Bryant paused for a couple of seconds while moving closer towards Svecko. At their current level of power, the distance between Svecko and Bryant was of no importance. Given both of their speeds, they would be able to close the distance within less than a second. “It is not that I want to stand in your way, it is you who have chosen a path I cannot ignore,” Bryant said with a soft laughter.

Without a moment’s warning, Svecko moved with his highest speed to attack Bryant. “Let me see what ability you possibly have to stop me.” As Svecko got closer to  Bryant, a spear made of ice had formed in Svecko’s palms. He thrust the spear with incredible strength as he attacked Bryant. Although Svecko’s attack could be considered a sneak attack, Bryant wasn’t surprised as he had expected Svecko to attack him and given both of their speed, he could react fast enough.  A golden glow illuminated around Bryant’s entire body. Bryant moved his bare palm in anticipation of Svecko’s ice spear. As the spear made contact with Bryant’s palm, a crunching sound could be heard. The spear Svecko held crumbled as the force from Bryan’s palm completely shattered the ice spear. Bryant continued the motion of his palm to counter Svecko’s attack. As the palm attack touched Svecko, another crunching sound was heard. Bryant realized something was wrong, he immediately noticed he did not make contact with Svecko, but instead, his palm attacked had broken what seemed like an ice mirror. “Perrish!” Svecko yelled as he appeared behind Bryant and attacked with a punch.

Svecko palm was glowing white, almost translucent and invisible. Bryant reacted as fast as he could, moving both his arms to defend Svecko’s attack. As they both made contact, a seemingly white energy pervaded Bryant’s body and went straight to attack his soul. In that brief moment, the soul freezing energy of Svecko had slowly started freezing Bryant’s soul. A dull light appeared on Bryant’s eyes as the life seemed to slowly leave his body.

A smile appeared on Svecko’s face as he stretched out his hand to grab the lifeless looking body of Bryant. Before he could grab onto Bryant, a golden and metallic-black light appeared all around Bryant. The formerly lifeless body now seemed to have gained some life. Svecko unconsciously took some steps back as he watched Bryant come back to life. After the golden and metallic black light died down, Svecko couldn’t help but gasp in surprise as he saw a different Bryant. Bryant’s body had changed from that of a normal human to a half golden and  half metallic-black form.  

The right half of Bryant’s body had changed to a golden form, while the left part of his body had changed to a metallic black form. Bryant’s body had turned part gold and part iron. This two forms equally covered his body from the tip of his hair to the sole of his feet, giving off a strange otherworldly appearance Bryant had at the moment. “You!” Svecko said in shock as he realized something.

“You are the metal element saint of the West,” Svecko said staring at Bryant incredulously. Of all the elements known to this mortal world, the metal elements were regarded as the most difficult ones to cultivate. Throughout the recorded history of the world, they were only three people to have successfully cultivated the metal element to a saint level and until this moment, there was none that had cultivated to a level three saint.

“You have broken through to the third level and fused gold and iron laws.” Svecko continued. “Incredible. Yet another genius has appeared. Why are the heavens favoring the South?” Svecko quietly thought to himself. Looking at the current situation, Svecko knew there was no way he could defeat Bryant. He had already used up most of his energy and evidently, Bryant had infused the law of gold with the law iron within the metal element. This meant that there was no way he could win at the moment without paying a heavy price, and even if he had his energy completely restored, there were no guarantees he would win.

Svecko turned around and flew off into the skies, without waiting for any response. Svecko was like a shooting star as he flew off into the distance. Bryant stood in place in a somewhat confused manner as he watched Svecko head towards where the battle was currently going on. After a couple of seconds, his expression turned to that of a smirk as he watched what had just happened. Bryant did not bother chasing after Svecko, because his goal wasn’t to kill Svecko or his allies, and he also did not want to corner such a monster, he wasn’t quite confident in killing Svecko. “Very glad that this is over. That attack from the snow saint nearly froze my soul. If I was a second slower, that would have been the end for me.” Bryant said as he sighed in praise. “How then was it possible that this child survived? That should not be possible, but yet I witnessed it with my own eyes.”

Bryant waved his hand, and the golden cocoon that had Willard within it flew towards him. Bryant turned and stared in the distance, his stare pierced through the forest all the way to the battle that was still ongoing. “It’s about time I end all this,” Bryant said before disappearing from where he was.

*****************

Over at the battlefield, Aswan was currently fighting with Allan. He had a couple of scratches across his body, but he was still alive. “The Primero knight sure lives up to his reputation. It has only been a couple of minutes, and yet he has pushed me to such a state even with my recent improvements.” Aswan thought to himself as desperately gasped for air. “Damn it! Why must my luck be this bad? If I am to survive this, I must use that treasure Lord Ducart gave me.”

