*CLANG!*
Ezra's spear collided with Sword Saints' sword, and a metallic sound reverberated throughout the colosseum as Ezra's spear failed to make even a dent in the Sword Saint's sword, even though it strikes it in the middle.
"Tch."
Ezra clicked his tongue and used his other hand to fire a wind blade at point-blank range. However, Sword Saint Miller just shifted his head, and simply 'enjoyed' the wind.
"You are committed."
He commented as Ezra thrusted forward with the spear yet again.
[Swift Spear (3-star)]
First movement: Swift Thrust!
"Ho!"
Arken dodged the numerous thrusts Ezra performed with relative ease, The thrusts were so powerful that the spectators struggled to understand. Was that really a 3-star martial art?
The swift spear was not a rare art by any means, but it wasn't easy to master.
"You actually mastered it, impressive."
Arken continued to dodge the thrusts with his excellent and nimble footwork.
'I have to do something different…'
Thought Ezra. The Sword Saint was playing with him. He had not even attacked yet.
"Hmph!"
[Skill: Wind Scythe(B+) has been used!]
Wind coalesced around Ezra's Spear and formed a sharp scythe. Arken let out a hearty whistle when he saw it.
"Wow."
Ezra was wide open right now, and he knew it. He was just using the fact that Arken was playing with him to launch a powerful attack. He knew Arken was aware of his wide-open body.
He just thought Arken would go along with it. 'Play with him'.
"Ha!"
A strong storm unleashed from the spear, and Ezra swung it down with all his strength.
What did the Sword Saint do? He didn't even use his massive sword…He just…
He just stepped to the side.
"?!"
Ezra's attack struck the ground instead of the Sword Saint, the attack was so powerful it destroyed the stadium and kept going towards the spectators. The raging tempest was stopped by Harrison, who was acting as both a referee and protector of the Audience.
Nevertheless, the raging winds it produced still had an effect. The food and drinks of the audience members with weak grip strength flew all over the place.
"Woah!"
"Ugh!"
Some struggled with the wind, but even then they did not dare to stop watching the match.
"You are even more open to attacks now."
The Sword Laughed, and planted his knee in Ezra's face.
The force of the kick was so powerful that even Ezra, an A+-ranked human on the verge of breaking through S rank at his tender age but even he was sent flying.
Blood dripped out of Ezra's nose as he landed and responded with a flurry of Wind bullets to create some distance. He did this to make sure Arken wouldn't attack whilst he was recovering from the attack.
"Why are you wasting mana?"
However…contrary to his expectations, Arken had not moved even a single inch, he had stayed in his original position. Ezra had fired those [Wind Bullets] for no reason at all.
"..."
This was a weird, strange occurrence for him.
Normally, everyone he fought with would be rushing to attack him as quickly as possible, whether it was someone he dueled or even enemies or monsters. So he developed the habit of counterattacking immediately. It was akin to muscle memory at this point.
This type of battle was rare…especially for him.
"What? Out of steam already?"
The sword saint asked, Ezra slowly circled Arken and started a conversation.
"No, I'm afraid my efforts were futile."
He said. He knew whatever he had done up until now…was useless. Arken didn't even pay attention to it. He hadn't even used his sword to attack.
Arken was simply toying with him and was apparently having quite a blast. Ezra circled around The Sword Saint, who didn't pay attention to his figure and just closed his eyes.
"..."
Ezra fell silent when he saw the Sword Saint closing his eyes. He remarked.
"Amazing, to think you would be so carefree."
He said as he activated a skill to observe every movement of Arken.
[Skill: Eagle Eyes (A) has been activated.]
He was being very, very careful right now.
"Damn, Ezra is being wary…"
"Dude's gonna lose so badly."
The spectators commented when they saw the sheer difference between Arken and Ezra.
"It's an honor, sir, I will now go all o-"
Suddenly, Ezra's figure disappeared into smoke during the middle of his sentence.
The tip of his spear materialized right beside Arken's head. But Arken did not pay attention to 'this' spear.
He instead caught the 'real' spear coming from above with his fingers, Ezra's figure appeared in the Air, for all to see.
"What just happened?"
