Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

102  A formidable foe

The black cloaked figure clenched his fist, with blue lightning appearing from nowhere and coiling around it, emitting sparks that sent crackled all over the surroundings.

A few bolts of lightning shot off into the ground, exploded and sent debris and rocks flying towards Alex, and were blocked by his sturdy body before they soon fell back to the ground.

'This guy has some sort of lightning talent and it seems stronger than even my own Flame talent!' n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alex gradually shifted his position, holding his sword directly in front of him, 'This battle will be even harder than I thought.'

He could feel a real threat from this new adversary, he had no inkling about the guy's true strength and now he revealed that he had a strong elemental talent!

The only thing Alex could judge about this guy was that he was an E+ rank, probably only a sliver of energy away from reaching D- rank.

But considering the sheer amount of power Alex felt in that first attack, he wasn't an Ordinary class, that was for certain.

'But, this is also the best chance for me to test my abilities! I've been itching to test myself since I upgraded to Mutant class, as well as ranked up to E rank. Back then that fight with the spider was perilous, but at least I knew its level of strength compared to me. But this guy… this guy I know next to nothing about him.'

Alex licked his lips and suddenly felt a strong desire to battle welling up inside him, spreading across his whole body. He could even feel his blood coursing in anger at this new opponent — he may be excited to put his newfound strength to the test, but that didn't make him any less angry.

"Haha… It looks like the mutt has finally decided to take this seriously." The black cloaked figure sneered and ridiculed Alex, his face still unseen but his sinister intent couldn't be kept hidden.

Shing!

In an instant, the black cloaked figure withdrew his own sword from thin air, a delicate looking sabre landing in his hands.

'A spatial treasure!'

Alex knew immediately where the sword came from, and his vigilance only increased when he realised so.

Spatial treasures were common in the federation, but in the Primordial Expanse they were much, much rarer. Only the rich and powerful could afford even the smallest ones, so this guy must have quite the backing if he had one.

A blue arc of light materialised into the man's sword and brought with it a heavy killing intent. The aura emitted from it sparked into the surroundings and pressed down on the shrubbery, like there was a real, tangible pressure pressing down on them.

Clearly Alex wasn't the first person to figure out how to infuse his element into his weapon.

The vigilant Alex had a startled expression. Suddenly, his own sword became shrouded in flames and glowed an intense orange hue, and crept into the surroundings — the temperature rose over hundreds of degrees in an instant, burning any nearby greenery to ash.

Alex himself was unscathed, as his affinity for the element and his control allowed him to withstand such high temperatures.

Bang!

Alex jumped back and avoided the incoming attack, jumping back several metres and dodging to the side as he watched a blue arc of light shoot past his head and cut down over a dozen trees before it dissipated.

A black shadow flashed, and the cloaked man appeared right next to Alex. He gripped his sword in his hands and wordlessly thrashed over two dozen times in less than a second, sending a wave of attacks Alex's way.

With no room to dodge, Alex was forced to block and unleashed a tide of flames directly towards the dozens of blue lightning arcs.

Boooom!

In an instant, the surroundings lit up with a terrifyingly blinding white light as the two attacks collided, sending both parties flying in opposite directions and devastating everything in a 100 metre radius.

"Cough… cough…" Alex spit blood and wiped his face, recovering from the shock that collision of attacks had delivered to him.

'Yeah this guy isn't normal. To be able to fight on par with me for this long, he's at least a Mutant class. Perhaps he's even made some progress towards Variant class, which is terrifying to think about!'

With some lingering surprise, the black cloaked man touched his face and felt a gash, centimetres deep.

'So strong! If I hadn't absorbed those Variant cores my master gave me earlier, that attack would have probably blown my whole head off, instead of this little cut…'

Very soon the surprise was wiped off of his face, and turned into a contorted expression of anger.

"Impressive, especially for a kid as young as you. I'm curious, I can clearly feel you're a rank below me, yet you still manage to put up such an even fight against me. Just where does your strength come from?"

However his anger did not cloud his mind. The small smirk under the shadow of his hood revealed he couldn't wait to kill Alex, but his curiosity took precedence.

"Huff.. Huff… Everybody has their secrets." Alex just responded with a conniving chuckle while he caught his breath.

The black cloaked man didn't show any reaction for a few seconds, only dusting off his robes and observing the surrounding destruction they had caused.

"Oh well, it was only a small moment of curiosity. It won't matter when you're dead anyway." Alex felt weary every time this guy spoke. Each sentence he uttered, reeked of blind confidence in his abilities, which unsettled Alex a little bit.

He spoke about Alex's death as if it was already set in stone, even though the bout they just had revealed that they were actually equal in terms of strength so far.

From what Alex had seen, this fight could still go either way,

But judging from the man's looks, he, like Alex, still had some hidden cards to play.

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