*BOOM!*
Seven's twin blades collided with Rio's sword, and a massive shockwave was produced.
Despite being lower in rank, Rio refused to budge a single inch of ground and was fighting equally with a peak S-ranker.
"The previous attack did break the armor, but it didn't injure him... If it were a living creature, it would have surely hurt him for sure...'
'Don't tell me... This person is...'
[Elemental Sword Art: Thunder Type: Thousand Lightning Bursts!]
Rio slightly bent his knees and assumed his stance, launching a thousand thrust attacks in a matter of milliseconds.
He used his insanely high speed and strong body to his full advantage, making each of his attacks as powerful as any other S-ranker!
And as his sword was infused with sword intent, Rio offensive capabilities are by no means weaker than a Peak S-ranker despite being at rank A.
[Skysplitter Sword Art: Repelling Starry Sky!]
Despite Rio's powerful attacks, Seven also refused to back down.
He swung his sword and twisted his wrist to such angles that he could deal with Rio's thrust attack more easily.
His body moved with such speed that even Rio was amazed by it; all of Rio's thrust attacks were deflected instantly, and the powerful thunder elementals were sent flying in all directions.
Seeing the opening, Seven immediately lowered his head a bit and kicked Rio in the stomach with all his might.
[Skysplitter Sword Art: Poisonous Hell!]
A small pointed knife suddenly emerged from the sole of the other party's boot.
But Rio didn't care about it and let it fall on him; instead, he swung his sword upwards to attack the other party's head instead.
'Don't take me for an ordinary swordsman; I have sword intent!'
The moment Seven's boot's blade hit Rio, it snapped into two, and the sword intent from Rio's body directly went to the other party's leg by force!
*BOOOM!*
"Hoh? You dodged it... If it were an ordinary S-ranker, I would have killed him right there... You are above the average ones, I would say..."
Recently, Rio's sword intent mastery went above 90%, and that has unlocked a very overpowered ability for him.
Whenever Rio spreads his sword intent all over his body, his sword heart also reaches a higher synchronization with him, and his body literally becomes a 'weapon'.
Currently, Rio is at 91% at Sword Intent Control; thus, when he uses this method, his body is basically 91% that of a weapon.
'I have already figured out my final path... If I reach perfect sword intent and merge it with the 'Imperfect Sword Heart', it will become 'perfect' in all sense...'
'At that point I would become a complete 'weapon', a 'sword' in mind and in body with no emotions and no worldly desires left...'
'Sounds powerful, but that would mean I would be sacrificing my 'humanity' for all this... I guess that's the price you pay to become strong...'
Even though he's not reached perfection yet, Rio's body is nearly a complete weapon by this point.
In other words, if you attack him when he's covered in sword intent, it would be like you are punching a sword's blade out of your own free will.
It would not harm Rio, but the opponent will get injured instead; it's a completely automatic counterattack and defense mechanism that is very difficult to bypass.
'I was worried about Alverto bypassing my shadow robe, but now that my shadow robe is embedded with sword intent, this is a perfect defense against his 'bypass' type abilities...' "I see, so you indeed weren't a living creature after all... just as I expected..." Looking at Seven, who had jumped away to dodge, Rio was able to confirm his theory.
The moment Seven tried to kick him, the sword intent counterattacked, directly destroying his leg in an instant; moreover, Rio's sword attack was also quick; it directly hit his helmet and sent it flying.
Seven realized that Rio's sword intent would destroy his body from inside out, thus the cut of his leg before Rio's sword intent can invade his body any further.
Then he jumped away.
And now that there was no helmet blocking the sight, Rio could see the other party's face. "As I thought, an undead..."
Inside that dark black armor was just a skeleton, and a few pieces of rotting meat attached it, nothing else.
Seven didn't even have a living body; it was just an undead skeleton being controlled by some necromancer.
'This person must have been a very skilled swordsman when he was alive; otherwise, there's no way he could keep up with me for so long...'
'With my current level, I can kill S-rankers more easily than this...'
Rio has no doubt about his own combat capabilities.
The gap between an A-ranker and an S-ranker is indeed very wide, but Rio has so many tricks
up his sleeve that the big gap has been completely filled by him.
