Chapter 184: Fighting a High Noble

He had yet to lose a battle, but it was evident that the fifth fight would become increasingly more difficult.

At last. Michael's fifth fight began, and it changed everything.

He was called into the combat ring alongside Lincoln Piedra. The young descendant of the Piedra household turned out to be his next opponent.

'He is already at Tier-2, can manipulate gravity to a certain extent, turn his skin into hard stone, and manifest a stone fist to use as a cannonball-like projectile.' Michael ticked off Lincoln's abilities.

After watching multiple battles of Lincoln, Michael gathered all those pieces of information. He wasn't certain that this was the full extent of Lincoln's power, but he presumed that Lincoln had a few more tricks up his sleeve.

"Let's give our best!" Lincoln said cheerfully but without a tad of worry in his heart. He didn't even manifest a single Artifact.

Giving his best- That was exactly what Michael was ready to do.

Michael manifested the Onyx Dragon Armor Set and the Siltang Bow. He channeled origin energy through his entire body, while also preparing himself for the start of the battle and to use his Soultraits instantaneously.

The moment the battle started with the signal of the referee Michael used Lesser Enhancement several times. First, he strengthened each of his Artifacts one after another. Afterward, he strengthened his eyes alongside the Eagle Eyes Soultrait. Michael then exerted Eagle Eyes.

Michael's strength increased drastically, but even more so his sense of sight, and perception. He could immediately perceive the changes in Lincoln's stance.

Lincoln squatted down while creating a huge human-sized stone fist in front of him. The manifestation was not instantaneous, but Michael couldn't react immediately because the inertia around him doubled.

The Siltang Bow and the Onyx Dragon Armor Set weren't affected by the increased gravitational force, only Michael. That was slightly surprising.

'It affects only me? That's better than expected.' Michael thought as he began to move.

Being faced with double the inertia on Kelta was cumbersome, but Michael's physique was refined to a high degree, and his physical strength received high enhancements from his Artifacts. That way, he could still move through increased inertia - even if it was a little bit annoying.

His eyes narrowed and the muscles in his legs cramped a little as the stone fist had been fully manifested. Michael's eyes glowed brightly and he burst to the right side suddenly.

A quarter of a second after Michael burst to the right side, the stone fist shot toward Michael like a cannonball. It was terrifyingly fast and would have smashed him into smithereens if he hadn't jumped aside. Michael had seen what the stone fist could do, and he really didn't want to experience the pain of having his body deformed.

Michael didn't do any somersaults or big moves. He moved just enough to evade the stone fist by a hair's breadth to save time and energy to initiate a counterattack. The highest-level energy arrow had condensed on the Siltang Bow's string, which Michael pulled back as the stone fist brushed past him.

A strong gust blasted on his face, forcing Michael to adjust the Siltang Bow's angle by a notch. Afterward, he released the first arrow.

Several energy arrows followed in quick succession. The arrows weren't as powerful as the stone fist, but they were strong enough to pierce the skin of Tier-2 Monsters with weaker defense after Lesser Enhancement had been used on both Siltang Bow and the energy arrows.

However, Lincoln didn't even move an inch. The corners of his lip tilted up, and his skin turned gray. Lincoln turned his skin into stone, repelling the arrows easily.

The arrows weren't even strong enough to scratch Lincoln's stone skin!

'Is that for real?!' Michael cursed in his heart. He grits his teeth and retrieved the Siltang Bow. Seron Voulge appeared in his hands, and he pushed forward.

'What is the downside of his Soultrait? What is its limit? How can I counter him?!?' Michael asked numerous questions in his mind, but he couldn't answer a single one with confidence.

Approaching Lincoln seemed like a dangerous move as well. However, it was better than staying back and hitting him with arrows that didn't even scratch Lincoln's skin. The stone fist was the most dangerous, and it seemed like a feasible plan to shorten the distance to Lincoln to ensure that Lincoln didn't have enough time to manifest one of those huge cannonball-like stone fist projectiles again.

'If I pressure him, Lincoln won't be able to use his Soultrait precisely,' Michael mused to himself. A 6-Star Soultrait may be extremely powerful, but it was just as difficult to control precisely.

If Lincoln's Soultrait was even a little bit like Frederik's Soultrait, it would require full focus to be maintained. That meant disturbing his Soultrait control was the way to defeat him. It was the only option Michael could chase in the pursuit of victory.

Michael's plans changed from attacking Lincoln to an attempt to restrict Lincoln's Soultrait usage. That was difficult, but it was worth a try.

Lincoln manifested a smaller stone fist when he saw that Michael burst forth to enter close combat. He released the stone fist, which Michael evaded with a nimble move to the side.

Michael saw the attack early enough due to his enhanced eyesight and great perception. He determined the trajectory of the stone fist projectile, and the exact moment Lincoln would release the stone fist.

His prediction was close to perfection as Michael moved to the side the moment the stone fist propelled forward.

A trace of surprise entered Lincoln's eyes. His stance changed ever so slightly, but that was already enough to affect the inertia weighing down on Michael.

He immediately noticed that inertia had decreased to 1.5x the earlier amount. This gave Michael the opportunity to accelerate.

He twisted his body in front of Lincoln and moved Seron Voulge around, knowing that the lengthy blade wouldn't be enough to pierce through Lincoln's stone skin, not yet at least.

Instead of using the blade, Michael chose to exhibit the power of Seron Voulge's pole. The pole smashed hard against Lincoln's neck.

Lincoln didn't move an inch, at first. However, when he noticed how heavy the impact was, his expression changed.

It seemed that he had grossly underestimated the force Michael could unleash with his Soultraits. In the first place, Michael's Soultraits were a great combo.

Michael responded even before Lincoln counterattacked. He retrieved Seron Voulge in his War Rune and kicked his feet off the ground to retreat.

'A dent in his neck? That's better than nothing, I guess!' Michael thought.

Yet, just as he was about to put some distance from Lincoln, the young descendant of the Piedra household made his move.

Michael smashed against a wall that had appeared behind him all of a sudden. He had been looking at Lincoln, who lunged forward and didn't even realize what appeared behind him.

That was a grave mistake.

Lincoln's arm shot toward Michael's neck as he struggled for a second to straighten his back. Michael wanted to evade the attack by all means, but he was much slower.

Michael's only advantage was that he could perceive and react to the attack much earlier than others.

Michael ducked down and shot to the side.

He saw Lincoln from the corner of his eye as he moved and was certain that he had successfully evaded Lincoln's attack.

However, the next moment proved him wrong.

Michael's momentum was disrupted as he was pulled back with great force.

The next moment an ominous sound reached Michael's ears.

It was the sound of Cracking bones and his own scream of agony.