At the moment the Drake Rider Armor on Aaron's body was incinerated, Kevin saw Aaron's face under the armor...
No, using the word [Face] at this time was already too forced.
Under Aaron's incinerated armor, Kevin saw that Aaron's flesh and blood were also thoroughly evaporated by this strike.
Beneath his flesh and blood, Aaron's internal organs also showed varying degrees of destruction, and his face and torso were left with only ghastly white bones that were incredibly conspicuous.
Of course, a gilded eyeball still remained in Aaron's right eye socket, but right now, no one seeing this scene would care about this eyeball.
Anyone passing by here, seeing Aaron's miserable state through the flames ignited by An-Utu, would definitely have that thought.
*He's finished.*
With his body damaged to this extent, even with the Meta-Morph Factor contained in the Kaslana bloodline, it was impossible to save him from the hands of the Grim Reaper.
But Kevin, facing Aaron directly, vaguely sensed an unusual feeling in this moment.
Aaron, whose body had been incinerated, leaving only part of his internal organs and skeleton, actually had a momentum far stronger than the Aaron just now.
Although battles couldn't be decided by momentum alone, the young man before him was just a skeleton now; what use was stronger momentum at a time like this?
But the problem was, this momentum, stronger than before, even made Kevin vaguely feel a trace of... danger?
Kevin had once withstood an attack from the Abyss Flower with his own body. After activating the Meta-Morph Factor, he even directly used the Meta-Morph Factor to repair the injuries caused by the Abyss Flower.
But if Su had used the fully liberated Judgment of Shamash back then...
Leaving aside the fact that Su would inevitably be injured using the Judgment of Shamash, Kevin asked himself honestly: if someone fired a Judgment of Shamash at him with An-Utu, he absolutely couldn't withstand this blow with just the Meta-Morph Factor and his physical body.
As a descendant of the Kaslana clan, Aaron was essentially, in terms of bloodline, inevitably not as pure as Kevin, the [First Kaslana].
His Meta-Morph Factor purity was inferior to Kevin's, so his recovery ability and defensive ability were naturally inferior to Kevin's as well.
Rather, the fact that Aaron wasn't killed by this blow had already exceeded Kevin's expectations.
One had to know, although this sword wasn't Kevin's peak strike, and the connected core was just an imitation made by the Herrscher of Reason, no matter what, this was the [Judgment of Shamash] blasted out under the Judgment of Shamash's [Might of An-Utu Mode].
A strike standing at the peak of destructive power of all Divine Keys should have completely annihilated the young man before him.
But...
*This skeleton is actually still moving?!*
Not only that, at this moment, Kevin even saw a scene that horrified him immensely.
Aaron's flesh and blood, which had been burned to nothing by the Judgment of Shamash, was actually being repaired completely in an instant.
Although the flames of the Judgment of Shamash were still burning on Aaron's body, the power of these flames was far inferior to before.
Aaron's body was still being burned continuously, yet while Aaron's body was being burned continuously, the flesh and blood on his body were also being repaired rapidly.
Even using the power of the Abyss Flower, Kevin felt it was impossible for someone to recover their injuries so easily in front of An-Utu's Judgment of Shamash.
Of course, shock was shock; as a battle-hardened warrior, Kevin wouldn't be scared stiff just like that.
Discovering that Aaron could still move, Kevin swung his sword fiercely at Aaron, attempting to force back this incredibly bizarre young man.
Simultaneously, Kevin, who swung the sword, began attempting to jump back.
After the fleeting surprise, the calmed Kevin realized that Aaron taking this hit hard was obviously to close the distance between them.
Since this young man was willing to take a Judgment of Shamash just to close the distance, it only meant that in Aaron's conception, completing the strategic goal of [Defeating Kevin] required getting close to Kevin to achieve.
What the enemy wanted to accomplish was naturally what he needed to avoid happening.
Swinging a sword was to force the enemy back.
And jumping back was to open up distance from the enemy.
At this moment, the mimicked Star of Eden had completely shattered. And inside the mimicked Star of Eden, the mimicked Rock Herrscher Core was also covered in cracks.
