CHAPTER TWENTY
BOOM! BOOOMM! BOOM!
In a heavily obsidian-themed hall, Vibrations could be occasionally heard as two figures, each a copy of the other were locked in a very intense duel.
Rex had not yet been able to come true to his declaration, his promise of pumelling the copy was still yet to be fulfilled. The exchange between him and the Echo, had greatly progressed from what it was earlier.
Earlier he had been able to land in a few strike on the Echo while he was locked in. But he had not been able to pull such stunt off again. The Echo had seemingly even improved its technique after awakening the 'True Sight' skill for him.
The Hourglass, the articraft in which the rule of the duel played out, was dangerously approaching Rex's failure. The upper chamber was slowly inching closer and closer to complete emptiness. Rex was very much in the know about this, in between strikes, he had taken a glance at the articraft, what he saw made him very anxious as he tried to change the slowly descending outcome.
Swoosh!
Rex avoided another strike of the Echo, before he could celebrate, a kick was already approaching his abdomen, moments away from impact. Rex urged the cool energy of RageBorne to his legs, concentrating its energy to the very tip of his toes, he shot backward, avoiding the kick.
Reinforcing his left feet, he abruptly halted his move, avoiding the follow-up kick that the Echo had already initiated, towards the place where he would have ended his dodge.
Like so Rex was getting better at incorporating RageBorne into his moves, not just augmenting parts of his body, he was better concentrating its power to unleash the most effective of results. The skill was responding to his control like it was his very own nature. A product of the increased skill mastery.
As the exchange continued, Rex continued to improve his use of RageBorne greatly, but he was still getting hit occasionally and the hourglass responded in tune.
It was tethering very close to the edge of oblivion.
Rex's mind had instantly falling in a trance stace where all his mind was fully invested in the duel. A situation triggered by the stress the situation of the hourglass was in. He did not even know when he did this. At the moment, he could not see the obsidian pillars or unique lightning of the hall. All his mind knew was defeating the Echo.
It was at this moment that 'True Sight's' secondary ability was triggered, the true core of the gift that Echo had given him that would aid Rex in defeating it.
The system hid it from Rex as it had been doing since the quest began, but it couldn't deactivate its effect like it did with 'Arma'.
Rex had no idea what was going on, but then all of a sudden he began to take a special notice of the unique brandings of the Echo that glowed with a violet light. There was no break in the combat flow as this happened. He continued to weave through the Echo's strikes as much as he could as this happened, but his trance state was currently split in two.
A half was currently locked in evasive maneuvers while the other half, was glimpsing at the Echo's secret.
"NEW SKILL STATE UNLOCKED FOR RAGEBORNE"
"OVERLORD BRANDINGS FUSION INITIATED WITH RAGEBORNE"
"OVERLORD'S RAGE ACTIVATED"
A series of announcement from the feminine voice resounded in his mind, a development that forcefully ended Rex's trance state.
"Dummm!"
In that very instant, Rex received a hit that sent him sliding backward. The content of the upper chamber of the hourglass was tethering at nonexistent at the moment. It was the very first thing Rex observed when he ended his slide. As he glanced at the hourglass, he was numb to the current development, it had served him well to have lasted up to this moment.
He could feel strongly that it did not need to anymore; at the moment he was brimming with a new kind of sensation. A sensation that filled him with confidence, he felt invincible.
Like his anger and frustration was flowing within him, reinforcing every part of his body. He glanced at his palms, the Overlord Brandings had spread up to his hands, and there was a new development.
It gleaned violet, just like that of the echo. At the moment, it felt like the cool energy that had been flowing all through him had been doing nothing but circulating at the surface since.
This time, he could feel the energy suffusing every part of him, he could feel it in his head, like his brain had suddenly been boosted; he could feel it all through him, like his body had just stepped up a grade.
"You are just as impressive as I thought, A true technique genius," Echo spoke with a smile.
Rex was pissed with all the beatings he had recieved, but not so pissed that he did not ask Echo, "What do you mean by technique genius."
"It can mean several things for different ascendant styles, but as a player, it means you master skills at a very high rate."
"High enough, that you easily triggered the true secret of true sight."
Echo looked at Rex, it was evident from his face that he was not yet satisfied with his explanation.
"Come on now, Overlord Acolyte." Echo spoke commandingly, but soft. "Let's end this."
"You will fully understand these things, once your test is over."
Rex accepted the last statement, it was true. Once he was done with the damn overlord quest, he will fully become a player and would be able to fully view his skills and attributes.
He smiled at Echo, a smile borne from manic delight. He could feel it, the end was near. The end of the gruesome beating. As he dashed forward this time, he could feel the effect of "Overlord's Rage".
His speed did not seem to have improved by much, but his mentation had been greatly improved. He felt very much in control of his speed and strength. If his current state was to be compared to earlier, it could be likened to a potato processor trying to control a high-tech computer, while at the moment it felt like the right high-tech processor was controlling the high-tech computer.
He felt fully in control of his strength and his control of Rageborne saw great improvement.
He could better understand and follow Echo's movement, it was still more precise and controlled than his, a product of elegance. But with his improved mentation, his advantage over it was evident.
He could now control RageBorne better; his speed and strength were greater than that of Echo, as he could control and reinforce it better with RageBorne.
The situation of the forthcoming brawl was going to be different.