-Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish...

A subtle sound of something flying through the air rang, and the boy vanished from where he was standing.

-Splash...!

At the same time, a sharp gust of wind flew and cut apart the place the boy was standing, creating a deep rupture in the calm water..!

As the lizardman opened his green eyes, he slightly turned his body and avoided the brown arrow of light with a red tip.

He could tell this arrow would have hurt him even with his active defense, but he avoided his attack and so did his opponent.

The lizardman had used his senses and detected the opponent in an instant as he brandished his sword once more on the right side, where there was practically nothing.

"Tsk." A clicking of tongue rang out in the quiet surrounding as the wind cut through the shadow of that place.

The boy was hiding in the shadows and the wind somehow disturbed the shadows themselves, not the source of the shadow, not the source of light, but directly the shadow.

It was something strange, but the boy knew this was because of the [Territory boost] skill. This whole area was the lizardman's territory and he could exert his authority over his own place however he liked.

And affecting the elements inside the place was one of the abilities he possessed.

But the short time brought him enough time to prepare for his next few attacks..

As soon as the shadow was destroyed, he vanished once again, reappearing just behind him.

This time, there was a pure red arrow of light, a spell arrow, on his bow.

He was a few meters away from him, but this was just behind the back of the lizardman.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0/v3l-B1n.

And the lizardman knew this.

He knew there was no perfect way to avoid the arrow safely, so he splashed his giant tail, and.. as the arrow left his bow, a pillar of water rose from the place the lizardman splashed the ground.

-Spshhhhhhh!

Arrow collided with the water and this bought him enough time to move away from his place.

So he took advantage of the force created by the tail and moved to a different place.

-Swiiiiiish!

But that was also something he had anticipated. With the place where he could appear after this move.

His second arrow was already on its way and there was no way the lizardman could avoid this.

Or maybe there was one way...

The lizardman turned ever so slightly after receiving the signal of the attack that his arm could move.

He was a lizardman. Different from normal humans, he could move his limbs as elastically as a fish without any unnecessary skeleton.

So he swung his sword at a weird angle, and the sword collided with his sword.

[< That was a good one! >]

He smiled as the arrow was actually absorbed into his sword as soon as it touched the sword. The boy saw it coming, but it was still astonishing to see just how lucky the lizardman was.

[< "Can I have a closer look at that after the fight?" >] the boy shouted as he changed his position using his high mobility and battle experience and avoided trying his best to land a fatal blow using his magic arrows.

[< Of course! That is! If you defeat me! >] he shouted back, almost effortlessly avoiding or destroying, or absorbing the magic.

The artifact sword he was using, the blue-bladed curved longsword with a teeth-like edge was a divine artifact. A very old one at that.

It was something he wanted to take a closer look to truly analyze the main stuff as his three eyes only told him three things at this moment.

'A sword that can absorb Mana and cancel magic, a rare kind of artifact. Something that was definitely made by a craftsman of grandmaster level. And something that was so great that my cute eyes gave it full five stars.'

Those were his thoughts and the smile, the widespread smile on his face, was something that was the incarnation of delight's reflection.

-Boooooooooom!

Their battle continued.

The boy threw the spells, sometimes many arrows mixed in his spells, and many times arrows with enchanted magic.

His heroic senses distinguished between all the different things and made quick judgments as he learned how to avoid, take, or defend against a different type of attack from the opponent.

The lizardman's impressive ability to adapt to the battle was terrifying. So was his ability to learn quickly!

In just a few minutes, he was fully able to avoid his simple as well as magical attacks. Though some of them passed through his defenses, despite his extreme senses, he was fine because of his body armor skill.

The attacks hurt him, but not enough to make him bleed... so he was able to grasp a few things.

It had been a while since they were fighting in this simple way. And the lizardman understood just how he was evaluating his opponent's strengths right now, his opponent was doing the same...

Maybe, his opponent was one step ahead of him and was thinking in scenarios... thinking about how his learning ability worked, how long it took for him to learn new things, how great was his defense skill and just how great was his weapon mastery.

It was frightening... but he could tell from those sharp eyes that were looking at him as if cutting him open, his opponent was someone that didn't hesitate to try and learn new things or do these dangerous experiments in the middle of the battle.

His attack pattern was changing in a way, but the attacks had stayed simple this whole time.

The lizardman knew this wasn't the boy's all strength, but at least this one was a fraction of what the boy was actually capable of. So this much was enough to make a primary deduction.

