T/N: Hey guys, I didn’t have time to proof-read this chapter today because our cat got sick among other things. (Cat diarrhea X.X) Will fix it when I come back in a few hours, but in the meantime rest assured there will be typos and sentences started one way and ending another, all for your viewing pleasure. Sorry!
Justin didn’t even move, he merely stared tight at the shadow of that blue sword with a grim smile. A long and narrow patch of metallic armor appeared once again on his belly.
"Swish!"
A long and narrow wound suddenly appeared on his chest, sprinkling scalding-hot blood!
Tiny driblets of blood rolled in the air, outlining the shape of a cutting blade!
"Bora had a sword in his left hand as well!"
"The sword in his right hand is real, how can the one in his left hand be also real!"
"Since it’s a material entity, why is the sword in his left hand invisible, why didn’t we see the flow and solidification of arcane particles!"
Incredulous cries of alarm instantly descended from the stands.
After a slight blank stare, Ayrin couldn’t help but turn his head around and ask Chris beside him, "Did he project the solidification of the sword in his left hand on the one in his right hand, and make them coincide together?"
"Indeed." Chris nodded. "This should be a trick of his to conceal the Illusion Sword."
"…" Hearing this exchange, looking at Ayrin in front of him, a speechless Moss had no choice but to admit to himself that, though Ayrin was very often slow on the uptake, he himself was far from being his match when it came to battle intuition and comprehension of arcane skills. It was even a little discouraging when he thought about it.
And just in this short amount of time, a plaque of metallic armor directly appeared outside Justin’s wound, fitting closely to the wound and covering it. No more blood flowed out.
"You actually had two real swords! What an amazing Illusion Sword!" He looked at Bora and snorted coldly. The two of them stood a dozen meters away from each other for a short amount of time. Both seemed to be thinking how to proceed with their attacks; neither of them acted immediately.
"This Arms of Gods and Devils is indeed a very peculiar materialization skill, it’s as if he can temporarily treat his wounds in this way." Ayrin observed the scene without a single blink. "But why doesn’t he fully cover his body from the beginning… why does he leave an opportunity for the opponent to exploit?"
Chris glanced at Ayrin and explained in details, "Any materialization skill is after all a combination of arcane energy with arcane particles, in the end it’s not a real entity, so all of them can only exist for a limited time. The earliest Draconic scholars already made special studies about it. It should be because the summoned arcane power is after all not a part of the body proper, so it can’t form, together with spiritual strength and arcane particles created from the compression of the body’s own energy, a stable and immutable substance.
"On top of that, it costs quite a bit of arcane particles to solidify every material part, so, especially for an armor skill like this one, it’ll often be solidified only when the fighting occurs. You’d also often decide the thickness just right for the armor to withstand the opponent’s attack based on the opponent’s strength and other factors, as to minimize the consumption of arcane particles as much as possible.
"A formidable arcane master doesn’t only have formidable explosiveness, he needs the ability to use his arcane particles in a rational way even more, the ability to fight a prolonged battle. That’s the reason why some elite arcane masters can continuously fight all by themselves many opponents at the same level of arcane particles."
"I understand now." Ayrin nodded.
"Swoosh!"
Just then, Justin’s figure suddenly vanished from where he stood.
Four silhouette entirely identical to his suddenly appeared around Bora.
"Wave of Five Furious Slashes!"
At the same moment, along with a deep and grave chant, Bora’s body started spinning like a tornado. Five mournful sword cries and one clank of metallic collision spread out in the air at the same time.
Just like the vast majority of spectators, Ayrin hadn’t seen any sword flash at all yet that the four Justin silhouettes already split into two parts right down the middle.
The wild winds disappeared. The moment Bora’s body stilled, Justin’s silhouette already appeared a dozen meters on one side behind him.
Justin’s entire right arm was covered in black metal, blades protruding from his fists.
Not far away in front of him, a field of black metallic blades was inserted obliquely in the ground, slowly becoming burning air and vanishing like melting ice.
"You’re indeed a specialized master, you should be an arcane master mainly relying on sword skills. Your close-range sword technique should be very flawless as well. The best way to cope with you should usually be to rely on a higher level of arcane particles and make you exhaust your arcane particles as much as possible." Looking at the vanishing patch of black metallic blades on the ground, Justin’s expression turned somber. He said in a heavy voice, "I can only use another method today though."
"Is it?"
Bora’s eyes once again became like sharp blades. He appeared beside Justin while the latter was still in the middle of talking.
"That’s right." A flash of praise streaked across Chris’ eyes. "With that kind of armor materialization skill, his speed will after all end up being a little weak! To take the initiative to attack, to pressure his opponent with his speed, that’s the best choice!"
"Clang!"
