Chapter 7185 Fire Dancer As much as Ves attempted to toughen up the Dark Tooth so that it could block as many axe strikes as possible, there was a limit to what he could do with the available tech and high-grade materials. The Fiery Axe was still a custom developed weapon commissioned by one of the phalanx leaders of the Phase Lord Department. It was a remarkable weapon that retained its edge under heavy abuse and could produce lots of heat and flames depending on the commands of its wielder. Right now, the Fiery Axe channeled so much energy in her physical exertions as well as the high-tech systems of her main weapon that it was doubtful whether she could sustain her current intensity for an entire hour. She was amazing in combat. Although she lacked the raw strength and endurance of the Unshakeable King, the Fiery Axe was probably the fastest Ascending Giant! She not only moved fast, but intimately knew how to fight at this frenetic pace. Her fighting skills had been thoroughly ingrained in her instincts. She no longer needed to be conscious about every move or attack as her body naturally executed the appropriate attacks. That was not the extent of her power. Her companion spirit also played an important role. Though it had not made an appearance out of fear of getting devoured by Blinky, her companion spirit had clearly developed in the direction of a qi cultivator who specialized in the manipulation of fire-attributed E energy. Although its relative youth and lack of progression kept it fairly weak, it was already making significant contributions by augmenting her principal's performance. The companion spirit attracted a lot of fire energy. It regulated the interaction between fire energy and her fire hyper equipment. It also kept the corrupting darkness emanating from the Dark Apostle at bay. In short, the companion spirit might not play a flashy role during this duel, but its assistance complimented the Fiery Axe extremely well! This caused the fight between the two to appear a lot more explosively than the previous duel. If the battle between the Dark Apostle and the Unshakeable King could be characterized as a thoughtful and methodical chess match, then the clash between the Dark Apostle and the Fiery Axe could be equated to a dance contest! The two 'dancers' did not remain stationary at all. They continually circled around each other in order to gain superior positioning or to confuse their opponent. Those with poor eyesight could only catch glimpses of black and red auras spinning and dashing above the surface of Jotunheim like they were fireworks. The power of darkness and fire continually collided against each other, seeking to gain the upper hand over the other. During this clash, the power of darkness proved to be stronger, denser and higher in quality. However, the power of fire nonetheless gained the upper hand because the Fiery Axe was much more invested in the fight! The techniques employed by her and her companion spirit were not that complicated. They were lacking in depth and possessed very specific applications, many of which only served to amplify existing phenomena. However, that was exactly what she needed to maximize her utilization of the fire element in the short term. By leveraging the power of fire to increase the damage of her axe, increase the output of her flight system and make her body move faster and more fluently, her techniques were just what she needed to gain an edge over her opponent! More importantly than that was her overflowing enthusiasm. Her passion was overflowing and her excitement at dueling a 'worthy' opponent grew by the second. It was very clear that she was a momentum-based fighter. The more she became engrossed in the fight, the harder she struck and the faster she moved! This perfectly resonated with the more volatile aspects of the fire element! This meant that the fire element fueled the Ascended Giant and amplified her offensive to an increasingly stronger degree! What a terrible opponent! No wonder she had managed to earn her place as the strategos of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx! The Dark Apostle on the other hand was not as prone to entering in this kind of mood. He was hardly able to enjoy his current situation at the moment. Since he was the slower among the two duelists, he had immediately been put in a passive situation where he could only block the continuous axe strikes. The Dark Tooth had never been designed to withstand endless axe strikes. Axes were actually the most suitable weapon type to use to break apart shields and weapons. The challenger found himself at a terrible disadvantage, but he had no way of sparing his main weapon the abuse because he was not able to create any distance. Ves had made a bet that adopting a high-mobility configuration was the best choice for the second duel. If the Dark Apostle was able to match or exceed the Fiery Axe's speed, then he would have won the bet. His alter ego would have been able to fight against this flaming giant on even terms. Unfortunately, it appeared that he had lost the bet. He underestimated how extreme the Fiery Axe dedicated herself towards increasing her mobility. This speed disparity put the Dark Apostle on the backfoot as his responses were slower and his positioning was always worse. As Ves observed the ongoing struggle from a slightly more detached perspective, he realized that there was only one way out of this undesirable situation. "Your loadout this time is highly unsuited for defense. You need to go on the attack. I am reluctant to say this given that it is my true body as well, but you need to abandon any thoughts on defense. You need to go on the attack. If that means that you have to absorb a lot of hits, then so