With the ring of the gong, both men lunged at each other. Astaroth melded almost instantly, while the rogue started throwing kunai at him.
The attack threw Astaroth off for half a second, but not long enough for him to get caught by it. Stinger had not used ranged attacks in his other combat, so it surprised Astaroth.
That’s where you could see the man had some previous experience. As Astaroth ducked down, the knives whizzed past Astaroth’s ear, catching a strand of his white hair.
Astaroth and Stinger crossed weapons in a clash of daggers, and many slashes and stabs were performed quickly. Astaroth was not as masterful in his weapon-wielding as Stinger, so he was on the defensive in that trade.
Although less adept, Astaroth was much quicker while melded, so he fended off the attacks and slipped some through of his own. None ever found purchase though, as the rogue slipped aside from each strike.
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Since he couldn’t land a hit, Astaroth went for a more educational approach. He stopped attacking entirely, and went on the defensive, as he watched every move Stinger performed.
Kloud had once told him that against a more skillful opponent, as long as he could defend himself, he could learn from his foe. And that was what he was trying to do here.
Since Stinger was so adept at knife fighting, Astaroth only blocked and dodged, as he observed all of his body movements. Since his speed was so much higher than Stinger’s, Astaroth could see most of it.
Astaroth also used his skill; Thousand Thoughts, to slow his perception of time. This permitted him to take in all the muscle twitches and subtle body movements he couldn’t see before.
‘Shame the skill only lasts ten seconds.’ Astaroth thought, as his eyes followed the daggers in Stinger’s hands.
Over the next ten seconds, Astaroth took in as much information as his senses allowed him to, and started adjusting his posture. Slowly, his dodging and parrying became more fluid.
This didn’t escape Stinger’s experienced eye, as his strikes started going wide more often, and the strength behind the parries became lesser, as the angles on them became more optimal.
Stinger thought that Astaroth might have been hiding his skill level, as this sudden improvement was highly improbable. But as the fight kept on, he realized that was not it.
After the first ten seconds of adjustments, Astaroth kept his eyes peeled on Stinger’s moves, and adapted more and more, until he was almost shadowing the latter’s moves.
Stinger could see and feel the slow progress and understood what was happening.
‘He’s copying my movements!’ He thought, his mind almost going into shock.
‘He can’t have learned my style before this. It’s custom-made by me. How is he doing this?’ He wondered, unrelenting in his assault.
But his attacks were becoming less and less effective. Time was playing against him.
Stinger finally changed tactics. Instead of just knife fighting, he started incorporating game skills into his strikes.
He was still unused to this, as he lacked the practice of merging them together, but it still made him more lethal. His attacks became ferocious again.
The change in the attack pattern surprised Astaroth, but he adjusted quickly. They were two minutes into their fight when Astaroth felt comfortable enough in this style of fighting to integrate attacks of his own.
It was Stinger’s turn to be taken aback. The kid before him had just learned his style in two minutes, while fighting, and was now using it against him.
Stinger redoubled his efforts to take Astaroth down, merging more and more skills into his attacks. He knew Astaroth’s buff had a time limit, and thought that if he could burn that out, he would win eventually.
The fight kept going, as both men stabbed; slashed; dodged; parried; engaged; disengaged. It was like a ballet, only deadlier.
The crowd in the bleachers was going wild, as were the people watching from their phones and televisions. But the two combatants couldn’t hear them.
Their focus was currently so high that all they could see was the person in front of them. They couldn’t hear, let alone see, what was happening around the arena.
In the crowd, pro players were talking together. Most of them knew about Stinger and his previous job.
Blue Peacock was one of them. She knew Stinger personally, as they had been in the same business before gaming.
She had fought him before in ‘ToB’ too. So she knew his knife style pretty well.
When Astaroth started mimicking it, to the point it was indistinguishable from the original, she frowned.
“Whoever fights him next needs to make the fight quick.” She said to the others.
“You think Stinger will lose?” Killi said, sitting next to her.
“Isn’t it obvious? He beat me, after all, even if it was just a fluke.” Azamus chimed in, cocky as usual.
“That’s not why I’m saying that.” Blue said, looking at Azamus with disdain.
“Hmph!” Azamus huffed, looking away from her.
“Did you see how quickly he adapted to Stinger?” Killi asked, trying to defuse them.
“He didn’t adapt.” Blue said.
“Care to explain?” Killi asked, frowning.
“He didn’t adapt to Stinger. He copied his knife style. Don’t you see?” Blue said, pointing at both fighters.
Killi turned his head, looking back at the fight. It took him a few seconds of focusing, but he finally understood what Blue Peacock meant.
The moves and strikes of both men were practically identical. It was like watching two students of the same master spar.
“How?! It hasn’t even been five minutes!” Killi said, as realization dawned on him.
“That’s why I said to make the fight against him fast. I think he has the ability to shadow his opponent. Maybe even learn from them.” Blue said, her eyes narrowing.
“If that is the case, he will only become stronger the more he fights.” Killi sighed.
“I think a new number one is forming.” Blue said, looking at Astaroth intently.
‘And I need to nip it in the bud.’ She thought to herself.
Her eyes turned into those of a predator as she watched Astaroth, who was none the wiser about what was currently going on.