Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 498 Glass (Part 4)

Clutch.

Adam clenched his fists tightly, looking at his Nexus.

It had been a long time since he had used his Nexus, as well as his abilities, in a way that was both good and bad at the same time.

He took the time to focus on other parts of his power that up until this point remained either undeveloped or were simply unavailable like the Energy Control.

But, that wasn't to last too long.

It had been a month and a half since he became K2-Phantom, and in all that time he had only used his powers once - in a fight against Damien.

It was still quite some time until The Rule of Power, but half of his training passed and he still hadn't once felt his needle or his Nexus in his hands.

"Ready?" Tron asked, looking at Adam with a slight smile on his face.

Adam nodded, his gaze confident and determined. He realized that this wasn't going to be easy, even though he was already considerably stronger.

"Good, before we begin, I want to explain what you will be doing here right up until your final days."

Tron uttered as he extended his hand forward, showing a single finger.

"First, you will be fighting me increasing your mastery and learning to use your abilities."

A second finger:

"Second, you will practice in the Energy Control."

Third finger:

"And... lastly. If you want to come close to winning on The Rule Of Power, you must break the First Wall."

Adam gulped as his eyes went wide.

"What...? Doesn't that mean I'll become a W1-Phantom? That wouldn't be good at all, well... in our situation."

Tron shook his head.

"Dahla already explained that to you. This will only be the first part. When you get past the first part then technically you can be considered a Phantom who has reached the limit of the W0. You'll understand me later when you know all the details. Just concentrate on getting to 100%."

Adam nodded deeply.

Dahla hadn't told him about the second part yet, but he knew it must be something to do with monsters or with the Dead Lands. At least that was his guess because he'd seen the monsters in the reflection of the First Wall.

Then, Tron shrugged and stretched his arm forward.

"Well, in that case, let's get started. Enough talk and theories, it's time to move on to practice."

Adam answered nothing. He silently stood in a fighting stance, clenching his fists tightly. For now, he didn't bother to use his abilities as he wanted to see what Tron was capable of.

'I've only seen one of his abilities, but then he was a K2-Phantom... It's like seeing a needle in my hand, it doesn't give any concrete information.'

Flash.

Tron's amethyst eyes sparkled brightly as dense energy streams traveled towards his hand. They quickly transformed into a strict shape with straight lines.

Adam blinked several times, staring at Tron's weapon. It was a long, flat blade composed entirely of clear glass.

The blade had a triangular shape, narrowing towards the tip and widening closer to the base.

There were no other details to Tron's blade other than two identical, rectangular gaps near the base.

Those gaps were needed for Tron to slip his hand through them, gripping the round rod tightly, it was the only rounded part in his blade.

"What do you think? This blade has changed a bit since you saw it." Tron asked, raising his hand and looking at his weapon.

Like Adam, Tron's main weapon wasn't his Nexus, it was his First Order.

From this, Adam's interest in seeing Tron's Nexus only grew.

"Not bad, not bad at all, but isn't glass supposed to be fragile?" Adam smirked as his blue eyes sparkled brightly.

After a moment he swung his arm, cutting through the wind currents with his long needle.

A dangerous glint traveled along the two sharp edges, while a white-hot energy emanated from the tip, moving along the entire needle like a veil.

Tron smirked.

"Is glass supposed to be fragile? Hah, well, maybe ordinary yes, but do you really think my weapon can be compared to ordinary glass?"

Tron smirked as he slowly raised his hand, pointing the tip of his blade at Adam.

"Come on. Attack."

Adam replied with a confident smile before bending his torso and bursting forward.

Riska, Dahla, and Silvana watched intently as their fight began. Dahla watched the overall situation closely, as she needed to know when to intervene in the fight to avoid critical wounds to Adam.

"Well, well, in some ways their First Orders are similar, aren't they?" Riska muttered, glancing at Silvana with a slight smile on her face.

Silvana nodded uncertainly.

"Yeah... but, does Tron's blade have any special features?"

A glint passed over Riska's eyes, followed by the corners of her lips curving up.

