Maybe I"ll be able to deal greater damage if I hit the weakest spot of parry with absolute strength. That was what the idea Breeze and Rain was exploring right now. He was slightly off, however. Even if his strike was unerring, he wouldn"t be able to replicate my feat. It was because I was a 5-Strength undead swordsman, and even the weakest point of my parry carried more force than his attack!
Chiang!
Our blades clashed, and with just a casual bent of my wrist I nullified over 70% of the force behind his strike and forced a MISS. Breeze and Rain was shocked, but I rammed my shoulder into his before he had a chance to react.
Bang!
Breeze and Rain staggered backward and lost his balance for a bit. It was a once-in-lifetime opportunity that I wouldn"t come by again. I immediately raised the Purple Ying Sword and used Universe Break!
"What?!"
Breeze and Rain parried and raised his left leg to kick me in the stomach at the same time. This f.u.c.ker sure knows how to hit where it hurts!
I gritted my teeth and slammed my knee against his boot. At the same time, I grabbed my sword with both hands, brought it down and shouted, " Break!"
Breeze and Rain clutched his own sword with both hands as he waited for the inevitable contact. He was certain that he would be able to parry the attack, but I was equally as certain that I would be able to crush it. At the last second, I altered the trajectory of my swing by 5 cm or so and shocked Breeze and Rain again. He could already tell that he wouldn"t be able to stop this!
Bang!
As expected, the Purple Ying Sword knocked his weapon away and slammed heavily into his shoulder, dealing 119288 damage. I immediately followed up with Pardon that scared him into withdrawing immediately. Even then, he refused to back off without retaliation and channeled his Divine General Skill, Soul Capture, in one hand.
I acted quickly and kicked him on the blade, pus.h.i.+ng myself away from him before he could touch me. Then, I went all out and fired 7 Ancient Seals in a row all around him. No way he was fast enough to escape this. One of the Ancient Seals. .h.i.t him for 140k+ damage, and his HP dropped to dangerous levels.
"Beiming, Skypiercer!"
I turned around to shout only to discover that G.o.d of War had already engaged her. Thankfully, the beautiful dark archer was able to parry herself away from her pursuer before firing a hail of arrows into the air. Skypiercer was wide enough to cover half the battle arena, so there was no chance Breeze and Rain could run away from this one. He dropped to his knees and lost the last sliver of HP.
……
"Breeze and Rain!"
Enraged, G.o.d of War rushed toward Beiming Xue and kneed her in the shoulder. While she was off-balance, he unleashed his Inferno Sixtuple Slash and one-shot her.
Swhoos.h.!.+
Beiming Xue also teleported out of the arena.
G.o.d of War"s cape was still in the air when I charged his flanks. I swung the Purple Ying Sword at him with everything I got!
Chiang!
However, not only was G.o.d of War able to react in time, he parried the full-powered attack successfully. Unlike Breeze and Rain, G.o.d of War"s total Strength was equal to mine. It would be much more difficult to crush his parry!
Crus.h.i.+ng my opponent wasn"t my goal, however. Winning the match was.
I grabbed G.o.d of War"s Collar and stomped the ground with War Crush. The red aura of the skill cut into his HP again and again—
52388!
62992!
71266!
The blazing berserker"s retaliation was swift and brutal. First, he threw a powerful sidekick that forced me to block with the Dragon G.o.d s.h.i.+eld. Then, he thrust Barrier Break straight for my chest! I had missed the initial channeling of the skill because the f.u.c.ker had concealed it behind his robes. This meant that I had less than 0.15 seconds to react to this!
I"m going all out!
I crossed the Purple Ying Sword and tried to parry it. It was death if I failed because G.o.d of War had G.o.d of War"s Art turned on. How many people in the world could withstand a double damage Barrier Break?
Reflexively, I activated a Roland Bloodknight Card and pulled my max HP to 350k. If I did fail to parry the skill, at least I would be able to survive one strike!
Pu...
G.o.d of War laughed murderously when the flaming cone of Barrier Break made contact with my Purple Ying Sword. "Break!"
