Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

"Bold words" Gilbert said with a chuckle before he summoned his sword cosmic armament and let the pressure of his early-stage Cosmic Pagoda realm cultivation burst out of his body.

An illusionary pagoda with only one floor appeared behind him in a bid to further imbue his abilities and strength and when he looked at Melinda, his eyes were serious and showed he would not be taking things anything easy.

The leader of the Golden crow guild was planning to go all out from the very start.

Melinda ignored the blasting of cultivation pressure and simply looked over at the members of her guild to say,

"Why have you all stopped? I can still see members of the Golden crow guild on our grounds and I would like them gone." 

According to her, just because the two leaders were about to be engaged in battle did not mean the members of her guild should slack off in giving the trespassers a beating they surely deserved.

Also, she did not think her battle against Gilbert would be entertaining as it would be more one-sided than any of her fights 

"Attack!" Nicole yelled and together with the other lieutenants, Suri Hander and Valerie, she led the members of the Sapphirine guild into reinitiating the battle.

Now there were three officials on the scene to better observe the battles and keep things in control.

The moment Nicole shouted 'attack' and while Melinda was still looking around with pride at the members of her guild, Gilbert struck.

He swung his sword at Melinda in a quick move as he looked to take advantage of her lapse in concentration.

To give her a taste of her own medicine and have the element of surprise on his side but Melinda raised her weapon to defend herself before the sword could hit her.

*Clang*

Just the action of lifting her sword to defend herself had been backed by the dominant factor of her Dao and it saw Gilbert getting repelled a few steps back.

At this point, Hal was already at the Guild headquarters and was watching things go down. His attention was focused on Melinda while Sassy's was focused on the battle going on around the two leaders of the two battling guilds.

Melinda followed up with her defensive repelling of Gilbert by walking towards him in quick strides to swing her sword at his midsection in a dangerous move without a care for the 'not causing critical damage' rule of the Guild war.

Gilbert reacted quickly enough to parry her sword strike though and so he did not suffer any injuries except for a numbing feeling in his wrist.

The officials who had seen Melinda make that move and had been ready to intervene decided that Melinda must have expected Gilbert to defend himself and had not really been going for a serious hit.

They decided on this thought line based on the jovial smile on her face that made it seem as though she was not going in for the kill but Hal who watched it all from the sidelines knew that this was not the case.

He knew his woman.

Even with the jovial, sparring, and seemingly 'not serious' smile on her face, Hal knew she was seeking blood.

Serious with the fight or not, that strike of hers had been made with every intention of slicing through her opponent.

Seeing her in action again after a year, Hal smiled to himself.

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

Over and over, their swords clashed, and over and over, Gilbert had to endure the numbing of his wrist which persisted after every clash with Melinda.

He decided to use Cosmic energy to not only alleviate the numbing feeling but also make it so that he was tougher for the next contact with the golden-eyed beauty but Melinda's next strike was with a charged Aurora which she struck right against his midsection.

Their swords had clashed and she had held them in that position for no other reason than to create that opening for herself.

*Bang!*

"Nghhh" Gilbert groaned in pain but Melinda's aurora was in no way qualified to send him flying. And it was definitely not qualified to make him topple over in pain.

Despite her physical capabilities, her Cosmic energy was still that of a Cosmic Aurora expert and in that regard, he had the upper hand.

Smiling, Gilbert leaped back from Melinda and charged a cosmic Aurora which he imbued with the might of his one-floor cosmic Pagoda but Melinda was suddenly in front of him and grabbing his hands.

Her speed did not really surprise Gilbert and at first, he was actually excited at the fact that his attack would hit her even harder since she was close to him... But then, his eyes widened.

He remembered what Melinda had done to him the last time she was this close and he made to leap back and put some distance between them but it was already too late.

The Aura of dominance that Melinda suddenly released surrounded them both as Melinda rendered his Aurora-charging act useless.

Her dominance sapped him of all strength and slowly got the leader of the Golden crow guild sinking to his knees like the last time.

"Not... Again!" Gilbert groaned but he was powerless against the golden-eyed beauty with the Goddess-like visage.

However, unlike last time, Melinda was not going to just be satisfied with humiliating Gilbert and made to stay true to her Promise to crush him and so she did.

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

She punched his face repeatedly and then ended things with a knee strike right underneath Gilbert's jaw and the knee strike sent the leader of the Golden crow guild six feet away from her.

But even as he was about to hit the ground and felt pain, especially at his head region, Gilbert smiled.

He was out of Melinda's dominant influence and the first thing he did was use an attacking skill on her.

When he hit the ground and restrained himself from coughing blood or groaning at his injuries, the skill circle had already appeared before him.

The energy of the skill trapped Melinda in place as the spears, formed of Cosmic energy, charged out of the six-ring skill circle of the sixth-grade spell, Gilbert backed it with not one but two charged Auroras.

All of this made it so that Melinda's prepared defense with a defensive skill shield of the fifth grade exploded upon contact with the spears and the Auroras.

*Bang!*

*Boommmm!!!*

Following Melinda's order for the fighting to continue despite her and Gilbert's duel, the battles between the guild members had continued all through the duel but there was still space left around them so that no one would be collateral damage in what was sure to be a heavyweight clash.

The explosion made it clear that that was the right decision.

Gilbert smiled. He has packed a lot behind that attack and surely he must have won.

This battle had to be over now... Right?

The fact that Melinda had not been smacked out of the area of the explosion was worrying and it made it hard for the leader of the Golden crow guild to be truly excited.

The officials made to move towards the blast and call the fight, declare the winner and overall make sure that the target of the explosion was not too hurt.

Hal, who saw them prepare to move, rolled his eyes.

He got the point for the officials and why they were necessary so that important students of the Royal Academy, which was everyone as this was an academy filled with geniuses who excelled in their various sects, would not be critically injured...

... He understood that but what just happened now told him that they were going to treat critical injuries more times than they were going to prevent them.

Also, they were not needed in this case.

Sure enough, Melinda walked out of the blast region without a hair out of place. She was not holding her Cosmic Armament, and just cracked her knuckles as she walked leisurely towards Gilbert with a dangerous smile.

Gibert rolled over to his feet and made to get out of her range and prepare his defense but he didn't get the chance.

When Melinda caught up to him, she attacked him with ferocity and made sure she delivered a beat-down that the leader of the Golden crow guild will not soon forget.

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

*Bam!*

As the sound of every hit sounded, the battle among the guild members, a battle that the Sapphirine guild was winning mostly after reducing the numbers of active Golden crow guild members with the previous skill display, stopped.

So loud and impactful were the hits, and so useless and rag-doll-like had Gilbert become, that the members of the Golden crow guild lost the zeal to fight.

The members of the Sapphirine guild on the other hand still had the zeal to fight but found the sight of their leader beating sense into Gilbert Doe to be a much more entertaining sight.

"That is enough. You have won" said one of the officials who saw this as the prime time to intervene.

As he spoke, Melinda delivered a final hit *BAM!* that was over the limit of what Gilbert could take, and the Golden crow guild leader promptly fell unconscious.

The official checked on Gilbert and after determining that he would heal, they had him taken away and the Golden crow guild took that as their cue to retreat.