"Don\'t tell me that\'s all you\'ve got"

Valin responded by using the sand underneath him to give himself a slight push upwards, before landing his feet flat on the Emperor\'s chin, thoroughly wiping away his cocky smirk.

*BAM*

With a resounding tremor, the Emperor was pushed back a dozen meters, before stopping and immediately wiping away the blood at the edge of his lips.

Their surroundings were utterly devoid of anything but the soil as the booms from each and everyone of their attacks had blown everything afar.

As soon as the Emperor regained his footing, he shot forward once more, and unlike last time, Valin shot forward as well.

With his mind set on exchanging blood for bone, Valin struck out his claws, while the Emperor, still with his casual face, began spinning his weapon while lacing it with lightning.

The moment both sides met…

*Klang*Klang*Clang!*CRAA*Crackle!*BAM!*

Violent lightning struck the earth as massive foot stomps did their work with sparks flying about on all sides.

The ground shooked, cracked, cracked and cracked again at speeds faster than the average Master could follow.

And of course, this kept happening as they moved all over the place.

The Emperor\'s weapon could only make shallow scratches after coming in contact with Valin\'s silver skin, while Valin\'s strikes also failed to achieve anything noteworthy against the Emperor, with his body hidden behind all that armor.

But eventually, blood began to shower the earth as the Emperor finally got his weapon past Valin\'s silver skin and delivered a deep cut into Valin\'s shoulder.

With this injury, the Shredder showed its might.

Unlike normal blades that left clean cuts, this one cut like a saw, searing flesh and tearing it wider when pulled out.

At the same time, the Emperor\'s eyes widened in realization.

\'So that\'s how it is. Some parts of his skin are more hardened than others\'

Then a question popped up.

\'Can he control it?\'

He didn\'t debate on the topic and kept up his attacks.

With this, the battle that seemed equal began to become one sided as the Emperor kept testing how exactly the silver skin functioned and kept striking the first wound, making it deeper, and by applying lightning, cooking Valin\'s internals from the inside.

Nevertheless, Valin stood proud and buoyant as his attacks only became fiercer with each wound.

The Emperor\'s questions got answered when Valin decided to reinforce his claws as much as he could and completely neglected his defenses.

He figured that none of his attacks were getting through, and his hardened skin wasn\'t enough to resist the Shredder, so why not thoroughly increase his offense?

After all, wasn\'t offense the best defense?

But in front of the Emperor\'s armor that Valin had now confirmed to be far tougher than even the rumors said, his efforts bore nothing but mediocre results.

His claws succeeded in inflicting deeper marks on the Emperor\'s armor after countless strikes…but that was it.

His claws, even at their best, couldn\'t get past the Emperor\'s armor.

In the end, his cry of rage and madness turned to that of pain and unfairness.

After all, if he had known the Emperor was coming, he would have brought along his own armor and, more importantly, prepared thoroughly.

At the end of it all, Valin fell to his knees in a fit of exhaustion.

His body was now a complete mess with cuts all over. The cut in his shoulder was the most prominent as it constantly spilled blood and had now gotten so deep, it seemed his arm would fall off anytime soon.

Anything he could conjure up with sand had been virtually useless in the face of the Emperor\'s lightning.

And with his opponent being a Grandmaster as well, the unnatural healing Grandmasters were known for didn\'t offer much help.

Of course, the Emperor couldn\'t exactly call it an easy battle either as he was now hosting three slash marks right across his face.

The whole battle from start to finish took just ten minutes.

At the end of it, the Emperor didn\'t solicitize, nor did he sympathize with his enemy.

He offered a look of scorn and a few words-

"Die like the beast you are"

-before slowing imbuing lightning back into his weapon once more.

His arm bulged, with deadly accuracy, he lodged his sword into Valin\'s neck with a strike from his right.

The weapon broke through the defense of his silver skin like it wasn\'t even there in the first place and smashed into his throat.

*Keugh!*

Valin trembled.

The next instant, blood poured over his eyes while also filling his mouth.

Yet, in all this, his gaze never looked away from the Emperor, who stared back unperturbed.

With one smooth pull, the Emperor cleanly severed his head and had it fly four meters before dropping onto the ground.

The head rolled a bit and we see Valin holding a grief stricken face as the last expression he would ever have.

The headless body slumped to the ground seconds later.

Then, an unnatural atmosphere of utmost silence pervaded the air.

The Emperor stood still for a solid minute with his bloodied weapon resting on his shoulders as he stared at the body and at the surroundings.

And truly, the level of destruction they caused was on the level of a disaster.

Rocks, trees and dead bodies? All were blown afar.

Even the mountain shook more than once, causing boulder sized rubble to fall off from time to time.

Funny enough, this made their surroundings very clean, if you ignore the shattered ground, that is.

All the Emperor did was give a slight nod.

With this scene alone, it was evident why fights between Grandmasters were to be avoided.

But what was done was done.

For the Emperor, all this was inconsequential so long he got his hands on mana stones.

But first, there was a bounty to be taken.

With an outstretched palm, the Emperor dug into Valin\'s body and took out a bloodied round object the size of his fist from the right side of his chest.

Its bright yellow sheen shone through the blood, while its contents were obscured.

The Emperor didn\'t think too much of it, a beast core containing the abilities of a Grandmaster, and stored it onto his space ring.

After that, he took the space ring the Avillian King had on and, to finish it up, he took the body and sucked it into his space ring.

It would be very useful as research material in the future.

With that done, he shot inside the mountain immediately after.

—-------------------------

-Cavarl, along with the very few left sitting in the space located underneath the mountain-

The loud and booming tremors seemed to have stopped for about a minute, but no one moved because they couldn\'t be sure.

At this time…

*SOM*

All they saw was a flicker of white lightning and, in the next instant, the Emperor was standing in front of them, having put his weapon away back into his space ring.

Everyone bowed immediately after.

It was blasphemy to not pay respects to their ruler.

Some had their eyes go moist because they also understood that the Emperor had dealt with the Avillian King.

They would live on to tell the tale of this day. Their hopes had been fulfilled.

The Emperor spoke soon after…

"Where is the Master among you?"

Quickly, they all pointed to the side, where the body of Cavarl lay, still.

The Emperor arrived in front of him and found him unconscious, the amount of blood on his clothes told him enough already.

He removed a healing potion, one of high quality, and poured it into his mouth.

A burst of yellow light seconds later, and Cavarl awoke with a heavy gasp as his wounds closed up and cuts disappeared from his skin.

The Avillian King had something like this, but he didn\'t dare to even try using it while in the midst of a battle.

Such an act would\'ve most likely ended the fight much earlier, and of course, with his death.

Cavarl looked at the Emperor in astonishment as his skin glowed yellow, albeit just for a few seconds.

The moment it receded, Cavarl felt even weaker than ever before.

With another swipe of his hand, the Emperor emptied another potion in Cavarl\'s mouth, this one being blue in color.

Without waiting, the Emperor asked…

"Where are the mana stones?"

"In this mountain. They might know its exact location" Cavarl quickly muttered in a weakened tone as he pointed back to the group of people also there.

The Emperor\'s head tilted to the side a bit.

\'Hmm..?\'

Rather than getting angry, he put up a genuine smile.

For the first time in a long time.

\'I was used\'

The Emperor understood that he had been manipulated.

But one thing needed to be clear-

"Does that mean you\'re not sure that the stones are here?!"

-they had to be a limit to such nonsense.

The Emperor\'s aura flared up in an instant, as Cavarl immediately felt the impact.

It became hard to breathe.