flash, Lucas was in front of him again.
A brutal kick launched Ezra high into the air.
Ezra rocketed upward, a spray of blood hanging in the air behind him.
Before he could even think, Lucas was above him, a shadow against the sun.
The punches came then—a furious, unstoppable storm of blows.
Each hit cracked bone, each impact a thunderclap of pain.
No body could endure it.
Bones shattered as Lucas hammered him down from the sky like a falling star.
Ezra plummeted, slamming into the center of the crater with a force that shook the earth.
BOOOOM
Dust and rock exploded.
A new, smaller pit was blown inside the massive crater.
Lucas landed softly at its rim, looking down into the settling cloud of debris where Ezra lay broken.
Then, Lucas felt it—a tidal wave of raw power rising from the pit.
He knew, no matter how fast or strong he was now, he could not outrun what was coming.
He took a deep breath, planted his feet, and braced for the storm.
"Mana, hear my decree. Flow not as chaos, but as order. Bend not to foreign will, but to my domain. From the void of potential, I draw the unbreakable law."
From a distance, a burst of red energy erupted from where Ezra had landed. He stood up, the aura around him intensifying.
[Keno Secret Art: Second Gate – Unbound]
The dust vanished as Ezra wasted no time casting another spell.
[Keno Spell: Null Point Strike]
Using every remaining drop of mana, a black point formed at his fingertip.
His figure vanished, leaving shattered ground spreading fifty meters in every direction as his strength and speed reached terrifying levels.
At this moment, Ezra's speed rivaled Eleanor's, reaching one hundred and twenty meters per second, though Eleanor could reach Two hundred and fifty in her strongest form.
"Let the raging river find the still pond. Let the shattered light find the perfect prism. Let all force that enters be divided, dispersed, and dissolved into the calm from which it came," Lucas chanted.
Ezra's finger stopped just centimeters from Lucas's chest, moments from killing him outright.
[Mana Spell: Aegis]
A barrier formed, but it only lessened the impact.
Lucas had cast it too late.
If it had fully formed, the strike would have been completely blocked and Lucas would have won.
But fortune was not on his side.
The strike landed.
Null Point Strike
Effect: Ezra creates a microscopic point where kinetic energy is generated, controlled, amplified, redirected, and forcibly canceled upon contact.
In simple terms, it is destruction itself.
It causes localized internal collapse, shattering bones and cracking armor from the inside.
It was Ezra's ultimate technique, deadly to almost anyone it touched.
Only a handful of people could withstand it.
Most would have to defend or evade it entirely.
There was no massive explosion, no raging winds.
Everything went silent.
Lucas coughed up blood, his eyes turning lifeless for a brief moment as he collapsed.
It lasted only an instant.
Ezra canceled the spell before killing him outright.
Even so, he was impressed that Lucas was still alive as his body fell toward him.
"That was the best fight I've ever had, kid. Now rest. Don't move, or you'll surely die. Just rest and let your body do the work," Ezra said.
He closed the Second Gate, the powerful aura fading away.
Sitting down, he laid Lucas gently on the ground.
"Even so, it doesn't look like he'll live much longer if nothing is done," Ezra thought, unsure how to help someone standing at the edge of death.
But before he could act, someone appeared.
It was Tracy.