By the time the wind died down, nobody had time to question how Damien possibly gained the ability to cut through space.
Unlike the mostly defensive stance that he took throughout this battle and the even playing field that he and the Dragon Lord seemed to be on, Damien instantly started dominating with Mirage in his hand.
He dashed like a comet, a beam of light that only turned back into a person when he was ready to strike. His sword was fast and domineering, full of powerful strikes that sent the Dragon Lord tumbling backward.
At the same time, he was able to exhibit snake-like properties with his movements, dodging around the Dragon Lord's counterattacks and striking vital points to stagger him instead.
There was no set form to Damien's swordsmanship. There wasn't anything like a pattern that could be followed, because Damien was never a swordsman. The sword he picked up out of necessity covered itself in aura to acknowledge his struggle, but he never progressed to the esoteric realms that people like Long Chen had reached.
His swordsmanship was originally just a brutish mess of stabs and slashes, but that changed along with his personality. The current Damien knew how to be on both sides of the coin, so he was more varied in how he maneuvered the sword.
Like always, he based his movements on the countless sword styles he'd seen in the past and created something wondrous out of it.
The crowd was left in awe. The Dragon Lord was still fighting back, but Damien could be said to have a complete monopoly over the battlefield right now. He was drawing blood with almost every strike. His concepts of Nonexistence pushed against the Dragon Lord's physical body and the energy he shielded himself with, cutting through like it was only pressing against butter.
It looked like Damien could aim for the kill whenever he wanted to. However, since when was that his goal?
The Dragon Lord could tell that he was not losing stamina properly. Compared to his number of injuries, their actual effect was minimal. Damien was definitely striking him with a lot of power. The pain he felt was not an illusion. However, was he being…healed?
No, that was not possible. Instead, it was more likely that Damien was using the confinement properties of his energy to keep the wounds mostly sealed.
Was he trying to stall, or…
'...no, the expression on his face is that of a madman.'
There was a light in that man's eyes that craved blood. He seemed like an honorable person when they first met, but he changed the moment he saw blood.
He clearly wanted to torture his opponent before killing. 'You may be strong, but I will not allow myself to be tormented!'
He had committed many sins in this life. His greatest was not done through his own volition, but he was still willing to take responsibility for being fooled.
He did not want to die and kill everyone here. He would not give this enemy the right to kill him so mercilessly either.
The Dragon Lord was disallowed from having a will to live. In order to make him accept death in the arena, he had been placed in such a state. However, Damien's vulgar actions formed a different kind of flame in his heart.
He was fine with dying and he did not want to live, but if he was going to die, then he would not do it .
Damien grinned as he saw the light in his opponent's eyes change.
'Good. This is working.'
He originally put on the guise of a madman in case his methods came into question. Rather than having the curse trigger because he was stalling, he preferred to justify his actions with something plausible.
'To trick your enemy you have to trick your friend type situation, right? But I got something unexpected out of it.'
The will to fight that was now present in those previously hollow eyes was a good thing. Damien was now set up to slaughter the Dragon Lord whenever he wanted to. If he meaninglessly tried to extend the fight when it looked so one-sided, nothing would work.
Since the Dragon Lord looked like he wanted to fight back, Damien had an excuse to keep going.
'The main body decided to cheat, so it shouldn't take much longer.'
Until then, he could have a proper fight with the Dragon Lord.
That man was no longer just taking hits.
Rather, Damien was forced to jump back as a wave of power spread from the Area Lord's body.
The atmosphere turned red with the color of blood. The Dragon Lord's body morphed, becoming larger and larger until it filled up almost the whole arena.
A red dragon, a true incarnation of fire, appeared and aimed its hostility at Damien.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Damien's eyes widened as he was suddenly assailed by balls of fire that were more akin to stars than dragon's breath.
He jumped into the air and continuously dodged, but he couldn't stop the tips of his clothes from catching fire.
'So, Dragon Lord. Makes sense.'
He didn't have to question the name anymore.
This Area Lord had been in the Land of Nothingness to transform the very core of his origin into a part of this realm.
He was still a red dragon, strong and proud. However, any and all abilities of his bloodline were now laced with Nonexistence and compatible with the realm's laws.
'Yeah, this is the kind of boss battle I was looking forward to.'
The raging flames encompassed nearly the entire arena, but Damien's acute eyesight found him a path.
He dashed, his path like a spark of lightning striking towards the ground, and approached the massive creature.
The claws of a dragon swung out with the intent of turning his body into a paste, but Damien was prepared for it. Years of teleporting made it incredibly easy for him to mimic his former main ability in short-distance situations.
Damien was gone in one second and back in the next, standing on the dragon's back.
He pushed his sword down, but the sound he heard was not the one he wanted to receive.
As metal clashed against scales, massive spikes jutted out from the Dragon Lord's back. Damien was forced to jump again to avoid being impaled, but that was exactly what the dragon wanted.
He couldn't attack someone on his back, but he had been alive long enough to develop solutions to such obvious problems.
He flapped his wings in a strange pattern. Creating a draft of wind that flowed up onto his back and formed a jet that propelled anything there into the sky. The scaly thorns were drawn by the gust and became projectiles that aimed for Damien.
He observed the entire situation with a grin on his face. For the first time, the crowd's cheers didn't seem so ominous.
Even he had to admit that, in this moment, he was having fun fighting.
But it was fated to end soon.
The moment the main body caught Chaos, the Dragon Lord would also die.
So, he had to make the most out of this fight while it lasted.