...

Clang!

Shin and Immortal remained standing in the respective positions while maintaining their offensive and defensive postures.

They stayed standing like that and stared at each other's eyes while emitting a powerful presence that was coming from their bodies.

Immortal possessed the cold and heavy aura of death lingering in the atmosphere around him. It was as if anyone who tried to get near him were going to suffocate to death due to having a hard time breathing.

The deep fear of Death.

This was the feeling that everyone was going to feel the moment they got near Immortal at this point in time. They were constantly going to feel that the death itself was coming at them and calling them to join the other spirits in the underworld.

Alongside the looming aura of death, a hooded figure also appeared right behind Immortal while looking down at Shin.

This particular figure was similar to the 'Battle Spirits' (Higher Form of Aura Manifestation) of 'Ethereal Opening Stage Experts'. But it didn't have a distinct figure yet to be considered as a real 'Battle Spirit'.

In a sense, it was much similar to the humanoid figures that Arthur and Leonard had shown when they had a sparring match before – 'Pseudo Battle Spirit'.

It was a skeleton covered with a black robe that had a hood hanging over its head and a pair of eyes made of blue flames.

It was also holding a long bone scepter with a pitch-black color and a huge skeleton hand on its tip. That was a scepter that looked like an exact replica of the scepter that Immortal held with his hand.

And due to the overwhelming presence that this particular 'Pseudo Battle Spirit' had, the air surrounding the whole battle arena suddenly changed and made it dark from Shin's perspective.

But Shin seemed to be unaffected by any of that. And it was because he was also releasing an equally powerful pressure of his own to counter the overwhelming pressure that was being pressed at him.

It couldn't even pose any kind of threat at Shin even if it tried to crush him. And no matter how powerful that pressure was, an equally strong power was negating it and preventing it from moving further.

Immortal would naturally notice that. So, he immediately looked for the source of that powerful pressure with a knitted brow. And that was when he saw the humanoid figure standing right behind Shin.

It didn't have a distinct form yet, but Immortal could already feel the strong pressure coming from its incorporeal body. And from the outline of that humanoid figure, Immortal could easily see that it was holding a pair of swords on each of its hands.

But what really took Immortal by surprise were the cold eyes that were looking back at him with cold gazes.

Its left and right eyes were releasing a different glow which also gave a different kind of pressure – its left eye was glowing with a black light while the right one was emitting a silver glow.

Staring at them, Immortal could feel the coldness of the abyss from the left eye while he could feel the warmth of heaven from the other eye.

The more he stared at those eyes the more threat he got. And due to that reason, the expression on his face started to become solemn as he knew that this was not the real form of this 'Pseudo Battle Spirit' yet.

Immortal could still be another form of power coming from that indistinguishable humanoid figure, which was the reason why it couldn't achieve its perfect form yet.

'This guy is really dangerous. Looks like I need to hinder his progress in the game a little after this match. I wanted to let him grow a little more since I can surely get a legendary undead monster once I kill him at that time. Maybe it even has an Abyssal Knight Rank when that time comes.'

These were the thoughts running inside Immortal's head when he saw the 'Pseudo Battle Spirit' behind Shin.

But those thoughts only lasted for a moment as his eyes suddenly turned sharp while looking at Shin. 'But right now, I don't have the leisure time to let him grow further since I'm sure that he is going to become another unstoppable monster in the future, just like those troublesome guys.'

He then paused for a brief moment and squinted his eyes while thinking to himself. 'I need to delay his progress for as soon as I can before he can become another factor that may hinder the Cult's plans in the future.'

This string of thoughts ran through Immortal's minds as he had a contest of mental prowess with Shin. And that exchange of willpower lasted for a few seconds until the partial buff that they cast earlier finally came to an end.

The black smokes that were emitting from Immortal's body finally subdued while Shin's stats went back to their original enhanced state after the duration of the 'Conversion' skill.

But despite that being the case, both Shin and Immortal continued the staredown for a few more moments before a powerful shockwave was simultaneously released from their bodies.

BOOM!

Due to the unexpected collision of the opposing powers, the air surrounding them suddenly went berserk and started moving in a circular manner as if a raging tornado was starting to form with Shin and Immortal standing at its center.

Their cloaks danced violently along with the revolving gust of wind around them.

Then all of a sudden, the tornado disappeared once again which made the battle arena return into its tranquil state. It was as if the mini-storm didn't appear in the first place. And that was also the time when Shin and Immortal finally separated from each other.

Clang!

Immortal put a lot of strength on both of his arms before pushing his bone scepter forward. And due to that, Shin was forced to pull his sword as he took a couple of steps backward.

After that, Immortal suddenly took a quick spin while accumulating the dark energy from his surroundings before gathering them on top of his bone scepter.

Alongside those movements, Immortal was also twisting his waist along with his scepter to maximize the force that got from the momentum of his spin. And when his spinning motion reached its peak, he released all of the centrifugal force by retwisting his waist towards the opposite direction while throwing a powerful swing at Shin.

Swoosh!

'Self-Created Skill (Personalized): (Modified) Dark Spectrum'

Boom!

And that was when a ball made of pure dark energy was released from the tip of his scepter and flew straight at Shin.

Meanwhile, Shin swiftly sheathed back his sword with a smooth motion before channeling the specialized powers of Sun on it. And when he saw the incoming ball of dark energy, he suddenly took a quick step forward before drawing the sword out and releasing the accumulated energy at the same time.

