The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 612 - 97 - Creating A Portal To Another World (5)

We stood outside the cave, surrounded by soldiers, their weapons trained on me like a pack of wolves waiting for their prey to make a mistake. The tension in the air was suffocating, thick enough to cut with a blade.

Zes stood before me, gripping a long knife with the ease of a veteran. Her stance was impeccable, sharp and refined—the stance of a true killer. Not a single opening. Her muscles tensed, ready to explode into movement at any second. Her eyes locked onto me, filled with the cold, calculating focus of someone who had danced with death more times than she could count.

In contrast, I held Ayuru at my side, her familiar weight grounding me. She pulsed in my grip, drinking in my mana, a silent exchange between weapon and wielder.

Zes tilted her head slightly, her lips curving into a smirk. "Let's make the rules clear." Her voice was steady, firm—filled with the kind of confidence that only came from absolute belief in one's own strength. "Victory will be decided when one of us can no longer fight."

She lifted her chin slightly. "If I win, you die. You won't resist, you won't run. You'll stand there like a good little corpse while my soldiers turn you into a bullet-ridden husk."

A cold smile. "Understand?"

"Fine," I replied, my voice even. "But if I win, you let me walk away. No tricks, no interference."

Her smirk widened. "That's the deal."

Then—the air shifted.

Zes lowered her stance, and an unsettling aura poured off of her, distorting the air around her like ripples on the surface of a still lake.

She was about to explode.

I recognized that sensation—the unmistakable pressure of an opponent who had transcended normal limits.

Her fingers curled around her knife, the tension in her body coiling like a spring pulled to its absolute limit.

A beast waiting to be unleashed.

"Let's get this festival started, shall we?" she said, her voice carrying a razor-sharp edge.

I nodded and lowered into my stance. It looked relaxed—too relaxed. To an untrained eye, I was wide open, an easy target. But the truth was, every muscle in my body was wound tight, ready to react at a moment's notice.

Zes's sharp eyes flickered, taking me in from head to toe.

Then, she frowned.

She hadn't found an opening.

Her tongue flicked across her lips, her excitement barely restrained. "Interesting…" she murmured.

For a fleeting moment, something about the way she looked at me—the hunger in her eyes, the unshaken confidence... reminded me of Trill.

But that had to be a mistake.

Zes wasn't Trill. I must have missed Trill so much that I was reminded of Zes.

She was raw, untamed power. No mind games. No tricks. Just brutal, overwhelming force.

"I will oversee this match as the referee," Zoey announced suddenly, stepping forward. Her voice was steady, but there was a tension in it, like she was forcing herself to stay calm.

She raised a hand. "When I lower this hand, the match will begin. The victor will be decided when one of you is no longer able to fight. Both of you must abide by the winner's terms. Anyone who refuses will be punished under the laws of dueling."

Her words echoed in the silence.

Then, she inhaled deeply, her fingers trembling just slightly as she looked at me.

For just a moment, I saw it—the flicker of worry in her eyes.

I met her gaze, offering her the only reassurance I could.

"I got this," I mouthed.

She hesitated—then, with a sharp exhale, she dropped her hand.

The fight began.

Zes and I launched forward at the same time.

The moment we closed the distance—steel screamed against steel.

Neither of us held back.

A whirlwind of slashes.

A storm of death.

Her attacks came at me like lightning, each strike faster than the last. Her blade blurred through the air—too fast for the eye to follow. The only thing visible was the streaking afterimages left in their wake.

But I met her strike for strike.

I read her movements, anticipating each attack with razor-sharp precision. My blade moved in perfect sync, intercepting her slashes before they could land. But I wasn't just defending. I pressed forward, attacking in the same breath.

Zes's knife snapped up, meeting my strikes with effortless fluidity.

Our blades clashed—a shower of sparks erupted between us.

Her eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise breaking through her smirk.

Then—her grin returned, wider than before.

She was enjoying this.

