Though Ren found the silence of both the Serbek Kingdom and the Reshcbauch Kingdom to be a bit unsettling he also found it quite exciting. The thought that he didn"t know what"s coming was making him feel exhilarated. Now that both sides have some idea of how strong he and his forces were should mean that the next attack directed at them would be stronger than before. Just thinking about the battles to come made Ren feel that his body was heating up. Still, knowing that more powerful opponents were waiting to battle him, Ren needed to do but one thing and that would be to get stronger. It would be such a shame to fight strong opponents and not be able to fully enjoy it by dying prematurely. The only enjoyable battle would be a battle were both sides exhaust every ounce of their strength till victory is achieved.
"I guess it"s time to do my favorite pastime." Ren ordered the people in the mansion to not disturb him for the succeeding days. The only time he was to be disturbed is if the city was burning to the ground. After giving instructions to the others, Ren headed back to his room and entered the realm within his soul.
...
Upon entering the realm within his soul he was greeted by Leo.
"So you"re back. Are you going to challenge the next one? How about stop doing this step by step and just challenge me again." Hearing Leo"s proposal Ren shrugged his shoulders. He has been here a couple of times already and Leo keeps on asking the same thing.
"As much as I want to fight you, I can"t. Not at the moment... So let"s just get down to business, who"s next on the list?"
"You"re no fun at all... Well, alright then, you already beat two of our incarnations. The next one will be a bit harder than the two beforehand. The first one you fought was an incarnation that focused too much on skills that were meant for group battles, the one after was more of an a.s.sa.s.sin. But this one is a true warrior and with your current strength he will be quite a challenge."
"You"re just making me more excited! Enough foreplay bring my next opponent already!" Leo forgot that Ren was like him and the words he used that were meant to keep Ren vigilant, had the opposite effect. Leo wasn"t really bothered by his mistake and simply shrugged his shoulders as he called for Ren"s next opponent.
...
A man appeared before Ren that was larger than even Iselv. His body was a palace of muscles, from head to toe the man in front of Ren looked like he had zero fat and even his muscles look like they had muscles. He held two ma.s.sive weapons that looked like giant-sized maces. Each mace was as large as Ren himself.
"Ren I would like you to meet your next opponent, the only incarnation that doesn"t use mana and only uses pure brute strength, Karda." The ma.s.sive man called Karda looked at Ren and went into a battle position.
"There"s no need for you to introduce yourself. Let"s begin the battle!" Karda showed a vicious smile as he told Ren to come at him. Ren then showed a similar smile as he charged forward with scythe at hand.
The sword-like needles at the handle of Ren"s scythe tried to pierce Karda"s skin but they were only able to p.r.i.c.k him a bit. Karda then swung his giant mace at Ren with speed unbefitting his size. Ren had no choice but to block the attack. At first, Ren wanted to not use any mana, nor did he want to use Spirit Aura as he wanted to fight Karda in his own terms. But the moment the mace had contact with the scythe Ren felt Karda"s ma.s.sive strength.
Even if Ren trained his human body to the very limits it was not possible to gain similar strength as Karda. As expected of one of his incarnations he was a deviant as well. Ren no longer had any choice but to use Spirit Aura to buff his body.
Karda feeling Ren"s strength was increasing made him smile more viciously than before. Ren who thought that he was going to successfully repel Karda"s attack was surprised to feel the opponent"s power was surging. Caught by surprise Ren was blown away. As Ren stumbled to get up from that hit he couldn"t help but chuckle.
"I apologize... After fighting the first two, and hearing Leo"s explanation of your ability I thought you would be an easier opponent than this. But as expected of my past incarnation there is no such thing as an easy battle against you guys. Even though you and the other two are treated as the weakest of the bunch, you three still reigned supreme in your time. I truly apologize and will now go all out!"
Karda silently listened to Ren"s speech and licked his lips as he held tightly to his maces. He knew that similar to himself this was the moment when the other party would finally go all out.
Ren had the sword-shaped needles pierce his right hand, and then a cloak of blood appeared and covered Ren"s body. It has been a long time since he used this form, but unlike in the real world, the demerit of losing blood wasn"t applicable here. So Ren had no time limit and can go all out while using this ability without any of the former restrictions.
