Chapter 236: Rematch I

Adjusting their fighting style and creating combat strategies that depended on perfect sync between Michael, Tiara, and Masked Saber was certainly not easy. It required time and effort.

The trio was not even aware how quickly time flew by as the days elapsed in the blink of an eye.

Michael used Extraction more often than usual these days. He was growing more intrigued in finding out the several uses of the Extraction Soultrait, and researched Extraction whenever he had time.

Since Extraction was a 6-Star Soultrait right now, Michael couldn't even fathom its limit. He didn't have enough energy to unleash Extraction's full power.

In the last few days, Michael used Extraction on monster corpses and to pinpoint a few more ore deposits in the lizard cave. His harvest was exceptional. Not only was it possible to summon dozens of Summons by extracting the loot of a few Tier-2 Monsters, but finding out the ore deposits hidden underground turned out to be of great value. They found a handful of rare ores and some big deposits which would sustain the territory's consumption for several years.

Michael grew increasingly more curious about the limits of Extraction. He wondered if there were things he couldn't extract, or if it was just not possible to extract certain objects and things because he was too weak. Maybe, he just didn't meet the requirements to extract certain objects either.

There were numerous factors Michael had to take into consideration upon using Extraction, and he wanted to find out what those factors were - and how to work his way around them.

After fighting hundreds of fierce monsters in the last few days, Michael grew more accustomed to the changes his body underwent after advancing to Tier-2 and the external enhancement he'd obtained from several Tier-2 Artifacts.

He could tell that his strength had increased a lot and that he could still improve a little bit more. Michael was just not sure how much he could improve at his level - and that was something he wanted to find out.

He had grown a lot stronger since the warfare with the Jungle Expedition, but Michael was not sure just how much.

Michael had yet to go all out against someone he fought before to find out how much stronger he'd grown.

It was about time to find and challenge Lincoln!

A few days before the Lord Rift opened, Michael approached Lincoln Piedra in the morning. Every student of the Limit Breaker course was in the training hall, talking to their friends, or stretching for the training hell that awaited them.

Michael halted in front of Lincoln, his eyes exuding nothing but determination and seriousness.

"I want to fight you." He challenged Lincoln, who raised an eyebrow.

"You want to fight me? I guess you don't mean our standard spars with that." He responded calmly as if he had been expecting Michael to challenge him eventually.

"How about right now? Are you ready to go all out?" Lincoln added with a mischievous smile blossoming on his lips.

After spending several months in the Saphirelake Military Academy, Lincoln was certain that Michael was one of the least predictable students.

Lincoln didn't spend too much time with seniors, or other students, but he often visited the ranking arena to watch the ranked freshmen fight. Yet, despite watching the ranked matches, Lincoln clearly felt more excited whenever he sparred with Michael.

Their first fight during the second real combat assessment gave Lincoln a good taste of Michael's willpower and battle spirit. But that was not everything after months of hard work. Lincoln witnessed Michael's rapid growth and he was curious how strong he had become.

"I'm always ready to fight!" Michael responded.

They used the empty space in the training hall to create a small arena. Michael stood at one end while Lincoln moved to the other side.

"Show me what you got!" Lincoln demanded, adjusting his stance smoothly.

Zeke appeared at the outer ring of the small arena to act as the referee of the battle. He was not sure what both Michael and Lincoln were so excited about all of a sudden, but Zeke was also curious to find out how strong both Lincoln and Michael had grown.

Zeke raised one of his arms high into the air. He moved his hands down in a rapid motion while shouting aloud, "Start!"

The start of the battle changed everything. Michael used Enhancement thrice on Eagle Eyes, which was also actively utilized. Michael had just fully utilized Enhancement and Eagle Eyes when a human-sized stone fist whizzed through the arena.

It was faster than a cannonball and clearly fierce enough to pierce a huge hole in the endurable bodies of Tier-2 Monsters. Michael dived to the side the moment the stone fist had been conjured.

He rolled on the ground, pushed his feet off the ground to get up swiftly and manifest Zark and the Typhern Leather Armor Set. Michael used Enhancement on the Typhern Leather Armor Set once while Zark was enhanced four times in succession.

Next, Michael conjured the strongest energy arrows, pulled the bowstring back, and released the arrow. The energy arrow cut through the air with a terrific velocity the moment it had been released. Zeke frowned as he was barely able to follow the energy-condensed arrow's trajectory, but he didn't think much about it.

