MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 917: Battle Experience

Aura Nova’s blade sliced toward Kingsley’s heart with a grin that radiated pure joy, her movement devoid of even a hint of compassion. Kingsley, however, remained unfazed by her lethal intent; he was equally ruthless. His hands became a blur as he intercepted Aura Nova’s blade between his palms, halting the weapon’s momentum with terrifying precision.

Kingsley reacted instantly before Aura Nova could adjust, shifting his weight to the side and forcing her to move with him. Without a moment's delay, he leaped into the air, driving the sole of his foot toward Aura Nova’s chest with zero remorse. To him, gender was irrelevant—an enemy was simply an enemy, and nothing more.

Aura Nova snapped her forearm up to intercept the blow. The collision of their limbs was like one asteroid smashing into another, causing the air to detonate outward in a frantic scream. A crushing force slammed into Aura Nova, possessing a maddening intensity that surpassed anything she had previously encountered. In the following heartbeat, the sheer momentum hurled her backward as inertia took full control.

Just as she was about to collide with a tree, Aura Nova regained mastery over her body at the final second. Her feet struck the bark with effortless accuracy before she launched herself off, descending to the ground with a graceful, measured step. Glancing at her arm, she saw it had puffed up significantly from the block, the skin mottled with shades of brown and purple. Her gaze then drifted to her other hand; it was broken.

In that microscopic window between the collision and being sent flying, Kingsley had managed to damage the hand she used to grip her blade. Aura Nova showed no reaction to the pain. Instead, her flesh and bone mended themselves instantly without the slightest lag, restoring her body as if the injury had never occurred.

'I cannot recall the last time I was actually hurt,' she mused, her eyes moving from her healed hands to the man across from her. Kingsley stood there, composed and calm, watching her without any sign of tension or haste, as if their clash had been of little consequence to him.

She struggled to remember the last time she had bled—or if she had ever bled at all. Given her monstrous talent, she had always dispatched her rivals with trivial ease. The Dusk Planet had been the same; it was merely a playground to her, a world that had produced something it lacked the power to restrain.

Yet here, on a much vaster stage, Aura Nova had been wounded. Even before this exchange, she had been struck by Kingsley multiple times, while he remained pristine and untouched, as if she were a mere student facing a master.

'He is truly a specialist in his domain,' Aura Nova thought to herself. However, she knew that alone wasn't the reason she was the only one taking damage.

'I understand... it is battle experience,' she concluded after a moment of thought. She might possess raw strength and overwhelming power, but she lacked experience—or more accurately, Kingsley Sky’s combat experience completely overshadowed hers.

While Aura Nova had dedicated her time to training and refining her skills through talent and repetition, Kingsley had spent his life in the crucible of real combat. As a soldier from the Blue Planet, he moved constantly from one nightmare battlefield to the next, wading through seas of blood with barely two weeks of peace between deployments. The depth of his battle experience was immeasurable, and when combined with his Martial Art talent, Aura Nova stood little chance of victory without turning to her Omniedit innate ability.

A typical person would have relied on their Omniedit ability immediately in such a predicament, but Aura Nova was far from typical. Recognizing a weakness within herself, she fully intended to fix it. Since this was a spar—a friendly bout that could still result in death—she decided to treat it as a lesson. And with Kingsley standing at the absolute zenith of his craft, she could ask for no better instructor.

With that epiphany, her aura shifted. Her gaze sharpened as she prepared to accelerate the tempo even further. But this time, for the first time since their engagement began, a new force entered the fray.

Sword Intent.

The Sword Intent of Aura Nova was a calm, profound blue. It flowed smoothly into her twin short swords before circulating through her entire frame, boosting her capabilities to new heights. She was no fool; she had noticed that even at her top speed, Kingsley moved with ease, parrying with casual precision and responding effortlessly. The man hadn't even started trying yet.

Though she recognized her lack of battle experience as a major flaw, she didn't intend to just swing her daggers at Kingsley blindly. That would be a pointless exercise. This was why she activated her Sword Intent, an energy she had brought to near perfection.

For the first time in the fight, Kingsley’s expression flickered slightly before returning to its stoic state.

Aura Nova noted the subtle shift but didn't say a word. It was irrelevant. The only things that mattered were the fight and the experience she would harvest before eventually using her Omniedit ability. She took a single step forward. With that movement, the gap between her and Kingsley evaporated as she crossed the distance at a speed far exceeding anything she had shown previously.

Her blade ascended toward the heavens before falling like a guillotine, aimed at Kingsley's shoulders. For a heartbeat, Kingsley remained stationary as if caught off guard. His perception flared instantly, expanding to keep pace with Aura Nova’s newfound speed and power.

This time, Kingsley opted not to block. He moved just enough, diving to the left at the final moment to narrowly escape the edge. Aura Nova’s blade slammed into the ground instead, carving a massive chasm that stretched for kilometers, as if the very abyss were opening up.

But Aura Nova remained focused.

Before Kingsley could even blink or formulate a new plan, she was upon him once more, her blade whistling toward his heart without a moment of hesitation or mercy.