"What do you mean?"

Silvana waved her arms to the sides as if she were talking about something obvious.

"Well, Adam's needle had good durability and can pierce a hole in even very strong armor. I mean, I'm not talking about abilities or energy but the characteristics of his weapon."

Riska nodded as she rested her cheek on her palm, looking at Tron with a serene gaze. Among them all, she knew better than anyone what Tron was capable of.

Whooooooooooooosh.

A few steps later, Adam was in front of Tron, bringing his hand back for the first slash.

'Oh, this feels good... It's one thing to fight in a virtual zone against Max without using abilities, but in a real fight, it's a different thing. I feel alive!'

Adam inwardly exclaimed, before clutching his needle tightly, bringing it down on Tron.

Tron smirked, slowly raising his right arm.

Crackle.

Short cracks went down the glass blade, and several shards flew off to the sides, passing in front of Tron's calm amethyst eyes.

Though his weapon was damaged from the initial clash, there was no look of alarm or surprise in his eyes.

"That's not all!" Adam exclaimed with a bright gleam in his eyes. He felt that he could destroy Tron's blade and even inflict a real wound on him.

Right now, Adam wanted to do that more than anything.

"Good fighting spirit." Tron pronounced with an excited expression.

But...

A moment later his face turned cold, devoid of any emotion.

Adam shuddered, an unnatural chill running through his body, but it was too late to stop the attack.

Step.

Tron stepped forward as he swung his blade right in front of Adam's face.

Instinctively, Adam tried to dodge, but his eyes went wide with the realization that Tron just hadn't hit him.

Could Tron have made a mistake and missed in a situation like this?

Adam hoped so, but deep down he knew it was impossible.

'No, there's something wrong here. Even when I was a K0-Phantom, I would have hit with such a simple attack.' Adam pondered.

Then, a few tiny flashes were reflected in his eyes.

Splash.

Three blood spurts rushed from his neck. Adam's eyes moved quickly to Tron's blade, hoping to find out what had happened through the reflection.

Shards of glass, the same ones that flew aside after Adam's first successful attack, were now deeply sunk into his neck.

After a moment, Adam realized he was having trouble breathing. The shards were small, but sharp and had hit one of the most vulnerable places in the human body.

"F... F-Fuck..." Adam grunted with one hand grasping his neck to take away the pain, while his right hand clutched tighter at the needle, wanting to finish his attack.

Tron shook his head, showing that it was the wrong decision in this situation.

Whooooooooooosh.

The glass blade swept upwards, effortlessly passing through flesh and blood.

Adam's head slowly turned, looking at the thick drops of blood flying in front of his face, the scene going on made his eyes go wide, filling with disbelief.

His right arm, slowly flew off to the side, severed from his body by a perfect cut.

But... there was something that made his mind completely forget about the bright pain and the feeling of losing getting stronger and stronger.

Two glass shards the size of a human finger flew near his hand, following the same momentum after Tron's swift swing that had severed Adam's arm.

Though everything seemed slow to Adam's eyes, in reality, these events happened within seconds, as Adam's hand hadn't even landed on the ground yet.

'These shards... can Tron control them? No, it doesn't look like it, if nothing changes they'll just fall to the ground next to my hand, but... then how did the past shards end up in my neck?' Adam pondered, trying to figure out how Tron's ability worked in the little time he had.

"Hey, where are you looking? Your opponent is right in front of you!" Tron said menacingly before swinging his blade once more, from bottom to top.

Splash.

A wide wound opened on Adam's chest, as splashes of blood rushed out, but it didn't catch Adam's attention. He stared intently at the two glass shards.

Turn.

Abruptly, as if at someone's command, the two shards turned in the same direction before flying upward.

Following their trajectory, the shards stabbed into Adam's side, bringing the bright pain.

However, his facial expression didn't show that he was consumed by agony, on the contrary, Adam was smiling contentedly. He looked as if he managed to solve a complex riddle in just a few tries, even if he had to sacrifice something for it.

'Oh, now I see... Hah, what a useful ability.'