Meanwhile, Lincoln had already manifested a second stone fist. He released it the moment Michael's arrow came at him.

But instead of crushing the energy-condensed arrow, Lincoln's stone fist burst apart upon colliding with the energy arrow. The energy arrow was extremely resilient and it had been released with the force of a four-layer Enhancement Tier-2 bow. Underestimating the arrow's lethality and force was a grave mistake.

Fortunately, Lincoln didn't make this mistake. The first giant fist was merely a means to test the power of Michael's energy arrow and to slow down the arrow. Lincoln had already conjured a second stone fist when the first burst apart. He released it instantaneously, forcefully halting the arrow's advance.

Michael, on the other hand, frowned deeply. He could tell that his four-layer Enhancement drained too much energy compared to the manifestation of two stone fists.

'I will lose a battle of attrition like this.'

Michael's conclusion was simple. Lincoln had a 6-Star Soultrait related to the Earth, and his Inheritance technique allowed his Mind, Soul, and Body to grow more compatible with his Soultrait. Growing more compatible meant that the strain on the mind wasn't high upon unleashing his Soultrait and that Lincoln's origin energy would be altered subtly to increase the potency of Earth-attributed creations.

Michael learned a lot about Inheritance techniques thanks to Alice, and their advantages could be summarized quite simply; Inheritance techniques increased the Soul Power of certain abilities, they decreased the Soultrait's energy consumption, they allowed the practitioner to grow more accustomed to using the Soultrait and research the Soultrait's in-depth easily, and they increased the compatibility between Awakened and Soultrait.

That was something Michael witnessed clearly in front of him right now. Lincoln was having a much easier time using his Soultrait compared to a few months ago. His strength had increased considerably as well. Lincoln was already at the Low-stage of Tier-2.

Lincoln's degree of refinement was quite far in the Low-stage, providing a drastic advantage against Michael.

The War Rune's refinement degree didn't seem too important until the 2nd Tier. It was not difficult to be physically stronger than others with a higher refinement degree as long as one possessed powerful Artifacts and high mastery in body refinement techniques. However, it wasn't that simple after advancing to Tier-2.

After advancing to the 2nd Tier it was increasingly more difficult to progress with the refinement of the body. At the same time, the refinement degree of the War Rune provided a higher enhancement than most Artifacts. Only rare natural 3-Star Artifacts could rival the increase in strength provided by a higher refinement degree of the War Rune.

Unfortunately, Michael had only one natural Artifact. Even then, it was highly likely for Lincoln to have bound better Artifacts to his War Rune.

'A close-distance battle?' Michael asked himself one moment, just to burst toward Lincoln the next instant.

Zark was replaced by the Wyverntooth Spear, which he coated in three layers of Enhancement. Lincoln conjured more stone fists, which he threw at Michael. Michael evaded one of the stone fists before slashing at the second stone fist.

Three layers of Enhancement were enough to turn the Wyverntooth Saber into a weapon comparable to a peak-quality natural 4-Star Artifact. It consumed a considerable amount of energy, but Michael could cut through the incoming stone fist quite easily.

The stone fist crumbled and burst apart. However, something was wrong.

Michael's expression distorted as the stone fist burst apart. He could sense energy fluctuations in the stone fist a millisecond before it burst apart.

Thanks to his high perception, and the ability to see the faintest details in his surroundings, Michael could react in time. The stone fist burst apart like a shotgun bullet, releasing smaller pebbles that shot through the vicinity with horrifyingly high velocity.

Unable to evade all of them, Michael twisted his body to avoid the most dangerous pebbles, while allowing the rest to impact upon himself. A dozen pebbles impacted hard, causing little damage to his shoulders and right thigh.

Michael grimaced through the pain. He regained his balance and position by moving around his own axis with the momentum he'd used to twist his body. Afterward, he shot closer to Lincoln once again.

Two Spirit Whips, enhanced through Enhancement appeared above Lincoln's head the next moment. They lashed out at Lincoln, causing considerable mental damage.

However since Michael had already fought against Lincoln using Spirit Whip, there was no way that Lincoln was not prepared to face Michael's mental attack.

But what Lincoln wasn't prepared for was the strength Michael's mental attack had gained in the last few months.

Lincoln's vision turned hazy and his mind felt exceedingly heavy as two mental attacks impacted one after another on his mind.

'What the...'