I Reincarnated As A Stick

A few minutes ago, before Dalton and Aurus had faced off against one another in the outskirts of the Seraph Kingdom.

Both Dalton and King Zeldrion looked at the mirror of water in front of him with surprise and anxiety in their eyes, given how the mirror was showing them a live feed of the fight between Aurus and the Royal Seraphim Forces that King Zeldrion had deployed. Currently, the Royal Seraphim Forces seemed to be at an advantage as one of their members went into a one-on-one battle with Aurus while the others set up a barrier around him, enhancing the attributes of the member that was fighting Aurus.

Seeing the current outcome of the skirmish, King Zeldrion could not help but clench his fists in anticipation, thinking that the Royal Seraphim Forces had it in the bag. With that in mind, he could not help but mutter as he continued to watch, "It seems that deploying the Royal Seraphim Forces was the right choice all this time. They're actually able to stall him. By the looks of it, once The Great Calamity expends enough energy, they would find a chance to defeat him once and for all."

On the other hand, Dalton looked at the fight in silence for a short while. After that, he shook his head and let out a light sigh, telling King Zeldrion, "Zeldrion, it seems you've underestimated the strength of the enemy by a lot."

"Hmm?" Raising his eyebrow after hearing those words, King Zeldrion could not help but look at Dalton with a hint of doubt. "How so? Isn't the enemy being cornered by our forces?"

"If you look at it that way, then yes. The enemy is indeed being cornered by our forces," Dalton nodded as he replied. "However, haven't you ever thought that the enemy allowed our side to corner him? Look at how he's approaching the man fighting against him."

Hearing that, King Zeldrion paid a bit more attention to Aurus and the man that was fighting him. At first glance, it seemed like Aurus had his back against the wall while the man was going all out, not giving Aurus the chance to take a breather. However, as he looked at the situation a bit more, he noticed that Aurus was not really doing anything to gain an advantage against the man. At most, he was just defending or nullifying the attacks that were sent at him.

Seeing that, King Zeldrion scratched his head as he cleared his throat before saying in a somewhat prideful tone, "Ehem. Did I say our forces were cornering the enemy? I meant that the enemy was allowing the forces to corner him! Yeah, that's right. Totally within the realm of my perception."

Eventually, he let out a light sigh as he soon asked Dalton, "So, what's the enemy planning to do? Surely he isn't planning to wipe out the whole squad at once, right?"

"I'm afraid your hunch might be quite close to the exact answer," Dalton replied before turning, opening up a spatial rift a few meters away from the railing of the balcony they were on. Seeing that Dalton was heading off to somewhere for a while, King Zeldrion could not help but ask him, "Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm going to just have a quick chat with our good friend The Great Calamity out in the outskirts," Dalton lightly smiled as a hint of the combat intent he had cultivated was quickly released, reminding King Zeldrion the reason why Dalton was the Supreme Sage of the Arcana Tower. Slightly afraid that he wouldn't know what to do next since Dalton was a better strategist than him, King Zeldrion was about to ask him to not leave, only for Dalton to tell him, "Consider this the kingdom's second move. Also, don't worry about the mirror disappearing in front of you. I've conjured it to consume the mana in the surroundings to keep its form."

Soon, the sounds of things being thrown away could be heard as Dalton removed the usual clothing he wore before taking out a set of old clothes he hadn't worn for a long time.

"It's been a while since I've engaged in a fight against someone else," Dalton muttered to himself. "Hopefully, the opposing side has enough strength hidden to unearth at least a good portion of my power."

Swoosh!

With that, Dalton then stepped into the rift, leaving King Zeldrion no choice but to look at the mirror in front of him once more, only for his mouth to become agape as Aurus had found an opening to take advantage, reversing the tides as he had conjured a barrier of his own. After that, he conjured multiple copies of himself to surrounded the members that created the barrier, eventually killing all of the members in one fell swoop.

Shuddering as he realized that Dalton more or less predicted the outcome of the fight, King Zeldrion could not help but look at the next fight that was going to happen with a hint of anxiety, continuing to tap on the balcony's railing as he muttered, "You might be strong, Dalton…"

"But you better be careful."

…

Back at the present, Dalton continued to shake Aurus's hands up and down as he told the latter about the basics of etiquette and how it would be a beneficial thing for him to know of. Oblivious to what Dalton was talking about, Aurus, or to be more exact the primal instinct controlling his body, was in a panic, considering that it had quickly lost control over the body it was supposed to be controlling.

Fortunately, it seemed that the restriction could be quickly removed as the primal instinct hastily circulated all of the energy inside Aurus's body, allowing the primal instinct to control more and more until eventually…

Bang!

Releasing it from the palm of his hand, Aurus blew off Dalton's extended hand with a burst of Wind energy, putting quite a bit of strain on the latter's shoulders as he hastily tried to stabilize himself. On the other hand, Aurus quickly got his feet out of the ground as he distanced himself from the peculiar man.

Seeing that Aurus had put a gap in between them, Dalton could not help but respond with a fake sad expression as he sarcastically lamented, "What poor manners. To think that the basics of etiquette I had taught you would be understood. It seems that I've engaged with a brute that has muscles for brains."