Bang!
I knew it. His Strength was too high, so the skill pa.s.sed right through my sword and tore my chest apart. I immediately lost an insane amount of HP—
212994!
G.o.ddammit, this f.u.c.ker!
G.o.d of War sought to end this quickly, so he immediately acted to unleash another Inferno Sixtuple Slas.h.!.+
"The arrogance!"
I growled and punched out with Magic Piercing Punch, hitting him in the chest armor and canceling his skill before it could do anything!
29891!
I activated Tenacity of the Dead and healed myself for 90k+ HP, temporarily putting myself out of danger. Paying no heed to the flames still surrounding his blade, I stepped on the weapon—losing a ton of HP as a result—backflipped into the air and kicked him right beneath the chin!
Bang!
39019!
I had no plans of dragging this out, so I unleashed Burning Blade Slash right after I landed back on the ground!
G.o.d of War knew how deadly the skill was, so he crossed his sword in front of himself and Guarded!
Bang bang bang!
G.o.d of War was Guarding, and he was protected by the power of the Earth s.h.i.+eld. Therefore, the triple-hit skill only managed to deal 100k HP or so.
Swhoos.h.!.+
The blazing berserker swooped in like a hawk, and I just barely slid out of the way at the cost of my beautiful cloak. Fighting fire against fire had never been as intense as it was now!
I was terrified—yes, terrified—of letting G.o.d of War hit me even once because every one of his attacks was critical. Therefore, I gave it absolutely everything I got to defeat him!
Pa pa pa...
I backed away and bombarded the ground G.o.d of War was standing on with Ancient Seals once more. The blazing berserker roared angrily, but there was nothing he could do to dodge it.
"Dragon Slaying Slas.h.!.+"
I had finally figured out his strengths and weaknesses. His melee character skills were better than mine, but my ranged character skills were better than his!
G.o.d of War easily dodged my Dragon Slaying Slash, but the price was a full-powered Coiling Dragon Revolution. The skill practically cut through his entire torso!
Pa!
I disappeared from my original position and charged toward G.o.d of War like a lightning bolt, intending to end his life with Burning Blade Slash. However, G.o.d of War countered with his own signature skill, Inferno Sixtuple Slas.h.!.+
s.h.i.+t! I"m just a bit too slow! His skill will finish channeling before mine!
After the thought flashed across my mind, I immediately canceled the skill and simply tossed my weapon at G.o.d of War!
Pu!
The Purple Ying Sword penetrated G.o.d of War"s chest, but the Inferno Sixtuple Slash also engulfed me at the same time! Both of us were killed by each other"s attacks!
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
Outside the arena, everyone was stunned by the outcome of this battle. No one thought that this would end in mutual defeat. He Yi, Lian Xin and Beiming Xue were all staring at me with wide eyes.
Then, the system notice came—
System Notice: Both player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" and player "G.o.d of War" died in battle, but G.o.d of War died 0.07 seconds sooner than Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand. Therefore, the winner of the round is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!
……
The girls immediately leaped into the air and cheered in celebration. They obviously weren"t expecting the round to end in such a comedic fas.h.i.+on.
"Calm down, you all. This is just 1:0. We can celebrate after we win the next round!" I declared before shooting Beiming Xue a look. "Also, didn"t you die a little too early? That should"ve gone easier..."
Beiming Xue whined with a sniff, "Come on, G.o.d of War was super aggressive, and I had to watch out for his Inferno Sixtuple Slash and shoot Breeze and Rain at the same time. It"s way too difficult, dammit…"
I grinned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders consolingly. "Alright, alright. Anyway, we"re just one step away from the finals now. Let"s do our best and take the next round!"
"Mn!"
……
We teleported back into the arena and saw G.o.d of War and Breeze and Rain once more. They were calm—too calm in fact—but they couldn"t hide the killing intent. I was pretty sure they were going to try to cook up some devious scheme and murder the h.e.l.l out of us again.
