Kingsley moved again, barely dodging once more. Yet Aura Nova did not slow in the slightest. She continued her assault ceaselessly, forcing Kingsley to evade again and again. Still, she could tell, Kingsley was adapting in real time. She did not know how, nor did she understand the exact mechanism behind it, but somehow, with every exchange, his speed and perception were evolving.

Before he could barely avoid her strikes by the narrowest margin, now he had a little more space, a little more breath, as though his body and mind were synchronizing to her rhythm.

But Aura Nova did not ease up. She simply kept moving. Her hands flickered in and out of reality as the sheer force of her attacks distorted space and air alike. Trees were reduced to nothing but splinters and dust, mountains shattered into fragments, ravines ripped open violently, and deep chasms formed in her wake as though the land itself could not endure her presence.

The next instant, her twin short swords blitzed forward in a lethal cross. One aimed straight for Kingsley's chest, the other for his stomach. Although Kingsley had been adapting to the sudden increase in tempo, he could not block both attacks at the same time. His hand rose instinctively, meeting Aura Nova's blade as he chose to intercept the strike aimed at his chest.

The moment his hand made contact with her blade, his arm was immediately blown apart by the destructive force of her Sword Intent. Before pain could even register in his mind, Aura Nova's second short sword tore cleanly into his stomach. Like a knife through butter, her Sword Intent ripped him open with terrifying ease.

Blood splattered violently into the air, spraying outward as Sword Intent poured into his body through the gaping wound in his stomach, as though it intended to tear him apart from the inside. Kingsley endured the pain without letting out a scream, his jaw clenched as he suppressed it. Aura Nova did not care about his suffering, nor about the scream he refused to release. She capitalized instantly on the opening she had created. With the force of a missile, her foot left the earth and slammed into Kingsley's temples with pinpoint accuracy.

At the point of impact, the air exploded outward in a circular shockwave. The laws of physics asserted themselves immediately as inertia violently jerked Kingsley sideways. With a thunderous boom, he crashed into a tree, tore straight through it, then slammed into another, tearing through that as well, before finally coming to a halt as his back smashed against the face of a mountain.

Dust and debris rose violently, swallowing the scene in a thick haze that obscured Kingsley's condition entirely.

Yet Kingsley did not remain on the ground. Moments later, he simply rose. His body was already regenerating at an insane speed, flesh knitting together with unnatural efficiency. Without uttering a single word, he walked out from the swirling dust cloud, his expression unchanged, calm and unreadable.

The moment his golden eyes met Aura Nova's, he sighed quietly. Then he entered a martial stance. For a brief instant, his body seemed to glow with a faint golden hue before the color vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. It was not energy, nor aura, nor anything tangible, simply a color that manifested and disappeared, leaving behind an unsettling presence.

"Come," Kingsley said.

It was the first time he had spoken since the spar began.

Aura Nova did not hesitate. She moved.

With that movement came the erasure of the land beneath her feet, her speed so extreme that it quite literally erased the ground she launched from. She closed the distance instantly, her blades thrusting forward, one aimed at Kingsley's eye, the other at his heart. Kingsley's hands rose once more, moving to intercept the blades. Aura Nova smirked, already envisioning her Sword Intent tearing through his arms as it had before.

But to her shock, Kingsley caught both blades with his bare hands. His hands closed around her twin short swords, touching her Sword Intent as though it were nothing at all.

Aura Nova frowned slightly as she processed what she was seeing. 'Did he adapt to my Sword Intent?' she wondered. Earlier in the battle, before she had injured him, Kingsley had already been adapting to her speed and power. He possessed no adaptation-type ability, this much she knew. He was simply this absurd. His body was simply this resilient.

Kingsley did not speak. Instead, he yanked Aura Nova forward with brute force. His kneecap tore upward from below like a rocket, aimed straight for her jaw. But Aura Nova was already in motion. Her own leg rose, stopping the knee strike mid-path. Sword Intent collided with raw physical power in a cataclysmic burst, yet Kingsley suffered no damage whatsoever.

'How can his body be this hard?' Aura Nova thought in disbelief. 'How can someone tank Sword Intent like this?'

In a blur, both of them vanished. Their bodies streaked through the forest like intersecting blades, chasing one another endlessly. Attacks detonated in every direction as techniques were unleashed in rapid succession. A cut met a kick, a slash collided with a punch, a thrust clashed against a palm. The forest was torn apart piece by piece as their exchange intensified.

Aura Nova smirked when she realized that Kingsley was still keeping up, even with her Sword Intent fully reinforcing her movements. She did not speak. She simply grinned. Then, in the next instant, her Sword Intent exploded outward violently, slamming directly into Kingsley's chest and sending him flying backward.

Her Sword Intent grew denser, sharper, deadlier. Its blue hue deepened, becoming more vivid and lethal than before. She had increased both the power and sharpness of her Sword Intent.

[Nova Sword Technique: Shattering Veil]

The moment the words left her lips, Sword Intent surged around her, swirling violently as her body lifted into the air. Her eyes locked onto Kingsley below. Without missing a beat, she slashed downward at an incomprehensible speed and force.

Kingsley felt death roar through his mind and soul.

His body reacted instantly. His muscles tightened, his hands rose, and his entire form braced itself. The moment he shielded his body with his arms, a single vertical sword slash cleaved down from his head toward his torso with terrifying sharpness and efficiency.

Behind him, the path of the blade continued onward, splitting the terrain cleanly in half. The land was torn apart perfectly, a thunderous boom echoing through the forest as everything caught within the slash's path was severed without resistance.

Kingsley coughed up blood violently. Any normal person would have been split cleanly in two. Yet Kingsley's body was so absurdly resilient that he remained alive. His body had been divided, but not completely. The slash had cut halfway through, stopping just short of total separation.

Without missing a beat, his regeneration activated. Flesh, muscle, and bone reknit themselves with immediate efficiency, restoring his body back into a single, complete whole as though it had never been torn apart at all.

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