Chapter 60 - Arthur Vs Zach II

'Seems like I've finally run into quite a tough opponent after a while.'

Arthur decided to end things quickly so he could go help out Layla and the rest.

He summoned a sword using his weapon creation artifact and took a stance.

'Sword of-!'

He was about to use an aura technique that Creusery taught him, but he suddenly felt multiple gases on him.

'Why the f*ck are you all watching, go kill the other monsters.'

He had pushed Zach towards the empty private estate so he could use his aura to finish him off without anyone looking, however some students who didn't want to participate in the battle against the summoned monsters, came over to watch Arthur.

He turned around and glared at them before audibly clicking his tongue.

'A few full powered 'swords of victory' and he would have been down for the count, but those fools came over and now I can't use it again.

I'm really beginning to regret spreading the rumors that I can't use my energy.'

Sword of Victory was an aura technique, if he used it while being watched, it was the same as openly admitting he could now use his energy.

He also didn't have any aura augmenting artifacts on hand too.

'It's not time for that yet, until I get back from Varona, that's when I'd reveal it.'

After thinking that, he looked towards Zach who had locked on to him.

Arthur was someone who possessed bountiful mana, even though he was usually unable to use it, it did not mean it was not present.

So even though he did not possess a rune, he was still a prime target for a rune eater, something the current Zach had clearly transformed into.

"OOOOOHHHH!?!?!?"

Zach howled wildly, like a lion who just had its dinner served to it on a silver platter.

"GIVE MEEEE!!!"

Just that in this case, the silver platter was Arthur, and the dinner was his mana.

He readied himself to leap towards Arthur.

"Give you what? I don't have any runes on me, or do you perhaps want my magic, try to take it if you can."

With a grin hanging from one ear to another, Arthur beckoned to Zach.

"GAAAHH!!"

He came charging at Arthur from a low posture, shrieking like a mindless beast.

'He's fast!'

Perhaps, his movements wouldn't lose to those of the actual rune eaters.

However, it wasn't so fast that Arthur couldn't react.

The punches, kicks, and body blows that he fiercely carried out, all was seen through and evaded with a paper-thin margin by Arthur.

"OOOOHHH!?!?!?!"

Zach's attacks were getting bigger as he grew impatient that none of his assaults hit the mark.

"What's wrong? Please show me the full power of a monsterized devil, I really want to see it, you know?"

While avoiding the scooping uppercut, Arthur delivered a palm strike to his opponent.

With the momentum, the monsterized Zach flew through the fences of a nearby house and only stopped once he hit a wall.

"GAAH!?..."

There should have been a considerably serious body trauma and yet, Zach stood back to his feet as if nothing happened.

'He has quite the endurance. Not so surprising though, a grandmaster is capable of surviving attacks that can wipe multiple cities off the map'.

Some of the Runes on his body increased their brilliance intensity.

Zach spread his arms wide and howled again, before releasing various projectile attacks.

'Ether?! That's ether right!?'

Recognizing the energy Zach used in the projectiles, Arthur ran around while dodging the ether based arrows that threatened to pin him to the walls behind him.

'One, two, three, four. That's four private houses he's wrecked.'

"You know you're gonna have to pay for destroying school property."

Zach ignored Arthur's unnecessary statement and dashed towards him sword in hand, seeing this Arthur decided to respond In kind.

There was a flash and Zach's blade drove itself towards him. Arthur twisted his body to avoid it and returned fire with his own sword.

Surprisingly, Zach warded it off with a parry.

'Was this guy actually skilled?'

Zach was among the top 1000 of the fourth year class, a class that had almost 24000 students.

To be able to retain that spot, he definitely had to have some kind of skill.

Arthur's blade that was parried, missed him and cleaved the earth to Zach's side.

Dirt and small rocks were scattered all over as the attack had left a veritable hole in the ground below.

He tried to quickly follow up the attack with another, but was denied the chance as Zach's magically constructed blade, slithered towards the back of his neck and threatened to tear it off.

