Chapter 66: The Sage of Lightning

Alex looked at the man who seemed to be made out of lighting and smirked at him. 

Though he showed confidence outwardly, in reality, Alex wasn't too sure of his victory. 

But showing fear of uncertainty in battle would be detrimental, so he won't show any weakness. The last thing he wanted to do was show his opponent that he isn't 100% confident.

Boom! BoomBoom! Boom! BoomBoom!

The sky rumbled rhythmically even more as the dark storm clouds spread all over the area. It seemed as if a shadow had fallen over the world.

Lily saw this happening and knew that the battle wasn't something that a Rank 3 Assassin like her could interfere in. Even standing up when they released their powers would be hard. Like trying to stand straight underwater, the only thing that will do is drown you.

So she took out a dark box that seemed to be made out of shadows and chanted something under her breath. 

Slowly a shadowy monster came out of it and it released a foul Aura, a wind of death hit the area. Slowly a giant hand came out of the box, the hard seemed to be made out of darkness and its claws like those of a wolf. 

The hand caught Lily in its palms, and both the monster arm and she got teleported away in a swirl of darkness.

Alex's eyes shone with a strange unreadable expression as he gazed at the spot Lily used to be at. He then turned around and looked at the man covered in lightning. "So are we going to fight it out or what?"

Boooom!!

Lightning crackled around them, the destruction they caused amplified with each passing second. 

But the lightning man wasn't sure of something. Alex could see that much from him, even though everything else seemed to be unreadable. 

Alex's face filled with malicious intent as his dark red Mana formed a torrent around him, but neither of them acted. Both waiting for who will make the first move, who will take the chance to make a mistake.

Fwish!

In an instant, both of them made their moves. But the strange lightning-man was faster. It took him less than a second to reach Alex's flank and breakthrough his barrier as it wasn't there at all.

Alex's eyes widened in shock, but he knew that it was already too late. A Warrior had gotten in close quarters to a Mage, the exchange result would be obvious.

..

The Sage of Lightning, that was what the man is called. Due to his extreme power, at seventy years old, in personal combat power, he was at the top. 

The man was seventy years old when he had reached the top of the Legendary Rank, though he wasn't compared to the likes of Camilla. It's mostly because he had no Undead Army with over a dozen Legendary Ranks to call at a whim or the Spy Network needed to manage such a high degree of control over their subjects.

Alex's mind went through thousands of words and what he knew about the opponent in front of him.

Baam!

As the Sage hit Alex, the latter's childish body easily gave in like smashing an empty cardboard box. Ribs broke and caved in as if they were twigs, organs raptured like ballons and his body exploded in a gory mess.

With a swipe of his hand, the Sage of Lighting used electricity to burn every single cell in Alex's body. He never underestimated his opponents, the man didn't reach so far by doing so. Suddenly the Lightning Sage's blue eyes widened in surprise and he looked at the ground, his eyes left behind a trail of crackling electricity due to how fast his head moved.

Fwish!

In a split second that made it appear as if he teleported, the Sage of Lightning appeared on the ground and gave the delicate earth below him a hard stomp.

BOOOOM!

The mountain shook, it felt like an earthquake was pulling the whole area out of its roots. Houses, trees, and grand buildings crumbled down. It took a dozen breaths before the tremors calmed down, the sound of glass shattering showed that there would be no window left in Sword Mountain after the kick.

Not only that but a giant crater was made at where the Lightning Sage had kicked the ground. It seemed more like a missile exploded there than the doings of a simple kick.

A splat of blood flew out of the crater in a flash, and the blob of red liquid terraformed and took a humanoid form. 

Black hair like the night and dark eyes like a black hole, the body was only that of a child, and the features slowly tool form too. A straight nose and high cheekbones, showing that while he was cute at his age, the child would grow to be handsome. 

Alex's nude body came into being and with a wave of his hand, a red robe came about to cover his dignity. Not like the young man cared about it too much, he would just feel uncomfortable fighting with his trumpet swinging around with the wind.

