"Activate Basileus," Mane commanded his powers, and the Glow that had remained inactive for so long was finally reawakened. Although Mane had used it only a couple of times, as he bathed in its augmentation, he felt complete. He felt whole.
Along with the activation of Basileus came an encyclopedia of knowledge concerning Leases and powers that Mane eagerly embraced. Before he was using Basileus as a boy without any true energy. Now he was using it as a peak Heaven Realmer with his eyes firmly set on the realm of Nobles.
Mane's eyes shone like a pair of bright stars, eclipsing the brilliance of the constellations that were several millions of light years away. Mane rallied the energy within his body, pushing his powers to their limits as he prepared to, for once, fight with all his abilities as one. He was going to show the true might of a Tetra Wielder.
But first there was something he wanted to do. Something that he had missed dearly in the Chaos deprived World of the Three Great Races.
"Augendae: Spirit Scan"
That's right. As a person who had absolutely no faith at all in the Fairy System, Mane was quick to return to his roots once Chaos was made available to him. And he thoroughly scanned the snake before him.
NAME: Yellow Eyed Winged Serpent
AGE: 600,000
HEALTH POINTS: 100,000,000/100,000,000
RACE: Dragonkin
BLOODLINE: Mutated Serpent
BLOODLINE RANK: Level 13
LEVEL: Ascension (Level 91.25)
POWER LEVEL: 700,250,000,000
WIELDER TYPE: Battle Beast
SPECIALTY: Cunning; Agility
GLOWS: Fire Breath; Phantom Claws; Full Armor; Petrification; Surge
BREATH: Whipped Winds; Fire Storm
"Strong Beast," Mane admitted upon seeing the great strength of the beast and the plethora of skills at its disposal. It was merely a Dragonkin, yet it already had such power. Mane couldn't help but wonder how strong a true dragon was. And how strong beings comparable to dragons were. But that curiosity would have to wait. And Mane knew that.
"Let's go," Mane mumbled as his feet dug into the platform below and caused ripples all around. His aura was as turbulent as the fiery pits of Hell, and his feet shone with a metallic sheen. His black robe got even darker as Mane concealed the elements of darkness within it, and a green glow engulfed his feet.
*Boom*
Mane pushed forwards like a comet, the wind that coated his feet elevating his speed so greatly that even the Ascended Winged Serpent that looked on from afar, was stunned. Like a rallying war god Mane covered the distance of a few kilometers in nothing but a second! And soon he was so close to the serpent that he could feel its breath. As Mane moved he recited a few leases. And as he recited them the Chaos that had lodged itself so deeply onto him that it gnawed at his skin was consumed.
"Celeritas" (Speed Lease)
"Viribus" (Strength Lease)
"Vitae" (Vitality Lease)
"Arma Impia" (Armor Lease)
Mane was facing a snake. It had wings, but it was still a snake. He couldn't approach this fight as a man, or he would be consumed easily. So he resorted to his beast techniques – a skill he hadn't used for a long time now. As he run, he slowly transitioned to all fours as a faint glow engulfed him to serve as his armor; the doing of the Lease called Arma Impia.
Under the astonished eyes of the large serpent, Mane crashed into the nose of the beast. This nose alone was akin to a small hill, and Mane's figure was like an ant before the huge snake. But this ant sure could bite.
"Splintering Fist!"
*Boom*
*Hiss*
Along with Mane's roar was a deafening hiss of pain that emerged from the throat of the Winged Serpent. For Mane's punch had violently destroyed its aura shield and breached its tough skin. Its large nose was slightly dented, and a few of its scales had been forcefully broken, leading to an outpouring of blood when it would much rather love to keep its vital body fluid inside its body. Even more fascinating in all this was that Mane's punch was so ferocious that the serpent was forced back a few hundreds of meters, with its head jerked forcefully to the side.
"Recreation: Origami Spears"
As stated earlier, Mane was planning to exhaust his excess Chaos energy, but he wasn't going to neglect his other disciplines. He quickly resorted to one of his Scholarly skills; one he had awakened as a High Level Scholar. Several pieces of paper flew out of Mane's robe and morphed into paper spears that moved so speedily that tasking the eye with tracking their movements could only be described as a cruel command.
"Augendae: Origami Spears"
Mane's order to augment the spears was met happily by Chaos. For the element of war and strive soaked the paper spears in its hunger eagerly, and the spears shone with a faint blue glow as the papers that they were made from became as hard as steel and just as tough.
"Gather and Shatter: Titan's Fist!" Mane crashed into the still recovering snake and delivered a devastating jab to its broken nose, prompting another scream of pain from the creature. This punch was even more powerful than the first, breaking many more scales and forcefully tearing some flesh from the wound of the Serpent. The shock of the fist travelled all the way to its brain, bringing upon it a dizzy spell that was highly unwelcome in such a situation.
"Go," Mane ordered, and several streams of Edict escaped his figure and seeped into the augmented paper spears. The spears shone with a green glow as they bathed in the Wind Elements; then, they were unleashed. Their destination was the very same nose that Mane had been working on since the beginning.
