4-81 Warm up

4-81 Warm up

Left with no other choice, Erin used Warp to move out of the reach of Ruyo’s slash. When her feet touched the ground a few yards away from Ruyo, she felt a slight tinge of pain in her neck. She tapped her neck and realised she was wounded. She was barely fast enough to escape death.

Though she had Revenant, she would rather not keep dying over and over again. Moreover, Revenant wasn’t instantaneous. A lot could happen while she was resurrecting. Ruyo might turn his blade to Amyra, Nivia, and Aera in the meantime. She could not afford to die.

“You are no simple adept of the sword.” Ruyo chuckled. He looked at Erin with an expectant grin. “I have fought and slain dozens of blade masters, or so they themselves claimed to be. They rarely impress me but you, on the other hand… You’re the real thing, not like those shams.”

“Save your praises,” Erin retorted. “This battle has only just started. Who knows, you might get disappointed.”

“You won’t. But should you fail to meet my expectations—” Ruyo cast a glance at the three women behind Erin. “—I will leave the fate of those three to Marduk. He will devise the most creative of all conclusions for those three.”

“And I was repeatedly accused of being profuse with words. I have met a peer.”

Ruyo sheathed his sword. “Couldn’t agree more,” he said and instantly drew his sword.

Erin slanted her body to the side just as Ruyo’s slash split the air inches away from her. She clad herself in lightning and closed the gap between them once again. She converged her Spatial Sense onto Ruyo’s blade. She stayed her blade and waited for Ruyo to draw first.

Time seemed to slow as Ruyo’s blade left the sheathe. But in the next instance, like a streak of lightning, his blade whirled across the air. However, Erin dodged his slash by a hair’s breadth and the split second afterwards was when she struck back. The edge of her blade wasn’t clad in Arcane Edge or Mystic Blade. Using one of those abilities would end the battle quickly. For once, she wanted to enjoy the fight, especially since it was a duel with a true blade master.

But of course, she only planned to fight fairly if her opponent did the same. Should the three clothed figures behind him show any hint of taking action, she would cease all fairness. It was inevitable, Erin thought. There was no way three would let Ruyo be defeated. They would definitely intervene if Ruyo was at a great disadvantage.

But as it stood, Ruyo was far from being at a disadvantage. His attack missed and Erin immediately launched a counterattack. If it was anyone else, this would already decide their fate but Ruyo wasn’t just anyone else. The air around him froze but not due to the cold. The winds condensed and the edges turned sharp.

Erin’s blade was a foot away from Ruyo’s head when it hit something unseen. Erin’s eyes widened. Whatever her blade had hit, it was something tough enough to withstand her strength. When she spread out her Spatial Sense, she immediately understood Ruyo had used Sword Domain. He had infused his aura, along with his intent, with the Mana flowing around him, transforming the breeze into a million scattered blades.

Ruyo did not sheathe his sword. Instead, he thrust forward in a direct and plain manner. Erin was about to just hop out of reach but she changed her mind and sidestepped the thrust instead. The blade ended up piercing the empty space but she saw the hem of her garment being chipped. The blade had not touched her or her garments but somehow, she was cut.

Similar to how her blade was stopped, Erin could faintly make out the aura around Ruyo’s blade with Spatial Sense. The Sword Domain didn’t just linger around his body but also his weapon. She wouldn’t have been able to perceive it if it wasn’t for Spatial Sense.

Erin gulped down her dread, refusing to let it stall her movements. She twirled with her sword swinging and proceeded to unleash a flurry of blows upon Ruyo. The blind swordsman met each of her blows with precision. He parried her blows in spite of her overwhelming strength.

She tried feints but Ruyo did not fall for a single one. She tried flanking but ironically, he seemed to have eyes on each side of his head. No matter where she struck from and how she struck, he could always tell. Her barrage came to a temporary halt when she was lured in by a high cut and she suffered a slash across her shoulder as a result.

“Erin!” Nivia shouted after having watched the entire fight with her fists clenched and her teeth gritting. Sweat had soaked her garments wet. The other two’s conditions weren’t much different from Nivia's.

Erin expanded the gap between her and Ruyo to allow herself to assess her wound, which Ruyo graciously let her do.

“I am even more intrigued than before, Lady Erynthea.”

Erin winced as she treated her wound with Spirit Mend. It stopped the bleeding and killed the pain but the wound was still there. “Are you now?” Erin retorted.

“Your skills are… beyond my grade. I should have been dead within the first few exchanges but yet, I am alive.”

“Obviously.”

“No, that’s not my meaning. Even without using your magic tricks, I should be in pieces right now but I am still whole. It’s… very intriguing.”

“Is there a point to your ramblings?”

“Your body is not as fast as your mind. You know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, but your body isn’t able to keep up with your instincts and knowledge. It’s as if you have… regressed. Were you even physically impaired?”

Erin shrugged. “What does that have to do with our fight?”

“I’m just trying to get to know my opponent better.”

“Well, that’s commendable, but it would be extremely foolish of me to reveal all of my cards this early on.”

“Fair enough.” Ruyo sniggered. “Let us continue this thrilling battle.”