Unlike the smirking look from before, now Alex was fully concentrated. There was no need for any more taunts since they proved ineffective in getting a rise out of the Lightning Sage. 

Fwish!

The older man attacked again, he always took the initiative. Like before, Alex couldn't see the man's movement at all. His eyes didn't even catch an afterimage or any sign of where the next attack would come from. 

Lightning Sage's power was his speed, he could move so fast that no spell in Alex's reportage could hit the man. 

'Well, if the spells aren't fast enough, then just use many of them to bombard the whole place.' – those were Alex's thoughts as he clasped his hands together and Mana exploded out of his body like a waterfall moving upward.

Over a thousand magic circles of different colors surround Sword Mountain. It felt like a rainbow of colors illuminated the Sword Mountain Sect. The magic circles shone so brightly that the Sage of Lightning had to shield his eyes.

Many kinds of spells shot out from the magic circles. 

Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, curse, death, poison, etc.

So many elements that most mages don't even know of. They rained down like hellfire on the whole mountain, leaving no room to dodge the attack.

BOOOOM!! 

BOOOOM!! 

BOOOM!!

Everything in the mountain was flattened, any wildlife that survived the cold is dead now. Only rubble was left behind.

Even the Lightning Sage got hit multiple times. But none of the spells left a scratch on the man's body as he came out of the whole ordeal unscathed. His Ki monstrously exploding outwards had stopped any attack from even touching the Lightning Sage.

But that wasn't Alex's intention, as he used <Telekinesis > to propel himself backward. 

Some distance is needed for my plan to work. – thought Alex with a calculating look on his face.

Though it wasn't that easy to get away from the Lightning Sage, the man immediately gave chase to him.

Alex noticed something that made his frown deeper, the Lightning Sage had his eyes closed, meaning that his only sense of navigation was not his sight but the other senses. 'What a monster, it isn't even bothering him at all.' – concluded Alex, as the resident Mana was sucked underground.

Baam! 

*Crack*

Again, Alex's ribs are shattered in an instant and he spits out a mouthful of blood. Unlike the previous time that he got hit, this one was his real body. So the danger became even higher. 

The blood coming out of Alex's mouth slowly moved as if it had a mind of its own and like a creature straight out of a nightmare, the blood turned into tentacles that wrapped around the Sage of Lightning to hold the man in place. That didn't work as the man's arm that shattered his ribs also pierced straight through Alex's heart.

'How bad…' – thought Alex, feeling a little nauseous, having his heart destroyed felt weird, like something in his body was missing. Lightning ran through him, paralyzing all of his muscles and attempting to fry his brain. But the electricity stopped as soon as it got to his neck. Under Alex's skin, his skull shined red like it was a lamp inside his head.

Lightning Sage frowned as he tried to fry Alex's brain, even more, the current got stronger and pushed through the defenses. 

But in the end, the attack proved fruitless, so he switched his tactics and punched at Alex's head. As he was about to smash the Blood Mage's brains to bits–

BOOOOOM!!

–A huge red snake with skin glistering like wine came out of the ground, its head alone was as big as two castles. It pierced straight through the clouds wallowing both Alex and Lightning Sage. Before slamming back into the ground.

...

At the top of the snake, a child's head full of black hair popped out of the creature's scales, the scales made a ripple as he came out as if he just got out of the water and not a fleshy monster. Alex's breath was ragged, the Mana Reserves were less than half in comparison to when the fight started.

*huff* *huff* Alex's deep breaths vibrated through the humid air, he felt like he couldn't get enough oxygen. He jumped off the snake's head and landed on the ground and a dark purple magic circle appeared below him.

This spell was called <Eight Dimensional Time Manipulation> and it slowly started reverting the physical body back to a state from before. Alex had to do this immediately even though this time-reversal Rank 4 Spell wasn't the most efficient way of healing. He had to get that electricity out of his body or it would kill him from within. 

