Chapter 62: The Clash
As Night moved his pawn to the center, he noticed that Eve, Lilith, and Sage’s pawns were a lot further back, a clear sign that they had to work on their energy control a bit more.
He saw Blade and Lucy’s pawns turn to make their way toward him.
As soon as they closed the distance, they paused.
Looking up from the board, he saw Blade and Lucy looking at him, clearly unsure whether to fight him or not.
Surprisingly, while these two had no qualms about beating the ever-living crap out of each other, they looked hesitant to attack him.
They were probably worried he might be sad if he lost.
Cute...
Night said confidently, "Let’s fight."
"Are you sure?" Lucy asked.
"I am terrible at holding back..." Blade warned.
Night nodded firmly.
Lucy asked, "Who will fight whom first?"
Night smirked. "How about a free-for-all? The last one standing wins."
Blade smiled widely, rows of sharp teeth visible, which looked more than a little scary, to be honest.
Immediately, he saw Blade’s pawn use her sword to slash at Lucy’s pawn.
In a hurry, Lucy’s pawn dodged while simultaneously crouching down to dash at Blade’s pawn. Their movement and overall speed were way higher than before.
Not knowing exactly what to do, Night focused on helping Lucy.
If she was knocked out early, he would have to face Blade solo and he definitely didn’t think he stood a chance against her.
Mid-leap, Lucy’s pawn tried to swipe at Blade’s pawn, only to be seamlessly blocked by a white tail. At the exact same time, Blade’s pawn expertly changed her sword’s angle mid-slash and swung it downward, aiming for the head.
Just then, in the heat of the moment, Night managed to make his pawn move faster. He swung his single-edged axe at Blade’s pawn, forcing her to stop her assault and back away.
Lucy didn’t let up, wanting to seize the flow of the fight.
Her pawn dashed to the right with the momentum, delivering a fierce roundhouse kick, while Night’s pawn attacked from the front, swinging the axe downward like Pangu splitting the universe.
Unconcerned, Blade wasn’t flustered in the slightest. Her pawn sidestepped gracefully to the left, dodging both of their coordinated attacks effortlessly.
As if expecting her to dodge exactly that way, Lucy’s pawn leaped right again, now positioned behind Blade’s pawn.
She swung her claws, but a white tail whipped out trying to stop her. While he blade was blocked by Night’s pawn attack with the axe.
It seems he only knew that one attack.
Lucy’s pawn caught the tail, pulled hard and locked her in place. Caught off guard, Blade’s pawn failed to block Night’s incoming attack.
The axe landed squarely on the pawn’s head, dissolving it in one clean strike.
Blade screamed in outrage, "How is this a free-for-all?! You guys were clearly ganging up on me!"
The dissolved particles flowed directly into Night’s pawn.
He physically felt his pawn’s internal energy flow become significantly more complex and efficient, but also much harder to control.
Night and Lucy’s pawns backed away from each other immediately after Blade’s pawn died.
They circled each other slowly, sizing their opponent up and then dashed forward.
By now, the others had noticed the intense fight at the center and stopped moving their own pieces to watch the showdown.
Because of the sudden increase in energy complexity, Night was a lot slower and sloppier than before, while Lucy seemed to have already completely accustomed herself to her pawn’s flow.
Night’s pawn swung the axe at an awkward, diagonal angle, while Lucy’s pawn dodged effortlessly. A sharp claw came slashing at Night’s pawn and his piece hurriedly jumped backward, almost tripping over its own feet.
Taking full advantage of this misstep, Lucy’s pawn pounced at his pawn like a feral wolf. Just as his pawn’s shoulders were about to be crushed by the claws, he made his pawn fall flat on its back while simultaneously rolling to the right.
But in the panicked process of making such complex movements, his pawn’s grip on the axe slipped.
The weapon flew awkwardly high into the air. Lucy’s pawn, completely committed mid-air, missed Night’s pawn entirely. Then, she looked up only to see the spinning axe coming back down, aiming squarely for her head.
Before her pawn could even cross its arms to block, the spinning axe hit it perfectly in the neck, beheading it in one lucky strike.
Lucy: ( ￣ー￣)
Night: ( 0 _ 0 )
The others burst out laughing. Death laughed the absolute loudest.
Covering her eyes with her tiny paws, Lucy desperately wished she could dig a hole and hide in it forever.
Night, scratching his head awkwardly, said, "I didn’t mean to take out your pawn like that..."
Giggling uncontrollably, Sara said, "What are you saying? That was an incredibly cool move! I have never seen anyone do that in my entire life!"
Night opened and closed his mouth. He almost blurted out: And you have lived a very long life, too...
But he wisely kept his mouth shut.
He really didn’t want to be beaten to death by an angry witch.
Eve: "So cool, Master... Let’s team up!!!"
Lilith: "Me too... me too!"
Blade smacked her fist into her palm. "I see! So we are teaming up now???"
