Bang! Bang! Bang!
Powerful bolts of energy burst out from within Thomas. He resonated an aura of extreme violence and
Ricky could sense the daunting and dangerous energy that pervaded through the air. That aura gave
Ricky a strange kind of unease, but he tried not to show it on his face.
'How many aces has he got up his sleeve? Is this another of his more powerful skills that he intends to
use as a trump card?' Ricky couldn't help but wonder to himself in surprise.
Ricky decided not to pull his punches or hide his abilities anymore as the impending strike came toward
him. Without delay, he activated the three kinds of fire energy he held in his body and wrapped himself
up in the flames. He also boosted his runic power as high as it would go. By doing that, he had directly
entered into his peak state and was at full power.
As he activated his full power, the Iron Destroyer in his hand seemed to be eager to leap into action
again. It vibrated in accordance with his energy. The blade made a kind of excited buzz in anticipation.
Ricky had heard that kind of buzz before, but this time, it was louder and its pitch became higher. He
felt that a sort of strong connection between him and his weapon had started to form. At that moment, it
all clicked for him.
"It seems that this situation has just now helped me build a unique connection between me and my
saber. It feels strange, but I have a feeling that this connection will enhance the power of my saber-
light," he murmured to himself in amazement.
He knew that there was no time for celebrating his progress just then. Thomas seemed to have fully
prepared himself and was about to launch his attack. Ricky quickly shifted his attention back to his
rival.
"I do admire your courage, Ricky. I know very few who would dare to challenge someone three grades
more powerful than them. I respect you, so I will reward a talented warrior like you with a good fight.
Enjoy it while you can!" Thomas shouted the last sentence out in a hoarse voice. Then he was
submerged in a thick, dark fog of spiritual energy that was swirling faster and faster. It was pushing
everything, including the air, out of the area around him as the energy inside the fog exploded all of a
sudden.
Boom! Instantly, the explosion created shock-waves that carried the energy away from him. The ripples
lashed out against everything around them. They caused the whole space to shake with their force.
Even someone as powerful as Ricky was knocked back by the energy. He took quite a few steps back
while raising his hands to fend off the air that buffeted him.
In his defensive position, Ricky's heart suddenly stopped in his chest. His eyes widened and his pupil
shrank in shock. With his keen senses, he was able to feel the existence of a third person in the area. It
had just appeared out of nowhere! He was both confused and astonished because he had been sure
that the aura that the third man released was exactly the same as Thomas's.
Ricky found it hard to believe. He narrowed his eyes and tried to locate Thomas so he could see more
clearly what had happened. His eyes were sharpened by the blue light in them, but he still had a hard
time confirming the location of his rival.
Luckily, the waves of dark air began to gradually fade away. Slowly but surely, two figures stepped out
of the fog. Ricky hoped that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it seemed that they weren't after
all. What he saw was real--There were two men standing in front of him, or more specifically, two
identical figures that both seemed to be Thomas. The two figures looked exactly alike.
"What? But...how is this possible?" Ricky exclaimed in disbelief. He staggered back and nearly fell to
the ground.
He was truly stunned by what he saw. The sight gave him no less shock than when he regained his
spiritual meridian. It was something that he would refuse to believe even if it happened before his own
eyes again. He wished that he could say he was dreaming.
Rubbing his eyes, he told himself that it was all just an illusion. When he opened his eyes again,
nothing had changed. Instead, the more he looked at them, the more he realized that they were simply
perfect replicas of each other.
"What do you think? Are you satisfied?" Seeing the astonishment on Ricky's face, the two versions of
Thomas asked in unison. Both of their mouths curled into identical smirks.
"This is really shocking! How can this be real?!" Ricky admitted readily after taking a deep breath to
calm himself down a bit. "May I know this cultivation method's name?" he then asked.
Apart from his shock, there was also greed in Ricky's eyes. He had no intention of trying to conceal it.
He was intrigued by this kind of magical skill, and he desperately wanted to learn its secrets.
"Its name is Shadowy Replication. It's the top cultivation method of the Endless Shadow. As for its
grade, well...I don't know what its grade is and I don't really care about it," Thomas replied, with some
cockiness in his voice.
"Shadowy Replication!? Shadowy Replication is incredible!" Ricky repeated the name again and again
in a low voice after Thomas told him what it was called. Excited, he activated his two powerful zones to
try to investigate more about the differences between the two figures that both seemed to be Thomas.
Soon enough, Ricky was able to gain some information about them. He was able to figure out that the
biggest difference between the two was that one of them was made of flesh and blood, while the other
was formed by spiritual energy. He couldn't tell them apart by their appearances, and since their aura
was also the same, ordinary warriors would usually think that the replication of Thomas was real.
