Chapter 254: Duel
The exchange of words ended between them with Sam's reply.
He stood on his vulture and along with his friends flew away without waiting for them. He didn't fly towards the city, rather towards the woods into the clouds.
Neither Vickers nor Arc stopped him. Because Vickers didn't stop him because he didn't think that Sam would be a variable in the upcoming battle.
As for Arc, he has a whole another reason for that.
Arc looked at Vickers and said.
"Today, you can finally go home. You don't have to guard this place anymore, regardless of whatever the outcome of the battle was."
"That is true. So, how do you want to do this?"
"Whether it is an all-out battle or a duel, I don't mind. But I prefer to choose the latter. I am honestly tired of this bloodshed."
Before Vickers could reply, there is a commotion at the entrance and all the remaining experts who are the last line of defense came out. Following behind them, Emperor Orion came walking with a grim look.
"It would be an all-out battle. The people of Orion are not cowards. We will take you on till the last person."
Emperor Orion shouted on top of his lungs.
"Since, when did you know what your people are thinking Oscar?" Arc asked with a smile.
Oscar who is the emperor of Orion gritted his teeth as he looked at Arc and then turned towards Vickers.
"Are you done reminiscing? Or did you get cold feet after seeing your old friend again? Don't you dare go back on your word? Otherwise, that old man would lose a lot of face in the thunder god temple."
Suddenly, Vickers' gaze turned cold and he looked at Oscar. His body is emitting enormous intent to kill.
"Come again." Oscar suddenly lost his composure and looked down; he didn't even dare to meet the eyes of Vickers. He knew that he crossed the line.
"I... am... Sorry." His voice shivered as a dark memory came to him.
He had revisited his memory after many years. Due to his life of vanity and luxury, he had almost forgotten who Vickers really is and now he ran off his mouth.
The three Transcendent people stood there in a triangle and the war had already begun.
At the borders of the Imperial capital. The Nascent stage cultivators are the main fighters and the Novice stage cultivators, Great realm and Grand realm cultivators are just sitting ducks.
There are some small skirmishes, here and there but most of them are looking at the battles and Sam is no exception.
He is in the sky along with his friends and he is holding a telescope in his hands.
He is observing the battles and one battle that interested him is the battle between two groups of Nascent stage cultivators.
One of them is the one who he is extremely familiar with. The six swords of Sword Marshall.
And why is that only this fight interested me, when the Marshalls are fighting? Because he is not able to catch their fights movement by movement. At most he could see their figures and some major movements.
Nascent stage fights are his limit.
The Six swords of Sword Marshall. These six people really deserved their reputation. Sam saw as they fought with eight Nascent stage cultivators of the Arian empire.
Each of them is using different words. Rapier, long sword, a pair of short swords, a single-edged blade, a double-edged sword, and a flexible sword.
These six people are at great sync and the eight opponents are the ones who are having a hard time dealing with them.
But apart from that, the rest of the fights are mostly inclined towards the Arian empire and it even included the Marshalls.
The sword Marshall and the saber Marshall are fighting two Marshalls of the Arian empire and they are being repeatedly pushed back.
Apart from that, Dukes, Generals all of them are fighting and it became too intense that the wall on one side completely collapsed.
Sam is having a hard time observing the whole battle.
Meanwhile, the three main characters of the war. Arc, Oscar, and Vickers.
"Shall we take it somewhere else? I don't want others to suffer."
Arc is the one who asked this question and soon three of them disappeared.
They arrived at the nearby woods where there is an empty place.
"Where is that little wimp? I want to kill him with my own hands after I am done dealing with you."
Oscar asked as soon as they came here.
Vickers and Arc looked at him in disdain at the same time. Even though he was angry behind the meaning of their looks, he still gritted his teeth and said.
"What are you looking at? Between you two, there was never a winner decided. I am here to backup Vickers; do you think you can still win?"
"Oh, why did you become so sure of that? Oscar." Arc suddenly raised his aura. The blue lightning crackled around him as the air around became suffocating.
"You.. Did you break through Middle-stage? When did you?" Oscar asked as his throat went dry.
At this moment, Vickers also released his aura and an aura of the same level erupted. But this one was bright light indicating the neutral spiritual energy.
"Vickers the Warrior mage, Neutral energy. Ready for the Duel 350." Vickers said as he moved his waved his hand and the spiritual energy drew a line in the air.
"Arc the Warrior mage, Lightning elemental energy. Ready for the Duel 350."
That's right, these two had more than three hundred duels till now and the fact that Vickers is a Warrior mage with neutral energy is also right.
Vickers raised his hand and made the first move. A beam of spiritual energy blasted through his palm as it went straight towards Arc's eyes.
But the later didn't budge, lightning appeared right in front of the beam completely blocking it.
Oscar opened his mouth wide open. He didn't know that his peers became this powerful while he was enjoying a life of vanity.
He is only an initial stage Transcendent. They entered the middle-stage. The difference might not be much, but in the later stages of cultivation, even a small gap is highly difficult to cross over.
That's why, if a person can battle people beyond his cultivation level in later stages, they would be revered and can be treated as extreme elites.
So, he was stunned and this is the first time, he watched Vickers using a beam. He only thought that Vickers is a warrior, but little did he know that he is a warrior mage and that too a warrior mage of a unique kind.
A warrior mage of Neutral energy. It is actually the first time he saw one, but that doesn't mean he never heard of it. He heard of it in the lectures of the thunder god temple.
That's right, the thunder god temple. The three of them are the students of the thunder god temple in the same generation.
As for Vickers' ability, there was a lecture about the basics of spiritual core and stuff and the teacher said that even though, it is not seen, theoretically, it is possible for a mage to exist of neutral energy.
He didn't expect that he would see one.
Meanwhile, the battle has already started. Vickers is on the aggressive side and suddenly, the spiritual energy condensed into a huge axe and he swung it straight on Arc.
Arc blocked the attack with his hand and both of them started a battle.
Oscar himself is having a hard time catching up.
Vickers is changing the weapon forms one by one an in-between he started using the beams. Arc however was on the passive side. He didn't even move from his place.
His feet didn't even budge, he only moved his hands and he managed to block every single attack, and all this time there is a smile on his face.
He didn't seem bothered at all.
"It is indeed as I suspected. I didn't expect you to become this strong. Were you always like this?"
Vickers asked as he stopped attacking.
"No. But I had some serious training over the past decade. Now, my turn."
This time, the situations reversed. Vickers who is aggressive all this time started being passive.
He started creating shields left and right. All of them getting shattered as soon as they were hit by lightning.
The battle became too intense and Vickers started sweating too much.
He is having a hard time. He didn't expect that he would be in this state.
At this moment, a large lightning bolt suddenly struck at the back of Arc.
And both of them suddenly stopped. They turned to see Oscar standing there with his hand extended.
"You seem to have forgotten Arc, this is a war between two empires, not your personal duel." He said in a sinister tone.
The three of them felt this scene extremely familiar. But only the circ.u.mstances are slightly different.
Arc did take some damage head-on, due to it being a sneak attack, but he didn't say anything.
While Vickers was in a daze, he smirked as he looked at Oscar and suddenly jumped at him and slammed him on the ground.
He held his neck pressing him to the ground and said.
"I should have killed you that day itself, but your fate is too good and I am too exhausted at that time, I would have loved to kill you this day too, but your head is coined by someone else." He said these words, with his face close to Oscar's that Oscar cannot even see the sky.
Suddenly, he stood up and moved back. At that time, Oscar something falling from the sky and that left him no time to react.