Nobilis of War novel Chapter 69

Darren stared at the creatures in the lake that resembled a sword and sunk into deep thought. He tried to think about the best course of action to take next.

"These Sword Type Creatures seem to be more powerful than the ones I saw a while ago. I must kill one of them to assimilate the sword intent it carries. Things should be easier after that." Darren murmured to himself as he evaluated the situation.

Darren scanned his surroundings carefully. He made sure that he didn't do anything impulsive. He knew that initiating an attack would make him a solid threat and target for the creatures.

"I'm so stupid!" Darren exclaimed as he candidly palmed his head in frustration. "I almost forgot! These sword-shaped creatures are dumb. Deceiving them would be easy. They have no way of knowing that I also have blade skills. I can use my sword skills to lure them in and then finish them off with my blade!" Darren murmured with excitement.

After setting up his plan, Darren swung his sword to launch a faint aura of sword intent and directed it towards the creatures. Although it was a weak aura, it was enough to drive the creatures in a frenzy. Their rabid eyes turned towards Darren, ready to attack.

"Amazing!" Darren shouted with glee. "The icy sword intent is fantastic. It's so powerful!" Darren slowly and steadily retreated to keep himself at a safe distance when the creatures attacked. Then, one of them dashed towards him. With a wide smile, he exclaimed in jest, "And we found our winner! Our first lucky contestant who will get to taste my sword!"

Darren swung his sword swiftly to launch the nine steps of the Profound Nine Sword Skills at the same time. That was the most powerful strike the skill could achieve.

Just as Darren expected, it seemed to not affect the sword-shaped creature. It continued to rush towards him at full speed, unharmed and undaunted. Darren then kept his sword and took out his blade, wielding it with both hands. He swung to attack with the Grand Thirteen Blade Skills.

A loud noise filled the air. It sounded as if something broke.

The creature shaped like an ice sword was cut into pieces with Darren's blade. With a sharp sound, it blew up into tiny pieces of sword intent.

"Absorb!" Darren concentrated as he shouted. He immediately assimilated the sword intent that the creature turned into. He wasted no time in doing this.

After consuming it, he stepped forward. He then swung his sword fiercely to initiate a mighty force of sword intent. It was a direct hit towards the two creatures on the front lines. Both of them broke into pieces as soon as they were hit, similar to their fallen companion. The power of Darren's sword intent seemed to have grown exponentially.

Mathew's shadow stayed in the bank, watching the fight attentively the whole time. Seeing how Darren's force multiplied stunned him. The boy's comprehension of sword intent was indeed better than what he ever could have imagined. What astonished him the most, however, was seeing Darren use a blade.

"Hey, girl, how did he do it? The boy is a swordsman, but he used his blade just as excellently as he did his sword. How is that possible?" Mathew turned to ask Elsa.

"Sir, he was deceived by his enemies. As a result, he was made to absorb the seeds of both blade intent and sword intent. He was just at the ninth stage of the Primary Realm back then. Everybody thought he was doomed to be useless, unable to practice any martial arts. To be honest, I believed them. But to our surprise, he recovered in just six months. What's even more impressive is that his martial arts skills even improved. He could even fight a warrior at the Mysterious Realm!" Elsa explained to Mathew patiently.

"What?" Mathew's shadow exclaimed in shock. His eyes displayed a hint of bitterness. "Practicing the sword skill and the blade skill at the same time is one of the most difficult things one could ever do. Even that guy didn't get to do it. I'm afraid that Darren..."

"Sir," Elsa interrupted. "Who is 'that guy' that you just mentioned?" she asked curiously.

"Hanson, my younger brother. A martial art genius!" Mathew's shadow replied confidently as he shook his head. Despite his pride, he seemed to have bad memories coupled with the information.

...

The battle between Darren and the sword-shaped creatures in the lake went on fiercely.

The more Darren fought, the more dangerous he became. His energy increased as well. Killing them became easy for him. Every swing ended a creature's life.

Soon, all thirty-five of them were eliminated. They all perished under Darren's sword.

The formerly chaotic lake now became eerily quiet... but not for long. Purple lightning flashed and deafening thunder roared at its darkest areas. Under the purple light, Darren saw the dark shadow of a creature that immersed in the water.

Darren thought it was another sword-shaped creature—possibly the last in the vicinity. When he took a closer look, however, he saw stark differences. He then realized that it was the reason for the lightning and thunder. Also, it wasn't just a sword-shaped creature. It was a real sword.

"Darren's ability to grasp the sword intent is exceptional. He is the best that I have seen in thousands of years. His sword intent is at the middle level now. The level he has achieved surpassed so many masters even before his time. With just a little more practice, he would be able to improve himself dramatically, and his preliminary sword intent would then be at high level." Mathew's shadow murmured more to himself than to anyone.

The test was designed to push and challenge a warrior's understanding of sword intent through making him fight those creatures. The designer did not expect anyone to ever really go past the first test perfectly. No one could have assimilated the sword intents.

Now, the lake was completely shrouded by purple lightning. This was something that the sword emitted to attack Darren.

The sword intents from both sides were at the same level. But the purple lighting gave the creature an advantage over Darren as it reinforced the sword's power.

"All right, sword monster. Let's finish the final round. The other fights bored me, anyway," Darren thought out loud.

The battle lasted so long. It made Darren feel impatient.

He swung his sword and mighty force of sword intent burst from it. Then, he aimed it at his target: the sword that flashed purple lightning.

Suddenly, the purple lightning sword shook and soared into the air. After flashing a final bolt of purple lightning as thick as a man's arm, it fell sharply from the sky as if the God of Lightning in a purple robe himself descended from heaven.