They both start to fight with the lightning swordsmaster having the upper hand due to his speed, but Clad was gradually understanding his moves, and his eyes eventually turned white again. He started to catch up to him.
"This guy, he's catching up to me, a lightning sword art user? Seems like I went too easy on him!"
Purple lightning concentrated on the blind swordsman's body as he became even faster than before, so fast that multiple afterimages of himself appeared, each mimicking a real attack as they all overwhelmed Clad.
[DIVINE LIGHTNING SWORD ARTS: VOLT MIRTAGE]!
UGH!
Clad was forced to defend against physical clones made of lightning by using one of his own defensive techniques to avoid taking damage, stronger and quicker than usual.
[FLOWER SWORD ART: LOTUS GUARD]!
As the two clashed, the ground shook, but neither of them lost balance as they exchanged multiple sword blows before Clad slowly took the upper hand as he swung his blade, wounding his arm, but eventually, the man leaped away onto a nearby tree, saying that "no amount of money is worth dying for." Clad tells him that he can't say that, as he killed a whole bunch of people for quick cash.
"Yea yea whatever, kid." He said as he vanished in lightning form, leaving not even a single trace of his presence behind him.
Clad remained silent for a few seconds, but didn't mind the outcome, as it avoided wasting any more time.
"Although I never met a hired killer that was as shameless as him." Clad thought before sheathing his blade and making his way out of the park.
The whole time, the rat king was watching the fight from above using projection magic, while sitting on his throne. He sighed as he already knew that the blind swordsman would leave the second his life would be on the line, but he didn't expect him to actually run into someone who could be or is above his level of tier 89, and he wondered how far the swordsman would go before dying to his men when he heard a sudden knock on his door.
"What is it?"
One of his messengers entered the room in a hurry, out of breath. He told the king that he received a report from one of his soldiers that the Namskanian Mafia had started a war against them, which the king thinks little of, as he asks the ice mage.
"Darca."
"Yes, Marouce?"
"Go and kill these pests for me, yeah?"
Darca stayed silent for a few seconds before the king grew impatient and angrily said:
"So will you come up with an answer or not!?"
"....Understood," Darca said as he walked out of the Rat King's throne hall.
"Good, and make it as clean as possible; the prices for cleaning blood and disposing of corpses aren't cheap."