[N POV]

The simple knife throw that Claude does is filled with mana, making a sonic boom that surprised Emporio. He quickly moved to deflect the knife that was heading straight for his head.

"As expected of Cloud King, an amazing usage of Mana and Aura as always," Emporio praised Claude.

Hearing the words, Claude just gave him a small smile and received the deflected knife heading towards him faster than when he threw it.

The collapsed soldiers gathered around the arena after hearing the loud boom to see the spar, only to see how Claude threw the knife and received it back in the blink of an eye.

It’s something magical for them. A knife can break the speed of sound and create a loud booming sound when both of the masters play with it.

One threw it using their hand, and the other deflected it using his sword.

"Are they human?" asked one of the spectating soldiers.

"Definitely not the same human as us..." answered another soldier.

For several minutes, all Emporio and Claude do is play with the knife. Until the knife loses its luster and breaks in midair.

"Whoa... So a knife with alloy can dissolve in the wind…" the soldier said, amazed by the sight he saw."

The throwing can’t bear the combination of Mana and Aura that Claude and Emporio unleashed. There’s also the wind pressure impacting the knife, resulting in a thinning of air. It’s like how a blazing hot glass suddenly submerges in iced water.

The knife just broke apart while in midair, leaving the sound of cracking iron in the arena.

Claude, who had already prepared for such a result, didn’t send another knife, but let his staff on his back hit the ground and started to cast his magic.

Seeing that, Emporio prepared for the sudden onslaught Claude would give him.

"It’s 3 wins and 0 losses for me. Can you win our 4th bout?" Claude suddenly taunts Emporio, knowing that he’s already won 3 matches before this.

But Claude suddenly vanished.

"You’re that happy defeating a kid half your age?" Claude said, while he suddenly appeared beside Emporio, brandishing his sword towards the man.

Whoosh!

The sword swings heavily, so much so that the God’s candidate can’t help but avoid the sword swing. That single swing broke the arena and almost hit the spectating soldiers outside the barrier.

"That’s scary. Did you finish the recent spell?" "Emporio he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Definitely now, don’t evade and receive my stab!" As Claude said, he vanished again.

Claude suddenly appeared, and Emporio was already using a stance of the five secret arts. To counter Claude’s, assumingly, Stab from an unknown area.

Claude suddenly appeared from above, using his sword like a spear. He stabbed towards Emporio, expecting the attack. Emporio countered the stab with the secret art and succeeded in injuring Claude. only to see an afterimage pass through his counter.

"Nice one!" Claude said, as he stabbed the Water Emperor from the front.

Gathering the aura in front of Claude's sword point, Emporio succeeds in defending the stab Claude gave him. Even so, he’s still thrown back several meters.

Putting his hand on the stabbed area, Emporio coughed blood. "What a scary kid."

He’s feeling the pressure. Claude is getting better with each spar. He can already injure him this heavily even though the spar has only started.

All the events might be long when they're described, but they actually happened just several minutes after the knife broke.

"Well, the younger ones need to defeat the older ones. "Since we are the future after all," Claude said, mocking Emporio.

"Hoho, what a haughty kid..."

"Emporio, you’re still young. Why’d you like to act like an old man? " Claude said this as he tossed the staff and grabbed the sword at his waist.

"Oho, is that the sword staff I’ve heard of? You also completed that artifact within this month? "

Claude didn’t answer him, and he created a magic circle in the air. That thing amazed Emporio, as he had never seen a person creating a spell using the combination of Aura and Mana. As a result, he realizes how insane a dual can be.

"Icicle" as Claude said, an ice spear comes from the spell "Gattling". The additional word makes the magic circle spin in midair, throwing 3 pieces of ice spear every time it revolves.

The speed of the ice spear was astonishing, although it’s slower than the throwing knife. The number of them creates a gap in Emporio’s defense and stops him from thinking of anything but defending against the barrage of spells.

Claude didn’t stop at just creating the ice gatling. While casting another magic circle in mid-air, he sent a slash of aura from his sword at the same time. doing two difficult things at once, scarring the spectator on the side.

This is the height of the Cloud Style. As a Dual, the members of Arbalest spectating on the side can’t help but be amazed at the amazing display of technique Claude shows them.

The difficulty of combining aura and mana is just like how to let fire light up within underwater, making it almost impossible to do.

"I know this world is filled with magic, but I have never seen anything as magical as this..." "Emporio said while wiping some sweat off his forehead."

Claude is a little disappointed to see that Emporio can still crack a joke despite the barrage of Icicle gatling.Even with 6 magic circles attacking him from all sides, Emporio can still attack him using Flow, making the icicle target Claude from an unexpected place.

Unlike when he fights Eugene, the battle ends as soon as he unleashes magic. The battle with Emporio was filled with all kinds of tumult.

Claude needs to think of using all kinds of ways. Breaking the shell of this turtle is harder than you can expect.

The Water God style emphasized defense, whereas the Sword God style emphasized quick battle.While the North God style didn’t really have any implications, the Cloud style should be able to move in all kinds of situations.

However, Cloud's style had yet to achieve the ultimate result. Since battling a God’s title candidate, Emporio already makes Claude feel the hardship. He never fought against another God’s candidate, but he knew that defeating a God’s title holder like Reida was yet something he could achieve.

Not to mention the person that can defeat that water god in a single move.

As of now, the target in his eyes was to defeat Orsted.

What can he do to defeat Orsted, and how can he deal with Orsted? Claude knows that the Dragon God can use both magic and aura to create a whole new path for him, and the fact that there’s still more hidden within the person makes him want to uncover them all.

Sadly, he can’t.

Orsted isn’t someone he can negotiate with. Moreover, he’s not someone in the same standing as Orsted. Someone weak like him would never have the same standing as the Dragon God.

Thus, after unleashing all the magic in the circle, Claude can feel the mana within his body depleted. Close quarter combat against Emporio isn’t something that can be done, since Claude doesn’t have the skill to accommodate that kind of battle with him.

Knowing fully well of his ability, he sent slash of Aura towards Emporio, but got deflected and sent back to him.

Exhaustion started to attack him, and at that point, the deflected attack arrived at him. sending him flying towards the barrier, almost breaking it.

"That’s a great match," said Emporio as he sheathed the sword.

Claude can’t say anything as he loses his consciousness.

___________________________________________

[ - - - ]

Thank you for reading! Like it? Support me Here

P-treon/eternalfortune

Special thanks for my premium reader

[Quellec - FarukEreng - Matthew Bishop - Edward - ChillieT - giser ]

Pay-pal dot me / FortuneEternal

2 free chapter in my site Fortuneeternal.com, 1€ for 3 chapter ahead, 3€ for 6 chapter ahead, 6.5€ for 9 chapter ahead, 10€ for 11 chapter ahead

__________________________________________