"Star Finger!" Bario said as his finger sparkled. He pointed it at Nicklaus and a beam of light raced towards him. Nicklaus had gathered Darkness Bomb in his mouth and released it at Bario. There was an explosion as the opposite elements collided with each other. Before Bario could regain his orientation, Nicklaus was already coming at him and swang his sword at his head. Bario rolled on the ground then got up and with another energy attack.
"Soul Bullet," he said. A pale energy shot towards Nicklaus who erected an earthwall but it easily passed through, staright to his body and disappeared. He waited a second for the pain but it never came so he continued attacking Bario who was stunned.
"You have a stronger soul than me, that's unexpected," Bario said able he took out his sword from his storage ring and the two crashed with each other with their swords for a while. Nicklaus controlled his strength so well one would think Bario was on the winning side.
"Shock wave," Bario suddenly said when Nicklaus was going for an attack and he was thrown backwards by the force. Bario took this chance to throw another attack at him. "Moon slash." A sharp energy from his sword flew towards Nicklaus he smiled mysteriously.
"Star Finger," he said and a beam of light flew towards the sword with and destroyed it. Everyone was surprised.
"How did you know about our Sect's skills?" Bario screamt at him.
"You just showed me, dumbass. Take this, Moon Slash," Nicklaus said and an even bigger sword qi than Bario's flew towards him.
"Elemental Armour," Bario screamt and an admirable of different colours covered him.
"You are just full of skills aren't you. Fine, Elemental Armour," Nicklaus said and he was covered by the same armour too. Bario was about to blow his gasket.
"Stop copying my Sect's skills!" he roared and charged at him with his sword.
"Stop showing them to me," Nicklaus said. Bario was unsciously using his sword skills to keep up with Nicklaus who started copying them too. The old men from the sect who came with Bario were scared shirtless by Nicklaus.
"This is one terrifying youngman. Whatever skills he sees will be copied by him! What level of talent and comprehension is this!" one of them said.
"Bario, don't show him all your skills. The monster is copying even the sword moves you're displaying," one of them said. Bario was stunned by this and he unsciously stopped attacking. Nicklaus took this chance and cut off his hand.
"Damnit. Take this, Energy Beam Canon!" Bario said as a huge beam raced towards Nicklaus who smiled. The beam exploded when it hit him and Bario sighed in relief.
"This Elemental Armour is truly great. It didn't break even after that," Nicklaus said as he stepped out of the smoke. "Is that all you got? Disappointing. I hoped you had more skills to show."
Bario gripped his sword harder, trying to forget the pain on his left shoulder but to no avail. He felt himself losing consciousness he knew if he did he would be dead. But he had to take this monster with him.
"This is my ultimate move," he said as he got on a sword stance. "Death by a thousand cuts." Bario suddenly disappeared and appeared behind Nicklaus, his sword outstretched. When everyone thought he had gotten Nicklaus, Bario's head slid down his neck and fell in the arena's floor. Nicklaus turned to him and took the sword from his hand and his own sword was cut in half.
"Good sword you have there, even strong enough to cut mine when it had Sword Radiance on it. I will be keeping it," he said then took his storage ring too. He turn d to the recruiters who were stunned like everyone else.
"I changed my mind. If your disciples are these weak I don't want to be a part of you," he said and jumped off the arena and walked away.
"What kind of monster did Dragon Soaring sect offend?" someone said and unconsciously started a debate.
"He can copy any skills showed to him. Doesn't that mean his opponents are treasure trove a to him?"
"I wouldn't want to fight him. He can use your most lethal skill against yourself,"
"He said the fights of the recruits was pitiful. He was telling the truth. His fight against young master Bario was completely one-sided. He was toying with him to get the skills he had."
"I wonder what the Dragon Soaring sect elders are thinking," one of them said and they all turned to the old men who were already gone. The new recruits were left behind wondering about life.
Nicklaus by then had already left the town and was on the road again. This time's gain was not bad. He got a new attacking skill, a defensive skill, a sword movement skill and a sword attacking skill. He was a little sad that bastard did not show me even to save his own life.
"Stingy bastard. I hope you become a snail in your afterlife," Nicklaus cursed him. He felt someone coming towards him and saw the four old men and they were livid.
"We can't allow you to leave this place alive," one of them said and they each removed their swords. Nicklaus was almost tempted to hug them in joy. Here he was complaining about how stingy the bastard was and four generous old men came to show him their skills.
"I am honestly glad you all came to kill me," he said as his sword appeared in his hand.
"Remember the plan. Use the skills he knows. We have a higher cultivation level so we will overpower him," one of them said. They got at the same stance as Bario when he was using the sword movement.
"You're like him, stingy bastards. I will make you use your full skills to stay alive," Nicklaus said. "Death By a Thousand Cuts." Nicklaus suddenly disappeared and two heads fell down. The remaining two were stunned before they hand to go to the defensive using a new sword movement that Nicklaus started using immediately.
"You monster! Die, Dimensional Slash," one of them angrily said. A sword qi travelled towards Nicklaus with frightening speed but he had a move of his own from a beast.
"Sacrificial Avatar," he said. Suddenly, someone just like him appeared in front of him and took the whole brunt force of the attack and he disappeared into pixels of energy together with the attack. The two old men were surprised.
"You are the second being to make me use this, rejoice. Now take this, Dimensional Slash," Nicklaus said and returned the sword qi towards the old man who attacked him. His friend pushed him out of the way and he was slashed in half. Before he died, he turned towards Nicklaus and released another energy attack.
"Star Bombardment," he said with his last dying breath. Suddenly, Nicklaus was bombarded by starlight from abave for a while before everything quieted. He got out of the dust at his wounds healed at a speed that was just not possible for any being. He felt his strength and energy increasing frighteningly before stopping at a bottleneck. This was the first time he ever felt like there was this bottleneck. But it just felt like a blade of grass was stopping him from growing stronger. But he decided to not do it until he was sure of what was happening.
"Haas, I nearly fainted there," he said as he looked for the remaining old man but he was not there. "He is good at running. I hope he brings someone fun next time." He then looked at the corpses of the three men and found their storage rings were gone too. "Next time I will kill and collect the rings immediately. Such a huge loss." With that, he walked away from the scene as if nothing had happened. Once he was far away enough, he took out new clothes from his storage ring and wore them before continuing with his journey to copy every skill he can to fight those frightening beings deeper in the Forbidden Forest.