From the moment the fight began, Ace had been put on the defensive, forced to dodge and run so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

  Even though he was virtually invincible amongst those at the eighth rank, the differeween the eighth and ninth ranks was simply too vast.

  If it weren’t for his insights into the profound mystery of Fire-body allowing him to bee intangible to anyone who hadn’t prehended impose, Ace would’ve lost his head on at least three separate occasions.

  “Is running away all you do?” The sword-wielding el Lorne roared as he tio chase after his young target, his sea blue battle-qi coating his body, increasing his speed as much as possible.

  “You do realise your like ten times my age!” Aorted as his body tinually flickered from pce to pce. “If I were ye and as weak as you, I’d probably have already killed myself out of shame!”

  Every time Ace moved, he’d leave a streak of fire in his wake, allowing him to move at speeds that even he had inally been shocked by.

  When Ace had first begun leading the el away from his friends, he couldn’t help but repy the se of General Kaymiering the battle in his mind over and ain.

  The general used a simple but effective movement teique that used his fiery battle-qi to propel himself forward.

  Though he hadn’t begun cultivating battle-qi, with his profound insights into the ws of fire, Ace could use his mageforce as an effective substitute. Unfortunately, Ace quickly realised that as his mageforce couldn’t pete with Kaymin’s battle-qi, his usage of the teique wasn’t as effective as [Soru], which sparked the idea of fusing the two.

  It was these attempts which almost cost Ace his life on several occasioually, he realised that although he couldn’t use his fmes for each ‘step’ of [Soru], he could almost double his speed by using it on the final step.

  At the beginning of the fight, the differen speed forced Ace to rely on his fht to barely evade each strike, uo put any real distaween them, but now Ace was no slower than his oppo, and each use of the teique allowed him to refi a little bit more, essentially allowing him to slowly, but surely improve his speed, making their game of cat and mouse all the more frustrating for the el.

  At this point, Aew that the smart thing to do was tinue as he was now until Leo finished his group of enemies before the two of them fought Lorogether, but the thought of winning his first fight as ‘Gol D. Ace’ didn’t sit right with him.

  ‘When I win, I want to win decisively, on my own!’ Ace decred in his head as he suddenly caught his oppo off guard by doing a 180 and charging straight towards the el.

  “Finally!” el Lorne roared with ughter as his shock quickly turned into glee as he saw his elusive target charging at him.

  Though Lorill found it hard to believe that a teenage warrior at the fifth rank was actually able to move faster than him, he knew none of that would matter as soon as they were in striking range of each other.

  The only thing he was slightly worried about was Ace’s ability to transform his body into fire, being intangible. Still, he could sehe drain on his oppo’s mageforce every time he did it, so as long as he was able to keep A striking ra would only be a matter of time before the youth was defeated.

  Ace was well aware of what the el was aiming to do, and he khat Lorne wasn’t wrong in his assessment. Still, his eyes showed ation as he and his oppo closed in on each other.

  When Ace was mere inches from striking range, Lorne’s excitement was at its peak as he could practically foresee Ace’s death from his intended bombardment. But unfortunately, Ace had other pns.

  Everything Ace had dispyed so far, from his use of the ‘fused state of wielding’ to ‘impose’ to his ‘logia’ ability, made Lorne fet about the first ability, which shocked just about every person otlefield – on both sides.

  Ace’s jet-bck eyes suddenly dited as his [Haoshoku] Haki exploded out of him, crashing onto the psyche of his oppo, momentarily incapacitating him.

  Lorne was only dazed for a fra of a sed, but a fra of a sed in a fight at this level was enough to cause irrevocable damage, especially when they were practically on top of each other already.

  Ace’s give tore through the air at blinding speed aiming for Lorne’s neck, but lucky for him, he regained trol of his body just in time to instinctively raise his swordless hand and lean his head out of the way.

  Under normal circumstances, between the differen strength and the el’s battle-qi stantly coating his body, Ace wouldn’t even be able to pierce the skin. However, when Lorne was left temporarily dazed by Ace’s haki, his battle-qi also dissipated. By the time he had resummoned his sea blue battle-qi, Ace’s obsidian give had already torn straight through his forearm.

  Not wanting to give up his hard-earned advantage, Ace’s body fshed, appearing right behind his oppo, his give shooting through the air like a meteor, only to e to an abrupt stop just before the back of Lorne’s neck.

  With his battle-qi active once again, Ace was back to being uo pierce his oppo’s defences.

  “JUST DIE ALREADY!” Lorne roared in rage as he swung his sword behind him, hoping to cleave A two.

  Even though Ace wasn’t caught off guard, the speed of Lorne’s sword was too fast for him to dodge. As such, he was once again forced to use his logia abilities to evade the strike.