Our blades clashed again, the force of impact sending a shockwave through the air. Sparks flared, illuminating the darkened battlefield in fleeting bursts of light.

And then, we moved faster.

Zes lunged, her knife carving a deadly arc through the air. I twisted, my body reacting on instinct, Ayuru meeting her blade with a resounding clang. The moment our weapons made contact, we both pushed forward, our strength colliding like two raging storms.

The wind howled around us as our footwork became a blur. Neither of us yielded. Each step, each movement, was calculated—a dance of death where a single misstep meant the end.

Her slashes came from every angle, unpredictable and relentless. I countered each one, matching her pace, my strikes meeting hers in perfect rhythm. Faster. Stronger. Sharper.

The soldiers surrounding us had fallen silent, their eyes struggling to keep up with our movements.

Then, Zes smirked. And she sped up.

Her attacks became a storm—an overwhelming barrage of steel and precision. The force of her blows sent tremors through my arms, pushing me back step by step. I adjusted my stance, shifting my weight to absorb the impact, my body adapting to the rhythm of her strikes.

Then, I smirked back. And I sped up too.

My slashes became sharper, faster, more unpredictable. I twisted and countered, shifting my angles mid-swing, forcing Zes to adjust as well. Our blades met again, the impact sending out a shockwave that kicked up dust and debris around us.

The battlefield blurred.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Our weapons clashed again and again, the echoes of metal against metal ringing out like a relentless drumbeat. Each strike sent sparks flying, lighting up our faces in flashes of silver and red.

Zes grinned wildly, eyes gleaming with exhilaration. "Now this... this is what I was looking for!"

Her movements became sharper, more refined—like a beast that had finally found its prey.

But I wasn't the prey.

I was the hunter too.

Our fight escalated.

Steel flashed, bodies twisted, footsteps blurred. The force of our blows sent gusts of wind tearing through the battlefield, rustling the cloaks of the silent onlookers. Neither of us held back.

A downward slash—I parried. A sudden feint—I countered.

We clashed again—this time with such force that both of us were momentarily knocked back.

We skidded to a stop, breathing heavy but grinning, our eyes locked in a silent challenge.

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And then we charged again.

***

Zoey's POV

The battlefield trembled with the clash of steel. Sparks ignited in the air, flickering like fireflies as blades met and parted in a violent dance. The very air rippled with each strike, each parry, as though space itself was struggling to contain the sheer force of their battle.

I had never seen anything like this before.

This wasn't just a fight. This was war distilled into its purest form—lethal, precise, unrelenting.

Leon and Lieutenant Zes moved at speeds that defied logic, their forms blurring with each motion. One mistake. One misstep. And Leon would be dead.

And yet...

Through the relentless storm of blades, through the whirlwind of death that surrounded him—Leon was smiling.

His movements, once cautious, were now bold. His strikes, once measured, were now sharp and decisive. He was keeping up. No—he was pushing forward. The infamous Zes, the strongest woman in this world, was being matched.

Their weapons clashed again, the shockwave blasting dust into the air, momentarily obscuring my vision. I squinted, straining my eyes to follow. But it was impossible.

Their hands, their arms—they were moving faster than I could see. Every flicker of steel was there one second and gone the next, only to reappear in an entirely different position.

Too fast.

My gaze darted back and forth, desperately trying to track the fight. I was watching them, yet I couldn't truly see them. The moment I caught sight of a movement, it was already over. It was like trying to grasp lightning with bare hands.

Then, before I even realized it, my lips parted, and a voice—not my own, but something raw and unfiltered—spoke.

"Leon... Go..."

The words tumbled out, soft, almost breathless.

I didn't even know why I said it. I didn't understand what I felt.

But I knew one thing for certain—Leon's presence had changed something in me.

I didn't want him to die.

No, more than that—

I wanted him to live.

I wanted him to stay with me.

Something swelled in my chest, overwhelming and impossible to contain. And then—I shouted.

"Go!"

My voice tore through the battlefield, loud, desperate, filled with something even I couldn't name.