MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 952: A Knack

This time around, Aura Nova felt the shock herself. Sure, she'd anticipated Lucian bouncing back, but not with such rapid and immediate precision—it was so smooth that it seemed more like reality mending a flaw than simple healing. She'd figured he'd evade, allowing her strike to at least clip him even as he sidestepped deadly harm.

Yet he'd shattered her predictions completely by blocking outright, emerging without the tiniest wound ever recorded, not a single scrape or the slightest blemish on his flesh. She recognized the katana he gripped as the identical one she'd just discarded, carrying the exact same heft, sharpness, and aura from mere seconds before.

Lucian had long understood that dropping a sword or any armament amid combat was commonplace, a blunder countless fighters committed and died for, which is why he wielded a blade that returned at his mere whim or gentle pull of intent, tethered to him as loyally as a shadow clings to its caster.

"Surprised?" Lucian inquired in a steady voice while he and Aura Nova remained locked in place, their weapons clashing firmly against one another, steel rasping on steel as tiny sparks fell like fading embers.

"Indeed, I am," Aura Nova admitted without hesitation, her composure unchanged, breaths even and measured as shards from the earlier broken windows rained down onto the pavement, tumbling amid them like gentle drizzles, tinkling faintly as pieces clattered and broke apart more.

"I guess that makes the both of us," Lucian remarked with a serene grin, "although I don’t know how you suddenly achieved such battle experience and combat IQ and skill, I for sure know it isn’t through the battle with Kingsley," he continued smoothly, gaze keen and watchful, "and I have to say, your Omniedit ability is truly broken if it can allow you to perform such ridiculous feats," he concluded, eyeing her with a subtle grin blending admiration and caution.

Though Lucian lacked the precise details of Aura Nova's actions, he inferred she'd somehow boosted her fighting prowess, as no one honed so sharply in mere moments without twisting the fabric of existence.

'She really has improved, all the gaps in her movement and attacks that Kingsley had exploited previously are almost all gone,' he reflected inwardly, remembering the old vulnerabilities and observing how virtually each had been carefully eliminated.

'Sighs, everyone is just so talented and monsters of different yet equal calibre, the author really does have a knack for writing overpowered characters,' he pondered quietly to himself.

Kingsley, defeated by Aura Nova earlier, had returned to face Aaaninja, unleashing an enhanced Law Defiance Field that once brimmed with obvious flaws.

And now, Aura Nova, who'd fallen to Kingsley in hand-to-hand fighting, was swiftly closing that exact shortfall with alarming speed. Lucian inwardly sighed at the cluster of such prodigies, each advancing during the fray like beasts molting outdated shells.

He'd planned to finish Aura Nova in close combat after just a few clashes, securing a swift and absolute win, but now it looked like he'd need to accelerate, since she'd advanced—and progress in the heat of battle always posed the deadliest wildcard.

Aura Nova grinned slyly before replying, "Don’t blink or you would miss," and as soon as the words escaped her, she vanished, reappearing at Lucian's rear like a specter gliding across voids, her swords slashing in erratic patterns through the atmosphere as she loosed a barrage of strikes, velocity building with each motion until her figure smeared into blurs.

Lucian's form dissolved into a lingering echo, Aura Nova's onslaught ripping only vacant space as vanishing outlines got hit, and right then the structure crumbled fully under them from the buildup of destruction, sending both tumbling from the heights, positioned parallel like synchronized droppers, yet they held back from striking during the drop, merely exchanging glances with faint smirks as if deciphering intentions in the quiet, locks whipping fiercely in the gale as gravity yanked them earthward without pity.

The instant they neared the surface, their frames shifted fluidly for landing, legs flexing to cushion the impact, but as soon as their boots touched soil, they surged ahead once more at devastating pace. Booms of sonic bursts trailed them as they ripped past air currents and demolished sound walls like mere pranks, the air fracturing in their wake akin to splintering panes.

Aura Nova created separation from Lucian amid a flurry of incoming blows, every blade arc whizzing past her by mere inches, her sight locking onto a fuel truck parked along the devastated road, and in one fluid motion, her heel struck it like a soccer ball, propelling it onward with a shrill metallic screech and fierce rotation, the hulking vehicle rocketing at Lucian as if fired from a cannon.

Lucian showed no outward flinch, just a quick twist of his arm sending a lone sword arc slicing the breeze, and moments later the whole fuel container burst into shards of alloy and tire, divided so precisely it appeared surgically parted instead of wrecked, remnants flying in all directions.

Aura Nova lunged from the flank, having deployed the truck as a feint, her swords targeted at his unguarded angle. But Lucian anticipated it fully, his katana gleaming anew, and suddenly over a million sword arcs materialized encircling Aura Nova, interconnected like a lethal mesh forged from unyielding steel resolve, then it constricted around her from all sides without mercy or pause.

Aura Nova's gaze sharpened in a flash, opting for an instant choice, Sword Intent surging via her frame and weapons like electricity along conduits, and she thrust ahead as a thunderbolt across the heavens, her paired short blades carving through assault after assault that sought to enclose her.

Realizing the onslaught appeared boundless and that hacking them individually would soon bury her, she switched strategies on the spot, her palm streaking as if it warped beyond existence, and immediately she released a broad-spectrum blast brimming with annihilation and devastation, her own strikes crumbling Lucian's and slashing them as easily as blades through soft spread, dismantling the sword mesh through sheer supremacy.

Structures toppled, pavement split and sank, fissures ripped across the terrain like gashes on flesh, sword scars etched the surroundings as they summoned a maelstrom of devastation onto the field. Billowing veils of grit, rubble, and fractured rock spiraled upward like a howling vortex ascending to the clouds, engulfing all in view.

The arena turned into a fog of roiling and eddying barriers, sight narrowed to phantoms and glints, a combat zone navigated solely by gut feelings and slayer's drive.