I am the Only Son of Nyx-Chapter 45: Lesser Angel vs High Angel (1)

Lion stills on his spot.

He has massacred students. Eat them. Torture them. Fear and panic were the only reactions he had gotten from showing a glimpse of his overwhelming strength. But the person before him, his next prey, was different.

Inside, he could tell facing Kai was going to be different.

Sharp eyes. Confidence. And most importantly, an unbreakable determination.

Lion’s shoulders tensed.

His eyes narrowed and then glistened with orange mana, while his hair elongated and fluttered.

At this very moment, Kai’s status as a Lesser Angel melted away from Lion’s mind.

At this very moment, Kai was no longer a prey.

At this very moment, Kai is a dangerous enemy.

And he struck with full force.

Swoosh—!

Kai’s pupils dilated at the sight of a monstrously fast dash, forcing his body to burn, and he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a brutal punch. He recovered and watched as the punch blew more than half of the trunk behind him, causing the massive tree to topple over with a thunderous snap.

He’s quick and strong.

"This is what you wanted," Lion pulled his steaming fist and turned. "You wanted someone worthy to be a tribute for your poor, dead sister, and I will gladly be that person. Just know," He gets into his battle stance again, fists raised. "This is going to be one hell of a fight, and only one will come out of this alive!"

Lion dashed again.

He was faster than the first dash, and Kai only had the time to raise his icy sword.

Clang—!

"Krrghk?!" Kai gritted.

Even though he blocked the fiery punch perfectly with his sword, the impact rattled through the blade and hurt his arms. It felt like his bones cracked from the impact. A massive hand grabbed his face and brought him skyward before he could react.

Lion’s laughter echoed across the forest as he threw Kai away with strength.

His body spun upon slamming into a couple of trees until crashing directly against the third.

It toppled backward while Kai fell forward.

Blood pushed past his lips as Kai prostrated on the ground. Every inch of his body was riddled with pain. He gasped heavily for a second there until another heavy thud resounded, forcing him to lift his gaze and see that Lion was already upon him.

Bam—!

Lion landed with a powerful stomp.

He missed, but the ground cracked a little from the force.

As the rumor made it fervently clear, Lion’s physical strength was in a class of its own.

I can’t let him keep attacking.

Kai recovered from another roll and gritted his teeth. He forced his body to move, brandishing his sword as he started his offense. Even though he was outclassed strength-wise, he could keep up with Lion, or perhaps have an edge in terms of speed.

There was no rhythm. No pattern. Just Kai’s icy sword finding angles that shouldn’t exist.

Each strike was lethal because of the Perfect Slash ending fragment.

Lion found that out as a touch from the icy sword cuts open his hard skin. He threw up his arms in a turtling technique and summoned a shield of fire using the Fire Aegis, anything to endure the oncoming rush of steel.

He tried throwing in a counterpunch, but realized it was a mistake.

Kai dodged the punch and landed three strikes precisely aimed at the tendons.

One mistake, and Lion’s left arm was now subtly pulsating.

Steel sparked against the vambrace. Fire against ice. Blood sprayed everywhere.

Being on the receiving end of Kai’s relentless bladework placed him in a terrible situation. He suffered more and more slits and gashes by the second. It would’ve been worse if the Fire Aegis’s heat hadn’t helped him mitigate the fatal strikes.

Its embers forced Kai to attack only his legs and back.

His hands are steady, his feet are still moving, and his body is still straight because of that.

But even while being pushed, Lion was patient.

Like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike, he kept his cool.

And when the opportunity arose, he moved decisively.

Kai’s breath got stuck in his throat when something wrapped around his ankle. It was Lion’s hand. His face drained of all color as Lion pulled him overhead and slammed him into the ground like he was a doll.

Crack—!

Blood burst from his mouth as his internal organs clenched from the pain.

Anger took over.

Kai shook his head back to focus, spun his body to avoid a stomp, and climbed to his feet.

He dashed in, faking a heavy arc toward the face, fooling the mighty High Angel to raise his guard too high. Instead of blocking the arc, the attack came from below, a foot driving hard into his groin with sickening precision.

Every man would’ve flinched at the horrifying sight.

Due to the size difference, Kai was able to do it easily. And no matter how mighty Lion was, no man can withstand this legacy hit.

Kai’s eyes flashed.

A kick to the groin would make any man recoil forward, and that’s the perfect time to make a swing to decapitate the head. But at the last second, Kai saw Lion raising his face and opening his mouth.

His intuition of danger made him lean back.

It was the right decision.

Swish—!

A concentrated ball of wind blew past Kai’s ear like a bullet and exploded against a tree.

That’s his Legacy Imprint?!

The impact was rattling the ear, forcing Kai to swallow harshly.

One hit from that and his head would’ve exploded.

