371 Crack
Reece stepped back as he looked at Jayden's foot in particular.
Judging by his movement, Reece could predict what type of attack would come.
Reece already knew why Jayden's sword was getting heavier.
He had gone against it before, but he didn't know what more Jayden had learned right now.
From his knowledge, Jayden had cleared multiple B Rank Dungeons, and some of them had B+ Rank Boss Monsters.
As there were not a lot of A Rank Hunters in the Fourth Year, both Jayden and Reece had not cleared A Rank Dungeon on their own.
A Rank Dungeon was extremely dangerous, and depending on the situation, even a S Rank Hunter would join the team to ensure no unnecessary death occurred.
"Ripple," Reece muttered something,
Standing still on his spot, Reece let his senses spread across the stage.
Like a pebble that fell in still water, he could feel the ripples from Jayden's movement.
It's like another sense was indicating to him about Jayden's position.
Unlike the five senses, techniques like this were like the Mana Sense skill that Asher had.
But unlike using pure mana and depleting his mana reserves, Reece used his high affinity with water everywhere to do that work for him.
It required a lot of mastery, and the area this skill covered was not much.
But for this duel, it was enough.
Suddenly, Jayden, who was about to swing at Reece, turned his body to his right as he stopped a sword.
It was Reece who used another of his skills.
Reece's movement art allowed him to move very fast within a particular area.
Although it was a very small area, around 3 meters from his current position, he could shift his position freely.
Like as he was flowing through water, his movements were pretty complicated.
Tang!
Instead of going out of Reece's range, Jayden stood there fearless.
"Don't worry, I try not to kill you," Jayden muttered as he kept pushing Reece's sword.
"Someone is confident today," Reece said as he twisted his grip.
Jayden's eyes caught the movement as he turned his sword slightly.
Reece immediately broke out of the lock, but he couldn't attack as Jayden saw through his movements.
Clang!
BAM!
After a single sword clash, Reece took five steps back as Jayden's sword hit the ground, making a huge crack on the ground.
Both of them were destroying the stage like it was nothing.
It was made of special A Rank materials that could withstand an A Rank Hunter's pretty well, but both of their attacks were so concentrated on a single spot that they easily damaged the material.
World Academy could have used stronger materials so that the stage never got destroyed, but this match was being broadcast to the whole World.
It was a simple way to showcase the strength of their students to the World.
Unlike the people present in the Arena, those who were watching it on the screen wouldn't be able to feel the intensity of the match.
Reece and Jayden exchanged countless clashes as Reece used his water element to slip past Jayden's power movements.
Right now, both of them had multiple small injuries, but Jayden was pretty much healed, and his smile had gotten wider.
He took a step forward, but Reece disappeared and dashed towards him.
For Reece, this amount of wounds was nothing.
But that didn't mean he was keen on taking more wounds against someone who could heal them much faster than him.
But despite that, there was one thing that Reece was watching out for more than Jayden's healing.
The advance element that made Jayden Rank 1 was also something that made it difficult to harm him.
It was the Energy Manipulation Element, which only a high-ranking Mage who has mastered the earth element could cast.
But Jayden was not a mage, so he could not alter something that wasn't covered by his mana or aura.
That was the limitation of a non-mage hunter.
Aura allowed them to become stronger, but it also limited their ability to manipulate the element they had an affinity with.
That's why most swordsman only used their elements by incorporating them into their Swordsmanship.
Energy Manipulation was a vast element, but Jayden had the talent to manipulate the density of the object in his hand till he was in contact with it.
He could try to make himself heavier, but the consumption of mana was too much, so Jayden found a different way to make himself stronger: to make his sword heavier at the moment of contact.
CLANG!
CLANG!
Each time those two swords would collide, Reece would feel the effect on his arms.
But because Jayden would make such big changes in less than a second, some small errors and cracks were present in his Swordsmanship.
And Xarax and other SSS Rank Hunters could see them clearly.
But to cover his weakness, each of his strikes made it impossible for the opponent to punish him after receiving his blows.
But Reece's Swordsmanship was different.
He would purposefully make Jayden attack first but twist his sword slightly to reduce the strike's impact.
Using elements and aura simultaneously was not the best thing to do in a fight.
Unless it was required, it was better to conserve more energy, but this was a duel, so both of them could fight like this.
The fight went like this for 5 minutes, but the winner was unclear.
Although most of Jayden's wounds were disappearing, some were still present, and Reece, who had a cut on his shoulder, was smiling.
Both of their blood was all over the stage.
Both of them were fighting without caring about their safety at all. Each of their strikes was lethal, but none of them were ready to back out.
Seeing Reece's face annoyed Jayden, who slammed his leg on the ground and dashed towards him. Reece stood still as he saw an opening on Jayden's right side.
He attempted to go on his right side, but it was feint, and as soon as he saw Jayden turning his body, he went to the left.
But his feint was caught as Jayden turned around, rotating his body, and slashed his sword.
Reece tried to push his body backward, but there was not enough time to do so.
Jayden's sword made a connection as the right side of Reece's face had a cut.
Reece stepped back so that the cut wasn't deep and didn't go through his bones, but Jayden looked as he tilted his face a bit.
"Not smiling anymore?" Jayden taunted Reece.
Reece looked at Jayden as his killing intent started leaking.
Suddenly, Reece's aura became stronger and more rampant as he dashed toward Jayden.
Unlike his previous refined movements, his current Swordsmanship was like a flood wrecking through a city.
Jayden blocked all of Reece's moves, but some attacks were simply unblockable.
But Reece was also paying the price for it.
For other students, they couldn't even see Reece and Jayden anymore.
Even for Asher, their movements were all a blur.
Blood was dripping on the stage as their sword was slashing through each other.
"It seems the Williams heir doesn't want to give the win to your grandson," Osbert spoke.
"He can take the win for himself," Xarax replied.
One, two, three..... seven minutes went by.
Both Jayden and Reece were breathing heavily.
Their armor was covered with blood, which they didn't know was theirs or not.
Some first-year students even averted their eyes from the duels as they couldn't watch it anymore.
Even the one sitting closer to the stage stepped back as their killing intent was heavier each second.
Despite this situation, there was still no clear winner.
"Should we stop them?" A Professor asked Elsa.
"No need," Elsa replied as she glanced at the sitting area of the Seat Holders.
Looking at Xarax's Hargrave's face, she could see he was enjoying the duel, and then stopping it would only anger him.
And seeing how none of them were admitting defeat, they could only stand still for now.
The other Professors were worried about the safety of Jayden and Reece, as both of them were from powerful families.
But Elsa was not worried at all.
After all, she knew that Farnus would stop the duel himself if needed.
They could let those two fight, and even if things went out of hand, Farnus could stop the duel himself and handle Xarax Hargrave himself.
This was also the reason why other 3 Star Professors were watching this duel calmly.
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