Chapter 82 - Clash Of The Grandmasters IV

Like the devilian royal family's 'Annihilation', the house of greed possessed what could be called their 'Greeds'.

Owen's 'greed' allowed him to rob his opponents of their physical strength, weakening them while gaining more strength. He can also do the same to the opponent's speed, but not at the same time with their strength.

There is also a limit on how much strength or speed he could take from his opponent.

Arthur noticed something was wrong immediately, his body felt heavier, his attacks also became slightly slower.

It was as if his strength and speed were being reduced alternately at regular intervals.

"I see, so that's your 'greed' huh?"

Arthur remembered having his physical strength sapped by Zach too, however Zach didn't maintain the ability, switching it for the invisibility he used for most of the fight.

'He most likely fed Zach a rune with a similar ability to his 'greed' to test its compatibility.'

Arthur wanted to back away to test the range of the ability, however that was exactly what Owen was aiming for.

The moment Arthur jumped backwards, Owen's body flashed with the brilliance of another rune, this time however, it was on his cheek.

He opened his mouth and red cluster of energy grew approximately ten centimeters from his mouth, it condensed until it was a pillar of light shooting into the air.

Seeing this, Arthur crossed his arms, a gesture to activate the defensive arm guard artifacts he was wearing. Even so he still could not help but voice his thoughts out loud.

"You're a devil, not a f*cking dragon!"

**BOOM

**CRRRACK!

There was a small explosion, one powerful enough to collapse an entire city block. The barriers in front of the stands protected the spectators from the damage.

Followed by it, was a loud cracking sound, the sound of Arthur's barrier being broken.

Arthur rolled sideways to dodge the red beam of light, however the energy reserves of a superior stage grandmaster are not to be underestimated.

Owen continued firing the dragon breath-like beam of light towards Arthur's position.

Arthur poured aura into his sword and was about to swing it in an attempt to counter the beam, however in that short moment before he completed the swing, his arm was raised.

This action revealed the bracelet on his wrist, the sword generating artifact he always used, and Owen's target.

**CRACK 

With a loud cracking sound, the artifact was hit by the beam of light and shattered. Arthur's wrist suffering serious fourth degree burns.

"Ahh! F*ck!"

He cursed out loud and jumped backwards again while holding his injured wrist.

"Ahh!!"

"Lord Arthur is injured!"

"His arm!"

"Hey! Stop that girl from using healing magic!"

"You say that but what's that recovery artifact doing in your hands?!"

There was a commotion in the stands as Arthur had suffered a major injury for the first time in the fight.

Owen, was not one to let this chance go.

'Before he can bring out a spare artifact!'

He dashed towards Arthur at nearly sonic speed, reaching him almost instantly. Arthur also didn't have the time to bring out his spare sword artifact from the inter spatial ring.

Owen's slash filled with bountiful aura came crashing down towards him.

Even though he could not use his arm properly.

Even though he did not have time to bring out a spare sword creation artifact.

He still willed it.

For a sword to be in his hands. 

It was an instinctive action, one he always took whenever his hand was without a sword during a fight.

However, he needed time, time to get a new weapon to block the attack.

The power of the law of time responded to his will. 

Owen's movements slowed, and Arthur's movements sped up noticeably.

And then, it happened.

A bright light burst out from Arthur's palm.

From that light, he could feel something.

The handle of a blade, he didn't know what blade it was, it definitely wasn't the one he wanted as the artifact was still in his spatial ring.

However he grabbed it, to block the incoming attack.

**BOOM

A sound that should not be heard when two swords clashed together was heard.

A small explosion occurred and pushed back both Owen and Arthur.

Owen stared at his hand in shock, the condensed mana blade he was using had scattered.

He then looked towards Arthur and saw the latter holding a sword, it was different from the one he used before.

A sword that looked almost formless. If not for the dark outline of the blade, he would have thought Arthur's hand was empty.

Arthur staggered to his feet and looked at the blade in his injured hand.

Almost completely transparent, it had a black line running through it along with various runic languages written on it. 

Those runes could only be seen by him but he did not know this.

There were various words on this sword, however the one that stood out to him the most was the one at the center of them all.

"Celestia?"

As an intermediate stage grandmaster, he possessed great regeneration. Coupled with him pumping energy into his arm in order to heal it and his recovery ring, his would was almost healed.

He took the few moments that Owen was staring at him in shock to heal his wounds. He also pondered on what he felt as he used the power of time.

The knowledge of time in his head that he never understood suddenly became clear as day to him.

It was only a small piece but it didn't change the fact that he just comprehended a part of the basic law of time.

'Ah! So that's how time acceleration really works.'

"What is that?!"

Owen's question brought him out of his reverie, he looked at the sword in his hands once again and replied sarcastically.

"A sword, what else could it be? Did you really think I only had one weapon creation artifact?"

"Bullshit! That's clearly not a weapon generated by an artifact!"

"And what makes you think you know all the kinds of weapon generation artifacts out there?"

The spectators felt Arthur's words made sense, there were types of artifacts they did not know about, the one Arthur was currently using could be one of them.

"Tsk…" 

Owen clicked his tongue in indignation. He summoned a different set of swords.

One blood red and the other jet black. 

They were his prized weapons and he only used them when he was ready to go all out.

'Large scale attacks won't be fast enough to catch him as he can just fish out another weird artifact.'

Taking a deep breath, he glared at Arthur before speaking.

"You would regret making me do this."

"Ohhh, I'm so scared."

A wave of laughter erupted from the spectators at Arthur's obvious taunt. Owen ignored all this and used a partial monsterization much to the shock of almost everyone watching.

***Kuooh!

Owen's body emitted jet-black energy.

Power overflowed from every part of his body.

But that wasn't all.

Darkness began to spread from the hand gripping the black blade to the rest of his body.

He was instantaneously covered in darkness.

His body was dyed in a black darker than any shadow.

The darkness formed a mask over his face that resembled a beast with eyes that shone with a red hue. 

It also formed a jet-black tail that shone with starlight. The darkness over his shoulder rose like a heat haze.

Arthur studied him while waiting for the transformation to be completed.

'He seems to have used the swords as a conduit for the transformation, that's most likely why I could not sense the corrupted energy before.'

Owen's figure suddenly disappeared from Arthur's sight. It wasn't invisibility like Zach, it was because he had simply become that fast.

Arthur turned around while enhancing his body with his energy and rose his sword in a defensive stance.

***CLANG!!

The sound of metal hitting metal resounded, Arthur's wrist felt numb.

'I was playing with him and almost lost an arm, can't afford to make that mistake again.'

With that thought, the air around Arthur changed. One look at him was enough to tell Owen that Arthur wasn't playing around anymore.

They began exchanging a furry of slashes at speeds that most of the first years, some second years and even a few third years could not follow.

Arthur, an intermediate stage grandmaster, wielded a semi-transparent blade with dark-colored runes, deeper than the darkness of the night glowing on it.

Owen, however, looked like the way a typical devil would be depicted in stories, and wielded both his jet black sword and his blood red sword in his hands.

The two fought evenly.

Arthur proved why he was worthy of rank 1 in the second year and why he had kept that title ever since the beginning. 

Not only that, but his skills qualified him to call himself a genuine Grandmaster Swordsman.

He was strong, quick, and his swordsmanship was sound. He also timed the use of his special techniques well, especially the ones that used energy.

Arthur was sharp and experienced, so he didn't overreach and didn't let down his guard either. Not to mention his new sword was replenishing the physical strength that Owen stole!

'He can still keep up with me?! Is he perhaps also a superior stage?'