Mimic Awakening

In front of Azrael, Dareon unveils the full extent of his power. Even though he does not seem to change outwardly and magically, Azrael can sense that Dareon has reached the heights of the catastrophe level.

Not that Dareon can flatten multiple nations, but he has the capability to decently face a catastrophe-class being, much like Claire at that moment.

Using a technique called "Overdrive," Dareon successfully multiplied his strength, speed, defense, and perception eightfold. In exchange for a temporary boost, Dareon has less than six minutes to use his form before his mana runs out. If he was in his full mana, he would have last eight minutes instead.

For him, it feels like he is facing an entirely dangerous person. He suddenly remembers his encounter with the god, Vordoth, which actually makes him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Prepare yourself," Dareon notes before posing a battle stance. "Here I come."

Zoom.

Before Azrael can blink his highly perceptive eyes, Dareon has closed the gaps between them in an instant. As Azrael is still processing what happened milliseconds ago, he suddenly felt a tremendously heavy blunt force on his undefended left torso.

"?!!—"

Whoosh!

Before he can register what just happened, he is already flying in the air at a supersonic speed. He has absolutely no control in the air, and all he can remember after that is that his body collides with something hard.

Crash!

"GUH!!"

Azrael caught up blood the moment he hit the black wall of the dungeon, which was hundreds of meters from his previous spot, before falling onto the floor. He can feel his bones breaking, and his flesh tearing apart.

Just now, Dareon swung his blade to Azrael and sent him flying to the wall. He moves so fast that Azrael could not physically react, even though he can barely catch his movements.

"Oho. Did you manage to survive that? That toughness of yours is actually quite impressive, to be honest."

Still struggling and breathing heavily on the floor, Azrael can barely hear Dareon’s voice echoing in the vast hallway. The damage to his body is so severe that his body steams like the cooling tower of a nuclear plant.

Dareon’s last move could have cleanly sliced him in half, but due to the passive activation of the archdragon’s barrier, he absorbed the impact instead and sent him flying, which actually makes it worse. The archdragon’s barrier is supposed to be immovable, but Dareon still yeeted him to the wall.

Dareon might be so strong he bypasses the capabilities of the barrier. However, Dareon failed to break the barrier, to which Azrael put him below Vordoth, the only being who can break through his barrier with ease.

Cough. Cough. Azrael coughs off blood as he is struggling to stand. His body stops steaming eventually. "What the hell was that?! How did you become so much faster and stronger than before?!"

"You just got a taste of my true strength," Dareon gloats as he is strutting towards him. "Come on! Show me your true strength as well!"

"To be honest, I am not as physically strong as you right now. I pretty much rely on magic and my other abilities. So I don’t think I can catch up with you."

"I am pretty sure this era has some spells that can boost your physical attributes. Why don’t you use that?"

"It’s true, but I haven’t mastered that yet. But I’ll still try." Stabilizing his breathing, Azrael stands firm and pumps his arms. "Combat Form."

Casting a supreme-tier enhancement magic on himself, Azrael’s whole body emits a faint white glow, which does not turn off as long as he is in that state. Combat Form is a spell that temporarily doubles the user’s physical strength, durability, and speed as well as slightly hastens his mental speed.

At full mana, the user can maintain this form for as long as an hour. For this fight, Azrael decides to only use it for as long as ten minutes, as he has to conserve mana for other uses later.

"Looks like you are as strong as me now, Azrael." Dareon addresses him by his name for the first time, implying that he has recognized his strength. "Since we are both limited by time, let’s begin immediately."

"Yeah."

"..."

Zoom.

Clink!

Azrael and Dareon rush forward at exactly the same time, and their blades clash in the middle, creating the most powerful shockwave they have made. Caught in a bind, Azrael and Dareon have a brief staring contest before they continue.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

When they start fighting seriously, the hallways on the sixth floor of the empty dungeon briefly light up from the sparks of their blades clashing. Since their eyes faintly grow under their strengthening abilities, the vast maze is filled with red and amber streaks of light due to them moving around.

