MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 1004: Not Enough

The atmosphere surrounding Anthony’s katana, the blades of Aura Nova, and their forms howled and quivered intensely in complete frenzy, as if existence itself struggled to withstand the immense pressure emanating from them. Aura Nova’s azure eyes stayed fixed on Anthony, steady and unyielding, like any tiny distraction in concentration might prove fatal. She refused to avert her gaze.

In the following instant, Anthony grinned. He had already detected the inner boost Aura Nova had applied. He grasped it right away. Honestly, he had to concede that it was a brilliant idea. Bolstering her body from within using Sword Intent to toughen muscle strands, heighten response pathways, and fortify skeletal strength wasn’t a notion many would come up with so rapidly during battle. It was clever. Practical.

Yet, for all its ingenuity, it fell short of rivaling his power or his velocity.

The very next moment, his katana gleamed.

What ensued wasn’t just one blow, but a tempest, a ceaseless onslaught of sword strikes released in an unbroken flood. Every cut was dazzlingly quick, exact, and pitiless. The atmosphere wailed as the edge sliced through it, and each cut targeted Aura Nova with lethal, deliberate precision. It wasn’t wild fury. It was polished devastation.

Aura Nova’s brow furrowed as the onslaught bore down on her. Despite her inner augmentations being engaged, she sensed the choking weight infused into Anthony’s strikes. The immense concentration of power in every cut was crushing.

However, she didn’t protest. She didn’t waver. She merely acted in response.

Her figure blinked out of sight, breaking apart into countless ghostly afterimages. Every afterimage copied her flawlessly, charging ahead to confront Anthony’s strikes directly with destructive might and insane accuracy. She weaved through the combat zone with ridiculous swiftness, beyond what the bare eye could track, beyond deliberate reasoning, beyond thunderbolts rending the heavens.

Nevertheless, Anthony’s barrage of blades matched her without effort, as if she was merely a youngster trying to flee from fate’s grasp.

With a deafening roar, the leftover hundreds of strikes smashed into her shape. Debris and haze exploded fiercely, smothering the combat area while the ground beneath was ripped open indiscriminately. The fabric of space appeared to crack beneath the colossal power.

Aura Nova experienced agony piercing her head as her form was shredded by countless sword wounds. Cuts zigzagged across her skin in savage designs, each gash pouring out blood liberally as metal ripped ruthlessly through her. She needed no proof. She realized it. Without the Sword Intent fortifying her inside, those incisions would have penetrated much further, far more profoundly.

Her healing kicked in without delay.

Tissue mended at a noticeable pace. Hemorrhage halted as gashes closed up. Muscle strands reconnected and reinforced. Skeleton rebuilt without seams.

‘It’s still insufficient,’ she reflected inwardly.

Even employing the Sword Intent inner boost, she couldn’t equal the raw velocity and might propelling Anthony’s strikes. The divide separating them stayed enormous.

But she refused to yield. No, this was a training bout, and she intended to draw every bit of advancement possible from it.

In the subsequent fraction of a second, Anthony closed in on her, his katana arcing without mercy, completely unconcerned with her gender, the disparity in might, or her ongoing recovery. His sword showed no pause, just pure implementation.

Aura Nova responded in a flash. Although her healing wasn’t entirely finished, it didn’t stop her from battling at peak performance. Agony meant nothing. Harm was fleeting.

Their arms were on the verge of clashing again when, during the swing, Anthony’s katana shifted its path with outrageous simplicity. The adjustment was smooth, impeccable, nearly graceful. His target moved from her throat to her torso without any hint of warning.

Aura Nova’s eyes sparked with awareness and recollection.

Lucian had used a comparable maneuver on her previously. With her aptitude and battle savvy, there was zero chance she’d succumb to the identical ploy again. She rerouted her pair of short swords at once, positioning them to block the modified blow.

Yet, she encountered no collision, no resistance, absolutely zilch. Her edges cut through vacant space.

Before understanding could take hold in her mind, a revolting sound of tissue ripping apart resounded over the combat zone. Anthony’s katana hadn’t actually deviated; it had only tricked her senses through sheer quickness and skill. In a metallic streak of action, the weapon severed straight through her whole right limb. Metal encountered tissue with unrelenting exactness.

‘What?’ Her mind quaked, not from hurt, but from sheer, unfiltered astonishment.

She might have advanced since her clash with Lucian. Her awareness had refined. Her gut feelings had intensified. But the foe facing her wasn’t Lucian.

It was Anthony.

And facing him, her chance of defending was doomed right from the start.

With a weighty, nauseous thump, her detached arm hit the barren combat field. Crimson sprayed through the sky before splashing onto the charred soil.

Aura Nova didn’t pause; she swiftly withdrew, establishing separation from Anthony while disregarding the torment from her stump. But as soon as she shifted, Anthony materialized at her rear.

He equaled and surpassed her pace with absurd simplicity, his actions streamlined and minimal, free of excess effort.

Her neck whipped back to his position, and her sight was overwhelmed by a metallic streak plummeting toward her. Her reactions ignited. She lifted her leftover arm to defend, but once more, the anticipated hit didn’t come. Rather, a crushing blow hammered her chin with immense power. The surroundings spun wildly, momentum gripped her figure and hurled her laterally like a thrown puppet.

Her form gouged through the dirt over and over, rebounding off the landscape like a skipping sphere, etching furrows with every collision, yet she seized command while airborne.

Spinning with nimble accuracy, she touched down softly on her feet akin to a feline, gliding rearward over the ruined ground. Her palm lifted to her chin. It dangled askew, but that was inconsequential.

With a crisp crack, the skeleton realigned. Her healing had already wrapped up. Her missing limb regrew perfectly at her joint. Tissue, strands, framework, all renewed.

She was restored to pristine condition, but right then, being restored just signified readiness for more battering.

She resolved right away to go on the attack; without delay, she launched one of her short swords at Anthony, the edge hurtling through the atmosphere like a lightning strike.

Anthony, spotting the approaching armament, simply inclined his head a bit to the left in a nearly casual gesture. The short sword zipped by him pointlessly, as if it was mere juvenile amusement.

But the instant he evaded, Aura Nova materialized behind him in the air. She had warped to the exact spot of the short sword she’d flung. With fierce resolve, she brandished her last blade at Anthony’s skull. But prior to the cut landing, she sensed it live, her assault had stalled.

Something had shifted.

Before bewilderment could solidify in her thoughts, both her hands were amputated at the wrists with such exacting skill that she hadn’t detected the motion.

There had been zero alert. No observable cut. Merely void.

Aura Nova disappeared in a blink, flashing many kilometers distant before sliding to a stop over the splintered landscape. Her azure eyes fixed on Anthony again; this time, her look held no refusal, just comprehension.

Anthony didn’t chase her straightaway; he merely pivoted gradually and returned her gaze with a subtle grin. Her strategy had been superb. She had infused her short sword with Sword Intent, cast it on purpose, and warped to it the second he sidestepped. It was strategic. Smart. But it proved pointless.

Even with eyes shut, such a maneuver couldn’t have triumphed over him. His awareness had already decoded her plans before she’d enacted them.

And in this instant, he wasn’t even employing Sense Dome. What he depended on was solely his innate awareness, provided by his vision alone.