Lucas and Alicia stood on the stage facing each other for the first semi final.
Many of the factions eager to recruit Lucas had their eyes fixed on him. Although he had not used any flashy techniques or even his elemental power, the control he had displayed over his sword had been incredibly captivating. They wanted to gauge the full extent of his abilities and this battle was golden opportunity for it.
As per her established strategy, Alicia flew up into the air. Lucas did not react and he remained grounded in a casual manner.
Alicia frowned at his inaction. They stared at each other for a few moments, but neither made the first move.
Finally, impatience got the better of Alicia, and she conjured a pillar of fire, launching it towards Lucas.
Lucas remained unfazed and at the last moment, he vertically slashed his sword, producing a sharp sword beam that cleanly split the pillar of fire in two.
The sword beam did not immediately dissipate but continued its trajectory as it rushed towards Alicia.
She dodged the beam, but before she could gather her thoughts, Lucas slashed his sword again, sending a faster sword beam towards her.
Alicia reacted quickly to evade it, but the beam still grazed her right arm.
Her expression turned grim. Her aerial position, instead of providing an advantage, seemed to hinder her maneuvering. In mid air, the movement she could make were limited. Her movement technique was not that suitable for fast maneuverer in air.
Thus, she landed back on the stage. With the speed of Lucas' sword beam, she had lost the advantage of her flight. It was a better option for her to remain on ground and conserve her spiritual energy, ensuring full access to her spiritual energy reserves. She could feel in her bones that this was going to be a tough battle.
After staring at Lucas intently for a few moments, she declared, "I will use my strongest move. If you withstand this one, you would be the winner."
Her words were followed by the manifestation of an enormous firebird phantom. The phantom was the same as the one she had used against Leo, but this time it was far more vivid, and the spiritual energy radiating from it was significantly denser.
Lucas's expression didn't change in the slightest. He pointed his sword. At that moment, fire element began to dance around his body. He had decided to reveal his fire element publicly.
His fire element was incredibly potent. Compared to his, Alicia's fire element was like a mere spark before a raging inferno. For the first time, surprise flickered across her face.
The element gathered behind Lucas, and an enormous sword phantom materialized.
This was 'Devouring Sword Strike,' a technique Lucas had obtained from Amden.
As the name suggested, it devoured spiritual energy, weakening the opponent's strike. While its spiritual energy devouring capacity was limited and dependent on the user's skill, it was still a formidable technique.
To the spectators, although they were awed by the sword phantom, they did not truly grasp its power.
Only a rare few at the highest levels of power understood the power behind this technique. For many of them, this level of power was nothing, but the fact that Lucas, at his young age, had created such a thing made their hearts palpitate.
The firebird and the sword phantom hurtled towards each other. But the moment they collided; it was nothing like the massive explosion everyone had anticipated.
Instead, Lucas' sword strike cleanly cut through the bird, as easily as a hot knife slicing through butter. The sword cleaved the bird in two and absorbed all the spiritual energy of the bird into itself, continuing its trajectory.
It stopped just short of Alicia.
Lucas didn't say anything. He waved his hand, the phantom disappeared, and he jumped off the stage.
Alicia's expression briefly turned to dejection, but she quickly regained her composure and also descended from the stage.
The audience was completely dazed by the battle technique Lucas had used. Even if it was powerful enough to cleave the bird in two, how could he possibly absorb the spiritual energy of the firebird? Just what kind of technique was that?
At that time, Lucas had the maximum attention any person could have had.