"He disappeared?"
"He's that fast?"
Their conclusions were wrong. From the moment the Sword Saint had closed his eyes, Ezra used his Illusion affinity to create two illusions, the first one was intended to distract Arken with words and disappear in the middle to create further confusion. The second was the spear beside Arken which was 'supposed' to seem like it was attacking him. But even this was an Illusion Arken had seen through. The real attack was from above, Ezra made himself invisible
"...Shit."
Ezra cursed. His scheme had been seen through with such relative ease.
[Skill: Festival of Clones (A) has been used.]
A cloud of smoke surrounded him, and soon Multiple Ezra's emerged from it, each wielding a different weapon in Hand. One held an axe, one a sword, one a bow, etc.
A multitude of weapons appeared, along with multiple Ezra.
"They are all tangible…"
Arken muttered, Unlike the illusions from before, these illusions were tangible and could interact with the world.
The Ezra's attacked him in tandem, Ezra dodged the axe Ezra and Sword Ezra quite easily.
He used an Axe kick and crushed the head of the Ezra wielding an Axe, But An Ezra with a mace replaced him quickly.
[Skill: Arrow Of Tempest(C) has been used.]
Arken caught an arrow covered in a small tornado and threw it at the Bow Wielding Ezra. The arrow returned back to its owner and pierced it in the chest and left a considerably big hole.
Arken kicked the sword-wielding Ezra in the stomach. The kick was strong enough to leave a hole as big as a human body.
'Flesh…'
Thought Arken, he saw blood and flesh from these 'illusions'. He thought they would disappear into smoke when he killed them but he was wrong.
'That smoke cloud is still there…'
The smoke cloud that birthed these illusions of flesh and blood was still there and was continuously pumping out new Ezra's, each wielding a unique weapon.
[Assassin's Carnage(4 Star)]
Fourth movement: Carnage of blood.
Arken punched a dagger that was coming for his throat, the force of his punch destroyed the dagger and also the wielder of it. Even a four-star art was useless…
Arken hated it.
"What use is learning so many arts when you fail to use them to their utmost Potential?!"
He stomped on the ground and caused it to shatter like grass. He kicked the pieces of debris that bounced up towards the Ezra's, killing quite a few of them in the process.
Multiple other Ezra's swarmed him, and he calmly dodged their attacks and let out a smile.
He knew what Ezra was doing.
Ezra was using a precious item to see through Arken and observe Statistics.
[Eye of Truth (SS) has been used.]
To think he would be such a precious and one-time-use item so easily.
—Status—
Name: Arken Miller.
Race: Human.
Titles: Sword Saint, Bloody berserker, demon slayer, Continent Splitter, Slaughterer, Devoted Master.
Rank: SSS
Strength: SSS+
Agility: SSS+
Endurance: SSS-
Mana: SS+
Aura: SSS++
Charm: B
Intelligence: A
Further information cannot be viewed due to the target possessing a higher rank than the Item.
'Aura…? What?'
Ezra wondered within the smoke, he hadn't seen that start before…where did it come from?
"Had fun peeking?"
"!!!"
Suddenly, Arken appeared behind him, and Ezra immediately reacted. Thankfully he was able to use his spear to block the Sword Saint's attack. He was sent flying to the other side of the stadium but was relatively uninjured. The same could not be said for his spear, however.
"..."
Ezra made another Spear of wind but Arken was now fed up.
"Use it."
Arken released a wave of mana which caused the bodies of the other Ezra's to explode in a bloody mess.
Ezra was overwhelmed by the wave of mana…and so was the audience. The wave of mana put a strong pressure on them, it cracked mirrors and even the stadium.
"Use that domain of yours."
Arken said he had enough of this game of tag. He wanted to fight seriously now.
"..."
Ezra pondered for a while…He knew he was gonna lose regardless…
So why not activate his domain and try his best to understand the techniques of the Legendary Sword saint?
His mana exploded forth, and his eyes shined with a reflective hue. Arken smiled when he saw Ezra was about to open his domain, Ezra's words confirmed it.
"My Pleasure."
[ＤＯＭＡＩＮ ＥＸＰＡＮＳＩＯＮ]
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