The longsword in Bora’s right hand slashed on the middle of Justin’s waist. Even though a piece of black metal suddenly appeared and blocked the edge of the blade, the blade’s momentum still caused Justin to sway fiercely on his feet.
"What!"
It seemed the sword in his left hand was about to injure Justin, but what he didn’t expect was, the sword on his right hand sank all down of a sudden; his own body also lost its balance at the same time.
At the edge of his vision, the patch of black metal slashed by the sword in his right hand was actually sticking tightly on the blade.
"This is Armor Attachment. For one dedicated to the way of the sword like you, you must be very unaccustomed to having a very heavy weight suddenly appear on your sword when you’re advancing at high speed. It must be very uncomfortable, right?" Justin said all of a sudden. His foot flew on Bora’s right shoulder even as the first word left his mouth.
"Crack!"
Bora heard a clear sound of cracked bones. The kick snapped him back and send him flying out. He heavily crashed on the ground.
Everyone saw the sword fly out from his right hand. His entire right arm also hung down limply.
"Bora!"
Quite a few Holy Dawn students shouted in tremendous alarm. They could see that the kick had broken Bora’s entire right arm!
"You better concede the match."
Watching Bora stand up once again with a pale face, looking at the light blue sword appearing in his left hand, Justin shook his head and added, "You only have your left hand left now, so your Illusion Sword’s already broken, plus your other arcane skills never had any use on me from the start. There’s no meaning to you prolonging the fight."
Everyone’s attention gathered on Bora.
Almost everyone felt that Justin’s words are correct, that it would be meaningless even if Bora were to persevere and continue the fight.
But Ayrin’s loud shout suddenly rose again just at this instant.
"Bora, do your best!"
"Bora, defeat him!"
"…" Stingham watched Ayrin desperately cheering for Bora, and suddenly couldn’t resist cursing him. "You, your heart’s really black. He clearly can’t beat him, yet you still have to encourage him, do you want him to get killed on the field?"
"At least I can’t leave any regret behind." Under Ayrin’s cheers, his body slightly trembling, Bora lifted his head and suddenly said these words.
"What do you mean?" Justin was slightly surprised and couldn’t understand.
"You and me are the same, neither of us have the gift of a special mighty bloodline." Bora resisted his pain, looking at Justin. "But the more it is so, the more effort we should make, shouldn’t we? If you were in my shoes, would you easily throw in the towel in this fight? In the future, you would certainly have regrets when thinking back on it if you were to give up just like this, right?"
"You’re correct. I respect your choice.
"This is such a fight. No one wants to leave regrets behind."
Justin’s face became solemn. He nodded and didn’t say anything else. The next second, his body melted into an iron blur, charging in Bora’s direction.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
Several mournful sounds tore through the air.
When he was still five or six meters away from Bora, several black metallic blades flew out from his right fist. They didn’t shoot straight at Bora’s body, but shot separately at several spots beside Bora’s position.
Bora had accelerated just moments ago, but now he was forcibly compelled to a halt.
"Clang!"
The next instant, Bora’s sword in his left hand slashed on Justin’s left shoulder, but it was once again blocked by a patch of black metal that stuck to the blade of the sword at the same time.
"Boom!"
A somewhat apologetic expression flashed in Justin’s eyes. He released the accumulated power of his left arm and punched mercilessly. The moment he punched, his left arm actually became at least a full foot longer than usual.
"Crack." Bora’s left arm also hung limply down.
"…"
The stands were still, basking this unspeakably bitter atmosphere. With his two arms broken, Bora couldn’t continue the fight no matter how he tried.
But just in this instant, Justin was filled with astonishment and a sense of danger.
The moment his punch broke the joint of Bora’s left shoulder, Bora kicked up ferociously with both his feet.
This seemed to be some kind of counter.
But the most important thing was, he was already shooting backwards from the recoil of the punch, and he believed that Bora could also tell that his feet couldn’t possibly reach his body. Kicking like this was entirely useless.
However, he felt an ice-cold feeling on his belly just at this moment.
"What!"
He abruptly narrowed his eyes. He immediately saw a bloodstain bloom outward on his belly. A length of light blue sword appeared along the sprinkle of his own blood.
"What’s going on?"
"Why is there another sword?"
"Did Bora sandwich a sword between his feet and pierce Justin?"
The entire stands instantly flew into an uproar, surging into an incomparable mess.
"What happened, boss!" Iron Forest Academy’s Wilde and the other team members also cried in disbelief.
"There were three swords!"
Ferguillo’s expression was icy-cold, but the most heartfelt respect glittered in his eyes. "He wasn’t holding one sword in his left hand, but two! He must have projected the third sword’s image on the second sword. At the end, he was already prepared for the possibility of both his arms being crippled, and planned to hold the last hidden sword between his feet and launch a counter attack."
