System vs Rebirth

"Haaa!" Howard swung his sword against his opponent, who happened to be using one as well.

Clink!

Their swords clashed together with their spiritual energy.

The demonic human overpowered Howard with his spiritual energy, but to his surprise, Howard didn't even flinch.

He remained still as if his strength was stronger than his spiritual energy.

In the end, Howard's strength was boosted by the advanced rune, allowing him to fight someone at a higher level than him.

It was true that using this rune would require a lot of demon crystals, but if they could boost a hundred people at the same time as Howard, they could basically conquer the enemy.

"Haaa!" Howard roared as he used every bit of his strength and gradually pushed back the enemy.

The demonic human jumped away before releasing a crescent-shaped sword strike.

Howard activated his Spiritual Barrier Rune that had been drawn on his body. However, as one would expect from the peak spiritual grandmaster, one barrier wasn't enough.

Howard's eyes turned bloodshot as he struck it with his sword, cutting the sword strike that had lost most of its energy.

After that, Howard summoned his avatar and made it punch the demonic human.

The demonic human had to choose whether to focus on Howard or the Avatar. If he struck the avatar, he wouldn't have anything to stop Howard.

He couldn't use his elements as well since his spirit was gone after accepting the demon into his body.

The demonic human gathered all his strength into his sword before slashing downward. A sword strike ran through the ground and flared up five meters above the ground.

The avatar put its arms on the front and blocked the sword strike before Howard summoned a Meteor Rune from the side and hit the sword strike itself. The explosion of the meteor dispersed the energy of the sword strike, allowing Howard to close in.

"Tsk." The demonic human clicked his tongue as he exchanged blows with Howard.

Howard's strength won against his while the demonic energy managed to cause a stalemate. Still, Howard had his avatar.

The avatar kept punching the demonic human but kept missing.

The avatar was simply too big and too slow, so it wouldn't be much of a difference for a fight of this level.

In fact, Howard had realized the weakness of the avatar. It was the fact that the technique only worked against demons since they were simple-minded.

That was why he had been working hard on something else.

This was the first time he used it against an enemy.

The avatar started to deform as Howard adjusted his spiritual energy.

"!!!" The demonic human was startled and immediately leaped away, getting some distance from Howard.

Unfortunately for Howard, using the new technique was easier said than done, especially with how he hadn't completed it. It was something he worked on under the guidance of Old Jade, but now that Old Jade was gone, he had to do it himself.

Howard gnashed his teeth as he continued maintaining the close distance.

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The two exchanged more than 200 blows in just five minutes.

Even though Howard had runes, he still couldn't avoid all the attacks the demonic human launched, causing several injuries on his body, the deepest one being the wound on his chest.

On the other hand, the demonic human didn't expect that Howard could also injure him to this extent.

With Anna glaring down on them, they really had no choice but to end this fight as quickly as possible and somehow escaped from Anna Stargaze.

The demonic human gritted his teeth. There was only one thing he could do.

When Howard closed in, he struck the demonic human from the left.

To his surprise, the demonic human didn't parry that attack and just let Howard take his left arm. Howard wanted to take advantage of it and cut the demonic human into two, but his attack was stopped by armor hiding underneath his clothes.

"!!!" Howard widened his eyes in shock as he saw the demonic human ready to thrust his head.

Howard tilted his head to the side, barely avoiding the attack. However, the sword still grazed his neck pretty deep, forcing Howard to jump away while putting pressure on his wound.

The demonic human didn't let this change go. He gathered all his spiritual energy and released forth another crescent-shaped sword wave.

"Kh!" Howard blocked it with one hand as his body was being pushed back for twenty meters. Because of the amount of power he exerted, the blood spurted a bit.

Howard couldn't help but recall the memories he had with Old Jade. Because Dimitri was too busy with managing the family, Old Jade surprisingly spared some time to fight them, allowing them a precious experience against a peak spirit grandmaster.

Obviously, no matter what he did, Howard couldn't gain a single advantage against Old Jade. Whether it was his skill, timing, or even experience, none of them could beat Old Jade.

"What's wrong? Are you tired yet? You will probably have to fight enemies at my level in the future." Old Jade smiled. "Do you want to try again?"

"Yes, sir!" Howard shouted.

Old Jade kept fighting with a smile. Despite his fierceness, he remained gentle.

When he saw Old Jade's corpse, Howard didn't expect that such a kind and strong person would have died to the scheme of the demonic humans.

Howard gnashed his teeth before he let out a roar at the top of his lungs. "Hoaaaa!"

His avatar suddenly grew smaller, matching his size. All of a sudden, the avatar grabbed his sword as if it were Howard itself.

"What?!" The demonic human widened his eyes. "Integrating with his own avatar?"

Howard's eyes flashed as he cut the enemy's sword strike in half.

"!!!" The demonic human instinctively jumped back, trying to gain some distance. At the same time, he prepared for the next attack.

However, Howard's strength wasn't the only thing that increased. To his surprise, Howard closed the gap between them in an instant.

The demonic human swung his blade at Howard, but Howard spun his body and looped around, causing the blade to miss him.

"You—" The demonic human wanted to say something, but it was too late. Howard slipped past his defense and struck his body.

The armor the demonic human wearing underneath his clothes cracked, withstanding the slash for a second before Howard cut through the armor and split his body into two.

"Old Jade is stronger than you!" Howard roared as he cut his enemy's abdomen.