Asura Aurora Slash vs. Half Moon Funeral! (Please keep reading! Please keep reading!)

In the back hills, one playing card after another turned into [Magic Card: Blank] in Abel's hands.

As soon as his mental energy was nearly depleted, he stopped and happily lit an N95 cigarette, slowly recovering.

After an unknown amount of time, with the learning bonus from the [Full Stomach] state, he finally raised the [Magic Card Modification] skill to LV2.

Then he made several more LV2 [Magic Card: Blank] cards, confirming some of his suspicions.

After practicing for so long, he had finally figured out some of the rules behind the [Magic Card Modification] skill.

First, there was no limit to how many [Magic Card: Blank] cards he could make with [Magic Card Modification].

As long as he had enough mental energy and enough playing cards to use up, he could keep making them without any restrictions.

But using [Magic Card: Blank] cards to imprint skills did have a limit.

At LV1, each skill could only be imprinted once.

Take the [Asura Aurora Slash] skill, for example. At LV1, only one [Magic Card: Asura Aurora Slash] could exist at a time.

If he imprinted the skill onto another [Magic Card: Blank], the original [Magic Card: Asura Aurora Slash] would shatter and disappear.

After he reached LV2, however, he could imprint the skill twice!

In other words, two [Magic Card: Asura Aurora Slash] cards could exist at the same time!

Besides that, Abel also discovered that even cards imprinted with the same skill could have different levels of power.

For example, he could manually adjust the power of [Asura Aurora Slash] by changing how long he charged it.

The longer he charged, the more powerful the resulting magic card would be. Its power wasn't fixed.

That gave Abel some room to work with.

Normally, he could imprint two [Magic Card: Asura Aurora Slash] cards at maximum power, carry them with him, and whip them out for instant attacks in battle, catching his enemies off guard.

And this was only at LV2. If he kept leveling up, he'd surely be able to imprint the skill onto more and more magic cards.

Looking at it this way, [Magic Card Modification] might only be a support skill, but it was extremely practical.

He'd definitely underestimated it at first.

The next day, after breakfast, it was time for Diamante's little swordsmanship class again.

Something seemed off, though. This time, Diamante didn't teach as usual. Instead, he first gave Abel a scrutinizing look, tinged with other emotions.

"Before we start training, I'd like to see our swordsmanship genius use his Flying Slash."

Although Diamante had stopped giving Abel a hard time, his tone was still occasionally sarcastic.

Fortunately, Abel was used to it by now and automatically filtered out the mockery.

"Here?"

"What, is there a problem?"

Abel nodded solemnly. "I'm worried I might hurt you. You're a top executive, after all. If you bring up the 'Blood Family Rules' afterward, I'll be in trouble."

"Hahahaha! You? You're worried you might hurt me?"

"I haven't tried it yet. How would I know?"

Abel's casual tone seemed to irritate Diamante. He immediately issued a bold challenge. "As an executive, I'm ordering you to attack me. I'll take full responsibility for whatever happens."

"Fine. You all heard that, right? He's the one who told me to slash at him. Remember to testify for me later."

Luo nodded at once. "We all heard. An executive wouldn't go back on his word, right?"

Diamante's face had already darkened a little, so Abel decided he'd pushed it far enough. "I'll use my full strength for this next strike. If you're not confident you can block it, remember to dodge."

"Don't underestimate an executive. Bring it on, kid!"

Diamante shouted and drew his longsword, too.

He had plenty of confidence in his own strength, but he wasn't about to make the same mistake as last time.

So he prepared early, putting aside his contempt.

Abel had already gripped his short sword, but he didn't attack right away. Instead, he began to charge up.

Since Diamante wanted to see the power of [Asura Aurora Slash], Abel would show it the respect it deserved!

Time to charge it to the max!

After only three seconds, Abel felt that all his stamina had been used up and poured into his sword, but it still wasn't enough!

So he converted all the [Full Stomach] energy he'd meant to use for training into energy for his body, then continued charging.

Four seconds, five seconds, six seconds!

By now, Abel had charged for a full six seconds. There was still some energy in his body, converted by his Gourmet Cells, but his mental energy had already run dry.

Without hesitating any longer, he endured the pain in his head and suddenly drew his sword, swinging it out!

"Asura Aurora Slash!"

In an instant, a massive sword wave shimmering with a seven-colored aurora swept forward.

Luo, standing nearby, was stunned, and Diamante—who had been preparing to block—was just as dumbfounded.

"How could this be?"

Back when the Marines had been chasing them, he'd been sure that the Flying Slashes he saw were only about two meters long.

He'd asked the others afterward, and they'd all given him the same answer.

But what about the one before him?

This Flying Slash was a full twelve meters long, and two sword waves crossed over each other, one vertical and one horizontal.

In an instant, it carved a deep, long fissure into the ground.

Diamante was practically numb with shock.

His first instinct was to dodge, but his pride wouldn't let him.

Once he calmed down, he suddenly realized that although the Flying Slash before him looked imposing, its power wasn't concentrated enough. It might scare amateurs, but it wasn't dangerous to a true swordsman.

So instead of blocking, he instantly changed his move and slashed out hard.

"Half Moon Funeral!"

A powerful wave of sword energy collided with it, producing a tremendous crash.

As an orange-quality skill, Asura Aurora Slash was undeniably powerful.

But Abel, the one using it, was nowhere near as strong as Diamante.

So even after charging the strike for six seconds, Abel's attack was still pierced through by Diamante's Half Moon Funeral.

The surging wave of sword energy continued onward, cleaving most of the garbage dump behind Abel in two and terrifying a great many people, who thought they were under attack.

Abel wasn't disappointed by the result.

How many days had he been training?

And what kind of strength did Diamante have?

If an orange-quality skill alone could let a rookie like him instantly defeat renowned, powerful fighters, that would make those fighters seem far too cheap!

Besides, he'd already achieved his original goal.

Tsk.

The shattered aurora sword wave still retained some of its piercing force. It grazed Diamante's left cheek, leaving a clearly visible streak of blood.

Diamante raised a hand and lightly wiped his cheek, his feelings unusually complicated.

But soon, he had calmed down.

As if nothing had happened, he began the day's swordsmanship lesson.

No one knew what was going through his mind.