Even though the outside of the rider's armor was mostly fine, Reign was certain that he was definitely injured, at least slightly. The attack that Laura performed wasn't one that was easy to simply block, even if the enemy was as terrifying as this one.
"Not one for talks huh?" Reign said as he blocked an attack from the rider before slashing with his other sword. The rider quickly moved his sword back and parried the attack before stabbing at Reign, forcing him to move sideways in order to evade the hit.
As Reign moved to the side, he brought his right arm up and his sword suddenly started vibrating. The rider suddenly froze for a moment as he recognized the move.
[ Severing, Sword One ]
As Reign's sword fell down, the rider turned his body sideways and evaded the attack, the cut passing a mere millimeter from his nose. Reign didn't stop however, right after he brought the sword down, he moved his right arm to the side while his left arm that held his other sword that had previously been put in the sheath exploded forth.
[ Severing, Sword Two ]
The severing series of sword skills were actually not one that focused on individual skill, but the combination of all the movements that could pressure the enemy without them being able to do anything.
As Reign attacked the rider with the skill, however, his eyes widened in shock at the rider's action.
The second Reign attacked with the second sword, the rider had brought his right arm up as his sword vibrated slightly. He brought it down the same way that Reign previously did and used the first sword to counter the second sword.
The collision made both of them take a step back and stare into each other's eyes.
"You have been taught the [ Severing ] series, who's your teacher?" The rider suddenly asked. His voice was raspy and had a certain feel to it. The voice alone sent a chill down Reign's back as he stared at the man who had seemingly decided to pause their battle.
"Jack."
"Hmm, Jack, could it be?" The rider put a hand to his chin and observed Reign.
"No matter, I am surprised to find a swordsman like you who has not even reached Tier II but has comprehended two of the moves, this battle will not be a waste of my time." The rider quickly got back into position before attacking Reign.
The two dueled, but nobody came close to them as they battled it out with only their swords, it was like the two had a sort of agreement that this would be a contest of pure swordsmanship, of course, the one that was leading was the rider.
Not only was he older than Reign, but he was much more powerful as well, a Tier VI fighter was not something Reign could hope to even touch right now. To be able to fight against such an opponent and have a contest of pure swordsmanship was an incredible opportunity for Reign.
Reign's two swords were like a blur, he relentlessly attacked the rider, only for all of his strikes to be blocked, parried, or evaded. He didn't know whether the rider was going easy on him as no attacks had managed to hit Reign yet, but he dared not become complacent, even though it seemed like he was the one that was pressuring the rider with his non-stop onslaught, it was clear to him that the difference in pure skill was wide.
The rider barely moved and only did what was necessary to not get hit by Reign. His breathing was completely stable while Reign was slowly starting to get tired. His breath became more rapid and he knew that he couldn't afford to draw this battle out, no matter how much he wanted to.
They had a lot more fights that they needed to go through after this and one unlucky draw would have them face a powerful enemy against who they needed to go all out. The others had already started using their boosts and were going all out against the riders, each not pulling back any punches.
As Reign evaded an attack from the rider, he quickly jumped back and created some distance before lightning exploded from him. His arms were pointed straight at the rider as the Reign's lightning started forming a figure around him.
'It's still not complete, one wrong move and it will fail, but it's the only hope I have to take him by surprise and end this battle early.' Reign thought to himself as he thought back on what he was doing for the three weeks that had passed before the challenge.
Creating new skills was difficult, especially in their current state where the skills they had were the ones they came up with early on and had time to improve them. Getting new skills by improving their class was something that was available to them, but after listening to Aethion who had told them that their classes were not something they needed to fully focus on at this moment, Reign and the others decided to forget that as well.
One would have an opportunity to change or improve their current class at level 20, Reign had decided to change his class, as did some of the others. Those that didn't feel the need to change their class decided to simply improve their own, they got a skill or two more and the ones they already had from the class were improved a bit.
The difference wasn't great, however, but it was something they had received while doing nothing and was definitely not something they wouldn't take.
The only thing left was to try and improve their skills, and there were multiple ways to do so. Trying different variations to the skill by condensing mana in order to make the skill more powerful and explosive, but increasing the time it took to use it was one way.
Making the skill faster to use was another. There were also ways to make it deal more damage to the surrounding area, concentrating the power of the skill to one point and more.
The one that was amongst the most difficult to do, but was among the most powerful was fusion. Fusing two skills would not only allow somebody to have the effect of both skills on one, neither did it simply add the power of one skill to the other, it would triple the destructive power of the fused skill or more and the result was incredible.
Of course, that was why it was amongst the hardest things possible, fusing two skills wasn't an easy thing to do and most were unable to do it as the destructive force would become too much to control, leading to the skill simply failing or at worst, resulting in a powerful explosion of mana that could even injure or kill the player.
Reign opted to try and fuse two skills. He had two skills that were quite similar to each other luckily and he decided to try and fuse the two together. He failed over a hundred times so far, sometimes the skill would fail and his lightning would simply scatter, other times it would result in a powerful explosion that would injure him.
Yet, he preserved it as he was certain that it was possible. And he had finally managed to fuse them, albeit barely as even the slightest lapse in concentration or a wrong move would lead to failure.
[ Lightning Stab ] + [ Rage of the Kirin ]
[ Lightning Charge ]
[ Charge of the Raging Kirin Knight ]
The result was astonishing. The Kirin manifested itself not around Reign, but below him. He rode on the back of the powerful beast that was created entirely from his mana and lightning.
A 5-meter-long lance appeared on his right hand as his two swords were no longer visible. With a powerful kick of its legs, the Kirin charged at the Death Rider, the sound barrier breaking from the great speed of the Kirin that was currently at Mach 2.
The rider could see the attack and could respond to it, if not for his body which was currently restricted greatly. Being able to see an attack coming your way meant nothing if your body was not fast enough to let you respond to it.
The lance connected with the rider's armor and penetrated it. Half of the rider's torso was gone, his left arm falling on the ground some 10 meters away from him while black mana that looked like smoke started coming out from the wound.
"Impressive, you used the fact that I had not activated any skill to your advantage, usually I would call it cowardly and you a bastard for this, but I do understand why you did it." The rider spoke without any hint of pain or anger.
Reign was only 2 meters behind him, the skill took a huge tool on Reign's body and he couldn't use it for long, if he was able to use it for just a second longer, the horns of the Kirin would have skewered the body of the rider and the battle would have been over.
"But it is unfortunate that you failed at killing me, you will not have a second chance at th-" Before the rider could finish his words, a clone of Reign's appeared behind him and attacked him with his two swords while Reign delivered a backhand slash at him.
"That's!" The rider quickly recognized the third sword of the [ Severing ] series and blocked it, leaving his back open for the clone that used [ Severing Light and Darkness ].
Reign quickly put his hand on his other sword and entered a low stance as his lightning flickered around him. He knew that he had to finish the battle right now, if the rider was allowed to use a boost-type of skill, he would probably lose the battle.
He quickly activated his [ Lightning Charge ] in order to boost his speed to the max before disappearing from the spot.
[ Severing, Lightning Slash ]
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