Chapter 668: Battle Is A Play

Proofread by Thomas F

Note: There will be a chapter tomorrow.

Aya Bandstone

His rapier came toward me, and it was fast —really fast.

I reacted instantly against this opponent. I will need to respond fast, or I will have my head separated from my body, before I know how.

My shield moved forward while I activated Brace.

He sensed it and smoothly moved his blade toward my head, while I pushed my sword up with all my strength.

It is why I had not activated the Tower Shield. That skill works well; the shield is in one place, and here it is not.

Clang!

His rapier clashed at the edge of my shield, and I felt the shock. Although the weapon was small and slender, it possessed incredible power.

It is a skill.

A surprise appeared on his face, but the next moment, he disappeared, and I felt all the hair on my body stand up, and my Danger Sense blared.

Without wasting a second, I half turned and saw him appearing behind me and his rapier approaching me faster than before.

I could not bring my shield to defend myself, and I didn’t plan to.

The tower shield had many uses, but it also had many drawbacks. It is heavy and restricts mobility, but its superior defense makes up for this.

Clang!

I moved my sword to defend with the Edge Blade. He tried to avoid my sword, but I moved it according to it.

He is several levels higher than I am. Stronger and faster, but that is not something new for me. I always fought enemies stronger than me.

It became a necessity after the treatment expenses increased.

There is also the thing about my condition, not letting me use my full strength and making me tired quickly, but despite that, I fought and survived.

So, he might be stronger than I, but I am in much better condition than I have ever been.

It might not seem like an advantage and is not compared to others, but it is for me.

My body is brimming with strength, and even after cutting through the undead and suffering their explosions, I feel no fatigue at all.

Clang!

Our blades clashed, and I felt the power, which shook me, but it was not enough to make me step back.

“I should have expected that you wouldn’t be easy to deal with, based on the gear you are wearing,” he said, looking at my armor and weapons.

“I am not easy even without them,” I replied, looking straight into his eyes.

“We will see,” he replied and attacked.

His attack was stronger than before, and I could see him using more than three skills in that attack.

Immediately, I brought my shield forward and activated Brace.

Clang!

His sword hit like a hammer against my shield. Despite the force of the absorption enchantment, I felt like my bones would break as I took the steps back.

He followed and appeared to my right. Too close to me.

The shield is in my left hand, and I couldn’t maneuver my long sword. It’s why he dared to come so close to me.

He grinned and attacked, going for my head directly.

His sword moved fast, and he would have taken my head if I hadn’t defended.

My fingers adjusted my sword, and I moved my right hand forward in the sword’s path.

Clang!

His sword clashed against the vambrace with great force. It has the enchantments, but not as strong as the shield, and that force passed into the arm.

One could imagine what would happen when such a great force enters the fragile arm.

“Now, you will die!” he said, attacking with the mist coming out of his blade. Which, as I inhaled, amplified the pain I am feeling in my arm.

It is so intense that Ulo would have screamed, feeling it.

Clang!

He looked so sure that this attack would kill me, but the next moment, a surprise appeared in his eyes as he saw my sword stopping his attack.

“Not yet,” I replied and grinned.

If he wants to use the broken bones to kill me, then he is sorely mistaken.

Fighting with the broken bones was the norm for me. Here, only the bones of the arm had broken, not of the body, which used to happen.

I fought with those conditions and even gained skills like reinforced bones and natural healing.

It is why my bones didn’t break despite the great shock. They had only cracked and were already starting to heal with the Natural Healing.

“You are good. I had been searching for someone like you; the single attack killed all the others I had fought,” he said. “That won’t be happening anymore,” I replied, and he grinned once more before attacking.

I could feel two more skills activating, one affecting my focus on him.

It’s making it hard to focus on him; it’s a rare skill I had encountered only once, and that time, it nearly killed me.

Clang!

I defended with my shield, but he moved and attacked from behind almost instantly.

I defended that with my shield, and he moved again, and I defended with my vambrace, which cracked my bones once more, but I bore through it.

I focused on him and his sword; I watched his every movement and skill he used as I defended with everything I had.

His attacks become faster, making me push myself and my skills harder to defend against them.

