Rising god

Baines’ mind churned in an absolute focus, calculations racing as he faced the Iron Brotherhood’s seventh-star grandmaster. He could throw large attacks; however, his enemy was fast enough to dodge them all. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Baines charged,

"So you want this the hard way." The man’s eyes glowed as he watched Baines’ approach. When Baines was about five paces away, Baines suddenly tore through space to reach the man,

Clang...

"Oh!" The man was surprised at the sudden attack, but he was able to block the attack, his aura flaring. His sword met the grandmaster’s dagger, yet the impact rattled, but he didn’t stop for a moment and swung his sword again to the left. Once again, the dagger was there to block.

"Oh!" The grandmaster’s eyes glowed red, surprised but blocking effortlessly. Baines swung left, then up, using Changing Sword to deceive—feinting left, striking right, then down—but the grandmaster matched every move, his astral energy, a hallmark of a grandmaster, humming dangerously as it parried his moves.

Clang! Each clash shook Baines’ frame, the enemy’s dagger a blur of deadly precision. "Not bad," the grandmaster sneered, pushing Baines back. A swing grazed Baines’ cheek, blood dripping, the cut burning like fire. "But it’s not enough." With another swing, a cut appeared on Baines’ left shoulder, drawing blood.

The enemy had begun attacking.

Baines didn’t flinch, activating his indigo scarf’s effect, lightening his body, and tapped the ground, retreating as the grandmaster surged forward, daggers slashing in a relentless barrage.

Baines dodged critical strikes, the scarf’s grace saving his vitals, but lesser blows tore his arms, blood spraying, his flesh parting with wet squelches.

Not retreating anymore, he met the attack.

Clang!

"You even come this distance." The man thought Baines would retreat with all his attacks.

’I have to do damage while I can,’ Baines thought grimly as he felt his body rattle, unleashing a pulse of violent wind exploding outward, shoving the grandmaster back, his armor sparking, and a flicker of surprise in his face.

Baines drew his bladeless sword with his left hand. "Torrential Slash: Bleeding Horizon." With the technique, tornadoes of wind erupted, carving deep gashes in the ground, the air howling with razor-sharp gusts. Baines didn’t stop and used both blades to throw wind tornadoes at the enemy.

Slash...Slash...Slash

The grandmaster countered, his twin daggers slicing through the tornadoes with three wild slashes, blood-red astral energy shredding them.

"Wind attacks?" His voice came from the settling dust. "We heard the Silver’s vault was raided. Was that you?" he laughed loudly and came out, unscathed, his armor still glowing molten.

’Tch, useless.’ Baines cursed, his eyes still calm and calculating. The wind didn’t even do any damage, and now his enemy had two daggers.

The grandmaster attacked again, daggers a blur.

Clang! Baines suddenly lifted his blade and blocked to his right, but the force drove him back, his boots skidding through blood-soaked rubble.

"You saw that?" Amused, the man attacked again.

Once again, Baines was pushed back with a flurry of attacks. At this point, his eyes weren’t doing so much to stalk the enemy; they struggled to track the speed, so he utilized his other senses to watch.

The wind’s slightest shift signaled a dagger from his blind spot, and he moved his blade to that spot. When it was silent, it came to him like a picture, and when it was too fast, he avoided his vital areas. He parried restlessly, but his body lagged, slashes carving his shoulder, his blood gushing, and muscle tearing.

When he had the chance, he used every technique he knew from Flashburst to Heaven Arc to Dimension Tear. However, none of them worked against them.

Once in a while, some attacks hit him; however, none of them worked on the man. He used astral energy to cut through everything, and for those he couldn’t cut, he blocked or evaded them with precision.

"Alright, we’ve played enough," the grandmaster growled, the air thickening with death’s scent, his astral energy forming an invisible domain. There was no visible change, but his voice echoed from all directions, disorienting. "Let’s see if you can avoid this."

Baines immediately opened his eyes with his soul energy to track his movement as he swung randomly.

It would have been dangerous and all; however, the enemy was overestimating himself because Baines couldn’t see him and was swinging recklessly.

’I can see his soul outline, but my soul energy is still small to cause any damage, but I can still do something.’

He had to be quick about it, before the enemy reached him, and realized anything. He quickly raised his sword,

’Cut, cut, cut, cut,’ Baines muttered the chants and swung,

Absolute cut, 6th move: Phasing cut.

However, this time, he added his seven years’ worth of soul energy. The man raised his blade to block the fleeting attack, which looked a bit dangerous than normal.

BOOOOOOM!

The cut slammed into the grandmaster’s chest, his body hurled back, armor cracking.

"AHHHHHHHH!" The domain came to an abrupt close and keeled in pain.

"YOU FUCKER...I’LL KILL YOU," he roared, pain twisting his face, blood spurting from his mouth, eyes blazing red with war’s belief. His astral energy lashed out, a chaotic whip crashing into Baines, fracturing ribs, blood spraying as he staggered. This was the first significant attack since the beginning, and it had dealt damage.

"Guhhhh..." Baines struggled as he was pushed back by the energy.

Since his soul energy couldn’t cause damage to his enemy’s soul, what did he attack? His streams. With an attack that ignored the physical barriers, it went straight to the target, one of his energy streams.

Baines pressed points on his battered and bloody body, muttering, "Coagulate." Blood surged.

His eyes turned crimson, veins bulging as the blood rushed with immense speed around his body. His physical abilities doubled for an hour, at the cost of a day’s immobility. It was among the set of skills he learnt from the blood book.

’My aura has gone down by half, alongside my mana. Now I only have aging reversal and absolute techniques. The battle starts now.’ With his two blades, he steadied himself and watched his enemy emerge, his face displaying all fury, and his war’s belief active.

"YOU’RE DEAD!" The grandmaster charged, his daggers a storm of astral fury.

BOOOOOOOM!

Baines blocked, the ground cratering beneath, debris flying, his arms trembling under the force.

Energy whipped wildly, shredding nearby walls, marble dust mixing with blood. Baines unleashed three magic circles overhead, Withering Rain pouring down, black droplets hissing, decaying the ground into smoking craters. The grandmaster weaved through, his armor sizzling as drops grazed him, flesh melting, bone exposed. He screamed, pain fueling his madness, and slashed, cutting Baines’ thigh, blood fountaining, muscle torn.

Their blades clashed, each hit a thunderclap, blood spraying with every strike.

...

In the distance, the surviving blightroot family members, soldiers, led by Gilbert, watched the battle with Baines and the iron brotherhood member.

Initially, their hearts had churned when they saw another 7th star enemy that wasn’t in the halls. The situation was maddening. They didn’t have any 7th star to go against any of them. Gilbert could only act as the figurehead protector while helplessly watching Baines in a losing battle.

’Come on,’ With each clash where it seemed Baines was in the upper hand, he kept cheering. If Baines won this, he could go in and assist the others in the hall.

Raul approached him with his disheveled hair and shouted, "What are you doing about this?"

Gilbert turned to face him, not understanding where his shout was coming from.

"Have you signaled the distress call?" Raul shouted, and it hit Gilbert hard.

’Yes, the sun star.’ He turned around as if looking for it, when his butler approached, holding it.

"Ah, you..." Gilbert wanted to start thanking when Raul shouted, "Give me that." He snatched it and activated it.

"Now, I just hope they arrive on time," Raul muttered at the severity of the situation. The truth was, there was nowhere for them to run to. So they hoped for anything that either the 7th division would win or stall time before help arrived; if not, the blightroot line would end today.