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
There were several paper spears, and each one was aimed at the same spot. And the regenerating aura shield wasn't enough to prevent their charge. Although they were immediately destroyed upon completing their tasks, they still did a lot of damage, much to Mane's delight. But Mane didn't get to gloat for long. The large serpent had had enough of him, and wasn't ready to accept a one sided beating.
*Roar*
The powerful roar of the beast was like a storm of its own, pushing Mane back by several thousands of meters and forcing the young Supreme to morph his energy into an anchor to keep from being blown further away.
The eyes of the Winged Serpent flashed with rage as a large image of a claw comparable to its huge head appeared above Mane, covering him like a sky dome. With ruthlessness and power, the large claw swiftly descended upon Mane, wanting nothing but his doom.
"So that's the Phantom Claw," Mane exclaimed in praise as the huge claw descended upon him swiftly.
"Move you moron!" Hildegarde screamed from afar. Unlike her Tested, she wasn't best pleased by the current situation. The claw was so large that it spanned a few kilometers, and Mane choosing to stand there like a pillar whilst admiring the large contraption was a stupid idea.
"Fine," Mane grumbled and activated another of his favorite techniques.
"Augendae: Star Flicker"
Mane's figure flashed and appeared several thousands of meters away in nothing but a second. His figure was engulfed in a green glow, suggesting that he was still using wind although he augmented the skill. His eyes flashed with a green glow as he admired the pristine scales of the snake right next to him. And for the first time since the match started, he picked another target – an area other than its nose.
"Extreme Burst"
"1st Move"
"2nd Move"
"3rd Move"
"4th Move"
"5th Move"
"6th Move"
"7th Move"
Mane attacked speedily, and with each bang he delivered noteworthy damage to the large reptilian. The first punch Mane delivered had enough power to dim the reptile's aura shield. The 2nd depleted it even further, and the 3rd completely broke through the aura shield. The fourth was like the mighty hammer of Thor, breaking a few scales and opening the path for the 5th and 6th moves to draw blood from the Winged Serpent. The 7th move was the most devastating, as its might was greater than the combined might of the first 6. Like a spear of absolute power and authority – like one akin to Gungnir itself – Mane's 7th punch almost broke the serpent into two halves, smashing it several kilometers away.
*HISS*
Naturally, the recipient of the blow was in much discomfort. Not only had its skill been so easily evaded, the pain from its side was like an itch it just couldn't reach. Although Mane was much smaller than the beast, his punch had pierced through it like a mighty javelin. And it could feel its internal structures screaming in agony.
It quickly turned its head as its eyes flashed with a strange glow. Mane took only a brief look into those large eyes and felt his body solidifying. A chill came over him as he realised what was happening. The dastardly creature was trying to petrify him. It couldn't follow his speed, so it was trying to stop Mane's movement altogether.
Against a foe like Mane who was so many times smaller than it, yet possessed such devastating hitting power, the Winged Serpent felt helpless. Its strengths were completely useless before such a human. There was no way it could be more cunning than a treacherous human, and there was no way its agility could exceed the small flickering man before it. So it had to resort to this.
But Mane had no intentions to be done in this easily. His eyes flashed as he activated True Eyes. The world came to a standstill, and everything – the chaos, the thrashing, and the destruction – all halted temporarily. Without the backing of the snake's frozen energy, Petrification was forcefully broken. And Mane moved. He quickly dove out of the way, rushing towards the huge serpent with a long water whip in hand.
"Augendae"
Mane strengthened the whip and struck the serpent squarely on its injured nose right before restoring time to the world.
*Boom*
The eyes of the serpent were filled with confusion as it struggled to comprehend what had just happened. One second it was trying to petrify the pesky human, and in the next it was sent flying across the field. But it knew one thing for sure, it couldn't continue to receive blows so passively.
So once it smashed into the floor from Mane's flurry of attacks, it decided that the ground was not a good place to dwell any longer and took to the skies.
But it had hardly stabilized itself mid-air; its huge wings had barely been put through a couple of seconds worth of work when it heard the dreaded voice of that puny human once more.
"Eligo igni. Egne me ut. Adiungimus ut. Ignis Draco! Basileus vocat te!"
A large wall of flames that even the Winged Serpent had to take seriously formed around Mane. It was much grander and much larger in area of coverage than when Mane first used it in the duel against his friends. The fiery pillar was like the staff of Sun Wukong. For it extended to the heavens and eclipsed the Winged Serpent's majesty. Slowly the fiery pillar took shape, and a creature much familiar to the Winged Serpent slowly appeared.
*Roar*
The Winged Serpent roared sheepishly as it slowly retreated under the majestic aura of the fiery apparition slowly taking form before it. It knew this creature. It was modeled after this creature and it aspired to one day become this creature.
"Ignis Draco!"
For this creature was a fire dragon! It was nothing but a conjured image from flames, but its aura and power felt so real that the Winged Serpent dared not stare at it too long.
"True Flames"
"Augendae"
As if that wasn't enough, Mane augmented the fiery beast whilst using True Flames to forge the claws, wings and teeth of the fiery beast. Once he was satisfied with his work, he called upon the winds and soared into the sky, still surrounded by the fiery dragon he had conjured.
"To the skies we go!"
*Roar*
Like a living beast fueled by its desire for battle, the fiery dragon released a loud, energetic roar as it leaped towards the cowering Winged Serpent.