SWING. SWING. ZZZZZZZZ.
Ali's lightsaber screamed through the air, each strike shattering the sound barrier as it collided against Mateo's lightning spears. Sparks cascaded like fireworks every time black aura met crackling blue. Mateo kept his distance, footwork precise, using the extended reach of his twin weapons to force Ali back by mere inches.
Ali pressed harder, black aura seething and thickening around his saber with every strike, the red core devoured until it was nothing but a beam of pure shadow.
Mateo suddenly kicked off the tree branch, landing in the clearing below. Ali descended after him like a falling meteor, saber reared high overhead.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM.
The impact was cataclysmic. Mateo blocked with crossed spears, but the force drove him into the earth. Soil cracked and split like glass. A ten-meter crater swallowed them both, shockwaves ripping outward. Towering trees were sheared in half, their trunks exploding into splinters. Stone boulders were pulverised into dust.
Ali didn't relent. He struck again. And again. His attacks flowed like a storm with no pause, no rhythm to predict, each swing heavier than the last. He didn't need to breathe, didn't need to think — only advance.
Mateo's spears shuddered with every clash. His arms vibrated numb, the lightning cores faltering. 'I can't… hold them materialised much longer'.
Ali lunged in, twisting for a low cut that carved a furrowed trench through the ground. The blade annihilated soil and stone as it climbed upward in a devastating arc.
But this time, Mateo didn't block.
His form flashed light blue—and vanished.
He reappeared fifty meters away, both spears raised overhead. His voice thundered across the battlefield:
"Enchantment: Damage Amplification!"
Twin circles ignited around his biceps, glowing with intricate runes. Blue light washed over his arms, hardening his muscles, feeding raw power into his strike.
The lightning around the spears changed, shifting from storm-blue to blinding white, so bright the world dimmed around it.
THROW!
Mateo hurled them with every ounce of strength. The air screamed as the spears streaked across the battlefield, tearing through space itself.
Ali dropped his lightsaber mid-motion, aura vanishing as his hands shot outward.
The ground shuddered. Two colossal trees, each over a hundred meters tall, ripped free of their roots with a violent wrench. Their trunks groaned, leaves tearing, as they toppled in front of him like collapsing towers.
ZZZZZZZZZ—BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The spears detonated against the falling giants, unleashing an inferno of lightning and fire. The world vanished in a blinding explosion, the blast wave flattening the forest in every direction.
Through the curtain of fire, a shadow emerged. Ali burst from the blaze, leaping straight toward Mateo with his saber reforged in hand. His black blade cut through the smoke, a predator emerging from hellfire.
Mateo's grin widened. He pointed both index fingers at Ali like a pair of guns.
"Lightning Guild Spell: Thunder Gun!"
Twin orbs of white condensed at his fingertips—then fired.
VZZZZZZZZZZ.
Two hyper-focused beams of blue lightning lanced forward like lasers. They carved through the burning trees with surgical precision, vaporising bark, exploding wood, disintegrating stone. The beams tracked Ali relentlessly, adjusting with every twitch, every step.
Ali darted tree to tree at breakneck speed, his Force Sense guiding him milliseconds ahead of death. He moved like a phantom, always just outside the kill-line, each jump faster than the last.
Mateo's eyes narrowed, head snapping left, then right, then left again as he tracked Ali's blurring form. 'Too fast. He's—'
A blur behind him.
WHOOSH.
The Inverted Spear of Heaven. It had crawled free of the soil and lunged at him like a serpent.
Mateo didn't flinch. He caught the spear barehanded, lightning dancing across his palms. His grin stretched wider as his electricity flowed into the chain, searing it alive, and with a spin he swung the spear back toward Ali.
The weapon howled, crackling with fused lightning and malice.
But Ali ducked beneath it. His movement wasn't desperate — it was surgical. Guided by Force Sense so sharp he was weaving through Mateo's thoughts before they left his brain. Every physical attack was seen before it even began.
Ali's saber lashed upward, an execution strike, aura devouring the blade in shadow.
Mateo vanished again. His body flashed and reappeared fifty meters away, a smear of lightning afterimages left behind.
But Ali's eyes didn't move to the remnants. His gaze locked directly onto Mateo's new position… before Mateo had even finished materialising.
Ali was anticipating future movement And Mateo knew it.
The moment Mateo opened his eyes in his new location, his instincts screamed. Something was wrong.
