Even as the broadsword descended upon my head, I didn"t move.No, I couldn"t move. There was no way I could evade that attack in time, so I didn"t even bother to try. Instead, I went for a technique that would give me a higher chance of defending against what would otherwise be a sure-kill strike, no matter how slight.
Clink!
"?!"
Eliza"s eyes widened when she saw the ice freeze around her broadsword and encase her arms, stopping her in place. The frozen broadsword stopped a couple of millimeters away from my forehead, entombed in ice.
"You…!" she snarled.
"What?" I asked with a shrug, before rolling out of the way and bringing both of my swords up. With a wrench, Eliza shattered the ice furiously and struck me, but I managed to parry her broadsword this time. The tremendous impact sent me hurtling across the arena and I almost fell over before hastily regaining my balance. Grinning cynically, I tilted my head to the side. "Did you think I would just sit around and let you win so easily?"
"Cease this futile struggle at once!" Eliza ordered obstinately. "The match is over! It"s clear that you can"t win! Whatever Soul Beast you summon, I"ll just cut it down! There"s nothing you can do, so just give up already! Quit wasting my time!"
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Lady, have you ever met anyone stupid enough to surrender just because you tell them to? If you want the victory, you"ve to earn it. Not demand me to forfeit just because you think I can"t win. Prove that I can"t win."
"Shut up!"
Hollering, Eliza kicked off the ground and slashed at me again. I ducked to the side, avoiding her ma.s.sive broadsword, and retaliated with a riposte that drew a thin line of blood across her arm and shoulder. The Paladin hissed in pain, but she pivoted on one foot and spun around to counter with another vicious slash.
"!!"
I ducked under the heavy broadsword, relieved that it didn"t manage to take my head off, and then thrust Hei Yue forward. Eliza caught it with her left hand before the point of my black blade could reach her chest, blood spurting into the air as my blade impaled her palm and exited through the back of her hand, and almost severed her fingers.
With a hiss, Eliza swung her broadsword with her right hand, and even though I parried it with Bai Ri, I was still thrown several meters to the side. Tumbling about, I managed to right myself up, but Eliza was unable to seize the chance to finish me off.
She was clutching her left hand, which had almost been cut off by my Hei Yue when she pulled that drastic move earlier.
"Argh…"
Grimacing, she straightened and relaxed as her Blessing came into play, healing her wounds. Already, I saw the effects of her healing slowed down considerably. The injury across her arm and on her shoulder from before had yet to heal completely, despite the cut having closed and the bleeding stemmed. The reddish-white scar had yet to fade.
Eliza was definitely running out of mana.
"Why won"t you give up?!"
"Why won"t you shut up?!" I snapped, getting irritated. Eliza flared up at that.
"How dare you…?!"
She never got to finish her retort. An icicle barrage from Black Tortoise forced her back, and she jumped away while using her broadsword to slice apart any icicles that she couldn"t evade. Landing on both feet, she skidded backward, using her huge broadsword as a s.h.i.+eld to withstand the icy bombardment.
"I told you, your Soul Beasts can"t beat me! I"ll slay each and every one of them!"
The moment the hail of icicles ceased, Eliza swung her broadsword up and leaped at Black Tortoise. A water sphere sprang into existence between the two of them, but the Paladin effortlessly cleaved the defensive barrier in two with her ma.s.sive weapon. Charging past the collapsing curtain of water, she continued onward toward the now vulnerable Black Tortoise, who remained immobile as she closed in on him. For a moment, it appeared as if he was resigned to his fate, waiting for Eliza to cut him down…
…and then he disappeared.
"?!"
Caught off guard, Eliza almost lost her balance, her momentum carrying her forward and causing her to almost stumble to the ground. Cursing, she righted herself up, glancing about for her missing target. Her eyes then rested upon me.
"That"s…!"
The reason why Black Tortoise vanished wasn"t because I dismissed him. No, I transformed him into his chibi form, and now the tiny, cute version of Black Tortoise was now crawling on top of my shoulder. I patted my Celestial Guardian with my fingers, while still holding onto Hei Yue, and then lowered my sword to focus on the battle.
Streams of azure ice began to swirl around both of my blades, and I charged forward at the same time as Eliza, who lunged at me with her broadsword. Screaming in determined fury, she swung her weapon down and I met her blow with steely resolve, crossing my swords to parry her huge broadsword. Again, the ground beneath my feet cracked and crumbled, but this time the entire area around me flash-froze from the plummeting temperature.
"?!"
Eliza pulled back in shock, realizing that her arms were locked in ice. With a snarl, she swung her broadsword to cleave me in half again, but when I deflected her huge blade to the side, she spun around, one of her hands letting go of the heavy handle in order to deliver a hook toward my head. I threw my head back and responded with a kick that almost caught her in the jaw if it were not for her excellent reflexes.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d…"
Swearing under her breath, Eliza stepped forward to deal another deadly slash with her heavy broadsword, which I knocked away desperately with both of my swords. As I stumbled back, Eliza seized the opportunity to finish me off, only to find her movements slowed down considerably and the sensation in her hands numb. To her horror, she realized that her arms were encased in ice again.
"d.a.m.n it!"
I quickly retreated while throwing up a wall of fog in between, my freezing spell deflected by Eliza"s broadsword. Her weapon froze over, but the Paladin wasted no time in shattering the ice that covered both her arms and broadsword.
Huffing, her face pale from the exertion, Eliza glared at me as she shook both of her arms. Evidently they were still numb.
