Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 79: Battle of Skills

Nyx eventually struggled out of Damion’s iron grip after scorching him a little. Damion’s face tightened when that happened, but the rage, surprisingly, wasn’t targeted at Nyx.

Nyx didn’t understand how Damion felt at that moment, so he just complied and helped Damion out just to soothe him. "It’s best to start with a weapon you’re familiar with," Nyx said. "I’ll constantly be reading your mind so that I can respond to any change you want made to the weapon instantly."

Damion affirmed with a simple nod and stretched out his arm. Instantly, Nyx’s body moved into its liquid state and took another shape before solidifying again.

In Damion’s hand, a Zhanmadao rested, its one edged blade glinting under the dark sky in the jungle clearing.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that it was still nighttime, but being humans with abilities, they naturally adapted to situations better than mundane people of the old.

Kenzo, though not perfect, could see slightly in the dark. Damion on the other hand seemed to notice that he could see very well in the dark too, though not so much, he could only see as far as his Dragon’s Authority covered.

His senses were his greatest tool in this fight, and he was going to use them to the fullest.

’Why go for a heavy Sword? It doesn’t suit your fighting style,’ Nyx said into Damion’s head.

"It’s to create the element of surprise when I switch to a lighter weapon," Damion replied and poised the sword as he leaned to the side. The weight didn’t put him off balance, but he charged ahead recklessly, letting the sword’s weight veer him off course after three steps.

"No abilities!" Damion shouted as he and Kenzo met at the center.

The two blades clashed suddenly and quickly, rebounding off their edges and causing their wrists to vibrate.

’He’s gotten stronger,’ the same thought swirled through their minds and they smirked.

They jumped back in and engaged in a fierce battle of steel, weaving in and out of splitting strikes, raking in devious attack combos and receiving hits just as much.

They knew how to control their strengths, so they didn’t hurt themselves too much. However, with each passing minute, they got faster and their movements became more grounded and flawless.

They were still far from reaching true mastery of the Sword, but they were growing rapidly.

Damion’s weapon was longer and heavier than Kenzo’s, making him have a longer reach and deal stronger blows, while Kenzo’s Nodachi, though heavy, wasn’t as heavy as the Zhanmadao, giving him the advantage of more speed and flexibility.

They both exploited the weakness they superseded the other in, before Damion suddenly switched.

The weapon shifted and shrank down, turning into a Liuyedao, a light and swift Sabre. Damion’s speed exploded, and he found himself easily keeping up with Kenzo.

The air became filled with dancing blades and flying sparks after that change, and the duo went at it vigorously.

Damion had only had one encounter with a sword when he was younger, and since then, he had never handled a sword till the day in the Combat Class.

However, that certain time when he was searching for the perfect sword for himself in the Combat Class, he had come across lots of weapons from different cultures, and he had memorized most of their details.

His ability to adapt to each weapon was mostly because he hadn’t really experienced a single type of sword and gotten used to it. He was like a blank slate, and was just moving on instinct, mixing in the training he had received.

The swordsmen separated after another long, intense trade, assessing their opponents flaws and gearing up for another clash.

However, nearly all that new info was useless for Kenzo when Damion switched weapons again, turning the Sabre into a Dadao.

’Due to a storied history between these two ancient cultures, namely the Japanese and Chinese, their skills and weapons naturally counter each other, that’s why I use these ’weirdly shaped swords and sabres’ to fight him,’ Damion replied to a question Nyx randomly threw.

’Oh! Makes sense, I thought you were just forming these weirdly shaped weapons out of your imaginations.’

’Alright, stop calling them weirdly shaped!’ Damion yelled and raised the Dadao in his front.

Kenzo flash stepped forward and swung sideways. Damion blocked, but was pushed by the force. He crouched down and swept the Dadao, using the momentum from the strike to push forward.

With a leap, Kenzo soared over Damion’s head, slashing downwards as he flipped, but it was once again parried.

A kick to his body forced him to bend awkwardly to block, and he stumbled backwards, yet, the strength in his lower body was still enough for him to attack, creating space between them.

