Vignis maintained a focused look as she abandoned her defences and put her all into her sword-and-dagger a.s.sault from above and below, causing Lars to be shocked.

In that split second, he ended up being the one who was forced to withdraw his blow halfway, incurring injuries to his muscles as he strained them to get out of the way all of a sudden. He burst his mana through his body to stop his advance and even triggered flight to send his body up and out of the way.

Finally, Vignis could only click her tongue in disappointment as Lars twisted his body sideways to slip past her dual strike and float up into the air.

However, because of the sudden impulse on his body coming from the change in directions, the inertia also ended up twisting his muscles, causing them to be sore and weakened for at least 15 seconds while he healed himself!

So he could only quickly speed off into the air and away from Vignis as she leapt into the air and unleashed a crescent slash with her sword, trying to catch him before he got out of range. He managed to make a quick zig-zag mid air and once more slip out of the way, narrowly escaping the incisive strikes.

Lars sweated as he applied healing onto his inflamed muscles, reducing the swelling that came from the unnatural evasion he had made. What was going on in this girl's mind? Did she not have any sense of self-preservation?

He did notice the sheen of purple-red mana across her skin, however there was no way those light defences could possibly thwart his high-powered Mana Saber...

Right...?

But Lars could not spend much time thinking it over as just seconds after he got out of range, he was forced to be on guard once more as Vignis rocketed into the air in his direction, buoyed by a pair of s.h.i.+ning wings emerging from near her shoulder blades!

's.h.i.+t! I should have guessed she'd have prepared some method of flight or at least anti-flight precautions!' Lars quickly turned to the defensive and desperately fended off his opponent's quick slashes and stabs. Everytime he threatened a counter-attack, instead he would be forced to turn tail and retreat as she pressed for an equally mortal exchange of wounds.

And in just those short exchanges, Vignis proved more than capable of taking him on with power, speed, skills and capabilities on par with the full-powered Darius - all from the get-go! It was made even worse by the fact that she fought in a style that literally risked her life and well-being just to prove her worth in a "friendly" compet.i.tion match...

In the midst of his flurried avoidance, suddenly a tremor rippled through his skin and Vignis pulled back mid-stroke, before the s.p.a.ce before her was cleaved clean in half, leaving a zone of vacuum as even the air in the s.p.a.ce was swept away by the intensity of the blow!

'I really should have done this earlier...' Lars cursed as he felt the soreness in his joints from the strenous clash. His body pulsed with strength as he exerted the strength of his minotaur bloodline and felt a new breath of energy flowing through his body.

"Come on!!! Face me with all you've got!! That's more like it!!"

On the other hand, Vignis flipped backwards head over heels once before shooting off towards him once more, rising up into the air before cras.h.i.+ng back downwards with all the momentum she could muster. And as her eyes lit up with a spark of purple, mirroring the hue of what was in her 3rd eye, she opened her mouth wide and spoke clearly as she struck.

"Grand Crusher Calamity!!!" The auburn haired fighter's dagger and sword were held in an "X" shape as a grand purple cross of energy formed where her weapons touched.

Seeing her forceful attack, Lars brandished his sword in a two-handed grip by his waist, ready to meet her blow pound for pound with his strongest move too!

"Void Splitter!!!"

Even the atmosphere surrounding Lars' body seemed to dim as his blade rose to meet the female warrior's violet-explosion of energies. The purple radiance from her blades too seemed to flicker under the influence of his sky-breaking slash infused with rippling spatial laws.

Everyone who could keep up with the duo's flas.h.i.+ng moves held their breaths in antic.i.p.ation of the monumental clash of force, while those who couldn't follow the fight were in awe despite their cluelessness about what was going on. All they knew was from their fellow spectators' expressions and reactions that this was one h.e.l.l of an intense battle!

Lars continued pouring in all the mana he could reasonably muster while still ensuring that he limited himself only to the peak of the Elite-realm. And on the other hand, a slightly sinister glow was being emitted from the third eye on Vignis' forehead, almost as if though...

She was about to trigger a hidden skill!

Lars tensed his body in wariness even as their blades nearly touched one another's, and he began to divert 10% of his mana in preparation for any surprises. He didn't really have any idea of what abilities the additional orb of vision gave her so far, except for letting her keep up with his moves as if she were a super-computer and react instantly to everything he did.

And just before their attacks slammed into each other, Vignis let out a savage roar...

As her cross-shaped purple-red energy attack suddenly launched off her blades and impacted Lars before he had exerted his full force in his swing!

"!!!!!!!!!!!" In shock, Lars Mana Saber was nearly knocked out of his hands as he had not yet reached the full build-up of his attack - her sudden change from a melee blow to a ranged attack messed up his attacking point and connection point of his Void Splitter move, effectively halving the force and disrupting his balance!

The violet-crimson cross-shaped attack had transformed into a searing projectile that Lars could only forcefully resist as he was carried by its flight all the way across the sky!

The outcome was that Lars was sent plummeting from where he had been soaring in the air, ascending up to meet Vignis' attack, rocketing straight for the edge of the ring... And perhaps to even fall out of the boundary!

With the air knocked out of his lungs and heavy wounds, Lars was struggling to his utmost to dispel the Grand Crusher Calamity and detach himself from the sudden attack! Coughing up blood as the pressure began to mount on his body, he strained and strained and strained and finally burst out with an explosion of mana to free himself.

Yet it was not so simple as just getting out of the way of the magical attack - there was also the launcher of that attack to deal with - Vignis did not let up for the slightest moment, using every ounce of her energy and mana to chase after Lars!

"It's not over yet! Starfire Shot!!!" She shot forth after him, running on the ground with rapid footsteps then spinning once before launching the dagger in her hand, aimed unerringly at Lars.

Lars. .h.i.t the ground of the arena heavily with a bang, cracking the stone floor before he bounced off roughly. And before he knew it, the flying dagger was upon him, coated in smouldering tongues of blue flames.

In the middle of his tumbling and turning from the impact, Lars still found the presence of mind to engage flows of wind under his body and change his body's flight out of the path of the blue-fire dagger.

However, to his horror, even as he turned in mid-air and moved at an angle, the dagger turned to follow him like a heat-seeking missile!

Frowning deeply, Lars turned solemn as he realised that he just couldn't avoid the dagger that seemed to be guided by Vignis' spirit sense. He spared a split-second glance only to see that the eye on her forehead was s.h.i.+ning incandescently with a mystical purple light - evidence that she was not just idling by while she waited for the dagger to connect!

'd.a.m.n!! s.h.i.+elds!!!'

Lars cast whatever defensive spells he could, including summoning a veritable wall of water almost 3 metres thick before him and surrounding his body to defend against the star-fire blade. As star-fire was far hotter than normal flames, he did not stinge with his mana and also raised his own weapon to brace himself for the impact...

But to his horror once more...

He was shocked!

Literally!

The glowing blue dagger that shot through the air wasn't coated in star-fire...

It was lightning! Blue tongues of electricity!

Jolted by the waves of shocking currents that were conducted and helped by the walls of water around his body, Lars was electrocuted and stunned for 0.1 seconds... Though it was but the shortest of moments, nevertheless it was a window in which his guard and blade dropped just ever so slightly...

Even as the dagger pierced right through his left ribs and knocked him spinning round and round and round in a mess of blood!