Dimensional Descent

Leonel swung his spear upward instantaneously, but it was only just barely in time to meet Syllar's blade.

He was fast. So fast that without activating his Snowy Star Owl's gaze, Leonel's eyes alone could never hope of keeping up.

As fast as Syllar's legs were, though, his blade was even quicker. He caught the side of Leonel's spear. With blade against blade, he took advantage of his own forward momentum to parry it upward, his sword skimming against the edge of Leonel's spear as the backhand of his dagger aimed directly for Leonel's throat.

In the moment, Leonel understood.

Syllar was the Arm Head of the Speed Arm of the Luxnix family. However, even then, he had only undergone his First Awakening of the Speed Branch, allowing his Light Elemental Force to fuel his speed and leaving trails of light in his wake as he moved. But, compared to Leonel who had awoken three times, what was that worth?

With things being light this, though, Syllar truly showed his colors as the fastest of the Luxnix's younger generation. Not only was his grasp of the family's techniques impeccable… But his own personal ability, the one he had been forced to hide for so much of his life, was actually so perfectly in tune with exactly the kind of fighter he wanted to be.

While it seemed like Syllar was an Elemental Speedster, this wasn't the case at all. Rather, he was a Special Type Lightning user. His Lightning wasn't the destructive type, nor was it a Speedster Type, it was an Energy Type.

His Lightning was able to fuel his body and give him strength. Whether it was improving his thinking speed, his explosive strength and his raw speed, it was able to do it all. This sort of ability was like an overall upgrade on his power, a holistic boost to how dangerous he was. And make no mistake…

He was dangerous.

Syllar's dagger appeared before Leonel's throat, flickering with arcs of lightning. It was impossible to read his gaze with just how much sheer energy was sparking out from it. The speed was so fast that everything happened far too quickly. Many weaker members in the audience didn't even realize just how much danger Leonel was in right that moment.

However, what happened next was even more shocking.

Leonel's gaze flickered. As though something had sapped Syllar of all his energy, the blade trembled and then dulled. All the strength and lightning behind it vanished in a moment.

CLANG!

Syllar's blade clashed with Leonel's neck. But as though it had rebounded against a steel wall, it was pushed and repelled backward.

Just as quickly, Syllar retreated. Like an assassin in the night, he struck just once and didn't stay in Leonel's vicinity.

Beneath Leonel's skin, a small flicker of Bronze Runes receded, hardly perceptible to the eye. However, his steps didn't pause for even a single moment as he pressed down toward Syllar.

A harsh, grating wind pulsed into the surroundings. Everywhere it passed, ice and icicles formed, turning the stage into some sort of winter wonderland.

Leonel took a step forward, his figure flashing.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Syllar's brow furrowed, his heated exchange with Leonel growing faster and faster. He felt as though Leonel was either adapting to his speed, or improving so quickly that he was being forced onto his backfoot.

Ice began to creep up Syllar's sword and dagger, his lips turning blue and his fingers trembling beneath the cold.

Leonel's short violet hair danced in the wind. The combination of violet, light blues and a dense darkness played off of each other very well. And yet, compared to the energy laden Syllar, it still felt somewhat muted and uninteresting.

The battle slowly swung in Leonel's favor, Syllar realizing that his opponent was getting faster and faster.

Leonel's spear spun in his hands. It had once been that Syllar could attack three or four times before he landed even one. But then it had shrunk to three, then two, then one… Now, Leonel seemed to attack twice as fast as Syllar did. If not for the fact that the latter wielded two weapons, he would have likely already suffered a fatal wound.

Leonel caught the side of Syllar's blade in one of the jagged grooves of his blade. With a strong flick upward, Syllar felt his wrist nearly snap, forcing him to get rid of his sword entirely.

He moved to retreat once more, but his expression changed when he found that his foot hit air.

His eyes widened as he fell on his bottom outside of the stage. He looked on wide eyed at seemingly empty space, still not quite understanding what happened. It was only after the frost slowly began to recede and he could feel his body again that he finally understood.

His mind had actually slowed by that much.

"… That spear…" Syllar finally looked up, looking at the Black Ice Spear, his expression still somewhat lost.

Leonel smiled. "You said it best yourself. How powerful you are is sometimes less important than how your abilities match up to someone else. In this case, you met maybe the worst possible match for you."

"… I see…"

Syllar still couldn't quite understand, but he had a faint inkling. He didn't really care that Leonel had relied on a treasure. It was clear that it was a Quasi Silver Spear, and that wasn't much different from his own weapon. And, something made him think that Leonel had purposely chosen to fight in this way just so he could say those words to him.

It was quite pathetic. He finally got the chance to go all out for once, and yet he had lost like this. He could almost feel the disappointed glances that were landing on his back.

Leonel bent down and helped Syllar to stand before walking away. The latter didn't even register that Leonel had helped him until several moments later, but that only left him in another daze.

He wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to feel.