Translator: Mirausean; Silavin
Editor: Rosyprimrose
Proofreader: Skoll
*Znnng!*
The puppet swordsman slashed its longsword downwards towards Ye Chui"s head.
Ye Chui hurriedly manipulated the Iron Swordsman battle armour to dodge its attack. He then quickly tilted his body to one side and stabbed his longsword towards the chest of the puppet swordsman.
On the other hand, the puppet swordsman which was holding its longsword with both its hands suddenly changed its stance and brandished its longsword in the air, making a semi-circle before directing its attack towards Ye Chui"s waist.
*Clang!*
Ye Chui immediately positioned his longsword to fend off the attack from the puppet swordsman. He then forcefully stomped his feet against the ground and jumped backwards by half a step, as he pushed the puppet swordsman"s longsword away. At the same time, he spun one round at high speed, before using the centrifugal force due to the spinning to slash his longsword towards the puppet swordsman at a cunning angle.
The puppet swordsman hurriedly did a backflip, as he retreated backwards.
The action of the backflip was not just for show. As the puppet swordsman landed on the ground, its body was slightly slanted with respect to the ground. At the moment when its feet made contact with the ground, its battle boots and the stone ground created friction, which was large enough to send it pouncing towards Ye Chui once again like a ferocious beast…
As both Alfea and Debbie sat against the wall, while watching the absolutely fancy combat exchanges between Ye Chui and the puppet swordsman, their faces were filled with amazement.
The girls had seen many battling scenes, but it was their first time encountering such a situation. The movements of both parties in the battle were kind of mysterious and unusual, thus widening the horizons of the two girls. If one were to briefly summarise the scene, it would be a scene that combined both "Lord of the Rings" movie and an eastern-knight movie. Such a combination was breathtakingly astonishing to see, as no one knew that battles could progress like that.
In reality, the puppet swordsman had started displaying strange moves since the start of the battle, but the girls used the normal protocol of ordinary Swordsmen to deal with it. Although the girls faced a mounting amount of pressure, they would not be able to comprehend the seemingly-superfluous movements of the puppet swordsman, thus their moves were basically useless.
Up to now, Ye Chui had been countering each of the puppet swordsman"s attacks with its same fighting style, giving the audience a wonderful spectacle. This made the girls have a new understanding of the profession of Swordsmen. Furthermore, the girls had finally managed to figure out the purpose of the superfluous movements of the puppet swordsman and feel the mystery behind that set of movements.
In summary, although the fighting style Ye Chui used in the battle between him and the puppet swordsman looked unusual, it was still very formidable…
The exchange of attacks between Ye Chui and the puppet swordsman in this round has lasted for 20 minutes.
Within this 20 minutes, Ye Chui had been able to defend himself from attacks launched by the puppet swordsman, utilising virtually all of the twelve fighting styles. However, after the 20 minute mark, Ye Chui"s execution of the fighting styles became slightly flawed, leading to him almost getting injured.
It was perhaps part of his instinct that the puppet swordsman actually noticed that he gradually comprehended all the twelve fighting styles, as the puppet swordsman did not seem to leave any room for negotiation in the battle, unlike the previous rounds when Ye Chui battled with it. There were a few instances where if Ye Chui"s reaction time was a little slower, he would have been seriously injured by the longsword of the puppet swordsman. Of course, Ye Chui could only have such quick reaction time due to the easy manipulation of the magic crystal in front of his chest. When Ye Chui gave the magic crystal orders to dodge an attack, the enchanting array on his battle armour would be activated immediately. Moreover, the speed of transmission of the magic signal was much faster than human reaction time, thus Ye Chui was able to react in time to defend himself from attacks.
When the battle was about to reach the 30 minute mark, the puppet swordsman squatted down and swept its longsword horizontally towards Ye Chui"s legs, forming a continuous shadow of it on the ground. This was the eleventh of the twelve fighting styles of the puppet swordsman, of which there were seven more transformations that it could undergo.
Ye Chui hurriedly displayed the eighth fighting style - he leaped into the air, held his longsword with both his hands and chopped it downwards towards the head of the puppet swordsman.
However, the puppet swordsman did not use the eleventh fighting style for long, as it quickly changed it to the ninth fighting style. This move required the puppet swordsman to swing its longsword upwards, therefore sealing off Ye Chui"s downwards attack and allowing the puppet swordsman to dodge his attack.
