The result?

The flame slash tore through the golden dragon and entirely broke it apart while the slash continued towards Elber, who quickly had to use a skill to defend as a water shield charged with lightning appeared. He could dodge, but he was briefly stunned seeing his Lightning Dragon Slash losing.

Naturally, the flame slash didn't even stop for one full second and destroyed the shield as a loud explosion occurred due to the clash of elements and the flash slash exploding.

Elber knew his defence wouldn't work since this slash tore off his Lightning Dragon Slash, so he had already dashed to the side with lightning on his feet after conjuring defence to let it buy a moment, even if not a full second, but the explosion of that flame slash still caught him and he was blasted away…again.

Elber's heart was beating like a thousand horses running over it as he got up, his eyes looking at the smiling Ainen. 'His Fire potency is far stronger than my Lightning potency…why such a difference between us?'

'I have gears that boost my lighting potency by 20% on top of other defenses, and he doesn't have gears at all! I also have a Tier-3 Epic potion's buff to further boost my stats and my Lightning element's power! My Magic core gives 80% increased potency to my Lightning-based skills…so what is this difference?!'

Elber couldn't understand.

Well, Ainen's current stats were at 750 now due to Dark Berserk. His Strength in particular was 810 due to the skill effect of Tyrant Mage's Arm.

Meanwhile, Elber had all of his stats around 500.

The flame slash Ainen released was boosted by wind as its fuel, and pairing it with kinetic power poured into it from Ainen's physical exertion of swinging the sword, the slash was strong enough to tear apart that Lightning Dragon.

Not to mention other boosts Ainen had from his magic core and burger.

"So Elber, I suppose you gained some clarity now," Ainen said with a smile. "But let's not end the duel just yet. That Golden Dragon was pretty cool and fast, even though you launched it with a stabbing motion. It must have some cool magic execution through your arms to make it that fast. Can you use it again? My brain is in a bit of overdrive, so I want to cook some flashy skills like that golden dragon."

Ainen's stats were far higher than what his lifeform limit allowed, so his brain was indeed in overdrive. Cognition at 750 was no joke.

The lifeform limit of Adept-rank was 200 in all stats, but it wasn't an absolute limit since people could get boosts and buffs. However, there was an absolute limit, and it was 1000 in all stats for Adept-rank.

Ainen was pretty close to it, but that limit wasn't meant to be reached. It was impossible to reach because it would just result in death before reaching there. Ainen was at the perfect point in stats. Any more, and he would start hurting himself badly.

Just now, when he had swung to release that flame slash, his right arm's muscles ruptured.

In simple terms, it was like filling air in a balloon. The balloon's material quality was one's life-rank. The air inside meant all the stats one had.

If the balloon were filled with air without stopping, it would eventually burst. Simple as that.

So, having 750 Cognition was also doing a number on Ainen's mind.

"Come on, don't just stare blankly at me. Use some skills. Show me what you got," Ainen said as he pointed his sword at Elber.

Lord Black ruefully chuckled. 'He must be regretting his life choices right now.'

Elber took a deep breath, composing himself. His expression was not indifferent anymore but somber.

'I have to find out why he is so strong.'

"I'll show you the skills. In exchange, tell me why your stats are so high."

"Deal."

In the next moment, Elber vanished from his sword with a thunderclap and appeared above Ainen before swinging his sword twice.

A cross-slash yellow lightning projectile shot at Ainen before Elber's feet flickered with lightning again and appeared behind Ainen, right as Ainen's sword met the Lightning cross-slash.

Ainen's swing destroyed cross-slash instantly while his Jet Blaze Flight was activated, unleashing a burst of flash behind him from the veil right where Elber was about to strike him.

Ainen easily dodged while Elber faced a burst of flame on his face, burning his face as pain rattled him.

"Urgh…"

Elber's jaw clenched as he didn't want to scream in pain.

'This flame…It wasn't even that strong, yet it penetrated my skin-tight mana barrier and burned my face!'

Well, who could tell him that Ainen's Magic Core gave his Fire-attrited moves a 30% penetration.

Moreover, Ainen's vitality was below 50% as he had kept it at 49% for his Magic Core's effect—Abysscrust Duality.

Abysscrust Duality: If your vitality is above 50%, you gain a skin-tight barrier that generates automatically for defense and increases your physical and magical defense while it stays enacted. When your vitality is below 50%, your attacks gain 20% penetration against physical and magical defenses.

So Ainen had 50% penetration! Even a normal blaze from his Jet Blaze Flight had high-potency firepower and 50% penetration, preventing anyone from fully defending against his flames unless they had super high fire resistance.

"Use the Lightning Dragon. I want to see that one." Ainen grinned. "I'll use something interesting against it."

Elber's face was not just somber anymore, but ashen.

He couldn't see the path to victory. "Why do you have such high stats? What is this difference in elemental potency?"

Ainen blinked. "Well, the biggest boost of stats I have is from a burger I ate. I cooked it. You see, my class is Mystic Chef, so I cook."

'Limitlessly.' Lord Black added.

Ainen chuckled.

"From the food you cooked?" Elber was stunned. "Impossible."

"The burger also increases my fire potency by 100%. So 100% from Magic core, 100% from burger, and I have a total of 50% penetration in fire-attribute attacks. As for my stats, they are all at 750 except Strength, which is at 810."

Ainen smiled. "Now that you know everything, use your Lightning Dragon."

…

"One more spotlight of that brat." The bald man saw that Ainen got another spotlight and muttered. "He must have defeated another one of ours."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.