"Every time I trade blows with this fella, I feel a shot of unnatural chill surging through my body. He has some sort of technique that locks my arms in ice, and I have to expend a lot of mana just to break thm. What a mysterious skill!"
I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose and smiled.
"Still think I have no chance of winning?"
"I don"t understand!" Eliza growled in frustration. "You are a summoner, aren"t you?! I have never heard of a summmoner wielding dual swords and engaging Paladins and other melee-cla.s.s warriors in close combat!"
"Well, there"s a first time for everything," I replied with a shrug.
"Don"t screw with me!" Eliza shrieked before she lunged at me, her glowing broadsword exuding large amounts of mana. Well, even if I lost here now, I had achieved my goal of wearing Eliza out. With the excessive amount of mana I forced her to spend, she definitely wouldn"t be in any shape to partic.i.p.ate in the rest of the matches, or in the team match.
Or so I hope…
In contrast to her, I was no longer spending a lot of mana. Having shrunk Black Tortoise to his chibi form, I was casting fairly basic ice spells right now, a very cost-efficient freezing enchantment to waste my opponent"s energy. Eliza didn"t realize it, but she was falling for my trap.
As long as I could continue engaging in these cost-efficient trades without getting knocked out, I could wear her down. I might even win, no matter how unlikely that was.
Actually…why not just go for it?
Smiling to myself, I exchanged another few blows with Eliza, our weapons clas.h.i.+ng against each other violently and showering us in sparks. Eliza recoiled, her arms clad in ice, and she pulled away to shatter them, but I pressed on aggressively and pursued her relentlessly, my swords striking from two different directions.
"Kuh!"
Eliza managed to deflect Bai Ri with her broadsword while blocking Hei Yue with her still frozen left arm. Blood sprayed across the arena and she staggered back before kicking out at me. I jumped over her feet and delivered a kick of my own, which caught her square in the chest and sent her flying.
The Paladin hit the ground and rolled back to her feet swiftly, panting. Fragments of frost rained down from her arms as she forcibly broke the ice shackles apart, and she began treating her injuries with her Blessing.
It wasn"t just the wound I dealt her. That healed up fast enough. However, she also had to treat frostbite and other cold injuries that she sustained during our exchange. The color of her skin was looking ghastly, especially those of her fingers and wrist. Evidently the constant freezing had cut off her blood flow or at least clogged up the circulation of her blood to her extremities.
In fact, she was barely holding on to her broadsword. It was only through the sheer effort of her tenacious will that she was able to sustain herself and continue fighting on. Even though I found her obnoxious, I actually admired her grit and determination.
She was a tough girl, for sure.
"I don"t understand!" She howled, wasting my earlier admiration of her. She lunged at me, almost blindly, swinging her broadsword wildly now and without skill or precision. "Your swordsmans.h.i.+p isn"t even impressive or topnotch. How are you gaining the upper hand over me?!"
"Who knows?" I replied with a shrug. As if I was going to waste my time thinking about such nonsense, and even if I did know the reason, I wasn"t stupid enough to tell her. Instead, I kicked her below her guard when she overextended herself with a particularly wide swing, and when she doubled over, I slashed her with Hei Yue and Bai Ri. Unsurprisingly, Eliza managed to block my attack with her broadsword, but once again her arms and weapon froze over.
"Ugh…!"
Grunting, Eliza appeared to stagger back from the vicious blow. This time it was her turn to be under pressure from my attack. Her body glowed and she used a combination of Blessing and her pa.s.sive buffs to blow me off with her superior strength and attack power. The ice around her arms crumbled away from the sheer intensity of her holy mana and she pressed on, swinging her broadsword to eviscerate me.
I jumped up high above Eliza"s broadsword, cartwheeling and flipping myself over. Landing on top of her huge, c.u.mbersome weapon, I then kicked a stunned Eliza in the face and sent the poor Paladin sprawling onto the ground.
"Why, you…!"
Despite my best efforts, my kick hardly fazed Eliza. Her defense was truly ranked S (whatever that meant). Only my swords were doing any real damage to her. My kicks were at least throwing her back, because I was using my momentum to force her to a retreat more than any intention of causing any injury.
Thanks to that, Eliza recovered quickly. She swung her broadsword at me while I was still in the air, but I flipped over and dove into the ground, just a few centimeters below her ma.s.sive, sweeping blade that took off a few strands of my hair.
While still on the ground, I struck out with my swords. Hei Yue and Bai Ri streaked out in black and white blurs, slicing through Eliza"s hands and amputating them at her wrists. The Paladin gave a horrified scream as she staggered backward, watching in disbelief as her broadsword spun away in the air, still in the clutches of her disembodied hands. Blood spurting from the severed arteries at her stumps, she fell to her knees, desperately trying to staunch the bleeding with her healing magic.
While she did so, I rose to my feet and scissored her neck with both of my swords.
"Your call," I sneered, suppressing the urge to add the insult "b.i.t.c.h." That would be very unbecoming of me. I wasn"t going to descend to her level, and besides, I understood that in a high-stakes match such as this, emotions were going to run high. I couldn"t blame Eliza for being overly pa.s.sionate and short-tempered.
Eliza stared dumbly at the two blades pressed against her bleeding neck. She swallowed for a moment, and then hung her head.
"I surrender."
Her voice was filled with bitter resentment, but it echoed clearly throughout the arena.
There was a stunned silence for a moment, and then the audience erupted into cheers and applause. Even the commentator took a few seconds to get his bearings, moving to his microphone to confirm the outcome.
"Match over! Winner…Richard Huang!"
His magically amplified voice was then drowned out by the celebratory cheers from my screaming teammates.