The Return Of The Exiled Villain-Chapter 206: Gray Vs Seraph

"Why are you still clinging to me?"

Seraph’s expression hardened instantly.

The warmth vanished from her eyes as she raised her sword and leveled the blade straight at his chest, the tip pointing in the direction of his heart.

"Did you forget our promise?"

"I did not."

Her grip tightened.

"Then you already know the answer."

Fwoop!

Her aura burst outward in a sharp wave, pushing against the ground as thin currents of wind spiraled around her body.

Her gaze stayed locked on him, cold and focused, every trace of hesitation gone.

"Prepare yourself."

Her fingers moved into a strange hand sign.

CRACKLE!

Blue lightning crawled across her sword, wrapping the blade in violent sparks as she launched forward, her body turning into a streak of light that tore across the arena and left a jagged trail behind her.

She appeared at Gray’s side in an instant and swung for his ribs.

CLANG!

Seraph froze.

Her sword had been stopped by the handle of Gray’s inverted rapier, raised just enough to intercept the blow.

"Y-you..."

Her eyes widened as she noticed his hand.

Two fingers were already hovering beside her neck.

"You would be dead if this were a real battle..."

His calm voice reached out to hear ears.

"Huff!" Seraph sucked in a breath as his hand moved closer to her face, instinctively closing her eyes.

Flick!

"Agh!" she groaned, more shocked than hurt, as he flicked her forehead.

"Try again."

Gray hopped back lightly, creating distance and resetting his stance.

The words sank in immediately, a cold pressure tightening around her chest as she bit her lip, shame flashing through her expression.

"Lightning Flash Sword!"

CRACKLE!

Lightning engulfed her entire body this time, her form blurring as she vanished and reappeared right in front of him, her sword already mid-swing.

Gray raised his rapier to block, and Seraph vanished.

An afterimage shattered apart as she reappeared behind him, her sword slashing toward his back with no hesitation.

Clang!

And yet... she was blocked once again.

Gray stabbed his rapier into the ground, twisted his body around the planted blade, grabbed it with his other hand, and raised it just in time to stop her strike.

Seraph’s eyes widened in complete surprise, but she didn’t give up the opportunity and vanished again.

Crackle...

This time, lightning clones filled the space around him, overlapping figures striking from every angle at once.

Gray quietly looked at them, and without thinking twice, he rushed directly towards the real Seraph, ignoring the fake afterimages.

"Shit!"

She reacted instantly, lunging toward him as the afterimages followed, converging to attack Gray all at once.

THUD!

Gray suddenly appeared behind her, swapping places with one of the lightning images, his arm already around her waist as he pulled her back against him.

The cold blade of his rapier rested against her throat.

"I won, once again."

Looking at the sword at her neck, Seraph gritted her teeth. Just then, Gray quickly let her go from his grip before taking a few steps away.

"Last chance... give it your all."

And as if thinking of something... his lips curved into a mischievous smile.

"If you want to protect me... You can’t be weaker than me, can you?"

Those words... were enough to awaken Seraph.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The ground trembled as Seraph’s aura exploded outward, a massive pillar of blue energy shooting straight into the sky.

The air screamed under the pressure as her Sword Qi surged without restraint, violent and pure.

One by one, the energy condensed, twisting and sharpening, until dozens of blue swords formed around her, hovering in the air, all of them pointing toward Gray.

"To think that you were hiding this huge amount of Sword Qi?"

He finally took the initiative to raise his rapier.

’I think... twenty-four times of speed should be enough, no?’ Thinking of this, a small invisible aura enveloped Gray’s body.

Fwooop!

"Take this!"

The floating swords screamed forward all at once.

Seeing the incoming flying swords, Gray took a step forward and muttered:

"[✧Swap✧]"

In the blink of an eye, he vanished, only to reappear a few meters to the left, standing where one of the swords had been a fraction of a second ago.

The blade that should have pierced his chest instead cut through empty air, shattering the ground behind him.

’...Ten seconds until the cooldown ends.’

Another wave followed instantly.

Her sword traced a sharp arc in the air, and the Qi swords responded, changing direction mid-flight, hunting him down with terrifying precision.

"Phew..." Gray exhaled slowly.

His rapier trembled slighly as a vicious crimson-black qi wrapped around the rapier, almost like a second skin.

