"Hmph. This battle will teach you how to behave."
Barnes let out a cold snort, holding his long blade horizontally. The magma patterns along the blade suddenly blazed brighter, and the heat radiating from the entire weapon began to soar.
He gripped the blade with both hands, its tip angled toward the ground, knees slightly bent as he assumed an opening stance poised to unleash his power.
The instant that stance took shape, the air within a radius of ten thousand zhang around him began to heat up rapidly.
Even the Arena floor, hard as iron, rippled with waves of dark-red heat.
"Nine Lava Slashes—First Slash."
"Earth Split!"
The moment the words fell, Barnes smashed his blade into the ground.
Yes, smashed.
He brought that magma longsword down on the Arena floor like a heavy hammer. The instant its edge struck the ground—
An incomparably violent force of impact spread through the ground in every direction.
The ground itself did not budge, but that impact was aimed at space itself.
Centered on where the blade had landed, the space within ten thousand zhang shook violently, like the surface of water struck by a massive boulder.
Countless magma-colored cracks churned amid those tremors, each one spewing scorching blade qi.
Yun Feiyang's body swayed slightly within the quaking space.
The blade qi shooting from those cracks coiled toward him like countless dark-red venomous snakes.
"Interesting."
He drew a deep breath and held his wooden sword upright before his chest. Green light flared brilliantly from its blade. Then he spun, sweeping the wooden sword in a perfect circle around himself.
That circle formed an airtight curtain of green sword light.
Every streak of magma blade qi that crashed into it was shredded and flung aside by the sword curtain, exploding midair into clusters