Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-123

Buzz.

A light green radiance flashed. The 'Sharpest Edge' that Brandon threw out right before Joshua to stop him from striking his destructive fist straight at him was struck into mid-air in an instant. After that, it turned into a stream of light and returned to the hand of the swordsman. He furrowed his brows intensely and looked at the warrior right before him with a grim expression on his face.

"Blocking the dual slash of my blades with merely bare hands… and that surge of power… if I did not get hold of myself in time, I would have lost my blades to him. This man could literally defeat any normal Gold-tier combatants with only a finger or two of his full strength!"

No wonder he wanted to battle with his bare hands in the first place. Such an extraordinary power… was he still a human to begin with?! His normal strength could literally match the power of a dragon!

Upon letting out a hot breath, Brandon tightened his grip on the hilts of his swords. The tips of the 'Dual Blades of Order' were buzzing. Facing this sort of powerful opponents, he decided to cast away the thoughts in his mind, calming his heart. After that, he switched to his fighting stance, ready to attack.

For over hundreds of years, the Kaos family had been the core supporter of the Imperial royal family. As the heir of his family, Brandon could freely walk in and out of the palace and see the Emperor. He could even easily learn all the secret techniques and skills of the royal family. Naturally, he could also learn one of the secret techniques called [The Nine Swords].

Desert Winds, Devotion, Steel Soul, Iron Heart, Twilight, Shadow Hand, Stone Dragon, Tiger Claw. Of course, there was also the [White Raven] that he mastered. These nine styles had existed for a very long time, each one special and strange in their own way. Over many years, no one studied them closely because of their strict conditions. However, Brandon was different from the others. His Gift had perfectly fulfilled all of the learning conditions for the swordsmanship. After years of strict training and intense practices, not only he managed to master all styles, he even managed to master the essence of each style.

"Hah!"

With a roar, Brandon's eyes looked deadly serious at the moment. At that moment, his Combat Aura was rapidly surging around his body causing the invisible waves to disrupt the atmosphere all around in the air. Once again, he took the initiative to attack his powerful enemies in front of him.

Meanwhile, one moment right before the second round of encounter begin, Joshua could not help but sigh after seeing Brandon charging at him like a huge unstoppable hurricane force.

As expected. It is much more exciting to battle with another powerful human!

In battles with beasts and daemons including dragons, these 'opponents' would only be able to use their instincts to fight Joshua. Their attacks would have a particular pattern. Joshua could easily see through the patterns and predict how they were going to attack. Maybe it would be difficult to handle the beasts and daemons when one first came in contact with them, however, when one had encountered many of them and battled them for a very long time, these beasts and daemons would only be the prey, the targets for most hunters to hunt. After battling them for such a long time, the joy and excitement of battling them would be lost. It would eventually become purely torturing and killing pieces of flesh.

However, humans were not the same in such regard.

Humans would think and apply strategies. Humans would change their strategies based on the situation in battle. The situation would be just like before. Brandon gained some distance between him and the warrior before he used his [White Raven's Swordsmanship]. He could choose not to go melee with Joshua. However, beasts would not have that sort of thoughts. They would only choose to battle or flee. Meanwhile, humans were different. For instance, because Brandon noticed that range attacks could not work on Joshua now, he decided to change the way of his assaults—

Along with the sound of ripples in the air, the hurricane that went berserk shook the atmosphere in the entire surroundings. The ripples of air collided into each other so violently that harsh buzzing echoed through the entire area. The shockwaves and noises that were coming from the hurricane had interfered with Joshua's senses; his vision, his hearing ability, his sense of smell, and even his sense of touch had become irrelevant. All his senses had become ineffective at the moment under the circumstance that the strong winds were rampaging the entire area of the battlefield. At that moment, the warrior felt that he was completely shielded from everything in his surroundings by the wind. And he could no longer sense any other presence that was outside of the battlefield as well.

Using wind to cut off your enemy's senses? That thought went through Joshua's mind in an instant. This was indeed a good method though. If normal people were in his shoes right now, those people would have been vulnerable instantly after their senses were cut off. Even Joshua would lose his speed after losing all of his senses momentarily. In that case, with Brandon's speed and the weapons in his hand, Brandon could potentially deal fatal damage to Joshua.

However, unfortunately, Brandon's efforts did not work on Joshua as well.

For this swordsman right before Joshua, if he did not have the strength and aura that he would have in the next twenty years, regardless of everything, Brandon would still be one of the most powerful opponents Joshua had ever encounter ever since Joshua crossed into this world. Although Joshua could not have a fatal duel with Brandon, he would still be able to enjoy the battle by using all sort of skills to fight Brandon. That was considered as one of the most fortunate things for Joshua.

