MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 953: Honest Mistake

Amid the raging dust storm, two distinct sets of footsteps resounded slowly and purposefully, their beat weighty but restrained, until two indistinct shapes advanced through the haze, their outlines slicing the whirling particles as if ghosts rising from an ancient warzone.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

As they progressed, the noise climbed louder and louder, each footfall unnaturally resonant, like the entire realm boosted their aura, and in the instant that followed, the pair emerged together, the dust splitting away from them as if a veil pulled aside, exposing their forms plainly. They were Aura Nova and Lucian.

Lucian positioned himself with his katana secured in its sheath, though his palm stayed solidly on the grip, digits relaxed but poised, while the blade inside quivered subtly as if eager for further combat and strife, akin to a beast hungering for fresh prey.

Aura Nova gripped her pair of short swords as she strode like a sovereign back from victory, each movement graceful and precise, her stance upright and majestic, her whole frame enveloped in her Sword Intent. Since she had summoned it, there was no cause to withdraw it now, no point in holding back something designed to rule.

"It seems you didn’t train your Sword Intent using whatever method you used to train your battle experience," Lucian remarked evenly while gazing at Aura Nova with that identical grin from earlier, relaxed but probing, the sort that caught every detail.

Regarding Lucian's deduction, Aura Nova’s Sword Intent matched what it was post her fight with Kingsley—it lacked greater density, sharper edge, or any growth in depth or maturity, staying exactly the same, unmoving like still pond water.

Aura Nova showed no outward response... at least not on the surface, her face serene and inscrutable, yet inside, her pulse quickened briefly as Lucian pinpointed an aspect she had 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.

Sky Kingsley, a pure martial artist devoid of any energy, had fought without Sword Intent or any Intent at all. This led... or more precisely, prompted Aura Nova to unconsciously bypass Sword Intent in her sessions, concentrating purely on skills, velocity, and combat savvy.

It amounted to a straightforward error stemming from her initial foe's nature, a minor slip that now exposed itself as a glaring weakness.

Even as this dawned on her, she held firm and composed, her breaths steady, silently anticipating Lucian's activation of his own Sword Intent, aware that the impending clash would highlight their genuine disparity.

Lucian summoned his Sword Intent without delay; though Anthony had bested him sans Sword Intent, he wasn’t Anthony, nor did he plan to limit himself, plus he had no clue about Anthony's technique for such astonishing triumphs.

His Sword Intent unfurled into being like ink diffusing through pure water, coiling around him and his sword in utter shadow, dense and suffocating, for that was the hue of his Sword Intent—a void that consumed illumination.

The atmosphere shuddered fiercely as a dark, keen force cut across it, distorting space slightly, and right then it howled as Aura Nova’s azure Sword Intent surged upward too, vivid and intense like bolts splitting the heavens. Sword Intent versus Sword Intent.

With no needless pause or extra motion, they lunged ahead once more, the void straining beneath their momentum and power. Resembling the impact of colossal sky titans, they smashed together directly, and upon contact, Aura Nova flew back, her form scraping wildly over the pavement as her heels carved furrows like blades ripping earth.

Yet Lucian pursued instantly without pause, his katana plummeting from above like a solidified meteor, dragging ebony Sword Intent in its wake like a shadowy comet tail. Aura Nova refused to falter, lifting her swords to counter the blow. And with a deafening ring, the world appeared submerged under the immense pressure of the collision and assault.

Dark and azure Sword Intents surged outward, battling fiercely as they assaulted each other on behalf of their wielders, devoted guardians, committed to the fight, unyielding in the slightest.

Aura Nova sensed the powerful shake and shock crash through her limbs and frame, her arms quaking fiercely, her knees buckling as Lucian’s Sword Intent loomed to engulf her entirely like a bottomless chasm. She required no expert insight to grasp it—Lucian’s Sword Intent utterly overshadowed hers. Still, she refused to linger on the thought, trapped in a dire spot where delay spelled doom.

The direst issue: she couldn’t truly advance via combat here, and even if possible, it wouldn’t shift much, since sword basics aligned, yet personal grasps of the Sword varied, forging an insurmountable divide.

Her frame spun as she redirected the strike's burden aside via a thrust from her short swords and a quick twist of her wrists. Lucian pressed on without mercy or break, the instant Aura Nova shoved his sword away, he unleashed a brutal kick straight at her head.

Aura Nova’s senses blared in alarm, her limb snapping up to shield with her forearm. Like a collapsing sun's might, flesh and Sword Intent connected, the impact nothing short of disastrous, Sword Intents erupting rearward like a bursting dam, transforming the arena into a spectacle of flickering Sword Intents that switched from black to blue repeatedly.

Aura Nova endured the blow's fury anew, though she had guarded, the strike's power overwhelmed her guard completely. Her body veered off course as she hurtled through the sky like a fractured star, her limb fracturing momentarily despite Sword Intent's bolster and shield, but it proved irrelevant—her innate healing surged right away, vanishing the damage as fast as it appeared.

As soon as she steadied herself and touched down, Lucian’s sword awaited, slicing toward Aura Nova’s throat with ruthless accuracy, yet now she trusted solely her gut feelings, already outmatched in pace and might.

Guided by her reflexes and senses, she parried once more, only to be hurled back again, her form plowing through structures and stone as she spanned distances in a flash, barriers crumbling and roads splitting behind her, halting finally as she crashed into yet another edifice.

Aura Nova lingered there briefly, alert and unharmed, particles drifting down around her like gentle flakes. A quiet sigh escaped her lips.

She had believed she could match someone evenly at last, but once more, defeat struck in hand-to-hand fighting, solely due to neglecting her Sword Intent.

’Tsk... I will definitely win the close quarter combat of my next match,’ she mused irritably while tutting her tongue. This time, her False Reality Layer would target Sword Intent, honing it, forging it, and edging it keen.

Yet afterward, her upcoming rivals were Anthony and Aaaninja, figures of vast power and prowess, beasts beyond beasts—could she triumph over them in melee, or must she lean on her Omniedit power anew, as with Kingsley, and as she prepared to do versus Lucian.

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