I have healing skills and even armor, but I do not want his blade anywhere near me. I knew how such a rapier needed a single well-placed attack to finish one off.

I thought that when his sword became even faster, it moved past mine.

Clang!

It clashed against my chest hard.

My armor saved me, but the rapier contained the power of a hammer. It was unable to absorb all, and some went inside, cracking the bones of my vertebrae.

Puh!

I vomited blood while he attacked me once more, which I defended with my sword.

He started to use his full power, and it’s getting harder to defend against his attacks, but I am doing it and pushing myself as much as possible.

“You should give up and embrace death instead of suffering this pain,” he said as he launched another attack.

“You have only caused me a few injuries and are already talking about death,” I replied as I defended against his attack, but another came.

“Yes, but you also know that all I need is a well-placed attack to kill you,” he said and attacked once more.

I didn’t reply to that and moved my shield forward to defend against it.

Clang!

His rapier clashed against my shield as it had many times, but this time, a surprise appeared on his face as he sensed the skill I had activated right before his attack.

Iron Rebuttal.

I felt the power it gave me and swung my sword at him, attacking for the first time.

I got the skill after fighting the bandits, who came to kill Lord Silver. It was a battle that nearly killed me; it would have if they hadn’t healed me that time.

The skill gave me half of the power of the attack, I defend.

There are various conditions; it should be a non-spell attack with a weapon. I must have enough capacity to bear that power and a few other things.

Still, despite that, it is a fantastic and a very rare skill.

I pushed everything I had in the attack and added Heavy Strike and Edge Blade.

He reacted instantly, bringing his rapier forward as he stepped back.

Clang!

He defended and nearly attacked, but stopped. The man is intelligent; he understands that new skills are the reason for my power.

It didn’t matter. I have learned long ago not to depend on one skill.

I attacked, not because I felt his attack was the strongest yet, but because I was ready to attack.

It is the reason I had only defended. I have been studying him, his skills, and limitations. I now understand nearly everything about him.

I launched another attack, pushing my body and my skills to the limit.

I am getting used to this. Before, with my condition, I struggled to use the strength I had, and since I came here, I have focused on pushing my strength to its limit.

Clang!

He defended, but I attacked him again. He could have attacked, but I could feel the uncertainty in his eyes.

I attacked again, and he dodged. He is quite fast, but I followed after him with Steel Steps, moving my blade toward him.

Clang!

I forced him to defend. If he hadn’t, my sword would have reached him.

“Bitch!” he cursed angrily and attacked. Immediately, I moved my shield forward to defend against it.

Clang!

I defended, and once more, I gained half the power of his attack. I pushed myself toward him and attacked.

Clang!

He defended, shaking before taking the step back, which I used to launch the attack, but he defended and attacked repeatedly.

“It is a very nice skill you have,” he said as he defended against another of my attacks. “Thank you,” I replied, and attacked again as he defended against my attack.

The bastard had stopped attacking. He was focused on defending and dodging.

I am not letting him dodge the attack, but that is all I can do, and it is not enough. I want to kill him, and if this continues like that, I won’t be able to.

“I had heard so much about you. It is said that you had once killed several people of your level within seconds.”

“It is quite like the lie you had made. If you had such power, you would have shown it already and wouldn’t have been only defending against attacks of a girl like me,” I taunted using Taunt.

“Your taunts won’t work on me,” he replied. To that, I smiled. They are working alright, given the anger burning in his eyes.

It is not a skill I use regularly, as it does not work on everyone, but it is useful for roiling the emotions.

“I guess not. I am sure you have been defending against my taunt with mental skill, like you are defending against my attacks with that rapier,” I replied, deadpanned with Taunt.

The anger burned even brighter in him, and he opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later and defended against my attack.

“Oh, so scared. That you cannot even speak?” I taunted once more.

“Bitch, I will kill you!” he roared and finally attacked, bursting out with the greater power, than he had shown in our battle.

Emotions are powerful. They can help one win the battle, but could also become the reason for defeat.

I roiled his emotions, forcing him to attack, but that also made him channel those emotions in his attacks, making them stronger.

Clang!

