Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Once Melinda was secured, Suri smiled,

"It's a capture skill. It never misses and it can never be avoided. Once it latches on to its target's energy signature, there is no hope of an escape for anyone not at the Cosmic Pagoda realm."

The skill was a sixth-grade skill that should actually be used by a cultivator at the Cosmic Pagoda realm but the large pool of Cosmic energy as well a strong physical body of the peak stage Cosmic Aurora realm Suri worked just as well.

That said, the sixth circle was not nearly as bright as the five others and was evidence of the talented brown-haired lady's deficiency.

Even as she spoke, the brown-eyed lady never stepped closer to Melinda who stared at the circle beneath her feet with a sigh of annoyance.

Suri formed seals with her hands and created two different skill rings both with five bright circles that put them at the fifth grade and just right for the Cosmic aurora realm expert's usage.

That both skills were blunt types and looked tailor-made for knockout rather than thrust and kill did not mean they were to be underestimated.

Even if Melinda had protected herself and still gotten hit, she would felt the effect in the cracking of quite a number of her bones considering she was three cultivation levels weaker than the skill user.

The fact that she was trapped and barely able to live made the situation even worse for her.

Suri Hander was in no way taking it easy.

She wanted this over and done with right now.

Before the skills made contact with prone Melinda though, there was a tongue of white flame that sparked at her feet and drove right into the center of the skill ring which was where she was standing.

The overwhelming power of her Flame Ordinance overrode the skill that Suri was barely keeping active anyway and with an explosive sound, dust erupted in a thick cloud in the area Melinda was in.

The dust cloud swallowed the attacking skills as well.

Suri was surprised at Melinda's escape as well as the energy, the overbearing energy, she had felt from those flames.

And that was when Melinda rose out of the cloud of dust.

Having propelled herself with the explosion as she had planned before the success of the capture skill.

The attacking skills collided and exploded but at that time, Melinda had already landed and was launching golden flame arrows at her opponent who swiped them away with her Halberd before they could make contact.

Suri was smarter now and was not negligent enough to let any tongue of the golden flames on her body as she veiled herself thinly with Cosmic energy to better swat them away.

The flames had only been a distraction by Melinda who wanted to be able to get in close and attack Suri in close quarters.

Suri smiled lightly as though she had read Melinda's mind and a battle of weapons between two proficient ladies wielding two different weapons and different battle styles began.

*Clang*

*Clang*

*Clang*

Their weapons clashed multiple times and as they did, Suri who already had Melinda's respect got even more of it.

Her Halberd dance was so impressive that it created the illusion of being a short and versatile weapon like a sword before then 'surprising' Melinda with its length during Suri's occasional and quite dangerous thrusts.

Likewise, Melinda slowly but surely earned Suri's respect.

And how could she not?

Never in their fight did Suri reduce her cultivation in an attempt to accommodate Melinda who was 'weaker' and that was partly because she had no patience for this new student whose eyes seemed to speak of an earnest wish to start or join a revolution...

... And it was also partly because she always welcomed a challenge and reducing her cultivation was instinctively her accepting that there was no challenge right from the get-go and if that had been her mindset, she could not be any more wrong.

With every one of Suri's strikes that was backed with the full physical strength of her Peak cosmic aurora realm strength, Melinda met with a force that was not just backed by her cultivation or her bloodline or even her Ordinance.

Her strikes were backed by a dominating drive that seemed to always power her moves and sought to make her dominant in all her altercations.

In recent times, Melinda had been leaning into that dominant streak of hers and had been noticing that understanding it also happened to be helping her understand herself.

Anyway, when a particularly hard-hitting collision between the two ladies forced separation, there was no doubt that Suri respected Melinda, and the golden-eyed lady's aim had been met but even then, Suri did not wish to let up.

Charging up a powerful Cosmic Aurora with the height of her cultivation, she closed the distance between herself and Melinda in a second and faked the golden-eyed beauty with a strike with her halberd.

Once Melinda deflected the halberd strike, the Aurora was struck against her and exploded in a bid to smack her away and teach her a lesson in respecting those ahead of her.

And in all honesty, considering, she caught Melinda point-blank and Melinda was three cultivation stages below her, that should have been the case.

Alas, to Suri's wide-eyed surprise, her Aurora was met with the overbearing white flame she had sensed before when Melinda had freed herself, and with its appearance and explosion came an equal repulsion that saw the two smacked away from the epicenter of the attacks' collision...

... Where a sizeable crater was formed.

*BOOM!*

*BANG!*

From where she had landed, her clothes almost totally in shreds and sporting a considerable amount of injuries, Melinda groaned and chuckled,

"A tie" she announced in a low voice that Suri's ears were more than sensitive enough to catch.

"Bull," Suri said in a disgruntled voice before adding a few seconds later,

"We both know you won"

Not to mention that Melinda had just proven her worth against an opponent three cultivation stages above of her and had actually tied with the said opponent, Suri knew the Dane lady had not gone all out.

These white flames especially were something else.

Had they come into play during the duel, there was no way Melinda would not have taken home the win.

"You took it easy on me" Suri said.

"And you didn't?" Melinda asked.

"What?" 

"You heard me. Where are all the skills you have learned? Are you about you tell me that your so-called wide array of skills were just those three you used? That you didn't even have a defensive skill to use? 

If you still had something you could have used and didn't, then you took it easy on me" Melinda said.

Suri sighed,

"Can you still fight?" she asked.

"Yes. Can you?" Melinda asked with a sigh.

"Yes. Do you still want to?" Suri asked.

"Not really, No" Melinda said and sat up to swallow a mending pill.

Then she took out an Array scroll to surround herself with a royal blue Astral energy Dome, inside of which she changed out of her ruined clothes. 

Suri changed out of her clothes as well but made no attempts to hide. Either comfortable with being naked in public or more likely she was sure there was no one around to see.

As she changed, she heard Melinda say,

"We could really use your skill in the Sapphirine guild. Being a potentially small guild, we need our members to be as good as they possibly can"

Suri sighed,

"The last time I was in a guild, I left because I felt used. I felt like I was just there to make up the numbers. To farm points. Being high ranking in the guild did not change how I felt."

Silence...

And then Melinda said,

"What if I told you the Sapphirine guild will not be large? That we will have a maximum of thirty members and we will never recruit more in an attempt to farm points?"

Suri chuckled,

"Not too bad but I want to know... What is your purpose in creating this guild of yours?"

Melinda paused as though she was thinking of the most appropriate answer but there was never anything to think about,

"Pride," she answered.