MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 950: We Finally Meet

Neither Lucian nor Aura Nova charged at each other right away like bitter foes erupting in a storm of rage. Instead, they remained poised with an eerie composure, locking eyes in quiet stillness, their locks swaying softly to the subtle breeze, the space separating them thick with pent-up fury and eager tension that both openly displayed without effort.

Lucian's words broke the heavy quiet first, his voice steady and even, slicing through the dense hush hanging over them, "We finally meet, Aura Nova," he said, his tone deep and steady, yet carrying a subtle hint of anticipation, as if this encounter was one he had long anticipated.

"It seems so," Aura Nova responded, her face lit with that persistent battle grin that rarely faded, her mouth edges lifting in thrill instead of dread, her gaze burning with fierce combat fervor as she fixed on Lucian like a hunter etching his form into her thoughts.

"You've already fallen to Kingsley in hand-to-hand fighting, and it'll prove pointless against me too, so I recommend you jump right to your Omniedit ability," Lucian advised with a serene grin, though a subtle, aware curve lingered on his mouth, hinting at both a dare and a subtle taunt.

"By that reasoning, I could throw the same back at you since you were beaten by Anthony, right?" Aura Nova countered, turning his argument against him, her voice casual but pointed.

Lucian held his silence, his dark eyes holding Aura Nova's bright blue stare without any sign of backing down. A smirk crept across his face, deliberate and measured, before he replied, "Then I'll just have to demonstrate the gap between us," he declared while easing his katana from its sheath in a gradual motion, the steel emerging with a soft metallic sigh, the atmosphere around him and the blade quivering and protesting as if the very fabric of space rejected it, his combat will surging moment by moment like a hidden wave engulfing everything nearby.

Aura Nova fell quiet now, her pair of blades materializing in her grasp as if they were natural extensions of her, gleaming under the dim glow. Inside the False Reality Layer she formed following her defeat to Kingsley in melee combat, she had battled countless weapon experts for years on end, engaging in nonstop duels with mythical fighters and flawless combatants, and while she couldn't gauge the full extent of Lucian's lifelong battles, he served as an ideal opponent to gauge how much she'd honed her edge.

Moreover, should defeat strike her once more, she'd retreat and resume her drills in the False Reality Layer, cycling through the routine endlessly until her swords achieved flawless mastery. Her self-assurance wasn't brittle enough to abandon close-range warfare after a handful of setbacks in that style; it simply signaled she wasn't skilled enough... for now, and that single term ignited her drive without end. She would practice, clash, and refine herself relentlessly until she claimed the pinnacle where victory over her became impossible for anyone.

Furthermore, she recognized that Lucian was evaluating her based on her clash with Kingsley. The fighting prowess and technique she wielded back then versus today were worlds apart, the divide so immense it defied comparison on any shared measure.

With that in mind, a burst of dark energy shimmered around her frame, and her dual shortswords took full shape, their blades vibrating softly with packed might, her legs bending as she assumed a fighting pose, her breaths steadying, her combat intent exploding upward into the sky as their wills crashed together overhead, dark and azure flickers scattering like ripples from the unseen clash, both wearing broad grins as if they'd discovered a foe truly deserving their blades.

The earth quaked with wild ferocity, the wind howling like a living entity, the dimension shuddering beneath the raw weight of their auras, and in the instant that followed, the pavement beneath them cratered as their bodies tensed like coiled mechanisms primed to unleash.

Then, with a deafening roar, they launched ahead like devastating missiles fired from clashing cataclysms, their forms slicing the atmosphere like blades through fabric. In a colossal eruption of power and collision, they smashed together, the air bursting apart like fractured panes hurled into chaos, yet neither yielded an inch, their stances fixed as if fused to the ground.

Smirks mirrored on their faces at once, a shared look of pure thrill, and they blurred away in an instant of speed as if they commanded existence rather than bending to it, their velocities shattering ordinary sight.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

Limbs, steps, and torsos smeared into hazes as they raced across the war-torn avenues like embodied bolts of thunder, and whenever they passed a structure, it exploded on contact, then tumbled from the top as the mere ripple of their velocity proved so apocalyptic and devastating, carving ruin behind them without deliberate intent.

Blows threaded the sky like deadly lattices forged from iron and peril, exact and elaborate, every thrust meant to end life. They gazed into one another's eyes like passionate partners rather than adversaries right then, both harboring intense hopes for the other's prowess, as if letdown would sting worse than any wound.

They materialized atop a modest house roof, Aura Nova's shortsword sweeping at him in a smooth sideward sweep, Lucian merely shifting aside with bare minimum motion, then fading from his spot, evading the strike entirely. In a surge of speed and strength, the structure split neatly in two at once, and the following instant, it folded in on itself. Clouds of debris billowed up as if aiming to shroud the whole field, but the edifice was far too minor to impact a zone of such vastness.

Aura Nova had vanished too, trailing him by a fraction of a heartbeat after he moved, the katana clashing once more with the paired shortswords amid their dash, bursts of sparks blooming like bursts of light at each impact.

"If that's everything you've got, Aura Nova, you should quit while you can," Lucian remarked while evading yet another assault, this one a paired strike, but he wove between them with seamless accuracy, as if the weapons parted for him on purpose.

Aura Nova hadn't truly seen Lucian's fight with Anthony, since her mind had been immersed in the False Reality Layer of her making. But that held no importance to her; observing or not changed nothing, for every do-or-die confrontation balanced on the unforeseen, and assurance was just a fable fighters whispered to ease their nights.

"I could throw that right back at you," Aura Nova shot back, "if this is your full strength, then I overestimated you," she added while halting on a rooftop, her form impeccably steady and unmarked, without a trace of damage on her.

Lucian perched on a separate rooftop some distance from Aura Nova, the breeze lightly billowing his jacket, "Is that right..." he whispered to himself, appearing disinterested in the fight, yet his gaze's silent fervor revealed his deep engagement.

"I hope you don't fall too quickly, because it'd be a shame if you lost without unveiling your Omniedit—I want to witness it personally," he said with a composed smile, which then sharpened into a sly grin as he slowly returned his katana to its scabbard.

He dropped into a new posture, his palm steady on the katana's grip as he questioned, "Are you prepared?" with sincere concern, even as the atmosphere thickened around him progressively.

Aura Nova just grinned back, "Come."

"Don't blink, or you might miss it," Lucian warned.

"Same to you," Aura Nova retorted, refusing to yield even verbally, her eyes sharpening.

As her final words hung in the air, Lucian disappeared, the breeze stayed silent, undisturbed, unaltered, with no response at all—he had simply vanished, as if he'd never been there, as if he'd merged with the air and glided unseen through the world's fissures.