Night looked at her and flinched. "N-N... no..."
Ignoring him, she looked at the Headmaster. "Sara, let’s teach these kids how the real world works."
Sara thought about it for a moment with a wicked grin. "Yes... you are absolutely right. How can I even be called a teacher if we don’t beat the shit out of them?"
And just like that, Sara’s pawn and Blade’s pawn marched toward the center of the board together...
Already prepared, Night, Lucy, Death, Eve, Lilith, and Sage’s pawns stood united, opposing them.
Death, Lucy, and Night’s pawns rushed aggressively toward Blade, while Sage stayed behind the vanguard. Eve and Lilith circled around to flank and attack Sara.
Overwhelmed, Blade’s pawn frantically tried to block their relentless assault.
Death’s pawn clashed with its sword, Lucy’s pawn slashed with its claws, and Night’s pawn executed a horizontal slash aiming at its knees, only for all three of them to be blasted away by the magic bullets fired from Sara’s pawn.
But before Sara’s pawn could unleash another round of attacks, Eve and Lilith’s pawns reached her. Not making the same mistake twice, she kited Eve and Lilith’s pawns while simultaneously throwing precise magic bullets at the four ganging up on Blade.
Unfortunately, despite her struggles, Blade’s pawn still went down. It wasn’t executed by Night, Lucy, or Death’s pawns, but by an sneaky staff attack that Sage’s pawn delivered, using the other three as cover.
Sara, refusing to let her pawn die, escaped backward while simultaneously throwing rapid-fire magic missiles at them. She managed to take out Eve and Lilith’s pawns while heavily damaging the rest, forcing them to retreat.
And this time, they were the ones escaping while she chased them down relentlessly. They frantically tried to get out of her attack range, only to fall one by one.
She systematically took out their pawns. As her pawn grew stronger with each kill, its attack range and damage output increased exponentially.
Every time they brought a brand new piece onto the board, she would instantly destroy it with a barrage of magic missiles. She didn’t even spare Blade, probably still pissed at her for defeating her earlier.
They tried playing different pieces like Knights, Rooks, Bishops, the King and the Queen.
Each piece had its own unique energetic layout. The Knight had high movement speed, the Rook had high defense, the Bishop had high agility, the Queen had high energy capacity, while the King possessed high attack power.
The energy flow in the Nadis (meridians) of each piece was meticulously geared to enhance those specific physical aspects, making Night deeply understand the subtle nuances of bodily energy manipulation, which he otherwise would have had absolutely no clue about.
These details were completely irrelevant to them if they just relied on System skills.
For System skills, the System did all the heavy lifting automatically. But if they ever wished to produce similar results without relying on a skill or if they simply weren’t lucky enough to have that particular type of skill, then this knowledge was a godsend... literally.
By the end of the massacre, only Sara’s pawn remained. The pawn looked exactly like a miniature copy of Sara toward the end, having grown significantly stronger and more detailed because of all the kills it absorbed.
Looking at her beaming smile as she stretched her arms, she laughed. "Haha... suckers... this is how you win a game!"
Sara: (⌐■_■)✧
Night almost wanted to remind her that she should really act her age, but stopped himself.
If you argue with them, you lose...
Night: (￢_￢)
Getting up, she saw it was already 9:00 PM.
"Time flies so quickly when you are having fun... no, ahem... teaching," Sara corrected herself quickly.
Looking around, she could see empty paper cups lying everywhere. Toward the end of the game, they had kept downing the Apple Juice like there was no tomorrow. She could see at least 250 cups scattered around the room.
"My, my, did we drink all of this? What if we get diabetes?" Sara wondered aloud.
Night’s lips twitched. "Don’t worry, I doubt you guys would even get a tummy ache."
Blade looked down at her hand as she summoned a small, physical blade in the real world.
Whoosh.
It flew rapidly around the room, making impossibly quick twists and turns before returning perfectly to her hand.
Sara looked at her, her jaw dropping. "When did you get so good at controlling your blade like that?"
Blade replied while staring at the chessboard with fervor, "Just now.... I think my control improved almost three times over. As expected, Divine Artifacts are ridiculous."
Wishing to test herself as well, Sara opened her palm as a fireball gathered.
She compressed it slowly and its color shifted from bright orange to scorching blue, significantly increasing the temperature of the entire room.
Shocked, Sara muttered, "This is stupid. I needed to explicitly use a spell every time I did this previously. Now, I managed to do it just with free-form magic!"
Hearing this, Lucy finally spoke up while looking smugly at Death. "What do you think? Isn’t my artifact the best?"
(≖‿≖)
Making Death grind her teeth in pure annoyance...
(>_<)
Before they could resume their petty catfight, Eve intervened, "Master, why don’t you see what improvement you have received?"
Hearing this, everyone looked at him with curiosity.
Struggling slightly, he stood up. "Yes, why not?"
He was excited to find out as well. After all, who didn’t like improvements?