be it. Your spatial barrier can serve as a momentary buffer, but it will be a lot more dangerous for you if it pops. Try to redirect as many strikes towards your frontal armor as possible. The armor plating is thin but not negligible. It can probably block one solid attack, especially now that the Fiery Axe has exchanged power for speed." The Dark Apostle slightly widened his giant eyes in realization. That was an important reminder. The Fiery Axe artificially reduced her mass, which meant that she was able to attack more frequently, but couldn't put as much force and momentum behind her strikes. This meant that her threat level was not as high as he feared! He could take advantage of this situation. He just needed to inflict more damage than his adversary. Several new options came to mind that he previously did not consider. It was not enough to strike back with ordinary spear stabs. He was unable to match the Fiery Axe in terms of attack frequency. This was a race that he had already lost. The only way he could still outmatch her in terms of offense was to make 1 of his strikes inflict as much damage as 5 or even 10 of her axe chops! 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦 It only took one good attack to change the entire outlook of this duel. He needed to land a blow that was heavy enough to interrupt his adversary's momentum and weaken her ability to maintain her offensive rhythm. Only the power moves of the newly acquired Demonic Possession Spearmanship Method could suffice. The Dark Apostle could turn the battle around with a single well-aimed and well-executed technique. He would have to make another gamble, but this time he intended to win. The momentum of the high-speed duel shifted at this point. The Fiery Axe remained quite sharp despite being so invested in her attack sequence. A vicious grin appeared on her face. Instead of backing off, she doubled down on her offensive! "THAT'S THE SPIRIT! FIGHT ME! IT IS TOO BORING FOR ME TO HIT A TARGET DUMMY. I NEED A REAL CHALLENGE!" She squeezed more potency out of her phasewater organs. She even chose to burn a part of her phasewater reserves in order to reduce her mass by a few more percentage points! This caused her to burn hotter and speed up even further! Despite her words, her increased attack frequency made it even more difficult for the Dark Apostle to abandon any thought of defense and launch a power move by force. The challenger gritted his teeth and forcefully withdrew his weapon that was already scarred with marks along its length. The Fiery Axe did not take long to capitalize on the opening. She darted forward with incredible speed and struck the Dark Apostle's spatial barrier with considerable force! She did not retreat. Instead, she had adopted a different posture and began to wail on the flickering energy barrier with repeated strikes. Each blow with her axe generated a burst of flames! These flames did not flicker out immediately, but lingered and began to stick onto the spatial barrier. "BURN! BURN! BURN!" The more times she struck the spatial barrier, the more she stoked the flames. This reminded Ves on how Saint Isobel Kotin liked to destroy her targets! Although the specific methods were completely different, the overall approach was similar. Ves suddenly made a profound realization. The Fiery Axe's combat approach finally made sense. Lowering her mass allowed her to attack faster at the cost of weakening the power of her blows. This meant that her attacks might have difficulty overcoming the defenses of particularly tough opponents. However, if she was able to combine her hyper technology and her fire manipulation to set fire on her target and continually feed it with every attack, then that would ensure that she could eventually fell against any tough opponent! It was a brilliant approach that elevated her offensive prowess and turned her into a much more troublesome adversary. Due to her amazing attack speed, the Fiery Axe was quickly able to turn the initial flames into a wildfire! The Dark Apostle's spatial barrier suffered continuous damage and was rapidly losing its integrity! It even threatened to break before the challenger was able to complete the process of accumulating energy and unleash his power move! "MY AXE WILL TASTE YOUR FLESH SOON ENOUGH!" The Dark Apostle did his best not to let the raging Ascended Giant affect his concentration. Although the enlightenment fruit had imparted him with the right technique, he had never executed it under heavy pressure. A lot was at stake. He keenly understood that the fate of his leadership challenge may depend on the outcome of his next move. This was why he had chosen to pull off the offensive power move that he had the greatest confidence in pulling off successfully. It was not the most powerful or the most destructive of extraordinary spear techniques, but it happened to suit him a lot better than the others. Its mechanics also happened to overlap with the knowledge and expertise imparted by another enlightenment fruit that Ves had swallowed in the past. Due to this overlap, the Dark Apostle was able to complete all of the steps with greater understanding and familiarity. Ves even helped out by letting Blinky release a large amount of darkness energy from the Blinkyverse. The effects grew increasingly more obvious. The Dark Tooth became engulfed in a dark miasma that radiated a lot of threat. Gravity and other forces seemed to stagnate and weaken in its vicinity. As the spear grew increasingly darker and more ominous, the Dark Apostle felt he had almost become one with Blinky and the D-arm! Together, they all worked to drive the cloying spear forward and strike at the Fiery Axe with extraordinary might and speed! "WITHERING THRUST!"