Shing!

'Class Fighting Style: Solar Flare'

Swoosh!

Boom!

The pitch-black ball of energy collided with a silver sword wave and created a powerful explosion which made the surrounding air went berserk once again.

But in the midst of these violent air ripples, both Shin and Immortal never stopped moving.

Bang! Bang!

Different flashes appeared in different parts of the battle arena as the two continued to exchange blows against each other.

Loud explosions could be heard from time to time whenever the two unleashed a powerful magical skill of their own.

Sometimes, they were a couple of undead appearing out of nowhere but they were going to get chopped down by a sudden flash of light.

Bone spikes, energy balls, sword flashes, powerful waves, metallic sparks – these were only a few of the things that kept appearing in the battle arena every time Shin and Immortal clashed against each other while their figures kept on appearing and disappearing at unimaginable speed.

The cameras were even forced to look at the arena in a zoomed-out view since it couldn't fully chase after the movements of the two.

Due to the intensity of this sight, the spectators watching the match couldn't take their eyes away from the virtual screen in front of them while holding their breaths.

This kind of fight was on a whole other level compared to all of the matches they had watched so far. They even started to doubt whether they were still playing the same game as those monsters on their screens.

...

Bang!

Immortal really lived up to his reputation as one of the top Godlike Players of the game. He was truly strong and giving Shin a lot of trouble despite not having his real battle prowess.

Shin was quite confident with his current strength after all of the trials and errors that he did when he logged back in the game. He thought that he could at least put up a decent fight against the current gods of the game after the hardships that he suffered during his training.

In fact, he even reanimated his Martial-Arts Skills and Mentalism Techniques from the real world and converted them into in-game skills through their counterparts inside the game which had similar effects.

But after experiencing this fight Shin knew for himself that it was going to be easy.

It was true that he still couldn't find his real battle style inside the game which was why he couldn't showcase his full potential yet.

But at the same time, he was also aware that Immortal was not showing his real powers yet since he neither had his most powerful undead monsters nor his awakening skills to strengthen them.

Hu!

Shin took a deep breath to get rid of those thoughts inside his head before increasing his speed once again, trying to break through the barrage of spells that Immortal had sent towards his direction.

With his current speed, he left a bunch of afterimages behind while he was dodging every spell which was flying towards him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Swoosh!

And with another burst of speed, Shin was able to break through the wall of spells blocking his way and arrived right in front of Immortal once again.

But before he could even use his sword at Immortal, the Lich God's body suddenly turned illusionary before exploding into a bunch of smoke which scattered in different directions.

Swoosh!

Shin failed to hit his target as Immortal suddenly disappeared from his sight. He couldn't even find his opponent's location even with the help of his enhanced 'True Sight' and 'Sensing Circle'.

Realizing that, he immediately turned his head left and right as he tried to locate Immortal. And that was when he noticed that he was currently surrounded by a lot of clones created by his opponent.

Seeing that, Shin quickly used his 'True Sight' skill to the limit to see if he could locate Immortal's real body among those clones.

But he was suddenly taken aback when he discovered that each of those clones was emitting a similar type of aura. Meaning, each of them possesses an equal amount of mana which made them practically the same.

'Class Fighting Style: Magical Realism'

After that, all of the clones simultaneously raised their respective bone scepter before pointing them at Shin while also casting a spell at the same time.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

A beam of light flew out from the tip of the clones' scepter and flew straight at Shin.

Tch!

Shin clicked his tongue before using one of his speed-boosting skills.

'Legacy Skill: Mondi's Movement'

Swoosh!

Right after Shin used that skill, he suddenly felt that his body suddenly became light and free. And immediately after that, he immediately moved his legs to dodge the incoming spells directed at him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The barrage of spells missed their targets as he was able to avoid them in time. And while he was moving, Shin felt a series of overlapping afterimages behind to confuse his opponent.

Just like what Shin was expecting, Immortal suddenly got confused when he saw the overlapping afterimages that were following Shin's every move.

On the other hand, Shin made his move and quickly destroyed all of the clones surrounding him. He moved his legs as fast as he could while also swinging his swords at the same time. And every time he successfully hit them with each of his strikes.

Due to that sudden burst of Shin's speed, Immortal's clone couldn't keep up with his movements which forced the Lich God to let reach of his clones flew in the air.

But Shin seemed to already be expecting that, so he quickly transformed the [Dawn's Mantle] into a pair of wings before chasing them and taking them down one by one. And because of that, an aerial battle was suddenly initiated.

A few minutes later, Shin was able to destroy all of the clones summoned by Immortal but he still couldn't find the real body. And when he was about to scan his surroundings, he suddenly noticed a cold gaze locked on him.

And when he sensed that, Shin immediately raised his head and looked further up in the sky. And that was when he saw Immortal chanting out a series of necromantic words while looking down at him.

He wanted to stop Immortal and forced him to cancel the spell, but it was already too late since the Lich God already voiced out the final words that he needed to complete the spell.

A moment later, Shin felt that all of the dark elemental mana lingering in the air suddenly moved towards the ground with an incredible speed, lighting up the whole battle arena.

After a few seconds, he saw a huge summoning circle drawn on the floor of the battle arena which illuminated the whole place with an alternating black and purple light.

Seeing that, Shin couldn't help but form a bitter smile with his lips before muttering to himself. "Looks like a huge trouble is about to emerge."

...