Vin stood up from the raised platform were he and the rest of the top twenty sat just below the Mortal lords.
He raised his head up and gazed ahead, taking a step forward he vanished and reappeared a second later on the martial stage.
By now everyone had already known who he was and they had a good measure of his strength from what he had shown so far.
So when he appeared on the stage, the entire crowd a little expectant, they thought he was going to challenge one of the lower ranked Mortal lords but reality was way farther from their guess...
Vin turned towards the Mortal lords and gave a slight bow towards a certain person "It would be an honor to cross swords with you, Mortal Lord Arkeon Blazefire" Vin said as he stared at the second ranked Mortal Lord.
Blazing fighting intent was very evident in his eyes, in fact they were almost spitting out flames as he gazed intensely at him.
But the crowds were even more heated at this moment, just when they thought they'd already gotten a good read on Vin, he goes ahead to do something different every single time.
And each time, he always defied the law of common sense, challenging the limits of their intelligence.
"Wh.. Wha.. What the heck is going on?"
"How the hell does he keep doing this?"
"Did he just challenge the second ranked Mortal Lord, Arkeon Blazefire"
"But that's not possible right?, I mean he wouldn't be that crazy"
"I think I'm the one who's going crazy right now"
"Isn't he just asking for the impossible?"
"Lord Arkeon wouldn't accept his challenge anyways"
Heated chatters could be heard all over the arena as everyone talked about the challenge, some of them even speculated that Arkeon wouldn't accept the challenge, but how wrong they were....
"Very well then, I accept your challenge" Arkeon said as he stood up and vanished as he took a step forward appearing directly on the stage.
His response caused a huge uproar amongst the crowd of spectators, even the other Mortal Lords were quite surprised as even they didn't think Arkeon was going to accept the challenge.
They had already brushed off Vin in their minds as they thought he was just overestimating himself, even they wouldn't dare challenge Arkeon as he looked down on everyone even more than them.
He had once vowed that nobody in the outer court was worthy of fighting him except for one person, and that was the number one Mortal Lord, Thorne Thunderforge.
But today was accepting the challenge of another person, someone who was not even a Mortal Lord, they felt like their brain was turning upside down.
"Your cultivation realm only reveals that you're in the seventh stage of the Body refining realm, but my instincts tells me you're quite dangerous, which can only mean one thing.
"You're hiding your true power, aren't you Eremiel Vin Celestra?. In fact you've been doing so since the beginning of this tournament. You're probably only using about seventy percent of your true power.
"But if you want to challenge me, you would have to use your full power, otherwise you wont even know how you lost" Arkeon said calmly with his hands behind his back, revealing certain secrets that probably very people in the arena presently knew about.
The whole crowd exploded in a huge frenzy again as this was certainly mind blowing especially to those whom he had defeated before. Even the Mortal lords were not left out in the discussion this time around.
"He has been holding back the entire time?"
"And by this much?"
"But still, seventy percent?, are you sure Arkeon isn't just kidding?"
"I don't think he would joke about something like this though"
"But I'm truly curious though, what exactly is his realm stage?"
"I guess we're about find out"
The Mortal lords were quite expectat of the upcoming battle as they pinned their eyes to the martial stage.
"I guess you're right, when facing an opponent like you, I should indeed use my full strength. It's time for me to loosen up a little" Vin chuckled as he raised his sleeves and took off the bracelets on his wrists.
Everyone where quite curious at what he was going to do with them, until he dropped the bracelets on the martial stage ground, and immediately Loud clanging sounds rang out as two huge dents were made on the stage where the bracelets fell.
Silence.....
A very thick and intense silence permeated the entire arena for a few seconds, before the whole place exploded with noise and loud chatters.
"He... He... He was carrying those the entire time?"
"Damn it, what the hell kind of freak is this?"
"I guess we can call him a freak of nature"
"Those must weigh about a hundred pounds each right?"
"How could he even swing a sword with those things on?"
"Now that he has taken those things off, I wonder how strong he is now?"
Even Arkeon raised an eyebrow in surprise, he knew Vin was concealing his strength, but he had no idea he was actually suppressing it with heavy weight bracelets.
Vin had actually taken these bracelets from the storage room in the now new base of the Exodus Order, along with a few other things that seemed like it might come in handy.
He wanted to see how much further he could push himself if he suppressed his strength, and these bracelets didn't disappoint him, his fight prowess and battle strength had become even more refined.
But he had also felt quite constrained because of it, now that he had taken it off, his body felt so relieved that it was almost euphoric.
But when he flared his aura, his cultivation was only revealed to be at.... The eight stage of the Body refining realm.
One entire stage below Arkeon who was at the ninth stage, which goes to show that he was still hiding his strength, but there was barely anyone who noticed, since there were only a few even knew his true realm.
But Arkeon didn't look down on Vin because his cultivation stage was below his, he knew that if he didn't take this fight seriously he might be the one who lost.
So he too flared his aura at ninth stage of the Body refining realm. But both of them were not ordinary cultivators, they were a special existence amongst others.
And as if acting on cue, they both released something that was almost similar but was quite different than their normal aura.
Sword qi.....
The moment their sword qi was really, was the start of their battle, the pitting of sword qi against each other cause sparks to fly about in the air around them.
The intensity was so strong that it seemed to cause a friction in the very fabric of reality.
Even the ground below them was being sliced and dented in tandem, their battle of Sword qi continued for a few more minutes with no one losing out and then.
"CRACK!!!"
"BANG!!!!!"
The ground cracked and caved in under their feet as that bolted towards each, they didn't even bother drawing their swords as this was just a warm-up.
When they met in the center of the stage a second later, the both joined their two fore fingers together and coated they sword qi around it, using it as a sword they clashed.
"Sword one"
"Blazing sword"
"BOOOOOOOM!!"
When the clashed, a huge booming sound rang out as a few deep gashes appeared on the stage.
Vin's body was blazing with violet colored sword qi that seemed to be burning in flames, while Arkeon's sword qi took on a more red hue, like blazing red flames.
They kept on clashing and clashing, using only the most basics of their sword technique, no one wanted to be the first to use any big moves, almost like a silent agreement.
Besides, Vin wanted to use this opportunity to finally push Sword one to the pinnacle of completion, and this person was the only one who could help him.
He forego every other distracting thoughts and focused solely on comprehending Sword one, it was only after a while that he felt a little spark of inspiration.
But that insight was quite fleeting, almost like it was telling him he wasn't worthy of it yet, but he didn't give and delved more into it almost forgetting even his battle.
He entered into a trance like state, just like he had done when he was fighting against the Tenebrous Taskforce, his mind was only subconsciously controlling his body to fight.
But that didn't reduce his combat prowess, no it only made him seem stronger, his technique was getting more refined as time went on, his movements became even more fluid.
His hands got faster and swifter, that soon they were moving in unpredictable angles, almost like they were attacking from everywhere.
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