Back to Aurora, the moment of Rejoke's final clash against the blonde man. As soon as the ear-piercing scream of pain filled the air, the silver-haired man's eyes contracted to the size of needles as he hurriedly looked to the side.
"That idiot disciple!" The man yelled out when his eyes fell on the young man a long distance away who had just lost his right arm.
'Big mistake, old man.' Aurora smirked; now it was her turn. Rejoke had done his job splendidly; now it was up to her whether the two of them would survive or not.
'Ice Creation, Fire Creation!' She shouted internally, activating two of her active skills at once.
The next second, a beautiful spear of deep blue ice materialized above the fox's head. The spear was truly beautiful, brimming with power. Not for nothing did it cost her 100 mana points to create this spear alone.
As soon as the whole spear was created, it was immediately engulfed in bright red flames. However, even under the power and intense heat of those flames, the spear didn't melt at all and perfectly withstood the fire.
This may not seem like a surprise; after all, magic powered should be able to withstand fire to some extent. However, these flames were far from normal. Just like for the spear, to create these flames, Aurora spent another 100 points of mana just to make them as powerful as possible.
The flaming spear of ice was truly terrifying. It was the perfect blend of ice and fire, empowered by Aurora's 275 points of intelligence after she used up all her free points and her high affinities for both elements. The destructive power of such an attack was incredible.
Aurora was sure that if hit by such an attack, even the silver-haired man wouldn't come out unscathed. This was why she made sure to save as much mana as she could during the fight. But even with such an attack, she simply wasn't satisfied.
'Magical Finale!' The pendant of Aurora's beautiful necklace shone with bright light, and in an instant, all of Aurora's remaining mana was gone. However, it was all worth it, as with just those 30 points or so, she was able to double the overall power of her attack.
'Eat this, you old bastard!' Aurora exclaimed, moving the spear and shooting it towards the old man.
The man that was still fuming with anger at the state of his disciple suddenly felt a chill up his spine. It was the kind of chill that meant just one thing: death.
The man quickly turned around, and when his eyes fell on that absurdly powerful magical attack, his pupils contracted further. He gatheted up all the mana and energy he had left, the silver light around the blade of his sword becoming brighter than ever.
Without hesitation, the man swung his sword, meeting the flaming spear of ice in its path. What happened next was simply outrageous. All hell broke loose and descended on the planet, as an explosion so strong happened that all life within its range simply disappeared.
The attack was much more powerful than what Aurora had anticipated, and just the shockwaves alone threw her tens of meters away. Only once the unending force of the explosion dimmed about a hundred meters away from it did she manage to regain her balance.
'Holy!' She exclaimed as her beautiful blue eyes fell on the dome of fire. Thankfully, the burst of the spear resulted in a massive ice ring that managed to contain the explosion; otherwise, it would have ended much worse, not only for Rejoke but also for the planet.
"That skill of that necklace sure is something. Just by eating our remaining mana, which was just about 30 points, it was able to cause this." Even Yuki was astonished. Of course, she expected the attack to be powerful, but not this powerful.
'It may be powerful, but it's not like I can pull this off in just any battle. Were it not for the old man making so many mistakes, I would have never been able to do something like this attack.' Aurora shook her head slightly, her eyes still locked on the raging inferno caused by the spear.
What Aurora said was true. An attack like this took a lot of precise preparations from her. Such preparations were simply impossible to get through in a normal fight. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that if she were fighting anyone else on the same level of power as this old man, she would have hardly been able to hold out for so long.
During the whole fight, the man made a lot of mistakes. However, there were big ones he had made, all of which combined together allowed Aurora to pull off an attack of such level.
First and foremost, from the beginning to the end of the battle, the silver-haired man underestimated her. He never fought with full power, as he always thought she was too weak and that there was no need for him to take her seriously.
The second mistake he made was that he occasionally lost his temper. Anytime Aurora would dodge his attacks for too long, he would get frustrated. It was at these moments that Aurora intentionally let herself get hit by an attack that wouldn't do much damage to her. This constantly caused the man to remain arrogant and ignore everything that the fox was doing.
Underestimating your opponent and losing your cool could already be considered the biggest mistakes someone could make in a fight, as it allowed your opponent, no matter how weak they may be, to prepare an attack strong enough to threaten you.
