"Where do you think you are going?"

Banking on the fact that with the speed at which he was flying away, it was nigh impossible for Veriel to react to my actions, I once again danced around, pointing my stick quite a bit behind my cousin.

The second his momentum slowed down enough to allow him for any sort of retaliation or defensive measures, another rift opened behind his back, only to send him flying back towards me!

This time, I wasn't going to let him off soo easy by just bouncing him around.

While he could enjoy his airborne time, I made sure to scan the entire arena once again.

For some reason, the beast that Katenaris or Dracons bought at my auction and somehow brought to such a level that made it impossible for me to gauge its strength… was just lying on all fours and lazily observing the events!

This beast was the only reason why I started the fight in a defensive manner.

Even if I had my doubts towards the abilities directly bought from the system, I was certain that they were far more than enough to deal with someone without proper accumulation like Veriel.

Who cares about his cultivation realm, if he reached it in some shady manner? No matter which world it is, only by properly working one's way towards a goal, one can make it matters!

For him, cultivation abilities like Soaring Dragon fist or Metalbending stomp would be enough, despite inflicting damage to my self-esteem for using skills with such childish names!

Since the beast wasn't going to make its move, for now, I decided it would be stupid of me to not act on it!

As Veriel was currently flying towards me, if I were to stay in place, he would regain control of his body before actually reaching my hitting range. To not let him defend in any way, I stomped hard on the ground and kicked with my legs, jumping towards him.

There was another reason for my hastiness.

I could maintain all three spells in the state of precast for only so long. Keeping them in the enclosed space within my barrier, made me unable to circulate the air, putting a hard cap on how long I could keep myself away.

"I GOT YOU!"

Just as I was about to uppercut his ugly face, the reality once again dawned on me.

I never expected to get rid of him with just my weak shockwaves, but I hoped that they would be able to at least incapacitate him for long enough to allow me to execute more direct damage to him.

Contrary to my hopes, he managed to use his own momentum to take out a sabre from his storage ring and execute a powerful slash!

With his sabre coming from behind his left ear and aiming to slash through my chest, I had to give up my initial idea of knocking him out with my own fist and actually use the sword in my hand!

What a disgrace!

With my arm already raising for punch, I had no time to transform it into any other move, forcing me to bend my wrist and use the body of my sword to block the trajectory of Veriel's weapon.

Maybe because his strength was augmented by whatever he used to grow so fast, or maybe simply because diagonal slashes were the most powerful in terms of raw power, while I managed to avoid being cut, his powerful attack not only broke through all my outer shields and pushed my sword into my body so hard, that I lost my breath!

As my focus wavered, I felt that I'm losing control over my spells. Not willing to just let them go to waste - after all, even with all the mana that I had, casting them still placed a slight burden on my reserves - I had to give up my idea of using them to force Veriel into a corner.

Break!

With a simple thought of mine, my weak shield diffused into the air, making Veriel's energy-infused slash tilt the balance of my precast spells.

CRACK!

Just before the spells came into action, I kicked against the ground and cast a rank one shockwave in front of me. Compared to its stronger counterpart, it worked just a tiny bit faster!

Allowing myself to be freely pushed back by the force of my instant cast, I wasted tenth of my mana on ten more shockwaves behind me and shitload of shields.

Only at this moment did I truly recognise the usefulness of being cast time free brought by my mage's stick.

With my attention drawn to two small specks of broken space, I gnashed my teeth and braced myself for the impact.

ROAR!

With two weak shockwaves and weak fireball placed in between and a bit forward compared to them, the might of this attack was incomparable to my previous spells.

Despite all my efforts to soften the hit, when the void erupted, I flew back as if hit by a bull.

At least, I wasn't greeted by a fireball riding on top of the double shockwave to my face!

Crash.

Only thanks to my utmost efforts and splurging on barriers without caring for the mana costs did I avoid breaking my ribs upon the impact. My body might have changed after reaching higher cultivation realms, not to speak about the upgrades from my attribute points, but point-blank explosion comparable to the shockwave generated by the eruption of the volcano wasn't something that human body was made to withstand!

Enduring the first wave of the pain that assaulted my body when I was thrown to the ground, I gnashed my teeth and gathered myself up.

No matter how tattered I am, as long as I hear the ringing of the bell, I can't rest!

Veriel already surprised me once today, and I'm not going to give him the opportunity to do it for the second time!

"Bonger, purchase the skills as ordered."

Conscious about the dangers of this duel, I prepared as best as I could. With my savy nature, there was no way I would use up all of my points, but I didn't want to regret later not using them either. That's why after countless hours spent on browsing through the shop, I decided on several cultivator skills that might prove usefull and talked things with Bonger to allow me to purchase them in bulk if I deem it necessary.

"Blop!"

"Deducting two thousand, five hundred points."

"Adding chosen abilities to the skillset."

"Blop!"

"Xernerian Swordsmanship induces evolution of the Executioner path thanks to the shared origins. There will be a five-minute cooldown for all skills and passive abilities related to this path in case host choose to accept evolution. Do you wish to proceed?"

While in any other case, I wouldn't even hesitate for a moment, I'm not going to wager the dignity of my beloved one on Bonger shenanigans.

How does Veriel fare? What's wrong with its beast? Is this duel supposed to end just like that and if yes, why wasn't it announced already?

Even if I didn't rely on this great path so far, Veriel's astounding agility put me kinda on edge. While it's not to the point where I couldn't track or react to his movements, I have an only slight advantage in terms of speed compared to him, yet I lack any proper form of swordsmanship.

According to my status window, I'm only one step away from obtaining the first set of moves on executioner's path, allowing me to wield my weapon as efficiently as your usual imperial guard but… What kind of weapon? What kind of Empire does this description speak about?

I'm not going to assume that since something has 'Imperial' in its name, then it has to mean that it's good! If I were to be that type of person, I would follow the battlemage path, not to speak about frequently using those lofty skills like 'phoenix devours the skies' that I got my hand on just before the duel but was too embarrassed to use!

As the air started to clear out from the dust kicked up by my shockwaves, I noticed with relief that Veriel was lying on the ground and breathing heavily. The first thing that I realised when looking at him was the fact that his face was not only burned to the living flesh but also lacked any sort of hair!

While this degree of wounds would scar him for life back on earth, I could already feel his energy working hard to heal him up. Even if he wouldn't be back in top condition after recovering, this fight was far from over!

"No, I don't wish to evolve it for now."

"Blop!"

"Withholding evolution might cause the host to be unable to induce it after learning the swordway separately!"

Even if that would normally be a big and important point, I was quite content with the description of this single set of moves.

Not only it relied on the use of the arming sword that I was currently handling, but it was also based on easy moves that turned more complicated with each transformation one would employ in them.

For now, this Xernerian skillset would suffice and I would have to just do my best to level up my executioner path later on. This would also serve as a good way to teach both my lazy body and more importantly - my slacking mind, that the best results can be never achieved with shortcuts!