For the first time since his reincarnation Noah's mouth dropped like a gaping fish. He hadn't been shocked when he discovered Essence, nor had he been shocked to find out about the extremely complicated Battlesouls. But seeing the obscenely powerful strike of an actual Intent, seeing the void that appeared before his eyes made him doubt if a battle even took place. Needless to be said, Noah was completely dumbfounded.
This power. Nothing from Earth could ever come close to the mind-blowing strike he had just witnessed.
'Indeed, Luke always said that the path of a Battlesoul master only truly began at the Exalt Stage.' Noah watched as the world around the void pieced itself together, repairing from the damage caused to it.
Three figures appeared a few meters of the borders of the former void, all completely mattered. What surprised Noah was that Ivan was the one with the most critical condition.
The Mercenary could easily pass off as a stick at that moment. Every single muscle and fat within his body seemed to have disappeared, leaving only his bones and skin. His Essence was beyond emptied already and his eyes had sunk in a bit, only revealing a mere flicker of its previous brilliance.
"He's completely dried out." Seeing this, the transmigrator understood that external power came at very large costs. That one strike may have been overbearingly powerful but it obviously couldn't be used casually.
What he didn't know was that Ivan had gone way too overboard with the Intent within the sword. Real Exalt Stage Battlesoul masters would never waste their energy trying to tear the world apart and creating such a void. It was considered stupid because their opponents would surely have a way to counter that temporary void and, if anything, it gave them a slight breathing space and time to stay out of sight. Infact it was a crime to willingly tear the world apart to create those voids because it took a lot of Essence from Maest to fix it. So any Exalt Stage Battlesoul master would probably laugh at Ivan's expense at the moment, mocking him for overusing a power that didn't belong to him and them beat him up for the waste of Essence.
"Hmm?" Noah's eyes widened as he stared at the edge of the repairing void.
Just outside the edge, a battered Davis and Azzul revealed themselves. They both staggered and fell, coughing out multiple mouthfuls of blood. They had multiple cuts on their body, some more grievous than the others. Azzul had lost an arm while Davis probably would never walk the same with only one leg now. Obviously, it wasn't easy to have survived such a powerful strike.
Glancing at the multiple broken items on the floor around them and the shards of ice and earth, Noah could guess that they had used a large amount of Rank 4 equipments to boost their Pseudo-Intent to a level where they could survive the attack, albeit barely. But seeing them, a fierce glance appeared in Noah's eyes. Two silver red colored Longswords appeared in his hand as his eyes locked on to his three unsuspecting victims. 'You can't blame me, blame yourself for revealing such a weak appearance.'
As if sensing a slight killing intent, the resting Davis, Azzul and Ivan tensed. The first two quickly held their weapons and tried to stand, only to realize that all their equipments had shattered under the stress of their empowered Pseudo-Intent and Essence. Ivan was much worse, his best efforts to stand up only amounted to a twitch of his finger.
Dragon Steps! Noah was not the type to delay. His Blood Essence circulated with maddening speed causing his hair to rise up while his muscles tensed and increased in size almost tearing through his fighting gear. His two hands transformed into scaled muscular and beastly arms with five sharp claws. And behind him, the air vibrated as The Overlord Sword Emperor and Silver Dragon Emperor Battlesouls roared into existence strengthening Noah and weakening his opponents.
"Blizzard!" Azzul yelled out, forcing down his pain and executing a skill from his Battle Art, summoning the blizzard of sharp ice blades once more.
"Slithering Dragon." Noah calmly swerved within the raging blizzard, he knew he couldn't dodge everything but he did make sure to dodge the fatal attacks.
"Davis, do something goddammit!" The Mage type Battlesoul master yelled out in panic as he felt the last embers of his Essence flow out, leaving him empty. It wasn't as bad as the overdrawn Ivan, he could at least stand but in a situation like this, being able to stand with an empty Essence core was as useless as not being able to move a finger.
"Damn it!" The burly man cursed as he managed to hop while carrying his hammer with only one leg. "A brat like you should know where you belong! Tremor Smash!"
Noah stared at the incoming attack with his brightening eyes, a sign of his Silver Dragon Eyes being activated. "Indeed." His hands rose with his two swords crossed to meet the incoming hammer. "Redirection." His wrist moved deftly with expert dexterity as he twisted the sword, mitigating most of the tremors while keeping some within his hands, his muscles trembled, his bones screamed bloody murder but he still pulled his fist backwards "Rebound Strike!"
With a resounding boom, Davis was sent flying. Coughing out even more blood than before, due to his last move he couldn't even keep enough Essence to maintain a normal Essence shield around his body.
Noah stepped backwards with a few steps trying to mitigate the remaining force within his body. He grit his teeth as he placed his left arm over his right, feeling the strained muscles and cracked bones. The transmigrator knew that without his dragonification, he would have probably lost a couple of bones back there. He sighed looking at the defeated trio and then smiled. He didn't have anything to fear as the battle had taken place at the remote headquarters of Ivan's Mercenary group, nobody would bother coming here for a while.
Bending down to the disgruntled and pained Davis, the transmigrator smiled deeply as he stared at the Mercenary as if he were a piece of lamb on a silver platter. "Trust me. I am right where I need to be. You guys have some answering to do."