Standing in the throne Hall, two figures are standing opposite to each other.
One of them is a figure without any defined shape, the only thing visible is its height and its human form. As for any other details, it is difficult t discern as all that is visible is just an empty void.
As the other one standing in front of him, he is silver-haired youth with purple eyes that is tainted with slight crimson color. He is holding a spear that is altering color between silver like his hair and deep blue depending on the angle of light in the hall.
That is Max and the figure that is testing Max.
Currently, the aura surrounding the figure is a lot weaker than before as it is sealing itself to the current level of Max, but the aura of evil and malevolence around it is still as terrifying as ever.
As for Max, currently, he is tightening his grasp around the Voidpiercer Spear, as his muscles and veins are tensed to the extreme from the tension of the upcoming battle.
He is revolving the Mana and Sanguimancy energy in his body as he learned from the Tome of Knowledge to keep his body ready and strengthen it because he knows that in a battle like this one, he won't have time to cast any magic spells, and with his meager knowledge about spells, they would be useless anyway.
So, it is better to strengthen his body, to increase his speed, reflexes, strength, and all body functions to the extreme to be able to survive the next 30 minutes.
He knows that this is going to be tough, but he has no other choice as the figure standing in front of him placed a barrier around them.
With this barrier, he won't be able to escape. Although he can escape alone with the system, at the time, he will have to leave Hayley, as the figure teleported her near the beginning of the hall, outside the barrier.
Of course, there is always the choice of abandoning Hayley, but it didn't cross Max's head even for a moment, as he just decided to persist in this test and pass.
He decided just to trust in his fate, and see where it will bring him.
"Now, we will begin"
Said the figure before disappearing from his place.
Max positioned his spear in an appropriate position when he noticed that the figure disappeared from his eyesight. He infused his Sanguimancy energy into the spear, making it glow with an eerie crimson light. The figure raised its hand, and a wave of demonic energy rushed toward Max. He deflected it with a wave of his own energy, and the two powers clashed in the air, creating an explosion that shook the room.
Max charged forward, his spear ready to strike. But the figure moved with inhuman speed, dodging Max's attack with ease. It countered with a blast of demonic energy that sent Max flying across the room. Max stood up again after crashing into the wall as if nothing happened and pounced in the direction of the figure.
The figure seeing this, just raised its hand, summoning a ball of demonic energy and launching it toward Max.
This time, the attack was stronger which resulted in Max slamming into the wall with more force than the last time.
Max at the time felt something metallic rise from the back of his throat, but he swallowed it again, as it is still too early to be throwing blood around.
Max stood up again with a shaking leg, but he stabilized it immediately, after that he turned his head to search for the black figure.
While he was moving his head around, he heard a voice behind his back that brought a terrifying chill into his bones.
"Looking for me?" said the figure with a chuckle, before throwing a kick that didn't exceed the physical strength of a rank 2 magician.
Max didn't have the time to do anything other than turn and put his spear in a defensive position to prevent himself from taking the damage.
As result, he got blasted into the other side of the hall like a ball, but this time, he didn't get injured as the spear got most of the attack and his hands got the aftershocks from the weapon, Which resulted in some of the bones in his hand to crack, but they immediately healed with his regenerative ability.
Standing on his feet, Max saw the figure coming in his direction while walking leisurely as if it has all the time in the world.
That made Max feel humiliated but he can't do anything about it, so he just ignored this feeling, and focused his mind on figuring a way to fight this Being without being thrown around the hall like a ball.
After a moment of thought, Max decided to try one of the skills of the spear, even though he knows that it won't have any effect on the figure.
He immediately switched the Sanguimancy energy that is coating the spear with Mana and spread Sanguimancy energy in his body to strengthen it.
Injecting the Mana into the spear, he activated the skill attached to the spear
[Void Strike]
A wave of void energy was created from the shiny tip of the spear and headed in the direction of the figure in a crescent shape, as Max slashed his spear downward.
The figure seeing the crescent wave made of void coming toward him was surprised a little.
"Oh"
But that is all.
Yes, void energy is something not many people can control, so seeing a rank 2 using void energy is surprising, but that is all.
The figure just waved its hand to break the void wave.
Seeing his skill broken like this didn't disturb Max's state of mind, he just activated two of his skills and started to close the distance between him and the figure.
[Blood Rush]
[Blood spear]
Immediately, all of his statuses increased compared to before, allowing him to move faster and stronger than before, but he knows that the longer he uses this skill, the worse the after-effects are going to be, but he simply doesn't care at this moment. As the odds aren't in his favor.
After activating Blood spear, a crimson blood spear formed above his head and headed in the direction of the figure that is still walking in his direction slowly.
The figure just jumped slightly to ignore the blood spear even though he could just swat it to the side. The moment he dodged, Max came from behind with his spear piercing toward the direction of the figure, which resulted in an explosion.
BOOOOM
A small amount of dust has risen from the attack as the Blood spear hit the ground resulting in a small explosion.
BOOOOM
Followed by another explosion, but this time, it was from a figure that had been sent flying from the fog of dust.
This figure is of course our dear Max.
As for the figure testing Max, he is just standing in the same place unharmed.
After the dust settled a little, Max stood up after being thrown at the end of the hall.
Cough Cough
He just coughed some blood on the ground and readied his spear again for what was to come.
"You still have 20 minutes left," said the figure while standing in the middle of the hall.
Hearing this Max just sighed and tightened his grip on the spear and lunged forward to engage with the figure again.
Note~~~
For those who forgot.
[Blood Rush: This skill taps into the user's bloodline power, increasing their physical abilities beyond their normal limits for a short period of time. It temporarily increases the user's strength, speed, and endurance, at the cost of 10 Sanguimancy points. This skill could have a cooldown of 30 minutes before it can be used again.]