The barren and cracked soil beneath me exploded into a cloud of dust as I leapt to the side, dodging King Borea’s latest blow.

I didn’t know what the aftermath of our fight would become, but I was sure that there would be at least some property destruction, so I’d used the first opportunity I had to push him out of the city before things turned wild.

Luckily for me, that didn’t turn out to be very difficult seeing as he had just returned and we’d managed to intercept him on the main street not too far from the city’s main entrance. The gates were still open when we began our fight and stood only a few dozen feet behind us.

Now that we were out in the open, I saw no reason for me to hold back any longer and switched to the offensive.

Although King Borea was fast, his movements still paled when compared to Archbishop Taunes’ enhanced form. He swung his weapon in a scything horizontal arc as I approached him, hoping to catch me mid-movement.

It was then that I realized this was the perfect time for me to fulfill one of my greatest dreams.

As the sword nearly reached my position, I quickly jumped upwards, twisting in the air to generate enough momentum so that I’d follow the blade while it passed harmlessly beneath me.

When King Borea’s swing terminated, I allowed my center of gravity to drop, allowing me to plant my feet firmly on the flat of his blade.

A feeling of exultation rushed through my body as King Borea turned his head to stare at me, his mouth agape. Outside, I presented a cool and passive expression to him as if I’d done this billions of times. Inside, I was squealing like a child who’d just been handed their favorite toy for their birthday.

At last, I’d accomplished one of the greatest tropes of fiction: dodging someone’s attack and then standing on their weapon.

God damn, I’m so fucking badass!

King Borea must’ve either sensed my inner excitement or simply felt even more enthusiastic about this fight, because he flashed me a battle-crazed smile. I was willing to bet that it was the latter.

With a flick of his wrist, King Borea turned his blade edge-up, causing me to lose my footing and allowing him to issue a vicious upward cut.

Almost immediately, I used [Aeromancy] and propelled myself away from his attack, but it wasn’t fast enough. I grunted as I raised both of my arms to block the powerful forward thrust that he transitioned into.

Although the attack didn’t do much damage, it managed to push me a good distance backward. At this point, I assumed that King Borea would leap at me with an overhead swing or something like that, but he raised his palm toward me instead.

A second later, a massive black beam shot out of his hand hurtled toward me at an incredible speed. It was an attack that would’ve caught anyone else off-guard and probably result in their immediate defeat.

But not me.

I simply walked straight at the beam, allowing it to wash over me and invigorate me. I felt my fatigue rapidly draining away as I absorbed the beam of Darkness magic into my body.

“W-What the hell!? How!?”

I smirked. Even if King Borea had a skill that allowed him to analyze my strength, I doubted that he would’ve foreseen something as ridiculous as this happening.

I closed the gap between us in an instant, taking advantage of his momentary confusion to fire off a series of rapid punches into his center mass.

King Borea grunted with each hit, retreating rapidly under my hail of blows as he struggled to block and parry the rain of attacks that came from every angle.

“GRAAAH!” King Borea roared, his voice loud enough to sunder the air itself even as he activated his [Rage Aura] skill.

It was a wide-range ability that caused little damage, but pushed back enemies within a certain radius of himself. Weaker enemies might be stunned by the effect since it magnified his killing intent, but it was little more than an inconvenience for me.

Even so, it bought him enough time to recover from being overwhelmed. A very familiar black-red mist now enveloped his body, making his already menacing appearance look even more frightening.

With [Demonic Enhancement], King Borea’s physical abilities were greatly enhanced. I had managed to overwhelm him due to my superior stats, but now that he’d bridged that gap, I wasn’t entirely sure that trying to match him in a frontal assault would be the best idea.

I wasn’t gonna back down like a bitch though.

The moment King Borea advanced to my position, I knew that he was just playing around before this. His sword whirled around him with such speed that it almost looked like a steel sphere had formed around his body momentarily.

CRACK!

Instead of backing away, I dashed forward to meet his attack, activating [Demonic Enhancement] in order to raise my defense even more.

Despite that, I winced as his blade bit into my flesh for the first time since the beginning of our battle, but even that was better than the alternative.

The technique that he was using was a sub-skill of his [Zaltsel Swordsmanship] skill, and thanks to [Complete Analysis], I knew that it’d just get stronger if I allowed him to continue swinging his sword like that.

I backed away, my arm hanging loosely by my side as I did so. The bone had been snapped clean in two, but King Borea wasn’t giving me any time to recover.

With a forward stomp, he issued a merciless thrust that saw the point of his blade nearly pierce my chest. If I hadn’t managed to turn at the last moment, that surely would have been a grievous injury.

I swore under my breath as I quickly used [Devouring Healing] to close my wounds and repair my arm before receiving the king’s next attack: an overhead slash.

This was the moment I was waiting for.

I thought he’d try ending the fight with a heavy attack like that when he pushed me away with his first thrust earlier, but he’d fired magic instead.

Thanks to the impressive failure that his previous attempt displayed though, he was now opting for a much more tried and true method, but that already fell within my expectations.

King Borea’s overhead slash had forced him to grip his sword with both hands, raising them high above his head as he prepared to ram the edge of his sword in the next second.

Unfortunately for him, there would be no “next second.” Thanks to the nature of this attack, it left him completely vulnerable to a counterattack.

Honestly, it wasn’t something that I’d be expecting from an experienced warrior like King Borea, but perhaps his overconfidence stemmed from our latest exchange.

My fist shot into the center of King Borea’s chest. It was a rapid strike that didn’t cause much damage, but it’d soften him up for my next attack that immediately followed.

The moment my second strike connected, there was an explosion of air around my fist, blasting the king backwards as an enormous geyser of blood gushed out from the place where I’d struck.

It was a Non-System Skill that I’d managed to create myself: [Vacuum Strike]. By using [Fa Jin] a moment before my attack actually connected, it’d cause the force of my attack to be transferred into the air instead, creating a vacuum.

Once my fist struck the target, the resulting force would cause the surrounding air to be immediately sucked into the vacuum, creating a miniscule explosion of pressure like the one that just occurred. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure of the underlying mechanics, but I was able to figure out at least that much.

I quickly readied myself for King Borea’s next move, but to my surprise, he was struggling to stand back up.

Oh... Shit. Did I overdo it?

“You... are strong, Ryuuko.” King Borea spoke as he forced himself upright using his massive sword. A gaping hole was currently replacing the center of his chest, and a massive outpour of blood pooled beneath his feet.

Yet, he remained standing. The very act itself was enough to inspire greatness.

“I am glad to have you in my family.”

Honestly, if it wasn’t for [Vacuum Strike], I probably wouldn’t have been able to win this match based on how he was just tanking my attacks.

Before I could voice that thought, King Borea’s knees buckled and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

“F-Father!” Lucrezia and Aurelia cried in unison.

...Fuck.