'Why did I know that he would pick them?' The Old Librarian asked himself when he saw where Dilan was going.
A gray giant, shrouded by bolts of lightning, was smashing his fists down on a frail-looking human. The human's body had dark skin that was covered with golden stigmatas that began to glow brightly whenever he slashed at his opponent with the Sword that destroyed everything around him.
"A Sword Arts technique that uses the Power of Destruction and an Unarmed Martial Arts technique that uses the Lightning affinity. That's almost too perfect!" Dilan exclaimed and he accelerated his pace to get closer to the two fighting Soul Shards.
He stopped only a hundred meters away from them to give them the necessary space to fight with all their might.
'Brute force against elegance and the supremacy of a technique's power, very interesting!' Dilan thought as he watched how the Giant used the advantage of his height and weight against the smaller human. He smashed his fist down in rapid succession, without caring the slightest whether he was hit by a counterfeit or not.
The Giant's speed increased the more bolts of lightning shrouded his body and Dilan was only able to see the afterimages of the Giant's fist when they impacted on the elegantly wielded Sword blade of the human.
The human Soul Shard moved much slower, but his eyes darted all around him, clearly taking note of the slightest change in the Giant's movements. Every little bit of information was absorbed and digested at the same time. This allowed the human Soul Shard to wield his sword at a snail's pace to block every single attack.
He didn't counterattack even when the opportunity was unveiled. Dilan was stupefied when he noticed that, just to realize that the human Soul Shard's plan was much bigger than that.
The human had issued tiny, near-invisible slashes whenever the Giant Soul Shard had attacked him. Thus, after more than 70 slashes had been issued, the human finally began counterattacking for real. He stepped back, shrouded his weapon in a semi-translucent grayish layer, and twisted the blade before he burst forward.
When he twisted the blade, the attack power of the 70 slashes he had issued before was unleashed at the same time. However, that was not everything because the human Soul Shard issued a finishing strike with a combination of two slashes.
He unleashed tremendous power from the depths of his body, his sword began to vibrate violently and the Giant began to tremble as his response was forcefully delayed due to the unleashed power of the earlier slashes.
Moving as quickly as possible, the Giant covered his vital organs with his large arms and the bolts of lightning that burst forth. The bolts of lightning created a shield in front of the Giant in an attempt to protect him.
However, the shield of lightning was cut into three pieces as the Power of Destruction cut everything apart.
For a moment, Dilan's eyes widened as the Giant's body was cut into pieces as well. Numerous thoughts ran through his mind and he was about to end up frustrated about the unavailability of an Instructor when he saw that the Giant's body was pulled together once again.
"So you can just get cut apart on the training ground and be stitched together. That's reassuring…I guess," Dilan mumbled while the last two slashes issued by the human Soul Shard dispersed.
He held back from using his full power at the end, knowing deep down that doing so would have destroyed everything in his surrounding, including the living human, who had appeared out of nowhere.
"You darn bastard, it's my loss again…" The Giant cursed out loud, taking a glance at his body to make sure that everything was where it was supposed to be.
"I want another match for today! I couldn't even use my technique properly because you were more agitated than usual. You tricked me again!" The Giant continued to complain but the human shook his head.
"I just noticed that someone decided to watch our battle, and I was getting too excited…I guess?" The human answered, not actually sure why he changed his combat style all of a sudden. It was not as if the change in his combat style would have changed the outcome of the battle.
In the end, he shrugged his shoulders, ignored the result of the battle, and looked over at the newcomer.
"So you are…the Undying, I presume?" The human asked, and Dilan nodded his head.
"I don't like calling myself the Undying. I'm just Dilan. Nice getting to know the two of you," Dilan said, extending his hand, "I could only catch glimpses of your battle, but I liked your Martial Arts technique, both of yours!"
Dilan spoke in all honesty but the human seemed unaffected by the praise.
"It's only obvious for you to be surprised at the sight of my Lightning God's Fist technique. I created and refined it over the course of thousands of years. What you saw is not even the tip of the iceberg! You would probably die in awe at the sight of my Lightning God's Fist technique's true potential…hahaha." The Giant praised himself and he began to laugh in joy and pride.
Dilan smiled wryly at the reaction of the Giant and he nodded his head.
He hoped that the Giant's technique would be thousands of times better than the small demo he had just seen, after all, it would become an even better technique for him to use with his Lightning affinity and the fact that he could die over and over again without ever actually losing his life!
"Old Man, what are you doing here?" The human Soul Shard asked all of a sudden, his gaze never leaving the Old Librarian's sight.
'Just how old is he if other Soul Shards call him Old Man as well?' Dilan wondered and he grew even more interested in the situation around him.