Arthur jumped back to avoid losing his head, the moment he landed on the ground, he immediately took off and struck at Zach again.

Although Zach was able to defend against the attack flawlessly, the same could not be said about the follow up.

Zach grit his teeth and endured the pain that threatened to reap his consciousness, seeing a blade darting towards his heart, he forced himself to focus and twisted his upper body just enough to evade it.

The back of his palm flashed with the brilliance of a rune, as he suddenly accelerated and used his momentum from the twisting motion to deliver a reckless spin kick.

"F*ck off!!"

Arthur was caught off guard due to the sudden acceleration and the attack landed.

Zach's foot flew straight into his shoulder and sent him flying into the building behind him.

***BBOOM

With a small explosion, the building crumbled upon Arthur.

"Tsk...Speed runes, this guy is annoying and those fools are still watching so I can't go all out."

Arthur stood up and dusted himself, he threw the shield he had managed to conjure with his weapon creation on the floor and looked around for Zach's location.

''Weapon creation' Huh? Is a shield really a weapon?'

The shield was created by the artifact as Arthur took advantage of the dust generated by the crumbling building to use his magic and create something other than the default sword the artifact could create.

'The training to use my magic without opening my wings is going well.'

Sensing a huge amount of energy coming towards him, he looked up and saw a giant water dragon rushing towards him with jaws open.

'An ether spell?! Why doesn't this guy use magic?!'

Although he froze up momentarily, Arthur still managed to react to the dragon and leap out if it's way.

The dragon's watery jaws ended up crashing into the broken building behind him and reducing it to dust.

It then went on to do the same to a few more buildings.

"What the f*ck?! That's water right? How does a water spell do that?!"

Zach attacked Arthur who was staring at the result of the spell, right before the attack hit, Arthur suddenly revealed a mischievous grin and ducked, causing Zach's sword to miss.

With a low kick to the back of the knee, he sent Zach off his feet, immediately standing up, he used his momentum to punch Zach into the air.

He pulled a second magic gun and emptied the magazine as he fired towards Zach who was sent flying by his punch.

Not bothering to reload or use his energy to fire, he discarded the gun and summoned a new sword, this time, one of flames.

Zach landed on the ground and dashed towards Arthur, the bullet holes on his body already healing.

Arthur kicked off the ground with all the force he could muster, creating a small crater below his feet, he dashed towards Zach and swung his sword.

Zach's new ether based sword was ready just in time to obstruct the blow, or would have, if Arthur was aiming for him.

"Huh?"

Arthur's target however, was not him, but the ground in front of him. Fire began to swell from the ground below, dying the surroundings in a deep shade of red.

Zach sensed the impending danger and his body burst with a wave of ice infused magic power, quenching the flames and preventing Arthur from accomplishing what he wanted to.

'Tch...It froze my sword too.'

Arthur discarded the frozen sword while watching Zach closely. With a clink, dry sound of something freezing over, sharp blades of ice formed in both of Zach's hands.

'An ice based rune huh…? '

"I call copyright!"

Ignoring Arthur's words, He once again kicked the ground, rushing towards Arthur.

'Ah, shit, he got faster?!'

"I see...!"

Arthur evaded the incoming two ice blades with movements made it seem like he was dancing.

During that time—Another Rune glowed from Zach's body, it was on his right arm, the next moment, his figure then vanished.

"...!?"

**WOOSH WOOSH WOOSH!

And, even when Arthur couldn't see him, the attacks he delivered kept coming.

Arthur managed to dodge the first few, but eventually small cuts began to accumulate on his body.

The difficulty of handling Zach's attacks had clearly skyrocketed compared to before.

"...You're not bad!"

If all he did was evading, he would eventually be cornered.

Arthur turned around in a circle while dragging his leg on the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust and dirt around him.

'And.....there!'

He spotted the one place where the dust and dirt did not fall back to the ground and kicked off towards the direction immediately.

He stretched out his hands in a grappling motion and succeeded in grabbing both of Zach's wrists to a stop.

"Impos.... sible—"