MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

On a distant planet.

Baldor Ironhammer stood resolute, his posture unwavering, his presence composed, unshaken.

Yet, his opponent exuded an oppressive aura, a weight that pressed upon the very air.

A smirk, laced with contempt, curled upon the lips of the Eclipsian known as Ebonis.

"A dwarf? Of all the lesser races gathered here, I am to face you?"

His voice dripped with condescension, each word spoken as though addressing something utterly beneath him.

But Baldor did not dignify his words with a response.

Unlike most in his world, the exhilaration of battle held no allure for him.

He was a dwarf, after all.

His passion lay not in the clash of steel but in the art of smithing and crafting.

Nothing else mattered.

At this moment, there was no fire in his gaze, no insatiable hunger to test his limits in combat.

His only desire was to bring his hammer down upon an anvil.

For there, and only there, could he truly push himself to the edge.

If Baldor Ironhammer felt anything in this moment, it was mild frustration.

Frustration, because at last, he had found something worthy of study, only to be interrupted.

Yet, the frustration remained tempered, for dwarves possessed an almost infinite patience when it came to their craft.

Ebonis, observing the utter indifference in Baldor's expression, clicked his tongue in irritation.

"How arrogant"

Then, with a thunderous boom, Ebonis shot forward.

A deep ravine tore through the ground where his feet had been mere moments ago, a testament to the sheer force of his movement.

His Claymore, wreathed in Sword Intent, rose over his shoulder, poised for a devastating slash.

But before he could close the distance,

Something changed.

Space itself began to twist.

It spiraled inward, churning like a vortex, distorting reality in an unnatural dance.

Then it opened.

One. Ten. A hundred. A thousand.

With each passing moment, the number of spatial vortexes multiplied, their presence warping the battlefield into a maelstrom of instability.

From each swirling vortex, weapons of dazzling craftsmanship emerged—spears, arrows, swords, all shimmering with lethal Intent.

Then, with blinding speed and overwhelming force, they surged forward, converging upon a single target—Ebonis.

A tempest of blades descended.

All of it unfolding in the span of a heartbeat.

Ebonis frowned as he registered the incoming assault.

There was no choice, his attack had to be abandoned.

His movements shifted instantly, his feet gliding across the earth with the precision of a masterful dancer.

Barely making contact with the ground, he traversed vast distances in mere moments.

Then, his Claymore came alive, weaving through the storm of projectiles in intricate arcs, deflecting each deadly weapon with flawless precision.

His hand became a blur as he shifted into a passive defense, his sword moving with such speed and precision that it seemed to strike before his hand even completed its motion.

The onslaught was relentless.

Each deflected weapon, now stripped of purpose, crashed into the battlefield with violent force, carving craters and rending the earth apart.

But Ebonis knew he could not remain on the defensive forever.

The moment he found the slightest opening, a single breath, a fleeting rhythm, he seized it.

With a sudden burst, he surged forward, weaving through the barrage with effortless grace.

Not a single movement was wasted.

No excess.

No hesitation.

Only absolute, unerring precision.

In the blink of an eye, he was upon Baldor.

With lethal intent, his Claymore descended.

A strike honed to perfection, guided with an almost unnatural precision, slipping between Baldor's ribs with deadly inevitability.

But just as the blade was about to find its mark, a spear materialized from nowhere.

Clang!

Steel met steel in a cataclysmic collision, the sheer force of impact rupturing the earth and shattering the air with its fury.

The battlefield trembled as dust and debris erupted in all directions.

Ebonis' gaze flickered to the spear barring his path.

He clicked his tongue in irritation.

Yet again.

Baldor had not moved a single muscle since the battle began.

His talent was known as Spatial Vortex.

Yet, it did not grant him dominion over space itself.

Instead, it allowed him to create vortexes, gateways through which anything he had stored could be unleashed at will.

And Baldor, being a dwarf, had filled his vortexes with what he knew best, countless weapons, each honed to lethal perfection, their pointed edges raining down upon his foes like an unrelenting storm.

Every weapon he forged bore the mark of his craft, infused with Hammer Intent, making them all the more ferocious.

Coupled with his mastery over metal, it seemed like the perfect talent, unyielding, devastating, absolute.

And now, with nothing more than a flicker of control over a single weapon, a spear, Baldor had effortlessly deflected the incoming blow.

Before Ebonis could follow up with another strike, the spatial vortexes shifted.

Rearranging, converging, enclosing both him and Baldor within a prison of swirling space.

Then, once more, the storm began.

From every direction, an endless barrage of weapons poured forth, a relentless downpour of steel and death.

'Such an annoying skill'

The thought barely formed before Ebonis moved.

In an instant, he was gone, vanishing into motion, a living mirage of war.