Slowly the electricity was shifted out as time-reversed, this took a huge toll on Alex's reserves. While <Eight Dimensional Time Manipulation> Spell was only Rank 4, time-reversal spells consume a huge amount of Mana. Even to turn back time in a child-sized body. It left Alex with only around 30% of his Mana reserves.

The situation will become deadly soon. – concluded Alex, understanding that he will have to finish this soon. 

'Chances of me winning are ow, but not impossible.' – he calculated. 

But there was a risk, one that he wasn't going to take. This was his life, he couldn't go betting with it around like a gambling addict. People die when they are killed, so he must be careful.

Alex had been prepared in case someone like the Lightning Sage came around to fight. If he hadn't prepared, without a doubt he knew that today would be the day of his death. The first attack where his Blood Substitute got destroyed would have been his death.

But as he calculated it all, Alex knew that the chances of the Lightning Sage appearing here were low. Even two Legendary Ranks coming here had a higher chance of happening than the Lightning Sage 'coincidentally' coming to enact justice.

If the Poison Dragon of the Tang Sect had come here, then that wouldn't be suspected. Even then, he would have come at best eight hours after the massacre.

After all, the Sword Mountain Sect was a small Sect, and it wasn't even allied with the Royal Family which the Lightning Sage and his Blazing Sky Sect supported. 

The Sword Mountain Sect was neutral, and the Blazing Sky Sect could have taken advantage to occupy this after Alex's carnage. Of course, they wouldn't have been able to since by then it would be too late and Alex will have had the whole thing under wraps. And by then… Alex's new organization would have settled in here. 

Anyway, what worried him more, was why the Lightning Sage came here. 

'Why was he here? What benefits could he get?' – those were the questions that plagued his mind.

After all, just because Alex became a Legendary Rank Mage didn't mean that he would have encounters with Peak Legendary Ranks everywhere. Those kinds of people rarely come out and make a move on their own. When they do so, it meant that the whole Human Continent was about to experience change.

Still, something nagged Alex to the back of his mind, countless scenarios playing in his head. Each being eliminated and calculated, taking into account the time of the Lightning Sage's convenient appearance. 

To Alex this whole thing smelled suspicious, someone had it out for him bad. But who was it? Who would know he would appear here and destroy the Sword Mountain Sect? 

Slowly a smirk appeared on Alex's face as he immediately thought of some people who would benefit from his death.

*SCREECH!* 

Suddenly the giant red snake cried out in pain as the Lightning Sage cut his way out of the creature, it was so loud that if any normal creature was alive in the vicinity their eardrums would have raptured.

Swish!

Cutting another huge hole in the red snake, the Lightning Sage left the creature dead.

The man cloaked in lightning looked at Alex with a hateful gaze as dark spots appeared in the hid body. This was a sign that the Lightning Sage had been poisoned inside the snake's stomach.

"You are something else, kid." Said the Lightning Sage, his body gaining back a pale skin color as the lighting that surrounded him dissipated, "It's almost a shame that I have to kill you. When you meet Yama in the afterlife, tell him who sent you."

"Tell him what? That some guy who kills kids killed me?" Added Alex tilting his head in confusion.

The Lightning Sage's eyes narrowed at that and his teeth ground together. "You have a lot to say for a soon-to-be-dead brat!"

"So what? It's the truth though," insisted Alex, "I am only a ten-year-old kind and you will kill me. That is all there is to it. When I was young I always admired you, when my home got destroyed by Demonic Cultivators. There was hope in me. But seeing you help a Demonic Cult… this…"

"What do you mean by that?" Asked the Sage of Lightning, a frown very apparent on his face as his robes fluttered in the wind.

...

A/N: A Mage usually needed to keep their distance when fighting a warrior, but the Lightning Sage is so fast that he becomes a pretty good counter against most mages.

P.S: As someone said in the previous chap... yeah, the Wayne Kingdom was heavily influenced by the cultivation novels, so expect some young masters here and there.

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 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

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