MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 953: Honest Mistake
Previously on MIGHT AS WELL BE OP...
Amid the raging dust storm, two distinct sets of footsteps resounded, measured and purposeful, carrying a weight that felt restrained yet powerful, until two shadowy outlines, indistinct amid the turmoil, advanced through the haze, their forms piercing the whirling particles as if specters rising from some abandoned field of war.
Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.
Those echoes grew louder with every stride they took, each footfall booming unnaturally, like the very earth was boosting their aura, and in the instant that followed, the pair emerged together from the cloud, the dust splitting away from them as if a veil pulled aside, exposing their features plainly. It was Aura Nova and Lucian.
Lucian positioned himself with his katana safely back in its sheath, though his palm stayed planted on the grip, digits relaxed but poised, while the blade inside quivered subtly, as if eager for another round of the fierce exchange and fight, hungry like a beast denied its prey.
Aura Nova gripped her pair of short swords firmly as she strode forth like a queen back from her triumphs, each movement graceful and precise, her stance upright and commanding, her whole form enveloped in her Sword Intent. Having summoned it now, she saw no point in withdrawing it, no cause to hold back what was born to overwhelm.
"It seems you didn’t train your Sword Intent using whatever method you used to train your battle experience," Lucian remarked evenly while eyeing Aura Nova with that identical grin from earlier, relaxed but probing, the sort that caught every detail.
The basis for Lucian's judgment was clear enough—Aura Nova’s Sword Intent matched exactly what it had been post her duel with Kingsley, neither thicker nor keener, showing no growth or refinement in any real sense, just lingering as before, unmoving like still pond water.
Aura Nova showed no visible response... at least not on the surface, her face staying composed and inscrutable, though inside, her pulse had quickened when Lucian pointed out a detail she'd missed amid her practice in the False Reality Layer.
Sword Intent.
She hadn't deliberately overlooked it, but rather forgotten to emphasize it due to one individual... Sky Kingsley.
As a pure martial artist, Sky Kingsley wielded no energy at all, relying on neither Sword Intent nor any other kind. This led... or more precisely, prompted Aura Nova to unconsciously sideline Sword Intent in her sessions, zeroing in only on skills, quickness, and combat savvy.
It boiled down to a simple error born from her initial foe's nature, a minor slip that now exposed itself as a glaring weakness.
Even as this truth dawned on her, she held firm and serene, her breaths steady, silently anticipating Lucian's unleashing of his own Sword Intent, aware that the impending clash would highlight their genuine disparity.
Without delay, Lucian invoked his Sword Intent, for though Anthony had bested him sans it, he wasn't Anthony, and he refused to limit himself needlessly—plus, the trick Anthony employed for those feats remained a mystery to him.
His Sword Intent unfurled into being like dark dye spreading through pure liquid, coiling around him and his weapon in utter shadow, dense and suffocating, reflecting the hue of his essence—a blackness that appeared to consume illumination whole.
The atmosphere shuddered fiercely as a pitch-black, edge-like force sliced across it, reality warping slightly, and right then it howled when Aura Nova’s azure Sword Intent surged upward too, vivid and savage like bolts ripping through the heavens. Sword Intent versus Sword Intent.
Then, skipping any formal pause or needless motion, they lunged ahead once more, the void straining beneath their speed and power. Resembling the crash of colossal sky titans, they smashed together directly, and upon impact, Aura Nova flew back, her frame scraping wildly over the pavement as her heels carved furrows into it like blades ripping earth.
Yet Lucian pursued instantly without pause, his katana plummeting from above like a solidified shooting star, dragging ebony Sword Intent in its path like a shadowy wake. Aura Nova refused to falter, lifting her swords to counter the blow. And with a deafening ring, the world felt submerged under the raw power of the collision and assault.
Ebony and sapphire Sword Intents surged outward, battling fiercely as they clawed at each other on behalf of their wielders, devoted guardians, true to the fight, unyielding in every inch.
Aura Nova sensed the massive shake and shock crash through her limbs and torso, her arms quaking hard, her knees buckling under threat as Lucian’s Sword Intent loomed to engulf her entirely like a void. She required no sage to grasp it—Lucian’s Sword Intent utterly outshone her own. Still, she refused to linger on the thought even briefly, trapped in a spot where delay spelled doom.
The harshest truth was, she couldn't truly advance via combat here, and even if she could, it wouldn't shift much, since sword basics aligned for all, yet personal grasps of the Sword varied wildly, forging divides too vast to cross.
Her form spun as she redirected the strike's burden aside using her dual short swords and a snap of her wrists. Lucian offered no reprieve or slowdown, driving on without mercy—the instant Aura Nova shoved his weapon away, he unleashed a brutal kick straight for her head.
Aura Nova’s senses blared in alarm, her limb shooting up to brace with her forearm. Like a collapsing sun's fury, flesh and Sword Intent connected, the impact nothing short of disastrous, Sword Intents erupting rearward like a bursting dam, turning the arena into a spectacle of alternating dark and azure flashes, repeating endlessly.
Aura Nova endured the blow's hammer once again, and though she'd guarded, the strike's might overwhelmed her guard completely. Her figure veered off as she soared through the sky like a fractured meteor, her limb cracking momentarily despite the shield and boost from her Sword Intent, but it proved irrelevant—her innate healing activated right away, wiping out the damage as fast as it appeared.
As soon as she steadied herself and touched down, Lucian's edge was upon her, whistling toward her throat with unyielding accuracy, but now she trusted solely her gut feelings, already outmatched in pace and force.
Guided by her innate responses and agility, she parried once more, only to get hurled back again, her body smashing through structures and stone as she spanned miles in a flash, barriers crumbling and roads splitting behind her, until she halted by crashing into yet another edifice.
Aura Nova lingered there briefly, alert and unharmed, the particles drifting down around her like gentle flakes. A quiet exhale escaped her lips.
She'd believed she could match someone evenly at last, but once more, defeat struck in hand-to-hand strife, all due to neglecting her Sword Intent.
’Tsk... I will definitely win the close quarter combat of my next match,’ she mused irritably to herself while tutting. This time, her False Reality Layer would target Sword Intent, honing it, forging it, and polishing it to a fine edge.
Yet ahead lay Anthony and Aaaninja, warriors of staggering might and prowess, beasts beyond beasts—could she triumph over them in melee, or must she fall back on her Omniedit power anew, as with Kingsley, and as she prepared to do now against Lucian.
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