Chapter 149 Combat Art

"Arghhh…." Croco shouted as the imaginary exoskeleton once again appeared on his body, and he dashed towards Arkhen. 'I have to beat him in the next attack with my best offense power, or I am done for. Damn!'

Arkhen grinned as he unleashed his blades and punched forward, using the <Fire Fist: Aginister> skill by consuming 200,000 primal energy as that was the limit of the skill after he attained Expert mastery.

Croco was pushed back slightly because of that attack. However, the important thing was that it stopped his charge!

'Fuck!' Croco cursed as the deadly slaughter blades prepared by Arkhen rained on him, breaking his exoskeleton and severely injuring his body.

"I give up!" Croco said quickly before lying on the platform on a small pool of his own blood. "Fuck… I couldn't even use my most powerful attack, and I am out of all two of my energy ponds," Croco grumbled in frustration. "How come you have so much energy?"

"Hahaha, I have unlimited energy," Arkhen said with a laugh.

"Yeah, right," Croco rolled his eyes before frowning a bit due to pain. Most of the scales on his body were damaged since Arkhen went all out when he made that Hyacinth Prison as the blast from it injured Croco.

Even though Croco created a barrier inside after feeling danger, the barrier broke instantly due to the intense blast, causing him some injuries.

The last bit of his spirit energy went to further enhance that exoskeleton when he used it the second time, but it couldn't bear the bombardment of those slaughter blades.

That Fire Fist Aginister was the deal breaker since it stopped his charge and pushed him away, causing him unable to dodge the slaughter blades and failing his last all-out attack on Arkhen.

"The winner is Arkhen!!"

*Cheer!!*

The audience cheered and clapped as the battle was truly exciting. Croco was considered a very powerful 1st-class warrior since he was at the peak of the 1st class with 197,600 EP. However, Arkhen still beat him without going all out and was only injured once.

"That was truly a fine battle," Meya said as she also clapped with a smile. She turned to Azela and Emily before curiously asking, "however, you two also must be powerful because the strength displayed by Arkhen is not enough to survive in the southern snowy region."

"Nah, that's because Arkhen didn't go all out," Emily said with a grin.

"Yep," Azela said with a smile, "If Arkhen went all out, Croco would've died in several seconds unless he got a truly powerful large area attack. But even with that, it would only prologue his eventual defeat."

"Oh? Then I want to see Arkhen in an all-out form. Me curious!" Meya said with sparkling eyes.

"That's up to him," Emily said as she shrugged.

"Brother Arkhen, will you fight more?" Meya asked as she saw Arkhen flying out of the platform.

Azela waved her hands and used her superpower to heal Arkhen's wounds.

"Nope. I wanted to fight more, but this one battle gave me what I wanted," Arkhen said with a smile as he stood between Azela and Emily. 'Velshi, what's the report?'

[My lord. That exoskeleton power was Croco's bloodline ability. I can't copy that. However, the combat art and that barrier he used were chi energy-based skills, so I can copy those two.]

"Let's go. Meya, is there a place here that teaches skills? Or sells skill scrolls?" Arkhen asked.

"Yep. There are two big stores in the capital that sells skills and combat arts," Meya said.

"Then let's go there," Arkhen said before he told Velshi, 'since you collected the skills data by spending a few reality motes, then show me the data first.'

While moving out of the Arena, Arkhen looked at the skill details.

[Golden Mail Combat Art]

[-Class: 1st class]

[-Rank: S]

[-Cost: 200,000 Chi energy per minute]

[-Effect: Increases Agility, Stamina, and Strength by 8% while increasing Constitution by 12%. Whenever you are hit by an attack, your EP increases by 1% up to 8%. Once every thirty seconds, while this combat art is activated, you gain a skill boost, which increases the power of your next skill by 10%].

'This is very good!' Arkhen said as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

[Yes, my lord. All combat arts are like overall buffs and aid one greatly in combat in various ways. That's why they are called combat arts].

[Moreover, even after you hit the limit of stats, the boost gained in the stats by combat arts can successfully break that limit, allowing you to exert more power without feeling suppression. That's why combat arts are just as important as powerful skills. In a way, they are more prominent at the peak].

'Then I guess I need to learn multiple combat arts so I can use them in various situations even if I can only activate one at a time.'

[That… is not possible, my lord. Combat Arts are learned in a different way. They are imprinted on your body and connected to the potential expanse (inner space). You can only learn a single combat art and master it. If you want to learn another, more powerful combat art, you need to remove the previous one].

'Oh…that's unfortunate. Alright, what about the barrier skill? Although my force-field active power is the best barrier-type power in a way, it's a plain barrier-type power that only does that: creates a solidified square space field of any size. So, I want some other defense-type skills as well.'

[For pure defense, the force field is good, but it's not at its full potential. You can do much more with this force-field creation superpower. I wish I could show you and let you learn it right away, but that is simply not possible right now with your current state].

'Well then, I am looking forward to the day when I can use it for a more powerful purpose,' Arkhen said with an internal laugh before he looked at the defense barrier-type skill.