However, Beiming Xue gave my arm a tug and whispered with a giggle, "Big bro, I think we"re about to win?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Because…" Beiming Xue blinked cheekily. "I can read minds! I think they"re going to try to focus you this round because you almost 1v2"d earlier. They think they can"t beat you as long as you"re alive, so they"re going to end you first…"
I shrugged. "What if they succeed?"
Beiming Xue stared at me for a moment before smiling a sweet smile. "They won"t, because I trust in your ability to defend yourself. Sister Lin Yixin once told me that the hardest player to kill in the entire China is you, not the tanky Gui Guzi. You"re the only player we know who can parry and counter an enemy"s attack infinitely!"
I rubbed my nose and said, "I"m going to get arrogant if you keep praising me, so let"s stop here, eh?"
"Heehee!"
……
The countdown began at the end of our banter. The exciting moment was upon us once more—
3!
2!
1!
G.o.d of War shouted, "Go!"
Just like last time, the two fighters split up to get close to Beiming Xue, while I tried to intercept one of them. However, before I even got close, G.o.d of War conjured a net of fire out of nowhere and threw it at Beiming Xue, shouting, "Fire Net!"
Swhoos.h.!.+
The net of fire caught a surprised Beiming Xue and trapped her for a crazy 25 seconds. Forget her, even I wasn"t expecting our opponent to save something like this until the last round!
Their strategy became clear at that moment. They would try to kill me in 25 seconds while Beiming Xue was trapped. Once I was dead, the round was as good as won!
Here they come!
Breeze and Rain activated Blazing Wind Art and charged me like a phantom. I knocked his sword aside with a swing of my own sword, but G.o.d of War"s Inferno Sixtuple Slash flew toward me from behind. I immediately locked onto a nearby tree trunk and Charged out of the way.
When I turned around to face the duo, Breeze and Rain was once again upon me. While running in a helix pattern, he attacked me three times in a row at lightning speed. The sonuvab.i.t.c.h just had too much attack speed, so much so that he could give Li Chengfeng a run for his money. I only had enough time to parry one attack before I Guarded the rest.
There was no time to breathe. Now G.o.d of War was upon me as well, and he was also using the helix maneuver! For a second, I felt like I was surrounded by a storm of swords. A double helix maneuver just for a little old me?
My blood boiled with excitement at that moment, and I barked out a laugh, "It"s been a long time since I saw a double helix maneuver! Come at me!"
I stepped right into their attack zone with unpredictable, instantaneous footsteps. I then rotated like a top and successfully parried multiple strikes in row. At the last moment, I came to a sudden halt and swung my sword at a surprised Breeze and Rain, shouting, "Break!"
87772!
My counterattack shattered Breeze and Rain"s parry and sent him staggering. He looked like he couldn"t believe what was happening.
G.o.d of War launched a furious a.s.sault upon seeing Breeze and Rain"s stumbling, but I stubbornly resisted his attacks and somehow kept my above the 40% mark. Frankly, I wasn"t expecting myself to enter this zone-within-zone. Driven by the thirst to overcome the seemingly impossible odds presented before me, I was somehow performing way above my usual level!
For 25 agonizing seconds, we grinded against one another, and not the good way. At the end of it, I had 14% HP left, G.o.d of War 18%, and Breeze and Rain a pitiful 9%. Somehow, I had survived 25 seconds with the two of the absolute best experts in the world, and I even canceled Breeze and Rain"s Soul Capture and Soul Refining Cage during this time. Right now, the Agility Warrior was staring at me like I was a monster.
……
Finally, a sweet voice entered my ears, "Heehee, leave the rest to me, big bro!"
Boom!
A devastating vortex of red appeared beneath our feet and dragged G.o.d of War and Breeze of Rain to the center. Beiming Xue had finally escaped the Fire Net and used Well of the Abyss to end the battle!
The moment Well of the Abyss disappeared, my Ancient Seal and Burning Blade Slash, and Beming Xue"s Spiraling Arrow Blade and Skypiercer hit G.o.d of War and Breeze and Rain. Just like that, they were knocked out of the arena and the compet.i.tion!
……
The final score was 3:2. We"re finally in the final!