He pushed only a fraction of his speed into his legs, barely a quarter of what his body could truly handle, and even that made the ground crack under his steps.

Then, his body moved, not fast enough to become an afterimage, but fast enough that the swords missed him by the width of a finger.

Splurt!

A blade grazed his shoulder, slicing fabric, but he had already swapped places again, this time with a shattered chunk of stone behind Seraph.

Space folded, snapped back, and Gray appeared there instantly, his rapier already thrusting forward.

CLANG!

Seraph turned just in time, her sword colliding with his rapier, sparks of blue and silver exploding between them.

The force pushed her back several steps, boots digging into the stone as her aura flared harder.

"...That ability of yours. It seems that you’ve truly regained your spatial talent," Seraph muttered lightly.

"...Not really. This was just a unique ability that I awakened," he replied.

And at the same time, he swapped positions again, this time with the sword directly above his head.

Fwoop!

The blade disappeared from the sky and reappeared where Gray had been standing a moment earlier, crashing into another Qi sword and detonating in a burst of light.

At the same time, Gray appeared above Seraph, already descending, rapier angled down toward her shoulder.

She felt it instantly; her instincts screamed as she quickly twisted her body, letting the blade pass just close enough to tear through her sleeve, then slammed her sword upward.

BAAM!

Lightning and Qi exploded, forcing Gray to swap away again before the impact could reach him.

’...Mhm.’

"Huff...!" Seraph raised her hand, and the remaining swords began to rotate faster, almost forming a moving domain around her.

The pressure climbed, grinding against Gray’s skin, trying to crush him in place.

"You’re not escaping this one!" she warned him.

The swords shot towards Gray once again, to which he shot forward and used his own Qi to reflect all of the incoming swords, making small movements to avoid fatal hits.

Crackle!

Until Seraph suddenly surged forward, lightning erupting from her sword as she closed the distance herself, abandoning the blades mid-air to strike him directly, her eyes locked onto his throat.

"[✧Swap✧]"

Gray reappeared behind her, swinging his sword at her neck.

Seraph felt it anyway.

CLANG!

She twisted mid-strike, lightning flaring from her spine as she dragged her blade back, barely managing to deflect his thrust.

The impact sent a dull shock through her arms, numbness crawling up to her shoulders.

’That was close!’ she thought inwardly.

She jumped back and slammed her sword into the ground.

BOOM!

Sword Qi burst outward in a circular wave, shredding the stone floor and forcing Gray to retreat a few steps.

Dust and blue light filled the air as the remaining Qi swords above snapped back into formation, hovering tighter now, closer to her body.

And in an instant, they shot forward, but this time, they didn’t attack Gray directly and instead circled him, almost making some kind of cage.

Gray scanned the cage slighly and then took a small, cautious step forward.

Fwip!

Instantly, a sword darted in, shooting directly towards his chest.

He leaned aside, the blade slicing past his cheek, close enough to cut a strand of hair.

Another came from below, causing him to kick off the ground and swap places with a chunk of rubble mid-air.

CRASH!!

The rubble took the hit instead, exploding into dust as Gray reappeared above Seraph again.

She was ready this time.

Her sword flashed upward, lightning bursting outward in a violent arc.

Gray twisted his body mid-fall, letting the blade skim past his ribs, then landed lightly, sliding across the ground.

His rapier flicked out, striking three Qi swords in rapid succession.

Not destroying them, but redirecting them.

They spun out of control, slamming into each other and detonating in bursts of blue light that shook the arena.

Seraph staggered slightly, boots digging in as she raised her sword again, aura roaring louder now, less controlled.

But just as she regained control, she directly lunged towards him.

"Lightning Flash Sword!"

Her body vanished in a streak of blue, appearing at his side, her sword already cutting toward his neck.

Gray tilted his head just enough for it to miss, then swapped places with one of the remaining Qi swords behind her.

The sword appeared where he had been.

Gray appeared behind her again, and using the opportunity, he used the blunt part of the rapier to tap her back.

"You’re dead now."

Seraph froze for half a second, her eyes widening in surprise.

BOOOM!

Then she exploded forward, breaking contact, spinning around with her sword raised, breathing heavy, chest rising and falling fast.

"...Again," she said through clenched teeth.

The air around her warped as more Sword Qi poured out, turning even denser now, sharper as the swords reformed once more, fewer, but stronger. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Gray looked at her and sighed.

"...This is really the last time."