They are moving so fast that every time they clash blades, the hallways of the dungeon are occupied by shockwaves and extreme air pressure. Both of them try to land a blow once they find an opening, but every time they do, they would just be countered or intercepted by their opponent.

Since Azrael got the griffin’s speed and agility, he is always faster than Dareon. But the knight’s expertise and experience even the gap between them, so Azrael cannot deliver a fatal hit to his opponent.

"Hmph!"

As he is chasing Azrael, Dareon boosts his speed and eventually catches up with him. When Azrael finally reaches his attack range, Dareon slashes his sword with his right hand horizontally, and it is so fast that Azrael cannot physically dodge it.

"Oof!"

Azrael raises his arms, whose forearms have turned into mithrill, to block the unavoidable attack. He then suddenly stops his feet without slowing down, which makes Dareon travel past him.

As Dareon is about to turn around, a barrage of dozens of ancient dragon fireballs is already flying at him at a rapid rate. Each fireball carries a quarter of a percent of Azrael’s maximum mana capacity. Dareon reflexively raises both his forearms to block the attacks in response.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

Before the blinding lights of the explosions could settle, Dareon senses Azrael coming at him at a hypersonic speed and attempts to impale his neck with his sword. Waiting for the right timing, the knight quickly uses his left gauntlet to parry off the attack. That move creates an opening for him, and Dareon immediately counters Azrael with a mighty diagonal strike.

Azrael responds by raising his mithrill coated forearm to block the powerful attack. Dareon’s raw strength coupled with the speed of the strike generates so much momentum that Azrael has to bend his knees to efficiently absorb the impact.

"Nnn!"

Dareon finds an opening, and, using his right leg, he immediately kicks Azrael on his flank. With his enhanced physique, the kick barely affects Azrael, and he quickly counters it with a greater dragon blast from his mouth.

"?!?"

Sensing the danger of the blast, Dareon instantly takes a side step to move his body out of the line of the blast. The missed blast hits the ceiling of the dungeon and explodes enormously.

Azrael tries to redirect the blast to the target, but Dareon just runs from it, creating a series of explosions behind. Trying not to waste mana, Azrael deactivates it after one second before he begins chasing him at Mach ten.

Once Dareon is within his range, Azrael horizontally swings his sword as fast and as powerful as he can. At the same time, Dareon swings his blade downwards with all his might to stop the ultra-speed sword. In an instant, the blades meet.

CLINK!!! CRACK—!!

The two swords head on a powerful collision, instantly unleashing the most powerful shockwave throughout the entire fight. A bright flash shortly reveals their figures in the dark for split seconds.

Clink.

The sound of a piece of metal falling on the hard surface can be heard behind Dareon. That brief illumination reveals that Azrael’s longsword has broken in half.

"It seems like your sword broke, Azrael."

"Yeah, I guess so," Azrael nonchalantly admits. "But that does not automatically make me lose."

"What?"

Shortly after their exchange, Azrael runs away from the scene at a supersonic speed, leaving Dareon dumbfounded. As he is wondering what Azrael is up to, he does not notice that the piece of Azrael’s blade is flying as fast towards him.

"?!—"

Before he can fully turn around, the mithrill blade suddenly sticks on his cuirass. It is now attached to him by the sticky web that Azrael uses to drag it with him. Suddenly, Dareon senses a powerful mana quickly manifesting from the mithrill. Not even a tenth of a second has passed; Dareon’s vision instantly goes all white.

DOOM!

A blinding flash instantly filled the hallway of the dungeon. A scorching hot thermal pulse follows after the devastating explosion, and then a forceful shockwave blasts everything in all directions.

Using the same method to defeat Vordoth, Azrael activates the hero’s awakened ability to imbue an ancient dragon fireball upon that broken piece of his sword. Unlike the last time, Azrael only consumed a third of his mana for it since he used a lot during this fight.

Azrael, who deactivates his Combat Form earlier in order to use a large amount of his mana in that attack, has sheltered himself in a monster spawn room to protect himself from his own attack.

After all, the ancient dragon fireball is laced with the awakened ability of one of Claire’s assassins from before—the ability to inflict permanent damage on the target.