Sardon

Whirrr~

Cold wind blew across the top of the mountain. Kan'na stretched her aching body. She looked upon the hundreds of magic circles. The barrier she had found oh so long ago was almost fully decoded. Due to several interruptions the decoding was delayed. However she found more free time on her hands, so she figured she'd spend more time decoding the circle.

She had obtained some inspiration for new spells, her normal ones connected by overlapping the circles. However she found that this was a little wasteful, several magic circles were created within others. Some were formed together to make something completely unique. This would require some extensive testing in the future, so she recorded some of the circles for future analysis.

She estimated that the barrier would be fully decoded within two days. Yet taking a look at her level she decided to put it off for a little longer. They were close to the 250 mark, it could be a celebration or something.

Kan'na activated a teleport scroll, it was time for another dungeon.

~ ~ ~

Boom-!

Travis tumbled across the ground. He quickly recovered only to see an incoming dark crescent attack.

"Tch!"

Travis leapt upwards, the attack barely missing him. He was on the losing side of this battle. At this rate he was only buying time. Every second he grew stronger, he would strike once he accumulated enough strength.

Travis was against using his Berserk skill so soon. He wished to keep as many trump cards hidden as possible. He had already exposed one.

Moreover his MP usage was higher than he anticipated. He was down more than a third on his MP. He planned to use [Abyss Magic Conversion]'s tokens for later. After all this could also be considered a trump card.

Sardon was currently far from his full power. Travis had full confidence beating him with an additional 300% in stats. The problem was getting to that point first.

Sardon's arm blurred and several dark crescent attacks headed towards him. The attacks were closely compacted, so Travis had to dodge with the bare minimum of movement. Each crescent attack was close enough to shave hairs off. His cloak suffered damage from the attacks.

Sardon clicked his tongue, "You pest! Just fall already! [Everdeep Blade]!"

Sardon's sword was surrounded in a black-gray energy. The energy increased and took the shape of the sword. It's size was far greater than before, wielding the massive sword Sardon swung down with immense strength.

Booom-

Travis was pelted by the rubble, he was able to dodge the sword. However the flying rocks were a different story.

Bwom~

Travis eyes widened, a [Depth's Beam] was headed straight for him! Due to the rubble and dust he was unable to see Sardon charge the beam.

Travis' eyes snapped to the right and he triggered [Truth Twofold: Existence]. He teleported just before the beam was about to hit him.

Sardon was annoyed, it was like killing a cockroach it's impossible! Every attack was dodged, every move was read.

Travis' eyes narrowed, fifty more seconds. That's all he needed. Although he could take Sardon on now, he wanted to be careful. It was a shame that the side effect from [Averoth's Lust For Battle] was affecting him. Every fiber of his being wanted to battle, it took a significant amount of his will to prevent himself from charging into battle.

Just a little longer!

Sardon yelled, "If you won't come to me, I'll come to you!"

Boom-

Sardon disappeared, everything seemed to slow for Travis. His senses were on high alert. His whole body screamed for him to move-!

He jerked his head to the side, a sword appeared where his head was. The blade cut his mask and cheek. A large cut formed and began bleeding.

The moment of shock overtook his fight against the side effects of [Averoth's Lust For Battle]. Immediately his body began to fight back, adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Wham-

Travis slammed a his foot into Sardon's abdomen causing them to stumble back a bit. He followed the attack with his sword, five cuts formed across Sardon's body.

Sardon was immensely surprised, they were way stronger!

Travis continued to attack while Sardon hastily defended himself. Due to Travis' stats increasing, his War Sight was growing stronger as well!

Sardon's annoyance turned into realization, "This is why you were chosen! You're truly something else!"

After a strike was blocked. Travis used his sword to block Sardon's blade as he kicked their jaw. Sardon used the blow to do a full turn and swung horizontally.

A dark crescent attack followed the swing. Due to it being so close Travis was unable to dodge. The blade slammed into his chest, causing a serious amount of HP to fall.

Travis sent two of his own crescent attacks back. Sardon dodged these only to see Travis in front of him, "Ha! This trick will only work once!"

Travis vanished, reappearing behind Sardon. A dark energy coated his blade as he swung upwards. The sword sliced into Sardon's back. Sardon gasped in pain, the blade opened a cut two inches deep.

Such a wound would be nearly fatal. And it was, this was a strike that combined [Depth's Edge] and [Truth Twofold: Revealing]. While it didn't cut Sardon in half like it did Blissful Death, the damage was certainly high.

Three more cut formed across Sardon's back before he retreated. The pain was excruciating, his breathing grew rough.

Sardon felt his consciousness fading, gritting his teeth he yelled, "Arvit! Come back! We can rule once again!"

Travis sword quivered, drawing his attention. Sardon noticed the reaction and grinned, "You can hear me! Come back! We ruled this place once, we can do it again! Within a week my strength will outmatch his in months! You know this better than anyone! So why are you hesitant?!"

Harbinger of the Abyss quivered more. Travis' heart skipped a beat at this, would his sword leave him? His stats would take a decent downfall, and he would lose a really good weapon.

Besides that, he felt a connection with this sword. It had been with him for more than half a year, although it was only three months out of game. He had trained hard with the sword, grew with it. His hard fought battles had been with this sword. Would it really leave?

It freed itself from Travis' grip. Travis was too heartbroken to reach for it. Flinnder saw this and stood up from his chair nervously, that sword was quite the treasure! If his champion lost it. . . there would most likely be no replacement!

It floated over to Sardon. Meanwhile Sardon stood there with a grin, "Yes. . . yes! You realize it don't you! The one meant to wield you is me!"

The sword stopped halfway between Travis and Sardon. The two stared at it, not even worrying about the battle. All that mattered was the sword.

Sardon's grin slowly faded, "Don't. . . don't be like that. You know that wasn't intentional, I would never purposely do such a thing! I can fix that! We can fix that!"

Travis was flashed with an emotion. It wasn't negative, he simply felt calm. He now knew the answer, he knew the reasons.

A smile spread across his face, "Return. . ."

The sword flew through the air and landed in Travis' palm in less than a second. The reason why Harbinger of the Abyss was so damaged, was because of Sardon!

Travis spoke, "Today you lost two opportunities. To retrieve what you lost. And wasting your retry!"

Boom-

Travis moved incredibly fast! He appeared in front of Sardon, within a split second his foot slammed into Sardon's gut. He jumped, tilted, and spun rapidly. His sword turning into a saw blade. Several cuts formed across Sardon's chest.

As he landed Travis used the momentum from spinning to rotate his body again. Using a single leg as the balance he kicked Sardon's face. The power from the kick sent Sardon flying diagonally back and to the right.

Using [Truth Twofold: Existence] Travis reappeared in the direction Sardon was heading. His sword traveled through the air, a black line followed the tip.

With a single stroke he beheaded Sardon. The black line faded and along came a chaotic wind that ran rampant. Sardon's body fell and remained unmoving.

Travis flicked the blood off his sword and sheathed it. [Averoth's Lust For Battle] faded, causing him to go back to his base stats. Travis then sat down, he would recover his fatigue and MP. Along with his mental strength.

His War Sight stopped immediately, like a rampant sea that immediately calmed.

The Royals watching grew silent. They processed the battle slowly, Lady Xenio was especially confused. She hadn't realized her Champion was so strong, what a waste! Had she known then she would have fully invested resources into them! What a waste!

What mattered most was the results. A screen once blue turned red. The name on that screen:

Dead's Whisper!