A Demon's Journey

Noah attacked his opponent with the "Seven Slash Monarch Technique."

As the name indicated, Noah had already launched seven long-ranged slashes at his counterpart. These sword slashes were filled with powerful sword qi as it swiftly made its way towards his adversary.

Noah noticed his adversary reacting quickly to those sword slashes.

"Nimble Coil."

Noah's enemy rotated his body as he moved forwards towards those incoming sword slashes.

A sword slash suddenly appeared around his body as it deflected the Seven Slashes launched by Noah.

'That is the same technique as mine! Also, his speed appears to be the same as mine. Along with the strength of his Sword Qi.'

Noah noticed that his adversary was approaching him quickly. He was immediately on the move as he charged forwards with another technique named "Hell Thrust."

While he was using the move to strike his adversary, Noah was thinking 'He will dodge by twisting to the side and then strike me using a Long Range technique, I can attack him at that moment.'

Noah's adversary did twist his body in mid-air and dodge the Hell Thrust technique. Noah had correctly anticipated his opponent's actions.

But instead of using a long-ranged technique, his opponent used Phantom Step to get closer to Noah.

It was a simple vertical slash.

Noah barely managed to move his sword and parry that strike. He then used a quick diagonal slash from above to attack his enemy.

But his adversary moved extremely quickly and parried it with a diagonal slash from below.

Their swords clashed and produced sparks.

'He is my complete copy. It was laughable for me to think I could outsmart him. Master's trial wouldn't be so simple.'

Noah was extremely serious as he launched an attack with his Wind Blades. These Wind Blades targeted his adversary while he applied more Sword Qi to push back his opponent.

In return, his opponent jumped away. Since Noah had the initiative, if he attacked him with that same attack, then he would be the one to lose out. He could calculate that and took action to prevent it.

Noah didn't continue his attack. He waited for a short period as he knew that if he continued attacking like that then he would be the one to fall short of Ardor first.

In fact, there was no guarantee that this guy had the same amount of Ardor as him. If this guy was supplied Ardor by the array around them then no matter how hard he fought against him, he would be defeated.

He had to fight intelligently.

~~

The situation was the same on the other training grounds. In fact, it was much worse than Noah's situation.

Laura, Yrellea, Ralph, and Tiana were so startled at this trial that they lost the initiative. This allowed their counterparts to launch an attack and they were fighting as hard as they could to barely survive.

It wasn't that their opponents were extremely powerful. They possessed the same about of power, ability, techniques, and reaction speed as them. And most importantly, they remained calm during the fight.

Once their adversaries seized the initiative, they could deal with those attacks in an efficient manner.

Laura, Ralph, Yrellea, and Tiana, weren't good enough at handling pressure or their emotions. If they were losing a fight, their morale would pummel and they would be depressed.

It was well known that when the morale was low, a warrior wouldn't be thinking of a way to counterattack. He would be praying for luck.

It was said that "Luck is granted to those who make effort." This saying wasn't wrong.

Only those individuals who actually make the effort would reach a point where their results would be dependent on luck.

Luck was an intangible subject. But in a fight, it could be considered to exist. To prove it was simple.

Suppose a warrior attacks an enemy. Now… The warrior does not know how his opponent will deal with his attack. He could counter, dodge, or block, in a rare case be careless and get hit by that attack.

The probability of success in your favor was luck. If the opponent was hit by that attack, then the warrior was lucky. And if he counter-attacked then it was bad luck.

There were many instances that this occurs within a fight.

If an attack luckily hits the opponent and deal with their raging momentum then what occurs next is a complete reversal of the situation.

However, none of the four experienced this.

The one person who did experience this was Sargan. Unlike Laura and others, he remained calm and continued to think of a way to deal with his opponent.

He knew that if his opponent was based on himself then he couldn't be perfect. He was bound to make mistakes as well.

Even if the situation was extremely unfavorable to himself, he had to remain focused and look for that small opportunity that could make the difference.

He had to believe in himself that he could hold on. That he could win this fight until the end.

Once he loses that belief, then the battle was as good as over.

However, there was one thing he did share with his comrades. He lost just as they did.

~~

Azaroth was feeding his blood essence as he created a Blood-Forging Altar of Creation. He was careful to control the blood essence he released from his body. He didn't want to accidentally lose so much blood essence that he would fall back to the 4 Star Rank.

Even though he could recover using some energy sources, it was best to not take such a risk.

He sensed that Laura was throw out of her trial. Soon, Ralph, Yrellea, and Tiana were thrown out.

The order in which they lost to their trials was quite expected. Among them, Laura and Ralph were the ones who were very emotional. Yrellea was emotional but it was mainly romantically attachment to him than impulsive emotions.

