MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 950: We Finally Meet

Instead of charging at each other like fierce rivals exploding in a storm of fury, Lucian and Aura Nova remained poised with a serene, almost eerie composure, locking eyes in quiet stillness. Their hair fluttered softly to the subtle melody of the drifting breeze, while the atmosphere around them thickened with suppressed ferocity and eager tension that both openly allowed to linger.

Lucian's words broke the dense quiet first, delivered in a sleek and steady manner that pierced the hush enveloping them both. "We finally meet, Aura Nova," he said, his tone low and even, carrying a subtle hint of anticipation, as if this encounter was an event he had anticipated for ages.

"It seems so," Aura Nova responded, her face lit with that persistent battle grin that rarely faded, her lips tilting up in thrill instead of dread, while fierce combat fervor blazed in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Lucian with a hunter's intensity, etching his form deep into her thoughts.

"You've already fallen to Kingsley in hand-to-hand fighting, and it'll prove pointless against me too. I recommend skipping ahead to your Omniedit power," Lucian advised with a serene grin, though a subtle, aware curve lingered on his mouth, hinting at both a dare and a soft taunt.

"Using that reasoning, I could throw it right back at you, since you went down to Anthony, right?" Aura Nova countered, flipping Lucian's own argument against him, her voice casual but edged with bite.

Lucian held his silence, his dark eyes clashing with Aura Nova's vivid blue stare without any sign of yielding. A gradual smirk spread across his face, measured and intentional, before he replied, "Then I'll just have to demonstrate the gap between us," he declared while easing his katana from its sheath in a deliberate draw, the steel whispering free as the surrounding air quivered and hissed against the blade, like reality itself pushed back, his combat aura surging moment by moment like a hidden wave engulfing everything nearby.

Aura Nova fell quiet now, her paired blades materializing in her grasp as if they were natural extensions of her form, gleaming under the dim glow. Inside the False Reality Layer she'd forged following her defeat to Kingsley in melee combat, she'd battled countless weapon experts for years on end, trading blows nonstop with mythical fighters and flawless combatants, and though she couldn't gauge the full extent of Lucian's lifelong battles, he'd serve ideally as a gauge for how keenly she'd advanced.

Moreover, should she fall once more, she'd merely retreat and resume her drills in the False Reality Layer, cycling through the regimen repeatedly until her swords achieved flawless mastery. Her assurance wasn't brittle enough to abandon melee warfare over a handful of defeats in that style; it simply signaled she wasn't skilled enough... for now, and that single notion sufficed to drive her without end. She'd practice, clash, and hone her edge relentlessly until she claimed the pinnacle where victory against her became impossible.

On top of that, she recognized Lucian was basing his view on her fight against Kingsley. The gap between her fighting prowess and technique from that time and today was staggeringly immense, a chasm too wide to chart on any shared measure.

With that in mind, a streak of dark energy shimmered around her frame, and her dual shortswords solidified completely, their keen edges vibrating softly with packed might, her posture shifting into a combat ready as she bent her knees, her breaths steadying, her combat aura erupting fiercely into the sky while their warring intents crashed together overhead, dark and azure flickers bursting outward from the unseen clash, both wearing broad grins as if they'd discovered a foe truly deserving their blades.

The earth quaked with wild fury, the winds howling like tormented spirits, the very fabric of space shuddering beneath the raw weight of their auras, and in the instant that followed, the pavement beneath them cratered inward as their bodies tensed like coiled mechanisms primed to unleash.

Then, with a deafening roar, they launched ahead like devastating projectiles fired from clashing cataclysms, slicing the air as cleanly as blades through silk. In a colossal eruption of power and collision, they smashed together, the atmosphere bursting apart like fractured panes hurled into chaos, yet neither budged an inch, their stances planted firm as ancient oaks.

Smirks mirrored on their faces simultaneously, a shared look of wild thrill, and they blurred away in a haze of speed as if they commanded existence rather than bending to it, their velocities shattering the bounds of ordinary sight.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

Their limbs and forms smeared into streaks as they raced across the war-torn streets like embodied thunderbolts, and whenever they passed a structure, it exploded on contact, then tumbled down in ruins as the mere ripple of their velocity wreaked such apocalyptic havoc and sheer devastation, carving trails of ruin without either aiming to do so.

Assaults threaded the sky like deadly lattices forged from iron and peril, exact and elaborate, every blow meant to end life. They gazed into one another's eyes like passionate allies rather than adversaries right then, each harboring profound hopes for the other, as if letdown would sting worse than any wound.

They materialized atop a modest rooftop, Aura Nova's shortsword whipping toward him in a crisp sideward sweep, but Lucian merely shifted aside with scant motion, then faded from sight, evading the strike entirely. In a surge of speed and might, the structure cleaved neatly in two, folding inward the very next instant. Clouds of debris billowed up as if aiming to shroud the whole field, yet the edifice was far too minor to impact a zone of this magnitude.

Aura Nova had vanished already, trailing Lucian by a mere heartbeat after he moved, the katana and twin shortswords colliding anew amid their dash, bursts of sparks scattering like festival lights at each impact.

"If this is everything you've got, Aura Nova, you should surrender right away," Lucian remarked while evading yet another strike, this one a paired assault, but he glided between them with seamless accuracy, as if the weapons parted for him.

Aura Nova hadn't truly seen Lucian's clash with Anthony, since her mind lingered in the False Reality Layer she'd built. But that held no relevance to her; observing or not changed nothing, as all deadly duels balanced on the unforeseen, and assurance was just a comforting lie fighters whispered to ease their slumbers.

"I could toss that right back at you," Aura Nova shot back. "If this is your full strength, then I overestimated you," she added while halting on a rooftop, her form flawlessly steady and unmarked, without a trace of injury on her flesh.

Lucian perched on a separate rooftop some distance from Aura Nova, the breeze lightly rippling his jacket. "Is that right..." he muttered under his breath, appearing disinterested in the fight, yet his gaze burned with hidden fervor that gave him away.

"I hope you don't drop too quickly. It'd be a shame if you fell without unleashing your Omniedit—I want to witness it firsthand," he said with a tranquil smile, which then sharpened into a sly grin as he slowly returned his katana to its scabbard.

He assumed a fresh posture, his palm resting solidly on the katana's grip as he inquired, "Are you prepared?" with sincere concern, even as the air grew denser around him with each breath.

Aura Nova just grinned. "Come on."

"Don't look away, or you might miss it," Lucian warned.

"Same to you," Aura Nova fired back, refusing to yield even verbally, her gaze sharpening.

As her final words escaped, Lucian disappeared, the breeze staying still without howling or shredding or collapsing—nothing stirred at all. He was simply absent, as if he'd never occupied that space, as if he'd merged with the air and glided soundlessly through the world's hidden seams.