Erin took a deep breath. The breaths that she released were incredibly warm. Her cheeks were heating up. She was then reminded that good things never last forever. As much as she would love to prolong this battle, she couldn’t, not with Lust looming on the horizon and waiting for her to drop her mind’s guard. Not to mention, she would be consumed by Lust if she went over a certain threshold of usage.

“A battle of wits isn’t doable with him,” Erin deduced in her head. Ruyo’s swordsmanship was more in tune with his body in comparison to herself. By this standard alone, he was superior.

“If you’re not going to strike first, then allow me,” Ruyo said and charged in with his Sword Domain surrounding him.

Erin clicked her tongue and braced herself for the onslaught. As if a thousand blades were coming at her all at once, Erin had no other option but to employ her other abilities than just her swordplay. She deployed multiple Arcane Aegisus around her as Ruyo’s Sword Domain crashed into her like a tide along with his sword.

The silver lining of Ruyo’s Sword Domain was that each of the blows and strikes was weak enough to be repelled by a single Arcane Aegis, though the Aegisus cracked after receiving five strikes or blows. The storm of blades was not as fast as the attacks Ruyo himself dispensed, giving Erin plenty of leeways to dodge. However, the scope of her movements was drastically narrowed by Ruyo’s own initiative.

Their blades clashed and the air rippled from the collision of steel. The resulting shockwave pushed both of them back but Erin reeled herself back in with Lightning Rush. Ruyo found his footing and received Erin’s thrust with a storm of unseen blades that was the product of his Sword Domain.

With Lightning Rush, Erin was able to move faster and therefore, she could deflect most of the thousand blades. Those that she couldn’t, she left to her Arcane Aegisus. At the end of the storm, Ruyo’s real blade awaited her and they clashed once more. The shockwave pushed them back again but they tossed themselves right back in and their blades cut into the edge of one another.

The durability of their respective blades mutually repelled their blows. As Ruyo swung again, the sharp gale trailed behind him. Erin easily dodged his swing but the tempest of translucent swords rushed at her. She tutted and employed the aid of Thunder Shell. The thousands of unseen blades crashed into the lightning barrier.

Beckoned by his instincts, Ruyo immediately moved far away from Erin as her Thunder Shell reciprocated the barrage of his Sword Domain.

“Damn,” Ruyo groaned. “That’s not fair.”

“That’s funny,” Erin scoffed. “That’s usually my line.”

Ruyo crowed with delight. “Yet, you lived despite the odds being against you. It’s a pity that this battle could not last as long as I wished. I hope you can understand and forgive me for that.”

“Don’t worry. It’s mutual.”

“Good. That’s good.” Ruyo’s vein began turning black and so did his eyes.

Erin didn’t even have time to take in the change before Ruyo lunged at her at a speed that she could barely follow. She dodged the slash thanks to Spatial Sense and Sixth Sense. She cast Appraisal on Ruyo and she was unnerved to see his stats had increased by around twenty percent, but she wasn’t completely bewildered. Ruyo was a Demoid after all.

“So it has come to do this,” Erin muttered with a scowl. “So be it, then.” A light and striking bluish sheen clad her tails. A thin cyan ethereal filament laced her blade.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Ruyo hissed and swung his sword with only a single hand as the blackness spread across his veins. The winds flew and the gust roared with that single swing of his. His edge met Erin’s cyan-glowing steel. To anyone’s eyes, it would be Erin’s loss in this clash.

But it was Ruyo’s loss. Erin’s blade cleaved through his blade and it continued in its path until it tore right through his arm in tandem. Erin immediately changed the trajectory of her swing and aimed for Ruyo’s head. However, one of the clothed figures finally made its move. It was the one with a chained sickle. The sickle came in between them and Erin was forced to let Ruyo retreat.

As the clothed figure retracted its sickle, Amyra charged forward and trapped the sickle under her foot. “Don’t blame me for intervening,” she sneered. “You started it first.”

The clothed figure said nothing. The figure simply cast aside its weapon with an indifferent gaze after giving it a few futile light tugs, judging it to be hopeless in retrieving the sick from under Amyra’s foot.

“Are you alright, m’lady?” Amyra asked.

[Experience gained +20% - Level Progression: 40%]

Erin managed a smile after seeing that message in her view. “I will be, as long as we finish this soon… Also, I apologise.”

“Hmm? What for?”

“For desiring a prolonged battle instead of ending it in a heartbeat.”

“I understand the sentiment. It’s not too often that we could face an opponent that is tailored to your preference and liking. I would wish to prolong the duel too if I met such an opponent.”

“Speak for yourself,” Nivia grumbled as she stepped forward. Though she said nothing of Erin’s decision, her reproachful gaze relayed her admonishment.

Erin could only smile wryly in response.

“Is it our turn?” Aera asked, cracking her knuckles as her aura gradually turned into flames.

“It would appear so,” Amyra responded. “Look. The blind swordsman’s finally getting serious.”

The four stared ahead. Their gazes landed on Ruyo, who was catching his ragged breaths with a pained expression. His stump was bleeding profusely. Dark goo began pouring out of the stump and morphed into an arm of demonic appearance and nature.

“The true battle starts now,” Ruyo said, clenching the fist of his new dark-shaded hand. His breathing resumed its normal pace.