His speed rendered skill irrelevant.

By the time the world reacted,

He was already somewhere else.

Baldor's eyes tracked his opponent, unwavering despite his own stillness.

He had yet to move, yet his guard remained ironclad.

He was well aware, there were always ways to bypass a Talent.

As afterimages of Ebonis flickered in and out of existence, Baldor ignored the illusions.

His gaze never wavered from the true body.

Then—

Ebonis smirked.

Baldor's eyes narrowed.

And in the next instant.

He vanished.

From behind, his own shadow Ebonis reappeared, Claymore in hand.

His blade sought the space between breaths.

That fleeting moment where death was absolute.

Baldor's muscles were never at rest.

Always tensed.

Always prepared.

Ready for the moment his opponent found a gap, a lapse in his relentless assault.

And when that moment came,

His body moved.

Instinct and reflex fused into seamless precision as he spun, reacting instantaneously.

His hammer shot forward, not in brute defiance, but with masterful accuracy.

A parry so precise that Ebonis' own blade was deflected straight toward his chest.

But Baldor did not stop.

He pressed forward.

His hammer swung once more, this time with immaculate force.

Hammer Intent roared around him, crackling through the air like a raging storm.

The very atmosphere detonated under the sheer momentum.

A comet of raw destruction hurtling toward Ebonis.

Ebonis readjusted his stance, his grip tightening.

Then, he slashed.

With a force that shattered the air itself, his blade met Baldor's hammer head-on.

The impact was deafening.

The world burned beneath the sheer might of their clash.

And then, they moved.

Each motion honed to perfection.

Baldor's hammer carved through the air with thunderous might, a force of nature given form.

Ebonis' Claymore, in contrast, was a streak of silver light, slicing through space with razor sharp precision.

The world blurred around them, reduced to nothing but speed, force, and will.

Sparks ignited the sky in breathtaking bursts of color, each clash a violent masterpiece.

Baldor's strikes were poetry, each swing a verse written in the ink of his unparalleled mastery.

Yet Ebonis was no less magnificent.

His blade never faltered, even beneath the storm of overwhelming force.

Every movement measured.

Every action refined.

Only pure, flawless swordplay.

Their battle had transcended mere combat, it had become an event, a force of nature reshaping the very world around them.

Each clash sent shockwaves tearing through the battlefield, dust spiraling into the heavens as if the earth itself recoiled from their power.

They moved with such relentless intensity that reality seemed to struggle to contain them.

Every strike left echoes in the air, imprints of raw force that refused to fade.

Their battle would not be remembered in mere words, but in the scars it carved upon the land itself.

Then suddenly,

Ebonis felt it.

Weapons streaking toward him from behind.

A silent executioner.

There was no time to hesitate.

No choice but to move.

Ebonis vanished, his form flickering into another location.

But Baldor had anticipated it.

As if moving in perfect harmony with fate itself, he was already there.

Before Ebonis could even react—

BOOM!

Baldor's hammer slammed into his chest with the force of a rampaging behemoth.

The impact was obliterating.

Like a broken kite caught in a storm, Ebonis was hurled backward, ribs fracturing under the sheer force.

His body crashed into a distant mountain, which promptly collapsed into rubble upon impact.

But Baldor was relentless.

He was already upon him.

His hammer streaked downward in a brutal follow up, aimed directly at Ebonis' skull.

He offered no reprieve.

No mercy.

But Ebonis would not grant Baldor that chance.

Ebonis melted into the shadows, vanishing without a trace.

But this time,

He did not reappear behind Baldor.

Instead, he emerged beside him, stepping forth from the shadow of a lone stone.

Then he moved.

With the precision of death itself.

His Claymore whispered through the air, an executioner's final verdict, racing toward Baldor's neck.

But.

Instead of the warmth of blood following the cut.

There was nothing.

The blade cleaved through empty space.

And before Ebonis could even register the deception,

BOOM!

The air detonated in his ears.

A deafening roar, the unmistakable sound of a hammer whistling toward him from the side.

Instinct screamed.

Ebonis reacted.

His Claymore snapped up in an instant, bracing for the impact.

Their weapons met with earth shattering force.

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A collision so intense it sent shockwaves tearing through the battlefield, distorting the very air around them.

The atmosphere shattered with raw, unchecked power.

'How?'

Ebonis' mind raced even as his grip tightened on his blade.

His gaze locked onto Baldor, searching for an answer.

Baldor's Talent.

He could teleport to anything that had once been within his Spatial Vortex.

At the very moment Ebonis' blade sought his neck,

Baldor had simply vanished.

Not through speed.

Not through illusion.

But by reappearing near a spear that had once been part of his arsenal.

A perfect evasion, followed by an immediate counterattack.