Kevin could at most use this mimicked core to launch one more Judgment of Shamash before this imitation would shatter completely due to overload.
However, in Kevin's view, even if Aaron had this bizarrely strong recovery ability, it was impossible for him to take another Judgment of Shamash.
Currently, Aaron's repaired body was still being burned visibly by the flames.
If he took another Judgment of Shamash under these circumstances, then there was a huge probability Aaron would be thoroughly killed by Kevin right there.
Of course, Kevin couldn't guarantee if Aaron had other trump cards.
But if Aaron had the recovery ability to take two Judgment of Shamash strikes without dying... hah, we'll talk about it then.
Such low-probability events couldn't be ignored when facing an enemy, but one couldn't scare oneself too much either.
If one treated all low-probability events as [100% likely to happen] events, one would become even more constrained in battle.
In that case, when facing enemies that could be defeated with a little extra effort, one might instead miss the opportunity to kill the enemy due to being overly cautious.
As Kevin swung this sword, Aaron also brought his repaired palms together.
Aaron relying on the Kaslana Meta-Morph Factor to hard tank this Judgment of Shamash—this obviously couldn't happen.
Never mind him, a fake Kaslana who only [had a part of the bloodline], even Kevin himself wouldn't dare to say he could take a Judgment of Shamash in Might of An-Utu mode head-on.
Perhaps some would think, since Kevin could freeze and extinguish even the flames of Judgment of Shamash directly, how could he not take a Judgment of Shamash?
But the problem was—could An-Utu and the ordinary Judgment of Shamash be the same?
The power provided by an extra Herrscher Core was simply too terrifying. in the future Aaron saw using the Eye of Aeon, if he took this blow hard, even after activating [Wall] and switching to the Revive Hourglass's Steel Mode, he would be beaten to death on the spot.
And the reason Aaron could take this attack without dying was purely because he used [Spirit Command—Guts] multiple times before his physical body was burned out.
What Kevin didn't know was that he had already successfully beaten Aaron to a near-death state.
It was just that Aaron's [Guts] recovery ability was too powerful, pulling Aaron back from the state of near-death body incineration several times.
And now, in Aaron's view, his chance had indeed come.
Because the oppression and sense of crisis brought by Kevin and the Judgment of Shamash were simply too intense, his Magnetic Field Rotation power actually became a bit stronger again due to this excessive oppression.
And through the Eye of Aeon's ability to predict the future, Aaron also saw Kevin's next move.
After swinging his sword to force him back, Kevin would jump back and immediately load a second shot of Judgment of Shamash.
And having used Spirit Commands multiple times, if he took the next blow hard again, he really wouldn't be able to survive.
And fundamentally, Kevin wasn't a wooden stake that only threw skills.
During the previous move, Kevin didn't have time to finish off the heavily injured Aaron because Aaron used the Drake Rider System's Clock Up. After reinforcing his physical body with Steel Mode, he forcibly broke through the gravitational field and sprinted to Kevin's side with faster speed.
Now Aaron, who didn't have time to take out other Zecters to complete a transformation, could no longer enter the Clock Up state again and deceive Kevin with that terrifying speed.
The mental energy consumed by Guts was incomparable to the other few Spirits. If he was hit by Kevin's Judgment of Shamash again this time, Aaron would be hacked to death alive by Kevin, who would start finishing him off directly before he could repair his body.
However, Aaron had seen all these tragic futures with the Eye of Aeon.
Having seen the future, Aaron naturally wouldn't act according to this dead-end script.
This strike slashed by Kevin, for the current Aaron, was not only not a threat but actually a boost.
Magnetic Field Rotation: 380,000 Horsepower—
Whale's Domination!
Aaron, blasting out a punch with a special technique, slammed heavily onto the sword qi slashed by Kevin from a distance.
Relying on completing the collision with this terrifying strike from Kevin, Aaron also successfully completed the first stage of Whale's Domination.
Whale's Domination relied on the secondary explosion caused by colliding with other moves to directly propel Aaron's body a second time in mid-air.
