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"Great Sun, Flame Rotation"

'Boom!!'

The moment a 3-metre huge ball of flames materialized around Li Qiu, a powerful impact slammed onto it that caved its initially spherical shape.

At the same moment of impact, blade-like projections protruded out on the flame ball's surface as they began to rapidly spin in various directions.

"Bleh…Ugh" Li Qiu spat out another mouthful of blood due to the sheer impact that was transmitted to his body through the ball of flames around him.

"It wouldn't be interesting if you went down in one hit….take this" Bellowed Katsurou as he sent out another powerful fist to impact onto the already caved-in ball of flames.

'Boom'

'Screetch'

The ball of flames was sent flying by the impact as it kept melting the ground in its course of travel.

'Tsss'

There was a 1 metre deep and a metre wide canal that formed on the ground which was filled with lava along the path that the blazing flame ball was sent flying.

The flame ball stopped after flying for about 300 metres as it slowly dissipated into embers leaving behind a bleeding Li Qiu within a 5-metre deep crater filled with molten lava.

"Bleh" Li Qiu kneeled on the ground as he kept spitting out mouthful after mouthful of blood, obviously having suffered from internal damage.

"You are quite resilient, I'll give you credit for that" Said Katsurou as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Take a look at your right arm before you comment on me" Bellowed Li Qiu in mockery.

With a tinge of confusion in his eyes, Katsurou took a look at his right arm.

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"What!!"

Katsurou muttered in disbelief to find his blood armour covering over his right arm to have evaporated sometime before, probably during his contact with Li Qiu's flame ball, leaving behind his bare hand in a charred state.

"You…." Katsurou exclaimed.

"Adept Stage my ass, is that all you could amount to?" Mocked Li Qiu while still in his kneeling position.

"Humph, we'll see about that" Katsurou snorted as he instantly flickered over a distance of about 300 metres and appeared a metre above Li Qiu.

"Die" Katsurou bellowed as he sent his left fist raging towards Li Qiu's head.

Li Qiu grit his teeth in pain as he summoned over all of his remaining Aria towards his heart as he bellowed, "Great Sun, Collapse"

A small sun formed over his heart as it instantly enlarged to about 2 metres and exploded like a supernova and sent out immense heat and momentum from within it.

"Urgh…this bastard" Katsurou's left hand instantly melted under the scorching flames and he was blasted off into the skies with cracks forming over parts of his armour.

A huge ball full of scorching flames burned around the spot where Li Qiu previously stood as it melted any and every piece of rubble, rock, and soil and continued to continuously expand.

"Let me end this farce" Snorted Katsurou as he placed his right hand above his heart.

"Come out and raise hell, my cruel and bloodthirsty Devil Sword"

A sword hilt that was jet black in colour with crimson lines running over it that looked like veins emerged out from the place above his heart.

Katsurou placed his right hand over the handle as he slowly pulled the 1-metre long blade out from his body.

'Thump' 'Thump'

There was a heart attached between the blade and hilt that looked like it continuously kept supplying energy to the blade.

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"Devil Sword, release" Katsurou slowly muttered when at the next moment, the one-metre long blade instantly became 10 metres long and emitted an intense bloodthirsty aura.

Just the emergence and permeation of this aura alone snuffed out all the raging flames and explosion that Li Qiu had created using all of his Aria.

Li Qiu fell down flat in the ground with his face directly looking up at the hovering Katsurou when his 'Great Sun' was snuffed out like a candle flame in an absolute blizzard.

"That guy is quite the monster, no wonder David felt fear with the mere mention of his name...is this my current limit?" Lamented Li Qiu in his head.

"I just became a bit serious and you're done already? Then, as a reward for making me don my Blood Devil form and even pull out my Devil Sword, let me honour you with a slash from my Devil Sword" Proclaimed Katsurou as he raised his right hand to slash towards Li Qiu's direction.

After seeing the amount of power that condensed inside that sword in Katsurou's hand, the eyes of Li Qiu slowly hardened as his resolve showed his unbreakable will and unconquerable pride.

"I don't think I would be able to survive a hit from that. Then I'll die in a glorious fashion befitting me by unleashing my full power too...Soul Essence Flame, unleash"

Within Li Qiu's mind space, his bluish soul flame burned in a resplendent glow over his Nascent Soul as three white coloured tentacles composed of his soul flame stretched out from his Nascent Soul and connected with the Thermal Flame Essence in his mind space, the Spirit Flame Essence inside his heart and his Aria Core which was his heart and slowly began to suck off their Essences.

Li Qiu readied his Soul Flames for a final retaliation towards Katsurou when he suddenly noticed that Katsurou who was about to slash with his blade suddenly retract his Devil Sword within him and land down on the ground as he made his Blood Devil form dissipate leaving behind a one-armed Katsurou.

"White Tiger, go" Katsurou brought out his 'White Tiger' and commanded it to attack Li Qiu who lay sprawled across the lava-filled ground within the crater.

