'In the end it all came down to this moment...again.'

The bone spurs protruding from Hao Xuan's back rapidly gathered all the ambient energy from the atmosphere and stored it in his meridians, his cells, and blood, every place that could hold it.

Movements of so much energy created barely visible ripples in the air that could be seen in the naked eye. To Stasa who was standing across from him, it looked like vast translucent butterfly-like wings were occasionally fluttering behind him.

'My mind is playing tricks on me,' he told himself.

While all of Hao Xuan's senses were so focused on his opponent that he couldn't hear or see anything else besides him. All other sounds died down and the world became blank.

Every twitch, every muscle extension, and contraction, it was all laid bare in front of him. It got to a point where Hao Xuan could look past his skin and see the inside of his body, much like a clockmaker inspecting a particularly troublesome piece of machinery.

All those small parts working in tandem to make one whole picture. The beating of the heart, the blood coursing through his veins, pumping to every single organ. In his eyes Stasa wasn't even human anymore, just a collection of nerves, fibers, and tissues.

'I can do it, I can,' he assured himself.

The Law of Chaos was invoked and its territory brought forth. The air hissed for a moment before bending to his will. Within that 20-meter radius Hao Xuan could feel everything as if it was placed there by his own self.

Every rock, every pebble, every broken piece of the rubble was there with his knowledge. His fingers caressed the air and felt a piece of rock brush against his skin that was over 12 meters away.

Hao Xuan waved his hand to store the damaged glaive and leaned forward with both legs firmly planted on the ground. One deep breath, in and out.

The aching pain running through his mind and body was put aside. All that was left was Stasa now.

He slowly rotated his palms while bringing both hands to the front. The territory that was surrounding him from all sides was compressed and pushed to the front in a narrow line.

It had a radius of 20 meters as a circle but when he compressed and forced it all in one direction its range started to extend. It became longer and longer before finally stopping at a little over 90 meters.

He looked towards Stasa and estimated that he was approximately 260 meters away, a little less than 3 times the distance of the territory.

'It's doable. Who says the first time has to be a failure?'

His heartbeats quickened as a surge of lycan blood ran through his system. His presence deteriorated to the extent that for a short moment Stasa overlooked him completely even though they were looking right at each other.

Hao Xuan's fingers grew into claws, his gaze fixated on the foe. He could see Stasa's lips moving but could not near the words. They didn't matter anymore, there was only one way this was going to end.

Having his words fall on deaf ears Stasa could give up trying to talk Hao Xuan down.

"Fine, so be it," he whispered before taking his stance.

It looked quite similar to Hao Xuan's with the only difference being that Hao Xuan was barehanded while Stasa was holding the scabbard.

He brought it closer and held it to his right side while the left hand hovered over where the sword 'should' have been. He made a grasping motion and shockingly, an ethereal blade materialized from nothingness.

The hologram projecting their images suddenly distorted and turned into static noise. The Abysswalker, Xue Meng, and Ensis all three frowned in unison. There was a new presence in their midst.

To Xue Meng it felt threatening as if an enemy had appeared. To Ensis it felt he was meeting a family member, like a part of him long lost. To the Abysswalker it was its identity that got his attention.

'A sword spirit, and a very powerful one at that. His master must have sold an arm and a leg to be able to afford something like that.'

Most other sword users in the audience could also feel the strangeness. Some of their blades that had their own spirits shook relentlessly within the scabbards, either in fear or awe of what stirred awake within Stasa's grasp.

Hao Xuan instinctively bared his teeth. It was that thing that had killed him.

'Fucking monster-'

There was no way to defend against it, no way to protect yourself. The sword spirit did not target the body but the soul. His very being was extinguished every time he came up against it.

'-But not this time!'

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