Kevin this time completely hadn't expected that Aaron, who had lost that strange armor before his eyes, could actually close in on his body again.
His speed of loading and liberating An-Utu was already fast enough, but at such a close distance, Aaron's displacement this time had successfully allowed Aaron to arrive behind Kevin.
If he still persisted in completing the loading at a time like this, Kevin was certain that before he swung his sword, Aaron's fist would hit his head.
Aaron had already created a miracle once; Kevin didn't dare to bet on whether his head was harder or Aaron's fist was harder.
Kevin, interrupting the liberation, turned and slashed out with his sword.
At this moment, An-Utu, loaded with partial energy, although unable to blast out a destructive strike like the one just now, was enough to inflict heavy damage on most existences in this world.
Only, it was very regrettable that these targets did not include Aaron, who was already prepared.
Magnetic Field Rotation: 400,000 Horsepower—
"Whale's Domination!"
Aaron, having already anticipated Kevin's action, blasted out an even more powerful Whale's Domination at this moment.
Under the combined strengthening of Ittou Shura and Magnetic Field Rotation, this strike slammed heavily onto the blade of the Judgment of Shamash.
"This...!"
At this moment, Kevin, truly completing the first exchange of blows with the enemy, finally took Aaron's powerful strike head-on.
As Aaron's fist hit An-Utu in Kevin's hand, Kevin actually saw some cracks appear on the blade of his An-Utu.
Not only that, Kevin, holding An-Utu, could clearly feel a force actually transmitting into his arm through An-Utu.
This terrifying force not only caused his hand bones to explode right there but also began to spread into his body toward his right arm.
As a variant skill of the Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist, Whale's Domination, aside from the two new characteristics of acceleration and displacement, naturally inherited the ability from the Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist to [drive power into the enemy's body, harden it, and then shatter it].
Kevin, hard-tanking this absolute punch at this moment, indeed revealed a flaw he shouldn't have exposed.
Kevin, who tried hard to neutralize this energy in his body with power, suddenly discovered that the enemy had disappeared from his eyes again.
Aaron naturally also saw the future where Kevin neutralized this punch with his sword through the Eye of Aeon.
And precisely because this punch would be buffered by An-Utu, Aaron didn't intend to apply the Valor Spirit on this punch.
This strike seemed to have powerful destructive force, but for Aaron, it was, in the end, just a strike paving the way for victory.
After completing displacement via Whale's Domination for the second time, Aaron, whose whole body was burning with flames, appeared behind Kevin again.
Only this time, because of the problem in his body caused by Whale's Domination, Kevin, after neutralizing the power flowing in his body, could no longer complete the defensive action instantly like just now.
Under the pressure of the strong enemy before him, Aaron could feel his power still rising continuously.
To be honest, if the timing was right, he really wanted to borrow Kevin's oppression to continue squeezing his potential.
But...
*Heh, this kind of arrogant thought will only lead to my death in the end.*
*Kevin isn't some experience extraction machine that lets people beat him up; his combat talent is incredibly strong.*
*If I fight with the thought of [leveling up off this guy], I might be caught in a flaw and killed on the spot by Kevin before fighting for long.*
*Kevin being caught off guard by me now doesn't mean I am much stronger than him.*
*I know his trump cards, abilities, and combat power, while he knows nothing of my trump cards, abilities, and combat habits.*
*I caught him off guard relying on the intelligence gap; it doesn't mean I can truly defeat this guy 100% in a head-on one-on-one battle.*
*Against this kind of tricky enemy, kill if can kill; absolutely no carelessness is allowed.*
*So...*
[Spirit Command—Valor, Activate!]
Magnetic Field Rotation: 420,000 Horsepower—
"Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!"
Under the superposition of multiple powers including Steel Mode, Ittou Shura, Magnetic Field Rotation, and Spirit Commands, Aaron blasted out his strongest strike at this stage toward Kevin's back.
Kevin, completely unable to defend in time, was hit by this strike and was smashed into the ground not far away by Aaron's punch on the spot, like a kite with a broken string.
...................