Ed heard the lament and wailing of Arthur"s saber. His eyes burned and filled with tears, and his legs darted forward to his father"s side; his hand looking through his Inventory for a Healing card. Yet, halfway through, he felt a major force collide with the side of his face. His eyes scrambled in their sockets while his brain bounced inside the skull. Next thing he knew, Ed was lying on the ground, dirt, and blood covering his face. he stood up slowly and gazed at Johan, who had struck him from behind.He as well had a face full of tears and lament.
Ed knew that his enemy wouldn"t give him the chance to save his father. He knew that no matter how close he got, he would never reach his father in time. Thus, left with no other choice, he deviated from his original plan, and shouted, with all the strength his lungs could give, "MERRY, SUIKA!"
His two healing experts immediately left their respective missions and darted to Ed"s side. Suika was already on her way alongside Emilia, but Merry was shocked as she saw the two figures of Arthur of Dawlish. Her wings flapped harder and faster as she gleamed through the air with a heavenly glow.
Even Erykytos, whom she was fighting, gave no choice. He stood still, gazing at the faraway figure of his b.l.o.o.d.y son. Raikou and Sieg both stood still, unwilling to make a move while Erykytos didn"t.
Ed looked at the two of them, despair and anguish filled his face as he begged them, "Please, save him!"
It was the first time anyone had seen Ed make such a face. They couldn"t believe it. They felt their hearts burn as they saw their master, their friend, their companion suffering through such torment.
Ed switched his attention back to Johan; the two of them locked eyes. The feelings they harbored inside their hearts burned stronger and brighter. They charged at each other and exchanged blows, stronger than ever. Their collisions caused an explosion, which pushed rock and air away and twisted the s.p.a.ce around them itself.
Johan"s eyes shone, as he pulled a second sword from his spatial ring. It was a double-edged sword, each edge was colored differently. One was red, while the other was deep blue. The red side burned in crimson flames, hotter than a thousand suns, while the blue side crackled with lightning.
Ed could feel that the weapon was at least a Mythical grade sword.
Johan charged forward and swung down at Ed, who had no choice but to block the sword with a Haki clad Shusui.
Ed took the full brunt of the blue side and felt the lightning seep into his bones, stunning him completely. Then, he felt a burning pain in his solar plexus, as Johan drove his foot there. Ed was thrown hundreds of meters away. If not for his many layers of defense, he would have gotten gravely injured.
Ed got up to find himself under a barrage of flaming wave attacks. He quickly brought out Muramasa and absorbed all the fire into the sword, which shone in a deep scarlet color. He targeted Johan and swung his blade, causing a pillar of flames to emerge and chase his enemy. The pillar burned and melted anything that came into contact with it, and left behind a rail of lava.
However, such a basic attack was easy to dodge, as Johan maneuvered around it and struck down on Ed once more. Ed was getting beaten one-sidedly. His body was burned and electrocuted, and his skin was cut and bruised.
He couldn"t keep going on in such a way, so he contacted his system. "Use Berserk once more!"
The system wanted to remind Ed that his body wouldn"t handle the stress, but it knew that words were useless at the moment. Either he uses the skill, or he dies.
Ed"s aura exploded as Berserk broke his limits once more. It kept growing from the initial Immortal Establishment level 7 all the way to level 10. He now had the same cultivation level as Johan.
Johan was stunned as he could feel the sudden inexplicable change in Ed"s aura. He failed to react in time to Ed"s slash, which felt like a mountain hitting him in the face. Johan was blown away, further than Ed"s earlier flight, and collided with a small hill in the distance.
Ed wanted to give chase immediately, but intense pain filled his body"s every cell. He felt some of his bones break under the pressure of his aura, but his Ki kept his body whole. He grits his teeth and jumped forward, failing to notice the system"s notice which sounded, "Acquired Pain Resistance level 1".
Since Ed was late to follow with his attack, Johan had already gotten up. A deep gash crossed his face and made him look strikingly similar to his grandfather, Erykytos.
The two locked swords, and now that their level was equal, the result was even more terrifying. The whole world seemed to reach a stop each time they clashed. The ground trembled under their pressure, and the skies shook in fear of their wrath. Ed"s veins were punctured in dozens of places, causing him to be filled with blood from head to toe. His Regeneration worked hard, but it was catching up to the number of injuries he sustained.
