MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 1003: Internal Enhancement

With those words escaping his mouth, his right hand lifted gradually toward his left, grasping the hilt of the katana sheathed there. He pulled the blade free from its sheath in a measured draw, the metallic scrape against wood echoing through the air like a prolonged, eerie melody that hung over the entire battlefield.

Aura Nova's gaze sharpened as she observed the action and caught the noise of Anthony unsheathing his katana at last. Warriors of their level could discern from the manner of drawing a weapon alone if the opponent meant business or was just toying around.

Though uncertain whether Anthony planned to unleash his full power right away, she sensed he would dial back on the casual playfulness to some degree.

She swiftly assumed a defensive posture, bracing herself fully. 'He's coming now,' she mused inwardly while her focus intensified to its peak. Her awareness surged, making the surrounding world decelerate as her detection extended, hunting for any abrupt motion, any subtle quiver in the surroundings, any whisper of air revealing his advance.

A broader smile crept across Anthony's face as he observed Aura Nova gearing up. "Here I come," he declared plainly. Yet, in contrast to her, he skipped any fighting pose. He just advanced forward.

Aura Nova, her azure eyes fixed firmly on Anthony, suddenly felt her instincts blare louder than ever. Prior to grasping why her alerts were raging, her automatic responses took over, commanding her form. Her arms whipped sideways in a flash of motion.

A thunderous clash of steel on steel burst forth with nuclear intensity as she halted an invisible assault rushing in. The blow's power crashed into Aura Nova like a barrage, the shock flinging her airborne and sending her tumbling back through the sky.

While her frame hurtled rearward, Aura Nova's thoughts whirled in chaos. It baffled her. She'd just seen Anthony rooted in front of her, but instantly her warnings had flared and her body had reacted independently. Even so, that same Anthony remained planted right there, unmoved from her view, even post her deflection.

'Incredible velocity,' she reflected, a spark of awe in her stare. Anthony's pace was so blistering it created a solid lingering image, tricking her vision into mistaking it for his actual self.

'No hint of air shifting at all,' she noted while reclaiming command of her body in the following instant. Spinning elegantly in midair, she adjusted her form before touching down, her boots gouging fiercely into the soil as she slid to a halt, etching wide furrows behind her.

Her vision locked ahead at Anthony's prior spot. 'I must adjust—'

Her instincts hijacked her once more before the idea completed. Her figure blurred aside as she opted against parrying this round. The prior collision still pulsed agony through her palms, her inner bones humming with discomfort.

Right as she evaded, time appeared to freeze, like the universe itself scoffed at her unyielding endurance. Moments later, the atmosphere howled and ripped apart from a blasting strike, as lacerating sword trails burst free, shredding the spot Aura Nova had vacated. Atmosphere, noise, ground, breeze, grit—whatever lay in that one swing's trajectory faced utter devastation.

A seismic wave ripped across the field as debris swirled furiously and billowed upward in a fungal cloud. Vast fissures and gullies yawned open from just one blow, a strike aimed only to sever a single foe.

Aura Nova reemerged into view several kilometers distant, her thoughts churning as she grappled with the events. From Anthony's initial dash, she'd neither spotted him, detected him, nor registered him whatsoever. She realized that without her gut reactions, survival drive, and intuition, she'd be a corpse sprawled on the dirt by now.

Though stunned by Anthony's absurd prowess, she understood depending only on automatic dodges, innate responses, and gut feelings wouldn't suffice. That wasn't combat; it was mere luck-based evasion. She required an edge. Something—anything—to let her at least detect Anthony. A mere shadow of him, a vague trace of his path, would do.

Suddenly, an idea hit: Sword Intent.

She recognized clashing it head-on with Anthony was pointless, yet she could employ it to bolster herself now. That realization sparked her Sword Intent to life, manifesting in a brilliant blue hue, vibrant but contained. It didn't surge out wildly. Rather, through her masterful restraint, it infused inward.

First, it streamed into her sight, honing her eyesight past human bounds. Next, it surged to her mind, sparking her neural circuits with sharp precision. It coursed along her spine to her core nerves, weaving through each fiber like glowing threads. Then, it dispersed into her body's framework—flesh, skeleton, connections, sinews, vital parts, blood vessels, and pathways.

It fortified her core from inside.

No trace of that intent escaped outward. Externally, her form looked utterly ordinary, as if unchanged. But within, she surged with wild power, velocity, and might, her whole essence attuned to the quiet chant of her Sword Intent.

Her sight, cognition, and nerve network amplified, the realm's pace dragged even more. Scattered motes of dust hung clear as separate specks. The quakes in broken terrain turned into decipherable pulses.

At last, she spotted him.

The youth who'd evaded her detection since unsheathing his blade. He loomed next to her anew, defying space, as if separation held no sway over him. His katana poised skyward, his expression blank as he regarded her coolly. Abruptly, the sword descended like a plummeting star.

Targeted straight at Aura Nova's throat.

'How can his quickness reach this level?' Aura Nova pondered, registering only the blade whistling down at deadly velocity with crushing might.

Less than a heartbeat had passed since settling in place, but Anthony was upon her, like he'd never left and she'd wandered into his realm.

Aura Nova purged all stray musings instantly. No space for reflection. No place for surprise. Now able to track the incoming threat, and with Sword Intent strengthening her from inside, evasion was unnecessary.

Her paired short swords lunged ahead like paired serpents biting together. A world-shaking detonation flared as destructive steel met steel, the force imploding then blasting out in a roaring peak.

The clamor echoed over the field akin to a chorus of weapons in furious accord. These two led as the maestros, iron as the tool, turning the arena into a grand stage where war anthems and fatal beats swirled in frenzied joy and boundless fury.

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