Rhys was a very prideful man, who at this point considered himself to be a dragon amongst men.His pride was not unfounded nor was it a projection of what he wanted to show himself as. But it was rather a goal that Rhys worked towards realizing someday, and he knew that if he ran away today, then the first thought in his mind whenever he faced a tough fight would be to run away and he could not accept that.The stakes in this fight were minimal, even if he did end up losing this fight, apart from his public image taking a dip there was no other loss. However, if he ran away, the loss would be in his own perception of himself, as while Rhys could accept being a loser, he could never accept being a coward.Hence, standing his ground, Rhys once again tried to use [ Twin Blade Hurricane ] and once again Lu somehow slipped through it and hit Rhys hard in his guts.*Pah*Buckling down to both his knees, Rhys spat a mouthful of blood as he clutched his stomach trying to lessen the pain.At t

Rhys could not sleep properly the night after his fight with Lu.While he was still pissed at the Sol Gods, he was more pissed at himself and the way he fought.After fighting Lu, Rhys realized that he was a pretty one dimensional fighter.He had good swordsmanship skills and natural body strength, however, that was pretty much it.He was like a one trick pony with no creativity, as once someone neutralized his sword skills and his strength, he had nothing else to fall back on.He had no moves that could help him safely retreat.He had no defensive maneuvers under his belt.He had no special movement techniques under his belt.He had no creative attacks under his belt that were not related to the sword.He was a very incomplete and flawed fighter, however, because he was much stronger and skilled than his peers at the university, he never realized just how weak he really was."I need to grow stronger…. I need to grow a lot stronger" Rhys murmured to himself as he made a mental note to

*Pant**Pant**Pant*Rhys panted heavily as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.*Dodge**Block*Blocking an attack from Instructor Mae, Rhys reached the two minute milestone in his spar against her for the first time in his career.[ Rapid Feet ][ Pressure Bomb ]Using the combination of rapid feet and pressure bomb, he created a magic trap using his feet while also retreating simultaneously, forcing Instructor Mae to chase him using a longer indirect path, so that she did not step over one of his traps.This forced the professor to lose a few precious moments in her chase, allowing Rhys to create tangible separation between them.Retreating in such a way was something that he had learnt only recently as he was polishing his fighting style every single day.*Swoosh**Swoosh**Block*Eventually, as the professor caught up to him and began thrusting her sword once again, Rhys dodged two of her moves, while blocking the third as he used the technique [ Earth Vines ] to try to bind

"What is this nonsense? A single man instigated a floor raid and the tower administrator allowed his challenge? Just which lesser god decided to pick a fight with the Olympians?" Marcus asked in surprise, as a floor raid wasn't something that just anyone could trigger.A floor raid could only be triggered by a force which the tower acknowledged as capable of having a shot at actually winning the fight, which was why Marcus automatically assumed that the individual triggering the floor raid had to be a lesser god, as only a lesser god could have a fair shot at taking down an entire floor by themselves.If there were no restrictions placed on as to who could trigger a floor raid, then anyone discontent with the status quo could potentially trigger a floor raid, which could lead to the floor master having to face a several dozen floor raids a day, potentially for perpetuity, as there was no shortage of mentally unstable Ascenders that were ready to throw their lives away for the chance a

Marcus looked at the approaching Reeves with a grim expression on his face. He was not prepared for this assault at all, nor did he have any idea as to why Reeves suddenly launched this suicidal attack on his floor. So far everything that he had tried to stop Reeves had proven to be futile as he had lost close to 400,000 troops already, many of whom were specialized archers and mages, while the loss of local life in terms of local beasts and residents was innumerable. Reeves was no different from a walking natural disaster at the moment who indiscriminately slaughtered anything and everything in his path, and Marcus did not have an effective solution to try and stop him. Once Reeves breached the palace's outer wall, Marcus had only one option left which was to deploy his top tier 5 generals to slow down Reeves's advance. His orders were clear: they were to delay Reeves's approach and hold him back for as long as possible as Marcus knew that Reeves was a ticking time bomb with only