9 A grand battle

They charge at each other with the purpose of winning no matter what. Their eyes full of vitality and their minds encouraged to fight with all the cards they have.

Suther applied Oracle energy in the God arc's blade.

Sung Jin Woo saw this and he was immediately intrigued.

He did the same but different. He clads both of his arms with a dark, semblance-like energy.

Their blades are bound to clash and no one is there to intervene.

The skirmish generated sounds similar to a bell being tolled. Soon after the clash, it followed by numerous slashes that were rhythmically and swiftly evaded in sequences. The ground rumbled and created a small breeze by the mere force of their vigor.

It's a battle of stamina. Whoever stops or makes one wrong move, loses.

All went well for a few minutes until Suther slipped, from the sweat he dropped when he was swerving without recess.

This gave Sung Jin Woo the time and opening, needed for his heaviest blow.

His left fist struck Suther's face with fitting results, followed by a flurry of combos that can make an ordinary person pass out. His Fist glazed with what can be surmised as magic and his talent for fighting made Suther lose balance and begin to fall to his back.

Sung Jin Woo's right-hand exuded a purple aura. This sudden spike of energy will definitely knock him out.

With only a few seconds left till he loses, one thing came to his mind from a teacher he had trouble keeping up with.

'Change'

*I must surpass this prodigy. Be it God or monster, I will devour my enemies.* He mused

A familiar yet unknown voice from Suther's God arc, whispers to his mind.

(- White March: Then let it be set in stone. I will give you my all to triumph over the man in front of you -)

His golden eyes dimmed.

The worst side surfaced into the light.

Suther's gaze became cold and missing emotions.

"<Dance of the Gods, Sixth form: Eclipse>"

Clicking the trigger of his sheathe with his sword encased by the scabbard, devastation erupted. Shaking the core of any individual who is unlucky enough to meet this monstrous attack. All they could hear was the sharp peal of thunder reverberating throughout the crimson forest.

This breathing style is a personalized version of the original form "Tempestuous Impact". This breathing form circulates the flow of Oracle cells to raise his physical ability by ten-fold and gradually wastes his oracle reserves to coat the blade with super dense Oracle energy, causing it to sharpen immensely for 30 seconds. This grants the operator the power to slice, break, or pulverize anything the weapon makes contact with. An average God arc user will collapse in just one move but Suther can do it multiple times since he is God eater and Aragami hybrid.

His iron-like will and wounded body made a hundred blows in one move after Sung Jin Woo's strongest strike in just a millisecond.

It was unsuccessful. The angle of his body, the trajectory of the attack was poorly aimed due to how the body was positioned earlier. But the dark energy that Sung Jin Woo's coated on his right arm stopped functioning.

The ground that they stood on made a massive crack that halves the area by fifteen meters.

He produces a powerful shockwave that rivals a storm. All the leaves covering the ground explode up. Sung Jin Woo recovers his balance and makes distance with Sung Jin Woo.

"No more holding back." As he says with his expressionless complexion and half-awake eyes. He moves swiftly to his engagement range. Suther slashes left and right, upwards and under without any rhythm.

Suther's strength is his enemy, speed is Sung Jin Woo's ally. Even with maximum effort, he couldn't dodge all of the cascades of stabs and heavy strikes without a constant and repeating pattern. Blow after blows he quickly lost his stamina and tolerance of pain. He can't last much longer. What he needs is a small opening for him to stop his barrage.

Sung Jin Woo stops moving for a quarter of a second. This gave enough time for Suther to reel back his sword and cut the jaw of his opponent.

After that, he made another move.

Suther's right side is wide open.

Sung Jin Woo did a left hook stab to damage him, but he was too slow. Suther lunges himself further into his range and he missed and hit nothing but air. With his right hand, he uses 'Dominator's touch' to make distance for him to avoid further confrontation and save time for him to recover.

"Arise!"

He screamed to no one but himself.

An army of darkness coated the lush red forest of Forever Falls.

Soldiers, Giants, Dragons, High Orcs, and Ants, surfaced from the ground. Suther felt a sense of dread flow from his heart. It's clear that he cannot win this, yet something from his soul screams.

