Elven Legacy (Part 2)

Chapter 363: Disgusting Opponent

Staring at the endangered Fire Demon, I noticed that while he looked very similar to a normal Demon, the main difference was the bright red veins that could be seen through his layers of flesh along with the small flames atop his two horns. It was my first time ever laying eyes on a Fire Demon, so I was slightly surprised by how they looked; given that demons have one of the biggest groups of subspecies, I was expecting something more terrifying or intimidating, though it seems I was mistaken.

'Though, I'm more interested in how strong he is rather than his lackluster appearance.' Mused Elif lightly as he gazed at the Fire Demon, who suddenly raised his hand and pointed his finger at him.

Following his sudden movement, I felt a sense of déjá vu as I watched a large amount of reddish Qi converge in front of his finger while it compressed itself; after a few moments, he stopped, only for a beam red beam to be shot through the air as it rapidly headed for me with impressive speed and power. However, seeing as I knew exactly what technique he was using, I was able to easily dodge it just in time while the reddish Gyakusatsu pierced the very air until it eventually hit the wall behind me.

Glancing behind me, I shifted my focus back to my opponent, though this time, I had a faint smile as I realized who I was facing in battle.

"The creator of the coveted Gyakusatsu... Sizzle." Muttered Elif with a faint smirk as he gazed at Sizzle in the distance, who didn't show any expression and merely used Gyakusatsu once more.

With my opponent being Sizzle, I saw no point in quickly defeating him; instead, it would be smarter to keep him alive while I used this chance to further improve Gyakusatsu; after all, while this Sizzle may be nothing but a mere projection, he'd still know Gyakusatsu better than anyone.

"Besides, I'm also curious: who has a larger Qi reserve, me or Sizzle?" Asked Elif with a curious expression as he raised his hand and pointed his finger at Sizzle while compressing a tremendous amount of Qi into a tiny sphere.

Once it had reached a sufficient amount of Qi, I released it, causing a purple beam of Qi to shoot through the air, though it didn't manage to hit Sizzle as he had blocked it with a Gyakusatsu of his own; of course, that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't lowered my cultivation base to the same level as his, though he was required to use slightly more Qi than normal to do so.

"Hmm, well, this should be interesting." Muttered Elif with a raised eyebrow as he and Sizzle continuously fired Gyakusatsu's at each other.

While I'm sure our battle must've looked humourous from an outsider's perspective, I was entirely focused on Sizzle as I watched his every move while using the technique; when I spotted something he was doing better than me or something I wasn't doing at all, I quickly improved upon it and mid-battle, which was no easy feat at all, though even a slight improvement would force Sizzle to use slightly more Qi than before.

After a few minutes of our rather boring yet very fruitful battle, something finally changed as Sizzle, for the first time, rotated the tiny sphere of Qi before firing it at me; this sudden change caught me slightly off guard since he'd never used it, nor is such a thing even mentioned within the techniques manual. However, to my surprise, despite using the same amount of Qi, his attack actually carried more power than usual, as he managed to not only pierce overpower my technique but also pierce through my arm, leaving behind a gaping hole.

Frowning, I switched my arms and attacked with my other hand, using significantly more Qi with each Gyakusatsu I fired at Sizzle to offset the power granted to him by rotating it just before he shot it.

"Tsk, well, I now know what it feels like to be attacked with Gyakusatsu... Not pleasant in the slightest." Muttered Elif with a frown as he glanced at the gaping hole in his arm before shaking his head and shifting his focus to Sizzle.