In addition, since Ye Chui was still airborne at that moment, it was impossible for Ye Chui to dodge the puppet swordsman"s move. It did not matter which fighting style Ye Chui was using; as long as Ye Chui lands on both his feet, he would be dealt with a great blow!
"Careful!"
Upon realising Ye Chui"s circ.u.mstance, both Debbie and Alfea hurriedly shouted at the top of their lungs and jumped from their sitting positions, as they prepared to a.s.sist him.
The current situation was extremely critical!
Then…
Ye Chui"s feet did not land on the ground.
His body remained air-borne.
Debbie and Alfea, who were making preparations to a.s.sist Ye Chui, suddenly froze in their actions.
[He actually managed to stay afloat in mid-air?]
[What is happening?!]
The puppet swordsman was already squatting on the ground, waiting to launch its attack on Ye Chui the moment he landed on the ground. But, in the next instant, it was completely dumbfounded, as though its mind went blank. Perhaps the magic crystal that was controlling its operations did not have any magic array that told it what to do when facing a flying Swordsman…
The 30 minute time limit ended soon.
The puppet swordsman disappeared into a ray of white light.
Ye Chui then landed on the ground in a swaying fashion. Although he had learned the ability to fly now, his flying motions were not nimble. Furthermore, flying required a lot of magic power and it was not easy to control. Therefore, he has not demonstrated this aspect of his skills to others. Flying in the air may look cool, but it was only temporary and did not have any actual worth.
On the other hand, Debbie and Alfea were filled with astonishment, as they ran towards Ye Chui.
"Tony… You can actually fly?!" Alfea exclaimed.
"It"s because of my battle armour." Ye Chui spoke with a weak tone, "It can"t last for long."
"There"s no way you can be so formidable, even with the battle armour on… I"ve never heard of any enchanting array on a battle armour that can enable one to fly!" Alfea was impressed.
As Ye Chui shook his head, the two girls held him to the wall to take a seat, "It"s a pity that you didn"t perform well in the last 10 minutes. Otherwise, we"d have pa.s.sed this obstacle."
"You"ve already done very well." Debbie praised Ye Chui with a face of happiness.
Ye Chui sneaked a glance at the small girl, obviously enjoying her praises, but soon enough, Debbie continued, "That"s great, I"ll be able to see Hammer soon. I want to thank you on behalf of my beloved Hammer!"
"…" Ye Chui expressed his jealousness.
"Smart person! You indeed didn"t disappoint me!" The child-like voice rang again, "Although I"ve no idea how you did that, I"ve a feeling that you"ll be able to pa.s.s this test and completely comprehend the ultimate skills of my master."
"Hehe…" Leaning his back against the stone wall, he looked up to the blank s.p.a.ce above, "It really is a package - adventurers who enter the ancient tomb will have to inherit the Martial Arts Secret Manual before they can leave. Although it"s a little old-fashioned, this world is full of novelty."
Debbie and Alfea were a little puzzled at Ye Chui"s words and were unsure what "Martial Arts Secret Manual" refers to, but they did not speak up.
They only heard Ye Chui"s continuous questioning, "If I manage to completely inherit the Martial Arts Secret Manual, will we be able to escape this place?"
"Completely inherit?" The child-like voice laughed shamelessly, "Don"t kid with me. Do you think that you can easily inherit the Martial Arts Secret Manual completely? My master, who is also the owner of this ancient tomb was a well-known level nine Swordsman, who could challenge Swordsmen who were of higher tiers than him, hence inheriting his Martial Arts Secret Manual is not as easy as you thought. However, the skill level of the puppet swordsman is only 10% of my master. If you"re able to use the skills you learned to practise with the puppet swordsman for 30 minutes, you"d have pa.s.sed my master"s test. Thus, you"re eligible to gain a prize for this round of the exploration game."
"There"s even a prize?" Ye Chui was caught off guard. [Didn"t the child-like voice say that the owner of this ancient tomb had used all his a.s.sets to construct this tomb? After spending all his wealth, this ancient tomb adventure was fated to be a wasted trip, but now, this voice says that there actually is a prize?]
Debbie"s eyes lit up, "What"s the prize?"
"The prize that you all will eventually win is a priceless treasure; one that is even more valuable than any wealth in the world." The child-like voice proclaimed in a satisfied tone. He paused for a moment, "Me!"
Ye Chui, Debbie and Alfea were all dumbfounded for an instant, before Ye Chui cursed and swore, "WTF?!"
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