*Fight, Devour, Roar, and Surpass. I'll never forget the will that humanity imparted to my very being.* A Giant that donned a shadow glow attempts to strike him down. Its hand shaded the God eater from the sun, Suther unknowingly smiled, the color of his eyes returned. He dodges with grace and then devours the humongous arm at the same time.

Sung Jin Woo's mana was sapped by a huge amount. The Giant's hand which is supposed to regenerate after being devoured is unable to restore to its former state.

Suther is swelling with energy, his Oracle cells have never activated like this before. He's brimming with energy like a descended sun. The mana that the man bore went from 155,720 to 116,790 from just one monster he summoned.

His body is adapting again, rapidly and colossally. The wounds that his opponent made with the dagger Kamish's wrath, disappeared without a trace. He transforms his God arc into cannon form and ruins the monster that attacked him.

As glimmers of dark energy spew out and shatter, he said to his challenger. "Second wind, your excellency." Suther told the summoner.

What the Lord of Shadows is facing is not human nor monster. It is a God eater. A deterrent made to consume a great deity like himself.

From behind Suther, a shadow dubbed as 'Iron' grabs his leg and throws him to a wall of a cliff. The resulting impact destroyed a huge chunk of it and sent debris flying.

He recovers quickly for his stage 3 burst state and his adaptive skin protected his internal and sensory organs too easily, almost like child's play. Even if it was damaged, the parts would either be restored to its previous state or evolve.

The God eater turns his weapon into an Assault gun form. The barrel begins to spin, and proceeds to aim at the army of shadows that are charging towards him. He shoots them down, while doing so he's smiling through his teeth such as a maniac would. Sung Jin Woo watched from afar as he witnessed his struggle against a hundred thousand soldiers.

With Suther's weapon in hand, he charged forward, while ceaselessly firing. He pushed through the horde of soldiers and into the center of the battle.

One by one, he devours his enemies, shoots his God arc, and cuts through the fray. A graceful dance, tainted with surging oracle cells. As streams of shots and slices echoed, Sung Jin Woo orders his summon Beru and Bellion. "Disable him."

The ant shadow and angel answered with a salute. "As you wish my liege."

Beru enters the scene and interrupts his dance. With its sharpened hand he strikes him down, but fails to do so. Suther catches his strike with his shield and shoves the ant away. While distracted, Bellion swings his whip-like sword towards him.

He clicks the trigger of his God arc, propelling him away from the strike and into the shadow's face. The God arc turns from gun form to Swashblade form, another click was heard and immediately, Bellion's head became separated from the body. A blinding strike that no being can react fast enough. However, this act gave one of Sung Jin Woo's army an opportunity to shine.

Behind Sung Jin Woo is a summoned monster named 'Tusk'. This summon, used the 'Hymn of Giants' to turn into a size the same as the previous monster that Suther defeated. Its veil that this summon is wearing, transformed into a wolf's mouth, however it's missing the jaw part.

A blast of fire exploded out of the summoned monster's mouth accompanied with the dragons circling it, incinerating him from mid-air

Still, it could not explain what happened after. A beast emerged from the base of the sword, screaming with hunger.

"<Dance of the Gods, Second form: Devourer>"

During this form, the operator's lower body circulation of Oracle cells is enhanced greatly, the God arc is in a devour state with its jaw locked open. It will not bite nor consume. The user can run forward while the Arc's maw is open, allowing flesh of the enemy to enter the cavity and masticate a part of any unfortunate Aragami. Permitting a swift devour until the operator decides to stop.

He dashed through the wave of energy, through the gigantic monster's head and devoured it whole. Sung Jin Woo's mana is now half of what it used to be.

With the God arc in cannon form, he fired an Oracle bullet like a meteor flying out of the planet.

The bullet then exploded like a firework. The sparkling bits that sprouted out of the firework pierced every entity present in the field, whether flying or not. In one fell swoop, all of the shadows are gone as well as Sung Jin Woo's mana.

Suther lands down the soil. As he sticks the landing, all the leaves dead on the ground were lifted to the air, the energy surging from him fades away.

He wasn't able to do anything. Sung Jin Woo watched a spectacle worthy of a trophy. This is indeed a great battle.

It is now back to a 1v1 battle.