His sword intent and sword heart alone make him truly overpowered.
Calling Rio an A-ranker is an insult at this point; he's more of a pseudo-S ranker who's only a single step away from breaking through to S rank.
"No wonder you didn't bleed when my earlier attack grazed your waist... Normally, that attack would have been enough to completely destroy a person's internal organ..."
blood all over the place, and
"If it was a living creature, they would have been coughing the unbearable pain would have tortured them to death by now..."
First of all, Rio is basically 91% a weapon now; he's not going to be soft on enemies; a weapon does not know what sympathy.
Secondly, Rio has nearly lost all emotions; he can be incredibly cruel to his enemies without even noticing or feeling anything about it.
And lastly, Rio's forcefully pushed an immense amount of time elements inside the Seven's body when his sword grazed his waist earlier.
If it was anyone else, the time elementals would have hit their organs and turned everything into powder, giving the opponent a cruel death.
Not only the 'Time Type' but nearly all of Rio's sword skills are instant death type skills, which are meant to kill an opponent in the fastest way possible, no matter if it's cruel or not.
'If they are able to use an undead of this caliber, then they definitely have a very powerful necromancer among their ranks...'
'Fighting others is easier... But dealing with a necromancer of this caliber will prove to be more difficult...'
Rio placed his sword above his shoulder and took his stance.
'Whatever, I will finish this one first-'
Before Rio could attack the other party, Seven stood up on his one leg, and Miasma appeared
out of the floor and the walls of the 'Spire of Ascension' and covered him all over. Rio's sword intent had turned the other party's severed leg into powder, but the miasma
suddenly started to heal the other party and even repair his broken body on the spot.
'You think I will let you do that and will just stand here quietly?'
[Elemental Sword Art: Light Type: Darkness Repulsion!]
Rio covered his sword in condensed light elementals, then enhanced them with sword intent
and fired a massive beam of light elementals along with a thrust attack.
Miasma is made of dark elementals; thus, light elementals are the best when it comes to
repelling them away and purifying their effects.
Rio stopped the miasma from healing the undead skeleton any further and used the light elementals to purify all the miasma in the vicinity!
Even the undead skeleton's body started to burn and evaporate in the presence of that shining
sword.
Still, it's leg was healed, and the miasma was successfully giving it a power buff before it
faded away in the presence of light elementals.
[Skysplitter Sword Art: Sky splitting slash!]
Seeing that Rio was going to use those light elementals against him, Seven raised his sword above his shoulder and then swung it downward with immense force.
The broken debris in the area was blown in the air due to wind pressure created by the attack,
and the dust in the air blocked the light magic for Seven.
[Skysplitter Sword Art: Death Scissor!]
With his swords crossed, Seven rushed towards Rio, attempting to cut him with them as if he
were cutting paper with a large scissor.
But the sword intent got in the way once again.
"As I said, that isn't going to work on me... Learn a legendary technique or something first; otherwise, it's useless against me..."
[Elemental Sword Art: Light type: Explosion of purifying light!]
Rio completely ignored the other party's attacks and instead thrust his sword into the other party's chest and forcefully embedded an immense amount of light elementals into the other
party's body!
'Explode-'
Just when his body was about to explode from the immense amount of light magic, the other party caught Rio's sword embedded in his chest with his hand and forced Rio to stay near him. 'Hmm? He's trying to get me hit by my own attack when the explosion happens... and as it's my own attack, the light elementals have a chance of passing through my sword intent
shield...'
'How cunning...'
*BOOOM!!*
A massive explosion of immense magnitude happened, the light elementals that Rio
forcefully embedded in the other party's body burst apart and an extremely powerful shockwave spread in all directions!
Debris flew in the air like crazy, and the dust cloud spread far and wide.
"Phew... barely dodged it..."
Standing far away from it all, Rio wiped the sweat from his forehead and heaved a sigh of
relief.
'That guy nearly got me... Thankfully, he didn't know that I can actually de-summon my sword at will and summon it again...'
Rio immediately de-summoned his sword at the last minute and retreated far away. The other party not only took advantage of his own magic but also tried to self-destruct and
cause even more damage.