Lord of Annihilation

Seeing Lucius' figure suddenly vanish, Olivia's gaze sharpened and wary. This was the first time that Olivia had seen him use this move during their duels. 

'Where is he?' she thought to herself.

"Your eyes can only see so much, never always rely on it." Lucius' bland voice, sounded out from all around her. 

Hearing his advice, Olivia inhaled sharply. Closing her eyes, she spread out her soul power into the surroundings. She was trying to use her soul power to feel, Lucius' presence.

'He is....Above me!!' the very next second, Olivia felt a ripple in the air above her. Immediately moving her body, she rolled forwards.

Slash!

A white palm, infused with an overwhelming amount of soul power cut through the air, where she was previously standing. It cut through the empty air and disappeared once more. Olivia had escaped definite death, by a hairs-breadth.

'That was close.' she thought in trepidation, her body faintly shaking from fear. Lucius was holding nothing back.

"Is your weapon simply for show? Use it!" an indifferent voice bellowed. Olivia snapped out of her thoughts and quickly stood up.

Slowing moving backward, she intently observed her surroundings. Holding the sword in her hand with a tense grip, she waited for Lucius' attack.

'Lucius is using his [Void Step] skill. During the time of its activation, he is not present in this world but enters a special dimension. I cannot attack him during this time.' she quickly analyzed.

Over the past few months, Olivia's combat experience had undergone a huge change. Under Lucius' personal guidance and adding onto her personal talent, she had rapidly matured as a fighter.

'However, there is some issue with him over these past few days. He doesn't seem to be able to control his abilities perfectly. Therefore, to win, I must simply draw out the time and exhaust him.' A brilliant light shone within her eyes.

With a proper battle strategy in her mind, she started to move. Her mind was completely focused on her surroundings for she dared not to miss any signs of his attack. If she was to be distracted, she would definitely die.

Olivia also did not dare to remain in a single space. Taking short steps, she continued to move around the battlefield. 

Time kept ticking by and there was no movement from Lucius. A layer of sweat had formed atop Olivia's brows and her clothes were entirely drenched, sticking to her body. Her hands finally shook in nervousness, as the pressure continued to build within her mind.

'Why isn't he attacking?' she wondered. In their battles before this, Lucius either continuously attacked forcing her to defend, or let her attack and continuously defended. This time, was obviously different.

'Come on! Where are you?!' Panic started to appear within her heart. 

An enemy whom you can see wasn't very scary. However, an enemy who doesn't appear is one of the scariest. 

Just when the pressure within her mind reached a tipping point, Olivia suddenly felt the threat of death behind her. Her mind blanked in fear, but her body moved with instinct. 

Instantly making a clockwise turn, Olivia instinctively raised her hands holding the sword. At the very next instant, she felt an enormous amount of force hit her sword.

CLANG!

The sharp sound of metal clashing against metal was heard. By now, Olivia had already regained her senses and recognized the attack. Feeling the enormous weight pushing against her, she grit her teeth and held onto her sword.

'I cannot drop this!' she constantly reminded herself. The sword was the only thing between her body and Lucius' attack. Large amounts of violet-colored soul power were continuously pumped into her hands.

However, the pressure from the other side did not seem to decrease. In fact, she started to feel the weight on her hands faintly increasing gradually.

"AHHHH!" along with a fierce shout, Olivia's eyes exploded with a bright violet radiance. Visible soul power started to manifest around her hands and slowly crept onto the sword. Inch by inch, a violet light covered the body of the sword, approaching all the way to the tip.

A beam of sharp violet light shot off from the sword, towards her opponent. The very next second, Olivia felt the pressure and weight disappear.

"Very good. You have learned to use blade energy." along with the disappearance of the force pressuring her, she heard an indifferent voice.

Opening her clenched eyes, she stared at the figure standing before her. Just as she was about to ask him what was blade energy, Olivia felt her body rapidly lose power. Collapsing onto the ground, she was shocked to find that her soul power was completely exhausted.

