Two roars echoed through the empty atrium simultaneously.
The ancient thunder god from four hundred years ago collided with the modern Special Grade.
Both figures vanished from their standing positions in the same fraction of a second.
BOOM!
In the center of the plaza, their fists met head-on.
The collision of two massive, high-output electrical pools unleashed a concussive shockwave that blew out every remaining glass fixture along the surrounding balconies.
Kashimo felt the sheer kinetic weight pressing through his knuckles.
His boots skidded backward across the tile floor, leaving two dark burn marks.
What is this force?!
Before he could process the impact, Julian was already closing the distance.
Julian stepped through the shockwave, driving a heavy left hook straight toward Kashimo’s jaw.
His core surged, channeling a second burst of output into the arc.
Kashimo, assuming it was a standard follow-up, raised his forearm to block.
The moment the left fist connected, the air cracked.
It wasn’t a standard strike.
The sheer weight behind the hit rattled Kashimo’s core, sending a violent vibration straight through his neural pathways.
His vision blurred, his footing wavering for a fraction of a second.
A stunned opening.
Julian took immediate advantage, driving a heavy right cross straight into Kashimo’s cheek.
BANG!
The blow launched Kashimo across the plaza.
His body tumbled through the air, crashing through a storefront display and coming to a stop inside a pile of broken shelves.
Julian stood in the center of the atrium, shaking out his knuckles with a wide grin.
“How’s that for a basic combo?!”
Inside the ruined shop, Kashimo pushed a fallen display case off his legs and stood up.
His centuries of battle experience told him immediately what had just happened.
The brief disorientation hadn’t been simple physical shock—it was a crowd-control effect built directly into Julian’s technique.
My energy only grants my physical hits an electrical charge, Kashimo thought, wiping a smear of blood from his lip.
His technique carries secondary utility.
Yet, there was no fear in Kashimo’s posture.
His eyes flared with brilliant, wild light.
“Good!
So modern sorcerers aren’t all useless after all!”
Kashimo extended his right hand toward the far side of the atrium.
A hundred meters away, the heavy iron staff he had planted in the floor snapped free, flying across the open air to lock smoothly into his palm.
By leaving a positive charge on the staff during his initial movement, Kashimo could draw the weapon back to his position instantly using the negative charge in his own body.
He stepped out of the ruined storefront, the iron staff resting lightly across his shoulders. Get faster updates on g.com.
“In four hundred years, you’re the first sorcerer to make me take a step back.
When it comes to lightning…” Kashimo grinned, his voice ringing across the plaza, “…I declare you the strongest!”
Julian raised an eyebrow.
“Talk big all you want, old man!”
Kashimo’s figure blurred.
A split second later, he appeared directly above Julian’s head, bringing the iron staff down in a lethal, overhead arc reinforced with high-density output.
Julian didn’t take the hit head-on.
He slid his hips to the left, letting the heavy iron staff shatter the concrete floor beside his boot.
As the staff struck the floor, Julian pivoted on his heel, driving his elbow straight toward Kashimo’s ribs.
“Take this!
Black Flash elbow!”
Kashimo’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
Black Flash?!
As an ancient master, he knew the phenomenon intimately.
When a physical strike and a release of cursed energy synchronized within a trillionth of a second, space itself distorted, multiplying the strike’s power exponentially.
Given Julian’s baseline output, a direct Black Flash to the torso would crack his ribs instantly.
With zero room to dodge, Kashimo pulled his staff across his chest, bracing for impact.
Thud!
The elbow struck the metal shaft, shoving Kashimo back two meters.
No spatial distortion appeared.
No black lightning crackled through the air.
Kashimo stood his ground, glaring at Julian with a dark, dangerous expression.
Julian scratched the back of his neck, offering a sheepish laugh.
“Hey, shouting the name adds aura.
You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Kashimo let out a long, quiet breath, forcing his irritation down.
“Enough nonsense.”
He straightened his posture, his eyes settling into a cold, absolute focus.
“The farce ends here,” Kashimo said softly.
“Say your last words.
The formula for your defeat is complete.”
Julian narrowed his eyes.
Was there a hidden mechanism he had missed?
In the worst-case scenario, he would simply reset in the white void and run it back.
Julian grinned.
“Last words?
Don’t have any.
But my name is Julian Iglesias.”
“Julian Iglesias,” Kashimo repeated the name under his breath.
“A fine name.
I won’t forget it.”
Kashimo focused his core, snapping his fingers to detonate the positive electrical charges he had systematically planted inside Julian’s body during their close-quarters exchanges.
Three seconds passed in complete silence.
Nothing happened.
Kashimo’s brow furrowed.
He focused his core again, forcing his energy outward.
The atrium remained silent.
Julian watched Kashimo’s performance with a faint, knowing smirk.
“Looking for the positive charges you tried to plant in my torso during that elbow trade?”
Kashimo’s jaw set.
When Kashimo fought, his physical strikes naturally transferred positive electrical charges into the target’s body.
Once enough charge accumulated, he could discharge his own negative energy to trigger a guaranteed-hit internal lightning strike without deploying a Domain Expansion.
It was his absolute trump card.
“Did you forget?” Julian tapped his own chest, the blue lightning around his frame humming smoothly.
“My innate technique is lightning.
The charge you pushed into my body was absorbed and converted into my own pool the second it entered my skin.”
Kashimo’s expression turned stone-cold.
A complete elemental counter-restraint.
In jujutsu combat, encountering an opponent whose technique naturally hard-countered your own was a signal to disengage and fall back.
He possessed no Domain Expansion, and his ultimate single-use technique, Mythical Beast Amber, was reserved solely for Ryomen Sukuna.
Under standard combat logic, retreating was the only rational choice.
Yet, Kashimo didn’t take a single step backward.
The static aura surrounding his body flared twice as bright, his eyes burning with pure, unadulterated excitement.
Fall back just because he was countered?
That was a loser’s mindset.
Kashimo raised his iron staff, pointing the tip directly at Julian’s face.
“Countered or not…
I’m taking your head right here!”