Clank! Clank!! Clank!!

Sounds of weapons clashing with one other reverberated in the air as Tristan fought against the elders. He was surprised and exhilarated by the fact that the Blood Synthesis sword he created was as reliable as a Tier 3 weapon.

However, he was still baffled as to why he was able to use this unique technique. This technique which could be dubbed as a trick had just entered his mind, and he immediately knew how to do them by instinct.

After brooding over the matter, Tristan could only think of one possible explanation. They were part of the memory fragments that he had absorbed.

He now knew for a fact that the higher the level of Katra he achieved, the stronger his soul would become. And the improvements on his soul would definitely affect and enhance his ability to control the [Blood Synthesis] ability, as per the memory fragment.

Facing the two fast-moving opponents that had attacked ferociously and gave him endless trouble, Tristan decided to create another sword to lessen the burden on himself.

Clank! Clank!! Clank!

After fighting for a while, Tristan realized that having to wield the Blood Synthesis weapons had actually increased the strength behind his attacks as he did not have to use his mind to control anything. Instead, all that was needed was his pure strength, something which he had an abundance of. Nevertheless, this was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

Just like every fight that Tristan went through, as the battle went on and the longer he fought, his body would slowly get used to his opponent's movements, which would result in the gradual changing of situations into his favor.

It wasn't that these two elders were not strong. In fact, Tristan could clearly feel that their strength and speed was on par with his blade master in Vanyar, a level that he couldn't even imagine fighting against months ago.

Both of them even had reached the same Fourth Stage of Katra as the blade master, but it was just unfortunate that the current version of Tristan was simply too much for them.

Previously, Tristan already had a very strong body - one that was comparable to a Stage 5 Katra practitioner like Janus. It was only after he met Virtaz that he knew his soul was simply too weak to completely control and unleash the full potential of his body.

Simply put, Tristan's current situation was similar to that of a child being given control over a supercar. Even though one couldn't deny that a supercar could easily topple over a normal car, the finesse of its controller also had to be taken into consideration.

Within just 2 minutes, Tristan felt as if he finally had full control of his body, which was swiftly followed by more changes as the fight became more one-sided with him on the winning end. The two elders who previously suppressed Tristan's strength now had a taste of their own medicine, as the latter's attacks were coming at them like an unstoppable flood.

Eventually, Dulos, who was the slower one of the two, couldn't handle Tristan's relentless attacks anymore and decided to cast his Tier 4 earth spell, [Greater Stone Skin].

In a matter of seconds, rocks covered his entire body as the man turned into a familiar-looking being. Though the spell caused his speed to become even slower, it gave him a chance of respite as he now had protection to stop Tristan's attacks.

Now, Dulos had the option to use his body as a shield to fight Tristan, and it didn't take him long to do exactly that.

Clank!!

Tristan's combo was abruptly stopped as one of his swords had lodged itself into Dulos. Fortunately, he had moved fast enough to take the sword away as well as dodging the dagger that came for his neck.

Afterwards, Tristan retreated a few steps back as he needed to reassess the situation and how to proceed. However, it was apparent that his opponents had no intention of letting him do so as they immediately went for him again.

With Dulos gladly putting himself as the shield, the dagger user elder chose to cast [Slipstream] on himself. The spell had increased the latter's speed so that it was on par with Tristan. Hence, without further ado, the two elders continued on their assault.

The fight quickly resumed, and one would be surprised to find that their strategy actually worked. As the two now had their own respective roles, instead of getting weaker, they became even stronger.

Tristan, who knew the dagger-wielding elder was a threat, naturally chose to focus his attention to the latter. However, every time he tried to end the other party's life, Dulos would appear in front of him and thwart his attempt by welcoming his attacks with his body, literally.

Then, as Tristan's blood synthetic swords were busy with Dulos' body, the dagger-wielding elder would immediately dash in and send a deadly strike at him. The battle eventually became an exchange of strikes as Tristan tried to decisively end the dagger-wielding elder, while the two were also trying their best to kill him.

…

[Battle Art - Cross Slash]

The dagger-wielding sped over to Tristan as the dual daggers in his hand gleamed with brutality. Faint glimmers of light could be seen as the daggers inched closer to Tristan's body.

Splat!!

Caught off guard by the battle art, Tristan had successfully received a pretty big wound on his chest.

The sight made the two who fought Tristan smile while all the other elves watching began to cheer.

It was apparent that the situation was not as easy as Tristan thought. These elves were, after all, two out of the dozen stage 4 elves of the Forlorn Kingdom. Even though they had a hard time handling him, it didn't erase the fact that they were the kingdom's strongest fighters.

"Ahh, come on! Don't disappoint me, Blood Elf! There's no way you can only do this much, considering how legendary the prophecy is."

The Forlorn Prince seemed to start getting bored of the fight, and he quickly gave a signal to another elder, ordering the man to join the battle. This time, it looked like the elder was a blade expert as Tristan could see the black sword hanging on his waist.

Clank!! Clank!! Clank!!

Similar sounds of clashing weapons sounded once again, but this time louder and more frequent as Tristan fought three formidable opponents. Now, the situation was Dulos acting as the meat shield, while the two elders would attack him from two different directions.

With this, Tristan quickly found himself gradually being overwhelmed by the three. This fact was further reinforced by wounds that swiftly appeared on his body as the fight went on.

Fortunately, the body that the blood elf had had two extraordinary capabilities.

One of them is Undying Flesh, which allowed him to maintain his strength and speed regardless of the number and severity of injuries his body received. However, that didn't make Tristan immune from the pain as he still felt the sensations of the wound entirely

The second one was Muscle Memory, which gave him the capability of abnormal adaptation toward his opponent. This was exactly what allowed and made the blood elf thrive in a prolonged fight.

Soon enough, the spectating crowds came into awe as they watched firsthand how fast Tristan's improvement was in a fight. He was barely able to fight two elders minutes ago, and now, the man was able to handle three elders, albeit strugglingly.

However, Tristan himself knew he still needed a decisive move to finish the fight before that bored prince decided he was still bored and sent more people to fight him. After all, even though his body could still continue to fight, the mental exhaustion from the unrelenting battle would eventually lead to his downfall.

After a period of deep brainstorming, Tristan finally thought of a way.

He stomped his foot to the ground with all his strength, causing his body to shoot upwards and crash onto Dulos' figure. His center of balance abruptly shifted because of that, and as a result, Dulos was successfully brought down to the ground.

Somersaulting in the air to disperse the remaining momentum, Tristan quickly focused all his attacks toward the dagger-wielding elder while completely ignoring the attacks coming from the sword-wielding elder.

The dagger-wielding elder was immediately overwhelmed by Tristan's attack because not only was his shield missing and he was weaker than the latter, the move the latter used was a suicidal type, ignoring all obstructions and focusing on the target.

Splatt!!

In the end, the dagger-wielding elder was taken out by Tristan. The man's head was cut off at the neck, but Tristan himself did not come out unscathed, either. Having completely ignored the sword-wielding elder, his arm had been severed without him noticing.

However, despite losing an arm, Tristan smiled wickedly regardless, a sight that brought chills down the elder's spine. Alas, he was too late.

Tristan spun around and pierced the elf's heart with the sword grasped in his other hand. Blood splattered on the ground, but the smile on Tristan's face didn't fade, it just got wider.

With one move, two elven elders had lost their lives. Although the move was certainly suicidal, it was also decisive.

But Tristan did not waste his hand, as he still had another trick up his sleeve.