In response to those words, Aurus did nothing. As an Inanimate, he did not even have a brain, only a soul that acted as a brain. Also, as the primal instinct was controlling his body, he wouldn't even have a reaction in the first place, making Dalton let out a light sigh as a hint of killing intent emanated from him.

"In any case, I've told myself to not let you get past any further."

Whoosh!

In an instant, Dalton quickly disappeared from Aurus's field of vision, prompting the latter to hastily conjure a barrier as he imbued it with the power of [Impenetrable Shield of Nil]. However, even that kind of preparation seemed to be for naught as Dalton soon appeared within the barrier as a playful smile appeared on his face, clenching his fist as it soon shone brightly.

Bang!

Imbuing his fist with a lot of mana, all of it was then sent towards Aurus's body, forcing him to be sent flying from the sheer power behind the punch. Blowing off the surface of the fist he used to punch out, a couple of magic circles then appeared around Dalton's legs, allowing him to catch up to the flying Aurus.

Before Aurus could even land, Dalton was already there waiting for him, sending out a couple hundred blades of light that seemed to aim for what was normally vital spots for a human. Although it wouldn't affect his combat strength in any way, Aurus still opted to dodge those blades as his vitality would quickly dwindle. With that, he hastily teleported to the ground before returning an attack with a myriad blades.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Extending one of his palms outward, a shield made out of mana was made in front of Dalton as it nullified the force behind the blades, as well as destroyed them. Looking at each other in silence for a bit, Dalton could not help but scratch his head, telling Aurus, "Well, this is kind of awkward."

Ignoring Dalton's words, Aurus continued to send a flurry of blades towards Dalton as he formed a claw behind him. Finally realizing the strength of the enemy in front of him, Aurus spared no effort in condensing a claw that showed the epitome of his current strength.

Surprisingly, Dalton only flashed a small grin in response to what Aurus was doing as a calm expression could be seen on his face. By the looks of it, everything seemed to be going according to what Dalton was expecting.

Eventually, Aurus stopped sending blades towards Dalton as he instead sent himself to him, swiping down with the large claw behind his back, radiating off the aura of the void and the otherworldly aura his other claws used to have.

"[Spellsword of Ruination: Ultimate Lost Art Fusion]."

"[Penultimate Claw of Infernal Judgment]."

"[Beelzebub's Wrath]."

Swoosh!

Just as a great amount of power was heading towards Dalton's way, Dalton instead looked at the claw with a yawn as he said, "You want to attack me with this much power? Sure, it would definitely give me some grievous injuries…"

"But would I allow you to?"

Weeeengggg…

In less than an instant, a domain covered the two of them, making Aurus feel like there was a lot of resistance facing the claw he was attacking with. Even if he put all of his strength into it, he felt like it would only move a centimeter at most, not even close to hitting Dalton.

As for Dalton, seeing that the opponent was focusing on its attack, he lightly smiled as he took a few steps away from the claw that was going to hit him as he told Aurus, "You know, it's kind of annoying facing against an opponent like you. Thankfully, I've learned a lot of magic to adapt to all sorts of fighting styles."

"First off, how about I carry that claw for you?" At the very moment Dalton said that, the connection Aurus had towards the claw he sent out instantly disappeared, with Dalton imbuing one of his hands with mana as he grabbed onto the claw. Then, with great speed, he covered the claw with multiple magic circles, increasing its power to at least five times its original.

With that, he then redirected the claw towards Aurus before using all of his strength to swing it, facing no resistance in doing so. Seeing that the claw was surely going to leave him with only a sliver of his vitality left, Aurus was about to teleport…until he couldn't.

"Oh no, you don't." Dalton smiled. "I may like to teleport around and have fun, but having other people teleport to escape from my attacks is a big no-no. Of course, I've sealed your ability to teleport for now so I could help out in protecting the kingdom I live in."

Seeing that the claw was about to hit him at any moment, the primal instinct controlling Aurus's body could not help but go through many ideas until it eventually stopped at a single one. Seemingly letting out a sigh as it thought that it was revealing one of its trump cards to the enemy, against such a versatile enemy like the one in front of him, the primal instinct knew that it had to do this at the very least to escape.

And so, just before the claw could even hit him, Aurus muttered out three words.

"[Ruler of All]."

Weeeengggg…

Just like the domain Dalton had established, a dark green domain soon expanded out, with Aurus acting as the center. At that instant, the claw instantly faced great resistance in moving any further, leaving Dalton at a loss for words as he had not expected such a move from Aurus. Leaving Dalton no chance to retaliate, Aurus quickly muttered, "You cannot fight against me."

Whoosh!

In that instant, all of the energy propelling the claw had disappeared as Dalton felt like a great portion of his strength had been sapped away. Taking the chance, Aurus then used his teleport once more, utilizing the power of [Ruler of All] to leave the area and continue to head towards the kingdom.

Seeing as to how Aurus was able to escape his domain, Dalton looked at his fleeting silhouette for a bit before shrugging his shoulders, dismantling the domain he had set up.

"I guess I've done enough to make it seem like I've put in effort for the kingdom, right?" he muttered to himself before letting out a chuckle, walking for a bit as he headed back to the kingdom.

"In any case, there's still Zeldrion and that person behind him, so it's not like I have to go all out either."