"Hahaha…HAHAHA!" Dorian laughed out loud, a rush of exhilaration filling him. Pure, unadulterated confidence ran amok in his mind and heart as he looked at the powerful King Class Grakon before him.

'Why did I wait so long? Why did I let myself feel so down?' He shook his head, the pain and guilt from earlier seeming to slough off him.

All he had, now, was his opponent and himself.

Nothing else mattered.

–

Species: Grakon (Desiccated) (Weakened)

Class: King Class (Late)

Maximum Energy Level: 864,122

–

'The Grakon before you is badly injured, its maximum energy level greatly reduced as a result. Its reserves have been depleted, and it is in a weakened state. It is temporarily unable to Expand.' Ausra's cool voice rang out in his head.

–

Dorian – Soul Status

Soul Stage: Lord Class (Early)

Health: Injured

Energy: 33,287/69,027 (Condensed)

–

His energy levels were down to a little less than half, even in his Condensed form. The injuries he'd gained plus his own personal exhaustion had taken their toll, even with the rest he'd gotten.

Yet, even with all of that, Dorian felt great. Fantastic, even.

Dorian ran forward. As he moved, he cast a spell.

"Fire Magic: Flame Swords." He imbued the blades with his Emerald Flames Ability, giving them a potent strength.

"Grrrrr!" The Grakon carelessly tossed aside the Shades, holding its hand out. Immediately, the giant sword that had opened up a path through the waterfall flew back into its hands, shrinking to be just a few meters long.

Shards of ice exploded into the room as the blade returned to the Grakon, scattering across the frozen floor. Dorian dodged a pair of large shards, his movements agile.

WHOOSH

He threw a pair of flame swords at the Grakon as he reached around 30 meters in front of it. At this point he slammed his right leg onto the ground, strafing to the side while keeping his distance.

TINK

The arms of the Grakon blurred as it twisted, wielding the enormous greatsword like a shield out in front of it. The green blades of fire Dorian threw smashed into the sword, dispersing off of it as if they were nothing.

'Alright, I can't break that sword.' Dorian made an immediate judgement call, his eyes cool.

"GROOOAAAR!" The scaled minotaur leapt forward, its body blurring as it charged at Dorian. Two deep imprints of the Grakon's feet appeared on the golden ground, the force of the jump shattering a nearby clump of ice.

Dorian's eyes were glued to its every movement. In his mind, a series of highly complex, martial techniques rushed to the forefront, knowledge that came to him fluidly and naturally. A set of Mystic Martial Arts that were present in his new memories, ones he felt he had practiced over and over, unerringly, for dozens of years.

A series of techniques that Dorian had used subconsciously, over the past few days.

"Shifting Waves: Walking the River." Dorian's body blurred as he stepped forward, his every movement precise and controlled. As he stepped out, the Grakon's greatsword cut down directly where he was standing.

As he moved, energy from his soul flooded into his legs, empowering them. A mental picture of him stepping carefully on the surface of a rushing river appeared in Dorian's mind.

Dorian's body seemed to flicker, vanishing from where he had been standing just an instant ago, and reappearing a meter to the left.

"Rumbling Earth: Boulder Breaker." Dorian punched out in a simple-looking, straight punch, his arm aimed towards the chest of the Grakon King. His movements were so fast and precise, it should be impossible for the creature to react.

This punch drew upon the energy of his soul, using his Soul Spell Matrix to power it. As the energy flowed through him, Dorian mentally pictured himself smashing apart a huge, ten meter large stone boulder.

BOOM

The body of the 3 meter tall fighter slid back a dozen meters before it planted its sword in the ground, forcibly halting.

In the moment just before his fist was about to collide with the exposed chest of the powerful beast, the Grakon had jutted down with its elbow, just barely managing to block Dorian's strike. Despite that, it couldn't throw off the force of his attack entirely and was sent flying.

Dorian frowned for a moment as he saw this. His attack had been aimed precisely and was in a blind spot. Even if the Grakon had an excellent sense of battle, it shouldn't have been able to block his strike with such precision.

His eyes glowed with a bright light as he looked at his hands, smiling, exhilaration filling him as he felt the power of the blow he'd send out.

Mystic Martial Arts.

In the 30,000 Worlds, there were two ways for any creature to grow beyond their bloodline limits.

One way was through the complex study of magic, and the endless Magic Symbols that were used to create spells.

The other was through Mystic Martial Arts.

Where magic relied upon the use of Magic Symbols combined with energy from the Soul Spell Matrix, Mystic Martial Arts relied purely on energy drawn from a warrior's Soul Spell Matrix, infused into their movements, and willpower.