I defended with my shield before attacking with Heavy Slash and Edge Blade with the power from Iron Rebuttal.

Clang Clang Clang!

He defended and attacked me once more, which I defended before attacking.

Steel clashed as we tried to kill each other, but we both failed, until finally, he had succeeded.

Rip!

His rapier cut through my hip. The bastard made an accurate strike at a gap in the hip plates.

“This is just the beginning,” he said with an angry smile, before attacking again, and I defended myself and attacked him, before he attacked me.

Clang Clang Rip!

I defended and attacked several more times before his rapier was able to get past my weapons and cut across my shoulder.

A few seconds later, he did it again and again.

I begin to bleed through the armor; one could see the blood flowing down through the gaps.

“Now, taunt me again!” He challenged as he launched another attack. “You haven’t killed me yet!” I replied with defiance. That brought a grin to his face.

“Oh, I will very soon,” he said, and a moment later, I began to bleed from my back.

He is getting better at targeting me. As he took more and more risks, getting into positions that he would not have before, he was rewarded with the injuries piling up on my body.

As time passed, the injuries started to affect me. My speed becomes slow, my attacks weaker.

Making him more daring with his attacks.

Clash!

His rapier clashed against my leg, cracking more of my bones. Even if he wasn’t able to cut me, he was able to break my bones, and as time passed, I got weaker.

“Relish the moments, because it is all you have,” he said as he appeared before me and thrust his rapier.

I moved my shield to defend against it, but he flicked his wrist a little to avoid my shield. My shield isn’t fast enough to do that; he will avoid it.

He did that tens of times. So, there wasn’t any worry, until his rapier, a few inches away from my shield.

It is when my shield moves fast and appears in front of me. A surprise appeared in his eyes, and he drove the rapier, but the distance between his rapier and my shield was too close.

Clang!

It clashed against the edge of my shield, and his eyes widened as my shield didn’t stop.

It moved toward him fast, while he remained in his place momentarily as I activated the Shield Clamp.

Another rare skill, I got it at level 10 and upgraded it at level 20. This skill has been extremely helpful, saving my life countless times by helping me kill the enemy.

It does a simple thing: it clamps onto the weapon that hits it. It works more like a magnet, making it hard to remove the weapon stuck to it.

The clamp is powerful, but not strong enough that one couldn’t pull away their weapons.

Especially someone of his level, but the surprise bought me a moment, and that was all I needed, as by the time he removed his sword and moved to dodge, my shield had reached him.

Bam!

I bashed my shield on him with Shield Bash, along with all my strength and boost from the Iron Rebuttal.

It was so powerful that I heard a crunch.

It was satisfying, but I didn’t spare a moment to savor it. Instead, I swung my sword the moment my shield hit him.

It took him a moment to see my sword, and the horror appeared on his face when he did.

He was trying to stabilise himself from the bash and now tried to retreat while bringing his rapier forward, but it was already too late; my sword had reached him.

Pachack.

His rapier was just a centimetre away from mine, when my sword reached his neck and a moment later, cut through it.

The head with eyes full of unwillingness and hate flew up, while a shower of blood spurted from it.

I didn’t move back; I didn’t have that much energy. Instead, I released the hold on the Natural Healing; let it heal me at full speed.

My first sword teacher used to say, Battle is a play, and you are the lead.

Control what the enemy sees. Shape their perception. Let them see things you want them to see; once you do that, the battle is yours.

That’s what I did, from the start.

I defended before being attacked. I let him bleed me and showed the weakness that came with it, which was real.

What I didn’t show was my ability to utilize my full strength and even exceed it, despite the weakness brought by the blood loss.

I have grown accustomed to it, lived through it, and used it to my maximum advantage in battle.

Thud Thud!

The head and body fell down, while I gulped the potion. It is a regular one, not the precious essence drop; that is only for emergencies.

I possess a healing skill, which is a slow, passive ability. Adding a little potion complements it and heals the injuries faster.

I barely took the sip when my Danger Sense blared, and I turned.

Only to see an Earth Spear coming toward me. I put the bottle away and moved my shield forward to defend against it, when I sensed something.

It shook me immediately and made my eyes widen.

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