Aswan gritted his teeth as he pulled out a blue looking pill the size of a golf ball. As Aswan bit down on the pill, a wave of terrifying energy burst out of his body. The previously disheveled looking Aswan seemed to have gained immense vitality. The surround elemental energy was stimulated and even traces of the water element became visible to the naked eye for a couple seconds before it died down. “Damn you! Damn you Primero knight. Because of you, I have wasted this treasure. I will take your head, and the head of the other knights with me today.” Aswan said with a deranged look in his eyes.

Allan stood quietly as his gray long beard fluttered along the direction of the air, he watched as Aswan bellowed in anger and remained calm without uttering a single word. Aswan charged towards Allan, his speed almost instantly doubled. He hacked his sword in an obviously crazed manner towards Allan. After taking the blue pill, Aswan’s strength had immediately peaked to the limit of element energy warriors. This kind of strength could actually be classified as actually exceeding the limits of elemental energy, but because of Aswan low attainments in the elemental laws of nature, he couldn’t properly control the immense energy and thus was capped at the elemental energy level.

“Die for me!” Aswan yelled as he continued to attack Allan, who was slowly being suppressed by the speed and strength of Aswan’s crazed swords. After a couple of exchanges, the force of Aswan’s sword blow had blasted Allan a couple of meters away. A smile grew on Aswan’s face as he watched Allan get back up, to his surprise Allan still had the same unbordered look he had from the start, not even a slight show of panic could be seen on his old face. “Throughout this entire fight, the primero knight has remained calm. Even after I took that pill, he still hasn’t called for backup.” Aswan thought to himself as he watched Allan walk towards him. A sense of panic quickly filled his mind for a second. “He must be pretending. He must be afraid. That’s right, it must be his pride as the primero knight that’s making show such bravery.” Aswan said dispelling the sense of fear the swelled up in his mind.

From a distance, Bryant appeared and watched the battle that was currently unfolding. He quickly got a sense of what was happening and everybody’s position. He moved his gaze to the far east, then moved it back to the battle between Allan and Bryant. “This should be interesting. It has been over a decade I saw that kid Allan. This should be a good test for him.”

As Allan walked closer to Aswan, a strange and uncomfortable smile appeared on his face. This was the first reaction he had given Aswan all throughout their battle. “I was wondering what gave you such bravery to fight against me. I guess my questions have been answered. You got an essence pill from Ducart,” Allan said. “A true treasure! It’s a pity your accomplishment in the water element is just too low. You have been forced to the limits of the elementary level of power. Come, let me show you the songs of my sword.”

Allan changed his previously casual stance to a more composed one. Holding the hilt of his sword with both hands, his every movement became more pronounced. “First verse: song of speed,” Allan said as he swung his sword. A loud piercing noise was heard in conjunction with his swords movement. Aswan quickly tried moving his own sword to block the incoming attack from Allan, but was suddenly caught off guard as Allan’s sword disappeared from his view, only for him to feel a striking pain on his chest.

In reality, Allans sword did not disappear, it just moved so fast Aswan could not keep up with its movement. Luckily enough for Aswan, the water essence pill had given him the body strength of someone at the absolute peak of the elementary level. Aswan backed up a couple of steps and rethought about what had just happened. Beads of sweat appeared across his previously calm face. “My goodness. I would have died just now if it wasn’t for the effects of that pill,” Aswan said to himself in freight.

Allan pointed his sword at Aswan and continued, “Second verse: song of blades.”

The essence of the wind slightly congealed around Allan’s blades, before formless wind blade shot towards Aswan. That attack took Aswan by surprise as he felt yet another mysterious surge of pain on his body. Before he had the time to react, Allan had closed the distance between them. Allan began a surge of attacks on Aswan, switching from the first verse to the second verse, in an unpredictable manner. In less than five minutes of their fight, a loud screaming noise was heard from Aswan, as Allan’s blade finally pierced through his chest. Aswan couldn’t help but curse at his stupidity. There were always rumors of the martial prowess of the primero knight, but he never thought that it would be at such a state. If he had known how terrifying the primero knight was, he would have taken the pill earlier and tried escaping with the assistance of the pill, but it was all dream at this moment, Aswan knew he was already knocking at death’s doors.
Allan slowly pulled out his sword from Aswan’s chest before fiercely hacking off Aswan’s head. “Such a pity. That essence pill could have truly been a life saving treasure for someone with better accomplishments.”

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