Inside the SSA, Central area, Near the altar.
[Group No.2 has defected to the demons, all the groups are ordered to capture or defeat the betrayers and retrieve the intelligence they have stolen from the cabinet of a secret agent of humanity!]
[Time starts now: 59min, 59 sec.]
'It seems that they would need to knock out our team or make us surrender to win, hmm… it's gonna be troublesome…' (Rio)
Rio glanced at the three newbies standing behind him, they seemed nervous and anxious, certainly the type of people who die the fastest in a dungeon raid. Making them seem unreliable.
While Rio was contemplating others were not sitting idly to wait for him, Link glanced a little at Lia and Liam they seemed to be hesitating from making the first move….
'It seems I would have to start this on my own first, only then will they follow up.' (Link)
Before anyone else Link made his move, he assumed his stance, gathered mana on his fist, and flew like an arrow the ground under his feet cracked and made a huge crater, in the blink of an eye he was already in front of Rio.
[Dragon Arts: Reckless Rush!]
Rio was glancing at the three first-years thus he was a little late to react but he sensed Link gathering mana from the start:
[Elemental Sword Arts: Calming thunder!]
With Rio's sword swing, he seemed to have created a thunder shield, Link's fist collided with Rio's sword directly but Link was unharmed even after punching the sword with his bare fists.
Link smiled shrewdly and said in a loud voice:
"Goddamn you Rio! I didn't expect you to betray us! I always had a feeling that you were hiding something but this…. Unbelievable!!" (Link)
"I used to go easy on you before because I thought you were a friend but to think you will betray us! Today I will make you admit all your sins, die!!!!" (Link)
Rio tilted his head in confusion:
'What's gotten into him? Why is he acting like the righteous protagonist of some third-class novel, well… I might as well go with the flow then…' (Rio)
Rio glanced at Link with an expressionless face and replied:
"Well, I was getting bored, so I thought why not do something exciting-" (Rio)
[Dragon Arts: Consecutive hundred punches!]
[Elemental Sword Arts: Scattering wind breeze!]
Link's every punch carried the might to blast a hole in a small hill yet they were being deflected like nothing in front of Rio, but of course, the air pressure of these blows literally made the three first-years standing behind Rio fly away with air quite a few meters.
'What insane strength, is this guy still a human, even a berserk ogre would not have such strength in a casual punch, from the looks of it, he is still just using a little bit of his real power, it was right to not underestimate Link, this is insanity…' (Liam)
"I don't want to hear any excuses from someone who has left his humanity behind! You have trampled on my good feelings, you have broken my heart, cough cough I mean you have broken this friendship! Anyway Just die!" (Link)
Rio made a smug look on his face and teased:
"Just try, you loser, heh!" (Rio)
Looking at that smug face, Link really got irritated and now he became genuinely angry, veins appeared on his face and he looked terrifying even his group members stepped back a little due to his strong aura.
"Y-you dare call me Loser! Die!" (Link)
[Mana overload!]
The mana in the air trembled like crazy even Liam's mana shield spell became a little unstable which he casted to prevent his team members.
"Do you think I will let you do that and stand in wait for your transformation! Dreaming!" (Rio)
[Sword Intent!]
Rio swung his sword, his sword intent scarred in the air, and calmed the mana in an instant, he directly stopped Link from entering his overload mode, the mana scattered away and Link looked at Rio in shock, this was the first time his strongest skill had failed and it had failed miserably.
'I shouldn't miss this chance…' (Rio)
[Elemental Sword Arts: Piercing thunder!]
Thunder aura gathered on the tip of Rio's sword and Rio directly shot toward Link's eye:
'Hero without plot armor die the fastest, they die the most horrifying deaths…' (Rio)
[Silver Lion Swordsmanship: Defensive thrust!]
A pointed sword's tip collided with the tip of Rio's sword directly stopping Rio's attack effortlessly. A familiar voice rang in Rio's ears as he looked at the owner of the sword which has defended Link from his doom.
"When it comes to thrust attacks, I have more experience in that!" (Lia)
"heh, so you finally decided to move…" (Rio)
Lia ignored the grin on Rio's face and assumed her role too:
"I-I have nothing to talk about with a betrayer!" (Lia)
As Rio heard Lia's confident voice he tilted his head toward the left slightly, to avoid a punch carrying the power to blast his head off. It was a smooth and neat dodged as if he had expected it long ago.
"Tsk, you dodged that too, why can't I ever land a solid hit on you!? You slippery slime!" (Link)
Rio jumped back and created a little distance between the two:
'Standing there and fighting the two of them together will be a little difficult, better to distance myself…' (Rio)
[Intermediate Earth Magic: Crushing Gaint's hand!]
The spot Rio jumped to, suddenly a magic circle appeared there and a huge giant hand made of solid rock emerged from it as if it wanted to crush Rio in its grasp, it instantly tried to grasp Rio.
[Concentration!]
With his stats boosted Rio, directly jumped sideways and avoided the magic hand, and what followed was his sword attack:
[Elemental Sword Arts: Thundering fury]
A huge thunder arc was fired from Rio's sword that literally obliterated the magic circle by destroying its core and even created a neat cut in the nearby altar.
Rio glanced in the air and surely a wyvern was flying not far away, Liam was standing on its back with his team members and his staff was pointing towards Rio.
"Well don't forget about me, I also want to join the party!" (Liam)
'This is getting more troublesome by the moment, it would be difficult to protect the newbies while fighting the three of them….' (Rio)
….
General's Residence, Meeting hall, outside the SSA.
"This kid, ahem, I mean Rio, he seems to have skills on par with your son, Ashtel. Did you know about this…." (Neo)
Ashtel looked at the surprised face of Neo, he smirked a little and replied:
"Well you can say that I knew a little about it, but even I am surprised to see his strength, he may turn out to be the best rival for Link, moreover he still doesn't seem to have awakened a very important skill, I am amazed…." (Ashtel)
"Hmm, I also noticed that kid's talent when he scored second in last year's final exams. You see he is, Kevin's son, and you may have already guessed it, he has yet to awaken Kevin's main skill, perhaps there's a condition that hasn't been fulfilled yet, who knows~" (Raji)
Hearing the two of them Neo, nodded his head in realization and said:
"Well, that guy was a complete mystery to us back then, even I don't know how to awaken that skill, and this kid will have to find his own path it seems…" (Neo)
While looking at Rio on the screen, Neo's eyes narrowed, as if he wanted to see through Rio's every secret.
'Actually, this kid may have the potential to develop that skill much further than, Kevin did in his lifetime after all, sword geniuses like them rarely appear, he has even mastered sword intent at such a young age, he has insane sword aptitude…' (Neo)
(For your reference, generally, all swordsman in this world awaken sword aura when they reach C-rank, and only after reaching S-rank does one awaken his sword intent, even that is possible only, if your sword aptitude is at least S-rank or above.)
(But Rio is an anomaly, he awakened Sword Intent from the C-rank, it's like having a nuclear bomb-level attack power at level 1. Moreover, Sword intent doesn't consume any mana at all it totally depends on your spirit. It's just that overpowered, and Rio uses it like he's waving a toothbrush.)
…
…
Author's Notes.
Question of the day:
What would you like to focus on developing first if given the chance:
1. Your Rank (Well steady ones often make the best decisions…)
2. Sword Intent (High risk, high reward, can you take the risk of being left behind in rank by your peers…)
3. Others
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.