[< 'He's absurdly strong...' >]

The lizardman was a champion. He had fought countless other members of his tribe, other creatures of other tribes, some other creatures from the sea, and some creatures that rule the sky.

He was a being that had lived for more than a century and had a rich battle experience, but before this particular opponent, all previous knowledge seemed to be useless.

He was like a creature of the deep sea... someone who looked calm, but its depths were immeasurable.

Just these simple normal attacks were giving him a hard time, forcing him to consume more stamina than he would normally need to handle a purely close or long-range attacker.

The fundamental of a battle was simple and opponents always had a particular kind of way to use their weapons.

Either from a long distance, from a close range, or maybe from an average medium range.

But this one, this boy, this being, this Axion, shot his arrows from all distances!

Sometimes his arrows flew from faraway places, something he did after using his strange movement skill consecutively. Or by using magic techniques that must consume a lot of resources.

He sometimes hid his presence perfectly with some weird technique and closed the distance with him and used close-range stabbing, thirsting, or slashing attacks with his arrows.

He mostly fired his arrow from an average distance that he think he could reach, but this boy had better reflexes that could make heroic senses feel shy!

He perfectly avoided all his attacks and was mostly fine, even after this seemingly long confrontation.

Even the absolute stamina, which couldn't be recovered with herbs... he was recovering it as fast as him, someone with an advanced stamina recovery ability.

Maybe it was better than him, something practically absurd!

But he definitely received a few small cuts. But that was it.

He could only find out that the opponent could use various types of arrows, had many pre-prepared arrows, and knew how to use his surroundings.

His evasive ability was unbelievably good... but the way he used all the small plants, rocks, water creatures, as well as the walls to use as a support while doing something fast-paced, was close to the [Release] of the transcendent beings.

And his greatest strength... it was his mind. A mind so amazing it could actually perfectly analyze his attacks, skills, and habits.

He knew from how his attack patterns stayed the same despite so much time passing, the same attacks that actually hurt him despite being the same, and attacks that were now hurting him while ignoring the heroic senses, he had grasped more things about him than he did about him.

And... it was actually true. He definitely had grasped far more about this champion lizardman than he could think.

And the most basic thing that he concluded after his thorough understanding was...

'He is smart and strong...'

A monster that could learn far faster than normal humans, something that was almost cheating from their perspective.

A being that had the best senses he had seen after his master and the elders of his house, someone that had great control and authority over his territory, had a skill that recovered his stamina far quicker than one can imagine.

He still hadn't used his water attribute skill or physical boost or berserk, so his threat level was far above the normal blue-ranked creatures.

He also had the cursed artifact and his divine artifact sword.

This was a great creature... and his Aura would be just this amazing too, right?

He was a warrior, some of the few 'creatures' that could use Aura.

It was almost time for him to bring out that special energy and use his remaining skills, and the boy was waiting for that moment.

He had tormented him by using the same kind of but different frequency attacks.

Not only had he fully analyzed this creature on his own, but he was also now almost prepared, waiting for the chance that he wanted.

His stone-like armor body could only handle so much of his attacks. He had lost a few drops of blood, too.

His fresh green blood was making the already dirty water even dark. But with each passing second, both of them were gaining more insight into the opponent.

Knowledge and information on the opponent were a great help in a first fight like theirs.

But... a great deal of time had already passed since the intruder entered this part of the cave.

His friend must be fighting with the lich by now, and that was a good thing. She had given him a good fight, but he would win in the end.

He wanted to talk with her right now, but he had no time for that.

Any distraction meant defeat when the lizardman was that much serious about this fight.

He couldn't divert his attention much, but he at least knew that his dear partner and the little povpoi were having fun watching this fight from the side.

Even Mave had stars in her eyes like her children~.

And it was so cute he just wanted to take a picture of them and distribute it throughout the empire.

Maybe the illness and health ratio will improve thanks to it.

He actually considered that fact, but... he blocked it for a moment.

He was in the middle of a fight, and the opponent was finally getting serious.

[< Human mystic Axion. You truly are a great warrior. >]

Those were the words of acknowledgment.

And just after those words... the atmosphere in the whole cave started to change!

Water started reacting, and the winds were gathering around his body.

From the common perspective, he could tell that the warrior was an [Rank-4] Aura user. But to witness the manifestation of a duel-natured Aura...

[ < "Wow..." >]

He can't express his shock and amusement at the sight that was manifesting before him.

Not only was it something dangerous... it was also... beautiful~.