Lord Shadow

The sound of the air ripping and the booms accompanied each strikes and movement from both Loki and Sasha.

Her sword seems to also imitate the personality of its user. 

The sword method of Sasha, is quick and nimble, light and breezy, yet hidden in this breezy moves lies danger

Suddenly turning, suddenly rising, the sword seems to be able to fly, countering myriad changes, deflecting thousands of attacks, moving in every direction, making it difficult for the opponent to defend against

her sword is like a flying phoenix. 

If this is anyone else, they would probably had lost against Sasha in the first few hundred exchanges. 

Yet, it is precisely because it is Loki, that her sword moves did not work as intended

Her dazzling moves broken with one simple strike. Her fluttering and agitating attack is ignored, each unpredictable attack become predictable.

There is something that the whole world doesn’t know about Loki. 

A secret only known to a select few like that of Yewa Hafar and people who came from the same era as him.

Loki is a person most proficient in Karma. 

To be proficient in karma, you have to be proficient in calculations. This is unlike the calculation of math, of created numbers by mortals to make sense of the Universe

The calculation of Karma is the calculations of probability. It touches upon fate and destiny. Of time and Space. 

Loki greatest abilities is not that he mastered all kinds of magic or that he had learned as much runes as possible for an outsider of the Asgard, but that he had the ability to calculate certain trajectories of fate and destiny

Compared to the calculations of such intangible concepts, how hard could it be for him to calculate the unpredictable sword moves of Sasha?

A sword technique is just a sword technique after all, just like a saber technique is just a saber technique

the changes in sword technique are always at the end of a movement. 

Ages have passed and all kinds of swordsman have put thought into this. There is nothing new about sword technique under the heaven. 

No matter what change it is, it had long been predicted. Since it is something that could be predicted, Loki could surely see through it.

Even when her attack is full of tapping and stabbing, he broke it. 

When the sword thrust forward, he cut forward. When it tries to absorb the force of his strike, he pushed even more forward.

none of her stealth and concealment methods could hide under Loki gaze. Her sword method is quick and nimble, light and breezy, so Loki inverse it.

His saber method forces her to slow her attack, put heaviness in his strike, slowly breaking the pace that she had forcefully recovered

He lifts his saber when Sasha wanted to bring down her sword, he hooks the sword with his saber to direct the sword, he slashes across when she tries to stab and at times he even throws a few of blast of compressed air toward her by using his environment.

The sword and the saber is their feet and hand, yet it is no different than real sabers and swords. 

Loki uses all the basic moves of saber technique, from hacking, forward and downward, chops to the left and right, a move called throwing, propping the saber, hanging the saber, raising, seeking, and stabbing

All of it is used to deal with the diverse sword method performed by Sasha.

Loki could no longer did what he did before where he created a knife intent that seems able to split the Heavens and Earth apart but that did not mean his saber intent is weak. 

The battle between them had only been one minutes but tens of thousands of moves had been exchanged and all kinds of principles of swords and sabers were exchanged in that one minute

What is more remarkable that both of them still remains vigorous after all that exchange. Then another explosion sounded as both of them jump backward from each other

The explosion did not spread out. 

Instead it surges toward the sky and when it reached one hundred feet, this force dissipated when it hit the height of the dome.

On top of the dome, there is now a slight crack like it has been cut by something. The cut is deep but fortunately after a moment, the formation reassemble itself 

On the ground below, now that they stopped for a second, that one could see their figures. 

When they were fighting, no one could see them as the only thing they could see was the effect and blast of air that appears because of their clash.

Loki is in fighting stance. His three-piece suit had scratches and holes all over. 

His fedora also had disappeared. His sunglasses are cracked and his leather shoes seems to be worn down. 

One might think that the clothing of Loki is real fabric but it is actually made of magic items. 

It is only their exterior appearance that was changed by some kind of magic that made it look like it is a three-piece suit. 

But his three-piece suit right now is in a terrible condition

As for Sasha, a few kilometers away from Loki, she also had holes in her clothes. 

But it is larger and there is huge tear in her robe that reveal her skin. Almost half of the lower part of her clothes were torn apart. 

One could see the lower part of her breast. 

Though, one would not necessarily have their eyes trained on it because of the ghastly golden blood that is dripping from the gashes on her stomach and her chest.

She immediately changes her clothes to a white one. While certain energy could not be used, she still has a few Clothing Pills in her possession.

Clothing Pills only manipulate space and the energy is minimal enough that it would not activate the restriction formation.

But while she could hide what happen to her attire, one could see bruises all over her hands and her face. 

Blood is dripping from the edges of her mouth. There is a deep gash on her feet and there is a small hole on her back, like she was drilled by something

All in all, she did not look good. 

Compared to Loki, it is clear that Sasha had been beaten up by Loki in that brief clash 

Loki then release his breath and put his hand behind his back, his eyes look toward Sasha, staring at each other. 

At the same time, he taps his wristwatch behind his back

The wristwatch has no pointer. But as he tapped it, the symbols in the wristwatch seems to rearrange itself into a pointer.

It became a pointer and it pointed to a direction. The moment it became like that, Loki senses the changes of the wristwatch and he smiles. 

Then he became even more relaxed.

He looks at Sasha and said

‘Cease this’ he said to Sasha. Sasha only sneer. 

‘I underestimated you…again’ she said. Loki chuckles as he said

‘This is not the first time people had underestimated me. And it would not be the last time. Hide a bit of your power and abilities and people would always make the wrong estimation of yourself. My brother on the other hand….’ And Loki sighed a bit as he shakes his head

‘Well, he is different. He kind of need to shows his strength. Since he is the deterrent force for other forces. But you and me, it is better to let people never get the true grasp of our method. Just giving you some of my advice.’

‘It still won’t change anything’ Sasha said as she pours down a few pills down her throat. Her injuries slowly recover.

‘I have all the time in the world. I can do this all day’ she said. 

‘But, I don’t’ Loki said with a smile before he suddenly looks up toward the sky

Unconsciously Sasha also look up. Then she widened her eyes in surprise. It is not always that the leader of the Shadow Guards gets surprised. 

The clear sky suddenly is filled with dark clouds. These dark clouds are clearly not something natural. It is like it appeared suddenly and formed from the energy of the world.

And inside these dark clouds, she could see slithering amidst the clouds, is slithering arc of lightning.

The sky roars with the sound of thunder and illuminated the dark clouds with flashes of lightning

But if that is all, it would not shock her that much. Instead, it is because the color of the slithering arcs of lightning that causes her to be shocked

It is red. The lightning is red. And she could see small red thunderbolts explodes up in the dark clouds.

And then a sound of explosion sounded that shakes the Heavens. It is almost like the Heaven is roaring toward the Earth

And then something seems to come out from the dark clouds.

BOOOOM!

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