With precise control of one's physical form, and by concentrating energy from one's soul into one's movements, a warrior could vastly increase the strength of his blows. In addition, the energy from a Soul Spell Matrix was raw and volatile. By concentrating on certain elements or concepts, one could modify that energy to a small degree, allowing for mystical or magical movements or effects.

At higher levels, warriors would imbue their attacks with energy borrowed from their surroundings, through the power of Law, becoming even stronger.

Dorian's soul was adapted for certain levels of Fire and Life Elemental energy, but he had yet to study or even touch upon any of the Laws of the universe. Without a basic foundation to draw upon, he would be unable to safely access any of the Laws of the universe, even if he had a Lord Class Soul Spell Matrix.

Still, the memories in his mind, ones that had melded with him, contained a vast, treasure trove of experience using four extremely powerful Mystic Martial Arts in particular, and a large number of other, lesser techniques on the side.

Shifting Waves, Raging Fires, Rumbling Earth, Thundering Winds.

"GRRRR!" Dorian's blow had knocked the Grakon King back, but that was it. An attack of that scale could never truly injure it. It bounced back almost immediately, charging at Dorian again.

As it moved, this time, a heavy, powerful Aura came crashing down on Dorian. Every movement the undead scaled minotaur made was full of incredible strength and gave off a feeling of overwhelming power.

Dorian's eyes flashed as he felt this. He knew this feeling.

The Law of Might. The same Law that Helena studied.

This time, instead of just a raw, furious charge, the Grakon moved with intelligence, gaining a certain level of grace. It seemed to be taking Dorian seriously now. Its movement speed ramped up, becoming almost too fast for Dorian to react to.

BOOM

The Grakon sheared down with its sword, once more slamming into where Dorian had been standing.

WHOOSH

WHOOSH

WHOOSH

Three streams of green fire shot out and were all subsequently blocked as the Grakon raised its greatsword, knocking them away in one smooth motion. At the same time, a small shockwave blasted out, crashing through the air.

Dorian flipped over as he skidded across the mostly frozen floor, snarling slightly.

The undead fighter was clearly experienced. That, in addition to the fact that it was much stronger than him, made for a very irritating opponent.

'You have 70 seconds until your body suffers irreparable damage. It is recommended to revert from this form immediately!' Ausra's voice rang out cooly in the back of his head.

Dorian's eyes glinted as he flexed his hands, the small, dark condensed skin crinkling slightly. He needed to finish this quickly. He considered his options, briefly. He wondered if an Absorbption would work on an undead creature like this Grakon King. He had one last one remaining. After a moment, however, he shook his head, opting to not use it unless he absolutely had to.

BOOM

Dorian flipped off to the side, dodging out of the way once more as the Grakon smashed down where he had been standing. Shards of ice shot out into the air, a large dent left behind by the attack. As he moved, his eyes quickly scanned the entire room, taking in his surroundings.

The various clumps of ice that covered the floor, the glowing red portal, the group of Shades lying on the ground off to the side, and the steel javelins that the Steel Wizard had launched earlier.

He took all of this in in a single split second and instantly came up with a plan.

"Hup!" Dorian sprinted away, throwing himself forward as he ran towards the entrance of the room, where the Traveling Ice Waterfall was pounding down on the golden bridge with abandon.

As he ran forward, he drew upon the energy of his soul, moving his feet in an odd looking pattern.

"Thundering Winds: Flush Gale."

Energy flooded into Dorian's legs, and in his mind, he pictured himself soaring through the sky, moving forward while standing atop a great gust of wind.

His body disappeared as he moved at an extraordinary speed, crossing over to the entrance roughly 200 meters away in a single movement.

–

Dorian – Soul Status

Soul Stage: Lord Class (Early)

Health: Injured

Energy: 22,382/69,027 (Condensed)

–

Just those few attacks and movements had already cost him an extraordinary amount of energy, Dorian noted, as he checked his status.

Part of this was because his soul was not used to the energy movements and flows of power he was forcing, leading to an inefficient exchange of energy that he couldn't avoid. The other part, however, was because of the techniques themselves. Each technique he used was incredibly high level and required a large amount of energy.

"Basic Magnetic Manipulation." He muttered, activating one of his Abilities. He braced himself as he did so.

"Pull!"

WHOOSH

WHOOSH

Two of the steel javelins that one of the Shades had thrown after Dorian soared through the air, slamming into his waiting palms. Each javelin was roughly a meter long and weighed at least a hundred pounds (45 kg).

"Grrrr." The guttural roar of the scaled Grakon rang out as it spun around, facing Dorian unerringly despite its blind state.

Dorian nodded as he saw this. He was starting to get a feel for the Grakon, a mental image of the powerful, but injured, King Class undead appearing in his mind.

