"Sounds like a challenge." Damien narrowed his sable-tinted gaze, confronting the old fool with hardened resolve. Withdrawal was out of the question. Raptured Blink was too slow. His body would have been cleaved in half before he could be teleported out of the exclusion zone.
The sixth Paragon was the chief of Block 6, the renowned Sentinels of the SIGIL Headquarters. If stubborn were a man, he would have been crowned the one and only.
According to the various fragments of information scattered throughout the Federal Web, his name was Dante Espada, a swordmaster capable of slicing obstacles and enemies into a thousand pieces.
He was an elder who wasn't to be underestimated.
Even bits of information regarding old Dante's Brand were rare and difficult to come by. So, unfortunately... Damien was ignorant of the sixth Paragon's unique capabilities. Regardless of his inexperience, however, he was confident in surviving the Paragon.
He had long graduated from being a helpless fool who could only rely on a single summoned monster. Though confidence doesn't imply carelessness. He needed to be cautious against the sixth Paragon.
"I am a member of Block 7, the second subordinate of the seventh Paragon, Miss Alastair." The edges of Damien's lips curved into a subtle smile. The sword-wielding Paragon furrowed his eyebrows and questioned with a tinge of oppression.
"Is that a threat, Aberrant?" His words echoed throughout the devastated landscape left behind by the battle between Damien and the long-decimated mercenary group. Although it was, in reality, a massacre.
"How could I be threatening a fellow senior? I'm just warning you." Damien chuckled as he didn't believe his words to be a threat. He was merely informing his senior of who his superior was.
"It doesn't matter if you belonged to that brat. An Aberrant must die before my blade." Without wasting a moment, Dante shifted his posture and lowered his stance.
In a fraction of a second, he lunged forward and vanished from the spot. Damien squinted his eyes and called for all of his summoned monsters. Against a swordsman, distance was something that needed to be taken into account.
But against such instantaneous speed, there was only one path forward.
'Hound! Use Inferno...' That was to destroy everything in front of him and create a great divide. Something that couldn't be avoided through speed.
The Hellhound growled and lunged forward while its body gleamed in crimson and amber light. The temperature of the nearby surroundings swelled as its canine body burned with radiance.
Dante halted his movements and appeared five meters in front of the summoned monster. He wasn't inexperienced against aetheric beasts, but the one in front of him seemed to differ from the usual.
'Interesting... This brat can control aetheric beasts?' He raised his eyebrows, staring at the monstrous hound. As the blinding light got stronger, a fiery inferno of crimson flames surged outward.
It was an AOE attack, a personalized skill of Hellhound known as Inferno.
Dante retreated like a blur and made distance between himself and the Aberrant. Although stubborn, a veteran like him was cautious and packed with decades of experience. There was a reason he became the sixth Paragon despite being over 60 years old.
The temperature rose to extreme levels, forcing the Paragon to watch his target from a distance. His wrinkled eyes tightened, observing with scrutiny, 'No wonder that white-haired brat pulled this Aberrant under her banner.'
The nearby corpses and the swaying grass burned to dust and ashes. Dirt melted under the extreme heat while the air swelled into pure plasma. The Hellhound stood between them like the gatekeeper of hell.
"As expected, he isn't to be underestimated." Damien gazed upon the black-suited elder who remained unharmed and unbothered. It appears that the Paragon wasn't taking him seriously.
In any case, dividing them was a field of blazing Inferno. But it wouldn't last long, meaning that the clock was ticking for the young man.
Above the two clashing individuals, a streak of starlight descended from the heavens while a deep and bellowing roar echoed throughout the skylines of the ruined city. Finally, his two-star summoned monsters have arrived.
Realizing the shift in the atmosphere, Dante glared at the black-suited young man and felt that he needed to kill him as quickly as possible. Turning his attention towards the Hellhound, he squinted his eyes and vanished in a blur.
The guarding Hellhound was immediately cleaved in half, its body divided into two separate pieces. The Paragon appeared in front of Damien, slashing his blade downward.
But before his blade could reach a hair's breadth from the young man, a giant reptilian jaw swooped beside him. It appeared out of nowhere, without warning. Dante frowned and used his leg to halt his momentum before leaping back.
He landed with a thud, staring at the flying aetheric beast guarding the Aberrant. 'A dragon? No, it doesn't look like one.' In the New World, aetheric beasts resembling mythical creatures weren't rare.
Even then, it was fascinating to see one appear like a mythical legend from the bottom to the top. Unfortunately, old Dante wasn't here to enjoy the intriguing sights of the New World.
"Wyvern, buy me time," Damien commanded while employing Raptured Blink onto himself. Distance was needed if he wanted to survive against a Paragon. At any rate, Wyvern roared at the swordmaster and blasted flames towards the old bastard who dared to attack its master.
Dante backed away, creating distance. Although large, the Wyvern was fast. It felt like a hawk, swift and calculating. Nevertheless, in front of him, it was nothing more than an overgrown lizard.
"I shall sever you into a thousand pieces!" He shifted his stance and charged forward while reality splintered into pieces above the Aberrant. A giant black hand descended, enveloping the area with black mist.
On the other hand, Wyvern understood that it stood no chance against the puny human in front of it. It didn't hesitate to utilize its only advantage, which was flight. The Wyvern's massive wings flapped, dispersing the black mist.
It hovered in front of Dante, blowing another torrent of scorching flames towards him. He easily dodged the surging blaze, fading with a blur and reappearing beside the Wyvern.
"Fall!"
His blade beheaded the overgrown lizard instantaneously and returned to his former location with the same unbothered appearance as before. The elder swordsmaster cannot be taken lightly.
Damien felt the gentle breeze stirring strands of his pitch-black hair, which was embraced by his fedora. He stood over a decrepit rooftop, staring at the Paragon in the distance. Close combat wasn't something he was interested in using against the swordmaster.
Instead, commanding his summoned monsters was where his talent lay.
'To be honest, I'm glad that I didn't run away.' He felt his abilities and mindset hit a plateau. If he wanted to grow, he must unshackle themselves.
The perfect way to do so was to fight against someone stronger than him in a battle of life and death. 'I wouldn't have discovered that I could use command seals to skip the recovery duration of the killed summoned monsters.'
As the edges of his lips curved into a smirk, the earth cracked as a howl escaped from its depths. Hellhound returned from annihilation, awaiting the command of its master.
In the skies, a Wyvern emerged from the buildings, its roar bellowing across the ruined skyline of Manhattan. The second two-star summoned monster also made its landing, a mechanical abomination.
The Scorpion Tank.