Noticing his change in behaviour, Li Qiu too deactivated his Soul Flames which in turn severed its three white tentacles and silently retreated back into his Nascent Soul as he lay sprawled inside the crater full of blazing lava without putting up any effort to either get up or even retaliate.

The next second, something abruptly smashed atop the charging 'White Tiger's' head, smashing it into a pulp.

"Are you insane?" Bellowed Akiko as she stood before the headless 'White Tiger' and glared at Katsurou.

"It was just a friendly spar" Retorted Katsurou in a casual manner as he retracted his 'White Tiger'.

"Your arms! We need to treat it ASAP" Shrieked Hikari the moment she arrived at the scene when she noticed Katsurou lacking a left hand and with a carbonized right hand.

"Yeah, yeah" Katsurou just waved it off, not bothering to put much of his concern over it.

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Meanwhile, near Li Qiu.

"Big bro, what happened….ouch…ouch…its hot….t-that's lava?...." Prakash shouted in shock as he neared the crater in which Li Qiu lay sprawled like a corpse.

"Urgh…" Prakash used his innate ability 'Moving Nature' on a nearby intact piece of burning concrete to approach over Li Qiu's position.

"Wait, let me help" Shouted Myra as she overlaid multiple barriers with an ice attribute over the molten lava which helped Prakash to safely bring over Li Qiu to a safe spot away from the burning ground.

"What happened here" Inquired Enbi Arin as she inspected Li Qiu's wounds.

"Nothing much. Just a friendly spar" Commented Li Qiu not bothering to explain much.

"A friendly spar?" Akiko who heard his comment raged "What kind of friendly spar would result in the loss of Katsurou's limbs huh? Tell me"

"Hey, he started it" Li Qiu put all the blame over to Katsurou.

Enbi Arin and Prakash began to glare at Katsurou and team while slowing releasing their killing intents. Akiko and Hikari were also slowly showing hostility towards Li Qiu and his team.

Katsurou who found that the escalating situation was not in favour of his plans shrugged his shoulders trying to ease the situation "It's not a big deal. That kid, his name is Aurella right. He could easily regenerate my arms"

"He's overdrafted his ability for today. Let me give you first aid for now, when he wakes up tomorrow, I'll ask him to regenerate your arms" Said Hikari as she began to heal Katsurou's bleeding.

Once his bleeding stopped, Katsurou just began to walk towards their tunnel with an 'I'm tired' expression.

Akiko glared at Li Qiu as she chased after Katsurou while Hikari just bowed a little towards Li Qiu in apology and went after the departing figures of Akiko and Katsurou.

"Bro, are you fine" Prakash questioned in worry "We suddenly heard an explosion and decided to check it out only to find you in such a state"

"Of course I'm not fine, I feel like my internal organs suffered from a magnitude 11 earthquake" Replied Li Qiu as he slowly straightened his back.

"I'll make Aurella treat you right away" Said Myra after hearing his statement.

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"Don't bother the kid too much, I'll be fine for now, let me just gaze at the stars alone for some time" Said, Li Qiu.

"But, bro…." Prakash wanted to interject but then left Li Qiu alone after he saw Li Qiu's occupied mental state and calm demeanor.

After they all went inside the tunnels to rest, Li Qiu slowly walked and sat beside a puddle of crimson blood and shouted, "Hey, cowardly bastard"

The next moment, the blood puddle took on a miniature sized form of Katsurou, about a foot in height.

"Aren't you quite cocky for someone who just suffered a beating from me" Sneered the miniature Katsurou.

"Stop with the unnecessary bullshit. Now, tell me the reason why you guys are still here" Said Li Qiu.

"Oh, you're coming through that direction, huh" The miniature Katsurou sneered as he said "There is just one objective, well, technically there's two"

"And that is?" Questioned Li Qiu.

"To unite the leftover surviving humans in a single place to avoid getting suppressed by the four 'Machina Races'," The miniature Katsurou replied.

"Do you truly think that's possible? Each human possesses different innate abilities, do you think they would just quietly submit under someone else? They may initially accept it when they are weak but once they gain a bit of power, they would start to plot behind our backs for their own goals" Sneered Li Qiu.

"You seem to be under a misconception that...…" The miniature Katsurou talked about many things with Li Qiu after that, it seemed that they could infer the meanings between their each other's words after their fight to the death just now.

After about 40 minutes had passed, "Since I was the one who attacked you first, keep that info as a repayment" Said the miniature Katsurou.

"No problem" Replied Li Qiu.

"On a final note…." The miniature Katsurou began as he gazed at Li Qiu with killing intent "If you dare mention about my Blood Devil form to my companions….I'll…"

Li Qiu immediately interrupted, "If you have the guts, try to threaten me when I too am at the Adept Stage. Now, scram"

Li Qiu cursed under his breath as he burned off the miniature Katsurou in a flash of Thermal Flames, not even leaving any ashes behind.

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