Lion smiled to see that Kai was knocked off balance from dodging the attack. He thought it would at least make the icy sword weak enough to cause any real damage, but he was dead wrong about that assumption.

Slash!

A long, bleeding cut raked across Lion’s abdomen.

It would’ve cut all the way to his chest had it not been for his steel chest plate.

"Dark Discharge."

Lion staggered, barely regaining his footing, then heard the hiss of Kai’s voice. He was already moving, sword arcing, ice trailing in its wake. Instinctively, Lion threw up the Fire Aegis and created a shield of fire with it.

The impact shook him, but what surprised him was the darkness that punched through.

Even though he blocked the swing, this energy reached his chestplate and cracked it.

He was forced a dozen steps backward until he came to a halt. For a second, he paused in utter confusion, staring at Kai, who was confused the same. Then, he looked down at the crack on his chestplate.

’I got the Fire Aegis. My chest plate is a grade 0 enchanted armor. And his imprint cracked it?’

Lion was taken aback.

Considering the amount of protection, there should be no way for Kai to be able to hurt him through his defense. But reality proved otherwise. And this could only mean one thing: ’How much mana does he put into that imprint? Must be a lot.’ A frown formed on his face. ’But he doesn’t look like someone who has used a lot of mana.’

On the other hand, Kai blinked his eyes.

I accidentally put more mana than I usually would to use the Dark Discharge imprint, but I still have much more mana in my reserve.

His lips then curled into a nasty grin as he came to a realization.

Right... My intelligence stat is very high. Why am I rationing mana for? 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Kai grabbed the handle of his sword with both hands and lowered his stance.

His arms pulsated with mana as he prepared another Dark Discharge. Even though his plan was blatantly shown on his face, it doesn’t matter. Every time he used the imprint, his attack would phase through solid defense.

Nothing Lion has could stop that.

Swoosh—!

Kai dashed again and launched a flurry of attacks.

His blade danced under the moonlight while Lion desperately resisted as much as he could.

Unlike earlier, when the only source of danger came from the Permafrost Gloves that imbued ice into Kai’s sword, which could be mitigated with a block using the Fire Aegis, Lion couldn’t even block the attacks.

If he blocked an attack, then the burst of dark energy would land on him directly.

Not every attack from Kai was charged with the Dark Discharge imprint; there was an interval.

A cooldown.

But Lion couldn’t tell which attack Kai would release the imprint on either.

Too fast for him to see.

Swoosh—!

Swoosh—!

Clang—!

"Krhkk!"

Lion couldn’t avoid a swing to the body and was forced to block. Blood seeped out through the gaps in his teeth as the burst of dark energy slammed into his sides, to the part that was not protected, breaking a few of his ribs.

He bit down on his teeth and kept moving.

Avoiding the slashes became even harder because of that.

Another slipped through, a thrust that he blocked with the Fire Aegis.

Crack—!

His chest plate shattered into pieces, exposing his vitals.

And as another blow landed, his vision blurred for a second before focusing once again.

"I’m the mighty Lion!" Lion roared, rage had completely taken over his body. His bloodstream pumped with adrenaline, making his breath heavier and his jaw slightly hang. "I don’t lose! Especially to a fucking Lesser Angel!"

Boom—!

Kai was pushed back by a sudden burst of mana.

And when he recovered, Lion already lifted a broken tree and swung it straight at him.

Crack—!

The clash of steel against hardwood sent jarring vibrations up Kai’s arms, but he grits his teeth and powers through—splitting the tree clean before it could crush him. "You’re getting too desperate, Lion!" Blood and spittle flew from his mouth as he roared. "That’s unbecoming of you!"

"Lion!" A student of Team Coeus emerged on the side.

He scanned the area and gasped at the sight of the damage and also the state Lion was in.

Nobody has ever pushed Lion so far, so this was shocking to see.

I need to end this now.

Kai sprinted forward, avoiding another swing from the broken tree Lion was lifting, and made a leap. He raised his icy sword overhead and made a heavy vertical slash that missed. It struck the ground and burst with ice.

"You’re not getting away!" He chased after Lion, charging another Dark Discharge.

Kai closed the distance with a dash. His blade drove toward Lion’s back.

At the same time, Lion spun.

Kai’s eyes went wide when a student got in the way. Not because he wanted to, but because Lion had him by the head and yanked him into the path of the thrust. It caught Kai off guard, and that moment of hesitation was exactly what Lion was waiting for.

"You’re soft, Lesser Angel!" Lion charged his fist with fire. "And you’ll die because of that!"

Bam—!

Lion drilled his fist into Kai’s stomach.

His entire body was backing that punch, and he launched Kai to the other side.

He didn’t stop there.

In quick succession, he loosed another blast of compressed air from his mouth.

It detonated against Kai’s chest and sent him hurtling even faster, a ragdoll that was flung into the dark. The night swallowed him whole with the sound of breaking trees, until it ended with a loud crash.