'Now I know how this skill called Shadowy Replication works. You only have to create another self with
your spiritual energy. It's nothing so complicated, ' Ricky thought to himself. 'It cannot be denied that
this cultivation method is very tricky and powerful. It doesn't only replicate the users' appearance and
aura, but also their level, strength, and abilities too. I was even tricked at first sight. I suppose that I can
expect that Thomas' fighting capacity has been doubled because of it.'
Ricky was right about the situation. It was no exaggeration to say that he was facing two opponents
now...Thomas and his copy were two warriors at the peak of the fifth grade of Bone Reinforcement!
The situation was real trouble for Ricky. The replication might not last long, but if the two of them
worked together and used their ultimate skill together, it would be quite enough to finish Ricky off.
"Well, well, now it seems the odds are against me!" Ricky said to himself. He felt troubled, but he still
wasn't afraid. What happened just then was a bit too much for him to take in all at once, so he had
needed a moment. Ricky got a huge adrenaline rush from learning about the Shadowy Replication skill.
It made him nervous and excited about the coming fight at the same time. Above all, that sense of
danger was what he needed at the moment.
For better or worse, he was cornered into a desperate situation, so he might be forced to make a
breakthrough.
"You know, I didn't have to tell you the name of this cultivation method in order to kill you, but I did. Do
you want to know why?" Thomas suddenly asked with a sneer.
"It's because you think that I'm doomed. It doesn't matter if a dead man knows about your secret
weapon or not, right?" Ricky answered coldly. Now that his astonishment at the Shadowy Replication
had gradually worn off, he began to regain his composure.
"That's right. You are clever enough to know what I was about to say. Then what are you waiting for?
Why not just kill yourself? That may be a much more decent way to say goodbye to the world!" Thomas
threatened, baring his teeth.
"Well, I'm afraid that you were wrong from the very beginning. I don't think I'm going to die today, and
the words suicide or surrender have never been part of my vocabulary," Ricky replied with just the hint
of a smile.
"Really? Now you're really asking for it. Let's see how long you can last before I tear you to pieces,"
Thomas hissed through clenched teeth.
As soon as he finished speaking, the killing intent and the energy that the two figures released
increased to their peak in the blink of an eye, stirring the air around them.
Then, the two Thomas rushed towards Ricky like a bolt of lightning. They even kept changing their
positions to confuse him, making it harder for him to track which one was the real one.
"Shadowy Fatal Light!"
The two Thomas bellowed as one. At their words, the dark fog of spiritual energy around them became
thicker and swarmed out toward Ricky. As the two of them made a simultaneous leap, they blended
with the fog in the air and turned into two beams of black shadows. The darkness was dazzling, and a
dark storm formed around them. They gathered speed as they charged towards Ricky. It seemed that
there was nothing that could stop them.
Ricky put on a grim expression like never before when he saw the two shadows in the storm. Taking a
deep breath, he let out a battle-cry.
"Devouring Skill--Wrath Killing Strike!"
Without hesitation, Ricky attacked with all his strength. At the same time, he activated the Fire Cloud
Fist. He was bringing out all of his energy and injecting it into this ultimate strike.
Once his attack met the shadows, however, Ricky's face darkened. He got a sinking feeling in his
stomach as his strike made contact. Though his attack was already very powerful, it couldn't match up
to Thomas' Shadowy Fatal Light at all.
His fear was realized at that moment. In the violent collision between the strike and the shadows, the
strike kept retreating until it collapsed after a short standoff. Ricky
was totally defeated in the first round.
Undoubtedly, the Devouring Skill--Wrath killing Strike was very powerful, but the doubled Shadowy
Fatal Light was obviously superior.
"I knew it!" Ricky sighed, biting his lip.
"See? I told you. Have some humility, you uppity boy! You had the choice of taking your own life, but
you didn't cherish it. That was the greatest mercy I could offer. Now, it seems that you do deserve to be
smashed into pieces!" Thomas scoffed, taking pleasure in the discouraged look on Ricky's face.
Thomas's eyes were filled with maliciousness. In addition to that, there was also excitement. He was
truly excited to be able to kill Ricky. He could already imagine how Ricky would be reduced to dust
under his unmistakably superior power. The approaching victory gave him a feeling of ecstasy.
"Remember what I said? I will never believe there is an option for me to ever surrender!" Ricky was
irritated by Thomas' mocking tone and the complacency on his face. He roared in fury, and another
wave of spiritual energy spewed out from his body.
The energy of the devouring rune was also released then. As that energy was released, the chaotic fire
runes and the power of the three fires were suppressed for the time being. As a result, his whole body
was completely covered by the red devouring runes in no time.
Strangely, when he was only wrapped in the devouring runes, the energy Ricky unleashed had only
increased rather than weakened. In fact, that adjustment seemed to have temporarily brought his level
up to more than the fifth grade of Bone Reinforcement.
"Devouring Storm!" Ricky shouted again, making the air around him shake from his snarl.
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