Erik dodged the strike and decided to counterattack. He launched a series of slashes before him by using his master's fighting style and hoping to catch Julia off guard. Unfortunately for him, the young woman reacted faster than Erik anticipated and avoided each of his strikes by using the hammer as a focal point and moving around it with incredible agility.
She was fast and moved like water; her flow was impressive, and Erik immediately understood why she was at that rank. Her training was vastly superior to Zak's or the others he faced. Erik realized that defeating Julia would not be easy and that he needed to revise his approach.
Julia kept avoiding each strike, moving without losing speed or momentum; she could be anywhere on her opponent's body at any given moment but always kept him within the range of her weapon so that when he did strike back, all his attacks could be deflected away from her.
Once again, Erik knew that the difference between him and her was all about technique and experience. He knew he could only keep up with her weird movements thanks to his inflated stats and was aware that relying solely on his stats wouldn't guarantee him victory. He needed to strategize and find a weakness in Julia's fighting style to defeat her.
However, he was also training a lot, and with each day that passed, he became better and better, so it wasn't like he was a total noob compared to her.
It was also clear that if he won against Zak, he was bound to win against her, too, even if she was better trained overall. He still felt confident enough to win this match. Although he knew he should not underestimate her abilities, even the slightest mistake could cost him the match. He needed to remain focused and disciplined during the fight to ensure victory.
Erik observed the young woman, and a few moments later, he realized that he had to do something about the hammer if he wanted to win. The problem was figuring out how to get past the weapon's defenses. He took a deep breath and assessed his options, knowing that any hasty decision could result in failure.
Erik knew that he had to rely on his strength and speed if he wanted to have any chance of winning, so he decided to try to close the gap between himself and his opponent quickly by trying to confuse the woman with fast and unpredictable movements while trying to find the right opportunity to strike. As the fight continued, he remained focused and disciplined, watching for any opening to try and disarm his opponent.
He didn't want to win by exhausting her, as had happened in previous fights. That was a little bit lame and frankly shameful. He wanted to win in a way that would impress his peers and prove himself a worthy fighter.
But Julia saw a weakness in Erik's stance right away and took advantage of it with such finesse and skill that even the healer was impressed. It was clear that he was still a greenhorn with the sword, while she had many years to learn how to fight with a hammer properly since her brain crystal power was related to it.
However, she clearly saw that, despite his not-perfect stance, he knew how to move around with the weapon. She was aware that Erik had just recently started to train, as he appeared in the newspaper quite often due to his awakener status, and the results he achieved left her flabbergasted.
The woman raised her hammer and swung it with force at Erik as she had the most extended reach. She aimed at Erik's chest, but the young man dove and avoided the strike. She attacked, despite knowing this was a risky move that had the potential to kill Erik.
Although he clearly lacked a lot of experience and didn't know many techniques, she had been forced by the situation to make that attack as she had a hard time fighting against the young man due to his speed. She started to fear losing her rank.
Due to the rumors about Erik quickly rising through the ranks, she was intrigued, so she went to see one of his matches. Julia noticed how strong and fast he was, but she fought many people with similar characteristics and didn't think much about it; she never doubted her skills and was confident enough to win. However, things proved to be more complex than expected.
Erik was in a position in which he couldn't avoid the strike, and the only thing he could do was block. He used both the sword and his arms, both coated in mana, to parry the attack. The result was a devastating blow that almost broke Erik's arms and made Julia win.
Erik had to consume much of his mana reserves to resist the blow, more than he expected before the fight. His power was efficient despite everything. It allowed him to use relatively low amounts of mana compared to other powers of the same rank since he only had to sharpen things, and it wasn't necessary to sharpen the flyssa a lot.
Erik flew a couple of meters behind and felt a lot of pain run through his arms. Despite his situation, he quickly realized he had been lucky, as things could have been worse if he hadn't taken action immediately.
Erik stood on his feet, but Julia started charging at him while he did so.
"Fuck..." Erik said.
"Surrender before you make a fool of yourself..." Julia said, swinging her hammer but missing her intended target.
She sounded very arrogant at that moment because she had a clear advantage against someone who could rise through the ranks quickly. However, it was also true that Erik had underestimated his opponent, as she was more skilled than he initially assumed, and the gap in their stats was enough only to put them at the same level of strength.
"Why are you acting out of character all of a sudden?" Erik asked, clearly referring to the meeting they had inside the elevator.
The woman swung her hammer again, but Erik dodged. This time, he avoided making wide movements to prevent being hit again.
"Can you stop talking and focus on the fight?"
Julia attacked again, but this time, Erik counterattacked. He didn't have the same amount of mana as before but he could still fight. He observed the young girl as she kept repeatedly attacking until he saw an opportunity. His training with Master Nieminen was slowly affecting his battle prowess. The girl swung her hammer again, and Erik dodged and slashed at her leg. He missed a first swing but was fast enough to pull a second out and make a nasty cut on her leg.
His blade cut deep into the skin, and blood flowed from the wound. The young man smiled at that. "You're bleeding..."
Immediately, Julia felt stupid for having told Erik to surrender. He still had many surprises in reserve. It was at that moment that the girl started having problems standing up. Her mobility significantly decreased, but her opponent wasn't better off.
He was having trouble exerting strength due to his sustained injury and had to use a little bit more mana to make up for the lack of strength.
The fight between the two continued, with Erik making significantly weaker attacks and Julia having trouble moving. This resulted in the woman slowly accumulating wounds since she couldn't move as before, but these were not as nasty as the first one Erik made. Julia bled profusely now, and after taking another slash from Erik, she collapsed on the ground. She was in a dangerous state but didn't want to surrender.
In the meantime, Erik's constant use of his arm worsened the pain, rendering it more difficult for him to fight. He would soon be unable to continue fighting in the match. The healer started pondering who was going to win at that point when suddenly something happened.
"Surrender!" Erik said.
"No, you surrender!"
"There's no way... I will..."
They looked at each other; neither one wanted to give up, and the two kept fighting. Julia tried to use the previous moves revolving around circling the hammer, but she was too slow now, and Erik quickly became able to keep up with her movements.
They circled back and forth several times around the hammer until Erik finally managed to get close to the woman and struck her once. He made a severe gash on her chest, partially exposing her bones. Then he kicked her in the wound, and Julia collapsed on the ground in agony.
However, Erik could barely lift his sword by that time. He only managed to point the flyssa at her throat and say, "I'm the winner..." heavily panting and trembling from fatigue.
Julia was in pain and couldn't even reply to the young man. The healer came out of the room and immediately declared Erik, the winner.
"Erik Romano won!" The healer said, but his attention quickly turned to Julia, whose wounds required urgent attention, prompting him to treat her without delay.
He then rushed to heal Julia, who was bleeding profusely, and as he started to do his job, she could not refrain from swearing.
"Fuck..." Julia said. She lost two hundred ranks in a single day. That was a devastating blow to her ego.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