His gaze flicked sideways—too late.
SHHHKKKKKK!
Two thick arms wrapped in suffocating black aura pierced through his chest from behind. The energy alone was so heavy and violent it shredded his torso into fragments with sheer pressure, bones snapping, flesh ripping like wet paper.
Mateo's body convulsed, but his lips only curled into a feral grin.
Ali stared into his side-glance with cold indifference, his eyes narrowing. 'Something's not right…' His Force Sense shrieked in alarm as he tried to wrench his hands free.
But Mateo's fingers closed tight around Ali's wrists like shackles.
"It's gonna hurt," he hissed, eyes gleaming with madness—then his entire body dissolved into raw lightning.
KRRRAAAAAAAAACK!
The world went white as Ali was engulfed in a raging storm. Bolts ripped through him, crawling under his skin, burning his flesh black. His muscles seized, bones rattled, nerves screamed.
Ali clenched his fists, every vein standing out like carved stone, his jaw locking shut as he bore the torture. Not a single cry escaped him.
Seconds stretched like an eternity. Then the storm ebbed.
Ali straightened slowly, skin hissing with smoke. The charred surface cracked, flaked, and fell away—revealing fresh flesh beneath. His body healed before Mateo's attack had even fully faded.
His eyes, however, darkened to something unrecognisable.
'That… hurt like hell.'
Ali's Force Sense surged outward, expanding through the forest like invisible waves. But there was nothing. No heartbeat. No trace of Spirit. No hint of Mateo anywhere.
Above him, suspended high in the air, faint sparks outlined a geometric cage. Thin strands of lightning connected into a perfect cube, pulsing faintly.
Inside sat Mateo, invisible to the outside world.
"Lightning Guild Spell: Lightning Escape," he muttered, hands clasped in concentration. From within the lightning box, no eye nor sensory skill could pierce through. He was untouchable as long as he maintained it.
A smug thought crossed his mind. 'One of the guild's treasures. Reserved only for apostles and the high seat members… protection for the chosen few. And I have it.'
His fingers blurred through hand signs.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Clone."
A chunk of his massive Spirit reserves was used, in Mateo's Spirit realm one could see brilliant Blue liquid flow like electricity inside a huge Glass shaped like a Lightning bolt suspended in the air. Blue light shattered into sparks, condensing beside him into a second Mateo, alive with static.
—
On the ground, Ali's aura erupted again, black tendrils enveloping his body like a living shadow. His chain whirled, slicing the air with a high-pitched shriek.
'He's here. Somewhere.'
Ali turned on instinct, spinning the chain in a devastating upward sweep.
CRASHHHHHH!
Three massive trees exploded into halves as the chain carved through them like butter. Forest debris rained down, dirt and branches scattering in all directions, as Ali's swing cleared a wide swath of devastation.
ZIP. ZIP.
Two thin bolts of lightning lanced toward him like sniper shots. Ali twisted sharply, weaving between them, feeling the heat graze his hair as both bolts slammed into the ground behind him.
KABOOOOOOM!
Twin eruptions ignited, a wave of fire and smoke tearing upward.
From the rolling cloud of debris, a figure emerged—untouched, smiling. Mateo stepped forward leisurely, flipping a coin in the air. Gold glinted through the haze, a lightning bolt engraved deep into its surface. Sparks crackled along his fingers as if drawn to it.
"You know," Mateo said casually, his voice carrying through the ruin, "this was given to me when I was first named Apostle of the Lightning God." He tossed the coin once more, catching it with practiced ease.
Ali tilted his head, chain coiled in hand, his voice cold and mocking. "They didn't take it back when the lightning God discarded you?"
Mateo smirked, eyes glinting at the barb.
Ali snapped his chain forward, the steel serpent lashing out with deadly speed. Mateo simply flipped the coin again—blue sparks leapt from his hand, connected with the coin, and froze it mid-air.
CRACK! ZZZZZZZZT!
From the suspended coin, threads of lightning burst outward, intercepting Ali's chain and hammering into it with brutal force. The backlash sent the weapon hurtling back, whistling through the air as Ali retracted it just before it snapped into the trees.
Mateo plucked the coin back out of the air, holding it up between two fingers.
"It lets me store lightning attacks for later use." His grin widened, almost wolfish, as the coin shimmered with veins of bottled storms. "Can you guess how many I've saved up in here?"
He vanished in a flash.
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