“It’s far from over yet…” Seven Kills said with a smile. As he finished, he turned his hand 180 degrees, and his fingers that had gripped the shuriken tensed with gathered energy and shot back the hidden weapon down the same trajectory from where it came.
“What the f*ck…Nishi Shinkū Ha!” Xiao Tan gasped in shock. He turned around. A trail of cold steel brushed past him, and he barely escaped from his own shuriken.
Xiao Tan was not wrong. The skill that Seven Kills used was indeed Nishi Shinkū Ha from Fist of the North Star. The skill would be able to deflect any flying-type weapons like arrows, shurikens, and daggers. If the flying weapon’s offensive power was far beyond that of a normal arrow or there were too many hidden weapons that came at him at the same time, a hidden weapon attack would not have any effect on the user of Nishi Shinkū Ha.
“This is unfortunate. If you had hidden a shotgun inside your sleeves, then perhaps I would really be injured.” Seven Kills’ ease showed that this was not even the best of his skill. When he spoke, he had readjusted his stance and leaped to appear before Xiao Tan, who was just trying to get up. “I’ll show you something interesting to repay you… Rogafufuken!”
Punches fell like rain. They were fast like hale and sharp like a wolf’s claw. Xiao Tan did not go into a defensive posture, but these endless and continuous punches were hard to evade. The only solution that he could think of was to use offense as defense.
Xiao Tan gritted his teeth and adjusted his position slightly. He then used both of his arms to counter the attack. The thorns and the claws glowed in silver light. They were like two silver snakes, circling around the many punches that were like wolf bites. At that moment, an explosion could be heard. Sounds like ‘ding ding’ could be heard, and they were close together and fast, like heavy rain falling on a tin roof.
Seven Kills’ metal punching gloves were quite powerful. That combined with the man’s own power, facing Xiao Tan’s two-bladed weapon, they were on equal footing. However, a skill was a skill. Seven Kills did not use Rogafufuken for nothing. It was indeed one of his more commonly used skills. Xiao Tan was merely using his fast reflexes to counter the fast punches by waving his weapons as fast as Seven Kills did.
In this combat between the two, naturally, it was Xiao Tan who was at a disadvantage. After the punches crossed with the blades, Xiao Tan was hit about ten times on his body. His left arm was rendered useless, and his right wrist was broken. Seven Kills only felt a dull sensation in his fists.
He managed to use his instant reflex to block most of the punches from the skill. Even though Seven Kills did not show it, he was incredibly surprised by the potential that Xiao Tan had shown. This is quite interesting. Looks like it is quite impolite to end this duel with a normal skill.
He’s up to something! For some reason, Xiao Tan felt that Seven Kills was up to something. He couldn’t see or determine what Seven Kills was intending to do, and Seven Kills did not do anything that would reveal he was going to unload an ultimate. Xiao Tan had a deep feeling that Seven Kills was going to execute a fatal skill at any moment.
Meanwhile, Seven Kills was still in deep thought. Other than speed, there is nothing impressive about this kid. It’s time to send him on his way.
Then he used the skill Ura 108 Shiki: Orochinagi. He raised his left hand high before him and snapped his finger. A bit of flame exploded on the tip of his fist. Then, with a swift movement of his feet, he weaved his body from left to right and turned back again, and his whole body was covered in flaming energy that was golden-red in color. Finally, his right arm pushed forward with the momentum, and a blast of the fiery wave came roaring at his opponent.
This whole series of motion was completed in a swift second, and it only gave Xiao Tan one second to react. If he had not realized in time that Seven Kills was going to unleash a big move when he snapped his finger, he would have died right on the spot.
Boom boom boom!
Three explosions followed, and Xiao Tan’s body was swallowed by the fire and flame.
Is it over? Seven Kills thought. Then he sensed something… No! Wait!
Seven Kills saw with his own eyes how his opponent was completely swallowed up by his ultimate, but years of fighting experience told him that this was not yet over. As expected, a white glow drilled into Seven Kills’ eyes. That was sunlight—sunlight that reflected from the surface of the military thorns.
A silent and ghost-like shadow slipped to the space behind Seven Kills. A right arm poked out, and Xiao Tan’s sleeve reached out for Seven Kills’ throat.
The hidden blade bounced out from the mechanism inside the sleeve but it did not poke into Seven Kills’ throat. At the last moment, within a split second, Seven Kills reacted. He sidled to the side and leaned his neck back as fast as he could.
Blood flowed out from the side of his beck and his Terror Points jumped up at that moment. However, he managed to successfully escape from death when his body countered on instinct.
“Kiang!” His reverse punch rammed into Xiao Tan’s thorn. This impact between the two weapons helped Seven Kills pull away from the distance and buy some more time.
Was that an illusion? Seven Kills made his assessment with his experience. He purposely waited until the last moment to use his illusion to take my ultimate…while his real person slid into the shadow and tried to assault me from behind. Hmm… It is as if he could sense beforehand that I was about to use my ultimate before I even used it.
Cold sweat slid down from Seven Kills’ forehead. He could not help but feel relieved. If not for the fact that the blade of the thorn happened to reflect the sunlight, the sleeve blade would have punctured his skull already, and the match would be over.
Isn’t Underworld Frontline just a four-person guild? It’s a small one, Seven Kills thought. After his loss to Feng Bujue at the Battle of the Cowl, he had asked Long Aomin about Feng Bujue, but he did not ask for details. They are a guild of casual players, but how come every single one of them is so ridiculously good at this game?
Xiao Tan had no idea the man was thinking all that. He instantly followed up his attack with Reverse Spinning Slash and used the fastest and most threatening method to approach his enemy. It was not easy for him to gain this advantage in such a short period of time. If he had not taken advantage of this opening, then everything that he had done earlier and all the risks that he had taken would be for nothing.
This is surprisingly more difficult than I thought. Seven Kills held his neck with one hand and pressed his other hand against the ground. He leaped into a somersault and turned away from his enemy and started to run.
No way. Is he trying to escape? This was something that Xiao Tan hadn’t expected. When he was attacked by Rogafufuken, his Life Points had already fallen to about forty percent. Even though Ura 108 Shiki: Orochinagi did not hit him completely, to make the tactic with the illusion as successful as he could, he had to use the skill at the very last moment. Therefore, he was still slightly grazed by the explosion.
Currently Xiao Tan only had twenty-four percent Life Points left. In this mode, players were not allowed to use Life Points Recovery Potion. Players without medic mastery could not carry on for that long, and they only had one chance to finish the game.
If Seven Kills was given the chance to stop the bleeding and started to take him seriously, then Xiao Tan would lose in less than twenty moves.
“I’m sorry for underestimating you earlier,” Seven Kills said. Xiao Tan could see clearly that the man had taken out the item to stop the bleeding. Seven Kills had pressed it against his neck.
“You are quite a good fighter, and this is a good match.” When the word ‘match’ was uttered, Seven Kills disappeared from Xiao Tan’s sight. “I will anticipate…” This sentence came from behind Xiao Tan.
He used shadowstep? Xiao Tan knew that it was over, but it was too late to turn around. He pumped his speed and rushed forward, praying that the opponent would not be faster than him.
“We will meet up again in the semi-finals.” As Seven Kills finished speaking, his fist had already pierced through Xiao Tan’s torso from the back.