Ruler's Awakening: Inheritor of the SSS-Rank Dimensional Talent

Annie stepped inside with confidence. The man named Jasper was waiting with an activated talent, the Lightning Talent.

"Oh, don't you know a strong one is a feared one?" asked Annie, stopping as she brought out her magic sword.

'There it is. Annie's sword manifestation talent,' said Aaron.

"Leader Francesca never taught me to fear anyone," said Jasper.

Nicole stepped from the other direction towards the center of the arena. He came to initiate a battle between Annie and Jasper.

People started cheering, bets were placed, and support was given to their champion.

"Thank you for coming to the battle you've been waiting for. Annie's fight against another Sky Sword challenger, Jasper!" said Nicole, his voice somehow echoing throughout the place; Aaron, standing on the second floor, could hear him.

"Please put down your bets and watch your champion win this battle. As usual, I will tell you the simple rules."

"All means are allowed except getting help from others. Whoever gives up first will lose!" said Nicole.

'Hmm... although it's an unofficial street battle, but Nicole seems to pay attention to the fairness in this place.'

"The fight begins in...."

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

The applause and cheers of the crowd could be heard throughout the seats. Most of them supported Annie, who was said to be undefeated in all her battles in the past six months. That was enough to make Aaron curious.

Annie jumped quickly in a flash of light forward, trying to draw her magic sword to hurt Jasper. Still, Jasper's skills were no less impressive.

He managed to dodge Annie's attack by sacrificing his lightning clone.

'Making a clone of the lightning talent. That'll be advantageous enough to analyze the enemy's abilities first!'

Jasper's speed increased, accompanied by lightning strikes on every step of his path. Annie seemed to stand still, her head constantly shifting to take in the surrounding area, trying to read Jasper's move.

"Keep dodging won't make you win the battle, Jasper."

"But this is one of my strategies. You'll have to handle it by yourself!" said Jasper, moving randomly to avoid being noticed by Annie.

"Alright then."

Annie's left hand seemed to touch the blade of her magic sword. The blade glowed gold and instantly rose into the sky, forming a huge pillar of light illuminating the entire arena.

Thousands of swords appeared from the arena roof, the shapes of the swords were different according to what Annie imagined.

With a swinging move of the sword in her hand, thousands of swords rushed out with golden particles of light.

Jasper saw the skill and smiled broadly. He dodged the swords again, although some of the sky swords managed to cut his hands and feet. Yet, the wounds were not fatal to Jasper.

Thousands of swords were stuck on the ground and caused thick dust to rise over the entire arena. Now, the situation has turned bad on Annie's side; could she handle it?

Aaron gasped; he saw Annie flying on her shining sword in the sky. Annie's skills were truly amazing, and Aaron just found out why Annie had achieved the undefeated title in the past six months.

'She's trying to avoid ground combat by flying with her magic sword. This is awesome!' Aaron praised.

Slowly, the thick dust that filled the entire Arena disappeared. Jasper was silent with his head up in the sky, occasionally praising Annie's wit.

"No wonder you've maintained your undefeated title for six months. It wasn't easy to defeat you," Jasper concluded.

"I haven't used all my skills and you're already praising me? Do you want to give up, Jasper?" asked Annie.

"No."

"This just makes me more excited!"

Jasper raised both hands, the lightning bolts from his talents collecting in his palms, forming a thunderous blue lightning.

Annie narrowed her eyes, feeling a lot of magic energy gathered in Jasper's hands.

'Is this his ultimate sub-talent?' asked Annie, curious.

Aaron felt the same, a strange power to him. However, Aaron once again believed that Annie could handle the current situation as she had a lot of experience in combat.

Black clouds roared loudly on the battle arena's roof, and lightning struck everywhere. The spectators, however, were saved due to the magic wall that protected them.

Jasper lifted the ball of lightning into the sky. The higher the ball of lightning, the stronger and bigger the lightning strike.

Slowly, a dragon in the shape of blue lightning energy appeared and roared into the arena. Annie could be seen staring up at the lightning dragon.

Annie didn't want to be outdone and embarrassed in front of her audience. She held the magic sword with both hands. The golden blade seemed to extend upwards to form a giant sword with a bright sparkle of light.

Aaron sensed both of them were trying their best. Still, they seemed so evenly matched that he couldn't decide who would come out first.

'Who will win this fight? Jasper or Annie?'

Jasper directed his attack forward. The lightning dragon lunged as it roared at Annie. Annie shouted passionately, swinging the giant golden sword she held in both hands.

BOM!

An explosion of energy occurred, and inevitably. A strong gust of wind was felt all the way to the audience seats.

A cloud of smoke soared up, reducing the crowd's visibility. Aaron couldn't even see Annie's current condition.

Aaron squinted, trying to look carefully into the dust smoke. Surprisingly, Annie jumped back heavily with an exhausted-looking body; the earlier power must have consumed more than enough of her magic energy.

'Thank goodness she's alright!' said Aaron, feeling relieved.

The young man was finally able to determine who was the winner in this battle. But, just as Aaron was about to come to a conclusion, he was startled by the presence of Jasper attacking Annie with a sword, a melee attack.

At first, Aaron thought Annie could handle it. Yet, he sensed another power in Jasper, not the lightning power of his talent but more the power of body control.

'Astral Project Talent? Who did that?!'

Annie was getting increasingly cornered with the current situation; the woman still thought Jasper was Jasper and was not being controlled by anyone.

One of the disadvantages of the astral project was the main body user would faint as his soul went into another person's body.

Aaron turned his head to look at the audience, trying to find the person who fainted amidst the hustle and bustle of the battle.

He finally found him, in the Sky Sword row close to the group leader. Aaron clicked his tongue, a not-so-favorable situation.

Still, he couldn't let this cheating go unnoticed. Nicole either didn't seem to care or didn't notice.

He hurriedly stepped from his place into the Sky Sword row of spectators, people watching Aaron's leaving in confusion.

Aaron's steps halted when two Sky Sword members blocked his way. Aaron continued to stare at the unconscious person, which was very unusual to happen in such a tense battle.

"What are you doing?!" they asked.

"Tell him to stop the astral project!" said Aaron, Francesca was stunned to realize someone knew her trick.

Francesca turned sharply to the side, seeing Aaron arrive with the red title pinned above his head. The woman stood clapping her hands, praising Aaron's foresight and sensitivity.

"It wasn't easy to get people to know it was the Astral Project. You have a talent," Francesca said.
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"I didn't ask you to praise me. I'm asking you to tell your men to stop this!"

"If he doesn't listen to me, what will you do then?"

Two soul servants appeared before Aaron, Jack and Rasputin. The presence of the soul servants surprised many Sky Sword members, causing Francesca to stare wide-eyed.

'Two soul servants? He's not a random person!' said Francesca.

"I'll force him to stop using my two servants!"

Slowly, the Sky Sword members walked backward in fear of the power of the two soul servants. They were reluctant to fight against Aaron's two soul servants, as soul servants were famous for their strength.

"Howard!" called Francesca, bringing the fainted back to consciousness.

The Astral Project was stopped, Jasper's body fell limply on the ground in a helpless stupor. Nicole saw Jasper's surrender, he crowned Annie the winner of this battle.

The crowd cheered, happy they'd gotten their money's worth out of the bet. But, Francesca and Sky Sword weren't pleased. Their plan failed because of Aaron's intervention.

Francesca moved her head forward and whispered something to Aaron, "You're an interesting young man. I want you for real."