The Extra's Rise - Chapter 528

Chapter 528: The Imperial Duel (1)
After lunch, we were guided to an expansive, state-of-the-art training ground housed within the palace itself. Sleek walls gleamed under fluorescent lighting, and the hum of mana-conducting technology blended seamlessly with the historic grandeur of the Slatemark Empire.

Waiting for us was the Second Division of the Imperial Knights. At their helm stood their mid Immortal-rank Captain—a towering figure who ranked among the top two hundred strongest in the world.

Thankfully, he wasn’t my opponent.

Instead, my match was with the man standing just behind him. Shorter in stature but no less imposing, Nolan Wright’s ice-blue hair gave him an almost serene air. Despite his relatively young age for someone of his rank, his presence commanded respect.

As the Vice Captain of the Second Division, Nolan was at peak Ascendant-rank, making him one of the top three hundred warriors in the world. Facing him would be no easy feat.

“You’re not nervous?” I asked Cecilia, noting her unshaken confidence.

“Of course not,” she said with a small smirk. “If you can’t beat someone like him, you’re not the man I love.”

Her unwavering faith brought a smile to my face. I nodded in acknowledgment, her words bolstering my resolve.

‘Are you not nervous?’ Luna’s voice echoed in my mind.

Was I? Perhaps. After all, Nolan was a formidable opponent—far stronger than most. But I had faced greater challenges, including an Immortal-ranker before. Back then, I only needed to survive. Today, I had to win.

“You can still back out,” Quinn murmured, his tone a mix of challenge and warning.

I simply shook my head, a flicker of mana propelling me onto the stage. Nolan exchanged a glance with his Captain before leaping into the arena as well.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, his tone surprisingly friendly and warm, contrasting with the stoic image one might expect from an Imperial Knight. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Let’s have a good match.”

“Likewise,” I replied, Evolvis materializing from my spatial ring in a flash of silver and crimson radiance.

This wasn’t a fight where I could afford to hold back.

I activated everything.

Seraphim’s Embrace amplified my senses to their peak, working seamlessly with Soul Vision, a gift from my Soul Resonance with Luna, sharpening every detail to crystal clarity. Mythic Body fortified my physical frame, while Lucent Harmony balanced the storm of mana within me, ensuring a perfect synergy of strength and control.

Wind mana coiled around my legs like serpents of air, earth mana reinforced my stance with the stability of mountains, and fire mana began building in my core—a deadly arsenal waiting to be unleashed. But most importantly, I called upon Erebus’s gift.

Crimson bones materialized around my body, wrapping me in the Lich’s bone armor. The jagged, pulsing plates weren’t just protection—they were amplification. Each piece thrummed with dark power, multiplying my physical capabilities exponentially. My strength, already enhanced by Mythic Body, surged to new heights as the bone armor settled into place like a second skin.

The transformation was both exhilarating and unsettling. The armor’s power flowed through me like liquid shadow, enhancing every muscle fiber, every reflex, every instinct. I felt as though I could tear through steel with my bare hands or leap tall buildings in a single bound. This was power beyond mortal limitations.

Across from me, Nolan’s sword radiated a cool, flowing power, encased in water astral energy that seemed to ripple like a living tide. His eyes widened slightly as he took in my transformed appearance, the crimson bone armor giving me an almost demonic presence.

“Impressive,” he said, his voice carrying newfound respect. “I can see why you’ve earned such a reputation.”

Our eyes met briefly, and then we moved.

With a single step, I launched myself forward with bone-enhanced strength, and Nolan mirrored the motion with practiced precision. Our blades collided with a resounding clash that sent shockwaves rippling through the reinforced training ground, astral energy sparking and crackling outward from the point of impact.

The difference was immediately apparent. Where before I might have struggled against true astral energy, the bone armor’s enhancement allowed me to meet Nolan’s power head-on. My enhanced strength, amplified by Erebus’s gift, created a perfect equilibrium with his Ascendant-rank capabilities.

Our blades pressed against each other, the clash reverberating through the arena like thunder. Nolan’s sword felt like the relentless pull of an ocean tide, but I held firm, the bone armor channeling power through every fiber of my being as I focused my strength into Evolvis.

Nolan’s expression showed genuine surprise at my resistance. Each subsequent clash sent vibrations rippling through both our arms, but the bone armor absorbed and redistributed the impact, keeping me stable while he began to show signs of strain. His years of training were evident, but raw power enhanced by dark magic was proving to be a formidable equalizer.

We separated briefly, circling each other like predators seeking an opening. I could feel the bone armor’s power coursing through me, making every movement feel fluid and deadly. This was what it meant to transcend normal limitations.

“You’re stronger than I expected,” Nolan admitted, adjusting his grip on his sword. “But strength alone won’t be enough.”

He was right, of course. Nolan hadn’t earned his position through raw power alone—he was a master of technique, strategy, and timing. But I had advantages he couldn’t possibly anticipate.

We clashed again, exchanging a rapid series of strikes that would have been invisible to untrained eyes. The training ground’s protective magical runes hummed with increasing intensity as they absorbed the shockwaves of our battle. Without them, this sparring session would have reduced the arena to rubble within minutes.

His strikes were precise and forceful, each one carrying the weight of mastered technique and years of disciplined training. But precision alone couldn’t pierce through resolve backed by Erebus’s power. The bone armor not only enhanced my physical capabilities but seemed to grant me an intuitive understanding of combat flow that went beyond conscious thought.