Seeing Ren finally use the ability he has seen while viewing the life of the current incarnation Karda was feeling even more excited as he charged forward. Seeing the incoming Karda, Ren charged forward as well and the two clashed.
There were no fancy moves just a plain head-on clash of their weapons. Karda"s mace hit the handle of Ren"s scythe and he was pushed back a bit. The two proceeded to attack each other while dodging by a hairsbreadth. This exchange of attacks continued until Ren"s superior speed became apparent and Karda could no longer keep up. Once he was pushed back Karda spoke to Ren.
"I see so this is the level you"re currently at... Then I guess you are worthy to see my ultimate skill!" Karda started to control his breathing as his muscles started to bulge, his veins looked like they were about to pop. Ren didn"t attack while Karda was doing his thing as he wanted to see what kind of ability made Karda the strongest of his generation.
Karda"s muscles were bulging and pulsating like a heart. His muscles were expanding and deflating at a fast pace. After a few more seconds his muscles stopped bulging, it was at that moment Ren noticed what had happened. Standing in front of Ren was a smaller version of the towering giant called Karda.
Karda"s body now looked to be the same size as Ren"s but he was only slightly taller. This was the exact opposite of Reynold"s bloodline ability that made him grow larger.
"Even without a speck of mana, this was the skill that made me the strongest in my time. I call it [full release] a technique that brings out the body"s potential and goes beyond it. Sorry for the wait Ren, now let"s start the second round." After explaining the skill he used Karda moved.
Ren was unable to follow Karda"s movements and before he knew it Karda was already in front of him. Same as the beginning Ren had no other choice but to block the incoming attack. Ren was surprised to see that not only did Karda"s speed increased but in this smaller form even his power had nearly doubled.
This forced Ren to retreat but Karda didn"t allow him to get far as he followed him closely. The two were showing their trademark vicious smile as the battle grew fiercer. Ren who was losing out in both speed and power had no other choice but to use spells. So he started to chant as he barely dodged and countered.
"[Shadow Bind]" Ren used the same spell he used to seal the movement of thousands of soldiers. Karda who was near him was unable to get away and was captured by the spell. Ren was sure that Karda who had zero mana would be unable to move, but then he saw something surprising using nothing but his physical strength Karda was able to forcefully free himself.
"Really? Do you really think that spell used by the guy ranked lower than me would work? All you need is a bit of guts to break free from this spell."
Hearing what Karda said made Ren a bit embarra.s.sed of course that spell won"t work. Still, seeing how Karda freed himself with nothing but brute strength, which he called guts made Ren even more excited.
"Then how about this! [Dark Sphere]" A small black orb flew out of Ren"s finger and headed towards Karda. It was a small moving orb that even the most basic of swordsmen could dodge much less Karda. Usually, Ren wouldn"t use this spell in a one on one situation as it could only work in a surprise attack seeing how slow the spell was. It was practically a useless spell that most anyone could dodge, but its power was undeniable. Still, Ren used it now because he knew that if he were Karda after saying what he said he wouldn"t dodge this move.
As Ren expected Karda simply stood there waiting for the black orb to arrive. When the black orb reached Karda"s s.p.a.ce it suddenly started to spin trying to suck Karda inside. The suction power of the orb was so powerful that it felt like it could pull in anything it wanted. Karda who was trying his best to not get sucked in smiled and attacked the black orb using his mace. The black orb was smashed into nothingness by the mace. Even seeing it with his own eyes Ren couldn"t believe it.
That was a purely physical attack but it was able to interact with his spell that should be able to devour and crush whatever it comes in contact with.
"How did you that?"
"With guts of course!"
...
Leo who was watching the fight on the sidelines saw that Ren was trying out different spells to see which ones would work on Karda. In truth, Leo didn"t even need to watch the whole battle to know who would win. As he was stronger than the two of them by a huge margin it was easy to see the victor between the two.
"Well after this battle he"ll get stronger than before. His idea of beating every incarnation to gain their abilities is the fastest way to gain strength, but having too much might also turn into a problem."