WHOOSH

Several streams of glowing emerald fire shot forth as Dorian launched three more dragonfire attacks. These swords of fire contained more energy than the previous ones, giving off a brilliant light.

"Snort!" The undead Grakon flipped its greatsword out in front of itself in one smooth motion, smashing down two of the blades of green flames. The third one missed, flying off past it where it collided with a large chunk of ice. Huge gouts of steam exploded out, covering the center of the room behind the Grakon King in a hazy fog that sparkled with remnants of the energy the dragonfire left behind.

THUD

The Grakon slid backwards several meters, crushing a clump of ice into shards. It looked down in surprise.

A steel javelin fell to the floor, just a moment after slamming into the right knee of the Grakon, causing it to stumble. Despite the surprise nature of the attack, the javelin was unable to cause the slightest bit of harm to the powerful beast.

"I see." Dorian muttered, his mind racing.

He'd launched the steel projectile forward, under the cover of the three flaming swords.

It was still a Late King Class warrior, even if it was one that was weakened and undead. Its physical body was abnormally tough, even considering that it studied the Law of Might, an incredibly strong physical law that not only boosted physical strength, but at higher levels endurance and defense as well.

"Well, I didn't expect to injure it." He shrugged. The javelin's purpose was never to injure the Grakon.

Only to test the theory Dorian had come up with, drawing upon his vast combat experience, from the thousands of memories that had flooded into his brain.

"You are blind." He muttered, glaring at the Grakon as it began to charge towards him.

"But you can see energy."

The Grakon's movements were odd. From Dorian's observations, it was a keen and talented warrior, with an excellent sense of combat. It could follow his attacks, and deflect them, even the ones he placed carefully.

Yet, something as simple as a steel javelin hidden beneath a few blades of dragonfire, something that barely qualified as a sneak attack in Dorian's eyes, had managed to slip through this excellent warrior's defense.

Dorian's intuition told him he was right.

This Grakon was blind to normal light but could see energy trails, residue, or energy itself clearly. The reason it was unable to deflect such a simple surprise attack, yet was able to keenly detect his well-hidden Boulder Breaker punch, was also clear to him.

The energy in this particular area was constantly in flux. The entire underground structure was practically vibrating with ancient energy.

In the undead Grakon King's eyes, it must be a hellish maze of distortions. The fact that it was able to block Dorian's attacks, and, indeed mount a powerful offense was credit to the fallen warrior's own great talent as a fighter.

But so what?

Memories of great fighters challenging Dorian ran through his mind in a second. Hundreds of proud sons of heaven, powerful and valiant warriors, to thousands of vile, destructive demons.

One and all, Dorian had faced down every one.

And, in his memories, never lost.

Not even once.

He was the greatest martial artist to walk the 30,000 Worlds.

One of the Five Heroes of the Yale Demon Invasion, the Third Great War.

The Great Lord of the Absolute.

Dorian clenched his fists as he charged at the Grakon. The Grakon, in turn, continue to charge right at him, leading its attack with its greatsword cutting forward with what seemed like an unstoppable amount of force.

His mind was cool and collected as he jumped into the air, and simultaneously activated two of his Abilities.

'Hyperion Beam.'

–

Ability: Hyperion Beam

This rare Ability, found in a very limited number of creatures, allows a being to hypercondense energy in the air into a deadly orb of raw power, and then direct this energy in a concentrated beam. The destructive potential of this Ability is dependent on the strength and power of the user, and can be increased indefinitely as long as the user continues to hypercondense energy from the air.

–

A small ball of concentrated energy formed in Dorian's right hand, twitching in the air as it began to gather power. This ball started to rapidly increase in size.

'Moving Force.'

–

Ability: Moving Force

An ability unique to the newly created race of Berserker Demons, these creatures have the unique power to draw upon the energy of the world to increase their momentum. This drawing on is done subconsciously as they move forward, increasing in power and strength the longer they run undisturbed. The only real limit to this technique is the physical strain it forces upon the user.

–

Every step Dorian took filled his body with an incredible feeling of momentum. His speed picked up as he charged in a straight line, making his movements and power faster and faster.

In a single second, Dorian and the Grakon King reached each other, crossing a hundred meter gap as if it was nothing.

WHOOSH

The giant sword of the Grakon cut towards Dorian's body, this time moving with unerring accuracy. A huge concentration of force was focused on the end of the blade, a full powered strike that contained an unbelievable amount of power. The Grakon had put its full strength into this attack, drawing on every part of its damaged body.

A full powered blow from a Late King Class warrior, imbued with the Law of Might.

Dorian's eyes were unmoving as he looked up at the deadly strike, raising his left arm in front of his chest. His right hand still held the charging orb of power.

'This is going to hurt.'

"Shifting Waves: Branching Stream."

BOOM

THUD

.

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