Chapter 346: Gold 2
—Slamming me into the ground.
A smirk formed on Noah’s face as he began to follow up with a punch to my face, but—
Mana surged around me as my core began to shake from the mana that I was willing out of it, and the device followed my call by raising the rank of my core to... Gold 1.
Boom!
The sudden burst of mana threw Noah away from my body, before I quickly rolled on the ground and stood up, while loosening the grip on my sword.
Flexibility in combat was more important than raw strength.
A loose grip was always helpful to divert attacks before following up with a strong counter.
"Impossible."
Noah’s rugged whisper echoed across the area, adding to the silent atmosphere that had taken over for a moment.
I knew my evolution to the Gold core was much faster than Noah’s, and it was bound to raise several questions, but it was better than being thrashed by the protagonist only because I had to limit my power to a Silver 3.
"Were you hiding your rank the entire time... yes... that should be the reason, or else such rapid—"
"How about you concentrate on the fight, or are you one of them?"
"..."
"All bark but no bite—"
Swoosh!
I couldn’t complete my statement as the air around me rustled, with Noah appearing before me in the blink of an eye.
Willing the Gold mana, I intensified my mana pressure, thus slowing Noah’s momentum, but he quickly countered with an increase in his own mana pressure.
Our swords clashed once again, the momentum of the strikes creating vibrations of mana that turned into heavy waves, making the surrounding audience retreat from their tracks.
It wasn’t that we were using some unique mana to fight, but Noah’s mana sword was influencing the mana of the world itself, which was why every time that I countered it... nature would roar again.
I restrained myself from using spells of any kind, as Noah, being a newcomer to the field of cultivation, didn’t know any spells of his own, which was clearly visible from his fight against Victoria.
I didn’t want to defeat him using a spell, as that would entail the guy making excuses about it.
Crushing his confidence was more satisfactory than merely defeating him.
Sigh.
Shifting the weight of my body to the right, I let my sword drop low before raising it in an upward trajectory, aiming for the area around Noah’s eyes, and the protagonist, sensing the movement of my attack, quickly shifted back, but—
That was what I had been aiming for.
I took a step forward with my right foot in the lead, and then willed my mana to power up my left fist before driving it into Noah’s guts, or at least that was what the guy believed, as his reflexes were quick enough, with Noah using his left palm to block my punch, but—
As always, the fool didn’t consider my sword, which he had dodged earlier, and—
Spurt!
The same sword was headed in a downward trajectory as it sliced through the front side of Noah’s chest.
Hm?
My pupils dilated as I tried to retreat, but Noah caught my sword with his bare hands before raising his right leg from the side and kicking me horizontally in the side of my abdomen.
The unnatural angle of my position prevented me from dodging the attack, making the protagonist smirk in return.
Before more attacks could be followed up, both of us retreated at the same time, with Noah withdrawing his grip on my blade.
"I hope you enjoyed it."
A childish statement was followed by a broad smile, showcasing the commoner’s white teeth, which in my view were as ugly as they could have been.
My facial expressions didn’t change, but from the inside I was reeling from the damage of a direct kick by a Platinum core, and that too by someone whose physique was already a monstrous one.
At the last moment, I had indeed used mana to surround the area and lessen the impact, but even after having a considerable amount of mana used up in the defence... the kick had done quite the deal on me.
I had to admit, that was a miscalculation on my part.
"I know this is nowhere near your real strength, so why aren’t you going all out?"
"..."
Noah’s remarks were meant to be provocative, but I didn’t budge before them.
The guy might have been hoping to defeat me at my full strength so as to show the world his superiority over me... but I wasn’t going to let him win the war of social narrative.
More mana surged through my core... and within a few moments the device listened to my call, thereby elevating the rank of my mana core to Gold 2.
"I knew it! You are just a cheater, nothing else!"
With my sudden increase in the tier of the Gold rank, Noah let out another growl, erasing any traces of his previous mockery.
I had to say... Noah had the least control over his emotions.
Such a suspicious increase in my rank could have been used to corner me with a war of words, but Noah let his emotions overwhelm his sense of logic.
And maybe, I was grateful for that.
Now that my projected rank was at Gold 2, I no longer had to pretend to be lower ranked during the fight.
At least in terms of raw mana usage, I could go all out.
Still, this incident was sure to derail my plans to keep my original rank in the shadows.
But adaptability was more important than a definite victory.
There would be questions raised, still, Noah had done something similar today, so that would play a better role in dissolving the questions about my sudden evolution.
After all, there wasn’t a rule that only the protagonist could do the impossible.
"If not for your family, you are nothing."
Sigh.
Another growl echoed in my ears, but now I had gotten used to it.