I began to press my advantage, forcing Nolan to give ground as my enhanced speed and strength started to overwhelm his defenses. Each strike came faster than the last, the bone armor allowing me to chain attacks together in ways that should have been impossible for someone at my rank.

But Nolan wasn’t defenseless. Recognizing that conventional techniques weren’t sufficient, he began to gather his astral energy for something more substantial.

Snowflakes began to form at the tip of his blade, shimmering like fragile glass under the arena’s intense illumination. They hovered momentarily before multiplying rapidly, creating a swirling constellation of frozen death. Each snowflake pulsed with astral energy, and I could sense the devastating power contained within their delicate forms.

This wasn’t ordinary swordplay anymore. It was the mark of true mastery.

A Grade 5 art.

The snowflakes exploded outward in perfect synchronization, creating a blizzard of astral-enhanced ice that filled the arena. Each fragment struck with precision, battering against my defenses with the force of artillery shells. The bone armor absorbed much of the impact, its crimson surface crackling with protective energy as it deflected the worst of the assault, but the sheer volume and intensity still made me grit my teeth.

I could feel the technique’s true purpose—it wasn’t just an attack, but an area denial weapon designed to control the battlefield and limit my mobility. Clever. Nolan was trying to neutralize my speed advantage by filling the entire arena with hazards.

But I had my own Grade 5 art to answer with.

I exhaled slowly, centering myself as I called upon one of my most refined techniques. If Nolan wanted a battle of mastery, I would oblige him completely.

Tempest Dance Technique—a Grade 5 art that built momentum with every movement, a storm growing stronger with each strike. The bone armor’s enhancement made each movement flow like liquid death, power building exponentially with every motion as I began the intricate sequence.

It started subtly, almost deceptively so. A single downward slash that cut cleanly through several astral snowflakes, splitting them like fragile ornaments. The bone armor channeled the technique’s essence, amplifying not just the physical force but the very concept of accumulated momentum.

A thrust followed, faster than the first strike.

Then a diagonal slash, faster still.

The early movements, though precise, initially struggled against the overwhelming pressure of Nolan’s snowflake barrage. His astral-enhanced ice pushed back with relentless force that would have overwhelmed me without the bone armor’s protection. But Erebus’s gift held firm, absorbing the strain and converting it into fuel for my building tempest.

Slowly, inexorably, the true strength of Tempest Dance began to emerge.

A gentle stream transformed into a roaring waterfall. The waterfall surged into a mighty river. The river expanded into a vast sea. And the sea swelled into an unrelenting ocean.

Each strike compounded the momentum exponentially, the bone armor channeling and amplifying every movement beyond mortal limitations. The rhythm of my blade reached a crescendo that far surpassed anything I’d achieved before. The combination of Mythic Body and Erebus’s bone armor created a synergy that pushed me into territory that shouldn’t have been possible for Integration-rank.

My sword became a force of nature, cutting through Nolan’s snowflake technique like a hurricane tearing through a gentle snow shower. The arena filled with the sound of shattering ice and clashing energies as my ocean of strikes overwhelmed his defenses.

Yet Nolan was no simple opponent, and he wasn’t finished.

His sword, wrapped in an intensifying pale blue glow of astral energy, began to tremble with a chilling resonance that made the very air around it freeze. It wasn’t merely a weapon anymore—it was an embodiment of winter itself, vast and unyielding as a glacier. As my ocean of strikes surged forward with devastating force, his glacier met it head-on in a clash that made the previous exchanges seem like gentle sparring.

The collision was cataclysmic. The force of his enhanced sword sent visible cracks through the tide I’d built, threatening to shatter my carefully constructed momentum. Ice and steel sang against each other in a harmony of destruction that filled the arena with blinding radiance.

Then, something changed in Nolan’s technique. His sword began to beat with a rhythm I recognized—the unmistakable pulse of a Sword Heart made manifest.

My ocean wavered. Cracks appeared in the overwhelming tide of strikes as his enhanced astral energy pushed back with renewed fury. The glacier was meeting the ocean, and for a terrifying moment, it seemed as though winter might triumph over the storm.

But that was exactly the opening I had been waiting for.

Nolan seized what he believed was his moment of victory, driving his blade forward in what should have been a decisive strike. His focus sharpened to a singular point of killing intent, his movements precise and deadly as he committed everything to this final assault. The confidence in his eyes told me he thought he had found the gap in my defenses.

He was wrong.

It was bait.

Purelight gifted me speed and precision beyond mortal comprehension. My Mythic Body, enhanced by the bone armor’s dark power, gave me flexibility and elasticity that bordered on the supernatural. As his blade surged forward with the inevitability of an avalanche, I shifted.

With a burst of time and purelight magic working in perfect harmony, my body bent in ways that defied human anatomy. My feet swept from the ground, my head and chest arcing backward in an impossible evasion while the bone armor flowed like liquid to accommodate the movement. His sword, guided by perfect technique and overwhelming power, cut through empty air where I had been mere microseconds before.

Nolan’s eyes widened in complete disbelief as his killing stroke found nothing but vacuum. The momentum of his committed attack left him exposed, overextended, his perfect form suddenly a liability.

And in that moment of vulnerability, I struck.