But by far the worst mistake the man has made was losing his focus in the fight. When Rejoke caused the young man to scream in pain, the old man turned his attention to him, allowing Aurora to finish casting her attack.
Losing focus and not paying attention while in the middle of a battle is the worst thing anyone could do. Just a single second of not paying attention could mean your doom. That's why, no matter what was happening, one should always only focus on the fight they were currently in.
'And not even that was enough.' Aurora muttered internally as she watched the dome of flames slowly recede and disappear.
'He even survived an attack of this level. Truly, second-rank beings are way too scary.' She shook her head softly, as even after the fire disappeared almost completely, she had received no message from the system.
As the last bits of flames disappeared completely, the form of the old man came into sight. However, he looked much different from his earlier vigorous appearance.
All the hair on his body was gone, together with his clothes. His body was not only riddled with terrible burns, but he was also frostbiten all over. His right hand was completely limp, almost as if the bones in the limb weren't there at all.
As for the man's sword... it was nowhere to be found. That sword, that very blade that served him for more than half his life, was gone without a trace.
The man was alive, but he wasn't anywhere near his top condition. He had no mana left; the wounds on his body were so severe that he probably couldn't do anything at all, and his overall aura was basically gone. He was barely clinging to life.
If the young blonde man saw the current condition of his master, he simply wouldn't believe his eyes. Never in his life did he see the old man in such a condition. However, the young man could hardly pay attention to anything as he was still writhing in pain.
The shockwaves that were the result of that destructive attack only worsened his wounds, so he wasn't able to do anything but suffer in the pain that threatened to break his body into parts.
Seeing the old man barely able to stand on his legs, Aurora made her way towards him with tired steps. Even if she was nowhere near the man's condition, she was still far from her peak. She had no mana left, and her stamina had dropped below 50% as well. Combine that with damage caused to her internal organs after taking several blunt hits from the old man, and she really felt like sleeping for a week straight.
Finally, after about two minutes, Aurora stood just about a meter away from the old man. She looked up, trying to look into his face.
Seemingly noticing the presence, the old man moved very slightly and looked down at the white fox he had toyed around with just a moment ago. He knew that he only had himself to blame for his current situation.
Neither Aurora nor the old man did anything, nor did they say anything for several minutes. The old man had simply no strength left to do anything, while Aurora was deeply contemplating certain things.
"You're hesitating, sis." Yuki's voice caused Aurora to slightly jump in surprise. She was so lost in her own thoughts just now that she completely ignored everything around her.
'I'm hesitating?' Aurora repeated Yuki's words, trying to determine whether it was really true or not. Or maybe it was just that she couldn't understand why she was hesitant at the moment.
"Yep, your human mentality is holding you back from killing another human." Yuki nodded and said in a calm tone.
Aurora fell silent, not really sure what to think of it. Was it bad that her human thinking held her back? After all, that human was also her. Should she really go against her own nature?
"Stop with those thoughts. You are no longer a human; besides, humans kill each other on a daily basis. In this world, it's kill or be killed." As if sensing what she was thinking, Yuki said in a serious and slightly reprimanding tone.
"Look, I understand how you feel, but this kind of sympathy will only get us killed. This isn't about rejecting yourself; this is about survival." Yuki's current voice was cold, unlike any other voice Aurora had heard her use.
However, her words combined with her tone really did seem to work, as Aurora nodded softly and took a deep breath. Yuki was right; of course she knew that. It was just that she didn't want to go against her own being. But it was also true that sooner rather than later, this mentality of hers would become her doom.
Without any more hesitation, Aurora took a step forward, and before the old man could say or do anything, her claw swished through the air. The man's head fell to the ground as the rest of his body fell lifeless like a puppet that lost its strings.
[You have defeated the Swordmaster Jian Shen level 14.]
More messages came in, but Aurora completely ignored them all. For a moment, she merely stood silently with her eyes locked on the dead body of the old man. The next second she merely shook her head before nodding resolutely.
Right, there was no more holding back. Monster, beast, human—it made no difference. Anyone who dared to stand in her path would meet the same end.
It was at that time that something inside Aurora changed again. And whether that change was for the better or not, only time would tell.