Speed Is King

"Newbie?" Khalendros frowned. "You couldn't take down a newbie with your Rapid Strike Technique?"

"No. I couldn't take down a newbie with my Valiant Strikes Technique." Khellendra replied to her husband with a smile.

"WHAT?!" Khalendros's eyes shot wide open in shock.

"And not just that, his final strike earlier…" Khellendra hesitated slightly. "Why did you dissipate your fire attack at the last moment? I clearly felt its horrifying power manifest very slightly."

"I didn't want to hurt you. You two have been very gracious, giving me the time I needed to finish what I was doing." Elliot said with a smile.

"Didn't want to hurt her?" Khalendros' smile turned slightly vicious at that moment. "You truly leave me with no choice but to test you myself!"

"Go all out." Khalendros said to Elliot when he landed on the ground.

"That will depend on whether or not you can make me." Elliot replied evenly.

"Good! Let this Prince have a taste of the power that gives you the guts to speak that way to me!" Khalendros shouted, fully annoyed and irritated by Elliot.

Like Khellendra before, he burst forward with such great speed that he looked as though he disappeared from his position.

But unlike Khellendra, his claw strikes weren't just fast. They were also exceedingly heavy, and filled to the very brim with ferocious lightning energy which more than numbed Elliot's arm.

Crackle! Crackle! CLANG! CLANG!

Every claw strike smashed into Gilgamar with the force of a cargo train and released a generous amount of lightning energy which attacked Elliot's nerves and sought to paralyze him.

But Elliot simply used his Purgatory Fire Energy and burned the lightning energy away!

Seeing that Khalendros was not holding back his strength, Elliot decided to do the same!

He rapidly weaved his Purgatory Fire Energy and executed movement 17 of the Nameless Sword Technique's First Stage.

"The tall mountain is unmovable, and its eruption is unstoppable!"

KA-BOOM!!!

The air around Elliot exploded!!

"WHAT?" Khalendros and Elliot shouted at the same time.

Khalendros lowered his hand which he had used to block the explosion and looked at Elliot incredulously.

It was highly natural for him to be shocked by such a sudden and powerful explosion. But why the heck was Elliot shocked as well? And judging by his shout, his shock was no less than Khalendros'!

"What was that?" Khalendros said as he looked at his badly singed arms.

"That's my secret skill. Why? Scared?" Elliot quickly changed his shocked expression into a smirk.

"Secret skill my ass! You were as shocked as I was!" Khalendros shouted.

"Don't tell me you're looking for excuses to back out of this fight?" Elliot raised his sword and pointed it at Khalendros in a blatant move of provocation.

"Hmph. You don't even know what your skill does. Don't think I'll let you have the time to get used to it and let you off easy. Take this Vibrant Dragon Strikes!" Khalendros snorted and charged at Elliot once more.

Elliot calmly re-entered his stance for the 17th movement and immediately executed his attacks.

"The Purgatory Fire Energy has completely changed my power output. Judging by the explosion earlier, I have at least doubled my power! Excellent. I will use this opportunity to test it out and see how much stronger I've become!" Elliot thought.

"Yes. Your new energy is much more powerful than before. I am able to unleash not twice, but thrice as much power as before!" Gilgamar intoned in a slightly more excited voice than usual..

"Excellent. Let's teach this damned dragon a lesson." Elliot grinned slightly as he weaved his energy.

Immediately, he could feel nature's energy responding very enthusiastically!

The temperature around Elliot and Gilgamar immediately shot up and…

KA-BOOM!!!

The air around him exploded with startling force once more! The very air had exploded in response to Elliot's Purgatory Fire Energy!

Wide slash.

A thick layer of violet flames covered Gilgamar as it cut through the air towards Khalendros. As it did so, the air around it burst into flames and created a huge trail of fire behind it.

Khalendros had no choice but to break his own advance to dodge Elliot's attack. He had no intention of finding out what would happen to him if he failed to dodge and merely blocked the attack with his arms as he did before.

However, Elliot was not done yet. Not by a long shot! He had only begun his 17th movement.

Single thrust.

Roarrr!!!

A huge violet fire dragon vaguely formed around Gilgamar and charged at Khalendros ferociously.

After the single thrust, the 17th movement called for a transition into an upward slash which could be easily modified into a parry if need be. But for some reason, Elliot felt that a triple-thrust would be more suitable at that moment.

So he ignored the 17th movement's preset sequence and immediately transitioned into a triple-thrust instead!

Grrooooooooooooaaaarrrrrrr!!!!!

Another violet fire dragon, much bigger and much more realistic than before coalesced into being around Gilgamar and thundered towards Khalendros!

"Interesting!" Elliot shouted in exhilaration. "More!"

Quadruple thrust!

However at that moment, before Elliot's third violet fire dragon could form, a much more violent and vastly more realistic dragon roar sounded!

GRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In front of him, Khalendros had transformed into a mid-sized Blue Dragon and had bitten both violet fire dragons which Elliot had fired off into nothingness.

Massive arcs of white-hot electricity crackled around his huge, scaly blue dragonmaw and his giant leathery wings flapped lightly, somehow able to keep his magnificent dragon body hovering a few meters off the ground despite not generating much lift.

The powerful roar was not just a cry of anger, but it was also a powerful sonic and soul attack that worked extremely effectively to break the concentration of the dragon's enemies.

For a newbie warrior such as Elliot, he didn't stand a chance. His sequenced attack was immediately broken and nature's energy around him dissipated without a trace.

Elliot had the option of restarting his attacks once more, but sensing that Khalendros wasn't intending to continue his own attack, Elliot stopped as well.