  ‘I only have three of those left in me,’ Ace thought to himself as he distanced himself from his one-handed oppo, fighting to steady his breathing. ‘I ’t drag this out any longer…

  But even with his injury, I still ’t get passed his battle-qi, unless…’

  Ace suddenly roared with ughter catg his oppo by surprise.

  “I’m su idiot!” Ace said to himself as he began coating his give with his fiery mageforce. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?!”

  Just when he was ruminating about what he could do to win his fight, he thought back to how he was able to mimieral Kaymin’s battle-qi-induced movement teique with his mageford realised that since he could use mageforce as a viable substitute for battle-qi before, there was no reason why he couldn’t again.

  He wasn’t sure how effective it would be, but he was excited to try.

  Lorched in disbelief as Ace’s fiery magefored a skin-tight coat around his give before his oppo all but disappeared, only to appear directly beside him, the sound of a soni threatening to burst his eardrums as Ace’s fiery give broke the sound barrier.

  As a highly experienced veteran warrior, Lorne was able to suppress the pain of losing a hand and the shock of Ace’s improvised battle-qi to calmly raise his sword to block Ace’s attack, but he wasn’t able to suppress the sho his heart as both sword and give made tact.

  “You… Your strength… How is that possible?!” Lorammered after being forced two steps back.

  Ace grinedly as he looked at the el in front of him like he were prey.

  Although still not quite as strong as his oppo, after their st csh, Ace was able to firm that the differen strength between him and a rank nine warrior had just been signifitly reduced. If nothing else, he finally had a way to pierce the battle qi of a warrior at the ninth rank.

  When he first began chasing after Ace, Lorhought the task of killing this mysterious young genius would be one of low risk and high reward, but Asisted on surprising him at every turn, and now, without even realising it, seeds of genuine fear had taken root and began to sprout.

  No longer was Lorrying to kill Ace for the iable rewards for taking out a future threat to their nation. Instead, he fought to survive against someone he now viewed as no weaker than him.

  The fight went on for several minutes with Lorne, for the first time sihe beginning of their battle, kept on the defensive, with small cuts and burns appearing on his body as he failed to block or dodge several of Ace’s attacks.

  Still, Ace wasn’t an idiot. He could clearly see that other than the severed hand, all of Lorne’s other injuries were superficial at best and that the el was just biding his time now, waiting for Ace to run out of mageforce, something Aew would happen very soon, but unfortunately, there was nothing Ace could do – he was already going all out.

  If he could hold on for another five minutes, Aew he would definitely be able to finally defeat his oppo, but as a mage of the third rank, stamina was never going to be one of his strong points when fighting at this level.

  Still, his eyes showed no traces of hesitation as he tinually attacked, stantly searg for a path to victory. As…

  “HAHAHAHA, FINALLY!” Lorne roared with ughter as Ace’s mageforce finally ran dry.

  Their ons cshed for what felt like the 10,000th time that day, but this time Ace was the oreating this time.

  With his pseudo-battle-qi no more and his strength not what it was at the beginning of the fight, not only was Ace sent flying, his left shoulder was dislocated as he rolled along the floor.

  “Without yeforce, what are you now?” Lorne derided as he strode towards the panting teen, enjoying the dynamic returning to what it should be – with him in trol of the situation.

  But as Ace shakily stood to his feet and looked back up, instead of the fear and apprehension Lorne expected to see, he saw a shat gave him goosebumps for reasons that escaped him.

  Ace had a dislocated shoulder f him to hold his give with one hand, his whole body was ag, and each breath felt like sandpaper was rubbing against his lungs, a his eyes grew iement as he eyed his oppo.

  At first, Lenuinely had no idea what Ace possibly had to smile about, but suddenly he felt the temperature skyrocket as a sea of fmes suddenly materialised in the sky above him.

  “That’s impossible! You ran out of…” Lorne suddenly stopped midsentence as he looked down from the sky-ing fire at the dark-haired youth holding his give in front of him with his one good hand. “You… You broke through?!”

  Ace had been at the peak of the third rank as a mage for some time now. Initially, he assumed it would take another few days before he made his breakthrough, but between the pressure he was under in the fight and his tinued use of his mageforce, he was able to make a breakthrough midbattle.

  “I WON’T LET YOU!” Lorne roared as he shot towards Ace, the fear of Ace finishing his spell allowing him to move faster than he ever had before.

  Unfortunately, Ao longer had any desire to fight at close quarters. Without hesitation, he leapt into the sky and began leaping through the air, once again shog the O’Brien el.

  Lorne was just about to leap into the air in a st-ditch effort to chase after and kill his target when he saw the fire above him finish morphing, taking the shape of Ace’s give.

  “It’s about time this es to an end,” Ace voiced as he looked down at Loraring up in fear at the giant scarlet give that blotted out the sky. “Divine Dest!”

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 6: Chapter 28 – Rohault Princess Vs Princess of Darkness (2)