Blood splattered, the ground shook with a thunderous crash, and dust billowed into the air.
In the blink of an eye, a vast forest was carved into countless small sections by razor-sharp slashes.
"Jahahahaha!"
Golden Lion hovered in the air, looking down.
Through the swirling dust, countless animal corpses could be seen, cut apart by the slashes. Ravines crisscrossed the ground, opening into bottomless chasms.
But River was nowhere to be seen for the moment. Broken trees and airborne dust obscured the area.
"What do you think, River?"
"Of this power you called outdated and weak?"
Golden Lion shouted, his eyes scanning the dust-shrouded forest.
"Old is old!"
"Refusing to admit your age isn't a good thing!"
"Shiki!"
A clear voice rang out from the forest, reaching Golden Lion's ears and making his gaze snap toward a particular spot.
Whoooosh!
Wind swept through, dispersing the dust on the ground and revealing the figure standing there.
His clothes had long since been shredded, leaving his upper body bare and his eight-pack clearly visible. Only a few scraps of cloth covered his powerful torso, while his trousers remained somewhat more intact.
The man held a sword in his right hand, smiling as he looked up at Golden Lion in the sky.
"River!"
Golden Lion's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze turning serious.
Despite enduring such a dense barrage of slashes, which had shredded his clothes and reduced an entire forest to rubble, his opponent remained completely unscathed.
"An attack like that can't do a thing to me!"
River looked up and called out.
"Is that so?"
Golden Lion Shiki said coldly.
He abruptly curled his right hand upward toward the sky.
Boom!
The ground for dozens of miles around shook violently. The earth rolled upward, and enormous, ferocious lion mountains appeared once more,