Chapter 118 - Layla, Spar Continues

Layla took a step back and disappeared from number 1's field of vision causing him to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

'Illusion magic?'

Easily identifying what she just used, he rose his left hand and created a small shield if darkness to block the bullets that threatened to leave a few holes in the side of his head silently.

'There was no silencer on that weapon, which means she can mask the sounds of her guns huh?'

With those thoughts he jumped up to avoid the spike of darkness that erupted from the ground under his feet.

While in midair, he rose his sword and clashed with Layla who attacked him again with sword in hand.

"Let's make it a bit interesting shall we."

With those words, he landed on the ground and raised his left hand conjuring multiple orbs of dark flames and firing them rapidly towards Layla's location.

Layla jumped up and created ice footholds which she used to maneuver herself in the air and avoid all the dark flame orbs that would definitely give her at least 3rd degree burns if they hit. 

She then jumped back down to the ground and allowed herself to he hit by one of the orbs resulting in a small explosion.

**BOOM!

"Hmmm?"

Number 1 looked at the explosion in surprise as she did this but still made no moves, he was sure that Layla was not foolish enough to let herself get hit without any plan of action.

Naturally, he was right. The next moment, 5 copies of Layla all jumped out from within the explosion.

Each of them hand a pistol on hand and a sword in the other.

He clashed blades with the first and noticed something that made him smile.

"Illusions with physical form, this is stepping into the realm of cloning you know?"

He exchanged strikes with the first before stabbing it in the torso, causing into disappear. The second fired two shots at him before attacking him with its sword.

**CLANG!!

He delivered a kick to the second's side, causing it to fly over to the edge of the room.

The third and fourth discarded their weapons and charged at him with bare hands.

They clenched their fists and punched towards him simultaneously.

Number 1 smiled once again as he dropped his sword and met their fists with his own.

The two used their other hands to grab his, holding him in place as they wasted no time in delivering high kicks towards his head since his hands were occupied.

He ducked to avoid the kicks, expecting them to end up kicking themselves, however they suddenly changed their movements and went for drop kicks instead.

Forcing his hands free from their grip, he grabbed their legs and spun round, before throwing the two towards the second who was about to fire her gun from behind him and the fifth who was about to do the same.

The second collided with the third that was thrown at her and ended up disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The fifth however, jumped up to avoid the fourth that was thrown at her and launched the assault rifle in her hands.

**PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA!!!!

After more than half the mag at him, she reloaded and fired more bullets to keep him occupied long enough for the fourth to return to action.

Number 1 looked at the incoming bullets, and raised a hand. The next moment a semi-transparent barrier appeared in front of him.

The moment the bullets reached the barrier, they lost all momentum and began dropping to the ground.

Seeing this, all the versions of Layla, even the first who had been recreated and the fourth that was on the ground, frowned before snapping their fingers.

*SNAP!

**BOOM BOOM! BOOM!! BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The bullets began exploding one by one and eventually, they all exploded simultaneously.

Number 1 jumped out from the explosion and shot towards the fifth Layla who was still reloading the assault rifle.

Her expression of surprise was visible as she expected the explosion to hold him for a while longer.

Number 1 reached out towards the fifth Layla with his hand but right before he could grab her neck, the fifth Layla glitched for a second.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise and created a semicircular barrier around himself.

**BOOM!!

The fifth Layla exploded, however Number 1 remained unscathed due to the barrier he created at the last moment.

Standing up from the ground, he dusted his clothes and turned around to face the real Layla who was holding a sword in one hand and a pistol in another.

"You switched places with your illusion at the last moment, impressive."

"It was quite hard you know?"

She sighed in exhaustion due to the fact that she just used the space magic short distance spell; Blink, as she waved her hand and dismissed the last illusion that was still on the floor.

The fifth version of Layla who fired the assault rifle was the real one. When number 1 jumped towards her, she switched places with the first illusion that was behind him at the last moment and then blew it up in his face.

Her switch was quite fast but the eyes and senses of an epic realm existence would not be deceived so easily.

Layla wordlessly dashed towards number 1 and fired multiple shots from the pistol in her hand.

Number 1 opened his palm and his sword of darkness flew back into it as he dodged the bullets with graceful movements.

Layla clicked her tongue internally before discarding the gun and clashing swords with him.

Just as the two swords collided, all of Layla's momentum was dissipated into the surroundings as Number 1's sword travelled up her blade and towards her guard.

She quickly broke contact and ducked to avoid the blade before back stepping to make distance between them.

She pulled out another gun and emptied the mag before dashing towards him again.

Seeing the bullets coming towards him, Number 1 hurriedly dodged as he sensed the kind of damage they dealt.

He momentarily looked back to see the bullets hit the wall of the training area and melt the reinforced steel with ease.

He turned back to Layla and blocked her sword strike before asking.

"You're not trying to kill me are you?"

"Thanks for the idea."

Layla remarked as she began casting a spell with her left hand and slashed towards his neck with her right, making him duck to avoid her sword.

He was met with a knee kick as he ducked and had to use his other hand to block it.

In that short moment, Layla's sword thundered down towards his head and he sighed before releasing a burst of energy to push her backwards.

Layla expected such an action so she was prepared and easily regained her balance before throwing her sword up in the air and slamming her palms together, activating the spell she had begun casting a few second prior.

A three-ringed magic circle appeared round number 1 and chains of darkness burst from the ground and wrapped round his body, restraining him and sapping his magic.

Gravity returned her sword back to her and she caught it before dashing towards number 1. The amount of force at which she kicked off the ground with was enough to create a large crater under her feet.

However, number 1 just smiled and said.

"My lady, did you perhaps forget I have an authority of darkness?"

The moment she heard those words, Layla felt cold sweat all over her body and she created an aura barrier in front of her to forcefully stop her movement.

Although she felt pain from slamming into the barrier, she endured it and attempted to back step immediately.

However-

**CCRACK!!

-she was too late.

About half of the chains of darkness that bound number 1 cracked while the remaining half detached themselves from his body.

The rings around her three-ringed magic circle increased by three and the circle expanded to cover the entire room as more chains poured out of it and dashed towards her.

She was able to block the first few chains with her sword, however they kept on multiplying until she was unable to do so anymore.

The chains bound her arms and legs, lifting her up in the air lightly, sealing her movements and instantly draining all of her magic power.

The magic power reserves of an inferior stage grandmaster were enough to let them single-handedly destroy an average city and a few more buildings, however all of that was drained from her body in seconds.

She ignored the fatigue and dizziness she felt and glared at number 1 harshly.

"Did you just casually hijack my magic, amplify it and use it against me even better than I did?"

"The current situation is enough of an answer isn't it." 

Number 1 instantly crossed the distance between the two and poked Layla's forehead with his index finger.

"I think I win this my lady."

"Yeah yeah, you win now let me down already."

"Let yourself down, that is my test for you."

Hearing that, Layla glared at the epic realm clone who somehow expected her to be able to break the chains of darkness that bound her.