Tiana was normally the calmest among them but even she was quite startled that she had to fight against herself. Still among the four, she had survived for the longest time in the trial.

The next one who was thrown out was Sargan. He looked very upset. While fighting, he had nearly grasped the opportunity to win but at that time, his opponent countered relentlessly and somehow managed to win.

He was quite frustrated that he couldn't win even though the situation was completely favorable to him. He felt as if he had made a huge blunder!

It wasn't wrong for him to think along these lines.

This was indeed what occurred after all.

Lastly, the one who lost was Noah.

He had fought against his counterpart for nearly 7 hours. He lost only because his energy was exhausted. However, he didn't look frustrated.

He looked confident… Confident that he could beat this trial next time.

He had been in many favorable and unfavorable situations within these 7 hours. Sometimes on the offense or on the defense.

And after fighting for so long, he now knew the trick to defeat his opponent. Thus, he was confident that he would be able to defeat him the next time.

Once they were all out of their trials, Azaroth gathered them all in his new training ground.

He asked them, "What was the reason for your defeat?"

Laura replied with an unhappy look, "You didn't tell us that we will be fighting ourselves, master. If we knew then we would have prepared properly."

Azaroth glanced at her and asked, "How would have prepared properly even if I told you that you were about to be your own opponents?"

"I…I would have…" Laura swallowed her words and soon turned silent. As she thought about it, there was actually nothing she could do.

Her counterpart possessed the same things she did. Whether it was a weapon or anything else.

Even if she prepared for a special attack, it would be known by her opponent as well. There was actually nothing she could do.

"Let me answer you then. If I informed you about your opponent then perhaps you would have prepared yourself mentally. However, what if you overthought about it and began to wonder about your own abilities? There was an even greater chance you would lose confidence in your ability to fight against your counterparts. All I could do was ensure you wouldn't lose before even attempting the trial," Azaroth solemnly replied.

Laura was deeply embarrassed when Azaroth responded to her in front of everyone. But again, she found out she couldn't blame Azaroth for this.

He had already been generous enough not to rebuke her anymore. This realization only made her more embarrassed.

In reality, no one thought about it that much. This was more or less natural during their meetings.

It had become so frequent that no one paid a second thought to it. Well, everyone other than Laura that is.

"So, answer my question. What was the reason for your defeat?" Azaroth asked with a calm expression.

Tiana, Ralph, and Yrellea were the ones who replied first.

"I lost my calm."

"I was frustrated that he was using my techniques and countering all my attacks."

"I felt that I couldn't win no matter how hard I tried."

Azaroth had expected such responses from them. He then turned towards Sargan. He wondered what response he had. Even he didn't know how they did in the trials. He was only able to make guesses according to their character.

Sargan replied after thinking for a minute, "I lost because of luck."

Azaroth then turned towards Noah. Noah replied almost immediately, "I lost because of the exhaustion of my energy."

Just as Azaroth was about to turn his gaze away and say something else, Noah added, "But don't worry master, I will definitely win the next time. I know the trick to beat my opponent."

Noah spoke with such confidence that even Azaroth turned towards him in surprise.

'A trick to deal with his opponent? Impossible. The Devil Heart Manifestation Array can't have an obvious weakness. Noah's trial is the hardest because his opponent possesses the Enlightened Sword Heart as well. He tries to make sure his attacks have few or almost zero errors. So where is Noah's confidence coming from? He wouldn't lie to me.'

He asked with a curious look, "What's the trick?"

Noah spoke with a proud look, "I noticed that whenever I get stronger, my opponent can't react at the same time. In fact, if not for the fact that I had completely exhausted my energy at the end, I would have won."

When Azaroth heard Noah, he was completely speechless. He stared at Noah as if he was a rare monster.

He resisted the urge to facepalm himself and thought 'This array definitely doesn't work for a fucking monster. It's impossible to remove this error from the array. Even the array will take some time to analyze your new capability and then copy it and incorporate it within your opponent. But you think everyone has the same talent like you and can improve as quickly as you?!'

Azaroth was slightly frustrated because he understood just how great Noah's talent was. Even the Forbidden Devil Heart Manifestation Array from Purgatory had reached its limits in testing Noah. The trick Noah found could only work because he was a monstrous talent.

Azaroth could only helplessly pat Noah's head, "…Good job."

Noah was somewhat bashful as Azaroth patted his head but he was delighted. He thought that if he passed that trial, his master would be even more joyful.

He was suddenly filled with an extreme desire to fight and pass that trial.

Even Sargan was thinking along the same lines as Azaroth.

'…He really is a monster. He can't be judged with common sense.'

"Master, I also know a way to defeat my opponent," Sargan spoke with a serious voice.