Skirk flicked her wrist and traced a flourish with her sword. Her star-bright violet high boots stepped lightly backward, splashing a few droplets across the sea's surface, and her entire figure vanished from where she stood.
In Nolan's eyes, Skirk was charging straight toward him, seemingly intending to probe him with a simple opening move.
In the blink of an eye, she appeared right in front of him.
An eerie power clung to her dark-blue blade. The outward manifestation of that power was much like her high-heeled boots—resembling a violet, star-filled sky.
Under the influence of that power, the space around Skirk's longsword warped irregularly.
Without a way to deal with it, an ordinary person would be torn apart by the twisted space before the blade even touched their body.
Naturally, this posed no problem for Nolan.
The hardness of the Frostlight Descending Blade was tied directly to his own strength. No matter how space twisted, it could not affect the blade in the slightest.
"Clang!"
Facing the slash head-on, Nolan sent the Frostlight Descending Blade forward. Blade met blade with a deafening crash.
At that instant, Skirk sank her center of gravity, spun on her heel, and lashed out with a kick straight at his face!
Feeling the violent rush of wind pressing in from the side, Nolan leaned back swiftly to evade.
The sharp heel grazed past the tip of his nose. The sword intent and sword aura contained within it erupted in an instant. Nolan's pupils shrank as he plunged into space at extreme speed.
Through spatial traversal, he reappeared high in the air.
Looking down, he saw that Skirk had already retracted her leg. In the sea before her—precisely where Nolan had been moments earlier—there was now a bottomless sword gash cleaving the waters.
Using the heel as a blade—no wonder it was made so sharp.
If he had been even a moment slower, one of the outfits in his wardrobe would have been ruined.
At the same time, Nolan slashed a wave of sword aura toward Skirk, deliberately controlling its power so that it felt as though he was roughly on par with her.
As the sword aura fell, Nolan followed close behind it, diving downward in pursuit.
Skirk blocked the sword aura head-on, then shifted her longsword and flung it aside with the flat of the blade. She met Nolan's descending charge head-on.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
In the span of a moment, the two exchanged dozens—if not hundreds—of blows. sword aura crisscrossed wildly, turning the once-calm sea into utter chaos.
As the battle grew more intense, the shockwaves from their clash were likely to stir up massive winds and waves across the ocean. If it triggered something like a tsunami and affected some country, that would be troublesome.
Nolan activated the "Void Star Sea," simulating a real environment and completing the transition silently and imperceptibly.
Skirk seemed to notice nothing amiss. She continued launching fierce attacks with all manner of techniques, while Nolan responded and countered, simulating an equal level of strength.
Soon, half an hour passed.
With their physical endurance, the two of them could continue fighting indefinitely. But dragging it out endlessly was not what Nolan wanted.
He began to gradually increase the power of his attacks.
The following half hour turned entirely into Nolan pressing Skirk back—though he still did not go all out and defeat her outright.
He maintained a level just a bit stronger than hers, carrying himself with an easy, casual air.
He wanted Skirk to understand that he was far stronger than she was—that no matter what techniques she used, he could deal with them effortlessly—and to make her lose with complete conviction.
Another half hour passed.
Nolan felt somewhat frustrated. Skirk seemed to be getting more fired up the longer they fought. Even though she clearly knew she was no match for him, she showed no intention of conceding.
If this dragged on any longer, it would delay his plan to go find Arlecchino.
Watching Skirk charge at him again with her sword in hand, Nolan, looking slightly bored, activated Lisa's affection skill and froze her in time for a single second.
He then stepped forward two paces, directly took the longsword from her hand, and released the time stop.
Before she could even react, Skirk, still in her charging posture, crashed straight into Nolan's arms.
The sudden impact, combined with her vision plunging into darkness, left Skirk momentarily dazed. She thought Nolan had used some unexpected technique.
Instinctively, she tried to retreat and create distance, only to feel as though her waist was being firmly restrained by something.
Acting on instinct, she grabbed at whatever was holding her in place—only to realize that she was being held by Nolan. Her sword had somehow ended up in his hand at some point.
And from behind her, it was now braced upward against her neck.
"You…" Skirk unconsciously tightened her grip on Nolan's arm. Looking at him with a complicated expression, she said, "I've lost."
From the very beginning of the fight, she had known that she probably couldn't defeat Nolan.
He was able to respond to every one of her techniques, and he did so with remarkable ease. Once the battle entered its most intense phase, she realized that this guy had simply been toying with her.
He gave off no terrifying aura at all and looked no different from an ordinary person.
After learning that Nolan had defeated the All-Devouring Narwhal, Skirk had already estimated his strength as highly as possible—but no matter how high she set the bar, she had thought he would be on par with a top-tier Archon at most.
After all, without power originating from beyond the world, it was difficult to surpass that level.
Yet once they truly fought, she discovered that this guy was outrageously strong. Even her own master would need a fair amount of time to defeat her.
But this man showed no desire to fight at all. From head to toe, he radiated an air of complete indifference.
She had intended to make him take at least one of her attacks no matter what. Instead, she never expected him to be so absurdly strong—snatching away her sword in an instant and restraining her with close-combat techniques.
And she hadn't even had time to react.
"Whew. Since I won, then according to what you promised earlier, you won't interfere with that whale anymore—and you'll also have to agree to do one thing for me, as long as it's within your ability."
Nolan released Skirk and handed her sword back to her.
"Mm. Go ahead, what is it?" Skirk took back her sword and nodded. It wasn't anything major, after all—she had no intention of going back on her word.
"Good."
While fighting Skirk earlier, Nolan had already thought through how to make her stay by his side for a while longer, giving himself a chance to build her affection.
He spoke up:
"Miss Skirk, I'm very interested in that kind of power you wield. If possible, I hope you could teach it to me."
He didn't actually know whether the space-distorting power Skirk controlled could be taught or not. It didn't really matter either way.
After all, it was just an excuse to get her to stay. The real goal was to farm affection.
And since Nolan had experienced that power firsthand during the fight, it was only natural that he would be curious and ask her to teach it.
Hearing this, Skirk looked at him in surprise.
"You're already this strong, and you're still interested in the power of someone you defeated?"
"That's precisely how I've grown to this point, isn't it?" Nolan said with a smile.
(End of Chapter)
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