He withdrew his last sword, Ame-No-Murak.u.mo and equipped all three of them. At once, Ed activated his strongest trump card, the Asura technique, which allowed him to duplicate himself. Three faces and six arms; Ed looked like a menacing war deity.
He lunged forward, and delivered nine slashes, all in a fraction of a second, as he pa.s.sed through Johan who couldn"t react. The latter"s armor was broken into pieces, and his whole body was carved b.l.o.o.d.y. His sword flew dozens of meters away from him.
Ed"s Asura didn"t last long, as he dropped into one knee with his breath going haywire, and the pain getting stronger.
He senses a presence behind him and was surprised to catch a glimpse of Johan, who kicked right in the chin, sending him flying away, along with his swords, in different directions.
The two stood up and raced towards each other, and without any weapons, they no choice but to use their fists. Ed had no martial arts technique, but he made up for it by using his Mangekyo Sharingan. He perfectly mirrored every move Johan made and countered with the same attack. However, such a strategy caused him to take in the same amount of damage, as he was also hit by the attack.
The two of them stepped forward and punched each other in the side of the face. Their cheekbone shattered and their teeth flew in all directions. But, they didn"t stop. After the punch came a head b.u.t.t, followed by a kick to the side. The armor Ed wore couldn"t handle the intensity of their attacks and was torn into the pieces. The two of them had black and blue bodies and faces, but they kept going at each other. No one dared to drop down first.
However, in the middle of the fight, a ringing sound caused Ed to momentarily stop. Johan noticed the sudden change, and lunged forward with his fist clutched harder than ever; he aimed his strongest punch at Ed"s face. However, before he could hit him, Ed moved pa.s.sed him with a simple sidestep.
The ringing sound Ed heard was his system, notifying him of a skill grade up.
It was his Ryūsui Seikūken, which had broken through to level 3 during his fight, after a long time. Once it broke through, it was considered a Mythical Grade skill.
Ryūsui Seikūken "s third level was its strongest and most complicated. It enabled the user to overpower their enemy, by predicting their flow of movement and using it against them.
Ed"s eyes calmed down considerably once he attained this level. The bluish aura around him intensified, while he used a minimal amount of Ki. Johan"s blows skimmed Ed"s body, but they never managed to land. The intense fight of earlier turned into a lie, as the surroundings turned quiet all of a sudden.
The duo played a game of cat and mouse, with Johan doing his best to injure Ed. However, in the face of multiple Mythical and Legendary grade skills, he fell short.
Johan couldn"t handle the humiliation any longer, and shouted, "FIGHT BACK!" at Ed, as he delivered a hook at Ed.
The latter predicted the moves and lowered his head just enough to dodge the attack. He whispered, "As you wish," as he put his palm on Johan"s solar plexus. Then, after twisting it, he let out the entirety of his remaining Ki, which penetrated through Johan and the mountain far behind him.
Johan, who lost consciousness for a second, vomited a liter of blood, and his internal organs were squashed by the attack. He didn"t fly away from the intensity of the attack but simply fell down to the ground right in front of Ed, still breathing.
Ed looked around in order to find his weapons but to no avail. They were buried under the rubble that resulted from the fight. He wanted to finish off Johan, but he could barely move. He almost fell down, until he heard, "Here, Brother!"
It was Bella, who flew towards him with the Silver Katana Ed had made her. She handed it to him with tears in her eyes.
Ed unsheathed it, and with unstable hands, tried to stab the unmoving Johan with it.
However, he was stopped. The Katana was stopped by two fingers catching it in midair. Ed raised his head, and fear overwhelmed him. It was Erykytos, with his red clothes ripped up.
"Even now, you try to take my family away from me, huh, Avalon?" Erykytos" voice was calm, but Ed knew the anger and fury hidden behind the façade. He turned around and shouted "Run Away!" to Bella, but it was too late. Erykytos swung a chop at Ed, which would have killed him immediately, if not for the sudden appearance of another hand that stopped it.
"Leave my family alone," the new addition said.
It was Vortigern, Ed"s grandfather.