Lucius simply watched as Olivia fell to the ground. Looking at the expression of shock on her face, he continued.

"Your control over your blade energy is very weak. That is why your soul power was completely exhausted," he explained.

Slowly moving her mouth, Olivia questioned in a hoarse voice: "What is blade energy?"

Hearing her question, Lucius did not reply. He walked towards her and picked up the metal sword from the ground. Holding it in his hand, he casually waved it. 

A curved, black blade of energy suddenly flew from the edge of the sword and hit the adjacent wall. Immediately, a deep scar formed atop the metallic wall. The blade of energy was so sharp that, it had almost cut all the way to the other side of the wall.

Seeing this move, Olivia's eyes widened in shock. She immediately turned silent. Lucius for his part also remained silent. 

Actually, this wasn't the first time Lucius was using blade energy. He had used this move tens of dozens of times against the army of alien bugs. The sharp reddish-black blades of energy that shot from his scythe were a type of blade energy.

"This is one of the basic moves of a Spellblade. By the end of this month, you will learn to use it with the same proficiency." Lucius instructed.

"We shall end our session here. Once you recover your soul power, start practicing." saying so, Lucius immediately turned around and left. He obviously did not forget to leave behind the sword.

Olivia laid on the floor with her arms spread out. Her mind kept replaying the scene of Lucius casually 'throwing' that blade energy. 

'That was....so cool! He was so cool! Ahh!!' Olivia exclaimed in her mind. 'I need to learn this move quickly so that I can impress him!' her eyes burned with the fires of motivation.

-------------------

Meanwhile, Lucius was walking unsteadily back to his room. 

'Dammit! The hunger within me is increasingly becoming severe!' he clenched his fists, so tightly that his nails pierced into his skin and blood started to leak.

'I must stop using my racial skill. At this rate....'

'NO!' Lucius shook his head.

'How can I lose control over such a trivial desire?' he raised his head and stared into the empty space before him.

Biting his tongue, Lucius used the sharp pain to alert his mind: 'I control my power. Power does not control me. Mere hunger cannot stop me.' 

Forcing himself to stand up straight, Lucius suppressed his hunger. With firm steady steps, he started to slowly walk forward.

----------------

Three more weeks passed similarly.

Olivia's control over her blade energy had improved by a large degree. Using it right now, she could continuously send out a dozen slashes. Her control over these blades of energy was also passable. Apart from this, she also started to practice sword swinging and slashing.

Lucius had taught her the basics of the sword and guided her during her training. All sorts of basic sword movements and footwork were drilled into her body until it became an instinct.

Though. their duels with each other had gradually begun to decrease, as Lucius found it harder and harder to control his desires. If it had been anyone else in his position, they would have long since lost themselves to their desires and turned into a mindless beast. However, Lucius' will was not that easy to break.

Still, the color of his eyes had started to change and his skin had also begun to slowly turn grey. His control over his void energy had also started becoming chaotic. He could faintly feel the 'Beserk' state of the Void Eater taking over.

During these past weeks, he had randomly attacked Olivia dozens of times. Fortunately, Olivia's combat ability had improved by a large extent and she was able to fight back until Lucius regained control. 

Nevertheless, Lucius had to devour something. Suppressing his desire was only delaying the inevitable.

He had to eat!

Looking at the pale, shivering body of Lucius as he fiercely bit into his lips, Olivia felt a heart-wrenching pain.

"Are you feeling better now?" she hesitantly asked.

Other than being able to provide some verbal support, Olivia found herself helpless to act. She couldn't ask Ka'lor'ah either, for the latter was still in slumber. She truly did not know what to do.

'No matter how hard I train. When it matters, I'm still useless!' Olivia admonished herself. An indescribable feeling of guilt and loathe towards herself, filled her heart.

Just as she was about to ask Lucius another question, a mechanical voice was heard through the ship's speaker.

{Target planet detected. Fuel cells insufficient for landing. Please brace yourself for impact}