So, in a flash, Joshua closed his eyes and emptied out his heart. His mind and spirit gradually subsided like sand and gravel. At that moment, he did not need to use his eyes to observe the world. And he did not need to use both ears to listen to the sound all around him. Everything in his surroundings had subsided deep into his heart.

To the left!

His instinct reacted and he determined the direction where his enemy was—hiding in the middle of the hurricane, Brandon was moving so fast that he looked like a moving laser beam. He was striving to get over to the left side of Joshua that lacked defense. He struck out one of his swords towards the left armpit of the Warrior while he struck his other sword right towards the neck of the warrior. If he succeeded, the battle would undoubtedly end with him as the winner!

"Are you thinking of getting around my 'Steel Armor Kokyu-ho' and aiming to strike my weakest point?"

Good thinking, however, that won't work!

With both legs stepping back and turning his waist around, while Joshua evaded Brandon's sharp and deadly attacks, Joshua pulled his right back to the limit as if he was pulling a rubber band to the limit of the rubber band's elasticity. After that, by lending the strength from his thighs, waist, chest, arms, and wrists, he accelerated his punch with all five large muscle groups by five times of the initial speed of his punch. Then he aimed his punch right at the face of the golden-haired swordsman that was at the speed three times faster than the speed of sound!

[Nameless: Mach Punch 1 !]

Shruck!!!!

Along with the sound of the air being torn apart, the right palm of the warrior which was wounded earlier on by the 'Dual Blades of Order' once again left a huge splatter of blood. Right after that, the blood was evaporated instantly into a shroud of blood mist around his hand!

Meanwhile, facing a punch shrouded with blood mist that was powerful enough to remove his entire head off his neck, Brandon could only clench his teeth trying to change the course of the swing of his sword. By lending the swinging force from his sword, he tried to evade Joshua's punch, having the thought not to go head on with Joshua.

He was very well-aware that the two swords he was currently swinging could literally pierce through Joshua's lungs, or even Joshua's heart, breaking the backbones of the warrior! However, even though that was the case, he might not be dead even after all that. On the other hand, his head would definitely be turned into nothingness!

Boom!!!

The attacks of both sides landed on each other at the same time. The clear ripples of waves that were brought out by the swing of the two swords slashed through the snow land, landing on the trees in the far distance. Immediately, several tall giant trees that would require at least a few people to carry collapsed down to the ground. The impact from trees falling to the ground had stirred up snow into the air. In the meantime, the pressure that the warrior's fist punched out left a vacuum in the middle of the air, plowing the ground leaving a long deep pit on the ground. The violent friction of the air even produced lightning-like electrical charges that sparked around his right hand.

Taking a few steps back, Joshua opened up his eyes and took in a deep breath. After that, he breathed out a large breath of white mist, releasing the heat out of his body.

In the previous life, he had dedicated his entire life to training his body. In the end, he had finally broken through the limitation of humans. However, even though that was the case, his full strength could only allow him to strike out a powerful attack at supersonic speed. After all, his body would still suffer a certain amount of damage by the end of it. But now, relying on the body of a Gold-tier warrior, Joshua need not unleash any power. He did not even need to use his Combat Aura. He could easily break through the speed of sound by using the skill of his body. He could easily strike out a punch that was surging with electrical energy all around!

"What a great world… I've never thought that having a powerful body is actually something so enjoyable."

Joshua sighed. The red Combat Aura was blazing all around Joshua's body. This sort of supernatural power that was formed from Will and Life Energy would actually show different attributes based on the different performance of each person. In the previous life during the middle year of the game, Joshua had chosen Fire. Meanwhile, his Combat Aura had exhibited the similar attributes in this life.

However, right at the deepest part of the core, there had been a change much earlier on—ever since Joshua's soul and his body become more and more compatible, the changes in his Combat Aura had also increased. At the beginning after he crossed into this life, the Combat Aura of the warrior was still as red as the flame. Meanwhile, currently, the color of his Combat Aura had become much darker. It had now become dark red that looked like fresh blood.

Without getting bothered by such a trivial matter, Joshua looked at the Swordsman that was taking a break by the side far from where Joshua stood. The swordsman had a serious face though. Then Joshua smiled and said, "Use your Glorious Strength then, Brandon. And your [Mystic Eyes] too."

Or else, you would still be a little tasteless as a side dish.

Upon receiving such a provocation, the golden-haired swordsman did not show any signs of being weak at all.

"Then let's cut the crap, Joshua. Also, I've always wanted to see your Glorious Strength since long ago!"

"Are you kidding me, Brandon?"

The warrior scoffed. Instantly, his Combat Aura turned even darker to the point that it looked completely black like the color of ink.

Didn't I use it already? From Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mach_Punch_(move)