Jinn BLADE-Chapter 180 | Engage

*boom!

Krane’s blade roared with an intense surge of fiery eidra, the entire weapon trembling as if barely able to hold the power flowing through it. The point of his sword was leveled at Jinn with deliberate slowness, the motion showing how serious he truly was, how much pride and fury that carried in every fiber of his stance.

He then shifted his footing, sliding his boots across the polished ground before finally settling the sword firmly into both hands, shoulders tightening as if preparing himself for a single, devastating strike that would end everything in one motion.

His glare sharpened, full of arrogance and challenge... before he raised his voice.

"Draw your sword, mongrel!" Krane barked, the insult thrown with enough force that it echoed against the shimmering barrier that Dreilla put up. He tightened his grip, knuckles whitening around the hilt as he waited for Jinn to respond, fully expecting the Scion to obey him like some lesser opponent who bowed to noble names.

For but a brief moment, Jinn actually lifted his hand toward the hilt of his sword... his expression calm, cold, and unreadable. The atmosphere around him thickened quickly as faint cracks of crimson eidric energy slipped through the scabbard, glowing brighter and growing powerful the more he unsheathed the blade.

The word quivered subtly, Fangeryth hungry for release, the sword’s red aura growing like tiny branches of lightning that crawled over its entire frame.

Like a storm, brewing, waiting to unleash and destroy everything on its path.

*background murmuring!

A wave of recognition rolled through the spectators.

"That eidra...!"

"House Sorellia..."

Many of the nobles instantly knew the eidra that Jinn just showcased—House Sorellia’s crimson eidra, renowned for raw destruction and overwhelming offense.

On the other hand, those who had studied deeper into the nature of eidra or perhaps had seen this very type of eidra a hundred of times... stiffened, realizing that what had just leaked from Jinn’s blade was not just any crimson eidra of House Sorellia—but a near identical... almost a clone to Venedix’s own Sunder Surge, a terrifying composition unique to only Venedix that prioritized lethal speed and overwhelming power, the kind of eidra that left no room for mistakes.

It was clear as day, a battlemaster’s eidra flows within the veins of Jinn’s body.

Krane noticed it almost immediately as his confident smirk completely disappeared, the corner of his eye twitching as he felt an instinctive warning crawl up his spine in a chilling wave.

This guy is dangerous.

Even though he tried to maintain his arrogance, some part of him recognized that the Scion standing in front of him was not the simple slave or lowborn he believed him to be.

That brief hesitation which was no longer than a blink...

Was all that Jinn needed.

*Fwoosh!

In the span of that single blink, Jinn vanished completely.

Krane’s breath caught in his throat as the figure in front of disappeared instantly, leaving nothing but a faint crimson streak in the air.

"Where the he—?"

Before he could fully process it, Jinn was already at his side, the synthetic arm hissing sharply as mechanisms locked into place. The strike he prepared was brutal and precise, Jinn’s fist aiming directly at Krane’s liver—a blow strong enough to cripple most men instantly based on his previous battles.

But Krane reacted on instincts fueled by pride and desperation.

"Shit, Kurghk!" With a shout of breath, he stabbed his sword into the polished floor, piercing it completely and unleashing an explosive wave of flaming eidra from the point of impact. The shockwave burst outward like a fiery ripple, the heat so intense it twisted the air around them.

"Mhm," Jinn twisted his body and jumped back, avoiding the burnt of the blast, his boots skidding as he stabilized his landing.

And just like that—without any hesitation, without any more need for words—the duel had fully begun.

Not a second longer, Jinn engaged once again. His left hand stayed firmly on the hilt of his sword—never unsheathing it, never even twitching—as if he wanted to prove he didn’t need the blade at all.

On the other hand—literally and figuratively—his other synthetic arm hissed loudly, kritonium plates shifting and locking in preparation for another brutal strike as faint clouds of cold vapor leaked from its joints.

*boom!

He dashed forward with blinding speed, pushing off the polished so hard that cracks of electric-like sparks burst behind him. They scattered like thin branches of lightning, a visual warning that made the nobles gasp in realization.

Many and almost all of them had seen this before—this very same move when Venedix burst forward with an almost impossible speed with a roar-like thunder, leaving trails of crimson sparks upon her wake.

"A true... a true apprentice of Venedix!"

Nobles, both warrior and aristocratic, finally realized that Jinn being a Scion was not an exaggeration or mere title—but something terrifying real.

Krane, meanwhile, was too focused on the fight to even realize. He swung his sword horizontally across the air in front of him, the blade dragging a bright molten trail that burst outward as a flaming wave. A split second after, with barely any pause at all, he slashed upward, releasing a second strike—this time vertical—forming a blazing cross of flames that streaked through the dueling space like a burning star.

Jinn dodged the first wave with almost casual ease, slipping to the side with a fluid tilt of his body. The second attack came too fast to dodge cleanly, but instead of stepping back, he gripped his synthetic arm tightly, twisted the core inside, and punched directly into the oncoming wave.

*BANG!

The impact exploded into a burst of fire and shattered molten energy, and the entire dueling area filled with thick smoke, rolling across the floor and rising in heavy dark clouds.

"It hit!" Krane shouted, eyes widening with excitement, his smirk curling even further across his face. His breath grew shaky with anticipation. "I know it hit... but that bastard is probably using the smoke to hide from me. Better be safe than sorry."

He clenched his fist, and the ground around him trembled lightly. Small blades of magma erupted one after another, dozens of them, forming a heated storm that floated and levitated around his body.

They were each no bigger than a dagger, but there were plenty—spinning wildly at different axis, rotating fast enough to blur into fiery rings. They circled him like a protective shell, a barrier with no weak point, no crack, no place for an enemy to slip through, not even someone like Jinn.

At least that was what he had thought.