Damion’s Sword rippled, and Kenzo cursed internally, he was just getting used to this new weapon.

’How is he even doing that?’ Kenzo asked. It was one of his rules to never ask another swordsman about their secret, but this was just too baffling.

He barely reacted to the tip of the Miao Dao tearing through the air towards him, but he leaned back just in time.

Kenzo grunted, straining his body to pull himself back up. He forced his body to work faster than it should, and he was able to create an opening, his blade whistling through the air towards Damion’s exposed torso.

Suddenly Damion’s sword turned into a shield and rammed into the Nodachi, before then smashing into Kenzo and throwing him to the ground. The shield then transformed into Glaive pointed at Kenzo the next second, and silence descended like a phantom.

Damion breathed out deeply. "I win," he said with a stoic expression plastered on his face, but inside of him, he was brimming with joy.

Kenzo lay on the ground, panting heavily, his chest heaving with exhaustion. He stared up at Damion, a mixture of shock and admiration on his face.

"You win," Kenzo repeated, his voice barely above a whisper. "For now."

Damion nodded, a small smile playing on his lips. He withdrew the Glaive, and it transformed back into Nyx, who then floated to the side, blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision.

’Not bad, not bad at all,’ Nyx’s voice resounded in Damion’s head. ’You had a breakthrough in your Martial Arts mastery, though it still needs a lot of refining.’

Damion smirked, feeling a sense of pride. He wasn’t slacking at all in his practice, but recently he had hit a bottleneck in his mastery of Martial Arts, but his fight with Kenzo had opened his eyes to new skills and areas he could work on.

He offered Kenzo a hand, helping him to his feet. Kenzo brushed himself off, his eyes never leaving Damion’s face.

"You won this time. Don’t let it get into your head and make you slack off, because the next time we clash, you’ll be the one on the floor," Kenzo said, before turning around and walking away.

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Damion waved a hand and followed behind.

He and Kenzo had taken the fight to a clearing in the jungle, to be away from prying eyes. Damion couldn’t afford to let anyone else see Nyx, plus, he wanted his combat strength to be hidden from others.

Thinking up to this point, it dawned on him that neither Kenzo, Matilda nor Lyra had asked about Nyx when he said he was his pet. They didn’t question him on what type of beast Nyx was, and how he had found and tamed him.

"Or maybe I’m speaking too soon," Damion concluded with a smile. They didn’t have the time to talk about that yet, so maybe they were still going to ask.

Damion looked around and paused, his ears picking up the sound of something approaching. He squinted his eyes, and spoke to Nyx, telling him to get ready for anything.

Kenzo noticed the change in the atmosphere and stopped too, turning around. He took a step to approach Damion when without warning, Melruen and Emily tore through the bushes into the clearing, panting heavily.

Emily turned around swiftly and stomped her feet, raising her hands up exaggeratedly at the same time.

A wall, tens of meters tall, shot out of the ground and spread to the left and right, covering a wide area in seconds.

Damion’s eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the wall, his mind racing with questions. What was going on? Why was Emily erecting a wall?

Melruen, still panting, turned to Damion and Kenzo. "We need all the help we can get right now."

Kenzo’s eyes narrowed, his hands instinctively going to the hilt of his sword. "And why should we help you?"

"It’s either that, or you find Captain Shodan... or everyone dies," Melruen replied.

In response to his words, there was a rumble from the wall, and cracks appeared in it, snaking dangerously to the sides and causing some weak spots to crumble.

Damion sucked in a cold breath upon seeing this. He had only seen Emily’s earth wall crack once, and that was only when it had tanked multiple powerful attacks.

In this situation though, he had only heard the collision of one attack before the wall looked to be falling apart.

"What exactly is attacking?" Damion asked with a serious tone.

"I’m not sure," Melruen said, his face turning paler by the second. "But it looked like a scaled beast of some sort, with three twisting horns, large bat-like wings and a long, barbed tail.

As soon as this description was given, Kenzo gasped, and his red eyes began to glow brightly.